#even tho this isn't criticism just in case ppl want me to

[iamnmbr3]

Hey wait a second. Voldemort says that because the memory charm placed on Bertha Jorkins was so powerful, the methods he had to use to break through it and extract the truth from her left her permanently physically and mentally damaged. Dumbledore says that he extracted the true Tom Riddle memory from Morfin shortly before Morfin died. Surely Tom also was able to cast a very powerful memory charm on Morfin. So what methods did Dumbledore use to extract it? Maybe that's why Morfin died shortly thereafter.

Absolutely 1000% not the intended reading or implication here. But it's an interesting thought from an in-universe pov...

[ca-suffit]

i agree when it comes to female characters whatever their origins, I think the showrunners did the best they could. I did find weird that anne rice never wrote any queer female characters, it's all subtext. the books are really filled with sexism and while anne rice wrote the mayfair's witches, with a main female characters it's still full of incestuous rape and I couldn't believe amc took the decision to make an adaptation of those books. Just the whole stuff with 13 years old mona mayfair... I really never understand why anne rice wasn't comfortable with her female characters. anyway we could still have merrick in iwtv. they could change some elements of her plot.

tw csa

Anne Rice included a lot of themes that are popular and common still in modern stories and ppl tend to not understand the main difference of why ppl take offense to Anne's writing and not others. Case in point, this thread I responded to the other day on twt:

Here is the source (from her official website) for what OwlsGoldberg was referencing (thnx to them for sharing this link in the thread too) "O.K. I just read a book I recommend. It's called THE DEADLY FEAST by Richard Rhodes. The book centers around a man named Carleton Gajdusek. Carleton Gajdusek is a Nobel Prize winner and he's in prison--apparently for fondling a 14 year old in a shower. I have not seen the court record and I'm not in any way qualified to judge what goes on. All I want to say is that I highly recommend that you get the book. That the contribution of Carleton Gajdusek to medicine and to science has been fantastic and that I personally am looking into the whole question of child molestation, children's rights, because it concerns me. I remember being a young adult, and I remember being real angry that I wasn't allowed to do things that other adults were doing. I was working full time and I was living in a rooming house and I didn't like being classified as a teenager, because somebody wanted to sell me something expensive. I know I sound angry--I am. I am angry. But we've got to revise our concept of teenagers in this country. If we want to stop the crime in this country we've just got to realize that 14 and 15 year old people are adults, they are not children. And leading them to believe that there is a fundamental difference between play killing and real killing."

That's not even all of it for that twt thread, but u get the point. Nobody can ever criticize anything with Anne Rice without ppl saying it's just misogyny or ....whatever that accusation of queerphobia for a cast member is about (there was no clarification who that's referencing but I'm guessing it's Sam Reid bcuz this fandom rides hard for white queerness in him / Lestat at any chance, especially in order to silence other issues). It's always easy for these ppl to erase everything about anything else except "victimization" of a rich white woman. This only happens within the fandom too, as most ppl outside it don't respect Anne Rice at all for her behavior or writing....and that's without even knowing the depths of this kind of stuff. U couldn't pull this crap on any person on the street, they'd rightfully think ur terminally online and fucking weird.

Anyway, back to the point about themes. Anne Rice had repetitive themes that ppl will argue are for "the genre." The thing is tho....it has to still serve a purpose to the story to be any good. Most of the time (at least for my knowledge of TVC books), there isn't a reason to have these things present. She simply has a fixation on them and a lot of them are things that hurt women just for the sake of doing it. The reader is also uncomfortably made to feel like this is all supposed to be ok too, which is the main issue ppl have. It's not critical or intentionally envoking horror and dread....it's just saying "this is what being a girl/woman is" and giving the message to love ur abuser (most often a very old white man in TVC), which many survivors of a lot of things find triggering af.

Mentioning Merrick too, that's a character I rly liked and yet was wasted all over. The book with her name is narrated by David Talbot, this elderly, white, British pedophile, and we spend more time hearing his gross thoughts about her as a child and other similar shit in his life (always with underage poc) instead of spending time with her in her own head as an adult. Or Louis, for that matter, who is also more who the book is about than David, yet Davis is our narrator.

There's a lot more I could write but I'd never stop tbh. It's clear to most everyone who isn't finding excuses that Anne Rice just wasn't a good writer and had so many issues with misogyny and a lot of other things. I've never seen any other author excused so much from criticism, especially one who was so obviously known in life as being a rly unlikeable person, particularly to her own fanbase. If it weren't for other ppl, there wouldn't even be a fandom for her work. She v much almost destroyed it by herself.....but she's dead now, so ppl have been quick to start rewriting history and accusing others of anything they can think of to avoid criticism. Just like she always did.

[raelynn0606]

JJK ending sucks but what's new

The only ppl who will see this have already heard me complain but I'm gonna do it AGAIN 😈

jjk has always kinda been a mid shonen type thing but I usually like them so I wanted to watch it. I watched the first season when it released and it good but it wasn't good enough to get me reading the manga.

Then s2 came out and I kind of absorbed a lot of content through social media osmosis and it seemed pretty interesting. I only ended up watching it cuz one of my new friends watched it and another one also wanted to watch it so we watched it together in school while the teachers would side eye us 😓

I actually kind of liked it. I genuinely love a lot of the characters, like I think they're interesting in a ton of ways but sadly most of it never got explored. Most of the charas didn't get actual arcs and for the ones that did, it never felt finished or it would just feel so half baked. The plot has an endless amount of loose threads it's not even funny.

More than the actual media itself I enjoyed the process of consuming it. I loved searching up the leaks every Thursday with my friend and the fandom was funny asf too.

The fights were great too, and that's probably the only reason I found s2 to be so entertaining. But I feel like most of that credit goes to the animators and shit instead of Gege himself.

As much as I hate on the aot ending, this ending is WAYY worse. If you ignore the aot ending, the rest of the show can definitely stand on its own. The ending might even be good if you view it through a different perspective.

But jjk doesn't have that. The ending itself isn't bad. It's just that the series feels so incomplete which is what makes it so shit. I haven't seen a single person say it's good so far which rlly says smth. Can't wait for some fans to come along and be like "erm u just didn't understand the story ☝️🤓"

I don't even wanna get into all the details on why the series sucks cuz there's way too many I can list. But the main reason I hate the ending is cuz the series had SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

The characters and themes and plot were pretty good, they just needed to be explored more and it never happened and it sucks so much cuz it could've been so great and actually have smth to say.

Maybe I expected too much from a series called Sorcery Fight because there were indeed sorcerers fighting and that's pretty much it.

I might be wrong for criticizing it so much considering I haven't even read most of the manga. I just started skimming leaks every week after Gojo died like most ppl did and skipped over the previous arcs (although I did look at summaries) so maybe it'll be different if I actually read all of it at once but I doubt it. Maybe the pacing would be slightly better but that's it.

I just get mad whenever I think of what could've been. I genuinely hope someone rewrites it and does it justice even tho I'll prolly never read it.

It's just another case of "this piece of media would've been so good if it was actually good."

[mithliya]

i think everyone complaining about “skinnyfat” being ugly or a turn off or whatever is weird tbh. like the convo started with women talking about how it’s kind of degrading and plays into beauty culture and the term in general is just stupid and like. so many women are like “but i don’t want to fuck someone who looks like that??? why shouldn’t i call them that????” and that’s not necessarily on ur page it’s just what i’ve seen in the debate. it kind of reminds me of the libfems who r like “oh you have opinions??? well you suck at makeup why don’t u work on that first”. it’s just odd to me like aren’t radfems supposed to promote body neutrality? anyways i’m not skinnyfat i’m actually overweight and i feel like a better term would be “unfit”.

and sorry this is kind of ranty i’m having an issue getting my thoughts together.

i agree totally that "unfit" is a better term. it focuses less on how you physically look and more on the unhealthy aspect of it and lack of fitness. meanwhile it seems there isn't even a consensus on what skinnyfat IS... some of what i saw online is rly just acting like womens normal bodies, even when toned & fit & athletic but in a more avg type of way, has sth wrong with it. i definitely see your point on the importance of body neutrality tho. im critical of the whole "health at every size" argument, but at the same time i dont think making ppl ashamed of their bodies on the basis of how it looks is going to encourage healthiness either. there's some truth to health at every size in the sense that they argue you cannot always tell how healthy and active someone is by their appearance, and i think that argument can apply in this case.

also while im sure everyone probably has some kind of preferences in terms of their sexual partners' appearance, but i think we should keep that separate from feminist discussions. who i personally want to fuck and why is not valuable when the overarching topic is feminism. so i do generally agree w u tbh

[weaselbeaselpants]

Complaining abt tumblrsexymen being all the 'same'-ish conventionally attractive white/white coded character is a valid critique+nitpick if ever I saw one. It's still amazes me that Sans won the tumblreman hunger games considering he's both of skeleton decent and not a beanpole. Believe me, I love tumblr sexymen and that there are just WAY too many white and/or white coded guys in there. Diversity is important. Considering how many of them are also some scale of dangerous ppl which is then excused away by fans because of course it is, it is concerning how many Notzis get the "but he's complex"-treatment just because they're 'pretty. However, that's where my takes as a reallyreally white person end.

Yeah this is about Hunter in the Owl House.

As Belos is my actual fav (in a hate-fuck way) character, I'm gonna get it out of the way that yes ppl are 100% into Philbelos because he's a scary looming British blonde man and yeah his fans are way too apologetic of him because Mathew Rhys' voice and those designs are top-notch. Cynically, ppl are into Belos because they can't accept a passively nice white guy could be the same as a Trump supporter; realistically, a lot of us are also fascinated by how awful and why he is the way he is which is where are dumb headcanons come from.

With Hunter, I think half of the problem comes from the show prioritizing wrapping up the lore and backstory of the Wittebros as neatly as they could before it ends. Like it or not, Hunter is tied to the backstory of the villain and an important connection between the main kid cast and Belos directly thru him. Half of the discovers and unearthing of just how bad Belos is is done in relation to Hunter/Caleb/the grimwalkers. Like them or not (you don't have to, it's not law requiring you to enjoy the problematic blonde clone) Hunter is important to the story of the Owl House. I really don't think we'd have this problem if we'd have more time for the series to wrap up, or at least half the time Amphibia had for it's final season. While the story+lore is important, I think equally important to that is our main character and her friends. We do get that- mind you, but it isn't as focal to the story as the Wittebro shit even tho it's emotionally important. It's also why we focused more on King in the end of s2 - his story and how he befriends the Collector is integral to how the show's gonna end...and all of that comes at the cost of Luz and friends' having both angst and their own centric, full realized plotlines.

^^^All that I just said is only one half of a full conversation and that conversation is worth being had -- the one about how much (intentional or not) focus there are on the white guyyz who are straight vs the BIPOC cast of lesbians. The thing is I'd prefer to have that convo with a BIPOC TOH fan themselves, not through a white ally echoing that complaint to justify their own hatred of Hunter.

This is a thing some white allies do: they hear a complaint from a person of color abt wanting more diversity and rep, abt feeling like people only care because it's a white character - and, if that ally happens to have any unrelated beef with said diversity-lacking thing, they hammer down on this being the "ACTUAL PROBLEM" w the character. They use someone else's valid take or criticism and treat it like they're own. In the case of one particular anti-Hunter person, it also comes with the accusatory shit ppl do abt sexymen that's REALLY uncalled for and kinda fugged up:

"You only like him because he's a white kid and you're also a white kid You wouldn't care if that trauma happened to him if he were BIPOC"

No. I could care abt him if he were another race. Also BIPOC ppl are allowed identify w white characters as much as white ppl are allowed to identify w BIPOC characters.

"The trauma written for him is manipulative and people are projecting too much of their own trauma onto him"

yeah that kinda happens when you got abused characters- abused people will see themselves regardless of how alike they actually are....um....that's none of your business???

"He's not actually a good character he's just a sad character"

yeah again ppl like sad characters. I know what you mean, ppl are so into characters being 'sad and quiet' they forget that the character also has to be well written to earn everyone's unabashed love (see also: Evan Hansen) but...isn't that just a matter of opinion then? Like, what's the big deal if this emotional trauma arc got me and I personally really liked it. Prioritized or not, like I'm suggesting, it's important to the story and I and other people thought it was handled well.

"You only care abt him because he's a pretty boy."

ok well I don't think much would change abt him if he were, fe, a girl instead. Maybe I haven't spent enough time w the Hunterstans as much as I have the Belos stans but from what I've seen, a lot of the complaints abt wanting to see more of Gus and Willow and Luz at all stems from those same fans also liking those characters and wanting them to have the same attention given to them by the show as Hunter and Amity have. In other words- a lot of Hunter fans also want more for the rest of the cast....maybe it's not fair to treat them like they're ur enemy for daring to like the plot specific character?

---

All of this to say: if you aren't a BIPOC person with the genuine complaint that Owl House has become too Hunter-centric at the cost of it's characters of color....please stop using other ppl's experiences to justify your hatred. There's truth in there but that's not your argument to square in on just because you want amo to use against the blonde bisch getting in the way of the witch and lesbians you 'came here to see'. Just be real with how you came here to see that and be an actual ally and reblog the legit arguments to be made by BIPOC fans. That's the other half of the conversation, try not to talk over it-

k that's all.

[aaron-scissorhands]

I noticed something that happened after the announcement of Brad Pitt wanting to sue Angelina came up. Many ppl are blaming this on Johnny and it honestly pissed me off! Because basically what they're trying to say is "if male victims speak up, there's a chance for male abusers to use that and do shit"...😐😐

EVERY BAD person on this planet can choose to weaponize something or someone, to fit their narrative/agenda. That doesn't mean that good ppl have to keep silent just because there's a risk of someone bad using it against them. Let's be honest... let's be fing honest!... It doesn't matter if the trial was televised or not. At the end of the day, the verdict would've still been announced and ALL evidence would've been available to see and read on the official site of the Virginia Court and people would've had the SAME reactions. So the problem isn't that the "the trial was televised"...The problem is that "how dare a male victim win a trial against their female abuser. There are no female abusers. That's misogyny"... It seems to me that what they're trying to say is that male victims shouldn't speak up and get justice because potential risks of bad ppl using their case for their agendas might appear. Yeah. I wonder if they would've had the same thinking if it were the other way round...

The best and most obvious example I can give of similar situations is religion. All religions are good. But bad ppl twist them and use them to fit their agenda. Be it the toxic Christians with their toxic movements against lgbtq+, pro life, etc, or toxic muslims who use it to opress their women, etc etc, even tho what these ppl preach isn't written anywhere in their holy books.

Ppl like that exist everywhere and as I said can weaponize everything to help their case. That doesn't mean good ppl must keep silent and never reveal the truth. And let's be honest, even if the truth isn't revealed and ppl do keep silent, the bad ones will STILL find a way to preach their shit and opress ppl and bring misery upon many. It has always been like this and it will always be like that.

Same with Johnny. Even if he had lost, bad ppl would've still kept being bad ppl and would've found another way to do their shit. So can ppl stop blaming him for this?! ...Critical thinking.... Please....

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk ❤️

@thecaptainsbride OUT HERE EXPOSING YOU HOES, I DON'T EVEN HAVE ANYTHING MORE TO ADD JUST TAKE NOTICE OF THIS ICON 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[danothan]

im hoping i didnt misread your tone reading the tags and you do want to hear violyn shippers out but if u were /gen the reason that they appeal to me so much is the fact they are very different in every single way down to how they were raised but at the same time they are very similar with their motivations and goals in life they both want to help people and do good and while they certainly have quite a few hurdles to jump over they work together well and clearly trust each other very much despite their contrasts and differences and how they do have to jump a few hurdles to have a strong bond and might not click instantly but that doesn't mean the potential isn't there. also yeah youre right im a basic bitch and like tropes when ur a lesbian you gotta settle sometimes when it comes to rep. anyway hope u enjoyed the rant because it was a struggle to not make this longer

yes i was being genuine! i like getting other ppl’s perspectives, esp if it’s on smth i don’t understand. warning tho, i get pretty negative and definitely wordy underneath the cut

i think “potential” is the keyword here. i get the whole oil vs water metaphor in concept, but the execution leaves more to be desired. like you said, they’re fundamentally opposed in their upbringings and values. i mean after all, the first scene in arcane is the destruction caused by enforcers, ending on a shot of young vi glaring at them as she’s being carried away from her dead parents. that’s the kind of thing that sets the tone for the rest of the show, so it makes me wonder why we never feel the weight of that trauma after act 1. you’d think being wrongfully imprisoned for 6-7 years would make vi’s resentment grow even MORE, but i feel like she’s just toned down from her younger self if anything. before, she’d have a shouting match with vander over his betrayal of making deals with enforcers. couple episodes later, she’s teaming up with an enforcer herself? what changed?

i feel like they don’t have many shared goals either, esp not anything to bond over. so far all they really have in common is that they want to find jinx (for very different reasons) and they want to stop silco, which isn’t very romantic common ground lol. i’m not even sure i’d agree that they have the same motivation to help people bc vi is completely out of touch with the current political state of zaun and pretty much only has tunnel vision for finding her sister. and while caitlyn definitely wants to help people, she isn’t willing to listen to vi or ekko’s criticisms bc she gets too defensive over the idea that she might be part of a corrupt system. they’re barely ever on the same page

you say they clearly trust each other despite their differences, but i don’t think they should given this history. OR, if they did, it should be like my bookclub partner said and have vi fall headfirst into the relationship. and if this were to be the case, it would have to lean into vi’s emotional immaturity + lack of experience and give caitlyn growth + more awareness of their situation. but neither of these options happen, so caitvi toes the line without being able to commit to either side. it makes their relationship feel inconsistent and trivial to me

my bookclub partner and my sibling also brought up separate but enlightening points on the portrayal of their dynamic. f0r mentioned how they would be generic and frustrating to watch if the main conflict of their relationship was internalized homophobia, so it was a good writing choice to not include homophobia/sexism as a part of their society, and i agree with this. it’s an overdone trope used in place of actual substance, fantasy bigotry being a 1-to-1 with the real world just feels lazy. then my sibling noted that even though they technically don’t use this particular trope, their dynamic still carries the same story beats. their struggles and resistance towards each other feels subjective instead of being based on core themes of the story, like it’s a personal issue or a difference in personality and not the fact that they represent opposing sides of a class war?? this is why i don’t get what the big deal is over their break up. it felt like forced tension bc i wasn’t all that convinced they were in love after a few days, not to mention the breakup didn’t even last, so narratively i don’t see the point of having them separate if they were immediately going to get back together

again, if you’re going to use the oil vs water metaphor, lean into their differences. it shouldn’t be brought up when drama calls for it (“what, you don’t have parents?”), it should be the foundation of all of their interactions. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, jayvik represent the oil vs water metaphor better with the way external forces play into the difference in their values and create a divide between them despite their history and compatibility. hell, i feel more of that zaunite vs piltovan conflict between cait and jinx bc at least jinx’s trauma is written into their interactions

it almost feels like they’re having fun on their secret mission until vi remembers she’s supposed to hate cait. it’s the whole forbidden lovers trope that doesn’t actually feel forbidden bc there are no consequences for them being together. everything is just inferred because, well, they’re supposed to be opposites! so of course they’re on-and-off! but drawing conclusions from character fun facts is not the same as seeing those elements being purposefully utilized. this is what i mean when i say shippers have to rely on speculation. ultimately, caitvi is an underdeveloped on-and-off relationship that doesn’t commit to being either enemies OR lovers. it just feels like a messy high school love story in the middle of more interesting politics, found/unfound family, xenophobia/classism, magic, drugs, and terrorism

it’s a shame you say you have to settle, especially in a show like arcane where they don’t pull their punches for heavy and nuanced subjects. i feel like they set the bar too high to settle for a basic shipping trope. the other relationships in this show are intrinsic to and enhanced by the plot, and vice versa: you know they love each other but external forces play into their personal values and dynamics. caitvi deserves the same complexity and chemistry given to these other relationships

and for the record, i like both characters individually. i can see myself enjoying their relationship as it gets more developed. i think they have a lot of good moments in the show. but as of right now, based on canon only, caitvi is the weakest part of arcane’s writing

[ca-suffit]

i appreciate u actually taking the time to explain ur thoughts re: sam’s acting but i have to say i disagree. the accent fixation seems silly to me bc nobody bar maybe jacob has a perfect accent (delainey’s is particularly inconsistent, but who cares). it at least makes sense for lestat’s accent to be confused? he’s been around for hundreds of years, grew up in rural 18th century france and all accents have evolved since then… he’s lived in a bunch of different places, spoken multiple languages, like genuinely what do ppl want him to sound like? i think his accent/voice works perfectly for the role. jacob is incredible but there are a ton of subtleties in sam’s acting too (e.g. nuances in each perception or iteration of lestat) and it’s rly annoying that that ppl praising him is dismissed as just liking the “white and loud” character. basically saying anyone who’s favorite performer is sam only feels that way bc of racial bias when it’s a perfectly valid opinion (as is the case to prefer someone else)? ur obviously influenced by ur own ambivalence towards him as a character/actor. among fans (critics do tend to focus on jacob/sam) i’ve seen nothing but tons and tons of praise for assad, jacob and delainey bc i try and curate my circle w ppl who appreciate the entire cast. but also — wdym it took ppl 5 hours to compliment anyone else after ep 7 — i was on twitter when it dropped and tons of ppl were giving jacob and delainey their props?

I was comparing the accent between S1 and S2. It abruptly changed and I couldn't see a reason why? Armand's changes too but it's in character for why and then other ppl's are sometimes actor's own limitations. It's w/e tho tbh, it just pulled me out of a lot of it bcuz I don't remember being conscious of it in S1 like that.

"it’s rly annoying that that ppl praising him is dismissed as just liking the “white and loud” character."

That is what he is tho? The fandom's reactions make it worse too. Ppl can like whatever they like but idk how u can't see how annoying the fandom is about him and what a turn off that is. Nobody is saying u can't like him or he's not worth paying attention to, but being white is a large part of this by itself. A lot of what ppl like is that he fits a "fun" flamboyant, white, gay character and that's a lot of all we ever hear about. We can't discuss anything else about him bcuz everyone is so quick to coddle everything that isn't praising him, so nobody is *really* even dissecting the meat of his role bcuz none of it's ever allowed to be "real" yet. If ppl wanted to talk about the rest of this more then there'd be less hostility to anyone defending him.

"ur obviously influenced by ur own ambivalence towards him as a character/actor."

I'm curious why u think this about me tbh.

"i’ve seen nothing but tons and tons of praise for assad, jacob and delainey bc i try and curate my circle w ppl who appreciate the entire cast."

Well I'm in the tags and other public spaces as a whole looking at the wide range of fandom specifically for the purpose of discussing fandom racism.

"but also — wdym it took ppl 5 hours to compliment anyone else after ep 7 — i was on twitter when it dropped and tons of ppl were giving jacob and delainey their props?"

This was here in the main tags. I've only recently been on twt and it already seems like the discussions are v different than here bcuz it feels like black fans have more of a voice over there.