#also I have a GRIPE and that's because my literal most hated trope is 'and they listened in

[hellogoodbyeitsme]

Finally got around to episode 2 (had a bussssssy couple of weeks and it came out on my birthday so it was literally impossible to find 40+ minutes to watch it 😭 esp because I enjoy pausing to punch the sofa emotionally and rewatching good scenes over and over, especially during first watch, so it's more like an hour and a bit haha) and I gotta say,

Huntlow I would die for you my otp my life I love you so much they really made a non-toxic straight couple for kids to learn from

I haven't even been able to find time (or energy) to draw but dang it if I don't make some emotional huntlow fanart........

[risingoflights]

Hmm, you don't feel comfortable talking about it unless someone asks your opinions? Then this is your official ask!

I've never played the critically acclaimed- er, you know. And I have no idea what the Ilsabard Region is or what its story and tone are.

So! What is it, and how does it compare to what you've experienced of Rebirth so far? What do you get from one that's missing in the other? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each narrative, and which do you feel, at this point, will have the most replay value?

(Plus anything else that's crossed your mind!)

ah friend, you should know better than to ask, but thank you for asking <3

leaving xiv out of this for a moment, i can tell you exactly why chapter 7 specifically of rebirth is the one to have caused me to openly gripe.

and, as you might expect, it's to do with hojo.

i was always going to judge the entirety of this game by its handling of hojo, and so far i've been sorely disappointed. standing by what i said in my previous post about nostalgia and fandom goggles, i still believe there was more written into hojo in og than, say, scarlet and heideggar. and since remake did a decent job rounding out president shinra, i was hoping hojo would get similar treatment. so far though, it seems like they've gone the opposite way.

i try not to make too many comparisons to og because many characters are pointedly deviating away from their og characterisations (rufus seems a standout so far), but this point in og was importantly where hojo started shaping up to be more than the trope he began as. it was crucial that as soon as sephiroth reappeared, hojo abandoned shinra. in fact if memory serves, someone (heideggar or rufus?) even points this out in og - hojo's 'disappeared'. then when you see him in costa and cloud asks why he's there, hojo admits 'the same reason as you'. cloud was chasing sephiroth, so was hojo. and he was doing it without shinra because finding sephiroth wasn't on shinra's agenda - at least not at that point.

i was actually so hopeful and happy at the end of remake where the camera pans across the executives lined up in front of rufus, and hojo is decidedly missing - off laughing to himself...! excellent! that defiance seems to have led nowhere in rebirth!

you could argue that in rebirth, hojo decided to continue using shinra resources to go after sephiroth and he's still playing his own long game. doesn't change the fact that rufus was openly out to kill sephiroth now - so what did he tell hojo to make him stay, if hojo had wanted to leave? i mean, you could argue a lot of things to make things make things deeper. and maybe things will get deeper - i'm only halfway through rebirth after all - but rebirth hojo was still on the beach to capture the robes and study them. that single-minded drive and obsession with sephiroth just isn't present. it felt like the icing off the original cake. the bikini girls fawning on him, really fun! him throwing off-handed remarks about recruiting them for his sephiroth breeding program, noooooot... as fun! the whole shinra bigwig come to town, johnny being made to carry his briefcase and push crowds on the beach out of his way? ish! sort of a... dazzling superficial picking of what that scene originally was? did i laugh? yes! was i let down? also yes!

the other thing that really grated on me was the optional aerith dialogue, but that's no surprise - the whole aerith situation has been one big headache for me so far and promises to continue to be so. talk to aerith on the beach and she says a bunch of things about hojo culminating in 'i hate him'. oh. oh, like we really needed this explicitly said? you know, what i really loved about og here is twofold - 1. hojo doesn't appear to even remember aerith's name, which is such a good demonstrating of him not registering her as worthy of ifalna, compared to rebirth where hojo literally yells this at her during battle. this was one of the neat little consistent touches about og hojo - he didn't give a shit, but passively and dismissively - like, it's not so much he deliberately chose to harm others as he just didn't even register harming others as a concept, which made the few people and times he did choose to be sadistic stand out more. and 2. og aerith, instead of... any of the ugly things she could've said to and about hojo, asks him about her lineage and connection to sephiroth instead. how loaded does that make their relationship? that no matter what he did to her and her mother, she still registers him as a source of knowledge and felt pressed to ask him despite the subject being a particular sore point for her?

og aerith probably also hated hojo - i mean, that just makes sense. but the way that scene played out really sets precedent for more questions... what more? what else? which. i guess summarises a lot of the issues i have with rebirth so far. that whole sense of wonder is just not there. the game likes to hand you everything, tell you exactly what to think. this is often done at its detriment, because real complexity simply cannot be spoonfed! BUT - i have to keep reiterating - nostalgia and fandom goggles. they're grafted to my face and i can't take them off.

....so after all that, would you still like to hear about ilsabard? i realise i've just completely failed to answer all your questions but, thank you for allowing me to vent a little!

[toxifoxx]

ok serious thoughts on the fnaf movie this time. they're a little scattered but i did just see it so i gotta think on it some more before i give like an actually structured review. but immediate thoughts post-viewing:

i had fun with the movie! i thought it was enjoyable. was hoping for at LEAST a little more blood (i really wanted to see william fucking explode into blood for one) but i knew there wasn't gonna be much since its pg13. it wasn't scary like in the slightest except for 1 jumpscare that almost kind of got me but i wish they set up the atmosphere a little bit more.

MAJOR GRIPE. i hate that vanessa is related to william. please stop retconning the afton family scott pretty please. give that man his dead children back. i seriously seriously love the "man goes fucked up sicko mode because of his grief" trope but alas.

i think that the pacing is NOTTTT very good at all. william needed more screen time 100% and there wasn't that great of a build up to the climax. maybe its more impactful to people who didn't already know that steve is william, but i'd wager that they're probably like HUH WHUH??? at that reveal because its not really. set up that much. and yes im biased because i fucking love william ok.

i think matthew lillard did a great job, BUT... we barely got to see him at all! and, especially with the "i always come back line..." i cringed a little bit man. like what are you coming back from? you haven't died yet man. there's nothing to come back from yet tf are you yappin about. it felt like it was really shoved in there honestly. we DESPERATELY needed to see more of him! in fact, most of the characters needed more set up! like ok... mike lost his brother? why should i care. mike is gonna lose his sister? why should i care tho?? these kids died but they dont really seem like they care too much about being dead either so whats the big deal.

AND WHY DIDN'T THE KIDS HAVE BEEF WITH WILLIAM/THE YELLOW RABBIT. THEY CLEARLY WERE SHOWN TO KNOW HE KILLED THEM, BUT THEY DON'T TURN ON HIM UNTIL ABBY PUTS UP HER SHITTY LIL DRAWING? FOR REAL????? WHY? + THEY DONT EVEN GET NAMED AT ALL. THE MOVIE CARES SO LITTLE ABOUT THE KIDS AND YET THEY DONT EVEN ALLOCATE THAT TIME TO AFTON EITHER. THEY FUMBLED BOTH SIDES!

also a lot of stuff just kind of isn't resolved? like the mike vs his aunt thing. is his aunt dead or...? + what was the fucking freddy saw trap thing that doesn't get explained at all. did the police not see that or does william just lug that thing in and out of the building constantly. what's it even for.

im also curious about some things. whats up with that kid who had a midnight motorist shirt. whats up with the other random springlock animatronic that is never named nor do we get a full look at. Where's Henry. are we just straight up ditching henry this time around?

i came into this knowing it wouldn't be lore accurate nor gory because of the rating but ugh. Ughhhh. can we please settle on one fnaf timeline to be canon its been almost 10 years we don't needa be playing like this anymore bro. i want to see the afton family for REAL show me cc getting his fuckin head chomped off or elizabeth getting snatched. give us literally any of the original missing children give us cassidy or something. like even in the silver eyes at least we got henry ffs! it just makes me a little sad knowing that one of the rejected scripts WAS accurate to the game lore.

shout out to my homie @yellowbutterbear for seeing the movie with me and discussing this stuff with me 🔥

6/10 not enough william afton moaning and whimpering AMEN!!!

[mdhwrites]

Is The Owl House Timeless?

So this morning I made a blog about how the main thing required for something to be timeless is for it to be at least decently enough written to connect with an audience and that it had to have an emotion that the audience could connect with. A universal feeling that could cross race, gender, religion or even, yes, time. I used It’s a Wonderful Life as my example then.

I bet a lot of you who read it though were waiting for me to talk about TOH though because I know a LOT of people in the fandom at one point expected TOH to not only be timeless but a classic. The new Avatar the Last Airbender or the new Harry Potter (especially in what people wanted for its popularity with the latter). Both of those works are indeed timeless, as much as I am loath to compliment Harry Potter.

Is The Owl House? Individually, I think one could argue specific episodes and maybe the first season but the real reason I wanted to do this follow up blog is that satire and comedy almost always ages the worst. As worldviews change, what was mocked might not seem like it was in such good taste. How many 80s/90s college comedies like Animal House now feel kind of tacky when viewed from a modern lens? Or at least kind of misogynistic with their treatment of women?

I don’t think there are many element in TOH that are going to be as yikes as stuff like that someday but I think there’s already been a turn against it. It claimed to be progressive but in the end gave few real answers to that which it wanted to claim it was better than and even fell into many of the same holes as other works like it fell into. Its comedy is often stale and rooted in needing to be in its exact same mindset in order to be able to enjoy it.

Frankly, the style of satire, comedy and social commentary kind of makes me think of the spoof movie craze in the mid 2000s. You know, stuff like the constant sequels to Scary Movie, or Action Movie, etc. like that. TOH NEVER gets as bad as those, don’t get me wrong, but they’re both taking the same approach to their writing of these elements.

Rather than tackling it with a human emotion, something anyone can latch onto, they’re looking for buzzwords, specific gripes and incredibly specific tropes/references. Then they nail it to a board so they can hammer away until it’s damn near unrecognizable and whatever point was there is lost because they’re using a blunt object when a scalpel is required.

A LOT of people way better at this than me have talked about how a lot of things that want to be ‘satirical’ or ‘subversive’ are nowhere near as good as Mel Brooks but rather than talk about why his subversion is allowed while so many people fuck it up, I just want to talk about why they’re so often still timeless.

Blazing Saddles is the easy one. Human stupidity, greed and hate is always going to exist so rooting your comedy in both a genre and time period known for being exceptionally stupid, greedy and hateful, all while it normally tries to pretend it’s not, is just brilliant. Frankly, the main change from some Westerns to Blazing Saddles is that it’s willing to recognize bigotry and state it as bigotry, rather than try to justify it as a noble crusade or the like.

How about Space Balls though? One line tells you that they know what makes Star Wars both good and also exceptionally silly: “Evil will always win... Because good is dumb.” You want to criticize the fantasy genre as a whole? THAT is how you do it because we’ve all gotten fed up by meat headed heroes who walk into an obvious trap instead of thinking for literally five seconds but we also still like seeing those same meat heads win! It also plays into the ego in most fantasy villains as well as their hubris, as such working as just a general villain line but with the bluntness and delivery needed for it to be a joke instead.

TOH never really has this. Honestly, the best moment it comes to it is probably when the crackpot human curator seems so close to the truth before going off the deep end into conspiracy theories. I’ve literally had a friend do that to me once where I thought they were sane and rational until one night they told me, and I quote “You could have a catgirl girlfriend, it’s just that no one’s willing to admit that they’re real.” It’s a genuinely good subversion away from there being a mastermind villain and instead he’s just some loon who managed to be about 20% right in this case and that’s enough to make them dangerous. And mocking that level of insanity, of someone who has just lost themselves entirely in a rabbit hole that everyone else knows is unhealthy, is a common thread for many, especially in the modern age. It’s not like people in Ancient Greece never had to deal with some loon who thought the end of days was coming though.

Most of the time though? Most of the time it’s stuff like the Golden Snitch reference where it’s not even referencing a common trope in fantasy writing but specifically calling out a very singular thing. Where if you don’t know Harry Potter, or even worse LIKE QUIDDITCH, then you have nothing to connect to there. Maybe Luz’s outrage over losing due to a technicality but it’s not even a technicality. It’s just being outplayed and so the closest to a more universal feeling is betrayal but the joke spends so much time on rage at the literal trope, instead of even what Boscha did, that the thread at bare minimum gets lost.

And that’s much of TOH’s elements like these. They have a theoretical point to them but along the way, they lose their point or focus, or are so focused that they miss the universal element that’s right there. Take The First Day. Luz is someone who has struggled in school because of being bullied and an oddball. This was a great chance to really connect with every child who feels left behind by the school system because they won’t cater to them.

Except... It doesn’t work here. Her complaint isn’t that she can’t learn, that how things are being taught don’t work for her either because she learns differently or her brain processes things differently, etc. like that. Instead, it’s that she COULD learn whatever single subject she is stuck on but that’s not what she WANTS to learn.

Even the detention kids are the same way. Viney in S2 is established as one of the best healers in the school despite her multi-classing but it’s got nothing to do with her multi-classing. As such, strict healing magic is something she learns just fine. It’s just that she’s not being allowed to be creative with it.

And THAT is an interesting topic to discuss, schools stifling creativity or needing to give opportunities for it, but the narrative context stops that. They never say it because it would get in the way of their point but the school should say they allow single tracks because it’s literally illegal for them to do otherwise. That can allow a theme of how industry and government too often dictate the priorities of our schooling and how that’s a bad thing. That would even fit within the themes of TOH where the individual is crushed by the monopoly. By the ‘normal’.

 But they don’t do that because they have a different goal in mind. And this is why being well written is part of my criteria for being timeless. Again, not perfect, but an invested audience in TOH should also have that nagging question of why the coven system isn’t getting brought up in this episode. The EC is brought up as the basilisk disguises themselves as an inspector, but never that the Emperor would potentially close the school entirely if they were to allow mixed classes because that goes against both the coven system and the Titan.

It instead just never comes up so while it has a theoretical point it’s trying to make, the resonance is lost as a reasonable question, a genuine plot hole, grows wider and wider with every passing minute until the moment an audience should cheer for creativity winning out, for the need for flexible thinkers to be shown, is still met with some amount of confusion as people wonder why the show still hasn’t said ANYTHING about the coven system properly in this entire episode, even as now Hexide does frankly the biggest act of rebellion in perhaps the entire show.

And that is when TOH is GOOD. The later TOH goes on, the more and more a disconnect can be felt between the theme or resonance the writers are going for and what they’ve actually setup until S3 is pulling things out of its ass left and right because it can’t even do an identity arc with a clone, a sci fi staple to put it mildly, right because it literally can’t focus on anything long enough to make it function. Or its actions are too contradictory to keep you invested, like in Reaching Out where Luz is willing to at least tell 75% of her problem to Eda and King but then acts like she literally cannot, lest she die instantly on the spot, tell Amity or even think about it for all of five seconds.

As I concluded my last blog: Resonance should be something that all writers as a base element of writing should strive for. Bare minimum, it should resonate with the writer and that will help it resonate with others. How well you can make your writing be able to resonate beyond yourself though is the real test for a good story and a good writer.

And while obviously the fandom for TOH proves it resonated with many, myself even at one point, I wonder how many it still resonates with today? And especially as time wears on and tests the claim of it truly being transcendent of the moment it was created, or if it will just look like a relic to be left behind.

[crehador]

brother crab's winter 2024 parting thoughts: high card s2

WHAT THE HELL

HIGH CARD IS GOOD?!

tl;dr very flashy and aesthetic, consistently good in that regard, but the story was not always gripping to me. however, with the ultimate payoff in the last three eps, totally worth it imo

full review:

wow wow wow i'm kind of glad i fell way behind on anime and had the last three eps of s2 to binge all at once because hoooly shit i enjoyed that immensely

at no point did i think high card was bad, but it definitely had moments where it didn't fully grab me. there were times when it felt like all flash, no substance

and it's definitely not perfect, i have some serious and fairly significant gripes with it. mainly i'm really bummed that leo, wendy, and vijay never really got fully fleshed out. i mean i get it, finn's the main character and chris is the thinly veiled love interest also important so obviously they're going to take up most of the time, but i really feel like the other members of the crew had so much unexplored potential (especially wendy and vijay, because leo did sort of get his moment as a factor in the old man yaoi situation)

speaking of which THE OLD MAN YAOI!! man there were a lot of moving pieces in this show, and sometimes they came together in messy ways (or didn't really come together at all... some bits do still feel pretty disjointed and jumpy to me, tbh)

but overall the payoff of the s2 finale was absolutely worth it to me, particularly since it dealt with my favorites of those moving pieces: the old man yaoi and the sudden YANDERE ONIISAN ARC

i find myself really wishing the show had gone harder on both of those threads sooner, but like... honestly i'm not disappointed with how they played out. the whole theodore and ban thing could not have been more tropey (YEARS of loathing only for a "the one i wanted to protect all along was... you" and then dying for each other like HELLO yes an absolute tropefest BUT TROPES THAT I LOVE. GOOD FOR THOSE TOXIC DOOMED YAOI MFERS)

tilt has always been fascinating to me right from the character design and i am more or less satisfied with how things played out for him too, though i kind of wish we'd had more of this development spread throughout the series. i guess it was there, but... i dunno. in some ways feels like there could have been More (but i may be biased)

like you gotta feel bad for him, it's a sad story, but also that extreeemely creepy unhinged yandere oniisan "i have been stalking you i literally have a wall with giant blown up photos of you i hate the other guy who is calling himself your brother" sequence was SO FUCKING DELICIOUS LIKE WTF??? stunned and absolutely blown away by how hard they went on that, what a delight

(ironically it makes me think about how unhinged matakara in bucchigiri?! just doesn't work while unhinged tilt in high card works super well, but this is not about bucchigiri?! so i won't get too into that)

i am still admittedly just. kind of like. idk. i go back and forth on finn and chris, as characters and as partners. i don't dislike them but they aren't always all that compelling to me. sometimes they definitely are, but sometimes they just fall a bit flat to me. this probably isn't an issue with them as characters, though, just a matter of taste. i occasionally found the chemistry between them lacking as well, but sometimes it was really on point

same feeling about the crew dynamics in general. i looove a good like heist crew or spy agency crew, whatever it is, when the dynamics just click. and sometimes they didn't, here. i am too sleepy to articulate it properly right now but it just felt like there was something missing, some pieces not really fitting together. i didn't dislike any of the characters, but just... i guess wanted more team shenanigans? maybe there was no time for that but it would have been nice (like this is one show that could have done with a few filler and/or fluff episodes, imo!)

anyway. christ. my eye emoji-ing at tilt based solely on his character design finally paid off after two gay ass seasons lmao. good night

[nicks-disks]

** CHRISTMAS SPECIAL SPOILERS!!! **

honestly, I lowkey liked the ending of Ghosts. But like, lowkey, y'know? I do sort of mourn that we lost the chance to have an open ending, as I think it's under-utilised in shows and such a heartwarming, comforting and undramatic end for a series, but I definitely don't hate what we got given.

Is it perfect? No not really. Is it good? I mean yeah I think it is, I enjoyed it.

I see it as more of a showcase to display how much all the characters have grown, as they all act in ways that would be insanely out of character and unbelievable if they had done so in season one.

My main gripes with it are really kind of petty and very subjective and based on personal opinion, so literally, genuinely take them with a grain of salt.

It was a bit too dramatic for me, Ghosts has always been one for realistic dramatics, the type of stuff that's not a huge display but so immeasurably important and I feel like this Christmas special deviates a little from that. I was hoping for something more standard and something that felt a bit less, like, "the end" y'know? But also I think that stems from me not wanting the show to end while also not being too fond of the "found family splits" trope, so it doesn't quite hold up lol

I thought the semi-B-plot with Mikes's mum felt a bit off for some reason, a bit shoehorned in at times. I do like Mike's mum, and I thought her thinking the house was haunted and bringing in a priest was funny as shit, but it did drag slightly. This with the more dramatic, somber tone made it feel like a bit of a downer not really the pacing you want for a finale. Again though, this is exactly how Mike and Alison were feeling, so it deffo helped me empathise and understand why they chose to move out, it's very smart filmmaking just not what I personally prefer for the finale.

However, I actually do like the whole idea of the Christmas special. I think it's very mature, I think it's pretty realistic, and also I think it's kind of for the better for Alison and Mike. They have their daughter, Mia, and fortunately and unfortunately she will need to be the most important thing in their lives as she grows up. They just can't afford to live in Button house, both figuratively and literally.

But I think the best way to have fully realised this idea and plot would be to have made it another season!!! It feels a bit rushed and underbaked just being one episode, but imagine it being fully explored and developed over let's say 5 episodes, a miniseries. For example, a very vague overview that I'm gonna pull out of my ass on the spot,

Episode 1: Essentially the Christmas special. Mia is brought home, Mike's mum is being a bit overbearing, and everyone is kind of miserable. All of the same events play out, the Ghosts are all in a funny mood because of the new edition and Alison has to tell Mike's mum she needs to take a step back, yada yada. Then, like the Christmas special, the Ghosts make the speech that Alison needs to leave and she agrees, it's heartfelt and meaningful. However, something that's said is that Mike and Alison can handle taking care of Mia all on their own, and that they'll be absolutely great parents.

Episode 2: The Ghosts begin regretting their decision. They start to fear their afterlives will return back to how it was before Alison came into the picture, and while they want to beg her to stay like they have so many times in the past, they also try to convince themselves that Alison, Mike and Mia's wellbeing is the most important thing, and that they shouldn't get in the way. The episode ends with the Ghosts understanding that they're allowed to be upset at Alison leaving, they're allowed to say that they're going to miss her, and they have permission to mourn the loss of this live they've grown to love. However, it's also okay to let these feelings sit and experience them while also letting Alison go. It's a miracle that as Ghosts, they can feel at all, and honestly the fact they have Alison to miss is better than decades of boredom.

Episode 3: After having briefly contacted the contractors off-screen, it fully sets in for Alison what it means to the ghosts that she's leaving Button House. As a way to subside her guilt while also trying to ensure they continue to have the best possible afterlife with her out of Button House, she says that she'll try and get it so the golf hotel thing will have a request from each of the ghosts. They all put in their wants, like Pat wants a movie night and some clubs, Robin wants a pilates class, the plague ghosts want the basement revamped (the idea of a sauna would eventually be put forward by the contractors), so on and so forth. However, Alison promises this before the possibility is even finalised, so she spends the whole episode running around and nagging the contractors to allow her to add these things, in the end basically saying "you might be buying this land and house off me, but it's mine. It has stayed in my family for decades, and I've housed so many friends and memories. I would like to have a say in what happens to it, even after I leave it behind." and after a bit of debate, it's allowed.

Episode 4: Over the course of these episodes, Alison and Mike have been trying their absolute best with trying to take care of Mia between the ghosts, dealing with contractors and selling Button house, but it is so so, so difficult. The plot in this episode is putting that as the centre, with Alison and Mike struggling to keep up with all the demands of being a parent. As Alison runs around, she pushes the ghosts aside and gets annoyed at them, and while the ghosts have come to terms with her leaving, they still want to spend as much time as possible with her before it's too late. However, them being so insistent makes Alison even more irritated, and this episode ends with Alison snapping at the ghosts due to her exhaustion and frustration. That's it. This episode ends on a bummer.

Episode 5: This episode is a continuation of being a bit of a joykill. The ghosts try to completely stay out of Alison's way, not wanting to further add to her stress again, and Alison feels incredibly guilty. Eventually she voices her fears to Mike, wondering if they'd be good enough parents to raise Mia (mirroring the parental freak out Mike had in series 5, honestly all parents go through it and it's so valid). Alison confesses that if they leave Button House and still can't take care of Mia, what would it be for? Would it be a mistake? How can they be so responsible when they're really, truly not? Mike tries to comfort her, but he's having the dame doubts and fears too. Remember how in episode 1 they said they'd be able to raise Mia without any help? Yeah that's bullshit, all parents need and deserve help to raise a kid because it's such an immensely fucking gigantic task and no two people should feel they have to tackle it alone. While they're both scared that asking Mike's mum will result in her being overbearing again, they give her a call and she comes over. She gives them both a heartfelt pep talk and remembers to not be too pushy, but her assistance allows Alison and Mike to have the first good sleep they've had in months. The ghosts, also having heard Mike's Mum soothing Alisons fears, give her the lecture on confidence she needs, saying that both her and Mike will be incredible parents, they already are in Button House and they might even get better once they leave (*cue snarky yet fond smiles*). Then, cue the end of the original Christmas special where Mike and Alison drive off, saying goodbye to the ghosts while they follow the car. And also the final scene when Alison and Mike are old and grey, and they check into the golf-hotel thing and it's all so so sweet and lovely.

And that's it, that's the end! I tried to basically make it how I'd see the team expand the story, keeping in all story beats and ideas that I'm personally not fond of but still think they're interesting and worth keeping in. But like, isn't it kind of better now that all the ideas presented get expanded on?? I feel like the awkward pacing in the Christmas Special was just because they had so much to say and no time to say it.

I'm so sorry for the absolute goliath of a post and I'm sorry if it's all over the place, I wrote this on the spot so it's sort of just rambling but I hope it sort of explains why while I do have some complaints, overall I did like the Christmas special, I just think it would've been better fully realised as multiple episodes instead of one

If you have any thoughts or ideas I'd lovveeee to hear them! I know the Christmas special is CRAZY divisive and I completely understand why but I'd like to hear your reasons too <3 let's just try and be respectful to the Ghosts team while we air our opinions though, at the end of the day this is their show and it honestly probably means more to them than it does to us.

Plus bfr I know we're all hurting, but it's honestly not that bad. It's not the way we wanted or expected it to go, but it's a great piece of television and it's their piece of television

Edit: Also I'm stupid but a bit of closure for the ghosts and Alison between them leaving and the final geriatric scene would be nice, but I guess it's not necessary. Like how it's stated before that the ghosts would have been miserable with Button House being a hotel, please show why it's perhaps less miserable than anticipated. The plague ghosts were a great example, but the upstairs ghosts probably get the brunt of the hotel life so seeing how they'd grow accustomed to it would be super interesting. Honestly, the only thing us fans want is to see the ghosts happy because it makes us happy, and admittedly it's a bit parasitic but we have grown to care for their wellbeing. Plus, showing a few cute hijinks would be, well, cute. Perhaps instead of a full episode where it intrudes on the pacing, it could be done as a separate short.

People say Alison would be miserable because she can't find a house without ghosts but that's not true, there's newer houses with less history with no ghosts, she just didn't like it because it was too quiet. Now I don't actually think this is a bad thing, it's just something that she has to adjust too. Also it's probably going to be less quiet now with Mia, so that issue is half solved. Honestly, now they have the money to chose a piece of land that has no ghosts and build their perfect dream house, so finding a suitable property probably isn't going to be that hard.

Of course she's gonna miss the ghosts and vice versa, but just because an ending is bittersweet and has some changes that everyone has to get used to doesn't mean it's a miserable disaster.

[seijorhi]

👁️👄👁️

I'm alive, sorry I fell off the face of the earth for a few days there (I was unwell - new anxiety meds and all that jazz)

BUT!! I have much to say, both about your new fic and obviously one of the older ones, so here's an extremely belated / extended ART&RCSW <33

Firstly, Maelstrom was incredible, it changed the way I live my life

I don't even watch Trigun Stampede but good lord did you get me hooked on the characters - not to mention, a good poly fic is always the way to my heart

The twist of the secret bastard brothers?? Incredible. Delicious. Amazing. And the not so subtle hatred they have for their father?? The fact that the only good thing to come from him was their darling sister?? My gosh, you've got me wrapped around your finger Rhi

Though I must admit, the whole reveal and the part where reader is being lead to the throne room gave me anxiety - you always manage to surprise me with the way you set things up, and I mean that in the best way possible

I can't say anything about the characterisation of Vash and Knives because I don't watch the show, but I imagine that as with everyone else, you've done an amazing job

Also the sense of hopelessness at the end?? Because like, there's literally no escape - the best type of ending in my professional opinion

Next up on the agenda, we have a fic (series??) that I know you're not particularly fond of, but I absolutely love

Through the cold, I'll find my way back to you, your Hawks / Dabi soulmate fic - it has me in a fucking chokehold

It's literally everything I love in a fic - soulmates, poly relationship, yandere, it's just amazing

The slight sprinkle of angst kinda feels like a punch to the gut, but in a satisfying way - not to mention, the fact that Natsuo still keeps in touch with the reader even though they don't really have a connection aside from Touya kills me, he's so sweet

And poor Keigo (he's insane but I do not care <33)

The way my stomach drops when the reader realises that she has another soulmate will never not be a great feeling, but the way she knows instinctively that something is missing because Dabi isn't there really is painful

Like I said, I know you've said you don't really like the series, but I'm here to reassure you, I loved it, so rest assured, the hard work didn't go down the drain <33

I'm also really sorry for disappearing for like two or three weeks :// But I'm back now (??)

Anyway, I hope you've been well, drinking water and sleeping and whatnot <33

See you next week Rhi (I hope??) Lol :))

BBY I MISSED YOU <33

i hope ur doing okay, i am sending you all the forehead smooches and love!!

ahh but this ask is so nice!! honestly i was so worried about posting maelstrom cuz it's a new fandom for both me and sort of in general – i know the manga and old anime have been around for a while, but for most people it's new – and i wasn't sure if people were actually going to read it

turns out you did anyway, not knowing any of the characters vhgfjdksjdhfjdks it's always such a huge compliment when that happens. it's actually how i found my way first to bnha and then to haikyuu so, yeah, it makes me happy to see it's the same for you guys

as for through the cold... hoo boy. i did have big plans for that one, and every month or so there's a part of me that wants to either delete part 2 and start again, or delete the entire thing and start again, with better execution this time. i may not be as in love with bnha as i used to be, but hawks and touya, and that particular storyline (i am if nothing else a sucker from the soulmate trope gone wrong)

but also... the part i hate about series, and one of my biggest gripes as a writer is when there's a demand for part 2's and 3's but then it's crickets in the notes. part 2 kinda flopped and idk if it was because it wasn't great or if people just couldn't be bothered to leave a response, so while i do occasionally have the motivation to continue it i don't know if it's actually worth while or if anyone (aside from you haha) would be into it. but then i think about all that delicious angst and keigo and touya being jealous assholes and... hmmmm.... vghfjdkjhvfjdks

in any case, i'm glad you liked it and it was very sweet of you to send this ask and i adore you.

also, pls take care of yourself, and don't apologise for taking the time you need. i, of course, live for these asks and seeing you in my notes, but it's never a necessity. your mental/physical health always comes first <33

[dreadark]

what did you think of the event story?

gonna hope you’re talking about lingering echoes or i’ll look like a clown more than usual

yknow how ace attorney got someone known for yaoi doujins to design their characters

I feel like arknights did the same thing for this event’s writer

it’s just...really typical? like really of course they have a duet assigned just to them of course it turns out they’re secretly childhood friends and didn’t remember of course they’re doomed because they’ll literally kill everyone if they’re together like...they actually said “there’s only one bed.” how many more tropes can you fit in tho for that one specifically i feel like kreide probably still ended up sleeping on the floor. rip

so it’s kind of? charming?? baby’s first yaoibait (????) but anyway because it’s so typical i couldn’t take anything too seriously... like i enjoyed reading it enough but i just found everything really funny including the very sad™️ death which... probably not intended. maybe i’m too irony poisoned or something... 

anyway outside the goatboy tragedy...czerny was more interesting than i expected? I didn’t even realize he was a major character before oops. the whole deal with being leithanien’s only recognized infected musician so he has to keep giving things up to help the others...that seems to be the theme with him doesn’t it. he has to give up his privacy(?) to promote Morgen und Abend, then all his copyrights to get hospitals to treat infected, then eventually was even going to give up his life for eben and kreide. they don’t really dwell on it much but even at RI he donates most of what he earns... like yeah he’s a really nice guy but it seems like being the only infected in his position probably makes him feel like he has to be the one who does this for everyone else’s sake. which is tragic in its own way...dude please be a little more selfish. but this is a pretty realistic thing...

Oh yeah and I’m disappointed carnelian wasn’t here. like when i heard a leithanien event announced on stream that’s all i was waiting for and nope... please god let her be in the next one she desperately needs story. but this isn’t actually related to the event story

anyway my one real gripe… hibiscus…

why did she even get an alt. like you could replace her in this event with some npc and practically nothing would change...

the previous ones... lava being in who is real follows from her bond with nian, and kroos is A1 so yea she tags along, then gets an alt later... but why is hibiscus in leithanien. who knows. and you can see how lava and kroos have changed but hibiscus didn’t seem to change all that dramatically, yet they still dangle this ooh something terrible happened in her profile like Yes Okay I Know either tell us exactly or shut up this is the third time you’ve done this

well they had sarkaz racism and also immediately dropped it...speaking of that that’s something i’ve never liked. oripathy discrimination works (sometimes) because it doesn’t really have a clean real-world analogue, but this... hmm with the whole stealing blood thing this event they obviously seem to be making this an analogue to antisemitism. which... okay but the sarkaz are literally devils. like they got shapeshifters and vampires and are also most of the major enemy types... that’s not good...? 

idk i didn’t like the victoria taran thing for a similar reason. and then there’s how ursus hates catgirls and victoria maybe looks down on zalak from this random throwaway line just. why??? 

aegir in iberia is the only time ak has done this decently because they don’t try to make some stupid reason like actually they tried to take over the world 200 years ago, it’s just xenophobia amplified by the church picking a scapegoat after the Silence. and they use this interestingly sometimes with how the cult preys on vulnerable people. also aegir are from fuckn atlantis so they can’t make bad analogues thankfully

everything else has been stupid and pointless or just Bad

(liberi in laterano are a whole other deal with the angel hivemind thing, it’s more just non-sankta there anyway which is a bit different... i talk too much already let’s not get into this one...)

I’ve always really liked kroos, and fang and beagle by extension, and then lava after who is real... but hibiscus just makes me feel nothing. she’s just a medic who works hard and has her 1 gimmick of making terrible food. and i wanna like all of A1 so i don’t like that

at least they made a point of how she doesn’t know how to play the flute because looking at her e2 yeah i can tell STOP HOLDING IT LIKE THAT !! (but also her class doesn’t make much sense i don’t remember there being any big moment in the story where she decides to use her arts offensively... it’s mentioned in one of her voicelines tho so i might have missed it????)

[high-noon-raccoon]

Well I just finished TotK, so here are thoughts that literally nobody asked for  :o)

Before I get to the nitpickery, let me say straight-up that I loved this game and that it was absolutely a worthy successor to BotW. What follows is mostly gripes that wouldn’t stand out so sorely if the game didn’t also get so much just perfectly right! So it’s going to sound like I hated it but I didn’t. :P The good stuff is all so...self-evident though, ahaha.

BotW was one hell of a tough act to follow but they did it, they genuinely did it. I appreciated the greater focus on story in this one, and what a story it was -- like something out of a Ghibli movie, and just as heartbreaking. Ghibli should animate this, I’d throw so much money at it. I feel like the world of Hyrule, as a setting overall, has really matured into its own distinct thing. I love all of the focus on the distinct races and cultures, and they’ve finally grown into something genuinely unique from the standard fantasy tropes. (I mean, you could argue the Zora are fish elves and the Gorons are sumo dwarves but still). Not that any of this has been a problem in the Zelda franchise for a while, but I’m old enough to remember when the Zora were basically sahaguin enemies and the Gerudo were Those Bad People (who were sometimes excluded from titles entirely), so. :P The quality of life improvements are all very refreshing, especially where the map towers and shrines are concerned. Of the very few problems that BotW had, they managed to fix almost every single one -- save not being able to quick-swap between armor sets, and, of course, the (controversial?) timing on flurry rushes. I’d be less mad about the latter, buuuuuuut...

Alright, I guess we’re nitpicking now. :P

I know a lot of people who are flummoxed by the combat in this game, who lament that they’re just bad at it. I’m definitely one of those people; I have to cover my lack of skill with an excess of hearts and a LOT of love from the Great Fairies. But I know even Soulsborne champions who can roll a Fromsoft game EZ but who just outright suck at, of all things, BotW/TotK’s combat. One thing we both agree on is that the timing of perfect dodges is just...jank.

Which wouldn’t be an issue if the Flurry Rush remained an optional bonus for the Skilled Players to exploit, but it wasn’t. 90% of the final battle was balanced around being able to do it, especially phase 3. And if you can’t do that -- which most people I personally know can’t -- then your options are really, really limited. It greatly undermined what was otherwise an astounding final battle. Speaking of getting into fights, look at all of the armor you can get! So many different sets, each with their own unique style and bonuses, almost all of which are upgradable, aaaannnnd....it kind of doesn’t matter, because you’ll be spending half your time either in the Snowquill (seriously, what’s with all the cold zones?), or taking gloom damage that your armor can’t prevent anyway.

I actually do like the gloom mechanic, though. It’s a fantastic challenge and excellent atmosphere.

How about upgrading that armor! It’s been a while since I played BotW but iirc the material cost was lower and the monetary cost higher? I....wish it was still that way. While I struggled bigtime with income for most of TotK (that was less of an issue for me in BotW for whatever reason), I would much prefer grinding rupees to grinding lynel. I can maybe kill 5 lynel total, but you want 5 per upgrade for this set? Hell naw.

In general this game is so much grindier. Grind for rupees, grind for monster mats, grind the shrines, grind the lightroots, grind zonaite, grind bubbulgems, on and on and on it went. And it really began to wear me down after a while. I wound up skipping a lot of content and upgrades because I felt like I was just...wasting my time. I’m here to explore and experience this vast, incredible world; if I wanted a collect-a-thon I’d boot up the emulator and play Spyro.

And that’s where the game sadly was a letdown for me as well: the exploration. This was always going to be tough for them to pull off because we’ve already explored Hyrule by this point; there’s no way to get that sublime feeling of loneliness and discovery back. And that’s ok!

To mitigate this they added a ton of new stuff to explore, and changed the face of the old world, only...it also got old pretty fast. One can only explore so many caves before they get bored of them. One can only explore so many sky islands before realizing that so few of them are actually unique. And the Depths. My god, I hated the Depths. Rather than being a challenge, or a new source for the wonder of discovery, they were just annoying to traverse. There are ways to successfully do these kinds of zones where they are both captivating to explore and accessible to explore; Blackreach in Skyrim and literally everything in Subnautica comes to mind.

But the Depths is wandering aimlessly for 20-40 minutes only to realize that the area you’ve been trying to get into must be wholly walled off and that you just wasted your time. Time to go elsewhere? Walk ten feet...throw a brightbloom. Walk ten feet...throw a brightbloom. And like the sky islands, much of what you could discover was pretty samey. The magic of the original Hyrule map was the individual love put into each of the landmarks. I still remember discovering the Lost Temple in the canyon; or how breathless I was stumbling into the Lanayru Promenade -- places that seemed to tell a story, and that made you wonder what their purpose used to be, what happened to them. That personal touch was missing here, to the point where the new content felt more like DLC than a new game. Ultimately, I never finished exploring the Depths before I got fatigued. I think I uncovered like half of it and gave up. Nor did I really feel motivated to rediscover the original world. It felt a little criminal, leaving it all unexplored when I did every last thing I could in BotW, but...these days I have less time to spend on such things, so I’m satisfied with what I did see.

As a final aside, my god was I ever hungry for the lore of this world. I know Zelda’s historically never gone greatly in depth with any of its stories ever, but this one would have lent to it so well. Everything about the ancient world is fascinating and I was dying to know more.

It’s also weird that they kind of ignored all that came immediately before. Where’s all the ancient Sheikah tech? Not a single ruined guardian to be found anywhere in the world at all? You mean they cleaned it all up that fast? What about the Divine Beasts? Sure, maybe they won’t be effective against the Demon King for Reason X, but shouldn’t they still be kicking around? I’m assuming the Sheikah got that technology in the first place by copying the Zonai? It’s pretty similar after all. What about Ganondorf? It’s hard to tell whether or not Calamity Ganon was his doing? Are they the same thing or different? Why not explain that in like one or two lines? What made the Demon King so absurdly powerful? Did he have the Triforce of Power in addition to the Secret Stone? Zelda’s shown with the Triforce of Wisdom in one cutscene so we’re still doing that, right? Or no?

Like I said, nitpicking. :P

Overall though, this was a delightful ride and I don’t regret the time I sank into it. It is, as ever, a gorgeous game, and it’s incredible they pulled all of this off. It’s definitely got all kinds of fan content rotating in my brain (that I’ll probably never have the time to actually do, lmao).

[twoheartsoneclara]

🔥 fanfic tropes (for the unpopular/spicy opinion meme!)

omg immediately forgets every fanfic trope ever

okay let me see....

i literally could not care less about fake dating aus they are so boring to me.

any variations thereupon are also boring to me: arranged marriage/marriage so i'll inherit this money/etc etc

same goes for only one bed like. ok. who cares?????? who cares

okay i kind of lied a tv show pulled off the only one bed trope once and i was so not mad about it but they actually managed to do something interesting with it

also i feel like the same goes for enemies to lovers - it has to be done really well for it to work but most of the time it's just like "meh you're the worst!!" "good i hate you also!" but we're ✨ attracted ✨ to each other so it doesn't really matter.

also a weirdly specific one but when people write fandom fusion fics so like if you have a pairing from one fandom and write them as if they're mulder and scully from the xfiles or whatever, but another character would fit that role better, but then they'll keep it that way because of the ship. it bugs me so much. if it's not as specific like if it's pacific rim fusion and they're just meant to be drift compatible or whatever and not taking the main character's arcs it's less of an issue for me

this is maybe not a trope, but i hate it when people steal other character's traits to give it to their fave/character bashing/etc. grow up. get a job.

also the cinderella complex of acting like one character is just soooooo mistreated by everybody else, everyone is just a huge meanie to them all the time, like yawn 😩😩

especially when the character in question happens to be treated no worse than any other character in the actual narrative, or they happen to be a character who's actually really assertive in canon and then in fics they'll just be a complete walkover. like literally what happened here.

i also get really annoyed by huge fandoms where there are plenty of characters to write about but all of the fics are almost exclusively about one (1) ship and this really becomes a problem when it ignores/bashes other characters like i said above

soulmate fics aren't an immediate won't read for me but they have to stand out in some way

halsdkjkfslj this just makes me sound like i hate shipping fics and it's kind of true but i actually love a lot of tropes and shippy tropes like i love aus, role reversals, 5+1, etc. i guess i just hate when characters are ~ forced together ~ into love by contrived circumstances. it's so....eyeroll-y to me. it's like when you watch sleepless in seattle and you get to the end and the movie's like well! those two sure are in love! and you're like no! they've known each for two minutes! they're not in love!

same thing for most of these fake dating/enemies to lovers/bed sharing, it's like people are like "well these tropes are how you get to xyz" instead of actually developing the relationship alongside it by showing how feelings for each other have begun/deepened. like that one bed sharing scene i mentioned, it shows how awkward the "relationship" is because they are like okay i guess we have to share a bed but i need my white noise machine but you want to watch cyrano de bergerac on the tv but we can't POSSIBLY sleep head to head foot to foot it has to be a head foot foot head type situation. but cyrano de bergerac is french so i'll read off the subtitles to you because you can watch it in the mirror and as you fall asleep it's the part where cyrano is admitting his love and i'm saying it softly because i know you're asleep but i'm starting to realize i'm a little in love with you too.

like the LAYERS there.

but more often that not it's like fic writers assume that you will just automatically assume that that is what is happening rather than actually writing it. (this is a problem with published fiction too, particularly romance, since it seems that my biggest gripes are with that general genre lol)

anyways thanks for asking! <3

[spicyicymeloncat]

I couldn’t respond earlier bc I was out but THIS

THIIIIIIISSSSS

WHY ARE MOST OF THE FANDOMS IM IN LIKE THIS.

THIS IS LIKE MY MAIN GRIPE WITH FANDOM (I’m in hater mode constantly because of this)

Long ranty post incoming, warning for opinions, discussion of sexism and brief discussion with “problematic ships”

Writers will show up and give you the most detailed world and people will have shipping wars for no reason.

And like I am in the boat of “enjoy fandom however you like, it’s your blog your content do what you want” but it’s disheartening when you’re on a tag for a franchise and none of the content is real or true or about the show and it just leads to a lot of other unpleasant problems with fandom. It’s fine if you do enjoy some of the things I’m about to complain about but the issue for me is when it completely dominates fandom bc it’s just incredibly boring to me personally.

AND DISCLAIMER. I do like shipping! Just not only shipping. It’s like butter. I like butter in my sandwiches but not tons of it on its own. I want the cheese or ham or lettuce and bread in my sandwich too. I’d like to enjoy the whole sandwich and the whole media franchise.

BUT LIKE CAN WE PLEASE talk about the huge mischaracterising and flanderisation that happens when people care more about a specific relationship dynamic and basically make content for that but with the costume of a specific fandom as long there’s a single hint of that happening. Like people just like a ship trope and they slap any old character onto it.

And it’s always the same fucking “they’re divorced <3” like I get it you like divorced old men (examples: the Magnus archives, Lego monkie kid) . And yknow I feel like all the fandoms I’m in have just a mlm couple and sometimes that’s the entire fanbase (examples: see above, Zelda, project sekai). Which at times feels a lot like a normalised version of just yaoi fangirling which has a lot of weird implications for society.

And also can we talk about women. Because whilst most fandoms tend to have THE MLM tm ship, sometimes fandoms have favourite men characters who don’t have to be shipped in order to be popular. But most women in the fandoms I’m in seem to only be popular because they can be shipped and this is such dated behaviour. (Example: Skylor vs Morro from Ninjago, again 80% of the cast of project sekai it makes me so mad). Like fandom only know horny or haunted by trauma fr fr /hj.

And like yknow, there’s also the normal amount of passive misogyny as a factor, such as women just being less popular in general (the Magnus archives has popular NON CANON ship of Elias and Peter which has no excuse of being so popular in comparison the two main cast canon couples of Melanie and Georgie or Basira and Daisy (ofc it makes sense that Jon and Martin are popular bc they’re the main main characters)

Like sometimes it feels like fandom is so romance oriented that women are simplified into their romanceability and they see this treatment much more than men (but this defo does happen to men and non binary people too but in general these are patterns). Also there’s also the immense woman hate when a piece of media has been implying a het romance but the fandom likes the gay ship more. I’ve seen this happen with Nya from Ninjago, this is basically happening with Yona from totk (and I’m going mad over it).

And speaking of romance orientated things, rip to anyone who looks into a hc tag and it’s entirely flooded with x reader and in like gentlest way possible all of those posts are not very in character and I guess they aren’t supposed to be, they’re just supposed to look dateable but like you see why that can be annoying right. Like I wish we had literally any other kind of headcanon. I wanna know a characters food preferences, I wanna know their medical history, I wanna know what kind of music they like or if their bilingual or what subjects they’d study at school. I want a description of literally any other relationship other than romantic.

But. But. The biggest rest in peace goes to fandoms where they’re main character roster is all sibling dynamics. My bestie is in the dc fandom and tmnt and like. Rip. Disastrous and terrifying. Deepest condolences. An entirely sibling cast combined with people determined to ship everything under the sun leads to unsavoury concepts. And yknow it could’ve been avoided if people realised that other relationships existed. And btw I said at the top that I think it’s fine to enjoy some things I complain about, this one doesn’t count. If you’re out here specifically glorifying and romanticising child relationships , sibling relationships or abuse, then you need to change your mindset. I don’t wanna get into the pro/anti bs, but like if you’re out here with the intent on saying that those relationships are perfectly fine, then I suggest getting therapy or something.

Other than that, generally it does frustrate me when it feels like a franchise is wasted on a majority of its fanbase. I have this same problem with tumblr sexymen, the jokes are funny but the actual unironic simping for a mischaracterisation really irks me, bc I just don’t like “horny” being an excuse to throw an entire franchise in the bin. Which is why I was so irrationally angry at people rehydrating Ganondorf from totk after only seeing the first teaser trailer. Also related, but I actually have the lmk macaque tags blocked because he was every other post and people mischaracterised him (imo) as hell he was the fandoms emo kitty cat (imo) and I do not care for it actually.

But I guess the solution is to be the change you wish to see in the world, so I’ll just come up with the headcanons and the content myself I guess. Bc I do believe ppl should enjoy how they want (barring supporting ickiness) even if I privately think that that character would not fucking say that. This is more of just a vent of why sometimes the fandom tag can be annoying to me, rather than telling people they should change bc I’m angry.

Sorry if I am being super blunt and mean (I started writing this and then life happens and suddenly you’re a little too angry :p), this is ofc all my own opinion.

Ps. I will note, I think Ninjago is one of the least ship dominated fandoms I’ve been in compared to the others. Like Ik there’s a lot non ship content and more hc in my experience at least. Like I don’t think as many characters get flanderised to the extent of my other fandoms. It’s not like it doesn’t happen but I appreciate the lessened severity of it (I might just be following cool ppl). And not saying there isn’t a wide variety of non ship content in other franchises, Ninjago just sticks out to me rn ig lol.

it sucks SO hard being one of the small minority in any fandom who couldn't care less about the ships present, and who really cares more for the lore than anything.

I dont CARE about new ship fuel youve found I wanna discuss why this super cool mystical thing has been secretly going on and what the fuck it means !!!!

[pandoraheadcanons]

White Savior’s use in AVATAR

(now’s as good a time as any to post my short essay on a negative trop AVATAR uses) 

In regards to AVATAR and its use of the “white savior” trope.

The argument that stands is that defining AVATAR makes use of the “white savior” trope is incorrect, as it does not prove totally true in the end of the film. However, the fact that Neytiri is the one to kill Quaritch, and that the fauna of Pandora revolt does not negate the use of “white savior.”

So first in my argument is Jake’s being Toruk Makto. The way that Jake just…jumps onto the back of the apex predator is a little ridiculous. Like if it were that easy I feel like there would be more Toruk Makto’s, but I digress. Jake becomes Toruk Makto (“tames wildest wild horse” as I’ve heard a critic call it) and goes to the Tree of Souls to make amends. But…he doesn’t really? Everyone just automatically decides to forgive him because he’s successfully made Tsaheylu with Toruk. Nevermind that he lied to everyone about his purpose and knew Hometree was going to get destroyed. He broke the entire clan’s trust and their ancestral home was just annihilated, but it’s okay! He can ride the Big One, so he’s all good now. No objections from anyone, they all just roll with it. This feels very harmful, as it’s implying that the indigenous are willing to forgive Jake (who let’s not forget is a white man) because he did something impressive.

Now, let’s go from here. Jake being Toruk Makto, while an understandable plot device, is still use of the white savior trope by default. In the Project 880 script, both Jake and Tsu’tey were supposed to be Toruk Makto. I also think seeing Neytiri as Toruk Makto would have been much more interesting (an opinion I’ve seen many people echo, though I understand that’s not an applicable source).

Now, it’s up to Jake to unite the clans. Again, an understandable role for the film’s protagonist. Still, the very fact that Jake is a white man who is uniting these indigenous clans, is itself a use of white savior.

Now here is where the argument that Jake and AVATAR as a film do not use white savior. It is Neytiri who kills Quaritch, and the Pandoran animals that save the day. While I won’t deny that it’s great to see Neytiri kill the big bad (good subversion of male-led tropes here), that doesn’t out-rule the film’s use of white savior. In fact, it just seems like a way to say “See, even though our protagonist is white guy, he’s not the super hero here, so he can’t be a white savior!” Unfortunately, this is the take I see the most, and I do believe it to be incorrect. This part of the film does not negate the fact that Jake is Toruk Makto, and that he takes the Olo’eyktan role at the film’s end.

In the standard length film, we never see Jake become Olo’eyktan. All we see is Tsu’tey fall from the carrier and then Jake wearing his neck-piece at the end (which always strikes me as a little ghoulish). When we do see Tsu’tey die, it’s still not well done in my opinion. See, Tsu’tey spends the majority of the film hating Jake’s guts. Then Jake is Toruk Makto and Tsu’tey’s suddenly cool with him. (For brevity’s sake I won’t go into this scene in Tsu’tey’s comic, though goodness knows I could). Tsu’tey literally does a character 180 from hating Jake to calling him his brother. The respect that Tsu’tey shows Jake while Tsu’tey is dying feels a bit like “white man earns respect of native man” and it just feels gross to me. Another really big gripe I have with this is that Tsu’tey tells Jake to be Olo’eyktan. Jake, who was only a corporal in the marine corp., and who has only been with the Omaticaya for 3 months. You cannot tell me Tsu’tey, whose number one concern was his people, would totally tell this person to lead his people.

Now, “Next Shadow” does, in fact, deal with some of these criticisms and the fact that Jake is wildly unprepared to be leader. When Jake’s in his dream-death state, both Tsu’tey and Eytukan show up to help him. So the native spirits have to show up and help the white guy learn how to lead their people. Not great.

I have indigenous people say that they’ve seen both the fans of Avatar be anti-native in a pretend progressive way, and that people who hated the movie also tend to be very anti-native. 

           I think it’s important that we as a fandom do listen to what indigenous people have to say about AVATAR, and that we don’t just brush off the use of ‘white savior/noble savage’ by saying that they just haven’t really thought about the film. It’s quite dismissive and makes us seem like a fandom who isn’t willing to take criticism on something we enjoy

[the-bloody-sadist]

1 and 3 for whump ask game? :)

Thank you for the ask! From this ask game 1. )

I love whumpblr as a community - by this I mean the people in it, and not necessarily just the content. Everyone is incredibly kind and supportive of each other, and the fact that we all share a pretty specific set of interests with one another makes us feel like family. What I have to say about not liking whumpblr is not based at all on the community or people itself, but the content or aspects of content that I personally don't enjoy. With that disclaimer out of the way, I can't stand when characters are labelled whumpee, whumper, and caretaker. Lmao this is probably the biggest pet peeve that gets aggravated on the daily. I like characters, and to me, whump isn't very special when enacted on random cardboard cutouts of stand-ins that just illustrate the scenarios. I can't enjoy whump if there's no personalities involved. So I go for the committed storylines with named, fleshed-out characters, because that's what makes the whump actually hit. I just don't understand the appeal (past the initial story prompt for those writing whump who want to find scenarios to use) of a personality/gender/backstory stripped scene with stand-ins we don't care about getting beat up.

It just takes away the entirety of the impact. I could read about the absolute worst torture happening to "whumpee" and just not feel a thing, but give me the same scenario happening to either a character I know from media (in fanfiction) or an OC of the author's that I've come to learn about and love, suddenly everything means 200x more. And you can make use of such subtle horrors (I'm big on subtlety, which is another reason I hate the use of the literal roles being the names given to the 'characters' lmao xD) when it's a fleshed-out human.

But that's just me! Plenty of people seem to love it, or else they find other uses for it and push aside whatever qualms they have with the non-character approach. There are also some posters who do put personalities into their whumpee and whumper, but like...what is the POINT of naming them like that if you're going to treat them like a character?

Anyways. xD There are plenty of other things I don't like about whumpblr because I am a very picky person, but that's the biggest thing, and I don't want to gripe and complain about everything that gets on my nerves about it. Besides, I can overlook anything I don't like just for the simple fact of everyone being SO kind in the community. I don't care what you write if you're just a great person behind the scenes. Never stop. Enjoy yourself. Draw your crowd. I think it's wonderful that people share and get supported, even if I don't personally enjoy or understand the appeal. :)

3.)

Oooh! This one highly depends, because though there are certain tropes and/or whump actions that I enjoy, some are incredibly tough to write and others are ones I'd only read about, and would never try writing myself because I don't think I'd be good at it. More than that, there are also ones that I fall to all the time because I can't get enough of writing it, and it's a main coping mechanism for me.

To break all these down, I'll start with my top favorite, which is whipping. I find it frustrating as hell to write whipping scenes, but goddamn I eat them up in media, whether movies, books, or Tumblr posts. I mean it's also my top BDSM kink along with rigging, so it relates most to that. Plus the SOUNDS? *Pounds table*

I wish more whump included spanking/belting, because that's usually seen as a sexualized action, but I'd like to see it performed non-sexually as just a humiliation tactic. I loooove belting. But it's also another frustrating thing to write, so I can't provide my own version of it with much motivation.

A trope that draws me in rather...violently and unexpectedly is the "rescued whumpee" trope. So a "pet" character who was previously abused coming to a new owner, expecting mistreatment and being met with a kind, caring master instead. This is perhaps the most magnetic one to me, and whenever there are scenes where the whumpee gets scared into panic attacks by either the owner losing their cool or accidentally bringing up a traumatic memory, BRO I FUCKING DIE. Whumperflies go off the charts. And in general I love the pet whump and how it differs from the sexualized BDSM play of the same style, because it offers the slavery fix and the owner/obedient submissive dynamic that I love while staying away from things that I don't quite love about pet play (the animalization part LOL, which is not sexualized in pet whump and feels more comfortable to me as a dynamic).

I find myself writing this sort of trope more or less, especially with the trajectory of Dancing With Death and the third party (Emery) witnessing the abuse of the pet character (Angel) while also trying to find a way to eventually rescue or at the very least offer comfort and protection. My favorite is the abuse continuing and the third party only being able to offer background help. You get the constant hurt/comfort that way.

I again don't want this to be too long so xD I will end it with my absolute favorite trope to write, which is the kidnapper/kidnapped trope. My pet way of writing it though is to explore first the abuse, the psychological manipulation, and then the eventual breakdown of both parties, which is the key element to me. I like a kidnapper who is secretly insecure and needy/lonely, and a kidnappee who slowly finds the ways to get to the kidnapper's depth, whether meaning to or not. But if you've read my Sinner fanfic, you'd already know that. ;D

I enjoyed answering these! Sometimes it's just nice knowing there's at least one person who wants you to spill the beans about your personal opinions, and to be able to unload without hating yourself for it. So thank you, anon! <3

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom episode 4-7 Thoughts: (under a readmore because, these got kinda long!)

-the outfit danny had to buy for dash's party. CLASSIC 2000S i cannot stop laughing. And also showing up to the party and everyone is dressed like the trio is hilarious. and further proof that everyone looks good dressed goth.

-dash has a closet full of cute lil bear plushies?? LOVE that. adorable. also his response to danny trashing his room fighting a ghost was SO valid if somone BROKE MY BED IN HALF ID BE PISSED TOO.

-technus being like 'oh smart, u should be a tutor!' then later being like 'forget tutor, be a teacher!' :) supportive king <3 I also really like his upgraded suit/design. AND SPOCK CAMEO??? HELLO??

-the music in this show is super. its so funky. I looked it up and the guy who does it, guy moon (awesome name) also did music for other cartoons like fairly odd parents, barnyard, chalkzone, billy & mandy, AND some actual movies like FIGHT CLUB??? the whiplash I got from reading that)

-sam being rich explains a lot about her, actually.

-I know the moral of the episode was supposed to be 'dont ditch your friends for popular people/spend a lot of money on clothes that arent You to Fit In'. but tbh. it wouldve been easy for danny to have been like 'well, okay, ill come but only if my friends can!' but I get. that hes 14. so. not a lot to say there.

-BOX GHOST IS BACK!!!!! also, danny sitting up and wearing the dress/wig/makeup. umm thats how I dress everyday LMFAO. unironically me. (hate the jokes that boil down to 'haha funney man in dress' tho. but this is a look)

-jazz being protective of her brother once again being like NOOO YOU GUYS BETTER NOT STAKE OUT HIS (actually haunted) LOCKER!! shes aware of how people perceive him and she wants to help :( which is also probably why she told dash to invite him to that party even tho she had no interest in going!! she wants to help him out :(

-gotta say im with tucker on the whole 'should danny use his powers to get back at bullies' debate. 100% yes. let him teach kids to fight back. making dash throw his food at paulina out of the blue? no. but when hes actually about to pick on someone? yeah! for self defense? YEAH! if dash and his friends just threw food at him, I think rather than. idk doing sneaky shit with frogs he couldve just threw it back and not pulled punches if they tried to fight. I kNOOWWW its a kids show so they are like 'if u fight back ur just as bad!! violence bad!!' but. theyre HIS POWERS. WHO CARES.

-like my only gripe is that dash really isnt LEARNING ANYTHING WHEN DANNY GETS BACK AT HIM IN THE MOST PETTY INDIRECT WAYS. whatever they had to add a bully psa episode I guess. I hate it and I hate the way cartoons usually handle it because these methods simply Do Not Work. 'aND YouRE USinG YOur poWErs FOR EVill???!' this is Not Evil. even when poindexter takes dannys body, theyre only being 'nice' bc hes stealing soda for them!! bitches deserve what they get (nothing too brutal bc theyre high schoolers but damn, if they pick on danny he doesnt need to be the 'bigger person' he needs to start biting people)

-SAM TRYING TO SMUGGLE FROGS OUT OF THE BIO LAB?? girl in middle school when we had to dissect frogs we could opt out, also, they came to us already dead and preserved...

-sidney's lingo and the fact hes in black and white is sending me. also, danny is a ghost celebrity apparently for being a halfa?? ok. thats interesting to know

-the DENTIST BEING EXCITED ABOUT THE COTTON CANDY FLOOD IS THE FUNNIEST THING SO FAR.

-I LOOOVE the trope of 'wishes gone wrong'. not crazy about the stereotypical genie, or the use of the dreamcatcher looking design. (also, I KNOW theyre scientists but the way theyre handling a cold...are the fentons ANTIVAX)

-the genie. she. whitewished paulina. JKASDFHKJ. (the ghost literally just being hello kitty???? im dying) 'why do i feel that im special and wonderful? because I AM! <3' paulina ilu self worth queen. felt bad for her also getting possessed by (2) boys later who were arguing INSIDE HER. WTF.

-imagine being the guy trapped in his now flying car. he thought danny and tucker were HALUCINATIONS. imagine being trapped in a flying car with two, what you think are imaginary arguing 14 year olds convinced ur gonna die. i WOULD say this dude is gonna need so much therapy, but he seemed totally fine and excited when they landed (I would be happy too if a chicken was on my head. chickens rule) stoner rights

-sam's bat slippers??? iconic. SO cute.

-I think desiree's backstory is so :( do all ghosts have messed up sad backstories?? poindexter's was sad too...cannot imagine box ghost has any kind of fucked up backstory. but what if. his mom got pushed off cliffs by boxes...........a la cruella... anyway her 'no man may lay a hand on me' iconic. ilu

-I know danny has no concept of how much bras cost but my god dont attack tucker with some girls bra. those are so expensive.

-its really. well its not a GOOD THING he went into the portal and got fucked up, but its good danny was the one to do it rather than sam or tucker. because even tho he was being influenced by desiree and kept getting more malicious and it prob wasnt 100% him...he sucked as a ghost like most the people he 'pranked' were innocent ppl just Chillin and he didnt want to help anyone at all. I think danny is the most responsible out of them but also, hes 14 and shouldnt HAVE to feel obligated to fight every ghost. hes a good kid and wants to, but I also feel like he feels like...responsible for the portal turning on?? because his parents did give it up,, but it was an accident and not his fault (if anything, why was the on switch on the inside. why was it that easy. why was there no safety measures. that seems like smth OSHA needs to hear about). like thats my son. hes a good boy. and hes never done anything wrong in his life, ever. if anyone hurts him im killing everyone in this room and then myself. etc.

-danny's curfew is 10PM????? DUDE. when I was 14...shit I couldn't be out that late, I had to be back at like, 8 at the latest, and my parents had to know exactly where and who I was going with, AND i had to call/text them regularly...is this a case of my parents being overbearing, or the fentons sucking??? the only time i could EVER be out that late was if I was at an overnight sleepover or smth...

-the vultures have lil fezes. why do they have fezes...theyre so fuckin funny 'ask him for directions' 'I KNOW WHERE IM GOING' these ghost vultures are my new grandpas. pick them up, put them in the adopt box.

-'I wonder why those guys were trying to waste dad!' THEYRE GHOSTS. YOUR DAD HUNTS GHOSTS. why is that not a conclusion you'd immediately jump to??

-*jazz voice, clearly disgusted* WISCONSIN???

-mrs fenton with the lab coat and leg warmers and PERM. YESSS STYLISH.

-was going to say 'ew billionaire' @vlad but. super valid he used his powers to assumedly steal and cheat to get that money, thats how all billionaires do it! but ew hes a SIMP. and spending your billions on FOOTBALL STUFF?? you are Not Valid overall. I DO respect the fact you have a castle instead of a mansion. in wisconsin. if youre going to be stupidly rich might as well go all out, torches on the wall and all. I DO like his ghost form's little kitty ears. catman. and his cape! every design can benefit from a cape. and how different his forms look, like danny looks the EXACT SAME IN BOTH FORMS ASIDE FROM COLOR CHANGES. vlad's is like,, I could believe they were different people!! also I love the drama. but dude you are fighting a 14 year old. lame. also he was like, telling danny he wanted his mom and him and like, wanted him to renounce his dad?? WHAT ABOUT JAZZ?? bitch. those r MY kids and they are both important and special. I do agree they need better parents but thats not u sir <3

-I thought vlad's 'little badger' nickname for danny came from the football mascot of the packers, but google says they have NO MASCOT?? so now I'm like?? is it because his hair is sometimes black and sometimes white?? I hate to give him props but thats a PERFECT NICKNAME. theyre also tiny and vicious!

-why did I get so excited that Skulker is back!! its been like. 2-3 eps LMAO. AND THE DAIRY KING. ICONIC I LOVE HIM. hes the nicest guy ever :) more nice ghosts please. danny cannot be fighting alone everytime with no ghost buds like every ghost being hostile sucks :(

-mr. fenton knew vlad was controlling him, but a few episodes ago he had no clue danny was doing the same thing...is it something about how malicious the ghost is?? he just seemed to think his memory had gaps the first time, this time he was INSTANTLY LIKE 'GHOST'. then again in this ep when danny did it again he was just slightly confused but not immediately freaking out like he did with vlad possessing him!!

-'my parents will accept ME NO MATTER WHAT' so. so why haven't you come out to them yet, danny?? if you really think that?? if theres no harm, and you're sure??? if vlad is a real problem, wouldnt that make dealing with him easier, to expose him???? SO WHY HAVENT YOU COME OUT YET?? COULD IT BE,, MAYBE YOU HAVE DOUBTS ABOUT WHETHER YOUR PARENTS ACTUALLY WILL ACCEPT YOU??? 🤔 ... 🏳‍🌈 I get why people say He Is Trans. I totally totally get u danny.

-sorta unrelated, but it just occurred to me in one of these eps they go to casper HIGH not casper middle school??? theyre 14?? dont highschools usually do ages 15-18? (I didnt go to hs so I might be wrong, if I am ignore this...) freshmen are usually 14-15, could just be a case of them not turning 15 yet but they will sometime in the school year (I say they because tucker said he was 14 too)? I know the show has 3 seasons, so by the end of it will they be older? thatd be neat but usually cartoon characters stay the same age...I love shows where you can see the characters age and grow up, though...three seasons seems like a long time to spend on like, 1 year...

[gavillain]

Any villain (from any media) that you genuinely despise? And not in the good ol’ “love to hate em” kinda way, a villain that you truly can’t stand. An explanation would be appreciated for whatever villain or villains you choose.

Yeah, I have a few notable ones. Let's do my Top Five LEAST Favorite Villains of all time:

5. Alexander Pierce (Captain America: Winter Soldier)

Gonna be honest, I had to look up his name because I forgot it. That should tell you all you need to know. Literally the only thing about Pierce that I could tell you off the top of my head is that he filled the role that belonged to Dell Rusk (the Red Skull's alter ego). That's literally it. This guy was the most bland and forgettable villain I have ever encountered. The MCU might stumble a lot in their villains, but even still, when you have to stack up in a universe with Loki, Red Skull, Kingpin, John Garrett, Grant Ward, Thanos, Ultron, Hela, Obadiah Stane, Kilgrave, and even villains I dislike like Adridge Killian, you've got to go big or go home.

The movie sets us up for a intelligent and thought-provoking discussion of the faults of America, but then everything bad in American history just gets pinned to Hydra. It's the same type of thing people do in real life with things like the Illuminati: oh, a shadowy, faceless organization is the cause of all evil in the world. It encourages looking for boogeymen than actually work towards societal betterment, so that type of conspiracy narrative just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Not to mention, of course, that everything about Hydra is just a bunch of bland and boring politically correct versions of Nazis, and they've rarely ever been used effectively. This was no exception either.

4. King Stefan (Maleficent)

Pretty much the mortal wound that made Maleficent a bad movie rather than just a kind of boring one. His badness is a poison that just drags everything around him down. First of all, his acting is terrible. He looks like the part well enough, but whenever he opens his mouth with that nasal voice that showed no complex expression, it was just cringe worthy. He's also an in-universe example of the Ron the Death Eater trope, where a hero gets portrayed as a villain to make the woobie villain look better.

In the original film Stefan was a good king and loving father who seeks only to protect his daughter from a maliciously invoked curse. Here he's reduced to a one-dimensional evil king so that the woman who curses a baby to death can look heroic, and I'm just not here for that. But upon rewatching it, the biggest problem with him kind of slapped me in the face: we barely get any sense of his existence or relationship to anything. For the main antagonist driving our conflict, he's barely in the movie and most everything from his motivations to his entire history with Maleficent is exposited to us via the narration rather than shown through any scenes or interactions where he's on screen. It feels like any opportunity to get a feeling for who he is just gets glossed over.

Hell, he and Maleficent don't get to have any dialogue in the big climax. For a relationship that formed the backbone of why Maleficent turned bad and why any of this was happening, it's just... nothing. There's nothing there. Everything with him needed to go deeper if this movie was going to work, but it's cut down to the point where the movie feels like it just rushes through its entire story and he's so flimsy that it feels like things just happen rather than connecting to things.

3. Dawn Bellwether (Zootopia)

Sometimes I have deep and thoughtful gripes with character writing and commentary. Sometimes I just hate characters because they're stupid. This is the latter category. She's SO fucking annoying. She felt like one surprise twist villain too many, and it really made me groan when I saw that they were basically just doing Hans over again with her (like almost EXACTLY note for note). The other major irk I have is that she's a Disney villain, that brand I've obsessively collected for all of my life. If you're a Disney villain without grandiose evil plans, vibrant colors, or a charismatic personality, then really I have very little use for you.

Also I feel like her social commentary was VERY muddled and not at all the comprehensive look at bigotry that movie tries to portray. With all her talk of being the little guy and her heavy workplace discrimination she gets from Mayor Lionheart, it's really not a stretch to read her ultimate reveal as the villain who instigated the entire conflict as implying "Super scary SJW is the one creating real prejudice." And, yeah, I'm sick to death of that bullshit in every form. But even if we completely decouple the movie from any real life parallels, she's still way too easy of a solution to an issue built up to be highly complex by the narrative. She's a scapegoat (scapesheep?) that gets treated like the source of all of the systematic prejudices, and... just no.

2. Sauron (The Lord of the Rings)

Here's the big thing that I have to admit: there's a lot that I actually DO like about Sauron. I like the whole evil overlord trope, I like how powerful and mysterious he is, I like the stuff that's implied about him, I like the backstory scene in the prologue, and I like a lot of the aesthetic choices surrounding him.

But, as I've said many times before, he's not a character. He has no personality. He never does anything. There's absolutely no pay off to three whole movies of him being the invisible hand. And intellectually, I understand that a lot of the point of him is to be more of an idea than a character. More like a metaphor for evil or as a stand in for the devil than the actual main antagonist. And I feel like, even if they weren't going to have him show up and get involved personally, it still COULD have worked if they played it more like he was the god/patron of the actual main villain. Maybe even if they kind of toyed with the question of his existence sort of like True Blood did with Dionysus in the Maryann storyline. They don't do that, of course.

But the thing that ends up being a stake in the coffin is that there's not even really another villain who fills the physical antagonist role that Sauron is absent from. At least not in its entirety. Part of why I think Fellowship IS the strongest LotR movie is because Saruman and the Nazgul very directly full that role. They are the main villains and Sauron is their cause that they're fighting for the background. The Two Towers is all Saruman, which is fine except he doesn't do much in that movie himself either so blah, and then Return of the King gives us the Witch King to fill that role. And the Witch King is kinda blah and generic, but he has a cool design and motif... but then he gets killed by a side character and no one seems to even notice that he's gone even though there's still like an HOUR of movie left to go after he dies. Sauron's front man is gone, and there's still a lot of movie to go where Sauron should FINALLY be doing something himself but isn't. Sauron IS the final villain and the spanning villain of the franchise, but he does nothing so the entire conflict with him just kinda feels like dudes clanging swords with no oomph behind it.

Also I got cyberbullied pretty badly by LotR fans back when I was thirteen because I didn't put Sauron higher on a Top Ten Villains Video. And I'm a petty bitch who holds onto things. They ruined me for ever liking Lord of the Rings and Sauron in particular is the cornerstone of my over a decade spanning vendetta.

The High Sparrow (Game of Thrones)

Never have I ever encountered a villain who has made me more physically ill than this fucker. I can stomach a lot of horrible bad guys who do horrible things, but the High Sparrow literally made me nauseous when he was on screen. One of my personal "triggers" (for lack of a better term) is that scenario of fanatics using religion to justify murdering and torturing those who they perceive to be "sinners," which is particularly visceral for me as a gay man. Real life things like the Pulse Nightclub shooting and the former Vice President of the United States advocating for electro-shock therapy for gay people are persistent reminders that the LGBT community still isn't really safe or accepted.

I live with the burden of those worries, and this guy's treatment of Loras in particular (but also Cersei and Margaery too) caused all of that to boil up. Everything this guy did was just so unpleasant and gross and honestly it's not something that I actually want to devote my time to watching. I came very close to quitting Game of Thrones altogether over him. Yes, I know in the books, he never goes after Loras, but he still goes after Margaery and Cersei for "adultery" and the Penance Walk for Cersei still happens and that's still gross.

On top of the triggering elements, I've never really been fond of characters with no build up coming in and shattering the status quo (see my whole aversion to the "Xemnas Complex"). It's just always been a plot that frustrated me because I'm constantly sitting there knowing that in an earlier installment, X character could have ended this very quickly and the fact that the likes of Cersei or Olenna or Baelish couldn't just squish the Sparrows easily just doesn't feel right to me. These are a handful of religious fanatics against the most powerful and intelligent people in the kingdom. Common people support or no, it just doesn't make sense to me that the High Sparrow could get away with everything he did for so long.

When season six rolled around, I thought they'd kill him off in the first episode of the season at the hands of Frakenmountain, but NOPE he was there ALL SEASON LONG. His plot was such a drag throughout. King's Landing was my favorite plotline in the show and he made it unpleasant and completely devoid of plot momentum. And his ultimate motivation for all of this? He had a bad hangover once. Really? REALLY? That's fucking stupid. While Cersei may have been behind the explosion of the Sept, a development I really did like, I completely blame the High Sparrow for the deaths of Margaery, Loras, Kevan, and Mace, who all deserved so much better. They were casualties of the High Sparrow underestimating Cersei, mistakes none of them would have made if the Sparrow hadn't paraded their humiliating penance out and then stopped them from leaving. Because he was so self-assured by his gods that he was on top of the world, he cost the show four of its best characters.

GOD I HATE HIM. His death was incredibly satisfying, and he shall not be missed. Worst Game of Thrones character by far, and I'm nauseous just thinking about him.

[qqueenofhades]

The photo set you reblogged of Yusuf and Niccolo helping throughout time just filled me with so many happy feels and it made me realize that it seems so common in media with immortal couples that they take breaks from each other and reconnect after a few decades. Which is a great trope but seeing these two that seems to have been attached at the hip since the day they met just fills me with all the heart eyes.

(I haven't read your fanfics for them yet. I know I'm a bad fan but if it helps I havent been able to read anything since all this started but while writing this ask I got the feeling that all this rambling I spewed out is a big theme)

Hush. Bad fan nothing. We all are coping with this stupid, awful year in different ways, some of us by escaping into fandom and some of us being unable to engage with it and some of us doing both or anything else. You certainly don’t owe me or anyone any obligation to interact with our content, fic or otherwise. So just to have that there on the top. You’re good, hun. :)

ANYWAY, thank you for giving me a chance to meta a bit on the boys and their relationship and to have a window into what my brain looks like pretty much 24/7 these days. (I blame them.) I keep thinking about all the ways this couple is depicted in the TOG film and how lovely it was and how unusual it is for me to have an OTP where I actually love them in canon and don’t need to violently disavow it in order to create AU fan content with just the characters. (See: Timeless, Game of Thrones, pretty much any show I’ve hyperfixated on at some point.) I love AUs anyway, because that’s the way my brain works, but the fact that I can also enjoy canon just as much is rare for me and for a lot of us. I saw a post somewhere remarking on how the fanfic for Joe/Nicky isn’t fixing anything, which is usually the point of transformative fanworks: we take something that canon atrociously fucked up and fix it. But in this case, all our interpretations are based on actually appreciating the way they’re presented in canon and wanting to enjoy that and uphold it, and that -- especially with a couple like this one -- is shocking??

Like. Despite my historian gripes about the occasionally incongruous details for their graphic-novel backstories (which are the only things I HAVE fixed in my fics), I’m just... deeply appreciative of the care which everyone, writers and actors and all else, put into depicting Joe and Nicky and their relationship. And god YES, one of the things I love the absolute MOST is that they’re a loving, faithful, committed, happy married queer couple over centuries, and that seems to be the case for as long as they’ve known each other/ever since they got together. (See Booker’s “you and Nicky always had each other.”) These fools can’t sleep apart from each other even when they’re stuck on a freight train in the middle of nowhere, they flirt like teenagers at dinnertime and even when they’re strapped to gurneys in a mad-scientist laboratory, they make out to enrage bad guys and also because they’re just still that goddamn into each other after all this time.

I think it was Marwan Kenzari who pointed out that there’s simply no way to truly state the depth of their knowledge and devotion and commitment to each other. They’re 950 years old. They have known each other since they were in their thirties; they’ve been husbands for literal centuries. There is no way anyone else in the world could possibly come close to replicating the kind of bond they have with each other, and neither of them have ever had any inclination to look, because why would they? Especially with the fact that queer couples in media, even otherwise sympathetically portrayed ones, often have Drama and Third Parties and Promiscuity and whatever else (because of the tiresome old canard that Gays Equal Hypersexualized!), and Joe and Nicky don’t need or want ANY of that. There’s no urge to make their relationship a cheap source of soap-opera conflict. It’s the rock and the center and the core of both of their lives, and everything they do stems from that.

There have been some great metas/comments on how neither Joe and Nicky are sexualized, they dress like stay-at-home dads during quarantine (Marwan Kenzari and Luca Marinelli are both objectively gorgeous men, and they’re out there looking like that, god bless), and the viewer is never invited to goggle at or fetishize their relationship. There are no leering or exploitative camera angles on anyone, and their expressions of love aren’t posed or intended to titillate the audience, they’re just solidly embodied and natural and lived in. It’s never bothered to be stated clunkily in dialogue that they’re a couple; we just see them exchanging looks and smiles in the early part of the film, and then we see them spooning on the train after the mission in Sudan, which confirms it.

At every turn, the narrative celebrates the kindness and love shared by the Immortal Family, the individual characters, and Joe and Nicky, especially and explicitly in queer form. The villains of the film are also defined by how they react negatively to that love. @viridianpanther​ had a great meta on how Keane as a villain is especially set up to menace Joe and Nicky as the narrative representation of toxic masculinity, aggressive heterosexuality, and the usual “Kill Your Gays” trope that we’ve all come to wearily expect. But instead, after that scene where Joe and Nicky fight Keane, Nicky is shot and comes back to life in Joe’s arms rather than dying permanently like we probably all momentarily expected, and then Joe gets to FUCKIN’ BREAK THE NECK of the guy who enacted that violence.... good GOD. The first time I watched it, I almost couldn’t believe it was happening. (This goes for the whole film, but especially that scene.) Like... when do we get that?? When do we EVER get that???

Obviously, there are so many stereotypes, whether visually or in behavior or character traits, that could have been assigned to a gay Italian character (excessively dramatic, effeminate, fashionable, etc) or a gay Arabic/Muslim character (explicitly announcing He’s Not Like Those Muslims, having to actively reject his heritage to make him more palatable to westerners, being tormented over being gay, etc) and Joe and Nicky subscribe to none of those. I get very emotional about Joe referring to Nicky as the moon when he is lost during the truck scene partly because it’s SUCH a common motif in Arabic love poetry. To call someone your “moon” is a beautiful way to say they’re the light of your life, and since the Islamic calendar is obviously lunar and the holidays, months, and observances, are set by the phases of the moon, this also has a deeper religious significance.

I don’t know for sure if they did that on purpose, but it it’s a lovely and subtle way of showing us how Joe clearly doesn’t have an issue with being both queer AND Muslim, and is able to draw on both facets of that identity in a way that a lesser narrative would have denied him. And that is just really wonderful. Yes, we’re seeing these characters when they’ve had centuries to settle into themselves, but there are plenty of writers who would have forced those conflicts artificially to the surface, rather than letting them be long in the past. It’s the same way when you watch a film set in the medieval era, it wants you to know that it Is Set In The Medieval Era. Cue the filth, misogyny, racism, violence, etc! Rather than it being a lived-in reality, it has to be jarringly drawn attention to, and I’m just so glad they didn’t do that with Joe and Nicky. And for them to have met in the crusades and fallen in love??! Come on. That’s just rude. Rude to me, personally.

Anyway, this was a rather long-winded and feelsy way of saying that these characters are constructed, acted, and written organically in such a way that you hate to even THINK of them being separated, and it’s not because they can’t function without each other, but because they are two halves of a whole. We also see that the characters themselves can’t stand being forced apart: Joe’s freakout in the truck scene when Nicky briefly won’t wake up, Nicky making sure to tell Joe that he’s glad he’s awake in the lab, the whole post-Keane fight scene that I talked about above, the way Nicky fights ferociously to get to Joe when Merrick’s stabbing him, etc. For that to be given to the queer couple, where the strength of their love and devotion is reinforced as one of the emotional goals of the story, and for that queer couple to be written in the way that Joe and Nicky are, both individually and as a unit, is just so very rare.

Because yes, there’s plenty of drama and angst and pain in their lives, but there’s none at all in their relationship, and that’s what fans keep telling TV writers the whole time: they WANT to see the couple confront things as a unit, rather than being kept on tenterhooks the whole time and forced to go through manufactured or artificial drama. It would feel especially wrong for Joe and Nicky, who have known and loved each other for 900 years. The fact that their respective actors also put so much care and love into them is very obvious, and makes me feel even luckier that they’re played by people who clearly get them and honor them and know what they’re doing.

Basically: of course Joe and Nicky have been with each other the whole time, and of course we’re all drowning in feelings over it, and I feel very blessed that this ship exists, and I very much need the sequel ASAP. Thanks.