#but she more than any other character is the deuteragonist of the show

[alkaria]

Something something relic of choice thoughts

Something about RWBY being a story of choices. A few people have picked up on Cinder being notable for being the only character who seems to specifically not make her own choices, despite being the Fall Maiden and thus the character associated most with the Relic of Choice.

Perhaps aside from Tyrian, who has the most chaotic and loosest of motivations, every villainous or antagonistic character has had moments of reflection/expression of their philosophy, of why they do what they do, and many have made the choice to actively turn away from it, to choose to do something better, to do what is right, not what is easy. Cordovin, Ilia, the Ace Ops, Hazel, Emerald, Whitley, Willow, the Faunus of Menagerie, Ozma.

Something about Cinder being the metaphorical daugher of Salem, and the inheritor of the powers specifically descended from her real daughters. The direct parallel of Ruby, the character most associated with Knowledge - the only two characters (besides, likely, Oz) to have used both the relics shown so far.

I know some people hate the idea of it, but the build up to Cinder’s potential heel-face turn, the Chekhov’s Gun that the Relic under Beacon was her relic, the Relic of Choice, the first Relic in the grand chess game, and yet the one now the least-discussed.

Ozpin made the Relic of Choice more difficult to find. Because he knows the burden of leadership greater, and the choices it entails? Because it more than any other relic scarred him as the Indecisive King?

Something about how each relic has a cost - knowledge at the cost of time, creativity at the cost of finitude, choice at the cost of paralysis, destruction at - well, that one, we’ve never been told, though I wager it will be destruction at the cost of self - the Grimm being destruction personified, the way the Grimm arm consumes more of Cinder’s body each time it is used, her hesitation, she wants power but is she willing to give everything? What is truly most important to her, and can she admit what that is to herself?

Unless the arc structure changes, we are almost certain to see the Sword before the Crown. Perhaps Cinder gives in to the Sword to claim the Crown, using its power to scatter what remains of Beacon until she digs down to the real Vault. Something about Cinder having the relics and using them, and Salem having them, and not. Salem chose Cinder as her vessel for the Maidens’ power - but irrevocably tied to that, Salem has made Cinder the master of the relics, not herself.

Cinder claiming the Crown, using it to see the truth about Salem just like how Ruby used to the lamp to learn the truth about Oz. The fact that all along, just as Salem has used Cinder, she has tried to use Salem in return (with mixed results). Will the woman who walks out of Beacon with the last Relic be a hero? A villain? A monster? Will she walk out at all, or is Cinder the Indecisive Queen, doomed by the revelation of choice, the ability to at last be more than a pawn?

She is willing to give herself away for power - but is she strong enough to choose the reverse? Will she give away power to again be herself, to choose her own path?

Central to RWBY, but less obviously stated, is the impact of choice. Grief and moving forward are a central tenet of the show, but this is always a choice. We can choose to stay mired in grief, or we can choose to move forward. Choice threads its way through every character arc, every pivotal moment is the choice of a character - to keep hoping, to do something different, to go for what is easy or to go for what is right.

And the Cinder-shaped hole in that narrative that becomes more visible every passing volume is, I think, critical to how the Vacuo arc will go. Eventually, we will see Cinder make a choice *for herself*. To pick not power or relics or maidens or gods or monsters, but to pick Cinder Fall, just like how the central turning point in the narrative of grief and hopelessness was how Ruby realised that she could pick herself in Volume 9.

And that will change everything.

[palisman273]

Official Hazbin merch and it's promoting two Alastors, but no Vaggie.

Wow, you know it's bad when even the fucking Hazbin stans are complaining about the lack of Vaggie, or really any other female character here.

Like, Niffty I can understand excluding, but Vaggie is literally the main character's girlfriend.

I think this definitely puts to death the idea that Viv was making Hazbin a "female-focused show". No, it never was, she was lying, or at least clearly changed her mind. She focused this show just as much, if not more on Alastor and Angel Dust than she ever focused it on Charlie or Vaggie.

And yeah, you could maybe "blame youtooz for picking that not Viv", yeah, why do you think they chose to promote the clear fan favorite twice instead of the show's supposed deuteragonist? Oh yeah, it's because the show actively hypes up and makes you want to love Alastor and gives him more spotlight than Vaggie, So it's still a blame on the showrunners fault for youtooz' favoritism.

[buggachat]

So, this is very important. Emilie or Amelie?

(Answer: Amelie. But seriously, I'm getting ahead of myself, let's talk about it.)

This is kind of a long post. If you don't want to read all of my ramblings, feel free to skip to the final point. That's the important one.

A mysterious woman who is clearly one of the two Graham de Vanily twins was in attendance of the party at the end of the episode. But is she Emilie (Adrien's dead mom, revived by Gabriel's wish) or Amelie (Adrien's already alive aunt)?

Here's the thing. The answer to this question is actually extremely important. Emilie being alive would be a HUGE deal and would have extreme consequences on the narrative and themes of the show.

Seriously. We need to know whether or not Emilie is alive. So, let's discuss— what do we know?

1. Amelie should be at this party.

Seriously. Amelie would be at Adrien's party.

You know who is in attendance at Adrien's party? Not just his friends, but also adults in his life. Nathalie. Su-Han. Jagged Stone. Penny Rolling.

You know what Penny Rolling's relationship is to Adrien? She's the manager/new girlfriend of his friend Luka's recently-undeadbeated-dad. And she was invited to Adrien's party.

Seriously. This is a party of any significant character. Everyone and their mother was invited and— hey wait, where's Félix's mother? Félix is here, and certainly our favorite mommy's boy would invite his mother along. Surely Adrien's aunt would be invited to Adrien's party.

You know, Amelie's aunt, who had a not insignificant arc in the story? A family member to the Agrestes, who we've seen struggle, who would well deserve a shot of her smiling at a party at the finale?

Amelie, who had some unresolved tension with Nathalie, centered around their respective relationships with Gabriel? Tension that would likely be rectified after Gabriel's demise?

Not only would Amelie be at this party, but I absolutely believe she would be sitting next to Nathalie. (I mean, they do know each other. Who else at that party does Amelie even know?)

If that's not Amelie, then where is she?

Oh, and side note, what was the shot just before the shot of the mysterious woman? Oh, that's right. Amelie's son.

2. She only appears for a brief flash, given no more significance than any other character in attendance.

There's a reason why everyone is using the same shot of the mysterious woman when discussing her. That is the only shot of her. There are more shots of Penny Rolling than of her.

Here's the thing. Either Emilie is alive in this final scene, or she isn't. So, how would you expect this scene to play for these circumstances?

Here is a complete list of everything I would expect if Emilie were not alive:

A brief shot of Amelie.

Here is an incomplete list of some of the things I would expect from a "Emilie, the mother of the deuteragonist and ghost that has been haunting the narrative for 5 Seasons, is alive now" reveal, at the bare minimum:

A shot that lingers on Emilie.

Emilie, seated with Nathalie AND HER TWIN SISTER.

A shot of Emilie opening her eyes during Gabriel's wish.

The newscast, which they watch during the party, having a mention of "... and Parisians are still celebrating the rescue of Emilie Agreste, who was previously missing but recently found!"

Adrien literally acknowledging that his dead mother is suddenly alive at all? AT ALL? Looking at her, mentioning her, literally ANYTHING from him? I mean, seriously, what did he think happened—

3. Adrien's perception of his mother's reappearance would need to be addressed. It was not.

Adrien does not know the wish was cast.

Adrien does not know anything.

Here's the thing. While, yes, Emilie has been described as "missing"/"disappeared" in the show, it is absolutely clear to the audience that Adrien has been under the impression that Emilie is dead.

We know this from the painting in the foyer that depicts Gabriel and Adrien in mourning. We know this from the way that Adrien (correctly) draws the conclusion that "Nathalie has the same illness as my mother, therefore she is dying". We know this from the way that Adrien speaks about his mother in past tense, how he encourages his father to move on and date Nathalie, how he has never once in the show seemed to be under the impression that Emilie could come back.

So, if Emilie suddenly came back........... someone would need to explain it to Adrien. He would need to be fed another lie about it. We would need to be made privy as to what he believes happened.

Examples of how this could have been easily achieved:

Again, the newscast. Nadja acknowledging that the missing Emilie Agreste had been found. Maybe mentioning that "she was found being held captive by Monarch" or something. I dunno, whatever lie that works.

Adrien, during his conversation with Marinette, mentioning what happened to Emilie from his perspective, the same way he vocalized to her what his perception of Gabriel's death was. I mean, seriously, Adrien was already doing this expositional dialogue... why wouldn't he mention his mom during it?

4. Leaked production material does not change the final product.

Yes, scripts were leaked of this season. There are deleted scenes in the storyboards. There are script changes and allusions to certain things and mentions here and there in these materials that suggest that the mysterious woman could have, at some point in production, been Emilie.

... at some point in production.

So, here's the thing. This is the most solid Emilie argument we have. In fact, I'd argue it's the only argument that holds any real ground at all. .......... and it's in content that we aren't supposed to have.

( Actually, it's the only real Emilie argument I've seen... period. The only other one I've seen is the fact her statue is gone, but I'd argue that the removal of her statue has symbolic weight no matter what. It was a symbol of Gabriel's obsession over her, the way that she haunts the narrative, the way she looms over the Agreste household. Alive or not, this is not the case anymore. So it makes sense to remove it. )

If your interpretation of the source material is solely, and I mean SOLELY based off of out-of-context snippets of things that were in the writer's room Vaguely At Some Point, things that now directly contradict the final product, things that the audience was absolutely under no circumstances meant to see...

You're not interpreting the episode. You're interpreting out-of-context snippets of a rough draft of it.

So, here's the thing. I've seen some of these leaks, I've seen a lot of people talk about these leaks, I've seen the rumors and I've heard the gossip. I'm not going to parrot it, because honestly, I'm still annoyed that the leaks exist at all. It feels a bit insulting to the art form, tbh, that incomplete scripts are being passed around and touted as significant and more accurate than the actual completed script.

But I'll say one thing:

If the rough drafts of scripts, deleted scenes, etc pointed to Emilie being alive.......

Why did they remove them?

(The answer is simple: because they changed their minds. And you don't have to stress about or mull over why they did it, because you were never supposed to know that it was changed, because you were never supposed to know about out-of-context rough drafts of the script in the first place. It doesn't matter. It's not the product. Writers are allowed to toss around ideas and scripts and then change them. It's unimportant and you're not supposed to be privy to it. It's not for you. It's not what they made. It's certainly not more accurate to the direction they're headed than what they settled on. )

Point is:

IF THE LEAKS DIDN'T EXIST, YOU WOULDN'T BE CONFUSED.

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE THE LEAKS.

YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE CONFUSED.

5. So, Astruc on twitter.

Okay, I love perusing Astruc's twitter for snippets of information as much as the next obsessive miraculous fan. I have perused his twitter a lot. Astruc always addresses comments and concerns under like 20 layers of coyness.

People ask him, "is it Emilie or Amelie"? And basically, every time, he responds with some variation on "pay attention and you'll know".

He's been shooting down people presenting the clues they find to him, on both sides of the argument. Some examples (which include the Amelie wearing black and Emilie wearing white thing):

So, what does this mean, beyond the already known fact that Astruc likes to mess with us?

Obviously, I'm not Astruc. I don't know his mind. I also don't have much of vested interest in dissecting everything he says, nor do I take his word at face value a lot of the time (again, he likes to mess with us).

However, I think two things are fairly clear here:

It IS possible to know whether or not Emilie was revived by watching the episode.

It's not the small details he wants us to look at. Admittedly, color schemes and set dressings are small details. It's not the big picture. It's not important. It's not the heart of what he, or any writer in his position, would want us to interpret.

( Side note, but if nearly every single Emilie argument is based off of things NOT ACTUALLY IN THE EPISODE, then doesn't Astruc saying the answer is in the episode shoot that down right off the bat? But hey! I digress. )

So, what is the big picture? What are the things that writers are truly proud of? What is the thing that a writer would want us to pay attention to? What are the details of the show that can help point us to what transpired in the episode? What—

6. The WRITING of the ENTIRE SERIES, INCLUDING within THIS VERY episode, the dialogue, the themes, the character beats, the symbolism— Literally. All of it. Points to Emilie. STAYING. DEAD.

This is actually the heart of my point.

Emilie absolutely was not revived here.

Here's the thing. The themes of grief and loss and mourning are extremely present within the Agreste arc. Throughout the entire series, the following has been hammered in by the writing:

Gabriel is obsessive for wanting to bring Emilie back. His desires are not healthy or sound. He is delusional. He is hurting Adrien and Nathalie by living in this fantasy.

Gabriel should have moved on.

Nathalie wants to move on.

Adrien has already moved on.

EMILIE HERSELF wanted them all to move on.

Emilie is a nearly angelic figure. Adrien is literally the deuteragonist of the series. Nathalie is a morally grey character with a clear redemption arc. Gabriel is the antagonist.

The "better" the character is, the more certain they are that Emilie should not be revived.

The CORRECT choice, if Gabriel and Nathalie chose the "right" path from the start, would have been for Gabriel and Nathalie to focus on parenting Adrien themselves, instead of obsessing over bringing a dead woman who has already come to terms with her death back to life. That's what Emilie wanted. That's what Adrien wants. That's what Nathalie has wanted but was too afraid to say. That's what Gabriel refuses to accept.

Look, if I go in depth into the scenes where this is addressed, I'd be here all day. Instead, have a screenshot compilation, I guess.

Again. That's been a core message of the series this entire time. And while I don't have screenshots of it being spoken so plainly in seasons 1 and 2, Gabriel has always been depicted as sinister, and his obsession has always been framed in the wrong.

Now, if you're one of those people who refuse to analyze the text at all or interpret what the messages of the show are on the grounds of "the writing sucks so who cares, it's probably just inconsistent writing and they forgot about the themes in the final episode" or whatever, then like. Ok. But here's the thing— this theme is even more hammered home in the finale.

Guys. I'm serious. What the hell do you think the scene before the wish was saying?

Gabriel, at his lowest moment, brought down. Gabriel, detransformed and on his knees before Bug Noir. Gabriel, at the final hour of his life, near tears, still obsessing over his wife, still thinking of his wife his wife his wife above all else, as Bug Noir lays out the literal themes of the show to him in all their beautiful glory.

And then literally forces him to watch the very videos that he had tried to force Nathalie to delete. Forces him to face the very words he refused to acknowledge. Forces him, at his lowest, to come face-to-face with the truth he denied.

.... And it hits him. What she's saying hits him. Because how can he deny Emilie's own words? The very woman he's doing it all for? How can he bring her back to life when she would want nothing less? How can he force the love of his life to live knowing that someone had died for her to, when she didn't want that? How could he have lost himself so much in the madness?

And then Bug Noir comes in with THIS

.... And Gabriel says....

.... Note that, he does not continue to deny it. He does not plead his case that Emilie should be alive. He is no longer arguing that. Here, he has seemingly begun to accept the premise that Emilie should not be brought back to life. Instead, he has a new premise:

He does not want to be alive if Emilie is not.

Gabriel is not selfless. Gabriel is not a good man. Gabriel says, earlier in the episode, flat out, that he is more than willing to kill whoever it takes, whatever rando he wants, to get what he wants.

Here's the thing.

Gabriel wants to be with Emilie.

Gabriel is willing to kill anyone, whoever it takes, to make this happen.

Gabriel realizes Emilie does not want to be alive.

Gabriel decides that he will honor Emilie's final wish......... only partially.

Because Emilie wanted both Gabriel and Nathalie to take care of Adrien. But Gabriel does not want that. It's not that Gabriel is above killing someone to save his own life, it's that he realizes that he, too, does not want to be saved. Because he does not want to live in a world without Emilie.

He would rather be dead, with her, than alive and caring for his own son.

Gabriel Agreste's wish is a suicide. I mean, we already knew this— but I mean, literally. It's not a selfless sacrifice. It's not one final act of goodness. It's a suicide. He decides he wants to die, and he decides that he will save Nathalie in the act— because it's what Emilie wanted, and Gabriel is obsessive. The only person who would reason with him is Emilie herself.

And what does Gabriel's wish look like? How is it depicted to us?

Gabriel and Emilie, cast in a white light. Emilie lifts from her coffin, notably still limp, as Gabriel rises up with her.

He rises up with her, notably supporting her limp head with his hand. She is still unconscious. And he is joining her.

One last selfish act. The final nail into his "trying to be a dad" coffin. He doesn't want to be a dad anymore. He only wants to be with Emilie. And he will gladly pass that responsibility, the responsibility of parentage, onto Nathalie— The only character in the show who has been showing an explicit, vested interest in LIVING to take care of and be a parent to Adrien.

Nathalie is alive. Nathalie is well. A life for a life. One life for one life. That's all that's depicted. That's all that's shown.

Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that more could've been a part of that wish? Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that the wish could've been more complicated? Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that some random other person died? Is it TECHNICALLY POSSIBLE that all of that dialogue and that entire scene and the entire buildup of Emilie's recordings were just soooooo lol random and that Emilie just decided that she's totally cool with being revived and alive now and that the entire themes of the series were a lie?

I also think it's technically possible that Marinette has secretly been a hamster wearing a human suit this whole time, and Lila is actually secretly a sentimonster made by Gorilla. And maybe this show isn't a romance, actually, and that Adrien and Marinette aren't meant to be endgame. In fact, maybe the entire series was a big prank. Maybe I'm adopted and my parents lied to me about it.

But how it looks, from what I see, from what I've watched, what just happened is....

Gabriel accepted that Emilie is dead.

This made Gabriel want to die, too. Because he doesn't care about Adrien as much as he cares about Emilie.

So, he did. And he shirked parentage onto Nathalie.

Is this "winning", by the way? By any stretch? Is this "Gabriel getting what he always wanted"? Is this "Gabriel being proved right"? Is this a lack of consequences? Are we really going to call a broken man, who has been slowly turning to ash and rotting away for an entire season, who suffered and was beaten down and, at the very end, had the only people ever in his corner (Nathalie and Adrien) cursing his name and wanting him dead.... him being right all along? Is him committing suicide the series justifying his actions? Is him committing suicide (again, not a selfless sacrifice) him "doing good" and "being redeemed" by the narrative? Is a faux image of him, a false narrative, a complete fictional person that he never truly was being celebrated by ignorant Parisians, him "being redeemed"? I suppose that's another essay altogether. But I'm tired of writing.

also, there was still only one goddamn twin at that party

[yumeka-sxf]

An analysis on Anya (an Anya-lysis!)

As promised in my Twiyor season 1 wrap up post, it's time for me to give Anya time in the analysis spotlight – an "Anya-lysis" if you will! (yes, I've been waiting to make that pun!)

*I apologize in advance for the length of this post. I felt that splitting it into two would have hindered the flow of the analysis, so I kept it as one long post. But I promise it's not as long as it seems...the high number of images make it seem longer!*

Before I get into my analysis, I wanted to preface this post with a fantastic quote from @incomingalbatross, who perfectly describes the unique role Anya has in the series.

"Realizing that Spy X Family really is The Anya Show to me, and not just because "oh look, cute baby child" but because Anya is the center of the story. She has so many secrets resting on those tiny shoulders. She is juggling so many agendas. She's the one who knows everything and her choices drive the plot—she chose Twilight, she chose Yor, she chose Bond—and even when you look at the other characters and their relationships she IS the star they orbit around! Twilight and Yor's relationship is built on their shared care for Anya! And more than that, at the core of it all, Anya's goals are the ones we're invested in.

The center of this story isn't the superspy trying to do his job, or the assassin trying to do hers. It's the little girl who said "FAMILY" and pulled the building-blocks of one close around her with all her tiny strength, and everyone else in this story keeps being moved and changed and redirected by the force of Anya's attachments to her family.

And at the same time she is SO SMALL"

While Twilight may be the protagonist, and Yor the deuteragonist, Anya is definitely the main character in Spy x Family. Not only would there be no "family" without her bringing Twilight and Yor together, but her status as the main character is quite unique among shonen series, or even media in general.

Typically in stories where a little kid (like, below the age of 10) is the main character, either the majority of other major characters are also little kids, or the kid's main purpose is to be a cute comic-relief foil for the adults. But while there are kids Anya's age in SxF, the other important characters in the plot, namely Twilight and Yor, are not. So rather than the typical scenario of the main kid character constantly being surrounded by and working off their fellow kid characters, Anya is more often interacting with her adult parents. And it's not just for cutesy moments and comic relief – the true heart of SxF is about a fake family that could any minute be destroyed, with only little Anya being aware of this grim reality and doing everything she can to keep things together...all without the ability to be truthful with anyone, not with the adults or her fellow kids. While her parents are each secretly fighting for their own vision of world peace, Anya is too…the "world peace" of the family she doesn't want to lose. It really is a one-of-a-kind scenario for a little kid character.

But having such a special main character role doesn't necessitate a well-written character. But in Anya's case, she definitely is. In fact, I think she's the most well-written little kid character I've ever seen.

Too often in media little kids are portrayed as being overly cutesy, overly bratty/whiny, and/or act much older than they should. A key factor in making a little kid character believable is that you can't just make them cute and/or emotionally immature...they have to also be weird. Anyone who's spent time with little kids knows all the weird stuff they say and do because of their less restricted child brains and ignorance about the world. A good example of this is Lilo from Lilo and Stitch (another well-portrayed kid character). The movie does a good job showing all the weird habits Lilo has, like the bizarre origins of her favorite doll, the freaky voodoo stuff she does to the local bullies, and how she totally buys the fact that Stitch is a dog. Likewise, Anya has tons of little endearing weirdnesses, starting with her wanting a spy dad and assassin mom simply because she thinks it's "cool," to the funny lingo she develops like "ooting" (odekeke) and "ohayou-masu" ("happy morning," a.k.a, an adorably incorrect way of saying "good morning"), to thinking it's acceptable to give George a leaf as a parting gift (then wanting it back later), to her comical remarks whenever she thinks Loid and Yor are being "flirty."

Another realistic aspect of Anya's character is the fact that she's not super-smiley and overly cheerful/bubbly like many other main character kids. Not that she doesn't smile and can't be cheerful, but her default expression is a look of uncertainty or wide-eyed cluelessness, which makes sense considering her upbringing (I'm talking about her default expression in canon, not in merch or other marketing as characters tend to always smile in these even if that's not their usual expression – just look at Yuri's merch!) Most of the time when other characters are talking, she looks perplexed, like she isn't sure what's going on but she's really trying to learn/understand.

These expressions make more sense to me than a child who smiles all the time, because she's at an age where she still doesn't understand the right emotions to feel at the right time. A fantastic example of this is when she punches Damian – her face is totally blank! No anger, no fear, no embarrassment...because she still hasn't learned the proper emotions to feel in a situation like this.

All she knew was what Yor told her and that she was bothered by Damian's attitude. In fact, the iconic smug smile that she shows in that scene is the result of her not knowing how to properly react when faced with bullying (cry, get angry, etc).

Similarly, she has a very bored expression when all the kids are upset about George's plight, as if she doesn't really get what all the to-do is about. This also creates good contrast to how the other Eden kids from their rich families were probably forced to grow up fast, and thus act more like 8-10-year olds than the 6-year olds they're supposed to be. Meanwhile Anya, who's supposedly younger than them, stands out with her more childlike mannerisms.

This all makes sense not just because she's still a little kid, but because her view of emotions has been skewed by the fact that she can read people's minds. So she has to not only learn the socially proper way to react to people's actions and words, but also when she should, or should not, react to what's on their mind. I believe this is why she has such a wide variety of expressions compared to the other characters – her mind reading has forced her to experience way more emotions at such an impressionable age, though not always with enough context and guidance to identify when they're socially acceptable to express.

There are way too many examples of Anya's incredible range of expressions, so I'll just have to pick a few!

Put all this together – her childlike reactions to situations, but with a twist because she can read minds, plus her endless array of comical faces, and you have one of the funniest characters I've ever seen.

Because Anya has such a wide variety of expressions, and her default expression is that of uncertainty, there's a lot more meaning when she does smile. The shining smile she has when Loid praises her for getting a stella, when she plays with Bond for the first time, and when she meets up with Becky after their shopping trip, have a lot more significance because that's not an emotion she expresses all the time. Since happy/cheerful isn't her default mood, the emotional impact of scenes where she does smile is all the more stronger.

Likewise, considering her age, Anya isn't much of a crier either. Having a kid character burst into tears and throw temper tantrums is common, but the amount of notable times Anya has exhibited this behavior is relatively few. She did have a tantrum early on when Loid stopped her from going into his room and when she demanded that Bond be her dog…but those are the only notable cases in my opinion. She has shed tears here and there, but again, not a significant number of times. Similar to the scenes where she smiles, when she does cry (in a non-comical way), like when she's reminded about her mother at the Eden interview or when she's finally reunited with Yor after the bus hijacking, it has a lot more meaning.

Another common trait for little kid characters is that they're usually a representation of total purity and innocence. While Anya doesn't have the same dark ulterior motives and immoral occupations that the adults have, she's not shown to be a complete angel either. Even though good intentions are what drive her, she can be a manipulator, mischievous, and even cocky at times, like when she insists on being called' "Starlight Anya" after getting her first stella, when she was being overly competitive with Damian after the bus hijacking, when she was joking around on the bus after finding out the bombs were fake, and when she almost attacked Bond after he chewed up Penguinman. But all of these examples only serve to make her a more fleshed out character as opposed to just being the cutesy, happy series mascot all time.

Obviously because of her mind reading powers, she manipulates the adults around her all the time, but again, there's never any malice involved…it's clearly the result of a little kid doing everything in her power to keep the happy family she's created. And due to her mind reading ability, she's learned to be much more proactive than reactive – she knows what people are going to do before they do it, and what their intentions are without them saying it. This has allowed her to become resourceful way beyond her years, which has led to her saving the lives of both Twilight and Yor on more than one occasion.

One emotion Anya does have an abundance of is empathy. Typically children don't start to develop empathy – the ability to understand and relate to the intentions and feelings of others – until a bit past Anya's age. But because of Anya's ability to read minds, it makes sense that this part of her development would take priority over something like proper speech and school smarts. Her empathy extends to all the adults around her, her fellow kids, and even animals. While a lot of her empathetic actions stem from her need to help keep Twilight's and Yor's identities secret and thus maintain the peace of the Forger family, there are many examples where this isn't the case and she's simply acting out of nothing but concern for others: comforting the Eden cow because she understood it was scared, worrying about the well being of the Project Apple dogs, leaping into action when she heard someone drowning, and comforting Damian when she knew he was scared during the bus hijacking.

Even when identity reveals aren't at stake, she still comforts Twilight and Yor when they need it, like when she thought Twilight had a nightmare after his backstory reveal, and when she knew Yor was concerned about Loid's relationship with Fiona.

The bus hijacking was a prime example of Anya being empathetic, but not to an unrealistic degree. She empathized with Billy enough to diffuse the situation, but not on a deeper level because, again, she's a little kid. She understood he was upset, but she didn't have outpouring sympathy or deep, introspective thoughts about his situation – that's something an adult would do, not a little kid who's still learning what emotions to feel at what times. What she eventually does is something that makes perfect sense both for her personality and age. With some great resourcefulness on her part, she was able to figure out what she had to say to manipulate Billy the right way, but at the same time she was playing it by ear and basically clueless as to the depth of the matter, yet mustered up all the courage she could…typical Anya.

There are a lot more examples like this of Anya's sense of empathy, too many to list. But the bottom line is, although Anya does use her powers to manipulate people to benefit her own situation and those she cares about (who can blame her?) it's clear that even at such a young age, she's a genuinely good girl who wants to help others and do good in the world, even if she's too young to realize it yet. Not unlike her parents, really. I think we'll be searching a long time before we find another 1st-grade aged character as awesome as Anya.

[ilikekidsshows]

Talking about Teen Titans Go and how the crew scammed the fans remind me of how I feel scammed by Miraculous.

The reason why Miraculous take my interest is because of Chat Noir, simply because he remind me of my favorite character, Ikuto from Shugo Chara, who not only they have same animal motif but also similar family problem. So I thought with how similar these two cat boys situation is, then their goal would be similar, gaining freedom. And considering his name on the title, I thought he'd be an important character which means he'll get more screen time more than Ikuto.

But boiiiiiiiiiii... I can't even imagine how wrong I was. That it turned out, the cat boy in Miraculous is nothing but part of marketing bait and only that. ...and Ikuto, despite not being the-so-called-deuteragonist have more agency, more important role than Chat Noir ever is and more screen time. I feel want to laugh at the irony.

All that anticipation, for nothing.

Instead of let Chat Noir do the leading in the plot and episode that revolve around his family, the show shoved me this girl who's hobby is stalking her crush and make it everything into her business, even when she has no relevance in the episode.

Chat Noir having traumatic scene? Nope! Here's the girl having a break down for a very trivial reason but you must feel her sadness because she is the protagonist and the only one you must care for!!!1!

For a show that tagline is Girl Power it sure has a Girl Loser as a protagonist.

Maybe... just maybe if Marinette is as capable as Amu or any other magical girl protagonist, I wouldn't hate her so much for being shoved into every episode. But what Marinette really good at is manipulating people by whining about how miserable her life is because her crush doesn't notice her boohoooo and throwing the cat to the enemy, aside from that I don't even know what's so likeable about her.

The fact that Marinette, being 14 but has less emotional intelligence than Amu who's 11 is bizarre.

I don't even know why she's still the hero when she doesn't seems to like the role? And I don't even know what the crew has in mind when they create her because she's not a good role model for young children who watch the show.

I really wish I could unsee the show because it's really not worth it, but I truly feel bad for the young boy who watch the show because of Chat Noir and hope to see him in cool action just for the show to tell them that girls is superior than boys and boys is only good for being emotional support for the girls.

(which remind me of my ex friend who said similarly with the addition "it's ok to be sexist towards man and disrespect them, men always do that to women anyway")

--

Yeah, there's a reason my cartoon blog also functioning as a support blog for people disappointed with Miraculous actually started off as a support blog for Adrien fans who didn't want SentiAdrien to happen. This blog is being run by an unrepentant Adrien stan for other people who like Adrien too much for this show’s writers’ comfort. I'm not gonna lie, of the “Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir”, I was more interested in the latter.

Like, I’ve had a tendency to go against anything that feels too close to writers telling me how I should feel about their characters. This is why I never bought into the “Ladybug is the coolest, strongest, bestest hero ever and so selfless and amazing” narrative. I always looked at what actually happened in the episodes and what I saw was a pretty weak protagonist who runs away from battles and needs her far more competent in a fight  partner to carry her weight in battles until she can come up with a winning strategy. I figured, yeah, Ladybug’s the smart one while Cat Noir is the strong one, kinda stereotypical but whatever. But no, apparently the girl who runs away and leaves her sidekick to fight alone is the best combatant ever and the sidekick able to hold the line by himself against superior odds is weak and useless.

Astruc really is proving his statement that Miraculous is cheap to write because they don't waste money on rewrites correct. They repeatedly show the opposite of what they intend to say, and, apparently, always have, since the beginning of the show.  Almost like puting down the money and effort to edit a story is a good idea.

Marinette stans like the version of Marinette that lives in their head. This Marinette hasn't done the things canon Marinette has or, if she has, she had far more sympathetic reasons for it or was in some other way more justified. Because, while Marinette was selfish, entitled, narrow-minded and weak-willed all along, her behavior has been escalating in stages so that the stans can ignore that this is a pattern and just think she's made only a couple of really bad mistakes. And if they can't ignore those mistakes, they'll try to paint Marinette's victims as being worse people morally based on basically nothing, so that they can imply these characters deserve to be treated like shit by the “morally superior” Marinette.

The fanworks made by people who still like Marinette prove this. Marinette acts either out of character, or her behavior is softened considerably from canon, or the people around her are making things more difficult and Marinette is just reacting to that. The people who like Miraculous have always had very different views on what even goes on in the show than the people who hate it, but now it’s also not matching the people who used to like the show but have since given up on it.

Hot take, but the “team member who just happens to be a different gender from the target audience” is possibly the best way to teach equality to kids. By, you know, showing equality. No reversing harmful gender stereotypes without any care over what that says, no pointing and screeching about how surprising it is that a girl is good at video games or making the boy the fanservice character.

Kids don't automatically know these stereotypes; they learn them. And it doesn't matter how much the adults around them try to teach them to not think this way, a lot of children's media still teaches these stereotypes even when it tries to subvert them. Like, Paw Patrol’s most prominent girl dog is color-coded pink, and somehow a lot of the little girls watching Paw Patrol decide pink is their favorite color, because it's a “girls' color”. It is to make marketing the toys easier, but it's still enforcing stereotypes, because stereotypes are easy to sell toys to.

[lets-try-some-writing]

I have been reading your review of Transformers One again and also looking back at the movie, which gives me this hot potato take:

Orion Pax weirdly feels like a Gary Stu, not because he was overpower and flawless (which I know there are no solid definitions of the term Mary Sue/Gary Stu and I don't think he's one). It's just that his characteristics felt too convenient to the plot as the writers just slap all the likable traits of a typical heroic character and just called it's a day without further exploration. They tried to go for the angle of a normal bot, average Joe from lower classes that get thrust into adventure and great destiny. But nothing about him is normal, even though he was supposed to be an insignificant miner. He was already special in the movie, with his tendency to break protocols and his obsession to find Matrix and be something more, and as you mentioned in your review, we simply don't know why he adamant about finding the Matrix. Would it be better that we showed a hint of Orion Pax not trusting Sentinel actually finding the Matrix in his expedition and felt out of place for being the only one who's skeptical of Sentinel??? And his trust issues with Sentinel could come from all his times sneaking and reading the history of Cybertron and noticing the hole in those records??? This would have made him very compelling and interesting, and also explained why he was so calm and level-head about Sentinel's lie and betrayals compared to other characters. Yeah sure the movie "showed us" Orion Pax's good and heroic traits to hint at his worth for the Prime title later, but uhm, it feels like the movie told us about his traits instead and expect us to roll with his characteristics as his scenes didn't convey these traits well enough or quite lacking.

And for a character supposed to be the main protagonist, he felt more like a deuteragonist supporting D-16/Megatron, which resulted in him being that hero who was just there to make the main villain more compelling and interesting.

I did like TF:O Orion Pax in my first round but after sometimes, I realized I simply like him because I projected a much-better written protagonist with similar traits into Orion Pax and made way him more interesting than he's actually is.

Aside from my issues with Orion Pax, Elita-1 is simply a plot device character, and I just don't get her personality/characteristics at all. She also didn't have any arc and her interactions with other characters, especially with Orion Pax when they were on the surface felt very artificial to me. And she's fake girlboss because nowhere in the movie showed that she's better than anyone, especially Orion Pax.

This is just my longest ramblings about my issues with the movie that barely evoked any emotions for me.

No no you are absolutely cooking with this.

TFO Orion IS a Gary Sue. He has no proper emotional base in order to establish his goals and opinions on things. His background is plain but lacks the hint or originality needed to give him the spark to act out of line, at least in a believable manner. His behavior is selfish, and yet he is proclaimed a hero by the end of the film without his arc having been completed. Orion can absolutely be selfish and foolish in the beginning, but if we are going to herald him as a saint, he needed to have had more development. As it stands, Orion was made God's favorite because... reasons. (Alpha Trion why didn't you guide our main cast while you had the chance????)

I 100000% agree with you on your assessment of Elita. She's there for the sake of sending a poorly written message and that is all. No growth, no real origin, no backstory, no properly established relationships. She's there to kick around a few future Decepticons and make everyone else look like fools. She needed so much more to be excellent, and I am legitimately sad that she didn't get the arc she needed to be a respectable character.

It seems we are on the same page anon.

[raayllum]

I think one of the reasons the "TDP is too focused on Rayllum and/or I want to see Callum and Rayla interact more with other characters" critique (complaint?) falls flat to me is 1) Callum is the main character and Rayla is his deuteragonist, 2) the show justifies their journeys together because they're most relevant to what needs to be happening (Rayla needed to go home in S3 just as Ezran needed to turn back; they have to go to the Great Bookery and Starscraper bc the info and items there is most relevant to her and Callum's arcs), 3) nobody ever has the same complaints about Terry/Claudia or Janai/Amaya even though those relationships actually Are the embodiment of said complaint.

Amaya has not had a plot line at all left unaffected by Janai since S1; 90% of her scenes are with Janai with brief intervals of her and Gren or her and Karim in S4, and her and Rayla with one scene in S5. Terry is a great character, but he is there to flesh out Viren (S4) and Claudia (S5) in tandem, having all of his relevant scenes with either one or the other; we've yet to see Terry actually interact with literally anyone else.

Conversely, throughout S4 we get to see Callum interact with Corvus (4x01), Ezran, Soren, and various other characters we meet along the way (Rex Igenous, N'than). We also get a decent amount of Ezran and Rayla interaction and Rayla and Soren interaction in particular in S4, and she's the only one of the main trio to interact with Terry or Claudia; Callum likewise gets Opeli, Archmage Akiyu, and Finnegrin in S5. Meanwhile in S5 we get to see how Rayla interacts with Janai and Amaya in addition to her own view(s) of her family, and more smaller Ez&Rayla and Rayla and Soren dynamics.

So what the complaint boils down to is usually "I'm bored of Rayla and Callum's romance (because I feel like it got restarted in S4)" when even if they weren't having to work things out, they'd be getting these plotlines in S5 and S6 (the seasons apparently they spend the most one-on-one time in anyway) regardless because Plot Relevance. It also reads as boredom with Rayla's arc (to me) because learning 1) leaving has consequences (s4) and 2) to accept grace and support (s5) are all things she absolutely needed to have happen. Idk about you but I'd prefer that one of the main character's arcs and core conflict isn't resolved in 1-2 episodes max leaving her to just stagnate for two seasons, and that means letting her take up time and space in the narrative making good choices and bad

It also feels like people are misremembering earlier seasons because they've always primarily driven each other's conflict and growth even in S1 (1x03-1x06 is about their inter-group conflict) and pushed each other to new places and epiphanies (S2) while offering support (S2, S3).

Like to be clear — think and feel whatever you think and feel, I nor anyone else can necessarily change your mind let alone stop you. But if it's Only a critique levied towards them and not towards any other plot centralized dynamic in the show, you might wanna think about whether it's just because they're the two of the three Main Characters and you're tired of seeing them more than characters & dynamics that aren't as consistently featured bc they're not The Main Characters > the characters you want to see more of that aren't as relevant to core plotlines. Because if you're going to have a critique / complaint about something Structurally, you wanna make sure you're being consistent about said structural complaint, tbh

[ribbons-in-autumn]

It's the Inferiority Complex!!!!!

BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!! spoilers, obviously. I've been watching it again and have a couple thoughts and headcanons I want to voice out

One bit about Anon's outward personality I really like (well, it is her main quirk, but whatever) is her relentless and constant need to be the centre of attention. She wants to be the guitar-vocalist! She's the student council president! She doesn't want to stand in the wayside, she needs to be up front! Her, her, her, her!

To me, I see that doing all this as an attempt at hiding her insecurities by padding what she lacks (the knowledge of how to form longlasting relationships) with surface-level likability. She doesn't really know how to make friends, but she knows that if she's liked by everyone, then she would still have people who like her and want to be her friend -- even if it's not 'true friendship'.

I think what's most interesting about Anon is that she's definitely a studious person. This is evidenced by her middle school friends saying that she's great at English and other subjects, not to mention being the student council president, and also the fact that she got into Haneoka (even after transferring from England). But it doesn't seem to me that she ever really applied that same level of effort into other things she likes...or that she's ever done things she liked for the sake of only herself at all. She props herself up as being great at everything she tries to do so that people will like her and rely on her, which, to me, suggests that she's never really done anything that she wants to do for herself, but only for the acceptance of others.

Anon was TERRIBLE at guitar. She barely knew any chords, and doesn't know how to strum to cover up for it either. That's because she didn't do it for herself. She did it to be popular. Why should she put effort into something she wasn't into anyway? It was only a means to an end, and that end is clout.

Her wake-up call was Tomori's question of 一生バンドしてくれる？ ("Will you be in the band for your whole life?"). She's never done anything she wanted to put her passion or her effort into previously in her life, so hearing this coming from this seemingly unassuming quiet girl was a shock to her (also, she didn't even know if Tomori played any instruments but invited her to her band anyway, is she stupid?). Over the next few episodes, she learns very harshly that Tomori has more conviction than she has ever had for anything before.

After this and other events involving the rest of the group, she really gets going into putting her all into the guitar. Even if half of it was fueled by her want to stand front of stage and her envy of Raana's skill, the other half is still her own desire to put effort into being good at something. I think the most damning evidence of this for me is just how fast the growth of her skills is. She went from barely knowing her chords to sorta competently play as a rhythm guitarist to complement Raana's explosive, showy playing, to being able to improvise her own playing for their Utakotoba performance in Episode 10.

Why else would she keep on practising even after she stopped showing up to practice? She's finally found something she wants to do for herself, and it showed early by the fact that she willingly gave up the spotlight to Tomori instead. She liked being in the band, practicing with her friends, and playing the guitar. She hasn't made her need for attention disappear at all, that doesn't just go away after One character development moment, but she has learned how to hold it back, at least a bit.

Anon is such a great deuteragonist. She both parallels and contrasts with the protagonist role of Tomori so well. I hope she gets an event story in-game soon so we get to see more of her.

[meg-noel-art]

Queen Lucinda Edevane

Pretends my Discord ramblings make any sense and throws one of my OCs at you. LORE dump below:

Sort of a brief preface but imagine my universe is Avatar the Last Airbender if every Nation had an Avatar of Each Element. And there are no non-benders! Everyone can use some degree of said magic. And that they needed all said Avatars to work together to defeat the ultimate Evil Entity, because doing it alone/without Avatar powers have proved to be impossible for centuries. If anyone has played FFX it's very much the same concept of "there is a recurring darkness that we are stuck in a perpetual cycle trying to defeat bc the main characters haven't arrived yet" ---

So there are Avatars of Five Elements for my universe: Lighting/Storm(kinda broad but imagine like,,airbending/lightning bending combined) Water/Ice/Sea (Any liquid tbh) Earth/Nature (stone/earth/leaves/plants), Lunar (magic moonbeams babyyy), Solar (cast fireball) < -- the missing element is Solar, and it's been gone for hundreds of years, never choosing an 'Avatar' (ive been calling them 'Arbiters') and nobody knows where the source of the Element is to try and 'persuade' it to choose another "Host" (Enter Samantha Sinclair, but that's another part of the story)

SO ALL THAT SAID:

HERE is one of my Deuteragonists MOMS. She's part of the LONG line of magic users whose bloodline has always been chosen by the source of Lunar Magic. RE: There's always been a rich royal Lunar Magic 'Arbiter', for generations. It seems to be 'passed down' the line. Maybe they have a whole 'Choosing Ritual' (even tho that's not how the magic works, rich people be silly and privelaged).

So she is in what is the Royal Family of this world. While all the elemental nations have their own leadership, the Lunar Kingdom/Nation/Etc has the most powerful magic/and the family kind of rules everyone because of that. Targaryens vs other Houses ala Game of Thrones.

When she is young, Lucinda (that's her name) <- is SECOND in line to inherit the throne, should her brother (who is the Arbiter of Lunar magic at that time) die. WELL, turns out he does, meaning the Lunar Kingdom loses both it's Arbiter and it's heir in one fell swoop to a bad battle with the Ambiguous Evil Forces I haven't come up with yet.

So OOPS she's suddenly saddled with responsibility she wasn't supposed to have, which is in this world less of a "ok you're queen now go produce a male heir" and more of a "oh you're queen now, and ALSO you better make sure this Arbiter nonsense stays in our bloodline".

So that kinda sucks for her -- her consolation prize is being allowed to marry the captain of her Kingsgaurd (straight bodygaurd AU ooooOOOoo) the only problem is---he's a weak ass magic user. So her family is a little sus that any kids they have would have a chance to be chosen as the next Arbiter. But she INSISTS, it's the one good choice she gets to make for herself bc oops she happens to genuinely love this guy

Anyway their first kid (Elias) ISSSSSSSSSSS --- not chosen. Firstborn, next in line, not the Arbiter. Very embarrassing for everyone involved. So kid number two, one of my deuteragonists, Lucy -- is more of a 'necessity', rather than a 'want' from her parents. And it shows in the strain in their relationship. Lucinda (Mom) (Lucille, 'Lucy' is literally named to echo her ) regrets her own choice to marry for love because she feels like she fucked up - she also resents having to take on that responsibility in the first place, so her attitude toward Lucy (who luckily WAS chosen as the Lunar Arbiter) is very "I fucked up hard so you better not blow this for us ---"

anyway. Here she is looking grumpy. the end.

[the-indie-owl]

Space Goofs/Stupid Invaders Shipping Chart (Feel Free To Use)

Given the majority that I've seen Zero Shipping Charts of any of Xilam's Works, I've decided to pull up a Shipping Chart for the Space Goofs/Stupid Invaders Fandom to use it freely (though I've snippet Other Versions of this Chart besides than the Main One).

Reason as to why I put up with 4 versions besides than the Main One is partially because I was inspired by some other person who done the exact same thing with one of My Fandoms in which I present you both the Alien/Human editions in separate ways.

The Main Chart features the Main Titular Characters of the Franchise (both the Alien Protagonists and even the Side-Humans; The Antagonists (Dr. Saccharin, Igor, & Bolok) and even the Deuteragonist from the Cancelled Movie (Ambre-Lou)).

The Second Version would be an Alternate to the Main Version where it focuses on the Main 5 Space Goofs rather than siding them with the Deuteragonist Human Characters.

The Third Version features the Adult Human Characters (both the Main Villains and the Side Characters from any of the "Villain of the Week" Episodes) (Even though some of them aren't Human, this One focuses on the Aliens' Main Species Equivalent).

The Fourth Version adds a bonus with Other Alien Characters (Ex; The Spaceship Thief from the Game, Zekla from "Space Cadet", Fabrice from "The Alien Show", & even Candy's Fake Cousin Walter/Clyde from "Meet My Cousin").

The Fifth Version is a 2.0. Edition to the Third Version where it's meant to be a Junior/Kids version since the Blue-Haired Girl (Ambre-Lou) is Canonically a Child, thus, she would need to have her own Chart around with Other Human Kids from Other Episodes (most likely from Season 2 besides than how Season 1 has) closest to her Age.

Colors Representations in the Chart (presenting by the Colors of the Aliens and The Main Antagonists):

🟥= OTP (A Main/Favorable Ship that You Love So Much out of all of the Other Ships)

🟧= BrOTP (A Ship You Prefer Platonically)

🟩= Like (A Ship that you do Enjoy, but not that much as your OTP)

🟪= Ok (A Ship you're Indifferent to)

🟦= Dislike (A Ship you're just not into but don't hate as much as your NOTP)

⬛= NOTP (A Ship that is the Opposite of your OTP and one you can't seriously stand no matter how much you would Hate)

Characters in the Charts:

(Main Cast)

Etno Polino

Gorgious Klatoo

Candy Caramella

Bud Budiovitch

Stereo Monovici

Dr. Saccharin

Igor

Lucien Bolok

Little Blue-Haired Girl (or by my own fanon name, "Ambre Lou Astrean")

Characters from "Stupid Invaders"

Nelson

Spaceship Thief

Other Characters

Zibouya

Gerty

Steve Wong

Selling Agent

The Neighbor Watcher

Viola

Bob Jr.

The Three Students from "Back To School Blues"

Gideon

The Boy from "One Minor Technicality"

Gustavo

Marie

Blonde Siblings from "Toy Trouble"

Rules:

Simply Put Your Honest Opinions on however you'd want using each Line Color of the Opinion Boxes.

If you're curious about the "Misc" section rather if you'd ship any of the Characters with an Fan-Character/OC or some Other Character from the Franchise (hence "Other") or a Different Character from Another Franchise/Media (hence "Crossover"), you can mention your Other Ship (Crack/OCXCanon/Crossover Ship) in the Description if you were to tag any of the Characters in the "Misc" Circle.

For the Senior Human Edition, if you'd like to Edit/Add More Human Characters from the Show that I haven't put in or forgot (due to how Way Too Many Characters this Franchise has) besides than mentioning the Other "Villain of the Week" Characters in the Desc that you'd put your personal opinions on who would you ship any of the Side-Humans with, you may go ahead (same can go with the Alien version if you'd want to add in more Alien Characters that I haven't put in). If you don't know on how to do that by adding Another Character in, you can change by editing the Circle Lineup.

Credit or Link Me if you'd want.

Feel Free to have Fun with This! 😉

[theerurishipper]

https://www.tumblr.com/jacquesthepigeon/731353272698486784/you-know-it-must-be-said-as-someone-whos-only?source=share

Of course this is said from someone who has never seen the show. God forbid folks favorite character, is THE SECOND MAIN CHARACTER AND IN THE TITLE OF THE SHOW.

God forbid abuse survivors find Adrichat’s story relatable and react negatively to people who salt on him for, checks notes, being a rich white boy? Because being rich and white protects you from abuse lol okay

Someone go tell Kesha that the horrific abuse she endured for years doesn’t count because she’s rich and white.

Someone go tell Britney Spears and Amanda Bynes that they deserve their conservatorships because they’re too volitile and emotional and need someone else to control their entire lives. Also they’re rich and white so they should be thankful for their privilege.

Also as a fandom veteran, I’m also baffled that this anon says they’ve never seen fandom go this feral over a white boy so I guess the whole Superwholock thing doesn’t exist in this person’s universe. I’m getting war flashbacks…

I really hope this doesn't come off as rude, but I just have a small request for any anons in the future: if y'all want me to comment on someone else's post, please send it in a separate ask. I just don't want to post someone else's post and start an argument or something.

That being said, I do agree. My detailed thoughts under the cut.

"Adrien stans are white people who get unhinged over a white boy," say the Marinette stans and Marinette stan observers, not realizing that they espouse disgusting abuse apologism on a daily basis and victim blame a character who is a victim of abuse for being traumatized all because he made a few decisions that weren't about Marinette and her well-being alone.

This is ridiculous on so many levels. First the assumption that all Adrien stans are white people. Second, the assumption that we must be Adrien stans because he's a white boy and we don't care about POC characters as much as we do the white ones. Which is actually quite insulting to me.

Maybe these people should actually read what Adrien stans have to say. Maybe they should actually understand why we love Adrien so much. Maybe they should understand why we get so heated over him.

Know what? I'll tell you why. It's because Adrien is despite the writers' best efforts to undermine him an interesting and likeable character. He is a canonical abuse victim, and he struggles with his self-worth and his identity, which is a relatable story to many people. He's an entertaining and interesting character. He's the deuteragonist of the damn show. People are bound to love him. There's more to him than being a white boy and it's very insulting to imply that people obsess over him because he's white or because his fans are white.

And about how Adrien stans get "unhinged" about Adrien and not about other characters... we're literally Adrien stans. Which means Adrien is our favorite character. Naturally, we're going to talk more about him. This is basic common sense. I don't understand the problem here with liking Adrien more than other characters. Are we not allowed to have faves anymore?

And you know why Adrien stans get "unhinged" over him? Because the show treats him badly! Why shouldn't we get mad that a character whom we love is being treated poorly by the writers? Why can't we get heated about that? Marinette stans get heated about their fave being victimized by the narrative all the time, so why is it a crime if Adrien stans get upset if Adrien gets the same treatment? Adrien's story in the show ended with him being reduced to an object and a prop for his girlfriend so that she could side with his abuser and start controlling him instead. Why can't we get angry at that?

Marinette stans will talk about how both Adrien and Marinette are written badly but only Marinette gets criticized and how that's racist and shit, and will ignore the fact that our criticism has nothing to do with race and everything to do with Marinette siding with Gabriel to lie to an abuse victim, and how the show frames this as correct. We criticize Marinette because she's making an awful mistake and doing bad things! This is like, the worst strawman I have ever seen. At some point, it really feels like they are being willfully ignorant.

And about how Adrien stans treat other characters, riddle me this. Who has a proper tag dedicated to bashing them on AO3? Who was the character who was salted on so much when Syren aired? Who was the character being raked over the coals when Chameleon aired? Who was the character who was salted on in Season 4 for breaking a damn fucking chimney? Who was the character whose struggles in Season 4 were overlooked by Marinette stans who criticized him for "being entitled to Ladybug?" Who was the character who was relentlessly salted on whenever he did anything that didn't completely attend to Marinette's needs? Who is the character who was labelled a "sexual harasser?" Who is the character on whom these "fans" rain down their victim blaming and abuse apologia? Who is the character who has the longest history of being salted and bashed by the Marinette stans?

And I will laugh at the audacity of Marinette stans to argue in favor of POC characters and blame Adrien stans for "obsessing over a white boy while not giving the same treatment to characters of color" while their legacy includes salting Alya for not being Marinette's perfect emotional support BFF. Who has their own salt tag apart from Adrien on AO3? Alya does. It's laughable to me that Marinette stans harp on about how Adrien stans prefer the white boy over the POC characters when they spent the better part of the last few years bashing Alya and even devolved into outright racism against her. To say nothing of how they treated Kagami after Frozer dropped.

And these people accuse Adrien stans of showing preferential treatment to white characters? Marinette stans have no leg to stand on when it comes to calling out other people's treatment of POC characters. And I'm not saying that the anon or OP of the post are racist or that they personally contributed to this. But if they are going to make sweeping statements about Adrien stans accusing all of us of going unhinged over a white boy and treating POC characters unfairly, they should maybe take a look inwards at their own community.

Marinette stans have spent years bashing every other character for the smallest perceived slight. Marinette stans created a whole new genre of Miraculous fanfiction dedicated to propping up Marinette like their personal goddess and punishing other characters for not being her devoted slaves. Marinette stans have contributed greatly to the racism in this fandom. Look at all this and tell me: who really seems unhinged here?

So yeah. Ice cold take imo. Also, obligatory disclaimer: Not all Marinette stans are like this! Most of them are nice and sweet, but there are also plenty of bad apples who have been responsible for a lot of toxicity in this fandom.

Thank you for your ask!

[magical-deuteragonist]

"I wish-!"

Hello!!!!!!!! hihihi.. this is a elevator hitch pmmm au rp blog, centered around protag/sayaka!!! this IS my first time making a ask blog, so thank you for checking it out!!! i am so sorry if i make mistakes i am just a tiny wet cat do not bully me Please.....

this is run by @angry-trans . By the way

> [ RULES & ABOUT THE BLOG ]

CHARACTERS AND MOD ARE MINORS!!! no nsfw PLEASE, you will be blocked accordingly.

blood and gore is just fine, and i might implement that into some of my art later on..

sprites are currently a wip, as im making them myself... sprite edits scare me more than putting myself through this torture so. please dont expect any sprites in the meantime... Very sorry about this!!!

CROSSOVERS ARE FUN!!!! SAY HI PLEASE

same with magic anons!!! do what you want!!! Don't be too mean to me though i will cry

> [ ABOUT THE AU ]

S (Protag, Sayaka, whatever you want to call her), is a second year college student, at a Random school. shes a gal in this au! transfem or not is up to your interpretation, but its personally my hc she is, so! yay!!!!!!!!!! Shes a magical girl...Yeah. the timeline this takes place in is around after sayaka makes her wish in the shows timeline, but her deterioration is postponed a bit.

shes the main focus of the blog (excluding ng/kyubey), but there is other characters (which will only be mentioned here, unless i actually progress through the pmmm timeline (UNLIKELY!!!!!)). roles are the following!!

Madoka -> Colleague

Homura -> Antag

Mami -> Manuel!!!!!

Kyoko -> Coworker

she IS also the 'deuteragonist' of the story. please use that information as you will.... Thank you gamers

> [ TAGS ]

#a.silent.violin - in character post

#a.revived.tune - in character reply/thread

#seyiku.is.suffering - any shitpost/joke. includes art....

#ooc.aka.oouk - ooc posts....

(ps. sorry i talk a LOT its kinda my Thing... my Brand...)

[animebw]

The Graveyard of Dropped Shows

So the thought occurs to me that I’ve dropped quite a few anime this season. Turns out, when you don’t pressure yourself to keep up with every show you start out of an obsessive need for cataloguing, it’s a lot easier to say goodbye to shows you don’t like. Who’d have thought? And at this point, I’m far enough into the shows I’m still watching that I’m mostly confident sticking with them to the end. Unless things really take a turn for the worse, but hey, we’ll burn that bridge when we cross to it. For now, I thought I’d just give a quick rundown of all the spring 2023 anime I started watching but gave up on for whatever reason. Cool? Cool. Welcome to the first installment of my graveyard of dropped shows!

Hell’s Paradise: Dropped at 4 episodes

This is probably the most unfair drop on my list. Hell’s Paradise is fine, I guess; as much as I hate the overly bloomed-out lighting Mappa decided to go with, the action’s pretty fun and I’m a sucker for a good Garden of Nightmares setting. It’s a perfectly adequate Shonen Thing that’ll scratch a lot of people’s itches. But man, the older I get, the less patience I have for what I’ve come to call Shonen Gender Bullshit, or SGB for short. And sweet buttery crumpets, this show is full of it. It takes all of one episode for Sagiri to transform from a competent executioner deuteragonist to an inexperienced damsel who exists mainly to be outclassed and taught lessons by the men around her while she stares on in reactive awe. The only other female characters besides her are either evil seductresses who flaunt their bodies for the audience at the first possible opportunity or saintly, far-off idealized wives who exist as goals for Gabimaru to strive for. And in a post-Jujutsu Kaisen world, there is no more excuse for your ridiculous shonen beat-em-up to not treat its ladies with respect.

Konosuba Megumin: Dropped at 2 episodes

Was there a time when I actually liked Konosuba? I’m sure there was, but every new installment in this series just makes it harder and harder to remember why any of us thought this show was anything more than passably amusing at best. And this is a spinoff centered on its best character! If anyone from this cast of losers and misfits had the strength to carry a side story of their own, it was the crimson witch Megumin herself. But absent the incredibly expressive, body-contorting animation that made Konosuba’s comedy work as well as it did, all you’re left with is a boring supporting cast, stupid fanservice, and jokes about guys being creepy perverts who want to molest women. Riveting.

Magical Destroyers: Dropped at 3 episodes

It’s almost impressive how lame Magical Destroyers manages to be. It’s got some of the most unhinged, creative animation this side of mid-2000s Gainax, all the angular momentum and unhinged editing of a lost Hiroyuki Imaishi show. You can tell the series creator started as a graphic designer, because he sure designed the fuck out of these graphics. Unfortunately, you can also tell he’s a graphic designer from the script. Because all that insanely creative animation is paired with some of the dullest, stuffiest, most conservative writing imaginable. If you were hoping for some clever subversion of the “otaku are the most oppressed minority” setup, prepare to be disappointed. This is just brainless wish fulfillment for insecure manchildren who want to feel like badass revolutionaries surrounded by super-sexy, super-powerful warrior women who nevertheless happily submit to some hapless dudebro’s orders. Every single artist involved in this slog deserved to put their talents to better use.

The Marginal Service: Dropped at 1 episode

How do you take a premise like “sexy firefighter super sentai heroes fighting aliens” and make it boring? Well, by slathering it in five layers of faux tryhard grit and grime, making every character the dullest possible archetype version of themself, and drowing the whole affair in a level of xenophobia so uncomfortable I barely made it through a single episode. Cygames just knocked it out of the park with Akiba Maid War, how did they go from that masterpiece to this?

Mashle: Dropped at 2 episodes

This show feels like someone watched One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 and thought “Wow, I should make a show like that!” without fully understanding what makes them so great. Everything is such a surface-level approximation of ONE’s writing talents, from the tired “Wow, this guy is so overpowered!” gags to the reheated “Despite my powers, I just want to live a normal life” motivation. Not to mention its own struggles with the dreaded Shonen Gender Bullshit. But what really killed Mashle for me is very simple: it’s primarily comedy, and it doesn’t make me laugh. Or at least, it doesn’t make me laugh consistently enough to justify sitting through the lackluster animation and cardboard characters. I’ll just watch Mob Psycho again, thank you very much.

My Clueless First Friend: Dropped at 1 episode

Okay, I lied: this is the most unfair drop on my list. As a simple story about a clueless elementary school boy unknowingly helping his classmate deal with bullies, there’s really nothing wrong here. But we have no absence of fantastic rom-coms to keep up busy these days. Just this season alone, My Love Story with Yamada-kun, The Dangers in my Heart, and especially Skip and Loafer have more than enough charm and wholesomeness to fill those needs. And unless you’re really fond of shrill vocal performances (seriously, whoever’s voicing the male lead makes him so irritating to listen to), there’s nothing here you can’t get much better in countless other places. Just Fine, sadly, no longer cuts it in the competitive world of anime rom-coms.

[cogentranting]

Spoilers for The Acolyte season finale

I think the decision to kill Sol off was a mistake.

The decision works in the moment. This show is bold and willing to kill off a lot of characters and I respect that. Killing Jecki and Yord was sad because I liked them but it worked to propel the story forward. And Osha making the decision to kill Sol definitely does propel the story forward, and I don't have any issue with having Osha go this route as a character. Osha making the decision to kill Sol absolutely works.

The problem is that now, if the show gets a second season that it so clearly wants, the story doesn't have Sol. And I think that vacancy will be a problem.

I would argue that to this point, the emotional core of the show has been Sol and Osha's relationship. On a thematic level, the show is called 'the Acolyte'-- it's about who Osha's master is, so having her kill one master and switch to following the other makes sense. But on a character level, it leaves us stranded. There's no one left to feel the emotional impact of Osha's turn. The only ones left to fill that role are Mae and Vernestra: Mae supports the turn, at least before the memory wipe; Vernestra is emotionally more linked to Sol and Qimir, she doesn't have any particular connection to Osha. I'm just not sure how effective a corruption arc can be without someone to mourn the fall. And Sol and Osha were just the most developed relationship: we don't truly see that much of Osha and Mae together, and when we do they're usually in conflict; and Osha and Qimir have basically had two conversations. So the relationship the show invested the most time in is now gone.

This also puts the main burden of any light side/Jedi storyline on Vernestra. Thus far, Vernestra has been more of a stoic voice of authority. Sol was a much more compelling character to be invested in. Sol was so warm and caring, but also had the tension of this huge failure that he was covering up. Vernestra I'm sure will have more development and be compelling (in the second season we hopefully get) because they've already set up several interesting threads to follow, but with Sol that connection was already there.

Moreover, Sol wasn't just the Jedi representative in the story, I would argue that he was the deuteragonist (the second main character under Osha). You could argue that the deuteragonist is Mae instead but even that only bumps Sol down to third place. In the process of writing this paragraph I've changed my mind from arguing that his arc doesn't resolve to feeling that it DOES, just that his arc is tragedy. It's about a good man, a good jedi, who let selfishness and self-righteousness cloud his judgment and lead to him doing something terrible, who spent years wrestling with his guilt and then when finally confronted with it, rather than admitting his failure, doubled down on his self-justification and ended up dying for it. And thematically that works and is sad but compelling. But it means that even more there is a need to balance that.

If Sol lived then there would be a path forward where Sol redeems himself and is able to either eventually repair his relationship with Osha and call her back to the light, or have a role reversal where he, having failed with Osha, gets a second chance with Mae. That path is now closed. Sol's story ends in tragedy and inspires tragedy as Osha turns to the dark side. Revenge of the Sith is a similar corruption arc and tragedy. But Revenge of the Sith operates in the context of the original trilogy. The audience knows that Luke Skywalker is coming.

So maybe it's not a mistake to kill Sol. But it does present a challenge for season 2-- we need someone to root for while Osha is going down this dark path. We need an Obi Wan or a Luke Skywalker (depending on what the end goal is and what point in the story we're at). And I think Vernestra and/or Mae could be written in such a way to fit that bill, they just have not yet been that character that we need in order to make season 2 work. So the challenge of season 2 would be making one of them into that. Had Sol lived, he could have carried that role entirely or long enough for the show to develop Vernestra or Mae to take it over. As it is, season 2 will kick off waiting for someone to step into that role and carry the emotional burden of hope for the show.

[honnojis]

Hi zumi how do you feel about the opinion that the MC doesn't get enough focus in rejuvenation unlike other characters like Melia and aelita (not saying that its necessarily the case just an opinion I see a lot)

It's a silly thing because the protagonist objectively holds just as much importance as those two, if not a lot more lol. People only jump to that conclusion because the player doesn't get the spotlight early on and your actions don't show to make a big difference until much later into the game. And y'know... The terms "deuteragonist" and "tritagonists" exist, which could be applied to Melia and Aelita respectively perhaps, but people seem to forget they exist! More than one character can act as a central figure to a story and it's bizarre to me that people don't seem to know this. Rejuvenation is what I tend to call a JRPG in a Pokémon sleeve, and more often than not those kinds of games have a central group of people the game focuses on, rather than just one character.

But falling back on the "player doesn't seem to matter that much early on" part, I've explained it on Reborn's discord before, but in combination with the JRPG part, Rejuvenation kinda runs on the principle of the butterfly effect, as in that though actions may seem small/don't seem to make an immediate difference they can have big consequences in the long run (see; how the bad ending unlock is calculated). It lines up with the player starting out being stranded in an unfamiliar region without any real footing, but as the player gets further through the game and grows more confident in their skills, this becomes reflected by the game's story where they start getting more importance (the turning point for this being the end of Act 1, I'd say, with the G&Z battle being a rite of passage).

But if I had to give my completely unfiltered opinion, after the rewrites Rejuv's already gotten to make the story flow better & improve on the characterization of many of the game's central figures, most people who complain about the player not being the center of attention nowadays come off as this

because i've seen melia getting called a mary sue just because she gets a lot of attention despite being a heavily flawed character bc people are just upset that the player isn't all-important all the time so like. whatever

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

Anyway demon slayer was very enjoyable even if it isnt the deepest manga ever but i do think nezuko could have been handled better. She gets more agency towards the end of the story and i know the reason she was so animalistic was because of how demon-ism works. But for someone whos the deuteragonist of the story whose condition the entire story revolves around she really. Doesnt have many opinions of her own.

Shes a part of tanjiros friend group but aside from zenitsu we dont see her interact with tanjiros friends much. Were supposed to believe that nezuko doesnt want to be a demon like tanjiro doesnt want her to and that makes sense. But it would be good to at least hear her say it. She doesnt do any reflection on the demons like her brother does. Or if she does we dont get to hear any of it. But it would have been meaningful if she could do that, since shes even closer to the whole demon world than tanjiro. And while tanjiro and nezuko both are motivated by grief for their family, we dont see nezukos grief as prominently as tanjiros. She was the one that saw her family die. She should be feeling the survivors guilt as strongly as tanjiro if not more but after she first turned into a demon, she immediately got into antics that were meant to look cute for comic relief.

I think an easy fix would have been to just make nezuko 7 or 8 years younger than tanjiro instead of just one. I know gender roles in the early 20th century were Like That but tanjiro really. Coddles his sister way too much for someone whos only one year younger than him. Outside of fights nezuko is basically never asked to help with anything. She barely even provides emotional support for tanjiro or even just hang out with him, like siblings close in age would do. Tanjiros view of nezuko feels more like he helped raise her rather than like he grew up with her. And nezuko being like 7 would fit this dynamic better than her being like 14.

Being a young child would make nezuko feel like she has more agency too. Bc a 7 year old may not be old enough to understand all the nuances of the demons or talk with tanjiro about their grief. But if she shows up in a battle and kicks a demons head off with her funky demon powers just to protect her brother, i think that would be more profound if she were a young child than if she were a teenager.

Or idk let her gesture to the others more to communicate despite the bamboo gag. Or like. Rewrite the first part of the story so she isnt in a 2 year coma while tanjiro gets all the character development. Just let her have a personality sheesh.