#about how no one can understand and acknowledge her mistake without villainizing her

[rexscanonwife]

"We need more unhinged women scientists" y'all couldn't even handle princess bubblegum

[birdy-babe]

No one has ever thought about Blitzo's perspective and I think that's the problem: a tiny analysis/essay

I was rewatching season 2 episode 6 when something kind-of rubbed me the wrong way, and it was how Fizzarolli described the fire.

He states:

And I'm a fizz lover- dont get me wrong- and I understand he was angry and obviously not in the correct mindspace at this point in time-

But this type of comment seems so unfair considering how unfair the circus life for Blitzo was. He mentions how he's angry at Blitzo for being jealous of him- but he never addresses why Blitzo is jealous. Fizz has never (on screen) addressed or even acknowledged how unfairly Blitzo's father treated him and how Blitzo had it harder in life because of that.

I feel like it would hurt so much if your best friend was so blatantly favored by your own father, the father that abused you (I think selling your kid and forcing them to steal without a care for the child's safety counts as abuse), and your best friend never acknowledged that situation and held your jealousy against you?

Barbie does a similar thing on a more extreme level, only thinking about how the accident, the fire, losing their mother, was hard FOR HER. And if you look at Barbie, she doesn't really seem to have any scars (besides on her tail, and the tattoos on her body). Therefore we can assume that Blitzo sustained more physical injuries than her - in addition to losing their mother. Yet its all about how hard it is for her.

So far no one in the series has really ever looked past Blitzo's hard persona and think about maybe why he does the things that he does.

this obviously results in Blitzo blaming himself for the fire- besides the one "You have no idea what I lost in that fire" Blitzo never ever brings up how hard the fire was for him. He never ever allows sympathy to be directed his way in relation to the accident, not from himself or anyone around him. He's convinced he's the monster, the villain of the story. It's why, every single time the fire is brought up, he is solely focused on apologizing, on taking the blame, taking the blows from Fizz/Barbie. He never defends himself. Never once does he try to seek any comfort for himself, not once does he make it about him.

My problem is that everyone lets him.

Everyone sits back and watches as he takes the blows for everything. As if its all his fault. They place the blame on Blitzo because its easier, easier than acknowledging Blitzo's pain too.

Which brings me to Stolas.

In this current Stolas situation, where Stolas goes wrong is by repeating this same behavior that Blitzo was faced with when it came to Barbie and Fizz after the accident. Something happened, people were hurt, Blitzo was hurt, Stolas was hurt- but of course it's all Blitzo's fault - it's always Blitzos fault. Stolas takes very little blame for what happened, even though he very much is equally to blame as is Blitzo.

Also note here: Blitzo has his flaws and he does make mistakes that he needs to take responsibility for. This is not to say he is 100% innocent, he's just not 100% to blame either.

Its always Blitzo who needs to apologize, Blitzo who ruined the relationship, Blitzo who broke Stolas' heart, Blitzo who ruined Barbie's life, Blitzo who destroyed Fizz. This pattern happens so much that Blitzo's turned it into a core belief: when something bad happens, he's at fault. He's the reason behind all the bad things that happen. He's the common denominator.

Which is how we got to today: he doesnt believe he deserves love, sympathy, or comfort: because he believes hes the sole cause for all this pain: therefore why should he feel happiness when all he does is take other's away? Why should he allow himself to be loved by Stolas when he hurt Barbie so badly? When he ruined Barbie's chances at love? At a good life?

It's like he's constantly punishing himself for something he thinks he's responsible for. He thinks he deserves to be miserable as some sort of pay-back for ruining everyone's lives.

And you can see as he desperately tries to act the opposite now. It's subtle, because he has to keep up his hard exterior, but its there.

Every single one of his relationships (besides those from childhood) were created because he wanted to help. Adopting Loona to help her escape foster care, befriending Moxxie and helping him escape the abuse of his father and the mafia, befriending Millie (which we don't know their back story yet but i assume he also helped her out of a bad hole, maybe by offering her a position at IMP? We will see!).

I just think he doesnt get the credit he deserves.

I think if just one person acknowledged what happened to Blitzo, allowed Blitzo to be vulnerable, allowed him to express his feelings, allowed him to grieve and mourn the things that happened to him: he would be able to move on, and improve.

It's even worse that some of the people who are the worst offenders are also the ones to claim they love him. Verosika, Stolas, Fizz, etc. They like him for the fake persona he puts up. This enforced Blitzo's belief that he must repress things, that they wont love him if he were anyone else- if he showed his true scars and trauma and if he showed how soft he really is. They love him for his fake persona, not really for him.

So he lashes out. He's shitty. He pushes them away.

And when he does let some of that vulnerability slip? He's shit on for it. When he expresses it to Fizz, Fizz covers up his words with "Glad you could admit it, want a medal?" The only small reprieve Blitzo got was when Fizz said "I guess you didn't really ruin my life."

When he expresses it to stolas "Treat me like one of your butler imps!" Stolas's response is "You think that little of me?"

Which isnt an invalid response point to bring up (and definitely needs to be addressed, which I think Blitzo is getting to bc he's becoming very aware of his other shortcomings), but at the same time Stolas has the responsibility of thinking about why Blitzo would think that. Stolas has never really listened to Blitzo when Blitzo doesnt fit into this mold that Stolas made up of him. When Blitzo gets angry and expresses how Stolas makes him feel:

"Dont act like this is anything more than you wanting me to fuck you" "You can't just throw this feelings bullshit on me" "give me a second to think!" "Oh, sorry, this entire time I assumed the worst because I was convinced a prince could never love someone like me and I've let my self hatred stop me from apologizing to anyone I could ever care about!" "How could you ever actually care for an imp… Me? How could anybody?"

He's always faced with Stolas bringing it back to...well.. anything else. He either ignores the comment all together or he goes into what he wants.

And Blitzo isnt perfect either, but I feel like we all know that. I think that everyone is well aware of how shitty Blitzo can be, but no one really addresses everyone else. Which is why i'm not getting into Blitzo's flaws, because those are a lot more obvious.

So yeah, thats why I wanted to post this lil analysis. Also because its fun to break apart their relationships and wonder why they said the things they said, get a better understanding of the story and the characters. I could be totally off with all this but I had fun writing it lol.

This is not a blitzo/stolas/fizz/etc hate post AT ALL. I love everyone and think that the story will show us who they are.

Let me know if you agree or disagree!

[loony-n-moony]

if I see one more person try to demonize either Gwen, Margo, or Jessica for some STUPID ASS SHIT I might lose my mind.

Like I’m starting to get super sick and tired of all the lowkey misogynistic takes some of you have for these characters. Like you can critique a character without making them out to be a FUCKING MONSTER.

Firstly, what fucking reason do you all have to even HATE MARGO TO BEGIN WITH??? She did not do JACK SHIT. I know why. It’s because some of you IMMATURE ASS MFS cannot handle a female character interacting with a male character that you like. That girl was sweet as sugar for the five fucking minutes of screen time she had. AND DON’T THINK FOR A SECOND I DON’T SEE SOME OF YOU RACIST MFS YOU AREN’T SLICK BITCH.

Second, I get why a lot of people are mad at Gwen. I do. I was angry too! But I also understand. She is a complex character and I love how they handled all the mistakes and all the things she went through. But the way some of you treat her like she’s a SUPER VILLAIN?? Fucked up. Wrong. Ya’ll will take an inch of flaw and go a fucking mile. Some of you have written fics about her being a HOMEWRECKER?? Or just a MALICIOUS PERSON?? Like FUCK OFF. She actively acknowledges and condemns all her own wrongdoings. But ya’ll don’t wanna hear that. And it’s for the SAME REASONS that you all hate Margo. You fucking BABIES can’t handle when a female character BREATHES AROUND A MALE CHARACTER. Just say it. It is some PICK ME GIRL ASS BULLSHIT and if I have to see it ONE MORE TIME you’ll be finding me under your FUCKING BED TONIGHT.

And lastly, the way ya’ll hate on Jessica is just plain misogynoir. She did not do HALF the shit Miguel did and I see her get dogged on CONSTANTLY. The most she did was try to help capture Miles, and be like- mildly condescending. Miguel has done far fucking worse than Jess and he gets 10x less hate than her. For such a beautiful movie- I truly expected better. Absolute FUCKING CLOWNS.

[kamomillee]

Trauma and Protectiveness in Wish and Encanto

So, I watched Wish...

I don't think Wish needed a villain. In fact, I would have liked the film to follow the approach of Encanto (which I loved very much) because they both have points in common.

Yes, I will compare Abuela and Magnífico, two characters who, despite their differences, share similar problems.

Abuela went through a deep trauma in which she lost her home and her husband and had to raise her triplets alone while guiding her community as the bearer of the candle with the miracle that saved them, which originated from the sacrifice of her husband.

This trauma left her afraid of losing everything again, her family and her home. For her, the miracle was what protected them from doom. Therefore, she saw the miracle as the most important thing of all. She also saw it as her responsibility to serve the community with the magic of the miracle.

This made her become very strict and demanding, putting a lot of pressure on her family to be perfect and to serve the community with their abilities at all times.

What they could do became more important than who they were.

This is what caused the destruction of their home and their family relationships.

Magnifico also suffered a trauma, losing absolutely everything — his home and his family. However, he decided to dedicate his life to helping others and preventing them from suffering the same as he did. So he works hard to learn magic and build a kingdom from scratch with his own hands where everyone is welcome and he was very successful at it.

(yes, this is a very good character we have here)

His trauma, like Abuela's, made him afraid that tragedy would happen again.

His way of dealing with it was to take all this responsibility and pressure of caring and protecting and put it on himself and no one else. Carrying it all on his shoulders.

He will only do what he thinks is safe. And since we have trauma involved, he has his own safety measures. He becomes overprotective. (I can talk more about this in another post haha)

He would do everything he could for them because he didn't want them to feel pain and sadness. That was his motivation.

And that's not healthy either.

He sounds a lot like a family man who lost everything when he was young, someone who grew up in need and had to work hard to create a successful life. A story of overcoming.

So he starts a family. He wants them to have a good life and not suffer the pain he suffered. He protects them. He gives them everything he can. He does everything for them. Everything he didn't have when he was younger he will give them. Because he knows the pain of lack.

But then he ends up spoiling his children and being overprotective.

There are many parents like that.

The tendency is for the children to become spoiled, ungrateful and dependent.

They will not appreciate what they receive because they do not have to work for it. Everything was handed to them on a silver platter without effort. They also start to think they deserve to have everything handed to them just because yes. So they expect to get more and more. Give me! give me!

That's exactly how the people of Rosas were.

They expected their king to give them everything and more because, well, he did.

For them, the most important thing was what the king could do for them.

I really wish they had gone the route of Encanto.

At the end of the movie, when the house falls down, Abuela acknowledges her mistakes and Mirabel shows empathy by acknowledging her pain and all her work. She says something like “Nothing is so broken that we can’t fix it, together” and they reconcile. It was beautiful. After that, everyone comes together to rebuild, with the help of the community as a gesture of gratitude for everything the family has done for them.

If the ending of Wish had been one of understanding, reconciliation and respect, it would have been so good.

And it would have achieved the production’s idea that you should work for your goals.

The people of Rosas would have learned gratitude, respect, and to work and strive for their goals alone.

Magnífico would have learned to take a step back and let his people try to achieve their goals alone. Let them succeed on their own, let them feel the sadness and pain of failure because that is part of the process and part of life. And don't carry everything on his shoulders.

Of course, he can still help, but in a different way depending on each case.

He is a wise king after all.

[elijahs-dumps]

Cassandra and her villain arc; was it bad? Let's discuss... (Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure)

Just wanted to say before we dive in, I'm currently working on a piece about Gonzo from the Muppets and some Hazbin Hotel stuff too. So stay tuned;)

Cassandra was mainly portrayed as snarky, cold, and even a little rude. She's almost a perfect opposite to Rapunzel, which makes them interesting friends. And it's nice that Rapunzel has another girl she can rely on, since I personally believe female friendships are important in media. Within the TV series, Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure, Cassandra is often seen budding heads with Eugene or helping with Rapunzel's misadventures. And as the show goes on, we see Cassandra actively looking out for Rapunzel more and more.

Even though Cass states many times in the first two seasons that she loves and cares for Raps, their relationship is quite unstable through out the show even before she became a main antagonist. Let's take a look at their relationship pre-season two to get a better understanding:

For example, in The Challenge of the Brave (S1 E4) when Raps joins the challenge, Cass feels like Raps is being a bad friend by trying to win something that means so much to her. She's annoyed by Raps' ignorance, and jealous of the admiration Raps is receiving. Yet, Cass never even told Raps how much the contest means to her. So instead of communicating her feelings, Cass starts to act more snappy with Raps and actively tries to get Raps eliminated from the game. However, it's not unreasonable for Raps to be unaware of Cass' wishes, especially since she struggles with social cue. Regardless of the fact that Cass should've been more patient with Raps, I think this episode would've been nice foreshadowing to her change of heart in season three if they didn't try to paint Cass as the victim in this episode. I don't understand why only Raps apologized, when they both should've acknowledged their wrongs.

In Under Raps (S1 E9), Rapunzel tries to make Cass feel better about being single by making her things and showing her appreciation for Cass. When this happens, Cass sort of gets annoyed for no reason even though Rapunzel's intentions are sweet. She doesn't even really verbalize if Raps is pushing boundaries or not, she's just... frustrated?

This doesn't relate to Rapunzel directly, but in Great Expotations (S1 E8) Cass uses Varian to get what she wants. Even though she does make up for it, it's still a testament to her character. Cass often acts without thinking about how others might feel or think, and the way she treats Raps in season one is a prime example of that. She does take into account how naive and ignorant Raps can be, but she refuses to show any patience for it as Raps recovers from literally being isolated for eighteen years. And Cass is supposed to be Raps' best friend! It's the same with Varian. You see, Cass isn't really a bad person. She just wants her moment in the spotlight, her moment to prove herself. In these episodes, that's often what drives her to make these mistakes towards her friends. This would be a great character flaw, and an interesting writing concept. But this show keeps having Cass in this same situation again and again, and she never grows from it. It gets old very fast.

Not to mention, Cass also tried to force Raps not to tell Eugene how she got her hair back when it first happened. All because Cass "doesn't trust Eugene". I thought this was strange, because I don't really know what kind of friend asks someone to lie to their significant other.

In the flashback episode, Beginnings (S3 E6), we learn that Cass never wanted to be friends with Raps to begin with, and there was a lot of guilty undertones on Cass' part of the relationship at least in its early stages from what we can see. Raps clearly latched onto Cass way too fast, because she was still fresh out of the tower when they met. And Cass wasn't ready to be what Raps needed (which was therapy). Cass was Raps' first friend besides Pascal, and I don't understand why Cass would take on that role if she wasn't going to put in the effort to at least try and be compassionate and understanding with Raps.

Moving on to season two, Cass didn't really do anything of substance until The Great Tree episode (S2 E14) which is a little weird in hindsight. But I thought her insecurities about needing to prove herself and how she always feel second place to Raps were pretty justified. We saw a couple times through out the series that people preferred Raps over Cass, or gave Raps opportunities when Cass worked harder for them. Still, I don't feel like that's Raps' fault. Waiting in the Wings did a perfect job of illustrating Cass' feelings on this subject, and it even made me like her more as a character because it gave her so much more depth. Still, the song talks about how Cass is going to keep waiting until her moment in the sun arrives no matter what, which contradicts her villain arc quite a bit considering the fact she did not wait at all. Anyway, I think Cass trying to insinuate that Raps doesnt trust her judgement anymore in these episodes was BULLSHIT. Raps clearly loves and values Cass, and trusts her completely. All Raps did was mkae a call that Cass didn't agree with, I dont think this meant that Raps wasn't listening or wasn't trusting Cass. The two of them simply disagreed on it, which they do all the time.

Technically, the thing that pushes Cass off the edge is the fact that she finds out she's Mother Gothel's biological daughter. But there was one other incident that set this villain arc into motion before the episodes within the House of Yesterday's Tomorrows. Cassandra's hand wound from Rapunzel.

When Cass injuries her hand during the final fight within the Great Tree, she blames Raps for it even after they talk it out and apologize. I didn't understand this at all, because yes Cass warned Raps not to use the decay incantation. But it's not like they had any other choice! And Raps was not in control of herself or the tree when Cass got injured. Not only this, but Raps also told Cass to leave before anything even happened. Why is Cass upset with Raps for not listening to her when she wouldn't listen to Raps either?

The season three opening episode, Rapunzel's Return (S3 E1), shows us exactly what Cass saw in the House of Yesterday's Tomorrows. We learn that Cass is Gothel's real daughter, and this is a huge turning point in the series. Because in this episode, Cassandra's entire villain arc stopped being about her own struggles and insecurities and how she's felt second place to Rapunzel this whole time, it became about the fact that Gothel chose Raps over Cass. I felt like this was a lazy writing choice, to make it seem like Cass' feelings of being inferior to Raps are more justified. But honestly, I think her villain arc could've stood well on it own if they just planted to the smaller seeds of doubt earlier on, and didn't involve Gothel in it. Of all people. Gothel is a naturally selfish woman who would never do anything that doesn't serve some kind of purpose for her. I find it hard to belief she kept Cass around simply to do house work around her cottage instead of just dumping Cass at an orphanage of some kind.

I also feel the need to mention the fact that Cass was absent for almost 12 episodes in a row, during what is supposed her season as the antagonist and her moment to have the spotlight, probably has something to do with why her writing in season three came out so half-baked. Combining this with the fact that her change of heart was only really hinted at in maybe five out of the forty-five episodes, episodes in which the conflict involving Cass' character is always resolved by the end, makes her entire villain arc seem out of character at first glance.

This season went to great lengths to make Cass' actions and attitude as nasty as possible, especially by having her show no remorse or doubts after Be Very Afraid (S3 E9). This is on of the reasons her redemption arc fell flat.

In A Tale of Two Sisters (S3 E14), we see the last bit of Cass' doubt be outweighed by her need to blame someone for the way Gothel abandoned her. So, she blames Rapunzel. But Cass knows Gothel was sick and abusive towards Raps, and she also knows it's not Raps' fault she was kidnapped. After all their years of friendship, I didn't buy the concept that Cass would let her anger manifest in a way that would blame Raps for a traumatic event that happened to both of them.

While I'm well aware that Zhan Tiri has been manipulating Cass since the House of Yesterday's Tomorrows, it still didn't make Cass's villain arc anymore believable for me. It felt like the show's way of trying to excuse its own crappy writing.

Once a Handmaiden (S3 E16) is when Cass realizes Zhan Tiri has been manipulating her since the beginning, and begins to regret her choices. So Cass disguises herself as Rapunzel's current handmaiden to try and find a way to extend some kind of olive branch. This gives us a little more insight into the headspace Cass has been in these past few months, and it gives the audience more room to sympathize with her (especially in the play scene). Yet, when Zhan Tiri reveals Cass to everyone and the guards start attack her, Cass is quick to become incredibly angry, even though Raps was trying to call off the guards. Cass literally takes over the entire kingdom, almost killing hundreds of people after spending the whole day bonding with Raps like old times. While I have issues with the amber-firing machine Varian made, I feel like the switch up with Cass in this episode was absolutely insane.

Cassandra's redemption arc, if you can even call it that, completely fell apart because it was so rushed. It was similar to Varian's redemption arc in that sense, but even though Varian's redemption arc had flaws he was able to sort of get away with it. Varian's villain arc was shorter than Cass', his crimes weren't as bad as Cass'. and he served at least a year in jail anyway. Cass served no punishment for her actions and got to leave Corona scot-free. This also plays into the constant contradiction Cassandra goes through this season of soul-crushing remorse vs homicidal rage.

Considering Cass was one of our main three characters for the entire show, I just think she deserved better when it finally came time to give her some more depth and complexity. But what do you guys think? Do you think Cassandra's time as an antagonist was poorly executed? How do you think they could've fixed it? Feel free to let me know!

[jewishvitya]

CW - talking about antisemitic depictions and about the house elves and the depiction of slavery in the books.

I'm having a frustrating day with a lot of physical pain, so I'm not the best at judging currently if I should be posting all of these thoughts. It's a response to multiple arguments by rude anons that I blocked (not for being rude, for being transphobic), but the arguments themselves stay on my mind and I just. Need this out. Ignore this, it will be all over the place, I'm basically venting. Hoping it'll be the last bit of HP criticism I post.

I'll tag it for you to block, as usual.

I've been asked what I expect of Rowling, since my criticism of the goblins included the books. She already wrote the books, they're printed and they're out there. She can't just change them, criticism does nothing because she has no path to correct her mistake.

First of all, with her transphobia - as far as I'm concerned she has blood on her hands at this point. The way she emboldens transphobia endangers lives and erodes queer rights. Anyone who contributes to the current push against trans people is complicit in trans genocide - and she made herself a symbol of that movement. Even if she did a 180 on her issues with Jewish stereotypes, she wouldn't redeem herself.

But she isn't the only one who wrote a story and then realized that her story has deep issues. What does it look like, if an author doesn't want to perpetuate those?

From what I know of Tolkien (and I know nothing LOTR or anything, just heard this from other Jewish creators who discussed this issue, treat this paragraph like I'm repeating a rumor) - Tolkien did stumble on an antisemitic depiction while writing his dwarves. Then he course-corrected by creating a more complex and nuanced picture of the society in his future works. Basically, he leaned into the idea of his dwarves as a Jewish allegory and made it a better and more respectful allegory. They have wonderful cultural details, like having foreign-language names used outside of their community - and names in their own native language that they call each other. Half of my family comes from France, and my mom was born there. She had a Hebrew name and a legal French name. That's extremely common among Jews in some areas of the world.

This response is what I would have expected if an author cares about being respectful of Jewish people. Acknowledge the issue, and try to do better.

But what if the issue was brought to your attention after you completely finished your story? In that case: "Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was writing an antisemitic narrative with my depiction of this fantasy race." Support the voices criticizing your work, and apologize. Let it be an example of tropes to avoid, and encourage others to be careful of the same pitfalls.

What you don't do, is act horrified and say "Oh, how could you, I never intended to make the goblins an antisemitic allegory! Surely if I don't mean it, it can't be hurtful!"

Also, if you truly care, you don't then abuse the memory of the holocaust when you write spin-offs of your original story, including its imagery to support a bigoted villain's argument.

Marginalized people understand that not everyone knows what we do. The stereotypes and the harmful ideas that weaved themselves into popular culture are about us. We know that it's invisible to people who aren't the target, and as a result aren't forced to learn these things. To many people, it's just a trope they're used to seeing. Like villains have hooked noses - it's practically a shorthand for an evil character.

All the stories we tell are based in some measure on stories we heard. Narratives and tropes feed off each other between different pieces of media. It's easy to pull together a harmful narrative without realizing, when the tropes that make it up usually go together, and are so common they're everywhere. So we know a person who means no harm can create something really hurtful, without knowing it.

That's why we criticize media: we want you to see and be aware.

In addition to this, I've been accused multiple times of ignoring the fact that these books discuss bigotry and condemn it. I'm not ignoring it, I know they do - or they try to. But Rowling wrote a story against racism without understanding it and without interrogating it in herself. She only knew to condemn it when it's rude and violent and outright hateful. Not the foundations of it.

So, sure, say she didn't mean to write something harmful. What does she do when she learns she did? Nothing. And not just about the issue of the goblins - about everything. I detailed the problems with her depiction of lycanthropy, but she did the same thing with the house elves.

There's lore about creatures called brownies. They'll perform chores for you, but they'd rather not be seen while they do. If you try to pay them, they'll get offended. If you give them clothes, they'll leave. This is a very partial description, but you can see the inspiration here.

And then she turned them into a slave race. They're bound to their enslavers, possessing powerful magic but using it in their service, forced to punish themselves for disobedience and endure extreme abuse. Kreacher actively wishes to have his head put on display when he's too old and weak to be of use.

To show the reader the horrors of freedom for an elf, JKR turned poor Winky into a depressed drunk with no purpose in her life. Winky's story is horrifying.

Only Dobby takes care of Winky for that whole year. She never recovers during it. Then she's made to witness the interrogation of Barty Crouch Jr., which upsets her and causes her distress. As a result, she hears about Crouch's death through a toneless forced confession - and the interrogation continues around her. That same day, she watches the last member of the household she loved have his soul taken by a dementor, and then she's left alone with the body while Dumbledore argues with Fudge. Only after, he sends Madam Pomfrey to do what she can for Winky, and take her to the kitchens where Dobby will take care of her again.

And Rowling wrote all of this. Did she think this is an example that even compliant house elves suffer and get neglected, even by the sympathetic wizards? Was this a lesson that even those who don't seek freedom suffer and lack agency in this system?

No. Rowling turned it into a cautionary tale against freeing slaves. Unless they're "weird" like Dobby.

Maybe she didn't try to be racist, but this fits disturbingly well with the arguments against ending slavery in reality. That enslaved people will turn into aimless drunks. That they need to be enslaved to have purpose. That those who want freedom have something wrong with them.

And I know this was criticized. What was the response to the criticism? Nothing direct as far as I know, but after all of this - there was an article published on Pottermore to argue that Winky's story is a warning against freeing the elves. It was taken down fortunately, but after this article the arguments against freedom are no longer the opinion of characters within the world - it's a message given to us by real people.

She doubles down. Every time. People keep yelling that she had nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy, she's not responsible for the way it builds on her original canon. Well, she seems to approve of it. It continues painting the same line with the same brush - just bolder.

She doesn't care about the racism, she doesn't care about antisemitism - she just wanted to use the nazis as her easy villains. She doesn't have the imagination for any other kind.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Another quick rection from me, this time for the 390 bnha leaks!!!!!! :

Iida and Shoto's friendship is everything to me. They have now helped each other reach beyong their family darkest times and have given the absolute most for each other. I love them soo much!!

This justice and happiness for so many meta writers that have been telling the fandom it'd be like this. I salute those writers, wishing them an amazing time on their "I told you so".

I'm so glad Horikoshi made Enji acknowledge verbally and explicitly all the mistakes he has committed against his family and made him apologize to every one of them individually. He mistreated his family in many different ways but they all deserved closure. The ones following me for a while know that I'm not an Endeavor fan, but I appreciate what he brings to the narrative sometimes.

While I'm pleased that Enji is finally accepting his responsibility inthe fallout of his family,it scares me a little because I know the fandom would start fighting about wether Rei and his kids should forgive him immediately or not. It's gonna be different from each Todoroki, so stop for a second and ask yourself if in those situations, the victims should be pressured to do one thing or the other. If Fuyumi forgives Enji immediately but Touya never does, it is okay for both of them. Whatever makes them happy and helps them through their trauma, as long as it is not self-destructive or risks other people's lives.

I KNOW IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE FUNNY but Dabi saying that he should be dead —they all should be dead really— hurt a lot, but then I read Natsuo telling him “well that's gonna be a problem because you're gonna live bro” was so sibling behavior of them. Touya is suicidal and finds it easier for things to be over now, he hadn't planned for this to go this far, you know? And that's exactly why Natsuo asks what does he plan to do next.

I haven't read the translation yet, but if they really phrased it as "hellish life" (Natsuo says that's what awaits Dabi, after seeing the ice on his chest) is gonna be an immense irony but amazing writing. Dabi told Enji to come dance with him in hell, but isn't life hell on its own way sometimes? I love when a character that planned to die lives, because it defies the narrative and questions the character while giving room to so many opportunities.

SHOUTO FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGING HOW COMPLEX TOUYA'S ORIGIN IS. It's nothing you can solve with mere words, nothing you can solve with a conversation. This is a huge win in this manga, contrasting the shonen trope of things being solved through words or the speech of the protagonist.

People better give Rei all the recognition she deserves or I'm gonna start punching them.

Touya saying they all should be dead and that he hates them all and Enji asking for him to tell him how he feels— this is how things get solved. It's a callback not only to Enji, but to many other conflicts were pro-heroes and other adults should have listened to victims, villains or their own kids to understand what was wrong, but decided to tackle the issue without even caring to have a grasp on it. Right now, Enji wants to start from where Dabi is, not from where he wish he should be. He's not arguing against Touya's feelings or going against them or anything. He is willing to communicate and listen to him, he is being open and vulnerable and direct and that's exactly how it should be. Super funny coming from me, but this was an Enjj win.

BUT I'M IN SHAMBLES FOR TOGA. I AM KICKING SCREAMING SCRATCHING THE WALLS OF MY ROOOOOOM.

If there is a testament of how much they (the members of the League of Villains) care for each other, it's that Toga can't see Dabi's fire anymore and immediately wishes he found a way to smile, exactly like he said she should. She's having a whole breakdown over how much she knows she love Tomura and Dabi and why her quirk won't work from them, but even with tears in her eyes, she's wondering if Dabi is happy now, if he was able to reach his goal. Horikoshi please, you need to gives us all a panel of Touya and Toga smiling together after the battle, okay? They deserve it.

OCHAKO IS SO CLOSE TO HER RIGHT NOW as she's being held down by multiple Twice clones. I'm so excited to see the resolution of their fight!!! It feels perfect that Ochako gave that speech about wanting to see the people she love and people in general smile and now Toga is just thinking about that with Touya. Narratively speaking, I enjoy so much how these girls are connected to each other. Now that Shouto reached his brother and was able to stop him with help from his family, it's time for Toga and Ochako, then Deku and Tomura.

I'm satisfied and happy, being honest. There's still some road left ahead, but I'm liking what I'm seeing at the moment. This must be one of my favorites chapters so far!!!!

[sukislady]

just got done rewatching MHA Heroes Rising and omg omg omg i need to talk about my favorites so i can relax my nerves so sorry if this gets kinda long lmao

if you do end up reading til the end plz tell me whatd you think about it if you’ve seen it!! let’s talk !!

cw: ⚠️SPOILERS⚠️

i just wanna point out that i still get butterflies in my tummy and get all excited when i watch it as if i’m watching it for the first time 🥹

Bakugo and Deku? love them so much they’re my comfort characters

katsuma makes my uterus wanna harbor a kid (i don’t want one if they’re not as cute as he is)

can we just give props to iida who kept a calm and respective leadership role when they were informed??

like they were all worried then here’s iida breaking down shit and getting his teams together cause he’s amazing

i will never get over the fight scenes in any of the movies

the animators put some kinda drug in it cause that shit is always so immersive !!!!

round of applause for shoto!! he made endeavor’s flashfire fist into HIS OWN WITH HIS ICE !we love to see it

SERO! SERO! SERO!

MOMO! MOMO! MOMO! i love her so much if that wasn’t obvious (btw we share the same birthday)

i feel like the hero society has fucked these kids up because they’re literally putting their lives on the line to fight villains and they’re still freshmen 🧍🏽‍♀️ get your shit together hero society

can we also talk about shoji towards the end? they way he went to protect those kids without even thinking??? omg i love him too

OJIRO AND JIRO !!!

JIRO! JIRO! JIRO!!!

whenever i see jiro my heart skips a beat

bro tokoyami and dark shadow will forever have a place in my heart

remember how tokoyami couldn’t really control dark shadow in the darkness in the beginning during the training arc? now look at him !!!

he had dark shadow under control until that bitch hit mina— also props to those two for protecting her from the rubble

ill never understand why the villains wanna take over the world to “rebuild” it after causing massive destruction like excuse, killing people and destroying their shit isn’t gonna make them wanna follow you or believe in you

i also realized something

stories i see regarding momo always paints her to be a stuck up spoilt brat but she’s anything but and i wish she got more love

ALSO PETITION TO PUT SOME MORE CLOTHES ON HER THANKS IN ADVANCE

ALSO ALSO THROW SOME CLOTHES ON HAGAKURA TOO PLZ

have you noticed when kiri goes unbreakable his eyes harden too? like wouldn’t that be uncomfortable?

imagine how that must’ve been when he was first learning out to use it ouch

KIRI LOVES HIS “BIG BRO” AMAJIKI and i love their relationship 🥹 kiri respects him so much

i only bring tamaki up because of that beast kiri, tsu, shoto and iida were fighting

his quirk was like tamaki’s mixed with the nine tails cause his roar looked awfully like kurama’s beast bomb

i was also wondering why doesn’t class 1a have a student with a healing quirk? do they know how useful that would be???

like an on-field medic cause gods know that fucking class needs it

mahoro’s quirk is so useful too???

like she can distract enemies (maybe once she’s older and has better control) AND she can use it to signal for help !!

realistically speaking (ik ik it’s an anime but still) if she hadn’t made the derpy deku then bakugo wouldn’t have found them in time and deku plus mahoro and katsuma wouldve been killed

we love watching katsuki save his bestie rival 🫶🏽

and katsu encouraging deku to get stronger in a round about way? i live for the kinda nice bakugo

idc what anyone says— bakugo is one of the best characters that has amazing character development

as someone who can relate to having a god complex and thinking everyone’s below them (not anymore with the help of therapy) it’s hard to acknowledge someone else being better than or stronger than you

that shit takes a lot out of you but katsuki bakugo has grown, learnt his mistakes and is now trying to right his wrongs

character development at its finest 👏🏽

omg i can’t wait til the fucking manga chapters are animated

my eyes will be so swollen 💔

wait til we get hit with these two

watching heroes rising just brought me back to a place where their relationship changed forever

deku trusted him enough to hand over OFA

but it’s the fact that katsuki trusted deku enough to take his hand !!!

in the beginning he wouldn’t have done that he’d let deku be or try to out do him

he was even worried about what would happen if deku isn’t able to use OFA and become quirkless again omg

omg i’m sorry i feel like this is getting way off track 💀

if you made it to the end of this and wanna hear more about my love and thoughts for these idiots i will gladly do it !!

[claudeleine]

Did it ever occur to anyone that Wanda’s Roma background in the comics was BUILT on racist stereotypes? Similarly to M’Baku but also several others. And maybe that’s why the show runners stepped away from that..?

okay, so i think what we have here is someone who skimmed the original post in question (paragraph 2) and likely didn’t ready any of the links attached because that first message has been addressed already... but for anyone else in the same boat:

from gavia baker-whitelaw’s article:

Wanda and Pietro's Romani heritage was canon for decades (including in their non-mutant backstory), although this depiction often had problematic undertones. Wanda is literally a mysterious foreign witch, a damaging stereotype that acquired more nuance in later comics. But instead of updating Wanda and Pietro as modern Jewish/Romani superheroes (much like how Black Panther's charismatic M'Baku started out as a villain named "Man-Ape"), Disney whitewashed them. This casting choice was divisive in 2013, when The Atlantic highlighted the negative connotations of casting a white blonde actress as Scarlet Witch. Roma people are a marginalized ethnic minority, and Disney chose to erase their presence from the MCU.

...This rewrite was rather tone-deaf, because it involved Wanda and Pietro volunteering for neo-Nazi experiments. In the comics, their original parents were Holocaust survivors. Whedon also ignored the most obvious solution to Wanda and Pietro's non-mutant backstory: Django and Marya Maximoff, their Romani parents from the comics.

white washing characters is never the best solution. it doesn’t address the issue in so much as it just sweeps it under the rug. as well as perpetuating the idea that white is some unproblematic neutral that ppl can just default to. like can you imagine if in an attempt to “fix” how m’baku is portrayed in the comics, they just...put a white guy in the role? you can’t just remove a characters racial or ethnic background. no one is saying that her comic background hasn’t been problematic, but this isn’t the way to remedy that.

@scarlet--wiccan has an amazing post about the erasure of this whole family’s ethnic identity in the fox x-men films (x).

@villyns also has a good post outlining some examples of the mcu white washing rather than actually fixing the problem (x).

and here’s a decent article on white washing in media and why it’s a problem (x), quote from this article below:

Making a movie is not an easy feat; there are many things to take into account and even more people that you have to please, but there are also standards and morals to uphold. Whitewashing, blackface, brownface or yellowface is not just about denying jobs to minority actors, appropriating the stories of these groups, perpetuating stereotypes or keeping them invisible, it is about undermining their value as human beings and turning them into stepping stones, props, for white artists.

as for the second part. i think that’s entirely possible, actually. it’s done a lot to characters, where they won’t explicitly state their ethnicity but give them attributes from one (often stereotypes) and make them a caricature without making it, like i said, explicit. take the concept of jewish-coded villains in media. no one from disney has ever said that mother gothel in tangled is jewish, but it’s been pointed out by everyone that she’s jewish coded through stereotypes, ones specifically often used for “evil” witch-type characters, which is no coincidence: large, hooked nose, curly hair, greedy, etc. edit: hollywood uses coding like this often for racial/ethnic groups and the lgbtq+ community.

the maximoffs in the mcu and xmcu have never been explicitly made romani, with disney going so far as to change their parents romani names (django and marya) to oleg and irina. the name changes were unnecessary, except to distance the maximoffs from their original romani identity. the mcu changed their origins stories and cast non-romani actors to portray the maximoffs, and considering they went as far as to remove their jewish heritage as i mentioned before, it’s not a stretch that this is all an attempt to veil their romani background too. while they often joke about stealing and fortune tellers and poverty (the wv halloween episode really put it all in one place, but they’ve been doing it forever in the xmcu and mcu), i wouldn’t say this is an attempt to make them romani as much as it is to use a romani-esque caricature, to use it as a sort of “aesthetic” for the twins without acknowledging that it’s an ethnicity. the aspects they choose to keep are often either negative or painted in a negative light. i think the fact that el*zabeth ols*en continuously uses the g-slur to talk about wanda and costume design, speaks to that. 

and even if the mcu came out and said, “oh, our wanda is romani,” that wouldn’t change the fact that she’s played by a non-romani actress (who continues to use anti-romani slurs, despite knowing she shouldn’t) and that so far, they have not explicitly stated in the mcu that she is.

from gavia baker-whitelaw’s article:

Wanda and Pietro's whitewashing feels like an attempt to "neutralize" them. It frames their ethnicity as a problem to be avoided, rather than an opportunity to celebrate an under-represented group. This also meant that Marvel could cast famous white actors instead of sourcing an unknown Romani actor, during a period when the MCU was visibly uninterested in racial diversity.

But Marvel Studios wanted to have its cake and eat it, too. While Wanda is now white and Sokovian, her role isn't completely divorced from its Romani origins. It can't be, because everything in the MCU is informed by the comics. That's how we end up with El*zabeth Ols*n describing her Age of Ultron costume as "kind of this g*psy, vagabond feel"—terms that usually wouldn't come to mind for a simple black minidress and maroon jacket. Wanda's Romani heritage remains visible through veiled references and superficial costume choices, sidestepping any hint of meaningful representation.

from jessica reidy’s article:

Today, some Roma do call themselves witches, and serve as healers and spell-casters in a community, but make no mistake, being a witch is a job like any other. I was trained by my grandmother, I studied hard, I started a business, and I take bookings in my Google calendar. This is the context that most people miss when creating (or, in this case, adapting) Romani witch characters like Wanda Maximoff, and while the Scarlet Witch has plenty of magic, she does not need to fall into the stereotype, nor have her identity erased.

Representation matters. Wanda’s Romani ethnicity has been well-stated in the comic books, sometimes capturing the discrimination and violence that Roma face, and other times falling flat and stereotypical. Marvel also owes us, as Roma are often rendered as mentally unstable thieves, such as Dr. Doom, Wanda and Pietro’s community, and Wanda herself, and the entertainment giant capitalizes off of these stereotypes, reinforcing them all the while.

Every opportunity we get for accurate and positive representation is essential to us because it shapes the way people understand us.

linking the post i made again, because it has a list of articles and posts i’d recommend really taking the time to look through and engaging with them, as well as following folks like jessica reidy and @scarlet--wiccan​ on social media for more info from romani folks. 

[thelandswemadeofpaper]

Reasons for Conflicts

Conflict of Interest, of Priorities and Hidden Agendas. A character's personal goals and problems and the others's reactions to them.

What are the life goals and beliefs in questions? Perfection? Obedience? Duty? As a Soldier/Warrior? Beauty? Law/Order? Wanting a Normal Life? Approval? The character's feelings and opinions matter a lot.

A person who hates her group (family, faction, kingdom...), especially because of fairly good reason (Neji, Hakuryuu, Tyrion and Lysa Arryn for example). Or just having problems with it already make easy for the Villain to manipulate with promises of either friendship or revenge.

A Mad Quest, the harmful ways to accomplish it, the people hurt in the process (the quester included) and the others attempts of interference.

Most controversial characters are considered 'grey' due their actions and given excuses and if (and until what point) their reasons are valid enough.

The whole 'who is to blame' and the willingness and consent (or if they had much of a choice) of the person how did the action too. Or mistakes, impulsive and foolish actions with deep consequences for the other people.

Plently of things can be used to justify: manipulation, survival, grief, naiveness, forced to, lack of power...

About Culture and Nation. Maybe two people of different branches of the same folk, maybe said folk did/is doing some shit at the moment, maybe is a long lost culture they are trying to revive and acknowledge their mistakes or trying to reestabilish the old way.

A Promise/Deal/Oath (Surrendal? Its Trick? Marriage? One side refuses to pay the price or broke it? Sabotaged? They were never thinking of paying (like Loki's story with that horse?)? Involves another person without their consent?). Keeping your word can be a serious cultural or magical thing. And the situation can change easily with time (Feanor's sons, Salome, Baahubali's mother Sivagami).

Demands or offers (from the victors? Are they too arrogant or bold? Made by a lesser person? It was pretty much a insult? Benefit one side more? It was forced or unfair?)

Just a group needing something from the other and the price asked for it can lead to hostility already.

Or something more Dystopian like Promised Neverland

Members of the same or allied factions, or even friends have an fight or one attack another over something, may involve crippling. They can just attempt.

Agent Provacateur

False Flag Operation

Self-Defense Ruse

Well-Intentioned Extremist

Unwitting Instigator of Doom

Pretext for War

Not Just a Tournament

Elemental Rivalry

Rage Against the Mentor

Calling the Old Man Out

Common Enemy

Friend in Common

A Battle Royality (kind like Highlander, Hunger Games and Fate series too? A butch of people fighting for a title/prize? Can be more than one winner like the Archon War. Maybe a champion from each faction to win a position like Three Dark Crowns?)

Pited against each other (by parent? For throne? Lies? Two heroes? Accused? Friends? Factions? Do something bad to blame the other?)

Creates a problem so you can solve it and play hero. Frame your enemies so you can ask for compensation or for them to be punished. Cause an incident (even against your own people or yourself) to blame the enemy party or ruin their reputation.

A refusal or choosing one over another (specially if there is rivality with the 'other') they can be considered a insult or a message. Or winning where another lost can cause pettiness or wounded pride.

Disaproval of an Friendship/Love or an Hate/Rivality. Two enemies can have an mutual friend.

A character (or their group) being indirectly responsable for another's misfortune and suffering or just benefit from it, maybe jealous for their privilege? And the other just don't understand? Or for having a good life while the other don't?

Fantasy Prejudice and Crapsaccharine World can have this. I reminded both of AlicentxRhaenyra (and a little of NejixHinata and Vongola too) and the Moriquendi/Dwarves/Edain.

Privilege and Prejudice can also be be cause of so much fucked up bullshit. The selfishness of putting yourself and yours above others and make them pay and sacrifice for you (even fix your fuck ups), dragging them into your messes.

Made an plan behind their back (maybe use them as an pawn), one manipulated the other. Forced to participate said plan? (The cover up of another's actions? Forced to keep an secret?)

The crash of opinions about a country's rulling in general (Of interference in another country's matter? A deal? A choice or mistake? A alliance? help? subordination?)

Refusal to acknowledge you were wrong and try to fix your mistakes. Or that your Faction was wrong or that someone is a bad person.

One being responsable (can be indirectly, intentional, misplaced or not) for an tragedy (personal or not), like an curse or the fall/massacre of an kingdom/family.

An reveal (heritage, adoption, origins, revenge, reason, empire dark secret, an plan, an clan, past, hidden action, secret identity...)

Loyality (To Family? Faction? To Friends? Parent? Country? To an Person? To Law and Order or to Morals? Common Sense? Between?)

The Villain is right? Your friend fucked up? They had a good reason for the Revenge? To admit your friend is a Bad Person or did a wrong thing can be difficult, because its still your friend.

Can be a double sided thing: the Traitor may have good reason for the Betrayal and so is the Hero for killing them in return? (Kinda like Shae, Mirri Maz Duur and Ollie)

Enemies by Association or Nature: those characters have connections (friend? family? faction? ancestors?) that have hostility between them or should make them enemies.

Or one of the characters is the one to have the hostility with the other associate. Like the Villain and his Nemesis's Sibling or Child.

They are in different Factions (enemies or rivals, temporaly or not, nothing personal at the beginning, but can get). Can be the same Kingdom/Realm, but different factions/family/group.

Servants/Followers of an certain person the other does not like. (Can be the two of them or just one, the other can be the leader of the rival group).

Or just, like...the character's family starts shit and turns antagonist agains the Hero Team and now he has to pick a side. Or try to stop both of them.

They are in the same group, but one is more rebelish/in disagreement with them. Or one is an Rebel/Exiled/Traitor/Defeator/Former Member.

The other side has people you want to save (willing or not)

Conflict of Loyality: Love? Duty? Reason? Honor? Revenge? Family? Faction? In between it?

I just love the whole 'characters that are supposed to be enemies somehow are friends'. On other side a reveal about a relation with the enemy will lead to trouble.

One has more brutal/extreme/violent methods. The other wants a more peaceful approach. Any disagreement over solutions and how to handle the situation in question, maybe two characters who made different choices (Stayed/Left? Rebel/Inaction? Killed/Spared?). Are they Foils? A Tragic one not wanting the other to repeat their mistakes? A Hero not wanting to be like the Villain one?Different reactions to the same thing?

This begin done in mass is what lead to the hostility and differences between Moriquendi and Eldar.

Its about a person? If they should kill them? forgive or punish? (this also counts for the custody, trust, follow, help or 'use' that person in some way) or this can be about an object too? (One wants to buield or use something? Destroy it? Its dangerous? The cost of doing so? Versus the benefits? Us versus Them mentality?)

Two organizations, faction or political (maybe cultural?) parties, etc within a Nation/Kingdom have a rivality.

Fake Defector/Double Agent (don't have to be the 'enemy/villain side', can be a different political faction or an person that the other don't approve of)

Push away/Exile/Fire them for their own good (could be because of another person orders/threats?).

Did something to save the other or for their own safety (maybe sacrificed another person? Turned them into something? Make an deal?)

Broken Pedestal/Miscarriage of Justice (Culture? Folk? Group? Family? Person? Fallen Clan?)

Breaking off a Friendship or Romance don't mean you have to change sides or be enemies. It also could have been broken by a third party. How? Brainwashed? Manipulated? Misunderstanding? Staged Betrayal? Lies?

Pre-Conflict Hate, when two groups or characters already have a hostility between them before the real war/problem starts, so they are more ruthless.

The entitlement or ownership over anything (object? land? throne? power? person? invention? credit?). The reasons are numerous, from 'heritage' to 'worthness' and even 'necessity', attempts to claim it may cause great conflict, what they want to do with it is also important. (The Silmarils, Vhagar and the Iron Throne are a Great Exemple).

More common things like places, treasures, resources.

Accidentaly using your powers on a friend and the consequences of it.

Your (fairly valid) actions blow out of proportion and hurt innocents, maybe even a loved one?

All the Other Reindeer

Disagreement and Disaproval

Characters with similar origins but different fates. Like...the children of a usurped king, one managed to run away and the other remains captured by the Usurper. Or a more vast exemple, the characters don't need to be that close or know each other: refugees from a fallen Kingdom, one escapes and starts a organization seeking revenge, the other finds haven in the Kingdom who destroyed theirs.

The nature of a relationship is a common source for a divergence of opinions between fans (abusive? neglecful? toxic? selfish? all take and no give? power imbalance? if the circunstances are good? a doormat?)

Discord Tropes

Its between two characters? Friends? Family? Its about a third one? Between two Factions? The heroes involved themselves in another Faction Inner Problems? Which Faction each one belong? Independent? Antagonist? Protagonist? Neutral?

Try to see the Conflict in the eyes/perspective of other characters related to it some way and create a new Conflict. Or switch the trope applied to another character.

[vivacissimx]

Do you ever think about how obscenely unfair it is that every single member of the Dead Ladies Club is put on a pedestal and held up as some sort of epitome of virtue because most of them died young and beautiful and desired and are remembered from a considerable chronological distance whereas you’re not supposed to acknowledge any positive points of the living women at all, especially not those with mental health issues.

I believe the pedestal treatment was the initial critique of the OG Dead Ladies Club post, however art imitates life. Re-imaginings that position women as (mainly) courteous, good, kind, beautiful etc. are not always* trite but it's imp to note that those are qualities upper class women have historically been able to aspire to. Someone being [insert positive] is fine. Good for them. But why were they like that? What did it gain them? Cost them? How far did they go or conversely how easily did they break? If we are going to theorize about dead fictional women we need to ask these questions instead of just using them as rubrics to grade other women against.

*When I say not always: I mean in cases like Ned recounting that Lyanna was beautiful, in between chastising Arya for being willful and allowing her to keep Needle. Her beauty isn't the point - that moment and the conversation with Robert in the crypts opens the question: does Ned sympathize with Lyanna? In those final moments they spent together, is it possible they found an understanding? In what direction does his guilt run? His resentment?

*When I say not always: I mean assigning those traits to dead characters is not inherently frivolous. Death is a site of memory. Is that dead girl beautiful because well, we gotta say something about her? Or is she beautiful because she had unrealized potential, because she's a promise yet to be kept? That said, using random virtuous traits to 'flesh out' a character when there are others places to explore is a missed opportunity. Example: the unnamed princess of Dorne. We know she served as Rhaella's lady-in-waiting, a prestigious courtly position. We know she had a friendly and/or strategic relationship with Joanna Lannister, yet a less than cordial one with Tywin. Did that begin in King's Landing? Was the Princess ambitious, ambitious enough to choose living in King's Landing above Dorne while she was possibly already ruling, enough to threaten the Hand of the King? And why were her children all partnered out of Dorne - did she approve of Mellario, of a relationship with Norvos? None of Oberyn's first four baby mothers were Dornish, the eldest Sand Snakes likely conceived out of Dorne entirely, and the Princess wanted Cersei for him. Elia married Rhaegar, which was certainly of the Princess' design, and she likely hosted him when he visited Dorne on the trip that would bring Rhaegar to Griffin's Roost. Why did any of that happen? Did she have a ten-year plan for Dorne, a plan that would benefit even the smallfolk she valued enough to remind Doran to remember them? Northern ambitions perhaps?

*Did Aerys, attempting to punish Rhaella for her lack of affection for him by repeatedly pursuing her ladies, try to seduce the Princess? Did she rebuff him? And in the case of Rhaella, the Princess, and Joanna: why did three women all connected to each other have similar difficulties carrying children to term [Rhaella's numerous miscarriages and dead children, the Princess' Mors and Olyvar, Joanna going 9 years between Jaime/Cersei & Tyrion]? Was the maester's conspiracy at play?

What I'm saying is, if you are so inclined, many a dead lady can be fleshed out without martyring or villainizing her. Erasing misogyny, mess, and mistakes from stories about women makes for a bunch of tragic saints who died in the misery of always knowing better.

In which case, I couldn't care less about them.

Because, on a personal level, I hate re-tellings/headcanons that position characters as predicting (and in AU, successfully avoiding) a future. Useless to me. If you died a long-suffering flawless do-gooder who deserved better, then frankly you should've been more selfish. Everyone should get something they want in a story, but nobody gets everything or nothing. Granted this is at times the fault of the author, of the male gaze, of there simply being no space or leeway for a certain character to get more than they got. But in the business of fleshing out your minor blorbo, remember that they can't just be something, they must also do something. Something which includes missteps & misunderstandings.

Sorry for the essay, anon, but to your last point: yes exalting noblewomen who are provided the resources to perform the theater of womanhood and are successful / reviling those failed women who don't. Hm! Does anyone else remember when bell hooks said feminist sisterhood is when we enforce benchmarks of race and class on each other? Remember that dragons are nukes? And if we give a woman the nuclear codes she'll get her period and obliterate Moscow? Yeah. "Subversive."

[amethystpath-writes]

Monsters and Legends

Don’t worry, it’s fluff :)

(NOT A PR0MPT)

Villain and hero need to stop a bigger villain by somehow acting as a couple, only for them to share a single room and a single bed (im grinning so hard rn) I giggled when I read this request:

******

The phone rang once, twice, three times.

“Why are you calling me?” Hero’s voice was a groan, one annoyed and filled with malice- or was it anxiousness?

Villain understood he was probably the last person Hero would want to hear from. Why would the bad guy of the city be calling her anyways, and how’d he find her number? Those were questions which Hero could ask later. For now- “I need your help,” Villain pleaded right away.

“You need my help?” Hero laughed brittlely on the other end of the line. That’s how Villain heard it, at least. “What makes you think I would ever help y-”

“Supervillain.”

The line went silent as the horror of such a simple name settled in. It wouldn’t matter to Hero how Supervillain’s name still existed- why it was still being muttered, unforgotten. All that meant was that Supervillain was still prevalent, which further meant something needed to be done.

“Is he still alive?”

Well, I suppose that’s a question I can answer for now. “Yes, that’s why I need you. I can’t vanquish him on my own, Hero.”

Yeah? What was Hero supposed to do about it? She wasn’t capable of fighting Supervillain, even if she fought him alongside Villain. The two of them together were still no match for such a beast, a mistake made by nature. Supervillain wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for his ill intentions.

“We beat him before, Hero,” Villain said after another long silence. “We can do it again.”

Hero said, “If we beat him before, then why is he back?” This wasn’t the first time Hero felt hopeless. Even before Supervillain, she had days where she was convinced Villain was unbeatable. She got past that part of her depression, obviously, but it didn’t mean that anxiety didn’t exist elsewhere- such as when it came to Supervillain. “Villain, I quit this business after the first round. I can’t…I can’t do it again.”

“I know.” Villain nodded, even knowing Hero wouldn’t see it on the phone pressed against her ear. “I know, and I get it.”

“If you did, you wouldn’t have called.”

Villain sighed. Maybe she was right, but… “You’re the only one I know who can pull this off.”

“Pull what off, Villain? What plan have you made up that you think might actually be enough? We killed Supervillain. We killed him, and yet you’re telling me that he’s alive? We can’t beat him.”

How could Villain say this? How did he portray this compliment without it sounding like an insult? “Where you lack in strength, you lead in intelligence. You- you’re able to think things out in a moment, whereas it takes me ages. You are so much more capable than you think you are and, believe it or not, I have always admired you.”

Right. Hero wasn’t so certain Villain was telling the truth. Sure, she was smart, and she could even admit that, but…intelligence couldn’t defeat an undead man. Even if it did, what made Villain say something kind to her? He would never spare a compliment to someone as poor as Hero; he wouldn’t spare an insult either. And anyways, who would admire an anxious mess? Not a villain, not by any means, right?

“Why do you need me? What has made you turn to a last resort?” Last resort, meaning asking anyone for help when Villain preferred to work alone.

Villain’s palms were sweating, his phone nearly sliding out of his hand the longer he remained on the line. “He wants my allegiance. Rejecting him would be a death sentence, and you know it. I don’t want to die. Not now. Not just yet. At the same time, I am not going to work for or with this guy.”

Hero was still failing to understand. “How do I fit into this,” she rephrased, “beyond you needing my intelligence?”

“Supervillain never knew you. He doesn’t know your face, your name, your priorities.”

“And?”

“And I told him I have a wife who insists on working with me.”

No. No, no, no. No. But she didn’t say this. “So, you are asking me to jeopardize my own life by appearing at your side as a fake wife who doesn’t know how to properly defend herself.”

“I could teach you, Hero. I’m trained. Strength means nothing if your opponent has technique. I can teach you,” Villain repeated, hands heating impossibly more. “Do this for me and I’ll- I’ll…”

Precisely. “There is nothing you can offer me, Villain.”

“If you don’t do this,” Villain returned, gripping his phone with white knuckles, and curled toes which dug into his carpeted floor, “everyone else will suffer for it. Yourself, included. I don’t know about you, but I think you’ve suffered enough.”

You don’t mean that, Hero wanted to say. You don’t mean anything nice that you’re saying. You’re just desperate. You know that I’ll do anything if it means someone will tell me they’re proud of me at the end of the day. She thought this of everyone- even herself, only she knew someone else was more likely to say they were proud of her than herself.

How did anyone ever call her a hero when she couldn’t even save her own mind from destroying itself?

Easy.

She was a villain to herself, and a hero to others.

“How do I know he’s alive? Am I supposed to take your word for it?”

Villain almost said yes, but he knew Hero would require proof. She didn’t trust herself, let alone anyone else in the world. “There is no evidence of him, but if you’d like to handcuff me every moment we are alone, then I suppose I will hand that to you as your security.”

Hero’s eyes widened. She didn’t have handcuffs; she was no officer, but for Villain to say that, and with such a serious tone…he wouldn’t say something so disadvantageous to him if he didn’t mean it- if it weren’t necessary to gain Hero’s assistance.

“What will it mean,” Hero asked, “to be your wife?”

***

“Supervillain paid for our room.”

Our room? Hero blinked hard before glancing around the hotel lobby. Well, it was beautiful, but Hero hardly had the brain capacity to think about that. “You said our room,” she commented, lips thin and an eyebrow quirked.

“We’re husband and wife.”

“We’re pretending to be husband and wife,” Hero said in a hush-hush tone, hand squeezing Villain’s for umph.

Even as she said it quietly, Villain scolded her lightly, “Lower your voice if you’re going to say things like that.” Villain began his trek to the elevator, arm extending behind him as Hero followed, hand still in his. As much as she hated this act, she sure did like to hold his hand, it seemed. Maybe it was her anxiety which told her any hand was a good hand, even if it were stained in life after life of blood and tears.

“I don’t want to share a room with you,” Hero whispered, so low that Villain wouldn’t have heard her fully had he not turned his ear towards her as they walked down the hall of the seventh floor. “How will I know you won’t take advantage of me?”

Right. No handcuffs. “You think I’d try to kill you after I called you and begged for your help?”

“It could be a trap,” Hero said, tugging her hand out of Villain’s, stopping in the middle of the hall.

“Maybe. But imagine if it isn’t a trap. Imagine you back out now, and the world goes extinct. What regrets would you have then? Surely, they wouldn’t be as bad as committing yourself to a trap, causing only yourself harm instead of billions.”

His tone wasn’t condescending, but it held such magnificence that Hero couldn’t help but cast her eyes downward and nod in silent guilt. Guilt because why couldn’t she have thought of such a scenario on her own? Was she selfish for being so afraid of Villain?

“You’re right.” Hero nodded. “You’re right and I’m sorry.”

Villain took her hand in his own again, softly, with fragile care. “You don’t need to apologize. Your nerves aren’t without reason. I’ll admit I’m not the most trustworthy man. I get it. Remember you are not jeopardizing yourself for me. You’re doing it for the world.”

***

The bed was comfortable- even with Villain laying by Hero’s side. Actually, Villain being by her side might have been what made it so comfortable. The blanket which the hotel provided was too warm, but the body heat which Villain radiated was just comfortable enough that Hero struggled to keep her distrusting eyes open.

“I don’t believe this,” Hero whispered in the dark of the room, expecting Villain to be fast asleep. Apparently, he slept as little as she did.

Villain rolled flat against the mattress before turning on his other side to face Hero, earning a light gasp of surprise from her. “About Supervillain?” he asked- suggesting that Supervillain was still alive.

After regaining a state of sanity, Hero mumbled that, yes, Supervillain being alive seemed unreal, but that wasn’t what she meant. She meant that she was laying next to a man who she both despised and was deathly frightened of, and yet she was comfortable with it- comfortable with his heat. It shouldn’t have meant much; it was only science at play, but it still irked her. Of course, Hero didn’t say any of this.

“It isn’t so bad sharing a bed, is it?” Villain yawned and did a little stretch with his arms, groaning as the skin and muscles of his torso stretched. “You have your side. I have mine.”

“Not so bad,” she agreed.

There was still a danger to it, Hero acknowledged. She was still side-by-side with a villain, still frightened by the thought of Villain silently reaching over the moment he heard Hero’s breathing slowing, pushing a knife against her sleeping body, and shiv her through without a thought. It was possible, and it was likely, wasn’t it?

“Have you thought about what you’ll do tomorrow?” Villain asked.

“Me?” Hero swallowed. “I…no, I haven’t thought about it.”

“That’s unlike you.”

Hero turned her head over her shoulder, finding Villain’s moonlight glinting eyes. “Asking someone for help is unlike you. What made you do it?”

“I couldn’t do it alone. I told you-”

“That’s not the truth. Well, it is, but it’s not the full truth.” Hero paused. “When have you ever admitted that you aren’t enough to accomplish a goal? You sought me out for my intelligence, but what else? You don’t ask for help, Villain. It’s not who you are.”

Silence followed, giving hero enough time to gather the courage it took to roll over, to face Villain with her whole body like he did with her before yawning.

“I’m scared,” Villain said, matter-of-factly. “I’m scared that when it is all over, then history will forget me for all the terrible things I’ve done.”

Confused, Hero asked, “Wasn’t the reason you chose the dark side because your crimes would be so extravagantly memorable?” This conversation wasn’t aiding Hero’s underlying fear of lying in bed with Villain. Still, she wanted answers.

“I realized I was wrong. If I don’t do something good for once, I’ll be remembered as a monster, and you see, I want to be remembered as a legend.” Villain drew in a deep breath, turning his head slightly away from Hero before exhaling. “There’s a difference between monsters and legends, I realized. Honour is legendary; Fear is monstrous. Having said that, there’s no fear in honour, so what’s the point in all those criminal activities except mindlessness and naivety? It’s not as fun or rewarding as I thought it’d be.”

“You stay awake and think at night like I do, don’t you?”

Villain nodded. Hero nodded.

Hero’s hand slid across the sheets until her fingertips touched Villain’s. Holding his hand was comforting when she considered they would be meeting Supervillain tomorrow- that Villain’s face would be the only familiar one, the only one she could trust even though she hardly even trusted it at all.

Hearing what Villain said now, in the deepest stage of the night…maybe he was worth trusting.

Maybe there was a good reason she was holding his hand.

And maybe there was a good reason she enjoyed the warmth that rolled off her body.

Maybe there was a reason beyond anxiousness and fear that made Hero’s heart beat a little faster than usual.

“Do you think we could both be legends?” Hero asked, to which Villain responded, with a tight squeeze of Hero’s hand:

“I do.”

It wasn’t the only time he would utter those words. Next time, Hero would be wearing a white gown, and Villain, a tux.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Just imagine if a series about Mystique, she was taken by HYDRA where she repeatedly belittled and abused by them and it was framed as deserved. As bad as Raven Darkholme can get the last people who should be "punishing" her are n@z!s. Who are we meant route for? The guy who the first scene is shown taking part in killing a child? Why show that, after that are we really supposed to think they have some moral high ground on Loki? Oh, they're just people brainwashed into doing that. Then why show Loki being abused by them as deserved? If they're wrong and bad then whether it's a random French kid or the god mischief their actions should be framed as wrong.

Because they want to convince us that if you pick the right target then torture is acceptable and you should be cheering and praising them for it. If they had done this to Raven I can guarantee you they would also blame her and claim she had it coming.

I suppose it's part of a bigger problem and it's everywhere, not only with Loki but other characters as well (recently I've seen it with Wanda after MoM). There's this weird idea that whenever a character makes a mistake or does something obviously wrong they need to be punished + hurt on screen. Only through that the audience is "allowed" to "forgive" them and they can be redeemed.

I'm not going to start going on about culturally christian stuff here because I might end up writing a damn novel but that belief is toxic as fuck.

First off, forgiveness is not needed at all and certainly not part of the equation. Second, a character can be redeemed by simply acknowledging what they have done, understanding it was wrong and either making amends or just never doing it again. And third, physical and emotional/psychological abuse on-screen is not only completely unnecessary but sadistic.

On that third point, if they're going to show that kind of abuse on-screen they have to frame it negatively and never, NEVER, as something healing. A character doesn't learn anything from being tortured or abused, not a damn thing.

If you're choosing to give a show to a villain you either go the redemption route or the eternal villain route, if it's the latter then you gotta showcase they genuinely don't care and enjoy hurting people, but if you're doing the former you have to explain and understand that character, not hurt them!

Especially when the ones claiming a moral high ground only took Loki because he escaped with the Tesseract, not because he invaded NYC (that invasion was "supposed to happen" according to the TVA) but they spend most of the series committing crimes and never having to answer for it and, oh surprise surprise, achieving a redemption without any need of punishment. How lucky of them, right? Loki needed abuse and pain and suffering, and he needed to understand just how awful he is, but these guys could find their redemption almost immediately the very second they stopped committing their crimes even though at no point in the series the conflict was ideological nor any of those agents said anything about their beliefs.

Everything in this show is bad but the double standards make it sooooooo much worse.

[nonbinarykai]

Ok since two people asked

Why Lloyd is my least favorite ninja and how I rewrite him

Notes:// you know the rodeo by now, long post so it’s going to be under a read more, and I’m not gonna tag this with Lloyd because of the criticisms I have against his character, if you don’t want to hear Lloyd be critiqued then don’t reas the post

Why I don’t like Lloyd

Maybe it’s because I’m a Kai kinnie or maybe it’s because I have a bias agaisnt the younger sibling but Lloyd has never really been a favorite of mine

He was enjoyable in s1 but after that he kinda lost all personality for me and I stopped enjoying him

I think this is mostly for two reasons:

1. His screen time

2. His “character arcs”

I’ll go ahead and knock out his screentime here because it pretty much speaks for himself

Lloyd takes up so much screentime in the show that it’s actually jarring, he’s the character with the most seasons, having s1-2, s4, s8-11, and finally s14 ((the island special)). Which I think makes lloyds writing flaws all the more noticable

A big reason, albeit a bit of a petty one, for why I don’t like him is because he constant hyjacks other characters plots and makes them about him, this happened with Kai in both s4 and s11

Even if he’s not the main focus of a season, he always has a side plot focusing on him like in s3 and s12

The writers need to include Lloyd in other seasons is making it harder for the other main characters to actually have enough screentime to grow and develop on there own

And as a side effect of this, Lloyd gets to become the most important character in every season he is, taking roles from other characters who needed them

My best example is Cole being leader, he was set up and established as leader in the pilots and s1, and he did pretty good in it! Cole being a leader is a interesting concept that I would have loved to see been developed

But after Lloyd grew up they threw that plot point into the trash so they could have the mystical green ninja be leader even though throughout s1-7 he hardly actually talks to the main cast and him being leader doesn’t add any interesting dynamic like cole and kais rivalry despite Kai being a sort of right hand man to Coles leadership.

And in s1-s7 especially everything literally revolves around Lloyd to the point where his existence is more important than everyone else’s, and everyone’s motivations are to protect him.

Again I understand he is important, he’s the green ninja, but you have to let your other characters grow and develop, Lloyd is not the only main character in your show

Like for fuck sakes I don’t need 3 arcs about Lloyd and his dad, can I finally have another Kai season

Lloyds character arcs honestly kinda suck

Im going to be honest with you

Lloyds kinda an ass

The reason I like jay more then Lloyd even though jay has been way more mean spirited then Lloyd throughout the entire series is because you can atleast make the argument that jay doesn’t know when his jokes can hurt. And the show doesn’t portray jay as in the right, he gets what he deserves for some of the meanier things he says.

The same can’t be said about Lloyd

Lloyd says things to the other ninja that is honestly so mean spirited it’s jarring to hear it from him

Best example being when Lloyd told Kai to get over his shit when Kai was grieving in s4

But what makes it so frustrating is that the show always portrays Lloyd like he’s in the right which is why a lot of his character arcs feel flat or uninteresting

The only time this doesn’t apply is in s2 and in s3, in s2 the show paints Lloyd as being unfair to Misako when he RIGHTFULLY gets mad at her for abandoning him, I’ll get back to this later

The second time in s3 is when he’s traveling with Garmadon and having to be taught to balance his powers, which is actually one part of s3 I really liked, it was nice to see these two bond and have Garmadon teach Lloyd something that wu would other wise not teach him. And it’s a real shame the season cut it short AGAIN

The biggest example of the show making Lloyd seem in the right no matter what is in s4, Lloyds whole arc there was to learn how to view things from a different perspective and appreciate the things others have done for him. And this is would work if the show decided to do the same.

Again back to that scene with Lloyd and Kai in s4, the show treats Lloyd as if he’s in the right and it’s never addressed after this. Even though this is supposed to be the beginning of lloyds arc where he’s supposed to learn to view things from a different perspective

This scene would have worked if

1. The show didn’t paint him in the right for this, either by having Lloyd apologize or having the show acknowledged how it might have hurt Kai

2. If the plot Lloyd has remained a side plot instead of taking up the entire focus

Seriously, s4 could have been the ONE season where you can have a Lloyd side plot thats not forced and yet they fucked it up and made it the entire focus of the season thanks a lot.

To quote what I said in my Nya anayalsis awhile back

“I’m not upset that he has a flaw, just that it’s not recognized as one”

Lloyd would work way better as a character if the show just let him have consequences for his actions

Ever since he grew up and got the green ninja role he’s been treated like he can’t do no wrong which is clearly not true

But since we’re already on this topic

Hurting Lloyd doesn’t make him a good character

I feel like Tommy ((and sometimes the fandom)) really misunderstand what the use of suffering for in a story

There atleast 3 reasons writers make there characters suffer

1. To undergo a arc and realize where they have been wrong or to give a character a lot more depth to expand upon

2. If the story is a fallen hero one and the character suffers because of his Huberius

3. If the story is a tragedy

Ninjago is neither a fallen hero story or a tragedy and his pain doesn’t develop him as a character

A lot of writers don’t understand that suffering isn’t what makes a character good, it’s what pushes them to become good, you can’t just throw a character at the wall and expect them to instantly be a well written fleshed out character

A lot of the suffering Lloyd has to endure is mostly for no reason and it’s really mean spirited because it adds nothing to the plot, it’s just there to hurt him

Let’s bring up s11 as an example, Lloyd didn’t HAVE to fight the ice emperor from a writing standpoint, if anything it should have been kais battle because his lose of power and Zane going evil would have been a perfect reflection of s4 and tie it up after it ended kais character a bit open ended

But no let’s have Lloyd do it instead because haha isn’t trauma COOL and HIP

Now to be clear, I’m not saying that all of your stories have to end on a happy ending or anything like that, if your a writer then your allowed to do whatever you want with your personal writing

What I am saying is that ninjago is an actual SHOW made by PROFESSIONAL writers and they can’t understand the concept of a story structure

And the lack of actually addressing his trauma is really bringing down Lloyd as a character

Because it comes to a point where you understand why Lloyd is sometimes mean or distrustful of other people and it’s frustrating because you know that it’s flaws of him that are never going to be fixed because there writers want there trauma baby

How I would rewrite him

I’ve seen a lot of people suggest Lloyd become a villain in a future season and you know what, I sort of agree

But not in the way you think

I feel like it would be way more compelling if Lloyd was a villain but is still a ninja, instead of Lloyd switching sides, the show is switching perspectives

More or less I want Lloyd to be a reflection of the “true” villain, which is how wu ((and subsequently Lloyd)) put small Victories as more important then the ninjas life, passion, and desire, and how there black and white thinking of good and evil ends up to a lot of problems because there’s a lot of grey area there choosing to ignore

I want Lloyd to start of being loyal to wu’s philosophy and the protagonist, for random example let’s say Kai, sudden turn on these ideas in order to look outside the box to find if there truly is a better way to protect people without harming himself

I want Lloyd to be upset over what he thinks is a turn to the dark side when in reality, it would make his motivations make sense and not make his turn to “villainy” be out of character.

And over the course of the season he starts to realize how wus and subsequently his leadership has hurt the others and himself, and have him reflect on if all the pain they suffer through just to clean up wus mistakes is really worth it like wu says, or if there’s a better way like kai says

As for Lloyds actual character himself, I’d like for his flaws to be more noticeable

Have Lloyd be a gifted kid who gets praise when he doesn’t deserve it but still kinda acts like a brat because he’s still mentally like 10

Have him be a control freak who follows the rules way to strictly and is all serious when they have to do missions

Have his idealization of wu be realized and critiqued because honestly wu sucks ass

Would this make his character less like able? Maybe, but then he’d actually have depth and something to improve on

He can still have his s3 and s4 arcs, it’s just now they’re more important because he’s actually learning to be better

AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IM PURPOSEFULLY MAKING LLOYD WORSE SO THAT KAI LOOKS BETTER

ILL HAVE YOU KNOW AWHILE BACK I MADE A POST SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT KAI AND HIS FLAWS SO THERE (/hj /lh)

[redphlox]

Tenko's tears; Touya's wounded inner child

As I've mentioned before, crying serves various purposes, two of which include emotional regulation and forming social connections. Tears signal "I'm sad and I need help" and usually elicit concern from others. But, for Touya and Tenko, tears didn't fulfill these needs. When Tenko cried, the adults around him tried to distract him from his pain or change how he responded to his abuse instead of defending him or confronting his father Kotaro. They meant well, but in the end it didn't help Tenko and he felt alone. No one validated his pain; he was seen, but he wasn't helped. The same thing happened to Touya, who was seen crying, and crying, and crying, but his parents refused to acknowledge the root cause of his pain because it would mean facing their own mistakes. His tears, his cries for help, never got him the help he needed and never made him feel better.

Even as adults, Dabi and Shigaraki weren't listened to because they didn't display socially acceptable feelings such as sorrow or regret, and they weren't dealing with their trauma in a socially acceptable way, like crying. Shigaraki told Endeavor, in front of Deku and Bakugo, that heroes only hurt their families, but it wasn't until Deku saw a glimpse of Tenko that Deku decided Shigaraki was worth saving because little Tenko’s tears humanized him and made him relatable.

While this is a turning point in the manga, the way it came about insinuates that certain unspoken conditions exist that need to be filled before victimhood can be validated or someone is deemed worthy of help. Not everyone is equal, and not everyone's pain will be good enough in hero society. This warrants the questions the League of Villains keep asking: who are heroes here to save? Who is it that needs saving? Where do you draw the line? Are villains not people too?

This new plot point of Deku being moved by Tenko’s tears also brings into light how isolating and demonizing it is for Dabi not being physically able to cry. He compensates for this – because remember, crying regulates your emotions, and if you can’t cry you turn to other coping mechanisms for self-soothing – by telling himself and others that he doesn’t care about anything or anyone. He copes with his emotions by smiling and grinning, by not getting too attached. He takes an offensive approach through keeping a distance from people by insulting them and being rude. However, his quirk’s link to his emotions betrays him and exposes his true feelings: his flames became hotter after Twice died and his flames turned white while confronting Endeavor. Dabi, despite everything, still cares and feels deeply.

So, how is Dabi supposed to be seen and understood and saved if he can’t prove that he has feelings if he can't cry? Why would he even want to cry, since crying never helped him? All Touya did from the age of four was cry for help, literally, and yet he was ignored and neglected. It wasn't Shigaraki's words that moved Deku, it was the unintended display of emotion through crying, which is something Dabi can't do even if he wanted because his tear ducts are burnt as a result of being so heartbroken over his father not showing up to Sekoto Peak. The irony is ugly and upsetting to witness – overwhelming feelings of abandonment and worthlessness almost killed Dabi ten years ago and now, when the story implies he desperately needs to cry to be seen, he can't, and therefore he's still alone and will continue to be alone.

But wait – he cries tears of blood, doesn’t he?

I think that if he’s caught in a vulnerable place, if the right people (Natsuo) meet him or if he is finally validated and seen and understood (Shouto), those tears of blood would come out and he’d finally be eligible (as gross as that sounds) for salvation, for understanding, for sympathy like Shigaraki. Feelings serve as evidence to society that villains are human too, and Dabi must first be considered a human. It seems that salvation, like the attention Touya received from his father, is conditional. Touya's wounded inner child and status as an abuse survivor will be the ticket to his redemption IF he can be vulnerable and express his pain physically to the younger generation of heroes, because talking about his past hasn't helped and won't help. Even now, as noted in 304, people still weren't sure why he became a villain even though he literally explained why in his pre-recorded broadcast. Dabi, or his inner child, has to show evidence he is still emotionally suffering because his words won't suffice for society or heroes. Honestly, this framing is personally distressing and frustrating because it pushes a bad victim vs good victim mentality, especially in light of Rei commenting that Shouto, who she burnt and forgave her nonetheless, is their family's hero.

Don't get me wrong. Shouto has done nothing wrong to warrant this suffering, and I think it's great that Deku is determined to save everyone within his reach. This makes sense as his role as protagonist. With that said, it's unsettling to me how drastically different he's reacting to Shigaraki compared to how he responded to Dabi by comparing him to Endeavor and implying Dabi is worse for not trying to be better. Before anyone jumps down my throat, I know Deku intervened because he was worried about Shouto, and that Deku is 16 and young. My point is that the narrative and the writing is setting up a problematic view of victims by having the main character nitpick who deserves to be saved based on this societal construct that people must first qualify or prove themselves. Shigaraki shouldn't have had to show his trauma receipts or be relatable for Deku to want to save him. Shigaraki didn’t even expose his inner child on purpose – Deku caught a glimpse of that without Shigaraki’s intention.

Let me say this another way. Imagine if you had to present yourself as sympathetic to a firefighter, an ambulance worker, or a doctor before receiving their help. It would be unprofessional and highly unethical for these professionals to turn you down because you don't fit the image of someone who needs help, someone who's not "sick" enough, whose house isn't burning hot enough, whose injuries aren't "bad" enough. So why do heroes, as a group of public servants, have these unwritten rules and preconceived notions about what a victim looks like? I understand that people are more likely to provide services if you're nice to them (you catch more flies with honey, etc) and that everyone has biases etc, but this isn't a core value of the helping professions or public servants. It's unethical to discriminate and assign varying levels of care based on how someone treats you or others around them. People in need are people in need, and that's that.

As of now, it seems like the manga is on route to support the League's complaints by supplying evidence that their disillusionment with society isn't unfounded - even Twice, who died crying at the hands of a hero part of the older generation, was not considered a person before he was considered a villain. But maybe if he had come across a hero from the younger generation, someone who recognized his tears as human despite his criminal record, he wouldn't have met the fate he did. It seems that the older generation of heroes don't take tears or emotions into account, which is why Tenko and Touya were shrugged off. But the younger generation will go out of their way to help anyone who needs help, but only if they prove themselves or make themselves sympathetic.

[bakugosbratx]

Request: Hi! I was wondering if you could write a story when y/n is the crazy one and kidnaps Bakugo. Tysm ! -meena

Warnings: NSFW 18+ Content. Yandere, stalking, kidnapping, cursing, mental illness, blood, abuse, drugs, etc.

Check out my other works here

A/N: Hmm this is a different turn of events. I love it 👀 I hope you enjoyed anon! I went a little wild with this one.

Words: 2.2k

Tags: @awilddreamerwrites @peachsenpie @miriobaby @lanarist @sickchildren @bakugousbrat @ssplague @ahbeautifulexistence @m779 @vinny-likes-to-play21

“Dear Katsuki,

I watched you save a civilian on television today. I know it’s your job and all, but you did not have to save her. Her life is not as important as mine. Do you not cherish what we have? Am I just a nobody to you? This is my 103rd letter to you and still no response. I know your address did not change so do not give me that pathetic excuse, Katsuki Bakugo. Surely, you must remember we are soulmates. We are one. How dare you fucking forget me? I had to rip all of my posters down in a fit of rage. You know how angry that makes me, baby, but it will all be okay, because you are coming home to me. We will be one.

Sincerely,

Yours.”

You burst into a fit of giggles as you kick your bare feet back and forth on his bed. You wrote in black ink and covered the paper in orange hearts since it is the pro-hero’s favorite color. You could not help but leave precious lipstick kisses on the page. Something you always do in your love letters to Katsuki. The posters in your house are covered in them. Katsuki’s beautiful face is just so kissable. You cannot wait to do it tonight.

All you can think about is Katsuki. That is all your day consists of. Your clothing is all his merchandise and his favorite colors. You spend hours upon hours watching interviews, videos, surveillance footage of the hero. When he is out on patrol, you do your best to hide in areas so you can see the hero up close and personal. Your face just beams with joy at the mere glance of him.

You did your best to meet him several times. Any disaster there was to be had, you put on your nicest attire, do your make-up just how you think he likes, and have your hair freshly done. No better way to greet your significant other after hero work than looking like a beauty pageant queen.

Sadly, all your attempts were failures. Katsuki did not even give you the time of day. He is way too focused on beating the villains to a pulp. You did admire this about him, but your own selfish desires created hatred in you. He should be paying attention to you. Not those pesky villains.

Katsuki is sure to receive forty-five letters addressing the issue. All that he will never even skim over. This is only adding fuel to the fire.

The posters that hang in every single room in your apartment are ripped to shreds. Pools of tears covered your orbs, smudging all of your makeup. You climbed onto your black sofa, taking your left high heel and breaking the glass photo of Katsuki hanging there. Shards of glass sprinkle the couch and hardwood floor below. You don't even care for the pieces that collected into your skin. You will worry about that later.

“Fuck you, Katsuki!” You sobbed, ripping his face with your teeth and spitting out the saliva covered photo onto the litter filled floor.

“Pro-Hero Great Explosion Murder God Dynamite saves another civilians life yet again, taking down another member of the league of villains who was terrorizing the victim.”

The news anchor’s words fell on deaf ears as you went to the television screen. You are captivated by your significant other’s beauty on the tv. Blood leaked from your freshly manicured hands. They are painted orange and black as always.

“Oh, Katsuki,” you sighed with a smile, tracing a heart around his face with your leaking blood, “we will be together soon. I promise, baby. I’ll take you away from this sick, cruel world so we can live happily ever after.”

You were serious that day. You planned it on your calendar. The countdown began on the night you are going to be one with Katsuki. A day you knew you both looked forward to.

“Dear Katsuki,

Did you miss me? I know I missed you. I even stamped this letter in my blood so you can have my DNA to mix with yours. I can’t wait to procreate with you. We will make such wonderful babies, don’t ya think? They will be so beautiful like you. I will be such an excellent mother. No woman can be a great wife to you like I can. Do you understand me?”

You had to pause writing as your blood started to boil at the thought. Your pen is already creating a huge ink spot from the anger consuming your hands. Small growls escaped your parted lips as you began to growl.

“If I can’t have you, no one can, Katsuki Bakugo. I am your one true love. You're one and only. And I’ll make sure that day comes. Just a few more days, baby, and we will be one.

Sincerely,

Yours.”

The day finally came. You knew Katsuki’s schedule by heart. You loved watching him do his morning routines with the security cameras you placed in his home. The poor male never even thought to check. Such a mistake on his part. It only confirmed he needed protection from the world. Only you can provide that. Sure, you may be quirkless, but no one knows Katsuki like you do. No one can love him like you. He knows this. He has to.

You drew a luke-warm bubble bath with nice lit candles, rose pedals, a few drops of your blood, and some freshly made desserts for you both to enjoy while you catch up. You are even so kind enough to fetch him a beer or two so he can relax. You know how he enjoys his alcoholic beverages after a long day of hero work.

You rested on his bed. The natural caramel scent engulfed your nostrils as you wrote letters into your notebook once more. Even when you two are officially together forever, you still love to write out your thoughts. You know he enjoys them as well.

Hours upon hours passed. Frustration arose overtime. You did not want to be angry with your spouse, but he knows better than to be home late on your special day. You have almost filled up your notepad with phrases upon phrases of ‘I love you’s’ and sweet nothings. Along with other things.

You tapped your bandages covered foot on the ground as you began to pace. “What is taking him so long?” You huffed aloud, growing more impatient by each passing second. The bath is beginning to become cold and that is just rude in your opinion. You decided to write out your emotions.

“Dear Katsuki,

What the fuck is taking you so long, huh? It’s so fucking aggervating and just plain rude. I have done so much for you only to toss me to the side like I’m nothing. Are you cheating on me? I do not tolerate disrespect, Katsuki Bakugo. You are going to make me mean and you know I hate being mean to you. You just make me jealous, baby. You know how you do that to me. Make me feel all types of emotion I can’t seem to understand, but one thing is for certain is that you and I will be together.

Sincerely,”

You did not even get to finish your final entry as you hear the front door downstairs unlock. Scrambling to put the diary away, you gather the necessary items from under the bed and wait for the perfect moment to strike. Katsuki’s natural loud ways was helping you locate his every move without even having to look at security footage.

All you have to do is be patient.

Katsuki sat on the couch, propping his sock-covered feet onto the glass coffee table and turning on the television. You allowed him some moments to get settled before gently tip-toeing down the stairs, rope, duct tape, and a blunt object ready in hand.

Just as Katsuki turned to acknowledge your presence, the crowbar hit his head, knocking him unconscious. You quickly attend to his wound — not without dropping some droplets of blood into his — so it does not get offended. You cannot have your husband getting an infection.

You tie up his hands and legs, duct tape his mouth after delivering kisses to his perfectly plump lips, and drag him to the kitchen. You did not realize how much your lover really weighed. Too much time was wasted dragging him to the fridge than preferred, but it will all be worth it in the end. You know it will be.

Katsuki did not wake up until the next day. You stayed by his side the whole time, telling him about your day and how much you have planned for you two. Of course, he needs to build his trust with you. You love a very intelligent man and the last thing you need is for him to be against you.

Slowly opening his crimson eyes, his attention is brought to a grinning you. Katsuki immediately attempts to escape the captivity he is in, but it is no use. You just had to buy special rope that cancels quirks.

“Struggle all you want, Katsuki-poo. There is no escaping me.” You chuckled, loving the way he squirmed and furrowed his eyebrows at you. All of his curses are mumbled by the tape which is probably the best considering you did not want to be insulted right now.

“When you calm down, I’ll take off the tape.” You bargained, shrugging nonchalantly as you kneel in front of the man. Did this calm him down? No. You know it wouldn’t regardless. You know Katsuki better than he knows himself yet you already want to push his buttons. The way he gets so angry turns you on and you can’t just help yourself but want more.

After a couple of hours of Katsuki complaining and you writing even more in your diary, he decided to calm down. This made you happy. You wanted to hear his beautiful gruff voice.

Grabbing the corner of the tape, you rip it off. Katsuki is already barking insults. “Are you fucking insane? Who the hell even are you? This isn’t going to end well with you, you psycho bit—“

A hard slap to his face interrupted Katsuki’s spill. Along with the duct tape you placed back on his mouth. “Such a meanie,” you pout, “and here I was about to be so nice to you.”

This cycle repeated itself for three days. You never left his side once. How could you? He is obviously in distress. He needs you by his side. He cannot do anything without you. Especially with his hands tied behind his muscular back. Katsuki finally decided that playing the game is the only way to win it.

You ripped the tape off once again. Katsuki did not even speak this time. “Did you learn your lesson?” You quizzed with an arched brow. “Y’know being a meanie is not going to get you anywhere, Katsukikins.”

“Why are you doing this?” Katsuki inquired, his gruff voice sounding so weak and hollow. You almost felt bad.

“You’re so silly, Suki. C’mon,” you brought your lips close to his, “gimme a kiss.”

Reluctantly, Katsuki did as instructed. Considering you are straddling his lap and his powers are useless, he has no choice in the matter. You loved the compliance.

“Good boy.” You praised, ruffling his messy blonde hair. Katsuki glared at you. “Will you be good and eat some food for me?”

“I don’t want your stupid ass food.” Katsuki growled, laying his head against the bottom freezer of his fridge.

“Nonsense, Suki.” You giggled, feeling extremely joyful to be with Katsuki. You bring a spoon of Miso soup up to his closed lips, “have some. I blew on it so it’s not too hot.”

“Get that trash away from me, you idiot—“ Katsuki was interrupted by a spoon entering his mouth. Though he would hate to admit this, the soup tasted delicious and he is quite hungry. He put up a fight, but allowed you to feed him properly until every drop was gone. Unfortunately, Katsuki is unaware that the soup is drugged until it’s too late.

His body began to feel numb. He did not even have the strength to ask questions as his eyes became drowsy. Soon, he is slumped over, sound asleep as you manage to drag him up the stairs and into your shared bed.

Planting kisses all over structures, you tuck him in and finish some late night entries in your diary. Skimming through them all and reflecting on how you got here now, it made you smile. Progress has been made and will continue to do so.

Signing off on the final page, you write:

“Dear Katsuki,

These past three days have been exhilarating. I see it in your terrified eyes how happy you are that I am here. I know how much you missed me. I missed you, too, baby. We will continue to grow and soon, we will have children. I even have my menstrual cycle all planned out. I am all yours and you’re all mine. Can’t you see, baby doll? We are forever meant to be.

Sincerely,

Yours.”

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