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lightns881 · 2 years

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How She-Ra and the Princesses of Power Uses Traditional Fairy Tale Archetypes and Motifs to Reinvent the Love Story

(This is based on a 15-page final paper I wrote for my Queer Theory class last semester. Link to that if you want to read it or see the format is at the end.)

The SPOP finale is one that consistently has me SOBBING. Not only because it’s such a beautiful portrayal of a kiss shared between two female leads portrayed on a kid’s show, but because the kiss itself is so utterly significant to the story that I cannot see a more perfect ending for the climax overall.

What really struck me thinking about it later on was the fact that traditional fairy tales have always made me hate the “true love’s kiss saves the world” trope because it has always felt so ingenuine, and yet for the SPOP finale, it could not feel more genuine and real (and it wasn’t just because I loved seeing a queer kiss because prior to this I’ve had many straight ships I’ve enjoyed). The deeper I fell into investigating the structure of SPOP and the motifs it uses (She-Ra as a savior, Catra as a villain, princess tropes, etc), the more I understood that this show isn’t just revolutionary to queer animation, it’s revolutionary toward the fairy tale love story as a whole, and I’m going to explain why.

The world of Etheria is one that exists without a dominant sexuality or gender. It’s something I’ve began to notice more in my favorite shows (the two that I can think of off the top of my head is SPOP and The Owl House). These fantasy worlds portray sexuality without putting so much significance to it--Bow and Willow have two dads and nobody bats an eye, they/them pronouns are used so casually you’d think it’d be the norm in the real life, Amity’s mom doesn’t approve of Luz not because they’re both girls but because she’s considered a criminal and she wants to get her a different girlfriend--notice how queerness is something that just exists, there’s no "coming out” or no queerphobia because it just doesn’t exist. People just are who they are and love who they want to love. It’s as if every sexuality and gender is treated with normalcy.

The best example in SPOP is the whole episode involving Bow coming out as a rebel to his gay parents. The whole irony of the situation just establishes that queerness is not considered out of the norm in Etheria. If it did, you’d see some sort of reference to the way his dads had to come out to their family or their community in some way, but you don’t because they didn’t have to come out. There is no closet when it comes to gender and sexuality in Etheria--you just are who you are.

There’s this very interesting concept called the “heterosexual imaginary” that basically states how straightness is basically invisible in our world because it’s considered the norm (the essay Sex In Public by Berlant and Warner describes it as “the givenness of male-female sexual relations [that] is part of the ordinary rightness of [our] world”). This imaginary or “givenness” does not exist in the universes of SPOP and TOH, and it is why these stories can pull off queer relationships and characters without needing the stereotypical coming out episode or homophobia episode a show based in our world would generally have. You’d think it’d be a norm in every fantasy world to have this seeing as it’s a fantasy world and it’s weird that one would function with our set of norms but anyway.

This directly ties to a quote that Stevenson made that I just love:

The show’s not a romance show. It is about a lot of things. It’s about choice, destiny, fighting, tyrants, you know, all of these other things. I grew up with so many stories—like sci-fi and fantasy—that I was so passionate about. And it would be considered no big deal to have the hero get the girl and to have a kiss at the end, without it suddenly becoming a romance or ‘Oh, the shippers got what they wanted.’ It was just a part of the story.

We see this in sooooo many fantasy stories! If it was any other sexuality, you’d see these kinds of arguments all the times--”shoved in your throat,” “inappropriate,” “not for kids”--we see these arguments all the time when it comes to queer relationships but nobody bats an eye when a guy gets the girl at the end of a coming of age journey, do they? It doesn’t suddenly turn the whole story into a straight romance, it’s just a part of the story. That’s the heterosexual imaginary in action!

Now, when it comes to traditional Disney fairy tales, oh boy do we get compulsory heterosexuality everywhere. These stories already have a reputation for building a pretty unhealthy view of romantic love (or assuming that all love is romantic in the first place), though they have been getting much better at it (and by better I mean Pixar... it’s literally Pixar holding their weight).

Especially when it comes to princess stories, “a heterosexual romance is inevitable and often a central conclusion” (England, Descartes, & Collier-Meek 565).

Let me make it clear: SPOP is not a romance. It is a love story, but it is not the romance, and here’s the difference.

A love story uses a romantic relationship (or another type of relationship between two people who love each other) as an impediment or a facilitator to focus on a message outside of romantic love. A romance focuses on the actual romantic relationship itself.

These terms are often confused because the “traditional Disney definition of true love” (Rojas 13) shapes our expectations of a love story. In framing this heterosexual love as the primary purpose of female leads, these stories “help to reinforce the desirability of traditional gender conformity” (England, Descartes, & Collier-Meek 565). They build narratives that revolve around a princess (who upholds feminine ideals) finding her prince (who upholds masculine ideals) and depict their love as relying on their “fated” bond that “cements over the course of… one meeting” and that “endures a test where the man overcomes hardships and succeeds in rescuing the woman from evil” (Rojas 13). This love story ends with a kiss, a marriage, and a happily ever that upholds the social order.

Since these love stories shape our perception of love as children, as adults, we interpret ‘true love’ as a frivolous concept that only exists in fairy tales; as such, it is common to discredit the romance genre for its superficiality and degrade the message of any love story to this expectation of superficial love. Consequently, because “the givenness of male-female sexual relations” (Berlant & Warner 168) allows heterosexuality to function in a state of invisibility, heterosexual love stories can end with a romantic union without it demeaning the story whereas queer love is degraded to ‘just another dumb love story’ instead of “a part of the story” (Stevenson).

But Catradora isn’t just another dumb love story. It is the foundation of SPOP as a whole because it’s what drives the story. The most interesting part is that SPOP uses so many traditional motifs that you’d think would only serve toward maintaining patriarchal norms and it uses them in such a meaningful way that transforms them into so much more!

Let’s start with the character motifs--the savior, the princess, the villain, and the damsel (and there’s a reason why I am separating the princess and the damsel). Adora functions as a savior and a princess while Catra functions as a villain and a damsel, and I know it sounds ridiculous right now but hear me out. The gender messaging inherently attached to these archetypes are a part of the narratives that Shadow Weaver builds to manipulate them so she can have control over them.

Let’s start with the savior, aka the knight in shining armor. This one’s pretty easy to tie to Adora because her savior complex is what drives her whole arc. But I’m taking it further to explain how it ties to the messaging behind the archetypical savior. The knight in shining armor archetype is build upon the foundation that a woman is a man’s responsibility--it is clear the man is generally the one portrayed as independent and the woman he must save is the dependent. The woman needs the man to live. We see this archetype in sooo many princess stories (Rapunzel, Snow White, Cinderella, etc.) Now think about the way Shadow Weaver manipulates Adora to adopt this mindset.

Shadow Weaver expects Adora to “[keep Catra] under control” (”Promise” 16:48), that what Catra does is her responsibility as if Catra isn’t her own person outside of Adora. This is what builds Adora’s “caretaker” role in their codependent relationship at the beginning of the series--this is what causes her to adopt her savior complex.

Similarly, as a scapegoat, Catra was conditioned to be Adora’s ‘taker,’ and Shadow Weaver viewed her as a “nuisance… [only kept around] because Adora was fond of [her]” (16:20). This narrative results in Catra’s Cinderella Complex, the “repressed attitudes” that lead women to believe “they are simply damsels in distress and will remain so until the rescue of their male suitors” (Saha & Safri qtd. in Ding 23), at the beginning of the story, for as the damsel archetype upholds, a woman is worth nothing past being an extension of the man that owns her. In this sense, Shadow Weaver describes Catra as an extension of Adora—everything she does is tied back to Adora, for she does not have an identity outside of her. Catra needs Adora to survive--both emotionally and literally because who knows what Shadow Weaver would’ve done with her had Adora not been “fond of her.”

When Adora defects, their codependent roles collapse, and following her ‘caretaker’ role, she seeks to be the savior as She-Ra whereas Catra entirely loses the person she relies on for her sense of self. Seeking her worth elsewhere, Catra pursues their original goal to move up the ranks of the horde alone, and deep into her resentment for being abandoned by her ‘caretaker’ and the only person she loves, she turns to villainy and seeks to defeat Adora.

The scene that most clearly portrays this savior-damsel dynamic between Adora and Catra at the beginning of the story is “Promise.”

“Promise” highlights her rejection of her damsel narrative when Adora fails to save Catra from being dragged away by the spider. We see her default into helplessly calling for Adora with tears in her eyes even though we know she’s capable of taking out that spider herself, she still instinctively fills her damsel role and calls out for Adora to save her. Then we see her look into an empty hallway, and it’s almost as if this is what goes through her mind: Adora abandoned me, therefore Adora is not coming to save me, but I don’t need Adora to save me, I can save myself.

Consumed by her resentment over Adora breaking her narrative and being confined within her own, she proves Shadow Weaver wrong by resolutely fighting back—a capability she always possessed but that her dependency on Adora and Shadow Weaver’s manipulation prevented her from acting upon.

Alongside that, Adora’s ‘heroic’ save just before Catra finishes off the spider and her condescending chuckle and “sure you did” after Catra argues that she “had it” (13:47) emphasize how ingrained these detrimental narratives are within their perceptions, for the mere idea of Catra not needing her is a joke to Adora. The purpose of “Promise” is to divorce Catra from her Cinderella Complex, but in spite of abandoning this narrative, she falls into another by misconstruing Adora’s heroism as a manipulative tactic to hold her back (20:07), and it drives her into her obsession to make Adora fail to prove herself that she can be above.

Yet Adora’s Savior Complex was also a result of Shadow Weaver’s manipulation because, apart from enabling Adora’s belief that she was responsible for Catra, she believed her worth relied on her success as her prodigy. As Kyle the Scott explains in his video essay about the hero mindset, SPOP “does not present the argument that heroism is bad” but it “[questions] how healthy the hero mindset really is… [and] what kind of effect thinking of yourself and others in this way have on a person” (Scott, 7:58).

Throughout the series, it is made clear that Adora’s Savior Complex not only drives her to believe she is worth nothing past her destiny to save Etheria but that she is the only one capable. This belief relates to Adora’s state as a princess, for in the way a passive princess must give everything of herself to serve her man and her society, Adora had to give everything to earn Shadow Weaver’s motherly love, and, later on, she had to give everything to become the hero of Etheria. As such, Adora is not passive in that she is powerless, she is passive in her state as a chosen one lacking agency over her destiny and her belief that her worth relies on what she can offer others.

This extreme selflessness or “ability to show love” (Davis 125) contrasts Catra’s state as a villain, otherwise characterized by her predisposition toward hatred or her “[inability] to demonstrate love” (Ding 15). The archetype of a villainess sends the message that it is “wrong and deceitful for women to be independent and powerful… [and pushes] them to adopt more submissive roles and behaviors” (Ding 16). While Catra describes Adora as a “people-pleaser” (which confines her within her princess archetype), Catra has always steered toward rebellion because Shadow Weaver put her down no matter what she did right, and her rebellion (or “disrespect” as Adora calls it) is deemed a negative because it gives Shadow Weaver less control over her in the same way the archetypal villainess is demonized for defying gender roles.

However, Catra’s descent into villainy was another narrative she confined herself to because she sought power to prove her strength to Shadow Weaver and everyone who put her down, but internally, it was a method of self-preservation since she no longer had her ‘caretaker’ to protect her. As Catra gains power and attempts to convince herself she hates Adora, it becomes evident that her motive was never “ruling Etheria,” it was always about the two of them staying together. Hence, Catra is not a villain because she is heartless or because she craves power; it is due to her use of lashing out as a method of self-preservation and her inability to express her emotions that she falls into the cycle of self-destruction that makes her one. As such, Adora and Catra’s detrimental actions and beliefs about themselves are driven by these confining narratives Shadow Weaver imposed on them which mirror the gendered messages behind these archetypes, and it is these narratives that they transcend at the climax of their love story.

Now let’s fast forward to the Season 5 during the episodes they spend outside of Etheria, specifically I’ll focus on “Corridors,” “Save the Cat,” and “Taking Control” because these are the key for the foundation of Catra’s redemption, Adora’s growth, and the reconciliation of their relationship. This will help prove the power of their love is what helps them break away from their narratives (and it sounds so cheesy but it’s executed so well you barely notice).

I’m going to quote a lot of Five by Five Takes on Youtube because she has some AMAZING takes of this show. Catra’s reflection in “Corridors” reveals that her fear of abandonment ranged back to their childhood, for when Adora made friends with others, Catra perceived it as an attempt to replace her—that if “she wasn’t Adora’s priority… she didn’t matter at all” (“She Ra's Corridors Isn't What You Think” 1:43).

Now, having pushed everyone away for her power trip, at the last step of her journey to the top, when she reflects upon Adora’s words as a child, she recognizes this “safety, friendship, love she turned away from because she didn’t believe it could be real” ( “She Ra's Corridors Isn't What You Think” 1:46) and realizes that resigning herself to villainy is not her only path, for “it’s only too late when you’ve resigned yourself to that” ( “She Ra's Corridors Isn't What You Think” 4:47).

In her choice to save Glimmer, she breaks her cycle of self-destruction and “reclaims her identity… her narrative, to be about her [and] not about someone else” (“She Ra's Corridors Isn't What You Think” 3:08). It is the memory of her love for Adora—the love she rejected because she confined herself to her villain narrative to keep herself safe and to prove she could form an identity outside of Adora—that sets her on her path to redemption. So in this way, their love impedes and facilitates Catra’s coming-of-age journey because it was her attempt to reject this love that drove her into villainy and her acceptance of it that gets her out.

“Save the Cat” is a turning point in Adora’s journey because, in breaking out of her savior and princess narratives, she discovers that She-Ra is driven by her most authentic self. By choosing to rescue Catra, Adora puts her responsibility as a hero aside and acts for herself. For once, her decision is not selfless because she’s endangering her team and Etheria by going to save someone who has been the villain for so long.

She also does not make this decision because she feels responsible for Catra, for we see her abandon this feeling in the episode “The Portal” when she stops attempting to pull Catra into the good side and stops holding back during their confrontations now that she understands Catra is her own person and that she is not responsible for her bad decisions.

Thus, in saving Catra because she has hope for her and not because she ‘needs’ to, Adora rejects her savior and princess narratives. Furthermore, it is the “need to protect” the person she loves and her “purity of emotion” that allows her to channel her most powerful and authentic self (Stevenson), so while Prime embodies lack of identity and agency, Adora embodies embracing love and authenticity. Along the same lines as Catra, Adora confined herself within her narratives by putting her obligations above her feelings for Catra, and she freed herself from them by putting the person she loves above the world.

“Taking Control” marks another turning point in their relationship because we see them communicating and actively reconciling their relationship. By putting herself in a vulnerable position and telling Adora that “[she wants] to go home” (16:56) despite having told Glimmer “there is nothing left for [her there] (“Corridors” 6:20), Catra implies that Adora is her home, and, in making an active effort toward fixing her anger issues and getting to know Adora’s friends, she shows she wants Adora to be part of her life again. Furthermore, the way she lets Adora help and comfort her shows she no longer links vulnerability to being submissive, and she puts aside her fear of falling back into her damsel narrative now that their separation has given her time to find an identity outside of Adora.

So these three episodes mark a turning point for their relationship—one that is no longer based on dependency but on supporting each other’s growth, being honest about their mistakes, and letting themselves be vulnerable.

And then... “Failsafe” happens.

Their return to Etheria is also their reunion with Shadow Weaver, and their regression into her narratives impede them from admitting their feelings for each other and being authentic to themselves. Once more, they get stuck in these narratives Shadow Weaver has weaved into their core.

The good news is their growth and the progress they have accomplished in mending their relationship reflects in the way they reject Shadow Weaver’s influence and defend each other. Furthermore, the improvement of their communication reflects in the way Catra voices why she is upset and Adora expresses she needs Catra by asking for her support. So their rejection of Shadow Weaver’s narratives allows them both to support and be supportive, and their relationship is no longer codependent because they exist on equal grounds now.

Unfortunately, Shadow Weaver’s presence still triggers Catra’s insecurities about feeling wanted and Adora’s fear of failure.

Shadow Weaver uses their reconciliation to her advantage in the way she weaponizes Adora’s feelings for Catra by convincing her she must focus on “protecting [Catra]” instead of letting her distract her. She also breaks Adora’s identity apart by describing She-Ra as an entity outside of her, even though She-Ra is Adora at her purest ( “the world needs you as She-Ra… not Adora” (”Failsafe” 12:12).

Thus, Adora’s regression into her savior complex turns her into a martyr, for what she wants for herself does not matter because she must protect the world and her friends. In telling Catra that “even if [Shadow Weaver] is [sacrificing her]… [it] is the only way” (16:29), Adora conveys that she is, yet again, willing to abandon Catra and sacrifice her own life for the rest of the world even though, as Catra tries to convince her, “it doesn’t always have to be [her]” (17:54).

Here, Adora regresses so deep into her narratives for fear of losing those she loves that she believes she is acting of her own volition and not Shadow Weaver’s influence. Yet Adora does not have to be the one to make a sacrifice; as Catra points out, Shadow Weaver is capable of taking the heart herself, but she does not because she knows Adora’s savior complex will drive her to believe it has to be her.

In asking her what she wants, Catra is really asking Adora to choose between their relationship and her heroism, and when Adora responds that “[she has] to do this” (21:25), Catra perceives it as Adora willingly resigning to Shadow Weaver’s narrative by “[choosing] Shadow Weaver and not [her]” (“The Heart (Part 1)” 4:56) and not loving her enough to stay because she has never needed Catra (21:40), so she leaves. In the same way Adora acknowledged Catra was her own person who made her own choices in the episode “The Portal,” Catra acknowledges here that she cannot change Adora’s choice no matter how self-destructive it might be. Hence, it is their failure to accept their true feelings that hold them back from being authentic to themselves, for Adora does not allow herself to want and Catra does not want to confess because she believes “Adora doesn’t want [her]... like [she wants] her” (“The Heart (Part 1)” 5:00).

And now, finally, let’s talk about true love’s kiss--one of the oldest fairy tale tropes in the book.

True love’s kiss is the deus ex machina of countless fairy tales, but although true love’s kiss does save the day in SPOP, its significance relies on Adora and Catra transcending the narratives Shadow Weaver imposed upon them and embracing their love and their authentic selves. It is not merely a magically ending--it is them admitting what they’ve been holding out on for FIVE SEASONS that allows She-Ra to transform. That is how they save the world. Stevenson says it himself:

This moment of confession is the climax of the show. It is everything [they have] been building up to.”

Even though it is its magic that saves the day, true love’s kiss feels authentic here because of what the magic represents. In SPOP, magic stands for authenticity, connection, and love—all of which express humanity.

At the climax of their story, having lost her ability to transform, Adora begs Catra to leave so she can do the next part on her own—primarily, Adora knows how much she has hurt Catra, so she does not want her to witness her sacrifice. Catra’s choice to stay is a selfless act because she willingly puts herself in a vulnerable position by risking being hurt in the worst way possible. Meanwhile, Adora’s ��beautiful wish,” as Prime calls it, externalizes what she wants and is not letting herself have because “[she is] She-Ra” and sacrificing herself “is what [she is] supposed to do.” However, in expressing that “[she deserves] love too” (“The Heart (Part 1)” 17:32), Mara tells Adora that she is allowed to be selfish—she is allowed to want and to receive love. She is “worth more than what [she] can give to other people” (17:30). So in confessing her love, Catra externalizes Mara’s words to Adora.

Despite her best friends claiming to love her for her and not She-Ra, Adora cannot be certain of this because they only became friends after she found the sword. So when the person she cares for the most and who she has also unintentionally hurt the most reveals that she not only loves her but that she has always loved her, it disproves her damaging perception of her worth. It allows Adora to unchain herself from the narratives that have been holding her back from expressing her wants and her feelings. When Adora confesses her love, she chooses Catra for the first time, and she disproves Catra’s belief that Adora does not want her.

The magic behind their true love’s kiss does not rely on superficial rules about love that paint it as a fantasy. On the contrary, it is the humanity behind it—Adora’s acceptance that she deserves love and a future for herself, her rejection of the expectations the world has reduced her to, and their mutual love—that gives Adora the power to transform and save Etheria. In opening their hearts, the magic at the heart is released and it revitalizes the planet, reverting it to its authentic state in the same way it does for them. As Five by Five Takes points out, we even see this in the amount of ‘I love you’s’ exchanged between all the characters—between lovers, friends, and family. The climax also contrasts their narratives, for as opposed to saving Catra, Adora is saved by Catra, and Catra’s “inability to show love” as a villain opposes the way her showing her love saves the world.

As Five by Five Takes explains in her video How She Ra Gives Us Hope, “the conflict [of SPOP] was never love or power, it was authentic connection versus outside manipulation: our genuine selves against the constructs imposed on us” (10:13). Having been divided and at odds for five seasons, having been abused and forced into narratives that stripped them of their identity and agency, and having grown and experienced hardships together and apart, concluding the story on a mutual confession and a true love’s kiss between Adora and Catra establishes their feelings, their wants, and their love are connected to the core of their identities and their coming-of-age journeys as they exist with and outside of each other.

“With Disney specifically, their conceptualization of romantic love is one that follows along with a set of ideals that define perfect love” (Bell, 1975; Sprecher & Metts, 1989 qtd in Ding, 2021), and it is these limitations that paint love as an unachievable fantasy that make these love stories superficial. These stories depict idealized models of men and women that are nothing more than hollow shells written into narratives confined by heteronormativity and gender norms. Such as the ones Shadow Weaver imposes upon Adora and Catra, “whatever you call them—narratives, expectations—these things that tell us who we are, really, are just about control” (“How She-Ra Gives Us Hope” 16:11).

SPOP illustrates a beautiful love story that can serve as a metaphor for the way queer love can rise above the narratives heteronormativity confines it within while reinventing the same archetypes and motifs traditionally catered to reinforcing this heteronormativity and without resolving to topics like homophobia or discovering sexuality, for, in Etheria, love is humanity and love is love. Whereas the resolution of Disney love stories relies on princesses giving up their agency to pursue their role as a wife and a woman in a patriarchal society, SPOP has both its female leads rejecting narratives that allow them to reclaim their agency, their identity, their lives, and their love, not only in their universe but also in ours.

Then there’s the “happily ever after” motif. In Disney fairy tales, happily ever after’s capture beautiful images with “little details” like “fireflies, butterflies, sunsets, wind, and the beauty and power of nature… a link to the naturalness of hetero-romantic love… [that depict] these loving scenes of heterosexual love as the most natural and magical form of love” (Ding 34). In this way, it teaches children “a distorted concept of romantic love at… a young age” that “poses an issue for the harsh reality that love and relationships actually exist as” (Ding 49).

The ending of SPOP captures a magical scene similar to the one described above where Adora and Catra stand upon a hill with their foreheads against each other before a rising light in a new and healing Etheria. Ironically, this beautiful image is not heartwarming because it glorifies their relationship. Their love story was never perfect—there was hardship, tragedy, mistakes, and heartbreak. Instead, the warmth in this image comes from the characters’ perseverance, acceptance, growth, and hope. It comes from having witnessed the coming-of-age stories of two abused best friends who have finally reunited and confessed their love.

Even though SPOP is a fantasy, in Etheria, true love is authentic—it is not a fairy tale concept. Its magic is intrinsically tied to the human truths expressed through its characters and their stories. SPOP redefines a love story by giving these traditional fairy tale motifs a purpose past enforcing gender norms and a glorified image of heterosexual love. Thus, it proves it is possible to redefine the fairy tale love story outside of these heteronormative narratives for “to be against heteronormativity is not to be against norms” (Berlant & Warner 170) nor is it to condemn these motifs or eliminate them from love stories altogether. Instead, we must infuse them with a new meaning—one that focuses on the truths and the complexity behind our humanity—that conveys the message that love is real and that love is love without losing its magic.

If you got this far, thanks for reading :)

(Original essay linked in the notes)

Works Cited

Berlant, Lauren, and Michael Warner. “Sex in Public.” The Routledge Queer Studies Reader, 2013, pp. 165–179.

Brown, Tracy. “In Netflix's 'She-Ra,' Even Villains Respect Nonbinary Pronouns.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2019.

Davis, Amy. Good Girls and Wicked Witches: Women in Disney's Feature Animation. John Libbey Publishing. 2007.

Ding, Shay. Overexposure to Disney Princess Animated Films: Disfigured Perception of Gender and Love In Adolescents. 2021.

England, D.E., Descartes, L. & Collier-Meek, M.A. “Gender Role Portrayal and the Disney Princesses.” Sex Roles 64, 555–567, 10 February 2011.

“Failsafe” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, created by Noelle Stevenson, season 5, episode 11, Netflix, 2018.

“How She Ra Gives Us Hope.” YouTube, uploaded by Five by Five Takes, 29 July 2020.

“Promise” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, created by Noelle Stevenson, season 1, episode 11, Netflix, 2018.

“Reunion” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, created by Noelle Stevenson, season 2, episode 7, Netflix, 2018.

Rojas, Camila. Confronting Traditional Love: The Evolution of the Representation of ‘True Love’ in Disney’s Princess Movies (1990s to the Present). 2015. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, dissertation.

Scott, Kyle. “She-Ra and the Hero Mindset: Video Essay.” YouTube, uploaded by Kyle the Scott, 24 March 2021.

“She Ra's Corridors Isn't What You Think.” Youtube, uploaded by Five by Five Takes, 8 August 2020.

Stevenson, Noelle. “She-Ra’s Noelle Stevenson Tells Us How Difficult It Was To Bring Adora And Catra Home.” Interview by Beth Elderkin. Gizmodo, 13 July 2019.

Stevenson, Noelle. “She-Ra showrunner, stars break down Adora's new look with exclusive clip.” Interview by Christian Holub. Entertainment Weekly, 16 May 2020.

“System Failure” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, created by Noelle Stevenson, season 1, episode 6, Netflix, 2018.

“The Heart (Part 1)” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, created by Noelle Stevenson, season 5, episode 12, Netflix, 2018.

“The Heart (Part 2)” She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, created by Noelle Stevenson, season 5, episode 13, Netflix, 2018.

#spop #she ra and the princesses of power #catradora #adora #catra #spop analysis #spop spoilers #sapphic #queer love

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dekusleftsock · 1 year

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Okay okay, I said I would talk about my theories on Ochako’s feelings for Toga, but most of it is based on simple parallels between bkdk.

Lets start with Katsuki Bakugou: Rising.

I can hear you saying, “Oh but Ochako hasn’t sacrificed herself for Toga/the other way around”. Correction, they haven’t done it yet.

What do I mean by this? Well, let’s look at a more closely relating parallel in the newest chapter.

These two panels align just, so well. TOO WELL, in my opinion. Too well to ignore.

Honestly I could see an Uraraka Ochako: Rising in some way. Some sort of apology for not seeing her as human; to show that she does genuinely care about toga. How she couldn’t stop thinking about her.

And yes, I’m well aware of Toga’s genuine acts of violence and Uraraka’s justified view of her at the time. I’m not saying she’s a bad person, but I’m saying that she isn’t a perfect person in this situation either. Even in this chapter, Toga was not seen as a “full on villain” until this rejection.

Hell, she’s just following orders now because she thinks that will be her only purpose from here on out. Ochako and Toga need to prove their worth to each other, because if they don’t then they will never even accept themselves.

Ochako is like (and I couldn’t put this as well as angy-grr has), a weird hybrid between Izuku and Katsuki. She has Izuku’s martyr complex and Katsuki’s determination to win. They are both her biggest assets and weaknesses. Weaknesses that have been exploited, assets that she’s learned to be a better person.

And god, all for one is watchful. I’m sure at one point or another he’s going to use their love of each other against the other in some way, like keeping Toga to stay in line and keep fighting, or for Ochako to sacrifice/hurt herself in order to save a villain. It’s a double edged sword, they either have to literally refuse to express their feelings or hurt themself to do so.

And, while I do dislike Twice’s death, (bc it makes me sad not narrative reasons) it had so much purpose in Toga’s arc. It makes her have to question the ideas of death as valuable or not, is life valuable or not, and does she truly want to hurt the ones she loves, or does she just want to express the way that she’s been treated all her life?

Like, okay yes, Toga partly acts the way she does because of her quirk. But god dammit, it’s also because she’s expressing her trauma. On other people. She can kill whoever she wants, whenever she wants, because she loves them SO MUCH! Because, even though she hates her parents, that’s how they “expressed” their care and love for her.

That’s what this scene was referencing. She views love as something she’s willing to let destroy her. Love is destruction, and if it’s not her then it’s the other person. She wants love to be tangible, yet out of reach. Like Sato or Izuku.

So when her first true experience with love, familial love with twice, it leaves this question:

Because this, THIS MOMENT, is a lasts act of desperation. To find love without violence.

Just because toga seeks out violence for love, does NOT MEAN that she actually WANTS it. Unhealthy behaviors don’t just happen. Horikoshi is very much pushing nurture over nature throughout the story, so I feel like we focus too much on Toga’s quirk and the consequences to it, and not WHY there’s consequences in the first place.

You don’t just grow up and decide “I like when the people I love are bloody and beaten”. No, that’s caused by a deeper issue, one usually because of an innate experience.

Yes her eating the bird as a child was supposed to show that she had an attraction to blood, I know that, but we are also dismissing this the same as the heroes (like ochako) have throughout the story. “She was such a good kid until her quirk made her commit such violence!” THATS the storyline the news pushes.

And then when the reporter comments on it, she says that it is due to a society that actively suppresses quirks. Quirks, quirks, quirks. Who’s entire identity also surrounded the fact that he had a strong, flashy quirk that made him worth something?

And tell me, if Katsuki’s quirk truly was apart of his anger issues and general “explosive personality”, then why does he lose it the more he uses self introspection? Why does the explosive energy slowly descend into something more of a mask? If Ochako was bubbly because her quirk was cute and made her float, then for the love of god, why does she get more serious?

We have ignored this repeatedly as a fandom. Quirks are nature, isn’t that stated by people who are actively suppressive? Like Toga’s parents? Like AFO?

Toga isn’t violent because of her quirk, she’s violent because it was the only way the people who cared about her expressed love. For the love of god, Sato was literally in a fight when she fell in love with him. And Ochako, our amazing girlboss who’s changing the world, has finally put the pieces together.

Quirks aren’t nature.

And the fact of the matter is, you don’t come to that conclusion without a deep understanding and care for another person. You don’t see past that “nature” they’ve been taught. From Aizawa, to Mitsuki, to Izuku Midoriya.

Hell, Uraraka thought Katsuki was just that stubborn! That there was no changing that! And yet, and yet, Izuku fucking came anyway. He came and he made kirishima take his hand because of WHAT OCHAKO SAID!

THIS is what Ochako’s character has been leading up to. Because she loves toga, and she doesn’t want to let her go. You don’t just, start wanting to save someone you see as irredeemable. That you don’t care about.

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ninadove · 9 months

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I don't know if you've ever talked/reflected on this but… have you ever thought about the idea of "souls" in Miraculous? I don't know, I was tormented by that a few nights ago because the very pointed and never dealt with in depth situation with the senti.

Obviously Felix thinks that they are ALL sentient creatures that deserve to live and "undoing" is equivalent to living but even writing this I'm talking about "creatures" not people which also means that I myself have a bias that the more human, the more "real" I see them.

Of course GabNat don't see them as more than tools but they very obviously think differently from the particular case of *Adrien* so I have to wonder if for them "intention" is what makes Adrien different, endowed with a soul so to speak. And LB is the heroine, in theory the bastion of morality, but, if I'm not mistaken, there is only one case in which she treat a senti as if they were a person worthy of having their own free will and they are sentibug, after that we have others (I'm thinking of sentibubble) and (although I understand that they had no way of freeing them and they have to stop them) they also don't spend a moment reflecting that they could be just as dignified.

I don't know, just all these mixed up ideas of what makes them "real" beyond a construct and that Felix thinks the mere idea of creation is enough, while the villains seem to think there are "exceptions" and I don't have no idea what the parameter of the heroine or Kagami for that matter would be.

I really want to hear your thoughts

OK, so I clicked publish before I even got a chance to write anything. Because I’m a genius. Anon I’m so sorry.

ANYWAYS you raise an excellent question, so I’m going to try my best to put my thoughts in order! 🦚

First of all, it seems Thomas Astruc himself differentiates between “human” Sentibeings and others:

Which seems to imply different levels of sentience: for instance, Adrien is no different from any regular child, while Feast exhibits behaviours that are closer to an animal’s. Not that it makes abusing or destroying him acceptable in any way, but I don’t think we’re supposed to feel as much towards him as towards the Sentikids.

(I do. I feel all the feels for Feast. Feast is my baby boy and I will never stop mourning him.)

If intent is truly what determines a Senti’s level of sentience, then this raises many questions as to which ones were created with that objective in mind. And interestingly, it doesn’t actually seem to be tied to whether they look “human” or not.

Sentibug is the first Sentibeing that is explicitly shown to have a soul of her own. Mayura wanted her to be a perfect copy of Ladybug, and that backfired the second she got a hold of her own amok; she shares the heroine’s strong sense of justice, and immediately sided with her at the cost of her life.

What does it mean for humanoid Sentis that were created after S3? Specifically, Senti-Gabriel and Senti-Bubbler? As far as I recall, they don’t get a chance to speak for themselves and express their own identity. If they were to be freed, would they act of their own volition or model their behaviour after their human counterpart? What would that mean for Felix, who was created out of jealousy over Adrien? Would Shadowmoth be able to create Sentibeings who simply look human, but are only granted a “lower” level of sentience to avoid a repeat of the Sentibug debacle?

The more I’m writing, the more I hate the idea of nitpicking sentience levels. It feels like the exact same logic Gabriel, Tomoe or Colt would use to justify the way they (mis)treat their children.

Felix also rejects the idea of a sentience hierarchy — especially based on the Sentibeings’ appearance and ability to speak for themselves.

Strikeback looks absolutely terrifying — monstruous, even. There’s nothing remotely human about them; and yet, Felix feels heartbroken and guilty as he lets Ladybug yeet them into the Sun.

Red Moon is also scary — in a stranger, more ominous, beautiful kind of way. An important feature about her is that she is unable to speak for herself; yet Argos still calls her his sister, and it is pretty clear from the way he interacts with her that she can understand him and experience emotions just as complex as his.

From a purely doylist explanation — I think Sentis are whatever the writing team needs them to be in the moment. This was made extra clear with the creation and (probable) destruction of Once Upon A Time, so they could try something new in terms of storytelling:

The play was very fun (read: tragic), don’t get me wrong, but I feel like the writers kind of got in their own way here.

The thing is — while the delivery isn’t the most consistent or satisfactory, you can tell that there is an intent to say something through the existence and treatment of Sentibeings.

Adrien, Felix and Kagami are, or course, child abuse survivors:

But they are also extremely queer-coded:

And very likely neurodivergent:

I’m sure there’s a lot of other communities who can see themselves represented in these kids — the common thread between these demographics being that we know what it feels like to be othered.

How many queer people are being mistreated for being “too overtly gay, why can’t you just be normal about it”? Or rejected by their own community, based on arbitrary standards?

How many neurodivergent people are being treated as subhuman, simply because they do not have the capability to advocate for themselves? Or because they are disabled “in the wrong way”?

As for abuse survivors? The hard truth is that they aren’t always perfect victims, who automatically know how to behave healthily once they’re out of a bad situation — especially not when they are literal children, who have never experienced anything else in their lives. There are after-effects, wounds that might get infected if you don’t tend to them, behaviours to unlearn. And yes, the healing process can look ugly, but they deserve some grace — a chance to grow and make it right.

Oftentimes, these biases come from figures of authority who are typically seen as “progressive”, or people who have the best intentions in the world — like Ladybug, who originally failed to see Sentis as human or even just sentient, unless they looked exactly like her.

All that to say — the approach that I take when thinking or writing about Sentibeings is the same as Felix’s not taking the Once incident into consideration: that all Sentis are sentient, to the same level, until proven otherwise. Is it necessarily coherent with what has been shown on screen? Not really, but I think it’s truer to the intended message!

And because I’m not one to pass up an opportunity, have some Transmasc Felix Propaganda:

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dearlybelovedemilyko · 1 year

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The last chapter is very intriguing because until now, i thought anthony was trying to save the children -and put the adults in chaos- but then he killed a child. What is he TRYING to achieve?

(Also agreeing he was creepy and gross. I had my suspicions when he did this to barbara bc hes likely already an adult so...yikes)

*note i don't know japanese so i only saw the raw's images, i may be missing context

Before last chapter, I had three different Anthony theories on rotation, based on his canon behavior and what each of those scenarios would mean for the story thematically, though I personally never assumed he shared Kate's goal of saving all the children and defeating the adults. Luckily for me, one of them turned out to be true! I was actually quite fond of my "Anthony's evil in a similar way to the adult shadows" theory, and since I spent way more time than I probably should have thinking about it, I think I have an idea of what he's trying to achieve.

My points being:

I posted about this before with examples, but Anthony's behavior is oddly similar to that of adult shadows. This indicates that despite their vastly different places in the hierarchy of the manor, they have similar moral values, or lack of them

As you said yourself, he just killed a child. Even if his plan somehow includes freeing the human children, it's clearly far from Kate's goal of saving everyone. He was quick to kill off Maggie as soon as she outlived her usefulness to him

Anthony has the habit of putting himself in a position superior to other people. Kate has allies and friends, Anthony has pupils. Even Anthony's initial behavior of telling Maryrose not to undo anyone else's brainwashing is telling: as one of the only unbrainwashed living dolls, he had a clear advantage over every human in the manor except Rosemary. He could easily undo somebody's brainwashing in secret and manipulate them like he did to Maggie, something that would be much harder to do if everyone regained their senses. Maggie clearly saw Anthony as the perfect savior, and even stated that he could be the manor's master in the future. Lewis goes as far as refer to "Christopher" the same way shadows are thaught to refer to the Lord Grandfather

Based on this, my bet is that even if part of Anthony's plan involves saving some of the children, that's far from his main goal. His main goal in my opinion seems to be gaining power, just like every adult character we've met so far, the difference being that as a human, he can't simply climb up the social ladder the conventional way and needs to hide in the walls (or the sewers, idk for sure where he lives. At this point i want it to be the sewers).

That makes for an interesting villain, doesn't it? As an unbrainwashed human in a system that treats humans like objects, you'd assume he'd be all for destroying the oppressive system, you'd assume he'd be an ally, you'd assume he'd want to save everyone. If it turns out he's completely okay with what the manor stands for as long as he personally raises to power, throwing all or most of the human kids under the bus, now that's scary and honestly quite realistic.

About the creep factor... yeah. After reading the scene with Barbara, I got a weird vibe too but I still gave him the benefit of the doubt. I thought sure, he's doing that to get Kate to trust him, but who's to say he also didn't think that was the only way to save Barbara's life? Surely those aren't mutually exclusive, right? Maybe he cares about her since she was Christopher's friend. Also from the flashbacks we get that they can't be that far apart in age, Barbara's just short and stuck in the children's building, so most of the creepy vibe I got was from the fact that he was impersonating a dead person, which again I was giving him the benefit of the doubt for... only for Maggie to go as far as to call Anthony her prince out loud before he leaned down and caressed her face looking like a sicko in chapter 164. The more i think about it the worse it gets to be honest. Gross.

#ask #shadows house #shadows house spoilers #anthony shadows house

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incorrecttowerofgodquotes · 1 year

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Gundam: The Witch Witch from Mercury Episode 9 Review

- I’m sorry Shaddiq, you struck out, and you struck out hard. I was right in my assessment that he loved her, but unfortunately he was never honest. If he had trusted Miorine and treated her like an equal, he may have been able to win her heart, but he didn’t. He wants everyone to act on his own terms, so he can be safe and secure in his outcome, but real people don’t work that way. They have their own thoughts and feelings, ones that could come into opposition with his own. However he refused to acknowledge this, unlike Suletta who’s a very open minded person. Suletta gave Miorine support but never coddled her, but Shaddiq only knows how to coddle. That’s why he’ll never be able to come into the greenhouse and why Miorine cut off the green tomato. Their love was unripened and will never come to fruition

- The battle this episode truly showed the definition of a team battle. Shaddiq just used his harem as attack dogs, leaving them to clean up while he takes all the glory of defeating the commander. But Earth House instead works together even after they were torn apart. Each one of them was broken and struggling but they came together to protect Suletta. That’s why she refers to them as “everyone” similarly to her GUND Bits. Earth House is now her family.

- But let’s stop stalling and talk about the elephant, or Aerial, in the room. This episode proves that not only can Aerial communicate with Suletta, there’s more than one being inside it. When I brought up the twelve Eri theory, it was mostly as a joke, but this episode pushes it pretty a bit. The scene where Suletta is talking to the robot while Miorine is confused was pretty terrifying. Hell, even one of Shaddiq’s harem called her a monster for her 360 vision attacks. I hope people start to really question what the fuck is up with this robot, cause so far it seems like the Purple Guy got transported into this universe

- Now let’s talk about the three MVP’s this episode, Chuchu, Till, and Lilique. Chuchu put up the best fight out of the Earth House kids and landed the finishing blow on Shaddiq. I wasn’t sure how good she would do in a sniper suit, but I think it helps reign in some of her more reckless tendencies. Maybe her new suit could be a sniper and up-front melee combination. Till came in super clutch as the one to reassemble the entire squad back together and get Shaddiq. He realized the mistake the harem girls had made in not finishing off the robots and used that to his advantage. Hell, even though he’s a mechanic he did pretty well in the suit. However Lilique once again shows just how perfect she is. Not just a management queen, but a decently talented pilot as well. Also the reveal that she turned down one of Renee’s backup simps boyfriends was hilarious. She has a body type pretty unique in anime but she’s also seen to be very attractive.

- The harem girls got a bit of spotlight this episode, but nothing too important. Renee’s pretty cute, but Felsi is still the best tussle brown haired girl. Sabina has her own lesbian fan club which makes so much sense it’s not even funny. And Henao is flexible as fuck

- Lauda went full psycho this episode, unnerving both Secilia and Rouji who just want to chill. He’s got a serious brother complex, and I’d like to know the backstory between them. He’ll definitely be a villain trying to “save” his big brother from the evil Mercurian witch’s grasp, without realizing Guel’s happier this way. Maybe we’ll get the Guel vs Lauda fight I predicted and a touching reunion between brothers, or most likely Lauda will let revenge cloud over his mind and die for it, possibly by Guel’s hand. I’m emotional either way. Also would be interested in seeing more of his relationship with Secilia since the series seems to be pushing the two sort of as rivals

- Once again, it’s Guel loving hours with me as your host. The moment I saw Suletta in the woods, I knew what was happening but god damn did I love it anyways. Guel calling her “country bumpkin” will always be adorable and I can see it transforming into a fond nickname. Though I was sad Guel didn’t participate in the battle, I think it makes better narrative sense to have Earth House alone work together. But even without a big battle scene, Guel still fucked with my emotions with the talk between him and Suletta. The moment the lights came on was gorgeous, and hopefully indicates that Guel will finally move on from his puppet life. Also once again the show makes the connection between Guel and his father and Suletta and her mother. I think he’ll be the one to support her when she learns the truth about her mother. But his asshole father fucks everything up by stealing away our Guel Camp and getting him unenrolled. Next episode better be him joining Earth House to get away from that shit or else I’m gonna scream. I know I’ve been saying it in every single review but GOD DAMN IT GUEL JUST JOIN!

- Prospera showing some actual emotion this episode with that tear. Her team, her professor, her husband, they were all stolen from her. She‘a been planning this revenge for over 20 years and now she knows nothing can get in her way. Nothing can stop Suletta and Aerial. Now she can put her true plan into motion.

- also finally, Suletta fucking emoted on his ass. If this was to mid 2000’s, you bet she woulda teabagged him

#the childhood friend never wins poor Shaddiq #gundam witch from mercury #gundam #g witch

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randomnameless · 1 year

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"even if IS just said she was the villain and needed to be stopped, clear as day, people would reject it." Let's be real: the moment people started using "death of the author" to reject the Nintendo dream interview where IS confirms Supreme Leader is the villain, that's when we should've realized that people have already made up their minds and don't care anymore. It's like telling a flat-earther that the earth is not flat or trying to debunk a conspiracy theory to believers of that theory.

Tbh, I agree sometimes with disregarding the author's intent, especially in some games where the "author" wants to push "feels" and tells the olayer how they should react.

Take Berkut for instance, for a reason I still don't understand, SoV wants to paint him as a tragic figure, who ultimately redeems himself dying. You're supposed to feel bad for Berkut and sad for what happened, to the point where Alm, the Hero - who was challenged on earlier opinions - plainly states Duma is the reason why Berkut turned sour, and no one is here to tell him "uh no sorry to tell you but your cousin was a bona fide asshole".

Ditto for the devs's lunar interview about Clout's story being a "heart-warming story", like no, sorry, no matter how much you push for it, I personally don't think his story is heart warming, rather it's blood boiling.

Does it mean I use the "death of the author" like the people we're talking about?

Yeah, maybe!

But what is more gratting about those people isn't how they use DoA to make up their own canon and story (everyone can make headcanons!), but how they push their headcanon on everyone's lawns and asking for everyone else to treat it as the truth - the Aeneid is the perfect example, people really rec this fanfiction to have a "better understanding" of canon characters, or some people said it understands the characters better than the canon does. For a fanfic, sure, it's cool and all*, but to treat this as canon?

Like, there is no discussion possible between people who argue canon and others who argue using headcanons and imo that's the crux of the discourse bcs FE Fodlan is vague about 70% of its worldbuilding.

I don't like Berkut and believe he toasted Rinea because he loved being Rudolf's heir more than he loved her, but FE15 makes it uwu clear that Berkut apparently loved Rinea a lot and apparently torched her just because Duma promised him power, which makes somehow Duma the reason why Rinea was Bernie'd.

But you won't see me pop up in a discussion about FE15 or people talking about their favourite ships in that game to point out how Berkut burnt his fiancée at stake for "power" on his own volition - canon is canon - even when it blows - I'd rather rant about it and have my own HC in this space rather than piss canon-lovers/users with it.

Saying in your hcs Supreme Leader isn't the villain of the game?

Sure, do whatever you want, have a nice day, eat a sandwich, whatever. Maybe some people will join you, share your sandwich and you'll have fun developping hcs!

Saying in canon Supreme Leader isn't the villain and disregarding the dev's interviews?

That's going to be more problematic, in a way that this specific interview isn't subjective or open to interpretation (thus hcs, like Sylvia being FE4!Claude's relative or not), so people are going to disagree and be more vocal about it.

Some other blogs already explained it, but it seems like FE Fodlan attracted a lot of persons who aren't used to fandom, as in a place with transformative works and where making OCs and fics and having headcanons isn't "BaD" - so they try to retrofit canon in their headcanons because "fanfics" and transformative works are BaD etc etc (insert the general dislike for fanfictions from the early 2000s (?) and the regular/usual insults towards people who write fanfiction from the same era (them being fujos, etc etc)) so they're not writing fanfictions or arguing headcanons, no, they're just writing "totally meta pieces that are better than the canon".

Imo, the second you're disregarding canon to write something about a work, you're writing a fanfic (let it be a "real fic", random hcs, etc etc etc) and that's totally fine! You're not a "fujo degenerate" for not liking the canon and "rewritting" scenes, or building more stories about a character your like!

What's not "fine" is forcing everyone to adopt your headcanons and fanfictions - if the flower is red, you cannot force people to admit the flower is blue, otoh, if you write a story where the flower isn't red but blue, it's your story and you can whatever you want with it! Ditto with fanfic writers when someone argues canon against them, dude, you're reading a story where the author wrote the flower to be blue, like they gaf about the flower's canonical colour to be red - it's a fanfic!

Don't like, Don't read!

*not withstanding with the actual quality and body of the Aeneid, which isn't something I'd personally call cool or "alright", but that's another debate.

#anon #replies #idk if I replied to you anon?#fandom woes #sort of #the games are so vague thus encourage headcanons and that's why we have some many fan content!#even if I really don't like 90% of the fics posted on Ao3 but again if you don't like just don't read #but there's no superiority or hierarchy in what is acceptable to like #you like canon sure good for you i like my hcs and some friends like it too and we discuss about it #forcing people to like something the same way you do though it's always a big no #so if they reject the interview okay death of the author or whatever let them enjoy their hcs #but it becomes annoying when they argue their hc is The Canon (tm)#i used to be an ass who commented on fics saying they weren't canon #but then i stopped being 15

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bluekat12345 · 8 months

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Pokemon Scarlet DLC: Teal Mask review

(This will contain spoilers for the Teal Mask DLC for Pokemon Scarlet. So if you don't want to be spoiled, do not read this! Also, warning: This will be long.)

I've been playing for a few days now, and I couldn't wait any longer to share my thoughts. (I've never been a patient person.)

Overall, I loved it! I think the scenery was cool, the town was cool, and I really loved the Pokémon you could find there, and I enjoyed the characters and the storyline of the game. Not everything was perfect, and I will point out what I thought were weak points, but overall, it's still fun to play.

So many great Pokémon from previous were there, and I really like the designs of the new ones in the game. I really like Poltchageist and I think its evolution looks cool too and I cannot wait to catch, evolve, and learn more about it. Though, I will admit I'm not too impressed with Dipplin, I feel like it could've been better as a regional form or a regional fake. I heard there's supposed to be another evolution for it that comes out in the second half of the DLC, I hope its true. And, as mentioned before, I really like the Pokémon that returned for the DLC, makes me really wanna catch all.

Ogerpon was so cute! And those masks are awesome! I want an Ogerpon plushie now! The 'Loyal' Three designs were cool (still don't like them), and I was actually surprised they were part Poison, I thought they would be Dark Types.

However, I will admit, I don't really care much for that little berry collecting minigame, didn't really enjoy it. So, I don't imagine playing more of it anytime soon.

I really enjoyed exploring Kitakami, the scenes were beautiful, and I always find something interesting when I explored. Seriously, wherever I go, there is something to find on the ground, it got to the point where I had to stop myself from collecting everything I noticed on the ground.

I also like the new bags and hairstyles that style card grants me. Not really my real life hairstyle, but I might give one of them a try. I really enjoyed the new hairstyle and bag were given when we change into that green festival outfit.

The characters were definitely interesting to me. I enjoyed spending time with Kieran and found myself able to relate to the shy little guy, and throughout the journey, I genuinely felt bad keeping secrets from him and beating him in battles. And I really felt bad when Ogerpon wanted to go with me instead of him. And the way it ended, gave me major future antagonist vibes, hopefully he'll just still be a friend that motivated to get stronger. I don't want him as an enemy.

Carmine was honestly frustrating to deal with, at first. I found her a bit frustrating to deal with and enjoyed beating her in battle if it meant knocking her insufferable ego down. But by the end, I found myself liking her a bit more. She's not my favorite character, but I felt I understood her better and I don't dislike her so much now.

As for Briar, I am honestly suspicious of her. She seems nice and its cool that she is the descendant of Heath, the guy who wrote the Scarlet/Violet book, but something about her screams secret villain/antagonist to me and while she claims to want to prove Heath's theories true, I feel like she has less than benevolent ulterior motives. Guess we'll just have to see in Part 2.

Overall, the story was great, but it kind of reminded me of the Team Star story, where the innocent party is treated as a villain while the true villains are treated as heroes. When I learned the truth, I was deeply frustrated how the people were treating those three villains like heroes and shared Carmine's frustration. I was glad the truth came out, but I feel like it was resolved too quickly and easily, where Kieran just tells people and they automatically believe him, I feel like they should've seen how evil the 'Loyal' Three truly were and see for themselves how Ogerpon is not bad. But I was happy that the truth is out. I knew Ogerpon would go with me, but I still felt a bit bad, since Kieran wanted nothing more than to befriend the Pokémon and I felt like I robbed him of that. I might bring Ogerpon to Blueberry Academy when the second part comes out.

Overall, I'd give this a 9/10 score.

#Pokemon #Personal Review #Game Review #The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero #Pokemon Scarlet #The Teal Mask #Pokemon The Teal Mask #Pokemon Scarlet DLC #Pokemon Scarlet and Violet #Pokemon Scarlet and Violet DLC #Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet #Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet DLC

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the-apples-were-monitored · 1 month

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honestly my theory is that a lot of the people even bringing up Drake Bell's own allegations are not doing it because they care about the victim but because they want to use it as a way to say that he "deserved" what he got when he was younger because he continued the cycle of abuse or violence, like I saw someone say he 'choose" to continue the cycle of abuse, I was SA'd multiple times when I was young and when I was older, I was very verbally abusive in my relationships, and emotionally abusive, I'm never going to say that my actions were justified in that but to say that I was consciously choosing to continue the cycle of abuse from a thing I didn't even realize was still affecting me? (because i kept lying to myself about the abuse and how I had 'forgiven' my abuser) like it wasn't a conscious choice at all for me. and it kinda sucks to think that so many people would also think I deserved what I got because I went on to also be abusive later in my life....

exactly this. there are people who believe things that happened to my sister and blame me not only for my own abuse but for hers as well because if i'd been a "better sister" maybe she would've told me. i was violent, but so were all my other siblings and we were modeling exactly what we'd been shown growing up. unlearning is a lifelong process.

i had fucked up enough patterns in future friendships to warrant evaluation for the sexist "borderline personality disorder" diagnosis. it's taken me so much work to move past who i've been and i would never expect people to just forgive me any more than i would just forgive the person who did that to me. but i can protect people in the future by speaking out.

we don't need to protect drake bell. he's a grown man. but i worry that the way people are treating this case will make people closet themselves even further when it comes to their own traumas. so many people feel crazy and don't even know why because they won't acknowledge what they've been through. so many people do fucked up things without knowledge of their own patterns because they won't admit they're still affected. there's a lot of pressure to just be okay. the amount of people who say "it's been x amount of time, you should be over it by now"...those people make it hard to ever work through your pain. there's not an "excuse" for foisting that pain onto other people. but i think people are too hung up on "excuses". people look into things like this already having picked a side and wanting evidence to support their knee jerk reaction. people woobify drake bell because they want to support a victim or people villainize him entirely because they have a punitive justice model laid out. i'm just trying to gather what facts and evidence we have in the hopes that we can end the cycle. that's the takeaway i wish people would have with this.

would it have been better if drake bell hadn't spoken up just because he isn't perfect? he'd been contacted for a documentary on the subject before and been accused of being part of a cover up when he declined. so it's like if he talks it's bad and if he doesn't it's worse. it's like that in real life too. i know from my own life not saying anything makes people think i was somehow complicit but saying things makes people think i'm lying.

also to anon who sent me the one-time-i-dreampt post thank you i'll be looking into that further. i worry for any accusers of his in this firestorm especially if what they say is true. the internet has decided that no matter who you believe someone is being harassed and retraumatized and that's utterly fucked up

#quiet on set #drake bell #abuse tw #rape tw

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anueutsuhos-touhou-profiles · 1 year

Text

Antinomy of Common Flowers:

Touhou 15.5: Antinomy of Common Flowers is the third and final entry in the Urban Legend Trilogy. It's one of my favorite entries in the series for its wide and fun range of characters, thrilling story, and amazing final boss theme. And this is gonna be a long one so you might want to get some snacks.

Thanks to the unresolved Urban Legend incident, rumors have been going around about a certain phenomenon called "Perfect Possession": victims get taken over by another person in not just mind, but body. Not just ghosts can do this: anyone can with the right state of mind! Naturally, the people of Gensokyo mess around with this for fun and profit. But, there are also a great many people working tirelessly to resolve this incident however possible.

Of course, as mentioned, the Urban Legend incident has not been resolved, and so everyone uses the same weird abilities as before.

The people of Gensokyo have formed some unlikely duos using this Perfect Possession. Each of these duos has a story mode making up a larger storyline, in chronological order:

• Reimu and Kasen

• Marisa and Koishi

• Nitori and Kokoro

• Mamizou and Mokou

• Miko and Byakuren

• Ichirin and Futo

• (Dream World) Reisen and Doremy

• Sumireko and Doremy

• Tenshi and Shinmyoumaru

• Yukari and Reimu (basically the final showdown against the main villains)

• Jo'on and Shion (a sort of epilogue of the main villains cleaning up their mess)

Marisa becomes a jobber! She and Koishi are the first to be defeated by the main villains, who cheat the spellcard rules to become almost invincible up until the end.

The Myouren Temple and the Divine Spirit Mausoleum reluctantly join forces to resolve this incident, but fail miserably at accomplishing anything. Still, it seems both Buddhists and Taoists

Yukari Yakumo, after sitting out the previous two major incidents, comes back for a major role in the plot! She's piecing together a plan to solve the incident.

Her urban legend is the Teke Teke: a woman severed from the waist down who lives in abandoned subway stations and crawls after you, trying to take your legs for her own! Yukari mimics this with her portals, but nobody's really cut. Still, the shock of it all appears to actually deal damage to the person she "bisects".

Tenshi Hinanawi the bratty celestial returns after a long absence! It seems she's been banished from Heaven and is having quite the temper tantrum. Her urban legend is the conspiracy theory of HAARP being a weather control machine.

Oh, and this was the first Touhou game to receive an official English translation. It is not good. It is poorly translated. So most people just stick to the fan translations as they always have.

It turns out that this Perfect Possession is not possession at all, but rather a form of teleportation. If a person is in a calm, dream-like state, another person can attach themselves to them, becoming the "slave". You'd expect the "master" to be the one doing the possession but no, it's the host. Anyway, this possessor is then sent to the Dream World, replacing the Dream World counterpart of their host. When the possession starts, their host and them switch dimensions. But what happens to the Dream World counterpart? They get pushed out into the real world!

This is the true negative side effect of the Perfect Possession incident, and it wasn't even on purpose!

Everyone in the world has a Dream World counterpart. They can often act very differently than you would in any situation. As I mentioned in Doremy's profile, they can be thought of as an exaggeration of one's true self. More specifically, they effectively treat the world as if it were a video game and they suffered no consequences for any of their actions. You might think based on the actions of the Dream selves that people are truly evil at heart, but that's not entirely true. I made the video game comparison because much as liking violent video games doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, these Dream World counterparts don't make their real world selves evil villains. When I say suffering no consequences for their actions, that includes actually hurting anyone. Basically, the less a Dream World counterpart acts like their real self, that doesn't mean the real world is hiding more, it just means they care more about the consequences of their actions.

Doremy Sweet, ruler of dreams, has attached herself to each of these Dream World counterparts to keep an eye on them. While she makes no effort to steer them away from wreaking havok, she also explains the situation to anyone willing to listen. When the Dream World counterparts are fought, however, Doremy sits there and does nothing, weakening the dream selves against a Perfect Possession duo.

I'M NOT DONE YET! YOU SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN A SNACK!

Some notable Dream World counterparts:

• Marisa Kirisame is revealed to harbor jealousy towards Reimu and Yukari for stealing the "main character role" from her.

• Reisen Udongein Inaba has a great deal of pent-up aggression against the people of Gensokyo for their bullying of her, and lashes out at anyone in her path. Her actions lead to her real self getting put under house arrest.

• Toyosatomimi no Miko has a staunch sense of justice, to a fanatical degree. She wishes she had killed the Yorigami Sisters for being as evil as they are.

• Byakuren Hijiri apparently dreams of putting bombs in the heads of uncooperative disciples to ensure their obedience. This is the Dream World counterpart least like her real world self. Basically, it appears to be her hidden lazy side: she doesn't want to have to actually go through the effort of convincing people her way is the right one. Dream World Byakuren also wants a button to exist somewhere to instantly attain enlightenment, rather than having to do all this meditation and such. Remember, she hasn't done this in private, merely the idea of doing it has entered her head. In fact, when someone at the temple sees this Dream World Byakuren, it doesn't disillusion them. Quite the exact opposite: they come to the conclusion that if she can act so against her innermost desires on a daily basis in the name of helping others, than there might be hope for them, too.

• Mamizou wants to take over Gensokyo, and then the world, and rule it with an iron fist, annihilating anyone she doesn't like. Yet at the same time, she also has horrifying nightmares of being hunted down and killed by humans, apparently trauma from the Outside World.

• Nitori's Dream World counterpart is actually NICER than her real one. She has none of the greed she exhibits normally and is simply a curious inventor who wants to make new machines all day long. Doremy admires such a pure soul.

• Reimu Hakurei is also nicer in the Dream World. It proves that deep down she just wants a quiet, peaceful life without hardship.

• Koishi's dream self is basically dead, thanks to Koishi closing off all but her subconscious mind. Koishi doesn't dream ever.

• And finally, Tenshi's Dream World counterpart is practically the game's Extra boss. She's the most powerful and megalomaniacal of the Dream selves. She acts like a ranting supervillain, talking about wanting to annihilate the world and create a new one in its place.

#touhou project #antinomy of common flowers #touhou

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adrinoir · 2 years

Text

This isn’t about Emilie anymore

Hey, besties. It’s been a while, no thanks to Miraculous being on a hiatus. But, I think it’s time to talk about one of the most god awful villains and fathers ever - Gabriel Agreste, and what his true intentions are.

Gabriel consistently claims he’s trying to get the ladybug and black cat miraculous so he can have life restart itself and make his wish to get Emilie back. But, based on his actions alone, it really doesn’t seem that’s so much the case anymore.

How he treats Adrien speaks volumes

First things first, Gabriel treats his own son like garbage. Adrien is the one tie he has to his wife - he’s his son, for fucks sake. Adrien lives with him and truly loves him. On numerous occasions, he even compares Adrien to his mom - it’s clear they’re a lot alike. But does he actually spend time with his son? No. Not at all.

Speaking of the comparisons to Emilie, Gabriel’s comparisons are often not positive ones, as if Adrien gets a lot of negative traits from his wife. If Emilie has a number of negative personality traits, does he really care about her to the extent he claims? Or does he just like having a pretty wife as eye candy or for some…well, you know.

Anyhow, he says to Adrien in the what if episodes “I’m doing this for her - for us.” But, if he was actually doing it for both of them, he’d actually make an effort to spend quality time with Adrien and show he cares about him. It’s very obvious Adrien is also grieving a lot over Emilie, but Gabriel isn’t trying at all to comfort him.

He knows Adrien loves Emilie and is grieving over her too. Wouldn’t Emilie want him to give Adrien the attention and care he deserves? If she didn’t, that means my analysis is trash and she’s just as manipulative as Gabriel. Sadly, we do see in Wishmaker that she just might be manipulative based on Adrien’s lifelong “dreams” being whatever it is his parents want him to be. But, it’s hard to judge right now how she was as a person and parent.

Adrien is shown to favor Emilie over Gabriel, whether it’s because they just because they had a closer bond or because Gabriel has always been this manipulative, making him the bad parent of the two.

I still wonder why Gabriel doesn’t care for his own son. I can’t remember if I saw it in another Tumblr post or a video analysis, but someone had mentioned maybe he neglects and manipulates Adrien because once the world restarts (if he gets his wish, which he definitely doesn’t), he’ll get a version of Adrien that won’t remember any of this. So, he somehow feels it’s justified to neglect and akumatize his son while he works towards getting the miraculouses. But, honestly? This is Adrien now, in the present, and no matter what, he should still be here for him, showing that he cares. He clearly has a lot of faith that he’ll get the miraculous, if this is the case.

So, there’s that theory, or, he maybe just sees him as an object. He uses Adrien a lot to be this “perfect” boy. He’s a model, and he’s multi-talented. This could be just because he wants good money and to seem like this wonderful father figure to the public eye, or it could be because Adrien is a sentimonster which might not be an actual human in the eyes of Gabriel.

He’s going insane

Gabriel is shown to be getting crazier as the series progresses. He has started going insane lengths just to get the miraculouses, almost as if he does it just because he enjoys controlling people.

For crying out loud, he akumatized himself just to trick people. He akumatized his own son since he knows how badly he can manipulate someone else who’s also grieving.

Listen, I don’t feel ready for his crazy ass in season 5 with all the miraculouses he now has. You saw the way that man evil laughed when he got the miraculous from Felix?

The season 4 finale really showed how insane he’s going. In Risk, he has a breakdown in the basement. He starts screaming about how he’s not worthy of their love and smashes his fist onto Emilie’s coffin(?) literally causing it to crack. Then he runs away, scared for his life. And even in the next scene, he doesn’t even really ask poor Nathalie if she’s okay. Just gets the idea that Ladybug never takes a risk, and laughs maniacally and runs out to start his plan.

He seems power hungry

Speaking of the finale, he was so thrilled about getting the other miraculous. Isn’t that kinda odd? Those aren’t the ones he wanted. Those aren’t going to grant his wish.

He might be happy just because it’s more help in getting the miraculouses. However, it could also be due to his intentions changing.

“I took all the miraculous from her! Now I am more powerful than ever!” Uh. Absolutely sounds power hungry. He’s living for this.

This man uses his son. He wants to keep his Agreste brand alive and well. He ignores his son to focus on getting his wife back. It’s proof he’s conceited and wants this power.

Conclusion

There’s probably more reasons I can’t think of off the top of my head, but yeah. I seriously don’t think he’s doing this all for Emilie anymore. You can’t convince me otherwise. He’s such an awful person.

#miraculous ladybug #tales of ladybug and cat noir #miraculers #miraculous #gabriel agreste #hawk moth #fuck gabriel agreste #ml strike back #ml risk #ml season 4 finale #ml the collector #ml ephemeral #ml analysis #emilie agreste #adrien agreste

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linkspooky · 1 year

Note

*comes crashing down from your celling*

I heard you like Spider-man, hehehe…

*pulls out whiteboard with all the spider-movies*

Got any opinions on the original trilogy? My fav from that trilogy is the third one due to how bat-shit insane it got. It’s always such a fun time to watch a burning train wreck, hehe.

What about the Amazing Spider-man movies? Opinions on the Tom Holland trilogy? I think the third one sort of dropped the ball character development wise but that’s probably just me.

Oh! What’s your opinion on “Into the Spider-verse”?! Personally that’s my favorite one out of all of them. Albeit, I am bias since I do have a soft spot for animated films.

*pulls microphone out of nowhere and points it at you*

Well?

The original spiderman movies are what got me into comics in the first place. I would probably be a normal human being if I never saw them.

Opinions on the original trilogy: These are going to be bullet points since I have a lot of them but no cohesive thoughts.

Kirsten Dunst's Mary Jane Watson is really good? People don't tend to like her, and I don't get why besides "she gets kidnapped." Well, sorry she's not a black belt in Kung Fu. Mary Jane is just the best comic book love interest of all time and the reason why is that she's her own person outside of Peter. Her life does not revolve around him. She is the girl next door, she is outgoing, she is confident, she's Peter's friend, but she doesn't just wait around for him. Mary Jane in these movies embody that because she is Peter's next door neighbor but has an entire life outside of him, her father is terrible and she wants to get out of the house, she wants to be an actor but she's bad at it, when Peter doesn't want to commit she dates other men. The upside down kiss is one of the most romantic scenes of all time you can't see this movie does a bad job of making their relationship work.

I think they should have cast someone else besides James Franco for Harry, but they also got the character right with how poorly his father treats him and how obviously Norman favors Peter.

Willem De Foe's Norman Osborne is perfect, the Green Goblin personality slowly taking over makes him such a compelling character but Norman wasn't even that great of a person to begin with he makes weapons for the military and yet he's super sympathetic as he loses his mind.

Otto Octavius is just the best. I honestly like the movie's take on Otto Octavius more than the comics one, and you can tell it had an impact because Insomniac's Spiderman game he's way more like movie Otto.

The Sam Raimi films are like the only marvel movie that actually feels like a comic book movie. Spiderman saves people! I don't understand why that's so hard to get right.

Venom sucks. I genuinely do not get why people like venom so much. If they had just let Raimi do the storyline with Sandman (the only compelling villain character) and Harry returning as Goblin we would have had a good movie. I also don't think the third movie is that bad, because the non-venom parts are good.

Tobey Macguire is the best spiderman. Spiderman is supposed to be unattractive and uncharismatic. I like Andrew Garfield too, but I'm like "This is not a kid who gets bullied in High School." They kept trying to make him younger and more hip.

Amazing Spiderman

This isn't the Spiderman I grew up on so I have less thoughts about it.

Andrew Garfield's spiderman is good no complaint there, but the whole trying to make a conspiracy theory about why Peter's parents died was just dumb. There's no conspiracy there the whole point of Peter Parker is he's just some guy.

Spiderman 2 suffers from the same problem as Spiderman 3. You just can't shove too many villains in the same movie, it loses all focus.

The villains aren't good. I think Jamie Foxx does a good performance though, I'm just not really into Electro.

Gwen Stacy, one of my other favorite comic book love interests (Gwen is a really good character she just dies) is done well in this one, and her chemistry with Peter is off the charts. There are people who think she should not have died, I think it was just rushed. If they wanted to make Electro the villain of the second movie they should have let their take on Green Goblin have his own movie. There's just so much rushed decisions in these movies they kind of feel like they were made so Sony could keep the license.

Spiderman Disney / Marvel Movies

The first two are just bad. Connecting Peter Parker to Tony Stark just doesn't work and ruins the character. He's the FRIENDLY NEIGHBHORHOOD SPIDERMAN what is this boy doing hanging out with the avengers? That being sad...

Zendaya's MJ is amazing. Proof you don't need a 1:1 adaptation of the character. She's just got charisma and she calls Peter out on his shit, and once again what makes MJ a good character is she is entirely her own person outside of Peter.

Ned is a really good friend to Peter too.

No Way Home is the only one in this trilogy I like, and surprise surprise it's a fanservice movie with fans of the previous movies and returning actors. However, this is the only one that feels like a Spiderman movie because it's all about the fact that Spiderman saves people. The whole conflict of the movie revolves around the fact if there is a chance to save his villains, Peter will take it. Also OTTO AND NORMAN OSBORNE. The ending scene of the movie where Peter chooses helping a sick man over taking personal vengeance against him is the only Marvel movie that actually feels like a superhero movie. Becuase one more time SUPERHEROES SAVE PEOPLE. I don't get why that's hard.

INTO THE SPIDERVERSE

I actually think these are the best too, but once again I didn't grow up on them, and Miles isn't my area of expertise (I stopped reading spiderman comics before he became a thing but I'm planning on picking them up soon).

Spidergwen x MIles Morales is my ship. There's so many iconic scenes in this movie, the leap of faith, the part where his father tells him about the spark (that literally had me crying).

I know spidergwen is a thing in the comics but this Gwen just goes to show that Gwen Stacy is a good character on her own. It's not even the superpowers, she's just spunky, has a lot of personality, self confident likes to tease miles but is still a teenager dealing with a lot of grief and loss (part of original gwen's character too).

SHE'S A SUNFLOWER, I THINK HER LOVE WILL BE TOO MUCH.

The nuance of Miles Morales as a character, he's literally just a mixed race kid in a special private school who doesn't really want to be there because it's a high pressure environment. He's a super complex character and that's where the emotional stakes of his character come from. THe fact he has super powers is kind of secondary.

Peter B Parker, Miles, and Spider-Gwen are all amazing characters. Though part of me wishes they wouldn't try to shove every single alternate universe spiderman ever in these movies, because I'm eternally worried the sequel is going to suffer from trying to keep too many balls in the air juggling. (Spiderham, spidernoir, and penny are already kind of pointless in the first movie).

KINGPIN!!! no comment there I just like him.

#askspookies #spiderman asks #spiderman #spidermeta

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dimitrscu · 11 months

Note

You're right about Gideon. His dialogue on Miquella is 90% about him being missing. What's your take on Miquella btw?

Don't quote me on this, but apparently Millicent in JP says, "The caution she abandoned to match R*dahn." Maybe this means Malenia bloomed deliberately. Or maybe it means her choosing to focus on fighting him instead of resisting the rot. Thus, risking a bloom. Assuming the trailer plays out in real-time, the Aeonia forms so quickly it might've caught Malenia off guard. Honestly, there's so much to discuss. But like you said, it's difficult to do that. People would rather bend over backwards to invent copium takes than admit the Big Warrior Dude couldn't/didn't defeat the gangly sickly lady. I've seen someone say he actually won because she didn't kill him.

Other than the points you've made, the funny thing about being mad at Malenia for attacking us is uh.. we're not framed as the good guys here. The Tarnished obtains the medallions via the Albinaurics, listens to Albus lament how they can't journey to the sanctuary, and then commits murder at said sanctuary anyway. Then when we kill Loretta, a mandatory boss before Malenia, the game tells us that she's here as she thinks the Haligtree is a safe haven. Basically in our journey to kill Malenia, we betray the trust of the needy and trample on what they think is their hope.

I genuinely love Miquella and hope we get to learn more about him in the DLC. He’s a character that I definitely feel has more going on than people may realise. I don’t subscribe to these theories of him being secretly evil though and I honestly can’t stand all these takes of him being a Griffith knock off. Seriously these guys see ‘Guy In Egg’ and go “Holy shit just like the hit manga Berserk!!” Like I get that’s where Miyazaki gets some of his inspiration from but that doesn’t mean every damn thing needs to be a Berserk reference lmao

Anyway, to me Miquella comes across as someone who genuinely has good intentions. A lot of this is plain to see and I think trying to look for the worst in him is such a reach at times. I don’t imagine Miquella to be this perfect saint by any means, but trying to make out that he’s potentially worse than any of the others is something I just can’t get behind. It’s like people are waiting for it to turn out like “Haha! He was actually the secret villain all along!” Folks love going on about how there’s no outright good and bad in this world and they love throwing around words like morally grey, but for some reason with Miquella they want him to be the worst shit in the lands between. We know he rejected the Golden Order primarily because they couldn’t (or wouldn’t?) help Malenia, but at the same time he goes on to build this sanctuary for those turned away by the Erdtree. He was essentially offered everything on a silver platter and still turned them down because to him they weren’t doing enough. For Malenia and for others who are considered ‘different’ by the order’s standards. They may be demigods but considering so are the omen twins and look at how they are treated, it’s obvious anyone who doesn’t fit into this Perfect Order is either considered not worth protecting or is wiped out. Miquella on the other hand obviously cares enough to want to change things. The idea some people have that he brainwashes his followers, again doesn’t quite sit right with me. We still don’t fully know what Miquella’s plans are and to me at least he doesn’t seem like he’s hell bent on conquering. Why would he need to brainwash and manipulate his followers though realistically? Unless it turns out that their affection and worship is how he gains his strength (which to me sounds stupid), why would he need to force people to follow him? But then again people say the same thing about Malenia with the cleanrot knights in that she infects them with rot and they are nothing more than braindead zombies who follow her. Even though it says they vowed to fight alongside her despite the inevitable putrefaction of their flesh, and that they accepted their fate. But going back to Miquella, I’ve seen this argument that because the Haligtree is hard to find that must mean he didn’t want people to find it.

Yeah, potential enemies.

You can’t just position a sanctuary like the Haligtree in the middle of the continent with big neon lights pointing at it saying “Come here if you’re being oppressed by that ugly ass tree over there.” And expect everyone to be fine with it. The place is already quite vulnerable as it is. It’s small and it’s situated below a cliff. If anyone were to attack it from the land I doubt they would last long. Keeping the Haligtree location secret is important if they wish to keep it, and it’s inhabitants, from harm. This is why I like to believe there were people, like Loretta, who knew of the location and would set out to help guide those in need.

About the bloom in Caelid though, I personally do think she did bloom intentionally. I think she made the conscious decision, however hard it may have been, to do something to break the tie. The fact she was the one to take the initiative doesn’t mean she was losing. It just means she had the conviction to actually do something. I do think however that the rot god could have possibly used this whole situation to it’s advantage and spread the rot throughout Caelid. Sensing that Malenia was weakened from the fight and her will to hold back the rot being at a low point, it may well have seized the opportunity to act through her. I don’t necessarily think Malenia intended to destroy the region, only that she wanted to isolate it to her enemy. With all that we’ve learnt about her and how she hates the rot and wants rid of it, I can’t imagine she would take pleasure in spreading it around the world. But of course all this was still a great risk and she couldn’t have know exactly how bad the outcome would be.

I agree with what you said about the tarnished. When you look at it we really aren’t framed as a good person throughout our journey. Whatever peoples personal headcanons are for their own character, the player character is kind of an asshole. We’re not even supposed to be from these lands and yet when we’re told by some random person to go kill everything just so we can become king of the ashes we gladly do it. There are some bosses in the game that I don’t even know why we fight. Malenia being one of them. It’s not even like we need her rune as we only need two to enter the capital and then they are never mentioned again. If Malenia were someone important in our quest you could understand going through all the hassle to get to her, but in the end we kill her for what? Her sword and her outfit? I know people go and fight her for the challenge and all that, it’s just lore wise there’s never really any need to go to the Haligtree.

Again thank you anon for allowing me to rant, and once again I’m sorry I take so long to reply!

#anonymous #answered

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mewmewchann · 2 years

Note

How come you hate kokichi so much? You’ve mentioned a few things before but I don’t know if you’ve ever gone into depth about it. I’m just curious

It’s...Complicated.

this is really long so I’m putting this under a cut

I can’t lie, a big part of the reason I was turned off of Ouma as a character was because of the way the fandom treated and characterised him. Like, we have someone who is very clearly meant to be a villain who openly doesn’t care about the people around him dying not to mention fucKING CHAPTER 4. But how does the fandom treat him? “UWU CUTE GAY LIAR BABY HE’S SO SMART AND ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS! HE DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG!” ...Yeah. Suuuuuuuure.

“He did nothing wrong”? Chapter 4. “He’s a good person”? He’s a fucking bully. “He’s uwu cute gay”? Being LGBTQ+ doesn’t automatically excuse a person’s actions.

And also looking back on some of his writing, it kinda doesn’t really make much sense.

We never get any reason why he acts the way he does. Why he’s willing to lie, cheat, bully and kill through loopholes to get his way. Like, the general fandom consensus is he had some kind of abusive background, so he has to be a good person. Okay, one: general fandom consensus isn’t canon. Two: where’s the evidence for this in canon? (and don’t say pregame because pregame Ouma has even less behind him than ingame Ouma) Three: Having an abusive background doesn’t automatically excuse a person’s actions. Even if Kodaka said straight up what his backstory is, that doesn’t make him a good person. It’d add to his character, sure, but it doesn’t automatically redeem his actions.

Not to mention if you look at it a second time, his whole “it’s a lie” thing kinda falls apart. At least 90% of his statements are followed by “it’s a lie!” so what are we meant to believe? Nothing? Then we don’t have a character at all. Yeah, liar characters can work. Take a look at Celeste for example. Her character is based on lies, but she actually has something if you take that away. Specifically her hate of being “normal”, and the existence of Taeko. Ouma? If you take his lies away, there’s nothing behind it. Yeah the idea of “there is no truth, there’s only lies” sounds good on paper, but it kinda falls flat if that’s all you focus on.

And before anyone brings up the “BUT HE SAID HE WANTED TO END THE KILLING GAME IN CHAPTER 5″ thing. One. Remember that his back was against the wall and he desperately needed Kaito to cooperate in his plan? Two. Remember his whole thing about being a liar? Yeah. Frankly I call bullshit on him secretly wanting to end the killing game the whole time. And before anyone comes at me for this, I have actual proof towards this theory. “What proof?” Glad you asked. He had the perfect opportunity to end the killing game altogether in chapter 1.

RIGHT. FUCKING. HERE. It’s been established at least a hundred times over that Ouma can tell whenever people are lying. So if he REALLY wanted the killing game to end this whole time, why didn’t he call Tsumugi out? According to what the canon itself has established, he would’ve known that she was lying. So he had perfect reason to call her out on her bullshit. But. He. Didn’t. And THAT, is why the whole “he secretly wanted the killing game to end this whole time” idea is total bullshit.

And...I’m gonna get a lot of flack for this, but he’s just unlikeable. He acts like an annoying child, the whole “it’s a lie!” thing gets super grating, he’s a straight-up bully, and chapter 4 drives any redeemability he could’ve had down the drain. Seriously, I just can’t get behind why people like him. let alone ship him with the main protagonist

If you like him, more power to you I guess. but I just can’t get behind him.

#kokichi ouma #drv3 #danganronpa #character criticism

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janeeyreheresy · 1 year

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I Choose Violence

But she's violent!

Friendly reminder that the only people Bertha attacked are her husband and her brother. We can be confident she has never attacked Grace, who she spends most time with. If she did, I trust the narrative would inform us of that. She never harmed Jane either--and she could have, that night she broke into her bedroom. But she only tore up the veil. My theory is, the torn veil was a warning from Bertha. "Don't marry him, sis." A sign. What better symbol of a bride than her veil? After all, this is a gothic novel. Bertha blowing the candle into Jane's face with a smirk is not an act of violence. A mean girl gesture, maybe, but not criminal. It's a very mild behaviour, considering Jane is The Other Woman to Bertha.

When they enter Bertha's room after the aborted wedding, Grace warns Rochester: "she has seen you!" Meaning the one who gets Bertha into a rage is her husband. And sure enough, Bertha lunges at him immediately. She's not going after anyone else--and she must have seen the others too, including Jane, The Other Woman. So yeah, she is violent, but only towards him. She can hardly be blamed for it.

As for Richard, a plausible explanation could be her anger at him for not doing anything to get her out of that situation. And blaming him for the said situation, if he indeed encouraged her marriage to Rochester. One also needs to take into account the circumstances of the attack--at that time, the merry company was staying at Thornfield Hall. This was out of the ordinary and it must have had an effect on Bertha. The presence of so many strange people could have distressed her, or maybe she got into a state, because, of course, she should have been the hostess by right. She should have been the one entertaining the guests. Humouring the ladies Lynn and Ingram, chatting about music, art and fashion with the girls, exchanging jokes with the men. But Edward robbed her of it. Plus, the not so insignificant fact that he was openly flirting with Blanche Ingram and playing a game with Jane at the same time. Into this, her brother walks in.

Not his lucky day.

But Richard's not even mad at her for injuring him! As he's sent away from Thornfield, he says:

“Let her be taken care of; let her be treated as tenderly as may be..."

My favourite line of Jane Eyre, in case you couldn't tell.

And see this--nowhere does Richard state that she's insane. And he's the one who has known her the longest. If she's really everything Rochester claims she is, how come Richard still cares about her? And if she is everything Rochester claims she is, and yet Richard still cares about her--does that not speak well of him? You can't have it both ways. He could wash his hands off her, zero obligation. Yet he travels to an out of the way place like Thornfield to see her. Who's the villain here again?

I argued that Rochester is telling porkies with regards to Blanche Ingram, and I argue that he's doing the same with Bertha. We only have his word that Bertha was mad, nobody else's. We don't hear from any independent medical professional. Dr Carter appears on the scene to only tend to Richard's wounds. He makes no comment about Bertha. Edward, while telling his story to Jane, could have called him to confirm the diagnosis to Jane. That Jane believes him is not the point here, the reader needs to believe him too and this reader (aka me) does not buy one bit of anything that comes out of his mouth.

Even if a doctor confirmed it, considering how women's health has been treated throughout history, it still wouldn't prove a thing.

The scene when they all go up to have a look at Bertha, when Bertha attacks Edward and they tie her to a chair, seems staged. It's almost like the perfect representation of the mad wife and the pain and suffering she inflicted on her poor tortured Byronic hero of a husband. It plays right into his cards. She behaves exactly like Rochester wants her to behave. It's too neat.

What if Bertha was asleep? It was still early in the morning, she had nothing to get up for.

She's in fact not doing anything bad. Crawling on all fours around the room doesn't hurt anyone. (Except maybe... spiders? Any insects?) She needs to move a bit in that confined room. Maybe she was bored of the same exercise so she's trying something new. Who does she bother with her crawling? Not Grace Poole, who is quite undisturbed by her and cooking on the fender. Both women seem to be quite content with their activities that morning, until the deputation shows up.

Grace cries out "she has seen you!" Why? Obviously, Bertha has seen Rochester. But what about it?

Because when Bertha sees her husband, she immediately goes for him. Grace doesn't warn Rochester: "She will attack you when she sees you." She just says: "she has seen you." Which means that Rochester knows seeing him will send Bertha into a rage and she will attack him. He knows that and that is why he takes everyone upstairs to her room, so they can see his mad wife for themselves.

He didn't have to do that. All that was needed was him confessing that he is indeed married so his wedding to Jane is off. Neither Briggs nor the clergyman demanded to see the actual wife as a proof. Richard's word was enough. It was Edward who decided to bring them all back to Thornfield, to display her like an animal in the zoo.

He knew what it would do to her, seeing him. And Bertha was aware there was a wedding. There was her husband, bigamously marrying another woman, twenty years younger. She might have been angry on Jane's behalf too. She may have sympathised with Jane. Some Bertha supporters ship her and Jane. I've read some wonderful fanfics with this pairing. It's not a ship I like, but I support your right to ship it. Definitely, they should have been allies. Alas, it's not what the author chose.

It should have been like the song Beautiful Liar by Shakira and Beyonce, except it's an ugly liar. (You know, because Edward Rochester is ugly.)

Once Edward sees he won't get away with the bigamy, he switches gears and decides to play the sympathy card. That's why he implores the two respectable professionals to compare Saint Jane to Satan Bertha and, being the manipulative douchebag that he is, tries to make them feel guilty for judging him for his despicable actions. Briggs at least doesn't fall for it. And we don't see any more of him, but I doubt Mr Wood does.

It could also be that he had prepared for this situation. It's like him to have a Plan B. He could even leave Grace the instructions. "Hey Grace, in case this blows up, make sure the wifey is at her craziest, will you."

Edward is a great schemer. He's the cunning one. He's the ultimate Slytherin.

#jane eyre #edward rochester #rochester is a villain #bertha antoinette mason #richard mason #make it make sense charlotte #jane eyre meta #bertha mason

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