#actual character flaws and the beliefs she has and holds and acts on.

[thedevotionaltour]

karen is MY special white woman. my problematic fave. because i understand why she sucks. i think in order to be allowed to be a karen fan you have to actually understand why she sucks. if you don't understand why she sucks then you're a bad karen fan i think.

[cak31ssuperi04]

thoughts on annika for the character opinion bingo 🎤

My favorite barbie character ever personally.

[heliza24]

Consent and Abuse in The Vampire Chronicles (and how it explains things like Daniel and Louis's disappearances)

TW: discussions of abuse, sexual abuse and rape, and CSA throughout this meta.

I’ve now read the first six Vampire Chronicles books, and I want to talk about the role that consent, or more importantly, the lack thereof, plays in the morality the books espouse. When I was a few books in, I discovered this post by @diasdelasombra, which uses excerpts from several scholarly texts to create a schema that helps us understand who Anne Rice considered a “worthy” victim of abuse. To summarize, the characters that Anne favors and who are featured in the narrative were violated against their will, but don’t whine about their misfortune. Instead they extend grace and forgiveness to their abuser. (Think of David or Lestat) The characters who are portrayed as conniving, wicked, or who are punished by the narrative are those who don’t adequately protest their assault, or who harbor anger or plans of revenge towards their abuser (think of Claudia).

When I say abuse here, I am specifically talking about sexual abuse and rape, but also being turned into a vampire against your will. Being bitten by a vampire is obviously sexually coded, and being transformed into a fledgling vampire nonconsensually is a metaphor for a rape. So I’m going to spend this meta talking about nonconsensual turnings interchangeably with rape.

When I read about the dichotomy of victimhood detailed in the original post, the books suddenly shifted in my mind, and I felt like I understood Anne as a writer for the first time. I love these books and their resulting adaptations, but I do believe that Anne had many flawed beliefs, and this insistence that the only proper response to assault is complete and total forgiveness of the perpetrator is certainly one of them. I want to take the theory put forward by the original post one step further, and propose that in addition to imperfect victims, Anne also struggled to write about characters that engaged in sex/vampirism consensually. This feels very Catholic to me; you’re allowed to enjoy sex, but only if you didn’t ask for it. It’s the lust and the longing that’s sinful. It’s this discomfort with consensual desire, along with the insistence that victims must forgive their abusers, that is at the heart of many of the most frustrating aspects of the Vampire Chronicles. It also drives some of the conflict I see in the fandom, and has the potential to impact the TV adaptation in interesting ways. I talk about all of that in detail below the cut:

We can see this central belief about abuse and worthy victims easily in the characters Anne chooses to feature. Lestat, David, and Marius were all turned against their will, but crucially do not linger, protest, or whine once the act is done. Lestat is incapable of holding any kind of grudge, Marius approaches vampirism and eternity with calm stoicism, and David immediately forgives Lestat for turning him against his will.

I think this is key when we try to understand why Anne wanted to replace Louis with David as a companion for Lestat. Louis’s turning is complicated; you get the sense that he did consent to it, even as he tells Daniel that he “can’t say that [he] decided” to become a vampire. And even though he does forgive Lestat at the end of IwtV, the telling of the story in that book is filled with resentment and anger. Louis is not a perfect bastion of forgiveness by any means. Anne talked about how she wanted to move on from the grief that Louis represented and also the passivity he embodies as a character (which she classifies as uniquely feminine, which adds another dimension of meaning to who is allowed to consent to sexual acts and remain angry at abuse) but I also have to assume that she wanted to move on from his anger. Which is actually a huge disservice to Louis, Lestat, and the complexity of the narrative.

The other characters who are turned consensually are all abandoned by the narrative. Madeleine is killed, Gabrielle largely disappears after TVL, Nicki kills himself, and Daniel goes mad and is then simply forgotten.

My love of Daniel is the reason why I started stringing this theory together. Daniel is the most clear-cut case in the entire chronicles of a consenting adult who deeply desires to become a vampire. He has no reservations, no resistance. The Devil’s Minion chapter is unique in that it lingers on Daniel's love and desire. Daniel is briefly allowed to want something unabashedly that is also coded as sinful and evil. And once the consummation of his desire happens, Anne simply doesn’t know how to continue to writing him. Armand’s insistence that fledglings will come to hate their makers seems in some ways to be a result of Anne’s worldview, that desire cannot cannot endure unpunished, rather than something Armand would believe in-universe (he never hated Marius, after all). When fans rail at the way Daniel’s story seems to disappear from the page, this is what we are protesting: Daniel’s desire deserved to be shown, Daniel deserved to evolve, and Daniel’s willingness does not require rebuke.

There is of course another interpretation of the Devil’s Minion chapter, which is that it is Armand playing out his and Marius’s relationship, but this time with Armand in control. In some ways I think the Devil’s Minion chapter is the one successful attempt Anne makes to subvert the cycle of abuse. Yes, Armand is re-enacting many of the things done to him, but Daniel is happy to do this role play with him, at least for a while. While far from perfect, their relationship manages to turn abusive history into present day kink, and exist in a context of mutual care.

Armand himself is probably the most interesting edge case in terms of Anne’s dichotomy of worthy and unworthy victims. He asks to be turned into a vampire, but he’s also a child, which makes his ability to consent unclear. (Whether Anne even believed that child sexual abuse was possible at all is up for debate; she wrote a message on her “fan voice mail” that is still transcribed on her website that defends a convicted pedophile and seems to argue that 14 and 15 year olds are effectively adults and therefore cannot be abused. Yikes yikes yikes.) This kind of uncertainty seems to be reflected in the changing way Anne writes Armand throughout the series. He’s evil at first in the same way that Claudia is evil; a conniving forever child who is smart and vicious enough that what was done to him can be justified. But Anne softened on Armand after Queen of the Damned. As the series goes on, Armand comes to resemble Anne’s perfect victim more and more. He forgives Marius relatively quickly, for instance, for turning Benji and Sybelle without his consent.

For Marius (and Lestat) overcoming victim status also means becoming the abuser, the rapist, the perpetrator of the dark trick. The only way to not be trapped under the cycle of abuse is to perpetrate it. Even though it is hidden in a lot of language about love and forgiveness, this theme is ever present in the Chronicles and to me it’s where the true horror of the books lies.

We see these values begin to be applied to world building and the book’s overarching philosophy more and more as the series progresses. Akasha is the big bad in Queen of the Damned because she represents the ultimate lack of forgiveness. She is angry at all the men in the world for their collective abuses (a world view that seems to originate at least partially from the overly protective and restrictive way Enkil treats her, in my opinion) and seeks to kill them. She is an unquestioned evil, in a way that most characters aren’t in The Chronicles. And Maharet and Mekare, who are much more forgiving towards Khayman, one of the perpetrators of their own rape, are the ones able to defeat Akasha. Forgiveness and grace trumps righteous anger every time.

Memnoch the Devil is an interesting book (even if it is not a *good* one, imo) because it spends its pages interrogating this idea of abuse and forgiveness, but blows it up to a theological scale. Memnoch’s main argument with God is that he lets humans suffer needlessly. Memnoch feels that all that is good and holy amongst humans can be found in the way we love each other and find joy in sex, art, food, and celebration. But God requires humans to suffer through disease and death, and sometimes even violence brought about by religion. When Memnoch is put in charge of hell, he makes souls worthy of heaven by working on them until they are ready to forgive God for the suffering they had to endure during life. That’s what makes you worthy of heaven: forgiveness. I find this so interesting because it almost feels like Anne is arguing with herself over philosophy and religion. Memnoch is very convincing and his belief that joy without guilt is good is given due weight by the narrative. In some ways it’s what these books are about- sensual pleasure without guilt. But on the other hand, Memnoch is the devil (if that- Lestat is never quite sure if he’s really the devil or just a malignant spirit) which means we shouldn’t trust what he says. The idea of God as the ultimate abuser— the person who puts humanity through unspeakable horrors on a wide scale, and then requires our forgiveness in order to find peace— really chimes with the way that Anne writes about abuse in the rest of the series. According to this view, the cycle of abuse is absolutely inescapable. It is decreed by the almighty, and the only way to not be completely crushed by it is to accept its omnipresence and embrace its perpetrators without anger.

This focus on forgiveness is clearly a huge part of Anne’s (and therefore the vampires’) worldview, and I of course find that pretty problematic. But I also think it hurts the reader’s ability to connect to the characters and can have the unfortunate side effect of draining the books of the conflict needed to create a propulsive plot. The vampires’ inclination to completely forgive those who have wronged them, and to not linger at all in any feelings of anger, grief, or resentment, sometimes leads to baffling situations where conflicts that loom large in one book are completely forgotten in the next. The most jarring example of this to me is Armand casually playing chess with Santino in Queen of the Damned. Santino! The vampire who kidnapped him, forced him to eat his best friend, and generally tortured him. And they simply never address this. They just start playing a casual game of chess on Night Island after Akasha has been defeated. Situations like this can make character seem like they are acting completely out of character, and it makes it hard to understand their motives. Yes, there’s the in-universe explanation that time heals all wounds and eventually vampires just live long enough that they can’t hold any grudges. But I still think it’s reasonable to assume that Armand would hesitate before casually engaging with Santino again, no matter how long has passed. This kind of automatic forgiveness also means that we skip over so many conflicts that that would be fascinating to read about. If Armand and Santino really do need to reconcile, I want to see what that looks like. I want to see Armand remember Ricardo when he looks at Santino. I want to see what David and Lestat mending their relationship after Lestat’s violation looks like. But we don’t get any of that and instead the vampires move seamlessly on to something else, which is often much less interesting than these interpersonal conflicts that Anne ignores. And because of that, I think this focus on forgiveness creates books that are less fulfilling than they could be.

I think this focus on forgiveness is also at the heart of some of the conflict I see between book readers and show-only fans. I often see book readers talking about how Armand and Louis come back to each other later in the books, that Louis forgives Armand enough to live with him again for a time. And this makes sense in a book universe that prioritizes forgiveness above all else. In fact it actually signifies positive character growth for Louis, as it means he is becoming closer to Anne’s definition of a worthy victim who can forgive those who wronged him.

Fans of the show insist that the TV version of Louis will never forgive Armand, and for all I know they might be right. The TV show has shown that it’s very capable of taking the events and themes that Anne presented and reframing them. The show is already presenting a more critical depiction of CSA, in my opinion, by doing things like eliminating the incest subtext between Louis and Claudia and making it clear that Marius groomed Armand. I also think the show does a better job of keeping emotional stakes consistent. Louis may forgive Armand, but something more substantial than time passing will have to happen to facilitate that in the TV show. So show Louis may indeed never forgive Armand, given those new parameters.

In its efforts to reframe some of Anne’s themes, I believe the television show is shifting the emphasis on forgiveness slightly. Louis’s arc over the first two seasons depends on him reaching a state of forgiveness, not for an abuser, but for himself. He extends grace to Lestat as part of this process, but I really believe that the catharsis comes from Louis embracing his own failings and his own power, and moving forward with confidence. He has not forgotten his anger or the things that were taken from him, but he has the ability to face the rest of eternity now without self-recrimination. I imagine moving forward that this is going to be a major theme of the show. No matter if you sought vampirism out or had it thrust upon you, you must learn to how to deal with its horrors and its perks. You must learn to embrace your own monstrosity and not shrink from it. And you must find a way to accept the love that those around you are willing to offer, whether or not you always perfectly deserve it. I think these are lessons that Lestat, Armand, and even Daniel have yet to learn in the television show. Those character arcs are going to fuel the show through its coming seasons, and I for one cannot wait to see it unfold.

I’m interested to hear from other readers to see if they picked up on these themes, and how they anticipate the show will adapt them. Please tell me your thoughts! And thank you for reading this far.

[blorger]

Hello so I wanna ask about Hinny and Drarry, since Ginny does everything she can so Harry will like her not showing him her vulnerable/emotional/crying side and girly/feminine since these are what Harry doesn't like, and even did Quidditch just for him, how come these would work with Drarry/Draco? But not with Hinny, if Ginny ever did those, Like I've read that Draco is femme coded and well Harry saw Draco being emotional and crying and the moment Draco didn't do Quidditch anymore, Harry, who supposedly love this because that's why Ginny even does this, suddenly lost interest but in a way Drarry still makes more sense and will actually work

And another weird thing is Harry has a sense of justice right? And hates Draco acting like a bully but the thing with Ginny being good at hex and does it to Smith, isn't that considered bullying?

I think it depends on your personal tastes since drarry is not canon but, to me, it reads differently from hinny because JKR is bad at writing romance: what she intends to come across one way often reads in a completely different manner to her audience.

JKR is a misogynist so in her mind a successful female love interest cannot be too girly: Ginny is boyish because jkr sees femininity in a negative light which means that Harry, her creation, also sees femininity in a negative light. If us readers don't have the same fucked up worldview we can see the inherent sexism in Ginny's "not like other girls" depiction and we can see that Ginny's character is constructed rather cynically in order to fulfil JKR's ideal.

JKR wrote Ginny being aggressive and malicious towards Zacharias Smith because she wants us to enjoy seeing a character we're supposed to like (Ginny) dress down one we're supposed to dislike (Smith). To her, a Good Guy's actions are inherently good on account of their goodness so this is not bullying. It's a somewhat circular logic: Ginny's actions can't be ill-natured because Ginny is meant to be one of our heroes so whatever she does (wether it be cursing Zach Smith or laughing behind Luna's back) is good by default. This is not a very nice or coherent belief system: someone's intent and actions are what determines the quality of someone's character, we don't excuse horrible behaviour just because it comes from a well liked/respected person (or at least we shouldn't).

JKR intended for Ginny to come across as funny and tough but she wrote her according to her own ideals so Ginny's humor ends up reading like malice and her tomboy persona ends up feeling fabricated in order to appeal to the male gaze. Conversely, JKR intended for Draco to come across as mean and weak but did not realize that, by showing us his flaws, she gave Draco's character more depth and nuance than she ever does to Ginny. Thus Draco, who's meant to be pretty one-note as a character, ends up reading as complex and sympathetic and we find ourselves wanting to understand his thoughts and motivations.

When writing the books, JKR wanted to make Draco's status as a minor villain blindingly obvious and she did so by femme coding him. We have been trained to associate gender non-conformity and general deviation from the norm with villainy by the media we watch (Disney villains being a very notable example); this is called queer coding, here's a very coincise explanation:

This trope is so omnipresent in the media we watch that we don't even notice it, that's how successfully the concept has been assimilated into our culture.

JKR tried doing something similar to that with Draco's femme coding. She's a misogynist to the highest order so this is meant to help make him unlikeable but this doesn't work if you don't hold the same worldview as her. JKR shows us Draco crying because to her crying is the ultimate act of weakness, we aren't meant to sympathize with him, we're meant to be somewhat scornful.

Here I come back to the gap between what JKR wants us to read and what we read. If you don't have the same exact opinions as JKR, you end up reading a completely different story from what she intended which is why to many the hinny romance falls flat. As to why many people are drawn to drarry, it's a matter of personal taste.

Personally, I enjoy reading about relationships in which the people within are equals and have a profound understanding of each-other; stories about not meaning what you say and not saying what you mean and about the thin line between love and hate are interesting to me and drarry checks out all these boxes for me (i watched too many Moonlighting reruns as a kid and i became a lifelong lover of enemies to lovers storylines).

Ultimately, all that matters is wether a certain ship has a dynamic you enjoy reading about and you can interpret canon to suit your needs accordingly. It doesn't matter what JKR intended, it stopped mattering the moment she finished writing the books and sent them to her publisher. We read for entertainment value and we are free to derive entertainment however we see fit.

Sorry for the verbose reply, and thank you for the ask my friend.

xoxo

[pruneunfair]

My rewrites for TRE characters in my fanfic

so about 6 months ago I fell into the Au pipeline and it ended up resulting in a bunch of stories that's basically if maximalism was a 7 season long book series. One of those seasons combines tons of characters from different manhwas I read but it's mostly a new interpretation of remarried empress with some Oc's.

Navier

One major change I made is that Navier isn't the protagonist anymore but I didn't want her to be a cold blooded villain either. If you ever went on history tik tok specifically the tudors and the French revolution, there's a lot of people who romanticize Anne Boleyn to the extremes of villainzing Jane Seymour or babying Marie Antoinette as a sweet coquette girly who was unfairly killed by "savage revolutionaries" or claiming Elizabeth I as a feminist girlboss who only wanted to end her fathers bloodline. These historic women weren't the most awful people and they definitely were victims but that doesn't mean they didn't have noticeable flaws that affected the lives of others. That's the direction I went for my version of Navier, she still cares for her loved ones and makes good decisions but she was raised with a classist mindset, not pouring wine on maids and poor people but viewing them as emotionless husks with only one purpose which explains her apathy to slaves. I also gave Navier a backstory beyond wanting to be a perfect empress which was a relationship with her mother that is inspired by Catherine the greats relationship with her mother, so yeah not very great. Unlike the original she is fully aware of what Heinrey is doing but she barely cares (not much of a change from the original tbh) the goal is that I still want Navier to be a little likeable while also making her complex and realistic as an empress.

Sovieshu

I didn't give Sovieshu as many changes and for the most part, he's the same as he was in the original: a toxic partner who pushes his faults on other people around him. In this version though instead of becoming cold and cruel to Navier to moment Rashta shows up, the two have already been drifting apart for a while and it only got worse when Navier had a miscarriage a year prior to the story. Sovieshu is more of a cautionary tale of how misogyny is encouraged in boys at a young age, in his youth, Sovieshu had all the love of his mother since his parents struggled to conceive and only had one son. He wanted his father's love more than anything but Osis was about as interested as you'd expect, only wanting his son to be a great Emperor and nothing else, to please him, Sovieshu started to emulate the misogynistic views of the men around him which grew to be his actual beliefs. The only person that kept Sovieshu from turning into his dad was the former empress until she takes her own life, leaving Sovieshu with Osis as his influence. I still want Sovieshu to remain a scumbag but it will be more of a tragedy in how the future generations can never improve if we continue the cycle of abuse.

Rashta

I think Rashta is the most altered out of all the original characters since she's not even a villainess but rather a sort of anti hero. Her past as a slave is more fleshed out, her childish manner is age regressing to try to gain back her stolen childhood and she doesn't try to befriend Navier after getting the message that Navier wants nothing to do with her. In this version she's the best friend and later love interest of the new protagonist who bottles up her past and feelings to please others so she can keep her cozy life in the palace and that becomes a problem as the lack of care causes Rashta to grow more depressed and even has a few panic attacks. She won't do a good portion of the horrible acts she does in the original since she now had actual friends and because some of her sins are just so contrived to make her hateable, but she still is petty and holds grudges so she doesn't feel too bad when she ruins Nians marriage or snubs Lebetti, she'll even be conflicted since she feels guilty that the slaves on the Rimwell estate are still suffering but she doesnt want to risk being removed as concubine if she tries to call for slaves rights but she does find her voice and will start to push for slaves to be freed mid-way through her term as the empress of the eastern empire. In the end, Rashta does become Empress of a different empire after spending a good 7 years healing from her trauma and getting a good education, she lives her days with her kids and dies at the age of 81

Heinrey

Hes one the main antagonists here, I kept his love for his wife and family though but it's not an "uwu my queen!" Or really anything puppy like. For Heinrey I wanted to make him a true white lotus and he's has more vibes of a comforting friend with soft mannerisms and tones in voice, he loves Navier dearly because I still think even monsters like him can fall in love but the reason he tortures and kills people who don't side with Navier isn't even because he's that adamant about Naviers honor but rather because if someone were to find out his sadistic nature to those who disagree with him, he can use the "puppy husabnd" excuse to appear as a sadistic sweetheart. It not only scares the shit of his people into respecting him but it also wins him a little sympathy points since "he's just a hopeless romantic" I wanted Heinrey to appear uncanny too, like you know somethings off about him but if you said anything people would just be like "what are you talking about? He just really loves his family." His death is also pretty brutal, naturally Heinrey makes a lot of enemies and during a war arc he is shot down while in bird form leaving him at the mercy of a former maid he pushed over the deep end, she offs him, plucks him, cooks him, and serves him to the remaining family members of Lazlo.

and that's only the main 4, I did almost all of them with the exception of McKenna since he's honestly the only good character thats written well in remarried empress.

[musicalmoritz]

I'm writing an AU that centers on Aoinene, but I'm worried about keeping Aoi and Nene in character 😿😿 Do you have any tips for writing them accurately even though the story's separate from canon ?? 🙁🙁🙁

Oooooh okay I love to yap abt writing. Here are some of the things I try to keep in mind while writing Aoi and Nene:

• Aoi is very emotional, but she doesn’t let it show outwardly until she’s pushed to a breaking point. Keep in mind, that breaking point for her is usually something very small and petty (like Nene asking her if she can go out with Akane). It takes a lot for her to fully break down though, because she keeps so much bottled up

• She also doesn’t get along with many people. She’s kind to them but if they linger too long, things get awkward. She’s very close with Nene and Akane but that’s about it (you could say Teru has grown on her recently tho)

• Arrogance is a major character flaw of Aoi’s, when she notices Akane and Nene have been acting weird it never crosses her mind to worry about them as people, but rather how their behavior impacts her. Despite this she is shown to care about them and look out for them, she can get pretty defensive over Nene. But when conflict arises she’s mostly thinking about herself

• Nene has a similar flaw, she’s very self-centered. But she’s self-centered in the way a lot of teenagers are, she’s consumed by her own problems and has a very romanticized view of the world. She puts her friends into boxes and gets confused when they act differently from how she expects. Despite this, she shows a strong desire to want to save them- and when she truly falls in love with someone, she makes an active effort to learn more about them (even if she’s sometimes misguided with it)

• Nene is also a very impulsive character, she makes decisions fast and wants solutions to her problems fast. She tends to jump into conflict without giving it much thought, which is why she usually relies on more level-headed characters for guidance. However, she can most certainly take care of herself when she’s left to her own devices

• Aoi avoids good things because she doesn’t feel that she deserves them, whereas Nene fights tooth and nail to get a happy ending. This could create a push and pull between them, Nene wants to give Aoi all her love but Aoi needs time

• Aoi is very affectionate and forward with Nene; holding her hands, complimenting her, confronting her when she wants to talk, etc. She can also be majorly passive-aggressive tho lol

(I know I’m focusing on their flaws a lot, I don’t want to to seem like I have a negative view on either of their characters, it’s just that these are the elements I see forgotten most often)

• Nene shows her love to her friends by bullying them. This doesn’t apply to her dynamic with Aoi, she’s actually Aoi’s biggest fan girl, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you’re going to have her interacting with Hanako or Kou

• Personality-wise, Aoi is more of an introvert while Nene is an extrovert

• They’re both hopeless romantics, Aoi is just less willing to admit it

• Contrary to popular belief, Nene does notice that Aoi doesn’t talk about herself much and presumably wants to know more about her. Aoi’s attention also makes her feel special (that one’s not rly related to characterization it’s just cute lol)

• Nene’s arc centers around her becoming more mature and less attached to her fantasy world, Aoi’s arc centers around her learning to be her true self and accept good things

I know this was a lot, I wanted to be helpful so I tried to cover everything I could think of😭 Don’t feel pressured to include EVERYTHING I listed here, it’s just good stuff to keep in mind. I hope this was useful!! Happy writing <3

[insomnicbypasser]

Hiiiii speaking my thoughts on a certain thing about the newest limbus event make sure to avoid incase of spoilers! I am offically yapping about rodion in this one also so be warned.

You know im constantly thinking about rodion and how she just, doesnt have a yurodivy identity. Its always been a thought in my head how every identity that we get in the game is a possiblility a sinner could have gone down, not just an overlap with exsisting characters. They are afterall from mirror worlds.

Theres n corp sinclair, who gave into his inital disgust of prosthetics and went fully into that realm of dark. The pequod captain ishmael who found herself an almost exact mirror of ahab, fully taken by the madness to hunt what she deemed to be the root of all evil that we saw and the later portion of her canto. Literally most of dons identities share a similar theme of her going into an organization and having her beliefs tested as shown in her n corp, w corp, and her shi association ids.

So why didnt rodion get a yurodivy id instead of her t corp id? The opportunity was right there for the taking, however there was somethings stopping her from getting it. There was the fact that she felt like she did anything to help in actually catching the time ripper, so she didnt get a district 20 yurodivy id bescause hong lu and ryoshu were ACTUALLY like them with their detective work, however i dont think its like that as seen above several sinners have gotten ids that directly go against their current arcs ie: captain ishmael and n corp sinclair. I also think this is the same reason she got a TAX COLLECTOR id of all things, finding herself not only stagnating but also becoming the type of person she would havr MURDERD in cold blood previously.

To me there are two reasons project moon is holding back on a yurodivy id for rodion. Either A: theyre saving it for a theoretical redo of rpdions canto, this time where she actually stands her ground to fully face sonya and give him her true awnser on where she stands, most likely telling him she'll be following the path that dante is leading her down towards instead of the path sonya had laid out for her with the yurodivy. With this she could potentially get either a id where she instead had taken sonya up on his offer, or the most interesting option where rodion had taken up the role of saint for the yurodivy instead of sonya in a sort of captain ishmael or spicebrush yi sang type of id.

And then theres option B: where rodion has yet to get a yurodivy id because there arent any plans to give her a yurodivy id because in EVERY mirror world rodion is always destined to give up her life with the yurodivy. Maybe there will always be a reason for her to leave, a flaw she can never let slide, maybe even a feeling she wont ever address that she wasnt and wont ever be for the yurodivy because they were never ment to be, either they were never doing enough or she could never be enough.

I havent read the book rodion is from, i dont know the first thing about rodions journey through it. All i know is that rodion is a gambling addict, he kills someone, and that sonya helps(?) him get past his vices and sins and even then none of that might not be true i have no idea. What i do know is that in limbus company, rodion has had the constant need to be something. She tried to lead a life in the yurodivy to feel as though she was doing something larger then herself, and when she felt as though they didnt meet her expectations she decided to take things into her own hands and when she looked back on her decisions, she couldnt even tell who she had done them for or whether she was only acting apon her base selfish desires. Then she joined limbus company bus, supposedly to maybe have a wish granted, but also because maybe in this group of losers and vagabonds, she could finally take a large role then what she felt she had when she was in the yurodivy, maybe she could finally make use of her time instead of this rotting stagnation she had been suffering from since she left the yurodivy. But then they fail in their first two missions, she sees sonya for the first time in a while as she plays her first major role in a mission and he is the cause for her failure, even extending an olive branch to her and a place back inside the group she had so quickly left behind when things didnt go so well for her. Then they finally start seeing successes but they come at great losses, being forced to face your traumas, to kill your previous loved ones, to give up your entire motivations for the sake of moving forward and finding your place in the world.

And then we come to t corp itself, rodion finds herself being hand picked for a mission that surely other sinners are more capable of completing. Rodion has lost some of her previous confidence in her place in the bus. She didnt face her trauma like sinclair did, she didnt fight against sonya with all her might like yi sang had, she didnt push through her flaws and learn from her behavior like idhmael and heathcliff had done. Rodion ran, and she hadnt even gained anything from it.

As the event went on, we saw slowly as rodions compossure dropped, especially when the yurodivy got involved. We got to see rodion start to look back on her decision to leave the yurodivy when she interacts with them in district 20. She questions herself as soon as she sees that they actually managed to make something of themselves, that if she had actually been patient they would have been able to give her the kind of change that she had wanted in her life.

Her struggle to define what she wants and how she wants to get it is so interesting, it seems to me like rodion is constantly setting bars too high, either for others or herself, never wanting to settle her bet always wanting to push just a bit further and always crashing hard when she looses it all. The case of time killing time is showing the cracks in her resolve, and i think that eventually itll all come to a boiling point where shell get a rerun of her canto.

Anyways thanks for coming to my tedtalk every single one of the sinners make me mentally ill in ways i will never recover from, not just rodion. Trust me i WILL be making a 20 page essay on don once her canto is fully out i will NOT be normal about her. Sorry if i got a bit off track btw this was absolutely a full character study mostly on rodion rather then being me talking about the new event like i said and had quite a bit about me talking about how i think ids work inuniverse beside being things dante can use on sinners for combat. ALSO! If anyone can tell me how rodion and sonya are in the book it would be cery appreciated! Knowing about how moby dick, wuthering heights, and the metamorphsis play out really shaped my experiences of their cantos and id like to see how its themes played into canto 2.

[chanafehs]

im in love with your hawke and the way you stylize her 😭 can i ask abt hasna's (was that her name?) decisions and relationship with the cast, as a friend/lover/rival and big sis :3 da2 is very companion/approval-disapproval heavy game so i got really curious about that. Because learning these makes you learn about the character

(i hope you'd feel safe answering this tho because from what I've seen you don't mind having thoughts straying from fandom's most popular takes, and DA ain't really the best fandom, but we're in veilguard era rn so who cares lol)

Thank you!! Hasna is my little morally dubious almost 7ft tall lesbian blood mage. She has good intentions at her core and is very self-sacrificing but her execution is extremely poor. I'll put it under the read-more because this is just a block of text

I usually don't have the chance to flesh her out a lot because most of my brain rot fixates on Asma but she is very special to me. As for relationships, Hasna is either an opposites attract or is just looking for validation for her beliefs. She has a lot in common with characters like Sebastian and Fenris - I don't know if I ever stated it before but Hasna is a devout Andrastian - and she has very critical views of her fellow mages, who she believes she is above.

Magic cannot be made safe, so it must be controlled, and she represents that control: She doesn't falter; she is a perfectionist, a believer, a patron of the templar order, and Kirkwall's savior. In her own way, her body and mind are her circle.

It's why she is constantly at odds with Anders, who represents everything her personal ideology is against. He is the embodiment of a mage's lack of control and the exact idea that Hasna has spent her life fighting against, which makes it all the more infuriating to her when she sees what he does to the Chantry in the final act of the game. She spent ten years of her life proving to others that Mages can control their magic and fit into society just as she had for some guy from the sewers to ruin it in ten seconds.

I think my favorite aspect about her is that she is a hypocrite and projects a lot of her insecurities on others, especially when it comes to control. She easily resorts to blood magic because she doesn't think she is strong enough - could always be stronger - in battle, but will criticize other mages resorting to it out of fear. Her reasonings are righteous, theirs are weak, etc etc.

I think she has a really interesting relationship with Isabela because while their views on life are completely different, Hasna views Isabela as almost what she wishes she could be. She wishes Isabela's life was her life. Uncaring, free, laidback, just nothing but the ocean ahead of you - Hasna lives almost vicariously through her and experiences Isabela's happiness as if it were her own. Isabela is the only one who knows about her blood magic because she's the only one who wouldn't hold it against her, Merrill would point out her hypocrisy and Varric would view her differently, Isabela just accepts it. Hasna is the one who actually pushes Carver to join the Templar order in the beginning, as she believes it is a way she can still protect and watch over him while being entrenched in Templar politics.

Thats a brief Hasna summary! definitely not the standard Hawke lmaooo I used to care about the Dragon Age fandom takes but I cannot do it anymore bc 1) this fandom is extremely preformative and values pixel wizard discourse over everything 2) it is very boring to have the same perfect angel characters three times in a row I love giving them flaws and making them more like real complex people

Thank you!

[deadmegumi]

8, 10 + 2 if you're feeling heinous 😈 24 if ur not 😇

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

well MY special little noble is actually the most inherently just and pure of heart and when they win the throne there will be a thousand years of peace. Wdym inherent violence of feudalism that's not real. And while there has been a downtrend in this belief throughout the last five years it HAS influenced a lot of other discource subtly... most people have realized that the way to start fixing westeros's problems is not thru a nice feudal monarch, but they dont understand that abandoning this framework for character/plot analysis also means abandoning a lot of other framework. In the arya v sansa wars people still use feudal patriarchal definitions of femininity to decide who is the Best Sexy Feminist (preteen girl). In debates about morality for certain actions people excuse things because it aligns with the feudal code of ethics- a deeply flawed and violent code. See: ned HAD to take theon hostage because well we live in a society. Like i think it's important not to hold characters to the same moral standards that we hold people in modern times to, because their circumstances are so wildly different, but we dont have to adhere to THEIR feudal values when analyzing them because its only a detriment to their characters. They live in a society but WE do not... cmon guys...

10. Worst part of fanon

no one fucking draws these characters ugly enough. Asoiaf fandom has a plague of sameface ig model syndrome and it sucks cause george puts so much distinct personality even in minor characters and then people are like hmmmmm what if they had the same button nose and good chin that everyone else has. Brienne is ugly let her be ugly!!! Arya and jon have long plain faces u dont have to draw the teen/preteen kids as super defined and striking! Let the kids look like kids. I don't care how beautiful dany is let her be a 15 yr old. OR the instinct to make everyone best friends forever and soften the complicated dynamics btwn these characters. like modern aus where the starks are the benevolent rich people who adopted theon from his abusive trailer park family grind my gears like hes a child hostage from a powerful noble house and u cant erase such a defining part of his character bc you want everyone to be nice to each other. Also related to this is people making jaime nice/acting like asos was a redemption arc or that he didnt commit some uniquely horrific acts in agot/acok. His actions thru out the last two books are not the acts of a changed man they are the acts of a man who realized he can make choices based on empathy and reason not instinct. LAST thing which is something i dont reaaaaally see here much but i know the cunts on ao3 are doing it: the post canon thing where people want brienne and jaime to get married and have twelve kids. Fuck you eat shit and die brienne is not an incubator especially not for that lannister SLAG

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

cersei is not necessarily my fave but shes a character whose sexuality i often think of. In canon the only time she's had sex with a woman she's topped and every time she fucks a dude she's disassociating so hard shes on another planet. Even when fucking jaime shes like imagining herself in his body fucking him in her body. In the bulldyke cersei universe he's stone. The pants stay on during sex and so does the shirt and probably also the shoes. Cis gay guy cersei universe he already thinks being gay is emasculating enough so obviously he's not going to let anyone penetrate him. Transmasc bi universe its like you've never been strapped until you've been strapped by a dude who's never cum once in his whole life. THANK YOU!

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

"Daenerys is basically george bush because she uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well its a post 9/11 metaphor and uhhh well astapor is basically iraq and uhhhhh nuclear arms" "dany has never done anything wrong in her life and criticizing her means uhhhhh you hate women and abuse victims" "dany is a RAPIST and a RACIST and wants ALL BROWN PEOPLE TO BE SUBSERVIENT TO HER" "mirri maz duur deserved to die horribly for killing (checks notes) her enslaver" "dany is a colonizer (that's not what that word means. you need to look up what that word means)" brothers. Lets all link arms and kill ourselves

Jesus Christ this is long as hell. Sorry I got a lot of beef

[gortrash]

2, 7, 10 for the asks to spread love <3

Tell us why you love one of your OCs or an obscure canon character (link to any fics/art you have featuring them!) 

Oh my god I have to pick ONE??? This is so unbelievably difficult because my OCs mean so very much to me and have an unreasonable amount of depth that caters to me and my philosophies and beliefs BUT I’m going to tell you why I love my verse’s villain, Ilya. Putting this ask under the cut because I’m about to go off on a tangent and I don’t want to clutter anyone’s dash.

Small recap of her character: She’s my rather scary Thalmor OC with giant mechanical legs. She has the world’s biggest god complex and refuses to give the Divines even an ounce of her belief of their godhood and instead just sees them as powerful spirits. Obsessed with the Dwemer’s work as well and decided fuck it, fuck you all, I’m going to become god. All around issue and she’s proud of it.

And I love her so much because although she is evil, she has the depth to invoke sympathy. She is brilliant, wicked, invincible and vulnerable all at the same time. She’s an amalgamation of hatred and love. She has so many flaws and I love her for it. She has this warped perception of divinity and through her corrupted force she may just actually obtain it against all the odds of fate.

Ilya has no destiny. No real role. She was never meant to be free from the shackles of a meaningless fate. So she took it for herself by brute force and she forced that future for herself.

While brutal and cruel, she is perhaps one of my most helpless characters. I’m unsure who wins the battle of emotional turmoil between her and Eve, my Vestige who has far outlived her life expectancy and purpose but is too afraid to die, but Ilya is, beneath the sturdy carapace of ambition and spite, a victim.

The narrative of her life can be summed up by a quote I heard recently that I absolutely adore, “godhood is a lot like girlhood, begging to be believed”, and it struck me that maybe the heretical tyrant who wants the world only wants this because she was denied everything else in her life; including belief.

Ilya is recognised for her genius in the Thalmor, she’s a superior by every right, but in the grand scheme of things, because of her difficulty to cooperate and stay submissive to a cause that isn’t her own, is likely intended to be cast away as soon as her potential has been used. She knows this, though, and so doesn’t plan on either trusting them nor aligning her beliefs with theirs. She has bigger plans than what they have in store for her.

Why? Why not just submit to the protection of cluster and aid them in their own plans for some kind of mimicry of ascension, would it not be easier?

It’s not about easy. Above all, it’s about being believed.

To put it simply: nobody believes in Ilyavanthra. Nobody holds her with the highest regard. She’s a problem, albeit a very intelligent one and a valuable asset. They do not see her, but her skills to be used as an expendable tool. She wants to be believed so badly, worshipped above everybody else, because she is starved from the lack of attention she grew into the twisted mindset of believing she deserved above all else. She’s gone mad from it.

If Ilya believes that cruelty and suffering is the key to divinity, then it is only because she has the ego to believe that she has suffered the most.

On a lighter note, her goal in the meantime, while she prepares for the first act of her schemes, is to be as much of a problem as possible. For fun. Also because the childlike necessity for attention still lives within her. That’s what makes her so fun to write, honestly.

Also, she’s super gay.

A popular fandom opinion that you agree with

Delphine sucks, sorry, I’m not killing Paarthurnax, BUT I’m going to go into that for a second because I am an advocate for female characters who are generally hated. Delphine is unbearable and I’m glad that she is. She’s stubborn and egotistical and she’s obviously good at what she does (her dossier entails that she took down an entire assassination squad) and I say let her be.

However, what makes her irredeemable is because I think she’s dumb for going against what she preaches in saying that the Blades serve the Dragonborn and then she turns around and says lol no I’m not doing anything for you until you do what I want.

A popular character you actually really like and why

Popular characters in the Elder Scrolls fandom have to be categorised in whether it’s popular by regular internet standards or by tumblr standards. Say, everyone knows Paarthurnax, but for a character like Teldryn it’s more so the tumblr fandom that knows him well. So I guess I’m gonna go by tesblr standards here.

I’m glad I got asked this and especially by you because of your brilliant recent art, but I really adore Fennorian and I really didn’t think I would! I was super late to the ESO train and all I’d see about it was Fenn this, Fenn that, and I couldn’t quite get it at first. Then I played the DLCs he’s a part of and, well… that’s my angel baby. He’s so endearing it hurts. Failure husband.

[moonssugar]

(sigh). let me preface this by saying i don’t defend jessica drew or miguel or peter b. parker for what they did and how they did so thats going to color what i think about them. before anyone starts shit, im black as well and i do not like jessica drew. i think people have valid reasons to dislike her that arent just chalked up to fandom racism. i also think the movie narrative wise wants audiences to criticize her, peter and miguel, but instead people fawn over miguel and ignore the crimes. its complicated but because all three of those characters are flawed their actions can be critiqued, yes that includes jessica

lets break some of this down starting with the last part

that’s why shes like I can’t help you - its like when youre a little kid acting bad as hell and ur mama is like 'iight wait till ur dad get home just wait’ and youre like 'FUCK’ because u didn’t listen to her and now have to deal with him

you know this actually rubbed me the wrong way for a lot of reasons. one reason is my belief that not only is miguel, the guy in charge of the whole spider society, is fundamentally wrong, projecting his mistakes onto miles and overall making spider society a negative environment. the second reason is parenting and since we’re talking about atsv, mentorship. see this example which is being used as an analogy here is actually a perfect example of bad parenting because — the child in question is living in fear of their father and the mother uses that fear to get the child to obey. the issue here is the use of power imbalance (parent over child) and the use of fear. i don’t believe children should be raised with fear or be afraid of their parents and that makes me anomaly in a lot of ways (see what i did there). the only reason this phrase works is because the child has an instilled fear of their father already but instead of addressing this mothers (and often black mothers, yes ive experienced this as a child) use it to their advantage. 

in the case of jessica whos going to be a mother eventually and was a mentor before that, she never questions why gwen should be and is afraid of miguel, ie she never questions why her boss has 15 year old children and hundreds or thousands of grown ass adults extremely afraid of him. she doesn’t question his violent behavior in much the same way mothers don’t question the father’s violent and intimidating behavior they just use it to control the child if we want to expand that analogy. she doesn’t question the position she’s in, she just either tries to shield gwen from it whiles its looming threat remains (and doesn’t shield miles at all but we’ll get to this in a second) or throw up her hands when “dad” gets home and says “i can’t help you” when shit finally hits the fan. “i can’t help you” meaning “i am not going to intervene” meaning “if miguel gets mad at you then its your problem” meaning “if i intervene i may suffer consequences myself”. she warns gwen...instead of questioning why she warns her and why she’s using it to keep gwen in line with what miguel envisions. she knows what will happen to gwen if she goes back to her own dimension and jessica uses that too. she never questions miguel if his methods or goal or means to an end are good or not. she seems perfectly content with this system. thats one my problems with jessica drew (and why alternatively i love hobie brown so much)

now, i am not ignoring the fact that jessica is pregnant and wants a future for her baby or that peter b. parker already has a mayday and wants to keep her safe from the danger miguel has described to them. i want to point out that miguel is using these to manipulate them into cooperating by implying that they will also loose their family like he did (ignoring the fact that she was never truly that 2099 miguel’s daughter in the first place but whatever). its a good, effective threat but we have to see that it is a threat and that is how miguel is holding everything together: through fear and collective trauma. a structure like that is bound to fall apart in the ugliest and most damaging of ways. jessica is a part of that structure, a quite integral part of it actually since she's so close to miguel. she plays her part and lets it continue.

second thing about why i dislike jessica: we’re all focused on how jessica interacts with gwen because she’s seen with gwen the most but nobody is talking about the fact that jessica willingly lead miles to miguel knowing what she already knows miguel thinks about him and that her shitty boss miguel o’hara physically assaulted — beat up — a black boy, almost killing him on a chase that not only jessica was a part of but fully endorsed and encouraged his friend (her trainee) to help with. a grown black woman allowed a young black boy to be physically assaulted, chased and entrapped on her watch without ever questioning if this was the right path, the right way to do things, morally right or ethically right. of all the characters she looks out for, jessica looks out for miles the least which is astonishing to me. again, shes just a black woman doing her job, right? she threw him under the bus with no hesitation and then did the same to gwen once miles escaped. jessica drew flaked not on just one teenager but two in the same day. this is the biggest and second reason i dislike jessica drew. because if i were in her position i would not tolerate that, miles being an "anomaly" or not, as a black person i would not allow it. i think the violence miles experiences at the climax of this movie is coded in a specific way and thats purposeful. when rio talked to her son, she meant people like miguel and jessica. unfortunately, just because miles has two things in common with jessica doesnt mean she wants to see him succeed. as the old saying goes...you know which one.

completely different rant beneath the cut because this is responding not to op but a reblog from them which got on my last nerve. dont read unless you want to be genuinely angry lol

minor thing: ive been reading tags that are saying “oh yall are just mad jessica wont defend the white girl or cater to the white girl” when the white girl in question is in danger of imprisonment if she returns home and also is a teenager. like what the fuck. im sorry, if jessica drew was actually a good mentor that still wouldnt make her a mammy stereotype but just say you think the idea nurturing black women are just mammies. an adult black mentor taking care of a white teenager trainee isnt what a fucking mammy is holy shit none of yall know what that stereotype is if youre saying that. honestly if thats all you see in jessica maybe the issue is with you actually. showing compassion and intervening with child abuse doesnt make you a mammy if youre a black woman while doing it holy fucking shit rant over

Y’all get mad at Jessica - the black Woman doing her job and trying to hold the multiverse together so her baby can have a universe to live in more than y’all blame Peter, the whites man who knew and trained Miles and still chose to believe he was an anomaly.

Like Peter TAUGHT Miles how to swing and he still was like ‘oh yeah miguel that makes sense yeah miles isn’t suppose to be spiderman’ HOW

[lesbianrobin]

im gonna be honest your posts kind of changed my mind on r*nance (and j*ncy also, but that was a long time ago lol). i think nancy is an interesting character, but the writers don't get Why she's interesting and so they just write extremely bland feminism plotlines and never address any of her actual flaws. are they going to do Anything with the fact that fred's death mirrors barb's death, except instead of nancy being to preoccupied with steve, this time she was too preoccupied with solving the mystery, the new Thing that has been fully driving her for seasons, which she started doing to avenge barb's death? like. how is it that the very thing that she did For barb resulted in her kind of friend dying in an extremely similar way, and the show just. does not mention it again. but i digress.

nancy's ableism towards robin and her classism towards jonathan are played off as either a joke, or just completely disregarded (where jonathan has to apologize to nancy for not understanding sexism, while nancy doesn't ever have to apologize for the oliver twist comment). like it is realistic that nancy would hold classist and ableist beliefs, she is a well off white woman who did not grow up neurodivergent (i would argue she probably has ptsd, which is an acquired neurodivergence, but she still doesn't have the absolutely alienating experiences that robin probably does. and while i may on occasion believe in lesbian nancy, i'm sure she's canonically straight, so she doesn't have that layer of isolation that robin does either).

like why have we experienced 5 nancy feminism stories, and never any "nancy, despite canonically being liberal according to decor in her room, actually prescribes to a lot of more harmful conservative views and has to confront them". okay i kind of went on a nancy rant and not a r*nance rant, back to my original point.

i think that, conceptually, r*nance could've been pulled off in a way i enjoyed. there are ways they could've started with tension (overprotective best friend robin who is wary of nancy for breaking steve's heart and already thinks she's a priss, vs nancy who is acting like she doesn't care that robin doesn't like her but actually Does care a little bit because she does on some level want to be liked) but i just. did not like what we got. and like you've said, nancy only starts to like robin when she's useful! they could've had a connection without that! nancy could've apologized! instead we got nancy wheeler ableism moments.

side note that my ideal robin nancy dynamic is so similar to my ideal argyle steve dynamic. argyle is already so fond of the byers-hopper kids and jonathan. scratch jonathan being weird about steve, in my mind they should be cool by now. instead, have argyle be suspicious of steve at first from hearing a couple things about him from jonathan. obviously that wouldn't last long they would all get high together and get along. the duffers could've saved stonathan And built up jargyle if they just had my mind.

posting this for the anon who just asked me to say something controversial <3 you make so many points re: nancy's classism and ableism. and ur RIGHT so many people including the writers just miss all the aspects of nancy's character that actually make her interesting and instead just give her guns all the time to make her #girlboss

[ladyriot]

Back to Comparing Maura Isles & Temperance Brennan Because I Can't Stop...

So, I kind of see both as enneagram 1s (meaning their personality is defined by the core fear of being esesentially corrupt or by having a moral fixation of sorts), but the way I see it they inhabit them completely differently. There are probably multiple enneagram-adjacent explanations, but I don't fully understand those (different instinctual stackings or something? Tritypes?). So I'm going plain old character analysis.

I've been thinking about Maura's relationship to morality this whole rewatch and I think my tentative conclusion for now is that her moral fixation is based on a deep, nearly intrinsic belief that she's bad inside. It serves as an explanation for her. It's why her birth parents didn't want her. It's why she didn't have many friends growing up. It explains why people have so much trouble connecting to her, loving her. It seeps into her decision-making at every opportunity. What's a job you can do that does good for others but doesn't put you in a position where the bad inside you can cause harm? What's the line between ethics and the law - is it okay to help someone like Ian help underserved communities even if it breaks the moral code that US law tries to impart? When can you break the rules? She has a mountain of self-doubt, much of it moral (the rest, social). And that comes to conflict in her relationship with Jane at times. Jane, for the most part, thinks herself capable of doing good even outside the law, even bending the rules. She doesn't need a guideline because she often has an internal trust. She sometimes pushes Maura to bend rules, work in the spaces between the lines of the letter of the law and the spirit of them. Which is a challenge specifically because Maura doesn't trust that the core of herself is good. She needs an external guideline. She needs something to hold herself up against to prove to herself that she's good.

Brennan's moral fixation is so very different from that because it isn't quite as deeply internal. I genuinely believe that even with the few times she tries to frame herself as an unempathetic person, she can feel her internal empathy and questions it only because she has never expressed it in a way that's read by others on the outside. I believe that she thinks of herself as mostly good inside, but instead seems to almost fear being misunderstood as immoral. I won't say that she never internally doubts herself. I distinctly remember her saying something like "I don't have your good heart" to Booth. But I think this displays an essential disconnect between how she experiences herself internally (how she feels her emotions) and how others receive them. In my opinion, she has so much doubt about being a good person because people keep not seeing her as one. She's told she's cold and unfeeling. But she doesn't see herself that way. She feels her feelings. She knows she's misunderstood. She's told she doesn't show enough care (but Angela and sometimes Booth point out that she does). She's told that she doesn't feel the right things or act the right ways and watches it hurt people. But she thinks she's good. Her doubt is just so different. It's turned inwards only in search of an explanation for that disconnect. Can I be a good person if people keep seeing me as cold, emotionless, arrogant, and hurtful? How is it that there can be such an error of translation? How can I keep doing things wrong by accident in ways that hurt people? Does some part of me want that?

Essentially, she feels like she's not doing good despite the good place she knows she's coming from, so she turns back and questions her internal positioning. Am I actually good? Are my intentions more flawed than I initially believed? It's basically the exact opposite of Maura who feels bad inside, so does all this good, in a way, to make up for it. She's sure there's bad in her, no question (no evidence). She just has to resist acting that way, not let it accidentally come out, which obviously she can't control because she can't even find a true urge to do bad in herself. Which, for someone like Maura, is terrifying because then it can only come as a surprise.

I think this is what breeds their opposite stances on psychology. Maura is fascinated with the field, apparently has some formal training in forensic psychiatry, and seems to have a particular interest in abnormal psych. She's trying to find what's wrong in her. Honestly, it's almost unrealistic for a character like Maura to not have looked into things like cptsd and autism and questioned those things for herself (not that they're wrong at all, just that they would explain her feeling of incongruity with the way she sees herself versus how she's treated, her essential doubt). Brennan, on the other hand, isn't trying to explain something that feels off for her. In a lot of ways, she likes herself. She sees her value. Her insecurity comes from other people not understanding her. She's terrified of being misconstrued as a bad person. It makes so much sense for her to be against psychology... a field that might find something "wrong" with her to confirm everyone else's misreadings of her (with no evidence). For her to be told there's a reason for her to be read so wrong wouldn't be an immediate comfort, though it might grow into one. It would force her to confront something she doesn't want to see. She just wants to be seen as true to who she is.

In summary, I think that Maura comes in with this belief that she's bad and immoral at heart and is constantly trying to make up for it, seeing some disparity as she's treated as essentially good and wanting answers or explanations through psychology. Temperance does not believe herself immoral, but believes herself essentially good, so when she's read as cold or a bad person, that's where she finds disconnect. Her dislike of psychology allows her to avoid looking that in the face, allows her to maintain her image of herself by not making her question what's inside.

I wanna bring in like 80 gifs and references, but that would take forever, so take this as a preliminary post. Complex characters are endlessly fascinating.

[essentiallykpopandbl]

With Bad Buddy ending tomorrow, I wanted to get my feelings written down somewhere. And since I started this blog because of my need to talk about Bad Buddy, here we are. Will this post turn into a rant? An appreciation post? Will I just ramble on with no actual point to make? We will find out as I go.

Bad Buddy has hurt me. But not in a bad way I think. I have experienced the emotional highs and lows of this show week after week, crying from laughter and sadness as two young Thai men have acted their way into the hearts of the world (or at least the world that is aware of BL). Part of what makes this show so good is how real Pat and Pran feel. Pat is the big hearted friend. He is goofy, loud, energetic, and loyal beyond belief. He is big because he needs room to hold all his personality. When he loves, it is with his whole heart. Pat showed me to love deeply and fully, to follow your heart, and fight for what you want. He taught me how important it is to show those we love how much we love them and that respecting your partner's needs is sexy. Pran is the friend you want to have in your corner. He is thoughtful, talented, quiet, and extremely caring. Pran likes to think through his actions and the impact it has on others. He will ALWAYS put others first. Pran battles his inner demons everyday and struggles to be a person separate from the pain that has been done to him. But he taught me how to be strong. That the world will push you down, kick you, scream in your face to not get up but that you can't stop trying. The future is scary, and Pran knows that, but he taught me to embrace the unknown. That we need to trust in others we love when we can't find enough trust in ourselves. Pat and Pran love each other. We saw that on screen time and time again. They love in different ways. One way is not better than the other. One does not love more than the other. They are equals, but more so, they are flawed and broken people that are helping heal each other.

Their love is tragic. It grows for each other more with each passing episode. However, it does not shock me that something so beautiful can come from a place of such hate. Their families hate each other. They force their sons to hate and compete because they can not grow up enough to accept their own mistakes. But the world needs balance. Nothing can be all bad or all good, so Pat and Pran's relationship is so good as a balance for the evil put into the world. But there are times evil wins. Times when light can not get rid of the dark. Times when something good is destroyed by the bad. And that is the biggest comparison to Romeo and Juliet this show has. It isn't the feuding families or the story arc, it is the tragic love shared by the two main characters.

Who knows what will come of the episode tomorrow. My heart hopes that Bad Buddy can stick the landing. I feel like I am watching Simone Biles flipping God knows how many times through the air. It is so impressive but she just needs to get both feet on the ground and she has won. Bad Buddy has all the stuff to be one of the best BL shows if it can just stick it. But my heart also knows that it might not end well. That is the truth with any show. We invest time, energy, and tears into something we don't know how it will turn out. We grow to love the characters and hope and pray that they get the happy ending we want. But that is not always the case.

Bad Buddy has been a journey for me. It has brought me a lot of comfort but also a lot of stress. But a journey I would experience all over again if I could. I am going to miss these two boys who have caused me to completely rethink my life and relationships. I need the show to end so I can go back to my normal life but I don't want it to. So before it goes I want to say thank you to Bad Buddy. Thank you for giving us Pat and Pran. Thank you for giving the world Ohm and Nanon acting together. Thank you for the joy you have brought me. Thank you for the lessons you have taught me. Thank you for the tears I have shed. Thank you for the talks you have forced me to have with myself. Thank you for the good, the bad, and everything in between. I will always look back on you with love, admiration, and appreciation.

[mysticaltora8276]

1. Wait I have to explain? You really don’t understand media literacy do you?

2. oh no, he kissed her without her consent twice. And she’s kissed him multiple times without his consent. Doesn’t that make her awful? Or does it only count when Aang does it?

3. Favoritism towards Tenzin. He just took him on trips and it comes off less of blatant favoritism and more of him trying to impart the last of his culture to someone who can truly empathize with the fact that he’s an Airbender. Bumi and Kya even admit that he was a great dad, even if he was flawed.

4. Oh no, he doesn’t eat any of the meat provided. It’s almost like they are equally respecting the fact that Aang doesn’t eat meat and find alternatives for him to eat that are still linked to their culture. Does that mean that if you don’t eat piece of food that is integral to the culture that you’re disrespecting them? Well then don’t ever eat any foreign food whatsoever. Because you’re disrespecting your culture then…. Your logic makes no sense and fun fact there are vegetarians in northern Native American tribes. For whatever reasons. Epic fail with understanding, cultures or character building.

5. Oh no, showing that thing true to your beliefs and morality is somehow bad? It was made of abundantly clear that Aang wasn’t going to kill the FireLord. Roku said, beating the fire Lord everyone else assumed that meant killing him. And sticking to your guns is a very mature and selfless and brave thing to do. I don’t know if you follow with faith but sticking into your faith and following it regardless of the fact that everyone’s tells you that you shouldn’t be doing this is an incredibly difficult and hard thing to do and I applaud anyone who does it. Clearly you don’t understand what truly means and I feel sorry for you.

6. The comics are written by a variety of authors who interpret the source material. The actual creators have maybe like a slight handed it. In the nation, it seems as they get the characterization and the cultures down much better. Probably because they learn from their mistakes and trusting people who have a, interesting viewpoint about certain relationships.

7. Trophy wife? Being the healer of the southern water tribe is somehow bad? Look, I wasn’t thrilled about the older guard being sidelines so that way they are kids could make stupid mistakes, but it made sense for Katara to settle down to be a healer. She wanted to end the war and she made her mark on the world and she taught the next generation of water benders. That is what she wanted to do preserve her culture. And I’m not sure why getting married to the man she loved and helping him through struggles and help raising children is somehow bad. So so let me get this straight if she were doing that with Zuko it’s OK but Aang somehow it’s not?

7. Well, yeah, he feels guilty about it because he’s a decent person. Also, it makes sense. He lost his entire culture in his family. Katara and Sokka are the only ones he has left so of course he wants to hold onto them. But when he realizes that he was wrong, he makes amends for it, even if it has a negative consequence on him. You know people say that he had lacks empathy, but I’m getting the impression that it’s projecting your own lack of empathy for a genocide survivor. Fun fact, emotions make people act irrationally and sometimes people get hurt. That’s human not something to demonize someone else for. But yes, that’s right. It’s OK with Zuko gets emotional, but Aang never get emotional.

8. We’re getting on the subject of relationships did neither of you people notice that Zuko literally is possessive over Mai so much so that he picks a fight with her that pisses her off that she breaks up with him? Why is it OK when Zuko messes up, but when Aang messes up his flaws are magnified and exaggerated to the point of parody?

What I adore about the idea of Katara ending up with Zuko instead of Aang is that in Zuko she would have someone who would support her in her righteous anger. Had he been there when Katara challenged Pakku for her right to learn how fight, he would've backed her up. He would never have tried to tell Pakku that she didn't mean it. And he would've offered to help her dispose of his body if it came to that.

That's the energy that Katara needs. Someone who understands that she's not jumping into a fight for nothing. If she kills someone, she had a darned good reason.

[into-daylight-hope]

Qui-Gon Jinn: Certified Hypocrite, Fascinating Failure, Mass of Contradictions

For starters, I am just going to let direct quotes from the man speak for itself.

Some excerpts from Master & Apprentice

Wise words.

Wait a minute...

😯😯 What the hell is happening here? All quotes are from the same man in one book.

Qui-Gon Jinn doesn't have an ounce of self-awareness and it is so hilariously terrible.

What is even better (or worse), this is perfectly in line with The Phantom Menace characterization .

I mean,

Remember when he said all this than spent the rest of the movie obsessing over prophecies, the chosen one and literally the future?

"He still has so much to learn of the living force." Qui-Gon Jinn about Obi-Wan in the council scene

After that scene

"The boy is dangerous. They all sense it why can't you?" Obi-Wan Kenobi about Anakin Skywalker to Qui-Gon Jinn

You see Obi-Wan, Master Jinn here has completely lost any sense of "here and now" between his crusade against darkness and divine mission to save the Galaxy.

This in turn, unsurprisingly blinds him to the fact Anakin is not suitable to become a Jedi. Or at least not ready to directly move on to becoming a padawan.

Anakin himself would suffer in a road that is not meant for him. But he is not planning for Anakin the child. He is thinking about The Glorious Chose One.

He is the chosen one. You all must, see it.

And yet from Qui-Gon's perspective it is Obi-Wan who doesn't understand the Living Force.

I have to say if he is truly a student of the living force as many fans claim he has been failing the class for at least 8 years.

Let's move on to another set of entertaining and horrifyingly oblivious quotes from M&A.

If you look upward you can observe Mr. Here and Now in his natural habitat.

He really acts like future is set in stone than thinks he is the right person to talk about about concentrating in the moment. Unbelievable.

Let's look at this dialogue again. In contrast with the excerpt from above.

He is all about the future when it suits him. But when Obi-Wan makes a remark on it he obviously should just focus on the moment. This is actually the third time in this post where he contradicts himself while specifically chastising or criticizing Obi-Wan for something Qui-Gon actually does.

Now I don't think Qui-Gon acts with malice. But it is important to point out his obliviousness has become a way of ensuring he is never in the wrong.

He suffers from an immense hubris. And a man obsessed with prophecies and chosen ones definitely has some kind of savior complex.

But notably Jinn doesn't actually want to put any effort into enacting real change with his limited yet existent capabilities.

He turns down a council seat in M&A because he thinks it would hold him down. From what? Dear God, the reason they offered him a seat was for different opinions. Qui-Gon can complain all he wants but one time he actually had a chance to make his opinions a reality he freaking bailed.

Why? He doesn't want to face his own limits. He can't bare to try and fail. It is much easier to sustain a superiority complex when you are complaining from the sidewalk.

So he fixates all this belief onto prophecies, visions that will magically cure the Galaxy. And of course his place to help fulfill them. To the point where it is the one thing that keeps him standing.

He has binded meaning of his life and belief for goodness dangerously close to his supposed importance in the Galaxy. (You can feel the influences of his former master)

His absolute refusal to engage with reality turns him into mass of contradictions. Cause he doesn't know what he will find or become if he is mistaken in his belief of himself.

He can't face reinvention on the event of defeat.

But this situation was different. It had to be, because the only thing Qui-Gon knew to be absolutely true was that his vision was real.

Oh by the way, it turned out he misunderstood the vision. But when does being wrong ever stopped Qui-Gon Jinn?

No words.

Only Qui-Gon could have come near declaring himself a prophet after making a mistake. Maybe stop and reflect man? Just stop and think about your actions.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: I have a bad feeling about this.

Qui-Gon Jinn: I don't sense anything.

Of course you don't.

Honestly he doesn't have much to speak for in the cosmic force department either.

(There is the whole force ghost thing I guess. But I have no idea if that is more connected with living or cosmic force. It seems to be more about spiritual enlightenment. Which is ridiculous when you consider Yoda had go through so many trials, face his darkside, learn to truly let go just for Force priestesses to deem him worthy enough to study immortality. Yes Qui-Gon never became a force ghost but he had started his training before he died. And much of Yoda's tests on TCW was about self-awareness. It is not just about being a good person. How did Force Priestesses approve Qui-Gon "I was meant to misinterpret this vision." Jinn? I would understand if he became wiser after death and faced his flaws and all but he never was on that level before he died. You might say even Anakin became a force ghost. But I would remind you, Anakin in the end broke out of denial, acknowledged the wrong of his ways and took that leap to the light side. Self-awareness seems such an important key to becoming a force ghost. Right there with selflessness. Personally it doesn't quite feel right for a character whose biggest flaws are their lack of introspection and hubris which we never see him rise above to be the one that discovers immortality again. It feels more like a rushed plot point to explain how we get from A to B.)

This post got out of control 😂. I honestly just wanted to point out lack of communication might be one of the reasons Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon have trouble understanding each other but it is sometimes even harder to understand Qui-Gon when he actually says something. Cause ration is not what drives him.

Qui-Gon is such a complex character. He is undeniably good especially compared to other SW characters. Yet for all fandom's deifying he might be the most flawed Jedi we see on the franchise. (The ones that fell to the dark side not included.)

It is a shame wider fandom completely write off his flaws to the degree I can't even recognize the character when they talk about Jinn. Cause that Qui-Gon is so hard to feel empathy for.

When people constantly make statements like "He is The Wisest sw character." his hypocrisy stops being amusing. It doesn't end on screen or page instead often used to bash other characters.

An unbelievable analysis from Wookiepedia:

When Jinn saved the Gungan exile Jar Jar Binks, who in turn swore a life-debt to him, his compassionate nature was such that Jinn took the hapless Gungan under his wing, much to Kenobi's dismay. His empathy toward all life forms, including the most pitiful and unfortunate, was Jinn's greatest strength. Additionally, he remained understanding and patient with Queen Padmé Amidala. During the short time they knew each other, he never asked for her to do more than she was willing to.

You know out of the two, Qui-Gon was the one who insulted Jar Jar to his face. And he didn't took Jar Jar under his wing. They forced him to take them to a city where Jar Jar could have been punished for entering. Now it was the pragmatic thing to do. For all three's survival not for their own gain. Understandable. But compassion is just pushing it.

Also he never asked Padme to do more than she was willing to do?

Padmé : Are you sure about this? Trusting our fate to a boy we hardly know? The Queen will not approve.

Qui-Gon Jinn : The Queen does not need to know.

Padmé : Well, I don't approve.

And he is aware she is the queen, herself. Padme was nearly tearing out her because of this man in TPM.

What is weird, Jinn in his bewildering hypocrisy probably thinks he is being admirably compassionate with Jar Jar, highly understanding and patient with Padme. We clearly see he is not.

Out of universe he has been a force ghost for decades now but fandom is nowhere near acknowledging his flaws than he is.

And honestly SW doesn't have that many major morally complex characters. People like Maul, Palpatine, Anakin,Ventress don't think they are serving a higher purpose or oblivious to the evils they commit.

Emotionally complicated, yes. Going through moral dilemmas, no.

Three major characters come to mind who make huge mistakes, condone or commit atrocities while thinking they are in the right/with good intentions/for a greater cause. With varying degrees of culpability.

Qui-Gon. Padme. Dooku.

In that order.

Let these characters be interesting instead of demonizing nearly inhumanly selfless Jedi characters. (They make mistakes too but funnily enough they are still way better beings than most people on our planet.)

By the way I found the epitaph "Fascinating Failure" from the article here. Especially the last paragraphs make some interesting points. ⬇️

👀

This post might seem harsh but that is expected since it focuses on Qui-Gon's flaws.

"People are more than their worst act,” Quote from Qui-Gon Jinn in Master & Apprentice