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jade-len · 3 months

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i adore how mxtx sorta flipped the idea on the whole top/bottom thing with svsss, and just BL relationships in general.

making bingqiu very open to switching, not making the "bottom" super feminine and actually leaning more to the handsome side compared to the "top", how luo binghe is manipulative sensitive and cries easily, etc. one of the main themes in svsss is literally about sexuality (and possibly even about gender roles).

as a queer asian man myself, i absolutely despise the "yaoi archetype" and it was one of the reasons why i avoided consuming BL media. hell, years ago when i first saw heavens official blessing, i mentally groaned and went, "ugh, let me guess, the bottom is super feminine and innocent, while the top is masculine and experienced." of course, that's not the case now, but it's disappointing how that thought was there purely because of the god awful way fetish-y media portrays homosexual people and couples. because, believe it or not, we are not assigned male/female typical gender roles just because one likes to top/bottom (and even then, it's not even like that! some people have preferences, sure, but it's not so strictly "i'm top/bottom")

so, while i absolutely LOVE the english novel designs (especially luo binghe's cute curly hair, gongyi xiao, etc, and personally believe a lot of the takes from the western artist on the designs are an improvement), i am greatly saddened by people subconsciously assigning shen qingqiu as someone more delicate and feminine and luo binghe as someone super masculine and muscly. like, if you're going to have luo binghe depicted as the western design (i believe this stems from binghe being applied to more western ideals for men, and, admittedly, i actually really love his design), at least don't make shen qingqiu feminine and delicate? don't have his appearance play into the stupid yaoi thing?

i get that people have different takes on svsss, especially how the western version depicts it. but, people just... seem to very over exaggerate the top/bottom roles when it comes to bingqiu (again, these two are, canonically, VERY open to switching).

it's weird, it's uncomfortable, and it comes across as, "so, who wears the pants in the relationship?"

so, can we please have more canonically handsome shen qingqiu? canonically beautiful and pretty boy luo binghe (they literallly state that binghe looks EXACTLY like his mom, su xiyan! while a more handsome woman, is still very beautiful!! plus it is stated several times that binghe is slim, and that shang qinghua made him that way!) or at the very least, a BL couple who actually look like normal people (ok thats a little hard considering binghe is literally supposed to be perfect) and not just a stupid fetishized version of themselves.

and no, i'm not saying that queer men shouldn't be feminine or men who are feminine shouldn't be in a relationship with guys who are masculine, etc.

TLDR: please stop twinkifying shen qingqiu and going against what mxtx defied for us queer men (the stupid yaoi roles). and for the love of whoever you believe in, do NOT think that i hate the english design or people's personal interpretation of characters, i just hate the subconscious assigning of gender roles to bingqiu and how media portrays and fetishizes LGBTQ+ relationships in general.

edit: also i love teardrew's (check them out on twitter!) interpretation of shang qinghua. while i do really like the the eng novel design's tiny scared hamster vibes, teardrew's version just radiates "up to no good, paranoid but suspicious looking bitch" rat man and i love it so so so much. i'm not gonna repost their art bc i don't know how they feel about that but perhaps you can search up "svsss designs" on here, you'll see it pop up eventually lol.

edit 2 (1/16): i just saw someone reblog a post (that im pretty sure was referring to this one because, well, if you saw it i think it'd be a little clear kahxj) that was about how bingqiu switching and completely eschewing traditional top/bottom dynamics was a fandom idea or smth? so now i'm wondering, since i swear i remember that they were open to switching, but it's just that sqq preferred to bottom and/or was just a little too lazy to top. plus, sqq is a pretty unreliable narrator who says he doesn't want something one moment and then he does. how could he say no to bingbing? esp if he seems to wanna try bottoming too. perhaps i'm mixing things up though, idk? so if anyone can find that passage that says he only and strictly wants to bottom or whatever please show me! but i think the point of this post still stands haha (i wanted to ask about it, actually, but when i clicked on the og post's user it turned out that they blocked me ? so that was a little surprising oops. hey if ur somehow reading this, im... sorry for making you want to block me bc of this post? akdhxjj)

#JOIN THE 'STOP TWINKIFYING SQQ' GROUP #did i make sense? i have no clue i just wanted to rant about this #i really pulled a cucumber bro there huh #this also applies to GL #thinking about it more #there should be trans men and women bl and gl #and not in a fetishy way #of course luo binghe is still the big strong protag and taller than sqq but come on #i dont believe luo binghe is a twink exactly?? maybe?? but just feminine in a historical chinese male ideals way #for edit 2:#i was just saying how it made me happy that mxtx didn't follow the yaoi archetypes and how i lov her for it <3 #never said bingqiu was never done before and COMPLETELY flipped it over skdhjx #but i do believe that bingqiu did a good job providing variety and such :)#same goes for mxtx's other works as well i love her stuff sm #svsss #mxtx svsss #the scum villain's self saving system #luo binghe #shen qingqiu #luo bingge #shen yuan #luo bingmei #bingqiu #luo binghe x shen qingqiu #danmei

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daddy-long-legssss · 3 months

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The Story Behind The Song: Arctic Monkeys’ early ambitions on ‘A Certain Romance’

Lucy Harbron – Far Out Magazine | January 17, 2024

It was 2006. Mortgages were crashing, and businesses were going bust. Tony Blair was on his last legs in office as the longest-serving prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, and the hangover of ‘Cool Brittania’ was beginning to set in with an unexpected ferocity. Things were bleak when a young Alex Turner sang, “There ain’t no romance around there” through the public’s speakers. Arctic Monkeys were about to write themselves into musical history as the voice of a new generation.

The final song on their debut album, there has always been something special about ‘A Certain Romance’. In 2022, after the release of their seventh album, The Car, Turner seemed to find himself reflecting back on that 2006 track. To the musician, that early cut holds a clue to everything that was to come as he said the piece “showed that we did actually have these ambitions beyond what we once thought we were capable of”.

Coming in at over the five-minute mark, ‘A Certain Romance’ almost feels like the Arctic Monkeys’ version of a rock opera, summarising all the themes, feelings and energy that came before it on their seminal album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. It has the cheekiness of ‘Fake Tales Of San Francisco’ and the catchy instrumentals of hits like ‘Dancing Shoes’ or ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor’. Utilising the northern charm of ‘Mardy Bum’, it stands as a final, neatly summarising point on the social commentary found in their early tracks like ‘From The Ritz To The Rubble’ or ‘Riot Van’. Really, it could be argued that ‘A Certain Romance’ is the ultimate example of Arctic Monkeys’ original sound, perfectly encapsulating all the things that made the world listen up and pay attention.

It’s like they seemed to know that, too, always allowing the song a special place. In fact, it was really the band’s opening remark. Years before the offer of a debut album came around, the group were a well-oiled machine with their own local hits. They had the northern live music scene in their hands as their homemade demo CD was passed around like everyone’s worst-kept secret. Beneath the Boardwalk features eight out of the 13 songs that would be on Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, albeit in a slightly different, lower-quality version. But the opening number, ‘A Certain Romance’, sounds just the same.

It’s all there, from the rolling opening drums to that final guitar solo. Recorded and produced in a rented studio at only age 17, the existence of ‘A Certain Romance’, one of the band’s most explorative and energetic numbers, in this form this early in their career feels like a diamond sitting in a mine. It proves that they were always onto something special.

They never needed any help. In fact, their producer, Jim Abbiss, noted that they even seemed nervous about the help. “I think they were probably a bit weary, like ‘who’s this guy? And is he gonna make our sound this or that.’”

They didn’t want anything to change too much, as the group already had the songs figured out. Turner certainly did, as the track’s meandering narrative about hometown lads, fights, and local boredom is already there. Talking on a podcast, original member Andy Nicholson revealed the story behind the song. “We had a practice room with a pool table in, and we had a party in there, and we invited another band who were friends of ours, and we all had some drinks,” he said. “Then something happened, someone throws a pool cue, someone throws a pool ball, and everyone ends up fighting,” he added, explaining the lyrics, “there’s boys in bands / And kids who like to scrap with pool cues in their hands.”

But the magic of Arctic Monkeys lies in their nuance. What begins as a snooty analysis of his local landscape is a genuinely affectionate take. “Well, over there, there’s friends of mine / What can I say? I’ve known ’em for a long long time / And, yeah, they might overstep the line / But you just cannot get angry in the same way,” Turner sings, looking around at his bandmates and lifelong friends. ‘A Certain Romance’ is not only a time capsule for the group’s beginnings but is an ode to all the people who were there with them. It’s an ode to the hometown that made them and all its various characters.

But as the last guitar solo roars to life, there is an unspoken statement that they’re going to be bigger than what they came from. “I remember when we were recording ‘A Certain Romance’ and having a conversation with the producer about the final guitar solo,” Turner told NME, recalling the moment these songs were reworked for their debut. But they wouldn’t let anyone mess with ‘A Certain Romance’, knowing exactly what they were doing and trying to say with that one. In the 2003 demo version, all the feeling is already there, and Turner wouldn’t risk it.

“There’s something that happens at the end of that track where we break some rules in a single moment,” he continued. What happens at the end of the piece feels even more special, considering how the album was recorded. “These are the songs we wanna do, and I think this is the order we wanna do them in,” Alex Turner told their producer, recounting the conversation in 2007 to RadioX, “And he goes, ‘alright, we’ll try to record them in that order as well.’” As the final song, that last guitar solo is the last thing recorded for the album, standing as a cathartic outlet and a chance for the band to prove themselves.

“We focused on the [emotional] effect of the instrumentals over the words,” Turner reflected on the track, concluding, “and I feel like we’ve been trying to do that again and again since then.”

#I could talk about 'A Certain Romance' until I'm blue in the face or a sobbing mess #lucy did a good job on this one #she perfectly encapsulated how this song makes me feel #the moment I heard it I knew that this band was something incredibly special #it is so near and dear to my heart I will never stop singing it's praise #the fact they made this song that is so compelling and takes you an emotional journey from the beginning to end over 20 years ago????#and how protective they were of it when making the first album cause they knew it was something special #and Alex drawing similarities between 'ACR' and 'The Car' & letting the instrumental moments of the song convey more emotion than the lyri #like he always said they continue to follow the same instincts from the very beginning nearly 20 years later #i just want to write an ode to ACR so i can ramble on about it #but im gonna shut up for now #anyways please enjoy this article LOL #arctic monkeys #wpsiatwin #whatever people say i am that's what im not #a certain romance #alex turner #jamie cook #matt helders #nick o'malley #andy nicholson #far out magazine

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beeholyshit · 19 days

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"She's a Killer Queen Gunpowder, gelatine Dynamite with a laser beam"

BEAUTIFUL ART MADE BY @jils-things THANK YOU GIRL 🩷

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abstractlesbian · 3 months

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Find someone slightly annoying but in really small harmless ways so I decide none of the behaviours are worth bringing up with them → realizing: hey, Im also annoying! solidarity! → realizing we have a lot in common and starting to bond → finding out other people find this person annoying and are vocal about it behind their back → finding out this person has ADHD like me that's (at least one reason) why we have all these traits in common → fear.

#trying to be as vague as possible even tho this is someone I know offline and no one involved follows me online #on one level I get it that relying someone who is forgetful and does things slower/differently than you can be frustrating #but like its a medical condition. and u dont need to know someones medical info to have some empathy instead of assuming malice/incompetence #i just found out they have adhd today but day one i was able to go 'wow i did not like the way they handled that but i dont think they were #being hurtful/careless we just handle this task differently. rhey didnt do anything wrong and i can let this go and adjust my expectations'#not to say im perfect and never ableist towards others. my first reaction to seeing traits i dislike in myself (from my disabilities)#in others is often to get annoyed and needing to adjust my thinking #i get annoyed with myself when I cant focus / cant be coherent or concise / cant finish tasks quickly etc #→ get annoyed sometimes when I see others doing that → realize thats not fair to them → realize thats not fair to myself #→ assume good intentions and find ways to communicate/collaborate better with them → get along better and maybe make a new friend!#sorry i am rambling #idk its scary seeing someone being disliked for adhd symptoms/traits that im mostly doing a good job of managing/hiding in this #social environment so far and knowing that could happen to me in the future #but im also like ready to have this persons back #me 🤝 them: prioritizing the wrong tasks and overexplaining things and struglging to get our points across #and not noticing when we talk too loud and forgetting tasks halfway thru etc #not to be that guy but : without love it canmot be seen!!!!#lifes so much better if u just assume ppl arent doing things a certain way to be annoying + let go of / adapt to the thing that are annoying #but not harmful #thats not exactly what without love it cant be seen means but thats one of the ways i apply it in life #just like dont assume malice. assume u dont have all the info. approach ppl/situations with empathy.#or youll make yourself more miserable needlessly #again like only for shit that's not harmful obv #i need to shut up and go to bed

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everytingbagl · 2 months

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yes im mentally ill yes i have an IS obsession. and what about it!!

#everyone say good job beiguo 🔫#braving nature 10 baybee‼️‼️#arknights #bagel babble #long tips/opinions in the tags:#reed alter is my number one starter pick bc she heals and does good damage!! if u need a friend support for her feel free to dm #i bring the medic/sniper squad for her bc theres a chance she’ll b auto promoted altho this run i didnt get lucky w that #but also good heals are very important in is4 #much more than in is3 i think #elemental not so important but just pure healing #i think at least one good fast redeploy is necessary esp for clearing tiles on the boss stage #texalter stun also saved my ass frequently in challenge stages #eyja is almost a must imo #aoe is superr important and it helps to have her early on but u can survive without her for a bit if u have reed e2 #lava is a good budget pick for the early game #i have beaten the normal ending w caster/specialist squad but it was only braving nature 1 so idk if it holds up for higher difficulties #but im sure its viable #i did also beat braving nature 3 with no casters so #blockers r also important btw bc they have a few stages with a shit ton of civvies that need identification #also orchids slow saved my ass. ok thats all i got i think #good luck gamers hope this helps #i think getting here took me like 3-4 days. i really do have obsession

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unloneliest · 5 months

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the problem of the matter is i did internalize so much of what ex friend believed about me. even though i knew he was wrong and knew what was happening and tried to stop it and if i took more action to stop it would have been abusing power i held in a way i couldn't live with myself for.

#A BAD PERSON TRYING TO RUIN YOUR LIFE WOULD'VE GOTTEN YOU FIRED AND EVICTED IN WINTER IN ALASKA YOU MOTHERFUCKER. WHICH I DID NOT DO #he was renting a room from my dad. for cheaper than he wouldve been able to find anywhere else. his brother was too #his brother didn't pay rent for over 6 months and my dad just forgave him the debt because my dad knew how much of a difference it wouldve #made when he was that age. and i had told him ex friend was family to me & my dad applied that to the brother too. bc he is a good person.#and one of the strongest parts of my support system. and i didn't say a word to him about what was happening until i knew he already had a #plan for when he would be ending ex friend's lease. so there would be no subconscious impact on ex friend's housing either #mgmt at work straight up asked me if i thought ex friend should be fired immediately multiple times and i'm in retrospect livid they put me #in that position but told them to go by the strike system in the employee handbook and to follow policy that ex friend knew perfectly. that #it couldn't be on me as acting assistant manager to choose #and after 10 months of workplace harassment i got a different job to save my life. ex friend didn't get fired.#he did saw trap shit to my brain!!!!!! jesus christ #he moved cross country to live with his long time gf he called his wife despite never having met irl. to a way more conservative state.#despite being gay. and she left him this summer lol #hadn't checked his twitter in over a year when it got pulled up frm an old link and i saw that. and when he was already at a low point too #me voice. oh no who could've seen this coming. from how you behave in every relationship in your life #may delete this in the morning. but i have to talk about it sometimes #i'm never reaching out for closure both bc he wouldn't give me any and because i know it would trigger him and i don't intentionally trigge #people. unlike him :)#vampire pit #like. i have to talk about it sometimes. i have to talk about it.#jam posts

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zevrans · 6 months

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#haven't had energy to log into here because my work has been kicking my ass i'm spending half of my day off laying in bed #i fell asleep yesterday after my 2nd shift in my clothes with no blanket and woke up freezing at 7 am 🤧#i layed on the bed for 5 mins just to regain strenght to do a few things before bed yedterday and got knocked out by the exhaustion 😭#these 2 shifts were particularly hard and i think it had also to do with my coworker suggesting the dumbest thing imo #the dude wanted me to give my WHOLE november shifts to him like...WTF #he said he needed a sum of money for december and like helloo..#what do you think i am doing here?? don't i need money??#i'd understand if he'd ask for a shift or two but whole fucking month the sheer audacity..#i've struggled so much mentally to ge to this point and to be able to get this job even if it's not in my professional field #and it's physically demanding very much and so many other cons #but i've got it and i was happy i got it and to think some stranger thinks #he's more entitled to it than someone else like ??? it's just bizzare to me #he seemed such a chill person before he asked this #and i've spent last 2 work days feeling guilty for protecting my boundaries...#but everybody around me says i did the right thing so i am trying to not stress about it anymore #and i was afraid this would ruin the good work relationship i thought we established but idk anymore #i will be very cautious about him now #tbd

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showyoumyfavoriteobsession · 7 months

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Me at 10:30pm, delusional: I can definitely do the Cazador fight and then go to sleep at a normal time

#j rambles #I Feel So Normal About These Characters #i gotta say it's still a hard fight but the blood of lathandar makes it. significantly easier lol #i don't have anything insightful to say other than just. god i love astarion's story. they did such a good job #plus the graveyard scene was super sweet #(i knew about the 'absolute freak' line but i never knew what conversation it triggered in so that made me actually laugh out loud)#only dampened a little by the amount of animation bugs I've been seeing since the last patch #interactions with the taller player character have felt a little janky recently #i also got my halsin scenes earlier today and whenever my character kisses him in the camp they both try to lean down which looks very sill #(now i get why halsin is written Like That in fanfic. holy hell)#anyway. i made a save before the fight so i may go back after this run to see what the ascension is like #i don't think it'll be as satisfying but i am curious #OKAY i have to go to sleep it's nearly 2 #in which j liveblogs #baldur's gate 3

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honeysunchild · 6 days

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It really hurts when it feels like a friend you considered family gives up on you and the relationship

Like, we could have talked about it, we could have found a solution together, we were each others family remember?! But instead you chose to just give up and cut me out

#and in like #about five messages too!#that were pretty accusatory #like apologizing peofusely bc youre afraid that karma wikl fuck u up for hurting le #doesnt really make up for accusing me of what you did #there are so many more compassionate ways you could have said that!#I'm so so sorry but you suck and i can't take it anymore goodbye #WTF #is this the goodbye seven years of friendship is worth??#we went through thick and thin #and yeah i have not been too well lately and i was pretty depressed two years ago #you asked me to share my problems with you and when i do i am too much and you drop me like hot metal instead of talking about it?#and that goodbye was so rushed it felt like i was chasing her just to get a little closure #you said you would always be there #even with our lives being so different I still believed it was possible #and you kept ignoring me!#i shared good stuff too and you didn't even respond! you said you were too busy and didn't make time for me #so when I stop sharing that good things happen to me too bc I'm frustrated with being ignored all the time you say I'm toxic for only #and drop me? instead of having a talk about it or taking a break?#like #i thought we were each others family but it seems like I was the more loyal one who cared the most and got burned yet again #is it so hard to talk and try to adjust?#i thought we were the real ones for each other yanno but clearly thing were different for you with all your toxic ass family and all your #jobs and friends #she's always had more than me #doesn't mean I'm alone tho #i have friend who can talk to me and try to adjust and fix the relationship and is a true loyal friend #it's not the end of my world that you're gone #even if you were a big part of it #how can I loose when I was so loyal and true and honest

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grimark · 1 year

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not that anybody asked but i do think terms like "cis+" or "cisn't", which i've seen thrown around in relation to the prev post, are a bit unnecessary. to me, it just seems like excessively atomising a fairly common experience, which is the desire to not be subject to the more uncomfortable and restrictive aspects of socially constructed gender roles. and sure, it might never even occur to a lot of cis people to do this kind of introspective analysis of their gender identities, and they might therefore be lacking some of the additional perspective of someone who has, but i don't think we necessarily need need a special new category for it. when you get down to it, "cis person who has previously questioned their gender" and "cis person who has never felt the need to question their gender" are both still cis, which in theory is a value-neutral description and a perfectly fine thing to be.

#this isn't meant as a criticism of people who like those terms or find them valuable or validating #it's more just. i don't get it and i don't really see the point of them but that's fine because they're not aimed at me anyway.#if you're cis but you want to add a modifier to encapsulate your gender journey then you do you.#to me just seems a bit patronising to tell cis people they're actually cis+ or whatever #like. aww you did such a good job thinking about your gender! here is a star sticker for you that says 'more evolved than other cis people'#instead maybe we can just trust that 1. people are the experts on their own identities and experiences #if someone says they're happy to continue identifying as the gender they were assigned at birth we can probably take their word for it!#and 2. accept that we all probably have a lot more in common than we might assume #it seems like a mistake to think 'this experience (gender discomfort and introspection) is exclusively a trait of x category of person'#'so if someone from y category has experienced it they must not actually be y‚ they must be something else instead'#which allows you to comfortably continue to paint people from y group as a wholly separate other with fundamentally alien experiences #and no possible point of overlap or common ground.#i see this a lot with the eternal thorn in my side which is posts about how The Neurotypicals Do This Thing #and also with a certain flavour of ace discourse #which presumes that 1. anyone who doesn't choose to identify under the asexual identity umbrella must necessarily be allosexual #2. there is a single unifying allosexual experience which can be equally applied to the rest of the human population #and 3. no allosexual person could possibly have a complicated or fraught relationship with sex and sexuality.#or if they did have any experiences in common with asexual people they'd naturally choose to identify as ace instead.#therefore these two identities must be wholly separate groups with no experiential overlap.#like idkkkkk clearly these hyperspecific labels are useful to some people!#but to me they often just seem to generate feelings of division and othering #or they're used as a way to claim a particular experience as exceptional to one group #when it's actually a pretty common feature of the human condition.

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marypsue · 1 year

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Ahh also as an addendum to my previous ask about the age swap (which I might’ve accidentally labeled as the body swap fic due to the foibles of being awake unexpectedly early ), I was curious what your criticisms are regarding Robin and Will’s treatments by the Duffers? I know you’ve alluded to being bothered by both but I’d be curious to hear more ( if you have the time/hankering!)

Hooboy. Okay. Buckle in.

Obviously this is going to be a combination of actual literary analysis and Big Feelings That I Have, so like, please don’t take this as any kind of moral dictum on what to or not to watch, or how to or how not to interpret what you watch. Also, a lot of what makes me uneasy and unhappy about how canon deliberately handles queerness (as opposed to when it does queer things apparently by accident, which as you may have noticed, I have considerable amounts of fun with) has to do with behind-the-scenes context I’ve read about, so there’s a certain degree of Telephone involved. And I’m still only halfway through season four. There’s just so fucking much of it.

With all that said.

The behind-the-scenes context I’m most specifically concerned with are the season-one pitch bible(? I think that’s what it’s called) (which, it should be noted, ended up diverging in some quite significant ways from what ended up in the show) where the Duffers first raised the possibility that Will might be gay, and the anecdote that Joe Keery and Maya Hawke were the ones who decided Robin should be queer and had to really push for it and wrote and choreographed that scene in the bathroom. Put the two together, and it tells you that the Duffers planned that there would be One (potentially) Gay Character in their show.

And that character was the one they spent an entire season directing violent, vicious, eventually outright murderous homophobic hatred at through the mouthpiece of a couple of bullies. You can say what you want about revenge narratives and those characters ultimately getting their comeuppance, but for Me Personally, it sucks all the fun and escapism out of season one to watch it thinking that those bullies only got punished when they aimed that vitriol at someone to whom it didn’t literally apply. Also I still have to sit through however many episodes of that vicious homophobia onscreen regardless, so, like, that’s a walk in the park anyway. /sarcasm

And then there’s that whole bad business in season three, where it’s never been quite clear to me if we’re supposed to see Mike as having been in any way in the wrong. Kind of scuppers the argument, to me, that we’re supposed to be on Will’s side. And season four, which so far has had Will tagging along after people who are supposed to be his best friends but mostly don’t seem to give a single damn about him, doing absolutely nothing but looking morose and sullen and tragic and *coughcough* Artistic, and causing Problems for the nice straight couple.

(Tangential to the point I’m coming to, but also, my son deserves better than to be reduced to a soggy cardboard standee with ‘GAY’ scrawled across it in magic marker the way season four seems to be angling toward. All the Byers, but especially the Byers boys, deserve better than season four seems interested in giving them. But I digress.)

Also. I love Robin. If you follow me, you probably know that. I’m a hardcore, ride-or-die Robin girl. But. With Robin, from what I’ve heard of the context, the Duffers never intended for her to be queer. They wrote a girl who was smart and funny and sharp and talented and a little bit mean and a little bit insecure and a little bit weird but in an interesting, endearing way - as a love interest for Steve.

And then, as soon as season four rolled around, once they’d been pushed into making her canonically, on-screen queer (in a beautiful, tender, heartfelt, true-feeling scene that they didn’t fucking write), suddenly she’s had a complete personality transplant. Suddenly, she’s an awkward, bumbling, annoying loser who’s only funny when she’s the butt of the joke, who’s no good at anything and who nobody really likes except maybe for Steve, an outcast even amongst the freaks. When she does do something smart or competent, everyone around her reacts with shock, like it’s wildly out of character instead of how her character was originally written. One of these versions of Robin was written with ‘gay person’ in mind, and it unfortunately wasn’t the one we were obviously supposed to like.

In both cases, I get the feeling that the storytelling issues stem from this like...assumption that queerness equals isolation and misery and tragedy, and that there’s nothing to queerness outside of that. That there’s something inherent to queerness, something pitiable but repulsive, that causes the isolation and misery and tragedy (not that those things are imposed from outside, by, say, violent homophobia). That it would be absurd to imagine that queerness could ever be joyful, or playful, or that someone might ever, given the chance to choose, not choose to be straight instead. Or that there could be enormous friendship and community and heart and pride in queerness, or even that queer people might find friendship and community and strength in each other. Or even fucking talk to each other, ever.

Which is especially infuriating, because the whole central theme of season one (besides surface appearances being deceiving) is that community and care between people who are very different but discover they have more in common than there is that separates them is what saves the day! That love comes in all kinds of forms, and they’re all important, and that love can be stronger than fear!

But apparently, according to the Duffers, queer love doesn’t count and queer community doesn’t exist. It’s just isolation, misery, and tragedy, and I guess we the watchers are supposed to sit outside of it and pity Them for it (and be quietly, sneakily, a little bit nastily grateful that it’s not happening to Us). Because of course nobody watching the show is queer. Of course. This show is made for normal people.

It’s part of the same attitude I’ve also seen play out with the Duffers’ inability to just let a white dude be bad. Oh, they want to talk a big game about how they’re on the side of the freaks, and bullies are bad, and everybody should be respected and appreciated for who they are. But when it cuts down to the bone, when applying that precept to a girl or a person of colour or a queer person makes a straight white guy come off as a monster, they keep trying to dodge it.

The more antagonists they try desperately to rehab without ever acknowledging why they were antagonists in the first place, the more it starts to look like they simply don’t really believe that the people those antagonists hurt really matter. That, somewhere deep down where the assumptions that are so baked in you don’t even realise they’re assumptions live, they don’t really believe that girls, or Black kids, or queer people are as fundamentally human and deserving of respect and compassion as their beloved awful straight white men are. That what they really think about bullies is that bullies are bad because the bullies picked on them, instead of the kinds of people who deserved it.

(See also: that time a twelve- or thirteen-year-old Sadie Sink didn’t want to have to do a kiss in the Snow Ball scene, so the Duffers, who had just been joking about having her do it, actually made her do it. For multiple takes. Specifically because she didn’t want to. And then later related that anecdote to the press. Because they thought it was funny.)

Anyway. Personally, I’d prefer canon just never say anything definitive on the matter of Will’s sexuality and stop trying to push the narrative in that direction, so I don’t have to watch the Duffers spectacularly fumble yet another attempt at Writing About Marginalised Groups.

(Also, this is absolutely not me saying Watch A Different Show - I’m here writing fanfic for this stupid show, it’d be pretty fucking rich of me to try to tell people to stop watching it. But I’d really love for many of its fans to get some more exposure to less-mainstream, more deliberately queer literature and film, so y’all can see what it really feels like to be seen and acknowledged and loved by a story, on purpose. I get it! I do! I too have wanted very badly to feel like something I loved, loved me back.

But you don’t have to content yourselves with scraps. And you definitely don’t have to be so concerned with those scraps that you blame your friends, cousins, siblings, brothers in arms for ‘stealing’ some kind of ‘representation’ from you by asking to be seen and acknowledged and loved as well. The bastards who’ve been withholding that recognition from all of us would love nothing more than to watch with amusement, gorging themselves on a banquet, while we tear each other apart over a couple of discarded bones. Don’t give them the satisfaction. We don’t have to be isolated, pitiable, pathetic, miserable tragedies. Put the hollow promises of exclusionism and respectability down. There is queer art and literature and film and community and joy and love in abundance that you don’t have to beg anyone for, and you are invited to participate. This is me inviting you to participate.

And cordially inviting the Duffers to meet me in the woods behind the 7-Eleven.)

...

tl;dr the way the Duffers treat queerness when they do it on purpose feels like a combination of othering, contempt, and misery porn, and I hate it. And that, in a nutshell, is the rant I’ve been sitting on for the last two-and-a-bit years. I’m getting down off the cafeteria table now.

#chatter #stranger things #i have been first uneasy and then very fucking angry about all of this for Quite A While Now #but robin's personality transplant broke open the fucking dam #it's worse because they did such! a good job! with seasons one and two!#obviously Not Perfect but also painfully obviously Better Than This #and then I guess they'd made enough money for netflix that they stopped having creative reins and restrictions placed on them #and it all went to shit #just total anne rice/stephen king editor syndrome #anyway I won't be following anything they do after this bc i'm pretty sure I like the show in spite of its creators instead of because of th #*them #they also aren't applying season one's theme of appearances being deceiving when it comes to queer people!#they keep saying every shitty shallow queer stereotype is true!#(the tragic gay martyr #slash the obsessive possessive friend-borderline-stalker)#(the unfuckable lesbian)#(the predatory gay villain - I didn't talk about closeting and s2 Billy Hargrove bc hoo boy that's a can of worms #but I do think they took that angle with him on purpose #especially since his 'redemption arc' goes hand in hand with suddenly switching his focus from steve to karen #and he stands to gain nothing by manipulating karen in s3 so it's pretty obviously a cheap dodge #so the duffers can go 'what? no he wasn't sneeringly derogatory toward teenage girls bc he was so deep in the closet he could see narnia'#'nooooooooo he just...only likes ~mature women~'#which. yes boys jennifer coolidge was hot in american pie but please grow up.)#anyway yes that loss of sight of that central theme is exactly how we got the russians in season three #and we all know how much that fucking sucked #i do hope having the word 'fuck' in the tags still hides a post from search

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13eyond13 · 1 year

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#as somebody who is unfortunately probably older than a lot of other people here by now #lemme just do my thing and dispense wisdom nobody asked for once more #guess what adults also still crave that parenting they never got when they were younger too #or perhaps that overindulgent parenting that they got spoiled by and addicted to #emotionally my 88 year old grandma is still a child on the inside looking for her dad to tell her she did a good job #and if you don't take steps to be aware of it #and to cultivate self-worth and solace in something other than receiving that one specific thing #and learn to be present with the people around you and how to focus on what you can give to others as much as what you can receive #that craving never really goes away #you can spend your entire life with tunnel vision chasing it #the older people in your life probably still feel that craving just as strongly as you do #they just had to eventually come to terms with it somehow carry on and start trying to take care of the younger people as best they can #definitely hilarious when you realize you're like the parent figure to people when you're like omg no i still didn't get to be the baby yet #and often times you also will become the parent figure to people much older than yourself as well #including (perhaps) eventually your own parents #anyways i would say that explains a lot about the dumbness of adults of all ages #it definitely sucks but #i think the nice thing to do is to try to give the younger people more of the understanding and support that will hopefully help them #be well-adjusted and prepare #for their own fun times in their 20s and beyond #if you can #seeing it more as building community rather than engaging in competition is the goal for me these days #p

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bibelots · 9 months

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Hello I hope all are well !

I wouldn't say I'm taking leave from this, most likely just inactivity, as I have a veeeery busy coming month and year (starting a job at the same time as finishing my MA dissertation due at the start of September) !

I'm always around for catchups, and if anyone wants to find me elsewhere (ig, twt, I'm more active there - but they're more personal accts) - just lmk!

I know I appear in bursts on here but I truly do appreciate you all v much x

#piffle #personal #gonna be a chaotic few weeks for sure I have a lot of words to be writing #but i am overall doing well!#broke my right arm a month ago (after breaking my left last year) which is ! fun !#but it's all good #and i'm really excited to start my job!#which is just for a year but is everything i love to do #i'd say i'm doing miles better than me a year ago was despite stress - did cbt for a few months earlier this yr and feel miles better for it #and i'm really enjoying my diss!!! on mr forster of course #just feeling... settled i think and excited about thingd #feeling like i can have crushes again and have people who make me feel giddy and giggly and kicking my feet #woo!

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dimiclaudeblaigan · 9 months

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(Part 1) (Part 2)

Part 3 of the insanely long posts where I discuss the messy writing for Edelgard, why it failed her as a character, and how they had every opportunity to write her well but didn't.

This part continues my comparisons from the previous post. The post was already extremely long and I felt that it would be difficult to read it in one sitting if it wasn't broken up (it might even still be lol).

Like before, the Tellius games are used as examples that discuss what went wrong with Houses and how smoothly the story handled itself, versus Houses' push and pull story, particularly regarding Edelgard (as compared to Ashnard and occasionally Micaiah). That is to say, Tellius knew what it wanted to do and succeeded at doing it. Houses on the other hand wanted something and kept holding back.

It's notable how most characters refer negatively to those who joined the Empire, or there's indication that they were forced to do so.

"Deluding" being a very fucking good word used here, and by Ignatz of all people which says a lot on its own, let alone that he's saying it to his best friend. Basically, the general response to fighting characters from the Empire or who joined the Empire willingly is "you made your bed and now you have to lay in it", whether that's killing your friends or regretting your choice, etc.

"If I wish to live" is a very heavy thing to have to say. Lorenz is basically in no better a position than being a hostage at this point.

This is when attacking him with anyone but Byleth, so it's more difficult to say if he's talking to them or referring to himself (i.e. why would you attack the Empire at a time like this because doing so is reckless). Based on the above quote though, it's fair to assume he's referring to himself, indicating he wants to oppose them and plans to, but at the moment he can't.

Similarly, we have this from PoR:

Forced into service for Ilyana.

Implication by Oscar that Daein is a questionable choice. Shinon explains that he can rise to the top with good skill (which he has) and so chose Daein. This reflects Ashnard and Edelgard's "rise to the top" mentality.

Something else worth noting a bit off this particular topic is that Ashnard and Edelgard both refer to their rule as their vision for "the world". However, as far as the residents of Tellius are aware, Tellius is the world because the rest of the world save for their continent was drowned in a flood a long time ago. Edelgard refers to Fodlan, the continent, as "the world" multiple times in both games. Very notably, all main characters on all other routes refer to Fodlan as, well, Fodlan. When they speak of their ideals for its future, they still refer to it as "Fodlan", thus expressing their desire for the future of their continent, but not implying anywhere outside of Fodlan is beneath them (which would be true to Edelgard's character, as she believes all non-Adrestia lands are beneath her, which is literally one of the first things she ever says in Houses depending on your response selection).

Other than that, here we go with more similarities:

This is very reflective of what characters feel toward Edelgard. What Bryce says is also a reflection of CF's ending cards (those of you reading this who are here for this content and not hate reading know what I mean I'm sure, so I won't put in a full list of examples, but for some: censorship, assassinations, watching the citizens, Caspar's JP CF ending (implied to be no better than Miklan's old group), etc.

For the next one, Ashnard's line is basically the concept Houses gives off as a whole and is also even referring to a few times, that history will decide if someone's actions action were just or evil. It depends on the victors, and that's what Ashnard is saying here.

There's also the fact that he's being told, by a former Four Rider no less, that his path is "so incredibly stupid" (in the most polite, knightly way possible even LMAO. Points for Tauroneo for that one). Considering Ashnard and Edelgard have identical goals and motivations across the board (aside from genocide, as Ashnard doesn't care about genociding any race (i.e. Nabateans for Edelgard) and has no desire to) and this is dialogue given directly to Ashnard, who literally does not respond to the actual comments and pivots to something else (which is exactly what Edelgard does throughout all routes in Houses, be it her own or the others), imo it says a whole lot about Edelgard as well and the intentions the writers had for her as a character.

So effectively, Jill's words here are dismissed by her enemy. I don't recall that Edelgard does this quite so directly to people, but she does use words that dodge the comments aimed at her. She makes it a point to let her enemies know that she does not care.

Granted, at least Ashnard is funny about it! Come back some other time I'm busy is a lot funnier than no u.

Adding this in from RD since it holds relevance to the Edelgard portions of this:

This is if you don't recruit Jill and trigger this battle dialogue.

This is an example of desperately trying to defend the actions of someone you care about but can't actually defend. In this case, obviously Micaiah more or less had her hands tied because of the Blood Pact (an actual reason for the fighting that she was against and literally had no choice regarding, i.e. she wasn't "forced to do it because of the status quo" or any other nonsense used to prevent Edelgard from sounding like the villain the devs literally said she is).

Back to Tanith, boy, I wish she could've been in Houses with this line. For the people, Edelgard says? Look around you, naive classmates of hers who followed her because (insert shallow reason here that even Hopes gave more depth toward). Is all this death for the people? Well, according to Edelgard it sure is. It's deaths for the people! She sees a bright, happy future (for herself!) in all this death!

No, I'm not joking. Well, I'm making fun of it. I'm making fun of the fact that the devs actually thought to have this in the game (Houses) and still tried to pivot around her being a full on villain. Edelgard repeats many times that she will kill and sacrifice for her goals (not for the people, but for her own selfish goals like Ashnard. She uses "for the people" as her cover story, but we all know if we're not here to hate read what those CF ending cards really told us).

Point being, "for the people" is the cover up story, and Tanith is saying "this isn't for the people". Fact is, she's right. It's not for the people. In Micaiah's case as per this game, it's because they're being forced by Begnion (the Begnion Empire, mind you, which in both Tellius games has its own extreme problems among its nobility just like Adrestia) via Blood Pact to continue this fight. Tanith isn't stupid. She knows this mess isn't for the people. That's how Micaiah has to phrase it to get people to fight for her and not turn on her, because if they do decide not to fight, that means they aren't capitulating to the Empire's demands and thus the Senate will initiate the Pact. She convinces her allies it's for the people, who they themselves don't even necessarily truly believe it but force themselves to for a friend's sake.

For Edelgard, it's a cover up story, but of course it's not because of a Blood Pact. In her case, it's back to Ashnard. Her story/character/motivations/etc are a mix of Ashnard in Micaiah's part 3 situation. She's basically Ashnard but with people defending her with lines similar to what they say about Micaiah/why she's doing what she's doing. This doesn't mean Edelgard and Micaiah are the same, no - it means that's just what the characters say about Edelgard in her defense.

Also, if there's an Empire in an FE game, it's the villainous territory, plain and simple. As a few examples because I'm not going through every game:

Begnion is a major antagonizing territory in RD, and in PoR there are many things going on behind Sanaki's back because a good chunk of the nobility is corrupt. Even their army is corrupt in RD. Let's not also forget that the mastermind antagonist of the entire Tellius series' plot is the fucking Prime Minister of the Begnion Empire. He's no Duke Aegir (who is, mind you, also a villainous Prime Minister), but the way he manipulated Ashnard the way Thales manipulated Edelgard is eerily similar. Difference being, he actually cared about Sanaki and they had a very positive relationship which was genuinely real and true, but he did admit to lying to her and whatnot. He staged everything, much like how Thales staged everything to cause a continental war (the entire premise of what Ashnard is trying to do). The Begnion Empire is basically run by corrupt nobles and a guy masterminding a continental war, with Sanaki as the figurehead. It's a combination of Adrestia's corrupt nobles and Thales' manipulation, with Edelgard being the manipulated into action Ashnard who always had these ambitions but just needed the spark to begin his war.

In FE4's second half and in FE5, they are fighting, surprise, an Empire that is run by, surprise, a literal cult of shadowy, underground people waiting to take revenge on the bloodlined people. This is the inspiration they took from FE4 during Houses obviously, but that alone should tell you the Empire is meant to be the villainous territory in Houses. Jugdral had been ravaged by the Lopt Sect and the people were, and knew they were, suffering. All this to revive their god, just as the Agarthans were trying to revive their hero Nemesis. Mind you, Loptous is the villain that the bad people are trying to revive, so... that should probably tell you Nemesis ain't that great of a dude. If he's a hero the villains, anyone considering him a hero is also a villain. Edelgard just also believes anything the Agarthans feed her for some reason and parrot all their beliefs and desires despite being a victim of them. Stupid writing choice for her imo, but that's what was decided. Not to say Edelgard is anything like Alvis, boy oh sir no, that's another topic entirely but don't get me started on it. All I will say is that they're nothing alike. Edelgard says the pretty words but doesn't go through with them nor mean them. He says them and he means them, but he was blocked by the Lopt Sect who had the actual control of the Empire. Every blame was laid at his feet, but he had no real power and that was stated directly in the game.

Grado was basically an empire that was corrupt in waiting. No matter how righteous it seemed due to its leaders, as soon as those leaders died/got corrupted, the nasty people came flocking out. That means they were there all along and as soon as they got their chance, they took it. Take a look at the villains you face and how nasty of people they are. Look how bad it became as soon as Fomortiis was truly in charge.

Dolhr is a fucking disaster I ain't even getting into that internal dragon war turned dragon and human mess LOL; just know it's Not A Good Place. Also consider that Lang (a particularly terrible person) betrayed Grust (a perfectly reasonable place turned corrupt due to Dolhr's influence) to join up with them and Lorenz said Not Today, rebelled, and Lang was in charge of ordering Marth to go fend off that rebellion (and threatened Altea to get Marth to agree to fight). Lorenz continued to say Not Today to the point of committing suicide rather than work alongside them or die for them. He held no ill will toward Marth for what Marth had been ordered and essentially threatened to do (for fear of Altea's position in all this). Seeing Lorenz of all people refuse to take part in Grust's Dohlr loving bullshit, Marth also rebelled. Consider that how every time a Leicester noble sides with the Empire, it tends to be the corrupt or morally questionable ones. Like Marth, people were afraid to rebel. Quite ironically (or perhaps intentionally? who knows the devs ain't said), it ends up being Houses!Lorenz who rebels against the Empire in VW and optionally in AM if recruited (or in AM would die as, again, essentially the Empire's hostage). Like Archanea!Lorenz, he was against the Empire, and like Marth, fought with them for a short time out of the force of threat to himself/his lands and people but eventually had enough and turned on them.

So, did the writing skimp out on Edelgard and Adrestia being completely villainous? Yes. Are they supposed to be? Yes, absolutely. Both in writing and by the devs' word, she is the villain. Did they, in the game, fuck that up because she was marriage material? Absolutely! Did they reduce her character to being a love interest who was obsessed with the player character and couldn't win her war without her love interest? Yes, completely!

What I'm saying is that she had potential to be more interesting (re: I love Ashnard and I've said this many many many times and will never stop saying it because he's a great villain and probably my favorite in the entire franchise, which imo should say a lot when I view him and Edelgard on completely ends of the villain spectrum despite them being identical in all the explained ways) and it was ruined by the devs toning her down so that she could be waifu material.

She had potential to be a well written character and great villain like Ashnard is, but it was bogged down both making her an uwu sweet waifu (thus attempting to negate her bad qualities with the uwu behavior) and trying to insist that she was fighting for a good cause (which I suspect is because they wanted to make her marriage material. You don't see us being able to marry Ashnard or, as a female example of a villain, Petrine - who for that matter directly serves Ashnard).

My point in this last section is that FE Empires have been the villains since its goddamn inception, and Adrestia is no stranger to that, but Edelgard herself was written as though, because she's a woman, had to be fetish bait, marriage bait, and a cute girl. If it was a man running her Empire, we'd have the result of... -lists off every male imperial ruler in FE history-.

It's also a huge shame to me that the first time they truly had a woman in charge of the villainous territory, they completely botched it. It could have been awesome to have a good female villain, but they ended up blurring the lines. They ended up reducing her to straight man bait too, what with all her female relationships having women obsess over her (compare to the other wlw relationships, canonically optional or not (ex. Cathmir being a canon ending and Dorogrid not being an ending), which don't feature the women involved treating their partner how the women treat Edelgard). I'm not saying bi or lesbian players can't like her, but that she was seemingly written with straight male players in mind.

Other wlw relationships aren't written the way Edelgard's relationships are written, which is basically nothing but loving up on her most of the time (both male and female characters do this except Ferdinand and Linhardt, the former of which was completely rewritten to be a 180 and yet another of Edelgard's harem in Hopes). This includes Petra, who is a political hostage. She should be questioning Edelgard as to why her territory isn't free yet despite Edelgard being emperor now, or when it will happen. None of this is really touched on, and Petra just decides that she wants to fight and die for Edelgard (including in Hopes, where her feelings about that are even stronger and she literally says in their A support that she knows she's risking her life but actively desires to for Edelgard's sake, even if it means betraying her own people for it). Instead, they ignore all that for the sake of having yet another female obsess over her.

Now, does this mean people are bad for liking the better sides of her that happened as a result of this? No, people can still enjoy the character we ended up getting because of these side steps - the character we ended up with regardless of their intentions. However, I do think it's because of all these side steps that people don't see her as a villain despite every intention of that being there and being present. However, I also think people should understand why she's also hated because of these side steps. For example, why I hate the Edelgard that we ended up getting, but yet I love Ashnard despite all these many comparisons I've made.

It's just a shame that we didn't get to play on the villain's side and have it play out as, very explicitly, that the player character is now also a villain. That we made the choice for our character to be a villain to side with the villain and ultimately take part in villainous actions. It's a game with a story! That kind of thing should be explored! It doesn't make people bad for enjoying a villain's side of the story with that villain not being side stepped as a good person. If we got to play a route Ashnard I would love that! I wouldn't deny that he's the villain just because I'm playing his route though, and that's what CF tried to do - deny that the villain is the villain. It's not "everyone has their reasons" yadda yadda everything and anything is morally gray. That's what they try to push to excuse Edelgard despite her being Female Ashnard in every other regard.

There's a reason it got to the point of the infamous "no u" line - because they were trying to have a story that justified the villain, fell short of it because the not-villain they kept gunning for the idea of was committing villainous behavior/actions, and couldn't actually justify it in a way that sounded reasonable. It ended up coming like she had no excuse for her actions, which, yes, makes sense, because she doesn't have any! She's the villain! But they... tried so hard... to side step it... when they had nothing they could side step it with... and now that line is the local Houses laughing stock... in the woman's own route...

Lastly, there's the aspect of the war dialogue versus playable characters. There are two things:

Most of the recruitable students in CF only say they fight for the Empire because they fight for Byleth - their professor - not Edelgard. The only characters who specifically say they're fighting for Edelgard are the original BE students. The others claim to only be following Byleth's path (or they simply joined after being spared).

In other words, the recruited characters weren't given dialogue to imply they actually care about Edelgard's path and are not even there for her. That gives off the notion that these characters aren't necessarily even in agreement with her. Very few (such as Lysithea if recruited prior to being spared, and Constance) actually fight specifically for the Empire or Edelgard (and Constance's reason is for herself and not Edelgard).

Basically, the writers didn't bother even trying to give the characters motivation to fight for Edelgard's path, and so made many of them - let's face it - ooc in the process. I won't go over details in this post about specific characters being ooc, but if anyone is ever curious and doesn't already know, I could definitely make separate posts for those.

In comparison, RD gives legitimate motivations to the characters you fight against regardless of which side they're fighting on. Zihark is the most iffy, as his motivations to defect from Daein for the Laguz Alliance make more sense, but even he is at least given the introspection of "why am I fighting for this/what am I doing". Any character who was previously playable in PoR has a legitimate motivation to fight for the side they're on, including the possible defector characters where their dialogue makes sense on either side.

Some characters also understand they're fighting people they care about and just won't fight them. Brom and Meg, father and daughter (a huge disaster in CF when it comes to parents fighting their children and absolutely butchering the parent characters' characterization just to somehow make the situation work even though there were better ways of handling that) won't fight each other, just as Zihark will not attack laguz - fitting right into his character. He will attack back against a beorc, but in gameplay will not attack back if attacked by a laguz.

In Houses, they didn't even bother with this and it made a lot of the relationships feel a lot more shallow. For example, Ilyana is only on the side of the Laguz Alliance in part 3, but she can talk to Micaiah - her previous commander in part 1. She attempts to talk Micaiah out of fighting, eventually deciding well okay fine we're both strong against each other's magic so it's not too bad, to her despondently giving up and saying they should forget that conversation ever happened.

On a very similar note, the dialogue in Houses is often very volatile (particularly in the localization) from recruited characters to their former friends.

They gave off the impression that the Empire is right and just, and how dare anyone be against them. The dialogue is handled in a way that makes almost every character angry (with few exceptions, one being Mercedes against Annette) with their old friends. There is very very little of characters being genuinely upset in a sad way that they're fighting their old friends.

When characters in RD know each other and have to fight, it's always respectful and/or sad. The relationships are respected in the writing - individually - and character's didn't have to be tweaked to make their situaton work.

What does this have to do with Edelgard's writing? It's the fact that characters recruited onto CF treat the war they're fighting on the side of to be the correct side in a way that tells the player "you are the good guys". Now why is that a problem? Because the intent was originally to make Edelgard a villain.

Instead of going through with it, they made it so every character you recruit (including characters who spent their entire lives prior to the war living in the lands they are now attacking and helping an aggressor army invade) didn't just become a villain along with the rest of the people on your side. They make them come off as actually justified.

I don't mean just that the characters themselves believe they are personally justified, but that the narrative itself tries to tell you yes, they are actually justified... even though we're trying to also tell you that these are the villains you're with. The narrative itself pushes against itself, framing you as being in the right, and always pushing characters to be sad about fighting Edelgard regardless of her actions.

While Dimitri has the back and forth in the second half of AM about how he feels about fighting her, he's the only character who has a justifiable reason to feel so conflicted. The narrative is always pushing how sad it is that you have to fight her outside of just Dimitri's feelings. They take it a step further in Hopes, when Edelgard basically has a harem of people obsessed with her and praises her for all she does, never telling her when she's gone too far.

Compare this to Micaiah, who Soren claims is seen as a goddess by her followers. She has the love of many people, including playable characters, who openly doubt her and her actions (specifically in part 3) - repeatedly. Micaiah is not a villain and is not written to be. Characters push against her for answers and reasons (including Sothe, who is basically the Hubert to Edelgard), leaving her in awkward positions where all she can say is that she believes in her king, because the truth is, she has no other answer.

Houses' narrative keeps trying to insist that Edelgard is justified and heroic, while constantly having her lie to the other characters/not answer their questions or concerns, ally with the other villains, invade innocent and neutral lands, conscript civilians, admit to sacrificing her own civilians for her own personal selfish goals (so sacrificing random innocent civilians just going about their daily lives who have nothing to do with her), consider all lands not ruled by her to be beneath her, victim blame anyone who fights back against her, and... the list. Goes. On.

As a character she had potential to be a great villain whose side of the story you could actually play, but for whatever reason the writers just... didn't go through with it. Whether it was for marketing, because they didn't really know what they wanted to do ultimately, felt that you shouldn't be able to marry a villain and didn't want to remove the option to marry her, who knows. It just remains that the story went in wildly different directions and ended up with people having different perceptions of Edelgard because of it.

And if anyone says "but you hate Edelgard so of course you would say all this!", I'm gonna respond to them with a picture of Ashnard and that's it. :)

Also, I hate Micaiah (and will admit she's not the villain) and have for many, many years (looong before Edelgard was even a thought in IS' mind)... but Edelgard's existence has lessened that hate somewhat slightly because of how awful her character is. I don't mean that in a love to hate way either - I mean that treating her atrocious behavior and actions as good and heroic is disgusting and abhorrent to me.

There are extremely, extremely, extremely few characters in the entire overall franchise I truly hate with a visceral hate that goes beyond "ugh they're so annoying". Of those characters, most of them are just well written villains and not characters I hate the stories of (Valtome comes to mind, but he's a very unfortunate case of evil queer villain stereotype. May not have actually been an intentional dig at queer people from IS though and may have actually been a harmless whoopsie (especially given how RD has, iirc, the first trans character in the franchise, which the localization sneakily completely cut out from its existence. Nowadays we have Rosado for queer rep, so that points a little bit more to Valtome being a big whoopsie-we-didn't-mean-it-that-way. Lekain also comes to mind, who at least isn't a big oopsie).

So no, I don't just hate Edelgard for the sake of hating her. I hate her because the narrative evidently couldn't handle her, or the fact that she was a female lead and a villain. Considering that, that's why I wanted to make this analysis - to list off the reasons that I find that the writing failed her as a character. That writing is how my feelings came to be what they are.

She wasn't allowed to be her own character and own it. Ashnard was allowed to be his own character and own it. I don't agree with Ashnard and his world would be shit to live in lol. He's an interesting and amazingly handled character though, and I absolutely love him for what he is.

I love Tellius because of how authentic the writing feels. How real, true and emotional it feels. Both its games don't shy away from putting their leads on the spot. It tackles difficult subjects and it handles them spectacularly. Characters are put into certain situations where they react as you would expect them to, thus not manipulating things here and there just to make a situation fit and work that normally shouldn't.

Yes, I am absolutely fucking telling you that Sylvain would never lay a hand on Dimitri, Felix or Ingrid that wasn't a bro hand or a flirt hand. He is their awkward flirting bro and he would not kill them. Thanks Hopes btw for fixing the recruitment issue and making almost none of the Lions able to defect - because they wouldn't based on who they are and instead of staying true to that in Houses, they changed those things just to fit the mechanic of recruitment instead of limiting who you could recruit to make sense with the characters.

Anyway, I think I'm done with this absolutely ridiculously insanely gigantically huge giant analysis that took three massively enormous parts to finish. Hopefully I don't think or anything else to add.

If you made it this far, you are the good shit.

#DCB Comments #If you managed to get through all of this good job lol #I think I just... had a whole lot to say that I'd avoided saying before bc of the fandom #but I think it's something worth looking at since they've clearly successfully written #a character like this before - exactly like this - and did a fantastic job #I felt very differently in Houses than I did with PoR and this is kind of like... a lot of the reasons why #Edelgard Critical #DCB Three Houses Stuff

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