#Literally the reasons I like the other characters can be boiled down to a few sentences

[sideblogforhitgameobeyme]

I find the total dichotomy of how well I can explain why I adore Levi vs why I adore Asmo is so funny

I could type out a small paragraph full of reasons on why I love Levi

Meanwhile, for Asmo, it's just "He's a silly little guy :3"

[badbugbotblood]

WH- ME? And my tiny account? Getting tagged in something neat out of the blue? Well I'll be!

(pspspsps @king-candybug-backup)

As for my results:

A perfect 50/50 split between these two, which on the surface level does make sense.

Hey everyone!

I just made a Core Four-themed personality quiz!

@bashfulgnome

@thebluejetpack

@sadboytristan

@sgtcalhouns

@junkkey

@badbugbotblood

@speared-mint

@wreckitralphrestart

@wreck-it-hell

@ask-icancraft-it

@therockyroadster

@randomalistic

Reblog this post with your results!

[noyzinerd]

Derek's Journey Into House Husbandry

Listen, Derek's inheritance was $117 million, same as Peter's. Derek's childhood was spent in a multimillion dollar mansion, with his multimillion dollar family, and he's had an affinity for expensive muscle cars. Then, all the places he lived in after the fire were decrepit safety hazards.

What I'm saying is this boy was a pampered little rich kid for most of his life before living as a hobo for the rest of it.

I like to think that for the first few months of Stiles and Derek living together, Stiles learns very quickly that Derek isn't exactly well-acquainted with "middle-class living".

Just imagine:

When Stiles gets home from work, he asks if Derek could start boiling two cups of water so that Stiles can make rice for dinner after he takes a shower. To which, Derek says "Um...sure."

However, once Stiles finishes and comes to the kitchen, he's met with this:

So, okay, that's on Stiles. Sure, he noticed Derek ordered food a lot and ate out constantly, but it had never occurred to him that he was literally living on takeout because he could afford to. The only reason he wasn't right now was because Stiles had cracked down on takeout (Stiles still had to stay relatively healthy for his job, afterall).

Unfortunately for Stiles, this isn't a one off.

When it's time to tidy up the place a little bit, Stiles tells Derek that he'll vacuum the carpet if Derek will sweep the hardwood.

Unbeknownst to Stiles, Derek hasn't ever needed to sweep before. So, about a half hour later, Stiles checks in, and Derek is just-

sweeping side-to-side, kicking up dust in the air and just spreading it to different areas of the room like a cartoon character because he doesn't know that you're supposed to use the broom to gather the dust into a centralized area (the dust pan) to be thrown away.

But Stiles doesn't have it in him to find it anything other than endearing. It's hard not to when Derek is so fucking earnest. He wants to be helpful. He wants to know how to take care of a house of his very own. Fortunately, Derek's eager to learn and a very quick study.

He learns that dish soap does NOT go in the dishwasher. He learns about the difference between laundry detergent and fabric softener, about emptying the lint trap, about changing the A/C filter, about ironing, about all the vacuum attachments and how to change the bag.

And every time Derek succeeds a little bit at adulting, Stiles sees this spark of joy and sense of accomplishment that is absolutely adorable.

It's not long before Derek takes to being a house husband like a fish to water. Which, honestly? Suits him. It isn't unusual nowadays to find Derek baking bread and watching telenovelas while Stiles is at work, or comparing cantaloupes at the grocery store in a cable knit cardigan and sweat pants.

Watching Derek do a little fist pump to himself every time he earns gas points on his rewards card at the grocery store makes Stiles want to melt into the floor.

[beneathashadytree]

HEY GUYS! LONG POST HERE, BUT PLEASE READ🙏🏽

I am genuinely appalled by the discourse ongoing in the LNDS fandom these past few days—but above all, I am severely disappointed in what had started out as one of the most inclusive and sweet fandoms I’ve ever been in. I have a few things to say, so in this post I’m trying to put all my thoughts to words. Apologies if I sound harsh, but I’m genuinely livid. Also, please ignore any typos. I’m not wearing my glasses while word-vomiting.

First off, for a fandom that is composed of mostly adults, you guys have been acting terribly childishly. It’s 2024, and yet people are still unironically shaming others for “switching up on their favs” as if a person owes 2D characters any loyalty. Let people enjoy things. The novelty of Sylus and how he’s quite literally 6 months behind the other 3 love interests makes people want to catch up on the enjoyment of him all at once. He’s still such a brand new character and concept, so there’s no wonder everyone’s hyped up over him.

I’ve seen people get genuinely mad at other players and writing whole think-pieces about this. I promise you guys, the company making this game is still benefiting whether you’re pouring your money into Sylus or any one of the previous 3. We’re all happy to have an interesting character pop up among the roster now, and we’re taking our time getting to know him. Doesn’t make any of the first 3 any less loved. I genuinely don’t remember this amount of nastiness when solo events for each of the guys used to drop.

In fact, if the popularity thing is worrying you, going off MLQC (the company’s past game) the character who was last added was—eventually, after the initial hype died down—kicked off to the sidelines in most major events and was given the least content, and was the least favorite of fans.

Secondly, and this has my blood boiling, there is an insane amount of entitlement and rudeness I’ve seen on my timeline concerning how people characterize the men—particularly Rafayel.

Absolutely nothing warrants this shitty attitude towards other creators for how they depict characters in their fics. It seems you guys feel protected behind a screen and think it gives you the right to bully strangers online. Fanfiction is for fantasizing about your favs; for letting your imagination run wild. If this were a character analysis, then yes, maybe I’d agree that inaccuracies are aggravating. However, in fanfiction, there are zero rules, especially when it comes to smut.

Sexual preferences are not equivalent to a person’s whole personality—so whether he’s written as a dom, a sub, a switch, or whatever the fuck you wanna call it, this has nothing to do with his kindness, gentlemanliness, passion, power, ruthlessness, snark, or whatever minuscule aspect of his character makes up his lovely whole and matters to you.

I think this circles back to a lack of ability to separate sexual matters and personality, because how else do people interpret fics depicting him in a certain manner as them erasing his character? They might overlap, but they can very well be mutually exclusive. I’ve seen incredibly sweet and gentle men irl who were absolute doms in bed, and I’ve seen powerful and passionate men who were reduced to tears between the sheets. There is barely any correlation whatsoever, and if anything, claiming otherwise is what I consider piss-poor media literacy and reading-comprehension.

My third point is that for some reason, there have been many, many posts and replies on here where I’ve seen people just straight-up spread pure hate for the characters. Maybe this bothered me in particular because I’m an OT3 (OT4 now!) and absolutely adore all of them, but I find no logical reason for “yucking someone’s yum” when we’re talking about liking the characters of an Otome game—a genre of video games which is made to literally cater to the tastes of as many people as possible.

It’s especially disheartening to see when it’s at a time like this, when new content is about to drop, and you find in the replies of every other post/discussion at least a few people spewing hate and disgust at Sylus. Again, so many people are incredibly excited about him. Why is there a need to rain on everyone’s parade, especially in such an unsolicited manner?

This fandom originally started as a safe space for people of all races, backgrounds, genders, sexualities, and personalities to bond over our mutual love for characters. All I’ve seen on my TL lately (in terms of discussion) is negativity, and it’s such a fucking let-down. I hope whatever the fuck has happened to this fandom cools down after a bit. It’s probably exaggerated and very in-your-face rn, cause more and more people are downloading LNDS, so the probabilities of finding people being nasty are increasing. But I seriously don’t want to grow to resent this fandom and find myself distancing myself from it to protect my peace.

Let’s all remember to be kind towards other players, to not act entitled or bratty about the characters, and to try and mind our own business if we see content that doesn’t suit our tastes.

[sh1-n0bu]

Can u do yandere Beel-obey me with a impulsive/lil crazy mc/reader? In a minute she is calm and in the other she tries to kill a random demon. May u can do him a lil masochist too? Pretty pleaseee 🙏

✿ 𝙨𝙝𝙚’𝙨 𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙯𝙮 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚’𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚 ✿

characters: yandere!beel x fem!reader

warnings: generally darker undertones bc it’s a yandere, description of fighting, injuries, mentions of blood, yandere thoughts and acts, masochism, hinted that mc have signs of anger issues and bipolarity, some suggestive things

notes: ‘m so so so sorry for the late response hun. i just couldn’t rlly think of a good scenarios for this one😔 hope it’s to your liking!

everyone experiences bipolarity and anger issues differently. i am no mental health expert and i wrote this with my own anger issues experience and a friend's bipolarity. if some things seem wrong or unlikely then pls let me know.

since mc is literally living with demons, there definitely will be some darker/gruesome moments brushed off as a normal thing bc they’re demons

so with that in mind, being possessive, protective, a bit too overbearing or controlling is seen as a normal thing in a relationship for them

however beel is much more chill and softer when it comes to such things

it’s bc he has great GREAT amount of trust in you plus he knows no sane, lower demon would never dare and approach you

either bc of the pact markings of the 7 demon lords of devildom or

your impulsive self.

yep.

that’s the reason.

at first meeting and the first few days or weeks into mc’s stay in devildom, the brothers either find mc’s impulsiveness and anger issues relatable, amusing or just downright annoying

as for beel he didn’t really care. as long as you didn’t get yourself killed or gravely injured

if anything in the beginning it low-key reminded beel of his twin, belphie

mc’s dark humor, threatening back demons about how they will puck out their teeth, boil it into a soup and shove it down their throat while it’s still steaming hot were first annoying to most of the brothers

however to beel, it just reminded him of how his brother would always snap back at the other demons and more specifically, lucifer

perhaps that little resemblance is what led beel to be protective and possessive over mc

it started out slow and barely noticeable lingering hands over their shoulders, small worried glances, giving them ice package to put over their bruised knuckles

soon it developed into beel constantly hovering around mc, threatening to eat the other lesser demons who even dared to gaze at them to scenting

when scenting your partner in a demon relationship, it usually involves leaving visible marks on each other since demons all have different distinguishable markings

whether it be carving their marks into their s/o’s flesh with their claws, leaving a bloody bite mark or sometimes even their pact markings on each other

however, considering the fact beel is more gentler than the other demons and your a human, he simply decided that cuddling with you for so long to the point that others could smell beel’s sin and scent on you or just draping his large, fluffy orange jacket over you was enough

unfortunately, demons are beings that generally have a darker mindset than humans so one day some lesser, cocky demon mocked you for being “beel’s pet” while you were alone

mc paid that demon back with a broken nose and a broken arm that bent the wrong way (like this __^__🫴)

the terrified screeching of the onlookers and the anguish filled cries of the cocky bastard alongside the blood dripping from the claw marks the demon left on mc called upon the attention of the brothers

when arriving at the scene beel couldn’t help but feel an odd feeling within him

something hot, mushy and dizzying feeling pooling in his stomach, his mind getting hazy, eyes half lidded with the only focus of attention being on you

asmo sensed his brother’s sudden arousal and dragged him off from the crowd, sitting him down in one of the empty classrooms and having a talk with him. helping him calm down and explaining to his little brother that sometimes people get aroused by people who are stronger than them

since that little incident with mc and the cocky demon, beel has never went a day without his mind wandering to the scene he saw

you standing tall and proud with a bloody claw mark running from your chin to your neck with an odd triumphant grin while the lower insect screeched, holding his broken arm

and when he lets his daydreaming go wild, the sixth brother finds himself fantasizing about you sitting on him with the same grin, carving your initials on his chest

the scent of blood oozing around the room, the quiet giggles that would slip out of your lips as he groans and whimpers at the odd yet pleasant feeling

and when his imaginations go further than that, the avatar of sin of gluttony finds himself choking on his breath, pants tightening and the room feeling hotter than the usual

perhaps paying a visit to your room this night won’t be such a bad idea…

[firelxdykatara]

I too ship Zutara and think they should have been canon. Although for me it's important to know how such a rewrite would go down. I tried to think, and I'm lost.

After Mai betrayed Azula for him, will he just go "sorry, not interested"? He isn't obligated to date her because of this, but her redemption hinges on Zuko and I don't see it being satisfying if he ends up rejecting her after this.

I thought the solution would be to rewrite her arc in boiling rock to make her have a moral realization, but then the problem with Maiko is practically solved. Their relationship wasn't salvaged by her redemption because last time they talked, Mai still didn't understand what's wrong with the Fire Nation and only changed because she loved Zuko. So how do you make it both satisfying & logical?

With Kataang the problem is the Chakras. The problem with the original (in my opinion) is that after he opened his chakra, letting go of his attachment to Katara, he's still attached (forcing a kiss on eip). Should TCoD get rewritten so that Azula shoots him before he opens it? Then why wouldn't he just open it later? Maybe the chakra would be locked so he feels as though he doesn't need to overcome his attachment just yet. In that situation, how would his chakra even unlock? The stone thing felt like nonsense, so how would I do it?

So yeah I have no idea how to approach this. How would you? (Thanks)

I've been rotating this ask in the back of my head like a rotisserie chicken for a few days--it's interesting because I don't generally stop to think like, how would I write them out of these relationships, I either ignore the relationships completely (which isn't hard, they were barely footnotes in the cartoon) or play a little bit with jealous exes or something. Thinking about like, In A Perfect World where Bryke wasn't in charge of ATLA post-canon (because if zutara had been canon, you can be sure they would've made us regret it) is interesting, and I do have thoughts on how I'd handle their relationships in a rewrite.

(this got long, so the rest is beneath the cut)

Assuming you mostly want to keep canon intact, I think maiko would be the easiest to work around, given how little relevance their relationship has in canon. The problem with maiko as an endgame ship is that it was not set up that way--if it had been, it would not have begun entirely off-screen and their whole relationship would not have been a study in misery and utter inability to connect emotionally. His relationship with Mai was there to showcase just how much he had changed and how little he fit into the life he had been so sure he wanted more than anything since his banishment. It worked very well to highlight Zuko's growth--how that contrasted to Mai's lack of it and why she could not understand him even at his most open and vulnerable--and did not work nearly so well when she was shoved back with him in the epilogue, after he'd quite literally forgotten her existence (he never mentions her again after Boiling Rock, not even to say a word of mourning, considering he'd have every reason to believe she was killed for defying his sister).

I don't think you can fix this by giving Mai some moral realization, because there simply is no room for it. As @araeph says in the essay I linked:

As a character, Mai is very useful to the story during Zuko’s return, because she represents everything that Zuko gains by sticking by his father. A girl who cares about him; the ability to indulge her; the authority he has over others at the palace; we see it all in his interactions with Mai. But this makes Mai a tether to a life he has long outgrown. Her function is not to advance Zuko’s character development, but to obstruct it, which also unfortunately means that Mai gaining a full understanding of Zuko’s trials would be disadvantageous to the story. If she knew everything about him and still wanted him to stay, it would give Zuko more cause than he should have to remain in the Fire Nation, but if she knew and encouraged him to leave and join the Avatar, it would rob Zuko of the triumph of making this decision on his own. In other words, there are good narrative reasons for keeping Mai in the dark; it just doesn’t make their relationship any stronger.

The seeds of a genuine redemption arc (one that includes some sort of moral realization and change to her moral framework) for Mai would have to have been planted far earlier than five episodes from the end of the series, but doing so would have of necessity detracted from Zuko's own character arc and the realizations that he makes despite his attachment to Mai (or more specifically to their relationship, which I feel like he was clinging to more out of a sense of abject loneliness he couldn't shake rather than genuine feelings and emotional connection).

So, in my mind, since we're tackling this with an eye towards getting rid of maiko with the fewest ripples to the overall story anyway, the easiest way to do this would be make one slight change to the end of the Boiling Rock two-parter--have Ty Lee (who had always been the least gung-ho of the trio about bowing to Azula's whims and had to be textually threatened into joining her in the first place) save Zuko's life, and then have Mai (who showed the most genuine affection for Ty Lee anyway) save Ty Lee. I love Zuko more than I fear you always fell flat for me as some epic declaration of love, anyway, since a) Zuko is not around to hear it, and b) unlike Ty Lee, she never showed much fear of Azula to begin with, so it wasn't a very high bar to clear. It was a cool line that was entirely unearned, and I don't think it would be missed, there would be some cute mailee crumbs this way, and a throwaway line of getting them released from the prison after the war ended could wrap up their presence in the story pretty nicely.

Now, kataang is a little trickier, if only because the last leg of Aang's character arc is almost completely derailed by his refusal to let go of his possessive attachment to Katara, to the point where he never naturally reopens his chakras, he has to have the Rock of Destiny hit him in just the right place, and the deus ex lionturtle there to give him a way out of having to make a hard moral choice. (I've maintained for years that if you work the final act of your main character's overall arc in such a way that it could have been solved by one good session with a chiropractor, something got fucked along the way.)

The thing about Aang's chakras is that, narratively, his whole thing with Guru Pathik and leaving his training early to save his friends was basically his version of Luke running away from his training with Yoda on Degobah because of his Force vision, only to find out that his friends were in the process of rescuing themselves and then losing his hand because he hadn't completed the most crucial part of his training. What's missing, therefore, from the last act of Aang's character arc, is the return.

See, in Star Wars, Luke pretty explicitly makes the wrong choice when he chooses to prioritize saving his friends over attaining enlightenment and fully mastering the Force. It was the only choice he could have made, but it was still the wrong one--because, like Aang, his friends did not actually need him to save them, he actually almost makes it harder for them to get away by requiring them to save him because, like Aang, he loses a battle in a very critical way. This was a lesson he desperately needed to learn, and it is clear he has learned it by the time he makes it back to Degobah and witnesses the end of Yoda's life, his own enlightenment having already been reached.

But Aang never goes back to the Guru.

And the text refuses to allow us to sit with the fact that he made the wrong choice in prioritizing his attachment to Katara over his ability to master the Avatar State. He is actually narratively vindicated about it, because the plot bends itself into a pretzel so that he doesn't have to spend any time during the last book trying to reopen his chakras and regain access to the Avatar State, handed both in the final battle with no excess effort on his part, and handed the girl into the bargain. (The girl who never even wanted him, so far as we can tell from all the lack of cues she gave him that she actually returned his feelings.)

And I think this could have been solved with a few scattered scenes. Let Katara actually have some agency in her own romantic relationship (or lack thereof), insofar as noticing Aang's advances and clueing the audience in to how she actually feels. Let Aang struggle with the fact that he can't reach the Avatar State, that his mastery of the elements is in limbo because he can't access his full power, rather than ignoring all of this until the end of the show. If we're trying to keep the shape of the last season roughly the same, let Katara confront Aang about the invasion kiss.

This would have been the perfect time to establish that Katara actually does feel some type of way about Aang prior to the epilogue, and it could have saved us from the exceedingly cringey EIP kiss that Aang never apologized for. How it comes across now, of course, is that Katara basically pretends it never even happened, to the point where she doesn't even know what Aang is talking about during EIP until he reminds her--the death knell for any shot their relationship had at looking requited, because I can tell you, as someone who's been a teenage girl, if someone I had conflicted but burgeoning romantic feelings for had kissed me, I would not have completely forgotten about it only a few weeks later--and we never get any indication as to what she actually felt about the kiss (which was not mutual, despite what Aang's dialogue in the EIP scene implies) except for the fact that she looked away and frowned afterwards. (A change mandated by Bryke, who wanted to leave her feelings completely ambiguous; the original storyboards had her smiling to herself.)

So, with an eye towards wrapping up Aang's puppy love crush and establishing Katara's distinct lack of romantic feelings for him, have her talk to him about the kiss. A good frame of reference for this would be Meng's conversation with Aang in "The Fortuneteller", where she finally realizes that he doesn't like her in the same way she likes him. Katara and Aang's conversation about the invasion kiss could be a callback to this, with Aang having some important realizations--that just because Katara doesn't share his feelings doesn't mean she loves him any less, and just because he can't have her the way he wanted doesn't mean he has to love her any less, that she doesn't belong to him but that's ok, because she's still his family and they'll always have each other's backs. Which could have functioned well in helping him take another step towards unblocking his chakras. Going back to the Guru directly may not have worked, since by this point in the story we're hurtling towards the final confrontation and Sozin's Comet, but let Aang reflect on what the Guru told him with new understanding granted him by his experiences throughout the first half of the season.

To keep the stakes high and up the suspense, obviously, he shouldn't have fully unlocked his chakras and the AS before the final fight, but the seeds could be planted--little moments like a talk with Katara about the invasion kiss, maybe a little more empathy and understanding from him about why Katara needs closure in TSR, etc--and then, during the final fight, rather than hand him all the answers on a silver platter, have him almost lose. He still can't go full Avatar, he's out of time, he still doesn't know exactly what to do about Ozai given his own pacifism and desire to preserve that part of his culture--he tries to fight but he's pretty quickly overpowered. Idk how I would've animated this, and maybe it wouldn't have looked as cool for the final fight, but the true climax of the finale was the Zuko and Azula agni kai anyway, so it hardly matters--I'm picturing him doing the rock-shield thing and going into a brief meditative state, where he finally achieves the enlightenment necessary to unlock the AS on his own, no rock of chiropracty necessary. And at this point, I'd give Ozai a Disney Death, since leaving him alive causes more problems than it solves and it's not necessary for Aang to kill him for him to die--they're fighting on a mountain ffs--but if you don't want to change that part then him figuring out energy bending as part of becoming a fully realized Avatar would at least feel more earned than the lionturtle just handing it to him. (And that could've been foreshadowed better by seeding the idea for it earlier in the season.)

After all of that, particularly if you up the emotions during the agni kai and have Zuko and Katara kiss there (or something less explicitly romantic but still tender, like a brief forehead touch), it'd feel pretty natural to have a just friends ending for Aang and Katara. Maybe a brief, slightly awkward but ultimately amiable conversation if Zuko and Katara had a ~thing at their final fight, and then the final shot of the series could be the gaang all together, maybe zutara holding hands or Katara resting her head on his shoulder or something, but since they already kissed there wouldn't feel like a need to end the whole show on romance, something which I've always felt missed the point of the series.

And then, y'know, after that, the world's your oyster! This is how I'd do it if I were trying to keep the bulk of the final season intact. Of course, breaking it all down to its component pieces and rebuilding from the ground up is also an option, but that'd probably be a longer post lol.

[tcfactory]

This is fully a personal preference thing honestly, but I've been turning it around in my brain why I don't like BingQiu specifically when I'm at worst neutral on almost literally any other ship and I think it boils down to this: it's really important to me that in a ship that's supposed to be lasting and stable at least one character can say "I see you for what you are and I accept you for all there is to you". And that's just not a thing with BingQiu.

Binghe literally can't know a huge part of Shen Qingqiu - the part that is Shen Yuan, the part that wears the scum villain as a mask that it can never even take off completely - because of the transmigration and the System. He also idolizes his Shizun and at the same time puts on mask after mask so that he can be Shen Qingqiu's lovely white lotus which also don't help.

And Shen Qingqiu's head is full of so many bees, so much denial and self-delusion that we watched him actively think himself in circles rather than admit that Binghe might be interested in him for three whole books. I don't trust him to have a reasonably realistic idea of himself, much less of someone else. Especially not Binghe. He will make up a picture in his mind about how things are supposed to be and it has to be an act of divine intervention for him to budge from it. He will deny reality if he has to, so he's incapable of seeing Binghe as anything other than the Perfect Protagonist.

I don't often see Binghe shipped with others (he's so singularly No Thoughts Head Empty Only Shizun that it's hard to put him with anyone else. Shen Jiu sometimes I guess, but he is shipped more with Bingge which feels like a distinctly separate thing to me and anyway, it's usually predicated upon the realization that they are both similar kinds of monsters, even if Bingge outdoes his scum villain by several orders of magnitude) but Shen Yuan has a few choice ships that either challenge his expectations enough that his denial and delusion breaks down eventually (Liu Qingge, Shen Jiu, etc.) or ship him with Airplane who knows him for what he is because he's also a transmigrator and he's familiar with Cucumber bro's acerbic inner self.

Other ships too. QiJiu/LiuJiu/QiJiuLiu any variations of these three tbh thrive on clearing up their misunderstanding and starting to see each other clearly again. MoShang get together once they start to properly pay attention to each other and their respective needs. Airplane in general has just an impossible understanding of whoever he's shipped with as only Author and his creations can have. Tianlang-jun's weird charm comes from it that he can't (or possibly refuses to) pretend to be anything than who and what he is beyond the most superficial disguise.

And BingQiu just doesn't have that. They are both too obsessed with an idealized version of each other to ever see things clearly and that's what makes their dynamic not very fun to me personally.

[jellolegos]

From Alicent and Rhaenyra's kids which one do you think would be the perfect Rhaenicent baby? I'm leaning towards Jace simply because he looks like Alicent but is a lot like Rhaenyra.

mmm yes I see the family resemblence

and i've seen quite a bit of helaena too (and find it kinda funny that alicent canonically kinda tried to baby-trap rhaenyra with her) which i like :]

Memes aside I know this isn't probably the answer you were looking for but I think both helaena and jace have some interesting non-maternal parent stuff that I would really be loathe to get rid of, so I think neither! They would have to name their joint kid aegon though seeing as they both have an aegon...

For helaena (IN THE SHOW), I've seen, rightly so, a lot of analysis on her relationship with her mother. However, I haven't seen as much reflection on her relationship (or really lack thereof) with Viserys, which I find really equally compelling. I have always interpreted Viserys' relationship with his two daughters parallel insights into how Viserys' passivity ultimately results in the dance (which kinda boils down to how a 'good' king can often be a weak one). Whilst his favouring of Rhaenyra, which is blinding to the extent that he endangers her as a queen, shows his weakness as a regent, his comparative neglect of helaena shows his weakness as a Targaryen.

One of first scenes we get of Viserys is the one where he proclaims the absolute weight of prophecy and his vision of his son on the Iron Throne.

'This child is a boy, Aemma. I’m certain of it. I’ve never been certain of anything. The dream was clearer than a memory. Our son was born, wearing Aegon’s iron crown. And I heard the sound of thundering hooves, splintering shields and ringing swords. And I placed our son up on the Iron Throne, as the bells of the grand sept rung, and all the dragons roared as one.'

This leads to him killing Aemma for Baelon (who he believes is said son). In ep 2 or 3 while Alicent is pregnant with Helaena we get this line/scene as well,

'Many in my line being dragonriders. Very few among us have been dreamers. What is the power of a dragon next to the power of prophecy. When Rhaenyra was a child I saw it in a dream. As vivid as this flames. A male babe born to me, wearing the Conqueror’s crown.'

So, Viserys is clearly motivated by prophecy and the power of both his own visions and those of Aegon (the Conqueror's) and it is a key driver for his actions in s1. But it is also a targaryen trait, and therefore he is very much attached to that specific dimension of Targaryen exceptionalism.

However he cannot, for whatever reason, see Helaena as a dragon dreamer or value Helaena's visions with equal weight. I don't think Viserys listening to Helaena's warnings would've prevented the war but they very well could have. I mean she essentially reiterates his dream here, modifying it from 'all of the dragons roared as one' to 'dragons of flesh, weaving dragons of thread'. Where Viserys interpreted a common dragon roar as a unification of the dragons, Helaena correctly sees this as a division of the dragons, both literal and in name (Targaryens).

I see him as a character who is attached to the ideal of both a Targaryen and a king, but unable to adequately fulfill either role; nostalgia and idealism allow him to sleepwalk into a civil war. He wants a political successor, who he believes he does not have when really she's right under his nose, and a Targaryen successor for his dragon dreams, who similarly goes unrecognised.

I don't really have an intelligent way of articulating this, other than vibes, but his one and only ride of Balerion the Black Dread seems an extension of this 'nostalgia as a fatal flaw' theme for him.

So I really Helaena as being viserys' daughter as much as alicent's.

For Jacaerys, it's a little harder for me just because I'm a little less engaged with the men of the show as whole (doing the opposite of the normal fandom thing that happens, giving the women rich inner lives while I ignore the men lol). But I think there's a similar wrinkle and depth added with Harwin Strong as his dad (chivalric, brave and strong, but just not a Targaryen), and I don't think Alicent would fill a similar role. He is sort of characterised by an internal tension regarding his status as a bastard which I think was developed really well in s2, and the tension is one that will continue to really drive him until his sacrifice and death in s3. It was one of my favourite parts of the last season and made me like Jace as a character a lot more, tbh. I was sort of neutral on him previously. I think having a woman as his dad would certainly give him all sorts of other complicated feelings (!), but maybe not in the same way.

Since I think both of those parts are really important for the story overall, I'd rather not get rid of either! I guess my Rhaenicent kid would be an Aegon with auburn hair and violet eyes, lol

[fishhuh]

What feels most insulting about being told that Izzys death made sense or was an appropriate end to his arc is the fact that it essentially disregards every reason we are upset about how his character was portrayed and sums it up to us just being upset that our favorite character died.

Because it's not that. I mean yeah, we are upset he died, but specifically it's not only how he died, but how the show handled it. Izzy was not just some lovesick puppy pining for Ed, and he was not some hard ass asshole forcing Ed to do the things he did. He was a survivor. A survivor of Ed's abuse, of betrayal, of love that morphed into a desperate attachment to a man who gave him so little when Izzy was the very thing keeping his world still spinning.

Izzy was important to people because of this, and so much more. He represented healing, self acceptance, growth, love. To see a character who was beaten down and thrown away for so long get to see a glimpse of what it was like to actually be his own person, to be cared about and see family in someone who didn't hurt him, only for him to be killed by something that every other character in the show never would have been killed from. Every other character time and time again got to survive what would have logically killed them, and yet Izzy dies from being shot in a scene you only see for a few seconds. Because it's clear to me that the whole time, he was always meant to die. And that's the problem.

The way Izzy's place is Ed's life was written almost paints him as being at fault for his abuse. He tells Ed he "fed his darkness" as if that puts him at fault for Ed literally physically abusing and mutilating him. He is treated as nothing more than a plot device to further Ed's path to happiness. A survivor of abuse dies so his abuser can move forward and heal. Izzy sits rotting in the dirt under the very home Ed gives Stede the love Izzy so desperately wanted.

I also think boiling Izzy's character down to him having an unrequited love for Edward brushes over the reason Ed is so important to him. Izzy forged his entire self around Blackbeard. He was nothing without him. He loved him and saw him as family and Edward didn't give him the time of day. He sacrificed so much of himself so Blackbeard could thrive, and what did he get in return? When Izzy realized he saw the crew as family, that was a very big moment for his character. He finally realizes that he is loved. And then at his funeral, we get all these reactions to his death from the crew that are just so out of character. The whole season was about how the crew was becoming accepting and loving of izzy and literally protecting him and then when he dies they just, what go off and seemingly forget about him?

Izzy deserved better. And we aren't mad because he died, we are mad because such an important piece of representation for so many people was so blatantly thrown away and disrespected.

[lizzyscribbles]

Okay, kinda shocked by the positivity on the last post. 😅 So I guess here we go again??

Today’s MHA thought: Katsuki Bakugo (or Bakugo Katsuki, whichever tickles your fancy) and why I think he’s an incredible character despite hating him in the beginning.

Some context: I was a teenager when the anime came out, so the only thing I knew of him was what we were given there. So like, seasons 1-4 my hatred for him was STRONG. It let up a little at the end of 3 with his and Izuku’s fight, and again with the class a/class b fight in 5, but it wasn’t until I put the series down for a few years then came back this as an adult in April and binged the entire series before 7 started airing that I really started to love him as a character.

Now, there’s a few reasons for this, but a lot of it boils down to this: He has NO REASON to be an asshole.

As far as we know, he has good parents, had a mostly-healthy home life, and doesn’t start being actively traumatized till he joins UA. He’s just genuinely a bad person at the start, like he literally tells Izuku to go take a swan dive off a roof AND HE HAS NO EXCUSES. (Side note, not saying being traumatized gives you the excuse to say these things. NO ONE has an excuse to say this no matter what they’ve been through). He had no past trauma to explain that response, no real good reasoning behind it other than he’s just being mean. We learn later it’s because Izuku made him feel inferior and he didn’t know why, which makes perfect sense and we see the evidence of this long before it’s said, but that doesn’t make it any better.

But that’s the beauty of it, for once this asshole-ery wasn’t born of trauma it just kind of…happened. He’s almost like All for One and Endeavor in that neither really had a good reason to be mean, they just got so wrapped up in themselves that they lost sight of everything else. However, that’s why I love Bakugo’s arc because it’s so satisfying to see him slowly come to that realization himself and change even though he really doesn’t have to. (It also begs the question why Endeavor and Bakugo and really any of the villains are seen in such different lights despite having similar stories, which is a theory for another day that I have brewing).

His change wasn’t necessitated by abusive past that held him back like Todoroki or even having to figure out how to manage a new quirk like Izuku, because say what you will he is SMART and he is TALENTED and he was doing great on his own. He could’ve climbed his way to the top without having a good personality, I mean just look at Endeavor. But he saw Izuku, his classmates, his FRIENDS and realized that wasn’t what he wanted.

And it all culminates in the end of season six when the class goes to retrieve him, instead of rushing to Izuku to yell his apology, he sends Iida after him because Iida is built for speed (these two/three episodes are my favorite part in the entire damn series and I’ll probably make a whole post about them eventually). But then, after that, he genuinely apologizes. He recognizes what he did was wrong, and what gets me about the dub of this episode is the way they chose to phrase the line:

“Saying this out loud doesn’t change a thing”.

He KNOWS that apologizing doesn’t make it okay, and he accepts that Izuku may never forgive him, but he does it anyway, and that’s how you know he really meant it. We see his convictions through the whole series, that boy doesn’t say anything he doesn’t mean. But it doesn’t stop there, he goes on to prove it with his actions, starting by calling Izuku by his real name, and his first name at that.

And in all of that, we still don’t lose his personality. He’s still loud, brash, mean, a bit of an asshole, and determined to be the best, but instead of looking down on Izuku, he sees him as an equal...an actual friend, someone to race against so they can both be better. It’s no longer all about him, he’s learned to see the world through a different lens, one we see him create during the entire series. He has truly changed in a way that feels natural and authentic to him as a character, and that’s something you don’t see every day.

And, we can see in the end, he continues to think about others, striving not for the top, but for Izuku’s happiness, and I think that’s beautiful.

I have so much more I could say about this, but I’m gonna stop here because this post is long as hell already, but if anyone is curious about anything don’t be afraid to ask, I’m an open book!😄

[youcouldmakealife]

Do you ever mix up names? I love your stories, but I am shit at names and as your pantheon/league grows I find myself increasingly turned around by all the north american dude names (first, last, AND hockey nicknames!!!). I can usually keep track of the on-going series names and names that are less common in North America (Kiro, Sven), but if I'm reading, say, an ask or rereading I usually have remind myself who is who first.

I don't mix them up between themselves and other characters in either a similar name way (James vs Jake, say) or roles (mixing up say, Wheels and Craney and Matty).

(This got so long and off topic, why does this always happen)

What I do mix up is sort of more of a...muscle memory thing, maybe? I'm writing the word, say, gorgeous, and I have to delete georgieous first, because my fingers apparently have become a phone's autocorrect function. I actually did write James as Jake a few times when I was deep deep in editing BTT, but again, it was just sort of like...an autofill error between my brain and my fingers.

The names themselves I'm pretty good with, though I do worry about whether I'll continue to be as a) the pantheon continues to expand (I love this by the way, and now I'm probably going to spend the rest of my evening mentally assigning characters places in the pantheon) and b) I get older. And both things seem pretty inevitable to me.

Unfortunately, the two things I appear to have in common with Leo Tolstoy are brevity and 'these people have three names, and I'm going to use them all interchangeably'. (ie Vinny is Thomas to himself, but Vinny to literally everybody else including me. And sometimes Tommy but only to Anton and his parents and only sometimes. Anton's alternately Anton, Petrov, Tony to Vinny and teammates, or Antosha to his family.)

I'd honestly apologise for it but it's one of those things that's really inextricable from the sort of...falling into a perspective way that I write, the same way I write in American English for American characters and Canadian English for Canadians, or use Christian (and specifically Catholic) references in Robbie or Georgie's POVs but never, say, Mike's or David's, unless we count Mike's very liberal usage of the word goddamn (and it's lowercase with him, but it'd be Goddamn to Robbie.)

And the different vocabularies extends to names. Like William Dineen is William to Robbie, he specifically asked to be called that when he was a teenager who wanted to feel more adult, and Robbie respected that then and continues to now. Georgie respected it in another way -- he was Willy to him, and now he uses Will, which William is fine with, but only with immediate family.

But in the text itself Georgie would never use William, because it'd feel distant to him, and Robbie would never use Will because he'd consider that disrespectful after William specifically requested to be called that, and me choosing one or the other wouldn't be in character, so he's Will and he's William, but never Willy (that's Tate Williams).

I make this all sound like a much more conscious process than it is. A lot of this stuff I've only figured out via metacognition of my writing process, which is, by necessity, done in hindsight.

My original answer to questions like 'why did you do _____ that way?' is invariably '*shrug* felt right', and people tend to find that...unsatisfying, so I often investigate further, and the answer becomes 'felt right because of <this reason I was in no way consciously aware of during the writing process>'. As I've said to my poor beleaguered editor, a lot of my writing process is 'just vibes'. I follow good vibes. Bad vibes tell me something's not working, and I adjust accordingly. I think a lot (I cannot tell you how many times I've been accused of overthinking things), but when it comes to writing, most of it's happening beyond my own perception, so instead it feels more like gut instinct. (which is, indeed, what gut instinct often boils down to: pattern recognition going on beneath one's conscious awareness)

[that-ari-blogger]

How One Scene Tells A Story (Pulse)

For an action adventure series, the fight sequences in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power have been rather underwhelming. The series has been carried by its cinematography, and for the most part, everything else has been above par, but I still find myself unimpressed by the majority of the choreography.

Animation is a medium that quite literally allows you to show anything you can picture. If you can draw it, you can animate it. This allows for more fine tuning of expression within complex movements. Shonen Anime is known for taking advantage of this, but the fights in She-Ra have mostly been relegated to static characters flailing at each other while the camera movement covers the cracks.

This doesn’t destroy the show at all, but it’s something I noticed, and something I want to point out. Because the biggest reason for this is that in media aimed at kids, there are things you aren’t allowed to show. Most notably. Adora has a sword, but the show isn’t allowed to show her actually stab someone with it.

The reason I bring this up, is that I want to show off how the series gets around this wall, and how it cheats in order to create a few scenes that are genuinely incredible.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

I want to clarify what I’m doing here.

Choreography is not a measure of quality. The correlation between good choreography and good television is just the relationship of good craft with itself. A good scene can involve anything, and one aspect does not make or break it.

I run an analysis blog, and I am specifically commenting on how the fights have not given me much to work with in that regard, with a few exceptions. For the most part, there have been generalised combat that is exactly what I mentioned earlier, with what I will call “set piece sequences”, which is where all of the character acting has gone.

However, I have found the majority of these set piece sequences to be lacking. Yes, there is action there, but its never really that revealing.

Case and point, Adora vs Catra Double Trouble in The Valley Of The Lost. This sequence boils down to characters standing still while trading identical blows and missing or parrying, then finishing it off with something clever. And this is actually a really good example of why what I’m saying doesn’t matter, because what you remember from that sequence isn’t the combat, it’s the tree that rises up behind them, it’s the shot of the bridge, it’s the dialogue. I am talking about a really small element of an overall picture.

I also want to clarify that complexity is not as important as people online say it is. Good art is defined by how much of an emotional response it evokes from its audience, not by how intricate it is. For my example of this, Glimmer and Shadow Weaver vs Catra in Moment of Truth is my single favourite fight sequence of the entire series, and its really simple.

Catra stands still with a whip while Glimmer and Shadow Weaver teleport around and the camera whirls around them all in a way that gets more impressive the more you know about what’s going on behind the scenes. Rotating 2D objects is really difficult to do.

The emotion of Catra’s spiral is what sells this moment, as well as the unease of Shadow Weaver sapping Glimmer’s strength, symbolised by that vice like grip she has on her wrist. This scene hits you like a truck and is genuinely scary. It even ends with a demonstration of the cost of victory through Shadow Weaver’s needless abuse of the defeated Catra.

Notably in that one, the characters never make contact with each other. There are no blows that they are sent reeling from, its barely a fight, and this is a recurring thing.

This is a part of the series’ rating regulations. No graphic violence, keep realism out of the picture, etc. etc. I would argue that the series plays extremely fast and loose with these specific two rules, but that’s just me.

The way the series circumvents the guidelines is multifaceted. First, most of the enemies are robots, which can be slashed apart in as many creative ways as you want without anyone stepping in. Second, for the organic mooks, Adora’s sword is now mysteriously blunt, and Bow’s arrows are all suddenly nonlethal. So, if you get hit with either, you just fall over and you’re fine. It’s ok, but I’m lukewarm on this at best. Then there is the school of implication.

If you want an example of this, watch the season one finale, and take note of how many blows actually connect on camera. Because for all the ones that are dealt, the camera only shows one or two of them. The rest are from the victim’s perspective as the projectile hits the camera itself, then cut to a reverse shot as they fall away.

Alternatively, the screen cuts to black as claw marks appear in red on that background. Technically, there was no violence on the screen, but we all know what happened.

Enter Pulse, actual the subject of this post.

“Oh, it’s you.” “Who else would it be?”

We open with quite possibly the best example of Glimmer’s impulsiveness and dramatic irony in the series. Catra effectively tells Glimmer there is a spy, and she misses it because she is so focused on her objective.

And the fight begins, a few tracking shots follow Catra here, positioning her as the underdog as she evades Glimmer’s magic. We now have a dynamic set up, slow and strong vs fast and evasive. Also, Glimmer is straight up out for blood here. Usually, it’s the villain who rocks up out of nowhere to try and kill the protagonist. I wonder if there’s some symbolism there.

The explosion masks a shot transition to the destroyed boxes, revealing what’s inside, as we get a lull in the fight for a moment.

We get shouting and needling. Psychological warfare is a part of the fight, and giving the moment space to breathe allows the audience to get ready. The first skirmish set a vibe, then pulled back to let anyone who isn’t ready for the next step to back out now.

“Guess you don’t know everything.”

I want to point what Glimmer does when she gets truly angry. Throughout the series up until now, Karen Fukuhara has played Glimmer as a fairly loud, extremely expressive character. But for one line, she goes quiet.

I love it when string emotions change a character’s entire demeanour, and sometimes that means a quiet character starting to shout, sometimes it’s the other way around.

It’s worth noting what it was that got this reaction from her.

“Using your own friend as a decoy? Wow. Didn’t know you had it in you.”

Glimmer has a black and pink morality. She views ethics in terms of alignment, those who agree with her are the good guys, those who don’t are the bad guys. Catra’s mild suggestion that the world is more complicated than that infuriates her.

So, Glimmer appears in front of Catra, outmatching her in manoeuvrability, and once again goes for the kill. Cut to a close up of her face, hidden behind holy light, then a reverse shot of Catra looking up in terror.

The use of colour and light in this sequence is actually really interesting. Here, it screams “be not afraid!” in order to cast Glimmer as angelic, giving off light to shine down upon Catra. But the light isn’t coming from Glimmer’s own radiance, is the readying of a spell. Suddenly, that angel has shifted into “say your prayers, chump”.

Impact frames separate Glimmer storing the magic and turning it into a beam, but also serve to sell the force of the blow as Catra evades it and it turns on you. You feel like you are part of the set and you are collateral damage that Glimmer does not care about.

This scene really doesn’t show Glimmer in the best of lights. Pun very much intended.

The falling shot has a stock background that implies motion without having to actually show it, and the perspective on the whip is a really nice animation detail. But notice how many different shots we are running through in quick succession. They create a sense of instability and dynamics that the first little skirmish didn’t quite have.

Even the simple act of falling has four different angles before Catra hits the ground. The two above, then one of Glimmer’s face, then the whip wraps around her foot. We’re changing quickly and constantly moving, even when the camera is staying remarkably still within shots.

This explosion slows all of that pacing down. It’s a long drawn out shot of Glimmer fallen from grace, insignificant in scale in comparison to the damage she has just done.

It’s notable that Glimmer outclasses Catra in all physical aspects, but Catra is smart, and uses her opponent’s strength against her. The damage that is done to this place was done directly by Glimmer’s recklessness.

Glimmer now has to contend with not being the biggest threat in the room, and now she has to think quickly as well, we have more dynamism as the fight resumes and the characters are both suddenly dodging an unbiased third party while also trying to kill each other.

Side note, this is my answer as a GM to how fights in certain TTRPG systems feel samey. I have a table, I get a player to roll on it once a combat round, and there’s a chance for something to change. Half the time, nothing happens, but sometimes something catches fire, or a ceiling cave in, or luck itself shifts. These changes always affect both parties, but they mean that certain areas are off limits or similar effects, meaning tactics have to shift.

Notice the colour here as well. Almost everything is a shade of red, the colour of danger and anger, as the dominant power is now that fire. Everything is trying to get away from it.

Also, the camera now won’t sit still. I will remind you that it is animated, you can’t get a handheld style when there isn’t an actual camera in animation unless you create it yourself, intentionally. But that’s what’s happened, everything is shaky, everything is unsafe.

I like the little touch that Catra’s ears prick before she turns. She hears Glimmer approach, then turns to face her. It sells the feline senses.

The red is matched by a blue for a moment as Glimmer appears from behind Catra, and pay close attention to who’s perspective this fight is taken from. At the start it was Glimmer, then they share the spotlight, now Catra is just trying to survive while Glimmer appears out of nowhere like a horror movie monster.

We have contact. Except remember what I said about cheating? Glimmer’s beam was established as being able to cut metal, but this is just a minour explosion caused by energy sent through another object. It’s second hand. But its enough. We see the reaction, and crucialy, we see the follow up.

The camera really shakes as Catra collides with this wall, selling the brute force of the strike. But other than that, she’s fine. She doesn’t appear injured by it. The cinematography here is working in tandem with the choreography to back up where the animation isn't allowed to go.

“Where are you going, Catra? Not scared of some sparkles, are you?”

Glimmer’s just talking here. Talking and walking. She’s not shouting or running or being overly expressive at all. She’s just speaking, menacingly.

Anyone else notice that Catra is standing in a different place between shots? Like, she’s about a metre and a half to the right of where she’d need to be to press that button. Did the two just stare awkwardly at each other as she shuffled to the left? I know it doesn’t matter, but it's funny to me.

I’ve been waiting for one of these the entire fight. This is a Dutch Angle, the horizon is diagonal, it makes the audience feel unbalanced, and adds to the unsafeness. Up until now, the scene hasn’t needed one of these, but now it has use for one.

The tilt exaggerates the perspective and makes Catra look even smaller by comparison.

Still with the Dutch angle, but now we’re looking upwards approximating Glimmer’s perspective. Key, however, is that this thing doesn’t fit on the screen. It’s too big for even the camera, and you are too close to it.

The music surges with emotion in a way I can’t quite explain, and we cut back to the surroundings twice to remind you that this place is still on fire. Then to this:

Catra has won, she has activated her trap card and can easily just run. So, she offers Glimmer a choice, save the forest or kill her, and I want to stress the decision Glimmer makes.

Glimmer’s first instinct isn’t to save anyone, it’s to kill her enemy. If Catra hadn’t got herself trapped, Glimmer would have either killed them both, or kept trying until she was caught in the explosion.

Catra gets lucky in this fight, several times. She should have been killed had it not been for things falling on her in just the right way. But she’s also smart, and she needs credit for this.

The key theme of Glimmer’s arc is stubbornness and impulsiveness. Here, it almost caused her death. But there’s something in that.

I keep going on about how tragedies subvert themselves in this series, and here’s one of those. Glimmer finally gets over herself and starts thinking things through, she has a problem she can't punch, and she comes to a conclusion that lets her fix that problem without anyone getting killed. She avoids the tragedy at the last possible moment.

We’re starting to see a lot of that in this series.

Final Thoughts

The word of the day with Glimmer is hubris, the idea that she thinks herself to be infallible. The black and pink morality is what it says on the tin. There is evil and there is Glimmer. In her mind, that is how the world works.

Next week, I’ll be covering Protocol, and the return of Light Hope. It's an episode I have mixed feelings about, so stick around if that interests you.

Previous - Next

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

It's really disappointing to see the fandom, even Louis fans, mischaracterize him so much. The fact that even self acclaimed fans still see him as "just a funny guy, a jokester. Clem needs a laugh" it really gets on my nerves.

It's worse on fanfics– and as if it couldn't get any worse, for some reason they have Clementine not have any faith in him. Like??? That's literally the base of their relationship?? Clementine sees the real him?? Reliable?? Why are they making her have doubts on his capabilities??

And I blame the game as well– AJ and Clem have like two lines about doubting him and implying he isn't reliable or smart and it makes me maaaad.

oop, I think this ask was a companion to the one I previously answered, so I probably should've answer this one first whoops~

But, yes, I agree. Mischaracterization is inescapable when it comes to fandom since fandom likes to pick out 2-3 traits to boil characters down to... y'know, so that they fit with the same 5 incorrect quotes posts over and over again. Not that I know anything about that from experience. Nope.

And when it comes to my guy Louis I try really hard to just not engage with that, y'know? I've done a lot of research on reddit about the Louis vs Violet debate because I'm a masochist and I hate myself for other things I'm working on, so I've become kinda numb to all the arguments about Louis being Mr. Unreliable Funny Man at this point.

I mean, arguments related to the debate still annoy me, hence why it's a topic I still write about, but it doesn't get under my skin the way it used to.

Also, I haven't read much new clouis fic these days... I've mostly reread the same few that are nostalgic for me. So, reading that some fics apparently have Clem not have faith in him is... a choice? Like, I'd need the context of that to make a full judgement, but still.

As for AJ and Clementine in-game, I'll refer you back to the one I answered before this. Just so that I don't have to rehash it here. Though I'll add that it's not inherently bad for the characters to doubt Louis from a writing standpoint. They need to doubt so that he can subvert their expectations of him, and grow as a character.

But, I also believe that's why AJ having the doubtful dialogue choice at the end bothers people, too.

[qcomicsy]

Choose violence: 1. the character everyone gets wrong

Wade Wilson. Harley Quinn. Tim Drake. Dick Grayson.

I could go more but each one for each particular reasons.

The problem with comic book fandom is that eventually people will be attracted by the vibe. And there's nothing wrong with that most of the time the vibe is good.

Unfortunately it does involve people affirming things without being absolutely sure and myself was also guilty of that a while ago.

Yet, I do not think we should bash these people or act purposely towards them, the comic media is big. There are 80 years of history regarding some characters (Dick for example) and others (the newest ones like Harley, Tim, Deadpool) around 30 years +. That's a lot.

And I am not even pointing out the fact that how different writers will have different takes and different approaches to each character, because each history regarding them will have a particular theme and unfortunately comics suffer from what I call "playing doll house" effect where the writer wants to make a concept he finds very amusing or interesting and most of the time they will be willing to bend character each way their like to serve that.

As a newbie in comics the possibility of getting characters wrong, getting overwhelmed and taking early comics where the version of those characters is fucked up already, wanting to give up even before start is absolutely understandable and possible.

It is overwhelming, it is easy to get it wrong, it is even expected to get wrong because most of this characters have been suffering some kind of flandarization coming from the comics itself.

That being said.

Jesus Christ how those this poor fuckers are misunderstood.

Since I do not read much comics from Tim Drake I won't be speaking much about him, I also won't be speaking much about Dick because I am getting around reading his old series now.

The problem with characters like Wade, Dick and Harley is that the three of them are multifaceted people. Writing characters and understanding characters who are multifaceted is hard.

I, for a long time believed that their more silly moments the jokes and easy going persona where facades a thing that they use as a coping mechanism a thing that it's not the real them. Now I am not so sure.

Yes I do agree a lot of people summarize them as either this ray of sunshine without real feelings and in Wade's and Harleys case a crazy person that has no logical thought process.

The thing is that all of them can be funny and thoughtful. Can have the habilidades of cracking jokes both because they feel like but also to distract an enemy.

Dick Grayson can be a very thoughtful and kind person and cat like an asshole when he's in a bad mood and willingly be mean with people he cares about.

It all boils down to one thing that I have been thinking a lot lately. Comics are one of the few medias where you can have all the liberties to make multifaceted people, people who make mistakes and have a long time to make up for it. To fall on old ways to evolve, devolve, you can express and explore them in each way it relates to the character history and the people who love them.

And I find it such a shame that it's literally the characters who are the most written in that way the ones who suffer the "only character trait ever" syndrome.

[maul-of-shame]

Y'know as someone who enjoys haladriel (I go by a ship and let ship fandom philosophy), I actually want to see more elrond and galadriel in S3 over celeborn stuff for all the reasons you said. I very much enjoy their relationship and even though I personally don't ship it, I can def see why others so (even some of my mutuals do). I think Elrond is a very important figure in her life and he's like the voice of reason for her (and someone who can call out her bs, which we all need a friend who can do that). Celeborn meanwhile is so forgettable like... you could literally replace him with Elrond in all the times in he's by Galadriel's side and the story wouldn't change a bit.

Absolutely, 100%! At this point, it feels like the only reason people rally behind Celeborn is that they’re desperate to block Elrond from getting a second of meaningful connection with Galadriel. [TW: If you love Celeborn, do NOT read this XD]

Let’s face it: Celeborn doesn’t bring anything to the table that Elrond couldn’t absolutely nail, but Elrond does it all while actually being interesting, loyal, and having a deep, established history with her that has real weight.

It’s not like Celeborn fans are rallying because of some profound connection they feel with his character—they’re just terrified of seeing Elrond actually shine beside Galadriel because he makes Celeborn look like the damp leaf that he is.

Seriously, tell me what Celeborn can do that Elrond can’t.

He barely manages to bring any wisdom or agency in the rare moments he’s mentioned, and honestly, his absence has probably improved Galadriel’s life tenfold.

There’s a reason people resonate with Elrond—he’s multifaceted, complex, and, as you said, someone who can call Galadriel out and be her rock when she needs it. He’s the only character who can match her fire without trying to snuff it out. Meanwhile, Celeborn just… shows up, questions her judgment, and then disappears, leaving the real work to others.

So far, the only reasons I see Celeborn and Celebrian coming up boil down to a few tired (and honestly, pretty telling) things. Let’s break it down:

First, we’ve got the Lore Dudebros™. Oh, you know the type—clutching their well-worn copies of The Silmarillion like it's some kind of ancient shield, warding off the “heresy” of fresh character dynamics. They’re practically waving family trees like battle standards, ready to duel anyone who even hints at diverging from their sacred canon. You can practically hear them whispering, “One Book to Rule Them All,” while setting up symbolic pyres for every fan who dares to ship Elrond and Galadriel or even breathe an alternative take. I’m honestly shocked I haven’t been ceremonially tossed onto one of those pyres yet, chanting “I love Elrondriel” on my way down. XDDDD To these “guardians of canon,” the thought of Galadriel connecting deeply with someone like Elrond is a personal affront. It’s as if adding emotional depth or—heaven forbid—a dynamic character relationship threatens the very foundation of Middle-earth itself. And don’t even try bringing up things like story evolution, emotional nuance, or character growth; to them, that’s the real fantasy. Just a hint of Galadriel leaning on Elrond as a trusted confidant, and they’re already rallying their trivia and pulling out genealogy charts, like those are somehow the One Ring in disguise. And here’s the best part: they’re completely blind to their own irony, hailing Celeborn as some untouchable canon figure without realizing the guy’s basically a background character who could be swapped out with a block of wood for all the impact he had in the bigger story!

Then, we have the “Bring Back Celeborn” brigade—desperately wanting to shoo Elrond off stage so that Celeborn, the long-lost, mysteriously absentee dad with all the romantic appeal of a soggy crumpet, can swoop in and… do what, exactly? Serve as the poster child for “How Not to Be There for Your Partner”? Apparently, they think it’s 'far more romantic' for Galadriel to stay hung up on this MIA forest ghost who bailed during her darkest hours, rather than, you know, actually building a life with someone like Elrond who’s been with her through it all. Because what could be better than pining after a wet leaf who couldn’t bother to send a postcard while she wrestled with, oh, just a dark lord or two? And they really think Galadriel would drop Elrond—a friend who knows her down to the marrow of her bones, who sees her strength and holds her accountable, who supports her without needing a treasure map to find her—just to welcome back some dude who ghosted her at the height of Middle-earth’s crisis. Yep, nothing says “power couple” quite like reuniting with the guy who looked at Khazad-dûm and decided, “Nah, too many dwarves, I’m out,” leaving Galadriel to face down the legions of darkness by herself while he took a scenic detour… for, what, a century or two? The logic here really stretches all the way to Mordor, doesn’t it? Because in their minds, it’s somehow unthinkable that Galadriel could find genuine love and companionship in Elrond—who’s basically risked life and limb for her—over some guy who literally peaced out and left her to fight Sauron solo. Nope, much more romantic to keep Galadriel anchored to some absentee figure whose greatest accomplishment was not showing up when she needed him most.

Then there’s the crowd who just can’t stand the idea of Galadriel with Elrond, so they roll out Celebrian as a glorified self-insert. The narrative goes, “Why should Galadriel, this powerhouse of a character, fall for Elrond when there’s a mythical ���perfect daughter’ we can project onto instead?” Celebrian, in their heads, isn’t really a character with her own story, she’s a convenient placeholder to push Elrond into a neat little box. They just don’t want to face the fact that Elrond might actually be a better match for Galadriel than their ship preference. It’s less about Celebrian as a character and more about using her to gatekeep a relationship that makes sense, so long as she exists somewhere in the background.

And finally, we have the folks who are just flat-out romance haters and don’t want any love in LOTR—especially one that challenges their preconceived ideas. These are the “LOTR is sacred, no love allowed” types, wielding their disdain like some sacred relic. Meanwhile, they conveniently overlook that Tolkien did write love stories, and powerful ones at that! But if it means Galadriel might actually have a meaningful, respectful connection with Elrond? Nope. Suddenly, love is “too sappy for Middle-earth.” It’s the same group that’d probably claim Arwen and Aragorn’s love story is a sellout move just because it’s… well, happy.

And let’s be honest—when we’re told to “respect the canon,” what we’re really hearing is “Don’t mess with our Middle-earth nostalgia or I’ll lose my elvish marbles faster than a hobbit at an all-you-can-eat buffet.” But what they’re really scared of isn’t losing lore: it’s seeing Galadriel with someone who doesn’t disappear every other century.

They’re clutching so hard to the paper-thin defenses of Celeborn’s legacy that they miss what’s right in front of them—a chance for Galadriel to choose a partner who genuinely sees her as an equal. So if they want their wet leaf of a Celeborn back, fine—but don’t expect me to buy that he’s even remotely on Elrond’s level.

It’s honestly pretty sad.

They’re out here on their soapboxes screaming “People can’t do media literacy,” “They don’t understand the lore,” and the classic, “Respect Tolkien’s vision,” when, in reality, their motivations are paper-thin. Because let’s face it—they don’t actually care about Celeborn or Celebrian as characters.

They’re not out here writing essays on Celebrian’s personality or championing what a pillar of support Celeborn has been to Galadriel. No, they’re just using those names as a smokescreen to push one single agenda: they don’t want Galadriel and Elrond to love each other. That’s it. If it was about “lore” or “accuracy,” they’d be just as invested in seeing every other Tolkien character get the same respect. But they’re not.

Hell, they’d probably be fine with anyone having a shot at Elrond or Galadriel if it meant the two of them wouldn’t end up together.

You know who this reminds me of? General Hux in Star Wars here:

They don't care if ANY other ship involving Galadriel or Elrond wins, they just want Elrondriel to lose.

At the end of the day, it’s not about who does love Galadriel or who does support Elrond—it’s only about who doesn’t.

And let’s talk about the timeline chaos that bringing in Celeborn and Celebrian would actually cause.

First off, throwing Celeborn into the mix now would disrupt everything we’ve seen develop between Elrond and Galadriel, both story-wise and emotionally. We’ve watched Galadriel stand strong alone, finding strength and grounding in her friendship with Elrond. To wedge Celeborn back in just because “that’s canon” would feel like a massive betrayal of the story’s arc and their growth. And then there’s the whole Celebrian issue.

Are we really supposed to stomach the idea that this child of Galadriel and her current best friend is going to grow up to be Elrond’s love interest?

Are we actually expected to believe that Galadriel, who has forged this deeply supportive, intensely mutual relationship with Elrond, would happily match her child up with him years down the line? The absurdity is off the charts! It’s the kind of mental gymnastics that they accuse us of doing.

And yet somehow we’re the “crazy ones” for seeing the potential of Elrondriel.

Their double standards are as obvious as they are exhausting. If we’re talking about “respecting canon,” maybe we should start with some basic, human decency and storytelling consistency. Celeborn’s entire role in the story (such as it was) has been more symbolic than substantial, and Celebrian is a character who, while lovely in her own right, hasn’t exactly been set up with the same depth or weight. The thing they won’t admit is that Celeborn and Celebrian are just names to them—a means to an end to keep Elrond and Galadriel at a distance.

Because deep down, they’re not defending characters; they’re defending the status quo of Middle-earth, a world where relationships stay unchallenged, dynamics stay platonic, and emotions stay buried beneath layers of “lore.”

And they wonder why we’re still rooting for Galadriel and Elrond, who have actually been through it all together. Who have a relationship built on the kind of trust, support, and shared history that could naturally turn into something more. But no, according to them, if we care about that, we’re “missing the point” and “don’t understand.”

They’re the ones clinging to a “canon” that doesn’t actually serve the story or the characters.

If we’re calling out inconsistencies and advocating for a nuanced, rich character connection, then maybe it’s they who need to revisit Tolkien’s work with a bit more care, because their one-note obsession with gatekeeping doesn’t do justice to the world or its potential.

[bottombillyapologist]

My opinion on billy hargrove as a character is so complicated but I think I can boil is down as: he is one of the few realistic interpretations of an imperfect abuse victim where his actions make you uncomfortable and it can be generally agreed he doesn’t take Good actions, but even just the slightest bit of thinking can make you understand why he does what he does. Why it makes sense to him.

You can look at him and go “I empathize with you, I understand you, I could’ve been you if I didn’t have a support system” or even “I WAS you” or “I AM you” and I think the reason he is so controversially liked/disliked is there is some inherent belief that somehow despite the way you were raised, you’re supposed to just inherently know what’s right and wrong. And yeah, once you’re in recovery you tend to learn what’s right and wrong, but nowhere in Billy’s story does anyone ever tell him the way he’s being treated is wrong. No one tells him the actions he’s taking because of it are wrong. Or on the other hand, he is punished so universally for his behavior it is hard to discern when his actions are actually wrong, or if he’s being treated unfairly. He is never shown empathy or understanding until quite literally, the moment he dies.

The message of his story is that when you are isolated, abused, and angry, no one tries to help you until it’s already too late. So yeah, I think anyone can dislike a character for any reason they want, but writing him off as an abusive racist when the quite literally Point Of His Character is “this is what can happen to a person when they are never given kindness/empathy/support and it warps their morals and actions to be violent and/or prejudiced” is just. Wrong. Especially when that includes attacking people who empathize with his character.

Regardless of if you like it or not, there are real people who were like that, are like that, and they deserve love, support, and empathy as much as any “‘perfect’” abuse victim that never perpetuated the cycle. Anger is simply a product of the fear that comes with abuse. Redirecting that anger at others is a learned behavior that comes with coping with that abuse, it’s not right, but you can’t unlearn it unless you’re given a chance to heal. Every abuse victim deserves support and a chance to heal and learn from their past actions and mindsets. Understanding a mindset is not the same thing as condoning it.

So please for the love of god, leave people alone when they write a happy ending for someone they see themselves in.