#dysfuctional family

[goosedarkhouse]

A small illustration for my story, "Lila and Leander" - about a pair of twins trying to live a relatively normal life in their gloomy, decaying house, surrounded by their deranged, dysfunctional family. A bit of a personal tale.

[nnnn99999]

Kan has my entire heart. Give her all the sweets my poor girl deserves it after everything she went through.

Home can now hear ghosts. So HomePeach are THE ghostbusting duo now.

I still want Somkid to be a good guy but I think he is the bad guy and I feel quite conflicted about this. I'm fine either way though so let's see.

I will never shut up about how Suradech is the mvp of this series. Have you seen him? He is fabulous.

[mourn-and-watch]

yeah i know a lot of people find kirkwall crew to be a little too unpeasant because of their complicated (to put it lightly) relationships but i guess one hugely overlooked thing about the way they treat each other is that da2 takes place during short periods of time and almost all members of the squad are going through their own major personal crisis and/or hit the lowest points of their lives during acts 2 and 3. like of course they're mean and snappy when the world slaps them in the face without a warning. on the other hand if you go through their banters in dlcs they act like almost decent people. decent by their standards so the bar is low but their interactions really seem to be a lot less tense and antagonistic. which i believe is actually the way they behave around each other when everything around them isn't falling apart

[columba1234]

Holy shit I love Oliver and Cherry Thistle so much

[swanmaids]

wedding dance

treat fic for @meadowlarkx!! Maedhros is missing, and High King Maglor needs to secure his crown. A marriage pact with the Mithrim Sindar will assist with this endeavour, but getting through the wedding ceremony is easier said than done.

The wedding party had moved into an imposingly large tent for the feast, and the rain could be heard pounding against the canvas for as long as the celebrations lasted.

Celebrations they were, but Maglor could not recall attending a less celebratory wedding.

It was not, in fairness, as though he and his new bride did not  try. She had after all come to the host of Feanor as a peace-weaver, and she would play her role ardently. Maglor sometimes imagined her cutting a lock of her hair, threading a needle and using it to tie him to the Mithrim Sindar forever. So as they sat at the high table, Malrin on his right had made sure to smile, showing all of her small white teeth, at every opportunity. He had tried too - he had taken her hand early on, and rested their entwined hands atop the table for all the guests to see. It made eating a little difficult one-handed, but then Maglor was not especially hungry.

His wife’s people had provided an impressive spread, using their own game and the remaining bounty of Aman that had survived Maglor’s family’s journey to Beleriand. Two great boars glistened on spits in pride of place, accompanied by pigeon pie and pheasant, trout and perch and another fish that Maglor could not name, native to the lake. There had been a soup made from a number of different mushrooms, a warm dish of artichokes, and sculptured bites of sweet almond paste in the shape of their heraldry to finish. The wine and ale had flowed, and then flowed some more. Even the Grey-Elven minstrels, singing and playing for hours without a break, were more than passable. Yes - Maglor’s new allies may not have been hidden behind the Girdle in the riches of Menegroth, but neither did they lack for their own skills and wealth.

read the rest on ao3! rated m, pls read tags

[cruelprincae]

"super heroes? more like super weirdos" the sum up of the greenbriar siblings.

[linkspooky]

GOOD SIBLING, BAD SIBLING: THE FIRE SIBLINGS VS. STARFIRE AND BLACKFIRE

What could two siblings born in a royal family where one is scapegoated and the other treated like a golden child possibly have in common? More than you think.

This post is making the rounds again and I thought it would be fun to make a longer post going into depth why I think Starfire and Blackfire avert the common trope of good sibling bad sibling, by comparing it to something that fails to avoid that trope. If you like doomed siblings or bad victims then click the readmore.

Good Sibling, Bad Sibling

To start off with I'm going to explain what I mean when I use the words Good Sibling, Bad Sibling. It's a trope that's an extention of what I call Good Victim, Bad Victim. It's when a story compares two victims of abuse, and one victim is a more acceptable victim while the other is a bad victim because they're not perfect suffering Cinderellas.

Victims of course still have agency in their responses, they're still culpable if their actions go on to hurt someone, they don't have a right to hurt others, but I think it's also true most people are quick to judge victims for not being strong enough to endure abuse when they haven't been in the same situation.

It's easy from an outsider's perspective to be "I wouldn't do that". It comes from a pretty shallow view that villainizes abusers and renders them as inhuman monsters when the truth is all abusers are still humans and anyone can fall into patterns of abuse whether they mean to or not.

One reason I hate this trope besides like, the fact characters that aren't perfect victims are often considered "too far gone" and murdered by the narrative, it's also just really shallow. In the end it usually comes down to the victim getting love and support healing and the victim who didn't have support getting worse. Which is like, a no duh of a situation. A person without friends or a support system or love in their life tends to not get better? Who woulda guessed.

Good Sibling, Bad Sibling shows up when two siblings are raised under the same house, sometimes even in the same abusive circumstances and one is a hero and the other is a villain. Another version of this tropes is the fact that if there are twins one of them is usually going to be a good twin and the other is an evil twin.

I can understand where this trope comes from because like siblings are a naturally close relationship, so it makes it a deeply personal conflict when a character's sibling turns against them. I don't even think it's a necessarily bad trope, if both characters are humanized equally which almost never happens.

Examples of this trope: Gammorra and Nebula, Mai and Maki, Shoto and Toya, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, Itachi and Sasuke.

And of course, Starfire and Blackfire, and Zuko and Azula.

My goal is to show by breaking the source material, New Teen Titans and the Avatar Cartoon down the former averts the trope and the latter plays it straight.

The Golden Child and the Scapegoat

A common trope used in dysfuctional families is dividing children between a golden child, and a scapegoat. The parent often projects all of their positive qualities on a golden child, along with high expectations. While the Scapegoat has all their negative qualities projected on them, and is often blamed unfairly for the dysfunction in the house. They are scapegoated so to speak, and constantly the victim of things like shifting goalposts.

It's like a more extreme version of playing favorites with an extra dollop of abuse on top. Also to be clear, this is an abusive dynamic where both sides are abused. They're not being seen as parents by their parents, and they are essentially being pitted against each other. There are plenty of parents who will be just as harsh on their perceived favorite. Being the golden child doesn't really safeguard you from abuse, even if it seems to be the more favorable position to be in.

Also in general when discussing abuse, arguing over who has it worse is kind of a pointless argument.

Also sometimes the playing favorites is intentional. By splitting up siblings and putting them against each other, the parent gets more control over each of them like a divide and conquer strategy. After all an abusers primary objective is to maintain control over someone by patterns of abusive behavior meant to wear down their sense of resistance.

With that being established, comparing the two royal families is interesting because the "hero" sibling is the golden child in one version, and the "villain" sibling is the scapegoat in another. If anything this proves that both forms of abuse can be the reason for a villain's tragic backstory.

STARFIRE AND AZULA THE PERFECT PRINCESS

Starfire might appear at first to be the total opposite of Azula. One of them is a hero who's like entire character is built around her overflowing emotions and the love she feels for people. While Azula is cold, calculating, and often treats her own friends like pawns instead of people. Starfire also doesn't repeat the cycle of abuse, while Azula does.

If you look past that there's a lot of comparisons to draw between the two of them. They are both raised in warrior, war-like cultures. The Tamaraneans may be all about that peace and love but like, an early conflict with Starfire's is that because she was raised on a planet as a warrior she doesn't understand why other heroes have a no-kill rule.

Azula is also a product of her culture. To begin with she's raised as a child soldier, of a nationalist and imperialist nation who are actively colonizing half the war. Azula also contributes significantly to the war effort, and never shows any doubt to the values of her culture.

As a brief summary of their early characters, Azula is princess of the fire nation which went to war with the world. She's the daughter of the Fire Nation's absolute ruler. She's however, the second born and not ever expected to inherit the throne. She is introduced in season one when Zuko vents to an unconscious Aang about how everything has always been easy for his sister. In Season two she becomes the main antagonist, first tasked with retrieving her brother, and then decides to try to capture the avatar on her own. I'd also be remiss to mention that Azula is the most personal antagonist the heroes face, because Ozai is more of a final boss. Starfire is an alien that was sold by her sister into slavery essentially (Blackfire is not a good person). She escaped to earth and became a member of the Teen Titans where she found a new family and worked as a hero. She's basically an immigrant to earth and there's a lot of culture shock. Starfire eventually returns home to her planet when it's in danger, and faces her sister as an antagonist.

This is another way in which they differ, Azula is the primary antagonist and negative foil to Zuko, and Blackfire is the primary antagonist and negative foil to Starfire.

While both basically have the tentative position of the favorite, while their sibling is demonized, it's made clear to them that they're not actually "safe" with their parents. Both sets of parents are awful and the origin of all abuse within the household. These characters also receive a slap in the face after being in denial for a long time that these parents will even mistreat their "favorite" child and treat them like an object.

Though, I would argue that Starfire is more in denial about her parent's abuse and will still see them as loving parents, while Azula is aware that her father could turn on her and strives for perfection to keep herself "safe".

Note Starfire is still saying this stuff after her parent's sold her into a political marriage.

Ozai: My decision is final. Azula: You ... you can't treat me like this! You can't treat me like Zuko! Ozai: Azula, silence yourself. Azula: But it was my idea to burn everything to the ground! I deserve to be by your side!

I've seen some people's unsympathetic readings of this line that Azula throws Zuko under the bus, but like... Azula doesn't want to be abused like her brother. What a monster. Let's see how you react when the father you thought was safe turns on you, I think most people would say or do anything not to get hurt.

I don't want to sound too critical of Starfire because she has her reasons (Blackfire abused her severely) but both Starfire and Azula seem to justify their parent's abuse to themselves by saying Blackfire or Zuko did something to cause the abuse. Sliding the blame from the abuser to the abuse victim. They participate in the parent's scapegoating of the the least favorite child.

I'd like to point out though that the ultimate cause of the situation is the parents themselves. The abuse started when they are children, and expecting Starfire and Azula as children to like, go out of their way to protect their abused siblings is expecting a lot out of them.

Like Azula is afraid to lose her position as the favorite because Ozai has demonstrated before that he'll horribly mutilate his children. Who would have guessed. Blackfire severely abused Starfire in their childhood, so she sees Blackfire as her enemy and not her parents who would have guessed.

In general too, expecting Starfire and Azula to be perfect siblings in an abusive household, and always protect their siblings, is once again a lot to expect from literal children who don't have fully developed brains.

However, I would say in both cases, they both try harder to connect with their sibling. This is where I get angry anons in my inbox, yes I'm going to make the argument that Azula was a better sibling than Zuko was to her. No I also don't expect Zuko to be a perfect big brother when actively being abused by Ozai. No I don't think Zuko owes Azula anything because she too prioritized her own well being over him that's what abuse victims do.

I'm just making the argument with in text examples that Azula does more things to help Zuko, and Starfire actively tried to befriend Blackfire before the sibling abuse started. In fact I think that's what makes both relationships incredibly tragic. It's not really two siblings who love each other on opposite sides of a conflict. It's that Blackfire and Zuko can't see past their own abuse, and can't love their siblings.

Once again I'm not blaming Zuko for priotizing himself, but I also think it's unfair to critcize Azula for taking care of herself and not sticking her neck out for Zuko when they were both being abused. Wow why are people extra harsh on Azula and extra forgiving on Zuko. It's almost like women are always expected to be perfect nurturers, and when they're not allowed to be complex human beings with flaws. My old enemy the Madonna Whore complex you strike again!

Anyway onto the examples. The big one is that Azula invited Zuko back after Ba Sing Se, seemed genuine about wanting to help resstore his honor. This is also a sacrifice on her part, because as I said even when he was banished Zuko didn't lose the title of crown prince. His status as the heir was never in question and like, letting Zuko stay a prisoner in Ba Sing Se would have ensured his inheritance would fall to her.

Why don't you let him decide, Uncle? [To Zuko.] I need you, Zuko. I've plotted every move of this day, [Makes a fist.] this glorious day in Fire Nation history, and the only way we win is together. At the end of this day, you will have your honor back. You will have Father's love. You will have everything you want.

Now common criticisms people use to argue that Azula has good intentions.

1) Azula needed Zuko to turn the tides in battle. While Azula was kind of in a corner in the fight where Zuko turned she also had Mai and Ty Lee and the entire Dai Li on her side so I don't think she'd really assume she needed Zuko to defeat the avatar. Also she starts getting backed into a corner long after she made the offer to Zuko so she had no way of knowing that ahead of time. Also, also, she might have just been backed into a corner for the sake of drama, making it more impactful when Zuko shows up and turns the tide.

2) Azula somehow knew she might not kill the avatar and needed Zuko to take the fall. This one doesn't make sense because Azula doesn't have any idea that Aang didn't die, until Zuko hints at it. After that point, Zuko kept it a secret from her and refused to tell her even though the truth being revealed would impact both of them. Like for Azula to know ahead of time she'd fail to kill the avatar when she made her offer to Zuko, and then bring him back to take the fall would require some 4d chess on her end.

Two more examples are Azula goes out of her way to warn Zuko that he might get in trouble for visint Iroh so often. On the Beach she's the one who comforts him and retrieves him from their old vacation house. When they're in front of the fire and Zuko is troubled she asks him what's wrong and even asks if she's the one at fault. Whereas Zuko mocks her for not having problems when Azula confesses her mother thought she was a monster he doesn't say anything in response.

In Tales of the New Teen Titans we get a closer look at Starfire and Blackfire's childhood, and we're shown Starfire tried hard at first to get along with her sister. Starfire also, in spite of being a victim of Blackfire's abuse went out of her way to save her life twice.

Something Blackfire responded with by immediately trying to kill her. Blackfire, you are a piece of work. In both cases, I'd argue Starfire and Azula try at least to have a positive relationship with their siblings. Attempts that are almost completely one-sided. I don't want to demonize Zuko too much though, because as I said when you're actively being abused it's number one easy to see the other sibling as being better off, and only natural you would prioritize yourself.

Also, Blackfire was an adult and continued the abuse later on in life when she had more agency, whereas Zuko for most of the tv show was a minor and you shouldn't hold minors to adult standards. If I judge characters for having an imperfect reaction to abuse, or not being perfect siblings I can no longer call myself a bad victim enjoyer.

Both Starefire and Azula as I said, participate in the scapegoating. In both cases it's out of a desire to maintain their spot as the golden child, because they want to assume they're safe.

Starfire actively defends her aprents all the time, while insisting that Blackfire was evil to begin with. Which is understandable again because Blackfire's abuse is just so much worse than anything Azula does to Zuko. It's expecting a little too much for Starfire to see the humanity in her abuser when she's a lifelong victim.

Like little blackfire things: Killing her sister's pet.

Phsyical abuse, actively trying to kill her even before they were on opposite sides of a war.

Selling her into Slavery (where Starfire was sexually abused).

It's extra tragic because both are essentially blaming the other for their parent's abuse. Blackfire takes out her pain on Starfire as revenge for her parent's favoritism, even though it's not her fault. Starfire demonizes Blackfire because she refuses to confront the fact that her parent's are abusive.

This is behavior Azula engages in as well. If you read into her actions, you can tell she blames Zuko for his abuse, you can't treat me like Zuko, while also believing that if she can just make Zuko act more like a prince he won't provoke his father anymore. Once again, sliding the blame on the abused rather than the abuser makes Azula feel more safe, because she also believes if she's perfect Ozai will leave her alone.

Zuko and Blackfire: The Banished Prince and the DIsowned Princess

This is another pair of seeming opposites. Blackfire is essentially Starfire's most personal arch enemy, occupying the same spot as Azula. Zuko is a villain for awhile, but honestly he's bad at it, and until the end of Season 1 he's so ineffectual he's more comic relief. Blackfire like Azula is insanely competent and causes a lot of genuine harm to the protagonists, and is far far worse than Zuko or even Azula obviously. I mean I've already listed some of the things she did above, but she also let her planet be conquered by aliens, orchestrated not one but two cues, and tried to have her parents blown up on live television.

However, both characters are effectively disowned and banished from their country for their inability to fit in. Both are banished and excessively punished.

Blackfire is the first born princess of Tamaran and she should have been heir to her family, but she was stripped of her inheritance because she was born disabled. Every Tamaranean can fly except her because of a sickness that nearly killed her when she was younger.

That's right everyone, the disabled representation you've been waiting for the sibling abuser and war-mongerer.

I think Blackfire's abuse covers a common way parent's treat their disabled children, where they don't want to make accomodations and make it clear they' don't want to take care of a disabled child and spend all their attention on their abled children instead. This trope is often called "Better dead than disabled."

Also I'd be remiss to point out that Tamaraneas have access to hover technology so Blackfire's disability doesn't inhibit her in any way. Like damn, parents will do anything but try to accomondate their disabled child.

Zuko is punished needlessly for a small offense of speaking out of turn in a meeting for not wanting to sacrifice young soldiers, and then refusing to fight back against his father in an angi kai. At which point he's banished and sent on a fool's errand of hunting the avatar.

Blackfire's reason for being banished is uhhh, because she tried to kill her sister in combat training, but also she was stripped of her inheritance just before being born disabled. She awas punished for things she couldn't control before she did anything wrong.

Both siblings also try to make up for their trauma and perceived deficiencies by constantly projecting violence. Blackfire is like, obsesed with war, Zuko's definition of honor is more focused around glory gained by combat more particularly killing the avatar in the first season. Both of them actively participated in colonization, Blackfire helped colonize her home planet, Zuko burned Kyoshi village and helped Azula with Ba Sing Se. Blackfire brought back an army to colonize her home planet, then attempts a military coup of a rather peaceful reign her parents secured not once but twice.

Both are blamed for their parent's abuse, it's Blackfire's fault because she was a violent and unlikable child she made it impossible to love her. It's Zuko's fault, he just didn't try hard enough to please his father and fit in as a prince.

While I may sound overly critical of Avatar's writing I do like how they gave Zukio a lot of chances to make mistakes and screw up, and instead of condemning him or dismissing him as too far gone they kept reinforcing that he always had a chance to better himself.

Both characters are really jealous and tend to blame the other sibling who's treated as the favorite for their abuse.

Zuko: "You're like my sister. Everything always came easy to her. She is a firebending prodigy and everyone adores her. My father says she was born lucky. He says I was lucky to be born... I don't need luck though - I don't want it. I've always had to struggle and fight and that's made me strong. It's made me who I am".

Though to give credit to Blackfire, while as a child she blamed Starfire for everything and used her as a punching bag, as an adult she seems to understand that the cause of their conflict was their parents and in fact tries to explain this to Starfire multiple times. So she's matured enough to see that Starfire is ultimately a victim too.

As I said too, Zuko is a child, he's also like still actively being victimized by Ozai while at the same time under the notion that if he does the right thing he can earn Ozai's love for 3/4ths of the show it's easy to understand why he'd blame Azula for his position as the scapegoat instead of Ozai.

Zuko never attempts to convince Azula to change sides with him, or considers that an option. When Azula is like, falling through the air about to die he doesn't tell his friends piloting the bison to try to save her. His stated goal when fighting Azula in the fignal agni kai is to put her in her place. That's literally a line he says.

Zuko, the empath when noticing she's having a total mental breakdown says "She's kind of off" and decides to take advantage of that to win the fight. When Azula finally breaks down and is screaming and crying, he just kind of sits there looking bored.

I'm not arguing that Zuko owes her anything that's a personal opinion, just that it's inconsistent with Zuko's writing. Zuko is presented to us as a character revolving around redemption, that learns that love and forgiveness are key to growth and healing and then just... doesn't apply those same lessons he learned to his sister.

That same kind of hypocrisy is present in Starfire, but it's like intentional. Starfire's inability to empathize with her sister, when her entire character revolves around empathy and love shows just how damaged her relationship with her sister is. Even then Starfire like, saves her life twice and was never able to kill her. With far more reason to not empathize with her sister, while blatantly hating her, Starfire still has that tiny bit of empathy for her. It's also like, Tamaraneans are a violent warrior people, and they're also extremely emotional and full of love, Starfire embodies both sides of that.

It's not just Blackfire either, it takes Starfire a long time to learn that she can't just kill criminals (again understandable, a cultural thing, in fact people like Dick are a little bit too harsh on her for this instead of trying to explain and understand where she's coming from). It is consistent with Starfire's writing, she is openly loving, but she's not the team mom that's Donna.

Zuko like, not even trying to redeem Azula or just like, not really caring is inconsistent with the writing that's trying to tell us that deep down Zuko is a caring person that is going to help heal the fire nation by showing them a better path forward. Zuko's double standards towards his sister, and his unfairly blaming her for his father's abuse is not written as a flaw. Blackfire unfairy blaming Starfire for her parent's abuse is a flaw. Blackfire's abuse of Starfire is her own fault, which is something she continues to do well into adulthood.

Which is why it's kind of all the more baffling, that Blackfire is way worse, is humanized a lot more by her narrative than Azula is. Now we reach the final part.

The Final Agni Kai

Now to trash on everyone's favorite scene that I absolutely despise as the end to Zuko and Azula's arc, while praising what is my favorite arc in the whole New Teen Titans manga. In the series finale of Avatar, Zuko after reuniting with Iroh is tasked with challenging Azula for the throne in the Agni Kai. They fight, and Zuko comes out on top.

In what is essentially the final fight between Starfire and Blackfire, Starfire is alerted by her brother that things are going down on her planet. She leaves earth with the Teen Titans and returns to her planet for a second time. Where she learns that she is being sold by her parents into an arranged marriage, as a part of a peace agreement with the invading force of her planet. Something that Starfire does not take well too, because she's currently in love with her longtime boyfriend Dick Grayson.

I'm going to skip over the Soap opera that is Starfire and Dick, because it's soon revealed that Blackfire too has returned in order to orchestrate a coup to overthrow her parents once more.

In the end Blackfire reveals her plan that she's set up an ion bomb to hold the whole planet hostage unless her parents abdicate and declare her ruler. At which point, Blackfire succeeds.

Both plots involve the scapegoat finally reclaiming their heritage and beating their sibling for the first time, one is the hero, the other is the villain... or are they?

There's a reason I love one arc and hate the other. It's that Blackfire is eventually allowed to be her own seperate character from Starfire, whereas Azula is ultimately just a plot object to strengthen Zuko's arc. This is shown in just, the amount of focus Zuko and his inner world are compared to Azula, how he has one of the most lovingly tailored redemption arcs shown throughout the entire show whereas Azula's mental breakdown is rushed through the entire end.

However, to further illustrate this let me show how well the New Teen Titans humanizes Koriand'r. To begin with, we see their childhood from both perspectives, to show both are biased narrators. Starfire represents her sister as being born evil, while Blackfire believes Starfire being the favorite took all her parent's love away from her.

Blackfire also gets, sympathetic motivations that demonstrate she's also capable of love and craves it deep down but suppresses it because she believes she needs to be a weapon of war. Something that is directly stated by the comics and only like implied by offhand by the avatar show.

In fact Blackfire gets to star in her own comic which tells a story where she is temporarily blinded after her first defeat to Starfire. After feeling helpess she feels like she's lost the will to fight, the will to kill, the will to rule which is how she defines herself.

Blackfire survives with one of her soldiers who doesn't abandon her, and helps teach with her rehabilitation teaching her how to fight while blind. Their relationship grows so close that Dorion feels like the first person that ever took care of Blackfire, and she breaks down and admits how much she wants to be loved. She almost seems willing to give up her conquest.

However, Blackfire misses out on the chance to be loved because her fanatically devoted soldier tricks her into killing him in order to show her that she still has the edge to kill.

This also clues us into more complex motivations for Blackfire. She is actively a patriot who believes that her father's rule is weak (she turns out to be right) and believes that conquering her planet is in effect her way of saving it. She has to put on this persona because the cause is more important than anything in her life, even love.

(This also contrasts Starfire who has no interest in being a ruler and runs away to live on earth with her love).

Also I'd be remiss to mention at the end of this particular arc Starfire doesn't forgive her sister or reconcile with her. I've never believed she owed her that. The arc just shows that Blackfire a human being (or a tamaranean I guess) who is capable of both good and evil. That her motivations are more complex than being a power hungry usurper and she actually can have good intentions. She's more of an example of the 'Well-intentioned Extremist" trope.

It's the complete opposite of Azula who's reduced to the mad queen stereotype in the end. Which is another knock against Avatar, Blackfire might not be the best disabled representation in the world but as I said parent's only treating their disabled child as a burden and that disabled child watching their parents take care of and love their abled children is a real thing that happens all the time. The comic also goes to show how competent Blackfire is in sipte of her disability.

Whereas, I can't imagine what it feels like to see yourself in Azula's mental breakdown, only to watch her last moment on the show have her offered no support, and not even a single sign that she might recover one day. Blackfire's motivations are tied to her abuse, but she's not demonized for being disabled in fact she's fantastically competent. Azula's like, readuced to an inhuman, ugly monster, and her mental illness takes all of her agency away and once again we're shown no hope for recovery.

Azula is reduced to a screaming incoherent mess. She has basically no agency in the end. Not only does Blackfire have agency, but like she has acutal points to make? The story values her point of view and gives credence to it? Myand'r is a weak ruler. She's not wrong when she says that their parents are the source of abuse for both of them. In fact, the narrative directly states the ones who started the abuse are their parents while it only implies it again with Azula and Zuko. Maybe the reason so many people deny that Azula is an abuse victim is because we only see the abuse from Zuko's perspective not Azula's. Whereas we get both conflicting accounts of Blackfire and Starfire's childhood and the narrative trusts us to judge things with nuance rather than needing it fed to us.

The planet has been invaded twice now. She's also, like, more popular with her father's weak rule?

Also like the story shows us why Blackfire will make a better ruler than Starfire. The narrative doesn't really illustrate how Zuko will be a better ruler, it just follows the "good king" trope.

I mean it's a fun little parallel that both Zuko and Blackfire are both an exiled prince and princess respectively, who return home to take back their throne. On one hand though, it feels like Zuko does it out of like, wanting to reclaim his birthright, or his feeling that the throne is his destiny. That's part of Blackfire's motivation too, but as I said, Zuko never states onscreen how he plans to improve the fire nation, Blackfire's got like actual policies.

Which is where the difference ultimately lies, Blackfire and Starfire are ultimately characterized as two sides of the same coin who need to come together to save the planet. Killing blackfire or putting her down won't fix shit or end the cycle of abuse on Tamaran. Blackfire and Starfire are much like Tamaran defined by love and war, and there's love and war in Starfire, and love and war in Blackfire and they both need to find a balance between the two.

This is in contrast to Zuko and Azula who's final conflict is just putting Azula down like a mad dog, quite literally. Blackfire is allowed to be human, with good and bad traits, and like actual points to make whereas Zuko's narrative only cares about Zuko's thoughts, and in general instead of coming together the narrative seems to think the only way that Zuko can triumph is if Azula is dragged down into the mud.

Blackfire is a character, and Azula is ultimately just a plot obstacle.

So that's my long ramble on a sibling relationship I absolutely love, and a sibling relationship I can't love no matter how much I like Zuko and Azula individually.

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

Happy Easter: Dysfuctional Family

Charlie: (blowing a kazoo through the hotel while wearing white bunny ears and tail, carrying an Easter basket, and throwing bright colored and decorated eggs everywhere)

HAPPY EASTER, EVERYONE!!!

Hazbins: (groan collectively)

Vaggie: (slightly distracted by the tail) Hun, love the enthusiasm, but do you even know the purpose of Easter Sunday is?

Charlie: (cracks open a Cadbury egg and siphons out the innards with her tongue) Isn't it just an excuse to binge on chocolate and snuggle fluffy little bunnies and ducklings?

Angel: (clutches his pearls in ex-Catholic Italian horror) Mama Mia!

Lucifer: *Squeeeeee!* I'll be right back!

Vaggie: I guess that's a more corporate way to put it.

Angel: That's IT!!! I'm making my Mama's Italian Easter Bread! Charlie, you need to be schooled on Easter!

Alastor: Hmmm... I suppose if we're doing a full celebration, I can do a little something to liven things up. (Snaps his fingers, and everyone's clothes are transformed into various colored Bunny footie pajamas)

Charlie: (wearing hot pink bunny jammies and twirls) Oooooh! These are so cuuuute!

Vaggie: (in pastel lavender pajamas and snarling) Cabron!

Angel: (sneaky smirk as he wears a pastel pink and white two-piece pajama suit) Oh, Smiiiiiiles?

Alastor: (simply wearing red bunny ears) No.

Angel: C'mon! Hear me out! (Whispers in Alastor's ear)

Alastor: Hmmmmm.... I'll allow it! (Snaps his fingers again)

Vaggie: (baggy bunny jammies suddenly transform into a black and velvet purple, Las Vegas Showgirl bunny suit with white tail and ears, fishnets, and heels with purple wrist cuffs)

Angel: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! LOOKING GOOD, VAGS!!!!

Vaggie: (growls and tries to cover herself) FUCKING-A, ANGEL!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TELL HIM?!?!?!

Angel: Does it matter? I don't have a soul to sell. (Sees Charlie) Ha! Might wanna focus on your girlfriend, Toots.

Vaggie: What? (Looks at Charlie)

Charlie: (blushing, heart eyes, panting like a puppy, and her pajamas turned into a similar Showgirl suit but red with fox ears and tail)

Vaggie: Ch-Charlie? Charlie! No. No! Charlotte Morningstar, we are in front of guests! Shit! (Runs down the hallway)

Charlie: (hearts explode around her head) Hippity-Hoppity, that ass is my property! (Gives chase)

...........

Vaggie: (rounds back around the corner while carrying Charlie bridal style) Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

Lucifer: (rides in on a tidal wave of fluff infused rubber duckies while wearing yellow ducky footie pajamas with orange webbed feet) RELEASE THE QUACKEN!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Alastor: (sighs in aroace exhaustion as a random rubber duck bounces off his head)

Angel: (slowly calming down as he wipes a tear from his eye) It's just like home~

[melancholypancakes]

Coffin art reference

https://pin.it/7gXmEvWSV

I drew some opposite! Olivia and OG and other AU Brienne's owing out of a coffin ;)

Reboot belongs to @bloodrediscream

OG universe a.k.a original belongs to the welcome home creator @partycoffin

Opposite belongs to @hennysilly on tik tok

Actor (my au since frillsand not continuing actor au, I'll put more context of my au soon)

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL7kU2gK/ Frillsand explanation why they're not continuing the au

belongs to me @melancholypancakes

If no one knows the context of the headless OG Yvette Moreau and wounded opposite Yvette Moreau.

I'll give you some recap of Yvette Moreau, OG Yvette Moreau was a gothic woman from a welathy family and after her twin sister's passing, she became puppeteer for welcome home and co-creator of Brienne Velvet puppet of welcome home.

It is unknown what happened to the cast and crew vut it is recently known Yvette Moreau was decapitated and her body been missing.

Yvette and Brienne are the same person, half of Yvette's soul in the void and the other half in Brienne's puppet body.

In OG, Brienne goes missing along with some of her children and home, Wally and Olivia are what remains of the neighborhood.

It us assumed home took brienne, the twins and baby into the void of darkness.

OG Olivia had been tortured, abused by home, and unintentionally neglected by Wally for many years.

This lead to Olivia growing horns instead of fairy wings like her mother, as her mind was consumed by the darkness, turning her insane and evil.

She resents wally and feels she lost everything and had nothing left to lose as she would destroy everything in site including Y/n.

{...}

Opposite! Yvette is a rich blonde woman who suffered Dysfuctional family and her twin sister's death affected her but in a way she couldn't feel bad and went to therapy and ends up being a puppeteer for welcome home and Co-creator of Brienne Velvet, the mean girl in pink puppet.

It is unknown what happened to the cast and crew, but it appears Yvette was gunned down, and her body was missing.

Yvette and Brienne are the same person, half of Yvette's soul in the void and the other half in Brienne's puppet body.

In the opposite, au brienne goes missing along with some of her children and home, Wally and Olivia are what remains of the neighborhood.

Unlike OG Olivia and Wally, opposite wally and Olivia have a healthy daughter and father and home not an evil entity.

Olivia is on search for her mother and lost siblings in hopes of finding out what ahopened to everyone in the neighborhood.

Olivia helps Y/n to get their way home and hopes they could help each other like friends.

[somerandomcryptid]

Ok so I did a dreaming of death little animatic but uh this one's a bit funky because it's actually an alternate timeline to main dreaming of death the one from this post and this post so if it's confusing don't worry

I'm also putting it under the cut because I forgot to put a cw section in and for some reason couldn't add it in post

so cw for stadic noise, glitch effects, blood, and implied torture

Also just incase you don't want to go past this point(totally get it) since I'm main tagging this I want to say here that Dreaming of death is an au of the fic Penpal by @calamari-minecraft-corner

Ok yeah now realizing this makes no sense not in context but ehhhhh it's fine

I know what all this means so that's really the important part.

Long story short is Dream, Wren and Punz all wind up dead. Cryptid is not ok with this. In the slightest.

They are very unhinged about it.(Aka torture and experiment on like half the server. Sanity has left the building and they're going to get their family back.)

It works eventually (*cough cough* because XD allows it *cough cough*)

Anyway that timeline is a bit different pre-dysfuctional family death because Cryptid's just a bit different in that timeline but uhhhhhhhhhh

Yeah that's about it for now. I could ramble... but I'm not going to. I try not to ramble about the non-canon timelines/au's because they aren't even canon and they are heavily cryptid focused so you guys probably don't care tooo much.

If anyone wants to send asks then I'd be happy to talk about them there :)

[dysfunctional-family-fight]

Round One

the Batfamily (DCU) VS the Entrati Family (Warframe)

The Batfamily

Members: Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Cassadra Cain, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Duke Thomas, Stephanie Brown, Kate Kane, Barbara Gordon(?), many others

Propaganda:

CW: attempted murder

"Several attempted murders, several arrests of each other, general disdain and massive fights, love that is destructive to all parties, and an inability to communicate" "Take your pick of issues. Dead parents, absent parents, abusive parents, addict parents, distant parents, assassin parents. How many people are in the family? Who knows? Everyone deals with personal issues by dressing up and fighting crime in the most depressing city possible. Bruce may or may not have adopted all the kids/plays favorites." More propaganda here

Entrati Family

Members: Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, and Grandmother. (actual names are spoilers)

Propaganda:

CW: Bodily Harm

"Mother chops off Father's arm for insisting that maybe she should move on from her missing dad. Son tossed out Daughter's fish collection in a desprate attempt to get attention from their parents, and when that didn't work, he let out the zombie plauge. Now they all have the zombie plauge, but are still a very dysfuctional family who refuses to talk to eachother. (also Grandmother almost ends the entire fucking univeres to get a random kid off the street to serve as a family therapist because everyone hates eachother so much they refuse to have a normal conversation)"

[tyo-mimt]

19/36. @tmnt-event-blog

Mikey remembers that asking for help is okay.

Mikey wouldn't say he's overprotective or defensive about the kitchen, but he'd be lying if he said he trusted his brothers with dinner. It wasn't an attack on them as people, but the three of them had different ways of cooking, and Leo would probably be the closest to a legitimate chef, if it wasn't for the missing hand and the hazard a highly explosive prosthetic would pose to the kitchen (thanks, Donnie).

Besides, he enjoyed making food for the whole family, and it wasn't like any of them were going to complain about not being able to eat.

Though, today was a particularly hard day.

His hands shook as he handled the pan, liquid sloshing out as he fought his body to cooperate.

He tried drawing before, but they looked sketchier; it wasn't the artistic kind either, the dissonance between his mind's eye and action discouraging him further. He tried helping Donnie with an invention, but the tremors in his hands caused a wire to melt; he wasn't officially banished from the lab yet, but there was the implication. He even tried to accompany Raph with a training session, but the jitters kept him from focusing; Raph officially banished him from the garage until the bad streak ended.

So where was he now? Struggling to make a simple soup for his family in the kitchen, pushing his frustrations to the back of his mind as he attempted to focus on the task at hand.

He bit his tongue, eyes narrowing as he eventually managed to place the pan down on the stove without spilling anything. He let out a sigh of relief, stepping back only to trip over on a soapy sponge. He wasn't able to catch himself, impacting causing him to kick the cabinet in front of him and topple over a precariously piled stack of dirty pans. It's easy to guess where they all fell.

The sound of metal clattering unceremoniously onto the box turtle alerted the other three turtles, immediately rushing in to lift the dirty dishes from Mikey's fallen body.

"Who was supposed to do the dishes?" Mikey questioned, trying and failing not to sound accusatory.

Raph and Donnie immediately turned to look at Leo; the slider scowled incredulously, "Hey! I dropped the sponge and was dragged out of the kitchen by the Caseys! Well, just Cassandra specifically."

"Never mind that," Raph groaned, facepalming with that typical flavour of big brother disappointment, before extending a hand to Mikey with a soft smile, "Let's just focus on helping Mikey out."

"Right, we don't want him turning into us," Donnie drawled, only to get jabbed in the elbow by Leo.

"We definitely don't want that," Leo rolled his eyes, crossing his arm over his plastron. Mikey laughed a little, lifting his hand up. It shook, a reminder of what caused this to begin with... Ah, but it didn't matter. He took the hand extended to him, being pulled up. The mess on the ground promptly cleaned up and the wet sponge thrown into the closest trash can, they continued to cook.

Raph helped wash the rest of the dishes, Leo kept track of the soup to make sure it didn't overboil, and Donnie cut up a various array of vegetables as Mikey flew across the cupboards for any seasonings he missed. They finished quicker than Mikey expected, just in time for their regularly scheduled dinner time. Dad (Splinter) came back with other dad (Draxum) from a small exploration of New York, immediately welcomed with the smell of warm stew.

It was dysfuctional, maybe a little broken, but Mikey wouldn't trade it for the world.

[pinkrobinontheloose]

So

Here's the thing. (This probably is going to be a disaster and some trauma dumping on my behalf, and with some grammatical and spelling errors 'cause English is not my first language, so be aware)(Side note: I'm from Venezuela, which will play a huge part in everything I'm about to say)

It's hard living with your parents when you're the youngest and the only one who got a college degree, out of all your siblings. And is autistic/depressed/chronically ill.

It's rough.

Recently, while I was seeing a Tik Tok about the Batman and I realized why I vibe with Tim so hard, more than any other. 'Cause I'm the same way. They were talking about the roles that children take in abusive/neglectful/dysfuctional households.

They talked about 4 roles:

- The hero (Dick): A child who takes on the role of the parents.

- The rebel (Jason): They like to go against the rules and forms of authority, as well as dynamics wich include some form of power dynamics. Also, they could, in some way or minimal form, be part of the problem.

- The lost child (Tim): The quiet, discreet one. Who's needs often are overlooked and hided.

- The mascot/brains (Damian): It uses the comedy and laughter as a way to distract the attention from the dysfunctionality of the family. As well, the brain ones, are the ones who takes any minimal chance they get to use the mistake of one member against them.

And they talked about in how this roles played a huge part in the development of this child's and their adulthood.

As soon as I ended that video I cried super hard, because I saw myself in Tim.

It feels selfish and narcissistic to say it, but I was the lost child.

My sister was the hero, my brother the goofon and I was the lost child (wich is such a dramatic title).

Our house was a weird combination of the 3. My parents were there in our childhoods, but they never where really there. Our family dinamic could range from being super happy to be supper tense and scary in just one second. My father is the center of it all. You didn't want to piss him off. He rarely is abusive physically, but God, did he have other ways to hurt you. My mother is mostly, distant, she will scream and insult him and pass it as taking care of us, but at the same time, she only did it for herself. She will tell you to just succumb for anything my father says, if that means she can keep her peace of mind.

My sister will always try to protect us and care, she was the one who tried to advocate and fighted our parents. She is this strong, protective, quick witted woman who has so much emotional damage that limits her capacity to love and feel secure with people, especially man. She is our Dick.

My brother on the other hand is an asshole. A jerk who is neglectful with his children in his own way. A big jerk to woman's. I... He did things to me which I never talk about and no one knows about, except me and him. He always tried to pass everything as a joke and made seem that everything was fine. My dad and him always had an explosive relationship, they will have screaming matches, physical figths, neglect, shaming, hatred, everything that they could do the other. But was my mother's favorite. And he became Jason of our family. Everything he does, is forgived and passed as a mistake or misjudgment.

Then there was me. The weirs, sickly child who's siblings hated for being the reason their parents no longer cared for each other and played by the rules this parents established, the one who never quite understood why people treated as if was an stupid with high grades. The one who had to take the downfall of every single one mistake the other two did. The one who had to be the fucking parent for her own parents. I'm Tim.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw that, and only I could think of all the ways I failed my "family" to be "more family like" instead of thinking about all the things they let me down for.

I just....

I remember the only therapist I saw in my life told me once "you can't always expect to make them happy, as well, you can't expect them to make you happy or being happy in your behalf. Cause to them, you are breaking the mold and expectations they set up, even the ones who wish you good, set up expectations. They conditioned you, and you conditioned your surroundings to believe that, if you make a mistake, you're not worthy of love. You are the problem"

So yeah.

I'm Tim.

I'm the problem.

[seraaphism]

nobody understands how much i love dysfuctional/broken/found family dynamics

[miraculousledianaus]

Miraculous Paradox AU: Emilie love dinosaurs while Turo love... robots.

It would be interesting to see how I can combine our favorite dysfuctional families with blond boys.

But please wait patiently while I try and create the AU first. I promise it would be worth the wait.

[perfectly-fish]

In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart (April 26)

This quote, written by Anne in her diary on the 15th of July, 1944, displays her optimistic nature in the face of the horrifying cruelty of the war around her. Anne is often portrayed as innocent and naive, although that changes during her stay in the annex, this quote showing her empathy and understanding towards others. It is admirable how she maintains this thought throughout the event most call the most horrific event in all of history. Even after seeing the actions of Hitler and the hundreds of deaths resulting in his reign, she still held on to her beliefs until the end. Her thoughts are of a person that sees the good in life despite all signs pointing towards the opposite. However she isn’t naively optimistic either, as we see Anne mature over the 2 years she spent stuck in the annex. This quote was written less than a month before the annex was discovered, and I always wondered, if Anne had survived the concentration camp and came back. Would she have the same opinion as before? Would she still believe that people were really good at heart even after suffering horrible fates at the hands of the guards, witnessing the selfishness of her fellow prisoners, being forced to watch her friends perish of either the guards or disease. I wonder if she witnessed all that, would the diary display a different message? Would it contain the thoughts of a jaded survivor of the Holocaust, or would Anne’s beliefs persevere? 

However I agree with her quote, as I think all the people who have been labeled as heartless all have a reason for doing so. Even though their reasons are sometimes inreasonable and are seen as downright insane, the people who commit these acts believe that they are doing it for the good of someone or something. HItler believed that his actions were to free the German people from the poverty of WWII and to enact revenge against the countries that led to the suffering of the German people. Many killers killed because they believed they were helping the world by removing those they thought were evil. There are some outcasts such as people who commit henious acts all for themselves, I would not consider “good at heart”. These people have no other reason than to further their own plans or fufil their own desires. I think my take on her quote would be that everyone starts out good at heart. Children and babies don’t start out with thoughts of mass murder or corruption, those thoughts are cultivated by the events throughout their life. A traumatic event or a dysfuctional childhood is all it takes to instill the wrong thoughts and behaviors into a person. Of course there are some who climb out of that dark trench and become good hearted people due to their experience in that area, helping others in similar situations. However, some are unable to do so, and their ideals twist them, althought they may have started with good intentions, it will slowly become selfish. A business man who started working to support his family becoming enthralled by the money and abandoning his family, his motivation, to selfishly start chasing the money, employing corruptive methods to keep it. A person who killed another in self-defence and vowed to kill “the evil”, slowly losing themselves in the killing. None of their reasons would be acepted in court or in polite society, but it does support the quote that people are really good at heart.