#anti PA

[seohyun0306]

Extremely proud to be a South African. The nation’s boyfriend never misses. The eff has been doing more for the Palestinian cause than the entire government of some countries.

[le-fruit-de-la-passion]

Does a bad ending ruin a good story? A comprehensive guide to my feelings on the Arcane finale

*Spoilers for Arcane season 2*

So. You just finished the show, and you're staring at the screen in bewilderment. Perhaps you’re even with some friends, shouting words of confusion to the rolling credits. Try as you might, you can barely hear them, because a single thought echoes in your mind and pushes away any other:

“What the fuck just happened?”

If this happened to you, then boy oh boy, we're on the same boat. If it didn't, well, I'm glad for you friend! We might not have been looking for the same things from this story. But this is my post, meaning I will give my opinions (which are objectively correct because this is my blog and I'm the mayor here) on everything that Arcane broke and failed to deliver in its last 2 episodes.

Let's start with characters, and why none of it mattered.

Jinx symbolized the fear we all have of not belonging somewhere, of not having anything to call home or anyone to call a family. Her anger stemmed from wanting to carve a place in a society and a world that had so harshly rejected her (i.e., Vi leaving her). Her existence was a huge middle finger to all that refused to let her live, a fight to build herself something wholeheartedly hers (hence her being an inventor). It was proof that despite the world telling her she was better off dead, she would never stop fighting to prove it wrong.

… and she died.

She died, and that means all the suffering she went through to exist simply amounted to nothing. She left nothing behind either, no trace of a legacy, something that would have left her mark on that world. Isha, the child she raised as a daughter, died. Silco, who she taught love and care to, died. Vander, who she brought back from years of trauma and torture, died. Jinx fought so hard to live, and in the end, it was as if she hadn't lived at all.

Viktor is most certainly the character that made me the angriest, because of how attached I am to the person he is in season 1 (and even the first two acts of season 2 to an extent). Everything that made him so beautifully complex… gone, in about 10 minutes. There was NO reason to make him the surprise ultimate villain. Viktor had always, always been a pacificist. That's why he was so adamant Hextech not be used as a weapon. That's why every time there were chances to test hextech to hurt, he tried to learn how it could heal. Yes, his fusion with the hexcore had changed him; but NOT into a man who didn't care for human life. He wanted to help all the hurt done to his people. People like him, living day to day in the undercity, but who had never gotten a chance to crawl out of their hell. His community was about HEALING, not controlling. The very IDEA that he would accept killing innocents and ally with Noxus, the warmongers, is so ridiculous I could genuinely laugh if it didn't make me so angry. The show needed an easy, black-and-white showdown to conclude a story that would have needed so much more time to tell. And they chose Viktor. Because it was the easy way out. It was the perfect foil to the return of the Golden Boy. And that PISSES me off.

There is this really shitty concept in popular media that the handicapped/chronically ill character is always in the pursuit of being “cured” and that they need outside help to realize “that their imperfections make them perfect”. Fuck. You. As someone with chronic illness and who just finished beating blood cancer, fuck you. That realization, that you're you with every part of your being, even the ‘bad’ ones, cannot come from outside. It's YOU who needs to learn it. It's you who needs to discover how your body and your mind are so much stronger than you previously thought them to be. Not your lover, your family, your friends, or God forbid your able-bodied lab partner. You. Others may tell you as many times as they want your illness doesn't define you; it won't matter until you, yourself, have understood why and have accepted it. Having someone swoop in and “fix” Viktor with a “you don't have to change uwu” is just….. so reductive I can barely find the words for it. That was VIKTOR’S path to find, and not Jayce’s role to find it for him.

Also… Viktor wasn't trying to ‘fix’ his leg; he was trying to find a cure to a deadly illness ravaging his body and no doubt the bodies of many in Zaun. The HELL is the message here??? That he should have just rolled with it because the deadly illness was part of him??? Again, as a cancer survivor. Fuck right off.

Of course, I can't just ignore the hideous get-up they put him in at the end. The man who laughed at Jayce's narcissism….you want me to believe… he would put on that fucking edge lord costume and not DIE of embarrassment??? The design makes no sense from a narrative standpoint either: if his cane has become the sceptre, why is he still keeping it? He doesn't need it anymore to walk, and it's a reminder of his weaknesses as a human that he apparently hated so much. Why the hell does he keep it then? And the hexclaw. Where did that bad boy come out from?? Did you all see a secret extra bonus scene where he steals it from the lab, because I sure didn't. It doesn't add anything to his sets of powers either it’s… it's a fucking laser gun. WHY. And oh sweet god that mask… there would have been so many ways of designing a mask more meaningful than the one from LoL. This one is just. A piece of metal he spawned in embryo. Get it? Because he's made of metal now and also hiding his face means no more humanity? Get it?? Of fucking course you do, because this was the easiest and worst possible way they could have integrated the mask.

Viktor and Jayce had a fantastic dynamic in that Viktor had started out as the loner, the underdog scientist from the slums; while Jayce was the leader figure, living in comfort that made him attachingly naive, his face plastered on posters stroking his ego. The shift is delightfully slow, as Viktor gains in confidence and determination to see his invention through no matter what, while Jayce is confronted with harsher and harsher truths about the world he so blissfully ignored. By Act 2, they have fully switched roles: Viktor is now the leader figure, a symbol of the future for the people, while Jayce is desperately alone, both physically in the hexcore anomaly, and mentally in being the only one who has seen the devastating future. Excellent stuff. What would be a great way to push these parallels further and to show the complexity of these characters, and perhaps how they can balance each other out? Well, Fortiche sure didn't know, now Viktor is the bad bad guy and Jayce is mister hero. Zaun bad, Piltover good. All nuance, gone. Proving that indeed, the man from poverty and inequality turns out evil, while the one from comfort and wealth turns out to be the hero of the story. The whole “giving a warm speech to the bad villain about how you care for them, somehow immediately changing their ways, and dying together to save the world” can work well in shounen anime where friendship is magic, or in the Ben 10 live-action movie (yes, that's the plot, I thought that wasn't deep when I was like 7 years old so imagine now), but not in a show like Arcane. Not with the ethical and moral nuances they have accustomed us to.

And now, let's explore...

Plotholes and incomplete storylines galore.

Ekko’s tree and the contamination of Zaun from Piltover? Fuck that. The huge showdown between the two opposite yet sister cities, like Jinx and Vi, that has been built up for two seasons? Fuck that. And for what?

For the Noxus sequel teaser.

Mel’s plotline about finding her mage origins had NOTHING to do with the main plot. Absolutely nothing. It added 0 twists or intrigues to the story, and served no purpose except making her a deus ex machina for a broken ending. All it was there for was to lay the base for a following show on Noxus and the Black Rose. Time that could have been spent either giving Mel a proper arc related to the plot, or giving all the other rushed character arcs more development.

Finally, and I deeply regret having to say this, but… the end of Vi and Cait's relationship was majorly disappointing to me. As an LGBTQ+ person myself, who feels attraction to women, it was a delight to have such a realistically portrayed w/w relationship on screen. Popular media tends to portray m/m relationships as these doomed, sinful feelings between two repressed guys, while w/w relationships are shown to just be all sunshine and rainbows and teddy bears, because two women together are a cute little accessory to have on screen. It’s non-threatening. But not Cait and Vi; their bond was raw, and rocky, with violent lows and passionate highs in a world that seemed to want to keep them apart. Their separation and the introduction of Maddie showed the reality of a w/w relationship, where fights and cheating ARE things that happen, because they're two adult women with different beliefs, objectives, an trauma. Putting them back together, as if nothing had happened, without giving us anything about how their relationship would have evolved from the breakup? I'd never thought I'd say this, but it's too easy. How about Caitlyn's literal descent into fascism??? We’ll just ignore that? Vi will just ignore that?

As with everything else, this last part of Arcane destroys all the complex emotions that exist between these characters, the resentment, the anger, the frustration, built upon years of different social conditioning… gone. Because they had 2 episodes left to wrap it up, and there was no way to make a coherent and natural transition to them getting back together with that kind of time. And can I just say. The decision to have Vi, symbol of Zaun, go down on Caitlyn, symbol of Piltover and enforcers, in a prison cell that has held innocent Zaunites and represents their complete lack of freedom as individuals by a cop state that oppresses them….. yeah, bad. So bad.

And… the multiverse. Yup, they went the multiverse route. Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing: the concept of multiverses itself is interesting in a vacuum, and quite a few properties have managed to make it work coherently. But it has been terribly overused and bastardized in serialized content in the last few years, for the simple reason that it's extremely practical. Why make a new, original series when you already have worlds and characters that are developed, and come with built-in fans? It's a money-saving hack! Why dedicate yourself to an ending that is meaningful in its finality and wraps the story properly when you can just say “It's just one ending in the multiverse!”. It takes away any accountability to the fans, and leaves the door open to a potential other version of the story! The perfect combo!

…except in practice, it comes off as lazy in a medium where that trope is overly saturated (don't start me on Marvel), and like a cowardly way of escaping from the responsibility of really taking the time to craft a good, solid ending to end your story.

So, with all that said: does it ruin Arcane for me? No, absolutely not, and I don’t think it should be for you either. The intricate artistry and raw talent that went into making the first season (and I would say a majority of the two first acts of season 2) is undeniable, and will stay undeniable. Nothing can touch that story. It will forever be one of my favourite pieces of animated media, which is saying a lot because I'm currently getting my master's degree on that topic.

However, it does give Arcane, as a whole rather than two separate seasons/entities, a very bittersweet feeling that is hard to forget. Thinking of what could have been, just if a little more time had been given to the minds behind the masterpiece you so loved… it's its own form of heartbreak. Academics have even compared it to experiencing a form of death of a loved one, before they ever got to reach their fullest potential and live the life they deserved. It may sound dramatic, but the feelings you feel in this moment, watching the horrible end of a fiction you have so much love for, are real. No one can take those away from you. You're allowed to grieve the loss of something that meant a lot to you.

Tldr; No, Arcane is not a bad series because of its rushed and incomprehensible ending. As they say, it's all about the journey, not the destination, even if that's one of the parts we tend to remember the most. And I don't know about you, but this was one of the best journeys I've ever been on.

[devilmeows]

fellow transmascs, we need to be a lot less blindly confident in our ability to not perpetuate transmisogyny. just because we're trans doesn't mean we've unlearned the lifetime of not being affected by transmisogyny. just because we're trans doesn't mean we're magically immune to being transmisogynistic. we all know women can perpetuate misogyny, or that disabled people can be ableist, so why is the fact that transmascs can be transmisogynistic so hard to conceive?

transmisogyny is much more than just hating trans women, and we would all do well to listen to transfems about it.

and if you perceive this as an anti-transmasc thing, fucking check yourself. this isn't about you. this is about our transfem sisters.

[bayonettesque]

it leaves such a bad taste in my mouth that pretty much the only female characters that get written with any kind of vague semblance of care from sjm are the archeron sisters. all the other female characters are practically non-entities or just sjm dragging around the limp corpse of their characterisation because she has no idea what to do with them and doesn’t give a fuck about them the same way she does her hot sexy male characters. compare mor and amren vs cassian and azriel. all supposedly integral members of the IC yet the bat boys are a core part of acotar’s branding, major characters, and given a ton of obvious love from both author and fandom whereas mor and amren are just kind of half-assed and exist in slivers of plot or to discuss their existence in relation to men (read: mor’s random hatred of nesta over cassion like what). mor and amren don’t read as truly close and interwoven with the whole concept of the IC as the bat boys do imo. why does feyre have no friends that aren't Rhys' Bros

[gay-impressionist]

Ma mairie va bientôt organiser une votation sur l'ajout de caméras de surveillance dans la ville, et ils ont publié des arguments pour et contre... Mdr bah je sais pour quoi je vais voter maintenant.

La vidéoprotection contribue à la résolution de seulement 1% des enquêtes + pas de diminution d'infractions constatée après l'installation de caméras, voire ça incite les gens à se masquer et être plus violents...

Pourquoi on veut mettre des caméras du coup ?? 🤣

[plaidetchocolatchaud]

Bah, l'un des trucs que je redoutais pour les prochaines années s'est produit, les JO de 2030 dans les "Alpes françaises" sont bien partis pour se dérouler, quand je dis que le Massif Central est infiniment supérieur aux Alpes et que personne ne me prends au sérieux

[a-room-of-my-own]

C’est bien il suffit que Marion Maréchal dise qu’elle est contre la GPA pour que tous les lobbyistes en faveur de la location d’utérus et de la vente d’enfants sortent collectivement du bois pour nous expliquer qu’être contre c’est homophobe et que de toutes façons ce sera légal dans moins de dix ans.

[rizwans]

ia et rpg.

je suis ébahie de voir les gens qui créditent chatgpt dans le disclaimer de leurs forums. c’est un peu comme si vous passiez des avatars de votre créateur.ice préférée à la moulinette de midjourney (sans son consentement, évidemment) pour obtenir des avatars du même style et que vous créditiez l’algorithme. si vous utilisez chatgpt dans un contexte d’écriture créative, soit, c’est votre choix (but why... où le plaisir d’écrire là-dedans ?). mais s’il vous plaît, ne confondez pas crédits et disclaimer. vous devez prévenir vos utilisateurs du fait que le contenu a été rédigé par une IA, pas remercier chatgpt que vous venez de nourrir avec votre propre imagination et qui ne fait que régurgiter que la tambouille que vous lui avez servie. je n’écris pas ce message pour créer du drama, absolument pas ! je peux comprendre l’attrait d’un robot capable de rédiger le règlement du forum en genre 5 secondes (vraiment). mais dans un contexte où les artistes et les créateur.ices se font voler leurs créations sans leur consentement, où les scénaristes d’hollywood sont en grève pour obtenir des conditions de travail décentes, où marvel, une entreprise qui brassent des milliards de dollars, refuse de payer des artistes et assume complètement le fait d’outsourcer l’outro de secret invasion à une IA sous couvert du fait que ça “collait” au thème (il a bon dos, le thème), où des entreprises commencent à développer leur midjourney local pour se débarrasser des concept artists plutôt que d’améliorer les conditions de travail et payer des salaires décents à des gens qui ont des années d’expérience et de pratique derrière elleux, réfléchissons cinq secondes au véritable but des entreprises derrière ces IA : amasser le plus de data possible gratuitement pour ensuite revendre leurs services à des entreprises. pensez à tous ces personnes qui écrivent vos livres favoris, dessinent vos mangas préférés, produisent vos jeux vidéo cultes, remplacés par un bouton et un prompt de quelques mots. travaillant dans le jeu vidéo, je peux vous dire que c’est extrêmement réel. la place des créatifs.ves dans ce milieu a toujours été précaire, et elle vient de le devenir encore plus.  vous vous demandez sans doute en quoi ça concerne notre hobby ultra-niche et je ne suis peut-être qu’une vieille conne qui refuse d’entrer dans la modernité (mais je vais me donner le bénéfice du doute !). le rpg écrit est une expression artistique comme une autre. chaque rpgiste derrière son écran a son style et cherche à exprimer ou à explorer quelque chose avec ses personnages (un autre débat, sur lequel d’autres se sont exprimés ou s’exprimeront plus éloquemment que moi). pourquoi confier cette expression à une IA ? avons-nous si peu confiance en nos talents respectifs ? personnellement, je connais des plumes exceptionnelles. hilarantes. émouvantes. originales. fluides. brutales. parfois tout ça en même temps. des plumes qu’un tas de tech bros seraient ravis de pouvoir revendre et exploiter, sans payer un centime ni créditer une seule seconde. des plumes qui appartiennent à de vrais humains et qui devraient le rester, des plumes qui sont le témoignage, qu’importe l’échelle qui peut sembler dérisoire, de vos pensées, votre style, votre intelligence. trust your goddamn self. et personnellement, si c’est le fait d’écrire un règlement pour la 36ème fois qui fait chier (ce que je comprends tout à fait), je propose de contre-attaquer et de faire appel au pire cauchemar des capitalistes : l’open source décentralisé. je rédige le squelette d’un règlement, limite texte à trous, je le poste ici et vous pouvez le c/c à foison en y rajoutant ce que vous avez envie d’y rajouter. pareil pour ces textes génériques et chiants de demande de DC, de réservation, etc etc... si on s’y met tous.tes, on pourrait se créer une banque de documents où chacun.e peut piocher à son gré. c’est une oeuvre collective, commune et volontairement libre-service. on part du principe qu’on travaille tous.tes main dans la main pour se rendre un service commun, et on n’en parle plus, pas besoin de crédits.  ne sous-traitons pas notre imagination à des machines. nous méritons tous.tes mieux ! (ps. et je sais que ça peut sembler hypocrite de parler de vol quand le monde du rpg repose un entre-deux gris en ce qui concerne le droit à l’image. mais entre david et goliath...)

[nando161mando]

Pittsburgh police destroy... water.

[lifeispayn]

,,Meine Nation ist der Mensch,unser Boden kommt von Gott und mein Land ist die Welt."

PA Sports - 100 Bars Legacy

[fauvester]

So in ur adoption au, is anyone ever intimidated by the kids because they remember who their dad is, like, I imagine they May not have gotten bullied (for long)

(ALSO YOUR ART IS SO GOOOOOOD)

OOOOOOOH THE MY YADEK IS THE CASTELLAN CARD....

I don't think the older kids would have gotten bullied very much anyways. Elim keeps to himself, finishes secondary school and has no interest in pursuing higher education after that.

He also tries his best to suppress his relationship to Garak, not out of interpersonal concerns, but because until he's in his mid 20s he simply does not like him and resents that he's a little Garak clone with the same name. Any time someone tries to pick a fight with him because they disagree with Garak Sr's policies he's just like... yeah... I don't know what to tell you, I agree, he's pretty bad. What do you want me to say?

Iskra is too much of a chad to get bullied (can't be hurt by your war orphan trauma if you BURY IT UNDER EXTROVERSION!) but you KNOW she's cheekily using it around her friends. By the time Garak's the actual Castellan she's old enough to defend herself among her peers anyways - learned how to craft 'cutting insults to wound the ego' from the best.

Jocasta is already into her t(w)eens when she gets adopted. I feel like she doesn't really interact with her peers. Her fathers being who they are just adds another layer of separation.

Idan probably does get a little bullied as a kid awwwwww no amount of family clout will save you when you're Just a little guy who cries over everything sad and can't ever sit still and gets distracted by anything shiny or colorful.

Once he hits his growth spurt and learns to tamp down some of his natural sentimentality he'll become the jocular class president he was always destined to be.

If you're asking about whether Garak would murk a kid for picking on his child - do you even have to ask

[joannerowling]

Je vous signale quand même que de toute façon ils appliqueront tous la même politique, donc c'est pas la peine de se mettre la rate au court-bouillon comme disait ma grand-mère

[gay-impressionist]

Paris my beloved ❤️

(texte et voix d'oxmo puccino)

[gladosisstillalesbian]

*wearing a different mustache* mama Mia da portal fandom in 2020 was very a wild *** was our mortal a enemy

hex I know this is you there are no italians allowed in the portal fandom

[leleaulait]

Mdr je fais une infection sur la dent que ma dentiste a arraché.... C'est la 3eme infection depuis juillet. Voilà, j'ai envie de me foutre en l'air !