#but I've said my piece

[hinamie]

trick or treat!

[piratespencil]

This is so funny to me. Reducing them down to their simplest attributes. Turning them into symbols.

[v-yun]

Behold!

A meme:

[athanmis]

ITS ETHO DAY YIPPEE!!!! etho day!!!!! (redstone break)

[louwhose]

Zelink Week 2024 | Day 4 | Echoes of Wisdom | Enchantment

The connection to the prompt seemed far more obvious to me when I first thought of it, but I still think there's merit to Link being pulled into a spell while Zelda is breaking free of hers for this one.

@zelinkcommunity

[a2zillustration]

Gale and I had the exact same reaction when we opened that door.

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[mollysunder]

I know Heimerdinger's Christian Linke's favorite character, and I sort of tolerated it in s1, but now it feels like things are a little too indulgent. Heimerdinger gets to team up with Ekko to launder his reputation through Ekko and the Firelights. Heimerdinger gets the first narrative game and second character teaser in the promotional cycl. Heimerdinger gets to SING A SONG that's included on the s2 Arcane soundtrack (Spin the Wheel).

Maybe I'd be less annoyed if the show at least did more to acknowledge Heimerdinger's failings as a leader, but his character description can't even do that. This is how the official Arcane website describes Heimerdinger:

"Heimerdinger warned the Piltover Council about the dangers of using magic without tangible solutions for safeguarding its use. Learning from his mistakes with Jayce, Heimerdinger inspires Ekko to keep looking for a solution and works with him to solve the problem, instead of just offering advice."

That's not Heimerdinger's main problem! The problem is the fact he's the person most singularly responsible for the state of Zaun and Piltover. It feels like the show and the cast are just dancing around the fact that Heimerdinger technically has the highest body count in the show (Day of Ash, pollution, extreme poverty, etc). The one time someone puts him to task (Jayce), the show makes it seem like Jayce is wrong or overstepped, and yeah he did do it for Viktor's sake, but Jayce was right! Heimerdinger's bad at his job, he shouldn't be in a leadership position if he's a bad leader.

[crystallizsch]

this was kalim's idea

[cry-ptidd]

Despite the fact that the beginning made us believe that Alucard and Seras as a bond would be at the core of the story, they ended up interacting meaningfully way too little. So I would definitely have changed that.

It's another chance to show some kind of development for Dracula himself this way. Because when he turns people into vampires, he either isolates them like an undead Bluebeard with the three sisters, or instantly abandons them and let them fend for themselves so he can move on with new thrills, like he did with Lucy. That surprised Van Helsing himself, because he thought Dracula would come back for her, and even guarded her tomb for that scenario (and left a note in case he gets killed), but he never showed up. Lucy ended up having to wander around confused, catching children and giving them awkward bites that doctors thought were from rats. And then even when he does the whole binding "flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood, kin of my kin" with Mina, once again he left her and declared her duty now is to turn Jonathan and the men into his jackals. And that when he needs her as a companion and helper he will call her mentally so she'll cross a land and sea for him. For his deadbeat ass. If you want me to see any change from the past then I would like him to be with Seras meaningfully instead of having her deal with being a vampire on her own and a frankly inexperienced woman.

(And while this is Dracula-based, in my defense the manga started it, if they didn't want me to look at the story under that lens they should have made Alucard and the Hellsings OCs.)

I agree with ALL OF THIS. You put it perfectly. And now I will go into a rant of analyzing Alucard and Seras because of this.

Mini Essay of Alucard, Seras and fledglings

At the beginning of the manga we have small bits of Alucard teaching Seras, like the shooting range,

Her third eye, (amazing shot on the second page btw)

Then him just telling her to go apeshit and aim for a ghoul's head, which he interprets as her coming to terms with her new unlife instead of the violent, bloodlust-filled high that newly turned vampires seem to get in the story. (The difference being that when Seras comes to, she's disgusted with herself. The second time, because she's not skewered by bayonets.)

And then he acts like she's got it all. The only other time I can recall him helping her is when he reminded her of her third eye against Zorin. As much as I adore Alucard he's fucking idiot of a teacher.

Seras is just like Lucy — he turns her on a whim (you can't tell me Seras is the ONLY human he found that has determination and survival instincts) then lets her roam around. The only reason Seras isn't as confused and wild as Lucy is because Alucard HAS to teach her — and even then he does the bare minimum so she doesn't die. When Seras is attacked by Anderson, he doesn't even try to shield her physically and lets her fight on her own so he can have a dick measuring contest with Anderson. Then, when THAT goes array, his solution is to make her drink his blood — which is both very respectable imo and quite smart, as she then would be powerful enough to at least flee and wouldn't be shackled by him. Except he'd still let a 20 something newly undead woman into the unknown — no fucking wonder Seras sticks by his side. That poor girl is scared shitless and had her whole world flipped upside down in like 20 minutes one night. Then he gets mad because he doesn't understand emotions beside pride, bloodlust and anger and whatnot. Though he still praises Seras when she's not around to hear it.

Though, anon, I have to tremendously thank you for this ask, because now I understand why Alucard's such a fucking deadbeat with Seras. He's just so damn irresponsible with every one of his fledglings and everyone whose lives he ruined. As Dracula, he underestimated humans and overestimated vampires– he was so used to having dominion over his land that he thought that anyone would bow to him and, if he infected them with vampirism, obey him without hesitation or resistance. Then, he got beaten and had his worldview and pride knocked down a couple pegs, and then seemed to try and nourish relationships a bit more— as long as they proved worthy in his eyes.

Alucard's vision of "teaching" Seras is extremely minimal, and he gets mad when he doesn't get results within one month of practice, or when she doesn't embrace her monstrosity yet (something I bet Mina did that annoyed him immensely too, considering that's why he got got). It's, however unintentionally, an excellent way to analyze Alucard's way of interacting with others: when it comes to genuine emotional intimacy, he seems to know fuck all. That might also explain why Dracula treated Jonathan the way he did– curiosity, fierce possessiveness, then biting and leaving him to the sisters to most likely become a vampire too so he can keep him.

We needed way more interactions between Seras and Alucard. They're connected in a way that only him and Integra are; she depends on him for everything basically. And he has no idea how to deal with her because she has the opposite of his way of seeing things: she wants to stay with him because she seems to genuinely enjoy his presence and finds him to be a person of comfort instead of just her master, she only uses violence if she has to (and even then it comes with reluctance), and comes to see those with that power-battle-glory mentality as kind of childish. She cherishes relationships and the people in her life instead of seeing them as a hierarchy of who to obey, live next to, and who to kill.

I think Seras shouldn't have gone along with the whole "master" shtick from the beginning. She's a normal late 90s young woman, ain't no way she didn't find having to use that honorific at least a BIT weird. I would've adored if we got more everyday interactions in the beginning where he has to remind her what to call him and she's just generally very awkward in her new environment despite her abilities. It would've been great to get more attached to the characters and would also have quite some comedic potential.

Another thing I would've loved to see is her possibly flustering or throwing off Alucard by being just nice. He lives in a world of kill or be killed and might makes right and whatnot, with a fierce militaristic mindset and respects hierarchy above all (even his view of humans has the "worthy ones" and the "unworthy ones"); to see her being not only kind to him, but see her actively try to connect and bond with him in some ways would probably surprise him. It's not something you'd do to achieve a significant goal or her trying to get a favor or her obeying his commands like the servant she's supposed to be; Seras just seeing him as part of her close circle and someone she trusts (an entire essay could be written on this idea alone, might do it later) and wants to see happy and someone to be with would be JARRING to him.

Even during the whole hunt for Millenium deal. We could've gotten them having alone time or her seeking out Alucard because the idea of a war really stresses her out. We had an abominable lack of Alucard's emotional reactions when it comes to other characters aside from the end where he wept for Anderson and when he said his goodbyes to Integra. Seras of all characters really deserved to get some reacting from him. Because the moment he bit Seras, no matter how he envisioned it to go, he had someone he was responsible to care for.

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

i wonder what it must be like for thingol and melian to hear the renditions of beren and luthien's tale in aman. their beloved daughter and son-in-law, immortalized forever in a legend that captures only a fraction of the people they were. imagine how proud they must feel. imagine how heartbroken they must be

[jetcorax]

sydney cole alexander is incredible as natalie, particularly when she does that thing where she's putting expressions on like she's assembling pieces of a mask

[makethiscanon]

[bacchuschucklefuck]

caps from comic Im doing

[smartzelda]

Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one

I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)

And here's why.

I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.

In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses

When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.

Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.

For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.

Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy

You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters

And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.

Here's another example.

Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin

Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).

Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.

Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.

Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?

This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[batbrainrot]

"When's the last time you missed, Barbara?"

Batman: Three Jokers (2020)

Written by Geoff Johns, art by Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson

[protemporescitor]

"Um Ackchyually…"

Rant incoming. Gird your loins.

It's like every time Cloud does anything even remotely cool-looking, someone in the fandom will invariably go "um achshyelly he can't be doing kewl stuff because you see he's actually a massive dweeb and…"

Every goddamn time, like clockwork. I swear, it's become a kind of mass neurosis for the fandom at this point.

I'm sorry, but "Oh he's just some try-hard dweeb" is such a paltry reading of this character, one that only furthers my belief that this fandom is mentally unequipped to parse any real kind of psychological complexity.

Yes, he can be unsubtle, envious, socially awkward, even dorky at times. That's part of the character's appeal. His extremely human frailties in that regard are what make him such an endearing and interesting (dare I say relatable?) character. He's also the man who ended the world's greatest soldier, so what does that say about his critics, the fans who believe he's just some feckless dork while ignoring that side of him entirely?

Now, lest you think I'm just headcanoning the character this way and talking nonsense, here's a quote from Yoshinori Kitase himself: "He isn't a straightforward hero like Superman; rather, he has lots of mysteries, self-doubts, and a real dark side."

What truly grinds my gears is the smug, gratingly knowing insinuation that portraying Cloud as a badass is somehow "wrong", or naïve characterization at best. and that only works which portray him some other way (awkward, goofy, insecure, etc…) are showing you the "real" character. And that, to me, is just nonsense.

Here's another example:

Same character, two different aesthetics, with different traits being emphasized. Both depictions are considered canon.

So the real question is, why does it have to be one or the other? Why is it so hard for people to reconcile the two?

I sometimes think we're in need of two separate fandoms, one for fans who want to Cloud continue to grow and develop as a character (like me), and the fans who just want him to remain the same awkward, insecure boy forever, i.e. people who prefer cartoon FFVII, and those who care about mythology and prefer to look at the story as a kind of bildungsroman. In any case, there's a reason why I keep underlining the darker, more feral side of this character, even to the point of over-emphasis, because it's at risk of falling prey to a fandom pseudo-narrative that simply rings hollow. Remember, his proper animal motif is that of a wolf, and that "cloud", as a verb, means "to darken, to obscure".

(Not just any wolf, by the way. The wolf.)

Lastly, I get the distinct feeling that we don't mean the same thing by "cool". Presumably, by "cool", some of you mean "cold and uncaring", which he is not. (Or possibly suave, depending on your definition.) The other is more a question of aesthetic cool on the one hand and valour on the other, both of which he possesses in spades. Cloud keeps taking on fights he shouldn't win, and yet often comes out on top, anyway, usually while pulling one insanely cool-looking stunt or another (e.g. the Shinra building escape, or putting a stop to Sephiroth's plans even without SOLDIER enhancements.)

It doesn't matter how much dorky nonsense the world tries to put him through; he'll always remain effortlessly cool in that regard.

While I've got your attention, I want to bring up one more thing related to mischaracterization (or rather, misperception): Aerith's temperament in Advent Children, specifically the idea that she's lost her original characterization and is just being depicted as some simplistic, incorruptible pure pureness (tm) messiah figure. Again, I don't think that's right. (It might be true for Kingdom Hearts, but tbh I never cared much for that series, so I'll refrain from further comment.) It's a long-running bit of accepted wisdom which, as far as I can tell, has no basis in reality.

The truth is, Advent Children's brief running time means there isn't a whole lot of opportunity for Square to focus on character building, but I contend that both Cloud and Aerith's original characterization is intact, just handled in a more subtle way. Note her comportment in scenes like the one above. She still evinces the same kind of playfulness as she did when she was among the living. For example, when Cloud tells her that he wants to be forgiven, her reaction is to ask "By whom?" in her usual, cheeky manner. She's still subtly poking fun at Cloud's tendency to take himself too seriously, while hinting at the fact that she doesn't blame him for her death. Or later, when she tells Zack "I don't want a kid that big!" She's still very much cracking wise, even in the Lifestream.

If she comes across as more ethereal than she did in the original story, well, that's because she is. Given that she's now in the afterlife, being that scrappy, streetwise flower girl from the slums is obviously less of a concern for her, at least as far as actual, physical scraps are concerned. But it's clear that her original personality is very much intact.

The same is true of Cloud and fans who grouse that he's being "emo"* in Advent Children, which is equally false. (*Lord help me but I detest that word. Being emo is when you're moping about listening to MCR after your girlfriend broke up with you, not dealing with the shattered pieces of your life and mourning the deaths of two of your closest friends. To call that "emo" is insulting to the character and narrative alike. In fact, it's an insult to language itself. If you care about good writing at all, I implore you to let this dreary, monosyllabic pustule of a word wither away and die in favour of more literate, meaningful descriptors.) He might be far more world-weary and disillusioned at this stage, but he still show various shades of mood (gentle, furious, defiant, haughty, protective, uncertain, disdainful, imperious, even cocky, much like OG FFVII):

Lastly, griping about this also denies character development and growth commensurate with where both of them are at this point in the story. During the events of the original FFVII, Cloud is still boyish and uncertain much of the time, whereas by the time Advent Children rolls around, he is older and tempered by experience. The same goes for Aerith. Same essential character, just acting according to her newfound circumstances.

I think that's it for now. I leave this rant here in the vain hope that somebody has something more interesting to say than "lawl emo chocobo-head boi!!!" for the millionth time.

I won't hold my breath, but it would be nice to be proven wrong for a change.