#but WITHOUT making him sympathetic!!

[57sfinest]

okay as a Jean Enjoyer i feel like i need to say this because there are different genres of jean enjoyment (jeanres if you will). i am of the faction where i don’t really vibe with the whole “jeangst” thing (as it exists as a fandom phenomenon) and here’s why. so much of the stuff i see labeled “jeangst” is WAY too sympathetic to and forgiving of jean for my taste. like he’s woobified or there’s a lot of uncritical ‘poor jean harry is so mean to him and now harry’s amnesia ruined his life :(’ type stuff which is such a fundamental misunderstanding of him and his role in harry’s past & present and it skews how we view his dynamic with harry too. and i don’t mean this as “oh considering jean’s pov is bad!!1!1″ no i consider his pov all the time i am indescribably mentally ill about the torment that the jeanharry relationship puts both jean and harry through. but when we consider his point of view i really think that just ascribing him the simple role of ‘poor depressed punching bag’ strips him of all the interesting parts of his character & also contributes to a less nuanced and accurate understanding of harry as well (it makes it easy to villainize him for his addiction and mental illness, which in and of themselves aren’t moral failings-- harry was a bad person for his behavior, which is not the same as his addiction or his illnesses)

like, jean put himself in this situation. over and over again. yes he was likely forced into working with harry, but whatever’s going on between them is more than a workplace conflict. you look at luiga’s twitter and he’s said so much about jean and harry’s codependency and the other mentions of a very close and very unhealthy personal relationship. you see the way jean talks about his own role vs harry’s in the ending-- jean WANTS to be the poor victim, he wants everyone to see him as the helpless punching bag who is being such a saint by Putting Up With Harry And His Bullshit, look at me, i’m so much better than this stupid mentally ill addict! he’s like harry you are so unprofessional, and there is something wrong with you, and we are all so tired of putting up with you and your shitty behavior, but here he is sitting in a hotel lobby in a wig to harass harry while harry is actually doing his job!! like jean my love here you are reaming harry out about “doing his fucking job” sir what are you doing!! you are sitting in a hotel looking angry for 14 hours just in case your special little partner who you are definitely sooo mad at condescends to speak to you for a few minutes!! and you dragged poor judit out here too!! jean. girl. babe. it’s time to admit you are a massive hypocrite with an even bigger victim complex. you, a mentally ill addict, are losing your shit at harry for being a mentally ill addict. why don’t you meaningfully address the actual behaviors instead of just reminding harry that he’s an alcoholic every 2 minutes.

like i’m not saying jean should have infinite patience for harry after multiple years of mistreatment but damn dude the double standards are insane. jean is instigating a messy public breakup and being pretty abusive the whole time and then he’s like everyone feel bad for ME and not STUPID HARRY who is an ALCOHOLIC in case anyone forgot. he goes on and on about how much his life sucks and how much harry sucks and boohoo poor him he’s so depressed and beaten down by the shitkid etc but then in ANY sub-ideal ending you get there’s still something that tells you that he’s still taking harry back or at least considering it. in the cuno ending “he can’t leave you behind. he just can’t. one final time...” even in the worst ending “if you make it-- if you’re sober for 10 months-- tell us. i’ll work with you again.” jean babe if you hate him so much then stay the fuck away from him!! damn!! your codependency is showing!! your victim complex is showing!! just go get harry’s name tattooed on you at this point like at the very least it might get you some sympathy from people at the bar when they ask about what’s very clearly an Ex’s Name Tattoo

#this got out of hand. sorry #anyway yeah i disagree with 'jeangst' on principle because it's too nice to jean basically #you can be sympathetic to his point of view without being a Jean Apologist or completely erasing his role in a mutually abusive dynamic #i love to think about how much this whole situation hurts him. and i love to think about how a lot of it is his fault #it's so much more interesting for him to be a participant in his own victimhood #he's standing there goading harry into punching him and then he gets punched and is like HOW DARE YOU PUNCH ME!! #well sir you see if you tape a sign on your forehead that says kick me then eventually you are going to be kicked. #the jeanharry relationship as a form of self harm for both parties involved etc etc #using each other to punish themselves etc etc #just enough good in it to keep them going. just enough bad to make it bitter the whole way through. the push and pull of addiction etc etc #see a return to jean/harry partnership after martinaise would be so funny #jean tries to provoke harry says some shitty stuff etc and harry just like. starts crying or having a panic attack or whatever #and jean is like hold on this makes ME look like the bad guy. come on quick hit me. come on say something mean. call me a slur. please #or maybe harry goes right back to being an asshole depending on ur guy. and nothing ever changes and they hurt each other for ever and ever #until they succumb to the inevitable murder-suicide #kiwipost #jv meta #jean vicquemare #I HATE THIS GUY *beating him with one of those carpet dust racket things*

[michaeljoncarter]

the way they just slapped teen titans cartoon slade into the comics with next to zero consideration for the fact that comics slade was a completely different character with a completely different history and still to this DAY, despite most people thinking he was & dc themselves treating him like he's always been this weird titans final boss in comics canon, have never done anything to like… retcon & make his actual history reflect it.. is so fucking funny to me

post-tt03, all the og titans are running around yelling about how they've been having to fight deathstroke for YEARS and how he just won't leave them alone and omg he's like sooooo obsessed with us guys, really. but then you go back and try to actually find when any of this happened, and it's just like [footage not found]

#slade wilson #and if you're reading chronologically it's like everyone suddenly starts experiencing some sort of mass hallucination #the way all of ntt history falls apart without joey...... pleaseee put him back im literally begging #obv he was a villain after tt03 but i'm talking about the way it's made to seem like he kept coming after them post-judas contract #when the original judas contract ends w him basically looking directly into the camera & saying it wasn't personal #being like 'i hope we never see each other again' #and then fucking off to kenya for 10 years #and then in rebirth it... didn't even happen. & he's now canonically exchanged all of like 3 words total with every titan combined #but for some reason is still being written like the titans final boss in canon. hello #nd TO BE VERY CLEAR this is not me coming out as a deathstroke defender or saying i prefer the 90s weird sympathetic anti-hero slade #he works way better as a more morally bankrupt villain imo but like... make it make sense... please... a crumb of effort thats all i ask

[aquaquadrant]

"Just some kid"

I'm frothing at the mouth,, did,, did Animosity 'Timmy' / 'Not Jimmy' Gaming just risk his skin to inadvertently protect Bravo from someone else's prying questions?

Did he just lie about something major in which he stood to gain nothing?

Did his fib inadvertently buy Bravo years by dispelling Atlas's suspicions?

I am crying. I am sobbing. I love my pathetic crowfood boy. Your writing is phenomenal and I am blinking back tears.

[Also, I can ALMOST feel bad for Atlas and that is,, gods,, it's always such a treat finding antagonists that perfectly toe the line of being easy and enjoyable to hate whilst also striking borderline empathy at times. I pity and hate him and want to call him babygorl and sucker punch him in the gut. Brilliant.]

you have NO IDEA how happy i was to see ppl picking up on that!! timmy having that little shred of kindness, of selflessness, and trying to protect bravo ended up drastically altering the events of the au- for better or for worse, as y’all will soon find out 👀

#hels to pay au #HTP ask #thank u so much i’m glad you enjoyed it!! #atlas was so much fun to write- to humanize him without trying to make him too sympathetic or ‘misunderstood’

[sunieepo]

THEY DONT KNOW IT'S AYIN

(instead of doing it in the tags/replies i'm just going to start posting every time i see a THEY DONT KNOW ITS AYIN post that is very much about ayin even though THEY DONT KNOW ITS AYIN)

#also this post is gehrman to me. #i hate when ppl try to make his feelings about maria less unsavory. #i think you should let him be creepy and weird and manic #if you're going to like his character you should like all of it. #and not ignore the parts of him that complicate him. #im a gehrman enjoyer btw! #im just also a maria enjoyer and a bloodborne lorehead atp #and for me his Maria Thing is kind of his one strictly negative quality...? #without it he's kind of largely a sympathetic victim of circumstance and i find that a bit boring. #i have a lot of headcanons about his Maria Thing and if i ever felt like writing fanfic again #tbh my n.1 interest would be to write a piece about gehrman / laurence / maria #their whole dynamic and what i think of it. anyways

[curioscurio]

Most of my sinus infection has cleared up besides the occasional cough and irritated throat but now this ear infection.... everything hurts can I please have a break before I have to go back to work just a day without pain so I can clean up my sicknest without feeling like ass

#i live with my parents but my mom is having a horrible flair up of RA so she's bedbound and can't help me at all and dad is the only one #the only one working atm so he's not doing anything besides that #its just a little frustrating because whenever mom is sick from her flare ups or if dad gets the sniffles im like #I'm like what can i do for you are you comfortable do you need anything can i make you food let me clean up etc #but when i go down for 3 days of being visibly miserable everything i ask is the world #ask dad to pick up my perscription but god forbid i ask him to do any other task on the way home that involves making 2 SEPARATE LOCATIONS #ita fine hes just. idk #plus mom has her RA flare up and idk #it just feels like nobody in this house is particularly sympathetic when im feeling miserable but im ALWAYS sympathetic when they are #the first 2 days i was doing nothing but sleeping or rolling in pain in my room and no one came to check in on me to see how i was doing #then yesterday my mom says shes taking us both into urgent care but leaves without me in the morning when i was too sick to wake up when she #called for me. #she was like I just really was in so much pain and you didnt get up and i wanted to go asap and i called you #anyway so because i was so sick i couldnt wake up i had to drive myself to urgent care which is also fine im a big boy #anyway. circumstances or whatever. im also real salty bc ive felt like shit for like 4 days

[loveakii]

STOP FUCKING LOOKING AT HIM. DON’T LOOK

#the ​patriarchy: man on man crime #THEYRE JUDGING HIM SO HARD I CAN FEEL IT #i feel like lukas is sympathetic bc of his own dad’s death but is still like ‘shame on him for showing that in front off all these ppl’ #the shots of the crowd make me wanna bleach my eyes bc only caroline is looking at him without disappointment #FAWK #i have to go read ooc romelukas fics now to cope #roman roy #lukas matsson #jeryd mencken #succession #church and state #succession 4x9 #mine #YEAH UM HEY I WAS JUST THINKING DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU ASKED ME WHEN MY DAD WAS GONNA DIE??

[robocops-a-christ-allegory]

you know how John Carpenter said Michael Myers was inspired by when he like visited a mental hospital once for class and he saw a teenage patient just sitting there looking kind of scary because he was spaced out. I kind of think about that alot

#villains being mentally ill or disabled is everywhere obviously but slasher villains like #are even more often mentally ill and/or disabled I feel like. Like Jason Leatherface Freddy Kruger Michael Myers Obviously #Like guys who have mental illness or mental disabilities or like. just have burn scars #I was gonna say maniac cop like maniac cops a iconic slasher but he counts too #Guy from Prom Night. Guy from Maniac #I think its a little complicated too because like alot of the time it is also to make them more sympathetic #like Jason. Leatherface. Prom Night guy. theyre all mentally ill as part of their sad backstory basically #or like their Understandable Motivation. Harry Warden Bloody Valentine's another one #Also Angela from sleepaway camp whos also transmisognyistic #Though I dont think this actually makes it any better or anything to be clear I just know its also like 'but its also sad!!!' #The funnier side of this is that guy who got like the character description for Jason without knowing who he was and #did a bunch of like in depth research to sensitively play him and then he found out he was in like Friday the 13th part 1000 #but yeah anyway. I think about this stuff alot sorry.

[oedipushansen]

im so angry about how the deh novel has made ppl think zoe just lied about connor abusing her . so many parts of the novel just suck so bad

#not only is ''she lied about him abusing her'' a very weird thing to change about the musical where he canonically did abuse her #it also just goes against zoe's whole character & is a very uninteresting way to look at their relationship #it's like the author didn't know how to write connor to be sympathetic without making him A Good Guy #don't even get me started on how badly they fucked up writing evan himself #txt

[4thbrighteststar]

</3

#no wait listen to me. listen to me #im south asian. my grandparents were muslim. my great aunt and uncle and their children and my parents siblings are all muslim #my parents aren't. they raised us without any religion. without even our national cultural ceremonies tied to islam #dont let yourself believe for a fucking second that has nothing to do 9/11 happening two years before i was born. two years before we moved #im south asian. my dad's first name is mohammed. when we catch a flight we get to the airport two hours earlier- #to account for the time it'll take my dad to be 'routinely stopped and searched' by airport security #routinely is right lmfao. it happens every time we fly #last time i was on an american airlines flight our checked luggage ended up across the continent and took two days to get to us #(my 12yo cousin gifted us an alarm clock that made an ominous ticking noise and we couldn't shut it the fuck up- #the luggage was labeled mohammed and coming from south asia. my sibling jokes it's a wonder we got it back) #im canadian. i cried my ass off to cfa tonight bc of how touching the story of a small town coming together to help a group of strangers is #(can't help thinking that never would've happened in a bigger city? but thereby lies another tale) #and god normally i hate 9/11 stories bc it feels like two sides of my identity being pitted against each other and it makes me so uncomfy #like as a canadian i should be sympathetic towards the states and at the same time im viscerally aware of the lasting prejudiced impacts #but cfa did it so beautifully #will never get over the 'thorough search' scene. 'you will never understand'. #the lump in my throat i get every time I watch my normally distinguished and tough and coolheaded father be pushed through airport security #how resigned he is to it. how he tries to stay dignified. how scared my mom gets every time. how rough they are with him #when he usually commands respect #and yet also the pride and the lump in my throat i got today knowing it was a little canadian town that made a difference #sigh enough out of me i just have a lot of feelings #come from away #team screams

[leatherbookmark]

actually i have discovered the only true and correct reading of md/zs: wgxn are the true Evil Men of mdzs. just look at how they’re dealing with lxc post-guanyin

#'how' = not at all. #it's almost unbelievable how little wwx cares about lxc now that the whole case is over #it's just a fun puzzle for him to solve which isn't necessarily a criticism of him as a character because boy howdy do i Know that he's not #some kinda bleeding heart. but he just... basically explains everything at the end like a triumphant detective in a classic mystery novel #and you have lxc. having JUST found out that jgy was Obviously provoked into violence and that the only reason he went to the temple #instead of making a beeline to the nearest port was to pick up his mother's remains. he's heartbroken and confused #and even the narration is almost cruel in its 'well if jgy's best friend doesn't know then how could the others know?' and then wwx goes #'welp! gotta call people and take care of this coffin mess i think!' #AND THEN wgxn just casually decide not to reveal the VITAL (for lxc) information about jgy to him. because it would make him look #sympathetic. just tell him if he asks lz! i'm soooo tired of this bullshit u_u #what is he supposed to ask about you soggy banana. 'hey didi is there something you didn't tell me about jgy?' like this? like this? #bastards BASTARDS i say. and then they go on to fuck in the bushes without hearing the boring and annoying gossip from the jianghu! #brother? ah forget him. wwx's butt won't fuck itself we've got a busy day ahead #hashtag wgxn hateposting i do what i want it's my blog #like. i understand Dignity and stuff and lwj probably couldn't and wasn't even the type to hug his brother in public and go 'there there' #but he doesn't. he doesn't do a thing. at all #the only thing he says to lxc is 'jgy's killing intent.' that's it. at least in cql he leads him out of the temple and #physically supports him. here? nothing. lxc is repeatedly described as 'not realizing what had happened' 'lost in thought' 'startled' #and even 'in normal circumstances zewu-jun would have immediately understood it'. he is Mentally Unwell. but that's his problem because #he liked the guy we decided was a villain. 😬 #shut up shrimp #(i know the bushes of love didn't happen /immediately/ post-guanyin (imagine that though.) but they're fucking haunting me)

[ultra-creepy-fucker-things]

Pythor: I hate humans because when I was a young man, they rounded up all the serpentine and locked us in tombs, we had to eat each other to survive.

Kalmaar: Fuck the surface dwellers, the land belongs to the sea!

#look at this unreasonable genocide victim #mad because we murdered his family or whatever #without examining the #pythor ninjago #ninjago kalmaar #in terms of motive Pythor is certainly more sympathetic #its down to you if Kalmaar being an rich entitled asshole is an improvement #considering you were probably supposed to be horrified by Pythors cannibolism and not sympathetic to the situation that made him do it #seabound is probably better #its probably a less questionable villain origin story too #you don't want to say wait... we murdered his family #doesn't that make us the bad guys?" #aspect of it #and maybe even coming to the conclusion that he maybe had a point #or at least a damn good reason to be mad

[obstinaterixatrix]

to some this would be considered an ant bagel rec so I’m sticking it under the cut

I’m gonna preface this rec with it’s college professor/college student, so skip if that’s a hard pass, but never good enough did have me rereading it like three times immediately after finishing it. basically the main character was in a long term relationship with a guy but gets dumped and then runs into his ex’s younger brother who starts grilling him about the relationship. mc gets pissed off and goes like Actually I Was The One Who Dumped Your Brother and has to deal with the consequences of his petty lie.

I think what drew me into it despite being a dynamic I typically avoid is I ended up enjoying how everyone kind of sucks, especially with the crux of the series ends up being

I think the reason I keep rotating this one in my head is because that theme of ‘this unpleasant side is why we ended up together’ is really interesting with how the younger brother’s framed by his family. the framing they push is ‘he’s nuts he’s a freak we had to send him away because he’s a wacko’ but it’s pretty intuitive to grasp what messed up family dynamics are reinforcing that framing and how he’s scapegoated. to some extent it’s frustrating because there is. SO much going on with messed up family dynamics that are Right There that don’t quite get the focus, but at the same time it makes sense within the scope of the narrative. it’s kind of more about laying down very obvious breadcrumbs and then pivoting to ‘yeah you get it, anyway on with the story.’ it’s like… even though it’s not textual, it’s easy for me to read it as hints of more unpalatable mental health stuff handled with a surprising type of sympathy, though I’m not sure that’s what someone else would get from it.

#recs #mm recs #okay it’s like. the ex swoops in like My Brother Is Dangerous #and when the mc learns about why ex is freaked out by his bro mc is like. well yeah that was weird and drastic but also… #I’m just gonna ask him what was up with that #and he hears it and the vibe is like yep weird and drastic but kinda makes sense with your family being Like That #okay like. it gets to be weird and drastic without being waved away or mitigated #but still sympathetic #it subverts the *~Creepy Child~* narrative by contextualizing it without normalizing it #there’s a lot of places where I think this series could’ve been pushed to be betrer #but theres still something about it I can’t help but circle around #well sometimes you’re in the mood to read about guys who kinda suck and are terrible

[kurokoros]

I literally did not say anyone is a bad person for liking Billy or for their interpretation of him but go off I guess.

I do, however, think you’re obnoxious for trying to argue with me on my meta of the show and then continuing to argue after I very politely told you to fuck off or I’d block you.

#i said stans woobify him more than canon implies #and canon did a poor job with billy's character jumping from S2 to S3 #because the narrative tries to make him more sympathetic without him actually having to interact with the characters he hurt in S2 #and this isn't exclusive to billy #i adore steve and I still think his writing in S3 is garbage and have issues with some fanon interpretations

[luxraydyne]

tbh my immediate discomfort and reservation at aitsf fandom broadly mocking chikara’s ugliness and “unnaturally huge forehead” with such relish made sense once i realised his character design is a caricature of people with dwarfism/growth disorders

#ig it makes sense when aitsf as a text despite or because of having disability as a primary theme #is so self contradictory and selective when it comes to ableism and which are good disabilties and which are ripe for scorn and mockery #that a large portion of its fanbase would also shake out being choosy wrt which aspects of disability are sympathetic #and which are just fair game to take the piss #the fact that chikara is so flatly cartoonishly evil doesn't change anything #like it's easy to understand wanting some sort of catharsis for the way this character is reported to treat vulnerable and disabled kids #there's so much else abt him to poke fun at. even if the game itself wants you to laugh at the way it's presented his body #have some imagination #obvs theres a vast and storied precedent of fiction treating disability as a free for all when it comes to obviously villainous characters #but aitsf's efforts to preach morals abt disability and ableism when it wants to makes this case more weird and pronounced #aitsf spoilers #aini spoilers #not really tbh but whatever #'but it's not meant like that its meant to be symbolic...' doesn't matter #if you still cant write disability properly and without being weirdly ableist your 'physical disability as metaphor' card is expired

[scare-ard--sleigh]

AND ALSO like yes infidelity is bad, do not do it, especially if you're a minister for fuck's sake but ahchddjej everyone made it sound like joseph and robert were fucking on the reg to the point where they were basically secretly together when it was. one night lmao.

#dream daddyblogging #like come ON . #i guess you could say that its possible joseph's full of shit when he says it was one night but given that its not referenced again that's #doubtful from a storytelling perspective. you can't embed lies in your story without providing some way for the reader to know they're lies #and judging from the fact that if dadsona fucks robert one (1) time you can't romance him; im inclined to believe j about it anyway #im sorry for being so annoying about this i just shdjdakdkdhdj its so hard to find content that doesnt villainize joseph when #i think it's actually more interesting to assume the most generous interpretation here. #but i am also a big sucker for characters who are convinced it's all circumstance when really they're making a mess of everything #and i also feel like so many people see infidelity and automatically assume that means the person doing it must not be #sympathetic or likeable AT ALL when reality is a lot more grey than that but that's not a discussion im willing to open #the christiansen mess

[malhare]

Cyrus is right and everyone is in denial.

SAY THAT SHIT ANON 👏👌💯

#In all seriousness though I suppose it depends on which you'd rather have: #Self determination and emotion or complete peace and lack of conflict? #Cyrus' envisioned 'perfect world' would lack any form of strife; But at the cost of 'spirit'. At what makes us ourselves essentially #Cyrus wants a world where people are more akin to machines. 'Perfect' but without what arguably makes us human #It's a very interesting thing to think about. He truly did think that what he wanted would be best for everyone #In Cyrus' mind he's the hero. He's altruistic. Which makes him fascinating and sympathetic #Cyrus #asks