#and there are Sympathetic Things even about people who are Doing Harm Right Now

[boypussydilf]

prev post is sort-of the thesis of very good webcomic “what happens next” which you should read right now although do very much pay attention to the content warnings. thank you

[nekropsii]

Aww. On one hand, I'm glad my words touched you. On the other, it makes me so deeply sad knowing even the smallest glance towards granting one basic human dignity is enough to drive one to tears. I wouldn't even call my words the bare minimum - I don't think that countering the common idea that a group isn't inherently abusive should be the bare minimum. The bare minimum should be casual respect, the same that's afforded to any other person. The bare minimum should be me not even needing to say any of this in the first place.

NPD is so heavily demonized, especially right now. There's wave after wave of people claiming "Narcissistic Abuse" is a valid term and viciously attacking anyone who breathes in the direction of contradiction, every single search adjacent to NPD results in almost nothing but article after article on, specifically, how to hurt people with NPD, or protect yourself against them... There's conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory posted online quite literally painting them as actual real demons, like, Demons, from The Bible, or linking them to the Jewish Reptilian conspiracy theory, and it's just completely and utterly gut-wrenching. Even in spaces that proclaim themselves as safe, or progressive, or bigotry-free, these unjustified, bigoted snap judgments occur. It's the worst.

NPD is not something that I have. I don't have any Cluster B Disorder, actually. But I'm sympathetic because they're all fucking human beings the world has decided is socially acceptable to turn into a Sinister Other, a Walking Otherworldly Threat, like this is a fucking fiction novel or a video game. I'm sick of it.

There's a few people in my immediate circles who have NPD. They're all good people. They're nice, they're funny, they have perspectives on things that I deeply value, they're smart, and I treasure their proximity so much. They've never done anything wrong, and certainly haven't done anything wrong purely on the basis of being some Evil, Conniving Super Villain. They're literally just hanging out, and I'm glad to know them. My life is better and more enriched having known these people. They have never wronged me, and I don't think they ever will. And even if they do, it would not be because they have NPD, it would be because they're a living being. As people, we all have the capability to harm others. Animals have the capability to harm other animals, too. Plants can harm you. This is not a trait unique to the Disordered.

Us people without NPD need to do better, to listen to our friends and siblings with NPD, to help boost them up so that we can help end this wretched fucking curse - or, at the very least, quell it. We need to help them speak louder, and amplify their cause with our vocal support. Ableism will never go away, but the least we can do is try to move towards making it not as socially acceptable to be bigoted. None of us need a Sinister Other to combat. This is not war, this is not the medieval times. We do not need this. We do not need to beat a persecution complex into ourselves to excuse persecuting others. We do not need to live in constant fear of the idea of the line cook who just wants to go home and play Dark Souls, or the office worker passing the time by thinking about their 3 cats, or the high schooler at home reading their favorite shoujo manga, or the guitarist driving home tapping their fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the radio. These are not your enemies. They are people going about their lives. They've literally never hurt you. Stop projecting your fear of abuse onto strangers - onto minorities.

My message to people without NPD is to fucking check yourself if you believe in Narcissistic Abuse, or automatically assume that people with NPD are up to something. Especially right now, that is a very, very vile, dehumanizing form of absolutely rampant ableism that we needed to take extreme steps to mitigate fucking months ago. Years, even. The best time to shoot this bigotry and burn it's corpse was the moment it started rising. The second best time is Now. Interrogate yourself. Realize that people with NPD are literally just human beings. Stop being awful to your fellow person. The way people think and speak about people with NPD is just absolutely disgusting, and everyone needs to apologize to them right now.

My message to people with NPD is simple: You deserve one billion dollars for having to put up with all of this shit. It's actually deranged. Trust me, there are others out there that think this is horseshit. You are not alone.

[olderthannetfic]

Hot take incoming.

People who have been traumatized or otherwise harmed by certain people (predators, etc) have every right to be upset about it, and angry, and scared about whether other people will experience the same thing. They also have a right to process their trauma in their own time, because everyone is different. It is also understandable that some people might not have access to a way to process that trauma. Lastly, obviously, people with trauma totally deserve to be included in fandom spaces as much as someone who doesn't have trauma.

However… I feel like there is a line that shouldn't be crossed when engaging in certain discourse in fandom, and outside of fandom. If someone has lots of unresolved, unprocessed trauma, and because of it, they can't be (sufficiently) objective, or look at things in a more unbiased manner, they should not be engaging in discourse about things like censorship too heavily—if at all. They need to postpone that until their mental health is a bit better.

Unresolved trauma can make it really hard to properly acknowledge nuance. For example, if someone's parents grabbed them, beat them, withheld food, opened locked doors on them, et al, yes, they're going to have trauma. But the question remains whether they can view something like a fictional dynamic where, for instance, someone makes amends with their parents who abused them due to mental illness, which has since been treated, with ample objectivity. Or any other, even darker topics, especially ones where toxic relationships and events are written to be erotic). It really feels like many people in fandom don't recognize they might be too biased to read something without viscerally (viscerally!) reacting, and throwing down the "ban it" card. I get the impression it's not really healthy for the individual a lot of times, too.

I've reblogged posts about why it's bad to censor sensitive topics in fandom, and I've posted some of my own commentary, which tends to be very clinical. I've had multiple strangers, at these times, create full-on essays in my inbox where, after mentioning how I seemed like a safe space, they described how they were groomed and abused by someone, and all sorts of stuff that I didn't want to read. While it was very sympathetic, they argued that x things should be censored, and nobody should be allowed to write toxic relationships, because they "knew just how bad that trauma could be," and they implored me to believe them. But even if they do have firsthand experience with that trauma, and they feel so strongly about it, does that really make their argument any more logical?

I'm convinced these people still had unprocessed trauma, so they were acting with their feelings, not their brain. I got this impression from how they completely trauma-dumped on me - I kid you not, it felt like they had to get this stuff out somehow, because they hadn't been given enough opportunity to vent before. One of these people who were in my inbox? They legitimately seemed desperate to get me to accept what they were saying. Now, it could've been a bucket of fake bullshit. But if it was real, I have to wonder how much of the incessant campaigning for censorship is actually a misguided way for people to manage and make sense of trauma, to validate it somehow, and feel like they're getting control over a situation, even if they don't realize that's what they're trying to do.

Not to claim people shouldn't be allowed to speak their minds. But, there's nuance. I feel like a lot of people in fandom need to wrap their heads around the fact that there is a large difference between being informed by trauma, and letting trauma speak for you. And the latter can often lead to bad outcomes.

--

[thewoollyviking]

There’s something that’s been bothering me about discussing the finale to SU (the finale to the main series that is, not future) that I hear often.

Namely, that Steven’s success in getting the Diamonds, especially White, to change their ways is meant to be a sort of escapist fantasy where you can somehow reach out to your bigoted, hyper conservative family and get them to change their mind.

For a while I was sympathetic to that. I understand that in the last few years a lot of people, especially anybody living in the US, have had to cut ties with their family for one reason or another, and that this ending can be comforting. Perhaps even enough to inspire hope that maybe one day, they themselves could do the same with their friends or family.

But in the last few years I just feel like this need to cling to that fantasy has aged poorly and might even be more harmful than hopeful.

I wonder how many people watched the show and thought that if they just said the right thing or had the right argument, they could reach out to that person they had to ghost for a while and pull them out of that rabbit hole.

But whenever I do hear about or talk to people who have tried to do that, who try to talk them out and change their mind, all I hear about is how emotionally draining it is. How much that person just hurts them bu basically spitting in their face. Ever since 2020 these people have just become impossible to talk to because they aren’t interested in having their mind changed.

If you have a friend or family member that traded their principles for a red hat, they’re not going to care about your arguments.

The people who stay and try to get those people to change just keep hurting themselves. And the people they’re trying to reach out to are either too lost in the sauce to see how they’re hurting them, or they do know and revel in it.

It’s why I can’t help but feel like Steven was kind of coddled by the narrative and given an easy out (most likely because CN was threatening to pull the plug after the Garnet Wedding) to make for a nicer ending to the story.

But in a way it cheapens other elements of the story. Are we to assume then that Rose could have reasoned with White and simply didn’t try as hard as Steven had? Did Steven just come off as more convincing and charismatic than Rose? Is the nonstop demonization of Rose after season 5 suggesting that Rose should never have ran away and instead should have stayed to suffer under the Diamonds abuse in the slim hope that she could get them to understand her?

What was so special about Steven that Rose lacked in getting them to finally change?

I don’t like the idea of this element of the story, the confrontation with the apathetic, abusive family of the protagonist’s mother, feeling like it has to end on such a perfect fairy tale ending when so much they had been everything but that.

We kept all that emotional ugliness and drama when it came to Rose and how losing her affected Steven’s family. Why choose to have the Diamonds walk away thinking they can be a happy family now with Steven, and why is Steven coddling them by letting them think they can have him be their stand-in for Rose without having to accept that she’s gone because of them?

Why not keep it here? Why not show that people like Rose and Steven don’t need to always change the minds of or gain the approval of people like White. That sometimes the best we can do is just to try and get away, cut ties, and strike out on your own for your own sake because they will never. stop. hurting you.

But if you can, the best you can do is try to take away whatever power that abuser is using over others. Not necessarily by killing them, but at least by making it so that they could never hurt somebody ever again.

That should have been how Steven dealt with White. Having to bitterly accept that she’d be a hateful, abusive piece of shit no matter what he said. But at least Yellow and Blue, two of Rose’s family who had thousands of years of grief to process before getting called out for their role in Rose’s abuse, would want to help in making things right.

It would not be a perfect fairy tale ending, but that would have at least been one that better handled the Diamonds as villains.

Because they are. And that’s something this fandom seems to have forgotten and instead in a confused stupor seemed to have slapped onto Rose.

[tanoraqui]

the thing is... JK Rowling did write the books. She certainly did write the books, which was the pivotal first step.

However, here is an incomplete list of people who meant more to my experience of reading and enjoying the Harry Potter books than JKR ever did:

My grandmother, who read them because she loved to read and because she wanted to understand what the hell her granddaughter - whom she'd recently moved 3,000 in part to live near - spent 90% of her time talking about; who passed away this past fall.

My other grandmother, who read them for more or less the same reason except without the cross-country move; who passed away in 2014. It was in her honor that I bought the current set of books I own.

The uncle-shaped family friend who always listened to me expound on my latest theories for the next book, and told me his own like an equal in intellectual debate

That one writer on Mugglenet's fanfiction archive who wrote a crack soap opera fic in which Professor McGonagall got pregnant from Crookshanks, and the children were cat-human hybrids whom they called "kiddens." That haunts me to this day.

Honestly, collectively every single person who wrote content, be it recordkeeping, fic, or analysis, for MuggleNet circa 2005-2008. Some people spent their internet-childhoods on Neopets or Club Penguin; I read every single page on MuggleNet.com.

The summer camp counselor who'd read HBP when I hadn't yet, and who responded to my positively tsundere attitude toward spoilers by telling me straight-faced that Harry started dating Luna [not Ginny]. A) The fucking audacity! she lied right to my annoying 10yo face! B) I got to experience the giddiness of finding out what happened twice, once then and again later when I read the book! Thank you, Natalie(?) from Y-Camp!

The two friends with whom I went to the DH midnight release party at my local secondhand bookstore, in closet cosplay. We were all in the first 5 people to get our books, and we promptly started reading them while standing outside the bookstore, in the light coming through the front window. 1 of them was parentally required to go to bed but the other and I stayed up all night reading, until we finished the books sometime mid-morning.

My dad, specifically when he (still) tells the story of having to make a "walk of shame" (his words) back to the bookstore the next afternoon, to ask if they had the broom we'd accidentally left behind.

The tourists from America, England, France and China who were all waiting in line at the Platform 9 3/4 overpriced photo op in King's Cross Station the same time I was, in the summer of 2013, which unironically made me feel more spiritually connected with humanity as a whole than possibly any other experience in my life. Like, this is embarrassing. It's a pure tourist trap. Yet people from LITERALLY all around the world had all made the same journey I had to be there, just because we all loved the same books. and that's...really special.

...you know? So, JKR is doing real harm to the trans community now, and will continue to do more and maybe even worse in the future; and I am so, so sympathetic and angry about that. I have no intention of giving her money or any other support ever again, nor of encouraging anyone else to do so.

But all her present vitriol is only drops in the lake of my warm memories. I don't let them give me a falsely rosy view of her, but nor will I let her poison them. And I encourage others to let themselves find the same balance, if they can.

[pizzabox-box]

Ah this is cringe as heck for me, but screw it, the last ask you got about a person not feeling much sympathy all for Peppi-No really was great, kudos to the OP of that comment since it really got me thinking, why even if I agree what the dude is doing is awful... I actually feel pretty fucking bad for him XD.

Like, I think we can all agree we've done shit in our lives that wasn't great, and that doesn't diminish the harm done or the fact other people have gotten hurt from our own stupid decisions. I also just think sympathetic villains are so interesting. (when done right, and hell you could argue even if he is the protagonist of the DMW AU, Peppi-No is a bit of an anti-villian) it really makes you think about the fact its so normal for people do try to avoid the consequences of their actions. I'm sure everyone has done something bad and instead of admitting fault have doubled down and tried to save face because they were SURE they could "fix" it without getting hurt from it.

Sure most of the time, (...I hope) its not as bad as murdering a person and taking on their identity... I think there is something really human about wanting to not get hurt, and feeling like shit about regrets we've had.

I think that Peppi-No even if what he doing is wrong, still... I dunno I can empathize. I mean.. he's sooo sowwy 🥺, its kinda pathetic, like a more extreme version of a puppy that just destroyed something important to you. Like "awww... you asshole, you're so cute though but goddamn it..."

I both am loving the angst of this AU and know its going to be so cathartic to see Peppi-no finally deal with his lie blowing up in his face and suffering MORE >:). I feel sympathy yes but I also love angst hehe.

(sorry if that wasn't super well worded? I don't normally send things like these >//>)

I assure you, it’s not cringe! It’s nice to see both sides voice their opinions!

Personally, I’m pretty divided on how I feel about Peppi-no. Part of me wants to strangle him for what he did (and what he might still do*cough* ), but at the same time, he’s,like you said, a sad, pathetic "sowwy" puppy, and I can’t help but feel bad for him.

When he took a piece of Peppino, he may have gained a conscience but not emotional maturity. He’s like a kid who just realized he fucked up in the worst way possible and is terrified of the consequenses. And fear can drive people to do terrible things, after all. Before that, his entire existence was just scrambling around, making pizzas out of whatever he could find: pigs, other clones, pizza monsters. He ended many lives, that but never faced any sort of repercussions. Never got a chance to learn "murder bad" ,

Then he takes a bite out of one of the kind Peppino—bam! Conscience, coherent thoughts, and memories of the guy he killed flood into his head. Can you imagine the whiplash, the shock, the stress? I certainly can’t.

Obviously, I’m not some dough doppelgänger pretending to be someone I killed. That would just be silly… no, really, I’m not.. But I can relate a little to what Peppi-no’s going through.

And let’s be honest, how many of us would have the absolute balls of steel to admit we killed someone’s friend in cold blood? Sure, it’s the morally right thing to do, but… you know. I’m not sure I could. (Once again purely hypothetical scenario)

Peppi-no's actions are unexcusable, he should know better than this by now, but at the same time you can kinda understand why he acts the way he does.

[spacerockfloater]

Hi.

It's so disheartening to see how a big chunk of TG turned on Aemond and Alicent and only support Aegon now. I deeply dislike most of the writing decisions this season, but people seem to forget that these decisions didn't harm only Aegon's character, but also Aemond, Alicent and Criston's, I would say even more than Aegon's. Nevertheless, after the last week episode I've seen a lot of TG hate directed towards Alicent and Aemond that reminded me of TB discourse and it's just sad.

I would love to hear your opinion on this. Thanks in advance.

Hello there friend! Thank you so much for sending me this ask!

Sigh. This is such a complicated issue. As a fellow TG supporter said recently in one of my posts, us turning against the Targtowers and hating them was exactly what Ryan Condal wanted.

They accidentally made them too sympathetic and righteous in the first season, so they had to ruin them to remind the public of whom they are supposed to hate. It’s sickening.

Alicent’s whole journey was about understanding that she needs to be more fierce and demanding to help her family survive. The first season ended with her being ruthless and ready to sacrifice everything for her children. But now she has regressed back to herself from the first half of S1, a scared little girl that doesn’t have the guts to do what must be done and loses all hope the moment the first tragedy comes her way.

Aegon’s whole journey was him overcoming his bullying tendencies and genuinely supporting his brother and his family. He may have initiated the pink dread incident but when his mother told him to cut the bullshit and stop acting like his nephews are his friends, he had no problem knocking Jace to the floor during practice. He stood tall when his brother was disabled and refused to name his mother as the one who spread the rumour(!) of Nyra’s children being bastards. He spoke his truth with his whole chest. Years later, the moment Aemond rose to answer to Lucerys’s mockery, he was right beside him, toasting with him and smashing Luc’s head on the table. And finally, when everyone turned on Aemond for taking his revenge, it was Aegon who demanded Aemond remain in his council, because that was his brother, his best sword and he wanted him there, even if their mother could not bare to look at him. Aegon rose to the occasion and was ready to become a better person, he seemed to genuinely want to serve his subjects. He loved nothing more in the world than his son and his death tore him apart. But suddenly, next episode he has forgotten all about it and is back at bullying Aemond again? That’s just none-sense. All that character development for nothing.

I did feel like Aemond burning his brother alive went from 0 to 100 real quick. He already got his lick back when he made a fool of Aegon in front of his own council. Aemond is a calculating person. He would know that talking Aegon out of the way would cause more harm than good.

Their relationship has been destroyed. Every TG member hates the others. Ultimately, I think we just have to accept this is bad writing and let go of the show because yikes.

However, if we want to discuss show canon, we should keep the characters accountable for their actions and unfortunately, I am displeased with all of them except from Criston. I’ll keep supporting Aegon, Aemond and Alicent but I must also criticise them for the things that they do if I want to be fair.

That being said, I can see why Alicent is horrified by Aemond’s actions. I can see why people think Aemond went too damn far. At the same time, I can see that Aemond would never just sit down and accept being abused. Add to that his not so secret desire to be king, and you can see why he wouldn’t think twice about turning his brother to ashes.

All in all, I think that every opinion is justified and that we must wait for the new episode to air (Aemond’s interactions with Aegon and Alicent are essential) for some additional insight on the incident of Rook’s Rest.

[thebreakfastgenie]

Wheelers and Dealers is one of BJ's least sympathetic breakdowns--not only to me, but to the other characters in-universe--but it's also probably the episode that most effectively explains his whole deal. That's because Wheelers and Dealers reveals a new piece of backstory: BJ had the chance to dodge the draft. Hawkeye jokes about being an unsuccessful draft dodger and Klinger talks about his various attempts, but BJ had what neither of them did: an actual, for real ticket out.

I could've gotten out of the draft, like Ned Gradinger. Big all American hero from Stanford. Medical deferment, signed by that eminent physician Ned Gradinger, Sr., who offered the same to me, but I was a good guy.

Within this episode, this new detail explains why BJ feels so intensely guilty about his family struggling in his absence. It also explains his anger that people like him because of his "good guy" personality. One level to that is the fear that if he does something selfish or less than good no one will like him anymore. But I think that's secondary to something else:

Everybody wants to play when it's lovable Doc Hunnicutt, gentleman loser. But let me win a few, it's like I committed a crime.

If BJ had "won one" by dodging the draft, he would have committed a crime. I think that's what he's speaking to, here, more than a fear of losing people by expressing human failings. After all, he does express human failings all the time, and he's hardly ever blamed for them. Now, the continuity on MASH is loose at best, so I don't for a moment imagine the writers planned this bit of lore from BJ's introduction, or that intended it to apply retroactively. But let's do that anyway.

What sets BJ apart from Hawkeye and Trapper and even to some extent from other characters is a certain respect for the rules and faith in the institutions of American life. It makes sense for someone from a more comfortable, middle class background to have that attitude. It's why Margaret and Frank set their sights on him initially. Of course, this aspect of BJ is deconstructed as he comes face to face with war and with rules that are transparently arbitrary or even morally wrong. But he really digs in his heels. Just look at Preventative Medicine, where he rigidly adheres to a code of medical ethics and a definition of "harm" that feels almost absurd in a war zone. (Can an army surgeon "do no harm?" Ask Hawkeye in Letters or BJ in Bombshells.)

Of course, this makes a lot more sense when you put it in the context of BJ being drafted because he strictly adhered to the rules, to a rigid idea of right and wrong. Of course BJ clings to the rules; he desperately needs to believe they mean something. If the rules don't matter, if right and wrong aren't so simple, he allowed himself to be drafted for nothing. He allowed himself to be taken from his family, to be made into a soldier, to witness some of the worst things a human being can witness, to get used to the horror, to do things he would never otherwise do, because he believed he was doing the right thing. If doing the right thing doesn't mean anything, he let all that happen for no reason at all. That's a hell of a thing to come to terms with.

Now, what's the big moral argument against draft dodging, if you don't believe in serving your country? If you don't go, someone else will have to go in your place. Now look at Period of Adjustment.

Radar's home, Hawk. I should be glad for him. But I'm not! I'm so torn up with envy, I almost hate him! And I feel the same way about Trapper, and I never even met him.

BJ hates them for being home when he's not. Invoking Trapper here is powerful, because on a meta level and to some extent in-universe, BJ is literally there because Trapper is not. If BJ had taken the draft dodge, someone else would be suffering over here. If he'd won one, he'd have condemned someone else to that fate. Is that some kind of crime, not legally, but morally? Here, BJ is on the other side. Trapper and Radar won a hand: they got to go home. BJ is trying to be lovable Doc Hunnicutt, happy for their good fortune, gracefully accepting that he has to stay. But for once he can't quite do it. This is also one of the only times in the series we see someone really, furiously envious about another character going home, which isn't really relevant here but I thought it was interesting enough to highlight. This fits with how I've described Period of Adjustment from BJ's perspective before, as a shattering of the illusion they all use to get through each day.

Essentially, BJ clings desperately to the rules because all the worst things that have happened to him are things he accepted as consequences of doing the right thing. He accepted them naively, the war is worse than he could have imagined, and the possibility that on top of that, his reason for accepting them was meaningless is kind of unbearable.

[utilitycaster]

I've talked before about how the metaphor of Imogen's powers as queerness or neurodivergence fails miserably in trying to understand her time in Gelvaan due to the implications it bears; but a place where it does work is in understanding her relationship to Liliana.

It's a bit difficult because Liliana left when Imogen was so young, and so they lack a strong parental bond, but it reminds me of some parents who grew up without their neurodivergence or mental illness being diagnosed, or who suppressed their sexuality or gender expression due to the time in which they grew up and are then confronted with a child with that diagnosis or with that information and improved acceptance. Her response, rather than to nurture Imogen and perhaps even learn from the way things have changed is to stick to the "right" way to deal with her own issues and insist her child to do the same despite their wishes - with fantasy Qanon thrown into the mix.

It's not a perfect one-to-one in real life, obviously; there are plenty of parents who, when confronted with their child's autism or genderfluidity say "oh, huh, this explains a lot of things about myself" and learn from it and explore what they thought was "wrong" about them and often find new joy in adulthood from it. But there are many Lilianas as well; the people who say "well in my day you just needed to work harder and stop getting so easily distracted", and who punish and who push their own coping mechanisms they understandably developed for themselves but which are not healthy for their children, in a slightly more informed and understanding world, to adopt. Liliana is representative of this deeply sympathetic but also immensely conservative and harmful mindset.

I think what tempers my sympathy for Liliana is that she was not there for Imogen at any point, and is now pushing this without even attempting to listen to Imogen's repeated requests for answers or assistance. Had she been present, and had she been guiding Imogen through her powers when they appeared, then this would be a much more heartbreaking scenario, of Liliana genuinely trying to help but being stuck in her ways after so many years (and perhaps even terrified to try something else, given how hard it was to get to a place of numbness rather than outright pain). As is, however, her story is tragic, but my heartbreak is entirely reserved for Imogen. To continue the metaphor, Liliana left the people trying to understand and mitigate and even fight stigma, and fell in with the liars promising a cure, and in the process not just abandoned her child without even the flawed resources she'd had, but indeed worked with people who sought to destroy them.

[snakegorl212006]

FF16 pairs react to gender netural reader who was isekai-ed had cancer back in our world and thought they didn't have it anymore when they woke up in Valisthea, but realize they do, know they won't have much time left since chemo isn't a thing in Valisthea. and worked up the courage to tell them. (Also the ff16 pairs already know reader is from another world)

S/O with any incurable and harmful illness(like cancer or something)

(warning: reader death, death topics, illness, minor angst, minor spoilers)

========Clive + Jill==============

-they’ll be devastated if they knew -both would try ways to cure it

they would be as supported and involve in your life -they’ll shower you with attention and make sure you can do anything the world has to offer(that’s safe and in there limits) -jill would try to ignore the illness as he thinks that would make the situation worse -clive would also try but it’s more obvious he’s bothered by your illness because it reminds him of his brother -if you manage to beat your illness and survive longer than was expected that would be fantastic and you’d see them both cry with joy -if not and you just get worse or even pass away they’ll be devastated -it would take a while to get over the fact that they can’t do anything -that feeling of helplessness has plague them for most of the journey together and your passing from your illness is a nail in the coffin for them -they would try to move on and help free the world in cid’s and your name

=======Joshua + jote=============

-some one give jote a break plez -great now there’s two terminally ill people in the group -Jote would confine you to the same treatment as joshua -she would constantly check up on you when on the road -joshua is more sympathetic to your condition -joshua is dying from his eikon and you are sick from your illness -Jote and joshua would continue trying to find cures for you even when everything is lost -if you survive your illness at the end jote would be happy that you beat your illness on your own and would be proud about how strong willed you are -joshua would be the same -if you pass away before joshua did they would be heart broken and after everything is over, jote would continue her research into your illness and try to find a cure so this doesn't happen to anyone else -joshua would continue his mission in your honor

====Cid===============

-doesn't show that he’s bothered by it but inside he’s freaking devastated about it -he doesn't let your ailment ruin things and how everything is going -he takes you out more and incorporate you in activities that you might enjoy -he understand that this will affect you in the long run so he tries to include you in less missions -if you survive your illness, he’d throw a celebration for you. A small one with just the two of you -if not he’ll visit your grave every time he could -when he too passes away, he would want to be next to you

====Benedikta============

-no no no no no no no N O! -your not sick -your not ill -your NOT leaving her -she’ll down right ignore your illness until you end up exhausted and week from it -she would take her frustration on the medical staff for not curing you and would punish them if they fail to do so -slowly she would give up hope for a cure -she would lock you away to make sure you don’t get infected with anything else -she would take you out to the nieces places just to see you smile for she believes it might be the last she might see it -she would consider killing you herself so she can end this on her terms but could never bring herself to do it -if you pass from your illness, she would become empty a deeper shell of herself -would return to her more canon behavior but more depress and cruel -last resort she would beg barnabas to turn you into an akashic like him -if you live and survive, she’ll take every part of your recovery and will be more careful with you -she doesn't want to lose someone she loves -never again…

======Dion + terence==============

-also on a denial streak but more reasonable -much like Joshua and jote they would try endlessly to cure you -definitely treat you like broken glass unless you say otherwise -Both would visit you more often -after some decision, dion would try to give you lavish treatment to the best doctors to keep your condition stable -this would let the king know that you exist as Dion’s lover(that’s another issue that i might make separate headcanon if you get discovered on normal circumstances) -Terence would give you gifts and spend more time planning fun thing you all would enjoy -Dion would also take time away from his duties just to take you to do anything you wish -if you pass away, both would be devastated -If you live, they’ll be ecstatic and probably would make your relationship more public tbh -unless you still want to keep some privacy -but life would never be the same if you gotten better

====Barnabas + Sleipnir============

-not even bothered by it -they love you yes but death won’t stop them from being together -unlike everyone on this list, i don’t think they’ll try to find a cure after you given the info that your sick and it’s not curable by the technology in this world -they would spend time with you more than they already did -will be stricter with your time outside with others -if your illness becomes too much(like hair loss or bodily weakness) they would offer you to turn into an akashic much like barnabas -if you were about to die this won’t be a choice -you’ll become a akashic at the end of the day

====Hugo============

-calmer denial -like Benedikta he would be heartbroken and can’t comprehend losing you -would punish doctors who failed at curing you and won’t stop until you feel better or get rid of the ailment -unlike the others, his desire to help you could draw him away from you and bury himself into saving you -he would spend money on different experimental techniques into helping you -seeing you get worse breaks his heart and sometimes avoid seeing you like this, if you end up getting worse. -if you end up passing he’ll blame himself for not trying harder and would dedicate time and resources into making a memorial for you -if you live he’ll break down -you would hardly see this man to be completely vulnerable with you but this would be the few and i mean very few times he would crack -he loves you so much..

[serialsunset]

All the time I wonder why I want so badly for there to be something redemptive in Isaac, some sort of way for him to get a happy ending, something that would make him even deserving of that in the first place.

It goes beyond just appreciating a camp villain who’s evil and doesn’t care (though I also have fun with that). I just want him to be okay and I don’t know why.

Okay the following is just going to be a biblical yap session so I’m putting a cut here

There’s Julia of course, I mean who doesn’t love an evil guy with a soft spot for family. But in all (3) of their canon interactions he’s at best dismissive and at worst abusive towards her. Sure there’s implied stuff, like how he forgave her for running from the castle but wouldn’t do the same for Hector; how he stopped the fight in Cordova town and recalled Abel the second she showed up; the fact that she’s lived in the shadow of the castle for years and has been left alone. But that’s all conjecture, and in the text the only one who seems to care at all about the other is Julia.

There’s also his self-destructive nature. Isaac isn’t kind to himself, he self harms and he hangs naked and vulnerable around the wreckage of his old home. He insists on fighting Hector only when Hector is as powerful as possible, he goes head to head with Trevor and barely scrapes a drop of blood out of him, before deciding later to get as close as possible to him to steal his dagger instead of just killing him from a safe distance. He just clearly doesn’t care that much about his life, and my instinct is to feel bad for him. But, then what? He hurts himself as well as hurting the people around him? Do I feel sorry for him just because he was reckless when going for the kill shot on another extremely beloved character? And again, most of this is just me placing my readings on his actions. If anything, the manga portrays Isaac’s self harm as him just being insane. He’s sitting in the ruined castle, naked, and spying on Hector while he cuts himself, it’s not exactly a sympathetic portrayal of mental illness.

The only thing left I can think of, and kind of the most obvious answer, is that the game exonerates him of his actions pretty blatantly. He’s cursed, there’s a curse that gives you raging vindictive asshole disease and Isaac’s been hanging around ground zero for three years straight. How convenient! Now, it’s mainly Julia championing this point, so you can argue that she’s just biased, but the game seems to treat it like she’s right and even Hector remarks on it at the end, so I’m going to treat it as canon. Isaac got the Evil Curse that makes you Evil and became Evil. So I got what I wanted! Isaac is just a morally neutral guy who became evil against his own will from outside sources, and all he needs is the cure to the Evil disease and he can be redeemed! A perfect sympathetic villain.

But the problem is I really really fucking hate that.

I hate even the implication from the game that the curse is responsible for Isaac’s wrongdoings. I’m fine with Julia coming to that conclusion but it shouldn’t be canon. Taking away any character’s agency in their actions is bad storytelling and if that’s the sole reason Isaac becomes sympathetic I don’t want it, I’d rather he be straight up irredeemably evil of his own accord.

So my main two reasons for wanting to Save Isaac are purely me projecting, and the one that could possibly make sense in the story is one that I reject completely. So why do I still love him and why is he just a poor little baby who needs a hug.

Well, straight up text isn’t the only way to read a story. If that was the case then there wouldn’t be a legion of dorks like me dedicating every waking thought to the stories and the characters of these games. Reading between the lines is how you form a better understanding of the characters. Sure, aside from a few lines saying that it’s not his fault he got Magic Evil Disease the game doesn’t hold your hand and say this boy is good and you should root for him, but you don’t need that. you just need to obsess over things and analyze every single twitch of the mocap actors body until Isaac fits your desired characterization, then you can do all KINDS of stuff with him, like make him a good brother, or force him to work at Walmart (stay tuned).

Also, I identify with Isaac in a lot of ways. He is an other, deemed to be so by society. he can’t help the way that he is and rather than repress it, he goes off to find a place where he can embrace it and better understand it. He presents himself in an extreme way, rejects normalcy and molds himself to look how he wants to, regardless of how anybody will perceive him. And yet despite all of his he struggles with identity, struggles to find a place in the world after the thing he depended on so much is taken from him. He’s also super hot and sexy and cool, just a total knockout, but not like he’s trying to impress anyone or anything, he’s just like that.

So many relatable traits, he is at once someone I aspire towards and someone who reflects the parts of me I wish I could change. I want him to succeed, to get out of his toxic grief cycle and flourish. partly because I want myself to succeed, and overcome the just as important and harrowing obstacles of my own life.

I love Isaac, as a character, as an antagonist, as a little doll that I can dress up and put into different scenarios. And you know what maybe that’s all I really need. I love him and want him to be happy, because I love him and that’s what I want for him. Okay post cancelled I figured it out, only took me 10 paragraphs oh my god.

Sorry this was literal eons long, this is literally just me working through my thoughts in real time

[dootznbootz]

Literally just found out about you today and I'm already follow in you. As fellow tele-GONE-y hater, I absolutely stan with all the hate we have for that stupid fan fiction. Circe used to be one of my favorite books, I still think the writing is good. But when you look at the original source material? Yikes- I don't get why Miller chose CIRCE out of everyone. If she wanted to write a feministic story that's fine. But why chose a female character whom you have to make better and corrupt all the other characters in the source material so that Circe is more sympathetic? Why couldn't she write a TRUE feministic story about some other character?? I personally would've loved a story about Nausikaa. Which would make more sense considering she is a character who is often forgotten in most retellings of the Odyssey.

Circe isn't a sympathetic character, she was never supposed to be one. To make her sympathetic is to make everyone around her terrible. I'm so angry when people use this book for insight on Circe character because it is so different to actual Circe.

I'm also so very salty about what she did to my boy Hermes because what.

Thank you so much!!! Sorry this took a while to answer! Thankfully most folks are not a fan of the Tele-GONE-y either :'D it's mostly the "well, actually" folks who talk about it. >:(

"If she wanted to write a feministic story that's fine. But why choose a female character whom you have to make better and corrupt all the other characters in the source material so that Circe is more sympathetic?"

This right here, is exactly how I feel with so many of these "feminist retellings". Feminism is about lifting each other up. If you have to make everybody else "worse" to make your main character better, then...that's just not good storytelling.

This goes along with the whole "all men are bad no matter what" that happens all the time and I hate it so much. Even if the system may be sexist, that does not mean that every single male agrees with it.

You put everything into words well but I like to ramble so Ima say shit too but it's basically the same thing lol

With the whole "every horrible thing Circe has done is done fo a reason. she's defending herself, she was wronged, men are so evil uwu" is just fucking lazy and SUCKS. >:( LET WOMEN BE FLAWED, COWARDS!

I actually really love Odyssey Circe as a character. She's morally gray and does whatever she wants as a goddess. Yes, she terrifies Odysseus but she's COMPLEX. Why does she need a reason to turn men into pigs? Why can't she just do it "for funsies"?

I think it takes away from her as a goddess to always have a reason for her to do the things she does, you know? Immortals are fickle and don't have the same morals as mortals. I think Miller changed so much as "to have a morally gray protagonist?? No, that's wrong!" which BORING!!!!!!!

I fucking love Penelope. But I still have her a lil mean and even a bit snooty sometimes as her and Odysseus are like-minded. Hubris would be her downfall as well. She is petty and holds grudges like no other. because she's a PERSON. Not "bland empowerment in a can for everyone to consume". Ofc, she has her wonderful qualities like her intelligence, devotion, determination, and yes, she does have her kind moments (she goes 0 to 100% real quick. She takes the "Do no harm, Take no shit" phrase to the extremes. lol)

But honestly? I think there's a real problem in writing in many YA books and especially in fandom where people treat female characters as goddesses (which yes, understandable) but then they can't...make her human you know? Almost like they cannot see any of the woman's flaws or even WANT her to have flaws because "woman doing a bad thing that isn't done 'cutely' ("endearingly clumsy", "quirky chatterbox", etc. traits that are usually not the greatest are "cute" now simply because she's a woman. Maybe a love interest sees her that way but those traits would probably be considered annoying to many others.) regardless is antifeminist"

And even then, so many things that I want to write about are what many would consider feminist when...She's just existing. And I'm getting silly with it. Penelope is athletic and a naiad (75% but you know. with her parentage) but I don't write her that way TO make it feminist. I'm not doing it for that. I just like tiny but mighty wife ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I don't plan to write other women as "lesser" for not being athletic for example. Anticlea doesn't understand why Penelope likes doing that stuff but she's still supportive and they enjoy weaving together. I am NEVER putting down another female character for not being "girlboss" enough.

I really hate that this book has made people constantly bring up the Tele-GONE-y AND Shittalking all of them. I don't like looking at retellings and seeing "a new feminist take". Usually goes against the entire story to begin with. Often portraying good male characters in the original as "bad and horrible".

Also no hate to those that enjoy Circe the Book, but to me, it sounds like trauma porn. adding rapes that were never there, making the victim of the situation the PERPATRATOR because, clearly, a man cannot be a victim. I heard about her hating being a mom despite her literally having servants and she's a GODDESS in the Odyssey. She could literally have a nanny/nurse if she wanted.

Fun fact: I was watching a video essay about villainesses and how to write them well and as soon as it started to talk about historical villainesses and how Circe was a "femme fatale", I exited the video. She's an "antagonist", she lets them stay there but she's still...Not GOOD. To be a femme fatale means to usually seduce. She does not seduce Odysseus. He was literally commanded to by Hermes and her.

[incesthemes]

I'm coming to bother you even though you're asleep because your sad long dead gay arctic explorers are haunting me so you have to deal with the consequences of your actions by me asking you to talk.

I'm curious to know your thoughts on Tuunbaq. How well you think he worked as a plot device in general in the amc, whether the book portrayed it in any different ways (I believe you said you read the book, might be wrong, ignore this if you had), anything interesting you've happened to read about it through your other research into the sad dead tent men, whether you really really fucking hated the cgi, etc.

I'll be back to haunt you with questions about Jopson but right now my brain is just record scratch sounds and sobbing so you're gonna have to wait for something coherent to come out of that mess lol

i am AWAKE now and i gotta say i wasn't expecting the jopson talk last night to lead into tuunbaq but that's okay. he's my perfect fluffy wuffy teddy bear who can do no wrong

i think others have said this kinda thing better than i ever could, but i really do like how tuunbaq is used in the show. he's like a manifestation of colonial hubris—the embodiment of fuck around and find out. they came to the arctic and destroyed the ecosystem, and their imperialist entitlement to conquer the land was inevitably their downfall. and i like that it's the "land" itself (in a metaphorical way, through tuunbaq) that shows them that entitlement is nothing but a false, vain hope. it doesn't matter what you think you're owed; the world doesn't exist for you to exploit and command, and it will not bend to your will.

because like, if gore and bryant had hesitated before shooting the shaman, tuunbaq likely would never have been a problem for them, right? he certainly wasn't in the 8 months since they'd gotten stuck in the pack. had they been peaceful and had they respected the land and its people, nature never would have clapped back. it was retaliation and defense. and the explorers' escalation of the issue—trying to hunt the bear, again out of entitlement to conquer and dominate—only caused further harm. they paid the ultimate price because they couldn't let go of their own entitlement and imperialism. they refused to listen to the netsilik, they pursued vengeance and sought dominion, and they died.

(i think about that inuit account a lot where it was said that the netsilik provided a group of starving men with an igloo and seals to eat, and they came back months later to discover the seals untouched and the men consumed. that they chose cannibalism over adaption to the local food sources is a horror in itself and an exemplar of the hubris these men carried with them—while the show depicts them as more sympathetic to the netsilik (really hard to get worse than this real account, no matter how hostile the show characters are), i think it does a good job of presenting the mindset of the real expedition)

i haven't read the book though, and based on the reviews i've seen of it i don't have much motivation to either. i may end up reading it in the future but i don't currently have plans for it. as for the tuunbaq himself, i don't think much(?) of him was actually cgi! he has a whole uhhhhh like. i don't know the word or i've forgotten what it is. but he's real:

i don't know much about his production though, and i actually thought he was cgi too until i saw this picture!!! the actual cgi from what i've seen of it (i haven't had much of a chance to look at the BTS stuff tbh...) is really well done. i didn't even realize they weren't like, submerging these poor actors in frozen water until i saw the greenscreen 😭

for tuunbaq's design, i don't know. i've become endeared to his weird human face, but i prefer the Long Neck version which is apparently the book description of him. i just think it's crazy and kooky, and the fanart i've seen of the book tuunbaq is just so awesome. sufficiently creepy for a "monster" but also extremely compelling.

anyway i love tuunbaq. he's the chilling manifestation of colonial hubris. he's blanky's wife. he's my good buddy and best friend. i'm his biggest fan forever 💖

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

Apparently when Aang was depressed and suggested that maybe they should abandon hope, he was actually ordering/Forcing The pregnant Couple to accept air nomad beliefs.

Also Aang apparently Regularly disrespects and refuses to learn from other cultures and Aang actually isn’t even a good airbender because somehow even though he regularly airbends, we don’t see him practicing at all.

Finally even though Aang allowed Katara to take Appa and acknowledged that she believes that she needs to go on the journey to Yon rha, Aang was forcing Katara to murder Yon Rha.

What show were Aang’s detractors watching?

I love the implication that somethings as simple as "having hope" is considered "Air-nomad exclusive belief", when that's a big theme throught the whole show and we have IROH telling Zuko not to give into despair, and explaining to the crew on "The Storm" that Zuko is so obsessed with capturing the Avatar because that mission allows him to hope he can come home and fix things with his dad.

They REALLY think that "pacifist" (which IS an air-nomad thing) MUST mean "hopeful, optimistic and cheery" like Aang - like we didn't see the air-nomads clearly freaking out so bad that they tell Aang he is the Avatar four years ahead of time, getting pissed whenever he is having any fun, and even want to separate him from his "father" because they knew something bad was gonna happen. Aka, they gave into despair.

As for him "forcing" the couple to give that name to their child

Husband: What should we name her?

Wife: I want our daughter's name to be unique. I want it to mean something.

Aang:  I've been going through a really hard time lately. But you've made me ... hopeful again.

Wife: I know what I want to name our baby now. Hope.

Husband: That's a perfect name. Hope.

That was a suggestion at most. Not an order, not intimidating them into doing what he wanted them to, and surely not forcing them to accept "air-nomad beliefs."

"The guy who spent the whole series traveling around to learn from different people, and was so understanding he was even sympathetic to the nation that killed everyone he knew and loved, did not respect other cultures" Bruh.

Literally the only two "disrespectful" things I remember Aang doing were:

1 - That bitter comment about "dead animals" towards Bato - which he only made because he was feeling left out of the conversation since his friends were so excited about being with someone from their tribe that they were completely ignoring him. Not cool, but totally understanding considering he's 12.

2 - Snapping at Pakku for not wanting to train Katara/trying to teach her what he was taught behind his back (even though the second one is on shaky ground since, even though that was a bit of a "cheat code" to make Pakku train Katara indirectly, he doesn't have the right to demand Aang never share his knowledge with someone he doesn't approve of)

And both of these, on top of being understandable, also have the disclaimer of "You can disagree with someone's beliefs/cultural habits without looking down on them" - hell, Katara full on says Gran-Gran left because she wouldn't let the Northern Water Tribes stupid customs ruin her life. Not to mention, the Fire Nation's culture for at least 100 years has been "fuck everyone else, only our way of living is the correct one" and the whole point of the show is "This belief is not only wrong and hurting the other nation, it is harming the Fire Nation itself"

"It's my culture" is a neutral statement. It does not shield said culture from criticism, and Aang disagreeing with someone's beliefs - be it that hunting/eating meat is okay, or that women can't be fighters, or that not all life is sacred - is not the same as him being disrespectful. He owes people basic human decency, not blind agreement with anything and everything they believe in.

So yeah, these people need to keep. Aang's. Name. OUT. THEIR. FUCKING. MOUTH.

[alyceinwonderland777]

I need to vent because some people are just dumb as hell

A few minutes ago I was messing around and came across a post on Reddit where a user was criticizing a post about Alastor that they read here on Tumblr.

Basically, the Tumblr post in question was saying that the fact that Vivziepop portrayed Alastor as charming, sexy and with a sympathetic side is problematic because, according to them, it erases the harm that Alastor has done to his victims. They also added that since Hazbin Hotel is a show for adults it should treat the topic seriously and not make the audience feel sympathy for a serial killer.

Now...let's unpack this.

You can write a villain as charming, sexy and/or sympathetic while at the same time making it clear that their actions are wrong. An example of this is Aro Volturi from the Twilight movies. He is not sympathetic, but he is extremely charming. Despite that the movies made very clear that his actions and the Volturi's actions are wrong. Is Aro charming? Yes. Does that erases the fucked up shit he did? No.

It all depends on how you depict things.

Nuanced and sympathetic characters show us that, except special cases, things aren't always black and white. A bad person can have positive traits and do good things from time to time and a good person can mess up. They also show us that sometimes unresolved traumas can lead a person to become dangerous to themself and others.

If you want my opinion, this black and white thinking is an almost fascist way of thinking.

Furthermore, since Hazbin Hotel is a show for adults, it's assumed that an adult is able to distinguish right from wrong. It's children who need moral guidance, not adults, so please leave us the fuck alone.

Furthermore, many serial killers have managed to attract their victims by exploiting charm. Two examples of this are those pieces of shit Ted Bundy and Rodney Alcala. These two freaks of nature lured many of their victims by appearing charming and charismatic. This is a fairly common move for serial killers, so portraying a fictional serial killer in this way is only accurate. It shows how even the most unsuspecting people can be ruthless and sadistic beings.

With that said, I'm done. Learn to think critically and expand your mind or you will end up becoming a bunch of breathing puppets.

Anyway here is the Reddit post. As I said in the beginning, OP was criticizing the Tumblr user who said all that bullcrap:

[hrodvitnon]

Regarding that one ask, I heavily disagree with it and I dare say that person is completely wrong about Godzilla's intentions. Based on what these pages from Godzilla Dominion shows, as a well as Mike Dougherty's own tweet regarding this fic, it's nowhere near as one-sided as some people think it is, and as you can see, Godzilla himself remembers Serizawa's sacrifice as well as the time he lived alongside humans, seeing as his definition of home is a place where he lived with humans that loved and worshipped him.

But wait, there's more! Before certain people come out and say that those aspects have been "retconned", Godzilla is shown to be sleeping peacefully at the Roman Colosseum in GxK, and in the novelization, it flat out says that he sleeps there because misses his old temple at KOTM and that he might still have a soft spot for people. Not to mention in GxK in general, Godzilla clearly has a connection with the Hollow Earth Iwi tribe. Who are, you know, humans.

Also Monarch: Legacy of Monsters further reaffirms that Godzilla is ultimately a benevolent being who's just doing his job keeping titans and humans from harming each other.

If people can accept the idea of a giant apes being benevolent protectors with zero strings attached, then there should be no problems accepting that the giant lizard is exactly like that too, especially because there's been no real evidence to say otherwise (and again, like the examples I've shown and mentioned, they actually further prove that Godzilla is indeed a benevolent protector and that Serizawa / Monarch, as well as other people who similarly trust in him like Shaw, is right to trust in him). And if people say that it can't be the case because "rEpTiLeS cAn'T fEeL fEeLiNgS jUsT LiKe MaMmAlS cAn", well then I am sorry to say, but Mothra disproves that just by existing.

Because hey, if you make a false equivalent between these fictional giant monsters and real life animals they took inspiration from, then by that same logic, Mothra should be an emotionless thing that acts only based on instincts and self-preservation because she's a giant insect. But she doesn't, and she's a genuine protector who also goes out of her way to avoid killing (even sparing those who attack her whenever she can) and in GxK, she even goes out of her way to save humans. Not even Kong did that in the movie btw, and if anything, the movie shows that Kong accidentally kills some humans in Egypt.

But yeah. It's really exhausting how these people just keeps reducing Godzilla's more nuanced character traits. Especially since Godzilla has always been a sympathetic character going as far back as the original 1954 movie (though Heisei era is the best example of that), but for some reason, these people now suddenly have a problem with that just because Godzilla shares screentime with Kong. And in these people's logic, Kong is Good because he's mammal and therefore relatable, while Godzilla is BAD because he's reptile and therefore "not relatable".

If people in real life can compare their pet lizards to dogs and treat them with as much love as they would a dog, we can have Good Guy Godzilla (who is still a big ol' grump willing to put down repeat offenders like Scylla while being nostalgic for humans and being anxious without Mothra's presence). It's okay. We can have a Godzilla who maintains the worldly balance while still being a proud warrior beast who enjoys fighting and when he's not fighting he can even feel lonesome in some way, these are not mutually exclusive.