#cons: ableism. and the plot. is shit.

[scribe-of-monsters]

Ok so I started watching The Last Voyage of the Demeter (about halfway through rn) and all I'm saying is if you had to choose a Dracula-inspired horror movie revolving around characters besides the crew of light that came out in 2023. Pick this one

[razzberrydazz]

I can go on for So Long about Sweeney Todd as a meaty juicy delicious piece of media to analyze. So I will.

How the humor contrasts the darkness and horror aspects. How the shrill factory whistle and the bake-house and mechanical chair contraption and the city on fire number all highlight how industrialization is used as a tool for violence and control.

The sexism and treatment of women in the show's plot demonstrate that the titular men in the storyline don't actually care or love the women they claim to care about, they love them the way they do a tool or object. Johanna and Lucy both having their own inner worlds and conflicts and having to cater to men who only give a shit about them because they're attractive. Pretty Women as a musical number as the defining way the men in the show view the women - only worth anything if they're pretty to look at. They don't like the women as people, they like the idea of a woman. The women are objectified through and through.

Mrs. Lovett both loving and fearing Sweeney and knowing she has to make herself useful to him otherwise he's likely to kill her. Her also showing fear and anxiety whenever he holds and brandishes his razors and so she tries to get the razors out of his hands or put something between herself and him in case he decides to attack her.

The interesting predicament Mrs. Lovett finds herself in - a widow running a business, in industrial London, during a time when most women had to rely on men for any kind of financial security. Her knowing this and trying to get Sweeney to marry her so that she has that extra safety net. Her trying to do and say what's best for herself, omitting the detail that Lucy is alive, throwing another woman under the bus for her own selfish aims and gains. Mrs. Lovett is both complicit and an active participant in the system of abuse and violence Sweeney partakes in.

Johanna is not just a damsel or set piece, even though that's how the men in the show treat her. Depending on the stage show characterization, Johanna may not actually give a shit about Antony, she could be using the marriage excuse purely as an out to escape the Judge.

When Antony comes to rescue her from Bedlam, in many iterations Johanna actually takes the gun from Antony and shoots Mr. Fogg herself. Johanna wants to be free, just as those caged birds want to be free. Green Finch and Linnet Bird is a monumentally important song in the plot and meta of the musical, characterizing Johanna's inner world and her self awareness at her predicament.

The varying details of the Beedle killing the bird Antony buys for Johanna, or the salesman of the birds telling that the birds sing all day because they were blinded and so do not know the time of day. Mrs. Lovett mentioning that a rival shop is using the neighborhood cats as meat substitutes. The continual callous mistreatment of animals and people alike, highlighting that people are animals as well, and that these people lack compassion. All are meat and bone and blood in the end, whether man or cat or bird or livestock. The comparison of people to animals, therefore akin to food.

The entire A Little Priest segment highlighting the visceral meaty darkness of what objectification, apathy, and a lack of compassion can lead to. If one mistreats animals, it's not a big jump to then mistreat humans as well. We'll not discriminate great from small, no we'll serve anyone, meaning anyone, and to anyone at all.

With Pirelli and Toby, Toby is either portrayed as a child or a mentally disabled man in various productions. The infantilization and mistreatment of Toby is yet another example of how systemic abuse fucks over those who aren't the ones already in power. The ableism of how Toby gets treated. Pirelli being a con-man who took advantage of Toby's naivety. Mrs. Lovett taking advantage of Toby just as Pirelli did. Toby, despite surviving the slaughterfest of the finale, being left forever changed and mentally scarred. Toby, the one to end Sweeney, his innocence murdered by what Sweeney and Lovett wrought.

Pirelli was once a young man sweeping up hair in Sweeney's shop, and ended up a con man perpetuating the system and fucking others over. The classism of it all, all the characters acting like crabs in a bucket dragging each other down in attempts to better themselves.

Lucy, cast aside by the Judge and Beedle, also left mentally impaired by her attempt at suicide via poison, left at the dredges of society and forced to beg and sell herself to survive. Lucy acts as an example of what happens when women are no longer pretty or of use within the system - they're viewed as objects, as trash, and cast away.

In stage productions with the greek chorus segments, Lucy/the beggar woman acts as one of the chorus, giving some ambiguity as to who she is until the end. She acts as comic relief, but the subject matter is exceedingly dark if you give it any thought. The cause of Sweeney's revenge spiral is there the whole time, lurking in the shadows and begging for scraps. He's too deep wallowing in what he lost and the blood he thinks he must spill to see he could have picked up the pieces of his life and had her back this whole time. Sweeney refused to let his emotional wounds heal, and kept reopening those mental scars to keep the fire of vengeance alive in his withered heart. He wants for the past, and cannot see the possibility of growing and healing in a future.

The dynamics of power and control at play, and the cycles of systemic abuse echoing in how people treat others close to them. Sweeney is NOT a hero, even if he may be sympathetic to the audience.

I personally think people who view Sweeney as a hero/anti-hero are missing the point. He is tragic, but not a hero by any means. He is the villain of his own story.

The Judge in his selfishness and abuse of power subjects Sweeney to the horrors of the systems that be, the systems of western imperialism and industrialization and classism and misogyny that enable him to send a man away in order to have his way with the man's wife and then cast her away. The systems of power that allow and enable the Judge to take that couple's child and raise as his own, then try to marry to keep for his own selfish desires.

Sweeney doesn't escape the system, he doesn't escape the cycle of abuse, he perpetuates it in his tunnel vision want for revenge. He doesn't challenge the status quo, he doesn't gain an ounce of compassion, he doesn't learn from his mistakes, he only doubles down and grinds his teeth in seething want for an eye for an eye type of vengeance. Vengeance for what? Defiling that which Sweeney sees as his. His wife, a once beautiful woman, made an object to ogle and then cast aside when no longer that picturesque ideal.

Sweeney doesn't care about Johanna as a person, he only sees her as a bargaining tool, another object to use against the judge that wronged him. He misses the idea of her, but doesn't give a flying fuck about her actual well-being. He didn't recognize Johanna when she was disguised as a sailor, just as he didn't recognize Lucy in her haggard beggar form until the very end when face to face with her corpse.

Even faced with the death of his wife, a death he directly caused by his tunnel vision violence and apathy, he viewed Lucy as an object to own, "My Lucy". He views Toby as a tool or object too, wanting to kill him off whenever he felt Toby was a nuisance or obstacle.

Sweeney viewed Antony as a tool to get to Johanna and therefore the judge. Even though Antony saved Sweeney's life and brought him back to London in the first place, he's just a means to an end. Sweeney took advantage of Antony's optimism for his own means. Give an inch, they take a mile.

Sweeney plays the game by the oppressor's rules, instead of circumventing them. Diplomacy wouldn't have worked as long as the cause of the conflict was in power, so he used violence just as vile as the rest of the system. Butchering whoever he can, adding another corpse to the pile of meat that the accessory to his crimes - Mrs. Lovett - ground up to feed to the masses. The poetic irony of the unsuspecting cannibalism as a perpetuation of their violence.

Without fail, every time I see a production of Sweeney Todd, the final sequence segment of Lucy wandering into the barber shop and pantomiming rocking her baby while crooning a lullaby - while that very baby now grown up is hiding in that very room - makes me tear up. Lucy is the ultimate victim of this storyline. She did nothing to deserve what happened, what all those people did to her. What Sweeney did to her. Her only 'crime' was being pretty, and a woman, in a world where pretty women are objects to be bartered or stolen.

There are no heroes of this story. This tragedy. Plenty of villains, plenty of dubious individuals, and plenty of victims. Revenge didn't solve their problems, it caused more problems and left a body count.

To seek revenge may lead to hell,

But everyone does it, if seldom as well

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Exploring Con O'Neill's Filmography Day #?-Pie In The Sky S02 Ep08

WARNINGS: Gun violence, alcoholism, pain meds addition, disability due to gun violence, workplace ableism, slight comment that could maybe be taken as transphobia? I'm also going to add slight passive suicidal ideation for the character Con plays.

CON IS SEMI-LIKEABLE IN THIS WHICH IS A SHOCK.

This is a cop/crime procedural, but unlike the ones I grew up with in the US in the mid to late 2000s/2010s this has no claws. Seriously, the main plot is driven by pudding. I align more with ACAB sentiments (obviously), and this does fall into Copoganda. But I'm here for Con, and not much else.

I also didn't catch the name of his character till the very end, as this had no subtitles and I'm bad with accents.

As always, I'll be active in the comments if you want to discuss the episode. Especially if you deal with chronic pain/a disabling injury as I have a bone to pick with some scenes, and want to know how close to life they are.

If you haven't watched it, it's less than an hour and something to turn your brain off while watching. Spoilers ahead.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pie In The Sky S02 Ep08 (1995, the same year as 3 Steps to Heaven. Jesus Christ, this man's career is wild)

IS HE GOING TO KILL SOMEONE. Based on what I know about crime procedurals, he's the murder.

(Con's character based on the first scene) He seems fun

Who is this mysterious man in the window

When is this? 80s? British 80s

Love the lesbians

That cop smiled more than any I've ever met

I know nothing about this show, and god, I hope I don't need context

Look at that helmet, how do people take cops seriously in England? I'd just point and laugh.

Why does he have a ceramic rooster?

Are these old ladies going to get murdered.

That guy's side part is really unfortunate

A CANADIAN COP, look at the Mountie

WHY IS SHE CARRYING PUDDING

Mommy issues to the rescue

This is going to be a phoenix write case

I LOVE RED SHIRT LADY'S HAIR

(Con's scene that you've seen online in gifs 'One...Homosexual', you know the one) I LOVE THIS ASSHOLE

YOU ARE THE HOMOSEXUAL

Why is talked to him like a child? Rude as shit. Even when he's acting weird, he probably has a reason. Hear him out and talk.

Slightly transphobic line? Idk how to read that.

Oh good, they're writing checks and not cashing them, Girlbosses

Look, I've just met this old guy(our detective inspector protagonist), but he's fun

It's a British show, there must be a character named JOHN.

IS HE A DETECTIVE AND A CHEF? Oh, that's his wife. God, I thought I was stretched thin. Look at him.

CON? (Con at a firing range?)

HOT

WHAT THE FUCK, why is he shaking?

At least he's wearing ear protection, (DI sneaks up behind him, and taps on his shoulder to alert him to his presence while still holding a gun) DONT FUCKING DO THAT, WHY WOULD YOU TAP ON HIM. HOLDING A GUN.

Con has a need for speed.

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY GUN SCENES WITH CONS CHARACTER. WHO IS HE KILLING

Nvm, that ladies hair is too tall

ARE THEY JUST STEALING/shoplifting? LAME IDIOTS.

Why is Con's character just keeping guns in cars. Shouldn't he know where to hide them better? Cause he already carries one on him. The trunk one is probably just in case he loses his main one?

THE AUDIO STING

Oh, he was a cop. Got injured and is now paranoid. Fair, but unsafe as hell.

They are such shitty shoplifters. She tried to make eye contact with the woman she was stealing from.

Do English people just make a shit ton of Bread Pudding.

Aww they're sisters and not lesbians. Rude.

I'm just sitting here imagining how funny this scene could have been. 5 guns fall out of his wheelchair as she takes it out. "Those are for work"

Are they going to fuck or is one of them going to get shot, I'm getting mixed messages

(A benching rack in the corner)He's getting his gains, I respect it.

2 Con characters addicted to pain meds.

IS HE ALWAYS A SIMP

Pain meds+ Alcohol is got a good look

You didn't choose this but you chose how you react buddy.

Go to therapy

Best DI in media. Stealing Criminal Old Ladies Pudding Recipe

(A chef says a xenophobic line about foreign recipes) What's wrong with foreign recipes? All your shit is bland.

WHY IS IT SO LIQUIDY. GOD I HATE HOT PUDDING

Maybe I'm bad with age, but Con and the detective seem like the same age. He doesn't seem ten years older than her.

He doesn't have to be a sad bastard, yeah, but Con's trapped playing that role. So if we can fix these characters 'problems' In the next twenty minutes I'll be shocked

He's jealous cause you're young and not jaded to the system like he is. You know. Like every ex cop/military/government character.

THAT CUT WAS JARRING (From a peaceful dinner to Con trashing in bed)

WHAT THE FUCK.

Who gets out of a car like that, slowly pulls out a gun, and fires like that? WHAT WAS HIS PLAN? DID HE HAVE DRUGS HE WAS HIDING? WHY??!?!?!?!

THAT WAS THE CHEST. HE SHOULD BE DEAD.

Go to therapy, Jesus Christ. The station would pay for it, and this is interrupting your daily well-being.

(The car shop guy goes to his house to hand over his keys personally, they do a weird double-take glance thing) That interaction post-nightmare felt gay? Is that just me?

What the fuck does 'twirlers' mean? Am I just not British enough to understand that?

73 arrests for shoplifting and they're still this shit? WHAT?

4 pistoles seem low based on his history. But I know a guy who has two hundred firearms anywhere from black powder with buckshot to pistols, and he's just a nurse...Well, maybe rural North West US is not the normal standard to judge by.

ALSO DON'T HIDE A FIREARM LIKE THAT. Does it just slide around in his trunk?

They're such jackasses to him, no wonder he's rude

THE FUCKER THAT SHOT HIM IS ALMOST OUT OF JAIL? MURDER HIM CON

TRUE THO, as long as he stays a cop feeling like this there's no point. He is just kind of stuck feeling like his life has no meaning. It's shit, but if he finds no point to living then yeah. He'll never move on

ANGRY CON. YESSSSS!!!!!

I was half expecting him to pull out a gun

THE OLD MAN HAS DRIP

THAT GUY IS GIANT

The nice thing about being a disabled cop here is no one suspects you and socially we're trained to ignore people with disabilities. It's something our governments actually uses in day to day life. I kinda hoped they cover that more.

I don't think you can pull out credit cards like that. Any bank would be suspicious.

WHY IS HE STILL AFTER THE RECIPIES

HE'S ONLY ASKING THEM FIRST SO THEN HE CAN GET THE FUCKING RECIPE AND THEN ARREST HIM. What in the Paddington bear logic is this this?

Con was playing a character named Ian? Cool.

Also, NOW WE HAVE ANOTHER CON CHARACTER DOING DUMB GUN SHIT. That brings us up to 5 characters baby (Telestar, Vengence is Mine, Blood Brothers, 3 Steps To Heaven, now this). The worst part is the only Con character I trust with a gun is Val. Cliff is responsible, but I still don't trust him. Izzy can shoot, and due to hijinks in the story, he might accidentally shoot someone.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall:

Took a minute to understand what everything was going on. They brought up a fun idea about how cops use PR. I wish Ian's issues were resolved in the end. He just kind of get's his groove back and suddenly everything's 'okay'. He still hates himself, and struggles with a pain pill and alcohol addiction.

Ian trying to prove he's still useful is giving me some hope for Izzy season 2. Con pulls it off really well. You see Ian's frustration with needing to ask for help, and pushing himself past his limits. You can feel frustration from Ian knowing he's being sent on this baby case for essentially bullshit reasons. He spoke up and upper management essentially remembered he existed. This is a really fun way to use Con's chops as a serious, but fun character.

The old lady plot was weird but fun. Girlbosing legends. Not knowing the protagonist, and being surprised when he rerouted a case just to get a recipe was funny.

Overall an enjoyable episode, besides a slightly transphobic joke, it's not as 90s as it could be. Also, he and the car salesmen guy at the end there had as much chemistry as he and the detective had. Get you a guy who can do both.

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Con:8/10. Fun, angry guy. Wish he got therapy.

Story: 6-7/10. Fun, I know depicting cops like this is exactly how they get away with doing awful shit, but seeing a cop story that wasn't life and death(besides Ian possible hurting himself) was fun. Felt new, at the very least. I knew nothing about this show but could still watch it.

Cinematography: 6/10. Of its era, but you get the feeling of putting on a warm coat. This is something that they would play at a hotel, on the free stations. You've definitely seen something like this before.

Overall I'd say around a 7. If I rank it, low B. Just cause he's not a real protagonist in the series, and I want to show love to the shit Con put his whole chest into. But it wasn't a bad watch. Fun contained story.

@ivegotnonameidea thanks for the recommendation ;)

[strangestcase]

Im going to be honest I do clown a lot on the glass scientists for making jekyll and hyde twinks and whatnot but as someone who used to really like this comic ummm what’s up with all the (gestures vaguely towards Hyde) ableism involved here.

you as a singlet can’t slap DID/OSDD symptoms into Mr. Hyde (a character that has historically AND FAMOUSLY been used as THE evil alter trope, even if he wasn’t written as such originally) and call it a day, no matter how accurate or respectful you are. Specially if you’re somewhat accurate, showing you either know what you’re doing or you know shit and it’s all a ”happy coincidence”. It’s contributing to the stereotype of DID alters -particularly protectors and persecutors- being violent evil monsters… precisely because Mr. Hyde IS a monster. even if you portray him as being in the side of good and just hurting Jekyll since he “embodies his self hatred”. Which is you know. Kind of portraying him as a persecutor? (Not to mention he LITERALLY GOES TO HEADSPACE, navigates Jekyll’s memories as if they werent his, despite the narration implying the “”””split”””” happened with the experiment, and encounters a character that is coded to be a persecutor as well… and they spend the first six chapters or so in CO-CON)

that’s just the first seven chapters btw, I think very recently (I don’t read it anymore) Hyde “fronted” without transforming. Literally possessing Jekyll.

like Jesus Christ.

It would be just as harmful was grabbing, idk, a werewolf, making the wolf form a DID/OSDD alter in all but name, fixing up some of the narration to whip out the “it’s just dissociative depersonalization” excuse and calling it a day. That’s exactly what TGS does. Dumb example I know but doing that shit to a werewolf would be bad because even if the wolf is good, you’re likening symptoms of a trauma disorder that causes shifting to being a literal shapeshifting monster which, unless you’re plural yourself and reclaiming such a stereotype, is… questionable at best.

now you’re applying that same ^ method to one of the horror character systems get most compared to and ummmm. (:

so yeah, long story short, don’t portray Hyde as the evil alter trope (for the twentieth time…) because it is harmful.

I’m a singlet so I know I am missing stuff here- if any plurals want to say anything about this matter they’re very much welcome to! I’m just voicing my opinion that going “what if the evil character systems get constantly compared to as an excuse to justify being ableist, was, indeed a system?” is not only taking away the most interesting elements of the character but also perpetuating a rather dangerous vision of systemhood, and unless you’re reclaiming it OR being EXTREMELY TACTFUL and normal about it (which TGS. Doesn’t do, since Hyde 1) is a classic monster of early science fiction 2) does so much weird glittery mind bullshit in that comic he could be replaced with a fantasy demon at this point and the plot would remain the same) you just… Shouldnt try.

And again: he’s not even a system in the original book. I do see a lot of other J&H fans clown too on how unoriginal or boring or too-conventionally attractive or too similar to Jekyll Hyde’s design is but very few do actually go ”hey, he’s literally getting written as a fantasy flavored magical evil split personality…”

okay now for the petty cherry on top: that adaptation set back the reading comprehension of the fandom like 1000000 years and if I ever have to read another fucking “split personality” joke about Jekyll and Hyde I’m straight up snapping

[sanguisfulgur]

I just don't get why Ephrem is single ship. It seems like in your own lore that isn't healthy and yet here you are doing this and I looked into this Lawrence. Boring and no bio on the blog so clearly the mun doesn't care about him either. You got conned. Better to drop the trash boring white man character.

Oh you're back? Oh honey please this is just embarrassing now. I get it, you’re a little bitch who’s big mad they can’t hop on Ephrem’s dick but that certainly isn’t my problem or my fiancée’s so let me break it down for ya’: 

It’s Laurence, not Lawrence. You didn’t look that hard if you can’t even remember how to spell his name. 

My fiancée - the mun of the blog - has ADHD and other health problems that aren’t anyone’s business. That’s why he doesn’t have a bio yet. You could just ask them about him rather than making assumptions but I suppose it’s easier to do that alongside ableism because if you read my fiancée’s rules, you’d know they have ADHD and it interferes with their writing . 

Ding dong, you’re wrong. It’s perfectly healthy for an incubus or succubus to have a monogamous relationship. The problem with Ephrem and Laurence was Laurence was human. Ephrem was afraid of hurting or killing him by feeding too much/too often on him. They worked around this and it does cause some actual relationship problems which we have discussed in Discord and will appear in threads. 

You don’t see everything on the dash/on our blogs. Rpers chat in IMs, Discord etc. My fiancée and I are no exception. We plot, rp, write fics and explore our characters and their relationships so don’t make assumptions about what is going on with us or our muses based on what appears just on Tumblr. 

Crow literally made Laurence for Ephrem but lmao yeah a’ight, I got conned. He was literally a muse made for my muse that I helped my fiancée create but I WAS CONNED Y’ALL. 

Boring white man. Okay sweaty. Yes he’s a white man... so fucking what? Last I checked you do not get to dictate who I ship my muse with based on their race and/or gender. That is my call based on my muse’s sexualities (because y’know, I’m not a freak who would base any ship dynamic on race.). He is not boring which you would see if you read what is available for him or y’know, ASKED mxthborn about him. He has a very interesting origin that makes him not-quite-human but yeah, boring. 

Even if you do find him boring... so fucking what?? That ain’t my problem, bitch! I love him. My fiancee loves him. Ephrem loves him. I do not care if you do not like him. I could not give less of a fuck. 

TL;DR; You’re honking your big fat clown nose and showing off your ableism and weird fetishism towards Lewis Tan again with this shit. 

Ephrem dicks Laurence - and only Laurence - down and there’s nothing you can do about it. xxx 

[theboost]

Here are most of my thoughts on Gotham

Gotham Pros

-Holy shit the casting. DC shows generally have some hit or miss casting and in the arrowverse at large I can think of maybe three people I think fit their roles perfectly. Gotham consistently knocked it out of the park from season 1 with baby Bruce and Selina and Edward and Oswald and Harvey and Alfred and I could go on to the later seasons with Ra's and Talia

-Manlet king Jim Gordon. I swear every love interest he had was taller than him. Also the fact that everyone in the city of Gotham was in love with Jim was great

-I really liked the costuming they killed it too

-season 2 as a whole was pretty strong and I really enjoyed it

-all the weird shit and overacting they put into it. It was way over the top but that's Gotham baby

-baby Bruce! David Mazouz killed it and his evolution to Batman or at the very least proto Batman was great. I love him I hope he gets to be Batman again one day

-fish mooney end of statement

Gotham Cons

-the homophobia and the queerbaiting with the nygma/penguin situation and the biphobia with *waves hand at Barbara*

-the misogyny female characters had like no agency

-I can't remember any specific racism moments but I know they were there and existed

-Definitely copaganda

-the last two seasons could be borderline unwatchable

-Jim Gordon never got canonically pegged even though I know Sofia Falcone at least was packing that strap

-all the weird shit and overacting

-sometimes it seemed like the writers would just throw a dart at a board to see what the next plot point would be

Edit: -also ableism like crazy man it was fucking rife with it

Gotham ?????

-so many musical numbers and not a single musical episode

-lee and edward fucking? Bad. Edward bragging about it to Jim? Hilarious

-not a day goes by when I don't think about professor pyg performing his own rendition of cell block tango

-I wish Alfred would be my father figure :(

[thelastreclist]

GAAAWD. This fic tackles some THEMES, and while can be a bit heavy handed at times, the author means well. Interesting perspective on shit, and maaaybe no how i would have imagined Zuko’s choice affecting season 3, but still excellent. (Although please take in the tags, cuz I didn’t read them and was a little thrown by where the story went in certain parts) 

Chapters: 11/22 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Aang (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Azula (Avatar), Roku (Avatar), Bato (Avatar), Piandao (Avatar), Hama (Avatar), Sozin (Avatar), Ozai (Avatar), Combustion Man, Lu Ten, Ursa (Avatar) Additional Tags: #No sexual content, #Reference to sexual content, #Fire Nation culture, #Fire Nation (Avatar), #Season/Series 03, #Season 3 AU, #Homophobia, #Ableism, #Fictional Religion & Theology, #War Crimes, #Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, #Angst, #Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, #Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, #Aang is a monk, #Zuko & Toph adopt each other as siblings,# Katara is the only adult, #Sokka has a perpetual case of foot in mouth

Summary:

Zuko decides to fight Azula in the Crystal Catacombs. This sets of a sequence of events that leads to Zuko being Aang's tour guide through the Fire Nation. Yes, this is basically a first half of season three with Zuko there fic. But this one is different, I swear! 1) There's no shipping. 2) The plot is very different from the show. 3) Fire Nation culture is explored in depth. 4) Sensitive topics never addressed in the show are explored in depth. So it's different, see!

[klaviergavinwiki]

lookerdewitt replied to your post “actually the fact that Toko refuses to bathe might put her below...”

i didnt like fukawa much in dr1 but she has a spinoff dedicated to her while still horrible hearing the plot of it made me like her marginally more

some of the motives are very clearly aimed for particlar ppl to start killing and obviously nagei wasnt one of them and neither was ishimaru considering he was down to immediately tell everyone what his was too.

I have a sticker of that that i got at random at a con and i have no idea with it its bumper sticker size should i put it on my car

DR BAD!!!! DR RLY BAD!!!!!! i think it was something less horrible in the original one (the english localization made it..... that) but hoooooooooo dr Bad

I don’t think she’s like AWFUL personality wise overall she’s just kind of an unlikable character model and now I understand WHY and it’s because she sits on a throne of Ableism ksdjfkslfjldskf

Yeah like idk i knew there were bigger among them since I know what Chihiro’s is but fuck holy shit u’d think this kid Fuckin’ This Kid would’ve done something more embarrassing in his lifetime like For Instance falling for Sayaka’s feminine charms :/

PLEASE put it on your car!!!!! I want the thrill of searching for it every time i go somewhere

And yeah lol like i genuinely had no fucking idea what it could be and I was REALLY scared it would be something really shitty and i was right

[the-cryptographer]

The first series ygo arcs according to me. Manga and DM canon. According to me. aka not the ultimate truth.

Season Zero

Pros: school life shenanigans. mah boi Jounouchi is at his most character development-y. mah boi Seto is at his most psychotic. someone else’s boi Atem is a hilariously shitty vigilante. stupidly aesthetic edgy.

Cons: Jouji. villains are dumb. and you’re dumb for liking this shit, DeLurk.

Comments: God Tier, tbh.

Duellist Kingdom

Pros: best Mai arc. best Kaiba arc with best payoff for ‘to lose is to die’. solid Jounouchi arc. solid Jounouchi arc where he’s terrified of zombies. duels are quick and cathartic. minor duellists are at their best. island funtimes. sneaking around Pegasus’s property. THE ENDING OF THE ARC IN THE MANGA!!!

Cons: idk, Paradox Brothers?

Comments: also God Tier, tbh.

Legendary Heroes

Pros: Yuugi, Jounouchi, Mai, and Mokuba go on fantasy RPG adventures. Mokuba is a manipulative little shit. we learn that Seto is shit at delegating power within his company. also Yuugi, Jounouchi, Mai, and Mokuba go on fantasy RPG adventures.

Cons: everything is rushed and contrived and stupid. if you start to question why and how Yuugi, Jounouchi, Mai, and Mokuba go on fantasy RPG adventures, the whole thing unravels into a ball of coal.

Comments: it’s still fun af and nothing can stop it from being fun af.

Dungeon Dice Monsters

Pros: Otogi.

Cons: the anime version was shit. but also the anime version had some cool Otogi-Pegasus connections that I wish were in the manga despite myself. so you can’t win.

Comments: i love Otogi, you can’t understand.

Battle City

Pros: ISHTAR SIBLINGS. no, for reals, Malik is the best villain, and the Ishtars have be best sibling drama. had the best duel in the series (trustship duel). Jou-Malik duel was also pretty quality. Bonz v Y!Bakura. Y!Bakura v Y!Malik. plot relevant. Yuugi says he loves Jounouchi. Kaiba grows up a little (and also talks shit about Jou for dying). Pinnacle Shizuka. Dark Necrofear.  Atem goes on a fail-date with Anzu.

Cons: longest, most draggy arc with so many low, low, boring af moments. full of boring, shitty Jou duels. slightly-less-full of boring, shitty Atem duels. Mai gets put in a coma. Jounouchi has literally nothing interesting to do until Mai gets put in a coma. ableism. misogyny. boredom.

Comments: best parts of the series and worst parts of the series combine to make Frankenstein’s monster of ‘i can’t stop watching’.

Noa’s Arc

Pros: Kaibros drama. Noa is an amazing little bitch. sci-fi adventures. Anzu and Dark Magican Girl team up. peak crushshipping love and drama and Honda is a jackass and Shizuka is amazing. we get to learn more about the Big 5, and at least half of them are interesting.

Cons: brought up a bunch of Kaibros drama that then got dropped prematurely. didn’t bring enough mind-fucky drama to the table. also WHY IS GOUZABUROU SORT OF ALIVE, GFDI, GOOD JOB UNDERMINING THE BASIS FOR SETO’S BELIEFS, ANIME, GDI.

Comments: still worth it, tbh.

DOMA

Pros: interesting (if highly inexpert) exploration of Mai’s PTSD, her self-imposed distance from others, her misogynistic self-hatred, and her need for validation from the stupid fuckboys in her life - all of which Battle City brought up and then fumbled terribly. ROAD TRIP IN AMURICA. Otogi and Rebecca are now pals. Rebecca and the Kaibas are now pals. Rebecca hacks things. Kaiba refuses to help and then ends up helping anyhow. Honda is still the best mom friend to Jou and everyone. Amelda, Rafael, and Valon are all interesting and have interesting conflicts going on. shrimpshipping hell. Atem gets some interesting character moments.

Cons: Atem gets some interesting character moments that don’t fit into how the rest of his arc has played out AT ALL. Dartz. Atlantis. stupid Legendary Dragon cards. DARTZ. ATLANTIS. there is no end to my hatred for how Dartz ended up being used to undermine the problems Amelda had with Kaiba.

Comments: similar to Battle City in my contrasting love and hate with its structure. but less plot relevant.

Grand Prix

Pros: Vivian. Jou & Mokuba moments. Jou & Grandpa moments.

Cons: everything else.

Comments: I shouldn’t even like Vivian as much as I do but, what can I say, I love Miss Sinophobic Stereotype apparently.

Capsule Monsters

Pros: Melon Club(?) Jounouchi in a Red Eyes costume(?)

Cons: ???

Comments: yeah, I haven’t watched this yet.

Millennium World

Pros: magical Ancient Egypt setting - woohoo! new members of the cast are fun. Yuugi got to duel. cartouche & true name magic. more Monster World tabletop fun in the manga.

Cons: new members of the cast are underdeveloped. rushed as fuck. Set and Kisara relationship is terribly written. Thief King Bakura’s valid complaints about genocide and the ruling class get thrown out the window. Zorc is the most boring ultimate evil.

Comments: series goes downhill as it continues according to me apparently.

Darkside of Dimensions

Comments: I’m tired of this post now. Big pros are Yuugi and Kaiba duel and the portrayal of grief. Big cons are throwing Anzu’s experience under the bus and introducing Ishtar siblings ripoffs (Mani is okay). Everything Kaiba did was in-character. That is all.

[llycaons]

final thoughts on mdzs pt. 1/2 - pros, cons, and my understanding of novel wwx/lwj. major spoilers for both the novel and cql drama. overall? i feel conflicted about this novel, but I found it very troubling and hard to read with some strong good points.

see trigger warnings under the cut

before starting I do want to note that I am, obviously, not Chinese, I really don’t know a whole lot about Chinese history or culture, and in this novel there are absolutely nuances and subtleties and references I have missed, and I apologize in advance for any judgements I make out of misunderstanding or misinterpreting the cultural or linguistic context. I do not know what it’s like to live in China, especially as an lgbt person, and it is not my place to judge how Chinese lgbt people relate to mxtx works. these are just my own reactions and opinions, viewed through the lens of my own experience.

tw for discussion of abuse, ableism, suicide, homophobia

I encourage anyone considering reading the novel, who wants to know what to look out for, to check to the summary at the bottom of this post, below the bolded warning. nsfw text and discussion of rape/sexual assault in that section

Pros

VERY good concept. thrilling compelling horrifying electrifying fascinating a multi-generational tale of war and love and sacrifice and revenge and identity and family and healing and devotion. genuinely the plot was excellent and the themes were really well done - reputation, alienation from mainstream society, corruption, legacy, ambition, hypocrisy, politics

i like the exploration of mob mentality in mdzs and the demonization of the other running back to corruption of the wealthy and rich. as in cql, I wish the protags actually could have changed the system instead of just separating themselves from it (or joining it to change from the inside)

the level of worldbuilding, giving each sect a distinct character, each sect a unique political leader - these are really solid as a foundation for a complicated and realistic fantasy world! it makes for a massive and dynamic setting with a lot of moving parts

i complain about her complicated plots but nie huaisang. holy shit. credit where it is due. and I liked how long it was! if a story is good enough I’m willing to read through a lot. and the details are really cool

i’ve read some analyses of the names and from an English speaker’s perspective, she nailed it. the use of courtesy names to indicate levels of intimacy/formality, whew. I wonder how common that is, in the genre. tgcf doesn’t do that.

commentary on the arrogance and small-mindedness of the rich and powerful compared to the resourcefulness of the common people! how out of touch the wealthy sects are. the privilege of them all!

it was funny! a bunch of little asides that made me snicker, and wwx as a character was absolutely vibrant. the first couple chapters where he wakes up and you meet him are still among my favorites. it was more awkward in cql and less funny as a whole

wwx taking the juniors on a hunt and then taking them out for food afterward is great. class trip with yllz

some of the romantic scenes were breathtaking. not many, but they were there. by the end it really felt like they knew each other and could speak openly to each other which was huge growth from their first meeting/scenes. some wwx’s internal thoughts while he falls in love are very touching and there are scenes where lwj is so gentle w wwx who had never been treated so tenderly before… also the married domestic comfy scenes were very cute

there was a sense of levity and humor in their later scenes. lwj with the dry wit and the flirting was so funny. and when wwx encourages him to step out of his comfort zone and they work together so well on cases and lwj cooks food he knows wwx will like…

don’t judge me for this but I thought the torture and death of wen chao was horrifying in the best way. i do love some gore. i do love some revenge. i do love some horror

right from my first lb post bc its still true - i really love the poetry of wwx waking up in mxy’s body, with all his old hurts erased and with a new gc and a chance to start again. a clean slate. conceptually i just…find that so compelling

“Face-to-face for only an instant, Wei Wuxian was immediately moved by the slight disdain in its eyes.“  lil apple having a character establishing moment was so funny i need to reiterate it

also - gentry refusing to say the name of wwx’s sword bc its too embarrassing for dignified cultivators to say

novel necromancy fucked. with a few hand movements or whistles or snapping of fingers wwx drew corpses up from the ground to fight for him or give him information. and he INVENTED that shit. nobody else before in the history of the cultivation world had done that. all him. three months in the burial mounds with a cursed sword. what a badass.

there was a lot of subtlety in the plot and political and sometimes even romantic dynamics. some of those passages were very graceful and beautiful descriptions of places or events or feelings

i was concerned that the 13 years passing would result in a creepy age gap when wwx came back, but wwx does feel like a mature adult and mxtx didn’t really go in that direction. the romantic scenes in general were sometimes not as bad as they could have been. the massive height difference, forcing one or both into gender roles, and exaggerated personalities are all somewhat based on canon but the fans also make it much worse than what it really is. so…pretty bad but not as bad as it could have been

wwx wanting to show lwj to madam yu and uncle jiang…i firmly believe those bows were meant to be marriage-adjacent in the show too

at the end there was a somber atmosphere and a sympathy for how jgy was torn apart by the eager malice and self-aggrandization of the cultivation world that i missed in cql. there were details and information for characters postcanon I liked to see too

i know it was probably not in good faith as mxtx is a fujoshi but I would like to see wwx in makeup and i liked that wwx expressed an interest in it

its neat to see a slightly different take on the lan clan and how wwx views them and his reluctant admiration of their ways

Cons

obviously the big one is how godawful wx was written because the author is a homophobe who wanted to explore her sick fantasies and used gay men as pawns. often they do not read like real people. more on that below

the women get absolute shit and so does mxy

lord was it fanficcy. writing like this is the reason I hate 99% of fanfiction and fanfiction culture

it is truly astonishing how dry, bland, and emotionless most of the book turned out considering the high-octane angst and drama potential (cql knew. cql milked this for all it was worth. call it corny - and it is - but the writers understood how to shoot an emotional scene)

the flashback sequence was extremely frustrating and confusing. while it was exciting to draw to both finales as once, it seems like she just forgot to write the section where wwx died and left it to rumor and gossip and conjuncture. i did not like the messy rushed pacing of early flashbacks, the sense that we’re getting information relayed to us by passersby and not from a character’s POV, nor the slapdash sense of time passing. I understand gossip is a huge theme in the book but it alienated us from characters we needed to be inside the head of to get the full emotional impact. maybe this is just a taste preference - her goal was not emotion

thematically I get not showing wwx’s death but it really takes the punch out of your story to kill your main character and not even show it. I know that she didn’t show it bc wwx couldn’t remember, but by that point in the novel, the narration was jumping fairly regularly into third person omniscient. thats how we knew about the wen brand on lwj’s chest, among other things

omitting any wwx or lwj pov about sunshot was weird to me. really, the plot was as convoluted as any of her smaller mysteries. and that’s not even a bad thing it’s just that the execution was hard to follow

this was perhaps a problem in translation but most of the scenes felt awkwardly written, the pacing was often very rushed, and the lines were sometimes difficult to understand. there were definitely good chapters throughout and the entire novel took an upswing in quality at about the halfway mark, but overall it was not a pleasant or enjoyable read, not even considering the content I talk about below

i didn’t care very much when most of the characters died. we had little attachment to anyone because barely anyone had any screentime besides wwx and lwj (and almost all of lwj’s scenes revolved around wwx)

this is 100% a personal taste thing but i don’t really care about the culpability of wwx? i do think his guilt and his responsibility for many deaths, including jzx, is a better writing decision and more thematically appropriate but that benefit was overshadowed by the other issues. i think the morality questions are neat! just not what im here for

also the novel does have timeline issues - how can jin ling be 14-15 when wwx died three months after his birthday, thirteen years ago? unless that was a 3-month celebration and so wwx dies when he was 6 months old. and we never get clarification on lsz’s age either except that he’s close in age to JL but that also doesn’t make sense! i feel like she just did not care about developing most characters who were not wx and like, jin ling and maybe jc.

relatively minor but i hate how the narration talks about how lwj’s scars ‘ruined’ his ‘perfect’ body. that’s something that bothers me a lot on a personal level

the scene where fairy literally plays charades with the forehead ribbon is really stupid

the way lwj and wwx ended their journey was simultaneously deeply anticlimactic and disturbing

novel wangxian - sfw section

in mdzs one of the big tropes is miscommunication (the other big trope i talk about below) so lwj is in love since they were 15 or so (for some reason…) and wwx maybe has a crush but doesn’t see it and doesn’t realize until he dies and comes back in a gay man’s body which is apparently a bl trope? for someone not to realize they’re gay for a long time and then realize it and immediately jump into a relationship with someone who’s been in love with them for years? wwx at one point wonders if being gay is contagious. yeah.

there are littler things too - individually many of her writing choices are like, fine but as a whole they paint a picture of relationship colored by a fetishist’s biases. any nice moments they have are in my mind overshadowed by the more troubling tropes that define their relationship

wx do not form a friendship in gusu, their interactions are repetitive and grating, they are barely on speaking terms, they fight a ton in sunshot, they barely talk in BM, lwj tries to save him and defends him and wwx dies without realizing it. wwx realizes he is in love postres, they have some sweet trusting scenes, he confesses with a heavy emphasis on sex, they end their post-temple retreat in legitimately one of the most upsetting and disturbing notes (more below), and that’s that. well, three months later lwj tells wwx the name of the song and he laughs. also they get married

in general there’s very weird overtones to the writing of that whole section. relationship. novel, actually. i do not like novel wx. more below

novel wx - nsfw text, pedophilia and rape m

Please read if you want to know what to expect in the novel - I want to emphasize that an important aspect of the relationship between the two main characters is literally a rape fantasy, and that the author romanticizes sexual assault. There are a lot of character interactions at play and a lot of plausible deniability and scenes/lines that really are up to a reader’s interpretation wrt consent but the fact is that the main character canonically has a rape kink. There are numerous instances of sexual assault from each mc to the other, all later forgiven/condoned by the narrative, and the second sex scene essentially treats rape as romantic. The Dafan mountain kiss and the sex scenes in chapters 96 and 111 are the most egregious examples of this writing, but the sexual harassment, violation of boundaries, and physical entrapment occurs repeatedly throughout the story from both leads towards each other.

details and more thoughts below

a relatively minor issues first of all - REALLY wish the bi mc didn’t tell a toddler about porn

i’ve said before I don’t like the terms “noncon” and “dubcon” because I think they’re easy outs for fans who try to pretend they aren’t just talking about rape. “dubcon” especially is a bullshit term bc there’s no such thing as dubious consent, consent by definition cannot be unclear and fans use it to excuse shit like what’s in this novel

so novel wx has two sides and one of them is this really sweet tenderness and attentiveness and loyalty and gentleness and support and the other is just fujo bainrot glorifying men sexually harassing and assaulting each other

i actually didn’t mind the wwx obliviousness as much as i thought I would, or the huge gap in between lwj falling in love and wwx falling in love, though it was annoying and detracted from the love story

much more concerning to me about their dynamic is the fact that throughout the story, from the beginning, one of the foundational aspects of this relationship is the treatment of sexual assault, the rape jokes throughout the book, rape jokes adults (presented as responsible) make in front of minors, the fact that the protag has a rape kink. there’s a constant underlying theme of imprisonment and silencing and escape, a strong emphasis on the love interest’s social/physical invulnerability and the mc’s relative weakness, and the love interest has a strong possessive streak. any one of these alone wouldn’t be cause for me to make this warning so strongly but it all plays together with the overall dynamic of the assault fantasy

it’s not that I think portraying SA is inherently bad, of course not, but you need to do it respectfully and sensitively and mxtx uses her characters as outlets for her and her reader’s fantasies. i do not think this woman cares about conveying nuanced commentary on consent or on relationships and fans singing her praises and going on about her genius have no critical thinking skills and treat mlm sexual violence as entertainment

novel wwx is such a brilliant character and you hate to see the author putting this on him. i don’t like calling these scenes ooc. the author had a plan for the dynamic and she went with it. thats not ooc, thats just a character written with bigotry. conscientious novel fans might omit these interactions from their understanding of the characters and proceed from there but i really don’t know if i can do that. this is their canon dynamic

im grateful cql completely revamped them. and i know part of that was censorship, but for whatever reason the characters from cql were written in such a way that we know they would never do these things to each other, and for that im glad, as I don’t want to associate such scenes with characters i love a lot

i know the scene on dafan mtn and the drunk scene in 96 were purposefully written as morally wrong and i know that both characters genuinely felt awful about what they did, but here’s where she really fails. i would have been able to accept those scenes (I would never LIKE them) if they sat down and recognized they hurt each other, set up boundaries, and agreed to treat each other with respect. maybe take some time away from each other to work on their individual issues. or work together on them. like partners do. like people who love each other do. like, please communicate! but she writes it so that neither of them are mad at the other for the assault bc, what, it’s okay to do whatever you want to your partner because they won’t mind? because they love you? and everything will be forgiven or accepted? because boundaries don’t exist? what bullshit

later on in 111, and i know this is complicated and real relationships are messy and won’t be perfect and sure there’s a lot of subtext i may missed as a non-native reader but that scene ends with a character going “we are going to have sex every day whether you like it or not” using his partner’s previous words against him because consent given once is what, always standing? and this is treated as romantic, this is considered THE big romantic moment and the climax to their love story. not even touching the textual rape and pedophilia fantasy in the extras which i am so thankful I was warned about and did not read

I’ve always avoided yaoi/bl and most fanfiction for treating gay relationships like this and seeing it condoned and romanticized in a popular original work is very upsetting. so my dni applies double now i do not want the rabid mxtx fans on my posts or in my inbox defending their fantasy with “don’t kink-shame” (an actual thing an ExR translator wrote) or some other bullshit excuse

i may reread the other translation of the novel when it’s finished (it will probably be about a year) but I am never reading any of her explicit scenes again