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izzyhandslightofmylife · 5 months

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Official statement on why Izzy's death affected me so much

Our Flag Means Death, is, at it’s core, is a show that focuses on queer joy- a form of therapy for those that have been raised on queerbaiting, shipping minor side characters, or watching, when nothing else is available, queer tragedies. You know how it goes- the two main characters, both male, have chemistry. They say things to each other that seem weirdly like declarations of love. They look at each other with love in their eyes. You see these things and the main man gets married off to a badly written, unfinished female character and is left feeling empty. The best friend dies for the main character to live. When everyone talks about how cute the main couple are, you want to scream all of a sudden, because nobody can see this love story play out except you. It’s queer, it’s tragic, and nobody else can understand it.

Not Our Flag Means Death. From the moment it aired, it was praised as a show with unabashed queer joy, which means more than I can possibly say. The two main male characters meet, they have chemistry, and they fall in love. It’s not implied, or hinted at, but blatantly obvious. Their romances and the queer romances around them attracted so many queer fans who felt that after so many years, this type of show was a vindication for what they had been through with other media.

In this show, piracy itself was that of a found family. Though Stede Bonnet and the crew of the Revenge start off with many differences, the core of the show centers around a theme that many queer audiences are attracted to: found family. The Revenge was depicted as a safe space, where everyone could express themselves freely, a refuge from a world of judgment. Queerness was not only accepted but normalized on The Revenge. No homophobia, no coming out, no typical complications of queer romance. Just love and safety. Warmth, which was Ed Teach wished for in purgatory. Which was what he found on the Revenge. The ship was a safe space that so many queer audiences had dreamed of.

Well, a safe space except for one person: Izzy Hands, Blackbeard’s First Mate, who was a man painfully stuck in the wrong genre. This is the general consensus by both fans and the cast: Izzy, Edward and their crew had been in a gritty action movie, whereas Stede and his crew were in a muppet movie of sorts. While the majority of Blackbeard’s crew quickly acclimates to and celebrates the change, Izzy doesn’t.

And right away, many fans felt a deep attraction to Izzy. The reason that Izzy couldn’t get Edward to love him was because, in the end, the only way that Izzy knew how to love was through blood. To give and receive pain in an action movie is one of the greatest forms of love, but Izzy fails to realize that Ed is not in an action movie anymore. He is happy with this stability, and the reason that so many people felt Izzy’s presence so was strongly was that he wasn’t.

So many queer people are, in a way, addicted to tragedy. Tragedy is all that is represented in queer media for the most part, or was until very recently. Take Achilles and Patroclus, one of the most celebrated and recognized queer love stories of both ancient and modern times. Why that one? There are other greek love stories, many of them queer. The tragedy of it- Patroclus’ death and Achilles’ rage- made it all the more appealing. Many in the audience of Our Flag Means Death were not comedy fans, they were horror or drama fans, attracted to a comedy because of the love story. But Izzy, to them, was a physical representation of who they were, carrying an awareness of homophobia, of blood and pain that so many queer relationships had previously been illustrated by (i.e. Hannibal). Though Ed may not have understand this type of affection, the audience did- Izzy’s Otherness from the crew despite it’s safety, his expressions of love and his unrequited love story were all things that the audience were familiar with feeling.

If Ed and Stede were good queer representation, Ed and Izzy, for example, were a foil of that. They were evil, messed up, and fed into the worst parts of each other because it brought them closer. This is a theme present in a lot of queer media, and by extension, queer lives: “if you love me, Henry, you don’t love me in a way I understand”, is an excerpt classic queer poem about unrequited love that fits the situation. The very reason Izzy stuck in people’s heads because he was of a different genre. His grittiness and bitterness made sense to the audience. They saw Izzy and saw what was familiar. He was exquisitely written, simultaneously making even casual audiences both hate him, and against all odds, find him oddly endearing. The idea of this man sacrificing every inch of himself for an unrequited love was a concept of tragedy, leaking into a comedic show.

So fans projected onto Izzy. He was a catalyst for the heartache, for the audience’s sheer inability to have a happy show. For one reason or another, some of the audience simply couldn’t live with a show that was all fantastical, which I theorize is because they couldn’t see themselves in it. So Izzy became the epitome of queer suffering: pining longingly after another man that couldn’t understand him. This projection of suffering, however, led to a new wish: happiness for Izzy. If Izzy in Season 1 was a tragedy, assimilating him into the found family in Season 2 would have elevated the safe sense of the ship all the more. It would have proved to so many of these Izzy Fans that yes, even though you view yourself as unloveable, even though you see yourself as Israel Hands, Villain, even he can be loved too. Why can’t you be?

And Season 2, for the most part, delivered beyond our wildest dreams. Izzy had people who cared about him. And though the genre shifted into the darker, Izzy himself shifted slightly to the comedic side as well. His life, which had been centered for so long around a man that didn’t reciprocate his feelings, was gone. He started a new life, and this life, again, focused on queer joy. The queer joy from Season 1 was suddenly for everyone, even those like Izzy that couldn’t have understood it. He sang, he whittled, he talked about feelings, he dressed in drag. Many elder queer fans also saw Izzy as another metaphor, too: that queer joy can be attained overtime. You don’t have to have had it the whole time, but you can accept yourself even when you are older. The message of Izzy was one of resilience and stubbornness, one that the queer community needed to hear: that you don’t have to be like this, you don’t have to create pain for yourself. You don’t need to watch tragedies all the time. You, too, can heal from the past.

And then, the season finale happened. By this point, many argued that Izzy had stolen the show. Con O’Neil’s acting mixed with his general arc of self acceptance had made him a fan favorite. In the last episode, it is Izzy himself who sums it up perfectly, accepting that he belongs somewhere despite his pain and flaws. Despite the darkness within him, he was still accepted and loved. He says it right to the face of Prince Ricky, who thinks himself above it all. That piracy, a metaphor for otherness, wasn’t actually about being alone; it was about finding others that understood you when nobody else could.

Listen, this show is known for it’s nonsensicality. In the finale of Season 1, Lucius is thrown overboard by Ed and survives by simply swimming to another ship. Stede reunites with his crew by sailing a rowboat. Buttons turns into a seagull. Stede stabs Ed for a comedic bit. Earlier in the season, Izzy himself gets shot and survives. This queer joy show was celebrated for being, well, joyful. Even when things like getting thrown overboard did happen, they were, ultimately, a blip in the character’s journey towards acceptance, healing, etc, which was what made the show unique. Our Flag Means Death, whose audience had been living for years off of the “Bury your gays” trope, was adored because it illustrated a world where things didn’t have to be that way. A place where the impossible, such as Izzy Hands being loved, could happen. This show was one of survival.

But not for the one person that was seen to struggle with this concept the most. Not for the one person that was a metaphor for belonging in this place, who became, over the course of a season, the embodiment of the message itself. Not for the Unicorn, the very symbol of this magical, nonsensical ship. Not for the most stubborn, most indestructible, most enduring (queer) person in the show. Not for Izzy Hands.

This trope, honestly, was one that many have seen before, both in mainstream and queer media. A character, previously shown to be a villain or else to have gone through a lot of pain, is shown to heal, to get better, and then to die in order to “complete their arc”. This trope is common: Loki, Cas. even Ted Lasso, who doesn’t die but goes back to the very place that broke him in the first place. But the reason that Izzy’s death, while it might have been expected in another show, felt like a betrayal in this one is because it was known for subverting those tropes. From the “Bury Your Gays” to the “Up For Interpretation”, it was known to look those tropes in the eyes and say “fuck you, these people deserve to be happy”. And this did happen! Except for the one character who’s healing journey was one of the most relatable, at least to queer audiences.

What also made it so jarring was that all the other characters got to be happy, except for the one that had struggled with the idea of happiness the most. In the scene immediately after Izzy is buried, Lucius and Pete get married. In the scene after, a montage of queer joy and found family is shown amongst the whole crew. In the final scene, Ed and Stede, our main queer couple, are shown healing themselves and starting a new life together. The last shot, however, showed Izzy’s grave, visited by Buttons the seagull while Ed and Stede had dinner. A tragedy in it’s finest. It wouldn’t have been difficult for Izzy to live. Because, in the end, his death meant nothing. His healing meant nothing. He died and was moved on from in a matter of seconds. He was, as I mentioned, the catalyst for tragedy, more specifically, queer tragedy. But because of this, of his genre, Izzy didn’t get to live. He had to die in order for the rest of the characters to keep living in this fantasy world. This death was, in a way, a preservation of these other love stories.

I maintain, however, that it would have meant more if Izzy had lived. If he had been able to show to us that yes, despite what you have been through, despite what you may have inflicted upon yourself, you can switch genres. It’s possible. Izzy’s survival up until that point had been a profound testament to many that it is possible to heal, that queerness does not have to mean sadness. It would have continued to be a testament to that if only Izzy had lived. And so, this pirate that we latched onto, not in spite of his darkness but because of it, was buried on land on the side of the road.

As a side note, many previous incidences in the story point to the idea even though Ed and Stede will definitely stay together, it’s uncertain if the inn would have worked out. It’s likely that, being a whim, those two might have chosen to move, or go back to the sea, or sail to China. If this is true, they would have left Izzy’s grave by itself, like a family pet buried in the yard. If this is true, Izzy Hands, a metaphor for belonging, would rot alone.

Long live the tragedy addicts. Long live the Richard Siken poems. Long live Izzy Hands.

*When I talk about the "fandom" I am referring to the canyon.

#izzy hands #izzy hands apologist #izzy canyon #our flag means death #ofmd finale #ofmd #izzy hands death #izzy deserved better #ofmd fanfic #i guess #ofmd canyon #con o'neill #tragedy #oh uh happy new year #ofmd meta

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osakanone · 6 days

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UPDATE: The Destiel/Supernats aren't taking this well -- explaining my reasoning for the history I gave, and why Destiel is not the big bitch of shipping that it thinks it is

An update to THIS:

"This is just a marketing thing, Gundam is a giant robot show, only men watch it!"

Gundam's fandom is silent majoratively feminine:

"But its not gay, its about giant robots!"

Gundam is very gay. The entire climax of the first story is a riff of Yukio Mishima lmao

The climax of the Amuro/Char arc of Universal Century Gundam (expounding from first Gundam circa 1979), Char's Counterattack is somewhat on the history of Japanese disillusion with liberalism which notably climaxed with the life and history of Yukio Mishima.

You know. THAT Yukio Mishima.

The one who wrote FORBIDDEN COLOURS.

It was so gay that the fanfiction inspired by it became its own damn anime:

And that's just Charmuro, let alone Charma or a billion other ships just in OG Gundam alone.

We've got This is before we get to Guin Sard Lineford and Yamagi Glimerton (both verrrrry gay), Tieria Erde (a genderqueer trans-coded character who transcends gender entirely in their arc) and a bunch of others.

Gundam was always gay.

"I don't see the numbers"

"That doesn't seem like much, Supernat is at least 2x this"

Sooooo the amount of content you do see isn't representative of how much even got written, given FFN had a huge content purge.

First, let's start with the relative proportion of users: If we're analysing the concept of fandom, we first have to look at who had access to the internet in the first place to publish works.

Yeah that's a pretty sizable difference.

Wing's fandom actually exploded in 2000, but got capped VERY early, distributing itself to fansites when FFN fragmented and collapsed.

Why?

Content purges!

"Isn't there some sort of online archive of this stuff?"

Sure, if you wanna dig through tons and tons of Angelfire and Geocities pages which have mostly disappeared. Otherwise, no! There is no archive of this stuff?

"Why?"

They've since rolled back on this but it means there's a massive amount of lost media out there, including the discussions on it and thus there's an entire history you didn't get to experience.

Its actually very difficult to reach people who've been involved, since it was so long ago that very few people remember, and a sizable proportion of that population have actually died.

"But what about SF fandoms? We have ancient records of stuff like Spirk!"

See unlike physical media like zines, when a server goes offline or there's a data-loss, or something like that there is no surviving copy of the thing in question.

The net result is we have this weird hole where content just vanished, and its now considered lost media. The work of many artists, designers, writers, even videos of events are just lost media because we didn't have the archival mentality adults develop.

You're not gonna hear about all the X-Files stuff or Frasier fanfictions or GW stuff because of these purges and the lack of physical media. FFN users were teens, not adults with resources like US/EU/JP SF fans, who had archival tendencies due to their long history.

So there is this supermassive black-hole in the history of fanfiction running between 1998, and 2008 and some of the only evidence of it are worksafe works and fansites which the owners have long since forgotten about because folks moved on. Moving on is a normal part of fandom.

So to those of you just saying "supernatural is losing to a pair of dumb anime girls" or "urgh this is just a trend tumblr will get over it and go back to supernatural"...

Uhhhhh no they won't, actually?

Supernat's fans mostly seem to be waspy Americans. Gundam is kind of a global phenomenon, one which has traditionally had a silent majority female audience, a vocal minority male audience -- and every time that majority has spoken up, its coincided with a content purge, or a TOS change that mysteriously biases American derived fiction over Japanese derived fiction.

Funny that.

tl;dr:

NATURE IS HEALING

#witch from mercury #supernatural #destiel #g witch

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haveyouseenthishorrormovie · 4 months

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before this goes any further, I want it on the record that you all asked for this.

my first and most petty point: Midnight Mass gets basic details about Catholicism wrong, such that even I (not a Catholic) twigged them. The big one is that Catholics DON'T HAVE MIDNIGHT MASS FOR EASTER - it's a Christmas thing - but since the priest holding the mass is also a vampire, I can accept that he's going off-book. I have a harder time with them holding a PICNIC for ASH WEDNESDAY, aka THE DAY LENT STARTS, aka the day everyone starts fasting and are therefore not snacking on a potluck. It's a minor thing, and normally I wouldn't pick at it, but since this show ostensibly revolves around Catholic doctrine, it bears mentioning.

on a writing level, not one single character in this show talks like a human being. or acts like one. I couldn't give you any information about who these characters are as people, because they're not people, they're mouthpieces for Flanagan to impart his ideas to the audience. He is both deeply in love with his own writing and entirely unconvinced that his audience is smart enough to Get It, so he has his actors turn to the audience and lay it all out. Not only is this bad writing on a character level, it brings all plot and tension to a screeching halt whenever it happens. The most unintentionally hilarious instance of this has to be when Annabeth Gish comes to the sheriff to tell him that the church is being run by a vampire and her mother is aging in reverse, and his response is to start rambling about where he was on 9/11. Like. Nothing about this makes sense, and also why should we care when it has fuckall to do with the story?

(as regards the sheriff character: I, a white Quaker, am not the person to critique this show's handling of Islam. But I will say that Flanagan doesn't seem to have a clear idea what he wants to communicate: the overarching plot is antitheistic, in a very r/atheism sort of way ("WHAT IF THE SACRAMENT WAS VAMPIRE BLOOD" ooh wow didja cut yourself on that edge there, buddy) but Flanagan has no idea how to balance that with the precepts of any religion that isn't Christianity while also maintaining his broadly liberal bona fides, so it all sits very uneasily next to the church plot. I'm not advocating for the show to go full Christopher Hitchens, but I am saying that if Flanagan wants to posit that faith is a mass delusion and a net detriment to any community formed around it . . . he needs to either focus only on Christian characters or be willing to engage with how other religions function in society, because as is, the storyline with the sheriff and his son just peters out into nothing.)

but the thing that made me angriest - that took me from "this is so boring and pretentious and badly written" to "oh FUCK this guy and the horse he rode in on -" was the titular midnight mass. It is very overtly inspired by the Jonestown massacre, which a lot of horror media does, but what it fails to account for is that the members of the People's Temple did not voluntarily kill themselves. I know "drink the kool-aid" has entered the popular lexicon as shorthand for "blindly following a leader," but extensive testimony from Jonestown survivors - not to mention the death tape, which is available online if you really want to ruin your day - all confirms that the people who died that day were forced to drink poison at gunpoint, after years of brutal abuse from Jones and his inner circle. And even after all of that, people fought back. And not outsiders - people who had been in the Temple for years and wholeheartedly believed in the mission that had lead them to Guyana in the first place. (Christine Miller was a fucking hero and she deserves to be remembered for it.) Jonestown was not lemmings going off a cliff, and any serious take on the story would involve reckoning with that - that these people believed in a higher power and also believed that they had a right to live despite what Jones told them. But that would contradict Flanagan's point of "religion is dumb, WAKE UP SHEEPLE," so instead he borrows the iconography of a truly horrific tragedy and disrespects the victims by implicitly representing them as dumb, brainwashed cult members who eagerly toss back poison because they think sky daddy wants them to. He has so little respect for the subjects he's portraying, and the real people whose deaths he is copying for shock value, that he doesn't care about the inner lives of anyone whose beliefs might demonstrate that faith is more nuanced than his screed would have you believe.

There are good horror properties out there that are critical of religion and society - The Medium, which we posted about a few days ago, is one. The Witch is another. So is The Sudbury Devil. Hell, you could go back to the sixties with Witchfinder General. Religion - especially socially dominant religions like Christianity in the west - can and should be critiqued. But Midnight Mass is too sloppily written to be a critique of anything besides, accidentally, how far Mike Flanagan's head is shoved up his ass.

Anyway, that's why mod L doesn't like Midnight Mass. I did warn you.

#not a poll #mod L #ask the mods

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dangermousie · 5 months

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Finished.

God, what a glorious, glorious, glorious ride, a truly solid epic drama in a way I haven't seen in a very long time - there were two other flawless cdramas for me this year - Lost You Forever 1 and The Ingenuous One - but TIO was a smaller scale story and LYF ended in medias res. AJTL was the only complete, epic cdrama this year for me, but oh boy, was it beyond.

First, my two tiny niggles - this is a drama where the 40 episode limit fit badly, like tightly pinching shoes. You can tell how they had to speed and cram to get in the resolutions of dynastic struggles in An and Wu and the war with Beipan. This drama really needed to have been 50 eps. (The cramming also resulted in the sole plot arc that made me go huh - LTG random decision to try to marry Ruyi before he rides off to what he thinks is his last battle and his just as random decision to go "oh well" and agree to release NYZ and then when NYZ shows up before he can be released because he broke out and wreaks havoc, let them walk out. Maybe if they had more time, it would have made more sense, otherwise it felt like an aberration in a character arc that before and after was consistent and made sense.) Second niggle is not really one because it's clearly due to censorship - the last minute redemption of the Wu emperor etc - the writer made is as believable as she could but you could feel the censorship sticky hands all over it.

But those are minor complaints. Overall this was solid from beginning to end, very adult and with secondary characters who all felt real and complex and interesting. A few thoughts:

Our main OTP was incredible. So adult, so competent, so badass but still feeling human. I bought that those two were larger than life legends AND flesh and blood people. And that chemistry!

I loved that this drama allowed relationships to be messy. Yes, we have our epic main couple but I especially loved what happened with Chu Yue and Shisan and LTG and Ying. I loved that neither was an epic romance. With CY and Shisan, I loved that they didn't make him realize he loves her forever blah blah - he was an incredibly consistent character - charming, loyal and utterly clear he's incapable of permanent commitment to a single woman and she never could change that. And yet he died in large part to protect her, and it's in keeping with his character and it makes sense that this solidified her remembering him forever - he's not just the one who got away, but he DIED for her. It's very clear if they both lived, this would have gone nowhere and ended with him wandering off or her moving on wanting commitment from someone who is capable of it, but as it is, it froze the possibility of love in ember.

And I loved the narrative of LTG and Ying. They both come into marriage in love with someone they can never have (Ruyi and YL), they both have similar backgrounds (royals but neglected and looked down upon), they both share the same goals (power but to take care of people) and they really are friends. I love that when we last see them, they have what is a great period marriage - no love but respect and common goals. And she still mourns YL and he probably still thinks of Ruyi but the thing is, I love that the narrative leaves the possibility of them eventually falling in love with each other (or other people) because as she tells him - you think you will always love a particular person but life is long. (And it's so true - she will remember YL until she's old, once again in part because of the unfulfilled possibility of it - but it doesn't mean she won't be able to open her heart to someone again.) It's a surprisingly hopeful ending for them and I love it. I'd totally watch a show where they discover love with each other tbh.

I did love that no character (except possibly Prince Danyang) got everything they wanted even if they emerged alive. They got some and had to give up some.

I loved what it had to say about having to be worthy of your power and position - you are not owed fealty by birth but you have to earn it. It was a surprisingly anti-imperial show for a recent cdrama.

All the deaths of our faves gutted me, none as much as Yuan Lu's. Oooof.

As to the ending, I can tell people are gonna have fits but I like it. I love many an ending legendarily reviled in cdrama fandom (Princess Agents and Novoland Eagle Flag have perfect endings in my opinion; I realize that opinion, especially about PA is enough to get me throttled in certain quarters but it is what it is) and I came to cdramas back when pretty much every costume cdrama ended horrifically tragically - think of the endings of the Chinese Paladins, The Myth (for a long time my n1 drama even though it made me cry so hard I threw up, ending-wise), The Young Warriors, Little Fairy, even Lan Ling Wang, Glory of the Tang Dynasty and Bu Bu Jing Xin if we are going somewhat later. I mean, one of my favorite dramas ever is Royal Nirvana and that ending is like drinking a thermos full of depression. This is nothing.

Honestly, I would have been fine if the ending for our OTP really was them dying pretty much together, in their different battles. That hint that they are alive and living with their kids is lovely and welcome, but I'd have been fine without it and it raises a lot of questions (though if anyone could fake their deaths and survive that sort of thing, it would have been them so fair enough.)

Anyway, this is basically my love letter to this drama. It was amazing and I am so glad I watched it.

#cdrama #a journey to love #liu shi shi #liu yuning #alen fang #fang yilun

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dailyfigures · 25 days

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(not the same anon) i only saw the anime (not the full thing cause i hated it), ill try to keep the points neutral/factual & not let my opinion/bias shine through too much. heres some of the stuff that happens (spoilers obviously): 1. main character, adult man, works as a doctor. one of his patients is 16 year old idol Ai. she is pregnant. mc is obsessed with her throughout the show. when asked by a colleague if he'd hook up with her if given a chance he says yes. 2. a patient of his (i dont know her age, early/mid teens) is in love with him. she dies. 3. the doctor mc is killed. he is 'reincarnated' as Ai's child, while keeping his past memories, along with the teen girl patient i mentioned in (2.), now named ruby. mc is now named aqua. they are twins now. they don't know each others former identities 4. Ai is killed, which further fuels aquas obsession with her (it seems to be romantic since i believe he mentions being in love with her, her being his 'ideal woman' etc) 5. several teenage girls are also in love with him (while his 'reincarnation' is their age, he has the full scope of his past memories, making him at least 30yo in lived experience), while he doesn't seem to reciprocate their feelings (up to the point i watched the show at least), it's not treated as something he's against due to them being teenagers, moreso that he's too preoccupied with searching for Ai's killer. that's about it, im sure theres more in the manga & bits i havent seen, i personally really dislike the show but i'd understand if you were to keep up the figurines as despite those themes no actual incest happens to my knowledge (correct me if wrong or forgot stuff!), some of the designs are pretty i guess

thank you for taking the time to explain it to me anon! i'm sure there's good parts to it since it's so popular but yeah it doesn't sound like it'd be for me personally either.

i do find it hard to judge media like this without having seen it. i'm a big horror fan so i watch a lot of media that features things you should very much Not do irl but that doesn't mean all horror is inherently problematic. sometimes media is just an exploration of something fucked up without explicitly stating "this is Bad!!! Do Not Do!!!!" because they trust the consumer to realise that on their own.

having said that, oshi no ko doesn't sound like a psychological piece that explores the morals of incest and adult-minor relationships to me (from what i understand without having seen/read it! do please correct me if i'm wrong!). it sounds like it's just kinda very weird without challenging those themes much.

again, it's hard to judge that without having consumed it. i think i'll just leave up the oshi no ko posts i have and not add any more. i might have some in the queue so i'll remove those if i remember to. hope everyone is somewhat okay with that decision!

#again thank you for your message anon!!!#ask #anon #non figure

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wanderingmind867 · 4 months

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I hate when characters die in fiction. Especially when they're characters you see a lot of. The more I see a character, the more their death will upset me. Also, it'll upset me doubly if they fall into a character archetype that I like. Some examples:

In Books: I'm just going to hone in on Percy Jackson and Harry Potter for this category for now. Both those book series have a lot of death. Some of which affected me more than others, but all affected me to some degree. Like with Pjo and Harry Potter the two deaths I couldn't get over are Jason Grace and Albus Dumbledore. I couldn't handle Jason's death because I'd read 4-5 books with him as a main character! At least with Bianca and Zoë, you only know them for one book! Not five! And as for Dumbledore, I'm not kidding when I say he was my favorite character. He was. When he died, I barely wanted to keep reading. If I could force the authors of those books to undo both these deaths, I think I would make them undo them.

Comics: I think this is why I like 60s comics more than comics from later decades. Less death. In the 60s the majority of characters that tended to die (I think) were minor villians and stuff. Which I can handle. What I can't handle is killing off a recurring character or villian. I'm still bitter about the deaths of both George and Gwen Stacy (even though I stopped reading after George Stacy died). I also disagree with the killings of Captain Marvel, Jason Todd, etc. I'm sorry, but they didn't deserve to die. Especially when I'm using these goddamn stories as my escape from reality! In an escape from reality, I don't want to be reminded that we can all die! No!

I also hate when villians who get used more than one time get killed off. Because it's pointless. I'd rather they fade into obscurity instead of dying. It's pointless. And I hate it.

I could probably continue this post by discussing other forms of media again, but I think I've said all I need to say for now.

#percy jackson #harry potter #comics #marvel #dc #marvel comics #dc comics #jason grace #albus dumbledore #george stacy #gwen stacy #jason todd #captain marvel #I hate death irl #why on earth do I want it in my escapism?#huh!?

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applesjuice · 3 months

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How are the others taking Kieran's death ? Won't they think there's something fishy ? (Legends AU)

I'm SCREAMING this is the first ask I've gotten in ten whole years and it's about KIERAN 🤣

Putting beneath a read more because this got stupid long...

But real talk, Carmine would be taking it the hardest she'd be a mess for a while. In my mind the plot of LA takes places over about two years to complete the pokedex, so by then she'd have graduated school, and is trying to redefine who she is since so much of her identity was tied into being a big sister. She'd be antagonistic towards Briar for a while, blaming her for bringing them down there in the first place. But I like to think Carmine comes to understand that adults are not perfect after the fallout that comes to Briar and the Paladean Pokemon League as a result of a minor dying on a sponsored exception.

Briar I think would write her book but she'd have fallen out of favor in the academic world due to her irresponsibility. She'd face harsh criticism from the public and the guilt she'd feel would be tremendous because Kieran, despite being a little shit at the time, was a child. I like to believe two years later she's really struggling with her career, getting denied grants and project funding, having her papers get denied by academic journals. She's a mess.

Geeta and the Paladean Pokemon League would face harsh scrutiny over allowing this specific expedtion to occur. For years they refused to allow expeditions down in Area Zero due to a lack of strong enough, accredited (re: champion level) trainers who were not bogged down by workload. Its a media shitstorm. A research team with only three children as the safety trainers? Yes one of them is a certified Champion of their league but they are still a child with only a few months experience, and the other two were strong trainers in their own right but not accredited under Paladean standards. There wasnt enough prep or vetting. Geeta would as a result step down as chairwoman due to the backlash. Atm there is no top champion so if someone beats the elite 4 there's a hold on becoming a champion level trainer while Nemona is being trained for the position.

Now the BB Academy Elite 4, they're shook. Drayton takes it the hardest because he turned down going, so he's like "what if I was there what if there was one more trainer could I have prevented this". The other 3 did see Kieran as a friend, despite his recent behavior. Before that he was Carmine's little brother, and Crispin and him were pretty friendly too, what with being in the same grade. Yeah the kid was a bully but imagine coming to school one day and there's an announcement one of your clasmates died. Thats traumatic!

Now, the protagonist. Oh boy. Regardless of if they're Juliana or Florian, they'd be pretty traumatized. They considered Kieran a friend. At one point they loved his company, he was so kind and sweet and they already blamed themselves a bit for the whole Ogerpon situation. Yeah Kieran took it to the extreme with his reaction, but I find Kieran a really interesting character with how the game wrote him. He's a child, was lied to by the people closest with him, and he doesnt seem the type to easily connect with others. But the one time he finally finds someone he connects with, we continuously and unrelentlessly crush him at something he enjoys, join his family in treating him like he has no agency by hiding the truth of his special interest from him, and go out of our way to disinclude him with his sister.

And like of course Ogerpon got close to us we spent so much time with her, getting her to trust us and know us. I see this take a lot that Kieran just wants to enslave legendaries but thats definitely not it. He's trying to get back at us. We took something special from him, and he never really had the chance to put in his bid for Ogerpon's attention and he knew it was selfish, but he cared so much for her as someone that was always disincluded, bullied, looked down on by others, and he had to at least try because Ogerpon to him, is a projection of himself. He had to TRY even if as he stated, he knew it was wrong.

And then we take his spot as Champion from him that he like, harmed himself and those around him for so he could at least have *something* that put him on the same level as you. Like we as the protagonist are the villain of Kieran's story (sorry for the tangent I swear it's relevant), but he's 14 and had a mental breakdown. And he got killed before we could reconcile or get through to him.

I think the protagonist would do a lot of soul searching because their first thought is "i should have taken the blast." Or "i could have stopped it" and then they had the humbling realization of "what could i even have done? We're the same age. That could have been me, i could have died" because even if the protagonist would never like, try to catch Terapagos immediately with a Masterball, its still a wild and untrained monster with too much power. There's no telling what would have happened if Kieran wasn't there. It'd incredibly eye opening and humbling and I think they'd strive to be a better more understanding person from this. The whole game people are hyping them up, telling them theyre so strong, they're the best, etc. Thats gotta give you a bit of a big head. I think they'd look to the adults they can trust, their mom, their teachers who are genuinely amazing people, and lean on them for support.

And when Kieran gets back and kind of has no idea who they are, and here's that sweet kid they remember with all of his love for pokemon and battling, except he's so much healthier and confident about it (and traumatized in different ways thanks Kamado and Volo). They'd probably be so amazed by him and thankful for this second chance.

Tldr: i should probably just write a fic for this it got stupid long...

#ask #not art #here i traumatize and entire generation of characters over the “death” of one child #meanwhile kieran is wrestling bears and being force fed food by adults and the clans low key have beef over who gets dibs #its sneasler #sneasler has dibs because this child is purple obviously its a poison type #kieran #legends arceus au

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avidbeader · 1 month

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So, I've been doing the Great Sheith Reblog for a while now, gradually reblogging almost everything I shared before that was tagged as Sheith. Lots of art, gifsets, fics and recs, old merch posts, and meta to go around with the occasional dash of salt because lord, dumbness about shipping brings out the salt sometimes. But most of the time it's a lovely nostalgia hit and a reminder of why I still love this ship with all my fandom heart. It's bittersweet sometimes, seeing the usernames that left with Tumblr's worst decision ever, the fellow fans who have moved on to other things, and yes, the hopes and dreams we had before Season 8.

Long blathering under the cut: musings about the persistence of anti-shippers and what queerbaiting actually means.

But occasionally what both amuses and frustrates me is how things line up because it's 2024 and we still have klantis/antis over on the former Twitter spreading the same lies about Shiro and Keith - about their ages, about how they met, about what their relationship is. Right now over there, arguing is happening again because someone put up a clout-chasing poll about which mlm ship was the most influential and included KL but not Sheith (KL beat Johnlock and then lost to Hualian, so I'm happy twice over). Side note - I think if we take "influence" as a completely neutral term, then yeah, KL has been a huge negative influence on fandoms as it was one of the places that allowed puriteen attitudes and anti behavior to grow unchecked for so long. That helped turn some ship fandoms into cults, in which you had to believe with utter certainty that your ship would be canon or you weren't a "true" fan of the ship. That put more emphasis on opposing a rival ship through wank and harassment instead of focusing on the joy and fun of creating for the ship you supposedly love.

And that poll prodded someone to create a Google Form for soliciting answers as to what the biggest examples of queerbaiting are in media. And of course people are saying KL and Adam/Shiro, among other things that are not at all queerbait. These are examples of people guessing wrong and getting mad about it. Queerbait requires that the producers/writers/etc. say outright that a ship is going to happen and then it doesn't, without any influences from the powers above them making changes. Not received fan "wisdom". Not marketing doing things without consulting the producers.

And I just reblogged someone's ask in which they said they felt queerbaited by Sheith solely because of the "brother" line in "The Black Paladins". The answer is excellent and worth a ready if you haven't seen it on my blog already.

Breaking it down:

KL is not queerbait. KL was never planned as a potential ship and LM/JDS said so multiple times. They said it never occurred to them as a possibility and by the time KL's popularity took off they were too far along in the writing to try and go back and make changes, because animators need time to draw. LM flat-out said she was surprised that it became a thing. If the producers are telling you over and over in no uncertain terms that a ship had never been on the table and couldn't be added to the table now, that's not a case of queerbait. And they spoke of Lance's love interests as female every single time. JDS/LM never said anything that would lead fans into thinking KL was a possibility without the deliberate and willful misinterpreting of their words.

Adam/Shiro is not queerbait. Adam is a minor character in a series with a large cast. He has two functions: to be evidence of Shiro's status as a queer man and to be a "face" for all the pilots that died in the first wave of Sendak's invasion. Some people try to claim that LM and JDS queerbaited with their answers at SDCC 2018, but they're wrong. The only thing LM said was that we would see more of Adam in S7. And we did. She did not promise we'd see more of him with Shiro. That was people inserting what they wanted to hear, just like them trying to elevate Adam's status to a fiancé when again, LM clearly stated that they were serious and considering getting engaged. Not engaged. Not married. Just a couple that was serious about each other but broke up.

I don't consider Sheith to be true queerbait. It might fall under the cryptoqueer situation explained at the end of the post linked above, but JDS and LM were mostly very careful to talk of Sheith in terms of deep friendship and devotion to one another, after the initial wave of support for fan content during S1, prior to the klanti movement taking off. The only thing that skirts the line for me is a quote, I think from JDS, saying that if Shiro had a new love interest it would be someone he has known a long time. Or maybe that was about the romances in general being developed over seasons and not Shiro-specific - I would need to research. (Yet more proof that the endcard "wedding" was not planned since we didn't see the unnamed groom until S7 and they never interacted.) And that was said before studio execs started meddling and caused the trainwreck of S8.

I do think we were supposed to have an open ending for Sheith. Klantis like to point out a storyboard artist claiming that "no one wins" this ship war as evidence that KL was supposed to happen and got changed, but that statement applies if Sheith is left open-ended and Allurance happens, even without the endcards.

When I have a chance, I'll try and dig up the links for the various quotes I mention above. Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

#voltron #sheith #why K/L and A/S are not actually queerbait despite anti claims

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dantheserialkillerman · 2 years

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Dan Hiroki X GN!Childhood Friend Reader

Once upon a time, there was a Kirin who came to earth and fell in love with a human. The deity knew that if he acted upon his feelings, he would surely die, for humans always destroyed everything they touched, so he watched from afar. The other Yōkai begged him to leave the mortal alone, but the Kirin refused. Months turned into years as he watched, yearned, and adored until he couldn't anymore. When the human died, the spirit felt himself withering away from heartbreak and curled up on the mortal's grave. As he faded into dust, the Kirin realized that all his years of watching had been wasted since, in the end, the human still destroyed him. And like a dream, he disappeared right after being awakened, leaving nothing but bones behind.

Contains: Backstory and Gender Neutral Reader General warning: Long-post (3000 words) TW: Possessiveness/Yandere vibes and Gore Characters: Dan Hiroki, You, and more minor OCs. Colour meaning: Green (mythology), Red (media), Purple (Dialogue)

You grew up south of Tokyo. A beach village named Blest where tsunamis tried to drown the residents once every decade. A place filled with tiny stone houses, crumbling temples, and giant windmills with rotor blades like dragons' teeth, gnawing away at the occasional gale.

Your parents used to tell you that a Kirin, during the Heian period, visited the town and fell in love with a human, only to die. Before it faded into nothing, the spirit gave a single blessing to the lover's family: "the loneliest child of each generation shall find the other end of their red thread of fate and meet their true love." You had scoffed and reasoned they were just trying to make you feel better about living in the middle of nowhere.

You had a childhood friend once upon a time. A young boy named Dan Hiroki visited his grandparents during the summers. He was a blur of drained colour, save for his lips and red sneakers.

When you first met, he had claimed to be the recantation of Shuten-dōji, and that's why he had no friends; you had asked, "who am I then?" He responded, "You were Minamoto no Yorimitsu, of course!" Sometimes, you believed him.

The two of you would spend your days searching for the Hibagon and Kodama in the nearby forest that smelled of paprika. Or, when the clouds covered the sun and made the day look like night, travelled down to the beach, hoping to find Ningyo and Akugyo.

However, as Dan said, the other children in the village found him strange. They would point and claim he attracted evil spirits and commanded an Enenra.

Summer after summer, they would assert something was amiss with him. One year after coming home from playing in the ocean, covered in seaweed and sand, a rumour persisted that he turned you into an Akaname. Another, when a new bridge was built, he made a Hashihime curse everyone in town after it rained for a week straight.

Yet, the story that would never die was how Dan was Shuten-dōji and that you were destined to kill one another. They said his unnatural eyes gave his true identity away. Only a Yōkai could see without a soul. You always tried to defend him; Dan was sweet, caring, and... yes, he was strange, but so were you. As they said, dumplings rather than flowers. Especially when it comes to friendship.

Every year, without fail, when he was meant to leave on the day before August ended, he would take your hand into his and ask, "Y/N, wait for me next summer?" And because you were a child, you would agree every time. He then would smile enigmatically and say, "I am you, and you are me. They won't be able to separate us. We will always be together. I promise." You would then wave goodbye and return to your daily life.

When you were ten, your parents, for fun, had decided to rent the American movie The Exorcist. Dan had remained captivated by the film, hardly speaking a word until the end. He had then turned to you and said, "that's what we should do when we grow up."

"Commit suicide?" You had joked

"What!? No!" He playfully shoved you, "rid the world of evil."

"You want to be an exorcist?"

"That would mean I would have to leave you, so no. Never."

Later, under a large buna tree, you had told him the story of Kusanagi, a sword which lay curled up in the scales of an eight-headed serpent named Yamata no Orochi, who, like Pazuzu, also attacked a young girl. The great god Susanoo defeated him by chopping off each head after tricking the monster. The weapon was then given to the emperor, who passed it down for many generations until the serpent returned and kidnapped the newly appointed boy-king. Some say the empire was able to obtain the blade again after a priest cast a powerful spell upon the dragon. However, others say it lays in the hands of the proper emperor, still waiting to be uncovered in a kingdom beneath the sea.

"The sword, if ever found, can turn dragons into men and itself into a giant beast. Don't you see Dan, it can cast out all sin from this world."

Entwining your pinkies, you promised to find that sword one day. No more bullying, oppression, or crime. As friends, you would pack your bags, travel the world, master astrology, and defeat all evil that stood in your way.

Despite your closeness, you were not blind. You knew very well Dan didn't get along with others.

During your 7th summer together, you introduced him to a friend of yours, a classmate named Kikue. All was well until you ran home to fetch popsicles and returned to Dan standing blankly over the crying girl, who had mysteriously broken her arm. When asked, she claimed to have fallen out of a tire swing, but you knew it was him. You couldn't bring yourself to tell, and Kikue was too scared. She had avoided you after that.

You would ask him why he did it a month later, and Dan only gave the muttered response, "she wasn't you."

Time passed until your 13th summer together when you had turned sixteen. Having gone through puberty, the village children suddenly decided they liked Dan.

He had come back taller, handsome, and more charming. Gone were the days of his dead-fish-eyed stare and, instead, a Tennin stood in his place, which you couldn't help but blush at.

You had frozen at that moment, and like a faint light breaking away, you felt the Dan Hiroki you once knew, the strange but loveable child, fading from you. Thinking about the end of the summer, you guessed this would be the last beautiful goodbye before moving on with your lives.

He would forget about you. You could see it in how popular he had become. Yet you pretend everything was fine as he greeted his new admires. You pretended everything was fine when he hugged you, and you felt a dozen eyes glaring in jealousy. Because everything was fine. Why wouldn't it be? You were never Minamoto no Yorimitsu, and he wasn't Shuten-dōji. Who wanted to cut off the head of their best friend anyway?

A week after his arrival, a couple of the local high school students decided to throw a party by the beach to celebrate the end of the school year. The location would be up where the trees grew thick and made way to a clearing that gave a view of the salty waters. Of course, they had invited Dan to come along, but he had said he was too busy hanging out with you. One particular girl, Reo, did not take this well and demanded you convince him to come or she would make your school life hell.

Knowing she was serious, you told dan it would be "a fun field trip" for the two of you, like "the old times when we were kids, one last hurrah, you know?"

He looked at you incredulously, then an emotion you couldn't identify quickly fluttered across his face like the opening of a fan, only to settle back onto his sleepy smile.

"Sure, if it will make you happy."

You hadn't actually planned to go. Instead, you had decided to watch The Exorcist. Everyone would be happier that way, you had thought. Dan would show up, realize how much fun it was to have a Fanclub, and forget you were gone. But on the night of the party, you saw him at your window, tapping on the glass with big sad eyes and asking if you were ready to go. So you went. How could you say no to Dan?

As you walked toward the campfire, which lit up the night sky, you couldn't help but feel like he was acting strange. Dan seemed fidgety, his eye twitching occasionally, and his fingers couldn't decide whether they wanted to tap against his legs or fold behind his back. After a while, you grabbed his hand, as he would often do when you were kids, and kept him steady.

"Calm down. I know you're nervous, but it's not like anyones gonna die. It's just a party." You laughed, but he wouldn't let go when you tried to pull back.

"I'll be your left if you'll be my right," he winked. You rolled your eyes and let him lead you up to the cliffside.

The fire pit was surrounded by your homeroom, surprisingly including Kikue, who had grown pretty with age. And, of course, someone had brought a guitar to encourage everyone to sing random off-key hits from the radio.

It only took an hour for most of the kids to be tipsy, having snuck Sake out of their parent's homes. You had taken a few sips as well, but Dan remained dry.

Reo had stared at Dan throughout most of the night. Much to your displeasure, she had even shoved herself between the two of you, laying against his shoulder. Dan had looked surprised, but you just laughed, subtly telling him to let it go.

"Why do you hang out with someone like Y/N, Dan-Chan? I mean, no offence, but you’ve moved up in life.” You heard her whisper. Dan simply smiled, and you looked away. She titled her head coyly, fawning at him through her lashes, "did you ever hear the legend about the Kirin?" Her nails tapped against his forearm, "I'm starting to believe it's true." You tried not to look over at the two of them, but you couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes bore into you.

It was okay, you reminded yourself. You pretend to laugh at something Kikue had said; the eyes seemed to bear down harder.

When everyone was halfway through a garbled Kenshi Yonezu song, Reo had abruptly declared, "I wanna dance, like one those Oklahoma hoedown mixer-thingies they do in America or whatever," she stood and raised a bottle, "everyone, grab a partner! Dan-!"

You felt someone tab your shoulder, "Y/N promised me a dance." He blushed and brought a hand up to his face, "Oh, I'm sorry for being so rude," he squeezed the back of your neck playfully, "But there are more guys than girls here, and Reo, you seem so popular. I doubt you want to dance with Y/N anyway, and I wouldn't want to intrude."

You didn't know Reo could possess so much hatred, but from her acidic glare, you decided not to cross her in the future. The guitar started again with some country song you didn't recognize, and Dan pulled you into a dance.

The laughing and singing became nothing more than white noise as you looked into his grey eyes. You asked, "Hey, Dan? Do you still believe your Shuten-dōji?"

"Only if you promise to always be my Minamoto no Yorimitsu."

You didn't respond at first. You decided to answer, "How about I be your Kirin instead?"

Dan looked taken aback, so you quickly clarified, "Like the legend, I'll give you a gift. Didn't I tell you I wanted to become an archaeologist?" You smirked at his surprise and gave a flamboyant spin, "I'm going to find that sword, you know. Don't think I forgot about it. "

"You can't." He abruptly held you still, hands digging into your arms, his eyes wild, reflecting the fire.

You tried to shrug him off, "What?! Why not?"

"Because that would mean you're going to leave. You promised you would never leave me." He seemed to hyperventilate slightly.

You leaned forward, took a deep breath, inhaled the smoke, and placed your forehead against Dan's shoulder. You closed your eyes and swallowed, "We were kids. Kids say stuff they don't mean all the time. We would have to move on eventually anyway."

You couldn't see Dan's expression, but you felt him tense up. "I don't like Reo. I rather die than have you leave me."

"Dan-"

"I can prove it." He mumbled to himself more than you. "I'll prove it."

"Look, I'm going to dance with Kikue." You stepped back and brushed him off. You looked up and noticed Reo watching you like a hawk, and grinning the best you could, you decided to wave her over. "I think someone is waiting for you." Hair covered his eyes as he remained stock-still, arms hanging limply by his side.

"I will prove it." you thought you heard as you walked away.

Three hours passed, and the fire had died down quite a bit, although still blazing. You hadn't been able to spot Dan after your conversation and reasoned he had either hit it off with Reo or gone home. The rest of your class mainly had passed out. You had remained awake for a while talking with Kikue. It was nice to have someone you once were close with want to speak to you again. But eventually, the night became too much, and the two of you fell asleep against one another.

When you woke up, you felt groggy at first. You tried to move your arms but realized you couldn't. Suddenly panicking, you awoke fully with a jolt. You blinked to clear your eyes. It was...the woods? Wiggling, you looked around and felt rope around your wrists tying you to a tree. You peeked at where you had been pinned to see the branches of your childhood buna. It was still night, and darkness fogged your vision, but you could tell it was the same rope you used once to make swings.

"Y/N?" Kikue whimpered from the other side of the tree, pinned as well.

"I'm awake. You okay? What the actual hell happened?"

"I don't know! Fuck, we're gonna die. We are totally going to die. This is why I didn't want to talk to you….Fuck, I don't want to-"

You suddenly heard movement, and the forest went completely quiet. You whispered, "Kikue pretend to be still passed out."

The footsteps grew closer and louder until they stopped right in front of you. You felt a body lean forward, and air tickled your cheek, "I know you're awake, Y/N."

"Dan?! What-I-Why am I-I mean we-tied up!?" His beautiful face nosed along your jaw, his torso pined against your own.

"I told you I would prove it," his lips pressed against your ear, "and unlike you, I always keep my promises." You gapped for a couple of seconds, lost for words. Dan kissed your cheek. "Look up."

You slowly gazed upwards and started to shake violently. There, up on a branch above your head, hung the shoeless lifeless body of Reo. The exact same place you had once placed a swing. Her neck was bent at an awkward angle, and her once lovely pink lips opened in a silent scream that was never heard. In a fit of madness, you had thought you had seen an Onryō.

Before you could scream, Dan placed a hand over your mouth. "I told you I didn't like her. See? She's gone." He smiled. "There's only one more problem to get rid of now, and then we can be happy again. We belong to each other, and you know what they say?" He let go of your mouth, a long trail of spit connecting the two of you, as you merely stared back at him in shock. Dan licked his hand. "Three's a crowd."

"Wait! Wait! Dan-just stop for a second. Please!" He didn't seem to hear you as he stood up.

"You see, Y/N. It wasn't me who Reo liked; it was Kikue." He spoke louder, so the named girl could also hear. "She asked to meet her by the buna tree after we all fell asleep, and there she confessed her love!" he sighed dramatically; you thought you heard vomiting. "But it seems Kikue didn't share such feelings, and in a rage, Reo murdered her and then killed herself. Shocking but riveting! It reminds me of that one show...Aha, evil against evil."

"Dan. You can't be serious?!" You yelled over Kikue's wailing.

"You know what's even worse, Y/N? They couldn't even find Kikue's body because Reo threw it into the sea out of shame. I do hate sad endings, but sometimes it can't be helped. At least they can be together in the afterlife." Dan gave a half-hearted shrug and dusted off his pants.

You started to cry. Not because of what was going to happen. You cried because when he walked around the tree to Kikue, you couldn't help but think how beautiful he was. Like an angel. Like a devil. Like the grim reaper. Your Shuten-dōji.

The screaming continued, then whimpering and finally gurgling up until a loud crack and silence.

"Close your eyes." And you did.

Ten minutes later, Dan returned, Kikue now buried in her watery grave with the Ningyo and Akugyo. You opened your eyes, and he looked perfectly put together. He untied your hands, and you rested numbly. He sat next to you, reached up, and pushed the dangling Reo's feet. "At least your hanging in there."

"Why did you do all of that?" You asked in a scratchy voice.

Dan took your face into his hands and kissed you. You felt the thread of fate being tugged.

After a minute, he pulled back, and you really looked at him for the first time tonight. He was a blur of drained colours, save for his lips and red beneath his fingernails.

He placed his forehead against yours. "I am you, and you are me. They won't be able to separate us. We will always be together. I promise." He kissed you again. "Please don't cut off my head Minamoto no Yorimitsu."

"I can't promise that."

"I know."

Dan walked you home. They didn't find Reo until three days later and never discovered Kikue. The police interviewed you. You lied, and Dan left soon after because his parents were worried.

You stood there with his grandparents, and Dan took your hand into his and asked, "Y/N, wait for me next summer?" He kissed your fingers, "because you see, next summer we won't have to wait until June to be together anymore." You agreed.

You told your parents that after Reo's death, you couldn't stay in the village anymore, and a relative arranged to let you live with them. Far away from the Blest. Far away from Dan. You felt your heart grow cold and cracked. Your parents agreed, you packed your things and left. They asked what they should tell him. You said to say you died in a terrible accident.

"Do you love me?" The memory of him whispered to you as you looked back upon the hidden village. A place filled with tiny stone houses, crumbling temples, and giant windmills with rotor blades like dragons' teeth, gnawing away at the occasional gale.

"Yes."

"Then, promise not to cut off my head if you see me again?"

"Goodbye Dan."

You wished the Kirin had never visited Blest.

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alpaca-clouds · 4 months

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Young ones, try to learn this about representation

I saw some really dumb comments on Baldur's Gate 3 that kinda are in line with the thing I posted a couple of days ago on "You want more nuanced characters, but you cannot even handle XY". And honestly, I cannot help but think that a lot of this comes from especially young people misunderstanding what "good representation" means.

The argument went basically like: "Oh, you think BG3 is good? But it has abusive queer men!!!!" Which is a very typical thing that comes from especially young folks in fandoms - wanting that especially all minority characters to be virtuous, because they think that is good representation, and that unvirtuous minority characters are bad representation.

And what is not understood there is, that... It all depends on the context.

See, 10 years ago when we barely any queer representation in media, with most queer characters being tokens in a cishet cast. Hence, when this one queer character was a shitty person, the implied story from it is: "All queer people are shitty." Because 100% of queer characters showing up in the story were shitty people (because it was just the one guy).

The same is of course true for queer people dying. If you only have one or two queer characters and one dies, you killed 50-100% of the queer characters.

This is closely linked to the Hays Code for movies of course, which kinda said that "you cannot portray amoral behavior without it being made out to clearly be amoral - and then being punished by the story". And of course the Hays Code considered queerness as amoral. From that arose all those shitty tropes.

But we are no longer in the times of the Hays Code. We are not even in the media landscape from 10 years ago.

I spoke about it before: Without even aiming for it, every single show I watched last year, and every single game I played last year (outside from storyless games) had massive queer representation. And this is a landscape that allows for a lot more varied queer representation to happen. Because by now we see so many queer characters, that it has become more normalized. And as such you can generally threat queer characters like all other characters as well.

Now, talking about Baldur's Gate 3. In this game literally every single character is queer. Again, the entire "player-sexuality" thing is something that I do not like. But given that all characters are queer... The queer characters can be treated like any other character. There can be shitty queer characters. Sweet queer characters. Manipulative queer characters. Honest queer characters. All of it.

It is fine. Because for every shitty queer person in the game, you will find two nice queer people.

This also ties back to why Cazador is such a problematic character. Because he is the one character that visually instantly reads as East Asian. Sure, there are other East Asian characters (Karlach, and apparently Araj, too) but because they are less human in their design they read not instantly as East Asian. So, having the one character that clearly reads as East Asian be Cazador... That is a problem.

But when it comes to queerness? The game basically can do whatever. Because again: ALL CHARACTERS ARE QUEER. I mean, hell. You meet more NPCs who are in same-sex relationships than characters who are in opposite-sex relationships!

And really, folks. You are not helping anyone by demanding every single queer character in a piece of media being progedies of virtue. Because it only makes sure that all queer characters we ever see are basically the same boring character, rather than showing the wide variety of queer experiences.

#lgbtq #queerness #queer culture #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #representation #diversity #queer representation #media analysis #media criticism #fandom stuff

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lights-at-night · 8 months

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k so in light of the new ofmd trailer (:DDDD !!! <333) i must yeet my thoughts here

so at some point, stedes gonna be in china. idk how he would end up there, but its before his reunion with ed, which is probably where we pick up that new susan character

ed is absolutely not dealing with the breakup well. hes shown crying (again), states he had a bad night, and the whole “no more booze, no more drugs and no more stede” part implies he absolutely got high and blackout drunk. when did he do this tho? it could have been the night directly after the breakup, which is possible, but what i think is he did thing at 0:26 and went full blackbeard for a day, then had a super-mental-breakdown at night after he did a bunch of piracy. cmon he had it coming dude got abandoned by the first person to value him as he was and after coping well was promptly told by his like oldest friend to act like the media version of himself again and then killed a guy+ and probably more.

where did the pearls ed is wearing come from? i think hes wearing them at the scene where they raid a wedding and also above picture, idk. he wasnt wearing them in the last appearance in s1 right? i wish for a timeline when did he get those

anne bonny!! she and someone are here. (lesbians?)maybe stede and ed are reconnecting with the wider pirate community and they accidentally reunite. but thats unlikely considering the “ED!” *slap* part, but that could also be afterwards. Aaaaaaaaaa

why are people fighting at spanish jackies bar

and someone is yote into the water. i have a feeling its ed bc of the silhouette, but im not sure. It would be fun if lucius like revenge-pushed him in tho

OKAY MY MASTER CONSPIRACY (not really)

what with all the british fancy army dudes and “to is the end of piracy” or something, and now “we have one shot to get out of here”, i think they got captured by the english. blackbeard escaped and broke the act of grace contract, which aint a good look for them. so itd make sense if they were to go after the revenge. now they get captured, as its implied in that part that the crew are breaking out of somewhere.

see they are fighting at 1:29

ALSO KEY THING in 1718

(https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2022/12/stede-bonnet-and-the-golden-age-of-piracy-part-two/)

i think the endy bit of ofmd might follow what seems to have happened historically! which…might not be the best thing.

because the historical stede bonnet dies dec 10, 1718.

…

i hope that doesnt happen.

at 1:12: doesnt the guy in white look like the guy ed (tries to?) shoot in the teaser?? something gives me hornigold vibes i think i saw a post about it idk

the only thing my brain came up with for why theyre all wearing garlic and doing the cross at 1:17 was vampires.

a party definitely happens at some point, love it

also pretty minor thing but someone does drag in there and i would like to proudly state that i called it a week ago (@queers-of-marybelltownship and @photogenic-strawberry can confirm this)

someone is swinging between two ships. is this a new way to board ships? man i dont know well just have to see

izzy dealing with the english again is probably going to happen but with the whole “you dont know the first thing about piracy its not about glory its about belonging to something” line i doubt it will be with malicious intentions towards our intrepid protagonists again

i think - i hope - blackbeard dressing in plainer clothing at the end of the trailer as opposed to allllll the black leather is a sign that he and stede have made up and are chill.

in this season there will be lesbians/sapphics

and may we just admire jims new look

thats it thank you for reading all 6 hundred and something words of this byeeeeeee

(hope that made sense bc when i copy pasted this from docs all the pictures got removed :’))

#our flag means death #our flag means death 2 #our flag means death s2 #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd trailer

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aquaburst3 · 6 months

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The Masquerade Event came and went on the ENG server. Just a couple weeks ago, I seen plenty of takes where OP rolls their eyes at people who say that Rollo is "problematic" thanks to who he's based on or him being "racist". (Which makes no sense, because fae aren't real.) Sorry, but I have to play devil's advocate. To be quite honest, I agree with some of the sentiment behind that, I just think some people aren't articulating their points well.

The issue some people have with Rollo isn't that he's based on a villain so therefore he's problematic and anyone who likes him must be sent to the Shadow Realm. All of them are. Hating Rollo based on that would be fucking stupid. The issue people have is how the game glorified Frollo by honouring the school after him and handled Rollo as a character, despite who he's based on.

For the former, again, yes, some of the Great Seven did some messed up shit in their movies. Hell, Jafar has that creepy Jabba the Hutt style captive princess scene with Jasmine, despite the fact that she was a minor. I'm a huge Jamil fan. What sets Frollo apart from them is that he's based strictly in reality. You will never meet a Hades, Ursula or Jafar in real life. They are fanatical villains with magical powers or objects. However, there are thousands of people like Frollo in real life, especially in the west. Plus, Frollo is on a whole other level compared to the Great Seven. All of the Great Seven have good traits, so you can see an argument for how they might be seen as heroes of their stories. Frollo has ZERO redeeming qualities. This is the same guy who killed a lady and wanted to drown a newborn baby for being disabled in the first scene he was in, lusted after an underaged girl and wanted to genocide all of the Romani in Paris! So there's no in universe explanation for how that would come to be.

Christianity is one of the most popular religions in the west, so everything tied to it cares much more weight here. A lot of people have religious trauma. There is a very real issue of residential schools, especially in the US and Canada, where indigenous/native american people were abused which were ALWAYS Christian. Basing the school on a fictional figure with that much real life baggage is in poor taste. While I know Christianity is a minor religion in Japan, hence why Christian elements are often added to Japanese media due to it being "exotic" to them much like how westerners view the Greek Pantheon, the game is being distributed internationally, so the developers should've considered these things and handled that topic much more respectfully and reconsidered some of their decisions.

One may argue that Gaston and Cruella are the same way, since they are realistic villains as well. But guess what? They don't have a dorm let alone a whole fucking school honoured after them!

Honestly, I think it would've been FAR better if the game made Rollo like the staff where he's based on Frollo, but honoured the school after Mother Gothel instead. Hell, you could've done a plot twist where all of the stuff in the town is based on Tangled, and then Rollo pulls the flower shit inspired by Hunchback of Notre Dame. That would've been so cool!

That leads to that second thing—how Rollo was handled. For one, he's a woobified version of Frollo. A woobie, for those of you who don't know, is an older fandom term used to describe bland pretty characters with a tragic backstory that the author expects you to feel sorry for them and get away with everything. Oh, boy. Does he fit that definition in spades. He's pretty bland. His only real standout personality traits are that he hates magic and the fae, prideful, traditional and possibly athletic. That's it. He has a sad backstory where his brother died in a fire after his magic got out of control. Fine, that's cliche, but it works. Hell, it's kinda clever in a sense where it's inspired by the Hunchback of Notre Dame off-broadway musical. Characters like Idia point out the hypocrisy in Rollo's ideology and that he is really doing this thanks to his own guilt for his brother's death, which is a good thing. The problem is, outside of him being boring as a character, that despite wanting to suck out all of the magic in the world, he got away with it scott free, and his only form of "punishment" was living with the guilt of knowing everyone thinking that he was some sort of hero...despite Malleus wanting revenge on him five minutes earlier. (I don't get it either.) I think a lot of this problem plays into a reoccurring one the game has a whole—the character stagnation and Yana's utter unwillingness to let them face any consequences for their actions.

It's not even with the one shot villains. You see this play out all the time with the main cast. All of the OB gang get a slap on the wrist for their actions. Everyone instantly forgives them, including people like Kalim and Ruggie who were almost MURDERED. (Kalim I kinda get, because he's a ball of sunshine and is deep in denial about a lot of things. But Ruggie? You think he would be at least upset at Leona for almost Thanos Snapping his ass.) It's not even just for OBs either. Malleus faced zero consequences or is even properly called out for his actions during the second Halloween event or deciding to tag along, despite damn well knowing it would make Jamil's life harder and that he couldn't refuse him.

So in that sense, the way that Rollo got away scott free is super annoying, but not surprising. It happens all the time with the main boys, so why not him? Hell, the same thing happens with with Honest Fellow.

However, this problem hampers the writing on all fronts. Unless you are writing a flat arc, characters need to change and grow, especially in a coming of age story like TWST should be. So instead of learning and growing like real people, every single character in the TWST cast always remain the same and never face any repercussions for their actions. It's asinine, since they realistically would, even if they are based on villains. Hell, you think it would make it even more so, since they are based on villains and would be more revengeful and not merciful.

The game should've punished Rollo for his actions. I don't think he needs to fall to his death into a lake of fire like his original counterpart, but him being expelled or everyone at his school hating him after learning the truth and him being stripped off all of his titles would've been nice!

Don't get me wrong. Rollo isn't bad as a concept. Hell, I'm even adding a version of him to my own fic, so saying that you can never add a character like that to a story would be super hypocritical of me. It's certainly cool if you enjoy him as a character, even if I don't jell with him personally. Just that the way that Yana could've handled Rollo and the other Hunchback of Notre Dame elements in a much more respectful manner and nixed basing the school on Frollo himself.

#aqua rambles #twst critical #twst negative #twisted wonderland

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luulapants · 1 year

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I'll do anything to not be productive today. Send me asks for unhinged overcomplicated and controversial analysis of objectively bad media pls.

Death in teen wolf

First of all, people out here patiently waiting for me to rediscover any love for Teen Wolf are practicing a sort of faithful devotion that apocalyptic cults would envy. You are stronger than any US Marine.

As for your question, this is a great example of why it's hard to engage Teen Wolf in any sort of genuine critical textual analysis without conflating production bullshit with authorial intent.

Because death has no textual meaning in Teen Wolf. Let's start with what I consider to be the "Engaged" era of S1-3b, after which creator involvement decreased and production went to shit.

Major deaths in this era: Kate, Peter, Mr. Lahey, Victoria, Matt, Erica, Harris, Ennis, Boyd, Kali, Jennifer, Allison, Aiden, the Nogitsune

Of these, 50% were "season villains" featured heavily through the season and killed at the end. Of the rest, two (Lahey and Harris) were minor antagonists. Of the remaining five deaths that we might actually care about, two (that we know of) were because actors wanted to leave the show, not because of narrative intent.

And, of course, we must acknowledge that over a third of them came back from the dead. Why? Because it made sense in the narrative? Or, as I suspect is the case, simply because the actor was popular and/or asked to come back.

Now look at the number of characters who "left the country." I like to think of this, sardonically, as a Teen Wolf euphemism for death the way that "going west" or "riding off into the sunset" is a euphemism for death. Isaac was sent off to a nice farm in France where he'll have lots of room to run around, you see?

When a character died vs. "left," we had about equal odds of them coming back, and those odds had nothing to do with whether their resurrection/return made sense in the TW universe or narrative and everything to do with whether the right handshakes happened off-screen. Theo came back from Literal Hell while Kira, who ostensibly went to live in a cave a day's drive from Beacon Hills, was never seen again. Stiles is such a fan favorite, he can literally never be properly written off, despite the fact that the actor is almost certainly never returning. I haven't watched the movie, but I know Derek dies at the end, probably because Tyler Hoechlin was a producer and doesn't want to return - but in this franchise, death is no escape, baybee!!

What's my point?

In the S4 deadpool plotline, one-episode characters were dying left and right. By S5 there was a literal pile of dead bodies, to the point that, by S6 when people were being disappeared from Beacon Hills, my first thought was, "How is there anyone left to take??" My point is that, for minor characters, there was no emotion or humanity in death, only plot. For major characters, there wasn't any plot either, only contract disputes and popularity surveys. Of course they killed Boyd instead of Isaac. Isaac was a pretty white boy and therefore a fan favorite. Daniel Sharman got to keep his job until the second he didn't want it (half a season later), at which point Isaac went to that farm in France, meanwhile Sinqua Walls got fired and Boyd died.

My point is that Teen Wolf was a poorly-produced scripted show by a network that had never done a scripted show before, which lived and died by market research and product placements and which had no internal stability. My point is that, in an environment like that, it is nearly impossible to create a story with a cohesive narrative intent or any thematic value, and the cast of the movie is proof that, even out from under the shadow of MTV, the story cannot recover. That cast list, I bet you anything, is identical to the list of TW actors who were still sending Jeff Davis Christmas cards at the time he closed the deal with Paramount. I loved Allison as a character, but she didn't come back from the dead because that was the story that needed to be told. She came back because Swamp Thing didn't get renewed.

Death doesn't mean anything in Teen Wolf.

#teen wolf meta

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captain-grammar · 1 year

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Netflix cancelling a BUNCH of their shows featuring diverse casts and WLW characters reminded me of a rant I had earlier in the year on Twitter with regards to The Old Guard but didn't share here. So, here it is.

I've seen tweet after tweet on yonder Twitter from people who were unaware that there's going to be a sequel to The Old Guard so if you'll indulge me, I'm about to don a tin-foil hat and speculate wildly as to why it's slipping in under the radar and what might be the reasons for that.

Within the first week if The Old Guard being released in July 2020, it was already in the top 10 most streamed movies on the platform at reached around 72 million households in a month. Incredible viewing figures. It was well-reviewed by critics and a runaway smash hit with viewers - "certified fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes - and gained an active, passionate fanbase online the instant it was released (hello, welcome to Tumblr) due in part to the fresh take the movie had on the dull, formulaic action-movie genre.

Netflix had momentum. They had the stats to work with and a fanbase to back them up. They could have announced their intention to make a sequel back when interest was fresh (as they did with the likes of The Gray Man) and gotten everyone excited while it was being talked about. Because it was being talked about. A sequel was in the works fairly early on with the cast and crew pretty much confirming as much on social media. But in this fast-paced, binge-consume world, Netflix seemed to wait until all the hype had died down before making it official.

WHY? Why take a big-hitting, genre-bending, record-smashing movie that you KNEW had proven to be a success and KNEW had a follow-up in the pipeline and let it die? A hugely sceptical part of me has a theory that it was down to just how genre-bending it was.

From my experience online, the vast majority of those who enjoyed it reflect the characters of the movie and the team behind it - diverse, LGBTQ+ individuals who rarely see themselves on screen without it feeling like a kind of tokenism. The movie was directed by the amazing Gina Prince-Bythewood - a black woman. The cast was lead by two strong females who were neither sexualised or portrayed as damsels in distress. Two of the men were unashamedly in love with each other. All of the main male cast were allowed to be emotional and even cry. In the action genre, these things are all but unheard of. Male characters are rarely given emotional complexity beyond revenge and women are usually relegated to the role of side-kick, love interest or doe-eyed ingenue learning from the "best".

Because the genre tends to lean towards a stereotypical male audience.

A part of me wonders whether that's why Netflix didn't give it much promo and kudos and have let the pot come off the boil in terms of hyping The Old Guard's return. The service has a history of platforming voices that are anti-LGBTQ and cutting diversity within its ranks. And now they're at it again, axing a slew of shows after only one or two seasons that all seem to feature wlw relationships fairly prominently.

If you're not a straight, cis, white male then they're not interested in catering for you. If you're a minority, too bad. The fact that The Old Guard was a hit with the very communities they seem to be actively oppressing is a hurt that Netflix seemingly refuses to live with.

I'm just sick of "was the movie/show popular among straight white men?" being the metric against which a piece of media's success is measured. As if that demographic is the Holy Grail and if your fans aren't 28 year-old cis dudes, you've somehow failed.

I thank Netflix for bringing some truly great stories to life but at this point, I cannot trust them to keep them safe any more.

#the old guard #netflix #bry rants #like honestly kids #i went for it

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