#and the parallels between him and the main villain for most of the series only for it to turn out OH HE'S THE GHOST HAUNTING HIM TOO

[talaofthevalley]

Vibe check for borderline crack but also kinda serious AU where Baldr somehow finds himself heart freeloading in Riku years after his death, and now Riku has a keyblade wielder with a body count hanging around over the events of the mainline games. Baldr haunting the narative figuratively AND literally.

Extra features such as Riku and Baldr having extra strong light in them because to quote the intro to KH1 "the closer you get to light the greater your shadow becomes" but much like how negative times can easily overtake positive ones, it's not easily noticeable.

Featuring events such as:

Hanging around Destiny Islands as an incorporeal ghost that can barely interact with Riku but spending most of his time sleeping or at ease kinda does wonders for all those repressed emotions and trauma.

Adults think Riku has an imaginary friend. Riku was halfway convinced he was being haunted thanks to Baldr's white hair, eyes and lashes.

Baldr gets attached. Just a little bit.

Watching Riku struggle with his inner darkness and feeling abandoned in KH1 hits a little too close for comfort for Baldr, but hey, he knows from experience that anyone's voice would be preferable to the darkness.

Baldr clocking Xehanort almost immediately and going what the fuck. What the hell are you doing. Bastard what happened to you after all these years. Finds out Xehanort's trying to create Kingdom Hearts and is all OH so when *I* try to do it, you kill me, but if it's you, it's totally fine? I hope the kid beats your ass.

Baldr popping in as a voice in the climax and giving Ansem Seeker of Darkness a crisis before he dies, which he didn't quite *mean* to but he can still read emotions as a heart ghost. Feels kinda good he's not gonna lie.

Riku eventually grows taller than Baldr and he feels slighted. Offended. You're supposed to be a pipsqueak stop that.

Riku instead of turning into Ansem SoD in KH2 takes on the form of Baldr from connecting with his own darkness and, by proxy, Baldr. Instead of getting taller he gets shorter.

Cue Baldr weighing the pros and cons of Riku revealing his new form in front of Xemnas like- Cons: The possible rise of danger my heart innkeeper will be in. Pros: Chaos.

Sora squinting at Baldr!Riku until he screams and points like "YOU'RE THE GUY! FROM RIKU'S DRAWINGS! THE GHOST!" and Kairi doesn't get it until Sora reminds her of the guy Riku sometimes talked about when they were kids and drew pictures of and then SHE'S pointing like !??!!?! and Riku's like uuuuhhhh I can explain but it'll take a while.

"You know Xehanort? Why didn't you say anything??" "Yeah he was my classmate. And then he executed me after I killed the others in our class. And some of our upperclassmen. It's not the best conversation opener."

Riku becoming understandably distressed once he finds out how exactly Baldr died and the lead-up to his breakdown. Has to go talk to Mickey and be reassured that if Riku ever loses his way in the darkness again, they'll pull him right out no matter how many times it takes.

Baldr tries very, very hard not to be bitter.

"My feelings about my friends, sister and place of birth are complicated on the best of days, but I'm glad you don't have to live with the suffocating guilt and anxiety that there's something inherently wrong with you for having even a sliver more darkness in you than what's considered acceptable and worrying your loved ones will put you down if they find out. I'm glad you have people who understand you, and who try to understand you."

"Do you ever wish you could meet your sister again?" "I'm content mourning her."

The state of Sora, Riku and Kairi's friendship and complicated feelings about each other is almost enough to give Baldr an aneurysm when he feels them.

The fun of DDD where Baldr can take a solid form inside the dream realm and meets young Xehanort when his death is still fresh in his mind :^ )

Baldr, finding out about what happened with Eraqus and his apprentices; "Goddamnit Eraqus."

Someone telling Riku to follow his heart and he goes "Are you asking me to kill?"

Baldr; The number one guy who can get under Xehanort's skin and tear down his 'specialest guy' mindset, and only partly because his emotions are an open book to him. Takes a look at adult versions of him and goes "Oh I want to bully him so bad, it'd be so easy." Xehanort; Has spent the last decades researching darkness because of Baldr, while also pointedly not thinking about Baldr, that Baldr killed their friends, or that Xehanort killed him.

Why is Baldr in Riku? Eeeh, unsure. Mayhaps the kids were all meant to go to Quadratum after they died but Baldr went "nope" and drifted around instead until Riku was born and his heart went "oh twinsies". Maybe his classmates have been looking for him, after time has passed to think and reflect yet there's still been no sign of him.

And since I'm a sucker for happy endings all the DR kids reunite in Quadratum and Xehanort and Baldr can now kick each other's ankles and be the kind of pair that would be unbelievably toxic where they different people but it somehow works. Being able to read your partner's emotions would be very one-sided in any situation except where they can read yours right back.

[linkspooky]

TOGACHAKO VS. FUFFY: How To Save Your Evil Girlfriend

So, once again My Hero Academia has failed to deliver on its promise of saving / redeeming one of the main villains of its story, and victims of its ficitonal society. This time I'm going to make the added argument that not only does failing to save Toga make the story worse, it also makes Uraraka's character almost completely hollow. While you can dismiss Deku's lack of character development as him being a shonen protagonist, both Uraraka and Shoto had arcs and Ochako's is effectively ruined by her failure to save Toga.

In order to make my point I am going to compare it to a villain redemption arc in another piece of media that does it right, Faith's character, and her strained relationship with Buffy in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A series which is overall anti-state punishment and pro-redemption and delivers on practically all the themes MHA promised us.

MORE UNDER THE CUT:

THE GOOD GIRL and THE BAD GIRL

There is a reoccurring dynamic between two female characters in media, usually between a heroine and a female villainness that I like to call: The Good Girl vs. Bad Girl complex.

However, if you were a Freudian you'd be calling this a Madonna Whore Complex.

To explain the Madonna Whore Complex, one of the biggest examples in other Media is Aronofsky's Black Swan. The entire movie is themed around the Madonna Whore complex, and the impossible double standards the male perception imposes upon women.

"The white swan and the black swan are not merely characters, and not merely characters that are relevant to Nina. The black swan and the white swan are archetypes of women. They are emblematic of the Madonna and the Whore [...] . The white swan is the Madonna, she is pure, innocent, the ingenue. The black swan is the whore, she is cunning and deviant. The seductress. Nina and her ballet counterpart Odette are characterized as perfect ingénues. Ingénues are young, innocent girls who possess qualities of youth, innocence, kindness, naivete and purity. She is the fawn eyed damsel in distress and in literary films she's often the heroine or protagonist. On the other side of the coin from the ingenue, we have the seductress, embodied by Lily and her ballet counterpart Odelle. The seductress is characterized by her promiscuity, cunning nature and sex appeal. She is the alluring femme fatalle, willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. She's most often framed as the village. These draw parallels to Freud's psychoanalytical theory, a theory that suggests in the minds of some men they struggle to fully see women as fully realized and rather view them in archetypal categories." [SOURCE]

Black Swan is also a movie where Natalie Portman attempting to live up to the impossible expectations society has placed on her to be both the White Swan and the Black Swan goes insane, and quite possibly dies at the end of the movie.

Considering that Toga's entire story is that she is a shapeshifter who went mad because she could not fit both her parent's and society's expectations of being a "normal girl" then you can see why the Madonna Whore Complex is relevant, with the oversexualized, vampish, femme fatalle Toga quite obviously playing the part of the whore.

Before you call me a fraud for citing freud though, let me prove my point that the Madonna Whore Complex is quite literally everywhere in media.

I could literally keep going if this post didn't have an image limit: Jean Grey and Emma Frost, Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor, Starfire and Blackfire, Raven and Terra, The Two Sisters from Ginger Snaps, t's literally everywhere all the way back to Lilith and Eve.

More intelligent takes on this trope play with the concept of the Madonna Whore Complex (MWC) to either present the archetypes as two fully rounded people (Catra and Adora) or demonstrate that it's impossible for women to fit into these two dinstinct categories (Natalie Portman in Black Swan).

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a work that challenges the MWC, by allowing both its good girl, and bad girl to be fully realized characters. My Hero Academia plays the MWC straight to a sexist extent by not allowing Uraraka and Toga to escape their categorization of Good Girl and Bad Girl, and also going out of its way to punish and kill the seductress for her sexuality like this is a slasher horror movie. Actually, it's worse than a horror movie because at least Jennifer's Body plays with the MWC in a clever way.

It's not just bad writing anymore Hori's writing has crossed over into actively murdering female characters to enforce puritan values, but let's not get into that just yet we'll talk about the writing portion instead.

I'm going to outline what BTVS accomplishes, demonstrate how it does this below, and then go on at length picking apart how MHA fails.

BTVS:

Shows Buffy and Faith as fully realized people

Shows the pressure to conform to the "Good Girl / Bad Girl" label.

Breaks down those two categories

Redeems it's bad girl

With that out of the way let's get the ball rolling.

HOW TO (NOT) SAVE YOUR EVIL GIRLFRIEND

This is the part where everyone in the audience is going to gasp. Even though I'm using Buffy and Faith as a positive example of deconstructing the MWC and redeeming a villain, Buffy does not save Faith. The two of them reconcile in the end, but Faith is not redeemed or saved by Buffy, and in fact Buffy is in part responsible for Faith's fall.

So, why would I say Buffy and Faith are a better example of villain redemption then Uraraka who at least did everything she could to offer a helping hand to Toga?

Because Buffy not saving Faith is THE POINT and Faith receiving redemption even though Buffy gave up on her is also THE POINT. Lemme explain, by starting at the beginning.

BTVS is a story that exists to flip both horror tropes, and the idea of the chosen hero on its head. The concept started out with Joss Whedon noticing that the Cheerleader is always the first victim in any given horror movie, and wondering what it would look like if the Cheerleader could fight back. If the Cheerleader was the thing that monsters ran away from.

Which leads us to Buffy Summers. Buffy is chosen by the universe to slay vampires, she is hero with super strength that can easily take on legions of vampires and often has to fight even tougher villains for each season's conflict. Buffy carries all the classic features of both the ingenue and the chosen one protagonist rolled up into one:. Ingénues are young, innocent girls who possess qualities of youth, innocence, kindness, naivete and purity.

However, after dying in the first season, and having to kill her boyfriend in the second season after he turned evil and inflicted a lot of psychosexual abuse on her Buffy has also got a whole lot of trauma. Which is when Faith appears on the scene. One of the first ways that the show challenges the idea of the "Chosen One" is that there are actually two Chosen Ones, Faith being the other Slayer.

Buffy much like Deku has a case of protagonism brain rot, but in her case she was actually chosen by the mystic powers that be to be the protagonist of reality. Buffy, who views herself as the hero of the story as a coping mechanism (we'll get back to this later) is suddenly challenged when the fates chose yet another chosen hero, challenging her pre-conceived notion that she is the hero of the story. If Buffy is not the only hero then who is she? What is all the suffering she's endured so far if it's not a part of her own personal hero's journey?

Buffy begins to dislike Faith on sight for projection reasons, before Faith does anything wrong. In a way Buffy herself the female lead is enforcing society's standards of the MWC because all the reasons Buffy decides to disturst and dislike Faith on sight are because she exhibits qualities of the seductress.

Faith is openly promiscuous, often comparing the art of killing vampires to sex, she is also someone who is proud of her power as a a slayer and uses it for her own purposes. She is a slayer for selfish reasons (apparently) while Buffy is the selfless hero. In the first episode Faith appears in, Faith, Hope and Trick Buffy is almost immediately hostile to Faith who has so far done nothing wrong for, trying to get along with Buffy's friends, getting a little bit too into vampire slaying and openly relishing her strength, and like occasionally making lood comments.

FAITH: Don't… touch… me…! BUFFY - yanks Faith off the unconscious vamp with one hand, stakes the vamp withher other. Then she turns to Faith who is breathing hard, high on adrenaline, rubbing her fists. BUFFY: What is wrong with you? FAITH: What are you talking about? BUFFY: I'm talking about you living large on the great undead here. FAITH: Gee, if doing violence to vampires upsets you, I'm pretty sure you're in the wrong line a work… BUFFY: Or maybe you like it just a little too much. FAITH: I was getting the job done. BUFFY: The job is to slay demons. Not mash them into sloppy joes while their

Buffy then escalates to like ableist slurs towards Faith within half an episode for getting slightly violent in a fight against vampires that were trying to kill her.

GILES: Well, Buffy, you have to realize you and Faith have very different temperaments… BUFFY: I know, mine would be the sane one. Giles, she's not playing with a full deck. She has almost no deck. She has a three. GILES: You said yourself she killed one of them, she's a plucky fighter who got a little carried away. Which isnatural, she's focussed on Slaying,she doesn't have a whole other lifehere like you --

The twist this episode is that no matter how much Faith tries to present herself as a free-spirit, she's actually a scared homeless girl who just happened to become the Slayer. Unlike Buffy she does not have a watcher, a mother, or friends to support her. She lives in the cheapest motel in sunnydale. The reason she's so violent against vampires is because she is understandably having a trauma flashback because her mentor was murdered right in front of her by a different vamp.

This is repeating pattern throughout the whole season, Faith is shown to be a victim of trauma, and occasionally acts in ways that are understandable for a victim like her to ask, only for Buffy to start mischaracterizing her as someone violent and insane and throwing the slurs.

You can compare both Faith and Toga as characters who are complex victims of trauma who society turns their back on and become bad victims, but Faith is a special case because we actively see her turn to the dark side. Faith starts out trying to be a hero like the rest and she practically does nothing wrong for half a season, and when she does finally make a mistake and become a bad victim it's the hero's desire to punish her and castigate her that turns her into a villain.

We actively see Faith's fall happen onscreen, and it's like totally Buffy's fault. Buffy throws her completely under the bus, because she's so desperate to see Faith as the Bad Slayer and Buffy as the Good Slayer. Faith is almost pushed into evil because of the MWC, the characters around her can't see her as a fully fleshed out human being so they are quick to demonize her when she starts acting like a bad victim.

So the two episodes appropriately named: Bad Girls and Consequences depict Faith's fall. In that episode Faith and Buffy are fighting vampires, and one human is mixed among the vampires. The human grabs Faith by the shoulder, and Faith thinking that the human is a vampire turns him around and stakes him.

It's a complete accident, something that Giles even says later on is an accident that can happen to any Slayer on the job and is completely normal. It's a murder that Buffy herself could have committed.

GILES: This is not the first time something like this has happened. BUFFY: It's not? GILES: A slayer is on the front lines of a nightly war, Buffy. It's tragic - but accidents have happened. BUFFY: What do you do? GILES: The council investigates, meters out punishment if punishment is due… I've no plan to involve them,however. That's the last thing Faith needs right now. She's unstable, Buffy. She seems utterly unable to accept responsibility. Shows no remorse.

However, even in the same breath Giles explains that it's an accident and not Faith's fault, he's also calling Faith unstable and irresponsible. Basically when they're not calling her a psycho (just hitting her with the ableist slurs), the protagonists all lowkey imply that Faith is somehow inherently violent and unstable because she displays symptoms of a bad victim.

I might also remind you Faith has not done anything to earn any of these accusations, until she kills someone in a complete accident. A complete accident that Giles once again said wasn't her fault and wasn't really a big deal.

FAITH: My dead mother hits harder than that.

Faith is stated to be a victim of physical abuse, heavily implied to be a victim of sexual abuse, and is homeless (none of the main characters offer to let her stay in her house she spends half a season in a terrible motel). However, Faith is quickly demonized by the white wealthy main characters for acting in ways that are completely typical for a homeless teenager.

The moment she commits one mistake they all turn on her and use that mistake as proof of these violent tendencies they all want to accuse her of having. Faith can never be the ingenue so she must be the seductress, because she can't just be a person.

Buffy: So, I, uh... (sees Faith scrubbing) How are ya doin'? Faith: (still scrubbing) I'm alright. You know me. Buffy: Faith, we need to talk about what we're gonna do. Faith: (looks at Buffy) There's nothing to talk about. I was doing my job. Buffy: Being a Slayer is not the same as being a k*ller. Faith has nothing to say. She's finished scrubbing. Buffy: Faith, please don't shut me out here. Look, sooner or later, we're both gonna have to deal.

It is essentially two episodes of this, Faith after killing someone on accident in a life or death fight is constantly called a murderer by others. She wasn't even like, drunk, or high, or being especially reckless she was being a normal slayer.

FAITH: So the mayor of Sunnydale is a black hat. Shocker, huh? BUFFY: Actually - yeah. I didn't get the bad guy vibe off him. Faith shakes her head. Scoffs. FAITH: When you gonna learn, B? It doesn't matter what kind of "vibe" a person gives off. Nine times outta ten he face they're showing you? It isn't the real one. BUFFY: I guess you know a lot about that. FAITH: What's that supposed to mean? BUFFY: Look at you, Faith. Less than twenty four hours ago you killed a guy. And now you're laughing and scratching and zipidee doo dah. That's not your real face, and I know it. I know what you're feeling because I feel it too. FAITH: Do you? So, fill me in. I'd like to hear this. BUFFY: Dirty. Like something sick creeped inside you and you can't get it out. And you keep hoping what happened wasjust some nightmare…

Faith is dirty, faith is disgusting, faith is unstable, Faith is sick for... killing a guy on accident in a way that Giles said was a perfectly understandable accident, and not showing clear guilt because the moment she did it everyone around her jumped on her and started accusing her of being a murderer.

Why do the selfless main characters suddenly start demonizing this girl before she even did anything wrong - well it's because she's poor problem solved.

No, but it does play a factor. Why do most american white middle class look down on the homeless? Because, they must have done something to deserve it, right? If Faith killed a man, that clearly is an indication that she was violent all along and the heroes don't have to sympathize with the fact she's homeless or you know lift a finger to help her.

Now, this makes it sound like I hate Buffy, but Buffy is actually my favorite character in the whole show. The thing is Buffy's complete lack of sympathy for Faith makes her a better character. Buffy needs to demonize Faith and throw her under the bus, because Buffy is a victim of sexual abuse too. Her boyfriend turned evil after having sex with her once, and spent an entire season stalking her and terrorizing her the entire season 2 Buffy / Angel plotline is a thinly veiled groomer metaphor.

The thing about Buffy is she's not allowed to show any kind of reaction to her trauma. The episodes preceeding Faith, Hope and Trick are Anne, an episode where Buffy runs away from home after being sexually abused (stalking is sexual abuse) by Angel for a whole season and feeling like no one would understand her, and Dead Man's Party, an episode where every single one of Buffy's loved ones ruthlessly criticize her for having run away. Like, how dare a teenager not react perfectly to being horribly stalked by a serial killer after she had sex with him for like half a year.

JOYCE: Buffy! You didn't give me any time. You just dumped this… this thing on me and expected me to get it. Well -guess what? Mom's not perfect. I handled it badly. But that doesn'tgive you the right to punish me byrunning away. BUFFY: Punish you? I didn't do this to punish you XANDER: Well you did. You should have seen what it did to her. BUFFY: Great. Would anybody else care to weigh in? What about you? By the dip. XANDER: Maybe you don't want to hear it, Buffy. But taking off like that was selfishand stupid. Buffy's breaking down. It's all too much. BUFFY: Okay - I screwed up! I know it - alright!? But you have no idea. You have no idea what happened to me or what I was feeling

The reason Buffy is so hard on Faith is because everyone else is equally hard on her. The label of the ingenue is so difficult for Buffy to maintain, because she has to be pure, and without any flaws, especially when reacting to trauma that she throws Faith under the bus for her bad victim behaviors.

The white middle class demonize the homeless because they don't want to face the reality it can happen to them, Buffy doesn't want to reflect on all the things her and Faith have in common because she could very easily become Faith. Buffy is the victim of extremely similiar trauma to Faith, and being pressured to be the perfect victim of that trauma in a way that's destroying her mentally slowly.

FAITH: It was good, wasn't it? The sex? The danger? Bet a part of you even dug him when he went psycho BUFFY: No FAITH: See - you need me to tow the line because you're afraid you'll go over it, aren't you, B? You can't handle watching me living my own way and having a blast - because it tempts you. You know it could be you... ( Something snaps in Buffy. She rears back and POPS Faith a good one. Faith falls back, but she's smiling as she puts a hand to her bleeding mouth. ) FAITH: There's my girl…

Buffy is suffering under the expectations of the MWC too, but in her desperation to make Faith out to be the seductress instead of... like... a csa victim... Buffy is reinforcing those standards on both herself and another woman.

The entirety of Bad Girls and Conesequences is Faith being called a murderer by several people, having another trauma flashback to a sexual assault because Xander came to her motel room under the guise of "helping her", getting hit over the head and chained to a wall, then getting the swat team called on her and almost dragged to London for trial. Then the heroes do nothing to help her. The first thing Faith does is go to the main villain, who buys her an apartment AND A PLAYSTATION. So... the evil main Villain of the show helped Faith with her homelessness situation while none of the main characters lifted a finger.

it sounds like it sucks but it doesn't because it's all intentional. Buffy cannot process her own sexual trauma so she is just awful to people who are also domestic abuse victims. here's one of my favorite scenes, Buffy yells at a girl being beaten by her boyfriend with a visible black eye.

Buffy: Where can we find him? Debbie: I-I don't know. Buffy: You're lying. Debbie: What if I am? What are you gonna do about it? Willow: Wrong question. Buffy takes her by the arm again and pushes her up against the sink in front of the mirror. Buffy: Look at yourself. Why are you protecting him? Anybody who really loved you couldn't do this to you. She takes a few steps away. Debbie turns around to face them. Debbie: Would they take him someplace? Buffy: Probably. Debbie: (shakes her head, sobbing) I could never do that to him.(Willow sighs) I'm his everything. Buffy: (disgusted) Great. So what, you two live out your Grimm fairy tale? Two people are dead.

That poor girl gets her neck snapped like five minutes later and Buffy just kinda, moves on even though it would have been an easily preventable death.

Buffy getting mad at an abuse victim for showing textbook behaviors of abuse victims in bad relationships. Buffy is a good character because she is a hero, she can be empathic, but she really only understands heroism in term of defeating the bad guys, and when called to relate to people with complex trauma, especially trauma that reflects her own trauma she can't! She just can't process it! The expectations of being the ingenue, the perfect hero are so crushing she can't cope with a messy reality so she needs to have a black and white view of herself and other people.

Buffy needs to be firmly in the good category, and Faith needs to be firmly in the bad category in order for Buffy's brain to keep working.

Not only does Buffy's conflict with Faith characterize how much Faith suffers for being a bad victim, it shows how the pressure to be a good victim destroys Buffy mentally to the point where she starts using Faith as a punching bag.

Literallly.

It's all intentional too, Buffy gets called out on it, Faith always gets the last word and the final episode of the season makes out Buffy to be a hypocrite. After Buffy literally threw Faith under the bus, called her disgusting for murdering a man, Buffy is completely willing to murder Faith to get a cure for her vampire boyfriend who's been poisoned.

All human life is sacred and needs to be protected, but Fuck Faith I guess.

Faith: I could say the same about you. I mean, you're still the same better-than-thou Buffy. I mean, I knew it somehow. I kept having this dream, I'm not sure what it means, but in the dream the self-righteous blond chick stabs me, and you wanna know why? Buffy: You had it coming. Faith: That's one interpretation, but in my dream, she does it for a guy. Faith: I wake up to find the blond chick isn't even dating the guy she was so nuts about before. I mean, she's moved on to the first college beefstick she meets. Not only has she forgotten about the love of her life, but she's forgotten about the chick she nearly k*lled for him. So that's my dream. That and some stuff about cigars and a tunnel. But tell me, college girl, what does it mean? Buffy: To me? Mostly, that you still mouth off about things you don't understand. (Sirens) Uh-oh. I guess somebody knows you're here.

So the show goes to great length to show you that there are two sides to this conflict, Buffy demonizes Faith, because her friends expect her to be the perfect hero. Faith reacts badly to trauma because she has no support system, and the people around her have no empathy for her because they're too privileged to imagine the things in Faith's life ever happening to her.

Buffy and Faith are fully realized people.

Buffy and Faith are presented to the audience as the ingenue and the seductress but they're both fully realized characters. Buffy's not the ingenue because she's just as capable of murder as Faith is. Faith isn't the seductress because she's a homeless teenager. They are both victims of sexual trauma, though one reacts in what people consider an "acceptable way" and the other is a total slut about it.

Shows the pressure to conform to the "Good Girl / Bad Girl" label.

Buffy throws Faith under the bus specifically because the pressure in her life to be the perfect slayer is so immense that it could be her that takes the fall so she needs to believe in black and white concepts like she is inherently good and Faith is inherently bad to justify the bad things that happen to Faith and therefore convince herself said bad things could never happen to her. "You can't handle watching me living my own way and having a blast - because it tempts you. You know it could be you..."

Faith: Angel said there was no way you were gonna give me a chance. Buffy: I gave you every chance! I tried so hard to help you, and you spat on me. My life was just something for you to play with. Angel - Riley - anything that you could take from me - you took. I've lost battles before - but nobody else has -ever- made me a victim. Faith: And you can't stand that. You're all about control. You have no idea what it's like on the other side! Where nothing's in control, nothing makes sense! There is just pain and hate and nothing you do means anything. You can't even.. Buffy: Shut up!"

Buffy needs to fit her and Faith into neat little boxes because she cannot face the inherent senselessness of the world (and also that she is a victim too "you made me a victim")

Breaks down those two categories

Even in Seasons where Faith is not present she haunts the narrative, because the writers were well aware that Buffy and Faith are the same person under different circumstances.

All of Season 6 Buffy is faced with many of the same situations that Faith was, she suddenly becomes poor and in danger of losing her house, she has extreme depression from coming back from the dead (long story) she can't share those feelings with any of her friends because they treated her much like they did Faith - having no sympathy for imperfect victims. Buffy even gets into an unhealthy, sexual relationship, and like Natalie Portman basically changes from the ingenue into the seductress.

A relationship she has to keep a secret because once again, Buffy must fit into the box of the ingenue in order to be loved by her friends. This leads to her committing several bad behaviors, and at times borderline emotional abuse towards her sister (and debatably her boyfriend) and all comes to a head when Buffy is faced with the exact same situation as Faith.

Buffy in Season 6 believes she has killed a person accidentally while being the Slayer. It's a repeat of Bad Girls with several paralels, including someone trying to hide the body only for it to turn up later, and Buffy insisting she has to turn herself into the police and face jailtime.

However, in this version Buffy unlike Faith has friends who try to stop her from turning herself in and explain to her the murder wasn't her fault - and Buffy still reacts the same way Faith does. She basically borderline quotes Faith.

Faith: Shut up! Do you think I'm afraid of you? [Faith grabs Buffy and throws her down, then sits on top of her and starts punching her.] Faith: You're nothing. [Punch. Punch.] Faith: Disgusting. [Punch. Punch.] [Faith grabs Buffy's hair with both hand and bangs her head.] Faith: Murderous bitch. [Bang. Bang...] You're nothing. [Bang. Bang...] Faith: [Switches back to punches] You're [Faith is now crying.] disgusting.

This is an earlier scene which plays out as an exact parallel to this scene:

BUFFY: You can't understand why this is killing me, can you? SPIKE: Why don't you explain it? She hits him a few more times. He takes it, not fighting back. SPIKE: Come on, that's it, put it on me. Put it all on me. (She kicks him) That's my girl. BUFFY: (yelling) I am not your girl! She hits him hard. He falls back onto his butt. Buffy gets on top of him and begins hitting him over and over. BUFFY: You don't ... have a soul! There is nothing good or clean in you. You are dead inside! You can't feel anything real! I could never ... be your girl! She continues hitting him throughout this. Now Spike goes back to human face. He's looking very bruised and bloody, but he doesn't fight back, just takes it. Buffy hits him again and again, looking angry and desperate. Finally she stops and looks at him in horror.

So if Buffy can react the exact same way that Faith does, when faced with the same trauma there is no good girl or bad girl, there's only two people who are complicated human beings.

The story *gasp* lets the hero be a bad girl.

Redeems it's bad girl

Faith's redemption is a shocking contrast to MHA the plot of BTVS does not allow Faith to commit suicide in order to redeem herself. In fact, her entire arc is an argument against the "put her down like a mad dog" trope. Starting with the fact that the heroes who are partly responsible for Faith's fall in the first place, are all too willing to just let the homeless teenager fall by the wayside, and then put her down for her own sake.

As I stated above, the inherent hypocrisy Buffy shows in her calling Faith a murderer and irredeemable for killing someone on accident because all human life is sacred to her, and then going on to try to murder Faith at the end of the season already shows the "put her down like a mad dog" argument doesn't work. Faith isn't too far gone, it's just Buffy who sees her that way. And because Buffy has given up on Faith she's failing at being a hero.

As I said above, Buffy is not the one to rescue Faith. In fact, in the episodes where Faith's redemption arc starts, Buffy is the one trying to hunt her down and enforce punishment on her. The episodes "5x5" and "Sanctuary" are both focused on Buffy going to LA to hunt down and interfere when Angel is trying to help Faith get back on her feet. The two episdodes basically explore the concept of redemption vs. punishment and how punishment saves no one.

5x5 depicts Faith's spiral as she runs away to LA to escape Buffy who is hunting her down, and accepts a job to assassinate Angel, which if she succeeds will get her rich and also get the cops off of her trail. We're led the whole episode to believe Faith has learned nothing until the confrontation with Angel at the very end, which you should really watch because it's great television.

Faith: You hear me? - You don't know what evil is! - I'm bad! - Fight back! Faith keeps whaling on Angel, sometimes he ducks, sometimes the hits connect. Angel grabs a hold of her: Nice try, Faith. He tosses her away from him. Then walks after her. Angel: I know what you want. She hits him and he hits back dropping her. She comes back up hitting and screaming, but not making much of a dent. Wesley leans out of the window and sees Faith beating up on Angel. He goes into the kitchen and grabs a butcher knife, then heads for the door. Angel as he dodges another hit: I'm not gonna make it easy for you. Faith throws herself against Angel screaming: I'm evil! I'm bad! I'm evil! Do you hear me? I'm bad! Angel, I'm bad! (She begins to sob, grabbing a hold of Angel's shirt and shaking him) I'm ba-ad. Do you hear me? I'm bad! I'm bad! I'm bad. Please. Angel, please, just do it. Wesley comes running out of the house. Faith sobbing: Angel please, just do it. Just do it. Just k*ll me. Just k*ll me." Angel wraps his arms around her shoulders and pulls her against him. She over balances them and they sink to their knees, Angel still holding her as she cries. Angel: Shh. It's all right. It's okay. I'm here. I'm right here. Shh.

Faith tries to take the Toga approach to commit suicide in order to atone, but Angel actively understands that is what she's trying to do, and denies her the chance to die to redeem herself and instead holds her until she calms down.

Angel doesn't just save her once though he spends the entire next episode defending Faith from Buffy who has come to LA to take her revenge, and trying to talk Faith into believing she can still keep on living in spite of all the bad things she's done.

Faith: Are you saying I got to apologize? Angel: Think you can? Faith: I don’t' know. - How do you say 'Gee, I'm really sorry tortured you I nearly to death? Angel: Well, first off I think I'd leave off the 'Gee.' And secondly I think you have to ask yourself: are you? Faith: What? Angel: Sorry. Faith: And what if I *can't* say it? There are some things you can't just take back, no matter how sorry you *are*, right? Angel: Yeah, there are. I've got some experience in that area. Faith: Right. And you've been doing this for a hundred years! I'm not gonna make it through the next ten minutes. Angel: So make it through the next five, the next minute." Faith: "I don't think I can. Angel: Yes, you can. Faith walks away: God, it hurts. I hate that it hurts like this. Angel follows her: Oh well, it's supposed to hurt. All that pain, all that suffering you caused is coming back on you. Feel it! Deal with it! Then maybe you've got a shot at being free.

Angel's advice is "Guilt is supposed to hurt but if you face your pain you can try to find a way to be free of it" which is something much more profound then any of the forgiveness crap they peddle in MHA. More importantly though, the conflict the whole episode goes out of its way to show that revenge is bad, and punishment doesn't save a soul.

Angel: I didn't - I didn't think it was your business. Buffy: Not my business? Angel: I needed more time with Faith. I'm not sure... Buffy: You needed - do you have any idea what it was like for me to see you with her? That you went behind my back... Angel: Buffy, this wasn't about you! This was about saving someone's soul. Buffy: I came here because you were in danger. Angel: I'm in Danger every day. You came here because of faith. You were looking for vengeance. Buffy: I have a right to it. Angel: Not in my city.

Faith's suicidal ideation is a recurring theme that carries through her character arc in the following season - she does in fact go to prison for awhile (Elizabeth Dushku had to go make Bring it On) but Buffy remains anti-state punishment because going to Prison doesn't help her whatsoever. In fact, she just breaks out when she has to save Angel and spends the rest of the season free.

There are two episodes that actually are dedicated to showing prison didn't help, and what Faith needs to redeem herself is to spend every day of her life trying to be good, not just accepting punishment.

ANGEL: Faith, wake up! FAITH: (wakes) I've rolled the bones. You for me. ANGEL: I used to think that. That there'd be a point when I'd paid my dues. Angel and Angelus are fighting in the alley again. Angel leaves the fight and goes over to Faith's side, holding her up in his arms. ANGEL: Faith, listen to me. You saw me drink. It doesn't get much lower than that. And I thought I could make up for it by disappearing. FAITH: I did my time. ANGEL: Our time is never up, Faith. We pay for everything. FAITH: It hurts. ANGEL: I know. I know. ANGEL: Get up! You have to get up now. Faith, you have to fight. I need you to fight. Do you understand what I'm saying?

So you have one manga series where the teenage girl who did bad things commits suicide because she believed she was going to be in prison for the rest of her life and had no future, and you have the other where the teenage girl tries to commit suicide - only for Angel to stop her and encourage her every step of the way that there's still a future for her even if she can't be "forgiven".

One work ends Toga's life because she's done "unforgivable things" and the other tells Faith that the things she should feel guilty for the things she's done, and she should feel that guilt so she can keep working to be a better person every single day.

One of these is a good message to send to your teenage homeless trauma victim, the other is incredibly harmful. With that out of the way let's switch to BNHA.

HOW TO BURY YOUR GAYS

Now I'm going to attempt to demonstrate why MHA fails to truly deconstruct the MWC, and this not only ruins any potential character development for Uraraka, it also sends a deeply harmful message with Toga's death.

I think I've gone to great length above explaining how BTVS communicates it's stance of being anti-punishment and pro-redemption and even goes as far to demonstrate how punishment does not save anyone. Yet, here is the manga about heroes saving people that completely fumbles those exact same themes.

MHA:

Doesn't show Toga and Ochako as fully realized people

Doesn't show the pressure to conform to the "Good Girl / Bad Girl" label.

Doesn't break down down those two categories

Doesn't redeem it's bad girl

So let me start by saying outside of the context of the story Ochako and Toga both had the potential to be great characters. Unforunately this isn't Gacha, so the way the characters are written in the story, and the quality of their story arcs affects how well they are characterized.

Toga is much better off as a character as opposed to Ochako who sort is reduced to a satellite that revolves around Deku, but their story arcs and the way they conclude does a disservice to both of them as characters. They fail entirely to be shown as fully realized people by their narratives, because of the narratives desire to force them into the good girl and bad girl box.

More or less, Ochako isn't allowed to have flaws, and Toga isn't allowed to redeem herself in any way that doesn't involve killing herself.

Let's get to the characters though, the basic premise of the comparsion between Toga and Ochako is that Ochako perfectly fits into the mould of what society considers a "good, nice girl" she perfectly embodies the ingenue. Whereas Toga was horribly abused for most of her life until she snapped, because she was unable to simply pretend to be the normal girl that Ochako is naturally.

One thing I will give credit to MHA for, it does Toga being pushed to the margins and eventually falling off the edge of society as a young eventually homeless girl that no one cared enough to help about as effectively as Faith did. Toga and Faith were also both demonized before they did anything wrong, and were further demonized because they didn't act the way good victims were supposed to act.

The manga is almost masterful at portraying how much being forced into the box of the ingenue caused Toga's mental decline, until she eventually snapped and became the seductress instead.

Toga hasn't even done anything yet, she's already being punished and demonized simply for appearing deviant. Because once again the categories of Ingenue and Seductress aren't for viewing women and girls as fully realized people, you are either a perfect, innocent, girl, or you're a whore.

Toga is also hypersexual the same way Faith is. Of course it's not done with any of the same amount of nuance of BTVS because Hori has a habit of using Toga for fanservice, but Toga does have a habit of sexualizing herself, in a way that would be classified as deviant love. We also in the manga first view her as nothing more than a shallow yandere who creeps Uraraka out with her blushing and hot desire for blood, only to be shown she's actually capable of being an emotionally intelligent and caring individual when it comes to how she relates to her friends.

Toga viewing sucking blood as love is a clear metaphor for deviant sexuality, or even hyper sexuality, it's something that makes her a literal vamp. Toga being overly sexually aggressive and suggestive with the way she sucks blood is something the society she's in demonizes her for, Deku even makes a thoughtless comment that pushes her off the edge that he'd never even think of hurting someone he loved.

Faith is a CSA victim who is constantly trying to play off her trauma, so she's totally into sex guys, she loves sex, she loves it rough, she goes to clubs and grinds on guys, she's all into sex and violence and safety words are for chumps.

Toga was told her way of expressing love and attraction was wrong and deviant from a young age, and as a result of that the same way that Faith embraces hypersexuality, Toga embraces her femme fatalle / yandere persona and plays it up. Well everyone was right about her, she's fine with being a monster, so she just wants to live as a monster stabbing people randomly and taking their blood before moving onto the next victim.

They can't ever be the ingenue, so Faith and Toga embrace being the seductress instead. Yes, Hori does use Toga for fanservice, but at the same time you can't deny she's deliberately playing up her sexuality like a femme fatalle in a way that is not healthy (Faith is a hypersexual teenager too, I'm saying it's a trauma response for both of them).

MHA also shows much like with Faith how Toga despite being just a teenager is someone all of society has given up on - the same way that everyone gave up on Faith for being a homeless teenager. Then further demonized her for acting in ways homeless teenagers act, until she at last finally committed one crime and they turned on her.

Toga's first crime was committed after her mental breakdown, but it's revealed much later on that Toga wanted to ask Saito for permission to drink his blood, and if she'd just been granted it or at least the emotional abuse heaped on her had stopped she never would have had her breakdown.

For Toga it was Saito, for Faith it was killing by Mistake, after being abandoned they endured violence that further radicalized them with no help from the heroes.

Toga's character also textually acknowledges that the heroes are not going to help her, and are likely going to kill her, whereas in Buffy it stays subtext. Which isn't a problem, it trusts it's audience to go "Oh, the good guys are being jerks here" however, it's a direct facet of MHA's worldbuilding that Toga has watched the heroes kill her best friend, and now thinks she has to fight to the death because the heroes will kill her too. She can't back down and let herself be saved, because the heroes don't even see her as human.

Buffy can't forgive Faith for accidentally killing some random guy because all human life is sacred, but also she tries to kill Faith multiple times, because Faith's not human I guess. Uraraka and Deku believe themselves to be heroes but they actively support people like Hawks, who murdered Toga's best friend and have done absolutely nothing to show her that they won't kill her.

Toga reflects a lot of Faith's suffering for being a bad victim that society allowed to fall through the cracks, and a Seductress who needs to be punished for expressing her sexuality. In fact if it were just Toga, you could call it at least an effective deconstruction of the "seductress/whore" because Toga is a fully realized character and her entire backstory is about how society's expectations for her to be a perfect ingenue, and then punishing her when she wasn't a perfect ingenue is what led to her complete mental breakdown. She couldn't be the white swan or the black swan, so she became the blood-soaked swan instead.

Where the comparison starts to fall apart is Ochako. Toga is a character, and Ochako is not. Just like Deku Ochako more or less just kind of morphs into a plot device that exists to save the villain counterparts to prove what good heroes the kids are - and then she doesn't even do that part. Failing to save Toga is the final nail in the coffin for Ochako being a character and not a plot device to show how good and virtuous the heroes are.

BTVS goes to painstaking extents to establish how Buffy and Faith are the exact same girl in different circumstances. They are both victims of sexual abuse. They're both the Slayer. They both lose their mom at different points in the story. They both struggle with the fact that slayers are also killers, they're both the "chosen one". They both have issues that makes them conflate sexuality with violence.

Buffy is put through several situations that parallel Faith, she loses her mom, she becomes financially destitute, she starts exploring her sexuality in a very faith-like way. The two of them swap bodies at one point and nobody can tell the difference.

There's no strong parallel between Ochako and Toga to give the audience a reason why we should care about the relationship between the two girls in the first place. Ochako's connection to Toga tells us nothing about her character, because there's no strong parallel as shown to us by the story.

There are some parallels, the story attempts to tackle the emotional repression angle of how much the ingenue suffers because she's forced to repress her emotions and how much she envies Toga's free expression.

Why does Ochako think that way? Why does she focus on Toga in particular? The plot tells us why Buffy feels she has so much in common with Faith, they're both the chosen one but Buffy feels like she's under such intense pressure to be perfect that seeing Faith get to act out and express herself makes her jealous.

The manga tells us that Ochako is emotionally repressed, but it doesn't show us, because there are never any real consequences for Ochako repressing her feelings. Natalie Portman in Black Swan, and Buffy both experience mental spirals because the pressure to be the perfect woman is too much for them - to meet the impossible purity standards of the ingenue while still being a sexual creature.

In Uraraka this is the extremely simplified belief that she can't have feelings for a boy, while also being a hero because those beings are selfish and she should be focused on saving people. However, we never see her suffer because of these feelings. We don't even get the bare minimum of having her angst over unrequited love.

I don't want to give Ochako too little credit, there are several things that could have been a connection to Ochako, but they all turn out to be non-starters. Ochako is poor and often makes remarks like "The best way to save money is to not eat" in omake and she hangs out with mostly rich friends. She had early angst about the fact that her friends were becoming heroes for mostly altruistic reasons and she became a hero for money.

That could have also connected to the scene where Ochako witnessed the scene of a hero quitting amongst all of the destruction after the end of the first war arc, to show her the consequences of all the heroes who were heroes for less than altruistic reasons.

Ochako could have even told Toga something along the lines of "I was poor, I know how it is to struggle" especially since Toga spent a good portion of time homeless after she was throne out by her parents.

Instead that goes unaddressed except in this scene which makes it look like Toga is ignorant for assuming Ochako never suffered.

Toga and Ochako both feel like they need to repress their feelings but Toga was emotionall abused by her parents, then experienced psychiatric abuse, and then was disowned after her mental breakdown led to a violent incident. Uraraka feels like she can't tell the boy she loves how she feels. One of thsee things is not like the others.

There are more possible connections that you could draw between them, Uraraka gives a big speech about how the heroes have it rough too guys and at that point it cuts to a picture of Toga crying and that could have led to a revelation that if Ochako is asking the common people to see heroes as human beings, then they should try to see villains as human beings too.

This could also couple well with the fact that Toga believes Ochako wants to kill her the same way that Hawks killed Twice. Both of these facts, Ochako originally only being a hero for money and watching heroes for money quit, and also Ochako learning about Twice killing Toga's friends could lead to some self-reflection on the hero system and Ochako could listen to Toga and be the one to convince her that heroes will save her.

However, none of these happen so we don't know why Ochako feels compelled to save Toga, other than the fact that Ochako is just that nice.

It is really a repeat of Deku's writing, we are told that Himiko just really, really, really wants to save Toga, but not only are we never given an in character reason why that is, but we're also supposed to ignore all the evidence that contradicts this.

Ochako wants to reach out and touch the sadness inside of Toga, but she never actually does anything to try to understand or talk to Toga until the last possible minute. In fact, it's Toga who reaches out several times and Uraraka who ignores her. It is Ochako who insists several times that Toga's deeds are unforgivable and then the conversation stops there.

There's also the scene where Deku and Ochako are looking over the cliffside and Ochako is actively reminding herself of the damage that Ochako caused as a reason that she doesn't have to think of her as a human being.

Ochako doesn't even go in with a plan to take down Toga non-lethally like Shoto did with Toya, nor does she even think about what she wants to say to her until the last possible moment.

Ochako's actions make her more like Buffy, someone who actively doesn't empathize with the villain and doesn't want to save her because of her own personal hangups. (However, we're given no personal hangups for why Ochako, the most perfect hero ever wouldn't want to save Toga). Her actions are like Buffy's, not reaching out a hand to Toga she only gets worse and worse, but we're told the opposite. That she's someone who wants to reach and touch Toga's sadness.

It would be better if Ochako DIDN'T want to save Toga, because at least there would be an arc to it. The lack of empathy would be a character flaw on Ochako's part, something that she needs to overcome to be a proper hero. It would be better if Ochako DIDN'T want to save Toga, because then she'd need an in character reason why she doesn't empathize with Toga, like Buffy does with Faith.

Ochako is supposed to be deconstructing the ingenue, but she's not allowed to have any flaws, or be anything other than the perfect, empathic hero and because of that she ends up reinforcing the Ingenue instead. The ingenue isn't allowed to be anything other than perfect, and the Seductress must be punished.

Doesn't allow the Bad Girl to be redeemed:

Toga's death ends up reinforcing basically every backwards double standard about the MWC including the need for men to punish and villify women who freely express their sexuality. Toga's entire character arc is asking the question if soemone like her is allowed to live in this society, if the heroes will save the life of someone like her and the answer we receive is: no she can't live.

Toga can't live in this world, she has to die. Not only does Twice die and never receive justice and his murderer get off scott free, Toga who asks the question of if she's going to die too, the answer is yes.

In both of these plotlines you have young woman who have done bad things but are still teenagers, who are struggling with suicidal ideation who believe their only escape is death. Faith is told that the guilt of the things she's done is painful, but she has to live in order to make up for it because that's the only way to free herself. Whereas, Toga comes to the conclusion that there is no future for her other than being in jail for the rest of her life and therefore it's not worth living.

Toga has to be punished by the narrative in a way that's completely unnecessary, because characters like Bakugo and Edgeshot somehow survived doing open heart surgery in the middle of an active battlefield, but Toga dies from a blood transfusion.

One of these narratives is telling a troubled young abuse victim who's still a teenager to live, and the other is telling her to die. Now which one of these plotlines would you want a young girl to read?

[raayllum]

I've touched on this before in regards to TDP, at first just in regards to Claudia's consistent thing with fragmentation and then further in my meta regarding Rayla-Leola parallels, but I want to talk briefly about the Fixing vs Broken dichotomy TDP has been running with more subtly till S6 said, "Sit up and pay attention" so let's get into it.

First: what breaks things in TDP?

If you're a magical object, it's probably Callum but when it comes to people, things get a bit more complicated. We see the literal act of dark magic break people and families apart, both literally and metaphorically:

This on the one hand makes sense. Of course the characters and by extension their family dynamics or magic use is going to reflect the landscape of Xadia itself: literally split and divided down the middle, initially, due to dark magic use and how the elves and dragons chose to handle things. A broken continent and broken people.

Therefore, we see characters who want to fix things, particularly in TDP shorts featuring Claudia:

Her brother squirmed. “Clauds, Biscuit’s—” “—I know. But I fixed it. Now we can still play with her.”

Reflections Vol 1: Rise Again

It will be just like before, only this time, you won’t be able to fix him… [...] “Do not fear,” the Startouch elf had said. “You are a dark mage, powerful and potent. With my help, there is nothing you cannot fix. Not even death.” [...] “Let’s go,” Claudia told the creature. “I can fix this. I can fix anything.”

Reflections Vol 2: Lost Child

as well as in show canon:

This is reflected in magic use routinely throughout the series, as mages inherently use magic (primal or dark) to fix their problems and help those around them. Callum uses magic to try and fix Rayla's problems with her family; Claudia uses magic to 'fix' Soren and Viren's physical conditions, and is confused and upset when it isn't enough. Bringing Zym back to Zubeia 'fixes her "irreparably broken heart" (3x08) and starts to heal the continent. Wanting to fix things or keep things from breaking apart further is something that drives many of the main characters, most notably Claudia and Karim in their steadfast attempts to hold onto, or restore, what they still have to the way it 'should be':

This "I need/want to fix it" mindset isn't exclusive to the villains, but wanting to go back rather than move forward — heavily resisting change — does tend to be more common for antagonists (versus Viren's "I have changed") and more counterproductive when protagonists engage in it ("She's been trying hard to get things the way they were" "But things aren't like they were!").

Part of this, of course, is because breaking things isn't (or is rarely) exclusively bad in TDP, or that not breaking things is always Good.

And all of this comes back to, I think, one of the most interesting scenes in the whole show in both a "character perspective as an individual" standpoint and in a broader narrative way of thinking: Sol Regem's assessment of the world in 6x04:

Which of course begs the question: what is broken in Xadia, and what does Sol Regem think is broken in Xadia?

I'd be willing to wager given that Sol Regem seemingly reported and/or testified against Leola to the Cosmic Council that it's about magic use, but it could even be about the First Elves themselves leaving and the "long slow spiral to chaos" that's ongoing. For us as an audience, our context of what is broken (re: not functional and wrong) — especially by the end of S6 is the Cosmic Order system because it's not fair, the division between elves and humans, and the splitting of the continent, which is why Ezran argues for elf-human reunification, Callum uses primal magic for good, and Rayla loves her human family. Because what fixes things, routinely, is love, compassion, self-reflection, and mercy. That's what breaks the cycle, and allows people to fix themselves and their world views, their families, their mistakes. That's what allows healing.

We also know canon is gearing up towards something given Aaravos' endgame is some kind of great shattering, and given what it implies, both immense suffering and good will likely come out of it:

I have not seen the stars in centuries. But when I see them again—when the stars are forced to look upon me, their dark brother—they will know how I have waited. And when everything they have built lies shattered, I will savor their fall from the sky.

—TDP Reflections Vol 1: Patience

Because Sol Regem is both right and wrong.

Xadia is broken — but our team of heroes can and will save it.

[dg-outlaw]

Why No Love for Red Hood: The Hill?

I think it's all in the marketing and about what's being delivered versus what readers expected.

So I almost made this post on a reblog, but I didn't want to overwhelm that thread. Plus, I'm not sure if people get mad when someone does a long reblog on their short OG post? Anyway, the point of that post was that Issue 3 of 'Red Hood: The Hill' came out and no one's really talking about it, especially Jason/Red Hood fans.

I think the biggest problem (IMO) with this series is that someone wanted to write a story about The Hill and some new characters (which is fine), but like the 'Batman: The Hill' comic (which I think this series is sort of a sequel to), it's banking off a known character, Red Hood, to be it's selling point. "Come for the Red Hood, but stay for these other characters and their story." All fine and good, but a little deceptive when the marketing leans more toward it being a Red Hood (and new 'Outlaw' friends) story rather than one where Jason is a random guest star.

Series description:

In Gotham City’s early days, The Hill was one of Gotham City’s most dangerous neighborhoods, one that required the residents to band together to keep themselves safe when the police – and sometimes even Batman – wouldn’t. Now, as the Hill finds itself gentrifying, old habits die hard as the vigilante known only as Strike works with her team to keep the town safe—but she’s not alone. Jason Todd, one of the Hill’s newest residents, is more than happy to don the visage of Red Hood to help Strike keep his new home safe. But a new villain is emerging from the shadows. Will Red Hood, Strike and the Hill’s small militia of vigilantes be able to keep their home safe?

And this brings me back to the marketing and advertising of this series, especially versus the Batman: The Hill comic.

Obviously we can see the artistic parallels between these two covers (above). Overall, good job and nice throwback, but... there's a major difference. These two are not similar.

The first cover has "THE HILL" in bold, prominent text and Batman is in the background. This says that Batman is part of the story, but he seems secondary to whatever's going on in the foreground, which is mostly true to the story.

The second cover has "RED HOOD" prominent in the title with "The Hill" as secondary and smaller. Jason is also front and center with Batman looming behind him (who only just showed up at the end of issue 3. There's only two more issues left). The character of Strike, our new protagonist and The Hill's main hero, is down at the bottom and barely in-frame, further suggesting it's more about Jason (and maybe Batman) than The Hill or other characters. Again, clever marketing and nice design nod to the original cover, but deceptive when it comes to the series content. I don't necessarily blame the cover artist here as they might've been given a different brief on what the story was about and I get the fun throwback to the old Hill cover, but these covers are almost reversed in terms of Bat-character prominence.

In the original, Batman was more intertwined in that comic's story than Jason is in his series, which further adds to the audience letdown. If anything, this series needed to go with the coffee shop musician strategy: play a bunch of cover songs to win over the crowd and then slip in your original music (OCs) here and there. Once you have your audience hooked, go all out with your original stuff and then throw in 'Wonderwall' just for kicks and to keep them invested.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem of this series is pacing and balance. The series needs more Jason to allow readers time to invest in the new characters, but as those new characters develop through their interactions with him THEN Jason can fade back as a partner character or just random character who comes in to help out. As it is, he's a guest star in series called, 'RED HOOD: the hill' with most of Jason's actions being 'day-in-the-life' stuff or a random action panel or two.

If anything, I think Red Hood #51 and #52 did a better job of establishing Jason as a main player, but also working alongside a new hero (Strike) and citizens of The Hill in solving a case. The covers above also display a more balanced composition and preview of what you're getting. Yes, you're reading a Red Hood comic, but there will be some other significant characters playing in this sandbox that you should care about and watch out for.

Sadly, I think the untrue message DC will take away from this series if it doesn't do well is that: (1) Jason is NOT an instant seller so let's shelf him because he couldn't carry this series (that he's barely in), and (2) readers don't like these new characters (most of which are BIPOC and/or LGBTQ), so let's ditch them and do more Batman stuff. 🤦‍♂️

And that's unfortunate because I think there's potential here had this series been executed in a better way. I see where the writer wanted to go with these new characters and they actually seem like an interesting and cozy bunch, but I feel like I'm stepping into an already established found family/friend group, but I don't really know them and I'm the outsider. So eventually I'll find a random distracted moment to quietly say bye to my friend Jason and slip out before anyone notices... like the socially awkward introvert that I am.

[quirkwizard]

So, what did you think of Decay being a Quirk transferred by AFO, instead of Tomura's birth Quirk? I felt like it took a lot of weight off, that Hori just wanted to give AFO more villain points, but it seemed so unnecessary...

In one of your posts you claim that AFO didn't force Tenko to kill his family. But he did by giving him "Decay" and hindering his ability to control the quirk by putting Kotaro against him.

How does "Decay" influence Tomura's personality?

When I mentioned Tomura killing his family in that post, I meant it more that All For One didn't have a direct hand in it and didn't orchestrate it all down to the last minute. That was more of a product of the comments people were making at the time when it had just been revealed.

I understand this to a degree. Yes, I too am frustrated with the story's tendency to tie everything back to All For One. Of course, with how big All For One is in and out of the story, he should be playing a big role in the world. To me, it only shrinks the rest of the world by relating every other bad thing that happens back to him. However, the reveal of him giving Tomura "Decay" is not one of those cases for me. All For One was already playing a large part in Tomura's story and turning Tenko into Tomura. All this does is show the sheer extent to which this happened. Heck, Hori was setting this up all the way back during Tomura's flashback chapters. A full five years before the reveal happened. So I don't think this is something that Hori did on a whim.

I think All For One giving Tomura "Decay" is meant to tie back into the core ideas of the series. The idea of vessels and passing on ideas between people. Specifically with how it parallels Deku's and All Might's story. Izuku got "One For All" by sheer luck, showing his worthiness by his own heroic spirit and willingness to help others. Tomura came about through meticulous crafting of his life, having a core part of himself removed in favor of a rotten, destructive core. And I'm not saying that "Decay" affected his personality at all. Something like that, I think, would hurt the character. That boils down so much of his backstory down to getting the power and becoming evil. I'm saying more in what these are trying to convey in the narrative. 

Even if you disregard all of that, the most important aspect to me is that this doesn't ruin anything about the story or characters by existing. Because as much as everyone played up All For One's role in Tomura's life, he's not the evil puppet master controlling every step at this point. The things that hurt Tenko and turned him against the world aren't things that All For One controls. The main cruxes of it are how much he's been hurt by the world of heroes. Whether it be how the heroism hurt him and his family, the bystander effect keeping him from being helped, or how he wasn't saved in spite of how much he desperately needed to be. All For One isn't responsible for that. The most he was giving Tomura the means to express that frustration.

[sapphic-agent]

Let's Talk About Shinsou

*Note: Lmao, do I tag this as Anti Shinsou or Pro Shinsou??*

Despite being a pretty popular character overall, Shinsou seems to be under a lot of scrutiny with my fellow Bakugou antis. And I understand why. Our first introduction to him isn't a pleasant one; he's first shown taunting Class 1A about being attacked by villains (a generally traumatic experience) out of jealousy. It's also been noted that Aizawa spends more time training him than his actual class (though, this is more of an issue with Aizawa than Shinsou). Personality wise, he (subjectively) isn't pleasant or very entertaining either.

I'm impartial to him myself as I don't love him or hate him. He's just... there really (a fate many characters suffer). But you know what I think of when I think about Shinsou's character? Wasted potential.

My Hero Academia is constantly tossing the term rival around the show. There's the rivalry between Izuku, Bakugou, and Todoroki which is why they became the main trio (don't @ me for this I'm speaking technicalities here). There's also the infamous (one-sided) rivalry between All Might and Endeavor, a driving force behind not only Endeavor's actions against his family but a large part of the overall plot of the show.

When I first watched the Sports Festival and Izuku's match with Shinsou, I was positive they were setting them up to be rivals.

No, I don't mean the "rivalry" Izuku has with Bakugou (Bakugou stans don't @ me). I don't mean the friendly rivalries he has with Todoroki or Iida either.

I mean a straight-up rivalry. Where they don't become friends. Where they don't get along with or like one another (maybe a grudging respect at the most). I was sure Shinsou was going to be someone to constantly challenge Izuku; not only on a physical level, but ideologically too.

The Sports Festival partially set this up by calling attention to the similarities between Izuku's past and Shinsou's. While Izuku was discriminated against for his lack of quirk, Shinsou was treated differently and outcast because he had a "villainous" quirk. But they take on two different attitudes. Shinsou is bitter and full of contempt while Izuku was optimistic and determined to help a world full of people who shunned him. The show was deliberately setting up parallels between them.

But this dynamic is almost non-existent. Whatever interaction they do get is towards the end of the manga (Shinsou was introduced in the Sports Festival, an extremely early part of the series and in the show he's non-existent until season 5). And there's none of the previous complexity there was before.

Even if Shinsou was unlikable overall, it might have been worth it for him to be Izuku's real rival. His opposite not only in personality and attitude, but also heroics. Izuku can rely on his strength and the powers OF A give him, Shinsou would have to rely on his skills and brain. Their quirks are somewhat opposite to one another (at least in how they use them). Seeing them have to work together even though they'd usually approach things differently would have been way better than what we usually get.

I think that dynamic would have been a lot more interesting to watch than the trio or whatever you can Izuku and Bakugou (I will not refer to them as the Wonder Duo because wtf is that).

What do my fellow antis think? Would Shinsou have been a good rival if written well enough? Is there anyone else you would have preferred? Personally, I'd take anything over Izuku and Bakugou.

*Note: While we're on this topic, I think Monoma could have been Bakugou's rival. Someone who's calm and collected to contrast Bakugou's temper and whose quirk can easily rival his. I would have preferred that over subjecting Izuku to abuse under the guise of rivalry. I really wish Horikoshi would have kept them separate and allowed them to grow as heroes on their own without their toxic, codependent relationship. Maybe I would have tolerated Bakugou more. Monoma also isn't bothered by Bakugou so he wouldn't have had to go through the same thing Izuku did*

[princeasimdiya12]

Bucchigiri Utena Parallel-The Depravity of Sad, Strange Little Men

While there have been various comparisons that can be found between Bucchigiri and Revolutionary Girl Utena. From it's parallels with the main protagonist duo, the usage of fairy tales and their influence towards the heroes, to themes of self-stagnation & it's consequences. But for me, something I've had a hard time finding was direct comparisons between it's core cast. While they do have some similarities, not all of it is ideally parallel with the Bucchigiri delinquents having different personalities and arcs compared to the Utena duelists. That said, I was able to find two characters who came close with paralleling each other: in terms of their designated roles, their origins, their stance on gender and what becomes of them afterwards.

Shindo Akutaro and Kyouichi Saionji

Disclaimer: Just as a warning, there will be light spoilers from Revolutionary Girl Utena that will be discussed, though mainly in relation to Saionji's character and less of the series in general. There will also be mentions of domestic and sexual abuse.

Part 1: The Starter Villain

One of the first similarities that both Saionji and Akutaro share is that they both start out as the first official antagonists in their respective series. The way they're presented in the series makes them come off as genuinely dangerous men who intentionally cause harm for others.

Saionji's first scene is him slapping Anthy over an unheard conversation which is made worse when it's established that she's "betrothed" to him. He "justifies" the abuse because of the engagement which he treats as being in a relationship with him as the domineering boyfriend and Anthy as his loyal girlfriend. But what drives Utena to confront him is when he (supposedly) posted Wakaba's love letter in a public space for everyone to mock. Utena and the audience are meant to find him despicable for his behavior and want to see him be taken down ASA-NOW.

Akutaro also serves as a despisable human being who is presented as the first major threat in the series. He's portrayed as the most bloodthirsty and cruelest of the Big Three Banchos introduced in the story. While Marito rivals him in bloodthirstiness and sadism (and was technically the first adversary Arajin was forced to confront), he is shown to have some redeemable traits such as his friendship with Outa and his genuine respect towards Kenichirou. The same cannot be said for Akutaro who has no redeeming attributes. He frequently mistreats his NG Boys with threats and violence viewing them as inferior to him, forces them to steal from non-gang affiliated students, and is preparing an elaborate plot to force the rival gangs to destroy each other so he can take over.

It's also worth mentioning that his role as the first villain was even foreshadowed in the opening song. Whereas Marito and Kenichirou only looked big and scary in front of Arajin, they never actually grab him and look as though they want Arajin to face them. Akutaro is the only one who interacts with Arajin by binding him with his whips, stripping him to his boxers and tossing him down a dark hole.

The audience recognizes Akutaro as the least likable but most dangerous of the bancho leaders and are hoping to see him be taken down before his wicked plots can take effect.

But despite being presented as major villains, they didn't actually start out that way. They were once regular kids who ended up falling into the dark side because of a falling out between them and a man they once looked up to.

Part 2: Now You'll Respect Me, Because I'm a Threat

As explained in Episode 5, Akutaro actually started out as a humble nerd who was an easy target for delinquents to pick on. But that all changed when he was rescued by Kenichirou and was given the opportunity to join Minato Kai alongside him. Akutaro accepted and trained himself into becoming a man worthy of Kenichirou's respect. But that all changed when Akutaro brought a weapon to the fighting ring, something that was strongly discouraged in MK which lead to his banishment.

And in Saoinji's case, he once had a close friendship with Touga Kiryuu, the Student Council President and future antagonist following his defeat. Both boys started out caring for one another and saw each other as equals. But that all changed when they came across a young girl in a coffin who just lost her parents and wanted to join them. The next day, the girl disappeared and Touga's attitude about the mystery girl causes Saionji to think that he showed her something eternal to help her leave the coffin.

Both boys started out as genuine and harmless friends to someone they once admired. But after a conflict involving ideals, the friendship became strained. Akutaro swore vengeance against Kenichirou for tossing him aside and vowed to destroy him while Saionji, despite still being friends with Touga in the present, would develop intense levels of jealousy and and inferiority complex.

But whereas Saionji was driven by envy because of Touga's manipulations and desire to stand out on top between the two of them, Akutaro was the one who broke his friendship by refusing to accept Kenichirou's ideals and how he was in the wrong to use weapons in a true fight.

Each of them had different reasons for their falling out, but they shared the same dream of becoming stronger then their former friends in the hopes of surpassing them. And surprisingly, both boys are successful when it comes to building themselves up as men worthy of respect and power.

Saionji would grow up to be the captain of the school's Kendo Team, amassing horde of fangirls who were swayed by his bewitching good looks and is also an official member of the Student Council. It's also implied that he was a worthy duelist as he started out with Anthy in his possession before Utena became involved, meaning that he bested the other duelists (minus Touga) beforehand.

And in only a few years time, Akutaro managed to create a delinquent gang that's on the same level of credibility as MK and SS who've lasted for several decades. The NG Boys have a large number of followers, several bases for meetings and weapons manufacturing and even having territorial rights in certain locations in Honki City. Though it isn't specified on how much of the NG Boys' creation and success was due to Akutaro's own merits or if Ichiya was involved in it's genesis, but it stands that he succeeded in making a fearsome group to command with many of the other rival gang members acknowledging them as a threat that shouldn't be messed with on a whim.

Part 3: Gender Politics in My Anime?

To maintain their power and assert their authority over others, both Akutaro and Saionji rely on traditional gender norms to maintain their respective identities and influences. The problem being is that the norms they rely on fall heavily on toxic masculinity.

In RGU, Saionji's toxic masculinity is shown towards his mistreatment of Anthy and his resentment of Touga. And while the other men in Utena are also guilty of engaging in toxic masculinity and strict gender norms, Saionji's practices stand out as being the most noticeable and easy to identify.

He views Anthy as an ideal girlfriend who should obey and follow along with his will regardless of what she thinks. Any opposition is met with slapping her and scolding her for thinking differently. His views towards Touga is someone who challenges his status as the superior man. He's constantly in conflict with him when it comes to kendo competitions or how they should go about the dueling tournaments. And in each instance, Touga always comes out on top which fuels Saionji's insecurity which leads to anger and violently lashing out at anyone or anything to cross his path.

It's also mentioned that he makes several misogynistic comments about the roles men and women play which would contribute to his ongoing hatred of Utena. A girl who refuses to play her role and stands between him and his supposed Rose Bride. Although it isn't outright stated, it's also implied that Saionji did come from an abusive family which would explain how he obtained his callous mistreatment of women, his ideas on gender roles along with his casual usage of violence.

Akutaro also shares similar beliefs when it comes to power and respect. His use of weapons and lack of an honor code when fighting contribute to his belief that a great man is one who will do anything to win. Even if it means being violent, cruel, sadistic and merciless, it all will be worth it as he stands above everyone. The Emperor for the World to see. He even forces these ideals to his NG Boys just before the big war by encouraging them to embrace the ideal of kill or be killed. As in they kill the other gang members or they'll be killed by his own hand for failing to meet his expectations.

As for how he views and mistreats women... Before we can go into that, I'd like to take a quick detour and bring up how Minato Kai and Siguma Squad engage with gender norms.

Bucchigiri doesn't exactly go into detail with gender politics due to it's significant lack of girl characters and how the main boys rarely mention their own beliefs about girls in general. (With the exception of Arajin who only shows interests in girls by seeing them as potential girlfriends and tools used to lose his virginity and the narrative is more than willing to punish him for his beliefs). Not to mention it is rather questionable why there haven't been any girl members to be part of either Minato Kai or Siguma Squad, especially since there isn't a rule saying girls aren't allowed. Despite this, it is worth bringing up how the two clubs are rather lenient when it comes to how the boys defy traditional gender norms.

In Minato Kai, Matakara is presented as the most sensitive, friendly and warm-hearted boy of the group. He's always shown as easy to warm up to and welcoming of other people provided you aren't a threat. None of the MK boys have any issue with his sensitivity and how he boasts on how Arajin is better than him in terms of strength. It even comes as a shock for everyone when he turns to the dark side and begins his quest of fighting everyone for the sake of getting stronger. In a traditional shonen show, a man engaging in this behavior while closing his heart would be applauded since that's what's commonly expected. Whereas in Bucchigiri, it's portrayed as a tragedy that Matakara would go against his beliefs.

Other examples include Komao who dresses in a feminine manner but is never subject to mockery or being made fun of by his peers or the show. Zabu is also able to express emotional honesty towards Matakara regarding him being the reason the war started which is made better as Matakara accepts his apology and still treats him as a friend. Not to mention that he does make beautiful paper decorations and takes pride in it.

Siguma Squad also follow a similar acceptance of emotional vulnerability among it's core members. This is most evident in Episode 10 during Jabishiri and Hagure's confrontation with Corrupted!Matakara. Following the brutal defeat, Jabishiri who's presented as the most aggressive, moody and masculine of the duo expresses genuine disappointment in front of Hagure and comes close to crying. And in the following episode, when he tries to hunt Matakara despite his injuries, Hagure slaps him and cries his heart out while calling him out for his thick-headenness. In any shonen series, the masculine one would snipe at their friend for acting like a sissy and not like a real man. But Jabishiri lets him and realizes that he's right. And even Outa, who can be interpreted as a traditionally masculine man, never chastises the duo for their behavior or how they're not acting like real men. He instead acknowlegeds their emotions and promises them that they'll still keep Siguma Squad alive.

So both gangs are shown to be accepting of emotional vulnerability amongst their groups and are pretty okay with their members expressing gender-non-conforming actions without fear.

As for the NG Boys, that vulnerability is nonexistent as the Emperor uses a brutal and heartless manner of keeping his underlings in check. The boys can only discuss in secret with each other over their own feelings on the matter out of fear of being victimized by the Emperor. Mixed with the lack of individualization of the NG Boys, they exist in a space controlled by Akutaro where only his voice and beliefs, belonging to the greatest man, can be acknowledged and obeyed.

And that is in relation to how the boys in the three groups are able to relate to each other. But there is one component of the NG Boys that neither their rival gangs have but also gives an understanding of Akutaro's toxic masculinity.

The NG Girls.

The existence of the girls highlights how it is possible for girls to be affiliated with any of the gangs. But how curious that instead of fighting alongside the NG Boys as potential fighters and delinquents, they instead only work as flashy showgirls. Wearing cute outfits, performing elaborate dance choreography and acting flirty with anyone that their boss sets in their sights. And given that Akutaro is the boss and prime founder of the NG Boys, it's within reason to believe that he came up with the idea of NG Girls and their roles in his gang.

So sad to say, their existence and jobs falls into gender stereotyping with what is expect of boys and girls. Boys are expected to be tough fighters who show no fear, cannot confide in each other and will hurt others without restraint. Girls are expected look cute, be desirable and attend to the needs of the boys they come across. It's also implied that they work as prostitutes based on Akutaro promising Arajin to "pop his cherry" using the girls mixed with their seductive actions during the dance scene.

And of course there's the whole scene with Akutaro proposing on turning Mahoro into a trophy girl aka sex slave once he takes down Marito. He sees her as a prize to be claimed after defeating her older brother and would consider sexually exploit her for the sake of dragging Siguma Squad's reputation into the ground. So it is rather concerning that he views girls as objects to be claimed and toyed with as a spoil of war. Something a power-hungry man would enjoy having.

Thankfully, both boys are clearly presented as being in the wrong for their beliefs and practices of toxic masculinity which makes their defeat at the hands of the heroes very satisfying.

Part 4: How the Mighty Have Fallen

Once the antagonists are defeated by their respective protagonists, they end up falling into two roles as the story continues: pawns for the fairy tale villains and comic relief.

As mentioned before, Saionji's friendship with Touga is presented as a constant power struggled fueled by jealousy and insecurity. Touga actually knows of Saionji's feelings and purposefully exploits them for his own gain. First in Season 1 by tricking him with a fake letter as part of his grand scheme of making himself look good in front of Utena and later in Season 3 when he starts to collaborate with End of the World.

For Akutaro, following his defeat and exposure at the Gang War Arc, he's tricked into helping Ichiya reach Matakara with the promise of revenge. But as soon as Ichiya makes official contact, he abandons Akutaro leaving him powerless and resentful.

And during the time they're used, they essentially fade into the background as the protagonists turn their attention to other pressing matters regarding the plot and their relationships with their friends. The starter villain that once posed as a significant threat is casually ignored or brushed off without a care. And given what heartless monsters they were since the beginning, who wouldn't want to ignore them or give them a death glare to shut them up?

Because of Saionji's brutish behavior, Utena and friends rarely pay him attention, even when he has "important" things to say, and instead focus on other events in their daily lives. It's even more apparent when he's temporarily expelled from Otori Academy and loses his influence among the student body. Thus forcing him into becoming a nobody.

And with having lost the great war, his former NG Boys have no reason to continue following him and beat him up as retribution for his past transgressions. They along with the NG Girls openly laugh at what a loser he is and promise each other not to let someone like him boss them around anymore. And with no influence or status, all Akutaro can do is watch from the sidelines hoping that fate will be kind enough to defeat his enemies for him.

Though a major difference when it comes to both boys in regards to their pathetic states is that Saionji continues to have relevance in the story while Akutaro remains a bystander. Despite losing a fourth time to Utena in Season 3, he still sticks around as a Student Council Member and even works alongside Touga when he decides to stop Utena. He even brings up how questionable it is to follow the End of the World's ideals when he and the other council members don't know his true motivations. And although Akutaro does warn Arajin of the Honki People's true agenda and the danger they're in, he doesn't actively do anything afterwards. He mainly stays on the side watching the final battles play out. And it's more than likely he won't be able to do much when Matakara has his ultimate battle with Arajin.

Conclusion

Both Akutaro and Saionji start out as the first villains of the story that the audience is meant to dislike because of their cruel and power-hungry behaviors. The reason they transformed into dangerous men was because of a falling out they had with men they once admired in the past. As a result, they would work hard into becoming men with great authority all in the hopes of vanquishing the ones that wronged them and to prove how much better they are then them. The two are also shown to have practiced toxic masculinity given their horrid views of how women should be treated, their ideals on "might makes right" and how they refuse to engage in emotional vulnerability. And once they're defeated, they're brushed off to the side as comic relief while spectating the new battles that the heroes engage in.

And those are my thoughts on the similarities between these two jerks. I never imagined I would make this type of analysis post since I personally hate Saionji. I respect his role in RGU and understand his character in the long term, but men who hurt women while calling it love is something I will never forgive. Either way, I saw the similarities so I decided to put up with him for this analysis So what do you think of these thoughts and the roles of the two villains? If you agree or disagree with anything I’ve written, please feel free to reblog and/or comment with your own ideas. Thank you and may you have a great day/night!

[picturejasper20]

So, i was trying to think of the strange connection that there is between Danny Phantom fans and Steven Universe fans, aside from SU being a show that was very popular on its moment. Like one show is from 20 years ago and the other is from last decade, both with different executions and genres.

...Which lead me to write a whole essay no one asked for, so here you go:

One of the first things that comes to mind is how the main leads are hybrids- Danny Fenton is half human/half ghost, Steven is half human/ half gem. And like both series give an idea that they are pretty unique in their experience as hybrids and they both belong to both worlds yet not fully to either of them.

Danny has a lot of issues with having to hide his part of himself from the world, his parents included. Meanwhile, Steven doesn't understand certain social norms and can feel disconnected from other teens around his age, having lived a somewhat recluded childhood from his peers. (This gets more explored in Future)

Aside from the struggles that being an hybrid it brings to them, they have episodes about learning new powers or learning how to control them. You see them start rather powerless only to become pretty OP on the long run. -Steven getting tired for summoning one shield to being able to do it without sweat-Danny having his powers glitching at the start to gain a power like Ghost Wail later on, etc.

Another thing that Danny and Steven share in common is that they want to help and be useful. In Steven's case, he wants to help people with their problems or "fix" them. Over time Steven starts to define his identity around helping others a little too much to the point that he doesn't know who to be outside of that.

A pretty common headcanon for Danny in the DP fandom is that his ghost obsession is about having to protect everyone he can, something you can see in the series in a way. After Phantom Planet, Danny doesn't know who to be outside being the hero and feels that people don't need him anymore in the context the world having being saved after the series finale. ( A Glitch in Time)

Both try solving problems talking it out if possible, if it is a misunderstanding or they think the antagonist can be reasoned with.

With Steven, he doesn't need an explanation as most people know his personality, for Danny- it depends on the situation and his mood, sometimes being kinder and other times more violent. I would argue again that he still tries to talk things out when he sees that violence isn't necessary -just not the same as Steven

That's not to say their characters are the same, in fact their personalities are pretty different and their ways to approaching problems differs too. They do, however, share some parallels in their character arcs that i already discussed.

Another aspect are the main antagonists, both Steven Universe and Danny Phantom have their antagonists have motivations outside of being evil for the sake of being evil.

In Steven Universe this is a main theme and i don't think it doesn't need much introduction. Antagonists (most Homeworld gems) have been taught and were socialized to act in a specific way in the totalitarian society they were born into. Examples of this are: Peridot, Jasper and Lapis- these motivations can be mixed with revenge or similar things as well.

In Danny Phantom the main antagonists are Vlad Masters/Plasmius and Valerie Gray, both characters who aren't evil by nature and the series leaves clear that their antagonism comes from what happened to them and the decisions they took in result of that.

Vlad Masters role as a villain comes from the insolation and abandonment issues that came from the Ghost portal accident in college caused by Danny's father, Jack Fenton. Vlad became obsessed with getting revenge on Jack and believing he "stole" a family that should have been his.

Valerie comes from her blaming Phantom for (accidentally) ruining her life and trying to get revenge on him, becoming a ghost hunter. Valerie's role is a mix between anti-hero and antagonist since she wants to protect people but opposes Phantom at the same time. Eventually she becomes a bit of a friendenemy to Phantom over the course of the seasons.

Other recurrent antagonists have their own motives to do bad things ( Sidney, Desiree, Ember) while others are more naturally classic evil (Ghost King, Spectra). It depends on the character one is talking about.

Diving more into Vlad Plasmius, both series have this idea of "legacy", as like protagonist having to deal with what their parent/s "left behind for them".

For Steven is a huge deal for him since many of the antagonists who attack him are for things his mother Rose Quartz did, having Steven deal with all this issues and believing he has to fix them, blaming himself for what how Rose hurt people in different ways.

As for Danny, Vlad Masters' antagonism comes from the portal accident caused by Jack, Danny's father, when Vlad, Jack and Maddie (Danny's mom) were still friends in college. In a way Danny has to deal with something that was caused by his father. It isn't something he choose to but yet still brings him a lot of problems to his life.

I'm not sure which character from SU Vlad could be compared to, but i would say that Spinel is the closest one, since Spinel was abandoned by Rose Quartz (as Pink Diamond), who was her best friend, similar to what supposely happened between Vlad and Jack after the ghost portal accident.

Other theme is the idea of redemption, or how you can be your worst own enemy. As i mentioned, antagonists in SU usually get redemmed and change their ways from the systematic ideas they were raised in. There is this idea that people have the capacity to change if they propose themselves to.

In Steven Universe Future, Steven is "his worst enemy" as he has to deal with his own demons he has been avoiding for years for trying to repress them or being too busy helping other people. He goes through a negative corruption arc because of this, ending with him realizing that he can't hiding his issues and needs help with them.

In the Danny Phantom series, this is very important theme in "The Ultimate Enemy", where Danny is confronted by the possible evil future version of himself, called Dan Phantom in the DP fandom. Danny battles against this version of himself and tries to fix his mistake, proving that he can avoid that future from happening.

Danny also meets Vlad Masters in the dark future timeline in this special, who regrets his actions after so many years passed and how he accidentally helped with creating Dan in that timeline.

A Glitch in Time expands on this theme further by exploring Vlad and Dan's motivations a lot more and giving them second chances. The novel itself shares parallels with Steven Universe and SU Future in multiple ways.

Back to Dan Phantom, he shares quite a lot of things in common with Malachite to the point people have pointed out these parallels.

In Steven Universe, gems can fuse with other, creating more powerful gems. A fusion's personality and manners are determined by the relationship the partipants in the fusion have and a combination of their personalities.

Malachite is the fusion between Lapis Lazuli and Jasper, two characters who hated each other and carried lots of personal issues the moment they fused, resulting in a fusion that is unstable. Malachite represents the toxic codependent relationship between the two characters.

Dan Phantom is the fusion between Danny and Vlad's ghost halves, Phantom and Plasmius. Dan was created in a timeline both Danny and Vlad had a lot of issues, with Danny having to deal the lost of his family and being left traumatized. All this trauma along with Vlad's mental state went to Dan, turning him into a destructive ghost.

These are the elements i see that Danny Phantom and Steven Universe series share in common to explain why fandoms often overlap, i'm not sure if there are more that i'm not able to recall at the moment.

[amaltheas-garden]

Some food for thought: I am an a Dany fan who supports a very nuanced reading of her that makes most other Dany fans accuse me of secretly hating her (lol) and I also do ship her with Jon because she’s had horrendous experiences with creepy older men and I would find it cathartic for her to find love with someone her age.

BUT I don’t like the idea of them just being king and queen and having a standard fantasy romance. I think there’s a distinction between Dany fans who love Dany the character and Dany fans who love Dany the ruler, Dany the queen, Dany the perfect chosen one. In fact the only way I’d actually want to see J/D played out in the books is them escaping the narrative together and fucking off somewhere (which, regardless of Jon’s involvement, is also the only realistic happy ending I can imagine Dany having that would be a satisfying end to her arc for me). To me it’s clear that Dany does not enjoy ruling and doesn’t genuinely want the throne—she wants the feeling of home and to be loved. I think she’s chasing the throne because she sees it as duty, both a familiar duty as taught by her brother and a divine duty as evidenced by hatching the dragons. I can see a world where she’s able to accept that she hates ruling because violence sickens her deep down (evidenced by her feeling sick recalling the crucifixions and having to convince herself it was just) but being unable to tolerate the moral compromises she must make to avoid violent solutions and thus can carve out a new path, eliminating the sense of threat because she’d be “free.”

However I’m not sure I would’ve considered the ship if not for the show (not that it was at all good in the show but it planted the idea) and I don’t agree with other fans of the ship that it’s undeniably foreshadowed in the books. So I just don’t really engage with ship content because I don’t jive with most of it. Especially because many of the fans get hostile about the fact that I also have positive feelings about Jonsa, although I’m just as picky about what kind of Jonsa I like, haha. Such a bizarre and frustrating experience. Luckily, most Sansa and Jonsa fans don’t mind that Dany is my favorite and that I also like J/D, but the same can’t be said for other Dany and J/D fans when they see I also love Sansa and Jonsa.

Weird fandom

Hello anon!

This is an amazing breakdown of Dany's character! 100% agree with the Dany ending up as Queen of the 7K being a bad ending for her. It just seems like a miserable job to have. Dany has had it ingrained since birth that the Targs must reclaim the IT at any cost and only then will their lives get better. The trauma Viserys inflicted on her has definitely left her clinging to that dream as motivation to keep going, which is the saddest part. She wants the IT, but she really just needs a home where she feels safe and loved (and far far away from the creepy men plaguing her chapters). My only real objection to J/D is I can't picture Jon leaving the North, but they do share a ton of parallels, and I can see why so many people love the ship. And since pretty much every big fan ship doesn't have anything more than possible parallels and foreshadowing, it's really anyone's guess at this point. And Jon is also one of only three dudes in the series (Sam/Gendry) who is nice and of an appropriate age to be shipped with most of the main female characters, so it makes sense both Sansa and Dany fans would want our faves to end up with him lol. I also can't really blame J/D fans for not liking Jonsa, when most Jonsas think Dany will have a villain arc. Like yeah there's bound to be some animosity, but it got way worse after the show since it kinda confirmed there was a decent chance Dany might die in the books. Ultimately the fandom is gonna continue to be at each other's throats until we get answers in twow/ados. Weird fandom indeed.

[nynyhaha]

HxH and it’s Protagonist-Antagonists

Of course I mean the Phantom Troupe.Meruem too,to an extent.Maybe even Hisoka.

They’re all…somewhat evil.Very messed up.You could say they’re villains.But in the story they play a bigger role.

You could classify them based on

-their opposition to one of the protagonists

-their evil actions

But Hisoka is sometimes even an ally,Meruem and Gon never meet,and Chrollo with his Spiders…have their own story.

What stood out to me about those characters is that they’re all a bit different from the classical villain role.They’re much more defined by what matters to them rather than them being evil.

Meruem gains humanity by falling for a character no protagonist ever really got to know.Komugi is someone only Meruem cared about and that means he went on his “redemption” journey (idk what else to call it) without any of the protagonists doing anything.

HE DIDNT JOIN THEIR SIDE.He started to appreciate HIS OWN team,even started valuing the guards more.

Gon might be a parallel to Meruem,but he’s also just one of the members of the extermination squad and out of them all he cares the least about Meruem and the most about Pitou.

The fact that Meruem and Komugi by their circumstances were OPPOSED to the protags but still deserving of sympathy showed that HxH doesn’t take sides.

Ok,but what about the others? The Zoldyck family is shown to be a shitty family for sure. But while they suck,they’re mostly antagonistic to Killua because they’re his family,for the rest of the world they’re actually shown to be neutral.I mean,do we see Zeno as an antagonist? What about Kalluto? With the Zoldycks it’s less about the work they do,and more about the way they hurt their own kids.

With the Phantom Troupe its opposite.They’re a team with very deep bonds in which the members aren’t abusive towards each other and are actually friends(even if they’re endangered by their doings and the rules put the whole group above the individual members)

The Phantom Troupe could have an own series dedicated to them because it’s just so interesting to see things from their perspective.

Because while they do bad things,their way of being is very similar to a protagonistic one.

For example the fight against ants in Meteor City(I’ll do a post on that too) has them literally as the protagonists we’re supposed to root for. And if they’re capable of detaching themselves from the plot threat following Kurapika and have their OWN story,it means they never WERE just Kurapikas opponents.

In fact,at this point Kurapika is a foil to Chrollo and a narrative device to mirror him just as Chrollo is for Kurapika.I wouldn’t call any of them more important because Chrollo had a damn backstory that’s more than a cheap explanation for his actions to make us cry before his death.

What’s not main character about him? That he’s already 26 and committing crimes? Well he and his team might still count as underdogs who’re on a quest to…what,find their purpose?And also fight mafia and the clown.It’s actually the fact that he has close friends he can loose and internal battles and ambitions and all that which makes him..sympathetic if not relatable.

Chrollo and Pakunoda’s story has them as protagonists and her death is supposed to feel sad.Even if it’s a win for Kurapika that we are also rooting for.

And Hisoka is just living a very interesting life all on his own and something about him risking his life for excitement in the most dangerous fights makes him such a great character,the fact that he is so removed from everyone else and only hangs around Illumi sometimes.

Hisoka and Illumi too are a team you could root for.

And this has nothing to do with right or wrong.

In the war between Hisoka and the Spiders there is no “good” side,it’s all about who the audience likes more.I personally see the Phantom Troupe as much more human so to me it’s a pain to see them endangered by the element of psychopathic chaos that is Hisoka.Chrollo at least has something to lose other than his life.

To me he’s more likable.But it’s not about morals here,just sympathy.

However there’s still a chance that Togashi intended to bring the Troupe’s struggles closer to our heart by letting them face a threat and actually making them protagonists in that conflict. Like the way it was with Zazan,right? Except here they’re defending themselves, not their City.

Chrollo is still the murderer he is,but by being on the defensive against someone (arguably) even more evil,he gets to a place where we actually want him to survive

[petitprincess1]

What do you want most from the TOH series finale?

No one to die. Yes I'm including Belos for 5 reasons:

We've already seen him "die" and it seems like as long as he has some kind of host. It's kinda impossible for him to. Plus, just having him slowly rot away feels a little bit much. Yeah, he deserves the pain, but that feels too fucked up for our main characters. And imagine the trauma Hunter would go through seeing Belos truly die like that.

They're focusing quite a lot on Belos's pain and suffering, especially with that image of him bowing to Caleb. That's a little odd for Disney. We don't often see a character, esp a villain, suffer so much.

Even though he may have lost, he still would get what he wants in the end. Remember, Philip does say, "I just need to live long enough to see this through." So, he's not expecting to live through this. He technically wants death. And if he dies by anyone else's hands, then he's dying knowing that his prejudices were correct.

They're showing quite a lot of Philip as a child. I feel like they're gonna give him a "second chance" by possibly making him a kid again. It would help him deprogram what he was led to believe his whole life, since he was brainwashed and deserted by his only family member.

Other maybe one or two villains from S1, none of our other antagonists or villains have died. Even those that attempted to kill Luz at one point like Hunter and Amity were redeemed. Granted, they're just children, but Philip didn't have that choice or un-learning this stuff even as a kid. You either went with the crowd or you were hung for your "heresy".

Basically, it feels like it would be a waste to put so much emphasis on Belos' backstory and trauma (self-inflicted or not) just to go "lol he dead now". It just doesn't seem to make so many parallels between Belos and Luz, esp with their introduction to the Isles. While some are "too far gone", it's not impossible for some to learn about being wrong and grow.

Plus, if Caleb was just a hallucination and not a ghost (including Belos looking disturbed in King's Tide after taking a trip down memory lane), then this shows Philip does know the horror of his actions. It's just gonna take a lot to resurface that.

Again, I don't know about a full redemption or whatever, but I think death is too easy and a strange route for the show to go. It kinda messes up the whole idea of there being more than just "good and evil"/"black and white".

That's just me though. I just feel like it won't be that satisfying to just have him die, especially since we're already watching him slowly decompose. It's not like it would take much.

[maxwell-grant]

Reading you post about Seth made me imagine a world where Ryu winds up taking Seth on as a student. I thought Ryu's journey to overcome the Satsui no Hado could give him insight on how to help Seth overcome their own hatred, and meta-textually, becoming the main character student is about as far from trying to be the final boss that you can be

Hmm, you know, that is frankly pretty damn inspired and I don't think it's something we've ever really seen before in a fighting game, a former final boss getting kicked so far down the ladder that they wind up being the main character's student. It's the kind of sheer indignity and downgrade that would destroy most villains, but also, you can't destroy or make Seth less dignified than they already are, and their SFV story opens up a number of possibilities to take them afterwards if brought back. There's even some existing parallels between Seth and Akuma that could be worked into this, and Seth's already dropped out of official villain status enough to not be missed as one.

Main issue I have with this though is that "Final Boss gets beaten by Ryu, changes himself to become more like Ryu, and becomes a redeemed pseudo-ally to Ryu while still being plenty intimidating and arrogant to stay in in-character and remind you they used to be a Final Boss" is already very much Sagat's thing and you are never, ever, on your best day, not coming up short next to Sagat. Honestly even Akuma started heading there a bit in V. And it works for them because their appeal as characters isn't really mandated by them remaining full-on villains, they are cool badasses who get to sit in more morally grey clubs. Seth's humiliated and tragic aspect is what sets them apart from all the other main villains and I wouldn't want to see it done away with, but you can't really have them stay static, especially with 6 being serious about developing and pushing all of the characters forward in a way the series never really did before.

I've never been super in love with the idea of Ryu sitting down and training a new character to take his place, part of why I'm glad that Sakura turned out the way she did and that both her and Ryu were freed from the burden of the most tired story idea you could possibly think of with them. But there is a world of difference between "Ryu mentors a rookie who looks up to him into a new fighter because, idk he's just nice like that", and "Ryu has to mentor a monster that once tried to kill him and lay waste to the world with his exact power, to help them as he was helped and try to stop them from being consumed by hatred just as he once was". The former is just, eh, you can get a decent version of that by playing World Tour, but the latter, well, there's a pitch there, there's stakes, there's a story worth telling.

Ryu putting himself on the line, abdicating from his journey, possibly getting on really bad terms with people he knows (Is Chun-Li gonna be okay with this after all the work she put into destroying Shadaloo for good? what about Ken, who's JUST had his life ruined to shit by Shadaloo leftovers, how's he gonna feel? At minimum he's gonna have C.Viper and Juri and Abel and Guile on his ass 24/7 because they are not letting this pass), to stop the Shadaloo-Satsui cycles of violence and help a victim of them who can't be trusted, but also can't get up on their own and has no one even trying to save them, no one. Ryu had Ken, he had friends, he has Sagat to eternally remind him of the consequences and push him to be a better man, he had Dhalsim, he had Gouken (which I think was too much, old man should have stayed dead, not a single story in the franchise wouldn't be better served by Gouken staying dead), in the manga he even had Birdie and I like that so it happened shut up, where as Seth has nothing and no one other than people who tried to use them, and people who very justifiably think Seth needs to stay dead and only endangers others by being alive.

Nobody on the planet is gonna think Seth is remotely worth the effort of saving, except for Ryu, who wouldn't wish what they're going through even on his worst enemy. There's like an interesting tension here, of whether Ryu is doing something incredibly stupid because he doesn't understand firsthand what Shadaloo scum are actually like and is just empowering a monster to kill them all eventually (something that Guile would probably say to him), whether he's just trying to help someone the way he wishes he'd been helped and not thinking about the risk, whether he's actually being very practical because redeeming Seth is a net positive for humanity that only he can achieve (well really it should be Dhalsim and Gouken's jobs but, they can't be fucked), how much of this is him acting from pure kindness versus a pragmatic understanding that he is in a position to stop the next Akuma or Bison from forming even if no one is gonna help him do it, the toil it takes on him, and so on.

Again, there's a story here. Not sure if I'd want this like, canonically, but there's something really good here. That could be as good a justification as there ever was for a story to remind us why Ryu is the Hero even when they're not actively at the center of things.

[j-is-not-an-artist]

i know that anyone who can read already knows about the parallels between stsg and Megumi+Yuuji but i'm gonna gush anyways

Yuuji and Megumi's thematic and narrative roles where narrative is the metatextual story of jjk being the same as Gojo and Geto where Yuuji=Gojo and Megumi=Geto

but their narrative roles where the narrative is in universe fate and the concept of things happening for a reason and mattering as relates to Yuuji's and to a certain extent Geto's world views are reversed. Yuuji=Geto and Megumi=Gojo

and then my sleep deprived brain just started listing things in no particular order so imma put that mess under the cut

-yuuji + geto eat curses (if i wasnt lazy and sleep deprived i would put in geto's various monologues about his thought process when eating curses here)

-megumi + gojo's curse techniques are directly compared in universe (the two strongest- meaning that gojo talking about the limitless/six eyes + ten shadows fighting each other to stalemate in the past was foreshadowing the gojo sukuna fight now that i think about it )

-yuuji and gojo personalities and coping mechanisms paralleled-- their bubbly happy personas are a mask for their more selfish/angry true personalities but most importantly for their loneliness (the most important part of both character's themes in different ways but that's a whole other rant)

-megumi and geto similar personalities + relationships to y+g= grounding/semi rivals/antagonistic but caring friends

-everyone(in universe) thinks that gojo and yuuji are ticking time bombs that will inevitably cause untold horrors but it turns out that they.. just dont in not insignificant part due to words dissuading them from that ledge said by their other halves (megumi tells yuuju to "save [him]" + geto changing gojo's entire outlook on the world in their conversation when reuniting after toji's defeat)

-everyone(in universe) thinks that megumi and geto are relatively sane but their sanity is more fragile than it seems (geto is self explanatory but for megumi see the fight where he first uses chimera shadow garden and how quickly he gives up completely after his sister gets got) and both end up possessed by one of the series main two villains

-but also yuuji + geto's originally stated motivations for becoming jujutsu sorcerers are supposed to mirror each other-- yaga's whole speech to yuuji when they first meet is everything he wishes he could have said to geto before he went crazy

-their connection to the two main villains of the series (sukuna + 'fake geto')

--geto and yuuji are heavily connected to 'fake geto' for both obvious and spoiler reasons

--megumi and gojo are connected a lot to sukuna - gojo is compared to sukuna a Lot and sukuna shows interest in megumi multiple times + more spoiler stuff (((sorry anime onlys)))

ouch head hurt

[charlie-artlie]

opinions on cassidy five nights at freddies and the golden duo theory

anon do you realize you’ve asked me about my favorite topic?

TLDR, i dont like either of these theories! but i love talking about them, and if you WOULD like to read about it, i will ramble at length under the cut

so I’ve already spoken at length about my issues with the cassidy theory but here’s a quick rundown:

if shes real, she is one of the most important characters in the entire series and we know literally nothing about her. her name was gotten from a cypher in a word search, and her popular fanon design was just a random kid on the same page (or a different page that was also cassidy relevant? idk) (also also, i have seen a great theory that midnight motorist is actually about cassidy, and honestly id love it if that were true and this was hidden cassidy lore all along, but the character is only referred to with he/him pronouns, which leads to my next issue)

every character that refers to her uses male pronouns. the only argument i could see for this is retcon, because im not going to argue with people that republican scott cawthon made a character named cassidy with he/him pronouns. this would have to mean that sometime between the security log book and UCN scott changed cassidy into a completely new character, which to me, is a much bigger leap than the retcon from “SAVE HIM” to charlie, but, thats just me :/

her name was removed from princess quest, which signifies to me that she is not supposed to represent the princess in that game. steel wool has hidden lots of easter eggs and lore hints in the code, but to my knowledge the only one they’ve removed is the princesses name as cassidy (renaming her just ‘princess’ i believe). imo, it makes more sense if the princess represents vanessa, seeing as they follow the same path, both collect the vanny mask, both get trapped by glitchtrap, beating the game frees vanessa, etc etc etc

my honest opinion? everything she represents in the story would be better served to a pre-established character. i KNOW im biased as a charlie stan, but literally why isn’t TOYSNHK charlie? shes already established as having more control and awareness than the other spirits and likely was the only one who personally KNEW afton when she was alive, giving her even more motive to hate him. or even CC would make more sense! arguably the very first child to die to an animatronic, narratively, it’d make way more sense for it to be him. hes been stewing in agony and remnant for decades, seeing everything his father does, the one character who ACTUALLY has a connection to the golden freddy suit, and! now that we have a slightly more concrete answer to the fnaf 4 cameras from sister location, could actually be counted as one of his fathers victims!

okay, now with that out of the way, onto why i specifically dont like the golden duo theory, because, here’s the thing, even if I could accept cassidy as a Thing in the franchise (which i can! she’s been acknowledged by scott so I have to accept that shes at least real in some capacity [cassacity]) i STILL have issues with the golden duo theory for different reasons

the first and biggest reason is simply that CC is a hugely lore relevant character, who has an actual backstory, a tie to the main villain and the main protagonist (if you consider michael the protagonist, which i personally do), and makes narrative sense to possess golden freddy (the animatronic that killed him, not to mention his father possesses its counterpart, i mean come ON that is just a delicious parallel!!) cassidy, meanwhile, is a name you can find in a word search. and thats pretty much it. (not counting the yandere simulator chica mini game as actual cassidy lore. im literally just saying no. you cant make me.) im sorry, but it just cheapens CCs role in the story. there is literally no point in making him share golden freddy

its just not present in the games at all. there was every opportunity in UCN to hint/tease/confirm this but none of those things were done. the ONLY thing i’ll grant is that “The One You Should Not Have Killed” and “The Vengeful Spirit” COULD MAYBE be different characters, but why would they be? that sounds like two similar descriptions of the same character to me, personally.

the only evidence for it in the books is that, if you ALREADY believe that cassidy and CC are both possessing golden freddy, you can then reverse engineer that theory into “cassidy is TOYSNHK” by saying its a parallel to the stitchwraith plot line. feels more likely to me that TOYSNHK was originally just going to be andrew from the books? i just dont see how any of this actually ties to cassidy

the security log book. i hate the stupid security log book. everything in it is so arbitrary but its also the lynchpin for major fanon accepted theories. sorry but the “two spirits are talking to each other and also michael i guess” just doesnt hold water for me. why is the dialog on random pages out of order, and why does some of it not even line up with each other. the logbook honestly made more sense to me when the theory was bite victim=michael, the way it is now just seems like people deciding it means whatever they want it to mean

okay now this one is a little more nitpicky but im including it anyway (this is again more of problem with cassidy in general but stay with me) including cassidy in the missing children incident would mean we have five missing kids (cassidy, fritz, jeremy, gabriel, and susie), and then separate from that incident i guess, is charlie, and then also separate from that incident is CCs death, so seven dead kids in total (ignoring elizabeth since shes at SL, and also the “second missing children incident”, which is another theory i dislike but thats a rant for another anon messenger). with that math, that means someone HAS to be excluded from the fnaf 6 gravestone ending and i hate that. if cassidy is one of the missing children then shes the obscured gravestone, and then only charlie or CC could be the one in the distance, and excluding either of them feels wrong. CC is (arguably) the first kid to die in a freddys and (arguably….) what started everything happening, and charlie is the one to help the others possess the original suits. they are both more established characters than cassidy, who, again, we know nothing about.

all of that is to say this: if cassidy is a thing, why does she have to be in golden freddy? can i tell you what id prefer? what i think would be so much more narratively satisfying? what i lay awake at night staring without blinking up at the ceiling gritting my teeth wishing was real? i wish…cassidy was possessing freddy. freddy, og brown freddy, is the face of the franchise, and has literally zero lore significance. the only reason we know who possess him is from inference from the fnaf 6 gravestone pic lining up with the fnaf 3 ending head placement (does this sentence make any sense? can anyone hear me?) if cassidy is freddy, then charlie is the fifth missing child (i see no reason why she couldn’t be, theres nothing to indicate that the kids all died on the exact same day) and CC is golden freddy and the narrative is satisfying. cassidy can still be important, can even still be TOYSNHK for all i care, and CC can continue to writhe around in golden freddy in the 5020 ending.

deep weary sigh. i think…. thats actually all i have to say on the subject. if you’ve read this far thanks and also sorry. i just wanna cap this off by saying im not mad at anyone who likes cassidy theory or likes cassidy as a character, i have absolutely no problem with any of that! my problem is entirely with scott, who has just dropped this deus ex machina william-afton-seeking-missile on the table in front of us and refused to elaborate.

[rainbow18]

Why Nine is actually meant to be SONIC’S Shadow archetype, not Tails’s.

It’s easy to make the whole “Nine is one of Tails’s Variants and unlike the other Tails Variants, He has the backstory of being bullied by older foxes” connection but here’s the thing.

Prime Tails was shattered in literally the first 5 or so minutes. He’s mainly only shown in flashbacks or as ghosts. Even then, since season two, his dialogue only gives an idea of his relationship with Sonic.

Nine only paid attention to Prime Tails briefly, which neither Ghost Hill Tails nor Prime Tails was in any position to react to. Similar thing happened with the others, they mostly only stared.

But Sonic on the other hand, WAS around and had plenty of moments with Nine. In fact, the entire series is about Their relationship.

Nine’s backstory and story wasn’t meant to compare him to Tails but rather SONIC.

There’s the whole If Sonic wasn’t around, Eggman would have won and Miles Prower would have been bullied longer thing. Nine also used different descriptions than Sonic did, when telling the story.

Sonic and Nine both have their own enemies and use their namesakes + specialty to fight them.

Sonic can often be oblivious to the feelings of others and so is Nine.

The Group commented on Sonic’s “Tardiness” and Nine commented on how Sonic wasn’t there for him.

Sonic comments on how “Home is where your friends are” and Sonic speaks of the Prime world and versions as superior. In the beginning, Nine always described The Grim as “Home” when talking about decorations and “Perfect” when describing it. However in the last trailer, Nine changed his words to “Paradise” and only described the world as his.

Sonic is often neutral when his shattered friends are fighting amongst themselves, though he does want them to make up. As implied and shown several times, Nine is completely neutral. While not good, he’s not a bully and even as a Villain, Nine has zero joy when causing harm and doesn’t fight unless he’s provoked.

However there are contrasts. Sonic is more upbeat and optimistic while Nine is more negative. Sonic is on the side of good while Nine is in the grey zone.

Now for the big question that most haven’t thought about.

Who would Sonic look like if he wasn’t the main character?

The answer? Probably Nine.

There are a lot of parallels between their wrongdoings and why.

Both of their plans involve endangering the Shatterverse, which is an unintended consequence.

Both of them have been projecting.

Both of them believed the other would come around and see things their way.

Sonic’s plan to save Prime Tails and Green Hill will likely kill Nine and Nine’s plans to stabilize the prism involves killing Sonic.

Both of them talked about their preferred place on multiple occasions which the other payed little attention to. They also spoke about their favorite place being superior to the others.

Sonic believes that he created the Shatterverse however recent evidence and close examination implies that it already existed. (Although the current shatterspaces didn’t exist. ) Despite being repaired, there’s still shards and the void, Green Hill has a portal and The Prism already appeared to have cracks. plus Ghost Hill is a mystery.

Fans have noticed how Sonic appears more depressed and serious in Season 3, which is more associated with Nine. At the exact same time, Nine is more reckless and impulsive, which is more associated with Sonic.

Both have had giant accidents that they want to fix.

The fact that A lot of fans have falsely accused Nine of only using Sonic just because he didn’t want to make Sonic’s Green Hill just goes to show how similar they would appear to be to an outsider.

Nine accused Sonic of only using him because Sonic completely forgot about The Grim despite having repeated reminders from both Nine + Shadow, and to Nine, Sonic only appears interested in The Grim because He wants to steal The shard(s).

[sleepyheadmike]

MEDIA ANALYSIS: THE PARALLELS BETWEEN GENERATION LOSS (2023) AND LITTLE NIGHTMARES (2017, 2021).

Little Nightmares is a two-game series that follows the journeys of two young children named Mono and Six. As the first game centered entirely around Six, we didn’t get introduced to Mono until the second game, in which he is now the playable character, whereas Six is an AI companion that serves to assist him throughout their journey. Generation Loss is a horror comedy created by a Twitch streamer known as Ranboo, who used their livestreaming platform of their choice to create an interactive horror experience, in which the audience could either click on their screens or vote in the chat to decide Ranboo’s next actions, right down to his fate. Though Ranboo makes many new friends along his confusing journey in the series, none of them seem to stick around for very long, many of them being killed by Showfall Media, the corporate villain in his story. However, one friend did survive all three episodes, despite being cast as a different character by Showfall each time. This friend is Charlie Slimecicle, who plays a spirit haunting a cabin in the first episode, an unfortunate victim of a botched surgery in the second, and his normal self in the finale. Due to the nature of Showfall wiping their victims’ memories, Charlie is not aware that he has been recast for every show that the company runs, and only remembers bits of his past when certain things are shown to him in the third episode. However, Ranboo recognises Charlie immediately upon seeing him in episode three, heavily implying that they were friends. Ranboo stops Charlie from livestreaming and breaks him from Showfall’s control, thus pulling him out of the technology that he had been sucked into; much like how all of the adults in Little Nightmares II were practically glued to their televisions until the broadcasts destroyed them entirely.

Both of these series focus on technology and its dangers, as well as showing the negative effects it can have on people. While this is a great social commentary, one that is honestly worth its own essay, there are also parallels to be drawn between the characters of both franchises. In my eyes, Ranboo can be compared to Six, whereas Charlie can be compared to Mono. To understand why these comparisons make sense, we have to backtrack to the original Little Nightmares game.

In Little Nightmares, we play as a young girl named Six, who is trapped on a ship called “The Maw”. As the player, our goal is to help Six escape the ship as fast as she can; however, this proves difficult sometimes, as there are moments when Six can’t go very fast. This is due to her extreme hunger pains, the first of which is noticed by a boy in a cafeteria who throws her a piece of bread to eat as she begins to keel over from the pain. The things that she eats only get worse, ranging from raw meat left in a trap for her, to a rat, to a woman whose powers she was able to absorb, all the way down to eating a small child who has been turned into a gnome – or, a Nome, as they are called in the game. Six’s eating habits and willingness to kill makes it obvious that she is willing to do ANYTHING to get off of this ship and survive, much like how Ranboo regretfully performed surgery on Charlie in episode two because of how badly he wanted to find the key to his escape. Just from this comparison alone, we can already see that these characters are alike, at least in some way: Both are willing to do whatever it takes to survive, even if it means killing or causing immense suffering. Another similarity between the two lies in their main character status, as Six appears in both Little Nightmares games, whereas Mono is only introduced in the second. This tells us that Six is an important part of the story, and most likely the one that we should be rooting for; the same can be said for Ranboo, who is the only person we see for a while after he wakes up in Charlie’s (or, if we are to use his demon name, G’lop’s) cabin. Both characters are introduced alone, waking up in unfamiliar settings, and are forced to navigate their way out while facing enemies along the way, all while doing whatever they must do to escape.

So, we’ve drawn a pretty clear tie between Six and Ranboo, but what about Mono and Charlie? This is actually a great question, as the very first episode begins to draw parallels between the two already, despite the fact that Charlie is a demon who is meant to be haunting Ranboo. For an evil spirit, he does have a friendly side. However, due to his unsettling nature, Ranboo is obviously a bit apprehensive towards him at first, just as Six was afraid of Mono when he used an axe to break down her door. However, a few scenes later, Six is in the attic, struggling to pull a ladder down from the ceiling, and quietly beckons Mono over to help her, showing that she is slowly learning to trust. Ranboo does the same: They take a while to begin to trust people around them, especially G’Lop, a demon who survives off of a diet of slime and has a suit drenched in the green goop. Despite his off-putting nature, though, Ranboo eventually grows more comfortable with G’Lop, although their final interaction does end in a battle; however, even this can be connected to Little Nightmares, as the second game’s ending requires you, Mono, to fight off a giant, evil, warped version of your best friend, Six.

The second episode doesn’t have any real comparisons to draw between the franchises, so we can move on to episode three, which is possibly the MOST Little Nightmares -coded episode of the series. Upon finding out that the warehouse he was trapped in for the entirety of episode two was actually an abandoned mall, Ranboo immediately searches for other signs of life, eventually finding Charlie streaming from his computer at an empty counter in the food court. When Ranboo yells at Charlie, nothing happens. Even walking in front of him does nothing. It isn’t until Ranboo pulls Charlie’s headphones off that the other man begins to understand where he is and why his friend is so concerned. This, again, can be used as a comparison to the television sets in Little Nightmares II, in which the adults are SO attached to their TVs, that they will literally kill anyone who shuts off the broadcast, as it seemingly snaps them out of their spell once they’ve already become mindless zombies.

Upon taking Charlie’s headphones off and briefly explaining the gravity of the situation at hand, the pair decide to run for an exit, only to be chased down by security guards and forced to lock themselves in an abandoned supply shop. While looking around, Ranboo grabs a small knife and places it into a bag that he finds on the floor. The two look for another exit, but are chased again, this time into a room where we see Hetch, a hacker who had been attempting to assist Ranboo, bleeding out. He explains to the pair that Showfall wiped their memories so that they would remember nothing besides being part of the show, which sends Charlie into a crisis. As they leave, Ranboo appears angry, while Charlie desperately follows behind him and begs for answers. A security guard directly approaches Ranboo as they walk, and with no hesitation, he grabs the knife from his bag and stabs the guard, who has wires leaking out of him instead of blood. After this happens, Charlie looks over and notices the set from the episode one cabin, which is the place that he believed himself to have grown up in. Distraught by realising that none of his childhood memories were real, he is easily distracted, and doesn’t notice a seven-foot-tall monster made out of wires and a TV head, who has creeped around the corner of the set and is now ready to attack him. Charlie has no time to run, and is presumably killed by the monster as Ranboo watches, his last words being, “The button, Ranboo!”, referring to a button in the distance that is allegedly supposed to set down all of the mall’s security. Ranboo runs to press the button, and though it does, in fact, work, he is now entirely alone.

In a stream after the finale premiered, Ranboo stated that there was a limited amount of time for their character to escape the mall, and by stopping to save Charlie, he lost that time, and never would have been able to escape. However, it is important to note that there is no universe in which Charlie could have been saved. Had Ranboo left him at the food court, he would have died in the mall. In the ending we saw, he was ripped apart by the wire monster: There was NEVER any way for Ranboo to save Charlie, and his lack of knowledge about this fact makes the show’s ending even sadder, as we see Ranboo get killed while knowing that he could have escaped if he had simply stayed alone. Even more unfortunately, we know that, since Charlie has died many times, Showfall is able to bring people back from the dead, meaning that Ranboo’s death may have only been a temporary sign of relief for the tortured youth. The point of Showfall having the power of resurrection is incredibly important to mention, as it fuels one of the main theories for this series AND the truth of the Little Nightmares games:

It’s all a time loop.

If Showfall were to bring Ranboo back to life after his execution and send him back to the cabin, he would meet G’Lop, or Demon Charlie, once more. This is similar to the time loop ending of Little Nightmares II: As the building that Mono and Six are in begins to collapse, the two run across an unstable bridge towards an exit. Six makes it there first, and offers her hand to Mono, who jumps and grabs on, obviously expecting her to pull him up. However, there’s a brief pause in this moment, one in which you can see Six looking into Mono’s eyes, then pulling her hand back in fear, thereby releasing him into the endless abyss of the signal tower, where he is trapped for years until he becomes the Thin Man, the game’s primary antagonist. The Thin Man is released from a television set when Mono goes into a TV and finds a long hallway with a mysterious door at the end; upon opening it, the man is able to escape and kidnap Six. However, this time loop would be impossible if Six had simply pulled Mono up onto the ledge with her; though it is possible that she looked into his eyes and saw the face of the man who tortured her just recently, and dropped him out of either fear or anger. Since Six will always feel this way, Mono will always be dropped, and he will always become the Thin Man at the end of the hallway.

So, how could this apply to Generation Loss? Well, if Showfall were to bring a resurrected Ranboo to G’lop’s cabin, he would once again meet the villain whom he was certain was going to kill him. What if Charlie became this villain, not because Showfall wanted him to, but because he was angry at Ranboo for simply standing back in shock as he was violently murdered by the Wire Monster? If the time loop theory is true for Generation Loss, what if Charlie wasn’t reset after his death in episode three, but rather after episode one, in which he still holds all of his memories from episode three? Did he become a mocking villain just to spite Ranboo for not saving him? Or is Showfall always in control of its cast members, just as the Signal Tower was always in control of the residents in Little Nightmares II?