#he’s irredeemable and idk why people are surprised

[bicheetopuff]

I think the people complaining about AFOs back story have forgotten what his character represents.

He’s a manipulative rich old man that wants to own and monopolize every major resource in the world so that he can be considered a god.

His entire being is a metaphor for major corporations and every politician and billionaire ceo ever… so him being a narcissistic and greedy kid isn’t at all surprising. He doesn’t have a traumatizing backstory because he’s a manipulative power hungry chump like he has been the entire series.

#he literally grooms children to his dirty work for him #he’s taken over orphanages and hospitals to create mindless monsters to do his labor for free #he’s manipulated people by giving them fractions of power so that they’ll bend to his will #he’s irredeemable and idk why people are surprised #also you mfs trying to compare him to Katsuki need to reread the series #there’s a difference between a spoiled kid dwelling in the praise he received from adults around him #and whatever the fuck afo is #Katsuki didnt fucking kill people #and he was never a narcissist #he wanted to be top hero because he was told his whole life that he could be #also Katsuki never viewed Deku as his property wtf are y’all on #bnha #bakudeku #bkdk #bnha spoilers #bnha 407

[itsclydebitches]

I need more time to put my thoughts in order about tonight's episode, but my initial reaction is that I'm surprised by others' disappointment? I mean, I'm actually not that surprised because coming out stories are intensely personal with viewers all looking for/needing vastly different things from their media, but it just feels like a lot of what (I thought) Ted Lasso was trying to do has gotten lost under specific expectations.

Ted goes off on a long, ridiculous, borderline disgusting story at the worst possible moment? Yes, that's the point. For all my fun TedTrent theories, Ted is (currently) serving the role of the well-meaning, but often ignorant straight man. His function is to both provide the insight and warmth that he's known for - "Actually it does matter to us" - while simultaneously showing how this intensely heteronormative culture would react to a player coming out. AKA messily. If we got a perfect scenario where everyone was accepting and said exactly the right thing, that would undermine the problems the show is trying to acknowledge in the first place. The focus on Isaac's complicated anger and Ted's foot-in-mouth syndrome is just as important to this whole scenario as the club's overall acceptance and the fact that Ted immediately realizes that he fucked up: "I regret that." Ted Lasso is a feel-good comedy, so it's all couched in over-the-top humor, but I thought that was an important acknowledgement: your allies - straight or not, out or not - are likely going to react in cringe-worthy, imperfect ways and the important takeaway there is not that they're irredeemable people who don't love you, but that they're trying and you should gently correct them (as Colin does) and allow them to grow (as Ted does). Despite being an absurd fiction, Ted Lasso is working to write about this in a semi-realistic sense. Instead of a Perfect Coming Out Moment that makes all the queer fans (myself included!) squeal at how ~wonderful~ our beloved cast is for being oh so perfect, we get that realistic awkwardness, misplaced anger, and regret.

We cut away from Colin coming out? Yes, because he's already come out to us. I understand why fans would be disappointed in that, but I don't think it's fair to characterize the show as not allowing Colin to come out at all. That was the entirety of "Sunflowers." Rather than trying to fit Colin's big moment into a locker room halftime, the writers crafted a whole episode where he could grapple with that fear of being outed, be reassured, have a heart-to-heart with Trent, sit together on the monument, go out later in celebration... Ted Lasso made space for all that and, understandably to my mind, didn't want to rehash many of those same beats three episodes later, especially not when we need time to work through the intersection of Colin's story with everyone else. (Because despite this being a queer story-line about a queer man, the show is about the team. Colin's conflict was always going to expand into the rest of the cast.) No, we don't get to see Colin come out specifically to the others, but we did see him come out - both narratively by kissing a man and to Trent - and we see the team's reaction immediately after the fact. Making space for Issac didn't feel like it was cheating Colin to me, or focusing too much on the straight characters, because Colin's story has been a season in the making (plus some details earlier on). To say nothing of the fact that his hesitance about coming out is specifically because he fears the team's reaction... so why wouldn't we grapple with Isaac's negative reaction? We already know Colin's worries, we know what he wants, we see him seeking advice from Trent, we see him reaching out to Issac, we see that failing, and after all that his queer story-line is functionally at a stand-still until something else gives. Issac's explosion is what finally tips the scales.

Idk I don't think I'm explaining this very well because it's late and I only just watched, but I'm of the opinion that Ted Lasso did a lot of work in previous episodes so that they'd have space in this episode to do different work, which is smart. From a narrative perspective, Ted doesn't need to be the perfect ally because Colin already has a supportive queer mentor. "La Locker Room Aux Folles" doesn't need to try to balance Colin's emotional coming out with Isaac's internalized homophobia because "Sunflowers" already gave the audience so, so much, allowing the writers to both keep things on screen for our benefit and then later cut away for the sake of time. As said, stories like these are always going to be a hit-or-miss depending on what each individual fan wants and needs, but I think it's worth keeping in mind that Colin's story is not this single episode; it's all of them combined. Has Ted Lasso really not treated his journey respectfully... or did it just not try to check every queer story-line box in a single episode?

#Ted Lasso #Ted Lasso spoilers #Colin Hughes

[leatherbookmark]

the "boo hoo people who think their favourite villain character is misunderstood and a victim are weak, stupid and cringe, REAL villain fans embrace the fact that their faves are assholes with no redeeming qualities like NORMAL people 🙄" thing is not only very annoying but it also only works when the characters are actual, cartoonish, moustache-twirling villains who do Evil Acts because they Love Being Evil. but is it used towards fans of such characters? nah, of course it's not. it's used towards fans of antagonists or anti-heroes, no less complex than the protagonists, often misunderstood and ostracized by society, often with goals and motivations that are entirely understandable even to a modern audience.

and it's like. god you're such a loser for insisting this half-orphan raised in poverty who desperately longs for a better life and does horrible things for his father hoping against everything that he'll be loved, who just wants to be safe and respected and recognized for his achievements, is not an one-dimensional twisted sadistic motherfucker of a villain. just shut up and admit he's a piece of trash who gets off to hurting others. you're not even a villain fan, a real villain fan would accept their fave is irredeemably evil! lmao!

a coupla years ago -- maybe more than a coupla -- you'd have people sooooo terribly exasperated with the ~trend~ of such misunderstood antagonists, like why can't we have normal villains who are just Evil, why does every bad guy have to have a tragic backstory, it's so cliche and stupid and-- ok buddy, but why are you so opposed to compassion? why do you want shit to be black and white all the time? why are you so upset at the idea that you can't expect people to do good and be kind if they've never known goodness and kindness?

rarely -- at least i don't really remember, but then i don't keep up with popular media -- the antagonists people (ugh!) Feel Bad For is a rich ceo who wants to make money because profits good, more profits now. they're usually either poor and/or marginalized or, if rich and privileged -- abandoned, misunderstood and/or shunned by their family/peers/everyone around them. it's honestly more surprising to me that someone Wouldn't feel at least a little bad for, idk, a prince who always lived in his more popular brother's shadow, unable to get true understanding and affection either from him or from anyone else. but no, "cool motive, still murder, also he's a literal prince so he has no right to complain". okay then!

#shrimp thoughts

[taylortruther]

sorry to vent but i honestly am just so damn tired atp of having to desperately cover everything in disclaimers and constantly perform outrage just to be allowed to exist in fandom spaces now as a black fan. like my original mindset was just that it’s disappointing but i don’t and can’t expect celebrities to perfectly mirror my values, and with all the actual problems in my life and the world - including racism that actually affects my real life AND things i have the ability to potentially do something about - i wasn’t going to spend my time and energy being furious that a pop star i’ll never meet is fucking an edgelord i’ll never meet either. like i’m sorry but i already compartmentalized all this YEARS ago and have zero expectations of celebrities so it’s just whatever to me. if taylor herself was spewing racist comments or if matty was actually some white supremacist nazi and not just an intentionally provocative edgy douchebag it would be different, but TO ME PERSONALLY the actual situation as it is is just not that serious and not worth my outrage.

but am i, one of those ‘poc fans’ everyone is constantly falling all over themselves to declare themselves supportive of and ‘safe’ for, allowed to feel that way as one of the people actually targeted by that idiot’s dumbass comments? NOPE! you best believe people were FURIOUS that i thought i could get away with not performing Angry Black Woman Rage for them every single time i want to simply engage in my hobby and discuss fun things, or analyze surprise songs, or express empathy for taylor in any circumstance, or just do anything that isn’t ranting 24/7 that she’s terrible and racist and irredeemable. so now every time i want to do any of those things i have to write 6000 disclaimers that yes taylor is awful and no i don’t like matty just so overwhelmingly white fans won’t yell at me that i’m not really black (an accusation i’ve now gotten three separate times), or that i’m hurting other poc by “condoning racism” (which i have not done), or that i’m so far up taylor’s ass i would still stan her even if she personally called me the n-word (the final straw that made me turn anon off probably for good) and idk it’s just…not fun being here anymore now that everyone is just going to treat me like a doll who’s only here for them to virtue signal with (and ‘virtue signaling’ is a terrible term but like that is truly, genuinely what a huge chunk of this fandom is doing rn), claiming to obsessively care about my feelings and fandom experience so they’ll look good but then berating and scolding me every single time i step a toe out of line and try to express my own opinion or commit the grave sin of Enjoying Taylor Swift On My Taylor Swift Blog. like sure taylor disappointed me but it’s other (again, overwhelmingly white) fans who have completely ruined being here and made it a miserable chore to be a black fan, not her. atp I just want her to drop him and everyone to forget not bc he sucks but bc i just want to be allowed to exist peacefully on my own blog again, without having to constantly walk on eggshells so the people who ~care about marginalized fans~ won’t come call me a stupid brainless bitch who lets taylor manipulate me because i’m a self-hating racist. i’m just so tired.

i am tired too and i am really grateful to you for writing all this out (i hope it felt a little cathartic) because i 100% AGREEEEEEEEEE. the way this fandom acts anytime they start talking about uplifting poc will never not be weird to me and i think you explained why perfectly.

#like maybe this will only make sense to you anon #but i'm always just thinking 'it's not that deep' fjadskl #of course racism is deep but we aren't being anti-racist if we're just being bitchy about fandom shit on here #hot taykes

[rejectedfables]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

Character: Draco Malfoy (HP) Why I love them: I don't. I love the version of him I frankensteined together from fics I read/wrote as an undiagnosed autistic preteen who wished I knew how to be meaner, and was hopelessly demisexually gay for a brunette with glasses.

Character: Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto) Why I love them: Emotionally neglected ADHD powerhouse who thinks "what do 600 hot girls look like? Me with titties and pigtails 600 times obviously" followed by "what do 600 hot boys look like? All my male friends with bedroom eyes OBVIOUSLY" and somehow hasn't figured out he's into dudes and is probably genderfluid. The Haku and Zabuza arc came SO close to "child soldier figures out that making children into soldiers is bad, actually, and resolves to create a better society where fewer people needlessly suffer" but then I think the author got old and forgot his own trajectory in favor of endless spectacle creep and, idk, something about the moon crushing Konoha or whatever. I lost interest in the story, but not the BOY. Also his relentless fixation with that dark haired cool guy he kissed one time makes every other character feel awkward, and I relate to that.

Character: Urameshi Yusuke (Yu Yu Hakusho) Why I love them: LOVE me a guy who even HEAVEN writes off as an irredeemable asshole surprising everyone with an act of selflessness. Love me an asshole who dedicates his life to love and friendship. Yusuke's narrative is basically "Obviously all yokai are evil. Wait, some aren't (some of my best friends are yokai)? Wait, most aren't (I actually really enjoy the yokai world/community)? Wait, I'M a yokai? (THAT'S why I am the way I am, and actually that's not evil it's just different)??? So there's evil humans AND evil yokai but neither are inherently bad, MOST are just regular people on both sides, and both are worth protecting" and anyway this is a neurodivergent and queer allegory to me, which slaps severely.

Character: Shi Qingxuan (Heaven Official's Blessing) Why I love them: Gender

Character: Luke Fon Fabre (Tales of the Abyss) Why I love them: Nobody's doing character growth like this little shit. An icon. It takes like 30 hours of gameplay for him to become likable and when he does it's somehow genuinely worth it.

Character: Changheng (Love Between Fairy and Devil) Why I love them: (I'm picking only one character per story, which is the only reason Xiao Lanhua and Dongfang Qingcang aren't also on this list.) You're telling me the God of War's narrative is a "tragic princess, betrothed since childhood, can't escape her family's expectations, constantly has to put everyone else above herself, until finally she snaps" story blended with "man who has been forced to live in war, falls for the first person who acknowledges that he, too, needs protection, ultimately rejects the violence he's been forced to endure and enact in favor of pursuing peace" and I'm what? NOT supposed to go insane? Also his nose freckle gives me heart palpitations.

Character: Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars, specifically season 1) Why I love them: What an excellent example of a badly coping shithead jerk fuckup boy who would be SO soft in any context where he's not under constant threat. Something about his mouth-breathing under duress compels me.

Character: Kyo (Fruits Basket) Why I love them: Badly coping under duress, the entire system is stacked against him, anger management issues and the snatched waist of a 90's manga twink. What can I say, a feral cat finding stability and love gets me every time.

Character: Xue Yang (MDZS) Why I love them: Irredeemable asshole feral cat ass man, coping badly at all times with all things but holding it together with a winning personality (gratuitous violence and bad jokes). Falls SO hard for the first person to show him love and kindness, becomes SO soft when not under threat for the first time ever, and then fucks up SO badly he ruins his whole fucking life. Spends more time trying to get back what he lost than he actually HAD what he lost. He's irredeemable. He's irredeemable. He makes apple rabbits for A Qing because she's sad. He's irredeemable. He doesn't pull a weapon on Xingchen even when Xingchen has already stabbed him and he's renowned for violence and revenge. He's irredeemable. I starting writing a post in his defense and hit the character limit halfway through my 'notes to flesh out later' bullet pointed list. He's irredeemable?? Xiao Xingchen could, though, is all I'm saying. The deeper you look into his actions the more humanity there is to find. I'm rotating every single thing about him in my mind like a rotisserie chicken.

Character: Chu Wanning (ERHA) Why I love them: He's hopelessly demisexually gay for literally just one guy. His story is gratuitously tragic but with a happy ending. Autistic Yearning incarnate. He's a burnt out husk of a blushing virgin, and the horniest person alive. Would readily die for his convictions, but won't ask for help. Prettiest wife anyone could ever wish for, with a strong masculine jaw. Total knockout gorgeous with body dysmorphia. Hyper competent with zero emotional intelligence. Widely respected and beloved with intense self loathing. He's never not masking. He's an atticked wife, he's a bossy husband, he's a piece of wood. He's 45. He's 6. He's 20. He's 32. He is catnip for me.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #xue yang #asks #anon #2ha #erha #erha he ta de bai mao shizun #lbfad #love between fairy and devil #naruto #yyh #yu yu hakusho #i'm not gonna tag all these #anyway I love asks like this it just always takes me a while so [blesses you with patience] or whatever

[olderthannetfic]

Idk if anyone else who frequents this blog is in the Arcana fandom, but I recently checked the tag here on tumblr since I’ve been a fan of the game for a couple years now. For those unfamiliar it’s a otome visual novel.

I was immediately met with a million posts stating “[character] is irredeemable!! If you like [character] you’re a bad person and also racist (??)”. I was immediately rather surprised because

a) I was so sure 99% of people on this website love villains. Isn’t that the reason we’re here in the first place??

b) regardless of the fact this character’s (largely unspecified) Crimes TM are fictional and thus do not matter in the real world, if they’re really so bad… Why are you railing against people who played said character’s route and not the developers who made Big Bad War Criminal’s route playable in the first place? Oh but of course you won’t, because that would make you a hypocrite for liking the game, huh?

c) How can you miss the whole entire point of this character’s route? It being, of course, that morality isn’t black and white, and people can make mistakes and then also rectify to fix them in order to help those they’ve hurt. (And also the goat man is sexy.)

—

He’s not the most boring of the love interests, but I was not wowed. Julian/Asra 5eva!

(As usual, I don’t give a shit about player characters without defined personalities, though I’d totally ship Julian/Asra/m!PC.)

And yes, that fandom is a cesspit of self-deluding hypocrites.

[broodwolf221]

still thinking about dorian's arc being foreshadowing for one/some of the evanuris

it's just rly interesting to me that dai decided to bring in a mage from tevinter, a high-ranking mage whose family practices blood magic (granted, seemingly only the once, in a super fucked up way, but still)

we have krem, also from tevinter, and we could've gotten a different kind of companion from tevinter. why someone who has to actively grapple with having grown up with slavery as the norm? maybe it was just the obvious choice, a powerful mage from a powerful family, someone who could come from the top and point out that tevinter has its problems while humanizing it, bc it is a place full of people like all the rest of thedas. that could be the entire answer

but da does like its foreshadowing and dorian makes me wonder

also part of this is the fact that i don't see the protag & co., even including solas and mythal, being able to beat the rest of the evanuris on their own. like... all of the evanuris couldn't kill mythal, one of their number. how the hell is the da4 team supposed to manage? solas' orb is gone, too, and with it presumably at least some of his accumulated power. and that power was generated while he was sleeping - we don't know how the evanuris are imprisoned, but i think it's a fair assumption to say they have their own orbs, and that they may have been gathering power as well, possibly power that the evanuris aren't precluded from wielding immediately as solas was

solas does say he has a plan to deal with them and maybe that's the full answer. maybe he came across a method to kill them or to seal them permanently. idk. but it just seems like thedas is gonna lose this fight if it's all the evanuris except for mythal against whatever forces da4 arrays against them, which may or may not include mythal, and will probably include solas

having one/some of the evanuris turn against their own ppl seems like a rly interesting twist, one that wouldn't be too far outside what da games have done before. even if it was just them turning against their own, but not necessarily joining the protag's side, but re: dorian-as-foreshadowing it feels more like they'd turn on their own ppl

ofc i could be 100% wrong and that wouldn't come as a surprise, im just into this concept bc of how it adds nuance and depth to the dalish's gods. if da4 just makes them all Evil Bad Irredeemable Monsters then that's confirming that the dalish were always entirely wrong to worship them, that their entire faith and culture is a mistake.

#broodmeta #evanuris #shrug emoji #yes im still talking/thinking abt this #let the dalish be right or at least not wrong in such a gross way aaaa i want a reckoning for them

[catty-words]

Oh! The mustache thing and David. Okay, okay. It still feels kinda weird to say someone is racist over this, but yeah, now that you point it out I see it. I had a childhood friend who got in a foreign exchange student program for a year in high school and when she came back she told us how since the gringos couldnt say her name properly they just defaulted to calling her "Brazil" 😑

I feel a bit called out about twitter, even if its true and I'm only there cuz I'm an addict being held hostage. I've also curated my fandom experience, but I was really needing more info and saw stuff that bummed me out while researching 🥲🥲 I dont mind seeing people criticize characters cuz like we are all entitled to our opinion even if I disagree, but I guess it kinda shocked me still. I guess I forgot about how in some ship wars I participated in when I was 13 some people would call the other characters rapists and stuff after being away from typical fandom toxicity for so long lol.

About the tone shift: yeah I did, but it didnt feel "drastic", just different. In a bad way. Like one of the first metas I read talked about how Devi lacked autonomy in season two and I was like YES THAT WAS WHAT I WAS THINKING even thought not really I was just "wait why is this feeling a bit off... weird... let me play the next episode and just hope is merely a vibe" I dont hate season 2 as much as you seem to, however season 1 and 3 are indeed superior. Season 3 is my favorite out of the three because I really like how the characters matured. A favorite episode is probably 1x10, like the scene of Nalini with dr. Ryan moves me, then Ben driving cackles me up, then I back to being moved by them spreading Mohan ashes with beautiful day playing, then boys like you as "you stayed" and benvi kiss and paxton calling and back to the kiss and I'm like OMG WHAT IS SHE GOING TO DO I HAVE CLASS TOMORROW AND ITS ALMOST TWO BUT FUCK I NEED TO KEEP WATCHING THIS. I always feel like that when I'm rewatching even if it's not two am and I dont have class the next day lmao

You are going to think I'm super horny but probably "why don’t you show me the bitty spark you’ve been saving for his mattress?". It's the one I reread the most after all. The awkwardness of the situation?? Their great characterization??? Devi having no idea of what to do with Ben of all people making her feel like that??? Fab and Eleanor still unsure about him at school and being cutely protective of Devi??? Ugh, just kill me already (please dont)

"you're gonna fall (but i'll catch you)" is also great! I love to read adults au for shows about hs characters and hs aus for shows about adult characters idk why but there are not enough adult aus for nhie in my opinion and yours is my fave!!! Plus Ben being so into stories is adorable as someone who really sees herself in Abed Nadir. Plus the way is not just about their romance but also Devi dealing with grief and her complicated relationship with her mother and self destructive tendencies and... ugh I just love it.

It still feels kinda weird to say someone is racist over this, but yeah, now that you point it out I see it. - i think the disconnect comes from the way fandom uses words like 'racist' to build cases about how it's Objectively Wrong for anyone to like a certain character, whereas the word itself applies to a whole spectrum of behavior and morality. like, it shouldn't actually be that uncomfortable to admit that ben can be and is sometimes racist, he is a walking definition of privilege. him internalizing racist sentiment should hardly be surprising. but it also doesn't make him irredeemable scum. he's obviously a really caring character, as well.

on a related note, yikes @ those students who committed micro-aggressions to your childhood friend. as they get further and further into their life, may they reflect and do better rather than double-down.

I dont mind seeing people criticize characters cuz like we are all entitled to our opinion even if I disagree, but I guess it kinda shocked me still. I guess I forgot about how in some ship wars I participated in when I was 13 some people would call the other characters rapists and stuff after being away from typical fandom toxicity for so long lol. - i get it, i get it. for me, there need exist a gaping divide between exposing myself to critical or even harsh reads of characters i love and/or identify with for the sake of refining my own read of the text and giving the time of day to people who aren't engaging sincerely with the text. protect yourself in the echo-chamber!

About the tone shift: yeah I did, but it didnt feel "drastic", just different. In a bad way. - VINDICATION

but jfgdf - I dont hate season 2 as much as you seem to - i feel compelled to clarify that it's not that i hate season two, not really. it's more that the season let me down and then, by nature of netflix shows' release schedules being what they are, forced me to sit with that disappointment for over a year. it's that i love season one SO MUCH, i couldn't reconcile how much i didn't vibe with season two. on paper, you're right, the tone difference is not drastic, but the emotional response it elicited in me definitely was.

and I'm like OMG WHAT IS SHE GOING TO DO I HAVE CLASS TOMORROW AND ITS ALMOST TWO BUT FUCK I NEED TO KEEP WATCHING THIS. I always feel like that when I'm rewatching even if it's not two am and I dont have class the next day lmao - i love you for this, and 1.10 is such a valid choice she really is That Bitch

You are going to think I'm super horny but probably "why don’t you show me the bitty spark you’ve been saving for his mattress?". - first of all, embrace the horny within. it's important to the show that you do, we're in the spirit of the source material here! second of all, this choice makes me really happy because i love that fic and generally speaking, people are a little shier about giving feedback on smut but, like, that's hands down some of my best writing (both for d/b and more generally). so. thank you.

Fab and Eleanor still unsure about him at school and being cutely protective of Devi??? - you may already know that i'm writing a long-form follow-up with 'bitty spark' acting as the prologue since it sounds like you picked through my blog a bit and i feel like i never shut up about the sequel BUT ANYWAY one of the best parts about it is ben finding himself enmeshed in the girl squad, if i do say so myself. (x)

I love to read adults au for shows about hs characters and hs aus for shows about adult characters idk why but there are not enough adult aus for nhie in my opinion and yours is my fave!!! - okay, well now i'm going to think about you every time i read an adult AU for a high school show or a high school AU for an adult show.

thank you for fueling my vanity and for stopping by my askbox in the first place!

#anon #replies #i guess i'll put this in my general show tag? #never have i ever

[maximons]

Okay! I’m back from seeing Multiverse of Madness, and I got some thoughts. I’m gonna put some spoilers under the cut, but it was pretty solid. It wasn’t exactly the movie I had hoped it would be though. And no, I don’t mean in an ‘I wanted more cameos’ way, but really just a movie called ‘Multiverse of Madness’ feels like it should’ve been...bigger than it was? Idk, I don’t mind a good character study, but using the multiverse to do it just fell a little flat to me.

But again, it was a pretty solid movie. I had fun, and it was definitely way different than any other MCU film, which is always refreshing. I sure want Sam Raimi to come back for a Doctor Strange 3, because I think what he brings to the character made him way more compelling than we’ve seen so far imo.

TLDR; Fell flat in some ways, and I had some personal grievances, but overall a good character study with some awesome (and fucking terrifying at times) action. Would see again, but maybe not till it hits Disney+. 7.5/10

Spoiler talk under the cut

Okay, so as someone who was a dummy and actually did spoil myself beforehand, I was actually still pretty surprised at how some things turned out. Note to self: Don’t let stan twitter tell you how things are gonna unfold before seeing how they actually unfold.

 I’m just gonna go on a bullet point rant from here on out so prepare for that.

So many people online led me to believe that they just turned Wanda evil out of nowhere with no explanation but like....they said several times she was corrupted by the Darkhold? Did ya’ll miss that? I’m not saying that it makes what she did okay cause...oof girl made some choices, but still. 

While yeah, Wanda does some pretty fucked up things in this movie, people acting like she’s this irredeemable monster...relax. If you can forgive Loki, you can easily forgive Wanda down the line. Shit, Hawkeye killed more people than Wanda did here, but I’m not gonna start a whole debate over it. Wanda was for sure the villain here, but the way some people are treating her compared to others that have done objectively worse?...Yeah, don’t sit right with me, but anyway.

Side note, defending Wanda from these antis is gonna be waaay more annoying to deal with now.

There’s a lot of talk of how this movie ‘throws away Wanda’s development from WandaVision’ by making her the villain, which eh...I see their point, but WandaVision did end with her reading the Darkhold, so it’s not surprising this is where she ended up here. Still, it does seem like a rehash of her doing a bad thing and then fixing it in the end. Just way more extreme.

Nobody actually thinks she’s dead....right? Like the way people were talking about it, I thought I was gonna have to reach and be in denial about her being alive for my sanity, but nah. It’s not super obvious, but...it’s pretty obvious she survived. Big bright flashing red light out of nowhere for no reason? C’mon. Also the whole thing just sorta...happened. If that was Wanda, been in the MCU for 7 years and just finished headlining her own show, Maximoff’s death scene...it would’ve been a SCENE, trust.

The way the movie flip flopped between ‘Wanda’s a good person, she’s just corrupted’ and ‘She’s an evil witch that needs to die’ so much just gave me whiplash. I get why towards the end they were like ‘yeah, we gotta kick her ass’, but almost immediately Strange went from ‘You did the right thing, that was never in doubt’ to ‘SHE ENSLAVED A TOWN, GOTTA GET HER’ Like...which is it my guy? 

Okay, moving on from Wanda now, let’s talk about America. I love her. She’s my favorite new Phase 4 hero as of now, and I can’t wait to see more of her.

I like how they introduced her as someone not having any control over her powers, and while I get that people see that as nerfed, it makes sense. She’s a kid with powers adults can’t even handle, and she’s handling better than most adults would, so.

Also...the scene with her moms? That was enough to cause a ban in all these countries?...Really? I just...okay. Good luck over there.

Strange’s development in this movie was pretty good. I really don’t think Wanda stole the focus at all honestly, this was very clearly Strange’s movie. I liked him better here way more than his first movie.

The CAMEOSSS Specifically REED FUCKING RICHARDS YOOO. That was so surreal to me actually seeing John Krasinski play him. I trulyyyy hope he’s the main Reed, there’s no way he can’t be after this.

Black Bolt and Charles's death scenes are gonna haunt me man, they’re just...oof they’re brutal.

DID ANYONE ELSE CATCH THE 90S X-MEN THEME WHEN HE WAS WHEELING OUT CAUSE MY GOD

Last thing, I really wanted this to be a team up movie with Strange and Wanda, they’d be an awesome team. I’m sad we didn’t get that, but...maybe one day

Okay, those are my jumbled up thoughts on this movie. This is gonna be one I think about for a while for sure

#MoM spoilers #doctor strange #wanda maximoff #marvel

[hard-core-super-star]

no because literally, in a single ask there are many different topics and the answers just get longer. I imagine you opening your inbox and seeing some aks that look more like the digital bible itself😶

I'm telling you! I'm behaving now. I changed.

I'll wait, and I already have my doubts about something but I don't know if it's a reference. the 119% thing.

totally, just like they did when they guarded at all costs that Kate would be played by hailee. It would be really funny if the Nightwing phase hadn't just been a phase.... unless...👀 I also don't know how well-known this mafia game is, but I've literally never heard of it until now. you're good at FIFA? for further scientific research. i- i never played GTA, my mom was ok with me playing mortal kombat and seeing the most graphic and merciless deaths, but not with me stealing cars and running away from the police 😔

okay, if I go watch it for the gay shit and I come out of it sad I'll blame you and you'll pay for my therapy. If she's supposed to be an irredeemable villain then she did something really fucked up, right? because I'm kind of more of a fan of villains..... to a certain point... um yeahh..of course

I'm literally eating myself up because I want to know what this cliffhanger is, I mean, the show was cancelled... knowing this isn't going to ruin my experience, is it?

queerbait, queerbait is everywhere- oh, the denial, it's okay, thinking like this can keep you sane, but it's between ava and sara? wait, I got lost hwjakksskskk you defend flash until you possibly can't anymore, but only watch for caitlin? how does it work? RIGHT? It took me a while to like caitlin exactly for that reason. and don't judge me, but it got tired to a point where I wasn't even rooting for barry and iris to get together anymore. they almost made my hair gray for a while, but I recovered.

now I understand why there's SO MUCH supercorp fics, these people are drooling and surviving on crumbs- think with care <3 hdjskjsk

– 🌟

i’m happily surprised and impressed that we've managed to talk about so many things at the same time and, despite the slight confusion sometimes, we still have MORE to say. it's not often i find someone so willing to read my paragraph-long responses and then RESPOND with their own paragraphs. [and needless to say, i absolutely love reading your responses, even if they're long]

mhmm, we’ll see about that.

it technically is a reference but i don't know if you're thinking what i’m thinking. and if you're not one of us is going to end up looking like an an idiot 😶 [it’s me, btw]

i mean, he's technically still my favorite superhero so i guess the phase still isn't over. i’m just too gay to obsess over a man the way i obsess over kate. i don't think it's that well known but i love it. idk what kind of research you're doing that requires this knowledge but yeah, i’m pretty good at FIFA. not like super amazing or anything but i’ve played it all my life so i think i’ve developed some skills. funnily enough, my mom was the opposite way. mortal kombat was too violent but planning heists and stealing cars was fine. [but not until i was like…10 or something]

babe, i hate to break it to you, but i can't even pay for my own therapy so you're on your own. stop asking questions because i WILL write an essay on her. basically, she does do fucked up shit BUT she's also heavily, HEAVILY, traumatized. i can't get into it without giving out too many spoilers but as the show goes on, we learn she's genuinely just a heavily messed up person and NOT a Joker type of villain who causes pain for the sake of it. [she's also not a sociopath, no matter how many times the characters say she is smh. she's also queer-coded af so there's that]

it's probably my fault for bringing it up everyday lmao. it doesn't ruin anything at all, it's just frustrating. they do finish the plot of season 7 nicely so that's why i just ignore the cliffhanger. it was supposed to tease season 8 but then season 8 never happened. the thing that pisses me off is that the CW didn't bother to tell the writers or the producers or the ACTORS that they wouldn't be getting another season.

sorry, i phrased that weird because it's technically a spoiler. the queer-bait is between zari and a new character hence why i didn't give many details in case you decide to watch the show again. sara and ava aren’t queer-bait at all, they're just queer 👍 it doesn't work very well but like the flash still has some really good things in between all the shitty writing. [that's another reason to watch batwoman, btw, their writers are out of this world] plus, like i said, caitlin snow was part of my gay awakening so it's not like i could just ditch the show even while it was going downhill. i don't judge you at all, i hated their relationship in the last few seasons. idk how they did it but they made me dislike barry at some point which is a crime because he's my boy!!!

akdkkdkskk that's a perfect way to put it, no further comment is necessary. i’m definitely not thinking about it 😶

#rubix replies #🌟

[vaguely-concerned]

Some Harrow the Ninth reread thoughts because these books get their hooks in me like little else can:

- one thing that really fucking took me out at the knees this time was noticing that before answering god's question whether he forgives him... augustine looks around the room not just at mercy's desecrated body, but at cytherea and g1deon too. he looks around a room of dead siblings with the eyes of a dead sibling. (he probably doesn't know g1deon is dead but that somehow makes it even sadder to me, that now the first and the last brother are gone and he doesn't even realize it). especially with the way god's attitude to him is described as a longsuffering parent welcoming home a kid who's been out past their curfew and augustine and mercy holding each other as 'two children who'd had a nightmare and woken in a fright'... it seems deliberate that in front of gideon we see a subtle emphasis of god in the aspect of the father (as unlike harrow she doesn't really care that much about him as God tm), and surprise! he's not a great dad!!!! ('I will love all of you forever and I never wanted any harm to come to any of you' huh. well those forevers and nevers lasted all of five minutes john guess you did master time after all)

sorry for having my augustine brain on all the time, I truly cannot help it, but there is something for me in this of like... him being stuck in reliving his specific core trauma (the loss of a sibling) again and again and again over the myriad. all of them lost someone each time a fellow lyctor died, of course, but in his case losing brothers and sisters left right and center has that additional edge to it. ('starting to look less like tragedy and more like carelessness' etc. lol) like idk who decided the lyctors should refer to each other as siblings -- one could make a decent guess it was john tho, no way in hell did augustine and mercy look at each other and come up with that one voluntarily fksjdfhjkasd -- but it added an extra level of fuckery to augustine's Whole Deal there.

also i must repeat myself: it is unspeakably metal of augustine to make god himself ask him for forgiveness just so he gets to tell him no. that's the dream. forget steel, that's balls of nuclear pasta level gutsy (yes I did look up what the hardest known material in the universe is and how could I not include it once I knew jfdkshsafksad). I mean he's terrible and irredeemable by pretty much any metric but I cannot help but stan, I can only apologize (thoughts about other stuff under the cut because this got... long oh boy)

- "There is no such thing as forgiveness"

may we talk again about how unspeakably sinister of a sentence that is for GOD (a man who MADE himself God) to speak fsdhkssadfhsakjdf. this dude sets the agenda for the universe and I suppose that's why it's all Like That. he's an old testament kinda guy I guess

also the profound arrogance in then asking (well I mean. it's an order, isn't it, it's 'forgive me or -- and oh this would be so awkward and tedious for us all don't make me do it pwease🥺-- perish') these people who've been closest to him to forgive him, a whole ten minutes later. it goes to show he's not actually after forgiveness at all, because forgiveness implies considering someone else having the right and capability to not just judge you but even behold you truly in the first place, allowing them on your level spiritually so to speak. that's the 'he's never as sentimental as you think' showing through. he simply wants submission, and for things to not have to be uncomfortable for him, even if that makes everyone around him have to live in fear. (which I think is also why he's so rankled by the (false <3) idea that mercy and augustine have been faking not liking each other all this time. at this point that truly is the least of his worries in the grand scheme of things!!! but it's been emotionally uncomfortable for john to deal with all those years, and what could be a greater sin than causing the emperor undying emotional discomfort. -_____-)

I believe John DOES genuinely still have that human need for love and closeness, it's just that it will always, always be second to his need to be god, and be loved and obeyed as god, ultimate and unquestioned, unquestionable. he sucks and I'm obsessed with it

- can u believe. that harrow has unwittingly met both her in-laws. and they made it weird. by jove did they make it so weird. weirder even than how gideon met them??? I'm not sure. at least harrow never had to see god naked (without skin on level naked briefly too) within half an hour of meeting him. on the other hand her MIL did try to hijack her very soul while being... arguably civil at least to gideon. you know, it's hard to make a true comparison here. either way I'm sorry about both your lives kids

- augustine making it clear in the shittiest way possible to harrow that he doesn't care about her or what she thinks as one of their first interactions, her telling him "then that will be your downfall", AND THEN THE ENTIRE REST OF THE BOOK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. right up there with 'I need a special moment to go to hell'. I reiterate my 'if even one person on this shitty bone-bejeweled space station had actually listened to harrow or taken any real non-condescending interest in her at all this plot would have gone v e r y differently' point

- the way gideon's voice bleeds through when the second person narrative describes harrow in moments of agony or vulnerability ('you idiot baby, you absolute sadsack' etc.)........ how does that somehow come across as so much more pained for her and loving than any endearment ever could. it's the same logic as the 'terrible teens', who she would have died for. and she rightfully wants to kick the absolute shit out of ianthe for the things she pulled on harrow when she was that agonized and vulnerable. gideon I love and treasure you. (listen I enjoy watching ianthe do her thing very much but she really found out harrow struggles to hold on to reality and decided making her own hair gaslight her forever was a fun diverting little thing to do with her time. gideon pull her ass off I'll hold your sunglasses baby)

- I did cry over 'was that the day you decided you wanted to die?' again. what of it. don't look at me. (it's just so... I mean... gideon hasn't just been convinced she killed harrow's parents, she was sure she made her want to die as well. and at this point in the book she's already felt harrow's suicidality from the inside many times and knows that's not at all as simple as that, but the trauma logic still lingers. and there's no palamedes there this time to patiently and kindly help her pick it apart until there's just the truth that they were simply two abandoned unloved children hurting each other as a way to love because they knew nothing else. agony. suffering.)

- oh. I just realized that the augustine and mercy hug at the end mirrors the hugs harrow gets from palamedes and ortus earlier in the book. where it's an older brother figure comforting a younger sister. (especially considering that their relationship, as full of mutual loathing and genuine dislike as it is, is also one of the very few remaining things about them that's recognizably human in any way. clearly not actual siblings or only siblings, or several things would be even weirder than they are haha but like in that moment specifically those are the Vibes for me)

also by all accounts literally all the times harrow has ever been hugged in her entire life can be counted on one hand. ...okay that's IT everyone get the right souls back into the right bodies this needs to be remedied immdiately gideon I'm counting on you

- I feel there's not enough appreciation for augustine choosing to describe the heralds by going "imagine... the worst bee" (and as we see later -- is he wrong tho??)

- ". . . with hairs as thick as your fingers. Which weren't actually very thick. (Your fingers are fine, I'm just amending.)"

I'm WEEPING how is that so sweet. Gideon has so much affection and respect for Harrow's body and such awareness that, as it were, 'they were not my thumbs to lose'. rather unlike SOME people *stares pointedly at Ianthe Tridentarius who proceeds to not give me a nanosecond's notice in her rise to world domination*

can u believe tamsyn muir wrote a whole book where they never get to meet and in fact don't even recall each other most of the time and still its entire structure is built from how much they love each other and you feel it by the end. multiple times I've read this book!! and it still bowls me over each time

- "How dare you ask me to live with it?"

this is why Harrow is the single most relatable character ever written to me. that is exactly what I would have said to god should he have stood before me at that age. (also and more importantly finally a protagonist who's my height and the same amount of repressed rage by volume lol)

- I live in fear that in one of the upcoming books we will meet someone who did actually care about babs, and then our one remaining reprieve from crushing sadness will be taken from us

- considering that one of the things john mentions as ~*dad things*~ he would do with his kid is to go out and eat chips, and eating chips is exactly what uh who-we-now-know-is-nona in the epilogue is doing... listen I want him to show up in either nona the ninth or alecto the ninth and I want that to be where we get the 'eat hot chip and lie' meme in all its glory, because truly all john gaius knows is make evil expansionist space empire, god complex, gaslight, drink tea, make dad joke, eat hot chip and lie

- john is such an excellent fucking character honestly. he's such a massive piece of shit, but he makes me cackle the whole way about what a massive piece of shit he is. (ten thousand years of lies about to catch up to him and he goes "I hate to be flip, but... am I in trouble? owo". sir you are the WORST and I kind of love you unfortunately. curse my inability to resist anything I find even vaguely amusing. also the cold casual way he admits to having g1deon try to murder harrow... I do also hope someone finishes what augustine started and slam dunks this dude straight into hell as well. y'know it's the duality of man/god thing I've got going on here emotionally)

- gideon's many, many escape attempts take on so much. just so much muchness. after you go back and reread. it's like... does she actually want to escape the ninth and join the cohort (which she does not actually seem to know the first thing about outside of comic books, including who the fuck they're fighting, and starts to be 'hmmmm' about immediately upon meeting the Terrible Teens, who also wanted to go to war), or does she just know that trying to leave is the most reliable way to get harrow's attention, and without harrow's attention... does gideon even exist? yes. both and neither and in the trauma world where you can't see any other ways for the world to be than how it is. (her wish to join the cohort isn't so much about wanting to be there, it's more about it would be not here, not this', which is the best her brain can do with what she's been given to work with. oh gideon.) it especially caught me that the argument when they were ten and eleven that uuuuuuh spiralled out to much bigger things quickly, what harrow reacts so strongly to is the idea that someone would come and take gideon away -- that she'd be left behind, entirely alone in her misery, while someone loved gideon much better than she'd ever know how to. just... their mutual harrowing (aha) attachment trauma making them tear each other to pieces again and again and it wasn't their fault but they left each other bloody and scarred regardless and they only barely got to realize there might be another way before it was ripped away from them. *wails, rends garments, rolls around in ashes and broken glass*

(also the added anguish of how it seems harrow pulled away from gideon as her mental illness got worse, since gideon doesn't seem to know about it at all. it roughly coincides with their huge catastrophic fallout after harrow's parents' suicide, so how would she know, really. and then what a way to find out. so many layers and all of them bring only more sadness. :( )

- somehow I got so quietly sad this time around over the description of god and augustine both just... talking to cytherea's body sometimes. it feels sort of like someone going to a child's grave to speak to them just to... look for them, even if they're gone. and they're both doing it alone and separately which somehow makes the aspect of 'emotionally estranged spouses' in their relationship stand out all the more. (also I realized this time around that part of the reason augustine is so savage towards mercy in his little warning speech (n o t that augustine ever needs a reason to be an asshole to mercy hahaha) is probably that he's actually kind of upset about someone messing with cytherea's corpse and he thinks she's doing it. (making sure their plan didn't come out was the most important thing, but since he also mentions it after the divine threesome, I think it does bother him.) Which means that john claiming not to notice someone messing with her body is either him lying about it (to cover for who-he-thinks-is-g1deon??) or him being… frankly kind of an oblivious idiot. And the thing about this dude is that I would 100% believe either option)

- I wonder what would happen if god ever saw abigail's research. somehow the prospect does not fill me with optimism and rainbows, I'm sure he'd find some way to make it body horror wonderland headed for revenge town yet

#harrow the ninth #the locked tomb #the locked tomb meta #augustine the first #griddlehark #john gaius #I think those are the main points in this lol #this feels borderline incoherent because sadly my brain does not do literary analysis it does Vibe Safari #every time I try to explain my thoughts I am doing so while being chewed on by the local wildlife in here

[nmikaelsonimagines]

Irredeemable: A Klaus Mikaelson Imagine

Request from Anon: Hi!! I just saw the gif with klaus holding the gun and have no idea where it’s from lol (I’m only on 4x21 of tvd). Could you do an imagine when klaus is trying to kill someone from the Scooby gang (not elena or bonnie though, Idk) because they broke a rule of their alliance, and klaus secretly has feelings for reader but hides it. So he’s about to kill the person and then reader jumps in front and you can just continue form there? Btw I really hope you job goes well :p

Hope this is okay for you lovely, and enjoy x 

Irredeemable.

That was what everyone called him. That was what she called him.

Klaus didn’t blame Y/N for her words, not when he stood there, his skin coated in blood, his blonde hair fading into scarlet. He didn’t know what he had been expecting her to say when he told her what he had done.

How he had killed all those people. How he had drowned Tyler Lockwood’s mother.

He didn’t know how he had ended up at Y/N’s door, knew that she was part of their little gang, knew that she feared and hated him just like the rest of them. He didn’t know why he felt the need to go to her, hoping that maybe she would understand.

There was just something about her, the beauty that the beast couldn’t stay away from.

And she had looked at him, and called him a monster.

She had looked at him, at the bloody mess he was, and told him that he was only one thing. One thing that could never be changed, one thing that she would never understand, one thing that she would despise for as long as he was close to her.

Irredeemable.

That was what everyone called him. That was what she called him.

Klaus didn’t blame Y/N for her friends’ mistakes, not when Damon was the one to cross the line, to break the alliance, to dare try to fool him. He didn’t know she was there, not to begin with, didn’t know that she was with Damon at the time Klaus planned to kill him.

So he hadn’t expected her to jump out, to stand between him and Damon, hadn’t expected her to be so brave, to face him head on. Although, maybe he should have. It had taken bravery for her to say what she had said to him on that night, a bravery that he saw in her eyes now.

It was a bravery that he admired, and when she told Damon to run, Klaus was so captivated by her that he didn’t even attempt to push her out of the way.

They’d reached an impasse, the moment in a game of chess where neither player could move. It was what this whole thing had been, Klaus realized, a game. A game between him and Y/N. For so long, Klaus had thought he was winning, but as he looked at her now, he realized that Y/N was a dark horse.

She had snuck up on him and caught him in her grasp.

She had made him realise that he was only one thing.

Irredeemable.

That was what everyone called him. That was what she called him.

Klaus didn’t blame Y/N for what she did next, for the words that came out of her mouth, for the blow that hit his cheek as she slapped him. He would have done the same, would have done worse things if someone had tried to harm his friends, his family, maybe even her.

The truth was, he was pretty sure he was falling in love with Y/N. He was pretty sure he was doing the typical thing and going after someone who didn’t want him, someone he couldn’t have, someone he wasn’t willing to take if she didn’t want to go.

Her defiance proved it to him. Her ability to confront him silenced him, and he took her verbal abuse without a word. He stood and let her tell him how he was a monster, and he let her words trail off when she looked at him with confusion.

He looked into her eyes when she asked him why he wasn’t fighting back.

He saw her lips part in shock when he told her that maybe it was what he deserved, when he told her that he was only one thing, after all.

Irredeemable.

That was what everyone called him. That was what she called him.

Klaus didn’t blame Y/N for acting surprised, not when he stood there letting the words tumble from his mouth. He confessed his greatest secrets to her in that moment, the reason he had come to her on that night, how he had felt drawn to her, how he had secretly hoped she would tell him that everything was okay.

He confessed that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her, how he wanted to prove himself to her, how sometimes he didn’t like the person he was.

The monster she thought he was, the monster he knew he needed to suppress if he ever wanted even a chance with her.

He confessed to her that he thought maybe she was his last hope to be something else. He confessed to her that he was hoping she was would help him become the man he wanted to be for her.

And he let her tell him – much to his surprise – that one day, if he managed to change, maybe she would see him as something else, before leaving him with nothing but a simple smile.

A small, simple smile that left Klaus with hope. Hope that one day she would see him as only one thing.

Redeemable.

Masterlist

#TVD #tvd imagine #tvd imagines #the vampire diaries #to #the originals #the originals imagine #the originals imagines #klaus mikaelson imagine #klaus mikaelson #klaus mikaelson imagines #klaus mikaelson x reader #niklaus mikaelson #niklaus mikaelson imagines #niklaus mikaelson imagine #niklaus mikaelson x reader #Joseph Morgan

[itsclydebitches]

Your explanation of how RWDE came to be reminds me a bit of a different fandom I'm in. It's a multi-pov rp with a big cast who often get into conflict one another. There's this one character who's widely regarded as a villain (and he is a villain, abused some people and did a bunch of horrible stuff) but he's treated like a one dimensional morally black villain.

Anyone who tries to point out that maybe he's more complex than a disney villain or that he might - god forbid - have good qualities or not be at fault for everything gets labelled as an apologist for that character.

Eventually people gave up and said "okay fine we're that character's apologists". Then the fandom used that to claim that anyone who call themselves an apologist for that character obviously excuses or justifies all the bad things he did.

It's not exactly the same but the parallels jumped out to me.

To continue the association train, THIS reminds me of some fans' reactions to Izzy from OFMD. Exact same song and dance. A lot of viewers enjoy him, understand 100% that he's the antagonist, he's done a whole lot of shit, but point out that he's not irredeemable (especially given other characters' actions + the genre of the show)/he's more complex than a Disney villain/being responsible for some awfulness doesn't make him responsible for every bad thing in the canon. Lo and behold, people came out of the tumblr woodwork to scream about how we're all Izzy apologists and after a while we went, "Okay fine lol. We're Izzy apologists. What are you gonna do about it?" which set off a whole new wave of, "Do you SEE how AWFUL they are?"

Interestingly, one of the major differences that I've seen with OFMD is that fans with even the slightest association with Izzy get targeted. I mean, it's no surprise that I get angry anons about RWBY. I write a bunch of RWBY meta, answer RWBY-related asks, and frequently post my opinions about this kind of fandom drama. I am 100% aware of what I'm getting myself into. Same with OFMD. I posted some metas and others have found me through my fic, so of course I'd attract anyone with a vendetta against fans enjoying this character when I analyze him and frequently make him a focus of my stories. The "I enjoy Ironwood-Izzy" dramas kinda go hand-in-hand, despite stemming from different fandoms. But other stories I've heard are wild. Fans saying that they reblogged just a single, neutral post about Izzy, or mentioned something vaguely positive in one tag, or actually DON'T like him, yet are for some unfathomable reason being targeted anyway. Idk if that's happened in your rp fandom at all, but it was a new experience for me. OFMD leveled up the discourse in an unfortunate way lmfao.

But yeah, all of it sucks. I've been in fandoms where I think the majority of participants are ignoring/reworking the horrific things a character has done and yeah, it can be really frustrating. That's why I make my own posts so I can purge myself of my opinions on the matter lol. But these people going into others' inboxes to yell about them being "apologists"??? Absolutely wild. Please chill out and let people enjoy fictional characters. Because, you know, that's why they exist... to enjoy them... 🤷‍♀️

#OFMD #Our Flag Means Death #mymetas

[where-is-my-beheading-ceremony]

ask (as usual)

how do you feel about jestro and hvara/book (in other words monstrux)?

Why do you think he needed Jestro a second time?

My English is bad, don't be surprised if they write something incomprehensible here, ha, damn it .. And will you continue to draw art on Nex?

Okay truth be told....

I absolutely love the asshole, douche, monstrous, manipulative, deranged, low life, dust eating sucker that is Monstrox and Idk why-

Of course I'm aware he's a terrible person, but as a villain, he's a f u n villain, I like his personality, also he's pretty well written compared to some of the other characters (some of the minor characters and Axl definitely deserve to be written better, also, at least Monstrox's motives are more clear than Merlok's). He's pretty much irredeemable for everything he did (Season 5 would've enhanced that, but I kind of wanted new villains for it) but damn am I still going to think about him. Honestly of he wasn't so manipulative or like the reason of his actions was that he is corrupted just like Jestro was, by magic not of his own, I would even say he'd make a pretty good uncle after some rehab-

But hey, the Nexo knights story has so many holes that who knows what really made Monstrox this way, maybe he was corrupted by evil magic and it has been messing with him for years?

Okay now about Jestro's AND Monstrox

Well- Jestro deserves so much better and shouldn't suffer any of the consequences of Monstrox's actions. Monstrox was manipulative towards him, hell he was absolutely CRUEL with Jestro with that whole lightning zap corruption thing-

As a villain duo, the whole "using him" thing was interesting and I couldn't imagine a better character than Jestro to be his lackey. I just wish there was more of a reasoning as to why Jestro out of all people (I mean my hc is that Jestro's destructive magic and at times morally gray views were perfect for Monstrox besides the whole, he's easy to trick thing)

But yeah, Monstrox should be held 100% accountable for everything, I wish to turn him into a chihuahua and kick him and hope he doesn't bite me because he definitely had rabies.

Also my thoughts on why he needed Jestro are pretty simple:

Monstrox liked having Jestro as a lackey, Monstrox enjoyed having this young buffoon on his side, he was like a proud uncle (derogatory) watching his nephew succeed in being just as much of an asshole as he is. I'd dare say Monstrox grew very fond of Jestro, he was attached to him the same way he was attached to the lava monsters (who are literally his kids). And in his messed up little brain, he couldn't understand why Jestro was against joining him again, he thought Jestro was wrong or lying about not wanting to be evil again, so he corrupted them without giving them a choice.

#nexo knights #jestro #lego nexo knights #legonexoknights #nexo knights jestro #Monstrox #nexo knights monstrox #nexo knights headcanon

[greensaplinggrace]

honestly THANK YOU for saying all that abt baghra bc i thought i was going crazy from not liking her??? bc i haven't read the books and only summaries of them on wiki and like. i dunno why ppl like her actually even in the show bc this guy, her son, is like "i wanna make the world better for us grisha" and she's just like "no." even tho he sees that she's MAKING HERSELF SICK from suppressing her powers! she's literally like in bed coughing in the flashback yet seem much healthier at the little palace. also like after everything, after her disapproval, after the fold, after centuries of waiting for the sun summoner.. he never abandons her. he makes sure she's cares for. he doesn't harm her. and i have to wonder if baghra has ever thanks him for that, for just not leaving her alone. like i dunno how im suppose ro believe aleks is a heartless villain when he still cares for his abusive mom like this. like has baghra even told her she loved him (honestly she reminds me of a classic emotionally unavailable asian parent but maybe that's just me). also im wondering if baghra ever told aleks that he had an aunt.. bc like.. now that u bring up her isolating him it's like hmmmm...

not at me being like alina... why do u trust the bitter old woman who literally beats u with a stick and verbally abuses u every chance she gets.. just bc she showed a bad painting... like.. pls use two braincells to see that who u figured out as his mother... is also using his protection..

like baghra could've upped and left with alina. but no. she stayed bc she knew she was safe under aleks's protection.

alsoim just impressed that after his first friend tried to drown him and harvest his bones... he didn't go into hiding???? he still wanted to make a safe heaven for grisha!!! HE STILL WANTED TO PROTECT GRISHA EVEN AFTER HIS GRISHA FRIEND TRIED TO KILL HIM FOR HIS FUCKEN BONES. like... this is the guy im suppose to believe is the villain???

honestly i feel like part of the reason why LB's plotlines seem so bad and disconnected (and sometimes outright racist but that's another rant) and why darkles is disproportionately more violent and villainous in the later books is bc she didn't expect the darkling to be so popular and wanted to stick with her guns of making him the villain. but also wanted the money from aleks's popularity. but like you can't have ur cake and eat it too.

Well thank you for sending this ask! It's very sweet and very passionate. I'm glad you liked my post! I didn't put as much thought into it as some of my others lol. I kind of just talked. But it was nice to be able to finally talk about some of the problems I have with both her character and the fandom/author's perception of her.

HERE is the post this is referring to, in case anyone's wondering.

👀👀 You've hit the nail on the head for so many things, here!

Baghra is extremely emotionally unavailable, basically to the point of neglect. She's also verbally and physically abusive, traits which I doubt were only reserved for her students and not her son. Baghra claims she would do anything to protect him, but I've known a lot of parents who have that mindset and yet still harm their children because they think it's "good for them".

Aleksander stays at Baghra's side for years, and even when they're opposing each other she's never too far away from him. Idk if you've read the books but he does eventually hurt her. And as much as I don't like Baghra, I think his actions were horrid. But I'm also honestly kind of surprised it took him so long lmao.

Yeah I mean, in terms of isolation, let's not forget that she never wanted to introduce him to his father, either. Baghra's sense of eternity clouds a lot of her judgments on relationships, which means she views most people as dust and therefore teaches her son to as well. The problem with that is that he's a growing child, and he needs those social and emotional attachments for healthy development.

I would bet quite a bit of money that Baghra has either never told him she loves him or she has told him so few times it's practically forgettable.

And everything becomes more complicated because so many of Baghra's actions are understandable because of her life and her history, but the impacts they have on the people around her, especially Aleksander, are permanently damaging. And the fact that that's never gone over in critical depth in the books or how it's glossed over in fandom is just very disconcerting. Like, acknowledging Baghra's failings doesn't mean we're excusing Aleksander's actions, it just means we're holding Baghra liable for her own. Which the fandom should be doing, considering she's the epitome of an abusive parental figure.

And Alina trusting Baghra over Aleksander is even more confusing! Especially in the show!! This is the woman who beat her and abused her and tortured her friends when they tiny little children (and who probably still does so now that they're adults). This is the woman who mocks you and harasses you and insults you on a regular basis. Why does Baghra revealing she's Aleksander's mother make Alina change her mind?! Like fuck, I'd just feel bad for Aleksander. No wonder he kept it a secret, I would too! And that painting is enough evidence?! Really?! A random painting shown to you by this abusive mentor that's been making your life hell. That's what you're going to betray your new lover over?

The friends trying to harvest his bones thing is a good point, too. I think Aleksander, especially show Aleksander, is incredibly idealistic. I think he cares too much for others - those he's deemed worth his care (a sentiment given to him by Baghra). Despite everything she's tried to teach him about hiding and abandoning others and never caring and never doing anything to help or reach out or connect with people, Aleksander still continues to do so. It's likely because he never got it from Baghra growing up, and so is desperate for those emotional needs to be fulfilled elsewhere.

His turning point, when Baghra tells him it was understandable that those kids tried to kill him because the world is such a hard place for them - that's crucial. And the reason it's possible as a motivating factor is because of that idealism and that desire to help and that desire to be everything his mother isn't. Baghra tells him this trauma he just experienced was because of the oppression of his people, and instead of following her lead and accepting that, going into hiding and abandoning everybody to their misery, he goes I can do something about that. I can make it so this never happens again. Which is usually how trauma like that combines with one's core personality traits at a young age, especially when there's none of the essential support systems in place to aid in recovery (ie, the role Baghra should have been filling but wasn't, because she decided to exacerbate the problem instead).

And yeah, one of my biggest problems with the ham-fisted "beating you over the head with a sledgehammer of evil deeds" look-how-bad-this-character-is! portrayal of the Darkling in the later books comes from the impression I get that Bardugo doesn't trust her readers. She's so desperate to have us hate this character and think him an irredeemable villain, not trusting any of her readers to engage critically with a morally gray character, that it feels quite a bit like condescending fucking bullshit. Which ew, I know how to engage with literature, thanks.

She really does seem to look down on a large part of her fandom, and imo, the infantilization of the female characters in her books seems to carry over to her impression of most of her female readers as well. Which is why the Darkling's character arc gets fucking destroyed. But he's still a good cash grab, of course, so she'll shake his dead corpse in front of the fandom for money every time she wants something from it.

Also! Another reason I think her plotlines feel disconnected (I'm sorry Bardugo I respect you as a person, but shit-) is because the writing in SaB is just bad. I mean, nevermind the absolutely nauseating implications of the way she portrays the Grisha as a persecuted group who's situation is never actually fully addressed as it should be, considering Grisha rights is what her main villain is fighting for (imo for a series called the Grishaverse, LB seems to be pretty anti Grisha), but her characters and story alone are just wrong for each other. They don't fit together.

And the ending is one of the main pieces of evidence in that regard! You can’t say the ending where Alina isn’t Grisha anymore is her “going back to where she started” when she’s always been Grisha. She just didn’t know she was Grisha because she denied that part of herself that she was born with.

Alina is reluctant to move forward or change, she struggles with adapting, and she’s very set on the things she’s grown attached to throughout her life. She also has some latent prejudices against the Grisha, and so denies the possibility of being Grisha for those reasons as well.

Alina’s lack of powers in the beginning of her life because she willfully doesn’t learn about them to avoid change versus her lack of powers at the end of the book when she’s accepted them and then they’re stripped away from her by outer forces are two entirely separate circumstances. You can’t make a parallel about lost powers and lack of Grisha status bringing her back to the start when she was always Grisha and she always had powers and she simply refused to come to terms with it because of personal reasons.

The first situation is an internal conflict that indicates a story about growth and a journey of self acceptance. Denying herself the opportunity to learn about her heritage and to find acceptance with a group of people like her because she’s tied to the past and because of the way she was raised is the setup for a narrative that tackles unlearning prejudice and learning how to connect with a part of her identity that was denied her and learning how to grow independent and self assured. It’s the setup for a different story entirely. The second situation is an external conflict that centers around the ‘corrupting influence of power’... for some reason.

In a world where Grisha do not have social, political, or economic power and they are hunted, centering your heroine’s journey of self acceptance and growth around an external conflict about... the corrupting influence of power (in a group of people that don’t actually have any power?!) just doesn’t work. It is literally impossible to connect the two stories Bardugo is trying to push in Shadow and Bone without seriously damaging the main character’s developmental arc.

The only way a narrative like this would work, claiming that she has gone back to where she started, is either a) if the Grisha weren’t actually a persecuted group and instead were apart of the upper class, or b) if the one bad connection between the two instances is acknowledged - that Alina denied a part of herself crucial to self acceptance and growing up, and that losing her powers at the end has also denied her. It is a tragedy, not a happy ending.

Alina suffered because she didn’t use her powers. She grew sick. It was bad for her. This was not a resistance to 'the corruption of power and the burden of greed', it was her suffering because she couldn’t fully accept herself.

Framing the ending as a return to the beginning can’t be done if you don’t address how bad the beginning was for your main character. You brought her back to a bad point in her life. You regressed her. This should be a low point in her arc. It should be a problem that’s solved so she can finish developing organically or it should be something that is acknowledged as a tragedy in it’s own right, for the future the world (the writing) denied her.

This is a ramble and it makes no sense and I’m really sorry, but my point is that Bardugo put the wrong characters in the wrong story. The character arc required for organic development doesn’t match the story and intended message at all. The narrative doesn’t fit the cast. She's got two clashing stories attempting to work in tandem and she ends up with both conflicting messages that fans still can’t comprehend in her writing and an ending that doesn’t suit her main character to such an impossible degree that it’s almost laughable.

So yeah, there's a few reasons why I think the story and the plot feels so bad and disconnected. I hope you don't mind me making this answer so long! 😅 I was not expecting to write this much.

#shadow and bone #sab #grishaverse #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #mymetas #the darkling #baghra critical #anti leigh bardugo #sorry! #sab salt #sab meta #fandomcourse #negative #negativity #myramblings #asks and answers #joonmono #anti baghra #leigh bardugo critical #abuse tw #torture tw

[makeste]

Just wanted to point out, at the end of the recent chapter when Nagant says she will give Deku more to think about she means she is going to shoot Chisaki. Look at how she whiped her gun arm in his direction, which led Deku's gaze towards him. It wasn't Chisaki calling out that got his attention, it was Nagant. She said she thought he could be useful hence why she brought him along. Shes going to shoot at him to make Deku try save him and get caught in the crossfire. She knows what shes doing

a few other people also sent me asks clarifying this scene, which I appreciate! yeah, that makes a lot of sense, and seems to line up with those last few panels.

a couple of other things which were also pointed out to me:

it's possible Nagant doesn't even know who Overhaul actually is/was, and just thought he was some pathetic guy who might come in handy as a hostage or something. I'm torn on this one, because the HPSC was literally an intelligence agency and Nagant was one of their most elite operatives, so I feel like she would have been well versed in the ins and outs of the criminal underworld. on the other hand, Overhaul didn't take over as the head of Shie Hassaikai until relatively recently, most likely after Nagant had already been sent to Tartarus. so at the very least, she probably doesn't know how powerful he became at his peak. adds an interesting twist to their unlikely partnership.

and on a similar note, Nagant definitely would have no way of knowing that Deku of all people has a connection to Overhaul (and in fact probably knows more about him than Nagant does). hence her surprised reaction in the final panel -- the last thing she expected was for Deku to recognize Overhaul and call him by name.

and that of course leads us to the big question for next chapter, which is how Deku will react to seeing Overhaul again, and whether or not he'll try to save even someone like him. on the one hand Overhaul is an abjectly terrible person who was plotting to engineer a wholeass war by imprisoning and torturing a little girl!! but on the other hand, having seemingly limitless empathy is basically Deku's entire thing, so idk. for me, Overhaul is utterly irredeemable because in order to have a true redemption arc you need to have the capacity for remorse, and Overhaul seems to lack that entirely. but that doesn't mean one can't feel pity for him. I think he's beyond saving, but that in itself is a pretty good reason to feel sorry for someone.

at any rate, regardless of how this plays out, this should be a pretty interesting test for Deku. and as much as I hate Overhaul, he's very much a wild card right now so that is exciting. looking forward to seeing where this goes.

#bnha 314 #lady nagant #overhaul #chisaki kai #midoriya izuku #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #asks #anon asks