#I don't think there's one character I dislike

[prismalmelonman]

Touching on Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas being a bit undermined in parts of the fandom

So one thing I notice on Twitter is how some people act about the bg3 characters whose abuses were perpetuated by women.

Gale specifically for this reason (but I will touch on others)bbecause I see him dismissed super often as "can't get over his ex".

But Gale's case obviously be has the line of Mystra being like "she was my muse, my teacher, and then my lover" and sure to some that's a red flag in itself (when it comes to adults I don't really give a fuck about teacher/student) but if you view it from not only Gale's own words "ive been connected with the weave for as long as i can remember"

And that doesn't distract from his genuine love of magic of course. And it also doesn't mean that he's actually been in connection with mystra for an amount of time.

However, if you ascend Gale, and he becomes a god, you get a bunch of new little things. Tara reminiscing of course, but you get a letter from Elminster, detailing that Mystra had Elminster scope out Gale when he was eight!

And sure is that pretty cool that he's a prodigy that got the attention of the goddess of magic at that age? Yes. Mystra is, however, known in forgotten Realms lore to seek young young boys who are in tune with magic to make into her chosen. And from context clues, her chosen can be anything from Elminster and Volo, dedicated wizards who try to keep things in check, etc etc. or they're somewhat of playthings to her.

Minsc also has a conversation where me mentions that weave-touched boys in his homeland were hidden away to hone their craft, then suspecting that it was because of Mystra, given Gale's case.

Gale always seems so proud that he got to bed a goddess, and on the surface, hell yeah, that's cool.

Gale continued to have her attention even as he went to Blackstaff Academy, and Mystra eventually did take him on as an apprentice directly to her, later making him her chosen, and sleeping with him.

The reason it bothers me that people dismiss all of Gale's stuff to just "he can't get over his ex" is because that's is like almost textbook grooming? She was in his life from a young age, shaping and moulding him up as he grew up to be her perfect chosen, rewarding him by sleeping with him, and so on. And then of course casting him away when he has his folly with the netherese orb (and to be fair, it very well could have looked like to her that he was trying to seize the power himself and yes the orb does siphon off weave. That is a problem for the mistress of the weave yes).

But she also tells gale to KILL HIMSELF for her forgiveness.

Gale is much more than "unable to be over his ex" this woman was in his life since he was a kid. She's almost all he has ever known. If course it's going to be difficult for him to 1. Say no to her. 2. Get over the fact that he's lost someone that he spent his literal entire life dedicated to. Honestly if asked, I don't even think Gale would acknowledge or really see that what he went through was, in fact, abuse until it was spelled out in front of him. (Which does happen somewhat with the player character pleading to him that killing himself for mystra's forgiveness is actually horrific and that he should in fact be angry for how he was treated)

Similarly, and this one has been discussed a lot, Wyll and Mizora. Wyll was 17 and actively trying to help his people. 17, in a vulnerable state, willing to do anything to help and prove himself. Mizora very clearly took advantage of him, and regards him as a "pet", refers to him being "leashed", and so on. Personally, I do dislike the sexualization of their relationship, because it very much is also grooming (although a different type. Rather than manipulating and shaping his life from the ground up, she takes advantage of a vulnerable and desperate state to manipulate and contract Wyll into doing her bidding. I won't go too deep I to this one because it has been discussed to hell and back. But I did wanna touch on Wyll's situation as well.

Also, Halsin as well, though that has also been discussed in many retrospectives by a very good friend of mine. Halsin's trauma often get dismissed due to his polyamory, open sexual nature, and his own somewhat diminishing/dismissal of it, which honestly I love the representation of, cause for a while I did that with my own trauma. Halsin was a sex slave to a house of Lolth-Sworn drow, a matriarchal society, where the men are generally used as fodder or for breeding, though male Lolth-Sworn drow can be wizards and rise in the ranks if wizardry, but are limited everywhere else. (Minthara mentions that the third male, and every subsequent male child after third are killed for being"useless"). Halsin often referred to them as "hosts" rather than being captors, (though he does touch on that if the Player Character threatens to sell him back into slavery). Again, everything I'd have to say here for Halsin has entirely been discussed top to bottom by a friend, their link is below!!

Anyway, long story short, I dislike it a lot when Gale, Wyll, and Halsin's traumas and abuses get diminished, even if/when the character themself doesn't see or acknowledge the abuse in the same lens that we, the players, do.

[coraniaid]

The scene where Willow confronts Faith is Choices is kind of fascinating to me, because ... well.

I like Choices quite a lot, and I think Willow's dislike of Faith is perfectly understandable and in character (and her speech has some fun but probably not intentional foreshadowing for later seasons), but it's hard not to notice that the narrative expects you to be rather more unambiguously on Willow's side than I think is really warranted.

I mean, Willow might not have been the most popular girl in high school, but she has multiple close friends, a nice boyfriend, a stable [and fairly comfortably middle-class] home life, she "represents the pinnacle of achievement in Sunnydale High" in the words of her school's principal, she's trusted enough to teach at the school, in a year she'll be able to go to any college she wants (and, unlike some people, she can afford to go anywhere she wants), she used to hack into government computer databases (before she ever met Buffy!) and now she's teaching herself dark magic "for fun" and she hasn't [yet] ever suffered any real repercussions for either of those things.

On the other hand, from what little we hear about Faith's past we know she grew up poor and that her mother used to get drunk and beat her, that she didn't have any friends and dropped out of high school young, she is very strongly implied on multiple occasions to have been the victim of some pretty horrific abuse before being called as a Slayer, and after being called as a Slayer she got to watch the one adult who ever told her she mattered get killed horribly in front of her before fleeing across the country to a town where she doesn't know anybody, still has no friends, doesn't have a job or go to school and lives alone in a motel in the bad part of town. And when she accidentally killed a man, while trying to do the whole slaying vampires thing she's supposed to be doing, the Watcher's Council -- who never actually bothered to send her a new Watcher of her own -- decided to have her abducted and dragged away to England [a fate which surely nobody deserves].

Yet a part of Willow clearly thinks (and almost outright says) "oh, well, yeah, but she hangs out with Buffy sometimes when I don't get to and she slept with the guy -- not my nice boyfriend! -- who I used to have a crush on (and who I was briefly cheating on said boyfriend with), so it's clearly impossible to say which of us really had things worse and I don't need to feel sorry for her". And -- again, while this is great characterisation for Willow -- it's kind of hard not to notice that the writers think she has a compelling point.

Yes, sure, Faith has defected to working for the Mayor and has a knife drawn on Willow this scene (she's not anything like a blameless victim at this point of the story) and it takes a certain level of physical bravery for Willow to stand up for herself despite that. But ... I mean, come on. "You had friends like Buffy" is only true if you accept it to mean "you had exactly one friend, who was Buffy". "It's way too late" for Faith to seek forgiveness ... how many people has Faith killed at this point? One, by mistake? Giles has killed more people than that. "Some people think you had a lot of bad breaks?" Yeah, actually in Faith's shoes I'd want to hit Willow after she said that too.

I realize that part of the show's central thesis -- something that explicitly came up as recently as Earshot -- is the idea that everybody, regardless of how comfortable their life might seem from the outside, has their own sorrow and pain and (only occasionally metaphorical) demons to fight. But while that's not entirely wrong, it's also ... not entirely complete? Everyone has it bad sometimes, but some people really do have it worse than others. Pretending otherwise is ... not a serious position to take.

Willow's life could be better, but she's not gone through anything like Faith has. I'd argue she literally can't imagine how bad Faith's life has been. She really doesn't have as much moral authority as the show's writers think she has at this point.

[Compare this part of Season 3 with the first half of Season 6, when the show is overflowing with sympathy for Willow's abrupt descent into magic addiction but has no sympathy at all for Amy Madison, whose own magic addiction is just implied to be because she's inherently a Bad Person who Willow needs to avoid and whose own horrific past and abusive mother and complete lack of support system is just entirely forgotten about. Or, indeed, to the weird take of Dead Man's Party, which has Buffy apologize to Willow for ... what? Having problems of her own that don't revolve around Willow? Being too busy mourning the loss of everything she ever cared about to tell Willow how uniquely special and amazing she was for learning rudimentary magic? Not being grateful enough for Willow restoring Angel's soul without bothering to ask Buffy if that was something she still wanted her to try?]

So, the overall effect is ... yeah, it's a good scene. But it's almost a good scene despite the writer's intentions, not because of them. It's much less of an ambiguously triumphant moment for WIllow than I believe we're meant to read it as.

[acourtofthought]

"Lucien is unwanted by everyone, nobody likes him"

"But he is a good male." Cassian's heart strained at the pain etching deep into Lucien's face as he tried to hide his disappointment and longing. "And I came up here because Feyre said I should. I need to kill a few hours before I'm to meet with her and Rhys. She thought I might enjoy seeing Nesta at work." Elain, the wretch, had taken the seat between Feyre and Varian, about as far from Lucien as she could get. But as Eris strode by...I could have sworn there was something like sadness - like regret, as he glanced at Lucien. The Lady of Autumn's favorite son - not only from Lucien's goodness. But because he was the child she'd dreamed of having ...with the male she undoubtedly loved. "He cares for you." "He is a good male," I repeated. / "I don't like to see either of you unhappy." Friends, I realized. They had somehow become his friends. "He'd already made many friends across the courts and had always been good at talking to people." Ups and downs in friendships, misunderstandings, etc., does not mean a character is unwanted or disliked. Rhys was upset with Lucien at various points throughout the series but guess what? Lucien was upset with Rhys too! For good reason, reasons Feyre continued feeding into at the start of ACOWAR. Feyre was upset with Lucien at points throughout the series? He was upset with her too! He called her an asshole to her face and she admitted it to be true. Sarah continues writing scenes for Lucien because he is important to the overall story. Some of those scenes consisted of disagreements, obstacles, overcoming past beliefs, etc., but the point is they were introduced and resolved and led to the characters building a stronger foundation with one another. If Lucien was unwanted than he would simply disappear from the story like Briar, like Hart and Bron, and so on. Instead Sarah continues to connect him to future plots like Koschei, she has the fan favorites (Feyre, Rhys, etc) remind of us of how much they need Lucien because of his connections, she has Feyre JEALOUS that Lucien is choosing to spend time with Vassa and Jurian over staying with her, we're told how Lucien has super special private meetings with only Rhys and Feyre. As of the most recent book we have Cassian feeling sorry for Lucien regarding his situation with Elain (and Cassian thinking nothing of Az's love life). We have Rhys going to bat for Lucien regarding Elain and ordering Az to stop being an idiot. We have Nesta making conversation with Lucien, we have Feyre asking Lucien to check on Nesta's progress, we have Rhys and Feyre inviting Lucien, the only non Night Court / IC character to Solstice (their FAMILY holiday, something not even the wraiths attend) and Starfall. Tamlin turned his back on Lucien? Tamlin turned his back on his entire court. It's called depression and is not some tally mark for anti's to use as proof that Lucien is unwanted. "Elain clearly doesn't want Lucien". And yet she keeps his gifts and has not formally rejected their bond. She had no issues telling Nesta off, no issues returning Az's gift, so why exactly is she so hesitant to tell Lucien to stop coming around if she truly doesn't want him and never will? Nesta also ignored people because she was running from something so chances are good we're seeing the same with Elain. In one breath we've got anti's claiming that Lucien is forgotten, unimportant, unwanted, hated by all. In the next we've got them claiming E/riel is next while Lucien will receive the book after, where he's so important that he'll defeat Koschei alongside Vassa.

[punkeropercyjackson]

The thing about Jason is that he IS a feminist and racially inclusive character but because he treats the women and poc in his stories well,not because he's 'female-coded' or a substitute for canon poc.Now i do support transfem readings of Jason or Lina as i like to call her and consider him canonically afrolatino but that's because i love trans women fictional and real and am afrolatino myself so Jason reads as afrolatino to me from personal experience.And a big part of the latter is the diversity of his cast!!

His adoptive mom is an arab-chinese woman,his love interests are a wasian/half cambodian woman an egyptian woman and a darkskin black woman,his brothers he gets along with are that mom's bioson and his eldest brother on his dad's side who's romani and the remaining brother he's on good terms with is THE FIRST EVER BLACK ROBIN who is also the ONLY one he's always liked and been nice to and the only white character he actively likes is also a girl and has a completely platonic relathionship with him.This along with Jason's personality and other individual traits is why i have such a black view of him,because he feels afrolatino to me

That's what gets me about fanon Jason being claimed as a minority!!!Canon Jason actually works as one with a design update only but it CAN'T be just him!That's not representation or good writing!Instead of Talia bashing or some random ass white woman replacing her,she should have her pre-Morrison history employed and act like a typical brown/asian mom in a positive relatable and accurate way.Instead of sweeping Jason's girls under the rug for BEING girls and acting like it's not misogynistic because you're shipping him with Roy as if og Rhato dosen't have racialized misogyny fused into it's formula,explore their romantic dynamics with him and how they diffenterate and have in common and fucking care about Rose,Artemis and Dana as their own characters too as they're much,MUCH more than just 'DC's failed attempts to make Jason straight'.Instead of infantilizing Dick and animalizing Damian,make Dick Jason's cool reliable older brother he was close to as Robin but never mollycoddles him as Red Hood which JASON dosen't want as seen by his dislike of Roy and give him and Damian equal respect if not Damian way more since he's done way less bad fore more understandable reasons.Instead of lying about their age difference,aknowledge that Stephanie in current canon is 19 at the oldest while Jason is 23 at the youngest and in pre-reboot he was 19 when she was in high school and very specifically NOT a senior so yeah,it IS a minor x adult ship in almost every scenario they meet in the ship content

And for fuck's sake,STOP LEAVING OUT DUKE!!!!!!!The blue eyes Batkids rule isn't real,it's never been brought up in canon or joked about in official sources,it's segretation y'all made up!'Honorary Batkid' my ass,he's so literally Robin-coded the writers gave him light powers and 'The Signal' as his mantle!You know NOTHING about superheroes if you actually think Duke's not a core Robin,a Batboy AND a Batkid-Or if you think Jason's supposed to be a normie,a power fantasy or an abuser!He's a tragedy and commentary and an adventure and a comedy and same goes for Talia,Rose,Artemis,Dana,Dick,Damian,Duke AND Stephanie!Jason wouldn't wanna be Jason without them and they also do NOT exist just for him because they're his loved ones,not his tokens!Y'all want Jason Todd?Ight,then you want the Red Hood cast too because they're a package deal.You don't?Then keep that shit to yourself and invest in a dating app since you clearly can't write anything except white ass porn

[mask131]

I said before that Helluva Boss haters are very weird in how their perception of the show is often completely broken from the truth of what the episodes show us. And all of the haters are freaking out about the Apology Tour episode and pointing out Stolas is a rapist and the show is trying to "glorify" sexual abuse (they are LITERALY pulling off the same card they tried to pull off in Hazbin Hotel, not understanding that when you make one HUGE mistake it is preferable to not repeat your big offensive take TWICE)...

(By the way how come I keep seeing the haters freak out over the episodes that are not the actual bad ones? There are bad episodes in Helluva Boss, and yet the haters never manifest themselves when it comes to these very obvious weak spots. They just start foaming at the mouth with all the other episodes... Anyway)

So here's my point: when you look at all the rants and comments and "pseudo-analysis" of the Stolas/Blitzo relatonship, you do end up realizing that these haters either didn't watch or don't remember the way the beginning of this "sex bargain". Remember the VERY long scene showing when Blitz had sex with Stolas for the first time? Well here are the facts I see NOBODY among the haters bring out:

Blitzo was there to steal the grimoire. He tried to break into the palace to steal it, all throughout the scene he was only focused on getting the grimoire ; he only played along Stolas' ideas and "seduced" him in hope to distract him while he stole the grimoire ; and he did end up succeeding in distracting Stolas with sex to get the grimoire because... point number 2:

Notice how no bargain is struck, there is no talk of the grimoire, Stolas never realizes throughout the scene Blitzo wasn't into him but into his book, and the fact Blitz literaly snuck away with the book while Stolas was still asleep (one of the rare points of continuation from the Pilot episode) does indicate he was still stealing it without Stolas knowledge. It is very clear that their "sex bargain" was only struck AFTER this incident - and this is a part of the story the show has not covered.

Another thing of note: Blitzo tries to kill Stolas to steal the grimoire, before ending up deciding he can have sex "real quick". This is played for comedy and these are VERY clumsy murder attempts, but the biting at the neck and the breaking of the neck WERE Blitzo's attempt at murdering Stolas to steal his book. Though Blitzo clearly didn't know then that a little imp can't hurt like that a Goetia demon.

And the final point: nothing and nobody forced Blitzo to start this whole thing. Nobody forced him to steal the grimoire: he did it solely in an attempt to start his just as reckless business plan to go to Earth to kill people ; a plan and a mean for a plan which is explicitly said to be illegal in Hell, between imps being forbidden to go to Earth and the grimoire that should NOT be lended or given or used by anyone other than Stolas himself. Also nobody forced him to have sex with Stolas, he just decided to play along to cover his tracks. And that's the whole point of Blitzo's character: he is reckless, careless and doesn't think through or plans the consequences of his actions. He thinks he can just steal a grimoire from a demon-prince without realizing what it means, he goes to Earth without a disguise because he didn't study anything related to Earth travels, when caught he tries to kill Stolas without realizing it won't work... That's literaly Blitzo's character.

And as an aside note, it is also interesting to see how Blitzo and Stolas are both depicted as selfish, or more precisely not selfish but as self-centered, this is the correct term, but in very different ways. Blitzo is self-centered in a reckless, destructive, careless way - he just does what feels right on the spot without thinking of the consequences, he flees or tosses away anything he dislikes without understanding any responsibility that would come with it, he puts up dreams and projects just because he wants to without planning anything. Which is the perfect reverse/companion of Stolas who is also self-centered, but simply because he is a sheltered naive fool and a literal delusional dreamer who projects his own state of mind upon others, feeds himself with cliches and fiction rather than actual reality, and keeps switching between over-analyzing and under-analyzing everything.

And that's precisely these two forms of self-centeredness that allowed the very fucked up and messy and thorny relationship they are in to happen in the first place. Blitz thought he could steal/murder/have sex with a demon prince just to get what he wants, and that there would be no consequence or difficulty along the way ; Stolas was a dumb owl who clearly didn't understand the person in front of him was a criminal not at all into him, and mistook a robbery for some sort of romantic movie scene...

But haters choose to literaly recreate in their mind a completely different scene than what is shown to us. If you listen to their rants it will seem Stolas forced Blitzo into taking the grimoire or opening his business, or that Blitz was an innocent victim somehow dragged into Stolas palace by the rapist owl... When what we rather see is a very stupid criminal doing a very clumsy and messy robbery and ending up entangled in an uncomfortable relationship entrapment + constraining sex-deal, because he literaly didn't give a fuck about anything and tried to avoid the consequences of his actions any way he can, only to literaly get everybody's careers, lives and feelings on the line (making Moxxie and Millie's lives for example dependant on the use of a stolen good used illegally and only kept by a precarious and shady deal).

And such a character is... well literaly most of Brandon Rogers anti-heroes in his own Youtube-series, so you can clearly see how indeed he is the one writing Blitzo.

(And to those of you that claim it is unfair Blitzo gets all the shit thrown at him while Stolas gets nothing, if the leaks I got accidentally spoiled by are true... [putting this under a cut]

then don't worry dears, Stolas will also have to face the consequences of his actions, it will be HARSH, and definitively much harsher than what Blitzo is currently facing. )

[dreamerwitches]

WITCH THOUGHTS LET'S GOOOOO!

THEY IMPROVED CARMELA THANK FUCK! They did it for me..! ^v^ She is WAY more coordinated and the colours are sooo nice! The frilly skirt bit is soooo cute! I love how she kinda looks like an octopus or some kind of sea creature. Not sure how well that links with Manaka but eh. I don't think there's much I dislike here. Perhaps the knife rack thing is a little out of place? Not sure. Now as the witch from the doppel hmmmm it seems like the circular bit is completely lost... for link-age, that's not great but getting rid of it to make the design better, i am wholeheartedly down for. She is a big win for me!

Obariyon. I'm hmmmmm not sure. I don't hate it. Why does its head look like a bear? Is it cause like... Obeariyon..? I just don't know if this would be what I'd imagine the full witch to be... The doppel makes me think more of an insect or something whereas this is going for a mammal it seems. It's good but I'm on the fence whether I personally like it.

From the silhouette from the trailer I was super worried about Hevelius but I think I like her? I think her shape is interesting and as stupid as the head is, I think it's fun. But I do have gripes. I'm a bit bothered that the white fabric bit that was so focal before is just completely gone and the head piece and veil is completely removed, like c'mon, that could've been super pretty on her head. And I'm not sure about the coral-looking uhhh thing. And I hate those legs why do they look unfinished? As I rack up the complaints maybe I don't like it..? Hm... I feel like I could improve it using that shape base though. She's fine.

Also... THE HEAD LOOKS LIKE THAT MANNEQUIN HEAD FROM RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER ITS NAME

Now we're getting onto the ones I super like again wheeee! I think Pennen Nolde is so fun, the little matchstick girl theme is ace! I'm sad some super cool aspects of the doppel are gone though... I loved the matchstick thing and the lace and hanging diamonds but eh, maybe they just didn't fit. She's good and I can see it working the other way if the doppel came second. Although the legs are simple, I think the doll legs work and aren't bland like Hevelius'

Pennen Nemenu, ough, I think she's beautiful! I think she takes from the doppel super well! I miss the weird teapot head but I think the head they chose is also cool. Maybe add the tassels onto the end of the hat thing? I love how the main body is utilised into her bloomers (one thing I was sad was missed about Nolde) and she's super cute. My only gripe is her body shape, she is a child she does not need a stick thin waist and boobs, thank you

Now I did notice that these last 3 doppels share a similar body shape and I get that for important, linked characters. I don't think it's a bad thing cause they're all unique enough on their own.

And back to disappointed. My fears came true, I did not want her witch to just be the Nightmare-esque part... sigh... it doesn't even take from it well... no ears? Hair completely wrong colour, face completely different, stripes going wrong way. Like, I get it. Gas mask for poisons, bandage on head for uhh illness (i dont know enough about Alina but she was in the hospital right?) but it's not her doppel. Disappointing.

[bluemink5822]

So, I am almost exclusively a traditional artist, but it kind of feels like Tumblr as a whole is rather overwhelmingly digital, so while I don't do it often, I wanted to try a daily monochrome portrait in digital too, and see if I could get it close to what it's like on paper.

In short, I don't dislike it, but I definitely wouldn't prefer the process or result over traditional drawing.

Made using ibis paint X.

Taking free requests for any live action character you want to see in a monochromatic medium.

Alt + some ranting under the cut

While I'm not totally dissatisfied with the result, I am annoyed that I had to give him a little glow to compensate for my not putting the background in early enough, and the overall softness prevented the product from showing some of the details that were less prominent. Creation-wise, I missed both the control and the randomness that comes with traditional art. Even blessed with a stylus (I love you finger artists but you scare me), maneuvering was more difficult with size and opacity preset, and the strokes exhibit a standardized pattern instead of showcasing the movement which made them. I also think I chose a bad reference, because while no one deserves to look as pretty as David Tennant did wearing a half-smile half-frown type expression, it looks rather unnatural out of context. Nonetheless, I love how easy it is to erase and adjust in digital, even after the piece is finished.

So on the subject of adjusting in digital, I wanted to see if I could make the piece more interesting by changing the color. I love indigo, so I gave him this spacey bluish tone just for fun and really can't decide which one I like better. That's all.

[buddiebeginz]

But how is Tommy good for Buck right now? All he does that we’ve seen is belittle Buck any chance he gets.

I assume this is in reference to this ask that I reblogged? Just because I reblog something doesn't mean I agree with every single part of it particularly when it comes to asks often I'm reblogging for the responses.

Personally I don't like T*mmy as a character and even if Eddie didn't exist I still wouldn't like him with Buck. Him and Buck just don't work as a couple. In the first place Oliver and Lou just don't have that natural chemistry needed to pull off a believable romantic couple and it's certainly nothing compared to Oliver and Ryan who have magical chemistry just standing in the same scene together.

Second T*mmy and Buck just seem too different. Buck gets hyper fixated on things and is easily excitable and he especially (given his family history) often needs a little extra support and validation. Buck is also a little younger and newer to figuring out his sexuality. T*mmy is older with more life experience and also just generally has a more mellow personality than Buck. Which I know people might say opposites attract but in this case I think they're just too different.

T*mmy seems to have less patience and on multiple occasions it's felt like he was easily annoyed by Buck. On the first date when Buck was nervous T*mmy seemed annoyed in part probably because he's been out for a while and didn't want to deal with someone who is still figuring things out. You can't tell me that it didn't play some part when T*mmy literally left Buck right after he got nervous and told Eddie they were going to pick up some chicks. T*mmy could have said to Buck let's skip the movie and go back to your place and talk. Instead he just left. And going back to what I said about Buck needing extra emotional support I can only imagine how he felt his first time going out with a guy and being that vulnerable to just be left standing on the curb not fully understanding why.

Then there was the bachelor party. T*mmy seemed annoyed when Buck made a big deal about him not dressing up. T*mmy also didn't seem to notice or care that planning the bachelor party was important Buck. You could argue that T*mmy didn't know it was that important or that he didn't dress up because he had to work but when Buck expressed his feelings about it instead of T*mmy apologizing he was dismissive.

T*mmy was also dismissive when Buck was excited about receiving his first award telling him to "enjoy it while it lasts." And we know how important receiving that award was to Buck because apart from everything else he told Eddie back in s3 how much getting one would mean to him. Yet when he finally does instead of celebrating him the guy he's seeing acts like it's no big deal.

Then of course there was the daddy kink joke. Which the main issue was never that T*mmy was talking about something sexual it was that he chose to make a joke like that when Buck was being vulnerable and talking about his father figure almost dying.

I don't like T*mmy and I think Buck deserves so much better for a partner, that said everyone is entitled to ship who they want. I have nothing against the person in that post I reblogged who says they like B/T right now. My problem is mainly the militant part of that fandom that has decided even disliking T*mmy or not shipping B/T is homophobic. Or that somehow canon is superior to fanon. That celebrating Eddie as a queer character is somehow problematic now when it never was before.

[a-cloud-for-dreams]

If people could hate on Lane and Lou, they could do the same to Devi too. I wonder why if the MC weren't like Vicky/Agatha/Laia personality-wise, why some fans would hate them? Saying Lou is too masculine and Lane is b-word. I'm replaying PSI and HSR back-to-back just to make sure I didn't miss anything because I thought they have feelings?? They just don't tend to show it?

You're right anon! Everyone has the equal potential to hate on any of the MCs, which makes it clearer when certain MCs are hated more than the others because it implies there's a collective underlying aspect of their character that fans view as unlikable. Of course, the answer is just plain misogyny but here is my guess as to what's going on internally.

Two main things (that definitely go hand in hand) I've noticed people want from a female MC is for them to be nice (very vague I know but just an overarching word including selflessness, caring for others, vulnerable with their emotions, etc.) and feminine. They can't be too much of either of those things or they're deemed too weak (that's a whole other discussion). The MCs have to be layered and complicated but to them, if they do not include the two aforementioned traits somewhere than they are "unlikable" or "too masculine."

Vicky, Agatha, and Laia can be described as feminine MCs (based on their wardrobe and how they're described in their books) who are known for being kind and putting others before themselves (Agatha can be more morally gray from what I've heard but y'know). Lane can be described as feminine (serving cunt in Siberia like a queen 💅🏽) but the reader doesn't have access to her emotions like they do with other female MCs even though that's an intentional part of how she's written??! My guess is that because society expects women to act a certain way, when women or female characters in this case deviate from the norm, it's seen as ~unsettling~ or unpredictable. And some fans don't like that.

Lou unfortunately has the more obvious answer. I will be honest and say I know less about PSI than I wish but based on those other confessions I read, people think she's "masculine" because she's more of a tomboy and because she has traits most people associate as masculine (assertive, ambitious, not depending on another man, less emotional/more rational). On the surface, she doesn't fit into the traits I mentioned earlier and ig fans don't like that and ignore the rest of her character 😭😭 Maybe they're the reason why one of the endings makes Lou have a kid, like a last-ditch effort to "compensate" for how drastically different she already was in comparison to other female MCs idk.

Going back to the first thing you mentioned. Devi is both feminine and is clearly written as someone with noble intentions who cares about the fate of other people. Sure, she might have been somewhat reckless when younger, but we can see where she's coming from given her backstory (something we don't have with Lane and something people ignore for Lou because wawawa she's not talking about her feelings all the time as if there aren't bigger things happening in the plot).

I do want to conclude by saying you're not sexist just because you don't like a certain female character and you're not exempted from being sexist just because you like a female character. That's surface level talk and gets us nowhere. I'm just saying that if you notice you inexplicably dislike a female character(s), I implore you to dig deeper to find out the why.

TDLR: you didn't miss anything when rereading those books (I can speak for HSR more than for PSI) people just don't like female characters they can't fit into a box. Also, if you made it this far, ilysm <33

[bokettochild]

How about least favorite LU boy as a character?

Dont bully Four just cuz he's complex he's my favorite character but I still die every time I try to write him he's so HARD

There isn't one I like least as far as character goes, I think.

There's a facet or angle on each one that makes them fascinating for me:

Legend's guarded nature hiding kindness

Warriors' experiences as a soldier which cause him to mas

Sky being the puppet of the goddesses and how bitter it makes him

Hyrule's duel nature as both cure and cause, peasant and king, fairy and man

Wind's duty as an eldest sibling

Time's struggle with going from the child no one listened to to the adult everyone looks to

Four's muti-faceted personality and all the delights (and pains) it offers up to a writer

Wild's imposter syndrome

Twilight's ever present need to be involved and helping

Each one of the boys gives me a unique perspective and angle to work with, and while often times those perspectives can clash, I also find they usually both have ample grounds and reasoning.

So, I actually don't have one who I dislike as far as personality goes. Link, in general, is made to be a character we can all see ourselves in, and while JoJo has certainly made them all more distinctive and unique, that doesn't change that if you look hard enough, you can still see facets of yourself in them. I see bits of myself in them all, and while they're not beautiful pieces, they are fascinating to explore and work with, so I treasure the connected character for the insight they give me.

Having a least favorite would require them to be comparable, and they are not, so I have no least favorite! Although, it is true that I can't help but say there are some I do love the most of all (Legend and Warriors), but I digress. It's not my fault they have so much potential for suffering!

[ilminnestrone]

I really need to take this out of my system because I stumbled across this polyphobic bullshit too many times.

When it comes to polyships, you all need to stop with this constant blabbering that ships involving character 1, character 2 and other characters are not character 1 x character 2. Yes, they fucking are.

It's literal Polyamory 101, if not Polyamory for dummies, and you're just full of polyphobic shit without even knowing (I hope).

Do you really think we polyamorous people wake up one day and fall in love with the same person, at the same time, with the same intensity? That's unicorn hunters' thinking. It's the first thing you learn when you get into consensual non-monogamy. I'm telling you: it doesn't.

Not all the people involved in a polycule are necessarily in love with each other or having sex with each other. That's called Heaven on Earth. Most of the times some of them are in love, some of them fuck, some of them do both, some of them just watch, some of them cuddle, some of them are into kink without the sex part and some of them despise each other.

Polycules are formed around relationships between individuals. Polyamory is messy and complicated because the people involved in it form bounds that are completely independent. Every pairing in a polycule has its own peculiar relationship. A, B and C are in a closed throuple? Then you have three different pairings involved: AxB, BxC and AxC. And also the dynamic between the three of them. The more characters you add, the more the pairings and variabilitiy. That's math, pure and simple. So YES: ships involving A, B and C are AxB too!

You are totally entitled to your NOTPs. You're entitled to dislike het ships or homo ships (even if I think you might have an issue if you are repulsed by an entire sexual orientation). You're entitled to your monoships or to dislike polyships. The point here is not personal preference.

The point is you have to fucking stop using polyphobic (or any other kind of queerphobic) statements to exclude things you don't like. Use tags. Don't consume a piece of media if you don't like it. Headcanon every single character on Earth as monogamous. But keep in mind you don't own an entire fandom and other people are entitled to enjoy their headcanon as much as you do.

Just be a decent human being to people who are just trying their best to survive in this world and yearn for representation. Because we exist, and those statements are hurtful.

[liathejedi]

apparently my post about gwen is doing the rounds and the discourse has ignited again. so. tapping the sign. I do not care if you dislike gwen. I really don't. there is no mandatory rule saying that you must like every protagonist in every show you watch. but hating one character for having certain characteristics and loving another character for the same thing is the problem. going out of your way to write a character so OOC that you're practically fabricating them a new personality because you hate them that much is the problem. I've read fics that have painted such a negative caricature of gwen cooper that they might as well have put her face on a dart board and started throwing knives at it. I think some of you need to brush off your hating gwen hats and check for any unconscious misogyny. you might be surprised what you find in there.

[yugiohz]

i do agree with you, and i’m still delusionally hoping shigaraki still has something left to help that conclusion even though it’s not looking likely, but do you not think these endings are more “realistic”? like obviously it’s a superhero world and we are already stretching reality in every way possible but do you think it would’ve been too “and they all lived happily ever after and everything was okay yayy” if all the villains just turned out good? (in the most basic way to say that lmfao). i’m not saying that i fully think this because i do agree with you, that this ending is giving bad writing. i think hori had the guts to set up this beautifully complex world with flaws and wrongs and made some amazing villains and anti-heros with valid mindsets and then didn’t have the guts or maybe the artistic ability to fix it all.

so yeah my only “reprieving” thought i guess is the idea of like… i guess that’s real life? like the wronged people are wronged to the end, and bad people are forgiven, and life is unfair. but idk i just think hori is a coward too lol. i will say i’m at least surprised that he had natsu actually cut contact, maybe the best handled part of it all imo (or maybe it just hits home for me lol)

sorry for dumping all this i guess i just have a lot of thoughts too you don’t have to post this dhdhdhd

re: realism: yes i think everyone suffering from irreversible consequences is realistic and that's sth i expected. As i said in my previous ask, I never expected or wanted dabi to magically survive and heal from this by any means, but I think there are better ways to handle a character like him because the narrative frame of bnha allows for that.

re: happily ever after: I don't think that giving one of the biggest victims in a story some sort of good ending is necessarily a corny, wish-fulfillment type of bad writing, especially when the protagonist postulates that the other big villain is worth saving. I also find it fascinating that bakugo can survive an open-heart surgery on the battlefield & that deku's arms get disintegrated and grow back while that level of suspension of disbelief doesn't seem to apply to the villains. bnha has always been kind of corny, so I don't think it would have been weird for shoto to be able to somewhat save his brother when that has been his goal within that dynamic all along. So far, neither deku nor shoto could save their foil, so what's up with that??

happily ever after: while it has always been obvious that bnha is not a radical, anti-establishment story, to me, deku's conflict with grand torino & the vestige has allways been representative the "everyone deserves to be saved, everyone deserved to have their hero who's gonna save them". why set up characters as foils within the context of a hero story with saving as one of its core themes when 2 of these 3 villains won't get saved in the end? why do deku and shoto fail at such a point in the story? "saving" is a very tangible thing in the case of bnha, I think ep. 1 basically sums up the overall narrative paradigm of the good guy indiscriminately saving someone out of a bad situation, so to me, it just feels like there is a glaring narrative incongruence in this final arc & epilogue

re: i guess that's just real life: i think that premise is a bit misplaced here because bnha is not a story that is meant to reflect our reality, like ofc it's all a big allegory that tackles a lot of real issues, but it also is a genre-typical hero comics that is borderline fantastical, so i wouldn't say "that's real life" is a valid premise, like the established diegesis & themes of bnha would have allowed for sb like shigaraki or dabi to be granted a kinder conclusions

i'm not forcing anyone to agree with me and i'm not saying that i dislike this closure because i don't want anyone to die, i just think horikoshi's choices for the villains of his story are rooted in pragmatic reasons; shigaraki & dabi die so he won't have to think too much about how to handle the abjects of society, so he won't have to consolidate that with his decision to cling to the establishment

like i don't think it's too much to expect a victim of abuse to survive in a story that's about a boy who constantly risks his life to save random people, esp victims of grooming & abuse like i don't think it would be corny for dabi to end up in a better state, esp when we've seen deku grow his arms back and bakugo dying and coming back to live and

[wander-over-the-words]

Okay I’ve officially seen Encanto now and goddamn what a great movie!!

[bbnibini]

I find it so painfully heartbreaking that Solomon just...laughs off all the derision, the name-calling, and possibly even did "evil" things on purpose because it's expected of him at this point. (He had not always been like this as Thirteen pointed out before). There was a time when he was "innocent". When his soul sparkled. When it resembled the kind of soul everyone in these god forsaken (pun intended with spite) three realms seemed to associate with the ever loved MC. He's just...worryingly carefree. And because he's like that, he feels even more of a tragic character to me.

Sometimes it even seems that he himself would seemingly make up excuses on why he's hated. Oh, it's because I'm a sorcerer this. I might have won a war against Devildom single-handedly this. I have forgotten. But maybe, I did something bad, that. Hon, you were doing that to SURVIVE. You don't have to be a faultless person to deserve compassion. You don't have to be MC to deserve to be loved.

[unlikablefemaleprotagonist]

i keep thinking about the possibility that if there's ever a senior year, emily might choose to come back as a different player than fig. i say might because even if she felt like she wanted to play as someone else before junior year, by the time senior year rolls around (if ever) she might change her mind again, or feel that fig's story has taken a unique enough path at the end of junior year that it's compelling to continue playing with it.

and while i would certainly miss fig, and i think the team dynamics would change a lot if a new sixth character was pal-ing around with the bad kids, i hope that if she goes that route, she takes inspo from murph, and the greatest replacement character in d20 history: cody walsh.

because what was great about cody was that finding someone everyone would like as much as kugrash was a very tall order! so instead he veered the other way (on his moped) by creating this perfectly annoying drip of a loser, that everyone else would have strong feelings about, and more importantly, conflict with.