#they really have no actual reason for existing & i barely remembered they're canon

[creatorbiaze]

still find it halarious how Dazai;

1- said in the first episode / chapter "I'm not into hugging men" / "im not into men that way"

& 2- is specifically looking for a beautiful woman to commit a lover's suicide with

but everyone just simultaneously agrees he's gay as fuck

#bisexual icon tbh probably #im tired & legit don't understand anything romance related #you wouldn't even know the two canonical relationships in my worlds are relationships #(Path Changer Snow Sky and Blood Moon are canonically dating for some reason & i never bothered rewriting that out) #(I think Dawn Shadow & Mendacium are dating too but they're a queerplatonic relationship) #(you wouldn't know about the fallen trio if i didn't say it) #honestly I might rewrite both relationships out again :P #they really have no actual reason for existing & i barely remembered they're canon

[box-architecture]

Plantrio group chat.

ok I'm going to be really abnormal for a hot minute here but its not my fault I was reminded that Mystic Messenger exists so, fun silly AU under the cut.

Ok so I'm giggling over the concept of a DSMP AU Mystic Messenger style. You're a recent minecraft player who has come to the DSMP, (or maybe you can select a character like Technoblade, shhh this is a crack concept) and you're in a chat group with the other characters involved in The Plan, like Punz and Ranboo (full memories) as someone who is on Dream's Side and is working for Dream

Listen To Me. Listen. Dating Sim the hell out of Dream. It would be so stupid. Listen to me.

you have to respond to text messages at various hours of the day over the course of 14 days, making choices that will decide how the story will go, and how your relationship with Dream will develop. You can encourage or discourage events of exile, the building of the prison, you can side with Dream in arguments in the group chat over the best way to handle certain actions or choose to push against him in others.

You can literally have conversations with Dream at 2 in the morning because Dream doesn't sleep and both talk quietly about how things have changed since the start of the server, listen to him reminisce about Sapnap and George even as he insists it was for the best that they don't talk anymore.

You could also potentially build negative or positive relationships with Punz and Ranboo, which will affect how they respond to you and later decisions in the story. Like if you're going for an ending where Dream doesn't put himself in prison, you have to have high affinity with both characters so they'll side with you against this idea

And you also get private conversations with them as well to foster this. listen 14 days is a lot of time I'm sure plenty can be squeezed in

but in the five seconds since thinking about this silly idea, there's a list of characters you can be

Like, if you choose to be a Random MC, you'd get a sort of pre- selected backstory and could make it up as you go along with how you got into this Plan situation with the trio

But I think it would be really, really fun if you could choose to be Technoblade

Like for whatever reason Techno accidentally gets access to The Plan Group Chat, and after a days worth of conversations, he's allowed to stay in the chat

and he gets Significantly different conversations than from Random MC

but also you can be Hannah, who comes to the DSMP a lot earlier than in canon, or Tina, and they also get different conversations, because they're different characters

and the same bare bones of the route happen, but its still Them and the texting is Them

And that might be too ambitious for an actual game but listen this is likely something that's not going to be actually made so instead Listen. Listen To The Benefits of Silly

But also please consider that you could get The Worst Endings Possible through actively encouraging Dream's self sacrificing behavior, reassuring him that he's making the right decisions all the time, ignoring when other characters bring up concerns

Consider the difference between Supporting Dream and Encouraging Dream. I'm shaking you

Consider having late night convos with Punz as he privately expresses worry for Dream, as he admits that sometimes he wonders if there's any point in The Plan or in even caring about the people of the smp. Consider Ranboo opening up about how fucked up it is to only remember who he is half the time, and the personal guilt he feels about deceiving Tubbo, but how despite his guilt he's still choosing to do this

I know I've mentioned this was for the express purpose of kissing Dream and that its a dating sim but my primary goal is no longer about Dream getting kissed its about giving him friendship

however he probably should still get kissed

but MOST IMPORTANTLY

ITS ABOUT THE WHOLE IDEA THAT IF DREAM HAD LITERALLY JUST. ANY SOLID SUPPORT. THE PRISON AND SO MUCH BULLSHIT WOULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED

Ranboo isn't himself half the time and Punz believes murder is always the solution they dont count

Pacifist Route. Toxic Route. Befriend people make enemies interact with characters. listen to me.

#backposting #sfw boxing

[lovemyromance]

So I finished the books of acotar and Im confused, WHAT IS THERE BETWEEN AZRIEL AND GWYN?? I read the bonus chapter of acosf, but that just showed me more of ELAIN AND AZRIEL. Im literally seeing people saying "azriel and gwyn had more chemistry than elain and azriel" LIKE HUH??? like where did this ship come from? I didnt even know about this bonus chapter until I came to tiktok. I thought gwyn was just a side character... I had no idea this was a ship because there is nothing between them that I saw. 😭

Yeah I literally have no idea. I cheated a little when I was reading ACOWAR and looked up fanart before I finished the series. I saw Azriel with this redhead and was so so confused. I thought hm maybe he gets a mate after the war.

Then I read ACOFAS. Was really shipping Elriel but was sad that his fan art was with some redhead other girl. I genuinely at one point wondered if it was Vassa because she was the only other redhead female character I could think of other than Amarantha 😅

It was bothering me so I asked my friend (who was the reason I read the series in the first place). She said she had no idea who that woman was.

And I thought she was just lying to me to avoid telling me spoilers lol so I continued reading. Imagine my surprise when I finished ACOSF, got even more invested in Elriel, and still had no answer.

Then I actually did a deep dive online and found out that it's GWYN they're shipping with Azriel? I was so confused. I asked my friend if there was another book, why is this Gwyn Azriel ship a thing?

She didn't remember who Gwyn was because she read ACOSF immediately when it first came out and hasn't reread since, but that's beside the point.

Then I did some more digging. Apparently a bonus chapter existed which made things more clear? I read it. Still did not understand where the ship came from. If anything, it only cemented Elriel endgame for me.

I said okay, maybe I'm being biased? I made my friend read the BC - she did not even know it existed and she literally has been reading the series since it came out in like 2015 or whatever

But again, that's beside the point.

And before anyone even argues, she was a strong Elucien supporter and would argue with me "no they are mates Elriel is not a thing". I made her read the bonus chapter and she immediately switched to Elriel. She said "yeah ok - there's no going back from that one". She also, did not view the Gwynriel interaction as romantic in any way.

I really don't know where Gwynriel came from. Like I've said over and over again - I understand Elucien. They are canonically mates. A mating bond is all they have, but until disproven, it still counts.

Gwynriel doesn't have that. They barely even interact on the page.

I don't know if it's because people hate elain, or they ship Azriel with themselves and they can't relate to Elain so "hey, here's another attractive straight girl boss I can pretend is me", or they ship Elucien and need Azriel out of the way 🤷🏻‍♀️

Gwynriels literally KNOW there is nothing romantic between the two currently. Their entire ship is based on this concept of "well it could happen" or "what if". That's why I don't take it seriously. They have very limited info about both Gwyn and Azriel and they have allowed their imaginations to fill in the blanks. Then the ship gained popularity and their imaginative scenarios got repeated enough that people began to think that was actually in the books. Then they got confident and began to yell their made up scenarios louder in the fandom.

Most of Gwynriel is rooted in imaginative headcanons. They saw any mention of Gwyn or Azriel and began to fill in the blanks themselves. Aka Azriel trying to excuse himself by saying "I have to go over daggers with Gwyn" suddenly wasn't just an excuse and actually a secret planned date between the two where she got "private dagger lessons" and they talked for hours or whatever. It became real to them even if it didn't exist in the books. They didn't do any fact checking before repeating their HCs over and over until it became the truth to them. And then they went on other shipping posts and started fights over their fake recollection of canon.

Literally just last week, I saw a post about how Gwyn only blushes for Azriel she has feelings for him. That never happened. She blushed for Rhysand, not Azriel.

But the thing is, just because you say something louder than someone else, doesn't mean you are correct.

I really don't engage with Gwynriels because half of them have admitted they haven't even read the books, just the bonus chapter. Or they've just read ACOSF.

Either way, I just see it as a crackship. If they ship it because they find it cute, sure whatever. If they're more active in the fandom, I just scroll past their posts and don't engage. I don't see where they are coming from and they're not going to see Elriel so there's no point trying to convince anyone at this point.

#elriel #azriel #elain archeron #pro elain #elain x azriel #acotar #elain #antigwynriel

[thegayhimbo]

Ranking The Stranger Things Tie-Ins:

Now that I've finished the reviews (for the time being), I wanted to do a ranking of all the tie-in comics, graphic novels, and books. Originally, I was just going to do a Top 5 Best and Worst List, but I figured it would be more fun to make a complete list of all the tie-ins while also giving my brief thoughts on each one (especially for those who don't want to read my lengthy reviews). Please note this is all in good fun and just my personal opinion, which can be subjected to change.

Also, this list will NOT include any of the show's episodes, video games, tabletop games, children's tie-in books, the Choose Your Own Adventure book, the Stranger Things Experience, or the stage play The First Shadow.

With that out of the way, let's begin in order from Worst to Best:

#26: Stranger Things Summer Special (See Review Here)

I never cared for Powell and Callahan as characters. They barely have anything to do with the show's main arc, they're NOT funny, and the "bumbling cop" trope is something I've grown tired of in recent years.

The premise of this short, where both of them are conveniently present at key events during season 3 in their lousy pursuit of being "good cops," all the while having constant near-misses with the Upside Down, the Flayed, and the Meat Flayer, is a repetitive joke that quickly grows old. That's not even getting into the huge continuity errors plaguing the short and creating a bunch of plot-holes. Completely unnecessary. Hard pass.

#25: Stranger Things The Bully (See Review Here)

This only ranks slightly higher than Summer Special because I like the artwork better, and it doesn't mess up the show's continuity like the previous comic did. However, that's all this really has going for it.

For whatever reason, they decided to make an entire graphic novel focusing on Troy and James (the bullies from season 1), and all I could think about while reading it is "This is a huge waste of time." I already didn't like Troy to begin with, this comic does NOTHING to improve my opinion of him, and considering that neither James nor Troy have appeared on the show since (and probably aren't coming back for season 5), I don't see what the point of this story was. This paragraph from my review sums it up best:

#24: Stranger Things x TMNT Crossover (See Review Here)

I'm sure there are fans who enjoyed this bizarre trip while embracing its absurdness and surrealism, but I am not one of them. I like TMNT and I like Stranger Things, but I draw the line at saying both properties exist in the same universe. That's not even getting into the haphazard attempts by the writers to make this comic canon with the show. Knowing the Duffer Brothers, that's likely not going to happen.

#23: Stranger Things Tales From Hawkins (See Review Here)

The idea of doing an anthology comic focusing on Hawkins residents was intriguing, but the end result was disappointing. They should have broadened their horizons regarding which characters to focus on, and not just set the stories exclusively in the first 2 seasons.

Murray's story (Issue #2) and the Pumpkin Patch Rivalry (Issue #4) are arguably the best ones. The rest are either forgettable or derivative.

#22: Stranger Things Six (See Review Here)

My first venture into Stranger Things comics. I've come a long way since then! :)

I remember looking forward to this particular comic to learn more about Hawkins Lab, Dr. Brenner, Project MKUltra, and the special kids............only to feel underwhelmed when I actually read it. I wanted to like Francine/Six, but I didn't find her interesting or compelling as a character, and the attempts to include other aspects of the show's lore (i.e. The Upside Down, Terry Ives, El and Kali, etc) felt shoehorned. Combined with the direction season 4 went, and it's a safe bet to say this comic is NOT canon (if it ever was).

#21: Stranger Things Suspicious Minds (See Review Here)

Suspicious Minds ranks slightly higher that Six for doing a better job fleshing out the experiments that were taking place at Hawkins Lab, as well as giving more details about Kali, Terry Ives, the test subjects, and El's biological father Andrew. It helps that Brenner is a threatening presence in this book, and that the narrative excels in maintaining suspense.

However, similar to Six, the events of season 4 render most of this book non-canon. That's not even getting into a major continuity error regarding El's date of birth that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Suspicious Minds serves as a cautionary reminder that if you're a creator and you've planned out a major twist for your show, then you either need to have a direct hands-on approach to how tie-ins are written and approved, or you need to be willing to share that twist with those you've hired to write tie-ins for the universe you're managing.

In any case, it is PAINFULLY CLEAR the Duffer Brothers didn't share information about Henry/One/Vecna with Gwenda Bond when she worte this book (or Paul Dichter for that matter when he helped oversee its development), and boy does it show in the final product. 😖

#20: Stranger Things Kamchatka (See Review Here)

Another example of a comic where the premise sounds intriguing, but they squander it on characters who aren't going to play a role on the show while also giving very little (and in some cases, contradictory) information about the show's lore.

While I liked the darker tone, the Cold War setting, and the spy thriller aspects, the characters didn't do much to impress me, and I was also frustrated by the lack of canon characters (Hopper, Dmitiri, Yuri, etc) who could have been in this comic and weren't. It's not bad, but it is mediocre when it didn't need to be.

#19: Stranger Things Into The Fire (See Review Here)

A sequel that improves on its predecessor (Stranger Things Six). While the comic likely isn't canon for the same reasons Six isn't, I appreciated the personal stakes this time around, I loved the creepy gothic aesthetic they did with Jamie/Nine's hallucinations, and it was nice to see Kali utilized in this story in a meaningful way. Here's hoping the Duffer Brothers wise up and bring Kali back for season 5 because she deserves so much better!

#18: Stranger Things Creature Feature (See Review Here)

One aspect of Season 4 that was disappointing was how little we got to see of the family dynamic with El and the Byers once they moved. It's hinted at, but not explored deeply. Creature Feature dives a little more into that, as well as El's struggles with PTSD, and gives a nice heartwarming scene between El, Jonathan, and Will towards the end that makes the short stand out.

However, the one-shot comic is sadly brief, and it may leave people frustrated about why they didn't go for a longer comic/graphic novel about El and the Byers adjusting to life in Lenora. I would've been interested in seeing that!

#17: Stranger Things The Game Master (See Review Here)

A one-shot comic where we get to see Steve and Nancy back together after the events of season 1 while also getting a surprisingly sweet interaction between Steve and Mike that isn't them griping with one another. I don't care much for Steve and Nancy's relationship, but I did like their attempts to help Mike feel better after El's apparent death. That was enough to elevate this short.

#16: Stranger Things Erica's Quest (See Review Here)

Not a fan of the artwork, but I was happy to witness the Scoop's Troop back together again. I also love how this short confirms Steve has played D&D before, which gives context to that scene in S4 when Dustin calls Steve asking him to be a substitute player in Eddie's D&D campaign.

#15: Stranger Things The Voyage (See Review Here)

Major improvement on Stranger Things Kamchatka. It's highly doubtful the show will include any mention of this comic (though if the Duffer Brothers decide to bring back the Russian arc for S5, I hope they incorporate Dr. Karine as the main antagonist), but the story is scary, suspenseful, and has the kind of gruesomeness you'd expect from an R-Rated horror film.

#14: Stranger Things Darkness On The Edge Of Town (See Reviews Here)

Having grown up reading a lot of murder mysteries, I have a soft spot for the genre. Hearing that Hopper's backstory involved him tracking down a deranged serial killer in New York City back in the 70s while also dealing with a dangerous cult was enough to get me on board with this book.

This novel isn't perfect, but it makes up for its shortcomings in creative ways. Hopper's backstory with the NYPD is fascinating, the story's focus on issues related to poverty, crime, mental health, law enforcement, and societal woes works well (even if they drop the ball towards the end), Hopper's interactions with El in the present are a highlight, and the narrative is effective in keeping the reader invested.

#13: Stranger Things Erica The Great (See Review Here)

A light-hearted graphic novel that bridges Erica's arc between seasons 3 and 4 while expanding on her growth as a character and development as a D&D play. It was cool seeing Erica's friends get their day in the limelight (one of whom might be making an appearance in S5), and the story has enough funny moments to keep the reader entertained.

#12: Stranger Things Flight Of Icarus (See Review Here)

I know fan reaction towards this book was cold when it was first announced, and I'll admit parts of it were hard to read given we all know how Eddie's story ends. I'm not a fan of media that teases false hope to the audience, only to cruelly yank it away.

That being said, I will go to bat for this book: It's well-written, and does a good job expanding on Eddie's character and his relationships with others (Wayne, Al Munson, Jason, etc). I also appreciate the book's themes regarding "forced conformity," and its scathing criticisms towards individuals and institutions (school teachers, law enforcement, students, residents, etc) who scapegoat and punish people like Eddie for existing while allowing (or in some cases, enabling) truly vile people to get away with being vicious and cruel towards "acceptable targets."

Considering how certain individuals on Tumblr and varying social media platforms have been treating others for the past few months, this book couldn't have come during a more relevant time.

#11: Stranger Things Halloween Special (See Review Here)

A delightful Halloween comic taking place before season 1 which centers around the Party telling an urban legend about the Child Eater of Hawkins, which coincidentally has eerie parallels to Vecna. Creepy artwork, an unsettling atmosphere, and a fun twist at the end! :)

#10: Stranger Things Hawkins Horrors (See Review Here)

Same deal as the Halloween Special, except it takes place between Seasons 3 and 4, and features multiple horror stories told by Steve, Robin, Nancy, Max, Lucas, Erica, Dustin, and Mike while they're all trapped in the Video Store during a power outage. The stories are scary and reminiscent of horror anthologies like Tales from the Crypt and Goosebumps, and some of them even cheekily foreshadow certain events that occur in season 4.

#9: Stranger Things Runaway Max (See Reviews Here)

Like Flight of Icarus, this book is hard to read, albeit for a different reason: I don't enjoy stories with characters trapped in abusive situations, and this book does not pull its punches in depicting the utter hell Max suffered through living with both Neil and Billy.

That being said, I grew to have a new appreciation for Max's character because of this book, and I liked seeing her backstory, her perspective on the events of season 2, and her thoughts about the characters she interacts with. I loved seeing her relationship with Lucas develop, I liked her brief interactions with Steve, and there was a satisfying payoff in her standing up to Billy and finally regaining some control over her life. If you love Max's character, this book is for you!

#8: Stranger Things Winter Special (See Review Here)

The closest Stranger Things will ever have for a Christmas Special (not counting the endings of the first two season finales). So many little details (i.e. the way the Party explains different Christmas stories to El and how she visualizes them, the revelation about what happened to the demodog in Joyce's fridge, etc) that make this an enjoyable read.

#7: Stranger Things Lucas On The Line (See Review Here)

One thing I will say for the tie-ins is that I appreciate how they expand the perspectives of characters from the show. Such is the case with Lucas on the Line. It takes place between seasons 3 and 4, and explores Lucas's attempts to come to terms with his trauma, the growing rift between himself and Max, his attempts to balance his strained relationships with his friends and his desire to play basketball and break out of the "nerd" stereotype, and it gives a very brutal but effective portrait of what it's like for Lucas to be one of the few black kids in Hawkins constantly surrounded by people who are either outwardly racist or project their biases and prejudices in truly insidious ways.

There are two reasons I'm not ranking this novel as highly even though it's a fan-favorite: 1.) There are continuity errors that took me out of certain moments while reading it, and 2.) The third act (which is when S4 begins) does a clumsy job tying in with the rest of the book and its themes. I really wish the book had continued with Lucas's story up to the end of S4 instead of stopping halfway through.

#6: Stranger Things The Other Side (See Review Here)

I always wanted to know what was going on with Will in season 1 when he was taken to the Upside Down. This comic thankfully elaborates on that and doesn't disappoint. Will's journey to survive is both intense and terrifying, and the way the comic seamlessly connects itself with the events of season 1 is to be applauded.

I have no clue what the Duffer Brothers plan to reveal in season 5 about the Upside Down and why time froze in 1983 when Will was taken, but considering they talked with the writers and artists for this comic and gave their stamp of approval, I'm hopeful the events of The Other Side won't be retconned.

#5: Stranger Things Science Camp (See Review Here)

Who knew that when Dustin went to Science Camp, he walked right into a Friday the 13th movie? 😂

Don't want to spoil too much about this one, but I had a blast reading it. Dustin's perspective is always entertaining, the comic works as a brilliant introduction for Suzie, and the mystery plaguing the camp is genuinely interesting and has a good twist. High recommendation.

#4: Stranger Things Zombie Boys (See Review Here)

I'm still bitter that the character of Joey Kim never made an appearance on the show despite the camaraderie he had with the Party, as well as how he gave the boys some catharsis from all the shit they were put through in season 1.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the premise of the Party making a zombie movie, and I appreciated how it handled the characters' trauma without being patronizing. The artwork was also impressive and beautiful to look at. Here's hoping we get more comics and graphic novels like this in the future!

#3: Stranger Things Tomb Of Ybwen (See Review Here)

At its core, the comic manages to explore an aspect that wasn't given much coverage on the show: Will's reaction to Bob's death and his attempts to come to terms with it. All of which culminates in a quest Will undertakes when he finds a map from Bob that (allegedly) leads to an ancient Viking treasure buried in Hawkins.

I don't want to give too much away in terms of spoilers, but the story is both emotional, sad, and heartwarming, and it does an excellent job reinforcing the friendship between all 4 boys while also demonstrating the impact Bob had on Will's life.

#2: Stranger Things and Dungeons and Dragons (See Review Here)

Speaking as someone who's occasionally crafted various fantasy scenarios in my head to cope with the stresses of life, this comic was deeply relatable. The show never shied away from emphasizing the importance of D&D to these characters, and this comic expands on that by illustrating why they became interested in D&D in the first place, how they've used D&D to cope with living in Hawkins, how the events of the first 3 seasons factor into how they play D&D, and how the game evolved with them as they continued to get older. It's like the piece of media from your childhood that stays with you as an adult. Arguably the best comic in the series (so far).

#1: Stranger Things Rebel Robin (See Reviews Here)

My favorite book and tie-in of the series. Speaking as someone who's gay, this story spoke to me on a personal level, and there were a lot of parallels I was drawing between Robin's experiences in high school and my own: The fear of being outed and ostracized. The desire to break free and explore the world. Recognizing the injustices that exist in society and wishing you could do something about them. Getting a nasty dose of reality that people you thought you could trust aren't reliable, and may even be more awful than you anticipated. Been there, done that, still dealing with some aspects of it.

It's funny because even if you take out the plot elements relating to the Upside Down, you still get a great coming-of-age story, and one that speaks to many people, LGBT+ or otherwise.

That concludes the ranking and reviews for right now! Thank you again for those who've been reading them! :)

#stranger things #tgh opinions #tgh reviews #stranger things comics #stranger things tie-in novels #mike wheeler #will byers #dustin henderson #lucas sinclair #el hopper #max mayfield #steve harrington #robin buckley #jonathan byers #nancy wheeler #erica sinclair #eddie munson #kali prasad #bob newby #jim hopper #joyce byers #murray bauman #the duffer brothers #ross duffer #matt duffer

[antianakin]

Do you think you’d like Mandos if they were more like Vikings? I think I heard from somewhere that’s what they were based off of. If they were anything like the TV show Vikings I would be behind them 100%. Imagine if they made Boba more like Ragnar instead of the Feloni version.

I can't quite tell if you're asking me if I'd like Mandalorians if they were written to be more like actual real life vikings or if they were writing more like the way the characters are written in the fictional TV show Vikings, but my answer is going to be similar either way. I don't know enough about either regular viking culture or the way the show Vikings chose to depict them to really be able to answer either way.

The thing I think you're remembering is that I believe it's been said that Lucas chose to bring in Mandalorians as a concept into TCW but changed them up to be more like "pacifist Vikings" (which is why they look the way they do in TCW) because he found that an intriguing concept despite how little it had to do with the way Mandalorians had been depicted in Legends up until then. And that concept mostly seems to come across as like "a group of people who were known for being very violent and doing a lot of pillaging and raiding and fighting in their past but it got to the point where they were so violent that they nearly destroyed themselves and their new leader has enforced a pacifist lifestyle in an effort to keep them from going completely extinct." I don't know that it necessarily took a lot from actual viking culture or traditions beyond that.

The reason I dislike the Mandos is more about the way they're written and the way fans tend to interpret them (especially in relation to the Jedi) than anything else. There's also the issue of like... the contradictions between Legends Mandos, Lucas's Mandos, and Disney/Favroni canon Mandos. People have tried REALLY REALLY HARD to fit in Legends Mando stuff with Lucas's canon Mandos, which leads to this idea that while Lucas shows Mandos as like... very black and white with Death Watch being the more traditional violent version and Satine being the modern pacifist version, there is actually some sort-of in-between that can exist. This is where you get the "True Mandalorians" and characters like Jaster and Jango and even newer characters like Din and, to some degree, Bo-Katan. There's this idea that you can be a violent person who works in something like bounty hunting and still be a good honorable person. Din is someone who does not CARE who he kills so long as he gets paid to do it when we first meet him (his whole catchphrase is "I can bring you in warm or I can bring you in cold" which tells his marks that he doesn't care if he has to kill them to get the job done), he's even initially fine with child trafficking being a part of his job description and BARELY ends up turning around to rescue Grogu after he's already been paid. And while I understand that this can make for some interesting character work and that a lot of people really enjoy the more morally ambiguous nature of this kind of character, these flaws and nastier choices often get brushed under the rug by their fans to try to portray them as better people than they are.

And of course, this often also ends up leading people to represent these characters, these "True Mandos" as the epitome of what a person should be. That these are people who truly understand honor and love and family, often as a direct contrast to the Jedi specifically. Even though these are people who hunt and kill others FOR A LIVING and are still choosing their leaders based on who can fight well enough to acquire one specific weapon. This is still a culture based primarily around violence, towards each other and towards the rest of the world. This doesn't mean these characters cant' be INTERESTING or ENJOYABLE, but too many people sit there and act like Mandos, especially "True" Mandos, are some sort-of mystical better than everyone else beings instead of the IMMENSELY flawed people that they are who would honestly be much better off if they were more like the Jedi.

This is one of the reasons I initially liked Sabine so much in Rebels, because we see how she has to learn a LOT of Jedi lessons about patience and mercy and sacrifice from Kanan that she's able to then apply to her Mandalorian heritage so that she can recognize which parts of their traditions are worth holding on to (the armor that's been passed down for generations and holds a lot of spiritual meaning regarding connections to their ancestors) and which are not (killing your enemies instead of showing mercy, being forced to be a leader just because she happens to be wielding this one specific weapon even though she's not ready or interested in the position). Notice that the things worth keeping about her culture are the things that are specifically NOT VIOLENT IN NATURE.

I think people also regularly overestimate how important and competent Mandos even are, True, New, or otherwise. We ROUTINELY see Mandos get their asses handed to them, by Jedi, by the Empire, by Rebels. There seems to be this pervasive idea that Mandos could change the course of the galaxy, that Mandos are the BEST fighters in the galaxy and if only they were around to help, they would be able to beat everyone else, and it just. Isn't true. They're good at BEING VIOLENT, sure, but this doesn't actually equate to being a better fighter than anyone else. They're so good at being violent that they keep just... exterminating their own people out of sheer stupidity to the point that they're not a real threat to ANYBODY. They destroy their own planet to the point that it's practically uninhabitable, they refuse to have a civil discussion with a group that is clearly outgunning them and then act surprised when this ends up with all of them fucking dead, they make themselves neutral in a galactic civil war and then act surprised when that means trade dries up, they lead two Sith lords and FOUR crime organizations onto their planet and then act surprised when they end up ousted out of their own leadership and instead accidentally end up with a Sith lord as a leader because he beheaded the Mando guy. Mandos IN GENERAL are just reckless, irresponsible, arrogant assholes, no matter which flavor they come in. They can't even help THEMSELVES let alone the rest of the galaxy.

And to some degree, I think that's part of the point of the Mandos in Lucas's canon, that they're just... total flops most of the time. They're an intentional foil to the Jedi in that they are a culture that RELIES on violence as a cornerstone of their behavior and worldview and never see peace as an option whereas the Jedi relies on peace always being an option and violence is just a last resort as a recognition that many other people don't share their desire for peace. The whole point of Mandos in Lucas's canon and even in Rebels to some degree is that their way of life is BAD and not one that SHOULD be preserved the way that it is. If the Mandos don't figure out how to change, they ARE going to just die out, not because anyone sees them as a threat and wants them eliminated, but because their own arrogance and stupidity is just inevitably going to cause their own end. The Mandos are a CAUTIONARY TALE more than anything else.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that isn't true about the vikings in the Vikings show. You're clearly rooting for them, so I have to assume that you don't view these characters and the culture they're representing as a cautionary tale about what NOT to do or be like. And that's fine, that show is clearly doing something very different with its story and the themes and messages it's sending than Lucas was doing with Star Wars. And I think shows like The Mandalorian are trying to do something similar by making their sort-of violently morally ambiguous character and his culture something you root for rather than a cautionary tale. Which... fine, in the vacuum of the story we had within the first two seasons of the show, that worked out okay. But as it's expanded outward into the greater Star Wars saga, this has become more and more of an issue because the Mandos AREN'T characters you root for in regular Star Wars. They just aren't, especially the variety that Din and Bo-Katan tend to represent. They're usually villains or antagonists for the more genuinely heroic characters, there to either be an obstacle or to represent the consequence of selfish choices. But Filoni and Favreau are SO insistent on making the Mandos the heroes AND on making them like the Legends Mandos they grew up on that these messages are getting flattened and lost entirely.

So I guess my answer to this question is that no, I don't necessarily think that the Mandos would be more enjoyable if they were more like the vikings, either the real ones or the fictional ones, because they just straight up aren't the heroes of this story and their entire culture as per Lucas's canon, the one based around violence as a first answer to everything, is intended to be a cautionary tale rather than something we root for. I think that the Mando culture as we know it isn't something that can be glorified and romanticized and still feel like it remains within the themes of Star Wars.

#star wars #mandalorian critical #mando critical #mandalorian culture critical #mando culture critical

[justatalkingface]

what's your opinion on the big 3? When I was hyperfoxed on this series they were the thing I care Abt the most (I enjoyed season 4, obv I'd change some stuff now but I still remember it being atleast ok)

I hate how dirty they did my girl nejire, as far as I'm aware they didn't even do anything with her after the whole pagent thing she just got a small backstory about how she was sad (don't know all of it I haven't been keeping up that well w the manga)

mirios not having a quirky and having to save eri (a girl who I can't imagine would be that skilled at the age she is and has been training on lizards to give his quirk back all together, I'd imagine it taking a few more months but bnhas time is shit so) and coming back in the war arc to punch one person and then basically do noting iicr

The only decently written one was amajiki, I wish they had more going on I think they have a fun dynamic (w them helping taking care of eri and me rlly liking idk what it's called but I love the fluff it brings) :(

Lots of mixed feelings, in all honesty. Lots of mixed feelings.

I'll admit, a big part of my mixed feelings about them is they showed up as the latest, 'Stomp on Izuku's everything' at the point in the story where it was becoming obvious that there was always something stomping on Izuku, and that gave me a bad first impression on them I've never been able to shake... which isn't helped by how they're connected to the clusterfuck of Nighteye, of all people, which is kind of my whole thing with Mirio (warning; I am biased):

As a person, he's obviously nice, but as a character, basiclly his entire reason for existing was, 'give Izuku an existential crisis' and I don't think I've ever forgiven him for that, really. His entire character is just bigger, stronger, older, happier, more capable, more confident, more successful, more loved Izuku, who had a Quirk his whole life and only had to dig deep to find out how strong it, and he, was all along.

Unironically. It's....

It's a really bad look, to be blunt; he feels kind of like a bad fanfiction character written by a bad writer who wanted to put their super special OC in the story, except he's canon.

Since we've never seen him even think something unheroic, there's really nothing that distinguishes him from that impression factual statement, which, again, makes it hard for me to give a shit about him, or even remember him... which is a problem Hori seems to share, lol. It doesn't help that I loathe Sir Nighteye and that most of his development time is spent admiring him, to boot, and that his parts of the story are either empty or focused on a living plot device I can't quite like no matter how hard I try because of how blatant the emotional manipulation is about the biggest story breaking, SOD shattering plot device until Stars and Stripes showed up.

If he ever got any kind of development to flesh him out a human being rather than being either Izuku and/or a heroic archetype, it'd help, but beyond all of that his biggest personality trait is liking jokes, and that barely even comes up. Or, rather, considering both the Final Arc and his response to Bakugou's name, along with Nighteye's own tendencies, 'jokes', maybe.

He doesn't deserve it, I admit it, it's not his fault, but I just can't get past that. He also doesn't deserve to just be forgotten until his big moment of a butt joke, but... MHA, everyone. In all honesty, I'd just like him better if his entire story arc didn't exist in and as some of the worst parts of the Overhaul arc, but he's tainted by that fact.

I freely admit that I am unfairly biased against him, so take all of that with a mountain of salt.

As a side note though, god, the story doesn't seem to realize how badly Nighteye is using the poor kid; Mirio thinks Nighteye is training him because he's worthy, while Nighteye mainly seems to be doing it because he's the closest thing to an All Might clone he can get, bar him actually cloning All Might, even if he grew to like him for who he is. I'm not sure Nighteye ever thought of Mirio with just his Quirk as anything more than a temporary situation; even at the start of canon, when on his own merits he's rising to fame with how successful he is, Nighteye's overall focus is still about getting AFO into the kid.

I almost wish I could see Nighteye explaining how all of his training came down to getting All Might's Quirk, just to see MIrio react and tear Nighteye down a peg about it, except Hori's history of handling these kinds of things means he'd never be allowed to be properly offended on his own behalf, the poor bastard.

Moving on, Tamaki. Out of all of them, he's had the biggest of an on-screen story arc, and in a intellectual way his Quirk is easily the most interesting. Unfortunately, while he has a personality, it feels so bland at times that he's far easier to remember for his Quirk than who he is.

I liked his story, really, but at the time it was overshadowed by Mirio and his everything, and by the time he showed back up it was clear how irrelevant it and he was, so it was more about how (admittedly, very) cool he get his Quirk to be than it was about him, and with some brutal honesty, it's probably because his Quirk is so interesting that he even got that much focus beyond that initial arc by Hori.

And... Nejirie.

In a combat sense she's easily the best of them, really; Mirio is almost purely defensive, which limits him (especially if he's not surprising someone with it) while Tamaki's Quirk, while flexible, is so conditional in ways that can easily hold him back (we only ever see him fight with full preparation; if he's not gearing for a fight he'd be easy to ambush), and like a lot of things in the Final Arc, his big laser canon thing is.... questionable.

Nejirie, though, is just simply powerful. In a setting where everyone has one power and one main application of that power, where you either fly or blast things, but not both, she's the closest I've seen to a 'traditional' super hero, like you'd see in Marvel or DC.

At the same time, though, out of the three of them she least has a story, for obvious reasons, and it's a disgrace, really. If Hori had just spent some time on her, on the her backstory that apparently exists (yeah, I'm not sure where that is either), she could have been so interesting... but really, all she is is the Girl Teammate. Her personality traits are The Girl Teammate's personality traits. She's just The Girl Teammate stamped over all of the interesting stuff, and it's such a waste, it really is.

And finally, as a unit? The Big Three is a shiny toy that Hori forgot in the corner somewhere as soon as he got bored with it. He spent a few minutes oohing and aahing over them, focusing really hard on developing interesting powers, how they could be used, and how strong they were, only to start to lose interest as soon as those powers were established, and he was writing the three of them off before their introductory arc was even over.

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #nighteye critical #izuku deserves better #my deeply conflicted feelings on Mirio's everything #he doesn't deserve it but still #he's the true victim of the Overhaul arc #i hate nighteye ever so much #hori's chronic hatred of women #the big three is big wasted potential

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PRELIMINARY ROUND - THE LEGEND OF ZELDA - ZELDA

PROPAGANDA

Tetra (The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker)

1.) Wind Waker actually has a point with its misogyny and kinda condemns the misogyny. We first see Tetra as a helpless girl in the clutches of a giant bird monster. A pirate ship catapults a boulder at the bird, which drops Tetra on the hero's home island. We find out that young Tetra is the rough-and-tumble captain of an entire pirate crew, and the brains of the outfit. We later learn that bird monster has been kidnapping a bunch of girls to find the reincarnation of the legendary Princess Zelda. It is revealed that Tetra is the next Princess Zelda. Because she is Zelda, she transforms from a tanned pirate captain into a pale princess in a dress, and her role requires her to wait in a castle for the hero to finish his quest. Which is what she does. And the point of the story is that this is wrong! The villain is wrong, and the hero's mentor is wrong—they're both hurting children and forcing them to reenact old roles in an old story, in their selfish quest to resurrect their long-dead kingdoms. Then breaking tradition, (I believe) Wind Waker Zelda is the first Zelda to wield the sacred Light Arrows and to take up an active combat role in the final battle. The happy ending is that Zelda turns back into Tetra, and she and Link set out to forge their own future. BUT THEN. The cheap sequel Phantom Hourglass (the equivalent of a direct-to-DVD Disney movie sequel tbh) pretty much opens with Tetra being turned into a stone statue. And she's a stone statue for the ENTIRE GAME until the hero rescures her. Clear-cut sidelining of a compelling female character, smells like misogyny to me. At least Tetra's identical granddaughter was a playable co-protagonist in the next sequel, but arguably Tetra founding a new monarchal country named the same as the ancient one and then actively continuing the tradition of making Princesses Zelda undermines the conclusion of Wind Waker. Tetra possibly has the most personality and most meaningful role out of all the Zeldas, and she's far from the biggest victim of misogyny here—but still, let's remember that even Tetra deserved better than she got.

2.) Was built up as a super-cool pirate leader antihero who helped out Link. Then, as soon as it's revealed that she's that era's incarnation of Zelda, she gets magically put in the standard Princess Zelda dress (which also makes her skin lighter for Some Reason), and she ends up being sequestered in a basement for her safety until the finale, where she actually gets to do something again.

3.) Idk if anyones talked about windwakers sequel game, phantom hourglass yet so i will. Dont go into ph expecting a lot of cool pirate zelda action because shes a statue for like most of it. Shes a statue and you have to go save her.

Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of

1.) Oh my god. Oh my goooooooood. She was like. Ok in botw (I don't know). But then in totk, they COULD have had her take a more active role, especially with her whole sage of time thing and the era she was in not having a "hero", but NO. She barely did anything, and then in the end she ended up sacrificing herself (at least turning into a dragon is new. Like I don't really have a problem with the dragon thing but man they dropped the fucking ball with everything else). Like one of the creators literally stated that Zelda HAD to be the damsel in distress (rescue her from a crystal, a castle, whatever) and yeah, they definitely continued that in totk. Please just give a mainline Zelda a sword or an active (fighting) role in the game I am BEGGING YOU. Damsels in distress aren't cool, especially when you hype them up to be super powerful!!! She fucking deleted the Calamity from existence in botw you could have done SOMETHING

2.) WHY CANT I EVER HAVE A MAINLINE ZELDA GAME AAAA

I hope someone else gives good propogands but this is specifically about Tears of the Kingdom. So before it came out, I tried to avoid anything and everything about the game so I could go in 100% blind but I did see a few images of course because internet people don’t tag or algorithms lol but the point it looked like Zelda was the protagonist or at least a swap where they’re both playable choices and you can swap between them because she and link looked so alike and I was so happy to play her and was like as much as I like link free my girl from never ending Princess saving needing and it was happening!!

It did not happen and she was again lost and felt like a repeat of the last game where I need to save her (not exactly the same but COMEON)

3.) forced to be a magic sealing princess when she wants to do science and build robots

#polls #preliminary round

[shoechoe]

Donatella and Diavolo for the ask game? (And maybe Squatizi? 🦈)

For Squatizi- I remember the mix of surprise and excitement I felt when I saw the two of them on my first watch of VA. At that point, I had kind of just assumed that Jojo had no actually on-screen LGBT+ characters (The only canonical non-cishet at that point was DIO, whose bisexuality was only confirmed by Araki and is never actually stated or shown in the work) and was simply popular with the community due to its general nature (which does appeal to a lot of gay subcultures and tastes in that way). The notorious Bury-Your-Gays moment with Sorbet and Gelato didn't help either.

So, when Tiziano and Squalo showed up, going so far as to fondle each other on-screen, I just went "holy shit". These two are actually gay? And we get to see it? Honestly, I cared less about the fight in that arc and was just interested in seeing what would be done with those two- I suppose it wasn't explicitly stated they were together, but the on-screen groping was kind of enough to tip you off. Just for that reason, I do have a fondness for them, and I do understand why people love them and mess around with them so much in fanon.

Though, while the novelty of an actual gay couple in Jojo excites me alone, much of their writing still frustrates me and they were far from what I'd consider "good representation". They had very little screentime and were really less two individual characters and more just two halves of one whole. The fight itself was underwhelming (which you articulated perfectly in a previous post of yours) and Squalo dying almost instantly after Tiziano instead of putting up any sort of fight after his mantra of revenge was disappointing. While "good representation" is not exactly my expectation knowing... the way Jojo is, it was still annoying.

I do like them and enjoy how people take their characters and expand upon the underwhelming amount that canon gives. They're not my favorite couple and I don't talk about them a lot, but I certainly favor the pairing and see why people focus on them so much.

As for Diavolo and Donatella: As you might've guessed, I have many thoughts about the two of them. I don't know how long this is going to be, so I'll put this under a cut.

I would not say I think about Donatella and Diavolo as a pairing in a particularly "shippy" way. In a lot of ways, I don't even really see them as a romance. They only interacted for an extremely short period of time, at about a few weeks maximum, and despite apparently growing attached enough to sleep together, they barely found out anything about each other and Diavolo abandoned her without so much as giving her his name.

I find Donatella incredibly interesting (and frustrating) to think about just for that reason. Diavolo is obviously extremely avoidant of people and has been so for his entire life, using aliases since he was young, killing his mother and burying her under his house's floorboards, and then killing his adoptive father and burning down his town when he found out. In all other ways, he shows dangerous precision, determination, and intelligence when it comes to erasing himself from the world.

So, on one hand, Donatella is a really interesting deviance in his behavior and a representation of the moral of Diavolo's character. Connecting and being known by other people is simply a part of being human; Diavolo tries his hardest to scrub every trace of his existence away and isolate himself in the search of evading the inevitable pitfalls of being human, but this is an impossible task. Even one little connection from years ago- in this case, a brief fling- spiralled into an unignorable marker of his existence, and that led to his downfall.

For anyone else, a brief date as a teenager would hardly be anything remarkable or consequential, but for Diavolo, his goal to erase himself completely just multiplies the consequences of any and all relationships he's had. What would likely be a connection anyone else would overlook is instead the main reason for the fall of Diavolo's empire. (You also have the fact that Diavolo was apparently irresponsible enough to get Donatella pregnant, which could say something about how Diavolo's avoidance of relationships makes him act haphazardly and make big mistakes in the relationships he did have.)

However, at the same time, Donatella is... odd to think about (and I believe this is also part of why she's talked about as little as possible in the story). It's very hard for me to imagine Diavolo, someone shown to be secretive since he was very young, having a fling with a random girl out of nowhere. Sure, him having a relationship could work, but a seemingly random brief date leading to an accident-baby just seems off and hard to imagine considering everything else we know about him. Believably expanding upon the idea with more detail while keeping Diavolo in character sounds rather difficult, which is why I think Vento Aureo just doesn't bother doing it. (Also, why would someone date and then sleep with a guy whose name they don't even know?)

Not to mention, throughout the entire story, in all of Diavolo's spiels about how the past is coming back to haunt him, I do not believe he ever even says Donatella's name. Trish only mentions her once when prompted in the Notorious B.I.G. arc, and the only information she gives about her father are the basic facts that he was Sardinian and briefly dated her mother as a teenager. We learn essentially nothing about the relationship that these two had to Donatella, and that's a big problem.

Diavolo is at least built to be mysterious, but Trish... isn't. Could she not have asked Donatella about what her father was like personality-wise during any point in her life? Did she have no opinion on what she was like as a mother? Did she garner no opinion on her father before it was revealed he was a crime boss?

While I can speculate, it's obvious to me that Donatella pretty much only exists in the story as a plot reason why Diavolo has a daughter and not much thought was put into her or this detail of Diavolo's past beyond that. I think it's equally hard for others to envision this, which is part of the reason why the misconception of Trish actually being Doppio's daughter is a thing; the anime even plays into this by expanding on their backstory to have Doppio be the one to meet Donatella instead.

However, as I've said before, we know that this isn't true and this anime addition is in fact kind of a plot hole. We see that Doppio doesn't recognize Donatella, being unreactive when holding a picture of her in both the manga and anime and laughing at the concept of having a daughter or a girlfriend.

This anime change is especially irritating considering the fact that there are other implications in how Donatella apparently knew Diavolo and not Doppio. According to their backstory in the manga, the described personality that their adoptive father and village came to know them as is "cowardly and clumsy, yet open-hearted"- describing Doppio to a T.

For clarification, the manga goes on to state that in the Jojo universe, people with DID have alters that are fully present since adolescence.

This suggests that both Diavolo and Doppio were around since early childhood, but the village people and his father only knew Doppio- which makes sense, because knowing Diavolo, he would probably keep to himself. So, then, the fact that Donatella apparently knew Diavolo and Doppio doesn't even recognize her would say something really interesting about their relationship alone; what made Diavolo comfortable enough to show himself to her? What prompted him to go out and meet her in the first place?

Also, this may be a bit of a tangent, but I really dislike how they attempt to characterize Donatella in the anime. Her dialogue comes across as extremely stilted and odd, which makes sense, considering it's just her repeating the list of Trish's interests in the manga. (Literally- rewatch the scene and compare it to the page.)

Unlike Trish, she gets no characterization beyond this "I love sparkling water and I hate smelly men and anything that isn't beautiful" spiel- honestly, she somehow comes off as more shallowly written than the grand total of zero lines she got in the manga... but I digress.

Diavolo and Donatella are really interesting to me, but the information we get about them in canon is almost less than bare-bones, which I find to be one of the major flaws in the story. (Seriously, Jojo's creation of really interesting implications about characters and then simply refusing to do anything with them is one of its most annoying tendencies, and it especially shows with Diavolo.) I do enjoy people attempting to expand upon them in fanworks with the very little we get, but I don't know if I'd call that "shipping"; just expanding upon a hinted relationship. All in all, it's a pairing with a lot of food for thought.

#sorry this took very long to answer- i got really busy for the past few days and couldn't be on tumblr much #ask game #asks #shoe talks a lot #squatizi #vento aureo #diadona #haven't read Testimone di Gangster yet- i promise i'll get to that. I'm just busy + have a very long reading list atm

[fresiants]

y'know when you read something ages ago and didn't think of it for many years, then try to get into that thing again - hp, only severus and remus related stuff tbh - and you find out the fandom is even more idiotic than you remember, by "fandom" meaning the marauders fans?

your last post made me remember how i'm still in shock people have this newfound fascination with regulus, invent crazy narratives where they basically give him severus' entire character's story, some even go as far as to disappear severus' from their aus, all in favor of giving regulus the space severus had as an spy, AND TEACHER EVEN! i just don't get it. instead of analyzing severus' character to try and understand even the things they don't like about him, they create a whole personality for a character with no real scenes in the stories, while trying to paint him as holy perfect, like he wasn't a black and sirius' kid brother; he wasn't going to be mr. kindness and perfection, no one in that sick family was.

i just? don't understand this wave of hp fans, if the source material is too much to work with, with what it has to offer, then maybe read another book series, a more sugar coated teenage book series? idk. i hate r*wling. i understand being apprehensive of the canon, but i don't like nothing they come up with. it's all the same corny shit but they paint everyone as goodie two shoes and completely ignore their wrongs, minus' severus'. severus can't be forgiven for his mistakes even though he was a child as well when he made them. i feel like the hp fanbase went even more to shit 🤷🏽‍♀️

Yep, and whenever we call them out, 90% of the them they would reply with : Fuck the canon. Which is funny cuz they refuse to stop dogshitting on canon!Severus. I found a character poll on twitter few weeks ago and I can't believe so many marauder fans were shocked that Severus is more popular than Barty and Rosier. Bitch, they were irrelevant 99% of the time of the whole series.

Someone even asked them : Why would Rosier and Barty be more popular than Severus when they were barely there in the book? And they replied : Because they're hot.

Yup. They will fake anyone's whole personality and backgrounds as long as they're 'hot'. And they're not even hot, FANCAST DOESN'T COUNT. They don't give a fuck if someone was a death eater, they never did. (they use this excuse a lot to hate on Severus) God forbid ugly people exist. Marauder fans give me high school mean girl vibe.

Invent crazy narratives where they basically give him Severus entire character's story

Their inability to be creative is so funny to me. Bitches really had to yank Severus' whole storyline and slap it on their favs to make them interesting. Why in the world would Regulus Black work as a spy and teacher in hogwarts? Why would he ask Dumbledore for help? Who is he trying to protect? Kreacher? "Hide Kreacher, I'll do anything" "Kreacher? After all this time?" "Always" lmaooooo.

While trying to paint him as holy perfect, like he wasn't a black and Sirius' kid brother.

They choose to ignore the fact that Regulus Black gave 0 fuck about Muggleborns getting tortured and killed. The only reason he changed sides was because Voldemort tried to hurt Kreacher, someone he genuinely cared about. Sounds a bit familiar to you? Yep, he got the same reasoning as Severus. But one got unnecessary hate while the other was glorified. Ironic.

They paint everyone as goodie two shoes and completely ignore their wrongs, minus Severus.

I've seen too many marauder fans defending the sexual assault during SWM. At this point, they're not even trying to 'ignore' their wrongdoings, it is the opposite actually. They're literally enabling bullying and sa which is hella disgusting.

And you're right, op. The fandom is getting shittier and shittier each day. This is why I refuse to interact with anyone outside of Snapedom.

#severus snape #pro snape #pro severus snape #anti marauders #pro severus #ask #professor snape #anti marauders stans #my take

[lettheladylead]

Abner, Fethry's brother?

Oooh excellent pick. Abner/Whitewater is a funny character because he (like Matilda) is a recognizable part of the Duck Family despite appearing in barely any comics, he's just lucky enough to be featured in Don Rosa's duck family tree.

Brief explanation of Whitewater Duck: he's a Barks creation that was only in a few pages of his intro comic. Then Rosa included Whitewater in his family tree and decided that his real name is actually Abner and he's Fethry's brother.

(There's a lesser known German duck author who suggested Whitewater and Fethry are brothers a few years before Rosa did, but idk if Rosa was referencing that or if they both came up with the concept separately lol I have no idea how much contact there really was between duck authors from different countries back then)

First thing to note about him: he existed before Fethry did! Whitewater Duck had nothing to do with Fethry and was just introduced as one of Donald's mysterious cousins (Donald actually refers to him as a "distant cousin" so he probably wasn't supposed to be a first cousin in Barks' mind but whatever whatever)

good funny dialogue

we as a society should bring back using "lick" instead of "defeat"

Whitewater's second appearance is in 2004 when he and Douglas McDuck are hanging out (Douglas refers to Whitewater as his nephew, which is once again a reminder than nephew/niece/aunt/uncle cannot be taken literally in duck comics, they're just community terms)

(for those who don't know, Douglas McDuck is a Danish creation and a cousin of Scrooge's, only in maybe 8 comics, if I remember correctly his whole deal is that he's a gold digger who could only ever find fool's gold so he's got a bad attitude and really bad luck)

(Whitewater just walked into this saloon and started arm wrestling random guys)

this image of donald putting on boots is strangely cute

Whitewater has a fun personality I feel like people usually portray him as always grumpy but he seems like he's someone who finds a lot of joy in competition and masculinity

Okay so Whitewater's final comic was never translated into english but i've got it thanks to the french. Donald and Daisy are trying to win a picnic basket contest (idk) and Whitewater shows up with his new girlfriend...Donna Duck! Frequently headcanon'd to be Daisy's sister (not canon), Donna is Donald's ex from Mexico

this comic doesn't really add anything to Whitewater's character except that he's definitely the jealous type (no one is surprised)

(he and Daisy are both dressed as Donald 'cause they're both trying to trick Donna for jealousy reasons)

& that's it! There you have all of Whitewater/Abner Duck's appearances lol most of what fans say about Abner are just headcanon from what I can tell

#abner duck #whitewater duck #duck comics #anon asks #carro answers #duck family tree #family tree

[hauntmansion]

【MAYU】チミドロスイッチ / Bloodstained Switch【Fanmade PV ft. @RyuSouta】

This is , to be honest , my favourite song fron Evillious . It's not the most plot relevant of the series and it actually barely has any relevance at all , but it's my favourite and the chorus has been on my head ever since the first time I heard it .

I never really thought about it before now , but the chorus lines :

The one who pressed the switch, it wasn't me.

The one who pressed the switch, it was another me.

These lines are soooo sys coded , like "No, *I* didn't press the switch, it was someone else." I know this isn't the canon reason , it's very related to a kind of sickness or virus or sin , I can't remember it that well right now , that exists in the lore of the series . But this would be a very interesting explanation .

Because this happens in a factory , of course there are cameras , especially considering this is a very dangerous switch that would have security at least in form or cameras , so they would have seen someone that (to them) looks like her pressing the switch in the security footage ... But everyone looks the same when they're using the same body so it could very well not have been her , she could be a system and it could have been an alter with less impulse control or more sadistic tendencies .

SHE EVEN SAYS IT RIGHT AFTER THIS CHORUS :

Hey Doctor,

Papa's death was really my alter ego's fault.

Which only makes my bullshit theory stronger .

How are you gonna put THESE HERE SYMPTOMS on the screen and call it something else ? MOTHY WHEN I GET YOU MOTHY , MOTHY WHEN I GET YOU MOTHY .

AND THEN on the little downbeat song break she talks about how when she was little a girl that wanted to kill grew inside her ????

MAYU YOU'RE A FUCKING SYSTEM ????? I'm gonna go insane . I swear .

#🪐 #! THE SHARPEST LIVES #music #about evillious chronicles #Youtube

[prosa2002]

The whole don't touch a baby rabbit thing is a myth just fyi in case you didn't know! The meat eating rabbit thing is a cool idea for a character though, what do they look like

This is a reference to a reblog of mine on a post about sharing your fursonas, in which I left these tags: #a cat fish#as in a cat but with fish features#not really a fursona cause they're more cat-girl ish than full anthropomorphic animal#but i could turn her into a fursona if i tried#i have two unrelated to me that are a rat with a split swen-shut stomach based on a dead mouse that entered my room and got caught in a trap#and one of those really fluffy rabbits with long fur#except he is based on how rabbit mother will eat their babies if theyre touched by humans#so this one survived being eaten but became a meat eater as a consequence#hes nice enough to not do cannibalism... but he could

(I wrote most of this on my new phone, where autocorrect doesn't work. So I'll take this chance to also remind people english is not my first language.)

Okay, didn't know that. But the whole idea was because I was interested in how an herbivore animal would resource to eat flesh specifically to eat their children.

I went to read about it right now and it happens due to something wrong with the babies (they're gonna die) or something wrong with the mom (shes gonna die and be unable to care for them or she lacks nutrients), so its something related to it being a last resource... oh well.

Anyways, here's the character (this is from 2 years ago, so it's traditional art, and i can't scan it, so I edited it instead :/)

He sometimes wears a mask to hide his mouth because it is full of sharp teeth. And idk if its visible in the picture, but he has some sort of thin shawl in his waist, which is the last thing his mom left behind. (BTW, I make all my male characters a bit androgynous/fem cause when i decided to learn how to draw guys I focused on what i wanted to look like and now i cant stop drawing them like this :/)

Anyways, his story is that he's part of a species of anthropomorphic rabbits (humans exist in this world too, I dont remember if i made other species canon, just rabbits plus an hare character), but a specific kind (visually based on angora rabbits) that lives isolated from human society.

Basically his mom ventured too far from her village and had to take shelter in the residence of a human. She gave birth there, the human touched the children at some point out of concern and... things happened and he only was capable of saving one.

What I came up with was that her kind got isolated from humans for a reason, in this case a curse, and that making contact with a human at that age is enough to mess the antro bunny up. He grew sharp teeth and basically can barely eat typical rabbit food, actually even preferring rabbit flesh (having in mind normal non-antro rabbits exist). He was raised by that same human. I don't remember what I came up in relation to that.

Also, there are other kinds of antro rabbits in this universe without this kind of problem.

Anyways, he goes on a search to find his mom again. However, the catch is that not even his mom nor any of his kind are aware of why they avoid humans, and his mom thought that the human had killed all her children (cause her clothes had blood in them) and that the trauma made her forget. So she's not even aware she ate her children.

It's kinda fucked, I'm noticing now that I'm writing this down.

Disclaimer: This is not my typical type of art. I sometimes draw non human characters, but I prefer to draw my characters looking relatively human. From the top of my head, this character, two moth related ones and one rat one are the only furry characters i created with a fully set design, out of my hundreds of human ones. So basically, dont expect this type of art much. (Or any art at all, I'm lazy and i dont post anything here 😓)

#my art #art #me #prosa2002 #Éden Lawrence #i have no idea what tags i use for these types of posts #ask #tw cannibalism #cannibalism tw #cannibalism mention #original character #oc #oc art #furry character #character concept #character design

[girlbossminerva]

I forgot how heteronormative the Fairy Tail fandom was back in 2015-2019, it could have been happening way before, but still.

Whenever I read fanfics religiously, I began reading Fairy Tail fanfiction years ago and it was always one of these books, that I read and it was either betrayal stories (I will not specify, some may already know) or...

Slayer Season stuff, kill me, and when reading these stories, I would see ships... I had no idea even existed but because I was dumb as hell and didn't finish the show, meaning I was walking on eggshells towards spoilers, I didn't but I remember Acnologia being mentioned and it unlocked some shitty memories.

AnnaLogia (Anna Heartfilia x Acnologia)

RogUra (Rogue Cheney x Kagura Mikazuchi

Don't know how this came to be, people see them as the Natsu and Lucy of the past but my interception being that Acnologia is a genocidal type of guy while Anna barely knows of his existence, I don't want their defenders coming after me when I say I ship AnnRene (Anna x Irene) Wait- Milfs together, Irene being with someone who won't leave her, can listen to her, while they stay in the library finding information and sharing with each other in a cottage- GUESS WHO JUST GOT A NEW CRACK SHIP- men didn't work out for Irene, so women would do much better- all in all, I understand what they're going for, but just no. Just no.

RogUra (Rogue Cheney x Kagura Mikazuchi

I don't understand. How in the fu-, I think what they were going for was how Kagura owned Yukino's life for about three days, and in the equivalent of StinYu, they needed RoguRa, They've never had any interaction, Kagura only argued with Sting over Yukino being in Mermaid Heel or SaberTooth, but even with all her interaction with men, she lacks interest in them, hell even Mashima didn't show signs of any guy approaching Kagura, fuck I might have jinxed my girl, although it pissed me off on how she got exposed to a lot of men in her "fight" against Dimaria, when Kagura is with Erza, genuinely she's more romantic with Erza instead of a MALE, Kagura KISSED Erza, KISSED!! Farther than any of the semi-canon ships can come up to, Kagura asked to be little Erza's little sister? Nah, it was avoiding her obvious wlw attraction, Rogue never interacted with her, he acknowledges her abilities, Kagura vs Millianna, he was genuine Kagura would win, I mean ofc she would, he saw her against Yukino, against Lyon and that mf is strong.

#Monet just rants

Go off queen!!

A lot of ships, specially some so-called crackships from the fandom really are rooted in heteronormativity, like with Rogue x Kagura or bickslow x lisanna (which later got more people actually putting in the thought process for their dynamic but i'm convinced it started to get lis out of the way of nalu), i don't know what kind of brain rot the early fandom had to just write "female character is hated on for no reason" or "smut that's this 👌 close to being omegaverse". I started reading ft fics in like 2014 and the first one i read was a just so full of lisanna and loke bashing cause of course they're "keeping Lucy and Natsu from being able to date each other", and today i find it so out of place cause i remember the rest of the plot was perfectly fine.

I feel like annalogia is like EndLu two electric boogaloo, like the pipeline was: nalu->EndLu ->AcnoLu (i remember seeing that being shipped)-> Annalogia

Which is objectively inferior to Annarene, like if you want to ship her with someone who's partially a dragon Irene is right there and asking for her character to do something. I'm a big fan of the possible things you can do with them even if I have never written about them besides them being funky lesbian vodka aunts in a luvia selkie au and i also love when milfs are paired together.

Shipping Kagura with any male character should be considered lesbophobia (/j). Of all possibly canon queer characters, i think she's the one where is the most explicit that she's a into women even before she kissed Erza, and has never shown the interest to men that other female characters have. To ship her with any guy, but ESPECIALLY with rogue who i think she has never had a meaningful conversation with (correct me if i'm wrong) is heteronormativity at it's finest and i have the theory it was made like that because people who shipped sabertooth members with each other were too cowardly to consider sting x yukino x rogue and Minerva was not redeemed yet. Kagura is like peak dyke activity/relatability, even if she did confuse her attraction to Erza, this woman has never non-platonically liked men in her life.

And ok i know some of these ships have shippers that actually see how they could happen or how it would work out in canon. more power to you, that's not my issue. my issue is that it's obvious many of the most accepted "crackships" were straight because the fandom couldn't even fathom lesbianism as a viable option

#straight outta the mailbox #monet visits #fairy tail salt

[rubykgrant]

Something funny about an Anime Show that got to have a Movie Special with a Big American run in the early days, the people releasing it here were never like... 100% confident that people would "get it". Obviously the anime was popular with the fans, but only counting on existing fans specifically seemed too niche, not much of a profit. They wanted to make sure that kids who had never even watched these shows could and enjoy the movie. Which kinda... doesn't work? At least not for a few of them, because these movies would either be "non-canon" and taking place at some random spot within the shows plot, and it barely even made sense for the people familiar with it. OR, it very specifically contained important information from the show, characters and plot-lines all linked together, so you can't just jump on in, you needed to SEE the show itself to get it! The amusing solution was to put in at least one, but sometimes two or three, "exposition intros", which were basically like a brief clip-show with characters from the series explaining things to the audience. A few of these intros also existed, in a sense, as part of the original movies, but were usually there to help recap where the plot of the show was when this movie took place. Other times, a whole new thing was made just for the American audiences. Not all of these movies got released for theaters, some were straight to video (that's right, VHS TAPES), and some had special premiers on TV.

An especially funny situation I remember; The American release of the DigiMon Movie. They had two whole exposition intros, one a clip-show recap where the characters Tai and Mimi basically explained the first few episodes of Adventure 01, and how Digivolution worked. Let me tell you, Digivolution is COOL AS HECK when you see it happen, and then find out what it means with an explanation, but when you are given a verbal list of all the DigiMon evolution steps with the phrase "Go Digi Grow!" repeated through it all, it's not... super interesting. THEN, the Digimon Movie also had another intro, which for some REASON involved this other animated show called Angela Anaconda (which was a trip, oh man). The characters from THAT series were all going to see the DigiMon Movie, and had like, a day-dream or something where they could Digivolve into bigger anime versions of themselves, and it was more confusing that anything. This helped nobody who was unfamiliar with Digimon understand it.

Oh, and the movie itself was a compilation of (I think) 3 different DigiMon movie specials. Don't get me wrong, they're actually awesome! They have really interesting and visually pleasing animation, plus cool plots. Also, the English Dub was hilarious. They just threw in so many nonsense jokes in there, it was the funniest thing ever. I think the only problem was, the first little movie was sort of a flash-back, and while it has an AWESOME scene (one of my all-time favorites), the rest of the movies jump ahead a bit, so it feels less connected. Just to have them all together in one chunk, the movie where they first deal with InferMon, the movie where they save CherubiMon, and the movie where InferMon returns have a stronger running theme. Anyway, that's beside the point. My actual point was- those exposition intros were BONKERS

#hahaha #my thoughts #movies #digimon

[xler0]

why do u think dekinobi is more popular than other non-canon ships like, let's say, jaisune?

Bcs they (and me) want to duhhh 🤓🥰

For longer read, well there are many reasons that i can think of, but ofc its still just my opinion.

Nobita is the mc. He's mostly the main guy for story telling. So Its easier to find non-canon ships with nobita in it. Hell, i think the most popular non canon ship in doraemon rn would be doranobi. We saw nobita and knew nobita better compared to other characters, its bound to happen that he got shipped with many else (theres even plenty works where he got shipped with other boys in the Doraemon movie), like with most shounen, especially when they started sopping wet and pathetic (yuuji x all, denji x all, naruto x all, etc etc)

Personally, i shipped them because there area so little moments abt them. Bcs of the scarcity, when they actually showed up on screen together, i always cherish that moment and it fuels me. Something abt the feeling of yearning and longing keeps me going

The dynamic of smart x not smart is p common in fandoms. I mean, thats what happened in the main (shizunobi) but this time make it male and shizuka just happened to have a male carbon copy.

Both are 'conveniently attractive' and by that I mean easier to draw. Just look at the many shizunobi fanarts. Or even lucanobi. It's because they're easy to draw and didn't have any unique physical traits. It's easier to translate to other style, maybe even a more anime-ish style. With others, for example suneo with his pointy mouth, i personally would love to draw him looking as close as possible to the original source. But, With that limitation in minds it's hard to find ways to draw him in many angles/ scenarios without it looking too different from how i envisioned it. If you can, good for you, and this is just my skill issue (even now i still have a hard time drawing doraemon proportionately). But im not invested enough to try or care.

And with that too, idk abt you anon, but have you ever thought of keep making the shippy content you want? Like, original works. Write or draw for that ship. The dknb tags in tumblr only got a bit of traction bcs i personally kept posting. I remembered in 2022 when it's still very quiet in the tags (even now its actually still quiet). From that, others who shared the same sentiment would flock or maybe even felt encouraged to make their own shippy content.

You think those dknb fanarts or fics pop up from nowhere? No... there's ppl that made those into existence bcs

They want to

They felt encouraged by others' works

Like, i barely even wrote a decent fic but i always try for them bcs i do love them and now we have quite a few fics to fill thee tags in ao3... And like, I'm not paid to do this. I just genuinely like dknb, and when i discovered the english/ international side of dknb is pretty barren, i started filling it with either doodles or fics.

It's really not that hard. If you want your ship/ ideas to be more popular, work on it. Draw something. Or write something. If you feel it sucks, yeah well that's what i felt when i saw my older doodles or fics loll. And that's fine, bcs it will sucks. But you'll learn from it too and got better.

Sorry it got so long, but i do want others to thrive in their own doraemon shippy fandoms too. Just give it a try, really. That's the key

#doraemon #my ask

[lesbiansanemi]

Honestly, that kagerza kiss felt like blatant queer bait to me, so I could never honestly enjoy that moment. Kagerza could have been such a wonderful ship, but that moment was just so bizarre and enforced of a 'reason' to kiss her that my mind instantly went to the conclusion that Mashima added that scene to give us another of his barely disguised fetishes again.

I can't believe there are people that could take "Kagura kissed Erza because Kagura kissed Jellal, so it's an apology" seriously. OR as an enforcement of Jerza in any way.

Mashima made them kiss because Mashima thought it'd be funny to see two girls kiss for barely comprehensible reasons. That's so upsettingly all there is to any semblance of queer representation in this show, sigh.

Oh I completely agree. I joke about that kiss a lot, but I genuinely hate that is exists in canon, because it exists like that. I think I remember actually flinching the first time I watched it because of how awful the build up/explanation was.

Like... Kagura's crush could have been left as subtext, and I would have been fine with that, and it would have made her pretty much the only genuinely good queer coded character within the series, but then that kiss happened, and she was tainted with the same queer-baity, fetishizing mockery that the rest of the queer coded characters within the series got.

Mashima doesn't even try and hide that he fetishizes wlw actions. It's blatant with the way he wrote Dimaria and Brandish's relationship (the whole thing is so gross and fetishizing, not to mention how it enforces the creepy, controlling lesbian stereotype that a lot of cishet ppl have with the way he wrote Dimaria specifically). We also see it with the way that Cana gropes other women a lot, and the way she flirts with them (it's almost always purely sexual flirting). Like the bastard actually gave us four canon wlw characters with Kagura, Cana, Dimaria, and Brandish, but queer folks either hate them because of how fetishizing and uncomfortable they are (completely understandable), or feel bad for liking them because of the awful way they're handled and it feels like accepting the worst scraps imaginable.

It's also made even more apparent that he fetishizes wlw and sees the queer community as a whole as a joke with the way he wrote Freed, another character that is queer-coded to the point of it basically being explicitly canon now. He's the only male character I can think of that's actually queer-coded in the series, and it is constantly used as a joke. It's never really fetishized or sexualized the same way the wlw are. It's proof that Mashima sees gay men as jokes, and lesbians as a sexual fantasy. It's disgusting.

And then the fact that so many cishet fans really will use these queer-coded characters as ways to "support" their m/f ships, or they buy Mashima's shitty explanations and excuses for them that he presents in canon is infuriating. Especially because so many of them are quick to say the characters aren't really queer or Mashima isn't using queer actions as props to m/f ships, Kagura really did just kiss Erza for Jellal, or Laxus always just ignores Freed's advances because he likes Mirajane, or Cana doesn't actually like women, she's just flirty with everyone, or or or— Like whether queer folks are talking about the blatant queer actions/subtext in the series because they're criticizing the way Mashima included it, or because they're choosing to engage with it in a more positive light for whatever reason, can you shut up about your m/f ships for more than two seconds? There's a time and a place, and when queer folks are discussing things like this, that ain't it. It's distasteful, and annoying, and downright awful. Like sure, whatever, you can choose to interpret it as Laxus ignores Freed because of Mirajane, or for some god forsaken reason buy the stupid Jellal excuse, but when queer folks are discussing it and they don't agree or are criticizing Mashima's writing of queer characters and calling it out for how awful and problematic it is, don't fucking start with that shit. That makes you part of the problem. Now you're using queer actions/characters as props to m/f romance in the same way, and when that's all you use them for, yeah, it's not fucking great.

But yeah... definitely completely understand why you would hate that kiss (because I do to), and why you wouldn't be able to enjoy Kagerza as a ship because of the way it was handled in canon. I joke a lot about how gay the series actually is, but I definitely acknowledge that it's in the shittiest way imaginable and there is no way in hell I'm considering any of these characters actual queer rep, because they only exist as jokes and fetish content.

#fairy tail #kagura mikazuchi #dimaria yesta #brandish myu #cana alberona #freed justine #asks #kaz rambles