#but also in a more petty sense:

[doing-something-unholy]

Another very specific headcanon: victor ardelian would've hated the warrens.

[moeblob]

Shockingly I named some OCs recently and fleshed out the deity lore a bit for my "guess i'll marry the demon lord?" plot.

Solei has existed since near the start but Mehra and Valdas are new to the concept and all three? Petty. They're technically the Trio of Peace cause that's kinda their goal and duty to their world but really, Trio of Pettiness is suitable as well.

[queenerdloser]

okay there are some revenge stories where the "you're losing yourself to revenge you need to choose forgiveness instead :(" argument actually has some merit, but tbh every time a character has brought that up in count of monte cristo i'm in my corner shouting THEY PUT HIM! IN A DUNGEON! FOR 15 YEARS!

[emily-mooon]

PEOPLE STILL BELIEVE BLORBO’S LIE???!!!?????

[oakwolves]

It’s late and I’m (as usual) rambling about Ace don’t mind me 🙈

I can say that as an All-Star you can say Ace got a whole lot more in terms of content (some all-stars don’t even get date quests) however I am greedy asf and believe he should’ve joined the main HSS cast instead of being paywalled. He doesn’t even have to be a part of the main story line they can just pretend he doesn’t exist like they did with Ezra and Kallie for a while (/j)

I’m going to be honest I’m not a huge antagonist fan typically. But they def did something special with Ace and his arc give me 10 more of those

[starryjkoo]

I really enjoy charts and numbers and I participate in streaming culture, but I also think ARMYs are placing too much importance in that stuff lately. Especially when it comes to BTS solo work considering they're not always projects intended to chart well (charting well is clearly a bonus for a lot of them, but not the goal). It’s kind of the same issue with ARMYs ignoring the context around why certain things chart well, or around certain achievements, or their promotions and such (solos & kpop stans obviously do this more than anyone). I’ve been following the BP members charting too because I find it interesting and it adds some interesting context/comparison to the BTS solo releases, buuuuuut being fixated on it, especially to just be nasty and antagonistic and participate in silly fanwars and dick-measuring contests (over achievements that do not belong to any of us 😭) is kind of silly at this point too. Ofc it's interesting to follow and have commentary on, not talking about people doing that, but this childish competition and the passive aggressiveness and the obsession (from some, maybe a small minority) is also tired imho. And sometimes just embarrassing. And also kind of related but that one kpop subreddit has been overtaken by Twitter ARMYs and sometimes it gives me secondhand embarrassment. I haven’t been on reddit all that much lately so it’s especially obvious now 😭

[uchiha-gaeshi]

There were more Uchiha Sharingan users in the Warring States Era, BUT they still took up a minority of the clan. At most, 30-40% of clan members had it, and the rest just didn't have that dawg in them.

The Mangekyo was even rarer. I have a headcanon that while it wasn't uncommon to awaken it, that usually happened like 10 minutes before an inevitable death, sort of as a last resort defense measure. So like, there weren't a lot of Uchiha walking around with the Mangekyo (in fact people *alive* with it only popped up once every few generations), but a lot of recovered corpses would have tears of blood running on their face.

[imavikingo]

There is something that I can’t understand and will never understand about fandom “culture”

Why EVERYTHING (or a lot of things) need to be canon or acknowledged by the actors/directors/producers to be accepted by the fandom? In specific ships?

And why when a “ship” (two characters, really) have more screentime than others/other characters aren’t in the picture anymore, people take that as a victory as see their ship as more valid and “actually canon”? And mock/harass others for it?

Also there is this thing people have been doing a lot too: Thats calling everyone that doesn’t like the ship you like names (and also calling them terms that before actually meant something awful but nowadays can be said for simply tagging the incorrect ship in a fucking post)

Canon isn’t always the norm here kid. At least when it relates to ships and scenarios. (Bc if we’re talking about characterization… yes it needs to be canon in a sense or we’re writing/making ocs out of canon characters)

Most of the more popular ships will never be canon and have never been, especially the gay ones. (See Drarry, Narusasu, Frodo/Sam, Johnlock, etc, etc)

So why suddenly we care so much about what NEEDS to be canon or not?

Why people NEED to see their ships be canon so badly?

Sure, I can be seen as a hypocrite because Ive been talking about Stucky a lot in the canon and what happened in EG, but they actually did that themselves. The directors talked about gay characters, the actors talked about Stucky. So actually it isn’t something ludicrous or anything. (I’ve never thought they would actually make the ship canon -bc that would be a big problem for them “how can you make Cap America gay!” And shit- but I thought they would at least make them still be friends or friendly or acknowledge the “bromance” and they just killed the friendship in one scene with the most ooc shit ever). In fact, I’m more annoyed by that. They assassinated Steve’s character and Bucky’s progress.

Nevermind…

Why people fight so much about ships and use terms that shouldn’t be brought into stupid shit like this?

Fandoms are supposed to be fun and to have discussions (in good faith) about the canon. What we like and what we don’t like about it.

Besides, a lot of current media are about stuff that’s been remade over and over again. So they have a lot of adaptations and you can pick and choose too, if you want.

And if you don’t like the canon? Easy! Do analysis, criticize it, write fics, do fanart, do creative shit or simply ignore it! No one is forcing you to keep on watching the show or the stuff you now hate/cant stand. That’s what Im doing at least.

Sure, I criticize some people and movies a lot and get actually annoyed by the disrespect towards/assassination of some characters, but at the end of the day I can only shrug and say “it is what it is�� and leave it at that. (Meaning not giving them money for the new stuff/not watching nor caring about it and only acknowledging the old things I actually care about and like)

But I don’t insult or disrespect other people in fandom because of it. And also I don’t harass the directors or actors either, ffs.

Idk, Ive always been on the sidelines of the stuff I follow, I’ve never been on the thick of fandoms so maybe thats why I don’t understand.

And I’ve also not seen so many crazy shit (the most crazy stuff Ive seen is people calling others racists for tagging a ship incorrectly and also others inflating the tag of a ship in ao3 so their ship would be “the most popular” with most fics, in that fandom) because I actually curate what I see. I don’t like a ship? I mute, if I can’t stand a person or a ship? I block em. Simple and easy.

I’ve always drawn stuff for myself, read fics and made headcanons. Only recently I’ve been sharing stuff more openly, so maybe it’s that.

Idk.

I’m just tired of seeing discourse and people fighting over this stuff.

[secret-disc-horses]

I replied to that one ‘gaylor hate post’ in the gaylor tag with the citations the OP so rudely requested. So strange… OP had time to mock all the other gaylors who replied or act smug with other people hating on gaylors, but somehow had no time to reply to my citations… Wonder why. 👀

[fictional-men-enthusiast]

Old Flesh + The Parliament is conservatism.

I said what I said and I’m not taking it back.

[janeromeroshow]

In my interpretation of Jane's lore, Loretta Lawrence is in fact her mother despite her infamous statement otherwise. Her base story kind of leaves it up to interpretation with the final line of her father and mother both attending her funeral ( whether that be Loretta or an unnamed woman ) , so my personal take is that Loretta held a lot of resentment for the stain on her image that Jane's open discussion of her absence left, and intended on denying it publicly as a way to save face and also squash Jane's credibility - turning the narrative of her from an absent and career-obsessed mother to an innocent victim of lying by an obsessed stranger trying to use her name for clout. While it worked for a few moments, the almost immediate missing status and assumed death of Jane led to Loretta's image being ruined even more. Especially when in the ongoing investigation, it became public knowledge that she was in fact Jane's mother from birth records and the statement of her father. cw discussion of suicide ( not actually happening )

Post-being taken, Jane's story is somewhat of a mystery, the kind of thing discussed by true crime creators talking about the "strangest unsolved cases" and such. From the public's perspective, she was humiliated on live television by someone she'd consistently claimed was her mother denouncing that fact, and that night she disappeared. Her car ( but not her body ) was found some time later, at the bottom of a lake.

The obvious conclusion was that either it was an accident or she'd taken her own life, but the lack of a body sent conspiracy theorists into a frenzy. Did Loretta have something to do with it? Was it an inside job? Was it murder, not an accident or suicide? What happened to Jane Romero? While it was mostly contained to niche communities of people who liked to discuss this, Jane's status as a household name allowed it to spread further, damaging Loretta's reputation more than she could have imagined.

[little-fandom-gal]

Was Chloe an objectively horrible character who was far from redeemed at the “peak” of her redemption arc (even just with the events from the first two seasons)? Oh, absolutely.

Do I still think about how the writers literally bent over backwards to shove her out of the hero team and replace her with a ten-second-idea replacement sister that never existed before forgetting the rule they used to get her off the team applied to at least three other characters?

Oh, ABSOLUTELY

[readyforsomeslapstick]

alright, taking bets on who is holding the flashlight at the end of Ep8

I've got my money on two candidates:

either the one person who was in the Biddle house that we haven't heard from, and who was sold as a villain from the start.

or the one person who willingly walked into the Biddle house but whose plans got massively derailed by Harold's sudden appearance.

it's either Allison, the ex-girlfriend, or Nathan Bratt himself.

If I'm wrong, then Disney needs new writers.

[notmoreflippingelves]

Hi! I just read your post about Mateo recently. If I may, can you give me any specific instances in the narrative of the show where Mateo isn’t called out as heavily as they should have? I’m just curious?

During the Shuriki returns arc in particular, Mateo makes some pretty glaring mistakes that I feel like he should've gotten much more flack for (and based on what we see elsewhere in canon, I feel pretty confident that if Gabe, Naomi, Isa, or Esteban at least --and possibly even Elena-- had made these mistakes, they wouldn't have been swept under the rug nearly as quickly as they were for Mateo).

While it's unfair to completely blame Mateo for Carla's manipulating him during the "Rita" arc, I feel like it's reasonable to hold him a *bit* accountable. He did after all blab highly confidential information (on more than one occasion) to try and impress a pretty girl with how clever and important he was. (Something tells me that if any of the others had done likewise, they would've been called out for it. But because it's "beloved" Mateo, we don't even get "wait, you told Rita how to get into your workshop? And you've known her for only a few weeks? What were you thinking, Mateo?") Moreover, he never even apologizes for this or promises to do better/be more careful with such important, sensitive information in the future.

Even more aggravating is his behavior in "The Scepter of Night." Mateo is so eager to play the hero and claim all the glory for himself that he twice (!) disobeys a direct order/abandons the plan and goes looking for the scepter piece on his own. This directly leads to Fiero and Victor finding the scepter piece and (temporarily) stealing it. And it's really only due to luck and very conveniently-timed infighting amongst Shuriki's allies that Elena and co. are able to get the scepter piece back. While Mateo does receive some (brief) criticism, it's nowhere near the level that it should be.

Also noteworthy Elena doesn't really get particularly "mad" at him (especially considering how angry we see her get at other characters even for more minor things) . She's not truly, actually angry at Mateo (and Gabe and Naomi are only a bit angrier); she's just a little frustrated and disappointed at him in the moment. And apart from a (very short) little "do better next time" speech, Mateo doesn't face any real consequences or lingering resentment unlike other characters who do.

When Isa obeys direct orders in "Sister of Invention," she has to face consequences (Elena grounding her). Similarly, Elena holds a grudge against Esteban for days (if not weeks) after he interfered with the Feast of Friendship (a much lower stakes mistake than Mateo's imo). Moreover, it's possible to interpret Esteban's staying behind in Avalor when the others go to see the Norberg Lights as a punishment (either self-inflicted or imposed by Elena) for his actions in the previous episode.

In contrast, Mateo just gets a brief "I expected better from you" speech from Elena and Gabe jokingly assigning him push-ups as punishment (which he immediately takes back when Mateo tries to do them). I'll give Mateo a little bit of credit for actually apologizing this time (which he doesn't always do). But it's still frustrating that everyone is so ready to forgive and forget Mateo's missteps immediately while this same courtesy is seldom shown to others.

I think it's worth directly comparing a few Mateo-centric episodes with a few more similar ones that focus on other characters so that we can see how there does seem to be a noted narrative bias in his favor compared to the others.

Let's start with two "feeling kind of insecure" episodes: "Spellbound" for Mateo vs. "Naomi Knows Best" for Naomi. In the former, Mateo expresses doubt that he's capable of rising to the occasion as royal wizard. No one (except Gabe and he gets over it by the end of the episode) blames him for not having reached his full level of confidence and potential right away and not being able to immediately solve the problem. And Elena in particular (and by extension the narrative) gives him so much validation and support. Whereas in "Naomi Knows Best" (and to a lesser extent "Finders Leapers" and the "Carla-as-Rita" arc as well) the narrative "punishes" Naomi for her feelings of self-doubt. We're told that *if only* Naomi had trusted her gut instincts and stood her ground right away, Elena and co would not fallen right into the trap and that Naomi needs to screw her head back on straight and embrace confidence ASAP to fix her mistake.

When Mateo feels insecure, the narrative gives him every reassurance about how capable and special he is, that he can learn at his own pace, and his insecurity isn't really such a problem after all. When Naomi feels insecure, the narrative encourages her to get over her doubts as quickly as possible because unlike with Mateo, there's "no time" for her to wallow in self-doubt and actually the fact that she even had said doubt in the first place is what "caused" the disaster.

On a slightly different note, Naomi is also called out for taking a little free, fun time for herself in "The Last Laugh" when the group needs her, and yet somehow I have a feeling that Mateo would've been allowed to take a day off if he wanted without any protest. He complains about long hours in "Movin' on Up" and Elena gives him the big royal wizard's chambers for him to relax and unwind in. Naomi asks for one (1) day off to spend with her childhood friend for her birthday , and suddenly it's big drama. (And at the time, Naomi asked for said day off, all Elena needed from her was help doing paperwork. The Team Ash stuff came up unexpectedly.)

Similarly whenever Gabe and Mateo get their little rivalry on ("Spellbound," "Party of a Lifetime," "Captain Mateo" and a few other examples) , the narrative either presents them as equally at fault or Mateo as the only one in the right.

When Gabe brings in Bronzino to train the Royal Guards in magic, it's specifically because Mateo failed to explain how and why he was training the guards in the way he was. If he'd just explained how they were going apply the seemingly basic exercise they were doing to real magic, Gabe likely would've allowed Mateo to continue the training at his own pace.

(Also like. it's super hypocritical imo for Mateo to get annoyed at Gabe feeling impatient/impulsive about their apparent-lack-of progress when Mateo himself is easily the second most impulsive character in the show after Elena.) Mateo feels entitled to keep important information to himself (or blab it to a cute girl he barely knows) even when its no one else's best interest. He's only okay with being "cautious and patient" when he specifically is the one setting the pace. And yet, Gabe is the only one who is called out for his behavior in this episode--even though he might not have acted as he did if only Mateo had trusted him and the guards with an explanation in the first place.

And then there's just a few other "dude not cool" little moments that never really get acknowledged/Mateo never apologizes for. For instance, there a two low-key terrifying Mateo moments in "Captain Mateo" that are not only not acknowledged but are also framed in context as Mateo being just "so funny and quirky". Near the end of "Should be in Charge," Mateo magically gags Gabe so he can't protest anymore about Mateo taking over as leader of the mission. And this is after having already enchanted one of the stationary suits of armor to come to life and fight Gabe. (Gabe admittedly does lightly shove Mateo out of the way during his parts of the song, but that's still a far cry from literally drawing a sword on Mateo as Mateo does via magic to Gabe.)

It's played for laughs (The Grand Council is just smiling happily in the background throughout the scene which is so yikes), so it's easy to overlook what's actually happening. Frankly, it's pretty horrifying that Mateo's natural instinct upon his experience/authority being questioned is to literally attack and then silence. (And attack and silence someone who is supposed to be one of his best friends and closest allies at that!)

Rather than the narrative acknowledging that maybe it's a bad idea to immediately grant power to someone to someone who is so retaliatory against fairly minor criticism, the Grand Council just gives Mateo exactly what he wants and doesn't even offer a "maybe next time, let's not gag or attack our friends, okay?" alongside it. I mean sure Mateo does step down as captain at the end of the episode, but it's very specifically presented as his and Gabe's voluntary choice and not an order from Elena/the Council.

[sysig]

But would you tho (Patreon)

[wreckedhoney]

a while ago on the discord i brought up the "which desk at the station is forrest's desk" question when the answer should probably have been obvious. he's been at the job for approx. one week, so it's the desk with all the unpacked boxes. it just didnt occur to me because thats Frankly A Lot Of Boxes and my first thought was this is where all the storage and junk are piled on, but no. it's all stuff forrest brought (/hc). he's a heavy packer. he spite packed all the stuff he didn't want his old job to keep even if he doesnt need or even like them all that much but now that he's blacklisted then no one in the entirety of chicago can have them