#and honestly I don't regret it

[thrawns-backrest]

Listen, what do you think about how the fandom perceives Ronan? This may be a strange question, but I saw post here about how Thrawn is an ambiguous character, he does both good and bad things, he is not an innocent kitten, etc. And I completely agree with this. But it seems to me that in relation to Ronan, the opposite situation very often manifests itself. If Thrawn is sometimes too idealized by the fandom, although he is a more complex person, then Ronan often appears as some kind of universal evil in posts and fanfiction. And…I don't know, it just doesn't seem right to me. He has a adverse nature, that's true, and his loyalty to Krennic sometimes pushes him to do not the best things, but there are enough moments in the canon that show his good traits too. At least he is really loyal man and not as stupid as he might seem. I just saw your post recently where you talked about him, so I was interested to ask your opinion!

Thank you for your attention and sorry if I disturbed you :c

please don't apologize, I love asks like this!!! If anything I should probably apologize because this is about to become ridiculously long :D I really like Ronan as a character, he's one of my favorites from Treason. He's entertaining, competent, somewhat churlish and has that posh attitude where you really want to ruffle his feathers to see what he'll do.

Those last two are part of the reason why it's fun to make him the butt of the joke and why the fandom does it so often. But having said that... you're absolutely right. I've also noticed that the fandom tends to be excessively antagonistic towards him (as it is with some other similar characters but more on that later).

And you're right to bring up Thrawn because he's the golden child here, him and Eli, and any character that disagrees with or doesn't like him automatically gets blacklisted. Which is odd to me since Thrawn is supposed to be controversial and Zahn does a good job of portraying that by giving us different characters' perspectives and reasons for liking/disliking him.

Sadly for Ronan he's very unfriendly towards Thrawn and Eli and ends up making a decision that goes against Thrawn's goals which now garners him a lot of hate. An interesting development given that Thrawn himself doesn't begrudge him for it in the books and even trusts him enough to send him to the Chiss. Which honestly means so much coming from Thrawn? It's as close to a stamp of approval as you can get from him, be it of Ronan's trustworthiness or simply his skills.

So if people really hold Thrawn in such high esteem, they shouldn't forget that his own assessment of Ronan was ultimately positive. No matter what role he plans for Ronan to play in the Ascendancy (even if that role is for Ronan to come to specific conclusions he can then take back to the Empire, ie feeding him some kind of information) Thrawn trusts him enough to, again, send him to his own people. People with lost of secrets that make them vulnerable.

And it's honestly a shame because as you say, Ronan has so much going for him as a character. The very idea of someone who's loyal to the Empire while being critical of Palpatine is so cool. It's literally something that can get him killed yet he's ready to face that danger if it means adhering to his principles.

Of course loyalty to the wrong party makes him pretty culpable but regardless, there is a good basis for him to grow as a character. As already mentioned he's loyal, he's competent, he disapproves of Palpatine and all the petty political games that dominate the Empire's higher echelons. He feels guilty for tricking Eli despite believing that he's a traitor. He even comes to respect Thrawn's skills by the end and modifies his answer when reporting to Tarkin so as to ensure Thrawn isn't accused of treason.

So very good foundation to build from. There's still his loyalty to Krennic (who is a pretty damn morally corrupt guy from what I've read) but an overzealous attitude like Ronan's understandably makes him liable to blind idolization so we can't really say for sure that he has a nasty motif for admiring Krennic.

From what Zahn tells us, Ronan seems to admire Krennic for his, quote, leadership, competence and brilliance and he does so to an excessive degree. He sounds pretty starry eyed is what I'm trying to say. Enough to cloud his better judgement perhaps.

Moral or immoral though, he's still a pretty cool character. Which is the same thing you can say about Thrawn. Funnily enough they're almost parallels of each other - Thrawn has honorable end goals that he pursues through corrupt means and Ronan (unwittingly or not) works toward a corrupt end goal but is pretty morally upright in the way he does it.

And come on you can't tell me he doesn't have one of the coolest descriptions (like Savit noting his eyes look older than he does) or some of the coolest inner monologue (like the "half a victory is still half a defeat" line). I also love how he hates politics yet ironically those political mental gymnastics are exactly what he's good at.

But I digress. My point is that you hit the nail on the head when you said the fandom idolizes Thrawn to the point of having a skewed perception.

Another character that I personally like a lot and whose standing in the fandom is very similar is Thurfian. Thurfian doesn't do anything overtly evil in the books and yet he's very often demonized as some kind of villain. Which I bet you is because he's in opposition to Thrawn and other fan favorites like Thalias (something that annoys me because people tend to victimize Thalias so much in their dynamic when she's actually a very brave and resourceful character. Who once held Thurfian at gunpoint might I add).

The thing is, people need to stop the whole pigeonholing characters into 'good' and 'bad' categories. Because especially with Zahn, things are rarely so black and white. Our prejudices as readers can be influenced by both limited and omniscient povs.

In Ronan's case, seeing him from the pov of beloved characters who he opposes is what paints him in an overly negative light. In Thurfian's we forget that these characters don't have the same insight into Thrawn's motives and logic as we do and that Thurfian is perfectly justified in thinking that Thrawn will one day overthink and overplan to the detriment of many. And if those words sound familiar it's because that's what Ar'alani herself says to Thrawn at the end of the book.

But to cut a long story short, I don't think Ronan deserves the hate he's getting. He's a very interesting guy - he's got a good foundation of principles, a quick mind and an amusing personality. Sure, he's prone to extreme bias, both positive (Krennic) and negative (Thrawn, Eli) that can cloud his judgement but barring that he's displayed an impressive amount of competence. Impressive enough to catch Thrawn's eye and we know Thrawn has a good sense for these things.

So basically love Ronan y'all, he's really neat. Even if he's not some paragon for moral goodness which honestly few of Zahn's characters really are.

(Thank you for this ask, I had a lot of fun answering it! If I get my act together, I'll hopefully finish my fic about Ronan where I plan to explore more of his motivations and how he could potentially find a place for himself in the Ascendancy. So fingers crossed for that!)

[the-music-keeper]

Objectives #4 and #5 are done. I'm putting off Objective #2 until tomorrow. Sigh.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

finally at that age where i'm thinking i should get a tattoo. not bc i feel strongly about it, just seems like a waste not to. i've got so much skin i'm not using

[ritavonbees]

listen, it is important, for those who can, to confront antisemitism wherever you find it, including in leftist spaces, AND you need to think before you speak.

when something trips your antisemitism sensor, you could be looking at:

a committed believer in an anti-Jewish ideology like Nazism

a grifter who may or may not believe that shit but is saying it on purpose to attract people who do

a troll who believes in nothing and is just Saying Trigger Words To Upset Someone

an approximately regular person who has casually absorbed some cultural stereotypes and not yet questioned them

someone expressing genuine grief and rage about a recent atrocity using clumsy word choices that may not reflect an underlying anti-Jewish ideology

someone talking about a specific thing that you associate with Jews in general but they only associate with Israel (rightly or wrongly)

and probably more options I haven't thought of!

each of these requires a different approach. for the latter half, a sudden escalation will probably do more harm than good (and while Jews are not obliged to educate people about our own oppression we should probably let someone else handle it if we're seriously triggered and unable to approach constructively).

everybody wants to punch a Nazi, but that's just not the kind of situation most of us are going to be confronted with. we're going to see messy, contextual shit because we live in a messy, contextual society. we need to maintain a level of self-awareness that allows us to do the best we can with what we've got. thanks for listening

[s2pdoktopus]

Uhhh.... Uhm. Yeah! (⁠；⁠^⁠ω⁠^)

Based on @milabyxz's post. Again. But animatic!

[sysig]

Justify away (Patreon)

[lalalalalalakakakak]

I did this for vii.doodles DTIYS on Instagram for her 800 followers and she loves staticapple AND NOW THEY ARE MORE THAN 1100 WHAT ARE Y'ALL WAITING FOR GO FOLLOW HER SHE IS THE BEST AND FUNNY

She is also here on Tumblr but i am writing this from my computer and I don't know where to find the lil snail (the one to put before the username) on my keyboard AHSHASHAaaa

[itagakimizuki]

I shouldn't hold out hope... Forever doesn't exist... But nevertheless...

WAKATTE ITE MO: THE SHAPES OF LOVE (2024) EP 8

[theodove]

hi! *shows you my mary because i love her*

[beanghostprincess]

I think constantly about Pudding and Sanji being obviously parallels of each other and how fucked up it is that Pudding had to live the life Sanji managed to escape but she constantly gets hate online as if she hadn't been literally manipulated by her mother through the whole fucking arc. But okay. Yes. God forbid women have any sort of trauma response and if they do they're not allowed to have a redemption arc because of course they're extremely evil for making your silly baby boy cry and they don't have a heart even though it's explicitly shown in screen that they do and they regret their past actions.

[daily-odile]

Odile patting Molly Epithet Erased on the head, you know why

have two bc i care them

[shrinkthisviolet]

Helena kissing and sleeping with Innie!Mark in 2x04 is in fact sexual assault and not sweet or romantic or whatever, by the way. Yes, Innie!Mark is in love with Helly, and I do ship them! But that is not Helly, that is Helena. She is sleeping with Innie!Mark under false pretenses. That's literally the definition of rape by deception (“the perpetrator deceives the victim into participating in a sexual act to which they would otherwise not have consented, had they not been deceived.” Mark would not have slept with Helena if he knew who she was).

Even if Mark does catch feelings for Helena later in s2, he did not feel that way about her in 2x04—he felt that way about Helly, and Helena knew that and took advantage of it.

And sure, yes, to a degree, Helly and Helena are the same person. But like...they're also not. They are, and they are not—that is the point the show repeatedly makes. Ex: Helly's rebellious nature is an inversion of Helena's entitlement, and a stronger manifestation of Helena's own rebellious nature (unconfirmed that she has one, but likely). But also, Helena lives for Lumon, while Helly wants to burn it to the ground. The same, but different. The same person, but also not. There is a reason reintegration is such a painful process mentally.

Different enough, certainly, that Innie!Mark sleeping with one is not the same as him sleeping with the other...especially when he doesn't even know that this is Helena and not Helly. If Mark decides that it is the same to him, then fine, but he hasn’t decided that. As things stand, he slept with Helena believing she was Helly, and that is not romantic.

[slayerdurge]

i gotta say i do love durge & minthara just standing in the corner cheering on astarion as he ascends. best enablers in baldur's gate. 💖

[lakesparkles]

Okay, now a sillier vent because I can't take it out of my mind. First of all, I'm totally aware this doesn't make sense!

I kinda miss Gideon. I want to draw him again. But, at the same time, I feel bad to do so because I feel... I'm not allowed to. Like Gideon "isn't mine anymore"

Like I said, it's totally silly. I wish I could stop thinking like this and treating fictional characters too seriously... but I can't

[sysig]

Spooning..... (Patreon)

[hairypotterhogwartsmystery]

Merula Is Not Actually That Evil

I recently finished Year 1 of HPHM and found many of Merula's actions to be rather unbelievable.

Kids can be awful, but I still don't think eleven-year-olds are capable of cold-blooded murder (such as the Devil's Snare Incident). The strangest thing about Merula's character, though, is that despite her track record, Jam City keeps trying to force Merula on us as a friend in the sidequests.

I didn't want to chalk it up to JC's dubious writing, and I was also inspired by the deep dives from @missnight0wl, so instead, I've spawned the theory that Merula Is Not Actually That Evil.

By the end of the first year, Merula has two "ambitions:"

1) To bully MC relentlessly.

2) To find the Cursed Vaults before MC.

Let's start with 1).

Merula is a bully---an awful, rude, reckless bully---but she's not pure evil. Most of her actions are not so much to instill fear and establish dominance (or, as I call it, MPWAH Syndrome) as they are an act of pushing people away. Merula does not find herself deserving of friendship, likely because she had a traumatic childhood that fractured her trust in people. This does not excuse for her behavior. However, I believe Merula's intentions for bullying MC + The Gang are different than what MC believes.

In their first Potions class, Merula coats MC's cauldron with Bulbadox Powder, which causes it to explode and makes Snape mad, yada yada. There are two strange things about this interaction:

1) Merula only learned of MC's identity five minutes before class, when MC stood up to her for tormenting Rowan. She kind of jumped on the "you're a disgrace" bandwagon, but didn't really say anything of note. See, Merula's original target was never MC---it was Ben Copper. This means that Merula's hatred for MC didn't appear out of nowhere---it was provoked by MC themself.

2) Bulbadox Powder isn't a potion ingredient. It's a joke product.

So Merula, who met MC five minutes ago and has only a generic hatred/jealousy of them, is also coincidentally carrying around a joke product in her pocket and manages to coat MC's cauldron in it without them noticing? Yeah, right. Merula didn't do it. Merula did not actually sabotage MC's potion. Chances are the cauldron was tampered with by some other mischievous student.

However, MC, assuming the worst about their newfound enemy, pins the blame on Merula, who, of course, denies it.

Then we have the Devil's Snare Incident, which most people cling to as a justifiable reason for hating Merula. Honestly, I did too, until I thought about it a bit harder.

I do believe that Merula sent the fake letter and locked MC in the closet full of Devil's Snare, because, well, Merula admits to it herself. However, I think she did this because MC framed her for blowing up their cauldron. Merula only says that she blew up MC's potion when MC is in the closet in order to seem more powerful and make MC afraid and distrustful of her. (See: MPWAH Syndrome.)

She also never intended for MC to die. Why?

a) She knows that MC is very good at Lumos.

b) I believe it was Merula who, in a fit of regret, alerted Hagrid that MC was trapped, and told Hagrid to go save MC. This is why Hagrid acted so shocked when MC told him it was Merula who locked them in the cupboard.

Now you might be wondering, "why didn't Hagrid just tell MC that Merula actually wanted to help them escape?"

Firstly, Hagrid is an adult, and in a position of power on campus compared to students. He understands that true disciplinary action can't happen without concrete proof (which MC doesn't have) and likely doesn't want to be the source of any gossip or rumors. Thus, he tried to de-escalate the issue instead of confusing MC with conflicting information, or encouraging MC to tattle/seek retribution.

Okay. That was a lot. In summary:

Merula's original target for bullying was never MC.

Merula bullies MC because she thinks MC wronged her.

Merula bullies MC + The Gang as a subconscious act of alienation, though she believes it to be a method of asserting her dominance.

This segues us into 2).

Why does Merula want to find the Cursed Vaults?

According to Merula, it's because of her MPWAH Syndrome.

I think this is partially the reason she seeks the Vaults. Though Merula herself may believe this is the true reason, her subconscious behavior says otherwise.

Merula's Cursed Vaults mission is very hush-hush---she doesn't want other teachers or students (such as Rowan) to find out. Obviously, this is for self-preservation---she doesn't want to get punished and expelled like Jacob---but I think Merula's secrecy ultimately proves that she isn't simply seeking the Vaults for attention and prestige. She's seeking them in order to validate her own loneliness.

Merula wants the glory of the Vaults for herself. She needs to reach the Vaults before MC, even though MC's not even in the race---MC's sole motivation for seeking the Vaults is to track down Jacob. By finding the Vaults all by herself, Merula validates the instinct within her that pushes people away. By finding the Vaults all by herself, Merula can prove that she doesn't need other people to succeed.

So why the Vaults? Why not prove herself by doing something innocuous like doing well in school? Well,

a) doing well in school is impressive, but not atypical or risky

b) doing well in school is a solitary act anyway; Merula needs to do something that would typically be collaborative on her own in order to prove herself.

c) I think Merula has a bit of a self-destructive streak. I don't have super solid evidence for this, though, aside from her pursuit of the Vaults themselves and her love of dueling.

So in summary:

Merula says she's searching for the Vaults because of MPWAH Syndrome.

In actuality, Merula is searching for the Vaults in order to justify her lone wolf/aloof personality.

Whew. I never thought I would psychoanalyze a fictional eleven-year-old from a mobile game this hard, but honestly, it's a fun exercise. Perhaps this skill will come in handy for future English essays.

Keep in mind this analysis was made only with information from Year 1. In a previous lifetime, I played up to Year 4, but I recently started anew. Feel free to spoil things in your responses---I know pretty much all the main plot points up until MC graduates.

Thank you for reading this far.