#I JUST WANTED TO WRITE AND PORTRAY THE CHARACTERS CORRECTLY!!!

[antianakin]

@theneutralmime

I think canon, Lucas's canon at least, DOES portray him as wrong. I think MOST canon stories DO understand that Anakin is intended to be in the wrong, that Anakin becomes a villain and that's the whole point of his story. Even TCW, for all that they work to make Anakin more charming, plays the damn Imperial March every second they can and focused in a LOT more on his anger and violence than anything else. The only place within "canon" that arguably forgot Anakin was intended to be in the wrong was the Ahsoka show which went the route of "he was always meant to make the selfish choice because the wheel of darkness and light just keeps going no matter what" or something along those lines.

Where I find the refusal to recognize Anakin as in the wrong is actually in FANON more than canon. It's not that canon doesn't represent him as in the wrong and so fans aren't writing fics with that in mind because the source material just didn't portray him correctly. Fans are coming up with their own interpretations because of how they feel about Anakin as a character. They sympathize with Anakin, they're rooting for Anakin, they relate to Anakin, and they maybe do those things less for characters like the Jedi, so they write Anakin as a sad victim and the Jedi as oppressors because this happens to be how they relate to the story. That's not canon's fault, though.

I think that it's very EASY to relate to Anakin, perhaps more than it is to relate to the Jedi sometimes, and people often tend to reject things that they don't understand or relate to. It's easy to get caught up in Anakin's traumas and flaws and go "well his mom died, it's not his fault" or "he just wants to save his wife, it's not his fault" and miss that there's an extra step you're intended to take of "it's ok to be scared, but it's not ok to hurt other people because of it and if you do, then no matter how sympathetic the motivation is, it's still your fault." It's HARD to recognize that. It's HARD to do the work of seeing where you yourself have gone wrong and hurt others, it's hard to peel back the onion of what you're feeling and figure out where it's all coming from and accept responsibility for your own choices. It's hard. That's the point, too. It's always harder to put in that work than it is to simply let your fears consume you and push you into lashing out at others.

Canon sent that message just fine. It's not even that unique of a message, especially these days. Sympathetic villains are EVERYWHERE and those stories send the exact same message about how a relatable motivation doesn't mean you don't have to take responsibility for the pain you cause. It's just often easier to find excuses for the villains when you relate to them and easier to pin the blame on whoever opposes them, especially when those people might be less relatable to you.

#star wars #anakin skywalker #jedi #pro jedi #anakin critical #anakin skywalker critical

[moony-2001]

The real-world impact of Lore Olympus

i.e. do your research Rachel

Trigger warning: racism, fetishization, appropriation, mentions of SA

Long post ahead

A while ago, someone told me that Lore Olympus was just a silly little comic written out of boredom. That it was made to be "funny". They told me that "[I] can't hope [for] an extremely [well-written] story when it was just made with the intention to make something goofy" and that if Rachel actually wanted to make something serious like I had, she would write a book and not a comic.

At the time of this exchange, it was past 1 a.m. and I was exhausted. I did not want to argue with this person and it simply wasn't worth my time or energy in the moment.

But looking back at that (mostly one-sided) interaction, I can't help but think that there is so much wrong with that point of view. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion about Lore Olympus, whether good or bad. But Lore Olympus isn't just some silly little nothing comic about nothing important. It is a comic that actively appropriates and erases Greek Culture. It is a comic that has no respect for the actual stories that have been passed down over thousands of years whether by word of mouth or written text. It is a comic that perpetuates a false narrative and harmful stereotypes about characters or certain groups of people. So, no, it's not just a silly little comic.

Incorrect information

Here’s an example of what I mean:

When I was doing research for my post about the 10 year time skip, I looked up Leuce to reconfirm the little information I knew about her. Wanna guess the first thing that popped up about her?

A Lore Olympus Wiki article.

Okay. How about Minthe? Hundreds of pictures of her from Lore Olympus and a LO Wiki article as one of the top 3 results. Both character are horribly represented in LO and unfortunately there isn’t really any documented stories or records that can refute how LO paints them. Because of this, other characters in Greek Mythology like Leuce and Minthe, whose stories have little to no documentation, stand to suffer the most harm from deliberate misrepresentation on Rachel’s part.

Of course well-known and better documented figures in Greek mythology face slander as well. What about Thetis or Leto? How about Apollo? All of their portrayals in LO are HORRIBLE. I have seen people online absolutely drag them to filth not because they're upset about how the character is portrayed compared to their mythological counterpart, but because they have no knowledge of how they are actually portrayed outside of LO. They just assume that's how the characters are. Similarly, people who have either very little or no prior knowledge of Greek Mythology and Culture would look at the comic and go "Yep, sounds legit. It must be true." and go about thinking that what is portrayed in LO is accurate to what was transcribed thousands of years ago.

Creative interpretations and racism/fetishization within LO

Don’t get me wrong. Creative interpretations and artistic liberties can be great. When they’re done tastefully. I personally think if done correctly, a Greek myth spun in a modern way has the potential be very good. But that's not what we were given.

Characters like Minthe, Leuce, and Thetis (all nymphs btw) are portrayed as trashy tramps who put out and are used as a foil sabotage Persephone and/or her relationship with Hades. Compare that to Greek Mythology where in the Iliad, Thetis is very well-respected by the gods, particularly Hera. Unfortunately, other similar characters like satrys (and basically any character that isn’t a god) are usually portrayed as a low-class POC that can be easily exploited, manipulated, or used as a temporary villain/lover/pawn to “get back” at Persephone, our white-coded protagonist who can do no wrong.

Additionally, there is a clear race/class bias against characters like nymphs in LO. We see many cases scattered throughout the comic of gods like Hera or Aphrodite referring to nymphs as "trash" or "low class" or the idea that nymphs do not belong with gods being heavily implied if not outright said. I cannot tell you how often I've seen Minthe be called some variant of "cheap" by the readers of LO. Even Persephone (who created the flower nymphs) treats them with such disrespect. She frequently calls them some variant of "stupid" or "simple" like saying how they're not the sharpest crayons in the box even though she's the one WHO MADE THEM. However, it's so odd not really to note that nymphs like Echo, Amphitrite, or Psyche (who was previously disguised as a nymph) are not discriminated against. This is because they are liked or trusted by the gods they are around and ergo are often portrayed as the "good ones", which is a disgusting mindset to have.

We also see the fetishization of nymphs in the comic that is disturbingly similar to the fetishization of women who are Black, Asian, or Latina. It is a known fact that Hades has a flower nymph fetish. Not only is this implied in the comic, but Rachel stated it outright in an old Patreon post. Nymphs are also generally treated as sex-symbols, disposable, and as a lesser-than. Zeus frequently displays this behavior by abandoning nymphs he knocked up in the mortal realm.

For example, when Persephone finds out Apollo is dating Daphne, she isn't upset he's dating her friend. She's upset he's dating a flower nymph, beings that are generally considered to be "rare", "dumb", and objects of sexual desire. Ew.

Even on the Lore Olympus website (loreolympians.com) nymphs are regarded as "beautiful", "desirable", and "very exotic". And when they're not described in a sexual manner they're say it with me now regarded as "low class" or "workers" for some kind of god/goddess.

Final thoughts

So not only is the characterization of characters like Minthe or Thetis harmful to Greek culture and the stories that are so ingrained in their society, but it is also perpetuating harmful stereotypes about people of color and women who are confident in their sexuality.

Of course, the characters within Greek Mythology had their own issues. Zeus was a serial rapist, many of the goddesses deemed to be "feminist" by today's standards were actually horribly misogynistic looking at you Athena. But 1. that's just how things were back then (but that does not make it right) and 2. all of the good, the bad, and the ugly is still there in Greek Mythology. They're not denying how fucked up it is, but they're also not changing their history to better fit their own narrative or the narrative of the modern world. It exists, it happened, but now it is studied and called out by historians.

Rachel, on the other hand, is doing exactly that. She is actively changing the Greek's cultural history to better fit her fic's narrative. She is constantly sweeping things under the rug or going "No this is how it ACTUALLY happened". Lore Olympus is marketed as a "feminist retelling" yet somehow, it takes allllll the ugly parts from Greek Mythology (rape, incest, problematic age gaps, dubious consent, etc.), mixes it with a majority of the issues we have in the modern world (white feminism, rape-apologists/rape culture, grooming, fetishization of certain minority groups, etc.) and then amplifies the concoction to 20. Lore Olympus cannot be a "progressive, feminist, retelling" and also have characters that are morally apprehensive/come straight from the ancient myths. It does not work. In fact, IMO it makes all the problems from both eras worse.

News flash: actual cultures that are still thriving today are not your toys. They are not "made up". They matter. Do better.

#anti lore olympus #lore olympus #anti lo persephone #anti lo #lore olympus criticism #lore olympus critical #lo critic #lo critical #unpopular lo #unpopular lore olympus #appropriation #greek mythology #if anyone who is actually Greek wants to comment on this or share their thoughts please feel free #I'm not Greek but I have a deep love for mythology/Greek culture so this is just my take on things

[bigcowboydyke]

about your disability pride month post: is there anything important/significant you think people should take notes on when writing a character with an upper arm prosthetic? (like starting from the elbow if i phrased correctly)?

Yeah! I think the biggest is that you ought to consider first, esp if its an OC, your reasoning for making the character disabled- you wanna make sure you're not fetishizing or exploiting their disability to prop up abled characters. I've got a list of questions for authors to ask themselves along those lines that I can post or dm

Secondly, you have to consider what level of realism you wanna go with. If you have a character where, in universe, the prosthesis functions in exactly the way an arm does, you could just go with that if you want - it's the path of least resistance, right? BUT you ought to consider that most prostheses in media exist in that way AT THE EXPENSE of good representation of disability. Erasing disability or "curing" it with magical prostheses IS a form of ableism that is so pervasive it just goes unnoticed by most. I believe personally that disabled bodies are worth portraying well even when the creators of the source material did not do that. SO if you want to go with real well thought our representation, here are some common things I think authors and artists often miss (specifically as it pertains to upper limb prostheses):

1) I already said this, but seriously, I cannot emphasize enough that upper limb prosthetics ain't cheap and are usually uncomfortable. Your character, if they are poor, or even like middle class, won't have access to multiple high tech popular mechanics cover story type robo arms. Even if they did ...

2) Not all limb different folks use prosthetics! I personally have used multiple and I disliked them. I tried very hard to learn, but there are multiple requirements to be able to use each model and sometimes, a lot of times actually, limb different people - especially people without a hand or an arm function Better without prosthetics. Be aware in your art that limb different people are Whole. How you ask can somebody without an arm, say, do all that stuff?

3) Consider the idea of adaptation in your writing and art instead of relying only on magicking disability away with prosthetics. Disabled People live in a world full of barriers and tend to be Very creative about navigating it, adapting to our environment through just being a little clever about how we do things is the biggest way i see other people with upper limb differences interact with the world. There are three main ways that we go about this without prosthetics: Using adaptive equipment, Finding an alternate method, or as a last resort, asking for help.

Example 1: I have like 1.5 arms ok so obviously only 1 hand, and I need to clip my fingernails every once in a while. The obvious solution to me, while it may seem gross, is just to bite them off. Bad habit, but efficient. I could use those horrible little nail clippers, with my remaining stump and a little finagling but it takes forever. I could also get some adaptive nail clippers - they make great big handled ones for ppl that can't grab the little ones. Or, I could ask my partner to trim them, but I'm usually too proud to do that. Let disabled people have their flaws too lol!

Example 2: I love to rock climb. This is where adaptive equipment comes in. I could slip off a rock climbing wall pretty easily right? So bouldering (rock climbing without harnesses) is totally inaccessible to me. But if I go to a gym that has harnesses, then that's fine - they catch me if I fall and that's adaptive for me.

Adaptive equipment comes in many shapes and sizes and can be regular items repurposed.

3. If after all that you Must create art or write about an OC or preexisting character that uses upper limb prosthetics, consider that in general, limb different people's prosthetics are not equivalent to having two arms. Prosthetics are only practical for limb different people if they enhance your life or are useful in some way, however, getting one high tech enough to do that is unlikely because they are expensive. There are different groups, clinics, and charities that make lower cost options but they tend to be much lower tech than is depicted (and often are clunky). My first prosthetic was a long flat piece of metal, similar to a doctors tongue depressor, attached to a plaster cuff velcroed around my stump. The idea was that since I had a little bit of stump poking out, I could pin objects against the metal and it would work like a crab's pincers. It was okay, but I did accidentally smack many. Many. Things with it, including my own face and since it was metal, that was unpleasant. Obviously hindered more than helped. Also it did not look even remotely like a hand.

4. Which prosthetics you can get generally depend on what you got on you. Literally. Bodily. With upper limb prostheses, If you don't have an elbow or wrist, your options are almost exclusively limited to the pricier electric options that are both super futuristic, unavailable to many, and also like new car priced. Many of the manual, non-electric models depend on the ability to flex a wrist or elbow, so if you have those things are a little more accessible overall. It also matters whether you are born limb different like me, or if you are an amputee. Amputees are more likely to be candidates for prostheses than people like me because they have all those preexisting muscles and nerves for prosthetics that are higher tech and require surgical attachment Also prosthetics might be an easier learning curve, and more useful for somebody who has been abled bodied than it would be for somebody who never had that limb in the first place.

5. This is a little thing and ... Not to get too medical with it ( and neither should yall) but limb different people often have physical changes associated with lack of or loss of limb. If you do not have a limb, you are not going to be developing the muscles that are surrounding it in the way an a nondisabled person would. Again for example I have 1.5ish arms which means I've got plenty of stump on my "affected" limb. Even when I did Varsity sports and everything, I was never able to get beefy on that side. It is a pet peeve of mine that many people do not seem to get this - Most art I see of vash the stampede has him with two super beefy shoulders and like yeah i get it that's hot, but if hes got roughly the same amount of stump as me, he probably shouldn'tlook like that. Another thing in this vein is chronic pain is associated with limb loss and limb difference- I have it and its reasonable that any prosthetic user or nonprosthetic using limb different person is more likely to have it. Again these are little things but if you're looking to do good representation you need to consider that limb difference is not just a cool little stylistic choice to make a character look tough or what have you - limb loss and limb difference mean that that character will not only think differently than abled bodied people, but move differently, pose differently, have different routines and preferences than are ever represented in most media. Disability is not a style, and it's not a diagnosis, it's an identity. It's important above all to be respectful of that by letting go of centering able-bodied expectations and aesthetic in your art and writing. Hard to do but i believe in y'all!

Hope that helps! I've also got a bunch of links to go along with these points, if you want them lmk! I'm always happy to take asks about this stuff!

Tl;dr please consider making characters that don't use prosthetics, or don't use them excessively because it's more realistic, better representation, and makes me, a disabled dyke on the internet, really happy.

Lastly if y'all liked my advice and appreciate my time you are always welcome to tip me for it - my c*sh*pp is $neptunedrive

#cripple your art #disabled characters #vash the stampede #trigun #character design #disability justice

[shorthaltsjester]

if i ever have to see another thought piece on the description of the white picket fence outside of fjord and jester’s place in mighty nein reunited indicating jester’s unhappiness in the relationship i will burn the world to the ground.

a) heteronormativity doesn’t exist in exandria !

b) fjord isn’t your Typical Male Love Interest Guy. if i ever have to read someone say that shit again i’m gonna (correctly) assume they haven’t paid attention at all to campaign 2 and any of fjord’s character arc.

c) perhaps, jester lavorre, woman who was raised on the ideology of romance novels and sexuality as exchange, might just find it uh… not a terrible thing that the white picket fence is falling apart outside since… fjord explicitly does Not feel like those romance novels to her, instead he feels comfortable. the way that a brightly painted but rarely used house might, especially when the couple in question spends most of their time adventuring together… which is an essential part of jester’s motivations throughout the campaign.

d) the reason fjord and jester seem unhappy in the reunion might be because, well, uh, whereas everyone else was getting a “vacation”, jester and fjord’s life together (specifically the fact that Fjord Loves Jester Enough To Risk The World (Momentarily) To Save Her) was the inciting action for an apocalyptic demigod being released - they Were unhappy. who wouldn’t be given those circumstances. jester nearly died, and fjord felt like the god that once saved him had now abandoned him, i am so truly sorry that their romance was not satisfactory for your vision of atypical romance (which, by the way, is literally reinforcing the restrictive romantic tropes you think you’re criticizing, so good job i guess). i would be much, much more concerned if jester and fjord Weren’t clearly dismayed.

e) both fjord and jester are individuals whose entire lives and character are defined by the expectation (both external and internal) that they behave and emote a certain way. that they’re in a relationship with someone who they feel that they can show that they are frustrated with or disagree on the layout of their house with or have different ideas on how to deal with the looming threat of a demigod is incredible. jester and fjord are emblematic of a relationship in which the characters Aren’t meant to be, but they Want to be together and they want to understand and support the other person so they work at it. we wouldn’t have conversations like “you seem disheartened..” “i am very disheartened! you almost died!” if they didn’t take the time and care to communicate with one another.

f) if you want a honeymoon era joyful queer romance, yasha and beau are right there! they are explicitly horny and in love and bright about it! if queerness is your measure of “trope breaking” i am very sorry to tell you that queer people partake in white picket fences, and i’d actually argue that in terms of Lifestyle Metaphor, beauyasha are more adherent to the whitepicket fence, nuclear familyism. this isn’t a detriment to them, just, very literally, beau works a 9-5 where she comes back to her housewife who gardens and cooks dinner and their future includes explicit reference to children. comparatively, fjord wants to address some issues in his past, jester is an artist, and both of them are interested in adventure for the foreseeable future.

g) if you truly think that a single part of laura’s description of the part-time abode of fjord and jester overrides every interaction and choice that both laura and travis make towards fjord and jester caring for each other in a deep and meaningful way that goes beyond the weird fandom constructed Man/Woman characters being portrayed by a married couple i truly, Truly have no idea why you even watch the many hours of content that cr is when you could… play/write your own shit.

#usually i would simply block and ignore but! i got one of those weird twitter recommended tweet notifs #and there were far too many likes #also like. ppl talk about that home as if it is where fjord and jester are living their everyday life #they are on the ship most of the time. of course it’s downtrodden and illlooked after. they are adventuring. they’re writing their own story #fjord #fjord stone #jester lavorre #fjord + jester #fjorester #critical role #cr2 #mighty nein #cr meta #kinda #i’m not tagging this discourse because it’s stupid and against my principles if u don’t like this block me :) #the mighty nein

[curse-you-slenderman]

FIRST DOODLE DUMP OF THE ACCOUNT!!! followed by my cheeky little comments on em!

Let me just say that not all of these will happen, these are just for fun and for me to get a hang on the dynamics i want to portray, since i'm a visual sort of person.

let's start with doodles that don't include reader

Me? projecting? nono, why would you think that? anyways, these three, in the CYS universe are autistic. Will they tell reader? will i have the capability of writing their autistic traits correctly? who knows!

Someone is mad, so whoever he is talking to, they better shut up. I'll leave it to yall if this is the host or the protector of their system ;))

Snack time! Remember to always feed yoru canibal demon friends!

Funfact! BEN is the only character who has two entirely different appearances that reader will be able to see. This is because the ARG BEN is too good to go to waste.

I... I don't like Jane's hair in this one. it's decent, but not curly enough. Anyway, sibling coded characters bonding time!

Now for the moment yall been waiting for, THE INTERACTIONS WITH READER!!

Helen and I, express our love for someone by drawing them or stuff for them. Love me that.

Reader, let Liu forget his past plz. Since Liu, like Jane, are one of the less... psychotic of the bunch, it will be fun to see how he will interact with Reader and the similarities and differences from him and Sully

This was supposed to be a quick doodle, until i put a video of an hour and a half and basically rendered the sketch. It's cute tho! Tim is pinning hard in this one!

Rule: Don't touch the new person. LJ: haha, touching said person goes honk honk :o)

It's an interesting dynamic, really. She wants to protect you. Maybe there is a reason why, maybe don't. If you choose her "route" you may find out.

YIPPE I'M DONE! I've been holding away and adding more doodles for a while, and i wanted to share them with yall!

don't mind almost half of the x reader ones not having one of reader's most characteristic thing (the collar)

their designs are being worked as the time of this post, and i soon will show yall their official designs for the fic, but for now, have these!

whenever i'm done with the designs, you all are welcome to draw fanart! the tag is #cys fanart!

#cys art #creepypasta #fanfic #creepypasta fanfic #behavioral event network #creepypasta art #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta fanart #hoodie creepypasta #x virus #bloody painter #homicidal liu #eyeless jack #ben drowned #jane the killer #sally williams #bloody painter x reader #homicidal liu x reader #masky creepypasta #masky x reader #laughing jack #laughing jack x reader #jane the killer x reader

[thrawns-backrest]

Prompted by this post and the related interview, reason 15467352 why I think Dave Felony isn’t up to the task of writing live action Star Wars.

I was going to harp about how this proves Filoni hasn’t read the books but this interview is from before the canon trilogies were out so touché on that. And yet this just proves to me why Filoni isn’t the guy for the job of writing Thrawn. Or any live action imperials for that matter.

I’ll start by saying that one thing I will concede is that the notion of the Imperial military being plagued by incompetent officers is not entirely unrealistic. Given that it’s a stratocracy, you can expect to find people who used politics to climb the ranks rather than actual military competence - it’s a kind of French Revolution situation kind of thing. Historically it’s been known to happen in our world.

Combine that with the fact that the Empire is racist, elitist and (kind of) sexist as all hell and you have a limited pool of people to pick from when filling its ranks, pushing some genuine talent to the fringes or excluding it altogether.

The thing I’m entirely tired of seeing though is the implication that it’s the majority of Imperial leadership that’s like this and by this I mean incompetent. The overwhelming majority at that. But more on the Empire’s moronicity later, let’s talk about Thrawn.

“He’s not ambitious in the way where he needs to see himself promoted, or a governor one day. He purely wants to dissect them; that’s what he enjoys!” This. This grinds my gears so much. For starters it proves that Filoni sees Thrawn as this ‘quirky baddie’ where Zahn treats him as an actual person. There’s something almost condescending in taking a neurodivergent coded character and being like ‘aww, look at them, they’re so happy doing their little thing they don’t have any other goals and ambitions whatsoever :)’.

To get things straight, Thrawn has always been annoyed by the limitations placed on him by an inferior rank. You could argue it’s for the simple reason that a higher rank gives him more freedom to act and pursue his goals but that’s just what that is, a simplification.

And that’s where Filoni’s problem lies:

Filoni is good at writing cartoons. And before people raise their pitchforks, I don’t mean this in a negative way. Writing cartoons forces you to squish complex ideas into a digestible format, the genre needs simplification and caricature to work and doing that well is a talent all by itself.

You’re meant to put in some extra effort to suspend your disbelief in order to enjoy the deeper complexities of the story. Where that stops working though is when you step out of the genre and move into live action and our good buddy Dave doesn’t seem to realize that.

It may admittedly sound like I’m being unnecessarily harsh on him and I probably am but I do realize the guy is just doing what he does best. I doubt he has any real beef with neurodivergents or has no actual clue that militaries need a base level of competence in order to function and thrive.

Neither is he the only one guilty of implying the Empire’s competent staff can be counted on the fingers of one hand. “It’s just so different for them to have a bad guy that’s, you know, actually smart with how he uses the Imperial war machine!” Okay, Dave. Sure Dave. “[…] with the exception of Tarkin – Tarkin’s strategically intelligent” Oh so there’s two of them! (okay okay, I’ll stop here)

My point is, you can’t get away with making the antagonists so stupid in a realistic setting. I recently saw someone compare Kenobi and Andor in terms of portraying your antagonists correctly and I have to agree that Andor is the only star wars live action media in recent memory that gets it right. (Though even Andor is guilty of injecting some stupid into its plot in order to enable implausible events to happen. I’m looking at you, Maarva’s speech.)

Because the thing is, the more bumbling and idiotic you make your antagonists, the more it detracts from the efforts and skills of your protagonists when defeating them. The Empire is sprawling and all powerful, so much so that it takes several force users pulling deus ex machinas out of their ass to bring it down. In conjunction with the extreme dedicated efforts of the Rebellion mind you.

It took a timely coincidence of hubris, political corruption and flawed strategy working together to allow it to happen. Give me media that explores why the Empire endured for so long, the mechanisms in place that made ordinary people turn into cogs of the machine, the selective process behind constructing an absolutely ruthless, dangerous leadership, media that looks at how these same conditions can come about in our world rather than the unrealistic explanation of ‘people bad because bad’.

Zahn, Gilroy, Luceno and many others are examples of writers that do this justice. Pass the baton on to Filoni and you end up with an antagonist who’s smart as an exception because ‘he’s just so quirky’ while still bearing all the hallmarks of a cartoon villain, the ominous gloating speeches and sadistic behaviour and whatnot.

I’d be hella remiss to say it hasn’t left its mark on the fandom either. The amount of times I’ve seen characters like Tarkin, Krennic, Palpatine, etc. be moronified (while Thrawn inevitably gets his victim treatment) while completely ignoring the fact that defeating them was no small feat and their having weaknesses to exploit isn’t something that detracts from just how dangerous and scary these motherfuckers were.

The Clone Wars was a good show. Rebels was a good show. But by god is Filoni bad at transferring his skills to live action and no one can convince me that Thrawn isn’t the best example of that.

#thrawn #grand admiral thrawn #dave filoni #dave filoni critical #andor #thrawn books

[standreamy]

A very problematic finale.

I really didn’t want to talk about this because I was spoiled with the leaks time ago so I was prepared for the worst, but even so... after watching it... it just made me so sick. 

I don’t really blame people who liked the finale, and I’m aware that this is not anymore the last season. 

But there are so many issues that it's even difficult to know where to start.  So, first of all, a premise...

We don’t know when season 6 was confirmed to the writing crew, but it was almost surely when writing was basically over. Or so we can presume. Season 4 and 5 were written kind of together and between the time the writing ended and season 6 was confirmed and then started to be written, passed quite some time. 

Logically, there wasn’t anymore time to change big stuff. Once the episodes were being animated there would be no chance to change the scrips. Thomas said already that they have too much rush and pressure from tv channels, which prevents them to fix mistakes in the writing or animation. Once things are done, they’re done. And from the leaks and the bible we know that most things, comparing what was probably the info for season 5 when it was the last season and when the series was renewed, stayed the same. 

Some minor changes are probably there, but again, they are MINOR. Changing Emilie’s name with Ladybug’s... removing her glance exchange with Adrien... But the basic issues stayed the same and we can presume they were present in every version of the finale, since from Thomas’s tweets about the choice of keeping Chat out of the finale, that seemed a willing choice made from the start. 

This means that most of this was planned even when season 5 was meant to be the last season.

Possibly no reveal, and if there was it was shoved the last moment or in a very rushed way (It’s already way late for that), Gabriel “winning”, Adrien never learning about the truth, Chat Noir non participating in the final fight. The actual ending of the show.

And all this portrayed to be something positive.

With an ending where all abusive parents were excused and paid no consequences.

“But there are more seasons, surely these elements will be picked up again”. Postponing elements for too long makes higher the risk to make the resolutions anticlimatic and out of their ideal context,  The new butterfly opens a new set of plotlines, and Adrien's plotline will be dragged on.  You may can’t rush Adrien’s reaction and trauma, but if this was the intention, it could have been done seasons ago. When there was still more confirmed seasons to go and it wasn’t a possible finale of the series. 

And I also feel like asking... when did Miraculous and its writing give any reason for fans to trust it picking up again these plotlines and handle them correctly? Where does this trust comes from?

The show is famous from dragging things for longer than they should and not resolving them properly. When there were 5 seasons to handle the plot, the relationships, the characters at the best possible. 5 seasons to build the fluff and the angst, to handle misunderstandings, to build friendship between the characters, between the protagonists... to then lead it to romance. 5 seasons to make the characters fall in love with every side of themselves slowly and gradually, to make character live negative events and heal, to have a decent reveal and seeing what comes after. And there was none of this. Since season 5 must have not been changed a lot since the confirmation of season 6... when was Chat supposed to discover about Chat Blanc? When was Ladybug supposed to develop a trauma out of it? 

What did the Ladynoir dynamic lead to? Their whole talk in s4 finale, their newfound equality? What was that angst subplot needed for? Was it brought up again? Because I remember a lot of fans saying that surely Ladybug would apologize, that Chat would turn that experience as a lesson for self-love and acceptance, that the topic of their misunderstanding would be brought up again in season 5, yet it didn’t happen.  Chat questioning Ladybug about the identities of the secondary heroes, about Multimouse, about many things... Nothing.  I hear a lot of “Surely next season...” “Surely this will be-” And I don’t blame people for hoping, nor I’m judging, but I also think that people who don’t believe it anymore and and think this is way too late have their own reasons too. 

Now, going deeper into what I think are some big issues:

First of all, Adrien/Chat obviously not being included in the final fight and not discovering the truth. 

The first issue about this regards the usual discourse about the balance between the two heroes. 

We are told that Chat and Ladybug are equals even with her being the "leader" but it's always shown and proved otherwise. This happened for seasons with Chat being kept in the dark, then with Ladybug becoming guardian and then with the Ladynoir trust issues plotline in season 4, which was left mostly unresolved.

  Kuro Neko seemed the resolution of that plotline, but not only it didn't explain why Chat would be fundamental for the team (while showing instead that a perfect cat holder would be just more functional and then saying just "But Chat is better" without explaining) but it also mostly blamed the whole thing on Chat while Ladybug says she didn't know he felt left out and adds that he not as needed anymore.  S4 finale instead shows Ladybug admitting she pushed him away on purpose, the exact opposite, didn't apologize and the thing being forgotten because the other heroes couldn't be called up anymore. And this with it being said multiple times that Chat was then just a hero like the others and not anymore her equal. Then, in s5, with the opening even and the situation implying they'd be both just as important, ends up with excluding him from the finale. The co-protagonist, the other half of the whole. The one who is son of the villain.

After 5 seasons of him being extremely related to the plotline due to him being Hawkmoth's son and the plot being basically all centered on his birth, it just leaves everything uncomplete and unfullilling. 

Adrien was never able to have the realization, to deal with it even if it’s sad and heavy with the support system he built. He wasn’t able to live such a big personal growth, an important reaction out of his character was avoided, even with it being so important. True, Adrien would feel lost, angry maybe, sad, but these emotions would have been very important for his character. The reactions that characters have to situations is just as important as the events happening. Marinette's reaction over the truth wasn't as fundamental as it would have been Adrien's.

And this leads to the other big problem that makes me even sicker: Adrien not discovering the truth and Chat either. 

The thing is obviously wrong because of missed character development and for the abuse plotline. The thing that makes me sick about the finale is indeed how the abuse plotline was ended. When it was made such a big point, I find unacceptable to end it with not only Gabriel being fakely redeemed, reminded as a hero by the people but also his abused son. 

Adrien can't come in terms with his own situation as victim, he can't grow and heal from it. Gabriel's death doesn't erase what happened and making Adrien believe he was a hero and even saying he can't even dream to be like him, is... just wrong on so many levels.  It doesn’t matter if Marinette says to be himself and not his father. Adrien still thinks positively about one who abused him for years. Gabriel sacrificing his life for Emilie's may make it seem he wasn't so bad, but it doesn't cancel his actions. He still was a terrorist and an abuser and not only he didn’t pay for his actions (death isn’t a punishment, prison instead yes) but he was rewarded, because he was remembered positively for it.  And while his death could be acceptable eventually, even if him paying for his actions would be better, Adrien not finding out is ridiculous. And Chat not doing it either is just as much a problem, because as I mentioned already in a past message, it implies that Ladybug didn’t tell her "equal partner" about the true final fight. I think it's something pretty important he should know how things really went, instead of just being satisfied with "it's all over, gabriel helped against a random person who died" Of course, it would lead to Adrien discovering, but Chat knowing would only be the right thing. Just as of course Adrien.  Adrien should know. Marinette should have told him, instead of doing as Gabriel wanted. Like, at least not telling around Gabriel was a hero? 

Isn’t she the character who hates lies and injustice? Is not seeing Adrien sad worth making him sadder when he will discover he was lied at?  If we are supposed to believe she is on the right, she is the one showing what true love is and what Adrien deserves, opposite to Gabriel's, it should be portrayed as such. She is just keeping more secrets from him as she always has done with Chat. She isn’t letting him take his own choices. She isn’t letting him be free as he says she makes him feel. 

Of course, she can make mistakes and it could open up an angst plotline, but angst plotlines with Marinette/Ladybug keeping a secret they shouldn’t have kept was already done multiple times and it always ended up with the lesson being forgotten, with the entire resolution being underwhelming or Chat accepting the situation and blaming himself anyway....

We can also say that it’s Nathalie, Plagg, Amelie or Felix telling Adrien. But what counts is that he should have known.

“But Chat Blanc showed that Adrien can’t face his father” Chat Blanc was an alternate reality, one that was supposed to tell that it wasn’t “the right moment, in the right conditions”.  Character weren’t ready yet, they weren’t mature enough or ready to face such a difficulty. And perhaps you may never be ready for such a thing, but you can face it and heal.  Adrien has a better support system, more realization over his situation as victim and is more mature. He isn’t supposed to be the same of back then. 

Whether Season 6 will really pick it up again, Gabriel’s arc was this. The ideal moment for Chat to face his trauma was this.  And even accepting Adrien’s absense and unawereness...  The other issue is that these episodes treat his reaction as a good one. if you want to postpone his reaction, to make clear that it’s only Adrien that tries to convince himself of something that is wrong, you still need to put elements that remind that what he is thinking isn't "right" morally. Especially in a show that tries to teach morals and is always excused to be for kids. There are plenty ways to show with clarity that what Adrien believes is wrong with him still saying those things: soundtrack, Marinette doing a quick grimace of regret or disgust and him not noticing or their kwami saying something at all in the background.

There are plenty more issues, like Gabriel being once again not a solid villain or character, the wish allowing to choose a “sacrifice”, Gabriel “winning”.

Yes, Gabriel may didn’t revive Emilie, and made the perfect world he wished with Adrien as a perfect symbol, but he reunited with Emilie, was remembered as a hero, admired by his son, avoided being imprisoned and paying for his crimes between terrorism and abuse (I don’t see death as a penalty), dying with a serene smile on his face....

Even if the perfect ending wasn’t perfect, even if it resulted in an illusion, in dire consequences, Gabriel’s tale ended mostly in a positive light.   Once again also, it’s highly unprobable that big changes were made between the finale when it was meant as last season and the finale when season 6 was confirmed. So most of these factors would just be part of the real end.  While we can’t confirm that for sure, it’s still something to keep in mind.  I really want to to say again that I don’t want to shame on people who liked this season finale, but just to explain why I perceived these episodes as problematic and why I understand the view of everyone else expressing criticism. 

#ml spoilers #ml recreation #ml s5 finale #ml season 5 #ml conformation #miraculous #ml season 5 spoilers

[yuri-is-online]

Sometimes the Wallpaper is Just Yellow: A Heartslabyul Color Analysis

This research was inspired by this post by @mothman-files! I am so sorry for @ing you please let me know if you want me to remove it and I will do so ASAP. Thank you for sending my head into a tail spin, I've learned a lot of stuff.

After reading mothman's musings, you might be thinking to yourself like I did: "hey, there is something familiar about red, blue, yellow, and green color coding." And it is, as mothman correctly points out in the notes of their post it is an extremely common trope in anime. The reason was both exactly and not not at all what I expected after I resurfaced from this little detour I took from fic writing.

How well do you know the colors of your oni? Because that's more important than card suits for this particular trope, but to make it all make sense I am going to go through each of the Heartslabyul boys one by one saving Cater for last. With that being said, pack your bags and grab some beans we are going to learn some meditation techniques.

Setsubun and the Beaning of Life

No seriously. It all relates back to beans. As a refresher for those unaware, Setsubun is a Japanese festival celebrated at the start February, the day before spring starts on the Japanese Lunar calendar. It is typically part of Lunar New Year celebrations today, and if you know anything about it from anime you probably know that it's that holiday where the Japanese throw beans at demons to chase them away so they can start the new year without their evil influences. What kind of evil influences? Well according to Buddhist belief there are five main ones that are referred to as the five hindrances: sensory desire (i.e. greed), ill-will (i.e. anger), disquietude (i.e. anxiety), sloth (i.e. unable to make decisions), and doubt (i.e. self explanatory).

Now why is this all relevant? Well I saw it repeated again and again, on some articles about Setsuban that the oni who appear during the festival are COLOR CODED and fucking finally thanks to this beautiful, beautiful person called Matthew Meyer (the Yokai Guy) on Patreon of all places! I found out why. Because a professor of History named Yagi Tōru said so and I am inclined to believe as he is the president of the World Oni Study Society! Which is a thing! And he has written textbooks?!?! I get that this might be a tangent but it is important to me you understand I am not pulling this out of my ass, there is scholarship on this I am not lying to you. So what are those colors?

Red Oni (Greed) Blue Oni (Anger)

The only reason I even tried looking at this angle was because of these two. Everyone say thank you to Aduece. You might have heard "the Red Oni Who Cried" folktale in an anime or two (My Love Story is the first that comes to mind for me) and it is thought to have spawned a sort of character trope in anime. There's a hot headed red coded character and their intellectual blue bestie, or maybe they're twins (FFXIV and Tokyo Rev jump to mind), one of them jumps first and the other asks all sorts of questions, both now and later. When I first saw Aduece I thought they were a clever twist on that trope because they're both trying to fit those color molds but... aren't really making it.

Ace wants to portray himself as an easygoing guy who doesn't think too much about things, but we know that's not true. He is extremely smart, he just refuses to put in maximum effort unless forced. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to classify him as greedy either, but when you are sharing the stage with Azul it can be easy to forget that greed isn't always accompanied by a great work ethic. Ace cheats at cards, makes a deal for a study guide he doesn't need, and sucks up to his senpai's all to make things easier on himself. What he actually needs to do is work bitch and when he does that and only then will he realize his true potential.

Deuce, poor ex-delinquent Deuce. He does think about things before he does them and constantly lectures Ace for just doing whatever he wants without thinking, but he is far from naturally intelligent and prone to outbursts of anger. As soon as he looses his temper, he also looses his rational thought, but he accepts that about himself. That's what allows him to discover his unique magic, he knows he has his own sort of intelligence and is determined to work on what he does not.

Green Oni (Sloth)

I don't really think it is revolutionary to say Trey is a bit of a slacker when it comes to addressing interpersonal issues. He finds it easier to try and keep the peace or manage the fallout than directly address the problem at hand, and he is resistant to doing additional work not assigned by his housewarden. Or required by the school, just look at how "excited" he was to be a starsender. If he was any more unhinged he would have started throwing hands. Sloth as a sin isn't strictly just about being lazy. Apathy, a lack of reaction towards something like say, your friend's control freak tendencies that is clearly him acting out his own trauma can qualify as sloth.

I would like to add, though, that I don't really think it was Trey's responsibility to tell Riddle he was going overboard. That should have been Crowley's job, but that's another post. For now just take green as a sign of dodging emotions and let's go.

Yellow Oni (Disquietude)

As pointed out by mothman-files, Cater is supposed to be yellow, but he is more often portrayed with reds and oranges, pinks even, than yellow. Like them, I don't think it is a coincidence he is associated with orange when that's what happens when you mix red and yellow together. Cater is taking on what he perceives to be the identity of his dorm, and he is extremely dissatisfied, disquieted, and anxious because of that.

Something I think should be considered, NRC freshmen are sixteen years old. Cater is a third year, he's spent around two and a half years at NRC, two and a half years that were relatively stable compared to what he tells us about his previous schooling. I think that he has some genuine dissonance in him that is getting harder for him to ignore because he has played this role longer than the ones he has played previously. Cater the Heartslabyul student, the NRC mage, that is who he is now, and I wonder if he knows how he got to this point or if he feels like he just woke up in someone else's body someday and doesn't know if he likes it.

What's worse is I think he does like his friends, and he is suddenly confronted with how little they actually know about him, what could be more anxiety inducing than that.

Black Oni? (Press X to Doubt)

I don't think Riddle is meant to be the black oni, but I do think it's interesting that the color black is associated with doubt and loss of ones convictions when that is essentially both the cause and color of an overblot. Idia and S.T.Y.X. seem to be focused on emotion + extreme magic use to be what's causing the blot... but the more I roll chapter 7 and all the reading I did for this post around in my head it seems to me that overblots like the ones at NRC seem to be tied to a loss of identity and the shattering of one's perceived reality.

I would also like to mention that I have no idea if any of the cited folklore has anything to do with Yana Toboso's mindset when she created these characters. She seems to be someone who does a lot of research and thinks deeply about symbolism, but this color coding and its associated vices can be found in a lot of anime. She could have just picked up on it from that.

I hope you found this descent into madness informative, and if not at least entertaining. Thank you for your time, I am going to go eat a cookie.

Semi Unrelated Fun Facts:

A lot of this brainrot was inspired by Amnesia, as I stated in a post I already made, but I also was thinking about the song YELLOW by Yoh Kamiyama which I don't fully understand the meaning of, but think it is supposedly about being trapped in a false reality from some of the things I've read.

Back to Amnesia, the yellow diamond in that Visual Novel (I haven't watched the anime adaptation because they did my man Kieth dirty) is the yandere route. Which made me start to think about how often yellow is used as a color for characters with identity issues, like Sailor Venus from Sailor Moon and Amu from Sugo Chara! and led to... this mess

According to this thing I found while trying to look for the professor Yagi Tōru he has a son who is a male voice actor???? I don't have time to look this up someone else do it please.

Please check out the Yokai Guy. You can join his patreon for free, his art is lovely and he saved my sanity. I cannot read Japanese so I almost didn't bother saying anything about this because I knew I wouldn't be able to provide an academic source for it, and that's important to me as someone who has a love of history. Also he has a kick-starter up for an illustrated book of folklore, did I mention his art is lovely?

And lastly a lovely hello to @somany-fandoms-solittle-time who kindly asked to be tagged in this post (つ≧▽≦)つ I hope you liked it.

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #cater diamond #trey clover #ace trappola #deuce spade #riddle rosehearts

[occasionallyprosie]

So, apparently there's some fandom discourse, and I just want to throw my two cents into the pile.

I get wanting things to lean more into canon, I do, but to shame or hate or talk down to others for not making things what you view as canon characterization is not okay.

This goes especially for fanfiction and fanart, because first of all, everyone's view of every character, every scene, every minuet detail, is different. Secondly, fanfics and fanart are 1) freely made, 2) freely given, and 3) the creator's work. They can do whatever they want because it's theirs, and you know what you as a reader/viewer/consumer can do?

You can read the fanfic. You can analyze the art. You can tell the creator what you enjoyed, and heck, if the creator has said they're okay with it, you can offer constructive criticism (I cannot emphasize the constructive part, or the part where they've said they're okay with it, enough).

However, you can not take this work that came from someone's heart, something they tore out of themselves and gave to you to view, and throw it on the ground. If you don’t like it, you "give it back," you walk away; you leave.

You. Do. Not. Tear. Them. Down.

You do not send hate, you do not demand change, you do not tell them they're wrong, what you do is walk away. Don't like, don’t read.

I do understand wanting to see your characters, that one comfort character, portrayed "correctly," but that Does Not Mean you can scream and yell at people who don’t fall into your category of correct.

If you’re that desperate, draw/write it yourself.

But no matter what: be nice, be kind, and if you don’t like a fic or you don’t like an artwork, there's this lovely feature called a back button, or the scroll feature. Tumblr also lets you block things, AO3 lets you filter stuff out. If you don’t like it that much, make it go away. Don’t make it someone's else's problem, especially not the creator's.

#relevant #linkeduniverse #linked universe #discourse #sorry to get serious #I don’t like doing it #not here at least #but I felt like I should #it's not hard #to be kind

[wolfnanaki]

I've been thinking for a while now about the decision in Goodbye Volcano High to reveal and use Fang's deadname. And while it's definitely an uncomfortable moment for us trans/nonbinary people in the audience, and there's been a suggestion that there should be a deadname filter so people don't have to see or hear it (and I've censored it in this photo), regarding the game's narrative about Fang's life and the lives of trans/nonbinary people, I think it was the right call.

For one, it's not just the deadname in its own right, but who says it. Everyone else in the game - from Fang's friends, to their fellow peers and teachers, LJ, and even Fang's brother Naser - all use Fang's correct name and pronouns. The only character that doesn't is Fang's mother. She writes the deadname on a sticky note, she texts it to Naser, and she says it during the video call. And each time, we see Fang's reaction.

I think lots of online discourse about trans/nonbinary people has this idea that if you deadname or misgender a trans person, you're going to be on the receiving end of a whinging verbal attack by someone with rainbow hair or whatever. That all it takes to send someone into a flying rage is by ruffling their feathers in what seems to be an innocuous way to cis people. But Fang's reactions are much more true to the lived experience of trans/nonbinary people; they're visibly uncomfortable and upset, but they endure it.

Fang's parents' inability to name and gender Fang correctly ties in to their perception of Fang as a whole, which is a running theme throughout the game. In the roof scene with Reed in episode 2, Fang tells this to Reed:

"They don't... take me seriously. Like, anything. Music, the band, my name... none of it worthy of respect to them, I guess. Or... at least acknowledging that it's important to me."

This is echoed in Fang's conversation with Sage later, who's facing the same issue; with him being a trans man who chooses to act and dress feminine, he feels like his parents have given up any serious expectations from him, both regarding his career and gender.

What is of interest to me here is that the game highlights how harmful it is to deadname and misgender trans/nonbinary people, but does it in a way that isn't aggressive or preachy. Instead, it shows the reactions of the people on the receiving end, showing how much it hurts them, and asks the audience to take their feelings seriously.

On a related note, I want to give huge props to Naser. Despite him being the favorite child of the two, he never entertains his parents' inability to grasp Fang's identity. During the video call moment, he makes it a point to use Fang's correct name and pronouns. He stands up for his older sibling, even in a situation where it may be uncomfortable to do so, and that's cool as hell of him.

And finally, on the suggestion of having a "deadname filter" option in the game that censors its audio and text. I get that. I think it'd be great, especially since this game does such a great job at making you feel for these characters that you'd share Fang's pain in those scenes. I'm sure Fang would love to have that filter too, though. And I'm sure many trans and nonbinary people would in real life. My life's audio would be full of lots of censor sound effects. Good idea to add the filter to the game, but remember why it's not there initially, and what the message is trying to portray.

Besides, the kind of people who would deadname Fang would never call them by their canon deadname.

They'd call them Lucy.

#Nanaki's Thoughts #Goodbye Volcano High #transgender #nonbinary #GVH

[maplewozapi]

Hey there! I hope this isn’t too repetitive of the questions you’ve been asked and if you’re getting sick of people trying to approach you as some expert indigenous consultant you can feel free to ignore this ask ^^;

But I’m genuinely curious as you’ve brought up Dreamworks’ Spirit SOTC a few times on this blog. I’d like to know your thoughts as to whether you think Spirit has a relatively accurate potrayal of its Lakota characters, at least in terms of avoiding stereotypes.

I’m also asking because I have a few big ass Google Docs for a complete rewrite of Spirit Riding Free (never mind how shitty that series is in terms of its pro colonialism and making its single token indigenous character a damsel in distress for the colonists to save) that instead involves Spirit’s foals befriending Little Creek’s son. Sooo… I know this is a super broad ass question but do you have any general tips for correctly portraying Lakota people during the late 1800’s? (Which is apparently when Riding Free takes place as does my rewrite considering how long it takes after the first movie). And like suggestions on handling heavy topics like reservations and how indigenous people would interact with settlers during this time period? Also a lot of my characters’ names (I have characters named Takoda, Mika, Akecheta, Chumani, etc..) are just pulled from websites I found from Google but even to this day idk how authentic those are.

Sorry again if this is too excessive and seems like I’m trying to pull research info from one single person and again you’re completely free to ignore this ask if it’s repetitive. But this Riding Free rewrite is a passion project me and my mutuals have had literally since 2019 and I thought it’d help if I at least had some input on it from an actual indigenous artist ^^;

Personally my main issue with film is that fucking general george custer is the villain and is sympathetic by the end of the movie. And the seen in the village and everyone is actually speak Lakota in the background but the little girl is like “horsie” and little creeks stink pigtails instead of braids.

And I’m not going into much of the details because I promised myself I would start charging people who want consulting.

But I’ll say the 1800s and the forced immigration to reservations are not pretty and traumatizing for native people. For example of the movie killers of the flower moon with involvement of the native people, actors learning some of the language, the movie still was made for a white audience and was sympathetic to the white murders. (And fucking traumatic)

So I don’t necessarily have a the best outlook on nonnative projects especially when it deals with such traumatic situations and could end up more traumatizing then the thing that was originally written. You’re potentially writing something about peoplesl grandparents and the generational trauma people have to cope with. The 1880s weren’t very long ago they were still forcing people on to reservations up until the 1950s. Look up “Indian acts/treaties” I think the story that totally disgusts me is the story of Ishi of the Yana tribe. To this day I can’t believe they destroyed his body but preserved his brain for the university. He wasn’t even the last member of his tribe they just killed his whole family, and the tribe didn’t get him back until 2000. Not only did they take our land, our people, but they dissect us. Idk if I can see anyone who isn’t native have the grace to touch upon those things. ALSO those names are nonsensical don’t google Lakota names or native names in general, they do not mean what they state and google says they’re Dakota? You’re writing Lakota characters there’s a difference. Akcheta and chumní are pretty normal names, but also idk if these are horse names or human names BECAUSE THERES DIFFERENT NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR HORSES

#ask

[redwitchredspeedster]

Ok, so take my opinion with a grain of salt, but to anyone who is unhappy about Wanda’s arc in MoM:

*Spoilers ahead*

ETA: I don’t think 616 Wanda is dead, but I still have to cover all of my bases

As a longtime fan of the comics, I am more than familiar with the song and dance of Wanda oscillating between being a hero, an antihero, and a villain. Changing sides has been the story of her character since her origins as a member of the Brotherhood alongside Pietro and Magneto and continued on through the decades with her going crazy, turning evil, and/or dying probably once a decade ever since.

From the beginning, Lizzie has said that she wanted to see some of Wanda’s most iconic moments, ie. the “no more mutants” line from House of M. She WANTS to see House of M. She wants to touch on those infamous moments of villainy that are so well-known and loved. She wants to portray Wanda in a comic-accurate way (sans the sexualization) because she sees how unique Wanda is and how fun she is to play. From the very beginning Lizzie has done her best to champion Wanda being treated correctly as a complex, troubled young woman who has lost everything and been wronged by the world over and over. She has helped tremendously in crafting MCU Wanda as a well-rounded character who went from forgettable in the minds of many to absolutely adored thanks to Wandavision. I remember seeing Infinity War and Endgame in theaters and being one of the only ones cheering when she beat Thanos’s ass, meanwhile at my MoM screening 80% (or more) of people were wearing Wanda/Wandavision shirts and cheering when she came on screen.

Wandavision gave us Wanda processing her grief in all of the expected stages and with special attention to denial. When we last saw her, she had flown off with the Darkhold and was hearing Billy & Tommy calling for her during what we now know was likely dreamwalking/at least her peeking in on the other universes. Anyone familiar with the Darkhold will know its immense power and how it corrupts those who use it and Wanda is no different. Especially as, when we saw her, she was heavily grieving the loss of her brother, husband, and children all over again after the collapse of Westview. She was vulnerable and desperate, and seeing what Agatha could do with the Darkhold paired with her lack of knowledge and its promise to help drew her in. She was, once again, taken advantage of in a vulnerable moment. The only difference here was that it was the Darkhold and Cthon’s writings rather than another human being.

At least as of right now, I do not see her characterization and arc in MoM as a step back. I believe she is what she said she is: a mother who is beyond desperate to have her children back because she has NO ONE ELSE. None of the other Avengers have shown their faces to try and help her. Even Stephen only showed up when he needed help. Wanda was alone with a book filled with dark magic and abilities she was only just beginning to understand; how could anyone expect that to end well?

Wanda is my favorite MCU character and my favorite comic character. She always has been and always will be. I am so thrilled to have gotten to see so much more of her in the MCU between Wandavision and MoM, and yes it did hurt to see her in so much agony and I didn’t want her to succeed in getting America or her powers, but I also understand and appreciate why (I think) they continued her story the way they did. I am going to tell myself over and over that she isn’t actually dead because I can’t imagine her being gone from the MCU, but I also think that Feige knows full-well how loved she is and how integral she can/will be to continuing to thread the multiverse storyline together. Especially with the introduction of mutants.

So, uh, if you’ve read this far… thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. I’ll probably have more to say later once I’m no longer sleep deprived, but I hope this all makes sense for now.

#wanda maximoff #stephen strange #doctor strange #multiverse of madness #mom spoilers #marvel #marvel spoilers #i am so gay for wanda #and also a nerd #so enjoy my sleepy ramblings #scarlet witch #multiverse of madness spoilers #wanda deserves love #wanda needs therapy

[cannellee]

Not a request but a question! Who is your favorite tokyo rev chara to write for? Who do you wish you could write more and who do you think you’re the best at writing (in terms of characterization)?

hope its okay to send in questions when requests are closed! if not, ingnore this ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

hiii! yes it's totally fine, that's why I opened my ask box again after a while because I had no interactions anymore on tumblr🧌

(my masterlist👭 : ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚)

my fav tokyorev character to write for :

it has to either be taiju (😔) or mitsuya, both because they're just easier to write for. like, taiju's personality is the embodiment of the stereotypical alpha so it's not that hard to imagine his reactions and stuff like that. I'm always scared of messing up when writing a character, but taiju simply is a bad guy🤾‍♀️ and I have no shame to portray him as such.

while some characters like inupi or ryusei (and sometimes baji) give me more of a hard time.

and for mitsuya, he's just the perfect man so it's refreshing to write for him. I know exactly what I want mitsuya to appear like when I write for him (kind, warm, reliable etc), he doesn't seem very ambiguous to me so I don't feel like struggling a lot when I think about his reactions, thoughts and feelings.

tokyorev character I want to write ++ :

probably chifuyu, he's my fav through and through so it's obviously my first choice🫶 but surprisingly people don't request a lot of chifuyu content

but! I also really wish people would request more shinichiro and sanzu fics. shinichiro is giving the same vibes as chifuyu in terms of relationship, they're the sweetest 🫂

and for sanzu, it's only because he has that love sick/yandere vibe which I love. I don't write much yandere content but I would be really happy to write more of it!

tokyorev character I write the best (imo) :

maybe chifuyu? but I don't have as many fics of him as I have of mikey for example, so I'm not sure. I think my draken is representative of how he really is in the anime/manga although the fics I wrote about him are not my proudest work, I feel like they, at least, described him correctly?

#cannelle★ #omegaverse tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers a/b/o #a/b/o tokyo revengers #alpha tokyo revengers #hybrid tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers headcanons #tokyo revengers hybrid #tokyo revengers omegaverse #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyorev x reader #tokyo revengers yandere #tokyo revengers angst #omega tokyo revengers #anime omegaverse #omegaverse anime #tokyo rev x reader #tokyo revengers harem #yandere tokyo revengers #tr omegaverse #tokyo revengers omegaverse headcanons #tokyo revengers omegaverse drabbles #tokyo revengers omegaverse smut #tokyo rev x you #tokyo rev smut #fluff tokyo revengers #mikey imagines #sanzu x reader #baji imagines #alpha x reader

[alicentes]

what are your thought on changing characters like Alicent, who is meant to be a villain not a perpetual victim. from how they are portrayed in the books?

Honestly? It doesn’t actually bother me that they’ve made changes, it had to be reworked for tv and fire and blood is written in the style of a history book which is different from adapting a story like asoiaf which is from multiple character povs and easier to accurately adapt (yet they still fucked it up, but that's another story). I get the narrative choice of “this is the true story of the dance” from the perspectives of the two queens and both sides of the war. What bothers me is the inconsistency and inability to commit to making Alicent and Rhaenyra make morally grey decisions and sometimes be the bad guy. I understand wanting your leads to be sympathetic but look at Shiv Roy, she’s sympathetic, a victim of misogyny in a male dominated space and she is still not written as the victim or the hero of the story. Shiv is just as bad as everyone else but we can feel her struggle and still root for her. That’s how characters like Alicent and Rhaenyra should have been written.

The female leads don’t need to be more passive to be likeable, that’s the opposite of feminist writing. I want to watch them make selfish, awful decisions that I don’t condone while still feeling for their struggles and understanding why they had to do that. I wanted Alicent to look viserys in the eye and she’s not sorry for being the only person in that room to defend their children the night Aemond lost an eye and that after that night, she’d only ever support Rhaenyra when she’s cold in her grave. That after that night she would only be his wife in name only (queue the elder abuse claims). I want Rhaenyra to order vaemonds death and show us the lengths she’s willing to go to. I don’t want daemon being the one trying to convince rhaenyra to go after her throne, I wanted Rhaenyra to tell Otto she’s taking what’s hers with fire and blood. I don’t want them getting close to these points and then back peddling because it’s too mean.

The writers have also tried blending their original ideas and who they want the characters with book plots and book actions which can work well if you do it correctly but they’ve done it in a way that makes it look as if the characters motivation are inconsistent. Yes please, flesh out Alicent more and don’t make her out to be a two dimensional evil stepmother but don’t strip her of her agency and her goals for her family, goals that she believes will ensure their survival. Sure, make Rhaenyra the protagonist and someone we want to root for but don’t strip her of her agency and her ability to be ruthless when it comes to securing her claim and protecting her children.

#the worst thing is they're willing to write SA and violence against women but them becoming self serving asshole is where you draw the line? #house of the dragon #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #hotd #hotd critical

[tortured-demigods-department]

an unhinged (and unofficial) dissertation on the pjo fandom

so i don't usually post anything that isn't my-works-related, but i had a...mildly heated discussion with a fellow film student tonight about the pjo show and it's got me thinking. bear with me, we'll be here awhile.

as we all know, the first season of pjo has ended. i've stayed relatively OFF tumblr and other social media during this time, but i know there are a lot of OG fans who are (in their words) "massively disappointed" in the show. most of the complaints i've heard have been during in person conversations though, so this post is mostly going to be referencing real complaints i've heard.

i've been a part of this fandom since i was thirteen. that's nearly eight fucking years of my life that i've devoted to the pjo universe. i have written and consumed YEARS' worth of fanfiction, i have read and reread every book so many times i can quote them forwards and backwards, and i went to the bookstore every single year on the new books' release dates to pick up my copies in-person. this fandom, these characters and this world have brought so much joy to my life, and i don't think i could ever fully articulate that in words. when i think of this series, i genuinely feel nothing but happiness.

but a few years ago—around the time i started college—i started distancing myself from the fandom for one glaring reason. this fandom can be such an...angry place? like, genuinely, i don't know how far it goes back—maybe all the way to the release of HoA, honestly—but i wasn't here pre-HoA, so all i know is that i very much remember how much people hated ToA when it came out.

here i was, having the TIME of my life with apollo and his silly little haikus, and people are going to war over how the series' writing quality has gone to shit and how everything was better before, blah, blah, blah. IN SPITE of everything that series gave us—discussion of the repercussions of child abuse and ptsd, representation of lgbtqa+ characters, and deep psychological messages that really teach young readers, i think, how to better understand themselves and their emotions and deal with them in healthy ways. and it just wasn't fun to be in a fandom where, as soon as you go "hey, did you read the new book?" they scoff and roll their eyes and only want to talk about how terrible it is. (i also missed all the discourse on the sun and the star when it came out—PHENOMENAL read, btw—but i've read some things that lead me to believe that it wasn't well received either, in spite of how lovely it was.)

so...it's dramatic to say i "left" the fandom, but i certainly withdrew from it. deleted my pjo ao3 and tumblr, started over with a different fandom. but the love has always been there, and the show starting really helped spark it fully back to life.

but now, the same thing is happening again, i'm noticing. remember back in the day, when we only had the shitty fucking movies, and we were like "man, ANYTHING would be better than this garbage. literally just give us actors who are the right age and we'll be happy." well, now we have PHENOMENAL kid actors who genuinely are having a good time playing our beloved characters, and instead of supporting them, we're STILL complaining about them not being "portrayed correctly"?

i've talked to so many people who complain that percy is "too smart," which is kind of a bullshit insult to percy's canon character. in the books (at least the first five) we're seeing things ONLY from percy's pov. he's a kid who's struggled with learning disabilities and been told he's an idiot all his life by everyone except his mom—but as others have pointed out way more eloquently than i could, percy is a very intelligent and powerful individual while maintaining his goofy fun personality, which is WHY so many people love him so much. he's complex, and i think they managed to capture that really well in the show even amidst all the changes.

don't get me started on the fucking racism towards leah sava jeffries—i'm honest to gods ashamed that there are racists who call themselves pjo fans. she is so talented, and everything we ever could have hoped for in an on-screen annabeth. ALL of the kids are—there's literally no argument to be had there.

and then, if people aren't complaining about the casting, it's the series' writing. or there's too much exposition. rick is changing too many things. the directors don't know what they're doing. it's not a TRUE book adaptation. (someone said that to me, and i genuinely laughed because i thought they were joking. when the MOVIES exist, they wanted to make that comment about the show.)

are there some things i would change about the show, given the opportunity? god, yes. the set design for the underworld was horrendous. (in my opinion, of course.) but here's the thing. i have spent eight years of my life waiting for this show to happen, and in that time, i've learned a lot about how much goes into successfully producing such a complex series. how much money and time is spent, and how many people have to be on board to make it happen. it's genuinely kind of miraculous that we're even getting this show at all, considering all the ways it could have failed before it even made it out of pre-production.

and i think we, as fans, sometimes forget that we aren't owed this. we don't own the percy jackson franchise. it makes me so sick and tired when authors or artists in any capacity feel like they have to cater their works to the masses, because they know they'll get thrown into the fucking fire if they don't. rick and becky riordan didn't have to got to the trouble of producing this show for us. they chose to—everyone involved chose to—because they wanted to make something fun and enjoyable not only for the fans, but everyone who chose to be a part of it.

do you know how insane it is that, when you read pretty much any interview of pjo bts, everyone talks about how fun the production was? i've been on film sets. they can be ABSOLUTELY miserable when they're not done right. but eight months into production, the kids were still laughing and having a good time, everyone's still giving 100%, they're excited, it's fun. walker was willing to go into a diving tank for a full fucking day in order to get one scene—i know i would never have that kind of dedication, and i bet 99% of you wouldn't either.

i know this has gotten really long-winded, but i've said all of that to say that...i'm kind of tired of fans trying to bring down the show, and more than that, trying to bring down each other for having a good time. as i've said before (many times, i'm sure), i waited eight years for this, and i have had SUCH a fun time watching it. assuming we get a season 2 renewal, there are going to be even more new fans coming in than we've already gotten from season 1, and i want this fandom to be a fun and positive place for them. for all of us. we don't have to miserable and angry all time. we can critique the show, sure—it's not perfect, and it was never going to be—but we have to remember that television is an art form, and that art is subjective even when it involves our favorite characters. and we can accept that and still have a good time, because it's just more fun to have fun, you know?

this fandom has always had so much potential to be the BIGGEST, most supportive and kind and loving fandom. with how much representation this series has, with how much content we've been given, with the SHEER massive number of us...i've always thought we could be a really, really great community. maybe it's impossible to hope that we could be the best fandom on earth, but if nothing else...could we all try to just be a little bit kinder? genuinely, as cheesy as it may sound...it's just nicer when we're nice to each other. and when there's so many real things in the world to be mad about...i would much rather this be a place where we can come to at the end of a long day and just...feel at home. personally, i just think that would be really, really nice.

#percy jackson #percy series #percy jackson tv show #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson fandom #heroes of olympus #trials of apollo #pjo show #pjo fandom #pjo series #me ranting for five million years #i wish i could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy... #she doesn't even go here #with all of that said i'm going to bed #i have class at 8am tomorrow and really should NOT have spent this much of my night writing this

[oceanwithouthermoon]

just saw another one of those "stop shipping aroace characters and saying aroace people can date" posts and im literally going bonkers..

please.. the COMMENTS on these posts are SOOO CRAZY.. "you wouldnt ship a lesbian with a man, would you?" ohhh i see. so you didnt get the point at all is what im hearing.

(random examples from a post i saw)

AROMANTIC MEANS "LITTLE TO NO ROMANTIC ATTRACTION." romance repulsed aro people definitely deserve more representation and it sucks that there isnt much at all, BUT that doesnt mean you should just erase the rest of the community in its entirety ? yall know aro is a spectrum, right? why are you being dense?

why do you insist on putting aroace people in a little box? telling us we can only be one thing and the rest of us arent valid? we dont need your help! we dont want the box! leave us alone!

YOU CAN AND SHOULD MAKE YOUR "WE NEED MORE ARO CHARACTERS WITHOUT ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS" POSTS. DO THAT. BUT STOP SPREADING MISINFORMATION AND BEING BIGOTED. YOU ARE A BIGOT IF YOU REFUSE TO ACCEPT OTHERS IN THE COMMUNITY WHO ARE DIFFERENT THAN YOU.

and even more when allos make/comment on these kinds of posts.. why are you, allo, trying to tell me, aro, how i should act as an aro person? how i should deal with characters i relate to? ur weird. get a hobby.

anyway yeah, my biggest problem with this discourse isnt really the people making their own posts, its when i or another aro person makes our own content of aroace people in romantic relationships or simply EXIST as aroace people in romantic relationships, and people think its okay to tell us that we aren't portraying aroace people correctly.. as if we arent writing our own experience? please just leave us alone im literally begging you. at least do some research on others in the community, why do you only think about yourself and whatever youve seen on tiktok?

#also if you want more romance repulsed characters u should create them #i personally just. really love romance stories so thats what i read. why is that wrong to u guys? #meow posting discourse once again sorry #this is NOT about a specific character i just get upset about this topic #but i would like to say that people also often do this with characters whose sexualities are ambiguous #like not dating anyone within the two year time span of a show makes a character romance repulsed and nobody can ship them #u should hc as u please and leave other people alone #aromantic #aroace #arophobia #lgbtq #meows post