#cause people in this fandom seem to not understand how to comprehensively read

[hunter-sylvester]

Skullflower is Autistic: A Breakdown.

Buckle the fuck up.

Disclaimer: Don't take any of this too seriously.

Also all of this was written over a year ago with only minor edits. I'm just posting it now cause it's been rotting in my drafts and, like, fuck it.

I've wanted to try and make a comprehensive breakdown like this for a while just because I love these characters and very heavily interpret them all as autistic (with ADHD as well.) But this is just the perspective of one guy. And I probably overstate it but the fact that we can all have our own very personal interpretations about media is what's great about analysis & fandom.

Hunter Sylvester.

Yes I'm doing Hunter first, what do you think I am? Unbiased? Please.

Autistic Perfectionism. Hunter's autistic perfectionism is something I've mentioned before and somewhat struggle to describe satisfactorily. But to me the most obvious example is his inability to deal with the idea of Emily joining Skullfucker as a cellist. Obviously, there's the queer angle to this but I think two reasons can play a role at once. He's in love with Kevin so he doesn't want a girl that Kevin picked to be a part of their band. Additionally, I'd argue that he can't deal with the idea of having a girl cellist as their bass player because it in NO WAY fits the mental image that Hunter has in his mind of what he wanted Skullfucker to be. It doesn't match the perfect idea that he's dreamed of, that he holds onto for dear life, so he can't deal with it.

Hyperfixations. "Hunter's been into a lot of things since I've known him but he's stuck with metal longer than any of them." - Kevin. Need I say more? Well, I will anyway. The guy hyperfixates. I think the closest thing we have to a canon confirmed hyperfixation is Dungeons & Dragons. Because of what in my mind is a combination of Autism and ADHD in Hunter, they don't fully leave him. He still likes and plays D&D, but he's not as obsessed with it as he used to be when he made his dad buy him the most ridiculous game terrain that fucking lights up.

Special Interests. I think one of the easiest claims to make is that metal is a special interest for Hunter. He entrenches his entire life in it and reaches for it when a stressful situation happens to try and make himself feel more okay. (getting his hair cut off by Skip and relating his new look to Jason Newsted) It's clearly something that comforts him, having been obsessed with it ever since his mom left. Which, regardless of the specific circumstances, is a horridly stressful situation for any 12-13 year old.

Struggles with social interaction. He doesn't seem to have a lot of friends. He gets along with Robbie, Kevin (obviously) and the people he plays D&D with but that seems to be it. Especially whenever the situation gets very stressful, Hunter's mind immediately reaches for his comfort interest to try and make it through (or to lash out). He can't easily just be comfortable in a strange social situation. Or a strange situation in general.

Stims. Hunter stims by playing guitar. That's it, that's the whole point. And there's this little move:

Kevin Schlieb.

Neutrality. The way Kevin just takes Hunter and Emily as they are feels autistic to me.

Struggles with social interaction. And he clearly wants it to be easier for him. He wants to connect to people but he doesn't know how. It's not like he doesn't understand people. He does. He understands Hunter better than Hunter understands himself. "sometimes he's not so nice to people when he's uncomfortable" "You are afraid of everybody" "you treat everybody like shit and you make them hate you" But that understanding of how people think and work doesn't translate to his direct interactions with most of his peers. Maybe because he understands other neurodivergent people but not neurotypicals. The fact he does have a decent read on, at the very least, his best friend could also be indicative of the extra work Kevin has had to put in over the course of his life to try and understand people to begin with.

Directness. A lot of Kevin does feel direct to me. I suppose in a 'what you see is what you get' sort of way. He obviously has the whole protagonist thing going on which tends to end you up with pretty neutral, earnest and open characters.

Stims:

Emily Spector.

Gets overstimulated. Emily's outbursts could be attributed more to a struggle regulating her emotions. It's not a huge stretch to assume her mystery medication is a mood stabilizer. However, the idea of it being a combination of being overstimulated and then no longer being able to deal with her anger on top of the distress she's already feeling feels apt to me. This is a stretch, but, we only ever see her have outbursts at school. A nightmare environment for the stimuli sensitive. Emily is by far the character out of the main three we spend the least time with, which could easily explain my previous point away. We hardly see her out of school to begin with. But I think there can be merit in taking it as a part of the story, rather than an incidental effect of her being left by the wayside.

Black and white thinking. "So first you tell me that I should hate him, and now you want me to help him?" - Emily. No, he didn't say you should hate him, Emily. "You have every right to be mad- especially at Hunter!" - Kevin.

Directness. I mean she literally calls up Kevin to ask him if he wants to go fuck in a parking lot and more power to her. But it is very direct.

Struggles with social interaction. And apart from Skip & Co. having a particular hate-boner for Hunter, Emily might actually be the most widely ostracized for her lack of social finesse. Which would check out because society is brutally cruel to girls. Kevin is shown to have some positive interaction outside of the other two main characters, so is Hunter. And, yes, so is Emily. But it's only with the janitor of the school, who she is implied to have had previous interactions with. Having your only friend at school be the fucking janitor is not a neurotypical experience. I know I certainly got along easier with a handful of teachers than I did with my peers back when I was at school.

Whatever this is. Fam, I've BEEN there...but it's not neurotypical:

A 'little' note to end on: I want to state that I love all three of these character very dearly. I don't pretend that I don't have a favorite, but they are all amazing. There's various reasons why Metal Lords is such a comforting movie, but a big one, is that the characters act in a way that feels incredibly familiar. They act like me. They act like my autistic friends. We make weird facial expressions, we understand the world and each other through our interests. The way all of them talk feels so close to home. (The swearing is actually part of that. A lot of real people swear and over-censoring of that tends to bug me but that's kinda beside the point lmao)

[damnfandomproblems]

https://www.tumblr.com/damnfandomproblems/768147269164892160/fandom-problem-6500-im-trans-its-fine-if-i?source=share

Ways to fight for Trans Rights:

❌ Reporting a hate crime. Holding actual transphobic people responsible. Warning others of potentially violent people in their area.

✅ Guilting an ACTUAL trans person from playing a video game by an author who already made bank on the series.

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

Since this generated several responses, I'm going to include a compilation below.

Anon:

I hope y'all know not everyone is aware of all... that. Some buy the game cause they like the universe but dont follow all that is happening on social media. Some of them are not british/english speaking prople and just... don't know. You can either try to, politely, make them aware of what is happening, but if they already purchased it, no need to be agressive. I do not condone jkr, i do not play/entertain anything related to her anymore; but i still have my scarf or books or movies. Does that make me a bad person? Lets take a seat back from HP I am able to understand what is problematic in media/art; i enjoy HOTD and GOT, am i a bad person because i like the serie despite how problematic it is? No. If you refuse to talk to people buying anything HP related, then block them. Don't call someone a bad person without knowing them. Your opinion means nothing.

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Anon:

1. You can enjoy a piece of media without agreeing with the author/artist/developer etc. 2. Way to make Trans people seem like a hive mind. "You can't play this game, even if your trans. Virtue signaler." How about let people play the media they decide to play and decide for themselves it's controversial or not. Like, do you expect people to just follow your cause blindly? 3. THERE IS A TRANS CHARACTER IN THE GAME.

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Anon:

I get this may have been submitted prior to the Oct 7th attacks, and the dramatic rise in antisemitic attacks everywhere, so I won't go off like I wanted to. But to just get to my point, as a Jew, we kinda have bigger problems right now. I'm barely concerned with HP fans.

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Anon:

Here we go with the reading comprehension again. At least one person is the comments is going on about "buying" the game when OP never specified buying it. They just said "playing" the game. Huge difference. One monetarily supports the creators and such, the other doesn't.

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Anon:

This is WILD. The op makes a dozen assumptions, none of which may even be true. For starters the "you are not immune to propaganda" thing might be true in a sense, however OP is using it to imply people are all but guaranteed to fall for propaganda in media. And we all know that isn't true. A person who reads Hitler's shitty book (Mein Kampf) is not going to close it being a step closer to a Nazi sympathizer if they have basic information dissemination skills. A person who goes looking on Kiwifarms for information is not going to be radicalized if they have proper information dissemination skills. So OP is really telling on themselves here and saying the quiet part out loud: they have little or no ability to engage with questionable media without fearing they'll get affected by it in a negative way. They can't go plumbing like that. And they're saying others can't either, which just shows bad perspective. Their quote says the person was talking about playing a game. Playing it. The implications that come with "playing" a game are as follows: the person played it. That's it. If OP can't exercise one brain cell to understand that while yes, people have bought the game, playing it could easily mean they got it from a library or downloaded it illegally via torrent, that's on them. "You're a bad person" is beyond comedic given the above. Dare I say even if someone does buy the game, which I'm wholeheartedly against, saying someone is a "bad person" is still insane. Anyways, OP is basing practically their entire complaint on the premise of someone buying a game when that wasn't even what the quote says. Boo. Do not pass go.

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Anon:

Nooo, we're not bringing Scottish independence into your crusade against people who play a video game, leave my family out of this you keyboard warrior weirdo.

[utilitycaster]

omg thank you. it's been driving me crazy how many people have said that BH are evil, selfish people who hate the gods now and are happy to let the world die, when no? not at all? there have been many (repetitive) conversations criticising the gods' worth that i don't agree with fully. but a hugely important thing that most seem to be overlooking is that in spite of their personal beliefs every single one of them has continued to work towards saving the gods anyway. they're still heroes.

Yeah...for what it's worth, while the conversations are a lot, it makes sense for Bells Hells to be having them (particularly since it was repetitive to us when they were separated, but not to them). It just doesn't really make sense within the fandom. At some point you have to say "okay, are the gods operating by the laws of mortals, in which case 'are you worth saving' is a fucking threat - not that Deanna is wrong to say it, but that's definitely a conversation ender - or are they operating by laws mortals cannot comprehend in which case the actions we are criticizing them for might actually be for the greater good." And yes, the party's actions are louder than words, because it really doesn't matter if you care about or like the gods! It matters that you see the Vanguard and say "well that's fucked up and that's a decision that they should not make for the rest of the world, and neither should we; we should stop them."

I also happen to think that comparing the gods to government is where a lot of people are going wrong. Some of that is that again, it's frequently coming from people who are ex-evangelical/fundamentalist and many people in that situation have, in addition to an understandably if frustrating black-and-white attitude towards religion, a similarly deeply messed up grasp on politics (long story short: they treat Being a Good Leftist identically to how their parents treat Being Saved). But some of it is also that like...Ok so the gods are the government. Does your revolution provide a comprehensive plan for infrastructural maintenance and continuity of vital services? Or is it just like "well citizen whose healthcare gets interrupted and whose water gets shut off; we shall remember your noble sacrifice to my cause. Read theory so you know your suffering is correct."

(I'm also a bit cranky because I saw someone unironically compare this situation to the French revolution, and like, I know we're on the guillotine website but lest we forget, the French monarchy was quite literally restored less than 25 years after said bloody revolution and there was a whole dictatorship in between. If we're using real-world political coups and revolutions as the basis for killing the gods, do you know how many got replaced almost immediately by a totalitarian government? As Ashton said, yeah, kill everyone who disagrees with you, get it down to five people and it will be great.)

[raayllum]

hey I have some thoughts and theories on season six that I want to post but I feel like they’re kind of in cohesive and all over the place and rambly and I’m not really sure the best way to get them across especially when I’m more of a brainstorm type of personof like 10 different ways something could go I’m not really sure how to organize it or make it comprehensible to the average Tumblr scroller do you have any tips for this? because I want them to get reach cause I do feel like I’m contributing something but sometimes I think what I’m saying makes no sense at all or no one’s going to read all that you know. or, TLDR: Do you have any tips on making meta in general since you seem to be the main producer of it in the fandom ha ha, your input would be invaluable

So I actually did start writing a post a while ago about well, a kind of how to guide for writing meta, but it felt very self-gratuitous so it got semi-banished to the drafts although I still might finish / clean it up and post it someday

That being said your ask does make me realize that your query is not something I had considered going over, approaching it from more of a "here's how to train your brain to notice things that can be fun to write meta about" > organizing said thoughts, so thank you for bringing it to my attention! I hope some of this advice will be useful, and it may even have some overlap with other thoughts I had planned

The most useful way I've found when it comes to meta is treating it like an essay, with an introduction, body paragraphs / sections (and sometimes headers), and a conclusion of some kind when warranted. This means looking for similarities or main ideas with possible consistent threads (i.e. avenues Aaravos' evil plans could go might be split off into branches, each one detailing a different avenue). So that would be my best advice when it comes to organization.

However, most concerns about "not making sense" comes down to thinking through what context you have to provide for your audience to understand what you're discussing, depending on the length and depth of the leap / analysis. Are there any symbols being drawn upon we will want to explain in more detail before theorizing how they relate to the show? Are there any smaller details or scene summaries to include when putting these things together?

For example, when I wrote a meta about Rayla being the metaphorical light to Callum's darkness (pre-S5), I first had to establish why I associated her with light, drawing from visual examples from S1, S2, and S4, as well as the "Dear Callum" letter. Callum's side of things was more straightforward with dialogue in the text. Then I could take it one step further and talk about why this light-dark duality indicates that she will likely save him from possession after possibly leading to the fall in the first place. But I had to go from a bottom-top approach in steadily building the layers rather than starting from the top and working my way down, as for more symbolic matters in particular, that can often be confusing.

Although sometimes more simplistic, consulting the 5 Ws (who, what, where, when, and why) can likewise be useful in meta in terms of 1) tracing where certain ideas are coming from in the text, 2) what is being posited/suggested, and 3) why these things might be conflated, and 4) who might be involved. Obviously meta tends to be more "what" heavy, particularly when its predictive, but it's kinda like explaining why one character might be more involved in one plot line than another, etc. There's going to be a Why to that Who, and those things both combine to form the What (otherwise known as theory or just plain analysis).

And don't be concerned about if people are gonna wanna read it. I find most people in TDP fandom are pretty down to theorize even if they may not necessarily write a lot of it down themselves (and often have cool ideas/contributions too!) and I am the king of making things overly long, yet people muscle through anyway!

That's about it for me without more specifics (a character study vs foil vs theme vs prediction are all kinda different in their own way) but I would love to hear more if you'd like to message me off anon or if you have more thoughts/questions you'd like to leave in my inbox once that's opened back up! Have fun theorizing, have fun writing, always feel free to break longer metas up into smaller bite sized ones as you go, and I look forward to seeing them int the tags!

[discluded]

On MA and fanservice. Seems like discussion in anglophone spaces misses cultural expectations - many things MA do and say are expected of them as being a cp (even for het cp). Many actors in the thai BL world are very obviously queer - they dont hide, they just dont come out. Unpopular opinion, I honestly do think these couples (when both are queer) are getting together at the same rates as the het cps. Its human nature to like a person who is compatible with you and shares your interests.

[context]

FOR THE RECORD, I think most of his research happened in 2021 or early 2022 so like, MileApo would not be a blip on his radar during the time he would be talking to industry insiders. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Also hilariously just, take his big-headed declarations with a grain of salt. Appreciate it for what it is, but he got into a feud with one of my RL friends about Johnny's fandom a couple of months ago so 🤣 he's very self-important about how he has ~insider access too

Friend, I don't feel comfortable legislating morality. When it's a matter of fandom history / context with multiple perspectives discussed, sure, but in many instances, I don't know you might extrapolate approval or disapproval.

Also, this is not chastisement so don't take it as such, but I want to encourage everyone to be more confident in their own opinions.

If you don't feel it's wrong, like the tone of your message implies, then you don't need my or anyone's approval. And if not seeking validation of your opinions is hard for you sometimes, then practice!

I feel strongly about mentioning this since your message came in the context of me mentioning HP fandom history and toxic fandom participants, and I have no qualms highlighting who some of these people are and what they did when they took advantage of others with their more assertive personalities.

One such individual is thanfict!on (lol don't want them to find me) but this person not only caused drama in HP and other fandoms but also led a cult that eventually led to the deaths of some cult members. (See the fanlore article I linked about them.)

In regards to practicing cult/groupthink protective behaviors, it also help buffer against political propaganda.

But to answer your question: 1) it's not criminal in any way nor is it hurting anyone to believe such a thing and 2) as long as you are aware that an opinion about the people's relationships [general] is irrelevant to how those relationships actually are and don't get angry when there's evidence pointing to otherwise, then it's fine. A . absolutely asinine example of this was I once saw a person said their "opinion" was that Mile was closer to Build than to Apo... *makes Oprah "see" gesture*. Or the toxic solos who keep insisting that Mile and Apo barely tolerate each other, though their narrative is always a mess.

In many cases, we don't know the specifics of people's relationships with each other, and as long as you understand your own opinion has no effect on that actual relationship, there's no problem if you think one way or another. 🤷🏻‍♀️

For the record, I think my opinion is perfectly clear :) I trust y'all ability in reading comprehension. I just don't believe in telling people how to think or guiding them to a conclusion. I have faith in your abilities to do what's right for yourself.

The lovely thing about having differing opinions but civil conversation is that we can still respect each other and disagree! No harm, no foul. Some things set me off more than others, and we all come from contexts in which certain things are more sensitive than others.

[d1sc01nf3rn0]

Everytime that I remember every fandom has a huge fanbase of men that don't understand that a male character is supposed to be flawed and a bad person, and they just project themselves on them because they're unable to understand they're just seeing their own issues, I get pissed.

There's the stupid amount of male fans in the DiscoElysium that genuinely think that being an alcoholic is fun because "my ex was awful" and "I'm depressed" is cool or funny. And let's not start on the part of the fanbase that actually agree with fascist Harry.

The amount of male fans of Scott Pilgrim that think that hating Ramona is cool, and that she was in the wrong, for being basically in what is depicted as a codependent relationship with an abusive guy. The amount of fans that think that is okay that he cheated on her and Knives, that he dated an underage girl, and overall just project themselves on him and wish they were him.

The amount of fans of ChainsawMan that keep disregarding the fact that Denji is a traumatized 15 year old that has been sa'd multiple times by older women, or think that is funny. The amount of fans that think the same things as the CSM cult in part two, despite the fact they're directly called a Terrorist cult in the manga. And the stupid amount of fans that sexualize Kobeni when she straight up tells Denji she would end up being basically trafficked if she had not gotten the job as a devil hunter.

The stupid, ridiculous, awful, amount of male fans in the Fallout fanbase that are racist, fascist, mysoginistic, homophobic, and just awful people. The fact there's always a mod maker that ends up being denounced for abusing someone. The fact they defended a writer that was denounced legally for abuse. The amount of YouTubers that have been denounced for being problematic; to the point one even had a "gentleman manifesto". The absurd amount of mods that include sexualization, race changes, killing essential characters, etc.

It just fucking sucks. You cannot be a women, or a minority that enjoys these things, cause there's always a huge part of the fanbase that's compiled completely of cishet men, whose purpose in the fandom seems to alienate everyone else, and be the most insufferable prick ever.

I'm so fucking tired of them having 0 literacy, having 0 reading comprehension, and being so adamant on not working on their problems and instead choosing to project themselves on a fictional character, and make it everybody else's problem.

Is ridiculous how every girl, gay, or trans person I know has a personal history of a guy that's just like that in every fandom they're in. Is ridiculous how a lot of the time we will end up leaving the fanbase altogether, because most of the time that's easier and safer than keep being on it. Is ridiculous how a lot of the time we have to pretend we don't like these things, or keep it to ourselves and never be able to share it with someone else, because we're specifically trying to avoid coming into contact with these guys. And god forbid you make a safe space that does not include cishet men, cause they will harrass you and keep bothering you, and just never realizing that they're the fucking problem.

[uneconomy]

New Buzzword: Parasocial, when it still should be what are monopolies, people, third spaces and leveraging tech

yeah it’s me more about having some documents saying I was born in America and in two technospheres and it’s terrible. 

Sometimes I feel like I should be careful about what I write because like it took me awhile but I was born in 1986 and I have two sisters, one born 1985 and the other 1987.  And there’s that book called 1984 which I never read. 

And it’s weird because I’m not white and a lot of what I feel how technology is practiced in like a golden age if there is one is how white people do things.  It’s starts to be obvious when you look at pop singers.  Like why fandom (maybe we should call it the first iteration of computer colony) is what it is, it’s because of America.  

( I think technology (platforms and such) could have been a very bad thing when you start looking at authoritarian countries, ie China. Like you can’t say what you want to on the internet.And like why is it so difficult for them to have a cross over pop singer. K-pop just look like the Forever 21 abyss. And yeah on YouTube I am mean to East Asians. East Asians do you think you would be here if it wasn’t for democracy. ) When you start reading about pop culture in America, it’s romanticized to glorify that person but you know they are industralists who are ever more want to make more money.  I guess that’s why Elon Musk lives in Los Angeles not San Francisco and one of his ex-wife is an indie musician.  I’m an elder millennial so I definitely have more 20th century parasocial vibes.  Like I’m oh cool some white girl with blonde hair in like a l’oreal ad. Like if I thought I was beautiful I would compare myself to her and not think too much about it.  I would just go read a book or something. I do think very fondly of growing up close to NYC but in a suburb where there was a majority of black kids.  It’s kinda of beyond me to understand like what it is to make a public school with mostly black kids and black housing ownership in like really white surburbs.  But to me, every time I think about it it just seems more and more perfect.  It did have it’s issues like I couldn’t remember one black male teacher in the 6 years I went to school there.  But you know like when I walked around there were no police and like I was definitely more nervous kid but if you found a sport you could play in the open fields.  And like I was still shy but like being around black teenagers women in a non academic space later in life made like such a huge impact on me.  Like oh this how the conversational talk to each other and not what people try to impersonate on social media. Like I don’t I’ll ever really fully understand like why black female singers sing the way that they do cause it’s like way more complicated than just me interpreting it as hearing pretty things but like I distance myself from people who are like Beyoncé is everything and do everything thing for them.  Like I do enjoy when I see a YouTuber who looks like Rihanna, I’m like why isn’t youtube just Rihanna. (And like if we did make Rihanna computer colony, would it be so bad) Like yeah I’m an elder millennial where yeah it’s nice to see Rihanna at your fingertips but like her life and other people’s are so layered.  Like what really is A.I. and why is sold to us like that.  How is it that I can get $2 yarn from Turkey but like it’s like a mystery to find out how to grow your own cilantro. 

So I guess what I’m saying as platforms like TikTok and I guess Meta get more and more sophisticated like it’s not as like in 20th century parasocial, it’s way more complicated in the 21 century and like nobody is comprehensively educating people.  Like I would go watch after school MTV with Carson and think it was the world to me not knowing things like democracy, government funding, and the idea that there is multiculturalism really was the foundation to making a society and not how nowadays if like I don’t get my eyeliner right there’s like fifty thousand pretty girls on youtube to show you things. (Like why isn’t there more videos on like oh this is how business and government work to make a traffic light.)  It’s all lady this and lady that, we just going to start having things like lady water. Like what are the end game for those algorithms.  Figuring out mine might be a little bit difficult because for quite some time I did call myself Chinese Jamaican and now that I’m just a few towns over from my home town in like a beach town I’m like these people probably think I’m Mexican. And it sucks for me because they are people using bitcoin and like it’s affecting how people pay for things and like I can’t figure out my dumb bank account.  It’s so annoying. 

And now that I look at the title I did, it’s actually way behind me.  Like I’m trying to figure out health insurance, it’s so confusing.  Like somebody seriously needs to get into why we have Filipino nurse when like they like come from a country that is a dictatorship.  Like what. But like lets look into podcasts, the other day I was listening to Into It with Sam Sanders and he has a bunch of people on and one of them said they really like The Daily by The NY Times because of the host and I was like yeah I like Sam Sanders and I hope he gets everything but like knowing there are other media companies who also want to make bank, it just sounds like just a way to advertise news into it starts out with live lectures in nyc and then like what is it when it’s a lecture that in Central Park, where it’s like well it’s outside and it’s just a couple of mics. What kind of announcements can you really make in such a cosmopolitan park. Like is informing people the result or this idea you can endlessly keep people idolizing themselves as a person who thinks of as an informed person. Like what I trying to say is if media just  a medium like who is actually for.  And if it is like I feel like at least there’s dua lipa she like at least reads books.  I’m not a good example but like who’s actually measuring how long it takes to figure out societal problems. Like at those lectures in Central Park like who is actually collecting all that data while youre there. Guys what is Malcom Gladwell’s Pushkin Industries.  He made his money on pop psychology just to launch his sociological cult to make money for some white off white dudes.  And like he really could have helped black people.  Like where are the black doctors? I was listening to Point Forward that I randomly found and they were like the only people who were like why is it after black kids graduate why is it so difficult to get broadband service. 

And I guess what I’m trying to say is if we are not going to talk about data in america and how terrible is in East Asia like can I at least get a t-shirt with east asias who worked for the collective punch up. Cause I literally have no idea who’s actually looking at the end game for East Asians.  No boba is not that good. And no it’s not that nice to have that many nail salons in a town.  Like a good book anyone. 

[hellacioushag]

tw: abuse/sexual assault

the hypocrisy of people using faux outrage about others drawing parallels between tamlin and azriel’s stories when they didn’t bat an eye about someone drawing similarities between a rapist and a sexual assault survivor to justify their shipping needs is astounding. if you read the post no one was saying tamlin and azriel are the same. i’m gonna detail my own thoughts on why these two mirror each others narrative, but with key differences. 

abusive childhoods:

i feel like people forget that both tamlin and azriel were victims of an abusive household. the key difference is azriel’s history has made him want to defend those who cannot defend themselves/punish those who are the perpetrators of violence while tamlin gave into his anger and violence at the world. it’s a classic tale of being an abuse victim. you either grow up to separate yourself from your past and do better than your parents or you become just like them. 

tamlin’s brothers would have murdered him as a babe in his bassinet if they suspected he had potential or desire for the high lord position. we also know tamlin’s father held slaves and was aligned with others who shared his view of the world in the war. pair these bits together and we can assume tamlin’s father was a more aggressive and violent father than even beron is. tamlin grew up in a home where he did not feel safe. and when his father tasked tamlin with finding out his enemy’s secrets tamlin obliged. 

he was present and possibly participated in the butcher and murder of rhys’ family. this was a significant moment for tamlin’s turn into becoming an abuser like his father. he could have lied, he could have denied knowing the information about rhys’ mother and sister, but instead he gave that information over to his father knowing he was signing a death warrant. some could argue that he may have done this because of his own father’s abusive tendencies toward him, but this was the moment imo that tamlin went from a victim to a predator. 

as for azriel we all know the abuse he suffered by his family. how his brothers tortured him and tried to have him killed. how he was denied any affection or love growing up and was taught that his existence was a stain on his family’s reputation. azriel could have easily turned into an abuser himself the way tamlin did, but being dumped into the illyrian camps and finding cassian and rhys saved him from that fate. his brotherhood with them was the turning point for azriel to no longer be a victim, but a survivor. 

anger issues:

you can’t deny that both tamlin and azriel suffer with anger and control issues. it’s clear in the text they both have a barely contained, deep-seated anger that could be deathly when let loose. the key difference is tamlin has no one to reign him in, no one of his equal to calm that rage. azriel has this support system and has been shown to have utilized it when needed. i’m not going to go into a full analysis on all the examples, but I will point out the main ones I think we all know.

tamlin’s explosive anger was shown when he blew apart the library when feyre and he disagreed about her safety measures in acomaf. he could have easily hurt her had she not had magic to protect her (as seen when this same moment was repeated in acowar). tamlin let his rage and helplessness consume his every thought about protecting the person he loved and instead became the very threat he sought to protect her from. he let his paranoia about her being in danger prevent him from listening to her needs and locked her in a cage. this in itself was abusive, there’s no arguing this point. the part to note is that he as a high lord had no one of equal measure to talk him down, to help him see reason. when lucien tried to step in he was dismissed and abused himself. when feyre tried to speak up on her own behalf tamlin refused to listen and as high lord his word/wants/needs were law in his lands. he had no one who could provide a healthy perspective and so left unchecked he continued his abusive behavior.

azriel’s cold, lethal anger was shown when he exploded at the meeting with the high lords in acowar and attacked eris for a slight against mor. he was inches from letting the rage take hold of him and ending eris’s life. feyre, his high lady and friend, was able to calm him down and make him see reason. azriel is a trained spy and torture master, he’s supposed to be able to keep a cool head in high stressed situations, to act unemotionally to get his job done. however reliving the trauma of seeing a broken mor and imagining eris leaving her there consumed him with rage he could no longer contain. i’m not here to justify his actions. mor’s own trauma of seeing azriel fly off the deep end is enough for me to condemn his behavior. i am however pointing out that i think his reaction was not just about mor, but about reliving his own helplessness and loss of control and letting it consume him into a lethal rage. 

the key difference with tamlin and azriel’s moments of all consuming rage is that azriel had someone to talk him down and let him see reason. tamlin refused the help of his own support system (lucien/feyre) and instead gave into his abusive and volatile tendencies. azriel could have easily done that same, but because of his brotherhood and friendships he has people to pull him back from the edge. 

desire for love and acceptance:

both tamlin and azriel (and all characters in this series tbh) have a strong desire to love and be loved in return. the problem is when that desire for love becomes an obsession and entitlement. it becomes harmful when you think you’re owed something. 

tamlin let his desire for feyre become obsessive. he had his soldiers hunt her down to drag her back to his home. he refused to accept that she was happy and healing away from him because he was in despair without her. he couldn’t fathom that she could be finding peace when he was being torn apart. he allied himself with monsters because he convinced himself that his love for feyre was the stuff of legend and that he was acting in a heroic manner. and even when he found out that she had a mate, something that is considered a sacred bond above all things to their people, he refused to accept that the cauldron/the mother/fate could be so cruel to deny him his happily ever after. feyre was his and he would reclaim her no matter what. he would defy the mother herself for his love. the problem with this is that he did not take into account feyre’s needs. when you love someone you put their needs above your own. he didn’t care that feyre was mated, that she loved rhys, because his obsession for her and belief that she belonged to him outweighed all reason. his love for her turned toxic if you can even call it love to begin with. 

azriel is a bit different, but the parallels are there. he’s not at the obsessive point yet (masturbating to pain killers notwithstanding) and he may never get there. one could argue he spent 500+ years being obsessed with mor, but his support system held him in check. that when he saw mor flirting and sleeping with others he leaned on his brothers, on cassian, to distract him and help him through the pain of knowing the person he loved didn’t love him back. and regarding elain i think whatever is between them is entirely too new to relate it to his feelings for mor, but it’s also looking to be just as unhealthy. he didn’t bat an eye about fighting lucien in a blood duel and seemed to welcome the challenge. he knows that if lucien were to die that pain could destroy elain. even if she doesn’t love lucien, has not accepted the mating bond, she and he are soulbound. if he were to die it could shatter her, but he didn’t seem to think of that consequence at all. 

when he questioned the wisdom of making them mates in the first place, when he claimed “what if the cauldron was wrong?” and then rationalized his thoughts by saying 3 sisters for 3 brothers.... this is a callback to tamlin refusing to believe the cauldron would deny him love by mating feyre to rhys. questioning why he doesn’t have a mate of his own isn’t inherently bad, but implying that because his brothers found mates with 2 of 3 sisters so lucien doesn’t deserve the 3rd is. when he doesn’t talk to his brother about why he desires elain and instead talks about why fate has robbed him of a sister it stands to reason why rhys would take exception to this way of thinking. it’s bordering on toxic and i’m glad rhys was there to pull rank on azriel. 

are tamlin and azriel the same?

no, didn’t you listen to anything said? they are not the same and the key difference as to why is because azriel has a support system of brothers and friends that he can rely on to keep him in check. tamlin has pushed away any form of support and has embraced his beastly abusive behavior. saying that their story parallels is not saying azriel is an abuser like tamlin. it’s pointing out why tamlin’s story is a cautionary tale for azriel’s future journey. it’s outlining that while they may share similar aspects of an abusive past, anger issues, and longing for love and affection they are not the same people at their core because of the way they deal with their trauma. 

[penrose-e]

i want to talk for a second about the re:dream situation that happened this past week, mostly because i'm interested in figuring out my thoughts abt it and I just wanna put them somewhere so I can move on and go back to playing animal crossing in peace

i want to start by saying that i would consider myself just a fan of dream's content, i think both the dsmp and the manhunt series are really cool, and I've been following him for over two years now, but I'm no way super involved in him like other people are, or how i would be involved in the bts fandom. however i do sometimes read up on what's going on on twitter and outside of it to make sure that no one i follow has actually been an absolute arsehole the whole time i was consuming their content, so i am aware of the various situations dream has been in, and i have listened to all sides of the stories always trying to understand what was going on and what was my stance on it.

for me personally, this is nothing new. when i was way more involved in k-pop and bts, a new drama would pop up at least 1.5 times a week, and while sometimes it was based on something that would actually require attention and would be followed by consequences, most times it was the result of people being bored online and finding dopamine out of stirring up things that would bring absolute chaos on the platform for a couple of days.

rinse and repeat.

when i found myself in the mcyt fandom, nothing was much different from what I was used to already after years of being in fandom spaces online, except this time the global approach to certain situations seemed a little odd to what I was used to. i kind of dismiss it to it just being caused by the fact that the vast majority of the mcyt fandom is made up by us citizens, which would absolutely influence the way certain things are understood and contextualised. i wouldn't say I generally agree with the way the common approach is, but I understand where it comes from and why it is the way it is, so I generally stay out of it.

also, i was kind of new to the content creators I was getting into, so if any drama would pop up, I would just follow along and dig for sources, think about it and read people's opinions about it and about them. i immediately understood the role that both "that part of the fandom" and "the antis" had in this fandom specifically (dsmp), and once I got the dynamic down, I thought that all the fans would agree whenever these situations would come up, mostly because I had the same experience as an ARMY, and it wasn't any news to me the existence of these people.

what i had not understood yet was the fact that the combination of these factors- namely the americentric way of thinking, the average age of the fandom and the anti-fandom, the assumed lack of fandom experience of these people- would absolutely be a recipe for disaster and constant online discord even in spaces that share the same apparent views and likes.

these past few days have absolutely proven this correct in my opinion.

if i'm not mistaken, the latest Dream Situation started with a reply to Ant's tweet. a joke at the expense of who I believe is a homophobic american tv personality, who's also become kind of a meme for the absolute bullshit he spews (I know, I've seen the videos). this was immediately followed by the -either purposeful or not- misconstruct of dream's joke– I can't say if this was because of simple lack of reading comprehension or context on their part, or more because some people will find any excuse to throw dirt on people they don't like.

dream then replied to some of these people, and some were after his latest tweet about his experience with his own sexuality, and it appeared that one of them decided to private a few minutes after, saying that they feared they were going to be doxxed since dream replied to them and that they didn't feel safe because of it.

i think this is where there was a split between the fandom and anti-fandom understanding of context and dream's very own.

i saw as my twitter mutuals and fans and antis alike would retweet tweets of people accusing dream of allegedly sending "his army of 13-years-olds" to doxx and harrass and endanger this poor person and "every person that simply criticised" him, all the while seeing dream talking about how seeing people "cower" in their freshly privated account after he'd exposed their stupidity gave him some sort of dumb internet pleasure.

my god. what the fuck is happening.

i think at this point i was severely annoyed at the usual accusation where dream would somehow have any control over the assholes that follow him that decide that doxxing people is the way to go, but the thing that was making me confused the most was the fact that even fans were now saying that it was somehow dream's responsibility.

i think i have never seen the opinion of "if you know people are going to get doxxed, you shouldn't draw attention to them" shared more. what? i thought I was lucid dreaming. as far as I was aware, nobody had been doxxed. people were yelling and shouting but absolutely nothing had happened, except for this person privating in fear and people saying dream bad dream evil for it.

but the thing that got me the most is that somehow I was supposed to feel bad for this random person who had decided that being a homophobic dickhead was the way to go. people were painting it as if this person had simply and out of the goodness of their heart criticised dream for whatever-the-fuck, and instead of being rational about it, dream had decided to insult them and call his army of toxic fans to endanger them.

the tweets i saw as they were happening were telling a completely different story. this was a random person who decided to feel enlightened by calling dream a homophobe, somehow trying to paint it as if dream was faking a coming out to hide the fact that he was a homophobe (what homophobe would do that tf?), and then dream replied to it calling it absolute bullshit.

head in hands. this is so stupid. this is the internet. talk shit get hit, anyone?

genuinely after years being online it feels like the compass is completely skewed in the mcyt area of the fandom ecosystem. like why.

of course this isn't to say that this person or anyone could ever deserve to get doxxed or endangered in any way, but it is NOT news that this is a big danger of the internet, especially if you're American and/or you are not careful about the personal information about yourself you put online. this to say that it's not dream's fault if some people are so keen on committing crimes just because they like the rush it gives them. people have gotten doxxed for the dumbest shit online– hell, dream got doxxed because he plays Minecraft and he's cool at it, if that's not a dumb fucking reason I don't know what would be.

i've seen a lot of people say that the best course of action dream could take would be to stop replying to "the haters", but as dream himself has pointed out, people get doxxed even when dream replies to them for something positive. would the answer then become for dream to not answer to anyone? sure! I'm sure that would absolutely transform that number of people that get doxxed for replying to dream in a negative way from 1 to 0.

but that would be more of a loss for dream's engagement with his own fans than a win for them. I'm sure it would be an absolute win for people that want dream to shut the fuck up, but the thing is– it's never been about them.

i digress. the reality is that no one got doxxed, and the "omg I'm privating bc dream insulted me and now I'm being sent death threats and I'm sure I will be doxxed" is the most common response for people that get called the fuck out for their bullshit, no matter the fandom.

i don't feel bad for people that talk shit and then get sent insults by dumb teenagers that have nothing better to do. if that's the extent of it, literally turn off your phone. it is that easy. like everyone's been saying, there are consequences to saying dumb shit online, and that includes people that have 60 followers at best, not only big content creators.

to add to this, content creators are human too, and they have all the right to defend themselves online if someone says some bullshit. especially if said bullshit is homophobic.

on the topic of "content creators are human too", I think a lot of people don't like dream because of his adhd. i remember talking about this with a fellow adhd friend of mine, as we realised that two of the content creators that get shit on the most have adhd, and part of the harsh criticism they face is always because of their adhd symptoms.

of course dream is impulsive, of course he's not good with words and communicating, the kid's got bees for brains. that doesn't excuse some dumb shit he's said and done in the past, but I'm not going to demonize him for it. like he's a 20 something year old with a Minecraft hyperfixation and no pr team, why do some people expect him to handle these situation like he's a corporation? he's a youtuber tf.

not only that, but he has apologised countless times and he has said that he knows he's not flawless, he's willing to learn and listen to legit criticism. he's shown he can do that, and he has also shown that he can differentiate well-meaning criticism from flat out dumbassery some people throw this way, which I have recently learnt is a skill not everyone seems to be blessed with.

i genuinely do not understand what fans and antis want from him. I've seen people deem his latest apology "stupid and just not enough", and I'm slightly stumped. he acknowledged his past mistakes countless times, he has explained why they're wrong and how he's grown and how he's planning to grow, what else is he supposed to do?

this is not to say that everyone that genuinely felt awful for the offensive edit he's done should accept his apology- that's for them to do if they feel like it. this is mostly just me wondering what then is considered "a good enough apology" in the eyes of the people that are saying that it is not good enough and that it is full of excuses.

i think i have a lot more to say and express and a lot more i have not mentioned, but i've been writing this for an hour and genuinely i have better things to do than keep on hyperfocusing on this situation and why i think it's stupid. i think i'm upset because i can see the bastardization of everything that has happened and that has been said just creating this weird rift even between people i thought liked dream as well, or so they said, that i considered having a good brain.

idk. im irked. im gonna go play the sims

[ilikekidsshows]

First thing first, I want to say thank you for all the counterargument for the senti theory. Seriously, during all these time when people shouting THE THEORY IS CANON your blog always give me relief and I thank you wholeheartedly. Even when people ridicule me saying I'm in denial because apparently the 'staff being throwing obvious hints like crazy' and 'ambasador confirmed it has been building since s1' your blog always give me assurance that I need.

Second and lastly, I don't understand when people said 'the hints is there' because I never see it, what hints? Gabriel fidget with the ring is something similar with what I do when I'm nervous, adrien obeying his father is something a child would do, even more so in abusive situation and it's normal thing that has nothing to do with the whole senti being thing. I'm watching the show with my niece and nephew who is 9 and 11 which is the target audience for miraculous and they see nothing as well. So why would the show use something that the kids wouldn't understand or catch in the first glance? That just beyond my comprehension, actually the whole theory is.

Thanks! I've pretty much accepted my role as the chairman of the "People Who Don't Like SentiAdrien" Support Group.

This is actually something I thought about yesterday but I didn’t have the time to make a post then, so thanks for reminding me. A big thing about the "SentiAdrien story" is that it exists on social media, not in the show. And the Theory Stans get mixed up over this and think that the show has been obvious about it when it hasn’t. It’s partially because of their confirmation bias: they think it’s fact so everything is obvious evidence for it even when there are other explanations too. However, some of it is caused by an overindulgence in SentiAdrien content.

The SentiAdrien Theory really got going through season four, because the season four fandom is the perfect breeding ground for it. The episodes drop sporadically, Gabriel is acting erratically and the show seems to be full of high drama when said “high drama” is mostly played for laughs or solved pretty easily. This atmosphere has people expecting the show to be grimdark while also turning to fanworks to pass the time, and a lot of the fanworks are about the SentiAdrien Theory, since it’s popular and grimdark. There are fanfics and fanart about it and, most importantly, there are a lot of posts where people pick at minor details and build elaborate structures of symbolism and meaning out of them.

And the people who are into the Theory post a lot about the theory. Just like how seeing similar Salt posts again and again slowly makes you think like they do, the theory blogs wear down your disbelief first into “there wouldn’t be so many posts if it wasn’t likely” and then into “there wouldn’t be so many posts if it wasn’t basically canon”. I originally blocked the SentiAdrien tag even before I actively started disliking the theory simply because I saw SO MANY POSTS ABOUT IT. I had other shit to do than read the same points over and over again.

Just like people reading salt fics and salt posts start to believe the salt takes are canon, the people reading these posts analyzing how every single detail in the show is now evidence or foreshadowing for SentiAdrien get the impression that the episodes these analyses are based on are about nothing but dropping hints about SentiAdrien, so they think season four is about SentiAdrien when it really isn’t. There are so many posts explaining how all these blink-and-you'll-miss-it details are pointing towards SentiAdrien that people think: "of course it's obvious. It's basically been said word-for-word with how much hints there are!" when, in fact, every single one of those hints is questionable. It's very much not obvious to anyone who isn't a Theory Stan and constantly surrounded by Theory Stans telling them it's basically canon. The only reason I think about SentiAdrien consistently is because I'm in the Miraculous fandom on tumblr. If I was just watching the show on my spare time, I would not think it was even on the table as an option.

Because, here's the thing: no one in the show has raised a single question about Sentimonsters. The show isn't questioning the existence of Sentimonsters and what they are exactly. Any actual mystery show actually has at least one character wonder about the things the audience is supposed to be wondering about or has a clearl, definitive hint to point people in the right direction. You're meant to solve the mystery with the characters. Anyone who looks at Gabriel fidgeting with a ring will only think: "SentiAdrien Confirmed!" if someone outside of the show has told them about the theory beforehand. No one would immediately jump to that conclusion, at most they'd wonder "SentiAdrien? Maybe." The hints are less obvious than the Theory Stans think they are.

This tendency to overblow the SentiAdrien Theory is even worse with people who don’t actually watch the episodes, but just kinda absorb them through osmosis from posts made by the rest of the fandom. This is very common practice for the Miraculous fandom, since the new episodes are kinda hard to get your hands on at the moment. Because of that, there are people who haven’t seen the episodes and have only read about how this or that episode "foreshadowed" or “confirmed” SentiAdrien.

I’m not even exaggerating about some of the Stans being people who haven’t watched the season. I got someone telling me that ‘Ephemeral’ already revealed that Adrien was a Sentimonster, and several more claiming that the SentiAdrien plot has been carefully built up during season four and it’s continuing from what started in the episode ‘Ladybug’, you know, the episode I've mocked repeatedly for dedicating a whopping 59 seconds (not even a full minute) to building up sympathy for Sentibug.

Season four is apparently only about SentiAdrien despite the fact that one of the big themes the people actually watching the show have noticed is that Adrien’s presence in the average episode was greatly diminished in the first half, which is followed by Adrien getting demoted from being Ladybug’s partner in the second. I bet you can agree that an arc about how Ladybug and Cat Noir have an unequal relationship that focuses much more on Ladybug’s side of things is not the same as building up a story about how Sentimonsters are fully sentient and Adrien is one. These Stans are completely reconstructing the narrative of the show to fit their bias, which is: “I really want SentiAdrien to be a thing, so the entire season four that exists in my head is just about that no matter what happens in the actual episodes.”

[shortnotsweet]

Bakudeku: A Non-Comprehensive Dissection of the Exploitation of Working Bodies, the Murder of Annoying Children, and a Rivals-to-Lovers Complex

I. Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

II. Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

III. How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

IV. Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

V. Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

VI. Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

VII. Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

Disclaimer

It needs to be said that there is definitely a place for disagreement, discourse, debate, and analysis: that is a sign of an active fandom that’s heavily invested, and not inherently a bad thing at all. Considering the amount of source material we do have (from the manga, to the anime, to the movies, to the light novels, to the official art), there are going to be warring interpretations, and that’s inevitable.

I started watching and reading MHA pretty recently, and just got into the fandom. I was weary for a reason, and honestly, based on what I’ve seen, I’m still weary now. I’ve seen a lot of anti posts, and these are basically my thoughts. This entire thing is in no way comprehensive, and it’s my own opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. If I wanted to be thorough about this, I would’ve included manga panels, excerpts from the light novel, shots from the anime, links to other posts/essays/metas that have inspired this, etc. but I’m tired and not about that life right now, so, this is what it is. This is poorly organized, but maybe I’ll return to fix it.

Let’s begin.

Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

There are a lot of different reasons, that can be trivial as you like, to ship or not to ship two (or more) characters. It could be based purely off of character design, proximity, aversion to another ship, or hypotheticals. And I do think that it’s totally valid if someone dislikes the ship or can’t get on board with his character because to them, it does come across as abuse, and the implications make them uncomfortable or, or it just feels unhealthy. If that is your takeaway, and you are going to stick to your guns, the more power to you.

But Bakudeku’s relationship has canonically progressed to the point where it’s not the emotionally (or physically) abusive clusterfuck some people portray it to be, and it’s cheap to assume that it would be, based off of their characterizations as middle schoolers. Izuku intentionally opens the story as a naive little kid who views the lens of the Hero society through rose colored glasses and arguably wants nothing more than assimilation into that society; Bakugou is a privileged little snot who embodies the worst and most hypocritical beliefs of this system. Both of them are intentionally proven wrong. Both are brainwashed, as many little children are, by the propaganda and societal norms that they are exposed to. Both of their arcs include unlearning crucial aspects of the Hero ideology in order to become true heroes.

I will personally never simp for Bakugou because for the longest time, I couldn't help but think of him as a little kid on the playground screaming at the top of his lungs because someone else is on the swingset. He’s red in the face, there are probably veins popping out of his neck, he’s losing it. It’s easy to see why people would prefer Tododeku to Bakudeku.

Even now, seeing him differently, I still personally wouldn’t date Bakugou, especially if I had other options. Why? I probably wouldn’t want to date any of the guys who bullied me, especially because I think that schoolyard bullying, even in middle school, affected me largely in a negative way and created a lot of complexes I’m still trying to work through. I haven’t built a better relationship with them, and I’m not obligated to. Still, I associate them with the kind of soft trauma that they inflicted upon me, and while to them it was probably impersonal, to me, it was an intimate sort of attack that still affects me. That being said, that is me. Those are my personal experiences, and while they could undoubtedly influence how I interpret relationships, I do not want to project and hinder my own interpretation of Deku.

The reality is that Deku himself has an innate understanding of Bakugou that no one else does; I mention later that he seems to understand his language, implicitly, and I do stand by that. He understands what it is he’s actually trying to say, often why he’s saying it, and while others may see him as wimpy or unable to stand up for himself, that’s simply not true. Part of Deku’s characterization is that he is uncommonly observant and empathetic; I’m not denying that Bakugou caused harm or inflicted damage, but infantilizing Deku and preaching about trauma that’s not backed by canon and then assuming random people online excuse abuse is just...the leap of leaps, and an actual toxic thing to do. I’ve read fan works where Bakugou is a bully, and that’s all, and has caused an intimate degree of emotional, mental, and physical insecurity from their middle school years that prevents their relationship from changing, and that’s for the better. I’m not going to argue and say that it’s not an interesting take, or not valid, or has no basis, because it does. Its basis is the character that Bakugou was in middle school, and the person he was when he entered UA.

Not only is Bakugou — the current Bakugou, the one who has accumulated memories and experiences and development — not the same person he was at the beginning of the story, but Deku is not the same person, either. Maybe who they are fundamentally, at their core, stays the same, but at the beginning and end of any story, or even their arcs within the story, the point is that characters will undergo change, and that the reader will gain perspective.

“You wanna be a hero so bad? I’ve got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life...go take a swan dive off the roof!”

Yes. That is a horrible thing to tell someone, even if you are a child, even if you don’t understand the implications, even if you don’t mean what it is you are saying. Had someone told me that in middle school, especially given our history and the context of our interactions, I don’t know if I would ever have forgiven them.

Here’s the thing: I’m not Deku. Neither is anyone reading this. Deku is a fictional character, and everyone we know about him is extrapolated from source material, and his response to this event follows:

“Idiot! If I really jumped, you’d be charged with bullying me into suicide! Think before you speak!”

I think it’s unfair to apply our own projections as a universal rather than an interpersonal interpretation; that’s not to say that the interpretation of Bakudeku being abusive or having unbalanced power dynamics isn’t valid, or unfounded, but rather it’s not a universal interpretation, and it’s not canon. Deku is much more of a verbal thinker; in comparison, Bakugou is a visual one, at least in the format of the manga, and as such, we get various panels demonstrating his guilt, and how deep it runs. His dialogue and rapport with Deku has undeniably shifted, and it’s very clear that the way they treat each other has changed from when they were younger. Part of Bakugou’s growth is him gaining self awareness, and eventually, the strength to wield that. He knows what a fucked up little kid he was, and he carries the weight of that.

“At that moment, there were no thoughts in my head. My body just moved on its own.”

There’s a part of me that really, really disliked Bakugou going into it, partially because of what I’d seen and what I’d heard from a limited, outside perspective. I felt like Bakugou embodied the toxic masculinity (and to an extent, I still believe that) and if he won in some way, that felt like the patriarchy winning, so I couldn't help but want to muzzle and leash him before releasing him into the wild.

The reality, however, of his character in canon is that it isn’t very accurate to assume that he would be an abusive partner in the future, or that Midoryia has not forgiven him to some extent already, that the two do not care about each other or are singularly important, that they respect each other, or that the narrative has forgotten any of this.

Don’t mistake me for a Bakugou simp or apologist. I’m not, but while I definitely could also see Tododeku (and I have a soft spot for them, too, their dynamic is totally different and unique, and Todoroki is arguably treated as the tritagonist) and I’m ambivalent about Izuocha (which is written as cannoncially romantic) I do believe that canonically, Bakugou and Deku are framed as soulmates/character foils, Sasuke + Naruto, Kageyama + Hinata style. Their relationship is arguably the focus of the series. That’s not to undermine the importance or impact of Deku’s relationships with other characters, and theirs with him, but in terms of which one takes priority, and which one this all hinges on?

The manga is about a lot of things, yes, but if it were to be distilled into one relationship, buckle up, because it’s the Bakudeku show.

Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

One of the ways in which the biopolitical prioritization of Quirks is exemplified within Hero society is through Quirk marriages. Endeavor partially rationalizes the abuse of his family through the creation of a child with the perfect quirk, a child who can be molded into the perfect Hero. People with powerful, or useful abilities, are ranked high on the hierarchy of power and privilege, and with a powerful ability, the more opportunities and avenues for success are available to them.

For the most part, Bakugou is a super spoiled, privileged little rich kid who is born talented but is enabled for his aggressive behavior and, as a child, cannot move past his many internalized complexes, treats his peers like shit, and gets away with it because the hero society he lives in either has this “boys will be boys” mentality, or it’s an example of the way that power, or Power, is systematically prioritized in this society. The hero system enables and fosters abusers, people who want power and publicity, and people who are genetically predisposed to have advantages over others. There are plenty of good people who believe in and participate in this system, who want to be good, and who do good, but that doesn’t change the way that the hero society is structured, the ethical ambiguity of the Hero Commission, and the way that Heroes are but pawns, idols with machine guns, used to sell merch to the public, to install faith in the government, or the current status quo, and reinforce capitalist propaganda. Even All Might, the epitome of everything a Hero should be, is drained over the years, and exists as a concept or idea, when in reality he is a hollow shell with an entire person inside, struggling to survive. Hero society is functionally dependent on illusion.

In Marxist terms: There is no truth, there is only power.

Although Bakugou does change, and I think that while he regrets his actions, what is long overdue is him verbally expressing his remorse, both to himself and Deku. One might argue that he’s tried to do it in ways that are compatible with his limited emotional range of expression, and Deku seems to understand this language implicitly.

I am of the opinion that the narrative is building up to a verbal acknowledgement, confrontation, and subsequent apology that only speaks what has gone unspoken.

That being said, Bakugou is a great example of the way that figures of authority (parents, teachers, adults) and institutions both in the real world and this fictional universe reward violent behavior while also leaving mental and emotional health — both his own and of the people Bakugou hurts — unchecked, and part of the way he lashes out at others is because he was never taught otherwise.

And by that, I’m referring to the ways that are to me, genuinely disturbing. For example, yelling at his friends is chill. But telling someone to kill themselves, even casually and without intent and then misinterpreting everything they do as a ploy to make you feel weak because you're projecting? And having no teachers stop and intervene, either because they are afraid of you or because they value the weight that your Quirk can benefit society over the safety of children? That, to me, is both real and disturbing.

Not only that, but his parents (at least, Mitsuki), respond to his outbursts with more outbursts, and while this is likely the culture of their home and I hesitate to call it abusive, I do think that it contributed to the way that he approaches things. Bakugou as a character is very complex, but I think that he is primarily an example of the way that the Hero System fails people.

I don’t think we can write off the things he’s done, especially using the line of reasoning that “He didn’t mean it that way”, because in real life, children who hurt others rarely mean it like that either, but that doesn’t change the effect it has on the people who are victimized, but to be absolutely fair, I don’t think that the majority of Bakudeku shippers, at least now, do use that line of reasoning. Most of them seem to have a handle on exactly how fucked up the Hero society is, and exactly why it fucks up the people embedded within that society.

The characters are positioned in this way for a reason, and the discoveries made and the development that these characters undergo are meant to reveal more about the fictional world — and, perhaps, our world — as the narrative progresses.

The world of the Hero society is dependent, to some degree, on biopolitics. I don’t think we have enough evidence to suggest that people with Quirks or Quirkless people place enough identity or placement within society to become equivalent to marginalized groups, exactly, but we can draw parallels to the way that Deku and by extent Quirkless people are viewed as weak, a deviation, or disabled in some way. Deviants, or non-productive bodies, are shunned for their inability to perform ideal labor. While it is suggested to Deku that he could become a police officer or pursue some other occupation to help people, he believes that he can do the most positive good as a Hero. In order to be a Hero, however, in the sense of a career, one needs to have Power.

Deviation from the norm will be punished or policed unless it is exploitable; in order to become integrated into society, a deviant must undergo a process of normalization and become a working, exploitable body. It is only through gaining power from All Might that Deku is allowed to assimilate from the margins and into the upper ranks of society; the manga and the anime give the reader enough perspective, context, and examples to allow us to critique and deconstruct the society that is solely reliant on power.

Through his societal privileges, interpersonal biases, internalized complexes, and his subsequent unlearning of these ideologies, Bakugou provides examples of the way that the system simultaneously fails and indoctrinates those who are targeted, neglected, enabled by, believe in, and participate within the system.

Bakudeku are two sides of the same coin. We are shown visually that the crucial turning point and fracture in their relationship is when Bakugou refuses to take Deku’s outstretched hand; the idea of Deku offering him help messes with his adolescent perspective in that Power creates a hierarchy that must be obeyed, and to be helped is to be weak is to be made a loser.

Largely, their character flaws in terms of understanding the hero society are defined and entangled within the concept of power. Bakugou has power, or privilege, but does not have the moral character to use it as a hero, and believes that Power, or winning, is the only way in which to view life. Izuku has a much better grasp on the way in which heroes wield power (their ideologies can, at first, be differentiated as winning vs. saving), and is a worthy successor because of this understanding, and of circumstance. However, in order to become a Hero, our hero must first gain the Power that he lacks, and learn to wield it.

As the characters change, they bridge the gaps of their character deficiencies, and are brought closer together through character parallelism.

Two sides of the same coin, an outstretched hand.

They are better together.

How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

I think it’s fitting that in the manga, a critical part of Bakugou’s arc explicitly alludes to killing the middle school version of himself in order to progress into a young adult. In the alternative covers Horikoshi released, one of them was a close up of Bakugou in his middle school uniform, being stabbed/impaled, with blood rolling out of his mouth. Clearly this references the scene in which he sacrifices himself to save Deku, on a near-instinctual level.

To me, this only cements Horikoshi’s intent that middle school Bakugou must be debunked, killed, discarded, or destroyed in order for Bakugou the hero to emerge, which is why people who do actually excuse his actions or believe that those actions define him into young adulthood don’t really understand the necessity for change, because they seem to imply that he doesn’t need/cannot reach further growth, and there doesn’t need to be a separation between the Bakugou who is, at heart, volatile and repressed the angry, and the Bakugou who sacrifices himself, a hero who saves people.

Plot twist: there does need to be a difference. Further plot twist: there is a difference.

In sacrificing himself for Deku, Bakugou himself doesn't die, but the injury is fatal in the sense that it could've killed him physically and yet symbolizes the selfish, childish part of him that refused to accept Deku, himself, and the inevitability of change. In killing those selfish remnants, he could actually become the kind of hero that we the reader understand to be the true kind.

That’s why I think that a lot of the people who stress his actions as a child without acknowledging the ways he has changed, grown, and tried to fix what he has broken don’t really get it, because it was always part of his character arc to change and purposely become something different and better. If the effects of his worst and his most childish self stick with you more, and linger despite that, that’s okay. But distilling his character down to the wrong elements doesn’t get you the bare essentials; what it gets you is a skewed and shallow version of a person. If you’re okay with that version, that is also fine.

But you can’t condemn others who aren’t fine with that incomplete version, and to become enraged that others do not see him as you do is childish.

Bakugou’s change and the emphasis on that change is canon.

Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

In real life, the idea that “oh, he must bully you because he likes you” is often used as a way to brush aside or to excuse the action of bullying itself, as if a ‘secret crush’ somehow negates the effects of bullying on the victim or the inability of the bully to properly process and manifest their emotions in certain ways. It doesn’t. It often enables young boys to hurt others, and provides figures of authority to overlook the real source of schoolyard bullying or peer review. The “secret crush”, in real life, is used to undermine abuse, justify toxic masculinity, and is essentially used as a non-solution solution.

A common accusation is that Bakudeku shippers jump on the pairing because they romanticize pairing a bully and a victim together, or believe that the only way for Bakugou to atone for his past would be to date Midoryia in the future. This may be true for some people, in which case, that’s their own preference, but based on my experience and what I’ve witnessed, that’s not the case for most.

The difference being is that as these are characters, we as readers or viewers are meant to analyze them. Not to justify them, or to excuse their actions, but we are given the advantage of the outsider perspective to piece their characters together in context, understand why they are how they are, and witness them change; maybe I just haven’t been exposed to enough of the fandom, but no one (I’ve witnessed) treats the idea that “maybe Bakugou has feelings he can’t process or understand and so they manifest in aggressive and unchecked ways'' as a solution to his inability to communicate or process in a healthy way, rather it is just part of the explanation of his character, something is needs to — and is — working through. The solution to his middle school self is not the revelation of a “teehee, secret crush”, but self-reflection, remorse, and actively working to better oneself, which I do believe is canonically reflected, especially as of recently.

In canon, they are written to be partners, better together than apart, and I genuinely believe that one can like the Bakudeku dynamic not by route of romanticization but by observation.

I do think we are meant to see parallels between him and Endeavor; Endeavor is a high profile abuser who embodies the flaws and hypocrisy of the hero system. Bakugou is a schoolyard bully who emulates and internalizes the flaws of this system as a child, likely due to the structure of the society and the way that children will absorb the propaganda they are exposed to; the idea that Quirks, or power, define the inherent value of the individual, their ability to contribute to society, and subsequently their fundamental human worth. The difference between them is the fact that Endeavor is the literal adult who is fully and knowingly active within a toxic, corrupt system who forces his family to undergo a terrifying amount of trauma and abuse while facing little to no consequences because he knows that his status and the values of their society will protect him from those consequences. In other words, Endeavor is the threat of what Bakugou could have, and would have, become without intervention or genuine change.

Comparisons between characters, as parallels or foils, are tricky in that they imply but cannot confirm sameness. Having parallels with someone does not make them the same, by the way, but can serve to illustrate contrasts, or warnings. Harry Potter, for example, is meant to have obvious parallels with Tom Riddle, with similar abilities, and tragic upbringings. That doesn’t mean Harry grows up to become Lord Voldemort, but rather he helps lead a cross-generational movement to overthrow the facist regime. Harry is offered love, compassion, and friends, and does not embrace the darkness within or around him. As far as moldy old snake men are concerned, they do not deserve a redemption arc because they do not wish for one, and the truest of change only occurs when you actively try to change.

To be frank, either way, Bakugou was probably going to become a good Hero, in the sense that Endeavor is a ‘good’ Hero. Hero capitalized, as in a pro Hero, in the sense that it is a career, an occupation, and a status. Because of his strong Quirk, determination, skill, and work ethic, Bakugou would have made a good Hero. Due to his lack of character, however, he was not on the path to become a hero; defender of the weak, someone who saves people to save people, who is willing to make sacrifices detrimental to themselves, who saves people out of love.

It is necessary for him to undergo both a redemption arc and a symbolic death and rebirth in order for him to follow the path of a hero, having been inspired and prompted by Deku.

I personally don’t really like Endeavor’s little redemption arc, not because I don’t believe that people can change or that they shouldn't at least try to atone for the atrocities they have committed, but because within any narrative, a good redemption arc is important if it matters; what also matters is the context of that arc, and whether or not it was needed. For example, in ATLA, Zuko’s redemption arc is widely regarded as one of the best arcs in television history, something incredible. And it is. That shit fucks. In a good way.

It was confirmed that Azula was also going to get a redemption arc, had Volume 4 gone on as planned, and it was tentatively approached in the comics, which are considered canon. She is an undeniably bad person (who is willing to kill, threaten, exploit, and colonize), but she is also a child, and as viewers, we witness and recognize the factors that contributed to her (debatable) sociopathy, and the way that the system she was raised in failed her. Her family failed her; even Uncle Iroh, the wise mentor who helps guide Zuko to see the light, is willing to give up on her immediately, saying that she’s “crazy” and needs to be “put down”. Yes, it’s comedic, and yes, it’s pragmatic, but Azula is fourteen years old. Her mother is banished, her father is a psychopath, and her older brother, from her perspective, betrayed and abandoned her. She doesn’t have the emotional support that Zuko does; she exploits and controls her friends because it’s all she’s been taught to do; she says herself, her “own mother thought [she] was a monster; she was right, of course, but it still [hurts]”. A parent who does not believe in you, or a parent that uses you and will hurt you, is a genuine indicator of trauma.

The writers understood that both Zuko and Azula deserved redemption arcs. One was arguably further gone than the other, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are both children, products of their environment, who have the time, motive, and reason to change.

In contrast, you know who wouldn’t have deserved a redemption arc? Ozai. That simply would not have been interesting, wouldn’t have served the narrative well, and honestly, is not needed, thematically or otherwise. Am I comparing Ozai to Endeavor? Basically, yes. Fuck those guys. I don’t see a point in Endeavor’s little “I want to be a good dad now” arc, and I think that we don’t need to sympathize with characters in order to understand them or be interested in them. I want Touya/Dabi to expose his abuse, for his career to crumble, and then for him to die.

If they are not challenging the system that we the viewer are meant to question, and there is no thematic relevance to their redemption, is it even needed?

On that note, am I saying that Bakugou is the equivalent to Zuko? No, lmao. Definitely not. They are different characters with different progressions and different pressures. What I am saying is that good redemption arcs shouldn’t be handed out like candy to babies; it is the quality, rather than the quantity, that makes a redemption arc good. In terms of the commentary of the narrative, who needs a redemption arc, who is deserving, and who does it make sense to give one to?

In this case, Bakugou checks those boxes. It was always in the cards for him to change, and he has. In fact, he’s still changing.

Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

There does seem to be an urge to obsessively gender either Bakugou or Deku, in making Deku the ultra-feminine, stereotypically hyper-sexualized “woman” of the relationship, with Bakugou becoming similarly sexualized but depicted as the hyper-masculine bodice ripper. On some level, that feels vaguely homophobic if not straight up misogynistic, in that in a gay relationship there’s an urge to compel them to conform under heteronormative stereotypes in order to be interpreted as real or functional. On one hand, I will say that in a lot of cases it feels like more of an expression of a kink, or fetishization and subsequent expression of internalized misogyny, at least, rather than a genuine exploration of the complexity and power imbalances of gender dynamics, expression, and boundaries.

That being said, I don’t think that that problematic aspect of shipping is unique to Bakudeku, or even to the fandom in general. We’ve all read fan work or see fanart of most gay ships in a similiar manner, and I think it’s a broader issue to be addressed than blaming it on a singular ship and calling it a day.

One interpretation of Bakugou’s character is his repression and the way his character functions under toxic masculinity, in a society’s egregious disregard for mental and emotional health (much like in the real world), the horrifying ways in which rage is rationalized or excused due to the concept of masculinity, and the way that characteristics that are associated with femininity — intellect, empathy, anxiety, kindness, hesitation, softness — are seen as stereotypically “weak”, and in men, traditionally emasculating. In terms of the way that the fictional universe is largely about societal priority and power dynamics between individuals and the way that extends to institutions, it’s not a total stretch to guess that gender as a construct is a relevant topic to expand on or at least keep in mind for comparison.

I think that the way in which characters are gendered and the extent to which that is a result of invasive heteronormativity and fetishization is a really important conversation to have, but using it as a case-by-case evolution of a ship used to condemn people isn’t conductive, and at that point, it’s treated as less of a real concern but an issue narrowly weaponised.

Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

Another thing I think could be elaborated on and written about in great detail is the way that the Eastern part of the fandom and the Western part of the fandom have such different perspectives on Bakudeku in particular. I am not going to go in depth with this, and there are many other people who could go into specifics, but just as an overview:

The manga and the anime are created for and targeted at a certain audience; our take on it will differ based on cultural norms, decisions in translation, understanding of the genre, and our own region-specific socialization. This includes the way in which we interpret certain relationships, the way they resonate with us, and what we do and do not find to be acceptable. Of course, this is not a case-by-case basis, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who hold differing beliefs within one area, but speaking generally, there is a reason that Bakudeku is not regarded as nearly as problematic in the East.

Had this been written by a Western creator, marketed primarily to and within the West (for reference, while I am Chinese, but I have lived in the USA for most of my life, so my own perspective is undoubtedly westernized), I would’ve immediately jumped to make comparisons between the Hero System and the American police system, in that a corrupt, or bastardized system is made no less corrupt for the people who do legitimately want to do good and help people, when that system disproportionately values and targets others while relying on propaganda that society must be reliant on that system in order to create safe communities when in reality it perpetuates just as many issues as it appears to solve, not to mention the way it attracts and rewards violent and power-hungry people who are enabled to abuse their power. I think comparisons can still be made, but in terms of analysis, it should be kept in mind that the police system in other parts of the world do not have the same history, place, and context as it does in America, and the police system in Japan, for example, probably wasn’t the basis for the Hero System.

As much as I do believe in the Death of the Author in most cases, the intent of the author does matter when it comes to content like this, if merely on the basis that it provides context that we may be missing as foreign viewers.

As far as the intent of the author goes, Bakugou is on a route of redemption.

He deserves it. It is unavoidable. That, of course, may depend on where you’re reading this.

Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

If there’s one thing, to me, that epitomizes middle school Bakugou, it’s him being trapped in a sludge monster, rescued by his Quirkless childhood friend, and unable to believe his eyes. He clings to the ideology he always has, that Quirkless means weak, that there’s no way that Deku could have grown to be strong, or had the capacity to be strong all along. Bakugou is wrong about this, and continuously proven wrong. It is only when he accepts that he is wrong, and that Deku is someone to follow, that he starts his real path to heroics.

If Bakudeku’s relationship does not appeal to someone for whatever reason, there’s nothing wrong with that. They can write all they want about why they don’t ship it, or why it bothers them, or why they think it’s problematic. If it is legitimately triggering to you, then by all means, avoid it, point it out, etc. but do not undermine the reality of abuse simply to point fingers, just because you don’t like a ship. People who intentionally use the anti tag knowing it’ll show up in the main tag, go after people who are literally minding their own business, and accuse people of supporting abuse are the ones looking for a fight, and they’re annoying as hell because they don’t bring anything to the table. No evidence, no analysis, just repeated projection.

To clarify, I’m referring to a specific kind of shipper, not someone who just doesn’t like a ship, but who is so aggressive about it for absolutely no reason. There are plenty of very lovely people in this fandom, who mind their own business, multipship, or just don’t care.

Calling shippers dumb or braindead or toxic (to clarify, this isn’t targeting any one person I’ve seen, but a collective) based on projections and generalizations that come entirely from your own impression of the ship rather than observation is...really biased to me, and comes across as uneducated and trigger happy, rather than constructive or helpful in any way.

I’m not saying someone has to ship anything, or like it, in order to be a ‘good’ participant. But inserting derogatory material into a main tag, and dropping buzzwords with the same tired backing behind it without seeming to understand the implications of those words or acknowledging the development, pacing, and intentional change to the characters within the plot is just...I don’t know, it comes across as redundant, to me at least, and very childish. Aggressive. Toxic. Problematic. Maybe the real toxic shippers were the ones who bitched and moaned along the way. They’re like little kids, stuck in the past, unable to visualize or recognize change, and I think that’s a real shame because it’s preventing them from appreciating the story or its characters as it is, in canon.

But that’s okay, really. To each their own. Interpretations will vary, preferences differ, perspectives are not uniform. There is no one truth. There are five seasons of the show, a feature film, and like, thirty volumes as of this year.

All I’m saying is that if you want to stay stuck in the first season of each character, then that’s what you’re going to get. That’s up to you.

This may be edited or revised.

[mariaiscrafting]

I know you aren't a fan of the whole 'educating not cancelling thing', and I don't disagree it has a lot of issues. At the same time, I don't know what a better alternative would be, especially since this method of 'calling out' sometimes reaps very positive results. For example, I just saw on twitter someone discussing how the Sapnap merch design plans (with a 'Japanese aesthetic') were a bit disappointing, and he responded apologizing and saying he's going to change the design now. I'm just looking for thoughts and opinions honestly!

Honestly, I think that what needs to be done is, fandoms need to call out CCs when they say or do something wrong, but with respect and a light touch, while it is the CC's burden to educate their self further. I'm not sure about the Sapnap example, so I will use my own. There was an instance during which a Native American woman addressed Dream's usage of Native American music with a Native war cry for a video. She said she did not want to disrespect him, and she explained why it was offensive, asking him to stop using the music. People got mad at her, as Dream stans are wont to, but she was perfectly within her right to be offended, and she wasn't overly critical or harsh. Dream replied saying he understood, that he was previously ignorant but no longer was, and that he wouldn't use the music anymore. In a perfect world, this is the perfect scenario, with an added element: that Dream went and actually read some of the many sources linked in that huge thread on the history of Native American appropriation and stereotypes of warlike behavior (i.e., using Native clothing, music, cries, markings/paint, and headdresses in non-Native and incorrect contexts to signify war). This is the ideal outcome and strategy to education.

First, I would like fans to make CCs aware. I want them to be 100% clear and concise in their grievances. A couple of problems in the past: people addressing Tommy w/KSI, not specifying that they wished for Tommy to realize that KSI was criticized not simply because of stan behavior but for his transphobic past, and making Tommy think they thought he himself was being transphobic; people not specifying what exactly it was about Fundy's Jackbox jokes that normalized sexual assault and mocked female victims of sexual violence, resulting Fundy in issuing a blanket apology that didn't tackle the particular issue or its intricacies.

Second, I would like fans to treat CCs with respect when addressing their grievances. Respect includes being, perhaps stern if need be, but not criticizing or attacking. This is not only for the sake of the CC their self, but also for the sake of the fandom since any person is more likely to listen to one's criticisms when they aren't worded as direct attacks. This step was failed in many instances, including when people addressed Andi about the various things she has tweeted or said, causing the entire community to vilify her and warp her actual words into a mess of bigotry that is not true to reality.

Third, I would like CCs to reach out to others to educate themselves and demonstrate that they were educated, through their words and actions. It is nearly impossible to be comprehensively educated on a subject in which you harbor underlying prejudices and ignorance through Twitter threads, especially when Twitter posts are capped at 280 characters and the people sending you information are largely strangers, and their information unverifiable. Unraveling years of ignorance that led to unintentionally displaying one's subconscious prejudices takes real work, time, and effort, and it is up to every individual to ensure that they reach a new level of understanding, in order to stimulate self-growth. CCs have demonstrated a failure to do this in regards to anti-Semitism throughout jokes and bits, particularly in Jackbox streams, given that a few of them seemed to apologize and move on, while continuing to make anti-Semitic jokes in later streams, seemingly without gaining a deeper understanding of their own, harbored anti-Semitism and/or ignorance on Jewish oppression.

This is just what I think is the formula for a successful CC reeducation effort. Whether or not this is actually the solution is to be seen since Twitter is still stuck on old ways. Hopefully people learn just how poorly the reeducation campaigns are going nowadays, and to change their tactics.

[aot-snk-4238]

My thoughts on AOT No Requiem (Fanmade Ending) Part 1:

With another chapter of this story coming out soon, I thought now would be a good time to share my thoughts on the first part. Before I do that, though, I have a few things that I would like to get off my chest.

A part of me hates that this project exists. Not because I find it disrespectful, but because it serves as a bitter reminder of what a complete mess this ending caused among many fans. I'm still in disbelief how things got so bad so quickly. First, you've got the people who hated it. People began turning on Isayama and calling him a terrible or incompetent writer, regretting ever getting into the series, insisting that it was worse than Game of Thrones, the list goes on and on. People who liked the ending are now endlessly referred to as "ending defenders" or more crude names like "Isayama cockriders," as though they're a bunch of incompetent fools who don't know the first thing about reading comprehension all because they just happened to like it. And then of course you've got the other extreme end of the spectrum where the ones who were disappointed are accused of not understanding the story or they're only upset because their favorite ship or fan theory didn't become canon. This, too, is very demeaning and invalidating for those who grew up with this series that they gave their heart to and cherished for so long, only to have it do what they felt was a complete 180 at the very last second that undid every part of the story they thought was special and unique. It's one of the hardest slaps to the face you can get as a reader and long-time fan, and while I can't fully relate to everyone's feelings, I can at least understand and acknowledge that it's there and it shouldn't be laughed at. Now with all of that out of the way, here are my thoughts and analysis of this fanmade ending and how it differs from Isayama's.

To start things off, I found that part 1 started off similar to how 137 did in the canon manga, with Armin and Zeke conversing in PATHS. The biggest difference would be kid Eren being transported there and seeing his older self. To be fair though, this chapter was only about half the length of what we're used to reading, so I'm sure we'll get a lot more in part 2 onwards.

While Zeke is enlightening Armin on the history of the earth and how the life form that attached itself to Ymir sought to avoid death forever, young Eren is in PATHS too with his older self, witnessing the moment Ymir found the tree and fell in it to become the first titan. At first, there is no dialogue exchanged between them. They just hold hands and watch. Meanwhile, Zeke is still talking to Armin about Ymir and how she continued to serve her oppressive master despite acquiring godlike powers that would allow her to obliterate him whenever she pleased. This is where the team working on this project attempt to provide their own alternate possibilities as to why this happened in a way that would make more sense than what we were given in the canon story in which she simply had a severe case of Stockholm Syndrome and couldn't let him go no matter how much he made her suffer.

So what are these new possibilities? They come in the form of a question, so their validity is not made absolutely certain, but they're presented as the most likely candidates nonetheless.

According to Zeke, she was unable to separate her own desires from King Fritz and was a lost girl who sought meaning. A place to belong. Tragically, King Fritz was the only connection she had in her life, so she clung to it with everything she had despite it being toxic and abusive. I could argue that these are the very reasons why she supposedly loved the king in the official manga, as explained by Eren in 139, but they weren't explained or touched on as plainly as they were here. I feel like they could have been if Isayama had just been given more time, but sadly the whole thing was rushed and underdeveloped.

Moving on, Zeke states that despite his efforts in trying to understand Ymir and her feelings, it was Eren who ultimately was able to get to her and offer her the choice of freedom. The next page transitions to young Eren standing in the clouds with his arms spread out and a smile on his face just like in the official 137, only this time 19yo Eren is next to him. Now I'm going to be honest here, this is where things started to get a little corny for me. Yeah. I know a lot of people hate that argument, but that's just how it felt to me. And before I say anything else, I want everybody to know that I am in no way about to mock anyone's fondness of this Eren over the one we saw in 139, even if it was a little over-the-top. It's perfectly fine to prefer one over the other, I'm just going to try to explain myself the best I can without coming across as harsh or unprofessional.

Eren is drawn in these panels to be a stone-faced, determined and unstoppable force who will "keep moving forward until his enemies are destroyed." This is the Eren that many people grew most familiar with throughout the series, despite his occasional breakdowns, but something about the way it was executed just felt a little too overdramatic and exaggerated. For me, the contrast between this Eren and the Eren we were presented with in 139 is too jarring. It came across to me as the fandom's idealized version of Eren, the "chad" Eren if you will, rather than Isayama's portrayal of Eren who is cold and determined, but has also been experiencing stunted mental growth ever since the day he saw his mother get eaten; side note: I know that Eren himself was responsible for his mother's death, but that's a discussion for a later time. Not only that, but the "keep moving forward" line starts to get overused at this point. We already heard Eren say this a number of times before 137 where this first fanmade chapter takes place, so I didn't find it necessary to include that at the end, but it seemed to be the writers' way of trying to reinforce Eren's ultimate goal.

Regarding the rest of the chapter, young Eren asks older Eren what Ymir is still waiting for after he showed her that she's not alone. 19yo Eren proceeds to explain that while he was able to make her feel something again, she still needs somebody to free her. He shows his younger self all of the visions from PATHS that he's seen so far, ranging from past events to alternate realities to things that couldn't be changed no matter what. Now there is only one path left that he strives toward. The one that he believes will grant him and his people freedom. This next line is the one that stood out to me the most throughout this fanmade chapter. Still talking to kid Eren, adult Eren says, "When you wake up, you will forget what you learned, but not what you felt here. This will all feel just like a long dream." Only when he kisses Historia's hand will it all come back to him. This line more clearly explains why Eren woke up crying in chapter 1, but couldn't remember why. Then he circles back to how he intends to carry out his own plan to end the cycle of hatred once and for all. Despite his efforts along the way, he couldn't change the flow of PATHS and save the friends he lost or prevent certain events from happening altogether, so he had to accept that sacrifices had to be made. In this case, he will have to literally sacrifice the world, much to Armin's horror.

To wrap this up, I'm going to finish comparing this to the canon 137, but since the first part of this project only covers the PATHS portion of it, that's where I'll stop as well. To save a little but of time, I'm just gonna be lazy and copy the first part of a quick overview of the chapter I found as part of the wiki:

So clearly, canon 137 starts off focusing a lot more on Armin and Zeke's differing philosophies and does not provide any further insight into Eren's ultimate motives like this one does, at least not yet. Armin and Eren are bound to face off soon in this fanmade version, but it looks to me like this time the writers are planning on flipping the outcome and having Eren come out victorious instead, especially when I remember the name of this project and what it's based on. I guess that means that in a way, I already know what's ultimately going to happen throughout the rest of this project. Whether it's going to be considered superior to the actual ending is going to depend on if its executed properly. I could very well be wrong about some of this, though. I want to give it a fair shot since these people have clearly put a lot of hard work and passion into this, so I will refrain from further judgement until we get the full picture. On a side note, I just want to say that the artwork is beautiful so far and I commend every artist responsible for their efforts. I also liked the song choice at the beginning and thought it set the mood pretty well.

Thank you to everyone who read the whole thing. This took me far longer to write than it should have because I'm not always good at expressing myself in a way that does not come across as confusing or contradictory. I will continue to share my thoughts as more content is released, which by the looks of it could be any day now.

[elidelochans]

I was once a hardcore Elriel shipper. But before that I was always an Elain stan FIRST. And after reading Az’s bonus chapter and seeing how he views Elain and sexualises her vs how comfortable he is around Gwyn and how he can be himself without hiding any parts of himself or compressing his shadows ... I have officially boarded the Gwynriel ship ahhh !! :)

I am going to submit this anonymously because I already lost a couple of friends :( I never realized how toxic some of the Elriel fans are ? I have heard about the doxing and threatening but honestly I did not believe them to be true because they all seemed very sweet to me. That is until two of them — who are were my close friends on here — ganged up on me and publicly bullied me for ‘having no taste’ calling me blind and lacking reading comprehension skills causing me to lose nearly half of my mutuals ... then proceeded to block me just because I no longer ship Elriel :( they did not even attempt to convince me or have a civil conversation about the characters — they just straight up bullied and belittled me :( it is just a ship and at the end of the day this is all just fiction !! There is no need to be so cruel !! I do not understand ?

*sigh* Yes I am quite confident in Gwynriel and I am head over heels for them already , yes if Elriel does happen I will fully support them because as long as the characters are happy how can I not ? But for now I no longer want anything to do with the Elriel fandom and I am glad they are starting to show their true colours. Bullying other people especially your own friends for having different opinions than you is not !! right !!

Oh hun I am so sorry you lost friends over this. and the fact they publicly humiliated you? That's disgusting and if those people see this then hi, fuck you. Its also a sad occurrence with online friends. We find people we click with it and sometimes it sticks and sometimes sadly it falls apart. I've lost quite a few internet friends. To loose one over fictional characters is ridiculous. You should be able to have healthy, mature debates over your interests and not to be attacked for it. I'll be your friend! And if you need a safe space full of Gwynriel shippers you're more than welcome to join Illyrianet

Having no taste is shipping a ship that's not romantic. At all. Cough cough Elriel cough cough.

When I shipped both Elriel and Elucien. I actually noticed this. That quite a few elriel stans are rather...ruthless. Jumping into other Elain or Azriel ships with their views. How wrong others are and how they are right. When all the other ships stay in their lanes. Supporting and loving their ship of choice.

I always thought Elain and Az were only fanon. Yes their dynamic was cute but the relationship in canon terms is stale. Especially as an Elain stan first. Yes she could have shown him he's deserving of love. But what about her?

It's been shown time and time again that Elain and the darkness Do. Not. Mix. So his shadows would literally consume her and she would never heal. How is that fair to her? How is it fair to Elain to be with someone who only wants her for her body? It's disgusting. And she deserves better than that. And

Azriel deserves someone who he can be himself around, shadows and all. That person is not Elain who he has to hide his shadows from. I mean his shadows recoil from her. If that's not a sign they shouldnt be endgame. Idk what to tell you. He also didn't seem all that upset about it. He was pissy for a day and that's it.

I would accept if Elriel was canon too. If that's how Sarah goes. I wont respect it because the first Az thoughts we have, have rubbed me off that ship entirely. Stomaching an Elriel centric book would be hard. But I'd do it. Good news is I doubt it. She put a lot of focus on Gwyn and Gwynriel. You don't do that if you're not intending for them to be a romantic pairing. Then you have my bby fox boy Lucien. Who is suffering so much because his mate won't even look at him. And we all know Sarah loves her slow burns and Elucien is the slow burn of the century.

Anyway babes if you ever want someone to talk with, via dm, discord, or just anon ask. I am here ❤❤ screw those other people. They don't deserve you.

[tanukyclaws]

Sorry mate you're not coherent with reading either, or analyzing a scene, or understanding reaction time. Ah but yes the writers are gods we will bend backwards if it meant excusing their shit writing. Cause Yang *screaming* Ruby's name before she gets hit doesnt make everyone turn their attention to her, nope. Not enough time for Weiss to turn around and at least *try* to use a glyph at the edge to catch Yang, or a summon when she starts falling. Not enough time for Ruby to use her *SPEED* semblance. No, you see, it just happened TOO FAST. So fast actually that Blake had time to turn around, start running then throw her weapon at Yang. Last I checked it was never shown that Blake had superhuman reaction times. And god the "shock" excuse gets tiring.

Shocked? Of what? After seeing her uncle poisoned and dying, her sister unconcious without an arm, her teammate stabbed on the ground, her partner impaled, her friend electrocuting herself and possibly dying, DOZENS of people dying, a friend dying right in front of her, Yang jumping in the mouth of a grimm to save her and break her aura. You'd think that after all of this it would take a lot more than seeing your sister get hit once to shock you. And the fact that this is the 2nd time Ruby sees it? Or at least the 2nd time that we have been shown, who knows. How can you see something at least twice and still be shocked the 2nd time?

And the funny thing is that Ruby's character literally revolves around being the optimistic leader who *takes action*. She always has a plan, she's always on the move, she always wants to go and help, no matter what. And now she does nothing.

There were so many ways to make that scene look plausible: have Weiss try to use a glyph but fail, have Ruby try to get up and save her sister but get attacked and stopped by Cinder. It was that easy! Nobody would've complained. But no, everyone has to stay in place, even Neo and Cinder, cause apparently Blake's new semblance is super speed.

There's (mostly) badly written scenes and there's some well written scenes. This wasn't the later. Can we stop pretending and finding SO many excuses for the bad writing? "she was in shock" "she didnt have time" "this and that". We have literally been shown the opposite, we have literally seen that there was enough time. It was like v5 all over again where eveyone stays still and they make one move at a time.

Yes you idiot, we know Yang doesnt have glyphs (she has her gauntles which could've propelled her if she wasnt semi unconcious), and you literally proved that you have no reading comprehension whatsoever.

This is why the RWBY fandom is so goddamn annoying. People point out badly written scenes and explain why and how it was bad, and even what could've been done instead, and youre bending backwards to defend the writers and make it seem as if we are stupid. You can enjoy a show and admit some things could've been done better. There's a thing called toxic positivity, where you act as if everything they do is perfect and all critique is bad. You are SOOO quick to come up with excuses (which dont even make sense most of the time) but don't think for even 1 second on why EVERY character had to freeze for a few seconds just so the scene could play out? Blake had time to run but Neo/Cinder didnt have time to attack, yup.

I'm in this tag to see people enjoy stuff, share theories, not to see how some show the whole fandom that its possible to live without a brain.

[butwhatifidothis]

I know it takes a backseat to El's well-deserved criticism, but I greatly appreciate the love you've shown Rhea on this blog. She's one of my favorites and the fandom's treatment of her is nothing short of heartbreaking. Going into 3H mostly blind I expected her to basically be a sociopathic, overzealous Tomas de Torquemada stand-in, but she was really likable and understandable. Probably helps that I started with the Deer tho 'cause CF Rhea feels like a completely different character.

Thank you!

Ngl, when I was first playing 3H I hated Rhea because WC genuinely does a good job at making it seem like Rhea is suspicious to a first time player who likely isn't looking too deeply into the events going on. But as I was playing through more and more of the story I was like "whoa, wait, Rhea's A DRAGON?! And she's savin' the little chickadees? Oh shit she got 'NAPPED?" and so even with the narrative trying to continue to bonk me with "wait Rhea still bad" I wasn't buying it as hard anymore, I wanted to give her a chance... and then the info dump happened (since I played GD first too)!

And ngl, even for a first time player I was like "wow that's a lot to take in wish they coulda sprinkled this over a bit more naturally" BUT I DID take it in. And I really appreciated Rhea so much more now that I got to finally hear her story and got to hear what motivated her to do everything she did. I don't think she was completely in the right in her actions, but there's also... no real right answer? Like what was she supposed to do? Reveal herself as a Nabatean from the get go a thousand years ago and risk being fuckin' harvested for her parts like an abandoned car in an apocalypse by scrappers that outnumber her incalculable number-to-1 (maybe 4 if she dragged Seteth Macuil and Indech along for the ride - can't drag Flayn cuz she's too busy sleeping off death that was caused by humans!)? Actually rule over Fodlan and force the humans to progress how she wanted them to? Let humans have access to the shit that caused Ailiel to stay ass for a thousand years because of humans? Getting to know that context really opened me up to her, to the point where I can see the parallels she has with all the lords and actively wish she could build some kind of genuine rapport with all of them (yes, even Edelgard somewhat, though that'd have to be for an AU fic than actual canon. I really wanted her to bond more with Claude tho!! Dimitri's route tho could at least harbor the chance of that happening post-credits so I take solace in that lol).

And. Like. Seeing the fandom's reaction to her? Bruh. You have no idea how fucking disappointed I was. Like, I plan on making a post on how my experience with the 3H's fandom eerily mirrors my experience with the Bleach fandom (in all the worse ways), but a part of that is how fucking slammed a character I happen to personally like gets by their respective media. And like?? You hear the ass-backwards arguments from people that don't like them and your head fucking spins because my guy my buddy my good pal o' mine what in the fuck are you actually saying. Shit that never happened, shit the character grows out of, shit other characters are just as guilty of doing but are beloved by the fanbase, all to come together to form a hate mob for a character that exists almost exclusively on shit that either doesn't apply to the character (whether ever or by the end of their development) or should apply to others, that makes the fans of said hated character genuinely uncomfortable with coming out and saying they like that character? Yeah, no, the exact same shit. Like. Literally. Even down to the ableism! The victim-blaming! The excusing of a perpetrator's - who happens to be the main antagonist for the majority of the series' runtime/playtime - horrid actions because "oh they're just misunderstood and lonely" and they were only doing what they did to rule over the land the right way! THEY LITERALLY BOTH USE THE "THEY WERE LONELY" EXCUSE! THE "JUST RULER" EXCUSE!

Like. I get it. CF!Rhea and the rest of the routes!Rhea are two totally different depictions of her. You come in from CF, where the narrative never lets go of the Rhea Bad red herring due to Edelgard's own biases, and you see this crazy lady calling you trash and garbage and that your ass stank and you're doo doo and all that, and she's cackling like a Crazy Person™, and you think "wow. Rhea bad." But, like. The entire game is all about subversion. Dimitri isn't quite the pure hearted fairytale prince. Claude isn't a cold, devious schemer. Edelgard isn't the honest and forward person who cares for her people, just coldly. These are the first impressions you get from the lords, and they're all wrong. But nah, Rhea should be treated like the Agarthans and there's nothing subversive about her. She's Just Evil, because the beginning of the game says so just ignore all the shit that makes her not evil, and thus should be treated as such. Imma be mean for a hot second... you have to genuinely lack reading comprehension to believe the overall narrative of 3H makes Rhea to be a morally black bad guy. You can't hide behind the "only played one route" excuse... ever, really? The fuck are you doing contributing to discussions of the game when you... haven't finished it?

But, like, anyway lol got a bit sidetracked. Rhea deserves so much more love in this fandom than she gets, and I might not be able to really change that much... but I can wait for my Rhea zine to finally come in at least lmao