#[And NOT being portrayed as Evil for doing so. Might be SEEN as evil by the protag but Is Not Narratively The Bad Guy For It.] | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

doberbutts · 3 months

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Thank you for making the schindler post, it perfectly illustrates why I hate the way people will act like people who hurt others (like active nazis and racists) aren't capable of regular emotion and thought. Second chances are often seen as bad when it comes to violence and crime, but if you never give someone the chance to change, form different opinions, or see the damage they or their associates have caused, they'll just keep taking the path of least resistance, keep following orders. I just want people to take a serious look at a nazi who changed his mind. There is nothing inherently evil about anyone, there are only moral and immoral choices.

It helps, I think, to understand that he did not join the nazi party because he hated Jews. Even what research I did on the real man said that for the most part his reasons for siding with Hitler were purely economical. And, as I've said before, Hitler did not start with "I hate Jews let's kill them all" but with "look how bad the economy sucks! And who is doing well while the economy sucks? The Jews. That means they're the ones behind making the economy suck!" to get people on his side.

I think Schindler did have some internalized antisemitism. How could he not? He thought of the plan to use almost exclusively Jewish slave labor as good business sense. Cheaper than Poles, more desperate for the work and thus less likely to complain about conditions or quit, can't fuss about wanting wages or better hours, what's not to like? Supposedly his workers were treated well. I don't know if that makes it particularly better. I wonder how his workers felt, staring at the emblem proudly pinned to his jacket, knowing it stood for the extermination of their entire people.

I wonder if any of them ever considered it might be a trick. An elaborate long game to get them to trust and slip up. To get them to reveal the hiding places and secret messages and the others striving to find or make a way out.

I think the movie played with that concept a little bit, when the character of Stern (who apparently was 3 different real guys rolled into 1) is portrayed as always being a little standoffish and cold to Schindler until close to the very end. He was afraid of him. Schindler held not only his life but the lives of all of the people working there (plus more, irl) in his hands. He rubbed shoulders with high ranked officials and knew personally more than one known sadistic bastard that actively got off on murdering Jews. All it would take is a single word and it would be more than just those in the factory who died.

But then the ghetto was cleansed. In history, Schindler had advance warning and made his workers lock themselves in the factory overnight to spare them. In the movie, Schindler did not have warning, and saw the chaos from atop a vantage point as he'd meant to pass by.

Either way, both in life and in film, that was the line. He was, at minimum, willfully blind and passive to the evidence of what was happening up to that point. Once he couldn't deny it, he put his foot down and said, no more. I'm not doing this. I can't save everybody but you aren't getting your hands on anyone in my charge. Put me in jail if you have to. This is wrong.

He had everything to gain by continuing to look away. In the movie, Stern says something to the tune of "you'll have to hire Hungarians and Poles. They cost a little more but you'll still be rich" when they're both faced with Hitler's final solution. No more cheap Jewish labor when they're all dead, after all. It is at that point that they come up with the list- to get as many Jews as possible out of Germany before they're all sent to their deaths. He could have just said "yeah, sorry. I tried". Stern even more or less gave him permission to do so, like he was expecting it.

But he didn't. He said no fuck that, it's bullshit. It's not happening. I'm not letting it happen. They can arrest me or kill me if they want but if I'm alive for it I'm not just going to stand back and watch.

But I think it is difficult for people to grapple with that level of complexity. Not everyone he saved thinks he was overall a good person. His motives were not always pure. In fact many times his motives were just about lining his own pockets. But when he saw atrocities happen, he put his foot down and refused to participate. Even at his own cost- he had the equivalent amount of money back then as would be needed to retire early nowadays from his factory labor. He spent it on bribes and rations to keep them safe. He went to jail several times for refusing to back down. He risked his own neck by networking with other factory owners to get them to do the same. He could have been executed for this at any point. Nazis loved public spectacle executions for traitors and for collusion with Jews.

He wasn't a perfect ally. But I think I'd rather an imperfect ally do whatever they can to help, than no allies at all.

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decalcominia · 2 months

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I really wanted to talk about the infamous 'if I shall die I'd at least die in your hands' scene in ep. 26/27, specifically wangji's umbrella because it had already amazed me the first time I watched it and now that I watched it again, I have even more thoughts on it. I'm pretty sure it has been talked about at some point since the fandom has been around for a while and is quite big but I just had to write about this because it is such a great scene for me so here we go :)))

I was beyond speechless when I watched this scene for the first time and saw this umbrella because it's genuinely such an insane way to portray what's going on in lwj's mind. First, we have the colours. The umbrella in white, a colour that is widely associated with purity and good, and then its opposite, black, a colour associated with bad and evil. It seems almost scattered across the umbrella and looks like it's spreading in it and 'tainting' the white.

Then we have the colours representing each character; white represents lwj because besides it being prominent in his and the lan clan's colour palette, by practising the traditional (and therefore approved) cultivation method, he represents the right path. black represents wwx, not only because of his general aesthetic but because the black on the umbrella resembles the resentment energy he controls, a method that's been disapproved of and condemned as evil and wrong.

lwj grew up in a clan with 3.000 rules determining what's right and what's wrong, giving him a clear understanding of what to do and what not. He sees wwx practising evil cultivation, which he has been taught is bad, therefore wwx must also be bad, right? But he knows wuxian, he knows he has no evil in his heart and would never hurt someone unjustly so how can he be bad?

Considering all of this, I feel like the umbrella visualizes lwj's indecisiveness and how wuxian caused wangji to question his ideals. stirring up his mind with different beliefs, different colours and blurring the lines between what lwj has been taught as good and bad, right and wrong, black and white.

now this scene. I might be reading way too much into it but I feel like the rain itself could be interpreted as the disapproval of the cultivation world and so we have wwx and the remaining wen clan members standing right under and being drenched by it since neither the mere existence of the wen clan is approved nor is wwx's actions to help them. As opposed to this 'single-plank bridge' where they have no shelter to hide under, lwj is covering himself with the umbrella he holds on to while trying to convince wuxian to stop, and is safe from the rain.

until they continue talking and lwj understands the intention behind wwx's actions, the importance of it, why it makes sense and why he might be right, which leads to him letting go of not only wwx but also his umbrella, and with it, the beliefs that had been instilled in him.

he no longer hides from the rain and lets himself get drenched as he lets go of those "set in stone" beliefs and finally accepts that there is no true right or wrong, good or bad, just like his brother had told him.

At the same time, I think it also visualizes his acceptance of his feelings toward wuxian in general like he finally opens himself up to those feelings and I can only praise and thank them for creating such a beautiful and poetic scene, it is genuinely one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen in media.

I'm not entirely sure if any of this made sense but this was my interpretation of it and if you have read all of it a big thank you and kisses <333

#really no idea if it makes sense #thanks to my shitty memory i cant tell if it makes sense in the plot as well #i feel like i just kept repeating myself jsjsjs #but they were insane for this #and i'm thankful for that insanity #the symbolism was symbolisming #the untamed #cql #mdzs #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan zhan #wei ying

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noctvrnal9999 · 3 months

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Got a private message asking me to comment on the whole Neil stream thing so I guess here goes. Excuse my thoughts, they are never coherent.

What I liked about the stream is not what Neil said, but what he didn't say. I'm not big on watching streams, his or anyone's, but I watched some and I noticed Neil is very very careful when discussing Astarion. If anyone is aware how deranged the fandom can get - it's definitely him. I saw him dance around the topic multiple times either in streams or in clips I've seen all over the internet. I highly respect him for that because unlike someone (cough cough) he's not telling people what to think or what narrative they should take for any reason. A true professional unlike someone (cough cough).

So while he addressed operatic vs theatrical and there's no arguing that he delivered it wonderfully, what we really have is Larian saying "yeah, AA is still same Astarion, just with his most awful traits amplified" and then we have Neil saying "oh yeah, the mask is off". And that's... extremely important. I said this in tags before - what Neil doesn't say, to me, is important as well. He doesn't tell that Spawn is maskless just as AA, he just... skips over it, emphasizing that AA is the complete mask-off version of Astarion. I'm not going to cling to this because this is just something I immediately noticed and might not have been intentional on Neil's part, but... I don't know, I personally think it was done for a reason.

Anyway.

But this is what I've been saying too. Astarion is a bad person from the very beginning. I got people insult me over this take, I got told I'm a horrible garbage person for this take. But I stand by it. And even without personal interpretation you have proof of that within the game. You have a very good-aligned character (Karlach) and Astarion is at the opposite end of that spectrum. Every other companion (sans Minthara) fall somewhere between the two.

What Ascension allows Astarion is not only to live his life fear-free - it allows him to be himself. As Spawn he's constantly acting. To either get protection or simply not to turn into a mind-flayer. And Tav can take the route of trying to convince him to be better and he starts aligning his views to Tav along the road but he's still the same person. Just going to say this - nobody changes this drastically in just couple of months without pretending (which is presumed timeline for entire BG3). And people don't immediately get all better from major mental trauma in 6 months only (just sayin').

Point I'm trying to get at is this - to me Neil confirmed what I have been saying all along - Spawn is coping and still lying. Because he has no choice but to adapt. Maybe he's not lashing out or yelling, but seeing the epilogue he came off to me as grieving for things he will never have.

And then we have Ascended - a fully unleashed Astarion, who's confident and not apologetic for being himself.

That is true Astarion.

Astarion who isn't guilt-tripped or chastised into needing to change, Astarion who does not need to listen to people telling him how he's awful, Astarion who can do as he pleases without needing to explain himself to either his master or houlier-than-thou Tav.

Astarion who he was always meant to be.

Because he's a vampire. There's a reason why vampires in every single media piece are portrayed as evil. As a Spawn he's evil, as a Vampire Lord he's just doing what vampires do best - gain power and exploit that power for his own benefit. He's not just some cute boytoy with fangs, he's a vampire and he will never not be a vampire in BG3 (you can headcanon whatever you want in what happens after but that's not relevant here).

Ascended Astarion is true Astarion not because it's one of the routes we can take and headcanon that way, but because he's a vampire, and as Vampire Lord he's his own man at last, not needing to rely on anyone or to be defended by anyone. He has power now, to be whoever he wants and be true to himself while he does it. Without the fear of judgement, without the fear of being discarded if he's "too much" or not "good enough".

And with Tav at his side - he has everything he ever wanted: vampiric power that has never been witnessed before and a beloved who vowed themselves to be by his side forever, giving him ultimate assurance that there's someone there for him and will be there for eternity.

#ascended astarion #my adhd is making every single post i make kinda jumbled but listen #i actually make good points imo it just takes me a bit to get there

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lovelyinconsistentices · 5 months

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➴ 𝚂𝙲𝙾𝚃𝚃 𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙶𝚁𝙸𝙼

I really want to do some Scott Pilgrim takes off writing requests, but I'm anxious to write so let's try to get rid of such anxiety! Please request as much as you want, I'll make a list of characters I'll write for now as there are some I feel like I wouldn't write well enough or need to read more about to get more of a feel for their character. I write for all genders and I'll write for poc readers as well, any ideas you want for the reader to be like are welcome!

➴ 𝚆𝙸𝙻𝙻 𝚆𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙴.

⸙ Fluff and Angst, any genres really. I've rarely written angst but want to write it, so I'll try my best!

⸙ Poc readers, do note that I am not poc but I will make sure to do my research before writing. I have a few tumblers I know of that I will use for helping me write poc readers, I'm sure my friend would also be glad to help educate me as well! Criticism and feedback are welcome. ^^

⸙ Readers of all gender, but it depends on the character I'm writing for. If a character is canonically gay please do not request for something romance based with that character if you're the opposite gender as I'm not comfortable with that, an example would be Wallace Wells.

⸙ You can suggest all kinds of things for how you want the reader to be, occupation, hobbies, aesthetics/styles, food taste, personality type, whatever you want and I'll do my best to write it.

⸙ I will write headcannons, prompts and fics!

⸙ I'm more used to writing in third person but I know most reader fics are in second-person, so I'll write a second-person version and third-person version! This is the same for genders, if I really like a fic. I'll write multiple versions for the gender, following the same plot or prompt but with noticable differences.

⸙ This is for anons, if you'd like to claim an emoji or an assortment of such you can just let me know and I'll keep it reserved. Might make an anon page as well!

⸙ I've been thinking about making a Scott Pilgrim OC and writing about them, would you like to read about them? If you do end up liking them I'd love to write x readers with them and stuff, just let me know. (Just something I wanted to mention!)

➴ 𝚆𝙸𝙻𝙻 𝙽𝙾𝚃 𝚆𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙴.

⸙ I will not write nsfw, it's just I don't think I'd be very good at writing it and I'm uncomfortable. Maybe in the future but for now please do not request nsfw from me, there could be mentions of certain things or hints at it. I'm perfectly fine with it, as long as it's subtle.

⸙ No incest, huge ages gaps, or anything of the sort. I don't expect any requests like that but just to be careful!

➴ 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙰𝙲𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂

ˏˋ ╎𝙼𝙰𝙸𝙽

𝚂𝙲𝙾𝚃𝚃 𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙶𝚁𝙸𝙼

Not a big fan of Scott, but I'll still write for him. Who knows maybe I'll make a reader who's a Scott hater for shits and giggles, I have Idea's for an oc and If I do write about him you'll see a lot of him taking jabs at Scott and questioning why Ramona even likes him.

𝚁𝙰𝙼𝙾𝙽𝙰 𝙵𝙻𝙾𝚆𝙴𝚁𝚂

I have a lot of ideas, like perhaps a reader being an evil ex and stuff. I guess that could be spoilers for my oc, since I'm making him an ex! I also want to write a fic with the reader helping Ramona dye her hair and enjoying tea while doing so.

𝚆𝙰𝙻𝙻𝙰𝙲𝙴 𝚆𝙴𝙻𝙻𝚂

I'll definitely write for Wallace and do my best to portray him, as stated I'll only do romance for male and ftm readers. I could make fics with a female reader that are extremely platonic, friends and stuff. Or a sister reader, maybe Wallace having a sister who loves gossiping with Stacy and Wallace!

ˏˋ ╎𝚂𝙴𝚇 𝙱𝙾𝙱-𝙾𝙼𝙱

𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙿𝙷𝙴𝙽 𝚂𝚃𝙸𝙻𝙻𝚂

I read something and saw how Stephen ends up getting a boyfriend in the novels, so I don't know if he's gay or bisexual since he dated Julie last time I checked. I've seen comments about him being gay, so male and ftm readers only!

𝙺𝙸𝙼 𝙿𝙸𝙽𝙴

Her and Roxy kissing was woah, agh I love them both. I really want to write a drummer reader that could perhaps have some time of rivalry with her, an enemies to lovers fic.

𝚈𝙾𝚄𝙽𝙶 𝙽𝙴𝙸𝙻

I have some cute idea's, I can't wait to write him along with everyone else. I feel like he'd be the type to see someone and fall in love with them instantly, like perhaps reader is in a rival band and they're really good. He's instantly amazed by their skills and finds himself developing a crush on them!

𝙺𝙽𝙸𝚅𝙴𝚂 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝚄

I'd love to write for her, lots of cute fluff and things of the sort. Especially like helping her paint her nails, sleepovers and gossiping, arcade dates and things of the sort!

ˏˋ ╎𝙴𝚅𝙸𝙻 𝙴𝚇𝙴𝚂

𝙼𝙰𝚃𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚆 𝙿𝙰𝚃𝙴𝙻

Agh, Matthew! I'd love to write for him, I have some idea's. Like reader being an assistant and trying to do their best to help Matthew balance all this work that has now fallen into his hands because he did not think about all the responsibilities to come before he defeated Gideon, ooh also reader who was a band kid and matches Matthews energy!

𝙻𝚄𝙲𝙰𝚂 𝙻𝙴𝙴

I'm scared I might not write him good enough, mainly for dialogue. But I do want to write for Lucas, I might only write for him when requested for a bit until I get more of a feel for his dialogue as well character, and once I get confident enough to write him!

𝚃𝙾𝙳𝙳 𝙸𝙽𝙶𝚁𝙰𝙼

Our favorite Vegan boy, I'd love to write for him. Maybe, something like Reader helping him after the realization of what happened with Wallace. Having to comfort him and stuff, also could have Reader as a band mate or something!

𝙴𝙽𝚅𝚈 𝙰𝙳𝙰𝙼𝚂

Could we possibly consider her an evil ex? I decided to put her in this category because of that but anyways, but yes I'll write for her! Envy is so muah, had anyone seen that one image with the two girls doing each other's makeup. Envy sitting on top of Reader's and doing their makeup, or the other way around. Agh, I find that just so cute!

𝚁𝙾𝚇𝚈 𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙲𝙷𝙴𝚁

Female readers for romance only, but I'd love to write for her and omg can't wait. I'm so excited, I don't have a lot of ideas but I'm sure some will come to me for her.

𝙺𝚈𝙻𝙴 & 𝙺𝙴𝙽 𝙺𝙰𝚃𝙰𝚈𝙰𝙽𝙰𝙶𝙸

I want to write for Kyle and Ken so much, sadly we don't get enough screentime for the two but still I'm gonna write as much as I can for the twins. I read something about how the twins don't like doing things separately or being separated after what happened with Ramona so that gave me some Idea's, maybe having a reader they can finally trust.

Definitely will write separate fics for Kyle and Ken where they meet the reader, and after a while come to trust them as well develop feelings. I'll also happily do fics for both of the twins and reader pairing, strictly platonic fluff. Ooh, maybe an older or younger sibling that they're very protective of!

𝙶𝙸𝙳𝙴𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝚁𝙰𝚅𝙴𝚂

Before he lost everything version. My favorite and I'm sure a lot of others favorite evil mastermind, I have some ideas and would love to write about him. He grew to be my favorite in the show, as for the movie it was Matthew who was my first favorite ex along with Roxy. I've been loving all of the exes even more lately, especially the twins. So I can't wait to write for all of them!

ˏˋ ╎𝙾𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚁𝚂

𝙶𝙾𝚁𝙳𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝙾𝙾𝚂𝙴

After loosing everything and meeting Julie again. So I have him twice on this list but that's because Gideon ends up using his old name again, leaving the fake alias behind. So I decided to have the version of him before that and after!

𝙹𝚄𝙻𝙸𝙴 𝙿𝙾𝚆𝙴𝚁𝚂

The anime giving us more of Julie was everything, she's so agh and I'd happily write for her if there's people out there who would want oneshots for her!

𝚂𝚃𝙰𝙲𝙴𝚈 𝙿𝙸𝙻𝙶𝚁𝙸𝙼

We don't get a lot of Stacey last time I checked, but she's quite lovely. I love the idea of her and reader gossiping, maybe reader being her coworker. Or Reader being a Pilgrim sibling and the two love poking fun at Scott as well gossiping, platonic fluff!

𝙰𝙻𝙻

Oneshots, headcannons and things of the sort for all the characters. I'll also be posting oneshots and things of the sort with the separate groups in the future, like reader hanging out with Sex Bob-omb or The league of evil exes. Things like that.

Please let me know if I'm missing anyone or there's any characters I might not have and you want to request them, I have not read the graphic novels as of now as I don't have the money to buy them but in the future I definitely will when I get the chance! (Also, if there's any spelling errors. My apologies!)

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sepublic · 5 months

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Do you hate Belos' fans?

If you want my honest, nearly unadulterated thoughts? Well, hopefully this is the last I'll speak on the subject. But in regards to the question; In theory? No. In practice? Well...

They've ignored the actual onscreen characters, dynamics, and themes that the show focused on in favor of building this elaborate fanon and AUs and fics and art of their dead white guys who were never meant to be the focus, hyped themselves up on this entirely offscreen dynamic, and then when the finale didn't deliver on their expectations they gnashed their teeth and turned on the show as a whole because they never cared about the show, just their white favoritism-fueled fanon for it. Because apparently their engagement with TOH hinged entirely on Wittebros, which makes me wonder how they even began watching the actual show to begin with.

These same people viciously turned on the actual protagonists because they never appreciated them as their own characters but as devices to prop up Belos and the Wittebro dynamic, so when they couldn't fulfill that purpose, they were deemed useless and badly written because these people who wrote essays about Belos being left-handed blatantly ignored Luz's explicit onscreen arc and then had the audacity to be baffled by the finale's narrative decisions, and just dismiss Luz as 'badly written' because they refuse to actually engage with Luz for Luz's sake and appreciate her as the main protagonist, who stands more than easily on her own without having to rely on Belos.

These people just genuinely can't seem to comprehend why the show would celebrate this compassionate brown girl over their racist white man, so they went out of their way to disparage Luz, downplay her and her achievements, act like they're spewing some hot takes by claiming Belos is a more interesting character, using whatever convenient excuses they can find; But while the excuse always changes for the situation, in the end it's always because fandom just looooves their bigoted white guys.

So then you have crappy AUs and redemption fics that lightheartedly torture Luz at her expense to explore Belos, or reduce Luz to Belos' sidekick that he secretly cares about, and/or portray Luz's anger towards him as some obstacle towards his ~healing and redemption~ (and you don't need the finale's explicit message to understand why this is so grossly tasteless because fandom hates women and PoC, especially when the two intersect as one character). It's genuinely abhorrent how Belos fans just choose to undermine the entire point of the finale and the show and even Belos himself for the sake of their made-up fanon version.

Like maybe if they actually paid attention to the show and engaged with it on a general level, I might take their complaints a little more seriously; But it's telling how Belos fans just ignored characters who weren't directly relevant/connected to the Wittebanes, until they were. So it's why I can't take it seriously when they disparage the crew for having different priorities because you can just tell they refuse to consider other angles, or go in with the predisposed notion of hating it. The Belos fandom hyped themselves up, and then blamed the crew for leading them on instead of accepting that their speculation on a mysterious character was wrong.

In fact, they're in such refusal to accept this, that some of them even go out of their way to peddle the stupidest behind-the-scenes theories I've ever seen; Particularly, the one arguing that Belos was originally meant to be a sympathetic and tragic villain and was written as such during the first half of the show's run... But when the crew opted to include the Collector in response to TOH being shortened, they just transferred all of Belos' sympathetic qualities to the Collector and left him a pure evil antagonist.

Because obviously, the crew never considered writing two sympathetic villains, right??? It's not as if we don't already have two former members of the Emperor's Coven who unlearn their abuse yet still have different personalities and backstories and dynamics and storylines. No, Belos was supposed to be sympathetic but they deemed that redundant with the Collector, so it's the Collector's fault and it's time to disparage their writing out of jealous resentment.

The criticisms just come across as in bad faith; These people aren't actually interested in critiquing the show. It's all insincere when they discuss how Luz needed to understand how people can become villains (they ignore her dynamic with the Collector and other characters), or how villains need to be humanized because yadda-yadda. It's not because they actually care about these things, it's just a convenient justification for why their white guy deserved better.

Because these viewers are otherwise more than willing to suspend their disbelief and analyze all of the little implications for Belos to understand him, but then refuse to exercise even a little imagination in discussing characters like Luz or the Collector, because it's easier to just dismiss it as inconsistent writing that didn't have any planning behind it. Because they resent these characters for 'taking away' from Belos' spotlight, and with baffling confidence declare any defenses or explanations of the point they're missing as 'stupid takes'.

They talk of how Belos needed to be humanized and have his motives explained, but they were; It's just that these motives weren't framed in a flattering light so that pisses off their sadboi narrative of someone who's afraid of being wrong for the sake of others, rather than only for the sake of his ego (Note that Belos doesn't hallucinate the witches and demons he murdered because he still doesn't care about them). I don't think we can have a meaningful discussion about how Belos was written without first acknowledging a lot of things, such as what is even your stake in trying to argue stuff like how he should've been able to survive, or joking about the protagonists being too dumb to finish Belos off???

I just find it telling how when people criticize how Willow and Gus were handled, or how the Collector went off into space at the end, I can actually understand where they're coming from... But with Belos fans, I'm just utterly baffled to the point where I genuinely wonder how they can think this and if I stepped into some alternate timeline. They claim fandom is guilty of the puritanism that Belos himself displays, but it's not about 'problematic' characters (I'm quite the fan of villains myself), but rather fandom double standards in weeping for Belos while demonizing characters like Lilith as 'getting off easy'.

People understand perfectly that Odalia is meant to be viewed under the lens of a capitalist upper-class suburban white woman who views her family as a status symbol, but then see how Belos is a satire of right-wing conservative white supremacists and the like and just sorta... sweep it under the rug in favor of re-framing Belos as a victim of these mentalities who was brainwashed, rather than someone who gleefully embraced them (regardless of any downsides he may have encountered) because the ideology ultimately benefitted his sense of self.

At first I reasoned that the favoritism towards Belos over Odalia is because one is more fleshed out and whatnot; But after seeing how Belos fans turned on Luz and other characters, I actually do suspect a lot of it is misogyny. It's not as if fandom has ever relied on canon to flesh out faves, these people are proof enough. I remember being baffled by the intense energy there was for Wittebros after Yesterday's Lie aired, wondering where that same energy was for other aspects of the show; At the time I didn't think much of it and figured it just wasn't for me, no judgment, but now? Ugh.

The lack of self-awareness for fandom's obvious habit and tendency with white dudes is just utterly baffling. I'd apply Hanlon's Razor to it, even; Sufficiently advanced ignorance is indistinguishable from malice! These people prove they're more than clever enough to understand and engage with it on a sincere level, but they don't because they don't want to because they're just salty!!!

In the end, it's all just fandom entitlement; Someone else compared Belos fans to those for Kylo Ren and Billy Hargroves and I can't un-see it now. The key difference is that the source material for Belos didn't bend over backwards to coddle and make everything about him; Which means canon didn't feed the beast, and that led to Belos fans not being as obnoxious as the aforementioned groups.

But their portrayal of this guy really is the same as people who put Kyle Ron in flower crowns. It's just this watered-down milquetoast dude they made up in their heads. And without any self-awareness they blame canon and the writers for not adhering to their personal RP headcanons for the character. These are the same people I've seen complain that the show didn't portray Belos' grief over murdering Luz, because it's the whole Oppenheimer effect where if we talk about white people's violence towards minorities, we always gotta make it about the white guy's angst and guilt while brushing past the actual victims and their feelings! Because you know what?

It's clear how much this fandom sleeps on Luz! She's such an incredibly compelling character, the show really is about her, and yet people sleep so much on her depth to talk about others! This is not exclusive to Belos fans, but I find them particularly symptomatic of this problem. Because again, we all know from fandom history (in addition to the explicit onscreen writing) that any claims of Luz not being interesting, or annoying, or flat, is just wrong; And even if it were somehow true, it's not as if that has ever stopped fandom before.

They'll see a female protagonist who is compassionate and say that nice characters are boring, unlike their guy; They'll see a problematic woman and call her an irredeemable bitch, while lamenting how nice characters are underrated and misunderstood as 'basic'. It's all the same. This kind of veers into my complaint about the fandom in general sleeping on Luz despite her being so fascinating, and it's abundantly clear that it's the racism and/or misogyny, maybe even ableism because intersectionality exists!!!

That's why you have people sweeping over Luz's trauma from Belos; They'll obsess over Hunter's because it's more 'intense' or whatever but again, that's never stopped anyone. People deeply understand, Belos fans especially, the psychological layers to Hunter's trauma and how Belos wormed his way inside his nephew's head... But with Luz, they just sorta dumb down their dynamic to whacky enemies on equal footing at times.

There isn't any of that same weight, that same appreciation, for how Luz suffered, and so there's none of the tact, none of the consideration of how they're portraying this, even in jokes or AUs; And that's why people have no problem with making Luz the bad guy for not understanding Belos, even though she did try, and got so terribly hurt for it. And she didn't even need to try to not owe Belos anything. It's why people make cutesy AUs where Belos is Luz's father figure, which is incredibly gross given everything Belos stands for and what he did to her; Because they just don't care about Luz's trauma, nor how gross and creepy Belos was to her. Because they don't care about Luz unless she can prop up Belos.

That's why you have comics taking a scene from Turning Red about a girl of color coming to a new understanding over her immigrant mother's pressures and expectations, and making it about Luz sympathizing with Belos. That's why you have people taking the heartbreaking moment between Camila and Luz in Yesterday's Lie, and making it about Philip and Caleb. It's why you have people insisting more on the parallels than what the two are opposite in, because they're oh so eager to mold Luz into Belos' (and Hunter’s, for that matter) platonic Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and then get angry and lash out at her when she doesn't fit their placid, palatable role; Just like Belos.

Seriously, Belos fans have a fucking victim complex and seem to genuinely think they're being subversive, oppressed underdogs for liking the violent white guy and writing essays about how he's actually femme-coded and neurodivergent and whatnot, and actually in deep pain and misery and needs guidance!!! They think they're oppressed for engaging with darker content and not for fandom racism and white favoritism and just being annoying, so then they come up with things like #BelosFansTakeOver like it's a fucking pride flag. They're Snape fans.

And as I've said before; A part of me was, earlier on, confused about all of the hype and energy. And I think people are drawn to that sort of energy because they see people having fun, and want to participate; So yes, I myself DID end up buying into it, at least a bit. Honestly I think I also had the problem of not fully letting go of my sympathetic Belos speculation, AKA what I personally wanted and not necessarily what fit the narrative the writers were going for; And so I ended up being a bit obtuse in misinterpreting some moments that are obvious in hindsight.

And I think it's partly because, again, the Belos fandom at the time still seemed so reasonable and chill, because they were still hinging on the expectation that their fixation would pay off, and thus had no reason (yet) to resent the show and its focus on Luz and co., and could even be charitable in their interpretation and portrayal of these characters; They liked Luz plenty until they blamed the show for throwing Belos under the bus for her sake, and then proceeded to do the fucking reverse.

And like. I DID actually consider why the finale was written the way it was, and apply that in reorganizing my understanding of Belos; Apologies if I'm patting myself on the back but like. It becomes so much more fun when you work with things. It's baffling because these people are more than willing to put in the thought for wondering why X is a thing with Belos, but it has to be in this way that flatters their blorbo that they demand.

And some of these people certainly seem chill at first, but again I think part of the reason for that is because, like a lot of stuff in regards to fandom racism and misogyny and the like, they don't really seem to register what they're doing as aggravating, so they aren't bothered by it. But even when they are being 'calm' and chill, the way they portray the show through their redemption AUs and whatnot just reveals how they think, because they might not be approaching from some place of intentional malice, but from a willful 'ignorance is bliss' perspective. They haven't been on the receiving end of these constant fandom issues and then wonder why people are getting so heated over something reflective of real-life biases, when fiction was supposed to be a reprieve from all that; So they just act like it’s fandom stans needing to go touch grass.

So these fans come across as soft and comfort-oriented, and then in the same breath express concern over what a terrible person Luz is or whatever without any awareness, because some people are just way too lax about their fandom bigotry. Sorry but if you actually cared about these characters and their themes, you would realize that Camila would rightfully have only murder in mind towards the man who physically and emotionally scarred her daughter, and Masha -whose sole justified takeaway from the Wittebane story was that Philip just fucking sucks- wouldn't tolerate Belos' crap.

And you know what also really fucking sucks? I actually really enjoy Belos as a character and narrative, always have and still do; So it's agonizing to see people get him so wrong, in addition to everything else. In theory, I don't mind the concept of liking Belos, and there are still some people I'm chill with over this! But holy hell I've seen so many Belos fans and Belos fans particularly post all sorts of madness, to the point where I've developed this Pavlovian association between Belos fandom and psychic damage.

If someone likes Wittebros it's pretty much all they post/reblog about. I instinctively brace myself every time I come across such a blog, and I often end up being proven right. It used to be a part of the fandom I could enjoy but now it just feels so hostile towards canon’s themes and celebration, and it’s aggravating when people try to portray the fandom’s callout of this behavior as ‘both sides’ being toxic when what we’re discussing is fandom racism and misogyny, as well as a general refusal to engage with themes that contributes in a negative feedback loop to poor reading comprehension.

I guess I'm so passionate because I've been holding onto these grievances for so long, keeping it bottled for the sake of keeping the peace, but now I'm just tired so why the hell not? It's all reflective of my issues with fandom in general so it's still relevant even if you don't care for TOH. Maybe I should devote my energy into something more useful, I dunno. But as I said, I guess this whole thing is just reflective of societal bigotry and biases, and the lack of reading comprehension as a whole. At least I got the chance to vent!

#the owl house #emperor belos #philip wittebane #vent #rant

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cripplecharacters · 19 days

Note

Hello! Sorry this is going to be a long ask.

I'm writing a cast of four characters, all of whom have some form of disability and I'd like your input, especially since a few of them fall into tropes I've seen talked about on the blog.

I have autism, ADHD, and chronic joint pain that is undiagnosed but probably related to hypermobility. All of them have ADHD and autism but I'm not going to talk about that at length for any of them because I'm pretty comfortable with writing them.

Dispite the amount of disabled characters I have and the questions I have about how to portray them, this is not a story about disability or the disabled experience, but I do want to showcase my disabled characters in a nuanced way that highlights that their disability is not separable from them.

This is also for a fanfiction, and the source has some trouble with how it portrays disability (evil character with an eye patch, bionics that completely negate the disability) and I'm trying to figure out what I can modify and what I need to just throw out.

I'll go in alphabetical order and talk about them and the tropes I'm worried about falling into/what I want advice on.

Autumn (he/they)

He has ADHD, autism, classical EDS, is mildly HoH (about 20-30 decibels less than normal range), and has three fingers on his right hand due to an injury. They use a variety of mobility aids throughout the story, starting with only occasionally using a cane and ending with using forearm crutches on good days and a wheelchair on bad days.

The tropes/things I'm concerned about with them are the “good” wheelchair user, the noble dead disabled character, and finger prosthetics

The "pure/good" wheelchair user trope I'm partially concerned about because he becomes the moral core of the cast as time goes on and he gets more disabled. He doesn't become a better person, really, but everyone else gets Worse. He's still snarky and can be selfish and jaded at times, but I feel like it's harder to demonstrate that at the end.

Being the most honest and least willing to capitulate to doing terrible things leads to his execution, which is a turning point and a point of no return. I feel like this ties into a trope of the disabled character dying first, especially since he's the one who's using disability aids/is most explicitly disabled.

I've seen the posts about why finger prosthetics aren't useful/common, but I was thinking that he'd start off with canon-typical bionic fingers before eventually realizing that he doesn't need them and it's more hassle to put them on and off than it is to just not have them. Is this an okay use of finger prosthetics since it's kind of grappling with the trope itself? Or would it be better for him not to have them in the first place?

Right now I have it so Autumn’s sister Summer died and he named himself in her honor when he transitioned. That's pretty immutable at this point. However, right now I have her as d/Deaf, with much more profound hearing loss than Autumn. (Which is also why he knows ASL) Does this fall into a disabled dead character issue?

Chauncey (he/him)

Chauncey has ADHD, autism, burn scars, chronic pain (unspecified, based on my own experiences) and dyscalculia.

Chauncey's the one I'm frankly least concerned about any specific tropes. There are only one or two concerns I have with him:

As an author, it's important to know what disability a character has even if they don't know. I know in your FAQ you say “I'm disabled is it okay to x” is generally okay, but do you think I should have a more specific disability in mind that matches my symptoms or can I keep it no specificity?

He's a clone who was rapidly aged and I wasn't sure how to figure out if/how that might affect his dyscalculia since it's not exactly a situation that happens in real life but that's about it.

Morticia (she/her)

She's my protagonist. She has autism, ADHD, a visual impairment in the form of a missing eye, and visible scarring on her face.

She's heavily based on the canon character who was an “evil eyepatch” guy. I changed it so she actually has issues with said eye and made her less evil during the period of time she uses it but I'm not sure if I should just ditch the eyepatch all together.

She starts with a bionic eye (it's not perfect, but she can see out of it to some extent). Then she gets into some sci-fi bullshit and starts piloting around a robot telepathically, but her signals get crossed with her bionic eye, so she covers it with an eyepatch while she's piloting the robot. She does use this scheme to commit 28 murders, but the murders are kind of justified by the plot? She's really written as doing some ehh things for what she believes is right. I definitely wouldn't write the eyepatch that way if it wasn't in the source, but it was like the way to identify her character in the source, so it feels weird to not have it at all.

After that, she gets arrested, gets her bionic taken, and gets a prosthetic to keep appearances and hold the shape. Stuff happens, and she gets another bionic with some more visual info that is sometimes too much for her. She gets a lot worse than when she had the eye patch, but she does still have a noticeable eye difference. Her later bionic is totally customizable and she normally keeps it a glowing gold.

I have questions about her facial scarring because she uses it to play on people's perceptions. When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating. This results in her having her scarring visible during scenes where she's being "evil" but not when she's being "good." Is that okay? It feels like it's playing into the "villain with scars" but since she as a character is doing that, it feels less like the story itself is doing it (especially since Chauncey has similar or slightly more prominent scarring and doesn't do similar things), but I'm unsure.

She is evil, and disabled, but I don't want her to be an evil disabled character. I try to associate her covering up her scarring more with masking/trying to fit in than with her being “good” but I'm not sure if it comes off that way.

Mortimer (he/him)

ADHD, autism, and limb difference (upper arm amputee)

Mortimer is probably the character I'm most worried about with my disability rep (shocking considering the five huge paragraphs I just wrote about Morticia). He's the trope of “amputee that fixes his own prosthetics/tinkers on himself.” He also makes Autumn and Morti’s aids (at least until the arrest). He also kind of falls into an autistic savant but I'm less worried about how to navigate that since I'm very familiar with the autistic community, am autistic, and have other autistic characters.

I'm worried that if I make the prosthetics he makes not “cybernetic fix-all” it'll defeat some of what I'm trying to do with making him just as good as inventors who have done that in canon. I don't know how to retcon that canon without using an author's note, which feels disjointed and I want to avoid it.

To try to work with this and not ignore the fact he's disabled, I show the prosthetics needing maintenance and try to show them sometimes being uncomfortable or heavy.

However, this leads into my second problem with how I'm handling his disability. His character arc causes him to go from being the nicest one in the cast who is very meticulous but can sometimes have a temper, to becoming reckless, rude, and seemingly uncaring.

As he becomes more reckless and less willing to care for himself, he stops doing some of the necessary maintenance on his prosthetic, causing it to break more often and rust. I'm worried this looks like I'm tying his disability getting “worse” with his morality, since he also stops caring for others as much when he stops caring for himself.

I'm also not sure if it is okay for him to paint his bionic arm to try to look like a flesh arm, since he was a criminal and he was trying to make himself look less identifiable at a glance. And if it is, when he stops doing his maintenance on it, it makes sense for the paint to chip, but that would strengthen the association of him being more visibly disabled as he becomes meaner and harsher. I'm not sure if having Autumn bring the only one who's personality remains more or less the same while becoming more visibly disabled balences this out a little bit or if it's a point of having two tropes at the same time doesn't make either better. (If Autumn is a “good wheelchair user”)

Questions involving more than one character:

Autumn knows some ASL. Mortimer is an unrealistic character that knows far more than any one person can know, and he knows basically any language as far as the story is concerned. Autumn teaches Morti a little ASL, as well. Since Autumn can understand most conversation, they generally use it instead of whispering rather than in normal conversation. Is that an acceptable use of ASL?

Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury. I have extremely few other characters with any prominence or description at all, certainly to the extent where it would be reasonable to know if someone has a difference due to injury or birth. Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. I don't really want to go into any sense of shame they have over it, just them hiding for practical purposes. If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure? (e.g. Mortimer doesn't paint his arm and it's visibly mechanical. Is that something the police are looking to identify him by or do I ignore it? It feels weird to ignore it, but if it's causing problems for the characters it feels like a reasonable reaction would be to try to blend in, but is trying to blend in/hiding their disability just heightening the sense that disabled people need to hide?)

I'm so sorry I wrote an Entire Essay I promise I tried to be concise but I have a lot of questions about the tropes I fear I'm hitting and whether I'm missing anything trying to portray the disabilities I don't have

Hi!

I will answer only some of your questions because I don't have enough experience with a lot of the subject matter here. I'd recommend looking at this post some time after it's published to see if maybe a follower had an answer/suggestion for you.

Now for the questions I'm able to answer:

For Chauncey;

It's 100% okay to base it on your own experience. At times disabilities are mysterious and unspecific, that's just how it sometimes is. The problem with this that appears from abled authors is that the symptoms or treatments just often don't make sense, because they have no clue what they're doing; confusing basic terms, making weird conclusions...

But you are a person with lived experience. You understand how your symptoms work and how you manage it from the best - first person - point of view. If someone is well-equipped to write a character with your disability, it's you.

For Morticia (cool name BTW);

As of the bionic eye; as far as I'm aware they don't really exist yet, but this is a sci-fi scenario so it's a bit different. (If you want to hear about the currently real options, here's a post that could interest you).

I'm slightly puzzled by her eyepatch fixing the signal issues; I would've assumed that it would transmit things either way (?) because with an eyepatch she would still see, just the inside of the patch and not the usual stuff. But my cluelessness here might be my fault by the fact that I'm not familiar with the source material. But if it's meant for a general (non-fandom) audience, I think it would be great if you could elaborate on the science here!

With the later eyes she gets, I advise you to keep her visually impaired even if her vision improves somewhat. It shouldn't be a cure. You potentially could think of it like hearing aids, where they can be more or less helpful, but are often more annoying than anything else and aren't fully "restoring" the sense by any means. Maybe her bionic eye has static, or weird spots, or causes double vision.

Now for the "hmm" part...

"When she's campaigning and trying to look innocent and kind, she covers it as much as she can. However, when she feels like she is in control and can do whatever she wants without consequences, she doesn't bother or even chooses to try to cover her freckles but avoid her scars because she thinks they make her more intimidating."

Please, please, please don't do this. To answer your question; not okay.

I have written a post somewhat about this kind of thing. I really dislike playing with ableism in this way. Portraying scars as "intimidating" on an already dicey character... just no.

To pull this off in a way that's not offensive, you would have to research disfiguremisia in and out. It would need active commentary and a lot of teaching-the-reader-why-this-is-bad, and if you have to ask if it's okay, then you just aren't ready for it. And that's fine! You don't have to write a scenario based on heavy disfiguremisia, so don't. Remember, it's not her acting a certain way, it's you writing her to act a certain way.

I don't want you to take this personally, but please just don't write this. Not like this, at least.

For the "fitting in" part, I addressed it in the post linked above; I don't think that I have anything to add that wasn't included there.

For Mortimer, the best I can do right now is give you a bunch of links that will hopefully be helpful to you. This is just way beyond my answering capabilities and we don't have any mods who are amputees at the moment, so you're at the mercy of follower input for the most part. But;

Post of posts about arm prosthetics

Our general amputee tag

@cy-cyborg 's account, xe posts great writing advice, often regarding prosthetics. I believe that ze accepts asks as well.

For the rest of the questions;

"Currently all of my visible facial and limb differences are due to injury [...] Do I change/add something to these four so it's less All Injuries?

I would say yes! Some of the tropes that you're working if are Not Great, so adding a few additional characters that don't fall into them will help a lot. Try having some characters with similar disabilities that don't tick the issue-causing boxes. Throw someone with a facial difference that doesn't commit any kind of mass murder in there.

"I mentioned before Mortimer and Morticia trying to hide their differences for different reasons. [...] If it's not appropriate to hide them for practical purposes, do I have people react as if they had hidden them or is that erasure?"

In real life they would probably be recognized by it, though I need to say that there is absolutely a part of the population who just Doesn't Notice. People can absolutely be oblivious, especially if the lack of limb is hidden by clothes. Particularly if there are a lot of things going on.

That said, if whoever seen them has noticed, then they would look for that. That's just the logical outcome. But I don't think an eyepatch helps much to hide the actual disability, they would still assume that the person with a bionic eye and the eyepatch-wearing person are probably the same.

You can potentially avoid it by making a large chunk of the population disabled, lol. "Girl without an eye" isn't very helpful information to hunt someone by when there's dozens of people with that description in the city.

For the end, I'm sorry that some parts of it might have come off as Not the Most Encouraging (the Morticia part...), please remember that I'm just criticizing the tropes and implications. I can kind of tell that whatever the source material is, it is way worse about its treatment of disability/facial difference, so I would consider it an improvement nonetheless. Still, it could be better. I hope that the above links and answers will help you with your project.

If any followers are familiar with the topics discussed here, you can leave a reply or reblog with your suggestions. Remember to be constructive.

I hope this helps!

Mod Sasza

Hey! Mod Patch hopping in here to talk a bit about Autumn. I think that you’re aware of the tropes this could fall into is a good first step.

First of all, you mention Autumn is missing some fingers and has classical EDS. Both of these could make using a manual wheelchair more difficult. Is the wheelchair in question manual? If it is perhaps consider adding a power assist (perhaps like a fantasy version of a smart drive.

I’m not too concerned about him being “pure” because you mention that they are 1) working with other “immoral” folks. My suggestion would be to try and lean into the selfish and jaded parts of the character. Show his motivations aren't exclusively disability-related. I am a bit concerned about his execution. I understand that you might not be able to change that plot point but can you have other characters who use mobility aids and survive longer? They don’t have to be as major in the story.

mod Patch

#mod sasza #face difference #long post #writing reference #writing advice #mod patch #wheelchairs #tropes #mysterious disability

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nepentheisms · 8 months

Text

Volume 13 - Elendira's number, let's gooooo!

So I was pondering the significance of Livio's big throwdown fight being against Elendira, and it hit me once I looked at it in terms of their abilities: Elendira's weapon is nails; Livio's power is regeneration. This is the Crucifixion battling against the Resurrection - a very Christian metaphor being used to illustrate the conflict of ideas between Knives and Vash. Elendira acts to help carry out Knives' condemnation of humanity; she brings death and visions of death in the wake of Knives' crusade to punish those he sees as sinners. Livio, in contrast, is aligned with Vash's mission to save humanity; he's an agent for Vash's message of redemption and life persevering.

To delve into Christian soteriology for a bit, the significance of the crucifixion in the New Testament is that it is the act of Jesus taking on the punishment for all of humanity's sins. "The wages of sin is death," as Romans 6:23 says, so Jesus dies, but then Jesus rises again to complete the path to humanity's reconciliation with God. The idea is that in becoming followers of Christ, Christians spiritually share in the experience of crucifixion, death, and resurrection with Jesus. To love Jesus is to be changed as though one were raised from the dead. The passage below from Paul's letter to the Romans is an example of that perspective.

Romans 6:4-6 (NRSV):

(4) Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (6) We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

It's very appropriate that Paul's words get brought up here, because I think Livio can be seen as something of a Paul figure. He's a powerful member of a religious order that opposes the followers of the Christ figure, he plays a big role in the death of a "disciple," and he undergoes an intense experience that changes him into one of the most devoted followers of the Christ figure. And the stuff Paul wrote about being crucified with Christ? Livio sure went through a crucifixion alright.

With all that said, when we bring Razlo into the equation, things get really interesting and a bit subversive when viewed through the lens of Paul's teachings in the Christian Bible. In stories that are more straightforwardly Christian in their messaging, a character like Razlo - a personality who acts as someone's darker half- would typically be treated as a force of evil to be overcome. This represents how the pre-salvation self is supposed to die so that a more Christ-like nature can take its place.

In Livio's case, however, Razlo is not extinguished after Livio chooses to live by Wolfwood's and Vash's example. Instead of being framed as the more sinful aspect of Livio that needed to be purified out of him, Razlo is portrayed as a powerful asset in preserving Livio's life, and that's something that really resonated with me - the way that Livio didn't need to erase his darker half but instead learned to work in harmony with it. In doing so, he found wholeness.

#trigunbookclub #trigun #trigun maximum #elendira the crimsonnail #livio the double fang #religion mention #christianity mention #trigun book club sure has been an exercise in dusting off my old bible knowledge #this is the most I've thought about christianity and the bible in a long time lol #Guns&God meta

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astridthevalkyrie · 1 month

Text

so idk how mha is gonna end but obviously the moral of the story we’re going for here is that everyone deserves to be saved and heroism is about saving people no matter what. that’s great! i’m guessing some or all of the league is going to survive and be put into some kind of rehabilitation center (toga and spinner seem the most likely to me for now but who knows). and i’m fine with that i like the overall message of it.

but how are they going to deal with the fallout from the league’s victims? i get the feeling that they’re not, or it’ll be a one-off like “some ppl were upset we didn’t jail or kill the villains but the heroes calmed them down” or something like that. i mean. whoever in the LOV it is would have to show remorse eventually, for one thing, for them to be any different than the corrupt hero system. but even then, all the families of whoever machia trampled on during the war arc, are they just gonna be cool with this? mind you I don’t think that anyone in the LOV should be killed or jailed rather than rehabilitated, but i wonder if the show is going to bring up that anyone who dabi or toga killed won’t get a second chance. they won’t get rehabilitated, they’re just gone. how are their families and friends going to deal with what society deems as an appropriate punishment for them?

i think this message also could’ve been conveyed better if we had more prominent “corrupt” heroes aside from endeavor and hawks. the top ten minus them and the irrelevant guy who retired after the war arc are all portrayed narratively as good people. iida’s brother is attacked by stain for no real reason at all aside from not being all might. all might’s heroism ends up being bad for society overall yeah, but so much of that is because of who toshinori is as a person rather than hero society (which does play a part but if toshinori just hadn’t pushed himself to be the best and number one savior for everyone there wasn’t necessarily any society forcing him to until after he’d already showed them he could do it).

PLUS the existence of afo offsets this message. everyone can be saved…..besides the real super evil people?? if, and I’m not saying they do, shigaraki and afo had the same kill count, is the lack of a sad childhood the only thing that makes afo beyond redemption? i mean he might not be gone gone if he’s still inside shigaraki’s mind or whatever, but that doesn’t change the fact that the heroes were trying to kill him too. narratively, why was all might in the right for killing him all those years ago when hawks was in the wrong for killing twice? because twice was kinder? because twice was neurodivergent??

mha also a little bit contradicts itself because. hero society is exposed post war arc. civilians have every right to be mad that their current number one is an abuser and that the heroes failed and couldn’t protect them. but theeeen, we have ochako’s speech in which she yells at scared civilians that “the heroes are the ones who are getting dirty!” which is like. yeah. they are. but during and post the war arc civilians also very much died. i feel for izuku but at first glance if someone promised you a safe haven from being attacked and then said oh never mind we’re actually going to bring the one guy shigaraki can absolutely track and hunt down here because he’s tired of fighting, getting upset with that is not totally unreasonable.

and I get that civilians are supposed to get mad at heroes for being corrupt, but not for failing, because heroes should never have been put up on such a high pedestal. they should be seen as humans who are as fallible as everyone else. that doesn’t change the fact the average innocent person would be rightfully scared, because it’s not just the heroes who are getting dirty. people are getting attacked. the heroes are not saving everyone. they shouldn’t have to and there’s no way they realistically can, but picking and choosing which aspects of hero society people are allowed to criticize feels…meh. if there’s gonna be fallout, fallout that endeavor and hawks if not the rest deserve, there should be proper fallout.

i don’t think the UA kids should be treated as full-fledged heroes because they’re not, but their age should not be the one thing that makes them better than the current heroes. they’re liable to the same mistakes and the same fallings. or they would be had they not all been portrayed from the beginning as one big happy hopeful crowd who just wanna save the day! there was opportunity to show who was in it for the right and wrong reasons and somehow ochako who has been so poorly written for several seasons actually had the most relevant arc (besides bakugo) about being in the hero business for the right reasons. ochako should have interned with hawks ochako should have interned with hawks ochako should have interned with there should’ve been more students in it for the glory, for the money, for the fame, but even monoma from class b and mineta are apparently true heroes! is being a high schooler all it takes??

anyway this is all jumbled and a mess but mha should’ve made hero society far more corrupt to justify its dismantling is my point. right now we’re getting a vibe of “the heroes are just as bad as the villains if they don’t save them too” and that’s just like. objectively not true. if hawks was supposed to be an assassin for hire for the hero commission, we should’ve seen him kill people aside from the guy who could’ve turned the tides of the war, at the very least actually kill best jeanist to finish his mission. if toga wanted to preach about how the heroes are just as bad because they killed jin, it falls flat when she’s on machia’s back stomping on people and then killing an old lady to talk to ochako. the heroes should try to save everyone including the villains because that’s what heroism is, but they are not equally as bad as the villains for trying to stop the villains.

the hero commission in general is just like afo, a vague villain we can blame so that we don’t have to blame the underlings. if people discriminate against animal quirks we should’ve seen it way earlier with shoji and tsu and tokoyami, maybe really expanded on it once mirko and hawks and even the dog cop were introduced. if sooo many heroes were in this for the wrong reasons, where are they? the current “failings” of the hero system are all might, endeavor, hawks, lady nagant and bakugo. everyone else is fine! there was a chance to show that someone like mount lady isn’t a real hero because she only cares about fame. there was a chance to show that aizawa is a good hero compared to others because he doesn’t try and seek glory. but these points are only halfway done and then kinda left there.

#mha manga spoilers #mha #anti mha #<- not really but tagging it in case #mha critical

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mbtiblogfun · 1 year

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"The INFP Archetypes"

What makes INFPs different from each other? Well there are many factors. Obviously not all INFPs are the same, and other parts of typology like enneagram, ivs, and socionics do affect this. Some INFPs are also more in tune with their weaker functions (Si and Te) than others. Like the other types, INFPs also have different "archetypes" that are often seen as "general representations" of them. Obviously because mbti is so nuanced and complex, don't fret if you don't identify with any of these! They're very simplified, so not relating doesn’t mean you're not an INFP!

So now let's get into some of the most notable archetypes

1. The Dreamer

The most notable INFP archetype, one could call it "the INFP poster child." The dreamer is a pure, innocent, curious, sensitive, and idealistic INFP. The dreamer looks at the world with wide, starry-eyes, and wears their heart on their sleeve. Usually the dreamer is also very romantic poetic, and/or artistic, and they have a wild imagination. The dreamer sees the good in everyone and might often merge with/be present in tropes like the manic pixie dream girl, or the soft boy. They have a tendency to be portrayed as mysterious or misunderstood.

Examples of the dreamer: Belle (Beauty & the Beast), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Amelie, Juliet (Romeo & Juliet), Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables), and Celine (Before Trilogy)

2. The Mediator

The mediator shares the same traits as the dreamer (pure, sensitive, kind-hearted, etc.) but plays a different role in the story. Typically the dreamers are protagonists, while mediators usually have secondary roles. The mediator often acts as a voice of reason, to keep the protagonist in touch with their humanity or to just listen whenever someone needs to let it all out. The mediator is typically very quirky and non-conformist. The mediator is empathetic and usually soften-spoken, but they're not afraid to stand up for others or what they believe in.

Examples of the mediator: Silvermist (Tinkerbell), Mantis (MCU), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter), Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury (Sailor Moon), and Lucy Pevensie (Narnia)

3. The Seeker

The seeker, once again, shares the same traits as the other two but has an emphasis on curiosity and imagination. The seeker is not afraid to ponder life's deeper, more complex questions.

As said by @dragonflymage, the seeker often asks themselves questions like

Why do I exist?

Who am I really inside?

How do I fit?

Where do I belong?

They also go on to add this explanation: "A seeker, continuously looking for answers that we never may find, but that we must keep searching for anyway. "

(If you wanna read more from her post I've reblogged it on my page) While they search for these answers, the seeker oftentimes will go on a "hero's journey" in hopes of finding the answer along their quest

Examples of the seeker: Merlin (BBC), Newt Scamander (Fantastic Beasts/HP), Luke Skywalker (Star Wars), Edward Scissorhands, and Frodo (LOTR)

4. The Emotional Villain

As you can see this one is a complete 180 compared to the other three lol. This pattern doesn't exactly have a name, so I just made one up.

Pretty much all INFP villains I've seen are driven by their emotions. Afterall, Fi is our dominant function. The emotional villain is driven by personal reasons and experiences, they're not just evil for the sake of being evil. Typically the emotional villain is very moody, disturbed, and/or unstable. They are usually the direct opposite of their other INFP counterparts: they are selfish, ruthless, and blood-hungry.

Examples of the emotional villain: Wanda Maximoff (MCU), Joker (2019 ver), and Kylo Ren (Star Wars).

5. The Angsty Teen

Another really common portrayal of INFPs in media is the angsty teen. This archetype is pretty self explanatory, an angsty hormonal teenager. The angsty teen often struggles with social anxiety, and/other another mental illness. They also might have trust issues, be really moody, or hurting from unrequited love or some other trauma. The angsty teen often copes through artistic means, like poetry or painting.

I feel the feelings on this archetype are very divided. While a lot of people don't like having that image as a representation of their type, some argue that it's a realistic portrayal of the darker side of being an INFP. I personally feel like the angsty teen represents my inner conflicts, while the dreamer, mediator, and seeker represent my outward behavior most of the time. What are your thoughts?

Examples of the angsty teen: Shinji Ikari (Evangelion), Will Byers (Stranger Things), Cassie Ainsworth (Skins), Kou Mabuchi (Blue Spring Ride), Violet Parr (The Incredibles), Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson), Charlie Kelmeckis (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Elio Perlman (Call Me By Your Name), Todd Anderson (Dead Poets Society), Fischl (Genshin Impact), Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice) and Cry Baby (K-12)

There's plenty more archetypes but I thought I'd just focus on these 5. Also remember that these archetypes don't represent all INFPs as a whole, they’re just like "INFPs in a nutshell."

What are your thoughts? Which archetypes do you relate to? Which one's your favorite? Which one's your least favorite?

#infp personality #infp #mbti types #mbti personalities #mbti #myers briggs #fictionalinfps #fiction #media #mbtiblogfun #infp archetypes #infp relatable #infp media

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heycasper22 · 15 days

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Long Acotar theory (Elain)

Spoilers all SJM books.

Elain is possessed.

The more I re-read I truly see Elaine being possessed by Koschei, but I do not however, think that is where he intends to stay.

I think Koschei wants to inhabit Azriel.

We hear a little in CC about Hunt's body being 'equipped' to deal with his lightning, or as we later find out Apollion's Helfire.

Bryce feels like overcooked meat in HOSAB at one point after being hit with Hunt's power, her body cannot handle it the way Hunt's can.

Is Azriel 'equipped' to hold Koschei?

Is this the only way Koschei may escape his Lake prison? To have a body able to hold him long-term?

I feel like a lot of things would make sense if Azriel were another child of Apollion, perhaps even biologically unlike Hunt. There has been a mention in the other 2 series of there being a specific day in which the veil between worlds is thinnest.

Samhuinn in TOG

Death's Day in CC

Could Starfall be something similar?

If so, would it be possible for Apollion to have physically been with Azriels mother, in order to conceive him? He did touch Bryce on Death's day in CC, but that was in a dream.

It would however make sense of the different ways in which Cassian and Azriel were treated when they were young. They are both bastards, Azriel apparently being a local Lords bastard.

Cassian however was thrown into a camp like garbage when he could walk. Azriel on the other hand was contained.

Azriel's mother was a servant of this local Lord, was he perhaps the only male in the area that people would have believed could have had access to her, to make her with child? Perhaps, but let's imagine he knew that wasn't the case..

With the Illyrians being described as 'backward' and their superstitious culture, that we see when Nesta is being questioned about her cycle and burying weapons, would it be fair to think that these two bastard boys where treated so differently because this local Lord and his wife thought not to imprison Azriel out of cruelty (which of course it is) but to 'protect' everyone else?

Rhys notes his half brothers had not been forthcoming about Azriel's time with them when they'd met.

We do learn in Cresent City that Dragonfire is one of the only things that can harm a Prince of Hel.

Azriel being burned when he was a boy was again just portrayed as a evil mindless cruelty, but again if we look through the lens of his 'family' seeing him as sort of Demon, could they have actually thought of fire as way to kill him?

Bryce actually thinks of Azriel as a Demon when they first meet, because she was trying to get to Hel, true, but a possible nod to parentage as I believe Apollion is the only Prince we've seen so far with leathery wings.

If Apollion where to reproduce in the more physical sense might it be necessary for him to be with someone who might safely bare a child with wings, a horrid thought definitely, but with the way that the creation of Hunt is revealed in HOFAS, I don't think it likely that Azriels mother would have been forced or 'ill used' is the phrase Aidas uses, infact Apollion looks at Aidas with compassion he speaks of Theia, perhaps Apollion knows more of being in love than we've yet to see.

So, let's say Hunt got Apollion's Helfire and a body equipped to deal with it, perhaps Azriel got Apollion's Shadows/Darkness and a body equipped to deal with that.

Koschei is never described to us as having a true physical form, Cassian says they 'can make out nothing of him beyond the shadows of his form.'

Perhaps if the Weaver was tricked into diminishing her power, Koschei was outsmarted out of a body that could truly hold him?

It does remind me a lot of Harry Potter, with Voldemort probably being based off the myth of Koschei the deathless, Koschei removes his soul from himself and places it somewhere else and therefor he cannot be killed, in HP these were the horcruxes and Voldemort had 7 of them.

He also inhabitanted the bodies of snakes, until he happened upon a wizard, Quirrel, whom posseses but is still ill equipped to hold him, he required a true body.

Could this be what is happening to Elain?

Elain and Nesta had been put into the cauldron and Made High Fae, when Feyre returns from the spring court in Acowar, she goes to see her sisters, there's mentions of the connecting suite they have, and all the windows in there, Elain is stood by the window.

And the words: empty, hollow, void, vacancy and shell are used all in quite a small passage.

Of course they could easily be used to describe how Feyre perceives Elain coping, or not coping with her trauma.

But could they also be hints at what is happening at the window?

All 3 of SJMs series mention some sort of 'wind talking' usually the wind whispers things to people. Could this be literal? Vassa mentions Koschei planting words in courts through 'whispers on the wind'

Could the wind have been whispering to Elain by the window? Filling her with Koscheis sinister presence?

Maybe it has something to do with unknown bargain made by the Archeron Father for Vassa's temporary freedom. Possibly something that his bloodline could inherit after his death, unbeknownst to him. Rhys notes the spell on Vassa seems woven into her very blood. Perhaps the Acheron Father bargained to be a host of some sort, or something as open-ended just helping Koschei to get off his Lake. Magical bargains have to be quite specific, he may not have known this.

Of the three sisters though, Feyre is a daemati with a solid mental shield.

Nesta, was resistant to magic and Tamlin's glamour when she was human, so I'd say he'd have no chance with her.

But Elain... Feyre says, "she had no mental shields, no barriers."

Easier to inflitrate, possibly posses.

Then take a look at Elain's power 'a seer' Azriel says.

I don't believe she is, Elain begins to talk in these 'half riddles' as Nesta calls them weeks after coming out of the cauldron. It's actually specified that it started after Elain was found to have left her room, the morning after Nesta had left her alone for the longest time after being Made. She was found in front of the window in the HoW private library.

So far, most of Elain's visions have been Koschei related, Vassa the Firebird, his onyx box, and ones of Briallyn who was working with Koschei. Even Hyberns twin Ravens made mention of speaking to Briallyn.

They all tie back to Koschei.

Could the heartbeat Elain is hearing 'through the stone' while she sleeps, not actually be a heart at all, but something just as vital? A soul perhaps? In a stone box?

Again to go back to Harry Potter. Harry was a horcrux, a portion of Voldemorts soul was inside him and he could see for a time, when his mind was vulnerable into Voldemorts mind. It was unintentional at first, but later used against Harry by planting things in his mind. Ginny is also possessed by a horcrux and does things she doesn't remember doing.

This could be similar, I in no way believe that Elain is evil, perhaps being manipulated while she is vulnerable, from her trauma or while she's sleeping like HP, until Koschei is really able to sink his claws into her. We know SJM says that Elain has 'different kind of strength'

Feyre says this too in ACOWAR, "a different sort of strength, a better strength"

Elain has fight in her. Not a blade weilding warrior strength but maybe a strength to keep fighting something internally, something trying to control her, the strength to not give up.

There's an interview in ACOFAS in which SJM says:

"Elain's now going to have dreams about ripping ivy out and the ivy creeping through the windows to strangle her at night, because let me tell you that ivy does not want to go"

With this theory I find the wording of the ivy creeping in through the window rather interesting.

It's also quite like how Feyre describes her old bedroom in the Spring Court in ACOWAR. She says the bedroom has become a tomb.

What if Elain's own mind has become like a tomb for her, and it is there that she is 'ripping at the ivy' trying to get free? Using her considerable 'different' kind of strength to keep going, keep fighting.

Seer's powers can be useful to authors as a plot device, but they can also become a bit of a problem and authors find a way to temper their power. Sometimes using this 'talking in riddles' to make it interesting for readers, without actually revealing too much. Trelawny does this in HP, she also doesn't even realise she's making actual prophecies. Or take Alice in Twilight, it's a great power, but there comes a point in a story where it becomes a problem having a character that can see any outcome. So voilà she can't 'see' the werewolves!

I think with Elain, it's possible she just isn't a seer.

And Luicien, not Azriel, was the one who right about her, she needs sunshine. Sunshine to drive out the darkness.

Or perhaps Sunfire?

I like to think Luicien will have Sunfire powers. We've had literally every other kind of fire there is. Normal fire, Shadow fire, Dragonfire, Helfire, Moonfire, Starfire...and as Bryce said, the sun is a star.

Briallyn does make that weird comment to Nesta in ACOSF about Eris:

"His fire wouldn’t have withstood Koschei’s lake, I don’t think."

To me that really says there's someone out with with fire that can withstand it. And That someone is surely Lucien, perhaps mixing his Autumn Court power with his Day Court power.

He could have the type of power to stand up to Koschei, or simply just spending time with Elain would lead him to figure out something is wrong.

Which would make Elain's reluctance to entertain him one bit, explainable. (Of course not the only explanation possible)

SJM did after all write a scene with Aelin possessed in EoS, and the only thing able to stop her was her Mate.

Lucien's willingness to endanger himself by venturing out to help the person Elain is seeing in her 'visions' so that they were not happening to her in vain, whilst giving her space seems far more Mate like to me, than just pointing out an apparent power that she has then doing nothing about it.

I do hope Luicen has help from the Valkyries too.

Emyrs, resident story-keeper of TOG apparently told tales of "shield maidens and enchanted animals and cunning sorcerers"

Sounds very much like the Valkyries, and Koschei..

And we know Nesta would without a doubt come to Elain's aid if needed.

Koschei also enables people with power of winnowing, he winnows Cassian and Briallyn in ACOSF, without leaving his lake.

Have we been seeing Elain use this power? She may be powerful enough to winnow in her own right but she was untrained the time she stepped out of a shadow to kill the King of Hybern. She's mentioned to have become quite stealthy in the time since. People don't hear her approach, things like that.

Could Koschei have also used HIS power to find the Suriel?

I find it very interesting that when Elain does this for Feyre in ACOWAR, the following conversation between Feyre and the Suriel makes mention of the Suriel not expecting to see Elain's doe eyes peering at him from across the world, and immediately following, there's talk of the Bone Carver, and how the Suriel CANNOT see him? Because he is not of this world. It would follow suit then that the Suriel also could not see Koschei, even if it was his power used through Elain to find him?

Perhaps Koschei needs a body that is not entirely of this world, and Azriel has been described as other, different.

If Koschei has possessed Elain, he could be using her to get vital information on the IC, and Nesta for Briallyn, as well as using her to pursue Azriel.

She might be perhaps forced to see him, once a month when she's supposedly visiting her father's grave alone? Cassian also notes he doesn't quite believe her having to be up early to tend to an elderly faeries garden, but this was after they'd had a monthly court dinner and much wine was consumed... What was discussed? Did someone spill something important?

Something that also nagged at me but could be me reading too much into it is, the line where Briallyn tells Nesta her spies (plural) have told her who Nesta's friends are, 'The half-breed and the broken Illyrian'

True, Bellius does refer to Gwyn and Emerie similarly later on in the text. But at this point in the story, Gwyn hasn't left the HoW Library in 2 years. No one is going to be able to spy on that house from the outside without someone finding out. I doubt Emerie would have chatted with Bellius about her friendship with Nesta and Gwyn, or Gwyn's race. So perhaps a spy in the library that knows Gwyn and knows she's become friendly with Nesta?

Elain however was present, when Cassian was telling the rest of the IC about about Nesta becoming a Valkyrie, it would make sense to mention Gwyn and Emerie, maybe a few details about them? Possible stretch but still stood out to me, bolstered a little by Briallyn "There are others in your court as delusional as you are. They’ll get it for me one way or another, with the right incentive." Could this mean Elain? She would be the only one capable of summoning the trove to her I think?

There's also the wood carving of a rose Nesta places on the mantle, half hidden in shadow next to a female holding the moon, perhaps the mother.

Hinting at Elain spying on Nesta? Nesta does have a connection with the mother and we can make a connection between her fire and the moon fire wielded by Aelin in EoS, while possessed by Deanna.

I think a heartbreaking theme of Elain's storyline could be quite like the line where she says to Lucien:

"No one ever does. No one ever looked - not really." "He did. He saw me. He will not now."

She's refering to Grayson here but I think it will become true of everyone and it will be so sad, until Lucien sees what's happening, he doesn't know her at all yet, but they are mates and perhaps if he had the opportunity to really investigate what was on the other side of that mating bond without Elain jumping up, he could see what was potentially lurking in her.

People see what they want or expect to see with Elain, Rhys even states 'Elain is Elain.'

On my rereads I found it interesting how when reading ToD, specifically about Duva my mind compared her a lot to Elain.

Duva is lovely, gentle, kind, feminine, unthreatening, both loved the most by their fathers. But always watching.

She also had a brand new arranged marriage with a man who did not know her well enough to realise something was amiss.

Perhaps the real 'lightsinger' isn't a lightsinger at all, but is still a 'lovely, ethereal being who will lure you, appearing as friendly faces when you are lost. Only when you’re in their arms will you see their true faces, and they aren’t fair at all.'

Maybe Elain is luring Azriel, because he is lost now, both his brothers have their mates and he is adrift.

And when she finally gets a hold of him, it won't be Elain's grasp he is in, but Koschei's.

Interestingly, when Duva was healed by Yrene in ToD the Valg that was possessing her left her body in the form of a black shadow or mist coming out of her mouth.

Perhaps we could have seen something similar had Rhys not interrupted Elain and Az's near kiss at solstice in his BC, we know his shadows skittered back as she sucked in a breath. Just a thought.

Elain's solstice gifts to Az are interesting too. Especially because they include a powder that SJM makes a point of reminding us he hasn't actually taken it.

In theory it could be anything. Something incapacitating perhaps? And again SJM having actually written about a Mate pulling another out of possession it gives the earplugs an interesting slant.

It's possible however that there might something that is aware however primal, that is aware of the presence in Elain.

The Mask.

Its makes sense to think that Nesta's relationship with her sisters completely healed, it probably isn't, which is why the silver flame in Nesta's eyes flared in HOFAS. But flaring immediately after Elain's name is mentioned whilst wearing a death mask...

Maybe the mask has an awareness of such things, a deathless sorcerer might be an affront to such an powerful item.

I think it's so much more likely that Elain will have Life powers. Nesta took Death it makes sense for Elain to be gifted Life, probably in the form of earth magic, I could see her using it to bring the bog of Oorid back to it's former glory, before it died when Fionn was Killed.

As far as ships go I'm firmly Gwynriel and Elucien.

And if Azriel was a son of Apollion I think it would fit quite nicely in the way SJM likes to mirror mates/endgame pairings.

Az and Gwyn would fit a very interesting

'Holy/Unholy' vibe, a part Prince of Hel and a Priestess.

And potentially Earth goddess and Sun god magic, for Elain and Lucien.

Very Solas and Cthona.

If this is a route that SJM takes the next book it also kind of undos the "four books of build up" that Elain and Az apparently have, as Elain would have been stripped of choice, and Azriel manipulated.

I want to state that I in no way WANT Elain to have been struggling with something nobody even notices this whole time, especially with the violation she's already been through, but I think a storyline like this could really speak to the gift we already know for a fact she does have:

"To look at the hardness of the world and choose, over and over, to love, to be kind. She had been always so full of light."

#acotar #acosf #elain archeron #pro elucien #azriel shadowsinger #lucien vanserra #pro gwynriel #acotar theory #anti elriel

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jedi-enthusiast · 9 months

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Did you ever see that trailer for that SWTOR expansion Legacy of the Sith? It was one of the most anti-Jedi things I have ever seen in my life and painted them as being no better than then Sith, and that made me so mad!

No, I haven't seen it and---at this point---I'm going with the "canon is what I decide, fuck you Disney" way of consuming any new Star Wars media.

George Lucas created Star Wars and the Jedi, and he was very fucking clear that the Jedi were the good guys---so I know that, above all else, I'm right when I say that the Jedi were good. I know that, whatever anyone else says, the Jedi were moral and good and they were doing their best in a shitty situation where they just could not win.

Which means that all of the other stuff that's coming out where people are leaning into the edgy "everyone's actually evil, and there's no good in the world, and good guys can never actually be good because who would actually ever be selfless and kind????" narrative that's, for some reason, gotten so popular nowadays---I'm either ignoring it or taking it with copious amounts of salt.

That Legacy of the Sith expansion? Ignoring it.

Acolyte? I might just watch it so I can hate on it, but honestly I'll probably just ignore it.

The Ahsoka show? I'll watch it, but my expectations are very low.

Etc. Etc.

People can say whatever they want about my doing this, but honestly---thanks to Disney handing over a vast amount of creative control to people who don't actually give a fuck about Star Wars and people like Filoni, who's now just pulling shit out of his ass to lift up his OCs--- with the newer stories and timelines and shit, you almost have to make up your own reasons for why things are happening/why certain characters are doing/saying things.

Take Bo-Katan for example and how the writers are portraying her in the Mandalorian.

----------

They're completely ignoring the fact that she was a member of Death Watch (a violent terrorist organization), that she had a hand in her sister's death (since she did help Maul alongside Visla, even though she was vocal about not wanting to/thinking it was a bad idea), or that she even fucking had a sister.

So now, since all of that is happening, you have to figure out for yourself why, in-universe, Bo-Katan is ignoring all of that---and that's obviously going to be colored by whether you like her or not.

Is she ignoring that she was a member of Death Watch because she thinks it doesn't matter/wasn't a big deal/wasn't bad? Or is she doing it because she can't face the guilt she feels over having been apart of it?

Is she ignoring that she had a hand in her sister's death because she doesn't really think she was responsible, since she vocally didn't support helping Maul? Or, again, is it out of guilt?

Is she not mentioning Satine because she wants to erase the fact that Mandalore was successfully peaceful for decades under Satine's rule until she [Bo-Katan] fucked it up and basically kicked off the whole "Mandalore basically dying/hanging on by a thread" thing, so she doesn't want anyone to know that? Or is it because she's still filled with so much grief and guilt that mentioning Satine is literally painful for her?

You have to make those assumptions and those decisions, because the writers just don't give a fuck anymore.

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So, with that in mind, everything that George Lucas didn't have a hand in, especially regarding the Jedi? I'm taking it as a suggestion, and a suggestion only.

#star wars #sw prequels #the clone wars #the mandalorian #george lucas #bo katan kryze #satine kryze #darth maul #pro jedi #pro jedi order #in defense of the jedi

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antianakin · 5 months

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what are your opinions on the sequels? specifically how luke (and his new jedi order) is portrayed. but also like just the jedi stuff in general, the training and everyone becoming force ghosts and somehow palpatine

Oh gosh, it has been a MINUTE since I've even watched the Sequels. I'm planning on rewatching them sometime early next year for Reasons, but for both episodes 8 and 9, it'll be the first time I've seen them since I saw them in the theaters. I MIGHT have seen episode 7 after its theater release, but not often. I can definitely say I haven't watched a single one of them since 2019 lol.

All of that to say, I don't remember them super well. I liked episode 7, but didn't care AT ALL for TLJ and was ho hum on TROS. My overall opinion is that it's too bad these characters didn't have anyone writing for them who seemed to actually CARE about them at any point and that nobody bothered to create a fucking blueprint for the entire trilogy and then stick to it. Say what you will about the execution of the Prequels, but Lucas had a damn vision in mind and a clear end goal for the story and the characters and he STUCK TO IT. You can go back to those films and rewatch them and find that story and see the arc he was trying to take the characters on. You may not LIKE what he chose to do or feel like it worked very well, but it's clearly THERE. The same cannot be said for the Sequels. The characters change personalities in basically every film, the primary motivations and intended end goals for them are never consistent, the relationships aren't built up well, and the theme and message of the Sequels is so muddied with all of these changes that they may as well not exist.

All of that is very broad, though, and doesn't touch much on your specific question about the Jedi and Luke and how they were portrayed in the Sequels. To be honest, I don't remember it very well, and when I saw these films, I was a pretty casual Star Wars fan who was still what I would now consider Jedi critical. I didn't hate them by any means, but I had absorbed the fandom osmosis of the Jedi having been too repressive/old-fashioned and how they caused their own doom. So I haven't watched them from a more pro Jedi lens yet in order to comment on it with any level of authority.

What I DO remember feeling was that making Luke bitter was a bad choice. There's undoing a character a little in order to allow them to develop somewhere, and then there's complete and utter character assassination and TLJ's characterization of Luke falls closer to the latter for me. The biggest thing anyone remembers about Luke is that he chose not to kill Anakin in ROTJ. That's his big climactic triumph. He goes on an entire journey towards understanding Anakin and having to accept that Anakin was a person making evil choices so that he could believe in Anakin's ability to be BETTER. That's kind-of the core of Luke's WHOLE JOURNEY. So I don't really get the entire concept of Luke reacting so violently to "feeling some darkness" in his teenaged nephew. He's already sort-of worked through that particular flaw of his and overcome it, why is he suddenly reacting this way? What's the point of that? And why would Luke just completely lose himself to cynicism and bitterness in the aftermath of that kind of failure? What was the point of leaving a piece of map behind or whatever? None of it really seems to make any sense to me and you can just FEEL Rian Johnson sort-of tossing things in the trash as he wrote this so that he could do his own thing.

All of that being said, what I've seen other people comment on is that there's a lot of shit Luke says in TLJ that are pretty anti-Jedi, but that the whole point is that Luke is wrong. Luke is succumbing to despair and so he feels like he's defeated and there's no point to anything and he's WRONG. The movie does pretty strongly emphasize that he's WRONG to feel this way and act like this. So I think a lot of people take what Luke says in this film sort-of at face value without taking into account that context that you're not SUPPOSED to agree with him any more than Rey does. I'm interested to see how I feel about it when I do end up rewatching them in a few months, but it rings relatively true to what I can remember.

It doesn't seem wrong that Luke and Leia could end up being able to ghost, it doesn't make any sense that Han can ghost but we all know that that happened specifically because Carrie Fisher died mid-filming and they had to figure out how to work around that, so I'm willing to give a little bit of slack to TROS for that exact reason.

I don't remember much training even HAPPENING on screen. I remember Luke barely teaching Rey anything at all in the one week she spends with him and Leia sending Rey on an obstacle course at the beginning of TROS. I wish they'd chosen to spend more time really showcasing more of Rey's actual training (or, ya know, FINN training in Force abilities at all), but I don't have any strong feelings about it at this point.

And as for Palpatine, I think everybody knows it was a bad choice to make at this point. It was lazy, it was silly, and it doesn't work. It feels like a direct response to Snoke having been killed off too early and disagreements between the directors and the studio execs about whether Kylo Ren should be a villain or not. It doesn't work and nobody likes it.

So, yeah, my feelings are a little faded at this point because I disliked them enough that when I do my Star Wars marathons, I never include the Sequels in it and I just stop at ROTJ. I feel like that says enough on its own.

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy

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newathens · 3 months

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i totally agree, the relationships between fathers and sons are prolly my fave elements of pjo, but let's not nerf our goddesses ricky!!

i can't even begin to explain how much i loathe rick's depictions of femininity in the series, he will pay for his depictions of aphrodite and hera, two goddesses very feminine in what they represent. he did the entire concept of aphrodite's children so so poorly, he doesn't even try to show us their skillset and shows them sitting out of capture the flag to do their makeup or whatever?? and i like the idea of hera being obsessed with the 'perfect family' ideal she is trying to get the olympians to live up to but the way rick has portrayed it has fallen so short and it is obvious in general fandom reception of hera that it is inherently misogynistic (the amount of times i've seen people call pjo hera a bitch, keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth!!). like hera is so misunderstood, she is one of the only gods to challenge zeus and take action especially since she's in a position to do so with less repercussion than others might receive (with the exception of the rebellion and whatnot), but no!! she is evil stepmother!! bitch who goes after zeus' lovers and children!!

and then you have slightly less feminine goddesses (though i'd argue they're still quite feminine in nature) artemis and athena, the former being a manhating stoic girlboss, how fucking creative rick go girl give us nothing. and what's the deal with artemis kicking out two sapphics from the hunt, like that is so icky to me in so many ways. then there's athena, who rick goes out of his way to show that she is a bad mother and person in general (using the roman myth of medusa on a greek goddess?? boooo, tomato, tomato). rick has the most annoying tendency to find one stereotypical trait about a greek god and just latch onto that for their characterisation and nothing else, you see it with some of the gods but it is so so prevalent in the goddesses. poseidon gets his good moments as a dad and viewed quite favourably in percy's eyes (on another note, the blatant bias in the greek gods and heroes books is laughable but that's another time), apollo gets a whole book series to have a redemption arc (good for him, though), hades gets some good moments too (though it's quite annoying to me seeing the fandom praise him as one of the 'good ones' lmao). zeus... i don't like rick's depiction of him for reasons entirely unrelated lol, but the point is that the gods are allowed to be multifaceted and complex, but the goddesses get their stupid stereotypical traits exacerbated and maybe one or two half-assed moments of something else. it pisses me off so much!!!

(sorry for leaving an essay in your inbox but in my defence you asked for this XD)

when did u send this !!!!! 10/10. no notes

he does this all the time and it’s not just the olympian goddesses either. his recent depiction of nyx was so….. i can’t even adequately form my thoughts on the matter. the characterization of the goddesses in the pjoverse are not given much thought. even when i try to rationalize and analysis it, they still fall short. iris, medea, khione off the top of my head, all fun characters but each have something umm distasteful(?) in their depictions. definitely a part of all three series that deserves more examination

#of course he’s A MAN. what can we expect #i did not see this in my notifs i am sorry if i missed it for too long!

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yuwigqi · 4 months

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As someone who had an abusive parent, (and who had many friends with abusive parents), who I know have the closest, most loving relationship in my life with, I, to some degree, Like Endeavor's existance in the story.

A lot of abusive parents do stop being physically abusive to their kids after a while. Quite often the trigger is the child becoming older and more likely to A. report and be believed, and B. Fight back with a real chance of winning. After this point, now that they cannot physically abuse their children anymore, they might reflect and eventually become aware of how they were abusive, and attempt to apologize and atone. This is a very real thing that does happen on some consistent basis.

So portraying this story as a thing that happens is actually pretty bespoke of an anime.

It also does a decently okay job of not forcing any of the Todoroki kids to forgive him as if they are morally obliged to do so.

I do think they treat Natsuo unfairly though. His stance is completely fair, and I think they could do a better job of pointing that out.

But in my experience, Fuyumi, Natuso, and Shoto are all three very realistic outcomes for children of an abusive parent who is "attempting to atone." Forgiving, unforgiving, and undecided. I've seen all these behaviors in real abused kids.

With that being said, absolutely hating Endeavor and hoping he isn't forgiven is 100% valid, and so is hoping the kids do forgive him. Frankly, no one but no one has any right to tell an abused child how they should act towards their abuser when that decision needs to be made. It's a deeply personal decision to forgive or not forgive, and there's no right answer.

So I actually really like this narrative. But Dabi is another story. Portraying "vengeance" as inherently evil and sadistic against an abused parent isn't fair. But the unanimous "anti-vengeance" stance of nearly all mainstream youth fiction is probably not something that that can be broken down in a single paragraph

#Endeavor #MHA #BNHA #toya todoroki #shoto todoroki #fuyumi todoroki #natsuo todoroki #Dabi #enji todoroki

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rabbiitte · 7 months

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EP7: The misconception of Mew turning “evil”.

Mew didn't turn “evil”. Engaging in manipulation might pose a challenge for someone who has never practiced it before. Mew possessed the ability to manipulate from the outset, yet he often refrained from doing so, often reserving it primarily for his relationship with Top (he exercised manipulation sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously). This explains his adeptness in manipulating Nick, as he skillfully chooses his words and delivery. "Victims"? Mew is fully aware that Nick isn't innocent (what he did was pretty illegal), but Mew doesn't hesitate to tailor his words to Nick's preferences. Throughout, Mew has always been intelligent and has always used that intelligence to achieve his goals, whether academically or romantically.

Similarly, Mew had long held an internal belief in his superiority over Boston (a sentiment reciprocated by Boston), but he finally chose to voice this sentiment in EP7. He had never endorsed Boston's lifestyle and consistently passed judgment on it, allowing his friends to condemn and degrade him (an attitude Boston mirrored by condemning and denigrating Mew).

Indeed, Mew possesses the capacity to consume alcohol but he often refrained due to his low tolerance. This low tolerance translated to a fear of losing control and letting his guard down, actions Mew, who thrives on being "superior" and in control, detests.

He, as seen in EP3 at the pool party, only chose to indulge in alcohol when he knew Top would be taking care of him, given the trust he had in him. That was the first time we saw him drunk. However, maintaining control where it led Mew? Mew probably thinks the answer is "nowhere." Consequently, he opted to deactivate what seemed ineffective. Mew has grown tired of being the one in control, at least when he's with Ray. Mew has resigned himself to not being able to control and change everything.

What has shifted within Mew isn't his core identity. And, of course, from the beginning of the series he has a very clear and marked identity. He still retains his sense of superiority, manipulative tendencies and a strong need for control. He remains a romantic at heart and continues to find solace in books. The change lies in how he assesses people. Mew no longer fully trusts his own judgment and refrains from acting on it. Currently, Mew selectively emphasizes different aspects of his personality based on the situation, like his need for control (notably, around Ray, he still exhibits some other traits of the old Mew). He can turn his need for control (and self-control) on and off depending on the circumstances. With Boston, his desire for control is intensified, while it lessens when interacting with Ray.

This shift arises from Mew's realization that a) trying to change Ray (or Top) is futile, b) he trusts Ray and he longs to escape his emotional turmoil.

In essence, what we witness in Mew's current actions is a previously concealed aspect of his identity. It doesn't represent his entire being, but rather a facet that has existed within him all along, and he now consciously chooses to emphasize it. Control remains an inherent part of his personality, yet he has gained (through negative experiences) the ability to decide when to employ it (quite an important lesson, if you ask me) . Mew hasn't transformed into a malevolent figure; rather, he has allowed his questionable thoughts and inclinations to manifest in his behavior. This doesn't categorize him as a corrupt individual; instead, it portrays him as someone fundamentally good who occasionally commits regrettable actions. The same principle applies to the other characters in the series. Embracing this complexity is the essence of understanding their personas.

More about Mew and his need for control here.

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