A rant about Clockwork, Nina, and basically all the fem creeps.
I’m so tired of seeing people saying that Clockwork and Nina are mary sues to make fun of them/bring them down.
Because you know what? ALMOST EVERY POPULAR CREEPYPASTA IS A MARY SUE. There. I SAID IT. Toby, Jeff, both Jacks, Clocky, Nina, Jane, Liu, ALL OF THEM. And that’s what makes them FUN.
You cannot say Nina is a shitty mary sue and hate her but then love Jeff the Killer. You can’t say Clocky is a badly written character and then love Ticci Toby. Because they’re all badly written characters !! And they’re all very similar in the ways that they are badly written. Yet JUST the girls get overhated to death? It’s just fucking misogyny. Sorry to break it to you.
The treatment of the fem creeps in this fandom is fucking sad. For most of the fandom’s lifetime they’ve all been beaten down and hated and had their creators sent death threats and been harassed. Yet all the male creeps (some of which ARE MUCH WORSE) get treated like gods gift to mankind.
Im so happy that characters like Clocky and Nina are getting more love now. It warms my heart considering everything them and their creators were put through. But I’m still sick of seeing people hating on them, spreading misinformation, and mischaracterizing them simply for existing. It’s stupid and it makes me so fucking pissed.
Almost every character in this fandom is a bad character. They were all written by 12-14 year olds with little to no experience writing horror or even just writing in general. It’s not fair to push the girls down for this reason while lifting the men up when they all have almost the exact same flaws in their story.
They all have very traumatic backstories, usually not well written. Their mental illnesses are not portrayed realistically. The stories have bad grammar and spelling. They all succeed way too easily for their ages and situations. THESE ARE THE COMMON THEMES ALMOST EVERY STORY. YOU CANNOT SAY THAT CLOCKWORK’S INSANITY IS HORRIBLY WRITTEN AND THEN SAY TOBY’S IS AMAZING.
It’s honestly so fucking stupid and I’m tired of seeing it everywhere. You don’t have to like all the creeps obviously, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. But when it comes to this kind of hate and mistreatment I’m so done.
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It's been a minute since I've memorized myself with the og four arcs, but I still feel like the modern warrior clans don't show the things that make them unique as they used to in the older books.
Actual culture in the clans has become such a background thing, and the clans' mostly acknowledge each other by overused stereotypes. "ThunderClan gets in everyone's business"
"ShadowClan can never be trusted"
yeah we know
And then WindClan and RiverClan just kinda exist… they don't get involved enough to get slandered at gatherings.
It would be nice to see each clan acknowledged for their odd traditions and unique mannerisms too.
And I would love to see the clans themselves DO MORE with their own clanmates that make their clan feel special. Especially now that we're getting more POVs not just from good ol' ThunderClan.
Have RiverClan show their skill for swimming more often. Have them swim to gatherings, unbothered by their slick, drenched coats. Imagine them leaving a gathering, dramatically submerging back into the dark water and disappearing into the night.
"How unnatural..."
Have them incorporate water into their fighting technique, as we see in the opening of Into The Wild. Ambush rival cats from the water, or pull them into the water where they have the advantage. I want to see RiverClan excel in water and completely have the upper hand in some battles.
It says RiverClan decorates their nests, but it's rarely shown or appreciated. Let them have the most beautiful camp out of everyone, decorated in shells, pebbles, foliage and feathers. Let the other clans think "wow. why is it so pretty here?" or "ew, why do you decorate with fish scales?"
I want their ceremonies to involve dressing in elaborately made accessories that every cat learns to make. Have cats be given unique shells when they're born, and these shells are given to their chosen mates as a sign of true affection.
Show downtime, where cats just relax on the shoreline, kits playing in the sand, apprentices challenging each other in the water, and elders sunbathing on the rocks.
RiverClan was basically founded by a hippie. Let the clans see them as typically laidback and the type to stop and smell the roses. But when they step up, they have skills that no other clan can match.
Have ShadowClan be excellent at stealth and use the literal shadows to their advantage. Have other cats not notice a ShadowClan patrol until they suddenly burst from the dark.
Imagine they cover themselves in different smells, like mushrooms, moss and pine, to mask their natural scent. I like to think ShadowClan cats have the strongest tolerance for strong or icky smells.
I think it would be cool to have Shadowclan cats know how to mimic night critter noises, like owls, frogs and crickets, to trick prey, or to communicate with their own patrol without drawing away from the natural ambiance.
Show ShadowClan as being able to move in the dark better then any other clan, and let the clans think it's UNCANNY. During nighttime battles, have them lure rivals into the darkness where they can gain the upper hand. Have them work as a team to confuse and disorientate rivals in the darkness, before striking.
Show Shadowclan cats being more nocturnal and more active at night than other clans. They thrive in it, and do most of their training and chores when the sun sets.
I want ShadowClan to be known for more than their bad history and terrible taste in leaders. I want them to be seen as mysterious night dwellers, whose talents best shine in the dark. You will never see them coming until it's too late.
Windclan used to have a lot more goin on, in Tallstar's revenge, having a whole tunneling system with different ranks like Moor Runners and Tunnelers. We could have something similar to this again. Windclan navigating an elaborate abandoned warren underneath their moorland, for quick escapes, safety or even traps.
Have Windclan use the tunnels to outsmart invading clans or predators, or trap them in dead-ends. If their camp was ever overtaken, they could rely on the tunnels as a temporary home, a place no other clan knows how to navigate.
SHOW them as the fastest cats of all the clans. It's not shown all that much, except when WindClan shows up to mee a rival patrol. Show them being able to outrun rival cats, run circles around them, chasing off patrols with unmatchable swiftness.
Birds of prey used to be more of a thing in the books, but they seemed to have disappeared. Have dangerous predators around that only WindClan really knows how to evade or kill, taking down hawks and such, similar to how the Tripe of Rushing Water actively did.
Have Windclan be excellent at camouflage, since the moorlands are so open, they have to learn to blend in with shrubbery, or shroud themselves in plants and mud that blend in while patrolling. For battles, imagine they come dressed in full camouflage / warpaint.
I love the idea of cats singing and the winds just carry their voices away. It would be neat to see ceremonies directly involve the wind, singing different songs with special meanings, or releasing flower petals into the breeze when cats die.
Let the other cats think that WindClan is strange, since no other clans have songs that pass through generations. Cat singing is weird.
WindClan once prided themselves for "being closer to Starclan" literally because they lived under the open sky. Imagine they're the only clan to recognize constellations, stargaze and create stories based off them.
WindClan gets wrecked more times than not, but they've got spirit, and I want the clans to see it.
SkyClan had a pretty rich culture prior to moving to the Lake, and lot of it tied into their environment, so understandably, they lost so much because of Darktail. I love Skyclan honestly, and I want to see them thrive again so much.
I wish we got to see them climb trees a bit more in public, using them during patrols, jumping from branch to branch. We saw them use this method in battle, jumping down from above and landing on their enemies, and I would love to see more of this!
Show SkyClan cats as excellent climbers who don't fear heights. Causally hanging out in trees and other precarious places for pure enjoyment. Let the other clans think that it's weird and dangerous, and they're stupid for doing it. But also it makes them uneasy, cause Skyclan could attack from ANYWHERE if there's trees.
I'd LOVE to see Skyclan continue to take in kittypets/strays/loners as Daytime-Warriors, and have this general acceptance of outsiders. The OG clans are very prejudice, as we know, even against each other, so it would be neat to showcase Skyclan's tolerance for non-clan-blooded cats. If Skyclan is ever in danger, imagine a legion of outsiders rushing in to aid their SkyClan friends, much to the other clans' shock.
Skyclan to me have always felt like they'd be storytellers, given how much they've been through and how their clan came to be. Would love to see them talk more about their experiences and history to the other clans, and encourage openness and change.
SkyClan is new to the Lake, but I want them to bring in what made them special and show it off. They've got so much heart, how can you not admire them for their strength?
And of course ThunderClan. The protagonist clan that's begun to feel so bland to me personally. We spent the most time with them, and I miss seeing what made them unique. (I'm very nostalgic for into the wild vibes)
ThunderClan has lived in their new home beside the Lake for years now, and I feel like it's barely talked about or used in any special way. I want to see them use their environment more.
Have it tradition for young cats to learn how to scale the rocky cliffs, in case of emergency. Have ThunderClan cats excel at scaling uneven surfaces, like little whiskered mountain goats.
Oh, a Thunderclan cat was pushed off a cliff in battle? No matter. They manage to keep their cool and catch onto the surface, and scale back up or down with ease.
ThunderClan has lived through so much history, and have been at the center of it many times, so I would love to see them have more downtime together, sharing legendary stories and reliving old memoires of the past so it's never forgotten. Or fuzzy stories, just pleasant memories from a time in the past, where they learned valuable lessons or enjoyed time with loved ones.
Let everyone do fun activates and team building exercises, to strength their bonds, like hunting or cliff scaling competitions where they must work together.
ThunderClan have their unsavory moments, but let's be honest, they're the heart of all the clans, holding them together more times than driving them apart.
Anyway, that's the end of that.
I just wanna see some inner clan chemistry, OK??? Is that too much to ask?
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You really can't engage meaningfully with Ed's story in S2 without firmly centring his mental illness and suicidality, because that's inherently what the story is: it's the story of a man having a severe mental breakdown and going to increasingly erratic extremes in order to achieve his end goal, which is to not be alive anymore...and then it's the story of his recovery from that.
And so much of my frustration with the way I see this being talked about (or, in many cases, not being talked about) reflects my more general frustration with how we talk about mental illness and neurodivergence, so buckle in because this got long (also I am going to be discussing suicide here, as well as very brief mentions of psychosis and ocd, so please take care).
There's this trend when we talk about mental health: we go 'oh mental illness isn't an excuse' or 'mental illness doesn't make you do bad things' or variations thereof. These are, in my opinion, some of the worst things to ever happen to the discourse around mental illness. It's reductive. Absolutely mental illness can lead you to do things that you would not have otherwise done, even things that you would be absolutely appalled by, if you were mentally well. What do you think mental illness is if it's not something that impacts your brain and how your brain functions? If your mental illness doesn't directly lead to problematic behaviour, then that's fantastic, but that experience is not universal. It's not an 'excuse' - it's an explanation for certain behaviours that's vitally important to acknowledge and understand in order to try and mitigate harm.
There's also this thing that happens with discourse around mental illness where we assume that what you do in the grips of mental illness is reflective of something that's innate inside you. You were violent whilst in the middle of psychosis? Oh, it's because you're an innately abusive person and this just reveals who you really are. You have Tourette's and one of your tics is a racial slur? Oh, it's because you're an innately racist person and this just reveals who you really are. Your OCD is rooted in a fear that you're going to murder your family? Oh, it's because you inherently do want to murder your family and this just reveals who you really are.
It's bullshit. What you do in your mentally ill state is not some deep philosophical reflection of your true character, and the idea that it is is something that causes really deep, dangerous harm to mentally ill and neurodivergent people.
So, now that that's over with, back to Ed.
Ed was behaving in ways that were acknowledged in canon as being extremely out of character whilst in the midst of a severe breakdown. Fang himself said that he'd 'never' seen Ed behave this way; even Izzy, who actively pushed for Ed to embody the extremes of his Blackbeard persona, ended up concerned because it became so extreme and out of character that it was impossible not to be concerned by it. The crew who mutinied on Izzy within a day didn't mutiny on him for months, not until their lives literally depended on it, because it's heavily insinuated that they were hoping he would get better. Because this wasn't the Ed that they knew (the Ed that we came to know in S1 - an inherently soft man who is caught in a culture of violence and is tired of it).
The show wasn't subtle about this. It didn't bury the lead. As well as the constant reminders that he was acting out of character in increasingly alarming ways, this was very clearly depicted as a breakdown, an almost total collapse of Ed's mental health. We saw Ed detached and numb and completely dissociated from the world around him. We saw him in private moments of despair, breaking down. We saw him behaving erratically in the grips of mania. We saw him display absolutely textbook warning signs of someone whose made the decision to die by suicide. We saw him smile and say 'finally' at the moment when he knew he was going to die.
The show basically painted a giant neon sign over his head flashing 'THIS MAN IS EXTREMELY UNWELL' in bright lights, and if you miss that, then it's because you're deliberately avoiding looking properly.
(And, important to note, that most of the people that I've watched the show with outside of fandom discourse absolutely took away from these episodes what the show was intending - they saw how unwell Ed was, they were devastated for him, and they desperately wanted him to get better.)
When Ed steered the ship into the storm, and threatened to put a cannonball through the mast, his clear goal was to create a situation where the crew had no choice but to kill him. I've seen people describe this scene as Ed 'trying to hurt the crew', and I think that's very much a misrepresentation of what the show was depicting. It was very blatantly a suicide attempt. He wanted to die, and he didn't care what he had to do in order for him to achieve that goal. That doesn't make it good behaviour, and it doesn't mean people didn't get hurt, but it does make it a very different situation than if causing harm had been his main intent.
There is a fundamental difference between 'he is doing this because he explicitly wants to cause harm to the people around him' and 'he's doing this because he's suicidal and beyond the point of being able to rationally consider who might be getting hurt in the process of ensuring that he ends up dead'. One of those is a bad person who enjoys causing pain - and the other is a deeply unwell person who can be supported and helped to recover and be better (and should be, for the good of themselves and the people around them).
And on that note, the failure to engage with this as a mental health story is also, I think, why I've seen some people get so upset about the show not doing Ed's redemption arc 'right' - because this isn't a redemption arc, and it's not trying to be. One day I'll do a separate post about how much I love that the show explicitly rejected a carceral approach, opting to essentially put him through community rehabilitation rather than punishing him, and even mocking punitive prescriptive measures (that rubbish youtuber apology speech was supposed to be rubbish and unhelpful), but that's one for another day.
The fact is that the show is telling a story about mental illness, and that inherently means that Ed's arc is a recovery arc, not a redemption arc. And if you're expecting a redemption arc, then you've fundamentally misunderstood the story that they're telling (and the revolutionary kindness at the heart of the show).
I have a lot of feelings about this because I genuinely believe that it was one of the best depictions of mental illness and suicidality that I've ever seen. Within the confines of it being a half hour, eight episode comedy show, they told a story about mental illness that was surprisingly realistic (with the obvious fantastical over the top elements of it being a pirate show - and piracy is explicitly depicted as a culture where violence is heavily normalised), and that didn't shy away from the messier, darker, more complex elements of mental illness (particularly of being suicidal).
And then, most importantly, after all that, the show took me gently by the hand said 'you are not defined by what you do in your lowest moment - you can make amends, you can recover, you are still loved, and you are worth saving'.
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