#genuinely i HATE that entire character archetype | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

checkoutmybookshelf · 1 month

Text

It's Not A Fairy Tale Anymore

Ok, I will admit to two things: First, this book was leaps and bounds better than ACOTAR in terms of pacing. I was not bored and I wasn't begging the book to HAVE SOMETHING HAPPEN. Second, I think I hated the last six chapters. Like a lot. For some objective and some deeply subjective reasons. And bonus third admission: My reading buddy for this series and I officially have Stockholm syndrome from these books, so we're going on to ACOWAR. But that's getting a bit ahead of myself, so let's talk A Court of Mist and Fury.

Yeah, hi again. This is your SPOILER WARNING. I am going to SPOIL THE END of this book, as well as the beginning and the middle. Consider yourselves warned.

CONTENT WARNING: Some mention and brief discussion of sexual assault and consent.

Ok, so first and foremost: this book understood pacing and it understood plot and I thoroughly enjoyed like 98% of it. I also appreciated that we managed to expand the world a bit, because ACOTAR felt very, very small geographically and politically. Getting to see Velaris, the Summer Court, and getting a wider sense of the politics and intrigue went a long way toward making me feel like there were stakes and point to this book.

Another thing I absolutely adored was the Shadow Fam. I said that Rhys doesn't have found family, he has trauma pack bonds, and I stand by that assessment. That said, I really genuinely LIKED Az, Cass, Mor, and Amren. Yeah, they all have varying flavors of tragic backstory and trauma to facilitate the trauma pack bond, but after an entire book of just Feyre, Tamlin, and Rhys, I was desperate for more characters, and I will say that at the very least, I wasn't mixing up the Shadow Fam in my head. They had distinct personalities, and frankly I'd read the hell out of a novella that really digs into Mor's backstory in particular, mostly because SJM is developing a worrying habit of denoting bad characters by making them rapists (See: Amarantha, Ianthe, Mor's entire goddamn family, a worrying number of non-Shadow Fam Illyrians, etc.) and I want to see how complex this world's conception of consent is. Because Mor's entire situation was coerced, which means that the only non-fucky consent thing is her deciding NOT to sleep with Az. Because no matter what she told Cass, she was having sex with him in a situation where she very well might not have if she wasn't under the duress of a forced marriage. Literally she either didn't tell him anything and just went "Let's do the sex at each other" and he said "sure," or she went "hey, help me get out of this forced marriage by taking my virginity so other dude won't want me" (excuse me while I vomit at the pedestaling of virginity) and he said "sure." While knowing (I'm pretty sure) that Az has the world's biggest crush on Mor.

Literally nothing about this isn't messy AF, and I would a) like to see how we handle the consent stuff and b) eat this up with a SPOON.

But even in the here and now of the book, the whole Shadow Fam have individual relationships with Rhys and Feyre, and I thought that was decently well done. To be clear: its not Tolkien. It's nowhere near the same level. But for popular fun books, I have absolutely seen worse, and there was enough here for me to hang onto and enjoy. If they leaned a little into archetypes and stereotypes, well, it wasn't too egregious.

I think this is where I get to talk about Rhys a little bit too. So I have only read ACOTAR AND ACOMAF as of writing this, but I'm in a lot of book and fandom spaces, so I've heard everything from "Rhys is the embodiment of toxic masculinity and an anti-choice piece of shit" to "Rhys is the pinnacle of a male partner, can do no wrong, and I would let him rail me in a cabin on a mountain top." I'm not going to stand here and say that masculinity in these books is wholly unproblematic, but again: I have seen worse. My biggest problem with Rhys at this point, frankly, is that SJM keeps trying to have it both ways with him. But the "he's half mysterious, slightly evil Shadow daddy and half trauma puppy with a dreamers heart" was super not working for me, not even in a context where it maybe should have. Like, yeah, evil Shadow daddy as a role to protect Velaris makes sense, but then literally everything else we get is a cross between a traumatized dudebro with his buddies and trauma puppy making eyes at Feyre. The gap between the two sides of Rhysand just hit a point where my credulity stretched and broke. That's not to say I didn't enjoy both halves of Rhysand, but they didn't sit comfortably in one fae high lord lord me.

I just also want to briefly address the man pain, because after the Dresden Files, my patience for angsty man pain is THIN. I literally rolled my eyes and went "what the actual fuck" when Cassian provoked Rhys into beating on him for an hour after Feyre accepts the mate bond. Dumbass "if you can't fuck, fight" nonsense has never been my thing, and on principle I don't like it, but given that Feyre is alive and well and grabbing a snack with Mor, I can't argue too much. Battle Ground really set a new low bar for me, so I wasn't even grouchy about Rhys's POV man pain chapter right at the end of the book, because again, Feyre is alive and well and made a choice. I will allow it, but its getting some light side eye. Finally, the other major man pain scene is when Rhys is...I'm gonna call it groveling because I'm not feeling generous, but he's basically giving us a chapter-length recap of the previous book from his perspective. It's tearful, it's earnest, it's all kinds of angsty...And like...I was kinda not here for it. It was not the worst, your mileage may vary. I'm mostly just grateful it was one chapter and not an entire POV-swapped book.

I also want to just real quick tall about tokenism and some...potentially problematic things with the Illyrians. They have some savage warrior stereotypes attached to them that them being Fantasy Scots in the Fantasy UK makes sketchy, given the highland clearances and the generalized othering the England did to basically everyone. Then we get their cultural treatment of women, and the whole thing feels...deeply uncomfortable. I can't even make an oomaks joke about Illyrian wings (despite the fact that Illyrian wings have all the issue that Ferengi ears do multiplied by a factor of ten because THEY'RE WINGS) because I cannot banish the fact that they clip women's wings, which has some deeply uncomfortable resonance with female genital mutilation in the real world. Literally not even the Ferengi did that. And then we get Rhys, who is only half Illyrian, and the token "good" or "progressive" Illyrians, Az and Cass. They're trying to facilitate gender equality and banned wing clipping, but like...its made deeply clear that it's not working super well. So the general message is that of primitive, sexist Illyrians...except for the three good ones. And y'all...I kinda hate that. I'm not complaining that we have Rhys, Az, and Cass, but the Illyrians are deeply uncomfortable in a lot of ways that the version of me that did a PhD is screaming about.

And now we come to Rhys and Feyre. Rhys and Feyre, who spend 89% of this book flirting like dumbass teenagers before Feyre falls right back into the pattern she established with Tamlin where she decides she is going to give her literal all for a people, and I guess we just have to hope she has a partner who won't let her and then smother her to death. Because she is in the EXACT SAME POSITION, the only difference is Rhys. At this point, Feyre going all in is a feature, not a bug, which just makes her assertion that she belongs to herself first feel a wee bit hollow...

But I will say that Rhys and Feyre understanding that they can leverage their bond and Tamlin being just...the biggest dipshit in creation...to actually get an upper hand in this war, and I actually think that now that we've got the teen flirting out of the way, Feyre and Rhys might be a good team. I hope. Please God let them be a good team. I know we won't get Evey and Rick in The Mummy Returns, but I would take even a pale, bat-winged reflection of that relationship.

I guess we have finally arrived at Tamlin. I'm with Feyre that he's not good for her, but uh...the MASSIVE CHARACTER ASSASSINATION at the beginning of this book felt wildly gratuitous. Like, Feyre is wasting away. She's not emotionally ok. She isn't dealing with her trauma, and Tamlin isn't helping. WE GOT THAT. But that was only like, the first ten-odd chapters. So it was a speedrun character assassination, but I thought we were done at that point.

Holy shit, I was wrong.

So, there is a writing school of thought in which every villain needs to feel like they're the hero of their own story. I don't even think this is a bad tack to take. It can help motivate villains or make them sympathetic. And when Tamlin swaggers into the castle room in Hyburn after the king has captured Feyre and the Shadow Fam, you can bet your ass that he feels like he's the rescuing hero swooping in to save his true love from the shadowy douchecanoe who put a mind whammy on her to take her from him. (Which I actually think we might have Lucien to blame for that angle? Since he had to have reported back that Feyre fought him? But the timeline on that isn't clear, so IDK for sure.)

Unfortunately for Timtam, his ENTIRE PLAN makes him look too stupid to live. He KNEW what Amarantha was like. He KNEW that the King of Hyburn was a factor of ten worse than Amarantha. And he STILL made the deal to let Hyburn invade through his kingdom and somehow thought he would HAVE CONTROL OVER THE SITUATION???? And yes, I stand by this, because he keeps trying to tell the king to stop doing shit or do shit differently, and is ABSOLUTELY FLOORED when the king quite rightly laughs in his face. Talk about not thinking a plan through. Literally, I'm pretty sure Timtam was thinking, "I will win her back and be super heroic" and that thought eclipsed all other thoughts, his common sense, and his critical thinking. Which just take the character assassination of Tamlin and skyrockets it. I get that he's not the one, SJM. I got it six different dick moves ago.

Since we're talking about the last six chapters, I also want to just touch on the faeification of Elain and Nesta. Literally all I could think when they dunked our girls was one fantastic chapter title from the fantastic How to Read Literature Like a Professor: "If She Comes Up, It's Baptism." That metaphor doesn't really map perfectly over this situation, but it also isn't really a stretch. It also harkens back to the really old cauldron mythologies, which tracks for fae mythology. Mostly though, if Nesta doesn't murder the King of Hyburn after that foreshadowing (which had all the subtlety of a two-by-four to the skull), I will riot.

Hoo boy, this was a long one, but I think it's time to wrap it up. The TLDR is that this book was really fun as long as I wasn't thinking too hard about any of it. When I do think about it, I can shred it to little tiny peices, but honestly that stops being fun really fast, so I choose fun.

Also my reading buddy and I have Stockholm Syndrome with this series, so stay tuned for my eventual ACOWAR review!F

#acomaf #acomaf spoilers #a court of mist and fury #feyre archeron #tamlin #rhysand #books and reading #books #books and novels #books & libraries #book recommendations

11 notes · View notes

kiisaes · 1 year

Note

YESSSSS! I will always say deku is sweet uwu sunshine boy but I'll also say he is feral bunny who will fuck your shit up! He is a mix between cute baby boy and feral gremlin! Katsuki is also a feral gremlin but in a different way! Izuku knows how to stand up for himself! He isn't a fragile flower that will brake if yelled at! And bakugo knows this! In an episode katsuki says, if it bothers him he'll tell me!, talking to tsu who was mad at him for yelling at izuku. (It was in the background so it may have been missed by some people)

yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just hate when ppl think deku being soft means he can't defend himself bc like ... cool. did we just completely ignore the entire first chapter/episode entirely. and how deku's stubbornness is literally what keeps him going. are we just making shit up now.

it still baffles me how in 2023, ppl STILL THINK that deku is the definitively weak, fragile, spineless victim that must enact revenge on his bully in order for bkdk's relationship to be valid. mha isn't a fucking revenge story 😭 deku has called out bkg's bullshittery so many times but never wishes ill will on him. he still wants to be bkg's friend and cares about him so so much. he isn't and never was the archetypal weakling that the bully aggressively torments and eventually traumatizes. and like .. sorry he doesn't play ur narrative lol. sorry he can't fulfill ur own bully revenge fantasies bc he chooses to have a good relationship with his former bully. sorry there's genuine mutual respect and care between bkdk now. SORRY THIS CHARACTER ARC ISNT ABOUT U.

I really don't care if ppl dislike bkdk for their own personal reasons but I've seen ppl actively harass and misinterpret bkdks to the point where it makes THEM look bad. u can enjoy ur own ship on ur own time, just don't proudly look like an idiot for essentially butchering ur understanding of the main 2 characters lol

#asks for becki #sorry. im mad. wont happen again #bakudeku #bkdk

75 notes · View notes

gorogues · 11 months

Note

Hey :o) I've been mulling for a while on a possible (possible) "Rogues play DnD" fic (where business is slow and/or dangerous and they have to lie low a while, so Piper suggests he run a campaign and helps the others make characters, because "it's good for cohesion and teamwork, Len" and also "you get to loot and have fun with no real-life consequences"). I'm going with a vague, mostly pre-52 version of Hartley, James, Len, Lisa, Mark, Mick, Roscoe and Digger, btw.

So I have my own ideas about the classes and races of the characters they'd want to play, running the gamut between "character is nothing like its player" and "character is basically a fantasy version of the player"), but I'd love to hear your thoughts about it - and your mutuals/followers! What would fit them? What wouldn't, but they'd find hilarious (and make work somehow)?

tl;dn - DnD Rogues. Go nuts :o)

(GAH I forgot Sam but he's there too!)

Hi, fun concept! I have to admit that I know very little about DnD, so am not much help in assigning classes or races, unfortunately! But I can suggest who might be more likely to play someone similar or different from themselves. Sam in particular would go with something very different; this is a guy who LARPed as a cowboy, had some lulz pretending to be a heroic Mirror Master, and thought it'd be fun to play a random joe in a leadership class. His Black Lantern incarnation -- which wasn't him, but was based on his memories -- said that he became the Mirror Master because he hated who he was. So I definitely think he'd want to be someone very different and possibly unexpected. And James likes disguising himself and playing around with different identities and gender, so he'd also be quite open to playing someone very different from himself…it'd all be part of the performance.

I think Len and Roscoe would be likely to play someone mostly like their own selves, or perhaps someone more like who they aspire to be. Roscoe has literally been other people, but he's kind of rigid in his thinking and has struggled hard to be what his parents wanted from him (and truthfully he's probably told himself that's what he wants too, even if it isn't). Mick would probably choose someone quietly steadfast, the strong and silent type, since he often seeks tranquility to escape the chaos of his own thoughts. He'd likely be open to any class/gender/race so long as it fit that archetype.

It might be a cheap `n easy answer, but I suspect Mark would want to be a wizard because he's not hugely imaginative and would enjoy the gravitas of being some kind of powerful Gandalf type. In practice he'd probably come across as an unintentional ham. And I don't know what class or race Digger would be -- he might enjoy the challenge of something unexpected or ridiculous -- but am pretty sure his character would end up a drunken lout because that's just how he rolls. No pun intended :]

With Hartley I go back and forth on whether he'd go with the obvious bard archetype he genuinely enjoys being or try something entirely different to have a new experience…not sure, really. I don't know what class Lisa would play, but I think she'd want to have a female character because she's in a crowd of guys (not that they'd all necessarily pick male characters) and I think she'd want to assert her identity amongst them.

Not sure if this helps!

Anyone else have some input?

#belphegor1982 #Mirror Master #the Trickster #Captain Cold #the Top #Heat Wave #Weather Wizard #Captain Boomerang #Pied Piper #Golden Glider #words #neat

41 notes · View notes

lemonthepotato · 4 months

Text

Muffins Ennea ADDENDUM:

I wasn’t planning on making a follow-up to that post, but mama/dada’s got some ideas cooking. Mama? Dada? What’s the non-binary version of mama? Nvm, it would sound cringe. I think I’d rather misgender myself than call myself a ‘zaza’ lmao. 😭

Anyway, that post was kinda dogshit. I mean, I stand by a lot of what I said, but I also don’t. So, this is my full personality profile of the bakers!

So, let’s go over the conclusions I made last time:

Pinkie Pie: Enneagram 7w6 with a SP instinct.

Inkie Pie: Enneagram 8w7 with a SX instinct?

Minkie Pie: Enneagram 4w5 with a SO instinct.

Blinkie Pie: Enneagram 4wX with a SX instinct.

Apple Bloom: “IT GOT ERASED AGAIN. APPLE BLOOM SO3.”

Derpy: “DERPY SX7/IDK FUCKING SP6 IDC.”

Babs: “BABS IDFK SP5?? SO5?? FUCKING SP8 dawg I’m too angry to care.”

I don’t agree with all of these anymore, but I stand by the fact Minkie and Pinkie are probably enneagram 4 and 7. I’m not entirely sure of Minkie’s instinct.

In this post, I am going to be breaking down EVERY piece of EVERY characters typology. Maybe I’ll even go into the victims typology in the story? Prolly not.

Minkie Pie 🥧

MBTI: ISFP

After some consideration, I decided Minkie Pie is probably an INFP. And it seemed the consensus on PDB was much the same, which made me immediately reconsider. Just kidding. So, my reasoning is that she is an obvious Fi dom. There’s little question there. Genuinely not understanding how someone thought she was a Fe aux. But the question remains about Ne vs Se.

Minkie has a lot of creative, but practical ideas. And I wouldn’t say she has more ideas than she can execute, nor is she stuck ‘in her imagination.’ So, I can definitely see a Se argument. However, she dwells on the past a lot, which is why FiSi makes more sense than FiNi. In her LARS, I mean, Mad Madusings, she constantly compares her past to the present. She does this to prove some sort of overarching idea, which could be FiNi, but hmmm… her ability to “just know lies” is also very FiNi. I’m torn. Actually, I think I’m going to go with IXFP. She’s clearly a Xe aux. Kidding. INFP makes sense. But ISFP also makes sense especially when in her mad musings she always makes conclusions about people based on past experience to form some sort of archetype of person. Which is Ni…

Ni can look like Si, but Si is more routine based than Ni. I’m gonna go with ISFP for now.

Enneagram: 4w5 (so/sx/sp blind)

Enneagram so4w5 seems right, but I’m also open to sx4. Though, Minkie doesn’t particularly seem envious of others as like, an overarching trait. She just seems pissed at the world. I suppose that could be sx4. I’m a little torn.

Also holy shit, my Ne brain just realised The Game. Minkie’s life is like a video game, trying haurd to beat the stage.

Anyway, I don’t know tbh. Sx4 makes senseeee, but Sx4 is shameless. Minkie is not. Unhealthy so4, ig.

Tritype: 459.

Minkie is obviously a so4, but what about her tritype? Well, because I think she’s a 4w5, her head type is 5w6. Her gut type then, is probably 9w8. I don’t have much good reasoning.

Socionics: ESI

AHH. I hate socionics. I really do. Because I don’t understand it, so it’s bad. Jk. Uh, so, I don’t know. I’m going to go with uh ESI but I can also seen an argument for anything because idk lol.

Big Five: RLOEN.

I don’t like big5 much lol.

Psychosophy: No.

Okay, psychosophy is something I don’t understand.

Temperament: Melancholic.

Come on, it’s really obvious?

Classic Jungian: IF(S)

Pretty obvious.

Conclusion: ISFP IF(S) ESI RLOEN so4 w 5 459 melancholic [dominant].

Blinkie Pie 🥧

Blinkie SX4 is something I stand by. It makes the most sense for her character. She’s probably a sx4w3, as she’s focused on accomplishment and ‘authenticity.’ Her tritype is harder to crack down. She doesn’t seem like a very intellectually driven type, but she does value community ‘at least if we were all locked away, we’d have each other.’ Which is an argument for 6, however… I don’t know. Probably 468. Her MBTI… ah god. Okay, so, unlike that one Deviantart post, I am going to go out on a whim and say she’s probably not an ESTJ. Cognitively extroverted 4 is pretty weird. I’m completely unsure of her MBTI. She has values, but they’re influenced from her friends and father. But Fe anywhere in her stack is weird. ISTJ could work? In Inkie’s Stellar Obsession, she spends the whole time telling Inkie how ridiculous her idea is. Granted, it’s also because she doesn’t like Stella (Fi) but still. ISTJ 4 is uh… weird. So maybe ISFP? I know I’m switching stacks but ugh. I don’t know. Te-Fi is obvious. Si-Ne and Se-Ni I’m more confused about. Maybe Se? She’s very practical. ISFP is the best guess I can give. Then, that would be ESI again, right? She’s probably SCOEN. And yes, S makes sense because introvert =/= unsociable. And she’s not limbic, just because she’s mentally ill. She’s probably a choleric-melancholic?

Conclusion: ISFP IF(S) ESI RCOEN sx4 w 3 468 cholmel.

Inkie Pie 🥧

Enneagram: sx8w7

Inkie, a character I wasn’t sure about. I’m still not convinced she’s an 8. She could be a 9. But she doesn’t seem to struggle with self-inertia.

“Ah, Marblestone "Inkie" Pie... what a Sugarcube. Inkie is the second oldest of the four pie sisters, though she grew up as the oldest since Minkie had not been found yet. she is often very honest, but if you are not on her good side, her honesty is blunt and very insulting. she speaks in a firm, low voice, and is very confident. she seems very proud, holding her head up high and walking with a strut. she has heavy lidded eyes, and her smile can be quite intimidating and frightening, even when she tries to act casual. inkie is a natural born leader, and has been known to be the "protective" pony of the group, and makes a majority of decisions. sometimes she gets pissy when her decisions are shot down, but this never lasts long when it comes to her friends and sisters. Inkie has the ability to love as strong as her ability to hate. she often uses pet names toward her friends and sisters, such as "hunny," "sweety," "sweeatheart," "love," "dear," and many others. she'll address her sisters as "dear sister" when being reassuring toward them. since inkie and Blinkie are the sisters that have spent the most time together, they seem very in tune to each other, thinking along the same lines and coming to similar conclusions. I was originally going to give inkie pie hallucinations, but I decided against it. she's too in control of herself. [that’s not how hallucinations work but ok hunny]”

So, what we can learn from this is that Inkie is honest, blunt and confident. She’s proud, protective and a natural born leader. She makes the decisions for the group and doesn’t like her ideas being shut down, but she doesn’t care if it’s her sisters. Inkie has the ability to love just as much as she hates, which completely goes against the idea that she views other ponies aside from her sisters as toys and not something to love/hate but I digress.

In the actual story, Inkie displays these behaviours several times. This leads me to believe she could be an 8 or 9, but which?

Well, Inkie doesn’t value peace, come to think of it, so she’s likely an 8w9. I still say 8w9 > 8w7 because she’s much calmer than other wings. I view wings more as flavouring than having to match up 100%. So, I’m leaning 8w9. Actually, I think 8w7 makes more sense… she doesn’t have much 9 qualities.

So, what instinct? I still stand by sx/sp 8. So sx8 then.

Tritype: 874

We know her core type (gut) is 8, and I’d imagine she struggles the least with shame. So, we need to figure out her head type. She could be a 5, as she doesn’t seem to struggle with any of the anxiety 6’s do, but 7 is also likely. She’s an unconventional 7 if so, but still. She’s probably 874. But I can see 854. I should probably make my mind up though. Hmm… 874.

Besides, it doesn’t make much sense to have your wing not be your fix. It’s not impossible but me.

MBTI: ESFP

Okay, so, I’m going with Se-Ti here. You might be wondering why, but it’s actually very simple. When going into typing characters, I always assume they’re a sensor until proven otherwise. However, I don’t let myself get biased. I was sure Inkie would turn out to be an intuitive. However, re-reading, Inkie is actually very grounded in reality. She isn’t creative, more of a ‘technical thinker’ as she says and focuses on the present moment. She also makes decisions primarily based on what she wants, her own ‘values.’ Values don’t always have to be moral, and she’s a clear example of that. She values her sisters, but not other people, hence why she protects them but dismisses the other. I just can’t see Fe-Ti or Ne-Si.

Big five: SCUEN.

Might seem weird, but Inkie actually does tend towards the calm side of things. She goes into things with little plan when her sisters aren’t around, and egocentric is a no brainer. N is self explanatory; I is usually more of an experience seeker.

Temperament: Choleric-sanguine is the closest fit to her. You may argue phlegmatic but she does not try to serve others in the slightest lmao. She’s selfish.

Conclusion: ESFP sx8w7 874 SCUEN choleric.

Oh, fun fact, “yup! i like to think that there's something running in the family. pinkie is bipolar, inkie is scitzophrenic (sp?), and blinkie has bordeline personality disorder XD” Where do we get any idea of that in the story, through their behaviour? Nowhere.

Also, despite Inkie knowing her actions are wrong, and the others, Rei said this regarding Derpy: “she doesn't think it's wrong. none of them do. you gotta put yourself in the shoes of a sociopath; they each may have different reasons why they think the way they do, but when your brain works in this fashion, your view of the world is warped.”

Pinkie Pie:

Enneagram: sp7w8

Alright! Let’s go back to this! Reminder that I am ONLY talking about Muffins Pinkie Pie here, and not MLP Pinkie Pie, who is very different from Muffins Pinkie Pie. So, I don’t think my typing was wrong at all. But I’ve been considering 8 for Pinkie. However, I’m not sure if she’s 7w8 or 8w7. I think Pinkie starts off as a 7w8 but Reitanna randomly decides to make her a megalomaniac. So, it’s complicated.

8’s don’t like vulnerability, but Pinkie doesn’t care. In fact, she’ll use her vulnerability to manipulate Apple Bloom in Silence Is Silver. So, that rules 8 out.

That being said… well, we’ll cross tritype when we get there.

So, I stand by her being a sp7w8. You might think Pinkie is too pessimistic to be an 8, but she isn’t a pessimist. An edgelord, but not a pessimist. She only confronts her dark attitude in life when literally being sentenced to death.

Tritype: 782

I think Pinkie is a textbook 782, and I’ll explain why. I was inclined to say 728 but I think she struggles with shame the least. She is very aggressive in getting what she wants, but she also has a 2 fix because she views her baking as a give and take.

"You do not control lives, Pinkie Pie," Celestia growled lowly, feeling hatred toward the party pony. "And you have caused more sadness than you can even imagine..."

"Have I?" sneered Pinkie. "With all of the cupcakes and pastries I brought to parties? With all of the money I helped bring in when I started working at Sugarcube Corner so that the Cakes found financial stability? To the point where they were able to care for themselves and two brand new foals when they came along?" She suddenly stamped her hoof on the floor, making everypony jump once again. "I know for a fact that every single pony in this room consumed quite a large amount of my special pastries, including you, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. And I can recall each and every one of your reactions after taking the first bite! You want to know what it was?" Her furious eyes scanned the room as she was met with no response. Then she chuckled lightly. "A smile."

She’s clearly just messing with Celestia, but there is some truth to what she is saying. She clearly views what she’s doing as “good” to a degree because other people like her gifts. 2’s struggle with pride, and because Pinkie thinks she’s helpful, she feels she is entitled to do what she wants. This is a light fix, but still there.

Pinkie Pie also has a need for her cupcakes to be THE BEST, leading me towards a 2w3 > 3w2 fix. Being the BEST isn’t her main goal, but it’s up there.

Oh, fun fact about Fluttershy by the way, Reitanna was considering making her a baker. As a FuckedUp!PinkieShy shipper (like in an AU where they’re both fucked up idk) I would’ve loved that.

“Yeah, your story makes more sense than mine, but I like the "what ifs" you can come with by reading stories like these. Could you imagine Fluttershy turning into a psycho with Pinkie, or getting super mad and taking revenge?” “I actually considered that, but just like you said, it seemed a bit OOC”

MBTI: ENFP.

Pinkie Pie is probably an ENFP. At first, I considered Se dom, however she is VERY opportunistic and has constant ideas. Who even gets an idea to bake someone because of a cheese grater? Poor writing, or a Ne character? Either way, I think Ne-Si makes more sense than Ni-Se. Pinkie actually does use Si to a degree. She gets enraged when Celestia takes her friends away (even if she did it herself. Hypocrisy!) and also has a very strict schedule on how she does things. Fi > Fe might seem very strange however Fi users can manipulate. Pinkie doesn’t care at all about societal standards. She only keeps up with them to avoid being caught for her crimes. Also, while she hides her depression, it’s mostly to protect herself rather than her sisters. In Twilight’s Fall, she has no problem being pessimistic to her friends and saying horrible stuff.

OCEAN: SLOEI.

Pretty self explanatory. I don’t think I need to explain this.

Temperament: Sanguine-choleric.

Conclusion: Sanguine-choleric sp7w8 782 ENFP SLOEI

Apple Bloom:

Oh Apple Bloom- she’s had it rough. Definitely a type. So, for her enneagram… I decided to look at Broken Tiara, as it’s the story I think characterises Apple Bloom the most, and Silence Is Silver. We learn from the former that Apple Bloom struggles with rage and wrath. She wants to cause other people pain because she’s suffered. Apple Bloom self-sabotages in the story, killing her very own big sister but using Pinkie Pie to fill the gap. She destroys her family, because they don’t matter anymore, Pinkie Pie does. She believes killing is her destiny.

Enneagram: sp6w7- explanation below

Reitanna says this about Apple Bloom, “Actually, no, it's nothing physical, it's a trauma model. Apple Bloom had already shown sociopathic traits by joining pinkie in the first place, but what people don't realize is, the actual act does a lot more to the mind than watching someone lose their life. First, with each incident she witnessed, stress and trauma were put on her brain little by little, meaning it was literally breaking her sanity. Once she did it herself, the power of this act traumatized her so severely, it finally broke her sanity. Since she is a child, the effects of this are much more detrimental than to an adult, due to the fact that the brain is still developing. The damage has caused her to develop one or two personality disorders, which is common in trauma models in children. Since she has been treated so kindly by pinkie pie, Apple Bloom's brain associates these acts as good things because she has been shown positive reinforcement by her mentor, therefore, she doesn't comprehend the fact that something bad has happened to her. She is under the assumption that THIS is who she really is because of pinkie's manipulation. This loss of reality makes her, by definition, insane.”

“I can't pinpoint exactly what she has because I would need to look at all of the personality disorders, but she's definitely not sane.”

Personally, I won’t theorise on what personality disorders Apple Bloom could have, as she is still a child, and children usually get diagnosed with conduct disorder rather than ASPD, so I don’t want to speculate too much.

Apple Bloom compartmentalises her empathy and true nature for her trauma and manipulated self. ("Nah," she chuckled, “That wasn't the real me. It never was. This is the real me, the other one was just tryin to keep me locked away.")

She has an obsession with destruction. She refers to wanting to destroy other ponies in Broken Tiara and says the exact same thing in Silence Is Silver when talking about Silver Spoon. She’s also power-driven, much like Pinkie Pie, and wrathful.

In ABGHCM (Apple Bloom Gets Her Cutie Mark) we see more of this behavior repeated. “I think this was all meant to happen. Everything happens for a reason, right? That's why I was the one who volunteered to take you when your number came up."

She justifies it all with it being her destiny. And getting her cutie mark (one of the worst utilising of this plot device ever) helps her solidify this. I sorta have a theory that Pinkie used dark magic or smth to give Apple Bloom that cutie mark to manipulate her further, but that would be silly. Perfect for Muffins, I can’t take a single thing in this story seriously.

I had to go back to the quiz to get more characterisation of Apple Bloom. If you want all the answers by the way, I’ll drop them right here:

Pinkie Answers:

"How are you today?" "Fine and dandy, right as candy!"

"When it comes to friendship, what do you think is most important?" "Support!My friends are my life! I'd be nothing without them!"

"If you found yourself in a very scary situation, how would you react?" "HA Me? Afraid? I fear nothing."

"What do you think of the world and the people in it?" "Oh, I LOVE everybody”

"If somepony attacks you, how do you respond?" "Oh, that was an attack? It felt like a bug bite.”

"What's your idea of a good time?" “EVERYBODY needs to be having a good time! Everybody that matters, of course!"

"How would you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "Life isn't about revenge, but every body else can do as they please!"

"How do you deal with sadness?" "I suppress the sadness by pretending it's not there."

"Do you think you might be crazy?" "No pony is entirely sane! I'm crazy in my own way!"

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?" "Oh, I NEVER do anything bad!" (Explicitly contradicted by her saying "we're bad people" in On Trial)

"What do you think of life?" "I love life! It's great!"

"How are your dreams?" "I have good dreams. If they turn bad, I just make them good again." (Contradicted in Sting.)

"How was your childhood?" "It was depressing until I was inspired to go my own way and find happiness."

"Someone just lied to you. How did you find out, and how do you respond?"

"I don't really care if they lied to me, l'm a pretty big liar myself."

"I see you have cupcakes. May I have one?" "Of course, take two if you'd like!"

"How do you perceive the mind?" "It's an amazing machine that can create wonderful things. Without it, we'd be boring."

"You know, I think you're an idiot." "Ha, yeah, sometimes I am."

"Last question... how is your sleep?" “I never want the day to end, so I stay up late until I pass out. My energy can keep me up for hours when it's time for bed, so I only get a few hours of sleep. It doesn't take a huge toll on me, though."

Minkie Answers:

"First of all, how are you doing today?" "Same as every day.”

"When it comes to friendship, what do you feel is most important?" "Love. The love shared among friends is the true key to happiness."

"If you found yourself in a very scary situation, how would you react?" "I hardly fear things. Whatever it is, I'll make it more afraid of me."

"What do you think of the world, other than yourself and those close to you?" "Scum. Trash.”

"If somepony attacks you, how do you respond?" “They know better than to attack me. So they wouldn't."

"What's your idea of a good time?" "If my friends are smiling and laughing, then I'm having the time of my life!"

"How would you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "I need to make sure they feel ALL of my pain."

"How do you deal with sadness?" "I'm honestly not very good at fighting it.”

"Do you think you may be crazy?" “I know I'm ill, but l'm not crazy. Crazy ponies aren't aware of their actions."

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?" "I only feel guilty if I did it to somepony I love, otherwise I feel nothing."

"What do you think of life?" "Life? What life?"

"How are your dreams?" "Mostly nightmares about traumatic events in my past. They wake me up frequently."

"How was your childhood?" "I was hurt and neglected for a long time. It has broken me, but I find things to make me feel better."

"Somepony just lied to you. How do you find out, and what do you do?" "They lied to my face. I can tell if somepony is lying immediately to me, and I make sure they stop.”

"I see you have cupcakes. Can I have one?" "Yes, but just one, okay?"

"How do you perceive the mind?" "Sometimes it's not so good to us. It can make us think things we don't want to think."

"You know what? I think you're an idiot.” “…”

"Last question, how is your sleep?" "Well, since I have trouble sleeping, I'll do whatever anypony else is doing if THEY are still up. Otherwise I lay in bed, hoping sleep will take me. This makes me sleepy during the day. When I DO sleep, my nightmares will wake me back up.”

Blinkie answers:

"First off, how are you doing today?" "What's it to YOU?"

"When it comes to friendship, what do you feel is most important?" "Honesty. I think it's important to stay honest with your friends."

"If you found yourself in a very scary situation, how would you react?" "If I’M not the cause of it, how scary can it be?"

"What do you think of the rest of the world, other than yourself and those around you?" "Ha! The world is full of ponies too DUMB to see the blatant truth in front of their eyes."

"If someone attacks you, how do you respond?” “Are you serious?”

"What's your idea of a good time?" “I need to be in control of the activity, or I'm not happy." (Well we can rule out A > E in OCEAN)

"How would you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "I will let them feel all the power of my rage.”

"How do you deal with sadness?" "With anger. Turn sadness to anger. It's the only way to cope." (Real, relatable)

"Do you think you might be crazy?" "Why would you ask that? Are you implying something?!"

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?" "I don't care. I MEANT to do it.”

"What do you think of life?" "Life is only as good as what I make it."

"How are your dreams?" "My dreams are however I want them to be. I can lucid dream." (Contradicted in Sting)

"How was your childhood?" "My family never supported anything I did, and I hated them for it. I was disciplined often."

"Someone just lied to you. How do you figure it out?" "Doesn't matter how I find out. I'll… make sure they regret it."

"I see you have a cupcake, may I have one?" "If you really wanted one, you'd go get it yourself.”

"How do you perceive the mind?" "It's the thing that creates ideas, good and bad. You don't have to do what it says."

"You know what? I think you're an idiot.” "[navy seals copypasta]”

"Last question, how is your sleep?" "I feel uncomfortable if everyone is asleep and I'm not. I might purposefully keep somepony awake if l'm not tired."

Inkie Answers:

"First off, how are you doing?" "If I get my way, I'm good any day."

"When it comes to friendship, what do you think is most important?" "Loyalty. I always protect those who are dear to me."

"If you found yourself in a scary situation, how'd you react?" "I don't scare easily. I'm decently calm."

"What do you think of the rest of the world, other than yourself and those close to you?" "Do you REALLY consider them individuals? Pfft."

"If someone decides to attacks you, how do you respond?” "Anyone dumb enough to try and attack me will regret it.”

"What's your idea of a good time?" "Everything needs to be to MY liking."

"How would you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "To them, it'll seem like it didn't affect me. But when they least expect it, I will go to extremes to make them pay."

"How do you deal with sadness?" "Well, I rarely feel sad at all, but when I do, it's not pretty."

"Do you think you might be crazy?" "Some people may consider my behaviour crazy, but if in my right mind, is it really so?"

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?” "If everything that happens happens, can we really do anything wrong?"

"What do you think of life?” "I don't hate life, I hate the concept of it. It's wasted on those who don't appreciate it.”

"How are your dreams?" "I prefer the bad dreams because they give me cool ideas. They're more frequent than the good dreams."

"How was your childhood?" "My family put a lot of pressure on me. The affects stay with me to this day."

"Somepony just lied to you. How did you find out, and how do you respond?" "If I have a gut feeling I'm being lied to, l'll try and force the truth out of them."

"I see you have a cupcake or two. May I have one? "I'll think about it... how about you try and impress me for it?"

"How do you perceive the mind?" "The mind is whatever you make it."

"You know, I think you're an idiot." "Hmph. Likewise."

"Last question, how is your sleep?" "I like to settle down and chill, enjoying the company of anypony else who is still up. I'll easily go to sleep when they do. I have a bad habit of waking too early, which makes me sort of groggy, but l'm fine."

Apple-Bloom Answers:

"How is your day?” "I'm cautious, but I know I'II be fine!"

"When it comes to friendship, what do you think is most important?" "Dedication! I think friends should remain loyal and true."

"If you find yourself in a scary situation, how would you react?" "Sometimes the fear DOES strike me, but responding with courage is a true sign of character." (Sx6? Sp6 with a sx second instinct and so blind?)

"What do you think of the world, other than yourself and those close to you?" "Pathetic, absolutely pathetic. In fact it's REALLY funny."

"If somepony attacks you, how do you respond?" "I may be small, but i'm tough. Don't underestimate how badly I can kick their butt."

"What's your idea of fun?" "If I can let loose completely, it's a party!”

"How would you get revenge on those who've hurt you?" "They hurt me, so I want them to hurt 10x more."

"How do you deal with sadness?" “I have to cry it out, but I don't want anypony to see me doing it."

"Do you think you might be crazy?" "Of course not! I am who I am! Everypony else is crazy!"

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?" "Sometimes I feel a twinge of guilt, but if I ignore it, it goes away."

"What do you think of your life?" "When I was young, everything seemed so dandy... When did it start feeling so terrible?" (I know she’s had a terrible childhood but girl- WHEN?)

"How are your dreams?" "Sometimes my dreams are pretty bad, and they stem from bad memories or feelings."

"How was your childhood?" "I was raised well by my family, but I chose my own path, one they didn't approve of."

"Somepony just lied to you, how do you find out?" "They lied to me? I'll lie right back, in that way it'll be my revenge."

"I see you have a cupcake, may I have one?” "Why not? I have them, so l'll share them!"

"How do you perceive the mind?" "It's fragile. If it breaks, it's unlikely to be fixed."

"You know, I think you're an idiot” "I'll remember that next time I consider doing something nice for you."

"Last question, how is your sleep?" "I spent all day having fun, so I feel exhausted toward the end of the night. I try to stay up with my friends, but end up falling asleep at some point or another. Sometimes my bad dreams wake me up in the middle of the night, but I can fall asleep soon after."

BabsSeed Answr:

"First off, how are you doing today?" "I can't complain, really!"

"When it comes to friendship, what do you feel is most important?" "Giving back. When a friend helps you when things are bad, it's important to pay it forward."

"If you found yourself in a very scary situation, how would you react?" "Fight or flight? Ha, my first instinct is to fight.” (Counter6)

"What do you think of the world aside from your friends?" “They are weak fools who can't think for themselves."

"If someone attacks, what do you do?" "No one gets away with attacking me."

"What's your idea of a good time?" "If my friends and I don't have to hold anything back, it's a PARTY, PARTY PARTY"

"How would you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "Hahaha... let's say... no one gets away with hurting me."

"How do you deal with sadness?" "…have to distract myself.”

"Do you think you might be crazy?" "I am perfectly sane! I know exactly what I'm doing.”

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?" "Well, no pony knows l'm the one that did it. It's only wrong if I get caught." (Reitanna stop making TOOL references every two seconds challenge: IMPOSSIBLE)

"What do you think of life?" "Life was really unfair to me. But it's just a game, right? Now I'm the one winning."

"How are your dreams?" "My dreams are usually pretty nice. Sometimes I get bad ones, though that don't bother me."

"How was your childhood?" "| experienced heavy losses so young in life, as well as suffered from violent bullying. I was depressed until a dear friend helped me get back up."

"Somepony just lied to you. How do you figure that?" "I'll find out on my own. I'm smart, so I know. I’ll play along with them until I get the chance.”

"I see you have a cupcake. Can I have one?" "Depends... what have you done for me lately?"

"How do you perceive the mind?" "The mind is sacred. It should be fed knowledge, it should be soothed with meditation." (5 fix?)

"You know, I think you're an idiot." "Oh yeah? Well [a yo-mama-fat type insult, literally]”

Last question... how is your sleepis?" "Well, I make full use of the evening until I start to feel tired. Then I listen to music as I fall asleep. I keep it on low volume, and on repeat, so I hear my favourite songs in my dreams."

Our Muffins Blorbo 🫧:

"First off, how are you feeling today?" “I am so, SO happy today.”

"When it comes to friendship, what do you think is most important?" "Happiness! If my friends are happy, I am too!" (Fe > Fi?)

"You find yourself in a scary place and situation, how do you react?" "Sometimes I give into fear and run, it depends on HOW scary it is."

"What do you think of the rest of the world, other than yourself and those close to you?” "Oh! Everyone is great, there are a few bad ones though."

"If somepony attacks you, how do you respond?” "Why would they do that?! I haven't done anything wrong! have a right to defend myself!” (Hypocrite)

"What's your idea of a good time?" "Surrounded by all my friends no matter what!”

"How would you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "I'm tired of getting harmed. My revenge is going on anyone get my hooves on."

"How do you deal with sadness?" "I have to cry. If you cry, you feel better afterwards."

"Do you think you might be crazy?" "I'm not crazy, my reality is different than yours!"

"When you do something bad, how do you feel?" "My GOOD actions make up for my bad ones."

"What do you think of life?" "I feel betrayed by life. No pony exists on purpose. But I find reasons to smile!"

"How are your dreams?" "Usually my dreams are so real, I mistake them for reality. They can be good or bad."

"How was your childhood?" "I thought everything was good, but then I got abandoned and had to find my own way."

"Somepony just lied to you. What do you do?” "I am told by a friend and feel hurt by a liar, and tell them to never talk to me again."

"I see you have a cupcake, can I have one?" "I'll give you more than one! You can have half, and l'll have half, that way it's even."

"How do you perceive the mind?" "Sometimes you see things differently from others because your brain is programmed differently." (And rei says she isn't autistic coded...)

“You know what? You’re an idiot.” “I am NOT an idiot.” (10/10 defence.)

"Last question, how is your sleep?” ur sl "I try to stay up with my friends, but end up falling asleep first. just get really tired if it's been a long day, and sometimes I'II also take naps. I DO feel refreshed while I'm awake, though."

RUN:

"First off, how are you doing today?" "Things are great!"

"When it comes to friendship, what do you think is most important?" "Connection. I just love my friends so much, I don't know what I'd do if I lost them."

"If you found yourself in a very scary situation, what is your reaction?" "I tend to flee."

"What do you think about the rest of the world other than yourself?" "Some are good, some are bad, that's just the way it is."

"If somepony attacks you, how do you respond?" "I would ask them why they attacked me!"

"What's your idea of a good time?" “I like to party with my friends, but I also like to make new ones."

"How do you get revenge on those who hurt you?" "Revenge never solves anything."

"How do you deal with sadness?" "I just try to think positively, even when crying."

"Do you think you are crazy?" "Well, what do you mean by crazy? 'Crazy' as in eccentric, 'crazy' as in insane? I need some more context!" (Reitanna hates rational people who ask questions.)

"When you do something bad, do you feel bad?" "I feel guilty, and that guilt doesn't go away until I confess."

"What do you think of life?" "Life is good. I wake up every morning and I just feel so good!"

"How are your dreams?" “They can be good, they can be bad. It just depends on what my brain is dealing with at the time."

"How was your childhood?" “There were good times and bad. My experiences made me who I am."

"Somepony just lied to you. How did you find out, and how do you respond?" "Why would somepony lie to me? No, there must be some mistake. People don't just... LIE... do they?!" (Yeah no one thinks this...)

"Can I have a cupcake?" "I'm not gonna finish them all on my own, silly!'"

"How do you perceive the mind?" "Your mind is like a sanctuary; it tells you what is right and what is wrong."

"You know what, I think you're a fucking idiot." "That's not very nice. How can you say something like that so easily?"

"Last question, how is your sleep?" "I like to iust settle down and read or something else calming) until I'm tired enough to sleep. I don't have any troubles falling asleep at all."

Anyway, let’s look at Apple Bloom’s answers. She’s optimistic (believing everything will be okay), loyal, “brave,” condescending, anger driven and spiteful. Things we already knew. Her enneagram being 1 is unlikely, unless she’s a very unhealthy one. 2 isn’t impossible, but she doesn’t seem very heart triad, you know? Probably not a 5. 6, 7, 8 and 9 are on the table. I think 6 is the most likely, and we can rule out 8 and 9. She’s probably a sp6w7.

“Preservation Sixes want to feel the embrace of the family, to be in a warm, protected place where there are no enemies. They search for an "idealized other" for protection, and they can have issues that look like separation anxiety. Like a child who needs to hold on to the mother, these Sixes don't feel confident in defending their own self-interests and survival.”

��These Sixes seek to escape anxiety by seeking the security of protection; therefore, they become dependent on others. They have a passion for compensating for the fear of separation, which manifests as warm and friendly temperament. Their driving need is therefore for something like (neurotic) friendship or warmth, which makes this subtype the warmest of these Sixes. They tend to be in a good mood and have a generally pleasant disposition. They look for a bond of intimacy and trust in their relationships, and they fear disappointing others, especially those who are closest to them. Being warm is their way of getting people to be friendly so they won't be attacked.”

However, due to her sx instinct being second, I think she still has some sx 6 traits. Also,

She doesn’t seem to hide her anger. In fact, she actively goes against Pinkie, but that’s when she’s REALLY pissed off towards Diamond Tiara, not her usual mode. In fact, she seems scared of Pinkie otherwise.

Could be sp7, but I doubt it.

Tritype: 638

Okay, figuring out her tritype was HELL, but I think I’ve got it down. So, her heart type was the hardest to find, but I think she’s a 3 fix. Why? Because she’s obsessed with getting her cutie mark, as a means of protection (6 core) from her bullies. As for her gut type, I think we can rule out 1, as she doesn’t really care about morality, and 9, because she isn’t conflict-avoiding.

MBTI: ISTP

So, probably a Fe-Ti user, but I can see her Ti being higher than Fe. As for her other functions, I think… Se-Ni? Maybe Ti-Se-Fe-Ni… but that doesn’t FEEL right. That’s ISTP, right? Um…

She uses Ni in ABGHCM when she predicts Applejack will need stronger restraints, and she has very Ni attitudes in life (“this was meant to happen.”

Ni-Fe? INFJ? Unlikely. Her Fe isn’t THAT strong. Tert Fe seems right. ESTP? But E6 is cognitively introverted. She uses a LOT of Ni.

Actually, I can see Fi-Ni for Apple Bloom, but maybe Inferior Fi? No… Tert Fi? What “values” does she have though? Literally none.

ISTP? She’s kinda manipulative, but inferior Fe users still have Fe in their stack. I mean she literally taunts Applejack by saying “One last bit of sisterly bonding, right?”

And she HAS gone against group values before… I don’t know. I can’t guess very well, but ISTP is the closest I can guess.

SLOAN: SLUEN

Temperament. Sanguine-choleric. [angry sanguine <:()

Conclusion: sp6w7 638 ISTP SLUEN Sanguine-choleric.

Derpy Hooves:

Enneagram: sp7w6

Derpy!! Our blorbo!! We only have Derpy and Babs left, so let’s start with our autistic little blorbo. So, Derpy was abandoned from a young age, and had no friends. Stumbling across Pinkie’s hobby sort of gave her a connection, or someone to rely on. Sp7 is my first thought, to be honest. Not a 1, 2, 3 and probably not a core 4. We can rule out 5, and 6 is unlikely. Same with 8 or 9. In fact, I’m pretty confident she is a 7. I don’t know her instinct though. Reitanna once said on Twitter Derpy struggles with Gluttony, so…

Probably sp/sx 7w6 (still wary) 741.

Okay, so, I probably have to justify that 1 fix. Derpy is very cautious of making a mistake, so the point where she cries because of it. She’s also under the impression that what she’s doing is morally justified to a degree, “what’s bad for you is good for us,” though that could just be selfishness. Her 1 fix is very light, but I feel like she hates the way she was treated and hates how cruel the world is, despite the fact she is a hypocrite.

MBTI: ESFJ

Fe is not impossible, but idk if it’s her dominant function, really so. I think she’s an XSFJ, probably ESFJ. And the reasoning is that she’s very empathetic, albeit selectively, and she values her friends happiness over her own. She doesn’t like change very much, like when Pinkie got taken away, and that’s how anyone would react, but she does seem to like feeling safe and structured. She had an adventurous side though (Tert Neh) and uses VERY flawed logic to justify her actions using her inf logic.

SLOAN: SLUAN.

She’s just a little borbcy.

Temperament: sanguine-phlegmatic.

Conclusion: ESFJ sp7w6 741 SLUAN sanguine-phlegmatic.

Babs Seed’s Typing:

Enneagram: sx6

Ah yes, the best Muffins character. Well, according to Reitanna and only Reitanna, no one else likes her. Anyway, let’s rule out the obvious. She’s probably not a 1, 2, 3 or 4. 4 fix is possible. 7 and 9 is also less likely. 5, 6 and 8 are the main contenders. We can rule out sp6 and so6. I don’t think she’s an 8, as she doesn’t seem to care about control, but protecting herself. So, now we’re torn between 5 and 6. I’m leaning 5? She could also be a 9. No, I think she’s a 5. She’s very obsessed with mindfulness, taming the mind and… she’s also too confident to be a 5. I know, fallacy. But I don’t really understand fives. You’re like aliens.

I don’t think she’s a 5. Probably a 6w7, actually. Sx/sp6.

Tritype: 684

Probably a 8 and 4 fix. Like, she definitely has 4 traits. She gets jealous of ducks. DUCKS. She insists on fighting her OWN battles, and boy does she fight. She has some so8 traits but uh, killing Fluttershy isn’t exactly “protecting the weak.” She thinks homiending is “strong.”

MBTI:

Ahhh… ugh. Okay, so, Fi inferior isn’t impossible, but Ti > Te makes sense. So, maybe Fe tert? ESTP? Se-Ni is obvious. ESTP is my best guess.

SLOAN: SCOEN.

Temperament: choleric-sanguine.

Conclusion: choleric-sanguine ESTP sx6w7 684 SCOEN.

And that’s it! That’s my analysis of the bakers! I don’t plan on making any changes, and I probably WILL change my mind many times. I could go into other characters, but the point is, the writing in Muffins isn’t the best, so that’s unlikely. Chances are, I’ll leave this post here and yeah.

Edit: When I made this post, my understanding of enneagram wasn’t perfect, and my understanding of socionics was worse. If you want to know my updated thoughts, I might make a post about it, but I’ve already made two posts about this at this point. Would you guys like a part three?

#muffins #reitanna Seishin #Minkie pie #Inkie pie #enneagram #Blinkie pie #lemons random rants

11 notes · View notes

progressive-waves-art · 4 months

Text

2am Transitus thoughts since I can’t do fanart right now.

I am THE number one Lavinia apologist, idk what exactly Arjen was doing with her but her being desperate and going to Henry because she wanted the screaming ghosts in her head to stop and Daniel happened to have this dickhead for a brother makes a lot of sense to me.

On the flip side, I have no idea why they threw the “also I’m totally cool with killing my daughter for monetary gain” motivation in there. I’m sorry it makes zero sense to me and I hate the Wicked Stepmother trope as it is.

Why is she married to Abraham in the first place then? What solid reason do Abby and her have to hate each other when Abraham seems like a grounded, reasonable human being he who knows an evil white lady when he sees one? Why does Lavinia, in a conversation WITH HERSELF, say that she regrets what she did to Abby and should go and comfort her after Message From Beyond? Why is the character designed to resemble the “”Gypsy”” archetype a greedy and untrustworthy troublemaker for no genuine reason??

Last point notwithstanding, her motivation in canon just confuses the hell out of me. Through the entire second act she oscillates between a desperate, suffering woman who just wants Daniel to leave her alone that Henry takes advantage of, and a calculating evil witch character that’s just as shitty as Henry himself. Pick a lane, lady.

I have this pile of retcons and headcanons where I just completely got rid of the inheritance-chasing fortune teller persona and made Lavinia’s ability to see Daniel completely spontaneous (though she does have some backstory it makes a little sense for that I completely made up out of thin air, may talk about that later but we’ll see how this post does). The short version is that she’s the same as everyone else. A normal person loves their family, who endures a horrible experience, whose horrible experience is only amplified by their low socioeconomic status, and who is brutally taken advantage of by Henry to a violent end. She did some awful shit but ultimately it comes down to Henry being a manipulative asshole. Lovely.

…but then my aunt bought me this little aesthetic pack of tarot cards last nigtt he and I started reading about the history of this occult stuff in Western countries. And it got me thinking about another way she could be characterized.

I’m not gonna go into a tangent about this but the point is all that divination stuff like tarot cards, ouija, crystal balls etc became popular as novelty in the 1880s and 90s, especially in England and the United States. There were of course occultists who took it seriously but in widespread terms it was sold as what it was today. A harmless little game.

I dunno. Maybe Lavinia got really into that stuff as a hobby and that’s why it’s not weird that Abraham is married to a “”witch.”” Maybe she has it in the back of her head that none of it is real, just a way to kill time and a quirk of her personality.

Then Daniel dies, and she starts seeing spirits. With no genuine explanation. In desperation she associates it with her stuff and tries to talk to him that way, but it’s like Ayreon and his visions. He doesn’t know about Time Telepathy and she doesn’t know about the “crossroads” world Daniel is spending an unusual amount of time in. Little pointless explanations of something far bigger than they can envision.

Abraham doesn’t believe her and thinks it’s just her being way too serious about her occult stuff while he’s busy trying to keep his daughter from regressing any further than she has.

Henry is the only one who will talk to her and go along with her terrified ramblings, not because he believes her but he sees an opportunity in a clearly hysterical woman and she’ll be more cooperative if he pretends all of it is real.

Then she dies, and through it is forcefully disillusioned from her little games even though they’re all she could hold onto for an explanation.

I dunno.

#ayreon #transitus #I don’t hc this at all I just had a thought #I personally like my “was in the US Civil War and is one all too familiar with meaningless death schtick #but Ayreon is so interpretive and I love making multiple renditions of the same person #Lavinia especially fascinates me in that sense #tldr I hate when stepmoms are shitty people even when it makes no sense for the plot #that’s such a cheap shot to me when the whole first act of Transitus is about Daniel’s BLOOD RELATIONS making him miserable #I am so stupid about this album please ask me about it

11 notes · View notes

stardustizuku · 3 months

Text

“Renee Rapp is the only good part of Mean Girls”

Unfortunately, no. She’s as bad as every other part of the movie, you’re probably just forcing yourself to like it cause you love both 1) Regina and 2) Renee.

This is not to say that Renee is a bad singer, her vocal performance is, indeed, the best part of the movie. And to say her acting is bad, wouldn’t be fair. Yes, she lacks any subtlety to play Regina, but thats a (bad) creative decision, that likely she had small to no part in. It’s also not to say that she doesn’t look great. Her outfits did her a disservice, but Renee is in fact very pretty, and she’s been Regina before. And it’s not like she was bad in the musical revival, quite the contrary.

Buuut I do believe that people have decided to ignore how bad her acting is in the movie, either cause they don’t wanna hate on Regina, or they don’t wanna hate on Renee.

When people talk about Angourie Rice’s performance they point out that her vocal performance is less than stellar and “bad” when compared to the musical. However, it’s a question of “is the music low-energy because she doesn’t have the range, or was the creative decision to have low-energy made because the movie is ashamed of being a musical?”

That exact same question is what I have with Renee’s acting.

She makes changes that break her character in very significant ways, and I wonder is it because she can’t act on screen (movie and theater acting are two different things) or because the movie itself is ashamed it’s a musical and all theatrics are turned down.

First, Regina George is a Mean Girl, not a bully.

And I say that, not to excuse Regina, she’s still a terrible person, but because the way the archetype works is different.

A bully only makes fun of you and an antagonizes you. A mean girl befriends you and destroys you from the inside while they smile.

Regina has three moments in relation to Cady. This is to say, upon first meeting Regina, up until her downfall, there’s three key aspects that create her character.

1.- I wanna be her friend

2.- I wanna be her

3.- She’s dangerous

And while Renee can absolutely channel maybe 2 and definitely 3, she cannot for the life of her channel the 1 in the story. Again, I don’t fault her, entirely, since she’s been able to play Regina on stage before. But stage not always translates perfect on a movie. Besides, I do believe making Regina…like that is a creative decision from someone who knows nothing about Mean Girls.

Someone who sees Regina exclusively as someone dangerous, because she can be mean and isn’t afraid to tear others down.

But the thing about her, is that she isn’t that. The reason why she’s so scary is that she can be your best friend, the person you trust the most, and she’ll backstab you. The true fear coming from how you initially trusted her so much, she has AMO to destroy you, while she still comes out unscathed.

In the original movie, the first thing Regina does, is save Cady from a man making inappropriate advances at her. The second thing she does is show genuine interest in her, and (from Cady’s perspective) compliment her, welcoming her into her sphere of friends. This is what makes Cady think she’s good, why she trust Regina to talk to Aron, giving her the opportunity to take him back.

It isn’t until later that we realize all those acts were self serving. The man harassing Cady was one that was making Gretchen make a fool of herself, and by extension the plastics, and by extension Regina. Her interest, is because Cady is new and she needs to asses her as either friend or foe. Her love bombing was a series of clever tricks to see how well-socialized she was (the “do you agree, you think you’re really pretty?” Scene is genius to show how she is analyzing her). And she eventually welcomes her to turn a potential enemy into her ally.

But because she’s pretty, because she’s nice and looks innocent enough, those are things you can only pick on after rewatching and knowing just how smart and dangerous she is.

Regina, initially, comes off as a very sweet, very nice and supportive friend.

This is the “I wanna be her friend part”.

The musical actually does a pretty good job with this. Her introductory number “Meet The Plastics” is quite a dramatic number. But that drama borders the line between actually a bit concerning and a very silly atmosphere.

For starters, it starts with Damian and Janice gossiping. But because of the jokes and the tone they have, rather than their introduction feeling like a warning, it feels, well, gossip. While they are being genuine, there’s this part of you that thinks they’re being dramatic and you shouldn’t take their words at face value.

And then Regina starts to sing. Again, dramatic. But you feel like she’s overreacting. Rather than lines like “this whole school humps my leg like a chihuahua” feeling genuine, they feel like a joke. Like she isn’t serious. That all this comments on how she’s great, are hilarious.

Also, and to me this is the most important part, her “and I am a massive deal” line and what follows, feels like she is genuinely happy. Like she’s giddy. It’s pure vanity, like a girl looking at herself in the mirror and going “omg I’m soooo pretty, aren’t I?”, which contrasts harshly when ‘World Burn’ reprises it, and NOW she’s angry.

This is then couple by Gretchen and Karen’s numbers. Karen is purely comedy on how not-smart she is. Gretchen’s is a perfect complement for Regina’s. It’s extremely comedic, constantly putting herself down in a way that makes you laugh, just vaguely mentioning the fact Regina is dangerous. You are laughing now, but if you let her words sink in, you realize how abusive her relationship with Regina truly is.

The number ends with a harmony that signifies how well the Plastics work together, each filling their spot. It’s also very fun and cheerful. This helps you sell that initial idea of “I want to be (Regina George’s) friend”

She’s fun, she’s charismatic, everything is in tune.

The movie, however, presents her ONLY with Regina’s solo from Meet the Plastics, and does this by taking her VERY seriously.

Renee was able to get away with this in her take of the musical because, well, it was a musical. Stage performance.

Renee played her as if she knew she was the biggest deal in the scene. Which, when you have other big personalities and comedic lines, ends up feeling…like she’s bragging. Like a teen girl thinking she’s sooo cool for owning a Stanley cup. Neither the audience, nor really the stage, believed or fully believed all she was saying. Match this with the outfits and the way Renee pitched up her voices to sound different from the actual singing, gives you - Regina George. Maybe not the original Regina, but close enough for a musical.

Renee works in the musical because she’s perfectly capable of giving this massive dramatic songs, all with the same intensity - but the way she acts outside them giving you this dissonance.

Everyone sings about how she’s dangerous, she sings about how she’s a big deal, but outside those scenes, she plays the innocent sweet girl so well you do not trust she’s THAT mean - until World Burns.

But in the movie, she can’t really do the bimbo-ish, over the top white girls. Mostly because the movie is deeply shamed of being a musical (and a comedy musical at that). So instead they decided to have her play a mean girl that doesn’t have all these, uhm, cutesy hyper feminine over top characteristic. Which means stripping away half of the character. And leaving us with…just a scary girl.

To make matters worst, she gets introduced in her very first scene wearing a BLACK LEATHER JACKET. Which, people have already pointed out how cheap the costumes look, but that’s not the beef I have.

In the movie, and in the musical, Regina wears pinks, whites, and purples. Whites and pink being the ones she wears initially and purples coming into the later half when Regina is going into her descend. She wears black in very few scenes, and that’s why her outfits stands out so much in the Burn Book scene.

This is emphasis her character. Someone who appears sweet and nice and innocent. Someone who wouldn’t hurt her friends. But once she’s lost it all, and decides to burn everything down, she wears black.

By introducing her wearing a black leather jacket, the entirety of her character gets ruined. She’s no longer presented as a preppy girl you’d die to have as a friend, she’s a tough girl who’s incredibly rude.

Because Renee does not shift to a high pitched silly voice, she stays as this tough girl persona.

And her insults, instead of being something funny at first glance only later realize she was actually being super mean and bitchy, FEEL MEAN FROM THE START. You cannot be fooled into thinking that she was ever a good person. Specially since on her first appearance, she mocks Gretchen for saying “fetch”. She does this too in the original, but here it’s harder to ignore just how pissed Regina was with the fetch comment. In the original Regina looks genuinely confused, here she looks annoyed at the very first mention.

Again, on the first meeting, she doesn’t come off as someone you wanna be friends with. She comes off as a bully. Like Clarisse from Percy Jackson. The black jackets creates the optical association with gang leaders, which unfortunately get associated with violence, which in turns makes it feel like she’d actually punch you.

The warnings, rather than be “she’s the prettiest poison you’ll ever see”, feel closer to “she will actually hit you”

It doesn’t help that it is followed by Apex Predator.

In the musical it’s a fun framing device for Cady who has the whole jungle-ish theme. It serves to recontextualize Regina into something Cady can understand (which the movie barely acknowledges by the way). There’s also this almost absurd comedic dissonance in calling this petite pink skirt white teen the “Apex Predator”. That’s the point “don’t be fooled by the pink, she’s mean, she’s the apex predator”

But again, you do not associate PINK with THIS Regina because she got introduced with the motherfucking black leather jacket. And even in her “pink” outfit (which is a long sleeved tie dye), she’s wearing boots and baggy pants.

So instead of “haha isn’t it funny that this pink girl is the apex predator”, it’s “this tall, leather jacket, combat boot and baggy pants wearing girl, is the apex predetor”

Which probably invokes feelings of a lion, which in turn makes you constantly be on the defense because you DO BELIEVE she’s gonna hurt you.

And while that is pretty cool, and probably someone you’d want to be, and someone you’re scared of - it’s probably not someone you wanna be friends with.

Or if you wanna be friend with her to be protected, you DONT wanna be her. Like you probably wanna date her, but not really be her. At least not the vast majority of people who originally loved Regina would.

Also, you’re introducing the fear factor AT THE BEGINNING when you’re supposed to be getting it at the very last part

This makes it so that every part of the movie you’re either being told to be scared of Regina or being told how amazing she is. Instead of, you know, being shown either of those things either through dialogue or material objects she has.

Part of the reason some of this songs exists, is to give Cady a chance of make sense of her own feelings in regard to Regina. Regina is the one being sung about, but Cady is the one having to parse through her emotions by analyzing her potential rival/friend.

Like, Apex Predator is largely sung by Cady. While it makes her more likable to be sung by Janice (since all the insults and mean comments towards women come from her mouth, someone who has legitimate reasons to hate Regina), the song is to show how easily tempted by power Cady can be. Janice warns her at the beginning that Regina isn’t sunshine and rainbows, but Cady likes how powerful being friends with Regina makes her feel, so she starts to become Plastic.

But that’s not what happens in the movie! It’s instead just a plain montage number 147 about how cool Regina is.

(Also hot take but I think they cast someone less talented to play Cady - so that she didn’t steal the spotlight from the ACTUAL stars,,,, Regina and fucking Janice Ian)

Regina is meant to symbolize the most toxic aspects of hyperfeminity.

Renee doesn’t feel like she’s playing Regina, it feels like she’s playing a bad girl version of herself. Like the movie is hyping up Renee as herslef, not the literal symbol of white female privilege, Regina.

Because, believe it or not, white woman tears is a big part of why Regina is so insidious. She knows that if she cries and says nothing is her fault, people outside her sphere will be inclined to believe her. Regina cries on several parts of the movie to signal people feeling sorry for her. A very desperate attempt to make everyone stop and give her attention. Either when Aaron broke up with her, or when the Burn Book is “found”.

She’s a literal Karen in the making. Someone you want to be right now as she’s young, but you’d despise grown up - and that’s what makes her fun to analyze! That’s what has made Mean Girls stick out

The way Tina Fey is such a terrible person, she unsuspectingly created the quintessential entitled white teen girl. You’re supposed to love her, but also hate her.

Renee is just cool. She’s just a girlboss. Just a bully. She’s a downgraded Heather Chandler. She would not cry to get sympathy, she would just get angry. Since she doesn’t act the way woman are expected to (she’s never flirty with boys, she’s rarely genuinely kind, we don’t see her hooking up left and right, she doesn’t wear brand designers) it doesn’t seem like it bothers her when she loses it all.

It also feels way more mean spirited when everyone turns on her.

People turned on Regina because she snapped. She started insulting people to their faces, instead of their backs. She started to say “those rules [of femininity] are made up”. She built an empire on being the “Beauty Standard” but when she HERSELF couldn’t keep up with it, that’s when she got kicked out.

She was the one criticizing everyone for not conforming to her standards, so the ultimate humiliation was being told “you are not conforming to what a Plastic (woman) is, therefore you cannot sit with us”.

But New Regina was never that. She’s always mean, she never wore the best outfits, and she alienated her friends from the get-go. So she never forced anyone to conform to her standards of beauty - so when she was kicked out for not conforming…it felt genuinely mean. You weren’t cheering for her downfall. It comes off as a bit pathetic even. Like you feel sorry for her.

It doesn’t help that they didn’t attempt to give her any of the materialistic obsession she had as Regina. She doesn’t wear anything that would make you jealous - she uses elf, no name brand purses, SHEIN clothing and a jeep. Sorry, but the girls at my third world, uniforms having, highschool had more things to make me jealous than her. Sure, alternatives love her, but she’s supposed to be hated by alternatives.

Compund everything, with the fact that this movie is extremely sanitized. Sure, the original was problematic. But that’s what gave it an air of realness. THATS how mean girls could get. That’s how insane highschool was. You’d get thrown slurs by your former friends, get called all sort of things, they would play the meanest pranks, they fat shame and slut shame.

Theres this uncomfortable ideas that your movies or series shouldn’t depict the ugly. They shouldn’t show SA, racism, sexism, etc. Because it’s the same as condoning it. Without realizing that just because it’s not allowed in TV doesnt mean it doesn’t exist in real life.

By having movies and series record honest teenage experience of how cruel it can get - you avoid the rewrite of history. You avoid people going “well, look, nowadays we don’t say all that awful stuff on movies therefore they don’t say it in classrooms” when that’s very much a lie. It still happens, it all still exists. Maybe in another shape or form, and that’s what it SHOULD have tried to update. Exactly /how/ mean girls of today excerpt their meanness. Queen Bees and Wannabes is still updating their editions, and if Tina fucking Fey weren’t such a bastard cutting the deal with Rosalind, we might have had that.

As it stands, the only thing this movie did was ruin Regina. From a very poignant commentary on how subtly female friendships can turn toxic, and the way (as Rosalind says) this innocent girl will without a doubt be the meanest of the group - to just this. Bully. A girl who you’re only sticking with cause you need her - not because you think she’s that great, or wanna be her, or even like. But because she can intimidate other people. All the complexities essentially gone.

And sure, this Regina could have been good. But they never commit to her. They still use the “don’t be fooled by the pink” comments, the references to “my Louis Vuitton heel”, “the prettiest poison you’ll ever see” etc.

Why not change that? You changed any reference to Regina being thin, might as well change other things! Explore why Gretchen sticks with her, why Karen lets her insult her in more antagonistic ways in the movie (in the original Karen didn’t notice cause the insults were SUBTLE but having someone so blatantly being antagonistic wouldn’t work)! Why THIS Regina feels the need to be so mean. Dont just act like this is the same Regina, when she’s NOT! At the very least CARE!

Im so fed up with people trying to act like it’s a sin to criticize Renee when, while her vocals were stellar, her rendition to Regina is soooo far away from the original and their inability to change the movie to fit her - BASICALLY RUINS THE CHARACTER. Quite literally, because Regina no longer makes sense. You don’t know this Regina, you can barely understand her, her psyche, her attitude. I could make essays on why OG REGINA is so fascinating as a villain - but all I can manage with this new version is just to point out how much of a mess it is!

#mean girls #mean girls the musical #musical #musicals #analysis #regina george

11 notes · View notes

briefcasejuice · 1 year

Text

heteronormativity and misogyny are awful problems within the live action daredevil fanbase and it feels like it gets worse everyday jesus fucking christ. like for a show where gender roles and gender ideas are really different from the usual for a show that aired in 2015 (and the roles of the characters in the comics that it trues staying faithful to) you'd think people would understand that typical gender related ideals weren't welcome and that to fully scope these characters you're definitely going to have to think outside of that box but nope i see elektra & Karen hate almost every day at this point for things male characters have done but are not scolded for. their traumas are constantly invalidated because they inconvenienced matt or any other main character it's disgusting. there is such an Awful double standard between matt & frank vs elektra & matt. people constantly fail to see how karen as deserving of her own character development. people are constantly being flippant about foggy's character, his decisions, his feelings as he's affected by the events of the show simply because he isn't entire complacent with matt's actions and decisions. his ability as a character to be able to fill roles he himself or others may need are invalidated constantly as well. like how do you not see that considering the fact that foggy sits in a traditionally feminine role, to be so flippant about his character really shows up your own personal beliefs. this constant invalidation literally bars people from seeing the whole nuance behind these characters roles and how they affect and relate to the plot. like there are genuinely some great commentary about how bad the writers treated foggy and ableism and you can't see it unless you pass that wall. not to mention even the hypermasculinity behind the dynamic between matt and frank has it's own statement; the fact that they can do from bloodied fights straight into emotional monologues where it results in one of the men crying? do you not see the gender stereotypes and archetypes that this breaks? how do you watch the show and not come out thinking differently about the stoic male superhero genre? matt himself is a man that wears his emotions on his fucking sleeve, something that is highly disapproved by the idea of what a man is supposed to be. i'm holding you by the shoulders and shaking you. do you not see this? how did you watch the show and not see any of this? not even a crumb? i'm so very fucking tired

#vlog posting #cause this is mostly just a rant #i haven't read this over i typed it in like two minutes out of annoyance #musing more like shmusing

65 notes · View notes

sad-endings-suck · 11 months

Note

I have a theory why tradfems fester in the ASOIAF fandom, first one is that the fandom is filled with tradcels, so some are genuine pickmes who are into the series to get male attention. and others, the Stansas..i think they have a super shallow/self insert reading of their faves? aside from QITN/Jonsa/shitting on DanyArya nonsense they mostly like Sansa just because she's feminine. They praise stuff of her that is supposed to be seen in a negative light like her shallowness or lack of smarts and then make horrible takes about how she's revolutionary because she wears dresses unlike all other literature heroines cause they wear pants? nevermind they ignore the historical context for why Sansa would wear a dress in contrast to say a YA heroine living in modern day USA. it gets stupidier the more you think of it.

I definitely agree, and the whole situation is a lot more nuanced and understated than a lot of hardcore Stansas would have you believe.

I think the show can be blamed in part for depicting its female characters as archetypes of gender stereotypes. For example, Arya is often relegated to the role of the “not like other girls” female character. Dany is never allowed to be warm and caring like her book counterpart, and Sansa is made out to basically be a “damsel in distress” the first few seasons, and then a girl boss in the last few. The show runners really did not want these female characters to be multi-dimensional, they wanted to fit them into neat little gendered boxes.

The show would also rather have female characters r*ped than have consensual sex. As evidence by excluding female characters that do have a healthy relationship with sex (Asha, Val, Arianne) from the narrative.

In Westeros things like being intelligent, strong and independent are seen as masculine. Whereas traits like kindness, softness, and dependance on others are seen as feminine. But as the reader you are meant to know that traits like compassion or brutality are not feminine or masculine, and yet there are still readers that buy into the gender roles of Westeros without examining why they believe that adventuring for instance, is for men, and sitting in towers is for women. Gender is not as simple as “girls wear dresses and boys wear pants” and even though that is the general belief in Westeros, that is evidently not what the reader is meant to believe. And through characters like Daenerys, Arya, Sansa, Asha, Arianne, Val, Brienne and more, that could not be made any more clear to the reader.

Some people are selective readers, some people have only seen the show and not read the books, others read the books a long time ago and have forgotten things, others only re-read their favs chapters and allow their favourite character’s own biases to influence their view of other characters. Despite the fact it is made clear no character is entirely objective and they all have their own biases and version of events.

Aside from that, I don’t get the Jonsa ship. To each their own, but I don’t understand how such an obscure pairing can be so popular. Jon and Sansa have not interacted one on one at any point in the entire book series (that I recall). On top of that, they only think of one another when they think of all of their siblings combined. I don’t believe there is a single instance of Jon thinking about Sansa individually or vice versa at any point in all of ASOIAF to date. Jon does think about Arya very fondly a whole lot, and vice versa. In fact, there is way more evidence for Jon x Arya than there is for Jon x Sansa (though I don’t care at all for either ship). But then again, maybe that’s why some Sansa stans insist on the Jonsa ship? Because they hate the idea of their favourite male character being closer to their favourite female character’s “rival” (Arya) than their favourite female character in question (Sansa)? I also think some people watched the show and saw how close Sansa and Jon seemed to be in the last few seasons and conflated that with some unseen truth that must exist in the books, even though we all know that pretty much everything in season 6 of GOT and onwards was bullshit.

Which brings me to my final point, which is that a lot of hardcore Stansas and Arya stans insist on this character war, and push the extreme idea that Sansa and Arya are enemies instead of… sisters that don’t get along.

#I do love Sansa but her fans drive me up the wall #asoiaf #asoiaf analysis #asoiaf ask #valyrianscrolls #arya stark #jon snow #daenys targaryen #anti sansa stans

27 notes · View notes

nekropsii · 1 year

Note

hey bro, what did you see that led you to make that post about misogyny with female characters? Like, was it some posts with hateful comments about them?

Honestly, it's a topic that I get really mad at... Just because I know it has existed, and very much so still exists, despite the fact that a lot of people within the community like to claim that they're extremely Progressive and "above Bigotry". There doesn't necessarily have to be a trigger for me posting about it- it's unsettling how pervasive it is, and it's worth calling out whenever and wherever it's possible to do so, similarly to the Racism problem. It's been a problem for years, and it extends well beyond the scope of just the Homestuck fandom. It's a problem in every fandom that's ever existed, since it's a worldwide systemic issue that has, in many places, been mandated by law and (now known to be junk) science.

This isn't really the place for a lesson on the history of Misogyny, though, and I'm sure you're already aware of that, so let's just get back to the Homestuck discussion.

Absolutely being "that guy" right now, every single woman in Homestuck has been subjected to horrible levels of misogyny by the fans for varying reasons and with various effects. To list a few examples of their main effects on an assortment of characters...

Terezi was very frequently made into a "Manic Pixie Dream Girl" archetype. This was just about the only characterization you could find of her back in the day.

Vriska was and still is shafted with the worst discourse in the history of the world, with people refusing to acknowledge her humanity and pinning her as nothing but an unfeeling, horrifically abusive cunt who does nothing but destroy everything around her. She is the most controversial character, possibly in fandom history, and part of the reason for this intense hatred and backlash is literally because she is a woman.

Kanaya is still regularly reduced to nothing but a Mother Figure. Freudian, but true.

Jade is the most recent target of a full frontal assault of it, with the classic reason of "Getting Between the Hot Gays". This was bolstered by Post Canon, and is one of the reasons why I despise it.

Nepeta was reduced to nothing but her relationship with the men in her life, and given an uncharacteristic level of outright obsession with romance/shipping. Nepeta's entire character was rendered physically incapable of passing the Bechdel Test back in the day.

Jane. I literally do not have to say anything else.

Feferi was and still is unjustly characterized as a coldhearted mega-bitch who will tear you to shreds for acting a single step outside of your "best behavior".

Porrim is still generally reduced to nothing but a sex object. This is extremely fucking ironic to me, and also extremely painful.

Criticism of female characters is, and always will be, significantly more intense than that of male characters. It's a given. Misogyny will always be one of the number one ways people respond to a female character- and while it will manifest in different ways, as I have outlined here, it is genuinely unavoidable. Vriscourse is one of the most well known examples of intense, long-term fandom discourse known to internet history, to the point where people who had never even read the fucking comic would engage in it. Plenty of other male characters do some fucked up shit, some even worse than what she does- and are given much less humanity and reasoning- but they're let off arguably much easier than Vriska is.

I remember back in the day it would be common for people to have their favorite characters be Eridan, and/or Gamzee, and/or Cronus, and then be legitimately violently hateful of Vriska. And I mean violently- it would get downright disturbing. It still does. It was normal to receive death threats for saying you like her, or just drawing her or something- neither of which are signs of "condoning what she did", but people took it as such anyway. There comes a point where you have to ask what the line is, and that "line" is that she activates some fucked up sleeper agent in people's brains that tell them to bring out the fine china that is their own Latent Misogyny. The "line" is that she's a woman. People are okay when male characters hurt or kill people, they're okay when they say or do fucked up things, they're okay when they abuse people... At most, they'll get a light slap on the wrist. But if a female character does the same thing, they'll get absolutely lambasted with the most vile shit you've ever seen in your life from fans. Fans who claim to be "above" Bigotry. Who claim to be Progressive.

And honestly, chances are, that female character doesn't even have to do anything.

#homestuck #homestuck analysis #homestuck fandom #beta trolls #alpha trolls #alpha kids #terezi pyrope #vriska serket #kanaya maryam #jade harley #nepeta leijon #jane crocker #feferi peixes #porrim maryam #vriscourse #homestuck.pdf #nekro.pdf

134 notes · View notes

fostersffff · 10 months

Text

The Big Gundam Watch, Part 14: Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

What a mistake it would have been for me to skip this series.

I observed in my last post that opinions on Victory Gundam seem more volatile than ZZ, and now I understand why. Like F91 before it, Victory Gundam is an attempt at soft rebooting the Universal Century, but obviously unlike F91, it had the chance to be a full, ~50 episode TV series. I can say with confidence now that this is the format in which Yoshiyuki Tomino is at his most powerful.

For better and for worse, Victory Gundam takes the essence of nearly everything that came before and refines it into a more pure, undiluted version of itself. I'm of the opinion that this works brilliantly for the most part, although when it does fall flat, it really hits with an echoing thud. Even so, Victory Gundam has usurped ZZ when it comes to my opinion on "the true successor" to 0079. A lot of that is down to executing on a most of ZZ's plot beats and character archetypes better, but it also adds some new elements that improve upon it as well. With that said, I can think of no better element to start with than with the belle of the ball herself, Katejina Loos.

CATEGORY 5 WHITE WOMAN

I have been thoroughly enchanted by the story of Katejina Loos. I knew, via osmosis, that she was a Bad Woman who does Bad Things, but I wasn't exactly sure what that really meant. That descriptor applies to characters like Haman Karn- who I love- Reccoa Londe- who I hate (affectionate)- and Michele Luio- who I hate (derogatory). She has a little bit in common with all three, because she's all the most stereotypical "evil woman" traits wrapped into a single character, but what makes that so engaging is watching how those traits get worse and worse and fucking worse over time, in a way that is kind of disturbingly mundane.

Katejina starts out as what I can most succinctly describe as a Privileged White Liberal; she's from money, but because she hates most of the wealthy people around her- including her own dad- she considers herself wholly different from them. Because of how they shuffled the first few episodes, her introduction is literally "I'm glad all those rich assholes died", glazing over both the grotesque cruelty of the situation because she thought they were bad people who deserved to die anyway and also that she is, in fact, one of those rich assholes.

At first she goes along with the League Militaire, mainly because there's nowhere else to go anyway, but she often bristles against most of the other members. This is because they pretty willing to point out that she's a rich asshole, but also more importantly because she disagrees with them using Uso as a pilot for the Victory. It's entirely possible this may have been amicably resolved- especially considering her initial attitude towards the Zanscare Empire is "they're obviously bad guys"- if not for her abduction by Cronicle Asher (who, by the way, may have The Most Tomino Name).

At this point I need to take a detour to talk about him, and how one of the other smartest things Tomino did was make Victory's Char completely unlike Char. While he is scheming against the Zanscare Empire's military dictatorship, he's a genuine believer in Mariaism- a matriarchal doctrine advocating for peace in space- and wants to elevate his sister (the titular Maria from Mariaism and Queen of the Zanscare Empire) from merely being a figurehead to the actual ruler of the empire. However, instead of subterfuge and betrayals, he's trying to change the system from within, doing his duty as a soldier with the utmost diligence so he can rise through the ranks, which will allow him to achieve his goals while not inadvertently destabilizing the empire (and thus Maria's access to power). He's maybe the most Straight-Edge Good Boy I've seen in a Gundam series, but unfortunately, all of that Good Boy Energy is being used in service of the genocidal military dictatorship. He regularly expresses distaste for the methods Zanscare's military regularly employs, but he carries out those cruel tasks anyway, because ultimately, the end will justify the means.

With all that in mind, Cronicle being the one to abduct Katejina is legitimately the point of no return for her. That genuine Straight-Edge Good Boyness of his endears her to him immediately, which leads her to reconsider what she thought of the Zanscare Empire; after all, Cronicle treats her with such a great deal of kindness and respect, so surely they can't all be bad. That one commanding officer even shot the subordinate who tried to feel her up, even! Combine that with the fact that the members of the League Militaire were mean to her, and that they have to use an innocent little baby boy like Uso to fight for them... maybe she was wrong about who the bad guys were.

I'll speed it along here, but what is essentially a corruption arc is on full display from this point forward. Slowly, she starts to integrate herself more and more within the Zanscare Empire's military, halfheartedly trying to justify what she's doing as "spying" to Uso and company until she doesn't even care to bother with that anymore, more and more convinced that Cronicle is just, and his plan to elevate Maria as the true ruler is for the greater good. The last act of kindness she musters for Uso is letting him know Shahkti and the others are safe, but the next time we see her after that is in a Zanscare dress uniform, and then later in the same episode, in a Zanscare mobile suit.

And once that threshold has been crossed, she continues to sink lower, going from "maybe we can just... capture Uso, and bring him over to our side" to "he's gotta go". And then she starts employing increasingly depraved methods of "he's gotta go", sliding from simply killing him in combat, to ordering the all-female imperial guard to fight him on foot and naked (or as naked as early 90's Japanese TV would allow) to try to fuck with his head, to finally faking a surrender after she's already lost everything so she can stab him, because fuck him.

If the League Militaire (and Uso as its spearhead) had just fucked off and let Zanscare achieve their goals, Cronicle would have eventually usurped the military dictatorship, given Maria the freedom to enact her will, and everything would have been perfect. It would've been like a fairy tale: she's swept off her feet by a handsome prince who enlists her aid to rescue to queen, and in saving her, they save the whole kingdom, and then they live happily ever after. The only minor caveat was the mountains of innocent corpses it was all built upon.

Uso- the innocent little baby boy no more- took all that away from her- the prince was dead, the queen was dead, and the kingdom had fallen apart- and rather than actually admit defeat or commit suicide, she instead continues to try to kill him, until her brain basically poisons itself as a self-preservation tactic- it's not the V2's Wings of Light that blind her, it's literally her own rage.

And, shockingly, that's where she ends up. Still alive, but unable to see the world around her anymore and with no memory of anything but where she lived. Karlmann's name evokes a memory she can't access anymore, which makes her cry for reasons she can't understand. Shahkti gives her a replacement compass so she can make her way back to Uwig and continue to live, and presumably just live... assuming Uwig has even been rebuilt, considering this series seems to take place within the span of a year (if Marbet's pregnancy is anything to go by). It's honestly a much crueler fate than I was expecting, but it's hard to argue it's not one she earned.

All of this is to say: it's possible I may change my opinion once recency bias wears off, but I think Katejina Loos is maybe my favorite single character in a Gundam show to date. A perfectly executed villainess, top to bottom.

And, you know, nice thick eyebrows, which is terrific.

Now that I've finished gushing, let's get to the normal segments:

THE STUFF I LIKED

This series is just ripe with Tomino names. Cronicle Asher, Maria Pure Armonia, Karlmann Dukatus, Junko Jenka, Duker Iq... and I would be remiss not to mention that while not explicitly said in the series, Marbet's last name is Fingerhat.

I adore the technology level of UC 0153. We've advanced forward from F91 and now goddamn near everything is beam-based; even things that aren't mobile suits use beams because the technology is so normalized. I'm also of the opinion that it's enhanced further by Tomino's obvious appreciation of the aesthetic of Pastoral European Landscapes and 20th Century European Cities; the visual clash of super futuristic robots and old-timey environments worked in F91, it worked better here, and I imagine it'll continue to be just as strong- if not stronger- in Turn A and Reconguista in G

I know on a meta level that Victory Gundam was pushed even harder than previous Gundams in the direction of MAKE TOY, which sounds like a nightmare creatively, but fuck if they didn't make it work. The in-universe justification for most of the wheel-based weapons is goofy, but damned if they don't make the Einerad (The Tire) one of the most devastatingly effective support units in the franchise. And, to be honest, if I had access to a toy as a kid that was just a cool robot inside of a wheel, it would've been, like, my favorite toy.

Plus, despite my noted dislike of the Zakrello from 0079 for being a Goofy Snake Ship, having most of the Zanscare's mobile suits have the dogu statue eyes that open into vertical slits is a great unifying aspect that is also super different from Zeon's monoeyes.

One of the coolest things about this series is how it flips the formula from 0079, Zeta, and ZZ with regards to setting. It starts on Earth, which frames space and the colonies as different and scary. Like, it was fascinating in 0079 to see the White Base crew react the way they did to a thunderstorm and other Earth phenomena we obviously take for granted, but here's it's like: hey man, space is fucking scary! I was genuinely anxious watching Shahkti and Suzy trying to get Karl and Flanders into normal suits.

This also extends to the finale taking place on Earth, which is a genuine first for the franchise. You'd think this would make things slightly less deadly overall, but man Cronicle goes out in a bad fuckin' way.

Following up on that: I love Angel Halo as the ultimate threat (with one caveat I'll mention that in the next section). "Total Human Regression as performed by Warhammer 40k's Golden Throne" is much more horrifying than what I was expecting (which was A Super Duper Space Laser), especially considering they showed what happens if everyone in an arbitrary area suddenly falls asleep, and that every time someone blew up a section of Angel Halo, civilian bodies would just FLOOD out.

I also really liked how the memories Angel Ring was evoking when Maria was trying to pacify Uso were just ever so slightly wrong, in terms of what the characters are saying. That's a very tiny detail to address in such a long series, where most people wouldn't even remember what was actually said as it was airing, but it's appreciated.

At this point I consider Tomino to be pretty masterful at a lot of things, but I think one of his strongest abilities is writing mascot characters who are good. Victory Gundam has a baby, a dog, and the most talkative Haro yet, and all three of them are great. Karl and Flanders are just a normal baby and dog who primarily either enhance hijinks or raise stakes, and Haro earns the extra lines it has by constantly being in MVP in bad situations.

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

It was dumb that they arbitrarily had Episode 4 as the first episode so they could show the completed Victory Gundam right away, and then spend the next three episodes framed with Shahkti going "well Karl, as you know...". I know this ties back to toys, but surely it could've just been written differently in the first place.

While I did like Zanscare's refusal to acknowledge the Victory, Hexa, and V2 as Gundams, I'm so mad they were mainly referred to as "the white ones" instead of "white devils". "The White Devil" is my favorite name for the RX-78-2 and I hate that it doesn't get used more referencing Gundams, especially in contexts like this.

So obviously from a series composition point of view it was never going to be the case, but I was bummed out that in-universe, Marbet was intended to be the League Militaire's ace and got sidelined due to her injury. This isn't such a big deal, because she contributes regularly and actually lives through to the end in what I would consider to be the best possible circumstances (Oliver is dead and instead she has Uso, Shahkti, Karl, and Flanders as a family), but it's was just like "aw no you're so much cooler than this dumb kid with a bowl cut!"

I straight-up don't like Oliver. He just shows up randomly but everyone knows who he is, he's revealed to be the commander of the Shrike Team (who actually are foreshadowed in an earlier episode!) but arrives without them for some reason, he has a strained romantic history with Marbet, and he gets a completely unearned Bright Slap shortly after showing up, which is already something I hate outside of its original context in 0079. Then despite denying it, it really seems like he shacks up with Marbet because Junko died and she wins by default, and then after nutting inside he just killed himself in spectacular fashion, achieving nothing. Fuckin'... bad vibes, all around.

Lupe Cineau, huh? My complaint here isn't that she's a weird pedophile, bur rather that she really shouldn't have been? Her introduction is that she's a Stone Cold Bitch, murdering the guys in the bar she just got information from when she first shows up. And her tactic to try to seduce Uso into joining up with Zanscare seemed less like "oh my, a cute little boy, I know exactly what to do..." and more of a dismissive "he's like 12, all I need to do is show hole and he'll be in our pockets forever". Like, 'she fails at seducing a 12 year old because she's too much of a Stone Cold Bitch' is the point of that entire scene! Statistically, not every antagonist could be a quality one, but it felt like they just scrambled to figure out how to reintroduce and get rid of her, and the bath scene was the most memorable thing about her, so: pedophile.

There sure is a lot of biology in this series! Most of it has to do with Karlmann, naturally, but I was taken aback at the scene of Shahkti washing the diapers in the river and you see his poop get washed away. Odelo pissing himself and it filling up the bottom of his normal suit was gross but like... kind of informative on how that works? But then the scene where Cronicle redirects Suzy to the bathroom when she sleepwalks to pee in the hallways was just... eugh.

I don't know why they felt compelled to allude to the threat of Angel Halo's psycommu physically degenerating people as well. "Everyone on Earth will mentally become an infant, and if they don't die in the initial collapse of infrastructure that causes, they'll eventually starve to death because they lack the capacity for self-preservation" is scary enough!

I can't really begrudge Tomino for reusing it, because it's a powerful scene, and Karl was much more important to this story, but the fact that Karl has the same origin story as the F91 baby was just like "you can't just do that again, man". It's not even as good a moment because the pilot intentionally shoots down Karl's mother, versus F91 baby's mom just accidentally getting brained by a spent shell. They're even wearing similar outfits!

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

I've read that this is, or was at the time, Hideaki Anno's favorite Gundam series, and lines up with when he would've been making Evangelion- and I definitely think he cribbed some things. As soon as I saw the episode title "Beneath the Ultra-High Altitude Attack" my eyes narrowed, and I can't be convinced that Arael wasn't inspired by the Zanneck and Fuala's mental instability. Also: Angel Ring and Human Instrumentality and the associated Christian imagery.

Speaking of Fuala Griffon, she is Victory Gundam's winner of the "fucking insane fit" award, wearing an oversized suit and porkpie hat while riding a dirtbike with the biggest case of resting bitchface I've seen since Monsly in Future Boy Conan.

I kind of regret learning about trigger discipline (keeping your trigger finger extended along the side of the barrel of a gun until you're actually going to fire) because now it's one of those things I look for everywhere, but in this case I do think it's the second most telling detail about Cronicle's character. The other being the fact that Flanders is cool with him.

Speaking of Cronicle and guns, for however out of character it may have been I was hootin' and hollerin' when Shahkti stole his gun and shot him.

Final note on Cronicle: My favorite thing about his mask that I only realized in writing this post is that it's the inverse of Char's, covering everything but his eyes and hair.

I really like the Eyecatch Flipbook they must have made to include as an extra for the laserdisc release of the series, but it does kinda... disrupt some things. Most notably in the last episode where you get the very violently abrupt shot Cronicle slamming into a piece of Angel Halo before cutting to HARO WORLDWIDE with the cute little jingle.

I legitimately thought Maria's demonstration where she healed the sick was staged. Like, it would be revealed that Maria was a low-level Newtype with some genuine power, but all the people who claimed to have been healed during that demonstration were crisis actors designed to make the public fall in line. In hindsight, I don't even know if "crisis actors" was a concept anyone had ever thought of before the turn of the century.

I alluded to it in another post, but due to the scant few memes that have circulated about this series, I was shocked to learn the Shrike Team were protagonist-aligned. I thought that they were the ones who did the Bikini Bazooka Attack, because a second faction made up entirely of beautiful women just seemed unlikely, and I kept trying to figure out at one point they were going to turn on Uso, especially considering most of them are dead before the halfway point.

I'm really proud of the image I used for the header, and was initially planning on doing a full video of the clip, but video editing is hard. Then I was going to photoshop in more characters' faces but I didn't want to hunt for images of the right angle for that many characters. But that was a really good Shahkti face, so I left it in.

IN CONCLUSION

Victory Gundam is without a doubt my favorite of the Tomino-directed TV shows thus far, and in the upper eschelon of favorite Gundam shows. For however much he hated doing the series and may still hate it in hindsight, it's not like he just phoned it in. It's got a good cast, good conflict, good mobile suit designs, and despite a massive kill count and some really fucked up parts, it doesn't strike me as being particularly edgy or even mean-spirited. It's absolutely not going to hit the same for everyone, but I think if Tomino's other Gundams clicked with you, it's more than worth a shot.

Next up: considering I've already watched the next two entries in chronological order, I'll be moving ahead to the third Gundam OVA series, The 08th MS Team, notable for being the first new entry in the Universal Century timeline following G Gundam and Gundam Wing and for often being recommended in the same breath as War in the Pocket. Considering how that turned out, I'm optimistic that this will also be good, and if nothing else, it's sure to have that 90's Anime OVA budget going for it, much like Stardust Memory.

#Gundam #Mobile Suit Gundam #Victory Gundam #Mobile Suit Victory Gundam #Yoshiyuki Tomino #The Big Gundam Watch #anime #blu-ray #long post

28 notes · View notes