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hamliet · 13 days

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I'm really worried now about how bnha is going to end. I fell in love with the story because a lot of horikoshi's hero characters (nana, enji, hawks for example) were allowed to have flaws while his villain characters were still painted as sympathetic and human without having their villainy be erased. Now I'm feeling like hori is trying to turn this into a good vs bad kind of thing and the message is going more and more into the direction of some people are in fact born evil. on the one hand, we are constantly being told that all villains are human and that deku is special because he can see that, on the other hand we have AFO who is supposed to be the bad guy behind it all and heartless and whom the narrative never sympathizes with. it's all very odd to me. You could potentially argue that afo is a product of his environment and that nana, Kotaro, and shigaraki all made their choices in the end no matter how much they were being manipulated, but I got the feeling that the narrative doesn't believe that and even if it does, it bothers me that it refuses to acknowledge it. it feels so empty and cowardly, like horikoshi can't decide between "this guy is the big bad and just pure evil" and "every villain has a human heart" and like he doesn't actually believe in redemption as a concept, only in good people who do bad things but don't mean it and bad people who are really just bad. there's just something gross about it in general

I mean... yeah. That's why it's a thematic mess.

I will say that I think Hori isn't attempting to argue that he doesn't believe in redemption; it's more that

he wants to please everyone, and actually

he wants everyone to root for redemption.

By Trying to Please Everyone, You've Pleased No One.

I've actually talked about this before particularly in regards to the Endeavor arc, where it felt thematically confused because he was trying to placate both sides--people who didn't want Enji redeemed because they feared he would wash away the abuse, and people who wanted him redeemed. And we know Horikoshi initially had different plans for Enji but changed it, so this is partly to blame as well.

But the reality is it's a stronger story if the story isn't written to be enjoyed by everyone. If people can dislike parts of it. Even if people scream about how it's morally bad for saying circumstances influence how people become or something like that. (Those attacks come from genuine pain, and I honestly get the feeling that Hori is very, very aware of this, especially considering how visceral he writes abuse. But that doesn't mean they are themselves valid criticisms.)

You can't please everyone. You just can't. No one wants every single ice cream flavor melted together. Not every story will be for everyone. And no, that doesn't mean you should be deliberately hurtful, but if you're writing a story where the abuser is redeemed, if you want to portray the abuser as human, some victims may not want to read it. But many will want to read it. And both are okay. Some people will misunderstand you, and that's just--life.

The reality is that in this world everyone has competing needs, and what can meet someone's need doesn't meet another's, and that's okay. The beauty of humanity is that with all the billions of us on this earth, someone should be able to help meet someone else's needs in a certain area. You can't feed everyone, but you can feed someone, and watering down the story so that it's basically now devoid of nutrients/what makes a story interesting doesn't actually help anyone. By trying to please everyone, you've pleased no one.

Hori Is Very Pro-Redemption

I genuinely think Hori somehow decided to try to make Shigaraki extremely palatable not because he doesn't believe in redemption, but because he wants everyone to believe in it and root for Shigaraki.

It's not unique for him to retcon characters' mistakes; like I said, he's done this with Enji, with All Might, and with Hawks where he very obviously swerves from the initial plan. However, that weakens the very themes and the characters, and makes the story less interesting and objectively less well-written.* And now this AFO reveal, considering it's the main plot, kinda throws these more subplot ideas to the back burner and weakens the entire frame of the story rather than just the subplot.

So Hori's into redemption. The problem is that he doesn't know how to convince everyone that redemption is worth it, and so makes it so obvious that it's devoid of any actual interesting questions we can ponder. Essentially if you refuse redemption for Shig now, what's wrong with you? It's nigh morally impossible not to.

But I, Redemption Arc #1 Fan, like it when it's questionable. Redemption, for me, is never about deserve.

It's disappointing, but I've also seen way worse lol in terms of thematically undermining a story at its ending. So, no, I'm not happy about it and I will critique it. But I still want to see the characters I've loved for so long get their happy endings.

*Yes, "good writing" is an opinion; however, there are general consensuses of what constitute good and bad writing. This type of thing--removing agency completely in the last hour--is bad writing.

#ask hamliet #bnha #mha 418 #afo

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flowersofstarlight · 2 months

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youtube

After watching this video, it really made me get tears in my eyes in a good way. It really means a lot to me. Looking back to my childhood memories and rewatching all G4 episodes and watching Make Your Mark episodes, it reminded me why I love MLP so much. It’s not because I love horses, or the colorful ponies. It’s because it makes me happy and it gives me comfort. I grew up with MLP: FIM ever since it came out in 2010.

I remember crying a bit after watching the final episode in the final season. MLP G4 still holds dear to my heart, no matter what just like Minecraft: Story Mode, Steven Universe and all the old Disney Movies in the 1900s. And I still love and appreciate everything in both G4 and G5.

While I admit that G5 is very flawed and the writings could’ve been better. A lot of people complain about the story, the design of the characters, etc. and I can respect that, I understand the hate, and why they don’t like G5 and prefer G4 more.

But for me, I don’t hate it and I still enjoy it as much as other MLP fans do. I acknowledge its flaws and it may not be as good as the G4, but I still like G5. There is no right answer for which is better. Both G4 and G5 are flawed just like other shows and movies that are not perfect, and that’s okay. Plus, no one should judge or try to change their opinions and bully the fans because they enjoy watching MLP. Because it’s wrong to just take their happiness away from the things that make us happy.

We have different experiences from what we grew up with. We all should respect each other instead of just throwing so much hate and negative things at each other because of our different opinions and what we enjoy.

I’m not saying MLP deserves better to have better writing in the plot of the story, nor do we have to agree on everything. I’m saying that everyone, including new kids, should enjoy watching MLP, no matter what age and gender you are despite all the flaws, the changes and how silly MLP is. Because it makes all of us feel happy.

If you love them, good on you. If you don’t like them, that’s fine. If you don’t like G5 and prefer the old Generations of MLP more, that’s fine too. And I’m here to say that I enjoyed G5 as much as G4. And you should never stop loving something that makes you happy. I may not be a big fan of MLP anymore, but I’ll always cherish it.

#youtube #mlp #my little pony #mlp fim #mlp friendship is magic #mlp g5 #mlp g4 #my little pony friendship is magic #my little pony new generation #mlp a new generation

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house-of-mirrors · 2 years

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Finally finished reading the whole Moving Castle trilogy and I'm full of warm and fuzzy feelings :]

I simply love the way that Diana Wynne Jones writes. At least 10 separate and seemingly inconsequential points are introduced through the course of the book, and then in the last chapter there are at least 10 Chekhov's guns firing at once, and maybe you picked up on some foreshadowing or maybe you didn't but regardless it all fits together like a nice puzzle. You know the characters are never in any real danger, but you still feel the narrative tension, and the characters are written in such a way with realistic flaws and motivations that you can't help but care about them. There are as many objectively hilarious moments as there are endearing.

The worldbuilding proposes fascinating concepts of the multiverse without beating you over the head with it. This exists, no need to explain, just run with it. Too much fantasy takes itself too seriously. It feels like going to a Renaissance Faire where you can just forget about the real world for a while and go on an adventure. I can put aside the troubles of the real world and accept for a few hundred pages that okay, this is what we're doing, the king needs to be protected, the monster needs to be defeated, all the characters get the happy ending they want, and these random people can do magic because why not. Too much fantasy tries too hard to be subversive. Which isn't to say the Moving Castle trilogy isn't subversive: no one is a typical hero, and things are never as they seem on the surface. But the tropes that are used and the tropes that are subverted are done so for a reason and enrich the narrative rather than bungling it.

You don't need to throw random plot twists in for shock value. You don't need to be self aware or poke fun at the genre you're writing in. You just have to tell a good story and commit to it. What's all this with the modern trend of making speculative fiction "realistic?" By definition of the genre, it isn't realistic! That's the point. I don't need explanations for how a wizard came from Wales to another world, or why a little white dog is the protector of the realm, or why a carpet merchant got a prophecy. I just want to enjoy the escapism of the story.

Final obligatory comment that yes, there are small details here or there that were clearly written in the 1980's and would be different today. But no book or author is without flaw because the real world is not without flaw, and I can acknowledge the context in which something was written and extend grace to gloss over little parts in favor of the many, many good and important parts. And I feel like I'm entitled to love these books and this author when we still have people raving over HP after all JKR has done, but I digress

Final-final obligatory note that loving Sophie and Howl is bi and trans culture, reading these books made me more queer, thank you and goodnight

#howls moving castle #diana wynne jones #castle in the air #house of many ways #literature review #as an aspiring fantasy author I want my writing to evoke similar feelings to her writing #these books and this author are very important to me and nobody can change that #long post

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chocobox · 6 months

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i love how posts about why it's unethical to enjoy hetalia are always so condescending that they treat hetalia fans like little piss brained idiots who don't even know who mussolini was. they're like "ummm, you dooo realize that this show serves a propagandistic function by depicting imperial japan, fascist italy, and nazi germany as cutesy little friends hanging out and getting up to silly gay escapades." and it's like... yes, i do know that. i am an adult. you don't need to be telling me germany's design is fucked up because of the way it incorporates traits defined by hitler's ideal, i got it. i know. figured that one out on my own, babe.

this may shock you but sometimes people can acknowledge the flawed aspects of the things they consume and still like other bits of them. i can think that hetalia is thoroughly enjoyable and has really fun characters while also criticizing a lot of the decisions that led to these characters' inception, and the way that the show endears us to characters who seemingly represent fascistic regimes. i hold the opinion that the way the show approaches history is flawed because, in an attempt to stay light-hearted and comedic, it rarely addresses historical events in a way that allows them to reflect poorly on any of the characters morals. for instance, the colonization of the american continent being reduced to cutesy white boy adoptive family drama. i also hold the opinion that the fact that the show never really addresses the more fraught bits of history through a serious lens is what makes it as enjoyable as it is, since the characters are never explicitly stated to hold any extremely bigoted beliefs. it's a weird little double-edged sword, knowing that the silence is both the reason hetalia sucks and the reason it's even enjoyable. but i can criticize the writing in a lucid way while also not shaming myself for the enjoyment i derive from it, because i trust myself not to go "ludwig's really not all that bad to have onscreen, i guess nazis are okay." i'm not a child, you know? you don't need to condescend to me.

i know what the issues are, and i'm not 'endorsing' them, we just have different boundaries when it comes to what we can stomach in the things we consume. it comes off as so snide to criticize something to the conclusion of "and this is why you can't/shouldn't like it." like... okay? and what are you going to do about it? why am i beholden to your views on what is and isn't okay, o great tumblr user? it's all just so silly, and you'd think people could leave this behavior behind in the 2010s, but they... haven't. i know this because i saw some of the og "you shouldn't like hetalia" posts recently, and the people who made them are still on that shit in the exact same way!!! like genuinely, you need to learn how to hold your opinions while staying in your lane, and not using your personal dislike of any piece of media to justify judging people and coming to conclusions about their morals and values as quickly as possible. life isn't a game of picking out all of the bad guys, and it becomes a lot more enjoyable once you recognize that.

#sparkletwinkles

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tovaicas · 11 months

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@vexatious-knight sure, I can get into it! I know I make it seem like I utterly hated HW in those last few points but I actually don’t, it’s one of my fav expacs. it’s mostly just that I like to bitch abt the weaker parts of things I like bc constructive criticism is love and the finest form of flattery to me.

details under the cut. this is gonna be real long lol I’m sorry

ARR: full warning, I did ARR in a complete state of ‘near mental breakdown from uni stress’ kinda fugue, combined with me being more focused on Learning The Game than paying close attention to the writing (as it goes with the early stages of a new video game), so my initial memories of ARR are a lil’ hazy. regardless I’m in the camp that it Wasn’t That Bad, and knowing the backstory behind its existence makes it easier for me to forgive a lot of it’s flaws. it’s slow and a little poorly paced and very long (and the scions have little character, and the less that’s said abt their voice acting the better, tho I miss some ARR voices like ARR-ysayle, misgardsormr, and merlwyb), but it’s otherwise a fine introduction to the game. I disagree with the fandom optic of ‘skip ARR you don’t need it!’ and how people act like it’s the worst content in the game, bc ARR sets up at least some of the basics for what happens down the line, and again I don’t think it’s that bad. it’s definitely not winning any narrative awards, but it’s serviceable (esp. for smth cooked up quickly after the near-demise of a previous game version).

HW: so far competing w/ ShB for my fav expac. something to note is that I’m a writer, not a game designer, so some of my criticisms are petty just because I theoretically have the time and ability to expand as much as I want on the things I feel could’ve been done better, because I do. I understand that sometimes game design and MMO writing is just Like That bc of time and scope restraints. okay.

I generally really enjoyed HW - though I think it had a couple of missteps, it generally kept a tight narrative and kept sight of its themes. Ishgard is still my favourite setting (bc who doesn’t like rubbernecking a dumpster fire) and I like how it flipped a lot of character genres on their heads (estinien is the broody dark character but he explicitly isn’t an asshole, he’s just traumatized; aymeric is the cool collected golden boy but displays an impulsivity (that gets someone he respects killed) that you’d more expect out of someone like estinien; ysayle is almost sisterly in how much she cares for other people, and instead of being the violent cult leader you initially knew her as she’s literally the matron for a group of outcasts abandoned and harmed by the system). I like how uncertain it initially feels, I enjoy the couple of moments where the wol starts feeling less like a player avatar and more like a realized person by having character reactions and traumas (they’re utterly devastated by haurchefant’s death, and are shown to be explicitly traumatized and worn down), it does a good job of not sugarcoating how much of a hellhole ishgard is, and for the most part it does a fairly good job of having people like aymeric recognize they’re complicit in why their country is this way and making real meaningful steps to change it. I liked the revelations abt what was really going on w/ the dragonsong war.

also i’m native, so seeing a catholic church analogue get thoroughly dunked on, acknowledge, and make actual steps towards reparations (while acknowledging that an apology requires actual action and not just words) for a crime they committed is a little bit more personal to me than it might be for some others.

as for things I think were weaker....I’ve mentioned a few of them before. like I said a few times I think estinien was an exceptionally flat character and that the reveal could’ve been so much better had he been allowed to have a modicum of growth and agency and actually been made to grapple with the reality of the situation and what it means for him and his sense of self. HW has a weird fixation on humbling ysayle (ravana, focusing on how ‘wrong’ she was during its most important scene despite the fact her not knowing makes little sense bc vidofnir) and the reveal + her completely unnecessary death makes it harder to enjoy for me. speaking of, I find the fact that after she dies the heretics are completely forgotten abt to be a particularly big fumble, bc the entire reason they even exist is a huge portion of HW’s message (they’re not all evil fanatic dragonfuckers, many (if not most) of the heretics are otherwise normal people who have been harmed by the system often through no fault of their own, ex. heustienne as shown if you did HW DRG quests, and will be killed if they go back to Ishgard), so it’s a little strange to me that their voices and plights are quietly dropped as soon as they can when they really should be some of the loudest, as should brume residents. another sore spot for me personally (that I’ve mentioned) is that neither aymeric nor the game wants to acknowledge the awkward truth that aymeric, as leader of the temple knights, is directly complicit in their many (not secret at all) crimes and how his failure to control them reflects back on him as lord commander. that he can’t seem to reconcile with this and blames everything on his father is a fun character flaw, but I’d like to see it more acknowledged (both canon and fandomwise) that aymeric fails in some pretty important ways and makes some weird decisions (like restoration-era ishgard still has the inquisitors. aymeric. you kept the fucking heresy police?). I’d like to see his characterization of ‘perfect golden boy’ to be challenged more often, but I’m not gonna hold my breath lol.

StB: oh boy. as you probably know, stb is obviously (so far) the weakest expac in terms of writing - it fails in a lot of ways, sometimes to the point things actually get offensive. what I liked abt it was mostly mechanical. a lot of it’s fights were really fun, and stb is abt the point (other than fights like nidhogg) where the game starts upping the ante on mechanic difficulty across the board and starts taking the training wheels off (just a little), and I think a lot of its maps were nicely designed and are nice to look at. omega was a fun raid storyline, and I also liked little details, like how this expac’s ‘beast tribes’ are treated as equals in contrast to the uld’ahn assertion that eorzean ones are violent savages that need to be monitored and put down when they get too uppity (this is why I have very mixed feelings on the scions as an organization, but that’s for a separate post).

narrative-wise tho.....stb is a mess. it’s the classic case of biting off more than it could chew, bc it tries to do two storylines at once and fails at this hard; the ala mhigan sections are too short and underwritten across the board, and they spend too much time faffing abt just getting to Doma that that section feels too short as well. shinryu is a massive sore spot; a bahamut+ level primal is born, disappears, and just.....is never mentioned again except at the very end, where you had no buildup or way to predict this happening. I spent literally the entire expac wondering when people were gonna worry abt shinryu on the loose potentially causing another dalamud situation at any moment. things that are super interesting and have a lot of implications, like zenos’ (fake! manufactured!) echo, which is hydaelyn’s power, giving him the ability to body hop (which is in all previous appearances something only granted by or exclusive to ascians) is inherently interesting and a good segue into the shb revelations but it’s literally never brought up again.

I also didn’t really enjoy it character-wise; papalymo and lyse have absolutely no depth or development in ARR or HW so his death is utterly wasted and the reveal that yda is a fake persona has literally no punch (haha) to it bc yda had no character beyond comic relief in ARR anyway. lyse unfortunately never gets out from under the shadow of her comic relief designation, and due to pacing issues her arc is anemic as fuck (she never really grows and keeps asking the same questions over and over) and never actually materializes into what the devs wanted it to be; lyse as resistance leader was a point that was never going to work as-written, and that’s before the colourism issue comes into play. I don’t think she’s necessarily an awful character, but she was definitely mishandled.

I’m not going to talk abt hien or gosetsu here. know that I absolutely despise them, hien especially, for a lot of reasons. but if I get into these reasons I’ll write a 5k word essay on just that so I’ll spare you the pain and save it for a different post. but hien makes me angry as a character so. yugiri is the best character here by process of elimination, fight me.

yotsuyu’s arc is unsurprisingly a mess, and the post-patches fail to actually engage with it bc her main deal is that she’s been horrifically mistreated, especially by men, her entire life, and the entirety of the post-patches are hien treating her like an object to traded around and gosetsu making funney ‘jokes’ abt women. it’s awful. note that I’m not excusing her actions - yotsuyu is an awful person who’s done awful shit, and the inherent moral dilemma of how to handle her crimes as tsuyu is an interesting beat - but everything abt her is mishandled and so...egregious that at times it almost feels exploitative. it makes me wonder that as written if she’d been better off literally just being an awful person because she’s an awful person, and not awful bc she’s a sexual assault survivor (which, I want to stress, this is not the first time this game has made the implication that women who are sexually assaulted are just morally broken afterwards (the first was eline roaille) which is quite the stance to take). all in all I think stb is just across the board unsatisfying and is just a complete mess of an expac. fun fights, tho!

ShB: this is as far as I’ve gone and I’ve not started post-patches yet, so I’ll only be talking abt base ShB. like I think I mentioned right after finishing - I liked it! I think it did a good job of keeping to a tight narrative, and one of it’s bigger strengths is that none of its zones overstay their welcome (like. cough cough. ruby sea. cough cough). other than a couple areas I think it did a genuinely good job of telling what it wanted to tell, and it’s competing w/ HW for my favourite of the bunch.

it’s maps are super pretty (lakeland has some of my favourite bgm so far), it’s fights are fun as hell, and the lightwarden narrative is genuinely gripping. I really enjoyed the bleaker, more dark fantasy tone starting out, I enjoyed how it didn’t pull its punches regarding how ever-present and how...inevitable the sin eaters feel as a threat (it reminds me of ishgard somewhat, in that way). after an entire expac of feeling like a weapon and almost background character just here to solve problems through violence, shb’s narrative of the scions actually (finally) coming to care about your wellbeing as a person as you’re literally dying for the world and working as a team and the MMO player tendency to just follow quest objectives being somewhat used against you as it’s your ‘but thou must’ violence that ends up nearly killing you is a nice subtle meta thing. the worldbuilding for the first feels fairly grounded (by final fantasy standards) and I don’t really have any issues with it. I wasn’t expecting to like the emet-selch arc at the end but I actually really did, I feel they delivered on that front.

eulmore is my biggest sore spot for this expac, bc I think that while their viewpoint re: the end of the world is interesting I don’t think they’re used well. I get that their existence is to highlight the forces keeping norvrandt divided, but just...hm. I didn’t find them super compelling or dangerous as a threat. you really get the sense that without ran’jiit these guys are just hilariously incompetent. and though I’m not going to talk abt it, it’s not my place, eulmore is fatphobic as fuck.

speaking of ran’jiit, he’s obviously the weakest part of the whole show. I find him to be an utter waste of a character, especially once you consider his hook is kinda interesting in its own right; he’s the only eulmoran we see to be in it and loyal to vauthry for reasons that don’t appear to be selfish, but we never actually learn what these reasons are. nothing abt him is explained (he has a dragon? how are there dragons on the first when dragons in this universe are space aliens deposited on the source? he can fuse with it? how? the only other time we see draconic transformations is in ishgardians bc of ratatoskr’s latent aether. is this a real dragon or just smth shaped like one? what is it? we never see any other creature that looks even similar (the closest is alte roite in omega raids). how is he so strong?), and what little character he does have is often ignored if it’s in the wol’s favour (this is a man who kicks y’shtola and his own man off the side of a bottomless pit, but for some inexplicable reason fails to do the same to the wol, his greatest enemy, when they’re distracted by it). his unwinnable fight schtick is not only old at this point but it’s infuriating - I can forgive zeno’s scripted fights bc it’s reiterated over and over again that he’s not exactly normal when it comes to his combat prowess, and the first go around is shocking in its own right bc it’s the first time you’ve lost a fight soundly, not through any trickery or magic or anything. He’s legitimately just stronger than you. ran’jiit just shows up. wrecks your shit. the exarch gives a weak ‘oh no, ran’jiit!’ as explanation. nothing else is ever explained. he’s just this inexplicably strong dude following you around as an unnecessary motivator to kill lightwardens faster, that’s it. it’s a disappointment in an otherwise strong expac. ryne is however my baby.

I’m not entirely sure on how to feel abt the exarch/g’raha rn, that will probably depend on how the post-patches handle him. know that I intensely disliked him for much of shb, bc I read his actions as deeply horrifically manipulative and genuinely thought he was going the be the main villain he was so fuckin shady. no I don’t really care he was doing it for a good cause, he still forced the wol into a war he knew could kill them without giving them full information abt the consequences and held their friends as ransom and only told them the barest of information after they were already in the shits (holminster). so we’ll see how it goes.

my other quibbles are pettier, and are more the result of time/mmo constraints. like I said once, I’d have liked the lightwarden corruption to be more obviously present (as the game pointedly goes out of its way right at the start to show you exactly what being mid-change looks like) and for maybe at least one more containment failure scare in the tempest to really hammer home how little time you have left (was genuinely surprised there wasn’t one) but that’s easy as fuck to fix in writing when you have unlimited scope.

tl;dr: it’s not that I hate what happened in HW, it’s that I think that while it’s an overall good scene a lot of it’s potential was wasted by a failure to give certain people (estinien) agency or depth (despite the fact he has massive stakes in them), and focuses on the wrong aspect bc it wants to laugh at a woman being wrong instead of the big picture. I think that all of the expacs have their fumble points, and I think these deserve to be talked abt critically. I otherwise really enjoy and even love HW/ShB.

StB is however an entire trip into a minecraft canyon of an expac. I don’t think it’s irredeemably awful, but you can definitely feel the writing issues. the less I say abt hien the better.

#spoilers #major spoilers #long post #these are kinda just my general thoughts. if you have specific questions on what I thought abt specific areas or plot beats #or characters or whatever feel free to throw them at me #all in all I think each expac has it's ups and downs bc that's kinda just how it goes #I think shb/hw manage to deliver pretty well on their narratives while stb utterly biffs it.#like I said I know I make it seem like I utterly hate the content. that it's deeply flawed bc I just bitch a ton but I *really* don't #I'm just a writer who's love language re:media is ripping it the fuck apart bc I like seeing how it ticks.#when it comes to media made by huge companies at least.#saint.txt

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kintatsujo · 1 year

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I finally figured out how to articulate what bothers me about "it's okay to enjoy things if you do it critically" and it's not a "let people enjoy things"

When people say that

What they often seem to mean is "acknowledge this character is a jerk"

But if you point out the author made a mistake they'll bend over backwards to justify it in-universe

This is absolutely about the Yugioh Chess Rant, it's not a hypothetical example

People want me to "recognize Seto Kaiba is just a jackass" and at the same time the same people will bend over backwards to justify the writing if I point out that KT didn't know what he was talking about with chess and that every explanation he came up with for the chess game with Gozaburo actually makes less sense than Seto not cheating at all (and Mokuba, a distraught ten year old, being an unreliable narrator)

I CAN enjoy things while being aware of their flaws, the question is can you??

#Also when ppl are like 'he's also just a jerk for no reason' I always wanna be like 'every single piece of his backstory is a reason'#yugioh #Swinging my bat

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lmdhawk · 2 years

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So here’s the thing. TERF Bitch is a terrible person. So horrible, I will not even type her name out. (I will however, use she/her pronouns for her, because there is shit you do not do to people). We’ve established this. She’s a transphobic asshole. And her work is flawed and has subtle problematic aspects that a lot of us missed during our formative years.

But here’s the thing: I’ve seen a lot of people saying that finding ways to enjoy Harry Potter without giving her money and while publicly condemning her actions is not enough. That it should be ignored and relegated to cultural irrelevancy. And here’s the thing: It’s too late for the cultural irrelevancy, and not reading shit because it’s problematic or it’s creator is problematic is not a good solution to anything.

Her worldbuilding was terrible, but her storytelling was on point. Turns out poor morality and good writing skills are not mutually exclusive. And her worldbuilding was just good enough that millions of people poured their hearts and souls into fixing it. Into elaborating on her world on a global scale in a way that wasn’t reductionist stereotypes long before she even thought to. Thinking through the societal implications that she glossed over. And letting a transphobic bitch take away something that brought us so much joy because she doesn’t like the fact that so many of us are trans or that we made her characters anything other than cis het in our head cannons doesn’t sit well with me.

And yes, there are shitty people in the fandom who refuse to acknowledge the flaws in her work or even refute her transphobia. There are shitty people in ever fandom. But letting them stop anyone from enjoying a work is just as bad. And judging an entire fandom by the worst elements is bad faith. And I can’t condemn people for liking it when fans like https://hashtagruthless.com/the-gayly-prophet exist, picking apart why it’s problematic and why it speaks to us. There are good people out there who still find it a fascinating and familiar touchstone while understanding the flaws.

The world needs to get better at seeing the flaws in things we like and reading critically to understand biases. And while uncritically consuming biased media is unhealthy, refusing to engage with something because of problematic aspects, real or perceived, can be almost as bad. It stifles conversation about why, about the good aspects of things and about why those two things coexist and what that says about our society. Simply condemning works is not conducive to that. It needs to become normalized that flawed things are okay to like for certain aspects.

As for the work itself? I could write a post ten times this length about the antisemitism, the minimalist gay representation, the problems with the house system as it exists in cannon (not as it exists in meta, where people chose their houses, often as adults), the whole poor treatment of Hermione’s efforts to free house elves, and a million other things. Instead I will point out something that James Somerton said, that I think is worth bearing in mind: while the anti-discrimination messages had a lot of caveats that weren’t about true equality, a lot of use didn’t see that as kids. And so the fandom attracted a lot of people who were able and willing to grow past that as we saw it.

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLuNGhQPDHM )

So yeah, I will not condemn anyone solely for liking Harry Potter. But maybe that’s just me not wanting to give TERF bitch the ability to gatekeep something that she put out into the world for all of us that we bonded over

And yes @miss-quintessence I am this petty. Maybe I reacted to post wrong but this is important to me and I need to get it off my chest. I may not be as active in the fandom anymore but this still matters.

#trigger: transphobia #discourse #Yes I am petty enough to make a whole post because I can't reblog someone's reblog of what I wrote #I actually learned the term demi-girl from someone's Harry Potter headcannon #As in the first non-cis label I used for myself

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thebussynotes · 2 years

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Now I remember why I like the Billy community so much, because they give his character(one that’s largely hated) a chance and it remind me of the Hifumi Yamada community(specifically on TikTok because I’m still not fond of tumblr yet but it’s working) where they gave him a chance as well and tried to show people the good in him and how his intentions were in the right place and how silly he is…etc. But I feel more fond of the Billy community and it’s because you guys never gave up on him despite how fucking D I R T Y they did him in season 3/4 and being very inclusive with him and just being very chill about him in every way and make silly headcanons about him and delve(I hope that’s the right word) into his very complex trauma. You guys never gave up on him. It’s harder for me to find Hifumi content now in days because Hifumi was also done very dirty but their recent(I’m not sure how recent it is anymore lmao) game “DR:S(Danganronpa: Summercamp(?))”, the writers seem to make it their goal to make Hifumi more and more hated by the fandom as a whole, it pissed the Hifumi community and they have stopped(from what I know of) making Hifumi content and rightfully so if they so choose but it’s sad because many Danganronpa fans like Stranger Things fans don’t like how canon treats their favorite characters but then have the audacity to say “it’s canon that Hifumi/Billy did…(this that the third)”. Like they are both fucked by the narrative so bad and y’all refuse to acknowledge it just because they made bad decisions (Billy being an implied rascist(I don’t perceive him as racist though that line did make me feel some type of way) (Edit(5/6/23): I reread this a while back and yes he was racist for that comment, I feel like he would have unlearned it if he lived and got away from Neil(which is where his racism stemmed from in the first place)) and Hifumi making his classmates uncomfortable in some occasions and for ⚠️*spoilers for chapter three of DANAGNRONPA : Trigger Happy Havoc*⚠️ killing Taka(Kiyotaka Ishimaru)). Like there are more to their actions that meet the eye but not many acknowledge it and it’s alright if you do not like a character or if said character makes you uncomfortable, but to go off and harass the fans of said characters is fucked like at this point just shut your fucking mouth and don’t interact with the content that’s being provided to you. I hope this all made sense and I feel like I got distracted from the main point of this but in all I love the Billy community and it makes me miss the Hifumi community a lot more but it’s okay because Hifumi and Billy are now besties and no one can fucking stop me >: D I absolutely love them both and I’ll cherish them both with my heart no matter their many flaws. End of discussion.

(As they are deep into conversation)

Billy: wait, so let me get this straight… so you write about characters that are on tv…on the internet?…what the hells the internet? And what’s the point of writing about those characters if they aren’t real?… that sounds unreal…

Hifumi : *thinks hardly for a minute before responding* I guess I’m gonna have to give you a big lecture on this history of the internet and fanfiction and Princess Piggles of course! Buckle in it’s gonna be a wild ride!

Billy : sure, talk as much as you want Dick Tip*points at his ahoge*

Hifumi : Okay and please don’t ever call me that again! Hmph! *starts talking about the internet for a long while*

*they are both enjoying each other’s company and discovering a lot of things together considering their time period difference*

///notes on the picture///

*(Hifumi) talking about his interests with passion(as he should >:3)*

*(Billy) is impressed and intrigued by what he’s saying actually and is actively listening to him but doesn’t know(or in this case understand) wtf he’s talking about*

(and no he’s not talking he just has his mouth open because he’s been fed so much information all at once and he doesn’t know wtf to say because Hifumi just keeps talking XD)

#billy hargrove #love the Billy Hargrove fandom/community #hifumi yamada #love the Hifumi Yamada fandom/community #fuck the duffers #fuck the Danganronpa writers #billy hargrove deserved better #Hifumi Yamada deserves better #leave these boys at peace and leave their fans alone they aren’t doing anything to you

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qqueenofhades · 3 years

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Hi. I’m curious. What did you mean by “women who read fiction might get Bad Ideas!!!” has just reached its latest and stupidest form via tumblr purity culture.? I haven’t seen any of this but I’m new to tumblr.

Oh man. You really want to get me into trouble on, like, my first day back, don’t you?

Pretty much all of this has been explained elsewhere by people much smarter than me, so this isn’t necessarily going to say anything new, but I’ll do my best to synthesize and summarize it. As ever, it comes with the caveat that it is my personal interpretation, and is not intended as the be-all, end-all. You’ll definitely run across it if you spend any time on Tumblr (or social media in general, including Twitter, and any other fandom-related spaces). This will get long.

In short: in the nineteenth century, when Gothic/romantic literature became popular and women were increasingly able to read these kinds of novels for fun, there was an attendant moral panic over whether they, with their weak female brains, would be able to distinguish fiction from reality, and that they might start making immoral or inappropriate choices in their real life as a result. Obviously, there was a huge sexist and misogynistic component to this, and it would be nice to write it off entirely as just hysterical Victorian pearl-clutching, but that feeds into the “lol people in the past were all much stupider than we are today” kind of historical fallacy that I often and vigorously shut down. (Honestly, I’m not sure how anyone can ever write the “omg medieval people believed such weird things about medicine!” nonsense again after what we’ve gone through with COVID, but that is a whole other rant.) The thinking ran that women shouldn’t read novels for fear of corrupting their impressionable brains, or if they had to read novels at all, they should only be the Right Ones: i.e., those that came with a side of heavy-handed and explicit moralizing so that they wouldn’t be tempted to transgress. Of course, books trying to hammer their readers over the head with their Moral Point aren’t often much fun to read, and that’s not the point of fiction anyway. Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

Fast-forward to today, and the entire generation of young, otherwise well-meaning people who have come to believe that being a moral person involves only consuming the “right” kind of fictional content, and being outrageously mean to strangers on the internet who do not agree with that choice. There are a lot of factors contributing to this. First, the advent of social media and being subject to the judgment of people across the world at all times has made it imperative that you demonstrate the “right” opinions to fit in with your peer-group, and on fandom websites, that often falls into a twisted, hyper-critical, so-called “progressivism” that diligently knows all the social justice buzzwords, but has trouble applying them in nuance, context, and complicated real life. To some extent, this obviously is not a bad thing. People need to be critical of the media they engage with, to know what narratives the creator(s) are promoting, the tropes they are using, the conclusions that they are supporting, and to be able to recognize and push back against genuinely harmful content when it is produced – and this distinction is critical – by professional mainstream creators. Amateur, individual fan content is another kettle of fish. There is a difference between critiquing a professional creator (though social media has also made it incredibly easy to atrociously abuse them) and attacking your fellow fan and peer, who is on the exact same footing as you as a consumer of that content.

Obviously, again, this doesn’t mean that you can’t call out people who are engaging in actually toxic or abusive behavior, fans or otherwise. But certain segments of Tumblr culture have drained both those words (along with “gaslighting”) of almost all critical meaning, until they’re applied indiscriminately to “any fictional content that I don’t like, don’t agree with, or which doesn’t seem to model healthy behavior in real life” and “anyone who likes or engages with this content.” Somewhere along the line, a reactionary mindset has been formed in which the only fictional narratives or relationships are those which would be “acceptable” in real life, to which I say…. what? If I only wanted real life, I would watch the news and only read non-fiction. Once again, the underlying fear, even if it’s framed in different terms, is that the people (often women) enjoying this content can’t be trusted to tell the difference between fiction and reality, and if they like “problematic” fictional content, they will proceed to seek it out in their real life and personal relationships. And this is just… not true.

As I said above, critical media studies and thoughtful consumption of entertainment are both great things! There have been some great metas written on, say, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and how it is increasingly relying on villains who have outwardly admirable motives (see: the Flag Smashers in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) who are then stigmatized by their anti-social, violent behavior and attacks on innocent people, which is bad even as the heroes also rely on violence to achieve their ends. This is a clever way to acknowledge social anxieties – to say that people who identify with the Flag Smashers are right, to an extent, but then the instant they cross the line into violence, they’re upsetting the status quo and need to be put down by the heroes. I watched TFATWS and obviously enjoyed it. I have gone on a Marvel re-watching binge recently as well. I like the MCU! I like the characters and the madcap sci-fi adventures! But I can also recognize it as a flawed piece of media that I don’t have to accept whole-cloth, and to be able to criticize some of the ancillary messages that come with it. It doesn’t have to be black and white.

When it comes to shipping, moreover, the toxic culture of “my ship is better than your ship because it’s Better in Real Life” ™ is both well-known and in my opinion, exhausting and pointless. As also noted, the whole point of fiction is that it allows us to create and experience realities that we don’t always want in real life. I certainly enjoy plenty of things in fiction that I would definitely not want in reality: apocalyptic space operas, violent adventures, and yes, garbage men. A large number of my ships over the years have been labeled “unhealthy” for one reason or another, presumably because they don’t adhere to the stereotype of the coffee-shop AU where there’s no tension and nobody ever makes mistakes or is allowed to have serious flaws. And I’m not even bagging on coffee-shop AUs! Some people want to remove characters from a violent situation and give them that fluff and release from the nonstop trauma that TV writers merrily inflict on them without ever thinking about the consequences. Fanfiction often focuses on the psychology and healing of characters who have been through too much, and since that’s something we can all relate to right now, it’s a very powerful exercise. As a transformative and interpretive tool, fanfic is pretty awesome.

The problem, again, comes when people think that fic/fandom can only be used in this way, and that going the other direction, and exploring darker or complicated or messy dynamics and relationships, is morally bad. As has been said before: shipping is not activism. You don’t get brownie points for only having “healthy” ships (and just my personal opinion as a queer person, these often tend to be heterosexual white ships engaging in notably heteronormative behavior) and only supporting behavior in fiction that you think is acceptable in real life. As we’ve said, there is a systematic problem in identifying what that is. Ironically, for people worried about Women Getting Ideas by confusing fiction and reality, they’re doing the same thing, and treating fiction like reality. Fiction is fiction. Nobody actually dies. Nobody actually gets hurt. These people are not real. We need to normalize the idea of characters as figments of a creator’s imagination, not actual people with their own agency. They exist as they are written, and by the choice of people whose motives can be scrutinized and questioned, but they themselves are not real. Nor do characters reflect the author’s personal views. Period.

This feeds into the fact that the internet, and fandom culture, is not intended as a “safe space” in the sense that no questionable or triggering content can ever be posted. Archive of Our Own, with its reams of scrupulous tagging and requests for you to explicitly click and confirm that you are of age to see M or E-rated content, is a constant target of the purity cultists for hosting fictional material that they see as “immoral.” But it repeatedly, unmistakably, directly asks you for your consent to see this material, and if you then act unfairly victimized, well… that’s on you. You agreed to look at this, and there are very few cases where you didn’t know what it entailed. Fandom involves adults creating contents for adults, and while teenagers and younger people can and do participate, they need to understand this fact, rather than expecting everything to be a PG Disney movie.

When I do write my “dark” ships with garbage men, moreover, they always involve a lot of the man being an idiot, being bluntly called out for an idiot, and learning healthier patterns of behavior, which is one of the fundamental patterns of romance novels. But they also involve an element of the woman realizing that societal standards are, in fact, bullshit, and she can go feral every so often, as a treat. But even if I wrote them another way, that would still be okay! There are plenty of ships and dynamics that I don’t care for and don’t express in my fic and fandom writing, but that doesn’t mean I seek out the people who do like them and reprimand them for it. I know plenty of people who use fiction, including dark fiction, in a cathartic way to process real-life trauma, and that’s exactly the role – one of them, at least – that fiction needs to be able to fulfill. It would be terribly boring and limited if we were only ever allowed to write about Real Life and nothing else. It needs to be complicated, dark, escapist, unreal, twisted, and whatever else. This means absolutely zilch about what the consumers of this fiction believe, act, or do in their real lives.

Once more, I do note the misogyny underlying this. Nobody, after all, seems to care what kind of books or fictional narratives men read, and there’s no reflection on whether this is teaching them unhealthy patterns of behavior, or whether it predicts how they’ll act in real life. (There was some of that with the “do video games cause mass shootings?”, but it was a straw man to distract from the actual issues of toxic masculinity and gun culture.) Certain kinds of fiction, especially historical fiction, romance novels, and fanfic, are intensely gendered and viewed as being “women’s fiction” and therefore hyper-criticized, while nobody’s asking if all the macho-man potboiler military-intrigue tough-guy stereotypical “men’s fiction” is teaching them bad things. So the panic about whether your average woman on the internet is reading dark fanfic with an Unhealthy Ship (zomgz) is, in my opinion, misguided at best, and actively destructive at worst.

#long post #anonymous #ask

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dawnsiren · 2 years

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Purity culture (and by extension cancel culture) has ruined fandom, and caused some people legitimate trauma. I have a close friend who experiences severe anxiety and panic attacks because of this hellsite attacking people for liking any character or franchise that gets deemed ‘problematic’. The idea that liking a character, show, film, or work defines your morality and value as a person is RIDICULOUS and deeply, deeply harmful both culturally and to individuals.

Let people like things. Even if you don’t agree, or are incapable of separating a work from its creator, don’t attack people! This is an extremely hot take, but it is possible to like things while acknowledging their problems! For example: I will admit that I enjoyed Raya. Many SEA have problems with its cultural influences, and that’s valid! I have seen their perspectives and agree with them! As a lesbian the queerbaiting is frustrating! However, I still enjoyed watching it and that is okay! I don’t agree with how they did things but I still like the movie! I love Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff even though Disney/Marvel really should have cast a Romani actress! I can disagree with their writing/casting decisions and still like the character!

Furthermore, let characters have flaws. Let them be messy and mean and morally grey, or even outright dark! Their morality and mine are not the same! Murder is a bad thing and 90% of the time not justified! I usually do not support it in real life, but fiction is fundamentally separate. It does not exist to instill morals in its viewers. I can disagree with a character’s choices/actions and still see where they’re coming from, like them, and support them!

I know I’ll probably get anon hate for this post, but I don’t care. Fictional morality does NOT define or mirror real morality. I can enjoy a piece of media while not condoning the beliefs or actions of its creator.

Stop attacking people for enjoying characters and media with flaws. All it does is harm the victim and make you look like an asshole.

#Rant #this is about two different aspects of the same problem #And kind of messy #But I stand by it

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probably-haven · 3 years

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after binge reading i have come to a new revelation: I’m not a fan of most Xiaoven fanfics

Don’t get me wrong, I love the ship and its one of my favorite to think about.... but most of the fanfiction for the ship just- doesn’t sit right with me for a number of reasons.

Disclaimer: these are personal opinions from my own taste and are in no way an attack against any authors out there, because frankly fanfic authors are great and not like i could do better lol. As these are personal opinions, I acknowledge here and now that a number of people disagree and that they are under no obligation to change their opinions in any way as it is not and never will be my intention to tell others what they should be thinking That said- read at your own risk if you want- meh, anyway-

time to share some opinions that have been on my mind lately

The biggest reason.... is how they handle Xiao. And I don’t even mean mischaracterization because Xiao is such a complex and yet simultaneously simple character that as long as you’re somewhere in the range of “Xiao vibes” it’s really hard to write him out of character because of his complexities. What I mean is something that i actually completely agree with as being accurate to his character. In nearly every single fanfic I’ve seen, there is some element of idolization that Xiao has for Venti, or for the sake of reference, Barbatos. He tends to think himself beneath Barbatos and/or indebted to him, whether that be because he’s an archon, because he saved him, or simply because of Xiao’s tendency to dehumanize(yes i see the irony in that word usage) himself. This by itself isn’t an issue but its often how this trait of his is treated.

Imma just list a few ways I’ve seen this be handled within Xiaoven fics. - It isn’t handled, it’s just there and accepted as a part of who he is in the story - It isn’t handled but his trait is treated as source of humor within the story - Venti(and others) roll with it (finding humor in it, just cant change it, encouraging it, making jokes about it, etc.) - Venti takes advantage of it(whether accidentally or purposely) - it’s actually addressed(by Venti or someone else or the narration- can go a number of ways, but just- even a brief reference to the fact that its not a good mindset fits in here) - savior!Venti(Where venti disagrees with it but the way it’s written gives off “god among mortals” vibes- like he’s just being humble and truly is above him in reality) - its the focus of the story - not directly addressed but shown to be destructive. - they chose not to not include this in the story’s characterization of Xiao(just saying that this is valid ahead of time) Theres others but i have a lot already. Note that I tend to read more ‘serious-toned’(idk if that makes sense) fics so that may skew my perception

Now there’s a few that i have issues with on their own- both instances of it not being handled, Venti(and others) rolling with it, Venti takes advantage of it(purposely(and without good intent)), and savior!Venti. Xiao not only has this trait, but he is unfamiliar with what is normal in relationships or emotions as a result of isolation and inexperience. He is also either not aware of or not concerned with what is considered strictly “healthy.” Combining these makes for a rather dangerous combination and just accepting it as “oh he’s just like that, it’s who he is” or making it out to be something funny- It’s not wrong or bad by any means necessarily, and I could still possibly enjoy it to an extent depending on a series of different factors, but its- not as often. Even in the case where I do enjoy reading it however, I would still feel uncomfortable sharing it with or recommending it to others because in the first instance it feels like normalizing a destructive and dangerous mindset, and in the second case it does the same while simultaneously making a joke of it. It’s the same deal with Venti or other characters rolling with it, but that’s probably gonna be mentioned later too. Not to say that this is a “wrong” way to handle it, that it makes the fic bad, or that authors even are normalizing anything by doing so, just that in my specific instance- not a fan.

I’ll get to the others when i talk more about Venti, but for now: It’s the focus of the story. I think I saw like... 2? where the story was like- focused on this and why its a problem which- power to them, address those real world problems like a boss- but also i wouldn’t actively seek it out or anything- like, good job, but doing so just leaves it open neutrally for other factors to decide how good a story i think it is.

not directly addressed but shown to be destructive. You’d think i wouldn’t like this- but frankly in fanfiction not everyone wants to address every character flaw verbally because it can through off story, narration, dialogue, and general flow to do so. This can be with an event, an action, a dialogue, a mere comment, making it actually fit into the it’s actually addressed category except that its- subtle enough to make its own category. plus i live for show not tell- in everything- its a thing. im- very much a fan of when the fics do this but the subtlety is easy to miss and its not common so-

It’s actually adressed- doesnt have to be a lot- just mention anywhere or imply anywhere that maybe idolizing someone as a god and savior and being in a relationship with them while having little knowledge of standards, emotions, relationships, or healthy behaviors in general- maybe isnt the smartest idea in the word. (”Call me Venti, not Barbatos” by itself is not enough to fit in this category tho as a note)

Now lets talk about Venti...

uh.... those who have followed me for awhile will probably already know this but... I have a lot of opinions on Venti and a pretty- “niche(?)” perception of his characterization that isn’t shared by a lot of others- so I don’t actually read as much Venti fanfic in general as you might expect because I often end up disagreeing with how writers portray him, which again, in no way is their characterization wrong, but- “their perceived truth” conflicts with “my perceived truth” and by extent so does the characterization, though neither is any more correct than the other from an objective point of view, if that makes sense... but anyways now that that’s said, moving on before this becomes a philosophy lecture, as fun as that would be for me. I’ll try to keep my “perceived truth” out of this for the first bit.

Venti’s response to this:

He rolls with it: this depends on the mood of the fanfiction. If they dont put a lot of stress on that trait of Xiao’s it totally fine but if the trait seems to be a major part of Xiao’s character, it seems like normalization once more. (more on this later)

he takes advantage of it purposely: if its an AU or something and Venti’s like a villain(i saw a few) then- villain venti isnt my cup of tea but i have no qualms. If they don’t portray Venti in a negative light while having him take advantage however that’s a bit uncomfortable to read for me because it feels like normalizing taking advantage of that mindset as well as the mindset itself. However, i did see a number of instances of Venti using it as leverage for like- self care- which i definitely have no qualms. Xiao: [insert probably destructive idolizing statement about being indebt] Venti: How bout you pay me back by actually sleeping for once smh or other variations are okay and depending on the vibe are actually a really fun dynamic as long as it doesnt turn into romanticizing or normalizing it, y’know?

Venti accidentally taking advantage of it.... I love angst- and in most of these theres a sense of guilt when he realizes- and i just think thats a lovely way of addressing the dangers of such a mindset for both sides. As long as it doesn’t keep repeating to the point of romanticization its totally cool to read in my eyes(not irl ofc). If Venti never realizes he accidentally took or is taking advantage it feels a bit like normalization, and if he does but just- doesn’t care thats- a rip.

savior!Venti...... i- i hate. the story giving off vibes that Xiao’s mindset is technically correct while Venti oh so humbly tells him to treat him as an equal like the wonderful and charitable person he is.... i just- no. of course thats over dramatizing it- I think the main thing that gives it this vibe is when Venti doesn’t seem either concerned, surprised, uncomfortable, or otherwise have a negative feeling towards Xiao’s mindset. Just- it makes the whole thing weird in my eyes when Venti doesnt really seem to have his own reason to oppose the mindset idk-

fact time!

Venti is the god of freedom. His backstory is freeing Mondstadt from a god’s tyrannical reign. His origin is a windsprite, just another breeze bringing changes for the better. His form is a nameless boy who played an instrument and then died, thus failing at his only dream and only ever accomplishing anything because of the help of others. He slept for a thousand years after the archon war to avoid putting Mond under the rule of yet another tyrannical god. He only even became a god because Andrius chose to let him. He wouldn’t have even had that chance if the nameless bard had survived, he’d remain just another wind while his friend ascended to godhood. Venti sacrifices his own power for his people’s freedom.

now that I’ve laid out a number of canon facts, time for opinions:

Venti has little to no desire to be seen as a god. He thrives in, comes from, and emphasizes a lack of superiority in quite nearly everything. The first Ragnvindir, who canonically turned his back on Venti after Decarabian’s fall, likely did so because one- he anticipated power would corrupt and Venti would soon become just another tyrannical god, two- he suspected Venti used the nameless bard in an attempt to rise to godhood, or three- idk insert other possibilities to acknowledge again that i could totally be wrong.

Look me in the eyes and tell me Venti wouldnt trade godhood for his friend in an instant. His godhood was only granted to him because his friend died and could easily serve to constantly remind him of what could have been and what he lost. Venti takes no enjoyment from being seen as superior and in my opinion, I feel that it could actually make him largely uncomfortable when his divinity and abilities as an archon get involved-

also self promotion for my favorite posts- check out #archon war era venti if thats interesting to you

so anyway Venti rolling with it or making jokes about it just doesn’t sit right with me.-

Okay! enough talking about that mindset!

idk- i have... a few/lot of other gripes and stuff or just things that kinda throw off the vibe for me but that’s the main one plus my general personal pickiness when it come to Venti fanfics- but this has gotten long enough already-

idk i just felt like rambling about it and i haven’t done a long post in a while so-

again, I love the ship and its actually one of my favorites- just the fanfic isnt my thing..... that doesn’t mean i don’t still love it and come up with a whole ton of brainrot and ideas on it tho lmao

#genshin impact #genshin xiao #genshin venti #xiaoven #genshin barbatos #opinions #discourse #? idk ill tag it just in case #dont mind my constant backtracking and justifying and repeated disclaimers-#i just have a crippling fear of being cancelled lol

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bestworstcase · 3 years

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Do you think Rapunzel can be condescending at times?

absolutely yeah

as is the case with most of rapunzel's flaws, it's most evident in her interactions with cassandra because frankly - ok i have to back up here a little and start this off with a hot take™

i don't think rapunzel likes who cassandra is very much.

she does love cassandra. she desperately wants to be friends with cassandra, and she enjoys spending time with cassandra.

but the cass rapunzel knows is this very dependable, steady person who showed her the ropes of coronan society and is always sort of there to provide support when rapunzel needs it, and who is also blunt-spoken, honest, maybe a little too closed off, and a little rough around the edges.

when... the reality is that cassandra is a very ambitious young woman whose driving motivation is to leave. she is a dependable steady presence at rapunzel's side because that is her job. she wants to be a guard. she wants to be respected and seen as her own person. she is very carefully trying to thread the needle of genuinely being rapunzel's friend whilst also fulfilling the requirements of her duty as rapunzel's servant, which necessitates being very careful about what parts of herself she reveals to rapunzel. she's brash. she's very independent. she likes to fight. she feels constrained and stifled in coronan society generally and in rapunzel's shadow specifically.

every single time rapunzel gets a real glimpse of this reality she reacts... well, in pretty condescending ways.

cassandra thinks a romantic holiday is annoying and stupid? rapunzel concludes that she is deeply unhappy because she's single and makes it her mission to cheer cass up, ignoring cassandra's repeated and increasingly firm attempts to get her to stop.

cassandra says something is going on that she isn't ready to talk about and asks rapunzel to be patient until cass is ready to discuss it? rapunzel stalks her to find out what it is, and then blames all the consequences of that decision on cass because if cass had just told her everything then rapunzel wouldn't have interfered.

cassandra breaks her leg and, after having it properly seen to by a doctor, asks to be left alone so she can rest while she heals up, and then gets increasingly frustrated and cranky when rapunzel refuses to stop bothering her? rapunzel can't fathom why cass won't accept her "help" and implies the situation is equivalent to red and angry running away.

cassandra vibes with the vardarans and happily incites a street brawl for fun and to drum up excitement for rapunzel's goodwill festival? rapunzel scolds her ("we're supposed to be celebrating goodwill!") and then tries to apologize to the sheriff on her behalf.

cassandra tries to tell rapunzel that she feels insecure because rapunzel no longer trusts her judgment, and rapunzel shuts her down hard because "i'm going to be the queen someday, and i'm going to make decisions you don't agree with, and i need you to be okay with that."

cassandra is hurt and angry because rapunzel's decision-making left her disabled and likely in horrific and constant pain? rapunzel gets mad at her, blames her for the injury, refuses to apologize, and purposefully isolates cassandra from everyone else in the group including owl with the intention of forcing cass to make up with her so things can go back to normal between them.

like...

every time they have a conflict, no matter how large or small, rapunzel's instinctive reaction is to assume that cassandra is the problem. and that's where the condescension springs from. she has this... underlying and i think probably subconscious feeling that cassandra's independence, her boundaries, her rough edges, her feelings that do not align with what rapunzel wants her to feel... that in small doses these things are okay, even appealing, but the instant they come into conflict with what rapunzel wants or thinks they become. A Problem. that needs to be Fixed.

this happens from time to time with other characters as well but with cassandra it is constant, i think probably because their personalities are so wildly different in so many different ways.

allllllllso there is an extent to which toxic positivity is just. innately condescending in and of itself. like forcing this upbeat peppy attitude on people is inherently patronizing. so there's also this like low-grade constant background radiation of condescension going on as well.

also also, i 100% believe this was an intended flaw and my pet conspiracy theory about the likely executive meddling in s3 was that the tts writing team was forced to scrap an arc that would have involved rapunzel reckoning with this, and i think we can actually still see the vestiges left over. consider the following:

1. in crossing the line, cassandra outright says that rapunzel has been condescending to her for the entirety of their relationship: "this has to stop now/this thing where you think that you've been my friend/and don't even hear how you condescend/the way you've always done" -> crossing the line in general has this odd dissonance with the rest of cassandra's villain arc where, in CTL, cass is very much focusing on rapunzel's treatment of her and the unfairness of her own position in corona more generally - all of which gets swept under the rug in the rest of s3.

2. in both rapunzeltopia and s3 a point is made of emphasizing that rapunzel's view of cass is lady-in-waiting cassandra. lotus dream cass cheerfully occupies her role as rapunzel's servant, and only appears as her "real" self (represented by her appearing in her preferred outfit) once the dream is twisted into a nightmare. and in s3, rapunzel reaches past all of cassandra's weapons - possessions that actually represent who cass is - to cry into her lady-in-waiting uniform; and every time she reminisces about cass, it's cass in the dress. it's never spelled out but the implication of all this is pretty damn clear.

3. at the end of plus est en vous rapunzel says that she always thought cassandra's place was beside her in corona, but acknowledges that was wrong and that cass deserves to leave and be free and live her own life outside of those constraints. she never quite apologizes - because evidently disney vetoed the princess being framed as in the wrong in any way - but there's still a marked difference between the attitude implied by that statement and the attitude she displays towards cass throughout the rest of the show.

so, this is my theory for how s3 was intended to play out originally:

- gothel is merely the last straw. cassandra takes the moonstone and flees after spitting rapunzel's last bit of condescension back in her face.

- zhan tiri encourages cassandra to ruminate on everything rapunzel did that hurt her, slowly cultivating the smoldering embers of her anger into an uncontrollable inferno.

- meanwhile rapunzel struggles to make sense cassandra's betrayal while it slowly dawns on her that... maybe cass was right. maybe she is condescending. maybe she did take cass for granted, and maybe she doesn't know cass as well as she thought she did.

- the symbolism rapunzeltopia set up of this divide between Happy Servant Cass In Her Gown on the one hand and Angry Vengeful Cass In Her Own Clothes + Burnt Hand becomes a visual shorthand the way rapunzel views cassandra, with Happy Servant Cass slowly being discarded as rapunzel more and more sees cass as she truly is: an independent person who has been terribly hurt by the way rapunzel treated her, despite rapunzel having the best intentions

- when they are trapped during zhan tiri's rampage, this is the subject of their conversation rather than rapunzel randomly apologizing for being an obnoxious flower child in the first few weeks; she talks about the traits that she saw that made her want to be friends with cass, and then segues into talking about how despite how much she cares about cass she really... didn't know cass that well, didn't bother to get to know her, and took for granted that cass would always be there and how that led to cass suffering so much pain - both emotionally and physically - and that's what she apologizes for.

- and then all this leads much more naturally into what rapunzel says when she and cass are saying goodbye at the very end, because we've seen that character growth happening on screen.

but since rapunzel wasn't allowed to be wrong because disney princess brand, most of this arc had to be ripped out and all we're left with is these weird hints around the edges of the hole it left behind.

#i sort of drifted away from the question but i think about this all the time #we can see! like! shadows! of character dev that once was there!!!#tts

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erricdraven · 3 years

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i'm really intrigued by your s6 spuffy thoughts can you talk more about what you mentioned in your tags???

lol yeah i really lost my entire mind in the tags oops

but sure, i'm happy to talk more about it. it's the one hang up i have about the show that i still have yet to make peace with and honestly don't think i ever will. i really respect now as i've gotten older how characters challenge us to think from new perspectives, and buffy has always been a character that challenges me in a few specific areas. when it comes to buffy and spike, i'm immediately predisposed to empathize with spike when i comes to the way he's treated regarding his feelings because i'm very much a heart-on-my-sleeve, all in person with love myself, and so it's a really hard thing for me to consume something so personally difficult in media i enjoy. i also feel like i need to preface this by saying that at the root of all my thoughts about what their s6 arc is, i believe they are both in the wrong in certain aspects. i'm not saying that spike has done nothing wrong and buffy is the one making all the bad choices and saying all the bad things.

so, with all that said--

the best way i can think to pinpoint why i'm really bothered by buffy's part in their issues can be summed up in the scene in entropy (?) where buffy accuses spike of spying on her on the grounds that she believes that's well within his character to violate her privacy and life like that, and with all the things she lists that he does (lie, cheat, steal, manipulate), he says "i don't hurt you." that interaction really highlights how the power dynamic is really fucked up and skewed for buffy to use to take advantage of. she knows that spike loves her (and though she's really resistant to acknowledging he really does love her, she believes that he believes that he loves her) and has repeatedly acknowledged outright and acted on the fact that he wants to spare her pain in any way that he can. he wants to protect her from getting hurt and if he can't, he wants to comfort her and try to make it better. granted, sometimes his solutions aren't conducive for her, but the intention (which is really important!!) is always to help her and support her.

with this in mind, i think that is why i have such a hard time with s6 buffy. i've yet to get to a point where i can feel comfortable watching her relationship with spike in this season because of how tremendously cruel she is. i understand that she's in serious pain and she feels horrified at herself for wanting to engage in this dark twisted thing with him, but at its heart, i feel like the thing that makes it dark and twisted, given that she knows that he loves her and that sex with him means something, is that she has backed him into a corner by setting a boundary of "i can only accept this so long as it hurts us". as soon as she starts facing her feelings, she can't bear to let him in anymore. we see at the start of s6 that the dynamic between them is something very sweet and gentle and kind. spike is careful and kind and supportive of her as she tries to feel out how to live in the world again. he's understanding of her circumstances (empathizing with the pain and trauma of having to claw your way out of your grave), he kept his promise to care for dawn without any thought of reward (and continues to from then on out), she admits that when she wants to be alone, she still feels most at peace when she's alone with him, and she seeks his input and advice on how to try to figure out the things that she feels like she's way over her head about ("so what do you know about finances?").

people are fallible and characters aren't meant to be perfect, and i believe that's really how writing should be, but this is something i feel like is much more complex than just a flawed character in the throes of an extended major depressive episode. we don't really see any genuine remorse from her directed at spike for how she has treated him even when she admits her disgust with herself for how she was taking advantage of him. when we see buffy fall apart to tara in devastation at the person she's become, i feel like what we're seeing is just an overwhelming amount of self-hatred at what she sees when she looks at herself. it feels like very...self-focused shame, like people who are disgusted at the realization that someone sees and classifies them as a bad person. we recoil from that moniker because we know it's wrong, and that's what we see in buffy. she hates that she's "a bad person", but what feels really lacking for me is the self-awareness to then turn that self-focused shame into a more... i don't know, i hate to call it this, but altruistic shame at the way she has been hurting spike purposefully. taking responsibility for her cruelty i feel like should have looked like her bearing the burden of her shame about her actions, accepting the discomfort of having to humble herself and hold it and say 'yeah, this is mine.' all throughout s6 in particular, spike is consistently the bad guy in every equation when it comes to his relationship with buffy, and that has always felt wrong to me, like a huge disservice to the story and his character. is he a bad guy broadly speaking? yeah, he's more villain than hero for sure. but is he the bad guy in their relationship? i'd argue no, he's not, and we never really get catharsis for that!!

especially with spike having his soul in s7, the tumultuous and abusive dynamic of their relationship in the previous season is treated as something they can just look back at and say "oh well we can move on now and be good and okay because we're never going back there again" even though buffy never apologizes to him for what she did to him and acknowledges it was wrong by taking that responsibility. it's always framed as buffy's stance being "sex is bad and dirty, and engaging in "dark" sex with you was bad so we'll never do it again." i tried to hunt it down and couldn't find it, but @chasingfictions made an amazing post that really struck me, talking about how, while the idea of the soul being a determination of good and a lack of soul being a determination of evil is a bit too simplistic and unsatisfying in the debate of good vs evil, spike's pursuit of a soul and actually getting it all on his own so that he could be a better man to the woman he loves and the world she risks her life every day to protect is so powerful and beautiful. the fact that in the show's canon, no one that becomes soulless has ever sought out getting their soul back, and no only does he get it back, he wins it back!! he fought to have it as a step towards being better, and that intention of choosing to be better means so fucking much! and he made that choice to take an action of good without the soul in question, after having, on many occasions, acted contrary to his nature to be better.

the writing leads us to a point where we support spike's pursuit of redemption and are moved by it, but to me, i think buffy should have been driven to seek her own redemption too. without it, i personally feel a very pervasive sense that catharsis for everything they went through in s6 was never really achieved.

in conclusion (lmao)... everyone interprets text/subtext differently, and that's absolutely okay, so i'm not saying that this is the only right interpretation of things! but for me, after spending a really long time trying to reconcile this discomfort i feel with buffy's character and not being able to get there, this is where i've landed.

#whooooooooooooo this got extremely long winded i'm sorry i just have a lot of thoughts and i try not to share them and start shit lol #buffy the vampire slayer #spike #buffy summers #ramble #ask #anon #otp: he is in my heart

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lnkedmyheart · 2 years

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How do I always fall back onto my TozX salt train? Oh I know, because you can't enjoy the content on any other platform than this without running into tozx supremacists. Anyway, the problem with me not liking the anime isn't that I am a sormik shipper.

The problem I had with the anime is multifold and a lot of it can unfortunately be boiled down to Alisha. Again, this doesn't mean people hate her, people seem to have very warm or neutral feelings for game Alisha and legitimately missed her when she left, but the problem with anime Alisha is that she's like a black hole in the center of the story just stretching and bending reality till it dissolves and disappears into her existence to never be seen again. Like we WANTED her to leave at some point because we missed the remaining 6/8 of the cast.

The writing is screwed because Alisha is now the mc and everyone is suddenly a minor or side character that barely contributes anything outside of being cardboard cutouts occasionally rattling off info dumps.

The narrative is screwed because Alisha's story is more important than the core aspect and message of the story is secondary to Alisha's personal life.

The characters are screwed because, well, they are no longer characters. They are utterly replaceable and honestly you could just turn them into a bunch of rocks cause all they really do (outside of bait people with dry sormik) is turn into pretty magical outfits for Sorey, Alisha and Rose. Why? Because Alisha was far more important to explore by shoving her into every situation with Sorey in season 1 and Rose in season 2.

Seriously, what's the real value of each of the seraphs to any of them in the anime? What's Dezel's real value to Rose? What's Mikleo and Lailah's to Sorey? Nothing. You know why? Because they have no value to Alisha, they mean nothing to her so you couldn't explore any other bond they could share with Rose or Sorey because that would reduce the focus on Alisha.

No I'm not calling Alisha a callous character, I'm saying that anime Alisha can rarely be bothered to really interact with or acknowledge the seraphs properly in most scenes.

How is it that Alisha armatizes but somehow still doesn't have conversations with the seraphim? Wasn't her dream in the anime the exact same as Sorey's? Why is she so unbothered about the fact that the seraphim are sitting all along watching humans eat while she Sorey and Rose have conversations?

Also the fact that Sorey is also not interacting with any of the seraphim whatsoever as though they were afraid that it would diminish Sorey's weird ooc obsessiveness with Alisha. "Hi I'm Sorey, my dream is to create a world where Seraphim and humans can live together in harmony, excuse me while I focus solely on humans and ignore the existence of my best friend who I supposedly love deeply and all the other seraphs who can't even talk to or interact with anyone else".

Like anime Alisha doesn't have any relationships. She is adored by everyone, but she barely does anything to actually help them, runs away to go off on adventures and makes the shepherd her personal PA with a clear bias (yea anime Sorey has a clear bias towards Hyland, shocker!!!)

Even Alisha's relationships aren't developed, she has conflict with a few people, her conflict with Rose (which was done...okay but they kind if destroyed Rose's entire character anyway) and conflict with her dad apparently but like...I don't really give a shit about this random ass dragon(really now?!?!?!).

Anime Alisha is pretty trash overall as a character because she is the definition of a black hole sue. This is the official description. 👇. Its a sign of really poor f tier writing.

Game Alisha was flawed and sweet and went out of her way to make seraphim feel accepted. She was saddened at the losing her position as the squire because she could no longer see the seraphim and go on adventures and learnt that she has duties and a role that she couldn't run from. The manga did her more justice and clarified things far better but it stayed true to who she was.

Like people insisted Rose was a Mary Sue in the game when she was just gifted and acclimated to being armatized via certain events. She wasn't ever OP tbh but nobody would have cared if Rose was a dude with the same storyline. But then you have anime Alisha who is literally bending the world to her will and thats good characterisation.

I think my biggest problem with the anime only fans is that some of them will make snide remarks about why SorMik is popular and call it blatant fujo bait because that was all it was in the anime, bland meaningless over sensual moments that ultimately meant nothing. They don't hold a fraction of the connection these two share. Hell half the game sormik shippers were convinced they were married or something with how they acted like a couple that's settled into that years long casually intimate relationship. The anime only fans also often claim that Alisha was the best character and deserves more love and everyone else is bland and boring. And you know what? I can see why, because like I said, everyone else was cardboard. "I don't get the hype around Mikleo" well of course you don't, that was barely even Mikleo. All Mikleo was in the anime was a pretty white haired anime boy sensually screaming out to the het dark haired protagonist every ten minutes. But you tell them that canon source material is different and they use it as an excuse that "well I only know the anime" and then there's others insisting that people skip the game and only bother with the anime.

Like...anime Alisha was the biggest problem of tozx. Not Alisha. Anime Alisha specifically. Its like they watched the game's op and the ova once, liked the blonde in tiny short shorts, read a summary and made the anime.

#not my alisha #give me back my sweet summer girl #i liked her for her flaws and adorableness #i hate what they did to her in the anime #and god the way they screwed over every character and their bond to sorey for her #particularly SorMik #sorey didn't describe Mikleo like a lovestruck poet in the novels for the anime to make him look callous #i imagine Sorey hugged Mikleo for 3 entire days and sent apology flowers to the other seraphim after whatching the anime cuz he would NEVER #tales of zestiria #tozx #rant #also they could have left Sorey as the touchy dork that he is like they did in the first few eps #it would have made Mikleo seem less pathetic with his seemingly one sided crush on anime Sorey #going back to the manga cause I need to cleanse my mind now

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