#anon gripes

[abchavenforanon]

Hot take (may be controversial)

If your gonna label PA as abusive, then you'll have to put New York in the same fucking box.

"But—" Shut the fuck up. If your gonna call PA abusive. Then New York is ALSO abusive. And that means Massachusetts is abusive. And that means the rest of the og 13 is.

I genuinely hate the abuse headcanons cause they're only for shock value or to blame PA for how gov is an actual asshole.

Flinching isn't ONLY a trauma response.

I'm SICK of Pennsylvania being so heavily mischaracterized, no. He's not an abuser. Plus did you really expect the og 13 to be PERFECT with their new form of government?? No. Obviously there were flaws, if your gonna blame pa, then blame the rest of the og13. Not one is at fault here. before you start saying that Pennsylvania 'canonically abused gov' ,, he fucking DIDNT. He never did. All of the states have flaws too. They aren't perfect and can't be because THEYRE STATES and NOBODY IS PERFECT.

"But pa talked about creating fear—" go to the corner bro.😭😭👎👎

I'm his number one defender, idgaf about his flaws i love him and I hate how mischaracterized he is

yeah, the fandom really ran with like, two throwaway lines, so I can understand your frustration

[i-literally-cant-with-this]

Your work is legitimately difficult to read, not only because of the italics and coloring of your words, but because you simply can't fucking write correctly.

Then please don't bother yourself with reading it. 🤷‍♀️

[hinamie]

mentor

[dykedvonte]

omg hi if it wouldn't be a bother i'd love if you could expand on your perspective on curly's character representing how patriarchy, rape culture, etc, negatively effect men?

I think Curly is there to represent the idealic person for the scenerior but in a lot of wrong place wrong time and a sort of deconstruction.

Curly’s enabling is never just the “He wouldn’t do that, he’s my friend, I know him.” type. Yes, he is not nearly as concerned as he should be with Jimmy’s behavior but he’s not completely blind to how he can be and is aware that Jimmy is just a guy who had it rough. He clearly is very keen on keeping Jimmy calm for the trip, very accommodating to all of them in a way that he honestly should be but can be used to explain away favoritism. If everyone can get away with a little something than it can then be extended to Jimmy. A big problem of Curly’s is he extends to much curtesy to everyone which a lot of people ignore to just focus on Jimmy and his relationship.

In specifics of rape culture, he’s the sad truth of people don’t immediately cut off the abuser. There is a lot of this in irl cases that can range from the inability to open the selfish not wanting to but here it’s because his relationship with the abuser is also not healthy/abusive, falling into the former with how confined they are despite how it can be seen as bros protecting bros due to how underplayed emotionally unhealthy relationships between men can be. His relationship with Jimmy is not just one of wanting to protect him from himself but keeping him docile, safe to bring around others. There is a tension in almost all of their private scenes where Curly is trying hard to make sure his words are understood and don’t set him off. It’s subtle but real and an aspect of RC that gets overlooked when it’s comes to men coming forward themselves or on behalf of others. The way they can’t directly oppose each other because their safety may be the least of their concerns. They know men and in this case he knows this man won’t target him but the others, especially Anya, case point: not wanting her to tell Jimmy alone.

There is an inherent intimidation that can also happen in male spaces we see Jimmy use due to the specific social condemnation effect he has with Curly. Even if he is a bad friend to Curly, he is a dear friend and a lot of apprehension with men on the side of Curly in RC comes from that social anxiety, that fear and the very real idea you or the person you were trying to help will be further retaliated against/isolated just like we see happen to an extreme in canon. We don’t know how much Curly and Jimmy interacted between the party and the crash. We can assume they didn’t at all or perhaps went on as normal, but we know something changed after the conversation with Anya both at night and in the cockpit.

I think the card being in the locker shows he was gonna make the complaint, taking her ID to get her numbers for the report as it isn’t there before hand. With the recent reblog of how complaints have to be filed, he was likely storing it, possibly it was close to a time he could send something if it was even possible. Though everything was inevitably too late.

Curly is the ideal man on paper in terms of a patriarchal system. In shape, handsome, the top of the pecking order, competent or otherwise on top of his perineal duties. The issue is he is deeply unhappy just as someone like Jimmy who reflects all the negatives. This should be what he wants but he’s realized it’s unfulfilling, boring and he’s given up too much of himself to get up a ladder he doesn’t even remember why he climbed in the first place. He is not keen on keeping that status, I am a contrarian in thinking he honestly didn’t care if the report when on his record, more so he was in shock it happened at all. Didn’t want to believe his friend actually did it and he of all people would have to be the one to turn him in for it. It’s selfish and it’s a personal thought but it’s real. It’s denial because even if you know it’s for justices sake, you grieve the friendship you had and the perceptions that were shattered. It’s not supposed to sound good or noble or kind because it isn’t, it’s human.

All together I think Curly represents a big way these systems negatively affect the men that everyone assume benefits. He’s unhappy with the power he has because it ties him to responsibilities that bring him no fulfillment, he also gets retaliated against by Jimmy because he was never immune and in a way was aware of it. He’s unequipped and nervous to handle such a delicate situation because it isn’t protocol, there’s no protocol. He followed the rules of all the concepts mentioned, trying to do the right and normal thing and it either left him with nothing to show for it or damned him and others in the end.

This is a shorter post than I would write but I just feel like I’ve tackled these aspects so much individually or in lumped together posts that unless it’s something specific I will just create run on tangents.

[the-way-astray]

huh what was your rant’s main argument

this post is in no way a proper response to katie's response, so i just wanna make that clear from the start. i am actually going to make one of those. so this is not that.

the main argument of my rant is not "here is a list of keefe's worst qualities, doesn't he suck? now everyone point and laugh what a shitty/annoying/cringe/whatever-else-i-said guy" (well, except for the stuff that i said was subjective, like his humor). the main argument of my rant is that keefe's worst qualities never. impact. how. he. interacts. with. the. story. not a single flaw of his has any consequences, either plot-based or relationship-based. not a single bad moment redefines him in the audience's eyes (or is meant to, as written by shannon) or in sophie's. not a single shitty height he reaches has ever ever ever ever been portrayed as negative for longer than zero point four seconds. not one thing he does has any lasting, negative consequences, not for him, not for the people around him. not one thing. not one single thing.

the thing that confuses me about katie's response is that she is well aware that this is my main gripe with keefe. i am not silent about it in the slightest. i do not care that keefe uses his empathy dubiously. i do not care that he handed the cache over at the end of neverseen. i do not care that he breaches boundaries, or that he humiliates sophie constantly, or that he's infinitely stupid and reckless, or that he can't be serious during serious moments. serious. do not give one single shit about any of these things.

what i actually care about, my unending problem with keefe's character, my main gripe, the thing that will never stop annoying me about keefe, is that these things do not result in keefe facing any consequences for doing them, nor are they even villified by the narrative.

i understand that keefe's dubious use of empathy is because of his father. i know that he ran away to the neverseen because of his mom's manipulation. i get that he breaches sophie's boundaries because he genuinely might think he's helping, and that he humiliates sophie because he doesn't know when to stop, and that he's reckless and stupid because that's his character flaw and because he's trying so hard so fight his mom and make sure she doesn't hurt anyone else, and whatever else katie pulled out in her response to explain keefe's shitty behavior. i am aware. i know this. i am not trying to argue that keefe is a bad character because he has flaws and does bad things. that would be incredibly weird.

no, my main argument is that keefe's flaws do not function as flaws, but rather just as bad traits that, half the time, shannon herself does not seem to even be aware are bad.

here is a fantastic example. okay here goes: keefe has issues regarding not knowing where the boundaries are with empathy because he grew up with his fucked-up abusive father who likely extorted information out of him the same way he does with sophie and others (and also likely because he's brainwashed into thinking the law is moral, and there's no actual law against doing this).

now that i've passed katie's test, let's play my game: name one time keefe's using his empathy has, in the long-term, affected his relationships with people. name one time it's truly demonized and made out to be a bad thing by the narrative beyond "oh the person was angry and muttered something about empaths or glared at keefe". name one time it actually affects how keefe interacts with the story. name one time this flaw, something both katie and i agree on, actually affects keefe's relationships. name one time he's sorry, name one time he learns or grows out of it, name one time it's even just made out to be a shitty thing, and not in a "oh, that's just a thing keefe/empaths do, isn't it so annoying? oh well, guess we'll all just put up with it". name one time this flaw is actually recognized by shannon as a flaw. name one time. name one single time. name it. i want to hear it.

in theory, this is supposed to be a thing the reader keeps in mind as they read all my points. i think i actually did say after one of my points something to the effect of, "i'm not actually mad about [thing], it's just that keefe never faces consequences for [thing], which does make me mad. this is also something that applies to a lot of points i make, but it would get repetitive to say that after every single point i make, so just keep in mind that that's the angle i'm coming from". maybe it wasn't as clear as it was the way i just said it now (which i will keep in mind and change during the part two rant), but yeah. none of my points are meant to be "oh look at him isn't he so [flaw]" and stop right there with no further thought. they are meant to be proof that whatever keefe did is bad, so that when i get around to the back half of the rant, i can then say that [bad thing] is never developed or even made out to be bad. so, uh. yeah. here's a few times i say this in the rant itself:

also wanted to mention this quote (from katie's response):

the reason keefe reads as flat to me is that none of his flaws ever affect how he interacts with the story, not in any long-term negative-consequence sense. you can explain and over explain why keefe is the way he is all you want, but that will never change the fact that this is fully not at all my gripe with keefe. not even a little bit. explanation does not equal justification, and certainly it does not equal consequences. where are the consequences, shannon. where are they. where. where. i don't see them. i don't think they exist, actually.

YES!!!! EXACTLY!!!! IT DOESN'T JUSTIFY IT, IT EXPLAINS IT!!!! THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M SAYING. YES. YOU GET IT. so you agree that this is shitty behavior. okay, cool. now name the place where keefe gets what he deserves for this. if this is shitty, it follows that it is a flaw, right? and if it's a flaw, it should be penalized, right? it should be made out to be a bad thing, right? now. where does this happen.

katie also makes a lot of arguments like this:

well, i actually did acknowledge fitz's main flaw at one point (exile incident, there's a screenshot a few paragraphs up), and i actually did explain why i don't think other characters (in this case, fitz) tend to be as bad as keefe. it's because there's actual development there with fitz's anger, and even if there wasn't, it's definitely vilified by the narrative. (i'd also like to say that katie responded to the bullet containing that fitz-from-exile section, but for some reason decided to cut out that section when quoting me in her response. i felt that was an important part of my argument, and that therefore its absence diminishes my point. in theory, this should not matter, but in reality, there are clearly people that are reading katie's response without reading my original post, and making judgement calls based on that.)

in conclusion, katie has made an argument. a good argument, even. one i actually mostly agree with, which is why i'm having such trouble writing a response to her essay. it's just that what she wrote is not (broadly speaking) a counterargument to what i wrote. it disproves nothing of my main point. nothing katie has told me is new information. i've read her pro keefe essay, which she knows. i'm aware that for everything keefe does that is shitty, there is a reason. genuinely it almost feels like an insult to my intelligence to imply i'm not aware of these things, especially considering shannon has a tendency to beat us over the head with the keefe pity party. i know why keefe is or does [insert flaw here]. i know exactly why it happens. i am aware. that does not change the fact that explaining why it occurs does absolute jackshit to change the objective fact that keefe's flaws are usually brushed aside or made out to be way less offensive than they really are. and honestly, if a flaw doesn't affect how a character interacts with the story, can we even really call it a flaw anymore? at that point, it's just a bad trait.

[starscream-is-my-wife]

First of, yeah. Starscream did tell Skyfire that when he would become leader of the Decepticons he would make him his second on command.

Personally, I've always seen their relationship as an idea they have of each other rather than seeing the actual person which... is fair, they found each other when they didn't have anybody else. How could they ever reject that?

From Starscream's side, especially in the comics, it seems that his idea of Skyfire was of somebody that would choose him over anything. Which at first sounds off since as second in command and leader of his trine he does have loyalty but it seems that Starscream thought of him as someone that would put anything and everything below their relationship... and from Skyfire's side? Well, we know that a lot. How do you ever reconcile the idea of being stuck in time while the other person grew without you? Like, I don't doubt that there will always be some spark of hope in him that Starscream will join him but also he is aware that he is never getting the Starscream that he once knew back.

It's tragic, it's toxic, people don't milk this shit enough.

I did talk about this here a bit but ngl, I feel like Starscreams feelings on Jetfire are pretty one sided, and since we only see Jetfire from starscreams pov in that one episode I think it just made alot of fans see Skyfire the same way Starscream did (until he defected)

But man as one-sided as the feelings were, if I had one of my group project partners from college and then I got time traveled to the future on an alien planet where they were like, double or triple my age and they were the only thing I had left of my old world I would also feel some sort of connection (even if they are that one guy that never does anything in the group projects)

Thats just how I see it, the comic I made directly contradicts this but I'm a milker for drama! But why I think people don't explore this more is probably for a separate post

[aq2003]

what i like about ten is how genuinely unfit he is as the doctor. his tragedy is that he's too mortal to be immortal. he's immediately set to crash and burn the minute he spawned in. he's like an outlier and an outsider in basically every way and tbh it's wild that he became one of the most known incarnations of the character + some later incarnations have taken after him bc his whole thing to me feels very "i wish i wasn't who i am but i am terrified to be any other way". twelve on the other hand feels so much more definitive. like this is what i feel like the doctor would be like on a regular basis and more incarnations (in this era of nuwho at least) would realistically be more like him. this is the doctor at their core when they're not actively trying to disguise themself as something else. they are ancient and tired and angry and it shows clear as day

[punkitt-is-here]

How about you apologize for calling persona fans transphobic

lol when did i say this. and if i did no i wont lmaooo

[bibibbon]

The movies feel like fanfiction between OFA! Bakugo, the Worldwide Smash, and fucking Dark Might. Only the first one feels a bit realistic, but it also feels like the start of "AFO is in your walls" with the villain.

Also, none of them have the "save the win" accomplished.

Iam not a huge fan of the movies but I also don't have big criticism of them since a lot of my favourite characters were introduced in the movies like Melissa and rody.

Yeah it's true that the movies do feel like fanfiction the fourth movie feeling like it the most.

I do think that there are aspects to the movies I really liked for example when it came to the second movie I loved nine and his group, I liked their dynamic and enjoyed it whenever they were on screen. When it came to the third movie I personally loved the entire premise of what happend to izuku and him being falsely a convicted killer however I didn't actually enjoy the antagonists of that movie.

The movies also mainly focus on beating and taking down the villains instead of saving them. The only saving that's being done is for civilians at best and that's it so the whole win to save and save to win theme is executed horribly and I don't think should even be in the story.

However, I think I have read better fanfiction than some of the movies which says a lot.

[evil-mcytblrconfessions]

nah why do the big blog mods get so weird when people don’t know stuff

when they asked for whitepine confessions i sent a silly “idk what whitepine is and i’m too afraid to ask” and they gave me the sassiest response like sorry i don’t know everything about it???? i’m just now hearing it exists?????????

.

[abchavenforanon]

Everytime someone wombifies gov, an Angel loses its wings (you are quite literally falling for the mockery of propaganda. You are not meant to see him as a victim. You are not meant to see him as a baby. He is an abhorrent person. He invades others privacy, he intentionally makes the others fight so he can do sketchy shit, he’s a MASSIVE fucking hypocrite, and if WTTT has a villain, it would be him) like him all you want , but my G-d please stop acting like he’s some innocent uwu baby

-🪼

I definitely see your point! The U.S. Government is very obviously not good, so it can be strange to see him so pacified in the fandom.

[bisexualseraphim]

tell me jk rowling’s transphobic tweets, using her own words.

What I’ve learned from this past week is that a person can literally say “I think [X group] should be eradicated from the world,” and when you respond telling them that that’s a really fucked up and bigoted thing to say, they’ll repeatedly respond with “no it isn’t. How is it bigoted to say that lol I’m just speaking the truth,” much like a 7 year old who’s too stubborn to admit the Tooth Fairy isn’t real even when he’s seen his own mother put the money under his pillow. Nothing you say will ever convince them until they learn to pull their own heads out of their arseholes.

Therefore, I will refer you to — oh who am I kidding, you’re not going to read or watch anything I link you. I will refer MY FOLLOWERS and anyone else who sees this post to timestamp 41:00 of Contrapoints’ brilliantly crafted video essay on JKR and her transphobia — and that of her rabid fucking fanatics like you. I think she puts it perfectly well.

[fromtheseventhhell]

your post reminded me of that one “meta” about how sansa willingly wrapping herself into sandor’s cloak foreshadowed her getting married to jon cause both men have dark hair and grey eyes and ijbol

Something hilarious about how much they dislike Sansa's actual story. I get not liking the ship but using something symbolizing their relationship and making it about another ship is top-tier delusion 💀

[likeadevils]

i just watched that lindsay ellis yoko ono/the beatles video and it spurred me to actually listen to the beatles discog and i feel like you might appreciate this information claire

HELL YEAH! what are you listening to what are your thoughts. i'm a abbey road and rubber soul girl myself

also, if you enjoyed the video, i HIGHLY recommend watching get back--like, i genuinely cant recommend it enough, it's a three part documentary directed by peter jackson of all people (the guy who made lord of the rings), and its just footage of them grappling with interpersonal issues while making let it be. no talking heads from modern day butting in with their opinions, just four guys in their twenties trying (and failing) to hold onto each other. it's the thing that spurred me to take a closer look at them, like it’s so good

[balanceoflightanddark]

It's been implied by the fandom that Iroh can't be fire lord because of the other two nations' hatred and distrust for him given his brutal reputation as the dragon of the west.

It would make more sense and more consistent if Iroh explained that instead of assuming his own nation would turn on him for usurping the throne because that's exactly what Zuko did and it mostly turned out okay for him.

I think this is true on some level. While we never see anybody from the other Nations not trust Iroh, I could still see some people getting a little antsy about the guy who torched Ba Sing Se being crowned Fire Lord. Like there's no guarantee he's not gonna try to vie for Fire Nation supremacy just because he helped end the War. I don't even think he'd be well-liked by his own people since his retreat after Lu Ten's death basically spelled the end of his own military career.

That being said, by that logic Zuko would have his own problems being seen as a benevolent ruler since he did help overthrow Ba Sing Se, attacked Kyoshi Village, and raided Sokka and Katara's village. Sure it's small potatoes to what Iroh pulled, but it's not something anybody else is gonna overlook. I mean the Gaang threw what he did back in his face during his initial attempts to join. Who's to say the rest of the world isn't going to let him live that kind of stuff down? It'll be an uphill battle for the guy in terms of foreign relations.

Admittedly, you do bring up a good point about nobody really caring that Zuko was essentially a usurper. It would be telling that people just got used to this sort of power struggle with the Royal Family...which STILL isn't gonna be a good look for Zuko if his own people's first perception of the guy is that he did the exact same thing his father pulled with his sibling.

I'll be honest...the places where they left Zuko and Iroh at the end of the series don't exactly rub me the wrong way. I'm still not convinced that Zuko's finished his redemption arc and that sentiment hasn't really gone away with how the comics have handled him. And Iroh should NOT be able to retire into the city he burned to the ground. I guess the finale just left me with a colored perception of the two that I'm not sure I'm going to be able to shake off so easily. Your theory is good, obviously. And I think it makes more sense than Iroh assuming the populace would turn on him considering he pushed Zuko into fighting Azula in what was a power grab (even if it was justified). It's just when a retired war general who's guilty of starving the populace in a grueling 600 day siege gets to live in the city who suffered at his hand, the narrative just clashes with your idea.

Which I don't think means you're in the wrong here. It's just the narrative is that skewed.

[danggirlronpa]

8, 9, and 14, maybe?

Already did 14!

8. Who is your favorite protagonist?

Komaru!! Really, in terms of the games themselves, I love Komaru and Makoto pretty equally. But Komaru gets pushed over as the winner for out-of-game reasons. Her birthday is also the anniversary of my admission to the suicide ward, so every time it passes, it feels like we both made it another year. And that make me really happy :')

9. Who is your least favorite protagonist?

It's Shuichi........I'm so sorry I know y'all love Shuichi but he's just. Firstly he's not a good detective, and that bums me out. But secondly, there's no, like, reason for him to be the protagonist. Y'know? Everyone else is the protagonist because they have a narrative reason for it. Being the protagonist BUILDS to something. Makoto becomes the Ultimate Hope TM, Hajime's backstory reveals something stark about the existence of Hope's Peak that is completely unique to him, Komaru is the protagonist specifically to challenge what being a protagonist even means and finally buck the shackles of the narrative by the end.

Shuichi's arc doesn't build to something. There are several other characters who would have been much more meaningful as protags (spoilers for the rest of this paragraph) - Kiibo, who could've not just been controlled by the audience within the fiction, but literally controlled by the audience in that the player controls him; Tsumugi, who could've built to the subtle discovery that she's the mastermind and the reveal regarding fiction, making it so we question the truth through a much longer con than we got with Kaede.

Kaede's time as a protagonist was short, but even it served a purpose in the twist of the twist - that everyone was expecting music girls to die, but she can't because she's the protagonist! But surprise she does anyway! Subversion in such a way that you are challenging an audience's expectations but ultimately still appeasing them the same way they expected.

On the other hand, there's no meta reason for Shuichi to be the protagonist. Of course it's beautiful that Kaede handed off her vision to him, but he doesn't have to be the protagonist for that to work. Twogami handed off his vision to Chiaki, and neither of them were protags. There's nothing unique about Shuichi's relationship to the story that sets him aside as The Protagonist. They just, like...wanted him to be. And there really isn't even an in-universe justification of it, like appeasing V3's fictional audience, because we know they were looking through a different character. It's just a really odd choice.