#As if he is incapable of being independent because of his disability

[train-fans-anonymous]

(Probably Lukewarm) Hot Take: I fucking hate it when people infantilize Red Alert, there is something so 😬 about it..

[atopvisenyashill]

i don't understand got fans like how is tywin a genius strategist when the only thing the red wedding accomplishes in the long run is north independence with the starks on top of it probably forever 😭

yeah, like there's a lot of shit that goes wrong on tywin's watch that just shouldn't i mean-

FIRST OF ALL, he is getting his ass kicked all over the riverlands, westerlands, and crownlands by a teenage boy. GET GOOD OLD MAN

the situation between cersei-jaime-robert should not have escalated that far. i do get that it's not like tywin could have predicted exactly how god awful robert would be but i find it incredibly difficult to believe that he had no idea robert was abusing cersei that severely. i know i probably sound like a broken clock here but Even Viserys II Attempted To Protect Naerys From Aegon So What Is Tywin's Excuse.

i mean.......i feel like tywin was always jockeying for another Hand appointment when Joff became king so why does he let Joff get so out of control? Losing control of Aerys is one thing, especially since they were peers. Losing control of Joffrey and Cersei and Jaime in such an insane way? Tywin why are you slipping like this.

And this directly gets Joff killed. If Tywin had more control of Joffrey, the Tyrells wouldn't have killed him. Sansa wouldn't have been so desperate to escape (she'd still be desperate but being actively terrorized by joffrey does add to the issue).

Sending Tyrion to the capital was a good idea I'll give him that

But mistreating your LEGAL HEIR whether you want him to inherit or not, is so stupid. especially because - tyrion isn't disabled in a way that would make him incapable of taking casterly rock by force. he's quite intelligent and he's not stupid when it comes to battle/tactics/war even if he's not a fighter himself. this man is setting his own house up for a succession crisis and egging on the rivalry and hatred between his kids. DUMB.

RED WEDDING. STUPID. Laying a trap? Great. PARADING ROBB'S MUTILATED BODY THROUGH THE STREETS? COME ON.

Like the thing is, the Castamere thing is......brutal, I don't want to say it's not but having one (1) brutal act to fall back on isn't terrible. He even got a great jingle out of it. But then he botches the stuff with the Darklyns and has to massacre them, sacks KL brutally and slaughters Elia and her babies, AND pulls the red wedding. That's too much!!!! I know Caesar doesn't exist here but SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS TYWIN. YOU CAN ONLY BE A BRUTAL TYRANT FOR SO LONG BEFORE PEOPLE WANT TO KICK YOUR ASS BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE.

Ultimately, he fucks up in the exact same way half these idiotic patriarchs fuck up. He sees his children as extensions of him, not as people with their own minds, he sees everyone around him as lesser, and makes everyone so afraid of him that they decide "we have everything to lose staying under this man so let's throw everything at the wall."

rest in piss you idiot.

[imaginethezeldaverse]

Hello! I don't know if you write for the more obscure characters in Botw/Totk but I figured I'd ask just in case ☺️ Could you please write something about Tauro, Purah, Sidon and Zelda dating a Sheikah s/o who's chronically ill/disabled? It'd be great if you could make them specifically have weak bones and be really short too, and they're often upset how people keep babying them because they might fracture or break something. But if you want to keep it more open-ended that's fine too!

Thank you so so much, you're probably my favorite Zelda blog on Tumblr! Your writing and ideas are always like *chefs kiss* 😘! Have a good day and drink lots of water!

Whenever people tell me I'm their favorite anything it literally shocks me because there are SO many fantastic zelda fic blogs on here that I feel are vastly superior - but I thank you nonetheless! 🥰

I'll write for pretty much any character - I just keep romance and nsfw content for adults. So I'd be happy to!

Tauro, as well-mannered and good-natured he is, is amongst the mass where he needs to be reminded that while you are disabled, you aren't incapable of doing normal things. He tries his best to remember that, but his rambunctious and steadfast nature leads him to be righteous and helpful, even when it's not needed. Plus given his height, he always just assumes that people tend to need help to reach things in tall places if he's ever around. He does try his best to be sensitive to your needs and wants, however, tapping his hand to his chest when he catches himself doing too much. Instead, he makes an effort to remind himself to wait for you to ask him should you need anything. Very affectionate, otherwise - he enjoys making you smile and wrapping his big ol' bear arms around you (albeit, he's careful not to actually squeeze you too hard because he does NOT know his own strength) and is very attentive on the days that you specifically don't feel well and your body leaves you in a weaker state than normal.

Purah, being the research fanatic and accomplished scientist that she is, is already aware and well read on your illness. That, however, has never stopped her from being absolutely smitten with you. Where she is boisterous and outlandish, there is a careful resilience to you that she keeps close to her heart. She sees your frustration often with the townsfolk who treat you with unnecessary delicacy, and while she understands the "good-intent", she feels as you do: chronic illness should not beget differential treatment. When you express your frustrations, she's an open ear always. Purah is never one to explain why the people of your community act this way that leans in their favor, but rather why their attitudes should not portray you under a fragile light when you are anything but. She empathizes with you greatly, knowing exactly what it's like for your own people to treat you like you're something you're not (her experiences with de-aging left quite the mark), but she assures you that you've always got her on your side.

“I’ve never much like everyone else…and neither have you,” Purah muses, tapping her recorder in her hand. She lifts her glasses, her crimson eyes blazing in your direction with admiration and sincerity, “I guess that makes us a cut above the rest, now doesn’t it?”

Sidon is about as bubbly with you as you can imagine. That sharp smile completely alight when you're with him. His height difference compared to yours doesn't bother him considering he towers greatly over just about everyone he meets, so as long as you don’t care (which he secretly hopes you don’t!) then all is well. When he learns about your chronic illness, he’s at first admittedly worried, but he sees how much you value your independence and doesn’t push you to do less than anything you’re up for. Sidon, having learned his healing capabilities from Mipha, will actually offer to “bathe” with you whenever you’re not feeling especially strong, letting the softness of his magically imbued water immerse your body and take any pain or pressure off of your form for a while and bring you some ease. You don’t take him up on it often, half because you don’t feel it’s always necessary, and half because you don’t want to impose - though of course Sidon would refute you ever being an imposition upon him. He chooses his words very carefully, making sure to give you the impression that he’s willing to do whatever you need should you need something from him, but without overstepping and making you feel incapable.

“You’ll never be without, my darling,” Sidon whispers, taking your hand, those slit-pupiled eyes softening as he brushes back a lock of your silver-white hair, “But I will never claim to know you better than yourself.”

Zelda has always been a ball of curiosity, that’s one of the things you love about her. She has an awfully curious mind, so when you explain to her about your chronic illness for the first time, she of course asks you a lot of questions. You laugh thinking about back then, how she felt terrible for borderline prying into your life though she wanted to know everything about you at that time. You remember assuring her that it was fine, and it made you incredibly grateful that Impa had introduced you before she stepped down - it allowed you two to get close. The times that you’ve gone to town together, Zelda takes notice of how people tend to treat you akin to porcelain: delicate, fragile, some even giving off the impression that you’re a lost cause because of your Sheikah heritage. Combined with your stature (with Zelda herself being on the shorter side of an average Hylian’s height), it’s enough to infuriate you both. You two tend to bounce off of one another: shes sticks up for you when you feel like someone’s unnecessarily babying you, and you put your two cents in whenever someone is overly cautious and hovering due to her status, even after proving herself beyond capable. Ultimately she too understands your plight of people looking at you differently because of who are you or what they know about you. She recants the days when her father treated her as helpless and small, hyper focused on keeping her in line rather than letting her be her own person. She takes your hand, intertwining fingers with yours and lending you a genuine smile.

“But we are not weak. We are not frail or easily broken. I am not defined entirely by my title,” Zelda kisses the top of your hand before gently covering it with her other in an endearing move, “And you are not defined by your illness.”

[msfcatlover]

Reverse!Robins thought

What if… Tim wasn’t adopted… until after Jason. What if Tim didn’t pull his whole fake relative shtick until after he got shot. Is this anything? I feel like this is something.

…I feel like I might’ve just cracked open Tim’s entire character arc for this AU, actually.

It does rely on making Jack Drake a thousand times more of a dick than he is in canon. But Jack not wanting to look after his disabled son, Tim getting a stipend to find some sort of accommodations for himself, Tim not letting the Waynes know (because Tim Drake fucking hates asking anyone for help, hates letting other people see his weaknesses, does feel a level of shame about both his new disability & his father’s reaction to it, still thinks that if Tim just works really really hard at it that he’ll eventually regain full mobility in his legs so all of this is temporary, and also the idea of being taken in out of pity while Jason runs around as Shadow… yeah.) And then Damian finds out and is so horrified & worried about Tim (and so incapable of expressing that himself) that Damian’s response is just to immediately rat Tim out to the rest of the family so that Cass & Duke & Bruce can work on getting Tim to move in with them—

OH! Alternatively: keep Jack closer to canon, but he becomes suffocatingly overprotective of Tim. Treats Tim like a glass doll, infantilizes the hell out of Tim, and in the process of “protecting” Tim from any possible danger Jack ends up completely cutting Tim off from every single relationship Tim has. It’s not malicious, Jack’s not trying to be abusive or isolate Tim, but it’s demeaning. It’s humiliating. No matter what Tim says or does, his dad just will not let Tim have any sort of life, because Jack’s seemingly convinced that Tim will shatter into a million pieces if Tim so much as looks at the ground wrong.

So Tim ends up running away. Just empties his bank account over the course of a few weeks, researches available apartments with both functioning elevators & landlords willing to take cash under the table, catches a bus to Bludhaven, and silently hates the fact that the only reason anyone is going to even know Tim’s gone missing is because Jack is definitely about to throw a tantrum about it. And Tim finally gets to use his crutches outside of PT (because Jack would certainly never risk Tim doing something as dangerous as falling down,) and has a landline to call his friends (because private conversations just were not possible when Tim’s dad never left him alone, and Tim had to leave his phone behind to avoid being traced,) and Tim has 2 glorious weeks of freedom (and one pizza party) before going down to get his mail one day and Damian is standing outside of the door scowling. (Tim even thinks he successfully blackmails Damian into keeping quiet about Tim’s new living arrangements, but Tim vastly underestimated Damian’s levels of concern, and Damian’s guilt for both being a terrible brother to Tim when Tim first became Shadow and also being off-world when Tim got shot. This does not improve their relationship much, at least short-term.)

Tim sues for emancipation, because he cannot bear to live with his dad again after the last couple months of coddling. Jack tries to get Tim permanently placed under his guardianship, effectively stripping Tim of the ability to leave even after Tim turns 18. Bruce gets all up in the middle of it, offering himself as a potential guardian given how close his kids are to Tim, his own resources to provide for Tim, his spotless over-a-decade-long record as a foster parent, and Jack’s less than stellar parenting record even before Tim got shot.

The judge refuses to let Tim go fully independent. Tim, somewhat desperately, points out that at 17, his own opinion should matter in this; if the children of divorcees get to have a say in how much time they spend with each parent by the time they’re Tim’s age, then Tim should have a say when he says he absolutely will not under any circumstances be living with Jack Drake again as long as Tim remains disabled. That if they make him go back, Tim will just run away again—and this time, he’ll go further & be a lot more thorough in disappearing. That the only way they’ll be able to stop Tim is to tie Tim down 24/7, and at that point there’ll be a solid case for abuse, now won’t there? (Tim’s plan: get Kon to fly Tim to Hawaii to avoid plane records & cameras, set up a new false identity there.)

Anyway, that’s how Tim ended up living in Wayne Manor.

[doodle-pops]

Lord of Gondolin | Having A Blind S/O

Request: Hello Mina! I love your writing more then I can express 💛 May I please make a request for a headcannon with the Lords of Gondolin and how they would be with a blind human as their wife (or you can do no gender pronouns if you’d prefer). Can she be based off Ivy Walker from The Village? Completely competent in moving around with a wooden cane, her feelings and advanced hearing. Thank you so much for considering my request! Have a beautiful day/night 💙💛💙💛💙 - Anon

A/N: I realised that I've been fulfilling people's request and not even leaving an author's note :( never too late, hello anon 👋

Galdor

We all know he’s a gentle and tender-loving soul who is also a healer, so having a disability such as blindness comes off as nothing he hasn’t come face-to-face with before.

Galdor is aware that you have been blind before he met you and at first like everyone else, he would rush to lend a hand when he notices you shuffling around with your stick as support.

He would be amazed at your strength and ability to function as an average person. Yes, you may be a bit shaky from time to time when it comes to locating objects in particular out-of-reach areas, but you can still operate.

It surprises him how well your motor skills are, especially your coordination and sensory skills. You blew his mind when he observed your fluid motion and how you interacted with the whole around you. It was as if you weren’t even blind to the way you carried on with your life.

Cue Galdor showering you with tons of love and affection. His forms of affection are acts of service and words of affirmation.

Ecthelion

His reaction and behaviour would be similar to Galdor, but being the reclusive person that he was, he wouldn’t have rushed to immediately assist. Ecthelion would sit back and observe until you genuinely require his help.

He doesn’t want to seem like he hovering and constantly overbearing because some persons can feel this way with disabilities.

Ecthelion enjoys giving you the freedom to move about and use/develop your sensory skills. It’s not the first time he’s seen you use them so expertly, so he’ll give you your room to move about as you, please.

Gondolin is a safe place after all and there isn’t a need for him to be overly protective of your whereabouts. Still, he will be cautious because, despite your sensory skills proving to be superior, there are moments when they fail and his support is required.

You don’t have to worry about him treating you like some overly fragile and incompetent person. You’re still a flower who must be protected and loved in his eyes, he understands there must be boundaries.

Glorfindel

A lot more delicate and fragile with you and your disability. You can explain to him that you are fully capable of functioning and even displaying that you are, but in his heart and mind, he believes that he should still care.

It’s not that he believes that you’re incapable, it’s just him being his nurturing and parenting self. It can be a little overbearing in how he throws himself at you whenever you’re about to engage in some activity.

He comes as a hovering parent in the background and always wants to have you in his sight. It takes a lot of self-restraint to not quarrel with him and let him know that you’re not entirely handicapped.

You need to show off those sensory skills and move about one day while being a bit stern with him so he can properly see and understand your abilities. I mean, before you met him, you were doing just fine and functioning (you might want to mention that).

Glorfindel takes some time in stepping back and watching you do your thing and showing him that you are fine and alive. When he does, uses the time to put effort into spoiling you lavishly. It is mainly taking you on tours around Gondolin or Rivendell and discussing the scenery.

Egalmoth

He’s all for your independence and doesn’t want to come off as annoying, but he is your lover and doesn’t want to have you struggling alone. A believer in whatever you’re going through, so am I (he’s empathetic and doesn’t want you to be alone)

He is a bit more relaxed and at ease when it comes to you moving about the place; there’s a somewhat soft and anxious smile on his face as he observes you walking around. He thinks that you might misplace your stick and trip or walk into a wall.

When Egalmoth learns about your phenomenal sensory abilities and observes first and foremost how extraordinary you are with them, he then understands that you are pretty capable on your own.

There isn’t any need for him to rush in all the time to assist, you can operate all on your own. One or two times he did need to lend a hand for objects in high to reach places, but other than that, you were fine.

It doesn’t prevent him from spoiling you. You might not be able to see how beautiful you appear when he’s finished decorating you in layers of jewellery, but he’ll let you know.

Rog

This gentle giant would have seen his fair share of handicapped persons or those suffering from disabilities after his time in Angband (I’m going with this version). So, the knowledge of you being visually impaired does not intimidate him.

In fact, it makes his heart soften. With him, he wouldn’t have assumed that you might have gained your blindness naturally and instead, guessed it was from an attack.

He isn’t the type to pry into your private life unless you reveal any personal information to him. Rog understands that you are visually impaired and will work alongside you to make your life as comfortable as possible.

He’s not going to ultimately hover and become overly protective, but he will keep a close eye on you even if you show him that your other sensory skills are working fine and have been aiding you all this time.

Like Egalmoth, he isn’t going to let your disability prevent you from enjoying the beautiful things in life. Rog will still craft you fantastic items and gift them to you even if he has to describe them.

Maeglin

Was a bit more appalled to meet a visually impaired person given that it’s not a common or heard of disability among the elves, and given his youthfulness, he wouldn’t have come across it until the war.

He’s told to believe that elvish medicine can heal and do many wonders, so he was stunned to learn that it couldn’t work on you since you had grown past the age of healing and it was natural.

Maeglin is more amazed at your motor skills and ability to move around just fine as though you were still seeing the world around you. Then you walked up the steps or through the streets. Heck, he even saw you do your shopping perfectly fine.

Because it’s new to him, he’ll be hovering with an inquisitive expression and little questions to clear up any misconceptions or confusion. He will still offer a hand and foot because you would admit, having him around was relieving. You had extra eyes when you were tired.

He spoils you by taking you all over Gondolin and having little dates while discussing your future and the world. He does lots of descriptions with the scenery to help give you fantastic imagery.

Masterlist

Taglist: @eunoiaastralwings @noldorinpainter @ranhanabi777 @spidergirla5 @lilmelily @someoneinthestars @mysticmoomin @aconstructofamind @starborne0661 @floraroselaughter @the-phantom-of-arda @rain-on-my-umbrella @singleteapot @wandererindreams @asianbutnotjapanese @hoshinokurasa

[daaedoodles]

oh my god can you tell me about your wildies little mermaid au

OH MY GOD I WOULD LOVE TO!?

It’s called Song Of The Sea 🤭

Mia is a siren who has a magical necklace that can transform her into a human on land. She doesn’t have magical abilities, unlike other people of her kind, and her voice doesn’t hold any magic. The other sirens rejected her because of this, but now that she’s living on land, the townspeople are afraid of her because there are rumors that she is a witch and she has magic. They avoid talking to her because they fear they’ll be bewitched, so it’s impossible for her to make any friends. The only person she has ever been treated kindly by is Leyla, a nurse working for the royal family who patches her up and gives her a place to stay when she gets beaten up by a bunch of thugs.

Elizabeth is a princess, but not the kind you’d imagine. She seafares, travelling across the ocean everywhere she can to learn more about science and medicine. She is trying to find a cure for her brother Adam, the heir to the throne, as he became sick with a mysterious illness when he was just 20, leaving her as next in line. The townspeople aren’t a huge fan of Elizabeth because they believe her parents shouldn’t let her run so wild and free because she’s a woman, much less a princess, and they believe she’s incapable of leading or being independent because of her disability. It’s very obvious to Elizabeth the townspeople look down on her, even if they never say anything directly.

Ben is Elizabeth’s longtime friend and interpreter who sort of serves a Grimsby type role, helping Elizabeth with whatever she wants and getting dragged along on all her crazy adventures very much against his will (he’s a total scaredy cat)

Lauren is the daughter of a member of the royal court who grew up with Elizabeth. She wanted nothing to do with the politics of high society from a young age, but especially now because her mother is forbidding her from courting Leyla because because she’s a ‘commoner’. She thinks it’s all bullshit.

Elizabeth hears a rumor about Mia and wants to meet her, so Lauren and Leyla bring her. Elizabeth is not afraid of Mia at all, both because she wouldn’t be able to bewitch her anyway, and also because she wants to know if her magic can help Adam. Except, Mia has none. However, Mia knows there is magic where she came from, and that it might be able to help Adam if they are able to find it.

Together, they set off on an adventure to try and find the cure for Adam’s illness. There’s crazy storms, shipwrecks, and lots of trouble along the way when they encounter other not so friendly sea creatures and other sirens. In their time together they realize they’re not so different at all and they’re the only people who seem to truly understand each other. Hearing or deaf, siren or human, they fall in love. Except, when they eventually find the magic they’re looking for, there’s a massive price to pay and neither of them are sure if it’s worth it.

Additionally, Iggy and Martin own the tavern in town that everyone frequents. Floyd is born to a family of longtime royal guards and is well known by the townspeople as a hero. He grew up alongside Lauren and Elizabeth and is friends with them.

[rosy-fox-art]

i def agree with what you said about how the fandom handles heart's blindness so thank you for calling it out before it got worse. i feel that it would make more sense if he put the blindfold on himself, like how other ppl in the tags on your post said.

another thing that ive noticed is how heart is sometimes infantilized and seen as someone who can "do no harm" which is... strange to say the least. i think ppl forget that he is a personification of a grown man's emotions and depression (sorry for wording it like that lol i didn't know how else to say it)

Hi! Thank you . I was honestly really worried to post about it, so I’m glad to see people so receptive to it so far in a positive light. I’ve been reading the tags very diligently ^^~

As for victimizing heart or ‘ saying he can do no wrong’ and infantilization… yeah I can see this as another issue that’s starting to sprout up, and some people in the tags of that previous post have mentioned it as well. And while I know that’s not everybody and I figure that is also another case where people don’t really intend to do it and just aren’t thinking about it, that doesn’t really erase the problem. This applies mostly to people depicting heart as childish, not being able to handle himself, being idiotic, victimizing and woobifying him etc. So, I really hope you don’t mind me using this as a chance to talk about that a bit, too.

Being over emotional does not, at all, translate to any of the traits I just listed out in the slightest. Sure, heart may be a little naive and impulsive as per his nature, but that is not the same. You are absolutely right to point out that heart an adult here, too. And at the end of the day the album seems to make it very clear that Heart and Mind are not all that unlike each other, but are unwilling to admit their similarities and highlight and judge their differences heavily. Heart is just as harmful and violent as mind, just in a different way. He has the propensity to be just as cunning or manipulative as Mind, too. Even his tactic of victimizing himself is a show of this, and Mind points this out several times in the album. They are two sides of the same coin. There is a large difference between Heart victimizing himself and actually being the victim, which he is not. Or at least, he is not completely blameless for the hole that he has dug for himself. When people show heart as being the victim or as doing no wrong, a lot of the nuance is completely lost.

Secondly, the internet and fan spaces have a bad habit of infantilizing people with mental illness, in general. Depression does not make someone soft and cute because they’re sad all the time. Depression does not make someone an uwu bean. Depression makes someone — as we can very clearly see by how Heart is within the cannon itself— a wreckage of rage and disdain that struggles to crawl out of a spiral of misery and apathy. It’s not pretty. When you boil it down to all of the things I’ve mentioned as being a problem here— that’s infantilization. This is also a big problem when it comes to disabled characters (Because people jump to the conclusion that the character cannot do much for themselves because of the disability, do not understand how disabled people actually advocate for themselves and function day to day from lack of experience or exposure to disabled people, want to depict them as incapable, etc). So, the fact that Heart is both of these things creates a ripe mess. This is kind of why I’m hoping to make some less angry, more informational post about some of the things blind people use to function just like other people here, sometime. Because the lack of these things in itself may lend into the infantilization problem. Being able to do things— having agency and independence over oneself— is a large part of breaking away from that. And I think it says a Lot that you rarely see this happen with Mind or Soul, as well.

So sorry if this came off at all angry, but I’m very passionate about it as someone whose experienced infantilization in my life from other people assuming things about me solely based on my disability. So, if I can say something to stop people from perpetuating it in fan content then I will. 👉🏻👈🏻. At any rate, thank you for the ask! I’m sure there’s a typo or two in here. So so sorry for that!

[ask-pocketlaw]

I'm disabled. I often get told "Oh but you don't LOOK disabled" and i swear they expect me to hold up my paralyzed arm, wave it around pathetically, and scream bloody murder that i'm not being fed because of the autism. (and those are just the visible disabilities) People seem to have a habit of seeing one extreme case of something and deciding THAT'S the baseline. I have no idea why. It needs to stop. If I say "Oh she's a burn victim" can you honestly tell me you DON'T picture a beautiful young woman with half her face covered in scars like hollywood often shows. What i was thinking of is a woman with a dollar-sized scar on her abdomen from fumbling oil in the kitchen. she wears singlet swimsuits so that she doesn't feel self-conscious. Nobody believes she has searing pain from it or endless itching from the damaged nerves... that is, until they make her show it. After all, she's so pretty. How could she be disabled? She must be lying. I say "That man has arthritis" and you might first imagine an old shriveled and hunched man who can barely get up stairs without holding his deeply arched back in one hand and his cane in the other. What i was thinking of is a young man in his early 30's who has not taken the best care of his hands in life, maybe got into too many fights or has a history of contorting his fingers as a child for laughs. Now his posture is fine but his hands ache so bad in storms that he can barely type and needs to take sick days off his office job or risk getting fired if his boss sees him 'slacking off' due to the constant ache in his joints. After all, he's such a good worker. How can he be disabled, he looks fine? He must just be lazy. Disability is often small and unassuming. People are ableist without realizing because they assume the worst example is the baseline. They assume hollywood is right. Hell, even the tests for disability focus on how 'incapable' we are at doing things on a daily basis, not whether we have anything that hinders our normal life functions. They want to know what we can't adapt to so they can give the bare minimum and say "look how curteous we are in helping these poor useless sods! you should stop worrying about them and just work harder!" while paying out disability at a *maximum* of roughly *half* the living wage. (which the USA stated in 2020 was $2,000 a month for an adult person living alone. we aren't expected to be that independant) Sorry i am VERY heated about this topic. So much so that i popped back on my old blog to post about it. PLEASE give us more blatant representation! PLEASE stop showing the most drastic shock-value versions of disabilities in media, people think that's all there fucking IS.

“What? Like, a disabled protagonist? How would that even work? How could someone with a disability be the hero in an action show?” local anime trash boy wonders while sitting next to his box sets of Full Metal Alchemist, showing no hint of irony or self awareness. 

[newrww]

Phalloid-destroyer was right. Barring cases where women are genuinely incapable of making their own decisions due to a disorder or disability or being abused and becoming pregnant as a result and therefore are in dire need of help including some kind of assessment as to whether they can even be independent without putting themselves at risk once circumstances are taken into account (which are still cases where the woman should be prioritized over any fetus or even baby if you ask me), women should have full control over their bodies and what their bodies host or even if the resulting infant gets adopted or not. But we don't live in a world where women aren't broodmares and aren't tools for other people, -- society's eternal subordinates, and so you get bootlicking conservatives who think that they're better than the libs or something because they prioritize a fetus or an infant over a woman which has been the misogynistic standard for long ass f****** time. People cite 300 year old laws from the hyper religious society in America of the time to prove that abortion laws were more lax back then than they are now but the fact is, women were essentially still forced to give birth, that was the point of male dominance or the patriarchy or whatever the f*** you want to call it. Laws strictly regulated what woman could and could not do with their bodies because their bodies were Never Their Own, they were men's to control and use as a limiting resource. Hence the bull about women not being allowed to abort after the quickening or some crap like that. I think one of the most degrading things you can do as a woman is give birth or be a host to the parasites that are fetuses. In an unequal world, all that's doing is perpetuating inequality and communicating that you don't give a shit.

Also, this:

[...]In the immediate aftermath of the baby’s death, the community mourned him as if he were its own child, the Argus Leader reported in 1981. They gave him a name, Andrew John Doe. They gave him a funeral and a casket, decorated with carnations and a pin on his pajamas that said “You are loved.” They even gave him toys, a stuffed black poodle and a tiny teddy bear, which would be buried with the child at a ceremony attended by dozens, including Litz.

Litz would return to the grave year after year, never shaking the feeling that “somebody got away with murder,” he told the Argus Leader.

Didn’t see any sympathy or acknowledgment even for the woman that had to go through the damn ordeal in the article either, just lots of self righteousness and needless, environmentally unfriendly material excesses for the corpse so they can feel better. This sums up the current state of affairs pretty well.

[cripple-cat]

screaming into the void about my personal issues for a moment

i know how to be independent

i am repeatedly prevented from being independent

i love my mom but her love for me is still tied to me being unable to live without her, which hasnt been true since i was nine. her boyfriend thinks i dont know anything about the world and cant think or do anything for myself because im disabled and his girlfriends kid. when i lived with my dad before he threw me away like fucking garbage, i was almost entirely supporting myself and my pets because he absolutely refused to support me. i paid that man rent. i am an adult man.

i am repeatedly prevented from being independent, and then villified for not being independent.

i am grateful that my mom is supporting me while i get my degree, but i never asked her to. she has always wanted me to get a college education and now i am, and it makes me dependent on her, therefore she loves me. shes not even paying my tuition or anything actually college related, she made me take on student loans, and i will be saddled with that debt for the rest of my life because she was unwilling to let me work for a couple years while letting her foot the bill for me for everything else so i could save up. i have a life-long debt that i will never pay off because of her need to make me dependent on her.

i didnt learn to drive from either of my parents. my dad is a shitbag, so i obviously didnt learn from him. my mom screamed and panicked and struck me in the chest because she was so afraid of me driving. i only drove with her three times before i just couldnt safely do it anymore. the only other time i drove with her was the first time i drove on the road. it was in a fucked up that couldnt accelerate past 45mph, could not hard brake, had no rear view mirror, and had a steering wheel that had to make two full turns before the tires would even think about turning. she was spasming and possibly having a stroke in the passenger seat. we were moving to a new place. it was traumatizing. i learned to drive through trial by fire with one person who doesnt know how to drive and isnt licensed and another person who was drunk 90% of the time. i didnt need my mom. she was the reason it took me so long to learn to drive and is still the reason im afraid to drive on the interstate.

she doesnt take care of my pets unless im not home for whatever reason, which is almost never, because she has made me dependent upon her for transport. i have to take care of her dogs a lot because she and her boyfriend keep forgetting to feed and water them at the right times. i clean up after them, i feed and water them, i take them outside. the only thing i dont do with them is play because i fucking hate dogs! i have to take care of dogs when i hate dogs!

her goddamn boyfriend keeps acting like im incapable of doing things until the moment he thinks something should already be done and im clearly the only one who can do it, even if im busy with something else. this is a man who did not know you have to use hot water to wash dishes, so clearly he just cant understand the concept of "im busy right now, ill either get to it tonight or tomorrow." he gets flustered and frustrated and starts yelling in the kitchen and slamming doors and doing things with excess aggression the moment i specifically inconvenience him. if its my mom it doesnt matter, but if its me he throws a tantrum. im the problem in all situations.

i have not been allowed to heal from any of my trauma because im held resoonsible for the feelings and trauma of others. when my mom has issues, i have to fix them and keeo her distracted and help her process and make her feel better. when her boyfriend has issues, im expected to suck it up and be gentle and understanding with him. when i have issues, im met with "weve all got problems, its not getting you out of this" or "youre not the only one with problems, im having a hard day, too" or even "no, youre gaslighting me." have you ever been gaslit by being accused of gaslighting? it is a bad fucking feeling.

im exhausted. im a disabled person, yes, in many ways, but i would not be dependent on anyone if i were allowed to be independent. i dont want to live like this. i cant fucking live like this. im so, so tired. this is the most coherent ive been in days.

sorry to anyone who reads this.

[kudosmyhero]

Transformers (vol. 1) #13: Shooting Star!

Read Date: April 06, 2023 Cover Date: February 1986 ● Writer: Bob Budiansky ● Penciler: Don Perlin ● Inker: Al Gordon ● Colorist: Nel Yomtov ● Letterer: Janice Chiang ● Editor: Mike Carlin ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● nothing about the cover looks Transformer-ish. in fact, I had to double-check to make sure I hadn’t opened a different title by mistake. not a complaint about the cover, just an observation ● me: huh, where’d that gun come fro-ohhh! it Megatron! ● (I still believe that “gun” should weight about 80 tons) ● there’s the big guy

● Exposition Megatron has entered the chat ● Joey lives in a nice community. meaning that the people are cool. he must also be a decent person because people on the street interact warmly with him ● well of course the cashier called the cops! what’d you think he’d do after you robbed him, dude? ● so much for Joey being a deccent guy. this is all going right to his head. ● snort Megatron hunched over in this guy’s apartment!

● why do villains so often refer to themselves by their own names when they monologue? ● 👏👏👏

Synopsis: Owing money to mobster Jake Lomax, small-time crook Joey Slick flees for his life from the men sent to collect from him, or kill him. Tripping over his feet in a gutter, Joey finds his last hope: A discarded pistol in a drainage pipe. Pulling it on the two hire thugs, he pulls the trigger and nothing happens. The two men then mock Joey for finding a gun that is just like him: a complete loser. When they mockingly dare the gun to blast them, it does just that, knocking the two crooks out.

Joey flees the scene and hides out in a small barn, trying to figure out what to do next he openly asks the gun what it really is. Suddenly, the gun jumps out of his hand and transforms into Megatron, the former leader of the Decepticons. Megatron explains to Slick that he is from the planet Cybertron who came to Earth and led a campaign to take over the planet until he was disposed as leader, and then defeated in combat by Ratchet. He goes on to explain that he was knocked off a cliff, and in order to lessen his fall he transformed into his gun mode, but the impact damaged is circuitry disabling his ability to act independently. When Joey confirms that Megatron will only do what he is commanded, Joey begins to get ideas.

At the home of Jake Lomax, the two thugs report to their boss what happened. Jake is not impressed and orders the men to go back to Joey's place and kill him. Joey in the meantime is one his way to his apartment, where he is greeted by his neighbors and the neighborhood children who all treat him with respect. Inside his apartment, Joey laments over his lot in life until he hears the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs. Suspicious, he looks out the window and sees a bunch of classy cars parked outside and makes a break for the roof. Naturally, it's Lomax's men coming to kill him and they chase after him. There Lomax is able to fend them off by ordering Megatron to shoot at them, sending them sprawling long enough to make his escape.

Fleeing to the outskirts of town, Joey attempts to get a room in a motel and is turned away because he is a few dollars short. Not wishing to be a penny-pinching loser anymore, it finally crosses his mind to use Megatron as a means of getting what he wants. He then holds up a convenience store and when the police chase after him, he uses Megatron to blast out a section of the freeway, preventing the police from catching up with him.

Over the coming weeks, Joey uses his newfound firepower to commit daring robberies dubbing him the name "The Super-Shooter" in the papers. When local law enforcement seems incapable of stopping him, they send the National Guard to prevent him from robbing the First National Bank of Portland, this opposition too is easily blasted away by Slick. The news of Joey's rise to fame angers Jake Lomax who demands that his men get outside and kill him.

Joey Slick meanwhile has moved into a condominium downtown and has attracted a group of leeches and carry abouts. Sick of them crowding him, he tells them to leave while he has a heart-to-heart with Megatron. Although Megatron is incapable of providing any advice, Joey makes it up in his mind that he is sick of living the rich life. He kicks all the leeches out of his condo and goes to visit the old neighborhood. There he finds the adults all fear him, and the children aspire to be big-time mobsters like him. Feeling that this isn't right, Joey decides to confront his old demons.

Going to Lomax's home, he blasts his way through the mansion's defenses and hired thugs to face Jake Lomax one-on-one. Deciding to take on his feared foe in hand-to-hand combat, Joey tosses Megatron aside causing the gun to fire on its own. Joey manages to take Jake out in one punch, and sick of the lifestyle that he has perpetuated over the past few months tosses the money that he owes on Jake Lomax's unconscious body.

Megatron, having had his logic circuits reconnected transforms into robot mode and lashes out at Joey Slick for daring to command him around like an automation. Joey, no longer fearing anything dares Megatron to do his worse. This strikes a chord in Megatron who is impressed with the humans fearlessness and decides to spare him, departing off into the countryside leaving Joey to be arrested by the police.

(https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Transformers_Vol_1_13)

Fan Art: Megatron by TamplierPainter

Accompanying Podcasts: ● Transformers Chronicles - episode 13

● Transformers University - episode 30

[undeadentropy]

You know what? I'm not done. Cause yall got me fucked up with this one. So you got allistic Bob. Bob is very normal. His hobbies include talking about the weather and maybe a sports?? Literally every hobby I thought of could be perceived as autistic. But we'll get to that in a minute.

So. Your telling me that:

Bob might find a new hobby, but he takes it slow, not letting it get too passionate, or detract from other parts of his life. Okay, odd level of restraint, makes me wonder if Bob understands what it means to find something fascinating. But I'll accept it.

When Bob is busy doing stuff, his mind remains on the world at large as well, not by training, but animal instinct. He is hyper aware of the packs vibe without even thinking about it. Either that, or Bob is incapable of engrossing himself to begin with. Assuming it's not the tragic second one, that sounds like a great gift, a skill that takes years to learn ingrained in your subconscious from the get go, and I'm assuming not prone to screwing up on occasion.

For a guy with only passing interests and no focus, Bob lives like he has no fear, or maybe just doesn't care what happens to him. You see, Bob just goes with the flow. No plan, no problem. He will just go do things, never once asking what to even expect.

Then again, plans aren't his thing. Each day to plays out however. It doesn't faze him one bit. He requires no consistency or schedule, feeling perfectly safe being pitched about in the storming waves of uncertain life.

But don't bother asking him deep questions about how he lives the way he does. Can't be bothered. If he doesn't have a immediate answer, he'll just shrug it away, or maybe make something up. I assume he thinks it's rude not to have all the answers immediately. Allistics treat every conversation like a speed round of twenty questions. Because that's a normal way of communicating anything.

Bob is an extrovert, like all the normals. This one I understand in concept, but not that introvertedness is a disorder. Like, needing to rest after being social is aberrant behavior. Apparently?

Also, decisions are easy to make for Bob, since he really doesn't need any real context. It's nice, but hardly mandatory. He'll just toss a coin or whatever. Not to break the cycle of indecision. Just to speed things along. Bob knows it's rude to hesitate or think when dealing with others. What kind of weird creep would only make a decision if they understood what they were deciding?

Same with emotions. They aren't complex, like ever. You just feel like you feel. Simple.

Bob is very agreeable. Give him a task or a rule, he'll be on it like white on rice. Don't even bother explaining it. Dont ask why he trusts literally anyone to know what they're talking about. Why do you even need to know why? That's such a weirdo thing to care about.

Lastly, Bob will never once in his life bother to ask himself why he does anything he does. All that matters is that everyone else is doing it, or someone told him to do it. Actually, this isn't Bob.

This is the story of a man named Stanley.

Okay, this might be my longest rant, but it was an interesting thought exercise. I see two options at the moment. Either this list isn't that accurate, with allistic people having at least a few of these traits, but just somewhat diminished.

Or allistic people, and I hate to say this because it summons a fedora on top of my head, are all sheeple. No one could have all these traits at full capacity all the time, and still be capable of a single independent thought, much less any sort of innovation or personal growth. If this really is what it means to be nowhere on the spectrum, I kinda think they're the ones with the disability. It might allow them to function, but as nothing more than a useful drone. It's like some sort of brainwashing cult shit, and it's tragic.

It's gotta be a sliding scale. Autism is when it gets to the point it makes life hard. But as gross as it feels to say it, everyone has to be a little autistic, in order to be a real individual person. I know people like our friend stanley do exist, but I don't think I'm convinced that stanley is what it means to be normal. Cause that shit ain't normal.

POV: mister Devon Price, PhD, telling me that I am right about everything

Source: Unmasking Autism, discovering the new faces of neurodiversity

[dearaliya]

Fourth Wing: We're so back!!

Dear Aliya...

OH MY GOD!!

I know I was the one to put you onto this book, and I know you devoured it long before I was able to, but now I have come to the end and I have many many thoughts! With the next book in the series due soon, I'll have to get them all to you soon!

I'll be honest, it had been a while since I'd read a proper book. I'm talking paper, turning a page, needing a light source of some description, the whole shebang! I'm delighted to say that this is a very easy book to read and a terrific pathway back into demolishing books like the good old days.

The worldbuilding is decently rounded out and the plot points are relatively paint by numbers and predictable (which I'll get to).

Shall we dot point? Thank god I'm not spoiling this for you!

Violet Sorrengail She's got all the traits of a YA fantasy heroine and then some! However special she might end up being, there wasn't once a time I thought that things were just a bit too easy for her, which sometimes takes the fun away. Don't get me wrong, she is very special with her two dragons and duel-toned hairstyle and legacy family, but it never felt like it was getting to the point of complete absurdity which is a fine line to walk.

Her disability (Ehlers Danlos, though it isn't called that in the book) was extremely well written, naturally due to the author's experience. It's a part of her, one that she's fully come to terms with and handles on the daily, no song and dance drawing all the attention to this one big thing making it her entire personality. Rare!

It provided great growth for her as well, accepting that sometimes she isn't like everyone else (not in that way) and sometimes she needs that little bit of a helping hand was a great big step! It's a struggle to accept that sometimes you need accommodations, everyone wants independence and to concede it certainly hurts.

Xaden Riorson Speaking of independence, let's discuss my- everyone's- favourite character! Now, is he my favourite because I think that he is a very good boy who treated Violet very well and did everything he could to prepare her for the realities of fighting a war so she wouldn't have to rely on anyone?

Obviously not, she thought he was going to kill her and I swooned!

Call me predictable, my head will turn xx

I think, beyond me having a crush on him, Xaden was quite genuinely an interesting character to follow. None of the mysteries are particularly deep, but I'm hardly Sherlock Holmes and they were more than enough to keep my attention. Bit by bit, he went from generic bad boy number whatever to an actual person with thoughts and a world-formed view. He's lived in this world, before the events of the book, and you can tell from his actions, sublime!

Dain Aetos Broooooski I was foaming at the mouth. Forgive my language, but brother was on my nerves and FKN stayed there!! Look, to have someone who wants to protect is one thing, but to do that by implying incapability? Violet better than me for real, I might have told him to stick it.

Every party needs a pooper and that's why we invited Dain.

DRAGONS What's this? The biggest draw in of the book? I think so!!!

Ever since I've had eyes I too have loved shiny things and Andarnaurram is right there in my heart with all the other sparklies. She is highly baby and if anything ever happens to her you will find me face down, ugly sobbing, inconsolable.

But enough about me!

I was a fan of all the dragons and how they interacted with their riders. Everyone had fun and interesting personalities that bounced well off their human counterparts. Otherworldly? Yes. Just buddies in big scaley skins? Also yes! The different colours were cool, but the different tail endings were cooler, it's a way of differentiation I'd not seen before but you're welcome to correct me.

Other, more spoilery thoughts By other, I mean some gripes. Now, I'm a picky bitch so these aren't experience ruiners but more nitpicks.

You remember how I said paint by numbers? A LOT of the plot points were telegraphed mere moments before they occurred. Violet bonding to Tairn and Andarna, Jack's allergy to oranges and the book of fables all come to mind as clumsily dropped into sentences or entire chapters. It felt a little tooooooo hand holdy, I almost expected a kiss on the forehead once we got to where the foreshadowing wanted me.

Murder was just a little too easy to get away with. Jack was straight evil to begin with, there's no way he should have remained in the fighter quadrant. I understand the explanation, strongest prevail, yadayada, at some point maybe you should kick the dude practically HALVING your cadet pool out of the quadrant? Sure, he got scolded for killing someone in a sparring match, but any leader with half a brain would have known that numbers in a fight also matter.

Nothing more comes to mind, so I appreciate you listening to my thoughts. I'll see you next time, stay well!

Hannah xx

[cloudypinkblink]

Some Touma and Masaru stuff for the Blind!Au!! This is largely towards the beginning as well!!

I feel like a large issue that forms between them is of course Touma thinking Masaru is too brash and wreckless- but also he can’t do things because he’s blind. Rather than take the time to acknowledge what a little teamwork will do, Touma uses the fact Masaru has to rely on Agumon for a decent bit to suggest how he’s unfit to be one of them.

When Touma does try to begrudgingly help, Masaru knows it’s because he’s blind and he hates being treated like an invalid, so it only pushes him to be even MORE independent.

Like in canon though they have their little digital world adventure and come to understand each other better- Touma slowly learns that just because Masaru has a major disability, he doesn’t need to be TREATED like he’s fragile or incapable- likewise Masaru learns that while it’s all well and good to learn to live with his disability and being independent, he IS blind and being helped isn’t awful.

Touma learns to be more casual about it, not walking on eggshells or feeling awkward- I feel like these two are probably more physical in the sense of Touma being exasperated sometimes and just grabbing Masaru to lead him somewhere, or Masaru grabbing him when he’s unsure of where they are.

Don’t worry Masaru still annoys the hell out of Touma and vice versa; I’m taking this more “Touma is treating him like he’s incapable and fragile” approach because of Relena; he treats her much the same, after all.

I think I’ll rewatch Digimon though and maybe make a few sketches for my fav episodes (most of the episodes) where I show what happens in the blind au!!

Bonus Blind AU Doodles bc I was getting my car inspected and did these on my iPad lmao

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

That whole Schnee Manor argument becomes more ridiculous given that one could make the argument that it not only acts as a parallel to Ironwood staying out of the fight himself, but how his own lack of rest probably contributed to his sanity degrading even further, thus making him even more prone to making bad decisions.

Really, I don't think it's a coincidence that they'd show RWBY's attempts to rest and rethink their plan in parallel to Ironwood's apparent lack of rest and bullheadedly sticking to a fatally flawed plan. If anything, it's also a partial deconstruction of how a number of shows go out of their way to portray pushing past their limits and ignoring their own exhaustion.

Ironwood's weakening mental state was a combination of the Atlas system being set up to put so much power and pressure on one person, but it was also mixed together with Ironwood's own flaws of being unwilling to let ANYONE else take the reins, even when it's clearly negatively affecting him. He pushes himself past his limits, but all it does it render him increasingly irrational and incapable of changing his path (It doesn't exactly help that society LOVES to romanticize overworking yourself to past your breaking point, and ignores how much it causes you to make mistakes and decisions that you otherwise might have considered stupid).

Meanwhile, the "villainous" Team Remnant are trying to re-examine their strategy on one side, while another half of their team is busy trying to move their own plans forward, because while they may have made the mistake of trying to treat Ruby as a replacement Ozpin, they at least have the smarts to still be able to act independently and not put all of their eggs in one basket filled with a giant gaping hole in the bottom. The end result is that they get far more done despite having fewer resources, the weight of two enemy factions to deal with, AND EXHAUSTION and trauma from having multiple friends in danger AND getting attacked by an elite Grimm Hybrid.

To top it all off:

What does it say about your "hero" General when both Team Remnant and your own subordinates (well, most of them at least until Harriet comes to her senses) are still relatively saner than you despite having just as little rest and the same burden?

You really hit the nail on the head with how our society loves to romanticize overwork. In nearly all action media, heroes push their way past pain and exhaustion and it's very admirable, but it is not sustainable past a single brief incident, let alone as a guiding life philosophy. Depressed people are just not trying hard enough, disabled people just aren't trying hard enough, willpower this, snowflake that, you're just all weak, blah blah blah. Hell half the reason this pandemic has been prolonged is that it ran into a toxic workplace culture of 'just power through the sickness'. It's toxic masculinity crossed with corporate exploitation into a festering pile of bullshit.

Hence why our heroes taking two to three hours to think about their next action is a "waste of time", because real heroes don't think about what they're doing, they find an authority and obey.

[aroaceleovaldez]

A.) I do not appreciate your tone and I do not usually reply to hostility like this, but I am making an exception.

Putting the rest below a cut because it's long:

B.) Yes, I did read the book. I read the book and took notes the whole time. I read the book where Nico literally did not succeed in a single fight on his own, despite every single previous book he's in showing he is perfectly capable of holding his own. I read the book where Nico had his dream/nightmare-controlling powers completely removed entirely so Will could save him with new powers of his own, and Nico having nearly all of his other powers removed (nightmares/dreams, interacting tangibly with ghosts, etc), and even being so incapable on his own that he cannot change a battery by himself. This is extremely ableist, because it implies Nico is incapable of caring for himself as a disabled individual, despite previous books clearly showing evidence to the contrary. This retcon is entirely restricted to this book. Will being injured for the majority of the book is entirely irrelevant, because he is still shown to be perfectly capable on his own (such as navigating Tartarus with little difficulty while Nico is asleep, again despite his injury) where Nico is not. Nico, Ghost King, being incapable of managing a one-on-one confrontation with a ghost is not equivalent to Will being attacked by a swarm of birds, and even between those two scenarios Will is ultimately fine (because his strategies are narratively always considered the correct move and useful, such as packing extra or giving Nico a place to rest) versus Nico being notably injured from his encounter (which is emphasized that Nico got into the situation because he strayed from Will's assistance [shelter/allowing him to rest]). Will is also shown to be completely capable independent of Nico in situations he was previously incapable in or uncomfortable with in previous books, such as with the Troglodytes (I will not get into how the troglodytes are also extremely racist in PJO here, but i have that rant here and here for further context. They are just as bad if not worse in TSATS, particularly how Will's interactions with them also perpetuate the white savior trope stuff).

B.) Nico's traumas have been completely removed from him. They are no longer his. He explicitly gave them freedom, and they just decided to stick around. They are now just little guys. Nico no longer has traumas inside of him. He has been magically cured. Just because the cacodaemons exist does not mean Nico has not been magically cured, because they do not exist without him having been magically cured. Heck, they literally retconned Achlys out of Nico's experiences in Tartarus - they literally removed the misery from Nico's experiences.

C.) Will defeated Epiales for Nico. Nico was unable to defeat the Drakon without Hiss Majesty literally holding his hand. Nico was unable to use his sword in the final fight without Will literally holding his hand. Nico explicitly acknowledges he is unable to even change a battery without Will's help. Will even incapaciates Nyx by again, unlocking a new power - Will gains three new powers, alongside reprising his bioluminescence and sound powers in this book, while Nico only ever uses one (osteokinesis). For reference, here is an incomplete list of powers Nico has shown to have in the series before. In HoO, we know Nico was in Tartarus alone, save for his brief interaction with Achlys, but in TSATS that has been retconned so that he is reliant on Nemesis' help to hide from monsters in Tartarus, get pomegranate seeds from her (even though he also notes he already had pomegranate seeds from Persephone in his pocket?), and get guidance. He fails to defeat Echidna on his own. He fails to defeat Amphithemis on his own (another instance of his powers being removed - he can no longer interact tangibly with or control ghosts - this should include Manias/Lemures, as they are Manes, which is the same category Lares fall under, and Nico can control those as shown in HoO). He fails to defeat the stymphalian birds on his own. He fails to defeat other monsters in Tartarus on his own. Literally the ONLY combat encounter the ENTIRE BOOK where Nico successfully takes down a monster on his own is when he stumbles across a newly-reformed monster in Tartarus that hasn't noticed him yet and he stabs it while it's prone. It's one thing for a protagonist to require help when they're fighting something, it's another for them to at literally every instance require assistance and never make final blows on their own.

D.) Despite Nico leading the quest, he does not actually end up being the one to do most things. Again, he's entirely reliant on Will, even despite Will being in a weary state. See: the list of combat encounters above, but also even things such as Nico being unable to pick the pomegranates in Persephone's garden - which we again already know he should be able to, because the book explicitly references in previous chapters that Nico had gotten pomegranates from Persephone's garden before he went to Tartarus.

E.) For a book that is supposed to be equally about Nico and Will, the POVs do not reflect this - the book is at least 70/30 Nico/Will at best. Will's sections heavily focus on himself, but even when independent he is largely perfectly capable on his own. We see he is able to self-regulate and navigate encounters to a significantly better degree than Nico. He also gets advice from characters outside of Nico throughout the book, such as Percy and Annabeth or Persephone. Nico, meanwhile, spends most of his chapters seemingly incapable of going about anything and seemingly not knowing what's best for himself, whereas whatever Will thinks is best for him is usually proven true. Other characters in Nico's life from previous books rarely get referenced, or if they do they are related back to Will in some degree - visiting Percy and Annabeth are called to reassure Will. Jason's death was when Will and Nico had their first kiss. Hazel is only mentioned twice in the entire book, and both instances are for less than a sentence and one of them is by Will. Reyna is ignored. And Piper's cameo literally only exists to retcon her again to overcorrect criticisms Rick has been given about her character. Literally her entire existence in the book is to just run down a list of complaints that Rick has been given and correct them. Nico still talks to Dionysus, yes, and Dionysus is told to be Nico's therapist. But when we see Nico with Dionysus, again everything is either related back to Will or there is no indication Nico is making progress (which of course there is no necessity to show this - that's not how therapy works, but we could have at least gotten some indication that Nico has had some successes through therapy in TSATS like we did in TOA), versus Nico relying on Will in every aspect (physical health, stability, emotional regulation - Nico's primary stim [his ring] is even traded for a coin from Will that Nico does not stim with, but does use to ground himself frequently. Nico never stims the entire book - which is also ableist, by removing Nico [and Will and Percy and Annabeth's] adhd/autistic traits, and on the bus scene the closest we get to any character stimming in the book for any reason is shut down - I elaborate on that further here. Meanwhile Will has been traded what is essentially Nico's most prized possession).

F.) TSATS takes place one year into Nico and Will's relationship, which the book also indicates was just a week after the events of BoO. Given TOA takes place in March/April for the most part and TSATS takes place in late summer/early fall (which. also means Persephone should not be in the Underworld at all), yes, TSATS is about 5-6 months after TOA. And yes, healing is not linear - the entire point of the original post was emphasizing how TOA showed Nico and Will's dynamic to be very good, including showing how Nico's healing has not been linear and he has not fully recovered physically or psychologically, and how that's okay. TSATS has Nico fully recover from his eating disorder between the beginning and end of the book with zero indication of how that occurred.

G.) Almost all of the conflict between Nico and Will in the book is narratively framed as Nico not knowing what's best for himself, and Will being ultimately correct in his opinions of what is best for Nico. The primary theme of the book that is repeatedly emphasized is "change is good." Will spends the entire book pushing Nico to change for him, whereas Nico does not wish for Will to change, only to try to see things from his perspective. Will's opinions are always framed as correct - such as his distaste towards the Underworld being repeatedly justified by narrative events and his attitude that Nico's powers are inherently harmful, moreso than most demigods'. Even shifts in his attitude toward certain concepts, like Apollo being capable of "negative" qualities or that life/light can exist in dark places (Persephone's garden) don't make any narrative sense given these are concepts that Will has experienced very explicitly before, or has to have some concept of to be in the place he is now. Will witnessed Apollo give Nero's automaton and all of CHB hay fever in The Hidden Oracle. There is no way Will would have pursued a relationship with Nico if he felt his aspects had no place around Nico's aspects, even if Nico made the first move, so the fact that he is even in a relationship with Nico implies he has to have a concept of that already. The book then ends with Nico and Will making a completely antithetical statement that they don't need to change, despite the entire book up until that point emphasizing that not only do they have to change, but Nico specifically has to change for Will, because Will has shown to always be correct.

G.) Bob and Small Bob only appear at the very end of the book and do extremely little other than some amount of combat during the final fight, alongside Literally Everybody Else, and help transport Will and Nico (and the cacodaemons). This is a 50+ chapter novel. Yes, there is not space to explore everything, but that is more than enough space to explore the themes they were attempting (and failed) to.

Ultimately - This post was specifically about the difference between TOA and TSATS in how they frame Nico and Will's relationship, not just about TSATS itself. Also, this is my blog and my post and if you feel so strongly against my opinions you are more than welcome to make your own post explaining exactly what you think about this topic. This post was only tagged "TSATS crit" and not "TSATS" for a reason. If you don't wish to see future posts like this, you can block the tag "TSATS crit."

It's honestly wild to me that ToA went through so much trouble to emphasize the fact that Will did not magically fix all of Nico's problems and was explicitly not Nico's only doctor.

Only for TSATS to have Will fix all of Nico's problems and have Nico be entirely reliant on him the entire book and literally helpless without him and LITERALLY have Nico's problems be magically removed.