#He views a lot of negative traits as positive ones and positive traits as negative when there in contention with himself
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#I kind of wish they'd given Armand at least one or two clear positive traits but idk maybe they did he just can't actually be#owned to them because he's built up so much SHIT and doubt around himself and towards Louis and tries it also with Daniel it's like#Impossible to say anything positive isn't also negative by association of how it serves to uplift his negative motivations#But I mean just to throw some out there??#I think he's naturally curious and uh... I think he at least wants to try being better?#But its fails miserably because he's so narcissistic and withholds far too much of his intentions and actions#He views a lot of negative traits as positive ones and positive traits as negative when there in contention with himself#I feel he conflates a bunch of things on terms of whats good behavior and bad behavior because he'd been adapted to it that way#He wants to be better but doesn't actually commit to it.#Thats sort of the unfixed sense of self coming in#Armands opinions on things have clearly changed to be diametrically different to what they were 70 years ago#But he also severely avoids owning up to all negative things about himself.#I think one positive trait is that he can regret his actions? He can self reflect.#but I don't think he self reflects enough to see the truth behind his actions or what future actions could have in consequence#Guilts good because then it's not a total lack of empathy there. But he displays it in such a guilt trippy way it becomes negative.#A lot of things about Armand are just like that actually.#His most natural impulse is to simply destroy everything but he loses that impulse if he can love care or wield control over that#I feel he recognizes he cant let such impulses run rampant but then he's just sitting on a mountain of repression to make his self image#appear better than the very very dark shit that's him underneath#These two things can't... integrate properly.#Partly because he's always in the wrong envoirment for it because he can't obtain this through gaining it out of other people actually#I think its disingenuous to say he's in total awareness of his actions as bad and that he's doing all of this to be intentionally harmful.#Even if he is at fault and consequence for them#and like unless there's an outright lie I think a lot of the things he says are things he genuinely believes but they just come into#so much contention with others and their safety and values etc.#But he could just as easily be orchestrating all of this with full awareness and intention. So it's really an interpretational thing.#Most of this is like ... not talking about his positive traits lol. They're there he's just too much of an asshole to get to have them.#Like if I were to place a disorder on him it'd be histrionic narcissist.
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Well it's come up multiple times today so I'll make a post about it.
I think the popularization of the word "twink" has ultimately been really bad for people in general.
I know it's hard to track the positive and negative effects of language but I don't think it's hard to see how creating a word for a group of people wherein the most consistent qualifying trait is "being skinny" is healthy for people's self image. Obviously people have lots of ideas about what it means to be a twink- gay, lacking body hair, feminine, beautiful, young, white- but the most consistent descriptor I've seen is "skinny." Hell, it's even a body type on Grindr; the size below "average."
So it kind of functions as a code word in the gay community: anyone can say that they're only interested in twinks and they don't have to look shallow by saying they only like skinny guys. It's such an accepted attitude that no one really bats an eye when they hear it.
I'm not even going to get into how it's become part of the larger issue of people turning "top" and "bottom" into gender roles 2.0, but that is closely related, because people with any internalized homophobia can look at a skinny, feminine man and turn off their fag alarms by viewing him as a woman or not a "real" man, and it makes twinks more acceptable to society at large.
No, ignoring all of that, one of the biggest issues is that gay men are taught by society that they are only attractive while they are skinny. Just having the label "twink" reminds a boy that people are looking at his body and judging it. There were countless times when I was growing up that people would tell me, "You're such a twink," or argue about whether or not I qualified as a twink because I had body hair. People around you, unpromted, judge your body and give you a label based on it, and that label has a large influence on whether or not you're seen as objectively attractive. I know many other gay people who say they wish they were a twink so they could be more attractive to guys.
So think, you have all these kids growing up being told whether or not they qualify as a twink, and then we have the gay community as a whole where it's completely acceptable to say you're only attracted to twinks. I think its because of all of this pressure to be a twink (in other words, to have a below average weight) that many of the gay people that I interact with struggle with a negative body image or eating disorders.
I mean, people talk about "twink death" like it's an actual event that makes a gay man much less attractive, and no one thinks that, maybe, it's harmful to tell a guy that the very day he stops being young and thin and pretty, he will stop being attractive and celebrated?
I'm not qualified to speak on fatphobia in physical queer spaces because I don't have the ability to frequent them where I live, but I can't imagine that these aren't issues at social gatherings as well. I also can't speak on my own experiences with weight discrimination because so far in my life I have had a naturally thin body, but I have experienced a lot of outside pressure to be thin that have caused me to pick up unhealthy eating habits to reduce my weight in fear that I could become fat later on. Thankfully that is something that I've mostly been able to work past. I'm not an expert, but idk, I just wanted to rant on my silly tumblr blog.
Obviously it's impossible for a word to be inherently bad. I'm not trying to imply that saying "twink" is a magic word with evil powers. Obviously the real issues at play here are fatphobia and harmful beauty standards and body shaming. But in my opinion, the popular use of the word twink has made it much easier and acceptable to express fatphobia, etc, in the gay community by turning "skinny person" into a "type of guy that you should try to be so you can be attractive."
#i know i sound annoying and woke but this is my blog and i can post whatever i want :3#theres so much more to say but this is long enough as it is#no ones gonna read this anyway#gay#queer issues#fatphobia#cw ed mention
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𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘯 𝘎𝘢𝘶𝘯𝘵
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Name: Callan Gaunt Pronouns: He/Him Age: 18 - HCU Gender: Male Birthday: December 31st, 1874 Zodiac Sign: Capricorn Birthplace: Undisclosed area, England. House: Slytherin Patronus: Goliath bird eating spider (im so sorry) Animagus: N/A Wand: Blackthorn wood, Dragon Heartstring core, 13", springy Blood Status: Pureblood Languages: English Ethnicity: Irish & English
𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦
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Race: Caucasian Eyes: Dark brown, almost black Hair: Short black hair Skin: Pretty pale Height: 6'3" Distinguishing Features: He has a scar across his left cheek.
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𝘗𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺
Positive Traits: A very loyal friend, fun & outgoing, will never back down from a fight. Negative Traits: Sometimes takes sarcasm too far, is still figuring out the whole affection thing, aggressive if prompted. Strengths: Will stand up for someone if needed, no matter who. Weaknesses: Will NEVER back down from a fight, that's the issue lol.
𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘧𝘰 / 𝘚𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴
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Boggart: His father Mirror of Erised: Being far away from his family & no longer having the Gaunt name Hobbies: Reading, Dueling, Pottery Amortentia: Cedar & fresh linen, Future Occupation: Healer Favorite Spell: Incendio Least Favorite Spell: Crucio
Best subject: Defense Against the Dark Arts Favorite subject: Defense Against the Dark Arts, Favorite Professor: Professor Sharp Worst subject: Divination Least favorite subject: Divination Least favorite professor: Professor Binns (he's boring) Quidditch Position: Beater
𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺
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Father's Name: Caelan Gaunt Age: 46 Status: Alive Blood Status: Pureblood House: Slytherin Personality: He doesn't have one, he's just mean.
Mother's Name: Alessia Gaunt Age: 45 Status: Alive Blood Status: Pureblood House: Slytherin Personality: She was a caring mother when Callan was younger but once he got old enough she kinda stopped caring.
Siblings: Hugo, Constance, & Elowen Gaunt
𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘩𝘪��𝘴
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Love Interest: Valentine Black (@savingsallow) House: Slytherin and Slytherin
♡︎ Theodore Lupin - Theodore is Callan's best friend. They met in first year after Callan saw Theodore getting bullied by some 3rd year kids. He stood up for him and they've been friends ever since. Callan is definitely the more outgoing of the two, but he's always looking out for Theo since he knows Theo isn't all too confident in himself. And regardless if his family doesn't approve of their friendship, Theo is still one of the most special people to Cal.
♡︎ Alejandro Salvatori - Ale and Cal are roommates (wow). They're really good friends, lowkey in love with each other, both like the same girl but also kind of each other??? It's complicated y'all, don't ask. Ale is just his pookie. But they are roommates, on the quidditch team together, and do a lot together. Him, Cal, and Val are lowkey in a weird love triangle, LOL.
♡︎ Ominis Gaunt - Ominis is Callan's cousin and they were born around the same time so they grew up together. Not only that but they share a lot of the same morals, so they can often be seen hanging out together in order to get away from the rest of their family. So they are pretty close, to put it simply.
♡︎ Sebastian Sallow - They get in trouble together, that's pretty much it most of the time.
♡︎ The HCU pals - He loves all of them with his whole heart 💕
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𝘘𝘶𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺
Callan was born on December 31st, 1984 to Caelan and Alessia Gaunt. He is the 2nd oldest of four children. During his childhood, Alessia was caring for the first few years of his life, but once he began to get older, she started caring less and less. As far as she was concerned, her relationship with her children was to just bring them into this world, teach them her values and views, and keep them trapped in them. She truly only ever cared about herself and her power in her relationship with her husband. Callan also had a strained relationship with his father. When his cousin, Ominis, was tortured by his own family at a young age, Callan heard about this and strongly disagreed, pained to see his favorite cousin get hurt.
Caelan quickly got upset at the boy and told him it was a fitting punishment for Ominis' disobedience. Once Callan disagreed, Caelan slashed his son on the face with a razor, giving him a scar he'd carry on his face forever. And that was the beginning of Cal's crumbling relationship with his father and family in general.
Cal spends most of his time at Hogwarts, planning to stay away from his family and to get far away from them one day. This also includes getting his girlfriend, Val, away from her family as well. All he wants to do is live in peace and happiness away from those who seek to hurt him and his loved ones.
#hogwarts legacy#hl#ominis gaunt#sebastian sallow#Theodore Lupin#Callan Gaunt#mc#hogwarts legacy mc#the gaunts#Valentine Black
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Yk i saw one of your posts a while ago that was like "theres a clear difference between jay fans and kai/cole ones" or Something like that and im kinds curious what u meant
U asked this so long ago but I forgot to respond better late than never tho🥲
It was about Kai and Jay fans (Cole fans are kind of in the middle of the spectrum)
Lots of Kai fans are super adamant about their fav being unproblematic from what I’ve seen. They don't like when you call him selfish, like they think he could never do anything wrong. But he has good AND bad traits. He is self centered and immature and I love that about him, he's so bland without his anger and his desire to be the best. I'd just like to see more people acknowledge this part of him, rather than focusing only on how caring he is or how protective he is. Nothing about that is interesting to me without his unhealthy traits that balance him out.
Jay fans are the complete opposite (at least the fans that don't prefer later seasons Jay, but that's an entirely different topic that I also have way too many thoughts about). They're pretty loud & proud about Jay's flaws. A lot of Jay fans (including me) are upset that wildbrain era took away his most prominent issues. His arrogance and selfishness are his appeal, and tbh I think a big part of Jay fans' enjoyment of his worst traits comes from the fact that they were taken away from him. We miss the bitchy, morally questionable Jay, back when he was actually a unique and complicated character. We want him to be who he used to be; the witty, sarcastic, and pessimistic guy that we miss so gosh dang much.
Not that it doesn't go both ways buuuut this is just what I've noticed. Actually Kai and Jay as characters are fairly similar in my opinion, regarding their flaws. It's weird how differently the fandom treats them. But I could go on and on and on so I have to force myself to stop it here😭😭 moral of the story, Kai fans highlight his positive traits, while Jay fans highlight his negative.
But also anyone can see them however they'd like and I'm not tryna force anyone to view the characters only how I view them. Idgaf really but it's just an observation
5 page essay dropping soon guys
#if no one else has noticed this it's probably because it's only prominent in my tumblr inner circle#but maybe other ppl have seen this and im not crazy but maybe i am. maybe i am#ninjago#lego ninjago#jay walker#kai smith
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I was totally talking about the "no, this was good and I'm gonna make more of it because you're wrong and I'm right." type of spite in regards to the statue scene and Adrien saying that's when he fell in love with Marinette.
I feel the same way towards what they did with Bustier in Season 5, having her new akumatized form be this awesome revolutionary who wanted to dethrone the mayor, have her eventually become the mayor and showing how downright utopic Paris became after she took the job, revealing that she's a LGBT character by giving her a girlfriend and have them share a kiss oncreen while the other LGBT couples still get little to nothing, it just feels like like they saw how people were hating on her because of how she kept fumbling the bag in regards to Chloe, and this was their attempts at forcing the audience to like her.
(Post this ask is referring to)
Disclaimer
Before we get into the topic at hand, I want to give a quick disclaimer: when I write these posts explaining the writers' most likely point of view or industry standards, it's never to defend the writing. I clearly don't like the writing and want it to change, too! The reason I get real and explain what's probably going on and why things aren't going to change is to give my readers a bit of a reality check about realistic expectations.
In the past, I have been in the position of being deeply emotionally invested in a show only for the writers to destroy it. Or, at least, I thought it was destroyed. It took about two seasons for the general public to agree with me. I remember the desperation of "why would they do this to us?" and "Why didn't anyone stop them?" and "How does no one else see how terrible this is?"
That was a deeply unhealthy mindset for younger me, so I'm never going to feed others who seem to be going down that path as it feels irresponsible. Instead, I give the kind of answers I'd give my younger self. I try to validate your very real feelings that the writing is bad and then give my best guess as to how it's happening and why it's unlikely to change. I don't like those "truths", but it's important to remember them if you want to have a healthy relationship with media that you have no control over outside of choosing how you'll interact with it.
Queer Stuff
Until it's universally cool to be queer, Miraculous is never going to give us quality rep for a few reasons. The first one is that it can get the show banned in certain countries. Banned shows make less money and the goal is to make money so it's just not going to happen. At best, you will get throwaway lines that can be changed to be "acceptable" in other languages or minor scenes that are easily cut. That's the most likely reason why Bustier is the one confirmed to be in a sapphic relationship along with Knight Owl and Majestia. These characters are all minor enough to have their sexuality very subtly included in canon*. Rose and Juleka are way too prominent for the same treatment. The most likely reason for Bustier being with a woman is that the writers wanted to risk some rep and went with what they could get away with without rocking the boat. I doubt it was done to make fans like her more as that assumes that most fans care about the sexuality of a minor character. It also assumes most fans would find this a likeable trait as opposed to something neutral or negative.
There's also the issue of parental appeal. If a show becomes known for having queer rep, there are lots of parents who will steer clear of it and keep it from their kids. That means less toy sales and so on and that's not good for business. If you want solid queer rep, you need to look to less mainstream productions. It is highly unlikely to come from something associated with Disney.
*Do any of the sapphic couples even kiss? I don't think they do. It's like Zoé's confession to Marinette, clearly implied but never actually given voice. A young viewer could easily miss the implications if they've been sheltered from the idea that a girl could like a girl. I could see a kid being told/thinking that this was just Marinette being honored that Zoé trusted her with the truth:
Marinette: Oh? Who is it, then? (Zoé simply looks at Marinette and smiles, with no words needed to answer her question. With her reflection in Zoé's eyes, Marinette realizes that the person Zoé likes... is her.) Marinette: Oh... Oh! Oh. (Zoé keeps her tender, loving smile and gaze at Marinette as the two share an embrace moments after) I am truly, very honored. I mean it, Zoé. Zoé: Thanks, Marinette. (they let go of their embrace) You're right! It's such a relief to get these things off your chest. You should try it, too!
Listening to Criticism
This wasn't directly stated in this ask, so I'm going to pull in a quote from the original ask for context:
he saw how much people hated that scene but instead of addressing the criticisms he instead just point blank tries to force us to like the scene
This was said in context of criticisms about the statue scene. Anon is annoyed that the writers doubled down instead of fixing the writing issues. I fully understand why anon feels that way, but unfortunately, this isn't a simple issue of the writers needing to listen to what the fans are telling them. It's a lot more complicated than that.
There was actually a recent Tumblr poll asking people their thoughts on that scene. A thousand people responded. We have no idea if those people were a representative sample of the fandom, but that's a reasonably large sample size and the responses were diverse enough for me to think that the poll has value in this discussion as it shows us something interesting: people like the statue scene. It's not everyone. In fact, "I hate it" won! But about 35% of the people who voted were neutral to positive about the scene. Only 38% actually hated it outright.
A poll about the season five ending got over 1,700 replies and the end result was that there's a pretty even split between people liking it and hating it.
Based on these polls and the fact that some people clearly still like the show, I can easily assemble a committee to give critical feedback who would praise the things you and I hate just like I can easily assemble a team who generally shares the same opinions as us. That's the problem with blithely stating "listen to criticism" when what you really mean is, "listen to my criticism and ignore anyone who doesn't agree." What we see as fixes others would label as ruination!
Miraculous' Current Feedback Process
Miraculous isn't one man's fever dream. There is some level of critical feedback process in place. We know from the bible leaks that people at Disney and TF1 give some level of approval to the bibles before the more detailed writing can begin.
We also know that the writers have had scripts rejected before. Chat Blanc was supposed to be in season two, but was "was rejected by broadcasters [for being] too dark and too sad." There's even a rumor that Gabriel was killed because of a mandate that he couldn't go to jail to avoid upsetting Brazilian audiences (if anyone can confirm that, please let me know!) In other words, the writers do get push-back! They aren't allowed to write whatever they want! There is a feedback process!
None of this is meant to say that I think the show is good. I clearly think it's bad, too! I only bring all of this up because this is what you need to keep in mind when you're wondering what the hell canon is doing. We may not get it and view it as terrible, but there is a whole host of people who think it's good or, at the very least, good enough. Industry professionals are signing off on this shit. While I think they're all insane, the best takeaway from these facts is that the team working on this project has wildly different tastes from us and we should either stop watching or watch with the knowledge that we're probably going to hate the final product.
Counterexample
Let's pivot slightly to a relevant counterexample. Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors and a book podcast I follow read one of his books about a year ago. Two of the members weren't fans while the third loved it, leading to a really interesting disclaimer at the start of the episode. I'll post a link after this in case you want to hear the exact quote, but the general gist is that the show's host - Maria - was talking about ways the book could be improved with two fans of the book and, to her surprise, they were both adamant that the proposed changes would ruin the book for them.
youtube
I don't bring up this example to imply that Miraculous is secretly good and we just don't get it. I stand by pretty much every criticism I've ever made. I bring it up because this shows that even a story that I will defend isn't universally appealing. I generally agree with Maria and Will's thoughts on stories, I mostly disagree with them here. Is the book perfect? No, but most of their suggested changes aren't ones I'd make. At the same time, I understand why the story didn't click with them. Many of their issues are valid. I just think that most of those valid issues are subjective issues and not true flaws. It's also worth noting that the Mistborn series is wildly successful. The author is a multi-millionaire. People clearly like it as-is, which is why critical feedback is impossible to get "right."
Annoying Truth About Critical Feedback
There is no universally good version of a story. No one standard every work can strive to meet. There's not even such a thing as a universally right critic! You can think a person's feedback is good 95% of the time and still be totally fine rejecting the other 5%.
Part of the editing process is getting feedback and deciding if you agree with it or not. You don't have to make every suggested change which is good because, if you have more than one person giving feedback, then you'll probably get conflicting feedback! I can think of one story where beta reader A found a section confusing and beta reader B said it was perfectly clear. I had to talk to A to see what was confusing them and decide if I cared to rewrite that section to cater better to people like her knowing it could lead to the section being less clear for people who weren't like her. I can think of another story where a random commenter took the time to tell me they didn't like the way I wrote Adrien, leading several others to comment saying that I got him perfect.
This is why I'm so hesitant to blame Miraculous' writers for not "listening to criticism" because what does that even mean? Without an objective standard, who decides what criticism is good? What happens when there are dissenting opinions on a topic as there almost always are?
Anyone who wants to create has to decide whose opinions they value and ignore basically everyone else otherwise they'd never create anything. If the Miraculous writers have a team AND the team likes what the writers are creating AND there's an audience happy to consume what show in its current state? I don't know how you fix that. I don't even know if you can. Can anyone give a tried and true way to avoid creating an echo chamber while also ignoring unhelpful "haters"? It's an incredibly complicated topic and is why the trend I mentioned in the linked post exists.
For those who don't want to click back and read that post, there's a pretty common trend where a series gets popular, but then the writing starts to get "bad" or people start to realize that the series is never going to live up to the potential that they saw in it. Less forgiving fans begin to stop watching, but enough fans stick around that the money keeps coming in and so the writers have no reason to course correct. By the time the majority of fans have given up hope, the writing is so bad that there's no saving the property. You'll probably never reach a point where everyone hates the series, but you do reach a point where they're no longer able to make the property commercial successful. That or the series reaches its ending and it's so bad that people basically stop talking about the series or only remember how poorly it ended when it used to be a beloved, pop-culture zeitgeist. This trend is basically the media's version of enshittification. My partner and I talked about various series that came to mind for this trend and these are just a few of the properties that we were able to name: RWBY, Zack Snyder's DC Stuff, BBC's Sherlock, Game of Thrones, and How I Met Your Mother.
If the more critical fans are right and Miraculous is a mess that's just getting worse and worse, then this decaying process is Miraculous' most likely fate. More and more people will turn their backs on it until it fails or the writers run out of ideas and give a lackluster ending that is pretty universally hated. It will probably be slightly gratifying to people like us to see one of those things happen, but not gratifying enough to make the loss of a potentially good story worth it. Having gone through this cycle before, it really is a hollow victory and that sucks, but there's nothing you or I can do about it which is why I take the stances I do. It's fun to dunk on canon, but don't let canon's bad writing drag you down into dark places. That won't benefit anyone. It will just hurt you.
Final Thoughts
All of the above is why this blog isn't aimed at the writers. I don't expect them to fix anything. Canon is what it is and it will continue to be what it is because this is what the creative teams considers good. I don't agree, but I also highly doubt that I'd ever be able to change their minds. Even if they read my feedback, I doubt they'd agree with it even though I will stand by every point I've made and think canon has inexcusable issues.
This blog is aimed at sharing my thoughts on the writing with fellow former fans or somewhat-critical current fans. I want us to have fun thinking about writing and alternate takes on Miraculous for our own amusement. I will be a happy woman if this blog helps any of my followers improve in their own writing or critical analysis skills or even just gives them an outlet to flex those mental muscles.
It's the same reason I like the podcast I linked above. I enjoy listening to the three hosts and their occasional guests dig into the technical elements of writing and why a thing did or didn't work for them because I find discussion of those things interesting and useful for honing my own writing. It's not about fixing the source material. The books they talk about are finished products that are what they are. Chances of an edited edition being released are extremely low. It's not even about being right. I have no idea how you decide who is right in matters of taste! There are multiple extremely popular series that have me scratching my head at how people like them! There are also popular series that I greatly enjoy.
With this vast array of tastes and no true standard for anyone to meet, all you can do is state your opinions on a work logically and clearly and let whoever is listening decide for themselves if they agree with you or not. It can be frustrating when they don't, but it is something you just kind of learn to accept so you don't go mad. "Let people be wrong" is, unfortunately, the best way to protect your mental health, especially when it comes to something as unimportant as Miraculous.
I'll finish by imploring anyone reading this to never force your opinion on a fan! That's just rude. Let them have their fun! Just don't take recommendations from them. Whenever I meet someone who likes a thing I hate, I just say it wasn't for me and leave it at that unless they truly want to hear why I didn't like it. Most people don't. Most people just want to enjoy the things they enjoy which is completely fine and normal. Let people be wrong.
#anon ask#ml writing salt#ml writing critical#nuance#Made one friend cry over my complete takedown of Fourth Wing#And it's like babe don't read my one star reviews for books you love!!!#I wrote that to vent not hurt you!!!#I still love you even if you have trash taste in romance
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Brief Thoughts About Aventurine, Religion, and Colonialism
This isn't a comprehensive summary, just things I started thinking about. It's kinda funny how things just completely fly past you when you don't think about them regularly, cuz I'm a very not-religious person so it took reading someone offhandedly refer to aspects of Aventurine's backstory as his "religious beliefs" for me to realize how important those actually are.
(2.1 Story Spoilers + reading the Sigonia relic set description will help for some context)
Despite his employment in the IPC calling for Aventurine to help amass capital in the name of Qlipoth the Preservation, we don't really hear him talk about Qlipoth often and his backstory basically omits mention of his relationship to THEM; the focus is entirely about his relationship with Gaiathra Triclops and HER blessing of luck.
The present Aventurine has changed a lot from his young self due to the influence of the IPC, in direct ways such as his newfound wealth and ruthless business practices, and in indirect manners such as how the IPCs involvement in the inter-tribal relationships of Sigonia resulted in higher tensions between the Avgins, Katicans, and other tribes.
However, his belief in Gaiathra Triclops has remained intact into his adulthood. It has soured as he begun to view HER blessing of good luck to be more akin to a curse, but it feels like a very deliberate writing decision to have him still hold onto the belief system of the Avgin. It would have been reasonable if he had later turned to the protection of Qlipoth, as joining the IPC had resulted in the wealth and status he has now, but he doesn't really do this.
Even if the colonialism took much away from him, he still wishes to retain his culture. (The value he places in the items his parents left for him and sister: the charm, the necklace, and the shirt, is further testament to this, as examples outside of his religious beliefs.)
Prayer is also something that we rarely see depicted often in Star Rail, which makes the segments of Aventurine praying with his younger self and sister stand out a lot more. The only character I can recall off the top of my head with an extended prayer sequence is Sunday at the end of 2.0, which is also notable.
One thing that I was wishing the Penacony plot would at least lampshade is the irony of sending Aventurine, a slave working for the IPC, to retake a planet that had led a slave rebellion to escape the IPC's control. While I'm now uncertain if they will address that directly, I do wonder that as we learn more about Sunday, if his relationship with Xipe the Harmony will end up being used as a way to foil him to Aventurine and/or serve as indirect commentary on the situation between the IPC and Penacony. (This is pure speculation)
But yea anyways, it's pretty interesting seeing mihoyo try to incorporate other aspects of racism and colonialism that extend beyond displays of outright hatred, such as how Aventurine's retainment of his culture's religious practices is depicted in a positive light. (Another thing that stuck out to me is how they depicted the fetishization of racial traits negatively, with the way some characters remark on his eyes, how the Avgin's untrustworthy reputation partially lies within their physical attractiveness, and how his relationship with his own appearance has changed as a result, as this is something I rarely see fictionalized but I won't elaborate on this here bc its off-topic.)
Obviously, mihoyo doesn't have the best track record when writing minorities and there's still a fucktonnnnn to be criticized about their decisions in Aventurine's lore as well (the most egregious of which being deriving the name for his planet from an actual slur), but it does seem like they are at least trying to add more depth to their depictions.
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Ghost ranting about Green's glasses because they needed to get this down on words
With the whole "Green eating grass video dropping" and stuff
I wanted to explain my rose/orange-colored glasses theory in more detail. Because I made an entire timeline just to try and prove this. And for the other post I only put pictures and I find it super interesting.
(I know, I made another post about this but I'm going to say it again)
So, a lot of people already know that Green's sunglasses, (which he wears more and more often throughout the influencer arc) are orange, and that they match up with Second's as seen in the episode Skyblock. And that Green's glasses first show up in the episode A Special Song. Which was mainly just for fun.
And now he wears it in multiple posts now, mainly when he's alone, I've noticed.
Now, the term rose-colored glasses means having a positive outlook on life, sometimes not noticing the negative things or choosing to ignore it.
Green's sunglasses are orange. orange-colored glasses.
The meaning of the color orange, according to the top Google result is this.
Optimism. Rose-colored glasses is literally another word for optimism. And happiness + enthusiasm which plays another role in this. (Mainly with the rick/stickroll and with how Green's channel originally started)
And then there's the negative side. Arrogance, pride, impatience.
Traits that a lot of us associate with how Green is. It almost makes too much sense.
And working through my timeline, I find he mainly only wears those glasses when he's alone. Another very interesting thing to think about. The only time he wears it around his friends is, again, the rickroll episode.
Edit: I actually got that wrong, he did wear it at the end of the Minecraft vlog, but that's when his friends left him when he was trying to promote Instagram. So they might have seen something he didn't, or it just helps this theory even more. (Thank you so much to @dobrinata for pointing this out to me and adding it onto my original post)
So why am I talking about this? It's just a pair of sunglasses that have nothing to do with the plot whatsoever
I think, with how things are going so far, the glasses are going to serve a kind of symbolism, with Green's outlook of everything and how his perception of the new fame would change things, even if it isn't true he may have a more warped view of what happened, maybe with the Color Gang.
(I sound like I have no idea what I'm talking about XD)
They are sunglasses, too. He might be blind to what's going on... or...
(Just something I thought was interesting to think about)
So yeah, we might see more appearances of those glasses later on, but most likely, with how things are going so far, they'll disappear at the end, or at one point. Maybe it's the Color Gang, or maybe it's something else that he has to come to terms on his own.
Yeah uhh... thanks for coming to my talk where I rant about glasses lol-
#ghost yells for no one to hear#ava influencer arc#animator vs animation#ava green#becker team if this is actually real#you get applause because this is such a good detail#ava analysis#kind of? idk#ava theory
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Energy Update: February 2025
February is a "2" Universal Month [2 (February) + 9 (2025) = 11 = 1+1 = 2] in a "9" Universal Year. Two is often a decision number; as we move down the path, we find a fork in the road and face our first choices. This is consistent with the astrological transits of the month; our personal planets are marching ever closer to the divide between 29° Pisces and 00° Aries - THE degree of the year. What we do now matters, but we may not know why yet.
The Set Up
We begin the month with the Sun, Mercury, and Pluto in Aquarius; Venus, Saturn, Neptune, and the North Node in Pisces; retrograde Mars in Cancer; retrograde Jupiter in Gemini; and Uranus in Taurus. By month's end, the Sun and Mercury will have moved into Pisces and Venus into Aries. Additionally, Mars and Jupiter will have stationed direct.
The Nitty Gritty
Aspect-wise, this is a pretty sparse month, but what we do see packs a pretty big punch. Mars is rounding out the end of his retrograde cycle (thank the gods), but both Mercury and Venus will retrograde in the months ahead. In fact, Venus is already in her pre-retrograde shadow as she moves through Pisces and Aries all month long. This month can be seen as a bit of a setup for what is to come in March, April, and May as each planet inches forward toward its inevitable conjunction to 00° Aries. I have written about this as the conjunction of the year here, so I won't go into a lot of detail about it, but I will make reference to it.
Mars
Mars has been in the spotlight since he began his retrograde journey at 17° Cancer on 12/6. This month, he makes the last legs of his trip before stationing direct on 2/23. We are deep in the weeds of Mars in Cancer now, which is unfortunate because Mars is at his fall in the cardinal water sign. A planet is considered in its fall when it is the opposing sign to that of its exaltation (here, Capricorn); this is an indication that the sign's natural aptitudes are in misalignment with the nature of the planet.
Cancer is the sign of the crab, and as a cardinal/moving sign, it moves like a crab - sideways, zigzagging toward its targets. This movement is highly inefficient; once Cancer grabs on, it holds on for dear life. Cancer types like the world to believe they are a moveable sign - they carry their homes on their backs, after all! - but often, they are so obsessed with what has already happened that they forget to look forward to the future. Cancer naturally rules the 4th house, the nadir of the horoscope wheel, the natural domain of the past - our childhoods and family setups. All Cancer types must watch out for false nostalgia or adherence to a perfect memory that doesn't fit the world as it is now.
I want to be clear here that I am not trying to throw Cancer under the bus: every sign has positive and negative traits associated with it. It's Cancer's job to REMEMBER the past; it's a challenging task, and someone has got to do it. The problem comes when Cancer gets STUCK in the past. This problem is because Mars moves backward in the sign most obsessed with the past.
I shouldn't need to point out the obvious parallels between this astrological transit and what is going on with US politics right now. What I can do is allow a broad view: sometimes, we need to return to review the past because someone has not yet learned their lessons. This is always very triggering for those out ahead of the pack. Nobody wants to stop for the slowpoke, least of all Mars.
One of the things that the study of astrological transits teaches us is that we often need to take three steps forward and then two steps back. This is the nature of retrograde cycles; they allow us a broader viewpoint as we retrace the degrees of the horoscope where we have recently been. These should be seen as a cosmic lesson - for society and sometimes for our personal lives. This is true of all planetary retrogrades, but it holds doubly true when a planet retrogrades back through Cancer, the sign that remembers.
We are in the thick of it now, and this is often when retrogrades feel their very worst. It is obvious who has their eyes wide open and is paying attention and who has chosen to hide their heads in the sand to play pretend. Not everyone wants or cares to change. This can be one of the most challenging realities to face.
Because Cancer lives at least partially in the past, they can be among the last to change. Often, they hold on with their crabby hands as if their lives depend on it. When Mars is retrograde in the sign of the crab, everyone is a little bit more reticent to see their part of the problem. Because the crab is so often thwarted (in that others want change while they want to cling to what they know and the comfort that brings), they frequently resort to emotional manipulation.
Think of the myth of the good old days when things were "simpler." Think of the parent that demands you obey because you owe them. Life isn't tit for tat - some obligations cannot be repaid. We cannot go backward; the past is done. We must grapple with these things as we move through the last month of this rough retrograde cycle.
Mars only makes one significant aspect this month, a trine to Saturn in Pisces on 2/9. I expect the days around this to carry the weight of these retrograde burdens, as Mars and Saturn are traditionally considered malefic planets. Whatever needs to be shaken loose will undoubtedly fall apart during this time, but it won't be pretty. Expect the worst, and hope for the best. Sometimes, things NEED to fall apart.
It's a scant comfort when shit is hitting the fan, of course.
As Mars exits its retrograde at 17° Cancer on 2/23, Mercury in Pisces is in a watery trine to help sort out the pieces. Verbally, if possible. Talk things out in your personal life on or after the 23rd, and take real actionable steps to rectify any situations that have come up since December. Remember that it will be another two months before Mars is out of his post-retrograde shadow, so things will continue to arise for re-evaluation.
The Lights: The Sun and the Moon
As the Sun moves through Aquarius, it will conjunct Mercury at 20° on 2/9 and square Uranus on 2/11. (Mercury squares Uranus on 2/10 on the day in between). This is our big Ah-Ha moment for the month. If you're into truth-seeking or truth-revealing, these are the days to work with. Anytime the Sun squares Uranus, the chances of sudden changes go up, and so long as Uranus is in Taurus, the chances of natural disasters also increase. Uranus is the lightning strike on the Tower card in the tarot; it is unexpected and generally unavoidable. Take that as you will.
Our full moon at 24° Leo on 2/12 forms a t-square to Uranus in Taurus; this will be a high-energy day. Expect the unexpected. Uranus tends to turn the energy up to 11, which will heighten the intensity of our full moon, which is already quite intense. If you're sensitive, you may need to take steps to discharge the excess - whether through physical movement or grounding. Do what works for you, of course. It's worth noting that Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius; this is a great day to do magic for activism or anything that affects the greater good of society as a whole, the domain of Aquarius.
Our Leo Full Moon is a 7/9 Full Moon.
5 (Leo Moon) + 11 (Aquarius Sun) = 16 = 1+6 = 7. 7 (Leo full Moon) + 2 (February 2025) = 9.
You can work with the number 7 to seek the best for everyone or the number 9 to represent endings and completions. Note here that 2025 is a "9" Universal year, so this number is further highlighted during this time. The combination of these two numbers makes it a great day to Hex the Patriarchy or do other magic to end the influence of the current administration.
As our Sun enters Pisces on 2/18, we enter the last astrological month of the year. There's a lot of pressure to wrap things up before spring when the Sun crests 00° Aries and our hot-point degree of the year. Pisces carries a lot of dark moon energy naturally as it rules the 12th house of the unconscious, which goes doubly for this year. Pisces is also the new home of our North Node, which is already conjunct with Saturn and Neptune at the other end of the sign.
The lunar nodes indicate where our eclipses will occur, so we may begin to taste eclipse season on the horizon, but we need to get through our new moon at 09° Pisces on 2/27 first.
This solar-lunar conjunction makes a wide stellium with Saturn, whose sitting eleven degrees away at 21°, so fate may be hanging heavily in the air. This is triply dark moon energy: firstly from the natural lack of lunar light, secondly from the nature of the Pisces new moon/12th house, and thirdly because it is the last lunar event before our upcoming eclipse season. If you are in that hole, know you are right on time.
Our Pisces New Moon is a 6/8 New Moon.
12 (Pisces Moon) + 12 (Pisces Sun) = 24 = 2+4 = 6. 6 (Pisces New Moon) + 2 (February 2025) = 8.
With 8 energy in play, expect to experience the highest highs and the lowest lows, perhaps both almost at the same time as one another. Eight is the number of the ouroboros and the infinity sign; you can work with either of these symbols during this time to help move through the energy rather than getting stuck in it. This is the perfect lunar event for shadow work, divination, and anything you want to do unseen or in the dark.
The Lunar Nodes
It is worth noting the recent movement of our lunar nodes, who passed from the axis of Aries-Libra to the axis of Pisces-Virgo in January. The nodes are not physical bodies in our skies but mathematical points that indicate where the Sun, Moon, and Earth need to be in the skies to create our solar and lunar eclipses. They are always read as a pair: the North Node (traditionally the Head of the Dragon) is our point of forward-facing fate, the area of life society as a whole will need to focus on, and our South Node (traditionally the Tail of the Dragon) is the point of past-facing fate, the area of life we are moving away from as a collective.
Because we are entering Pisces season at the end of February, we can discern that our first eclipse season is on the horizon. This will be mixed-sign eclipses. As the lunar nodes are still on the cusp of the signs, we will experience a lunar eclipse in Virgo and a solar eclipse in Aries in March.
As we exit our new moon on 2/27, the energy leading up to our set of eclipses will rise. This tends to create much tension; this should be viewed as business as usual. I will speak more about our upcoming eclipses soon.
Mercury
As Mercury moves through Aquarius, they trine retrograde Jupiter in Gemini on 2/3, a check-in on our luck. Mercury is the native ruler of Gemini, but Jupiter is quite unhappy there (both in its retrograde and fall). Jupiter has been out of commission for a while now, and it's starting to show. When you can't rely on Jupiter, you must make your own luck. Mercury is a trickster, after all. This is a concept worth exploring at the beginning of the month.
Mercury passes across the boundaries of the Sun on 2/9, a position often known as Mercury Cazimi or Mercury combust. Traditional astrologers believed that the Sun overpowered the nature of Mercury, and times of Mercury combustion created slow, unintelligent types. I will say that I was born with Mercury conjunct to the Sun within 1 degree, and it is obvious how wordy I am. Mercury cazimi is a reminder that we are coming up fast on our first Mercury retrograde of the year, which will go from 09° Aries to 25° Pisces in March. Stay tuned for that, as it will coincide with Venus's retrograde over almost exactly the same degrees - this is the big meat of our spring season.
As Mercury crosses over the Sun, it also squares Uranus in Taurus - Uranus is often believed to be the higher octave of Mercury. Where Mercury is thought, Uranus is pure inspiration. Stay open to whatever channels are available to you during this time. This will be a great day for writers, inventors, artists, and diviners.
On 2/14, Mercury enters Pisces, the sign of Mercury's fall, as it is the opposite sign of one Mercury rules (Virgo). We might need to watch out for how we speak about ourselves and others during this time. Are we being truthful? Are we being kind? Mercury is concerned with precision in Virgo, and Pisces - ruled by the amorphous Neptune- is anything but. Sometimes, it is good to blur the lines, but often, Mercury in Pisces goes too far. Note here that Mercury's retrograde will include the end of Pisces, the sign of its fall, and Venus will be in her fall while she is in Aries - and Mars is in his fall while retrograding through Cancer.
This is a hint that none of us are at our best.
Maybe we need to judge less and accept ourselves for where we are.
As Mercury moves into Pisces, they square Jupiter on 2/20 - again, we may feel out of time (Mercury) and out of luck (Jupiter). There may be nothing that we can do about it (mutable square), but people may want to cry about it (Mercury in Pisces). Acceptance isn't easy, but it can help make sense of our lives.
As we round out the month, Mercury in Pisces trines retrograde Mars on the day he stations direct and then conjuncts Saturn on 2/25. There are consequences here. We must admit what we have done so that we can move forward.
Venus
As mentioned above, Venus is the vanguard of all of our planets that will enter 00° Aries this year - she does so for the first time on 2/4. Circle that date in your calendar; it's an important one. You may not note it as important this time around (on Venus's first pass), but what is coming up now is going to come back around again at least two more times through Venus's retrograde and possibly more as the Sun, Mercury, Saturn, and Neptune also cross this degree.
Happy spring a little bit early. Except it's not yet spring, and nobody is particularly happy about anything. Venus is in her fall in the cardinal fire sign of Aries because Aries is the opposite sign of her dominion, Libra. Venus naturally desires to play nice, smooth things over, and generally get along, while Aries is the sign of forging ahead, whatever the cost. Unless modified by a lot of watery energy, Aries types don't tend to give any shits about fitting in or playing nice. It is just their way. This costs Venus many of her best traits, and she loses her softer edges.
What if we aren't supposed to have these soft edges during this time? What if we all need to be a bit tougher, if we need to lean into what we believe and STAND UP for it? That is what Venus in Aries does best - she is, by her nature, virtually fearless.
Keep in mind that we are already in Venus's pre-retrograde shadow. This means that every degree she moves across this month will be retraced, in total, three times. She won't move more than thirteen degrees from where she is on 2/1 until 4/16 when she exits her post-retrograde shadow. This means that through a wide enough lens, she will carry the stellium with Neptune and the North Node all the way through from 2/1 to 4/16 for 75 days. In this time, the Sun will move through this stellium, and Mercury and Saturn will join it for their own retrograde cycles.
By weight, number of days in these degrees, and number of passes, Saturn certainly is the heavyweight here, but Venus is no slouch. Remember that, along with Mars, she is one of the two planets that governs how we all get along. Things might start to heat up (metaphorically) as she enters Aries early in February, and then she retrogrades and brings this heat back into Pisces, which might bring things to a true and for-real boil.
I don't say this to scare you, but we should all be prepared. From 12/6 to 4/12, all three of our personal planets will have retrogrades one after another. There is no getting along to be found or had. It won't be pretty or fun.
Set your expectations low, understanding that we are in the lead-up to this all month long. Venus retrogrades on 3/1 (also the day Mercury enters their pre-retrograde shadow at 25° Pisces), so the closer we get to March, the more apparent it might become that things aren't very copacetic. If you can't make heads or tails of other people - even your very closest - know that you are right on time. Venus slows down to a near standstill at the month's end, holding 10° Aries for an abnormally long time; this is going to feel like absolute shit - especially to anyone with a personal planet on or around 10° in any of the cardinal or fire signs.
There's just not much we can do about this except bear it.
Jupiter
After a very uncomfortable retrograde in the sign of its fall, Jupiter stations direct at 11° Gemini on 2/4, the beginning of a better day. Jupiter will move out of Gemini (finally) and into Cancer later this year - look forward to that. Our luck will return, slowly.
Looking Ahead
March is going to be a shit show; there's no way around it. Venus retrogrades on 3/1, and Mercury follows soon afterward - the two are retrograding in nearly identical ways - Venus from 10° Aries to 24° Pisces and Mercury from 09° Aries to 25° Pisces. It's going to be a rough one/two punch. And that's before we even consider eclipse season with a total lunar eclipse in Virgo and a partial solar eclipse in Aries that will form a stellium with the Sun, the Moon, and retrograde Mercury. retrograde Venus, Saturn, Neptune, and the North Node. Yep, it's a lot. Stay tuned.
The Details
2/1 - Venus conjunct Neptune 27° Pisces 2/3 - Mercury in Aquarius trine retrograde Jupiter in Gemini, retrograde Mars in Cancer square Chiron in Aries, Venus conjunct North Node 29° Pisces 2/4 - Venus enters Aries, Jupiter stations direct 11° Gemini 2/7 - Venus in Aries sextile Pluto in Aquarius, Neptune conjunct the North Node 28° Pisces 2/8 - Sun in Aquarius sextile Chiron in Aries, Mercury in Aquarius sextile Chiron in Aries 2/9 - Sun conjunct Mercury 20° Aquarius, retrograde Mars trine Saturn in Pisces 2/10 - Mercury in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus 2/11 - Sun in Aquarius square Uranus in Taurus 2/12 - Full Moon 24° Leo 2/14 - Mercury enters Pisces 2/18 - Sun enters Pisces 2/20 - Mercury in Pisces square Jupiter in Gemini 2/23 - Mercury in Pisces trine retrograde Mars in Cancer, Mars stations direct 17° Cancer 2/25 - Mercury conjunct Saturn 20° Pisces 2/27 - New moon 09° Pisces
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I know there's a lot of talk of genesis attitude pre and post degradation, but what are the main differences in your opinion? How much does his attitude actually change?
I definitely think his degradation warped him, or at least took the more negative aspects of his personality and increased them tenfold, or influenced him into doing things he normally would have never done, whether out of desperation or the fact that he's actually receiving literal brain damage from his sickness.
Before his degradation, I think Genesis was definitely arrogant, hotheaded, and occasionally kind of rough around the edges towards strangers. He certainly had a lot of messy aspects to his personality, whether that was his jealousy for Sephiroth or his occasionally spicy attitude towards other people. This was mostly born from a sense of insecurity, wanting to impress people, to be recognized and valued. More than anything, Genesis wanted people to acknowledge him, to see him as someone whose existence mattered. He was terrified of being alone, or being seen as a burden.
For all his negative traits pre-degradation, Genesis had twice as many positives. Genesis could be kind, even sweet, especially towards the younger soldiers who had yet to prove themselves (Genesis heavily related to the feeling). When he wasn't focused on his rivalry with Sephiroth, he was a loyal comrade and a courageous fighter. He could be teasing and mischievous, but never to the point where he'd take things too far, at least not intentionally. He loved pranks and contests, still viewed the world with some lingering sense of innocence. He believed in storybook heroes and fables. He wanted to BECOME one someday. He could be practical, borderline chivalrous when it suited him. He could even be ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of his friends. Genesis had many flaws, but beneath his fiery exterior, there was a good-natured person who wanted to connect with others, wanted to be the hero they deserved.
After his sickness, Genesis throws a lot of his better traits away. He becomes overly spiteful, openly provocative, completely willing to hit someone where it hurts. His feelings towards Sephiroth warp from a competitive friendship to genuine malice, wanting revenge. He still never meant for Sephiroth to DIE (or Angeal for that matter), but he DID want to show him up somehow. And no longer had the restraint to care about the methods used to do it. Genesis also became hyper aggressive, his temper explosive, his thoughts constantly clouded. He acted on impulse even worse than he ever had before. He just did what FELT good in the moment and didn't think about the consequences....
....Until he was cured. After being healed by Minerva, the full weight of Genesis' actions falls upon him all at once, reliving every ugly moment, every thoughtless, cruel, violent action. SEVEN YEARS' worth of sins to atone for. Seven years' worth of brutality and loss. Genesis is crippled, body and soul. He seals himself in his watery tomb not just for the sake of the planet, but out of regret. He remembers his friends, the things he said and did to them. He remembers everything. He loved them. He never wished to harm them. WHY did he do it? Was it the sickness? Or was it really him this whole time? He can't bear to live with those thoughts. It's eating him alive. He grants himself the mercy of sleep as a means of temporarily escaping them, letting them haunt his dreams as he surrenders himself to oblivion.
The Genesis that emerges years later is cynical, jaded, world-weary, but ultimately wiser and more subdued. He still has his sharp wit and poetic personality, but it's a lot more muted now. Mostly, he's just tired, going through the motions. He seems a lot quieter, gentler around people. Through his altered genetics, he will live an exceedingly long extended life, surviving long after all the others (except for Vincent) are gone. In that time, Genesis travels the planet alone, doing good where he can, but never forgetting what was lost.
#asks#ff7#ffvii#final fantasy 7#crisis core#sephiroth#genesis rhapsodos#angeal hewley#gencanons#final fantasy vii
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The Marauders as The Soldier, Poet, King Meta
So, I don't know if anyone's ever thought about this song with the Marauders specifically. But as a sidenote I like listening to music on my way to classes and I ran across one of those 'and you were a fairy' playlists with the first song being The Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos.
Anyways it made me think of MWPP and which lyrics would represent who.
The King
I don't think that this comes as a surprise to anyone, but I feel James has this spot claimed. The ruler is the most important, he is the king. Everything he says or does can have either a negative or positive impact on the people and his subjects. It was a positive impact for his friends. They remember him in a good light, he can essentially do no wrong and if he does then it can always be explained away for this or that reason. He was the shining sun and the warmth that all the Marauders felt cocooned in. Prongs was their King.
“No, I think you’re like James,” said Lupin, “who would have regarded it as the height of dishonor to mistrust his friends.”
James was protective and loved deeply those that were his. He was honorable, he had a very black and white view of the world from what we know of. The king who found nothing more dishonorable than not trusting his closest friends--the ones he became illegal animagi with, the ones he created a secret map with and the same ones that he went gallivanting through the woods under a full moon with.
There will come a ruler Whose brow is laid in thorn Smeared with oil like David's boy
(Yes, this is a reference to Christianity, to Jesus and his brow laid in thorns while put on the cross to die.)
But, I also like to think of it and how this would apply to James. There will come a ruler -- he and Lily are a part of a Prophecy; those who have thrice defied Voldemort, with a summer born child. A Prophecy that they go into hiding for, a Prophecy that could kill them. Yet, it wasn't the Prophecy that killed them, but a betrayal of trust.
The Poet
Sirius Black, the poet.
I feel that this might be contested--maybe a lot of people would think this is the role that Remus would slide into, since he already fits into dark academic aesthetic and fandom portrays him as a voracious reader. (Not to mention the way he talks and how he will weaponize his words)
But I think the Poet is Sirius Black.
There will come a poet Whose weapon is His word He will slay you with His tongue
Born and raised a pureblood to the House of Black, likely slotted to become the next head of his house after his father or grandfather. We see from Walburga's portrait during OoTP that she had a virulent tongue, a trait that Sirius inherited from her. We see it in the train car during their first meeting.
“Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” interjected Sirius.
Between MWPP, Sirius has always been the one to use his words to cut people the most.
“There’s enough filth on my robes without you touching them,” said Black.
Picking at people's hygiene, cleanliness, looks, abilities, or intellect--nothing is/was too far for Sirius.
“Before Wormtail wets himself from excitement.”
That's how he talks to a friend once he's gotten annoyed? What about his enemies? Or those he considers beneath him? (Which are typically those he doesn't find to be intellectually stimulating to him, as we've seen and a few other people on here have pointed out.)
More than half the time, Sirius' chosen weapon is his words. He is the type of character to point out flaws, weaknesses, things that he knows will hurt the most because he wants to make you bleed.
(And to think, these quotes aren't even some of the worst things he's said, I just couldn't find the quotes that I wanted and didn't want to leaf through my bookshelf.)
The Soldier
I know this will most definitely be an unpopular opinion, but I couldn't decide between Peter or Remus as the soldier. So, I put them both in this section, but I am more partial to Peter.
Remus as the soldier because of his status as a werewolf.
There will come a soldier Who carries a mighty sword
His lycanthropy is his sword, and he is one of Dumbledore's soldiers because of his ability to enter werewolf rings as a spy. It's a heavy burden but one that (as Lupin says) only he can bear.
But that is two of three lines, and he doesn't quite fit the soldier role to me.
Peter does, however.
Sure, he's not a brave soldier, the one that movies are made about--and he doesn't have a strong sense of wanting to fight for the little guy.
But he is still a soldier. The soldier who joined because his friends signed up for a war and he didn't want to be alone. The soldier who thought that maybe, just maybe, he could cruise on throughout the war because he's not particularly useful or strong or politically important in any way. He's just another foot soldier.
Until he is important, and he realizes that he doesn't want to die. He's fresh out of school, he followed his friends into a war because maybe they convinced him (or he convinced himself) that this would be a summer thing or a couple years at most and it'll make for a decent story for his future kids or grandkids when he can say, "Yeah, I fought in the war--on the winning side."
But then he is faced with a choice: living as a turncoat or dying.
Nobody wants to die. Certainly not Peter who is barely in his twenties at this point. He hasn't lived. Didn't have a girlfriend, wasn't married like James was. Did he even want to get married? What if he wanted to travel the world?
We don't know.
So, spying? On his friends, on his comrades, on people who look him in the eye and think they can trust him. And it turns out that Peter is kind of good at it. He's remained undetected for a while. Hell, Sirius thinks its Remus and Remus thinks its Sirius. Nobody ever suspects Peter.
After all, why would they? It's not like he's ever been anything more than a coward, right? James and Sirius' tagalong. Peter couldn't hurt a fly, not when he was the fly.
There will come a soldier Who carries a mighty sword He will tear your city down
First his sword was his secret as a spy.
Then he becomes a Secret Keeper. The Secret Keeper.
A Fidelius Charm was advanced magic. Voldemort could make out with the Potter's living room window and still not know they were on the other side, unless--
Unless someone with the key to the city let him in.
Tearing a city down had never been easier.
#sirius black#marauders#dead gay wizards#marauders meta#hp meta#soldier poet king#remus lupin#peter pettigrew#james potter#mwpp era#mwpp
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Usopp's constant negativity and anxiety are something useful and "positive" at the end of the day (eg: fight against Perona) because he doesn't necessarily need to change his views, he just needs to trust himself and his abilities more and he just uses what he has at the moment which is, you know, negativity. It is not something positive but it does keep him safe from danger and he will end up being proud of himself and stronger than he could ever imagine, but that doesn't mean he'll stop being negative. It's just another personality trait a lot of people have, and Usopp using it for his advantage is something great, I feel. He takes pride in being like that. He's loud and shameless about it.
Unlike Sanji, who dwells on his negativity on his own. Quietly. And lets it consume him without having any power over it. His self-sabotaging and self-sacrificing behavior often comes from a place of giving up out of fear of others getting hurt to save him because that's pretty much his core fear. Being a burden/Not being able to save the people he cares about from himself and his past. It's not something the manga shows that much in comparison to Usopp's negativity, but Sanji's pessimistic views are pretty much one of the reasons why WCI happens and why he puts himself in the worst situation in Wano.
And I think (this is why I'm writing all of this) that they're perfect for each other because Usopp could show him that being afraid and negative isn't something so bad. After all, at least Usopp is aware that if he can't do something, the crew will help him out no matter what. Usopp's negative, yes, but it's alright because he doesn't go through it on his own. Even if he does look shameless and "selfish" when desperately asking for help (he isn't, by the way. It's actually pretty reasonable to act like that). Sanji needs to learn to ask for help shamelessly too and he needs to stop putting all the weight of the world's negativity on his shoulders. They need to carry it together.
Like- There's just something so personal in Usopp going "Yes! I am scared. Frightened even. Please, help!" because he might not like that part of him and he's trying to be stronger and more independent every day, but he acknowledges that things can go south and his reaction is very fight or flight but pretty mostly flight to be safe. While Sanji's response is always to fight because he refuses to let others know he needs help in case something happens to them (and also because he feels ashamed of feeling weak). Usopp shares the responsibility and accepts that he's kind of a loser sometimes but Sanji refuses to do so.
This is just a thought about Sanji learning that being a coward and asking for help isn't bad because they're meant to do stuff like that, and Usopp growing to be stronger and independent but not necessarily stop being pessimistic because sometimes you just... Are like that. Sometimes you're scared. Sometimes you have anxiety. And that's alright. You can be strong anyway.
#now this is one of the 1289123719834718937981 reasons why sanuso works so well together#they're literally perfect for each other idc#i just find the way oda portrays usopp's negativity really cool bc he takes that one 'negative' trait and turns it into a defense mechanism#against perona i mean#water 7 literally happens because usopp actually lets himself drown in negativity for once instead of trusting his crew like he always does#he won't stop seeing himself as less important than them and instead of communicating that or asking for help he decides to leave#it's a reasonable response when you're on the verge of a mental breakdown tbh but sanji teaches him it's okay for others to help you#which is funny because sanji refuses to use that for himself but that's because he's stupid and hates himself#they both hate themselves a lot but love each other a ton so. great relationship. teaching the other how to love#me when i say 'loser baby' from hazbin hotel could easily be sanuso but nobody shares that specific braincell with me#one piece#black leg sanji#usopp#sanuso
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What do you think of erifef :-)
ahhh erifef..... it's about the misunderstanding. it's about being the opposite of who you seem to be when you're looking at one another. it's about the being kids too young dealing with stakes too high and using violence and using each other until finally that violence goes ON one another.
Feferi is VERY misunderstood in canon in part because she sounds very sure of herself and the things people around her are doing when in fact that narrative is NOT the true reality of the situation. she is. so so so. and i truly do mean so. witch of life core. she needs Eridan and she is in some ways using him and then switching her desire to be rid of him when she doesn't need him. she views the things he does always as sincere or manipulative in the opposite direction Eridan is acting, which is ironic since they've known each other for so long, but also, half the time Eridan gets absorbed. Feferi finds Eridan too much! he is too much for her! and she is someone who like. has to put herself first or she will twist the situation to suit those needs. but for Eridan she resents him in part because she did try to fit herself into a position with him for a long time because of this relationship with orphaning he had with her that she felt free of in the game. Feferi is in no place when she is a preteen/young teenager to be around very hyper-sensitive and traumatised individuals who she feels any responsibility towards. Eridan is like all of this plus she feels trapped. Which just sort of captures them in this cycles of him feelings overbearing so forth.
Eridan on the other hand is like. Not seeing Feferi as manipulative, but rather fated -- which is part of troll romance and also part of being thirteen -- but it does give some distance between who she is and how he's romanticising her. He loses himself in her perspective. And he is also devaluing a dynamic Feferi is putting effort into maintaining even though it is taxing on her because he wants her in another quadrant. And to be honest, had Feferi returned his feelings, I DO think they'd have been much better flush rather than pale -- hence Feferi being able to like Sollux who has quite a few of the traits that make her irate with Eridan. Though to be honest, I think that relationship probably would wear on her too. Eridan also has all these opinions he's loud about that he doesn't really mean that are the opposite of what Feferi's trying to do. I cannot even truly get a grasp if she believes it because I kind of do think she should be able to see through it, but I do think Feferi is very very bad at empathy. I don't say that negatively -- how you grow with low empathy can be completely neutral. But Feferi is also this counter to Eridan's perspective and they are wrapped up in each other more than anything so if we're being real, I think their perspectives match up more than people would think -- they just cope differently with coming to grips with the position they hold and how to self identify. they miss giant chunks of themselves in opposing ways. they are each other's foils.
now if we're talking about shipping erifef. my opinion is. when they are thirteen. it is not going to work. they are toxic bad bad bad for one another. Eridan is obnoxious to some extent but a lot of this is just on how Feferi kind of is -- which is why I feel like there's not enough great Feferi meta out there. She has sooooo many great traits, and she is so young, but she also is manipulative and violent and sure of how things should be even when she could be wrong. How she treats Eridan is not great on many occasions, not that she doesn't have every right to get space from him, and not that Eridan's isn't someone who shoots himself in the foot constantly trying to interact or portray himself ever.
I used to be really intense about them for a while and then I went the opposite way and I just like this week started thinking of them romantically again. But it's like very much in the context of this fic I'm writing.
I think if they both grew up enough to umask a lot (which I think for Eridan will end with a complete collapse of self and will happen fast and will end up with him falling into guilt & self hatred, still self obsessed, but with a loss of his armour and ideology) (likewise, for Feferi, I think it'd need to be drawn to her attention, repeatedly, shoved in her face what she is and what's she's like, and I think the way she'd come to grips is in fear of the weight on her shoulders and what if she, after time passes by and by and by, could become like her ancestor?) they could potentially be a romantic match.
The thing is. Eridan does genuinely love Feferi a LOT. And I do think Feferi loves Eridan too, she just isn't equipped to meet his needs. Feferi wants to help people so badly. She wants the world to be better. She has a world in her head that's counter to the violence pushed upon them, but it's still wrapped up in the huge privilege they both share. She can't really handle not wanting to fulfill a position, especially one someone else could. Like, the situation with Eridan does need to Be Flipped on Eridan, whether or not that's an accurate representation of the situation or not. Because the way Feferi needs to meet her needs also needs to met by her sense of security in perception. She resents Eridan mostly because of what she doesn't want to be for him.
now. if we are talking pale -- I don't think there's ever a time when it would be necessarily smart for the two of them to be moirails. that's like, the worst matched quadrant for them by FAR. flushed i'm like, well Feferi doesn't like Eridan and that's her right, so it's one of those things where, I wouldn't want her to change her mind to suit him unless they'd both moved on from his childhood crush you know. I CAN see her liking him as they mature. If they unmask. I think she might kind of start to like the balance Eridan has and the sweetness he holds for her. She also has feelings for Sollux who has more in common with Eridan than either of them would like to admit. I can see it being very sweet, especially if Eridan has a good moirail too. But I still think it could go VERY badly. their personalities are kind of bad for one another in many ways. So it depends on how they grow up and how stable they are.
they should not be kismeses. it would uh. destroy Eridan. even if they weren't childhood friends and he liked her red. like i cannot tell you enough how bad that would be. still perhaps not as poorly matched as moirails for both of them, but for Eridan. yeah not good.
so yeah flushed erifef could go hard in very specific circumstances, childhood friends make me SOFT. it's about the love it's about the history it's about the growing up together. i think erifef is compelling and toxic. they are foils. but in more complicated ways than people always think.
#homestuck#eridan ampora#feferi peixes#erifef#anonymous#sorry this is so late. i have a concussion and typing this is hell#i am in agonies#agonies.
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How did dems shoot themselves in the foot with Latino voters? What did they do
I don't think there is one answer or any settled answer to this - in some respects of course the answer is "how did Trump successfully court Latino voters", he was president after all, and sometimes you just lose out to positive actions from the opponent.
IMO most of the evidence suggests that A: Latinos, like black voters, are more socially conservative than white voters within the Dem coalition (or even amoung independent voters), and less left in a general sense. But unlike black voters, latino voters do not have historically hyper-deep political orgs tied into the democratic party to keep them on their side despite the shifting views of the party. So in the 2010's - particularly when Trump was president and there was no democratic policy to evaluate, only their words as opposition & like media/vibes - the left shift on cultural topics, from racial politics to queer/identity issues and so on (or more muddled topics like Covid policy), was isolating to Latino voters. And this was paired with a generalized "taking them for granted" amoung many operatives - like they were just assuming Latinos would be opposed to Republican rhetoric on immigration, but no, they are quite capable of being just as nativist as anyone else (a human trait, that), and additionally tended to live in the communities most "exposed" to undocumented immigration waves and so many groups had negative opinions. Hispanic Americans are diverse, and Dem messaging didn't acknowledge that.
I also think that the 2020 crime wave should be its own point here too. In the summer of 2020, the Democratic party became vibe-associated with harsh anti-police sentiment, and then in the summer/fall of 2020 the US had a huge spike in crime, particularly violent crime like murder. Like black voters, Latino voters tend to disproportionately be the victims of crime, and thus are typically more "law and order" minded - and additionally don't have the same relationship with police black Americans might have that complicates that pattern voting-wise. So, even if imo it was pretty unfair because it wasn't like actual Democratic politicians (outside of a few cities where they almost immediately backtracked) ever themselves supported cutting police funding and Trump was president at the time, the Dems got heavily viewed as the weak party on crime, and that voting block heavily punished them in 2020. That block had a lot of Latino voters in it.
But I have no doubt there are other stories to spin. Like in the current election Robert F Kennedy disproportionally has Latino supporters. Probably some level of growing "anti establishment" sense there, and Trump (hilariously, as nepo baby billionaire megadonor former president) has the outsider brand in US politics right now, so 2020 may have reflected that.
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I just wanna quickly state, and I don’t at all mean this in a rude way but as someone who’s played most of the games and has been in the fandom since I was 8 years old and trust me when I say that’s awhile. I’m an adult now. I don’t understand the people that get mad when Taranza is written as cute and sweet. As long as he’s still given agency I definitely view him and write him as cute and sweet and not insufferable. I also think he definitely can be a bit of a snob, a know-it-all and a klutz. All these things are stated but there’s no reason he can’t be both. HAL Labs THEMSELVES in the mangas, game descriptions, and cutscenes and artwork official by THEM has him more often than not having the sentimentality of a heartbroken old man if you just look up some of their own character art. There is no woobification. Sure some fans may not focus on all elements, like the fact he can fight really well and CAN possess people but he’s also a silly little spider Kirby character for chrissakes. Sorry I find him as adorable and cringe fail as HAL makes him. I really think this is just a case of one segment of fans getting mad that one side of the fanbase focuses more on his positive or endearing traits and like…sorry 🤷🏼 I like him??? So I focus a lot on the positives. I also think painting him as a 100% callous villain who has reformed is MISSING the relationship abuse and grief themes of his character and TDX as a whole but I don’t post stuff criticizing fans who want to portray him that way, it’s a valid portrayal too. Seriously look at some of Hal’s artwork of him. Manga chapters of him. Tell me he’s not meant to be endearing and cute. This is Kirby. He can be both long-winded and snobby and adorable and sweet. I’m js. It’s a little odd to me to be like “stop headcanoning kyoot character as kyoot when I think he’s an asshole!” Taranza is a comfort character for a lot of us who grieve and have been abused. He is absolutely endearing and I look at all his traits. I just especially love the kyoot ones. I emphasize again: if you prefer him to be a cold, snobby, jerk that’s hard to be around that is your right and you can do with that what you want. I don’t see him that way. I think he has his negative traits and his positive and hope to capture BOTH.
#rant over#sorry I just like him a lot#I see where this side is coming from#but I think they’re also overlooking things without realizing it#in favor of their own interpretation#taranza my beloved#Kirby triple deluxe#springbreeze musings#kirby taranza#Taranza
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Worst Traits That Some Champions Have Part 2
((This is part two of my original post where I wrote different bad traits about some of the Pokémon Champions, so I’ll be giving more Champions some negative traits that I think they might have. Enjoy!))
Cynthia
This one is sort of hard as Cynthia, as a person/character overall, appears so humble and down to earth. She’s not out here trying to be high and mighty nor a perfectionist. Cynthia understands herself well and is aware of both her strengths and limitations; she doesn’t obsess with being number one, nor doesn’t flaunt her abilities to newcomers or bystanders. So, suffice it to say, Cynthia has difficulty accepting compliments and praise. Like, she’ll smile and say “thank you” to not be rude, but it’s a quick reciprocation. Knowing how powerful of a Champion she presents, and how often many compare, it’s a continuous thorn in Cynthia’s side that she will ALWAYS be an exemplary champion that many other future Champs, or even the current ones, should aspire to be. Deeply, it wounds Cynthia that she overshadows other Champions due to this, how some may downplay their strength in favor of Cynthia’s. Truthfully, I can’t say that this is a worst trait. It’s more of an insecurity, albeit Cynthia not enjoying being a damn expectation for all Top Trainers. She hates the pressure and believes that every Champ deserves their time to shine individually. For Cynthia, when not battling, the spotlight always makes it back to her and that makes her want to retreat so badly.
Geeta
As both a Champion and Chairwoman, Geeta has a lot on her plate, so she never has any free time. Much like Lance in part one, she’s a workaholic, constantly on the move, and makes frequent visits to each Gym in Paldea to make sure everything is running smoothly. This, of course, makes her prone to burning herself out and usually Rika has to step in and reel her back.
Given her frequent visits to each Gym, Geeta can be very strict and I’m putting that lightly. In truth, Geeta is an intense woman. Outside, she appears calm and collected. La Primera never loses her temper towards anyone. However, she’s very domineering albeit politely (yes, I know it’s strange). She tends to overstep boundaries without meaning to and this comes off rather poorly towards the Gym Leaders such as Katy and Ryme, and, of course, our one and only Larry. Geeta views these visits as necessary, so she doesn’t quite understand that her barging in unannounced and unprompted has caused the Gym Leaders to garner a negative opinion towards her. Geeta doesn’t know this as, once again, her intensity deters the Gym Leaders (even Elite Four) to call her out on it.
Geeta has a bad habit of assuming what people should do with their time and often asserts her own opinion on things that she has no say in. When she asked Drayton about a position in the League to replace Larry, he turned it down immediately and gave his reason. That’s one example of Geeta pushing a choice onto someone without considering their wants/needs. This is by far Geeta’s worst trait and one that irks people the most. She thinks she’s being helpful and generous while others say differently. It’s inconsiderate at worst and intrusive at, well, the ultimate worst.
Diantha
I don’t think it’s fair to put Diantha on the same page as Alder in terms of running away from Pokémon League duties. Fact of the matter is, Kalos isn’t as battle heavy as other regions, so challengers coming to face off against Diantha are pretty rare to come by. Because of the lack of challengers, Diantha isn’t seen as “Champion-like” nor exudes an intimidating aura like Lance or Cynthia. She’s often not taken seriously, which isn’t a bad trait but more of an insecurity on her part. Diantha cares about her position, but she won’t deny that even she doesn’t understand why she still has the Champ title.
There really isn’t much I can say about Diantha, but she’s forgetful sometimes. She tends to forget about the League due to her busy schedule as an actress and her time at the League isn’t always available. It’s not her fault of course, but her being away so often has led others to assume that she’s neglecting her League duties. Her time management skills need work and she’s trying hard to improve on that.
Steven
Much like Cynthia, Steven has a difficult time accepting compliments and praise from people given his notoriety and strength. Again, much like Cynthia, Steven is polite and keeps it brief but the man can be a bit overwhelmed when a huge influx of praises roll in. Usually, Steven might react very little (still maintaining politeness) and, when done, he just tries to get away from all the attention. At heart, Steven’s a bit of an introverted guy as opposed to Wallace. He’ll avoid any large gatherings as much as possible, but inevitably he’ll get washed away by many fans pointing him out in public. It’s exhausting and Steven tries to be a positive influence but this guy just wishes that it would be over quickly so that he can go back to his rock collection.
Quite argumentative, but only when he’s at his absolute limit. Steven’s a reasonable person and doesn’t mind a bit of back and forth, but when he gets heated, it becomes another level. Steven doesn’t like to be wrong and doesn’t like when people insult his intelligence (Zinnia is a prime example here). For all his coolness and collected demeanor, Steven tries to articulate his points clearly and makes damn sure that it gets to the point. However, it will get lost in translation because Steven might fumble with his words, picking out correct words that will deliver a final say. Regardless, most debates end in stalemate and Steven feels salty for a while. He’ll get over it, but it’ll take a few minutes. Or at least an hour.
#pokemon#pokemon headcanons#pokemon champion#pokemon steven#pokemon cynthia#pokemon diantha#pokemon geeta#pokemon oras#pokemon dppt#pokemon sv#pokemon xy
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Hello!
This is a humongous ask with a lot of context please please feel free to ignore😵💫
So I hold the hc that Ford is absolutely NPD, that Stanley has CPTSD and perhaps even BPD (we see him obsess over his FP throughout his entire life and while he represses as much as he can, it is still very clear that he feels DEEPLY either negative or positive emotions.)
I am in the middle of writing a fic where both men fall into the portal. If you are interested in understanding the premise, basically Bill fucks up by showing Ford exactly what happens during the some lowest moments of Stan's drifter years. Bill wants to destroy Ford's self worth and show him that he is a monster "just like Me"
The result being that Ford is wracked by Narcissistic injury. He contacts Stan, Stan comes, fight happens near the portal, Stan gets burned, but before Stan can push Ford into the portal, Ford rapid-fires some panic apologies and begs for forgiveness about .. everything. They are both physically fucked and by sheer bad luck end up falling through the portal just as they begin to communicate.
My AU is called Trust Falls
(https://archiveofourown.org/works/59665708)
At the moment in my writing I am working on the delayed reaction of Ford's narcissistic injury paired with the somewhat foreign to Ford idea that he has to not just rely on Stanley for both of them to survive but in fact Stan has skills and knowledge that Ford simply doesn't.
I am personally a BPD autistic person (with NPD people in my life that I love and I know love me) and I am struggling to properly represent Ford's internal struggle with this. I am also struggling to work in other NPD traits such as his manipulation of circumstances.
Another aspect to my story is that Ford is going to go through some pretty intense psychological trauma (think the Lamp story from reddit) and I want him to struggle to feel connected to his humanity, for some later healing when they get back to their home.
As an NPD person, do you have any recommendations on ways you would approach his injury and perhaps ways his ego would get them into trouble with locals around the multiverse?
I am trying really hard to not just simply ignore his NPD qualities in favor of "yay the boys can hug it out" bullshit narratives that I groan at.
I’ll try and do my best in wording all this, and will mostly be going off my own experience, so naturally I don’t speak for every narcissist, but I hope this can be of help anyway!
When it comes to writing and understanding Narcissistic Injuries, one of the most important thing to keep in mind is the root of it, as those will inform the character’s behaviours and reaction. The most common feelings related to Narcissistic Injury are things shame, humiliation, insecurity etc, and because we are usually unable of coping with that, and our view of ourself has just been challenged or even damaged, we turn those feelings elsewhere as a defence mechanism: anger is the most common response I find.
In Ford’s case, I imagine it’s only further worsened by the fact he has to rely on Stan. Honestly, that would probably piss me off if I was in his position. His self-worth has just been damaged beyond repair, which is already going to cause an array of negative emotions, and now, he’s been made even more vulnerable, with someone who simply put, knows more than him in this situation. It would be a blow to his pride.
I can see him doing things like refusing Stan’s help or going against what Stan tells him to do, believing he can handle a situation or do it better, lashing out and trying to prove his worth again, but he’ll likely only make himself feel worse in the process. It’s a horrible cycle to be stuck in.
You have to remember when writing that Ford’s response is only a shield, protecting himself from others but also his own feelings. He doesn’t want to acknowledge his own weakness. That’s just not an option. Every little disagreement in this state is going to be more than that to Ford — it’s going to be an insult. He may interpret Stan’s words as telling him he isn’t capable, or that he isn’t smart enough, when Stan is really just trying to help them both survive.
Hell, he’ll probably respond like this to most forms of assistance or locals trying to correct him, becoming snappy or defensive, insisting he knew that, or that they don’t need help, because he has it under control. I know for a fact I, even with how much I’ve improved my coping, still snap back with how I don’t need help, or that I was managing just fine, or that I actually intended to do that all along. It’s easier than just admitting you’re struggling.
I can see Ford pissing off a few people with that mindset.
It probably does help that a lot of this also stems from guilt, which means he likely feels responsible for Stan, and only grows more frustrated with himself when he can’t protect him.
Also Manipulation! I think I can word this one a bit easier I’m way more self-aware about that sort of thing.
The thing about manipulation with narcissism, is it isn’t always the obvious things. When manipulating a situation, it can be as simple as very intentional comments designed to garner attention or sympathy, although, intentional as it is, in my own experience, this tends to run on auto pilot. It just… is. You just do it. It’s also sometimes about speaking confidently enough that you convince people your idea is the better one, and thereby securing your own preferred outcome. Most times, it’s habit. Also, for me, and I think for Ford in this situation, manipulation is a way to regain control, if it helps to think of it like that?
Ford has to be in control, he has to be perfect, he has to be the smartest in the room, he has to be worth something, he has to make it up to Stan, otherwise, what has his life even been for?
Apologies if this is messy or doesn’t clear up certain things. It’s nearly 12am as I write this so I’m just balling it. I really appreciate you putting in the effort to write this kind of dynamic though!
#asks#I’m having to tap into my old mindsets for this because I’ve worked on my issues a lot#unfortunately. Ford at this point has NOT#and this shit can get MESSY
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