#gow angrboda icons | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bellaaldamas · 7 days ago

Text

Thank you for clarification because my policy is to never go out of my way to leave negative criticism of any character and ship on the posts of others, unless I know a person is open for this kind of discussion and/or we share views on those matters at least in some respects, if not all (as it's impossible to have identical perspective and opinion on media even if people have the same favourites and least favourites and a similar perception of said media; which is perfectly natural and helps avoiding hive mind culture in fandoms).

Notably, Thrud's personality is never actually discussed by the trolls who pair her with Atreus while disparaging Angrboda for fallacious "reasons" and for the sake of "mythological accuracy" which was never and nowhere to be found in Gow universe in the first place (in fact, racial diversity is far more accurate to real life than any of the creative liberties and character merging that SMS implemented in the series, in addition to the supernatural/high fantasy elements that are the foundation of the game).

Thrud, to trolls, exists as the extension of her father Thor whom some of them chose as their projection vessel after Kratos supposedly "had gone soft because of that insufferable little runt Atreus". Those people are openly misogynistic and racist and cannot even view female characters as persons in their own right vs a part of male characters' arcs. Those same people insist Sif was a "bad wife" to Thor just like Angrboda is a "bad girlfriend" to Atreus because they dare to have personalities and goals outside of their male love interests.

Trolls' "shipping" of Atreus and Thrud is but a wish fulfillment fantasy in which Thrud, who they either like by association with Thor (while hating Angrboda by associating with Atreus, on top of the racist reasons) or because they sexualize her, claims Atreus as a validation prize. They cannot tolerate Atreus, whom they hate as much as Angrboda, being in a healthy and equal relationship with the latter. Thus why they openly admit they thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where Heimdall and Thrud were physically violent with Atreus and "finally put that brat in place". They are sexualizing violent interactions between a character they like/project onto and a character they hate.

For bonus points, progressives pair Atreus with Heimdall and pat themselves on the back for being "advanced" and for reducing Angrboda to an insulting "disposable girlfriend" trope. Thus, erasing a positive gender dynamic in favor of a toxic and abusive dynamic between an adult god and a child.

In that vein, it's important to remember this kind of projection, bigotry, misogyny and racism are perpetrated not just by the Alphas/Dudebros but the "Nice Guys"/progressives as well. Except progressives don't openly admit to being racist and misogynistic. Where dudebros will spout fallacies about "mythological inaccuracy" to justify their bigotry (debunked in the comment above), "progressives" will insist Angrboda is "not feminist enough" due to not being a yet another one dimensional and violent girlboss. On the other hand, Thrud is held up as a "feminist icon" despite her explicit shaming of a woman who was a domestic violence victim of Thrud's grandfather.

The irony is that the only character who comes anywhere close to being a pseudo-progressive pandering and a filler is Thrud and her girlbossiness. Unlike Angrboda who moved the story and impacted the plot and Atreus's arc specifically in every scene she had on screen, as I noted above.

But dudebros will never admit that because of their overt racism and misogyny whilst "progressives" will keep hailing Thrud for being a sword wielding action heroine of which modern media has had a legion.

By contrast, Angrboda is the first female character in the last decade and some to be allowed a total freedom of self expression as well as be allowed to openly show feelings and vulnerabilities in front of a male lead without being framed as dependent, desperate or weak. She does not depend on Atreus in any way - starting with the Ironwood section she knows he is bound to leave and that per the prophesy he is destined to forget her and she cannot be a part of his future. Angrboda has no qualms spelling out how much it hurts her - and then when Atreus still makes the choice to go his way she respects that and pursues her own path, completely unprompted by him and with nothing to gain (going out to look for more giant marbles).

She aids Atreus, Kratos and others during the Ragnarok battle, risking her own life, completely of her own volition. Atreus never asked any of that from her and admittedly hardly ever repaid her for saving him, his father and everyone else several times (instead of repaying he left again - and Angrboda respected his decision again; from the story standpoint this separation was necessary so Atreus could pursue his independent path and break free from Kratos's overprotectiveness as to reach Angrboda's level of emotional maturity).

In the end Angrboda gives Atreus an option to seek her out and go back to Ironwood if he wants to but leaves the choice up to him because she is the only one in his life who has ever been fully honest with him and respected his agency and freedom of will (and generally put a lot of emphasis and value on Atreus's free will even when believing fate could not be changed - "I just hope the story you're writing for yourself is the one that you truly want").

This is all the more reason both crowds of trolls feel threatened by Angrboda, as she challenges the status quo in the media they are latching onto.

it's so obvious that most of these dudebros hate the ironwood section it's bc they're racists 🤷🏻‍♀️ and don't even start with "but the pacing.." when it's not even the "slowest" part of the game (and has, actually, plenty of action)

#reply #text

49 notes · View notes