#and what i hate about that trope in particular is that it infantilizes the other party by not giving their ideologies and beliefs the same

[valorxdrive]

[anon] give more controversial opinions :| [/anon]

FIRST OF ALL.

Yes, I do as a matter of fact.

And y'know these are interesting to explore! I'ma keep it relegated to KH brands of topics, and not let broader ones be an easy escape. So with that said!

Relationships within KH have been bastardized by the fansphere. (And to some degree canon as well.)

Now this is one that I've felt for a long while with the tonal shift of the internet. Where concepts outside of the loved and accepted were more or less hammered out. I want to actually take a moment to note how the idea of 'Found Family' and nailing the 'Caretaker' of a respective trio has done egregious harm in a series that can explore people walking their respective paths of life. The more popularized variation of events is usually 'The responsible' and 'The bundle that can't save their lives from a toaster'.

For two good examples of this, I'd like to bring Riku and Aqua respectively to the table. Aqua in particular and how she has been doomed pretty much to the 'Momqua' trope that I hate with my heart and soul.

This narrative of where she's some glorified babysitter has been heavily popularized. To where she's stern as an ironing board, beyond watchful, basically infantilizing the cast of characters where she can learn just as much from. Given this is a series where people from multiple walks, ventures and perceptions from what they've gained run prevalent, I say it runs really disrespectful overall. Being in the position to 'Look over' Terra and Ven as the Keyblade master of her group, a lot of this I'm certain leaned from her being the 'girl' of said group, thus the 'Mom friend.'

Perspectives of Riku falls to this except not as much of an extreme. From how I've seen fan perception, a lot of his status as a 'Guardian' translates to him being far removed. How he's the distant (and brooding) soul gridlocked into strictly 'protecting', being a source of wisdom, and in this case having that lens stuck to where this is all he's about. These characters aren't being given their shots to actually breathe and and dabble into their concepts of humanity that'd be cool to explore.

This also leads into the angle that I believe that over the course of KH's lifespan, the idea of 'Trios' have done a lot more harm than good. These locked sects help propagate a dynamic of where it's the 'Looked after' and the 'Guardian'. A series where valuable insight and crossing mismatchups can actually be pretty beneficial for a cast that empowers themselves on self-discovery.

Basically, you can boil this down to both misconceptions and overall missed potential.

For example, take the 'Sea Salt Trio' and a firm look at all they've went through. In particular, how there is a LOT that Axel has to actively answer for (on top of still slinging Saix along.) Can you picture this as the grounds where Roxas and Xion would want to easily forgive and forget? Could things be made better? Possibly, but aspects like this wind up being overshadowed by the previously stated dynamics.

Companions, as individuals crossing the other, I believe a lot more light finds itself well deserving of being perceived.

As for that bit that relates to Canon, this is mainly because despite having 'Trio' set ups, this is underutilized when it comes to the mainstay cast from console games as their journeys are often split apart. Group dynamics have been given a lot more polish/shine in the KHUX and Dark Road set ups.

@tenebrave

[wouldntyou-liketoknow]

Right back at you, buddy! 3, 5, 12, 13, and 19 for the behind-the-scenes ask game :D

~ @sammys-magical-au 🫶

(Thank you, Sammy~ 😊😊😊)

3 — Do you write fics from start to finish, or jump around?

When I officially started writing fanfics, I mainly jumped around with the plot until I was satisfied with how things went in the story. And that was years and years ago. More recently, I decided to try writing from start to finish, and honestly. . .I see it as sort of a bad habit? That's not to say it can't work for other writers, but it just seems to slow me down. So, I'm trying to unlearn it and go back to my old tricks.

Like, I tend to think of climax scenes first. You know, the really dramatic/important stuff because, well, it's dramatic/important. I feel that once I get those particular details out of the way, it'll be easier for me to write other stuff around it until the story is full. Plus, that type of format allows for random ideas to pop up and potentially make things even better.

5 — What is the perfect environment for you to write in?

Typically somewhere quiet with no distractions. I take meds for my autism and ADD, but I can still be tempted to focus on other things, thus procrastinating my stories. I don't like to, it just happens, and I'm still working on it.

When the weather is nice, I love riding my bike over to the library and just writing there for a few hours (so long as some disruptive asshole doesn't waltz into the areas that are CLEARLY MARKED FOR SILENT STUDY. It happens more frequently than I care to admit, but oh well. Not the end of the world).

But if I'm really focused/dedicated to the story at hand, then I can write pretty much anywhere. Just a year ago, I tagged along on a family vacation and seriously surprised myself via writing a full story for Goretober 2023 during the several-hour-long car ride. And I didn't feel carsick once, which was practically a miracle. I'd brought one of the cool-looking notebooks I'd collected on a whim, as well as a pencil and a lap-desk thing. I totally covered the entire backseat with eraser shavings, but it was worth it!

12 — Is there a trope you haven't written yet but really want to?

Hard to say; I've written with tons of tropes—I've definitely done so without even meaning to. If you've read my stuff, then it's probably very obvious which tropes are my personal favorites, but I still try to be open to new ones.

I suppose I haven't written Talking Animals, since the stories I've been focused on are somewhat set in reality (fictional, but not Fantasy, you know?). But I always loved seeing that when I was a kid. Since a lot of my fanegos have pets, perhaps I could write a snippet from said pets' perspective? I know it technically wouldn't count as them talking, but it'd be pretty close, right?

13 — Is there a trope you wouldn't write if it was the last trope on Earth?

It's a tie between two tropes, actually: Minority Character Dies First, and The Pure and The Promiscuous.

The former is completely stupid and racist/ableist/etc., and I don't understand how or why it's still being used in some movies or books today.

The latter is more complex, since it's typically used in romantic scenarios, which I don't write very often anyway. But I still hate it because it just seems insulting to the characters. Like, I can understand the appeal of having one character teach things to an inexperienced character, but the way I've seen it handled almost always leads to the character on the receiving end being infantilized or dumbed-down. Which is bullshit, because the character deserves more depth and thought than that!

19 — Who is the easiest/hardest character for you to write about? Why?

Maybe this is obvious, but fanegos are the easiest for me to write! True, sometimes I struggle a bit, since I want to have a balance of originality and a clear tie to the content-creator the fanego was inspired by. But otherwise, I make the rules. Canon egos also aren't too tricky for me to write; I feel like I'm pretty decent at learning/feeling a character's quirks to make that character seem authentic in fanfic settings.

One thing that's undeniably difficult for me to write is reader-inserts. No shame to those who have requested reader-insert fics from me, because I love engaging with people on here. The problem I have with it just seems to be my own self-consciousness. You already know why I tend to avoid shipping in fanfics, and I guess that also counts as a factor.

[Ask Game]

[berenices-commas]

Faebound - 2024 - Saara El-Arifi

This is a book I picked up weeks ago in an effort to read more SFF out of my comfort zone. (I do this periodically, even though my comfort zone rocks and is better than everyone else’s terrible zones.) I dropped it partway through, but came back to it the other day because it came up on the radio, and now it’s a big success story. So what is there to say?

I came into this hoping for a romance in a fantasy setting, and was disappointed. This is epic fantasy with the romance emphasised (and in that interview El-Arifi is, to her credit, quite upfront about this, that her publisher told her to market it as romantasy because that’s the hot new genre). It is very, very strongly influenced by contemporary YA, but this is heir not to Twilight, but to The Hunger Games with 300% more smouldering glances by volume.

That the book is selling well should perhaps be unsurprising, because it is essentially built around incorporating popular Goodreads tags. (In the interview there’s a lot of reference made to “tropes”, but really only one of these things is an actual trope.) In no particular order we have:

Sapphic: Yep, very much so.

Enemies to Lovers: I guesssss so. I mean, yes, sure, technically there are people who start out hating each other and end up fucking, but there’s just no real process of learning to appreciate each other or forming a connection or anything.

Queernorm: Sigh. In a horrifying, quasi-fascistic society dedicated to a total war prosecuted by enslaved child soldiers – nope, gender and sexuality have no political or social relevance, and nobody ever tries to control or define them.

African and Middle Eastern Magic: Honestly, this did not feel earned. It’s window-dressing, and scanty window-dressing at that. Fundamentally this is a book about elves and fairies, bog-standard stuff out of European folklore. I mean, it’s in the title!

And in the end that’s pretty much all there is to it. Daft plot, sketchy worldbuilding, and the characters are very thin. Which is a really big problem, given all the romance. We just are not given enough to care about these people, and they aren’t given enough to care about each other. El-Arifi’s solution is to have them simply become desperately, inexplicably horny whenever their designated partner comes into view. This is described as “spicy” in the interview, in a self-consciously infantile fashion that I can only assume is derived from TikTok somehow. Oddly, though, the actual sex is perfectly well written. This could have been an erotic novella and much better off for it.

(Oh, last thing. The titular bondage isn’t actually to fairies – you’re bound on the level of your soul to a giant, sentient cat. This feels like it should be a big deal, and the whole thing gets a lot of page space! But the book has no idea what to do with any of it, and the cats end up just sort of... being there. Bizarre.)

[y2kbugs-moved]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion Meme: Viktor Arcane? Or Jayce if you want to do Jayce Defense

 I want to do BOTH because these guys are a PAIR and should not be seperated. This WILL be long so I’ll put it under readmore

Jayce will go first because his character is still quite misunderstood by the fandom and he still gets unnecessary hate for some reason? He might be a flawed man (just as all the characters are), but I don't think anything he does warrants so much hate in my opinion?

Especially if you look at the context of the events within the series and how he reacts to these events, and knowing his background helps. He's a man who grew up privileged though he did have a traumatic childhood experience that was the driving force for his ambition in science and magic/hextech. His lifestyle beyond what happened when he was a child could probably be described as "comfortable".

But that could go on a whole rant about why he’s misunderstood by the fandom and why him being a flawed person does not make him a fundamentally bad person, and this is about good things I like about the character, so:

1. He’s very handsome. I’ll get this out of the way first, he’s super good looking and the designers knew that. He has the same eye color as Viktor and I’m a sucker for eyebrow scars! Also LOVE his hammer weapon. He looks a lot better than his game counterpart, and speaking of...

2. His personality and ambitions in the series are a lot more admirable and attractive to me than what I’ve seen from the game lore. He just seems a lot nicer (though grows bitter towards the end)? I get that he probably will spiral further into his game-self in some way in season 2 and that’s going to be something to see! I guess it is a corruption arc but on a smaller scale than Viktor’s. Kind of a fucked up Superman.

3. I adore his relationship with Viktor, especially when compared to the game again (at this point it sounds like I’m dissing on the game lore...I mean, the lore has some really good bits in it! And I’m sure the series will make use of those good parts of the lore! Just other parts are a little less...great and also can be inconsistent). He isn’t afraid to put his hand on Viktor’s shoulder or back and it’s usually pretty clear he cares for him, even if in some scenes it might not look like that (this could just be my interpretations of specific scenes however). I’m 100% of the interpretation that he always cared and his sudden promotion into a political position and the stress that came with it + the potential war from Zaunites coming on really jeopardized things for both characters, and from there we can see where they’re breaking up and going to spiral down. This is why their divorce era in season 2 is going to be even more tragic!

Now it’s Viktor’s turn! My blorbus maximus, the scrunkly etc etc Spamton who (I’m kidding, I still love him).

Viktor is also misunderstood but kind of in the opposite way to Jayce? I’m actually seeing similarities in how some of the Deltarune fandom treats Spamton when it comes to Viktor’s character, and that’s going to be something to consider when we get season 2 since we get his villain arc! But pretty much I’m seeing some similar ableism and infantilization of his character, making him seem weak and helpless and I get it, hurt/comfort is great but you can write that without going into offensive tropes and stereotypes?

1. Like Jayce, he’s also hot. In a very different way, though. I’ve always been really drawn to his eyes in particular, they’re so cool to me. How do people draw those? Teach me. But the other thing that makes him different is that, I feel like the animators still kept him attractive even as he got very sick? He’s hot in a Victorian period tragedy sort of way. I have a type.

2. Beyond just his looks, he is just such a good character in his arc, and I love how he works as disabled representation. Now he isn’t perfect of course but he’s probably the best I’ve seen in a long time. He isn’t portrayed as pathetic or middling because of his disability or illness, if anything it’s the opposite! He actively shows himself to be self-assured, though reserved as a person, and he works so hard to try to make the world a better place, and does everything he can to keep himself alive instead of just...”giving up” on his sickness. Of course we all know where this ends up but to be honest I am excited!

3. He has so many good lines, probably some of the best in the series in my opinion? I also love how emotional he is and how that will absolutely affect him later on in his corruption arc!

There’s absolutely more but my mind’s gone blank again.

[himboarcher]

reasons i've seen folks say that grad critics hate grad:

they hate travis (in fairness, i’ve def seen some comments of people shitting on trav for the sake of shitting on trav, but it’s not super common and typically gets downvoted into oblivion on reddit.)

it's not balance / travis isn't griffin (???????)

they hate neurodivergent people (again, in fairness, i have seen a handful of comments that could come across this way! but most of the time when travis being ADHD or his NPD is brought up, it's by defenders saying that criticizing travis is ableist because he's neurodivergent or, in one particular comment, infantilizing him bc of it and literally comparing grad to putting a kid's artwork on the fridge. there were some comments early on that pointed to him being a narcissist as the reason for things people disliked about grad, but everyone seems to have realized that that's a shitty train of thought and left it behind.)

they're just toxic haters (again, there are a small handful of people like this because this is the internet, but the genuine criticism greatly outweighs their bullshit. i 100% think that the people, which is mostly just one dude who is also insufferable on reddit, who have been responding rudely to positive tweets under the episode announcements lately are out of line and need to stop. there's been an influx of that lately, presumably because people are frustrated that after over a year of grad going on, there's been no improvement to most of the major issues. that's still no excuse to be a dick to folks, though.)

vs some of the actual reasons i don't like grad:

the racism / racist tropes, and the way that they’ve straight up ignored this criticism and will likely never acknowledge it. pretty wild considering a core tenet of their brand is their willingness to acknowledge when they’ve messed up and do their best to course correct.

clumsy attempts at inclusion that are shallow and often end up being fairly offensive ("...ask me about my wheelchair," anyone?)

on a related note: i don't think that travis had bad intentions, but as an nonbinary person, it feels othering to me that travis only has enby characters give others their pronouns unprompted. i'm thinking specifically of kai here. having listened to their introduction, i don't think it's as bad or awkward as some people have said, but i can't remember travis ever having another NPC tell the PCs their pronouns, especially not a cis character. it's not a huge deal, but it's something that rubbed me the wrong way. admittedly, i don't think it would bother me so much if travis hadn't dropped the ball so much with performative inclusion in the past.

okay i'm putting the rest under a read more because even without getting into all of the problems i have with it, this got Long.

little to no player agency. player choices are ultimately meaningless and have little to no effect on the world. even when he seems to go along with a plan they come up with, it always ends with them having to go back to travis' pre-written script (see: subpoenaing the xorn, but not really because they had to go with travis' original plan of "send the xorn home through the rift".) the players repeatedly get told things about what they think or feel or what they've been doing to an unnecessary degree. fitzroy is the only one who really gets space to play and decide things for himself, and that's only because travis has decided he's the main character.

the NPCs are all too nice and willing to give the PCs anything they ask for and more, unless the PCs are trying to follow their own plan and then the NPCs are completely useless. but honestly, aside from gray, all of the NPCs are just.... nice. travis refuses to even let his antagonists be mean or cruel or even more than just slightly rude, because that'd be a bummer and we don't want that! the "twist" of gordy the lich king actually being polite and chill is not a twist at all because everyone is like that in this world. the NPCs are also wildly overpowered, but then suddenly absolutely useless when the PCs actually want their help.

too many cliffhangers that are dropped immediately at the beginning of the next episode. i feel bad for travis because so many of these cliffhangers actually set up good momentum and seemed like things were gonna get interesting, but almost every single time he just dropped them at the beginning of the next episode. like when althea showed up to interview the boys and the next episode started with travis being like "actually you went to sleep, she said she'll be back tomorrow!"

that time travis specifically said in his exposition dump that the thundermen left their horses behind because they thought the centaurs might be offended by them riding horses, only to later on rag on them for being surprised that the centaurs had horses they could ride.....

also the centaur arc in general, but i already listed racism above, so.

the way that the toxic positivity and parasocial tendencies in the mcelroy fandoms have made a large portion of the fandom take ANY criticism as a personal attack on travis and/or on themselves for enjoying something others consider bad, either morally or just quality-wise. it’s okay to admit that something you like has problematic elements or just isn’t as good as it once was. you can and should engage critically with the media you consume.

related to above: the way travis has handled genuine criticism, which is to throw public tantrums on his twitter or make weird passive aggressive tweets & ultimately ignore all the genuine criticism and advice he's been offered by claiming it's all subjective, even after he specifically asked for it and set up an email for folks to send in genuine, objective advice for him (after he threw a tantrum on twitter and replied to someone's criticism publicly, which resulted in his followers dogpiling on that person bc how dare they insult their internet best friend). while i was writing this last night, he actually announced that he’s taking a break from Twitter and acknowledged that he’s been using it as an echo chamber where he can easily get validation from folks, and honestly i’m happy for him that he’s recognized this problem and is stepping away for a while! i hope he’ll genuinely use this time to reflect on how he’s been behaving and find a more healthy way to use social media. i’m leaving this point in because i think his Twitter being such a positive echo chamber was encouraging him to do stuff like this, and him somewhat acknowledging his behavior doesn’t mean it can no longer be discussed.

rainer. extremely cool concept in theory and i was very into it until that awkward "does anyone want to ask about my wheelchair?" moment. also when travis had her use her mobility aid to RAM INTO A DOOR instead of just fucking knocking???? also all the times travis has tried to force a romantic relationship between her and fitzroy, despite fitzroy displaying no interest in her in that way. also, just to clarify: as an ace person, i don’t think this is aphobic! (and it’s kind of a stretch to call it that imo, especially since griffin never explicitly said that fitzroy's aromantic!) i just think it’s weird and awkward and a little uncomfortable for me personally, mostly because it reminds me of the times i’ve been in similar situations.

less of a problem than a lot of the other stuff and more just bad writing, but the forced emotional moments. in general, nothing in grad feels earned (why are the boys heading a war? when they have multiple actual heroes with combat experience on their side and a supposedly powerful secret organization? and the thundermen are like 21 years old max and have only had like ~10 fights in the entire campaign?) but there've been a couple times where travis has tried to force unearned emotional moments, presumably because he knows people enjoyed those with the last campaigns. but the difference is that in balance, the big emotional moments happened because they were earned. in grad, it's just travis throwing a baby pegasus at us for a few minutes and then the next time she shows up, it's supposed to be a tearful goodbye.

there are absolutely no stakes. remember when the thundermen got told that if they left, gray would kill 10 students? and then they left and came back and it turns out that what gray actually meant was, "i'll tie ten students who are mostly nameless NPCs to a tree and throw some dogs at them that you can easily stop in time, then throw a tantrum because how dare you but i'll leave before you can really do anything to hurt me lol" travis did have fitzroy's magic get taken away, but like. it didn't really do anything? also all he had to get it back was be coerced into using drugs by an authority figure and trip in the woods?

we're told that the school is weird and the hero system is corrupt, but the world of nua is still presented as more of a liberal utopia than anything? althea getting fired because of a corrupt villain is the only time we've somewhat seen corruption, but even then, she was still allowed to get (what seems to me, anyway, but admittedly i don't know for sure bc nothing about the HOG makes much sense) a fairly important job from the very people who stripped her of her hero license or whatever the fuck heroes need?

travis doesn't actually seem to understand how capitalism or bureaucracy works and just chalks up everything to "red tape." also more on the rest of the boys than him specifically, but the "let's destroy capitalism!" thing turning into just pushing some filing cabinets over................... okay.

and one last piece of extremely subjective criticism: it's just kind of.... boring. i think a lot of people, myself included, would be willing to overlook 90% of the problems with graduation if it didn't feel like such a slog to get through.

also people saying that we can't or shouldn't criticize graduation because it's "free" is absolutely absurd for several reasons. first, something being free does not make it above criticism. second, there ARE people who directly financially support the show with monthly donations. three, there's a difference between something being free and something being not for profit. podcasting is their full time job. they make their living off of money made from TAZ and MBMBAM (and probably their other shows to a lesser extent). this not a fun home game that they are graciously recording and sharing with us. it is a product they are producing that they make money off of, both from ads in the episodes and merch & books based off of these podcasts. they have marketed themselves as professionals, and both griffin and travis have been on panels where they are marketed as professional DMs and appear alongside other professional DMs (which makes it incredibly frustrating when people say that travis is just a newbie DM and we can't criticize him because of that. if he's a newbie, then he should not be taking part of panels as a professional DM where he speaks as an expert). TAZ is free in the same way that an episode of NCIS is free. i may not pay for it directly, but the creators are paid to create it and profit off of me consuming this product. so saying we should be grateful for any mcelnoise that the benevolent good boys share with us and that we're not allowed to criticize it "because it's free" is absolutely wild.

[hello-yue-here]

Yuetara, zukka, and maiko

yuetara

ship

1) its not one of my main ships. i dont rlly read fanfic for them but if i see a cute fanart of them ill enjoy it and i think i first started shipping it because of good fanarts for them.

2) i like yuetara because of how similar they are. theyre both women from the water tribe. they both understand the misogyny that they have faced. and they both said f sexism im gonna be a strong woman. i also love the tui and la parallel. moon spirit and ocean spirit parallel COME ON. YUE IS THE MOON. KATARA IS THE MOST POWERFUL WATERBENDER. THEY ARE THE OCEAN AND THE MOON. the push and pull they could give eachother. that dynamic ftw.

3) i guess if i didnt like something about this ship would be the fact that if i read a fic or see a fanart w yuetara then than means in that particular au i wont get any yuekka and yuekka is probably my second favorite ship. but then again if i get yuetara than i could get a plethora of other sokka ships to go with it so my sadness disappears in like two seconds. gosh shipping is hard sometimes until you remember ‘hey i have like fifty different universes in my head. all ur ships can coexist in ur brain olivia’ other than that i really see no downsides to this ship. maybe i wish it had more content. maybe if it had more content id ship it a lot more but its not one of the more popular ships so the content is kinda few n far between on my feed.

zukka:

SHIPPP

1) my boys. my babies. my loves. i watched this show for the first time when it came out on netflix and when it ended i really didnt ship anything other than kataang. i came onto tumblr to find fun atla content and one of the very first things i saw under the atla tag was zukka content. i was like oh? whats this? zukka? interesting... i was intrigued so i found a list of fic recs and i fell in love with the ship. the rest is history. its probably my number one ship because it was my very first ship here and im nostalgic

2) oh boy there is so much i like about this ship. i relate to a shit ton of characters in atla. but sokka and zuko may be the ones i relate to most. i relate to sokka because i tend to feel second best a lot to my friends. i try to stay positive but things rarely go the way i plan or hope for them too and while im happy for my friends and their achievements i oftentimes find myself thinking why cant that be me? and i see this a lot in sokka especially in sokkas master. i dont feel special a lot and idk seeing sokka feel the same way and then realizing he is special kinda helped me realize that im special too. on the flipside i relate to zuko because i have wild anger issues and difficulty dealing w my emotions a lot as well. i get broody and short tempered and insecure very often and i tend to push people away and i refuse to ask for help (the amount of teachers and adults and therapists who have told me its okay to ask for help ur not any weaker because of it is astounding. do i listen to them? .....im working on it.) and i saw a shit ton of this in zuko. book one and two zuko rarely asks for help as seen in the blue spirit and zuko alone and he pushes away uncle so many times and even when the gaang iffers to help him in i think its the chase he tells them to leave. when he finally has his redemption and joins the gaang and lets them kinda become a better person i was so happy. i want that for myself yk. seeing him finally win the agni kai and overcome his family that always told him he was nothing was such a win. my sister and i get along but when we were children we were very much like zuko and azula. it was extremely competitive all the time and there was so much toxicity and sibling drama to a concerning extent. we get along great now which im very happy about but yeah their sibling relationship hit a lil too on the nose for me. seeing as i relate to these character so much and want them ti be happy i want to live vicariously through them so seeing them together is amazing for me to project into them. i love projecting onto fictional characters and with them i can project onto BOTH so its a winwin. plus so many zukka fics are so well written and heartwarming and heartbreaking and emotional and fluffy anf UGH the talent here us astounding.

3) what do i not like about the ship? again the list is long. oops. mainly the toxic shippers. there are so many toxic zukka stans that sometimes make it hard for me to enjoy this ship but hey! thats what the block button is for:) i despise how often people infantilize zuko and completely ruin his character for the sake of making him a soft weak lil boy who needs protecting. thats just not zuko for me. and ive seen many many accounts even state that this kind of portrayal of zuko is rooted in racist stereotypes about asian men (now i am white so i personally have never experiences racism but i feel the need to bring that up because it is wrong and attention needs to be brought to it because a lot of poc fans have criticised this) and the same for sokka. some ppl rlly skew his character and make him a big strong brute and hypermasculine and once again poc fans have said that this take is rooted in racist stereotypes. again! these are just my opinions! this is my favorite ship! but i think its important to acknowledge some of the bad parts of our ships as well and be critical where criticism is needed :))

maiko

ship

1) I LOVE MAIKO. “i dont hate you” “i dont hate you too” BRUH. my little heart just burst into flames. im sorry guys but maiko is so cute. they hate everything except eachother. BRUH that is one of the cutest tropes. i shipped them the moment i saw them together onscreen and i was so happy when zukos face lit up in the finale when mai came back.

2) “i hate everything but i have a soft spot for you” TAKE MY MONEY I AM A SUCKER FOR THIS. they are so cute together. like zuko is rarely happy in a majority of atla but mai makes him happy and i- 🥺🥺 HE DESERVES IT. and mai is always so supportive of him. when hes stressing out about the war meeting she tries her best to comfort him. and zuko cares about her too. he may not be the best at showing it but oh my god hes TRYING HIS BEST. i think its a very accurate portrayal of teenage relationships because they arent perfect and they do fight but like,, every teenage relationship does that. and even after everything and how he left her in the fire nation she still had his back at boiling rock. she still risked her life against azula to save his butt.

3) the thing i hate about maiko isnt even about maiko. its about antis who think mai is toxic and that zuko deserves better. that has got to be the worst take ive ever heard. they had a fight in ember island. that is NORMAL. they are teenagers. they are not perfect. but underneath all the rough edges and things they need to work out they still care about eachother so freaking much. i genuinelt believe that neither of them would do anything to intentionally hurt the other and i think thats what matters the most. if anything mai is the best girlfriend in the entire world because zuko fucked up like,, quite a few times. he got rlly jealous and dumped her thru a letter and ppl always say that mai was toxic for being mad at him for those two things. umm she had every right to be mad at him for both of those. and while zuko is allowed to feel his emotions and be angry sometimes as well sometimes he needs to think things thru and realize that hey maybe some if this jealousy is unfounded. BUT EVEN THEN. HE RESPECTED HER FEELINGS AND DIDNT TOUCH HER WHEN SHE SAID DONT TOUCH ME. HE RESPECTED HER. so i hate toxic maiko takes because they are literally so wrong in my opinion.

again all of these are just my opinions!! feel free to agree or disagree but please be respectful!! i will respect whatever u think as well because this is all just for fun :)

[raayllum]

me and my friends also got in an discussion about catra being latina (which we also hate, as latine ppl) and we got harassed too. i thought that after that whole issue with noelle people would start thinking more critically about it

it’s one of those things that i think white gays in particular tend to fall into of

1) prioritizing lgbt+ (specifically same sex relationships) rep above all other types of rep, including or especially race

2) always thinking that more representation is better

let me explain — although i wouldn’t be surprised if i’m preaching to the choir — point by point. 

prioritizing same sex relationship rep is what queer representation in media has always done. it’s one of the things that reaffirms fandom biphobia, of maintaining that a fan favourite character has to be “at least bi” to ship them consistently with someone of the same sex (lance, sokka, finn from sw). that partner is often headcanoned as gay is the #1 fandom darling (keith, zuko, poe dameron, etc). it sets up a hierarchy of “gay as best” and bi as a consolation prize. 

for example: i was in a m/f fandom a few years ago with two characters of colour, both of whom 99% of that ship fandom — myself included — saw as bi and pan respectively. the male character was later confirmed queer in the show with an ex boyfriend (who he shared one singular scene with and it was their breakup years before the show started, with no previous mentions and one singular 12 second mention of him afterwards) and married to a man in the epilogue (who we never saw him talk to even once before hand). the creators themselves went on record saying they wanted everyone to interpret that character’s sexuality however they wanted. so i kept seeing him as bi the way i had for two years before hand — not because he had to be queer in some way for my ship to work, but just because i liked it and thought it fit his character.

and then i got harassed for it. 

which is to say that white gays will gloss over whatever they can to have their gay ship be canon and beloved and the Best Ship Ever™ and any critique or different expressed preference is Homophobia or a moral failing, obviously. 

it means racist tropes will get glossed over for “cute gay rep uwu” (i.e. finn, a black man, being infantilized in fanworks with his relationship with poe, a lighter skinned latino man, or consistently drawing finn as significantly larger despite the actors being the same height more or less). after all, for the three bi + gay mlm ships i talked about that are widespread, the darker skinned guy is always the “consolatory bi” and the lighter skinned, usually favoured one in those pairings is always the “gold star gay”

it’s the mandate that bi characters are only good if they’re in same sex appearing relationships. it’s the sort of visibility argument that harms a lot of different groups of queer people (bi, pan, ace, aro, trans, nb people, just to name a few) and this emphasis on visibility makes people forget race visibility

for example, if you haven’t done research on racial coding or harmful stereotypes, that catra being latina sounds great on paper. why wouldn’t you want a latina women of colour in a wlw relationship? it looks good!! it sounds progressive. 

but as you and others have pointed out — or experienced — it’s a lot more complicated than that. harmful coding / racial stereotypes have to be thought of and examined and resisted. you can’t just slap any race onto a character, their personality, and history without thinking it through. you can’t white wash character creation. everyone has different stereotypes to combat against and implicit biases that can be unconsciously assigned to a character based on their race and they all deserve space. what is progressive or subversive for latina, or black women in terms of representation, is going to different from one another and from what’s subversive/progressive for white women. sometimes, it actually is better to keep a character white if making them a specific character of colour would do more harm than good

overlooking racial representation and race dynamics in fiction is the most egregious thing tumblr does and it drives me fucking nuts, basically - especially when privileging a white gay ship over a canon interracial m/f ship. twitter is even worse about it

and it’s very unfortunate that she-ra by and large didn’t really think about it and when they did (the joke about bow’s family, noelle supporting catra being latina) they made it worse

and it’s baffling, honestly, that i’m like, 9 years younger than noelle?? less?? and i’ve been doing that sort of research for seven years now and i know i still have a long way to go but like. i really hope all the writers on she ra think things through more for their future projects and how they respond to fans

[electricea-archive]

@dafdae​ sent - Fun thing related to the autsim post you reblogged! Plum was made based on my hyperfixations and I gave her the same stimming patterns I have and a few more that she brought forward herself. While I haven't seen those writing that aren't non autistic write autistic characters that I'm aware on but I've seen ablest using autism as an insult in an rpc i was in before on fb which made me really hate fb. Not to mention some insane people trying to use autism as a reason some killer committed a crime and try to infantise them like they're this 'uwu cinnamon roll did nutin wrong babey' which I honestly hate so much.

Over all to me though. If someone that isn't autistic wants to have their muse autistic, they should:

ask those that are autistic on how to go about it

do proper research as that's always important to keep in mind.

there's many that are autistic that you wouldn't know! pretty much some of us are p much like those you know. (which brings those "you don't act autistic" comments. it happens. i've had it happen to me but the guy was v friendly and kind.)

don't take what media shows on how we act all the time as they rather exaggerate things. thankfully kids shows that include character with it are very mindful on showing other kids they are just like every other kid and to not treat them like they aren't like you.

I feel I'll derail soon and am losing confidence in my words so I'll end it there jhbhjbhjbdc love to you jasi!

I think it’s pretty cool that you were able to incorporate some of your own hyperfixations and stimming into your muse! I agree, that my bone to pick wasn’t really with the RPC - the few autistic muses that I have seen have felt pretty authentic or at least, not embodying any offensive stereotypes about autistic people.  I think what I was mostly referring to was the mainstream media portrayal of people with autism - such as in television, films.  I feel like a lot of the tropes used in those often overlap and those writing the characters either have a profound misunderstanding of what autism actually is, or simply copy and paste a similar, if not the same formula, to autistic characters.

While I did not see that particular example in regards to a criminal, I do agree that trying to coddle those with autism and trying to act as though autism is an excuse for everything is ultimately detrimental to the person with autism.  I believe that people should be held accountable for their shitty words and actions no matter who they are, that includes people with autism - even if they don’t understand what they did with shitty, I think it’s important to be honest with them nevertheless and tell them as much - not to hurt their feelings or to be cruel, but to help them better understand.  I have never liked being infantilized and I would never presume to do it with someone else with autism - I believe in trying to treat others, equally.  I do have a soft spot for fellow people with autism and will try to offer my own insights and experiences if asked, but I try to treat them like everyone else and that includes holding them accountable or acting accordingly if they do something shitty or something that makes me uncomfortable - if you don’t tell someone that what they’re doing is uncomfortable or shitty, they’ll likely keep doing it - or excuse others who do it.  That isn’t a good pattern in my opinion.

What I do know is that if I were ever the one acting shitty or making others uncomfortable, even without realizing it - I would want to know - and I would want to be held accountable.  I feel that’s only fair.

I think those are some great tips - I for one would welcome anyone asking me for advice regarding autism, though I think it would be best to keep in mind that my experience with autism does not equal everyone else’s experience and they should probably seek opinions from multiple people and try to get as many people’s insights as they can.  Research is also important, although finding good resources is important too - I’m sure there is a great deal of misinformation is also out there so finding multiple sources of research helps.  I agree with you about the media - unless respectfully done, I think media should probably be someone’s lowest priority if they’re creating an autistic muse as you’ll likely run into a lot of similar or exaggerated characters with autism, though as you pointed out, there are shows that have done that respectfully.

Thanks for the ask! This was very interesting to talk about and I hope it was of some help to someone considering making an autistic muse/wanting to know more.

[transsexualhamlet]

the many sins of tokyo ghoul :re

or: 13 reasons why :re is fucking terrible not clickbait

Disclaimer: I think no matter how long this post gets I’m missing something, so let’s just outline the worst ones. And I mean to be transparent, the only reason I actually read :re was so I could make this post... (and bc i wanted to see the what, five panels of hide) Well, I couldn’t stand hating it without evidence beyond hearsay and General Vibes. But I knew it was gonna be bad, I knew it was going to ruin me jesus christ. Obviously I’m not hating on people that like it, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with genuinely enjoying it (I do genuinely enjoy parts of it, and by parts i mean chapters 1-50 with exceptions and 75) I think it’s wonderful if you can derive joy from it (lmao) but I can say that through my lens in life, there’s so much fucking wrong with this goddamn fucking piece of shit manga and I feel the need to yell about it because i am ✨autism✨ so let’s get going (this is r e a l l y long just a warning)

tl;dr Ishida stay in your fucking lane

1. Transphobia and Homophobia:

alright here we are first off with the big one and if I had to choose, one of Ishida’s greatest sins here. It’s quite unusual in mangas like these to have any sort of representation for such things in and of itself, and yeah of course that annoys me, but having no represntation at all is like so much better than getting actively harmful representation. Most manga that aren’t specifically about those things shy away from those topics, and it’s tiring but it’s normal. You wouldn’t want a mangaka to try to write about something like that without experience or informed opinions. So I say if you can’t write something correct, just don’t write something like that in at all. Ishida clearly,,, does not get this.

And it’s not just the case of Mutsuki, who, well, gets it bad enough, there are three full fucking trans characters Ishida made like, just to shit on. 

Big Madame- god, made like that specifically to perpetuate the predatory trans woman trope jesus christ is Ishida friends with JK fuckface Rowling. Ah yes the ugly, human trafficking, predatory, pedophilic killer that tried to make their male child more feminine? Has a dick. Really? Could you be a single bit more transparent about your fucking agenda here? I really don’t have to say much here.

Kanae von Fuckwald- Technically Ishida says here that basically this bitch was just like??? Pretending to be a guy for years just to what?? I don’t even know?? Get together with Tsukiyama? Cause he’s fucking gay or something? I don’t even get it but like i read this post yesterday and that’s a whole ass thermian argument. It’s like “oh well this is fine because well this person’s not actually trans and therefore the representation thing doesn’t apply”... it’s useless. You created the character that way and you made it intentionally to for whatever way promote this idea that people would “pretend” to be a different gender and that eventually they’ll realize that it’s a “lie” and they never really wanted it. This is what you’re saying about the real people who are,,, actually trans? Jesus christ. Also thinking that a twink like that would be trans? God yeah trans guys can be feminine but buddy that’s clearly not what you’re going for here.

And of course, Mutsuki- There’s just... so much wrong here. I mean like. Before we even get into anything about his character and what they did to him let me just discuss his entire design. Buddy like if you had to choose one person in that show to be trans that’s the least likely one. Ah yes, the feminine one. With the androgynous haircut and the shy disposition and the physical weakness compared to the others. God that’s like, a fujoshi’s take on ao3 of what character should be trans. As much as yeah of course, trans guys can be feminine, they are in no way obligated to be such and you shouldn’t make them more so to be more “believably” so. Ask any actual trans person ever. A character like that is just perpetuating the notion of trans guys being inherently more feminine or trying to pretend to be otherwise.ThEn, of course, there’s the ridiculous sexualization, infantilization and fetishization of this character, going through a thousand plot hurdles to make him constantly stripped, put in girls clothing, chased by perverts, assaulted, ET FUCKING CETERA. Give him a fUCKING BREAK. Creating this character the way he’s portrayed in canon (including so called backstory of murdering parents because of sexual and physical abuse) is perpetuating a notion that someone would be a trans guy because of internalized misogyny and/or trauma instead of because they’re just... a guy. It’s just it’s just it’s just Really bad. Plus taking his character, demonizing him and making him like, supposedly love haise (which i Really hate for a thousand reasons, god that’s like, a parent and child type relationship they have there not romantic,,, god,,,) try to like fucking murder touka and stop seeing sense, and then just... return him to being infantalized. God. Jesus christ fucking goddamn it I love Mutsuki and he deserves better.

Oh yeah and then the homophobia, this one’s smaller because... most of the trans people are here to go “it’s gay... wait it’s not Really gay so it’s ok” but I would like to leave a small note here for all the gay characters who got thrown under the bus not just in re but in the original, like, you know, Nico and shit? I really do not know shit about Nico but all the things about Jason? God if I had a thing for one person that you shouldn’t try to portray as representation it’s Jason. IDK what’s up with him and Naki but god it wasn’t healthy. (i’d like to say here that i love naki and i think naki deserves the world but honey there are better heroes than yamori) Anyway yeah I think that’s also bullshit and Ishida should stay in his fucking lane. (or her i guess, i just feel like it’s probably a guy bc of just... so much sexism)

Ok, now that we have the big one out of the way-

2. The mishandling of portrayals of various mental illnesses:

I’m not an expert on this one like I can say about the gays TM but just like in general, the whole manga’s very messy and portrays a lot of gritty stuff, and Ishida clearly attempts to throw in some mental illness for fun, but god fUcking damn it they’re bad. I couldn’t really even give you examples bc it’s pretty widespread and i’m stupid, but it was really like trump throwing paper towels “and you get a demonization, and you get an infantalization, and you get a butchered character, and you get a fetishization-”

3. Ishida having no fucking clue how science works

This particular factoid led me to have a very hard time reading this manga because it went from being about like, yknow, torture and fights and crying and stuff to weird experimentation bullshit and mutated whatever and everyone’s a hybrid now I guess. When I heard this thing about the quinxes, I thought that made no sense, because I was like “yeah but wait,,, how tf does that work didn’t Ishida say earlier that kagune literally were fueled by human meat isn’t that like the entire point the ccg is against?” and then Ishida’s explanation of how they’re not just exactly like Kaneki is that “oh yeah well there’s like, metal around it, so it’s different.” OH YEAH OK THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE NOW, THANKS.

The thing is... there’s no way of actually regulating that. You couldn’t move a kagune unless it was attached to your cells, and if it’s attached man, it’s attached and it’s part of you. Also yelling “frame two” won’t like make it any bigger lmao, either you’re gonna have it based on theoretical science in this universe or you’re going to have a dumb supernatural magic pokemon fight deal. The whole thing makes no sense. The science issue isn’t just about this either, it’s also about how the entire thing basically undermines the point of the whole story. When you blur the lines between human and ghoul with little to no real rules or basis in real science, every rule kind of just becomes cheap plot convenience.

So the Quinxes can eat human food unless they use their kagune too much, alright, but Kaneki couldn’t eat human food before he’d even ever used his though the only difference between their bodies was this,,, theoretical metal thing?? And Haise... was never really covered, before he went black hair emo bastard and like vored Eto, did he eat human food like the rest of the CCG? He certainly cooked it. And the squad that lived with him wasn’t aware he was a ghoul until he pulled out the kagune. So I’d assume so, but then how could he have a kagune, how could he survive when his body still was like that?

Is it the RC suppressents? Then couldn’t he just have taken those and lived as a human the entire time? Is that all he fucking needed, is that the only difference between human and ghoul? It doesn’t make sense and the rules are bent so much they don’t function anymore. Ishida like write down your rules somewhere even if they’re bullshit, they shouldn’t contradict each other.

Damn man I’m not even going to go into the dumbass rules of the half humans or the special fast aging thing or the fucking,,, folded up cells deal,,, or the Imagination Kagune, or the fucking,,, Dragon, or the zombie ghoul apocalypse or the “whole new species made of just kagune” i don’t even have the time it is fucking ridiculous and I can’t even with it. Physics. Laws of physics. If not biology, at least follow physics Ishida??? Please???? And if you’re not you need to do that consistently??

4. character glow ups actually being character glow downs 

(with the exception of nishiki, he baby now, and akira, i think her development was valid af)

God, this one gets me every time. Touka was cool. Touka was fucking badass, she had a complex character with many motivations and wants, and in the original having her eventually kind of soften bc of Kaneki is valid. But taking her and turning her into like literally nothing but Pretty Housewife Yearning For Husband At War? God, kill me. She’s a strong person. She can like Kaneki without the guy being her only character trait. Also uh, Touka and Kaneki being a couple was valid before this change, now I honestly can’t stomach it. Like they were the kind of “both bisexual” m/f couple that we stan. No longer I guess.

She’s the most egregious example, but I’d also like to point out Juuzou, not everything they changed about him is bad, honestly we fucking stan his knife legs, but he’s kind of like a rip off L now? You got rid of his ~unhinged~, we do not stan. I’m on the fence about him bc i think that kind of is a valid transition to adulthood and I guess he’s grown up, but again, why change his fucking hair color? What is the explanation for this?

Also Hinami. I mean, I don’t really care about her a lot in general, but it’s weird to see her as like an adult when Ayato emo boy looks like exactly the fucking same and they’re like,,, supposedly the same age. 

There are definitely more I’m missing here. Honestly, Hide was valid. God him with his fucking burlap sack. With a fucking lenny face on it. I can’t with him. That’s so Hide. But there were some bad ones.

5. one hair color change was my limit, enough said

black white black and white black white more white god bitch get some variety

6. Showing me great new characters and then promptly ruining them

And you can tell this one’s about quinx squad, my favorite bastard children. God, I love them. They’re the only good things about Re other than Hide and Haise and like everything else, Ishida took them and went “what if i *guts*” god why. I love these kids with all my heart. Why. Why. Why did you do that to Mutsuki. Why as soon as Haise isn’t in the room they all get themselves tangled up with pedos. Why they gotta break up the squad. Why make all of them lose all the wholesomeness and lessons they learned from Haise. Why do you ruin them all with weird unreciprocated random crushes on each other when they’re like basically siblings. Why fuckinG KILL SHIRAZU HE IS THE APPOINTED CHIEF DUMBASS OF THE SQUAD WHY HIM. WHY. WITH SO LITTLE IMPACT. YOU COULD FUCKING MISS IT SO EASILY. THAT’S NOT RIGHT. AND KANEKI JUST FUCKING ABANDONS THEM BC HE HAS HIS MEMORIES AGAIN N O ? NO ACTUALLY NO.

7. the casual racism and sexism :)

i just :) can you stop having girls constantly bring themselves down for being female :) and making them be oversexualized, less full characters :) always in some way connected to a guy :) more weak and hurt more often :) my fucking god :) also yeah it’s way less prevalent but there were a few racist caricatures thrown in there for taste if you don’t know how to draw lips just don’t

8. Ishida being too much of a pissbaby for a real death scene

Basically: undermining the impact of “deaths” fom the first series while also randomly and badly killing off new characters. Oh that character that died in the original in a really cinematic way that made you cry and think about the meaning of life and how beautifully tragic this story was? Oh lol they’re not Actually dead. (x10) Doing that with Hide (at least in the manga, not the anime, god root A really did it with him but we’re not talking about that) was valid, seeing as I love him your honor and in the manga one of the lessons that his character hinges on was like in chapter 75 to live on instead of giving up even if it hurts and all that... (this is obviously kind of the opposite from root A where his character was like more about sacrificing for kaneki since kaneki had already done so much, i think both are valid but we’re Talking About The Manga) he was done well. That was right (even though i think they should have done More of it) but there were so many characters this kind of thing was done to without the proper adjustment in the handling of the messages given here. 

Like with Koma and Irimi, who,,, honestly should have stayed dead because their entire character arc kinda ended there and showed how they were sorry for their actions and this was how they were making it up. And then they just like... come back. And fight more. Really? This wasn’t the only instance either, same deal with Shinohara (though him coming back made me cry) it like, kind of undermines it if you’re going to have Juuzou derive his character development from that. Either Juuzou gets to keep his unhinged and his dad, or he loses his dad for real and he also grows up. God guys choose. What’s the message you’re playing here. (at least they kept Yoshimura dead, his death made me cry and I would have stabbed something if it wasn’t real, probably Ishida.) And even with Kaneki himself, god, if he can’t die from being stabbed straight through the fucking eye, what COULD kill him? It really diminishes the anxiety you feel about “omg is this person gonna die i want them to be ok” if they basically evade the laws of physics and their own previous character arcs 70 times. I’m definitely forgetting more of the same, Ishida can’t write a good death, he needed the anime writers to do it for him.

9. Kaneki. Just. Kaneki. 

God they fucking butchered this man. I could go on about his character is weird and confusing in the manga from the beginning, but we’re focusing on mostly all his weird :re character development, the bad handling of Haise and his memories, and all his iterations.

Before I read :re, what I could glean from fanart and the occasional fic that wasn’t tagged properly was really confusing and kind of a mixed bag. I knew Haise was Kaneki but without his memories, now in the ccg trying to be a pacifist and going :DDDDD a lot yknow. And what I came up with in my own mind for that change was a deal of (this makes more sense with the anime canon tbh, the manga honestly doesn’t do any of this well) like Kaneki after The Shit Went Down With Hide (whichever canon you’d like to interpret that as) he basically realized that he really couldn’t be a ghoul, he didn’t want to be, he didn’t want to hurt people and he wanted to be happy and make other people happy instead of what he thought was right before (trying to fight to protect others on his own etc) because that mentality had gotten people he loved hurt, and well subconsciously I guess that kind of factored into his development into Haise and maybe caused his memory loss (along with the, yknow, shanked eye.) So when I started to read it that kind of checked out, this is what he’s trying so hard to be now. But then this whole bullshit of the whole other like, 37 different versions of kaneki complicated things. 

Haise was scared that when he got his memories back he would cease to be, well, Haise, and he would just like revert back to what he was before everything. Which I can understand him being scared of and I think was a good point in the plot for him to worry about that, but I was like “oh honey don’t worry that’s not how it works” and was kind of vying for him to eventually get his memories back, come to terms with the fact that those were his memories, he did do those things, he was half a ghoul, and maybe come back to his original fight of wanting to bring the humans and ghouls together, still caring about his human people in the ccg and all. That development was real, and it wouldn’t just go away if he got his memories back, he learned a lot and grew a lot and he has a different outlook on life now. Right?

Fucking wrong I guess. Dude gets his memories back (very ambiguously, it was really hard to tell when that even happened tbh) and like. Turns into a flaming ass looking like ebony darkness dementia raven way. Haise gone. Fucking completely. No trace left. Doesn’t care about his kids anymore. When he’s done with that and goes white again he’s just Kaneki again and there’s really not enough left of things that like, really wouldn’t go away? He loses the flair? The dumbass? The :D? The Extra? WHY? Why would those things go away? Haise shouldn’t have been right that he would disappear when he got back his memories. That killed me. I love Kaneki and all but H a i s e. He is my b o y. H i m. With his e n e r g y  s h o r t s. And his m o m. And his c o o k i n g. And his k i d s, I l o v e him. And Ishida doesn’t seem to realize that they’re... literally the same person. Haise isn’t just some stupid bastard occupying Kaneki’s body, he’s a valid part of Kaneki himself and to be honest, peak Kaneki. Should have stayed that way. Would have been great for Hide tbh. Not just having him pretty much revert to his old self, but basically respond equally to both names and balance the world between human and ghoul. I would have loved that. What happened for real? It doesn’t make sense and it breaks my heart.

Some people on the interwebz try to kind of even that whole deal out by trying to say he like, has DID, which although is obviously a valid thing, like, so does not apply to him. God I’m like so not an expert on this but I feel like it’s not that hard to tell. His 87 little Kanekis in his head aren’t separate personas, they’re metaphorical representations of his past morals, experiences, and ideologies that all conflict. Again Haise here is peak conflict because when he gets his memories back, he has all these different conflicting ideas that were all previously separate. They’re all him. Tortured Kaneki constantly yelling at him in Jason’s chamber is basically again, a metaphor for how he’s denying his ghoulhood and the trauma that he’s been dealt. It’s not that this dude still exists just the way he is ready to show up at any moment lmao. Ishida kind of dealt with that badly too because Haise really said

after his memories happened so I can see why people might, but it’s... not right, and it’s Ishida’s fault about that which is Incorrect

Also just blanket statement, black reaper Kaneki? Fuck him and all he stands for. 0% valid. I can excuse literally every other version of him. But wh y. God he leaves the room and Urie starts misusing his power and getting groomed by a pedo, Saiko is just, left behind and sad, Mutsuki gets captured by a perv and mentally destroyed again, Shirazu dies and the bitch is like like “lol it’s your fault” yeah helpful, die

10. P- the- the porn chapter-

Idk about you but that was so fucking unecessary??? Not even going off of how terribly awkward and weird it was to have it there when the opening was “i’m sad about my best friend who’s gonna get executed what do you do when you’re sad about your best friend” “i simply do not think of him or i might actually just curl up and die” “yo lmao same” “wanna fuck” Like ok um I’m biased bc i’m not straight but I like, really hated that. Even just flipping through the pages as fast as I could to get to the end of it like. God. It’s not a fucking hentai. I’m here for the plot. If you’re not gonna release the director’s cut of kaneki fucking voring hide, i don’t think i need to see 20 pages of straight fucking sex. And if you absolutely must have porn, kaneki is a fucking bottom. That man gets pegged do not try to prove otherwise. You started it out that way god I love how they’re like “oh god wait that looks kind of gay, the woman being dominant, better stop that right now” god Ishida not having a single iota of knowlege about his own characters aND THEN SHE GETS PREGNANT? NO. Excuse me. No. I just. I. Why. This isn’t. A fucking porno. This isn’t tentacle porn i swear oh my god kill me

11. Giving the wrong characters attention

Basically, redeeming characters that should have been redeemed and not going into/discussing characters that should have been redeemed/had more backstory. For example, Tsukiyama can go fucking die. I like, do not even care rich boy. I don’t understand how anyone could think he needed to be redeemed he’s just a gay attention whore who really needs to let this kid get on with his merry fucking life. I don’t care. I literally did not need to read three whole books about his dumbass hangup over eating Kaneki. Kaneki doesn’t fucking want you bitch move on. He didn’t need to be redeemed or seen to be in any way sympathetic, no one wanted it. Same with that bitch ass Furuta, he wasn’t really redeemed but he was given w a y too much time to play out his sob story. God man Rize doesn’t fucking want you. These gross ass simps. I swear.

On the other hand, I kind of liked Eto even though she’s a pile of shit, and I got mad when they didn’t really go into much about her. And you know who could have gotten much more screen time/development? TOUKA. God, I love her and she was just sitting around in the background being straight. Let her have some spicy development. Also obviously, Hide. He was... so underappreciated and underexplained? What happened with him? He didn’t just pick himself off the ground in the sewers and go ‘well i’d better get back to the ccg now’ we have a whole two years which are completely unexplained, most of which he was off mysteriously being involved in things but completely missing the eye of Haise and other major players. Where tf was he? How did he get around? What was he even doing??? I wanna know about that! Not all the characters I hate’s tragic backstories that make me feel 0% more sympathetic towards them :)

12. ARE WE ALL JUST GONNA COLLECTIVELY IGNORE THE WHOLE VORE THING???

Ok like i know i say “the entire reason I read :re was __” but like to be honest this was the turning point, I saw pictures of hide’s vore face and went like

So I was like “god fucking damn it ok, Ishida would you care to explain this to me” *cracks open re*

And then they DIDN’T.

Like. It’s actually laughable how much that entire situation was just glossed over. They gave that maybe like two pages. Like what. I. This manga has more sex scene than no homoing that. They just don’t even bother to. I feel like Ishida had that as a plot point but realized halfway in how it looked (i.e., really fucking gay) and decided that was something that he was just gonna, not deal with. Just act like that’s a completely normal heterosexual bro thing to do. Like of course anywhere would be pretty gay but Kaneki chose his face. His face. Like his face and his wholeass neck and his shoulders and nowhere else. (and assumedly like, his tongue, seeing as how the dude can’t talk... bruh) Dude really said extreme hickey. French kiss to the max. Ishida clearly did realize that generally, you can only get a bitten off face by,,, having your face bitten off, which is just inherently really fucking gay. Like, I’m just at a loss as to how it even makes sense. You wouldn’t think that the skin off his face, and specifically around his mouth, would really be the most nutritious thing to consume? I can get like the shoulders but generally you’d think something like his arm or leg would be 1.less inconvenient, and 2.much more logical and nutritious? But NO, Kaneki was like “you know what i’m gonna do? eat your Face” and hide’s like “lmao sounds cool”

(not to mention, wasn’t there another guy with a vore face somewhere? like that old guy in the ccg with the bigass turtleneck, i wanna know about him) But like... my bro Ishida went “yeah this happened but i’m going to cover it up with speech bubbles and the ends of panels guys they clearly had their socks on” Dude didn’t even TRY to explain otherwise. Like hey man, that’s pretty damn gay, you are kind of at liberty to either tell me why otherwise, or accept those implications and acknowledge them?? It’s really hilarious when you ignore it cause it’s like

kind of

pretty damn

WEAK of you to leave it at that fucking pissbaby

hmmmmmmmmm however could this happen i guess we’ll never know

13. What the fuck was even the plot omg

God I’ve been writing this post for like five hours so like, I’ll keep it short but like it made sense in the original, not to be like an anime fan but the anime made fucking sense (not re i mean like the original) this lore is so fucking stupid god, the horrors of the entire fucking dragon arc bleach my eyes, unresolved plotlines who???? (the whole ‘oh yeah also ur dying of old age’ thing etc, is kaneki like??? still doing that?? or was that randomly resolved with the whole spewing ovary bullshit i’m going to fucking kill myself) and to top it off, good job Ishida at a real fucking cheap ending. 

You gave them. Fake human. Really? They just come up with artificial human at the end. Kind of undermines the entire fucking story my guy. Ah yes throw out our whole plot. That was the whole tragedy. You gotta eat human. The ghouls have to eat human and that’s tragic bc they have to kill people or whatever. Or i guess they fucking don’t well fucking ok. God you could have just had them negotiate a kind of peace where the ghouls can get dead humans and such, there are plenty of them and no one has to kill anyone then, there could be a rule system for it, it would be messy but eventually everyone would be ok with it, and I think that would work a lot better than “quick fix i made some hamburger helper human you can eat it fine” guys wtf. It’s like Ishida started plotting out the ending for re approximately 2 hours before his deadline. Anyway yes I hate re and I love yelling about it thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 45: Oops! All Supports Volume #7

Now we finally have enough portal babies to give them Supports with each other. Neat.

Support: Mana/Midori

C: Midori is studying acupuncture. Kana volunteers as a guinea pig. Unfortunately, every time Midori stabs a pressure point he laughs.

B: Midori tries again. It doesn't work. She decides to try it on other people.

A: Turns out getting tickled by acupuncture is just a weird thing with Kana. The acupuncture eventually works thanks to a trick from a book. Both of them are nauseatingly friendly.

S: Midori finally masters acupuncture. Kana asks her to be his best friend, not his wife, which is weird but also the two of them are literal children so I don't mind.

Review: Incredibly dull. Repetitive and lacking in anything interesting. This Support fails because when you take two characters with the same boring personality and pair them off, they can’t make something interesting.

Support: Corrin/Oboro 

C: Late at night, Corrin runs into Oboro cleaning. As Corrin talks to her, Oboror zones out.

B: Corrin comes home one night to find Oboro standing in their room, staring at the woods. Oboro explains her sad backstory and says it happened on a similar moonless night.

A: Corrin figures out that Oboro works so hard to avoid thinking about her sad past. Oboro breaks down in from of Corrin and Corrin says that she can rely on them and the rest of the army.

S: Corrin and Oboro discuss Corrin's Nohrian past and Corrin says to judge people by what's in their hearts. Also they get together.

Review: Surprisingly touching. This one has a good structure, setting up Oboro’s struggle instead of just saying it outright. Corrin telling Oboro that an army is founded on not struggling alone is great.

Support: Dwyer/Kiragi

C: Kiragi makes a massive mess butchering animals. Dwyer forces him to clean it up and take a bath.

B: Kiragi tries to go hunting, but Dwyer forces him to clean his room.

A: Kiragi becomes cleanly thanks to Dwyer's nagging.

Review: Dull and repetitive.

Support: Ryoma/Setsuna

C: Ryoma tells Setsuna that her stealthiness and archery skills would make her an excellent spy.

B: Setsuna explains that she can only be sneaky when daydreaming. Ryoma tells her to focus on her strengths.

A: Setsuna shows off her master archery and also her inability to one half a mile without falling in a bear pit and being stuck for two days.

S: Ryoma says he wants to protect Setsuna and proposes.

Review: Fine, but nothing special. I’ve also noticed that a lot of Setsuna’s Supports end with a man promising to protect her from herself, which is a bit infantilizing.

Support: Asugi/Shiro

C: Shiro and Asugi try to stop a thief from robbing the camp. He gets away because of their bickering.

B: The two of them discuss their failure and come up for a plan for the next time the thief shows up.

A: Shiro and Asugi defeat the thief together. They discuss how they work good as a team.

Review: Okay, but I think it could have done more analysis of their similar relationships with their fathers.

Support: Azama/Hayato

C: Azama makes fun of Hayato for being short and young. Hayato uses magic to make Azama confused. Azama does his best Bugs Bunny impression and says "this means war".

B: Azama tries spooking Hayato with carrots. Hayato blows them away with magic. Azama attempts to channel divine magic, but fails because god hates him for being a prick.

A: Azama finally gets his win by using paralysis magic on Hayato and reading scary stories.

Review: This one is oddly good. I dislike both of these characters, but having them fight each other is actually pretty funny.

Support: Fana/Shigure

C: Kana is sad about her father not spending enough time with her. Shigure explains that he understands his own mother's responsibilities and Kana freaks out because Shugire is something terrifying: a teenager.

B: Shigure tries to explain that it's natural for children to grow more independent over time and Kana just assumes he hates his family.

A: Shigure apologizes, even though he didn't do anything wrong. Kana admits that she's becoming a teenager.

S: Kana decides to go through her rebellious phase and asks Shigure to rebel with her.

Review: This one is incredibly dumb. It’s also very funny. Kana being as dumb as a bag of bricks and freaking out about evil teenagers is a good source of comedy. Also, this one finally confirms that Shigure is a teenager and Kana is a child. No more “Elise is technically an adult” bullshit, we have confirmation that this game features child soldiers who marry one another. Which is apparently something Fire Emblem fans like, considering how often Intelligent Systems uses those tropes.

Support: Mozu/Subaki

C: Subaki tells a soldier a cure for an illness. Mozu tells him a home recipe that works better.

B: Subaki asks Mozu for more farm wisdom.

A: A bunch of people go to Mozu for help. Mozu says that Subaki isn't actually competitive and is really nice.

S: Mozu says she likes Subaki. He reciprocates.

Review: Another fairly dull Support.

Support: Asugi/Sophie

C: Sophie and Asugi stop some bandits, but accidentally spook a bunch of horses into stampeding. Asugi shrugs it off and Sophie marvels at his calmness.

B: Sophie blows up the kitchen, Asugi helps her fix it. Asugi says that Sophie is so crazy and childish that she forces other people to be calm.

A: Sophie, wanting to prove Asugi wrong, single-handedly destroys an army of enemies without a single scratch.

S: Asugi saves Sophie's life. The two of them promise to fight together. It's cute.

Review: Not awful, the S-Rank in particular is more interesting than normal. But, this Support lacks a strong center idea and feels aimless.

Support: Hinata/Orochi

C: Hinata asks Orochi to predict his future. Orochi predicts that he will never get stronger. These bad growths make Hinata by far the worst Birthright unit.

B: Orochi tells Hinata he can change his fate by doing chores for her. She brushes it off as her teaching him empathy and how to try new things, but come on. She makes him get her tea and a backrub.

A: Orochi decides to stop messing with Hinata.

S: Hinata gives Orochi a really good back massage. He says he loves her. She calls him an adorable clod.

Review: A very fun Support. Orochi’s trickster mindgames pair wonderfully with Hinata’s stupidity.

[pinepickled]

Hello Pine! I hope you've been doing well. For the fandom asks, may I ask about 14, 17, and 20?

Hello shy! Good to hear from you!

14. Name a fandom, she, or character that you love that others would send you hate mail for liking.

Oho, just one? Just /one/? Shy, I am a treasure trove of everything that misguided puritan assholes hate, however can I chose just ~one~. Off the top of my head, probably either Hashira/Tobirama from Naruto (brothers) or Megumi/Gojo (age gap) or Natsume/Matoba (age gap and murderer.) Just off the top of my head. Given time, I could come up with millions.

17. Are there any tropes you wish were used less often?

So many. A great deal of my inspiration for writing comes from the fact that from the cradle to the grave, I HATE overused tropes. Coffee shop au? Get it out of my face. Nerd/Jock or Goth/Jock? Please. Ugly girl gets makeover and suddenly hot popular guy likes her? Not for me no thank you. One in particular I wish was used less often, however, is the constant shaming/infantilizing/idiot-fying of teenagers in media. I work with kids 24/7 and have for about 4 years now. Nothing makes me more mad then 1) when common signs of depression, autism, anxiety, adhd, bpd, and other such things are treated as "just teenage things" 2) when teenagers tout progressive talking points only for the older, conservative, """smarter""" characters to debunk them because a teen said it, of course it's idiotic 😒 3) acting like teens in their 15-17 years of age are of the same intelligence and wisdom of a child of 10-14. From 10 to 17 is 7 years of experience, and you shouldn't pussyfoot with 15-17 year old what you would with a 10-14 year old, which leads to my final grievance: 3) acting like being a child is a crime. So many pieces of media that centers around adults downright criminalized children for being children. It ties into other things such as the quick smack down of people who are only ignorant if only to gain brownie points and how no one has the patience or empathy to explain things to someone "below" them without coming off condescending.

Whew

Can you tell I have a lot of grievances with this 😂

20. Name a song that reminds you heavily of a specific fandom or character.

Ohh, this is another tough one. Most of the songs I associate with characters nowadays is centered on my OC's, Michael and Arbor in particular. If that answers the question, than Hug All Your Friends by Cavetown is a good Michael/Lucifer/Arbor song!

[linkspooky]

Pls... your top ten nisioisin characters... i love your lists...

I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT  HOW MUCH I LOVE MY FAVES. IF YOU EVER ASK WANT TO ASK ME WHO MY FAVES ARE FOR A SERIES FEEL FREE TO SEND ME AN ASK.

My favorite thing about Niosisin’s characters is how genuinely subversive they are. Not in the sense that he’s deconstructing tropes, but rather these are characters who would never get their story told in most other books, because they are not good, or righteous. Nisioisin breathes life into them, and allows those who cannot be forgiven, those who are deviant, those who have dropped out of society to still remain human. He tells their stories the same as everybody else, because their lives are just as fun. 

1. Even if I’m hated, Even if I’m Despised - Kumagawa Misogi 

He’s only my favorite character of all time so I’ve talked about him on this blog before, but let me find something new to say. Oh Kumagawa, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. Or maybe it’s Oh Kumagawa, how do I despise thee let me count the ways. 

Kumagawa’s character is so interesting because it’s written in antithesis of everything a shonen protagonist is. For Kumagawa, his determination just makes him fail worse and worse. His desire to be involved and help people always guarantees the worst result for the people he wants to call his friends. His empathy is extremely painful for him, and is a trait that drives him insane rather than making him a kind and loving person. 

A lot of time in manga empathy is like, a magic fix-it-all bandaid that basically makes the main character a saint by being able to emotionally relate to anybody. Kumagawa is the reality of that situation. He is empathic, and by relating so much to the humans around him he shows how ugly, and messy human emotions can really be. Recovery and saving others isn’t necessarily a beautiful thing, it’s complicated and sloppy. 

Kumagawa is a character where getting stronger won’t solve any of his problems. Which is what happens in a lot of shonen manga, rather than trying to emotionally mature the main character will just learn a new fighting technique and develop that way. Instead, Kumagawa winning fights means absolutely nothing. The only thing that can free him is to grow up as a person, and the fact that Kumagawa’s arc is given equal weight to both of the main characters shows how accepting of weirdoes and broken off beat characters Nisioisin is as an author. 

What I like about him is how genuinely broken he is, but not for monstrous reasons but for entirely human ones. It’s his genuine care for others that breaks him the most. He’s a character written to be insane, but also geniunely human. Kumagawa is not able to live properly, or even act like the main character like Zenkichi and Medaka are but he’s still able to find his own way to live. 

2. I don’t feel any reality from you people - Ajimu Najimi 

“Genius who is super good at everything, but is secretly sad and lonely on the inside” is a pretty common Nisioisin trope. It tends to be pretty hit and miss with me, but it also resulted in one of my favorite characters of all time. I tend to like these types of characters more when they’re allowed to be… what’s the word… unlikable. When the story isn’t trying to go on about how cool they are.

The reason why I love Ajimu is because she is just like Kumagawa, a subversion of the character you expect her to be. The same way Kumagawa suverts Zenkichi in a way, Ajimu subverts Medaka. The same way that Medaka is all loving, Ajimu is indifferent to absolutely everything. The reason she’s able to be kind to everyone around her is because she genuinely doesn’t care about you. Her real personality when not being apathetic, is to just be downright nasty and look down on absolutely everything. 

She’s completely self absorbed because according to Ajimu she’s the only one who exists in the universe. She’s the only one she knows for sure is real. The opposite of Kumagawa, a character entirely lacking in empathy, not even thinking of herself as human in any sense of the word. Ajimu acts like she knows everything in the story like she’s reading off of the script, but that’s because she literally thinks that everything in this world is fiction and she’s literally breaking the fourth wall.

And my favorite part about Ajimu is that the story doesn’t glorify her meta fourth wall shenanigans. She’s not treated as someone who sees through everything in the end. She’s just pathetic, and suicidal, and dragging everybody else along into her trillion year long self pity party. She’s more of a human failure than someone who can’t possibly empathize with humans, and that’s why I love her. 

3. There ain’t no meaning, got it? - Ii (Boku) 

Ii-chan is the narrator of Nisioisin’s first ever series, Zaregoto (Lit. Nonsense). It’s not really until the second book you get a grasp of his character, but Strangulation Romanticist does such an excellent job of setting up who he is as a person. This is another one of Nisioisin’s character types (narrator who feels ennui, and really, really doesn’t want to be a person). 

What’s great about Iichan is that he is special in a way. Just like he’s described in the books, when he’s thrown into situations everything goes a little bit crazy. He always gets dragged into mysteries, and has people die around him even though he tries to stay as uninvolved with people as possible. He’s actually a great look at what a character constantly caught up in murder mysteries like the main character of a detective novel would actually act like. He has this deep rambling narration that sways between nihilism and existentialism that makes him a really unique character to read about.

But at the same time Iichan is also kind of a normal dude. And I don’t mean in the sense that he’s an everyman, or has no personality, but he kind of just feels like one. The great twist of No Longer Human is that Yozo isn’t some inhuman monster, he’s just kind of a normal guy who drowns out his misery by taking advantage of women. Like, it’s not all that uncommon. The same thing with Iichan, as poetic as he gets he’s kind of a very petty person and most of his flaws are very mundane ones. 

It’s basically very hard to care about other people in this world. Ii-chan doesn’t want to at all, he just wants to have all of his emotional needs fulfilled by the friend he both infantilizes and puts on a pedestal. He’s just super clingy about the one relationship he has in life, because he’s afraid of losing it, but he’s also afraid of being close to her. Ii-chan is just kind of a normal person reacting badly to trauma, but he presents himself as such a mystery that most people lose sight of that (in story). He’s kind of just petty and annoying, and that’s why I love him. 

4. No Longer Human - Hitoshiki Zerozaki

Zerozaki is Iichan’s greatest character foil. Basically the best way to describe it is Zerozaki is Mersault. The flip that is switched on for everyone that prevents them from killing someone when the idea crosses their mind is turned off for Zerozaki, and so he kills. He doesn’t enjoy it, he doesn’t have a particular reason to it, he just can’t overcome his impulse to kill. If Ii-chan is restrained, then Zerozaki never restrains any of his impulses at all and lives following only those. 

Once again this is another common Nisioisin character archetype “A murder, but they’re sad and lonely.” What I like about Hitoshiki is how much of a deviant he is to that archetype. 

He wants a friend and somebody who understands him, but at the same time he hates himself so he doesn’t want anybody too close. He lives in a family of murderers and he’s somehow the rebellious child of the family. He’s constantly running away and wandering from place to place. What makes Zerozaki interesting is how self aware he is about all of this too. He rambles his thoughts and will just be like “Yeah, so anyway that’s totally fucked up (LOL).” 

 5. Is your life dramatic - Kaiki Deishuu

Kaiki is a character who I admire for his philosophy above all else. He’s another one of those “deviant” characters like Kumagawa who would just be a villain to be defeated in any other narrative, but in this one he gets fully fleshed out as a character. 

What’s interesting about Kaiki is that he chooses exactly the way he lives. He decides to be a villain. Kaiki at some point sees through most of the lies of the people around them, and for how meaningless the things that you are told have value can be. He hates holding onto ideas like those.

But that doesn’t mean that Kaiki rejects everything. He doesn’t claim to see above society, or that he’s not a part of society. Rather, Kaiki just uses that awareness to realize he can give meaning to whatever he personally finds meaningful. Because it’s all meaningless anyway, as a human being he can create his own meaning. 

So his want of money is not just simple greed, it’s what he’s decided to live for. Kaiki is an adult who willingly chose to become a conman because he finds that’s his place in society. He just doesn’t trust himself enough to be kind despite feeling the same desire to save others, so he decided to lie to them and trick them instead. 

6. “I don’t know anything, you’re the one who knows” Oshino Ougi

Ougi is just interesting conceptually. They are literally Araragi’s own shadow, running away from him and given form and consciousness of their own. While Ougi themselves works as a common Jungian shadow archetype calling characters out for what they are repressing and also revealing the bare faced truth to them, which is why they are so heavily associated with mirrors, lights, and shadows. 

My favorite part about Ougi however is not their connection to Araragi. It’s when Ougi starts to become their own character. An oddity with consciousness that begins to deviate from what they were made for, because they were allowed to live on their own.

Ougi did not become a fave of mine until Zoku because that was when they started to self reflect and realize their own strange existence separate to Araragi. The conversation scene with Araragi is one of my favorite in the whole series because it shows how Ougi is just a genuine tease, and a very clever and insightful person. That’s who they are, outside of just being an oddity that exists to criticize others and call out flaws. They’re ridiculous, and a little strange, and they enjoy screwing with other’s heads and messing around a bit too much. But Ougi Oshino is Ougi Oshino. 

It’s just an interesting concept, to have to define who you are as a person when you were created out of all of the unwanted qualities, and insecurities of another person. 

7. Why are you touching me without permission, you weed - Yasuri Nanami

Nanami is another one of those “I’m a genius and I’m good at everything but I’m secretly sad” characters, and once again what I love about her is how unlikable she’s allowed to be. None of what Nanami is capable of comes off as cool for very long. She’s basically framed and treated as a horror movie monster, always speaking in the same monotone voice. The one story that shows her true nature in chapter four is literally, paced, framed, exactly like a slasher movie with characters being hunted down and killed one by one. 

Nanami’s just this horrible wretched existence that doesn’t even want to be alive. She basically acts like frankenstein’s monster, ie, the one in the book. She’s just this corpse that is barely even alive in the first place, constantly sick and in pain, and she’s also at war with herself. The part of her that wants to die and the part of her that’s lonely and wants to find some reason to live, or some connection in life are constantly at war with each other. 

And as horrifying as Nanami is she also feels like the most human of Niosisin’s, super-genius characters. She’s riddled with weaknesses and flaws. She lashes out when he’s in pain, she felt bad when her parents told her to die. You get the sense that Nanami’s super genius isn’t what drove her insane at all, it was just how everybody around her treated her as some thing that was not human. Isolation made her this way. She was conditioned to act this way not born inhuman. There are characters that Nisioisin writes that are genuine sociopaths (as in the trope of an unfeeling person unable to feel human emotions), but Nanami is not one of them and so when she starts acting with sociopathic-traits in her personality it makes her all the more painfully human because we see how she’s been driven slowly to act this way. 

7. *Yawns* Nezumi

Juuni Taisen is one of those death game stories where every character is defined by their one gimmick and written around their concept. In the original novel each character really only gets one chapter to be fleshed out as a character. I half suspect Nisioisin wrote it as a dare to himself on how much he could accomplish with one chapter.

The interesting part about Nezumi is his concept again. He can redo anything 100 times. You think this would make him amazing at anything in life because of his time loop ability, but physically having to live through all of those time loops exhausts him to the point that he’s too tired to do anything. You would think he could get anything he wanted out of life, but there are times he can ask a girl out one hundred times and get rejected one hundred different ways. 

Nezumi is interesting because of how quietly he lives. There’s nothing he really wants out of life, and nothing he wishes for, like a rat he just scurries and survives. 

9. I am currently being accused by everyone - Kakushidate Yakusuke

The same as Iichan and Kumagawa, Yakusuke is a guy who is just cursed by constant bad luck. What I like about Yakusuke is that he’s a full fleshed out character, instead of just an unlucky every dude protagonist.

He’s a contract worker who is constantly shifting between jobs. Due to this fact he’s got like 1,000 skills that he gained on his various jobs. He’s not smart, but because he’s experienced so much of life he’s incredibly resourceful. Which is why he makes a perfect counterpart and foil to Okitegami.

Yakusuke’s everyday life is him constantly being accused and blamed, and falling from one bad situation to the next. But, he has so much experiences that it’s what draws Okitegami to him who can only ever experience one day at a time because her memories will reset at the end of the day. He’s exactly my type of man, a total failure at all walks of life.

10. This is your last chance, let me make you happy! - Kugi Kizutaka

He’s so low on the list because his story “Magical Girl Ritsuka” only has one chapter published in english, but he’s so interesting he instantly became a fave. He’s actually a concept i have been looking for for a long time, which is basically what I describe as “Reverse Junko Enoshima.” 

Basically someone as smart and manipulative as Junko Enoshima, who can make anybody into their toy, and predict things years in advance and control everything, but instead of using that power to send the world to despair, they use that power to give the world hope instead. Not out of any genuine good will or because they’re a good person, but because they’re obsessed with the idea of giving people happiness the same way Junko is with sending people to despair. 

Kugi is a lot like that. He’s a genius ten year old who sees everybody for their potential to be used, and looks down on absolutely everyone around him. He’s made contact with a magical girl, because he’s pretty clearly planning on using her to enslave the world to him, so he can force everybody to be happy. And it’s absolutely adorable. He’s just such a genuine terrible little person while at the same time wanting to make everyone happy. 

[tshepiso-reads-books]

Prepare For a Rant | Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

Started: February 10th, 2020

Finished: February 14th, 2020

I have a lot of thoughts about Lair of Dreams [Goodreads] and most of them are negative. It took me what felt like several lightyears to finish this book and the reading experience sapped the joy of reading out of me for a while. This is going to be a long one folks, so buckle in. Before we jump into things I’d like to warn that this is going to be a spoilerific review so heed my warning before you jump in.

Lair of Dreams takes place shortly after the events of the first book in this series The Diviners. The city is on the cusp of an all-out outbreak as more and more cases of Sleeping Sickness, a mysterious illness that causes the afflicted to fall asleep and never wake up again, are cropping up in Chinatown. While the gang goes on wildly different adventures in this book they all ultimately come together to solve the mystery of the sleeping sickness.

On Character

My biggest problem with this book is the characters. They’re selfish, self-centered, naïve and don’t understand that actions hurt others. This is most evident in Evie, but every character in the book has moments of this scattered throughout the novel. However,  I feel uncomfortable throwing this fact as a criticism of the book because all of these characteristics are fundamental character traits of teenagers and I find it obtuse to criticize a young adult novel for accurately writing teenaged protagonists. But I can’t divorce this understanding from how absolutely infuriating I found so many moments in this book.

I will say just because our protagonists, and especially Evie, were annoying doesn’t mean they didn’t have depth. Libba Bray is a good writer and fully fleshed out every character in this book mellowing some of my frustrations with them. The perfect example of this is Sam Lloyd. The bad boy character archetype has been done to death in YA, but Sam stands apart from the crowd of tousled haired edge-lords by having a tragic backstory with legitimate weight to it. His search for his mother never felt like an afterthought or quirk. I genuinely felt his deep desire to find the truth and it made him well rounded. The same could be said about all the other characters in the story.

Evie was the only character I truly hated while reading this book. I understand the reason why Evie is the way she is and how her past influenced her bad behavior. But understanding that her PTSD and trauma are the cause of her actions was never enough to get me to sympathize with her. Every single character in this book has been through just as much if not more than she has and they never went as far as to abandon and betray their friends as consistently as Evie did. I could never get behind Evie, her selfishness went above and beyond teenaged immaturity and her inability to own up to her mistakes and change angered me.

Now on to Jericho Jones, my second least favorite character in this book. I genuinely liked Jericho in The Diviners, but his behavior in this book was appalling. I will admit he had the misfortune of falling into one of my least favorite tropes out there: “The Monster Inside Me“ [TV Tropes]. However, his particular brand of self-loathing went further than that. At the end of The Diviners Jericho was rejected by Evie causing a cycle of self-pity that verged on incel behavior. His constant monologuing about how “girls just don’t like guys him” was eye-roll inducing and his hurry to lash out at others because a girl he liked rejected him was gross. His actions depict a man who sees Evie as a prize rather than a human being.

Another problem I had with this book is how central protagonists from The Diviners were sidelined in the novel. It’s almost impossible in a reasonably sized book to follow eight different characters and give them all their due. The characters I feel most negatively effected by Bray’s shift in focus to new POVs were Memphis, Theta and Mabel. It would take over 500 more words to deep dive into my specific thoughts on each of their character arcs so in summation: these three were barely given anything to do and their character arcs didn’t move forward in any significant way. Mabel was given the harshest treatment of all because she had literally nothing to do in this book but pine after a guy who didn’t like her. No other character conflict she had from the previous book in this series was even mentioned or explored.

On Romance

Possibly my least favorite element in this book was its romantic subplot. So much page time was dedicated to it that it could reasonably be dubbed the main plot So here’s the rundown:

Mabel likes Jericho, but Jericho likes Evie.

Evie thinks she likes Jericho but doesn’t want to date him because of girl code.

Evie fake dates Sam and they both start catching feelings.

Jericho goes out with Mabel even though he knows that Mabel likes him and he still has feelings for Evie.

This is the kind of conflict I hate in books. This love triangle was so convoluted and contrived. It did nothing but make me hate Evie and Jericho, and I found none of the romantic tension exciting because the dynamics explored were built on a foundation of miscommunication and lies of omission.

On Representation

While I was pleasantly surprised by the anti-racism in The Diviners I was uncomfortable by the way some of the themes of diversity were explored in this book. In Lair of Dreams, we are introduced to Ling Chang a half Chinese girl with a recent case of infantile paralysis causing her to wear leg braces. She has a lot of self-hatred in regard to her disability. This trope while cliche wasn’t my problem, my problem was how this internal conflict is resolved. Another one of our protagonists, Henry, finds out about her disability and all her self loathing is resolved by him telling her she should love herself. This interaction is that it places Ling’s self-worth in the hands of an able-bodied person rather than focusing this her arc on self-acceptance. As an able-bodied person, I don’t want to cry ableism without shouting out actual disabled people’s voices on the matter so I would highly encourage you to seek out these voices. I’ve yet to encounter an ownvoices reviewer’s thought on Ling’s arc (believe me I looked) and this observation should in no way take away anything from disabled people who appreciated Bray’s writing.

There is so much that Bray does right when it comes to diversity and representation. I find her honest depictions of America’s ugly history timely and relevant and I admire her willingness to starkly show anti-semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, police brutality of the time. She clearly parallels America’s history with America’s present reminding you not so subtly that these toxic ideas still exist. I will warn readers that Bray graphically depicts racist imagery and I found the descriptive scenes of lynch mobs and the like very upsetting so be prepared for that.

One aspect of Bray’s depiction of American society I really liked was her pointed observation of the link between Evangelical Christianity and racism and xenophobia. I also liked how she depicted the ways people use American Exceptionalism (the idea that Americans are inherently superior to all others and that their position as a dominant world power is a God-given right rather than luck and historic subjugation) as a justification for bigotry and all detractors of this ideology is consistently labeled as anti-American by the people who benefit from bigotry.

On Everything Else

I will say Lair of Dreams was fairly well-plotted. Though the mystery element of this book very much felt like a subplot with the character conflicts taking center stage. While I didn’t find the sleeping sickness as outright terrifying as Naughty John in the first book Bray is good at building tension and suspense and the final climactic scene did get my heart racing. Bray’s ability to capture a creepy gothic atmosphere shines in this book and I loved her interlude chapters that showed brief snippets of our characters and the city itself.

Stars 🌟🌟🌟

I don’t know where I stand with this series. I found so much of the reading experience frustrating, but I am still invested in so many of the characters in the series and I would like to see how the final mystery unfolds. We’ll see if I continue on with the series because right now I don’t know.

[bigskydreaming]

I'm not the anon from last night, about Ionaperidot's story, but no offense I kind of feel it shows how you are pretty quick to judge stuff. And that's maybe why people have such strong reactions to your posts about Ao3. Nobody likes seeing the stuff they like criticized and you're no exception so I would hope it'd be understandable that when people do respect your opinions on stuff & they see you shutting down things they like without giving it a full chance, it does seem kind of hypocritical.

LOL. Quick question.

Are you freaking KIDDING me?

Okay, see this is EXACTLY what I was trying to avoid and why I was doing my best to be vague and circumspect last night and shift the topic away from just that story in particular, because I’m actually not out here trying to start things about other writer’s work just because they did something that bugged me. I’m blunt as hell. If I want to say something, I say it. If I want to condemn something, I condemn it. If I want to criticize something, I criticize it.

I don’t play games about this shit and so I was legitimately TRYING to refrain from going into specific issues I had with a specific piece of fanfic. But what I’m not gonna do, is sit here and be told I’m a hypocrite who doesn’t give things enough of a chance before forming my admittedly strong opinions, because LMFAO.

You want the truth? I actually read a LOT of that particular story, AND even checked back in on its sequel in the hopes it’d addressed the specific issue that killed my enjoyment for it, because I WANTED to enjoy it, I enjoyed a LOT about it and how the other characters’ stories were played out.

My specific issue with that story ONLY arose at the point when Bruce stopped his research into trying to find a way to undo the Talon changes to Dick...on TIM AND JASON’S RECOMMENDATION. One of the things I actually really loved about the fic before that was how much it prioritized the personal agency of the kids as they coped with their various traumas, such as when Bruce made a conscious effort to let J’onzz ONLY use his telepathy enough to let JASON make the choice if he wanted a ‘quick/sci-fi fix’ to his brain damage related issues, or if he wanted to heal from it naturally and organically and in his own time. 

But all of that went out the window with Dick and Dick’s character alone, as the good Batdad who prioritized letting every one of his other kids heal naturally in their own time and on their own ways....listened to his two teenagers’ take that it would be too damaging for Bruce to undo the Talon changes to Dick, as they and the ways it had changed his brain were in THEIR OPINION the only things that made him able to cope with what he’d done as a Talon. Let me reiterate. Two teenagers with acknowledged mental health issues AND their own personal skews to how they viewed Dick that were born entirely of the version of him THEY’D known in their alternate universes....were given the deciding vote on how Dick was allowed - or rather not allowed - a full range of options in whether or not he got to heal from his trauma naturally and organically - the way they were allowed to.

That was what I was not okay with. That wasn’t their call to make, it wasn’t their opinion Bruce should have sought - especially not when he’s got alternate reality tech that gave him access to multiple other versions of DICK to ask HIS OWN ACTUAL OPINION on what he could or could not cope with. His own reality had a grown up version of Dick Bruce could have consulted. He could have asked the Dick from Tim’s universe when he visited. He could have asked the Red Hood version of Jason to ask his Dick. He could have kept searching through universes until he found a version of Dick who HAD been a Talon, and who found a way to undo the Talon changes...and ask HIM if he was glad he’d done so or if he regretted it and should have stayed the way he was.

But none of those things happened, or were even considered or raised as potential avenues of exploration, and even though I gave the fic a good long while after that before calling it quits in the hopes that it was leading up to somebody pointing out that there was a clear double standard underlying the logic used there....eventually it just seemed more and more like the reason Dick’s storyline was treated differently was because it allowed for keeping him as ‘cute and little and kinda broken’ and thus made it unlikely that he was ever going to grow up to be much like other versions of Dick...and thus unlikely to ever take any kind of lead in the family dynamics, which here would potentially ‘take away’ from say, Tim’s position in the family. THAT is what bothered me enough to quit the story. That a fic that was so fundamentally about mental health and recovery and allowing traumatized children the courtesy of applying their own damn agency to their methods of recovery....didn’t blink about doing the exact opposite to one specific character who’s noted for more usually occupying the position in the family ‘hierarchy’ that others were now able to occupy instead....and that seemed to me like the kind of character preference - that while totally understandable - is a mistake to allow to play out in a story with these SPECIFIC themes.

(Also, I’ve been pretty damn regular about expressing that I personally have a huge problem with the trope that Dick is ‘too good/too pure/too filled with light’ to ever kill, and that being made fully aware of what he’d done in the past would have broken him in the story...like, obviously falls into all my issues with that particular trope. 

I hate that it off-handedly implies that every character that HAS killed as a child, like Damian or Cass or even Jason whose first kills happened while he was a teenager....like, it basically suggests that they’re fundamentally LESS good, LESS pure, LESS filled with light....or else they would never have been able to kill in the first place, or else would have somehow been damaged or broken or irreparably LESSENED by doing so. And I think that throws all of THEM under the bus, rather than actually doing anything to uplift Dick’s character or express anything positive. 

Honestly, its just another form of infantilizing him. Especially when you consider that per Last Laugh, he has killed in canon and he ALREADY WORKED THROUGH having killed someone...like, it literally happened. On panel. It wasn’t easy, it did affect him, he did angst about it, but it didn’t fundamentally CHANGE him as a person or make him any LESS of who he’d been before.....and all of that is just further reason why I push back against the idea that Dick ‘just couldn’t kill someone ever’ or the tendency to sweep Last Laugh and what happened with the Joker under the rug. 

Because it doesn’t actually do Dick or his character any favors. Actually, its more that while nominally its said to be in defense of him and his character....its really more like people are saying ‘Dick can’t HANDLE killing someone’ - especially when you consider how much fandom as a whole celebrates and glorifies the characters who are able to kill in the name of victims and obviously doesn’t see it as a slight against Jason and others).

So yeah, THAT was my real issue with the story and why I dropped it and what I was trying to refrain from spelling out because I’m actually NOT out here trying to tell everyone what to think and DIDN’T have any interest in trying to turn people off the story or give them reason not to read it and form their own opinions about it, without mine clouding the issue.

But fuck that, if its gonna just lead to people giving me shit about how I don’t give things enough of a chance before making a judgment call against them, because lol actually, the last time I peeked in on that series was just two weeks ago, where I skimmed the latest updates to the sequel in the hopes that maybe the introduction of Roy had brought that issue to light, like he compared this Dick to the one he’d known and disagreed with their assessment of what Dick could or couldn’t handle, or else at least just flat out said no version of Dick he knew would ever be okay with his brothers deciding for him what he was capable of overcoming and what he needed to be protected from. Especially not if the end result was going to leave him permanently altered by what his abusers had done to him.

So...is THAT having given the story enough of a chance before forming a ‘snap judgment’? Did I do it right, per your official overview of the situation? Or should I still be reading it and waiting to form an opinion, same as I apparently should be still waiting for SOMETHING before deciding that....I don’t like how people react to criticism of Ao3?

Idk, I mean, maybe I actually AM pretty consistent about the things I do and say and post about and believe. And maybe the problem ISN’T that I’m kinda hypocritical.

Maybe its just that like you said, nobody likes seeing stuff they like criticized, and rather than working through that for yourself, you’ve decided to make it MY problem, SPECIFICALLY.

[rathbian]

Sexism and Danganronpa

Apologies for the length of this post but this issue needed to be addressed. There have been some fundamental misunderstandings in how sexism works in the DR fanbase and I want to clear them up in relation to discourse surrounding certain characters, namely Tenko Chabashira and Kaito Momota.

I’m sure everyone knows how much discourse Tenko has been in. We’re here to focus on one part of that: her supposed sexism through misandry. To clarify, misandry does not exist as an axis of oppression. Allow me to explain. A decent chunk of what is considered misandry is actually the result of misogyny or a different form of oppression(the backlash against gender non-conforming men due to equating presenting in a way that’s perceived to be feminine or gay for example). The rest is either a: not considered systemic oppression(discrimination by law or by a history of societal standard) or b: injustice caused by individuals which should not be considered an equivalent to misogyny but instead the fault of the individuals perpetrating it. 

Someone making a blanket statement about hating men is not misandry. Blanket statements made by an oppressed group of people about their oppressors is not a targeted statement to any particular individual of that class unless the statement applies to them. Additionally, as oppression is inherent(affording one advantages over those who are not oppressed in that manner) and not merely active discrimination, one cannot cast off the label of oppressor, which is not a bad thing on its own, all this means is that one must be conscious of this fact when interacting with others. Statements like these are not an attack on a given person or a wish of ill will onto every member of a group but, rather, an expression of frustration with particular facets or behaviors of this group that are unsavory. They are hyperbolic in nature and hold no real power due to how oppression works, as oppression is one-sided, or completely improbable and impractical threats that absolutely cannot be followed through on. In other words, do not take someone who says that they hate men personally, whether as a man or a misguided attempt to protect men from something that doesn’t exist. 

How then, do we address Tenko’s hatred for men? As discussed before, some things perceived as misandry can be sourced in misogyny, which can be applied to this case. In fact, Tenko’s entire existence is steeped in misogyny, from her history in canon to her treatment by the fandom and even by Kodaka himself. I’ve spoken briefly on this before, through a submission on @momotaphobe, about the misogynistic culture surrounding how Tenko was raised to hate men in order to remain pure and innocent. The manipulative and infantilizing behavior of her teacher is never stated to be wrong, instead placing the fault on Tenko for not realizing her teacher’s hypocrisy, and the fetishistic nature of this trope is indulged in by the inclusion of the Love Hotel scene. Between this, Kodaka writing her into a corner by making a grand majority of her scenes revolving around either her hating men or being infatuated with Himiko, and the fandom misrepresenting her character due to misinterpretation and bias, it’s clear that rather than Tenko being a perpetrator of misandry, she is a victim of misogyny.

What of Kaito and his sexism? Another point for Tenko’s case as a victim of misogyny in the DR fandom is that Kaito’s sexist views when applied to a number of the boys in NDRV3 is never called misandry. He very clearly states that his issue with them is that they are not acting according to his standards of masculinity, but even then, only Tenko is brought up as being a misandrist. This double standard when analyzing sexism in the two characters is misogynistic in that Tenko is held to a standard that Kaito never was. Not to mention that the aforementioned misandry(the idea that weakness is a bad trait in men because it is associated with women) is the result of toxic masculinity which stems from misogynistic views. On top of that, his comments to Maki aren’t exactly the most respectful of her capabilities or sensitive to her feelings. With all this in mind, one can say that, within the NDRV3 canon, he acts in a misogynistic manner.

In order to properly address the issues these characters have in regards to sexism, we must differentiate how they are affected by misogyny. There are a number of people who wish to separate Kaito’s misogyny from his other character traits due to either his implied background as being raised by his grandparents and, from just that, inferring that they would be conservative or simply due to a Kodaka writing him that way. No matter how you wish to explain away the origin of his sexist leanings, you cannot ignore his canonical actions. The way he is portrayed is as a sexist and to not address that either in canon or in your analysis of his character is to excuse the way he is written. Tenko and her relationship to misogyny is different. Thanks to the amalgamation of factors both in canon and by people, Tenko is affected by misogyny throughout her character as well, albeit as a victim, thus, examination of her actions should consider this to be a factor as well. Like with Kaito, the sexism at play should not be ignored, but instead, be examined in a different manner than Kaito. Though one could argue that Kaito, too, is a victim to sexist values, it will not change his position of oppressor, the actions he took, and words he said. In the end, Tenko is a victim of misogyny and Kaito is a participant of misogyny, unwittingly or not, and discussions, critiques, and analysis of either their characters or sexism should take care to address them accordingly.

[hikariobsessions]

I think I kind of agree with you, I'm not too fond of the sassy mc in ikesen, but she'll grow on me eventually maybe. It kind of makes me sad that people think reserved or shy characters can't be written well or be strong without being sassy/rude or without being annoying. I always see them being written as if being shy/pure is their only trait. I've met shy people in real life who are very enjoyable to be around once they open up to someone. (You don't need to reply to this by the way)

I can’t say how much this kind of ask/discussion is making me smile right now. Thank you for this (*^^*) – if you want, you can dm me and we can discuss this in a little bit more detail~ More opinions from me under the cut – but you don’t need to read it if this topic is already driving you insane (as it is me) because of how it blew up into this odd, unpleasant thing that really didn’t need to be. But I suppose, it’s Tumblr nonetheless… 

Don’t let one opinion stop you from enjoying the stuff you really admire. THIS OPINION IS JUST ME. Ignore or barrel through the commentaries, that’s up to you.

But it’s there as food for thought. For myself, and just as an answer to this asker who has been the only person so far that has responded to my call for civility when it comes to these rants. 

Again, thank you so, so much (*^^*)

[RANT] Just another one to get stuff off my chest ^^;; We all know how this goes right?

I can understand why people like the ENG MC. And here’s the thing, they’re not WRONG to like her for whatever reason they have. It’s FINE.

I’m just running my mouth with my own opinions because first of all this is my blog - LET’S JUST GET THAT OUT OF THE WAY IN CASE NO ONE HAS NOTICED. 

But also, just as someone in the minority of these opinions, I take it upon myself to try and elaborate on my own point of view because I feel like I owe it to the people who like/maybe even love this particular character, to not just give them hate and criticism, but rather a valid argument for my own views.

But so far no one has given me any fair observations/criticisms of the writing that points me in a different way of looking at and appreciating the writing in the IkeSen ENG App for what it is, flaws and all. People are just going “it’s good writing/dialogue” and I’m just like…why do you think that way? PLEASE ELABORATE. 

I am literally someone who wants my opinions challenged because I don’t want to hate on this game. Far from it. Why would anyone want to download something just to do that?

Furthermore, I don’t tag the company’s social media in my rants in particular because they are just that – RANTS. I call the localization team out on several things, definitely, but whether they change their writing is up to them.

Ever since I entered this fandom, I already knew I was in the minority when it came to opinions of the MC, just by looking through Tumblr for IkeSen content. 

But honestly, I want a more substantial reason as to why people think the writing is good apart from the fact that the MC is different (sassy, witty etc.) from other examples of MCs in otome. 

Because as you said, hun, there are other people out there who can be really shy and reserved but have their own strengths as a person/character. And they can also be rude and judgmental at their worst. This is just human. 

And you’re right, it’s a shame that they are sometimes only “written as if being shy/pure is their only trait” – that in itself is BAD WRITING.

The only bad female character, if you ask me (and you did), is one who’s flat. One who isn’t realistic. One who has no agency of her own, who only exists to define other characters (usually men).

Here’s the thing about being a damsel in distress…it’s only bad if that’s all she is. If the character’s defining characteristic is being a damsel in distress, that’s bad. - Mad Lori

I can’t stop quoting Mad Lori enough about this :’)I don’t need to tell anyone that this goes for “sassiness” as well right?? So how about this? About “progression” in the sense that women don’t have to be “strong” in order to be good, well-written characters. And they don’t have to possess a specific trait, such as ‘sassy’ just to be said - “strong” character. That they find their own strength by choosing to love, overcoming their own flaws but more importantly being someone with their own agency to achieve self-determination in the world that they’re in – but also remain down-to-earth, shy, outspoken or otherwise. 

This was never taken from the Japanese MC as a character in the JP App. This is why I remain so confused as to why the English team decided to change her.PORTRAY CHARACTERS AS HUMAN. Not as this thing trying for a convoluted cultural ideal which has its own flaws. 

This is coming from someone, who in turn watches stuff like Orange is the New Black (just watch a trailer for it (if you haven’t heard of this show) and maybe you can get why I’m referring to it). 

It’s a show which has an amazing amount of diversity in terms of its portrayal of women. But what’s good about it, is that those portrayals aren’t so much black or white, shy or sassy, strong or weak – they all have their strengths and weaknesses that make them complex and are motivated by their individual character traits and flaws as well as possessing their own agency.

In any case, the only reason, or at least the MAJOR reason I was completely turned off by the ENG MC is that in the writing, they try SOOO hard to make a point that this particular MC is different from the rest. That she is witty. That she is sassy. Oh, and look just how “strong” she is, by thinking up all these snarky comments/comebacks against the guys, even when they’re not being dickheads!! 

To me, that’s the only reason they decided to change her from the original Japanese MC (correct me if I’m wrong, PLEASE) – shoving these sentiments of “a strong woman” into this particular character just to……..what? Reach a “diverse” audience?? How diverse are we talking about exactly? 

If you can’t even look at a type of character that is shy, insecure and reserved as part of that diversity – and admiring how she becomes an exception to her own trope – you’re just kidding yourself.  And this change isn’t even the core of my problem with the writing.

Look I get that people can be frustrated because of the lack of representation of different kinds of MC and that’s a fair frustration to have. But let’s not back ourselves into a corner of thinking that women need to be portrayed as this one thing in order to be “well-written”:

Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong. -Sophia McDougall, Quote take from here.

To me, this entire push to have this “sassy” MC in the ENG App is the writer or perhaps the business, literally shoving their own rant/agenda onto my face (or rather their “market research” let’s say). 

Having that happen to you as an audience/reader is seriously disengaging from the story. What I’ve seen them do, is blatantly spoon-feed information about the traits of the characters and tell audiences what to think or feel about them, instead of letting readers figure these out for themselves. 

They are literally “talking” to the reader, and that severely takes me out of the world of the story. For example, they use thought-bubbles of the MC to monologue about (Oh, how I used to be such an independent woman, but now I’m in the Sengoku…) — From my perspective, THAT IS SERIOUSLY BAD WRITING. And hence, why I think she’s not a well-written character. Not because of how they changed her to be outspoken and/or sassy, but rather their execution of conveying that in the stories.

“Show, don’t tell” anyone?? Nothing bad about applying a common writing technique preached by almost every writing mentor out there.

The thing is audiences aren’t stupid, but more often than not - when they're paying attention - they know when they’re being called “stupid”.

I have nothing against the localization team trying to change this particular MC into having a ‘sassy’ personality. My problem is that they don’t write it well. 

There’s nothing substantial added to the story by changing the MC that actually makes the development of their relationship (MC and any Warlord) stronger from the stories in the JP App. It’s possible to have done it but unfortunately no, not in this version. If anything the ‘decorative’ nature of what the English team has done with the character to “reach” audiences just made the MC unbearably annoying (to me).

But, equally bad is that everything that they’re doing, which shouldn’t be evident while reading the stories, is showing:

i.e. aiming for a goal of wanting the MC to be different, and using her thought-bubbles to deliver expository commentaries; instead of letting her stand on her own two feet as a character through her actions. 

 –  they should at least BE SUBTLE about it and make sure that they have that self-awareness as to why they’re doing it. And not just because you want to gain popularity amongst audiences who are sick of a trope. This is what I mean when I say I don’t like different for the sake of being different. It’s just sensationalist, immature and completely distracting from the actual story and relationships we’re supposed to be admiring. To quote the great screenwriting guru, Robert McKee:

Just as children break things for fun or throw tantrums to force attention on themselves, too many filmmakers [in this case writers too] use infantile gimmicks on screen to shout, “Look what I can do!” A mature artist never calls attention to himself, and a wise artist never does anything merely because it breaks convention. - Robert McKee

But, hey, like with anything else — this is just me, with my blog, voicing my opinion~ If you’ve read this, again:

Thank you so much for putting up with these rants ^^

Peace out guys, and stay kind ^_^ - Hikari