#hate how he gets treated by the narrative in season 3

[professional-rat-eater]

I need people in the IWTV fanbase to realise that you can appreciate a character in all their complexities and enjoy their precense in a story and still wish they had a slow, painful death scene. For non-book readers, I hope to be able to clarify a few things about why a certain character is so hated.

Keep reading for more nuanced Marius de Romanus slander:

I feel like I post at least once a day something about hitting Marius with a car or something and I do it mainly because it’s funny but it’s also because there is a very valid reason he is where a lot of people draw the line, despite the scale of morality in gothic literature being utterly different from that of pretty much any other literature, and drastically different from real life.

I love him for what he brings to the story. He is fascinating and I am excited to see him in season 3. He’s a brilliant character and I want to put him under a microscope and study him like a bug. He is still absolutely vile even for Anne Rice, something she even hints at here and there in her work.

I could go on and on for days about him, but to keep it short (edit: I lied), he met Pandora when she was ten years old and he was twenty five. What makes him particularly sick is nothing to do with vampiric morality, which we’ve seen is completely different, within the world of the books and show, from human morality. We get onboard with Lestat because we get to know him as a human and then watch how he changes as he gets used to being a vampire. Lestat was not a monster when he was human. Marius was.

If you disagree with that, you can think so if you wish as I do not currently possess the ability to control other people’s thoughts (but as soon as I do, I’m coming for you!) but please do not try and make excuses for him on that topic. Most people will not be open to that sort of debate. I know I’m not. Pandora was a baby. He should not have felt anything towards her other than a desire to protect her as a parent might. Yes, yes, gothic morality. But you need to understand that that is just too much for most people.

And you know who else was a baby, especially in comparison to Marius? Armand. Armand, who grew up to do awful things because of how he was treated. He was already being taken advantage of (to put it lightly) before he met Marius. If Marius had cared selflessly for Armand, he would have taken him from that brothel and tried to help him heal from the trauma. That is what real love would have been. You should not look at broken children and think to make them your lovers. All he was was yet another grown adult taking advantage of a boy whose spirit had been utterly shattered by what he’d endured.

(I’m not suggesting that should have happened or it would have been better, but I dislike the insinuation that Marius’s love for Armand was anything other than exploitative. It can be sincere, and still exploitative. I believe he meant it. I also believe he fucked Armand up more than he already had been.)

Murder in a fictional setting can be justified and overlooked, but as soon as anything involves children, you have to accept that you will lose a lot of people, even in gothic literature. That sort of relationship may have been more normalised thousands of years ago, but there were always people who objected to the concept. Even within the narrative of Anne Rice’s books, Marius’s actions are called out here and there (usually subtly) so even there, they are questioned. Compare him to someone like Lestat (I only mention him because for whatever reason, people like to group them together as irredeemable characters???).

Lestat’s actions are deeply toxic but people still like him because we understand why his behaviour is the way it is. As dreadful as what he does is, we are endeared to him because of his suffering and follow his journey as a vampire. He is twisted, but he is behaving according to what his trauma has turned him into. Armand is another example of this. Vile behaviour that is a believable response to trauma. There comes in the gothic morality again. We love them and know they are awful at the same time.

It is not that you cannot like Marius or characters like him. I do like him very much as a character, but you have to get on board with the idea that most people never will. The lines he crosses are unlike many of the others crossed by different characters. No one looks at Madeleine and Claudia and thinks it’s weird because Claudia is not actually a child. Armand was. Pandora was.

I could honestly make a separate post about book!Louis too and why I think the changes from the book were necessary to make people actually care about him, but it is similar. Harming/exploiting children and anything to do with slavery is a hard line a lot of people draw. Marius is still a multifaceted, interesting, complex, humanised character, as all Anne Rice vampires are, but he is deeply disliked for a very good reason. People cannot switch off how they feel about what he did, even if they are invested in the story.

(But also let’s be thoughtful about this type of discourse. Do not look at anyone whose favourite character is Marius and assume they are a bad person. He is a great character, he is just not to many people’s tastes. They likely just find him deeply interesting which he is.)

Anyway, after he gets his screen time and we reach the end of the show and he has gotten his chance to chance screen time, I vote we tie him up and treat him like a piñata.

[flower-boi16]

Helluva Boss Season 2: How to Assassinate Your Characters

Option 1: Force them into being out of character for the sake of a forced conflict or "joke"

Seeing Star assasinated Loona by making her far more aggressive compared to how she used to be in the first season, which was done as a way to force a conflict between her and Blitz. Western Energy then goes on to continue Loona's derailment by just straight up turning her into a wild animal with her attacking the doctor. The writers are forcing Loona into being out of character in order to create drama that doesn't feel organic at all.

The same could be said for Moxxie, who Unhappy Campers made out of character by turning him into an attention whore jelouse of Millie, despite him never displaying that trait in the first season and him having no reason to even give a shit about this since he was sent here for a job.

There's nothing indicating that he suffered from neglect from Crimson so there isn't an explanation here. Moxxie especially comes across as a massive hypocrit in his argument with Millie; where he asks why Millie cares so much about what the teenagers think when Moxxie has been jelouse of Millie through this whole episode, yet it is NEVER called out.

This is done as a way of trying to add forced and contrived drama between the two just so the episode can have a conflict, because the writers most likely coulden't find a way to create a conflict that was organic.

Option 2: Make past issues with the characters worse by adding in new ones or just refusing to address them

A big issue with Millie as a character is that she doesn't have much of any real depth beyond being Moxxie's wife. The show tried to add depth to her in Unhappy Campers but all that did was create a new issue where they constantly introduce new stuff for Millie as a character out of nowhere in a failed attempt to give her depth.

Moxxie meanwhile suffered through a issue in Season 1 where he went through the same arc twice in the same season, but hey that was only two times so it's nothing to sneeze at...except that Season 2 not only has Moxxie repeat that arc again, it slaps daddy issues onto him in a poor attempt to give him further depth which not only feels tacked onto him but also just creates more issues with Moxxie as a character due to him now having truama that never gets explored.

Season 2 continues the issues with the first season but makes them worse as well as adding in new ones, which is the exact opposite of what a second season should do.

Option 3: Destory and remove everything that made the characters interesting and replace it with something completely unreconizable compared to how they previously were.

Stolas in Season 1 was arguably the most interesting character in the entire show, there was a lot you could analyze from him and he had the most potiential out of any other character in the show for a compelling arc where he grows as a person...

...that Season 2 completely destoryed in favor of turning Stolas into an UwU soft boy who the narrative frequently coddles and goes through little actual character growth...at all. His bad actions are downplayed by the narrative and the people who get mad at him for those actions are all demonized by the narrative, treated as if they don't have a reason to hate him even though they do.

Season 1 Stolas was a flawed person that realized his mistakes and chose to become better, Season 2 Stolas is an UwU soft boy that just wanted to be loved. These do not feel like the same character.

Season 2 completely assassinates the characters and removes everything that made them good in the first place with the only exception being Blitzo, as although Season 2's handling of him has issues he still isn't nearly as ruined as the other characters.

[rightwheretheyleftme]

I just finished watching book 3 of The Legend of Korra. Here’s my top 5 things I hated the most about it:

caveat: I actually didn’t hate this season at all, I just wanted to continue this series

5. Poof! The genocide’s gone!

Let me preface this by saying that I thought that the storyline of Korra finding the airbenders was a nice change of pace and scenery and I enjoyed watching it. However, the bare-bones of this plotline are rotten for me.

ATLA treating the air nomad genocide with so much realism and severity is one of the greatest aspects of the show. Sure, this is a tv show for kids, but it’s still a fairly realistic portrayal of a victim of ethnic cleansing dealing with their trauma. We saw Aang searching for other air nomads, seeing his temples being destroyed, having to burn the last intact artifact made by his people (the staff), and the entire 4 part finale of the series revolves around Aang deciding that he is not willing to sacrifice his cultural and religious beliefs under any circumstances. On account of this, it truly shocked me that TLOK treats the air nomad genocide in the same way that Oprah approached her car giveaway:

The insistence that the air nomad genocide is something that the avatar could fix unintentionally conveys that Aang failed to fix it. Maybe if Aang had connected with Raava and meditated in the tree of time, he would’ve brought his people back- the narrative is saying. And I find that incredibly mean-spirited, regardless of whether it was intentional or not.

Aang died at 66 years of age, he never met any other airbenders after the genocide other than his own son; And TLOK killed Aang once again in season 2, so now he will never get to see the air nation’s rebirth. I know that this is a show about Korra, but I find this storyline to be not only an extremely immature way to treat a genocide (genocides can’t be “fixed”, bryke) but also a cruel insult to the protagonist of this universe.

4. Why the fuck is Varrick still here

Let me get this straight: Varrick took advantage of Unalaq’s colonialism to make himself rich. He bombed the Southern Water Tribe Cultural Center in order to incite a war between the tribes. He stole all of the weaponry made by Asami’s company and delivered it to the Northern Water Tribe so that they could use it to wipe out the SWT. He incriminated Mako, a 19 year old, so that he would take the blame for Varrick’s transgressions and spend his life in prison as a result. He manipulated and took advantage of Asami, another 19 year old. And many more crimes that I’m too tired to list.

So why is he in this season as a lovable sidekick? He escaped justice, Suyin yielded him, and when Lin understandably gets angry about that, Suyin tells her that Varrick shouldn’t be punished for his entire life just for a mistake. This isn’t Suyin talking to Lin, it’s the writers talking to the audience- they want us to forgive Varrick and accept him as our new sweet funny guy.

That makes me nauseous.

This is the sequel of a show about the dangers of colonization and imperialism. Why, why, why, WHY is the guy who aided colonization efforts the character that you want the audience to love? In moments like this, you can tell that this show was made by 2 white American men.

3. Mary Sueyin (Thanks for the pun!)

This already has been discussed ad nauseam. Suyin yielded a war criminal from facing justice, she also sent out the one person the Red Lotus wanted to capture and kill after them for her own vengeful reasons. The narrative never addresses this and continues to paint her as a flawless hero. It’s disconcerting.

2. Zaheer the Master

Sorry, I refuse to believe that a man who got his airbending powers just a couple of weeks ago is suddenly the greatest airbender in a millennium because he read some books.

Bumi: How can he fly like that?

Tenzin: He's unlocked powers of airbending that haven't existed for thousands of years.

Fuck off, writers. Fuck all the way off.

1. The torture porn

We didn’t need to see Korra getting tortured for so long in such graphic detail. I don’t want to accuse anyone of sexism, but I’m certain that these writers would’ve never treated Aang this way.

Overall pretty good season, 8/10.

[princess-of-the-corner]

...huh...

Why didn't the salt writers focus on Chloe? Like it would be awful for Marinette, Lila, Sabrina, and probably Adrien characterization wise. Was Chameleon that effective at frying everyone's brain?

Oh boy. So there were...... a few factors.

1.) Because Chloé is a character who, within canon, is a jerk and often gets comeuppance for her bad actions, it's harder to qualify anything that goes along with this as 'salt'. Because it is in character to an extent.

Now some fics would have her worse than Canon, but that's more the tone of the fic. Like Canon is cartoony and g rated so the bullying is like putting gum on seats. But if your fic is more for a teen and up audience then toss in a slur ya know? But it's only as out of character as say canon's cartoon 'no one gets hurt' vs us making a murder au.

But anyway. Most things that would qualify as salt/bashing aren't treated as such because it's within the realm of what she'd do. Thus aren't called as such and certainly not tagged.

1.5.) While there were criticisms of characters before, Chameleon really kicked off a lot of over-analyzing character's flaws.

Everyone looked at Alya with a critical eye and how she had previously tried to expose Ladybug's identity(something that could put LB in so much danger) or the way she gave Mari the push to talk to Adrien when the girl was overthinking things

Adrien got this too. The way he didn't put his foot down with Chloé all the time, or his flirting with Ladybug, or how he'd thought of giving up when LB kept keeping him in the dark about things.

These flaws got twisted into malice. Now they think Alya is just a gloryhound who doesn't care who gets hurt as long as she's praised for her journalism, and who is a rabbid shipper who is fine putting people in uncomfortable situations to get her ship going. Meanwhile Adrien was somehow both the most passive doormat that victim blames anyone who dared to not take abuse lying down but also down to ignore the Akuma in favor of sexually assaulting Ladybug and throwing a tantrum when he didn't get his way.

But the thing with Chloé is that all her actions previously were /supposed/ to be shitty. There's no way to twist it, no revelation of toxic behavior hidden under a sweet facade. She was just a bitch and we knew it and there's no new information to get out of that.

2.) Chameleon aired in Season 3. Where Chloé was getting more wins and development in a good direction. She had her backslides ofc, but most of her screentime was spent doing a lot more good.

Meanwhile other characters such as Alya for example had some bad moments. Like on top of everything with Lila we also have her taking that photo of the Ladynoir kiss and posting it without permission in Oblivio, or Startrain where she risks a lot of danger because she thinks Chloé(a teammate she's supposed to trust in such matters)is making shit up for attention, or hijacking Juleka's big moment in favor of trying to push Adrienette and causing Reflektdoll.

So yeah Chloé kept having good moments. Up until Miracle Queen but that's a different conversation

3.) Chloé is one of the few people who didn't "turn against" Marinette in Chameleon and didn't believe Lila's lies.

Now that's somewhat because she didn't even do much in Chameleon. Pretty sure she didn't even get a line she was just in the background.

But she and Sabrina are the only ones who didn't change seats. She didn't weigh in on the Mari vs. Lila fight over sitting next to Adrien. She wasn't fawning over Lila at any point.

Now this does get kinda confirmed later in Miraculer. Chloé doesn't know/care who Lila is, and doesn't believe her lies. This now makes her better than everyone else in a vs. Lila plot because she has the potential to ally with Marinette either because of redemption arc reasons or because she hates Lila more

4.) Combining all of the above got this weird narrative of like. Marinette couldn't forgive the classmates, because they were friends who betrayed her. But she could forgive Chloé because when she did shitty things, they weren't friends.

Which... I get the idea but I do have mixed feelings on it.

5.) Racism. Like some of it is just undertones. But Chloé is white and she's often juxtaposed to Alya who is black. And one of these girls gets a LOT more criticsm than the other

[handofmidas-writes]

I didn't hate season 4. Or the love triangle. Let me explain.

Okay. Listen. Listenlistenlisten.

I know everyone is pissed about season 4. I hear you. I get it. I don’t think anyone is thinking that this was a well-executed season. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

But hear me out.

The bones of the thing are good in principle. The arc makes sense at the heart of it. Again, hear me out.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

The entire series is about saving the world by stopping the apocalypse. And as all the Fives in the deli have shown, the apocalypse is due to the Hargreeves siblings’ very existence. Reginald has fucked over every iteration of the kids to bring back his wife who died as a result of her own actions in creating marigold. He couldn’t give her up, and he was willing to rip universes apart to get her back. Five has tried time and time and time again to save his family, ad infinitum. He knows how to solve the problem, but he can’t bring himself to do it. Until this Five. They are, as we here on tumblr love to say, doomed by the narrative.

Five also says the universe loves balance. We saw this in season 3 with the kugelblitz. They were an impossibility in the universe and the kugelblitz formed to solve the problem by eliminating them. Impossibility for impossibility.

One of the Fives founded the Commission to solve the problem. It happens every time.

Abigail’s purpose through the whole season is to ensure the Cleanse, to reset the universe to the correct timeline. She shouldn’t be there. The kids shouldn’t be there. They are a direct result of Reginald releasing marigold into the world to enact his plan of resurrecting Abigail. The universe is trying to return to homeostasis, balance itself. And in every iteration, it needs to rid itself of the marigold, the substance that shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Ergo, the principle is sound, in my opinion.

The execution was shit, as I’m sure we all can agree.  I don’t like that they cease to exist, necessarily, and I think there were other avenues they could have taken to avoid that. But I can stomach it.

The shit storm is certainly in the characterizations. They did almost everyone dirty in some way or another. I think it could have been saved with a few more episodes, but we know that Netflix sucks like that and the season definitely suffered after the strike. I won’t be going into all of the characters just now since I’m apparently a loquacious bitch and don’t have the space. (And I know this is all being screamed into the void anyway. None of y’all will be reading any of this lol.)

Here’s where I’m going to ruffle feathers. I buy into the whole Diego/Lila/Five thing. And here’s why. (Cut here because this bitch got real long. Like 1.5k words long. Oops.)

The first episode is called “The Unbearable Tragedy of Getting What You Want.” Is it a slightly contrived Now That We’re Not Superheroes Our Normal Lives Kind Of Suck thing? Absolutely. Has it been overused in basically everything ever? You bet. Does it kind of work here? Yeah, actually.

These people legitimately don’t know what to do without powers. They’re coming fresh off the heels of trying and failing to save the world 3 different times. That takes adjustment. A lot of adjustment.

Lila and Diego fall into parenthood, which is a huge thing in and of itself. It’s not surprising that Diego turns into the stereotypical suburban dad, the breadwinner because that’s what he thinks his role should be. It doesn’t fully make sense that Lila turns into a housewife, but I can see her trying to throw Diego a bone and trying to make up for how she’s treated him in the past. Not to mention proving herself as a mother.

It makes sense for Lila to want to get out of the house and do her own thing, without her kids and her husband. It makes sense for Diego to resent his low level job when all he’s wanted to be is a badass and a hero.  Their frustration about their family life is understandable. Being a family is a lot of effort. There’s a loss of freedom when people become parents. And these are two headstrong people who have things to prove to themselves, to make sure they show up for their kids. Which leads to breakdowns in taking care of themselves and their relationship to each other.

Now, the sticky bit comes in with the whole love triangle. I know folks hate the subway subplot. Here’s the thing, despite how it was executed, it makes sense, too.

It’s an interesting way to portray the Many Worlds Theory and it’s plausible enough that Lila and Five connect in this way because of their shared knowledge of the Commission. It makes sense that they explore it together.

Which leads me to this: Five is incredibly lonely. He spent 40 years alone in an apocalypse and tried everything in his power to get back. He fell in love with a mannequin because she was the only thing keeping him tethered and sane-adjacent (sweet Dolores, we’ll never forget you, queen). He was desperate and alone and persisted because he had to.

He joined the Commission to try and stop said apocalypse and then inadvertently ended up in another. He’s tired of trying to save his family over and over and now he’s not sure there’s anything he can do to save them this time. And now here he is, stuck in the labyrinthine Subway of Fuckery with Lila and they can’t get out. Lila who has the same training as him, the same knowledge base, who went with him to the remnants of the Commission in season 3 and tried to save them all. Let’s call them frenemies, I guess.

And now here they are. Stuck together and feeling helpless. Enduring every fucking thing under the sun, watching each other’s backs, and they only have each other. And they’re tired. They’ve been searching for a way home for six fucking years. So, they decide to stop running and catch their breath. I won’t say it’s an inevitability, but Five is so lonely and scared. And Lila is lonely and scared and without her children. But they’re safe with each other, and they take comfort in each other, and it’s so easy to blur those lines.

So yeah, they end up together in the now infamous cottagecore greenhouse with the strawberries. And they try not to think about Diego. Is it right of them to do this? Well, no. But are people messy as hell? Yes. And are their actions understandable? Also yes.

So, to me, when Five finds the notebook and keeps it hidden from Lila, it tracks. Because he’s so fucking scared of what’s going to happen now. What if they still can’t make it back? What if they can’t save the world this time? What if it all comes down around his ears again? So he hides in easy domesticity and thinks about the solace they’ve found in each other.

And Lila, understandably, blows up when she realizes Five has hidden this from her. Because for her, this was a way to cope. To survive, as she says. She loves her children. And she loves Diego. She didn’t stop loving them. She couldn’t stop loving them. But she might just love Five, too. And isn’t that scary as hell?

People are many faceted, my friends. Does it make what she did morally right? Of course not. But does it make sense? I truly think it does.

The limited number of episodes is one of the largest contributors to the half-baked-ness of it all. There’s not enough time to flesh out a proper resolution to the whole thing. Which led to Diego’s hunch from episode 2 of Lila cheating with Greek guy/Five accidentally being correct foreshadowing. Which then resulted in a heavy confession from Lila in front of the entire family (which I was digging, just like the siblings, tbh). And then the boys started throwing punches and the whole love triangle thing went completely down the shitter (a dubious and debatable statement, I know).

So, that leaves us with Lila who is now in the middle of two brothers. Said brothers are now physically fighting out bad blood and pent up frustration. And only part of it is due to Lila.

Diego’s character is criminally underdeveloped. He was always halfway between the underdog and class clown and his characterization in this season falls spectacularly flat in all aspects. He’s a character who has fought to prove himself over and over again, and is still trying to do that here, but nothing really lands. Diego and Luther are comic relief mostly. And Diego’s role, unfortunately, ended up being a stick in the spokes of a sloppy love triangle and pretty much nothing else.

Five is obviously the favorite in Blackman’s eyes. Five is knowledgeable. Five always has an idea. Five is the one the family looks to for answers, more often than not. Five is the one who almost always opts to save his family in some way, shape, or form. And this has resulted in Five being sad and helpless, in a way. He has been building this emotional bomb for decades and across timelines without any real release or acknowledgement. So Blackman chose to have Five get his emotional release in the form of “a love story�� with Lila. Doing it this way, with the limited number of episodes, left Diego’s part woefully inadequate.

No resolution really takes place here. Diego kind of “wins” insofar as he convinces Lila to take their family to the subway and she takes his hand first when they all say goodbye. Five gets the teary “I hate you for this,” after she ends up choosing self-sacrifice with the others, which we know means “I am so incredibly sad and I hate that you told us the truth because it means everything ends for real this time and I’ve had to let my family go.” Then she holds his hand, too, showing that all is forgiven, here at the end of all things.

There’s definitely not a resolution for Diego, and it can certainly be inferred that he still pretty much hates Five’s guts. I get the feeling that Five is just resigned to finally ending the cycle. He knows he’s hurt Diego badly and I think he does feel bad for it, but it’s not translated into the final scene, which leaves the whole situationship hollow and earned it the well deserved hate for hilariously poor execution.

So that’s it, friends. That’s my unpopular opinion and way too many words justifying it. I surprisingly have more I could blather on about, but I’ll spare y’all from including any more in this post. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

And for a final palate cleanser for those of you who do not care about any of this: I think we deserve a side plot of Five and Derek the Twink from the CIA. The true OTP. (Also Brisket Five, who is the real MVP.)

[watching-sam-and-dean-again]

Watching a reactor on YouTube who just got to Season 4: Lazarus Rising, and I’m so annoyed by the amount of comments with people saying things like, "this is when the series REALLY starts" and "Seasons 1-3 were the prologue, now The Story begins" and "I’ve been waiting for you to meet my favorite character!"

First, I will never be able to understand Castiel being someone's legitimate favorite character. I just don’t get it. He starts off as a massive dick, becomes an ally, uses and betrays both brothers a number of times, rarely takes full responsibility for his actions, and ends up as a totally different and neutered version of himself. But this guy is your favorite!? The only reason I think a large number of fans who love him do is because he comes in the gate treating Sam like crap and he becomes a simp for Dean (or they are shippers). Also, if someone is a more casual fan, I can see enjoying Cass because he’s quirky and he mostly stands up for the Winchesters, but if someone is a big fan of the brothers, Cass makes their lives harder a lot of the time. Also, I’m coming to really hate the fact that the dude is always in a trench coat. How am I supposed to take a character seriously who is essentially like an unchanging cartoon character come to life? Anyway, despite how it might sound from my ranting, I actually do think people are allowed to love whatever character they want, but it just doesn’t compute for me personally that it’s Cass as he is on screen (not in someone’s head).

Next, the idea of people calling the first three seasons "The Prologue" to supernatural is offensive to me personally (well, not offensive but it’s dumb as hell). A prologue is used to give some important background that should be known for you to better understand the main story, but it happened before, or doesn’t quite fit into, the main narrative. I’m sorry, but the first three seasons of Supernatural are the foundation that everything builds off of, and maybe I’m splitting hairs here, but it’s not just the set up to the Real Story. The Real Story of Supernatural has always been and will always be "the epic love story of Sam and Dean," not the angel crap. Calling the basis of the whole show the prologue has an implied message that it’s not as important as, or connected to the rest of the story. Again, people are allowed to have their own opinions about what they enjoy in media, but this idea that what came before Season 4 wasn’t as important as the rest of the show is actually bad media literacy, especially when you consider how much retconning and inconsistency later seasons have (*cough* John Winchester, for exapmle). The early seasons are Supernatural at its most pure, and if you don’t like or care about Sam and Dean's story, what are you doing here?

I was going to go on by listing all of the important things that we learn about Sam and Dean's characters and relationship in the first three seasons, but honesty, I’m tired. If you’re reading my post, I’m sure you already know. True fans of the show, even if seasons 1 to 3 aren’t their favorite, know how important these seasons are. Frankly, if someone claims that they don’t matter as much as the later season, then I’m going to assume that they are probably a heller (and I’m probably right), thus their opinions on the show don’t matter.

Speaking of Hellers, they are the Jehovah’s Witnesses of fandom. They descend on your doorstep (YouTube video, blog post, etc), uninvited and unwelcome, to make you uncomfortable by forcing their literature (head-canons and subtext) on you in a vain attempt to make you convert to their twisted version of a cult religion (Destiel). Some get indoctrinated into their cult, others consider them a joke, and yet others are driven to madness by the constant hounding of the hellers. I wish they would just stay in their lane and let people come to their own conclusions about the show and the characters, but they try to gatekeep the fandom experience by jumping on anyone new and telling them how they are the "most popular ship" and that supernatural queerbaits, but Dean and Cass are still totes husbands, and there is some other guy there, too but Sam is just some jerk who isn’t as important as Wuwu Dean and their Little Meow Meow Cass. If somone actually sees and enjoys Destiel on their own, great, good for them; they’ll find the blogs and groups who love it too. Hellers don’t need to try actively recruiting people. It’s all just a numbers gone to them. We have the most fanfic (um, yes, because the show doesn’t deliver what you want), we are the most popular ship (sure, because the other main ship is brothers which squicks some people out, and because you crucify anyone who admits to being a Wincest shipper), and they tell the stupidest lies (the show shifts away from being about the brothers, and focusses more on Dean and Cass' "relationship," and Sam isn’t as important to the story later). I wish they would just stay in their own sandbox and not come pee in everyone else's. Cult like behavior in action.

Okay, deep breaths. I’m grad I got that one off of my chest, but my blog is getting very ranty. I’m going to try make sure my next post is a positive one.

Happy weekend everyone!

[choghetti]

Miguel's Lack Of Narrative Agency Is Sad

I love Miguel as he is my favorite character in Cobra Kai, but it's very concerning how he was treated as more of a plot device for Johnny's and Sam's stories than an actual character throughout the series. I get that Johnny is one of the two protagonists (alongside Daniel), the other characters are used to revolve around them, and Miguel is supposed to be a physical representation of Johnny's redemption, but his POV is rarely shown and it gets to a point where he becomes a plot device for Johnny's and Sam's stories and he has less agency than the other characters, so this is where Robby fanboys get the idea that Miguel never owns up to his actions.

It would be nice if there were explicit moments of him reflecting on and owning up to his actions while he was in Cobra Kai in Season 3. The writers could have shown that he was mad at Johnny for teaching him to embrace the toxic Cobra Kai philosophy. We could have had Miguel and Johnny's relationship strained until late Season 3. Sam could have distanced herself from Miguel because he attacked Robby while the latter was trying to protect her from Tory and Miguel's attack on Robby escalated to the point where Tory put Sam in the hospital (and keep in mind, this was similar to the bonfire party where Miguel tried to hit Robby but ended up hitting Sam). We could have shown scenes of him questioning whether or not he deserved the 2018 Champion title and whether or not he deserved Sam after their break-up in Season 2. Hell, we could have shown his POV more when he found out Robby is Johnny's son. We could have shown him thinking that Johnny is using him to make himself feel better about Robby which could build up to the "I love you too, Robby" in Season 4. At the same time, he could have hated Robby even more for his treatment of Johnny.

Thankfully, his character picked back up in Season 6 Part 2, but hopefully we get scenes of him and Robby having a heart-to-heart about their past mistakes in Part 3 now that the series is almost over.

Edit: If Miguel attacked Robby because he thought Robby was trying to get into Sam's good graces considering Robby lied about the medal and if Sam knew about it, then Sam wouldn't distance herself from Miguel because even though she would be upset with him, she would understand where she was coming from.

[seriousfic]

Daredevil again

Insert quibbling about the Born Again title being used for a totally different storyline. I know this is a fight we lost with Age of Ultron.

-I try to judge a story based on what it's trying to do, not what I think it should do, but still... Daredevil Season 3 was about Matt Murdock quitting being Daredevil and then getting his groove back in the face of a resurgent threat from Kingpin. This, Daredevil Season 4, is about Matt Murdock... quitting being Daredevil and then getting his groove back in the face of a resurgent threat from Kingpin.

Obviously, things happen to the same character more than once in comics--just ask Scott Summers how many times Jean has died on him--but the real kicker is that Season 3 ended up on Matt beating Kingpin for good by getting blackmail material on his wife. Since then, Kingpin has shown up in Hawkeye and Echo, back to his old tricks... here, we finally get Matt's take on that, and he seems to just be shrugging his shoulders like "what are ya gonna do?"

Well, no, dude, you had an ultimatum with Fisk that his wife got to skate on killing our guy Nadeem so long as he stayed in jail. Pull the trigger on that, man. Why are you treating Fisk like he's some worthy opponent you have fondue with? He's the one that radicalized Dex, leading to 11+ people being murdered. That seems reason enough for a full-court press instead of "well, I'm sure you learned your lesson in Ryker's Island this time."

It just seems like really lazy writing to go back to Fisk being untouchable and Daredevil laboring to bring him down. I know he's a supervillain, supervillains come back for revenge, but you can't just handwave their development back to square one that if you want us to be invested in the narrative. Imagine if Doc Ock came back after Spider-Man 2 and went right back to trying to build a fusion reactor.

As it is now, this is all a bit like The Force Awakens. Never mind that the bad guy was decisively defeated forever--we don't want to try something new, so Somehow Fisk Returned.

Look, I like Vincent D'onofrio too, I think Kingpin is a great character, but there are lots of other Daredevil villains and I really don't want to see Kingpin overused, especially if he's just going to be the heavy again and again.

Well, okay, this time they're pushing a 'Punished Kingpin' who's reformed and is now trying to legitimately be Mayor (credit where credit's due: so far they've avoided having him say "Make New York Great Again").

Problem with that is that I think Devil's Reign is a dumb idea. It's one thing for Kingpin to 'become mayor' through a puppet candidate; him literally becoming mayor as a convicted multiple murderer is just dumb. They have him being elected on an anti-vigilante platform, but what superheroes are active in MCU New York and what have they done to sway public opinion against themselves? (There's a Broadway show all about how great Captain America is!) Hell, after NWH, do people even remember Spider-Man? (Apparently so! I don't know why!)

We're told that Daredevil is MIA and everyone misses him because crime has gone up, but also that people hate vigilantes enough to elect Kingpin despite him being a Crime Sith Lord. Idk, maybe they're going to make election fraud a plot point later on, but this all feels more like Marvel straining for topicality than having a good story to tell. And like we lost out on Nelson, Murdock, & Page just to give Matt more black friends. It's going to take more to balance that out than a one-take fight scene and some awkward CGI parkour.

Speaking of race, there's a scene reminiscent of the Daniel Penny case--a man tries to protect someone, resulting in the inadvertent death of the attacker--only here it's a Hispanic man trying to save another Hispanic man from being beaten up by two evil white cops. Yes, Marvel, you nailed it; that is absolutely the racial dynamic of your typical subway crime.

In fact, all the villains we've seen so far are white men: Kingpin, Bullseye, Muse, the cops. Guess only the good guys are diverse, not the bad guys.

Foggy being killed is arguably on the same tier as the first season of the show killing off Ben Urich... but it still feels odd that Matt just immediately retires in light of his best friend dying, with no curiosity about why Bullseye would specifically target him or who might have hired him. It's not till a year later that he even rules out Kingpin as a suspect (yeah, Kingpin and Bullseye were on the outs the last time anyone checked, but like that would slow Fisk down overmuch).

It ends up feeling patchy, like this was all meant to be better figured out somewhere down the line in all the production chaos, but no one came up with a second-draft idea. Maybe in season two Matt will remember that he can actually investigate these things instead of brood about them.

[lavendersugarplum]

I‘M JUST COMING ON HERE TO SAY THAT SEASON 4 WAS SO ASS!!

LIKE WHO WROTE THE SCRIPT?! FANFIC WRITERS?

I'm beyond relieved that I had already decided to rewrite this season to salvage Zero's character because there's no way I'm accepting this garbage as canon.

Let's be real - Seasons 1 and 2 were the peak of this show. Everything went downhill from Season 3, but I foolishly held out hope that they'd turn it around. Boy, was I wrong. This season was straight up ASS. To be honest, I might even do a season three rewrite as well.

No Sloane? No Umbrella Ben?  Don't even get me started on how they literally RUINED Five's character. Five would NEVER betray his brother like that. I can guarantee you that Zero would absolutely hate him this season. Honestly, she would've already checked out from the family as soon as they arrived in that new reality. Him falling in love with Lila was so out of character and almost disgusting to me, because you've known this dude ever since he was in a 13-year-old body. It's just weird to me. I just can't believe that this franchise would ruin probably the most loved character in the fandom. And then they went and made the last part all about his feelings.

Like mother like daughter, I guess. I've never liked Lila's character in the first place, but this season just solidified my stance. She was basically used as a shipping tool. She was already a Mary Sue before. I was just starting to warm up to her in season three because I already had predicted that we were basically stuck with her. They basically turned her into Y/N, and not the likeable kind. That love triangle was completely unnecessary and poorly executed. JUSTICE FOR DIEGO. He should've ended up with Eudora. They should've revived her somehow.

They completely abandoned plot threads from the end of Season 3. What happened to Allison's husband? What about Ben in the subway? And Luther's search for Sloane? It's like they forgot their own story.

The ending was so full with plot holes. They conveniently ignored the existence of other children born from the marigold, which was a crucial part of Lila's backstory. If the timelines are bleeding together, these other children should have caused major issues. The show's always had continuity problems, but ignoring a fundamental part of the story's premise is just inexcusable.

The Jennifer and Ben storyline was a complete waste of time. In previous seasons, they took care to develop new characters like Sloane, and the new Ben in Season 3. Jennifer's story was so rushed and disconnected that I couldn't bring myself to care about her at all. They ditched Sloane for THIS?! Ben's attachment to her made no sense either. It's a terrible way to create an end-of-timeline scenario with a character no one knows or cares about due to lack of screen time.

Killing off the entire cast in the finale is an enormously risky move that can backfire. You need a rock-solid narrative reason and the audience's complete buy-in to pull this off. The Umbrella Academy failed miserably. It felt rushed and lazy, like they couldn't be bothered to explore any other options. We've seen Victor extract the Marigold from Harlan before, so the alternatives DO EXIST.

Klaus's character was criminally underutilized. This dude ALWAYS came through for his family in the end. This time, his character was completely wasted. And don't even get me started on how Allison gets a free pass after all the horrible things she did after they treated Viktor like crap, for the whole third season.

This season was an insult to fans who have invested time and emotion into this show. It's clear the writers have lost their way and have no idea how to properly conclude this story. I'm beyond disappointed and frustrated with how they've ruined what was once a promising series. In Netflix, a series is either canceled or they F up the franchise. They should've just left this show at three seasons and ended it anonymously. Can't believe we waited two years for this?

[armand-dearest]

Breaking Bad update!

I'm now almost done with season 3. The pacing of this show is very slow, it's very of its era. I feel the show would actually benefit from episodes being 5-10 mins shorter, and having about 3-5 less episodes per season. The overarching plot I don't really care about. What I do care about is the characters, their development and their insane dynamics with eachother tbh

I had elements of the show spoiled for me decades ago, so I know my now favourite character Gus Fring gets Harvey Dent'd eventually and I really don't wanna see that. I genuinely smile and kick my feet a little when he's on-screen. Extremely competent, evil, cunty and autistic gay villains who are a hairs width from overreaching their limits are my favourite niche. When he smiled like a giddy little kid after hearing a man get shot over the phone after he arranged said mans death it made me grin ear to ear, he's such a little freak. I adore him. I wanna see him commit war crimes 🖤

I still love and support Skylar. The only "bad" thing she's done imo is take Walter back. I'm sad Walt Jr is less present this season as I wanted to see him grow up a bit and become more likable. When he was blowing up at Skylar I just really did not like him - but I understood it. Typical child of divorced parents, blaming the "unfun" parent, who is usually the mother.

I think Hanks development so far has been fantastic too this season. I've only just finished the episode where Marie agrees to take Walt's "gambling money" to help Hank recover from his gunshot injuries - but I know the second Hank is awake and able to really focus on how weird that is, he's gonna become immediately suspicious of Walt. I really wanna see that. I also appreciated the scene of Hank finally breaking down and crying in Marie's arms in the elevator. I wanna see his toxic masculinity break down a little piece by piece. He has a good heart in there and I wanna see that more.

I left Jesse and Walter last........ They may have one of the most interesting relationships I've seen. The ways in which Jesse is constantly paralleled against both Skylar and Walt Jr is so sick. They're so sick. The way Walt argues with Jesse like he's his spouse, but comforts him like a kid. Uses his proud / soothing dad voice to actively manipulate him against his best interests. Walter White so deeply sick in the head, he's using his former student / narrative other woman / narrative son / narrative guard dog for narcissistic supply - for everything he's got, and is carelessly ruining his life. Walt let the one girlfriend - the one partner he's seen Jesse have die, and constantly refers to himself as Jesse's (business) "partner". But always treats him as his hated wife and naughty child. It's................ Bro. Bro what the fuck

[revcnqe]

SPOILERS for The Boys Season 4

I'm still processing the final episode but here are some of my random thoughts, in no particular order. It was a wild ride and I enjoyed it for the most part. The season had its lows for sure and I'll never forgive the writers for how they treated Hughie. I'm still fucking mad about everything they did to him after episode 5. I also felt like they wasted a lot of potential with Annie's arc. She's been through a lot after season 3 and I loved the idea of her having an identity crisis but it was just so poorly executed. It all felt messy and as if the writers had no conclusion in mind for both her and Hughie's plotlines. Unfortunately I couldn't find myself caring a lot about Frenchie's and Kimiko's subplots which is sad because I love these two. I was hoping they get to kill that bitch Little Nina and Kimiko getting her revenge on the SLLA. Both could have happened this season before they got separated in the end. Instead we've been put on hold to wait if these plots get resolved at all. Firecracker and Sage were great additions, I loved to hate Firecracker and Sage gives off endboss vibes for me. I still feel like she's gonna betray Homelander in the end. Can't wait for "phase two". A-Train's arc was great, he truly redeemed himself and him showing up at the flat iron to save the others was proof enough for me how serious he was about doing the right thing. I liked all of his scenes with MM, too. I loved Ashley this season, I hope she gains some badass powers and kicks everyone's ass. I've seen some complaints about Homelander being nerfed - are we watching the same show? He is fucking unhinged and more terrifying than ever. He is basically god by the end of the season and can (and will) do whatever the fuck he wants with no one in his way. Someone telling me that's not scary?! He is and always will be one of the best villains in tv history. Poor kid Ryan, he deserved better. How is he ever supposed to feel safe around Homelander and Butcher phrasing it that way was downright evil and manipulative towards the boy because he knew it would make Ryan feel insecure and cornered. Him pushing and killing Grace was in self-defense. His reaction afterwards however is concerning and I guess ambiguous for interpretation on purpose. I still don't get how some people in the fandom could hate on a 12 year old child so much, leave the kid alone.

Where do I start when it comes to Butcher? I have many thoughts and this text is already long but I'll give it a shot anyway. Obviously I'm biased because I love this man and will defend him to the very end. I think his arc was one of the better aspects, he is still one of the best written characters on the show. What I always loved about him was him being truly morally grey and the ambiguity in his words and actions. He cannot be trusted. I don't know if it's me but Karl's performance makes him actually a lot more likeable than he deserves. He is a bad person and I don't think this is negotiable. I have thought about this so many times in made-up scenarios and I stick with my opinion that there's no fixing him and there never was. I have tried to stay away from fandom discourse as much as I could for my own well-being but I don't get how people act surprised and as a result hate over his behavior and decisions. I think most were true to his character and also him killing Neuman made perfect sense and was a well-deserved payoff narratively. Not that I'm not mad at him for doing so! I loved Vicky and she was such an interesting character. But his final words in season 3 were "that bitch has to go" and one of his main goals across the whole season was to get that virus to kill her. He was absolutely clear about it and worked towards this goal on his own terms, not even under the influence of Kessler. Certainly Kessler pushed him to commit some of his atrocities but it matched with what he wanted himself. He drew the line when it came to supe genocide and was conflicted about it initially but one of his core themes is doing whatever it takes and losing his humanity on his chosen path. Since he is highly intelligent he knows very well what's wrong with him what emphasises even more that he actively chooses to do bad things rather than being impulsive and regretful afterwards. I personally loved his turn at the end and I am eager to see his villain arc. What's not to love about evil daddy?! I could go on about some of the dynamics between him and Kessler but I'll do that in another post maybe.

[nalyra-dreaming]

As a big fan of Daniel I’ve mixed feelings about the finale. Absolutely it was fun to see Daniel serve c*nt, loved his glasses and leather jacket. Very fun - I also feel his very energetic vibe definitely affirms that journalism/writing/publishing books that have an impact is his drug (as a certain maker affirmed earlier). But, where is his story going to go now???

Like I feel SO cheated at not only not seeing him being turned, but not seeing him having to adjust at all or struggle/cope with being a vampire? Time skips freaking sucks. Like that is a big change, and I wouldn’t expect them to do it in as much detail as Louis (good TV writers wouldn’t repeat themselves like that, and it wouldn’t be good writing) but I expected something? Like I already was feeling a bit annoyed at how Daniel’s trauma in San Francisco basically just become all about Louis’ and Armand’s dynamic. I didn’t expect DM to happen there (and I loved the episode) but I thought the emotional fallout would be bigger. Like Daniel gets half-a-scene(!) of being upset and devastated, and then the writers very transparently just uses this to make Daniel aggressively suspicious of Armand and as a way to foreshadow the level of Armand’s deception. Like Daniel was obviously angry, but even that was basically only shown as it was useful. I hate when plot is done at the expense of character. Of course when plot and character go hand in hand that is the best, but this wasn’t it?! Like if Rollins meant that Daniel was one of the two who needed the second interview to happen it barely makes sense. There’s only closure in the most shallow sense that Daniel got to find out that he was traumatized and that this did have a negative impact on his life (by an event he couldn’t consciously remember but feel). I presume that is what Rollins meant? It feels really(!) underwritten. Nothing wrong with the idea, but again basically just stated in explanatory dialogue about his exes and kids. Happy to hear a better take on this if anyone has one though? I want to be convinced to be more positive! Of course Daniel isn’t the main character, but I don’t think it’s too much to ask that he’s still treated as a three dimensional character.

I don’t know, I just feel upset now at the thought that Daniel’s mainly been turned at this point to become a vampire-chronicler for plot reasons… Like if DM had happened I would expect them to leave us a substantial hint. I’m freaking begging any higher power that Armand’s revulsion at creating a fledgling means something (and is not a red herring like the “you should fear the other one”). And that we’ll revisit it. But I just don’t have faith anymore… Praying that I’m wrong, but if Daniel spends the next season as only a narrative device I’m out (I don’t mind him being a narrative device if he also gets to be a character outside of that - to be clear). Waiting four years for any kind of plot to be resolved after it’s been introduced is too long frankly….(if they aren’t addressing this until season 4). So if we aren’t finding out about the turning or worse - there’s nothing more to it and we’ll get an independent DM plot which begins in pure spite then, I’m freaking sad!

I’m really sorry for the downer post, I just feel I needed to express some of my worries and frustration. Would love to hear what you think, as I’ve often found some comfort reading your blog <3 A more positive take is warmly welcomed! There’s a lot to like about this season, but I just feel a bit lost now… I just wish there was something substantial to hang on to (and the Alice stuff ain’t it)

He is not only turned to be the chronicler. Reread the interviews with Eric re Raglan James, too 😈

There will be a LOT going on. And I just shared the link to the ATx festival, where they also talked DM. Might be worth a watch?^^

It‘ll be alright. I would bet real money on it. They just do it their way.

[hella-marshmella]

Which are your most hated ML characters?

Missed the salt posts eh? But anyways:

1. Gabriel - for obvious reasons. an utter buffoon and an abusive piece of shit excuse of a father. Should be rotting in a prison cell for his crimes with Adrien rightly disowning him. The fact he gets to be remembered as a good dad and hero - complete with a statue in his honor - is a slap in the face. Forever deserved worse.

2. Lila - every time she’s on screen the characters IQs dropped 50 points and her voice is just grating to me (in that respect the VA deserves a raise). Alya not believing Marinette over her should’ve died the moment Gang of Secrets aired, and the fact that that didn’t happen is a testament to how the plot bends over backwards to make Lila a larger threat than she should be. And don’t get me started on the different identities plot or her getting ahold of the butterfly.

3. Andre Glacier - I want to throw hands with this bitch-ass ice cream man and his “magical soul mate ice cream”. He’s so weirdly involved in the love lives of teenagers and gets so pissy when the ones he didn’t deem “made for each other” go on ‘date’. Quit being creepy and get a hobby. He also gets extra hate points for revealing Marinette’s crush on Adrien to him (as Chat Noir), 5 seasons of build up for that? Thanks, I Hate It.

4. Su-Han - unhelpful bitch

5. Bunnyx - everything about her and the rabbit miraculous was a mistake.

6. Andre and Audrey Bourgeois - shitty parents, one’s a weak enabler who spoiled his daughter rotten then chooses to keep his step-daughter over her. The other an emotionally neglectful bitch. They both ain’t shit.

Honorable mentions:

1. Adrien - with the amount of salt I have on this boy y’all knew he had to at least be mentioned. The writers kiss the ground he walks on and bend the universe to shield him from consequences for his negative behavior, instead of having him actually grow as a person. The senti!Adrien plot is maybe the worst thing they could have added to the show.

However, he’s not a bad kid. He’s not actively malicious in the ways that people like Lila or Gabriel are. But his negative behavior goes almost entirely unchecked or encouraged when the writers would absolutely punish other characters for doing the same (Marinette, Alya, Luka, Kagami, etc..) Most of my issues with him stem from narrative treatment, so I can’t, in good conscience, at this point put him above any one else previously mentioned.

2. Chloe - she was more fun as a typical bully with the potential to be better, but then she did shit like purposely almost cause a train crash to make herself look good as a hero when she’d “save it”, and later sided with the terrorist when Ladybug wouldn’t give her the bee back. And it continued down hill from there.

However, the fact that she gets disowned by her father with him choosing Zoe over her, (despite the fact that he is heavily responsible for the way she turned out for how he enabled her bad behavior) and gets sent to live away from all she knows with her emotionally neglectful mother, with the final shot we get of her crying and miserable? It still doesn’t sit right at all. The 14 year old girl being treated narratively worse than adult male terrorist will piss me off forever.

[nadekofannumber1]

I wonder how much the audience of each arc’s story (an implicit existence) affects how each story is told in monogatari. Mostly in regards to Koyomi as he’s the character who tends to tell these stories to specific people the most.

Ougi is a not insignificant recipient of Araragi’s second season and owari stories: mayoi jiangshi, shinobu time, shinobu mail, and yotsugi doll. Whilst being present for other arcs in other ways in a consistent manner. Though you could take Ougi formula as a more direct extrapolation of stories and traumas from Koyomi, just in arc form.

Regardless, while it’s hard to pick an audience for owari 1 or owari 3, but I could try and infer that zokuowari is told to senjougahara as it could line up with how monster season is told to her (especially with some internal monologue bits that would imply the recipient knows about zokuowari, like araragi making a comment about how “he’ll never cross dress again” in the novel version of shinobumonogatari, we all know how that went).

But also one could take the odd almost fanservicey moments directed at araragi in monster being for hitagi, like how at times Koyomi internally thinks about the kink sex he has with his GF occasionally when he’s talking with some women.

Of course some of this narration would be for himself, like kizu in most circumstances. Koyomimonogatari is a recount of information before Koyomi dies, so the audience while occasionally for another (like meme), is mainly himself as he dies.

After thinking a bit more on it I’d say that maybe tsubasa family and owari 1’s audience is Koyomi in the way Ougi exists. What I mean is that the narration of both is excessively negative in a self reflective manner, and Koyomi lying in the narrative is also much easier to see than usual as it’s pointed out directly. Though I could see an argument for Shinobu being the audience as a sort of mutuality of the story told by kizu. Or of course scroll to the idea at the end of the earlier Ougi section.

It’s hard to say who the audience of bake and nise are, if I gave a guess it could be senjougahara (as someone actively being told this info while Koyomi and her have study sessions), shinobu (in post as a form of personal recollection), or hanekawa (he talks to hanekawa a lot in bake, enough to get tsubasa cat to happen, however decides to do it less by nise, Koyomi likely told Hanekawa about the events of tsubasa cat after all so you could just say that hanekawa’s the blanket recipient of bakemono’s story).

I personally view musibimono as another one of those reflective stories, but it’s possible that after meeting up with Hitagi he told her after the engagement.

Ikusamono is of course a story told to Koyomi’s bosses.

Though Araragi is the master of his own actions I think it’s interesting some of Koyomi’s most controversial novels are told specifically to Ougi, I’d need to certainly read the novel versions more to see how I can extrapolate this info cohesively, if there’s something to extrapolate at all. Koyomi isn’t a good person obviously and literally does several questionable things but there’s a lot of white noise surrounding some discussion as some see every action he takes in said arcs as done with absolutely zero irony. This is legit where half of all monogatari discourse lies. People even try to pin intents on the guy that aren’t even his doing or his narrative intent, even scenes that don’t physically happen are treated as physical. This isn’t even a defense of why the character is secretly a good person I just think that people should hate Koyomi for what he’s actually done.

However because of the way the narrative is structured, it’s hard to extrapolate reality. I just think that a story told to Ougi by Koyomi, while likely fairly honest, would probably make him look bad. I say this especially with how owari 1 is especially reflective on Koyomi’s failures in the story.

I feel like I’ve lost the plot a bit but I’d love feedback about this idea or at least some discussion.

[soopertiddies]

I've been rewatching s3 and the early half of s3 was actually wild and it felt like almost unnecessarily cruel? especially to the gay poc characters..like the way they treated mercedes with the whole wss and troubletones storyline boils my blood to this day 😒

the sanatana storyline was especially awful and other people have already covered how bad it was way better than I could but the glee writers handled it was actually disgusting

you’re actually so right about them being wildly effeminophobic to kurt in s3 😑😑 like it felt extremely out of place and just nasty

also i think kurt and mercedes should have been allowed to kill sebastian and mr schuester with hammers for the effeminophobic and rascist bullshit they had to deal with

So, disclaimer, I haven't reached season 3 yet I had watched the scene of Bieste, Emma and Artie being horrible to Kurt because it popped up on youtube. But I did watch it when it came out and I DO remember that season 3 filled me with rage, and this is absolutely why.

I don't think Glee handled any storyline well, maybe Kurt getting bullied, but even then I think it was only because Chris (happy bday king) is genuinely good at acting.

And GOD they never gave Mercedes a genuine storyline they gave her one about tater tots and one about her being 'lazy'.

And not to get back on my 'I hate ryan murphy' narrative, but you could tell which cast members he didn't like by how they treated their characters (Chris, Dianna, Amber, and Naya) their characters were always dragged through the mud, they were always painted as doing something wrong even if they were completely justified

(i.e Santana slapping Finn because she was OUTTED and her getting in trouble for it, Kurt not getting into NYADA even though he did amazing, Schue yelling at Quinn even though she genuinely needed help, and Mercedes being called lazy and never getting what she rightfully deserved (like the Maria role)

You're absolutely right about everything, and my apologies for ranting once again those four are my favorite characters and I'm very passionate about how shitty they were treated.

(Also, they should be allowed to murder).

[fraudulent-cheese]

Do you think they made Dave a bit of a straw man near the end of Pahkitew? Like it always felt to me they needed someone to use as a hate buffer you know since they couldn't use any of the antagonists they had already made. And this is coming from someone who likes Dave. He was just a pathetic guy who had some charm to him if explored and used them correctly but in the end he was... Mauled by a robotic bear? The punish may fit the crime, the culprit sure doesn't.

-Pahkitew anon

Total Drama in general has a problem with over punishing it's antagonistic characters in general. I mean, Heather's head getting shaved off is fine imo? It's harsh, but also a punishment in line with her character; if her hair's the hottest thing about her, taking it is a fitting punishment (again. Really fucking harsh). Same with Justin's downfall, caused by him actually liking a girl instead of just charming one. I haven't watched the ending of Action so i can't say anything for how Courtney's elimination is treated.

However, as the series went on, the antagonist punishments started going... way too far. I think the writers just thought that making Ezekiel a weird creature was funny and the volcano erupting would've made for a dramatic finale, but making Alejandro both get burnt alive by it and then stuffing him in a robot suit for over a year is just overboard. Same thing with Scott in ROTI; the trauma chair's implications just get worse the more you think about it - at least Alejandro could speak in the machine at first!

I won't cover the Reboot in this context, but i will cover PI: mostly because this season seemingly has 2-3 antagonists, and most don't carry the plot. Scarlett's an actual antagonistic force for a single episode and doesn't get any punishment on screen outside of elimination (and being sent with Max). Sugar is who im pretty sure the writters wanted to treat as an antagonist? But she doesn't feel like an overarching vilain since she's mostly just doing her own thing all season and the show's just... really mean to her? The narrative repeatedly treats her as unattractive, annoying and dismisses her abilities (specifically in singing) when she's like. Fine. in those aspects. She's also not the smartest, but knows how to use the rules to her advantage (see Ella's elimination, probably the worst thing she does all season)

Getting to the actual topic of your ask now, Dave's heel turn to murder just... feels a little off. Oh sure if the writing insisted on the conditions on the island wearing him down and having Sky be the only positive connection he had (especially considering his attitude towards relationships), having it torn down like this could make it work? At least a little better? But by the episode he's eliminated in he seems to be doing ok.

In general the finale just seems to exacerbate Dave's worst traits for either comedy reasons or plot reasons (pre and post Sky-has-a-boyfriend reveal), but i could personally excuse it if his reaction was more akin to one he'd have before. He would not have reacted well to the reveal, hell him trying to stop Sky from winning could've worked but like??? Not like this man! Im not asking the Total Drama teenager to have a reasonnable reaction, im asking the Total Drama Writters to stick with the character they wrote, and frankly it would be funnier if he failed miserably in trying to get back at Sky or something. Out of all the seasons i feel like either TDAS or TDPI should've ended with the contestants fighting back against Chris instead of the actual endings we got.

Also, as a final clarification: Dave wasn't mauled by a bear (onscreen), Scuba bear was just standing behind him as the entire season ended. I guess my big problem is that he gets consequences for his actions during a single episode and not actions from over the course of the entire season; frankly Sky rejecting him is enough consequences, the dude's pathetic and didn't listen to her 'but', multiple times.