#but I'm bitter about that fight

[asleepinawell]

I missed a ton of npc interactions in shadow of the erdtree which meant I'd often have them say things referring to a conversation we'd never had which was confusing, however this did lead to one of my favorite moments when I found Leda somewhere and she just says hmm wonder who I should kill next. and I'm like. girl what. who the fuck have you been killing??? and she's like actually now that I have my free will back I've decided I hate people and also Ansbach needs to die. and I'm just like hello??????? ma'am????? what is happening here????? funniest shit ever. diversity win the homicidal hater of the group is a woman

[that-was-anticlimactic]

i will never understand how or why the httyd movies did the books such an injustice.

the movies aren't even an adaptation - they stole the name of the series, the name of some of the characters and places, and the general idea that there are dragons. honestly, i would be fine with the movies and maybe even like them if they didn't capitalize off of cressida cowell's incredible books that never get any credit.

the books are an amazing story about the cycle of violence and how vengeance and revenge is dangerous. hiccup says that the past is a ghost story, one we need to learn from to better ourselves. the books are about how everyone deserves freedom, how every creature, every being on the earth deserves to be free. we see that in the slavemark, with the dragons.

and like... hiccup is so different. they did him a severe injustice. he's scrawny and intelligent and learned to talk to dragons simply by observing them! he chooses kindness first above all else; instead of yelling at toothless to train him, he is kind. and in the end, that kindness is why toothless chose to save him. bc even toothless himself says that dragons are inherently selfish creatures who care only for their survival. hiccup is brave - his beliefs differ drastically from both the vikings and the world.

hiccup is a child who chose to do the right thing even at the expense of himself. he agreed to free the slaves on nobert's ship, and in return, they gave him the slavemark which is easy to give but cannot be removed. he was like twelve. and having the slavemark means he cannot be with his tribe or his family, it means he isn't considered a human being anymore. and he keeps it a secret for awhile until it's revealed and when it is everyone turns their backs on hiccup. his family, his tribe, his mentor, people he TRUSTED. everyone except fishlegs, and, once she got over the shock, camicazi. he was thirteen. and even when he lost his memories and was really injured, he persisted. he was told to go to tomorrow and to save the dragons and he did bc in his heart he knew it was right even though he didn't know who he was or how he got there.

and fishlegs,,, oh my god FISHLEGS!!! the did him SO DIRTY!!! fishlegs is hiccup's best friend, one of the main motivators for hiccup. he steals norbert's potato for the sake of fishlegs, he gives fishlegs his dragon and goes to retrieve another, he takes the blame for fishlegs. and fishlegs does the same for him. he takes the slavemark with pride. he refuses to turn. he gives hiccup his lobster claw necklace which is his most prized possession. he is brave for hiccup, he believes hiccup is alive. he fights for hiccup harder than anyone else ever has. he does not turn. his is loyal, has allergies, has asthma, has a squint and a limp, has glasses bc he's blind without them... and he's still a hero despite being a runt, despite everyone even the adults telling him he's hopeless, telling hiccup to leave him behind.

and they cut camicazi! i'm sorry, but astr*d is nothing compared to camicazi. camicazi is a tiny, feral child who can easily best hiccup, fishlegs, and pretty much anyone in a sword fight. she can bring a grown man to tears with her rudery and smack talk. she is recklessly brave and craves adventure and follows hiccup blindly bc she trusts him that much. she isn't in love with hiccup - in fact she doesn't care about romance and love. she gives up everything to help hiccup bc she has a strong sense of justice. she is the motivator, the cheerleader, she finds a positive in everything. she never gives up. literally never gives up. and that's one of the most inspiring things about her: she always has hope.

and toothless! god!!! toothless is *thought to be* a common or garden dragon. he is horrifically tiny, he is literally toothless, and is the biggest brat in the world. he will cause problems on purpose. he has a stutter, he's the most selfless selfish dragon around. he and hiccup can talk to each other. he masks his fear with singing and being annoying. his growth is remarkable. he starts off refusing to obey hiccup, doing the opposite of what he says, making life harder for literally everyone around him, and he's still somewhat like that. but he's also braver, more caring, more willing to make sacrifices for the sake of others. he's clever, which he needs to be to make up for his size and aggression. he protects hiccup with everything he has, therefore, he protects what hiccup cares about just as hard. he was the only dragon that didn't abandon the vikings in the first book bc he cared about hiccup.

and snotlout,,, god,,, i will never forgive the movies for butchering snotlout. hiccup's cousin, the bully character, the one who is horrifically jealous that hiccup's dad was born before his. the one who desperately wants to prove himself, to be worthy, to make people proud. and you hate him, you despise him. he betrays everyone many times bc of the nothing promised to him by alvin and his mom. he loses himself, turns his back on himself, all bc he wants to prove himself. all bc he wants to be better than hiccup. and hiccup still forgives him and gives him chances, sometimes out of pity, but also bc snotlout is his cousin. he can't just turn his back on him no matter how miserable snotlout made his life. and in the end, snotlout sacrifices himself for hiccup. he gives up his life for hiccup in one last attempt to set things right. his death and the events preceding it are one of my absolute favorite moments in the book. gives me chills. makes me cry.

that's the thing with the books - they're so realistic. there is no inherently happy ending where everything works out. the first book begins with "there were dragons when i was a boy", implying that they're gone now. the books show there are consequences to our actions. they enslaved the dragons, they fought against them during the dragon rebellion all bc alvin and his mom said to, and now they're gone bc a simple apology doesn't fix hundreds of years of enslavement. and the only way for the world to move forward was for the dragons to leave and heal on their own. and now they have to learn to live without them. and yeah i've heard the third movie ends like that but. it doesn't have the build up. it doesn't have "there were dragons when i was a boy". it doesn't have eleven books of development to back it up, to make it feel meaningful.

i know that the movies are really special to a lot of people. i know that, on their own, they're genuinely good movies. i can acknowledge that the soundtrack is amazing and the animation is beautiful. i just can't see past the way they butchered the world that i love, the world that i grew up with. i can't see past the way people yelled at me for saying i liked the books better, the way that people gave me weird looks when i showed them a picture of the original toothless, when i tell them that nightfuries aren't even a type of dragon. cressida cowell created hundreds of different dragons, and the movies couldn't even pick from that. i can't forgive the way that barely anyone knows there are books bc the movie barely gives credit to them. i cannot forgive the way they capitalized off the books and then shoved them aside. i know cressida thinks they're good movies and i know a lot of httyd book fans also like them. but i just... i cannot get over how much they changed and how they missed so much and ignored the books. also they got rid of camicazi so hiccup could have a love interest and that is unforgivable to me.

if you disagree, that is a-okay. we're all entitled to our own opinions. i just ask that you, perhaps, try the books out. give them a chance. bc they're amazing works of art and also just like. don't yell at people who don't like the movies? whether it's bc they prefer the books or just aren't into that kind of movie. and just remember that dreamworks didn't come up with the story; cressida cowell did.

[whoatemyshoe]

[sepiamestus]

It always rubs me the wrong way when people characterize atsushi as too much of a sweetheart. Like he IS a sweetheart but he's also snarky and sarcastic and most importantly he's very very angry. Do not forget this.

[oceanicpoetry]

i just saw a gifset of that scene in the loki series where he does a bunch of random theatrical moves in the hopes that it will activate the time-slipping and all i could think about was 'yes this is definitely the most powerful sorcerer in asgard, the guy who studied his craft for over a millennium' and i just sighed. goodbye loki who was a multi-faceted, fully realised character. hello comic relief loki who does bizarre dance moves in front of another person fully believing that it will activate random mystical powers.

[gwydionae]

SAY IT WITH ME:

FEMALE CHARACTERS CAN BE WARRIORS AND FEMININE

MALE CHARACTERS CAN BE SMART AND MASCULINE

BEING BOTH IS NOT A "FLAW" WHERE ONE NEEDS TO BE REMOVED

IT'S CALLED "COMPLEXITY"

[wonder-worker]

"In total, Leonor governed Navarre as lieutenant, with some minor hiatuses, from 1455 to 1479, making her the effective ruler of the realm for nearly twenty five years. Out of her female predecessors, only Juana I served a longer period; however, Juana I was detached from the governance of the realm and physically distant from Navarre. Leonor however, remained in the kingdom throughout her lieutenancy, making her the female sovereign with the highest record of residency in Navarre.

One of the enabling factors for Leonor’s constant presence in the realm was the “Divide and Conquer” power-sharing mechanism that she employed with her husband, Gaston of Foix. Blanca and Juan had a similar division of duties, but unlike her parents’ often contrary objectives, all of Leonor and Gaston’s actions can be seen to be working toward their joint goals of obtaining the Navarrese crown and politically dominating the Pyrenean region. In order to achieve their ambitions, the couple were adept at working as a team even when physically seperated or carrying out divergent duties.

Politically, it appears that they took on different areas of negotiatiion. Gaston was the designated emissary to the French court, which was entirely appropriate as one of the French king’s leading magnates. One important example of his involvement in negotiations of this type include Gaston’s visit to the French court in the winter of 1461–62 to negotiate the marriage between their heir and the French princess, Magdalena, which ensured Louis XI’s backing for Leonor’s promotion to primogenita. Gaston also conducted negotiations on behalf of his father-in-law, Juan of Aragon, with the King of France, with a successful outcome in the case of the Treaty of Olite in April 1462, which was intimately connected to the marriage that Gaston was orchestrating for his son and Magdalena of France.

Even though Gaston normally took on the role of intermediary with the French crown, there are two letters issued by Leonor during her marriage in December 1466 as lieutenant of Navarre that show her involvement in French affairs. These letters were written during a period of extreme crisis, when Juan II’s difficulties in Catalonia were matched with Leonor’s continuing struggle with the Peralta clan in Navarre. In these letters, Leonor was playing on her familial connection to Louis XI, in hopes of his aid and backing, asking him to “commend this poor kingdom and the said princess to him [Louis XI] as one who is of his house.” Moreover, these letters show Leonor’s independent interaction in crucial diplomatic negotiations with France, both in receiving embassies directly from Louis and in sending her own personal ambassador, Fernando de Baquedano, with detailed instructions on how to proceed.

Gaston appears to have been more engaged with marital negotiations for their numerous offspring than Leonor. However, this may be due to the fact that the couple overwhelmingly chose French marriages for their children. Only three of Leonor’s children did not contract a French betrothal: Pierre who became a cardinal, a daughter who died young, and Leonor’s youngest son, Jacques (or Jaime), who married into the Navarrese nobility. Given the fact that Gaston was more intimately connected to the French court and the nobility of the Midi, it seems reasonable that he would take on the role of chief negotiator for these matches. All of the marital arrangements for their children were made in order for Gaston and Leonor to achieve their joint goals, the acquisition of the throne of Navarre and the consolidation of their power and influence in the Pyrenean region.

Another area where Gaston necessarily played a more central role was militarily. Robin Harris acknowledges Gaston’s successful military career and notes that after his useful military service to the French crown, “the comte was permitted by the [French] king in the last years of his life to employ his military resources in order to further his family’s interests in Navarre.” Gaston also performed many military services for his father-in-law; the agreement of 1455 that promoted Leonor and Gaston to the successors of the realm required Gaston to go to Navarre on Juan’s behalf and retake those areas that had fallen to the rebels “for the honor of the King of Navarre as well as for his own interests and those of the princess his wife."

However, there is some evidence for Leonor’s involvement in one military foray. In the winter of 1471, Leonor took part in a daring attempt to seize the capital, Pamplona, from her opponents, the Beaumonts. Leonor participated in an attempt to storm one of the city gates with a group of armed supporters. Moret notes that “this surprise was reckless; for it exposed the person of the princess to obvious risk and was somewhat rash.” Moreover, the element of surprise was ruined by the cries of her supporters shouting “ Viva la Princesa !” which alerted the Beaumont troops to the threat, and Leonor and her supporters were swiftly ejected from the city.

Like her mother, the noted peacemaker, Leonor was also involved in moves to reduce the civil discord in the realm. Zurita credited Leonor with “making a great effort to resolve the differences of the parties and subdue the kingdom into union and calm.” Leonor represented her father in negotiations for a truce with the supporters of the Principe de Viana on March 27, 1458, at Sang ü esa. Zurita notes, “The princess Lady Leonor was there at that time in Sangüesa and signed the treaty with the power of the king her father.” Leonor was instrumental in the forging of another truce that was contracted in Sangüesa, in January 1473, and she was also present at a conference with her father and her half-brother Ferdinand in Vitoria in 1476 “accompanied by the nobility of Navarre to renew the treatties . . . and attempt to arrive at a stable peace.

Although both spouses were named to the lieutenancy of Navarre, the documentary evidence clearly demonstrates that Leonor appears to have taken on the bulk of the administration of the realm. This was entirely appropriate as it was Leonor, not Gaston, who had the hereditary right to the crown. Moreover, it was logical for Leonor to remain in Navarre so that her husband could look after his own patrimonial holdings and continue to serve as a military commander for the King of France.

Leonor was an active lieutenant but she struggled to implement her rule fully across the kingdom, as many areas were dominated by the Beaumont faction who were opposed to her and her father Juan of Aragon. This meant that at times, she had no control or access to certain key cities in the realm, including the capital, as mentioned previously. Her grandfather’s impressive seat at Olite was the center of her sister’s court, but Leonor eventually regained her hold on the castle and used it as one of her primary residences between 1467 and 1475. Sangüesa remained an important base for Leonor, and she was also associated with Tudela on the southern edge of the kingdom.

Leonor’s difficulty in implementing her rule across the whole of the kingdom is illustrated by a prolonged struggle between the lieutenant and the town of Tafalla, which consistently refused to send representatives when she called together meetings of the Cortes. Tafalla was a center of Beaumont strength, which had supported her brother Carlos in his struggle with Juan of Aragon and was thus bitterly opposed to her appointment to the lieutenancy. Between 1465 and 1475 there is a series of missives from Leonor both summoning representatives from the town and then expressing disappointment when they failed to arrive. During this period, Leonor appears to have called a meeting of the Cortes at least six times, but the town consistently refused to send envoys to the assembly. There is a sense of increasing exasperation and anger in these documents at the repeated failure to participate in these important events. At one point, in late 1471, Leonor personally came to the town to give advance notice of her intent to call another Cortes the following summer, perhaps to circumvent any excuse that the town did not have sufficient time to send representatives, but Tafalla still did not participate in the assembly.

As her authority was contested, Leonor was keen to stress her agency and her position in the documents that she issued. However, at times she even struggled with the chancery; between 1472–73, Juan de Beaumont retained the seals of the kingdom and refused to let Leonor have access to them. In 1475, she granted a reduction in taxes to the important city of Estella acknowledging the reduced capacity of the city to pay after the population had shrunk from the effects of war and flooding. In this document she stressed her efforts to assist all of the urban centers of the realm, to help them recover from the years of civil conflict and devastation, “the other good towns of the said realm have been refurbished by our certain knowledge, special grace, our own change and royal authority.

Leonor’s address clause drew on all of her family and marital ties as a means of establishing her authority:

 “Lady Leonor, by the grace of God princess primogenita , heiress of Navarre, princess of Aragon and Sicily, Countess of Foix and Bigorre, Lady of Bearn, Lieutenant general for the most serene king, my most redoubtable lord and father in this his kingdom of Navarre.”

The signet that Leonor used for the majority of her lieutenancy as well as her sello secreto had heraldic devises that mirror her address clause, bearing the arms Navarre, her family dynasty of Evreux, her husband’s counties of Foix, Béarn, and Bigorre, and finally the Trast á mara connections to Aragon, Castile, and Léon.

To sum up, Gaston and Leonor’s ability to divide up roles and responsibilities demonstrates the couple’s effective partnership, using each partner in the most appropriate arena. Moreover, this division was entirely necessary as the couple’s widespread territorial holdings and the demands of balancing the complicated and difficult political situation both within Navarre and the Midi and between France, Castile, and Aragon meant that both partners needed to be fully engaged and active in order to achieve their mutual goals and further their dynastic interests.

Even though Leonor and Gaston generally employed this mode of “Divide and Conquer” that left Leonor primarily responsible for the administration of Navarre while Gaston oversaw his own sizable patrimony, the couple did work together as a unit whenever possible. Documentary evidence shows that Gaston came to stay with Leonor in Navarre for short periods, particularly during the autumn of 1469 and 1470. There is also some additional evidence to indicate an earlier reunion in 1464, which appears to indicate a desire on the part of the couple to be together. Gaston and his party were stuck in the mountain passes between Foix and Navarre on his way to visit Leonor. The princess issued a series of orders to dispatch men and pay for additional recruits and mules in the mountains in order to clear the passes and roads for Gaston, including one order for 300 men to be sent to help. Gaston’s death in 1472 took place on another journey to see his wife in Navarre; he died en route of natural causes in the Pyrenean town of Roncesvalles.

 Overall, Gaston and Leonor worked together with the mutual goal of obtaining the crown of Navarre, throwing the weight of Gaston’s power, wealth, connection, and military forces behind Leonor’s hereditary rights and were willing to fight off opposition from their own family in order to succeed. They worked in partnership, with each partner taking on the most appropriate role; Leonor was responsible for the governance of Navarre, and Gaston supported her militarily and financially. They both worked on diplomatic efforts to achieve their ambitions; Gaston used his position as a powerful French vassal and general to gain support while Leonor negotiated with her Iberian relatives to maintain their rights.

[...] Tragically perhaps, Leonor hardly had a chance to enjoy the position of queen regnant when it finally came her way. Leonor’s death, only a few weeks after her father’s in February 1479, meant that her rule as queen lasted less than a month. Leonor changed her address clause to reflect her altered position as “Queen of Navarre, Princess of Aragon and Sicily, Duchess of Nemours, of Gandia, of Montblanc and Peñafiel, Countess of Bigorre and Ribagorza and Lady of Balaguer.” Ram í rez Vaquero points out that most of these titles were disputed; several were titles that should have come to her as part of her paternal inheritance from her father but in reality would have gone to her half-brother Ferdinand de Aragon. In addition, the French titles that Leonor had held as Gaston’s wife had already been passed to her grandson. It appears that Leonor had enough time to mount a formal coronation, on January 28, 1479, at Tudela, firmly establishing herself as Queen of Navarre, even if only for a brief moment. Moret remarked that “out of all the kings and queens of Navarre she was the one who reigned the shortest, although she may have been the one who desired [the crown] most.”

-Elena Woodacre, "Leonor: Civil War and Sibling Strife", The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics and Partnership, 1274-1512 (Queenship and Power)

[lesbiansforboromir]

oh OH hO spicey ohhh having a spicey little tantrum about the boromir tag don't listen to me at all do NOT listen I mean it I mean it this is so petty

[stop-breaking-my-heart-dragonage]

As much fun as I'm having doing my alternative run of DA2, one thing I really miss about my mage Hawke is his friendship with Merrill.

Those two are best friends and he's 100% supportive in her goals toward the eluvian. Ed has the humorous/charming personality, too, which bounces off super well with Merrill. He doesn't think any less of her for her usage of blood magic; if anything he's impressed by her level of strength and willpower. He's so ready to defend her from the other companions and the clan, and he's absolutely out here attempting to matchmake her and Carver....at least he is in my heart because the game won't let me, it's fine, I'm not bitter about it or anything-

But then my warrior Hawke? She has the diplomatic personality with quite a bit of direct/aggressive thrown in there and she ends up having the same attitude as that one party banter Aveline and Merrill have: "Merrill, you're clearly talented and meant for great things, but you're stupid," and that's so difficult for me to lean into. I'm trying to play Aris differently so she ends up being so condescending to Merrill, like she's trying to gently tell her to give up on the eluvian but it doesn't come off well.

Also if Carver was around, Aris would be the opposite of Ed, she'd look at the suggestion of her brother and Merrill getting together and be like, "No :) I don't think so :) I like Merrill, she's my friend :) but she's not right for Carver."

But I guess it makes sense; if you told him that Bethany would giggle and kick her feet and twirl her hair around Sebastian, Ed would've thrown him in the ocean as a warning. Meanwhile, Aris is like, "A handsome prince that could take my sister away from all of this? Wonderful, we just need to work on his incorrect views on mages, but that shouldn't be a problem :)"

Anyway I miss playing Hawke as the #1 Merrill stan.

[coockie8]

Sorry just remembered like over ten years ago my sister tried to play Oppression Olympics™ between Sasuke and Neji, claiming Sasuke's had a harder life and like yeah his entire family was killed and his brother made him watch it and that sucks.

Neji's family literally owns him.

Look I don't want to compare them or anything, and having to watch your family die is, objectively awful, but being actively kept as a slave by your own family is also an objectively awful thing lol

[eomerofrohan]

I was talking to some friends irl about Boromir and one of them said “oh, I hated him so much when I watched those movies”

And like I get that the movies do Boromir an injustice but how can you hate him?!? No!!! He’s such a great dude, my poor son, he deserved so much better

like. this man was in charge of the defense of his country's most important city, with hundreds if not thousands of lives depending on him, and he was up against impossible odds. literally impossible. said city was under attack from the Witch King himself

that's right. Boromir fought the Witch King. and lived.

the Witch King has the power to instill his enemies with such fear that they can't help but flee from him. animals don't like to go near him. armies will turn and run when he appears, no matter how well they've been trained.

this is what Boromir has been up against, and with his entire people depending on him no less. and he thinks Gondor is alone in that fight. he thinks nobody else cares about what's going down on the front lines, because he hasn't seen any support from any of them.

and this all happens before he goes to Rivendell.

when he arrives in Rivendell, he is coming directly from this battlefield, and the main priority in his mind is saving Gondor, because of course it is! why wouldn't it be? it would be ridiculous for him to be thinking about anything else. so of course he wants to use the Ring. he thinks it might be the only way to save his people from utter destruction.

just. he's trying so hard, and it bothers me to no end when people just write him off without even really looking at him.

[raiiny-bay]

here are some outtakes from my last edit btw

[roamthefarlands]

help im having the ysayle thoughts again

[cryingat300kph]

F1blr I love you because some of the shit I've seen on Twitter and Instagram especially regarding Lando and Max has me..... Like some of the men accusing new female fans of just liking hot drivers may be right, cause idk if ya'll actually like this sport.

[problemswithbooks]

I find it so strange to see endeavor basically failing in all departments, both as atoning father and atoning hero at the culmination of his arc. Despite many people here “not buying” it, his arc is about redemption, it’s pretty obviously written this way. Yet the creator deliberately writes one impossible situation for him after the other, leaving him practically no choice but all the fallout. Neither his introspection nor his sacrifices work.

He gave his arm to protect Hawks and Tokoyami. What happened next? It doesn’t matter because he couldn’t kill AFO. Hawks and tokoyami were risking their lives again and again fighting him. In the end his injury and sacrifice didn’t matter, AFO easily defeated everyone again and who knows what other injuries he caused. Everything enji said he was responsible for. All the blood spilled, including Hawks losing his quirk.

Enji supposedly found new determination to keep paying penance and keep his eyes on toya? Nope! It’s all gone now. Toya is a bomb now, with his mind long gone and there’s nothing enji can do to prevent him from explosion. He can barely move and is struggling to get him out of the civilians and heroes vicinity in time. So he chooses to die with toya. Another set up by the creator for him to fail. I know it’s done for an incoming Shoto big hero moment, for his family and everyone else in Gunga. But did the author really need to make enji such a loser again and bring him down so his family would look more heroic? And he would look more pathetic and useless?

Is it likely enji doesn’t have anything significant to do in this arc anymore? He went all out on AFO and so far it just put more pressure on everyone else and put more people in greater danger than ever before. Now he can’t help his son or his family. A pretty underwhelming conclusion to his arc if you ask me but I bet his antis are gonna love it

It's defiantly getting to the point where I don't see the point of Enji having a character arc at all if he's going to fail up until the last moment. If he's just going to fail over and over again in all aspects than why even bother having him change at all? If the story was a more adult story with the Todofam drama as the center point than i could see it fitting, but in a battle shonen Enji sticks out like a sour thumb.

The reason I loved Enji's arc was because it was more mature and he was a way more human character compared to the rest of the cast. I don't mind the idea of showing him constantly struggling and backsliding or having moments of self refection that don't necessarily lead to improvement. People don't change over night, it takes more than wanting to change, or knowing how you could change to actually succeed. Someone might know what the right thing to do is, but to do that thing requires going against everything they've ever known, and fighting against their own brain.

The problem with Enji constantly failing in BNHA is it's a shonen. This isn't HBO's Succession where the entire thing is about showing the struggle of it's characters to change and failing due to how they were raised and being trapped in a system that rewards cutthroat behavior. This is a story for teenagers about the power of friendship and how all problems can be fixed if you just try hard enough. No other character struggles this much to be a better person. No other character reacts to bad situations as negatively as Enji does. Even Izuku when he was in a bad mental state acted out in a way where he was still fighting and winning, but just doing so in a way where he got a dark design change. He didn't freeze or have inner monologues about how upset he was and once his friends spent a chapter yelling at him, he was fixed.

Because every other character only has a chapter or two (sometimes just a couple of lines) to have doubts before getting pep-talked into being better and having real growth, Enji comes across as a loser in comparison who can't get with the program. Hori refuses to give him anything except mental monologues that reiterate he wants to change, but actions wise he's not allowed follow through, even if it doesn't make any sense.

And I don't really see why. If the point is that abusers are losers who can't ever fix anything or atone why have him even bother to change anyway? The point might be that change is hard, but that change of heart is only this hard for Enji. Everyone else gets to make progress and the end of manga looks like it will end with the main villains having a change of heart in 2.5 seconds. Showing that changing and atoning is hard could have been shown without repeating the same inner monologues three or four times. Progress could have been made without undermining that message.

On top of that Hori has him 'fail' in ways where it only makes sense because of shonen logic. Enji is only wrong to take Touya up in the air and die with him because the theme of the story is hope. As the audience we know there will be some solution to save Touya despite everything telling us otherwise because it's a trope in this kind of story. In a different genre or in RL Enji's choice would be tragic but the only real solution. Not a him yet again failing, but the sad culmination of his past actions toward Touya.

He fails only because of the genre and themes of the story, not because there is an actual real solution he's just not doing because he's a bad father. Which is why when people explain why he's failing they only point out framing reasons rather than actually saying what he could be doing instead.

It's one of my biggest pet peeves in Hori's writing because if he really did need Enji to constantly fail than he could have done so in a way where it felt earned. Touya doesn't need to be on the verge of exploding, that blast doesn't have to be so big that it'll take out thousands of innocent people. He doesn't have to be delirious and screaming like a flaming monster. Enji could just fuck up and stumble over his words so Touya doesn't believe him and continues to attack him while burning himself. There's no reason to make the stakes so much higher, Touya's life being on the line is more than enough--I mean would Shoto not go save him if his death wouldn't cause mass casualties?

More and more it comes across as Enji failing only because the story says so, rather than because he makes real mistakes given the situation he's in. This is an issue with a lot of the characters not just Enji, but it's the most pronounced with him because it happens to him so often. This sort of writing has always bothered me because it makes side characters feel unimportant--there's just waiting around for the main characters to actually do stuff.

Yes, main characters like Shoto need their shining moment but it wouldn't have taken anything away from him if Enji had been allowed to make better choices. He could have said all the right things to Touya and still failed due to Touya's anger and years of resentment, so Rei steps in to help, and than Shoto comes too. The choice to be on the AfO team could have been a more thoroughly discussed decision between Shoto and Enji where they both agree that Shoto would have a better chance because Touya reacts so negatively toward Enji. Enji could have mentioned he was looking for Touya while out with Izuku (because that makes sense), maybe even he does it without Shoto because he's busy learning his new move to help cool Touya down.

Instead Enji is constantly stuck having repetitive inner monologues that go no where and do nothing in this genre of story except make him look inept or even cast doubt on whether he's trying at all. Which if that was the point than Hori shouldn't have wasted the pages on his arc at all. I really love Enji's arc and to me he feels the most real due to how he struggles and doesn't always succeed to do what he wants to, but I'm starting to think his entire arc was a page sink because it's ultimately done nothing that keeping him an asshole wouldn't have accomplished with far less time.

[buddy-daddies]

so ep11 huh.....