#but also i get it like its not the fault of this feminist from the 70s that freud is the most prevelant voice

[rosietrace]

This is a personal rant about my thoughts on Greek mythology retellings, and just the way Fantasy books and the publishing industry is at this point 🧍‍♀️

I have nothing against Greek mythology retellings, or just anything Greek mythology related in fantasy in general!

However, I have certain gripes about the way Greek mythology is portrayed in media, specifically in the way its interpreted in Fantasy.

[ More under the cut! ]

I love Percy Jackson, and I think that Uncle Rick did a wonderful job at expanding the world and making Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Norse mythology entertaining and easily digestible for young audiences. Genuinely, he does a better job at writing children's books than R*wling could ever be capable of.

However, as much as I can love PJO as much as I do, I still find certain bits of the world building and character writing as... Very hit and miss.

To start, I don't like the way Ares was written in the series. I can understand that it would make sense for his personality to be that way, because he's the God of War and it helps with Clarisse's character development; but I find fault in it because Ares in the myths is nothing like PJO Ares. (He literally killed one of Poseidon's sons because he raped his daughter, Alcippe, and he's one of the only gods who doesn't hump anything that can breathe in air. At least Ares has the courtesy of asking for consent 💀)

The Gods being the reason behind WWII and Hitler being a child of Hades. All I must say.

The portrayal of the Aphrodite cabin

The fact that Athena can have children. Annabeth, pjo fandom at large, I love you are, but you gotta admit it must've felt weird when you first read the books and you find out Athena — the maiden Goddess of Wisdom — can have offspring. Regardless of the reasoning, I still find it weird 😭 (EDIT: I've now just remembered that it was a reference to how Athena herself was created 🤡 I'm a clown)

I get that the Hermes cabin is also the cabin for the unclaimed, but couldn't have Hestia's cabin worked too? She doesn't have offspring, sure, but it probably would've made more sense for the unclaimed to go to Hestia's cabin so that the Hermes cabin wouldn't be so crowded

This isn't really a world building issue, but I think I should bring it up: I'm not saying this against the Kane Chronicles fandom, but... Sadie and Anubis. Why. Like you can't convince me that no one WASN'T weirded out by that.

Less of a complaint and more of a question because I can't remember if the question was answered in HoO or not, but when Percy told the Gods to start claiming their unclaimed children and be more decent parents (as he should, go off king), did that request apply to the Romans at Camp Jupiter too? Because that's gotta have been confusing when the unclaimed kids at CP suddenly started getting claimed 😭😭

I could go on a whole ass tangent about PJO, but that would make this post longer than it needs to be 😭😭 and any of the points might not make much sense, since I haven't read the books in a LONG time

Off to the YA Fantasy segment... Hoo boy.

The oversaturation of Hades/Persephone retellings makes me SEETHE. Why is it always Hades and Persephone why can't it be something else 😭

I just don't like the “modern feminist” retellings of Greek myths in the YA Fantasy genre, in general. They tend to completely miss the point of the original myth, and it's the case with a lot of Hades and Persephone retellings where they try to paint Hades as the good guy taking Persephone away from her control freak mother, Demeter.

Because that wasn't what the myth was about. The myth isn't a love story, at least, not a romantic one. It was about Demeter's love for Persephone and how much she wanted her daughter back after Hades stole her away. Keep in mind, in the historical context of the myth, the daughters of women in ancient Greece never really get to see their mothers after their engagements are solidified.

If they wanted to make a “feminist” retelling of the myth, they'd have it centered around the love Demeter had for Persephone to almost doom the mortal realm to an eternal winter to get her back.

I love the myth of Hades and Persephone, truly, I do. I understand the appeal it has on people, the appeal it has one me. I can see why people adore the myth in the way they do because Hades is one of the better husbands in Greek mythology (a low bar, but my point still stands).

Personally, I blame Lore Olympus and especially the video of the myth by Overly Sarcastic Productions for the way the myth is portrayed in mass media. And I say this as a former LO fan and a fan of Overly Sarcastic Productions 😭

I'd also want to go into my many, MANY gripes about “Crown of Starlight” by Cait Corrain, but in all honesty? I don't think I can properly convey how much I DESPISE Cait and their book. So I'd highly recommend y'all to check out the videos about Cait Corrain by Reads With Rachel, WithCindy, and Xiran Jay Zhao on YouTube if you're interested in going into more detail about the controversies, especially for those who weren't made aware of it.

I feel like the publishing industry just... Isn't good anymore, after Booktok went viral. Reading has been “hot girlified”, and all Booktok seems to ask when they get recommended a book is: “Is it spicy??”

Reading is like fast fashion, now. It's all based around certain popular tropes that that's how books are promoted now. Not for the plot — or sometimes lack thereof — but for the tropes the book has.

The only thing I can thank Booktok for is that they helped me discover The Cruel Prince. And even then, it's marketed as romance on there, when it's a political fantasy with a romance subplot.

‼️ Woah! A secret bonus section! ‼️

I, personally, don't read — nor do I like — Sarah J Maas. (Especially considering the problematic aspects of her storytelling, character portrayals, and is (apparently, correct me if I'm wrong) a Zionist)

However, that isn't to say that I don't like some of the characters she makes. A lot of them have potential, actually! From what I've seen, I think Nesta, Gwyn, Azriel, Eris, Tamlin and Lucien from ACOTAR are the only characters I actually like, based on what I've heard — and seen — on anything in the SJM critical tag on this hellsite.

And while we're at it, let's discuss the elephant in the room with ACOTAR, right? Rhysand.

By all that is good and holy, I hate Rhysand so much and I think I'd hate him even more if I actually READ the books. I don't get why Booktok is so invested in him when Maas retconned Tamlin's character to make him look better as Feyre's love interest.

Also, from what I recall, didn't Rhysand sexually assault Feyre? And he didn't bother to apologize for it, and justified it with his sad tragic backstory??

I can't with y'all, istg 😭 the fact that “Feysand” is apparently a Hades and Persephone retelling too makes me even more mad about it because it isn't even a GOOD retelling. It just takes away what ACOTAR originally was— a Beauty and the Beast retelling, with Feyre and Tamlin as the leads.

Didn't Maas dedicate ACOTAR to her husband because “He would go under the mountain” for her??? BECAUSE IT CERTAINLY WASN'T RHYSAND WHO SAVED FEYRE FROM UTM, I'LL TELL YOU THAT

I think, out of all the series Maas has made thus far, Throne of Glass is the only one I ACTUALLY kind of like, based on what I've heard. Crescent City seems to be too complicated to understand, and even though I've never read it myself, I miss what ACOTAR could've been. (My hope lies with Nesta, Elucien and Gwynriel, at this point)

#rosie is rambling 💀 #rosie rambles #booktok #anti booktok #anti sjm #pjo #rick riordan #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #tog #throne of glass #acotar #acotar critical #pro nesta #pro gwynriel #anti lore olympus #lore olympus #anti rhysand #anti feysand #pro feylin #the hot girlification of reading #crown of starlight #sjm critical #book rant #its ranting time

[pinkeoni]

Trying to read an article/essay/book about film/literature theory especially in regards to gender:

#hes everywhere!! i cant escape him!! #but sometimes hes right which makes it worse #but also i get it like its not the fault of this feminist from the 70s that freud is the most prevelant voice #in psychoanalytics esp in regards to gender and the subconscious #but sometimes i wish he wasnt #film posting #film theory

[mythsandheather]

What I hate the most about LO is that Rachel is making the romance between actual gods backward. Aphrodite and Hephaestus were a couple but Aphrodite found him repulsing so she cheated on him with Ares. Even after that cheating on Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite were the only sane couple in Greek myths. Apollo had his fair share of lovers (if you exclude Daphne) with him being in love with BOTH male and female and how does Rachel do justice to his character? By making him a R*****

The saga of Ares, Aphrodite and Hephaestus is often terribly misunderstood and LO is no exception, except that she weaponises it in her narrative and portrays it arguably at its worst.

The original story of these three is often stripped down to the bare basics along the lines of either “star-crossed lovers and ugly loser dude who got in their way” or “bad slutty woman cheats on poor helpless (but still ugly loser) dude with angry frat bro” and it’s wild. It’s a story, at least how I see it, about love, pain and compromise for what you need for yourself.

Hephaestus is hurt, angry and traumatised by his parents abuse of him, specifically Hera, and so he traps her in his specially made throne. He has a point to make and for the first time in his life, he will not be ignored.

Aphrodite is offered as the prize for freeing Hera, without her consent, and so is also hurt, worried and angry, especially when Hephaestus wins her hand. She is handed off to a man she barely knows, let alone loves, and can’t do anything about it

Ares is both not strong to free his mother, nor able to keep the woman he adores from being handed off to someone else — his own brother, no less, and has to just sit and watch. He is humiliated, he is hurt, he is angry.

The retelling I like the most is from Stephen Fry’s Mythos, where Aphrodite and Ares are already engaged when the throne incident happens, Zeus assuring them that surely since Ares is the strongest, he’ll be the one to free Hera. Even Zeus is humanised. Aphrodite’s hand being offered is him making a rash decision to motivate the other gods out of his desperation to free his wife.

When Hephaestus arrives and frees Hera, it’s not what anyone expected and Hephaestus makes it very clear that he’s not doing this to get the girl, so much as to make it clear he’s a force to be reckoned with.

He had Aphrodite seperate shortly after their marriage and she goes on her way with Ares while Hephaestus goes about his work, now with the respect he wanted for his craftsmanship. Ares, Aphrodite and Hephaestus are all on relatively amicable terms as later stories unfold too, especially compared to the fighting of the other gods.

In some versions, Dionysus intervenes and convinces Hephaestus with some alcohol both to free Hera and not to pursue Aphrodite, and Hephaestus agrees.

Now, you might be looking at all this and thinking “wow, what a nuanced tale and what a mature way everyone ended up handling it! Everyone here is flawed yet you like and relate to all of them! Surely this would make a great adaptation for a ‘feminist retelling’!” You’d be wrong.

Ares is a douchey dudebro who is obsessed with Persephone cuz reasons and exists to say every oversexualised, gross, objectifying thought Rachel herself has while drooling over her self insert but can’t make Hades say cuz he’s supposed to be a gentleman.

Aphrodite is a petty caricature of influencers and Kim Kardashian and her hyper sexualised nature is a bad thing and entirely her own fault when something bad happens to her. She’s also purple. I will never not be mad about Aphrodite not being pink.

She and Ares break up because -insert slut-shaming, not like the other girls logic to defend Persephone- here and she marries Hephaestus.

Hephaestus is set dressing, at best. Every cool attribute he has is stolen and given to Hades and instead of being ugly due to injury or physical deformity and this being a source of how mistreated he is, he’s just…black-coded and with prosthetic legs. If that made you slightly uncomfortable, it should.

Speaking of minorities being taken, chewed up and spat out by Lore Olympus, that brings us to Apollo. Poor, poor Apollo. One of the most beloved and influential of the Theoi, literally unrecognisable and reduced to being the self-insert’s r*pist because, you guessed it, reasons.

Let me add to all the people saying it, because it needs to be repeated; APOLLO DID NOT ASSAULT PERSEPHONE IN THE MYTHS OR ANYWHERE EXCEPT LORE OLYMPUS.

I know it’s probably not intended to be homophobic how Apollo is treated in LO, but fuck it, that’s how it smells to me, so that’s what I call it.

Every character, every relationship, every story serves to boost the Rachel x Mads fapfic Persephone and Hades love story and it’s nasty. How the fuck are you gonna call yourself a folklorist and do this?

#antiloreolympus #lo critical #lore olympus critical #lo criticism #anti lore olympus #lore olympus criticism

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 3

Propaganda Under Cut

Uraraka Ochaco

she is absolutely a victim of yaoi. let her have her crush and let her be a person BEYOND HER FEELINGS FOR ONE MAN!!!!!!!!!! SHE IS A WONDERFUL HERO! AND HAS AN INTRICATE PERSONALITY BEYOND IZUKU! 

One of Midoriya “Deku” Izuku’s first friends (the first real one, to be exact), training to be a hero alongside the rest of her class. Despite her character arc and evolution of goals, which tie in strongly with the themes of the series, fans view her as an “obstacle” because of her canonical crush on Izuku. As a result, fan works pairing Izuku with a guy minimize the positive impact she’s had on his life and diminish her role, with some even demonizing her and turning her into a jealous bitch to justify Izuku not dating her. The simple possession of a crush has lead to her being overlooked and mistreated by the fandom, such as the common take she’s had no growth since the obtainment of her crush (feelings she actively pushes to the side as to not possibly create a distraction from her goals). These takes are accompanied by claims her character solely revolves around Izuku, ignoring the fact that many other guy characters have their characters revolve around him, some even more than her. 

Shes literally so fucking cool and passionate and she has a genuinely interesting place in the setting and YET she is constantly sidelined by both the show and the fandom in favor of her canonical love interest/main character and i'm going to be mad about it forever. 90% of the time is should she date the MC, or just that shes "a queen" or "a girlboss". Bc who cares about her growing up in poverty or her relationship with her parents or interest in rescue work? All that matters is that shes not a threat to YOUR favorite MLM ship but dw! Its still feminist because she can punch people <3

Sakura Haruno

Her husband is gay and her author doesn't know how to write women. So many people say she's the worst but she. DESERVES. BETTER!!! Save her from this franchise.

My baby girl my bestie my best friend. She committed the crime of um being written by kishimoto who both doesn’t know how to write women and somehow writes men in the gayest way possible specifically naruto and sasuke. Like the thing is naruto and sasuke ARE gay and also she gets so much hate for the crime of kishimoto writing her one dimensionally in love with sasuke. I know her personally she is a butch lesbian to me just trust me she’s in love with Ino and has a lesbian thing going on with Karin okay just trust me. My everything. She needs to divorce the loveless lavender marriage she’s in 

What is there to say, even? The OG Threat to my 90s anime brain, the only woman I've ever hated with such a passion she made me turn away from the color pink. I used to write fics with my friend where she got left behind on purpose so our OCs could join the Naruto and Sasuke team instead. I loathed this bitch until I was 16 and realized the author simply couldnt write women and decided it was time to make peace with Sakura. It is not her fault she's vaguely written and obsessive over Sasuke. She deserves better. Sasuke and Naruto still should be together and Sakura shouldnt be with Sasuke but I no longer believe this because I hate Sakura, it is because I love her. She deserves a spouse who will actually put in the time to treat her like the hero she is.

#yes those are the fortnite skins #i took those pictures myself #i've been waiting for this match up just so i could use those pictures #round 3 #poll #uraraka ochacho #ochako uraraka #bnha #my hero academia #sakura haruno #naruto

[aristotels]

The fact that Hillary Clinton is still with us, writing think pieces and touring TV studios doing genocidal propaganda to keep mass killing civilians in Gaza is so incredibly repugnant, which she justifies by repeating debunked atrocity propaganda about Hamas masss raping women. The same Hillary Clinton who said to women and girls saying Biden’s physical behavior made them uncomfortable to “get over it”, the same Hillary Clinton who refuse to believe the women who accuse her husband of rape and sexual assault (just like the vast majority of Dems voters and liberal “feminists”) and rejects Bill Clinton-Brett Kavanaugh comparisons, the same Hillary Clinton who was slammed by child rape victim, Kathy Shelton, saying that she cannot forgive her for defending her rapist in court and how Clinton has yet to express sympathy for the plight she went through as a victim.

hillary is one of my absolutely most hated politicians lmfao. and people still have gal to say "its non-voters fault she didnt win!!!" like good that she didnt, the girl was willing to enter a new war w russia in 2016, i legit couldnt handle seeing all those memes and discourse back then. why should i prioritize yankee comfort over my own safety and safety of my fellow slavs. and unlike w ukraine, she was willing to start an actual USA-rus war, not "just" a proxy one.

she is a cunt, she is a vile and horrible person, and the fact anyone on this site could support her is wild to me.

p.s. btw biden was the same and this wouldve been easy for anyone to see if they pulled their heads out of their ass. i was going insane when the conflict was stewing and both ukrainian and russian officials were trying to negotiate peace while biden was coming out every day with "i have information russia will start war tomorrow at 00:00" and such bullshit (and it didnt fucking happen, not a single time, until it did, not without his help). in hindsight it was easy to see hes a genocidal maniac but it was also easy to see it from the first moment

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Propaganda why Alex Eagleston is insufferable:

literally causes the end of the world by being The Absolute Worst and has done so multiple times including his alternate selves. he technically has three (and a half) love interests (cause theyre the only characters he can/attempt to kiss or express any attraction to) and he treats them all poorly first three vella sammy and essentia 2000 are cause hes a misogynist but they all get different flavors of it sammy gets fridged for the plot of the game and is basically never relevant again outside of a secret(?) ending. shes also based off of a real life dead person for no fucking reason. vella is subjected to weird speculation about her age in her introduction scene with alex saying something along the lines of she cant be older than him cause shes too pretty (alex is like 24 and vella 27 from what i recall its been a few years since ive thought about yiik) and has a weird internal monologue about his feminist ex girlfriend prompted by vella just existing. theres a weird scene when alex asks her if shes korean n says she looks vaguely ethnic making her uncomfortable. One Of His Alternate Selves Literally Caused Her To Leave Her Home Dimension Cause Of How Poorly He Treated Her and the context behind that is that to leave the world/timeline/dimension/whatever you're originally from you basically have to be super suicidal and he pushed her to that point by ghosting her for a while and next time vella saw him he was hooking up with a girl noticably younger than her (<- remember this) and immediately after being told this he can attempt to kiss her which has no actual repercussions. essentia 2000 is like technically supposed to be evil i guess but her goal is supposed to be killing alex so i cant fault her on that. the in game day after they first meet alex has like a monologue about how special and attractive she is ""she was like water filling all my cracks"" or some shit. all three girls are alternates of eachother and are on a sliding scale of how objectified they are by alex with who got it the worst depending on which aspect you're focusing on. other sort of love interest is rory (diversity loss!) who alex can attempt to kiss after he confides in him about something when rory is like 18-19 (hes meant to be about the same age as michael whos recently graduated high school) and depending on how alex treats him can literally kill himself and alex's reaction to learning this is to only focus on how terrible he feels before moving on n rory's death never being mentioned again. the whole point of the game is that alex is a piece of shit who cant even buy groceries for his mom without throwing a hissy fit about it but it undermines itself constantly by having characters forgive or just stop being mad at alex on a dime after hes been exceedingly shitty towards them in various ways and any sort of charm or endearing traits he had quickly wearing off due to him never shutting the fuck up. near the end of the game all the other party members are killed off in quick succession leaving alex by himself and all he can do is sulk in self pity before going on a space adventure or whatever to stop an alternate him thats linked to an alternate essentia and enlisting the player as a different alternate him to help fight various superficial flaws of himself (which arent even like the actual things that make him insufferable n a bad person) n then finish the job for him. i need to punt him into the sun

He constantly goes on annoying monologues about things that nobody cares about. In game he is meant to be kind of an asshole, but they never give him the necessary character development to make him feel like a proper flawed protagonist, yet the narrative makes him out to be a character who is ""deep down a good guy"". Also he doesn't seem to care about any of his friends/party members.

"""YIIK"" is a poorly written, irony-poisoned RPG using a real life actual unsolved murder as the basis for an inciting event, altered so that what happened to the victim was some ~scary supernatural stuff~ and also Alex was there being vaguely misogynistic the whole time and monologuing to no-one in a way no real human person thinks uncritically.

The game intends to paint Alex as a bad person, but this is implemented in such a snide and uninteresting manner which has nothing to actually say about him being this way, nor is it at all fun or entertaining to experience.

He has no idea what's going on, blindly following the plot with the vague motivation of being suddenly stricken with affection for a girl he basically called a freak as soon as he met her five minutes ago. He is self-absorbed, lazy and overconfident, constantly bemoaning and ignoring the needs and feelings of others. He is the only character given enough breathing space to have something to him, and yet manages to not even feel any sort of dimensional.

Also his shirt is an ad for the dev's last game.

An incel who always screams about everything and yet is overly pretentious about everything.

Propaganda why Scott Pilgrim is insufferable:

He is not a good person. He doesn’t take other people’s feelings into consideration. He mooches off his one real friend. He’s dating a teenager as a grown ass man. Every girlfriend he’s ever had hates him for good reasons

Stupid idiot

dated a 17 yr old

kind of a cop-out answer since he's like deliberately made to be an annoying person but

#alex eagleston #yiik #yiik: a postmodern rpg #scott pilgrim #scott pilgram takes off #scott pilgram vs the world #insufferable protagonist poll #insufferable protagonist tournament #tournament poll

[scarletmaster143]

Okay here we go

The Barbie Movie 2023: a transcendental experience

I would like to preface this by admitting that I cried essentially throughout the entire movie. I was crying in the first twenty minutes when Barbie entered the Real World and found that it was the complete opposite of BarbieLand. Several other people have made this comparison but the scene where Barbie gets catcalled and harassed on the street, where she feels too conscious about everything (the tea scene with Ruth especially) is so vital because that is how every young girl I have met has felt when they begin puberty. Ken, of course exemplifies the masculine perception, the confidence and esteem that comes with realising that "Men rule the world". The way he is not a bad character but the draw of power is so strong even for someone as "accessory" as a Ken doll and so he goes along with the patriarchal system. Barbie feeling utterly lost after learning that she has not been in fact empowering women as she had thought, rather she was a "fascist". My take is that the criticism against Barbie is valid in that there is little diversity among the dolls and yes there are certain things that can be improved upon. However it is parallel-y true that Barbie can be ANYTHING. Especially in a world where success and happiness have come to be defined by such limited criteria Barbie rightly points out that most girls are ordinary, they are not scientists or presidents or nobel prize winners, however that does not mean they are unworthy of consideration, of respect and of care.

I am unsure what is the broad internet verdict on Barbie but I do believe that the movie encapsulates a very specific feminist experience where it's not that men are at fault for everything, Ken does ultimately admit, along with the directors of Mattel, that he does not want to be in power all the time. However, Gerwig refuses to dictate how men should behave, they will have to go to the Real World themselves and figure it out. Barbie however gets to learn that just saying "I don't want anything to change" does not stop things from changing. As someone who uses the exact same phrase several times, it hit me hard when, despite her best efforts, things kept changing. The loss of control and increasing uncertainty that adulthood brings is enough to make anyone into a Depression Barbie (complete with BBC Pride and Prejudice) but Gerwig also says that just because things are changing does not mean that we are simply helpless. We have people around us, mothers and grandmothers and daughters and Weird Barbies, who are there to support us. America Ferrara's rant about how women can never be perfect or likeable is a cinematic masterpiece- it reflects the constant discourse around what it means to be a modern woman and ultimately puts forward that women can be "anything", they don't need to be only perfect- if nothing they do is perfect then there is no need to desire perfection, they can remain as they are. Sasha was a surprisingly heartwarming character, I was fully expecting her to be annoying. All the Kens were hilarious, of course, the little Sex Education cast reunion was adorable. The style of the movie may not suit everyone's taste, it is loud, over the top and camp as fuck, everything is a reference, the fourth wall is essentially non-existent. But at its core the Barbie Movie is a lesson in growing up- it is a tale of someone who has to find herself and accept herself before becoming a human. Interestingly, Barbie reflects adolescence quite literally (I was half expecting Gerwig to put in a menstruating reference, but it makes sense that she didn't, considering the no-vagina thing) and the last scene where she asks to see her gynecologist is not only symbolic of her becoming a human but also of her becoming a woman. She is a doll in the beginning like pre-adolescent girls are often called but then she goes through terrible things where she is not fully doll, but not fully human, and lastly when she has become human, shedding her doll part. Adolescent girls are rarely allowed to be anything other than perfect "dolls" even when they are having the most terrible period of their lives and Barbie's constant desire to make things return to as they were shows how she also wants to remain a doll, but once she accepts that things need to change she starts shedding her doll nature and starts becoming human. This is still a sad process but now Barbie knows (thanks to Ruth) that no matter what she will be okay as a human.

In conclusion Barbie is not a movie that is of the feminist genre, at least not to me, rather it is a coming of age story for some of the most iconic characters in pop culture.

#barbie #barbie movie #margot robbie #america ferrera #ryan gosling #simu liu #writing #desi academia #also yes my friends and I dressed up as the dreamhouse characters #i was chelsea #spoilers #barbie spoilers

[the-daily-dreamer]

Can I just say that I completely adore your blog!! Its nice to see someone defending alicent 🥰

I honestly feel disappointed that the show decided to potray rhaenyra as the mary sue character... I don't know if the show runners would eventually turn her story to one that is similar to daenerys or worse alternating what will happen in the end (maybe rhaenyra bones at the crypt is not really hers ?)

The reason why I supported alicent i guess cuz she has more substance and she understand the power play. Not like rhaenyra who depended on her daddy to save her and expecting people to follow just cuz she is the proclaimed heir. If she really want to become a queen, she should stop crapping out bastards and work on alliances that is benefited to her instead she just lounges around for her dad to die and expect people to be blind and follow her lead...

Thank you so much! I’m so glad you like my content, and yes, I adore Alicent and will defend her with my life.

The show has definitely taken away a lot of Rhaenyra’s substance and agency as a character.

It’s worth mentioning that Rhaenyra very much is politically incompetent. And that’s not totally her fault. The first half of her life she was unattached to any responsibility because she wasn’t the heir and her father had no expectations of her. And by the time she was named heir, Viserys had no idea how to raise her as a competent ruler. This is partially because Viserys is a terrible ruler and you can’t teach what you don’t know, and partially because he doesn’t know how to raise Rhaenyra any differently. They’ve had 15 years of a lax relationship, it’s hard to change and suddenly be strict and hold someone accountable when you’ve never cared before.

However, the show wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to portray Rhaenyra as a girlboss but don’t want to have her be accountable for the bad things she does. There’s this tonal difference because she’s incompetent, doesn’t do anything to help herself, relies on her father or uncle/husband to solve her problems, and does bad things, but the show is always showing her to be a good and strong woman. Which she isn’t.

The show is so determined to have a girlboss character and feminist icon who’s standing up against the patriarchy of her world. But they don’t actually want to have her do anything to earn that place. She is never held accountable for her mistakes and they’re played off as “not a big deal”. She runs to her daddy (even when he’s sick and dying) to cover her ass and protect her from consequences. She has zero regard for her title as heir and her responsibilities. As an heir to the throne it is her responsibility to have indisputable, legitimate heirs to ensure the bloodline and succession is safe. This is a requirement for kings and queens. And she has so interest in ruling instead opting to fly off to dragonstone and have sex with her uncle. She doesn’t do anything. And it’s a shame because she could be so much more interesting if the show let her make mistakes and be a bad person.

The smart thing for Rhaenyra to do is to immediately begin branching out and forming alliances. Making deals to houses to make them part of the small council. She should’ve been learning politics, battle strategies, and learning her own positions so she has a clear goal for her reign. She also should have stayed in the KL and/or visited very frequently to shadow her father to get hands on experience. And most of all, Rhaenyra should’ve immediately gotten her father’s permission to rule in his stead while he is sick. This would mean that she would already be controlling the seven kingdoms and be based in KL. This foothold would’ve meant that by the time Viserys dies, she is firmly set as queen and has already been looked to as a ruler for years. But she doesn’t do that. She stays in Dragonstone and lets Alicent rule for her father.

People can try to paint Rhaenyra as someone who was overlooked because of sexism. But the reality is that she was overlooked because she offered absolutely nothing to her people and allies. It is 100% her incompetence, lack of accountability, and care that caused this.

And I agree. That’s why I like Alicent. Because she learned the game. She gained allies. She ruled in her husband’s stead. Alicent actually has agency and motives and does things. She is a real person you can understand and not just a character you have to root for because “feminism” or whatever.

#house of the dragon #game of thrones #anti targaryen #anti rhaenyra #anti rhaenyra targaryen #anti team black #alicent hightower #pro alicent hightower #team alicent #team green

[gacha-incels]

you can see more than a few similarities between the “original gamergate”, the DOA “gamergate 2” and what’s been happening with the misogynist men freaking out about 🤏 in South Korea. This time the western gamergate incels hate “woke” and “cultural Marxism”, before this it was “SJWs”. In practice their hatred is targeted on the same groups no matter what the year. In SK it’s “megal femi/ feminists” (megalia feminists) and “PC” (politically correct). These men pretend to care about things like “ethics in gaming journalism” or “extreme misandrist feminists”, the topics are smokescreens they use to legitimize their violent hatred of women, minorities, lgbt, the disabled, etc. as shown above with the quote from the Discord chat. I think the shock for many people regarding the Korean incel situation is that the companies they target very often will grovel and beg for their forgiveness, thus validating the delusion of some radical feminist boogeyman placing secret signs in gacha games or cartoons.

for the western gamergate men, their white supremacy is also a huge factor. They form communities and shape their own identities based on hatred and fear.

The “threat” in this case of “gamergate 2” is Sweet Baby Inc.

From the way social media is set up now, it’s easy for these men to rapidly fall into extreme echo chambers. They are angry about the hardships of life and are champing at the bit to direct that anger at an easy, identifiable cause. Can’t find a job? It’s too hard to recognize and understand the force and destructive nature of capitalism, it’s not a concrete thing you can attack right now and they have typically already been indoctrinated to believe anything criticizing capitalism is some scary evil communist ploy. So they turn their ire to an easily identifiable group, like immigrants attempting to live and work in the US. Why are these people trying to escape their countries? Don’t think about it! Can’t get a girlfriend? Surely it can’t be that you need to improve yourself, socialize and not see women as conquests? No, it’s the fault of those damn feminists! Of course these are flippant simplifications of issues that can be studied and analyzed in regards to society, family, religion etc and how propaganda from these sources can beget the type of male who is primed for indoctrination as well but I’m trying to be brief. A lot of this hate and fear also comes in tandem after any type of hard won victory (no matter how small) for any demographic these men are not a part of, they see it as some catastrophic loss of power because they are so used to absolutely everything being made for them or in their power. They think society runs “correctly” because they hold absolute power, so they push back (often violently) on anything they deem an challenge to this. In terms of videogames, this is why they believe just having a main character who is not a white male means “society hates men”or “games are not made for ‘us’ anymore”. You can see this type of attitude emerge in Korean men as well, regarding backlash to more women entering the workforce and gaining more rights. the following is just one example-

After a short period of time, men in these spaces get so indoctrinated that actual facts are false to them if it goes against what they WANT to believe. They don’t want to challenge and evaluate their own thoughts because it’s easy to keep hating. If you’re from the US (or familiar with its political landscape over the past decade+) and this reminds you of the alt-right playbook, it’s because Steve Bannon saw the original gamergate and utilized the force of these angry males.

As the excerpt stated, these men see videogames as “a final escape for a generation of angry young white men,” essentially power fantasies that still reinforce and flatter their sense of importance over the “other”. (Of course the Korean incel demographic is not white and is not living directly in a white supremacist western society so this isn’t a 1:1. regardless that does not stop them from being racist.) In some ways this is from lack of inclusion of some demographics, in some ways it’s reinforced by having the “other” be in what these men see as their rightful place in society. So because of this, you see a LOT of these men foaming at the mouth when they believe a female character design is not “sexy” enough, because her job is not to be a character in a story, it’s to titilate the male viewer while he plays he game. She is made FOR him, for his pleasure first and anything else second. If she isn’t hypersexualized then she does not exist, she is failing the one job she has in these men’s eyes. You can see this in the way men talk about the upcoming “Stellar Blade”game from the developers of the gacha game “NIKKE”. Gaming presents this “sanctuary” for men, many eventually cutting themselves off from reality to live in this fantasy world- an act that can be dangerous for those around him.

Anyone who is new to gacha games, I need you to understand this is how the typical male gacha gamer views an all-female cast especially- they are there to titilate the perceived male user while he “buys” them, gives them orders in gameplay and reads the story. It’s still their male power fantasy, this is why tensions are extremely high when they think a “feminist” works on the game, and/or they think a male character looks “weak” or is sexualized in the same way women are sexualized. They want a clear divide of the sexes (designs of powerful men VS very thin, highly sexualized women), and this type of design threatens that. You can read more on gacha designs here on this blog, I don’t want to rewrite that whole post here. When they think a character is not sexy enough, they will illegally mod the game to change that, you can see in this image the Genshin Impact (a game the korean incels have now dubbed as a “femi game”) character “Shenhe” whose outfits were not deemed sexy enough, so the men modified the clothing on the left (costume and original outfit) to the “clothing” on the right while also increasing her bust size significantly.

This isn’t meant to be an analysis but rather a basic overview and reiteration of some aspects that made up the western “gamergate” situation using plain language. I linked the sources for everything directly on the images. Whenever I do an actual analysis there of course will be more sources and less copy&pasting directly from them lol

#South korea #gamergate #korean incel #american incel #Misogyny

[qvincvnx]

do you have a post about b a b e l? I haven't read it yet but would loooove to hear why you personally dislike it

legend thank you. some spoilers below.

good things about babel

(sort of a good thing): interesting magic worldbuilding conceit. the idea is that lexical gaps across translation power magic, and that as europe gets semantically linguistically closer, magic is fading - time to for the institution to exploit east asian languages! this concept conceptually fucks. however every single thing about the execution was awful that this actually pisses me off more, because i want to read the book that actually does this and now i never can because this came out first.

bad things about babel, in approximately ascending order of how agonizing they make the experience of reading it

literally the basic execution. the prose is clumsy; it's historical fiction that's trying to be historical-voiced and the character voices are completely indistinguishable from 1. one another 2. your average twitter user. this is incredibly embarrassing for the author but it doesn't even seem to be something on her radar to be embarrassed about; this is the first thing i noticed as off and the thing that kept me closest to DNFing throughout. if she would like to teach intro colonialist theory seminars with modern jargon and terms then the author could have done that as an academic. it would have been really lovely to have something of a window into how this issue was being discussed at the time! what frameworks contemporary colonized and colonial people used to understand their own resistance to british rule... but absolutely no research on this was done (if it was, none of it was in the text)

apes the craft of more effectively written books without understanding what made them effective, which is just genuinely agonizing to read. particularly notable here are its attempted utilization of footnotes but it is not jsmn. yk. there's a chapter that's just one sentence, with a footnote that takes up the whole page with a bunch of diagrams, and then the next chapter repeats the previous sentence with a comma and goes on into the prose... you didn't have to do that... (this one is admittedly kind of BEC-y) (also the copyediting was not great throughout i found a number of problems. that is not really the author's fault but it felt like the book was trying to literally precisely gaslight me about what good prose looks like)

ahistorical in the extreme. again, i cannot express this effectively but it really demonstrates a lack of basic effort and care throughout. as this reviewer notes regarding oysters, the author seems incapable or unwilling to imagine how people might have thought or felt about something if it's different from how she feels about it. the author's note devotes like 7x as much page time apologizing for slightly altering how long it takes to get from oxford to london as it does for CHANGING THE CORONATION DATE OF QUEEN VICTORIA in a book that's in large part about the expansion and impacts of GLOBAL COLONIAL EXPLOITATION. one of these things impacts the part of the world she can clearly imagine - her oxford, where they serve oysters - and the other one has massive global implications.

NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS WHO ARE TRANSLATORS CARE ENOUGH ABOUT LANGUAGE TO DELIGHT IN LANGUAGE. all of the discussion of translation is pretty rote, but also like... my friends who are into language and i joke, we play with sounds and words and cross-language puns. none of the characters seemed to actually enjoy their academic passion. stressed me out on their behalves (also no one, like, studies, but this is typical of the genre)

this isn't really a full point but it annoyed me SO badly it's going in here. MC describes a later-revealed-to-be-bad female character as something like 'giving feminists a bad name'. A) it is set in the like 1830s and the word feminist makes no sense in context B) yOU WROTE HER ACTING LIKE THAT, SHE IS NOT AN INDEPENDENT PERSON WITH FREE WILL. YOU MADE HER DO THAT. basically you can clearly see the author's strings moving the characters around, the author tries SO hard to make sure you like and dislike all the correct characters that it is like can you please just let them move around and act like human beings.

by extension - incredibly flat characterization. the characters move to the beat of the plot, rather than seeming internally consistent. the MC's father is villainous in a very specific way - condescending white man's burden pushing for economic/cultural influence and assimilation of talented ~colonials into the imperial core - right up until the MC needs a justified reason to murder him, at which point he is magically revealed to have been a virulently racist war hawk trying to spur on the deaths of thousands. like, sure, okay, racist one way will be racist another, you could do this effectively - but again, you can see the author's hand in these matters and the timing of these revelations, and she is clumsy with her dolls.

i am not an expert in these matters personally but i definitely did find it ironic that babel's thesis is "empires are bad!" and then it immediately undercuts itself discussing china like "unless they are empires run by poc, then the protagonists should root for them" like skill issue all empires are bad definitionally. thanks.

i was thoroughly underwhelmed by its attempt to engage in class politics. really embarrassing.

it's dark academia with no homoeroticism in sight

#hopefully this made sense. the last bad point is half a joke (it should be lower on the list it's just a better punchline) but it is true. #idk how to tag this for people who don't want to see this without it going in the tag. i'm sorry. #i'm sure i'm forgetting things these are just the instances i screenshotted and which therefore stuck to my brain better.

[lorillee]

lorillee tell us about tsunade and sakura

tsunade. my best friend in the whole wide world. i knew i was going to love her before she showed up and i was completely and entirely vindicated shes an icon shes a legend she is the moment. theres not a single thing i dont love about her shes seriously one of the greatest characters of all time in any media ever everybody WISHES they had tsunade. shes like srsly so important to me and like okay the thing with a lot of "feminist" characters in a lot of media/fandom is that people assume that in order to make a feminist female character she has to be #feminism #girlboss #queen etc and cant lose at anything and Totally Owns The Boys With GIRL POWER ! but tsunade sucks at gambling and summons a giant slug (which im aware comes from the story she & jiraiya & orochimaru come from but in any other media she'd get something traditionally Badass tm like a wolf or something but no she gets a GIANT SLUG) and is more than happy to throw hands with an annoying 12 year old and gets drunk on the regular and has an obscene amount of debt on her hands and her pet is a pig but is absolutely able to hold her own and gets to be hokage and do cool and epic things and is so so so everything all of the time. im srsly obsessed with her relationship with jiraiya and orochimaru like you already know this but it genuinely kind of makes me ill that in the infinite tsukuyomi despite everything he's done orochimaru is literally. HES THERE. HES THEREEEEE like srsly what if we all blew up and died. huh

her relationship with sakura is also so so good and it actually kills me we didnt get to see it explored more because like pre-timeskip sakura doesnt really have a lot of confidence and doesnt really feel like she can contribute that much because shes next to three insane powerhouses who were kind of just born like that but after spending two years with tsunade and being able to come into her own shes much much more confident and outspoken and like its very clearly tsunade's influence that got her to that point and theyre so important to me im so fr. and of course tsunades relationship w naruto is also so insanely eveyrthing as well hes litearlly her special little boy like because he mouths off to her all the time but also clearly respects her so so much and she yells at him for being a brat but also clearly does enjoy their back and forths and SHES SO EVERYTHINGGGG its seriously . the situation is dire. shes so everything to me.

sakura..... sakura........... SAKURA.................... shes not even deeper than she seems if you HAVE EYEBALLS. WHICH APPARENTLY THIS FANDOM DOES NOT. LOL <- most passive aggressive lol in the history of lols. literally everybody ever is so wrong about sakura and the situation is actively dire its either "shes a bitch and annoying and a STUPID GIRL for [xyz stupid reason]" or "well im going to FIX sakura by making her a cardboard cutout #girlboss with three personality traits i think are generically cool on there and completely eviscerating her canonical personality and relationships because um well shes too annoying/stupid/useless/girly/whatever" its not even fine. the situation is dire. every time somebody complains about sakura i become further cemented in my opinion that she's never done anything wrong in her life ever. but the complaining aside shes srsly so important shes so good. i love her so much. like we've already talked about this a bit but it makes me srsly crazy insane her sense of responsibility for things that arent her fault (see trying to kill sasuke at the bridge) and i love her easily irritable nature and how much she cares like her fake confession to naruto is srsly biblical sakura moment and of course speaking of her relationship to naruto is seriously ITS SOOOO GOOODDDDDD like they are srsly best friends in the whole world and its so sickening theyre so cute and so good and so important like the progression from "the kid who everybody hates is obsessed with me and i need him to knock it off Now" to "my best friend whose chest i would cut open to massage his heart just to keep him alive" IS SERIOUSLY CRAZY INSANEEEEEEEEE ITS SO GOOD........... ITS SO EVERYTHING.............. ITS SO SO SO IMPORTANT. TO ME. and its honestly devastating kishimoto didnt give her and kakashi more scenes together if im being truly honest but their relationship too is soooooo soooo so cutiepie shes literally his special little girl............. anyways sakura i love you i love you so much sorry i wouldve probably typed more but ive been running around since 3:30 am and im about to crash. if im being real

#ask game answers #cartoonrival

[soleminisanction]

I just went through most of your character rants and analysis and I love them so much!❤️ It’s so nice to find someone with a lot of the same opinions as me, especially after seeing a good bit of Tim hate in TikTok comments lately. I love the animatics and cosplays on there but it sucks that it seems like it’s seen as cool to be nasty to Tim’s character over there, or maybe it's just the comments of the videos I get? It’s usually people thinking he’s a misogynist or that his character steals from and or makes other robins look bad to hype him up. I don’t get these comments because I feel like all of the bats have been written with misogynistic dialogue at some point, even the girls! I don’t understand why people latch this on to Tim as some big character trait. Maybe it’s some joke I’m just not understanding. Also with the bringing other characters down to prop his character up, isn’t that what pretty much every character that is currently in the spotlight does at some point (like Steph’s Batgirl run infamously does to Babs and Tim)? Why do they attribute this only to Tim? Also, all the robins steal traits from each in adaptations and other comic runs, again why do they act like it’s a Tim only thing? Basically, all the other Bats do what they claim they hate Tim for?! It’s genuinely mind-boggling to me!

TikTok's algorithm is the worst thing about that app, because it's got a terrible tendency to send peoples' feeds into negativity spirals, and that in turn fosters a community of people who are either looking for rage-bait, are mad because they can't get away from the rage-bait, or try to bait other people to rage because that gets them engagement. There's no way off the merry-go-round once you get on it either, it's just miserable; it's why I eventually had to drop the app and now only watch the videos ported over to YouTube or Tumblr.

For my money, the reason Tim specifically gets blamed for this thing that is very obviously a problem with comics as an industry, not with his character specifically, comes at least in part from the drama involving Steph.

Because see, defenses of Steph tend to start from a seed of truth -- she was the subject of sexist writing in War Games, both in the fact that they chose to fridge her for Bruce's manpain and that artists during cuts away to the infamous torture sequence (which did not need to be as long as it was) drew her in a highly sexualized manner. But some people took that truth and ran with it, leaping onto this frustrating, stupid second-wave feminist idea that women are inherently innocent and can only ever be victims of The Patriarchy and therefor if anything goes wrong in the life of a woman, it MUST be the fault of A Man. And since it can be hard to pin-point which comic creators are responsible for these things, the brunt started to fall on the in-universe men.

So all the men around Steph became scapegoats, and Tim is the man she's both around the most and whom she has wronged the most. And then that attitude got amplified by her Batgirl run, which does this really manipulative bullshit where it only brings up Steph's past in terms that make her look like a helpless victim with no agency, without acknowledging or even mentioning any of the things she chose to do of her own free will. It especially went out of its way to demonize Tim and paint him as unreasonable, judgey and sexist, because the alternative would mean acknowledging that Steph had done some really fucked-up shit to him in the last days of Robin, and it was in fact perfectly reasonable for him to want her out of his life.

But see, that would mean that a good guy (gasp) didn't like her. And had a good reason not to like her. And trying to write a character who rises to become a true hero because they're fighting to make up for the shitty things they did in the past is so much harder than writing a innocent widdle victim who only has the best intentions and whose only problem is that the world is unfair to her specficially. White women with no self-awareness can project themselves on the latter, but not the former.

Amplify that by the faction of Damian stans who treat fictional rivalries as Deadly Serious Business and the fraction of Jason stans who hate him for existing as the result of Jason's death, both of whom will jump on and amplify any criticism no matter how baseless and uninformed just to score points against their perceived "enemy," and there you go. That's what I've observed unfolding since about 2007 anyway.

#fandom ramblings #dc comics asks

[quesadillayuri]

This is an open invitation to "talk about the Bible in a chill way". I'd be fascinated in your chill Bible opinions.

okay this is lowkey such a late answer to this but recent chill bible opinion has some context to it. i'm religious but in like a weird way i don't super want to get into, but basically i read the bible for the story aspects: the morals taught, the themes within, etc etc. i don't really view it as a strict religious instruction handbook, more so as like . stories meant to teach lessons and morals. kinda. its complicated!

erm. im so glad u asked tho

anyway! more importantly, i'm reading the old testament right now, and something that deeply bothers me is that i find the stories in early genesis deeply fascinating, and yet incredibly not dived into at all! and i think that's a shame, because there's so much interest and tragedy in the story of adam and eve, and in cain and abel, together and alongside adam and eve. i just think there could've been so much more done with the first ever family on earth, that is really never dived into popularly or well in adaptations. which is like chill EXCEPT for the fact that i think there's a lot of . persephone and hades tumblr bullshit going on and let me ELABORATE!

eve is a fascinating character to study as the first woman, and there's a lot to be said about eve, which is why a lot of modern looks at her that depict her as a #slay girlboss that ate the apple on purpose or as like . cheating on adam with lucifer . and i also don't fuck with the very long history of her being treated as though she's stupid or wicked or a transgressor. basically, what i'm trying to get at is that eve wasn't stupid for eating the apple, she was lied to, and in her defense, no one had ever lied before. quite literally she was the first to ever be lied to, ever, and she cannot be solely at fault for being tricked. i think it's hard to argue that eve shouldn't have fallen for it, because she was in such an incredibly unique, quite literally never happening before situation. i just think that depictions of her as a scheming seductress will never be as feminist as people think they are, because the core of eve was not someone looking to like . stick it to the man . she was curious, and trusting, and i refuse to blame her for searching for something new, because if god did not want man or woman to long for knowledge, he never should have create sapient beings 🤷

that was a long, kinda rambly way to say that i think genesis, despite being a really interesting book especially pertaining to eve, adam, and the fall, and especially relating to what could be said about abel and cain, and abel, cain, and THEIR PARENTS!!!, fails in a lot of ways as a book. mostly because of the lack of expansion on any of the interesting parts of the early story. i dont gaf abt how adam lived for 930 years. i gaf about adam and the horror of raising children and loving them and that still not being enough to save them from each other or themselves. it must have been horrifying to see your children, both your first children and the first children ever born, suffer and die, one at the hand of another and one at the hand of your own father. like idk eve adam and the horrifying fact that their sin (mistakes) passed along to their child and could've played a role in his own sin (devastating mistakes) and what you do as a parent when you realize that loving someone isn't enough to raise them perfectly and keep them safe.

but yeah sure . adams a weirdo misogynist and eve is a girlboss that cucks him with lucifer and abel and cain don't matter or exist. okay. epic.

and like this isn't to shit on fun or serious retellings based in feminism, bc i #love feminism fr, but i think it tired me out in the same way that (look at me circling back) things like the feminist retellings of hades and persephone did. bc like, it's interesting sometimes, but other times you are IGNORING the reality and interesting parts of the real story in favor for whatever fantasy you've created. hades and persephone is a fascinating story, and demeter and persephone's relationship is a tragic, lovely story that should not be boiled down into omg age gap forbidden romance with EVIL strict mom in the same way that eve and adam shouldnt be simplified to adam is mean to eve and she eats apple as REVENGE >:) . like ok guys lets get creative!

anyway to make a long story short im not an expert on the bible im just a girl raised spiritualist who fucks with books hardcore and wouldve liked to see more interesting shit in the oldest fucking book i own . or whatever .

#if ur a theologist dont @ me #its 12 am EXACTLY and im just a teenage girl #im yapping okay #.hellwurld #.asks #uh #ask to tag??? #idk if catholicism or the bible is a trigger lmk

[moonymanoush]

Barbie Movie Review

Hello everyone and welcome back! Before I give my own thoughts on the movie, I want to acknowledge all the critics that have been primarily focused on calling this film on being “woke, feminist, liberal, etc. etc.” The movie is literally called Barbie — if you expected a conservative trad wife film where the girl is there for sex appeal or in order to further the male protagonist’s story that’s your own fault! Every iteration of Barbie focused on the doll itself and its ability to have literally every career possible while Ken was little more than an accessory. Even when viewers mention Barbie's Life in the Dreamhouse as an example of Barbie and Ken’s romance, they do not acknowledge that Ken has no aspirations, career, or life outside of being Barbie’s boyfriend. This is only to say, that this movie had a very clear trajectory — it just doesn't make sense if I show up to a movie like Fast and Furious and leave complaining that the film didn’t spend enough time on romance.

Beyond that, I went into the movie expecting a misandrist film because of the amount of feedback I had seen online prior to watching it. But it was honestly so kind to men. The executives at Mattel are treated as comedic characters, the kens are himbos, and Allan is an ally. Even at their most patriarchal, all the men are seen at most as misguided — not as true antagonists or villains of the film. Despite being a funny character whose dialogue I appreciated, Will Ferell is also a perpetrator of the system. Immediately after America Ferrera pitches her average Barbie idea, he shoots it down but only accepts it once it’s backed up by a man who says it's actually a good idea. It mimics reality in that a woman is never respected the same way a man is — ideas are only worthy of praise after validation from a man. Instead of seeing Will Ferrel telling President Barbie to call him mother as insulting to the actual creator and mother of Barbie – the doll and the girl –, it’s played off as a joke. The Kens also get an entire arc of self-discovery and realizing who they are on their own instead of in relation to Barbie. Honestly, I was very unsatisfied with how men were treated in the film because even after taking Barbie’s house and brainwashing her friends, Ken gets the apology and the comfort even though his primary motivation came from unrequited love.

The media continues to push the messages that stalking and coercion are appropriate gestures used to show love to a woman. For instance, in The Notebook Noah (the male lead) hangs off of a Ferris wheel, interrupting Allie’s (the female lead) date with another man, and threatens to kill himself by letting go and falling to his death should she not agree to go on a date with him instead. This is a direct representation of coercion and completely disregards ‘no means no’, making Allie feel as though she has a duty to go out with Noah. It further reinforces the idea that a woman has the responsibility to keep a man happy and her own wishes and desires come secondary to his. In addition, not only do these types of scenes condone behaviour such as rape, harassment, stalking and coercion on a male audience, but they also impact women’s view of what a loving and healthy relationship entails. I hate to go on a tangent about a separate film — but the message being consistently pushed is that persistent behaviour is romantic and men are almost owed a relationship.

Misogyny is an underlying theme in most media, portraying women as stereotypes. Women face the juxtaposition of being “not like other girls” while aiming to be viewed as conventionally attractive. The issue is that media, and particularly films, spread the message of misogyny on a subconscious level and consumers who regularly watch these films will internalize this inherently sexist bias. In the movie She’s All That (1999), the main character Laney undergoes a makeover and exchanges her smock for a tight-fitting dress to be perceived as more conventionally attractive. Suddenly, Zack, the male lead, finds her beautiful because she has adopted a certain level of femininity despite the movie pushing the message that she’s ‘not like other girls’. The propaganda in the film pushes the idea that if a woman is not feminine enough, she will not be desirable. By the end of this film, both of the main leads are classic stereotypes of what their gender demands of them. Many movies follow the same formula, a nerdy girl (who is beautiful by all means) catches the attention of a popular boy and changes herself so he wants her. The defining feature is that she never truly changes her appearance for herself.

Further, this isn’t an isolated incident or a recent trend in the media where women aren’t written as anything other than two-dimensional and vapid. Legends have been told from the beginning of time punishing women for the crime of existing. In “Spiders in the Hairdo”, Jan Harold Brunvand's Encyclopedia of Urban Legends observes that “In a thirteenth-century English exemplum a vain woman who was habitually late for mass because she spent too much time arranging her hair was visited by the devil in the form of a spider that attached itself to her coiffure.” This goes to show that there is a definite religious interpretation of these legends, due to many religions condemning vanity. Self-obsession is seen as a form of idolatry where they compare themselves to the greatness of God, distancing themselves from religion and faith. (Living Faith: Daily Catholic Devotions) The woman is late to mass — a religious showing of faith in God — because of her vanity, ergo that very quality is something to be condemned and punished.

Another interpretation is purity culture and the belief that a woman who takes care of her appearance is doing it to impress men. This ties closely with religion, but it involves the belief that women who are sexually active or are around the opposite gender are something shameful. A man sleeps around and is a stud, a player — a woman doing the same is a whore, a slut, a hussy. The patriarchy reinforces structural violence against women by projecting discriminatory gender roles that often place limitations on how far they can go. In “Curses! Broiled Again!” Jan Harold Brunvand's Encyclopedia of Urban Legends notes, "Besides this technological naïveté, the story comments on youthful vanity and carelessness.” Brunvand states that the woman in this legend, and the one before it, are young, careless girls who care more about their beauty than any internal qualities.

Women aren’t allowed to have their own characteristics, careers, or any aspirations that don’t involve marriage and children. A simple reflection of women existing outside of the scope of being someone’s wife or mother is enough to enrage the simplest of men, which is why Barbie has received so much backlash. I generally find it upsetting that men refuse to engage in media that criticizes them. Women watched this film and analyzed every bit while men focus on mojo dojo casa house and insulting any female leads.

My overall favourite quotes:

“We mothers stand still so our daughters can look back to see how far they’ve come”

“Women hate women, men hate women. It’s the one thing we can all agree on.”

“I’m a man with no power, does that make me a woman?”

Another scene worth commending is the one with Barbie telling the older woman “You’re so beautiful.” her response is “I know it.”

Regardless, this film criticizing the system while being created by a multi-billion dollar corporation is partially hypocritical to me. I would've appreciated seeing the struggles of intersectionality addressed as well as capitalism, but the men in charge are seen as funny little men who aren't actively exploiting the working class and promoting the ideology of consumerism. This movie isn't meant to change your whole reality or provoke a strong hatred because it’s very much a surface level analysis of a woman’s role in society. It could’ve been better but the criticism and backlash strawmans the main point of the movie. Overall, a fun watch! Let me know your thoughts too!

Sorry for being massively inconsistent but hopefully more posts to come soon!

#barbie #margot robbie #margot barbie #im just ken #pink #will ferrell #ryan gosling #movie review #movie analysis

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 3

Propaganda why Caillou is insufferable:

Horrible, whiny, mean (I know they're like three but that's no excuse)

He's the absolute worst bratty child I've ever seen in a kids show, his voice is suuuper annoying.

You know and I know why, he's the poll's icon for a reason.

More propaganda

Propaganda why Alex Eagleston is insufferable:

literally causes the end of the world by being The Absolute Worst and has done so multiple times including his alternate selves. he technically has three (and a half) love interests (cause theyre the only characters he can/attempt to kiss or express any attraction to) and he treats them all poorly first three vella sammy and essentia 2000 are cause hes a misogynist but they all get different flavors of it sammy gets fridged for the plot of the game and is basically never relevant again outside of a secret(?) ending. shes also based off of a real life dead person for no fucking reason. vella is subjected to weird speculation about her age in her introduction scene with alex saying something along the lines of she cant be older than him cause shes too pretty (alex is like 24 and vella 27 from what i recall its been a few years since ive thought about yiik) and has a weird internal monologue about his feminist ex girlfriend prompted by vella just existing. theres a weird scene when alex asks her if shes korean n says she looks vaguely ethnic making her uncomfortable. One Of His Alternate Selves Literally Caused Her To Leave Her Home Dimension Cause Of How Poorly He Treated Her and the context behind that is that to leave the world/timeline/dimension/whatever you're originally from you basically have to be super suicidal and he pushed her to that point by ghosting her for a while and next time vella saw him he was hooking up with a girl noticably younger than her (<- remember this) and immediately after being told this he can attempt to kiss her which has no actual repercussions. essentia 2000 is like technically supposed to be evil i guess but her goal is supposed to be killing alex so i cant fault her on that. the in game day after they first meet alex has like a monologue about how special and attractive she is ""she was like water filling all my cracks"" or some shit. all three girls are alternates of eachother and are on a sliding scale of how objectified they are by alex with who got it the worst depending on which aspect you're focusing on. other sort of love interest is rory (diversity loss!) who alex can attempt to kiss after he confides in him about something when rory is like 18-19 (hes meant to be about the same age as michael whos recently graduated high school) and depending on how alex treats him can literally kill himself and alex's reaction to learning this is to only focus on how terrible he feels before moving on n rory's death never being mentioned again. the whole point of the game is that alex is a piece of shit who cant even buy groceries for his mom without throwing a hissy fit about it but it undermines itself constantly by having characters forgive or just stop being mad at alex on a dime after hes been exceedingly shitty towards them in various ways and any sort of charm or endearing traits he had quickly wearing off due to him never shutting the fuck up. near the end of the game all the other party members are killed off in quick succession leaving alex by himself and all he can do is sulk in self pity before going on a space adventure or whatever to stop an alternate him thats linked to an alternate essentia and enlisting the player as a different alternate him to help fight various superficial flaws of himself (which arent even like the actual things that make him insufferable n a bad person) n then finish the job for him. i need to punt him into the sun

He constantly goes on annoying monologues about things that nobody cares about. In game he is meant to be kind of an asshole, but they never give him the necessary character development to make him feel like a proper flawed protagonist, yet the narrative makes him out to be a character who is ""deep down a good guy"". Also he doesn't seem to care about any of his friends/party members.

The game intends to paint Alex as a bad person, but this is implemented in such a snide and uninteresting manner which has nothing to actually say about him being this way, nor is it at all fun or entertaining to experience.

He has no idea what's going on, blindly following the plot with the vague motivation of being suddenly stricken with affection for a girl he basically called a freak as soon as he met her five minutes ago. He is self-absorbed, lazy and overconfident, constantly bemoaning and ignoring the needs and feelings of others. He is the only character given enough breathing space to have something to him, and yet manages to not even feel any sort of dimensional.

Also his shirt is an ad for the dev's last game.

An incel who always screams about everything and yet is overly pretentious about everything.

#caillou #alex eagleston #yiik #insufferable protagonist poll #insufferable protagonist tournament #tournament poll

[horizon-verizon]

At least, Cersei is the one to refuse to go public with their incestous relationship and isn’t out there proposing to marry Myrcella to Tommen, unlike Saint Jaime who call his sister ‘queen of whores’, treat her as his property, and victim-blame her (I tell you, he [Robert] loves me not/And whose fault is that, sweet sister ?), and never spare a thought for Tysha (or Bran for that matter), but thats normal, its because he’s a feminist and teenage girl-coded. No wonder he has some sympathy for Criston Cole, lmao. Do people genuinely believes Jaime is a victim of patriarchy and that his gender doesn’t favor him over Cersei ?? Insane. Can’t wait for him to die. It’s 2023, Jaime isn’t Adam and Cersei isn’t Eve, dude is a misogynistic, racist and hyperprivileged white man and his father’s golden boy. Funny how you all talk like Green/Criston’s stans when it comes to Cersei and Jaime.

*EDITED POST* (9/21/23)

Probably from this recent post that itself has 3 links to other posts where I talk about Cersei as a character.

Um...when did I ever either imply or directly say that Jaime was "a victim of patriarchy and that his gender doesn’t favor him over Cersei"? Or express that he was better than his sister, morally? Or express that Cersei deserved to die more than he did?

Perhaps you have that impression because I never talked about Jaime exclusively once, or you're just going off of what you recently read and horribly misinterpreted the purpose and argument of that post. If the latter, I advise you to reread. If the first, I don't write about Jaime much simply because he doesn't interest me as much as Cersei or Tyrion, no one asked me my thoughts about him, and I'm not thinking of him apart from his relationship with Cersei or Tyrion. His knighthood and masculinity are...not "easy", but direct enough for me to not dwell as much as his other siblings' issues. (look to this post by blankwhiteshield about Jaime) I generally care more about women, children, and other marginalized people in fiction, even when I do sympathize with some white cis straight men some of the time.

I mean pre-Brienne Jaime. That's just how GRRm wrote his arc.

For me, blankwhiteshield's posts about Jaime HERE and HERE both suffice to give me a picture of who Jaime is bc they fill in some blanks I had in my pre-existing assessment of Jaime. Which actually wasn't favorable, anon. I find Jaime to actually be very annoying, and no, I do not think that he is Cersei's victim. He is deluded in some ways as much as her and is not a good person because of the abuse and emotional neglect they all get from Tywin/Westerosi society. I actually should have, since again, there were blanks. You can take a look at those links as well.

Look, Cersei is evil & abusive AS WELL AS a victim of domestic abuse woman & of misogyny since childhood. These are not mutually exclusive nor does it NOT mean that her domestic abuse only and directly caused her power-hungriness and need to control if not every, most aspect of her life and those she sees will help her get or maintain control and a good image of herself. Neither the abuse nor misogyny against her erases the fact that she develops hatred towards women, going so far as to violently and sexually objectify them like w/Taena. (Her using what she's observed men do to affirm power and copying it). Or that she pinched her baby brother's penis at a very young age, showing her classist and blase willingness to target children/one of the most vulnerable groups for her own sense of control over her husband, family, etc., and political power. She is also very willing to sacrifice/risk the entire city for her own control of power, similar to Aerys II. Cersei is complicated and there is nuance to her character, but she is unmistakably evil simultaneously. What I like about her or what I find compelling about her (if you haven't read the post about it) is that I can understand her motivations, and relate in some ways, and from practically babyhood she's been trying to be essentially "good enough" and perfect through external, social values of competency BUT also as someone has said: her need for perfection and power and total love comes across as pure in its own sort of twisted way. Her emotions are so intense and uncontrolled and she remains totally unaware of her loneliness that she comes across as childlike.

I also find it very funny how you're criticizing show!Rhaenyra for wanting to marry Jace to Helaena (I presume, you don't specify but that is the closest betrothal to the one you make b/t Myrcella and Tommen) when you say: "At least, Cersei is the one to refuse to go public with their incestous relationship and isn’t out there proposing to marry Myrcella to Tommen". Because while this would have done nothing to assuage Alicent--which was what Rhaenyra was trying to do--it was also not that bad of a deal for Helaena or Jace themselves. I personally dislike it bc, again, we're erasing Rhaenyra's relationship w/Laena and how she ever made it so that Jace married Laena's daughter...but I digress. OR you probably were referring to Jaime expressing the desire to go public with their relationship, that conversation? Again, what does this have to do with my argument in the post I recently posted and that I assume you're responding to?

#asoiaf asks to me #cersei lannister #the lannisters #jaime lannister #agot characterization #cersei's characterization #jaime lan's characterization #asoiaf parenthood #asoiaf #agot