#He's just so perfectly flawed

[vexedmilky]

Y'all rate my top 5 favorite characters

Kaito

Kokichi

Korekiyo

Tenko

Shuichi

(Also look in the tags if you wanna see me rant about why I like them)

[bunnieswithknives]

I feel bad for neglecting Hazel so much, I do have many thoughts about her.. and also a mermaid au that im probably not going to do anything with

[t-u-i-t-c]

Taiya Hando in Bakuage Sentai BoonBoomger 01x48 Your Handle

+ bonus

[saturnniidae]

The fanmade idea that Hiccup is some kind of all benevolent and understanding dragon whisperer in the series is odd to me bc like. He's so not. He trapped the skrill in a glacier then essentially did it again years later with that deathsong (yes both ended up being freed but still), isn't able to train certain dragons (despite it very likely being possible. Smh so stubborn except for when he's a fucking quitter) and he killed the red death and fully intended to kill toothless when he initially found him. like idk its funny I think

[puhpandas]

the sense that cassie would knock into tony

[calypsolemon]

to this day I don't like skybound as a season all that much but I do think there's a unique derangement people have about it where they read Way Worse Implications into what's actually happening during that season and don't actually engage with any of the fucked up shit that really went on and also they want to take the little existing complex character writing out of it to make it more morally digestable

[littleoceanbabe]

anyway i have to talk more about izzy bc FUCK. ME. he goes from this cynical, brutal, awful man into this soft, gentle, loving person in the span of what. 2 episodes? how do you even pull off something like that from a writing perspective. idk how but they did!!

izzy hands was shown one genuine, selfless act of love and kindness (the crew making him his new leg), and he immediately turned his whole life around. he’s finally, finally getting over ed, someone who truly wasn’t good to or for him, and is learning to give his love to people who want it, and to people who can give it back to him.

underneath that calloused-by-force exterior is a man who just needed a family, but didn’t realize it was what he wanted until he realized he finally found one.

[basofy]

i feel a little bad remembering how in my mother days there was this rly common perception of thinking 'well lucas would be so pessimistic after what happened and he would hate flint cuz he sucks and he would hate everything!!' and i would believe it just cuz i was still relearning a lot of things i didnt know if that was what i was supposed to think but it always felt like people who saw things this way wanted to force others to do too

[downthepub]

to

BULK UP

you need to

eat more

you don't eat enough, dude

-rhett mclauglnglngg to link meeeal

[oimoi-op]

About your tags on the Lucienne post: oh we usually aren't even half this nice LMAOOO I could be a lot meaner but like. Both our posting about her and also the anger and frustration comes from the same place of love for and fascination with her. There's so much to talk about it's insane

Literally tho like!!!!! she's such a compelling character on so many levels, yet a lot of the fandom reduces her to the "mom friend" or other similarly reductive if not misogynistic stereotypical roles so for me (someone not super involved in the fandom these days) it's so refreshing to see you and others discussing her on her own merits and not just an accessory/afterthought for someone's white slash ship lol

[etcnnante]

actually i have to talk about how vital yossarians sexuality is in catch 22 and how, despite how the hulu show is the best adaptation of the novel, still manages to almost completely ignore it in favor of the infidelity between yossarian and scheisskopf’s wife. which, is still a vital plot point, but to favor that almost completely over the relationship him and the chaplain share has me insaneeeee especially because of how prevalent homosexuality was among all branches of the U.S. military due to how young and inexperienced many of the drafted men (and women) were. like he CONSTANTLY calls orr a very handsome and attractive man, the most beautiful out of the entire battalion. it’s wild to me that it is never explored bc of geo.rge clo.oney’s homophobic ass

[aq2003]

im listening to the whitestone stuff in campaign 3 and uhhh rip to the people who hated percy over that or thought he was being ooc or whatever the hell the discourse was. but something's deeply wrong with you

[boypussydilf]

How many others are there like the keroro platoon. Or dark keroro (in my mind at least I’m not sure what the writers intentions fr what hes doing after movie 3 are). Ppl who got in the keron army and then somewhere along the line find out. Oh you can. NOT. Do that? There are other options for how to live your life than just. Go be part of an endless machine of military expansion? Or even the Garuru platoon. Not all of them are EXCITED about making up shit to make the keroro platoon look better than they are but that’s just bc of like, personal grudges, even though they have all appearances of being a bunch of fairly model soldiers they’re all just willingly lying to the military to let the Failure Platoon with No Plans To Invade keep Not doing their jobs. How many others do you think there are. Who went Man. This is stupid. Let’s do something else.

[catboypalug]

The original 'virgin vs chad' meme

I feel like everyone is sick of those stupid soyjack vs Chad "my opinion is good and based and correct, your opinion bad and wrong and stinky" memes by this point, as they're some of the lowest forms of current internet 'humor.' But precisely because those memes are so bad and also everywhere, I feel it's worth giving some credit to the fact that the original "The Virgin Walk / The Chad Stride" was actually a brilliant meme.

"The Virgin Walk" image showed up first, and it was standard 4chan stuff - which is to say, highly negative. Just a whole bunch of random small traits that people can have, bundled together in an accusatory way to try and make people insecure about them having "virgin" posture, by the kind of people who genuinely worries about being an "alpha male" (Or possibly pointing out their own flaws as a form of self-hatred, flip a coin when it comes to 4chan)

And then, on another thread, someone made the Chad Stride edit to go along with it.

It's a great piece of satire by how simple it is. Just by taking the traits listed in the original image, then inverting and exaggerating them, the result is an absurd caricature of a man who does not (and should not) exist. Through exaggeration, it demonstrates how the people who constantly worry about seeming 'Chad-like' are chasing after behaviour that is utterly unhinged and disconnected from reality.

I think this gif demonstrates it perfectly by putting it in motion:

Virgin is a normal, if insecure dude. Chad is an absolute fucking maniac. (Not to mention all the references to violence in the image)

So, while it did degrade into those awful soyjak memes we all know and hate because that is the nature of the internet, I feel like it's worth remembering that in the original image that spawned this entire trend, you're supposed to laugh at Chad. You shouldn't want to be Chad, because he's the menace to society [ credit to the gif's creator: https://x.com/art_miguelito/status/1107313740033212417 ; thanks to @softwaring for linking it ]

[musical-chick-13]

I bring a real "Doctor x River OTP" vibe that a bunch of the DW fandom doesn't really like.

[woodohwanedandproud]

@applestorms #HONESTLY. hot take but i think most questionable mello fanon characterization takes like you list here #come from the fact that he just Treats Near Different #like YES so much of this post is so correct #mello does not have an insane temper… unless near is the one setting him off #he doesn’t care about power dynamics… unless near is the one beating him #he’s not harsh or impatient… unless he’s talking to near #mello loses his handle on All of his shit around Near Specifically. it all goes back to him #he is perfectly capable of being a chill mostly well adjusted adult #perhaps with his fair share of flaws and childhood traumas yes #he’s intelligent and calculating and works well in a crisis #his shit just gets Flipped the second near enters the picture #my god. what a man @biscuit-o #also for the gun thing i just rebloged this very informative analysis #that pointed out how mello doesn't have any trigger discipline #(and then he magically develops one during his meeting with near lol) #so who knows if he even has bullets in it #because i don't believe he is careless enough to wave his loaded gun around while his finger is on the trigger #though this would make all his threats quite funny

Not to be some sort giant simp, but because it's his birthday I wanted to write something nice and complimentary for him. But also genuinely and objectively as possible I think Mello is actually a fair bit more humane (or maybe the better term is "less cold-blooded") than get gets credit for?

The evidence:

1. He was very genuinely upset when they are informed of L's death, and doesn't even think about the matter of the successor-ship until Near speaks up alluding to it.

2. After Sayu was rescued/traded from the mafia she's asked to help in the investigation by providing any details of her experience. However she can't because she says she neither saw nor spoke much to her kidnappers. This indicates Mello (as the mastermind of all things related to this project) told the mafia members that they were to stay away from her and generally left her alone. She's a tool to him to achieve his ends but he takes no pleasure in using her this way nor has intention to cause her any additional harm, fear, suffering than is already an unavoidable part of being kidnapped and held hostage across the world.

3. When Soichiro confronts him with the Death Note by announcing Mello's real name and then actually starts writing, Mello could have killed him on the spot faster than Soichiro could write. He had access to the gun next to him in the open desk drawer. You can tell that even in this case he doesn't want to shoot Soichiro, and though Mello's hand hovers over the gun ready to grab it, he does his best to talk Soichiro down instead. Then he apologizes to Soichiro and thinks about how he never intended for Soichiro to die but at the same time he shouldn't have joined up with Kira. There is an important difference here between the anime and the manga; in the anime he tells this to Soichiro aloud which might be interpreted as a way to distract Soichiro while Jose prepares to fire, but in the manga because it's unspoken we know it wasn't meant as a distraction, but genuine regret and remorse.

4. When Mello crashed the SPK, Lidner wasn't really a hostage. She'd already been helping him secretly for a while and continues to do so afterwards; and she -wanted- Mello and Near to work together and was trying to help them do that - meaning she'd have gladly brought them together regardless. But they role-played her like one to cover for her in front of her colleagues, make it seem like she was being forced into it rather than reveal the truth that she was a double-agent.

5. While Mello frequently brandishes his gun as a threat and for coercion, he never actually fires it. Still no one ever doubts that he would use it if needed. Despite fanon often portraying him as a trigger happy nut-job, the canon demonstrates how controlled and coldly resolved he truly is.

6. A pretty commonly repeated sentiment on social media discussions is that unlike Near, Mello doesn't work well with others because he's too much of a lone-wolf and too insecure to work in a team because he would make everything about dominance and power struggle.

I really don't think this is right. Despite stubbornly refusing to work with Near, the evidence shows he's pretty good at getting along and working with other people. Like in the mafia he seems perfectly happy to let Rod Ross be top-dog; he doesn't appear to have any interest in being a big shot and throwing his weight outside of matters directly involving the notebook. Rod Ross is the one to give orders, dole out discipline, and is generally in charge, and he trusts Mello because Mello's proven his value as a loyal team member over time.

He also works well with Halle and Matt who both appear to be there by choice, neither are in the least afraid of or deferential to him and they seemingly work on equal terms together as opposed to a hierarchical boss/subordinate relationship, which is for example so prominently characterizes Near's interactions with his group.

With Matt in particular he's way more patient than is even reasonable to expect, given how it seems like Matt spends a lot of time whining, slacking off, and messing up - no shade meant on Matt (love him dearly) but going by the manga that is what we see. But Mello never scolds him or gets angry or snappy. Mello's internal monologue does show that he's annoyed but he doesn't externalize it, doesn't lash out and is patiently long-suffering when it comes to Matt's shortcomings. He basically just accepts the situation being what it is and moves on. And of course is regretful and sad when Matt dies.

We don't see much of Halle and Mello's interactions as they mostly take place offscreen/off-page but from what there is they seem very casual and comfortable with each other and Halle was very clearly emotionally affected by his death and speaks up for him in 104, believing he sacrificed himself intentionally. Basically, Mello's issues and anti-social behavior stemming from his inferiority complex is SPECIFICALLY centered on and triggered by Near. With everyone else he was able to work very effectively, and they hold him in high regard and can maintain good relationships with him.

7. He seems to have sympathy for Misa and is judgmental about the way Light weaponizes her trauma and idolization.

8. Although she's on his enemy's team, he felt enough pity for Takada provide her a blanket when he orders her to undress, which directly contributes to his own demise. I believe he knew (intended as part of his plan) that X-Kira would kill her to stop her from talking, so it was a small gesture that is practical in that it could make her more willing to quickly cooperate, but also give some small comfort during the short remaining time of her life.

None of this makes him not-evil or villainous, but I do think he's genuinely a more compassionate person than he's typically cast as. Certainly the least villainous of Death Note's wide cast of villains. As it's noted in the Japanese wording of Volume 13 he's "not pure evil" and he "has a pure heart and acts mean to get the attention of the person he likes" (scream). I don't think Ohba intended any of the Wammy's characters to be either pure good or irredeemably evil.