#full of child abuse and murder sympathizers

[trees-to-meet-you]

My mom’s defending Autism Speaks on the idea that that’s what her friend uses as a resource for her son, and is dismissing me saying it sucks bc “she knows how i research things,” so if anyone has any good articles on why it’s fucking shit, could ya please send them my way?

[pinkcrocss]

Is A-Train "redeemable"?

I have been thinking about this discourse that people have been having, following A-train's actions so far in season 4. And I know we've watched A-train teeter on the edge of good and bad for the last 4 seasons (generally falling to bad more than good). But i think the revelations about Frenchie's character kinda add an interesting spin to this question.

We need to consider how much our personal bias towards the characters we have grown to know (their motivations, their trauma's, their back stories), is impacting moral judgments we pass on other characters across the board.

Atp, every member of the boys has crossed "the line" in terms of black and white morality, but we give them a pass because we are convinced that they are all truly good at heart, and that their cause is just.

However, when you actually break down the actions of said characters, it kind of paints a different picture.

What has A-train done, that we feel he has to atone for? (this is just going off my terrible memory, so forgive me if I miss some things)

He killed Hughie's girlfriend (through negligence)

He killed popclaw (at the behest of homelander)

He's generally pretty arrogant and doesn't care about the horrible actions of his comrades, until it affects him

He killed bluehawk (most people agree that was justified)

Since season 2, Frenchie's past as a hit-man was hinted at (with little Nina explicitly stating that he had also killed children in season 3). It's clear Frenchie never had a particular moral code when he was a hit-man (no women/children type limits). He was simply a hired gun.

We sympathize with Frenchie because we know he had a difficult upbringing with his abusive father, as well as his loyalty to his friends (Cherie and Jay), the boys and especially Kimiko. Him serving as a comic relief often, also adds to this empathy bridge.

But season 4 has actually shown us a glimpse of just how many lives Frenchie has taken in cold blood. A whole room full. Why are we rooting for Frenchie's peace of mind, while debating if A-train is redeemable?

Frenchie has killed more people than Atrain (supe or not) and as far as I know, A-train has never killed a child.

Would it be easier to understand the gravity of Frenchie's crimes if Ryan or MM's daughter was one of his victims? Because his victims are all nameless, we act like his crimes hold less weight.

And then he goes on to start a sexual relationship with one of his victims, while hiding the knowledge that he was perpetrator of his greatest trauma. I think maybe we overlook the sadistic nature of that act because we interpret Frenchie as a "lover at heart", a true romantic that was swayed by his feelings and couldn't help that he had fallen for someone he had wronged. Bruh. When Colin eventually calls Frenchie a psychopath, he's not wrong.

And what about starlight? Her hands aren't clean. Remember the civilian she killed in Season 2? How is that any different from the situation with A-train and Robin? Yeah, it was an accident. In other words, negligence on her part. She needed to save Hughie; but why does Hughie's life matter more than that man. Her and Butcher were trying to carjack him and he had offered to call for help. He had a right to try to defend himself, and that bullet wouldn't have hurt her. That man was a father.

By the logic of why the boys are doing what they do, why we justify their murders of supes who have harmed them and their loved ones; if the child of that man grows up and hunts starlight down, would we need to root for that child to kill her?

Not so different from the shining light girl that keeps trying to kill Kimiko. From what was revealed of their backstory, Kimiko was the one who lured the girl into shining light. That's actually a common tactic of human traffickers, to use their victims (usually women and children) to lure in more victims cuz they seem less threatening. And obviously we can't fully blame Kimiko. She was trapped, brainwashed, and a child trying to protect her younger brother.

However, that girl also has every right to hate her. From her view, her life was forever taken because Kimiko chose not spare her (kinda similar to Gamora and Nebula). When Hughie said to A-train, "everything started with you!" we side with Hughie and we agree. So everytime Kimiko faces against that girl, why are we rooting for Kimiko? Wouldn't kimiko be A-train in that instance?

At this point, the only member of the boys who is still maintaining some Moral code is MM, and it's no coincidence that the show has made him seem pretty useless so far this season.

Btw, this post isn't a defense of A-train nor is it truly an indictment of any of the characters I used as examples. It's just an inconsistency I've noticed with the general fan discourse of who's "good" and who's "bad" on this show. Who is worthy of "forgiveness". Who's "redeemable". Redeemable to whom tho?

P.s. I'm not here to argue. Don't come for me cuz I critiqued your fave. I'm just thinking out loud. Feel free to respond/disagree, but if you're rude I'll just block you.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Let's talk about the insane idea promoted by the hero society that self-sacrificing and sadness is better than hurting others and feeling rage. Or in other words, how dying for other and repressing your feelings even if they destroy you is better than becoming violent and letting your rage affect the course of the daily basis.

For the hero society, submissive individuals were better. Depressed as in being unable to act was better. Passive behavior was better. It's easier to feel pity and hold some mourning for the victims before moving on as if nothing happened.

Take Deku. If he had died by suicide only a few would care. He was an unimportant quirkless kid with no real potential to be a hero. Or if he had died saving Bakugo he would have become a martyr, a quirkless kid who got to be a hero for a day before tragically dying. The end.

That is why Aizawa is mad with All Might when he sees Deku. He could have died in the UA entrance test, it was impressive but what about Deku's life. That's also what Recovery Girl told All Might in the UA Sport Festival. That's what Deku needed to learn when he started using kicks instead of punches. Self-sacrificing shouldn't be idolized by the hero society. Ultimately, it is murder in the hands of the authorities who enforce such idea.

Take the League of Villains.

Ugly victims don't get help.

⠀

Ask Tenko. Walking alone on a busy street, with blood on his hands and eyes totally lost. No one helped him. He was not a cute kid crying like Eri, he was monstrous like. His accident was not one caused by a victim. It was the abuse of his father and tje unfortunate awakening of his quirk that ended with him murdering his entire family.

If he had stayed sitting silently, unable to weep or talk or cry, he would have died and no one would have known. Society would be happy because there's no Shigaraki Tomura, right?

Touya died on a forest fire and life moved on. His dad became even more abusive and reached the number one spot on the hero charts. Like the past never happened.

Toga's neglected childhood pushed her to the point she exploded and drank the blood of someone, but because she was already a monster like looking child, she wad regarded as a danger and his parents erased her presence from their house. If she had died on the streets or gotten captured, people would just think "good, one less psycho, we can keep going with our days".

Visually, it's easier to sympathize with a crying victim full of sadness and wounds. Some animal instinct of who knows. I don't. BUT it's way harder to sympathize with someone who shows their hurt by being very disruptive, loud, angry, violent. Especially if they can't cry, singe people equals crying to regret or pain. If someone is unable to cry, there must be something wrong with them.

⠀

The League of Villains goal in the narrative at the beginning of bnha is less Stain-like (there are a few bad apples in the basket we need to purge and everything will be good again) and more of Shigaraki's own ideology: society is rotten to the bone, even the greatest of heroes is corrupted and the cycle of violence is being used by the hero society as an excuse to control the public.

Funny. It was not a lie. With Lady Nagant's story and even with Hawk's we were witnesses of how the hero society was indeed rotten. And we saw a few paragraphs above why All Might was part of the corruption, if with good intentions, but still an important part of it.

There are two main responses to trauma in bnha. The hero society prefers the one that doesn't make them look bad.

⠀

So, what's the kick?

What happened with the League of Villains would have happened eventually with any other group of individuals. It was a natural reaction to a failed system, one AFO took advantage of in order to further his plans.

There was the Meta Liberation Army, where many or his members were pro-heroes btw. There was the situation with Overhaul and the whole issue with the quirk repressing drug. You had Aoyama, the hospital full of kids Touya woke up to, etc.

In order for a change to happen, a reactive factor was needed. Individuals who were not afraid to threat the commodities of the population, their peace of mind, people willing to ne disturbing and people able to shake the hero society foundations. It's not coincidence that those individuals were the same victims who, after being passive for so long, decided peace was not an option.

Am I justifying the actions of the League and blaming everything on the heroes ? No, I'm not.

Killing is killing. Murder is murder. We're not going machiavelli on here and saying they had no other choice (both heroes and villains).

What I'm saying is that both sides were equally right and wrong. Many heroes and villains got used by bigger players in the game. Ultimately the fight started being between the institutions of power around the world and AFO. In Japan, it was the Hero Commission.

Like in any other war, many heroes and villains killed each other thinking it was the right thing to do in order to help society reach higher ground, get better, heal, be safe, whatever. Brainwashed for sure, loyal to a cause that's not loyal to them.

⠀

The kick is in balance.

You can't take the blame of other actions and punish yourself for it. You can't make others responsible of your own actions either. You shouldn't be putting your life above others and you shouldn't be putting their lives below you.

Learning to separate the responsibilities, to notice the shades in which anger and sadness mix, to be able to say "we all matter equally" and know it means a victim can be an abuser too and deserves help as much as they should be hold accountable for. These are the struggles of bnha.

Good communication to avoid mindless violence.

There's where Deku and Tomura meet, in the middle of those lines. There's where Shoto and Dabi meet, where Toga and Ochako meet.

The Messiahs vs The Judas, assigned a role to play by society, either die or be killed tragically. The moment they can shed of those roles and see each other as human beings, that's the moment things will start changing for good.

[vinnianlovesdinosaurs]

House of the Dragon Hot Take #6

I think it's time to voice my opinions on a few things that include both teams because I feel like in most of these posts I'm just blatantly staying neutral so here we go 😮‍💨

Joffrey Lonmouth and Vaemond Velaryon getting murdered - Both terrible injustices and a blatant display of ignorance from Daemon and Criston Cole. Neither should be celebrated or seen as "cool."

Daemon and Rhaenyra - Not a good ship at all I'm sorry. To be honest I don't think any ship involving Daemon is a good one because he's abusive, neglectful, selfish, and a pedophile.

Rhaenyra and Alicents victim-hood - Should not be compared in any way shape or form. They are both victims in their own right and they BOTH deserve better.

Blood and Cheese - I know most Team Green AND Team Black stans agree with me on this one because it was absolutely unforgivable. Daemon had an innocent child beheaded. Let's not ignore that a rape threat was used against a little girl and a distressed mother.

THE Driftmark incident - Both parties were in the wrong in their own ways here. Aemond didn't deserve to lose his eye, Lucerys didn't deserve practically having a death threat made towards him by full grown adults and his uncle who knew better than him, Rhaenyra didn't deserve to have her arm sliced open, Aegon didn't deserve to have the blame placed on him and he especially didn't deserve to be hit for it, and Alicent didn't deserve to be cast aside like that and ignored.

Laena's Funeral (Pre- Aemond becoming One-eyed) - Honestly justice for my precious girl Laena because WTF even was that mess of a funeral? Her uncle was spewing vitriol at literal children during the ceremony, her husband laughed and was practically eye-fucking his niece, and then Daemon and Rhaenyra end up fucking like three hours later?? 😭

Viserys I Targaryen - I hate this man. He was a shit father to all of his children. He was a shit husband to both of his wives. He was a shit king. He was a shit friend. He was a shit brother. A PEDOPHILE JUST LIKE HIS MF BROTHER !! AND HE'S A RAPIST !! #Viserys should have died sooner

Aegon II, Aemond, Helaena, Daeron, Rhaena, Baela, Aegon III, Viserys II, Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey - Honestly, I sympathize with every single one of these children. They were all raised in terrible environments with immature people all around them. Most of them were practically abused.

Harwin Strong - Justice for my man. He loved Rhaenyra, Larys, Lyonel, Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey with all his heart.

Laenor Velaryon - JUSTICE FOR MY MAN!!! He was ridiculed, bullied, and blatantly used almost every day of his life for who he was. His lover was murdered right in front of him, his selfish ass father refused to accept him, and he had jokes made about his sexuality while he was grieving his dead sister that he didn't get to see for 10 years.

Rhaenyra and Criston Cole - The whole fucking situation grossed me out tbh. I understand Rhaenyra was under the influence and confused from what just happened to her but she practically coerced Criston.

Aemma Arryn and Rhea Royce - Justice for my wives ASAP!! Aemma was used as a breeding mule and Rhea was murdered by her weirdo fucking husband.

The Iron Throne - In my true opinion, I do agree that Rhaenyra was the rightful heir, but in truth neither her or Aegon were good rulers in their own ways. AT ALL.

[the-path-to-redemption]

You know what keep me up all night?

The fandom sympathizing Cinder over Adam.

Before I get into this Yes. Cinder is white. Her VA is also white. I have seen people say she is Asian because she wore a Cheongsam in volume 4-6 buts that's the bare minimum. As non Chinese people can wear Cheongsam as long as they are wearing appropriately and are mostly used for formal or everyday wear.

There is no cultural ties on the name Cinder. Only the fact she is based of Cinderella.

We good? Okay let's get into it.

They cared more about a white girl over Adam. The same Adam who is poc coded former slave that was branded by white girl privilege family.

Don't get me wrong Cinder story is upsetting as it hold alot of abuse and child labor. I'm upset over the fact that Adam didn't get that same treatment until after his death and we gotten glimpse of what his life was during WF but not before.

Even then when his brand was revealed I remember how people were more focus over Bumblebee than the fact Adam has every right to be upset with society and the treatment of Fanus (even though that volume butcher his character).

Long Post Ahead

This isn't hate or anything, anon, but I do understand where you're coming from with Cinder. While there's no harm in making her Asian (as there are multiple iterations of the Cinderella story across many cultures, mine also have one), it's important that we all remember that Cinder is an in-universe majority. She is a human, so you are valid in your sentiments toward how she is received by the FNDM while practically sharing a similar childhood as Adam, who is an in-universe minority, no matter how much the FNDM tries to deny it and call him white.

It's still extremely problematic and hypocritical to sympathize with only one character between two very similar backstories when said character is a majority, while not extending the same understanding to the actual minority character. I say understanding because no one has to pity Adam, that's valid for them, but to say that he is less sympathetic than Cinder, who also abused a (presumably) younger woman under her care (Emerald), committed mass murder multiple times, blackmailing someone else by murdering his men in front of him, and did so much more, is fucking stupid.

This is extremely common unfortunately; I've even seen people denying that Adam wasn't a slave, somehow deluding themselves into headcanoning that he's a human faking to be a Faunus to use the WF's goals to satiate his own bloodlust (not even being subtle in their racism there), and that he's not somehow the only Faunus we've seen with an actual proof of the systematic oppression that they faced on-screen, which is a brand over his eye. There are also instances of them not taking abuse on male victims as seriously as female victims (most notably Oscar, Mercury, and Ozpin), but are willing to brush off any abuse that female victims inflict on others (Cinder, Neo, Salem, and Blake). It's bigotry, full stop.

But this doesn't end with the FNDM; yeah, Adam's death was to serve a ship between two characters who either do not give a fuck about what people like him have to go through or made the same people believe that their continuous oppression was their fault for not asking for their rights nice enough.

Fuck the implications that Blake knew that Adam (not excusing any abuse he put her through here) was branded and disabled for longer than they've known each other yet did nothing to actually change the brutality people like him have to go through. Fuck the fact that now Yang knew, and neither of them brought it up to Weiss so that she can keep her word to change the SDC (the fucking company that branded Adam) in Atlas and opted to go party with a team that they disliked. Nothing makes sense here, and we're in hell.

[purgemarchlockdown]

Lyrical Repetition in Purge March

So I've been thinking a lot about repeating lyrics in Milgram MVs. Since Milgram will often repeat lyrics to create a relationship between the two scenes. The relationship could be Anything, contrast, parallel, irony, etc. The purpose is just to associate the scenes together using the lyrics.

I think it's really fun to check out what the lyrics and scenes are since I like seeing what connections Milgram is making and what it says about the story and characters.

So with all that preamble out of the way let's talk about Purge March!

So Purge March has this whole repeated sequence in it, but I'm splitting it up for ease.

So this lyrical repeat features a fun thing Milgram likes doing with them, perspective change! The first time these lyrics are sung we are looking at it from the perspective of Amane Punishing Herself and the second time is Amane being Punished by Her Mom.

Milgram is establishing a connection here between her Mother's abuse and the way Amane treats herself, it's being portrayed as Similar. There's also an additional layer of that the Lyrics are referring to Different People in these scenes. The first is referring to Amane Herself as the scum. As the Marching Band leader "erases" this Amane for not being able to get the performance right. She can't be helped so she must be erased.

Note that this scene still humanizes this Amane to the audience, showing how terrified she looks and how she didn't mean to make that mistake. It was an accident.

The Second Scene, however, is referring to Amane's Mother as the scum. And we aren't shown her face at all, just her hand as she's about to Taze Amane.

This completely removes any and all sympathy you could have for her. There's No Person you can latch onto, just a hand that Tazes Her Daughter.

In both cases we are encouraged to sympathize with Amane. However the first case has some Internal Justification from Amane that the abuse was "warranted" in some way because she Did "Mess up". While the second completely gets rid of that idea and showcases how truly cruel and and awful these punishments are.

Moving onto the other lines in this sequence. This continues the change in Who the lines are talking about but this time we also have a change in Role.

Instead of the one being Punished, Amane is now the Punisher. She's the one enacting punishment on the sinner. Initially she was the one who's eyes Needed to be crushed. She was the one who was corrupted and sinful. But now its her mother who needs to be crushed, her mother who Killed a Cat who did Nothing Wrong. Who broke cult rules and thus should be punished. That's how this works, that's how this Always Worked.

They never stopped treating her like that just because she was a Child.

T1 VD:

Es: Also, your dislike for being treated like a child�� I never really noticed it up until now, but just looking back on it makes me angry. (sigh) You did something very unlike Milgram. From now on, I will treat you like a murderer with full awareness of their actions, prisoner no.8, Amane. Amane: Yes! I am very grateful for that… Hm?

So why should she stop just because she's her mother? Or because she's more "righteous" than her? Or because she said sorry?

That sorry doesn't matter.

The rule was still broken, after all. (Note that, unlike a lot of the other shots. The scene where the line about hopelessness first appears is in the Real World while the second scene is in the Marching Band World, unlike most of the other shots that are reversed. I don't know how purposeful this is but I think it's interesting!)

Related to all of this is how the hopeless sorry line is used to Transition between Amane's intention, there's a few lines right before it gets repeated about how Amane's mother broke the vow and how if she breaks her vow, Amane is supposed to punish her.

Right after this we have the lines where Amane is Noticeably Angry and Upset that her Mother Never forgave her even though she cried and screamed and Tried her best and how much she wants her mother to die.

The "hopeless I'm sorry" is used to transition between those two ideas. Amane punishing her mother because she broke her vow and Amane killing her mother because she Hates Her and Hurt Her.

This is a two minute and thirty second song and In One Sequence we can gather This Much Information, that's just Good Storytelling.

And that's not the Only repeated part in Purge March.

So second repeated part in Purge March. This sequence recites the main doctrines we are presented with in Purge March while also playing this line in the background.

If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

We are associating these lyrics with each other and for good reason. The Doctrine is the Magic, if you follow that then the monsters won't come out.

We see those monsters, after all, Amane broke a Rule.

They even have the line about the magic stopping it from happening On the scene where Amane is helping the cat. A lovely bit of visual irony since this action is what they use as an excuse to punish her.

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows more than the character and we know More than the character, we know she gets caught, we we're told what happens next, and we Can't Do Anything.

Except, the lyrics is Presenting us with a solution. Follow the Doctrine, that's the Magic. You'll be safe if you do. Amane didn't and that's why this is happening.

Now of course that isn't true in the slightest and her abusers would of found a way to abuse her no matter what.

But the point is we're being put in the shoes of this girl who wants to be good so bad it's going to kill her through the usage of Dramatic Irony and Lyrical-Visual Association. It's Good Storytelling and I think it's incredibly cool how Purge March Does That with such little time.

Those are the two scenes where lyrics are repeated in Purge March (unless I missed one somehow.) This was really fun to write and a lot of the other MVs are super cool about this too, Cat especially is fantastic at this and I might write more about it if I ever have the time. Hope you enjoyed reading!

[actofgrxce]

Why I still think Ed Teach is a sympathetic character

1) He doesn't know the full story of why Stede left him; as such he fills in the blanks with the worst case scenario (the one he addresses to himself in the Gravy Boat): "I am unlovable and I hate myself; it makes sense that he would abandon me."

This has already been articulated brilliantly HERE. The reason for this knee-jerk reaction? Trauma, trauma, trauma. Keep reading.

2) Ed didn't have some of the social advantages Stede had as a child, when their respective fundamental outlooks on the world and human relationships were being established (NOT to establish a "who had it worse" discussion, but to explain that it will create two very different adults).

'Stede had a fucked up childhood and ended up kind!" Yes he did, but he also had his basic needs met, he was white and affluent and passed as straight (for a while) in a Europe that implicitly rewards those identity markers, his life was not constantly endangered by a violent substance abusing parental figure who was also the only breadwinner, and he never had to live with committing the murder (while still a child!) of a primary caregiver in order to stay alive. Stede learned to play a role--that of the placating, cultured and witty gentleman-- in order to obtain safety (within the nuclear home, and within the conventional European gentry as an adult); he still does this. Ed, on the other hand, learned how to destroy the source of danger at all cost; pair that need to always seem scary with his positive caregiver (his mother) telling Ed quite unequivocally, "we weren't mean for fine things," and the violent, thrill-seeking, substance-abusing monster who results from this is no surprise. Ed's playing a role, too. Is Stede braver and kinder? Yes, and it could be that a great deal of that is inherent, but we're not arguing who is the better person, because not all sympathetic characters are good people. We're only dealing here with whether Ed is worth our time: whether he is still redeemable.

3) There are different KINDS of trauma response; Stede is Fawn, and Ed is Fight.

See above. Fawn responses look like overly placating everyone even at your own expense. They look like doing favors, compulsively centering your identity on helping, pleasing, assisting. Fight responses look like aggression and hostility, denying any trace of vulnerability or guilt, going on the offensive before your perceived "threat" can go on the defensive.

4) The biggest reason: this has always been who Ed, as an adult, is, and the Larger Narrative™ is being told from STEDE'S POV and perception of Ed and of the world of Piracy. The audience is in Stede's shoes. To quote @captainbonnetslog , "And [ Ed's ] always kinda been like this just minus the suicidal tendencies. The show is kinda developing with Stede. As his naivete fades we see darker things with more nuance." I suspect each season will reveal an Edward Teach of greater complexity. It's not just Ed, either; we sense greater depth and complexity in the personality and motives of the entire og crew (particularly Oluwande, Jim, and most notably, Izzy). The season opens with Stede's (rather charmingly, like our own) naive and romantic fantasy of killing Izzy on a beach at sunset and dramatically rushing into damsel!Ed's arms, apologizing and being instantly forgiven. It's not like that in his reality, or anyone's. Relationships are messy. We're meant to see the worst of Ed. We're meant, if we identify with Stede (who is the best of us all), to love Ed anyway. 5) Related to the above: the INCREASED sympathy we feel toward Izzy Hands, one of the previous antagonists, is a brilliant way to open our eyes to the more nuanced problems in the Ed, Stede, and Izzy triangle. It is NOT a reason to feel LESS sympathy for Ed.

it just means that Ed has hurt Izzy as much as Ed has been hurt, and as much as Izzy has, in jealousy, hurt Stede. Hurt people hurt people. Each viewer will sympathize more with, to return to point 3, a different specific character's way of coping (or failing to cope) with that pain.

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

1, 3, 6, 10, 13, 16

Thanks for the ask! I’m not sure whether to answer for the Silmarillion or LOTR, so maybe I’ll do both?

The character everyone gets wrong:

For LOTR, I answered this one way here, but there are a lot of other ways to answer it! I also think people get Elladan and Elrohir wrong. This may be a weird hill to die on because they’re small characters in the book, but I HATE how they’re represented in fanon. They’re made into carbon copies of the Harry Potter twins, who I already don’t like (ugh, I hate even mentioning Harry Potter here). I’m a twin myself, and I’m sick of twin characters being shoehorned into the goofy prankster role. It feels like a cheap attempt at comic relief because people don’t know how to write anything else. Especially when it’s just not how Elladan and Elrohir are represented in the book.

For the Silmarillion, I answered this one way here. I think the Weasley twin treatment also gets applied to Amrod and Amras, which is particularly nonsensical because the lives of all the Fëanorians are all extremely dark and tragic (the whole Silmarillion is tragic!). I get that sometimes people want to write happy, funny fanfiction, but can we please let go of the twins-as-wacky-pranksters trope?

Description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr:

For LOTR, I answered this another way here. But I wasn’t even thinking of another worst take, which is so bad that I’d erased it from my mind… the idea that the LOTR movies were an improvement on the books. "But nobody thinks this!" you will say. They do, and I’ve seen this take here on tumblr. WE HATES IT! There are good things about the movies (music, sets, acting, costumes, etc.) but literally nothing can come close to the beauty of the books. And besides, the movies deviated from them in many inexcusable ways—it would take to long to even list them all.

For the Silmarillion, one of the worst takes I’ve seen is the idea that Maeglin was really an innocent victim all along who was unfairly slandered by a supposedly biased history. I understand that sometimes it’s interesting to deconstruct the story, but at a certain point you’re just throwing it out the window. I’m not saying you can’t sympathize with him to a degree—he was clearly abused by his father as a child. But then he internalized those lessons—of his father’s possessiveness and violence towards women—and that was how he treated Idril.

I also know there’s a discussion among fans about Maeglin’s race, because earlier drafts described him as swarthy—and it’s certainly problematic for the dark-skinned male character to be the creepy one—but Tolkien’s later drafts described him as pale. So do with that what you will.

Which ships are the most annoying?

I don’t like the prevalence of Thorin/Bilbo. That’s partly because I hate the Hobbit movies, where the pairing mostly comes from, and it’s just not my cup of tea. People should write what they want, of course. I just don’t see the appeal.

For the Silmarillion, Sauron/Celebrimbor. It’s just everywhere, and I’m tired of it. Also, I get that some people are into darker relationships, but a lot of what I’ve seen of the pairing (even though I actively avoid it) is bizarrely romanticized. Like you guys do realize Sauron is evil, right? Even if he literally seduced Celebrimbor, I don’t think he’d be wracked with guilt about anything. People say they like this pairing because it’s dark, but then they turn Sauron into a poor little meow meow full of romantic longing and riddled with guilt because he tortures and kills his lover, and it’s just weird. I don’t think Sauron had romantic feelings for anyone, and I really don’t think he felt bad about torture and murder.

Worst part of fanon:

LOTR: I’m not even sure what LOTR fanon is anymore, probably because I try to ignore it. I guess I don’t like how the movie versions of characters and events have taken over. You know who also gets Weasleyified? Merry and Pippin, and it’s the movies’ fault. It’s not that I don’t enjoy them in the movies to a degree—but some of their best moments in the books were cut out.

The Silmarillion: I don’t even know if I could choose the worst part of fanon. I find Silmarillion fanon particularly frustrating, because in a fanbase where a lot of people don’t know the Silmarillion well, fan interpretations often get passed off as canon. People absorb fanon thinking that it’s canon, and that’s why you get so many posts that say things like, “Wait, I just realized Maglor ISN’T the nice Fëanorian.” (To be clear, I’m not judging people who say this. They’re unlearning fanon, which is good. It’s just a sign that fanon interpretations are taking over too much when you end up with a lot of people having to revise these big misconceptions.)

Ultimately, it’s just frustrating to me that fanon is so prevalent in either the LOTR or the Silmarillion fandom, because the source material is WAY more interesting. I might be swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest by saying all of this—but the asks were meant to be controversial!

You can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc):

For both LOTR and the Silmarillion, I don’t understand why people think Sauron can mind-read. That’s not a thing, but it’s astonishingly prevalent in fan interpretations. The worst part is, I don’t think people realize that mind-reading Sauron is a fan-invented concept.

[roobylavender]

Hello, this is sort of related to your essay a few days ago about jason, but I was reading a short fic about what could potentially transpire had willis todd lived and instead chose to give jason up, and i was kind of surprised because in the comments it was mentioned that post-resurrection jason has no legal status and the author sort of stated having no official documentations means its easier for an abuser to keep their victims close to them and its like no? jason has no canon legal status because the writers dont care about him and dont care to explore their civilian life. not really some intentional (or unintentional) maneuver on bruces part.

Here is the fic in case your curious [and if you do choose to read I would love to know your thoughts!]:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/39350217

this is why the problems with under the hood in particular are so glaring and made such a mess of the canon to follow like.. i sympathize with readers who internalized all of the abuse jason was canonically subject to as a result of this book and those that followed it but it's also frustrating how few people actually question whether it made any sense for that abuse to have occurred to begin with. bruce's treatment of jason in under the hood not only contradicts the tenets of their relationship prior to jason's death but also those of bruce's relationships with other criminals who have done similar or worse. there seems to be this idea that bc jason is bruce's son that means he'll be harder on him but if anything it's precisely the opposite. the fact that it's his son should mean that it disarms him completely, as the 90s stretch of canon so thoroughly explored in its long-run play-by-play of bruce's emotional breakdown and near loss of faith due to jason's death. and this doesn't even breach the most crucial element to discuss—bruce's historically lax interpretation of the no-kill rule that in certain situations allows for singular collateral death. there's simply no world in which a bruce who wanted to murder the joker would subsequently be so averse to him dying via other means. i do think it's in character for bruce to have revised himself on the former point and realize outright assassination is not going to give him the solace or vengeance he thinks he needs (batman: year two and batman: full circle is a good duology that explores this concept via joe chill), but given his history i'm far less inclined to believe that preserving the joker's life would come at all costs and more specifically at the cost of jason

like idk at the end of the day i am genuinely unable to grasp my head around the idea that bruce would care about jason so little, not only with respect to the events of under the hood specifically but with respect to whatever else comes after. and i think all too many of bruce's relationships with his children in general are sacrificed for writers' desire to explore the narrative implications of batman and increased military hypervigilance. at some point the priority is no longer to portray how bruce feels about his children personally but how they can be retroactively read into his purported morality. which would make sense were he a cold character to begin with, but he's not. he repeatedly wears his heart on his sleeve and allows his feelings for others to cloud his "judgment". it is more likely that bruce would do everything in his power to get jason resituated as a civilian and absolve him of all crimes bc of his recognition of jason as a traumatized child for whom he feels like he didn't do enough—for whatever our issues with the classism inherent to bruce and jason's relationship, the truth of the matter is that bruce put the onus of responsibility on himself. that's something i actually really have a problem with being so obscured in post-resurrection canon bc nearly all of it puts the onus on jason instead while conveniently forgetting that it was bruce who repeatedly felt like a failure—than that he would withhold his benevolence merely for the sake of instilling discipline. that's not something bruce was even willing to do with ra's as their relationship improved over the years, and god knows ra's has been more than willing to commit worse crimes

anyway, i've more than gotten away from the point here, but yeah, at the end of the day the increasingly event-focused structure of big two comics no longer allows for exploration of the trivial. we don't get to see characters live anymore bc it's not directly important to anything therefore it's useless to even portray. what does jason having a legal id do for the narrative that dc wants to tell? realistically: nothing. his only purpose is to perpetually exist as the red hood, therefore reclaiming his real identity is either peripheral or entirely unnecessary to the plot (unless you're shawn martinbrough). and it's not to say that i'm opposed to capitalizing on gaps in content, you're more than aware i do that plenty with talia. but that capitalization also needs to be.. sensible. and i hate to be mean but i think it's incredibly lazy to take everything that fails to exist in jason's canon merely as fact

[ddostoyevskyy]

❝𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐖 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍❞

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐈𝐈𝐈: A Gift of God 𝐈𝐈!

Edogawa Ranpo

𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒... f!reader (although, it can be read as gn!reader, the pronounce I’ve used is “she,” “her,” so...), psychological abuse, child abuse, abduction, drug overdose, murder, blood, Mori, mind manipulation, Eisoptrophobia (fear of mirrors), Spectrophobia (fear of reflection in the mirrors), the reader changes eye colors according to the true emotions of people (part of reader’s ability).

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄... this turned out darker than I thought. I mean, it’s BSD... and the warnings will be used within future chapters. This is just a short chapter apart from chapter II:D

𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐒... 1.042k

SERIES MASTERLIST

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒: 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐄, 𝐈, 𝐈𝐈, 𝐈𝐈𝐈, 𝐈𝐕, 𝐕

Don’t be a slave to your emotions. Control them.

“Father,” Your voice were a lot more firmer and quiter as you rummage around the cabinets. You could feel your father’s heartbeat... the fear in his heart and the voices screaming on his head — you could feel it all. You could hear it all. “If you’re going to hold me back, I’m going to kill you then.”

“(Name)... what have I done?” You clenched your fist, closing your eyes tight as you heave a sigh from the back of your throat. Now, he’s blaming himself — although it wasn’t his entire fault, humans tend to blame themselves for the sins they have committed, for the wrongdoing they have done until it’s too late to realize. It makes you mad, it made you fuming. Yet, the fear on his heart is holding you back.

Yes, what have you done, Father? In the first place, you never made me the monster I am now. Those injections and experiments... you knew it was all a trap. You made him believe he did everything of that. You put the fear on his heart. Those memories in his mind were all made up. You put those memories in his mind as he told you so.

“You were such a smart child, (Name),” You put your hand on the counter to brace yourself as you heard him utter your name again, hands shaking as his own fear had enveloped your heart. You hated this, you hated your ability to sympathize with other people who could only hurt you, could only betray you, could only put a lump in your heart. “If only I’ve never realized your full potential... you could’ve use your ability in a good way.”

“Don’t you think, it’s a bit late to regret it now? What are you so afraid of, Father?” Your voice cracked, eyes glistening with tears as you try your best to hold yourself down.

“Are you afraid of me?”

A eerily silence had cut through the air as your heart dropped.

“Father...”

“You are not my child, (Name). He made you. I am always wanting a child despite being infertile —”

Your hands were quick to grab the mirror on the cabinet as the sound of the glass shattering bounce across the room, halting his words as you strided towards him. You heave a sigh once more before pointing the shard mirror as you finally stared at your own reflection, the half of his face were evident as he stared with wide eyes, his large hand grabbing your wrist in an attempt to stop you.

“You don’t need to tell everything. I don’t need words, Father. I need evidence.”

The sight of your disheveled self and an unknown expression that made your skin crawl appeared on your own reflection. The way your lips puckered upward in a sinister smile — you could only remember him.

In the midst of the night, a dark crimson light had develope in your sight, blinding you until it was only pitch black. The whispers of the wind, the touch of the cold breeze, the darkness of your father’s mind engulfed with a lukewarm heat; the feeling of a father’s touch as he keep his hand on your wrist — an unspoken word to keep you from drowning away from his memories. The throbbing in your head were visible as you stagger on your way — the darkness, the coldness with the faint of warm — it was all unbearable.

“(Name)!” He called you as you gasped, a sweat trickled on your forehead as you fell down on the ground with a thud.

“I can’t see anything, you have to show me everything!”

“No, no, please. Calm down!” He tried to reach out for you as you strided back with the shard mirror in your hand.

“Who’s that man earlier?”

“He’s Mori Ougai. The... leader of the Port Mafia.”

“You’re acquaintance with that demon and now you’re hanging on with a mafia leader? How long will you keep torturing yourself?” You sighed, brushing a hand through your hair as you throw the mirror away. “Am I not really your child?”

“No... my wife found you somewhere before. But, believe me, I’ve been wanting a child for so long, and you were the answer to all of our prayers! You are a gift of God to us, (Name).” You flinched at the sound of those words and it made your skin crawl again, eyes darting to your father as you realized how his emotion changed. The feeling of sincerity, the warmness that spread across through your chest that it made you nauseous — an emotion you never felt before.

“Don’t call me that... I will never be of God.” He frowned at your words, the voice of your vulnerability were making you feel more worse as you sighed.

“(Name), can we really escape here?”

“We were never really a prisoner, in the first place. You’re just scared. That Mori Ougai will never harm me because I know he needs me, and once I am out of his grasp, he’s doomed.”

He stared at you in bewilderedment as he reached out for you before engulfing you to his embrace. Now that he have come on his senses, your emotions were now more stable.

“All I wish is to keep you safe, my child. Please, be safe.”

“Of course, I will, Father,” You mumbled on his chest as you embrace him back. “After all, I am a gift from God.”

Not in a way to conquer the world; just the way God had gifted him a child he was asking for.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved 2023 © ddostoyevskyy. Do not repost without permission or plagiarized.

[bartohenchmanb]

Going from Doflamingo as a villain to Big Mom is probably the biggest flip this show has ever done for me. Doflamingo went from the most extreme privilege in the world to its complete opposite as a tiny child, and it fucked him up. Then Trebol and the others showed up and put him back on a pedestal to fulfill his every evil whim. I still maintain he’s dumb as fuck and irredeemably evil, but even with knowing what he was capable of as a celestial dragon, he did not deserve the hell he went through. No one deserves that. But there was so much depth to his character because of the life he lead. And even with how evil he is, there is still a part of him that I sympathize with.

Big Mom was a selfish fucking child in her youth, and she’s a selfish fucking child as an old lady. Because of her size and natural strength, she was denied nothing that she wanted. Even when her actions caused her to hurt other people, she was called a good girl because she was “just trying to help.” Because she was never scolded and her behavior was never reprimanded, she never learned how to actually be kind. Yes, she was also abused, in a pretty fucked up way that people just abandoned her without ever explaining why or lying to her about it. Instead of ever making her face the consequences of her own actions, they instead made her the victim of bad people. In her mind, they didn’t abandon her because of her actions, they did it because they were mean.

Now as an adult, she’s still the same exact entitled child! She hasn’t grown up or matured at all, everything is about her. But she still maintains this idea in her head that she’s good. She’s built a land where “everybody can live side by side,” but she’s done nothing to actually create a peaceful coexistence, because she never lost her own prejudices. She casually throws out slurs and insults at anyone who’s a little different, keeps a fucking collection of living creatures like a museum display, so all the people who are different are never viewed as the same and their abuse continues. But they can’t ever leave once they’ve come here because she has so many abandonment issues she will literally kill you if you try to leave. But the worst of it is her hunger pangs. Early on in the arc it’s implied she doesn’t have control of herself during her hunger pangs, which is how she ended up murdering her own son. But then during her 8 hour attack, she has a full conversation with Jimbei where she talks about Perospero and his lie and you realize, no, she was in control during her hunger pangs. So all of the things she did, even back at Elbaf, she knew what she was doing, but she’s so spoiled she literally murders anyone she wants during a fucking temper tantrum because she wants a fucking snack! She knew what she was doing, which makes everything even worse, and makes me fucking hate Mother Carmel for being such a fuckwit. She deserved to be eaten.

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i think one of the biggest reasons i refuse to take anything LL presents to me in good faith morality-wise is that just, everything about the vatborn--completely leaving aside the trueborn or mogadorians as a whole--is a hundred percent on par with what happened to lorien for sheer scale and depth of tragedy and horror. in very different ways, yes--apples to oranges, i'm not going to say one is worse--but on par.

and not only do neither the heroes or the narrative ever acknowledge this. they act like it's a good thing.

[cw: genocide, war crimes, racism, fascism, slavery, torture, child abuse, dehumanization, apologia for all of it after the cut. basically, the usual lmao]

or at least, a totally neutral and casual one (although they will still never call it what it is by name). the vatborn, who are universally abused, beaten, tortured, brainwashed child soldiers and actual fucking chattel slaves, aren't people. they are subhuman. their suffering doesn't matter. they can't be rehabilitated for any kind of peaceful life. they are barely more than mindless animals. they are vermin to be disposed of without a thought, while their actual slavers get far more mercy, compassion, and humanization than they do (which holy shit is saying something).

the only, ONLY person in the entire series who thinks it matters that they're people; that it's fucked up to have been taught that killing them in front of him as a small child was unremarkable; who feels uncomfortable with ordering them around and is worried about getting one of them in trouble; who questions the ideology he grew up in that said otherwise; is a deluded, naive, easily-manipulated, selfish race traitor who is treated with rabid murderous hatred for it for the rest of his life.

they and their culture--yes, culture, we see that they have developed some of their own under the trueborns' noses--are eradicated from existence because they 'didn't know any better,' and no one bats an eyelash before or after. it's fine because without their extinction they'd eradicate everyone else. and the method of their creation, both knowledge and resources, is lost.

there will never be another living vatborn again.

all of this is true, say the writers. all of this is fine. and to that i say: does any of that rhetoric sound familiar?

like. honestly, there are some REALLY strong foils and parallels to be made between the loric and the vatborn, right down to the scars versus the tattoos:

(which, of course, no one has jack shit to say about. in the slightest. then or ever. 🙃)

what they should have done--and i don't mean 'here's a way they might have handled it,' i mean the only thing they could have done, period--to make any of the protagonists actually decent people would have been to make them have a massive group-wide crisis the INSTANT they found out what the vatborn are. that should have been one of THE central conflicts in the series from that point forward. 'we are having to slaughter child soldier slaves, who have no choice in the matter, en masse in self-defense. we have no idea how to make it stop without letting ourselves be overrun. we have been doing this for a long time and we never even knew. fuck. jesus fuck' should absolutely fucking haunt a good majority of your protagonists, even if it takes until after the war when survival mode disengages for it to hit, or else you have a cast full of just plain evil cunts and i am not going to root for them no matter how many planets they save. fuck that.

like. for all the writers and characters hammer on about how ~we're not like them uwu,~ they ARE. the perspective we're meant to sympathize with IS the mogadorians, just reskinned with craft-beer-and-brick-pizza-ovens-appreciate-nature-uwu neoliberal fascism instead of ham-handed right-wing stereotypes.

(which, the 'respect for the planet and nature' thing? bullshit. the entity colonizes and terraforms the ENTIRE EARTH. it does this without asking a single ass human if they're okay with it; marina even points this out, which is immediately dismissed lol. the entity destroys pretty much the entire fossil record of the earth, all the way down. the writers don't give a fuck about respecting or preserving nature. it's just a cover for the sky-high platter of genocidal ecofascism they're trying to push through.)

one of the central themes of lorien legacies is supposed to be 'mourn the dead, fight like hell for the living.' and one of, again, the central conflicts of the series from RoS onward should have been the moral dilemma of realizing that the vatborn are some of the living to fight like hell for, and having no fucking idea how to do that without giving everything else up for lost. instead the moral becomes 'fight like hell for the living, as long as they look enough like me and aren't Icky and i don't have any personal baggage about them, and also as long as they came out of a vagina.'

and like. the really insidious thing about how they frame the mogs versus everyone else--how they try to excuse and distract you from the evil shit the protagonists and their buddies say and do--is that they go 'well i mean sure, they're racist and ableist and genocidal and [laundry list of awful], and have less than no basic fucking decency or compassion toward the Acceptable Group of People, but also they're kind and caring and heroic and nice to other people!' whereas the mogs read as the authors having looked up a Traits of Fascist Societies checklist to hammer into their story without actually understanding how fascism works.

actual fascist societies aren't cartoonishly hateful, joyless, loveless, and sadistically rubbing their hands together over their Evil Plotting on every level of society, every day, with everyone around them. like. it doesn't fucking happen. i don't care how cultish it is, i don't care how rabidly hateful you can whip a movement up to be, you can fuck a society and its norms up horrifically but you CANNOT do that with 99% total success rate on that scale. you know what happens with actual fascism? with hate groups, with colonialism, with genocide?

most of them are, in some aspects of their lives, 'good people.' they pet puppies, they're loving spouses and parents, they're kind and respected members of their community. i'm nice, they think. i'm a Good Person. i care.

and they are completely caught off guard when they are held accountable for the other things they did with their lives, because it doesn't fucking matter how many puppies you pet when you make yourself complicit in genocide. you extend basic human decency to your family and people you happen to find likeable and acceptable, and none of whom you have emotional baggage toward as a group? cool motive, still a war criminal, still blood on your hands.

which, by the way, is another vile thing they try to push through here. 'i'm racist because muh war trauma so i get a blank check to commit atrocities, cut me some slack' is, y'know. famously not a justification used for any horrific mass war crimes in countries invaded by, say, the U.S. in the last few decades alone. vietnam? iraq? are those some kind of chopped liver?

and the fact that they try to hide this shit behind 'well they're genocide survivors and teenagers, you can't expect them to be mature about their war trauma 🥺' is just contrived bullshit to get away with this rhetoric, which is even more obvious when every now and then they try to act like the characters are in their mid-20s or something instead of, you know. 15-18. teenagers are not the ones making these calls irl, pal. they're not the ones devising war tactics or taking out tons of people by themselves in one go. they're not the ones making legislation about what to do with the enemies after the war. are there garde who have to wear a bikini for their photosynthesis legacy too, by any chance

(this is an ESPECIALLY bad look in the context of the vietnam war in particular, considering how frighteningly, violently, genocidally racist these books are toward every fucking east asian country in their line of sight lmao. like holy shit dude it's BAD and this is just another shit in the bucket)

(ETA: HOLY SHIT WOW THE VIETNAM PARALLEL MAKES THE THING WITH JOHN CATCHING A LARGE CONCENTRATION OF MOGS OFF GUARD TO INCINERATE THEM ALL WITH HIS FLAMETHROWER POWERS--BECAUSE 'NOW THEY KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE CAUGHT BY SURPRISE,' NO LESS--SO MUCH FUCKING WORSE EL EM AY OH)

anyway yeah, despite supposedly being a critique of fascism these books are fascist as shit, and it is impossible for me to look at the protagonists being Caring and Compassionate, and Fighting for Peace and Justice and Preservation of All Things Good in the World, without just seeing this:

as usual i have many, many more thoughts about this, and as usual they are for other posts because this one is hella long already, but tl;dr the vatborn deserved better and are pretty much the perfect distillation of why my approach to this series' authors and what they are trying to communicate with their story is 'stay back slut' lmao

[charcolor]

Hello! I was going to follow ur vocaloid fact otd account but saw the steampianist thing in ur dni. Is it alright if I ask what he did wrong? I have big nostalgia for his songs but I don't wanna support him if he's up to no good

i do not trust him (or his fans if they are aware of what he did) because of some pretty awful things he's shown ambivalence toward at best and support for at worst. namely, nazi imagery and pedophilia.

(images are below the cut to avoid triggering anybody. this post contains discussion of the above as well as brief mentions of rape and irl child murder.)

he hasn't acknowledged or spoken about anything like this since 2020, which leads me to believe that he does not want to apologize and instead wants to pretend nothing happened to maintain his fanbase, without saying anything that goes against his beliefs.

if he does apologize and show that he's actually willing to improve as a person, i might be more tolerant of people who still support him, but i will still distrust him for being dishonest and trying to hide his actions.

there may be more i'm not aware of, but here's the main stuff:

followed shadman on twitter (infamous for drawing CP) for a while and defended himself when called out on it. he doesn't currently follow him on twitter but he does follow at least 1 person who openly (i.e. it says so right in their bio) draws noncon and guro (gore) fetish art so i'd assume his basic principles haven't changed

posted a pic of a uniform he wore as a teen with a swastika patch on it and referred to it lightheartedly as his "edgy kid uniform." the original tweet has since been deleted, but tweets still exist brushing it off as thinking it was funny in high school and not apologizing for his tweets any more than "sorry if i have offended anyone." it's not in these screenshots but i'm pretty sure in older replies to others he tried to pass it off as like "actually it's not a nazi swastika it's a buddhist symbol" when he knew full well what it was intended to look like

made the song "secrets of wysteria" about a real life child murderer, pedophile and cannibal (albert fish), using the topic for the sake of shock value in a horror song. (admittedly i don't think this is as bad as his actual pedophilia apologism, and albert fish is not treated as someone to be sympathized with, but it is still very insensitive to his victims, and the song is still up on his youtube.)

left a comment praising a vocaloid song (using oliver, who was voiced by an actual child) openly defending pedophilia. it might be hard to read the text in the screenshot, but the video description says "this song is about pedophiles, how they feel when compared to child abusers. Pedophilia is entirely different from child [abuse]" and steampianist's comment says "i love the concept and message of this song well done"

[chaifootsteps]

Anyone arguing this is full of shit and I can give you two reasons why.

1. Stolas nearly, knowingly got Blitzo killed back in Murder Family and people make excuses for it. Octavia is a girl and also a child and people still sympathize with Stolas over her, including the creators and staff of the show. 

2. Absolutely nobody’s saying Stella isn’t abusive or unpleasant. They’re saying that she’s still a victim, still sympathetic, and that Stolas is also a problem in this and other equations -- and that Vivzie and Brandon’s insistence that he isn’t in spite of the facts saying otherwise is annoying and makes him harder to like. 

If Stella and Stolas’s genders were reversed, Vivzie’s fans would either support whichever they found sexier or whichever Vivzie insisted is to blame. My money’s on the latter.

[lokitapendragon]

Let Dexter be the good guy

(This is literally nothing but spoilers for the finale episode of New Blood.)

It's possible I'll change my mind the more I think about it, but it seems that what bugs me the most about the New Blood finale is that the writers suddenly wanted to backpedal after nine seasons and go "Oh no never mind our hero is just one hundred per cent awful LOL JK die."

The entire premise of Dexter is interesting because it put us in a position to not just sympathize, but empathize with a full-blown murderer. This was, in a 21st-century sort of way, a Murder on the Orient Express approach. The more we learned about Dexter's origins, the more we got inside his head and the way he never really, truly justified himself ("I'm a very clean monster") but nevertheless did what he did and, to paraphrase John Wayne Cleaver of I Am Not a Serial Killer, copied the behavior of those he rationally considered to be good...the more we felt like we were allowed to love him. When confronted with all the aspects of his morality, we found that, while he was not heroic by any classical definition, we wanted him to continue being who and what he was. Part of this is probably revenge-fantasy for a lot of us-- God knows that, as an abuse survivor, I cheered when Trinity died. But in the virtual reality of fiction, we were allowed that.

New Blood tried, in the final lap, to break down that fourth wall and impose real-life morality onto our twisted hero who had, in so many ways, fought for and found his own humanity in the midst of monstrosity. After everything we had seen him gain and go through, they suddenly wanted to make us hate him as we would Bundy or Manson.

I don't want Dexter brought to justice. I don't want him to stop "taking out the garbage." And I don't for one second believe that 1) Dexter didn't care about saving innocent people (look how he's always responded to endangered children); 2) that Dexter would have killed Logan, who didn't meet the Code; 3) that Dexter "never" knew "real love" until Harrison when we have 8 freaking seasons of him bending over backwards for his sister; 4) that Dexter would further traumatize his own child by asking to be killed.

And the fact that the writers had to have him do such out-of-character things to justify that ending tells me that they hated Dexter and never should have been allowed near our Dark Defender.

(If you disagree with me, please write your own post about it. I'm not here for Discourse and if you try to bring the righteous indignation I will simply hit the block button.)

[eclipsecrowned]

ZERO NUANCE DISCOURSE about how all the ASoIF OCs are guilty by association and just as bad as all their family members just for being in the same geographic region while things are going down which obviously means they're in clear approval of their house's actions // anonymous

I want to see the fanfic scene where a ~10 year old Lya B. is called before a Northern tribunal for B*lton war crimes and found guilty of traitorous and Anti-Stark Behavior.... For having been a child living in the same house as her monstrous relatives during their rise to power. I want to see the kind of mouthbreather who genuinely believes a victimized child is as bad as her abusers just because she didn't speak up about sociopolitical maneuvering beyond the full scope of her understanding and in every conceivable way out of her control.

That or the Stannisters/Mockingbtches that think Mira conspiring to murder the guy trying to play H*mbert H*mbert with her baby cousin makes her worse than the various degenerates that populate the adult male side of the narrative. Probably with an extra dose of implicit racism because she's 'dishonorable' or 'sneaky' unlike those nice, good, trueborn Northern folk.

Laerion... I tremble to even consider the sub-arctic fandom take there. Him trying to protect his innocent nieces and nephews while finding the whole civil war to be an arbitrary pissing contest between his mom's totally and irrepairably fucked family is either that he's a disloyal gr33n sympathizer or an arbitrary bl-- see i don't know if i can call him that even for the bit. i know it's an in-universe faction to which he belongs but man. anyway. him being the bigger picture only sane man about all this saying 'ANY WAR CRIMES ARE BAD ACTUALLY DO YOU INTEND TO RULE OVER A KINGDOM OF ASHES' is him actually being for one team's war crimes or the other.