#It didn't really develop his character however and I wasn't really rooting for him in the first place

[frank-pricely-in-toyzone]

So 'Just For Once' is supposed to be a metaphor for Ruth's motivations and personality, right? Like, the lyrics generally being about wanting attention and love from other people when she normally gets ignored or passed over, and how her anxiety prevented her from doing things she wants to do (like theatre)? I haven't seen this interpretation talked about anywhere but I thought that made Just For Once really work tbh

[slut4nicholas]

𝙊𝙃, 𝙁𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝙄 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀 𝙎𝙄𝙉𝙉𝙀𝘿 𝙄 | 𝙁𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍 𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙍𝙇𝙄𝙀

a/n: i haven't started the show yet, so I'm not familiar with his character in this show. please forgive my cluelessness during this fic.

summary: the reader goes to the church to confess to the priest that she recently sinned. however, the father decides to have some fun of his own.

warnings: mention of religion, 18+, missionary, loss of virginity, oral(fem & m receiving) fingering, nipple play, praise kink, pet names like doll,sweetheart,baby, mentions of anal, spanking, degrading, corruption kink, almost caught

˖⋆࿐໋

growing up in a religious household, i have developed a deep appreciation for my catholic roots. whenever I feel overwhelmed by sadness, anger, or depression, I find solace in the church.

today i couldn't help but feel a tremendous amount of guilt. i found myself hanging out with a boy, and things got a bit physical. even though we didn't go too far, i couldn't help but feel ashamed. i had promised to wait until marriage, but these uncontrollable desires keep creeping up. i've decided to go to the church to talk to the father about my recent activities and confess my sins.

as i made my way to the church, i felt a mix of nervousness and anticipation. i'm meeting with father charlie, a young and attractive man who’s also the priest at the church, which is not something you typically expect in the church. i haven't had a chance to speak with him one-on-one yet, so im feeling a bit apprehensive about what our conversation will entail.

i open the big doors to the church to see it completely empty just to find charlie sitting down on one the church benches.

“hello there” he calls out.

"father, there's something weighing heavily on my heart that I need to share with you," i said as I hurried to sit next to him.

i can feel that irritating uneasy sensation in my stomach. I didn't even give him a proper greeting. the guilt was so overwhelming that it made me stumble over my words.

"what is it y/n?" he turns all of his attention towards me, his big brown eyes digging into mine, as if anticipating something significant.

“i don’t know who to talk to, i can’t talk to my parents about this especially my own father. i’ve been feeling really guil-“

he interrupted me with a gentle smile and placed his hand on my shoulder, assuring me that everything would be okay and letting me know that he was a safe person to talk to.

“father, i need to confess something. i kissed a boy, and he kissed me back. he started to touch me, but i stopped him. i made a promise to the lord, and i feel terrible for breaking it”

as the tears welled up in my eyes, i instinctively dropped my face into my hands, seeking refuge from the overwhelming emotions.

"hey, it's going to be okay," charlie said in a gentle, caring tone as he stroked my hair, trying to comfort me.

“now tell me, did you guys fuck?”

as those words reached my ears, i couldn't help but look up at him, shaking my head as the tears continued to fall.

oh no, i hope he's not going to make me feel even worse.

“no father i swear-“

"shh, no swearing in the church," he said, raising his finger to his lips with a smirk. the irony wasn't lost on him, considering he had just dropped the f-bomb.

it was so quiet for a whole minute, and I started feeling really awkward. i had come all this way hoping for some advice or comfort, but it seemed like he just didn't care.

as I stood up, charlie grabbed my arm, forcing me to sit back down. “i didn't say you could leave. where do you think you're going?”

he replied coldly, smirking, “always so forgiving. it's kind of pathetic”

i stared at him, utterly perplexed, not really sure what he was talking about.

“father, isn't forgiveness what the church is all about?”

“sometimes, but in this case, i really want you to show me how sorry you are. otherwise, you're just going to keep committing the same sin over and over again. you don't want that, right? you don't want your parents to find out how desperate their innocent little girl has become, do you?"

i couldn't believe what i was hearing from charlie. i never expected him to act this way, let alone say things like this. i was at a loss for words and didn't know how to react. all i could do was nod in agreement. the last thing i wanted was for my parents to find out.

“father, i think i should go”

"why are you suddenly so shy, doll?" his hand on my chin made me tilt my head to stare at him.

"you don't think i notice how you look at me during mass when I'm speaking on the stand? you've become so needy that you sometimes cross your legs to stop yourself from feeling those emotions you want to avoid so badly," he says while caressing my cheek, gently rubbing his thumb on my bottom lip.

"i know you think of me taking you to the point where you can't even think straight, cum dripping out of you while i use you for my pleasure. you don't think i notice that? the way you avoid eye contact with me”

“i don’t know what your talking about father”

charlie’s hand rested lightly on my thigh, sending a spark of electricity coursing through my body. as his fingers inched toward the top of my skirt, pushing the fabric up just a little, my breath caught in my throat. each slow movement seemed to stretch time, heightening my senses and igniting a thrilling tension i couldn't ignore.

it felt deceptively wrong—the kind of reckless abandon that sent a shiver down my spine—but the anticipation was intoxicating, and I craved more. my mind raced, caught between instinct and hesitation, as the warmth of his touch settled into a deep hunger, one i found increasingly impossible to resist.

i glanced up, searching his eyes for a sign, a cue that this was more than just a fleeting moment. we held a playful challenge, a promise of the passion we both knew was simmering beneath the surface. my heart raced with excitement and fear, the boundaries of right and wrong blurring into a sweet confusion. with every breath, i felt the world around us fade away, lost to the undeniable chemistry pulsing in the air. i didn’t want to stop it; I wanted to let go completely and dive headfirst into whatever was coming next.

“do you want this as much as I want this?" charlie's voice broke through the haze of my thoughts, causing my heart to race in an unholy rhythm. i felt his gaze resettle upon me, a weight both thrilling and terrifying. my mind was a jumble, each beat vying for clarity as i struggled to focus on anything but him.

his eyes—the deep pools of mischief and longing—held me captive, swaying me like a fragile leaf in a rising storm. the blueprint of his desires flickered behind those intense brown eyes, and my cheeks burned with a shameful blush. I could hear the hymns of the service fade into background noise, a distant echo that paled against the ferocity of this moment.

what was wrong with me? i shouldn’t be feeling this way, not here—certainly not in a house of worship. my skirt brushed against my legs, reminding me of the innocence i used to wear like armor, now discarded in the face of this ravenous yearning. charlie wanted me. craved me. it was a dangerous temptation that had taken root within me, whispering sweet nothings that urged me to give in.

the candlelit corners of the church bathed in shadows, the lure was overwhelming. each passing week at mass had been an exercise in restraint, a careful balancing act over a precipice of emotion. seeing him near the altar in his crisp shirt—as though god himself had stitched him together purely for me—seemed more sublimely wrong every time.

as his eyes swept over me, i wondered if he could sense the tension glittering between us, thick and electrifying like charged air before a storm. j licked my lips, torn between the sanctity of the aisle and the allure of his promise. "I need you, doll. I can't deny it anymore," he murmured like a sin freshly minted from temptation's forge.

i felt a tumultuous wave of conflicting emotions surging within me. the whispered prayers seemed empty as an overwhelming desire ignited like an uncontrollable inferno. "father” i gasped, but the air escaped me, filled with forbidden possibilities. despite everything, all i could focus on were his lips drawing nearer to mine, as if the world around us faded away, leaving only the intense magnetism between us.

in that sacred moment, beneath the flickering lights, surrounded by silence begging to be heard, we hovered on the brink of something vast and insatiable. would we give in? would grace curdle into passion? ignoring the whisper of consequence felt like my true struggle—should we tiptoe across this brittle line, or confess that hunger has only one unyielding answer? together.

as I processed what was happening, a surge of warmth enveloped me, and i found myself surrendering to the moment. his lips danced across the sensitive skin of my neck, light as a whisper but charging the air with electricity. a small moan escaped my lips, betraying the whirlwind of emotions stirring within me. i could feel his smirk, a secret shared just between us, brushing against my skin, simultaneously teasing and thrilling.

his hand roamed over my thigh, a firm yet gentle grip that sent a shiver cascading through my body. "that's it, such a good girl for me," he purred, his voice a low whisper that thrummed like a melody in my ears, both lustful and tender. each word dripped with a promise, igniting the fire kindling deep within me, blurring the boundaries between desire and surrender.

lost in this intoxicating closeness, i reveled in the sensations; the world beyond shifted and faded, leaving only his teasing caresses and the seductive intimacy that enveloped us—a balance of power and vulnerability, inviting me to cross the threshold into unknown territory.

"father, i really don’t think we should be doing this here. It just doesn’t feel right. what if we get caught?" i watched as charlie sighed, rubbing his forehead in frustration, clearly torn between desire and caution.

"you’re right," he replied, his voice low and raspy, "but it’s late, and I don’t think anyone’s going to wander into the church at this hour. just relax, sweetheart."

i hesitated for a moment, then nodded, the thrill of the forbidden sending a shiver down my spine. i reached out, intertwining my fingers with his, bringing his hand to my lips and sucking gently on his long fingers. his eyes locked onto mine, filled with a primal hunger that made my heart race. i could see it in his expression—the desperate need to claim me, to tear away any barrier between us.

the air was thick with anticipation, and i could almost feel the weight of his longing as he shifted closer, his breath coming in quick, shallow bursts. the dim light from the stained glass windows cast a soft glow around us, amplifying the intensity of the moment. i could sense the tension building, a thrilling mix of danger and desire, as he leaned in, caught in the magnetic pull that seemed to draw us together like moths to a flame.

we were on the edge of something wild and reckless, and in that sacred space, everything felt possible.

charlie withdrew his fingers, his intention clear as he replaced them with his warm, teasing tongue. it slipped into my mouth, exploring with a fervor that sent electric shivers through my entire body. he held my neck gently yet possessively, urging me closer, deeper, igniting a fire that burned between us.

i kissed him back with equal intensity, a thrilling battle for dominance that left us both breathless. the taste of him was intoxicating, a heady mixture of desire and urgency that made my heart race. every flick of his tongue ignited a wave of pleasure, pooling low in my belly and making it almost impossible to think straight.

the heat of the moment consumed me; i could feel my body responding instinctively to his every move. the sweet tension built inside me, and i knew i needed him—needed to feel him against me, to drown in that wild connection we shared. my panties were already soaked, a testament to the overwhelming desire coursing through my veins.

charlie pushes my panties to the side allowing his already wet fingers from my saliva to dance around my clothed heat growling like a predator hungry for its prey “let me show you how a real man is supposed to make you feel darling, those little boys wouldn’t know how to handle something so precious like you. i can make you feel so good you wouldn’t be able to walk straight for days”

as he pumps his fingers in out of me the sweet sounds filling up the quiet church was enough for the both of us to go crazy “more father please” he smirked at my neediness removing his fingers out of me putting them up to mouth to signaling me to suck the sweet juices off of his fingers then going back in for a quick rub of my clit

charlie stood up getting ready to unbuckle his pants but before he could even do that a voice filled up the quiet room which caused me to jump and act quick closing my legs and hiding my exposed area “father charlie i’ve been looking everywhere for you” an older lady shouts from across the room as she appears to be in desperate need of his help

he sighed and i took that as my sign to leave before we both do something we might regret later, charlie keeps his gaze on me the entire time “hi, ill be with you in a moment” he spoke up the lady stops in her tracks wondering what a young woman was doing here at almost midnight with the priest of the church she was curious but nothing crossed her mind as she was desperate to talk to the priest

charlie followed me out of the church closing the door behind us “this isn’t over sweetheart” he placed a kiss on my forehead as he walked back into the church.

˖⋆࿐໋

a/n: omggg i hope you guys like this!! i’ve spent almost a day and a half working on this just for you all especially the person who requested this, i will be making this into a little series since it was getting pretty long! anyways i really hope you guys enjoyed this, remember feel free to request anything!

[kerink]

in light of people's confusion over cecil's longevity in @sexymanotd i wanted to document a bit of his history for those unfamiliar or nostalgic

welcome to night vale is a podcast written by joseph fink and jeffrey cranor. cecil gerschwin palmer is the main character and voiced by cecil baldwin.

it debuted on june 15, 2012 it reached its peak in popularity in 2013-2014

despite this, wtnv has been one of tumblr's top fandoms since staff started tracking fandom-related data in 2014

for the longest time the only thing we knew about cecil's appearance was: "He is wearing a tie. He is not tall or short. Not thin or fat." and that wasn't until episode 19 which aired march 15, 2013. for almost a full year we had no idea what cecil looked like. so tumblr's collective unconscious kicked into high gear and we did what we do best

we created a tumblr sexyman

from know your meme: "Defining traits of the archetype include skinny body type, trickster or villain role and dapper clothing."

know your meme identifies wheatley (portal 2, 2011) and the onceler (the lorax, 2012) as being likely tumblr's first sexymen. and the onceler fandom was at its peak in 2012-2013, the same time as wtnv. in addition to this, the hannibal fandom has been cited as one of the contributing factors to wtnv's success on tumblr.

so tumblr had created an archetype that worked and the wtnv fandom was made up of mostly hannibal fans - the foundation for putting cecil in a suit was there. and honestly? cecil's at work in the show, why wouldn't he be well dressed?

however, while this explains his attire it doesn't explain some of cecil's more unique sexyman features, namely the tentacles. for this we have to return to the 2014 fandom review analysis where you can see the most popular fandom at the time: homestuck

haven't you ever wondered why almost a quarter (189/923 at time of writing) of E rated wtnv fics on ao3 are tagged tentacles or tentacle sex? why cecil having tentacles for a dick is such a seemingly popular headcanon? well look no further then homestuck cultural hold over.

throughout all of this, the development of the sexyman archetype on tumblr and the rise of homestuck, one creator really stands out: kinomatika

kino was one of the most popular homestuck artists on tumblr at the time, popular for their eridan fanart. if you google image search "welcome to night vale" kino's art is still one of the first results you'll get

their design was so popular in fact it was featured in wtnv related articles from the time

and yes there were absolutely other artists giving cecil tentacles and moving tattoos at the time, but it can't be understated the reach kino had and the influence their homestuck roots had on their design choices

i recommend going through the archive of @nightvaleartclub to see how cecil used to be portrayed back in the early days. unfortunately the earliest fanart i've been able to find is july 2013 and i find it hard to believe it took tumblr a year to draw him. although, i started listening at episode 5 and didn't start drawing him until then myself so who knows...

cecil has had tumblr's heart in a vice grip since episode 1, with "20,000 posts, 183,000 blogs and 680,000 notes using the #Night Vale tag" during its first week. tumblr's love for wtnv has always been fairly genuine, from the impact the writing has had on tumblr humor and future story telling, to how wtnv paved the way for lgbt+ representation in indi media, to how it popularized podcasts as a medium for story telling, to the little comforts some of cecil's quotes still bring people today

cecil is not only a founding father of tumblr culture, but also a blorbo of the people. cecil the character in canon has a tumblr account where he posts his art and slash fanfiction.

although cecil's character has developed over time and we've come to see what a ditzy, eccentric, brat he really is, changing his status from sexyman to babygirl, cecil is absolutely a character you should embrace. and you know what... despite what i've said in the past

#cecilsweep

[ID: Images one and two are Google analytic graphs for the search terms "welcome to night vale" and "wtnv" between June 15, 2015 and January 27, 2023. They both depict very sharp spikes around 2013-2014 until the lines decrease greatly over time.

Image three is a drawing of Cecil from Welcome To Nightvale. He is white, with white hair, glasses, a third eye on his forehead, and he is wearing a suit. In the background is the silhouette of a neighborhood from the WTNV official art, a galaxy, and a moon. It is tinted purple. Image four is the always has been meme. Instead of the earth is the tumblr logo, and the text is: “a wtnv fansite?” “Always has been”. End ID] id thanks to @princess-of-purple-prose

[celtrist]

I'm not sorry for loving you~

Really doesn't need to involve the obsession au, but the au is what I had in mind. And maybe that song would work better with someone than Mimzy, but Mimzy is probably one of the more sane-ish? Characters in this AU.

So I have to admit, Mimzy was just one of those characters that slipped my mind when thinking of the obsession AU. Granted the docket of characters was very filled in the original piece, and despite the history of these two characters (both in-universe as well as their development history), their relationship whether romantic or platonic is incredibly overlooked. I feel like it's pretty common knowledge concerning Hazbin, but when I talk about the character's developments, I mean that they were originally a romantic couple. Despite this fact, Almimzy is an incredibly non-existent ship, and that makes sense. Alastor and Mimzy barely interacted in the official show, and while she was planned to be a guest, she wasn't really present in the pilot or anything. With so little content even when the official show came out, it's kinda no wonder but it's still a little surprising considering their old status as a couple.

Ah, but I'm rambling! Back on topic, I didn't think of Mimzy until I was asked about it (which as silly as it is, it was really neat to see people ask about this au!). So I've since thought a bit more and all that I've said in the ask is pretty much close to on point with how she acts. I do think, however, that considering she ALSO knew Alastor in life just as he had her, she would be slightly aware of... something being amiss with her feelings. Not insanely, she's just as bad and unaware as everyone else with the obsession she has over him. She just is able to remember her feelings on Earth and compare them to her current feelings and recognize that they're not exactly the same. The problem is that, she's Mimzy. She seems like the type who'd be in denial about something being wrong with her, but I feel like she'd recognize while not thinking too hard about it that the love she felt on Earth is seemingly altered in Hell. The line "I'm not sorry for loving you" feels really good for her here when considering most of everyone else around Alastor WOULD be sorry if they had a more clear mind about it. But Mimzy wouldn't be sorry about it because she always loved Alastor, even back on Earth (in this AU anyway)

Mimzy's obsession is unique in that, rather than doing anything to Alastor she does things to HERSELF to get to Alastor, she doesn't have as much to be guilty of compared to others in her actions due to the curse. She gets herself into trouble, makes herself sick, self-harms, and has probably threatened to kill herself to get his attention, which not great and all very manipulative, but she never forces Alastor to do anything and could be (I don't know if I'm settled on this idea yet) rooted in her own self-esteem concerning the self-harm stuff. And it works. Alastor is canonically close to Rosie, but he never knew her until Hell so in this AU, he doesn't know who the real Rosie is. He knows who the real Mimzy is though, and he doesn't want anything bad to happen to her. So ironically, the person who pushes themselves onto Alastor the least does probably get most of his attention.

I can imagine a scene like this where he's patching her up and they're talking and Mimzy brings up how she's perhaps confused with her own feelings considering how different they are from life. And I can just imagine Alastor feeling more ill at the idea of Mimzy having always loved him romantically but never saying anything if she confessed that, despite how crazy her feelings for him feel in Hell are, the feeling of love and wanting him in a way he doesn't reciprocate was always true since their time alive.

I'm just rambling, but like I said in the ask Mimzy is probably one of the more tragic cases of what the curse does to Alastor's relationships. She's also probably the closest Alastor can feel to having a true friend again, even if Mimzy is still pretty far from her actual self around him. But she's familiar and would probably be the biggest driving force for him to try and get rid of the curse (other than the obvious harassment). He enjoyed Rosie before she made him sick, and he enjoyed Vox before he revealed to be the absolute worst in his thoughts about what he wanted from and to do to Alastor, but Alastor only knew them in Hell. And as far as he's aware, the curse starts immediately, so he NEVER knew the real Rosie or Vox. But Mimzy was someone he knew and wanted to be real with again... and could pretend to be real with again given a few drinks.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Having spent the last few weeks un-fridging Catherine Todd, let me tell you, I NEVER want to see another motherfucker complaining about how Jason was """fridged"""

Like, sorry folks but he just fucking wasn't!!! Even if he had been a female character, that would not have been a fridging. The narrative at all times was deeply concerned with his internal experience of the world, his motives and emotions, and always considered him a human being whose agency and autonomy needed to be considered and highlighted. At least half of Death in the Family is about Jason's wants and needs and his attempts to fulfill them. Jason constantly makes decisions that alter the course of the story.

"Oh but his death was used for the development of the other character and the tone of the narrative as a whole" yeah, no fucking shit, of course it was, that is the entire fucking point of killing a character off! When a character dies, they stop developing through their own story arc, so they can only effect the arcs of other characters. The fact that this is done disproportionately to women is only one part of what the concept of fridging is about and reducing it down to only that ignores the real meat of why fridging matters.

Fridging is about the way that female characters are killed off in ways that disregard their agency, write off any choices, emotions, or motivations they might have had as not worth examining, and pointing out that the reason female characters are so often killed this way is because women are thought of as being less capable of agency and less fully people than men.

A good way to tell if a character has been fridged is to ask yourself "Hmm, if this woman was replaced with a literal bitch, an actual four legged puppy dog, would the narrative meaningfully change?"

Catherine Todd was fridged for Jason. She has no opinions, no meaningful personality traits, no agency in her own story or basically anyone else's for that matter. She is sad. She is addicted. She is dead. That is the whole of her character. Her entire purpose is to be a bullet point of angst in Jason's backstory. If you replaced her with a dead dog, none of Jason's story would be meaningfully changed.

"Oh but she was a parent, all the Robins have dead par-" They why was it Willis Todd that got resurrected in order to turn Jason into the 'Damned Prince of Gotham' and not her? It's because misogyny. If you come to any other conclusion why Scott "Known to Write Misogynistically" Lobdell didn't make Catherine Todd the one to come back, you are fucking kidding yourself. She is a female character and was therefore not given the same consideration as the male characters, it is as simple as that.

We all have every right to rail against the way Jason was killed off, the way the narrative blames him for his own death, the ways that he has been badly mishandled. He's even a character that's suffered due to prejudice! The classism in the way he's handled is really strong! I also think there's a ton of value in an analytical comparison between the ways that Jason's mental health is treated and the origins of mental health stigma that are rooted in misogyny. The Jason Todd Hysteria Essay is a frequent reread for me.

However.

None of this makes him "female coded" and any serious comparison of how female characters are treated and how he is treated must inevitably run into the truth that he does benefit from all the privileges that a male character gets for being male. He is treated in classist and ableist ways, and both classism and ableism intersect with misogyny, but the fact of the matter is that he does not have direct misogyny wielded against him and the female characters around him suffer from misogyny to his benefit.

You can call his death obnoxious, a callow cash grab, poorly thought out, bad for his character, of overall detriment to society, et.c. and be perfectly justified in doing so

But if you claim that he was fridged you are factually incorrect and for the crime of ripping the label off of a feminist theory (and failing to learn what it means beyond the most reductive single sentence 'definition' possible) for the benefit of a male character I sentence you to having all of your socks dipped in musty ass bog water.

[two-braincells-in-total]

SPOILERS FOR THE GRANDEST GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First off, I want to say that I liked this more than I expected. I don't usually vibe with spin-offs, I just don't like it when I get attached to characters amd then they become side characters in the next book, but this book surprised me in a good way

Let's unpack the characters:

Lyra: Don't come for me, but I must admit that I expected more from Lyra's character. Don't get me wrong, I still like her, but it was a little disappointing. Maybe a reason for it is that her POV wasn't as packed with action as the other characters' POVs, but either way, she has potential, so I'm having hope for Glorious Rivals. I don't know if I want her to win the game, because on one hand, hse deserves it, but the other hand, I really want Rohan to win

Gigi: her character hit very close to home, but in a good way. I saw myself in her, specifically tye dedication and the way no matter what she does she's never the best, the way she thought she was too much, which is also a reason why I was just as hurt at the end of the book. I was very sad when she got eliminated from the game, she was the third person I was rooting for (the first being Rohan, the second Lyra) and I know she was using the game as a way to prove to herself and the others that she is good enough, and I know from experience the devastation that comes when you fail. I really hope we have her POV in the next book, too, because I NEED to know why they kidnapped specifically her and how she's going to escape

Rohan: I didn't like him in The Brothers Hawthorne, but I LOVE him here. He was flirty and sassy and clever and I really enjoyed reading his perspective. I'm kind of disappointed that we didn't see much about his past, his POV was mostly focused on the game, unlike Gigi and Lyra, who we got to see as teenagers with trauma, but we got some crumbs, so I hope we get to see more of it in the next book. I really want him to win the game, because as much as I dislike the concept of the Mercy, it's the only live he has, he doesn't even have a last name outside of it. I don't know if I want him to decide that such lifestyle isn't good for him and attempt to start over, or deal with it, because the Mercy is a part of him, so for now both options work for me

Grayson: I have to admit, out of the good characters in the other books, he was my least favourite. I believe that there are two kinds of relatable characters - 1) the type that makes you feel seen, so you love them and 2) the type that points out all of your flaws and insecurities, so you dislike them. For me, Grayson is the second kind. In this book, however, it's obvious that character development has been done and I actually liked him. I still don't get why they decided to make him a player, what are they planning with this? And isn't the point of the game to give money to someone who needs it, why would they give him the chance for it and lessen the chances for winning of the other players? I really hope they explain it in the next book

Brady: I felt something was off with him from the very beginning, but I still fell for his lies and everything. It was exactly what Gigi needed to hear, and if I'm being honest, what I needed to hear, so I didn't see the traps. I spent a huge part of the book fighting with myself about him, because some part of me wanted him to be Gigi's love interest, while another part said that he's too good to be true and that's exactly what it was. I felt Gigi's hurt at the end of the book, especially when he accepted to continue the game, even when most of the game was solved by Gigi (who I applaud for the choice to accept her loss, even though I think she should've accepted the extra chance). I figured out that he wasn't what we thought he was around the time of the power cut off, I felt that he was going to betray her, and even though he didn't exactly do that, I still think there's more to him than what we know now and I highly doubt it's good

Knox: I had complicated feelings about him the entire time, up until the end. Part of the negative feelings about him were cause by the comparison with Brady and, now that I know who Brady is, I think the positive feelings overruled. He was just cautious and I think Gigi grew on him at the end. I really hope we see more of him in the next book, there's still a lot of stuff about him left unanswered

Odette: I think she's the only player beside the POV characters and Grayson that I actually trusted and turned out to be right. She was kind of just there, though the whole thing with Tobias was a juicy secret. I'm still caught on the questions she didn't answer though

Savannah (help, it autocorrected it to Satan, I'm dying): She's on thin ice. She already wasn't one of my favourites, but the whole revenge thing isn't doing her good. I admit that I'm biased, Avery is my favourite character in the whole saga. I'm pretty sure that Eve told her (because where else could she find that information? We also know that Eve was planning to contact her in the epilogue of TBH), so she might not know the whole story, so I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. She has chances to get on my good side in the next book, but for now I'm 50-50 about her

Avery and the rest of the Hawthornes were iconic as always

The relationships:

Lyra and Grayson: It's definitely a very cute ship and it's going somewhere, but I expected it to be more interesting. I loved the dinamic and banter in the beginning, but things got a little bit boring as the book progressed. Still, it has SO MUCH potential and I hope we see more of them in the next book. For some reason, they didn't feel like the main ship. I don't know why. Maybe because we got multiple POVs and all relationships are kind of main, but I felt like they aren't the main ship, just how Lyra didn't really feel like the protagonist (because, correct me if I'm wrong, the protagonist is one, the character who has the most page time, even if there are multiple main/lead characters). I didn't track how much page time each character/relationship got, but even if they did get them most, it doesn't really feel like it. Honestly, I was expecting them to be more angsty. Maybe part of my expectations for them was the fandom and predictions before it came out (which is still weird ,because I purposely distanced myself from lyrason posts to avoid disappointment but oh well). I'm still not giving up on them, though, I liked them a lot!

Savannah and Rohan: they were probably my favourite ship from this book. THE TENSION!!! I was squealing every time Rohan called her love. Honestly, I was squealing every time Rohan. Period. I was thinking "kiss, kiss, kiss, KISS MFs" the entire time. As of nicknames, I loved "love" and I find "British" cute (even though I've seen many people say they don't like it), but idk what to think about "Savvy". Because, it was fun while he used it to annoy her, but it's kinda cringe when it became an actual nickname. Either way, I LOVE how smitten Rohan was the entire time. Like, they're solving a riddle and he's like "Savannah is another riddle, wait, FOCUS, but Savannah, FOCUS" it was adorable. I really enjoyed watching him lose his shit internally every time they touched. The scene with him brushing her hair is officially my favourite from the whole book, it's embarrassing how much I'm obsessed with it

Gigi and Brady: I spent some time thinking that he was the love interest, but as I said, he was too good to be true. And even before the reveal, I was still doubting it, because Slate was already mentioned and he called her "sunshine", so obviously, I, being a sucker for nicknames, lost it. I spent most of this book rooting for Gigi and Brady, but now I think it's unfair to her. Even if what he said to her about his brain liking A lot and the other stuff, he admits that he still loves Calla (who btw, what is the whole thing with her??? We were teased about it the entire book and we got nothing!), so it's AveryGrayson all over again, but worse, because Brady did it all intentionally. Now, I'm really hoping that I'm correct about Slate being the actual love interest and I hope we see more of Gigi and Slate in the next book, because it sounds promising

The AveryJameson crumbs were SO CUTE

NASH AND LIBBY ARE HAVING TWINS I'M DYING I'M SO HAPPY FOR THEM

Now, some specific plot points:

What was the power cut about??? I'm still confused and concerned about what happened while the power was off

Wtf does Eve want???

The whole thing with Alice is kinda confusing, but so very interesting, I need to know more about it

What's the whole thing with Calla about???

All in all, I enjoyed this book a lot. I'm excited for the next book and I hope my questions get answered

[miss0atae]

Century of Love : Good ideas, Good acting, Meh ending (EP 9 – 10)

I'm again late to the party. We’ve finally reached the end of Century of Love. It wasn’t a series I thought I would enjoy, but I was pleasantly surprised. I’m glad I was convinced by others to watch it. Again I have to admit how great it is sometimes to have found really interesting people’s blogs to read here on Tumblr. It can sometimes make you see something in a different light. You will always find so many different views. Sometimes you’ll agree with them and sometimes you won’t see the same things as them. However, it’s always interesting. That’s the beauty of any work of fiction: you’ll always have something to say about them and it’s not the same for everybody. This time I won’t develop one point from the series. I’ll focus on a summary of what I feel about it.

Things I really liked about it:

◾ The story itself was interesting. Reincarnation mixed with Chinese mythology to have a BL story in Lakorn style. Century of Love used the Lakorn formula to offer something different among all the great QL series we got this year. I also believe it was good that the story didn’t really give us a proper answer on who was the real reincarnation of Vad / Wat. It lets the viewers to decide what he prefers. The only thing to keep in mind is that it’s better to let the past stay in the past and to fully live in the present. That’s the only way to love and to be loved.

◾ We had great characters too even if sometimes some of them were a bit too much for me. I guess it’s because some were classic Lakorn characters (New Vad / Wat was a perfect example of this. She was just too much at the end). However, two characters got my heart in this series. Firstly, I would say Vee was my favorite character. I like how he was a combination of cheeky, playful and loyal. You just wanted him to find a cure for his grand-ma and to charm this handsome grumpy youthful-looking grand-pa. My second favorite character was Third, who played the childhood friend doctor of Vee. He was supposed to be the reincarnation of Lord Trai the ex-fiancé of Vad / Wat who killed her. However, in this time, Third has only been an ally to the main couple, even if he had feelings for Vee. He was there when San and Vee needed him. He never shy away from telling the hard truth and I’m glad he wasn’t just here to create a rift between San and Vee. I hope Tao and him get to have their own little romance.

◾ I was also impressed by Offroad and Daou's acting. I have to admit I never understood why people liked them before. I wasn't a fan of their boys band (LAZ1) and I didn't like their previous series, Love In Translation. I tried hard to get into it, but never felt the hype. However, here in Century of Love, I really liked them. Their acting was good and they would engage you to root for their characters. The chemistry between them is quite good and it makes you believe in the romance of their characters. Now, I'll be more interested in any other series they may do. Let me add too that I find Offroad really handsome. His smile is so pretty.

◾ The goddess had a really nice sense of humor. She must have had fun. Good for her!

Things I didn’t like:

◾ It's quite common in QL series especially Thai QL series, but I didn't really like the end. I'm glad Vee and San got their happy ending because I would have been really sad if they didn't get it. However, I felt like the end was rushed to fit the 10 episodes they were given. I also didn't like how San made this stupid move to not tell Vee the truth about how he saved him. Instead of thinking together of a solution, he left and let him deal by himself with the loss of his grand-ma, but also his disappearance. This was dumb and it seemed so out of character for San to let someone he loves suffering alone.

◾ I felt like they didn’t handle well new Vad / Wat appearance. It’s like they didn’t know if they wanted to make her a villain or a side-kick. Hence, she was stuck in this role where you wanted to root for her, but also where you were annoyed by some of her actions. I felt like she could have been better used by the story. I also saw how many viewers seemed to like her. They should have make something of it. I admit it was interesting that she didn’t have the same personality like the previous incarnation of Vad / Wat (just like Third wasn’t Trai). I don’t know I just wished for more from her.

◾ The five colored-stone power and the deal with the goddess made no sense after they used the stone to save Vee. We've been told San needed to have it to give it back to Vad / Wat to end his deal with the goddess. We've also been told he needed to be close to the stone to be able to not feel the pain he would always get until finding the reincarnation of his lover. However, when he gave it to Vee it shouldn't have matter. Unfortunately for him, even if he was close to Vee, he still felt the pain. Also, even if the stone reacted positively to Vee, giving it to him to save him, wasn't like ending the deal with the goddess. I wish it was because it would have avoided a needlessly complicated break up for San and Vee. The series never gave us an answer about why the rules changed suddenly.

One thing I can't explain, but felt it wasn't good enough. However, in the end it didn't matter:

◾ Let me get it straight. I created this category only to talk about Juu. I was so conflicted about this character. I have to admit I found her a bit annoying sometimes, but she was really a nice girl deep down. I felt bad not liking her as much as other. Especially as she was always trying to help the main couple to be together. Don't get me wrong, I like the actress and I feel she did a good job. I guess I forgot how young Juu is and that's why I felt like she was too much.

[flower-boi16]

"I Wanna Dance With Some Ollie" Is a Good Episode, Actually (A Response to The Alphajay Show)

Before I start this post I want to say that I am a fan of The Alphajay show, I really like watching his content and I think he makes good videos. That being said, however, the TGAMM segment in his "Ranking The WORST Episodes Of 2023" video is awful and just gets a lot of shit wrong to the point I especially have the motivation to debunk what he says in the video. So... let's just begin.

He starts off the segment by saying this:

"I Wanna Dance With Some Ollie is one of the worst episodes I've seen this year. And it's one of the most disappointing episodes I've ever seen since making this channel. And to basically summarize my video on it, the first season of Molly Mcgee builds up her character perfectly. You have the girl who moves from town to town. Wanting to build strong memories in her now forever home. Even if she was cursed by a ghost. Her positive aura radiated the otherwise miserable town and her ambition combined with her amazing musical sequences and solid comedy that took her do gooder attitude, and gave her a very much welcome edge for an amazing character who I rooted for to save the town and was ready to watch season after season of it....she threw all of that away for a boy named Ollie"

....what? No she didn't. I really don't know what Jay's talking about here? Molly didn't throw away her goal of enhappifying the town for Ollie, all she ever did was just get a crush on him. Saying that she threw all of that away for a boy seems kinda disingenuous to me. It just looks like he's mad because...Molly got a crush on a boy. Like, is she not allowed to have crushes or something? After this he says this:

"However this isn't just romance shifting a person into doing things that they otherwise wouldn't do because that's natural that's understandable. This is about a show, brut forcing a romance that otherwise wouldn't have made sense without understanding why people clammer over the ones done right. I brought up Spider-Verse earlier and that's a great example of romance done right. Gwen has her own life own motivations and her own cool aspects that are not connected to Miles. Likewise, as said in my video about Molly Mcgee, Luz and Amity from the first season of The Owl House worked because Amity had a life, motivations and cool aspects before liking and meeting Luz. Also the Grom episode wasn't the like the 5th episode that they went to. They actually built up the tension of wanting to see them get together."

Wait...does Ollie not have his own aspects that aren't connected to Molly too? Like, he's a kid who was taught to hate ghosts and became a ghost hunter, and he got a whole episode where he went through character development over his guilt about hunting ghosts, not to mention the whole conflict of his parents finding out he's friends with a ghost. Ollie also does have aspects about him that are not related to Molly, are the ones I just mentioned somehow not enough?

Alphajay is saying this as if Ollie's entire character is just about his romance with Molly and that his whole character revolves around her, but that's just objectively false. After that he complains about the episode "Beats you over the head about how much it wants to you spread the ship" which really isn't worth talking about so lets talk about the thing he says after that:

"You'd think the girl who went to the ghost world and defeated the chairman to free all ghosts would be a little bit more quick to explain why Ollie shouldn't be discriminatory towards all ghosts, especially Molly's best friend who is a ghost who gets caught and trapped at that very same concern"

Ummmm...

Alpha. Didn't she literally try to do that in Book Marks the Sprite? Ya know, the last episode these two interacted in before this? She did try to explain to Ollie that ghosts may not be evil but she wasn't able to convince him.

So after that he ends the segment and moves on to talk about an episode that I am assuming is from modern Spongebob. Again, I do like Alphajay's content but a lot of the stuff he said in this segment was just straight up objectively wrong. 

[petarabbit2]

Realistic Trey Clover + Headcanons

Trey Clover + Realistic artwork done with Art Breeder and edited in Clip Art Studio:

This happens a lot with my headcanons but after analysing Trey he went from one of my least favourites to one of my favourites in no time – hope you like him as much as I do!

Sidenote: When headcanoning Trey and all my other characters I take both factual and some of my personal thoughts/beliefs of the character to construct my headcanons.

For my rendition of Trey Clover, I kept him relatively close to his in-game design and didn't give him any visible flaws (ance, moles, etc.) since Trey’s diet seems pretty balanced, he knows eating too many sweets can give you cavities. It would also help with his skin’s condition, it wouldn't be smooth or perfect but wouldn't have many visible red breakouts, but isn't immune to a few pimples here and there.

You may also notice I gave him stubble on his chin because Trey in game looks very mature, plus it is extremely common for his age period to start developing body hair (face, body, etc.) and Trey probably got this.

For his realistic rendition, I went with a rectangular face shape that is fairly chiselled (Trey is on that mewing streak 🤫🧏‍♀️), almond eyes with THICK eyebrows and the cherry on top being his very broad and straight nose. In conclusion, I made him a chad. (tee hee yummy)

For his body MY MAN IS BUILT, so a rectangular fairly muscular build (thick fucking arms bro is kneeding that bread) 

And yet another pom 😞 but it's all done for a reason! The rose kingdom is based on the UK so I just gave everyone from there an accent and depending on personal thoughts depends on how strong I make it and yes, Trey has a strong accent – he doesn't really use slang though, idk he's a bit too mature for that.

Without & With Makeup:

Personality and backstory headcanons + a bit of character analysis:

Ah yes, the “dad” of Heartslabyul and I don't disagree with this basic statement but sometimes he is dumbed down to just that, a “dad”. Yes, young adults such as himself can have a stronger connection to his morals, but he’s still only 18, and most importantly human. Not everything he will do will be correct, and even if they are good in theory, they may still have negative consequences.

For example, just before Riddles overblot, Ace even blatantly asked him why he hasn't corrected Riddle behaviour because he thought that just staying by his side, comforting him and being his friend was enough but quickly learnt it wasn't. Trey has always been the oldest, with his friends, with his siblings and he had always had that sense of responsibility over the younger generations (also seen with first and second years in-game), however, other than that, his character isn’t heavily touched on besides just being the “dad” or “big brother”.

Trey probably has moments where he questions himself, if he's the best person for others to rely on. What I'm trying to say is that neither his mind nor body is fully developed and even people like him who seem so strong have their weak moments.

Trey genuinely cares a lot for his loved ones, both friends and family, and usually takes on a mediator role to solve issues and help others. Though, he’s a little bit of a people pleaser and when something is out of his depth and he doesn’t immediately see the ‘right’ way to do something, he tends to try and avoid the root cause of the issue and instead finds an easier solution, which may not have the best turnout in the end. 

For example, Trey’s feelings around Riddle’s overblot and childhood trauma affecting his present-day behaviour. I believe that Trey felt horrible after Riddles overblot, seen when he said he's sorry to Riddle despite being Riddles own fault. When Trey can’t fulfil that “dad” role or sees he's been doing something wrong for a long time he doesn't know what to do.

He doesn’t do this out of a lack of care, but because of how much he cares instead. He is also often seen pandering to other’s wants just to please them and make sure they are happy. Also as mentioned before, he is still young, he still may not know the best thing to do, but these actions he takes he sees as a sort of in-the-moment solution.

Trey appreciates deep conversation and knows what to say in them, he's good at comforting and will observe all the people he cares about so he knows exactly how to comfort that specific person.

Trey is always looking out for his friends, whether that be making sure they are keeping up with the school's work and getting decent grades, or making sure they aren't getting into too much rough housing with others. If this does happen however, Trey would definitely go out of his way to tutor lower classmen to the best of his ability or have a ‘talk’ if he has to with people picking on his friends.

My editor/assistant cause I can’t grammar or spell to save my life: @cyb3rpnnk 

SIDENOTE: DO NOT REPOST MY REALISTIC RENDITION OF DEUCE OR ANY OTHER CHARACTER I DO AS YOUR OWN. EVEN THOUGH THE BASE WAS MADE WITH AI IT IS STILL MY CREATION!

However you are permitted to use my headcanoing as your own for art or stories or whatever, just not my realistic rendition.

I dont have much to say this time, but the next one with either be Riddle or Cater idk.

[acourtofthought]

Do you think Elain would actually try to get back to her human self somehow? I saw a lot of people think that she’d be in cahoots with Koschei because she wants to be turned back. I think the “I don’t want a mate/male” quote and Feyre thinking she wants a human man thing is in ACOFAS, so since then things have changed. She seems more accepting of the fact that she is fae, she just hasn’t accepted Lucien yet. These ideas mostly come from the evil Elain theories which I really don’t like anyway 🙄 but if Elain and Lucien are connected to Koschei I hope her trying to go back to humanity isn’t her main plot line. I hope she’d be over that by now

Elain did say "I don't want a mate / male" but then turned around and developed a crush or flirtation with a male shortly after which suggests progress.

SJM isn't the kind of writer to wave a magic wand and make these characters traumas disappear so Elain saying she didn't want any of the above after the war, after losing her father, after Graysen's rejection, etc. are not surprising.

She was thrust out of a world she loved and into one where she was turned into a being she grew up fearing, suddenly finding herself kicking beats and stabbing kings in battle. I think it's normal that she was trying to distance herself from extremely fae things like mating bonds and relationships with non humans when she really hadn't had times to come to terms with the fact that she is now fae and living in a place that is so unlike what she was used to.

However it's been over a year since the war. Nearly two years since she was turned. Elain may not be ready to fully embrace being fae (as Nesta wasn't ready until the end of her book) but that doesn't necessarily mean she wants to go back to a life where she knows people turned their backs on her.

Also, I can't recall a single SJM main character hero / heroine who has tried to work with the bad guy for selfish reasons and not ended up looking like the villain.

(spoilers for TOG to follow)

In the ACOTAR series we have Rhys looking like the bad guy because he was working for Amarantha. But....he ended up the hero because he was actually protecting his entire court and trying to find a way to free Prythian.

In TOG, we had Dorian seeming to work with Maeve. But in the end, he had only been playing her, finding how her powers worked so he could use them against her.

The above are two scenarios where a main character looked like they were working for the big bad only for us to discover they were using their intelligence to turn the tides in their favor.

But.........

In ACOMAF, we have Tamlin playing double agent to Hybern. Even though he was gathering information that did benefit them in the war, his main reason for allying with Hybern was to get Feyre back.

As a result, SJM made his character one that now "sucks" (her words from an actual interview with Eva Cheng).

Tamlin may get some sort of redemption but my guess is he's never getting his own book. With his journey, the author has told us that when a character tries to play double agent for selfish reasons it's not going to leave them looking like the hero, even if they were also trying to gather information on the side.

So Elain trying to ally with Koschei to be turned human again? HOW does that end up with her as a heroine?

First, it means she's willing to put others at risk for her own selfish desires, that is not FMC energy. Elain has had visions of Koschei, she knows he's kidnapped other females. Who would ever root for her knowing that she was willing to work with someone like him after that?

Also, Elain seeking him out then needing rescuing....isn't that just proving that she shouldn't have tried handling anything dangerous like Az believed? That she was a "little girl" trying to play in a "grown mans" world and failing? That Nesta was right telling her not to get involved with the Trove?

The only way the Elain / Koschei theory would work for SJMs kind of writing is if everyone thought Elain was working with Koschei for her own reasons but it's revealed she never wanted to be human after all. That she set out to prove she could best him with her intelligence and came out victorious (as Dorian did with Maeve or Rhys with Amarantha).

I am with you, there are so many more things that SJM could do with Elain's character than having her regress back to 2 years ago. We've already witnessed her at her lowest where she struggled with becoming fae and losing her life in the human lands. She's not 100% and I don't think she's thriving like she could be elsewhere but she has now made a few friends, keeps busy around Velaris helping others, developed her first "crush" on a fae male and now has a nephew to love. SJM would have wasted multiple books of Elain working through the worst of it and coming out on the other side to turn around and have her willing to put others at risk to become human again.

[youwontlikethisblog]

Armando Mendoza: A Brief Analysis

Hey, how are you? It's been a while. This will be a lil update so if you want you can skip down to the [GREEN] to start with the post :)

It's been a hectic few months. I finally decided to stop setting it aside and get real about my writing and begun the tedious task of editing the final draft of my original manuscript. I'm a perfectionist(Although if we're considering my posts about YSBLF as an example of that, than you wouldn't expect it lol. I suppose that's what I get for writing post when I haven't had a lick of sleep and don't stop to take breaks while writing the posts and then, half brain dead, I sit down to "edit" the grammar). When it comes to something that truly means a lot to me I do not feel satisfied until it has reached my exact expectations. I've made a few updates on my writing and how it's been going. There's some exciting development on it but I want to wait a little more to be able to fully talk about it and share the news with y'all.

That being said; I still have not continued watching YSBLF since the last time I did a post about the show, y'know, life and all but without further ado, here is the post :)

Armando Mendoza: An Objective and A Not So Deep Dive

Now that I've had some time and space away from the show, I can look at the characters in a more objective manner. I've been considering a lot of things regarding them and I feel like this post might come right out of left field —seeing how I normally seem to "defend" Armando, or some might assume I do— and this post will most likely not do that. In reality, it won't. It'll rightfully so call him out.

See, the stark difference between Marcela and Armando, not personality wise, but writing wise, is that Marcela doesn't really have a backstory. Her past is pretty blurry and the very few clear images we get of it always paint her to be the exact same person. However with Armando his past, while also not clear, is more visible and a little bit more precise than hers. In the post I made for Marcela I wasn't as empathetic as I should have been.

Marcela's past is basically unknown and the very little information we do get doesn't paint her in the best of lights. However, that doesn't mean that she deserved or that what Armando was doing to her was okay. I should have said that in her post. I placed a lot of emphasis on the fact that while Marcela had a right to feel what she did, she didn't have a right to act the way she was. Feelings are valid, actions are not.

Well same goes for Armando.

Armando could have been dating a helicopter as a girlfriend, someone who was possessive and controlling of him, but that doesn't justify nor excuse his horrible behavior towards her. While yes, one could assume that his cheating had to do with his lack of control with life, it still doesn't justify or excuse it. Nothing, ever, justifies cheating.

As I said in the Marcela post: This isn't about her so I won't be explaining her reasoning, her behavior, her actions, or anything of those sorts, therefore, don't take it as me excusing her bad behavior. It's simply being mentioned.

With modern times come modern solutions. Nowadays it's very easy to be able to pick up your phone and google something, read a self-help book, find the root of your childhood trauma and even a therapist. Child development isn't easy to understand to the naked eye and you have to have years of experience on the subject to fully understand how point A gets to point B. I'm no expert of it, just done some basic research on certain topics of childhood trauma and such so while I might have some form of understanding, it's not an exactitude on the subject.

We can estimate that Armando had emotionally absent parents, witnesses how his parents turned their backs on his sister for falling in love with a poor man and the way the elite society they're a part of was about the whole subject. How do we draw to this conclusion?

His father doesn't even know what he went to college for or what he got his degree on. His mother coddles him, only when he acts to her standards, enables a horrible relationship that does not benefit neither her biological son or her basically-adopted daughter. Quite the contrary the show does a good job at showing the drastic parallels of Betty's relationship with her parents compared to Armando and his parents. Consider the fact that any time Armando is on screen with his parents they only talk about two things: His relationship with Marcela and the company.

They don't sound like the warmest of parents do they?

I talk a lot about being a writer and how knowing your characters IS one of the most crucial and important parts of developing your story. I mention this because when you write characters, fleshed out ones, you have at the very least an understanding of their past. Not an exact one, but an understanding in order to have them say the things they do and act the way they do.

Roberto was always cold towards Armando, from the very start. He clearly showed signs that he didn't very much care for him. He cared more about the company, his wife, Daniel, Marcela, Beatriz, and then, at the very end, Armando. With obvious reasons we understand why Roberto didn't trust Armando. It's always been told that he's always been a player, doesn't commit, and is immature, plus with the devil on his shoulder he calls a best friend, Armando isn't the most trustworthy.

Yet, that does not excuse Roberto's lousy father role in his son's life. Children need strong(by that I mean emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually present) male role models in their lives, especially father figures. I've said it before that it could be a possibility that Armando's childhood was very much with an emotionally distant father. This creates the perfect breeding ground for a child to constantly feel like they must excel in every part of their lives(perfectionism), have an anxious attitude, a fear of losing the love of their loved ones if they aren't excelling(low self-esteem), and other difficulties. Basically this ball of fear, resentment, anger, perfectionism, and anxiousness(being avoidant) . These issues on their own bring their separate problems that mixed together make for an unlikeable person. I don't know about you, but this sounds a lot like Armando.

Of course there's people who grew up with emotionally unavailable parents and grew up to be fully companionate, kind, loving, and wonderful people. That's the tricky thing about trauma, not one size fits all. Just because two people grew up the same doesn't mean they'll deal with it the same way.

Emotionally absent parents equal physically absent parents when it comes to their children's development.

His mother was the same, though, unlike Roberto, Margarita did love Armando and was present but very conditional with her love. You can have examples of this when Armando and Marcela would be fighting. She always took Marcela's side and pressured Armando to continue the relationship. She also guilted Marcela into staying with Armando. She was never there to comfort her son when he was at his lowest or even before. She was just only ever present in his life and made an effort to talk to him when it came to his engagement to Marcela. Plus, the whole causing Camila to divorce her husband and move to a different country fiasco.

Armando did a fine job of taking after his parents, as he is a perfect reflection of them.

There's one thing that Armando said that has ran laps around my brain for a while now; "I know I did things wrong, damnit I always do!" outside of el Meson.

He's aware of the things he does, even if it's at the heat of the moment, Armando is a self-aware jester, who never cared enough to change until he lost everything.

This change, while outside forces moved him to change, were not the reason why he changed. That's another message that is lost with this show.

Armando didn't change because he fell in love with Betty. Armando only learned to be brave enough to be the person he always aspired to be, because he fell in love. Doesn't matter who he fell in love with, he simply did. The love he received from Betty only taught him to be brave enough to love the same.

The same way Betty was naïve to how depraved any man can be, whether educated or not, rich, poor, or from a "high" society or lower class, Armando too was naïve to what was actually good and bad because he never really had parents that cared enough to teach him. Now this in no way frees Armando from accountability. Lets not forget that the whole point of his personality at the beginning of the story is that he sucks, and is a horrible man.

[TAKE A BREAK IF YOU NEED ONE.]

Sex addiction is a serious addiction. As I've mentioned before, in one of my earliest posts, that Armando shows to have signs of it but I'm no expert so I wouldn't say he does. For example, his affairs often cause issues in his relationship, his professional life, and for himself. While he's aware of all the risk that these affairs cause in his life, he still part takes in them! These are all signs that he has an addiction. However, I don't think that was the intent behind this part of his personality when he was being written, simply there to show how he was a Casanova of sorts.

These are all things I've already talked about in different posts but I wanted to dive a little bit deeper here in case some people haven't read those.

Let's get to the real juicy stuff now.

Armando's horrible, terrible, abusive, treatment of women.

Yeah Armando defended Aura, he wasn't a misogynist, and he didn't abuse his position of power nor assaulted any women(not talking about the constant harassment of Betty after she found the letter yet). Still, Armando was abusive.

He constantly manipulated women into believing he was serious about them just to use them, he gaslit —not only Marcela but all his side chicks— people in order to control a situation, and at times even got physical. Let's not forget the hair pulling, choking, and dragging of Karla, Marce, and Larson. Let's not forget Betty! While he never hit them, the way he acted, was not okay!

Armando was aggressive, he was controlling, and he was manipulative. God, he was awful!

There's no excuse or even a justification for him in this part.

While you can argue that his intentions weren't to harm those girls, he still did it. The moment they didn't behave to his standards, he removed his "love"(infatuation) from them. Does that sound similar to a pattern? like someone else? (Margarita).

However Marcela for this instance was a victim of his. His constant cheating made her so controlling, resentful, and bitter.

A cycle starts somewhere. Whether it be Marce being possessive from the get go of their relationship or Armando cheating first, somewhere the cycle began.

One thing I want to make clear is that both Marcela and Armando were abusive and victims of each other.

From the start of the novela Armando isn't a good person. He's horrible. However, he was meant to be charismatic, which would cause people to over-look those red flags.

There's a lot of sides to Armando's character and that's what makes him complex.

There's obvious reason as to why Armando, in a sense, has some redeeming qualities compared to the people he's surrounded by. You know, he feels remorse for the way he acts, especially towards Marce and Betty. He feels the pressure of not letting his parents down and the responsibility of keeping people employed. However, even if it's remorse, the problem always lays in the fact that he doesn't truly change.

In this half of the post I'm focusing more on his relationship with Marcela.

I've talked about reactionary abuse, toxic relationships, abusive tactics, and patterns in all of my posts regarding Armando and Marcela. I've explained in a simplified way and yet I feel like some people either reject the idea or only want to blame one party.

What makes Marcela and Armando's relationship toxic and not D.A. is that they both enable each other and their bad habits. See, even if Armando were the one that started the conflicts, Marcela also acts out abusively. Basically they up one another in any fight. As if saying "Oh so you're going to threaten to leave? Fine! Then I'll ruin your life! If you leave me it would be like losing my parents all over again." while the other responds with "Marrying you is simply a favor to you! If you speak up about this than the wedding is off!" get the idea?

Marcela enables Armando by acting out in her rage, further pushing him to act out in his cheating and gaslighting. Armando enables Marcela by his cheating and gaslighting. They both feed the cycle and reject any accountability for their actions.

What makes this drastically different in what a typical D.A situation in where the abused reacts abusive(aka mirrors their abuser) is that they BOTH switch sides. One moment Armando is the abuser, the one with the upper hand in the relationship and then, the next, Marcela is the one that is being abusive and in control. Often times they bounce off each other. It's not Armando constantly and only being the Abuser with Marcela mirroring him. They BOTH DO THIS.

However, at the very least, Armando at the end of the series took accountability and broke the cycle.

When you write two explosive and complex characters meant to be together you have to separate them from each other. By this I mean that Marcela is her own person away from Armando, just like Armando is his own person away from Marcela. Together, however, they are a volcanic eruption. While, for Marcela, this can translate to just being passionate and intense, for Armando it can be an absolute tragedy that must continue in order to keep every party of people in his life "happy" while in the end, at the very least, he has his affairs to give him something.

Together Armando and Marcela are a horrible duo because all they do is cause harm to one another. That's what makes their relationship toxic, not one sided abuse.

One can argue that the ONLY reason Marcela acted this way was because of Armando, meaning, if you remove the cause of the problem, the issue would be resolved, right?

Not entirely as we're often shown and told that Marcela is this way with everyone. She keeps up with public appearances for the sake of their elite society but she treats people outside of her economic class poorly, en fin she treats anyone that isn't to her standards poorly and inhumanly. What does this tell us? That she on her own is toxic and abusive so even if she were in a healthy relationship, her prejudice and expectations of things causes her to be this way.

Armando was a cause of the problems in the relationship! That's where the tricky part and what makes them complex, is.

We know that Armando and Marcela were basically forced to be together, or groomed. From a young age all they've heard is how they must be together to unite the families, how her dead parents wanted that more than anything. That's placing a lot of pressure on two people.

However, even if this were the case(which it is) Armando's go about and treatment of Marcela was not okay. For the sake of this post let's say that Armando is the reason Marcela is the way she is(meaning we ignore her personality all together). He caused her to be possessive, controlling, toxic, and cold. Marcela was once a kind and sweet person who did nothing but show devotion and adoration for him, and Armando's constant cheating and lying pushed her to be this way.

Armando could have handled it a lot better. If he felt obligated to be with Marcela from the get go, he could have at the very least, like the very minimum treated her as a human being, and not cheated. That's the very least she deserved.

Obviously, we don't know how the start of their relationship was like. All we know is that when they got engaged that he made a promise to Marcela to be faithful and that Marcela knew about the affairs. We know that Armando and Marcela at least had somewhat of a "happy" relationship, despite the affairs and fights they'd get into. (Which this on it's own establishes that Marcela was fully aware of Armando's unfaithfulness before their engagement, that and his promises to be faithful show us that it's been a problem for years.)

Let's consider this; If Armando fell for Betty when she was ugly SIMPLY because of the adoration and devotion she had for him, why didn't he do that with Marcela at the start?

Had she held this devotion and adoration for Armando from the start it would imply that Armando would have fallen for her, same way he did with Betty, and therefore Marcela would have never turned out to be the way she did, right?

Let's be honest here. That's the sole reason why Armando even began to have some sort of confused emotions towards Betty. It made him feel good, boosted his pride and ego, and tide with the fact he trusted her, he liked Betty. So if Marcela would have been the same way at the start, don't you think Armando would have felt the same? Therefore he wouldn't had cheated on Marcela?

Again, that sounds like I'm solely blaming Marcela for the dissolvement of their relationship but I'm not.

Armando is part/responsible for Marcela's possessiveness in their relationship and there's no excuse for it.

What is cheating and why do people cheat?

Cheating can range from emotional intimacy with another person that isn't your partner to physical. The physical can range from simple hand holding to full blown intercourse.

(source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-people-in-relationships-cheat/#:~:text=The%20participants%20admitted%20to%20cheating,desire%2C%20and%20situation%20or%20circumstance.)

In the article linked as a source it mentions that most partners cheat due to a lack of validation, love, or due to neglect in their relationship. What does this tell us?

While cheating is not a valid response to whatever is a lack in a relationship, there's always a valid reason the person feels the way they do. Let me say that again. Cheating is not valid, but the emotions of the person who is cheating, are. Cheating is not valid, but emotions are. What does this mean? (Unless we're talking about a narcissistic abuser. In that case, no. They are not valid) This is overall just a an idea of why cheating occurs in otherwise "healthy" relationships.

If you feel like your relationship lacks validation, love, neglectful, abusive, or there's no spark or desire: LEAVE or go to couple's therapy and work on it with your partner(EXCEPT FOR THE ABUSIVE ONE. LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! LEAVE! There is help for you.).

Emotions are valid, actions are not. A person's feelings are valid but that does not excuse nor justify cheating.

While Armando's cheating was a huge reason why they had fights and arguments, there had to be a reason why he cheated in the first place and while his emotions were valid, his actions were not.

His cheating could have very well begun at the start of the relationship feeling as if he had no real control over his life because of his parents persistent push for him to be with Marcela, which means it had nothing to with Marcela, everything to do with his parents, and ultimately this caused Marcela to be so possessive. Or it could have simply been Marcela who was like that from the start because she too had to deal with the ever guilting of Margarita's "this is what your parents always wanted, for you two to be together and unite the families." In all honesty the real villain of this show is Margarita.

Yes, their relationship was a paradox of sorts. If they broke up, Armando would lose the presidency, the company would dissolve, his parents would hate him, and he'd be a failure. Marcela wouldn't have really lost anything except Armando.

We can go with the 'could have' and 'should have' or 'what if's', but at the end of the day all we've got is what is actually canon in the show and not just speculation.

A few weeks ago I saw this video on my IG feed of FG talking about the ending of YSBLF. He said he didn't give them their happily ever after, since Armando was Betty's executioner(verdugo).

If the writer himself is saying that Armando wasn't all that amazing, I suppose that means he wasn't.

Yes, Armando went through a redemption arc but even then, Armando wasn't the best person. He was simply a better version of himself. He learned to be honest, to view people as his equals, women as humans and not properties, and to be selfless and caring, that's a huge difference from the Armando from the beginning but Armando was still neurotic. He was still a control freak, and was prone to his anger outburst.

However, this is realistic! Armando didn't change to be the perfect man that was deserving of Betty. He came to be real. He had his traumas and he was healing from them. The love of Betty didn't fix him, contrary, when she stopped showing a pure love towards him, osea, removed her love from him, Armando had no other choice but to LEARN to love properly. In order to do that, he needed to revaluate himself, his goals, his life, and what had pushed him to such a low point in his life and the ironic thing is that Armando's low point wasn't him drunk and suicidal at the bar that night. Armando's low point was the moment he agreed to manipulate Betty in order to retain her devotion and the company.

The downfall of Armando began the moment the novela started. It was a slow trickling drip from the throne he believed he deserved for simply existing and just as that, so was Marcela's.

Unlike with Betty, who was basically seduced to be bad, Armando and Marcela's downfall began from the very beginning.

So many people dismiss the abysmal abuse that was plain in the novela when it's the women acting out this way but are quick to crucify any male who acts the same way.

Now, I'm not saying Armando was only a victim of circumstance because that's not true. If I believed anyone was a victim to circumstance I'd say it was Marcela or Betty.

Why?

Because Armando, with chest puffed in pride, cleared headed, and sober CHOSE to manipulate these women. That's the abhorrent part of his character. That above all he always wanted to save his own skin and while his feelings were complex as to why, at the very end of it, he didn't want to deal with the repercussions.

While Armando wanted to be good, to prove he could be good, to himself, Marcela, and his parents, there lacked a true conviction in him. He felt like he needed to be good in order to have his parents love and approval and one of those things was that he also marry Marcela but he didn't feel inspired to be good.

There's a difference between knowing what's good, wanting to do good, and feeling inspired to be good. See, with inspiration comes motivation and with motivation comes action.

Writing complex characters means that good motives are acted out wrong. It means that bad motives are disguised as good acts. Not fully good, not entirely evil.

When you get to know your characters the rest of the story comes to you naturally and by that I mean that the actions they take, the words they speak, how they are, kind of rolls out of you naturally. You need to know your characters before you sit down to write your story.

Armando's actions are horrible. He was abusive but he was also a victim and I know someone is probably wondering "well why aren't you talking about the way he was towards Betty when she found the letter?" and that's simple.

Armando perfectly mirrored Marcela and Betty perfectly mirrored Armando.

I mentioned this in the Marcela Valencia post but I'll try and talk a bit more about it here.

Armando's constant abuse and violation of Betty is an exact mirroring of Marcela, however, he still chose to act this way knowing that instead of drawing Betty closer to him, that he'd push her further away and while in moments of lucidness Armando attempted to resolve the issues he had with Betty in a calm manner, she wasn't on the same page.

Armando chased Betty all over the place, threw jealousy fits, and forced himself onto her. Marcela did the exact same to him.

However, here's the tricky part of it.

Betty.

Betty was the perfect mirror of Armando. She lied to him, manipulated him, and "cheated" on him. The same way he was towards Marcela.

Obviously this is a simplified version of it but it's the same thing at the end of the day.

Had Betty never acted this way, would Armando have treated her the way he had?

To a lesser degree, I do think so.

I think he would have manipulated her and that he would have thrown some jealousy fit here and there.

See the thing is that if Betty had never given him a taste of his own medicine Armando would have never changed. No matter how much he wanted to or how badly he was in love with Betty.

Armando, to his core, was a coward. That's what he was in the story. Due to this he resorted to manipulation and cheating.

While some of his actions were due to some sort of trauma or the fear of rejection, and came from a place of hurt and self-preservation, Armando still acted wrong.

At least at the end Armando took accountability for his actions and somewhat changed his ways. Was he deserving of getting the girl? Not entirely but was Betty deserving of getting Armando? Not entirely and see that's the problem with writing romance.

Often times the most important bit of the story is cut out because "people don't want to see the reconciliation, they just want to hear about it. "

From what I know, Betty never took accountability for the way she treated Armando after she found the letter and this I will later discuss whenever I get around to watching YSBLF and write a post about the episode but in simpler words: Betty chose to exact revenge on Armando and yes, her emotions were so valid! but her actions were not!

Betty treated Armando the exact same way Armando treated Marcela.

Lastly, I've said Armando is a complex character from the start and while that may be true, this complexity does not excuse his horrible behavior because complexities never do.

Well, I hope y'all enjoy this long over due post, and I apologize for the long hiatus on the YSBLF breakdown posts.

Also, again, sorry if there's any grammar mistakes, I'm working on it! Lol.

'Til next time :)

[tama1313]

(HNK spoilers!) Trying to explain why nobody likes Aechmea...

Disclaimer: Everytime I criticize something, I already expect someone to comes after me, telling "You shouldn't consume medias you clearly don't like!!" I DO love HNK! I love the characters, the plot, the meaning behind! If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here, wasting my precious time at writing this.

After this premise, let's start!

(I apologize in advantages for this wall of words, but I need to say something...)

So, it's pretty obvious that at least the 95% of the active fandom doesn't like Aechmea and hoped for a punshment for his actions (that never happened)

Yet at least a big part of that group likes/enjoy the meaning and the plot of HNK, so it's also pretty obvious that the main problem is not in the storywriting, but into Aechmea and the Lunarians'.

One of the main themes of this manga is the criticism about the myth of being immortal, and tbh that's one of the things I like the most about hnk: the fact that we have plenty of representations throught the characters how being immortal is often only tiredsome and doesn't give any actual advantage, is something really interesting and often overlooked in any other medias (as far as I know).

I know a similar topic can be hard to discuss, expecially due to the many different cultures around the world, but there's nothing wrong to test/uses overlooked topics for your story! It can make it original and feeling "fresh" unlike many other more famous medias. Same goes with having morally grey characters (90% of character in hnk)!

However, to make everything works together fine, an hard work is needed otherwise most of the pubblic won't enjoy the final product (or at least, they'll feel dissatisfied).

And this is exactly what happened to the Lunarians character concept:

In just a few words, what we know about them is that they are the remains of human souls, that overtime got tired of this and all they want is simply stopping to exist (here's the whole thing about the praying machine, becoming nothing, etc...).

As said before, hnk criticize very much this topic, hence it's easy to understand Aechmeas's reasons... but only rationally

Rationally, any of us has understood what the author wanted to tell us about the lunarians, yet none of us like them as characters...

This is due the fact that the character of Aechmea lacks of simpathy: during the course of the story, besides a few pages where he tells the lunarians' past, there aren't any other events to make us, the pubblic, feeling simpathetic toward him and rooting for his action.

The lunarian are meant to be "misunderstood villains"?? You as the author must work on this so us the pubblic can feel it emotionally

This may seems meaningless but it's actually very important in the storytelling, even if said character doesn't represent the morals!

The main reason why people consumes medias nowadays is to find something to relate to (which can be characters, situatuions, backstories, etc...) otherwise medias such as cinemas, comics, mangas, etc... wouldn't be so popular

The only exceptions to this are the unmorally villains (the ones that commits so many disgusting actions that no one on earth could like them. Examples: Ozai from ATLA, The Emperor from Star Wars, Niragi from Alice in Borderland, etc...), but to this case, again, there should have happened more events that make us like Aechmea and Co.

Another important theme that follows strictly the main plot is the "unability to leave the past behind to try something new" therefore the Lunarians are also meant to be somehow the final solution to get free the gems from their phisical/"flawed bodies", but there wasn't anything that I could actually like about this:

the gems that should have represented the theme of "breaking free" better (Dia, Cairn, etc...) instead of getting better as characters, their development only got worse at the point to ending up being hated by most of the pubblic (Dia only joined the massacre of the other gems not even to help Phos, but only to have some emotional revenge over Bort. Cairn got only selfish, bragging and uncaring toward everyone, after they got "freed" from "Ghost's control". You can't tell me these are good things)

The only "escaped gem" that shows some likability throught their action is Benitoite (who should be only a boring secondary character) by trying to save the gem that they despise (an that in my opinion has a far stronger/deeper meaning that anything else having to do with the other gems, beside Padpa and Yellow development, ofc!) and this is very ironic, knowing that they had little screentime than the others.

The whole things about all the gems that didn't joined as lunarian at first now wants to become like them, sounds very iffy to me too (much like they were "forced/manipulated" by the others. You know, the "since everybody do this, I'm doing it too" trope, which is really contrasting with the theme that this story wants to show)

Lunarians are meant to be human, but ironically the "actual villains" (Kongo and Euclase) show to be much more humans than them (the unability/pain to not let go the past is a very human feeling and even if they are in the wrong, we are still able to like them at least a bit), which is something that lack in Aechmea's character:

On top of this, he is also full of contraddictions: he grinds all the gems he caught, but later he is seen even being actracted by them, at the point of keeping Ghost's arm and flirting with Phos and Cairn. He is shown to welcome the Admirabilis when they are in desperate need, but later he does agree with Phos to kidnap and uses them to collect all the gems shard (I'm not too sure about this point, because I don't remember very much that part, so feel free to correct me). And I'm pretty sure there are other topics/ about this.

In general, he should have been the "desperate anti-hero", the only certain thing about him is his manipulatoy behaviour and his obsession with the final goal (interrupted sometimes only by he and Cairn's cringey flirting), and this is not enough to deserve to be eradicated from the reality with anyone else.

The ending is acceptable, but Aechmea's fate is not. No matter how strong I try to accept it rationally: it doesn't feels right!

The Phos's character development is a different kind of this: the meaning of "you tried to satisfy everyone, you ended up being alone" and "you are perfect as you are, no need to fit with everyone" is not only true, but allows the pubblic to simphatyze with our protagonist very much. Phos is simpathetic! And it's very easy to see ourself in them: from us, people phisically/mentally disable that have this internal pain of not feeling accepted by the others, to simply people that are "different" and wants to be recognized as valid ("different" meaning anything that doesn't hurt anyone. Don't get me wrong).

Therefore I still love HNK ending despise everything and Phos has officially become one of my favourite protagonists ever!

Perhaps, the only right thing that could have been done with Aechmean, would have been that, while all the others become nothing, he being locked forever in a human body made out of flesh, bone and blood, able to decompose but unable to die (much like Rock's fate from Warriors Cats)

(Maybe this is a bit too sadistic, but for sure I would have liked it more)

Ok, I'm done! Once again, sorry for this wall of words and if you disagree with me or have other thoughts, let me know through reblog or comment

[nicascurls]

It's strange to me that despite Grant only being in one season so far, he seems to have more depth as a character than Devon or Lexy. Devon hasn't had significant character development since the first season, and Lexy's development seemed to have halted after Season 2. However, Grant is a compelling and engaging character. We learn a lot about him and his family background, which helps us understand the reasons behind his behavior. Devon seems to be defined solely as "Jake's boyfriend," while Lexy has been reduced to being "the hot girl." On the other hand, Grant has a well-rounded character beyond being a love interest. He's portrayed as being social media obsessed, having unconditional love for Henry, being the president's son, dealing with losing his brother to cancer, being used by people in the past, and struggling with not having any friends until the season takes place. Why was it so easy for Mancini to develop Grant but so hard for him to give Devon and Lexy actual personalities?

I 100% agree with you.

Devon started out really promising in terms of development in season 1, I think, and then all of that was ignored as the show has continued. Even at the end of season 2, he said he was done with podcasting, and I really hoped that was set up for Devon to have a new interest and some development in season 3, but that didn't happen.

Lexy, I feel like she obviously has some development, but when you think about it. It seems pretty clear that she is still a 'mean girl' to an extent. At the start of season 2, when she wasn't exactly nice to Nadine, I guess I could understand that if it was something she was still working on and she became kinder once Nadine knew about Chucky. But then, in season 3, she constantly manipulates Grant and dismisses his very valid feelings. It even seemed as if the trio couldn't stand Grant until around episode 6, and then they abandoned him again in episode 8, with apparently no explanation.

I would even argue that I don't think Jake has had much development past season 1. He doesn't learn from past experiences (trusting Chucky, ignoring Devon's concerns etc). And yet Don expects us to root for him the same way we do for Andy.

Honestly, I would be more than happy if, in season 4, if they still wanted to focus on teens that it would focus on Grant the most. Maybe him finding a way to free the trio? Or get revenge for his father and Hicks' deaths?

Grant isn't perfect. That isn't what I'm asking for for the trio. But I want it to be acknowledged that they aren't perfect and definitely not 'experts' when it comes to Chucky. Grant tries to portray himself as popular on social media, which leads to him occasionally sounding, snarky, entitled, or arrogant at times. But we also get to see that underneath that he's a sweet kid who adores his brother and mom but is also lonely and grieving the loss of his younger brother whilst trying to put on a brave face.

[lemonhemlock]

https://at.tumblr.com/lemonhemlock/why-aemond-alicent-rhaenyra-daemon-and-others/5f1o0o4b4rrn

I think this is because to the HotD writers/showrunners, Aegon is not the actual protagonist of the Greens the way Rhaenyra is for the Blacks; Alicent is. Alicent is the real center of the Green plotline, the most sympathetic, the one given the most character development and screentime, the one with the strongest ties to the opposing side. There's a reason why Rhaenicent is so strongly developed and so central to their arcs and the story at large while Aegon and Rhaenyra don't share a single word. The story isn't about the relationship (or lack thereof) between Aegon and Rhaenyra, it's about the former bond between Alicent and Rhaenyra. I think they even described Ep9 as being Alicent's episode? That's why Alicent is so heavily prioritized compared to Aegon despite not being the actual claimant, because she's essentially the main character of the Green faction of a whole.

You may feel one way or another, but tbh for the most part I like this change personally. I appreciate the show prioritizing the women and really putting them into the spotlight, and I really love Alicent as a character, so I'm still happy with what they did. The problem unfortunately comes that because of Alicent being focused on more AND because of the pacing of S1, Aegon sort of feels like a bit of an afterthought/not nearly as developed as he could have been. Ideally, Aegon should sorta occupy the same narrative space like Daemon for the Greens - the most prominent male co-lead to the leading ladies. Maybe that's why they gave Aegon the adaptational villain treatment, since they know Daemon isn't a good person and in some ways they made him even worse (having him kill Rhea when he wasn't even speculated to have done so in the book).

The issue is 1) the pacing. Time skips were necessary for this story because it takes place over many years; however the specific pacing of this season only gives Aegon sufficient screentime for character development in 4 episodes. Compare that with Daemon getting 9 episodes.

And 2) Aegon still comes across as worse than Daemon. Daemon grooms his niece, but it still comes across as less worse than Aegon raping Dyana because Rhaenyra was also ""into it.""

That might be way writers like Hess were surprised at the Greens being less popular. They thought that Alicent and other sympathetic Greens like Aemond would have been enough to balance out the worse of them like Aegon, to get people to still root for them. But I think they didn't realize that making Aegon do things as horrible as rape, and then having him be the guy they're trying to get on the throne ends up dragging everyone on his side down. If they're serious about making both sides equal in terms of sympathy, then I hope they can actually pull it off in s2.

Sorry for dumping a whole essay in your inbox. I just saw that ask of yours and had a lot of thoughts on it.

Thank you for your message, you make some very good points. I do actually like that they focused the Dance on the women's stories via Alicent and Rhaenyra. In truth, I wouldn't change that approach; it doesn't bother me per se that Aegon is a secondary character.

The issue here is the "morality" of each cause - Rhaenyra, at least, is fighting for herself and is framed (rightfully or not) in a feminist light; whereas Alicent's character suffers a lot because she is portrayed as trying to place her drunk rapist son on the throne at the expense of an exemplary woman (see how Rhaenys praises Rhaenyra to Corlys as "holding the realm together").

Alicent's character also suffers a lot because, by making Aegon such a rotten apple, her mothering skills are questioned, all the while Rhaenyra is shown to be a loving, perfect mother with likeable children. See how people are much more willing to excuse the crimes of Rhaenyra's husband, because she doesn't have as much influence on him, whereas they are so quick to blame Aegon's faults on Alicent for being a bad mother, since she was in charge of raising him and shaping him to rule. So Daemon's faults are not a reflection on Rhaenyra in the eyes of the viewer, whereas Aegon's faults reflect directly on Alicent.

This is why I feel that it would have made more sense to make Aemond the problematic child, since he is already a foil for Daemon, who occupies the main villain role for the blacks. I do not think that the audience's reaction to the greens would have been so unbalanced if they made Aegon the funny drunk a la Tyrion. People love and root for characters like that.

[silverphantom36]

Finished Season 1 of The Owl House.

Finished watching Season 1 of The Owl House. And…

Eh, it's OK. I like the animation, the art direction & the voice acting. However, it's got problems.

I found the characters to be flat or, often sometimes, annoying. Luz is OK & TBH she really isn't as weird as the show likes to say she is. Eda is alright, though she really could've been developed better. I'm really not feeling King. He's got a nice design, but for a former King of Demons, he sure doesn't act like one & it would've been funnier if he had a much deeper voice coming out of a cute, little critter. That would've been funnier than the majority of the comedy in this show, which really doesn't do anything for me. Willow's bland. She's the generic shy, nice female friend #8. The only time I found her somewhat interesting was when they revealed she had a darker side but that didn't last. Gus is extremely annoying. The fact that he lied to Luz about her being banned from Hexside should've earned him to be left in the dust. TBH, those three kids from the detention episode would've made much better side character friends for Luz than Willow & Gus. Not only are they not irritating, but they actually seem fun to be around. It would've been fun & cute if Luz went on more adventures with those three. Amity's pretty flat. Her character development is something I've seen before but handled better & I get that she was forced by her parents to end her friendship with Willow for her sake but wouldn't it make more sense if she acted distant from her instead of tormenting her & trying to get everyone associated with her killed? Her siblings aren't too bad but nothing that makes me root for them. Finally, Hooty's not that annoying. Probably a hot take there.

Everything with Hexside was unoriginal & dull. You've seen Harry Potter & anything to do with school, you've seen most of the plotlines with it. A sports episode, a detention episode, a field trip episode, a prom episode. May be an unpopular opinion here but Hexside wasn't needed at all. They should've spent more time on Eda actually teaching Luz magic & develop their relationship more & have the detention kids & Amity visit from time to time.

The antagonists are super hard to take seriously. Lilith had a promising start & she was interesting for one episode before she became The Owl House version of Team Rocket. I really wanted to take Emperor Belos seriously but I couldn't. Esp. not after he made a fool of himself in the season finale. His "skilled" guards got beaten by an inexperience apprentice & he expected Lilith to carry on her duties after he revealed to her that he's screwing her over. What do you think was gonna happen next, dummy? Maybe wait until everything is said & done with Eda before saying "eff you" to Lilith? It's such a shame because I like Belos' design & the voice cast for him & he had a decent introduction but that's really it for him.

To be clear, I don't hate The Owl House. Again, great art style & animation & great choices for the voice acting but the bad parts of it outweigh the good parts for me. I am hoping that Season 2 blows it out of the water for me, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

[wolfie-winchester]

Netflix's ATLA Thoughts (Spoilers Ahead)

I'd give it a 6/10. I wasn't in love with it like the original, however it was much better than I was expecting (especially considering the only other live action we can compare it to is so bad fans pretend it doesn't exist).

For the things I liked about it:

I think the costumes, special effects, creature designs, and fight scenes/bending were all pretty good. As far as adapting certain story lines (Jet, the mechanist, etc) I was surprised at how they executed them but not necessarily disappointed. Obviously they had to condense it down to fit in 8 episodes and I found that while it was different than I was expecting, their placement in the story didn't really feel out of place (to me) and at the end of the day, while the way they got to certain plot points was different, the overall end result was still the same. For example, having Zuko and Iroh go to Omashu was different but at the end we still get the part where Iroh is captured by earthbenders and Zuko rescues him. The fact that it isn't a one for one, verbatim adaptation is fine for me. I wasn't really expecting them to do that anyway and if I wanted that I would just rewatch the original. Though I am wondering now if they will still go to the library in season 2 and see Wan Shi Tong since they already met him in the spirit world, so I'm interested to see how that plays out.

Now as for the things I didn't like:

I did not like how they changed Bumi to be this bitter old man who only challenges Aang basically to be mean and "teach him a lesson" in a much harsher way than original Bumi did. I don't see why they couldn't leave his character as he was. I was half-expecting at the end for Bumi to say, "just kidding" and go back to being his goofy self. The parts where he was making jokes and acting crazy felt forced, like the writers wanted to throw it in just because it happens in the show, but because of how they changed Bumi's personality, it just felt out of place and weird.

On the flip side, I thought Zhao was a little too goofy and dramatic. Not that original Zhao was necessarily undramatic, but Netflix Zhao felt a bit overexaggerated with the way he talked. IDK if it was the actor portraying him like that or if it's how the writers wrote him, but either way, I didn't really care for it.

Aang can only talk to his past lives at their shrines? I don't really get the point of them essentially nerfing one of the Avatar's powers for no reason.

And lastly, things I am unsure about but want to see how they play out:

Zuko and Azula. I know they changed things for Zuko in having more moments where they show him "being good" and I'll be honest, some of those moments where he talks about "Father would never do this" or about "the honor of the fire nation" were a little cringy, and while Zuko is all about HONOR, it's mostly his honor he's concerned with at the beginning. I don't expect them to come close to getting the same impact with Zuko's redemption arc as the original (because the original is a masterpiece) but by making him "more good" at the start, it kind of lessens the impact of when he changes sides and of the character development he goes through. However, I'll stick it out and see what they do with it for now.

As for Azula, I'm not sure yet how to feel about how her and Ozai's relationship is going so far. She's supposed to be the prodigy child, "born lucky" and Ozai's favorite, so to see him "playing games" with her and treating her like original Ozai treats Zuko is very strange. It seems they're trying to go with the whole, "he's making her stronger by forcing her to win his approval/compete with Zuko" but the thing with Azula's character is that she's already supposed to be one of the strongest firebenders out there. I guess maybe they could be trying to already plant roots for her eventual mental breakdown with the pressure of trying to impress him adding to whatever else will happen in the future. Once again, I'm not sure if I like what they're doing but I'll at least wait and see where they go with it.

In the most literal of senses, the show is mid. Not wonderful but not awful either. (And way better than M Night Shyamalan's mess of a movie)