#and then she'll get upset with me specifically?? like girl I agreed with him but also its not my call. you need to talk to him about it

[tomwambsmilk]

what's a professional way to say to a coworker 'I'm not sure why the fuck you're sending me this email because I'm just the messenger and have no power to resolve the thing you're complaining about and I know that you KNOW that so please explain to me what you expect the outcome of this passive-aggressive guilt-trippy email you sent me to be'

[temporalbystander]

Why do I do this to myself?

Sup everyone. Surprised to see me? Yeah I'm surprised to be posting. But as my head get slowly closer to exploding despite me doing everything that normally helps with my headaches? I thought I'd share a Miraculous hot take that I came up with a while ago but never actually shared. Warning. Spoilers and slight salt ahead.

Okay, so while I was trying to take a nap to hopefully rid myself of this headache, my mind went back over opinions I have come across on Tumblr and other sites as a sort of "yeah right, I'm not letting you sleep, have some month old anger instead". Specifically around Zoe Lee and how she's a Mary Sue.

Now. Three things piss me off about the term Mary Sue just on its own. Number one, it's more than likely being used incorrectly. Number two, it forever ruins a great sounding name (Mary Sue just sounds sweet to me and I would use for the kind neighbour next door if it wasn't for this) and three? Is used as an insult despite being EXACTLY WHAT SUPERMAN IS AND I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL WITH A GODDAMN NUKE SO COME AT ME!

pants Sorry. That always gets to me. Anyway, the term as it's applied to Zoe? Falls firmly in the first scenario. See, people call her a Mary Sue when in reality what they mean is "bland nice girl" so kind of like Mylene until Horrificator or Rose until Princess Fragrance where we actually saw more of their personality. I'd go further into what I mean but that's not the point of this.

No, the point is all the people who say Zoe has no reason to exist and to them I say. "She's a fictional character her reason is because the writers say so." But... I also agree. This is where the salt comes in because, had Miraculous not been stubbornly controlled by a bullying manchild incapable of receiving criticism, who also hates a teenage girl he made up to an extent that it's disturbing? Zoe wouldn't exist.

Now people have said that she was just a replacement for Chloe. And again I agree but not for the reasons they believe. Zoe is what Chloe should have become had Mr "nobody appreciates me so I'll put myself in the show telling them why they are idiots" actually followed through on the redemption arc. Yes I'm insulting him more than I have ever even mentioned him before. Why? Because I recently saw his tweets where he said Chloe wasn't abused because she has a father throwing money at her despite her mother rejecting her existence. Fuck. Him. Not to mention the ones where he basically calls us idiots for thinking Chloe was getting redeemed in the first place.

Anyway I'm getting off topic. What do I mean when I say Zoe is basically a redeemed Chloe? Well our first introduction to her in Sole Crusher shows she's capable of being a copy of Chloe, something she does because she just wants to feel loved by her family. We know from the whole Queen wasp thing that Chloe doubts her mother's love for her (something that is never mentioned again despite Audrey's opinion on Chloe never really seeming to change. Unless you want to count keeping her like some kind of mini me which is... Arguably worse and reminds me of how Chloe treats Sabrina) and it was believed by the fandom that Chloe acted the way she did because she wanted her mother to love her and be proud of her. But nope. She's just irredeemably evil. Despite being a 15 year old girl who still cuddles her bear and sucks her thumb for comfort when she's upset. Totally evil.

Grr... next. Point. Before I devolve into pointing out all the times Thomas Asshole showed he knew jackshit about characterisation.

Anyway. After Zoe realises that she'll never get her family's love in a way she's satisfied with she turns to her newfound friends for comfort cutting all attempts to please her mother. Something we expected Chloe to do. Then comes Queen Banana. Not only is Zoe given the bee miraculous (which I don't understand why people were surprised at, who else was gonna get it? Aurora? Marinette doesn't go far to pick new members. And if you say, "well they could always just fuse" you clearly don't understand the benefit to having another person for the Akuma to focus on.) But the way she got Chloe to keep the charm showed that she's capable of manipulating people. A skill we all thought Chloe would put be able to put to better use should she be redeemed. See Matt's Honey and Vinegar comic for a brilliant example of this.

Then we get to the major point in my mind. Something everyone (may be an exaggeration) had pegged for Zoe since she was introduced and that most theorised for Chloe as a potential explanation for some of her actions. Having feelings for Marinette. Now when this was confirmed it wasn't a surprise to me. It was so far from a surprise I was actually slightly disgusted that they chose Zoe to be the blatant one and not confirm Rose and Juleka or even Marc and Nathaniel. You can say it's obvious from how Rose and Juleka interact but Alya and Marinette act the same at times and they haven't known each other nearly as long. Or as intimately since Juleka kept Rose's illness a secret for who knows how long and that tore her to pieces every time it happened. I'm a dude. I'm so conditioned to see Yuri in female friendships that I've reconditioned myself to go the opposite way and assume it's just me being perverted. Do I believe Juleka and Rose are a couple? Yes. Will I call it canon? Not until I see a kiss, because they've definitely already confessed by now if it's true. Do I care if the writers confirmed it? No. Because JK Rowling said Dumbledore was gay and Hermione could be black. Only one of those is possible given what she's written, the other is clearly just an attempt to please this new era obsessed with inclusion at the expense of preestablished facts.

Dammit I got off topic again. Anyway, Chloe has been in the same class as Marinette for the past four years, something I remember joking about a while back calling Chloe out for being a stalker. But with her dad being Mayor, her fully using that to get what she wants even in school, and her focus on making Marinette miserable to such an extent that it's almost like Mari is the only target Chloe actually cares about hurting? Well I've seen enough "bully because I like you", "lash out because I'm confused" and "overcompensate because it's not normal/ my parents would disown me if they knew" tropes to suspect that they're might be a deeper meaning to why she does it.

Or at least that's what I would think. You know. If she wasn't completely and utterly evil. Between all the play heroes, tickle fights with Sabrina until they fall asleep, and being the sole person to throw off an Akuma before it takes hold because of their firm belief they are a hero. I mean how can you not see how evil and irredeemable she is when she has all that on her resumè?

sighs To finish up I want to make one thing clear. I like Zoe. In better hands I'm sure I'd have loved her even more but, even if she's just the replacement we were given so we'd shut up about Chloe, the fact is she's a good friend to Marinette (her lack of presence and late introduction means she hasn't done anything to annoy me like the others have), her design is amazing (reminds me of Equestria Girls Sunset Shimmer actually) and is basically the only one Chloe can't touch. The potential she brings to fanworks is absolutely staggering but in the show as it is? She's another pillar of support for Marinette. With the crap that girls gone through? That's more than enough for me.

[valkylander]

Kousaka Kirino is an autistic lesbian who became very good at masking by learning the social scripts of popular middle school girls specifically (to the point where she is unable to make friends in any other context without help). She comes across as uniquely talented at everything she does, but what she actually has is superhuman work ethic that she applies to anything she considers important, from understanding fashion and makeup, to going from the worst runner in her class to a nearly world-class student athlete, to watching her best friend's favorite anime and reading her omnibus-length fan fic and also the omnibus-length companion guide even though she hates everything about it so she can understand it properly (when said friend could not get through three episodes of her own favorite show).

In addition to being a model and an athlete, she is a published author of a best selling Girls Love novel, and she went catatonic when the execs at an anime studio wanted to adapt her novel but remove the GL elements. She once had a fight with her best friend because they both wrote rape fics about each other and were surprised the other was upset by that. If she has known you for all of a day, she'll consider you her friend and be constantly vigilant for anything that might make you happy, and she will never betray you.

She is not perfect. She is arrogant, gluttonous, greedy, and prone to lashing out when pushed too far which, because of how good she is at masking, can be unpredictable. But when she's genuinely in the wrong she will acknowledge it, apologize, and try to mend relationships. She ultimately holds herself to a higher standard than anyone.

And while Kirino is the incest girl (and make no mistake, Kirino is THE Incest Girl), she is absolutely not pursuing her brother. No matter how in love she was as a child or how in love with him she fell when they started spending time together again, she fundamentally does not believe a relationship like that can happen in the real world. A lot of her lashing out is an attempt to establish and reinforce distance so she doesn't do something stupid like get her hopes up. She supports his relationship with her best friend and tries to keep them together even after said friend breaks up with him. When her brother does fall in love with her and confess she chews him out for it. She only gets together with him on the understanding that it's only for a few months to get it out of their system, and the whole time they're together she is constantly giving him outs. When his relationship with her and his dedication to it alienates multiple friends and love interests, including his childhood friend who he was basically on-track to marry in a couple of years, she chews him out for that too because she doesn't want him to sacrifice anything to be with her. It takes Kyousuke dating her until an agreed upon break-up point, having a marriage ceremony with her on their last day together, and then using his Once-In-A-Lifetime Request to break their promise to be normal siblings for her to believe and accept that he genuinely loves her back and wants to be with her.

And I love her. I love her so much. I love her so much I spent a year writing a goddamn novel about how much I love her and all the reasons why. I've lost sleep over her. I've cried over her. I have converted friends and girlfriends to the position of loving her. I have gotten strangers who never saw or read Oreimo to love her, and made friends specifically because we love her. No one and nothing can ever make me do anything less than love her.

Character Thoughts: Kirino Kousaka

Feel free to explain why in the comments/reblog and remember to acknowledge the original Light Novel Potrayal of the character along with the Manga and Anime Counterparts.

[pynkhues]

Hi. I'm a bit confused about the hate Beth is getting for not choosing Rio over her kids' future. She can't print money and boland bubbles is shut down, so she's broke once again, with no income or way to pay her mortgage. What secret service is offering her is going to give her family a fresh start. Yes, Dean as well, but it's about the kids for her. And if she chooses Rio there's no guarantee that she'll get anything out if it. She has no reason to be loyal to him at the moment. Am I getting something wrong here? Because I don't get it how she could make any other choice at this moment.

Hi! SO I’m bundling these two asks together because I think that my answer to them is ultimately the same, and it’s been an answer I’ve been thinking about really since the first half of season 2 when I noticed some of the louder opinions on Beth change within the fandom, specifically here on tumblr, but also on other platforms. I’ve debated talking about it at all publicly because I know it’s an opinion that will probably upset some people, but I guess we’re here now, haha, and I’ve been sitting on it for two years, so.

I agree with both of you, and in particular the latter (I’m sorry it took me so long to reply!) There was a reason I logged off pretty quickly after the 4.03 promo dropped and went and did some gardening instead.

Look, I think this fandom, like every fandom, has a problem with misogyny and I think that that is steeped not only in y’know, generations of institutional, social and narrative patriarchy, but a fundamental lack of empathy extended to women.

I think we’ve seen this misogyny manifest in a range of different ways in this particular fandom. I think the generational misogyny has been particularly loud to me personally, where progressive young women apply today’s standards and resources to a woman in her mid-forties, failing to take into account not only her unstable childhood background which has been inferred since season 2, even if we did only get the confirmation of it in 4.03, but the lack of resources (i.e. the internet), education, and social support systems that would’ve been available to her at certain points in her life.

This is not directly relevant to Good Girls, but a point I often come back to with generational misogyny is that marital rape only became illegal in 1993 in the US. As much as we’re in challenging times right now, feminism particularly around and within marriage has changed a lot over the last 30 years, and Beth and Dean’s marriage is one that holds to a lot of old tenets that have been, and still are being, challenged in the process of that.

I’ve seen this sort of misogyny and sexism manifest in other ways too – simple things like Beth’s wardrobe, and the idea she has to look a certain way to be not only appealing to the men in the show, but to us as an audience. People have criticised her parenting and her relationship with her children as if there’s only one right way to be a mother; the choices she makes to try and survive, which are frequently the only choices she has as you identified, anon, and especially criticised her not prioritising the man she’s boned twice over herself and her family and those she loves the most. I’ve seen the latter in particular evolve into this desire to see Beth punished, and frequently seen that written into some people’s fics in a way that honestly gives me pause.

The point of this post isn’t to say that Beth is a perfect person who shouldn’t receive criticism, she should, and you can also feel very frustrated by her. I do all the time! She’s a frustrating character who’s done terrible, toxic things on this show, but doing those things does not remove her right to empathy. I think that criticism without thought, without context, without understanding, without empathy is something I will always think is, quite frankly, shallow at best and cruel at worst.

Beth is, of course, a fictional character, but fiction is what helps us to realise our prejudices. I know watching the show and reading criticism has certainly made me look at things I’d internalised and maybe thought of less in the past – particularly around issues like nuance and race in storytelling. I can own that! And I’m glad to be challenged and to listen and learn and grow. I just wish perhaps people would also be more thoughtful of how they think about women in this show too, because some of the language, the shaming, the vitriol, the sheer hunger for punishment is reflective to me of a much deeper-rooted problem.

I want to leave you with a quote from Andrea Dworkin who was a radical feminist (and trans ally!) in the 1970s through 1990s, because it’s one I think about a lot.

“Women are perceived to be appalling failures when we are sad. Women are pathetic when we are angry. Women are ridiculous when we are militant. Women are unpleasant when we are bitter, no matter what the cause. Women are deranged when women want justice. Women are man-haters when women want accountability and respect from men.”

[heirs-of-prythian]

Ari's first flying lesson part 7

Halli Hallöchen everyone! I finally finished it! Here is part 7, the last part of affl! It's over 2k long! Much longer than I wanted! The whole fic is now over 11k long! Wow that's probably the longest I have ever written!

But I wouldn't want you to wait any longer so here's part 7!

_____________

One

Arianna feels the rush of the winds tugging on her clothes and hair.

Two

She brings her arm as close as possible to her body to fall even faster.

Three

She grins wide. Though her eyes aren't closed as her brother suggested.

Four

Mother, she is having so much fun right now! This is breathtaking. Exhilarating! Amazing! Marvelous!

Five

The lesson is even better than she hoped it to be. So so so much better. She wants it to never end.

Six

She sees the big blue rushing river, that was hidden from her view earlier, and the ground coming closer and closer to her.

Seven

And despite that Ari doesn't have a single shred of fear in her.

Why would she? Her beloved brilliant brother is here and he would never not catch her. Ever.

Eight

Now Ari focuses on the gliding part instead of the beautiful view, the exhilarating feeling and the unending fun she is having.

Nine

Putting everything else into the back of her mind, Ari prepares herself. Focused and determined to get it right.

Ten

Ari opens and spreads her wings as far out as possible. She starts to glide a little, then loses her balance a little, but then catching it again before she could fall.

Ari doesn't let out a cry of triumph or a scream of victory. The gliding princess is way too concentrated on her wings and on trying to figure out how to land. But she doesn't need to worry about that, because after a minute of gliding, she is suddenly enveloped in familiar mist, wind and darkness.

After it all faded away, Ari is back on the top of the cliff, in Artemas arms to be more specific. Art smiles proudly at her.

Ari is so out of breath, that she can only smile back at him. Even if she wants to start bubbling about what just happened, but her heart beats too fast like it wants to break out of her ribcage and jump down again and again and again, her inhales and exhales are so fast and uncoordinated that she's hiccuping. Tears from the wind are glittering in the corner of her eyes. Her hair is a mess, her braid is almost undone. She is gripping her brother's shirt to get herself grounded again, to calm herself down.

She needs to calm down, because otherwise she will jump down herself again. Right this second. She wants it happened again so so badly.

Ari buries her face into her favourite calming source, her older brother Artemas.

Because he calms her down, everytime and without fail.

Art laughs silently to himself, when he sees her relaxing her wings completely and letting them hang on her back weakly. Undoing her braid, Art brushes his fingers through his little sister's hair, while removing all the trinkets with magic.

When he feels and hears her heartbeat settle down and her breathing normalize, Art hoists her up in his arms, so that she now facing him on eye-level.

"You seem to like that, little night." Art observes and wipes her tears f that escaped her eyes. That's a clear understatement, she loves it way too much. "So much even that it made you completely speechless! That doesn't happen often!"

"Again! Ag-..." Ari starts to demand, but Art interrupts her immediately.

"No, for today, that's more than enough, Arianna!" Art looks at her sternly and tightens his hold on her, less she decides to jump out of his arms and jump down herself. Not that he was afraid that something would happen to her even if she did that.

No, he has other reasons for not throwing her down again. One of them being, that he thinks that doing it again wouldn't be good for her wings. Once was fine, but twice for untrained wings not so much.

"Please! Art! Pretty please!" Ari begs with puppy-eyes, but they aren't working on Art.

They never were. Art is immune to puppy-eyes.

"I said no, Arianna," He says sternly, but his face is apologetic. Smoothing her hair away from her face, Art looks conspiratorially at her, bringing their foreheads together.

"You need to promise me something, little night," he whispers, taking her right hand into his, running his thumb over the back of her hand. "Something big."

"Yes! Yes, of course! What is it? Tell me! Little moon, do tell!" Ari nods wildly, eyes wide.

"I want you to keep something a secret, my smart little sister." The Heir of Night whispers mischievously, blue-grey eyes sparkling. "I am sure you can figure it out what I don't want Mom and Dad to know about by yourself, right little night? It's pretty obvious!"

Ari blinks and frowns. But she doesn't think long before she gasps in realisation. Gaping at her brother, who now grins wide at her, Arianna knows exactly what her brother doesn't want their parents to know, and she actually agrees with him, since she doesn't want that either. Otherwise she will never get to do it again, and Art will not be allowed to teach her anymore after this lesson.

"I will not tell them that you threw me off a cliff!" Ari nearly screams in panic. "Otherwise our lesson will stop an-..."

Suddenly there isn't even the tiniest sounds leaving Ari's lips. Which makes here during the last part of her sentence look like a gluping fish, because Ari was so in desperate panic that she didn't realize her brother is silencing her.

"Sssshhhhhh, Ari, it's a secret! So keep your voice quiet." Art shushes her and chuckles at her resolute face, she gives him after she noticed what happened. Feeling her whole attention on him, Art continues.

"Since we're in an agreement here, that Mom and Dad and everybody, who would tell them, shouldn't know about the "cliff-incident", we're not going to tell them a word about it!" Ari nods frantically at him, jumping in his arms.

Hell, she's so cute! He loves her so much!

"Perfect!" Art grins and brings her hand up with his. Palm against palm. "Now repeat after me. I, Princess Arianna of Night, ..."

"I, Princess Arianna of Night, ..." Ari repeats seriously, but she can't keep enthusiasm from her eyes. She is over the moon to share another secret with her big brother, a bigger one than the ones she already has with him.

"... promise Prince and Heir Artemas of Night..." The mentioned heir continues, his face mirroring his little sister. The little Princess repeats it.

"... that I will not tell..." Again a repeat from the little girl in his arms.

"... our parents, High Lord Rhysand and High Lady Feyre of the Night Court,..." Glaring at her brother for the long part, Ari repeats it without stuttering.

"... and anyone who would tell them,..." Ari continues her copying, but stopped glaring.

"... about the Cliff..." Ari starts to get impatient and kicks her legs out, but repeats it nonetheless.

This is getting way to long for her liking!

"... and me being thrown off of it..." Again the same, but Ari could see the end at the horizon. Art just smiles at her impatience and continues.

"... and the most probable repetition of it..." Ari's eyes light up at that, though she does have problems with the word "repetition".

Art is going to do it again! YES!! HELL YEAH!! Thank the mother!

"... in other future lessons..." Art laughs at the obvious excitement Ari is displaying while she tries to say the words as seriously as possible, but is clearly failing.

"... until the foreseeable future."

After the last word leaves Ari's lips, their palms start glow. A streak of light slitters along Ari's arm like a tiny snake and settles on her upper arm. Curling around it like a bracelet. The light snake glows bright until it stops abruptly and vanishes completely.

Little night had looked at it with wonder. She is always so fascinated with her big brother's magic. Little moon smiles satisfiedly and proudly at his younger sister.

"So now that that's out of the way, how about we pick up where we left of with the lesson?"

"You want to do it again?" Ari snaps out of her wonder and asks in disbelief, but with a little bit of hope.

"Pfff, hell No, Ari!" Art laughs out loud. "This one time is already more than enough! I mean 'Baby gliding', silly."

"What's that?"

"The same as before just from smaller heights, like from a tree branch or a tiny boulder or something similar." Art explains patiently. Ari huffs and pouts, not really happy about something so boring.

She had been jumping down from higher, even without having wings. This isn't going to be fun.

"Of course for you, we'll go higher, but nothing higher than our house, okay?" Art placates before Ari could complain.

Sighing, Ari agrees. That's as good as she'll get today.

And so they continue the lesson.

*****

The High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court had their first real quiet day without their daughter in quite some time. And they enjoyed it immensely. Don't get them wrong, they love and adore their daughter dearly and don't want her to change, but Arianna is a rather exhausting child to look after.

And they did miss her, quite a lot actually. But they weren't worried about her. Though they can't wait to see her again and hear what she learnt today and how she feels about flying now. They also want to know what their son had taught his sister.

They have no doubt that their only son is an excellent teacher, but they want to know if their daughter thinks the same about him.

So after a quiet and rather uneventful day strolling through Velaris, talking to friends they meet while strolling, meeting Azriel, Leda and Echo for Lunch. Echo was quite upset that Ari or Art wasn't with them, but happy for Ari learning how to fly, then excited for her own lessons starting on her birthday in two weeks, then thrilled that she and Ari could fly someday together. Other than that, the lunch was quite uneventful.

For tea they meet Mor, which resulted in a shopping tour, since she heard something about new shoes for younglings and she got Rhys and Feyre to check it out with her. They actually brought some for Ari, Echo and Aura.

Now the powerful mates sit in their living room, enjoying each others company reading, while they wait for their beloved children to come home. And they don't wait that long for them. Because the front door is opened with a loud bang, that's vibrates through the whole manor.

"We're back!" Comes it excited and breathless from their daughter and then they hear fast footsteps approaching.

Smiling at each other, Rhys and Feyre rise to their feet and make their way to the hallway to meet Arianna halfway.

"Daddy! Mommy!" Ari screams and throws herself into her father's arms, who anticipated that and catches her.

Their daughter seems to had a lot of fun with her brother. She practically glows from excitement, much less shakes from it. Before they could ask her anything, Ari has already started rumbling and bubbling.

"FirstweflewthereandArtletmedohangingthanhesaidsomethingaboutfirstexerciseandthenIdidhangingwithoutstretchedwingsanditwasgreatAndthenafterawhilehesaiditwasenoughandthenwhenwegotthereheletmedecidewhowegotdownandIwantedfreefallingandhediditan-..."

"Breath, Ari!" Rhys and Feyre look up from their rumbling, talking-without-pausing-or-breathing daughter to see their son Artemas leaning on the doorframe of the front door. His wings already shifted away. He looks fairly put together, well as put together as Art can look like, despite having been looking after and teaching Ari the whole day. His arms are crossed and he has big grin on his face. There's definitely mischief twinkling in his eyes like stars.

Ari had snapped her head back to her brother with his interruption and glares and huffs at him now. Art just keeps looking expectantly at her. Sighing Ari takes a deep breath and turns back to her parents, her smile so wide it reaches from one ear to the other.

"We'll take that as you being very satisfied with the lesson," Rhys tells her, grinning at his daughter's happiness.

"How about you calm down a little and than you tell as one thing after the other, little night! We want to know everything that happened!" Feyre says smiling adoringly at Ari.

Now the whole family is smiling, even if Art's smile got down right dark and mischievous at the word "everything", but his parents didn't noticed, since they are focused on Ari.

Retreating into the living room, High Lord and High Lady of the Night Court ask the Princess of Night about her lesson which she answers as truthfully as possible without hinting about "Cliff-Incident". Meanwhile the Princess shares a conspicuous, secretive and mischievous smile with the Heir of Night over the High Lord's shoulder.

And the High Lord and High Lady wouldn't find out for about 200 years, even if the princess got thrown down a cliff in every lesson or jumped down herself.

And to say that they were happy about it, would have been the understatement of the millennia.

_____________

Puh! I am done! I hope you liked it!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me, I would love to answer them!

Tagging: @thelaziestgeek @lux-et-tenebra @mindnumbmikey @starlightheir @guthiix @iamthebonecarver

(if you want to get tagged, just let me know!)

[mortar-canyon]

... I

I'm sorry, what???

Look, I haven't watched X since I was little, but I'm not sure what you mean by "nobody excuses their flaws". At least in my experience, that's... Kind of what we like to focus on most.

Like, if a character making poor choices or just being less than a good person is enough to make them uninteresting, why would we care about Elise as much as we do? That girl is, like, 90% childhood religious trauma, and we don't think she's a bad person because of that, we see her as someone who desperately needs to be given a chance to grow and become who she wants to be rather than the figurehead she was molded into. She's gonna fuck up along the way. That's normal. She'll make questionable choices. By no means does that make her a weak character, or stop us from wanting to see her heal.

And for Amy, Tails, and Cream, I have no idea where you're getting that they aren't flawed.

Cream, I understand, because her whole thing is that she's too "perfect", and while she's eager to help, she doesn't owe the world her life. She deserves to have a childhood. By becoming a hero so young, just like the others, she's losing that, and we have no idea what it might do to her in the future. Her moral compass never steers her wrong, but right now, she's comparatively weak. To survive as a hero, she has to get stronger, and that might force her to neglect that compass. And that says nothing about the basic occupational hazards. Remember the Zombot arc? That's... Yeah. That was really the only way that could've gone for her. Cream is "perfect", and that makes her a tragedy.

Amy... C'mon. What do you mean, she doesn't have flaws? That's kind of the whole point of her. She's clingy, which isn't bad on its own, but more importantly, she can't accept rejection, and that leads her to literally chase away the people she cares about. Over the course of the franchise, though, she's gradually grown past that, and although she's by no means perfect, she's come a long way, and we wouldn't be nearly as invested in her as a person if not for the rocky start.

And they did try to give Tails more depth in Lost World, but it wasn't very well written, so a lot of people didn't like it. Personally, I love the idea of it, just not the execution. His story in Adventure 1 set him up to grow into his own hero, like Amy, which feels sort of like a coming-of-age story to me, so it makes sense for him to later be given some sort of "teenage rebellion" arc, like they tried in Lost World. That's important because it would also show that he's not just upset because teenagers get mad about little things or whatever. It's usually bigger than that. Tails has perfectly valid reasons to be concerned, and when someone feels they're being ignored, yeah, they're gonna raise their voice. The error there is miscommunication, which can absolutely be a character flaw. At the same time, it sets up a few foil flaws for Sonic.

Rewriting Lost World would be nowhere near as compelling without that element of Found Family - more specifically, putting in the work to overcome things like this and keep that bond strong - at the center of it. It even ties into the Zeti's story and gives them more of a thematic purpose than just The Bad Guys.

So, like... I understand your take that, "if" they were flawed, nobody would like them. Because, honestly, if they weren't, why would I care about them? If they didn't make huge mistakes and push the plot forward, why would I give a shit about seeing where it goes? Like, yeah, save the world or whatever, but any characters could do that. I want to see how this specific cast tackles the problem and how they make it worse along the way, because that's what sets them apart from stock archetypes, y'know?

If you have a counterargument, I'd love to hear it, genuinely, but I'm really not sure I can agree with, just, the very foundation of this.

"Chris Thorndyke is not real! Stop whining about a fictional teen!"

Yeah and Amy, Cream, and Tails are fictional too and nobody excuses them for their flaws. So your point is??