#for that reason im tagging this critically

[weatheringandweary]

Caleo is a very interesting topic, and one I’ve avoided discussing for a while due to the discourse surrounding it; however, I feel like I finally found the right way to word my thoughts, so damn it all lol

I don’t think Caleo was ever meant to last. Despite the fact I highly doubt Rick ever intended for it to be the case, I’ve always interpreted it as comphet for both Leo and Calypso - whether that be due to either of them falling on the aroace spectrum or preferring the opposite gender, i think it’s open to interpretation.

Leo has always struggled with feeling unwanted, and his view on familial and romantic relationships was skewed by the instability and abuse he faced consistently throughout childhood. He’s always had the innate desire to feel loved, to be wanted by someone. Leo’s role as the “seventh wheel” cemented the belief that all of this could be solved by a romantic relationship. If he could be Calypso’s hero, would he finally feel fulfilled? Would all of his insecurities disappear if he earned her love and affection?

While most people argue that this was the solution Rick was proposing, it’s very clear in TOA that this is not the case. Leo didn’t get his happy ending with Calypso - rather, he found it with Emmie and Jo at the Waystation. Calypso is noticeably absent at the end for a reason.

Calypso as a character is a can of worms, but I feel like she believed she owed Leo this relationship (not that Leo would EVER demand a relationship, I feel like this is an inner-complex she’s facing unbeknownst to him.) Because he did what others could not, she would have to learn to love him out of obligation. Obviously this didn’t happen. While she doesn’t outright hate him (Calypso has very mixed feeling about Leo, putting it lightly), I think the inappropriate aspects of the relationship are obvious even to her.

Rick has the logic of “because this character is physically a minor, it negates the fact that they’ve been on this planet for 6 millennia.” He does this with with Apollo (albeit he’s been cognitively nerfed by Zeus, but I still don’t think that’s a valid excuse) so it’s not just Calypso who’s showing this behavior. It was a very weird writing decision that was made regarding immortal dating ethics, however the consequences of the age gap are still apparent. She loathes Leo’s immaturity because it’s a glaringly obvious symptom of him being a child, while she was an immortal who is at a completely different stage in life from him.

At the end of TOA, she’s distanced herself from Leo by going to band camp. Calypso is giving Leo the space to acclimate to a family that will offer him the love she can’t provide him, and allowing herself to find out who she is beyond Ogygia. While Leo frames this as a temporary break, I don’t foresee them actually maintaining a relationship in the future.

I’m an aromantic Leo truther, so I think Leo’s actual happy ending is finding a home at the Waystation and coming to terms with the fact he doesn’t need a girl to complete him. He’s always been enough. While we could have had this at the end of HOO, I think Leo finally getting what he thought he wanted only for it to not be the case as a very interesting way of going about it. Now he can support other demigods who have been mistreated by the system and give them the life he had always wanted.

[jadequarze]

I miss them T^T I miss the blue girlies

[oceanwithouthermoon]

"i dont hate this female character, i just have a nuanced take on her" and the nuanced take is comically stereotypical misogyny

[recent-rose]

yknowwww there is something... deeply uncomfortable about the way mel never speaks directly to viktor in the 'build hextech weapons' scene. she really only speaks to jayce. plenty of people have pointed this out already but like the one scene they actually share a meaningful interaction and she treats him like he's beneath her. all this after jayce has emphasized how important viktor is, that hextech is theirs, together. she unequivocally ices him out, there's no other way to interpret this scene. the way it's shot too - from viktor's perspective, looking up at her, as though to reinforce the same belief in him. like he doesn't even bother expecting respect from her - or anyone from the upper echelon of piltover. he's fully accustomed to being dehumanized by everyone around him at this point. sometimes even by jayce, despite the trust they clearly have in each other.

then of course after this scene is viktor experimenting on himself. it's pretty clear that he has internalized his own dehumanization. crazy.

[sludgekludge]

stop pointing shit out about the helluva designs i'm still caught up on asmodeuses tiny head ever since you pointed it out /lh

no. look at it

i want you to look at it

[mayadoesfandomstuff]

Had to block hazbin hotel as a tag because holy shit the amount of ship discourse coming in to the aroace tag because of Alastor was way too much like ffs some of them weren't even tagged as hazbin hotel so I still have to see some of those posts even if I block it out

please for the ever loving fuck TAG YOUR FUCKING HAZBIN HOTEL SHIP DISCOURSE POSTS

THOG DON'T CARE IF THE DEMON FUCK OR DON'T FUCK FOR FUCKS SAKE LET ME BROWSE THE AROACE TAG IN PEACEEE

[balleater]

i just want something to come up about the bright queen being older than ludinus in-game. i want them to have that moment of knowing that there was someone who was at least 200 at the Start of the calamity.

[starry-eyer]

When I see stuff like this I kinda want to bash my head into a wall:

To start off, I’m not sure whether this person was commenting on book or show Cersei, but honestly, it doesn’t even matter because she’s so much more than the ‘ambitious villain’ or the ‘murderous girlboss��� tropes in both the book and show.

(Of course, I do have my issues with the way Cersei was written in the show like most people but this is simply a rant post so I’m not going to go through the differences of Show vs Book Cersei)

Cersei is a female character who was shaped by her environment, who’s insecurities were created by her environment, and she’s a woman who’s idiotic mistakes can be traced back to how her environment shaped her. She’s much more than a murderous girlboss, she’s both a victim of the system and also a beneficiary of it, while also acting as an agent of it to keep the status quo while also desiring what the system denied her.

Cersei is NUANCED and complicated and even now people hate that about her and want her to have been a purely evil woman handcrafted in a vacuum, ignoring the context of her life because readers would rather not engage with Cersei’s victimhood and nuances because that ruins their idea of: She Was The Problem and Always The Problem. (People would rather say that she deserved her walk of shame instead of interacting meaningfully with the theme of systematic gender-based violence that is so prevalent in Cersei’s story. The exploration of patriarchal violence in Show Alicent’s story is done so horribly in comparison.)

And what really pissed me off about these tags is that this person has clearly decided that they don’t care to interact with the nuance of Cersei and are fine with flattening her, and yet they shit on others for not liking Alicent.

Because of the way Alicent is written in this show, she almost always has a ‘woe is me I can do no wrong’ attitude, which of course drives people away from the character (woe is me I deserve to take a child’s eye 🥺). However, what actually annoys me is how she’s made out to be stupid, foolish, ignorant, and inconsistent due to the horrible writing of this show, all of which are deviations from her book characterization. Also, I despise it when people want me to support writing decisions and changes made in adaptations that are downright misogynistic and are meant to attract the male gaze.

But what pisses many people, including myself, off is how the changes made negatively impacted many other characters. Alicent’s terrible characterization is like a black hole that distorts and warps the whole story! It’s annoying af!

So when people like this say: ‘She’s nuanced and people just can’t handle it 🙄;’ I say: No. She’s horribly written and a different character from the book and people have a right to be critical about these changes that stripped a female character of 1) her agency and 2) her intelligence!

And the thing is, there was little reason for the writers to have made all these changes to Alicent’s characterization! In the book she is an interesting character with clear motives and understandable reactions. She’s cunning and ambitious and acts the way a noble lady who became queen would. And despite her clear ambitions and dislike of Rhaenyra, she still makes a comment wondering about who would protect the Princess from Ser Criston, and yet she then takes Cole into her service after his falling out with Rhaenyra. That’s a perfect example of nuance! Show Alicent could never compare to book Alicent’s clear moral values and consistent disregard of said moral values in pursuit of power.

And because of this, Book Alicent isn’t easy to stomach. It’s hard for most people to come to terms with a character like her and it’s even harder for people to feel sympathetic for her at the end when she went mad with grief.

On the other hand, Show Alicent was designed in a way to garner pity, and when the writers felt like her current arc wouldn’t be enough to garner the specific reaction they wanted they would then throw in a time skip and suddenly she’s completely different and yet still Thee victim. She’s designed to be as sympathetic as fucking possible! The camera angles, the background music, and the lighting is set up in a way to make sure you the viewer feels pity or sympathy for her! Cause that’s her role in this series! She’s thee Ultimate Victim!

But too bad for the writers as many people are fed up with this kind of inconsistent writing. Even when the writers created a whole new challenge for Alicent where she’s shitted on by the green council and forced to face the beast she helped to raise, I and many others could never feel any satisfaction as it was clear that once again Alicent was being made to be Thee Ultimate Victim who was just led astray by the patriarchy and was a victim of it and was only just realizing it so don’t you pity her don’t you feel sad for her and now she’s trying to do the right thing so pls pls pls pity her 🥺~ So it shouldn’t be surprising that many people are annoyed by these eNLiGhtEnEd changes that have led to a complete deviation from the source material.

To summarize: Cersei is an excellent fucking character who’s by no means easy to stomach, and because she’s not easy to stomach she’s often reduced to annoying ass tropes by dumbasses who are reading above their comprehension level. But when you actually try to understand her, you can easily see why she turned out the way she did and you can feel sympathy for her while understanding that she’s both victim and perpetrator! On the other hand, Show Alicent is a mess and HOTD is trying to make her serve a different narrative role than she did in the books so ofc people are going to be unhappy with the changes as book readers are once again faced with the annoying reality that the writers don’t give a fuck about the source material.

[sonknuxadow]

wishing that the hype for sonic 3 would just die already because im tired of hearing about it vs knowing that the suffering wouldnt truly be over because theyre talking about making a fourth movie . hell on earth

[whichcouldmeanothing]

donate to support doctors without borders!

[betrixxxed]

Click for quality?? Forgot tumblr eats png files for some reason..Anyway I finally found out how I want to draw Alastor lol

I'm rewatching Hazbin Hotel with my friend and we were freaking out trying to figure out what that horizontal line across is chest is supposed to be...wouldn't be surprised if Viv didn't know either lol (no shade) ((a little shade))

[tizzymcwizzy]

so i finally watched the ml movie in a language i understand with good visual and audio quality. its still bad.

i may write an essay.

[jamiethebee]

You know what irks me the most about the mha ending. (Sorry I'm still on it.)

Like the early parts of the manga, there were so many grown up hero AUs in fandom (like storylines that took place when they're adults and heroes) and they're fun! A little silly!

And then we had the war arc and cities are being destroyed and everything's torn up and for over a hundred chapters, it's been oh huh I guess every AU like that will just be canon divergence lmao

And then Horikoshi basically wipes the slate clean so I guess all those AUs could technically canon compliant. There's not even much in the way of lasting physical damage! Because it's dealt with???? Immediately???? Within months?????

Which is fine! Nothing wrong with it! The AUs are fun! But, it just irks me that you could throw out half the manga because it didn't matter. Nothing majorly changed. Silly adult hero AUs for everyone I guess because the League may as well have been 2 bit villains for all the effect they had at large was. Idk. Maybe I'm bitter? Maybe my brain still trying to process the ending and the change in how AUs relate to canon? I guess - what was all the constant sprinkling in of "society has let people down" that we see from chapter 1? It meant nothing? I guess????? I mean A WAR HAPPENED. But whatever I guess heehee wasn't that soooooo silly???? That people's take on early story can be the same as post story?????

[macabre-crab]

“laois is NOT a monsterfucker.” “laois doesn’t even know what sex is!” “laois knows monsters have sex but he doesn’t know humans can too” “laois is my little uwu autistic baby cinnamon roll too pure and too good for this world and bejeodkfkfkdkdnfkdkdkdkdkd

[osamucide]

if this bothers anyone they can kindly feel free to leave or ignore it or whatever but can we stop flooding the x reader tags with half-baked thinkpieces on why people should or shouldn’t do whatever with their writing. every other post is “you shouldn’t romanticize [x]” “you’re problematic if you do [x]” “stop writing about [x]” “[x] is gross and if you write about it kill yourself” how about if you don’t like certain content you heed the content warnings, block the tags, don’t interact with it, so on and so forth. of course part of our responsibility as writers, especially ones dealing with sensitive topics, is to label and tag our works appropriately but let’s be real—i hardly see any writers (at least within the bsd fandom) who don’t make it abundantly clear what they do/do not write about, interact with, or tolerate. wait until you find out how much fucked up shit happens in real life and how much some person on the internet coping with their trauma by writing self insert fanfiction about a cartoon character doesn’t fucking correlate to the perpetuation of that fucked up shit at all. it doesn’t even have to be that serious. people are going to write and read the content they want and they’re allowed to and you spilling your complaints all over the x reader tags “to boost attention” isn’t gonna change that. if you don’t like something ignore, unfollow, block, mind your own business. it’s actually super easy

[officialzevran]

actually can i just say how jarring dav was with varric? because every other aspect of the game was basically designed around the philosophy of attracting new players - so no extended consequences from a million potential prev world states, etc - and yet i can tell you that as a varric hater please dont boo me the way varric is written is entirely reliant on you being a returning player, because otherwise the game does not develop him enough in dav alone to make you give a shit about him. like, when the [varric spoiler] was revealed, i didnt care cuz, well, idc about varric period but!! i couldnt even pretend my character would care, because any relationship built between rook and varric also happened off screen and is presumed by the narrative, much like how the narrative is presuming the player's relationship w/ varric ahohoho

idk i just think that's an interesting and very annoying to play through flaw that's in contrast with the rest of the game and its flaw of being very detached from the larger lore/games/mythos/etc