#but damn she's a hypocrite

[springs-hurts]

She loved khal drogo, named her dragon after him(which btw wtf no) enjoyed when he talked about raping westerosi women and taking children as slaves and then she went on killing "others" Because they were slavers, keeps jorah Mormont with her even though he was exiled because they caught him selling slaves but then exiles him the moment she learns of him spying on her! Oh man such a hypocrite, such a fucking hypocrite!

[abitcaughtinthemiddle]

The Hypocrisy of Vex'ahlia

Before you all come for me, I am a Vex stan and I will defend her until I die - she is my favorite Critical Role character and I'm so glad we're getting a deeper dive into her psyche.

The complexities of her character cannot be overstated. She has a lot going on under the surface, and the breadcrumbs of her deep-seated insecurities have been there the whole time.

I'm really excited we get to explore those in season 3 through her relationship with Percy, in a way different than what we've seen in the actual play streams. I want to commend the writers for being able to convey so much in so little time.

We are introduced to Vex as a sexy, confident woman who uses her looks and charisma to her advantage. She takes charge most of the time, being the unofficial "leader" of Vox Machina. She presents herself as someone who doesn't really need anyone else and does not care about anyone outside of her brother. Keyleth even comments on this in the first episode, "Vex and Vax only care about themselves".

This, of course, is a complete fabrication, a mask she wears to hide her insecurities. A mask, she wants no one to see through. The irony here is that she can so easily see behind Percy's mask - "Darling, take off the mask". It takes one to know one, after all.

She so badly wants to get underneath Percy's mask, for him to show himself to her fully. There's something inside of her that sees the guilt and shame inside of him and that resonates with her belief that she is deeply broken. Vex truly believes that something must truly be wrong with her. And why wouldn't she? Saundor, who said he knew everything about her, saw this, too, after all.

Saundor says plainly, "you will never be enough."

So it must be true, right?

Why wouldn't something be so wrong with her? It would make sense. Her father carries no love for her, her mother died, and Vax had to sacrifice his life for hers. She knows Vax loves her, and she believes he is the only one who does. Even Kamaljiori, an ancient and all-knowing Sphinx, fed into this during their test when Vax fell: "you have no family left who cares for you".

Her hypocrisy lies in the facade she built as a woman who does not need anyone or anything. She presents herself as someone who does not need the love of others, when in reality, she desperately wants to be loved.

Saundor saw this as well.

Vex longs to love and be loved. And yet, she cannot allow herself to give up her facade and let Percy love her and admit her love for him.

The last person to see through her walls was Saundor, and we know how that went.

What he said really cut her deep, as we see after the Kevdak fight when she brushes off Pike's inquiries about her experience in the fey realm.

As we see her relationship with Percy move from harmless flirting to physical intimacy at the beginning of season 3, we see her embrace the physical closeness to Percy but starts to block him out the moment he wants to cement their relationship. But she can't let herself tell him how she feels because that would mean admitting her heart is his - and that would be doomed to end in tragedy, as Vex admits later in the cave.

Putting up this emotional wall between her and Percy will not give Vex what she wants: love.

Love is that emotional intimacy. Vex loves to point out the importance of love between other people- in season 2, pushing Keyleth to tell Vax how she feels ("it always matters"), assuring Allura that Kima's love for her will help her endure after Vorugal's attack, and putting faith in the rest of Vox Machina.

Vex understands what makes love so special, and how important truth and intimacy are to real, lasting love.

And while she comforts others and pushes them to be vulnerable and embrace love, her own fears prevent her from fully doing the same. It's ironic and sad, how one of the only people who can see through her mask is the one she's pushing away.

Trauma makes hypocrites of us all.

Image credits @blorbologist @aq2003

[salmonwaterbottle]

Another thing about IWTV that I don’t think everyone understands is that at its core it is showing that there are no perfect victims in real life (which is sadly some even the mainstream doesn’t fully understand).

Lestat was a victim of Magnus that is a fact but he also mistreated Louis, Claudia, and Armand one to the point of breaking his body which took months to heal and mocking another for their assault.

Armand is a victim of pedophillia, trafficking, and colonization but he also played a large part in Claudia’s death and even planned to have Louis die as well. He also kept Daniel in an apartment for 5-6 days to mentally and semi-physically torture him.

Claudia was a victim of Bruce but she also is happily shown to kill people taking pleasure in hunting humans.

Louis was a victim to both Lestat and Armand to some degree but he also treated them terribly. He engaged with a fight with Lestat and manically laughed as he told him how he was going to kill him. He mocked Armand for been groomed as a child when engaged in a verbal fight. He disregarded Claudia in favor of getting his dick wet several times.

All these people are victims in one way or another but they are also TERRIBLE people which the point. The story is about people who, willing or not, have forgone their humanity and act as such. They all do terrible things to each other and others for one reason or another and that’s why this show is so good. My favorite character is Louis and I personally love when we get to see him snap because he can be vindictive and cruel but it shows him as a person and we get to watch Louis himself sit in the fact that he wasn’t always the good guy. To try and justify these people’s actions as right or moral all the time is honestly a disservice to these characters.

It doesn’t make you evil to like complex immoral characters. Just relax and watch the show…

[good-beans]

Who was gonna tell me that Yonah FUCKS !!!!!!!!!

I finally sat down to watch it and sudddenly realized why it made people so upset with Kotoko -- it's "get the audience's ass" pt 2 (part one being Baptism of Fire)

What an Incredible, Precise, Scathing commentary on the public's view of punishment. On how we treat "justice" in the news when it's two parties we don't know. On how hypocritical we want justice but don't want our actions to have any consequences -- we want it to be done but we don't want it to be our fault. She makes a HUGE point about people ignoring mental stress and only feeling bad when people are physically suffering. Before getting attached, people did want the prisoners to get hurt and feel remorse. In real life people are constantly wishing pain onto wrongdoers so they change their ways.

She's making excellent points, as well as the voice drama overall emphasizing the fact that it's the right thing to do to get attached. She's 100% correct, but by framing her as a villain, Yamanaka encourages the audience that we should care about people. We should find out about everyone's lives and get attached before making judgements about them. This project remains about human understanding and love and I am amazed.

And from a character perspective, I just loved her view of the situation! I was worried from the bits of the vd people were posting that she was just going to be painted as a flat, villainous character, but she's so so deep. I love a character who will get their hands dirty to make a better world for the innocent characters they care about. And her speech when hugging Es really revealed how much that burden weighs on her. She isn't violent for fun. She doesn't enjoy it. But her heart is so broken by a world of injustice, she will take on this painful responsibility since she has the power to and others don't.

[hauntingblue]

I THINK!! usopp and nami (and maybe others too) need to learn haki. They said you can't be in the new world without it because everyone is just so incredibly strong and here we are. They are getting headbutted to death and can't do anything about it (their abilities are being nerfed for the plot I know) but they could be SO GOOD if they could do something more idk.... we saw how strong nami was with zeus.... but she has fought with her bostaff before and that just disappeared... nami haki bostaff you will live in my dreams I guess

[telndas]

there's a lot suhani would let slide if there's shown to be legitimate intelligent thought behind the action tbh*

[bonicedemandarina]

YUUSONA INTRO POST!!!!!!!! But also not really i already kinda introduced her in the glorimas drawing

Ahh i can't draw faces consistently, i feel like she looks like a totally different person than in the other drawing. Could also be because this has been a wip for months and i changed some stuff in her design on the way

Anyways this is Yuliana, she's a friendly girl who wants to live peacefully and have a good time, unfortunately for her she's the MC so she instead has to be a therapist for free for her classmates. The girl is TIRED she still tries her best tho

She likes scrapbooking, pop ups and anything related to cutting up paper to decorate stuff tbh

Idk what else should i say about her this is my first time posting an oc uhh, fun fact she has a dog named Candy that for some reason likes to eat grass. I hope to draw her soon but i can't make any promises since i'm not good at drawing animals.

[potatoesandsunshine]

'did leliana know about the background sebhawke marriage—' obviously. obviously. she didn't tell anyone because she thought it was very sad funny and that's all she has to say about it

[seafoamandstardustlatte]

as a kiribaku and tododeku stan

as well as an izuchaco and kacchaco appreciator

uraraka is not in the way of your ships and is a wonderful character who loves and is loved by her friends

and if you hate her for being in the way of your ships i can fckin promise you that all of the characters you stan hate you too

[pigeonxp]

Personally I agree on the not relating everything to dsmp thing, but I’m not saying anything because Wilbur himself brought up having a previous child so this was the only logical outcome 🤷🏽‍♂️

i understand i just hate it SO BADDD LMAOOO specifically the fanfics (im just trying to read some dadbur fluff WHY DOES IT ALWAYS HAVE TO BE ABT FUNDY AND ANGST) i really enjoy them calling back to dsmp lore as jokes bc it feels like a funny inside joke everyones in on but jfc sometimes the way some ends of the fanbases take it boil my blood idk

[jvzebel-x]

🦋

[doux-amer]

I watched The Menu and loved it because it featured every single thing I hate about the food world and the arts in general. It’s brilliant because it's multilayered and multi-pronged in its satire and reducing it to just ONE aspect of its criticism (“rich people suck”) is too simplistic; even if you took away their richness, each character from the customers to Slowik and Elsa on the opposite side stands for a certain type of person who interacts with food and I hate every single one of them. :))))))

Also, it's hilarious because 2022 had The Bear and The Menu and people who work in the food industry/service industry or are have some connection to it talked about how they got stressed out by one and felt catharsis through the other. Both of them let them feel seen, but one was feeling seen in a bad way and the other one was in a good way even if you liked both fkasjflksajf.

[neo-shitty]

[sparky-is-spiders]

You know what? I’ve decided I actually really like Melanie Magnus Archives when I’m thinking about her canon wretched personality and not the fandom’s girlbossification of her. She’s an interesting character and a fucked up person.

[spookykestrel]

Honestly so frustrating how my sisters seem like theyd be accepting and respectful and whatever but then are actually really queerphobic and criticize bi people in relationships with the opposite sex as having been “faking it” and get annoyed whenever anyone has the audacity to be trans bc “everyone is now 🙄 they just want to be trendy” like what have I done wrong pls look at me it’s ok to accept people’s lives without needing to have a full understanding of it it’s ok to let people decide how to present themselves and identify how they want it takes nothinh from you to let them be

[happywitch416]

I have a perfect illustration of the hell I live in from this morning. I was minding my business on the full elevator and this man sneers and opens his mouth.

"What kind of dyke doesn't carry a purse?"

Now. I am uncaffeinated, its before 8am, I haven't had breakfast and I am taking my mother for a stress test and a heart echo because her heart doctor is worried she shouldn't have her surgery thursday. I am a bit Stressed.

"The kind that fucks your wife better than you."