#He be a Gaslight Brainwash Manipulate kind of guy

[megalodonias]

Dr. Valerian Crow- certified psychiatrist, court inquisitor and the worst sire

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

I’m sorry but can you write more stuff about Vox being a gaslighter? I’m actually obsessed with your analysis

Thaaanks I'm obsessed about them too~ 🩵❤️

So, Vox is like the ultimate gaslighter. Manipulation and brainwashing? That's his whole freaking business plan. I mean, come on, the Voxtek slogan is "Trust Us," and somehow, people actually do.

Oh, let's talk about Voxtek - he's the worst, most manipulative boss ever. He's always pulling stuff like withholding essential information for a task someone's supposed to do, then publicly blaming them for screwing up. And he's sneaky about it too, acting all concerned and disappointed instead of just yelling. It makes people feel useless and insecure, so they bust their butts trying to please him and win back their colleagues' respect, never daring to stand up for themselves. Plus, he's a pro at keeping relationships between higher-up managers tense and distrustful by spreading rumors and creating a competitive vibe. And don't get me started on how he's a total hypocrite - Voxtek, like every other company, preaches its values and missions to create this fake sense of safety and purpose, but then he goes and acts against them or lets someone else do so. It leaves people feeling confused and helpless because they can't play the game when the rules keep changing. Let me tell you, Satan might work hard, but Voxtek's HR department works even harder.

And manipulating people on a personal level? Way too easy for him. People who don't know him well enough think he's some kind of genius (bless their hearts), so they give him way too much credibility. It's crucial for him to be seen as competent because that's how he stays in control. That's why he loves to question the competence of his business partners (Not to be that guy, but those numbers don't look great. Are you sure you can handle this? I don't want to waste my money.) or Valentino (Babe, I've got this. We both know you're not great with financial planning.). Thought hardly ever works on Velvette because she's got zero bullshit tolerance.

Now, when it comes to Valentino, Vox has zero remorse about gaslighting him. To him, gaslighting isn't even violence; it's just a way of handling things, all neat and effective. Why bother yelling and arguing when he can just manipulate Val into agreeing with him? It's like what we saw in episode 2. And even when Val has every right to be angry because Vox acted like a jerk, Vox tends to devaluate his emotions (I don't have time to deal with another temper tantrum, Val; You're always so pissy, why can't you just chill?) or tries to make him doubt his own reality (Maybe you'd remember it better if you weren't high all the time.). He hates arguing with Val, but also is unable to admit that he's wrong, so in his mind, undermining Val's ability to call him out on his bad behavior is a way of keeping their relationship healthy. But it's risky because sometimes Val sees through his manipulations, especially when they're about his feelings, and then things get even messier.

I like to think they trust each other when it comes to serious stuff, like protecting each other from outside dangers, but at the same time, it's like Mr. Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss is married to Mr. Manipulate Mansplain Manwhore - you never know if he's being genuinely nice or if he's trying to get you to do something.

[steviestits]

Steviestits's Masterpost

General Info

Name: Alex Age: 36 Pronouns: They/Them Prompt Guidelines: Accepted Subjects Ao3 Account: LouderSwine Icon & Banner Credit: BoneBoyBird

(Complete Tag and Masterlist under cut)

General Tag List

Answered Asks

Text Posts

WIP Wednesday

My Fics

My Bad MS Paint Art

WIP Wednesday Tag List

WIP Snippets

Fantasy Prompts

Fic Naming

MerMay Prompts

Steddie Fics Masterlist

By The Pricking of My Thumb

After Jonathan bashed Steve's head into the pavement, Steve remembered he had powers, setting off a chain reaction from Nancy breaking up with him early to certain enemies showing up sooner than expected.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #sevensteveau Rating: Teen Trigger Warnings: Canon Typical Violence

The Heart Of Loch Nora

Kas aka Eddie takes over Prince Steve's kingdom and keeps Steve captive before brainwashing him into being his mate.

Status: Completed Ao3 Link: Click here Tumblr Tag: #heart of loch nora (includes art for fic) Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Extremely Dubious Consent, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Brainwashing, Gaslighting, Stockholm Syndrome, Mind Manipulation, Mind Control, Forced Feminization, Body Modification, Blood Drinking, Mild Gore, Additional Warnings In Author's Note

I Move the Stars For No One

Labyrinth inspired, but they share zero plot points. Steve becomes King Edward's possession after stumbling onto a fairy circle.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: (Coming after completion of first chapter) Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #starsfornoone Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Child abuse, Feminization, Mating Rituals, Heats/Ruts but not the Omegaverse kind

In The Family Way

Addams Family Values au set in the Omegaverse after the events of the movie with Steve as Debbie and Eddie as Fester.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #inthefamilyway Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Attempted Murder as a love language

I’ve Seen My Future, And You’re It

Before Stevie met Mr. Henderson, a science teacher at her school, her life was simple. She was a teenage boy living in the year 2024 and didn’t care about all this science crap, but not only has she turned into a girl, she’s traveled back in time to the year 1986 and is now stuck there!

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: (Coming after completion of first chapter) Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #futureyoureit Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Genderbend, Brainwashing, Electric Stimulation, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Gaslighting, Feminization

My God Longs For Me

Horror story where Steve was abducted by a cult and meets his future husband, Eddie, only for them to be separated when the police break-up the cult. Years later on a camping trip, Steve's friends begin to be murdered, which somehow has to do with the cult from his past.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: (Coming after completion of first chapter) Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #mygodlongsforme Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Child Abuse, Feminization, Brainwashing, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Ritual Sacrifices, Gore, Mpreg, Body Horror, Monster Fucking

Siren's Call, Sailor's Fall

Lost Boys Au but with mermaids instead of vampires, and the mermaids win.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Masterpost Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #lostmerau Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Hypnosis, Extremely Dubious Consent, Feminization in the Clownfish type of way, Mermaid Transformation, Bad Guys Win

System Hacked

Eddie hacks into Steve's terminal and alters Steve's body and mind to his liking.

Status: Completed Ao3 Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #system hacked Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Mind Manipulation, Brainwashing, Stalking, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Extremely Dubious Consent, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Forced Feminization

Urban Legend

Legend has it that there's a monster that stalks the campus of Hawkins University, who devours those careless enough to wander into its grasp. Not mentioned, however, is that monster is looking for a mate and has set its sights on Steve.

Status: Ongoing Ao3 Link: Click Here Tumblr Tag: #urbanlegend Rating: Explicit Trigger Warnings: Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Mind Manipulation, Brainwashing, Stalking, Obsessive Behavior, Possessive Behavior, Extremely Dubious Consent, Body Modification, Forced Feminization, Additional Warnings In Author's Note

Divider borders by Saradika

[you-cant-fuck-megaman]

king is one of my favorite characters in classic. dude's cool. he's really goddamn cool. he also gets shafted really fucking hard

i made a bit of a fuck-up in the burner man post, originally, joking about how king gaslit him. this was partially a pun off of burnerman being based off bunsen gas-lit burners, and partially a joke based on how fucking horribly both burner man and king got shafted. i was messaged about it and i figured “yeah actually gaslighting is kind of a serious deal and i shouldn’t really go for that angle”, apologized to the messenger, and reworded the joke.

but that joke didn’t come out of nowhere, there’s a REALLY ACTUALLY SUPER FUCKED UP relationship between burner man, king, and dr. wily

king’s entire deal is that, spoiler alert i suppose, wily made him to lead a robot revolution. however, king succeeds too well and wants to make a peaceful robot-nation to the point where wily has to reprogram him again right after programming him.

see, he gets reprogrammed offscreen before the game even fucking begins. wily apparently released a Day 1 Patch just to make EvilBadGuy.bat function. has to rewire his thought processes so that he can lead a revolution under the impression that robot violence will solve robot violence.

now, you might be saying “wait, this is probably referring to when you reach king at the end of king’s tower and he gets reprogrammed”. the kicker is when you eventually reach king at the end of king’s tower and he gets reprogrammed. see, you fight him, and it turns out he’s actually a decent guy! outside of the murders and mass collateral damage and attempted racial segregation. he’s just misguided and thinks that it’s bad for robots to serve humans because

anyway, so wily appears and he says

which means that King was already being brainwashed and now he’s beiNG BRAINWASHED EVEN FURTHER. HIJACKED ONCE AGAIN FOR THE PLAN FOR SUPER ROBOT FIGHTING BUT THIS TIME WE’RE USING 1.21 JIGGAWATTS, MARTY. WHEN THIS BABY HITS 88 MPH, YOU’RE GOING TO SEE SOME SERIOUS SHIT

there’s a lot to take away from Wily destroying his free will to become a blind puppet, when he was about to give up and become a good guy. again.

first off, the fact that he has FUCKING FREE WILL IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!! wily actively suppresses king’s morals again to make sure king does bad stuff properly this time and just erases king’s code_of_honor.sys entirely to make doubly sure, but King actively rebelling against his programming and going his own way demonstrates something which was supposed to be reserved for reploids! king is a brand new species of robot, he’s fucking incredible and powerful, able to do things that shouldn’t actually be possible among the classic roster! or wily is Actually That Goddamn Bad at coding, which probably explains why 90% of “””his””” Robot Masters are stolen but with his signature put on them. maybe he’s a designer more adherent to the aesthetic (look at all those skulls everywhere) while light’s the genius braincoder.

second off, holy shit wily. he’s done emotional manipulation before, he’s done lying before, he’s done a lot of heinous shit, and i’m pretty sure he whizzled in rush’s puppy food before, but forceful mind control of your own children is pretty fucking bad! and it has descended consequences! it continues on with king to burner man. it’s specified that king both actively “takes advantage of” burner man’s trust in him and also the supposed bomb within him to get him to do his bidding.

given the fact that none of the robot masters have dialogue we don’t exactly get to see much of the relationship between burner man and king, but even with the established information of “robot revolution for a peaceful world” + “set fire to a forest every day” + “this will lead to our peaceful world” + “you will die if you do not” + “trust me and I will lead you”, we’re potentially reaching actual gaslighting. i know my entire deal is making mountains out of molehills with regards to character scraps, but it doesn’t take a lot of extrapolation to get to some pretty goddamn dark territory.

and the thing is, why? why write this like this? i can guaran-damn-tee you nobody on bob capcom’s writing team actually thought about the implications of this! they just shrugged and tossed it in to make the bad guy more bad of a guy! but WHY? it’s completely unnecessary! if it’s just a matter of making king into a robot terrorist, he’s already fighting robots with other robots! if it’s a matter of making king seem SUPER evil bad, he’s already proclaimed he hates humans! if it’s a matter of making wily seem worse than super evil bad, he’s already had 8+ games of doing awful shit! given the generally-optimistic tone of the Classic timeline compared to X and Zero, it seems wildly out of character for even someone like wily to do his creation(s) dirty like so. it’s not just completely unnecessary, it’s tonally inconsistent!

i’ve mentioned before that king got a really goddamn raw deal, and he really, really has! this shit kept me up at night as a kid! it still keeps me up sometimes! i could be worrying about my future! my taxes! i could be worrying about fifty other more pertinent things in life! i could be WORRYING ABOUT SHIT THAT MATTERS

but KING DESERVED BETTER GOD DAMN IT

oh yeah and burner man deserves not being lied to i guess

[thegreatyin]

Hey what are your feelings on

1. lae'zel

2. Emperor

lae'zel is actually one of the best companions in the game and everyone who hates her or says she's just mean fundamentally doesn't understand her character. she's literally the nicest girl in the world given her usual environment and upbringing. she essentially has the exact same backstory as shadowheart in that she was raised in a controlling violent cult and has spent most of her life (including the start of the game) brainwashed by that cult into the person she is today. and yet despite it all she is trying her best to help people. she DID NOT have to save you on the nautiloid and she DID NOT have to promise to take you to what she had every reason to believe was a cure-all for the tadpoles and she goes so far as to defend you and the rest of the party to other gith despite her extremely xenophobic society pressuring her around every corner to do otherwise. over the course of the game she literally had her entire way of life and belief system uprooted from top to bottom and she ultimately decides to deal with it by becoming a hero and dedicating her life to saving others from the same situation she was in. her entire character, at its core, is so extremely dedicated to helping other people even at the cost of herself. she has the same trauma and should get the same treatment and sympathy as shadowheart and you guys just don't like her because she's not conventionally attractive and standoffish at the start of the game but when you actually follow her companion quest and/or romance her she is so sweet and trying her best and she is a TOP TIER companion and i am not going to pretend like she isn't.

the emperor is one of my favorite characters in all of bg3. i know i just went off about lae'zel but god the emperor is so good. he is a LIAR. he is a Bastard Capital B In Bold. he is the deceiver trope played straight from the very beginning and you can't trust a word he says and half of act 3 is practically dedicated to proving just how full of shit he is. he is an awful person who presents himself as a savior and a hero but at the first sign of resistance or hesitation he snaps and doubles down his manipulation in an attempt to control and corral the player into doing what he wants. his first reaction to the player turning down/questioning his sex scene in any way is to gaslight and accuse them so he can shift the blame and keep up his veil of heroism. he encourages them to let go of their humanity and turn themself into a cannibalistic monster while constantly swearing it's for the greater good. he literally runs off to join the netherbrain if you free orpheus. ansur was right all along. balduran died the minute that tadpole took over and transformed him into a mindflayer and the emperor is a shell of his former self masquerading around with the same gravitas and veil of kindness he used to have, but it's gone, if it ever existed to begin with. the emperor is a fascinating example of a manipulative piece of shit done right because even the fanbase can't agree wholeheartedly on if he's good or not but if you couldn't tell my money is wholly in the "he fucking sucks guys" camp. as a character i adore him though.

[innerunderrain]

Hello!! Can i have some hcs of yanderes, ayato, childe, zhongli, and diluc if you have time pls? Thank youuu

Warnings: Yandere themes, confinement, abuse of power, infantilizing behaviors, financial manipulation, harassment, verbal abuse, emotional manipulation, brainwashing, instability, constant meltdowns, overbearing behaviours, wrong use of authority, gaslighting.

Sure! Sorry but I'm not really used to writing hcs like this, so if you're interested in specific aus or have any suggestions then you're always welcomed!

Ayato [Manipulative]

In fact, he almost seems to expect you to put up with his bullying. Since Thomas doesn't take any action against him, you shouldn't either. In fact, he's just having a little bit of fun, so why bother troubling him after a long, hard day?

The current head of the Kamisato Clan is well renowned for being cunning and mischievous, always uttering the haughtiest of comments while preserving his customary aristocratic face.

Ayato, who serves as both the Yishro Commissioner and the head of the Kamisato Clan, is an incredibly busy and stressed-out individual. He certainly likes to tease and prod at you, but that doesn't mean he necessarily appreciates it when you retaliate against him.

Furthermore, if you were wedded to him, he would dominate most elements of your life, monitoring and confining your monthly allowances, only permitting you to roam around his estate. Or, if you want, why not come sit and wait in his office while he finishes up some paperwork? After that he can take you for a stroll around Inazuma, you just have to sit and wait patiently for him like a good girl. Just be good, Ayato doesn't indulge in punishing you either so don't act like he actually likes to confine you to your own room.

"Ahead of schedule? Why not stay with me for a little while longer. You have nothing scheduled for the remainder of the day, so there is no need for you, my love, to retire so early."

Childe [Sadistic and Obsessive]

The eleventh of the eleven Fatui Harbingers, who appear to exist purely for himself, always constantly searching for a fight and stirring up trouble. Childe is undoubtedly a sadistic individual who relishes tormenting others, whether it is physically or emotionally. Unfortunately for you, he seems to enjoy tormenting you the most.

He has a tendency to provide you a fleeting moment of happiness and hope before rapidly pulverising it, gloating as he sees your face scrunch in disbelief. He would occasionally leave the doors open, enticing you to leave and flee the house, only to act surprised when you coincidentally ran into him.

Something about you squirming within his arms is just so humorous; it nearly reminded him of the sensation he experiences when he's immersed in a battle. Even though Childe is a credible threat, he likes to claim that he is not a bad person. He genuinely just likes you a lot, a lot, despite appearing to enjoy teasing you. He's the kind of guy who gets hard when he smells your shampoo or would giggle for days if your hands mistakenly brush across his, as in he's completely downbad for you.

Despite his busy schedule, Childe would somehow make time for you, even to go as far as dragging you along with him to other nations, claiming that it's like a partial vacation. You're just cute, how can he simply leave you to slowly withered away in the cold winds of Snezhnaya?

"Aw, don't look at me like that! It's not like I forcibly dragged you through the door or anything, you left according to your own record sweetheart."

Diluc [Overprotective]

Diluc Ragnvindr, Master of the Dawn Winery, is a man who exudes an air of melancholy and exhibits a frigid demeanour toward others. Diluc undergoes the agony of repeatedly losing the people in his life, which leads him to develop a strong subconscious dread that you would someday abandon him too (even if you have never spoken to the man). So what other option is there than breaking into your house late at night and kidnapping you from the comfort of your bed?

If Diluc wanted to choose a more refined path, he would mostly attempt to entice you in the traditional gentlemanly approach, giving you opulent presents all the time and attempting to get to understand you better. If he chooses to go down that route, though, that is.

Diluc is the kind of yandere who, if you oversleep for ten hours, will experience a continual meltdown and summon his doctor, who will try to reassure him that you're fine. He treats you somewhat like an overgrown child by keeping any dangerous objects or anything else that he deems hazardous on the top shelf (to him everything is dangerous).

Most people would certainly anticipate him to be domineering as the proprietor of the Dawn Winery, but he's definitely exceedingly bossy. He was also indecisive, never sure whether he should have let you roam the garden or locked you inside your bedroom to reduce the risk of injury. It's safe to say that attracting Diluc's attention isn't recommended unless you want to continually be pampered and treated like a weak child who is incapable of doing anything on your own. He will have many meltdowns, but he will never intentionally hurt you.

"You should not be so fearful of me, you know that I would never lay a single hand on you. Please, don't back away. I just want to help you."

Zhongli [Possessive]

Zhongli is a very complicated character who has relations to the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and functions as a consultant. Zhongli has been around for more than four thousand years, and his patience is so exceptional that you would prefer to hear him rage and shout at you. However, he never does that; instead, he chooses to drink his scalding tea as you lose it over an absurd proposition, although I think it's appropriate to have a meltdown after being forced to quit your job.

He craves having you in his possession and dominating you; may this be the start of his own degeneration? He simply wanted to be a part of your life to lessen his own loneliness, which didn't appear to fit any of the signs for erosion. Even if Zhongli really wants it, his sense of morality frequently prevails over his desire, causing him to contradict himself. As a result, he would be acting rather normally in your presence and lets you explore Liyue freely.

But over time, he starts to ingratiate himself into your life by being very encouraging and reiterating his own affirmations for you in the hopes that you will gradually come to accept him as who he is. He would make sure to keep you apart from your friends and relatives after he was thoroughly interwoven into your life, putting doubt and distrust into your mind, watching as your paranoia began to come up.

"The need for a part-time job is not a requirement. I recommend you should reevaluate your psychological state rather than embracing this work since as a consultant, I've witnessed so many people sink into complete despair merely because of their employment."

[marshmallowprotection]

You know, Ray's outgoing calls from day 1 till day 4 is... interesting. I don't really put much thoughts back then. I'm just happy that I get to call him and he seems happy as well. But now that I'm replaying the calls, he's really walking on the thin line between obsessing over the MC and caring for them. He keep asking about our game progress, praising us whenever we do as we're told to do, all these talk about paradise and staying there forever... isn't that just Danger Ray in general? -book anon-

You guys do know that i call Ray "Danger Ray" jokingly because I'm trying to affirm that that's actually who Ray is, right? I started doing that years ago to make people start noticing how compulsive, direct, and obsessive Ray can be when it comes to you since a lot of people focus on his kinder traits first and foremost. Yes, Ray is a kind person deep down, but you are the object of his obsession and that fact will not change until you show him what real love looks like and he starts to realize that his fantasy is nothing compared to you.

Yes, Ray can and will do things that will make you blink in confusion as if he wasn't just doting on you five seconds earlier. There's a huge reason why he and Unknown get Assistant Endings. They're the ones who won't hesitate to take you. The key difference between Unknown and Ray is that Ray wants you because he fancies the idea of being a match for you, and Unknown takes you because he can't have loose ends and that's that.

Ray is infatuated with the idea of you for a long time. You are his very reason for breathing and living. He got to pick someone because Rika let him... and he picked someone who made his heart jump. He wants to be yours and he wants you to be his, and this is why you've got the endings like you do where if you deny him, he'll stalk you and take you to Magenta anyway... or if you fail on Day 4, he'll punish you and try to correct you because he's paranoid that you'll leave him for Seven and hate him when all he wanted was your love.

During the Route, Ray learns what love really is... he learns what he never knew. He learns that love isn't just about being obsessed with another person. it's about loving everything about them, supporting them, and trying to be there for them when they need someone. You taught him that love is more than fantasy, and he shoves away those dreams when you make him feel better than revenge. That's why he starts to fight Rika's orders.

He lies about elixir and introducing you the cult. He lies about you as much as he can to ensure that Rika doesn't hurt you like she hurt him before. He may be devoted to Mint Eye, but it's literally because he's been manipulated, brainwashed, and pummeled to be that way. He's had nothing but gaslighting and worse since they dragged him into a dark room and left him there for weeks until he cracked for them. He makes fake elixir to try to protect you. He lies, lies, lies, and lies with the knowledge that if he doesn't lie, you'll be scorned.

He was willing to abandon Mint Eye by the 6th day. When you kissed him, he actually started to think about leaving... the manipulation was still burning inside of him, and he was afraid, but if Rika hadn't had a believer watching Ray, there's a strong chance that you could've had a chance to get him out of there... even if Suit Saeran had a chance to break out... I still believe that if Rika hadn't seen that, Ray was on the right track to being willing to run.

He would've done it to protect you... even if he was afraid of the world and everything in it. Now, this seems wild because the game has to be written within a short time period, but realistically, if this was the situation happening over a few months, it would make sense that you could break through to Ray through the manipulation after trial and error!

But, yes, Ray is not innocent. Ray will do bad things sometimes with no fear. Look at V Route, even if he couldn't bring himself to be the one to destroy V completely, he still drugged him with elixir and did not let up for a second until the shame caught him. Even if Ray is a tender heart, he will not hesitate for revenge or the fear of losing you to them.

Here's a BRE for example from V’s Route where you don’t commit enough to the situation and Rika gets bored with you, so she decides that she’ll let Ray keep you since there’s some use in you to use against the RFA... she just doesn’t care that much if you’re not invested in V like she needs you to be for things to be able to progress the story. 

And there's the Day 4 Ending where you don’t get assigned any Route and he comes into the room to fix you since he’s paranoid you played Seven’s game and are now tainted with lies.

And then Prologue where you deny him but never call the police, so he stalks you for weeks and then takes you once he knows that he can be sure that no person can stop him from taking you. Let it be known that Rika might not even know he did this.

I’ve got more examples of this but you guys should really play more of the Bad Endings and Bad Relationship Endings in Another Story, even without those, it’s very abundantly clear that Ray will not hesitate.

[hansoeii]

The way yall take mobius' good cop bad cop routine with subsequent gaslighting and imprisonment in an effort to break Loki down and get him to comply and somehow turn it into "someone who has loved you romantically (even though the creators described their relationship ultimately as being paternal) all your life" and "the healthiest and most compelling relationship he could ever have" makes me really concerned about what you people think qualifies as romantic. Truly olympic-level mental gymnastics yall are doing

Alright anon, you good? Feel free to see it that way, but this makes me believe that we didn't watch the same show.

You make this sound like some kind of R rated HBO series.

Mobius was doing his job, he was brainwashed by the TVA. Loki was his variant and he treated him the way the TVA wants him to treat variants. He still did it with much more kindness than other workers did. They all wanted Loki pruned, only Mobius didn't. He saved him. He saw him as a person. When Hunter B-15 called him a "cosmic mistake", Mobius immediately said "that's enough". He cares about Loki. He doesn't want him to comply or gaslight him. He just genuinely cares about this guy and wants to give him another chance, cos he sees so much potential in Loki. He tells him in episode one right away that he knows he's smart, that he doesn't see Loki as a villain. How can you possibly see this as gaslighting him? He just gives Loki the nudge he needed. Loki was genuinely happy around Mobius. Mobius gave up the TVA for him! The TVA was his entire life, but he gave all that up for Loki.

Mobius was the first person to show genuine kindness to Loki. He praised him and complimented him. Something Loki has never encountered before. That's what made Loki grow attached to Mobius, he wasn't manipulated into that. Yes, Mobius wanted Loki to help him find the variant, but Loki becoming Mobius' friend wasn't part of the initial plan. That happened naturally. Their whole relationship grew naturally and it's beautiful.

Mobius brought love and trust into Loki's life while Loki brought excitement and truth into Mobius'. It's beautiful and very romantic. Their dynamic is wonderful.

Maybe be a little nicer next time, anon! ;)

[popanalysis99]

Women abusing men in pop culture: Why is it taken so lightly?

We all know how horrible it is when us women are physically, emotionally and mentally abused by men. But when a man suffers the same with the woman being an abuser, why is it taken lightly and brushed off? 

For many years, domestic violence has mostly focused on women as the victims and men as the perpetrators. If the domestic violence case involves a man as the victim, it goes unnoticed because men refuse to report it otherwise they will be embarrased, ridiculed or mocked for their struggles. 

Men who report domestic abuse will face a social stigma regarding their lack of machismo and other denigrations of their masculinity. And not just that, they end up being accused of abusing the woman they are in relationship with or they are forced to be separated from their kids if they want to leave their abusive wives.

When men are expected to take responsibility for their actions, no excuses are accepted, but when the women are the perpetrators of the abuse, they are given the excuses such as: stress, menopause etc. 

Why can’t men report abuse?

There are many reasons as to why men can’t file a domestic violence case against their abusers which are:

Fear of not being believed

Fear of not being able to see their kids

Fear of being accused for the abuse due to society prejudices

Fear of revenge by the abuser

Fear of the abuser making fake allegations against him in order to look more innocent.

Fear of being left homeless

There are even long lasting effects of the victims of female-on-male abuse which are:

Low self-esteem

Anger

Depression

Anxiety

Loneliness

Sleeping Problems

Substance Abuse

When Domestic Abuse against Men is brushed off in the media.

There have been countless depictions of domestic abuse in the media, with both female and male victims. But when it’s the female victim, it’s a serious matter, but when it’s a male victim, either people laugh at it or treat it as justifiable or treat the female abuser as some sort of a “ feminist girlboss”.

Mostly in Anime when a female character abuses a man, it’s treated as comedy. Most of the scenarios involve them accidentally walking in on them changing or accidentally crashing into their bodies unintentionally and then they get beaten up for it and are falsely accused of being a “pervert”. The anime Baka To Test To Shokanjuu perfectly sums this up when the lead female characters bullies and humiliates the main male characters. Minami and Shouko are the biggest examples when they are shown physically abusing their boyfriends for smallest mistakes they make.

This happens a lot in TV shows as well, mostly in comedies. Like in Two and a Half Men, which sends a toxic message that “men will be men”, it also shows that Judith is a much bigger bastard like them, possibly a sociopath. She divorces Alan out of boredom, then proceeds to financially and mentally abuse him for sadistic pleasure and frames him for being a horrible father to Jake. She hates it whenever Alan shows a bit of independence and goes out of her way to make sure he will be miserable forever. She does it again with her new husband Herb, who is only flaw is being nice to everyone around him and still misuses his trust and uses him as her personal punching bag. Honestly, I wished the show would’ve ended with her ending up alone and homeless for everything she did.

Another example of this was in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Before there was Amy Dunne from Gone Girl, there was Janet. when Will begins dating his friend Jazz’s sister and while they are at a restaurant, she drops her sweet facade to reveal herself as a tyrannical sociopath who controls Will based on what he eats, where will he go to college and what will he do with his life. When he tells Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv, they brush it off. But one day when Carlton tells her off about what a horrible human being she is, she immediately becomes polite and drawn to him. So the message that they showed here is that it’s the guy’s fault if they don’t stand up for themselves, while his controlling girlfriend gets away with irreversibly ruining the lives of almost everyone who didn’t meet her expectations.

A bigger example of female-on-male abuse in dramatic shows was in the series Mr. Robot.

In the series, Angela Moss is the best friend/crush of the protagonist Elliot Alderson. Her only goal in life is to get justice for her mother’s death at the hands of E Corp and become the most powerful woman in the world. While it’s understandable that she is stuck in a male-dominated workplace and how the E Corp CTO and her ex-boyfriend treated her badly, she begins to misuse her victim mentality and ends up getting brainwashed by Whiterose. She then begins to psychologically abuse and gaslight Elliot in order to complete Stage 2 and not just that, she even emotionally abuses him when he finds out and plays the victim in this entire debacle, she sees not listening to Elliot and Darlene when he tries to warn her about the Stage 2 bombings as her personal “feminist” moment. And then weeks after the attack, due to her clinging onto her beliefs about Whiterose’s machine, she begins to blame Elliot for manipulating her into telling him about Whiterose’s plan when she herself was the one doing the same thing to him. While Whiterose’s manipulation was mostly the main reason for this, another part of it was probably because she was jealous of how Elliot was the “chosen one” in taking down E Corp and wanted to punish him for it and take over the mantle.

Most of the fans saw her actions as “sympathetic” and “justifiable”, with some of them calling her treatment of Elliot, who was nothing but kind to her the entire time, a “feminist girlboss move” and overlooked the fact that she psychologically tortured Elliot and reminded him that he was worthless and nobody was going to love him, not even Angela herself. Even if there were some fans who called her out for doing this and pointed out how horrible it was, others would brush their opinions off as “misogynistic” and “sexist” because “they apparently don’t like seeing a powerful corporate woman.”

Angela even kinda represented a privileged white feminist who believed that she was the only one struggling with issues and had bigger problems than anyone else, overlooking the fact that her friends that were on the lower position than her and brushed them off because her issues were more traumatic than theirs.

It even further showed a lot of double standard of Angela and Elliot manipulating someone to do their job. While both actions were horrible, Elliot got a lot of hate and scrutiny for blackmailing Olivia and drugging her coffee with the drugs she tried to stay clean from, calling it as something he “crossed a line in”. But when Angela almost did the same thing with him and drugged him as well, it was treated as “sympathetic” and “heroic” by the fans and treated her as some sort of a “feminist” for it, overlooking the fact that she was abusing a man to the point he almost lost his self esteem. At some point I even saw someone say that Angela did “nothing wrong” at all and didn’t like how Elliot was in season 3, was it because he was trying to stop her from going through with an attack that could kill thousands? Did they expect him to stay silent, not stand up for himself and let Angela stomp him a lot?

Conclusion

Abuse is something which is extremely serious, whether it’s a female or male victim. Like the female victims, men too deserve to have their voices heard and taken seriously if something terrible happens to them and we should believe them. 

Here are the helpine numbers if you or someone you know is facing domestic abuse:

Central Social Welfare Board -Police Helpline - 1091/ 1291, (011) 23317004

SAARTHAK - (011) 26853846/ 26524061

Nirmal Niketan - (011) 27859158

National Domestic Violence Hotline - 1.800.799.SAFE 

National Domestic Abuse Helpline - 0808 2000 247

[gch1995]

I’m 25 going on 26 now, and I grew up loving the classic Powerpuff Girls cartoon series when I was a kid. Even now when I rewatch it as an adult, it’s still a cute and funny cartoon, especially now that I’m old enough to recognize all of the adult jokes. Like, there’s no way it was a coincidence that Professor Utonium’s despicably dishonest, greedy, lazy, manipulative, selfish, and sleazy former roommate from college was given the name Professor Dick Hardly by accident.

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup actually are pretty relatable little girls who have believable flaws and insecurities. They make believable bad choices for little girls. Those issues actually get dealt with seriously, rather than just being brushed aside as no big deal with no negative consequences. They are still endearing and sympathetic in spite of their flaws.

While he had a few OOC moments of bad parenting in some bad episodes here and there, generally speaking, Professor Utonium from the classic Powerpuff Girls is actually one of the best dads in cartoons that I’ve ever seen, which is sadly pretty rare in most cartoon sitcoms, even the ones that are actually aimed at a children audience.

Most cartoon dads are abusive, lazy, neglectful, selfish, and stupid oafs. Granted, those type of dads in cartoon sitcoms can actually be entertaining and funny to watch when they are actually being well-written as shitty and slow-witted, but still essentially well-meaning people in regards to their families, such as S1-S8 Homer Simpson from The Simpsons and even S1-S3 Peter Griffin from Family Guy. However, the entertainment quality of those shitty, but well-meaning cartoon dads was mostly lost when the writers flanderdized their negative traits to the point of making Homer and especially Peter downright despicable with little to no redeeming or sympathetic qualities much of the time anymore. They went from being shitty, but essentially well-meaning parents and husbands to downright bratty and spoiled man-children who were much more intentionally abusive, childish, cruel, neglectful, petty, and selfish in regards to their families and others around them with little to no sympathetic or redeeming qualities much of the time anymore, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why The Simpsons went downhill in quality after S8, and why Family Guy went downhill in quality after S3.

Nonetheless, even as they were originally written on their shows pre-flanderdization when they were still well-meaning, but misguided parents and spouses, cartoon dads like Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin, weren’t good dads on the whole. There were still plenty of recurring plot lines and/or gags of them being abusive, lazy, neglectful, reckless, and selfish. Back in early seasons pre-flanderdization, it was more forgivable, though, because they also still had their fair share of kind and selfless moments with their families, and their shittiness as parents wasn’t intentionally abusive, malicious, premeditated, and selfish in nature, which balanced them out enough to still be entertaining and likable characters in spite of their flaws.

Realistically speaking, though, dads like Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson would be better off having their kids taken away from them by CPS. Their good qualities and lack of malicious intent, particularly in earlier seasons pre-flanderdization, would still not hold up as legitimate excuse as to why they should be allowed to keep their kids. Bart would have bruises all over his neck, fractures in his neck, and he could possibly be killed if Homer strangled him hard enough to actually break his neck and/or cut off his air supply long enough in real life just once. Meg, Chris, and even Stewie would not only be injured, but actually outright killed in real life from some of the abuse and neglect that Peter and Lois put them through in later seasons of FG. All of these kids, especially Meg, would have serious self-esteem issues for the rest of their lives because Peter, Lois’, and Homer’s abuse and neglect of their kids went beyond just a pattern of being physical in nature, but emotionally and verbally abusive as well.

So yeah, Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson are really not good fathers who you’d ever want to deal with for a parent in real life, even pre-flanderdization. The major reoccurrence of the abusive, bumbling, idiotic, lazy, drunken, neglectful, and selfish dad trope in cartoon sitcoms is exactly why I really love Professor Utonium from the classic PPG cartoon. I don’t necessarily mind it in absurdist cartoon sitcoms when it’s done well as a trope, but I’m also getting tired of mostly just seeing bad and stupid dads in cartoon sitcoms, and not enough good ones.

For the most part, the OG Professor Utonium is a great dad who goes above and beyond to make sure Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup are happy, healthy, disciplined, and safe. He’s usually the parent most of us wish we could have in real life, if we don’t already. It’s refreshing to actually see a good dad in an animated sitcom for once.

Professor Utonium in the classic PPG cartoon is generally a very kind, loving, selfless, and supportive dad to girls. However, he also knows when he has to discipline them and be strict without ever being mean about it. He gives them good advice. He’s very selfless, and even though the girls are superheroes with superhuman abilities, he’ll still risk and/or sacrifice anything to protect them when they’re unable to protect themselves with their powers, including his own life. He didn’t need to be the stereotypical cartoon sitcom abusive, bumbling, dumb, and neglectful dad in order to be funny either. He was funny because he could sometimes be overprotective of the girls, and he could sometimes embarrass them by calling them sickly sweet terms of endearment and telling embarrassing stories that he shouldn’t have about them in public. He was socially awkward. These are relatable flaws in parents that even the best ones have.

While the girls don’t have a mother, Ms. Bellum and Ms. Keane were very brave, kind, and intelligent strong women who were good role models.

Also, the Professor did many activities with the girls and chores around the house that get gender-coded as “mother’s work.” Some of these things include begrudgingly playing dress up as Bubbles to make her happy when she was playing PowerPuff Girls with Buttercup and Blossom on a rainy day inside of no crime when he saw that she was upset that no one wanted to be her, cooking, cleaning, and actually sitting down to talk with the girls, listen to them, emotionally support them, and give them advice. He’s also not afraid to be openly affectionate, doting, and emotional with the girls. There’s just not enough good dads in cartoon sitcoms, which is why I really like Professor Utonium from the OG PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie. He mostly defied all the bad dad stereotypes, and was a really great one to the girls more often than not.

The main villains from the classic PowerPuff Girls cartoon are incredibly entertaining, especially MoJo JoJo. Him was always the creepiest to me because he was the most devious, insidious, and manipulative one. All of the psychological abuse and manipulation he put the girls and Townsville through was always the scariest to me when I was a kid because out of all the villains on the show, the torment that he wreaked upon the girls and Townsville by brainwashing them, gaslighting them, and/or exploiting their fears and insecurities often was played as dead serious with really scary results, especially in early seasons of classic PPG. While Him had a few human moments here and there, for the most part, he was pretty consistently played off as being seriously scary and dangerous.

MoJo JoJo was an egomaniacal asshole hellbent on destroying the PowerPuff Girls and world domination, and on a few occasions, he actually came close to succeeding. On a few occasions, he genuinely was more scary than camp evil. But he still had a lot of humorous, human, fallible, and relatable moments, too. My favorite MoJo moments are the ones where he is making jokes, irritably going grocery shopping to get eggs, getting too frustrated by the girls antics and childish behaviors and reactions to actually go through with his plans to destroy them at certain points, and getting angry and jealous enough to actually destroy the alien/robot invader from another planet who was destroying Townsville in all the evil ways that he always wanted to himself. He was highly intelligent at coming up with clever schemes and inventions with all his science and technology to take over the world, destroy Townsville, and/or destroy the PowerPuff Girls. However, his arrogance, impatience, and impulsivity always doomed him to fail to succeed in the end, though he did come pretty close on a few occasions, especially in the 2002 prequel origin story movie, and he did actually get to rule the world in “The PowerPuff Girls Rule the World!” Surprisingly, he actually was a kindhearted ruler who did good things, but then he gave it all up and went back to being evil because he got bored.

Originally, MoJo was a well-intentioned extremist who wanted to create a utopia ruled by primates where they would never be controlled or rejected by humans again. As much as Professor Utonium’s irritation with JoJo for being a destructive chimp lab assistant was completely justified, it’s also hard not to feel kind of sorry for Mojo Jojo and understand where he’s coming from in his motivations to become evil, particularly in the 2002 prequel movie because originally all he really wanted was to be loved by his owner, too. He understandably felt rejected when Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup became the center of his universe instead. Of course, that doesn’t excuse him for choosing to respond to the Professor’s rejection by becoming an arrogant, evil, cruel, hateful, hypocritical, domineering, manipulative, petty, selfish, and vengeful villain going on a quest for world domination, attempting to commit homicide several times, probably committing voluntary manslaughter of citizens several times that we didn’t see on screen when destroying Townsville all those times, turning the rest of the world into dogs to try to take over the world, and trying to destroy the girls. However, you understand why Mojo became the villain he did with his backstory. He’s relatable. Occasionally, he does have some genuinely sympathetic moments where he’s actually willing to be friendly with the girls, team up with them, and do the right thing.

HIM was just the personification of evil for no other reason than the fact that he was satan. While MoJo was a complex, human, and relatable anti-villain with his origin story as the Professor’s lab chimp, who gained genius-level human intellect from having Chemical X splashed on his brain, and then chose to become evil after feeling rejected by the Professor when he saw how he pretty much forget about him once the girls became the center of his universe instead, HIM was evil, manipulative, and hateful for no other reason than the fact that those traits were a part of his nature as the very embodiment of evil. Many times, a fictional villain being portrayed as one-dimensional with no sympathetic qualities or relatable motivations will annoy me, but with HIM being evil just because that’s who he is, it actually works because he is literally Satan. There doesn’t need to be a deeper sympathetic story behind why he is evil. Committing crimes, wreaking havoc, corrupting people, manipulating people, turning people against others, exploiting the fears of others, and deceiving others for his own amusement is just who he is, and in the early seasons of classic PPG in particular, that made him really scary to me when I was a six year old little girl watching the cartoon on TV.

You get the idea...The classic PowerPuff Girls was a fantastic cartoon, particularly the first four seasons. Granted, there was some series seasonal rot going on in the writing in S5 and S6 after the 2002 prequel movie, and Craig Mcracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure from the crew. Like, the characterizations of the characters and/or storylines in S5 and S6 felt comparably flanderdized, ooc, immature, inconsistent, pointless, shallow, and underwhelming at certain times to fit the plot, such as in the episodes “Keen on Keane,” “Pee Pee G’s,” “Seed No Evil,” “Reeking Havoc,” “Toast of the Town,” “Say Uncle,” “City of Clipsville,” “”Bubble Boy,” A Made Up Story,” “Mo’linguish,” and “Simian Says.” Even the good episodes of S5-S6 still didn’t ever reach the same level of greatness of the ones from S1-S4. However, the seasonal rot in the classic PPG cartoon of S5-S6 after Craig McCracken and Gennedy Tartakovsky’s departure still wasn’t nearly as bad as the seasonal rot on The Simpsons after S8, Family Guy after S3, and SpongeBob SquarePants post S3–S4 ish, so I’m still willing to consider most of S5-S6 of classic PPG legit canon.

However, it sounds like the 2016 PPG reboot fucked up everything that was originally good about it to go for a more slapstick comedic feel without substance without consistency, depth, and intelligence. Now, I hear that the CW is making a live-action TV show spin-off of the PowerPuff Girls being jaded and resentful young women who’ve given up crime fighting as result! No, no, no! Why? Why does the CW keep making dark, nitty, and gritty live action teen soap operas out of beloved childhood cartoons?

Yeah, the original PowerPuff Girls cartoon and movie had dark moments. The girls could be bratty and make bad choices sometimes. However, it was still very much a fun show about normal little girls born with superpowers, which they chose to use to defend their father, their city, and on some occasions, the whole world, from crime. No one ultimately forced them to be superheroes for everyone in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. They chose to do it because they had brave and selfless hearts. There was ultimately no obligation for them to be superheroes in the classic PPG cartoon and movie. Sure, they got tired of fighting crime at times, but they still ultimately enjoyed doing it when push came to shove. They weren’t weighed down by the darkness of the world, hatred, and resentment. They still were relatively normal little girls with happy, peaceful, and normal lives of little girls whenever they weren’t fighting crime after the events of the prequel movie about their origins. That’s what made the PowerPuff Girls classic cartoon so special.

By turning Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup into jaded young women, who have given up on being superheroes because they’ve grown resentful of “losing the normal childhood to crime fighting” that they basically are shown to have in the original series for the most part in their spare time aside from having superpowers that they chose to use to fight crime to defend their dad and Townsville from, anyway, where is the fun in that?

[animeyanderelover]

Here’s my next post. This time about Noah’s Arc Circus. I tried to make it with all of the members, but some of them were a bit harder to write.I’m sorry that some Hc’s are shorter than others. I still had fun though.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, delusions, paranoia, stalking, clinginess, manipulation, gaslighting, mentions of kidnapping, mentions of killing

Yandere Noah’s Arc Circus Hc’s

Jumbo

💪I started with the members who are harder for me to write. Jumbo is one of the most responsible in the group, in my opinion at least. That’s why I think he’s an aware Yandere, he knows his feelings aren’t normal.

💪Also the overprotective type, he saw some bad stuff in his past and swore to himself that nothing should ever harm his darling.

💪He has patience with others and can hold on for quite some time. But everyone has it‘s limits and so has he. His appearance is pretty intimidating and when someone gets too close to the s/o for his liking he’ll tower over them with a very scary look on his face. That’s enough to make everyone shiver in fear.

💪He’s on the more hesitant side to kill people for his darling. He already doesn’t like the fact that he has to kill for Baron Kelvin and then again, he knows his feelings aren’t normal. But when someone seriously harms his darling he looses it. This guy has some strength and will most likely beat the person up until they’re dead. But even then he’ll feel guilty about going as far as ending a human’s life for the s/o and will apologize to the corpse.

💪This depends on whether you’re a member from the circus or not. If you are then this guy has no need to worry about this and will spend nearly all of his free time with helping you with your training. If you aren’t then Jumbo will have a hard time on arguing with himself if he should do it or not. But if something terrible happens to you this will be a trigger event for him and he’ll take the s/o with him. He’ll give you freedom to walk around the place the circus stays and be more tolerant with his darling because he knows what he did was wrong. This guy will at least apologize to the s/o once a day for his behavior.

💪Overall a very tame Yandere who is really trying his best to make you as happy as he can.

Wendy & Peter

🤸‍♀️Since they’re nearly always together I decided to put them together. Both of them possess very different types. Wendy is a clingy and lovestruck Yandere who loves to be by her darling’s side and is absolutely adoring her s/o. This girl is almost like a lovesick puppy, ready to fulfill her darling’s every wish possible.

🤸‍♀️Peter is a more harsh, strict and possessive Yandere. He’s ready to use more force on them, always willing to insult and/or hurt them when necessary. He also expects his darling to behave well, wanting them to only look at him ( and Wendy). Peter was never able to have anything he wished for in his life. This time it’ll be different!

🤸‍♀️Both of them get jealous easily, but the way they act on it is different. Wendy will clinge onto the s/o’s side whining and pouting for attention. Peter’s reaction is worse. First of all he’ll yell at whoever made him jealous, after that he’ll grab his darling harshly and drag them somewhere more privately and then starts throwing a tantrum. If he’s angry enough he might even slap you.

🤸‍♀️The point of killing is often discussed between both of them and both of them have different opinions on it. Wendy already hates killing for Baron Kelvin and is very unsure about killing others. Peter is more determined when it comes to killing people for you. But without Wendy he has troubles killing so he needs to convince her first which is really hard. Only when someone hurts or tries to take their s/o away from them she’s willing to kill someone.

🤸‍♀️If you’re a member of the circus then there won’t be that much troubles. Wendy will just clinge constantly to her darling’s side and Peter will demand from the s/o to spend very much time with him. If you aren’t a member then again Peter will have to have a long discussion with Wendy, but in this situation it’ll be easier for him to talk her into it since Wendy loves you so much. As soon as they have you it’s a pure chaos! Wendy wants to take their s/o out, but Peter doesn’t and wants to lock the s/o in one of the circus wagons. Both of them have very different opinions about how to treat their darling and whenever one of them makes sure that you’re treated accordingly to their opinion the other one will somehow force you to do it the other way around.

🤸‍♀️These two balance each other pretty well out. Peter makes sure that Wendy doesn’t go too easy on you and that you get punishments and Wendy makes sure that Peter doesn’t go too harsh on you and that you aren’t the whole day locked inside the wagon. If we go individually with them Wendy is a more harmless one and Peter is one of the worse ones since he often lashes out on you and might even slap you.

Doll

❣️Doll is a lovestruck, delusional and desperate Yandere. She grew up under terrible conditions and in her eyes her darling is some kind of angel. This girl is head over heels for the s/o and would do everything to make them happy. Her parents never really showed her much love so please give her as much as possible!

❣️Also a very clingy one. You can bet that she’ll always pop up wherever you are. Also a very touchstarved one, enjoying any kind of physical contact with her darling. Doesn’t matter if it’s hugging, holding hands or anything other than this. Give her some sort of physical affection and this girl will feel like she’s in heaven.

❣️Doll gets jealous easily and will glare at anyone who takes her darling’s attention away from her. But she doesn’t want you to find out so she just taps you on your shoulder and ask you with the brightest grin possible if you would like to do something with her.

❣️Killing is an absolute no for her. She can barely bring herself to kill people for Baron Kelvin and even though she sometimes has dark thoughts when it comes to her darling she just can’t bring herself to take more lifes than she already does. The furthest she is willing to go is hurting someone pretty badly, but only in extreme cases where her darling gets heavily hurt.

❣️If her s/o is part of the circus she makes sure that Joker assignes her and her darling for the same tent. If the s/o isn’t part of the circus this girl would have the hardest time of her life. She doesn’t want to kidnap them and risk the chance of involving them into the terrible activities her and the others do. So she starts thinking about just staying by her darling’s side. But she loves the other troupe members! But she also loves you... This poor girl will have the hardest time ever before finally making a decision.

❣️Doll is such a sweetheart for you. This girl is almost brainwashed for you and is ready to do whatever you ask her to. She’s very gullible what makes her easy to manipulate. I believe you’re able to have an almost normal relationship with her because she has an unique charm to her. All she really wants is your love.

Beast

🐅Beast strikes me as an overprotective and lovestruck Yandere. The moment she saw you for the first time she suddenly forgot all about Joker. Who’s Joker even compared to her lovely darling? It was like love at first sight even though she doesn’t believe in that. She knows how cruel this world is and how much it can damage people. That’s why she’s terrified that something might happen to her darling and always hovers over them, no matter what they’re doing.

🐅I think she’s also a manipulative type. She’ll tell her darling everything about her past, making them feel sorry for her like this. She’ll bring up the “terrible past card” when the s/o is about to leave her. She’s a great actor and can turn from an all though performer to a crying woman in only a few seconds, guilt tripping her s/o and making them stay with her whilst trying to comfort her. I can also imagine her as a desperate one, after all Joker never requited her love and she never really had someone who gave her the love she always wanted and needed.

🐅Beast has a pretty bad temper and that affects her jealousy. It’s truly a scary sight when this girl storms to whoever is talking to her darling with a dark look on her face and a whip in her hands. She’ll yell at the person, asking them why they don’t train on their performance whilst raising her whip threateningly.

🐅She doesn’t like killing very much, but if it comes to you she’s willing to change that. But she only kills a person when they pushed their luck too much, for example constantly trying to take the s/o away from her or even worse, hurting her darling. Then this person has a angry whip swinging woman with a wild tiger after them.

🐅Beast would never kidnap her darling. Much more the contrary, I can totally see her running away with her darling from the circus. If the s/o is a circus member themself and doesn’t want to leave she’ll tell them the true intention of the circus, but will make it sound like she’s a victim and was forced to take part in it. She’s a very good liar. After she’s convinced her darling she’ll make sure to run away with them as far as possible from the circus where both of them can start a happy life together. Of course she loves the members of the circus, but she loves her darling more.

🐅Beast is manipulative and will trick you into thinking that she hadn’t anything to do with all the kidnapping and killing. She uses her lies to make you stay with her for all of your life, but overall she’s a very nice and loving Yandere.

Dagger

🔪Lovestruck, obsessed and delusional, that’s all I have to say about this guy. He thinks both of you were born to be together and this boy can’t get enough of you. Beast is already forgotten the moment he layed his eyes on his darling. He makes sure to ask the s/o as many questions as possible. What’s their favorite color? What’s their favorite food? Are they in a relationship with anyone? What’s their ideal type? He wants to know everything!

🔪He’s also a clingy one as well as a worshipper. This guy won’t give the s/o any space to breathe and as soon as he isn’t near his darling he’ll freak out. For him his darling is the most beautiful and perfect creature that has ever wandered on this planet. He’ll compliment his darling about everything they do and as soon as someone even dares to say something against the s/o this guy will start throwing a fit. Also a very desperate guy, he needs your affection and love or else he’ll go insane.

🔪No one should dare to even look at his darling. He’s delusional and believes that the darling was simply born to be his and that he should be the only one who looks at them. He also believes that everyone wants to take them away from him. But he won’t let that happen! NEVER! Even the other members know to not come anywhere near the s/o if they don’t want a knife in their skull.

🔪He doesn’t kill! He just protects the s/o from anyone who wants to harm them or wants to take them away from him. There are so many bad people in the world and he just wants to make sure that his darling is safe. That is something completely different, right? In other words, Dagger is willing to leave quite the mess behind.

🔪In this point I think he would be similar to Beast, but for very different reasons. He’s something that’s even worse than paranoid. It doesn’t matter if the s/o is a circus member or not, his delusions make him believe that everyone wants his s/o for theirself. At some point he couldn’t take it anymore and dragged them to some place where no one else could see them.

🔪Delusional Yanderes are always dangerous because they believe that every horrific thing they do is okay because it’s for their darling’s protection. Dagger will handcuff you to the bed if you try to escape and will cuddle you like there’s nothing wrong with it! At least he would never hurt you, but still. The worst is that he always tells you about who he killed, wanting you to know that he’s your knight in shining armor when in reality this terrifies you even more. If you ever tell him how much you hate him he’ll start crying rivers.

Joker

🤡Joker is the aware type of Yandere, he knows that these strong feelings he holds for the s/o aren’t healthy in the least bit. Also a possessive one, he treasures his darling so much and they’re like the only light in his dark life. There’s no way he’ll lose the only good thing in his life.

🤡Also the manipulative type. As the leader of the circus he has definitely his way with words to pull someone in and he uses this on his s/o. He lures them to him and makes sure that they stay with him. I think of him as a desperate one too. Most of the times he’s very composed and calm, but there are these moments when he has a small breakdown and that’s when he needs his darling’s love the most.

🤡As mentioned above he is calm and composed and as the leader of the circus he’s careful that no one will get suspicious of him or the circus. But everyone has his limits and so does he. But even then he’s careful with his way of acting. He would most likely use his manipulations on the s/o to entice them away from the other person.

🤡With killing he’s careful as well, always worried that someone might find out. But when someone possesses a threat for his relationship with the s/o he’ll definitely starts planning on how to get rid of them without leaving any traces that will lead to him or the circus. He already killed people before so it doesn’t really matter if he kills some more for his darling’s sake. That’s at least what he thinks.

🤡Joker will kidnap the s/o. Here again he thinks that he already has done some bad stuff and kidnapping the darling and making sure that they can never leave him isn’t the worst sin he has committed in his life. He makes sure that one of the first-string members is always watching them. Some of them feel visibly sorry for the s/o, but they know what awaites them when they try to help Joker’s darling escape. Joker made sure that all of them know what happens to them then.

🤡Joker is one of the worse ones from this list. His possessiveness over you is already bad enough, but the biggest problem are his manipulative words in which he wraps you constantly up. It’s like you’re a moth that tries to refuse his lies that are like a bright burning fire. You’ll often break down in tears since he messes with your mind, starting to question what’s the truth and what’s a lie, what’s wrong and what’s right. When you’re in such a state Joker makes sure to embrace you with open arms whilst whispering sweet nothings in your ear, luring you even deeper into his trap.

Snake

⚕️Snake is the lovestruck and desperate type. He was never really loved by anyone, always seen as a freak because of his scales and his abilities. He never experienced love before, but whenever he’s near his darling his whole body tingles and he has this warm and nice feeling in his chest. Is that love? In his eyes his darling is pure perfection and even though he’s pretty shy around them he still yearns for some kind of affection from them. If they compliment him about his looks this guy will float on cloud nine for the rest of the whole day.

⚕️Snake is also overprotective, obessed and a stalker. He’s as mentioned very timid near his darling and prefers to watch them from the distance or to be specific, his snakes always watch over them. Like this he can also make sure that no one can harm them. His snakes will follow you everywhere you go and by the end of the day they’ll report to him, letting him know everything the s/o did that day. They also bring him often things from the darling which he treasures very much. He’ll build a shrine with the things from his darling. I wouldn’t recommend to write your thoughts or your daily routine in a diary because his snakes will steal that as well.

⚕️He’s self-conscious about himself and whenever the s/o has a good time with someone else this will increase even more. He doesn’t really want to kill, but some of his snakes think differently about this and try to talk him into letting them kill the person. I would even go as far as saying that even if he doesn’t agree with them they’ll remove the person secretly without him knowing. The snakes care deeply for him and want him to be happy and no one is allowed to take his precious darling away from Snake!

⚕️The only times when he actually agrees with his snakes to let them kill someone is when a person hurt you. That’s the only time he allows them to kill someone and you can bet that the snakes make sure that the person will die a more than agonizing death.

⚕️He doesn’t really want to kidnap his darling, but his snakes think differently. Their master deserves to be happy as well! So even if he disagrees with them they’ll make sure to kidnap the s/o. Even if Snake demands to set the darling free they’ll use manipulation on him. It’s only a question of time until the hey have convinced him. The only scenario where he agrees to keep his darling with him is when they get really badly hurt and he couldn’t protect them. This realization that he can’t protect them always breaks this man’s heart and that’s when he allows the snakes to kidnap you.

⚕️He isn’t such a bad Yandere, the problem here are his snakes who often try to talk him into things. They always watch you and if you are scared of snakes this will be a living nightmare for you. But Snake himself is such a sweetheart to you, often to shy to even look at the beautiful you. Give him love and this guy will be the happiest man on the whole world.

[silentfcknhill]

AtLA + LoK Villains Evilness Rating

(If you wanna dispute my ratings I’ll be happy to tell you why.)

ATLA:

Ty Lee - 0.5 /10

Cinnamon roll. Too pure for this world. Naïve and will put her faith in you 100%. Kind of ditzy but can take you down with no hard feelings. Needs to be liked by everyone. Is very flexible. Can strangle you with her legs and giggle while doing it. Chooses bad friends. Has frustratingly good luck. 

Uncle Iroh- 1/10

Actual angel but could still open up a can of whoop-ass if necessary. Too supportive and forgiving. Loves tea, sitting around, speaking in proverbs and leading by example. Probably considers you a friend. Surprisingly powerful but mostly peaceful. Hard to provoke but if you do, just run. Fear the nice ones. 

Jet- 3/10

Misguided and extreme but also traumatized. Don't get in his way. Kind of twisted and obsessive af. Ends justify the means, until they don't. Needs a proper role model and has potential. Can be unreasonable and is still kind of a jerk. Will gaslight you. 

Prince Zuko- 3.5/10

Conflicted, violent and angsty but mostly needs a lot of reassurance. Has a major boner for his honor. Will freak out over nothing. Has been through a lot and will not be underestimated. Grumpy and willful af and won't listen to you until it's too late, then will blame you for misleading him. 

June- 4/10 

Might beat you up or kidnap you for money but it's nothing personal. Might insult you as a way of flirting. Looks pretty and delicate but don't be fooled. Can beat you up in a split second and not break a sweat. Will probably take all your stuff and never give it back. Lives for the tough girl aesthetic. 

Mai- 5/10

Is just bored and over it all. Throwing knives is something to do. Apathetic and will probably just follow along with whatever including murder but will complain the entire time. Emo af. Would risk it all for a quick nap. Prone to bite your head off. Too smart for you and will let you know. 

Wan Shi Tong- 6.5/10

A total dick. Tired of your shit and is judging you. Thinks humans are garbage and won't get involved with them until it suits him. Don't touch his books or he will literally eat you. Nerdiest bastard. Doesn't trust you so don't try any shit with him. Sees through your pathetic lies. Kind of an elitist.

Combustion Man- 7/10 

Thinks blowing shit up is a form of art. Doesn't believe in communication. Very serious and focused. Do not fight him. Probably gets crapped on more than he deserves. A mystery wrapped in a bald head. Probably has a tattoo of the names of all the people he's killed and he's ready to add yours. 

Hama- 7.5/10

Traumatized old hag. Created bloodbending but too crazy to do much with it now. May kidnap you and keep you in a dank hole forever. Seems sweet at first but is hiding a lot of secrets. Don't eat her cooking. Thinks sitting at home scheming is a job. Hates you for whatever small thing you did to her 57 years ago. Forgets nothing. 

Long Feng- 8/10

Conniving af. Will brainwash you, lie to your face and maybe make you disappear. Wants everything and will plot to take it all. Perfectionist and control freak, will stab you in the back and you won't see it coming. Is tired of taking everyone's shit. Thinks he deserves better but he doesn't. Kills children. 

Admiral Zhao- 8/10 

Explosive temper. Huge egomaniac and narcissist. Hates the moon. Has probably killed a lot of people and fish and you're next. Will do whatever it takes. Won't listen to anything you say. Punch first, ask questions never. Jumps to a lot of conclusions, is usually wrong. Frequently embarrasses self. 

Koh the Face-Stealer- 8.5/10 

Terrifying and will probably steal your face. Do not approach. Too indifferent to chase you but can be sneaky af so watch your back. Doesn't handle emotions well. A total loner. The guy who knows everything but nobody wants to talk to. Fear him. To know him is to hate him. Makes you question everything. 

Firelord Azulon- 9/10 

Will order your execution on a whim and maybe a relative or two first for the appetizer. Do not question him. Will play favorites and call you out on things that are his fault. Overreacts and you should probably not be around when it happens. Disapproves of all your choices and is very vocal about this fact. Forces parents to kill their children. 

Firelord Sozin- 9/10

Will commit genocide and take over the world while yelling at you for minor shit. Kind of a petty and jealous asshole. Even if you think he is your friend he isn't and is going to attack you. A big old bully with bad breath and a wonky beard. The original starter of all drama and certified instigator shitlord. 

Princess Azula- 9/10 

Unstable and manipulative. Sadist who thrives off of your fear and suffering. Will hurt you badly in all the ways. Avoid at all costs. Acts cold and calculating but really has no chill. Demands your respect but won't earn it. Trolling you gives her pleasure. The spawn of satan and loving it. Mommy issues to infinity. 

Firelord Ozai- 9.5/10

Second worst dad ever. No soul. Will burn every tree and face to a crisp. Child abuse for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Actual sociopath. Will kill someone and banish you for it. Goatee comes first. Will project all his insecurities on you. Will tell everyone your secrets. World's biggest megalomaniac. 

LOK: 

Varrick- 3/10

Will probably lie, try to con you out of money, order you to do things for him and tell bad jokes but that's as far as it's gonna go. Eccentric and annoying af. Doesn't know when to shut up. Needs to learn some lessons in life. Attracts more trouble than he's worth. Has all the good gossip somehow. 

Bataar Jr.- 3/10

The guy that nobody likes because he tries too hard and ends up ruining everything. Enjoys being a bitch. Wants to rebel but is bad at it. Do you love me now father? Tries to act like he doesn't care what you think but cares way too much. Will not kill you but might get engaged to your ex to spite you. 

Police Chief Saikhan- 3.5/10 

Will do anything you say for a price, except give a fuck. Doesn't really care about anything. Might arrest you just because he doesn't like you. The type to pretend he didn't hear you just to avoid responsibility. Likes to yell into things. Hates helping people. Is actually a giant rock in disguise. 

Tahno- 3.5/10 

A total prick. Has nicer hair than you and won't let you forget it. Very flamboyant and arrogant. Will gloat over being better than you at everything even though he cheated every time. Talks mad shit but can't walk the walk. Ultimately a big baby. Lowkey protect him. Wants to be the cool kid but isn't cool. 

Desna- 4/10

Couldn't care less. Actual inanimate object. Lurks around for no reason. Hates everything and that includes you. Listens to his elders and would probably leave you for dead. Just wants to sleep. Secretly goth. Might actually be two small robots in a trenchcoat pretending to be human. 

Councilman Tarrlok- 4.5/10

Attention whore with a savior complex. Smol bean who wants approval. Acts arrogant but is secretly depressed and self-loathing af. Stubborn and clingy emotional wreck with impulse control issues. Needs a hug. Will probably manipulate you through guilt or charisma. Wants to be Lucius Malfoy, but cries at night. 

Hiroshi Sato- 5/10

Has lost sight of what's important. Total extremist. Will get revenge on you for something you didn't even do. Well respected and seems innocent but is plotting your downfall. Can build a whole army and take you down. Kind of a traitor. Loyalty is volatile. Thinks he always knows what's best for you but doesn't know shit. 

The Lieutenant- 5/10

In way over his head. Wants to make a difference but has let bitterness take over. Will probably electrocute you. Puts his faith in the wrong people. Kind of snobby and will hold a grudge. 99 problems and benders are about 98 of them. Tired of being pushed around but still lets himself be pushed around. FLOPPY MUSTACHE. 

Aiwei- 5.5/10 

Thinks he's better than you and probably isn't. Wants to be sneaky but really is just too predictable. Boring af and tries to be unique but fails miserably. Lets everyone take advantage of him. Don't lie to him. Will harbor resentment and take it out on you at a random point in time. Discount Long Feng but not as smart or ambitious. 

Eska- 5.5/10

Will stalk you aggressively. Thinks slavery is a relationship. Eyeliner sharp enough to kill. Never betray her or she will destroy you. Might use you as a footstool. Seems emotionally dead inside, but don't test her dormant waters. Uses everyone and feels no guilt. Hipster trash. No concept of boundaries or social interaction. 

Ghazan- 6/10

Sarcasm game strong enough to fatally wound you. Doesn't say much. Has tree trunks for limbs and will probably use them to throw lava and rocks at you. Lowkey protective af. Don't get on his bad side. You can't get on his good side. Would rather kill everyone including himself than let you win an argument. 

Zaheer- 6/10

A wannabe hippie but will still fight the system and you too. Don't try to control him. Gets annoyed when people breathe too loud. Is kind of a contradiction. Will literally blow you away. Anarchy equals freedom. Fuck the police. Can sit in the same spot for a really long time. Probably a flat earther. 

Ming-Hua- 7/10

Has a significant disability but can still easily slaughter you. Innovative and sneaky af. As fast and agile as an actual lemur. A natural disaster wherever she goes. Doesn't listen to your advice. Overcompensates a lot. Probably her own worst enemy. Is quiet and likes to eavesdrop on your business. 

Kuvira- 7.5/10 

Wants to control everything. Who invited her to poop the party? Highkey evil and just plain mean. Will use your corpse as a decoration if you get in her way. Secretly petty and superficial af. Thinks social bonding is trying to seduce you in order to take charge of your life. Individuality punishable by death. Even other villains hate her. 

P'Li- 7.5/10

Can explode you with her mind. Her gaze will pierce you to the core. Strong independent and violent woman who don't need a man but chooses to have one anyway. Will shave you off just like the sides of her hair. Has no problem fucking shit up. Boss bitch. Loyal to only a select few, so too bad for you. 

Amon- 8/10

Charismatic but scary and mysterious af. Huge hypocrite. Will silently judge you. Powerful, selfish and cruel. Manipulative as hell and uses intimidation to get you to comply. Pretends to have empathy but really just wants control. Will cripple you physically and emotionally without warning. Knows all of your weaknesses but none of his own. 

Earth Queen Hou-Ting- 8.5/10 

The actual worst. Eats your pets for supper. Her yelling is the #1 cause of deafness worldwide. Will keep you prisoner and then have you killed for looking at her. The bossiest Drama Queen ever. Will be the cause of all your misery and will be proud of it. Bark is the same as her bite. Lots of daddy issues. 

Chief Unalaq- 9/10 

Religious extremist. Actually batshit insane. Wants to destroy the entire world. Has ascended from this pathetic plane of human existence. Loner whose only friends are invisible. Wants you to think he's just shy and misunderstood but NOPE. Knows what you want to hear and says it. Will sell you to satan for one cornchip. 

Yakone- 9.5/10

Worst dad ever. Will either bloodbend you, try to live vicariously through you or both. Absolutely no redeeming traits except for being physically human. Abuse equals tough love. Might beat your ass for no good reason and expect your gratitude for it. Criminal mastermind with no conscience and all of the entitlement. 

Vaatu- 10/10

Actually the devil. Literal incarnation of darkness and chaos. Ultimate troll and force of disaster in the world. Doesn't know any better, but still an asshole by choice. Will use you until you're no longer of value. Has a hard-on for destruction. Likes to play the victim. Will consume your soul and burp loudly.

[takerfoxx]

She Ra and the Power of Redemption!

A’ight, so, She-Ra’s coming back in a few days for their final season. Obviously I am SUPER excited about it, but before it drops, I need to get something I’m kind of worried about off my chest.

See, I’ve talked before about my big pet peeve in fiction, in which good or at least sympathetic characters do really bad things and don’t suffer appropriate consequences, sometimes because the writer just doesn’t understand the weight of what happened and wanted to rush a redemption arc or maybe get a little dirt on their heroes without really considering the implications or wanted to do something shocking and was clumsy and/or lazy about or even felt that they were justified even when they clearly weren’t. It’s even killed a few onetime favorite series of mine.

And I see the potential for She-Ra to make that same mistake here. And I think anyone who’s seen the show and has interacted with the fandom knows what I’m talking about.

I’m talking of course about Catra and Hordak’s potential redemption arcs.

Catra’s redemption is topic number one with the fans, because everyone wants to see it, but most people want to see it done right. The Catradora thing is the fuel on which the fandom runs, and I know quite a few people that would pop dem bottles if it were to become canon. And I totally get it: Catra is a magnificently written character, one who is super compelling, complex, and sympathetic, and her dynamic with Adora is just dripping with all sorts of tension. It’s the best friends to lovers AND enemies to lovers in the same package. Who wouldn’t want to see it?

Except, there is a problem...

See, one thing I have highly praised this show for is how, despite being a show targeted toward little girls, it paints a very realistic picture of abusive relationships and handles the subject with all the seriousness it deserves, from how they’re formed to how they continue to how the cycle goes from abuser to victim to next victim to so on. Horde Prime abused Hordak, Hordak abused Shadow Weaver, Shadow Weaver abused Catra and Adora, Adora broke free while Catra did not, Catra then abused Scorpia, Entrapta, Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio, you get the picture. And they show it so wonderfully, in all of its forms.

But that leads us to that problem, and that is despite definitely being a victim of abuse, and despite all of her sympathetic qualities, Catra is still a terrible person! She became as much an abuser as Shadow Weaver, with how awfully she treated Scorpia, with backstabbing Entrapta and manipulating Hordak, with bullying her subordinates, to everything she’s done to Adora and all the lives she ruined from her exploits as Hordak’s second in command. She masterminded the destruction of Salineas, sent Entrapta off to die, treated the only person who has given her unconditional love like shit. Her damage and insecurities have driven her to worse and worse behavior, up and to including almost destroying the fucking world just so Adora couldn’t win again! TWICE!

Basically, after handling the abuse themes so well, it would really, really suck for her to just be taken back and forgiven like nothing had happened or only minor consequences after she inevitably switched sides, because that carries the message, however unintentional, that abuse victims should forgive and take back their abusers, that it’s up to them to be the bigger person and invite those who hurt them back into their lives, which history has only shown will just restart the cycle all over again.

However, all of that does not mean I don’t think Catra is beyond hope, or that she shouldn’t be redeemed at all. She is absolutely a victim of all the terrible treatment Shadow Weaver and Hordak put her through since childhood, be it physical, mental, or emotional, and I am NOT about to hold an emotionally traumatized teenager to the same standards I would hold those more fortunate. Plus, we’ve seen how much her actions haunt her, from her nightmares about Entrapta to her psychological breakdowns to everything Double Trouble exposed about her. And I do truly want what’s best for her.

So how should the show go about it? Well, I think my half-joking wishlist from earlier just about covered it: after switching sides and helping the Alliance ward off the Horde, Catra should leave. Whether or not she makes amends with Adora, whether or not she’s forgiven, Catra needs to leave those she’s hurt and go somewhere else to start over, to separate herself from those she has so many insecurities about and work on bettering herself. Because after everything she’s done, she really does need to put in a lot of work in order to properly fix herself before she can even think of reforging relationships with Adora or Scorpia or Entrapta. 

And honestly, I still think the Crimson Waste is perfect for her. She thrived while down there. And it does seem like it’s been set up specifically for her. And then...maybe a few years down the line, after she’s come to grips with herself...well, we’ll see.

Now, as for Hordak...

Look, I like the guy, I honestly do. His relationship with Entrapta gave me life, seeing how he was literally grown in a vat to be Space Hitler Jr., it’s no wonder that he turned out like he did. 

Buuuuut...he’s still a murderous despot with buckets of blood on his hands. I’m sorry, but he can’t have a switch sides, now it’s all good happy ending. He just can’t. 

Fortunately, even though he was far worse, his possible redemption has an easier solution. You know how Horde Prime restored him to factory settings, wiping his mind and sending him off to be processed or whatever?

What if he stays that way? What if he never gets his memories back? What if Hordak, the evil conquering dictator that ruined so many lives, just stays gone? But the newly wiped Hordak, upon encountering Entrapta, is able to recall just enough to know that he cares for her, prompting him to break free from Horde Prime’s control for her sake? Call it the Kubo and the Two Strings solution.

As for Shadow Weaver...no. Just no. She has no redeeming qualities at all. Everything bad that ever happened to her are a direct result of her own actions, she doesn’t have the brainwashed/designed that way excuse that Catra and Hordak have, she’s never done a single decent thing since becoming Shadow Weaver, and even after switching sides has continued to manipulate Glimmer and gaslight Adora. No redemption for her. And since Noelle has said that she hates killing off characters, I don’t see her getting killed either.

So just swap her for Angella. Send her to the other dimension and get our girl back.

And as for Entrapta and Double Trouble...dude, I don’t even know. Like, they also did bad things, but they’re kind of in their own weird moral worlds, and I don’t want to let them off the hook but also can’t fathom how that would even work...

You know what? They’re the weird exceptions that prove the rule, I guess.

(also note that even if they botch this, it probably won’t kill the show for me, as it’s still a kid’s show and it has built up a ton of good will, so my overall feelings will still be very positive, I’d just be bummed that they dropped the ball in this one, albeit very important, area)

[claptraprights]

(tw for all kinds of brain-washing, gaslighting abuse mention stuff)

You know, sometimes I think about how Timothy is this really nice guy who got dealt one shitty hand after another in life but he’s stuck in the body of a complete asshole who always gets what he wants (except a pet vault monster that one time). Plus he knew Jack was a sack of dicks even pre-presequel but so many people still like him regardless and Timothy has no one because... he doesn’t exist anymore as a person. No one knows he does exist and the only way he can interact with people is as Jack, except maybe with Jack (whom he doesn’t want to talk to), and his old team (who is all gone except Wilhelm). 

And then I think about that whole DNA thing and I just...don’t buy it. I mean, it’s very possible that Jack had him injected with some of his DNA, since that’s canon due to the scanner and all), but that doesn’t mean he would just get flashes of Jack’s personality or that he would start talking and acting exactly like him. That’s just not how DNA works and if it did - Angel has much more of Jack’s DNA and she doesn’t act that way. And then there is Timothy’s strange memory loss where he doesn’t remember what he actually studied and he even seems to have forgotten other things he cares about (he is surprised when Moxxi tells him that she can recognise him, but it’s actually the first thing she tells him in Pre-Sequel - that she can tell her ex from a body-double).

It’s just such a weird explanation and I think it would make much more sense, that the whole Jack persona started eating away at Timothy psychologically.  Because a) he can never be Timothy and b) Jack is the one who always gets what he wants (Timothy even reminds himself of that when he prepares to talk to Moxxi), so it makes sense that a lot of Jack’s mannerisms and reactions become second nature to him. Maybe even helped along by some brainwashing/conditioning shit by Jack himself, which would explain the memory loss. Timothy even says that Jack gave his doppelgängers many privileges, but he still didn’t trust them. (because Jack is paranoid af), so it would make sense that he would be interested in disconnecting Timothy as much as possible from his old life by erasing his memories and conditioning to think and act like him. (Also thinking about the whole comment from Pre-Sequel where Timothy says that his mother laughed about Timothy’s fake death, I also wouldn’t put it past Jack to specifically lure someone in for the job who comes from a disruptive childhood, because that would make them more vulnerable to manipulation AND would mean they had no place to go home to and/or even lie about the whole ‘na she laughed about you being dead’ thing)(because clearly, Timothy couldn’t have been there when his mother got the news.)

And then I think that if Timothy noticed himself turning more and more into Jack, he would probably have tried to fight back against it. And it would make sense for Jack to tell him that it was all because of the DNA he got injected because...no point in fighting something that is inside your body, right? No point fighting something that you cannot change. Just give up.

[popculturebuffet]

X-Men Evolution Reviewcaps: Rogue Recruit

My series long look at X-Men Evolution rolls on as eveyrone’s favorite goth reworking of everyone’s faviorite southerner debuts. The X-Men and Mystique race to bring Rogue to her side after her powers accidently coma a boy. The X-Men try the usual compasion.. while Mystique just tries attempted murder and gaslighting while wearing a wolverine costume. Mother of the year! Meanwhile Kurt tries to get Kitty to likes him, Kitty does something profoundly stupid to prove Wolverine wrong that ends up proving him right, and Wolverine grumbles and is kind of an asshole. Well at least one of those is just an average tuesday for him. We’re going Rogue, Rogue, Rouuuuggeeee under the cut. 

Onto episode 3 though this time I did actually get around to watching a few in a row, so while i’m not MILES ahead of this episode, I do have a better sense of where things are going and where this falls in line with everything else. And this is a big one as it’s the debut of Rogue, easily one of the shows more popular characters from what I can tell and it’s no real suprise. In most incarnations Rogue is a huge fan faviorite, with a tragic but very useful and intresting power that makes for good stories.. and okay in the comics and carton she’s also fanservice incarnate, but that’s not exactly a factor here so moving on.  And here is no exception as naturally, with her goth apperance, and general moody outsider atittude, she was a huge hit with goths and emos one and all! And eveyrone really, it’s a good take despite being almost the oppsite of the angsty but still fesity and funloving 90′s version.. and the ironic part is BOTH are entirely accurate to the comics. And yes like the last time about to dive a bit into the comics.. but unlike the shiar thing this is throughly relevant to how the character is portrayed here and a neat history less for those not in the know, so buckle up. 

What’s intresting is both adapt the character.. just at vastly diffrent points. See most probably think of Rogue as she is now: Bubbly, Scrappy and able to throw a man into a mountain, if still understandably mopey about not being able to touch anyone, thoguh that issues come and gone a dozen times by now because comic books can’t resisit undoing things to meet fan expectations despite most dedicated fans wanting some fucking change once in a while. 

But that’s due to years and years of character development: When Chris Claremont first intorduced her, in an avengers annual no less.. she was a villain, a member of her adopted mother Mystique’s brotherhood of evil mutants, and unlike here, we’ll get into that, she was a fully willing member at first, gleefuly following her mama’s orders to drain the powers of one of Mystique’s most hated enemy: Carol Danvers, aka Ms Marvel and the future Captain Marvel. Yeah this one takes some explination for you non-comic fans, and even some of you comic fans who might not get how one of the more iconic x-men villians has personal beef with Carol.... granted i’m pretty sure half the marvel unvierse has personal beef with Carol in present day after Civil War II, especially tony for murdering him, but story for another time.  It’s actually pretty simple: Chris Claremont was writer of x-men for a decade and easily the most important x-men writer period who created a ton of iconic and well loved characters and shaped Cyclops, Charles Xavier and Magneto into the characters fans know and love among others. And around the same time as his x-men run’s early years in the late 70′s, he was writer of Ms Marvel, and took Carol from a half hearted girl counterpart to the first Captain Marvel with a wonky two identties gimmick, into the asskicker and feminist icon we know today. As such Mystique debuted there and when that book ended, Claremont slided her over to the x-men and the rest is history. And this wasn’t an isolated incident: Sabertooth, aka wolverine’s arch enemy and one of hte more famous mutant baddies, debuted in, of all comic books, iron fist, with Claremont bringing him back years and years later as part of the mutant massacreing Marauders, while Misty Knight and Coleen Wing were breifly supporting characters in x-men inbetween Iron Fist’s cancelation and Iron Fist becoming bros for life with Luke Cage and forming the heroes for hire, bringing the two along as supporting characters in the process. It’s a process writers have contiuned to this day; Bringing a character from other unrelated comics in to keep them out of comic book limbo and one i’m in favor of: as long as their writing the character well and they fit why not.  And like her momma Rogue DIDN’T debut in the pages of X-Men, but in Avengers Annual #10. And no Chris wasn’t writing avengers, though it wasn’t really unusual for another writer to hop in for one annual to pinch hit for the regular writer for whatever reason, with Chris Claremont being one of the few who wrote every annual himself for his run on X-Men. What was is he did so for one reason and one only: To get justice for Carol Danvers after a recent story had screwed her over BAD. Two things before we start: If you haven’t heard of this debacle, my apologizes and rape and abuse trigger warning. If you want to skip this portion of the review just ctrl f HIGHER FASTER FURTHER MORE and you can move right on past this clusterfuck and the aftermath. Anyways in Avengers 200, Carol gave birth via terribly contrived mystical pregnancy to Marcus, son of avengers foe and sometimes ally immortus and creepy asshole. Marcus is revaled to have brainwashed carol into loving him , and making love to him so yeah he raped her physically and mentally and the story ends iwth the “Happy ending” of him whisking carol away with him to his limbo dimension while everyone else is fine with it despite him admitting to using the “subtle manipulations of his machines” to make her love him. So yeah, he kidnapped carol to his limbo dimension, mind controlled her, had his way with her, had her give birth to him so he could come to earth then took her back with him.. and not ONE avenger raced a hand, shield, repulsor or hammer, and yes the big three avengers were very much present for this debacle and very much cuplable. IT’s a throughly disgusting hideous story i’ve only see played out thanks to Linkara, long time comics reviewer and all around sweet guy, reviewing it, though with the panels show to show yes all of this is there, and have no intrest in EVER reaading this vile piece of garbage. If your still curious or after just hearing about it want to see it torn to shreds, here’s the review for you. 

It’s terrible for a variety of other reasons. Naturally Chris, who’d put a LOT of time into building up carol and like any creator who sees their character throughly dragged through the mud, was PISSSSSED.. and so were fans who rightly rioted at the issue, so editorial was more than happy to let one of thier biggest draws  right the ship and also allowed him to take Carol back home to the x-men with him. As for how that happened, after Rogue stole her powers, Carol fell in a river and was rescued by her best friend and fellow Chris Claremont alumnis Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew, who brought her to the x-men since she was a friend of theirs, where charles fixed her mind, though Carol was left with no emotoins attached to most of her memoreis. When the avengers, after scrapping with the brotherhood in some neat bouts, came to visit their friend.. Carol instead laid into them for letting Marcus take her, poitned out just how fucked up it was as well as how, and this actually happend, the avengers downplayed her concerns and tried to get her to connect with her demon spawn instead of worrying about her while others made jokes. Basically just one long page of chris claremont unloading on the issue and Carol unloading on her former friends before staying with her new ones. And to the issues credit the rest of the team. .takes it, is utterly devistated to realize what they’d done, and reflects on if they can ever make up for it or if they even deserve forgivness. She would eventually, mostly because people wanted to forget this story after that for good reason, but it’s still a damn cathartic moment.  HIGHER FASTER FURTHER MORE.. so yeah Carol was now with the x-men, who did end up meeting Rogue during a mission to wipe themselves from goverment records for good reason. And to his credit Chris not only used Carol’s lack of emotions tied to her memories for good drama but gave carol a huge power upgrade as binary, if your curious as to where her glowy headed distctrugion of an entire starfleet in her solo film came from. So okay after about a paragraph not really involving her we get into why this is so important to rogue’s character; Rogue now had Carol’s personality and memories trapped in her head and her mind was blurring between them, something this episode would use, and was falling apart as a result and with her moms Mystique and Destiny unable to help a despearate scared and repetnant Rogue went to her last hope for help saving her sanity and her soul: The X-Men. The X-Men, having both fought her and bonded heavily with her victim, naturally were less than pleased about this, and Colossus outright attacked Rogue before charles stopped him, not unresonably given the circumstances. However after talking with her and realizing both how badly she needed her help and how genuinely she wanted to change, going from a brat in love with her own power to a scared young woman terrified of what she’d done and what she was becoming, decided to roll her into the x-men. And everyone revolted: Carol was understadanbly piss and famously punched Rogue into orbit, while the rest of the x-men threatned to walk. Charles however refused to back down and gave one of his finest speech and one of the characters best moments:

To me this is Charles Xavier, a man who will accept and try to help anyone, regardless of their past, because it’s the right thing.. because they deserve a chance and he will GIVE IT TO THEM. It’s a powerful and well done moment and the x-men relucntantly take her in as a result, eventually seeing her as family as she proved herself.  So yeah  THAT is why I took so long to get here and went through ALL of this: Because this series adapts this period in it’s own unique way, taking out Rogue’s outright villiany mind, but leaving in her being a moodier, more closed off person who is constantly afraid of once again stealing someone’s very soul. She still has her confidence, as idd the comics version, it’s just tempered by a wall she puts up between her and everyone else that wasn’t as present by the time the 90′s series adapted her. And there are other bits i’ll get to as we go and in future episodes, I just felt this story was important as it colors Rogue’s journey here, hence me taking a good portion of the review to dive into it and even then I have more bits to give as we go. So with all this exposition that’s probably lost ya’s out of the way, this is Rogue Recurit. Pitter Patter.  We open in the mighty Missisipi, neighbor to my home state of missouri and home of the deep fried shoe. No wait that’s connecticut my mistake. We meet our unfriendly neighborhood goth moping outside, not really enjoying the dance and probably only having gone because her mom told her not to.. Destiny not Myistque mind. More on that in a minute. She’s being watched by two guys: Cody, who if you know your x-men lore you know this never ends well for him, and his friend uh.. let me check my noootes (Checks wiki while shuffling papers to simulate notes) Ty. Turns out Cody’s been starring at Rogue all week but dosen’t even know her name which to be fair, minus the muscles and being on the football team, is pretty much me in high school and is just as pathetic in 2000 as it would be from 2007-2010. I mean if I just went for it I PROBABLY would’ve been shot down, and the one time I did I indeed was, but at least I would of went for it and maybe learned more about women and not been such a dipstick for the next decade.... “sigh”

Point is Cody awkwardly asks Rogue to dance but like most cool kids, including the kind I hung out with in high school and tended to crush on, she’s there to look COOOOL and mope a bit.. and again tell her mom she can’t tell her what to dooooo. But Cody’s awkwardness and sincerty gets her to say why not, he means well.. a little pity dance can’t hurt. So they dance and then Ty causes this entire episode, yes really, by shoving Cody into her because they happen to be dancing seperatley because Cody’s a goddman gentleman ya maroon, and is respecting her personal space, and IS actually hitting it off as she seems to be enjoying herself. Had he not done that, he at least MIGHT have gottne a kiss before what happens next.. during the fall he accidently touches her skin, which had been mostly covered up and goes into a Coma while Rogue is now stuck in a stupor wondering who she is. Yeah as I omniously hinted at Cody is the guy in every version of Rogue’s origin story,  including I assume the 2000′s one where until doing some research i.e. going to wikipedia then letterboxd to find out if his name was given, who she has her first kiss with.. and thus the poor sap who first gets hit with her absorbtion power and traumtizes her. And here it’s no exception. Cue the opening credits. Which despite this setting up the slow arc of Rogue joining htem.. has Rogue in an x-men uniform with the team. Not that the arc is particuarlly subtle about hiding it, we’ll get there but still.  After the credits Ty is wondering what she did to him.. even though she barely moved when he fell on her, and Ty shoved Cody into him, and for all we know Cody just went into shock. He also easily could’ve fell on an epi pen or something.. I mean she could’ve stabbed him wiht one but that’s more of a candian thing than a southern thing. 

So Ty, who while understandably given Mutants aren’t public and Rogue herself had no idea still casued this by shoving Cody into her without thinking about if either had any medical conditions or if Rogue you know WANTED to phsyically touch him that soon, and yes diffrent standards and all but even 2000 this was stupid, decides to mess up things further when Rogue tries to run and tries to block the way. Now granted I get it on some level: For all he knows Rogue drugged his best friend and she needs to be there anyway to answer the police.. but counter arguments 1) She may have a record (She dosen’t) and while not having DONE anything may get brought up on charges anyway.  2) If she DID drug cody with a needle of something WHO SAYS SHE DOSEN’T HAVE MORE AND CAN’T JUST STAB YOUR DUMB ASS 3) she’s got a VERY distinctinve haircut with a white streak, wears a very specific outfit she probably son’t have time to change out of , and everyone there saw her. YOu can tell the police what she looks like. They will find her.  No instead she tries blocking her and she football tackles him.. because Cody is a footballer because this show, much like Tommy Wiseau, weirdly loves football. though unlike the room most instances it comes up, the first episode, cody being one here, and a future episode where the objective is to get the ball from your opposing x-man, all make some sense versus “Let’s go put on tuxes and play football because that’s what friends do huhhhhh?”. But yeah THIS is why I brought up Rogue’s past: becuase this episode heavily uses the part where she had Carol’s memories.. and would occasionally get messed up between who she was, with one issue having her lapse into being carol to rescue her ex from capture, which he dosen’t take well for obvious reasons. This episode uses something similar with Rogue’s brain a bit fried from taking in cody and thus not being sure where she ends and he begins, which is a very intresting idea and was a cool wya to go about having her powers activate. I mean sure it’s the second time in two episodes a mutant’s powers have traumatically awkaned. but both were distinct and interesting and it’s a staple of x-men stories to have this sort of thing happen. 

Meanwhile Rogue’s caretaker Destiny, who we flashed to a bit during the awakening of her powers, calls Mystque. I mentioned her ealrlier in jokes but for those unaware both here and in the comics Destiny is a pre cog, although sh’es an elderly woman in the comics, or rather was having died decades ago in real life, meaning she can see the fuuuuttureeeeee. And thus she saw what was about to happen but couldn’t prevent it. Mysitque is apparently railing her out on the other end over it.. and not in the fun way they usuallly do. And that’’s not crude ininsiuation.. in the comics.. Chris Claremont wrote them as a gay couple and only didn’t explicltly say anything because Jim Shooter was a homophobic moron, even if he had the common sense to stop the kitty and colossus thing because dear god why was that a thing, chaste or not dear god why. The point is Chris fully meant both as lesbians though Mysitque became bisexual under other writers, and the two finally kissed on panel, in flashback last year and Msique wanting her revivied, the x-men can come back from the dead now in comics and Xavier and Magneto refusing for complicated reasons I won’t go into here, and Desitny herself knowing they might not and telling her to burn Krakoa to the ground if she dosen’t get to come back is a major bubbling plot point that got set up earlier this year. So yeah I fully see them as a couple here. ANd yes mistue was with her even as an old lady, it’s really sweet and misty is also immortal so they’ve been together a long time. Also fun fact you probably dind’t need to know: Chris Claremont FULLY inteded to have it turn out the two were Nightcrawler’s biological parents. Mistque is a shapeshifter and can become a man after all.. I like to think that’s what happened here since thankfully the show decided NOT to go with the “kurt’s dad is a demon” explination from around the same time.. and yes that’s a thing and yes it’s fucking stupid and only ever worked under jason aaron who made Kurt’s dad into a pirate who raided heaven and lead to the x-men pirating up alongside a about to come back from the dead nightcrawler to kick his ass. And yes much like the misqute shapeshifting a dick to make a child being shopped around, this actually happened. Comics are awesome sometimes and I genuinely wish Destiny was kurt’s mom. Also yeah spoilers Mystique is nightcrawler’s mom here as usual, including possibly in the movies but it’s kept vauge in both timelines. 

Destiny explains that while she kept Rogue’s powers under wraps, giving her a phony skin condition and having her wear skin covering clothes, she couldn’t keep her away from teenage things forever and figured she’d be fine.. she was wrong but hey her precontion isn’t something she can control and she can still see the fucking future, so it’s not like it’s a bad trade off. Myistque is of course coming to collect her but Destiny warns her that, naturally, the x-men are going to be there soon. 

Speaking of the X-Men, Wolverine is breaking into the x-men mansion in a ninja costume while storm tries to thrwart hm. Yes there is actual context to this and he is a trained ninja so this fits.. yes really he apparentlyt rained with ninjas as part of his backstory and later had a samurai sword fight iwth his girlfriends dick of a dad twice and has had many since then since even with his claws the image of wolverine wielding a sword is fucking awesome. He crawls through the vents but Storm freezes them and he’s forced to enter the danger room and then tears some machines apart because chuck stops him because APPARENTLY their expesnive.. even though he can afford to buy his teenage son a sports car and himself a fucking rolls, so no Chuck I don’t see why Logan would assume you can’t afford to buy more death machines. 

Scott rightly asks what the hell their supposed to learn from one of their teachers putting on his ninja robes and trying to sneak into his own house while another teacher tries to murder him. And yeah with enoguh episodes I can fully say my assement was accurate, and not only that this scott has a bit of a temper at times, being a bit quicker to fly off the handle while also having a clear sarcastic streak, something his comics counterpart would thankfully soon pick up and that’s come back in full under jonathan hickman:

It’s.. a long story.. a bunch of racist genocidal scientests decided to inject themselves with devolving serum to protect their project from the x-men.. okay maybe not that long a story. BUt I LIKE that this scott is flawed, but not enoguh to make him unlikeable just enough to round him out: He’s charming, empathetic and a tactical genius.. but he can also be hot headed, sarcastic and impulsive. I’ts a nice ballance that dosen’t prevent him from being likeable or useful to the team, but keeps him intresting and gives him room to grow.  What I really am liking about the series so far is the team is fairly fleshed out.. except Jean and Storm unforuntantley as Storm really hasn’t gotten enough screne time to shine like her comics counterpart and Jean is just sort of “popular girl type a who’s sweet to everyone, but also still badass”. She’s still better than the 90′s cartoon, as she can actually do stuff more often and is a vital member of the team, and has mor eof a personality, but I hope we get more to her as we go. But otherwise the characters are layerd, flawed but likeable, and enjoyable to watch, and it helps with these earlier more awkard episodes, papering over the weaker aspects with strong character. 

Anyways Logan explains why they did all this: both to show the kids how to infiltrate big complexes, which given most x-missions are “investgate a base of some sort wher eno good is coming of anything”, case in point the mission in the picture above, it’s a valid and useful skill, and to test the mansion’s security, suggesting since the vents are crawlable to electrify them and add poision gas. Storm objects to the poision gas part as well.. their only enimies besides mystique are two teenagers who while dicks don’t really deserve to choke to death. Wolverine’ relucntantly agreers.. he’ll get em next security update. Next timeee.  Kitty meanwhile wonders if anyone else is freaked out and just gets blank stares.. a great gag and a great bit of character as she just joined and had a fairly normal life before all this. Kurt assures her she’ll get used to it, but his telporting over and offering popcorn fails to impress her and she nopes out of there, though Jean reassures him chicks will dig the fuzzy eventually. This is a nice nod to the comics where , with Kurt being the only non-human passing x-man, Kitty was afraid of him for some time, but slowly came around going from being horrified to him to defending him to evelangenlical lunatic reverend stryker, he was a preacher in the comics but no less vile or murder happy, telling him that kurt was one of the noblest souls she ever met after he angrily lambasted him as not in god’s will because you know, he looks like a demon.. and apparently is half of one but let’s ignore that bollocks shall we? Here i’ts more he’s coming on a bit strong on top of that, but it still works reconfigured like that.  Anyways enough teen romance, to me my x-men as Charles needs the full team for a mission and it’s the first time we’ve HAD a full team mission which makes sense: Episode one only had two active x-men and one who just joined and episode 2 only needed a smaller team for both subplots so we split the team minus storm in half. Here we have our first full mission: To find Rogue as Xavier believes she’s a danger to herself and others.. which isn’t exactly wrong when her power can abosrb at a touch and she has two entirely diffrent minds overlaping in her head. I do questoin however going in full combat gear, as they do. Bringing it, no sweat what if someone shows up to attack them, their apparently aware of the brotherhood as of next episode... which makes little sense but whatever. But when they land they go out in full superhero gear which not only ends up playing into myistques hands , more on that in a bit but makes htem look super supscious. And this could just be wanting more costume action early on which would be fine.. if the previous episode hadn’t had jean in plain clothes to talk to kitty, because yeah most people freaked out about their powers probably wouldn’t assume the best of someone in tactical gear iwth a big x on their costume! Gah. I”m glad I went ahead simply to know the x-men do get smarter.. a little. 

Anyways, that stupidity aside on the jet Kurt is flying for the first time with Scott proud of his skill saying he’ll be an ace.. and taking it back when Kurt starts driving with his feet.. even though to me that’s just as impressive as while he has that classic arms behind the head relaxed pose, he is still paying attention, has his feet on ten and two and, and it’s a fact that I forget sometimes: His feet are just as, or at least, almost as good at gripping as his hands. It’s why he can wall crawl like spiderman. Their llike gorilla feet but better. So yeah that joke dosen’t really land.  Meanwhile it’s time for what an older man thinks two teenage girls talk about.. and I just noticed looking at the credits this episode is written by Simon Furman, one of the more renowed transformers creators and write of the UK comics and later the US comics, as well as the first few mini series and one shots for the first idw continuity.. granted the latter is a bit infamous for what he did to arcee, which I both don’t know enough about and don’t have enough time to get into here, nor have I read enough of his work to gush, but I sitll felt it worth mentioning. ANd it’s not uncommmon for comic book writers to write for animation: Greg Weisman started in comics before moving to animation with Captain Atom’s post-crisis solo series, Dwayne McDuffie had a rather sizeable career in comics as a writer and editor and returned to writing comics in the 2000′s for a stint, and Marv Wolfman helped make the treatment for beast machines, while Peter David’s done scattered episodes of various shows, most memorably for me Ben 10. So not a HUGELY uncommmon thing but still worth noting.  Anyways legend or no, he still makes the rest of this scene awkward as Kitty fawns over scott, Jean ends up agreeing and in annoying fit of jealously kurt ports to the roof to do .. some sort of stunt to impress kitty and end sup having to come back in due to wind resitance, teleproting on her by accident and pissing her off. It’s not a terrible scene, as it shows some vunerablity in kurt and furhters the jean scott love triangle but in revisiting it it just feels a tad awkardly put in there, especially since so far kitty having a crush on scott goes nowhere and love triangle wise it’s more Jean, Scott and Rogue.. more on that next time. Wolverine mutters about kids in annoyance.. so for the first and probably last time in my existance I feel the exact same as wolverine for one shining moment. 

Mysitque arrives and is angry at her wife for letting their daughter get away, Irene reitrates the dance thing.. you get it. Luckily having a precog for a wife is handy for more than timing your orgasms to happen at the same time, and Irene knows she’s going to Cody’s hosue which she thinks is her own and that’s where we see her next. Now while this episodes quality is mixed... I do like this element of Rogue torn between two identites not sure which is her.. it’s thorughly intresting and hasn’t been used enough in adaptations, though the 90′s series did do a good job with it’s own take of having Carol and Rogue fight for Rogue’s body. 

At any rate wolverine attacks.. wow jesus wolvie I know you don’t like kids but this is a bit far.... at least go back home and take it out on duncan if you need to murder a teenager sheesh. Of course it’s actually mysitque whose trying to make her afraid of the x-men, shifting into storm next. It’s not a terrible tactic.. it has specific faults i’m saving for the end, but in the short term using the x-men in costume to scare her, then having Irene show up and tell her their mutant hunters.. it’s not bad. It also nicely back fries when the x-men arrive, charles unable to pointpoint her due to her brain being scramble, and end up going down the alleyway with Wolvie in tow causing her to book it. 

Kurt, whose really on the ball outside of the plane stunt this episode, comes up with a better plan than “Chase the frightened teenager around missiipi and hope it works” and realizes since she’s clearlys cared of logan, even if they don’t know why he can try talking to her while in inducer form. Logan relucntantly agrees but tells kurt to keep an the rookie, i.e. kitty which pisses her off. Remember this for a second from now. 

So Kurt.. actually succeeds in calming her down, pointing out he like her was once freaked out, that being diffrent is okay etc, usual line but it works.. then ... yeah that second from now is now now as Kitty decides “she dosen’t look so tough” AND TACKLES ROGUE. Who they know has the power to absorb things by touch even if she’s mostly covered, and who was about to turn to their side. Just because Logan, it turns out CORRECTLY, insulted her. Just.. jesus this is bad writing.. Kitty isn’t this obnoxious or usless later on and while she could sometimes fuck up in the comics..it was less noticable since she was the ONLY teenager, and still once fried a demon with a jet engine. Here? She hasn’t done any of that so she just comes off as a dumbass brought on a mission too soon who causes her friend to not long after this get his powers absorbed by rogue.. though weirdly she dosen’t get his blue skin, which annoys me a bit but whatever. Animation budgets. Point is kitty lost their target and got kurt comaed.  Kitty paniced realizes she can reach the professor telepathically, and we do get a great gag of her doing so too loud, while Logan grumbles about not going with them.. which is a godo point.. why didn’t he just.. you know take the costume off. even if she panicked if she learned who he was later, they would at least have her on the plane and could easily knock her out gently, especially logan since he recovers fast and would the instant his healing factor came back, and then deal with her panic and her fear of them they didn’t know about back home versus here. He didn't even have to come with her just hang towards the back in plainclothes. Instead his telling Kitty she sucks caused her to prove that assessment accurate. So Charles goes to help while Storm, Cyclops and Jean continue the search They find her and Jean shows her empathy again, and I have to admit the character really isn’t that bad in moments like this.. the only reason I ragged on her coming to kitty last time is she made the rookie mistake of telling Kitty about her telepathy, which, while better sooner than later, was done so clumsily it backfired. Here.. she genuinely and softly talks to Rogue, and offers her a communicator which looks like a neuralizer for some reason.. seriously why not just hide it in a compact or a watch or something Chuck? But that aside i’ts a nice moment.. that storm accidently ruins by showing up and terrifying her away. Yeah that’s PART of my problem with the episode right there is jwhile it changes up setting and what not it’s still just “The x-men find Rogue , get her calm, then she runs when one of the x-men mystique traumatized her with shows up”. It just gets old fast despite some clever switches here and there. 

Thankfully we’re at the climax and since Mystique saw all that she shifts into Cyclops.. and up until now I haven’t mentioned this but it becomes a glaring issue here: Mystique’s dialouge when shapeshifted when coming up is basically variations of I’M GOING TO KILL YOU. Which not only is a bit dull, as she apparnelty knows the x-men and at least could make them sound like evil versions of the people we know but also REALLY dumb... again i’m saving this for the end of the episode because it all comes together with her endgame for Rogue, but even if you haven’t watched the show given what’s happened with Toad and Avalanche you can probably guess. But yeah while watching I WAS going to lambast her for not using Jean.. but she’s actually clever here, using Scott who Rogue hasn’t met to unerve her already, then shifting into Jean to take back the chance she offered. IT scares Rogue out who naturlaly books from Jean. 

Rogue then touches storm.. and Cyclops promintently craps himself as he realizes “Oh shit an already scared and psonically scrambled teenager just got an omega mutant’s levels power but with none of the experince and 80 times the angst”. So yeah Rogue’s powers spin out of control in what’s a great sequence and she hit sa transformer but ends up running. Xavier decideds to call this one a wash, and can’t find her anymore anyway as Cody has faded and decide she has to come willingly. Kurt reawakens to Kitty’s delight. Yay that mildly annoying subplot is done.  We end at the school and this is what i’ve been building towards folks: Myistque enrolls Rogue in the school, comersrates on magneto on a job well done and Rogue looks at her commincator. And now for the reason I was a bit patient on this: Mystique’s plan is really shortsighted and dumb. Now pretending to be the x-men, that works.. but her impersinations are so shallow, ESPECIALLY for an experinced shapeshifter that the minute Rogue gets to know any of the x-men, her entire facade will start to crumble. Or if she touches one of them and gets their memories.. which never happens even when she borrows one of their powers next time but hey. Instead of making the x-men seem like gaslighting manipulators she makes them seem like petty murderous villians.. when 5 minutes with Scott or jean or just watching either will cure that. And sure as we see next time she TRIES keeping her from talking to them for too long.. but as we also see school projects happen and she can’t control EVERYTHING without raising some red flags with her faculity. She’s principal, if a teacher’s supscious she’s abusing a student she brought in, they hopefully won’t hesitate to call someone to look into it and as a shapeshifter running a dodgy mutant milita made up of students you brought in that’s the last thing you fucking want. It’s really not even a remote surpise this only lasts three episodes before she turns, and makes me question why do this arc if it’s going to be so half assed? In the comics Myistque was not only a master planner, even getting her team jobs as goverment enforcers when she realized being anti-human terrorists in a very racist climate was just going to get them all killed, but she also CARED about Rogue and her using empathy and kidness on TOP of the manipulation would make Rogue trusting her so much make more sense than “Well it’s you or the attempted murderers”. It’s just really fucking sloppy and to it’s credit Wolverine and the X-Men ended up doing this sort of plotline 80 times better, with Rogue being a villian for a while AFTER the x-men had broken up, left her with nothing, and things had only gotten worse for mutants.. and I think bein ga double agent, it’s been a while, but her reasons for turning there feel natural in comparison to this. The x-men aren’t much smarter as they only connect the dots that maybe it’s a shapeshifter, a shapeshfiter I belive xavier, storm and wolverine alread know about and coul’dve told the students. Gah. 

Final Thoughts:  This episode isn’t very good and in reviewing it I really realized it when it took me 4 or so diffrent sessions to finish this thing. While it has good parts, like a lot of ROgue’s stuff, the danger room break in, it’s held back by stupid decisions, a stupid villian plot, and a waste of great POTETIAL stories for a half assed one from a writer who clearly can do better and a show that will soon enough. Glad to finally be done with this one.. I might not come back to evolution for a second, but when I do I promise it won’t take this long. 

Next Time on X-Men: Evolution: Blob debuts, crushes on jean to an obssesive and quickly very stalkery degree and also nearly murders duncan with a locker... so he’s clealry a mixed bag. Meanwhile Scott and Rogue get paried up on assigment and Paul wears out his welcome Like this if you enjoyed it, I have other x-men evolution reviews in the x-men tag on my blog, as well as other animation goodness, and if ther’es an episode of another x-men show, including the gifted and legion as i have hulu, or marvel show in general you’d like me to cover just drop me a pm to comission it for a reasonable fee. ANd until next time, courage. 

[rantshemlock]

Midsommar

this contains spoilers for Midsommar 

so like, the cult is bad, right? you realise that? like you guys know cults are bad? like i know they were nice to her but you know this is a white supremacist cult thats manipulating mentally ill people to indoctrinate them? like you guys see that right?

i think maybe the scariest experience of Midsommar was seeing how much people completely accepted and justified everything the cult did in order to project into the fantasy of getting that ultimate catharsis; of completely breaking free from your terrible abusive boyfriend and doing so in a way that empowers you. but it’s a joke to pretend that Dani is empowered at all, or that she really wanted this.

Midsommar is about Dani, who suffers a personal tragedy and then travels with her horrible boyfriend and his awful friends (not you josh) to a cult in sweden for their nine-day midsummer festival. the longer they stay, the more dangerous and frightening the rituals become.

it’s kind of impossible to condense this movie to a short description without it sounding insanely stupid; there’s not a quick paragraph that really condenses the scope of this when so much of the movie is dedicated to crafting an incredibly specific mood. the visuals of the film are incredibly detailed and trying to describe them is almost pointless; its a movie that does need to be watched if you want to understand how Aster cultivates tone and pace. 

the utilisation of the incredibly limited colour; the way images are blended into pictures so subtly they are almost there only to create a subconscious understanding; the way sound is used to tell the story; the mood the permanent sunny day and clear skies sets in a world where the sun barely ever sets. it all adds something to Midsommar, makes it even more of an anxiety-inducing nightmare of the worst thing that could happen when left alone at a friend’s house.

i think one of the greatest skills in Midsommar’s toolkit is the dialogue; while i wouldn’t call it improv or naturalism, the dialogue is very natural and not-stagey, but laced with double meanings and subtext. i think this kind of incredibly believable dialogue is one of Aster’s strongest talents, and definitely one of the things i enjoy most about his movies.

i didnt really get as much out of Midsommar as i did out of my beloved Hereditary, but it’s hard to say exactly why that is outside of my own personal relationship to Hereditary. something about the scope and scale of Midsommar, the removal from the domestic, makes it a touch less personally evocative to me. 

Midsommar is a movie about gaslighting and abusive relationships, but there’s a pretty clear pattern in people recognising that with Dani’s horrible boyfriend and neglecting to see it in the cult. it’s very easy to get wrapped up in the cult’s apparent empathy and understanding of her trauma, but what we’re watching isn’t a genuine love and care for Dani. it’s an indoctrination tactic used to manipulate and brainwash her. all through the movie the cult imitates and pretends to share people’s pain, but they don’t truly experience Dani’s any more than they do that of the old man who survives a suicide attempt, only to be subsequently killed by the cult. they are merely reflecting what she was going through, utilising her pain to guide her to their own ends. 

the intention is stated clear as day during the exact same “does he make you feel held? does he feel like home to you?” conversation Pelle and Dani have that people love to reference so much as the heartwarming moment of the movie. Pelle tells Dani that his parents also died, but he never had to be sad because the cult was there for him, and then says that he’s glad Dani came on the trip to sweden because she’s the one he wanted there the most. later, we find out that it was the mission of Pelle and others to bring outsiders to the cult.

the meaning of this is clear; Pelle recognised that Dani was vulnerable, and took it upon himself to recruit her. this is a frequent favourite tactic of cults. the idea he was doing this trip out of the kindness of his heart is absurd; the cult deals in human sacrifice. he knew that he could more easily lead Dani to her death. 

pretending Dani is happy at the end of the film is a vast stretch, and pretending that any brief spell of happiness would justify what happened is even more so. right up until the very end she is either terrified or has been drugged, often without her knowledge or consent. she doesn’t know the extent to which innocent people have been murdered. she doesn’t know what the cult have planned, what their history is, what their future is. she can’t even communicate with the vast majority of the cult’s members. to pretend that she has any autonomy in this situation is to ignore how guided and controlled her actions are throughout the movie; she accepts the death of her boyfriend when she is drugged and almost catatonic from trauma, and is that really enough to say that she is happy? that she is docile and compliant?

throughout the film Dani is constantly trying to set up boundaries, to make tiny requests of people for her own wellbeing. time and time again they are ignored and overruled and her attempts to stand up for herself are flattened in the wake of other peoples desires. the cult is no different; none of her actions are borne of her own choices. no one has ever really cared what Dani wants. 

i think what is most prominent is that when Dani is becoming the may queen, an image of her sister committing suicide can be seen mixed into the trees in the background. drawing a direct parallel between death and Dani’s adoption as the May Queen feels like a very transparents statement of intent. 

what also should be mentioned is the white supremacist nature of the cult; of the victims, the first to die are all people of colour. white supremacist literature is seen around the camp. the cultists talk about how their children are born from specially chosen couples, in what is the most brushed over description of selected breeding and eugenics ive ever heard. every living person is white. it is not accidental or subtle. apparently the directors cut goes into much deeper detail on this idea; i couldnt say myself, i havent seen it. but its obvious in this film that this cult stands for the benefit only of themselves and the preservation of their rituals and past.

in the end the question to me is: was it all worth it? was all the suffering and pain the loss of life worth it, just for Dani to have a smile that expresses nothing but how far she has fallen into her trauma? 

one of the things that weighed on me watching the movie was that it was specified that the ritual lasts nine days -- we see maybe five. the other thing is that throughout the movie we are repeatedly shown dozens of photos of past May Queens, but never does a character ever introduce themselves as a past May Queen, never does a character reference other May Queens. after their need is abated, they just seem to vanish. it makes me wonder what happens in the other four days.