#he has highground

[im-goofball]

Luffy after he declared he would be king of the world : now I have the high ground

Yes I to am a star wars fan not a big one but a fan non the less have a good day/night

Luffy: It's over, Teach! I have the highground!

Teach: You underestimate my power!

Luffy: Don't try it!

Good day/night to you too, Anon-san.

[3416]

i think a lot of people dont like matthews cause of the incident with the security guard

i think that's just mostly internet people, but sure

[sheisbeautyweareworldass]

re: the antichrist thing

lmaoooooo. you didn't know? they call him unironically all sort of things. because clearly *gestures at his lil face* he's the devil incarnate and obviously deserved to be eaten like a grape.

they're absolutely awful lmao that's why I said I go 🔪🔪🔪🔪 every time I see one of them talking shit

i’d never engaged with the whole team black x team green thing because as much as i’m team black, i don’t despise everyone on the other side (unlike team green who sees rhaneyra and her children as the devil and his spawn), and I KNEW THEY WERE WILD TOWARDS RHAENYRA (and daemon) BUT LUKE????? BABY LUCERYS?????? mind you that’s the person they call “a demon” and “the antichrist”, like 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[explainslowly]

"angels butchering angels... U_U"

Babygirl you warcrimed half of heaven and I'm not even gonna mention all the other times.

[fairuzfan]

Im not good at writing but ill try putting it in words.

I think US americans don't realise how jaded the rest of the world is now to their performativity of impartiality and rationality. They still have the comfort of relying on proper debate and argument and being on the moral highground bc of this. Vetoing ceasefires because theyre trying to arrive at the 'best' solutions. Voting for Biden because he has still done good and is the lesser evil. Clutching pearls at antizionism because its racist and antisemtic.

The rest of the world cant afford to come into a formal argument at their level and they just don't understand that. They don't understand that at the hands of their comfort of proper statesmanship, the rest of the world suffers greatly. Tell me, why is it that one vote against many other countries, is enough to veto a ceasefire.

Why do the rest of us have to meet on the level of our enemy, the one who has rigged the game for them to win? You crush others to their lowest and hound them to still get up and hit better punches. We know our enemy, and realise they are sick and depraved for this.

America land of the great and free.

there's something to be said with people's blatant admission these past few months that they never seriously considered foreign policy while voting, thinking of it as a secondary issue rather than probably one of the most important issues you should care about considering the american government can decide whether or not to decimate entire cultures. there has been no examination about foreign policy other than "isis/taliban/al-qaeda bad" regarding swana especially for the past few presidencies. its been fairly a bipartisan issue to bomb swana countries. and that's only swana.

[wilcze-kudly]

I think the reason I'm a bit iffy about most zutara shippers who call themesleves "pro Katara" (and lets be honest the tags pro katara/katara deserved better are mainly people building themselves a moral highground of "if you disagree with me, you clearly dilslike Katara and want her to suffer") is just the hypocrisy of it all.

Katara's consent was violated by Aang, yes. But Zuko threatening her and being a fucking creep in the "I'll save you from the pirates" scene was sexy and not at all the nightmare of any sane woman.

Katara's role as a healer is treated as her acting subservient and her loosing her feminist icon status. Unless she's healing/offering to heal Zuko.

Aang is immature and childish. But we will handily ignore Zuko, a whole ass 16 year old who's heir to a country throwing a temper tantrum because his girlfriend dared to speak to another man. [Frankly, in my opinion, Zuko isn't really ready for a serious romantic relationship, but yall arent ready for that conversation]

Aang is supposedly misogynistic, but Zuko's many instances of actual misogyny are swept under the rug. Aang is shown in canon to be incredibly supportive of Katara defying the patriarchy.

Supposedly Aang makes Katara do all the housework. Despite there being evidence to the contrary. Zuko has just recently learnt to brew tea.

Katara being the Avatar's wife is supposedly degrading. But if she were Zuko's wife, I'm sure she wouldn't be just a baby maker. (What a horribke thing to call a woman btw. Tall call your own mothers baby makers too???) Despite the fact that Izumi's mother hasn't even been mentioned by name in tlok. But yeah. She'd be afforded the respect she deserves I'm certain.

Aang is, on most accounts, supportive and respectful of Katara's opinions, even when he disagrees with them. Zuko openly mocks people who oppose him. I am going to make a longer post on the Southern Raiders episodes and how all of you watched that episode blindfolded or smth.

Aang comparing Appa being kidnapped (his last connection to his genocided people, the last vestige of his happy past) to Katara's anger over her mother is bad. But Zuko comparing mommy leaving his ass to Katara's mother getting brutally slaughtered in front of her ? Silence.

Aang supposedly needs Katara to mother him and that's a bad thing. But Azula, Mai and Ty Lee having to gentle parent Zuko almost everytime they interact is never talked about, despite the uncalled for verbal abuse that trio goes through from him.

Aang and Katara's 2 year age gap is creepy. But Zuko and Katara's 2 year age gap is fine. My bigest gripe with Zutara lovers is them completely erasing Katara's childishness and immaturity, in order for her and Zuko to have this mature, sexy relationship. She's 14, guys. 14.

This post really isn't meant to decry Zutara. I just want people who ship Zutara to get off their high horse of feminism and to accept that they're no better than the rest of us ship loving freaks. Wanting the main girl to bump uglies with the broody emo twink doesn't make you a modern day suffragette. Disliking a main canon pairing isn't a measure of your love for a female character.

Grow up.

Enjoy your ship like a normal person.

[leconcombrerit]

Look I get the scorn some people have for Tattoo and I was not immune to a stern face of silent disappointment myself upon watching, however.

However.

Let's keep in mind that, for him, this whole ordeal gets him back to square one. The one where Hope was beating the shit out of him while threatening his mother. Joke's high principles and cool heist to get precious items back to their owners is nice, but you don't live off generosity. Jack is kind and closer to their situation, but he's not like them either. He can work for Boss. He's not in immediate physical danger.

What they did so far brings him nothing. And he bled for it. Got in danger for it.

Honestly I think this man wants to do good, but on impulse or his back against the wall he will do what he feels he must. And he feels his back is constantly against the wall, and he sees everyone judging him for what he thinks is the only way out, and boy did he get mad at Hoy for this.

He strikes me as the type who's used to take care of people. Of making the hard calls to keep them safe. Took on his father's debt with his mom, but shoulders it all on himself and protects her. Protects Hoy, too. I mean Tattoo is both dumb and smart but Hoy is. Well. He's got a good heart but he's not the sharpest egg in the attic. It was Tattoo running to help him too.

It's like everyone around him can afford high principles and moral highground but he can't. And that was probably true for most of his life, so I don't blame him. I just wished he realised he has other friends now. Friends who won't let him down (which I think is starting to finally sink in). That he can afford friends and trust. Open up a bit.

On that point, I think Joke going along with his obvious lies is such a great big deal. Like. That was the one thing he could do that would help Tattoo's issues here, namely with shame and feeling judged and wrong. Joke doesn't ask for any explanation. He doesn't take any easy jab. Doesn't get mad. It screams 'I understand, you do not need to justify yourself, I do not judge you, with no need to bare your heart and struggles', which. Might have brought a manly tear in my eye. Cause that's the opposite of what Tattoo has repeatedly said about Joke so far.

...... I don't even know where I'm going anymore, but I love this little man with all my heart. He wants to be a good person and a good friend too, he just hasn't realized he can afford it yet and I will die on this hill.

Also he's going to be so pissed when he falls for Arun, someone get me popcorn.

[mintacle]

My hot take is that the same people who call Jason copaganda, pr-gunviolence or etc are from the same vein as people who blame schoolshootings on videogame violence, who blamed crime on Metal and satanism.

Instead of taking a critical look at a system within which a symptom of a problem is making itself known, you look if there is an outside influence, a kind of "virus" that you can blame for making it "sick".

DC comics are a little fucked up. That's the agreement you entered when reading them. All characters are inconsistent and sometimes in the wrong. Jason is a Bat, so at least it feels like he's maybe substantial enough to blame for the whole batclans issues, in a way that Helena Bertinelli (for example) can't be, because she is less closely tied and has less appearances. Congratulations, you have an identified patient! Jason is the problem that is rippling out and causing all these nasty and unsatisfied feelings the readers have about how crime is handled in these comics.

We see crime being fought in imperfect ways and our current cultural consciousness goes off with warning bells to identify the problem. But what you were taught was to identify what outside influence happens to be present and connecting the issue, and how to justify that all evil stems from this malignant influence. So surely if we could just remove this bad thing, we could go back to the wonderful world we knew where everything was ok.

That world never existed. The thing we are nostalgic for, is the world before we became aware of it's flaws. The problem has always been there, has always been an integrated part of this whole you used to love and admire.

But because the kind of people blaming Jason for "copaganda" do genuinely and truly come from a good place of wanting social justice (I'm saying you are good people. I disagree and think you are making a logical error, but we do care about and want the same thing. Good People) because you come here with the right intentions, you use the buzzwords of copaganda. Or gunviolence. You know from what you have heard that the issue is systematic, but you are struggling to find what that system equivalent is in DC comics. You are falling victim to the fallacy of assuming a main narrative perspective. Just as irl cops are hard to identify as the problem bc you might have to first struggle through the cognitive dissonance that your old worldview of good cops was wrong (so so wrong), you experience cognitive dissonance if trying to read comics with someone like Batman being wrong and flawed.

Looking beyond any superficial similarities to cops Jason is called out for (uses a gun, kills, enforcing his vision of justice) he really doesn't have much more similarities. He isn't a figure of authority, he lacks the nigh god-given justification to do whatever he wants whatever the outcome and is questioned at every turn. Just the sheer instances of Batman or another Bat showing up to beat Jason up and lecture him on what he does.

Extending this, he does not have the pervasive and persuasive power to shape a narrative. Jason's narrative is so far out of his hands. Which has been a core truth about him since for ever. From his maleable origin story, to his death, the years of him being gone and having No Voice Whatsoever, his resurrection in utrh showing him trying, struggling to have a voice against Bruce's story and being drowned out and denied his perspective, the inconsistency of his character after, each writer trying to shape him into something. Now cops fucking have a narrative. Their narrative is the main one we are fed. Their violence is structured and oppressive. Jason is neither a structural systemic power, nor is he oppressive of anyone. If you disagree with his violence for the sake of the moral highground of condemning killing.... Then, just, there are other media, you know.

Cop violence is systemic violence. It is violence that is "justified" to the extent it requires no justification. It is above being questioned. I am genuinely willing to hear an argument how Jason is cop-coded. But to me he is the punk resistance based "violence" that is only organized in the anarchical but organical sense of caring to protect the community that surrounds you. He doesn't approach Gotham as a paternalistic force of protection shielding it from above, but as one of them from within, showing up for the people who are suffering the way he has suffered too.

[zykamiliah]

My fucking confession to that fucking blog I won't waste my time submitting bc really what's even the point of talking to someone who doesn't want to open their minds and understand is that y'all came out of reading and experiencing svsss not having learnt anything.

When written within the bounds of the original genre, this kind of character was extremely difficult to handle. You could say he was scum, but he was also pitiful. But if you tried to acknowledge his pathos, his ruthlessness was real too. Characters that were both scummy and tragic always drew aggro, and they were a hotbed for wank, leading comments sections to devolve into massive flame wars. Better to hack him down into a formulaic asshole and let the protagonist step on him. Easier to write, and the readers would find it satisfying as well. (Chapter 19: Shen Jiu)

this is why writers can't write complex villains, bc you all with your moral purity takes can't handle it. bravo, you've proved mxtx right.

some of you get soooooo twisted trying to defend SJ you flatten his character and make him into a parody of himself.

some of you are so wrapped in the pity contest of "who suffered the most" to determine who has the moral highground that you don't get that you can't pit a character's pain against another character's pain. abuse is abuse is abuse. QJL was abusive for three years, SJ killed him. SJ was abusive for aprox. 5-7 years, Bingge tortured him AND killed him. And killed everyone associated to him. Somewhere down the line, I bet that in real PIDW verse someone will try to take out Bingge for all the suffering he caused. the point is that they BOTH did SHITTY THINGS, they were BOTH abusive because they DIDN'T RECEIVE ANY LOVE IN THEIR LIVES after they were abandoned. both shen jiu and bingge are scummy and tragic. BOTH OF THEM. and because of the abuse and trauma they suffered, they both had awful coping mechanisms that entailed taking out their pain on people who didn't deserve it.

and that's the whole fucking point!!! they're deliciously complex characters. they were born from the fucked-up union between the cycle of abuse and toxic masculinity. they are simultaneously constructions and deconstructions of the Villain Character. they are profoundly human as well, because they showcase the darkness of the human experience, what happens when a person transforms their pain into a weapon to hurt others.

and y'all are arguing over who is innocent? get out.

[gabessquishytum]

this one was loosely inspired by that "hob cheats on orpheus w morpheus" post/fic thats been doing rounds rn

university!morpheus is dating robyn, hes a little timid about having sex with him (haha loser virgin everybody point and laugh), but robyn assures him its fine, he's willing to wait and be patient, morpheus gets to set the pace and he'll follow his lead. and things go well for a while, morpheus even meets robyns family! his boyfriends' dad being morpheus' university professor was a bit of a surprise, but considering that dr gadling has never been anything but kind and helpful to him, it's a welcome one.

but, one night, after their semi-regular family dinners, morpheus excuses himself to leave the room and get some fresh air. hob follows him outside and asks if everything's been alright-- he's noticed that morpheus has been in a strange mood lately and wanted to check up on him to make sure everything was alright between him and his son, or maybe he was struggling with his schoolwork and needed some help. but it turns out, it hasnt been alright; morpheus confesses that he's discovered (desire found out about it and immediately rubbed it in dream's face that he's unloveable) that robyn's been cheating on him. he isn't angry, more than anything he's disappointed and betrayed. he's especially annoyed because he can't quite seem to find the right time to talk about it with his boyfriend-- morpheus "shitty communicator" d'endeles, par for the course. any anger is rooted in him feeling disrespected and lied to. hob, trying to seem relatable, mentions that he was cheated on when he was around morpheus' age, and he got revenge by filling his partner's gas tank with sugar. morpheus doesn't want to cause property damage, but revenge sounds enticing.

he comes up with a plan to cheat back; plus, that way, he can lose his virginity and rub it in robyn's face that his "patience" didn't even pay off. so, at first, when dr gadling comes onto him one night, he's worried his plans have been foiled-- but when he's come so many times he's lost count and is nothing more than a puddle on his boyfriends' fathers' mattress, he realizes that maybe this is the exact revenge he needed. especially if he does sleep with robyn later on just to compare father and son, and maybe taunt him a bit for how much better his dad is.....

Hhhhnhnggg daddy Hob 😳😳

Look, if Robyn is cheating, then he definitely doesn't have the moral highground. But fucking his dad may have been a liiiittle skeezy of Morpheus. Not that I blame him......

Hob is just so much better than Robyn. He's got all of his son's good qualities and then more. He's solid, attractive, he smells good, he looks good... and his dick is thicker than anything Morpheus has ever seen. He knows what to do to make a man scream. Robyn isn't bad in bed, but his dad is just a genius. His mouth is unholy. He makes Morpheus beg for him, croons in his ear so sweetly - "go on, there's a good lad... say 'please, daddy'". And Morpheus does everything that Hob tells him. He bends himself in half, curls his legs over Hob’s shoulders and submits to being utterly taken apart. This is the kind of sex he wants. How can he possibly go back to placid, half hearted sex with men his own age? He's ruined.

And if he stopped to think, he'd wonder exactly how Hob could sleep with his own son's boyfriend without seeming to feel particularly guilty. Truth is, Hob is far from being perfect or morally better than Robyn. In fact, he's old enough to know better.

But he wants pale, pretty Morpheus. Wanted him since the day they met. And fucking him is so wonderful, so transcendent, he can't possibly feel bad about it. He loves his baby boy, his Morpheus, his darling. He loves knowing that he's ruining this beautiful young man and spoiling him completely, so that he'll never be satisfied with anything else.

Robyn will get over it. He's his father's son, after all... and it was Hob who encouraged him to cheat in the first place.

[lottiecrabie]

answering asks 💌

while i am here let me catch up on my asks😭 making a general post as to not overwhelm the tl with my collarbones

and just like jesus….. she died again three days later

i NEED to be in a quirky situational comedy with host adam STAT omg. want to be back to back crossed arms and he rolls his eyes playfully at me at the end of our generic. nothing sexual, just his suffering and misery played off for laughs from our live audience

you are unfortunately begging the wrong tree as i am both retired and extremely NOT british. famously placing all my fics in america cos i don’t know what’s going on overseas. matty forever an immigrant in the crabieverse fr

stop i’m sorry 😭😭 i hope it’s not sending too many war flashbacks lmao. at least delilah is a delight and has done nothing wrong and is generally regarded as deserving better so ur truly the person with the moral highground in this story❤️

(as a galatea i genuinely had not considered people might relate to this story from the other angle lmao)

it haunts me too friend. literally as it was based on my real life 😭 lottiecrabie Will be farming her inner turmoils for content ☝️☝️ i wish i had finished it because i genuinely love the beginning as well, but it might be for the best since i don’t know how i would face my childhood friend after that lol

there are pfms references everywhere for those with the eyes to see

sooo true. he’s the most perfect lame loser angel<333

i see it….. he definitely has not picked up one social clue in his life

sorry i took him out back and shot him

PLSSS she rly just needs to be in pink and it’s perfect

this is how i want to be remembered❤️

yes. it’s also me in your closet speaking in tongues btw. if you want to see sims pictures i’d love to see them !!

found in some creek wailing…. matty makes rock covers of hozier songs lol

i will not go back on my fic grind But i might make another blurb if the whim takes me 🙆‍♀️

this is how the lottiecrabie pipeline goes actually

this i…. you’ve found me 😣

omg is the fairy village okay how are they surviving the no birth blight 😭 this aging ass fairy population damn (thank u though ily)

YASSS im so happy for you!!! its really what the main virgins anonymous advice has always been: someone you trust and lube lol

[linkspooky]

Tossing Yubel at you like they're a football for the Yugioh character ask meme C:<

Why I like them

I procrastinated this for days because I knew it was going to be long. Well, here we go.

So my favorite thing about Yubel is how unique they are? Literally any series that wasn't Yu-Gi-Oh would have just killed Yubel as another bad victim. Welp, it's too late to save them. If only we got to them earlier. Now I'm going to kill them while shedding a single tear of regret and then I'll go back to my happy life with all my friends.

I literally wrote an entire meta about this topic.

But no, Judai literally cannot progress as a character unless he saves Yubel. To begin with Judai is Yubel. They reflect each other in the worst way possible. Take Judai's friends away and he turns into the supreme king, so Judai has no moral highground to condemn Yubel for becoming what they became after they were forced to endure torture all alone in space for years.

Yubel isn't really written like an antagonist. I mean, they're literally Judai's spirit partner. Even if when they show up in the anime, they are a spirit partner who has been abandoned and now acts like a jilted lover.

Just the way they interact with the story too. A lot of mastermind characters rely on plot convenience, or they are plot devices to set the story into motions. Yubel is at all times a fully three dimmensional character.

Yubel's not a master manipulator controlling everything behind the scenes like an unseen puppeteer, but they are manipulative. We see them prey on several character's weaknesses several times with characters like Cobra and Amon. They're just good at reading people and take full advantage of that ability. This is also like, not something we're told, but shown. We see Yubel pick apart Amon entirely in the two times they duel.

Things go according to plan because Yubel is smart and adaptable, not because the plot needs these things to happen. Yubel doesn't always succeed either. They get defeated by Johan at first, and they need to retreat, and recoup their losses. At which point Yubel switches to plan B. They're not smart because they always succeed or saw everything coming to begin with, but because they have multiple contingencies to their plan. They knew they might be weakened by having to duel so many times in a row, so they set up Amon to succumb to the darkness in his heart so they can feed on said darkness later.

Yubel certainly does put Judai into situations, but in the end Judai's bad choices are all his own. Yubel just, knows Judai really well, better than anyone else in this whole world and they take full advantage of that fact. Yubel is fully aware of the flaws that Judai is blind too (because Yubel loves them wholeheartedly in spite of those flaws).

Yubel also just demonstrates like, a protagonist level of determination. You just cannot beat Yubel down. They burn up in space and then manage to survive even as a literal hand crawling on the ground. They get their body destroyed again and just take Johan's body. Their entire deck is built around the fact that you can't deal damage to their monsters. If you try you take damage instead. if you destroy their monsters, another, more powerful form comes out.

Which is just a metaphor for the fact that Judai cannot solve this situation by killing the victim. Yubel won't conveniently go away, because they are the symbol of Judai's flaws, and you don't make your flaws go away by ignoring them. In fact, Judai ignoring Yubel and failing to take responsibility makes HIM LOOK BAD because he's failing to be a hero or a good friend.

Everything in the whole series is set up that Judai is supposed to save Yubel. His deck is literally themed after heroes. Judai has the power of the gentle darkness, his whole theme is "Darkness can be used as a force for good, while light is corruption" flipping traditional light and dark themes on their head, and Yubel is like, also darkness.

Judai gives a speech to Cyrus on how even if his friend made all the wrong choices, he would stay by them until the end. When Judai becomes the supreme king, he's saved by O'Brien and Jim not because they wanted to be heroes but because they wanted to help their friend. Even Sho ends up watching Judai to the end because he remembers his advice.

The climax to the second season of the show was Edo despreately dueling to save his friend who was also completely corrupted by the light, and then begging judai to do so in his place when he failed. Edo and Saiou even temporarily combine into the same person when Saiou's good half helps Edo duel the light possessed Saiou.

It's just like wow look at hos with antagonist is weaved into every aspect of the story, and even goes back and makes the first two seasons seem like they were building up to this. Way to make everything that happens in season 3 one long journey to the moment where Judai will save Yubel.

The utlimate bad victim and as I said this is the Bad Victim Supporters blog.

I think also the way that Yubel is never painted as "Too far gone" and the way they are also right in several ways. Like Yubel's view of love is twisted but they also kind of show a deep understanding of it. You do in fact hurt the people you love from time to time. Yubel's love is actually just a twisted definition of empathy. They believe that the definition of love is suffering the same exact pain, and that's what empathy is, understanding someone else's suffering even though you're not them.

Yubel seems off their rocker, but like they are more mature in their understanding of love than Judai who's never had a healthy friendship until Johan came along and even then became too fixated on him.

Also just, the fusion scene at the end is the most beautiful act of true love I've ever seen in fiction. People can call it codependent and messy all they want but like... this is fiction. The whole point of Yubel is that they are a bad victim, but at the end of their story, Judai and Yubel are two bad victims who can go on a journey of self improvement together after they've been saved at their lowest points.

Yubel is to Judai a reflection of all of his worst qualities and everything he hates about himself, which is why Judai rejects them for so long but even though Yubel is so flawed they love Judai for all of his flaws and they accept all of him. You can be loved at your absolute worst and I think that's just. So gay.

What I like about their appearance

Yubel is a rebis which is a half man half woman alchemy symbol, and that's what I like the most about their appearance the symbolism associated with it. Literally the people who wrote GX did their research on alchemy and they wove it into almost every aspect of the story.

Also, Yubel looks like a devilman character, specifically Ryo Asuka which is really fucking cool.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

Same name. Though, I hate the dub version of Yubel. Completley different character.

OTP

Soulshipping.

NOTP

Don't have one.

OT3

This is probably an unpopular opinion but I don't actually ship any of the OT3s that are like, Judai / Yubel / Someone else. I don't Notp them or anything, I just like Judai and Yubel being the embodiment of "Hand in unlovable hand."

Favourite card they use

Yubel.

Their entire deck is symbolic of the fact that you can't put them down with physical violence, you can't make them go away, you have to accept them.

However, I also like the fact that Yubel runs like 3 diffeerent decks. Advanced Crstyal Beasts, Sacred Beasts, and Yubel. How often do we see Yu-Gi-Oh characters actually run different archetypes?

Favourite moment they were in

This entirescene and the super polymerization right after. it's probably my favorite scene in all of fiction tied with Spike hugging the cross in Buffy, I love it in in so many ways.

The way that Judai had been resolved to just kill Yubel to save the world before this. The way that this scene demonstrates what I've been saying above all along that while Yubel's love was twisted, it's genuine, and it's what humanizes them. The way that Yubel represents the best and worst aspects of love. The way that Judai like, instantly changes his mind after seeing this scene and decides to keep the promise he made in his past life.

I have various opinions on why he did that, but I think in the end he realized that Yubel's love was indeed genuine and unconditional. That love humanized Yubel in Judai's eyes finally, because love is what makes us all human.

Judai is also like giving Yubel what they wanted all along, which is a relationship between equals. Yubel gave up his personhood in order to protect Judai, and now Judai gives up part of his personhood in order to fuse with Yubel and spend the rest of his life watching over them just like he promised. Sometimes fairy tale endings and gestures of true love conquering all are good things, actually.

Least favourite moment

That Yubel is only in four episodes of Season four. We should have gotten so much of Yubel and Judai acting like partners and talking to each other the same way that Yugi and Yami do, but that's what fanfiction is for I guess.

[fairuzfan]

it's quite a dishonest framing that you say hussein was "regarding you with suspicion" baselessly even though you've publicly state on your blog how you believe zionism is an "intracommunity" discussion.

they at no point even mention that they blame you for "israel's actions". they assumed you were talking about zionism because of previous pointed statements you endorsed where you say zionism should be only discussed by jews. its not imagined, you straight up said this? and you claim that hussein is antisemitic for assuming you're saying the same thing again just with more inclusive language? And it coincided a few days after me posting that tributary post about "defining yourself as zionist or antizionist"? So he assumed that it was in relation to it? sure you might not have meant it about zionism this time, but with previous statements you've made/endorsed you don't exactly have the right to act like you have no idea why they would assume that and misconstrue this as an antisemitic attack where he's conflating zionism with judiasm when you literally agree that zionism should only be discussed by jews, which means you yourself are conflating zionism and judiasm.

but ok, i guess, they were just taking your words out of context because they're "antisemitic". I even saw this ask last month and assumed you were talking about zionism in your recent post because of this statement you published and told him privately thats what i assumed you were talking about. Not because of you being jewish. But because i remembered this statement you agreed with because i was so offended reading it. And yeah it's a really bad statement that I'll remember because of how antipalestinian it is so sorry I don't think you get to claim the moral highground???? You didn't exactly disagree with any part of this person's statements?????

And like I would have left this alone but hussein often gets called antisemitic by people you associate with and reblog from, and it really shows how little compassion you all have for Palestinians (which btw as I say over and over, we have a right to point out harmful rhetoric that impacts us) who have a "knee-jerk reaction" to these things when we quite literally see our communities call for the deaths of our friends and family by starvarion and bombing in the name of zionism and when we call it out irl we get called antisemitic. You could have like sent an ask or publicly clarified your intentions but you just jumped straight to calling him antisemitic. Which the onus of responsibility is on YOU because of your previous statements. Why would we assume you mean something different based on past experiences???

Rhetoric like "zionism is an intracommunity issue" is stuff that has literally led to death of our loved ones so of course we have "kneejerk reactions" when there is literal proof of you saying these things before. We are not doing this because you're Jewish, we are doing this because we see and experience first hand this rhetoric and youre perpetuating it blatantly and you have people who follow you who look to you for perspective on "israel/palestine". It's so disingenuous to claim he's an antisemite when he's literally finding common talking points zionists perpetuate against us and call it out. And saying "I don't support the likud government or Westbank settlers" means nothing to us because our families were expelled from palestine before likud and settlers happened. Trying to separate modern day zionism from its colonial roots from the 1800s is at its core anti-palestinian, no matter what other conversations you want to have.

Again like the only reason this matters is because people follow you and look to you for perspective AND you reblog/interact with people we have pointed out as harmful. I literally would not care enough to make this post if i didnt see your posts spread enough times around here. So it's not because you're jewish and framing it like that is really dishonest when the person pointing this out was a palestinian who lost family due to zionism throughout multiple generations of their lives.

[pen-and-umbra]

Hot take, but I dislike the way the game handles Angeal's introduction and Angeal &miniroth dynamics, okay?? I wish the story focused more on Sephiroth's inner struggles rather than having his companions try to get him to open up with talk of Soldier buddy-buddying, cuz at this point, it doesn't make sense that Angeal gets him to view Soldier duties differently. I could get chummy pals thing in the previous part with Glen, with it literally being miniroth’s first field mission, but now? Feels cheap, mate. Having miniroth confront his own demons and come to realizations on his own would make for a more impactful character arc, imo. Maybe it would also stfu those who keep saying that CC-Sephiroth is ooc cuz they would be able to better understand the reasons behind his actions. Makes for a more compelling narrative overall.

That is a fair criticism and you're entitled to it. I believe that the first episode of FS handled Sephiroth in a more refreshing manner. Who expected him to be fairly talkative, capable of genuine laughter, and enjoying head pats and hugs? I bet the majority of the fanbase expected him to be portrayed as asocial and withdrawn. But Glenn's team didn't really need to pull him out of his shell or anything; Sephiroth was shown to be more than capable of establishing rapport with others, discussing himself and his aspirations, and so on. Now that you mentioned it, I'm not too sold on the “Angeal brightens Sephiroth's attitude” angle either. If anything, Angeal is shown to be a by-the-book ShinRA man who truly believes in the “good” the company and the SOLDIER are doing.

Sure, developing camaraderie and efficient teamwork is beneficial in theory, but it does not alter the nature of ShinRA. Sephiroth understands the corporate's ugly side. He knows ShinRA will not hesitate to slaughter people for their ambition, and he knows how dirty their propaganda is. He understands how ShinRA objectifies their SOLDIERS, including himself, a declared prodigy. He has no interest in the company's success, as demonstrated several times throughout this chapter. So, honestly, Angeal's preaching must appear pretty ignorant and self-righteous to him. “Every SOLDIER is an ally” sounds great until you remember that SOLDIERs are ShinRA's brute force for attaining their lofty goals. Supersoldier grunts continue to do the dirty work, and their “heroics” will be used to fabricate and sell more lies to the public. Angeal appears to be completely unaware of it, however. In that regard, he lacks the moral highground. If anything, it doesn't appear that he ever changed his mind about the SOLDIER until Crisis Core, and even then the game focuses on Angeal & Genesis being spliced monstrosities rather than the depth of ShinRA's casual depravity (like perpetuating armed conflicts to capitalize on Mako, etc).

The “separate man from the company” angle is the only one that could work, I guess. I have no doubt that, despite the corruption of ShinRA top brass, there are innocent people working for it who are unaware of the situation. Common people who fell for media propaganda and were duped into believing false promises, but whose lives are not disposable. Like the recruits who were inspired by Great Hero Sephiroth and joined in the hopes of becoming heroes themselves. Angeal, too, could demonstrate that there are good-hearted people working for ShinRA/SOLDIER. (But Sephiroth already knew this from his interactions with Glenn, Matt, and Lucia, so idk if that'll even work for advancing the narrative?)

Anyway, I think that a peppy teamwork-oriented comrade dispelling the gloom doesn't work well in this scenario. Sephiroth should be processing everything on his own, just as he was shown to learn from his encounter with Rosen.

[pynkhues]

Hi sophie! I hate to be the person who brings bad vibes your way, but I keep seeing ppl twisting your arguments in the worst way possible and it’s honestly bumming me out. The latest vaguepost claims that saying Louis is traditionally masculine or a patriarch is antiblack (this is the post btw in case your curious: https://www.tumblr.com/nashvillethotchicken/770055675307065344/a-lot-of-people-in-the-iwtv-fandom-regurgitate?source=share). It made me wonder whether this pushback against Louis’ masculinity has something to do with a narrow concept of gender roles in general. Because there always seems to be this idea that being masculine equals being a hyperviolent abuser, while any gentle or submissive trait immediately gets interpreted as “feminine” (and overall I see a very strong correlation between femininity and victimhood -especially in the context of domestic abuse -which is understandable but not necessarily helpful when talking abt a gay couple). I agree a lot with your interpretation of Louis as a Byronic hero and the points you’ve made about his and Lestat’s gender presentation, so it sort of surprises me to see so many people believe that recognizing Louis’ masculinity somehow negates his sensibility and his capacity for tenderness (not to mention the assumption that we are trying to defend Lestat and make him into a victim, which is a wild leap and a very bad faith reading of the whole argument imo)

Hey, anon, and that's okay. I can appreciate feeling bummed about my words being twisted into a strawman argument - I do sometimes too - but at the end of the day, that's out of my control and I think says a lot more about the people who'd do it than it does about me.

It's actually kind of interesting to me, because I think with a lot of those sorts of posts, the person actually kind of knows they're strawmanning, because they'd address me directly if they actually thought any of what they wrote in that post was what I was saying, and they almost never do. They make these sorts of posts loudly and publicly to turn the argument into one that stokes outrage and becomes something they can adopt a moral highground to and win, and I think in a lot of ways, it becomes an exercise in control. If they can put words in my mouth and not actually engage with me, they can control the environment of the debate, and therefore they can attempt to control the discourse in the fandom i.e. dictate the way Louis is perceived and received as a character by others. They want it to look like they're arguing my points, but they're not.

They're arguing with the points they want me to be making, because if my points are that Louis' a mindless, hypermasculine 'brute' and a 'sexual deviant', they know they're right and they know how to argue against that, but if my argument is what it is - that Louis is pretty traditionally masculine, and in fact that he has almost all of the Byronic masculine traits which includes sensitivity, warmth, depression, egotism, a vengeful streak, and a complex relationship with religion, sexuality, and the self - it becomes a conversation that requires a more nuanced understanding of what masculinity is and has been throughout history and literature, which doesn't work with the TERFy talking points that are, frankly, endemic in fandom spaces broadly right now.

Which yeah, that goes to your second point about gender roles, because I think that you've hit the nail on the head. A lot of people in this fandom seem to view the concept of masculinity as inherently violent or abusive and femininity as - to borrow a phrase I loathe from TikTok, haha - demure and mindful - which is, again, literally TERF rhetoric. This desire to reinforce the gender binary and feel like you're not simply because you're applying reductive and stereotypical female characteristics to a male character is just sort of baffling to me, on so many levels.

And it appears in a lot of their arguments, like, gosh, even the post I was linked to yesterday about Eartha Kitt, David Bowie and Grace Jones being influences for Louis as indicative of his 'feminine divine', which to me - honestly - reads as a pretty homophobic and misogynistic take. Cisgender men can be (and are!) influenced personally, creatively and professionally by women, and the suggestion that to be so negates masculinity and is indicative of femininity feels like a pretty dangerous rhetoric to me.

The funny thing is, I don't actually have an issue with people liking femme!Louis at all. It's not how I see him, no, but I respect the fact that how we interpret characters is subjective, and people bring their own history and interests and yes, kinks to a show, and I actually think that's really cool! That's part of what makes engaging with stories and fandom fun! What I find exhausting is the recurring accusation that anyone who doesn't see Louis as a battered housewife entering his liberated woman era is a racist.