#because people are flawed and it’s nice to see that acknowledged in stories and media

[fadelikeclouds]

Diving into Tai’s mind: actions do not speak louder than words

First of all, I will say that I was upset with Tai at the end of episode 10. I am fine that Tai didn’t want to talk to Patts outside on the street. He was probably shocked and frightened by Patts angry outburst, and he wanted to put some time and distance between them so that they could cool off and talk more rationally later. What I’m less fine with is that Tai still refuses to say anything after Patts shows up at his door. And yeah, Patts probably shouldn’t have shown up drunk outside Tai’s door, but he is in pain and needs some comfort, and he tells Tai this. So why doesn’t Tai say anything to reassure Patts?

And now we come to the reason I am writing this. I don’t like staying upset at people, so I try to understand them. After thinking about things I am still frustrated with Tai, but a little less so. Here are the results of my musings.

Tai has been struggling with his parent’s divorce for over 2 years now. It’s easy to say that, but what does it mean? He is a romantic, and seeing his ideal of love crumble before him was frightening because it made him doubt the existence of love and happiness. Soulmates guarantee nothing. Love doesn’t last. Families can break apart. That’s a pretty dismal view of the world. Despair is never easy to cope with. He had his faith in love broken, so of course he wouldn’t talk to his soulmate, because why create a relationship that will only break your heart?

Then he sees Patts, and he starts to hope again. But he’s still hesitant. He’s still scared. He knows that there is no guarantees in relationships, soulmates or not. This is how he goes into his relationship with Patts, fighting against his doubts and fears the whole way. Throughout the beginning Patts is patient, kind, charming, and Tai begins to be more open to the idea of a relationship with this soulmate of his. Then the whole situation with Nara happens, and his fears and doubts about love come up again.

He talked with Nara; he knows how much she loved Patts, and he even cheered her on when he didn’t know Patts was her ex. They honestly loved each other, and seeing them kiss makes him question, again, what makes a relationship last. Confused and panicked, he decides to talk a walk to the Doi Mae Pliang in an effort to figure everything out... which doesn’t work. But he talks with Patts after he finds him in the ditch, and after being reassured that Patts does love him and would choose to love him even without being soulmates his mind clears. He knows he loves Patts, and all of Patts words and actions make him believe that Patts reciprocates that love. So he (nonverbally) agrees to officially date him when Patts asks him the next morning. At a glance, what’s the big deal? That’s only natural. This is a romance, of course they’re going to start dating. But as a character, this choice means that he is willing to face all his fears about being in a relationship, a big shift for the guy who ran away from his issues by remaining silent for 2 years. To be clear, I don’t think his fears go away, but Tai has the resolve that this relationship is worth it, that Patts is worth the risk of heartbreak.

And even then, he’s not ready to go the final step and have sex with Patts just yet. That is another level of vulnerability that Tai eases himself into, something that he doesn’t take lightly. In this episode, when he says he’s ready, to him it’s another way of showing how serious and committed he is to this relationship. He loves Patts, and is willing to face all the fears that comes with being in a relationship with his soulmate.

All of this is a big deal to Tai. These are very large steps that he has taken forward as someone who chose to very litterally suffer in silence every time it rained. Now, does he talk about this with Patts? Not in any great detail. That’s part of the problem.

To Tai it’s not even a question of whether to choose Patts or Lomfon. He loves Patts. All of his actions show just how much Patts means to him. And I think it hurts Tai that Patts doesn’t understand him. Because in Tai’s mind, he’s crossed oceans of fears, fought uphill battles against his skepticism, just to get here. Having Patts doubt Tai’s love makes him feel that Patts belittles all the pain and fear Tai’s endured to get to this point in the relationship. And that hurts because in a relationship, you want to be understood by your partner so that you can share in the joys and pains with them.

But what Tai doesn’t see is that Patts is in pain right now. Patts is scared and needs some words of reassurancs because he is human. He has his own fears and insecurities. He watched as his last relationship fell apart because he has a “soulmate”, something entirely out of his control. And with the appearance of a second soulmate, having Tai lie about seeing Lomfon, catching them at the perfectly wrong moment to see them kiss, Patts loses it. He’s angry and afraid because again, he could lose someone he loves because of this soulmate thing that he has no control over. That fear grips him, and when we’re like that, we can’t think calmly. Sometimes we need the support of others to help us through the dark avenues of the mind.

But instead of helping him, Tai feels like he’s said everything Patts is asking him to say, and he’s upset that Patts can’t hear him. And I get that. It’s frustrating when you feel like you’ve been saying something over and over again, and the other person just doesn’t seem to get it. What’s the point in trying to communicate when nothing you say will be understood? It feels as if all your efforts are just futile. But communication is a two way street. Being understood is an important part of a relationship, but it is equally important to try to understand the other person, which is what Tai is missing here. Tai has spoken through his actions, but what Patts needs are words. He needs to hear that Tai does love him, that he does choose him. We say that actions speak louder than words, but at times words are absolutely necessary.

#la pluie #la pluie ep 10 #many other people have written great things about these characters these are just my 2 cents #which ended up being a little bit long for just 2 cents... #As frustrating as this whole thing is #I like seeing flawed characters #because people are flawed and it’s nice to see that acknowledged in stories and media #It’s important to remember that imperfect people deserve to be happy too #and that it’s possible to make any sort of relationship work even if we say the wrong thing sometimes #People make mistakes #that doesn’t mean they are a mistake #Now we just have to wait two weeks to see how they decide to resolve this whole thing 😭 #precipitating thts

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

today I’m choosing violence (cause i'm tired of poor characterization of characters and the idolization of characters that are plain)

I’m gonna say if “being kind” or "they're so cool" are the only character traits you find interesting or that you love-

It may be time to accept that you enjoy a boring character (which is fine)

If being able to fight, or save people or have the strength/courage to go on, is the only trait they have that’s “interesting.”

Ask yourself why.

Arguably MOST characters are kind, are able to fight (to some capacity), want to save people and and are literally written in stories to have the capacity to “go on,” (unless they are killed)

Why are these the character traits you decided to go with? Are they admirable? Sure… but also name another few characters in the same piece of media that would do the exact same things?

Oh there are SEVERAL characters that have those same character traits?

Okay- So what makes your character interesting then?

I’ll wait.

So I see, you’re struggling to find anything else?

Yeah

There’s nothing inherently wrong with liking boring characters.

But acknowledging that your “fave” character has a shell like personality is good critical thinking. And sure maybe you don’t want to dissect media in this way. You want to be able to mindlessly enjoy content. That’s fine.

But when people ask you really- why do you like this character so much?

Don’t let your answer be- because they’re good.

Because when you say that, I just know that there’s literally nothing else about that character. No flaws, no interesting facets. No internal struggles. You picked a Mary Sue. A character with nothing wrong with them as to self insert or to find comfort in.

now- this isn't to say that "being good or kind," CAN'T be interesting because it can! when you use a subversive trait to counteract the "kind" trait.

if you're presented a cold, rude character that repeatedly is written to be "maybe the villain," but then you're presented with this new information of, "oh they're actually really nice, or did a really kind thing to (blank)" that's interesting, you wonder WHY, you wonder how come? and if it's well written, you can see that the character can be truly fleshed out with a personality and moral ambiguity.

where does this character, really lie?

a good character i find would actually be levi from aot to showcase a large range of ambiguous morality as well as showcasing a possible range of actions that COULD seem as contradictory, but REALLY, what they're showcasing is that despite the action going against what is canonically written for his character; it's deeper than that-

-it's showing/proving something.

from the very beginning there are approximately 3 traits that i can showcase that are projected into this character. these are core values or parts of his writing that are meant to show who is he

(also spoilers? but aot is old af so whatever)

1. Levi is a very clean/neat person

we've been presented with several notions of his cleanliness, that he hates being dirty and would go out of his way to clean things even in battle. keeping his blades clean immediately after using them. this is seen as a clear personality trait. this is something that is a part of his character, this is not going to change.

2. Levi is cold and standoffish towards others

now i'm going to connect the first trait and the second trait in the exact same moment. levi has been shown to not have many friends, he doesn't get along with people well and chooses not to.

in a single moment, we have something that goes AGAINST what we've been presented.

there is a dying soldier that is being comforted by someone else, and in his last moments levi is asked to help. levi doesn't NEED to help the dying soldier. but he does so because of his standing. but also because he chooses to.

he takes the dying soldier's hand (which is dirtied by blood) holding his hand as levi gives him comforting last words. words that make it so that he can die comfortably. that his life wasn't in vain. that he can finally go in peace.

(these are both things that he arguably doesn't want to do)

3. Levi is presented as having a "high sense of morality"

this is a pretty quick one to go against actually, levi is presented as one of the strongest. and is often allowed to lead and make decisions in split seconds. however- we are also presented with the idea of him not agreeing with his own decisions. he clearly says that he struggles with his own morality "my moral high ground has gone to shit" (im paraphrasing because i can't find the clip on youtube lol)

he chooses to do things because he feels as though it is the correct choice - EVEN IF IT ENDS IN DEATH. because of these outcomes, he is unsure of his own morals and choices and decisions and it affects him greatly.

these are very easy ways to showcase a character and give them range and to show that they are capable of being fleshed out in very simple ways.

these aren't hard concepts to grasp and can go EVEN further to flesh out characters and to showcase their personality and traits that aren't just THIS CHARACTER DOES THIS.

when i consume media- i take the time to read characters and try to understand their motivations, decisions and choices.

you DON'T HAVE TO- but when you come into spaces that are talking about characterizations of characters, why you like characters etc. and you do not want to engage in these types of conversations- then do not engage with it.

#characterizations #characters #how to write a character #critical thinking skills #critical thinking #media literacy #levi ackerman #aot #i understand this is extremely rudimentary and should've been things people have learned in school #but a lot of people haven't been paying attention

[sokkastyles]

I keep seeing increasingly bizarre claims by Azula stans about how she’s being discriminated against by the fandom, the other characters, and the narrative, and then these same Azula stans will be like “oh, but why can’t we love all the characters equally?”

I mean, because we don’t have to, nor are the characters meant to be interpreted this way, and this kind of media analysis, while it is something I have seen throughout my years in fandom, always comes across as utterly deaf to the context of whatever media this person is arguing about.

Characters in stories aren’t meant to be loved equally. We aren’t meant to have positive discussions about how this racist imperialist abusive villain really had a point, after all, and doing so is not only ridiculous, it runs the risk of being seriously harmful and propagating harmful rhetoric.

No, we should NOT be treating Zuko and Azula equally, because one atoned for their bad actions and the other one didn’t. One stopped being angry and hurting others and the other one didn’t.

I actually do love both characters but that does NOT mean I am going to talk about them in the same way and pretend they both equally deserve to be talked about positively, because they don’t. This weird performative positivity thing which seems to be unique to fandom is how you get posts arguing that a scene where Azula is belittling Zuko for not believing fascist propaganda in “The Avatar and the Firelord” is a scene of them bonding together. It’s how you get people saying that acknowledging that Katara beat Azula in Sozin’s Comet is antifeminist because it’s “pitting two women against each other” when what actually happened is that Azula was beaten by a woman she thought she was superior to. We should be talking about that. We should be pitting them against each other and acknowledging that Azula lost because this is a story about love triumphing over hate.

I mean, look, I’m all for stanning the villain. What I’m not here for is toxic positivity that makes room for abuse apologism for fear that we might say something negative about a character who hurt others without remorse, or in many cases, blaming other characters for reacting negatively to being victimized. It’s just fiction, which means that stanning villains isn’t a reflection of your moral character, but the fact that it is just fiction also means that it isn’t a moral flaw to be critical of a character, especially when that character should rightfully be criticized.

“But isn’t pitting Zuko and Azula against each other what Ozai wanted?”

No, I’m pretty sure Ozai wanted Azula to be his perfect princess and for Zuko to believe he was worthless. He was perfectly happy when he had both Zuko and Azula under the same roof as long as he could control them, and Zuko believing blatant lies and accepting his sister being cruel to him makes Zuko all the more easy for Ozai to control. I’m pretty sure Ozai would agree with the people saying that Zuko is just so ungrateful to Azula and wasn’t Azula just being nice? Isn’t that more than Zuko deserves, after all? To be fair, Ozai also doesn’t want Azula to realize self-actualization, but as long as Zuko stayed in his place at the bottom, I think he was fine with Zuko and Azula “bonding,” aka Azula insulting Zuko for daring to question the status quo, because that meant Zuko stayed in his place as the family scapegoat, Azula continued to believe Fire Nation propaganda unquestioned, and Ozai got exactly what he wanted.

#azula #zuko #ozai #abuse cw #the discourse

[emerlovesinvaderzim]

Okay, I understand if anyone disagrees with me on this but I think the Invader Zim fandom is pretty shitty. You know the way people always say there's always a quiet majority and a loud minority? Well this is different. This time it's a loud majority and quiet minority situation. Zim is the main protagonist of this show, is he a good character? No. Does he have flaws? Yes. Do characters need flaws? Yes. Is it good that Zim has flaws? Yes it is. But does the fandom treat his flaws like they're even flaws at all? No, they don't.

The fandom obsesses over Zim and acts like there's nothing wrong with his character. He was seen committing terrorism throughout the show and he acts like he's better than everyone and throws them (Including his robot GIR) under the bus yet they'll always comment on how "cute and small" he is and how everyone just wants to hug him. (even though he'll most likely kill you if you do.) You can still like Zim but please acknowledge that he isn't a good person. He has narcissistic personality disorder.

However, Zim's arch nemesis, Dib Membrane, who is the main antagonist of the show, is also a terrible person. He wants to expose Zim for fame and money and is often seen bullying or picking on Zim at school however the fandom actually acknowledges that Dib is in the wrong for this and people tend to hate him a lot because of this. I know there's a lot of Dib fans out there (myself included.) but even they're able to critique his character and understand he's asshole but Zim's fans don't seem to do the same with Zim. This really annoys me. I've seen people who'll hate Dib for his selfish and entitled behavior but then they'll love Zim for the same reasons. What the fuck?

I had someone tell me Dib being a terrible person is overlooked while Zim being terrible isn't, which isn't anywhere near true. I explained to them why and they just gave me a skull emoji and said "It's not that hard to comprehend, I've seen media where Dib is easy going, chill and nice where as Zim is a huge dickhead." I have never seen that and they never even showed me any proof of fans doing that. There's literally a whole AU called "The lovebug AU" where Zim is a sweet and kind little guy with wings and Dib is mean and cruel. I have never seen an AU where it's the other way around. I have read a read fanfictions where he's a portrayed as this high school chad who's racist and misogynistic and I even read a fic where he was pro-life. I never read any fics where Zim is portrayed that way. The person wasn't lying when they said Zim is portrayed as mean though but when he is portrayed as mean, it's meant to be in a cute and light hearted funny way and when I see Dib portrayed as nice, it's in a dumb and creepy way.

There's a comic called "Trainwreck" (it's a Zim x Dib comic incase you're uncomfortable) where Dib is portrayed as a dumbass and crazy obsessed stalker while Zim, is mean yes, but is also chill and just wants to go about his own day and his cruelty is kinda glamourized as humor in this comic. I also have read stories where they've abused each other but when Dib abused Zim, it wasn't glamourized or made funny but when Zim did it to Dib, it was. This one fanfic had Zim abuse Dib and he held a grudge against him (as he should) but the comments where calling Dib salty for refusing to forgive him and they said they wanted to slap him while I was wanting to slap Zim.

Same with Gaz, I can understand her anger and see why she finds Dib annoying but she's no better than him. She constantly abuses him physically and emotionally yet their dad does nothing about this. I know Dib has also done bad things to her and he has no excuse for doing that. He put a curse on her in one episode and she had every right to be mad at him. I have seen no one defend him for doing that, everyone was pretty mad at him for doing that. Also just because Dib is mean to Gaz doesn't give her the excuse to actively try to make his life more miserable than already is everyday. They're both toxic towards each other and they both make life harder for each other, we need to end the harmful standard that men can't be abused.

I don't hate Zim or Gaz, they're actually two of my favourite characters. I can still critique characters I like, that doesn't make me like them less. I'm still able to critique Dib and I have done it throughout this rant. I won't disregard anyone's experience with the fandom, I promise. They're are Zim and Gaz stans who are able to understand that they're both terrible characters and there are Dib stans who are toxic and won't accept that he's also a terrible character too. It's Invader Zim, everyone in this show is a terrible person. Not just Zim, not just Dib, everyone. The only one who isn't terrible is GIR. I'm just expressing how I feel and what I have seen with in the fandom, please don't take this personally and feel free to disagree with me.

#invader zim #zim iz #invader zim dib #dib membrane #zim invader zim #zim #dib #gaz iz #gaz membrane #dib invader zim #gaz invader zim #dib iz #invader zim zim #invader zim gaz #gir invader zim #invader zim gir #invader zim rant #please read the whole thing before commenting or I will explode

[emblazons]

The heteronormativity is bad but it’s not even just that. I think the bigger problem in the Byler vs Melvin ship war is that since mlm fandoms have a reputation of being misogynistic and hating the female character for “getting in the way” everyone automatically assumes that Bylers fall under that category too (I’ve had sapphic friends who don’t watch the show tell me that they hate Byler because they think that the fans hate women even though most of us are queer women ourselves) and so we have to be extra nice and accommodating and apologize every time anyone even mildly criticizes El on here otherwise we’re labeled misogynistic (and even ableist even though El has no canonical disabilities). Which I think is so dumb because El is a flawed character and that’s a big part of what makes her interesting. Discussing her mistakes doesn’t mean that we hate her, in fact I would go as far as to say that people who recognize her flaws and love her for them care about El more than fake-woke Twitter feminists who try to strip her of all her less than perfect qualities. And don’t even get me started on how acceptable homophobia is in the Melvin fandom. The way that they shit on Will all the time and want to erase him and have him die in the name of “supporting women” is disgusting and idk why Bylers try so hard to cater to these people and just get along. There is no need and there shouldn’t be any desire to get along with homophobes. It’s okay to just hate things and it’s not morally wrong to dislike Melvin and want to stay far away from it.

Mmmm. Well first off I appreciate your honesty and want to (sorry for phrasing it the therapist way lmao) hold space for your irritation with how ignorant people can be in fandom spaces, because it is very real—and especially given the complicated history mlm ships carry in fandom historically, I can see how byler being pigeonholed into the same "you just want to get rid of the girl for your mlm ship" space is frustrating as hell, especially now that it's officially semi-canon.

Also, to your point about El: I agree that there are far too many people who behave as though acknowledging that characters (especially female ones) can be multi-faceted + make mistakes / be imperfect is somehow tantamount to a misogyny, even though good characters (male or female) must have internal challenges and conflicts so they aren’t one-note in the narrative. Too many people act as though their personal resonance or projection onto a character should define everyone else’s understanding and analysis of that character, and that’s something that happens a lot with El, especially in the case of the space she occupies in relationship to Byler.

Personally, I've avoided most of that discourse by not engaging with Byler "versus" Mlvn conversations for the most part, but that I still notice and react to myself when it comes into my space—particularly the "you're misogynistic or ableist" conversation, considering almost all of that is rooted in headcanons and projections, and not El's (or Mike's...or Will's) canonical characterization. You’re completely right to want to stay far away from that kind of discourse/energy—staying away from how I’ve kept myself sane and enjoying st in spite of how chronically online some of the fandom's takes can be.

I don't think there is any solution to it (people are like that in every fandom space, and I don't think they're gonna stop being willfully ignorant or heteronomative now), but...it helps that I know most of the argument surrounding "byler is trying to get rid of El" is based on either not knowing the show, unchecked emotion, or poor media comprehension, because media literate analysis makes it clear that all three characters involved are deeply complex, growing individuals whose stories all have their own purpose—El's is just moving independent, while Mike & Will's are moving toward each other.

People who don't understand or can't see that—or who want to start arguments over byler based on nothing but their understanding of other mlm ships, or their need to posture solely for the sake of being "right" on the internet—are, quite frankly, not people I'm trying to converse with if I can help it. I don't need to be an advocate for byler badly enough to put up with any of that lmao.

Thanks for the ask!

#I'm really sorry that people are saying shit like that to you tho anon! #its wild to me that people have decided byler is just 'another one of those irritating mlm ships' without even seeing the show??? #people are wild lmao #asks

[nibeul]

Breaking Down the “It’s Fiction” Argument and Why It Doesn’t Work

Ok. This is a little different from what I normally post, but I think it’s important since I’ve been seeing it a lot. Before I start, let me clarify that this isn’t directed at anyone (to be honest, I don’t browse tumblr enough to single anyone out regardless) but I think it’s important for people to think about regardless. I won’t discuss any (common) potentially triggering topics here as I want this to be as accessible as possible, though the first article does talk about SA.

Getting right into things, if you know anything about drama in the art community, you’ve probably seen this excuse before: “It’s fiction so it doesn’t matter!”

On the surface level this seems like a valid argument; it’s not actually reality, therefore it’s ok. The driving point of this argument is that fiction isn’t related to reality, but to be honest, it’s a flawed mentality for a number of reasons. Here’s an excerpt from an article I read a little while back that I think sums it up pretty nicely:

“The goal of fiction is to create a narrative that closely mimics our learned patterns and our emotional responses to those patterns, and to trick us into seeing those narratives as “real” on an emotional level, even if intellectually we know that dragons aren’t real, for example. And because we have studied fiction for a long time, and practiced it, and are surrounded by it, we’ve gotten very good at tricking our brains into treating it as almost the same as patterns we’ve learned from “real life” experiences. If words on a page could not affect they way we respond emotionally to reality, then all of human culture would have been unsuccessful. Propaganda and “fake news” would not be so effective.”

“But Nibs, comparing art discourse to propaganda seems like a stretch!” Alright, valid. I’ve seen a couple people make this argument, so I’ll run with a different example.

Let’s talk about representation in media. It’s widely agreed upon that having proper representation in popular media is important (which I could not agree with more), but why? Well, for one, being able to see yourself in popular shows/movies/books/etc shows us that we aren’t weird or abnormal. It teaches us that our existence just as human beings is valid, and the impact of this is undeniable. I know for a fact that if little me had seen queer Asians in popular media, I would have had an easier time coming to terms with my identity.

For the kids who already commonly see themselves in media, seeing characters that are different from them (POC, queer, characters with different religious beliefs, etc) normalizes these things in real life. It shows them that yes, people just exist and their appearance/sexuality/belief doesn’t make them any less than anyone else. Here’s another excerpt from a different article:

“Stories affect all areas of life in terms of how people view themselves, how they live their lives, and how they see others.”

Above, I briefly discussed how fiction can positively impact our reality, but the same can be applied to the negative aspects. Running with my example here, we can look at the other side of things where media reinforces negative stereotypes. Stereotypes like “all Asians are good at math” or “all gay men are flamboyant and feminine”. These broad generalizations have been normalized in media, and because of this, are often applied to reality as well. The second article I linked delves into that, but here’s another one to back that point up.

Proper representation is important. You cannot push for this then turn around and use the argument of “it’s just fiction!” By stating that proper representation in media is important, we acknowledge the impact that fiction has on reality. When the narrative is flipped and the argument of “it’s fiction!” is made, that original point is suddenly undermined.

Whether it’s blatantly clear or not, fiction does tend to alter the way we perceive reality. Normalizing something in fiction helps normalize it in reality too, whether this “something” be negative or positive. If you’re against something in real life, why would you support it in fiction? We can’t constantly view reality and fiction as separate because there is a lot of gray area where they intersect.

That’s the end of what I have to say on this topic for now, however I may add more in the future ( ´▽｀)

#fiction vs reality #just been thinking #nibeul says fuck

[saby-chan]

Why the ATLA comics fail when it comes to Zuko and his family

To whom ever took their time to actually stop and read this post, thank you in advance for not skipping my post and willing to stay and read my humble opinion! I hope I won’t disappoint you!

As a relatively newcomer to the ATLA fanbase since 2020, I’ve come across a lot of interesting debates, comments and rants about the show, characters and fandom in general, but nothing has captivated me as much as the dumpster-on-fire that are the ATLA comics, more specifically: The Promise and The Search. 

On one hand we have the hardcore fans who want them to be animated or serialized into the Netflix live action, praising the comics for the new views and subject matters they’ve brought into the show’s lore, while on the other hand we have the furious Azula fandom who is really angry for the fact that best girl didn’t get the redemption arc she rightfully deserved so much after the painful event that was the Last Agni Kai and the even more angry fans of the Urzai ship (yeah, the people who actually ship Zuko’s parents unironically) who hated the retconning of the show’s cannon since the comics basically took a huge fat dump on what was previously established as official cannon, when the Search entered the scene, but between these two sides, who has the more valid point? In the end, are the comics good cannon or bad written fanfiction?

Well... Here are my two cents on this matter since I myself happen to be an Azula and Zuko fan and had huge expectations from these comics (since I wanted more from my fave hot-headed fiery siblings duo) but ended up disappointed: the comics are indeed a huge mess and actually bad written fanfiction when it comes to Zuko and his family! Don’t click off yet, because I actually documented the reasons why exactly the comics fail in this area:

1. The author of these comics is not part of the BryKe duo

Yes, I would like to start with the fact that if you actually take a second to look up who in the heck took the time to write these two books, you won’t find Bryan, nor Mike, but a fellow man named Gene Yang. This is important because while the wiki of both The Promise and The Search state BryKe as the creators, that doesn’t mean that they were the actual minds behind these comics, but rather because ATLA is their “baby” and these comics involve their characters, over which they have copyright. Mr. Yang here is the actual brain behind the plot, as the main writer, which explains why we find huuuuge inconsistencies between the show lore and the comics, especially Zuko wise.

My main issue with Mr. Yang isn’t that he isn’t BryKe specifically, but because he did an unforgivable mistake in his writing process: He projected himself into Zuko’s character, based on the relationship Zuko had with his father. This is a documented fact from an interview in which he explains that he sees himself and his dad’s relationship into Zuko and Ozai and used that when writing their interactions and built Zuko’s character in the comics. And this is wrong because when you have an already very developed and complex character such as Zuko, you can’t just come in and be like “Oh, I was an angsty teen just like him in my teenage years, fighting with my dad and whatnot, so he must have the same thought process as me!”. NO! This is bad fanfiction writer behavior! Zuko has his own personality and philosophy, which he developed over the course of 3 seasons and is not defined by only 1 unfortunate aspect of his past, so you can’t just base his whole mindset and actions off of your own personal experience just because you had the same daddy issues he had!

2. The whole “Promise that you will kill me if I turn out like my dad!” nonsense in The Promise

Reason number 2 why these comics fail and go under the category of “bad fanfiction” is because they fail to convey the core essence of the source material. The whole point of Zuko’s redemption was that he realized the wrongdoings of his ancestors and his own mistakes. He outgrew his desire of gaining his father’s acknowledgement in favor of choosing his own destiny. Having him worry that he’ll turn into his father is utter nonsense and feels like poor angsty drama material for the sake of angst. At this point in time, Zuko has overcame that obstacle in his life a long time ago and should be at the level where he himself is the “Uncle Iroh” for other people and in no way someone concerned of becoming their own worst enemy!

Not only that, but the whole point of Aang’s journey and the story of the show as a whole was to teach us, the viewers, the importance of forgiveness, empathy and love in life. Aang didn’t spare Ozai, aka “the ultimate evil” just to flex in front of his pals or because he is a “ 12 y/o vegan pacifist monk kid”, but because he knew that killing someone, no matter of what they did or wanted to do, wouldn’t restore balance into the Universe, on the contrary, him killing the villain would have meant perpetuating the “endless cycle of hate” that plagued the world. So having Aang promise to kill his best friend in case “they turned into an evil maniac like their dad” contradicts Aang’s whole character and it’s a nonsense that throws into the trash what we’ve learnt throughout the entire TV series.

3. Azula deserved (and was supposed) to have a redemption ark

This might still be pure speculation, but I count it as a documented reason because I’ve heard quite a few people saying that there should’ve been a book 4 in the show, aka “Book 4: Air”, and no, it wasn’t The Search, but actually Zuko and Azula’s journey as Zuko helps his younger sister heal her broken mind by being her very own “Uncle Iroh”. Sure, they prolly were going to end up looking for Ursa, but the journey should’ve ended with them actually being happy and a family again and not the bs we got in The Search where a still very unstable Azula runs away and becomes the “Next Joker”! The only problem is that M. Night had to pop up and curse the world with his movie, which forced BryKe to delay the project (and eventually abandoned it in favor of Korra).

All in all, either if BryKe had this preplanned or not, it made sense for Azula to get a redemption ark, she deserved it because she was just a broken 14 y/o child! If Katara’s mom’s murderer deserved to be forgiven, so did this poor child who had no fault for what happened to her since she had a dysfunctional family! What Gene Yang did in his poorly written fanfiction was to just antagonize a broken child, turning her into a monster for the sake of friggin angst!

4. The Search is the worst of the two, being flat af character wise

And finally, getting to the point that I personally find the most annoying about these comics: The Search. This one... This one is a mess on a hella lot many levels, and just to list a few: characters are flat as fudge, being either black as vanta black (like Ozai and Azula) or pure white like Gene’s Gary Stue OC, Mr Ikem (or how I like to call him, IKEA man) and his ‘victim’ rendition of Ursa, Azula gets to suffer more for no reason (see reason number 3 to why I find this as a no no), Ursa’s whole character sucks ass (man, I could write a whole thesis on why Yang’s version of her is terrible and doesn’t match the strong woman we got in the show) and Zuko does morally wrong stuff (my man literally used his unstable sister to bribe their dad into spitting info about Ursa... Show Zuko would never do that!;-;)

Oh boy, as a person who’s seen a ton of anime and other media and read many books, I can’t begin on how much I despise this type of writing: flat characters are the worst!

 ATLA characters in the show are nothing close to being flat! What I mean by that is that none of them fall perfectly into pure white (aka goodest of good characters with no imperfections) or vanta black (aka lowest and darkest twisted monsters out there), each of them are various shades of grey (like Aang who is a very light grey because despite being a very kind and nice character, he still isn’t a “perfect hero” since he ran away from his duties, practiced tax fraud with Toph, had insecurities and even threatened to kill people on ocassions like with the sand benders who took Appa) and this is a good choice because that prevents them from becoming what’s globally known as Mary Sues and Gary Stues (aka those either “perfect” characters with no flaws and/or unlimited power, or the twisted monsters full of flaws).

And the other reason why many other people hate The Search: it literally negates previously established cannon. And here comes my short essay on why this comic fails Zuko’s family (since we’ve already talked enough about Zuko himself).

In cannon and even interviews with BryKe, it was clearly stated that Zuko’s family was “once happy”. Where is this “once happy” family in The Search? All I see is pain, deception, lies and betrayal, nothing close to anything that resembles happiness. Okay, some of you might come in and say that “It’s because it was never the case! It was only lies and Zuko trying to convince himself that he didn’t live in hell forever!” and here is WHERE YOU WERE ALL WRONG! And why? Because, my dear fella, where were depicted the flashbacks of Zuko’s “happy family” in The Beach? Ember Island. And what do we know and had been even quoted in the show?  "Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you." (direct quote from the show). Exactly, no matter who you are or how hard you try, you can’t hide your true self when you are on the Ember Island, best example being Azula, who’s impenetrable though shell cracked and revealed the true vulnerable child that was underneath. If Azula couldn’t resist the “spell of the island”, no one can. So this means that Zuko’s family was indeed happy once and yes, Ozai wasn’t always the douchebag we got to know in Season 3 (I have a whole nother essay on my theories regarding what could be his real past story and why he’s actually the “Zuko” of his generation, based on stuff I gathered from old wiki entries and character analyses I made, but that’s for another time, lemme know if ya’ll are interested).

And what I guess is the biggest proof why The Search did this family’s past trash is comics Ursa herself. My dude, if this woman were indeed the victim of years of endless abuse and never loved her husband, I guarantee you that she would’ve been closer to what we saw in Todoroki’s mom from BNHA and Zuko would’ve gotten that scar or even worse long before the Agni Kai, not from his “daddy dearest”, but from “mommy dearest” herself, because no sane woman would be soo affectionate and attached to a child that’s the perfect copy of their abuser, sepecially appearance wise (again see Todoroki’s mom’s case from BNHA because the stories are really similar) and in no way would’ve she been willing to sacrifice her life for said child’s sake. With this ocassion, I remind ya’ll folks that according to the ancient ATLA cannon wikis on Nick’s site, Ozai was designed with Zuko’s appearance in mind, being meant to be like a “grown up scarless version” of Zuko. So yeah, remember this with a grain of salt that whenever you simp over grown up Zuko, you involuntary simp for Ozai too.

So yeah, I guess this kinda concludes my “not so short” rant about why the comics fail and are bad fanfiction. Lemme hear your thoughts in the comments and if you agree, feel free to leave a like and even reblog.

Bye bye and remember that Momo is the true strongest character of the show!

 Saby out.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #atla comics #zuko #azula #ozai #ursa #fire siblings #the promise #the search #atla rant

[camencanto]

a Take. i love seeing fabio just as much as the next guy, but he's a dickhead who still hasn't apologized for his shitty behavior to camilo throughout the years even after camilo apologized to him (even though cami shouldn't have to apologize). and it's nice to see that people can still look into and talk about his character and make jokes without excusing his behavior! a lot of characters in media who are horrible to the mc get excused purely because they're a future love interest (YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS PART AHAHAHAHDJG 😭😭) so it's fresh to see people not defending fabio or anything

totally agreed anon! i think it’s so important to recognise his flaws as a character and i really love how everyone has acknowledged that properly whilst still showing their appreciation and hope for his arc as the story progresses! completely get you, it’s very easy to fall into that field of worshipping a character despite what negative influence they bring to the plot, so the fact that him and rico both get held accountable by their audience is GOLDEN in my eyes

(IM SAYINF NOTHING ABOUT THAT)

#thank you for the ask!! #camilo madrigal #encanto #disney #camilo #camilo fanfic #camilo centric #my asks #camilo madrigal fanfic #camilo fic

[the-dragongirl]

Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.

WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?

The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.

OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?

There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).

IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI

This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.

IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE

There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history.  We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.

IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS

The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.

IT IS FUN

The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.

THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES

The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.

IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION

That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character).  [EDIT: Thank you @legok9​ for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.

IT IS ACCESSIBLE

Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.

THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL

Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.

DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?

Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)

OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?

I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.

IN CONLUSION

The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.

So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).

#star wars #the high republic #jedi #long post #recs #book recs #representation #seriously I cannot recommend this highly enough #everything about the high republic is so very tailored to what I love about star wars in general and Jedi specifically #also...sorry I had been absent here #I swear I still love you all #I just have limited interaction spoons these days and spend most of them on costuming stuff

[itsclydebitches]

(WLW anon) I really don’t like the “bad rep is better then none at all”. I hate that. We should want good rep, because bad rep has been used time and time again by homophobes as to say we shouldn’t get representation. To me it’s not “gay can have the same flaws as het”, it’s “fix the flaws in the het”. Also I know Renora being independent was a good, I was just saying in comparison BB. Also, yes, they were separated, but also didn’t stop thinking about each other. Especially bad with Yang.

Indulge me for a moment because I want to take a trip down memory lane and list some—just some—of the queer rep that has been important to me over the years:

Ellen comes out both as herself and as her character… years later, she’s a hated millionaire who is criticized for how she treats her staff

The wildly influential Buffy gives us two women entering a loving relationship… except then Tara is killed off, Willow goes evil for a time, and Buffy comes under fire for Joss Whedon’s everything

The beloved and respectable headmaster of one of the most popular book series ever published is revealed to be gay… except it doesn’t count because it wasn’t in the text and now all of Harry Potter is cancelled because JKR is transphobic

Kurt is an unambiguously gay teen in a hugely popular TV series, acting as one of the first overt representations a generation has seen… except he’s way too stereotypical and Glee is a joke now

Orange is the New Black gives us a number of queer women, including one of our first trans characters… but isn’t it problematic that they’re all criminals?

Brooklyn Nine-Nine hosts an out gay captain and gives us a bisexual coming out story that resonated with many, myself included… except now we’re supposed to hate all the characters on principle because they’re cops

Korra and Asami walk off into the spiritual sunset together… but they never kiss or anything, so that doesn’t count either

Steven Universe gives us a queer relationship and a wedding… but it’s an issue that this is just a kid’s show and, really, does it count when the rep is embodied by space rocks whose entire species only creates a single gender? Feels like a cop-out

Same with Good Omens. Yeah, Crowley and Aziraphale clearly love each other… but you never see them kiss or declare their intentions. It’s great ace rep though! Unless you want to level the criticism that asexual characters are always nonhuman

A character intended to be a minor guest becomes a show staple and eventually declares his love for one of the two main characters… except then Castiel immediately dies, Dean doesn’t respond, and they never meet on screen again

I finished Queen’s Gambit the other day and the main character had a one-night stand with a woman! … but everyone is talking about how bisexuality is used to represent her lowest point, so that’s bad too

I could go on for literal pages. Some of these arguments I agree with (Dumbledore), others I’ve pushed back against quite strongly (Crowley and Aziraphale), but all of them are valid criticisms depending on what part of the queer community you’re in and what your expectations are. My point here is that it’s all “bad rep.” I mean that seriously. If anyone reading this is scrambling for the comment section to say why [insert media title here] is actually fantastic rep, I guarantee that someone disagrees. Or if they don’t, give it some time. Just wait until the characterization becomes offensively outdated, or another part of the story ruins the relationship, or it comes out that the author did something truly horrific, or the terminology changes and it’s labeled as “problematic” now… just wait. At some point, any rep we feel is good rep now will be criticized, cancelled, and dragged through the mud. The rep that I personally haven’t seen much push-back against—like the beloved Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who, or Schitts Creek that just won a ton of awards—is wrapped up in the criticism, “So it’s all just about able-bodied, cis, (mostly) white dudes, huh? :/”  Even the argument that queer characters need to be written by queer authors doesn’t hold up. I absolutely adored Sense8. “Wow, a gay main character in a loving relationship with another gay man, both of whom enter a loving poly relationship with a woman, another lesbian trans main character who marries the love of her life on screen, an entire cast arguably queer due to them sharing orgy scenes centered around the emotional intimacy they share, everyone survives, and this was written by two trans women! Great, right?” Well, not according to the wealth of opinions explaining how Sense8 is horrible rep, actually. Every piece of rep we’ve got is either currently flawed or will become flawed in the future.

So what do we do with that?

That’s where my “I’d rather have bad rep than no rep at all” comes in. For me, that’s not waving the white flag. That’s not an oath that I won’t expect better rep in the future (I do) or that I won’t criticize the rep we get (BOY DO I), but rather just an acknowledgement of reality. The vast majority—if not the entirety—of rep is “bad rep” in one way or another, but I’d still rather have it than nothing at all. Because I’ve lived just long enough and studied media just enough to know what nothing looked like. It was watching all queer characters meet untimely deaths. Before that it was watching queer characters be derided and treated as jokes. Before that it was nothing but coding, where queer characters didn’t exist except in our own headcanons and interpretations. Obviously “bad rep” covers a very large range of issues and “They haven’t even confirmed this relationship yet” is a bigger issue than “This queer character embodies one or two, mild stereotypes,” but ultimately I’d take any of it over nothing at all. And enjoying what we’ve currently got doesn’t mean I’m willing to settle for it indefinitely.

To use an iffy analogy, imagine there’s a factory. This factory makes plates. So. Many. Plates. Big plates, small plates, plain plates, decorative plates, plates for every possible occasion in your life—and everyone with a steak for dinner is pleased as punch. You though? You’ve got soup. You need a bowl. Your entire life you’ve been struggling to eat your soup off a plate (it doesn’t work) and listening to friends and family claim that the plate with a slightly raised edge could be a bowl if you squint (it’s not). To say it’s frustrating is an understatement.

But then, one day, the factory starts producing bowls too. Hurray! Except as soon as you get your hands on one, you’re told you really shouldn’t be using it, let alone praising it. Look at the state of that bowl! It’s cracked right down the middle, ugly as hell, shoddily made all around… you’re not really going to settle for that, are you? And no, you obviously still want the factory to produce better bowls, but at the same time, this is a bowl. You’ve never gotten one before and you can finally enjoy your meal, even if the soup leaks at times. Sometimes a lot. But you’re still feeling better about your meal than you ever have before. And what you then begin to realize is that lots of the plates are a mess too. They also have cracks, they’re also ugly, many are also shoddily made. The difference is that the factory is producing so many plates at such a rapid pace that every steak eater is able to get by. One plate breaks completely? You’ve got a thousand fallbacks. Don’t like the look of this one? A thousand other options. You disagree about what “shoddily made” means? Luckily there are enough plates that everyone can find what they prefer! But the bowls… there’s only a few. Some are really expensive. Others are only available for a limited time before they suddenly disappear. Your bowl breaks and you have to wait months, years sometimes, to get another one. You’re constantly told to go buy this one obscure bowl no one else has heard about and yeah, you like it... but you’d also like to buy one of the bowls everyone is already enjoying. You find yourself looking at the plates and thinking, “I’d like that. I’d like to have so many options that the flaws, while still a problem, are much more bearable.” You’re still going to demand that the factory get its shit together, you’re still going to (rightly) complain about the awful quality of your bowl… but it’s still nice to have a bowl, period. There are still things you like about it, even if it’s a mess: the color, the size, the beauty of the shape of it. Its potential. You’re still pleased you have something to enjoy and that helps serve the need you’re looking to fill, even if that something is imperfect.

That’s “bad rep is better than no rep.” To bring this very long response back to Blake/Yang, I don’t think their problems negate their benefits. Is their relationship currently non-canonical and filled with a number of writing issues everyone has a right to be angry about? Yup. I express that anger a great deal. Are they still half of a team on a very popular show that is (presumably) set to be canonized as queer? Yup. I’d much rather live in a world where big shows like RWBY try to include queer rep and fail in a multitude of ways—with the expectation and hope that they’ll continue to improve—rather than in a world where authors a) don’t care or b) are too scared to try. Because that’s where a “good rep or no rep” stance leads. The danger isn’t homophobes because they’re, well, homophobes. It doesn’t matter if the rep is good or not, they hate it on principle. But if queer authors writing for other queer identities, or allies writing queer identities, or even queer authors writing their own experiences (like in Sense8) continually come under non-stop fire for their attempts… there’s a good chance that many people won’t ever try. We’re already seeing that here on tumblr with young authors admitting that they wouldn’t touch [insert topic here] with a ten-foot pole because just look at what happens when you get it wrong. And authors will get things wrong because authors are fallible people forever unlearning their own ignorance. So though it might sound strange coming from a blog that has turned into such a RWBY critical space, I am glad that RWBY’s queer rep exists, despite all the frustrations that I share about it. I think a RWBY with various types of “bad” queer rep is better than a RWBY with no queer rep at all, particularly when “bad” or “good” is so intensely subjective. There’s a middle ground between passively accepting whatever we’re given, and tearing into rep with such ferocity that we end up rejecting it all. There’s a space where we can be critical of rep and embrace the parts that work for us, simultaneously.

I hope and expect the het rep will get better too, but… that’s never going to happen instantly. To quote RWBY, there’s no magic wand we can wave to fix all our problems. Rather, it will take slow, plodding, meandering, lifetimes’ worth of work to see that change occur and I personally don’t want to spend the one life I have waiting for that perfect rep to show up. Because it’s unlikely that it will. While we work, I’d rather find the good in what rep we’ve already got.  

#rwby #queer #mymetas #Anonymous

[ruviona]

Haida’s Arc in Season 3

Haida's arc as a romantic interest is honestly not something I think I've ever seen before. There's plenty of media that portrays the "nice guy" that wants to get together with the main character that just needs to either:

A. get over it and get with someone else

B. change something about themselves to be accepted by his love interest or

C. Display a grand gesture of his love until she realizes he was the one for her all along

None of these things happen with Haida. He doesn't move on to Inui, he doesn't change in any drastic way, and even after the Karaoke scene the ending is vague about the nature of his relationship with Retsuko now. The entire point of Haida this season was to show the difference between a seemingly easy relationship vs one that is complicated.

Inui, for what she is in the story, is wonderful.

She's nice, has an easy rapport with Haida instantly, and is incredibly mature. Like everyone else in the show, she is also portrayed with a certain level of depth, in that she's not like Retsuko. She's not going to be meek about what she wants (a relationship with Haida) and will point blank ask him if he likes her and give him the space to figure it out.

Unfortunately for her, the thing about Aggrestsuko as a whole is that all the side characters have something to do with Retsuko, even loosely. They're there to serve a purpose to the overall plot of Restuko's insane and shitty life. This might be a turn off for some people. They want to see the side characters develop in ways that don't have to do with the main character, and I get that, but for a show like this, one that's meant to focus on aspects of life from a singular perspective in such a fast paced way, I get what they were trying to do.

Within the plot, she's not meant to be a wrench in Retsuhaida or another option entirely. She's there to show the audience an easy relationship. All her interactions with Haida are cute, laid-back, and so casually adorable, it's easy to root for them. Even the problems are easy enough to solve, Tsunoda outright tells Haida and Fenneko that the issue can be solved with him getting over Retsuko and moving on completely to Inui, something he said he wanted to do anyway.

But, he didn't move on. Even with everyone and everything telling him to.

His old friends, his new friends, the universe itself, Haida has been told over and over that Inui is the best choice for him. And yet he keeps asking, he keeps trying to get a different answer, he is just not going to move on, even if he says he is ready to. The only person he asked that didn't give a definite answer was Retsuko herself.

Posed as a hypothetical, Retsuko had a hard time telling him who to pick one way or the other, acknowledging that one is easier than the other, and paralleling her own difficulty making a decision. But, she's also the only one who gives validity to the other option, pointing out how hard the decision really is on him. She gives validity to his feelings. It's not hard to see why he would latch onto those match results, they're the only thing telling him to put his feelings out there.

As for Retsuko, she's clearly the difficult choice. She's secretive and avoidant, basically hard to really get to know. But, he wants to get to know her, he's said so multiple times, he wants everything she has to offer, even her doubts and rage. 

Looking at the scene when Fenneko asked why he liked Retsuko, the answer can seem disappointing. She was stealing water from work? That's not romantic or interesting, definitely not worth gaining a crush on someone. But it doesn't have to be, it's a tiny quirk that's odd, but ultimately endearing. It's the love and acceptance of these tiny seemingly insignificant things that makes a relationship sweeter than the typical meet-cutes and interactions that he had with Inui, at least in my opinion. Plus, when Fenneko told him to give three things he doesn't like about Retsuko, he points out:

She doesn't know the bass from the guitar

She doesn't go out to drinks with them

Her mom had horrible fashion sense

One of these isn't even about her and the other two are minuscule compared to her real flaws. But those are what Haida thinks about, because he's the kind of person to notice the little things. Her actual huge flaws? He has to wait to point those out later.

In my own life, I've had the unfortunate honor of becoming a sounding board for others. It's hard to tell people that you care about when they're acting in a way that's unhealthy, either to themselves or to someone else. It makes you feel like an asshole and those people probably see you as one in the moment. But it's a hurdle that needs to be jumped sometimes. Haida doesn't sing all this criticism to be mean or get her to like him, he's trying to communicate with her in a place he knows she feels safe unleashing her feelings. And she does, she gives it as good as she gets. He's not treated like a sweet soft boy in this situation. He's an jerk, who’s had a bad habit of pushing his feelings and projections onto her. He takes this criticism, and he still wants to be there, he still wants to help. Not simply as a romantic interest, but as a friend.

This season basically hits Haida over the head and tells him that if he wants a sweet immediate romance, he can have that, easily. In the end, he still chooses Retsuko because he sees something in her that’s worth getting to know, and he’s pushing through her barriers and challenging her in a way that none of her other love interests were able to do.

@critgemhero

#aggrestsuko #aggretsuko spoilers #aggretsuko season 3 spoilers #Haida #retsuko #it's a complicated and messy issue

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Hey, feel free to ignore this, but I'd love to hear your grievances against Bridgerton? I saw some of the fashion posts you rbed, but I'm especially intrigued by the "fails on all aspects" parts? Thanks!

Hi there,

There is honestly so much that could be said and analysed in finer points but the short version of it is just that it is a bad story wrapped in the glitz of high production value but surprisingly little good technical execution despite all the money shoveled at it. Bridgerton is the type of show where the petty, mean side of me would delight in a detailed and cutthroat list of all of its flaws but for which I do not care enough to be actually invested in hating it. It’s just a thing to be puzzled and petty about: people think Bridgerton is good. Wild.

Now let me first say that I have no inherent problems with anachronistic creative choices, or the idea of a contemporary take on period dramas. After all, all period dramas are inevitably told through a contemporary lens, to different degrees. It’s also not like they were the first big production to do it either: has everyone just forgot about The Great Gatsby? or tumblr’s favourite Hamilton? I honestly think this kind of mixing already has so many cool outcomes when it comes to music (like this, this or this and this), I do believe we could get something really interesting out of creative anachronism in mainstream visual media. I’m also more forgiving with newer forms of experimentation, because sometimes new ideas need to be worked out before they reach their full potential. But the way Bridgerton does it.... so clearly lacks a clear creative vision and dedication to the concept imo that it makes it harder to excuse the ways it fails since the failures seem to originate from that lack of vision and dedication to storytelling. For instance, there is seemingly no logic as to when the diegetic music will be an instrumental cover of a contemporary song or not--which does not even broach the topic of how bad those ‘classical music’ arrangements for modern songs were? Honestly embarrassing how lazy those arrangements were: hire a good composer (or any at all), you cowards. And then the costumes... once again, a lack of internal logic seems to permeate the choices presented in addition to a lack of care in its execution: so many of the dresses are ill-fitted, the characterisation through the outfits were all over the place (like the mom who wore a silhouette that no one else wore and had no basis in any fashion of the era) and so many of the fabrics/jewellery looked the opposite of expensive (kind of looked like a lot of it was polyester and plastic tbh), which is sort of a problem when you are trying to sell the fantasy of "The lives of the rich and famous but make it regency” imo although I suppose a portion of the audience just doesn’t notice lmao. Honestly I find that a lot of ‘costume historians’ who made video essays on Bridgerton were too nice with the show, perhaps in order not to come off as seeming to hate the costumes on the basis of them not being historically accurate, and as a result were way too forgiving imo. And this lack of real creative vision is also something we see in the cinematography and direction which.... seems often confused about the way it wants to make things feel fantastical and ends up dropping the ball on the execution of these meant-to-be extravagant or over-the-top shots.

But, again, the cinematography is just... middling at best, made only worse by the editing which is just plain bad. I guess you’ll have to just take me on my word on this because I am not willing to do an autopsy of all I find off about it, but lord jesus mary and joseph it was painful to watch at certain moments.

Bridgerton is not the first show to do colourblind casting, although I’d say it deserves recognition for fucking it up for no reason at all. Like, sure there are criticisms to be had about how it remains still a very white story that falls into certain tropes wrt darker skin characters or the glaring lack of south asian representation considering what the contemporary UK looks like, etc. but what I’m gesturing at is the totally unnecessary but mind-boggling “royal love solved racism” twist we get in the, what, fourth episode? (Broey Deschannel covered the topic quite well imo) The audience would have accepted that there were no in-world explanation for the colourblind version of the already-made fantastical regency that had them dancing to Ariana Grande songs. The colourblindness, racism-free society would have just been another aspirational aspect. They literally did not need to do this.

Honestly I don’t feel like I need to get into why the story itself is not very good or well-executed since it feels very obvious. I won’t begrudge on principle the show for using well-worn tropes and common-to-the-point-of-farce character archetypes, but I have to object to the way it uses them and in the service of what story. And not to make myself in a plot-hole-ding kind of person-who-has-thoughts-about-media, but this is not a story that holds up well to scrutiny or logic, let’s say. And any type of social or political commentary it tried to include was dumb to the point of farce: the Feminist Character Who Wants to Read not Go Dance was just.... a masterclass in bad, embarrassing writing. I am surprised at how unlikeable and boring the vast majority of the characters were, but perhaps less surprised at how a series that planned on having multiple seasons already sold the twist of Lady Whistleblow’s identity at the end of the first season, for what seemed to be no narrative reason at all. That being said, I have to give credit where it’s due and acknowledge that there is a skill in being able to produce stories that get extremely popular and well-loved.

(Do I need to mention the performances? So many underwhelming or embarrassing performances. It’s hard to tell sometimes whether it’s the actors themselves or the directing that’s the issue, or a mixture of both, but.... oof).

I guess in the end Bridgerton’s biggest transgression is it sits for me in the uncomfortable middle where it is neither trashy or campy fun nor is it an interesting work of fiction. Differently put, it is simply neither good nor fun.

#cherryblossomshadow #long post #brine corner #i suppose #not mdzs

[henshengs]

About Rule 63 fanworks

I was asked yesterday to elaborate on my genderbend opinions, as a trans person, which I’m happy to do, and I’ve thought about it a bit today to make sure I’m not saying something off the cuff and not thought through. Still, this is a sensitive, complicated topic, and I’m open to discussion on it.

This also got long, so I’m putting it under a cut.

So, obviously I can’t speak for all trans people. No minority group is a monolith in our opinions and this is particularly the case for the transgender community because our experiences are so very diverse and individual.

I am very rarely hurt or offended by genderbends/genderswaps/rule 63 fanworks. I know people for whom this is not the case, and I believe the pain involved is very real. The thing is... living in this world is inherently kinda painful when you’re trans. This world’s not built for us. All kinds of random things can cause me pain throughout my day. Store mannequins. My own reflection. Lesbian poetry. Pictures of other trans people. When something triggers my dysphoria or feelings of alienation, I have to stop, acknowledge the feeling, and then consider whether the thing is, outside of hurting me, contributing to the ignorance of and hatred of people like me by its very existence.

I don’t think the basic act of asking, “What if this character who is a cis man, was a cis woman instead?” does that. I think if anything, it opens the door to then ask “what if he was a trans man? Or a trans woman? Or nonbinary?”

Asking “what if this story was about a cis woman” lets cis women talk about their experiences and see themselves in stories, something I think is valuable! and also can lead to stories exploring sexism and misogyny, things which affect all trans people too!

In the rest of this post I’m going to use the terms “rule 63″ and “genderswap” to refer to the act of creating a fanwork changing a cis/presumed cis man to a cis or not-specified-to-be-trans woman, because this is the vast majority of the work under that label, because most fictional heroes and iconic characters are cis men, and because people who create cis man->trans woman or cis woman->trans man content, in my experience, usually use terms like “trans headcanon” instead.

(A lot of rule 63 fanworks don’t explicitly specify that the now-female character is cis. We can presume that most artists aren’t even thinking about the possibility of the character being trans, but we can presume that for 99.99% of all art, anywhere. It’s not a unique evil of rule 63.)

The claims that rule 63 is inherently transphobic, rather than just something where it’s good to be extra careful to avoid transphobia, as far as I’ve seen, use two arguments: A) that making the character a cis woman is wasting an opportunity to make them a trans person, and this is transphobic, and B) that rule 63 fan art is gender essentialist and cissexist, because it ties gender to physical characteristics.

Argument A doesn’t hold up for me, 

because couldn’t one then say that reimagining an abled white cis character as an abled white trans woman is racist and ableist? that reimagining them as an abled trans woman of color is ableist? No transformative reimagining can cover every identity. We say “write what you know” and talk about Own Voices, and that includes cis women who want to write about the experience they know. 

It’s also not fair to tell trans people that we must always think about trans experiences, even in our fiction. A lot of the time we don’t want to have to write or think about dysphoria and discrimination and we want to live in the heads of cis characters or even just characters whose AGAB is not mentioned! 

And it is also, imo, not a great idea to pressure people who may not be educated about trans experiences to write about trans characters just because they want to explore sexism or write about lesbians. 

many, many trans people first begin exploring their gender identity through creating cis rule 63 content, because it’s ‘safer’ than directly engaging with trans content.

With argument B, I agree that a lot of rule 63 art looks like this

and this sucks. To me, though, it’s important that it’s not the genderswap aspect that makes it suck. Artists who do this are also designing original characters with sexist, gender essentialist designs. Artists who don’t draw sexist art in general, also don’t draw sexist rule 63.

(yes, I know She-Hulk is not a rule 63 of regular Hulk. But you guys know the kind of art I’m talking about.)

I’ve also noticed a genre of fanfic that’s like, “if these characters were girls, they’d be sensible and conflict avoidant and none of the plot would happen!” or “what if these violent, tragic male characters were Soft Lesbians who braided each others’ hair” and again, I assume these authors write canonical women the same way. The genderswap part isn’t the bad part, the sexism is. 

Non-sexist rule 63 actually, in my opinion, fights gender essentialism and cissexism. When a character is exactly the same except for the ways a gender essentialist world has shaped and pressured them based on their AGAB, that’s a strong statement on the constructed nature of gender! 

But the argument that making /any/ change is gender essentialist, is... I understand where it’s coming from. I am a trans person who presents androgynously and I am a hypervisible freak because of it. I would love to live in a society where visible gender markers weren’t a thing! Unfortunately, we don’t live in that society. We live in one where we are constantly under pressure to conform to one of two profiles. There are almost no gender non conforming male characters in popular media. And changing a gender conforming cis man into a gender conforming cis woman seems to me to be a neutral action at worst. Not to mention characters from historical canons, who would be under a ton of pressure to conform. 

For physical body type characteristics... 65% of all speaking roles in Hollywood are cis and male. It’s harder to get statistics on other forms of media, but it’s undeniable that overall, most stories are told about cis men who do not have breasts or wide hips. Changing the story to be about a cis woman who has those features is introducing more diversity! 

I typed “rule 63″ and “genderswap” into the tumblr search bar today, and I saw a lot of art of women with a variety of aesthetics and body shapes and characteristics, who looked like people I’d see out at the mall.

Again, I sure do wish we lived in a post gender society. But we don’t, and in our society, everyone, myself included, looks at a picture of a person and gender categorizes them based on appearance. It is not wrong for someone to draw “Geralt the Witcher as a hot butch woman” and give her some physical markers generally agreed upon to denote ‘butch woman’ rather than ‘gender conforming man’ to tell the viewer that that is what they have drawn. Just as it is not wrong to draw “my OC who is a hot butch woman who fights monsters” and give her those markers. 

Finally, both arguments against genderswaps are, in my opinion, flawed because they implicitly posit the act of creating fanworks of the original, cis male gender conforming character design, as neutral. I think this is incorrect. I think that if you’re going to argue that drawing a cis male character as a cis woman is transphobic, you have to also argue that drawing the character as a cis man is transphobic. But I’ve only seen people do this when a trans headcanon becomes extremely popular in a fandom.

Again, I’m just one person. I’m also biased, because firstly, as I mentioned, rule 63 doesn’t usually trigger my dysphoria; secondly, I almost always come down on the side of “don’t limit what people can explore in fiction; ask them to explore it more sensitively or with more content warnings instead.” 

I definitely encourage creators to seek out and listen to a variety of trans opinions. But this is mine: I love rule 63, I make a lot of it myself, and I think if no one created it we’d lose something awesome. 

At the end of the day, what I really want is more trans content*, but I’d rather have cis rule 63 than just stories about cis men. 

Also: I personally have nothing against the terms genderswap or genderbend. I don’t think it reinforces the gender binary to acknowledge its existence by saying you’re ‘swapping’ the character from being cis with one AGAB to being cis with the other. But I can definitely see the argument against it, so I don’t blame anyone for going with rule 63 instead.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading; I hope you have a nice day, and have fun creating and consuming the fanworks your heart desires. I’ll end by linking this comic, which is just eternally relevant.

(*by which I mean: trans content created by other trans people, that matches my hyperspecific headcanons, likes and dislikes, and doesn’t set off any of my often changing dysphoria triggers. See what I said at the start, about transgender existence being constantly mildly painful. There are many awesome aspects to being trans! This is one of the less awesome.)

#rule 63

[spaceorphan18]

I'm new to fandom - what are the better boyfriend olympics? I've heard that phrase being used a lot to talk about Klaine but I'm not really sure what's going on.

Hi Nonny! Welcome to fandom :) Pull up a chair as I give you a history of the BBO and how it started.  I actually think it’s kind of fascinating now that I’m not living through it, lol. 

Okay, so let’s go back to 2010 when there wasn’t a Klaine fandom, there was a Kurt fandom.  A lot of the BBO stemmed out of the Kurt’s Boyfriend Shipping wars of 2010.  

Back then, there was just a Kurt fandom, and a lot of opinions about who he should date.  Believe it or not, Kurt was shipped a lot with the other guys on the show, there was a healthy dose of Kurt/Finn, but Kurt/Puck was huge, and there was a smattering of Kurt/Mike (I never really did see much Kurt/Artie now that I think of it, which is kind of funny in retrospect, but I’m sure it’s out there.)  Anyway - when the show announced Kurt was getting a boyfriend -- well, things began to get heated up.  

Three big ships emerged

Kurt/Sam - because the rumor was that Sam was originally supposed to be Kurt’s bf (probably not, but that rumor was big at the time).  Btw, they were the canoe ship (I have no idea why) and was also known as Kum (rolls-eyes).  This ship’s fanbase was so huge and lasted so long, that the show felt the need to address it head on in Season Two’s Rumours (not a joke).   

Kurt/Karofsky - Also known as Kurtofsky, they were also called themselves the Pirate ship (god, Idk why, shipping wars are weird, yo).  These people were also really passionate, mostly about Dave, but liked the whole idea that Kurt would save Dave and they would have this weird - enemies to loves love affair or something.  I don’t know, I could never get past the squicky assault aspect, but whatever. 

Kurt/Blaine - which. at the time, was... the biggest possibility? It’s funny cause the other two ships were just as big as the Klaine ship, and really the fighting became over who was going to be the best option for Kurt.  

And that’s the thing.  Fans of Kurt were so passionate about who was best for Kurt, because everyone had seen him go through hell and back on the show, so his boyfriend needed to be perfect for him.  And you know who was perfect (at first) -- Blaine.  More on that in a second... 

However, Blaine brought his own bit of baggage -- namely fans of Darren Criss (and/or Starkid fans).  Unlike Chord Overstreet or Max Adler, people knew who Darren was before he was on Glee.  So his own fandom joined in on the Klaine of it all.  At first it was all fine -- as the shipping wars continued, it was less about Kurt vs Blaine and more about Klaine vs the other shippers.  Well, that was going to change.... 

Original Song happened and Kurt and Blaine got together ending the question of who would ultimately be Kurt’s boyfriend.  And things were nice and cozy headed into season 3.  You’d think the Kurt/Sam and Kurt/Karofsky ships would die out, but not really, they stuck around for a long time, and kinda morphed into something else.  

See, The First Time happened.  And for the first time Blaine wasn’t the perfect prince that he was in season 2 -- he had more of a developed personality, and more flaws.  And... some people didn’t like it.  (Also added to the mix was Sebastian -- and the Seblaine and Kurtbastian ships were born, but those kinda go off on their own thing and I’m not really going to bring them up much here.)  Anyway, what really got fandom split was Dance With Somebody. 

You had two sides of an argument, people who saw Kurt’s POV and people who saw Blaine’s POV -- and guess what happened.  The two sides began to fight with each other over who was “right” in the argument.  (My god...) And thus started what fandom started referring to as The Better Boyfriend Olympics. 

See - for reasons I don’t fully understand - instead of seeing that each of the boys have a fault and each were wrong in the episode, each side wanted to say that their side, and their POV was the correct way -- that one boyfriend was more oppressed and the other was not as good a partner.  

On the Kurt side, though, you had a lot of the old Kurt fans and ships who didn’t like Blaine (and/or didn’t want Blaine as his partner) so they vehemently decided that unless Blaine was the perfect boyfriend again, he didn’t deserve to be with Kurt.  Meanwhile, you had the Blaine fans, many of them Darren fans who wanted Blaine to have more depth to him than just being Kurt’s boyfriend, and not being Kurt fans first (or originally) they were going to push back at the Kurt fans who were lashing out at Blaine. 

Compounding this was the fact that during season 3, there were so many cast members and characters that unless you were Finchel, you were begging for scraps and your featured episode to come along.  Meanwhile - Kurt got a ton of screen time, but didn’t sing much, while Blaine sang a lot more, but didn’t get much story.  The Kurt fans resented that Blaine was always singing.  The Blaine fans were annoyed that the Kurt fans resented it, and tried to remind the Kurt fans that Blaine barely got any development.  

Either way, a war had begun.  And then The Break Up happened.  

Now Kurt fans had a specific reason to point at -- Blaine being a terrible boyfriend.  He cheated.  He’s terrible.  The end. 

The fandom was not firmly split into sides - you were either a Kurt fan - a lot of them who HATED Blaine - partly because he was getting more attention at the time, partly cause he did sing more, partly because they were made up of Kurt ships that didn’t work out, and partly cause they saw so much of themselves in Kurt that they projected onto him their own feelings, and loving Blaine was not a part of that projection.  Or you were a Blaine fan - who spent a lot of time defending Blaine to the point of exhaustion, and became so resentful of Kurt that they wished Blaine could be with anyone else because Kurt (fans) didn’t understand Blaine and should just stop trying. 

Weren’t there any Klainers you ask? Ha, well.... Klainers, people actually liked Kurt AND Blaine were stereotyped into two categories.  Category A) the really really loud fanbase (usually on Twitter) that harassed the creators, RM, Chris, Darren, various crew about Klaine every second that they got -- to the point that it started to feel embarrassing (that’s probably my own projection).   Category B) People who thought (think) that Chris and Darren were (are) in a secret relationship.  (Spoiler alert they aren’t, never have been, and never will be.)  The two of these categories overlapped A LOT, and many of the fans of one boy or the other just disassociated completely.  

You could still be a fan of the Klaine relationship, but you had a preference to which boy you were actually a fan of -- you couldn’t like both, or else you were a Klainer, and that was not cool.  (I spent a long time NOT identifying as anything, and trying to make sure everything I did and said was equal -- a) cause I was new to fandom and b) cause I hated that either one or the other of these characters were villainized so frequently.) 

Anyway - Season 4 continued.  Adam showed up, and Kurt fans got all excited, but the problem was that a lot of them saw him as the perfect boyfriend again -- not a real character but a prop that could make Kurt look good and be everything for Kurt.  Look, I liked Adam, I did, but he was underdeveloped, and this weird idea that your boyfriend needs to be perfect in order to be a functioning relationship is just unrealistic.  I digress.  Meanwhile, we didn’t get a lot of Kurt POV, which didn’t help things, and meant even more projection over his character. 

Meanwhile, the Blaine fans had formed their own community, which became viciously defensive of him.  I think the whole fandom was toxic during this time for a lot of reasons, and I really wanted to quit it.  Many people did -- the show wasn’t being fun anymore. 

Season 5 came along, the boys got back together, tempers simmered, but the whole idea of the Better Boyfriend Olympics came back every time a conflict happened.  Arguments about who was the better boyfriend ensued, gatekeeping as to why their pick was best and why your opinion sucked still ran through the fandom.  Not helping was the fact that Cory had died, and the creators, actors, and crew -- as well as media -- was tired of Glee.  

The one nice thing, though was that a lot of the old crowd had moved on by then, and there was an influx of newer people coming in during season 5 (and season 6) -- they weren’t here for the season 3 droughts and season 4 wars, and brought in a newer and fresher perspective.  

But still - we had the end of season 5 and the summer of spoilers and season 6 to get through.  At this point, the Kurt and Blaine camps had moved to their parts of the internet and really not speaking much to each other if they could help it.  When an argument happened on the show, the same kind of Better Boyfriend Olympics came up again -- one boyfriend was worse than the other, and unless they changed xyz they were not good enough for the other.  But at this point, it was incredibly tiring.  I know that I was just ready for the show to be done with. 

I should say, as an aside, not helping things were the rise of some rather vocal BNF-ish fans, who dug their heels in about their own opinions.  The refusal to even acknowledge that one side or the other might be right, or have valid points was not helping anything.  A lot of people on both sides refused to even listen to the points on the other side -- and instead of being frustrated at the show, the creators, or whatever, they took it against each other, which wasn’t fun to watch either.

Season 6 happened - Blainofsky happened, and that killed enthusiasm for the season on both sides, most people just kind of wanted it to be over.  And then the ending came quickly, and I think a lot of people who were just plain unhappy about everything left for good.  

The Better Boyfriend Olympics, or this weird competition that always pitted the boys and their fandoms against each other in the name of one being better than the other, leveled off after this.  I won’t give myself /that/ much credit - but one reason I created @todaydreambelievers was to give fans of both Kurt and Blaine a safe place where we could enjoy and discuss both boys without the BBO rearing its head.  And you know what -- it did mend a few hearts.  

For the most part, it’s been pretty quiet since.  Fandom is quieter, but I think the people who have come into it after the show has ended are a lot less judgmental and argumentative.  (I suppose it helps if you know how the story is going to end.)  And the cool thing, for me, is finding a group of people who enjoy Kurt and Blaine equally (or respectfully) -- and reclaiming the name Klainer as a good thing.  

I’ll end by saying this -- it’s been relatively peaceful, even with the influx of new people throughout the years, but I have been seeing shades of BBO pop up again.  Look, you don’t have to like Klaine to be a fan of one or the other of them.  But there are a lot of terrible things going on in the world, a lot of things to be angry and get indignant about.  How a fictional couple was written ten years ago is not one of them.  Be respectful of people, and know that maybe the side you understand better isn’t the only side worth listening to.  ;) 

#that's how s.o. sees it #klaine history #glee history #Anonymous

[makeste]

“I came here to find what it is that I lack.”

hey everyone, so can we talk about this?

this is the first time that Katsuki has talked about his own personal shortcomings to such an extent. he’s flirted with acknowledging them out loud before, at the provisional course, and we know he’s been working on improving himself, because we saw the change during the joint training arc. but this is the first time he has actually come right out and admitted that there is something he knows he’s missing, and that his goal now is to find it.

so there are two parts of this that I want to break down and discuss. let’s start with this:

“I’ve learned that just because I’m strong in a fight, that doesn’t mean I’m strong as a person.”

JBox translated this as “I’ve learned that pure strength isn’t enough to become strong.” I’m curious as to how Viz will word it. but it’s Mangastream’s translation that really piqued my interest. “that doesn’t mean I’m strong as a person.” correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this is the first time Katsuki has ever talked about himself as a person at all. up to this point he’s seemed to have zero interest in any kind of self-reflection. and even now, he’s still bringing it up in a context of strength. he needs to be “strong” as a person because that will help him become stronger as a hero. but regardless of how he frames it, or whether or not he’s only seeking it because it pertains to his goal of surpassing the number one, this is still huge IMO for him to bring up strength of character and acknowledge that it’s still something that’s eluding him.

and it’s not like this hasn’t been brought to his attention before. for all of his strengths, his personality is the one thing that’s been consistently singled out by virtually everyone he’s ever met as a glaring fault. and yet he doesn’t seem to have ever given this real thought until recently. possibly because he didn’t think it actually mattered in the big picture. or maybe it’s because until recently, he was able to shrug off those accusations because he knew that deep down he was good where it really counted. like, yeah, he might swear a lot and he might not get along with people and maybe his temper gets the better of him at times. but he was able to brush that off because he knows deep down that he’s a hero. and not just any hero, but the person who’s going to become the best hero. and so he had faith in his own integrity, and didn’t let other people’s perceptions bother him, because who the hell cares what anyone else thinks.

but note that I did say “until recently.” because in the last six months or so story-wise, a lot has changed. things which have sent little parachutes of self-doubt sailing over Katsuki’s formerly impenetrable walls of indifference. he was singled out as a target by villains. yeah, they were wrong about him, but it still says something that they thought he was a good prospect. and not just them, but everyone. the press gathered together less than 48 hours after a child was kidnapped, and felt comfortable speculating about whether or not said child was unhinged and destined to follow the villain path. yeah, Aizawa shot them down, but Katsuki still got a behind-the-scenes documentary feature look at how some of the actions he’d never before given a second thought to were actually affecting the world’s judgment of his moral character.

and then All Might lost his power at Kamino. something which Katsuki felt was his fault. and then, directly on the heels of that, there was the shock of realizing that the childhood friend he’d maligned and tormented for years had ended up being All Might’s chosen successor. and there are so many ways that Katsuki could have responded to that realization. being jealous of Deku. being derisive of All Might’s choice. but instead, his reaction to learning Deku had it right was to immediately follow it up with: so I’m wrong. and just, wow, though. and then, of course, this was all compounded even more when he failed the provisional license exam. so now we have the villains, the general public, and the heroes -- or at least, the people in charge of deciding who gets to be a hero -- all hitting him up with various different versions of you are flawed, you are deficient.

anyway, thankfully at this point he did something he’s never done before and actually reached out to someone, even if it was in the most shounen way ever (“should I just talk to my rival like a normal person? nah I’ll challenge him to a fight”). and he and Deku had a heart to heart via their fists, and then All Might gave him a hug and some good mentor advice. so the worst of that line of thinking was curbed before it could become more damaging. and he seems to have rebounded since and is back to his old confident ways.

buuuuuut. we have seen him paying more attention to other people’s remarks than he seemed to before. maybe this was something he always did, but just pretended like he didn’t. hard to say. but there’s no denying the way that Horikoshi made it a Thing during the Band AU arc, when we saw those upperclassman grousing about how “class 1-A is the one causing all the trouble” and then Katsuki listening in, stony-faced. and then he got really pissed off and ranted about it afterward.

so yeah. and then more recently, during the joint training arc, we also had that incident where Monoma -- on camera, with Katsuki watching, and we know for a fact there was sound because U.A. based their teaching model on The Hunger Games, and also the kids were able to hear Shinsou’s voice-changing shenanigans earlier -- was all “SO HOW ABOUT THAT TIME THAT BAKUGOU CAUSED THE DOWNFALL OF THE SYMBOL OF PEACE, EH.” which marked the first time we confirmed that Katsuki isn’t the only one who’s made that connection. mind you, I don’t think Monoma actually meant it; he was just trying to rile Deku up into talking so he could pull the ol’ Jedi mind trick. but still, the fact that he had that remark ready to go means that it must have crossed his mind before. and at this point I think it’s pretty safe to say he’s not the only one. it’s an obvious enough conclusion to draw, and society was a hot mess for a while following Kamino, and it was the kind of thing where I’m sure that a lot of people, shaken up in the aftermath of this disaster and struggling to process it, would be looking to assign blame.

so now Katsuki, who formerly did not give a shit and was very proud and upfront about his lack of shit-giving, has been more or less forced to confront the fact that like it or not, his behavior -- and other people’s perceptions of it -- maybe matters a little more than he thought. and it seems like maybe he’s become a bit more sensitive to that lately. a little more aware.

I think it must be frustrating for him in some ways, because he knows that he’s good and that his intentions are good, but he has difficulty conveying that. and the other thing is that he’s not the type of boy to ever have people actually say to him, “hey, you’re a nice guy.” (Kirishima, I think, is the only one that might have actually said that sentence to him -- I feel like he has? -- and honestly there’s a reason why Katsuki trusts him so much, and things like this are no small part of it.) “amazing”, sure. he gets that all the time. and “strong”, which is the adjective he himself uses the most when talking about things he admires. but never good. and he might not ever show any signs of needing that type of reinforcement, but (a) sometimes we don’t know that we need something, especially if it’s something we’ve never had before, and (b) even if Katsuki was in any way adept at identifying his emotional needs (he’s not), the odds of him ever mustering up the will to actually ask are slim to say the least.

but no child wants to be bad. Katsuki’s one and only desire since he was very little has been to become a great hero. and heroes are inherently good. this boy, for all his surliness and stubbornness and toeing-the-line, works hard. he listens to his teachers. he studies. he fights fairly, and shows honor in other ways (like fessing up immediately to being the first one to throw a punch). he shows kindness and gratitude and concern in his own prickly ways as well. his goodness isn’t the kind that comes up to you and slaps you in the face, but it still manages to shine through like sunlight through a cloudy filter. he is a good person. and I think that sometimes, during his more intense moments of self-doubt, he may have wondered if maybe he’s not. but he is.

and having said all of that, one of the things I would like to see at some point in the future is for someone to actually tell him that. for him to get that validation. because I think that’s something he’s seeking, even if he’s not aware of it. even now he still has the media censoring his interviews, as if they’re worried he’ll somehow corrupt the viewers with his attitude. even though the whole reason he’s being interviewed is because he proved himself through his actions. somehow it’s still not enough. so I just think it’s something that would mean a lot to him to hear. “you are strong, but also you’re a good person.” so yeah. All Might, maybe -- get on that.

moving on now to the second part of this essay!

“I came here to find what it is that I lack.”

you know what I find interesting about this? at first glance, one might assume that he’d already solved this mystery. doy, the kid that only ever thought about winning and victory has to learn how to help others. we got that already; All Might broke it down for us nice and clear back in chapter 120. we’re good.

and the thing is, it really seems like we are good, doesn’t it? Katsuki passed his remedial exam with flying colors. he and Todo saved a bunch of would be purse-snatching victims, and he even saved their wallets (that makes it sound like he got them to save 15% or more by switching to Geico lol but NO, IN THIS CASE IT WAS LITERAL). and let’s not forget that dominant performance during the joint training arc, in which he both allowed himself to be rescued, and breezily rescued others with no qualm. by all measures, it would appear that he has embraced this new way of heroing, and seems to be taking to it as naturally as he takes to everything else.

so then the question arises: if he already figured out that IT’S THE RESCUING, STUPID, then why is he still talking about “what he lacks” as though there is still something he’s missing? and not just missing, but as-yet-unidentified to boot. he doesn’t actually know what it is. he’s trying to figure it out.

so I have a few guesses, but since this essay is already running long, I’m just going to jump right to my main one: what he’s talking about is the difference between this:

and this

in a very similar way to how Katsuki himself proved there was such a big difference between this

and this

“the difference between those who are aiming for the top, and everyone else.” so yeah. and if this applies to the “winning” part of the hero equation, then it also stands to reason it should apply to the “rescue” part as well, right?

so what would that mean? basically, as far as I can tell, it’s the difference between your everyday rescuing, and between Deku’s style of rescuing. no, I’m not talking about the bone-breaking. I’m talking about, “my legs just started moving. why? I dunno!” or, as All Might puts it, “their bodies simply moved before they could think.”

what Deku has is not just the will to rescue. it’s the instinct to rescue. in the same way that Kacchan uses his quirk intuitively to reach ever greater heights, what Deku does intuitively is to save and protect others. he is unrivaled in this. his instinct to rescue surpasses even All Might’s. and this is what makes him great.

what Katsuki is doing right now is rescuing on the balanced, sensible, government-approved level of things. which is fine! admirable, even. but compared to what Deku has, it’s the same as Monoma’s will to win pitted against Katsuki’s own utterly indomitable will, which is completely illogical and excessive in exactly the right type of way, and is what drives him to the levels of excellence that he’s achieved. Deku’s will to rescue is like that. it’s on a whole different level.

and I think one of the biggest things I can say in praise of Katsuki is that he is not yet satisfied with where he is in terms of his moral strength. he understands that there’s a level he has yet to unlock and achieve. something that he isn’t yet grasping. and I’m pretty sure this is what it is. and if that’s the case, then he’s in luck, because I think it’s safe to say there will be plenty of opportunities in the near future to hone his own rescue instincts. Deku didn’t really start to approach Kacchan’s own levels of WIN NO MATTER WHAT until his battle with Muscular, and the key thing that made the difference there was the stakes. needless to say, in this latest arc, we have stakes aplenty. 

and all it takes is one moment. for there to be something to be on the line which Kacchan realizes in a moment of clarity that he can’t lose. something to trigger his own instant of my body just moved on its own. and then from there? who even knows. but it’ll be a sight to see.

so that is my [checks notes] 2600-word essay about Kacchan’s 75-word speech in chapter 247. to sum up, what I want for my son in this arc is for things to finally click for him to get that moment of Hero Autopilot, and also for other people to get with the program and acknowledge what a good kid he is, goddammit. even if he gets embarrassed. or embarrasses them immediately afterward by demonstrating exactly how good of a kid he is by blowing up the nearest inanimate object and launching into colorful tirades about someone’s mother. Bakugou is basically like a poorly wrapped Christmas gift. ugly on the outside, doesn’t quite look right when stacked next to the other gifts, but once you rip that sucker open TAH DAH, IT’S THAT BRAND NEW THING YOU WANTED! and it kicks all the other gifts’ asses. what more could you want in a character lol.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha 247 #bakugou katsuki #bnha meta #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #bakugou meta

[hoochieblues]

100 Days of Writing: Day 36

The relationships you write, what kind of power-dynamics do they tend to have?

for @the-wip-project  

Good question! I’m going to say they vary from squishy-soft and angsty codependency to married-my-best-friend, probably because of my hackfraud years background in writing wilfully trashy commercial romance, which often involved being asked to write very specific dynamics that really didn’t reflect my personal preferences. There’s also a bunch of stuff here that relates to identity and self-confidence, and how I see or utilise those aspects of my characters.

...I am also taking ‘power dynamics’ dangerously literally in some places. 

Bitching, complaining, mature themes and personal under the cut

Note: I know lots of people love M/f tropes/dynamics that I don’t, and that’s utterly valid. Especially where writers write for their own joy and passion, and the things that are unquestionably ours. Whatever you’re into, from sensual cishet romance featuring commanding and chivalric buff dudes to villainous ‘dead dove - don’t eat’ cnc, you do you and don’t let anyone shame you for it, ever. Especially me. 

When I (probably too frequently) bitch about the normalisation of M/f dynamics, I tend to be referring to my commercial experiences, and pressure to make everything very stereotypically cishetnorm; ‘men shouldn’t express emotions/be under 6′4″/be vulnerable sexually or emotionally’ and so on, and heaven forefend you tried to write a woman who wasn’t basically a lifestyle submissive presented as vanilla. 

You could go the other way, and have an emotionally and/or physically abusive heroine who bullied her male LI mercilessly and got called a ‘badass’ or ‘passionate’... but if the male character reacted badly, he was a weenie. 

That’s not my feminism, yo. It’s sexist and inauthentic. 

I’m interested in relationship dynamics between two people, not two roles of masc/fem dynamics that have agreed upon boundaries of responsibility. 

I was typing this while on hold to my doctor’s office, and got through a whole screed about the normalisation of sexist and gender essentialist power dynamics in mass media via things like 50SoG/almost every Hollywood movie ever, and how gd sick I am of editing/ghostwriting questionable romance novels where the male characters are large to the point of disability and the women are so physically powerless that they use emotional abuse/threats to get their way, before I realised I probably don’t need to say any of it. 

I will say that my fave moments from last year’s intake included these two gems:

1) Man tries to undress unconscious woman, gets mad bc his “massive” fingers can’t handle knots, so he “sexily” breaks her shoelaces and rips her shoe off, destroying it in the process. (Mmm, impulse control/anger issues and destruction of property without consent. Hot. If you do vibe with the principle, I get it, but it’s not for me.)

2) Woman “forces” her husband to stop being emotionally distant to her by following him into his study after he walks away from an argument and starts smashing all of his stuff while he backs away, aghast. This is narratively framed as her “passionate” nature which he should no longer deny. There were no consequences for her literal fucking abuse. Not a one. All she got was orgasms. It was - imho - sick and horrifying.

Anyway, I have a real thing about that. I love flawed characters - I think “unhealthy” relationships can be great to mine in fiction, because it’s a safe space that has no consequences - but I do believe there’s at least some imperative for the narrative to acknowledge when something is unhealthy. 

So that’s a thing I try to do. 

I wrote a story once where two people fall in love fresh out of high school. It’s the very late 90s/early 00s, they’re closeted and in a rural, homophobic town. One boy’s got a shitty manual job and a highly abusive family. The other’s from a nice background, planning to go premed, be a doctor, everyone’s very proud. When his bf ends up going to jail, he throws over his future - more than a decade of it - to stay with him, and the story is ultimately a happy ending in that they do love each other, the relationship is the best thing in both their lives... but it’s not an entirely healthy one. It’s supportive and genuine, but also codependent af and riven with complicated issues... and it’s shown to come at a cost, with a lot of doubt and soul-searching. I still love that story, and those characters, as fucked up as they were, because their message was ultimately: this is our choice, and we made it ourselves.

I love relationship dynamics in stories that further the reader’s own relationship with the character, that let us see them in new lights, new kinds of vulnerability and states of undress (hurr... I meant psychologically, but that too) that wouldn’t be achievable without putting a romance on the page. Otherwise - imho - that romance is filler, unless you’re writing specifically for the smut, in which case I feel emotional vulnerability is even more important. (contrary to what I used to get told about writing M/f......)

I realise I’m only talking about romantic power dynamics here, rather than relationships to authority, familial dynamics etc., but my posts get long enough. You all have lives. Won’t someone think of the eyestrain??

So, rambling slowly back to the point and looking at my major current (fic) WIPs, I’ve got a variety of dynamics going on, but specifically:

The Tobias Hawke/Anders dynamic is pure codependency and melodrama... bc Tobias is kind of a mess, in the most relatable way. It’s two people with a fuckton of unresolved trauma, finding strength and fulfilment in their shared love and desire, their  shared goals and dreams, and a stability and familiarity neither of them have ever had elsewhere. Anders is (I hc) undone by people who let him be soft, give him a space to trust and breathe, and who listen to him; Tobias melts into a puddle of mush the moment he actually feels someone wants him, instead of what he can do for them, and he’s a completely hopeless romantic. Together, their future holds a lot of very emotional sex, and raining fiery destruction on Kirkwall, probably while kissing about it. 

No one’s ‘in control’ per se - there’s a lot of taking turns caretaking, a lot of wonky communication and second-guessing, but from places of uncertainty and the desire to protect. Though, it has to be said, Tobias is totally the type to be led around by the dick and have zero control over himself; it’s, uh, part of his arc? 

I love writing the Merien Tabris/Alistair romance, because it’s one that comes out of closeness born from support, respect, and both parties learning to see each other in new lights. To Alistair, Meri was a hopeless recruit whose tenacity surprised him, but what he falls for is her kindness (come on... it’s Alistair “my love language is words of affirmation” Theirin). To Meri, he’s the person that challenges her views of humans, her ideals and expectations of human society and nobility, among other things. She falls for him when she sees who he is, not what he’s been raised to be, and because of his loyalty and idealism. 

In terms of power dynamics, ofc he nudges her to lead and it falls very much into that lovely “badass woman supported by incredibly enthusiastic LI” trope, but so many scenes between them involve them soliciting each other’s opinions, talking out trauma and spitballing plans and oh my gods where do i get one. They’re experiencing so much for the first time - so many horriblethings, but also this sweet, tentative, adorkable romance - and doing it together, and that equality and supportive yet awkward stumbling is the kind of tooth-rotting fluff I love to include in between dark and grimy battlefield scenes and jokes about pickled eggs. 

So, in short, what I love above all else is a goofily sweet kind of dynamic that is supportive, equal, and pure... right up until it’s clear the characters have wrapped themselves up in each other so tightly that someone taking a trip to the bathroom is going to be like and amputation. 

The codependency and imperative to learn self-reliance adds spice!

i don’t think I’m even half-kidding at this point. 

#100daysofwriting #writeblurble #personal #long post