#at least for me stan is like a love to hate kind of character

[parkaplayboy]

main 4 + butters trying to court you HCs!

warnings: mentions of puking (stan), marijuana mention (stan) all characters are 18+ ! gender neutral reader !

Kenny McCormick

he's a nervous wreck.

when he flirts with people it usually just a one-time fling, nothing serious.

so when you pop into his life, he doesn't know what to do with himself

he's never felt this serious about anyone before

it almost angers him from the absolute chokehold you have this man in.

"I'm fucking Kenny McCormick! The original flirt! So why the hell can't I talk to them"

after every fumble he usually ends up in stan's room to sulk yet again.

stan finds it amusing to see him fumble so often

he tries so, so hard to maintain his usual air of confidence, but every time he talks to you he starts to flounder

"heyyyy, hot stuff.. you.. uh *cough* you come here often?"

it's kind of endearing to see the way he trips over his own feet to come over and talk to you

has actually face planted directly in front of you one more than one occasion

the boys rip on him ENDLESSLY for it.

he may not have much money, but what he lacks in funds he makes up in experience.

he will offer to tag along with you for even the most mundane tasks

"Ken, I'm just going to the hardware store." "What you meant to say is we are just going to the hardware store."

fiddles with the hem of his parka when he gets shy

god forbid you flirt with him. he CANNOT handle it

the poor boy damn near passed out the first time you kissed him.

Stan Marsh

for the most part he's level headed

until you fluster him too much.

the first time you flirted back he projectile vomited all over his own shoes.

he tries to make up for what he lacks in the words department with gifts.

if you smoke weed he will steal some from Randy's farm and give it to you

if that's not your thing, he will buy you trinkets and say "i saw this and thought of you"

he will invite you to band practice and not so subtly "serenade" you

kenny heckles him when he does this.

he will offer to teach you how to play guitar as an excuse to see you

when he finally decides to formally ask you out, it would most likely be when you guys are hanging out 1-1

he doesn't like grand gestures nor the pressure of other people in the room

Kyle Broflovski

hands down the most romantic out of the group

he'll buy you all the cliche romantic gifts

however he's not very good at flirting.. nor receiving compliments. not in person at least.

he gets flustered very easily

HOWEVER ! he found a loop hole :3

he may not be good at words when it comes to being face to face with you, but that doesn't mean he can't write down his thoughts.

which brings me to my next point !

he will leave letters for you to find!

kyle decorated the envelopes like a cliche anime confession note

eric has yet to let him live it down.

he's definitely big on grand gestures!

when he asks you out he'd do it in a romantic spot

the top of the ferris wheel, during your favorite band's concert, etc

he wants to do it big !

Eric Cartman

I hate to say it.

but he becomes more of an asshole than usual

but not in the mean way if that makes sense?

he just generally becomes a grade A nuisance

eric is definitely one of those guys that think teasing = flirting

he's not too big on gifts (besides snacks) but if he does get you something, he will try to make it seem like the smallest deal possible.

"yeah, yeah, whatever, it was on sale. don't cry over it or I'll take it back"

deep down really likes it when you get excited because it makes him feel like he did a good job

circling back to the snacks thing!

he truly views food as the sixth love language

he won't ask you directly, but he will try hard to figure out your favorite foods so he can buy/give them to you

first time he has you over for dinner he begs his mom to make your favorite meal

he sends you memes daily,

it gets to the point where he's basically just sending his entire fyp to you

speaking of which !

when he asks you out, he will use one of those shitty text block memes that say smth like "we should hold hands in the burger king parking lot"

(its also a self protection method because if you said no he could pretend it was just the meme)

Butters Stotch

this boy is too nervous to ask you out, i'm afraid

you will infact have to make the first move

however!

he's such a sweetheart

he will always walk you home

butters will offer his coat to you even if you have your own

"Butters for one, I have my own coat, for two its not even raini-" "You can never be too bundled up!"

like stan, he physically cannot handle affection.

he gets nose bleeds every time he gets flustered because he blushes like a tomato

he has to start carrying around a tiny pack of tissues when you two hang out

you MUST be direct with this man.

he will not pick up on the fact that you're flirting unless you spell it out to him

the first time you flirted with him was when you were hanging out with him and the main four guys.

you said something flirty right before they dropped you off but he didn't have a single clue

"Butters. what the hell was that?!" "Well wh'dya mean, eric?" "Did you seriously not pick up on the fact that they were flirting with you?" "Th-they WHAT??"

~~~~~

a/n: how obvious is it that kenny is my fav...

[pzychojinx]

as I said, act two left me with genuinely mixed opinions. that said, I slept on it and I think I'm able to verbalize it a little bit.

let's start with what I think went right in this act. first of all, obviously, the animation and art. if possible, they're outdoing themselves. I love the experimentation, I absolutely adored the pastel tones they used for vi and jinx's childhood memories, the way isha's point of view sequence feels like it's straight out of a ghibli movie, I loved the distortion effects used on jayce and every single visual effect they used for viktor to convey this sense of absolute inhumanity, the entire messianic visuals were insane, warwick was gorgeous especially during sequences where we didn't get to see him but rather we got to see the camera following his massacre. gorgeous. no notes.

episode four, in my opinion, was near perfect plot-wise too. seeing the new state of the military situation in zaun, getting to see sevika as the rallier of the revolution, isha's drive to be a fighter for zaun leading her to impersonate jinx when needed, the whole mission to enter stillwater - I genuinely think it was incredible. most of all, it was probably my favourite jinx episode to date. and that's saying a lot. this is a character I've resonated with and held very very close to my heart for three years now. seeing her gain not only a younger sister through whom there could be a process of reclaiming her own past, but also very importantly seeing her gain new objectives and seeing her gain community, was deeply healing and heartwarming to me. that one scene where her followers touch her, not only as an idol but as an equal, is so so moving and good. isha was the kickstarter to jinx's reclaiming of powder and a sense of stability, sure, but living in a fantasy with isha alone could have very easily led her to the same old mechanism of co-dependency - thus never breaking the cycle that silco himself perpetrated onto her. but no, they made her respected. they made her see a nation of people who saw something in her. they gave her goals, even if she reasonably only started giving a fuck about said goals when her sister/child went missing. it was everything I never thought could happen to her. it was healing.

episode five is where the issues start, I think. first of all, there's been way way way too much space dedicated to the black rose. much as I love mel, much as I find her truly intriguing, her plotline is so severely disconnected from everything else and it feels un-cohesive. before s2 started, one of my main fears was that they would give noxus an excessive screentime in order to prepare the viewers for a future noxus project and I hate to see that I was right. this leads to the second issue, which is pacing. and specifically, vi. vi stans, how are you doing? because to be fair, the show kind of fucked you over and there's no sugar-coating it. the fact that vi's fighting pit era lasted three minutes was genuinely ridiculous. the entire plotline involving her, jinx and warwick in episode five was way, way too rushed in order to make space for black rose content - and again, I love mel, I love ambessa. but there's no doubt something was off here in terms of pacing and screentime. now, I don't think the episode was bad. I loved the dynamic between jinx and vi. with jinx having gained some sort of a stability (at least, for her standards) and vi having nothing else to lose, the fact that their conflict turned into a half unwilling cooperation felt very real and believable to me and I loved their interactions, especially in the micro expressions; it all screamed family bond where something went awfully wrong but here we fucking are and the love is still there at the roots. I just, you know, would have liked to see more of it. the final hug with warwick felt, to me, less earned than it could have been if we just had a little more time with these characters in this arc. was it emotional? sure, but could it have hit harder if the episode was just structured a little bit differently, a little more cohesively, especially regarding vi? yeah. and another question: would the zaunite revolution arc have needed more than just one episode before being pushed aside and sort of forgotten? probably, yeah, even though there's no comparison with how vi's arc was reduced to three mins. so again, pacing issue. still, I had no particular issues with the plot and the contents of the story itself. I would say episode five was rushed, crammed and structurally weak, but the story still hit me in all the right ways when it needed to. vi and jinx's reluctant steps to some sort of understanding hit me hard, in spite of any structural weakness.

episode six... well. episode six leaves me so conflicted. 'cause the thing is, it's dope. I think it's a fucking bomb. they managed to fit nearly (nearly - mel being, again, dissociated from the main storyline and in this case, absent) every character's plotline into a cohesive arc. it kept me on the edge of my seat near the whole time. there were so, so many things I absolutely adored - the imminent attack on the commune from ambessa, the way they managed to make warwick a center plot point and use that plot point to show us both the benefits and the limitations of viktor's hexcore messianic utopia cult, everything regarding jayce's return (whom is getting so much hate, but come on, it's clear the man has seen Some Things), the way the episode starts off with a plan but not necessarily a sense of deep urgency and then the urgency slowly creeps in and it explodes into a fucking battlefield. again, warwick. vi and jinx's slow re-building of some trust, slow reclaiming of family love. viktor. man, I adored their work on viktor. I just found it dope. the thing is, episode six has two major, major issues that I just can't seem to get past and this time it's plot issues, which makes it worse than 2.05 for me.

the first one, caitlyn. sure, I get that caitlyn wasn't fully onto ambessa's methods. but there's a very huge leap from 'I distrust this person and I question her methods' to 'my ex told me that this savage monster that just brutally mauled our men is her father so I'm just gonna help her save him'. like jesus, come on. caitlyn deserved better than this. (again, shoutout to vi stans, cait stans and caitvi stans, they did you dirty.) especially when I think they did such a good job on her descent in act one. the second one, isha. look, I'm gutted if she's dead. like fucking gutted, mourning, red-wedding level in shock, like, can't even think about it without wanting to cry. but this is not just an emotional thing. in fact, I love some good angst. no, this is a narrative issue. they spent the entire act - the entire season - building up jinx's healing and to take it all away like this, to bring her back to step one, just feels like fucking trauma porn for the sake of it. it feels unnecessary and cheap, and cheapness is the one thing I can't forgive arcane. like, what was the point? why not have her spiral from 2.01 if this was the direction? it's beyond me and it makes me feel so bitter, so sick, that at times it's hard for me to remember that there were so, so many things I adored in these three episodes. again, 2.04 is up there as my favourite jinx episode to date. 2.05 gave me some of my favourite siblings moment in the entire show. 2.06's work on viktor and hexcore and magic is otherwordly. I'm so glad I got these episodes, genuinely. and yet.

'cause the thing is, - not considering the isha thing for a minute - aside from my critique regarding caitlyn, and aside from having to make peace with how rushed/crammed the pacing is, this show is still absolutely gorgeous to me. it's still gorgeous art to me. sure, s2 has its very real issues. and for sure, it's absolutely reasonable to recognize them, critique them, and still find it an incredible story. but this. fuck, this could change everything to me. if isha's truly dead, then it means they wasted six episodes on what could have been one of the best, most genuine, most earned stories of unexpected healing I'd ever seen on my screen just to throw it away and I'm not sure how to forgive them for that. episode six itself was dope. episode six isn't really where my gut-deep fear and bitterness comes from. it's where it could lead from now on. I'm so holding out hope on ekko saving the day, even if it's a deus ex machina. it's a deus ex machina I'd accept if it means not throwing away jinx's entire road to recovering. but I don't know, guys. I don't know. making her spiral as a general s2 choice would have been one thing, and I would have been on board, but this is something else entirely. this is cheap betrayal and if true, if confirmed, if real, it's a sour taste.

[crab-people-overlord]

Re: Post-COVID Stan and his Job, a Kind-Of Defense:

Soooo I know a lot of folks aren’t too happy about the fixed/final timeline’s Stan’s future job in the Space Force, and I get it. But I’d like to argue that it isn’t as far off base for his character as many folks give credit for. I’m not saying it’s the perfect job for him, but it’s not completely off-base, and I really do think the creators gave careful consideration to his job here.

Before I explain, first let me say that I do understand some of the frustrations and wish they would do some type of episode about the Space Force with Stan as a kid to establish his interest in it, or at the very least in a government job. It’s not like Stan hasn’t been to space before or had Space themed episodes (pinewood derby being a very underrated episode), but the Space Force is such a ridiculous concept that it could be a funny episode and parody and could help the ending of Post-Covid feel more well-rounded. They could have an episode where Stan has to get rid of the Space Jail his dad had created and dealing with the Space Cops or some shit like that.

I’ve seen some discourse asking why Stan couldn’t have been a musician or a vet due to his love of animals. To answer that - I think it’s very realistic that Stan didn’t end up a musician. I’m just going to leave it at that. Most people don’t make it in the music industry, and I really don’t think Stan would take it that seriously as an adult to try to navigate that. He’s not that naturally passionate. I think he’d more likely keep it as a hobby. It’s just the reality of things (though I think a fic in that direction would be valid and interesting. Lmk any fic recs for that).

As far as being a vet goes - look, I love animal lover Stan, but let’s think this through logically. He loves animals, and it’s adorable. But that’s exactly why he would HATE being a vet. It’s canon that Stan doesn’t do well with blood, and it’s canon that Stan does not do well with animals being in pain. Being a vet literally combines those two things together that Stan viscerally hates. He’d love being able to be around animals, sure, but he would hate having to perform surgeries/see animals suffer. It would deepen his depression, and he would be too queasy to handle it according to canon. Again, it’s one thing to see this in a fic and I think that would be cute. But in a canon episode? That would make no sense and would be contradictory to several established character points.

So if being a vet or a musician are off the table, where does that leave us? What are some of Stan’s strengths, or some things we know about him that would translate well into the professional field?

Well, we know he loves board games (this is not a one-off from an episode, there are SO many instances of Stan and his complicated board games, whether they being showcased in the background of his bedroom, or him playing them)- and these are not surface-level board games like Settlers of Catan (which I can totally see him looking down on as a ‘way too easy and therefore boring game’). We’re talking about games that take grown adults years to master, let alone learn the complex rules. Not sure how many of you have delved into these types of games he likes, but some of those games are almost like learning a whole new language, and the amount of strategizing you do in the types of games he likes is very high (and we know that Stan can strategize/think quickly on his feet well).

His skills in board games translate into how he navigates the world pretty well. We also know that he shows high critical thinking skills (sometimes to the point of being too critical. Him being diagnosed a ‘cynical asshole’ by a doctor wasn’t just because of the depression- he kinda always has been one to an extent, even before that episode) and very easily sees through bullshit. He also is very adaptable with natural leader skills and is good at adjusting to his environment physically, so I have no doubt that he would be able to learn about, say, working a spaceship.

Basically, a lot of Stan’s strengths that I think are often slept on in the fandom overall are all the things that would translate quite well into some type of military or government intel analyst role. The ridiculousness of the Space Force also aligns with the ridiculousness of South Park in general 100% (there’s so much satire potential there). It also just went well with the political climate of the time the episode aired.

Fun fact: according to his uniform, he appears to be a Chief Master Sergent, which is the second highest enlisted rank possible. He also has an insane amount of awards on his uniform.

One of Stan’s weaknesses is that he has a lack of motivation. I can absolutely see him being unsure of what to do in life but not wanting to be like his dad and joining the military to help at least give him guidance/something to make of himself in his life when he lacks the motivation/structure to think of something himself. And then I can see it evolving from there as he joins the military/how it adapts to his own natural skills. I also think he would secretly like the status he would gain from ranking high up.

Btw this is kinda off topic but I completely head-canon that Craig also works in the Space Force with Stan. Also, Stan is not short (look to the screenshots). . Looks to be the tallest of the main four, followed by Kyle, Kenny, then Cartman who is quite short.

[yuikomorii]

// Ok I didn’t want to go this far but at this point, you guys are hating on Ayato just for clout and it shows. It’s okay not to like a character but straight up spreading misinformation about him is not okay. If you lack reading comprehension, just admit it.

What makes Ayato’s past so sad isn’t only the fact that Cordelia was mean towards him. She mentally and physically abused him, yet what genuinely hurt Ayato the most was the way Cordelia treated ALL the triplets. A part of him didn’t even want to kill her, given that he CRIED in the MB flashbacks because, despite being a huge abuser, he STILL felt sympathy even for someone like her. No matter how horrible Cordelia was, Ayato still wished for Karlheinz to reciprocate her feelings only to finally see her happy.

Don't even get me started on the Adam curse. He was practically used as bait and abandoned to death by his own brothers, but he still hoped for their safety after escaping. That curse literally destroyed his entire life because its purpose was to make the person who ate the fig drown in despair and go insane. That's why he was sooo obsessed with Yui's blood. Heck, he's cursed in routes other than his own, as he goes insane in Ruki's MB one, to the point that his brothers had to lock him inside the dungeon. In addition, in his MB Vampire Ending, he falls into a coma because he refuses to hurt Yui and keep drinking her blood.

Other than that, Laito was the one who made him believe that he wasn’t special, hence he adopted the “I will never make someone special again” mentality. He also wanted to kill him when he was younger (no hate towards any of his brothers though). Kanato was the only one who never did something bad to him, considering that when Ayato was a child, Reiji called him the disappointment of the family after failing a test.

Ayato did twisted stuff too; no character is a saint, but he always tries his best to fix things. Even when not dating Yui, he’s capable of showing compassion, support and a desire to improve his relationship with his brothers BY HIMSELF. Check this analysis for example.

Other than that, despite every time being hurt when trying to show kindness, he still became a very selfless guy who’d sacrifice himself for anyone at any given time. What makes this even more admirable is that according to Karlheinz, he’s literally the only one who actually VALUES his life. This guy who loves life would risk it all for Yui, even when not dating, or for any of his brothers.

Credit to: dialovers-translations and tournesolia on Tumblr

On top of that, he's incredibly empathic?? He forgives everybody, no matter what they do to him, and seeks to maintain good relations with them. In Kino's LE route, for example, he tortures and burns Ayato, but Ayato is the first person to recognize him as his brother because he wanted Kino to feel that he, too, belonged to a family.

Last but not least, nobody silences Karlheinz as good as him. He was also the only one who connected the dots by himself about his dad being the root of all evil (Laito too but that was after the letter), including being the only one who didn’t want to kill him only because he didn’t want to fall into his plan. Check this post.

Oh and, Ayato is actually really big; it’s not that only his fans make him that way! This post basically proves that he’s the IT boy of otome games and I should also mention that he’s the character that sells the most in Japan and China! Just look what Japanese fans think of him. ;)

You can dislike him as much as you want but nobody can deny how brave and pure-hearted he is. He’s the definition of from zero to hero.

As I mentioned earlier, it's fine to dislike him, but don't become obsessed with it, lol. At the end of the day, he's merely a fictional character with endearing characteristics and the male lead. It's really not that deep. Besides, it's embarrassing when the hate comes from Yui stans because she definitely wouldn't be happy of any of you talking about her man in that way.

[reyreadersblog]

ALRIGHT Y'ALL MADE ME DO IT!!!

My unpopular tig/tgg opinions!!

FIRST!

These are MY opinions and i'm allowed to have my own thoughts on certian things, just as you are, okay..? Just wanna..get this out of way, i know everyone is respectful in this fandombut still.

1. this is something that should NOT be an upopular opinion. AVERY IS THE MAIN CHARACTER FOR A REASON. okay? She is a girlboss, and she needs more appretiation, cus literally search up tig on tt rn. Everybody and their cat named Stewie is talking about Grayson and Jameson? WHAT ABOUT MY MG AVERY? And if you see any post about her, it's probably a hate vid about how Avery should've kept the money...SHUT UP. Read what she said carefully..."no one deserves that kind of power.." and then think about it deeply.

2. I DO NOT WANT TIG TO TURN INTO A TV SERIES (or even a movie). i can't name all the reasons 'cus then the the list would be endless. First of all, i know, I JUST KNOW, they'll choose the worst cast ever. And even if they find the most accurate cast for the Hawthorne brother i will still be dissapointed, because the images of them i have in my head...THEY'LL NEVER TOP EM. second of all, they will leave out important moments, just as simple as it sounds, and trust me they will, just like they do with most of the live adaptations of books. Third of all, SHIP WARS!!! I phisically can't with ship war, like I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF EM IN THE PAST WHEN THE BOOKS WERE STILL COMING OUT. And just the thought of Averygrayson shipper saying "yeah Avery and jameson were endgame in the books but they might change it in the movie..." GIVES ME NIGHTMARES. and overall, not everything needs a live adaptation yk? sometimes things just have to stay the way they are.

3. ...this is a bit contrevertial.and i don't want to sound like a hater since i've said this a multiple times before but Rohan's pov was my least favourite in the grandest games. Purely bcs whatever Savannah and Rohan had going on...don't get me wrong, i like Savannah (even tho she did and said some fucked up things) and Rohan, SEPERATLY. But them being together...idk man, they were too..."booktokish" for my liking, yk? and i do love banter and teasing, but they were like basic "i like you but i like winning more" "couple". Not to mention they were so random...like where did they come from? I remember when we first saw Sav and Rohan having the same symbols on their cards i was very excited, i expected a different dynamic between them...PLUS THE WHOLE GAME THEY JUST WANTED TO FUCK💀

4. Hating Alisa Ortega and loving Grayson Hawthorne is CRAZYYY, and i'm saying this bcs they're pretty similar in different ways. And the thing is people are mad at Alisa for "saying mean words to Libby" (she was literally doing her job, you would understand if you were at her place) MEANWHILE GRAYSON LITERALLY THREATENED A HEIRESS! (sayin this as a Gray stan) *sigh* y'all are something else🤦🏻‍♀️.

5. Ohh...this one is risky...BUT CAN Y'ALL STOP ACTING LIKE JAMESON IS BLAMELESS?? all i see is Grayson slander, AND I UNDERSTAND, he fucked up, but saying "Jameson was so much better than Grayson" is a lie, at least for me. (He was better for Avery tho) he fs made mistakes that fandoms chooses to ignore. Like lets not act like treating Avery like a toy wasn't wrong. Lets not act like him blaming Grayson for everything wasn't wrong. Let's not act like him reminding Grayson of Emily's death wasn't wrong. And i know that later on both him and Grayson had a great character development, but still, i've never seen anyone talk about this.

6. This isn't about tig. But LIKING JLBS WORK AND BEING HER FAN DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE GLAZING HER💀 (talking about an argument i had a while ago...) like is it so hard for your brain to understand that it's called having an opinion. Idc if it's JLB or any other author, okay? Like i've read almost every Jlb's books and i love them, AND i also publicly talk about how much iblove her work, does that mean i'm glazing her? UHM NO WTF��.

7. LET. PEOPLE. HAVE. PREFRENCE. (I'm talking about ships btw) . Someone prefers LyraGray over Averyjameson, and that's okay. Someone loves Averyjameson the most, and that's also okay, someone likes Libbynash more then Xandermax, AND THAT IS ALSO OKAY.

I'll probably do part 2, i have more to say i'm just really tired rn.

Also it's not proof read so sorry if there are many mistakes.

[buddiebeginz]

Bummy stans truly believe that their ship that has maybe an hour of screen time collectively between 2 seasons has the bigger fandom. Yet if you go on tiktok Buddie edits are getting 20k+ likes. (You can see a post I made about that here. Where a bunch of Buddie TT's made right after 808 were up to 10/20k in a day.)

Journalists are also always eager to talk to Ryan, Oliver, and Tim about Buddie. They ask about it in basically every single interview now. B/T never got that kind of attention ever.

Bummys continue to play the victims making it seem like they've been the ones repeatedly attacked by us. Yet I've been around the 911 fandom for years and never seen the kind of toxicity, harassment, and drama that I have this year. If Buddie fans were always the problem this would be something well known in 911 fandom and likely in fandom spaces in general but it's not. It would also make sense that the show would want to distance themselves from our fandom if all we did was cause issues like harass the show and the actors (like Bummy's allege) but they don't. Most people involved with 911 have shown support for Buddie and us especially in the past two seasons when it's clear they've been working towards Buddie canon happening with ABC.

I'm not saying Buddie fans are totally innocent and never caused any issues because I know some have. But pretty much since 704 aired we've been having to deal with Bummy stans telling us that we were homophobic for not liking their ship. We've watched as the 911 News account was harassed and journalists were threatened with doxxing just for posting positive Buddie content. During Pride month there was repeated harassment towards Buddie fans for wanting to celebrate Eddie for being gay/demi. And lately Bummy's have been hurling a lot of hate towards Oliver because they blame him for their ship ending.

Bummy's talk all this trash about our ship and our fandom but the fact is they wish they had what we have. They wish Oliver talked about their ship like he does Buddie. They wish he posted pics of Lou constantly like he does Ryan. They wish b/t had the amount of screentime Buddie have had. They wish that b/t had the kind of scenes together that Buddie get to have. Almost all of Buck's most meaningful moments in s7 happened with Eddie not Tommy.

They also wish Tommy was Eddie in that they wish he looked like Lou but acted like Eddie. Look at some of the posts they make or their fics, where they talk about how much Tommy gets Buck or is there for him that was never how it was in canon. But you know who is there for Buck and who gets him better than anyone? Eddie.

Bummy's also talk about how important and beloved their ship is but it's not and never will be. Both Oliver and Tim have tried to make it as clear as possible in their interviews that b/t was supposed to be a stepping stone relationship for Buck. Tommy was never ever intended to be Buck's endgame love. That is Eddie. Buddie is the ground breaking ship and it will be something everyone will be talking about when it goes canon. People are literally starting to watch 911 for the first time during the hiatus now that they know Buddie canon is coming.

There is a part of me that feels the tiniest bit of empathy for these people because I know what it feels to lose a character and ship you love. But at the same time it's also hard to feel bad for a fandom that has been repeatedly abusive and continues to be and continues to insist Tommy is coming back even though every single thing is screaming how much that's not happening.

I just really hope that in these few months of break from the show we all have that they'll gain some perspective or at the least go follow Lou in some other project. It's been genuinely exhausting having to deal with this for over half a year now and I miss when we could just enjoy shipping Buddie in peace.

[roseaesynstylae]

So, the idea of the Bad Batch (minus Echo, plus Emerie) being the other half of the Nulls has consumed my goddamn mind. Therefore, as you do when an idea takes up residence in your frontal lobe for the foreseeable future, here's some headcanons.

The Bad Batch (except for Echo and Omega, who have no clue what's going on) hate the Nulls. As in, "murder on sight" hate them. From an in-universe perspective, there could be a myriad of reasons, ranging from feelings of abandonment to resentment over them having a better life. From a writer's standpoint, it's because I love me some good old familial dysfunction and angst.

The more...unhinged...tendencies the Nulls are known for manifests in the Bad Batch more as "let's jump off this cliff and use explosives to direct our fall!" and less as "hey, check out my new skin gloves!" Of course, if you push them too far, it's a different story. In order of least to most likely to pull a "lemme turn you into an art installation," it's Omega, Wrecker, Hunter, Crosshair, and Tech. Omega wouldn't do that, at least not at this point in her life. Wrecker, when enraged, goes for the just-hit-them solution. Hunter's a decent human being and usually wouldn't do something like that...Unless his kid's been kidnapped by a crazy Imperial doctor for the fifteenth time, on which point he starts becoming a little deranged. Crosshair hovers close to the line but wouldn't do it to someone unprovoked. Tech is a special case, in that he has to be pushed, but when he is, the results make the rest of the Nulls go "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST."

The Nulls want to reunite with their lost siblings and build a relationship, but that's kind of hard to do when said siblings (except Omega) keep trying to kill them on sight and none of them were built for intricate and deeply complicated emotional issues. Still, they persist. Eventually, they could probably get to the level of "awkward conversations" but it'll take a lot of work.

The Bad Batch have what makes the Nulls superior to regular clone troopers, plus their unique enhancements (which in this version are less defects and more Nala Se picking an attribute for each of them and cranking it up to 11). They feel that it makes them better than the Nulls, something they're not shy about expressing.

Emerie is the same height as her estranged (I can't think of a word that applies to this specific situation but this one will do) brothers, because I stan a tall queen.

Nala Se is smug as hell whenever she sees Orun Wa. "CT-9904 just broke all records for accuracy, CT-9902 discovered a new element, CT-9903 crushed beskar like it was paper, and CT-9901 tracked a man through five systems and a solar storm. What are your clones doing, again?"

There is no understating the sheer "wtf" that goes through the Nulls' heads when they first see Omega. But, of course, this is Omega. Imagine the cutest image of her you've seen, fanart or canon. That's what the Nulls see when they meet her. Unsurprisingly, the Nulls, who got the Mandalorian gene to adopt anything that isn't nailed down, go from "wtf" to "so smol 🥰" in roughly a minute.

Kal Skirata is in the corner. His attempt to interact with the Bad Batch did not go well. He casually calls Hunter "son," as he does with various characters, and the resulting explosion puts a thermal detonator to shame. Since it's clear that his presence is not making things better, he's sort of just in the corner.

The rest of Clan Skirata, and associates, are staying out of this. Gilamar and Vau took one look and retreated to the bar because they know better than to get involved. Everyone else witnessed one of the less acrimonious encounters and collectively decided that they are not jumping into the emotional equivalent of a pit of rabid wolverines.

Echo is the go-between. He does not want to be the go-between. But he's the only neutral party in this thing aside from Omega, and the rest of the Batch don't trust the Nulls with her.

Spare a though for 99. He raised four of these guys, often with the aid of leashes. Truly, he is an unsung hero of the Clone Wars

[mysticpenguincreation]

okay. im going to post again and break my own promise because i also want to address another side of the argument.

people saying how they can’t watch part 2 now because luke manipulated the fans and they feel that the magic is ruined.

remember. we are talking about real people here. they are not the fictional characters they play on screen. let’s go over this one by one, i LOVE making numbered lists for arguments:

1. Luke and Nicola provided us with a fabulous tour. They owe us NOTHING.

It’s US who should be greatfull to them for doing hard work. A long press tour with that amount of promotion must have been absolutely exhausting no matter how much you love your job.

2. Luke isn’t obliged to fall in love with Nic and date Nic.

3. Nic isn’t obliged to fall in love with Luke and date Luke.

4. MULTIPLE times they addressed the fact that they are good friends. People were giddy making gifs saying “no, ur lying”.

Now imagine someone coming up to you and saying “You’re in love with me”. You answer “No i’m not”. They tell you “Nah, you’re lying”. It’s all in good fun until it grows into a straight up disrespectful delusion.

5. The personal life of actors shouldn’t affect how you feel about fictional characters. ESPECIALLY if they did not a fucking thing wrong. I wish really creepy and predotary people in the industry got at least half of the shit Luke is going through right now because Luke dared to have a fucking relationship. Or a relationship not with Nic.

6. We should be thankful to Nic and Luke for being kind, professional and respectful. We should be in love with their beautiful friendship, and not push either of them to cater to desires of fans who cannot, will not, do not want to distinguish between show and real fucking life. They have no obligation to you to start dating because their onscreen counterparts did and you liked it.

7. Again, I do not want to speculate. I have no idea if it was their decision or if it was PR. If they were encouraged to hide their relationship during promotion (imagine waiting this fucking long), or if they were encouraged to show that they’re together right after the show dropped. I do not know AND IT DOES NOT MATTER. Even the idea of restraining your personal life due to PR is sad and makes me sick. I hope they’re just going with the flow, staying true to themselves and are being HAPPY.

“Was it a wrong PR decision?” does not fucking matter because it should be their fucking decision to begin with. The fact that PR is created for this exact reason - to do damage control when people lose their shit over something normal is bind-boggling. It is insane that we came to this fucking point in human history.

8. The phrase “Luke’s hard launch” disgusts me. Fans are talking about Antonia like she’s an object and not a real person. JUST STOP!

9. Try to be fucking kind and touch the fucking grass once in a while. Grass is lovely - take Penelope’s advice.

Seeing this makes me think that the comments are coming from two groups of people:

1. Toxic stan’s who want Nic with Luke and can’t grasp the idea that they are not their characters. “Luke is a lot like Colin” from interviews does not fucking equal “Luke is in love with Nic”. Following this delulu logic he should have fallen for Claudia then because they said multiple times that Claudia is a lot like Pen and Nic is a lot like Eloise. There is no fucking connection in these statements. Fucking none.

2. People who loved the idea of Luke being single because it allows them to fantasize about Luke falling in love with them. It’s okay, we’ve all had celebrity crushes, but when it gets to the point of you throwing hate at the person, it becomes creepy and unhealthy.

To all the haters and “sympathizers” - get some help and get your shit together.

[sparrow-the-tired-lesbian]

thoughts on episode 2 (SPOILERS)

Oh don’t�� tell me we get Sylki this episode 

OH MY GOD THEYRE WEARING TUXEDOS

MARRIED COUPLE LOKIUS

oh god no not Brad 

HA LOKI SCARED THE SHIT OUT OF HIM

Mobius you’re such a dummie

B15 MY BELOVED

OHOHO GET FUCKED BRAD

Mobius is gay panicking

BRAD WHAT KIND OF RUN IS THAT

OHOHO MAGIC

WHERE DID YA COME FROM WHERE DID YA GO WHERE DID YA COME FROM COTTON EYE LO

MOBIUS IS GAY PANICKINGGGGGG

*sings along to the theme song*

Ohhh b15 you’re lookin fine

There’s a jail in the TVA??? I forgot about that

bring it to my son

OUROBOROS WHERE ARE YOU

SON

Aww he talks to himself that’s cute

So smart

He’s gonna get so fed up with people bringing shit to him when he wrote a whole book about it

Sweet Casey

Married couple Lokius building their IKEA bed

CASEY READ THE GUIDEBOOK! WE STAN A GREAT BOI

I’m going to fight Brad

Brad is so right about Lokis character but damn Mobius going to defend him is kinda gay

Why do I feel like Brad is talking directly to me when he’s talking to-

DONT TALK ABOUT FRIGGA I WILL MURDER YOU BRAD

The sass on lokis tone I’m going to cry

Mobius reign in your boyfriend

Loki is scaring me actually

That sounded kinda sexual Loki my man

YOURE RIGHT BRAD

THERAPY

MOBIUS’S PET?

Yeah Mobius who were you

Oh jeez

Mobius is about to flip out

HE FLIPPED

Loki caring for his husband <3

Following each other <3

KISS NOW

THE PIE SCENE

Awe Loki with his little legs crossed he’s so adorable around Mobius

Yeah you lost it baby

Comfort your husband Loki

WASNT TACTICAL??? BABE YOU ATTACKED NYC

Talk about your feelings Mobius

Why would you thank him for kidnapping you Mobius?

Felt that about bad and good lemme tell ya

Would you quit it about Sylvie

OUROBOROS!!!!

Don’t get hurt baby I’ll cry

Uh oh

UH OH

BRAD????

Is he dead?

Aww man he’s alive

Round two of what babe

NEED ANOTHER SESSION???

HARDBALL TACTICS?!!!??!

WHAT ARE THESE WORDS YOURE SAYING

Big machine

He’ll torture you babe

Remembering things for their husband this is cute

Uh oh Loki what are you doing

LOKI STOP IT

LOKI 

stop asking about Sylvie for the love of god

ENJOY YOURSELF?!

Mobius you’re so sweet

YEAH BRAD DONT BRING UP A VILLAIN’S MOTHER

Kill him hon maybe we won’t have to deal with his dumb ass

Terrible awful things 

He’s lost his shit I love it 

Loki please this is going too far

Okay nice we made Brad suffer and Loki is being everything Mobius could want in a boyfriend

Mobius was in on it?!

OB WHAT DO YOU MEAN WERE GONNA DIE

*gasp* OUROBOROS AND CASEY MY NEW OTP

HES FANBOYING

AWWWW BABIES 

oh no world is dead

*sings McDonald’s jingle*

Where’s my wife

Awww she’s so proactive I love her so much

NO NO NO NOT SYLKI PLEASE NOT SYLKI

One Unhappy meal please

Talk less Loki 

Can Sylvie drive

CORRECT OMG MY WIFE

THIS IS MY BELOVED 

Leave her alone Loki please

Advertisement 

OH MY GOD MOBIUS IS ON SOME SYLKI HATE

“It’s cinema thank you very much”

Murder

QUICK CHANGE WITH SYLVIE

THEYRE KILLING RVERYTHING

IHOHO MURDER

COMPROMISED OF CIURSE BABY

OH NO

call your boyfriend Casey

Don’t hold hands

NO

uh oh

Bye bye Sylvie :)

Oh she’s back

What are we looking at

Oh no…

Those are people!

Uh oh Sylvie’s angry

I might as well just make a harem of marvel women I want to wife me up 

Don’t pull that Sylki bullshit on me

Mobius is sad Loki go comfort him

At least Sylvie had her life

Does she have a friend?

What’s going on between those two?!

I’m so confused

Post credits???

Why not?

[ariainstars]

Why Can’t the Star Wars Franchise Renew Itself?

„Shame is a soul eating emotion.“ (Carl Gustav Jung)

Warning: longer post.

Growing up with Japanese anime I learned that being a hero is not about being perfect. The heroes I knew looked cool, were smart and brave and anything you could wish for, but also human: they were tormented, traumatized, struggling, they often doubted themselves and they sometimes cried (yes, the guys too). When I was first confronted with the Western idea of heroism I was appalled; to this day, I can’t fathom what is even supposed to be heroic about a guy like James Bond. Western heroes are usually just as terrible as the villains, except that for some reason they happen to be on the right side. The way they appear is more important than what they do. Franchises like Terminator, Mission Impossible, Batman etc. always portray the “hero” as untouchable, seemingly unbeatable even in the most dangerous situations and, most of all: impassive.

These days, new stories are being told. With new heroes. Except that said heroes are still quite the same as above, only now they’re more often female.

Is it an improvement when heroes are portrayed as being complete a**holes, with an aura of perfection and untouchability? No.

It always was ridiculous. It always was awful. It always was immoral.

But hardly anyone seemed to care as long as it was the guys being tough. Now that females are often portrayed doing and appearing the same, being a cool a**hole has become a caricature. Most people hate it. But the problem is that portraying alleged “heroes” like that was wrong in the first place.

The Fandom Menace

To Star Wars viewers who see stories as simply black and white and who are there mostly for the action and the superior-looking heroes, the Jedi are untouchable. Solitary and aloof, the Jedi have shiny sabres and can make things float, they travel the galaxy to kill the villains according to their own judgement. What could be more masculine than that? You try to tell an action film fan, or a Jedi fan, in particular, how messed up that is: they will never accept it. No wonder they get so upset and embarrassed when Jedi show their vulnerable, human side. Luke’s green milk in The Last Jedi must have caused a million of meltdowns among Jedi stans, mostly male ones, who felt that their hero had been character-assassinated and totally missing the point. Fans who are used to admire “heroes” like Batman, James Bond, Rambo etc. believe that the main characteristics of a male hero is a stoic appearance. A man who actually questions and doubts himself and feels guilty when he did wrong is automatically branded a loser.

Star Wars is mostly followed by action fans. But since it’s not a typical action franchise but an epic fairy tale and a metacommentary rich in symbolism, philosophy and psychology, there are also many intellectuals who love it, or hopelessly romantic souls like me. Except that fans who can actually enjoy Star Wars even when it’s not about the alleged Jedi superheroes, will most probably not send death threats to the studios and believe that “everything will be better once these producers are gone.”

The Prequels

The prequels were so disputed that Goerge Lucas himself confessed that he had sold the rights to the saga because he didn’t want to be exposed to that pressure any more. Ahmed Best, who played Jar Jar, was mobbed to the point where he considered suicide. Jake Lloyd, who portrayed little Anakin, suffers from schizophrenia to this day.

Were the films really that bad? No. But for the first time after having spent the years since 1977 believing that the Jedi were the wisest and strongest men of their time, fans were let down being confronted with their many mistakes. Anakin Skywalker was all too human as well, and quickly got apostrophized as a “whiny brat.” The very idea that the iconic villain Darth Vader once was a kind-hearted little boy and then an ardent young man was considered shocking to say the least.

The Classics

Luke is a simple farmboy when the saga starts, young, hot-headed and naïve. He is hardly aware of his powers. In the second film he’s more mature, but still impulsive and reckless. It’s only in the third instalment that he’s calm and collected: he’s a Jedi now, as the title says.

Let me ask a bold question.

Would there have been the vicious uproar we have witnessed, had The Last Jedi picked Luke up where he was in the first two films, before he became a Jedi?

I daresay, no.

Because to the Jedi stans Luke is first and foremost a Jedi. And that is what they get wrong.

Luke’s strength was exactly that he did not act like the other Jedi, that he followed his heart instead of their maxims. Had he acted like a Jedi, like Obi-Wan and Yoda expected him to, he would have killed his own father and spent the rest of his life hating himself. Luke is a team player, it’s one of his greatest strengths ever since the first film. He’s the one who brings people together and reunites his family. No Jedi is like that, on the contrary, in the prequels we learn that they’re discouraged from bonding with other people.

Jedi stans love Luke the Jedi, not Luke the person, who was wiser and stronger and better than any of the old-school Jedi, who strictly followed the rules instead of following their hearts the way he did.

Luke is the central character of the classic films because he’s so likeable. All three classic films have a scene towards the end where he’s about to die, and someone rushes to the rescue - Han in the first film, Leia in the second, Vader in the third. Do they save him because they are interested in his Jedi-like qualities? No. They do because they care for him; because, each in his own way, are his family. The Skywalker saga is a hymn to the power of love.

Hardcore fans still haven’t understood that the core story of Star Wars is the Skywalker saga, the story of a family. That’s the actual beauty and fascination of the Star Wars saga. And yet Jedi stans can pick apart any and every photogram of The Last Jedi and rant about how awful it is, never getting one inch closer to what is actually irking them too much: their own, misguided conviction that The Jedi Are the Good Guys and that their detached, collected attitude is not hypocritical.

Pride, male pride in particular can be oversensitive, and apparently many don’t grow beyond the mental stage of adolescents, who are particularly vulnerable. Listening to Jedi stans one would think that the Disney studios are producing new Star Wars content with the deliberate intention of hurting their feelings and laughing into the face of their ideals.

The Sequels

In Return of the Jedi (the only film where for all intents and purposes Luke looks and acts like a Jedi, and the title says it), on the Death Star he lashes out towards Vader when he threatens to corrupt Leia if he won’t succeed with him; and when he realizes that Vader can feel him in his mind, he says “I shouldn’t have come, I’m endangering the whole mission”. This fits perfectly to a Luke who debates killing his nephew - and that time he didn’t even strike - and who, once the damage is done, closes himself off the Force and retires to a deserted island before he can do any more harm. But ever since The Last Jedi, Jedi stans rave that “their hero” Luke Skywalker would never have behaved like that and that the film was a slap in the face of everything he ever stood for. Why?

Jedi stans expected Luke to be the hero and central figure of the sequel: he was supposed to be adult at last, wise, self-controlled, powerful, in other words the perfect Jedi. After the events on the second Death Star, Luke was not celebrated; no one even knew that Vader had saved him. In the final scene he had a vision of his father, now looking healed and serene, together with Yoda and Obi-Wan. No one else saw that, not even his sister. So, a lot of fans were waiting for Luke to have his big moment at last.

Instead, they saw a disillusioned hermit who at one point had to admit that he pushed his own nephew, albeit not on purpose, to the Dark Side. Luke was portrayed as a man who still had hope and strength even when he had seen his whole life’s work literally go up in smoke; who admitted his faults, apologized, and in the end gave his life to still make the best of the situation. That is what true heroism looks like. But it’s not what an average action moviegoer wants to see: to them, a hero looks cool, kills whoever gets in his way, maybe says some wise-sound words, and that’s it. Bonus if he gets the girl.

Jedi stans felt that Rey was taking the shine from Luke, pushing him aside. Far from usurping his place, Rey said to Luke “I need someone to show me my place in all this”. She clearly didn’t want to fill in his place. But Jedi stans felt like they were watching a James Bond film where Bond is suddenly not convinced of his mission, doubts himself and steps aside to make way for someone who normally would only be a Bond girl.

Rey is one of the most controversial characters of the sequels, allegedly because she’s a Mary Sue or a feminist fantasy who didn’t earn all that she achieved. But in the classics Luke was also good at things we never or hardly had seen him training or learning before. In The Empire Strikes Back, he pulled his sabre into his hand only by the force of his will, and called out to Leia in his mind. He acted on instinct; he assuredly hadn’t trained at a Jedi temple for decades.

The sequels were the story of the third generation of the Skywalker family, and one of its main mistakes, the way I see it today, is that they focus too much on Rey. She is Ben’s other half in the Force, as we learn later on, but still: the scion of the Skywalker family is he, he is the one who changes deeply, while she doesn’t.

I like Kylo Ren / Ben Solo because he’s a complex character, well-written and interpreted, but not only for that. I understood him so well on a personal level. I know what it means to be so isolated and abused that the moment someone shows you only a glimpse of kindness you fall in love to the point you would do anything for that person. The actual problem was that Rey did not know what she wanted, or what the Force wanted her to do. She only told Ben “not to go this way”. He saved her life twice, once as Kylo (when he killed Snoke) and once as Ben (when he gave her his remaining life force). If she had known what she wanted apart from staying alive, or if she had known the will of the Force, I do not doubt that he would have done anything she wanted. But she didn’t.

Star Wars stories only develop and the heroes only have success when they know what they want, not what they want to avoid. Fair enough. But the Force’s will remains mysterious. Even the alleged Chosen One didn’t know it. After The Last Jedi, I naively assumed that the better times when the Jedi actually did the will of the Force and the galaxy was at peace was during the time when the temple of Ahch-To was built; that we would learn more about it and that new Force users would find back to these better times. Seven years after having seen the Force Balance mosaic on the floor of the Jedi temple, I’m still waiting in vain for one or more Force users to actually discover and share said balance.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

The miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi was the first and only time that I actually liked a character who I had until then felt to be narrow-minded, haughty and largely responsible for Anakin’s damnation and the downfall of the republic.

“From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!” Anakin Skywalker in Revenge of the Sith

Obi-Wan proved that Anakin was right a few minutes later: he ended the duel with Anakin cutting off his legs and leaving him to burn in the lava - a Jedi does not soil his hands through a coup de grace. Obi-Wan did not manage to save Anakin in the moment of his greatest need, and he did not have mercy. Padme was about to take Anakin with her, which would at least have spared the galaxy the worst. Being the perfect Jedi, of course Obi-Wan had to interfere, setting the seal on Anakin’s fate. At the beginning of the same film Anakin killed Count Dooku who was kneeling handless in front of him; and it was also said that Anakin had saved Obi-Wans’s life ten times over. But he did not learn from his mistakes: twenty years later he tried to push the naïve Luke to patricide, so that is own hands would, again, not get dirty. Obi-Wan recurrently appeared to Luke as a Jedi spirit; but in The Empire Strikes Back when the traumatized young man, having learned the truth, repeated over and over, „Ben, why didn’t you tell me?” he was silent. When they did meet again, he shirked his responsibility with wise-sounding words.

Was Obi-Wan a good Jedi? From their perspective, undoubtedly. But I would not call him a compassionate human being. Obi-Wan was afraid not so much of Anakin but of the Jedi’s judgement: he knew that if Anakin tripped over a line, he as his master would be responsible. And Yoda had his fair share of responsibility - he refused to help Obi-Wan with the training of the powerful boy, he feared him although he was the one who clearly said that fear is the way to the Dark Side, and in Revenge of the Sith he practically ordered Obi-Wan to kill him.

Obi-Wan was always the first to draw the weapon. In A New Hope, he cut off the arm of a guy at a bar who was merely annoying him. In Revenge of the Sith, he attacked General Grievous showing up behind him, challenging to an uncalled-for fight. He had neither himself nor anyone else to protect right then. During his duel with Anakin / Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi, he also was the first to draw his weapons.

Obi-Wan never questioned himself, his choices and actions. He never took his responsibilities: even when dead, he justified his blatant lie to Luke saying that the truth is only a point of view. He never felt guilty or admitted defeat and wrong choices.

Not until Obi-Wan Kenobi, where was alone, traumatized, regretful, bonding with little Leia. Owen said clearly him that he did not want him to train Luke because of the way he had trained his father. Human at last! The last thing Jedi stans want him to be like. He even did what a Jedi actually ought to do, giving Reva spiritual advice. Of course, another Star Wars character who was accused of having been “character assassinated”.

Was Moses Ingram attacked for her portrayal of Reva because she’s a woman of colour? No, it was because Obi-Wan was not portrayed as Jedi stans wanted to see him. The actress was mobbed because they needed someone to project their hatred on. It’s true that her character was not written well, but any fool must have known that it wasn’t the actresses’ fault.

The Acolyte (2024)

“The Jedi live in a dream. A dream they believe everyone shares. If you attack a Jedi with a weapon you will fail… But an acolyte kills without a weapon. An acolyte kills the dream.” (The Stranger)

„The majority of my colleagues can’t imagine a galaxy without the Jedi. And I can understand why. When you’re looking up to heroes, you don’t have to face what’s right in front of you.“

„I think the Jedi are a massive system of unchecked power posing as a religion. A delusional cult that claims to control the uncontrollable. You project an image of goodness and restraint. But it’s only a matter of time before one of you snaps. And when, not if that happens, who will be strong enough to stop him?”

(Senator Rayencourt to Master Vernestra)

Did anyone at Disney Lucasfilm honestly think that this kind of show would be accepted and even loved by Jedi stans, who make up the majority of the fans - or at least a group that is very loud in their disapproval? If it “simply” was a bad tv show, fans would be disappointed, shrug it off and move on. I haven’t met such an amount of online vitriol since The Last Jedi, and it’s not difficult to see why: because the precious Jedi were shown as arrogant fools who believe they mean well but are too narrow-minded and stuck-up to see the errors in their ways.

„The Force does not belong to the Jedi.” (Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi)

Some in the galaxy far, far away call it The Thread. And use it their own way. Both ways might be wrong. Osha is raised by two very different mentalities and finds both don’t suit her, so she joins The Stranger who is also looking to find his own path. Whether they will or not we won’t know unfortunately, since the show’s second season was cancelled. (At least for now.)

Is Master Sol a bad person? No. He’s fallible and believes that the lies he told Osha are justified. So are the other Jedi that travel to Brendok with him. What makes Jedi stans hate them is that they don’t defeat the Stranger; and that Sol and Torbin actually feel guilty for what they did to Mae, Osha and their family. Vernestra on the other hand lied to the Jedi Council to make sure they won’t find out what happened.

Sol took Osha away from everything she had known by destroying, in the process, her home, her past and her family, and letting her live in a lie for the next sixteen years. Sol knew that she was already too old to be trained, and taking her as his padawan he set her up for failure. Even when she left the Jedi order, failing the tests, he didn’t tell her the truth. Osha was condemned to loneliness, her only friend being Pip, a mechanical device. She could go back neither to Brendok nor to the Jedi, and being Force sensitive, she belonged nowhere until she met the Stranger.

Sol certainly was kind to her while he trained her, but for all the wrong reasons. He said that he “felt that Osha was meant to be his padawan”. What does that mean? Osha failed the tests and Sol knew she was already too old for training. He even said he loved her at one point. My take is that Sol felt lonely and wanted to raise her as his daughter, he did not care that much about Osha becoming a Jedi nor not. Osha was right confronting him about what he had done to her, her sister and her entire coven, allegedly knowing what was best for her. She didn’t have to go as far as to kill him, I found that it did a lot to make her character unlikeable. Osha effectively “killed the past”, the way Ben Solo had wanted to. However: if it’s immoral to kill your father figure, it is equally immoral, if not much worse, of said father figure to wipe out your family and its entire civilization with it just to get a hold on you because you have the same power as he.

Impossible!! A Real Jedi would never do that! That’s why Jedi stans hate on the show and will pick on every small detail where they believe they find a flaw. The actual flaw is their headcanon that the Jedi can’t be the problem. Watching the saga, you see that they were very much a problem. But woe if you speak up; your will get your head ripped off.

The Acolyte also isn’t a female fantasy, as his haters claim. The strongest and most impressive character is the Stranger. Mae is his first pupil, but she doesn’t connect with him on a personal level, she only learns fighting from him; in the end, this makes her regress to childhood (the Stranger deleting her memory and she finding herself helpless in the Jedi order the way her sister had been sixteen years earlier). So? It appears that just wanting to be a strong female character and to do what a guy shows you is the wrong way, which is certainly not feministic.

The Stranger, despite his black clothes and mask, is not a real villain: when you watch him fight you see that he defends himself, he never attacks first. Despite their Code, again we see Jedi draw their weapons first, attack from behind or eight against one. He rightly points out to Osha that Yord had arrested her for a crime she did not commit and that both Jecki and Sol, whom she saw as her friends, would never commit fully to her.

Another popular criticism is that the Stranger allegedly has seduced Osha to the Dark Side with his male charms. But the Stranger is a mixed creature the way Osha is, neither good nor evil; he kills in defence or self-defence, and when he criticizes the ways of the Jedi he has a point. Osha is neither good nor evil herself, and I liked that they were starting on a new way together, all the more because I had been so disappointed that the sequels didn’t show us the much-needed and already announced Balance in the Force. When both Anakin and his grandson Ben came back to the Light side, it swallowed them whole, causing their death.

The Acolyte is a metaphor for growing up. Osha learned two ways of using the Force - first with (mother) Aniseya, then with Sol (father figure). The Stranger understands her doubts because he’s been through the same. Osha understands him better after putting on his helmet. In the end, they join their lives to find a new way together and in the final scene, both turn their backs to the past.

The Broom Boy: a Metaphor for the Future

The final scene of The Last Jedi with the Force-sensitive slave boy sweeping a floor before an open space which looks very much like a theatre stage, and who then looks up to the stars dreaming of being a Jedi, was clear: “Free the stage, now it’s time for us, the children.” There has hardly been a Star Wars show until now where there wasn’t a child in a central role.

Since the prequels, Star Wars made a point of showing that the Jedi are very bad at dealing with children. Anakin was taken away from his mother at age nine, shouldered with the prediction “You are the Chosen One”, and his emotional development was stunted because he was not allowed to go through the stages of being a normal child and teenager. Remember Attack of the Clones, where we see children playing around with light sabres - deadly weapons - like they were toys? Or Revenge of the Sith, where we see even smaller children, all with their light sabre tucked into their belts? It looks tragic. The scene where Anakin kills the children is a painful metacommentary on how a good person with a gun is no match against a bad person with a gun.

Sol: „She was just a child.” The Stranger: „You brought her here.”

In The Acolyte, Torbin and Jecki are heartbreaking examples of two Jedi padawans not allowed to be the teenagers they actually are. Jedi stans call Torbin “whiny”, but they overlook that his behaviour is normal for any teenager forced to be away from home for weeks on end on a trip he didn’t choose to make. Jecki has more self-control, but it doesn’t help her: she gets killed. The Stranger rightly points out that they both should never have come along on a risky mission to a planet with wholly unknown dangers. Jedi stans of course despise Torbin, because he’s supposed to be proud to be part of the Jedi since it gives him the possibility to look cool and fight all the bad guys in sight. Ironically, Torbin is the only member of the group of Jedi on Brendok who feels that something dreadful is about to happen and wants to go away. And years later, he is the only Jedi who admits to Mae that he feels guilty for what they did to Osha and her covert believing “they were doing the right thing”. That’s simply not what Jedi stans want to see. It’s an aberration to them, a slap in the face of everything they believe in.

Luke did not learn his ideals from the Jedi, he learned them at home with two simple farmers who neither were Force-sensitive nor knew the ways of the Jedi. Had he been raised like his father, all his power wouldn’t have helped him. Why do the Jedi insist that at a certain age you’re too old to be trained? I daresay because you have to start with brainwashing very early, before a person’s character is formed and its ideals in place.

The Mandalorian always allows Grogu to be a child. He keeps him close because that’s where’s he’s safest; he does look for safer places where he could leave him and is ready to make the sacrifice to give him up, but Sorgan proves not to be safe and later on Ossus, Grogu chooses to leave Luke on his own accord. And as soon as he is with Mando, he shows his playful side again. Grogu needs that! It’s healthy, because a child needs to be a child, no matter how powerful it is. But Jedi stans only think that it must be a great honour to be trained to be a hero from childhood on, never considering that it’s unfulfilling and frustrating at best, and traumatizing at worst.

It’s not a coincidence that family is the core theme of the Skywalker saga. Children who grow up feeling loved and protected develop well. That’s a wise message, and The Bad Batch, Obi-Wan Kenobi or The Mandalorian made a good point of it. But still: until now it didn’t lead anywhere. None of the Force-sensitive children we saw until now pointed to a new and better new Jedi Order, or anything else of that sort.

Star Wars Bigotry: Jedi and Jedi stans

If the Force wants Balance, as is said in the prequels, then the Jedi must be just as wrong as the Sith, because the Force does not want to be used either way.

I don’t mind a good villain. But if a viewer needs to compartmentalize characters into black and white or else he believes it can’t work, then that’s his problem, not the author’s. The sequels were unclear as to who the villain was, so was The Acolyte, so Jedi stans rave about how they suck. In my opinion they’re interesting exactly because the good guys sometimes do wrong and the bad guys sometimes are right. Of course, anyone who’s adamant that a good story, in particular a good Star Wars story, has to be Good Guys against Bad Guys with the Jedi being the good guys will never accept that.

The Jedi worshippers are many, and they are the most vicious among the SW fandom. Woe if you dare to criticize their Flawless Heroes with shiny light sabres who make things float. They will pretend that „wokeism“, feminism, blackwashing etc. are the problem. But that’s not true. Most of them wouldn’t mind strong female characters, queer or black characters whatsoever as long as the show they appear in would actually focus on showing off the Jedi as heroes. They do not mind stories like The Mandalorian, Rogue One, Andor, or The Bad Batch, they usually like them: because the Jedi hardly appear there. Or if they do, like in The Mandalorian season 2, The Book of Boba Fett or Ahsoka, they kick ass. In The Force Awakens Han Solo, also a very popular character, got killed, and no one hated on that film, on the contrary, most fans loved it. But hey, Han is not a Jedi. He can die a seemingly senseless death.

The Book of Boba Fett was mediocre at best. But it wasn’t hated. On the contrary, a lot of fans loved episode 6 because they finally saw a young Luke as a Jedi master making frogs float (argh!). The Jedi taught their pupils to suppress their feelings and to live without attachments, an attitude that proved fatal. Yet Jedi stans love the idea, probably because of the age-old adage of the lonesome cowboy who is too cool and aloof to care for anyone. They loved seeing Luke as an adult Jedi master alone and cut off from the very people who had been his life and purpose until then. He trained Grogu but didn’t play with him, didn’t allow him to be a child. It was the contrary of everything the character ever stood for - family, friendship, team spirit, loyalty. Of course that was not seen as “character assassination”, apparently that’s exactly what they wanted to see.

Many Star Wars fans believe that Luke Skywalker and the Jedi stand in for certain values, which they claim as their own. These values are their own values; they have only chosen a person and a group to represent them. If you believe that Star Wars is about Good vs. Evil and that the Jedi are the heroes who always triumph, of course you will be disappointed by the new stories. The studios are not deliberately harming the franchise, it’s the fans who want the saga to fit their worldview. They hardly care for what the stories really tell them. Someone who e.g. is convinced that all Frenchmen are cheaters and liars will also see a Frenchman and see in him the embodiment of everything he despises; he will not care to get to know this man better, or to learn about his country and his culture. And if said Frenchman has success in his life and is popular, the worse. It’s unacceptable. And anyone who does not hate this particular man is an idiot.

Bigotry has many forms, it doesn’t only mean despising and not wanting to understand people from another race, religion, orientation etc. The Fandom Menace’s bigotry consists in worshipping the Jedi and hating anything that criticizes them. Bigotry is the firm conviction of being Good, and supporting who also is “Good”, whatever category those good people are supposed to belong to. A bigot is a stern denier of his own sins and inner darkness. Either you’re with him or against him. Bigoted people are capable of fighting tooth and nail against perceived “enemies” who threaten their ideal of the “goodness” they believe in and think they belong to. Unfortunately, Jedi stans have many channels on social media and many, many followers who would rather die than see the Jedi as anything but perfect. A perfect person does not go wrong, of course. Ever. Their perfection prevents them from questioning themselves. A lot of fans don’t even watch the pieces of media they criticize at all, but hate on them anyway because their influencers tell them they suck. Bullies do not care who they attack. They feel frustrated, they can’t handle their feeling of shame, and take it out on who is or seems most vulnerable. And the worst bullies are those who pretend they are being aggressive out of morality.

“Wokeism” is Not the Problem

After the hatred coming from the fans who disapproved hotly of The Last Jedi, the narrative of this film was tainted and instead of finishing all the narrative threads it had set up, it was plainly ignored in favour of a pure action film, flat and disappointing. The Rise of Skywalker ended not only the trilogy but the entire saga in a way that I can only call disgraceful. On both sides, hardly anyone really liked it. But was it hated? No, because the Jedi were portrayed as the heroes, with even one ridiculous scene where the ghost of Luke appears to Rey telling her how wrong he had been when he was still alive.

Just for comparison: very many fans of Joker didn’t understand the film’s point as well. Todd Philips answered with the sequel Folie à deux, which is a logical continuation of the first film and boldly asks the audience to look at themselves and their wrong interpretation. The reviews are mixed - as with The Last Jedi, apparently you can only love or hate that film -, but Folie à deux is, first of all, a good film. In time, when the controversy has calmed down, it will be remembered as an excellent piece of art. The Rise of Skywalker is just embarrassing, and there’s no way it can age well.

The saga was indeed tainted, but not by Disney. Toxic fans who flooded social media with hate after The Last Jedi and sent death threats or tearful resentment to the studios did, resulting in the production of the flattest, most low-quality and uninteresting film Star Wars has ever seen, obviously patched together as a try to “amend” for what didn’t need to be amended for in the first place.

Star Wars’ strength is constant weaving between Good and Evil, good guys showing dark sides and bad guys having a point, interacting and learning from one another instead of killing each other. It could be a dream for film studios and authors, because it offers such rich tapestry for storytelling: the possibilities seem endless. But every time anyone dares to criticize Jedi or to show that an alleged Bad Guy still has a bright spot in his heart, and that he might have his reason for turning his back on the Jedi, Jedi stans cry out to heaven as if an inconceivable blasphemy had occurred.

If you like the sequels, you’re an idiot “Reylo” who believes she can fix the bad guy. Kylo Ren alias Ben Solo was the most deep, complex and fascinating character of the sequels, who went through a deep and compelling transformation. And no, he was not fixed by a woman’s love. But if you understand his conflict and follow him hoping for him to come back to the Light, you just “don’t get it that he’s the villainTM who wants to seduce an innocent girl to become evil”.

Same thing with The Acolyte of course, because there’s a scene where we see the non-Jedi-not-quite-Sith taking off his clothes. Of course the Stranger was “evil”; he wanted an acolyte, i.e. he did not want to be alone. What kind of guy is that, who does not embrace his loneliness?! The Strager - a guy - was he coolest character of all in The Acolyte and the only “relationship” we saw there was one between man and woman. But if you like that show you’re apostrophized as woke (which is still a mild word), because the author is a lesbian and the actress portraying the protagonist identifies as non-binary. That is neither true nor does queerness have anything to do with the show’s quality.

Luke exposed himself both body and soul to the Emperor, first almost falling to the Dark Side himself and then almost dying in the process, because he wanted to “fix” the Bad Guy, aka his father. And he actually did.

In The Bad Batch, the character of Crosshair goes from belonging to the heroes to betraying them and then going back again. In the last season his relationship with Omega is evenly balanced, they break free from imprisonment together. It’s one of the show’s best parts. But they are no Jedi, so that show is not hated on.

Jedi stans expect Star Wars to “stick to its roots”, i.e. tell stories where morals are as clearly cut as in A New Hope. They don’t consider that that expectation was already beyond all hope when The Empire Strikes Back came out, with its infamous key scene and all its implications, including the failure and hypocrisy of the Jedi.

Action films have taught spectators that real heroism is defined by the “license to kill”, i.e. the good guy is recognizable from the fact that he has the right - or believes he has the right - to kill anyone who stands in his way. Jedi stans love the idea that Jedi are the good guys because, not having attachments, apparently that gives them the right and to decide who must be sacrificed by them “for the greater good”. I would like to see them in a situation where someone, maybe even someone they love, tells them “Oh well, now I’m going to sacrifice you for the greater good.” It’s absurd and unbelievably cruel to pretend that such an attitude has anything to do with good morals. If anything, it ought to be the victim who decides that they’re sacrificing their lives, not some Jedi or other hero who allegedly has the right to decide over life and death.

Luke Skywalker himself sacrificed himself over and over. He did debate to kill his nephew, but it was only a brief moment of panic on his side, he didn’t go through with it, and afterwards he felt so ashamed he exiled himself. Luke’s trademark characteristic was his compassion; whereas we never see a Jedi act out of compassion. And believing that having no attachments because it gives you the licence to sacrifice someone “for the greater good” is everything but compassionate. But even the greatest Jedi and Luke stans don’t see any contradiction there.

Do the Jedi stans really expect a white male straight character as the lead? No. Most of them for instance were fine with Jyn Erso being the protagonist of Rogue One. But in that film, there was no Jedi. When the sequels, Obi-Wan Kenobi or The Acolyte came out, they were upset because the non-white, non-male, non-straight characters seem adamant to take the place of who Star Wars allegedly ought to be all about. Jedi stans want a story where they can be on the side of the “good guys”, follow them sitting comfortably on their couch or in a theatre seat, identify with them and pump their fist in the air when “their side has won”. A lot of them do appreciate more complex stories like Andor; but their untouchable Jedi do not appear there, so there is nothing to hate on.

The classic trilogy’s topics were Hope, Love and Faith (the Force representing and tying together all three). The prequels had very little of all of that, because they’re the story of a tragedy and a massive failure; but what fans who like them apparently have learned from the prequels it’s that it must be great to be a Jedi, lonely and aloof and the master over life and death. Who wants Hope, Love and Faith instead of cool heroes killing everybody who stands in the way of what they decide is right?

Where Do We Go from Here

Star Wars will never have the chance to truly evolve and renew itself as long as there are people who will cry blasphemy any time a film or tv show dares to portray one Jedi or the Jedi as a whole as anything but perfect. Try to tell a Jedi stan that the Jedi perhaps are not the Good Guys after all (starting with Luke Skywalker after his third film): it’s as telling a staunch Catholic that Jesus was not the Son of God. They will fight you literally like their soul depended on it.

The unpardonable fault, in the eyes of Jedi stans, is not diversity the way it’s often mistakenly interpreted; it’s the Disney studios portraying the Jedi Order, Luke, Boba, Obi-Wan etc. as humans instead of Good or Evil cardboard cut-outs. To them, that’s simply bad writing, and they sternly refuse to see any other angle; they identify with the allegedly Good Guys and now believe it’s up to them to put up a fight against the Bad Guys who make their heroes allegedly look like fools, i.e. who dare to take them from their pedestal by criticizing or at least humanizing them. It was the Jedi stans who built said pedestal. It wasn’t George Lucas or the Disney studios.

Most Jedi stans would not mind strong female characters, black, diverse characters, homosexuality etc.; as long as everyone stays in sidelines while the Jedi take the shine. Heated Star Wars discussions usually start with one side accusing the other of being misogynistic, homophobic etc. and the other side claiming that the responsible people at the studios are using the franchise to shove their “woke” agenda down their throats.

Instead of cancelling interesting character developments that were just getting started and ending entire trilogies after almost half a century on disturbingly flat notes, dear Disney Lucasfilm studios: please finally give Jedi stans what they want - a tv show or film trilogy that caters to them. Set it a few hundred years before the fall of the Republic, endow their precious Jedi with all imaginable virtues, let them make things float and have cool light sabre battles destroying some faceless, boring Bad Guy and then take off into the sunset. Tell these kinds of stories for the next decade, and maybe the Fandom Menace will finally be appeased.

Choose a diverse cast if you want: Jedi stans will hardly care. If a Star Wars show had Jedi for protagonists and these would be the infallible, all-wise superheroes their stans take them for, they won’t mind if these Jedi were black, Asian, female, lesbians or non-binary, with a few white straight people sprinkled throughout. They will swallow it hook, line and sinker.

In the meantime, please complete the stories that you enchanted us other fans with, which are actually epic and magical and centred around human connection and personal development.

Thank you.

[qiu-yan]

3 6 7 11 16 20 25

bro is trying to get me killed lmao /s

choose violence ask game

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr:

this shit

6. which ship fans are the most annoying?

gonna be honest here, the single most annoying part of the MDZS fandom is that one hyperspecific sort of wang and xian stan who insists on shitting on not only the other characters, but also other wang and xian fans who ship the characters in ways they don't approve of. this kind of stan can not only be relied on to have the worst possible takes on everyone ranging from jin guangyao to jiang cheng, they can also be relied on to harass other wang and xian fans simply for putting wang on the bottom. fun times.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

surprisingly, no one yet. sometimes i feel the hater urge to dunk on the morally-pure version of wei wuxian that the diehard wei wuxian stannies have collectively hallucinated, but i still find the wei wuxian from canon to be quite compelling.

11. number of fandom-related words you've filtered

the "canon jiang cheng" and "canon jc" tags. everyone stfu

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

"morally pure wei wuxian who did nothing wrong ever." to me, wei wuxian's hubris, his unique capability for inventing new kinds of cruelty, his failure to think of the consequences of his actions, his tendencies to run away from negative feelings, and his ultimate failure to protect the people he was trying to protect, are what make him a compelling character to me. these flaws in parallel with his courage, kindness, stalwart moral compass, and genuine love make him interesting to me. so i don't quite understand fans who instead insist on erasing all the morally grey and highly interesting stuff he did in favor of insisting he did nothing wrong ever.

20. part of canon you found tedious or boring

not quite what the question is asking, but i found the actual wang and xian romance in the original novel to be a bit lacking. mainly because (as other people have said already) a lot of the romantic development happened when lan wangji was drunk. at the very least, i wanted to see lan wangji's reactions to his various drunken adventures once he sobered up the next day, and i'm rather disappointed we never got to see that.

furthermore, on wei wuxian's end, it did kind of feel like wei wuxian was using this exciting new romance to distract himself from his past problems, even though it also seemed like he didn't actually know all that much about lan wangji. the only version of the romance that makes sense to me is the one where wei wuxian was already into lan wangji (subconsciously or consciously) in his first life; otherwise, wei wuxian falling in love with lan wangji during his second life, when he's yet to process any of the shit that happened in his first life, feels too much like him running away from his problems with a guy he believes will validate all his decisions. meanwhile, on lan wangji's end, i feel like the novel just did not give us a lot to work with in regards to his character. so it feels like, if you want to be a fan of lan wangji, you have to do a lot of the legwork of building up his personality yourself.

what also disappointed me a bit about wang and xian, as well as lan wangji's character arc itself, is that lan wangji is never really challenged on a moral-dilemma level in the same way that many other characters are challenged by the story. how do i explain this...alright, i'll put it this way. i've been brainrotted about madohomu (madoka magica) since i was in middle school. and that's partially because i know for a fact that, if homura was put in the trolley problem and had to choose between [killing 5 strangers] and [allowing madoka to die], she would choose to kill those 5 strangers to save madoka. but after reading MDZS, i realized i legitimately did not know what lan wangji would do in such a moral dilemma. because MDZS equates [being morally righteous] with [supporting wei wuxian], lan wangji is never placed in a dilemma where he has to choose between sacrificing wei ying and doing something the audience would think of as unforgivable.

these are just my own hyperspecific tastes, though.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

gonna put my hater hat on for a second, but i kind of roll my eyes at the jiang cheng haters complaining about how jiang cheng stans keep posting in the "canon jiang cheng" tag. dude, if it bothers you that much, just block the jiang cheng stans. then things will be peaceful in your favorite tag again.

[nickel156]

Girl who's talking about rhysand? You're the one posting all your dumb takes for the whole fandom to see. You don't even know how I feel about any of the characters. I love how your entire shtick is basically just deflect, deflect, deflect. And please apply your own advice to touch grass. One glance at your blog tells me you dedicate way too much of your time talking about a series/characters you clearly hate. You need to do more than just touch grass bb, I think you should inhale it.

Oh, sweetie, let’s get into it, shall we?

First of all, it’s hilarious that you think I spend too much time talking about the series when, if you’re in my inbox, clearly you’re the one who’s feeling all kinds of triggered by my takes. I mean, if you’re stalking my posts, just say that. But here’s the thing—I actually don't post as frequently as most. So, the fact that you’ve zeroed in on my “dumb takes” tells me more about your fragile attachment to a certain High Lord than it does about anything else. Maybe take a step back and breathe before you come for me next time.

And it’s obvious you’re a hardcore Rhysand stan. How do I know? The moment someone dares to be pro Tamlin, y’all come running with claws out. It’s like clockwork. And let me guess—you probably hate Tamlin with a burning passion too, right? Because it seems to me that stanning Rhysand automatically means rewriting history to ignore his many flaws while projecting all your hatred onto Tamlin. Classic.

Also, just to be clear, I don’t hate the series or the characters. The fact that I can be critical of Rhysand’s problematic behavior doesn’t mean I hate the books—it means I’m capable of having a balanced perspective. You should try it sometime instead of blindly idolizing a character just because he's framed as the romantic lead. Crazy idea, right?

And please, spare me the whole “deflect” argument. You haven’t actually addressed any of the points I made. Instead, you’re deflecting your own discomfort about how I’ve called out Rhysand’s behavior by coming for me personally. It’s almost like you can’t handle the truth about your favorite character, so you’re lashing out. Cute.

Sorry not sorry that I don't see everything through Night Court-colored glasses like you.

In conclusion: if you don’t like what I post, feel free to scroll past. But if you’re going to come at me, at least bring something a little more original and thought-out. You’re embarrassing yourself with this weak attempt.

[emblemxeno]

Sorry king gotta rant. Why does Bernie having trauma mean you can't dislike her? Where's this energy for Rhea, who lost her people and mother? Catherine has good reason to support Rhea since she saved her fucking life but she doesn't get that pass. Dimitri is mentally ill as hell but I don't see Bernie stans defending him? Oh because Bernie didn't hurt anyone else? Okay, what about cyril? The 14 year old boy who was saved from SLAVERY brings up his surrogate mom a lot. Who did he hurt? Why is Bernie's annoying "funny footsteps" ass where the line is drawn? Everyone in 3h has trauma! People can hate whomever they want don't get me wrong but don't act like your favorite traumatized waifu is above criticism while characters like Rhea get dragged through the fucking mud. I guess trauma is only valid if you support the emperor.

Valid feelings imo anon.

I have come and gone on how I feel about Bernadetta, because it's extremely apparent what she was written as: a character whose major gimmick is meant for surface level laughs and entertainment, with a backstory intended to endear her to the audience.

But therein lies many issues I have.

---One support conversation with Byleth, and she says she's fine around them, for no discernable reason according to her. Her entire support chain, including her Goddess Tower scene, is her all but saying "I can't and never could do anything without you professor!" That's a problem 3H has in general because it has no idea how to intentionally write an actual developed relationship. It's why the Lions' intense homoeroticism within its cast, along with Ferdinand and Hubert, are the most common ships outside of Byleth centered ones, as those effectively stumbled into gold.

Comparatively, most other romantic chains-where love/marriage/a relationship was blatantly intended-fall flat because they shove a lot of it into the A supports (sometimes the B rank ones too), which also has to complete the support chain's arc, making one/two conversations tackle two different and delicate topics at once.

I know people are critical of Awakening and especially Fates having romance being hamfisted in the S ranks, but at least you can complete a support chain's story in those games without the shoddy lovey dovey aspect being required reading alongside the conclusion. It's unavoidable in 3H, and also makes many characters look like shitty, emotionally immature people in a meta sense because they can have these near-confessions-of-love with different characters simultaneously due to it being in the A ranks. Not in a cute polyamorous way, either, no just ludicrous.

I digress though, because this affects Bernadetta for me specifically because it's such a rough backstory that it fails to get me to suspend my disbelief that she can suddenly become comfortable with a very speficic stranger to the point of falling for them. Compounding that with a military academy, events, and eventually a war? Yeah, no, it makes no fucking sense.

---Simiarly, as you say, the music that accompanies her supports makes the revelation of her backstory feel insincere and vacuous. Now, I praise similar kinds of writing in games like Engage with Alfred, for example, where learning a very important detail recontextualizes everything you know and have seen about the character. With Alfred, knowing about his illness and losing his father at a young age, it shifts the entire thought process about his supports, story scenes, Firene as a whole, etc.

The difference between him and Bernadetta though, is the sense of respect. Perhaps it's due to Alfred being plot important, but Alfred is written in a way that signals "I, the writer, respect my work, respect the character I'm putting time and effort into, and respect the audience who is consuming it." Alfred has funny music scenes too, but it's never at the cost of making a joke of his trauma. His muscle worship is funny to listen to, his fitness/health regimen is nutty, his overly enthusiastic personality is entertaining, but none of this is at the expense of his vulnerable points. There's hardly, if any, instances of him being forced into changing who he is, altering his beliefs and lifestyle, or being made into a perennial punchline.

Bernadetta, on the other hand, is almost always treated horribly by the support writing. Yelled at by Edelgard, forced out of her room by Ingrid, beat up by a rabbit in Petra's support, accosted by both Ferdinand and Hubert, carried against her will by Caspar, etc. The only supports where I can comfortably say she's treated all right is with Dorothea, Leonie, Raphael, Seteth and Alois, and even then, a couple of those are reliant on a character getting backstory/teachable moment in between her screaming.

It boils down to "Haha, look at this kooky situation that Bernadetta found herself in because of her shut-in personality, what will happen next? 🤪", meanwhile the whole reason why she's like that is because was violently abused by her father and a childhood friend of hers was nearly beaten to death. The backstory itself, doesn't even recontextualize everything the way Alfred's does either, because now all I think when Bernadetta's screaming is "wow, this is fucking gross and potentially triggering for people who also hate having boundaries crossed due to trauma."

And this is the same game that gave us Dimitri's story arc lol. Then again, most of the female characters in 3H have some garbage writing attached to them, soooo...

---This is personal, but I also just can't jibe with Bernadetta conceptually.

Her part one design is okay (aside from the "wow crazy face Bernadetta cuz she's scared haha! 🤪), but her part two design is kinda horrid.

I don't like her voice at all, though that's not an indictment of Erica Mendez at all (she's great as Deirdre and Lianna). It's the direction and character concept, I just hate high pitched squealing and screaming, no matter the voice type, it hits my ears in the worst way.

She's pretty cool as a unit, due to the vengeance builds and having a good spell list if you wanna go a magic route, but... that's about it.

I don't know if I hate Bernadetta herself, or even really dislike her, but I do vehemently hate the concepts behind her and how she's written.

Really, I think people should feel how they feel about whatever character. And I agree, I think it's kinda BS how certain characters are treated worse than others because their personalities are "more annoying/less endearing" despite also being in similar situations.

[mohgreal]

Mr Greal I need to rant about a SOTE thing I was thinking about last night. Fucking. Why not make it so that Mohg and Miquella were collaborating and both had a genuine, shared view of how to change the world? They both want the best for the disenfranchised races of the Lands Between, right? Miquella has the metamorphosing Albinaurics in the Haligtree, Mohg has his little red Mohglets, stuff like that.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Blood For The Blood God Big Boy Mohg was who Miquella deemed the most kind or worthy or whatever of the demigods? Raaaaagh I’m just so mad how SOTE bulldozed over these two characters and sapped out anything interesting about them.

cw: me being annoying, (long) sote ranting because this fandom hates me for hating but that never stopped me, if you take this seriously its on you sorry . for some reason i get people feel offended by me openly expressing how i feel about some dlc so im still putting this here You Were Warned ....mr greal will add his personal comments .....

tumblr keeps fucking up my keep readinf STOP im sorry

this is my biggest gripe with sote is how boring they made the existing lore. not even 'bad', just very very boring. it's like i got the most boring reddit fanfiction as canon, which sucks because all the new stuff IS interesting. expect now i don't even care because they sucked the interest i had for the lore by doing so. they could've made radahn more interesting by giving him more lore that isn't just "i love war, golden order, and horsey!". they could've gave mohg more lore and depth. they could've made miquella more interesting and a genuinely new and fresh character with hope for once in a game where it's all bleak and misery.

but they didn't. why.

i don't get it and i never will. im convinced they had a different, or possibly worse — multiple teams work on sote because the way the entire dlc is structured, especially the lore and missing elements (no cutscenes for main bosses or black and white art desc) — really screams too many chefs working on one game (dlc). nightreign existing proves my prior theory ive had since sote came out day one

miquella is, to me, the most boring possible route they could've gone. if you believed the charming theory then it was also predictable for like two years so it's not even as shellshocking as the narrative makes it, because the game expects you (in the sense that based off the existing lore you would have the idea that miquella is morally gray) to know this. the issue is that the only real lore really pointing toward miquella being a charm guy is the bewitching branch. two sentences. you're supposed to get that miquella was Bad All Along because of [one] item description. why micheal zaki???? and yes you could say the other item descs hinted at it, but that's all it is, hinting. its vague and you could easily understand it as miquella being the true goodie people in game think he is.

as for the extreme devotion, i don't see how it's supposed to be seen as bad if you didn't know miquella was a charmer when it makes sense for the lands between to cling to the only piece of hope there is. like i would be worshipping him too when he's supposedly the only real kind demigod trying to make a change??? is this just micheal zaki and georgey marty's way of telling us life is miserable and dont trust incestous blondes? ive seen people defend this by saying its a design choice so the player can feel like miquella is good, then get betrayed like his followers so you can feel it too. but this doesn't work because you would have to be attached or at least like miquella which is basically impossible (unless you were a tumblr miquella stan feeding off dust and scraps) since you haven't meet him?? how can i be betrayed by someone whom i haven't even met? miquella is just childish griffith (im sorry to say that name) marika-ranni morally gray "you tried" badge lumped into one and i really miss how interesting he was before his own dlc. not to mention he only shows up piggybacking on his now boyfriend-brother for like one minute; and that's all he gets in his own dlc . if he was at least his own boss instead of lothric-lorian copy pasted but worse i wouldn't be nearly as disappointed

radahn is still boring to me, which he was before as well, his personlity is basically just the modern irl gymbro to me, which is to say i can't see him without his gym (in radahn's case, war or the golden order)

and mohg getting used as a body bag is so unneeded and just feels forced. i didn't even feel sad. the mohgreal (mr greal as called in the ask™️) didn't get sad at mohg being basically used even beyond death. because it didn't need to happen. you could say that's what makes it tragic, but to me it's just a cheap way of forcing radahn back. radahn's soul isn't what makes him powerful, his powers and body is. so just use mohg instead, miquella already had him charmed, did he not?? radahn's soul isn't going to make mohg magically radahn — except oh wait it magically makes mohg radahn all of a sudden even though that's not how it works!!! we literally saw ranni do this exact same thing (just with her own soul) yet radahn is a magic exception??? this is a blatant retcon and people who pretend sote doesn't have retcons feel like they're gaslighting me because this is just one of a few examples of contradicting lore sote gives you. even if you could magically give me a pile of reason to fill the plotholes, it still feels sour because i never needed to do this in the base game

TLDR: sote made me not care about elden ring, and im now back to being a horror addict im sorry. everyone is allowed to rant to me im very bored

[shrinkthisviolet]

The ck writers make Sam seem so deserving of it in a way, almost too accepting of people’s horrible behavior/actions and perceptions of her. And the total 360 they had Tory do in season 3 is why I kind of don’t take her remorse there serious but your explanation makes me understand that it’s the writers fault and not Tory’s so thank you! The writers just seem to sympathy bait the audience when it comes to holding her accountable.

I more so consider 2x10 and 3x10 to be Tory out of character tbh—Tory’s pretty chill as a character in s2, until in 2x10 she suddenly snaps and goes after…Sam. Who she knew was insanely drunk. Instead of her boyfriend, who was sober when he cheated on her. That doesn’t track with her background—Tory is the type of person who should go after Miguel for taking advantage of Sam, like Robby did.

(Sam ofc shows later that she would’ve kissed Miguel whether she was drunk or sober, which is why people aren’t necessarily wrong to call it cheating on her part too, but the fact is, she was drunk when she did it, and Tory should’ve gone after Miguel for it rather than her)

And then 3x10?? Even worse! Tory’s supposed to be trying to keep out of trouble during s3, seeing as Amanda wants to send her to Shawshank (per her own words…at least pre-s4 when they made Amanda sympathize with Tory more than Sam out of nowhere)! She has a brother to look after, a sick mother to also look after! Kreese guilting her into rejoining Cobra Kai is one thing—that makes sense. But she breaks into Sam’s house all on her own! What a stupid thing for her to do. Literally why??

s4 and onward starts writing her better, but…this is when we really start getting moments of her backstory, which I have to assume is to crank up the sympathy for her. Which is a shame, because it worked on the fandom…who have apparently forgotten that just because you have a hard life doesn’t mean you’re given a free pass to hurt other people (people, mostly Tory stans, hate on Sam for what she said—“everyone has a sob story. It doesn’t give you the right to be a bully”—but she was right!

In short, it’s hard out here for someone who loves both Sam and Tory but also knows that you can love a character while still criticizing them. Though I do believe that with Tory, it’s largely a writing issue.