#But it never really condemns him for it or show him changing in a real way

[freebooter4ever]

Ok this is for the few who maybe have never heard about mr robot! ^_^ its a show about programmer/hacker elliot alderson (rami) who wants to change the world and challenge the power of the top 1%. It's smart, its clever, its very exciting to watch, and rami's voiceover is very soothing. A HUGE warning because this is my blog and yall know me - as good as this show is it also exhibits sexism and misogyny typical of computer scientists in the 2010's - its why it took me so long to finally watch the show. When you're in the middle of all that crap and experiencing asshole male programmers in real time the last thing you want to do is watch TV shows about them.

The tag on my blog is: freebooter4ever.tumblr.com/tagged/qwerty%20deserves%20a%20bigger%20fishbowl

@s-k-y-w-a-l-k-e-r is like the best mr robot gif artist, she captures all those artistic angles beautifully AND fixes the lighting - its magic.

[bietrofastimoff23]

the fact that Alicent cares about viserys' disgusting ass more than her own children is really a crazy change, especially after THIS night.

i mean, the new canon tells us that the reason Alicent wanted to seize the throne was not out of fear for the lives of her children, but because VISERYS supposedly wanted it that way. and when it turned out that this was not the case, she easily turned her back on them all and almost was ready to bring Aegon's head to Rhaenyra on a platter.

((look, Otto didn't love his grandchildren, but he would NEVER do that to them, not even to Aegon, whom he can barely stand.))

viserys absolutely dgaf about THEIR - his and Alicent's - family. he didn't care about her feelings, her dignity, her desires. he called her by a wrong name, took away her girlhood, in order to have sons whom he did not love. he never gave her anything in return, only took away. but she shows more respect and LOVE for his ghost than for her own living sons, who are ready to give their all for the sake of a grain of such an attitude towards themselves.

now it looks as if she used her children while they were convenient for her: Aegon, being burned, can no longer guarantee her power - puts him under the enemy's sword, Aemond, who has been her support for years, began to cause problems - does not even remember him. only Helaena is left, and I'm inclined to believe that if she "shows her teeth" too, all of Alicent's tenderness towards her will fade. (daeron, RUUUN-). she hardly perceives them as persons, but this is a separate conversation.

"she wanted to torture one of my sons after her bastards took away his eye with impunity and will want to cut off the head of another my son for the throne, but she will be a good queen with whom I will want to escape into the forest" boys, that was THE moment when you should have run away from here.

she condemns them for the fear and hatred that she has nurtured in them for years. she's really terrible at this show.

tbh, I don't see any redemption for her. but also I don't hope that in this show she will face real consequences, and not senseless humiliation bc... just watch s2.

[yurozo]

what could have been (chris redfield oneshot)

description: chris made the biggest mistake of his life letting you walk out of it, and he's determined to make it right this time.

a/n: there really isn't enough fanfic about chris redfield and i am more than determined to change that. this man is sooo underappreciated. about: gn!reader/little physical description/no use of y/n. fluff, with very minor angsts, and a few mentions of in-canon violence.

it was an unsettling thing to walk away from you. but that was the way it always worked— you went one way while he went the other. a research laboratory on the other side of the city beckoned you over, studying accessible cures to viruses that chris had dedicated his life to eradicating. ever intertwined, despite the miles between you at all times.

on the other hand, chris spent his time travelling from place to place, never truly settling in washington due to the unbidden fear of having to leave it again. familiarity was a privilege unbeknownst to him, the mortal atlas condemned to carrying the world on his shoulders. he could at least enjoy knowing that if you ever needed a place, you would know where it was. and despite everything, he was rather proud of the way he matured. he was more fit than he was back in s.t.a.r.s- not entirely of his own accord, mind you- and eons more responsible.

watching every person you've ever cared about lose that twinkle in their eye did that to people.

and he didn't hate his job, contrary to popular belief. founding the b.s.a.a is among his crowning achievements, and allowed him to enact some real change. along with paying him a decent salary.

he supposed, bioweapons notwithstanding, that adulthood had changed him. long gone is the foul-mouthed air force pilot, and in its place stood a true soldier. safe and solid, protecting and proud. it was more so the person he imagined you would be into, someone dependable that could protect you if the need arose. truth be told, everything he did back in the s.t.a.r.s was with a side glance in your direction, desperately hoping you were watching him the same way he was secretly watching you.

the two of you kept minimal contact throughout the years, limited to the occasional 'how are you' and 'work's been good'. you always let him know of any major life changes, and he always contacted you after a mission, however brief, to sate your anxieties of whether or not to look for his name in an obituary. you pointedly never mentioned your dating life, but the very thought of someone vying for your attention made chris a little sick to his stomach.

call him possessive, call him crazy, for helplessly pining for a girl who was just slightly nicer to him than everyone else at the police department. what he did know is that the only suppression to that boiling feeling in his gut was the unbridled joy that filled him whenever he saw your contact name show up in his notifications. an indicator that you thought of him, however briefly.

in some parallel universe, he would be standing outside your balcony playing some queen song with terrible audio on an even shittier boombox, and you would be awed and wooed by his grand romantic gesture. you would run down from the balcony and plant one on him, and he would swing you around in his arms and there would be nothing but the two of you. no bioweapons, no blood staining his hands, no nightmares about finding you dead in the middle of a ruined city. but he lived in this world, where he was too old and too tired to indulge in those fantasies.

he was a man. he was also a soldier, and therefore, a realist.

so, when you texted him about being in the washington area and wanting to meet up for a day, chris had spent two days drawing three viable conclusions.

1.) this was an elaborate dream made up by a combat-addled mind to live out some younger, unbridled fantasy of his,

2.) this was a cruel prank by some twisted fuck that somehow knew how much he clung to you over the years,

3.) the final, and least likely conclusion: that there was some part of you that missed him as much as he missed you.

he wants to cross the third one off by instinct, but something in his heart adamantly refuses. that sparkling hope in his chest is something he's not particularly looking to stamp out just yet, so he chooses to simply let it burn until it probably would just consume him entirely. by the time he reaches the bar you both agreed on meeting at, he's been so wrapped up in determining your motivations that he's caught entirely unprepared by the sight of you.

you were sitting there, chin in your hands as you mindlessly tapped on the glass in front of you. probably waiting for a while, given your propensity for being unbearably early to social gatherings. you always did have a distaste for tardiness, even if chris was technically five minutes early. the same endearing furrow in your brow makes chris falter in his steps, taking a moment to truly absorb you for the first time in years.

fuck, you were gorgeous. the kind that had other tripping over themselves just to bask in your presence. hell, chris was one of them. always had been.

that same simmering boil of jealousy that used to arise every time that he watched some civilian lean over the reception desk, speaking to you in hushed tones as they preened in your attention, sparks to a roaring fire. he has to remind himself that things are different now; you had lived a whole other life without him, and he's had to learn to survive without you.

he briefly entertains the thought that his absence affected you in the same way. this gnawing feeling that something vital to his very being was lost somewhere in the wreckage of raccoon city.

your face had matured over the years too— jaw set a little sharper, eyes a little duller, the faint lines of age beginning to appear on your skin. you're still gazing somewhere far away by the time he musters up the courage to approach the table, hesitant like you'll reach over the table and sink your teeth into his arm like a-

no. bad chris. no talking shop here.

you don't seem to notice him as he approaches, still staring down at the table like it will speak to you if you glare at it long enough.

"seem lost in thought." chris gives you the most dazzling smile he can muster, full of charm eased by age. while his body language is casual as he slides into the booth next to you, his mind has gone blissfully blank.

your thigh is touching his. oh god, you're wrapping your arms around him before he can think of something suave to say. your action is immediately reciprocated by strong arms pulling you closer, tucking you into his chest like he wants you to live in it forever.

god, he fucking missed this. seeing you, touching you with a familiarity he thought was long lost.

"i missed you," you murmur, letting your cheek smush into his collarbone.

"missed you too," he laughs, bright and warm. all the tension from his job immediately eases in your hold, and he lets himself squeeze you tighter and tighter, like a serpent desperately trying to stay out of the damnation of hell.

"jesus, chris. you got huge."

chris frowns as you pull back from him and start squeezing his arms appreciatively. he has no choice but to let you manhandle him, silently relishing in the way your eyes trace across the contours of his body. he is proud of it, even if he hates the reason why he felt the need to train this much in the first place.

the only way to stop wesker, to try and make the fight on level terms. he never told you about that either, keeping the details concise, knowing that you would have gotten on the first place to washington if you heard his plans of hunting their former boss. you had once admired the captain the same way chris did, and the knowledge of what had to happen would have crushed you.

that shoulder of burden can lay squarely on him.

"you know how it is," he answers instead, taking a sip from your glass. something sugary and way too sweet for his taste. "work never stops."

"tell me about it." the glass is then swapped to your hands. "i'm pretty sure i've huffed enough chemicals to send me to an early grave."

if anyone is going to rot eight feet below the earth soon, he thinks, it's most definitely not going to be you. he's been running from that ticking clock for far too many years.

"but you do good work." he grins, waving down a bartender and ordering a simple whiskey. on the rocks, top shelf, because he's a classy guy.

"we do good work." you remind him.

"fine." he concedes, hunching slightly over the table. "we're both patron saints."

a bright smile is what he gets in response, one that has his heart stuttering and tripping over in his chest. he can't help but give you a slightly goofy one in return. everything feels like as it should be. you're here, alive, and he is here, slightly less alive but feeling like he's finally able to breathe.

—

in retrospect, three-drink chris was probably not the best choice for tonight. one-drink chris is a little chattier than usual, but still relatively normal. two-drink chris loves music, always tapping his feet or bobbing his head to whatever song is playing. and three-drink chris might just be the most impulsive person on the planet.

the entire time you drive him home, which you insist on, chris has his head turned to you with the most obviously love-struck look in his eyes. the entire world around him seems to dull to a faint hum, instead focusing on that frustrating smile of yours as you recount some time that a coworker of yours accidentally put whatever chemical in something solution, causing a lab-wide evacuation.

like he said, impulsive. no more little voice in his head warning him to be subtle.

no more voices in his head screaming the songs of the damned.

he's honestly only half-listening. and only half-paying attention it seems, because you give him a questioning look when the car pulls into his driveway and he makes no move to get out. a nervous laugh escapes him then, breaking the awkward silence in your car like a clap of thunder.

"this was nice," you say eventually, lips upturned in a sort of half-smile. endearing, even cute.

"it was," he nods, trying desperately to keep this moment going as long as it can. just the thought of leaving you again after spending years drowning in the emptiness gives him a headache. chris spent enough time dawdling around like an idiot, going so far as to refuse to change phone numbers in the small chance you would never contact him again.

you're picking at your nails during his internal monologue, that same worried pinch forming between your brows. you're, once again, the one to break the silence. "chris, i-"

his lips are on yours then. thick hands curled around your neck, keeping you in place for one second, then two, then three.

his eyes are still squeezed shut when he pulls away.

"fuck," he whispers, jolting back like you had slapped him. "i'm sorry, i just have wanted to do that for a while, and i couldn't let you go away again without doing something."

"chris."

"i know it was stupid, and impulsive," he keeps going, purposefully avoiding eye contact. "i didn't mean to make you uncomfortable, i just-

"chris," the stern tone of your voice is enough to make him stop mid-ramble, peering up at you hopefully. you only laugh in response, before raising your hand to the nape of his neck. his hair is longer than you remember it being. just another way he's changed.

"yeah." he sighs, defeated. just another part of his life that he's royally fucked up. another friend he's going to lose, and this time it's not to circumstances out of his control. not because of bloodshed or shitty calls. this one is purely on him, because he really does lose all sense around you.

instead of slapping him, or yelling at him, like he expects you to— you take pity on him. "are you going to shut the hell up and kiss me?"

there's another long stretch of silence then, the only sign that chris even heard you is the glimmer of hope twinkling in his eye.

"fuck yeah, i am." he smiles, before pulling you into him again.

[ivys-garden]

I, like many of yall, have noticed a vocal minority of people showing there support for Wilbursoot, going as far as to attack shubble and her supporters. In this post I'll go through the main points I've seen them argue with and explain why I believe that they are all wrong.

“Shubble was the real abuser” - No. If she was, William would have spoken up. There is no evidence for this, well, that isn't faked or saying one thing is another (like the guy saying a pic of will crying was because of shubble or the guy trying to pass a stream of a completely different girl of as shubble abusing will… live. On stream. Yah, think we would have heard of that before now.)

“She has no proof” - genuinely fuck of. In domestic abuse cases there won't always be hard proof, that's one of the reasons the police struggle to do anything about it. If a wife is struck by a husband and it leaves no mark that doesn't mean it didn't happen “why didn't she show the bruises” have you guys ever been bruised? Bruises heal quickly, and she doesn't have any to show since the allegations came out after their break up, all the bruises would have healed. “Why didn't she take photos at the time?” Look at it this way, if I punch you across the face you will have a lot of thoughts, none of them will be “I should take a photo of this so people belive me what I say it happened”

(Also don't pretend that people wouldn't just say the evidence was fake if she did have pictures)

Oh and she does have evidence, the fact William admitted to it.

“She just did it for attention” - bitch, shubble doesn't need attention she was doing great. Just because you never heard of her didn't mean she was some underground indie youtuber, she didn't need to lie to get attention. Also lying about domestic abuse is not a good way to do this since it's really easy to disprove. The other party would come out instantly to tell everyone the truth. William didn't do that because shubble WAS telling the truth.

“Her story changed” - no. It didn't. Even the idea that she changed whether or not wilbur bruised with the bites or made her bled (both of which are still bad, btw) is made up, she never said that, as was clarified by shubble herself

“She encouraged death threats” - She openly decouraged death threats. Saying she was like: “everyone go and tell people to kill themselves” is literally putting words in her mouth

Also, this by no means goes for everyone, but arguing about death threats while, wilbur hasn't told his supports not to send death threats and that wilburs supporters have been saiding threats to shubble and her fans while condemning the few shubble fans who sent death threats, is kinda stupid

(Also this is by no means the main point but I have seen people who support wilbur literally begging for death threats, soooooooo)

(Oh aslo I was mistaken in the early version where I said shubble had implied that she didn't belive wilbur could change, that was another misconception and I'm sorry for spreading it. Shubble does belive that people can change IF they put in the work to do so)

Also remember, William has not been shown to actually change yet. He still hasn't even given shubble an apology that takes proper accountability, when he does that, apologies to everyone else he's wronged, and puts in the effort to actually be better moving forward, then we can forgive him. But at the moment he has not shown that.

So until then: support shubble. Belive victims. Raise awareness for these issues in the gaming space (this has been going on for a long time). And don't engage with people who make up evidence to support there parasocial relationships, don't send death threats (obviously, because that's wrong) but also don't engage in any other way. This will be my last post on this subject. Move on from William and the support for him will die down when they realise there's no one to disagree with, and then William, Shubble and all of us can move past this and into the future as a (hopefully) better space

[mtkay13]

And yet.... another..... Face reveal illustration.

And of course, another long post, LOL.

More thoughts on the passage below!

This illustration is born from a hyperfocus of mine on this sentence:

Ah-Xu... [...] Did... did I tell you that I like men?"

他忽然发现，其实对方一辈子都不将那易容卸下来，在自己心里，也从来就应该是这样一副模样，如今看到他长得竟如自己想象中的感觉别无二致，就像是……已经认识了他很久很久一样。 [Wen Kexing] suddenly realized that, should [Zhou Zishu] have kept the mask on forever, this was the face he'd have pictured in his heart. Now, seeing this face that exactly matched the one he had pictured, it simply felt like.... meeting again with someone he'd known for a very, very long time.

This, to me, feels like the comforting familiarity of knowing, of understanding a friend, feeling at ease despite the years, the distance; the feeling of meeting a friend IRL for the first time despite knowing them for years, and yet everything clicks--

To me, the beauty in this passage is in how the mask... never really did anything, change anything. Wen Kexing became friends with the person behind the mask, felt this deep connection for this man regardless of what he could look like, and seeing him, now, his face revealed, is that comfort of, yes--I recognize you. It's you.

What I really enjoy in TYK is Wenzhou's companionship, the way they understand each other so profoundly, and their friendship. The fact that they liked each other as people first, that they connected so well despite the odds. This connection between them makes a lot of the feelings mutual, and I feel like this sentence above, part of it is felt by Zhou Zishu as well; and removing his mask, although it is for practical reasons within the context of the story, showing his face to Wen Kexing is a way to affirm trust, both ways. I trust you with my own face, but you can also trust me--because I show you, I welcome you in. This passage... almost feels like a greeting. "Hello again, friend." except they've been tagging along for a while, now.

I used to wonder if Zhou Zishu was nervous about Wen Kexing seeing his face, as I do think he's a bit self-conscious about his frail body and struggles to understand Wen Kexing's big declaration of attraction to him--sort of like, "will he still like me, what will he think of my face?". I don't really stand by that anymore, because my understanding of ZZS has changed since then. It really feels more like, it's fine, we know each other, we're friends anyway now whether I like it or not. I wonder, is he a bit happy that he gets to greet WKX with his real face? He mentions having counted on keeping his mask until he dies, but... ? It's pretty obvious that at this point in the story, ZZS is already deeply fond of WKX, so I can't help but feel like he is happy, deep down, that he gets to make that connection.

For WKX, it must be comforting, but also quite bittersweet. His appreciation, his growing love for ZZS, only comforted by this familiarity, this acknowledgement of companionship, of ease together, while he is so deeply aware that ZZS is condemned... I feel like at this moment, he must want to hug him, to keep him close, and think, I wish I could have him longer, I wish he could stay; for he's the only friend he's ever had, for he never connected with someone like that before.

Now to adress the elephant in the room and jump onto the next topic, I keep saying "friend", "companion". Needless to say that I am well aware that wenzhou have a romantic+ bond, but I just feel like this part highlights this aspect of their relationship that I profoundly cherish. And thus we reach WKX's very famous line:

It's hilarious, perfectly timed, but I especially love how I feel like, rather than highlighting how gorgeous or attractive ZZS could be, this is yet another way for WKX to lighten his own mood, to detach himself from the deeper feelings, the longing, the fondess, the comfort--given how untimely this all is. It hurts, to feel attached to ZZS as a person, because he's going to die soon, while joking about fucking and being gay always works, and it has the benefit to make ZZS flustered.

So yeah, point is, I'm obsessed with that scene.

Also, obligatory reference to the past versions, which I noticed make sort of a nice movement? haha.

I'm not really standing by the first one anymore, but it works in that context!

[mrm0rgansw0man]

Hi! Can I request something real quick?

Just a religious girl falling in love with Arthur and everytime he goes on an extended job, she goes to church and prays for her man to come back to her. And Arthur practically always finds her back at the church, making her prayers come true.

Thank you very much, I love your writing, Arthur is so cute I need more fluff for this man<33

hii! im so glad you like my writingg!! and i love this idea SO much this is gonna be amazing to write Xx

don't condemn me to this altar.

Arthur sighed as he looked up into the fabric of his tent. He missed you deeply. The sound of your voice, the feeling of your touch. The pressure of your lips against his own. He hated leaving you like this, espically knowing how dangerous things could be on jobs like this. And he knew how much you worried,

"Jus' one more night honey..." Arthur said to himself. "I'm comin' home to you I promise."

Arthur contemplated for a moment, and then spoke.

"Our father, who-"

✟

"-art in heaven."

'Let him come home.'

"Hallowed by thy name."

'Please god.'

"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done."

'He's a good man. Please.'

"On earth as it is in heaven."

'I love him so much. Please..'

"Give us this day out daily bread."

'I need him, lord. Let him come home."

"And forgive us our trespasses. as we forgive those who trespass against us."

'Please forgive my love. He is a good man. Bring him home safely to me. I'm begging you.'

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

'I'm begging you.'

"Amen."

'Don't condemn me to this alter.'

You stood up shakily, wiping the tears from your eyes on the side of your veil. You never used to wear one to pray, you weren't that religious before. But since Arthur gifted one to you, you never failed to wear it to the church. Especially when you we're praying for him to come home to you.

You loved Arthur Morgan, so much. He made you feel safe, he made you feel loved, he understood you. You never believed much in love, or in god for that matter. You didn't care for or believe in anything. But Arthur Morgan, oh god. He brought color back into your life. He made you feel again. After you met, you actually felt like you could take a full breath. Even after he confessed to you who he really was, and what he did. He wept, he actually wept. He was on his knees in front of you, begging you for forgiveness. He knew you were a religious woman, and he thought you'd think he was some filthy horrible monster. A murder. A sinner.

But he couldn't be more wrong,

You prayed to god yes, but you were no saint. And you certainly not God himself, you were in no place to judge him for anything he'd done. Especially because you knew deep down he was a kind and pure soul. He helped anyone in need, he treated women like they were people. He was deeply loyal and protective to the people he loved. You held Arthur tight and promised him this did not change a thing. You loved him just the same, if not more for being honest with you about who he was. You wiped his tears, and kissed him all over. His neck, his face, his hands. You even brought him to church afterwards, just to show him it was okay. That it was good. But once you were back at your home, Arthur knelt down to a different altar entirely.

You sighed at the memory. You worried so much about Arthur, it consumed you half the time. It was much more often than you would ever admit, especially to him. As much as you would love Arthur to stop living this life he couldn't just abandon his family. Especially when (in your opinion at least) he was the glue that held them together. And you knew he worried about you, too.

"Does he pray for me, God? I taught him your prayer." You said softly, looking up at the crucifix hung up on the wall. You liked coming to the church when it was empty, you were free to speak aloud.

"I do. Every night 'M gone darlin'"

Your heart got caught in your chest as you heart that sweet southern drawl that made your heart melt and your legs weak.

Your face burst into a grin, and you couldn't help but run and jump into the arms of your lover. He caught you with ease, squeezing you tight around the waist and burying his face in your neck and hair.

"Arthur! Oh, Arthur!" You said with a laugh. It was an airy and care free sound, one that made Arthur's head spin. "I missed you- I love you! Oh I'm so glad to see you!"

"My sweet beautiful girl." Arthur mumbled into your neck. He brought his face up to pull you into a passionate and loving kiss. You wound your fingers into his hair and he brought one of his hands up to cup your face.

Once you both eventually (and reluctantly) pulled away, Arthur set you down gently on the ground. He still held you close though, your bodies were flush against each other and your head was buried in his chest.

"I was so worried about you.." You mumbled. Arthur let out a regretful sigh. Damn this life. He wanted nothing more than to run from it all and right into your loving arms. He knew what would happen if he were to leave for a job and never come back, you would never leave this church. You'd spend the rest of your life on your knees, praying to god for him to walk through the door. He couldn't condemn you to that life-

That's it. He decided. Enough was enough. He couldn't stand to see you in pain like this for another second.

" 'M sorry baby.." Arthur said softly. "I'd never leave ya' ever.. Not without a damn good fight. I could never do that to my best girl.. But let's not think 'bout that right now sweetheart. Tell me, what did ya' do while I was gone?"

"I prayed for you." You said as you smiled gently up at him. "And look, here you are right back in my arms. Just like I wanted."

"You, my love," Arthur said softly. "must be an angel. Sent here just to keep me safe." Arthur cupped your face in between both of his hands. "I don't know what I'd do without ya' honey.."

You were about to speak, but Arthur interupted you.

"I'm done." He whispered. Your eyes widened, what did he mean? "Runaway with me."

Oh. That's what me meant.

"Arthur.." You breathed out, tears pooling in your eyes. "Are... do you mean it?"

"Yes. I'm done, I can't live like this no more..." Arthur said and sighed. "Especially not with such an amazing woman in my life."

You smiled, and actually started to laugh a bit. You were smiling laughing and crying all at once. You jumped up and threw your arms around Arthur's neck,. He caught you and he spun you around in the air. When he set you back down on the ground, you could see the tears in his own eyes.

"We're gonna live the rest of our lives in peace Mr. Morgan." You breathed out. burying your head in his chest once again. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of both of your shoulders.

"Yes we are, Mrs. Morgan."

[cosmicjoke]

One tactic that some Eren fan once tried to argue to me, in trying to defend Eren's actions, is that Isayama, halfway through his story, suddenly decided that fighting back was "bad", and that's the cause of Eren's supposedly sudden shift in character at the end of the story. This person basically tried to blame it on Isayama changing his mind about the themes of AoT and, thus, on bad writing. They couldn't just accept that that was who Eren was all along; a whiny, selfish child that put himself and his desires above everyone else. Eren isn't bad because he was "fighting back", he's bad because he used the justifiable cause of self-defense as an excuse to commit horrific atrocities, when the real reason behind his actions was a childish inability to accept the way things were. It's why Eren's murder of the two sex traffickers who had kidnapped Mikasa was, on its face, justifiable, but the real reason behind Eren's actions wasn't. He did it because he was bored and enjoyed it. He could have waited for his father to get the authorities, but he didn't. And he didn't because he wanted to do what he did. He wanted to commit murder. It wasn't self-defense, it was self-indulgence.

Isayama never condemned the concept of self-defense or fighting back, and I think anyone who thinks he did wasn't paying any kind of attention to what they were reading/watching, and they aren't giving AoT enough credit for its nuance and sophistication.

The thing about AoT is that it doesn't present or force any sort of black and white moralistic world view on the reader/viewer. I talk about this with Levi a lot, how Levi is really representative of how morality isn't a static concept. How it varies and depends on the circumstances. He's a good man, the kindest, most compassionate man, that does quote on quote "bad things". Bad things within the context of normal society. But context always matters, and violence and killing isn't always wrong, even as it's always tragic. Jean, for example, very harshly criticizes Levi for killing people, only to be placed shortly thereafter in a position of having to kill in order to defend both himself and the lives of others; and when he falters and fails to do so, it's Armin who's forced to take that burden upon himself. We see in that moment how Jean's static morality and stubborn world view caused great harm to one of his friends, because he was more interested in preserving that static idea of morality and, thus, his own self-comfort, than he was in protecting his comrades. Jean's unmoving morality costs Armin dearly. Jean, in that moment, was extremely selfish.

And yet Levi later says to Jean that he doesn't know what's wrong or right, and he doesn't condemn Jean for his inaction, but simply states a fact; that Armin saved his and others lives by taking action in his place. Isayama's themes are never so basic or self-righteous as to present a definite answer on moral questions. He never tries to convey any kind of black and white world view. Rather, he presents the complexity of morality, and it's ever shifting conditions, while also showing us the oft tragic outcome of violence, even when that violence is justified or necessary.

Eren's actions weren't actions taken in self-defense or defense of others, they weren't necessary to his or anyone else' survival, and so they can't be defended and aren't justifiable. But Eren was given the power he was in an attempt at self-defense. Because a group of people was being persecuted and punished for things they weren't responsible for. That act of giving Eren power is justifiable. And that's the tragedy. Of having to rely on a bad person like Eren in a desperate attempt to survive. Just like Armin's emotional distress at having to kill in order to save Jean was a tragedy. Armin was justified, but it didn't stop him from being damaged by the event. It's not the self-defense itself that's wrong, but the fact of people being placed in a position of having to defend themselves at all, and all the many consequences of that, including the trauma is causes, both to ourselves and others, the sometimes ugly things it forces us to, and the cyclical, inescapable nature of it, that's tragic.

So it's not about questions of right and wrong, good or bad. Really, AoT is more a study on the tragedy of human nature and of nature itself. The world is cruel but beautiful, as Mikasa says. It's designed this way, and we're designed this way, and that's the way it will always be. Kill or be killed. Nature itself is predicated on that truth.

[its-the-sa]

it is serious. the ship just comes off as nasty to me and i dont understand it

oh, then I'm sorry for being dismissive. I thought you were just a hater lol.

but in all seriousness, if a ship seems nasty to you, then a logical explanation of it is probably not going to change your mind. squicks are just gut reactions, so it doesn't really matter whether or not you understand the thing that squicks you. and that's ok! if the ship makes you uncomfortable, you should just block the rw regicide tag (or in my case you should probably just block me entirely lol )

but since you did ask sincerely, I'll at least try to explain why I ship it:

basically, I'm just a sucker for the 'enemies to lovers' trope and the 'villain redemption' trope. show me any two characters who fit both of those, and I'll probably ship it lol

I like villain redemption, because I like tragic villains. I like villains whose actions are inexcusable, but understandable. villains who lash out due to grief and end up doing horrible things in the throes of rage. and I like making them feel bad about it. I like villains who know they are monsters, who know they have done despicably evil things and truly hate themselves for it. and I like giving them a second chance. I like to see them feel remorse and turn away from evil and try to become better people.

and I like enemies to lovers because... well, for a lot of reasons that would probably take several thesis papers to unpack, lmao. but basically there's just something really intimate about two characters who can handle each other at their absolute worst, when no one else can. arti is like an unstoppable force of rage until she meets scav king, who is like an immovable object to her. he's willing to fight her and kill her as many times as he needs to, but he never strikes first, and he always gives her the chance to back down. and since he does have min aggression and max sympathy, I see him as the type of person who would easily forgive someone who is genuinely remorseful. he doesn't want to keep the cycle of violence and hatred going; whenever arti is ready to let go of her rage and stop the bloodshed, so is he. when she's ready to face the consequences of her actions and try to become a better person, he would rather support her than condemn her. he doesn't necessarily expect his people to forgive her, and he doesn't try to make excuses for her or downplay any of the harm she caused. i just think he could personally look at arti and find someone worth caring about underneath all the rage and hate, and in turn she could look at him and find someone she can trust enough to let all that hate go and admit she was wrong.

obviously, this type of relationship could never happen in real life (or if it did, it would be a fucking toxic disaster). but they're just characters, so their relationship doesnt have to be realistic, and I just want their story to have a happy ending I guess.

idk if any of this makes sense to you, but it's fine if not. you don't always have to understand why people like things that you don't like, it's ok to just block them for your own peace of mind. so if this ship still makes you uncomfortable, feel free to block me, I wouldn't take offense. stay safe and remember that fandom is for having fun , so dont stress out about it too much!

[stvrpst]

I hate how much bummy shippers downplay and minimize Eddie's trauma in comparison to Bucks. They both have distinct traumas and coping mechanisms, but it's clear that many bummies vilify Eddie when he encounters shit that triggers him and past traumas resurface, causing him to react in a specific way.

They will stop at nothing to protect Buck, very few, if any, will criticize him due to his trauma. That's all well and good, but it's irritating that people are so eager to give in and coddle Buck, while simultaneously condemning Eddie for doing the same shit.

I understand that Eddie is a very private and reticent person, and in contrast to Buck, the writers do not really go into great detail about Eddie's trauma compared to Buck. So, while many of us have a better grasp of Buck's past and his trauma, that doesn't change the fact that Eddie too suffers from deeply ingrained trauma from his early years. similar to Buck.

Every time the writers decide to put buck through more shit and he’s back juggling trauma again it’s,

“Why can’t buck be happy!”

“Stop putting buck through shit!”

“Buck deserves to be happy!”

“Buck deserves to be loved!”

“Buck deserves a fun time!”

Which, sure, I agree with completely, but I wouldn't be irritated with it, if the replies to when the authors put Eddie through more shit and he's back juggling trauma weren't,

“Eddies a dick!”

“Eddies needs therapy!”

“Eddie needs to get his shit together!”

“Eddies not a good friend!”

“Buck deserves better!”

There is an obvious bias. Like, why are some of you unable to treat Buck and Eddies traumas equally? Why is it that some of you have to discuss Buck like he has superiority over Eddie with such a blatant undertone?

Why does Eddie have to work hard and figure out his shit, whereas Buck needs everything and needs it handed to him? This season, there were plenty of examples. Many of you exposed your real selves, and I now understand how you feel about Eddie. It's obvious, in my opinion, that none of you genuinely cared about Eddie.

Y’all seize every chance to vilify Eddie, paint him in a negative light, and denounce everything he does, while continually pointing out his shortcomings and faults, but you will place Buck on a pedestal and treat him like a saint, while disregarding what he has done because "He has trauma and deserves to be loved🥺"

And they only do that with buck btw.

In 7x04, they still found a way to make Eddie the asshole💀.

Yes, he was the asshole because he was innocently enjoying himself with his new friend, with whom he shares interests with. However, Buck couldn't handle that and chose to ACTUALLY hurt Eddie before going to make out with the friend Eddie was hanging out with.

But Eddie is an asshole, right? He's the asshole because he didn't invite Buck to trivia, despite the fact that Eddie has asked Buck several times to play basketball with him, but Buck declined. But as soon as Eddie found a friend eager to accompany him, Buck chose to act like a big dick and hurt Eddie, but Eddie is the asshole in this circumstance, correct?

But the bummies are just cool with it because it worked out well for Buck. so we can overlook the fact that Buck harmed Eddie, because at least he got to kiss a man, so it's all good!

Tommy had barely been here for a minute, and despite the fact that his behavior had nothing to do with trauma at all—rather, he was just a big asshole, Sexist, and a racist—bummies were fighting tooth and nail to defend his actions, but were eager to blame Eddie for his triggered response to Kim, despite the fact that it was prompted and stemmed directly from trauma.

The difference is that they feel comfortable defending Tommy because he has a direct relationship with Buck. If he wasn't with Buck, no one would be fighting to keep that man on the show. If Buck had been a direct victim of Tommy's conduct in season 2, and Eddie ended up with Tommy in season 7, their asses would be mad as fuck.

The truth is, they never truly wanted queer Eddie. They just wanted him to be queer so Buck could have the pleasure of kissing a man. It was never about representation for the both of them; it was only ever about Buck. Which is why they stopped pushing and supporting the idea of queer Eddie the moment Tommy kissed Buck.

They don't like him as a standalone figure. They like him as a stepping stone for Bucks' character.

So, moral of the story, they enjoy disregarding and discounting Eddie's pain since he expresses it and deals with it differently than Buck. And since they were too preoccupied with seeing Eddie as a stepping stone for Bucks' character and queerness alone, they never took the time to truly understand and comprehend Eddie's history, past, and trauma. So as a result, its very hard for them to really perceive Eddie as his own character with depth and complexity because for the longest time, they only viewed him as "the guy that could give us buck kissing men."

[sadkachow]

And Then It Is Monday - Why Sunday's plan did not (and could not) work

So normally I don't really make longer analysis posts, but I kept seeing people on social media outright supporting Sunday's actions in 2.2, and I wrote something out about why I personally think that Sunday's plan is wrong. I don't know if this is an issue with tumblr as well, given that the people I saw supporting him were on different forms of social media, but regardless.

Before I begin, I'd like to pose a reminder that the opinions in this are mine and mine alone. If you agree, awesome! If not, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, so long as you're respectful! I have no idea if this is well written or will make any logical sense, but here we go!

(Spoilers for the 2.2 Trailblazer quest under the cut, if that wasn't already obvious)

So the first thing to get off the table: I feel Sunday is a very sympathetic villain, but a villain nonetheless. I understand the people that sympathize with him. I do too, to an extent. He was raised on unhealthy ideals and the belief that he was a "religious figure," one that people looked up to. Other people were allowed to just be, but Sunday always had to be better. He loved his sister, and the people around him, and he wanted to make a better world for them.

But that does not excuse what he did. Making a 'better world' can never come at the cost of taking away people's free will, because that world will never be "better". That's where Sunday's plan falls apart.

Because, yes, there are shitty people in the world, and yes bad things happen. Would it be amazing if we could stop all the bad things from happening ever again, and make the world a much better place? Yes! It would! I would love to live in a world where I don't have to fear for my life and my freedom for an assortment of reasons! But that world doesn't exist--in real life or on Penacony--, and getting it to exist shouldn't be the result of subjugating and controlling other people, because that in and of itself is violence. Albeit a different kind of violence, but violence nonetheless.

Not to mention that things like Sunday's plan and the concept of forcing everyone to act a certain way just to fit this "better world" to me almost serves as a condemnation of human nature and of the very act of choice itself. Your better world starts by saying that some choices are bad, so those choices get taken away, but where does it end? What if someone in charge views a harmless choice as a bad one, and takes away that one in return? Does it stop there, or does it continue, until no one at all is allowed to make any decisions, except those in charge? Who, really, does that benefit?

Consequences for certain choices exist. Generally, society says murder is bad (except for specific circumstances such as self-defense, which technically at that point is no longer even considered murder (at least where I live, it may be different in other areas, but I'm basing this off of my own experience)), so there is a concrete consequence to people murdering people--assuming that they don't get away with it. It doesn't stop people from murdering people, because the liberty of choice is still there, but it shows that just because you can do something doesn't mean you should or that you will escape without consequence.

People are going to do bad things. That is, unfortunately, how humans are. But our responsibility lies in holding ourselves accountable and in promoting growth and healing. That is how you build a better world. Not trapping everyone inside a dream world without any care for their feelings or beliefs, but in getting people the help they need, in fostering a society of positive change and human connection.

And that is why, as "golden" as Sunday's dream may have seemed, it was never going to work. In the end, as the story quest shows, human will and the desire for freedom wins out in the end. When there's a will, there's a way.

[six-paths-of-jeanmarco]

Thank you for killing me slowly by a thousand mental cuts the ask, anon! First of all, lemme apologize for taking so long to answer, but in my defence, you asked me quite the question here.

I want to say first that I used to be a big snk fan. And then the final chapter was released. It was so bad that it made me look at the whole series with a very critical eye, which made me realize that snk has never been that great to begin with. What really made this story good was the anime produced by WIT, and what really carried the story was its big mystery box. The moment we opened it, everything went downhill bc this was no longer a fantasy world, but a lazy parody of ww2 Germany & Japan.

But more importantly, and referring to the final arc, I started to notice all the rot hidden in plain sight: its fascist and antisemitic undertones, the awful writing, the lackluster worldbuilding, the braindead politics and the inconsistent treatment of characters.

Despite my newfound interest for the cautionary symbolism of Reiner and his character arc, I still think it was handled poorly. I have the same problem with characters like Gabi, Annie, Magath, and Pieck. Their individual arcs ended with them facing no real consequences for their crimes. Magath, despite being a literal representation of the nazi, was rewarded by the plot with a heroic death (a baffling choice when you think about who he is and what he did, and just how brutal and meaningless all of the Scouts deaths were pre timeskip). Reiner, Annie, Pieck, and Gabi were all rewarded with the promise of a new, happier life ahead of them, despite being responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths directly or indirectly.

Gabi herself is proof of just how bad the writing is: RBA lived inside the walls for around 3 years, and yet they still went on with their mission. They still killed Marco. Annie still massacred those Scouts. It took Reiner 7 years to fully acknowledge that what he did was wrong and to finally make amends ... by joining an alliance that had the same goal as that of the warriors for the whole goddamn arc: take down Eren. However, Gabi realized she was wrong in like what, just a few months at best? Their development is dictated by however the plot needs them to be or act. But there's more:

Marco, the Levi Squad, Sasha, and -- as victims of similar circumstances -- Pixis, and Hange, the embodiment of pacifism, were all condemned for being good people, and some of them for believing that there is good in everybody, even in their enemies; and punished for believing that conflicts could be solved in peaceful ways. Does the cautionary symbolism of their brutal deaths still holds up when the story rewards violence and crushes pacifism?

I don't think it does.

Showing that even the worst of the worst are capable of change and doing the right thing in the end is an important message, but. The idea that everyone is just a victim of their uprising or their circumstances is simply wrong. Ideologies don't exist without people, cowardice does not justify orders carried out that lead to attrocities. This idea fails to acknowledge that evil exists. Not just nuanced evil, but pure evil as well. It also goes the other way around. This idea also fails to acknowledge that good can exist.

And also to sympathize with Pieck, who was still loyal to marley despite what they're doing to her own people. And Magath, who in his final moments, revealed that he actually cared about the kids he was indoctrinating and instructing to commit genocide all along. I can't ignore the similarity with the way neonazi like to bring up hitler's friendship with Bernile Nienau, a girl of Jewish origins, as an attempt to humanize him. Heck, even Zeke's final moments painted him as more sympathetic than he was. Such is the case with Floch, and the way Jean reacted to his death. All those characters were redeemed in the audience's eyes without facing any substantial accountability.

I also have a huge issue with the false equivalences that were supposed to show us how morally grey everyone and everything is.

-> The link to the post in the screenshot

Jean and Connie and the Scouts that attacked Liberio aren't just wrongfully presented as something they're not, they're also used as tools to rationalize what Reiner and co have done to them throughout most of the series. Jean briefly does that with what Reiner did to Marco before he punches him to a pulp. Then again with the "we're the same" bs. Then again with implying Reiner is one of them as a Scout. There's also no real tension between the warriors and the Paradis side of the alliance. What the warriors did to Paradis is truly horrific, so their only way for redemption is through their victims.

The mistake that most people do when they interpret their relationship or the characters themselves is to only look at the characters' in-story intent. But there's also this thing called the author's intent that overrides everything. Sometimes, you cannot separate an author from their work. Especially when it comes to the final 12 chapters, where the quality of the writing is in the sewer.

But there's actually another way through which these characters were redeemed: the introduction of a much greater evil and a much horrific event that makes everything else pale in comparison. The main conflict of the story was revealed to have always been Eldians vs Eldians. But that wasn't always the case. Not until isayama retconned Eren, and then treated him the same way he treated the warriors. Eren's friends refused to condemn his actions, and instead repeatedly rationalized, then absolved and thanked him for what he did. It doesn't matter that they still did what was right in the end, that Mikasa killed him, or that Armin admitted they're both going to hell for the atrocities they've individually committed. In the anime. Which came out almost 3 years after the release of chapter 139+the extras and the massive backlash that followed. Let's not forget how that conversation went in the manga:

None of that matters because there's a dissonance between their actions & words and their attitude. isayama couldn't condemn any of his genocidal characters in a way that matters, in a way that would leave no room for moral ambiguity. But perhaps the greatest injustice isayama has committed to his own characters, story and messages was to retcon Eren, the character that was at the center of a message as powerful as the idea that we're all special because we're simply born in this world, into a genocidal maniac that cared about no one and nothing (if he actually cared about his friends, he wouldn't have put them through living hell, not when he actually had the power to prevent it, and if he actually cared about his mother, he wouldn't have killed her) through one of the worst executions of the time travel trope I've ever seen.

Snk is not a story that condemns fascism, let a lone a "masterpiece" when it comes to social or political themes, because it's centralized on justifying the oppression of the Eldians and making it an integral part of the plot. Not only are the Eldians an obvious metaphor for Jews, which is antisemitic on its own given how it's executed, but isayama ends up making them truly horrific because he takes real world antisemitic conspiracies and turns them into factual realities in his own story, all while seemingly acknowledging that Jews have been oppressed and the victims of the worst genocide in history. Moreover, the Eldians also seem to be ideologically inspired by imperial Japan, Paradis in particular. As @ shangyang points out in their essay, we shouldn't forget the fact that this is a manga authored by a Japanese man, nor that Japan has its own history with fascism. (Plesse don't skip any of the posts linked here)

All that being said, isayama's true intent is more than clear: violence is praised because his characters were written so to see violence as their only option, and the fascist mentality of eternal warfare as the status quo. Pacifism is not presented as an option. There's no nuance, only extremism. Even the cycle of hatred at the very end only serves as proof that the intent of the story is to present an extremely narrow worldview in which the human species is only capable of perpetual warmongering, hatred, destruction, and death. Which is wrong and is the very opposite of what I'd call "nuance", imo. And the reason this bothers me so much is because snk and other "morally grey" works alike aren't portraying evil people as just that, people, and evil as something that exists in all of us - no, what they're doing is making the unlikeable likeable, the unjustifiable justifiable, and they're making people sympathetic towards things they shouldn't be sympathizing. Such narratives are banalizing evil (if I had a nickel for how many posts I've seen justifying what Magath did or outright saying they love the guy, well I'd have a lot of nickels) and depreciating good (lots of nickels for all the posts I've seen bashing the Scouts). Such narratives serve as propaganda for the things they claim to condemn.

The result is that such stories beget ignorance, and ignorance is a fertile ground, whether is the case of people who are only interested in shipping and blorbofication, or the people who are not properly educated to know what they're dealing with.

And there's a reason actual fascists and neonazi are circling the series like flies, identifying with the yeagerists, and saying that "Eren was right". They're not taking control of the narrative, they're seeing it for what it really is. The progression of Eren's character arc, his motivations, the retcons, the conclusion of the story, Ymir's motivation, the undeserved redemptions, the characters not behaving in ways they should based on their history, none of those things make sense because they don't have to make sense. They're only pretexts meant to mask the actual intent of the story. The cycle of hatred didn't end because the rumbling truly failed. Because "the enemy" (the people outside Paradis, all of them, as Eren made it very clear) wasn't completely obliterated. Because as long as there's "the enemy", there can't be peace. Fascists have a complex relationship with war. They don’t like it, but "the enemy" is always forcing their hand. The rumbling was meant to succeed.

This is not a cautionary tale for anti-fascists.

Snk is a cautionary tale for fascists.

Now recontextualize all of that in present-day fascist politics, and see where it takes you. But ofc, this is only my interpretation, based exclusively on the story itself.

[bestworstcase]

I don’t know what it means but.

Ruby talking with Qrow (I believe) in V7 when she compares herself to Oz, and Qrow saying “No you’re better than him you’re waiting to see who you can trust vs never giving anyone the chance to be trusted”

And now Ruby saying what’s the point of anything if Salem has the relics now and Yang saying “That’s how Ironwood thought. You don’t mean that”

The WAY Oz and Ironwood carried out their plans was Bad but they didn’t start at the deep end. Their thoughts didn’t spawn all of their actions. Ruby having doubts and seeing Oz’s perspective of being wary of who to trust doesn’t mean she’ll turn out like him. Ruby showing she’s upset and mad that things seem to be turning out useless despite their efforts doesn’t mean she regrets saving the people they saved. Or trying to save them.

The way Ruby hasn’t been able to openly doubt herself around others or say things that others see as “thinking like Ironwood” or “you’re better than Oz” is so prominent in episode 7. And I’m not saying she was wrong in anything I’m on her defense squad rn from ppl who are doing what the characters in the show did. They are Hearing her words but they aren’t Listening. WHY is she better than Oz when she thinks she’s doing the same thing. WHAT has caused her to Think like Ironwood. Why can’t she mean what she says why can’t she be negative. Where is the person to lift her up about herself. Not the plan not the team but just Ruby Rose

I don’t think I’m explaining this properly I’m not mad at anyone bc they didn’t know how she felt. I’m just trying to point out connecting things in the show and how “We’ll be better than blank”, in Ruby’s mind, can’t just be something to say when Qrow is mad at Oz (rightfully) or Yang is worried she sounds like Ironwood (the man they just had to save a kingdom from)

V9. Misinformation. Miscommunication. Blinded by your own emotions. Resistant to change. Not listening. It’s felt so Real it’s been so good I hope what I said makes sense it’s just the Be Better Than The Old Mentors vs just bc we won’t do things the same way doesn’t mean we won’t ever feel like they felt or have the same doubts or worry that what they did might’ve been The Best in their mind at the time. Lack of perspective. How you can be the villain to those you’re trying to save. It’s a lot sorry I rambled so much

pushing pause real quick here, anon, the anxiety pouring out of this ask about being misinterpreted as bashing this or that character is really palpable and bc of that i just want to like directly affirm that analytical discussion of character flaw or the narrative construction of a conflict isn’t accusatory or condemnatory of the characters themselves. in this household we go buckwild for characters whose human imperfection is fully and honestly realized by the narrative <3

anyway yeah yeah exactly like

ever since these kids got looped into ozpin’s cult they’ve just been in this emotional vortex of—don’t be negative, don’t spread negativity. salem wants to divide us. we can’t let salem divide us. LOOK at how terrified they were in V8 of not being in unanimous agreement about whether to prioritize a long-term or short-term goal, how much jaune’s proposed compromise scared them. it’s profoundly dysfunctional. they don’t know how to differentiate normal, constructive debate and infighting, or critical self-reflection and harmful negativity, so they are constantly hyper-vigilant constantly monitoring and policing each other for the smallest sign of bad thoughts, bad feelings, because this war they inherited isn’t a war against salem, not really, it’s a war against this nebulous idea of division, of conflict, of negativity, of the bad things that will see humankind condemned to extermination when the gods come back.

and like:

YANG: Okay, Ironwood wants Penny, otherwise Mantle is done for. So, how do we stop him?

BLAKE: Qrow and Robyn are still in his custody, and May said that the Atlas security drones are watching the crater, so they’re trapped too.

OSCAR: And Salem isn’t going to stay gone forever.

RUBY: So then it’s impossible.

EMERALD: See? If Miss Hero with all the answers doesn’t have an answer, then we have ours.

WEISS: Shut up.

YANG: Why don’t you just leave?!

OSCAR: Can we please just give each other a chance? Emerald’s not with Salem anymore, and Ozpin is back. All this doubt and worry and distrust, it isn’t getting us anywhere—

RUBY: Then nothing has CHANGED! We’re in the exact same spot we were yesterday, arguing what to do while the kingdom waits to die.

^ she ran away then, too. and yang went after her thinking that ruby needed a pep talk, needed to be told that sure things are bad and risks don’t always pay off, but the mom who abandoned them both for the world’s sake is still her hero—when what ruby actually, desperately needed to hear, what she’s PLEADING for now, is for someone to tell her it’s okay to feel bad, it’s okay to have doubts, it’s okay to just be overwhelmed. that it ISN’T FAIR for the fate of the world to sit on her shoulders and that the world will not end if she admits that it’s too fucking heavy, if she asks for help, if she puts it down.

and that’s what makes it sting so much when her doubts and fears and frustration get brushed off like those feelings don’t matter or aren’t true or, worse, like it’s wrong for her to feel this way at all—it’s a manifestation of this, like, existential terror of Innate Badness that lurks in the heart of ozpin’s cult, don’t feel bad don’t think bad thoughts or else—or else what? “salem will divide us” but it’s so easy for that line of thinking to shade into “only bad people have bad thoughts,” because feeling bad IS bad in and of itself, right. like fundamentally this is how the strict ideological delineation between hero, villain, and passive narrative object enforces itself: the villains surrender to negativity and so become themselves agents of this Badness while the heroes stand as beacons of hope and inspiration to the defenseless masses—who otherwise would of course succumb to negativity (“panic”) and be obliterated. baked into the cult’s ideology is an unspoken but perilously thin line between feeling bad and being bad.

you don’t mean that. that’s how ironwood thought. (you can’t mean that. only bad people think that way.)

and the real world just doesn’t fucking work that way—the world of remnant does not work that way—so this is an emotional poison, it’s toxic, they’re swimming around in a noxious soup of unspoken ideas that seeped into all of them to varying depth but percolated right down into the very bedrock of who ruby is—and while it killed them slowly it ate ruby alive. and now the bones of her are poking through the cracks and she has nothing left to give so the only way to move forward is to claw herself out of the soup!! (<- this metaphor ran away from me a bit.)

which somewhat ironically given what the first layer of her crisis is about, means ruby is going to lead the way out of this festering mess of a fairytale cult. by way of the desolate howl that this way of thinking is dehumanizing and inhumane

[showmey0urfangs]

I agree with you when it comes to Claudia's writing this season. I could have even accepted all the changes to her character if they were motivated in the text of the show. But the thing is, Claudia imo has so little screen time that those changes are never really motivated and fleshed out. I guess I just expected this season to be much more Claudia centric than it is... It would just make sense. Instead they had time for everything and everyone but her it seems. (Her and Madeleine story especially is pathetically diminished practically to one single episode.) It's actually crazy but I feel like Claudia had more of a voice in season 1...

When it comes to the writing in season 2 in general: say what you will about Maven but she hit the nail on the head when she said that the show has a hard time reconciling the new stuff they are doing in the story with the main book!story bits. Because with the new characterization and events book!plot points don't necessarily make sense, and vice versa.

Hi there! I'll combine both of these if you don't mind. 😊

Claudia's was 100% relegated to the background this season. She's a plot device, acting in whichever way the story needs her to regardless of whether or not it aligns with her character. In ep 1 she's strong, competent, driven and relentless. She's the one leading them through Eastern Europe, feeding both herself and Louis and keeping them safe as Louis wanders around clueless, hallucinating his dead ex. But in episode 2, these hard-earned life skills suddenly vanish, and she's once again a naive little girl, oblivious to danger, waltzing through a hostile territory unguarded, leaving her extremely damning diaries around for anyone to find. The coven would have condemned her regardless. The "vampire laws" are just a convenient excuse. But still, her behaviour boggles my mind. The storyline with Madeleine is also given very little time or development. As beautiful and touching as it was, it felt more like an afterthought than an integral part of the story.

Armand's characterization is also odd. His motivations don't make any sense because he is whatever the story needs him to be at that moment. One instant he's a helpless sad pathetic little boy who's easily outsmarted by a human journalist and the next he's an all-powerful ruthless coven leader who carefully controls everything around him, with little to no explanation or transition in between. Instead of fleshing him out, we got 30+ minutes of screentime dedicated to his fanfic rendition of TVL, which added very little to the main story and only served to piss off the very Lestat fans it was meant to service. Oops! 😂

To your last point Anon 1, I'll always disagree with anything Maven of the Eventide says on principle because her entire schtick is that any deviations from the books are inherently a negative, which is simply not true. The changes work wonderfully in S1, to make the story fresh and exciting for a modern and more diverse audience, and to give depth to certain characters that were flat and one note in the books. If the story this season had been equally as coherent and cohesive on its own, and the characterizations as consistent, I would have no issue with the fact that it deviates from the books. If anything, I think it hampers the show to insist on shoehorning in book plotlines when they no longer make sense in this new context.

I'm all for letting that tale seduce me, but at this point, we're 2 seasons and roughly 15 hours of story in. I expect there to be some definitive answers to the questions that were raised at the very beginning. I expect to have some sort of satisfactory conclusion to this specific chapter i.e. Louis's story, before we move on to the next one. I don't want to be told that everything we are seeing now is all a misremembering and we have to wait yet another two years to get the answers. Because then what the fuck was the point of these last two seasons if none of it was real? The memory is a monster thing only works to a certain extent.

[andtheyweresquirrels]

Merlin, season 1

Mind that I remember almost nothing from the other seasons, I used to watch it on cable when I was in elementary/middle school. But here are some highlights because I rewatched it too quickly to have separate thoughts for every episode:

Merlin is in love with Arthur.

That's it, thank you for reading.

I'm joking, but have you seen how he looks at him? He's like Aziraphale looking at Crowley! Maybe worse!

I love everyone's dynamic with each other:

Arthur and Merlin: I think it's pretty obvious I like how they interact with each other, and all I like is there in the narrative. Merlin keeps Arthur's pride in check, he changes him, he protects him in the shadows, and he knows the importance of Arthur's role in the future of the kingdom. Arthur is challenged by how Merlin feels free to speak his mind, the only other person that has probably ever spoken so directly with him is Morgana, and even she has to keep herself in check because she's a woman. It's pretty evident from how they act and from their roles in the story that they complement each other, none of the two can bring Camelot to greatness without the other. Also, I think Arthur is attracted to the (partly just perceived) freedom from responsibility that Merlin has, while Merlin, in some ways, wants the power that royalty has, so their friendship satisfies their impossible desires.

Gaius and Merlin: father and son, great support, perfect balance between letting an almost-grown child do their thing, scolding, worrying and giving advice. I love that the last episode ended (not counting for the hook for season 2) with those two. If I can't have uncle Iroh, I want Gaius to be my cool old uncle. Better yet, I want them both and I want them to go play cards together.

Merlin and Gwen: poor unfortunate Gwen, can't you see he's already in love? But also, they stand for one another and have a great friendship; they understand each other because they're in a similar condition.

Gwen and Morgana: great friendship. It doesn't feel unbalanced like Arthur and Merlin, maybe because the show is not as focused on them, but I often forget that Gwen is Morgana's servant. The only time I felt a difference in power in the episode where Gwen's dad dies, because we see the different approaches between Morgana and Merlin, both hating Uther for condemning Gwen's father, but in the end Merlin treats Gwen as a peer and asks her if Uther should die, while Morgana plots against Uther without consulting Gwen (also tries to break her father free without consulting, which, I gotta say, I understand more, but it's still another instance of going over Gwen's head) but maybe that says more about the future developments of Morgana's character than anything else.

Uther and Arthur: Edipus complex. But for real, their complicated relationship is a big classic for a traumatized father who doesn't share the burden of ruling and wants his son to never make his same mistakes and a son that has to please his father because he is the king. (Ovb, I'm not really taking this seriusly. They're characters, and I'm not a psych-person. Though I am a fan of Psych, the TV show about a guy that fakes being a psychic to solve crimes.) Anyway, the DRAMA they have, I love it. Also, there's a scene in the last episode when Uther takes dying Arthur to his chamber, and while he carries him he falls to his knees, and it looks like La Pietà (Michelangelo's in particular, but also the various representations in art in general), which is, in essence, a mother (a father in this case) crying for the death of her child. Dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Uther and Morgana: father and daughter in a patriarchal society, what else do I need to say? A lot, actually. It's incredibly interesting how their relationship slowly deteriorates, I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But also you can see that they care for each other, that Uther's not merely keeping her safe for the promise he made to her father, and though she often goes against his will, he's family. But there's the elephant in the room, she has premonitions and he fears everything related to magic, their bond is probably doomed. Again, I love the promise of drama.

Gaius and Uther: old friends with power imbalance, they clearly represent what Merlin and Arthur should not become. To the viewers, Gaius is the only one that can show us what happened in the past, specifically what Uther did and what happened to make his the way he is. Only when Gaius pushes, the two together help us understand (through the past) the present and the future of Merlin (and Arthur, and Camelot, and magic, if you want to expand).

Arthur and Morgana: I guess the narrative wants me to see them as possible romantic partners, but I can't shake the idea that they work better as siblings. They find common ground by being constricted by Uther's will, they grew up together (at least since Morgana was 10, maybe they knew each other before) and at the start of the season they bicker a lot. I imagine this bickering is to show the audience they actually like each other but they're too proud/afraid to do the first move, but I fear this will turn Morgana's character into a tragic romantic interest. I feel that the "I know you as well as I know myself because we grew up together and sometimes you are infuriating" works better as siblings, but that's just a preference. I have other things to say about them, but I guess it's more about Morgana than their dynamic, so I'll keep it for later.

Other thoughts:

Neither Merlin nor Arthur have an actual canonical hetero-attraction moment* (for now) and I find this both perfect for my plan to prove that Merthur is canon (let me dream for as long as I can) and kinda interesting from a cultural-analysis perspective. We (the general audience) just assume they are straight because that's the norm. Of course there are nuances, because the ship is very popular, but the narrative doesn't want us to perceive them as possibly romantically involved (because as much as I want it, they'll not end up together T.T), yet it doesn't try to distract us from that possibility. Because it doesn't have to, it shouldn't be a possibility, it's actually not one, and it's assumed to be this way. Anywayyyy, my love for Pierre Bourdieu's works is showing, so I better stop talk sociology and go back to the normal kind of sorcery.

The character of Morgana. Wow, it's just wow. Imma make a separate post about her because this is getting too long.

*I don't consider incantations for Arthur, and Merlin reads to me as possibly arospec and/or ace because he so doesn't see Gwen's tentative flirting. (Also, as I so thoroughly established before by just saying that he is, he's in love with Arthur.)

[jaskierx]

sorry i've thought about it more and i know this is boring and will get screenshotted on twitter by people wanting to gloat about how 'iZzY aNtIs aRe SeEtHiNg' and there's still 3 eps left and yada yada but the way that izzy's wrongs have been completely glossed over while ed's have been condemned is making me feel like there's been a u turn and the show is not just handwaving what izzy did in e10 but is actually suggesting he was justified in acting like that

specifically, the scene with izzy and lucius where izzy talks about the shark and moving on - it really felt like the show is now placing ed throwing lucius overboard on an equal level as ed causing izzy to lose his leg, and as if they didn't really know what level of severity they wanted to treat these incidents as. because previously, it felt like they were saying that ed's harm to izzy was separate to ed's harm to the rest of the crew (in the sense that it's more severe, but more justified, and also unique to ed and izzy because of whatever psychosexual thing izzy has going on there). and this made sense with last week's episodes bc stede's crew are shown to be view getting marooned as if it wasn't such a big deal, and lucius's anger was directed more towards stede than towards ed

but this week it feels much more like the narrative's main takeaway from ed's response to izzy's threats in e10 and ed's subsequent depression and suicide attempt is 'ed harmed the crew and he shouldn't have done that and now he needs to earn everybody's forgiveness'. and that's it. nothing further

there's been no real acknowledgement of izzy's role in causing that, or izzy's role in the crew being caught by the navy in s1e8, or any of the other shit that izzy did to the crew in s1, and from what we've seen so far i doubt there will be. he's had an off screen redemption arc and the crew love him now and that would feel way less bad if:

ed's actions weren't under such scrutiny

there wasn't such a dramatic difference between s1 izzy and s2 izzy and their respective roles in the story

there weren't racist undertones in terms of how izzy faces absolutely no consequences for threatening ed bc he wants him to fulfil a stereotyped role, or for comparing ed to a 'wild dog' who needs to be put down, but ed does face consequences for responding to these

like. izzy got mutinied immediately after selling the crew out to the british. and in terms of fights it's currently 2-0 to stede. part of stede's ultimate fantasy reunion dream included stabbing izzy to death. stede appeared to be fully tired of izzy's bullshit last week bc he'd just tried to kill the guy stede loves. so why the fuck is he going to izzy for training? why is he looking to izzy for advice and approval about being a good captain? why is he trying to bond with him about ed? why are we now being told that ed owes his success as blackbeard to izzy?

and this isn't even a liking izzy vs hating izzy issue - i never hated izzy in the first place, his canon characterisation in s1 was really good, i thought he was a shitty little man but he was the antagonist so that means they did a good job. but even if i loved izzy and i was really pleased that he'd been accepted into the crew etc i'd be scratching my head about why it's just happened with no narrative explanation

yes it's the queer joy show. yes it's the 'everyone can change and get better and reflect on how they've hurt people' show. so how come ed's the only one who's having to work for it? how come izzy's entire redemption arc has been told and not shown?

and the rest of the show is so fucking good which is why it's so disappointing and why it'll really fucking hurt if we get like. s8 game of thrones levels of bad ending

[marzipanandminutiae]

Cabinet of Curiosities Opinions

Roland (Lot 36) is not a neo-Nazi and the hair wreath is not made from the hair of concentration camp victims.

I didn't think this needed to be stated, since he called the Wolmar family evil, which he definitely wouldn't have done if he agreed with them. But apparently some people see "German guy talking about Nazis" and assume he's one himself. Weird.

As for the hair wreath, such things were popular in the 19th century, not the 1930s-40s. I went looking and couldn't find any extant examples from that era. Given the presence of other antiques from that period in the storage unit, like the summoning table, it makes far more sense for the wreath to be an earlier family heirloom. At the very least, even if it WERE some perverse latter-day craft project made by Dottie or her mother or something, there would be no reason for Roland and Agatha to assume that. So they'd probably believe it was innocent even if it wasn't.

2. Emilia is an avenging angel sent to test people like Nick.

This is a bit more of a stretch, but bear with me. When he gives her the lock, she says (in Spanish) "What kind of man are you?" An understandable response to him being a racist asshole, but to me it sounds like she's saying it in a measuring way, as if she's really wondering. Later, in her final appearance, the light behind her umbrella gives her a halo effect. And condemning him to be devoured by a demon he set loose seems like a pretty fitting thing for an angel to do if she's seen that he's past helping.

(This take brought to you by: whiny pissbabies on Reddit going on about "well he's not THAT bad and even if she couldn't see the demon, she KNEW the loan shark was after him so she should have REALIZED he was in real danger and let him out!!! the clearly symbolic racial-, gender-, and class-disadvantaged person in this 45-minute fictional story is the TRUE bad guy here, not the man who was listening to a white nationalist radio show and agreeing with it!")

3. Stacy's coworkers (The Outside) weren't actually that bad.

She feels isolated from them because they have nothing in common to talk about. We never see them actively being mean to her; just not being her best friend- and nobody is obligated to befriend coworkers if they don't want to. They invite her to the party, so clearly they do think of her. Sure, the one lady reacts badly to being given a taxidermy duck for Christmas, but...taxidermy IS a pretty contentious gift. Not something I would spring on someone at all. Stacy was just doing her best, so I don't blame her either. It's just an awkward situation all around, that's nobody's fault.

I feel like the point is not "this woman's bitchy coworkers drove her to change herself." It's that marketing and the media cause women to be internally critical on a deeply harmful level, even if nobody else is actually being critical of us.

4. The Outside has themes of sublimated homosexual desire.

Stacy has a tense relationship with her hsband, idolizes the women at work who are constantly touching and stroking each other, and literally makes out with the feminine-looking Allo Glo creature in the basement. I mean. Come on. This one seems like a no-brainer to me. I don't think that's the PRIMARY theme, but it's definitely there.

6. Nancy (The Murmuring) had something to do with Ava's death.

One theory I saw online was that she'd rolled over on her while co-sleeping, since the ghost she mistakes for baby Ava appears in the bed next to her. I'd believe it, and it definitely adds another layer to her sympathy with the mother ghost- who I just learned is named Claudette in the credits. Even though I very much doubt she did anything that purposeful.

7. Alternatively, Ava was not a baby when she died.

Edgar and Nancy are both on the older side to be new parents (Essie Davis was 52 during filming, though the character is probably somewhat younger), and Nancy has clear experience talking to older children when she addresses the little boy ghost. Ava's death was recent, so while I suspect the intention is that she was a surprise baby to a couple who assumed they'd never have any, she could have been any age within childhood.

8. Ava was named after birds.

"Avis" means bird in Latin and her parents are ornithologists. It just makes sense.