#And it applies to most of protagonists so it isn't Kagome specific

[shinidamachu]

Sid, why do you think people think Kagome is “so annoying” and “whiny?” How exactly did she earn this reputation among her (rather dumb) haters.

The world is not kind to 15 years old girls, and what is Kagome, if not the perfect representation of one?

People forgot they can dislike a character just because and then move on. They'd rather grasp at straws to try and justify themselves, that way they can pretend they're being rational about the constant hate they're spreading when, truthfully, they're just being miserable.

Kagome specifically is in even greater disadvantage because her critics are, mostly, people who haven't read the source material and are instead basing their takes on a biased adaptation – which they probably watched ages before developping any critical skills – or people who see her as a threat to their ship and therefore are already prone to hate her.

The first group won't ever bother going out of their way to try and get a better grasp of her character by reading a 558 chapters long manga and the second group won't change their minds either way.

That's why they call her out for using the beads of subjugation even if: it wasn't her idea in the first place, it served to balance her relationship with Inuyasha at the beginning – since he was powerful and violent while she wasn't –, the rosary became a symbol of their bond, it saved Inuyasha a couple of times and he was always more annoyed than hurt by it, not to mention Sunrise blowing it out of proportion compared to the manga.

You never see Inuyasha getting bashed for hitting Shippo every other episode or Sango getting any heat for constantly slapping Miroku, because funnily enough people seem to understand it was just dumb, outdated, slapstick comedy, a courtesy they refuse to extend to Kagome.

That's also the reason they call her “annoying” and “whiny”: Kagome’s most important lesson was that it's okay to have feelings, so naturally they twisted that into a bad thing in order to keep hating on her. It's not about how her character was written, it's about people using of bad faith and deliberately mischaracterizing Kagome to pass their internalized misogyny as valid criticism.

I know part of the issue is that audiences nowadays are under the impression that for a female character to be strong, she can't cry or be feminine, but you don't see anyone hating on Sango even though she does cry and she can be as feminine as Kagome depending on the circunstances and on her mood.

The truth is that Kagome is playing a game she can never win, because the refs have decided they want her to lose before the match even starts.

If she stands up and sets boundaries for herself, she's annoying. If she doesn't, she's a doormat. If she feels jealousy, she's a bitch. If she shows kindness, she's boring. If she fights, she's overpowered. If she doesn't, she's useless. If any other character cries, it's heartbreaking. If she cries, she's whiny.

If she goes back to her own world, she's selfish. If she leaves that world behind to live the life she wants for herself, she's a stupid girl who left her family for a boy. If she does something grand, that's only because she's someone else's reincarnation. If she messes something up, the fault is hers and hers alone. She is, somehow, simultaneously a Mary Sue and a toxic abuser.

I've personally seen people slut shaming her because she got hitted on by Koga. I've personally seen people call her a "pick me" girl. Kagome. A pick me girl. Kagome.

And none of this is fair, because she is the kind of character who does her best to see the good in others, to understand the reasons why they act the way they do and to offer them some grace, but she gets very little of that in return, be it in canon, be it in fandom.

They always hold her up to such an impossible standard, but they completely forget to ask themselves: would the characters I stan be able to match the expectations I set for Kagome? Scratch that: would the characters I stan even be able to deal with things the way Kagome managed to do? Would I? The answer is most likely no, so how about cutting her a slack?

You ask me how did she earn this reputation among her rather dumb haters, my answer is: she didn't. They're just incapable of understanding that if a particular nuanced, well written, female character is not their cup of tea, they can simply ignore her and focus their attention on the characters they do like instead of spreading their baseless, misogynistic takes on the internet.

#I also feel like there's this trend of disliking protagonists in general #But I won't elaborate because this is already longer than I wanted it to be #And it applies to most of protagonists so it isn't Kagome specific #It's a dicussion for another day #Inuyasha #Kagome #Kagome Higurashui #Thank you for the ask anon #Sidmailing

[girlucifer]

hiii! i wanted to do this for the longest time. character comparison time !!! <3 this is for my entertainment. i had fun writing this and that's all that matters :)

lucifer & takumi ichinose [nana]

disclaimer!! takumi is a horrible person!!! and ok, lucifer is too. but i think he's a bit redeemable. takumi is not :) unfortunately he has long hair so he isn't completely shunned by me. anyway - the two present themselves as men who care about their kingdom far too much that they suffocate their princes and princesses in hopes they can keep their gilded paradise as glittering as ever. inside are the skeletons that are tucked away in closets, beating hearts under the floorboards- people have been destroyed to keep the crown upon their heads. this can be applied to early lucifer, as mc changes him for the better later on- but arguably, you can say he needs to be in control at all times as a way to feel self-important- lucifer is pride personified, after all. we see this through multiple instances- obviously, in s1- locking belphegor away in the attic because he does not want to subject his brother to diavolo's wrath but at the same time, he wants to appease diavolo & prove that he can handle any issue that arises. takumi makes reira, the singer of his successful band [where he acts as a bassist] do so much and ensures she's giving her all so that the band can succeed together, despite it destroying her- the two are so obsessed with appearances & the air of being successful that they'll stop at nothing to ensure everyone knows how powerful they are. so we've established they share that pride & desire for control, which sets up how the two also completely delude themselves that what they are doing is for their family, for their kingdom- when in reality, it's all to make their self-proclaimed worthless existence validated- worth SOMETHING! takumi grew up in a horrible environment and felt he must make something out of himself to distance him away from his family & seize the life he feels like he deserves while lucifer had the world at his fingertips but lost it all and feels like he must do whatever he can to prove to himself he is righteous in his actions and that his pride was justified. finally, i chose these two screencaps because it deals with how they find comfort in their lover all the while knowing work is most important [work >>>>> relationships] note lucifer doesn't decide to ditch work to have dinner with mc as a break- he specifically requests mc to take time away from their day to just - - - SIT by him as he completes his work- he clearly values his job and won't neglect it. and takumi is very much a workaholic and only stays with nana k. because she is very understanding that he will always put his work over her. anyway, again, takumi sucks but you know... it's the long hair jesus please stop making the bad guys with long hair . . .

mammon & inuyasha [inuyasha]

okay some of these are like. do i even need to explain. i will obviously. so naturally we can easily compare the two's repressed nature & they have a lot of visible similarities too- white hair & tanner skin & golden eyes & being in love with badass protagonists <3 but i want to focus specifically on Younger Brother Syndrome™ - inuyasha is looked down upon by many demons for his half-breed state but most notably, his older half-brother, sesshomaru. lord sesshomaru is a very well-known demon, living for centuries, traveling the world in hopes to grow to be the strongest demon alive. we see inuyasha & sesshomaru interact and the older brother repeatedly degrades his younger brother for being half-human, thus inherently inferior to him. inuyasha obivously is gravely affected by this mentality- he isn't enough as he is. even kikyo helps further this narrative by wanting him to become fully human so they can live their days together- while i love kikyo, we have to understand it was kagome who helped inuyasha realize his potential as himself and that nothing about him needs changing- he is just enough as his half-demon state. mammon clearly has self-confidence issues, being the butt of all his brothers jokes, having lucifer has an older brother thus always staying hidden away in his shadow, and having one of the more annoying vices as his main sin- greed, i mean, everyone hates greedy people! and he deludes himself into this grand vision that he's great and amazing and awesome when clearly, it's all a front for how small he feels inside. and it is mc who helps him come to terms that he himself is worthy of love and does not need to consistently rely on other people for validation- he becomes motivated to be the best he can be for mc's sake. for example: i believe it's lesson 50 where he agitates luke to the point luke runs off [if you follow my blog, you know i HATE this lesson] but it illustrates how he is so influenced by others' words. mc simply states: you know what? i hate this side of you, mammon. and he breaks down- the one person who seemed to always accept him however he was has turned away from him. cue him working to become better and plan an apology to luke with a night under the stars! and while inuyasha is clearly not the greatest boyfriend ever [he's consistently belitted kagome & remarked how he wanted both kikyo & kagome & acted like a total dickwad with his repressed feelings], kagome was ever as graceful & empathetic- she loves him unconditionally and wants to help him into a better person. and he ACKNOWLEDGES this- the big speech at the climax of the series- where he says something along the lines of only knowing true love and kindness because of kagome- that kagome was born to meet him and he was born to meet her!! just like how mammon loves to acknowledge that mc isn't just 'his' [see lucifer] but rather mammon emphasizes that he's mc's as well ['you're mine! or rather... am i yours?'] mc actively encourages mammon's growth into a better person just as kagome does for inuyasha... we gotta love our white-haired anime boys!

satan & ginoza nobuchika [psycho-pass]

you knew a psycho-pass one was coming. and while satan is not my favorite character . . . i think this might be the greatest honor i can bestow upon him. comparing him to THE GINO!!!!!!! okay so, to preface, this was ginoza before & here's him after [basically if you don't wanna click the links, before, he was a stuck-up very irritated supervisor-type character who was so obsessed with how he presented himself to the world and after he lost his superficial prestige, he realized the important things in life & became that laid-back loving and kind man we see holding that cute kitty <3] so i've compared the two in a doodle, but never expanded on their similarities. let me set the scene. psycho-pass takes place in futuristic japan where society has the ability to mathematically calculate one's proclivity to crime - their 'crime coefficient.' so obviously, people are obsessed with those numbers- trying to keep them down in hopes to live a normal life and not end up as a latent criminal- hidden away from society in a mental facility to prevent future crimes. ginoza's father was an inspector, someone who enforced latent criminals and arrested those who had high psycho-passes. and guess what- being around all those criminals had changed his father, who ended up becoming a latent criminal himself. this broke ginoza and his family- his mother became gravely ill and ginoza had to step up quickly to become the man of the house. naturally, he began to resent his father. the best way to exemplify how he hated his dad so much & wanted to distance himself away from his mistakes is how he and his father shared the same eyes- but ginoza would grow out his hair & wear bulky glasses to hide them away from perhaps cruel & judgemental gazes. he hid so much of himself and chose to focus all his energy on keeping his hue clear all because of his disdain for his father. do you see where i'm going? satan feels like he owes lucifer & his brothers his existence and chooses to distance himself from his family & chase after gaining worldly wisdom through reading and reading... satan sees lucifer in himself and actively chooses to hide away those parts of himself rather than embracing them and making those features his own. ginoza had watched his father take a bullet for him, and as he was dying, his father remarked how proud he was of ginoza. despite him being on the verge of becoming a latent criminal himself, despite how much hatred & resentment he had for his father for most of his life, despite how he conducted himself in such a shallow manner and only cared for himself- his father was still so proud of him. and guess what- ginoza cut his hair and took of his glasses. with satan, it takes mc shaking him screaming like dude! you are not lucifer! you are satan, prince of wrath, your own demon, your own person! your fate, your destiny is your own! obviously, satan isn't quite there at the end-goal of him growing out a ponytail and becoming a mellow loving guy like ginoza, but i just know one day, lucifer will tell satan he's proud of him, and satan will combust <3

beelzebub & jotaro kujo [jojo's bizarre adventure]

okay, so jotaro kujo is everything to me. and i obviously wanted to compare him & lucifer but i'm not gonna do my main jojo dirty like that. instead, let's talk about these two's similarities. jotaro kujo presents himself as an extremely empathetic and kind-hearted individual with others' well-being as his first priority- i mean, he imprisons himself because he deems himself to be a threat to innocent bystanders when his stand manifests [a physical representation of his mental energy]. the above manga panels depict when he saves kakyoin's life despite kakyoin having hurt multiple people including jotaro [although kakyoin was under DIO's control- whatever!] jotaro does not reflect much upon it- it's his inherent nature to protect and save others. beelzebub's main role in the celestial realm was to guard the gates & protect lucifer [a role he continues to take on after their fall from grace]. we see how much he takes this role seriously and how he beats himself up when he 'allows' one of his family members to get hurt- in s1, we see him blame himself for lilith's death, carrying that guilt for millennia. and [sniffles] don't get me started on jotaro's guilt for the death count during egypt and his consequent PTSD. both jotaro and beelzebub's past trauamtic experiences fuels their desire to protect their loved ones in the present- much to their own detriment and self-destruction [jotaro nearly dying multiple times protecting his uncle josuke, his bestie koichi, and his daughter jolyne & beelzebub putting lucifer & his brothers' feelings over his own anger & dismay on various issues]. and finally, the two on the outside are seemingly one-dimensional- jotaro being an arrogant delinquent incapable of emotions & beelzebub a demon obsessed with food and food only. but, clearly, CLEARLY they are so much more than that!

belphegor & king olly [paper mario: origami king]

look at the hair. that's it. JUST KIDDING! so while i did NOT enjoy the plot twist [cmon nintendo. give me spm-esque plot twists where the main antagonist and tutorial npc were LOVERS!!!] i can kind of understand where the whole ordeal was coming from- olly experienced something that he completely COMPLETELY misjudged and immediately went into attack mode- he literally folded innocent bystanders in hopes to completely exterminate toads due to one bad experience with a toad [which was not even a bad experience. when olivia and mario are like bro. are you literally stupid? and explain to him that the toad was being NICE and NOT evil by writing on him, and king olly is like italicized oh. like. hello? jesus]. king olly completely destroys himself because he's overtaken with grief + rage. the way he even conducts himself is just so unnuanced and apathetic - his hatred had completely gutted him until there's nothing left. belphegor [excuse the picture. it doesn't quite capture what i'm trying to go for here - it was the only one where his hair covers the same eye as the OK] had- yes, a horrible, harrowing experience- his sister had fallen in love with a human, igniting a whole celestial-wide war- and what's even worse, she died, in front of his eyes, with him fully knowing it could've been him who died, and she who lived on. instead he lives with the grief + rage = he falls into that same cycle as king olly did- the difference being belphegor's anger is justified, just displaced- he projects his anger towards himself & the events of the celestial war onto humans- there he goes onto attack mode into wanting to kill every human despite their complete innocence on the matter. the two conduct themselves very similarly - the complete emotionless hatred that consumes them radically to the point they lose themselves and just want full-on nuclear war to dispose of an entire race of beings. huh... very similar actually. plus the hair is dead on... anyway! king olly is an older brother so he's slick with his genocide

#i reached the 10 picture post limit and i have a thing about srb- i only do it very rarely and usually delete it afterwards #so ill just make a part 2 about the rest of the characters. i have thoughts on simeon + barb i want to do but diavolo levi asmo and sol are #giving me trouble... cant think of anyone... anyway #of course youre gonna get a psycho pass analysis like good ye #this is literally for me... so ill tag it with: #🦈 #text #EDIT I WROTE THIS WEEKS AGO BUT I HAVE NO GOOD POSTS IN MY QUEUE!! SO TAKE THIS??? im frantically typing this before my q publishes smth #ejoy?? or dont???i am proud of it so who cares? :] #enjoy* #its bc all my stuff in my queue is pro-l*cifer and naturally we are on an anti lucifer lockdown until he decides 2 show up in my contacts