#and then everyone takes one look at those characters like 'THEY'RE ABUSERS. TERRIBLE PEOPLE! DESERVING OF DEATH! I HATE THEM!'

[isekyaaa]

I hate reading bad takes on manhwa and yet the comments section are the things I just find myself going to.

[toriangeli]

I get the impression that the writers didn’t expect people to be that invested in Armand which is odd bc he’s a popular book character but. It almost seems to me like they thought everyone would be invested in Lestat and Louis only and they can do whatever with Armand. I still think he was well-written for the most part don’t get me wrong. However.

I think his motivations are muddled in this version of the story and it’s weird that he had no strong relationships to anyone all season. The Louis thing didn’t matter to either of them that much bc he was willing to let him die (weird), nothing with Daniel yet, didn’t seem very upset with the coven members dying and didn’t even seem to hate Claudia all that much?

I feel like they didn't think we'd love him if he was as much of a maniac as he was in the books? Crazy time to start worrying about what their audience thinks. ffs, Rolin talked about how bad they felt for Armand upon rereading the second half of book 1 and then didn't even quote the line that made them feel so bad for him in the first place (the thing about how he's done everything for Louis and Louis doesn't love him and seems totally dead to him).

He was definitely very attached to Louis, but Louis' lack of attachment to him and Daniel's utter contempt guided the audience's opinion a lot more than the softening of his terribleness. Even if it's not their intent, he comes across as the least favorite child. Lestat dropped Louis from the sky and gets a pass, but Armand did...what, exactly? Louis forgave him for playing a part with Claudia's death, but being willing to let Louis die was unforgivable, even after he pulled Louis out of the sun? And Rolin talked about how these were genuine attempts from Armand to be better, to be good to Louis, only to be met in 2.05 with the bleak understanding that none of it meant jack shit to Louis, it was all just a sign of Armand being a boring person who did boring things. "As empathetic as possible," says Rolin, but the actual audience is taking its cues from audience surrogate Daniel, whose opinion isn't based on Armand's experiences or even Louis' experiences, but his own. His entire take on the situation is centered around what Armand did to him, so he ignores anything that could actually make him see where Armand is coming from. He even calls his tragic backstory into question. And don't tell me Armand lied so much he deserved that. Nobody deserves it. Anyway, according to Rolin, Armand lied about two things: who saved Louis at the trial, and how involved he was in the trial itself, and all subsequent lies were covering up those two. Do you ever see Armand bringing up his tragic backstory when he isn't asked to do so? He plays victim about other things, sure, but never about that.

And frankly, some of the things he plays victim about, he has the right to be pissed about. It feels like nobody really grasps 2.05 with any sense of compassion for both Louis and Armand--it's always one or the other of them in total wrong. Either Louis is emotionally abusive during their fight, or Armand tortured and neglected him and made the whole situation about himself.

What if both things can be true, but we understand where they're both coming from? That's the thing about dark fiction: we can actually look critically at relationships like these and see nuance. It's not safe to do that in real life unless you're the therapist involved, but in fiction? We can actually look and see and think. Don't do that if you're in a toxic relationship irl, just get out.

Louis is using drugs to run away from something Armand could have prevented. There's kind of a karma in Armand being forced to be his caretaker. At the same time, I know what being the codependent in a relationship feels like, so...yes, Armand making the situation about himself makes a lot of sense because no situation is ever about himself. He drags Louis out of the sun, and we never talk about how traumatic that is for both of them. Rightly, the focus is on Louis, because Louis is the primary victim in the situation, but he's not the only one traumatized by his own suicide attempt. We, the audience, have the capacity to have empathy for them both, but we seldom do. Instead, we see Armand doing something wrong--the secondary victim demanding understanding from the primary one--and focus way too much on that instead of why.

People feel sorry for themselves because they're overcompensating for the fact that only they ever seem to validate their own experiences. Judging by some of Sam's attitude, I suspect the last person who told Armand "you went through something fucked up and it's okay to not be okay about it" was Marius. Right before the attempt, Louis actively invalidated some of the worst shit Armand ever went through, so sure. I obviously don't agree with Armand's actions in the aftermath, but the important thing is, I'd consider it shitty, shitty writing if the writers decided everyone should immediately be able to act rationally about this. That's not how people work. It's the opposite of how Armand should work. Armand is so poorly socialized, he doesn't know the unwritten social codes, or even why he does what he does. And any time someone calls him out, they can't seem to do so without invalidating completely unrelated traumas he's had.

You can say, "Oh, well, this season was Louis' story, so of course they focused on Louis' perspective," but here's the problem with that: we are not getting a The Vampire Armand season. It wouldn't make sense. The only two main characters who are in those flashbacks are Armand and Marius. That means sidelining almost every series regular for an entire season if they did a TVA season. If every POV character (Daniel, Louis, and Lestat) has total contempt for Armand, exactly when is the audience supposed to have things cleared up for them?

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rpg Anon: To answer your question: Simple. 1. They don't care. They're all "pure" of heart. They just want to do what their whimsical little hearts tell them do, free of any inhibitions or thinking. 2. Here's another way to look at it. They're all Nagito after he found out Hajime has no talent in dr2. He was an asshole to Hajime. Ironically tho, Izuru, the ultimate hope, a being that represented what Nagito would adore most is this world, is Hajime too.

They all adore the legend and beauty of the idea of The Savior (talent) but the minute they lay eyes on The Savior, they grow sick and repulsed at the fact they exist cuz it goes against what they feel. "Oh The Savior is so wonderful and graceful and gallant" >>> "How dare someone better than us exist?! How dare they tell us what to do?!" >>> "Oh the legends of heroic deeds that The Savior has done are wonderful, aren't they?" Rinse repeat.

I'm sure I said this before. Honestly, everything could have been avoided if 1. Those assholes did what they told to do and made the goddamn sword (don't ask) instead of being lazy or 2. Morgan (the "Makoto" turned "Izuru" antagonist character I showed the viewpoint of for you) also did what she told to do and SLAUGHTERED THEM ALL. Unbiased ruthless genocide of everyone. No saving them, no ruling them, just a wave of death and closing the curtain on everything. Honestly would have been a mercy kill to her actual good friends too.

Now I'm going to explain more I didn't get to say previously that will make things sound even worse.

Take this into consideration. Follow along with me and chronology of events to see why all these pieces of shit deserve to die. 1. Let's just say "God" (I can't spell his name) was a swell guy and created this entire land and all the people. They all worshipped him and there was love and peace for a while. Until they realized that "God" is above them as people and they didn't like someone better than them existing and telling them what to do. So they decided to kill his priestess/wife, throw her corpse down a pit, poison him (to this day idk how they managed to poison someone as fucking gigantic and all powerful as him but regardless), and seal him in that same pit. Sigh. 2. Then, the world itself summons Morgan to bring order and peace to the land now that god is dead for now. You already know how this turned out. 3. Next, the world itself told Morgan to kill everyone (yes that's right. Imagine if the entire planet itself was disgusted with its global population so much that it plotted to kill them all) and gave her a spear to do it. Morgan chose still to save everyone and betrayed the world. 4. So the world created Oberon (the third Junko character I mentioned) to kill everyone and more specifically beat Morgan. Honestly, this was an INGENIOUS plan. Morgan is downright TERRIFIED of bugs. However this plan got fucked over cuz Morgan had friends who took care of Oberon. Loophole. 5. And so the world decided to recreate Morgan. The next Savior/Chosen One: Artoria Caster (Castoria). ...the fuckers treated her the same way... The sole reason she survived long enough was cuz of Oberon. They treated her so terribly that Oberon himself, who was born to hate any Chosen One, felt that despite this, he was disgusted by those fuckers and how they treated her that he took care of Castoria in secret and taught her fire magic and awkward magic for survival.

That's straight up the equivalent of saying Makoto was so abused and hurt by everyone that Junko herself, despite knowing that Makoto will end her in the future, couldn't take seeing him suffer anymore and taught him the power of Hope. Wow.

And here's something incredibly wacky as fuck. This goes to show how crazy insane those fuckers were. The village that castoria once lived at were originally going to ritual sacrifice her cuz they were assholes. Why didn't they? Was it cuz Morgan's army was coming? Did they gain a sense of heart for once? No. The sheer thought and joy of being able to sacrifice someone for no reason caused them all to, I kid you not, start having an celebratory orgyfest of killing each other, eating each other, burning everything down, and destruction. WTF. By the time Morgan's army arrived, they saw a wave of fucking crazy lunatic psychos doing wtf things so they did the only sensible thing and killed who was left in order to not have anymore of these heretics spread. Castoria literally slept through all this chaos.

Sorry for talking about this so much. I got a bit too passionate about how much love to hate this Avalon chapter. I'll just end it with this happy note.

2 years later, we did get swimsuit summer versions of Morgan, Castoria, Barghest (the "Sakura" character), Melusine ("mukuro" character), Baobhan Sith (can't spell her name, the "Mikan" character), and even hell a summer uniform for Oberon. All I can say I'm truly glad i finally see them all smile again. Pointers to Melusine who doesn't have to think about anything terrible anymore and can now focus on/have fun doing shoryukens, gushing over firearm artillery, gushing over being a fighter jet herself, drinking her favorite drink of soy sauce mixed with honey and alcohol (dragons have weird taste), and most importantly, her absolute joy and hobby to straight up CUCK ALL HER FRIENDS by constantly Constantly trying to fuck the protagonist despite the fact that her friends like them too and called dibs. Barghest can enjoy a life without her curse and enjoy being a fire fighter muscle mommy maid. Baobhan sith can just sit down and read a book for once instead of thinking about all the abuse she endured. And Oberon can enjoy being a neet hikkomori trolling us about melons. (We live in the fucking Artic; where the hell are we going to get fresh melon?)

//To me it just sounds like whoever wrote that chapter just has zero faith in humanity as a species.

//We have the potential to be the worst creatures on the planet, true, but we also have the potential to be the best.

//Nothing in the world is evil by nature, not even us.

-Mod

[handicappedbuenchico]

Think about some strong opinions (about anything) that you have. Could be about RP, life, school, work, people. Where did that come from; what happened to make you feel or think that way?

I'm going to use this question to share some of my horror movie opinions here, specifically my A N.ightmare o.n E.lm S.treet franchise hot takes (mainly Freddy's Dead because WHOO BOY 😩) because I have a lot of those I feel. Also, I am fully prepared to lose my N.ightmare franchise fan card, as I know damn well that these are very unpopular opinions. All of these opinions will be under a read more because like I said I have a lot, and if you want more in depth explanations for my opinions, I'll have to make individual posts about them because Tumblr hates multiple in-depth explanations in one post apparently.

The original A N.ightmare o.n E.lm S.treet from 1984 and A N.ightmare o.n E.lm S.treet 3: D.ream W.arriors are extremely overrated - I always found them to be extremely boring. Also, Nancy's death was really underwhelming when you look at it in terms of the rest of the series.

F.reddy's D.ead is NOT a feminist movie in the traditional sense (it actually makes the female characters, specifically Maggie, look worse when you really think about it) - The only "feminist" things about it was that it was directed by a female, R.achel T.alalay, and that almost every victim in the movie is male with the exception of L.oretta K.rueger. The main female characters within the movie itself are written horribly while being given the protection of plot and main character armor even though they didn't really do much within the narrative to really earn it. No not even Tracy. The male characters that aren't Doc and Freddy himself are treated like they have no agency/autonomy in the story, and they're only there to narratively serve the female characters their purpose in the story on a silver platter until the narrative erased them from existence when they were no longer useful because why the fuck not. *cough* John Doe doing basically all the detective work about Freddy for Maggie and spoon feeding her the info that Freddy had a daughter and not a son as HE was dying *cough*

F.reddy's D.ead's portrayals of child emotional and physical abuse are disgustingly offensive because it treats those types of abuse like jokes, while they give all the seriousness and tact to the child sexual abuse survivor - Yes, I know they couldn't make a joke of child sexual abuse. Even still, Carlos and Spencer's REAL trauma and abuse should have been given the same care and attention as Tracy's. Tracy didn't have to go on a cringy exposition dump on the type of trauma she's supposed to be suffering from, nor did she feel the need to point out any physical reminders of her abuse and trauma when the movie thought the audience would forget about it. Carlos and Spencer shouldn't have had to either. Also, if you couldn't make Freddy joke about sex abuse, maybe don't have him making entire comedy routines out of physical and emotional abuse, just a thought.

Dr. M.aggie B.urnham is fucking terrible at her job and should have never gotten her license to practice - She also didn't deserve the final girl role, as she did LITERALLY NOTHING OF FUCKING SUBSTANCE the whole movie except acting like an NPC that can only say three phrases. Hell, she was LITERALLY GASLIGHTING John Doe the entire time they were in Springwood. She was a selfish, self-centered bitch who used her job as a means to her own end when John Doe was brought to the shelter. Since everyone loves to compare F.reddy's D.ead to D.ream W.arriors, Maggie is the Dr. Simms to John's Kristen and Doc's Neil AND Nancy.

Carlos, Spencer, and John's deaths in F.reddy's D.ead were literally pointless from a narrative standpoint because of Freddy essentially playing God and erasing them from existence - Spencer's death in particular creates a giant plot hole when they use Spencer's pipe bomb that he had made earlier in the film to finally kill Freddy, despite Spencer himself no longer existing.

The original shooting script of F.reddy's D.ead, along with the comic that came after the movie, is actually 10x better than the movie we actually got - Specifically with scenes like Spencer's death sequence and the beginning of Carlos's death sequence. The shooting script also gives us some more info on Carlos and Spencer than the movie did, so there's that.

The main plot of Freddy's Dead could NEVER work - Not only does it not work from a logical standpoint, as the basic math required to figure that shit out already destroyed it, but also the way the Freddy sets the plot into motion makes literally no fucking sense? Why is Freddy suddenly trapped in Springwood? If he's this damn near omnipotent dream God from killing every single child in Springwood, shouldn't he have the power to break through some bullshit barrier that's just arbitrarily placed around Springwood? Also, the main plot of Freddy's Dead is so nonsensical and pointless that almost every major streaming service spoils the weak "twist" of Maggie being Freddy's daughter.

F.reddy's R.evenge and F.reddy's D.ead are a part of the original ANoES canon, no matter how much the fandom tries its hardest to erase them - Get over it, fandom.

Kristen was selfish and dumb for passing her powers (and the inevitable headache known as F.reddy K.rueger) onto Alice. - Like, why couldn't she let the fear of Freddy die with HER? Was she not the true last E.lm S.treet kid? Wouldn't Freddy's thirst for vengeance technically end with Kristen? I mean, I know that there's always that possibility of him coming back organically, but Kristen...girl...come on honey. Why would you put your friend through that torment? She literally lost her brother and later her boyfriend-turned-baby-daddy because of you.

W.ill S.tanton and S.pencer L.ewis would have been absolutely unstoppable in their respective movies if the narratives had let them live.

All the original parents of E.lm S.treet should have been charged with murder when they lynched Freddy, and then charged with child abuse/neglect with how they treated their children years after the fact - Look, I understand why they did it and all, and I know they couldn't have possibly predicted that Freddy would return as a dream killer. However, they still broke the law, and are continuing to break more laws. The treatment of their children, including having them forcefully institutionalized/imprisoning them in their rooms and drugging them against their wills, are literal forms of child abuse. Why were we supposed to root for them again? I also have no sympathy for Freddy, by the way, he absolutely deserved to get locked up for his crimes too. However, maybe whoever was in charge of the warrant should have made sure all the proper T's were crossed and I's were dotted first before going all gung-ho.

[sixstepsaway]

Having a weird time of it lately because I realized the only recent show (as in, things I watch as it airs) in the last like...ten years that hasn't ended up horribly disappointing me is Killjoys

and, like, a lot of shows would do well to take a leaf out of Killjoys' book? It's pretty clear to me that she was given two seasons to wrap things up at the end of season 3, and she didn't have quite enough time (only 20 more episodes) to tie up every loose plot thread, so she opted to let those go in favor of letting the characters be wrapped up and finished

and on top of that, at the end of the show, she pulls a total uno reverse of the usual "and at the end, this beloved character DIES! 😈" by straight up bringing back a character we were all positive died because she could. because it made us happy. because it worked.

but I was never super into GoT but I really loved Jon and Dany, and the way those two went was just... ridiculous. I tuned in for the last few episodes because of her (and him) and to watch them destroy her character and his was just... awful. You can say whatever you want about Dany (somewhere else, not on my post pls) and how she was "always meant to go evil because it's in her family lineage" (which... gross, actually) but it also turned Jon into something unrecognizable: a man who would distract the woman he loved with a kiss, just to plunge a knife into her chest and kill her. He didn't even give her a fair shot!

and then hotd decided that because people decided Daemon was the internet's boyfriend they'd talk loudly about how actually they were all stupid because he's an irredeemable villain, as though they didn't... write him as morally grey and (inadvertently, I think, if I'm honest) humanize him further by having him do things like not kill Laenor when his book version almost certainly did

let's be honest here: daemon being the internet's boyfriend is a power fantasy. abusive men are angels to everyone around them and awful to their partner and children who are trapped with them. daemon is awful to everyone around him and an angel to his wife and children and that's what makes it a power fantasy.

the power fantasy is being the one(s) he doesn't hurt, even if he's terrible to everyone else.

this weird push for everything in fiction having to say something about reality and what you really desire is fucked up, to say the least, but the idea that because a bunch of people online think daemon - who has been shown to be adoring of his wife and kids even ignoring the deleted scenes, and protective as fuck of them - is a great fantasy boyfriend that they're Stupid Women Who Want Abusive Men so they should be ridiculed when haha look daemon choked his wife, you see how stupid you were now? is painfully short-sighted and just downright cruel

how many people get the "see how stupid you were? we TOLD YOU he was abusive all along" treatment? how many of them actually deserve it? why perpetuate it into fandom? it's bullshit. and it's cruel to just go "gotcha" at people as though the characterization hadn't been written for nine episodes as daemon being unable to hurt rhaenyra and defensive of anyone and anything that did.

(also it's worth noting that assault is not the same as abuse. abuse is a pattern, it is not a single action or event, and it requires a power dynamic and an element of manipulation. you are welcome to feel that the choking was abusive, but to me it reads as a singular assault (also bad! very bad!) not a pattern of abuse involving power. if daemon abuses rhaenyra, she has the power to have him cast out, exiled or even killed - she is queen! he has very little power in that situation. to me, that is different. still terrible! but different.)

anyway, after all of that came the witcher's baffling announcement about recasting geralt and i just...? okay. it's pretty clear to me that hc had enough of the writing going so far off the books, and i get that. I haven't read the books (yet), and I enjoyed s1 and s2, but having read about the books and learned that yen's s2 plot was actually triss' in the books (or close enough) and other things they saw fit to change for no good reason, I can fully understand why hc would peace out if it gets even worse in s3 because frankly? same

and, like, i came out of killjoys feeling like i could never write anything that good ever, like i'm not exactly a bad writer but like i would never be that good

and it's weird that i keep coming out of these shows with the resonating feeling that i could do better

i am not an egotistical person, i like to think i'm pretty down to earth about these things, but i will never understand how these shows end up with writers who hate the source material and writers who instead of handing the show to someone with love for it crap all over it and then leave, or writers who just don't care and actively hate their viewer base

(i suppose we return to our regularly scheduled rerun of a tweet i can't find rn which says how there's a certain genre of tv writers who think they're writing for men, then find out their show's fanbase is largely made up of women and/or queer people and instead of embracing it, punish.)

it's just fucking weird and it's left me with a really sour taste in my mouth because idk if it's my autism, my adhd or both, but i get so invested in shows and i feel physically injured when the writers decide to shrug emoji and throw everything to the wind for bullshit reasons

if it was just me feeling like this i'd think maybe i was dumb, but it's very clear from everything i've seen and read that hc also feels this way about where the witcher went. grrm said the books will end "very differently to GoT" which...yeah. obviously. he's actually a good writer lmao.

(sometimes i wonder if this is also what happened with torchwood, if rtd realized he'd appealed to the 'wrong' audience and punished with ianto's death, but i'm not so sure about that one)

anyway i'm stuck now with such intense trust issues that i am actively dreading ofmd coming back because i cannot stand the idea of what they might do to it

especially considering it's on hbo

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Personally I do understand not wanting a villain to be redeemed, or to only be redeemed through death. We all ignore the Villain Police, but those are people too, and while some of them may just come from a purity-oriented background... How many see the face of those who hurt them in the villains?

It's not like that justifies the narrowsighted view of redemption arcs, but I used to be heavily against them because the idea of the person who abused me getting better, or doing better, was painful on a level I couldn't deal with. Why couldn't they do better for me? Why wasn’t I worth that change? Why do they get to live their happy ever after when I was still suffering the consequences of their actions?

That was all on me, btw, and I know that. I'm old enough, it's been long enough, and I've healed enough to understand that my hatred of villains and redemption arcs stemmed from my own trauma, and to understand that most everyone deserves a second chance at life, even if I (or those who they hurt) don't want to forgive their shit.

And a redemption arc that's well done and deals with all of that? With new people who love this person, and those who came before who may hate them? Great shit. Love it, nowadays.

But sometimes when I see the Villain Police, I wonder. If there's a face they see every time a villain is loved. If they're still on a path of healing.

Others are just trying to be puritan, but y'know, I tend to give them all a bit of slack anyway. Just in case.

Sorry for the long rant, as I said, none of the above really justifies the extreme to which these people usually go, and as a former Villain Police member, I do get that! But I wanted to add this perspective to the conversation.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

This is a really nicely nuanced comment, and yeah, thank you for sending it! I can see your point, and it's one I hadn't thought about terribly deeply.

To me, I think that what I'm always looking for in a redemption arc is the simple reality that the people who were harmed shouldn't give forgiveness or 'understanding' unless it's 100% in character or the plot has... I guess earned it, for lack of a better term. You can introduce a villain at the beginning of a lengthy series, for example, and have their arc be the realization of what they've done, taking responsibility for it, effecting the change, the characters they hurt choosing or not choosing to have anything to do with them after, etc, and have that change and redemption feel really well written and well done.

There are a lot of "villain becomes good guy" moments where someone does say, in effect, "Okay, but I still have to live with what they did" and gets shut down or dismissed, which I hate.

The crux of a really good redemption story to me is acknowledging that the villain and other characters don't, actually, have to 'come together' necessarily. Sometimes, someone can choose to be better and the person they hurt can still know that they need for their own health to stay the fuck away.

I have a collaborative storyline where, during one conversation we were having in chat about it, one character asked another, "What if (Villain) changed and wanted to be my parent like they should have?" Just coming from a place of still having that child's need for the parent.

And the first character, the protagonist who has been deeply abused and traumatized, says in effect, you could build that relationship, if you thought it could happen, but that person will never be a part of my life ever again.

Like, a redemption arc doesn't require some kind of perfect forgiveness from the people who have been crushed or hurt, and it shouldn't, unless it's something that actually fits with the story. Otherwise you'll really ring false to readers who know damn well it shouldn't happen this way or this easily, or at all.

Sorry, I rambled again.

I do think there's something to be said for the idea that some people loathe redemption arcs because they see in their own life entirely too much of a kind of shallow-skinned 'redemption' and they don't want to read it in their fiction, too. I totally get that.

A reminder to give the benefit of the doubt is usually a reminder I need, too! Thanks for the ask!

P.S. completely unrelated, but one complex trope that when well done is one of my faves - but when poorly done drives me bonkers - is when everyone in the story is more or less a genuine antagonist to each other in some way, and they all have to grapple with their differing views of events and how to move forward against maybe a bigger threat.

[terrence-silver]

Thanks so much for your sweet tags on my story! I love all the content you provide us and I can't help myself but request more Terry from you. How about. . .Terry trying to seduce Reader, but Reader is oblivious and thinks they're just best friends.

@atmostories thank you so much, this one is for you 🖤

---

This never happened before.

And he’s had his conquests. Yes. He once spent several years after he returned from Vietnam and got his Business and Masters Degree just travelling Europe and fucking around. Quite literally speaking. He had the looks to pull it off. He had the charm. He had the means and the money. Also, it was the 70′s and he needed to blow some steam off and make up for all the years lost in the war and after his parents died. But, what he never had before is someone being daft enough not to realize that when a man arranges to see you in his own private steam room sauna (which you didn’t even realize he owned, naturally - hiding the truth in plain sight) with nothing but a towel on and a bottle of champagne and two glasses that it’s supposed to mean something. How does one not understand the implications? Were you playing hard to get? Did you enjoy people working a bit more then usual for you due to some sort of abandonment issues? Was he simply losing his touch? Was this some sort of mind game? Were you somehow manipulating him for covert reasons he couldn’t quite read yet? No. No, you weren’t. Terry Silver could spot a shady, two-faced individual when he saw one (he’d know, from personal experience) and you weren’t one.

You were just - you.

Happy and friendly and cheerful and just normal. He wouldn’t call you insecure. Wouldn’t call you terribly secure either. Were you one of those people who didn’t believe they were loveable to anyone? Did you just subconsciously reject all offered affection because you didn’t believe you were deserving of it? Were you afraid? Did you have a traumatic childhood? Were you abused by someone before and who’s neck did he have to snap? Was he psychoanalyzing you too much? Terry Silver was just horrendously annoyed with you for the longest time now. It’s like you were a shut book he couldn’t read. So open, yet so unavailable. And he’s tried practically everything under the sun. He’s called you beautiful. He complemented you. Occasionally brushed against you. Smiled at you. Acted beyond polite. Beyond sweet. Was always there for you, close by, for whatever and whenever. Once or twice went as far as attempting to invoke your lust first if he couldn’t your affection and just straight-up untying the upper part of his gi and pretending to stretch out after a long training session, hoping to impress you with his physique and the sweat lining his muscles. He worked hard to look like this.

You politely looked away and excused yourself out.

Giving him privacy.

Privacy!?

-”Be careful, don’t catch a cold like that. Could be dangerous.”-

You jovially mentioned with care on your way out of the dojo training hall leaving him to stand there with a naked torso, waving him an idle goodbye, not looking back as not to make him uncomfortable by peeking - no irony, no sarcasm, nothing suggestive, no meanspirited joking in your tone of voice - just genuinely good-natured concern for his health, well-being and the utmost respect for his bodily autonomy. Honestly - fuck you. First of all, you were in LA and it was the asphalt was searing mid-summer, how the heck is he gonna catch a cold? Second of all, not even John treated him with this much detached friendliness and that was actually his friend. Even John was more touchy-feely, close and warm with him just by nature of being. This was ridiculous. In fact, it was outrageous. What was he even supposed to do next? Show up in your bedroom, just lay down and wait for you to arrive? Knowing you, you’d no doubt be absolutely okay with him chastely sleeping over and you’d probably borrow him your pillow and tuck him in too and just go to rest in the other room with not a care in the world.

How could a person like that even exist?

Did you have eyes?

Maybe he just wasn’t your type. But then again, highly improbable, Terry Silver was nearly everyone’s type and if he wasn’t, he’d make himself be their type. He’d get under their skin and make them believe he was their type even if they didn’t believe themselves initially. Oh, the idea though - the idea of not being your type. Why did it fill him with so much - well - resentment? Anger, almost? Loathing? Why was there a pit deep in his belly swallowing all his pity, patience and understanding for you like an ever-expanding crater of darkness? Why did he want to take whatever kind of person you were into a just rip them to shreds until nothing worthy admiration and attraction remained? Just degrade them, hurt them and destroy them until there was nothing to love anymore? He’s been at this game for over a year now. Over a year. In his kind of life, a year was an eternity. Two was just flat-out embarrassing. Stock-markets crash, companies go bankrupt and he makes his next million. He never spent a year trying to get anyone to like him for amorous purposes. And this beating around the bush would end today.

After much self-reflection and pondering.

Consultations from everyone starting from Margaret.

Milos, Snake, Dennis and even Mike Barnes, horribly enough.

Terry decided to pull out the big L.

Because really, who could resist a confession of love, strictly strategically speaking? It was a move worthy of the Art of War. Even when not mutual (and he’d make sure it would be by any means necessary) if anything, the other person would be flattered. Put off guard. Confused. Amused at best. Literally anything but the putrid, disgusting, disturbing sense of flat-line familial kinship you’ve endued him with against his will. He wasn’t your dad. He wasn’t your brother. He wasn’t your cousin. He wasn’t your friend. Your acquittance. Don’t you realize what he wanted to do with you? He wanted to possess you whole and make you scream on every surface in every chamber of his 100 room house and keep repeating that forever and ever and ever until you live through nothing but him. How dare you? The thought of not winning. The thought of just being rejected by your obliviousness. It brought him so close to the edge of breaking out of the weak, saccharine, nonsensical, subdued character he constructed for himself. It brought him so painfully close. Just shedding his facade and taking what he wanted in the crudest, foulest way possible - it would be so easy. So easy. At this point he was insulted.

But he held back for your sake.

He didn’t even understand why he’d care to.

Why he’d care not to frighten, repulse or push you away.

Usually, that would be his most preferred part of the game.

Not now, though.

Why?

Why he’d even begin to care to read all the possible moods etched into your face, bother with the levels of your comfort and discomfort to make the setup perfect, natural, soft and intimate and just say the words as gently and with as emotion as humanly possible without trying to come off too strongly? Which is exactly what he did. Upon which your reaction was to merely smile blissfully (disappointing) just tap him on the shoulder (even more disappointing), give it a fond little squeeze like you would your favourite coworker during lunchbreak (unimaginably disappointing) and just respond with a casual and off-puttingly, wretchedly non-chalant;

-”Yeah, sure, I love you too.”-

Yeah, sure!?

Sure!?

You kept eating the ice cream he’s bought you.

Unphased, unbothered, unaware and dumb as a rock.

Terry Silver was just stunned for the rest of the evening.

In ways he doesn’t quite recall being in, well - ever.

Did you just confess to loving him as a friend?

To his face?

And he let you survive that?

Alright then. It was decided there and then. He wanted to strangle you. Yes. But he’d leave that for another time. For now, he’d say goodbye to you in good humor and cheer like he always did and leave this unfortunate, hideous fiasco of a night behind him even though you (of course) appeared to be legitimately enjoying yourself. The next time you meet him, he’ll be himself. His actual self. None of this sugary, flowery, tame tip-toeing around the substance of things. No more sparing you. No more patience. No more waiting. No more going soft on you. No more trying to tenderly, slowly ease you into things. No. If ordinary, commonplace, humble Terry was someone you considered a mere friend - a best friend, to make things doubly offensive - the actual, real Terry wasn’t going to accept that. The actual, real Terry took whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. The actual, real Terry wasn’t lenient, merciful or even remotely open to rejection. And this was all your fault. All of it. You could have had the nice, kind, darling, innocent, angelic Terry who takes you out on cute little walks, asks permission to hold your hand gingerly and buys you ice cream and smiles charmingly at you with the widest, fullest grin he could possibly manage. You wanted the other guy instead, didn’t you? You pushed his hand. Forced it even.

He went to his actual home that night despite the risk of it.

The hills overlooking the shimmering skyline of the city.

You knew this place, without realizing you knew it.

He burned all his pretend-clothes -

On the embers of a lit cigar.

And seething with cold rage -- 

He decided to re-introduce himself to you.

They say honesty was the best policy, after all.

[idkwhoiamanymorebutwtf]

Hazbin Hotel; Why are these people even in hell?

Okay, so like...I know why some of these people are in hell. Obviously. Katie Killyjoy is a homophobic, nasty, hateful bitch. Alastor was literally a serial killer. Charlie was born down here. However...I still have some questions.

Angel Dust isn't an amazing person, okay? He's fucked up. He's a bit of an asshole. However I hesitate on what landed him in hell. For example, he helped Cherri Bomb in her terf war, but was he violent in life or is this because of the climate of hell being so okay with violence that he kinda just picked it up after seventy or so years in hell? We can at least say his drug abuse and sex work were part of him when he was alive because while every character seems fine with violence in this show, not everyone is a drug abuser, and certainly not many people are sex workers, so we can gather that these things are part of Angel's actual personality and who he is rather than just things he picked up cause everyone else in hell is doing it. Charlie also lists sluts and drug abusers in her song of "we gonna redeem folks". So is that why he's in hell? Because if so it feels incredibly unfair to me. Neither of these things are terrible enough to warrant hell, surely?? And while they can make Angel a nicer person and take violence away from him and wean him off drugs, it seems like too much to force him to stop being as sexual as he is. And drug addiction isn't a terrible thing that you do it's a terrible thing that happens to you?? It just seems unfair.

I've always been under the impression that Vaggie was in hell for violent tendancies. But this, once again, could be due to the society they live in. And all in all she's a pretty good person besides that? So I cannot begin to fathom how she got herself into hell in the first place. I doubt she went around punching and threatening people in life since assault is illegal. And if she's here because she's so fiery...thats also unfair. It may not be the most flattering thing on a person, but everyone has flaws?? If Vaggie wasn't literally going at people I don't see the problem with her being snappy?!?

Husk. He's rude to Alastor but why wouldn't he be? Being grumpy isn't some huge sin. However Charlie in her song listed boozers as a group of people in hell. So we can kinda just assume he's here for his drinking.

Nifty hasn't done shit. Unless she's one of those cretins or losers Charlie mentioned? Which like..? Is a morally questionable reason to be in hell?

I've looked into that song more and more while making this post and the more I look at it the less I'm sure I agree with a lot of these things being legitimate reasons to go to hell. Obviously some fit- "cannibals, creeps, people who do ancient roman crucifixions, and thieves." However?? They also list off "junkies, freaks, fuck-ups, zeroes, sexual deviants, boozers, people who like cartoon porn, people who make vegan rants, sluts, and crying babies." Now uh..I don't even know what half of these entail? Like sexual deviants can be anyone ranging from hyper sexual people to pedophiles? And while some of the people on this spectrum belong in hell..others probably don't. Losers, fuck-ups, freaks, and weirdos aren't really categories of sinners and are moreso insults that make me feel bad for the people being called that? And they completely lose me on "sluts, junkies and boozers" like??? First of all, there's nothing inherently wrong with being sexually active, which is all a slut really is, and junkies and boozers are moreso victims of addiction than what I'd call sinners who deserve to be in hell.

However I don't just think this is the writers having bad morals. Because most of these things are considered sins in biblical text, which I find very important.

Let's focus on the main conflict of the plot. The reason Charlie is even opening her hotel. The yearly exterminations.

They need these exterminations because there's overpopulation in hell. Because they can't handle the sheer number of people being thrown into hell. Now, heaven isn't said to be overpopulated. And I doubt that heaven is exterminating their own people. This leads me to believe that much more people go to hell than to heaven. If you've ever watched The Good Place, something like that, where only the best of the best get into heaven and anyone whose done a thing wrong or that heaven thinks is wrong end up in hell.

I mean look at these faces. Do these look like the types of people who are gonna be happy to let the reformed sinners in? Do these look like kind reasonable people who care about moral nuance? No! These are people who are fine with genocide as long as the victims are morally 'below' them, and I feel like they're the real villains here. After all, Vivziepop herself said that none of the big bad demons we've seen are going to be the main villains of the series.

[stormbornbastard]

Daenerys Targaryen Rant

Look, I'm new to the GOT fandom and being on Tumblr overloads with you a lot of information at once. This fandom, is like the definition of toxic and for what? Ships? I have to laugh.

I'm only gonna address one thing but believe me, I've got a list so let's do this shit.

One thing I've noticed is the overwhelming hate against Daenerys Targaryen, for her cruelty and impulsiveness in some of her actions. In no way do I agree with all of them but I refuse to reduce her complex character and story buildup to that of a villain or a mad queen.

Daenerys has simultaneously figured out to be loved and feared all at once by her people which is fucking amazing. She was not born with the same training to rule as other highborns. She was not given some handbook on how to be the perfect fucking queen for the people and herself. She makes mistakes and acts impulsively but not at all times and the times she has, she's paid for them greatly and if she hasn't learned from them now, she will. Its trial and error with her, it's the only path of ruling and conqueror she has.

By no means do her mistakes outweigh her good deeds. Daenerys has done questionable things for her claim to the throne but honestly at this point, who hasn't? (Jon isn't aware of his claim so just don't)

She's not just some benevolent and perfect ruler who shows mercy to all and does nothing wrong. You wanna know why? Because that ruler doesn't exist. No real person is capable enough to do that because real people are flawed and since GOT tries to reflect real people in their characters, Daenerys is flawed too.

Those flaws do not make her incompetent enough to rule nor do they take away all that she fought to overcome and gain (screw anyone who thinks that shit was just handed to her, her name didn't mean shit. The Targaryens had been discarded before her and the name and entitlement can only get one so far, look at Viserys for example if you need to)

A lot of people want her to be more compassionate and empathetic with her enemies and people who pose a threat but why should she? Her enemies have never been compassionate and empathetic with her. Daenerys was raised with cruelty, she was only shown cruelty by all those who were supposed to love her which is why I believe she has no problem being cruel to those who pose a threat. It's all she's knew, the cruelty others for a very long time. As much as you wanna discard her backstory, its integral to shaping the person she is.

We have seen her ability to grow as a character and show more than the death and destruction that Targaryens have left behind. She cannot learn all the capabilities of a kind and good queen when she has rarely known kindness and goodness herself. But she is growing, her sacrificing a dragon who she considered a child of her own in an effort to help defend the north against the white walkers (without Jon bending the knee first) shows her ability to put people before her own political even fucking personal interest. (Another impulsive action that she paid/ will pay for and fucking learned/will learn from. Also can we acknowledge the fact that instead of holding animosity towards Jon for the death of her dragon like she could've, she empathizes with him and instead wants to help him destroy the night king BEFORE he bends the knee all while grieving her fucking child! Dany had no indication that he would bend the knee if she helped him, none. Yet she still wanted to help him destroy the night king and protect the north and it's people regardless!)

A lot of people have ridiculously high expectations of her even though when she started the show, she had no political experience, no good social experience, no military experience, no experiences one needs to rule. Yet she gained them (she wasn't given some wise person along her entire path to help her do it either) and she gained a council of people to advise her and that she trusts with her life to become a better fucking queen and to give her knowledge when she lacks it because she knows she doesn't know everything about ruling. She's aware of almost all of her flaws and she's worked to improve on them. She's not the second coming of Robb Stark (we all wish he was still here) but she is Daenerys motherfucking Targaryen and that means something and not because of her ancestry.

Do I want her to receive the iron throne? Fuck no. I hope its destroyed along with the wheel.

Do I think she doesn't deserve to be a queen? Fuck no, she's earned it.

So stop discrediting her and fixating on her bad qualities when there is so much more of her to see.

And for fucks sakes, stop pitting her and Sansa Stark against one another. They both are remarkable fucking women who have coped with terrible shit to become who they are and they're situations as rulers are rarely the same. Most of y'all are hating on one of them because she gets in the way of a ship and its pathetic.

Sansa helps protect and maintain the north as ruler and was born a Stark which means something there and gives her some kind of respect. Dany is a fucking ruler and conqueror and the Targaryen name held nothing but negative connotations of destruction, failure and death in GOT society before her, she is consistently judged by the sins of her family. She's not familiar with every land she plans to control but she wants to be, wants to be a voice for the people and those who are oppressed just as she was. Conquering and ruling a new kingdom and ruling a well established one that you grew up in (therefore she's familiar with customs, the people and ways of life in the north) is nowhere near the same thing.

I'm not discrediting Sansa, I love her and she's an amazing ruler but she had some aspects afforded to her that Daenerys doesn't.

I know she's got an ego but shit, if I had done the things she did and overcome the things she has, my head would either be too fucking big to fit through my front door or I would've offed myself before Dany gained her first dragons (I honestly don't know if I would've had the strength to get past that point).There is no question about her strength and resilience because she's got a fuck ton of it.

One more thing, after Jon bends the knee and she says "I hope I deserve it!" THAT SHIT! THAT NEEDS TO BE FUCKING TALKED ABOUT! Dany isn't as collected as she paints herself to be, she doubts her actions just as everyone does theirs but she does it in secret. She's just not in a position to be open about her insecurities and doubts which is why she doesn't show them to anyone. She's never really been. Dany has never had family who genuinely and unconditionally loved her like the Starks have their entire lives. She has never had the comfort of confiding in someone like they have or trusting someone the way they do. Even now, the people who love her mostly love her for what she can offer them and what she represents, not who she is. She's always relied on herself for that which is probably why she's not as open and vulnerable as people would like her to be. It could even be said without all she represents or her dragons or her power, no one would love her.

She's grown up without it. Abuse taking its place, she would have no one without her claim. The starks would have each others which is why I think she holds onto it and enforces so much. Her claim has given her people who love her, the things she can offer have given her the people that love her. That sucks but it what it is.

Her questioning her ability to rule, her insecurity shows that she will not let her pride and ego get in the way of being a good queen if she gains the seven kingdom. Just because she exerts confidence does not mean she is overconfident or stuck in the belief of her entitlement to the throne. She worries she will not be the queen the seven kingdoms need which is exactly why she could be. Because those thoughts will keep her vigilant and attentive to all the shit she's needs to get done once she's no longer prioritized with conquering.

And to address her motives, or what I believe are her motives, Dany likes power. Why is that a bad thing? For a long period in life, she was considered weak and powerless, a pawn for those with power. She knows what it means to suffer (the death of her family, her husband [Stockholm syndrome but let me not start because she did love him], her only child Rhaego, and her dragon who she loves like a child, being raped, etc.) She knows it and she will never allow herself to be powerless again, she will never allow herself to be weak (I'm pretty sure she associates vulnerability with weakness at this point) in the face of threats, potential allies and the suffering of her, her people or both.

Why is that a bad thing? For her to be powerful, because that's what she equates it with strength. Power keeps her from weakness and I think it's why she strives for as much as possible so that she will never know that feeling of powerlessness again and so that her people who depend on her will never know suffering at the hands of the powerful again. It's not because of her "selfish belief that she deserves it." She wants it and forced herself to belief she's entitled and deserves it because while on the throne, she can secure protection from those who would do the horrific things she's endured and seen with that power to those without it.

She may result to cruelty when needed but that does not make her an evil person/ruler (yes I know about the Tarlys who refused to bend the knee for her. She made a power move, seeing as there were witnesses and the men who witnessed could see her not delivering on her threat of death as a weakness and eventually try and move against her, and she killed them. Now they all know she means fucking business. Also the Tarlys betrayed House Targaryen and Tyrell and were responsible for the death of thousands of Tyrell men. This is all Daenerys know of them, why do ya'll just ignore that. You act like Dany killed an innocent or someone she had a strong emotional attachment to but that's not the case. Her action was a strategic, political move and they chose to defy her when she gave them a choice) It wasn't right but it instilled fear, she cannot rule with just love. You can love someone and still plot against them, if people fear the consequences of what could happen if they fail, it'll hold them back. She needs both fear and love to rule. Loved enough to fight for her, feared enough to not move against her.

It's one a.m. but I had to get this off my chest, so yeah, I'm done.

[motorcyclegirlfriends]

man, i don't understand their insistence on shading lena so much(not her grey moral side, that's pretty cool and shows a yin/yang balance with kara), presenting her like a bomb ready to go off anytime. If they're so intent on making her evil why not actually have Lex show up, make her choose between her beloved brother and Kara so she can choose Kara and let supercorp be endgame like... i'm p sure the writers realize where it leads if they make Lena choose, so they just shade her "evilness"

They’re playing with the morality and darkness of the character because that’s who the character is.

Not who the person is—I’m not trying to say if you pop this person into reality that it’s inevitable that she’ll turn evil or even struggle in the same ways. I’m saying that when you take a character with her history and her issues and her fears you have to explore them for the story to work.

Who the character is defines what their story is about, and vice versa.

Let’s say you’ve started with an interesting premise and an awesome world, and all you need are some characters before you can get to the story. So you take your protagonist and begin throwing some of your favorite traits (and some other traits to play off of them in interesting ways) into a blender to see what sticks.

Perhaps they’re awkward, but funny. Insecure yet ambitious. Smart, but struggle with getting certain things. And then you go a little deeper. Where does the character’s insecurity stem from? Being socially awkward? Perhaps not. Perhaps you don’t feel you have a take on that idea that isn’t cliché.

Maybe the gaps in their intelligence, then. But why? It’s not interesting if it doesn’t go deeper. Absent parents who must be impressed for attention? Critical parents who are disappointed with anything less than brilliance? A formative experience in which the gaps in their intelligence resulted in something truly terrible?

You settle on something, and then you… write a story with nothing to do with their insecurity? I think not. The story is about your character, and your character is about this. (If you want your story to be about something else, instead create characters which are About that journey.)

Lena Luthor is about a deep ache, a need to be good.

Kara Zor-El Danvers is about finding home.

Alex Danvers is about being true to oneself.

We know this because of how they were built, the events which shaped them. Because of the setup before the real story begins:

Kara lost her entire world. Her home, parents, culture. Everyone and everything she knew. How could her story be about anything other than finding a home after that?

Alex had difficulty carving a space for herself as a kid because doing so would often result in Bad Things happening, and a heavy dose of perfectionism left her with very little room to be anything other than what she Had To Be. Do we not now want to watch her learn how to be healthy and to be assertive of her needs and to be imperfect and to just be?

And Lena. Lena Luthor, the emotionally abused kid in a family of terrorists, whose mother made her feel like she was never good enough, and who the world now never sees as good, full stop. Who fears becoming the monsters which hurt her above all else. Isn’t her story meant to be about recognizing and cultivating her own goodness to feel safe in her own skin?

Each of these characters strive to find happiness, but they all have different journeys to go on to get there. And these journeys examine the foundation of those needs to say something about them.

Lena can be good. Kara can feel at home. Alex can be true to herself. But, like in an essay, one must set up and address the counterarguments. This is where the story comes in. The story is the act of addressing the theme of the character’s counterargument.

If you have two characters in a fanfiction who do cute things with each other with no conflict internally, between each other, or otherwise externally, then you don’t have a story. You have a piece of a story (which people do love to consume anyway, because they’ve experienced the set up in canon that makes it feel satisfying).

But trust me, a 50 chapter fanfic of just this is not satisfying. Fluff only goes so far. It’s like eating only candy for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The characters must struggle and then surpass these struggles in order for the story to say, with confidence… anything. If you want to say that the intelligence of your character doesn’t matter as much as their heart, you have to prove it. Give them an obstacle they try to solve using their head and show them failing miserably. And then show them getting back up and using their empathy or their will to win the day, instead. Without that first failure, winning in that way falls flat.

And then with each success, offer a different counterargument. Another obstacle.

Your character who lost her world—who you wish to prove that one can overcome great loss through—is happy? In a relationship with a guy from a sister planet to her lost world who makes her feel pretty normal and at home? Rip it apart. Don’t just take it away, but make her feel worse than she was before he came into her life. And then have her build her life back up from scratch, with another angle to the argument.

“What if you tear away that answer? Can she still find a home? If the Romantic Love is destroyed, what is left?” the villain inside all of our brains asks.

Answer the question. Answer it a hundred ways.

Tell us the wrong thing: Supergirl. Just Supergirl.

Tear it down. Offer another: “And if I don’t have Supergirl, what do I have?” “You got me.”

The villain asks another question: “What if her home becomes sick at its heart? What if it becomes foreign to her through its hatred?”

It asks more: “What if her relationships became strained?” “What if someone she loves dies?” “What if she feels she doesn’t deserve her new home?” “What if this physical planet were destroyed?”

Answer them. Answer all of these questions with your story until your audience believes, “Yes, of course. She’s home. She’s home.”

Because once the character wins, really wins forever, the game is over.

If Lena Luthor is good, believes she’s good, is impervious to temptation or moral tests and doubts and the whole world believes in her goodness (or she finally feels free from needing that), her story is over.

Until then, this is the character playground we’re living in. Lena’s issues are about trying to defeat the monsters she fears within and have been since day one. The story can take breaks from tackling this theme so directly (slow burn, baby) but it’s always, always going to come back to this.

But it’s not always going to look the same! And it doesn’t mean she’s Secretly Evil or a time bomb.

The question is, “Can Lena rise above her emotionally abusive and ideologically toxic upbringing and be Good, or is she destined to be evil?”

Sometimes it’ll be about Lena wondering if being intelligent and cunning means she’s like her mother in other, nefarious ways. Or if she is responsible for what her intelligence results in down the line. Or it’ll be about proving to the outside world that she isn’t what they think.

Sometimes it’ll be about making mistakes which hurt people and how she can still be good even if she’s imperfect. Sometimes it’ll be about learning to recognize the parts of herself which need work—emotionally, relationally, and morally—and addressing those without self destructing because of her fears. Sometimes it’ll be about the nature of goodness. Maybe one day, it’ll be about helping someone with similar struggles while staying true to the lessons she’s learned.

Often, it’s about how healthy love can help her be good, and how refusing that kind of love can set her astray.

So, to address what you’ve said, of course the writers know what Lena would choose, in the end.

(Though the question isn’t really about two people, or choosing who she loves more. Even if Supercorp were canon, Lena would still be dealing with this until the story was over. Supercorp itself would be a tool to answer Lena’s goodness question.

And even without the shippy angle, Lena choosing Kara is a no brainer. Their relationship is clearly valued by the show and by Lena, and she has addressed how wrong her brother is already. That’s not her current struggle, nor the hardest one she’d face at this moment in time. Now, throw the perception of betrayal into it via Kara’s secret identity, and you’ve got something a little more interesting.)

It’s just that Lena has to keep making these types of choices until the show is over. Otherwise, she’s just furniture. A setting. Her real story is over.

If you’re not interested in various angles of Goodness™, or if you just love the character so much you can’t stand to see her morality under scrutiny all the time, I feel for you.

Personally, I think certain beats are a bit overdone (and that some of the undertones—like Lena fearing her own intelligence, for instance—could have been highlighted more to make it more dynamic) and that what we’ve seen so far could have been drawn out over more time while other, less obviously core issue-related things are happening.

But generally, I like it. This question of goodness is what drew me to the character to begin with.

Not just because of the Lex comparison—although it is connected to it.

It’s because it’s a story about emotional abuse and how it can get into your head and nurture qualities you abhor but fear you can’t escape emulating. It’s about feeling all twisted up because of what you’ve been through, and the struggle to keep those demons from hurting others while they whisper in your ear that it’s all useless anyway. That you’re just bad.

That’s something I’m interested in seeing, and one I haven’t really seen told this way before?

But it’s not enough to have her fear being evil and then just be good anyway. That doesn’t represent the insidious nature of emotional abuse nor the real work one has to do to overcome it. It’s complicated, and I want to see it be complicated, because when she overcomes all of that it will mean something.

Because the villain in our brains are already asking these questions (doubly so if you relate to Lena).

“What if she does do something bad? Really bad? Does that mean she’s evil? That she was evil all along and can’t escape it?”

I want the show to say, “No. She can come back from this. Goodness is a choice.”

Because I fully believe that their intent isn’t to make Lena evil, it’s to prove that she isn’t. To subvert our expectations set up by what happened between Clark and Lex. 

To say “No, this time friendship wins. Hope wins.” To refute that dread of inevitability caused by the familiarity of the story and, for Lena herself, that dread of inevitability because of who her family is and how she was raised.

It’s a hopeful show by design, and so it often has their main character try to get through to people, to change them for the better. Logically, this is the sort of story they’re going to tell, and personally, I’m here for it.

But it’s not going to go away.

[irondevilpunisher]

I second that @daredevil062488 ! Still I'm heavily annoyed by hypocrites though. I personally enjoyed IF S1 and I don't care if saying that bothers anyone. Was it perfect? No but was it as terrible as people made it out to be? No. I felt there was definitely room for improvement and luckily we just might get it in IF S2 with a new show runner and new writers.

That said there is something I disagree with the OP on in regards to Danny's cameo in LC S2. I don't think it was that great of an episode nor was it well written and the worst part about it was the fight choreography during the warehouse/club scene. They actually had Finn slow down while delivering those kung fu moves to a soundtrack that made me want to fall asleep. I get that it's Cage's series but that was a BAD call restraining Jones like that. It just made the fight look weird and unconvincing. Those kind of martial arts requires speed so the director failed there.

The high points of the episode was Jones' portrayal of a much more calmer, wiser and maturing Danny Rand yet he still maintains that playfulness which I appreciated. What people failed to realize about IF S1 is that he grew up in Kun lun abused daily and unable to learn proper social skills. He was friggin 10 when he disappeared living in some magic land for 15 years, why the hell would he return to N.Y. in an adult frame of mind? I swear people's logic on this escapes me. In my opinion Finn did what he could in S1 but I'm glad people are taking notice of his talent now when I've always known he's good at what he does. I agree this LC episode did give us a nice snippet of the new development they're doing with Danny so I'll give credit where it's due.

I just find it ignorant looking at posts like this by anti Danny people who'd given Jones sh*t for S1 and even after he got cast as Danny. So people had already made their minds up to hate him before watching the show. I've never seen so much hate for a fictional character and the actor like Danny and Finn in my life its disgusting. This is certainly the main reason I don't like venturing in the Danny tag anymore because all I see is hate and I don't want to be around it.

My blog is a positive place. There are characters I greatly dislike in all these shows sure, everyone has their preferences. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna clog up these characters' main tag with anti posts. Or send the actor hate on his/her social media because I dislike their characters. I just write and post about things I like and give fair criticisms to the negative. I swear people in this fandom have nothing better to do than to dump on Danny any way they can. He's imperfect but so are the others and fans forget that. LC is especially far from perfect he's done his fair share of shady crap like attempting to kill that innocent bus driver who he thought killed his wife until Jessica stopped him/told him the truth. Which means he was about to use his powers with the intention to 'murder' someone who didn't deserve it. Tell me why doesn't Cage ever get criticized for that?

Sorry for the long rant I just needed to get this out of my system. I'm tired of seeing hate in the Danny tag but even more exhausted by hypocritical people. Please to the OP dont take what im saying to heart. I'm personally excited for IF S2 it can't be any worse than Jessica Jones S2 which was AWFUL. I like to think it'll be a great season and one that will really allow Finn to shine as Danny Rand.

So what Luke Cage season 2 is telling me is that under good direction and a solid script, Finn Jones can turn in a good Danny Rand/Iron Fist performance. Which means the poor reception of Iron Fist season 1 wasn’t because of Finn but because of Scott Buck, the writing team, and Netflix for rushing the production since they needed to get to the Defenders. 

Finn really didn’t deserve the hatred he got and this is coming from a guy who also criticized his performance.