#(apparently I'm also the closest thing we have to a “parental figure of the group” so that's also leaning in the tom category)

[youling-the-ghost]

I got Luke! :D

My humour is MUCH less raunchy than his but otherwise? I can see it lol

Re-posting my SFTH quiz on a new site because the only one limits responses and I am not paying a subscription for a quiz website:

[cosmicjoke]

Hi

I find Isabel and Levi's friendship adorable. Like he took her in from the streets when she was dying and cared for her like a Lil sister. And Isabel calling him big brother.

Do you think Levi still remembers her (post rumbling) and gets sad sometimes?

Also what are you views regarding how Levi raised Isabel? I tend to think Levi more as a parent when it comes to him taking care of Isabel than a brother.

Hi there!

I absolutely adore Levi's relationship with Isabel. I think, if you look at his relationship with her, it in many ways encapsulates who Levi really is as a person. Just an incredibly kind and caring man. The fact he found Isabel dying in the streets and took her in says it all. I always say that it was no doubt easier to Levi to survive on his own in the Underground, but he decided to take care of two people in Furlan and Isabel anyway, probably making his own survival more difficult. But that's Levi for you. He's always tried to help people, even when it makes his own life harder.

He undoubtedly remembers both Isabel and Furlan post-Rumbling. Whenever anyone asks me who were the people closest to Levi in his life, I say Furlan and Isabel. They were his family, really. The only people who understood the world he came from and the hardships he faced, because they faced them too.

In terms of how Levi raised Isabel, it's an interesting question. I don't know how old Isabel was when Levi found her, but I'm assuming she must have been pretty young, since she seems young in the manga/anime. We know Levi was extremely protective of her. People always talk about that scene in "No Regrets", when he apparently kills some people who were messing with her. I've seen people try to accuse Levi of having an outsized reaction here, saying he killed those people for "cutting Isabel's hair", which is a ridiculous oversimplification of the scene and what's really going on. Levi killed them (presumably) because they were threatening Isabel's life, and possibly even threatening sexual assault against her. We know from the scene that Isabel had run into these men before, that she apparently was hanging out with them in some capacity. When she comes back, she's crying and extremely upset, she has a bloody nose, if I remember correctly, which tells us she was beaten up, and Levi and Furlan notice her hair has been cut. When they ask her what happened, she gets furiously mad and runs away, and we later see her lying in bed, still crying and wishing she could kill the men that did this to her. The idea of someone holding Isabel down (a young girl, we have to remember) and cutting her hair, has a heavy implication of sexual assault to me. We know for a fact that sex trafficking rings are a thing in the Underground, and knowing Levi's own experience with that, and what his own mother had to endure, he was no doubt hyper-vigilant against that kind of thing happening to Isabel.

Anyway, I think Levi was likely just very protective of her, but he also let her make her own choices and didn't keep her isolated or off the streets or anything like that. He allowed her freedom. I don't think Levi likely saw himself as a father figure for Isabel, but more like a big brother, because Levi never tried to exercise any real authority over her or Furlan. We never see him trying to tell them what to do, really. He tries in the anime version of "No Regrets" to tell them they can't come on the expedition, but that's just out of fear for their lives, and they pretty easily convince him later to let them come. He let them make their own choices and considered them to be his equal when it came to decision making, even though he was kind of the de facto leader of their little group. Near the end of the story, when Levi lays out the plan for him to go after Erwin and for Furlan and Isabel to stay behind, Furlan asks Levi if it's an "order", and Levi hesitates and says "Why does it have to come down to that?". So he never tried to control either of them, or exercise any power over them. I think, more than anything, Levi just wanted to help them realize their dreams, which is why he agreed to go through with Furlan's plan of accepting Lobov's offer and joining the SC in the first place.

I basically figure Levi just did all he could to provide for both of them, making sure they had enough food and had shelter, etc... I also wrote a one-shot story about this too: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33966748 And that's sort of what I imagine when it comes to Levi's role in their group. I think he probably took on the responsibility of being the provider. He probably saw it as his job to protect them and take care of them as much as he could.

[kendrixtermina]

(Fe3h discourse incoming) So I'm not sure if this is still around but I remember some people calling characters "racist" due to how they initially view the Almyrans and it just annoys me? If you lived in basically medieval times and all you knew about a group of people was that they invaded your homeland and are good fighters it makes sense you'd be wary about them. The fact that we see them easily discard any initial opinions to work with them in VW shows the opposite and how accepting they are

Part of this does probably come from this purity culture sentiment that there is one obvious right answer that should be apparent to anyone not evil when we’re really all to an extent limited by the knowledge we can access. 

This is something I feel strongly about precisely because I know how much I don’t know and how much ppl have been wrong in the past - so much BS is still widely believed these days like Diet culture or counter-evidential beliefs about economy. So that makes me be careful to claim we have the truth now. As my grandfather used to say, “the middle ages will step on us”, that is as long as our time isn’t barbarism free it will come to be considered barbaric times eventually. 

In the middle ages people used to give their children mercury and bankrupt themselves as someone might for real medicine. Emotionally to the mammal brain it’s the same. That’s why knowledge is power cause it helps you know the real consequences of your action. Otherwise you get what seems like caring parents wondering if they're harming their children by not doing barbaric stuff like physical beating or fgm. One can notice by oneself that it’s wrong and causes suffering but someone who only believes their own ideas and never takes outside data into account would be either mad or an arrogant jerk. At some point you need to consider outside data unless you can discover all of science and psychology by yourself. 

So to put it short no one is immune to propaganda and the closest thing to a cure is self-awareness and self-questioning, no one is born with all the answers; instrict, thinking, emotion and intuition can all lead you astray. 

Though the correct word here would be xenophobia. (generic distrust/prejudice about foreigners)

‘Racism’ is a very specific early modernity variant of it with pseudoscience mixed in, or maybe it could be thought of as an ideology meant to keep xenophobic-like distrust going in a mixed society. Normally that sort of prejudice desintegrates as people interact more (a big plot point here actually) - or rather, communication & interaction changes how people define in group and out group, which is ultimately arbitrary. A lot of what is thought of today as countries or races used to be considered wildly different peoples when the reach of communication reached further. 

But if you spread some ideology that leads people to be artificially segregated, or indirectly causes that through economic disadvantages, bam, you can keep prejudice alive & well for centuries and whatever institutions you built on it, like colonial resource extraction gigs or political hegemony. 

That said tho, certain lines there are definitely written to evoke rl xenophobic comments as people commonly experience them, and to tell people who recognize this & might have charged responses because of their own backstories that their lying eyes deceive them because you like those characters is not good.  “Oh but they’re a good person with a bright future” is exactly how this behavior fails to get recognized in real life. So to that extent I’d disagree with you.

At least their past incarnations at the point that they said those lines they were “xenophobes”, that is, fulfilled all criteria of the definition & engaged in typical behavior as people affected by xenophobia experience it. 

Hilda, for all her good qualities (and don’t get me wrong I love her to bits) is still sort of a frivolous rich girl. Sylvain for example did take the time to inform himself ‘bout the neighbors (See that lost item that’s info about sreng) though his family also holds a border territory & much depends on its defense. The system isn’t an universal brainwash, the truth is that both system and individual responses matter and dynamically influence each other.

But note that that’s all I’m talking about: Recognition, sober reasonable acknowledgement of bad behavior. You can’t talk about bad behavior if you don’t show anyone doing it and if it was only irredeemable monsters that did it, it wouldn’t make ppl question themselves. 

To acknowledge that they acted xenophobically (adverb) isn’t to say that they’re an embodiment of all xenophobia ever (noun) and that you’ve got to hate them now. But as long as they don’t hate at you for liking them ppl affected by xenophobia are allowed to vent & use a story as a projection space for it because that’s how everyone uses stories - the same story can in fact mean different things to people without either being “wrong”

Also, scale. Hilda making one or two not even especially malicious comments is on a whole different level than Ingrid actually cheering for destruction. Neither of them compares to the various unrepentant antagonists who never change their views when confronted with evidence cause it benefits them. 

Some of that distinction is lost if you just slap the same label on all and demand they be reacted to the same way, or that ppl add a disclaimer each time they want to talk about a character they like. We don’t make everyone who likes Jeritza say “mass murder is bad” first. 

But also context: After all a big plot here is that the system these characters live in encourages and cultivates such attitudes  - that’s why the various leader figures you can choose to back all want to change it it different ways.

That’s why Winston in 1984 starts the story very paranoid, repressed & full of violent fantasies, to show the effect the dystopia has on people. 

  (important point imho, a lot of ppl look at atrocities and judge that human nature is just bad but actually human nature is programmable. Evil can be engineered as much as civilization and education can foster good)

It’s generally the problem with Purity culture (wether it wears a right or left wing hat) that it’s more focussed on applying loaded, out of context labels (which are then treated as static) than constructive solutions focussed on promoting the desired end goals. 

The labeling tactic is probably appropriate sometimes (active, unrepentant nazis, that you thereby deprive of big dollar platforms or ad revenue) but no tool/tactic is ever a silver bullet. 

tl;Dr I agree with you that labeling/purity culture doesn’t have the right approach to it,  but ppl should be able to call a spade a spade and say & respond to depictions of xenophobia because to say otherwise would be tantamount to saying that victims of xenophobia or racism aren’t allowed to have feelings or engage with media. 

Obsly the characters can’t be reduced to that & you’re right about that & the importance of context, but if just stating/acknowledging that they at one point fulfilled the criteria for xenophobia feels like bashing to you I’d work on decoupling those emotions to see clearer. 

People can have done something wrong at some point & still be interesting people - especially in a media context where they’re as imaginary as their victims, it’s not like you’re giving money to real unrepentant perps. 

I’d ease up on real ppl too if they repent simply because then they stop being a problem and solving it so it stops harming RL ppl takes precedent over cathartic punishment that makes you feel good, the goal should be always to stop the harm (at the root, if possible) because it’s intolerable for ppl to be harmed

Or that’s my 2cents anyways. 

[purplebunny0517]

I see. I'm interested to know what you like about the sorceresses in The Witcher, and their relationships with each other (pick your favs cuz there's a lot :P) xD Also, do you ever see yourself in these characters?

Are you sure you want to give me this chance anon? ARE YOU?

Let me think...

They are cool (duh)

They give zero fucks about people who think they aren’t

They are beautiful. I mean all girls are but let’s be fair they are like super doper beautiful

They are ambitious and methodical, stubborn little shits, headstrong, powerful, but also tender souls with compassion and care

(that last part probably exlcudes Sabrina

They are in charge of their body and sex life

(so much so that sometimes they are the ones men should fear and yes again I’m talking about you Sabrina

(but pls do it safely and on top of a hedgehog is NOT safe

Magical powerful ladies and possibly lesbians! WHAT ELSE TO LOVE

As for my favorite sorceresses relationship the first one is actually Triss/Yenna. Apart from the fact that my gf’s favorite sorceress is Yenna and mine is Triss and we both like them together, their relationship with each other, in my opinion, is way more interesting than either of them with a certain witcher.

Did I mention I don’t like and even extremely dislike Geralt/Yenna? So much so that I even refuse to call Yennefer Yen because that’s what Geralt does? Well now I do. I don’t have anything personal against the famous white wolf, not really. I’m just really allergic to men and heterosexuality in general oops. And the most thing I hate about him is how a man can easily turn two dear friends into their ugly selves we sadly witness toward the end of Lady of the Lake just before all hell broke loose in Rivia. If not for the event, they were going to fight each other like two mortal enemies and it broke my heart way more than literally any other thing happened throughout the books. They are way better than this. So yeah later I was happy again.

And a quick reminder to something I wrote about Triss and Philippa,(book spoiler warning) two canonically sapphic women who have been sharing suspectable long screen time together and nothing happened, yep, definitely

Also it may not be per question request but I still want to talk about Ciri and Triss. I don’t think many people realize the intensity of their bond as it was hardly presented anywhere but in books. Ciri would have been a real witcher through mutation or dead if Triss did not stop the witchers of Kaer Morhan from doing so. The sorceress dressed her,demanded extra attention for her periods when no witcher ever had the presense of mind because of course it’s a woman’s thing, taught her basic elder speech (before Yenna did the advanced one) and makeup and all the “girly” thing, and was her closest friend all the way until much later, apparently closer than all those witchers. Now personally I don’t like those girly things, but to a girl who had lost everything in her past life and only have harsh and servere trainings given by a group of men without emotion or the slightest clue as to how to care for a princess-to-survivor, Triss was the soft landing she did not have the presense of mind to know how much she needed. If Yennefer did not walk straight into Vilgefortz’s trap, he would have kidnapped Triss to torture for Ciri’s whereabout. Triss was her first motherly figure after Calanthe, NOT Yenna. They both parented Ciri. Please let them share custody o(╥﹏╥)o

This shit still turned out to be too long lol I can literally talk about sorceresses all day (proven by my annoyed friends)