#its 100 percent valid if you like him or if hes a comfort character

[elxsticlxve]

How’s my portrayal?;-- 

{ooc} @acandlelitdeath inquired;-- I haven't watched alot of hxh and I'll be honest one of the reasons I haven't watched is because of hisoka and his grossness we can all kind of agree to. But having seen your portrayal of him I am thinking of going back and watching some of the episodes and maybe even continuing to catch up with the series. You make him interesting and well rounded, still not a good guy but we don't need him to be in order to be interesting. You give him a voice and a mind that I don't think we really see when we're introduced to him in the show. Your little cardsuit thing is also really cute and clever, i love it. I can't wait to see how you write more now and try to piece together all the different meanings you have behind them. I love symbolism stuff so I'm geeking out over it. 

≺ooc≻

OOF okay so let me start off by saying you are 100 percent valid for feeling uncomfortable with this character. A lot of people are uncomfortable with him and actually-- if I may be honest, it’s part of the reason why most of the time I do not follow people unless they follow me first. I want people to be comfortable and it’s a big fear of mine that I’ll ruin someone’s day or make them upset. I’ve seen so many other hxh rpers floating around but I’m absolutely terrified to try and follow them sometimes. 

(the sounds I made tho when i did got followed lemme tell you I screamed seeing Chrollo, Illumi, Ging, Shal and a Matchi follow me. And not to mention all of these fun OCs I’m in HEAVEN.)

 But I personally just love him so much-- nastiness and all. He’s horrible, cruel, selfish and absolutely scary and a man like him doesn’t have a sense of morality to any degree. Now this isn’t to say I condone what he does, because I absolutely don’t. I fully acknowledge how he can be and how.. gross he is. But i have this twisted love/hate relationship with him. I have my own way of explaining his disgusting habits and maybe I’ll write a post on it one day-- But you totally should watch the rest! This series is super fun and has its share of sweet, sweet angst. And I thank you for the kind words uvu as I said above I really love this character and want to write him the best I can. It makes me feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy hearing it ;;u;;

Oh-- and I’m glad to hear that you are also enjoying the symbolism! uvu He uses them when he speaks in the manga so I can’t take full credit for the idea; but I did take that idea and gave them their own meaning for my own personal flare.

#{ooc} #{memes} #{asks} #acandlelitdeath #//eeeya'll are too sweet my cheeks hurt from smiling

[youtuberswithalex]

.

#even people that i thought i could trust are coming at me for not liking or trusting deceit #like really? #i dont make snide comments about you liking him #its 100 percent valid if you like him or if hes a comfort character #that's great!!! im glad you found someone like that!!! #trust me when i say i know how wonderful a feeling it is!!! i would NEVER take that away from you!!! #so why wont you let me dislike him? #im getting so many comments on the 'oh alex is gonna turn around and like him eventually' #and!!! NO!!! #no i wont!!! #as a character? yes!!! he's fantastically written and i couldnt imagine the series without him!!! #that doesnt mean i have to like him though!!! #he reminds me of so many awful people in my life. so many manipulators #because he HAS been manipulative whether you like it or not #and i have learned to n e v e r trust those people again #of COURSE im not going to trust him #its not even kin stuff. it's genuinely personal for this life #and i just. im sick of people getting upset with me for it #he's a fictional character. can we stop attacking each other over this? #thanks #delete later #maybe #i dont know

[bigskydreaming]

Something else to keep in mind is the way things compound? Like for instance, I’ve seen a mini trend of fics lately focusing on the issue of Dick dropping out of college or not wanting to go, which for the record, I feel is another way of building up to the idea that he and Bruce have all these fights during this period that are two way streets instead of like....what canon actually was (reminder that in the canon that Dick actually dropped out he and Bruce actually were never really NOT on good terms, like there’s never been a big fight in the comics about this topic so.....incheresting).

But anyway, my point is its worth keeping in mind that how you frame something at one point in a narrative like.....ideally, you want it to mesh up and align with other things you’ve brought up throughout the narrative, and not accidentally contradict yourself narratively.

I mean, this is really the big gripe most Dick Grayson fans have with his fanon characterization overall:

The fact that it just doesn’t make sense.

In Jason-centric fics that are after his resurrection, how often is Jason utterly convinced that Dick can’t even wipe his ass without Bruce’s approval? And yet in Jason-centric fics that are before his death, how often is Jason thinking about how Dick and Bruce are constantly fighting and Bruce can’t seem to do anything without Dick objecting? Reconcile these two things. They make no sense.

Same thing with fics that talk about Dick being the emotional glue of the family, the one keeping a cool head to calm down everyone else when they’re all taking shots at each other.....until randomly he just pops off without warning because he’s just that hot-tempered. These things mesh, how?

Same thing with Dick being frequently referenced as idealized by the hero community......but every time he interacts with someone like Roy or Kori or other Titans he can’t seem to avoid pissing them off and creating epic grudges. Make it make sense.

Or how Dick disliked or didn’t care about Jason to the extent that he only references him as a cautionary tale because of one line in canon......but the whole damn story where he kills the Joker because of Jason doesn’t count.

Or how its not okay to blame Dick for his own rapes but both of his major breakups which are intrinsically linked to the actions of his rapists like....were clearly and objectively all his fault somehow.

Dick Grayson fans aren’t on board with most of fanon because you can’t sell people on a constantly conflicting characterization that makes no sense and has no internal consistency.....you can only cater to people who don’t NEED to be sold on that because they’ve already decided they’re down with hating a character or largely ignoring him.

And I think people have gotten so used to not thinking twice about contradictory takes on Dick Grayson that they unintentionally undermine their own fics by contradicting themselves without even realizing it.

Like its ridiculously common to come across fics that reference Dick being beloved and charming everyone at the society galas they all have to go to.....but these fics take pot shots at Dick’s name, fashion, mannerisms etc all throughout it just because the author likes it or fans expect it or whatever reason.

But actually THINK about it:

Think how snobby the socialites at these galas are characterized as being any time its Jason their noses are turned down at.....and then look at like.....the constant jokes you as the author make YOURSELF at Dick’s very name, fashion and circus origins......how on Earth does it make ANY sense that these same people aren’t doing the same damn thing about Dick? That they’re actually any more fond of him than they are Jason, if no matter how charming he might be in the moment, the second he turns around its just as easy and likely for them to make a joke about his circus background or name as it is for writers and readers? If you can’t resist doing it, you really think snobby one percenters would bother in-universe?

Hell, they’d be more likely to hate him BECAUSE of his name, his fashion, etc.....because think of how often people not so subtly infer that he’s making a bad choice when he refuses to go by a different name, or dress more accordingly to normal fashions, etc.....

Dick has a million ways he could more easily fit in with the society he was brought into and ease his passage through it, but he puts his foot down at practically every opportunity. The idea that everybody is just dazzled by him at these galas makes no sense because the most consistent character choice made by Dick throughout the decades is that he refuses to CONFORM to others’ expectations of what he should be like. 

EVERY SINGLE CHOICE he makes from his name to his wardrobe to his costumes to his education to his city to his living arrangements and on and on is in complete and utter DEFIANCE of what people expect of the eldest son or ward of Bruce Wayne, Prince of Gotham, and that’s by Dick’s conscious and consistent choice. He knows damn well how to be more what people want or expect of him, and that’s not what he wants so he says mmmm but also how bout no.

Dick constantly embodies the idea that you can take the boy out of the circus but you can not and will not take the circus out of the boy no matter what environment you place him in or who you surround him with. He will not allow it. He will not play along.

In what universe is that going to endear him to the very people who would most likely view his choice to prioritize the very things they look down upon as something he consciously PREFERS over their projected expectations or assumptions?

Its not.

Personally, I think Gotham high society despises Dick Grayson no matter what they pretend to his face, and he’s perfectly aware of it. And probably gets some kind of trollish glee out of it because fuck them too, anyway.

(And all of that is WITHOUT even taking into account the fact that a good number of the people at these society galas all along were looking at Dick as their future property, given that they were Owl members who knew all along what they intended for their Gray Son. These people simply do not view and treat Dick as an equal. Its impossible. There’s no way).

Or then back to the idea of Bruce and Dick’s fights in his later teenage years being a two way street....

The core problem at the root of all this is the very idea of a two way street implies a certain give and take. A clashing of equals.

And that’s just not the reality in ANY continuity.

Because the question is, in any given fight between Dick and Bruce in ANY canon....

When does Dick ever WIN these fights?

When does Dick get the outcome he wants OVER what Bruce wants? When does Bruce ever cave? When is it NOT Dick leaving the manor without getting what he came for, or even being kicked out? When has Dick ever been able to say no, I’m NOT fired, or no, I’m NOT giving you control over what happens with Robin. Even when he DOES confront Bruce on these matters, Bruce STILL infamously never caves. He never actually apologizes or admits wrongdoing, he still usually tells Dick to leave. Like I said, basically the only time Dick’s ever got the upper hand in an argument was over the college thing and that time it wasn’t even a fight! Bruce didn’t actually care that much! That was the good timeline! LOL.

But there’s never actually a reversal. There’s no real precedent for Bruce caving to a teenage Dick Grayson and saying hey you know what, you’re right here, I’m overstepping or I’m in the wrong or I’m the one who doesn’t know what he’s talking about because our divergent life experiences here have mine as less relevant to the issue in question than yours do?

It doesn’t happen.

And here’s the problem with that:

Dick’s a literal genius. Every member of the Batfam is. Its how they’re able to do what they do. They’re ALL smart as fuck, capable as fuck. Put any of them in any other situation where they’re the only Bat present, and everyone usually defaults to them. They know what to do, they know what call to make, their approach is borne out by the narrative as being the correct approach. Their intelligence and strategy is validated by the narrative, with Dick being no exception here. In fact he’s particularly NOTED within canon narratives for being the guy everyone in the DC universe trusts to lead them.

Now.....imagine being this guy, who while although still a teenager, is in his late teens, and has YEARS of leading his own team under his belt. Years of being responsible for the lives of teammates and civilians. Years of becoming aware of and comfortable with his own natural brilliance. Years of becoming confident in being capable of making the right call when the situation demands it. Years of learning to TRUST in his ability to make the right call, to know the right approach, because not only are people relying on him to make those calls, he needs to be able to trust he can make them in order to have the confidence to follow through and DO so instead of being frozen with indecision or trying to pass the decision off to someone else, which he NEVER does?

With all that....and even with all due respect to Bruce’s own genius and experience....

What are the chances that in all the times that Bruce and Dick clash in his late teenage years....

Dick is NEVER right?

And yet.....when in any of these conflicts.....is he ever validated in that, versus shut down by Bruce who insists his way is still right?

Imagine being an acknowledged genius with years of experience and responsibility under your belt, but NEVER getting to be right in any arguments with your father, even when just based off pure freaking statistics, its frankly impossible for you to be 100% wrong EVERY SINGLE TIME?

Do you see where the two way street thing starts to fall apart? How can it truly be a two way street if part of the reason the two of them so often end UP aggressively opposed to each other during this time period.....is because of how many times previous encounters have only ended ONE way no matter WHAT?

It makes sense for Dick and Bruce not to clash as much during their younger years, because even the most stubborn kids do understand on a fundamental level that they have things to learn from more experienced adults. And Dick has never been someone mindlessly predisposed towards conflict. He didn’t become an exceptional acrobat by the age of eight by butting heads with his parents every time they tried to teach him, he couldn’t have. He KNOWS how to listen, he KNOWS how to acknowledge when someone else is right. 

But as he grows older, when he has more and more experience under his belt, more and more confidence in his own insights in large parts thanks to Bruce’s own efforts in buttressing his confidence in his younger years.....what happens when the balance of who is right and who is wrong in their arguments NEVER EVER starts to shift in his direction even a little bit, no matter HOW much more experienced he seems to get....and what happens when communicating this problem, this imbalance, to the person that really matters here, Bruce himself....still inherently requires Bruce accepting blame and acknowledging even just in THIS case, the idea that he’s not always right at this point and Dick has insights that can challenge his?

Of course there’s going to be more and more conflict....but can you truly argue that its a two way street, even just based off THIS? Is the teenage son truly to blame for being frustrated that he’s not allowed to ever be right, because the thing getting in his way is his father never ever being willing to back down or cave or not have the last word?

This is the sort of inherent contradiction I think lies at the heart of a lot of conflicting viewpoints here. It doesn’t matter how much lip service is being paid to the idea that Dick is intelligent, that Dick is respected, if all your content continually bears out the idea that actually no he’s not, because Bruce is always right, Dick never is in the right in arguments or conflicts.

The latter evidence just is not aligning with the former claims, and thus readers are innately forced to make a choice as to which to believe.....and more likely than not, they’re going to err on the side of substantiating whichever stance actually has more narrative support behind it, in any particular story.

See what I’m saying?

You need to make sure your story is ACTUALLY saying what you think you’re saying or you intended to say....or you end up undermining your own intentions.

Anyway. Just throwing that out there. 

[rabbits-of-habit]

I know TT is a touchy subject, but I'm still conflicted about how to feel. Specifically about creating content for it.

Because, like, I'm all for separating the art from the artist, but in this case I really don't know what to do. Can anyone shed some light on the situation? As in, why one would or wouldn't keep creating content for it? Thanks

(not a hate ask or anything, it's genuine)

TW:Tribetwelve (This post will in fact talk about A*am)

Hello anon! This is a really good question. I'm gonna use my red text here and at my name tag. But my main writing is gonna stay in white because of how long this will be.

To preface: It is totally and 100 percent okay that you aren't sure what to do with this. It took a lot of us a long while to figure out how we feel and if we wanted to make content for Tribetwelve or not anymore. I was in that grouping.

Some people choose to not have anything to do with Tribetwelve because of the horrible things A*am did. They say its too much and its valid of them to feel. The shit he did was horrid and I understand not being able to separate him from the art.

To explain the reason why those continue to make things related to Tribetwelve I could use myself as an example. I continue to write about it because it is a special interest of mine and I know it is for several others of us. Ren and I made a choice a few months ago to make content for Tribetwelve on here. We did that because we realized, "why are we letting this horrible fucking dude keep his characters?" So with my writing and Rens moodboards we chose to take these characters and write and make things for them in a way that would separate the art from the artist. I make a joke that I come on here everyday to post one thing about Tribetwelve that would piss A*am off. But most of that is true. I write these things and make this content because these characters do not belong to him anymore. They aren't his to make or change. He lost that right when he hurt several people. I also make this content so that others know that they aren't bad or wrong for liking this content or having it as comfort media. You can't help that and neither could I. I want people to come on this blog and feel safe with their comfort media's. It's all Ren and I ever wanted with this blog. So we decided to keep doing that and we will be for the months and years to come.

I hope this didn't go on to long. But I hope I explained it well. -Mod Dirk

#mod dirk answers #/ neg #/neg adam rosner #tw tribetwelve

[magioffire]

7. Do you project onto your muses at all, giving them similar issues or traits to your own? What is your opinion on people who do this?

mun day ask prompts ; accepting

UM THIS IS A 100 PERCENT VALID PRACTICE!!!!!!!!!

i *totally* project some of my qualities and traits onto my characters. and vali, being my main boi who has been around the longest, he gets the brunt of it haha. people who get to know me tell me sometimes "i can see the similarities between you and vali". now, thats not to say vali is a self insert in any way, he is also very different from me in a lot of ways and has traits that are the opposite of mine, or has values that i dont agree with, or may agree with but i find all the flaws in his world view because well ...hes my oc lol. he is most definately a comfort character of mine. ive projected a lot of trauma and my mental illness onto him, i've projected the traits of men and masculinity, as well as women and femininity, the traits i find most attractive from both sides, onto him.

at risk of sounding like a crazy person....

ive looked at my own experiences through the eyes of my characters to get insight into how they would deal with it, and this is honestly just a super autistic (shhh im autistic i can joke about this) way of expressing theory of mind xD i am what they call a 'maladaptive daydreamer', which is and i quote "Maladaptive daydreaming is when someone has consuming daydreams that interfere with their daily life. These daydreams are triggered by real-life events and memories" expect nowadays, i wouldn't call it maladaptive anymore, i would call it adaptive daydreaming, because its not consuming my life in a negative way, it's not interfering with my ability to tell reality and fantasy apart, and it actually enables coping mechanisms i wouldnt have without a very indepth inner world and imagination. it's just an extremely detailed, vivid world i've constructed for myself in my head, that i've managed to make into something productive and into something i can share with others.

i think projecting onto characters, and using the power of your imagination, is a very powerful tool for overcoming trauma, anxiety, depression, if it's applied as a tool to be used, not something to immediately escape into and hide in when life gets to hard. that's where the problem comes in and why maladaptive daydreaming is considered a symptom of mental illness, maybe even a mental illness in and of itself, because it can also very easily go the other way and become a very unhealthy coping mechanism sadly. i think if we didn't stifle people's creativity within general society, and stopped viewing imagination and inner fantasies and day dreaming as a childish activity that we all have to grow out of, is part of the reason why maladaptive daydreaming can become a problem, an escaptist route, instead of a genuine powerful expression of the ability of the human mind.

#ooc. #ask. #mun.txt #ilizasor

[recentanimenews]

ESSAY: How Does My Hero Academia Fit Into Global Superhero Culture?

  In 1989, Batman became the first film to make over $40 million in its opening weekend. In 2002, Spider-Man became the first film to make over $100 million in its opening weekend. In 2007, Spider-Man 3 hit over $150 million. In 2012, The Avengers nabbed over $200 million. And in 2019, Avengers: Endgame got over $350 million. Despite the fact that there have been concerns over “superhero movie fatigue” for literal decades now, it’s a genre that shows no signs of slowing down. As its universes expand on streaming services like Disney+, it’s apparent the age of the cinematic hero might be an indefinitely lengthy one. 

  As Marvel Comics luminary Stan Lee once said: “The pleasure of reading a story and wondering what will come next for the hero is a pleasure that has lasted for centuries and, I think, will always be with us.” In that quote, it seems our destiny is almost sealed — we crave heroes and we crave their stories and we crave their sequels. 

  This is the environment in which My Hero Academia was born.

    My Hero Academia is, first and foremost, a superhero story. One could argue that most narratives of its ilk are superhero tales — anime like Dragon Ball, Naruto, One Piece, and others are full of good guys shutting down malicious attempts at local or world domination — but My Hero Academia embraces the iconography, both thematic and physical, of the superhero in a way that many other stories don’t. In fact, it might be one of the purest explorations of that kind of universe ever in fiction. It’s a world where heroism is practically currency, where roughly 80 percent of the earth’s population is imbued with some kind of inherent genetic power. 

  Populating your superhero story with powerful people instead of going the typical cinematic route of having one or two supernatural characters with a supporting cast of everyday folk might have been subversive 20 years ago. But in the age of the Avengers, where multiple heroes cross in and out of each other's storylines and the narrative objective was to eventually wrangle them all in one mega-movie, My Hero Academia fits comfortably. That doesn’t render it as uninteresting, though. Instead, rather than build to the issues that will inevitably crop up in a world full of Supermen, these themes are inherent in the story.

    As such, most of the plotlines have to do with the idea of rampant heroism and the backlash that it would create. Plenty of superhero films address this (multiple Batman movies make the case that if there were no Batman there would be no Joker), but in My Hero Academia it is a constant struggle. Overhaul, wearing a variation of a 17th-century plague doctor mask, looks at these “Quirks” as if they’re a disease. Stain is against superheroes using their status for fame. Tomura Shigaraki wishes to destroy society as we know it, hating its values and its borderline divine treatment of figures like All-Might. These patterns are not just repeated in My Hero Academia, but inevitable. They are anime embodiments of that “superhero fatigue” article I shared above, except in this case they hurt and destroy in their attempts to find an alternative to the super status quo, rather than write essays in The New York Times.

  It’s certainly an enthralling formula, though: My Hero Academia continues to be a best seller and has won numerous awards. Its anime has been similarly well-received. Despite the fact that superhero films very rarely have the same box office prominence in Japan as they do in America, My Hero Academia has been able to make an impact. That might be because, at its core, My Hero Academia adapts the ethos found in a hero that many Japanese creators really do enjoy: Spider-Man.

    Kohei Horikoshi, My Hero Academia’s creator, loves Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films. Creator of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Hirohiko Araki gushed over his love of Spider-Man 2 to director Sam Raimi during an interview. Yusuke Murata, illustrator of One-Punch Man, has done some absolutely amazing work when it comes to posters for Peter Parker’s cinematic adventures. Hideo Kojima, a video game designer whose creations are absolutely inspired by anime, called Into The Spider-Verse a “great masterpiece” and was “moved” by Spider-Man 2. After it became the best-selling game to be developed in the West but funded by Sony since 1998, Japanese game developers voted Marvel’s Spider-Man as their 2018 game of the year. So why the embrace of this particular character? 

  Journalist Kuremasa Uno told the Japanese site Business+IT that it’s because Japanese youth are more accustomed to embracing younger heroes. Since so much of Spider-Man’s Hollywood journey deals with him experiencing problems as a teenager and young adult, he fits in among the protagonists of series like Gundam or Naruto. Hideo Kojima even told Famitsu that Spider-Man is “similar to Japanese heroes,” as he has “worries.” 

    The aspect of youth is particularly interesting, as it’s what often renders heroes like Spider-Man to be the most relatable of all of their peers and rivals. In the comic book world, age tends to warp characters, turning them into beacons of impossible standards rather than troubled everymen. We have little in common with the hulking, aging Batman snapping bones in Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. We are enthralled with the story on a narrative level. Even the legendary curmudgeon of the comic book industry, the supremely talented Alan Moore, found The Dark Knight Returns fascinating because it gave a hero a chance to end, rather than cycle through an eternal series of escapades. If you know Moore’s stance on heroes, that’s high praise, but it’s hard to connect with him no matter how cool he looks taking down the Mutant Leader.

  In youth we find common ground. We all grow up, and for the most part, we all experience that mix of angst, desperation, and uncertainty that comes with finding yourself on a bullet train to adulthood. In my interview with Matt Alt, author of Pure Invention: How Japan’s Pop Culture Conquered The World, the writer/historian affirmed these feelings as especially true in anime: “It doesn’t look at adolescence as a lesser form of adulthood and it doesn’t condescend to the young people experiencing problems.” That is true of My Hero Academia, which treats Midoriya’s teenage problems as valid and worth concern, and is also true to Stan Lee’s affinity for Spider-Man: “He’s the one who’s most like me — nothing ever turns out 100 percent OK; he’s got a lot of problems and he does things wrong, and I can relate to that.”

    So perhaps it is in collecting a cast of characters that, like Spider-Man, are all dealing with youthful problems that Horikoshi found the fantastic formula for My Hero Academia. It’s a world with teachers and Pro Heroes, but there is no real equivalent of a Justice League, no impenetrable class of demi-gods to impart moral lessons on not just younger heroes but the world at large.

  Instead, much like in real-life youth, the characters of My Hero Academia and the class of 1A must discover those lessons for themselves. With that, the reasons for the aforementioned creators’ adoration of films like the Spider-Man trilogy and Into the Spider-Verse seemingly become more clear. Though these films feature a ... ummm ... supportive supporting cast, the integrity must come from the hero alone in the end, no matter how tough their obstacles become. You are born with Quirks, but how you choose to implement them for the good of mankind is up to you. Great power, great responsibility, etc.

    My Hero Academia and Spider-Man are not a 1:1 comparison as, again, the basics of its world and the attributes of its cast fit it more firmly with late-term Avengers films where dozens of heroes interact in a spectacle created by the sheer existence of their number. My Hero Academia rarely feels as lonely as Spider-Man tends to be. But in capturing the relatable qualities of adolescence and focusing on the “quirks” of what is essentially high school life, it does manage to hit some of the same high notes, notes that I imagine contributed greatly to its popularity.

  Does that mean All-Might is an Uncle Ben character, with his “Now it’s your turn” point to Midoriya serving a similar purpose to the “Great responsibility” speech? Eh, a little bit. But in relating it to the superhero genre that currently forms an entertainment monolith around the world, especially when it has to do with the character of Spider-Man, we start to unlock some of the reasons why My Hero Academia has been such a powerhouse series over the past few years. You can see just as much of Midoriya in Peter Parker as you can in guys like Naruto or Asta — characters that aren’t relatable simply because they’re young, but because we connect to their experiences of youth, experiences that are somehow both deeply specific and also beautifully universal.

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!