#(also this post is the epitome of tl;dr)

[godtier]

so i wasn't gonna make a separate post about this but @sapphire-weapon had a post (that i reblogged a few days ago) in which someone mentioned that they think it was a missed opportunity in RE6 for jake to not have spoken to wesker. i had a p long conversation with sirea about it and my thoughts about that sentiment, but it was also nearly 3 AM my time when that happened so i dunno if i was even articulating my thoughts properly lmao

and yes... this is technically a meta post and i know i said i was gonna do the mmx meta post first... but this one isn't gonna be nearly as long (i hope) and i gotta get the brainworms out before i die

(quick edit note: i reworded the list item below from saying he was "likely a drug addict" to "likely a recreational drug user" because i feel like that better encompasses what i'm trying to get across

(another edit note: i made another post regarding jake's usage of drugs that stemmed from this post! it's marked as mature bc of drug usage, so it won't show up in tag search. if you're interested in that, look here!)

so the idea that wesker being alive in OG RE6 would have brought an opportunity for jake's character is kinda, imo, antithetical to the purpose of jake's character in the first place.

when we meet jake, we know a few things about him, right off the bat:

he's a mercenary

he's likely a recreational drug user or at least heavy/risk-taking user

he doesn't give a fuck about anything but making money

his whole character journey is going from this selfish, money-focused dickhead to someone who actually cares about doing something good, just because it's the right thing to do. at the start, jake refuses to simply give his blood away when sherry mentions needing it for a vaccine. no, he wants a cash payout. 50 million dollery-doos for a pint of his blood. by the end, he lowers the price to a mere 50 dollars. one could argue that was symbolic and he actually didn't care if he was paid or not, but that's neither here nor there.

but why was he like this? because his childhood was shite; his mother was sickly, he had no father figure, and by 15-ish, jake had to learn how to hustle to keep food on the table. and by "hustle" i mean "do a bunch of mercenary work and killing people." and when shit went south with his little group of mercenaries (their entire group was sold out by a heel-turner), jake basically went "fuck alla y'all" and lost all sense of conviction or morals.

during the game, he expresses his bitterness for his father, wesker, pretty clearly. even though his mother still loved wesker, tried to raise jake to respect him despite never knowing him, it didn't matter to jake. he hated that guy. well, really, who doesn't?

we're not gonna talk about excella rn ok

jake's entire character arc is built up around this hatred as well as a subconscious fear of becoming his father. the fear part doesn't show up until later in the story, after he and sherry were captured by the Big Bad's organization. they were both experimented on for several months, during which jake overheard the researchers talking about his father, wesker. this gives jake a sort of "explanation" as to why he is the way he is; he takes the "nature" side of the nature vs nurture argument.

ofc sherry scolds his ass and basically tells him "grow up and take responsibility for your actions."

and here's the thing... this fear, narratively, works just fine without wesker being there.

(since this got obscenely long, pls continue below for the actual explanation lmao)

jake eventually comes to the conclusion that yeah no it's definitely up to him to not become wesker, not his genetics. he does this without wesker being there. that's the entire point of his character journey. in order for an interaction with wesker to even matter or have any sort of impact on jake's character arc, his character arc as a whole would need to change.

see, imo, wesker being there diminishes a lot of the power of that journey. in the game, he isn't there for jake to scream at, to question. all those thoughts in his head that might be circulating around, like why he left his mother, why he did what he did, etc, cannot be answered. this is not a bad thing in a character arc as this is shit that happens to people all the time. people don't always get the answers they may want from family members because those family members are dead. they have to learn to move on without those answers or they have to rely on people who knew that person to fill in the blanks. this is what jake already does in game. he has to rely on sherry, and by a smaller extent, chris, to fill in those blanks for him.

but we as players, observers of the narrative, already know the answers to some of those questions. why wesker did what he did, primarily. anything else is only pertinent to jake and him knowing those answers doesn't change anything for his character arc as it is.

if wesker was there in the game, what would that even add to jake's narrative? a scene where jake yells at his dad? asks him "why did you leave?" when wesker wasn't even aware that he had a kid in the first place? remember: wesker had no fucking idea that he had a child. there would be no reason for wesker to even believe jake in the first place. sure, there could be a scene where he goes "well i'll be damned, ig he really is my misfired chromosome," but... then what? what does that add?

you could argue that wesker could use jake, maybe try to manipulate him into doing shit for his plans, but... that wouldn't work with the way jake's characterization is mapped out. his entire characterization would have to change for this to work in a satisfying way.

jake already hates wesker without ever meeting him. he would not willingly participate in anything wesker offered to him. he already knows that wesker nearly destroyed the world multiple times and had a hand in destroying an entire city. even if jake has no moral compass at the start of the game, by the time he learns about what wesker really did, who he really was, he's already showing that he does have one, it was just dormant up until that point. he's clearly disgusted by what wesker did. what foothold would wesker have that wouldn't immediately result in it just falling flat?

given how wesker is, i could see him perhaps belittling jake, maybe saying "wow you suck for being my spawn," or something during a fight with the intent to rile him up. would that work? no, not narratively nor not in the way jake is characterized. again, jake doesn't want to be like wesker. why would insulting him and saying he's not "as good" as wesker expected him to be motivate jake or even anger him? it shouldn't, because jake doesn't want to be anything like wesker. if anything, it may annoy him, but that's kind of a lame reaction, right?

if anything, the most i could see culminating out of this would be jake standing over wesker after he's defeated again (because it's resident evil and obviously wesker can't win) and having a "wow idk what i was worried about" moment. that's it.

but he doesn't need that. having a scene like that cheapens the weight of him figuring that out himself, without wesker there as "proof."

because the point of his story, of his character arc, is that he figures that out on his own (and with the help of sherry and the events he witnesses) because he has to. he doesn't need wesker there to spoon-feed that to him. he figures that out by working with sherry, by seeing the effects of the C-Virus on everything that it infects. wesker being an abstract entity in his life is enough, because the frustration of not seeing him, not being able to put a bullet in his skull himself, fuels the rest of his journey.

this is where i think that people who make these observations or criticisms (primarily those who think that jake's character would have been improved if wesker was there) need to understand the difference between what's good for a character as a person and what's good for their arc.

interacting with wesker would be good for jake as a person, in that he would no longer need to wonder about it. the answers would be spelled out for him, and he wouldn't have to do any wondering about the what-if. he wouldn't have any doubts left that he'd need to untangle.

but in doing that, it cheapens his arc; it would do more of a disservice to it, imo, than anything else. it would make his journey more formulaic and boring.

it would also clutter up the already cluttered narrative of that game. you have him not only struggling with his heritage, struggling with the fear of becoming his father, struggling with needing to be the "savior" by giving his blood, struggling with his moral compass, but now also struggling with seeing his father for the first time in person?

it makes his arc top-heavy. in that scenario, you could easily replace him with another, completely new character who has zero ties to wesker and the story wouldn't change in any meaningful way. the reason why it works the way to does now is because wesker is already dead. it creates that internal conflict, that internal frustration, that jake has to learn how to deal with since he cannot take that frustration out on his father in-person. he has to make peace with that struggle in other ways.

now, that's not to say there aren't ways that adding wesker into the story of RE6 that don't disrupt that balance. primarily, when it comes to a potential RE6 remake, the writing team can (and hopefully will) rework aspects of the entire game to make the plot more streamlined. this could include adding wesker in and redoing jake's characterization and character arc entirely.

this would be the only way i could see it working out. if jake's entire motivation was changed, his entire backstory was tweaked, then wesker being around could probably work! an interaction between them could be made to make sense and not bog down the rest of the plot as a result.

sirea also mentioned to me in our conversation that adding wesker in to RE6 remake could actually help streamline the plot and i do agree with that. she mentioned that all of the main characters have a tie to wesker in some way, which is absolutely true. having him there would neatly tie their campaigns together in the plotline and make the game as a whole feel less disjointed and messy.

this is especially true when we consider there are 4 fuckin campaigns that all run alongside one another and intersect at random points. it gets so fucking difficult to page through and figure out when certain things happen in the plot. you'll see them happen in order in chris's campaign, for example, then you go start leon's campaign and have to start over again and try to remember what happened at the same time during chris's campaign and so on.

now imagine that not with just two campaigns but four. it gets gross quick. sure, there are parts where the characters run into each other and that helps ground a general timeline in your head, but as far as time elapsed... it's so fuckin hard u guise

there's a reason why it's so hard to summarize the plot of RE6. it's because there is just so much going on in that fucking game.

anyway, that's my rant/sort of meta analysis about why i think wesker didn't need to be in OG RE6 and probably would have made jake's entire arc stupider than it already was

#resident evil #resident evil 6 #jake muller #albert wesker #meta analysis #pls don't look at me i only write posts about characters no one cares about #stay tuned for my meta analysis on HUNK next #(may or may not be serious about that) #(also this post is the epitome of tl;dr) #(u been warned) #text post

[pluckyredhead]

Can you please say more about the Lanterns' politics?

I am so glad you asked me about this because I've been thinking about it since I reblogged that post but also I'm definitely about to get yelled at lol. ANYWAY THIS IS GOING TO BE LONG.

Tl;dr: John is the only one with a coherent political position or an up-to-date voter registration.

Hal:

So something interesting about Hal is that his stories are often very political but his character is not. With one extremely obvious exception, he rarely talks about politics; rather, he serves as a means through which to tell political stories, usually unintentionally.

What do I mean by that? Well, for example, in the Silver Age, his love interest would occasionally be possessed by a misandrist space jewel that would force her to attack him, but always lose because women are inherently inferior to men and prefer to be subjugated by them anyway. That's the original Star Sapphire concept. It's wildly misogynistic, but it doesn't mean Hal the character is misogynistic. But it's also a very political story, even if I don't think the writer was deliberately trying to make a point so much as...being an average, thoughtlessly sexist guy living in the 60s. (Carol continues to be the subject of mindbogglingly sexist writing and art well into the 2000s. Fucking comics.)

And so you have Hal Jordan, whose love life was ruined by his girlfriend getting promoted above him and who called his best friend by a racist nickname for decades; Hal Jordan, poster boy for chest-thumping post-9/11 kneejerk patriotism; Hal Jordan, lightning rod for a certain kind of regressive bigoted fanboyism. Choosing Hal as the Lantern for a particular story over John or Kyle has come to signify something very specific, but none of that is necessarily reflective of what Hal himself believes.

So what about Hal himself? Well, when we first meet him, he's the epitome of privilege: a white, straight, cis, Christian (I know he's canonically half-Jewish now but that's only as of the past decade or so), ablebodied, upper middle class (Geoff Johns retconned him to have a working class background, but in the Silver Age, he had one uncle who was a millionaire, another who was a judge, and a successful politician brother) man with a flashy job. Privilege tends to lean Republican; even if he is from California, I suspect Hal voted for Eisenhower in 1956.

In GL/GA, the word "Republican" isn't used to my recollection, but Hal is definitely presented as...I'm going to say conservative by I mean lower-case C. He doesn't have deeply held political beliefs, but he's traditional. He doesn't question the system, because he's never had to. He resists things that challenge the way he's always understood the world works, and that's very relatable - most people do! And he will absolutely argue with Ollie, who certainly isn't always right about everything. But he's also willing to listen, and have his mind changed, and certainly reachable via appeals to compassion and fairness.

Once the "relevance" trend of the late 60s-early 70s was over, Hal's stories default back to ostensibly politically neutral, although obviously nothing is actually politically neutral. In the late 80s and early 90s he's the most unpleasant version of himself, and that has political manifestations, like when he allows John to be imprisoned in apartheid South Africa for a ridiculous and unnecessary crime Hal himself committed. It's extremely fucked up, but again, it's less because of Hal's actual opinions and more because Christopher Priest wanted to write about apartheid, even if it does make Hal look incredibly, horrifically racist.

Then jump to the mid-2000s and Green Lantern: Rebirth, and you might imagine that losing his hometown, getting possessed by a giant space bug, becoming a supervillain, dying, and becoming the embodiment of God's vengeance might have some effect on Hal's politics, but that is not what Geoff Johns is here to write. Johns is writing a Hal who teleported in from, like, 1967 - no nuance allowed. He's a summer blockbuster that walks like a man. He's a Baja Blast. He's never had a coherent political thought in his life. In his defense, he has had more and goofier concussions than any superhero I can think of and his brain is smooth like an egg. Still.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I think Hal tends to default to center right positions but can be easily coaxed over to center left. That said, he has never not once in his life had his shit together enough to vote in a single election, not even for his own brother.

Guy:

So Guy's deal is a little bit complicated because his most vocally political era was also in part due to severe and personality-altering brain damage.

When Guy was originally introduced in the 1960s, he had the pleasantly bland personality of all superheroes. Many years later, he suffered a series of major injuries, torture, and a lengthy coma, and he emerged from the coma in 1985 with the aggressive, abrasive personality he's best known for today. Justice League International took that even further, using him to parody the jingoistic, red-blooded American action hero of the 80s.

This version of Guy is a vocal fan of Ronald Reagan and despises the USSR. He's pro-war, proudly xenophobic, and treats women badly enough that it crosses the line into repeated sexual harassment, both physical and verbal. (To be fair...ish, this last also applies to Wally West and arguably a number of other men, and was always played for laughs. It was gross all around.)

Again, this is partially a manifestation of his brain damage. There's also a running gag in JLI where if he gets hit on the head, his personality changes to this cloying, timid, gentle one, sort of halfway between a child and a flamboyant gay stereotype. Hit him again and he goes back to Asshole Guy. I'm not going to pretend I don't find some of the gags funny, but it's obviously all highly problematic, and not just from a medical standpoint.

That said, I don't think we can dismiss Guy's politics or his usual personality as simply a manifestation of brain damage. We see in later flashbacks that he developed the abrasiveness as a defense mechanism from growing up in an abusive home, and as he matures through the 90s, he doesn't actually become a significantly different person, even after his Vuldarian healing factor kicks in and heals his brain. (It's a thing.) I think it's more accurate to say that the brain damage probably affected his impulse control, his filter, and arguably even his paranoia levels.

All of which is to say that as much as I would love to go "Guy's better now, so he's not a Republican!"...that dog won't hunt. I think a really good canon writer could make the case that Guy is pro-union-style working class and also a former teacher so he's at least center left, but as of now canon evidence is pretty firmly on the red side. It doesn't help that the GLC has been written as fetishistically pro-cop and pro-military since Johns got his grubby hands all over it. I will happily ignore the New 52 retcon that Guy was a cop, and you could even try to argue that he dislikes cops because his brother was a corrupt cop who became a supervillain, but I think it's much more likely that he identifies with cops as a Corps member. Although I don't think he would have any patience for killer cops. ("You were afraid for your life even though you were the only one with a weapon? Then fucking quit, coward.")

All of that said, I think Guy is similar to Hal: defaults to center right, can be talked into center left on certain issues but he's more stubborn about it. (They would also both be enraged by Jan 6 and disgusted by the current Republican party - I can't quite argue that Guy Gardner is a Democrat but Green Lanterns don't have any patience for traitors or cowards.) It's also kind of a moot point because he never knows what is happening on Earth and hasn't voted since his pre-coma days.

John:

Oh John Stewart, thank god for you.

John was introduced as an explicitly political character in an explicitly political story. The first time we see him, he's stepping in to defend Black men from a white cop, citing his own knowledge of the law to do so. He shows a much more perceptive and informed perspective on the issue's main plot (a racist senator running for president) than Hal does. Even in the little moment above, we see that he's sensitive to exactly what it means for him, a Black man, to be taking on this role.

None of this is a surprise, since we'll later learn that John's parents were civil rights activists. Not only would he not have had the privilege Hal and Guy did to assume his existence was politically neutral, he was explicitly educated about political realities and progressive advocacy from childhood. He's well-informed, he's passionate, and he's going to tell you when you are being fucking stupid.

John isn't immune from the GL cop/military...thing, although I can't blame Johns for that - it was the cartoon that made him a Marine, and the comics followed suit. But that's never outweighed his origin or his upbringing. Like, he's friends with the DCU's fictional version of Nelson Mandela.

This one is straightforward: John is a staunch progressive. He is, however, in outer space 90% of the time, so he's always at least a little bit out of date. I imagine every time he comes back to Earth he spends the first 24 hours watching the news in abject horror.

Kyle:

Kyle doesn't talk about politics a lot, but when he does, he lands pretty much where you'd expect a young California-born artist living in New York City to land: to the left. My read on Kyle is that he hasn't really thought any of his politics through, which makes sense - he's a character who is led by emotion over reason every time. He doesn't have John's carefully thought-through arguments or knowledge of the law behind him. I feel like when something political upsets him, he's more likely to splutter angrily than make a coherent argument (which: same). When he's given the time to think things through and speak from the heart, though, he can be very eloquent, like in his speech to Terry after Terry accidentally comes out to him.

It's also worth pointing out that his solo appearances were mostly in the 90s, which were prone to avoiding politics or only addressing them in a halfhearted both sides-y way like the story above.

That said, I don't think he ever actually does anything about his political opinions. He never votes in midterm or primary elections, and probably only voted in a presidential one because Alex dragged him along one time. I feel like Donna tried to do the same when they were dating and that was when Kyle realized he'd forgotten to change his voter registration from California to New York. Jennie wasn't responsible enough to Mom him into doing his civic duty, and he's been in space pretty much nonstop ever since, so...

Simon:

In that other post, I said Simon's experiences should have radicalized him, but instead he was created by Geoff Johns. Simon is a Muslim, Lebanese-American man who came of age in the post-9/11 era, and was wrongfully convicted of terrorism and waterboarded at Guantanamo Bay. His reaction to this was...to put on a ski mask and wave a gun around. Like, it's been a while since I've read these issues, but aside from the "ripped from the headlines!!!" of it all, I feel like Simon's experiences largely don't inform his actions or perspective except that he's super angry (fair enough).

The thing about Simon (and Jessica) is that he hasn't been around very long, and most comics don't have characters directly expressing political opinions. It's not a coincidence that these characters are in chronological order and each write-up is shorter than the last. I can think of about three times where Kyle has ever said anything I can interpret as political, and he's been around for 30 years. Simon only has a third of that history. So while one could certainly extrapolate what Simon's opinions are likely to be, I can't think of any canon where he actually says them.

Jessica:

Jessica has even less to go on in terms of explicitly political comics. You'd think she wouldn't like guns because of what happened to her friends, but she has one of her own and doesn't seem bothered by Simon's. I'd imagine she has opinions on immigration as someone whose family is from Mexico and Honduras, but it never comes up. If I were writing for DC, I'd make both Simon and Jess leftists, but as for actual canon proof? I got nothing.

I will say that she probably avoids political discussions because anxiety, and I bet she got really good at voting by mail during her years not leaving the house. She probably votes by mail from space. Maybe John's not the only one with an up-to-date voter registration.

Kilowog:

#green lantern #hal jordan #guy gardner #john stewart #kyle rayner #simon baz #jessica cruz #meta

[mioreviews]

A Sign Of Affection

↑The manga covers

Recently, I’ve been reading a lot of manga, and <A Sign of Affection> is definitely worth a post! This manga is the most shoujo thing in the world, and I loveeee it (/▽＼*)｡o○♡

In short, it’s a story about a guy and girl pursuing each other and eventually becomes a story about their relationship. The guy is someone who grew up traveling and learning different languages all his life and the girl is deaf. It’s an interesting combination, and they’re absolutely adorable together.

The characters sell the entire manga. This manga was definitely a manga written by a woman author. You can tell after reading it lol. Their chemistry is very cute and adorable. Like I said before, it’s literally the epitome of shoujo, and it’s addicting! Each chapter is also pretty long. So even though there’s only 30+ chapters, it feels pretty long with plenty of content to read.

The main downside is that it’s still ongoing. It gets you hooked and then it has the audacity to not be finished lol! But at the same time, I’m so glad it’s not over yet so we have more to look forward to. Another small downside (because why not add it) is that their relationship flows kind of slowly. I think the slow flowing is perfect, but it depends on your taste I guess.

TL;DR

Need a new shoujo manga? I highly highly recommend <A Sign of Affection>! It’s an adorable story with interesting characters that is filled to the brim with heart warming moments. An anime is actually coming out in January 2024, so this is the best time to read it in preparation for the anime! If you already read this manga, let me know what you think! Let’s fangirl/boy together (´꒳`)♡

#asignofaffection #a sign of affection #shoujo #manga #manga review #manga recommendation #review #recommendation

[risingfire17-the-weeb-trash]

40 Day Anime Challenge Day 7- Character you want to marry: Victor Frankenstein (Fran) from Code:Realize (2017) based on the otome game of the same name from 2014. **Spoiler Alert**

Synopsis (from fandom.com): "Lonely Cardia is isolated from the world because her body carries a deadly poison that rots or melts anything her skin touches. Her last conversation with her father before he disappeared two years ago is the furthest back she can remember. One day, the Royal Guards break in to capture her. Arsene Lupin, a chivalrous thief, helps her escape the soldiers’ clutches. She soon finds herself on a journey with Lupin and his gang to locate her father, who holds the answers to her mysterious condition."

Tl;dr: I found a good guy that I love even more than all the bad boys I love. This will be a long Fran appreciation post lol

Alright, it finally happened after 14 years, someone knocked Fai out of my “character I want to marry slot” (@sailorstarr-chan4 read and be shocked) because FRAN IS SO SWEET AND KIND AND PURE AND TBH HE IS MARRIAGE GOALS!!!!!!

His smile is so precious- and not a hint of teasing or malice or anything I usually go for in my anime smiles, but just pure kindness!

He is the epitome of shy boy omg precious bean UwU

And he is sooooooooo pure! For context, he’s a doctor trying to help Cardia (the MC) and he’s being teased about “examining her body” and it broke his poor innocent brain lmao

Boy has no self esteem- also a departure from the swaggering smooth talkers I typically go for. He kind of hates himself for something that isn’t even his fault. But it’s okay things get better!

He definitely does not see himself as good enough for Cardia despite the fact that he is the most healthy and respectful character in the franchise! (Total departure from the typical possessive borderline creepy otome boy)

While the other boys fight with guns and knives, he fights with chemicals, which I give massive style points for!

He can be the bad guy when he needs to be, like when he threatened to blow up the queen to remove a bounty placed on Cardia and the others’ heads because of the queen’s grudge against him. To be fair, he tried to bluff her first but she called it.

He starts off seeing Cardia as someone he needs to protect, but as she becomes more able to handle herself in a fight, he starts to see her as an equal and a partner. Look at that smile after she saves him! (About 12 hours prior she saved him and he lectured her for risking himself for him but she makes it clear she will take no shit, then they need to save each other several times because they’re being hunted, and now look at him! Nothing but respect, awe, and trust!)

He will 100% sacrifice his life for her tho

It’s even sadder in the anime because we all know Lupin will be canon and Fran knows it too so he never confesses his feelings but does everything he can to ensure she survives so she can be happy with Lupin. HE HELPS HER BECAUSE HE CARES NOT BECAUSE HE EXPECTS ANYTHING IN RETURN OMFG

This precious baby trying to be possessive in the Christmas game lol (Come on Fran, we know that's not you!)

And while we're on the subject of the Christmas game, look how he manages to reassure Cardia while ice skating and proclaim his undying devotion to her AT THE SAME TIME OMG!!!

And finally, to quote @blueeyesgirl "he's a 5'11", 25 y/o doctor ffs!"

#code: realize #fran code realize #cardia beckford #victor frankenstein #shy boy #precious bean #marriage goals #anime #40 day anime challenge

[alica-tech]

Tutorial Hell : A brief thoughtdump

tl;dr

Focus on learning and practicing, not just the completion of courses

Don't be afraid to skip parts of a course if it's too easy, don't be afraid to challenge yourself with extra research if a course isn't giving enough explanation, don't be afraid of dropping a resource when it's no longer relevant or helpful to you

Build small atomic projects to test new concepts you're learning

Use it or lose it! This goes with getting practice on new topics, and remembering to revisit your saved bookmarks! 🔖

thoughtdump

There's a big pitfall for consuming lots of tutorials and courses without building or practicing it. Nowadays, if I’m bored with the sludge of a tutorial, I just move on from it or skip around as I please. Don’t worry about 100% completing it. What’s the point?

(Disclaimer: It's still an amazing achievement to complete courses, it takes dedication, perseverance, and consistency! Personally, I've found myself beaten down by the expectation to complete things. So I find it helpful to let go of this kind of perfection)

Sometimes I find the best explanations on a stackoverflow post, in the source documentation, or on a niche developer’s blog. 

The benefit of courses is the structure and the guaranteed coverage of topics in a field. So there’s that. Just gotta be intentional with it, and always connect what you’re learning with what you already know to make it sticky to your brain. Also, before buying any course, there's likely a free resource online that will do the trick! I find free courses in the most unexpected places, from youtube playlists, to github repos.

It’s much more engaging to learn something relevant to a problem you’re trying to solve as well, which leads to the epitome advice regarding tutorial hell.. 

"Quite Simply.. Build Projects"

The advice of simply “building projects” is thrown around a lot, but I think it’s important to build small, atomic, projects. Very small demos that test out just one concept you’re trying to hone down.

Sources of Inspiration 

I recently got inspired by a collective named, SokPop. They are a game development studio that recently accomplished their goal of releasing 1 game a month for 100 months. That’s 100 games. Insane!  I can only imagine how much you can learn from incrementally figuring out how to build different game mechanics. On a similar note, Jennifer Dewalt’s 100 websites in 100 days inspired me to build silly little websites to learn different web dev topics.

#codeblr #progblr #learn to code #thoughtdump #tutorial hell #coding #comp sci #studyblr #gamedev #programming #productivity

[monmuses]

🔥 + Any about Kyle from South Park? Such as ships with him or a fandom interpretation that you disagree with/wish more people noticed?

Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Bonus points if you include a topic. ( IE. shipping, roleplaying, ect. )

// *i have A MAJOR FUCKING PROBLEM with one single ship involving him - Kyman. i am somebody who is very carefree with ships and i literally DO NOT CARE what kind of ships you enjoy. if its toxic, stable, whatever the fuck - enjoy it! its YOUR interests. however, when its an obvious ship that is ONLY made because “aw, theres cute romantic tension! they just love each other!”

// *NO THE FUCK THEY DONT?????????

// *the concept of Kyman (Kyle x Cartman) even existing in the first place fucking disgusts me. Cartman is the epitome of how awful a human being with no empathy can be. he is a racist and shits on Kyle’s ENTIRE FAMILY during the entire show. he makes fun of Kyle for being a Jew and calls him racist names in response. he also nearly KILLED KYLE MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES. i despise ships that are only there for the “romance” when its VERY OBVIOUS there isnt any romance to begin with. or any cute shit. it doesnt fucking exist when it comes to those two.

// *may i also emphasize: in the Post-Covid episodes, Kyle still fucking hates Cartman. after what, 40 fucking years? of being shit on for SO LONG? he DOES NOT TRUST Cartman in the slightest. he even begrudingly let Cartman stay at his house during the quarantine, and they WOKE HIM UP TWICE BECAUSE THEY WERE LOUD DURING SEX. he also was deceiving his own fucking friends behind his back to stop Kyle from going into the past. he even manipulated Clyde to fight him and his friends because of it. HE IS NOT A ROMANTIC PARTNER TO KYLE IN THE SLIGHTEST.

// *tl;dr - any kind of toxic ships with Kyle i hate because he WOULD NOT allow himself to be walked on. he is not a people pleaser. he is very stubborn and hardheaded. thats how he has ALWAYS BEEN. he is prone to piss off really quickly and only has so much patience for stupidity. people forget his personality and think hes soft. where as i know he has a soft spot for people like Stan, Ike, his mom, SPECIFIC people he cares for? he is NOT always soft.

#electricea #✨{𝔯𝔢𝔮𝔲𝔢𝔰𝔱 𝔯𝔢𝔠𝔢𝔦𝔳𝔢𝔡; (𝔞𝔰𝔨 𝔞𝔫𝔰𝔴𝔢𝔯𝔢𝔡) #✨{𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔞𝔫𝔤𝔞; (𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔯) #south park tw #// *i will always defend Kyle at every fucking turn #// *fuck Kyman #// *yall mfs want 'romantic tension'? Style is a better option

[you-are-my-neverland]

[ id: a header with a warm yellow background. in a centered square is a picture of a girl with dark hair looking at the camera in front of a projection, cast in yellows. in cursive orange-ish text reads ‘the metamorphosis of the lost’ on top, and then beneath in the same text ‘act iv: revolution / end id ]

the metamorphosis of the lost >> act iv: revolution >> summer round up

what a summer it’s been! i’m back once again with a terribly disorganized update style post about my beloved wip, the metamorphosis of the lost. as i’ve mentioned before, i had a goal of 200k for this summer (writing about 80k in total), which i surpassed, and am very pleased about. i hope to continue this success into the fall, though it’s not looking likely with how my schedule will be (i’ve sold my soul this semester and trying to make my peace with it before i have no more time left to do so). in terms of plot, i finished act iv and am now 2/3 of the way into act v, so the end is approaching. at a glacial pace, but a pace all the same. 

so, tl;dr, in honor of all that i decided to post some excerpts from act iv that i positively adore.

i. emrys & mika in the aftermath of the fall gala

(things could have gone better for both of them, so they’re not feeling great. like many relationships in tmotl, emrys and mika go in circles, taking one step forward for every two steps backwards. this is both a product of bad writing and also how relationships work. the lead up to this conversation is also good, but i cut a bit to include only what i really liked.)

Mika cracked a smile, turning away, but there was nothing humorous in his stare when he looked back at her.

“Fuck off,” he said, enunciating the words clearly. “I don’t fail, Flint. The Black Saint? I’ll kill him. The Bowman? She’s not my business. The Dragon? He doesn’t matter to me. I don’t need to be invincible, I just need to be faster and cleverer. My mother taught me that.”

“You’re not your mother,” Emrys shot back, realizing a second too late that it was the worst possible thing she could have said. Somehow, her emotions had crept into her tongue, and she had ended up spitting out one of the most hurtful things she could think of. 

The effect was instantaneous. Mika didn’t reel back, but he did go perfectly still, statuesque in the light. The sunlight caught on the ends of his hair, sparking in his eyes. His face was bloodless, stare absolute and unmoving.

“Mika—” Emrys started.

“No,” Mika cut in. “Go ahead. Say what you want to about my parents. I’m sure you’ve been holding back.”

Silence descended upon them. Emrys swallowed. There wasn’t much of a height difference between the two of them, but their shadows seemed to loom, threatening to overcome them. 

“You might worship the ground they walked on,” she finally found the courage to say. “But they weren’t gods, Mika.”

“And what would you know about it?” Mika spat out viciously. 

“Nothing!” Emrys cried, quickly steadying her voice and meeting steel with steel. “I never met them, Mika, but I’ve met you. I know how you grew up. Sure, your mother was a hero, but she raised you to be—to be a fucking martyr!”

Mika’s face went through several expressions, before finally hardening.

“You don’t know anything about her,” he hissed. “Or me. All my parents wanted was for me to be great.”

“Yeah, sure.” Emrys laughed jaggedly. “That’s the epitome of parenting right there. I’m sure that’s what all the training was for. There’s a reason that you’re so…you’re so you, you know.”

Mika’s face flattened out. “Just because my parents didn’t love each other like yours did, or raise me like yours did, doesn’t make them bad parents,” he said. “And, really, who are you to judge me? Your parents are fucking dead too.”

Emrys blanched, angry tears rising in her eyes. “This isn’t about my parents,” she said. “So don’t you dare bring them into this.”

Mika scoffed. “Quid pro quo,” he retorted. “Don’t taunt the beast if you don’t want to be bitten.”

ii. belladonna, nightshade & crow in a back alley

(love love love when june (and rhys) have the chance to interact with the other vigilantes, which is very rare. two parallel paths converging, if you catch my drift. in this instance, crow has approached them during one of their outings, and helped them fight off a number of men from the organization. also vin is so often written from other people’s eyes, so i like to play with that perspective.)

“You said that you can recognize our cause,” she echoed, feeling that old, familiar fire rise in her veins, the one that always came right before she made a kill that rid the world of another Snatcher, Surgeon, or Sponsor. The one that said The Organization was coming apart at the seams, and June was the one tearing through it with scissors, cutting it to pieces.

“Then why haven’t you done anything? Why won’t you?”

“We would have done something if we were aware of its existence,” Crow said tensely. June had the feeling she had struck a nerve, but it was impossible to tell; all she had was her own intuition, as Crow gave nothing away to the eye. 

“You’re blind if you didn’t,” June retorted, even though she knew that no one knew of The Organization. It was why it was her duty to take it down. Because it lived in the shadows, in the deepest, darkest parts of the city. Kevla swallowed it whole, and June had never understood why, why The Organization was almost protected by a city that should have despised it.

Although now it was like Kevla was giving it back to her, piece by piece, stone by stone, child by child. 

Crow smiled. It was devoid of any feeling, a simple movement of lips. 

“Children vanishing or being trafficked is nothing new in Kevla,” he said. “Which I’m sure you are aware of. I’m regretful that we were unaware of this organization, as you call it. You cannot fathom the regrets I have.”

June stared at him, unsure if she was being mocked or confided in. Both seemed equally impossible.

“However,” Crow continued, voice deadly soft. “You wanted to do this alone. I know you’re in our network. I can tell you’re intelligent and deadly. You have a hacker on your side, someone on the other end of that comm.” June resisted the urge to touch her comm, as if she could bring Kit to safety with it, even though she knew he was on another line, following the path of the children. “You could have come to us for help at any time. You didn’t. I know.”

June bit back whatever response she could have said. I know. What did he know? I know you. I know what you are. I know how you operate. 

She had been read, June realized, read and analyzed and understood, at least to some degree. The thought made her skin crawl. It made her think of the gazes she had felt on her every single time she had been brought before another masked Sponsor, the looks of the Surgeons before she had faded into the haze of anesthetic, the times she had been given it at all. The looks that said they recognized her, looking at her with that warped shade of love, the way a god might look at their creations. 

June did not want to be understood. It was better to be a force of nature, incomprehensible. 

“You don’t know,” June said, because it was the only thing she could ever say to someone who thought they knew anything at all.

iii. vin, anele, and four a.m. nights

(i was torn on what to include from this chapter because it is all anele pov and i love it SO MUCH! but i really loved the interactions between them especially, so i had to showcase this in the end. i was so far from normal about them before they even existed, and i cannot do them justice in a novel as big as this, but i try my best to.)

“About earlier tonight,” Anele started, and then hesitated. Vin was looking at her, eyes dark and expressionless. The warm light of the lamp made his eyes seem darker, pupils pooling into irises. Anele took a breath and steeled herself, wondering why she suddenly felt nervous.

“I didn’t mean to upset you,” she managed to say quietly. “That wasn’t my intention.”

Vin’s eyes flickered, shuttering a little bit, and then he turned away so that she was looking at his profile and he was looking at the wall, unadorned in front of them. They had started painting some of them, a long time ago, but never got around to finishing, because of the lack of time, but also due to the fact that they hadn’t been able to agree on a color as a group.

“You didn’t upset me,” he said, voice just as quiet.

“Yeah,” Anele said. “I did.” After a long pause, she quickly added, “No offense.”

She saw his lips twitch, as if a smile had caught him by surprise. 

“I know I did,” she amended. “Even if you won’t admit it.” Silence. Sighing, Anele pushed forward. “But I don’t think I was wrong. I know you don’t ever want to talk about yourself, Vin, and I know that you think differently about, well, everything, but you do care. I know you do. I see it. I saw it. Even if you can’t see it yourself, why can’t you accept that I can?”

Vin was silent. It was a heavy silence, the words sitting unheard in the air between them, bearing heavy shadows. Anele worried her lip between her teeth, instantly feeling as though she had spoken too much, but also somewhat relieved to have gotten it out there. Her feelings, usually a ball in her chest, a weight in her heart, now left her, making it easier to breathe.

“You don’t,” Vin said after a long moment. 

“Don’t what?” Anele shot back, suddenly unwilling to let her mind finish the sentence. “See you? Know you?”

Vin paused, as if taken aback by her sudden words.

“You are the only person who has ever come close to understanding me,” he said. It wasn’t a direct answer, but Anele knew it was the only answer he would give her that wouldn’t undeniably hurt. A kindness, then. 

“And you,” she said quietly. Vin turned to her questioningly, and Anele rephrased, “You understand me. Even when I wish you didn’t.”

Vin smiled. It was a small, delicate thing, a private little half smile that only made their interaction—in the hushed darkness of night, with only the lamp, couch stretching between them both an ocean and a crack—seem more intimate.

taglist (scream to be added or removed!):  @cannivalisms   @sunshineomeara @thepixiediaries @muddshadow  

#writers on tumblr #my writing #writeblr #wip: tmotl #wip: the metamorphosis of the lost #excerpts #my writing excerpts #writing #no cool section titles this time idk #anyways there is so much more i wanted to post but at that point might as well publish the novel lol so i held back #i know...no india and june interaction but i already gave you guys a lot of them #also a bright header finally! i know! #i will miss this summer...all i'll be writing is notes from textbook readings in the fall :skeleton face: #hope you guys can understand the basics of this story even with these random excerpts #and also the character profiles i'll never get around to posting #also please interact if you see this. even if you only read a little.

[kob131]

https://www.reddit.com/r/RWBYcritics/comments/tq1z44/ruby_rose_as_a_protagonist_is_antithetical_to_the/

Tl;Dr- “I have no understanding of the complexities of themes in stories.”

Ironwood is betrayed and in turn becomes a crazy genocidal dictator, therefore making it impossible for Team RWBY to TRY to get through to him and make him see the error of his ways. Atlas and Mantle are completely distroyed, killing millions and only saving thousands when Team RWBY'S initial goal was to save everyone.

Okay stop right there-

Where are these ‘millions’?

No really, the Relic of Creation specifically made portals for EVERYONE in Atlas. You people keep claiming that millions have died in Atlas when not only does that NOT make sense given the info we have...but where the FUCK ARE THERE MILLIONS? Neither Atlas NOR Mantle NOR them combined seem to have enough space for ONE Million. Mantle looks like it’s smaller than my town and Atlas looks like a smaller version of my state capitial...which together total about 300,000.

This is such bullshit.

And those thousands in turn, are now homeless refugees in a kingdom that hates them and are frequently attacked by Grimm and whose only protection are a handful of huntsmen and one maiden. There was no unity here, and there was no hope. Just four entitled brats having the universe simultaneously twist in their favor and making them lose. It's insane.

Yes it is. Because your statement makes no sense with or without context.

Out of context, how does the world both twist in one’s favor...and twist against that same’s favor? If it happens one after another-...That’s basic story telling based on the natural ebb and flow of life.

In context, how is there not hope in that situation. The Atlas military would also be there and Winter is a flying, portable nuke. Things are not as hopeless as you think.

In my last post, I made note that it's ok that the world of remnant has as many problems as it does, even if Grimm are attracted to negativity, so long as that contradiction has a point to it. Salem could have worked as an antagonist if the story took these themes and ideas to heart. Instead of having the story revolve around her and Ozma, she should just be a very old Grimm that has begun to command the other Grimm by virtue of her own intelligence. She should be focused more on splitting humanity apart so that he can divide and conquer.

...Why? You haven’t established what that would mean for the themes of hope and unity. You don’t explain why people gravitate towards these themes, what they represent, what people want from these themes and what they mean to people. You haven’t explained how themes are represented in conflicts into the show or how to explore said themes through the conflict. You’ve...done nothing to support this. For someone who said in that previous post that RWBY’s themes are surface level, you sure are surface level yourself.

Her very existence should be antithetical to the themes of the story. And she should be Ruby Rose's primary antagonist because of that.

And she is.

Thing is, there are more themes in RWBY than just ‘Hope and unity’. What about perseverance AKA ‘Keep moving forward’? How Salem doesn’t persist but rather the moment a true problem arose for her (losing Ozma) she immediately feel into despair and never moved on whereas Ruby keeps pushing herself forward despite the pain and suffering? Or hell, even with the themes you give, Salem’s whole issue started because she couldn’t hold onto hope after Ozma died? Or that she actively causes conflict and creates division?

This is incredibly blatant to the point of the show commenting on it, you have no excuse.

Ruby Rose, as a main character in the show, is awful. She was initially presented as a simple, honest soul. The epitome of hope and unity, the one who's going to save the world because she wants to make it better.

And then she starts telling her uncle she doesn't need him when he's at the lowest point of his life... Starting fights with the military and summoning a massive grimm because Weiss's comfort was more important than helping to save the world... And lying to Ironwood, a moment that should not have happened and if it apsolutly needed to, it should NOT have been RUBY doing it! As her actions become more morally grey, Ruby becomes less of a good main character.

That's not to say that good stories can't have morally grey main characters, but it just doesn't work with this one. At least it's not compellingly done. If the story was about a morally grey person becoming a good person and overcoming evil to complete that arch, or even if they were a good person and became more morally grey over time and either failed because of it or got a redemption arch and did better, the story could have worked.

... Oh boy

A. Qrow was actively shooting down any and all plans while doing nothing but drinking himself to death. To say nothing of how Ruby saying she doesn’t need him is the exact opposite of the end of that speech.

Qrow: Okay, stop. Just... stop! Look, if this thing goes south, it's not something we can just fight our way out of. This is the Atlas Military we're talking about. (sighs) For your sake, just drop this.

Everyone looks down with discouraged looks on their faces. Ruby notices this and turns back to Qrow with a determined look on her face.

Ruby: I want to hear him out.

Qrow: Ruby...

Ruby: I want to hear him out! I know you're trying to protect us, that you're afraid we can't do it, but right now, I don't really care what you think!

Qrow gains a shocked expression upon hearing this.

Ruby: Just because you don't have an idea, doesn't mean we're out of options! Oz hasn't been here to tell us what to do, but we still managed to get this far anyway. We've been in bad situations before, and we don't need an adult to come save us or tell us what to do. We just did it our way! And I say we do it our way. (everyone smiles) And if you think you can keep up with us "kids"... we'd be happy to have you.

B. Gee, kind of like taking important time in a disaster situation to get verbal consent while the enemy is on it’s way?

Ozpin: Are you ready?

Pyrrha looks at him and gives a slow nod.

Ozpin: I... I need to hear you say it.

Pyrrha: Yes. (She lays her head back, staring ahead)

Ozpin: Thank you, Miss Nikos.

Ozpin presses a few more buttons on the screen, and Amber's pod raises up. Amber begins glowing orange, and her eyelids begin fluttering. The orange glow travels along the pipes connecting the two pods - first up to the ceiling, then down to Pyrrha's pod. An orange glow surrounds Pyrrha, who begins screaming out in agony.

Jaune: (Turns around, surprised) Pyrrha!

Jaune runs over to Pyrrha's pod, moving his gaze back and forth between Pyrrha and Amber's pod. While Jaune panics, trying to understand what's going on, Ozpin looks away.

Ozpin: I'm... so sorry.

Like that?

Reminder that they never said that Ozpin’s beliefs or motivations were wrong, just his lying.

C. Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with the group calling Ozpin out for lying the previous Volume only to be shown that things aren’t so simple.

Oscar: If you all wouldn’t mind, I really think Ozpin would like to say something.

Everyone silently looks at Ruby.

Ruby: Go ahead.

Oscar's eyes briefly flash gold, and Ozpin walks forward.

Ozpin: I was recently reminded of an old fairy tale. A young girl flees the consequences of a choice, to a magical place. But, having never learned from her initial failure, she only succeeds in spreading it. I failed all of you. I should have trusted you with the truth and should never have run the day you discovered it.

Yang: It was rough, but…

Blake: I think after everything that’s happened here, we understand. Trust is..

Weiss: Trust is a risk.

Ozpin: And I hope it’s a risk you can take on me again.

Ruby silently nods her head at Ozpin.

Oh wait...

And D. Or you know, bring depth to a theme by showcasing that the ideal the heroes believe in isn’t easily attainable, reflecting real world struggles with ideals?

Because there is a multitude of ways to deal with a theme?

But the story doesn't realize that Ruby's actions are incredibly morally grey as of late and most likely will not end in a tragedy brought on by Ruby losing herself and that's... really bad thematically.

*looks up at the previous example*

We may need to implement a basic competency test for critics. Because this has been too stupid for years now...

Instead that happened with Ironwood, but his fall in of itself doesn't make sense thematically anyway.

Ruby lied to him and betrayed him. Ironwood trusted her and helped her. Ruby didn't fall and remained a hero, Ironwood fell so hard he could never get back up and now is hated by way too many people despite the insidious and manipulative writing behind his fall.

...

Ironwood: You fought for your school and your friends at Beacon. You fought for the world and the innocent at Haven Academy and beyond. You faced down terrors people can't even fathom. That's not the behavior of students. It's the behavior… of Huntsmen and Huntresses.

Ironwood outright rewarded them for standing and fighting against impossible odds. The same shit he assigned Penny for with Mantle. The same shit Ozpin, the man James Ironwood swore HIS loyalty towards, believed. All of which he betrayed.

On every level, James Ironwood betrayed who he was.

The themes of Hope and Unity can't make sense in a narrative where someone who was being hopeful and trying to unite the world, even at the expense of his own people, is treated as a villain. But a character who didn't even give a person who has been nothing but kind and hopeful a chance and actively turns the entire world against that character, gets to be a hero?

You wanna know what’s so ironic here?

This is exactly how the show portrayed them before the climax of Volume 7. No really, James was portrayed as innocent, noble and trusting while Ruby was portrayed as guilty and hypocritical. To the point of Oscar being more consistent than her and Yang sticking to her morals more than Ruby. But then James jumped off the deep end and lost his moral high ground. Because just like how Ozpin failing to live up to his moral doesn’t excuse Team RWBY, them failing doesn’t excuse James.

And here you are, demanding special treatment. Whose the hypocrite again?

Salem isn't the main antagonist of this story, because she doesn't do anything, she's a glorified murder mugguffin akin to the "Nothing" from the Never Ending Story, but without any of the clever thematic writing and imagery

Ironwood: (anger slowly returning to his voice) Well, that was before you lied to me about the Lamp. Before you lied to us about Robyn, before Salem was right on our doorstep.

You know it’s bad when the show is debunking you.

The main antagonist of this story about hope and unity is ... Ruby Rose herself.

And that's bad writing because she's not supposed to be.

No.

We call it ‘bad criticism’. 

Because at several points, all I needed was to quote the fucking show to debunk you. And when you hit that point- You’ve lost all right to be a critic.

[commander-minkowski]

I feel like we don’t talk enough about how FUCKING SMART Juno is. 

season 1 Juno really is the epitome of “god had to nerf me [with mental illness and trauma] because I was too powerful” -- he’s smart in the sense that he has the ability to think on his feet and is good at putting together the pieces of a problem to arrive at a creative solution; it’s what makes him a good detective. but self-destructive impulses, combined with the apathy that depression produces, frequently (and sometimes disastrously) override his better judgement.

season 2 Juno, now, if I had to pick a quote for that lady, it would be “sometimes things get worse before they get better.” but beside the point: season 2 hammers home the idea that Juno is good at problem solving, good at exploiting loopholes, good at talking people into giving away the game. But in addition to the problems we already saw him facing in s1, now he’s also hamstrung by a) old scars and traumas from his past ripping open (thanks for less than nothing Jack Takano), b) the consequences of pushing the people he loves away, and c), not as big but still crucial, the knowledge that he is no longer a sharpshooting prodigy. (honestly I could write a whole other meta post about Juno and his relationship with sharpshooting but this is already way too long)

season 3 Juno, now .... he has emotional intelligence. he knows everything he knew before, except now he knows how to apologize and take accountability; when to talk and when to listen; how to talk to and make friends with people he previously would have run away from or picked a fight with; how to collaborate with multiple people on long-term shared goals. jesus it sounds like I’m writing his resume

and bless the writers of this podcast for giving their audience the message that THIS is when Juno goes beyond being clever and becomes brilliant. he pulls one over on sasha in what lies beyond not because he’s good at solving puzzles and mysteries (though that didn’t hurt) but because he truly KNOWS the people he loves and TRUSTS them and plays to their STRENGTHS and that takes not only a big heart but BRAINS!!

tl;dr Juno has many, many braincells and I think that’s incredibly sexy of him

#the penumbra podcast #the penumbra podcast spoilers #tpp #juno steel #juniverse #it's loving and appreciating juno hours baybee #truly.... one of the best character arcs of all time #uhhhh #long post #the penumbra podcast meta #200 #um. thanks for validating me #500 #! #600 #700

[atlantis-scribe]

idk the bit about Rodney being misogynistic bc he got taken advantage of by an older woman feels kinda uncomfy. like it veers too close to a justification for his misogyny. (ik in a real person this wouldn't like excuse his actions but since he's a fictional character it's like kinda trying to paint his worse actions in a more positive light, yk?) and like in real life people don't become misogynist/etc for like. a particular reason like that. seems kinda iffy idk

don't mean that as an attack on you or op or anything, sorry if I came off to harsh or anything! just kinda made me a lil uncomfortable (bc like I have seen similar things with other characters in the past and it always seems a lil sketchy to me)

first of all, you don't have to apologize. I get harsh anons sometimes, and they don't often feel the need to explain themselves lmao. also, I love getting asks like this; they make me all thinky :)

and you're absolutely entitled to your feelings of discomfort! while we're talking about fictional characters (which are vehicles for all the nasty or complicated thoughts & feelings that would get us shunned in polite society), discourse surrounding them still reflect a lot of things outside fandom (i.e. in the 'real' world). there is still that responsibility to be careful with the beliefs and ideas we promote.

having said all that, Rodney McKay is definitely the epitome of a 'problematic fave'. while he is a protagonist in the narrative sense, some of his more obvious flaws can make him a difficult character to like (or in my case, to justify liking heh).

as for the whole backstory headcanon, I can understand why it wouldn't sit well with many people. it does seem a bit shoe-horned and, having seen the same kind of justification for other Favorite White Male Characters' terrible behavior in other fandoms, I can definitely see where you're coming from.

(btw, I can't speak for OP but I'm glad you sent this ask, so at least I'm afforded the opportunity to reclaim my honor explain myself haha)

any kind of abuse should never justify horrible actions or behavior that one has been given a chance to change or rectify. in this case, if Rodney had been a victim of an older, female sexual predator in his youth, then that still doesn't excuse his misogynistic tendencies (and outright sexist comments & actions). it can certainly explain it, though, which is what I find so compelling about the idea.

the thing about Rodney ( & Stargate + all its characters) is that he's very much a product of his time. while today's media still exhibit a lot of backward tropes and tasteless stereotyping, we've started to find more and more artists & creators who are willing to apply nuance and care to their writing / art. though I'm sure pioneer Stargate fans have made their metas and criticism of Rodney already, his flaws as a character are even more easily brought into sharp relief now because he is not the kind of character that ages well.

if you've been following me for quite some time now, you probably have an idea why I like him. it's not the easiest thing to be, a Rodney fan, but I always make it a point to not excuse any of his bad traits. however, it's also no fun if all I do is bend over backwards to justify why I enjoy his character so much, which is why (since his writing is so inconsistent and there are so many gaps to his backstory) fans like OP and I, whenever we're given the opportunity, try to come up with bits of headcanon to tie a few loose ends together.

I certainly won't fight anyone about it, and I'm very much welcome to arguments that would debunk these ideas, but I'm acknowledging it to be a pretty neat concept. do I think real people (or even fictional characters) who are as terrible with women as Rodney is must have been abused by women when they were younger? hell no. does the headcanon make some kind of sense for why he is the way he is (which, again, is more a product of bad writing than any deliberate characterization)? I think it does.

so it's really more, 'if Rodney had been sexually abused by an older woman when he was younger, then that contributed to his misogyny,' and less, "if Rodney is misogynistic, then he must have been sexually abused by an older woman when he was younger'. there's an important difference that (I'm not even gonna euphemize this because it is rampant) so many fans defending their faves often miss.

I love Rodney for all the bits that I love about him, and I try to appropriately handle all the rest that I don't. what I wouldn't give for Rodney to have had better and consistent writing (one that, while not necessarily erased, at least properly addressed his flaws). that's why I like Trinity a lot even though he messed up so much in that episode. it had been an opportunity for growth.

[ tl;dr check second to the last paragraph lol ]

.

for reference: this is the post anon's talking about.

also tagging @frankthesnek in case she has something to say :)

#sorry anon if this got long #you give me an inch i take a parsec lol #stargate atlantis #rodney mckay #meta #ask #kit things

[makeste]

my long boring post about chapter 293 and Kacchan’s hero name

lmao I think that’s all of them. anyways, so I said I was gonna do a post on this, and so here goes.

first off, I just want to say that people are allowed to not like the name! it’s a completely subjective thing, there’s no right or wrong “it’s good” or “it’s bad.” or rather, there is a right or wrong, and it’s whichever one you think it is. if you think it’s good, you’re right. if you think it’s bad, you’re also right. it’s an opinion, it doesn’t need to be backed up by peer review lol.

that said, here is my own completely subjective opinion: I think “Dynamight” (though please not with the capital “m”, I beg you lol) is a terrific name for him honestly. it’s clever wordplay, it’s a subtle callback/tribute to his favorite hero who is also his inspiration for becoming a hero, and it’s a perfect fit for his chosen aesthetic. it’s honestly great.

and what makes it even better is that at the same time, it is also stupid as fuck lmao. this is a name that encapsulates the duality of man. it’s the perfect metaphor for this boy who think he’s the hottest shit god ever invented, and has no idea that the number of people who take him seriously after interacting with him for more than ten seconds is actually in the single digits. this hero name is the equivalent of an excited puppy ferociously bounding towards a squirrel only to trip over its own feet and fall flat on its face. it thinks it is scary as fuck, and has no idea that 30,000 people on TikTok think it’s the most adorable thing they’ve ever seen. I unabashedly love it, and will also ceaselessly roast the everloving shit out of it without the slightest remorse, just like I roast the beloved boy attached to it. that’s just how it is lol.

so that’s how I feel about the name! however, this next part I need to emphasize: my opinion of the name, and my opinion of whether or not I actually think this will be his name, are two different things. I like the name Dynamight. I really do. and I also think there is next to no chance that this will actually be his hero name.

here’s the thing. this would have been a perfect name for him if it had been his chosen name back in chapter 45 when everyone else picked their aliases. it would have fit in seamlessly with the rest of his class. Red Riot, Chargebolt, Earphone Jack, Sugarman, Uravity; those are all names that stick in your mind and look great on official merch. those are names that sell action figures, but they also do a great job of representing the individuals behind the names. they have personality. and so does “Dynamight”, for sure.

but the thing is, for whatever reason, Horikoshi didn’t have him pick this name back in chapter 45. he went with a running gag instead. “King Explosion Murder”, “Lord Explosion Murder”, and so forth. and in the end, we never got a hero name at all. he could have had him pick Dynamight after we’d had our laughs. hell, he could have used it as an early easter egg hinting at Kacchan’s admiration for All Might, which wouldn’t be officially revealed until the final exam arc about twenty chapters later. “Dynamight” in Japanese is written out in katakana -- ダイナマイト (“dainamaito”). this is the word that’s used in Japan for actual dynamite. there is no inherent indicator that it’s a pun; it just so happens that the “mite” in dynamite is spelled out phonetically in Japanese the exact same way that “might” is. so the pun isn’t obvious unless you know to look for it. Horikoshi could have left us all thinking that “Dynamite” was his name until chapter 62 or thereabouts when he revealed that Katsuki looked up to All Might, at which point Horikoshi could finally reveal the official English spelling and it would be like a second name reveal. which would have been pretty sweet, actually.

but my point being, for some reason he instead chose not to do this. instead he chose to drag it all out for 250 chapters, content to let us all languish. this man had not a shred of mercy for the thousands of Bakugou fans who were all “please, sir, the fic,” before eventually giving up and adopting Ground Zero as the official-unofficial name until we either got a real reveal or died of old age. he dragged it out, and kept it as a gag, and eventually it was just like, fine, whatever.

and then this happened.

and it changed everything.

because you see, all of a sudden “Bakugou’s Hero Name” wasn’t just a running joke gag plot anymore. in the span of three sentences, Horikoshi changed the entire meaning of it. “your hero name represents your desires. the embodiment of how you wish to be. your ideal self.”

just like that, the whole mystery of “what will Bakugou’s hero name be” goes from being a funny little ongoing thing to an existential question, with the implication being that the choice he finally makes, whatever it may be, will in essence reveal the very core of his character. “your ideal self.” in other words this will really be almost the pinnacle of his entire character arc. his hero name, when he finally picks it, will show us just how far he’s come. it will show us his answer to “what kind of person do you want to be.”

that is an insane amount of meaning to suddenly dump onto something that up until this point had just been a funny little running gag. “lol Bakugou loves murder and death.” “lol at this rate Bakugou will graduate while still not having an actual hero name.” from that, to suddenly out of the blue, “Bakugou’s hero name will show us who he is as a person.” like, holy shit though. and mind you, this isn’t something that’s been done for any other character. this is very Bakugou-specific. all this build-up and significance has been ascribed to his hero name specifically. at this point his name is basically its own fucking plot. it’s literally its own individual little arc. all of that build-up. all of that meaning and importance given to it.

and then Horikoshi goes and gives us this.

so. like... okay, I guess??

like, just some quick things of note here though:

he is still doing the whole “explosive destruction murder” thing on top of the “Dynamight” part. indicating that there has not been the slightest bit of thoughtful consideration actually given on his part. literally the one thing that everyone and their mom was trying to explain to him not to do, and all of it went in one ear and out the other. which is fine!! he is adorable here and I want to ruffle his hair, honestly. but it’s clear to me that he still hasn’t grasped what Jeanist was trying to explain to him before, if this is really his answer to “what would you consider to be your ideal self” lol.

the name is INSTANTLY panned by every single person in the surrounding vicinity, villains included. hell, Mirio might as well have stabbed him all over again. obviously this is intentionally being used as a lighthearted moment to briefly give the audience a breather before we wade back into the Todoroki drama; but at the same time it indicates that this name isn’t exactly going to be taken seriously by anyone who hears it in-universe. they are literally wincing upon hearing it skjlklhkgf.

lastly, none of the people closest to him -- Deku, All Might, Kirishima, or Shouto -- are even there to hear it. all of that build-up, all of that “Kacchan’s hero name will show us how far he’s come in his character development”, and then when it finally happens, the people who have had the most impact aren’t even there to partake in the moment. Shouto and Deku are busy dealing with an entirely separate plot and trying very hard not to be set on fire while Kacchan is out here providing comic relief.

because that’s really what this is, though. this is a joke. like, I don’t mean that in a pejorative sense; I mean that it is literally a joke. and so what you’re telling me is, if this really is his hero name, we waited 250 chapters and Horikoshi built up an entire character arc around it, only to have the end result be a joke panel that in the end was arguably not even the biggest thing that happened in the chapter.

like, idk, maybe there’ll be a flashback about it later after all’s said and done which will imbue it with more meaning as some have suggested. maybe Horikoshi will explain how it’s a childhood throwback name that Deku once picked for him, like that theory that’s been making the rounds. I’m not saying it won’t be possible to build on this after the fact. but it will be after the fact, all the same. as far as the initial reveal goes... this is it. the epitome of anticlimactic. a brief joke reveal mid-fight where everyone immediately goes “are you fucking serious” and he’s all “I WAS FUCKING SERIOUS” and falls down out of comedy lmao.

and so, to wrap this post up finally, basically the way I see it is that there are two possibilities here. either (1) I have been way overthinking this from day one and it was never really that deep and Horikoshi thought this would be an appropriate and funny conclusion to a plotline which in his mind was always meant to be mostly lighthearted, with the Jeanist stuff mostly just thrown in there to push Bakugou into picking an at least halfway-decent name in spite of himself.

or, (2) this isn’t going to be his final hero name either. this is instead the last hurrah of the “Lord Explosion Murder” part of that plotline, and after he’s laughed out of the room yet again he will mope and cross out this one as well, and Horikoshi will sit on it for another 500 chapters until he finally reveals it at the very fucking end of the series. like at this point I wouldn’t put it past him to wait until the very last page. I s2g, this man. but the flipside of it is that when that moment finally does happen, I fully believe it will be a moment that actually feels earned. it will feel right. it will feel like the moment we spent all that time waiting for. or at least that’s what I hope.

so anyway, those are my thoughts on it! tl;dr, while I like Dynamight as a hero name in and of itself, I don’t think it’s going to be endgame, mostly because nothing about that reveal moment actually felt right to me. and of course, it’s very possible that I’m completely wrong about this; it wouldn’t be the first time (Kacchan’s quirk says hello). but on the other hand fandom isn’t totally batting a thousand either (Ground Zero says what up), so hey. we’ll see!

#bakugou katsuki #dynamight #bnha 293 #bnha meta #bakugou meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks

[permets-2]

Your tag that says why do we have to say this, I get it's a hypothetical question but JFC this is the most racist fandom I've ever been in. I can't conceptualize why, but it is. It's the epitome of white queerness and feminism, and is just tiring.

Okay I’m so sorry this is probably a longer response than you wanted but I’ve been thinking about this for a while now and yeah. Let’s talk. 

Why is the Les Mis fandom so racist?  

(Disclaimer that this is based on my own experiences in this fandom, I don’t speak for all Les Mis fans of color, obviously. Also that this is not a post to “prove” the Les Mis fandom is racist. If you need that before you wanna know why, you’re part of the problem.) (There’s a tl;dr at the end)

It’s because at the end of the day, anon, no matter how many Black Grantaires are drawn and no matter how many Asian Cosettes we get, Les Mis is media primarily by, for, and about white people. I mean, on a factual level, Hugo was white, and let’s not forget he had some wild thoughts on race - saying that white people were “the highest type which the human race has so far reached” and talking about the “inferior races,” saying that Europeans would “civilize and cultivate” Africa in the letter he wrote to The London News regarding slavery in America and John Brown. Also, obviously, all the characters are canonically white. That’s part of why content of the Amis as involved in BLM protests is so harmful imo - no matter the surface story you’re depicting, no matter how you draw them or write them, these are characters who are rooted in and steeped in whiteness, and The Black Lives Matter movement is not for or about them as white people. And, however you rewrite this story, it doesn't change the fact that you'd be imposing a narrative created by a white supremacist on a movement against white supremacy. This is not to say headcanoning/drawing/writing characters as whatever race you want is wrong, or that there isn’t power in artists of color reclaiming stories that have excluded or erased us for so many years! Lord knows I live and breathe for Amis of color, especially when they’re culturally well-represented. But it would not only be naive but also factually inaccurate to pretend that Les Mis is a story for People of Color, or a story that contains acute discussions of racial dynamics, let alone actively dismantles white supremacy.

 Also, anon, the culture surrounding Les Mis source material is steeped in whiteness and exclusion. Musical Theatre is one of the most financially exclusive forms of art - tickets are often upwards of $100 each especially for a big name show like Les Mis. I could talk forever about the ways theatre is used as a tool of classism and racism, but in this instance, it boils down to People of Color are directly and indirectly denied access to the world of musical theatre, as audience, writers, directors, performers, etc. We basically see only white people playing the characters of Les Mis in professional (and non-professional) theatre, which is another less tangible barrier to communities of color. You’d think the brick would be more accessible, and on a factual level, sure, most people can find a copy for $9 at Barnes and Noble or get it from the library. But by God, the amount of academic elitism in high school essays to tumblr posts about the brick is off the charts - classic lit has a long history of pushing out People of Color. Why is Hugo one of the most well-known names in all of literature and not Hurston? Baldwin? Du Bois? (This is rhetorical. We know why.) There’s a lot of reasons why the brick and musical alike have been kept away from people of color (that i could get into, starting in 1619, but honestly we’d be here a while)- making this, once again, a piece of media by, for, and about white people.

 Which is not to say there aren’t people of color in this fandom, or that we don’t belong here. I know so many Les Mis fans of color in our online community (myself included) who love it here and are so grateful for this space. It’s just harder - we have to write things off all the time. Why is almost 100% of cosplay white people? Why are most all the most popular creators white? Why, when characters are drawn/headcanoned/written as POC, does it play into stereotypes- why are Joly and Combeferre (the doctors) and Cosette (the woman who does not get much agency) the ones depicted as Asian, why are Eponine and Grantaire (the characters who Hugo explicitly calls ugly) the ones depicted as Black? (My broski @everydayatleast as a great post about that here) Why are we so set on blond Enjolras, no matter what ethnicity he’s depicted as?

And here’s the kicker: because of the plotline of Les Mis, we tend to ignore any issues of injustice in our own fandom. We think that because Les Mis is about equality and revolution, we’re automatically culturally and politically progressive. We think that because “Enjolras says Eat The Rich” and “books like these will never be useless”, we have achieved Wokeness. We think that when we stan these activist characters, we’re checking our activism box. We think that because we’ve got a diversity of genders and sexualities we’ve checked the box of representation but that’s another can of worms I will not get into. And this is almost always unconscious, I don’t think any of us are actively and maliciously trying to be racist! There is nothing wrong with having a background of whiteness! There is nothing wrong with being factually or culturally white as a piece of media (or, like, a person)! It is when we fail to be critical of the ways this whiteness affects others that we create racist spaces. (Which, as you said, anon, is how we get White/Non-intersectional Feminism.)

This is not directed at anyone in particular in the slightest, and this is in no way intended as a callout - I have so much love for this online community. And no, I don’t mean every single one of you is actively and aggressively being racist on Tumblr every single day. But yes I do mean the collective us as a fandom contributes towards a culture of racism every day, myself included. We as a fandom can do so much better. As Moose said when we yelled about LM racism for a hawt couple hours today, “In a fandom that purports to be about equality and social justice, we have to live up to our own ideals”.

(tl;dr - the Les Mis fandom is racist because it is a piece of white culture and writen by/for/about white people, Broadway and classic lit is rooted in exclusionism and there’s a lot of forces keeping people of color out of our original source materials, and because of the narrative of Les Mis being about revolution and social progress, we feel like we’ve achieved that and aren’t critical of our own shortcomings)

(phat thanks to my bro moose @everydayatleast for editing and contributing and Yelling with me!!)

#Les miserables #les mis #les amis #fandom racism #sollie speaks #if you feel hurt offended ashamed bitter guilty targeted while reading this post #maybe its time to do some thinkin #Things i did not include in this bc i have self control: the complexities of Black Javert and White Valjean #White Enjolras with a raised fist (aka BLACK POWER FIST?) #how i see almost no art of latinx/hispanic amis and even less indigenous amis #i think once i saw a middle eastern feuilly #how i looked through the faculty of prestigious univerisity classics departments and found 2 people of color out of hundreds of total facult #white people dont clown on this post challenge #other people of color would Love to hear your thoughts on this #seriously lets chat #would also love if yall (poc) have thoughts for you to message me instead of publically vibe checking me #plz im doing my best here #A series of disclaimers #first op is a person of color if that wasnt clear #listen to black creators and black voices especially for issues around BLM #second i have not read all of hugos letters #but i read this one on slavery a while back for apush and it stuck with me #hugo was racist #and im not saying like hes cancelled or some shit #because fuck cancel culture #just please can we be CRITICAL here #third PLEASE dont come for me about saying cosette has no agency #this is not what this is about #you are missing the point #fourth seriously this is not a callout

[massively-multiplayer-cereal]

I have no idea if you're still taking asks for the gender/sexuality/opinions character thing you reblogged a while back but if you are, could I request Sylvanas and/or Flynn and/or Wrathion? (I hope it's okay to excavate old posts! Either way I hope you have a good evening!)

i definitely still am, especially considering no one else sent an ask for it lmaoo ,,

also sorry this took until the next day! the post is very long ,, and you have a good day too ^-^

(also i LOVE when people excavate my posts because it means they liked my commentary on things enough to actually scroll through my whole blog so thank you for being an excavator XD)

anyways:

wrathion:

sexuality headcanon: Gay As Hell

gender headcanon: usually i see him as and write him as a cis male, but I mean.. trans male wrathion kinda hits different 👀

A ship I have with said character: WRANDUIN. W. R. A. N. D. U. I. N.

a brotp I have with said character: him and flynn just have this Vibe like they'd be really good friends if they met. i feel like they'd cause trouble together while anduin and shaw just sigh in the distance about their respective mischievous boyfriends. flynn x wrathion is mischief brotp.

a notp I have with said character: apparently some people ship him with alexstrazsa, so yeah alexstrazsa x wrathion is my notp for him. not that. never that. why?

a random headcanon: this makes no sense outside of my own brain but i like to think that wrathion somehow invented and/or popularized the use of the word 'gay' to mean homosexual on azeroth. it makes sense in my very specific au (that I haven't shared anywhere yet skdndsn), and doesn't work outside it, but hey, i like it lol

general opinion over said character: he is a little bastard and i love him so, so much. if anyone hurts him i will murder them with my bare hands. wrathion is the epitome of that 'i will now cause problems on purpose' meme. it is a wonderful day on azeroth and he is a horrible, horrible dragon.

flynn:

sexuality headcanon: he is the ULTIMATE bisexual disaster

gender headcanon: cis male

a ship i have with said character: FAIRSHAW. F. A. I. R. S. H. A. W.

a brotp i have with said character: flynn and taelia is the ultimate brotp ever, because they are just best friends with no romantic feelings whatsoever, and honestly it's SO refreshing to see a man and woman be super close friends in media without romantic hints. also i project my relationship with my (male) best friend onto them and my best friend is basically my brother so yeah. I love taelia and flynn just Being best friends.

a notp i have with said character: flynn x taelia romantically,, like,, i just.. mm it is very squicky for me.. I do Not Like. them romantically is just No Thank You. like morally there isn’t anything wrong with it but i just Do Not Enjoy romantic taelia x flynn. 

a random headcanon: he has the azerothian equivalent of a tramp stamp. it’s has two dolphins and an anchor. do not ask why i have this headcanon, because i have no idea why either ,,

general opinion over said character: i love flynn so much dude it's not even funny how much i love him. he is my emotional support imaginary himbo best friend.

sylvanas:

sexuality headcanon: lesbian because i project onto fictional characters i love too much

gender headcanon: similar to wrathion, usually i see her as and write her as a cis woman, but I mean.. trans woman sylvanas is really good ,,

a ship i have with said character: sylvaina, sort of? in canon, i have no actual sylvanas ships, but in aus i really really like sylvaina sjdbfdjsnnd

a brotp i have with said character: i feel like her and kael'thas would be crazy good friends if she had survived the purge of quel'thalas, so sylvanas x kael'thas brotp I guess XD

a notp I have with said character: sylvanduin. it is way too common (luckily, not on tumblr, but on other platforms,) for being a ship that under ANY circumstances would be insanely toxic. no matter what au it is, it's a ridiculous age gap to the point of being gross, and if someone ships it in canon, i hate it even more. sylvanduin is just so insanely toxic..

a random headcanon: she literally doesn’t even LIKE GUYS but she pretended to have the hots for nathanos to get him to do what she wanted him to. that's what you call an epic gamer move.

general opinion over said character: i actually like her even though a ton of people hate her. honestly, like, she was always kinda evil. there was always a lot of hints that she was bad, so that wasn't out of nowhere. but, also, blizz took it too far too quickly. personally, i think the undercity thing still should've happened just like it did, but she should've been more chill during the start of bfa. she should've been slowly ramping up in her intensity and brutality over the course of the war, and teldrassil's burning should've happened at the end of the first patch of bfa, when she was finally at 'her full evilness.' it's after teldrassil when the whole 'oh no baine in jail, chase away the evil lady' thing should've happened. WOWEE i went on a tangent, but tl;dr i love sylvanas even tho she’s really evil and think teldrassil should’ve happened later. also in the new cinematic sylvanas is HOT she has FANGS

#world of warcraft #flynn fairwind #anduin wrynn #wrathion #fairshaw #wranduin #alexstrasza #sylvanas windrunner #jaina proudmoore #sylvaina #baine bloodhoof #nathanos blightcaller #teldrassil #undercity #wow

[royalstorm]

✨ character study #21 — keqing & culture clash .

TL;DR: Despite being portrayed as a character motivated by self-interest and pride (which she is, don’t get me wrong), Keqing’s character is very ironic in that it also contains key characteristics present in a typical eldest Asian / only Asian daughter (self-sacrifice, overstaying commitments).

Keqing is most prominently defined by “active” personality traits: her defiance, her resilience, and her initiative. She is ambitious and a go-getter through and through — the epitome of a gxrlboss, the patron saint of going after what you want and refusing to settle for less than that. 

I feel that it can be a lot more than just this, though, especially if we extrapolate this information and use to go above and beyond. Once again, Keqing is, in her heart of hearts, an independent individual who pursues her interests of her own accord ... but what exactly are these “interests”? What are her core “wants”? To dismantle what she perceives are antiquated beliefs? Partly, but dig deeper. To cultivate a strength and tenacity that humanity has lost due to complacency / an over-reliance on religious factors? Also partly, but dig even deeper. To ensure that Liyue is able to prosper in the present, the short-term future, and the long-term future as an autonomous entity? Yes. Basically, the “interests” / “wants” that exist as “layers” above this conclusive statement are just that: layers. They only reveal the details supporting what is ultimately the main point.

If we further unpack this core “want” — ensuring Liyue’s success and longevity — we are able to discern a few things:

The fine details, or “layers”, involved in this “want” are very self-driven. They were birthed from ego. They are inspired by Keqing’s ideals and, in essence, best represent the “active” personality traits she is reputed for.

The core “want” itself is less internalized. It’s more concerned with a collective “schema”, as opposed to the point above, which caters toward the ego. In other words, the very essence of what it is that Keqing wants comes from a “big picture” sort of concept ... one that goes far beyond her, one that embodies a compassion not for the self, but for Liyue as a whole, and alongside that ... sacrifice.

Keqing’s workaholic tendencies are also majorly inspired by her “core” want. Based on her canon voicelines and story tidbits (which I’ll post examples of when I’m less lazy, lmfaooooo), her reason for working constantly isn’t something hasty or something done for the sake of doing. She devotes so much of her time and energy into her work because she believes that is what will allow Liyue to become successful for generations to come ... and so, maybe you’re thinking: so what? She’s dutiful and committed and works too much ... what about it? But do you know what, or rather who, else easily embodies those traits, as well?

If you’re like me, you’re already nodding your head in understanding ... only daughter/eldest daughter syndrome.

Think about it ... the core “want” that Keqing has been striving for for all of these years isn’t even one that will immediately or directly benefit her. It takes into account too wide of a scope and too immeasurable an amount of time to factor in self-interests. The interests being reflected in this core “want” have to do with Liyue as a collective whole, even when she’s no longer alive to be a part of it. And once again, she’s committed to this ideal — made it her duty to see this through to the point where she overworks herself, doing other people’s jobs and working extra hours and going the extra mile to make ends meet. This is not something that benefits her directly, either ... nor is it healthy for her. Keqing isn’t overworking herself for herself; she is overworking for the sake of Liyue and its people and ultimately putting their priorities and needs over hers. This can be supported tremendously by her lifestyle (once again, I will post examples from canon when I’m not lazy). Keqing lives with the “barest of luxuries” at her disposal, not wishing to flaunt her wealth or her status. She went undercover as a laborer for a few months to have a better understanding of the working class. She willingly throws herself into dangerous ventures that other people do not want to undertake in a way that is humble (dressing up in very ordinary clothing, only bringing her hairpin and a sword). There’s no cry for attention or brownie points in any of these actions. It is, instead, another example of how the concept of sacrifice manifests in her character.

So ... this is basically my long-winded way of saying that Keqing is ironically a lot more subservient / “typical Asian daughter” than what can be seen on the surface. It IS very significant that she relishes in this mindset of “choosing your own path”, “defying what does not suit you”, and “being able to rely on yourself and your immediate community as opposed to being complacent” ... but ultimately, the “core” of her want and how she goes about in achieving it best mirror the self-sacrifice, stubborn dutifulness, and over-commitment found within many eldest / only Asian daughters. Even if she herself is attempting to combat conservatism, there are still key parts of Keqing tied to these long-standing, “collectivist” ideas of gender, such as prioritizing quite literally everything and everyone else before herself and engaging in activities that don’t serve her well for the sake of sacrifice.

Tfw you want to be an independent. stubborn as catgxrlboss, but a lot more of your motives reek of “Daughter Who Is Expected To Be Everyone’s Tool” syndrome than you think.

#i'm falling asleep while typing this i'm sorry maybe i'll rewrite it #* CHARA. STUDY / waiting ; seething ; blooming .

[thegrandkinghimself]

who is oikawa tooru?

i guess that’s a weird way to start off a post, considering just how popular oikawa is in this fandom. i’m absolutely certain that he’s still one of the most popular characters if i can take the #oikawasear trend on twitter a couple of weeks ago seriously. (i will be mourning that iwaoi is no longer the top ship in this fandom. it’s devastating to me on a personal level). and i can’t say that i’m any different, either, otherwise i wouldn’t have made this blog or this post. but i guess the reason i’ve been itching to write this is because i’ve been in this fandom--and more specifically, a fan of oikawa--for about four or five years now. i devour the content available, and i can assure you that i’ve read too many of the fanfictions on ao3 to be healthy, and never before have i seen a character whose characterization is so hotly disputed. 

and i get it. he’s a complex person. he’s kind of awkward in that there is a very clear disconnect between his outward personality and who he is alone. it’s a very hard balance to strike, especially when you consider just how much conjecture goes on in his characterization among fans and in discourse. he’s really easy to project and certain traits, correct or otherwise, are amplified based off how authors perceive him. there’s plenty of presumptions that can be made based on his on-screen actions/thoughts/beliefs that can be taken to some very logical conclusions. 

but i’ve also seen people write him in ways that don’t strike me as particularly truthful. he’s type casted into stereotypes that don’t do him justice, or made into something that is vaguely like oikawa, but not quite. in the following post, i’ll be trying to dispel misunderstandings of his character, if only for my own sanity. 

tl;dr i think that oikawa is chronically one of the most misrepresented characters in fandom and i want to fix that

exclaimer: i am solely an anime-watcher; i have seen snippets of the manga and therefore have a general idea of what is going on.

let’s establish some very very basic stuff. just to keep it simple, i’m not going to talk about anything beyond what has been published via the anime (as of season four). 

Oikawa Tooru | 及川徹 

gender: male

d.o.b.: 1994.7.20. or 20 July, 1994

height: 184.3 cm

weight: 72.2 kg

occupation: high school 3rd year, class 6

position/number: setter, 1 (captain)

here’s something that’s never pointed out: oikawa is in class 6 which, if we go off the trend of every other school in haikyuu!!, means that he is in a college preparatory class aka he’s pretty dang smart. it’s not confirmed or anything, but it a. follows the trend of every other class 6 student and b. is the highest class available among seijoh 3rd years (classes 5, 3, and 1). don’t get the idea that he’s dumb or unintelligent, or even that his strengths only lie in the classroom because that would be a gross understatement of his skills.

anywho. 

generally speaking, i like to start with the building blocks of his personality because there’s so much room for assumptions. here are the things that i think make up his core personality:

intelligence/knowledgeable: not only academically speaking, but he’s also well-versed in people. he knows how to play them--what will make someone more confident, more doubtful, what will help his teammates succeed. clearly, oikawa is very knowledgeable in human thought patterns. or he’s dedicated a lot of time to knowing them. 

loyalty: of all of oikawa’s traits, i think this one gets talked about the least, but we know it to be true. we make jokes about “you should have come to shiratorizawa” but it really shows you exactly how loyal, how much trust, oikawa has in this team that he has spent three years shaping. he never stops believing in the work that he has put in, and especially the hard work that his teammates have put into their volleyball. 

hardworking: one of the most well-known things about oikawa. most fans already know that his white knee pad is actually a knee brace. ‘nuff said. i salute you, good sir. 

insecurity: oikawa’s insecurities are perhaps his most notable trait. in a sense, he’s sort of the underdog--so good, but never quite good enough to accomplish what he’s set out to do. and we know that he’s struggled with his doubts since junior high, literally since he was 12 or 13, and that’s informed all of his character from the moment he ran into ushijima. oikawa is someone who is defined by his insecurities. 

oikawa is a lot of things. he’s introduced as someone who is very flamboyant--he’s built up by kageyama as the best setter, his senpai literally and figuratively, his initial shots are all of smug smiles and easy, unfaltering swagger in the face of this new team. even his theme, all rambunctious brass and jazzy, is meant to be all in your face, here’s the big boss! he’s someone who is petty and silly and seems to favor shallow conversation. but he’s oikawa, so there’s a surprising amount of depth in the little time that we have with him. there’s a reason that, in any other franchise, he’d probably be the protagonist.

he is someone full of contradictions. he’s childish and he spends time with a bunch of girls and is very clearly someone who likes to project a certain image of himself to the public (see: his cute lil’ humming run after his yell in s4e23 to make him seem kind of normal). but he’s also spent a lot of time with himself. in fact, if we take the few scenes we have of him alone and his bedroom (bare, spartan, meticulous) into account, oikawa actually is much more solemn and/or serious than the image he projects. he’s comfortable in the silences between all the white noise. he’s alright just being with iwaizumi. he allows himself to dwell on the past and his shortcomings, while also looking forward to the future. his ambition and passion to improve drive him, but his past failures weigh him down. they haunt him.

personally, i think that he’s naturally a pretty silly guy when given the chance. it’s not just for show. iwaizumi would even corroborate this à la oikawa’s introduction speech in s1. he likes having fun when he can with his friends. if we assume that oikawa is most himself with iwaizumi, then we definitely know that’s the case (see: “are you my mom, iwa-chan?”), and there’s nothing wrong with that. but i think that the most basic traits of his character, combined with his experiences in volleyball, have pushed him to be this person who is mired in doubt. it’s forced him to go down a path where something that he once loved for the fun of it has now become the source of his ire. it’s really just that simple. maybe in another life, things would be different and oikawa wouldn’t have to struggle as much. but that’s really just a part of the human experience, isn’t it? and, in all honesty, would we really love oikawa as much without all his vices?

and maybe this is getting into speculation, but i don’t think it’s a difficult argument to make that oikawa is really mature. he’s introspective. i say introspective because the revelations that he’s had in regards to his own strengths and weaknesses--those are things he’s had to confront and deal with since he was in junior high (starts at 12 years of age). it takes someone with a lot of maturity and self-awareness to realize those kinds of things about himself.

and he’s stronger than he gets credit for. most people depict him as a crybaby, but he’s really not. he doesn’t cry or give up in the face of ushijima or kageyama’s unfettered growth and successes, he doesn’t cry when faced with defeat. oikawa is there to support iwaizumi in his own doubt as ace, and lend support to his teammates. and oikawa doesn’t get stuck on the what-ifs or has-beens. driven by his infamous ambition, he looks forward to the future. 

it’s kind of a double-edged sword. it’s pushed him this far--he’s put in this much effort to be one of the best in the prefecture--because of his competitive spirit, but it’s also something that has caused him serious injury. oikawa’s motto (”if you’re gonna to hit it, hit it until it breaks!”) is the very epitome of this mentality. it’s a message to work hard to finish what you started, but i also think that you could interpret that hard work breaking you, too. he’s steadfast—obsessive, really—to the point that oikawa will let his passions break him before he would ever give up. it’s the point of all the strife in his life, because he would never have the problems he does if he were even a little less enamored by this sport. 

and you really have to wonder where he would be without ushijima and kageyama as his obstacles. his drive will always be there, that is an intrinsic part of him, as are the standards to which he holds himself, but you really have to wonder just how good oikawa would be if he didn’t have such direct competitors. this is an incredibly important question to ask about kageyama and oikawa in particular. yes, oikawa does loathe ushijima: for his disregard for oikawa’s decisions, for his disregard of oikawa’s loyalty, for his flippant attitude of seijoh, who oikawa has poured his blood and sweat into creating. but ushijima is an opposite hitter. oikawa is a setter. those are two very different positions with little crossover. but with kageyama--that is a clear rivalry. they push each other to be better, made all the more potent by their differences as players; one setter’s growth as a player directly impacts how the other performs in each subsequent game. seijoh’s defeat by karasuno in season 2 just feeds into oikawa’s drive for the future. he has not intention of giving up. a light was lit under him, pushing him forward, to do better, to be better. 

this is something that has been pointed out in a different analysis (linked below) but, narratively speaking, oikawa is kageyama’s foil. their interactions inform their characters and are a major cause of tension in their development. their relationship is really the most complex in the story that i have noticed, and is something that has not been appreciated enough. the iwaizumi-oikawa thing has been expounded and studied in every facet possible (i love the alexander the great/hephaestion allusions), but it’s true that kageyama has impacted oikawa the most. they begrudgingly respect each other’s talents, what it is that they bring to the court, while also envying what the other has in spades that they do not. in oikawa’s case, his strength clearly lies in his interpersonal relationships--his ability to intuit exactly what his teammates need to be at their best. kags is just a fount of overwhelming technical skill who has a really hard time getting to know those around him. living up to the standards that oikawa places on himself, in tandem with kageyama threatening his position as setter, leave oikawa floundering, fearing his own incompetence against opponents who are naturally much better than he. so he’s left with the knowledge that maybe his best isn’t good enough, but he still continues on anyway. he pushes himself past a seemingly unreachable threshold just to go toe-to-toe with this monster. it’s the purpose of his character--to tell this story of the ordinary v. the extraordinary--and it is perhaps the most relatable arc that a story like haikyuu!! can tell.

their connection naturally causes oikawa to seek out help, seen in the flashback scenes where he is talking to an unspecified coach/adult. that coach’s words then become the creed upon which oikawa plays, maybe even more than what iwaizumi has taught him, and is the final push that completes oikawa’s character arc in s2ep24. that change in mindset allows oikawa to see kageyama’s unbridled talent not as an obstacle but as a challenge. it’s very nuanced, but it makes all the difference. it’s why, following seijoh’s defeat, oikawa has the audacity to declare to kageyama and ushijima his plans for the future. in a sense, karasuno and kageyama and ushijima have won the battle but not the war. it’s the tipping point in his story and, more than anything, what makes oikawa so compelling. we have seen what has led up to the change, but now we want to know what he’s going to do to meet that challenge. what will he be doing beyond the story when he is no longer relevant to the narrative? we don’t know the details at this point, but we know that oikawa’s love and ambition for volleyball have been reaffirmed in this moment. 

but to bring it back, the kags-oiks connection also makes us question what it is we are watching, makes us as the audience think: what qualifies someone as a genius? are there any limitations to what that genius can do? what can ordinary people do in the face of those geniuses? 

these are questions that exist beyond the reality of sports and transverse into other disciplines. for me, those are very real questions that i have had to ask myself as a musician. i have dedicated nine, almost 10, years to my practice but there are still 10-year-olds who are just better at it than i ever will be. part of it is time and practice to be sure, but some of it is just innate. and i think the more appropriate version of those questions would be this: what qualifies someone as a prodigy? are there limitations for prodigies? what can we do in the face of prodigies? 

oikawa is a genius player--he knows the ins-and-outs of his sport better than anyone, and he can accomplish great feats that others in his same position can’t. but even with all that veritable experience and skill, he is ultimately still overtaken by a prodigy whose talents seem endless. it’s why he can hate ushijima but fear kageyama. one is something he can actively fight against, the other is inevitable. 

and really, i think that’s the beauty of oikawa tooru, why he’s so beloved by the fandom, even years after he has stopped being relevant to the narrative. beyond the fluff and goofiness and hijinks, there’s someone there who is really, truly, human. 

an aside with much less significance/why do people think this??

so here’s one thing: even though oikawa has fangirls, i wonder what he actually thinks of them. for one, it’s only natural for anyone to be super flattered if people think you’re hot stuff. that’s just... i don’t think he’s weird if he pays attention to them. but i think that people are conflating his being kind to them to being genuinely egotistical due to the attention. actually, i think these are opposing ideas and a contradiction of who oikawa is. when you’re an arrogant person, you think that you deserve all the attention you’re getting and you’re not going to bother with the people who worship you.

but that’s not at all what oikawa does. he’s rather kind to his fans. i would never say that he’s self-effacing, but knowing what you’re worth is different from being pompous. and think about it. it’d be a real jerk move for oikawa to not say nice things to them and thank his fangirls when they spend time, energy, and effort to make him food and see his games. he would just be a genuinely awful person if he didn’t at least give them thanks. it’d be more alarming if he didn’t talk to them, at least in my opinion. more than anything, we should consider this: why is it that oikawa has the fan club and not anyone else on the seijoh team? i’m sure a part of it is because he’s attractive and the captain of a team, but i think it’s more than that, too. we see these interactions from other perspectives, but i think that reflects more on those around oikawa than oikawa himself if they don’t understand why he acts the way he does with those girls.

another thing: i don’t think that anyone can question that oikawa is very pretty, or handsome, or whatever descriptor you would like. it’s prevalent in fandom (see: pretty setters squad), but he is also the only person in canon to be acknowledged by other characters as being particularly good-looking. maybe the miyas count at this point? i’m not sure. but i don’t really understand where people get the idea that he is particularly focused on his appearance, though. there is literally no indication of that from the material that i have seen. and maybe he uses that to his advantage with his fangirls, but i highly doubt that, in all honesty. i think that it’s fun to imagine him being into these things as a hobby, but it irks me greatly when i see that people spend time saying that oikawa wakes up extra early just to fix his hair or slather on foundation/concealer just to look presentable. 

he’s a teenaged boy who clearly has other things that worry him, he’s a full-time student, and volunteers to coach at lil tykes volleyball classroom in his free time. he wouldn’t have time to spend on his hair or makeup. and we even seen in the hanger tooru special that he even wakes up looking like that. 

he is au naturale, my friends. and we even know how little he gives thought to his own body, if you take into account his knee brace. for oikawa, his body is merely the medium through which he can accomplish his goals. we even have evidence of this when we see oikawa up all night studying karasuno game play or via his knee brace. he doesn’t know how to stop or understand when enough is enough. he breaks himself if there’s no one to watch him. 

also, just... how would makeup work, logistically speaking? i don’t wear makeup, but i’m thinking that foundation and concealer and hair product would be, um, really bad. like, it’d run down his face and stuff. also, it’d probably get into his eyes, too? seriously. i’m not against oikawa wearing makeup in the slightest cause he’d be even prettier, but we know that oikawa would absolutely not jeopardize his chances in any way. 

thank you for reading this long-winded, probably awful look into my favorite character of all time. and i do mean that. he is my favorite character in all of media. which, like, says a lot when he’s competing against the casts of a:tla, call me by your name, and my actual favorite book, the song of achilles. after all of that, if you would like another (better) analysis of oikawa’s character, i suggest this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/haikyuu/comments/94irsi/character_analysis_16_oikawa_tooru_discussion/ 

#oikawa tooru #haikyuu #character analysis #i'm so sorry about this #i just had to get this off of my chest #thanks for coming to my ted talk

[apologieslogan]

my opinons on the sides that nobody asked for:

Canon Logan: AMAZING. a little mean (which I love), and usually right even if the episode says he was wrong for the plot. I have not once disagreed with Logan about anything he has said. He should be listened to more bc in my opinion he is literally the most important side from an objective standpoint. i'm not gonna elaborate on that in this post but if y'all want me to I will

Fanon Logan: Hes great, a little more wild and feral than canon logan which is another thing I love. he has feelings but is allergic to them. can relate. sassy and done with everyone, epitome of "I don't have time for this shit, figure it out yourselves since you don't wanna listen." and I live for it bc I, too, am the logan of my friend group, believe it or not

Canon Patton: I like him. I don't love him, but I think his character plays a very important part in the development of literally every arc that we have seen bc of how much C!Thomas relies and leans on his morality for decision making. I disagree with Patton a lot but he's trying his best so he can live I guess

Fanon Patton: no. no no absolutely not. do not like him at all. specifically, I don't like how fanon patton (usually, not always) is depicted as someone who is always a victim and can never do any wrong. that's one of my least favorite characteristics in any character. it's not happening as much though, so i'm trying to warm up to him.

Canon Virgil: UGH I love him sm. sassy and a lil bit pessimistic. that's my type that's my type. perfect. I have only disagreed with him in the DWIT video and like,,,, pre acceptance. he passed the vibe check

Fanon Virgil: ehhhhhhhhhhh no??? kind of the same thing with patton, how he's always painted as a victim who can't do wrong. not my thing. not that I have a problem with people who do this!!! it's just not something I care for, I wanna be clear about that.

Canon Roman: i am very on the fence about him. do I like him???? I don't think so???? do i not like him???? I don't think so???? I feel like I know nothing about roman. a mystery. probably bc of the persona he puts on all the time. I think I COULD like roman if I knew more about him. so i'm gonna give him a pass.

Fanon Roman: oh yes honey there is flavor here. suave himbo??? we love to see it. he is doing his best and he is also very sweet but somehow stupid at the same time???? perfect. *chefs kiss* lemme go get me another fuckin plate bc it's so fuckin delicious

Canon Janus: BITCH!!!!! you already know I love him. finally some good fucking food. Him, Logan, and Remus are the only ones who be a lil,,,,,, spicy about the morals sometimes and I live for it. Janus is my favorite "fuck society, have a margarita and call in to work" character ever and I loveeeee him for it.

Fanon Janus: YALL DID HIM DIRTY IN THE BEGINNING I HATE IT HERE. y'all know what y'all did. y'all know. B U T, now????? yes I love him I love my lil creepy mysterious side character janus give me more

Canon Remus: YES BITCH YES BITC YES BITCH!!!!!!! he is DISGUSTING and BATSHIT and INSANE and I L O V E it. more remus characters in media, less of everything else. i'm also the remus of my friend group don't ask questions.

Fanon Remus: idk man I haven't seen too much of him. I have seen a fan art where he is drinking soap though so I love it. reminds me of the time I drank tea tree oil just bc I felt like it. we are one. 10/10

okay and here you have it!!!! a list of what I think of all the Sanders Sides characters even tho literally nobody asked!!! also I want to be clear that any critique I did of any character is MY opinion on them. i'm not attacking anyone if they think differently or anything like that, this is just one person and their feelings about them.

TL;DR: logan is great, patton is alright, virgil is good, roman is ????, janus is nice, and remus is stank nasty

#logan sanders #janus sanders #remus sanders #virgil sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #sanders sides #the way that nobody is going to care lmfaooo #its okay because EYE care