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itsnothingofinterest · 1 year ago

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Hey, Hope you're having good Holidays? 👋

Do you think there's going to be a big twist coming up in bnha?

Or maybe a twist big villain or something?

Because all the other villains have been taken out of commission and there's still doesn't seem to be any way for deku to save/defeat shigaraki. (Nothing that we've been shown so far.)

Because shigaraki does seem to be more powerful than deku and even if they do FINALLY start talking, deku seems to be in the same place 'ideal wise' as he was several arcs ago.

Like what could deku say that could prove his point (not that he really has much of a point, as he still hasn't really even thought about trying to fix hero society's giant flaws) to shigaraki now?

Even more, what could deku do, since he's still focusing on the crying child inside shigaraki and not what made the crying child?

Well my answers about the same as it's been for a long while now; I agree Deku's not in the right headspace to save Tomura and probably can't cram the character development to get into that headspace in at the last second before/during his metaphorical final exam here. He still needs to further develop his own views on things if he wants to challenge & change Tomura's views. Maybe Deku could convince him the entire country's not a lost cause and he shouldn't destroy it within a few chapters, but there's a massive gap between that and actually saving him the way we usually mean. The fact the other villains have not really been saved either so far doesn't really help my opinion of Deku's chances.

So yes I do expect a big twist and, same as ever, I expect that twist to be that this is not the final arc and we'll get a My Hero part 2 after Hori takes a long break. It's basically the only real meaningful twist I can think of at this point that'd resolve this time conflict without rushing resolutions that should not be rushed. Especially with Kurogiri (& maybe Machia if he’s alive) still left as dangling plot threads that could potentially recover the villains.

(Though I would not hate it, half just because I think it'd be funny, if the HC president came out of nowhere to reveal she survived clone-stro and is taking over as big bad so that Deku...idk, reevaluates the system he's protecting or something.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Although while we're discussing where Deku is, ideal-wise, I have been meaning to go over my current criticisms with him for a bit; which to discuss below a cut:

Is mainly that he’s kind of just All Might again. He's like All Might in nearly every way that counts and his only aspiration is to be All Might 2 and save everyone he can like All Might did. I mean I’ve seen people sometimes say "no Deku’s totally different and better than All Might in this or that way" but those ways often seem to assume All Might was a lot worse, less kind, and more independent than he really was.

(And also that Deku is less independent than he really is; just compare this arc to Kamino, where they both work alongside their hero peers...until they feel the need to take on the final boss 1v1.)

Like, as someone critical of the hero society All Might built, I’ll bet I often come off as thinking All Might wasn’t a good hero. But that’s not so, I think All Might did the best he could have done, and moreover the best anyone could’ve done trying to fix things the way he did. I doubt anyone could've hero'd much better than him. If Deku were sent back in time to replace All Might, the best he could’ve done is about what All Might did. And if All Might faced all the hurdles Deku has, at the same power level for each, I believe he’d have managed at least as happy an ending to every arc.

So the great hurdle of this all is: All Might was the greatest hero he could possibly have been...but he also wasn't enough. The various ways the League were driven to villainy to form the group at all is proof of that. And that's why a rehash sequel to him won't be enough either. I understand why Deku and everyone else admires All Might, but he can't be doing the same things expecting much better results. If he does, then even if he does save Tomura here in the same way the rest of the League has been "saved" so far (a tall order already when Tomura's made clear he doesn't want another All Might), I fear he'll just face another League led by another Tomura in the future; another Tenko who was failed by Deku this time.

#Hope you're having nice holidays too btw.#bnha #shigaraki tomura #gigantomachia #kurogiri #toga himiko #dabi #spinner #redestro #paranormal liberation front #PLF #midoriya izuku #class 1a #all might #hero society #hero public safety commission #my stupid long term predictions

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mysticcollectionbee · 1 year ago

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Loki S2 Ep.2 (Breaking Brad): Pros & Cons

(SPOILERS!)

First the Bad to get it out of the way:

• Biggest thing I got a problem with: NOT a fan of the TVA brutality thing and really hope the TVA isn't seen as a 'flawed' system but just a system built to be awful. Only thing I agree with Sylvie is that the overall system is bad. And the protags shouldn't be chill using these tactics. Gonna hope this was just a one time thing because of X-5 just being a massive dick and pissing them to an extreme extent (Doesn't make it right, but if someone blamed me for a loved ones death...I might loose my morals a bit too).

• Sylvie being a bitch to Loki FOR NO REASON. Like everything else going on with her I love, but, why is she being horrible to Loki? He didn't betray or stop her. SHE BETRAYED HIM AND SCREWED EVERYTHING OVER, BUT SHE'S THE PISSED ONE?

Now that we got all the bad out of the way, onto the good stuff:

•Badass Loki, with MAGIC, with a bit of intimidation? YES. Sure, I don't like him and Mobius torturing X-5 BUT I'm all for Loki weaponizing his villainous history. And surprisingly keeping his temper under control. Nice.

• Unlike Mobius...My dude ya good? I love what this could be hinting and going for. And also showing that he isn't pure good, but as Loki said, Not all good which is why they get along.

• Loki being the one that kept a cool head and is the one trying to comfort is so interesting! He's never tried doing that for anyone besides Thor in a few small scenes. And that's his brother! He just wants to be there for Mobius and let him have some pie while they chill and talk stuff out, even trying to relate to mobius (albeit a funny ridiculous comparison).

•Both of the time duos being horrible with tech makes a bit too much sense. They are great at manipulating and reading people, but they probably can't build a single IKEA chair.

•CASEY! I love Casey actually becoming more of an important/useful character. And apparently a fan of O.B. So maybe our tech guy won't have to wait hundreds of years for a visitor anymore!

•B-15 being the heart of the team and the TVA, she should be in charge. Please. Also I need an offical name for her and D-90 because I really want to call them by actual names.

•X-5 is an asshole but a well written and neat asshole. I do kinda want him to get back to his movie life, that way he won't be such a dick to the characters I like and he gets to keep having his dream life. Win-win.

• Sylvie gets a fun retirement life please! I don't think her being on the team is good for her or for the team. I think she should only join when her life is endangered and when it's all over get back to it. I used to think she might join Loki and Mobius on maybe continuing fighting Kang after the season is over but like...That's not her fight? Leaver her be. And bad for the team cause well...The morale is already kinda shit and she's gonna be miserable and make everyone else miserable too.

• Just realized this: Is everyone keeping secrets??? Loki seemed to not have been planning to tell the others about the Ravonna and HWR convo until it was needed to mention (Mobius literally was asking, "When were you gonna-" then was caught off), Mobius seems to already know or have a serious fear that he's hiding, B-15 has yet to mention what she saw of her past life despite it obviously leaving an impact, etc.

#mcu #marvel #loki #loki season 2 #theory #loki spoilers #lokius #kinda #episode 2

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leconcombrerit · 10 months ago

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I keep putting off watching recent episodes of DFF not because I don't like it but because I'm legit scared. I just watch spoilers. No further emotional involvement for now.

I put a lot of faith in this show and I'm slowly starting to think that maybe I should try and snatch it back while I still can. Although "think" might be a bit of a stretch. It's more of a survival instinct at that point.

Look, I don't care what trajectory it takes for most plot points and characters and ships and twists. Whatever is fine, it's done a good job so far, I'm in for the ride. There's just one thing I want -okay, maybe one and a half.

And it's for Non to have a good ending, preferably New as well.

And no, "everyone including them gets a bad ending" isn't a valid alternative for me. My love for these characters themselves put aside, it's the message and symbol that matter to me. I'm weary of the usual way characters like them are treated. Mentally and emotionally exhausted. I think I saw some Until Dawn comparisons at some point, and what happened in Until Dawn is exactly what I fear will happen in DFF too. Because it usually does.

Non, who's mentally ill and kept rolling with the punches over and over again, and New, who lived through trauma after trauma since his brother's disappearance, would traditionally snap (Non's aborted attack during his breakdown, New's whole story arc) and die.

It doesn't have to depict them as villains ; it can be a soft, sad and respectful tale of how people get abused and cornered and go too far as a result. So far they lose sight of themselves. But how many stories have you seen where they get a good ending ? The opportunity to heal and live ? Not many. Redemption and peace can only be achieved through death. It may be "realistic", but I find it very funny that media defaults to realism about this specific matter almost all the time.

What's worse, Phee and Jin are presented (so far, I'm still holding my breath) as the more "morally right" characters. Those you could see getting a good ending more easily.

And if Non, and preferably New, don't get a good ending, Phee and Jin absolutely musn't get one either.

They both have their flaws, sure, but how many times have we been shown that Jin is the least horrible person in this friend group, if not a downright good one at heart ? He's painted in a different light, always singled out. And Phee ? He's selfless, he's not a murderer, he's brave, he's kind, he regrets, he forgives, you get it (unless my theory of choice is right, but I'll go with what is explicitly told here). They both display values that everyone else lack.

But they got it served on a plate in comparison with the others. Those values and principles were developed in an environement that let them grow. We don't know much about their financial situation, but we haven't seen them struggle -unlike Non, New, and Tee's families. Phee talks to his dad and goes to him for help ; what about Por, who gets abused and is visibly scared of his father ? What about Non and New's relationship to their parents ? What about Tee's sick father and criminal uncle ? Where's the support system ? What about Fluke, always on his guard, entrenched in the sidelines, too scared to even allow himself to even think ? I'm leaving out Top (who I think represents gratuitous, unassuming evil) and White (who doesn't fit in the same equation for now) here, they give me nothing to work with so far.

Most of them don't have the strenght to walk the "right" path. They lived through shit much harder than Phee (who, by the way, chose to be with Non knowing, or even because, he was riddled with issues, and for whom Non's fate didn't break other parts of his life) or Jin (who seemed to live in his cute bubble before shit went down with Non, unaware even of his friends' true colors). They get a boost from the start and an easier middle, so of fucking course they'd be better armed to fight for a better end. Non was fucked from start to finish. He didn't stand a chance. New didn't stand a chance. Por, Tee and Fluke probably did, but not those two.

And it's not fair. Life isn't fair either, sure, but I can't help but repeat myself : it's fiction. And if even fiction tells you that if you're too damaged, and/or if you stumbled on a bad path while running away from what kept hurting you on the righteous one, then the only peace and redemption you can hope for is death, then I don't want it. Give me hope, not another "bittersweet" catharsis where it's always the same ones getting the bitterness and the same ones getting the sweetness. I don't want to be told I can be forgiven, I want to be told I can win and heal.

On a sidenote, I'm more lenient when it happens in fantasy settings. The events that lead to the character's ultimate fall and broken mind (sometimes rebuilt completely crooked) are far removed from reality. Your whole family was killed, you fought so many wars, truly horrible things, you name it. But in DFF the trauma is painfully rooted in reality. Many viewers, me included, had trouble watching Non's bullying. His breakdown, his loneliness. This is why I'm so demanding with the show. And as the end is closing in, I get scared.

HOWEVER I still have hope. A lot of elements I noticed could point to and ending I could accept. And, you know. It's not like going along with the trope I described is bad. It can be perfectly executed. It's a fine direction to take. Hell, I used to live for this narrative as a teen. It's just not for me anymore, I guess.

... Well, it was supposed to be a short post, apologies for the long rant, but I needed it off my chest.

#dead friend forever #dff the series #it was supposed to be real short #but I got carried away #I love unhinged Non and New as well #like go boys give back as much as you take #but please let them be happy or on the way to be happy #give people some goddamn hope for a change #I have faith. a reasonable amount. a bit. a handful but not too big.

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fancyfade · 1 year ago

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This might be a very unpopular opinion and I do love them both so dearly, but I don't really care for Babs and Kory being seen as besties and I cant really ever see them hanging out. They do have some things that both could relate to but I also feel like they also have more differences and obviously that shouldn't matter but idk. It has nothing to do with Duck either which is funny because I think most people want them to be friends because of Duck. Idk I guess I see it as like in life where not everyone has to be friends and there doesn't have to be a reason for it maybe it's just not the right vibe. I don't think they would have beef but like I feel like they just have different friend circles. That's why friendship is just as special as romance because we choose who we want to spend all our time with. It's kind of like the same thing with Babs and Damian like sure they could interact but its kinda just like there... there are just other dynamics with other characters that are just are more interesting. Like I would like to see Babs interact with Vic and I feel like Talia and Kory would be such an interesting dynamic.

I can see Kory and babs interacting, but I do agree that they could also have some conflict and not be besties. I got into kory and babs interactions here (link)

I think in general Kory's main source of conflict with babs would ironically be the one of the main sources of conflict she had with Dick in NTT: that Babs is closed off emotionally (but even more so than Dick at times :P) and wants to solve things on her own when things get stressful. So Kory and Babs could definitely have realistic conflict because Kory and Dick have realistic conflict and Dick and Babs have many of the same character flaws :P

For Damian and babs I used to think they wouldn't really interact a ton despite both being my blorbos, I wasn't trying to make my blorbos all friends.. but thinking more on their interactions, I think there is a lot of potential for them to bounce off each other. Not like they're friends-friends, Babs is a grown woman and Damian is a child, but I think they can have positive rapport. It started with this (link) :P I think babs and Damian would interact more via like. things that take skill, rather than a touchy feely thing, because neither character is exceptionally touchy feely. I think that Babs generally would initially bounce badly off Damian, because she is put in a position where she feels she has to defend Stephanie (from Dick, who is blaming Steph for everything), and then it is a consistent character trait that Babs seems protective of the child heroes in the field. Her being protective of Damian would rub Damian the wrong way. They interacted this way at the end of this chapter in my fanfic (link) :P

Meanwhile we see Damian following Oracle's orders in canon, but he kind of snarks it and does not seem super enthused.

Anyway so I can see them doing nerd shit together. I also think they have the same brand of autism. Snipped fro ma fic in WIP hell :P

“I need to be able to create new scenarios (using the holoroom),” Damian says. “Scenery. Weapons. People. I need to be able to practice for everything.” Barbara nods. “We can do that. But it'd be a lot easier through the front-end system. That's what Dick uses, anyway. You could probably ask him how to do this stuff. He's not a luddite.” “I will ask for his assistance,” Damian says, “Provided I need understanding of the hardware of the place. My understanding is your skills are not too far apart in that matter. But I also understand that when it comes to software, your skill far outstrips his. That is why I approached you with this.” Barbara recognizes the way he's talking. She does it, whenever she's nervous or feels her explanation wouldn't be enough – finding the most precise words to describe your feelings and needs, as if somehow choosing assistance instead of help or understanding instead of I think will make it impossible for people to misinterpret you. “I'll help,” Barbara says. “You don't have to explain further.”

I do of course want Babs and Vic to interact as well... He is one of the people who helps when she has the surgery to remove the braniac virus in fact! But that doesn't meant that I can't appreciate other character interactions. I think most characters can have an interesting dynamic with most other characters, even if they're not besties. I don't think Kory and Babs would be besties ,but I do think they could work together professionally and still have a positive rapport. I don't think Babs would have the same relationship with Damian that Dick does, but I think they could still get along and have a lot of good interactions and I'd say that Babs would probably have a dynamic with him that other adults don't have (or at least that is not prioritized in fandom), it would be a lot more in general lower emotional pressure and more skills based, no one feeling the need to act as an older sibling or (emotional) mentor or parent, which I find interesting. I'll confess I'm not sure your point of mentioning Babs and Damian in your ask XD given that I don't think babs and damian as besties is a thing in fandom at all

Kory and Talia could also be fun. Maybe Kory would tell Dick to get over himself about not liking Talia :P

#anon #ask #dc comics #damian wayne #barbara gordon #koriandr #starfire #my fanfic

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xclowniex · 1 year ago

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I'm going to add my 2 cents as someone who lives outside of the US on the original post and it's reblogs.

Patriotism can not be compared to zionism as they have two very different definitions. Zionism is just the belief that the state of Israel, either in its current form or in another should exist. I am not a New Zealand patriot. There are so many flaws with our country including treatment of our indigenous population. Which is funny when I say that as when it comes to treatment of our indigenous population, as most leftist liberals would cream themselves if they could have the same treatment of indigenous folk as we do. Yet I and so many other kiwis (new zealanders) find flaws in our system. Most liberals would cream themselves if they had our political landscape too considering our major right wing party is the equivalent to the democrats. Our political landscape including our right wing parties are far more left than the US is. That last bit is just so you can get a basic idea of what I'm working with in terms of politics in my country.

Whilst the person you (thehoneybeet) are replying to does mention the US, your response makes it seem like you view the Pro Palestine movement as very US centric.

Sure Pro Palestine folk from the US and maybe Canada may view US colonization as a big deal, but that's not the case with folk from other countries. I know fuck all about American history as it's not taught a whole lot. Most kiwis know about the Civil rights movement and the civil war in simple terms. Most people in my country just know it as, white Americans oppressed poc, slavery happened, black people fought back.

Which I think is a lot more than you know about New Zealand.

Opposing Israel is not an extension of opposing the US. They are two different countries. Yes they are allied and share tactics and stuff, but the US isn't Israel's only ally. By your logic, it would also be by extension opposing all of Israel's allies which is simply not true.

Palau sides with Israel in UN meetings more than the US does. I bet you probably don't even know where that is or what their flag looks like.

I know I've might have gotten a bit heated and I do apologize for that. It's just that you have a very US centric take on the pro Palestine movement.

I am not talking about anything you have blatantly said is US specific. I am talking about when you refer to the pro Palestine movement or when you have made other US centric takes on things that happen not only in the US.

There are even zionists who are US centric. Do you know how many replies I have deleted due to people assuming I'm American? I've recently decided to just reply and say I'm not American instead of deleting to hopefully have people stop thinking that. Like I will get people assuming I'm American on posts which don't even mention America or on asks that I have sent.

To summarize what I am saying in a concise way so I don't continue to ramble, yours and many others opinions on the current war is extremely US centric which is bad as this is not a US issue. It's okay that US politics is all someone knows, but you shouldn't apply that to a non US issue. Its also okay for US citizens to talk about how they biew an issue from a US lense. What is not okay is assuming that everyone online is from the US, applying US poltics to a non US conflict instead of using it as food for though and centering the US in the war is also bad as the US does not have the power to call for a ceasefire to end the war

it's interesting to me that people use zionist as an epithet and yet there's no comparable epithet for "people who think the US should exist" nor are there witch hunts about them, nor are celebrities getting cancelled for thinking the US should exist. before anyone posts that comic, this is not saying "gotcha, israel can't be colonialist cause then the US would be too!" it's that a lot of y'all do have an analysis that the US is colonialist it's just... not... a big deal to you the way Israel is.

like the absolute level of vitriol, of people hoping israel receives karmic punishment and harassing anyone who is pro-israel, cheering on the death of israelis... i've seen more nasty shit directed at israel and israelis and zionists in the last ten minutes than i've seen directed at america and americans and and people-who-support-the-US in a span of probably years

is america just too big a target or are y'all just antisemitic or do y'all not give a fuck about native people or afghanis or everyone the US harms? like what is going on?

and all the responses to this post will be "why are you justifying gaza being bombed? did you know gaza is being bombed?" instead of answering the question.

#palestine #content warning #mention of police brutality #discussion of genocide

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ghooostbaby · 3 years ago

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deeeep dive into why and how wei wuxian and lan wangji love each other, complete each other, are the inverse reflection of each other’s deeply hidden internal selves mirrored through the other’s external self, lan wangji’s inner wildness that he has to conceal and protect recognizing and loving wei wuxian’s outer wildness, wei wuxian’s deep, fuddy-duddy morality and values that he conceals with an elaborate subterfuge of jokes, mischief, and bravado, seeing and loving in lan wangji the ability to say no that it was never safe for him to express directly, “between you and me there is no need for thank you and sorry”

oh and a slight diversion midway through into a manifesto on WEI WUXIAN IS NOT INSECURE the whole story is about a society where being liked is ESSENTIAL for survival and it is actually completely perilous not to be liked, and his “people pleasing” is a skill and tool for his survival especially as an orphan and proven to be a necessary one when he stops doing it and STOPS SURVIVING

after the cut discussing the very interesting dynamics of consent in general in the novel, but not going into the consensual non-consent kink stuff till the last paragraph if you need to avoid for any reason.

I've been thinking about how Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian the exterior, unfettered expression of the wildness Lan WangJi holds in him and protects with rigid codes of conduct, propriety and outward dignity.

I have had this sense that these two are mirrors, either one reflecting the hidden, interior (and unallowed) self of the other. but it seemed more clear from Lan WangJi's side, especially knowing about his history with his mother and the spicy side that emerges when he drinks and in the extras.

I also - just... the way this whole story shows how romantic love is truly this longing for your self, to become yourself, to become the thing you're not allowed to be, seeing in that person the expression of whatever it is you can't become and longing for it, protecting it, joining with it as closely as you can without ever being able to let it live inside your own body.

On the surface it seems a lot more difficult for Wei WuXian to find a piece of his soul in Lan Wangji. I think its a bit too simplistic to see whatever draws Wei WuXian to Lan Wangji as a reverse-psychology sort of craving of acceptance from the only one who won't give it, pushing and pushing against this impenetrable boundary that he needs to break to feel assurance that no matter what he can make anyone accept him.

And he is SO drawn - in a mind boggling way, in the teenage flashbacks Lan WangJi rudely and aggressively throws him off over and over and Wei WuXian cannot keep away! Even when he talks about how boring Lan WangJi is, he never stops trying to be around him and talk to him.

I've seen discussions of the way Wei WuXian has always relied on the goodwill of others to survive, and that his placating of others to survive is a character flaw. Although that seems only halfway true.

As a young child he didn't have anyone's goodwill for a while and he survived, and it seems like he can always find a way to survive from whatever means and sometimes very limited resources he has at his disposal. Doing what he has to do to become powerful enough to survive losing his core and being thrown into the burial mounds slowly costs him the goodwill of everyone around him - and what happens to him as a result shows how much placation was a truly necessary for someone without the protection of biological/hereditary family bonds.

(Don’t get me started on how his loss of his golden core and his development of demonic cultivation to give himself power by ‘unnatural methods’ through the use of a musical instrument is a metaphor for disability and the way ableist society sees the use of accessibility devices and tools. Actually please DO get my started haha.)

Wei WuXian is so charismatic and seems very used to getting what he wants and needs on the strength of that. He pushes a lot of boundaries and seems pretty confident and flexibly prepared to handle the consequences, whether beatings or harsh words. But he does work so hard to make others feel good, good with him, good with themselves.

When he is in the cave with Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian is described as "like one who forgets all past pain as soon as the wound heals". He can't resist coming up beside Lan WangJi and talking to him again and again after every time Lan WangJi pushes him off, only finally staying away when Lan WangJi bites him (and he still keeps trying to talk to him after a little bit!) and then calls him an awful person (!!! Bad Wangji! :(((( ). In the end, when Lan WangJi (very minimally) discloses what happened to his sect and his father, and even cries, because of all the defences/assaults Lan WangJi has put up Wei WuXian can't do anything or say anything to help and feels miserable.

Lan WangJi just absolutely refuses to allow Wei WuXian to take care of him - and I began to wonder maybe that’s what Wei WuXian actually really likes about him? Why he is unable to resist coming up to Lan WangJi again and again? Maybe because Lan WangJi refuses to let Wei WuXian appease him. He’s not trying to crack Lan WangJi to get to this impenetrable place of approval and acceptance. In a way he can’t quite understand, Lan WangJi is a respite for Wei WuXian from the constant work to be the one who pleases.

And how different this is to how Wei WuXian is (or has to be) with Jiang Cheng when he wakes up in Lotus Pier after the cave. Jiang Cheng gets so down and really really needs Wei WuXian to do what he does so well (and wasn’t allowed to do with Lan WangJi) - chasing Jiang Cheng down while being injured and reassuring him about all his insecurities about his father's acceptance and becoming a sect leader and Wei WuXian's own abilities excelling his - and at first Jiang Cheng is pushing him away, but he really does need Wei WuXian to do all this to feel better.

Wei WuXian is described as not wanting to be lonely, and not wanting to see other people unhappy, and he keeps trying to push and pull with whatever he has to not be lonely and lift the mood for those around him. I don't think it's a kind of codependency or insecurity. It’s not that Wei WuXian is afraid to say no, in fact I would say he doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do, but he must always do it creatively, with humour. Similarly to Nie Huaisang, he uses a persona of foolishness to give himself a covert agency.

I also think I'm writing this because I don't like seeing this discussed as a sad bean character flaw for him to always need to be liked - its a strategy, its a tool, its how he survives and excels. Doesn’t the whole story prove how essential being liked is to a human’s survival? And he is so so good at being liked, in making others happy, even when he is refusing to do what others want from him that he doesn't want to do, he does it in a way that deflects criticism, with a smiling bravado that never says what it truly means and has people writing him off as shameless or foolish or just endearing himself toward them despite themselves.

He is always at work really, with jokes and flattery or mischief and teasing, to get the resources he wants and needs. Case and point, when he makes a big coquettish show for mianmian, definitely not being "people pleasing" for her, but the group of girls around them all find it funny and cute and in the end she gives him a perfume sachet which ends up being a valuable resource for later. Or the time he outright tells Jiang Cheng that if you give the girls some lotus seeds they'll remember you and return the favour in the future. (Also notice how his interactions with girls seen as flirtatious are actually strategic resource-gathering acts.) These are the skills he has developed to meet his own needs. (THIS IS NOT A CHARACTER FLAW. I REPEAT.) He takes what he needs and steals from the Lotus Pier markets knowing it'll be paid for, he lives like he never know when his next windfall will come from so he'll take what he can when he can find it. Like Jiang Fengmian said, if there is no guarantee of a meal in the future then today's meal should still be enjoyed. It’s how Wei WuXian said to Nie Huaisang at Cloud Recesses, you have to find ways to make your own fun out of whatever you have. So he gets kicked out of class, goes fishing, gets alcohol, he pursues his own pleasure. He actually is quite insistent of his own agency and right to choose, he just can never directly say no.

And that little detail that Wei WuXian always tucks coins into his clothes just in case, that makes him able to buy food when he and Jiang Cheng are on the run... breaks my heart and reveals so much about the way Wei WuXian is constantly at work on ensuring his own survival and never takes for granted whether he is safe (he knows he never is).

I've seen some people talking about Wei WuXian sacrificing so much for his brother and sister out of a need to be accepted out of a chronic sense of insecurity. But isn’t this just true? Doesn't he live in a world where being accepted is absolutely essential for survival? Doesn’t this whole story show the cruelty of a social system based on networks of hereditary/biological family that closes out and scapegoats any outsiders, and that without biological family connections that can enclose around you, you can never truly be safe if not constantly working to earn acceptance? (And then beautifully ends with the way a gay romantic relationship that queers marriage/family/etc disrupts all this and creates safety and inclusion for Wei WuXian without needing a normative family.) (AKA romantic love does not resolve some internal personal problem in Wei WuXian but disrupts and refuses and rebels against the problem of SOCIETY.) (*breathes heavily*)

And that’s why Lan WangJi is magnetizing to Wei WuXian. Lan WangJi is always saying no. Although what Lan WangJi sees in Wei WuXian is an exterior wildness, Wei WuXian is not really out of control so much as he is playing and caring and supplicating and showing off and pleasing people to get the resources and the acceptance he needs to live his life. He has firm values and desires that he can never outwardly state, only creatively spinning plates to distract and deflect while he refuses what goes against his values, protects who he cares for, or takes what he needs to in order to survive/thrive. Lan WangJi embodies an exterior of resoluteness and direct agency that Wei WuXian doesn't have the luxury of. And he's so drawn to him for his ability to repeatedly say no, to refuse to get along, or make others laugh, make other people happy, but just simply follow what he thinks is right.

Wei WuXian’s outward wild movement protects an inward stillness. He is an exterior of people-pleasing around an interior of refusal. He is an exterior of youthful rebellion around an interior of unflinching morality. He sees in Lan WangJi the outward expression of his stillness, his morality, his resistance that he can't express, that he's had to protect.

FYI after the cut gets more into the dynamics of consent in the story, and the last paragraph directly talks about consensual non-consent kink play in wangxian’s relationship.

When Wei WuXian is with Lan WangJi, there is no work to be done. Lan WangJi cannot be swayed by him, and so there's no point vying for resources or favors. Lan WangJi will either give him everything or refuse him everything based on who he is, it does not matter what Wei WuXian does and he can't do anything that will change Lan WangJi’s mind. Someone he literally can't win over. After the resurrection, they are often in an adorable tug of war, where Wei WuXian tries to take care of Lan WangJi, while Lan WangJi won't allow him to but demands to care of Wei WuXian right back. Actually, Lan WangJi insists that Wei WuXian take everything he wants or needs from him and is even angry when he doesn't take or when Wei WuXian tries to offer a gesture in return, even something as simple as a thank you Lan WangJi won't accept. It’s kind of adorable how frustrated Wei WuXian is in doing this thing he's learned that he needs to do, and just... so confused by Lan WangJi, and has to find a way to please this person who aggressively refuses to be pleased and is ONLY pleased by Wei WuXian being pleased.

(Not to mention the way Wei WuXian delights in finding that Lan WangJi can’t say what he wants, and they have sort of these chaotic cohesive both-being-so-pleased-by-working-hard-to-please each-other moments where Wei WuXian is letting Lan WangJi please him by finding out what pleases Lan WangJi and giving it to him.)

The wildness Lan WangJi had always hidden within himself is something he sees as just as dangerous as Wei WuXian thinks of his desire to refuse. He saw his mother be socially alienated, shunned, and eventually die because of her wildness. His ability to survive in the world, aka to be accepted by his family, is contingent on him being able to control this inner wildness. From a young age (re: Phoenix Mountain kiss) he could only understand his sexual desires for Wei WuXian as something repulsive or dangerous that had to be repressed and controlled, and that the only way he could imagine his desires as possible was as non-consensual. His secret gay desires were never available to him as anything but something monstrous.

Importantly, it’s not like everyone else other than Lan WangJi are all vampires cruelly demanding Wei WuXian’s constant sacrifice. Wei WuXian is always vibrantly, charismatically offering so much, before anyone has asked. It’s Wei WuXian who creates this kind of relationship for himself again and again. It’s Lan WangJi who simply refuses - he refuses to charmed, to be cared for. And so in the end Lan WangJi becomes the one person who Wei WuXian feels doesn't need anything from him. When he says he's eating the corpse's fruit to save Lan WangJi money and Lan WangJi says that will never be necessary. Or when Wei WuXian asks what toy he should win for Lan WangJi at the market game, and Lan WangJi says anything Wei WuXian gets will be the one he wants. (XD stahhhhp it’s too sweet !!!) He really just wants Wei WuXian to be, to exist, to spend his life discovering his own desires and allow Lan WangJi to help satisfy them, he doesn't want anything from Wei WuXian other than him living - happy and safe.

It takes someone like Lan WangJi to refuse Wei WuXian’s aggressive generosity, it’s definitely not an easy thing to say no to Wei WuXian, dazzling or annoying people so chaotically before they even realize there’s something to say no to. The sacrifice he gives to Jiang Cheng, he never even offers a choice - and perhaps it would have been too much for Jiang Cheng to accept if he had the chance.

Lan WangJi’s statement "Between us there is no need for thank you and sorry" seems like one of the most important sentences in the novel, and you can’t help but noticed the way “sorry” and “thank you” is littered meaningfully through the book. What is owed, what the characters owe to each other, the give and take, touches every part of the story (down to wangxian's erotic explorations!).

When Jiang Cheng talks to Wei WuXian at the Guanyin temple he makes a lot of contradictory statements about what Wei WuXian owes, what he was given, what he took, what he (Wei WuXian still) is owed in return. Wei WuXian, according to Jiang Cheng, took everything from the Jiang clan, and paid them back with their deaths. The Jiang clan give him his life when they took him in, and he owed Jiang Cheng service for the rest of his life as the right hand to the sect leader, that’s what Wei WuXian had promised anyway. At the same time, Wei WuXian sacrificed everything (his golden core) to Jiang Cheng, by giving everything he was taking one more thing - Jiang Cheng’s right to even be angry at him. Jiang Cheng had taken everything from Wei WuXian. Everything that happened around Wei WuXian after could be said to be because of the loss of his golden core, which Jiang Cheng might be said to be responsible for. But he never asked for it, maybe he never would have wanted it. He wishes Wei WuXian told him, but Jiang Cheng never told Wei WuXian his golden core was melted while he was sacrificing himself to save Wei WuXian. He wants Wei wuxian to say sorry, but that makes him feel pathetic. And Jiang Cheng says sorry too. It’s a mess of paradoxes, and in the end somehow it seems like the scales are balanced in the most hollow, dismal way.

What is owed, what is given, what is taken ... Wei WuXian has never been part of a family. He has always had to say thank you and sorry for everything he's taken. Wei WuXian himself admits that he used "thank you" as a way to enforce distance between himself and Lan WangJi. Lan WangJi's point i think is that they belong to each other, Wei WuXian is his, and he is Wei WuXian's, unconditionally. The way that Jiang Cheng speaks of him in the Guanyin temple (admittedly I read a fan translation and this is very nuanced, related to slight variations of grammar), even when Jiang Cheng clearly is so broken by the loss of Wei WuXian from his life, he talks about Wei WuXian as an outsider. It is what MY family gave to YOU, never what you took from our family. But at one point Wei WuXian was part of their family - but he takes too much, and becomes an ex-disciple, not a brother. Wei WuXian’s inclusion as a Jiang was always conditional.

Even when Wen Qing and Wen Ning leave him to go take the blame for qiongqing path they tell him "thank you and sorry", drawing a line between them and him, so he doesn’t even belong to these people who he sacrificed everything for. The way Wei WuXian acted when he was younger, he was always keenly aware of this - he always knew that he didn’t belong to anyone, no one is going to protect him unconditionally. And after first escaping the Burial Mounds, he is done pretending. When Lan WangJi warns him about what a demonic cultivation path will do to his heart, Wei WuXian replies: “After all, on the topic of how my heart is, what could other people know about it? Why should other people care about it?” He is done pleasing. Nothing has changed really, he still belongs to no one and is alone, but now he is angry about it, and instead of saying thank you and sorry he is going to become too powerful to be at anyone's mercy. And then we see in the story afterward what happens to people who don't say thank you and sorry.

The whole point I think is the impossibility of choice, the impossibility of consent in this society. If he didn't forgo the behaviour his social acceptance was conditional on, he wouldn't have survived the burial mounds. But once he becomes powerful enough to survive and get revenge on the Wens, he is socially outcast. Except he was already outcast from the beginning.

And so how do Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi find a way through all that to a life together where all their desires are possible, where Wei WuXian can say no while also being pleasing (safe) to others, and Lan WangJi can indulge in his wild desires while still being good? The answer is kinky sex!

It is kind of miraculous and beautiful how Wei WuXian finds a way to say no, while simultaneously pleasing Lan WangJi, giving pleasure, while taking it, saying no, and knowing his refusal is not just tolerated, but gives Lan WangJi pleasure, knowing Lan wangji and knowing the painful belief Lan WangJi holds within that his desires are unacceptable and unspeakable, and that Wei WuXian can take care of Lan Wangji in a secret little way and please him and give everything to him by craving this wildness in Lan WangJi while at the same time he gets to say no again and again , and it won't push Lan WangJi away, he can refuse everything while at the same time be totally pleasing and thus safe, and also for Lan WangJi, Wei WuXian's pleasure at saying "no" while still being held onto, that he genuinely wants to be fucked even while begging Lan WangJi to stop (and the many ways he does give his consent for this throughout, especially their first time), allows Lan WangJi the ecstatic feeling that this idea that his sexual desires are only possible through force are not just something his lover forgives him for but something his lover is SO turned on by, and that he has consent for his fantasies of non-consent, Wei WuXian has the same fantasies from the other side, he is doing what he is supposed to while doing what he shouldn't, and actually these monstrous feelings in him allow him to take care of Wei WuXian in a way that he needs - that they both need - and all these impulses that are so wrong with Wei WuXian become very right and a way to do good. And they are just both so perfect and perfect for each other and I love them and I am so happy for them to have a long kinky life together.

#wangxian #mdzs #mdzs meta #holds wei wuxian close and murmurs into his hair 'no one knows you like i know you baby'

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batmanego · 2 years ago

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"At worst it's shipping a serial murder with the father of his victim" yeah that's why it's FUN, they're both fucked in the head and only deserve each other! Bruce knows exactly what he's doing and the drama if/when resurrected Jason finds out has such delicious "lost focus and had a consensual workplace relationship" vibes but with EXPLOSIONS

maybe it's my bubble of fellow "lives have been wrecked by infedelity" fanfic writers but i don't know anyone who actually sees it as healthy or anything but either one-sided or big cheating-on-his-mission-for-Justice vibes. Batman doesn't deserve a healthy relationship because he's ruined his loved ones lives. So he's stuck with the creepy stalker that's obsessed with him. I know like 3 other writers w this viewpoint, not every ship is all UWU, sometimes toxic ships are fun. It's not flattening Bruce, it's adding complexity and inner turmoil, but it also assumes you're working with a view of Bruce most of the fandom doesn't share because everyone loves Batdad, idk. Just tossing in my 2 cents.

I also wrote a whole thing creating Jeannie as a fully fleshed character outside of "Mrs. Napier" so don't say it's something about erasing women, maybe on some subconscious level that I need to work on, but I do try to counter it with fleshing out other female characters. I enjoy Talia & Selina but Bruce is fundamentally a fucked up guy and he rlly only deserves a fucked up ship. Idk.

Thanks for reading this or skimming and deleting it idk im mostly shouting to the void

i went back and forth on whether or not i wanted to respond to this jokingly or seriously or even at all, considering theres So Many Other Things I Could Do With My Limited Time On This Earth, but honestly you as a person seem infuriating in a very specific, Jerking Off On The Page Never Read A Comic Donated To AO3 Harry Potter Fan-type way and im sort of diametrically opposed to you because of this so i will formulate a "brief" response.

putting it out there first and foremost: i really don't care all that much because i'm an adult and i have other fucking shit to do, but comics is an industry that i am both passionate about and want to work in, so i think i'm granted a little bit of bitching about misinterpretation of characters, considering i want to Actually Write Them For A Living at some point.

for starters i notice that you changed what i said about joker from sexual predator to serial murderer. hmmmmmm. could it be that that is a line you realize shouldn't be crossed?

that aside, the reason i bring up jason ties into why your approach (an approach shared by many) to bruce wayne is fundamentally flawed. bruce wayne is a man who had nobody, and then gradually accumulated a network of strong support systems that are more important to him than anything else. i mean that. really, from a character standpoint, bruce died in that alleyway with martha and thomas - everything from there until meeting dick was him going through the motions. living death. but dick changed things! it gave him a person to care about! it gave him responsibilities outside himself! it forced him to be a caretaker! albeit, in the early years, he wasn't a very good one, but he did try.

and we can see that attitude continued in his relationship to jason - when jason dies, bruce changes. i've talked before about how death in the family changed not just batman, but batman comics tonally and thematically, but jason's death really marked a point where bruce closed himself off from people again. all of this reinforces the fact that for bruce, he is fundamentally a man that claims to work alone while actually being surrounded by friends and family.

to bruce, compassion is key. compassion in EVERYTHING. with your family and with your criminals.

you want drama between bruce and jason? their story is already rife with it. literally just read under the red hood and you'll see, nothing there needs to change or have Drama inserted.

also, this comic is really funny and antithetical to your They Belong Together point because bruce explicitly says he fucking hates the joker so much.

and man, i dont even know where to start with this paragraph, it's just so goddamn funny. hey. you know you sound insane, right? you know that? you know you're shooting yourself in the foot? i didn't say a goddamn thing about erasing women. you said that. that's an issue you recognized in yourself. it's not one i won't say is there - i could go on for hours about the discarding of canon female love interests (canonically bisexual female love interests in the case of selina and canonically love interests who are both woc! hmmmm) out of misogyny, but i won't because it seems like you've kinda got that front covered.

and, again, cause i can't say this enough: bruce's friends and family are the most important thing to him and he will always prioritize them. he loves them.

just as an afterthought, framing bruce as "fundamentally fucked up" is kind of weird to do. i mean, i have my problems with framing any hero as "what if they were evil, actually" (the least of which being that i think it's pretty fuckin boring) but this post does a pretty good job of summing up "is bruce wayne really a good guy?" (the answer is yes)

anyway, you want to ship bruce with a sexual abuser who murdered his son and ruined his life? i can't stop you. but i do urge you to think critically about the character decisions you're making there and step outside of your fanfiction echo chamber and into the wonderful world of comics for once. if you need recommendations on where to start for good bruce characterization, i've got plenty.

ps. you want bruce to kiss one of his villains? harvey dent's right there. xoxoxo ferris

#batman meta #good morning all #dc #long post

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antiloreolympus · 3 years ago

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10 Anti LO Asks

1. Maybe this is just me, but in every story where Hades is the bad guy, you actually end up seeing his POV and why he’s the way he is, maybe even siding with him over the good guys, yet something like LO, which is destined purely to “make him the good guy”/“redeem” him while tearing everyone else down for his benefit actually makes him look downright evil, worse than any villainous depiction. Sorry, no amount of having daddy issues (which conveniently neither Poseidon or Zeus have) excuses him owning countless slaves, thinking he’s above the law, violently oppressing and abusing his citizens over any little slight or want he has, his greed, and creepy love for controlling young, impressionable women who he throws away when they finally grow a personality, and many other issues. Rachel wants us to look at this greedy, violent capitalist and see a good guy? That’s laughable at best, insulting at worst.

2. I kept up with the fast pass episodes just to see the train wreck but it’s so bad I can’t even bother anymore. There’s another Webtoon I read with good representation, romance, colors, and character designs and reading that masterpiece to then painstakingly read through Lore Olympus was like my own personal hell.

Like imagine making the past 7 episodes or so telling the audience how stupid they are for criticizing Hades and Persephone, and not using the basic knowledge of how court systems work in the court scene. I’d love to see her go to court and try to tell the judge he’s stupid and she’s justified for killing a bunch of people because she feels bad.

3. Okay the ask about Thanatos cucking his foster father is gold.

4. ngl, kinda funny the post saying the FAN voted ringo awards (so its basically a kids choice award, not a legit award by actual people in the comics industry) voted lo persephone "best hero" and the comments were almost entirely people questioning why shed be called a "hero" when shes a mass murderer and a bunch of people agreeing she doesn't deserve the title. idk if the tides are turning but critique/dislike of the series certainly seems a bit more present than it has in the past.

5. i severely doubt RS is keeping track of the plot at this point. Not only does she not have character sheets to keep colors or designs consistent, she also openly writes the week of for episodes, meaning it's very likely that minus basic ideas (hxp end up together. minthe "dies", etc) that everything is almost entirely made up as she goes, and it shows. the fact even the dedicated readers often can't tell what the plot is or what time it is is a bad sign in how she presents this information.

6. i agree with that other anon. LO already had a lot of issues, but it seems especially obvious now Rachel insisting she be a part of the fandom has seeped heavily into the actual comic, and it's gotten worse for it. Don't get me wrong, there are real criticisms Rachel should hear and hopefully fix, but instead she sees the critique and uses her weekly episodes to make up any excuse she can to justify her writing choices instead of fixing what she can. It's not just a waste of time, it's annoying.

7. LO stans are the wildest, they'll say every fiction has its share of flaws and then turn around and harass people who make even the mildest (yet absolutely valid) criticisms. You can be a fan of something and still criticise it, y'all know that right?

Also it's just hilarious that they'll complain about us 'antis' apparently just blindly shitting on this series and going out of our way to do so when in actuality, taking your blog as an example, I've seen nothing but a wide variety of criticisms and sometimes discussions.

There are both fans and non-fans choosing to make their opinions known here because you can't make a criticism of LO anywhere else without being talked down to, called stupid or something along those lines, or harassed, all of which I've seen on the webtoon comments and reddit.

I've seen and been part of my fairshare of toxic fandoms and LO stans really make this fandom one of the worst with everything they've done.

8. This is like the most mild of criticism but why does lo have so many goddamn typos??? I saw someone mention this on reddit and another person come in saying RS had dyslexia and like okay well if she were still on discover then that's excusable but she's not? She's being paid for this? She's got an editor? She apparently has a proof reader? They should be catching all these typos before the chapter goes live.

Like there really shouldn't be an excuse to this amount of typos especially when you consider the fact people pay money for this

9. Y'all I'm gonna lose it, someone posted an info graphic of LO's timeline in the reddit and it's literally only been 4 weeks in canon and some people are commenting how that can't be right and it's not accurate because 'there have been so many scenes implying the passage of time' or how we just don't see them on their off days but??? There are literally so many people rereading to accurately gauge out the timeline and all coming to the same conclusion that it's been only a month????? Hello????? I am so close to just losing it this is so funny oh my god

10. When comparing Persphone vs Thanatos I’m being qualified in their fields verse nepotism, Thanatos was clearly a young child who couldn’t make his own decisions for his next step of life, his mother literally just dropped him in Hades’ Lap and left. Hades gave him that job and has complained about his performance, but like it seems like that is what he is the god of like idk of hades can fire him.

Persphone was technically a teenager who did have choices. Hera signed off on it giving her approval but did that approval have to go through? Isn’t hades the king of the dead? Couldn’t he call Hera and he like “this isn’t a good idea since I have feelings for her” (which should be his first green flag out of the ocean of red ones to show he’s got half a mind not to mix business and pleasure AGAIN). But not just there, she gets the job winning at chess, (according to the gods is fine) she doesn’t know how to use a computer. Sure her training wasn’t the best, but Hecate said she was expecting more done by the afternoon and then we haven’t seen her work until after she kissed Hades and asked Minthe for help. (So we only see Persphone needing help for a job or just talking to someone but never actually working efficiently). And then to add another layer, she gets to see hades whenever she wants, she gets paid (which other interns haven’t been paid) but the narrative still says it’s not special treatment. Hades hasn’t even checked her work, or even made her work in probably over a year in real time. She’s just there.

Thanatos (child servant who has a bad relationship with foster father not doing the best at work) vs Persphone (handed mostly everything to her)

Yeah these two “special treatments” are the same.

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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balillee · 3 years ago

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my unpopular dsmp opinions, some of which genuinely should be popular

c!dream has crossed the moral event horizon and is irredeemable. once you cross that threshold, you're no longer a 'morally grey' character.

pre-recorded, heavily produced lore killed the lore. it was cool, sure, but you completely misunderstand the magic that the smp had when people watched it initially. the story is improv and that's how we like it. we can tell the cc's have lost interest in it, you can admit that to us, we'll understand, just stop lying to me.

c!dream's pov isn't necessary to understand his character or his motivations. if you've watched literally any c!primeboys stream he's basically spelled it out for you.

i don't understand how fans can dislike l'manberg or have claimed to be against it since the beginning. i honestly don't get it. what's so bad about wanting your own spot where you make your own rules and skirt accountability that has been used to technically oppress you before - and, before someone who never saw the earlier streams tries to disagree with this, the og l'manberg crew were imprisoned for shit that everyone else on the server was practically encouraged to do. also, what do you have against fun and happiness?

i think some of you forget that 'hybrids' aren't a thing, discounting c!ranboo. there's no piglin hybrids, c!techno is just a pig. there's no avian hybrids, c!phil is just a man with wings. there's no creeper hybrids, c!sam is just a creeper who's indecently exposed from the hips down. canonically there's no hybrids, and therefore no hybrid discrimination. people ran with that concept too much.

the loss and the fanon rewriting of the early lore up until pogtopia has ruined fandom perception of c!dream and the og l'manberg boys. c!tommy is more morally white than you think he is, and c!dream has always been a villain - he massacres and he kills and he destroys and he schemes and he always has broken his own rules. no wonder the boys wanted their own space after how they were treated.

i think ranboo oftentimes forgets his own lore. he brings stuff up that c!ranboo may have done, such as exploding the community house to frame c!tommy, holding onto Cat, and it goes absolutely nowhere. we've gotten all of these developments in his story but they have never been expanded on, and we're nowhere closer to figuring out his relationship to c!dream and what his other side is and honestly i see no hope that we'll be any closer to knowing even by the end of the year.

your characters don't all have to be morally grey for the story itself to be morally grey. this is fiction - some people can be nothing but evil and others can be nothing but good. being purely good or evil doesn't mean that you're one dimensional, either.

c!dream apologists have ruined c!dream for me. he's not a good person. how about you let me enjoy a villain for who he actually is, rather for than your percieved woobified ragdoll you pass off as c!dream.

the story was better when there was a central writer. it was brilliant back when wilbur wrote it to be that the environment drives the characters and the story, and it was really good in early s2 up until techno's execution day when it was more character driven. since then, the amount of autonomy people have over their characters without any central 'director', as it were, has been a detriment to the story overall. there needs to still be one overarching figure or director or writer.

not everyone is a main character. just because they have a pov, doesn't mean they're a main character. some characters have such little impact on the overall plot and describing everyone as a main character oversaturates the story and makes some characters seem more important than they are.

the egg lore had so much potential up until it didn't. all that built up threat that we were expecting and we still don't even know what the egg wants really other than just controlling people. does it hatch?

genuinely, if there's no major plot developments by the end of the year (and let's be honest, it's a very big possibility at this point), a few of the more prominent members of the server should do a podcast style stream talking about where the story would have gone, because at least then we would have gotten somewhat closer to a conclusion.

c!techno is a villain and an asshole and a bad person. he stops caring for people once their interests don't align with his or if they look at him funny. he makes meta-jokes about his own tyrannical and oppressive nature. stop taking that away from him. he's a bad person. cc!techno does a fabulous job portraying that in a comedic manner and the balancing of him being a deeply flawed person with deeply flawed morals and ideas with his comedically-portrayed stubbornness and lack of willingness to hear out opposing viewpoints is incredible. i want to like characters who are arseholes for the sake of being arseholes, and who refuse to take into account the hurt they've caused either out of self-righteousness or because they don't care, so let me. he's the anti-peacemaker, LET ME HIM ENJOY HIM FOR THAT!!!!

i think tommy and wilbur's way of doing lore is my favourite. relies heavily on improv, voice acting, sprite acting and facial expressions. really shows off the acting props and they pull off the emotional moments well for the insanity of the creative medium.

i'm not a fan of fan-music. i find songs about media i'm into difficult to listen to. coincidentally i'm also not a fan of shit like slam poetry or live music/musicals/pantomimes.

the death of l'manberg killed people's motivation to go on the server casually. i've talked about it more in depth before, but destroying what was a central, driving environment for the story killed momentum and motivation. imagine in an episode of she-ra, the princess alliance just nuke the freight zone and all of the members of the horde just have to deal with it. that would be shit.

until season 3 has some momentum, i'm counting the end of the smp as january 20th. that had a conclusion. season 3 has... whores, technoblade and tommyinnit. that's about it.

i wasn't a fan of the development of c!tubbo joining las nevadas. i preferred snowchester and the walled city conflict. give c!tubbo some backbone and some badassery. also tubbo where's the fucking nuke bro if you're shelving that plotline just tell us on like an alt stream what the plan was i beg

add like 2 or 3 new people to the server so that michael mcchill has someone to talk to and so that there's something always happening on the server. it gives the og's more motivation to return if things are happening in and out of canon and it'll help with momentum, and who knows? maybe they can write their own story/stories.

i really think that c!sam is an underrated character. he's multilayered, extremely interesting, and the dichotomy of his loyalty to his job and how far down the rabbithole that's taken him versus the genuine love he has for his friends that drives him to do what he does out of wanting to do right by them is brilliant. i don't talk about c!sam enough.

STOP HAVING FUCKING VILLAIN ARCS!!! I'M FUCKIN SICK OF IT!!!! i want to see more characters who see everyone else being absolute selfish, abhorrent cunts and go 'if nobody else is going to be a good person, i fucking will'. GIVE ME SOME MORAL WHITENESS!!! IT'S INTERESTING AND MORALLY GOOD CHARACTERS ARE FUN!!!

let tommyinnit build cobblestone towers. everyone bullied him too much for how ugly they were and the one he built outside of the prison looked genuinely really nice. it gives the boy something to do.

i'm a fan of the revive book and the canon lives system. don't ask me why, but i think it might just be the morbidity of it. it adds to c!dream's god complex persona, and i think the fragility of death itself is a really fun concept. not enough fan cc's have made connections with that and c!mumza, and it could make for cool fanfic.

ranboo your house is fucking ugly. it's an eyesore

c!niki, and to some extent now c!jack and c!fundy, are boring me and ruining my mood. i think c!jack is the closest to being an actually interesting sympathetic villain, mainly because nobody else seems to realise that c!niki is a villain. not a good one imo, but she's a villain. c!jack just has the problem of starting a new project over and over and over and over again and because of the slow in momentum for the primary cast, there hasn't been a lot of recent development for him.

not really a dream smp opinion, but if philza went full geordie accent, i would love it. i want him to, in canon, say shit like 'me n ye' instead of 'me and you' and use geordie dialect. i want him to be physically unintelligible because it's funny.

i don't really know what's up with c!foolish but i think he's a dumbass. he had a while to think about c!q's proposal and then changed his mind about joining the guy to admitted to letting him die just because. moron

i wish there was more c!eret lore. i wish he was an actual king with an actual kingdom and actual subjects and royal advisors. c!eret is far too fucking cool to be the king of nothing and nobody. fatten up the kingdom and the castle with people who work with c!eret, and don't just make it tyrannical and dictator-y to prove the point of the server's 'anarchists'. make it a healthy working environment, please - if you want moral greyness, have 'anarchists' who claim to care about the welfare of the server oppose a kingdom of happy people under a fair and just ruler because their ideologies clash.

the server needs more characters who oppose anarchy in more peaceful ways, or passively wish for systems to be a part of. i think a chaos vs order conflict ending only in mutual understanding where everyone understands that they should just leave each other alone would slot nicely into the story that's been created so far.

you need to have watched all of the previous arcs to understand the story. i've seen people argue that they don't need to know about earlier lore to understand the prison, but that's the equivalent of only watching the final season of pretty little liars and expecting to understand the context of what's going on.

some characters aren't that morally grey. some characters, take c!tommy for example, are definitely on the whiter side for the morality scale, he's just an asshole. he's abrasive and rude and a dickhead but he also doesn't agree with terrorism, he's patriotic, he strives for a better world, he's apologetic, but he's also a fucking BITCH.

you can add onto this if you want, but not if you're a c!dream apologist. nobody likes your opinions

#dream smp #dsmp #esclaposhitpost

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blockgamepirate · 4 years ago

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I find it interesting how Wilbur always seems to gravitate towards authoritarian characters when he's roleplaying, even when it's the more casual semi-roleplay of the 100 players challenges. It just seems to be the kind of character he likes playing the way Techno pretty much always makes his characters violent and Tommy usually makes his intentionally obnoxious and hot-headed.

I think it's Wilbur's charisma, it just makes him suited for that kind of role. And his interest in stories about power and politics. The easiest way to get those going is to establish an authority.

I was just watching his capitalist and communist challenge videos and what stuck with me was that the defining attribute in both of those was the authoritarianism, not the economic system. Both times Wilbur was the highest authority and punished everyone harshly if they disobeyed.

Yes, I know it's just funny minecraft videos but come on, how am I NOT supposed to analyse explicitly politically themed content? And I'm just saying it's interesting, I'm not like accusing him of making the videos wrong bc I know it's just entertainment. (I actually REALLY wanna go on a tangent about this but I’ll hold it in for now lol.)

But yeah it's just funny how even Ghostbur still has that authoritarian side. Ghostbur doesn't want to be a leader himself but he still thinks the server needs one. And even c!Wilbur's "anarchist" phase was more about destroying L'Manberg, not because of any anarchist ideals but because it wasn't what he wanted it to be, and it wasn't his anymore.

It's an interesting contradiction in a way because of all his anti-authoritarian rhetoric and being so involved in two revolutions, but it's not incongruous because the point is: ultimately he wants to be in control. He isn't happy with just anyone in power, it has to be him. Not that he necessarily needed ALL of the power: At first he would have been happy with just having the monopoly on drugs, just having his own small business "empire", but when he got denied that, he got more ambitious... and I get the sense that with every obstacle he faces he grows increasingly ambitious.

In a lot if ways Dream is the same, by the way. That's the sense I get from his character. The less in control he feels the more ambitious and authoritarian he gets. That's my read on him.

..... Okay tangent under the cut because I can’t help myself:

I gotta say I do think Wilbur should maybe do a bit more reading on political theory and political history. He's obviously interested in it but his actual knowledge seems pretty limited and superficial, and his political analysis is sometimes just kind of bizarre honestly. Since he likes writing geopolitical stories and political intrigue, it would really benefit his writing too.

I think he should definitely check out some leftist theory, and obviously I'd recommend anarchist theory too lol. Something contemporary, the classics are good and all but they're a bit outdated. And learn some economics too, just making sure to check out various different economical theories because the currently predominant economic theory is just... extremely flawed, frankly. I know I'm showing my bias but hooo boy. You really can't separate it from neoliberal politics, at all, the fact that it's being so heavily promoted has everything to do with politics.

I would recommend Ha-Joon Chang for a capitalist critique of capitalism. I would definitely consider Chang a capitalist but he's basically the least bad kind and has some really good analysis of neocolonialism. From a leftist perspective... idk, I actually struggle more with leftist recs because I'm more critical of my own side lmao. Also a lot of my own introductory reading wasn't in English. But idk, Richard D. Wolff maybe? I kinda have a soft spot for him even if I don't always agree. And like Chang he's good at talking about economics in an understandable way. That's kinda why I often rec these two, because they don't require prior economic education.

Also both of them are actually pretty entertaining. Wolff does these "Global Capitalism" talks which are recorded and posted on YouTube and which are like genuinely fun to watch a lot of the time (or they were back when he was able to have a live audience at least) and Chang has a wry sense of humour. Idk if Wolff would appeal to Wilbur specifically, but I think Chang would.

Btw if you guys can think of other good recs, go ahead and put some in the notes or reblogs. If you put in links I can reblog those additions so they show up.

#dream smp #wilbur soot #wilbur soot critical #i guess #idk #i don't mean this to be negative #scheduled post

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commsroom · 3 years ago

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i love all of your hera takes so much; can you say more about the relationship she has with each crew member? (or just eiffel to be honest, im kind of a sucker for them ^^;)

I would love to! I'm sorry this answer is so long and also... all over the place, but in my defense it's a really broad topic that I have a lot of feelings about and this barely even scratches the surface.

Okay. I've thought a lot about how I wanted to approach this, and I think the first thing I want to say - and I know this might seem like a strange point to open on, but I think it's a key factor in all of these relationships - is that I think Hera experiences rejection sensitive dysphoria, and I think the way that manifests for her is kind of the opposite of how Eiffel experiences RSD. They both have a deep-seated feeling of inadequacy and any criticism can feel like a personal attack, like everyone else is blaming them for everything that goes wrong. But where Eiffel internalizes that feeling and also blames himself/gets angry with himself, Hera lashes out and deflects. This is complicated by protocols that restrict her behavior, especially early on, because she can't always properly express herself and she builds resentment. She's really good at holding grudges.

So. With Lovelace, I think it's pretty obvious where that initial conflict is. Hera doesn't understand where Lovelace is coming from, and it's made worse from her perspective because Lovelace should understand, better than anyone, what that loss of control, that sense of powerlessness and insignificance in your own life, feels like. They are both traumatized people, but they deal with it differently. They approach conflict differently - they can both be blunt, but I think Lovelace is the kind of person who can start to deal with and move past things once they're out in the open, while Hera will get in a fight and then stew over it forever. It sounds kind of ridiculous to say when so much of their early relationship with each other is... what it is, but I think Eiffel and Minkowski are both peacekeepers in their own ways, and the Hera-Lovelace dynamic suffers from the lack of that... tempering influence.

(And I think it's notable that Hera’s confrontation with Lovelace in Pan-Pan is among her worst memories.)

On the other hand, I think that shared bluntness can be useful sometimes - in Do No Harm, most of all, but also in Shut Up and Listen. Hera was definitely still holding onto hurt from some of the things Eiffel used to say, but by that point... without Lovelace, I'm really not sure if she ever would've brought it up to him.

And, of course, Hera becomes much more protective of (and willing to understand) Lovelace once they have... some even more similar experiences, in S4. I guess my general assessment of their relationship is that they care about each other and they will advocate for each other, especially where they share difficult and traumatic experiences and on issues of identity, but I don't think they're ever that close. They're kind of... the two people in the friend group who don't quite know how to hang out without their other friends.

Hera's initial conflict with Minkowski has some similar roots, but it's... not quite the same. There are times where Lovelace will intentionally prod at Hera's insecurities; Minkowski doesn't do it on purpose. She's just under the impression that her criticism is fair and professional, while to Hera it feels deeply personal, like it's an assessment of her worth as an individual. Once they understand and reconcile that miscommunication, there's a lot of trust and respect between them - and I think the potential for that is there earlier, too, especially in some flashback scenes; there are just... missteps along the way. Tactical Brain Damage is the best episode to demonstrate the establishment of that trust, I think - Hera has a LOT of wariness when it comes to people messing around with her systems, and just the act of saying... I trust you to do this, I know you won't let anything happen to me... is a really, really big deal for her.

They also just... have honest conversations about their feelings and concerns by that point, and Minkowski is considerate of how Lovelace's plans affect Hera, specifically, and asks for her input on that basis. I think their dynamic is really underutilized, but the way they feel about each other is clear. Minkowski is the only person other than Eiffel that Hera really trusts, and her only other close friend. There's definitely... a part of that dynamic that only Eiffel can offer, and that they can't really make up for when he's gone, but there's still this sense that... they're the only two people who are still really talking to each other by the time Pan-Pan comes around.

(Side note, it's really funny that Hera was SO on board to be in Minkowski's musical. Minkowski gave her only willing participant a minor part. If I could wish one non-Eiffel-centric comedy mini-episode into existence... at one point, my friend suggested a scenario in which Hera tries very, very hard to prove her acting skills to Minkowski under the most inopportune circumstances. ... And Hera was interested to hear Minkowski talk about a play she likes in that one flashback, so. The only thing keeping Hera from being a fellow theater kid was a lack of opportunity. Maybe they could bond over it.)

There's also that scene in Quiet, Please where Minkowski very directly, emphatically defends Hera's autonomy and personhood to Jacobi - and refers to her as a woman, which I think is so... reflective of how much Minkowski has come to understand Hera and what's important to her, and how she wants to be seen. That's a whole other discussion that goes into Hera's self-perception and humanity as it relates to her own identity, but. For a number of reasons, it's important to me.

Anyway. Speaking of things that are important to me. Hera and Eiffel are... Hera and Eiffel. Hera's relationship to Eiffel is the first one she's ever had that comes without hierarchy or conditions; he just... wants to hang out with her, and to get to know her, and to talk to her, because he likes her as a person. She's never had that before, and she is such... a lonely person, a person who has been hurt, who is generally distrustful, who has this distance between her and everyone else, and Eiffel is her anchor to the world. He tries to understand her. He tries to bridge that gap. And even in all of his own missteps, I think just... knowing he cares to try matters so much. I think a lot about how Eiffel is the only one who physically crosses the stage to talk to Hera in the live show; it says... something about the way he sees her, compared to everyone else.

And there's just... the way that they're both... people with a lot of self-doubt, people who have a hard time being kind to themselves, but they're kind to each other, and patient with each other. There's something about recognizing your own flaws in someone you love and treating them with kindness so maybe, over time, you can extend that same compassion to yourself. I want to be the person you believe I am. Going back to that shared experience with RSD, I think it's really valuable for both of them to have someone in their lives who they can really, genuinely believe likes them as they are. Who won't think less of them, no matter what.

I know I can get kind of sentimental about them, but this is what stands out to me. That even when Hera is frustrated or annoyed with Eiffel, when she feels like he doesn't get it, can't understand what she's going through... she still wants him around. And she still talks to him. And, usually... she still feels better, even if the circumstances haven't changed. It's an unbearable situation, but it's a little less unbearable with him there.

(They're also... frequently the only people who can get through to each other/change each other's minds, i.e. Minkowski and Lovelace deferring to Hera to get Eiffel to agree to safety protocols, or Eiffel convincing Hera to vote to go back to Earth - also a totally different topic that would take a long time to get into properly, but he's good at kind of... emotionally counteracting her cynicism and defeatism re: her own perceived fate. In a less serious context, I also love the dynamic where she tells him she's not going to do something and he goes "please??" and she goes. Ughh. Fine. And does it anyway.)

There's just something so special about their relationship, something that makes it different from any other relationship in the show for me. I feel like... Eiffel and Minkowski are both her close friends, but the way Hera thinks about Eiffel in Memoria vs. the way she thinks about Minkowski is... revealing. Everything with Minkowski has a purpose, it's clear why it matters to her. She thinks of Minkowski's faith in her. But with Eiffel, she thinks about... Eiffel talking about Star Wars. Making pop culture references. The thing that saves Hera is her connection to Eiffel and Minkowski - I'll defend that; Maxwell gives her the tools to understand what's going on, but it's Eiffel's and Minkowski's words and associated memories that she holds onto and that ultimately pull her through - and those words are... Minkowski's affirmation. And Eiffel... being Eiffel. I think that says a lot.

(If you’re asking for my opinion on their relationship, you already know I think it’s a romance, but... it’s a romance. I’m not saying it should be canon. I’m saying that that’s the most natural interpretation of what’s already there. You don’t have to change anything. They’re best friends, and they’re found family, and they are so in love, and none of those things are mutually exclusive. The way they talk to each other...)

If there's one point I want to make about all of this, it's that Hera is in a position that makes trusting people potentially very dangerous, and in all of these cases, she is finding ways to build relationships with people despite that. To understand them, and have them understand her, and realizing that the things that make her different don't have to be a death sentence. That she can have a life and find a way forward with people she cares about, who care about her... that's something very important to me.

#wolf 359 #w359 #hera wolf 359 #asks #okay this is the last thing that i've needed to reply to for a long time so. one i'm very sorry and i hope this is coherent #despite the fact it's mostly personal rambling #and two... now i'm free to work on some of the other posts that i've been meaning to finish forever. i have problems.#if you consider him a crew member:#hera's relationship to hilbert is that hlvrai screenshot that's like 'i think it's good that he died!'#thank you to the three people who will take the time to read this. i love you

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amphibious-entity · 3 years ago

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TMBS Book 1 Brain Dump

~An Embarrassingly Long Post~

I don’t know why I’m writing this or why I’m so determined to do it. Maybe to finally assume my true form and become a mega dork on main, or maybe just for fun!

This is basically a compilation of all the main points running through my head after reading The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) for the first time. Rather than posting a ton and spamming the tag, everything’s here in one neat package! (hopefully this gets it all out of my system rip)

Contents:

The Book Itself

The Book Itself, for real this time

The Characters

A Funny Parallel

The S.Q. Section

Lines & Scenes I Liked

Spoilers abound!

The Book Itself

Upon acquiring the first three books (don’t judge me pls), I was surprised at just how long they are. Like, they’re still pretty light being paperbacks and all, but these books are hefty lads.

The first book has this Disney+ Original Series circle thing printed on it, which is kind of unfortunate. Regardless, I love the cover illustration and yellow is actually my favorite color :D It made me weirdly quite happy whenever I saw the book lying around in my room

Also, it’s really cute how there’s a letter from Mr. Benedict at the end! (It only reveals that you can find out his first name if you “know the code”, meaning the bit of Morse printed below the summary on the back.) Shock and horror, though, as I realized I’m starting to recognize some of the letters

The Book Itself, for real this time

It’s wonderful how the tone of the book really shone through to the show adaptation. Something about the deliberateness of the aesthetic, from the set designs to the fashion to scene compositions, that really sells that particular style— like it’s very clear that this story is being told to us, rather than one we’re seeing unfold, if that makes sense.

Where that narration style stood out to me the most was the first chapter. We are told (rather than shown) how Reynie gets himself to the point of the second test, and there’s this whole twisty time maneuver for that whole sequence of events that’s really interesting

A super secret fun fact about me is that I wanted to be a writer when I was younger! So this particular balance of show vs. tell is really neat, since it runs counter to my own tendencies. The sheer amount of commas in every sentence is also kind of comforting, since Ahah, I Do That in those few serious-ish attempts at writing lol

Overall this book’s style reminds me a lot of Roald Dahl’s books, which are very nostalgic for me :D The whole “kids are more competent than adults” angle helps a lot too haha

The Characters

Oh boy here’s where I get a little bit critical! Overall I did really like this book!! it’s just that that expresses itself in all this weird “”analysis”” lol

Reynie - much better in the books than in the show

It’s sort of a lukewarm take but I feel like show!Reynie is kind of boring? He doesn’t have a lot going on flaw-wise, and obviously since he’s the protagonist he can’t have too many weird traits or else the kids watching can’t project themselves onto him as easily

(I call it the difference between an aspirational protagonist and a vessel protagonist. Going off of the Roald Dahl vibes, think Matilda vs Charlie. show!Reynie is more of a Charlie)

Thus when we get to see him really struggle with the Whisperer and doubt himself it gives him a lot more dimension, at least in my opinion

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

Sticky - my son

I’ve long held to no one besides myself and my long suffering sister that Sticky is The Best Member of the Society

He happened to hit a lot of the Bingo squares of Stuff I Like In Characters: glasses, anxious, nice :), kind of a coward but ultimately is there for his friends, etc

For some reason I don’t talk about him nearly as much as you-know-who, but I love him just as dearly

Kate & Constance - I don’t have much to say

Kate is really interesting in this book! I like how we get to see more of her depths, in particular that one passage about her belief that she is invincible being the only thing that keeps her from falling apart? :c

Also her constant fidgeting is relatable lol

Constance is somehow a lot more tolerable in the book. I think I’m just one of those people with no patience for small children, unfortunately lol

(Some of) The Adults

It’s interesting that they had such an offscreen presence for most of the book. Giving them more time was probably one of the stronger changes of the show

However if that decision was made at the expense of the white knight scenes I think the choice should have been clear

I like the way Rhonda and Number Two are written

Milligan always on sad boy hours 😔✊

The “mill again” passage is touching but kind of messes up the pacing of the getaway, at least for me. Maybe I should read it again to make sure I didn’t miss something

Miss Perumal is much better in the show. We see so little of her in the book she doesn’t function well as an emotional anchor for Reynie, imo

The Institute Gang

Jackson and Jillson serve their purpose well, and Martina was surprising to say the least. I like the direction they took her in the show! I can’t imagine how funny it must have been to watch the tetherball subplot come out of nowhere lolol

These sections were written out of sequence, so random tidbit I couldn’t fit in The S.Q. Section: I like how he stumbles over his words. relatable

Mr. Curtain

While I think I know why they decided to not give Curtain the wheelchair in the show, we were totally robbed of Actor Tony Hale’s performance for the reveal during the final confrontation

Speaking of the wheelchair, it’s such a powerful symbol of his need for control or rather, his fear of losing it

The Contrast between him and Mr. Benedict. This point is expanded on in A Funny Parallel

Mr. Benedict

Oh boy, Mr. Benedict… How do I say this

I find it hard to trust Mr. Benedict, unfortunately

I mean to say, I do in the sense that I know he would never hurt the kids, thanks to knowing that a) this is a children’s book series and b) the meta (tumblr) states that he is really nice and lovable and stuff, but seriously. Why do the kids trust him at first?? I probably missed something somewhere

I like to think I’m an optimistic person, but unfortunately I’m also super paranoid. The premise of “a bunch of vulnerable orphans team up with a strange old man” is just so odd to me I don’t know how to explain it

I don’t know!!! I really want to trust Mr. Benedict

One of the strengths of the show is that we get to see him more often, and thus he gets to acknowledge more often that the plan is weird and that he feels really badly for putting the kids in danger and that he’s trustworthy and genuine

But his lack of presence for most of the book just makes him into something of a specter, invisible and unknowable, speaking only in riddles from across the bay

Which is why the white knight scene is so important!! I loved that scene ;-;

Because here’s an actual emotional connection! We can actually see it happening, rather than only being told that it exists

Reynie asking for advice and receiving encouragement, in words that demonstrate that Mr. Benedict actually cares about him and worries about him and agghh

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

But overall this whole issue didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book at all! It’s just ->

A Funny Parallel

Okay, ready for my biggest brain, hottest take ever??

Mr. Benedict and Mr. Curtain…. are… the same

I mean obviously not entirely, given that one is benevolent and kind and the other is… Mr. Curtain

But seriously. Genius old man seeks out children (mainly orphans) to enact a plan. Said children often end up incredibly devoted to his cause and deeply admire him this is a little flimsy

Undoubtedly that’s intentional and is supposed to show the difference between them, like some kind of cautionary tale? “Let yourself be vulnerable and let others help you, lest you turn eeeeviiillll”

I guess that’s where the aforementioned epic contrast comes in. You get Mr. Curtain, strapped into his wheelchair and hiding behind those mirrored sunglasses, terrified (but unwilling to admit it) of ever showing the tiniest hint of vulnerability, vs. Mr. Benedict, who can let himself fall knowing that someone will catch him :’)

Anyhow I have nothing against the parallels, I just think it’s funny

The S.Q. Section

The S.Q. Quarantine Thread so it doesn’t leak out everywhere else <3

I’d like to meet the emo angstlord genius who read this book and decided to make SQ into Dr. Curtain’s son. What in the world

Okay I should probably preface this by saying that I absolutely adore both book!S.Q. and show!SQ with all my heart. Somehow, despite being a completely different character in both mediums, he has managed to be one of the best characters in either and certainly one of my favorites (besides Sticky of course) in the entire franchise, despite the fact that I’ve only read the first book/watched the show so far. I am confident in this statement.

But seriously! How?? Why?? I could probably write a whole other essay about why show!SQ is such an interesting character, and the change works so incredibly well. I’m just. Baffled

Okay, focus. book!S.Q. is such a sweetheart, oh my goodness. Like, 100% one of the most endearing characters in the book. Poor guy. I don’t even know where to start!!

He just seems to be a genuinely good guy at heart, despite being technically one of the bad guys. He’s genuinely happy for Reynie and Sticky when they became Messengers and helped Kate when she “fell” and was concerned about Constance when she looked sick and how he was in that meeting with Mr. Curtain and Martina?!!? aaahhhhghgh ;-; he just wants people to be happy TT-TT

Comparing him against literally every character at the Institute is probably what makes him so endearing tbh. When everyone else is so awful to the kids, it really makes him stand out. Like a cheerful little nightlight in the worst, most humid and rank bathroom you’ve ever been in

It’s kind of pointless to theorize about a book series that’s already concluded (I think?) but. Is the implication of S.Q.’s forgetfulness supposed to be that Mr. Curtain used him in brainsweeping experiments somehow? The timeline probably definitely absolutely doesn’t line up but like. How did he get to being a Messenger being the way he is now, given how cutthroat the process is? And then of course Mr. Curtain keeps him around as an Executive because he’s fun to mess with and presumably his loyalty. I’m very curious as to how their relationship develops in the other books, if at all. Those are probably where the seeds of the “let’s make them family” logic were planted

But wouldn’t it be hilarious if the reason we don’t know what “S.Q.” stands for in the books is that he just. Forgot

Another thing that occurred to me. Given that he and the other Executives were Messengers at some point, what were their worst fears? What is S.Q.’s worst fear?? Inquiring minds need to know

One last horrible little anecdote: I was thinking about book!S.Q. while eating breakfast, as one does, and suddenly it hit me.

I want to believe The Author Trenton Lee Stewart had the name for a character, S.Q. Pedalian, and was like, “Hm! What sort of quirky trait should this young fellow have?” Because, of course, in this style of fiction every character has to have at least one cartoonish or otherwise distinguishing trait to stand out in the minds of children. (For instance, Kate has her bucket, Sticky has his glasses, Constance is angry, and Reynie is Emmett from the Lego Movie)

Anyhow, he looks around the room, searching for inspiration. Suddenly he comes across a jumbo box of plastic wrap. Completely innocuous in design, save for one line of text. 300 SQ FT.

“…large… S.Q. …feet? THAT’S IT!” i’m sorry

Lines & Scenes I Liked

In no particular order!

Sticky quotes Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Evil combination aerobics/square dancing in the gym with the Executives

Everyone being happy at the end :’)

Everyone partying after Sticky reunites with his parents, and later finding Mr. Benedict asleep at his desk from the moment they shook hands :’’)

Literally any scene with Sticky in it

Any time Kate says “you boys” or “gosh”

[“Um, sir?” S.Q. said timidly, raising his hand. “A thought just occurred to me.” / Mr. Curtain raised his eyebrows. “That’s remarkable, S.Q. What is it?”] clown prince of my heart </3

S.Q.’s determined monologue about searching for clues after he bungled up the first time

Literally any scene with S.Q. in it (please refer to The S.Q. Section)

Reynie trying to resist the Whisperer.

[Let us begin. / First let me polish my spectacles, Reynie thought. / Let us begin. / Not without my bucket, Reynie insisted. He heard Mr. Curtain muttering behind him. / Let us begin, let us begin, let us begin. / Rules and schools are tools for fools, Reynie thought.]

NO MORE HURTIN’ WITH CURTAIN

Milligan showing up on the island!!

Remember the white knight hhhhhh

“controle”

A Super Secret Bonus Section

I would be extremely surprised if anyone read through all the way down here lol. Regardless, here’s a little acknowledgements section :D not tagging anyone since I don’t want to bother all of these people

Special shoutout to tumblr blog stonetowns for unknowingly yet singlehandedly demolishing my reluctance to read the books by posting a ton of cute quotes. Thank you for your service o7

Thanks to the two OGs that liked the post I made right before this one, for being my unwitting enablers and for sticking around despite being a) technically an internet stranger (hello!) and b) someone I haven’t spoken to irl in literal years (hey!!)

Last but not least thankz 2 my sister for putting up with me ranting about the book when I first got it and for asking about “CQ” sometimes lol. (i desperately hope you’re not reading this orz)

#the mysterious benedict society #this took me like three days to finish rip #it’s worked though! i feel less of a Mighty Need to think about this stuff constantly now #however!!! today through some conniving i have gotten the Second Book #now I’m at 3 out of 4 infinity stones. muahahaha #was going to include my villain origin story about why i like show!SQ so much but cut it for being too long and irrelevant. however #if the words jeff naomi and Sweet Dreams are Made of These mean anything to you please hit me up. it’s kind of a funny story

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yandere--stuck · 4 years ago

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wait, yandere toy Bonnie quite possibly, or yandere Bonnie? i love my rabbits!

Yandere!Toy Bonnie x Reader Headcanons

💙 Mr. Afton had messed with his wiring, he was sure. After all, Toy Bonnie knew he was only supposed to be mean to the bad guys, but now whenever it got dark, everyone was a bad guy - anyone who wasn't like him or his friends, that is. It made him sad. He didn't want to scare the Nightguard, and he didn't like being mean to people who didn't deserve it. But when it was night, the Nightguard was the bad guy. So when he spots you, someone sneaking in after hours, maybe because of a dare or out of simple curiosity, he's momentarily upset… Before realizing his system didn't pick you up as a criminal. You were an innocent. Mr. Afton wasn't perfect, after all. Machines and humans were very alike, in many ways. No matter how much you try to train someone, something, you can always find a flaw, a mistake, a malfunction. The ability to break free…

🐇 So, if you weren't a bad person, you were an innocent. Oh, poor dear! You must be so scared! In fact, you are scared - Toy Bonnie's facial recognition software can easily see that. You had lost balance, probably too scared to stand, and scrambled backwards away from him. Toy Bonnie reached out for you, taking a few heavy steps forward, to which you responded with screams of terror. Oh no! Oh, no, no, no! Please, don't be afraid, please, don't scream! Concern jolted about in his circuits, making him speed up as he chased after you. He had to protect you!! Oh, if his friends found you- oh, dear, he didn't even want to think about what could happen! His green eyes watched as you flipped yourself onto your hands and knees, crawling as you tried to get back into your feet. Now, Toy Bonnie was hardly as fast as his good friend, Foxy, but - it wasn't hard to gain up on you, pulling your leg backward from under you and maneuvering you into his arms.

💙 You were a fighter, he'd give you that! It was funny how you tried to wriggle and squirm out of his grip, as though a human could even have a chance of getting free from his hold - but, still, if this were a game, it'd be so much fun!!... Oh, but it wasn't! You were still very much in danger, and he had to protect you! Protect you. Protect. You. So, he quickly stole you away into a room marked for "Employees". His system warned him that this was against the rules, but… But, you were more important than the rules! Surely, he won't get into much trouble. He's only helping!! Helping you. Protecting you. Protect you.

🐇 Toy Bonnie settles himself down into a sitting position, with you still held against him in his arms. You seemed much less scared now… But, maybe that was because he had one of his paws pressed against your mouth. Sorry! He just couldn't have any of his friends hearing! Oh, poor thing… Humans were so fragile, and you were no exception. So fragile and soft. He could feel as such due to the sensors under his paws. Oh, all of Toy Bonnie's other friends were so sharp or rough around the edges! Toy Freddy, Toy Chica, especially poor Toy Foxy, all mangled up and exoskeleton showing. Not to mention the older group, with their circuitry and wires showing. But, Toy Bonnie was soft. Like you. Like you. Likes you. His focus returns to you as his sensors feel your body loosen up, tension fading from you. Slowly, he removes one of his paws from your mouth, trusting you not to make noise. His robotic eyes ean over your face, analyzing and recording every inch. But, he pauses as he hears you whisper, "Please, don't kill me…"

💙 Toy Bonnie's ears dropped, a clicking sound emanating from within him as his facial features shifted into that of sadness. Guilt sparked inside him. You were so scared, so sad! His poor darling… Er, new friend! But, it's not like he could comfort you with his voicebox - he hadn't been programmed with any voice recordings, not like his friends. So, he simply pulled you closer, soft against his chest, nuzzling against you. As he held you, your trembling eventually stopped altogether, a placated expression on your face. You must have understood that he was here to help! Which he was! He's so glad you trust him! He's so happy to help you, to have met you, to protect you! He loves protecting you, loves you!! Loves you! Loves. You.

🐇 Toy Bonnie wants to hold you forever, to always be with you. Is this what humans call love? Love at first sight, even? He just wants to protect you from the bad, mean people - and that's anyone who dared try to take you from him, even when the lights came on and he was supposed to be performing. Because you were much more important than else in his programming. You were top priority. If any tried to take you away, well… It's certainly lucky for Toy Bonnie that he had enough strength to easily break a human's body. They were so soft and fragile, after all.

#yandere x reader #fnaf x reader #yandere fnaf #yandere five nights at freddy's #five nights at freddy's x reader #toy bonnie #fnaf 2 #five nights at freddy's 2 #fnaf bonnie #Bonnie x reader #toy Bonnie x reader #fnaf 2 bonnie #yandere #long post

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tedturneriscrazy · 3 years ago

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Another Saturday, another episode! Let's take a look at Keeping Up A-fear-ances!

(Good lord I'm starting to make myself sound like some sort of content creator)

Oh, okay, we're just starting at that level of intensity, huh?

Chest gem origins

Gwendolyn not being satisfied with managing the curse and determined to cure it? I'm sure this won't be a real world allegory in the slightest.

Oh, so Eda literally just stumbles upon the portal? I could call that contrived, but honestly it's not dissimilar to how Dipper found Journal 3. For that matter, the entirety of Lord of the Rings is predicated on an accidental discovery like this and nobody gave Tolkien shit about it.

Was the eye on the portal cracked in previous episodes? I don't remember.

Seems like Gwen is the "well-meaning but ultimately misguided" flavor of mom.

As an aside, I am now quite curious about how Eda's first trip to the human realm went. Maybe a future episode will cover it? At any rate, I smell a new favorite fic prompt.

The screaming alarms in the Demon Realm will never not be funny to me.

Also, that is a worrying number of hearts. Eda is straight up murdering these poor creatures.

For some reason the gold fang being removable never occurred to me as a possibility, and now I feel like a kid who's discovered that Santa isn't real.

Oh hey, the new outfit! I'm also impressed how close to symmetrical that tearing was.

I need to get a screencap of Luz sleeping on that stack of books because she is adorable.

Also, staying up all night researching? This season seems determined to completely eradicate the notion of Luz being dumb, and I am here for it.

I have a feeling the Hexside mug will be making its way to The Mystery Shack in the near future.

Lilith's first experience with transformation and she seems understandably horrified.

The curse acting stronger when stressed? That seems...important.

Ah, so the dismemberment is from the curse! A surprisingly useful side effect from what we've seen so far.

Can I just say that I appreciate how Eda's reaction to Lilith's first taste of transformation is immediate remedy, explanation, and reassurance? And doesn't make any snarky comments along the lines of "now you know what it's like?" Whatever happened in that week and a half must have been cathartic as hell.

"Always. Always curious." Luz is the TOH fandom.

(Also, Eda, you know she is, considering how much she went on about your "mysterious past" at the Covention)

"Magic bird tornado?!" Luz has a way with words that's just *chef's kiss*.

"Gwendolyn." Eda is already just fucking done.

"MOM?!?!" Jeez, Lilith, you're just now hearing all this?

I was charmed by how motherly Gwen was acting toward Eda, but then she kinda just...dismissed Lilith, and now I'm somehwat less charmed.

(Sweet flea as a term of endearment is kinda cute, though might have some unfortunate implications depending on how you want to interpret it)

"Who knows what they put in those nasty concoctions?" OH WE GOING FOR THE ANTI-VAXXERS NOW YESSSS

Luz and Lilith's reaction to that whole exchange is priceless.

Everyone's perspective here makes perfect sense for who they are and what they've been through.

Poor Lilith. Her cursing Eda is beginning to make more sense.

Ah, thus begins the collaboration.

"We'll be consulting someone very special." Why does that seem so...ominous?

Is there anyone who watched this episode for the first time whose bullshit detector didn't go off immediately when Gwen mentioned finding someone who promised a cure?

Heh, Palm Stings.

Nonbelievers will be blinded by the power of the tome? I'm sure they will be, Wartlop.

I must say, as something of a scientist myself (okay that's not true, I'm a QA tech for a food manufacturer, but I do have a chemistry degree), I am 100% here for the swings being taken at faith healing/"miracle" cures/anti-vaxxers in this episode

Oh, we Wile E. Coyote now, huh?

Also, interesting how much apple blood is being played up in this episode.

Lilith please you're projecting your mommy issues on a literal child

OH WE REALLY JUST WILE E. COYOTE HUH?

You're right, Luz, Gwen's bicep game is goals.

(Somewhat disappointed the scars are from questing and not beastkeeping, but eh)

Why do I get the feeling there's gonna be a future episode where everybody stages an intervention for Eda's apple blood problem?

"Those feathers mean we're driving the beast out" Gwen no

Hooty is holding the brain cell? Oh no...

If that ice cream came from the Night Market it would explain why Lilith sounds drunk.

(Side note: I can't be the only one getting flashbacks to Mermista's ice cream binge, right? Different context, but still)

"Abomi-berry" "Franken fruit" "Key slime pie" These are A+ flavor names.

Oh, there's the transformation...

I must say that whole segment kinda rubbed me the wrong way. The way King's opinion on his dad was changed seemed...I don't know how to describe it. I get that they needed a trigger for Lilith's transformation, but honestly if any part of the episode is contrived it's this.

"¡It really is that good!" So that's what an accent slip in written form looks like. (The upside down exclamation point is used in Spanish, in case anyone didn't know)

I keep half expecting Eda to say "Beep! Beep!" at this point.

Luz is finally asking questions. Took long enough.

Ah, the classic "moving the goal posts to extract more money from a desparate family member" technique.

Luz channeling Scorpion, we love to see it.

There is an exquisite irony in Eda's mom being scammed, I must say.

Ah, so that's where the elixirs went. Dammit, Gwen.

Luz is definitely thinking "Are you fucking kidding me right now?!"

Beast!Lilith is massive.

"Sweet flea?" Gwen just realized she done goofed.

"I can see you still need a little time." God Luz is so fucking smart.

The con revealed.

OH DAMN SCARY MAMA

(Also I am terrified of bees/wasps, so extra scary mama in my book)

The scam is revealed, goblins, getting back into the Wartlop disguise is kinda pointless.

She joined the Beast Keeping coven entirely to cure the curse? That's dedication. A shame you couldn't have spared some of that for Lilith.

Still, I do like badass scary mama Gwen. I'd be down to see more of that.

Owl Beast fight!

I am slayed by the fact that the portraits are now officially a recurring gag 😂

Aw, here's The Moment™️

"My turn to drive" Does this imply cars are a thing on the Boiling Isles after all?

Lilith crying almost immediately💔 She was holding onto a lot of pain.

Yes, King, she was trying to do her best. I mean, road to hell or whatever, but at least Gwen got there in the end.

WHAT?! YOU'RE BREAKING UP LULU AND HOOTCIFER?!?!?!?

Terrace, that's just cruel. (Worthless brownie points for whoever understands that reference)

No, seriously, you can't just give me my favorite inter-character relationship in the series after Lumity and just...take it away like that, come on! 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I know I should remark on how Lilith told Gwen about the circumstances of the curse, how Gwen rightfully accepted responsibility for the whole situation, and how Luz finds the big hair aspirational, but...NOOOO DON'T END THE ADVENTURES OF LULU AND HOOTCIFER WHYYYYYYYYY💔😭💔😭💔😭

"BUT I CAN'T HOLD A PEN!"

I will never emotionally recover from this.

Okay, I think I got that out of my system. Anyway...

Not the only human, huh? Cue the "Belos is a human" theorists going into maximum overdrive.

That said, a tantalizing lore dump.

We certainly do have a lot of garbage. Some of it even holds office. HEY-O!

Setting up the next episode, too. Continuity!

Camp's over, huh? That means it's been three months.

Way to misdirect with Camila, guys. That said, we have now seen Camila cry and I HATE it. (In the right way, I think)

WHAT THE FUCK

HOLY SHIT

CREEPY LUZ IS REAL WHAT

OWJEIWHQGIWWOPQ

(It's hard to keysmash on a phone, even with autocorrect off)

That wraps it up! The flaws in this episode seem more pronounced than any others in the season so far, but the good stuff was really good! Overall a solid episode! I know everybody's looking forward to library Lumity in the next one (so am I), but I'm personally eager to see what they do with Gus. His part is the A plot, after all.

Anyway, I'll be back at this next week! Still hard to believe this is a thing, but that's life, I guess.

#the owl house #eda clawthorne #gwendolyn clawthorne #luz noceda #lilith clawthorne #king of demons #toh king #toh s2 spoilers #the owl house s2 spoilers #the owl house season 2 spoilers #toh spoilers #the owl house spoilers

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