#favourite fictional male character by far

[teafiend]

These scenes were so adorable and highlighted how young Guo Jing actually was. Still a teenager having fun on a swing ✨🥰 But he knows his priority ❤️‍🔥☺️🫡✨

I squee(d) so hard over these scenes. Super-adorable and wonderfully sweet✨🥰☺️

We stan a *hero* who gets his priorities right ✨🫡👏🏽

*GJ: I am just a boy-on-a-swing hoping to train to become invincible so I could win my lady love*

(Excuse the poor quality of the screenshots. Am a dinosaur with nonexistent skills)

[hedgehog-moss]

My top 10 nonfiction reads of 2023 (the asterisked ones are in French with no translation as of yet) :

Belle Greene, Alexandra Lapierre

The Indomitable Marie-Antoinette, Simone Bertière

Reporter: A Memoir, Seymour Hersh

Red Carpet: Hollywood, China and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy, Erich Schwartzel

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, Patrick Keefe

Servir les riches, Alizée Delpierre*

La Comtesse Greffulhe : L’ombre des Guermantes, Laure Hillerin*

Le Courage de la nuance, Jean Birnbaum*

The Book Collectors of Daraya, Delphine Minoui

Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement, Hawon Jung

[stormgardenscurse]

pillow stacks

Summary: Sleeping over with them! Ace’s is longer in honour of his birthday!

Characters: Ace, Vil, Azul, Charming Stranger (that new Gojo-guy in the next halloween event)

Ace

The idea begins when Ace realises how quiet Ramshackle Dorm is at night. Sure, you say that you’re used to it and it’s not a big deal, but a part of Ace feels bad for not realising that no matter how he and Deuce may try to liven up your daily life, you still are, first and foremost, a student displaced in another world.

And with that comes a certain sense of loneliness that Ace can’t stop thinking about. At this point, it’s less pity that he feels for you and more of a desire to hang out with you after your usual hours. He wants you to feel like you have a home in Twisted Wonderland, too. And, well… He’d like to include you in his, by letting you into his personal world, if he has the chance.

…Which is why you’re here now! Doing typical things like a movie marathon, nail painting, and snacking on cup noodles. Ace claims that everyone just needs some TLC once in a while (including him, though you can’t imagine what’s stressing him out), so he’ll even let you do his nails (if you do a bad job Ace will have his revenge by doing your makeup after).

But Ace has always been a best friend who involves you in everything, so the activities up until now haven’t really struck either of you with a sense of ‘something more’ yet. That is, until you guys were fighting over the makeup palette and it stains your shirt - you didn’t bring a spare, so it was left to Ace to give you one of his instead.

That was the moment Ace realised that not only was he dressing you up, but he was doing so in his clothes; just what kind of crazy scenario is that?!

Suffice to say, he couldn’t help but stare as he saw the way one of his baggier shirts looked on your frame. It had to be one of his sleepwears too, which most people wouldn’t see him in - which only makes his thoughts race even further, knowing that this was a side of you that only he would be privy to. And he’d very much keep it like that. 

(The next day, Ace just borrows you one of his uniform’s dress-shirts so that you can escape the dorm without looking too suspicious. You get caught regardless because he’d forgotten to retrieve one of his hair pins from you, in the design of a bright red cherry.)

Vil

It’s not often that you get to spend a quiet evening with Vil (or simply a quiet, extended amount of time at all, considering how busy the both of you are). So to summarise the sleepover as therapeutic wouldn’t be too far off.

Vil wastes no time in beginning an elaborate skincare routine, and the two of you watch movies while waiting for your face masks to dry. 

You even manage to convince Vil to try one of your favourite games. If it’s for two-players, you’ll quickly get engrossed and experience a bit of drama (just typical, childish arguments about how one of you keep falling off the platforms). If it’s a visual novel or otome type of thing, you finally have the chance to witness what Vil Schoenheit, real-life celebrity and crush of thousands, has to say about romancing a 2D fictional man who is pretty, by the game’s standards, and critique how the storyline goes. 

Spoiler: he thinks you just decided to torture him for your entertainment, specifically because you chose an otome where the male leads were all pigeons. 

In the case where you played a normal two-player game, Vil will ultimately try and fail to forget about it so that he doesn’t get addicted/distracted by the game in the next few days, but of course, you soon get asked when you’ll next be free to play. He needs to get the ending over with so that he can move on with his life.

Your main souvenir from the sleepover is a new phone wallpaper — which Vil swapped for you when you were still setting up the game on your laptop. It’s a selfie with the two of you together, a far-cry from the usual celebrity and prefect personas you wear in everyday life.

Azul

No one can fathom how you managed to convince Azul to do this. Even with the pretence of this being a study-sleepover, he was generally much too self conscious about how he’s presented to let people witness him unguarded — let alone sleepwear.

Azul’s stuck; he can’t wear anything too tight fitting or hugging his silhouette because he knows he’ll just be too busy stealing glances, checking to see your reaction and overthinking about whether it’s a good one or not. So, instead, Azul wears something baggier (very unlike him), which also covers all his skin.

His plan works pretty well, up until the point where you almost roll off the bed by accident, and while catching you, Azul realises - ears red and face following - that you were leaning your entire weight on him. And your hands are right on his abs.

It’s almost phantom-like how fast the two of you dart away, trying to salvage your dignities. You’re left flustered because his muscles felt unexpectedly defined, while Azul is considering if he should make a contract with you and try to confiscate your memories of the past minute.

The paper that you both were working on is submitted successfully the next day, but Professor Trein notices an embarrassing spelling error on your names.

Just what could’ve caused this kind of mistake anyways? Well… it may have to do with your innocent question of how your names would be written together if you had the same surname instead. 

Just yours ‘and Azul Ashengrotto’ together in one line, or separately as you ‘Ashengrotto and Azul Ashengrotto’? Wouldn’t that sound redundant?

Azul had quite enough of your questions after that, scribbling your names and shutting the folder like his life depended on it. He’d forgotten to include your surname, making it look like the former hypothetical above.

Charming Stranger (Pumpkin King, Gojo twst, etc)

For a second, you thought you’d woken up in yet another coffin like the one that brought you to Twisted Wonderland. But you were soon proven wrong as someone cleared their throat next to you, causing you to jump and hit your head against the coffin door in your alarm.

It’s more spacious than you realise, accommodating a man beside you without it feeling too crushed. But judging by the lack of panic on your part about how claustrophobic it is, you assume that this was some sort of odd dream.

An odd dream with a charming-looking stranger. Perhaps you wouldn’t want to wake up just yet.

The stranger welcomes you to his humble abode, mentioning that it’s the first time that anyone has entered here other than himself. That ought to make you quite special, seeing as he doesn’t even feel irritated by the lack of space. Are you perhaps a ghost seeking some warmth? He regrets to inform you that his vessel is equally as cold as the ‘bed’ around you.

He’s also quite enamoured by your nickname for him. ‘It makes it sound like we’re in a romantic tale~ If you do not mind dancing in a graveyard of wilted flowers, then I would be more than happy to share a never-ending waltz with you.’

You bat off his comments, saying you probably won’t meet again after this - only to be taken aback by his smile.

Confident, knowing, and stretched as wide as a jack-o-lantern’s mouth. For a second it finally hits you that he is a type of powerful being, and that if he wanted to, may gain a permanent hold on your soul.

Then, the alarm flees your veins as his expression relaxes, taking your hand to place a parting kiss on your knuckles. Until you meet again…

Like how most dreams evade memory, you’ve already forgotten about this encounter the next time you see this man. His eyes land on you within he crowd of students at the college, and seems delighted that you’re there.

A wink, a finger to his lips. Just wait a little longer, and you can share that waltz he promised you atop his bed.

[crispy-armpit]

✧ 𝒊 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒕 ✧

yandere secret agent x reader

‧₊˚ ⋅ ‧ 🍸₊˚ ⋆｡ 𖦹 °

⭒ 𝘴𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺: after taking on your friend's offer to head downtown to a hidden bar, you find yourself in the middle of a covert operation. thankfully Messiah is there to hide you from danger. or did he just push you right into it?

⭒ 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵: gn reader, yandere, suggestive position & situation, slight violence, reader held at gunpoint, mentions of a firearm and getting shot, reader pressed against male crotch, sadism(?), auditory hallucination (you hear voices), hair pulling, swearing

⭒ 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵: 1,153 words

⭒ a/n: it was my birthday last month and i had planned to post this by then but ofc i never learn my lesson and kept my drafts in tumblr (leading to it getting deleted) 😭!! so sorry for the wait everyone and happy late new years! :D hope u like the batman wannabe.. it goes from 0 to 100 rq because it's hilarious to me and i'm sleep deprived.. i can smell the hate comments already

will you venture down this path?

it was supposed to be another weekend night spent alone in your home; you, comfortably snuggling against your pillows while playing your favourite brain-rot game from night to morning.

but here you were— unfortunately not in your bed, and devastatingly not romancing your fictional game characters. your friend, Vern, had dragged convinced you to join him and try out some random jazz bar which recently opened.

he mentioned his band would be playing there... he's probably just trying to get more people to hype up his band.

the warm ambience of the bistro & bar, alongside the joyous laughter ringing all over the room, people bantering and simply enjoying each other's presence was enough to erase the thoughts of your usual weekend plans. it was the type of place where you couldn't bring up any negative emotions just because of how chill everyone and everything was. so that's one forgiveness point to your friend.

at some point, Vern had split off from you to meet up with the other Ares band members to go perform— leaving you to drink away your life at the bar.

you channeled your best resting bitch face to avoid any strangers trying to hit on you, which worked. you sat alone listening to the blue voice of the current performer, making small talk here and there with the bartender.

oh, the bartender—

you'd been eyeing him up all night.

he was the only other person at the bar. like all other bartenders, he was charismatic and attractive despite the two deep scars running down his left cheek.

maybe he noticed you looking at it, because he suddenly rasped out, "...animal attack" with a nonchalant smile. which is quite impressive, since your gaze never once lingered on the scars for too long. he must be observing me.

Logan (you read his name tag) was an exceptional conversationist. and he played the bartender role extremely well. he brought up topics like your ambitions, your dreams, and even your darkest passions effortlessly.

but his eyes never seemed to really focus on your figure when you talked.

it was always off to a specific direction in the distance. and when you turned to look at what he was looking at, there would only be the same wrinkly old man sitting on the sofa chair.

"can you see it?"

confused, you reply, "see what?"

do you see it? the eyes? his lack of mouth? with hair as white as his, and skin as dark as void, how can you not see me?

"what the hell are you sayi—" you grow pale when you turn back and see Logan had his back turned away from you the whole time, far from the counter.

who was talking to me?

and for the first time in 3 hours since you've arrived, the old man from the chair moves. he wanders aimlessly for a moment until setting his sights on the bar. multiple random people who were loitering in the room take notice of his sudden movement, and all briskly walk towards him.

you're petrified.

the world is spinning, people are blocking the old man's path from you. and you're so thankful for that because it gives you the time to be pulled on top of the bar counter and then underneath it by a pair of strong hands.

your consciousness recovers and you're met with Logan, body crouched down to your level. his shadowed face shows no semblance of the bright man you were talking to a while ago. now his own icy blue eyes pierced through yours, and the once attractive rasp of his voice is now chilling to the bone.

"Logan—"

"you better fucking shut up unless you want to die."

he pulls out a revolver and points it to your forehead.

profusely nodding your head in understanding, tears begin to prick your eyes; this is so fucking messed up, what is happening??

your brain tells you that this was just the alcohol getting to you, and maybe Logan has some kind of split personality and a murderer... that it's some kind of sick prank Vern is probably pulling on you. maybe my drink got spiked...

but your gut tells you that you are in great danger. alcohol has never made you experience that level of auditory hallucination... hell, you were probably being delusional right now— of course Logan's trying to kill you!!

you could hear the faint sounds of bodies thudding against other people as if they were thrown or pushed. but no screams, just grunts. the loudness of the approaching footsteps came to a halt in front of the counter.

you cover your cries as best as you can with your palms and with Logan's hidden weapon still pointed at you. you could so easily whack it away or dodge it. but you stop once you hear the most grotesque voice ever, the result of what sounded like flesh tearing apart and bones reconstructing.

"where... are... they.....?"

you are faced with two decisions:

scream for help and get shot in the head by Logan

scream for help and face whatever the fuck is out there

either way, you don't get to choose. because the stress of the situation is beginning to overwhelm you and soon your whimpers slip out a little. small enough to not be heard from in front of the counter, but big enough for whoever is on top of you— and that someone happened to be the psychopathic bartender.

you freeze.

but your strength alone is not enough to hold back against the veiny hands that grab the back of your hair and push you against the bulge of the man standing in front of you.

you push and thrash over his grasp, but your actions only lead to him digging the lower parts of your face further into his crotch. WHAT THE FUCK IS HE DOING??? IS HE TRYING TO SILENCE ME WITH HIS DICK?!

and it works...

you stay silent and limp, not because of fear. but because of the absurdity of this situation and the slow growth of whatever beast is hiding under those black waiter pants.

the heat of your muffled breath against his privates collects in your face, it's getting too much but you hold yourself together. your hands that were once pushing him off now lay on the top of his hardened thighs.

Logan shares a couple words with the old man before pointing him elsewhere. you catch a strange name falling off the old man's lips, Messiah. fuck, is this a cult? shortly afterwards, you hear the light sounds of evacuating feet. he's finally gone.

and with the speed of a middle-aged lady during black friday sales, you manage to push him off to the side and stand up across him, ready to give him a piece of your mind.

you were humiliated, violated, mentally tired and— and—

why the fuck is he blushing.

[gunbun]

Gunbun's Pro Wrestling Explainer For FFXIV Players Who Don't Understand Graps Very Well

Hi! Are you an FFXIV player whose only exposure to pro wrestling is the tales of how Vince McMahon is a piece of shit? Do you have thinkthonks about the raid storyline so far but aren't clear on how it relates to pro wrestling? Do you think "correct me if I'm wrong, but…" about any part of pro wrestling, but you're not a watcher? Are you interested in obtaining a little bit of knowledge and context about what it is we're seeing in the Ascension Arcadia Championship?

I gotchu. This whole raid storyline is a large homage to the highs and lows of professional wrestling, and from my knowledge as a fan of WWE in particular, its storyline so far is unfolding just like the fictional storylines that unfold in our real-world on a regular basis.

I posit that the present Ascension Arcadia Championship is a pro wrestling promotion that exists in Solution 9. And that it's not only helpful but entertaining once you become a little genre-savvy about it.

Sidebar For The Smarks: Yes, other professional wrestling promotions exist. We got TNA, ROH, AEW, all the indie promotions, AJPW, NJPW, STARDOM…. there are many. I'm just using WWE here as an example as it's the promotion I'm the most familiar with. There's more to pro wrestling than WWE. But I'm using one promotion as an example to explain the tropes of these kinds of storylines to folks who might not understand.

Preface: A List of Wrestling Terminology

Pro Wrestling has its own lingo. This is not an exhaustive list, just trying to cover the terms I'm gonna use in the essay part.

Promotion/Federation - a company that presents a stable of wrestlers fighting to compete to win a title to the greater public for sports entertainment. Talent can move from promotion to promotion. Federation is an older-school term for the same.

Title - the cool belt that the champion gets to wear. disclaimer: may not always be cool.

Talent - a professional wrestler.

Heel - the Bad Guy character.

Face - the Good Guy character.

Gimmick - basically the core of the talent's character. Are they an undead wizard? A genre-savvy angry Canadian man? A sexy male stripper? Pro Wrestling Barbie? A maybe-stoner Samoan who turned YEET into his catchphrase? These are all gimmicks that have existed or do exist in pro-wrestling today.

Booking - where the management of the promotion decides who fights whom and what the stakes will be (title defense, match style, etc).

Bump - when wrestlers collide with either one another, or the mat, or the turnbuckle, or the announcer table, or the ring steps, or the barricades…..

Work - this is stuff within the entertainment itself that furthers the fictional story of kayfabe.

Shoot - this is stuff that is Real Life that may affect the fictional story of kayfabe.

Promo/Promo Segment - speeches/skits done between matches to further storylines.

Pin/Pinfall - when one guy pins the other guy for a count of three. it usually means they win!

Submission - when one guy taps out after the other guy usually twists them into some kind of painful position. it definitely means they lose.

Kayfabe - the illusion that the characters, rivalries, and championships within a promotion are anything more than stuff that the talent does to get a paycheque. Both the talent and the audience suspend their disbelief and buy-in to the idea that the match has real stakes. It's the fiction that plays out as part of the matches. ------

Part One: PRO WRESTLING IS FAKE AND GAY

First thing I want you to do, while the smarks are still distracted above because I neglected to mention their favourite promotion, is hop over to YouTube and watch….. oooh! How about Drew McIntyre vs CM Punk in Hell in a Cell at Bad Blood 2024? Content warning for blood, blood, so much blood, but you can view this match here.

Did you see how CM Punk just annihilated Drew McIntyre with that toolbox? Did you see the absolutely balls-to-the-wall violence on display? The athleticism?! I went to that match in person and Drew had to have his head stapled back together! It was intense.

BUT WHAT THE FUCK, GUNBUN, you say, I THOUGHT PRO WRESTLING WAS FAKE.

Nope. It's predetermined. It's booked. It is a live performance involving people beating the shit out of one another for the entertainment of a crowd. It is done deliberately, with full consent of all parties, and today is done as safely as is possible.

In my other posts, I said that wrestling is predetermined and semi-choreographed. However, saying this does not mean that the bumps are not real and that they do not hurt. It doesn't mean that the talent aren't giving it their all.

The wrestlers are still beating the absolute shit out of one another. They use their skills and know-how to do their best to keep it from causing severe injury. In fact, wrestlers are always contending with one injury or the other. The vast, vast majority can be stapled up and given some PT and are back to work (wrestlers are in insanely good shape; they have to be!), but sometimes it's career-ending. Look up Diamond Dallas Page or Big E or Charlotte Flair and what they've been contending with lately/in their past. It is rough on the talent, even when practiced as safely as is possible.

The 'fake' part comes from the wrestling principle of kayfabe. Kayfabe is the fictional world wherein the promotion exists, it is the personae of all the talent in the promotion and the way they interact with one another.

I asked ya to watch the HIAC highlight reel for a reason. In real life, CM Punk is a guy named Phil and Drew McIntyre is a guy named Andrew and this match is the culmination of months of matches and feuding between their characters. Phil and Andrew, the people, are working together to create a spectacle for us, the audience. Punk and Drew, the characters, want to kill each other. It was expected that there would be blood during this kind of a match, and it was expected that Punk was gonna clobber McIntyre with that toolbox, but the cut was not expected to be that severe. And yet, this is live. They can't stop. And they deliver what is shaping up to be an all-time classic match. You'll notice everyone cheering and chanting. This is the other part of kayfabe: the promotion presents us the fiction, and we play along. We cheer for the faces, boo for the heels, or are die-hards for our favourite talent. One of my favourite wrestlers right now is undergoing a heel turn, where his character is moving from being a face to being a heel, and the reasons why are very dramatic storytelling.

If you think about it too hard, it's stupid as hell. But the talent love to do it and pride themselves on doing it well, it is undergoing kind of a renaissance right now from its shady past, and it's the modern-day gladatorial combat.

(The 'gay' part? Just…. just google Rhea Ripley. Then Damian Priest. Then Drew McIntyre. Then Roman Reigns. Then Tiffany Stratton. Then Becky Lynch. Then Jey Uso. Trust me.)

--------

Part Two: OKAY BUT WTF DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE ARCADION

I am already 1200+ words deep into this, so I looked at the introductory cutscene for the raid. And…. um, friends, Romans, countrymen, puks that I know: kayfabe is demonstrably and textually alive and well in AAC. The Arcadion is a show. What is my proof? First conversation, Metem, the promoter of the federation tells the WOL it's a spectacle. That's the word he uses.

He then says the purpose of the Arcadion is "By providing them with gripping entertainment it is our hope to have them forget their cares." However, to shock the citizens out of their stupor, they need someone new! New entertainment is the best way to get them to think about something that isn't their dead queen and the horrifying realization of what regulator usage means, after all.

Well, how about the hero of the day, the one who killed the king?

That's what the mysterious behind-the-scenes president of the federation (Metem's boss) thinks WOL can be the next champion. And then immediately tells us the storyline he wishes to cultivate and discusses WOL's remuneration for participation.

WOL agrees.

Opinion time: At first I called him Lalafell JBL because of the hat, but having reviewed the cutscene Metem is totally giving me NXT-Shawn Michaels vibes. I love it. Anyway.

WOL enters THE LOCKER ROOM. We are introduced to the three combatants AS THEIR CHARACTERS. We don't learn their names yet, but all right.

Honey B talks about sharing the stage with the WOL.

Brute Bomber talks about meeting WOL the ring and how he's gonna take them down!

This is literally and explicitly kayfabe we are walking into. It is not a matter of opinion. It's in the text. It's in the tropes. The three other combatants are doing the kayfabe thing of establishing themselves. Metem explains that they're characters (literally) and that this is their way of welcoming WOL to the locker room. Metem then explains how AAC works and he and WOL work out the deal for the souls from the repository. This isn't anything deeper than making the battles align to an 8-man raid. This is all Alexandrian flavor.

The shoot is the WOL saving souls. The work is Fresh Flavour for the Arcadion. Metem tells us he'll tell us more after our first match.

Thus begins M1: Black Cat is our foe who uses a feral soul to become .... that thing. This is Black Cat's gimmick. In the Arcadion the gimmicks are literal transformations via feral souls, but they serve the exact same purpose. WOL's gimmick is LOOK MA, NO REGULATOR, in case it wasn't clear.

WOL is told that all of this hullaballoo is in place in order to provide the audience with a spectacle. it's first and foremost entertainment.

Metem explicitly tells you this is entertainment, this is a show. Right there in the cutscenes.

Like IDK what else I can say. It's kayfabe. QED.

I am not going to get into the storyline for M2-4, but it is almost a shooty nature: something from real life is affecting the fighters and it's being covered up. THIS is the wrong that WOL will right. The spectacle continues because it is the way of life for people.

[temis-de-leon]

Gn!MC with super long hair

Characters: Lucifer, Leviathan, Satan, Beel and Diavolo (x reader, separately; written as romantic, but could be read as platonic)

Main Masterlist

Anon request: ¡Buenas! I was wondering if you could do a gender neutral mc with lucifer,beel, Levi, satan n dia with head cannons about a mc with suppeerrr long hair? :D take care of yourself n remember to take breaks :)

A/N: I'm killing so many birds with this stone. This one has Lucifer and Satan, who are long overdue, and I'm posting a months-old request, which is way long overdue. Also, I want to thank Beyonce for giving me the motivation necessary to do this.

.

Lucifer

He can’t help but be impressed at first, even though his unbelievable age has allowed him to meet all sorts of living beings and see their diverse features first-hand.

Hair helps express oneself and represents different cultures, so he wonders what motivates you to keep yours so lengthy. Of course, at first, it stays at that, wondering and imagining, since it isn’t something that keeps him awake at night.

Plus, your impressively long hair only proves to be bothersome as days pass.

It’s on the furniture, the floors, the rugs, the laundry, the food… It. Clogs. The. Shower.

He’ll make you clean everything whether you like it or not and will absolutely throw that sadistic smile of his if you dare complain, sitting in a chair and reading the newspaper while you’re on your knees fishing clumps of hair out of the drains.

Legit him.

But in all seriousness, his attitude towards you will improve drastically the moment you start to clean your messes; and if you already do that from the start, then he holds you on a much higher level of respect.

You are cleaner and more responsible than his brothers, who would’ve thought?

He will feel beyond honoured if you ask him for help brushing or styling it; a bonding moment he’ll cherish very much.

Levi

He is fangirling hard and is not even embarrassed about it.

There are multiple fictional characters with hair as long as yours, both male and female and everything in between, and he wastes no time in comparing you to all of them regardless of your gender.

He’ll be considerably disappointed if you haven’t watched or read any of the anime, manga or novels he’s referencing, but if you’re willing to learn or if you’re already experienced in the matter, then prepare to never know peace again.

There are marathons, online shopping, gaming sessions, plot debates and, of course, his absolute favourite, cosplay.

You don’t need to dress up if it isn’t up your alley, although you should consider it. Levi is an excellent tailor and, as shy as he is, he has observation skills good enough to know what character resonates with you the most, both appearance and personality-wise.

Villains or heroes, leaders or sidekicks… It doesn’t matter. He would implode with excitement if he ever saw you dressed in armour, sparky or leathery clothes (or even all of them at once) with your hair styled in an intricate design that would normally have to be achieved with a wig.

If you want to watch him passed out on the floor with a worryingly deep blush on his face, you should try making a harness with your braided hair. His nerves won’t allow him to help, but he’ll make up in enthusiasm and admiration.

Satan

As far as he knows, hair holds great symbolism and, according to some, memories as well.

He is one curious demon with an extensive academic background and room to spare for more knowledge, so he’s very interested in knowing whether the length of your hair is determined by personal preference, culture, religion or something else.

Sure, you’re close and cherish each other for the way you are, but he has seen a feature of yours in his books, in history museums and even fashion exhibits. There’s something about seeing an object of interest in real life that makes him pay more attention than he would otherwise.

Even if the reason why your hair is so long is purely aesthetical, he’ll still be interested.

That just means he can tell you everything he knows instead.

Of course, your hair won’t be present in every single one of your conversations; Satan doesn’t want to be exhausting and, after all, it being part of you doesn’t make it you.

However, you will be aware of all the times he thinks of it.

“MC, hypothetically, if you were trapped in a tower, could your hair support the weight of another person? No, right? That’s what I thought! Of course!”

He isn’t fooling anyone.

Beel

Using a scented shampoo is considered a sacrifice in the House of Lamentation and everyone expects you to be aware of that.

He will eat it.

Legitimately.

It’s unavoidable.

Not directly, mostly, but it will happen as you grow closer.

It’s more noticeable when it’s your turn to cook. The brothers feel the visceral need to implement a new rule where you are obligated to wear a hairnet whenever you’re in the kitchen. Obviously, accidents still happen and threads of hair still fall to the simmering pots and pans in the stove while you’re distracted.

And Beel will be the only one to not realise. Thinking it’s just a really long and thin noodle, he will slurp that strand and enjoy it while everyone stares at him in horror.

His sin is a blessing in disguise.

Another example takes place when you’re close enough to share a bed; a situation you need to be careful with.

It improves if you braid your hair or if you use a bonnet at night, keeping it guarded and safe from the tossing and the fraction with the bedsheets, but the risk of it being mistaken for some weird-shaped food still exists.

On the other hand, if your hair is loose while you sleep for whatever reason, you can kiss it goodbye; since Beel will probably want to cuddle you and your impressive mane will inevitably directly be in his face.

He nibbles in his sleep, what can we do about it?

Diavolo

He is amazed by the beauty of it; it’s mesmerizing.

Of course, he has seen plenty of demons and witches with hair as long as yours, a symbol of beauty alone and power in the hierarchy of nobility; although that last one is tied to old customs, since the longer the hair the more time and servants you had to take care of it.

And you attend to it on your own? That’s impressive!

He wants to know everything, hence the huge amount of questions in so little time, almost like an eager child on a school trip to the zoo; shining bright eyes focused entirely on you and fingers twitching to grab a lock and softly stretch it until the very end.

If you let him do just that, he will treat it like a delicate treasure, never pulling harshly and observing with care. He doesn’t bother hiding the blush on his cheeks or the warmth in his gaze, mainly because he wants you to know how much affection he guards for you and how much he loves being able to be so close.

It’s a true pity you don’t have horns. Some demons use theirs as support for their hair, coiling it around them and making interesting designs.

He could give you a crown, though.

Show him what you can do with it.

.

.

Taglist: @ilovecandys2010 @ollieoven @kingofspadesdelusion @whimsybloom

[incognitofox]

My Thoughts on Representation in the Hazbinverse

!!Warning, huge rant below!!

I enjoy Hazbin Hotel, this is no secret if you've ever seen my blog before. Unfortunately despite my general enjoyment of the show, as well as its spin-off series, Helluva Boss, that does not leave either show immune to criticism in my eyes.

One thing in particular that I find irritating about the show is its approach to diversity and representation. And yes, while I admit body diversity and disabled representation are limited, that isn't the focus of my particular point at the moment. Instead, I'd like to talk about queer representation in Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss.

Now you may be thinking "how is the queer representation less than desirable if nearly every character in the show is part of the LGBTQ+ community?" That is what I believed as well, but what shocked me most upon further inspection was the upsetting lack of identities that are represented despite the sheer number of queer characters across the two shows.

From my knowledge, among major characters in the shows, the most commonly represented identities are gay men and pansexuals. Angel Dust, Blitzø, Stolas, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Fizzerolli and Verosika Mayday are all prominent fan-favourite characters who canonically align with one of these two sexualities.

Of course gay and pansexual representation is important, and part of me is glad to see so much of it, but unfortunately due to the abundance of these two identities in the show, many other identities are comparatively underrepresented in my opinion. For example, despite the prominence of pansexual characters, bisexual characters are few and far between, Charlie Morningstar, Moxxie, and Loona are the only characters who are confirmed to identify as bisexual, as far as I'm aware.

As a lesbian, I feel underrepresented by the characters in Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss. As far as I know, only two important characters are confirmed to be or heavily implied to be explicitly lesbian, being Sallie May and Vaggie.

Yes, homosexual representation is rather common in Vivziepop's shows, and yet most of the canonically gay characters are men (ie. Stolas, Andrealphus, Angel Dust).

As a sapphic myself I can't help but feel somewhat disappointed by the lack of not only lesbian characters, but generally sapphic interactions throughout the shows despite the large range of queer female characters. The only real sapphic relationship that is shown between the two series is Charlie and Vaggie from Hazbin Hotel, and I adore them, yes, but it feels strange that they're the only one we get to see. I can't help but wish that in this fictional setting absolutely loaded with LGBTQ+ characters, that I got to see more than that. Especially since there are plenty of male relationships in the series (Fizzerolli x Asmodeus, Stolas x Blitzø, Angel Dust x Husk, etc.)

That's not even mentioning the concerning lack of gender diversity for such a queer-positive series. Sallie May is a trans woman, and she is the only gender nonconforming character in the franchise to be anything but a background character.

At the time of this post, there is not a single character in the series who is referred to with they/them pronouns or stated to be nonbinary in any way aside from Sallie May. Which aside from being a disappointing lack of representation for such a large community, is also a bit unrealistic to me. I consider myself to be a cis woman, yes, but my friend groups are made up primarily of other queer people, many of whom identify as trans or nonbinary or genderfluid, and it's upsetting to see them be underrepresented in a piece of media that focuses so strongly on queer characters.

Of course, I appreciate the representation that we do have, and I appreciate the show's attempts to expose viewers to so many queer characters, but in the end I can't help but be a little disappointed that such an LGBTQ+ driven show (which clearly aims for inclusivity) only really explores a few of the countless sexual and gender identities that exist.

However, these are just my thoughts, though. I mean no hate to the creators or fans of either show, I'm simply sharing my own opinions about Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss and delivering some (hopefully) helpful criticism. As previously stated, I am a casual enjoyer of both shows, but despite this I still feel there's room for improvement, which is the case for all media. I'm curious to know other people's thoughts on the matter as well, though. How do you feel the show has represented your own identity and how do you feel about the overall diversity of the show? Let me know! Or don't. I dunno.

[mollfie]

I was reading a really good thread by a male SA survivor about how a lot of the fan sexualisation of Astarion makes them uncomfortable, how a lot of people seem to miss the nuance of his character, things they wish had been handled better, what he liked etc. I often forget how people can be super weird about traumatised characters like Astarion. He was not telling others how to enjoy their game, just talking about their experience, but brought up some great points that gave me something to think about.

I very much focus on the hurt/comfort nonsexual aspect first. I love the dynamic of Astarion healing and working out what he wants in all aspects of his life.

I wish the game allowed for more nuance regarding that. It would have been great to be able to really encourage Astarion to heal and assure him that you're not going anywhere beyond a line or two.

But, they're also all adult characters, and I think it's disingenuous to act as if abuse survivors can't enjoy sex and have ownership over their sexuality. I also would have liked the game to explore that more and had some more in-depth interactions where Tav or whoever could assure Astarion and be more supportive.

There's a few moments, such as with the Drow Twins, where I would have liked just one or two lines addressing consent and discomfort. I would be interested to hear why the writers made some of the choices they did.

I think a lot of fans don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings. They just get caught up in the horniness of it all and are having fun. I also think a lot of people haven't finished Astarion's personal quest or played very far into the game or just don't think about it beyond them being fictional. And, it should go without saying that most people wouldn't behave the same way in real life.

Overall, I think Larian did a stellar job. Better than any other crpg I've played in recent years. Luckily, I am also very happy to fill in the gaps and head canon things I thought could be better.

I love Astarion because he is a complex character. I always like characters who are dealing with and overcoming their trauma, finding friendship/love/family, and maybe some revenge as a little treat. I like characters who are not nice. Let them be messy and awful and human. My favourite thing is when someone is terrible but trying to do better, and they are still loved even at their worst.

The way some people act about Neil Newbon, though, does weird me out. He has also mentioned how some elements hit close to home for him, and he drew on that for Astarion's characterisation while voice acting and working with the writers. He doesn't seem all that bothered by how people act, and he plays into the Astarion bit online and on streams. I just find some comments and content to be super out of pocket.

This is such a messy post. Just some rambling thoughts. Anyway, it was a good thread. I just have a lot of feelings. I could expand on this even further, but this post is long enough already.

[castielmoriarty]

I'm very intrigued by Mackaron at this point because... idk, the fact that the word jealousy came up between Charity and Mack, her calling his and Aaron's relationship a bromance, and the way he seemed defensive about it. the way he really seems to have a slightly too personal issue with John. and I simply can't forget/ignore the way Mack flirted constantly with Aaron before he got together with Charity, and how their dynamic is far from a "normal" platonic male friendship, the way flirtatious comments are still a big part of their banter. also the scene at Aaron's flat really made me go eyes emoji for the first half before I disappointedly realized what was going on, because I've always imagined that if feelings got revealed between them, it would be in Aaron's flat and in the context of Mack seeming jealous of someone. Aaron joking like "are you jealous?" similarly to how Mack joked with Charity, and then Mack not really being amused. but as always I'm torn because Charity is my favourite female character and lately Mackity have been less boring again, so idk. very torn between the two ships. also torn because Ed lacks in close male friendships, and I do love those types of male friendships in fiction overall, i.e. bromances. it's just that platonic male friendships usually don't include a lot of intense flirting.

[edwinspaynes]

DBD mutual here. Wondering if you could explain all the acronyms you use in your other fandom (Last Hours?) because I try to keep up and it's impossible lol

I know we like Cordelia and Matthew and we don't like Julius

Forgot to answer this earlier in the day, lol, but I love you for that last sentence. His name is Julian, not Julius, but I'm going to call him Julius from now on because he canonically is glad that it's not his name and fuck that guy.

SO! The Shadowhunter Chronicles (TSC) is a long saga of books. It follows several generations of demon hunters as they navigate supernatural politics, interpersonal relationships, and world-ending scenarios.

The author, Cassandra Clare, does a wonderful job with developing three-dimensional characters and stories. She is one of my biggest role models as a writer and I hope that I can craft as compelling characters as she does. Her style of writing also has a massive influence on mine.

My favourite of these series is by far The Last Hours (TLH), set in 1903. The main character, and one of my favourites, is Cordelia Carstairs. You may know her from my profile picture! The male main character, James Herondale, is another favourite. He calls her Daisy. As a result, their ship name is Herondaisy.

Matthew Fairchild is my favourite-ever fictional character, and he is one of the other TLH mains. He's dear to me. Other favourite TLH characters you likely hear me talk about a lot are Thomas Lightwood and Alastair Carstairs, who make up my favourite-ever ship Thomastair. Cordelia and Alastair are also siblings.

Other TLH-related acronyms you may see here are:

ChoG -> Chain of Gold, the first book

ChoI -> Chain of Iron, the second book

ChoT -> Chain of Thorns, the third book

CLS -> Cast Long Shadows, a short story about Matthew

NBS -> Nothing But Shadows, a short story about James and Matthew

EET -> Every Exquisite Thing, a short story about another TLH character Anna who I like quite a lot

You also may see me talk about A Sea Change (ASC), an upcoming novella about Matthew, and Better in Black (BiB), an upcoming short story collection that will have short stories about Herondaisy, Thomastair, and several other ships.

Anyway! The other series you likely see me post about a lot is The Infernal Devices (TID). This series is set in 1878 and is about the TLH character's parents!

You likely hear me talk most about Will Herondale and Tessa Gray, ship-name Wessa and parents of James Herondale.

You also likely hear me talk most about Sophie Collins and Gideon Lightwood, ship-name Sophideon and parents of Thomas Lightwood.

Its wonderful books are:

CA -> Clockwork Angel

CP1 -> Clockwork Prince

CP2 -> Clockwork Princess

I like most of the TLH and TID characters, but the ones I've mentioned are my blorbos. <3

Cordelia, Matthew, Thomas, Alastair, and Edwin Payne (in no particular order) are my life-altering, insane, best-friend, untoppable blorbos. James, Tessa, Will, Charles Rowland, and Niko Sasaki (also in no particular order) are also very much up there with them.

There's also a series called The Mortal Instruments (TMI) about those character's descendants. It's set in 2007. Wonderful series, and I adore it very much! TMI is technically the main series of TSC. You probably see me talk most about Simon Lovelace and Isabelle Lightwood, whose ship name is Sizzy. But I love most of the TMI cast.

There's also another series called The Eldest Curses (TEC) that acts as a companion to TMI. It's lovely.

The Dark Artifices (TDA) is another modern-day TSC series set in 2012. It's the one I don't like. You probably see me bitch and moan most frequently about Julian Blackthorn (who I will now be calling Julius, thank you) and Emma Carstairs. Their ship name is Blackstairs, and when they hold hands or breathe, I want them dead <3

The Wicked Powers (TWP) is set to be the final series in the Shadowhunter world. It is going to begin its publication in 2026, which is exciting! I am currently pretty cautiously neutral about it (since it involves TDA characters heavily), but Cassandra Clare is an EXTREMELY talented writer in general and I think it has the potential to be a wonderful series. So, excited as well as cautious!

[laufire]

march reading meme!

BOOKS

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle. Letters from Watson sent this from January to March, alongside a couple of other shorts ("The Field Bazaar" and "The Man with the Watches"). An interesting thing about it is that Sherlock was portrayed as somewhat bitter on the issue of credit (he does all the work, subpar investigators take underserved glory), while he's usually, in both ACD's later works and adaptations, portrayed as ~above such feelings. "The Field Bazaar" was interesting in that, in describing why Watson is a good "foil" for Sherlock's smarts in the books, actually illuminates why I think the smart investigator/fumbling idiot dynamic just. Fucking sucks for me lol. I don't get a kick out of it, I much prefer when they pair two investigator of different talents and portray those as both interesting and helpful in their investigations.

Investigating Lois Lane: The Turbulent History of the Daily Planet's Ace Reporter by Tim Hanley. Amazing read. It takes you through the history of the character, often looking at it through the lense of real-life issues and movements, getting into the different eras, adaptations, etc. It's giving me a lot to think about, both within the dc fandom and outside it.

Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. This one I also read in substack newsletters, going for about a year, the last one being sent in March. It was a reread, and I maintain it's a book everyone should at least try to read. Inferno is by far my favourite part (the theology lessons in Paradise grate on me, in comparison).

Batman: The Ultimate Evil by Andrew Vachss. This book was written by a crime fiction author and attorney that specialices in representing children and in child abuse cases, who was approached by DC to write a book featuring Batman facing child sex trafficking. In the book, Bruce ends up discovering that his mother, Martha Wayne, was a sociologist who was investigating a child molester ring, and that's what caused their deaths. That's what caught my eye first, because really, how many canons give any weight and importance to Martha? If they opt to make the Wayne murders a conspiracy, it's always about Thomas's actions. I also appreciated that, even though the author clearly had to follow some dc-mandated lines (fictional country, individual villain), he practically hits you with a hammer when it comes to dispel a lot of the myths we have about child molesters and how they operate, specifically to challenge those dc-mandated lines. I wish we'd seen more of the social worker character, but I liked her as it was.

Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. I picked this novella exclusively for vibes and not plot, and it's what it gave me. It's also made me think a lot about how men see women, and how through their eyes our selves are twisted. Komako and Yoko are fascinating characters in part for how inescrutable the male lead finds them and how he might be misunderstanding them. There's so, so much hinted under the surface, about their persons and about their relationship.

The Lady Astronaut of Mars by Mary Robinette Kowal. Short novelette I picked on a whim. A 60+ yo astronaut is offered a chance to travel to space again, her dream come true. She has to choose between taking it, or staying with her ailing husband, who has little time left. The story apparently later expanded on some novels/prequels, I might pick them up.

COMICS

Secret Origins 80-Page Giant. I picked this one up for Steph's story (I'm going through her comic arcs), but ended up reading all the others. It's cemented my desire to pick up the Young Justice comics. These teens are sooooo chaotic and fun lmao, all of them (back then) with such weird and interesting backstories.

Lois Lane (1986). A two-part issue that shows Lois getting in deep in an investigation about child abductions. It's gets gruesome and heavy at times, but it's a great read, specially for her character. It shows Lois at a moment that the mainline comics seem to have ignored (she missed out on a great professional opportunity due to Superman), and it shows how obsessive she gets and how that is what makes her a great investigator and reporter. I also liked the glimpse at the dynamic between her and her sister Lucy there, how dismissive Lois was of Lucy's stewardess' job, for example.

DC First: Batgirl/Joker. I don't like it as much as the early-Batgirl (2000) run but it's kind of on that vein. Barbara tells Cass about her first encounter with the Joker, and Cass is determined to prove herself against him. I loved the art as well (very different than in the cover).

[simplegenius042]

OC(s) interviews

Wasn't tagged but was invited by @onehornedbeast in an open tag.

Tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton @shallow-gravy @carlosoliveiraa @strangefable @voidika @g0dspeeed @strafethesesinners @adelaidedrubman @thewanderer-000 @josephslittledeputy @vampireninjabunnies-blog @neverthesameneveranother @derelictheretic @deputyash @purplehairsecretlair @ec-10 @gaeadene @henbased @inafieldofdaisies @inthewinedarksea @jacobmybeloved @ladyoriza @minilev @wrathfulrook @direwombat @cassietrn @chazz-anova @nightbloodbix @softtidesworld @snake-in-the-garden @corvosattano and @trashcatsnark + anyone else who would like to join in (or just read this as I am under the impression I'm a bit late)

Got three characters ready to roll out. My very late WIP post is also almost complete, but that will come at a later time... and maybe something else.

Calvin Dearing (The Untitledverse, Original Works (& Various Fandoms))

Name: Calvin Dearing

Nicknames(s): Cal, Carl. (More TBA).

Gender: Male.

Star Sign: Cancer.

Height: Around 5ft 6inch.

Orientation: Demisexual.

Nationality/Ethnicity: African-American.

Fave Fruit: PLUMS. Don't go near this man while he's having plums, he will not share and is prepared to debate or fight anyone who wants one depending on his mood.

Fave Season: Autumn.

Fave Flower: Honeysuckle.

Fave Scent: Honestly? The smell of books or the wood in studios. Brings back good memories to when he was alive.

Coffee, Tea, or HC: Caffeine fiend, just like Joaquin. Trying to replace coffee with tea.

Average Hours of Sleep: Used to be like 5 or 6. Since having died, he doesn't need sleep but does rest/meditate like 3 or 4 hours, maybe less, to conserve energy.

Dog or Cat Person: Probably a cat, but would prefer to keep something "simple" alive... like a fish.

Dream Trip: This man wanted to visit Australia, Germany, Japan and Sweden when he was alive but money was severely limited since Terrance Carmine was a greedy bastard. Being a Dream Spirit he has to deal with multiversal travel which is free but way more dangerous than simple traveling would have been.

Favourite Fictional Character: Mickey Mouse.

Number of Blankets They Sleep With: One when he was alive. Now that he's dead he doesn't really feel the need for one since everything's a mess of hot and cold for no reason.

Random Fact: Calvin was one of Terrance Carmine's most loyal employees, and was even the one to insist Terrance use the opportunity of WW1 to spark popularity into their cartoons to spread propaganda to have others join the military. It was very profitable, however once the war was over, the very thing that gave meaning to the cartoons Calvin and Terrance made was no gone, and their animations irrelevant, leading to the studio bankrupting. Terrance wasn't very happy with Calvin, and invited him for one last talk before closing the studio for good.

Silva Omar (Far Cry The Silver Chronicles, Far Cry 5 + Far Cry New Dawn)

Name: Sylvester "Silva" Omar

Nickname/s: Sylvie, Silva, The Boa, The Muse, The Deputy. (More TBA).

Gender: Female (Intersex).

Star Sign: Capricorn.

Height: Around either 5ft 8inches or 5ft 9inches. She'd likely grow a little more taller from age and her father's late genetics.

Orientation: Demiromantic Lesbian.

Nationality/Ethnicity: Spanish with Arabic origins (on her egg donor's side).

Fave Fruit: The classic apple.

Fave Season: Spring.

Fave Flower: Lavender.

Fave Scent: Hot chocolate and Bliss.

Coffee, Tea or HC: Coffee, but she's moving on to tea.

Average Hours of Sleep: Very inconsistent. She has insomnia and reoccurring nightmares that keep her up/wake her up. Less than seven hours on a good night and less than five on a bad one. She does take time to rest or nap throughout the day so there's that.

Dog or Cat Person: She doesn't mind either. Before the Reaping, she'd want nothing to do with dogs, cats or any other animal because she can't really afford to keep something alive while barely functioning herself. During the Reaping she gets a dog, a cougar and a bear.

Dream Trip: Spain and anywhere in the Middle East, actually. The former because after having to repeatedly lie she was born there for majority of her life in America, she got curious about what it is actually like there, and wanted to connect connect with the culture more, without her father's input or stain on it all. The latter was mainly to connect with heritage. Unfortunately, no thanks to the Collapse, she's not going to be going to either for a long while, if at all.

Favourite Fictional Character: Frankenstein's Monster.

Number of Blankets They Sleep With: Silva sleeps with two blankets.

Random Fact: Silva despises the snow and the winter, however does enjoy breezy cold nights. Also here's a sad fact; Silva doesn't really celebrate Christmas on account that most of her family and friends are dead, she's a recluse and Christmas is her late sister's (Elsa's) birthday, which Elsa died a day or two after.

Hatsukami Hinode (Life, Despair & Monsters, Miraculous Tales of Ladybug & Chat Noir (+ Various Fandoms))

Name: Hatsukami Hinode

Nickname/s: Suka, Hats. (More TBA).

Gender: Male.

Star Sign: Aries.

Height: Hatsukami will tell you he is 5ft 4inches. Icarus' body's height is actually 5ft and 8inches.

Orientation: Hatsukami isn't really interested in those kind of stuff, unlike Icarus and Xavier.

Nationality/Ethnicity: Japanese.

Fave Fruit: Cherries.

Fave Season: Spring.

Fave Flower: Daisies.

Fave Scent: Freshly baked stuffed chocolate Croissants.

Coffee, Tea or HC: Milkshakes.

Average Hours of Sleep: 10 to 13 hours. He oversleeps.

Dog or Cat Person: Dog person.

Dream Trip: If he could, he would go around the world.

Favourite Fictional Character: Spongebob Squarepants.

Number of Blankets They Sleep With: Three. Icarus and Xavier hate it.

Random Fact: The Hinode family assumed that Hatsukami's behaviour was a result of repressed emotional growth. They had not realised that Hatsukami was one in three alters. ALSO! Hatter (the interdimensional parasite that Xavier had unknowingly ingested while fronting) credits his name in honour of Hatsukami after bonding with the young lad.

[velvet-vox]

My top 30 favourite female villains of all time (30-21)

"It was never about the money.

It was about

" * * " " * * "

The Lion".

-Captain Chantel DuBois, Madagascar 3 (2012).

If there is one thing that I love more than villains, is Villainesses.

You know, the gaslight gatekeep girlbosses.

A while ago I made a top 10 where I ranked all of my personal favourite male villains ever, and I promised myself that eventually I would also make one exclusive to the female antagonists, not because I don't have any favourite villainesses, far from it: my number 1 spot for this list is in my top 3 all time favourite bad guys, together with the top antagonists of my previous list; simply put, I wanted to make these rankings as varied as possible, since I know that people will be able to read them and be surprised only once, so that first time had to matter and be special.

Speaking of which... I'm actually not all that happy with how that first ranking turned out. I had way less experience at that point, and from the way I had written some of the entries, it looked like I was just simply gushing about the characters nonsensically without actually providing any understandable reasons as to why one entry was above or below the others or why I liked one character more than another one.

This time though, not only am I more organised, but I am also increasing the amount of writing I have to do, by ranking not just 10, but 30 of my favourite female villains of all time.

The reason why I increased the number of entries is due to the fact that I really wanted to rant extensively about some characters, but I could not include into the top 10 because those spots were already taken, nor did I want to relegate them to simple honourable mentions, so instead, I just prolonged the amount of work I had to do and turned it into a top 30.

In this first part, I'll go through my favourites from number 30 to number 11, and at the end of this read there'll be a link to the second part, while here's instead the link to the male villains ranking, if you want to check it out.

The bad guys

By the way, "villains" is a generalisation, as the word "antagonists" doesn't make for a captivating title; I can totally put anti villainesses, anti heroines or more general antagonists in this list; I'm actually more excited to talk about this then I was with the bad guys, because, due to my bizarre personal taste, and the lack of truly popular and noticeable female antagonists that aren't from old school Disney, this ranking will be so much more unpredictable and weird than the previous one.

Even if this list is entirely subjective, the main criteria that I'll use to explain why I put a certain character above another is how much that baddie stimulates my autism; like, there'll be so many instances of a villainess clearly deserving to be put above another one purely out of execution alone, but because I don't fawn over her in the same way I fawn over the other, they remain in their place.

Also, for villains/enemies turned good (there are a few redeemed antagonists in here), I'll be judging them on a number of things, like how good of a character/threat they were when they were evil, how good of a character they remained once they turned to the protagonist's side, how smooth the transition went and how it was executed, and all of these things combined.

Finally I'd like to remind all of you that I haven't seen every single piece of fiction ever made, so if you don't see some popular or noteworthy entries in this list, such as Shego (Kim Possible), Makima (Chainsaw Man), Junko Enoshima (Danganronpa), Julia Salisbury (Not For Broadcast), Lord Dominator (Wander Over Yonder), Catra (She-Ra), Regina George (Mean Girls), Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, ), Croix Meridies (Little Witch Academia), it's likely because I've never consumed the stories where they came from;

Otherwise, I probably don't really care about them.

But first, some honourable mentions:

Xana (Code Lyoko): Ok, so, Xana is a non-binary character. I actually always considered them to be a feminine AI because... seemed cooler, and also tied with Aelita's childhood trauma of her missing mother manifesting in AI form.

I doubt that I'm ever going to make a non-binary villain list, so I'm giving Xana the recognition that they deserve here, since I think that, for the stuff that they pull out, are both an amazing and insane villain at the same time, maybe my favourite rogue AI antagonist of all time.

Zira (The Lion King 2): The Lion King 2 is not a particularly great movie and it's by far the worst entry of the trilogy, and yet, just like the first movie, it also has one of the most ruthless villains to ever come out of the studio's animated movie franchises.

What Zira lacks in intelligence compared to Scar, she makes up for in sheer ferocity and bloodthirst alone.

Everything that you need to know about Zira can be best summarised in her own villain song, which I'm going to put the link here, along with a Metal and a Orchestral version of it, out of respect for her.

My Lullaby (original)

My Lullaby (metal) (Jonathan Young)

My Lullaby (orchestral) (RafScrap)

Queen Chrysalis (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic): Queen Chrysalis shares the same problem that I had with Bill Cypher in the previous list, that being that I haven't watched MLP:fim in so long that I might as well have never seen it, though I do remember Chrysalis being my favourite female villain of that show, Nightmare Moon is a close second but had less screen time, Cozy Glow irks me in a lot of ways, and I don't want to talk about the other female baddies because this honourable mention isn't about them.

That wedding. Those episodes. This Day Aria. You know what I'm talking about. Great story arc, great villain.

Cyn (Murder Drones): I've come a really long way around Cyn. At first, I straight up hated her, but after the release of episode 7, I started to warm up to her, and she became a character I really enjoyed in episode 8.

That said, she's still not one of my favourites. She kinda grosses me out and not in a fun way like Mohg and the Loathsome Dung Eater do, and I'm not as creeped out by her as, say, Alice from that same show. However, Cyn is definitely a very unique character, especially in the context of the modern mainstream landscape, and she Absolutely deserves all the praise that she gets.

I consider her to be Murder Drone's Beetlejuice, where she's not the main character of the show, but the series technically revolves around her. I think this title suits her right.

Praxina (Lolirock): If I secretly possessed something, like a neglected personality type whose entire existence I've completely forgotten about, that secret personality type would definitely be Lolirock.

I really loved this show, and I can't wait for that fated and long awaited season 3, and of course, the twins were the best part of the whole thing.

Their dynamic literally carried the series, and while I don't really have a favourite between the two, I must say, Praxina was really fun, and I can't wait to see how her arc plays out in the future.

Maybe I'll talk more about her at a later time.

Jinx (Arcane): Listen I really love Arcane and I really like Jinx, my problem with her is... Well, this Arcane! There are dozens upon dozens of other amazing characters in this show, so while I think Jinx is an amazing female character definitely worthy of her own hype, I'm not as enamored by her as some of the other members of the cast.

Also, while (again) I really like Jinx as a character... I don't particularly like her as an antagonist. This might change depending on how the upcoming season 2 is going to play out, but the thing is that most of the candidates in these lists are entries that I enjoy both as characters and as antagonists, but Jinx is someone that I love as a character but don't particularly enjoy as an opponent.

This isn't to say that I hate her or that I think she's not a good antagonist, I'm just not as enamored by her as some other people are.

Poison Ivy (DC): Out of all the female rogues in Batman's gallery, Poison Ivy is the one that I like the most... Which isn't saying a lot.

Now, don't get me wrong, Batman has a lot of pretty good female antagonists, like Baby Doll, some versions of Harley Quinn, Talia Al Ghul and Catwoman (if you even wanna count them), and I guess Lady Shiva, Magpie, Sugar and Red Claw are there too.

My problem is... that I don't particularly care about any of them.

I won't get into the problems that I have with each individual character, or why I don't personally like them as much as some of their male contemporaries, it's just a matter of personal preference

Punchline had great potential to become my personal favourite, but as of right now, I think she's more miss than hit unfortunately.

Which leads into my default pick of the bunch: Poison Ivy, a character that, at least in my opinion, deserves as much love and respect as the rest of the Gotham Sirens. I love my redhead psychotic plant freak.

One thing I really want to say about her... her design kinda slayed in that iteration where she had pink hairs and was minute, hello!?! More tiny a## gremlin Poison Ivy, please?

And now, with that out of the way, let's finally start with the ranking of my personal favourite female antagonists of all time.

Major spoilers down below:

Number 30: Evelyn Deavor (The Incredibles 2)

Starting off with a banger,

The Incredibles 2, in many ways, is not only a downgrade to the original movie, but a downgrade to the Pixar mark as a whole, in fact, many could argue that this movie bookmarked the start of Pixar's noticeable decline in quality and boldness.

Unfortunately, these same flaws carry over to the main "twist" villain of the motion picture, Evelyn Deavor, who, despite having a cool introduction and design as the Screenslaver (who I count as an extension of her character), has, in many ways, not only failed to live up to the audience's hype, but also the expectations of a well written antagonist in general.

Many videos have already been made on why she doesn't work as an antagonist, let alone a character, in fact, many of you who already saw the movie would even question what is she doing in a list like this, at number 30 no less, when some of those honourable mentions look far more worthy of this spot.

And the answer to that is simple:

She isn't.

At least not this iteration of her.

Roll in:

Number 30: Evelyn Deavor (LEGO The Incredibles)

In my modest opinion, LEGO The Incredibles is the definitive way to consume The Incredibles franchise in its entirety.

The videogame does an amazing job recreating the stories of both movies in a playable format, and outside of a handful of cutscenes during the first movie section of the game, that I hoped the developers would have kept the emotional impact of the original motion picture, I genuinely believe perfects the experience of not only the second, but also the first movie, making it a must play for fans of the franchise.

The improvements that this game makes to the story of The Incredibles 2 also carry over to Evelyn, in a lot of different ways:

1: Thanks to the game's more comedic tone, Evelyn's personality, twist, and plans become much more enjoyable, because now, we are no longer supposed to take her 100% seriously and we can just enjoy her jokes and how bats##t insane she is (she brainwashes all of the Supers using a device powered by a bicycle and simultaneously calls Bob to tell him that her wife is in danger, all the while running on said bicycle and pressing the honk).

2: Removes the subzero interrogation sequence from the movie and minimizes her backstory and motivations to a quick, one line mention. This may seem like a detriment on paper, but in practice, it unironically improves Evelyn's character and takes out many of her issues, because now, the focus is no longer her sympathetic backstory and motivations, instead, the focus now is how psychotic and crazy she is; the game focuses on the parts of her that worked in the source material and leaves out the parts that didn't, heck, Winston doesn't mention his backstory and motivations for helping the Supers at the beginning of the game, so for all we know, the death of their parents is an Evelyn exclusive problem, and she's just messed up like that.

3: Reduces the amount of scenes that she's in. Again, this may look like a detriment, but it actually works to create a sense of intrigue behind her actions: since she has fewer scenes, there's no risk that she overstays her welcome, and it leaves you wondering what her whole deal was when all is set and done.

This game was my first time experiencing the story of The Incredibles 2, and when playing it, I genuinely thought that Evelyn was a cool, interesting antagonist, and I was left wondering if she was even better in the actual source material (nope).

It's thanks to this game that I became an Evelyn fan, let alone an Evelyn enjoyer; yet with all of that said

she

still

Sucks.

Sure, the game patched out some of the most confusing parts of her original characterisation, but it's not like it reinvented the wheel or "salvaged" the character, it only made her more enjoyable to the players and watchers.

So why then?

Why go on an entire rant for this niche triple A game if it wasn't to reveal the first villain entry?

Well, you see, LEGO writers might have not reinvented the wheel with their adaptation of Evelyn, but as a bonus, they straight up created a new female villain to compensate for how lacking the main antagonist of The Incredibles 2 was.

An icy round of applause for...

Number 30: Brainfreezer (LEGO The Incredibles)

Meet Shelly Sundae, twin sister of Sally Sundae (both of them have cooler names in the Italian translation), ex-owner of the Ice Cream Parlor, and now renowned super villain known as Brainfreezer (which is not a ripoff of the Johnny Test character, as her wiki page likes to precise).

When it comes to the side content present inside of this game, the crime waves definitely stand out as one of the most unique additions to the LEGO formula in a while.

In order to get the player excited to play these side missions, the developers thought well to make them go through one of these crime waves right after the tutorial level.

But the true spark of genius came by putting the first part of the Brainfreezer side quest as the initial overworld mission, since they have by far the strongest hook out of all of these quests, and it's not even close.

Not only do both missions have the best atmosphere and screen filter out of all these waves, but they also do an amazing job at surprising the player and getting them invested.

The first one literally comes out of nowhere and shocks the player with the amount of new information they are getting, especially since the culprit behind it is an OC created for the game, blowing away movie fans who didn't expect them to be inside this game.

The second one is also pretty good, though nowhere near as special as the first, however it has the added bonus of culminating with the Brainfreezer boss fight, who, despite not being as good or mechanically interesting as some of the other battles in the game, I still really like it for a different reason:

Nostalgia.

The atmosphere, setup, and appearance of Brainfreezer and her boss chamber all heavily remind me of the Mister Freeze boss fight and level in LEGO Batman: The Videogame, my introduction to the Batman universe, and an undying childhood classic of mine.

The level in question is also one of the most unique levels from that game, even if it wasn't quite my favourite, so it's really difficult for me to not point out the similarities between that mission and the Brainfreezer ordeal when they both have the same, similar unique look to them.

What I like the most about Brainfreezer is her potential, not just the level of freedom inherent to a character who is given little to no explanation for her actions, but also the interesting bits of information that the game provides to us.

Shelly's sister, Sally, is a character who the player becomes invested in throughout the side quest, so when you learn the true identity of Brainfreezer (in case you hadn't figured it out already), you feel bad for the poor Sally, as her missing sister not only turned out to have become a horrendous ice cream monstrosity, but she now also is a dangerous supervillain who plans to mind control the entire city.

Plus, Shelly even starts to melt at the end of her boss fight! That's subtly horrifying if you reflect about the implications.

Brainfreezer, to me, is a character that's just really fun to think about, she's very "cool" and has a pretty design and storyline, and with this unexpected starting entry out of the way, it's time to move forward to the next unlikely candidate for this (entirely subjective) list.

Number 29: Malenia, Blade of Miquella (Elden Ring):

Despite enjoying both Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower and Sister Frida more as bosses and liking Lady Maria more as a character, as an antagonist, Malenia is my favourite female "villain" in all of the Soulsborne genre.

I don't know why, but I truly click with her so much as an antagonist, even when truthfully she, like a lot of From Software's characters, tends to lean more in a morally grey area, not truly evil but not exactly good.

Malenia is an optional boss in Elden Ring, the smash hit GOTY of 2022, she's a demigod, daughter of the game's final Boss, and sister of Miquella, an important character in the Shadow of the Erdtree DLC.

I think that has to do with the myth surrounding her Boss fight; while it may not objectively be the best Boss fight of all time, the crazy amount of stories and legends that it spawned within the community do more than enough for me to consider her someone worth praising as one of gaming's greatest opponents.

I also just like how weird she is, she is the female boss with the most overtly sexualised design in the entire series, despite also being one of the humanoid women with the least amount of feminine traits in all of the Souls games.

In particular, I enjoy her disability and her sickness as an important part of her character, it makes her extremely cool to a lot of people who are also struggling with similar difficulties in real life, and I appreciate her for that.

I could go on and talk about the lore (which I've seen, don't worry) but honestly, I'm pretty confident in leaving this entry as vague as it is, to keep it in line with the game's way of storytelling.

In conclusion: go play Elden Ring.

It may take you more than a year if you actually plan to just beat it, but it'll be a truly special experience.

Number 28: Jaina Hudson/White Rabbit (DC)

Jaina Hudson has been flip-flopping in and out of my mind for a long time now, but you know what? Screw me, I love missed potential so much.

Ideally, I would prefer if the villains/characters who had their potential wasted were always well-written to begin with, but since we don't live in perfect world, I guess the second best alternative is to get the consumer interested into the character, so that at least someone else could give them the love and attention that they deserved.

And while some ideas were always made without the intention of making the consumer interested in them, this doesn't stop them from gaining a fanbase, even if it's a rather small one.

I'm talking about me, by the way, with the character of White Rabbit/Jaina Hudson, one of the newest members of Batman's rogue's gallery, and currently(?) the newest member of the Gotham Sirens, a female group of non-heroes containing Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn and Catwoman.

Jaina Hudson is the daughter of Tom Hudson, a U.S. diplomat, and an Indian Bollywood actress. She first appeared in Batman: The Dark Knight #1 (2011) and she's a high socialite in Gotham who hides a mysterious secret: she has the ability to create an imperfect clone of herself who she uses to commit her crimes.

I've always been fascinated by Jaina/White Rabbit, particularly in her original run (yes, I know about the controversies, I will get into them later), but I think the reasons as to why that is aren't all that clear even to me, even if the most likely idea is that I really like how much of a blank slate she is.

I personally believe it's because she has so many different characteristics and traits that when put together, create a bizarre, yet very unique package of villainy;

Mysterious setup, motivations and backstory?

Check.

Evil woman of colour who's into politics?

Check.

Weird and unique gimmick that I vibe with?

Check, check.

This all seems very cool, but if that's the case, why is she considered a forgettable/forgotten villain by some Batman fans?

The answer to that is simple.

Her story arc was never finished.

I'm not kidding: White Rabbit never did anything wrong, she got the title of a bad character/villain not because her writing sucked, but because her original arc was cancelled just as it was about to start.

I hope one day she gets The Spot treatment, and I don't just mean copy and paste Spot's arc from ATSV, I more so intend a redemption story in the public's eye, because I really can't give any good reasons as to why she deserves a place in this list, nor can I encourage you to read her debut comic run or the new Gotham Sirens run because you still wouldn't understand the things that make this character click so much with me.

I'm the only person that I know who sees her true potential, but until said potential gets brought out, I want to put down my foot and proclaim myself as an original fan of White Rabbit/Jaina Hudson, one that was there from the very beginning and always saw a spark in her.

And now it's time to talk about the controversies. Skip to number 28 if you aren't a Comic book Batman fan.

Death of the Author is a good thing that exists for a reason, and that reason is to differentiate the art from the artist.

Was White Rabbit conceived as a fetish fantasy by his writer? There's a 99.9% possibility of it being a yes.

Was her original arc going to end up in a disappointing mess? Judging by the general quality of the modern comic book industry, yes, there's a high probability of that being the case.

Is the whole skin swap ability of the clone a blatant excuse to lust over a race swapped version of the character, making Jaina a racist character from the get-go due to concept alone? If the main intentions behind the character were these, then yes, Jaina Hudson/White Rabbit is conceptually racist.

But even with all these controversies in mind, I still can't dislike Jaina as a character, nor do I hate the way her cloning powers work.

*I actually was going to describe how I thought her race swap gimmick could have worked on a practical, psychological, and thematic level in this section, but I ultimately scrapped it because it was out of context with the rest of the list. If you still wanna hear my thoughts on her, ask me in the comments, and I'll make a separate analysis post for her eventually*

I also have my own fair share of unpopular opinions regarding White Rabbit (for example, I disagree with the idea that she should be related to the Mad Hatter in some way, and I despise the idea of turning her into his hench woman or her Harley Quinn, I believe Jaina has much more potential as a "solo" villain, especially with her powers, status, money, and cunning) but it's better to not dwell any longer on this spot and move on.

Number 27: Scarlet Overkill (Minions)

Scarlet Overkill is the one and only reason to ever watch the Minions movie. Greatest female supervillain of her time, Scarlet has everything a woman of her status could ever want, except for one thing: the crown of Queen Elizabeth, who she has always dreamed of having ever since she was a child.

She is a delightful character from start to finish, a pure evil villain with a lot of interesting dialogue and a surprising amount of tender moments, making her someone who never runs into the troubles that some of the antagonists of her type run into, aka becoming stale and uninteresting.

Her design is also very cool, as it manages to strike this weird, perfect balance between being very feminine but also stereotypically evil.

Balance is definitly the right word for Scarlet, since, despite being completely evil throughout the entire movie, she's not an active antagonist for a whole lot of it. Her status as the ultimate goal and ultimate threat constantly changes during the Minion's runtime, making her a surprisingly dynamic antagonist.

Her duality is best represented in her relationship with his husband Herb, one of the most healthy and supportive villainous power couples in all of mainstream media.

There's also much to be said about how she obsesses over Bob's teddy bear: a lot of the time, she acts like a child who never grew up, which is very interesting when compared to Gru's arc in the other movies, and it makes me wish that she and Gru would have battled against each other eventually, especially since she's technically the very first villain that Gru captured for the A.V.L.

Funny, psychotic, menacing and clever, she has a great screen presence, and is, in my humble opinion, not only the best villain in the whole Despicable Me franchise, but also the greatest antagonist in the entirety of Illumination, as little as that may mean to you.

However, there's something else that I wanted to talk about with her.

You see, originally, I had Scarlet placed higher, and the next entry placed lower.

However, upon rewatching both movies, I was surprised to find out that I actually like the next baddie a little bit more than Scarlet, which is something I was not expecting.

I think the main reason as to why I enjoy the next character more than Scarlet has to do with the fact that although both villains carry their respective movies very hard, the next character does a lot more to ensure that her own respective story gets rated in the good movie category, which isn't something that I unfortunately can't say about Scarlet and the Minions.

Scarlet is still a great antagonist overall, and she definitly has my vote for the next elections (after all, the queen title is only decorative, she doesn't actually get much political power from it).

Number 26: Agatha Trunchbull (Matilda)

(Imagine taken from clown energy compilation video, please, check it out on the above link, it's actually hilarious)

Agatha Trunchbull is just perfect.

The movie literally wouldn't work without her.

I could try to detail exactly what about her I enjoy so much, but the simple reality is that I really like the Trunchbull because of how funny she is, both when she's punishing others, and when she's being punished and ridiculed.

She's a bonified, 100% pure evil villain done right, one that, thankfully doesn't die at the end of the movie, because personally, that's always something that makes me slightly sympathize with these types of villains, since, due to the type of person that I am in real life, I view killing and death as inherently evil things, both when they are done by the good guys and by the bad guys.

Plus, I believe the ending that Agatha gets (at least in the movie) is much more satisfying, and since she doesn't even go to prison by the end of the whole thing, you are left with a very valid reason to keep hating on her long after she left the screen, even if running and hiding away forever is a very satisfying defeat for a character of her archetype.

Now, I read the original book from Roal Dahl a long time ago, and didn't want to reread it all over again for this list, so instead, I just took into consideration only the movie version of Agatha Trunchbull, movie that, at the time of writing this, I just finished watching on TV (sorry Dahl), and I have to say, Matilda is such a charming and timeless movie, one that I never mind watching every time it pops up on TV.

It's a very simple, hilarious, power fantasy for children (unless I'm missing some deeper meaning, sorry Matilda fans), and one with a lot of heart for that matter.

When I sat down for a rewatch, I expected to still like the movie after all this time, but what I did not expect was for the Trunchbull to be as solid as I remembered her to be.

I had written all of the entries in advance, and while the Trunchbull was always around this position, I expected her exact placement to diminish when I would have eventually watched the movie again for this occasion.

But no, if anything she ranked up due to how good her writing was even this time around.

She's funny, she's threatening, she has a great design, good music, amazing scenes, hard carries the rest of the movie after the ending of the first third and she's a great opponent for Matilda to defeat.

However, I don't really have a lot to analyse with her, it's not that there isn't much more to her besides how comedic and threatening she is, I particularly like to reflect on the fact that she wears pigtails when we see her in the flashback but doesn't have them anymore during the time in which the rest of the movie takes place, and how she specifically targets a little girl who still wears them, and ridicules her for it.

Other interesting things are her relationship with Magnus, her sporting career, her fear of the supernatural... And actually a lot more stuff now that I think about it.

It's just that I don't want to focus much of my attention on her.

She's a jewelry relic of a different time, a simpler one, and one that doesn't need to be picked apart and deconstructed for my own, sadistic pleasure.

Just a little pearl of a character who can be enjoyed for what she has to offer to the overall narrative of the movie, one who eats up every single second of screen time with grace and the thing that truly elevates this movie from a nice, occasional watch, to a timeless classic.

(There were a lot of different frames that I chose for Goldie, but I thought this one was just right)

Number 25: Goldilocks (Puss in Boots The Last Wish):

Previously, I've put Death and Big Jack Horner in the honourable mentions of the last top 10, therefore, it only made sense that Goldilocks would have a spot inside this top 30 to compensate for the great treachery that I've committed.

In all seriousness, out of all the antagonists inside Puss In Boots The Last Wish, Goldilocks was the one character that I was hyper fixated on once I left the theatre for the first time.

Unlike some of my other obsessions, this one didn't last for long, but regardless, she and her family still managed to carve a place in my heart, where they'd hopefully remain for a long time still.

Goldilocks and her crime family of bears are an interpretation of their homonymous fairy tale, "Goldilocks and the three Bears". They are one of the many antagonists present in Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, and they have a found family storyline that's meant to parallel the journey that our protagonists take in order to become a team.

Goldilocks is the character at the centre of this storyline, as she's the one who really wants to take the wishing star (the movie's main macguffin) in order to get what she really wants: a real family.

Even if Goldilocks isn't as threatening of an antagonist as the movie's other two main villains, she still manages to steal the spotlight in her own right, by having a very touching and incredibly heartfelt story arc.

She's a sympathetic antagonist done right, she has just enough screen time to not overstay her welcome, but more than enough to make the eventual conclusion of her arc satisfying and impactful.

My take on The Last Wish villains though is that they work better as a package, rather than as a single unit; Goldilocks, despite how good she is, wouldn't have the same impact that she does without Jack and the Wolf carrying the parts of the movie that she and her family can't carry by themselves, and that's okay;

As for analyses, I encourage you to check out StoryStreet Puss In Boots video, as they do a way better job at analysing Goldie in further depth than I ever could.

As for me, I'll just say that Goldilocks is just right (very good), I like her design, her arc flows seamlessly, and her story is just very cozy and heartwarming.

This movie's character balance is truly immaculate; you have a terrifying force of nature/rival/personal foil as your protagonist greatest opponent, an amazing and hilarious pure evil villain who brilliantly showcases the worst possible outcome that granting every wish can have, and then you have an unexpectedly sympathetic and likable gang of morally grey antagonists who expand upon the themes of found family and leave the story on good terms with the main characters.

All of this, and the movie not only manages to be an enjoyable watch, but a complete and utter masterpiece capable of measuring up to the standards of DreamWork's finest works.

I encourage you all to check out Puss In Boots: The Last Wish if you haven't already; it has gorgeous animation, a rich story with deep themes of mortality, and impressive character work all the way around.

A massive round of applause to my favourite studio for this unforgettable experience; I hope they'll cook some new amazing stories anytime soon.

(One final note, while in the regular dub of the movie the family talks with extremely British accents, in the Italian dub they talk with a heavy Italian dialect from a region named Abruzzo, famous for having bears in its natural parks. Do with this information whatever you want.)

Number 24: Yzma (Emperor's New Groove)

Yzma is a very funny antagonist.

She's the ex-counsellor of Emperor Kuzco, from the Disney movie Emperor's New Groove (2000), and wants revenge on her old boss after he fired her for abusing her power behind his back.

After rewatching the movie recently, I managed to finally pick up on the parallels between the Yzma and Kronk duo and the Kuzco and Pacha squad: both Kuzco and Yzma are straight up villains at the start of the movie, but while Kuzco manages to get better throughout the story thanks to Pacha's help, Yzma supposedly only gets a shot at bettering her ways by the end of it thanks to Kronk, who stopped being an evil doormat and has finally become the Pacha to Yzma's Kuzco.

As far as Disney movies go, Emperor's New Groove is very subversive in a lot of ways, from his tone, to his story, to just how good it is despite his rushed development; it's very impressive how this movie managed to turn out as good as it did considering its prior two years in development hell, and while a modest success didn't save the movie from falling into obscurity, I'm glad it eventually ended up finding a permanent footing in modern meme culture.

Unlike many other villains in this list, Yzma is not my favourite part of the movie, and I don't think she carries the story all that much, but that isn't to say that she's not a needed nor an important part of the story in the slightest.

Quite simply, it's just that Kuzco is that entertaining of a protagonist that I end up overlooking how much Yzma is funny in her own right.

But of course, it isn't all Kuzco's fault.

We need to talk about the big man in the room:

Kronk is the peak of fictional comedic sidekicks for villains, and half of what makes Yzma as great of a character as she is can be attributed to him playing off his part in the comedic duo.

Which is not all that bad, considering I can say the same thing about Kuzco and how much his relationship with Pacha does for his character. It just makes it hilarious to think about how, in the larger picture of internet culture, Yzma is the sidekick to Kronk's popularity.

"Pull the lever, Kronk!" is still a masterpiece, but I also enjoy some of her less talked about jokes, like the one she makes after Kronk wakes her up in the middle of the night, as well as the entirety of the restaurant scene.

(ok, so, side note, apparently the joke exists only in the Italian dub of the movie, in the original English dub, after Yzma gets woken up by Kronk in the middle of the night, she says "This will better be good" as opposed to the Italian dub, where she says "Guarda che ho ucciso per molto meno!" which, in English, is translated as "Look that I have killed for far less", which may not carry the same impact to those who don't understand Italian, but I, native speaker of the language, can confidently say that it's a genuinely funny line due to voice delivery of Anna Marchesini, Italian voice actress of Yzma, and I'm glad that I could hear it in my language.)

The scene in question is this one.

I still would have wished for the movie to make space for Yzma's cut song "Snuff out the light", but at least it wasn't lost to time, and got a pretty good metal cover by Jonathan Young, which featured in my favourite Snatcher AMV.

I also think Yzma's design works perfectly for what the story was going for, and while I'd prefer for her to be a little bit more intimidating, I'm not going to fault her or the movie all that much for it.

Number 23: Spinel (Steven Universe)

At first, I was really unsure if I actually really wanted to have Spinel inside of my list. While I was indeed hyper fixated on her when the movie first came out, she softly dwindled out of my mind over time.

As such, when I decided to check out the movie again for the purposes of this ranking, I expected her to ultimately land in the honourable mentions and to not

Over And Over And Over And Over And Over And Over And Over And Over Over Again And

Golly, so, Spinel is actually both an amazing character and antagonist, but for the sake of originality, I'm actually going to focus less on her individually, and instead focus more on her role as Steven Universe's greatest rival.

Sorry if I end up misinterpreting Steven's character by accident, I'm trying to focus on Spinel, but the main thing I want to talk about is how the two mirror and contrast each other by virtue of simply existing in the same Universe.

Spinel is one of the latest villains in the Steven Universe series who made her first appearance in the movie, where she acted as the main source of conflict for the protagonist.

In the grand scheme of Steven Universe's story, I'm extremely confident in saying that, on a thematic level, Spinel is Steven's ultimate foil, his de facto arch nemesis, who, like many other characters in the show, doesn't limit herself to a stationary role of villain, and is indeed a deeply nuanced individual in many ways.

She, in fact, does NOT exist just for the viewers to sympathise over and to overlook how her sob story is there only to cover up the movie lazily rehearsing the character arcs of the main cast without any deeper reason besides inducing new viewers to watch the original show.

The repetition of the Gems' arc is a very important narrative and thematic element of Spinel, and it serves to build up her role as the antithesis of the show's themes of change and growth, which also happens to be at the center of Steven's entire journey throughout the series.

Thanks to Steven, over a long period of time, all the Crystal Gems managed to grow, overcome their original struggles and become even more mature individuals by the end of the show, while thanks to Spinel, over a matter of seconds, all of the Crystal Gems had their arcs undone and devolved as people, coming back as individuals even less mature than at the start of the show.

Spinel, as a character, represents a dark, twisted version of Steven and his journey throughout the series.

They both looked up to Rose Quartz, in different ways, and they both...(SU fans, fill in the gaps yourselves, I'm not going to spoil this plot point of the show).

They both are, by a combination of nature and nurture, people pleasers/stress toys; Steven wants to help everyone to be happy (overcome their struggles), both because he's kind at heart and because he feels responsible for their wellbeing, while Spinel wants to help everyone to be happy (have fun), both because she's happy-go-lucky at heart and because she's responsible to, due to being a literal sentient doll.

They both want some things to change and others to stay the same (Steven is obvious, Spinel was actually excited when Steven's mom got what she always wanted, indicating that she actually doesn't mind new things and breaking the status quo), but at opposite times and in different ways, which makes it even more hilarious how Spinel is all about undoing and rejecting change when she arrives on Earth, but before, she coped with Rose's abandonment, went through a villain and insanity arc/changed her design (interchangeable), got weapons/formulated a plan (also interchangeable) and travelled to Steven's location to ruin his life all under 15 minutes and after practically staying the same for thousands of years.

Spinel's personality is very similar to Steven's at the start of the show: she's childish and always wants people to spend time with her, just like Steven was a kid and always wanted the Gems to do activities with him, and they both used to view things as games, but while Steven changed and stopped doing so after repeated trauma, Spinel, after her one defying trauma, changed, but never stopped doing so even by the time of the movie's final battle.

They both struggle with picking up social cues, both remind the Diamonds of Pink, both end up spiralling and hating themselves when they can't make other people happy, eccetera eccetera...

I could go on and on for a while, in general, I really love when villains have a lot of parallels with their heroes, it's very fun listing all of the similarities and differences with them and their stories, it makes the conflict deeply personal, which is always a plus in my book.

It also explains why, in the past, a kid I knew wanted them to be siblings: as the child told me, they are so similar, that it would have been awesome for them to grow up together, and for Steven to have someone he can truly vent out his problems to.

Ultimately, what brings Spinel down a little bit for me, is the way her role in the story plays out overall, I don't inherently despise the movie's narrative and what it decides to do, but I think it could have been executed better.

She has a killer design, and even two more killer songs: Other Friends and Drift Away are incredible compositions, all of the songs in the movie are a banger, but these two stand out a lot more for me.

Even if you have zero interest in checking out either Steven Universe or his Movie, here's the link to all of Spinel's songs and respectively my favourite cover for each one, as well as an added extra that deserves far more views than it already has.

Other Friends (original)

Other Friends (Kyle Allen Music)

Drift Away (original)

Drift Away (annapantsu)

Change (Spinel version) (carimelle)

Number 22: Ursula (The Little Mermaid)

The Little Mermaid is a movie that grew up a lot on me over time, as his villain did.

Ursula is the very first villain of the Renaissance era of Disney, and although others after her took the centre spot of the conversation when it comes to who's the best of the bunch, Ursula, still holds her weight (the pun was not intended, please, don't think ill of me) as the one who introduced the standards and customs that most other villains from this era would strive for.

So while you may personally prefer the likes of Scar and Jafar over Ursula, you can't deny that they probably wouldn't have been the same, have villain songs, or probably exist without Ursula and the impact that The Little Mermaid had for the Walt Disney company.

I'll admit though that out of the triad of the studio's most popular female villains (which is in my opinion made out of Maleficent, Cruella De Vil, and Ursula, and I'll stick by my gun for this statement) she's the one with the most consistent track record (excluding the live action Little Mermaid), as Maleficent has never been characterised quite as well as her original appearance in Sleeping Beauty, at least in my opinion, and Cruella De Vil is a wild ride of various levels of quality.

Ursula instead is only noticeably bad in the remake, and I struggle to find many other versions of her who suck as much as the worst renditions of Maleficent and Cruella's characters;

Admittedly, that might just be because I have consumed way less stories where Ursula is the main focus, but from what I saw, she's the best written member of the aforementioned triad in "Once Upon A Time", and I like how she's just this mysterious figure inside Descendants 2 where she never shows up but it's important regardless because of how her existence impacts her daugther.

Even if Ursula is still not one of my favourite villainesses, I appreciate her a lot more these days; she's actually very different from many other female villains to be honest, in that she's basically a per###ted Cthulhu Mob Boss who makes people sign unfair contracts in order to become the queen of the sea, I don't think the unique aspects of her character are appreciated quite as much as her best moments or her role in the story to be honest.

One of my favourite things about Ursula in the movie is her washed up salesman persona: she's literally the Spamton G. Spamton of the ocean, I unironically wanna see Ursula say the Baltimore speech so much.

Her Divine inspired design is also peak, once again, it's extremely different from that of any other female antagonist... heck, it's extremely different from the design of any other villain I ever saw at the time, and it still remains as distinct as it once was to this very day; once again, nobody talks about how unique Ursula actually is.

I still listen to Poor Unfortunate Souls from time to time, even if it's not my favourite villain song, and I enjoy listening to whatever cover of it I see when it comes up.

Number 21: Mother Gothel (Tangled)

Mother Gothel is the main villain of Tangled (movie).

She's the fake mother of Rapunzel, and a criminal too.

The most disturbing thing about Mother Gothel is that child me couldn't understand why she was treated as the bad guy by the narrative when, despite kidnapping Rapunzel, she was clearly shown to care for her, then, once I grew up, I finally realised what was happening on the screen, and to this day I'm still horrified that child me could easily fall for her words; truly messed up when I think about it.

However.... her manipulation seems way too obvious now. Like, I struggle to believe that this is the way she acted when Rapunzel was growing up, she's way too nervous and controlling for me, the audience, to buy the fact that this was the status quo Rapunzel was living in inside the tower.

More than anything, this demeanor from Gothel feels like her struggling to maintain a grip on her victim's life now that said victim is now a rebellious teenager that wants to fulfill her dreams and be free.

In general, out of all the female villains of Disney's major movies, I consider Mother Gothel to be the one with the most outward level of complexity, as, despite being pretty evil... she also tries not to be, at various turns.

She's selfishly keeping the magic flower for herself, but she didn't harm anyone for it.

When she decides to sneak into the royal palace, it's pretty clear by the framing of the events that her original plan wasn't to kidnap the child, even if that's what she ended up doing; heck, throwing aside her choice to let Rapunzel save Eugene during the climax of the film which leads to her undoing, before deciding to chain up her "daughter", she's like: "You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I'm the bad guy" as if she was trying not to be.

Like, comparatively, Mother Gothel at the start of the story is as evil as Eugene at the start of the movie: they are both fixated on their own gain and are willing to rob the royals in order to get it, both manipulate and backstab the twins once they have served their use, but while Eugene manages to become a better person thanks to Rapunzel's positive influence and accepts the notion of dying in order to free her, Gothel, despite having spent more time with her, remains as selfish as she always was and refuses to give up her own life in order for Rapunzel to be happy.

Honestly the Tangled franchise is amongst the angstiest things Disney has ever done, and that's without even getting into the TV show.

Now, I have never seen the Rapunzel TV series, despite knowing some of its spoilers like the Cassandra ordeal and a few other things, so I can't give you my opinions on her character in that show, but I know someone who has, therefore, this next section in yellow is that person's thoughts, not written by me, but by him/her/them.

🇮🇹: "Madre Gothel non lo definirei mai il cattivo principale della serie. Per quanto mi piaccia nel film, nella serie la trovo molto svalutata e deludente. I suoi primi accenni alla comparsa negli episodi erano molto interessanti visto che entra nella storia solo nella stagione finale e quindi pensavo che forse poteva essere lei la cattiva principale. Dopo la rivelazione che lei era la madre di Cassandra il mio cervello era esploso perché era un vero colpo di scena che mi era piaciuto tantissimo, ma mi aspettavo molto di più. Nella serie non compare (o almeno non in carne e ossa), ma solo come ricordo della figlia e negli specchi magici che mostravano il passato di Gothel. Nulla di serio, non infligge e non fa nulla per rendere Cassandra cattiva, anzi è il demone Zhan Tiri che usa questo a suo favore per mettere Cassandra e Rapunzel una contro l' altra. Perciò mi delude che si risolve anche abbastanza velocemente la parte degli abusi che ha causato alla figlia. So che forse non tutti la pensano come me, ma crescendo con Rapunzel ad essere il mio film Disney preferito mi sento fin troppo delusa che non ci sia nulla a riguardo di Gothel veramente entusiasmante. Questa è una mia idea, ma mi sarebbe piaciuto vedere magari Zhan Tiri che facesse qualche suo incantesimo (anche perché credo che ne sarebbe in grado) di riportare in vita madre Gothel. Magari faceva il lavaggio del cervello a Cassandra così da farle uccidere Rapunzel per vendicarsi facendo fare così il lavoro sporco alla figlia. Anche perché primo, madre Gothel manipola, ma fa il lavoro sporco solo quando non ha altre opzioni, secondo sé ritorna in vita non credo che l'eterna giovinezza era un problema. O magari la storia poteva essere diversa come ad esempio Gothel finge di essere un buono per sconfiggere Zhan per poi tradire tutti e avere oltre all' eterna giovinezza il potere assoluto. Si forse era un po' troppo complesso per una serie come quella di Rapunzel per un target di bambini, ma penso che Gothel avrebbe fatto di tutto per ritornare in vita e giovane per sempre. Inoltre una cosa terribile è pensare... GOTHEL HA DAVVERO DECISO DI AVERE UNA FIGLIA? Perché devo ammetterlo, che madre del cavolo, è peggio quello che ha fatto a Cassandra che a Rapunzel. Con la prima nemmeno la calcolava, la seconda invece le faceva tutti i regali che voleva (sempre per i suoi fini), ma non l'ha mai fatta sentire meno amata. Inoltre sarei curiosa di sapere chi era il padre di Cassandra e quindi il fidanzato (?) di Gothel. Perché non credo che Gothel si era sposata sapendo che nella serie le due vivono da sole oltre che a Gothel le importa solo di se stessa."

🇬🇧(translated by me):

"I would never define Mother Gothel as the main villain of the series. Despite how much I like her in the film, in the series I find her very devalued and disappointing. The first hints to her appearence in the episodes were very interesting, since she enters the story only in the final season and therefore I thought that maybe she could have been the main villain. After the revelation that she was Cassandra's mother my brain blew up, because it was a true plot twist that I liked very much, but I was expecting a lot more. She doesn't appear in the series (at least not in flesh and bone), she remains as a memory inside her daugther and the magic mirrors who reveal her past.

Nothing serious, she doesn't inflict much pain nor does she do anything to turn Cassandra evil, on the contrary, it's the demon Zhan Tiri who uses this to his advantage to put Cassandra and Rapunzel against each other. So it upsets me that even the part of the abuses caused to her daugther gets resolved very quickly. I know that not everyone is going to think it like me, but growing up with Rapunzel as my favourite Disney movie I feel way too upset that there is nothing too exciting in regards to Gothel in this adaptation. This is just my idea, but I would have liked to see maybe Zhan Tiri cast some spell (since I believe he would be capable of) to bring back to life Mother Gothel. Maybe he could brainwash Cassandra so that she tries to kill Rapunzel... (I decided to not translate this part, since it's just their/her/his idea for a rewrite.

Also, another terrible thing to think... GOTHEL REALLY CHOSE TO HAVE A DAUGTHER? Because I must admit, what a shitty mother, what she did to Cassandra is way worse than what she did to Rapunzel. She never noticed the first one, the second one instead got all of the gifts that she wanted (for her ulterior motives), but she never made her feel less loved. Also I'll be curious to learn who is Cassandra's real father and therefore Gothel's boyfriend (?). Because I don't believe Gothel would have married knowing that in the series the two of them live alone, and also considering that Gothel only cares about herself."

Maybe not the overall best person to ask for an opinion on fiction, but I trust him/her/them, they are a good person, even if they are a little bit misguided sometimes.

Next part (coming in the future)>>>>

[lepoppeta]

Is there a ship or song you've been wanting to talk about? If so, share it! (I can't think of a ship other than the ones I've already asked about...)

current fandom interest would be hazbin hotel (unfortunately) so... i guess ill be talking about that.

out of all of the rarepairs ive concocted for that questionable amalgamation of a cartoon, my favourite has to be alastiel, or alstor and zestial (i saw one person refer to it as "victorianradio" but as far as i know zestial died during the rule of the tudors). i was inspired by the fact that zestial is the only male character, let alone the only person, that alastor treats with an iota of respect. zestial is so powerful and long-lived that he even makes alastor visibly nervous, which is saying something. zestial, despite his lofty rank, seems to admire alastor for his air of mystery (he calls him an "enigma", almost fondly) and alastor takes this as "quite the compliment". theyre both terribly old fashioned and i think theyd at least get along very well.

as far as songs go, ive only found one - their vibe is really hard for me to pin down because im essentially working from scratch. i dont have any prior songs that really fit them.

the song in question is valentine (laufey), and it would be from alastors point of view.

ive rejected affection for years and years, now i have it and damnit its kind of weird. he tells me im pretty, dont know how to respond. i tell him that hes pretty too - can i say that? dont have a clue.

i love the idea of alastor being the bashful party for once - in most, if not all, of his popular ships (radiostatic, radiobelle, radiohusk, radiodust) hes either got a cryptic upper hand by way of riddles and his magic, or hes dissolved into a flustered rage by a bombardment of sexual innuendo. zestial is old as the hills and patient as death and in my opinion not terribly into the whole sex thing either, so hes perfectly happy to wait until alastor stops fumbling and figures himself out.

if im to be frank, its a bit of a projection on my part too - alastor is canonically somewhere on the aroace spectrum, and i also consider myself as such, and considering a potential romance with zestial is kind of me thinking about a sort-of personal fantasy of mine and how i approach love and intimacy, both in fiction and in real life. id love to write it for the public one day, and maybe someone else who feels the same way as i do will be comforted.

[blueinkedfrost]

Villain Likeability

Some antagonists are just despised by readers who want to see them meet a painful end as soon as possible ... But others get a lot of audience sympathy and attraction.

Why? This is what I think is important.

Tragic backstory that gives some explanation for why they are the way that they are.

Villainous virtues such as perseverance, verbal wit, initiative, ingenuity, a good cause that they've taken too far, etc.

If it's a visual or audible medium, how attractive they are in person and/or how attractive their voice is. (This does not apply to written works.)

Melodrama: The extent to which their bad deeds are viewed by the audience as melodrama that's very dissimilar to the real world, such as destroying an entire galaxy or committing telepathic torture, as opposed to all too realistic bad deeds such as bullying, cheating on your spouse, abusing bureaucracy for cruel purposes, racism, Nazis, or child sexual abuse.

The fourth factor is probably the most important. If the villain's horrible behaviour feels close to real life issues you deeply care about, then you probably despise them regardless of how sexy the actor is. If the villain's horrible behaviour feels more fictional and melodramatic to you, then you can enjoy watching them cackle and threaten from a safe distance.

So by this standard, here is the least attractive villain possible: A spiteful, petty, and lazy person who lives a normal suburban life, is played to look unattractive, and makes their neighbours' lives as miserable as possible by bullying them in their role with the Home Owners' Association.

Now here is the most attractive villain possible: Angsty backstory where their horrible family sold them into slavery, very witty and creative, played by a good looking actor, and commits stylish murders using weird gravity-related superpowers.

Why do these tropes work?

Tragic backstory: Angst turns the story wheels around! From Cinderella and probably even earlier, stories where horrible things happen to a character cause us to root for them. Humans like underdogs and stories about characters overcoming bad things.

Villainous virtues: If they have some admirable traits mixed with the badness, that's fun to read. Witty or entertaining characters amuse us, while competence alone at being a dangerous or threatening villain is attractive.

Attraction: As simple as whether the audience generally finds them attractive, or not. This can be closely related to demographics and bias. In Western fandom, the stereotypical fan is an educated white woman who's attracted to men. So even if a female antagonist has a tragic backstory, high wit and charisma, and attacks people with her clever musical magic, female fans might not like her as much as her attractive male counterpart. Similarly, fandom is often criticised for poor attitudes towards characters of colour and it's easy to think bigotry in our society has something to do with this.

Melodrama: Also varies by the individual. Your personal experiences won't ever be the same as another person's, so your fun melodramatic villain might remind someone else of their real life high school bully. Medium and setting make a difference. Villains who are literally cartoons in a science fiction universe will be taken less seriously than villains in a live action story in a contemporary mundane setting. Visceral impact of the character's misdeeds also has a role: a villain who brutally tortured and killed a beloved favourite in explicit detail is less likeable than a villain who killed thousands of random unnamed characters in a brief sentence, even though 'likeability of victim' is not how we (should) judge crimes in real life.

[brucequeensteen]

i forgot how tall cj is. she is literally looking down at the president. i love her so much

literally the character of all time. josh is the character who had the biggest impact on me at a young impressionable age (in the way only a blossoming transmasc can be affected by a male character who speaks to them) but cj is by far my favourite and always will be. her and toby are consistently in my top fictional characters of all time. she's literally tall