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senawashere · 2 months

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Love me like you do..

A/n: This is for @ohtobeleah 's Galentines day! And also my first fic for Tgm fandom🥳

3,7 K words.

Summary: A valentine's day night with Bradley.

Warnings: !!SMUT!!,MINORS DONT INTERACT.

Dividers from @saradika

You met Bradley 4 years ago on Valentine's Day.

Unexpectedly.

Valentines days were always hard on you,growing up with no actual love and getting not enough love with significant others and more… So you basically hated it.

But all you know is when you see him in the dairy and meat section of the mall store with that stupid wool sweater and his perfectly coiffed hair and you fall in love with him.

And look, for God's sake, he was thinking the same thing.

After talking about which milk tastes better and the best ways to cook beef, you exchanged numbers and promised to talk.

You remember your first date very well.

It was in March and he took you to dinner to an old but sweet restaurant. That night you understood what true love feels like.

And so it went. Flash forward to 4 years later.

In the first year of your marriage (and on the 4th anniversary of the day you met), you would celebrate Valentine's Day at home.

Bradley unfortunately had to go to work that morning, but that was good news for your little plan.

In the morning, you went to the market for the meal you will make in the evening, then to the lingerie shop for a surprise, and finally to the market for a few basic needs at home.

The sound of the oven's timer going out reminded you that you got distracted again, moving away from the mirror where you were wearing the pretty pink lace underwear, getting ready to be returned, hoping your husband Bradley will be home early.

You return to the kitchen to get the roast meatballs out of the oven you made and put your outfit together, pulling on a flowy pink dress that covers your lingerie set perfectly. You took the time to touch up your hair and makeup perfectly, making sure you looked good.

Getting beautiful for Bradley was so much fun and rewarding for you. The look on his face was always worth it when he saw you wearing perfect makeup and your body covered in beautiful fabrics that fit your curves perfectly.

When you regained your attention, you analyzed and plated the meatballs and homemade sauce with mash potatoes and creamy pasta, pouring in two glasses of red wine. They were placed on the dinner table until they looked perfect.

You weren't too fussy about such events, but you really wanted to make everything perfect for your first Valentine's Day as a married couple. As you put the last garnishes on your pasta, you heard the front door unlock and a smile immediately appeared on your face.

You resist the excitement rising in your chest and wait for Bradley to join you to present him with the meal you're so proud of.

He's getting closer, you're counting your steps.

You wait expectantly until he appears at the door with a smile after looking you up and down, holding a floral bouquet of red,white and pink roses.

“Happy Valentine's Day, baby,” Bradley greets you, extending the bouquet to the side and placing a gentle kiss on your lips.

“Happy Valentine's Day, my love,” you replied. “I love you.”

"I love you too, baby. You look stunning," he says, pulling away from you to get a better look and the flowers appear on the table to reveal yourself.

“Please turn around a bit, let me see you honey,” he added. You turned around holding his hand.

His eyes rake yours, taking in all your beauty. You see his eyes behind you still looking down, you realize he's very clearly staring at your hips.

"Is it the way you want to see it?" you teased and he looked into your eyes again, walking over and pulling you close.

“I definitely like what I see, now come so I can hold you forever,” he said, wrapping his arms around you and squeezing. You lose yourself in his warm presence and sway side to side with him, enjoying the feeling of being safe and protected by him in the little bubble that can exist within the two of you right now.

He muttered , softening his protests at separation, "I need to put these beautiful roses you bought for me in some water. Why don't you set the table while I do that?"

He rolls his eyes but knows he has to.

“Oh baby, did you make me our favorite meal?” he shouted from the dining room.

“Mhm, of course,” you added with a wink. After placing the roses in a vase filled with water, you walked over and sat across from him.

Dinner was looking delicious,candles were so pretty,you both were happy and hungry.

Bradley took a little piece from the pasta and moaned dramatically around the fork. “Mmh damn, it tastes great,” he complimented.

“Calm down buddy, save your moans for later,” you said with a wink and a laugh. You both ate, enjoying each other's company. Even when you were done eating, you stood there looking at your husband with silly little smiles on your face.

“Thank you again for dinner, baby,it was awesome.” Bradley said, taking your hand and planting a kiss.

"Of course I wanted this night to be special. I love you so much," you say, caressing his knuckles with your thumb.

"I love you so much too." He replies, looking into your eyes for a moment longer,

"Come on, let me clean this up and we can finish and go to our bedroom."

"Oh Lieutenant Bradshaw, are you trying to get me into bed? I'm an absolute disgrace!" You can't even get the words out without bursting into laughter.

“Very funny y/n, help me get the dishes to the sink so we can finish faster,” he says and you help him, realizing that you can’t get him to bed fast enough.

"Let's think about washing these later," he said as his arms went around your waist. "I think it is a great idea," you whisper into his neck.

He turns in your arms and places a big kiss on each of your cheeks and hands. “Okay, ı think it's enough,” he said, his grip on you is strong as he liberated you from bridal style to bed freedom, unable to stop himself from parting small kisses all over your face. Immediately he started desperately tearing off your clothes as he wanted you, naked look right then and there.

Even though he has seen you naked quite often and many times in a non-sexual context, your body has always been and will always be a masterpiece for him every time he gets the chance to glimpse at you.

"Relax, we have all the time in the world, let's slow down and enjoy this moment," Bradley said, holding his hands over his body. "It's Valentine's Day, I don't want to rush things. I don't just want to have sex quickly, I want to make love with you for hours tonight, okay?"

You melted right there when you heard those words in his raspy voice. It made you feel so loved and cared for, but it also made you even wetter than you already were. You started to feel uncomfortable because you could feel that the underwear you were wearing before was now sticking to you. You wanted to immediately take off the underwear that was more than just getting wet between your legs.

The fire that had already started inside you was now burning wildly with the desire to let this man have you the way he wanted. He took his hands in yours, smaller than his, and placed them gently around your waist, hoping to convey that you wanted him to be gentle and loving, too.

He pulled you closer and placed a kiss on the top of your head, knowing exactly what you meant. You are grateful that the love shared between you can be communicated without words, knowing exactly what the other means without having to guess.

Bradley slowly peels off your dress and throws it at the end of the bed. He gasped when he saw the pale pink and lacy lingerie you wore for him. His lips parted and his eyes widened as if he saw the most beautiful work of art, he looked at you for a moment. Seeing your face light up just from looking at your body made you feel so sexy and desired.

“Fuck, you're so beautiful baby. I can't believe you're all mine,” Bradley said.

Under his gaze, you felt the most confident you had ever felt. He places his hands back on your lace-covered waist and slides them up your sides, then back down, exploring the bow holding it together in the back. He touches you like you're a fragile masterpiece that he can't believe he's allowed to touch.

You both loved the feel of lace and satin under his fingers, and he moved his hands up and down your body for a few minutes. You let him in until you started to get so frustrated, the lace between your walls was soaked and you felt a little uncomfortable from the wetness.

You ask him to pull the lace out of you by moving your hands to the straps and giving him both ends. His fingers gently pulled at the ends of the bow to open you like a gift, watching as they fell to your sides. Now the only thing holding the dress together are the thin straps.

He hooked his fingers into them and carefully pulled them down your arms, making sure to leave soft kisses behind the straps. Once the straps were removed, your underwear fell to the floor, leaving you naked with Bradley's prying eyes.

The urge to see your husband naked has hit you hard now, so you try to take off his clothes as well, this time taking the time to notice how the fabrics feel under your fingertips and tracing your hands over the curves and lines of his body.

Now you are both completely naked and exploring each other's soft bodies with your hands, smiling at each other. You are drunk with love, drunk with wine.

"Have I told you I love you today?" Bradley asked.

“Hmm, maybe a few times,” you replied.

“But it's okay because I love you too. I love you so much. More than anything in the world.”

"In the whole world, huh? I love you more than anything in the entire universe," he protested.

You climbed into bed and cuddled up together, pressing your naked bodies together as you both giggled.

“You really mean the world to me and this relationship means a lot to me.”

"I couldn't get along better. I appreciate this relationship and you so much, you are truly the best thing that could have happened to me." you said, looking at him with love in your eyes. You lean in to kiss him gently, but soon your kiss becomes deeper and more passionate the longer it lasts.

Within seconds, your tongue is in his mouth and his hand on your waist is pulling you closer. If he had his way, you would have merged into one being at this point. And you definitely wouldn't mind being in his arms forever.

His hand reaches down to rub your hips, his thumb pressing into the space above the bone and his fingers gripping the fleshy part that meets your hip. He pushes himself into your touch and his knee finds its way between your legs, moving higher. His leg rubs against your sensitive thighs as you open your legs for him.

When his knee finally reaches its destination, he pulls you closer and you grind your pussy along his thigh. You stare at him hopelessly, fully seated on his leg. All your increased arousal suddenly rushes between your legs and you instinctively start moving your hips to give you some relief.

“Oh, baby, you want to make yourself feel good?” Bradley asks, pressing a kiss to your nose. You mumble to him.

Wanting to return the favor, you brought your hand up to where he rested on your thigh and circled your palm around him, giving him slow gentle tugs to see him harden in your hand. You feel his hot breath on your neck as he lets out a breathy sigh when your fingers play with his tip.

"I think that's enough, how about we take things one step further huh?" Bradley asks, laying you on your back and climbing on top, pushing some stray strands of hair out of your face. ‘’Because ı cant wait any longer baby’’

"Hm, what happened to 'I don't want to rush things' and 'I want to make love to you all night'? Where are they now that you tried so hard?" You ask. He plays with your nipple to watch you squirm a little.

"I want to make love to you. I just want to make love to you right now," he said, his finger slowly moving inside your pussy as he spoke. “I don't want to wait any longer, darling,” he pushed his last knuckle almost all the way in. “I want you now,” he finishes with the final thrust of his finger, now fully inside you.

He curls his finger so you can feel him caressing your G-spot, and you whimper because you want more of him to go a bit faster.

It soothes your satisfaction by adding another finger and your whole body starts to feel warm and tingly.

It's not just the added sensation of his fingers, but the warmth between the two of you that makes you feel like you're burning in the best way possible.

It's the look in his eyes that tells you how much he needs you right now.

It’s the way he kisses your body so softly and sweetly.

It's the way his other hand caresses your cheek.

He makes you feel like you're the most important person in the world when he's around you.

Overwhelmed with these thoughts, your breathing becomes shallower as his fingers speed up.

He leans in and kisses you gently, whispering against your lips to "breathe" and "calm down." You try to listen to him and take a deep breath, which is somewhat hindered by the increasing pleasure with your constant tantric breathing.

Bradley's kisses travel down your neck, leaving small hickeys, and across your chest to your nipples.

He circles one of your nipples as his tongue slowly sucks into your mouth as his lips form a seal.

He moves further down, leaving a trail of kisses, eventually coming to where he gives your clit a soft kiss for the first time, kissing it as if he's showing his respect.

He slides in and out of you, his fingers still wet with your wetness, as he opens his mouth and sticks out his tongue, making small licks from the tip of his tongue to your clit.

You just want to let out a sigh but what actually comes out is more of a cry.

You don't bother caring though, feeling safe enough to make all kinds of weird noises in front of your husband. You know he would never judge you for something like that. In Fact he loves it.

Bradley's tongue gets a little rougher this time and he closes his lips around the clit between each lick. It feels so good that you already see the stars.

You open your eyes and see that he is already looking at you, his eyes half closed, as if it gives him pleasure to see you like this. He makes eye contact and you don't dare break it, you love how good the closeness feels.The hand that wasn't stimulating your pussy reaches up your body to reach the hand that's currently gripping the white sheets beneath your sweaty body.

His fingers interlock with yours and you squeeze tightly because you don't want him to let go again. Your other hand grabs his hair and you pull him deeper.

He moans at the feeling and you can feel it going through him.

His fingers and tongue take you higher, squeezing your eyes shut, tensing your legs and hips, and involuntarily moving your thighs closer to him, sort of signaling him to go faster and not to stop.

Bradley's thumb hovers over your knuckles, a calm and comforting gesture among his other mind-blowing movements.

He slows down and gives your clit one last meaningful kiss, then undresses himself and crawls towards you.

“Hi,” he said with a grin, the lower part of his face glistening with your wetness mixed with his own saliva.

“Hi,” you reply with a breathy smile.

You lift your head and purse your lips, silently asking for a kiss. He laughs and gives it to you.

First a quick, gentle kiss on your lips, then a deeper, more passionate, slow and deliberate kiss. Bradley kisses you with all the love in him, communicating with you through his lips and tongue embracing yours.

He lifts your leg up to his broad shoulders for better access, then slowly pushes himself inside you so you can feel every moment.

Both of your mouths open against each other, unable to believe how good this feels and how beautiful this moment is with the love of your life inside you.

He fits himself completely inside you and waits there for a few breaths, giving you both time to compose yourself before your body asks you to roll your hips against his, signaling that you want more now.

Bradley thrusts as slowly as he thrusts, pulling out until just the tip is still inside, then presses his hips down to fill you once more.

A breathy moan falls from your lips and you are left staring at his lips.

Your hands cup his upper back and pull his body towards you, holding him as close as possible as you wrap your legs around him.

Your hips thrust deep into his cock with each thrust. You feel so overwhelmed by the sensations that you have to close your eyes to focus on breathing. One of Bradley's hands came up and caressed your cheek with his thumb, wiping away a tear you didn't even know you were crying from pleasure.

When you opened your eyes, you saw that the tears did not come from you, but fell from Bradley's eyes and onto his cheek. He cups your face in his hand and you can see the passion and focus on his face. (Hey, there needs to be a little drama in everything.)

Tears begin to flow from your own eyes when you see how emotional he gets from making love to you. You start to cry a little, not in a sad way, but in a way that the feeling is so overwhelming that it has to find a way out of you somehow.

You can feel how close you're getting, and he can tell you're holding back because you don't quite want to let go of this moment yet.

“Okay baby, it's okay,just let it go.” he encourages you. "You can just hold on to me and let go, I promise I have you. We have forever to make love with each other. Come on, I'm so close too, I want to finish with you". You whimper into his shoulder, biting your lip hard and letting go. You can feel him tense as he thrusts hard into you once more before letting go.

“I love you so much,” you let out, not even sure he could hear.

Everything is momentarily magnified.

You hold Bradley with all the strength you have left, and he holds you back just as tight.

Your pussy convulses around him with your heartbeat and you can feel his cum being released deep inside you.

Every part of your body shakes and tingles. The experience of sharing your orgasms simultaneously is magical. You feel like you're in heaven in Bradley’s arms.

Once you've both calmed down a bit, taking time to catch your breath and come back down to earth, he pulls himself away from you, but just enough to see your face.

He's not pulling away from you yet, he wants to feel close to you, so you lie there with him still inside you, wrapped in his strong embrace in the awkward but somehow perfect cuddling position.

“You are so beautiful,honey.” Bradley said with a lazy smile on his face, looking drunk on his orgasm and his love for you and also the wine.

You chuckle, knowing you probably look really fucked upright now. "You're cute and that was amazing. I don't think I've ever felt this way before," you say.

He kisses your cheeks, then your nose, then your lips. "Yes, it was really great. And it was really hot. Especially when you pulled my hair while ı was eating you out,"he says. Your pussy involuntarily tightens at the thought of Bradley between your legs.

“Hey, I felt that,” he teases, reminding you that it’s still inside you, something you won’t easily forget. You laugh, he buries his face in your neck, you feel a little embarrassed,blood rushing to your cheeks.

“Nah, no hiding from me, we just cried while fucking each other, nothing to be ashamed of really right now,” he says with her signature smile.

“Not fucking, making love,” you tease, mocking his previous words and he laughs along with you.

"Happy Valentine's Day,baby." he says, "I love you." He gives you a sweet kiss and you poke his nose with yours.

"Happy Valentine's Day, I love you too."

You lie with your legs and hands intertwined in the dim bedroom light.

A little silence is good. You leave a few more soft kisses on his cheeks.

After a few minutes, he gets out of bed to get some warm washcloth and starts cleaning you both up. He was so soft while doing this, you've never felt so in love.

That night, you sleep in your comfortable pajamas, holding each other and wondering how lucky you are both.

Maybe Valentine's Day was really worth it after all.

I'm tagging people who might be interested:@ohtobeleah @sebsxphia @callsigns-haze @sailor-aviator @sorchathered @greenorangevioletgrass @teacupsandtopgun @roosterforme @floydsglasses @floydsmuse @lyn-js @seresinsbrat @torchflies @its-dee-lovely @its-the-pilot @friedchips94 @bradshawsbaddie @hardballoonlove @perfectprettypisces

#rooster imagine #rooster fanfiction #rooster x reader #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #rooster x wife!reader #rooster top gun #bradley bradshaw #bradley bradshaw fanfiction #bradley bradshaw imagine #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw fanfic #bradley bradshaw smut #bradley bradshaw x fem!reader #top gun fan fiction #topgun maverick #top gun fanfic #sena writes #ohtobeleahs galentines day

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inphront · 1 month

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y’know i’m writing this fic and it’s making me think that maybe we don’t recognize enough as a fandom that a lot of harrow’s guilt and shame, which make her light years more sympathetic as a character, are a.) not actually that moral, b.) directly caused by the ninth, and c.) probably shared with her parents, the only characters in the whole series that i’ve never seen a single post trying to humanize/analyze as complex. like. harrow hates herself for what her parents did and honestly? the most likely reason for this is just that kids subconsciously recognize themselves as extensions of their parents, and *her parents probably hated themselves for what they did.* regularly explaining your crimes against humanity to your five-year-old but only being willing to discuss it in the terms of it being a horrible sin and having to take a ritual cleansing bath every single time is the action of a very guilty person. i have to imagine that those saltwater baths probably included some really intense self-flagellation on the part of harrow’s parents that she internalized. i’d venture so far as to say that their suicides were motivated by guilt over the massacre just as much as by shame over the opening of the tomb.

harrow’s sense of constant guilt is so often seen as proof of her having overcome the imperial morality pushed by the houses, and that makes sense given the fact that she *has* taken a viewpoint by the end of the series that opposes imperial morality, but also, guilt is like the main export of the ninth house. harrow’s relationship to it, even once it stops being something she projects onto gideon or otherwise externalizes, is fundamentally ninth and ties her to what she herself acknowledges as “the worst flaws of her house.” ultimately it is something she inherited just as much as the 200, which to me provokes a lot of questions about how her parents actually coped with the consequences of their own fucked-up actions. gideon experienced that coping as just straight cruelty, but we know that harrow got a much more complex window into their feelings and behaviors, and my guess is those behaviors bore distinct resemblance to hers.

i have to wonder what sorts of systemic pressures were falling on them and their house that led to them killing off a whole generation, and what sort of transformations they underwent. how *do* you live with yourself knowing that the blood of so many innocent people, people you were responsible for *protecting,* is on your hands? how could you possibly raise a well-adjusted child when she’s basically a mirror into an atrocity you could’ve hardly fathomed up till the day you committed it? do you think they tried to? i think they probably tried to, but ultimately being a good parent doesn’t change being a mass murderer, and it’s impossible to pull off at all when the mass murder is so directly tied to your hopes for your child. the ninth’s entire purpose within the empire is to carry the weight and memory of one of the most horrible things john ever did, to *inherit the mass death and necromantic subjugation of the earth.* in this capacity, harrow’s parents are *victims* of the empire and its doctrine around death who proceeded to perpetuate both the mass death and necromantic subjugation AND the task of bearing the burden of shame onto their next generation. i don’t really know where i’m going with this aside from “the ninth’s cycle of violence is based in shame and is an extension of john’s disbelief in forgiveness, which means harrow can’t break it without forgiving something unforgivable; it’ll be interesting to see how she manages such a difficult task,” and “i think we oughtta talk about the politics of guilt as it applies to the entire reverend family dynamic”

#tlt #harrowhark nonagesimus #priamhark noniusvianus #pelleamena novenarius #phron’s locked tomb essays

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elijahs-dumps · 3 months

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The Infantilization of Wylan Van Eck (within the soc fandom)

Hi! This is my first tumbler post ever, which is like super scary I wont lie. But I've had this project I've been working on since October and I'd love to share it with people, so here goes nothing!

Infantilization or to infantilize someone means to treat them as a child or in a way that denies their maturity in age or experience, and it qualifies as a form of mental abuse.

This treatment is common in fandoms, although it obviously isn't done in a hateful way on purpose. It’s often directed towards characters who are more innocent, more kind, or more anxious than the other characters within the universe. Or, sometimes these characters are literally just the youngest of the group. Some examples of this include, Entrapta from She-Ra and the Princesses and Power, Varian from Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure, Number Five from The Umbrella Academy, Hunter from The Owl House, Little Cato from Final Space, and even Peter Parker from the MCU.

However, most of the traits found in characters that are infantilized are also traits found in neurodivergent people. These traits include, missing social cues, being easily excitable or restless, often feeling anxious hyper fixating on something (usually related to science or math), being an outcast from the rest of the group in some way, and so on and so forth. Therefore, infantilization within fandoms is pretty problematic on its own. People (usually online) think that characters with these traits should be babied or pitied or demeaned in some way, even though neurodivergent consumers usually relate to these characters because of those same traits.

Some evidence of Wylan being infantilized can include; the fact he's only referred to as cute or synonyms to that, while the other Crows or their actors are often sexualized more. People saying or implying he's smaller, weaker, or even younger than the others. And of course, people saying Kaz and Wylan are father and son... which is something I'll come back to later.

Why Wylan?

To better understand why exactly Wylan is receiving this treatment exclusively from the fans, we need to fully analyze the Six of Crows duology, which is exactly what I did!

When we are first introduced to Wylan in chapter seven (Matthias’ POV) of the Six of Crows, we see him sitting at the table and doodling while occasionally chewing on his thumbnail. He doesn't speak until Inej voices her doubts in Wylan’s demolition abilities. Jesper says Wylan “barely knows his trade”, and Kaz mentions that Wylan is “new to the scene”. Matthias also makes a comment about how Wylan “looks like he’s about twelve”. When Jesper and Inej continue to complain about Wylan being their demo man, Kaz tells them that Wylan is doubling as their insurance policy because Wylan is Jan Van Eck’s son, the rich merchant who’s paying Kaz and his chosen crew 40 million kruge in exchange for breaking Bo Yul-Bayur out of the Ice Court. This immediately makes everyone in the room think less of Wylan because of his privileged past.

This introduction sets up Wylan to the readers. His reserved body language, along with his inexperience and Matthias’ comment about his young appearance gives the impression that Wylan is more childish than the other Crows.

In the next chapter (Jesper’s POV) as the Crows react to the reveal of Wylan’s identity, Kaz tells Wylan that he’s “passable at demo, but excellent at hostage”. Jesper calls Wylan a “baby merch” and insists that Kaz leave him behind, less he slows the crew down. Wylan is annoyed that Kaz and Jpeser are talking about him as if he isn't in the room. Then, Kaz tells Wylan that the only reason he hasn't been mugged or jumped in the three months since he left his father’s house is because Kaz placed him under Dregs protection. In fact, Jesper even says that Kaz has been “coddling Wylan”. Jesper proceeds to call Wylan useless as he and Nina belittle Wylan for living in the Barrel “by choice”. This is also where the nickname “merchling” comes from. When the group continues to go back and forth over Wylan’s skills, Kaz repeats that he’s only bringing Wylan along because he doesn’t want to leave their hostage alone in Ketterdam. This makes Wylan the only Crow that wasn’t hired for their abilities, Wylan’s passable demo skills are simply a bonus. It’s a way for Kaz to keep the crew small and avoid splitting the money even further.

This entire exchange and interaction between our six main characters lays out the groundwork for the dynamic between Wylan and the other Crows for the majority of the first book. Everyone else in the room believes Wylan is just another spoiled rich kid. They make fun of him for his lack of street smarts, and the money he was born into. Wylan never really fights back too much when it comes to comments from the others, which just reinforces the idea that he came from a cushy lifestyle where he never had to learn how to defend himself verbally. Wylan’s inexperience and innocence is often mistaken for stupidity by the characters, and therefore the readers.

Kaz saying, “Always hit where the mark isn’t looking.” Only for Wylan to reply with, “Who's Mark?” is a great example of this. (Still chapter eight, Jesper’s POV.)

In chapter nine (Kaz’s POV) we see how Kaz views Wylan in his inner monologue. He says Wylan seems out of his depth, and even though he’s only a year younger than Kaz (making Wylan sixteen) he still looks like a child. Kaz describes Wylan as a silk eared puppy in a room full of fighting dogs. This pushes the concept that Wylan is more childlike than the others further onto the audience.

Additionally, in chapter eleven (Jesper’s POV), we see Jesper quite literally call Wylan “kid” during the attack at the docks, even though they’re also only one year apart. And in chapter fifteen, Matthias refers to Wylan as “the soft one” within his own inner monologue.

Since Wylan doesn't have his own point of view chapters in the first book, the reader’s entire understanding of this character is formed through the eyes of the other Crows. So, what we’re hearing about Wylan in the first book might not be entirely accurate, which is something people often forget. Part of the reason why the fandom treats Wylan the way they do is because of the way the Crows describe and talk to him throughout the entire series, The reader learns to rely on the others’ opinions on Wylan in order to learn more about him.

All of the evidence I have shown so far, and even some smaller things I haven't included, plants a certain mentality in the reader; Wylan doesn't have the same knowledge as the other Crows, so he must be weak and gullible. Weakness and gullibility are often traits associated with the “younger-one-of-the-group” trope, or the “Kid Trope”. So, since Wylan is displaying behaviors that we as media consumers have grown used to attaching to characters who are literal children, Wylan must be a child, or at least be treated like one.

However, the Crows don’t treat Wylan this way because they truly believe Wylan acts like a small child, because he doesn’t. Wylan’s behavior is perfectly normal, it simply sticks out in contrast to the harsh environments all the others have been exposed to. They treat him this way throughout the book as a sort of condescending joke, they belittle him for the stereotypes surrounding his upbringing and little else.

Still, like I said, the Crows’ mindset on Wylan is all the reader is exposed to for the entire first book, so the reader will subconsciously assume Wylan must be doing something to earn this odd treatment from the others. Sometimes readers don’t understand that it is not Wylan’s wealthy and sheltered background that makes him different, it’s the fact that the others are all criminals, murderers, soldiers, and convicts. Wylan is the only “normal” Crow on a very surface level, so his innocence is bound to stick out more.

As the first book continues, we see that there’s more to Wylan’s past than he lets on. We see first hand how smart and capable Wylan truly is, as his character grows with the story. It begins in the fight at the docks in chapter eleven, where Wylan uses his own flash bombs to help Jesper out. In chapter thirteen, Wylan openly questions and even challenges Kaz after he throws Oomen overboard, which shows great courage on Wylan’s part. This pattern of questioning Kaz when no one else really does is a common theme when it comes to Wylan. We also see Wylan explain who Pekka Rollins is to Matthias in chapter fifteen. This shows that he’s not completely incompetent, and is at least somewhat aware of what goes on in the Barrel. Then, in chapter seventeen (Jesper’s POV), Wylan expresses his natural curiosity and desire for knowledge about anything, from the mechanics of the Ice Court moat to the design of Jesper’s guns. All of this builds to chapter twenty-two, where the Crows are attacked on the ice by Grisha who were sent by the Shu, dosed on parem. Wylan does a lot of heavy lifting in this fight with his bombs, and everyone is impressed. Jesper even makes a comment about how Wylan’s “earned his keep” now.

Small moments like this that showcase Wylan’s natural resourcefulness and strength are crucial to communicating with the readers that the Crows were wrong about Wylan in the beginning. As Wylan’s true nature begins to develop further throughout the first book, we slowly see the Crows and their attitude towards Wylan change. It becomes more positive. In the future, when Wylan makes an ignorant comment, the others don’t poke fun at him as much. They’ll tell him to be quiet at most.

By the final climax of Six of Crows, chapter forty-six (Kaz’s POV), we find out Wylan cannot read. Jan Van Eck is open about his hatred and mistreatment of his son. When Jesper jumps to Wylan’s defense, he goes as far as to say Wylan is smarter than most of the others put together. Jesper is in love with Wylan at this point in the story, so his words might be a little exaggerated. But there’s still truth to them. This entire scene serves as evidence that Jesper and the other Crows have realized Wylan’s intelligence and worth, so they don’t even think twice when they find out Wylan can’t read or write.

If all the Crows’ preconceived notions about Wylan were proven wrong before the end of the first book, then why does the fandom still view Wylan in such a problematic way?

Blame Booktok

This is all mainly tied to modern day book consumption, and the obsession with “tropes”. Online reading communities such as “Booktok” or “Bookstagram” have normalized interpreting even the most complex characters through simple archetypes. This is something all six crows are a victim of, in fact, most characters within all kinds of media are.

A good example of this within Six of Crows is Kaz Brekker himself. Kaz, within “Booktok”, is often lumped together with several other male YA love interests in books, like Aaron Warner or Cardan Greenbriar . They all usually share very few qualities, like having violent tendencies, being extremely protective of their loved ones, and acting cold or mysterious towards others. Regardless of the fact that all these characters are so complex and different, from their relationship dynamics, to their morals, to their backstories, readers still often view them as one in the same because of videos online pointing out very minute similarities. A broader example I would use is the way the Hunger Games series was often marketed and discussed as if the love triangle between Peeta, Gale, and Katniss was the main focus of the story. But really it was just a subplot to a more serious and heavy narrative.

People will often focus too much on singular tropes because it makes books easily identifiable and marketable in this new era of self-publishing and online purchasing. It’s easier to judge a book by its cover if you have a broad sense of what might be inside based on the small character details or scenarios other readers liked from it. But what does that have to do with Wylan?

Well, because people often talk about books or even whole genres on a surface level, they also discuss characters on a surface level. This lazy form of consumption is what often leads to mischaracterization. People can obviously understand complex characters like Wylan, so it’s not a question of intelligence. Fans online are just used to discussing things within books fandoms in such a simple way and viewing a character through the lens of one trope. They’ll put the character in a box, and Wylan just so happens to check all the boxes for a character who would be infantilized. Even though there are interesting things about Wylan besides his “innocence”, people are less inclined to talk about it. In short, viewing Wylan as just another character who falls under the category of a simple stereotype is easier than including and discussing his nuances.

So who is at fault?

When it comes to talking about a more harmful fandom behavior, like infantilization, it’s important to keep an open mind. Sometimes, it’s the creator’s fault for writing a character in a problematic way, not the fandom’s fault for interpreting it that way. So, is Leigh Bardugo at fault here for writing Wylan in this light? Or is it the fandom’s fault for not looking past the obvious parts of a character?

I don’t think it was Leigh Bardugo’s fault. If you take the second book, Crooked Kingdom, into account then you can clearly see that the way Wylan is disrespected in the first book is something he’s dealt with his whole life, especially from his father. Wylan has been taught to believe that his reading disability makes him useless as an heir, and as a human being all together. This is one of the reasons why we never see Wylan truly snap back in an aggressive way in Six of Crows when the others insult and belittle him. A big part of Wylan thinks that the others are right about him being useless. Obviously, Wylan couldn’t have had his own POV chapters in Six of Crows, because then that would spoil his father’s true motives. However, I think the fact we didn't get to see his point of view in the first book serves another purpose. Wylan’s low self-esteem is definitely a major thing he needs to overcome in his personal story within Crooked Kingdom. So for the readers to fully understand this, we needed to view Wylan from an outside perspective. First, we get to view him as the other Crows do, as someone sheltered and weak who’s in way over his head. Then, we get to see why Wylan is the way he is. I think this sort of reverse style of character writing is really interesting and more fun to read. But still, not every reader accepted Wylan just because the Crows started to warm up to him. So by extension, this is also why Wylan is one of the most hated Crows. Nevertheless, I think the way Leigh Bardugo chose to write Wylan is inevitable for the story and vital to his character! It wouldn't feel the same if we didn't get to see how the others viewed him first.

The fault lies with the fandom when it comes to Wylan’s infantilization. But, are people online really just lazy when it comes to discussing characters, or is something bigger at play here? I think it’s both. People do misinterpret Wylan’s strong and resilient character because of laziness and the normalization of oversimplification and overconsumption within the book community. But this treatment is also rooted in subconscious ableism. To better explain what subconscious ableism truly is, I’ll be taking a deeper look at a specific dynamic.

Kaz and Wylan (are not father and son)

Despite these two characters only having a one year age gap, the fandom often views Kaz and Wylan’s relationship as one similar to a father and son dynamic. Which is understandable to a certain degree. Kaz is the very first person Wylan ever told about his reading disability. Kaz had Wylan placed under Dregs protection the minute Wylan set foot in the Barrel, which may have been for Kaz’s own selfish reason, but it still kept Wylan safe for a while. There are a couple scenes in the books where Kaz will give Wylan advice about life in general, or about having a disability, not just about being a criminal. We see Kaz take getting Wylan justice for his mother and stealing back Wylan’s inheritance very seriously. Wylan even starts to pick up some of Kaz’s mannerisms and facial expressions. All of these could be viewed as things a father and son would do, despite how small the actual age gap is. However, the fandom seems to take this relationship to the extreme, from fan fiction and fan art, to getting the characters’ actors involved.

It’s somewhat because of very minute subconscious ableism. People naturally view Wylan as younger because of his demeanor, but also because of his disability. The opposite is true for Kaz. His physical disability makes people naturally view him as older than seventeen in their minds. This is due to long standing ableist tropes within the media. People with mental disabilities are often depicted as stupider in some way, so they need to be babied or coddled. While people with physical disabilities are often depicted as very ill, or very old.

This might seem far fetched, but it’s true. And it’s quite obvious if you look closely enough at anything from books, to movies, to TV, to games! These are just some of the harmful stereotypes we see in our world every day,

How to fix this issue

Now, of course people aren’t just going to stop misinterpreting characters or stop viewing them through small scale tropes all together. But keeping yourself educated and aware is a good way to stop promoting these harmful stereotypes. Listen to the voices that are being affected in these situations! In this case, it’s people with mental or physical disabilities. Be sure to take into account what they have to say on matters like this one. Allow yourself to take the criticism and learn from their experiences or feelings. It’s important to be empathetic and kind to one another, and acknowledge that sometimes we do problematic things without intending to. When talking about characters with disabilities, it’s important to remember what they represent, and the fact that you can't always say whatever you want just because the characters are fictional.

As always, if you’re ever unsure about whether something you feel or think is harmful towards a certain community, never be afraid to ask questions and do your research!

#wylan van eck #wylan hendriks #six of crows #shadow and bone #grishaverse #analysis #jack wolfe #wylan x jesper #soc wylan #wylan van sunshine #crooked kingdom #kaz brekker

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hms-no-fun · 2 months

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i just want you to know that i read... i think Most of godfeels and had to stop because i was not enjoying it. but i think its really good and i really respect what you do. i think it's all too easy for people to mix up "this is not my cup of tea" with "this is bad and/or problematic". they dont take the time to see the artistry in it, why it is what it is, what it might be saying beyond their surface level read and the kneejerk reaction to it.

i also wanted to note that ive always been kind of scared of sharing fanworks for fear of writing "out of character" - and ive also even been afraid of it in original works. character isn't real and concrete, so anyone can decide something's out of character. so your exploration of that concept gives me more confidence as a writer. i really appreciate that and everything else you do. :)

thank you so much for this message! i'm glad you tapped out rather than force your way through something you weren't enjoying, that's a very mature response and something i wish more folks would recognize as a perfectly valid option. in fact i think pushing through and reading long after you've given up on the material, so to speak, is a great way to wind up angry at a writer for having "forced" you to endure such a trying experience. as i've said before, an author can't force you to do anything. you can close the book any time you like.

as far as the tension of "in character/out of character" goes, i think a lot of people in fandom struggle with the fact that "character" is very much in the eye of the beholder. sub-groups form within fandoms based on identities, politics, sexual predilections, etc, and typically gather around the fire that is their particular interpretation of a character. but from within that sub-group, it's rarely considered "an interpretation" so much as the obvious intended truth of the text. it's that intoxicating mood of finding people who share a perspective you rarely see elsewhere, like oh my god, you GET it, finally someone GETS it!

in homestuck fandom, for instance, quite a lot of people hate vriska and think she sucks, with a vocal sub-group of that sub-group still actively beating the drum that everything about her arc after [S] Game Over is the worst part of homestuck. but i love vriska, and my corner of the fandom very much organized around a full-throated defense of her. some folks think homestuck did tavros and gamzee dirty and that this is a fatal flaw in the text; when i countenance these people, i am convinced we read two very different comics. who's right and who's wrong? there are degrees. i can pull out any number of quotes from andrew hussie about the importance of vriska and the weenieness of tavros, but then, authors love to say things, and there's plenty of stories i love in ways that directly oppose to the authors' stated intent. the debate can never end because we are only ever talking about the version of a character or story that exists in our heads, based on the things that stuck with us when we read the thing (however long ago that was-- which is important because i find a LOT of people adamantly defending their headcanons haven't read the source text in a number of years. as time passes, your perception of the media you've experienced in the past morphs and distorts. someone who was right five years ago can be wrong today and not even notice the difference).

something i've realized in the last year is how much godfeels emerged from a very specific milieu, not just in terms of how we interpreted certain characters but in our approach to analyzing and talking about the text altogether. i believe most of the important stuff in godfeels is "in character" in most of the ways that matter, but it's built on a very specific meta that centered vrisrezi and transness and radical leftist politics and experimental hypertext. really, it's a post-Epilogues fanwork even despite the fact that godfeels 1 predates their release by a few weeks. and i think to this day a lot of homestuck fans haven't read the epilogues but have read fandom posts about how terrible they are (quite a lot of which will have either been written by teens, by people who already didn't like homestuck very much, or by one of the regressive stalkery weirdos prominent in the homestuck reddit/discord), and that misapprehension keeps them in the dark about just how many amazing tools the epilogues introduce to the homestuck formula that exponentially expand the expressive possibilities of attentive fanworks. and it of course elides the fact that the homestuck epilogues are a story about being in your 30s. i think we'll be getting a big re-appraisal of the epilogues in 5-10 years. it'll be the "twin peaks: fire walk with me" of homestuck, just you wait.

so these readers see my version of dirk being an unhinged murderous dick to a newly-out trans woman and go "he would never do that." then if i point at the epilogues, they'll say "i didn't read them/they're not even canon/that wasn't in character either." at which point there's nothing really to say, because we have two completely different perceptions of the text. who's right and who's wrong is almost always infinitely subjective, a circumstance that humans are notable for being very good at handling in a mature and politely discursive manner.

so i've got an "author's introduction" to godfeels baking in my docs to provide some context about the meta this story is built on, the milieu it came out of, that sort of thing. it won't make much of a difference in practical terms, but it'll at least be something i can point to.

in any event, thanks for this message. all i ever want is for people to give it an honest shot. i hope you can continue harvesting confidence from wherever it can be found. it takes a lot of audacity and backbone to be an artist, especially when you have something worthwhile to say. remember that you're not writing for the haters, you're writing for the kind of person, like you, who wants to see more stories like the thing you're writing. they're the ones who'll get it, they're the ones who'll stick around long after the haters have lost interest.

#sarahposts #in character #out of character #homestuck #godfeels #fanworks #writing advice #headcanon #fandom #long post

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licorice-lips · 3 days

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Hi, everyone! So, I know there's a lot of controversy about Rhys's behavior Under the Mountain (at least in Brazil fandom it's a hot topic), a discussion that is valid and definitely needs to be had, so I did a lot of research on the subject and compiled the three texts that influenced me the most into a compilation that I'll share here — along with my thoughts and additions.

These texts that serve as my supports were made here on Tumblr and can be found under the following titles, although the third one is the most comprehensive of them all:

*Rhysand's Defense Post (The author had only read A Court of Thorns and Roses when she wrote this).

*The Difference Between Tamlin and Rhysand: The Man on the Throne and the Man in the Arena — Acotar and Acomaf's Excerpt Analysis (The author was following the small teaser quotes for A Court of Mist and Fury and analyzed them).

*Understanding Tamlin and Rhysand — A Post-Acomaf Reconciliation of Rhys's Actions Under The Mountain in a Culture of Defeat.

In addition to discussing Rhys's behavior, however, I'm also going to discuss Tamlin's behavior and compare the two. It's going to be quite fun… Just a heads up that I don't want any hate messages. Do you want to share your thoughts agreeing or disagreeing? That's fine, but with respect. Any offensive comments will be deleted.

Now here's my defense post for Rhys:

Leadership is a heavy burden. When you're a leader, especially when it's not your choice but comes to you because of the family you were born into, for example, responsibility can be a burden. But when you're a leader, there's something very important to consider when making a decision: those who follow you.

All of Rhys's actions as High Lord of the Night Court must be thought of to put the well-being of those he is responsible for first. And when he, Tamlin, and the other High Lords are Under the Mountain, he decides that he will be Amarantha's whore to ensure that his Court is in the best possible condition within the situation — he lets himself be raped to ensure that his people and his family remain safe when he could have done nothing.

But from the moment Feyre strikes the deal with Amarantha, he is the only one who is truly in a position to make a difference: the other High Lords do not have enough of Amarantha's trust for her not to suspect anything if one of them tried to bargain with Feyre as Rhys did, for example. If any other High Lord — Kallias, Thesan, Helion, etc. — tried the same thing as Rhys, Amarantha would have been suspicious.

So in this case, he is the only one who can truly act.

But he doesn't have to. The point is that his Court is reasonably safe because of his role in the court Amarantha built, so Rhys doesn't really need to help Feyre win. But he does it, not because he wants his power back, but because he's the kind of leader who will do everything achievable to change — for what he believes is the best — the lives of his people.

And I'll talk about how admirable that is later on when we're talking about the culture of war and defeat, and about Tamlin's behavior. So, he decides to act, and he tells Feyre in A Court of Mist and Fury:

"I decided at that moment that I would fight. And fight dirty, and kill and torture and manipulate, but fight. If there was any chance of freeing us from Amarantha, it was you." (A Court of Mist and Fury, page 550, Brazilian edition)

He knows, then, that the fight he would have to wage was not the beautiful, heroic, noble thing we're so used to seeing: Rhys knew that his actions to ensure victory — for Feyre and Prythian as a whole — would be horrible and would probably haunt him for the rest of his life. He knows that. And he doesn't excuse himself for a moment. He doesn't invent, he doesn't embellish, he doesn't paint himself as a hero. He knows he's not and he really isn't a hero.

A hero is someone who sacrifices themselves in a grand gesture to save the entire population, a true hero doesn't really sacrifice one person to save others. And while Rhys does have his own share of sacrifices, that doesn't excuse him from the horrible actions he took Under the Mountain:

So, the first part of his questionable behavior in Under the Mountain comes to light: the moment he twists Feyre's injured arm to convince her, to scare her enough to accept his bargain. This is a minor moment and my description alone makes it understandable: he does what he does to keep her alive and charges an insignificant price (which he planned to release her from later, as he himself says) to keep up appearances.

And Rhys needs to keep up appearances because his whole game to defeat Amarantha depends on how he appears to her and to other people: no one can notice while he moves the pieces on the board to bring the advantage to them. No one, not even Feyre, who is the "lamb to the slaughter," so to speak. And she can't know for several reasons:

Feyre is not in a mental condition to act and pretend to hate him as much as he needs her to pretend. So if she knew what he was doing, she would probably let something slip, or wouldn't be convincing enough, because honestly? Who could?

Rhys spent the last 50 years fighting alone and being surrounded by people who constantly despised him for being Amarantha's whore or for those who tried to ingratiate themselves with her through him, so he doesn't trust others easily, even though he was falling in love with Feyre, as he says in ACOMAF.

He couldn't trust that Feyre wouldn't trust others — Lucien and, therefore, Tamlin — with this knowledge. With their mutual hatred, they would surely end up messing things up.

Feyre was there to protect the High Lord who killed his mother and sister — and Rhys didn't know that Feyre didn't know the history behind his and Tamlin's relationship — so, in theory, it made sense that he wouldn't want to show his "true face" to her.

That's exactly what the book is about: like a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, the book is about how appearances deceive. If Feyre found out that Rhys is a decent person right away, it would be the same as throwing the whole intention of the story out the window.

So we have the second — and most controversial of all — point: the dance and the wine. I'm not going to mince words about this: It was sexual harassment. Period. But with this, Rhys manages to:

Get Feyre out of her cell, which is driving her crazy, as she says in this part: "I was alone, locked in silence — although the screams in the dungeon continued day and night. When they became unbearable and I couldn't ignore them, I looked at the eye in my palm." (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 356, Brazilian Edition). And let's face it, anyone would go crazy in an environment like that.

Keep an eye on Feyre so that no one else could harm her — something he disguises with a comment about not liking others to touch what's his — and that's a curious thing because Feyre never expresses concerns about being abused by others after Rhys starts taking her to these parties (it's also interesting to note that despite the various traumas of what happened Under the Mountain, Feyre never showed any signs of trauma from sexual abuse, as far as I know — and again, not that this excuses Rhys, it's just a factor to point out that maybe she understood his game better than we did).

To leave Tamlin full of anger — which he claims is the main reason for all that theater during A Court of Thorns and Roses — so that he wouldn't hesitate if he had the slightest chance to kill Amarantha in the end or between challenges, no matter as long as he didn't hesitate. Because from Rhys's perspective, Tamlin is the noble golden prince who might spare Amarantha's life to demand some kind of trial or something. Which I consider he might have been dumb enough to do too.

Divert Amarantha's attention, as, thinking that Feyre was already humiliated and abused enough during those nights, she wouldn't give Feyre those ridiculous tasks anymore (like cleaning that filthy hall or collecting lentils from Rhys's fireplace). And if you reread ACOTAR, she really never gives those small tasks to Feyre again after that.

Send a message to those who could read, as Rhys himself says: he crowns Feyre every night, and for the cruel ones, this would be a subtle kind of mockery, but for those who could see beyond the evil, Rhys was declaring Feyre the champion of them all. He declared that he believed in her and in her potential to free them all.

Convince Amarantha that he's still playing on her side — a belief that was shaken by Rhys betting on Feyre in the first task and closing that bargain to heal her arm. This might be the most fundamental of all points: the one that allows the game to continue toward victory. He needs to prove to Amarantha that he's doing it for fun, out of cruelty, considering Feyre as the whore of the whore, someone lower than the lowest of courtesans. Thus, Rhys clears the way to act when the time is right.

By taking Feyre with him to those parties, he moved not one, but six pieces of the game to be in his favor. He killed six birds with one stone. Strategically, it's an incredible tactic, by the way. But morally, this act leaves something to be desired.

So why the wine and the dance? Because Rhysand plays with appearances. Everything in his game depends on it.

Feyre wouldn't play the whore of the whore while conscious, no one with a shred of self-respect would accept that without knowing the reason behind it, and Rhysand, for the reasons I mentioned, wouldn't tell her anything. So he makes her drink the wine to keep the whole purpose of that show and keeps her close to prevent her from being touched by anyone other than him.

But besides that, the wine is a form of escape, a way to forget about the horrors, as Feyre herself says at the end of the chapter where all this happens:

"[…] and I began to long for the moment when Rhysand would hand me the goblet of faerie wine and I could let loose for a few hours." (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 381).

In fact, Rhys sees it this way: when he is forced to kill the High Lord of the Summer Court (not Tarquin, but his cousin from whom he "inherited" the title, Nostrus), he himself drinks the wine with Feyre — it's an escape from the character he so carefully plays because not even Rhys can bear everything without letting the facade fall, even if only a little.

Note: not that I'm saying this would be a healthy way to deal with all that trauma and accumulated stress, but considering the place they were in and the situation, perhaps it was the most… effective way.

I have to say, however, that all of this doesn't justify what he did: it was still sexual abuse and it's still very bad and very serious. However, I need to point out to you: what we do to survive often does not reflect what we would be in a normal situation (normal being their everyday life without Amarantha, in this case).

When we are confronted with a situation like this, where to survive we end up needing to do something horrible, many say they would never do and would take the noble path of dying before giving up their values and principles, which is great, it proves that you have a very good character. The problem is that Rhys doesn't have the choice to think only of himself and how much this abuse will cost his dignity and principles because every decision he makes affects his people.

So here's my question for you: could you love someone who chose to preserve you instead of saving thousands of innocent — children, women, and men — who are under their responsibility?

Because I couldn't love someone who did that. And that's how I make peace with what Rhys did to Feyre Under the Mountain: I couldn't love someone who condemned the world to save me from abuse that I know I can endure — even if it causes me terrible harm.

Of course, it's entirely valid if you decide not to forgive him for what he did, because, after all, it's a morally gray action when you consider the whole situation they were in and what Rhys did. So, no one is really wrong for not forgiving Rhys for what he did, but those who forgive him aren't wrong either. It's very important that we understand that.

Now, an argument that is often used and that annoys me every time I hear it is that Sarah "changed Rhys and Tamlin's personalities because of shipping", so she ignored everything Rhys did Under the Mountain to make him the hero just because fans liked him. There are so many things wrong with that that I don't even know where to begin, but let's analyze all of Tamlin's, Feyre's, and Rhys's behavior throughout the ACOTAR and ACOMAF stories and show why I know Sarah did absolutely everything with careful consideration:

There is a trait that is very striking in Tamlin from the beginning of the ACOMAF story and is especially explicit when Alis tells the whole story about Amarantha, Tamlin, and the curse, which is the fact that Tamlin can't deal with the consequences of his actions:

The first time he does this is at the beginning of the curse when he gives up sending his soldiers to die for him, thus Tamlin simply gives up not only freeing himself but all of Prythian, all the people who live there, and still condemns the human lands in the process. He only started sending the soldiers out of desperation after 46 years, look at Alis's speech:

"For two years, he sent them, day after day, needing to choose who crossed the wall. When there were only a dozen left, Tamlin was so devastated that he stopped. He canceled everything." (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 294, Brazilian Edition).

The second time I can point out is Feyre herself (this because I'm ignoring the events during her stay in the Spring Court, as I don't remember what happened): he takes Feyre to Prythian with the intention of making her fall in love with him, but at the first glimpse of direct danger from Amarantha — in this case, the scene where Rhys makes him kneel — he sends her away.

He gives up saving Prythian because he can't stick to the decision to put Feyre in danger so that she could break the curse, so much so that he condemns himself for it, because Feyre only doesn't say that she loves him — and breaks the curse — precisely because she's leaving:

"— I love you. — He said, and stepped back. I should say — should say those words, but they got stuck in my throat because… Because of what he needed to face, because maybe he wouldn't find me again, despite the promise…" (A Court of Thorns and Roses, page 261, Brazilian Edition)

These are the main events, and perhaps I could list more for you if I reread A Court of Thorns and Roses. But what does this show us? That every time Tamlin makes a decision, he freezes and backs down at the first sign of an obstacle. He retreats and avoids anything that shakes him.

So it makes sense that Tamlin's reaction Under the Mountain is paralysis — a common behavior among leaders in times of war and defeat, by the way, which aligns not only with Tamlin's personality but also with the reaction of a true leader in such a situation.

Alright, let's stop there and go back in time to analyze Feyre's behavior:

Right from the start, we learn that, even being the youngest of three sisters, Feyre was the one who, when they were starving, took action and sought a solution, which shows us right away the kind of person Feyre is: she's the kind of person who acts when forced to face danger, whether it's something intangible, like death by starvation, or tangible, like Amarantha.

This is proven repeatedly throughout the books: when she seeks answers with the Suriel, when she tries to fight off the bastards who tried to rape her at Calanmai (because paralysis can also be a reaction to abuse of that kind), when she goes to Under the Mountain to fight for Tamlin without even hesitating, when she heals from the traumas of Under the Mountain as soon as she has something to focus on, something to dedicate herself to.

And this is one of the fundamental differences between Tamlin and Feyre: while he paralyzes, she acts, and whether we like it or not, differences create friction. Especially with what happened Under the Mountain because she and Tamlin were separated, and neither of them experienced trauma together. Paralysis generates a different trauma from the trauma of someone who is acting, so the end of their relationship begins when she goes to save him Under the Mountain — and Tamlin freezes.

Then we have Rhysand, who is exactly like Feyre: he acts when confronted with danger or defeat and has thousands of actions of his that exemplify this:

As soon as he becomes High Lord, he bans the wing clipping of Illyrian females regardless of the reaction of the Illyrian lords or what they thought about it. It's not that he doesn't care: Rhys, unlike Tamlin, is willing to pay the price that comes when a decision is made.

He becomes Amarantha's whore to protect his people from her getting too close to them. He doesn't care about the cost to himself simply because Rhys knows he's doing some good for his own people by letting himself be raped.

When he sees in Feyre the chance to do something to free all of Prythian, he goes all in knowing that that game would be total defeat or victory. He acts.

When Hybern starts threatening Prythian, he is willing to do whatever it takes — lose a potential friend, hand over the city he loved with all his heart to horrible women, give up his own life — so that they wouldn't fall into slavery again.

When the war comes anyway, he faces it head-on and uses every card he has to stop the King of Hybern: monsters of all kinds, all his power, his own life, and the truth about himself, about who he is.

And these are just a few examples. The fundamental difference between Tamlin and Rhys, just like between Tamlin and Feyre, is how they respond to situations and traumas.

Quoting Teddy Roosevelt (btw, this is a direct translation of the Portuguese version of the quote, so it can be different from the original):

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

Feyre and Rhysand are the ones in the arena, they are the ones who fight to be able to act in the face of evil — Amarantha. And it's interesting to note that those who condemn Rhys for the dubious actions he took Under the Mountain never say anything about Feyre committing murder there as well, which is a crime as heinous (or at least should be when it comes to innocent people) as Rhys's.

I'll tell you why: when we're faced with a gray and complex character like Rhys — and we don't know his heart, instead we're "infected" with the main character's partial view — we tend to connect him directly with evil, instead of understanding that this character is neither wholly good nor bad. We forgive soldiers for killing people in a war — that's also a combat in Under the Mountain, so why can't we forgive both Rhys and Feyre?

We forgive Feyre because we know how sorry she is, we know her heart, and we love her. But Rhys? He's the High Lord of the Night Court — which alone triggers some unconscious alerts within us — and he's playing dirty, hiding, and being a horrible person, so why should he be forgiven?

That's what our brain unconsciously thinks sometimes, and it makes us judge some characters more severely. Understanding the duality and complexity of a character is not an easy task; it requires a lot of empathy and an open mind.

But why am I saying this? Because it's important to understand: Rhys and Feyre are extremely similar, and they understand each other at a fundamental level because of that. Tamlin, on the other hand, has a completely different personality. He's the one who freezes, who paralyzes.

Rhys and Feyre experience the trauma Under the Mountain together, so Feyre and Tamlin are separated, which, combined with the glaring difference between the two, makes it difficult — perhaps impossible — for them to heal together because, out of loyalty to the character's nature, Sarah can't make Tamlin talk about what's happening like Feyre needs.

Even after Under the Mountain, Tamlin's instinctive action is to freeze. So he doesn't talk about Feyre's nightmares, he pretends not to see her despair, he turns away from her need to talk about the subject — because looking at her trauma would be the same as acknowledging his own.

And he can't do that because it's part of his nature to freeze. But this isn't healthy, hence the explosions of anger, and hence he locks Feyre up the moment she tries to assert herself: these are the consequences of forcing someone who deals with PTSD by freezing to actually deal with their traumas (that and the fact that he's horrible).

I can understand that (not in his relationship with Feyre, I'm talking more generally here, about him as High Lord, he can rot otherwise) but I can't forgive it like I did with Rhys because, unlike the actions Rhys took, paralysis only allows evil to continue to grow and end up imprisoning us (this is, in fact, one of the reasons why Tamlin didn't try to fight like Rhys while Amarantha was killing Feyre: his lack of previous action left him unable to take action when it was time to "put up or shut up").

While Tamlin's paralysis pushes us down while doing us harm, Rhys's actions, as horrible as they may be, are done in the hope of something good, they're done to move us forward. I can forgive him because I'd rather be someone who does horrible things in the hope of creating something better than be someone who allows evil to continue to grow until it imprisons me.

It's that simple.

And Feyre is exactly that kind of person. She needs to act, she needs to talk about it to heal. She needs to have a purpose, not be coddled like Tamlin — and his trauma — wants her to be.

The relationship between her and Tamlin becomes abusive the moment he tries to stifle her feelings to maintain a state of paralysis. And that's something you'd expect from a character like Tamlin, that's how he was built. But this happens long before Under the Mountain: I remember that on the first day Feyre yields to the dresses Tamlin gave her in ACOTAR, I think it was the morning after Calanmai, she warns herself to be gentle, to be kind, when dealing with Tamlin and Lucien.

But after Under the Mountain, Feyre can no longer accept that her feelings be stifled simply because her traumas are consuming her from the inside out. So she fights back. And that's what completely ends their relationship.

But the point is: both Tamlin, Feyre, and Rhysand follow exactly the line of their personalities throughout the story. They are those kinds of people from start to finish. There's an evolution, of course, but it's an evolution of beliefs, opinions, and perceptions — their essences remain the same.

That's why Sarah is brilliant in these books: by being completely faithful to her characters' personalities, she created a story that discusses abusive relationships, the varied responses of certain types of people to trauma, and the various reactions of leaders in times of war and defeat.

But the point is: none of them were changed to fit a ship, simply because they weren't changed. All three of these characters act exactly the way they should within the limits of their own personalities.

Rhys is the High Lord who plays dirty to create a better world, and Tamlin is a leader who can't make a tough decision. And there's another fundamental difference between them:

While Rhys knows that, from time to time, he'll be forced to make decisions that will end up harming part of his people (and will choose the lesser of two evils), Tamlin still struggles with the enchanted vision of a superhero who saves everyone without exception. And when that doesn't happen — because it's never possible to save everyone no matter what you do — he prefers not to act.

I think the two things that illustrate very well the kind of person Rhys and Tamlin are is the Illyrian tradition of cutting the wings of their females and the Tribute:

Rhys risks a revolt to improve the lives of his people and sticks to that decision, willing to pay the price for it if the result is a better life for the Illyrian females, while Tamlin fails to abolish an extremely unnecessary tax because his inability to act makes him cling to archaic traditions like the Tribute.

So, yes, I forgive Rhys for what he did Under the Mountain, because I couldn't love someone who freezes and leaves me to die. I prefer to love someone who cares so deeply about something — a dream — that they're willing to fight and play dirty for it. And then go to battle to defend it.

Hope you enjoyed it! Feel free to point out points that I didn't comment on; I'll try to respond to everyone's comments!"

#acotar #rhysand #feyre archeron #feysand #rhys acotar #books #fantasy books #sjm #sarah j. maas #sarah j maas #cassian acotar #a court of thorns and roses #acomaf #a court of mist and fury #a court of wings and ruin #tamlin #tamlin acotar #morrigan

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pensbridge · 7 months

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No matter what, fandom & the internet has a way of integrating toxicity into anything fun

If it's not:

— Thinking they have a right to the sexual orientation of actors as if the act of performing a story is "taking" jobs from the people not even present in the prospects of people in the room, it's

— Shipping actors and thinking that it is their job description to go beyond remaining cordial with their co-worker and doing the pre-assigned press by management/pr (if a joint interview is not required, it's not something that will be set up); also talking about your unabashed shipping w/o shame

— Harassing people's real life significant others or becoming obsessed with insignificant hate posts about them in their asks and analyzing an actor's actions, including the status of their friendships with co-workers// Parasocial relationships? They're weird

— Constant discourse for a fictional character or a ship as if it isn't possible to put your energy into something you actually like and remain quiet about something that brings you dissatisfaction (I don't participate with talk about parts I don't like; you can too)

— Writer hate (thousands upon thousands of shares in support for a strike have occurred, but people continuously take minor flaws as a means to be negative about the entire show (this is not about shows with terrible quality and endings; this is about shows that have a good run and ppl taking minor flaws to downvote the overall product)

— Furthermore, the minute a show drops the floods of negativity that await us (this is not representative of every piece of media out there; if it's bad, it's bad-you can tell the difference); but near-perfect shows, people just start looking for issues and drowning out any praise that lasted less than a day

— Any talk of appearance// Reducing people to their appearance. "Hot people," "hot guys depicting a gay relationship," men and your ideal within the female gaze/ your type of leading man, women and your over-critique of them. It's all such a shallow, reductive way to view humans beings

— Pitting actors/actresses against each other/ talking about who is better; and further spreading gross messages of hate in attempt of celebration/praise for the other person; idc anymore about doing this to characters, please these are real people!

— Any participation in the speculation of or jokes about an actor's life and perceived drama incl. edits and/or hateful commentary further spreading a message and perception to anyone that sees it, or

— Conspiracy theories, and seeking them out with every action, word, and gesture a person makes/says.

Please. Be more interesting.

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ask-serendipity-sky · 10 months

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Hello, everyone. I have something I need to say:

I've been very vocal about my feelings towards Tae and all the things he does. The people who follow me know that. I hardly talk about Tae because he's not the point of my blog but somehow he always comes up.

So I speak freely because that's what humans are meant to do. I don't care about fandom etiquette or jikooker rules or whatever crap someone made up. It's so childish to me.

And it was all fine. I don't go hate on anyone's blog and mine wasn't hated on either. I never got harassed for posting my thoughts. Until now.

Stormblessed95 has once again started bullying people for not thinking like her.

She does this everyone and then. I was just a lurker when she did it a while back last year, then a few months back like in April(?), and now, that I have my own blog, she's doing it directly to me.

Stormblessed's bullying post:

Ever since she said this (and probably other stuff that I didn't read), I have received hateful and bullying asks. Some I have posted...:

...others I have deleted, others I've kept...and they keep coming.

So people obviously listened to her words and got all riled up (like taekook-lives riles up her followers).

Ever since Stormblessed99 started her little bullying train again, every single word I post gets analyzed and I get a hateful message for it.

Of course she will play the victim card and say she's not calling anyone out. But then why, when referring to the "Tae Anti", does she use the exact words I used in my response?:

My words:

Stormblessed95's words:

All of this is straight up bullying and instilling hate so others can either bully me too, harass me, and silence me.

I voice my opinion on Tae but she voices her opinion as if it was the rule of the fandom and jikookers, enforces it by bullying people, people listen to her, then she plays the victim card saying she's the one who is being attacked.

It's funny how everytime there is a chapter of bullying and hate in jikook tumblr, she is present in every single one.

I'm frankly tired of this fandom being a bunch of sheep and being so quiet about what they think. This is why people keep growing with hate and think they have they right to police others.

So yeah, I just wanted to say this. Because I don't like being silenced and don't find it fair that people can't voice their opinions without having someone come at them.

I'm not a coward like the people who like to throw shade and hide behind the anon button.

Sooo... Stormblessed and friends, stop bullying me and my thoughts and next time you have something to say, come and say it directly to me.

Thank you all for your attention.

#jikook #kookmin

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betaphannie · 4 months

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Thoughts about the latest video essay about the phandom

This is more about how Certain People have spoken about the phandom, but that video really showed many of the gripes I have with people talking about the phandom.

rant/thoughts under the cut

One thing I notice a lot of people when talking about the phandom's past never mention is the existence of antis (If you aren't aware, back in the day before dnp came out there were a plethora of people who insisted that dnp were straight, not dating, and shipping them was violating their privacy. These people were members of the phandom deemed "antis."). Imo, antis were just as loud as demons, and honestly being in the phandom at that point usually meant that any kind of belief that dnp were queer and/or dating was met with pushback from antis. Like all the time.

I find this exclusion of any mention of them in these video essays and retrospectives odd, especially since people tend to treat the entire phandom as demons that were running around and analyzing/shipping dnp "without any moderation" (to quote the latest video essay), when that moderation often came from within in the phandom itself. I can't speak for earlier eras of the phandom, but when I joined in 2016, you could not avoid seeing phandom "rules" outlining when it was inappropriate to to tag dnp, what should not be talked about in detail within the phandom, what should not be sent in the chat during live shows etc. Between the phandom's own rules and antis sending out death threats at the smallest speculation, the phandom was in a constant state of tension from policing themselves. It was not a free-for-all wild west that people tend to view it as.

Also, for at least the era that I joined, the phandom was very aware of the reputation they had online. I knew of this reputation myself before I had joined, which was part of the reason I avoided watching dnp for a couple of years before caving. There were constant videos and posts being made to hate on the phandom. Dnp was a fandom that people associated with teenage girls, and as we all know there is nothing the internet hates more than teen girls. And these girls were also often emos, which was to say that they were especially hated and viewed as "cringe." I think that all the years of phannies trying to distance themselves from those stereotypes led to this overall feeling of Shame for being in the phandom. You felt like you had to constantly prove you weren't one of the Bad Ones, regardless on your actual opinions on dnp's relationship.

It's also weird to me how people discussing the phandom seem to act as though RPF and speculation surrounding real-life people's relationship is a novel concept and dnp are the only case of this occuring. It wasn't considered Super Cringe when normies tried to figure out if Tom Holland and Zendaya had a thing for each other, but getting invested in the lives of two people who literally made it their career to share their lives with the internet is somehow outlandish. I'm not saying it's good to be overly invested in a stranger's life even if they are sharing parts of themselves online, but this behavior wasn't exactly unique in the phandom, and yet the phandom always gets the brute end of parasocial relantionship critisms, even though dnp themselves talk about how much they treasure the relationship they have with their audience.

I think the phandom is a very interesting fandom with interesting history, structures, and lore. However, it is constantly reduced the shipping/speculation from demons and nothing else, which honestly to me seems to come from the fact that there is an urge within people not in a group to feel better and more intelligent than the people inside that group and a refusal to want to actually understand that group. The behaviour from antis and people "caught in the middle" is just as important to understanding its history and why the people currently in the phandom act the way they do, but that doesn't make a video where you can laugh at The Weirdos for liking something too much. Also, despite the fact that people love to criticize the phandom because they believe all the phandom cares about is dnp's relationship, those same people love focusing entirely on that themselves.

#intellectual monologue

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cloudbells · 7 months

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I think I understand your frustration. Although I was always a Tony fan more than Steve, I love him all the same and his story captivates me. Some time ago, I realized some Stevetony shippers hated Steve when CW came out. Worst part being that, with all the bashing, I was beginning to hate him too. I realized this and decided to stop interacting w the ship for a few years because I wasn't happy with that bashing. Luckily, I came back to find many talented stony shippers/artist who love both Steve and Tony (both their flaws included!). I enjoy CW angst, but I feel sometimes it really makes people bash either Tony or Steve and it pisses me off.

LONG POST

One, thank you anon for the message! Two, I’m actually super curious which post of mine prompted this message lol. I have quite a few both on this account and my main. Third, you actually sent this at a time where I’m pretty passionate about this, so allow me to be a little loose and lengthy with my words for a bit.

CACW was absolute Hell for the stevetony fandom, especially for Steve stans, but in a way, I’m kind of happy I can see just who doesn’t actually like Steve and only liked him on a condition of him being around to be Tony’s buffer. You can see it in the way people write/talk about Steve. They want a blank, playdough character that coddles Tony.

I actually like CACW as a movie. I think the more I analyze how the characters behave and why they do what they do, I like it even more. I’ve said this a few times, but Steve became my favorite after watching this movie. I liked him a whole lot before, but the way he conducted himself in Civil War stole my heart straight from my chest. So when I came online to see that everyone apparently thought he was worse than Satan himself…It was the whiplash of a lifetime. It didn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t make sense to me. Even me, fully being on Steve’s side, didn't hate Tony for what I consider to be slights against Steve in that movie. So where was this visceral hatred for Steve coming from? I just concluded that people already lowkey didn’t like him. Never ask a Stony shipper their opinion on Avengers 1 lol.

I love talking about CW. I have quite a few posts on my stance about it and honestly, I wished more people asked me about CW so I could talk about it, but the reality is that they don’t need to because I already talk about it all the time lol! Everything they want to know is probably somewhere on my page or somewhere on Discord. I think CW has such a huge potential to produce some really good discourse and storylines within the fandom, but people were so blinded by…whatever they were blinded by to see that. I swear, some of the things I see, I’d bet my arm that a lot of people either didn’t watch CACW or watched it once, consumed a bunch of headcanon about it, and then proceeded to talk about it like they personally studied the film and all its nuances.

Now, in the stony fandom, it’s clear that Tony is the fan favorite. Overall, actually. And I don’t mind that for two reasons: I’m used to liking characters that are somewhat controversial (for the wrong reasons), and I adore Tony. I actually love that man in ways words can’t express. The English language hasn’t evolved with enough intricacies that would allow me to tell you how much I am enamored with him. So seeing that other people love him too? Instant joy. BUT, this runs into the problem when Steve is paired with him because well, we see it.

My irritation comes from people either outright ignoring, mischaracterizing or not understanding Steve in CW. So many huge misconceptions were being spread around like wildfire to the point where some people think that Steve not reading the Accords is canon. They think that it’s canon that Steve only opposes the Accords for Bucky. They think that Steve was being unreasonable or purposely uncommunicative or outright egotistical in CACW for refusing to sign the Accords. They think that Steve is against all oversight and wants to be a loose cannon. They think Steve is being immature and wants to avoid accountability for anything. They think that Steve was trying to lie to Tony when he first answered that he didn’t know about his parents, instead of it being deeper than that.

Y’know, so many of these same people accuse Steve of being boring and flat, without realizing that they are the ones stripping the nuances and complexities of his characters away from him and then turning around and whining about how one dimensional Steve is. It pisses me off, truly. It especially pisses me off in the stony fandom cause I expected better. If people still actively ship them, you’d think that they would make the effort to understand Steve instead of screeching loudly about how he’s evil AND being wrong about the reasons why he’s evil.

And the thing is, Steve’s motivations aren’t even confusing. They just aren’t. I've had Steve fans tell me it's confusing so I should ease up, but it isn't and I won't. Do I sound like a bitch here? Perhaps, but I don't care rn. Maybe they’re more subtle, especially considering that CW took the time to spell out all of Tony’s pain and past and guilt and internal conflict to the audience while Steve’s mindset was more so hinted at in his own movie. But let me rant about that later. Steve is the only one shown on screen to be reading the Accords, and then he elaborates a bit on why he’s against them. Despite this, the audience seems to take literally everyone else's word on Steve as law (Rhodey saying Steve’s mindset is a sign of arrogance and fandom parroting about how arrogant Steve is for example) instead of just…paying attention to what Steve says and what Steve does. He actually almost signs before Tony tells Steve about Wanda. And this scene is very important to me. Because Steve was about to decide to just trust Tony, and go all in with him until Tony just told him that his objections to the Accords were already being enacted. So yeah, he reacts the way he did. It’s a shock how close he was to signing away to a document he KNOWS is evil because he read it—

Let me stop before this turns into a CW meta. But, in short, I just hate the bashing of Steve. He of all characters doesn't deserve it. The way people bend backwards to twist his every action into some malicious intention. I’m surprised people haven’t pulled muscles by the way they reach to demonize him. In his own goddamn ship. And y’know what, it’s not even just the Steve mischaracterization that causes this. So many Tony fans willingly mischaracterize Tony just to demonize Steve. But that’s a convo for a different post.

This post was gonna be much, much longer. I had a shit ton I suddenly wanted to speak on, but I decided to stop here lol. I was getting off topic when all you did was express sympathy. Thank you again!

#me my mine #CACW #pro steve rogers #steve rogers defense squad #steve rogers #got hit up #thank you anon #anti sokovia accords

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stupendousfoxthing · 2 months

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It's so annoying to me when I come across people who say that tkkers base their belief in taekook on edits and videos that overanalyze. Not saying that there aren't shippers like this but I know this is not the case for alot of tkkers I know and certainly not for me. I had no interest in shipping and theorising on band mates being in a secret relationship when I got into BTS. I just really loved their music and their story.

I noticed taekook while catching up on lives and binging BTS content trying to get to know the members more. I wasn't trying to ship any members, but I was picking up on things with taekook that made me side eye them ngl. The odd tension in lives, the hot and cold behaviour, being overly touchy and familiar with eachothers bodies and personal space while also sometimes acting like they don't know eachother. I tried to brush it off but the vibe they were giving off was like when you start noticing tension between two people in a friend group but nobody talks about it and it becomes the big elephant in the room, only to find out later they were secretly hooking up lol.

After awhile I felt like I had gotten a good grasp on all the friendships and dynamics within the group and yet taekook remained a big question mark to me and fandom discourse certainly didn't help at all. It's only then that I fell into the rabbit hole out of curiousity and most of what I learnt has solidified my suspicions about them. You really don't need analysis videos or shipping edits to notice them because the vibe they give off and the things they do, the way BigHit handled them, these things are enough to make you question. Remember when locals at 2020 Grammy's were asking if they were a couple? Yep, taekook give off boyfriend vibes and we all know it, even the naysayers know it deep down.😂

(Btw I love reading your thoughts, please post more 😭)

It doesn't annoy me when other people say that about Taekookers, because I know for a fact that's not what I base my belief on and I think a significant portion of people who say that are trying to convince themselves there's nothing between TK, we just really want there to be. A lot seem to believe that if they get rid of us Taekook's relationship will stop existing, whatever the nature of that relationship is. Personally I hate analysis videos. Like I said previously, when I first starting looking at Taekook those kinds of videos weren't very popular yet. The two big YouTube accounts I followed just posted compilation videos of moments with no analysis. That's all I need. There are so many moments that speak for themselves. I'll be screaming about the nape kiss until the end of time. I'm sorry but there's no way you're going to convince me there's anything platonic about that. Two recent moments I think about a lot are the Sweetheart shirts and Tae's live where we found out Jungkook always sings "To Find You" to him. Those are very loud and obvious imho. I don't need to analyze them. I've also in my own life accurately called these same "vibes" between plenty of people who ended up together. The tells aren't any different for same-sex couples, but some people will readily read romantic/sexual interest into every interaction between a man and a woman but dismiss way more sus moments between two men. I think there would be no question about Taekook for a lot of people if they were a het pair. I do remember the buzz around them at the Grammys. I was just recently thinking about reactions I saw on Twitter to the live where Tae played "Oh No Oh Yes" (where he intentionally "twin flamed" with Jungkook as an anon recently pointed out). That had some people questioning things. I remember seeing people talking back and forth in a thread about the lyrics and how they usually drag Taekookers but maybe we're onto something. 😂 I still think that some people who call us delusional just don't follow what happens between Taekook, because they were more suspicious than ever during solo era. Thank you for the message, sorry it took me a bit to get to answering ❤️

#asks #taekook

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darklight572 · 4 months

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Lumity is my Favorite Ship

So far I've only talked about She-Ra, specifically, about takes the fandom have I find....uncritical of the media. Just talking about the negative and analyzing that is only half of the human experience though, and I really don't like contributing to the 'social media hate cycle' so to speak.

Lumity is my favorite ship in all of media, and -imo- probably one of the most well written ones too. For those unaware "Lumity" refers to the fictional characters Luz Noceda and Amity Blight's romantic relationship within The Owl House. Being too broad it follows the "enemies to lovers" format of taking two superficially opposed characters and having them slowly understand how one or both of them aren't actually opposed, comulating in a relationship. And yes, I do think enemies to lovers is about superficial differences, come at me.

Anyways, first I want to establish the context of the relationship- who are the characters, how they interact, and how do their interactions produce the best and most wholesome romance relationship in fiction? So- starting off, context

CONTEXT (Luz the Misunderstood) Luz Noceda is a 14 year old dominican americal girl who expresses herself blatantaly as neurodivergent. Dana Terrace has explicitly called Luz adhd, and as a adhd-er myself i absolutely think she nailed at least one version of adhd. Luz can be easily distracted or focus so heavily on something she neglects others, she goes off on tangents, and worries that her interests scare people off- cuz they do.

She's also incredibly creative and expressive, showing off her unique style and presentation to all without any hesitation. To the point she uses real life snakes in a presentation and has backup snakes (also fireworks, which, yeah). After the aforementioned presentation went... off the rails, her mother and principal decide its in her best interest to attend a place called "Reality Check Camp". Now, this has spawned a lot of discourse within the Fandom, but for now lets leave it at her mother wanting her to try to make real friends because "your (Luz's) fantasy world is holding you back."

This is key to understanding Luz as a character, her fantast world was in fact, not holding her back. While there is absolutely credence to the fact that Luz was planning to use fireworks at some point, and should probably be checking to see if her snakes were safe, the key point here is the framing of Luz's interests as "holding her back" from making real friends. This is extremely interesting due to the fact that her love of fantasy is seemingly inspried by Azura, a book her late father left for her. Its also notable that people can like all of the things Luz likes and not create dangerous situations. A key point here, regardless of if Camila is justified or not, is that there is a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem.

All of Luz's interests are not what creates the conflict, its a lack of awareness for some of the consequences of her actions, which isn't unique to Luz at all- just displayed differently. I think this is something a lot of neurodivergent folk can relate to, believing that we are uniquely troubled people who hurt people. No, in fact, we are not. What Luz needed wasn't a "reality camp" it was a place where people accepted her, so that she could have the space to open up and the real problem could be addressed. Luckily for our protag, this is exactly what the boiling isles present.

CONTEXT P. II (Amity the Lonely) Amity Blight is a 14 year old witch of the wealthy blight industries. She starts the show as demeaning and cruel, and in some ways is that way, but is later shown as kind and overwhelmingly loyal. This is not a contradiction in her, but dichotomies and growth. Amity is abused her parents, this is just the objective fact of the matter, her friendship is weaponized to make her feel lesser and is actively threatening said friend's future.

Willow isn't the main point of this post, but she is vital as a perspective to view Amity, as children they were best friends. But Willow wasn't as naturally talented at magic as Amity was. Amity, being 4, didn't necessarily see this as a bad thing- but her parents did. They have a toxic idea that the Blights should only interact with those fit to interact with them, usually in the context of social or literal power- though an emphasis on social. So when it became apparent that Willow wasn't progressing fast enough, they threatened to have Willow never able to go to hexside (the magical school the characters attend).

This is- a lot- but afterwards Amity uses Willow's seeming powerlessness as the justification for the breaking off of their friendship, and as time goes on, begins to bully Willow from some amount of geinune distaste. It should be EXTREMELY clear however, that Amity's bullying is very directly linked to her mother's expectations. Lets get into that a bit, Odalia Blight expects perfection from Amity- her grades, her social standing, her appearance. All three of the Blight siblings must create an artificial layer to appease their mother.

Amity in particular is practically forced to die her hair green to fit in with the majority of the family, even if she doesn't particularly like her green hair. All of these are expectations, and more importantly, conditions for Amity to attain any sort of love or affection. Her father neglects all of his children, and her older twin siblings harass her with jokes. Her only form of attachments are Boscha and Skara, two people picked out by her mother as "appropriate options" for friends. That is to say, Amity actually has no one, she is- alone.

Amity volunteers at the library to read to children, and at least at some point, works there. She has a place where she can indulge in her fantasy books and not have to care about expectations quite so much. The person who treats her most kind before the start of the series is her librarian boss.... thats a very low point- especially for a 14 year old.

INTERACTIONS (The Enemy Part) Luz and Amity first collide in "I was a Teenage Abomination", and in fact, is the first episode featuring Amity at all. For context, in this episode, we see Willow belittled by Amity for her lack of skill with abominations, and Luz disillusioned by Eda's non-teaching brand of teaching. So they make a deal, Luz will pretend to be an abomination so Willow can make a better grade and Luz will get to see some of Hexside. Until this episode, Amity is the "top student" of the abomination track.

With Luz's ability to speak and do more complex orders (as...she's a person), Willow is granted the top student badge. We see throughout the rest of the episode that Amity is suspicious and eventually tells Principal Bump- who seems to ask Willow to disect Luz. When they run away, Amity chases after them, and its only Willow's plant magic prowess that allows Luz to escape. Thats- a lot- but some key points we need to remember: Bump, in the end, doesn't disect Luz- and later on is nonhostile to her- its fair to say that the dissection was just a ploy to get Willow to admit her friend was an abomination.

It should be clear why Amity is so upset based on the context we established earlier: Amity is pressured to be perfect, she is socially isolated, and she is mandated to keep Willow's and her ties cut at consequence of Willow's future at hexside (this is later shown to very much not be an empty threat). To me its clear that she's not actually upset at Luz here, she's angry that her only form of validation she can get- being the best- is taken by a cheater. She takes this so seriously because the ONLY affection she receives (calling it affection is overexaggerating even) is when she's perfect.

The next time they interact in a major way is in episode 5 "Convention," Amity is frustrated at Luz when she runs into her because she blames her for her loss of her "Top Student" status. Which isn't unfair, her actions afterward are, but Amity has a legitmate point here that Luz's actions have negatively impacted her. This is important for Luz's character development and for understanding Amity's actions. Luz is not perfect here, and we've seen throughout the beginning episodes how Luz struggles to reconcile her preconcieved notions with the reality of her situation, the consequences of her actions.

Luz accidentally accepts a deal that would permanently have her stop training in magic if she loses a duel with Amity, and then loses, sorta. You see both Eda and Lilith (Luz and Amity's mentors respectively) cheat to give their student an advantage. Luz knows and tries not to let Amity fall into the magic mines Eda plants but Amity does not know about the sigil on her neck until Eda reveals it. Amity runs away and blames Luz for humiliating her. Now, this isn't quite so fair, Eda was responsible- but as Luz explains her desires and that she geniunely didn't mean to Amity listens and we see the first tender interaction between them.

Its really not even calling them friends at this point, but it does start to shift them away from "enemies" and make them... rivals? Its complicated and messy, but Luz starts to understand Amity here- understands that she did harm Amity with her actions and learns what she has to do to be better.

INTERACTIONS P. II (Friends) The next time they have a major interaction is episode 7, "Lost in Language", this is when Luz see's Amity reading to children in the library and first seriously shows her desire to befriend Amity. This is possible because Luz has already gotten the "primer" so to speak in understanding Amity. Luz is able to see Amity more clearly because she was previously able to extend compassion past an apathetic or even cruel exterior and take responsibility for her actions.

Amity is hostile at first, but not aggressively so, and puts up with Luz much more peacefully than prior. Though she still doesn't necessarily like Luz due to Luz's previous transgressions against her, calling her a bully. Luz seemingly proves this when, after being peer pressured by Amity's siblings, accidentally reads her diary. After some Owl House shenanigans where Luz tries to save Amity, Luz reaches out and gives Amity her fifth Azura book. This episode is important in correcting Amity's impression of Luz- she wasn't trying to harm Amity, she just- wants friends and tends to be pretty reckless at times.

Seeing Luz's continued insistence also lets Amity reflect on her own behavior, while she's done so before in releasing Luz from their magical oath, this is the first time she outright states that her behavior isn't good. All of this is vital to slowly developing their friendship, maybe they aren't friends by the end of the episode, but they can firmly say they aren't enemies.

Next episode they interact is episode 12 "Adventures in the Elements" and is a pivotal part of their development. This Amity is the least guarded around Luz, while she still isn't showing her geniune emotions at first, she isn't hostile to Luz at all. The only conflict in the episode is caused by Luz stealing Amity's training staff and waking up a Slitherbeast (an otherwise neutral beast) who steals Amity's siblings and Eda.

Amity puts Luz in a forcefield to protect her, not believing that Luz is up to rescuing her mentor. After Luz shows her wrong and they save everyone, they have another positive interaction- at this point- it is fair to say that they have become friends. This isn't the first time Amity has tried to help Luz, she did in "Lost in Languages" too, but this is the first time she does so proactively and not when she is in direct danger. Amity cares about Luz.

The next three episodes they prominently interact in, "Understanding Willow" (15), "Enchanting Grom Fright" (16), and "Wing it like Witches" (17) all develop this friendship into something more- at least for Amity. Starting with Understanding Willow, this episode further illucidates Amity's issues, finally revealing why she cut off her friendship with Willow and her parents part in that. Willow doesn't immediately forgive Amity, but it does allow her to understand Amity better (as do the audience)- i think this is the episode where people start to align with Luz's perception of Amity.

its also the episode, imo, that Amity firmly establishes her crush on Luz. In this episode, despite Amity's blatant mistake and cause of the problem, Luz reaches out and gives her compassion. Not judging her, just asking her to take accountability for her actions. And although she does try to hide some things, ultimately what shes really hiding is what her parents did to her, very understandable. Its also notable that the reason Amity tries to burn that memory in the first place is no doubt trying to hide any relationship with Willow- as her mother might still be on the prowl and hurt Willow that way.

This is the second time Luz manages to make Amity blush, but even despite that, their friendship is still slightly rocky. Amity raises her voice at Luz when she tries to convince her to fix the core memory- we understand with the context of the memory itself that Amity is desperately trying to hide from what she did- from what her mother made her do- at least partially. Most importantly, at the end of the episode Amity finally takes full accountability. Even though her mother did make her sever their ties, Amity still bullied Willow- and its clear both of them know that.

Amity at this point has seen Luz make mistake after mistake, hurt people over and over, but she's also seen that Luz is always accountable for her mistakes- and always do her very best to make up for them. Luz, on the other hand, is learning to be more careful about what she does- though thats not fully driven through at this point, the embers are there. I think the compassion and her learning from Luz here is what first lets Amity begin to crush on Luz.

Next, and one of the most important episodes for Lumity, is Enchanting Grom Fright- where Amity is afriad to ask Luz to Grom - and Amity herself is slated to fight Grom- a magical creature one student has to fight every year that can manifest their worst fears. Given that, Amity of course is extremely grateful when Luz volunteers to be "Grom Queen" instead. This however, doesn't go as well as it could have, when Luz runs away when her mother is what Grom shows her- displaying Luz's fear: that her mother will find out where she's been and believe Luz was lying to her out of- a lot of reasons.

Amity goes after her and faces her fear with Luz to defeat Grom- Luz see's Amity's fear- vaguely being rejected - and isn't aware Amity wanted to ask her to Grom. Luz offers to be her date instead (she did not assume Amity wanted to ask her), and they dance and have a nice night. This is the first real time Luz really expresses any sort of romantic interest in Amity, and could be reasonably interpreted as her being bubbly and friendly. Though it is notable that Luz is very insistent on being Amitys friend even before this, so its not like its unreasonable to assume Luz was already- maybe subconsciously- crushing on Amity prior.

Finally, for this section we have "Wing it like Witches" episode 17- and the last time Luz and Amity majorly interact in season 1. In this episode Luz pushes her friends too hard when shes trying to help them, this pushes Willow and Gus away and Luz is in trouble without them. Amity rescues Luz by reminding Willow that Luz didn't have any bad intentions she was just trying to help. Luz still takes accountability though, and even begins to change the "enemies" by showing them compassion. This episode is almost like a mini-arc for Lumity- Luz messing up but always taking accountability, and changing those who would be her enemies into friends with compassion.

LUMITY (Partners!) Finally, we arrive at S2, and where things start to really head toward endgame Lumity. The first major interaction between the two is in episode 2 of season 2 "Escaping Expulsion". Odalia cashes in on the threat she made so long ago, after finding out that Gus, Willow, and Luz are Amity's friends she arrives and has them expelled from school. Amity is too frightened of her mother to speak back at first and doesn't help Luz when she wants to speak with her mother. This continues Amity's trend of trying to protect Luz in her own way, under the manipulation of her mother.

Later on, when Luz makes a deal with Odalia anyway, Amity-Willow-and Gus go to save her from her parents- as Odalia doesn't plan on letting Luz go (presumably she's going to MURDER Luz in front of her investors which- wjsdf yeah Odalia is a horrible person), Amity saves Luz and we see for the first time Luz blushing at Amity- this is probably when you can first say Luz might be crushing on Amity. This shows that Amity is willing to stand up to her abuser for Luz, and yes Willow and Gus- but i think its evident that she is especially willing- some might even say seeing Luz get hurt is the motivation she needs- to stand up to Odalia.

Episode 5, "Through the Looking Glass Ruin" is very very important- because here they practically both admit they like each other. So- some set up- at this point Luz had to destroy the portal back home so that Emperor Belos (the real antagonist) couldn't use it for his own purposes- after some research she's finally discovered that another human was in the isles before and donated his diary to the library. Amity offers to help Luz find it among the "forbidden stacks" where no one is allowed to go. This is also when Amity reveals that her boss is the one that gave her her secret hideaway.

Luz is too loud when they discover the diary has been eaten by an Echo Mouse and Amity loses her job. During this episode we see Luz try not to pressure Amity in, but Amity helps Luz anyway- motivated by her crush on Luz- and just, wanting to help her. In the end they both admit that "they do stupid things around" the other- and Luz goes back in to get Amity's employeship back- and has to do trials to do so. After explaining things Amity kisses Luz on the cheek and perhaps the most wholesome seen in all of disney plays, only challenged by later Lumity scenes. Anyway- take aways: once again Amity is reminded of Luz's never ending compassion and continued commitment to taking accountability for her actions and most importantly- her mistakes.

After this, we finally get to their relationship starting: Episode 8, "Knock. Knock, Knockin' on Hooty's Door" Hooty attempts to solves all of the Owl House inhabitants struggles- and in that quest- kidnaps Amity and makes Luz and Amity go through the tunnel of love together. In her embarrassment Luz tears things down and accidentally hurts Amity. At this point, Amity probably believes Luz hates the idea of being with her, but this is quickly slashed after Eda encourages Luz to just ask her. Both of them are reduced to blushing messes but they manage to ask each other out and hold each other's pinkie- in again- an incredibly adorable scene.

This works so well because of the consistent set up- both of them have developed so far to get to this point- both of them have learned and become better people than they were, and have become close friends willing to help and support each other when they need it. Its not just that its adorable, its that it helped develop both characters grander arcs and is healthy.

Relationship (The Pay Off) I could continue to break this relationship down episode by episode, and at some point i will, but this post is already long enough- so im gonna hit the major points. Luz and Amity's adventures going forward are so great because they continually show a healthy, adorable, and positive relationship. That is to say, they help support one another, they continue to be friends, and they both continue to develop.

In Eclipse Lake, Amity mistakes Luz's message (with some nudging from the Golden Guard- long story: he's an antagonist kind of, mostly just another abused kid) as a condition for their relationship, but comes to the realization with King's help that their relationship - unlike so many in Amity's life- isn't conditional. In the best episode of the show (don't @ me) Reaching Out, Luz learns to - lmao- reach out when she tries to hide that she's hurting by insisting on helping Amity. She ends up lying to Amity to continue hiding, and hurts her- but its revealed that its the anniversary of her father's death.

Luz, again, takes accountability for her actions- but Amity still comforts her and supports her- Luz learns (at least partially) to reach out for help. Every interaction of Amity and Luz isn't wholeness heaven with no bad things happening, these kids make mistakes and sorta tumble through their first relationship together, but... they learn. They take account for their mistakes and work together to fix the mistake, they learn to confide in each other, that their relationship isn't dependent on conditions.

The reason Lumity's my favorite ship? It shows two queer kids finding each other, starting off against each other, but through compassion and understanding they become friends and something more. Then, they maintain that relationship, while maintaining their indviduality. They are not absorbed by their relationship, instead they are helped and improved.

"We can fix this together."

#owl house #lumity #luz noceda #amity blight

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taylortruther · 5 months

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you are the only normal swifite there is i think

also i think its so interesting the way that swifties have decided generally that any mention of her life in the past has to be related to joe (or an ex in general - what does that say about the way that the 'serial dater' image exists even within fandom maybe?) but also that she has to hate him if she ever regrets anything? like my previous long-term relationship (in which by partner was maybe more of a M*yer analogue than a Joe, at least from what we know) is one that I don't talk about that much out of respect and love for my current partner - obviously it comes up sometimes but it would be wild if i was out here talking all the time about the things that i loved about my big ex and the ways i missed him for so long??? and that exists times 100000000 when everything she says will be analyzed for references to her past and her present.

also when we consider how private the relationship was i think it also makes sense for the breakup to be as private as it was/continues to be

and in her instagram post she pointed out her 'trust issues when it comes to interviews' as she thanked time for being respectful of her, so maybe we should be more willing to remember that we will never know a human being through what they share in an interview!!! and it isn't our business!! of course we can be interested and have fun but the backlash is crazy to me in every respect

i've said it before, but the way this fandom puts every word under a magnifying lens and, as a result, loses the ability to hear her out in a normal human way, is one of my biggest gripes.

she was really right when she said this about how she can say 'hello' and people will misinterpret it in about 15 different ways:

youtube

also it's funny to me that you think she's been private about this breakup because what i've learned is that a lot of people think she is speaking about it waaaaay too much. to the point where even when she pointedly doesn't talk about her relationship, that's somehow still... about... the relationship...

#this fandom will never let her escape her 2014-and-earlier petty image and the worst part is #the gp won't and i'm sure she expects that but her own fandom?

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soleminisanction · 2 years

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Since you’re in a meta-ing mood, what do you think of the fandom trend to portray Tim Drake as a ‘genius idiot’, basically a supercomputer brain for crime and business, but can’t cross the street or talk to people without injury or insult that is always his fault. Lots of times this ties in with the idea he’s desperate to get Robin back and the other Bats will basically have to have an intervention to get him to ‘grow up’ and move to his own cape. As you can see, I’ve run into a meta bog

I can sum up my opinion on that fandom trend in two words: It's bullshit.

It's part of a modern trend that I hate, the idea that "the smart guy" archetype automatically defaults to a (badly) autistic-coded tech bro with no social skills. It gets slapped onto so many characters it never should have applied to, and Tim is a big one. He's not even that much of a tech guy! He liked technology, sure, but that was supposed to flag him as a nerd in the 90s, not as some exceptional talent in the field. Him using a computer in his investigations more than Bruce was the narrative equivalent of teaching your parents how to use social media.

No, I've said this before and I'll say it again: Tim is and has always been a detective prodigy. Which means that his skill set lies in observation, deduction, sociology and psychology.

Tim gets people, he's good with people, he can empathize with them, analyze them, and manipulate them in equal measure. Anybody who pretends otherwise just flat-out doesn't read comic books, because the evidence is everywhere. To the point I really don't feel like hunting it down right now, because I've done it before, and other people have done it before, heck I've reblogged a fair number of them myself under my meta tag because I'm always happy when somebody recognizes it.

But also, like, people could figure it out if they used some basic common sense: not only do detectives need to be good with people, but so do businessmen. Being able to persuade and/or manipulate people is like 90% of that job, especially when you're the company spokesperson.

It's just... so obviously wrong, but people are lazy, I guess. (Looking at you, Wayne Family Adventures. -_-)

As for the tie-in with Robin, that's the biggest eye-roll of all. Tim isn't "desperate" to get Robin back, he's slipped back into it because Damian, for all his whining and demands, refuses to do the actual job.

Damian doesn't want to be Robin, not really. He doesn't care about its symbolism, he chafes under his father's command, he's too antisocial to fill Robin's role in the community, and he's not even all that attached to Gotham.

What Damian wants is the respect that comes with Robin as a title, the perceived legitimacy it grants as a member of the Bat-family and within the caped community, and the symbolic gesture of making him the squire to his father's knight. All of which speak to an emotional need that a) is not and should not be "the point" of Robin, a role that by this point is bigger than one person, and b) is clearly not being fulfilled by his attempts to be Robin. The role is far more stifling for Damian than it ever was for Tim.

Meanwhile, Tim is right there, still believing with all his heart in Batman's mission and in the importance of Batman and Robin as symbols of hope and justice, just like he always has, and still perfectly content to fulfill that role if no one else is going to step up and do it. So of course he's going to take the mantle back, it's the exact same thing he did the first time Dick said he wouldn't stop being Nightwing. Tim didn't have a good reason to stop being Robin in the first place.

Heck, technically speaking, he never actually stopped being Robin, not really. People forget this, but the Red Robin persona? Is specifically supposed to be a Robin who stayed Robin and NEVER "outgrew" the role. It was originally created for the Kingdom Come take on the Golden Age/Earth-Two Dick Grayson, who never became Nightwing, he just grew up into a Robin who was more like Batman. Red Robin was just a more serious, less cartoony take on the idea.

I've always thought that's part of why it didn't work for Jason; he's somebody who actually did need to outgrow Robin, partially because he was kind of rough fit to begin with and partially because by that point it was already wrapped up in so much trauma for him that it wouldn't have been healthy to cling. But it worked for Tim because, when you get right down to it, he really didn't have a reason to give up Robin at all -- least of all to coddle the ego of a spoiled brat -- and probably would've just told Damian to go fuck himself if his quest to bring Bruce back didn't involve shady shit like breaking into museums and illegally entering protected heritage sites.

Anyway, sorry for the ramble, been a long day at work and I'm tired but TL;DR -- "genius idiot"/coffee gremlin Tim sucks, the real Tim is sweet and empathetic and only as awkward as any other teenage boy, and he should get to be Robin for as long as he damn well pleases.

#tim drake #my blorbo #meta #damian wayne critical #robin #red robin #robins #dc comics #dc #fandom ramblings #rambling on a topic I've touched on before #sorry if you were hoping for citations and shit I've done this essay a few times and it's well out of my system by now #fandom #ask me stuff

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stxrry-dxys · 7 months

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alright i wanted to elaborate a little bit on this post i made here. i’ve been dying to do a proper analysis on hero’s character, but before we start i would like to make some things clear: i do not hate any of the kids, and i do not think any of them are bad or irredeemable people. while i do not think all of their actions were good or justified, i do believe that they had every right o feel upset, hurt, or overwhelmed in the scenarios i am about to analyze. i just want to clarify because i don’t want it to sound like i’m here to dogpile on hero, aubrey, or kel specifically. they’re kids, they’re going to be bad at handling things, and while i am going to criticize some of their actions i do NOT think that they are horrible people by any means. now let’s get into why i think hero is not the perfect responsible boy sunny or the fandom has built him up to be.

hero and mari are the oldest children in a group of friends with not many solid parental figures. kel is a glass child, something hero is shown to be aware of when he runs to kel after their argument when he sees he’s being ignored. as well, their mom is shown to be slightly manipulative and guilt trippy in the game. and while i don’t think this necessarily means she’s abusive i do think saying things like “your mean old brothers don’t want anything to do with us” can create a lot of guilt and stress within a household, especially when their dad just kind of sighs and lightly tries to talk with her. aubrey is in an abusive and neglectful household with her mom, and her dad is implied to be a bit controlling (“my dad would never let me dye my hair”). basil lives alone with an ailing grandmother and parents who are never around. sunny’s only solo memories of his father are the tree chopping incident and him yelling about lost remotes so much that everytime you even click on a remote sunny says not to touch it because “it might get lost”. (im going to exclude sunny’s mom from this section as i feel there’s lots of different ways to interpret her dynamic with the kids and i swing back and forth on these myself).

but all this to say, hero and mari are sort of forced into this parental role for all these kids, while they’re only teenagers themselves. and while the younger ones obviously look up to and admire them, there’s only so much they can do, and both of them are subject to bias as well. this is where i think the idea of them being “so responsible!” kind of fails, though it’s more obvious with hero than with mari.

in headspace, pretty much the first thing hero does is scold kel and aubrey for fighting, a very, very consistent theme for his character. and yes, i am aware that headspace is not 1:1 with the real world, but i do think a lot of the character moments between the main four are based off real events that may have happened. so yeah, hero scolds kel and aubrey a lot, but he also fails at scolding them a lot. often he plays the mediator (“cut it out you two” or “you two are in trouble now”) and while it gets kel and aubrey to drop their current fight, it doesn’t stop another one from coming in the next five minutes. and this failure to prevent their fights and getting more and more annoyed with them throughout headspace’s run culminates in hero’s biggest mistake in how he handles the two of them, that if we’re to believe is based off events that did likely happen, bleeds into the current day fight between kel and aubrey as well.

during the humphrey section of two day’s left, the main four find a lone flower crown lying on the ground. they forgot don’t know who it belongs to, but it’s crumpled and dirty. aubrey debates taking it to return to its owner, and hero says it may not be in a condition where they even want it anymore. and then kel kicks it off the edge, sparking aubrey to yell at him. now kel is slightly in the wrong here, as the best thing to do would be to just not touch it instead of kicking it into the void. and aubrey being frustrated is understandable, but ultimately it’s not a super big deal as it’s not any of their property, so she’s not really in the right for picking a fight here either. however when kel goes to defend himself and say “well hero said no one would even want it any more anyways!” hero snaps. (“that’s enough! kel, apologize to aubrey.”) and this is the biggest issue with hero playing parent for the group, he’s biased.

hero grew up with kel, he’s his brother so he gets to be a little mean or snappy at him and have it all be fine later, and the inverse is true as well. but as much as hero may see aubrey as a little sister, he is not related to her, and he will not feel as comfortable scolding her as harshly as he does kel. so when he reaches his limit with their fighting and snaps, he doesn’t snap at aubrey, he snaps at kel and demands he put a stop to it, even if kel doesn’t really need to. see, kel is in the wrong in this situation, but not with aubrey. the flower crown belonged to someone else, not her. he owes an apology to the person who’s property he just destroyed, not her. and while she is allowed to be frustrated that he did that, she has no right to be completely upset with him (she goes on to pout and ignore him after he apologizes which is absolutely unjustified as it was not her crown, and to her knowledge she does not know who it belonged to). but hero is a teenager, he’s about 15 here and he’s so tired of these 12 year olds fighting, and he just wants it to stop, so he tells kel to apologize to aubrey, even if she’s not the one owed an apology. he’s scolding kel, yes, but not in the right way. and this is a mistake that i think sticks around.

and while no, we do not have proof that this definitively happened in the real world, it’s such a specific scenario for sunny to include, and one i’ve seen happen among my own siblings and my friends siblings, i absolutely believe something similar happened. and i do think this is where mari gets a slight advantage playing neutral in kel and aubrey’s fights, as she’d only really have the familiarity to snap that way at sunny (like she’s implied to do during concert rehearsals) so she gets to play middle ground with the other two more than hero does. but i did mention that i think this had an impact on the real world as well.

kel and aubrey’s biggest issue in the real world is this: aubrey feels abandoned by kel and kel feels betrayed by aubrey. and i want to clarify, i think they’re both a little right and a little wrong. aubrey is absolutely right to be upset that kel never reached out to her (especially when we know he reached out to sunny and hero), but she is not right to be upset with how he handled his grieving process after mari’s death (she notes that she was upset at how quickly he moved on, and to her credit she does acknowledge that this was wrong of her). kel is absolutely right to feel betrayed by aubrey picking fights with him, sunny and basil and being upset that she’s just kind of a bully towards them now (she and the hooligans are noted by kel to be trouble before you properly meet them, they write kel smells outside his house, she refuses to give basil’s photo album back after four years of begging and says herself that she calls him a freak and lets others do it too, she tries to kick them out of a public area in a public park oh my god this part really annoys me about the hooligans wtf was this plotline) (also side note: yes kel is allowed to be upset about her holding basil’s property hostage as he both knows who it belongs to, and has been asked to retrieve it by said person while he was on the brink of tears) but he is not right to keep throwing mari in her face as a moral one-up card, nor is he right to blame her for basil almost drowning when she accidentally pushed him in (she IMMEDIATELY declares it was an accident and is visibly worried about him even though she’s upset with him).

i think ultimately this fight spawns from two things, aubrey has been taught that she is owed an apology when she feels she’s been wronged, without looking at both sides. and kel is tired of always having to be the one to apologize first when he feels he’s not in the wrong, without looking at both sides. again, they’re both a little right and a little wrong for these perceptions. after all, it’s what hero taught them when he broke up their old fights. and even when he finds out about this one, his solution is still ineffective even all these years later. because instead of suggesting they talk it out, which is what would really help them reach an understanding of the other’s feelings, he calls it “another classic kel and aubrey fight” and says they “just need to hug it out”. and while i think he’s trying his best, this is absolutely not what they need. there is a lot of deep seated anger here and it even shows on their faces after he suggests this (kel looks away awkwardly and aubrey is on the brink of tears).

in fact, they don’t even really make up until after kel tells her they dug through the trash in order to save the photo album and they all look through it together. it’s through aubrey realizing that kel does in fact care about their memories together, and kel remembering that even after all this time aubrey still is the same sweet girl he knew, that they finally understand each other’s perspective a bit more. kel can see how hurt aubrey is and aubrey starts to understand that kel had his own way of processing mari’s death.

but even though hero was brought over to fix the situation, he ultimately ends up failing to help the two reconcile, they do it all on their own. because at the end of the day, hero is not a parent. he is a brother, a friend, and a teenager. kel and aubrey don’t know how to process their emotions or fights any more than he does, and he makes a lot of mistakes in the process. and i think this is where a lot of his guilt over mari’s death comes from, and basil’s too in the neutral ending. he was supposed to be the responsible one, the parental one, the perfect balance. but he couldn’t be there for mari and basil, he couldn’t even be there for kel and aubrey. and while that is not his fault, and should never have been his responsibility, he is always going to hold that against himself, he is always going to see himself as a failure.

truth be told, he shouldn’t have been put in a position to believe that in the first place. he should have just been allowed to be a dumb teenager who makes mistakes and doesn’t have to take care of everyone around him. and that’s what i find so fascinating about hero’s character. he is a dumb teenager who makes mistakes, just one that was put on a pedestal and parentified, expected to take care of everyone and everything, when for a whole year he couldn’t even take care of himself. he’s bad at being responsible, and i wish he would’ve been told that’s okay, because it is.

tagging the person who asked to be notified about this post ( @skyisepic ) i’d also love to hear everyone’s thoughts on this analysis, if you have anything to add or if you feel i went too harsh on anyone throughout this please let me know!!

#omori posting #omori #omori spoilers #hero omori #omori hero #omori analysis #long post

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