#he is a flawed and human character with a deeply tragic arc - the same as any other character in the movie

[sha-lyuzar]

Loghain Mac Tir is my comfort character. It is not often a pleasant thing to admit, and my reasons are complex, and personal, but fundamentally what makes me so attached to him is how human he is. That kind of depth and complexity is what made me fall in love with Dragon Age in the first place. He’s not just a “noble hero” or an “evil villain,” but a fully realized person who embodies good and evil, and everything inbetween, who is shaped by his past and his deeply personal convictions, his flaws, his fears, his fierce love for Ferelden, and, most importantly his tragic mistakes, that lost him everything, and that is what makes him feel so real to me.

He doesn’t have an easy narrative arc. He’s not driven by simple greed, cruelty, or even by misguided idealism. He’s a survivor with wounds that never fully healed, and those wounds shape the way he sees the world and interprets threats. Every heinous decision and tragic mistake is a direct consequence of his loyalty to Ferelden and Maric, and his willingness to bear the burden of horrific choice. He has been bleeding for his cause since he was a child, and it has turned him into the same kind of cruel and cold tyrant He fought against in the first place, and watching him struggle to hold true to his values, and eventually abandon them, as his path grows darker and more isolating, is this profoundly tragic thing that to me is infinitely more compelling than a classic Hero's Journey.

What Loghain did in the Alienage is deeply disturbing and inexcusable. Using Tevinter slavers to control and exploit the elves is one of the darkest points in his character arc. It’s a choice that reveals just how far he’s willing to go to maintain control and secure his idea of Ferelden’s “independence,” even at the cost of his own morality, so He lets in a foreign power to abduct and subjugate the citizens he claims to be protecting. It unveils the extremes of his desperation and paranoia, because in his mind, he’s protecting Ferelden, but in reality, he’s perpetrating the very kind of oppression he once fought against. It is dark, it is horrific, it is unforgiveable, and that is the whole point.

He has to confront the devastation he’s caused, and he can’t simply brush it aside as a “necessary evil.”. If he joins the Grey Wardens, his path involves acknowledging these grave mistakes, taking responsibility, and finding a way to live with the guilt. There is no reconciliation for his actions, his fear and trauma may explain but never excuse what he did. There is no easy way out. Loghain is stained with the blood he shed forever. He has to live with having failed, with the compounded weight of his actions and regrets, and, if he joins the Wardens, he isn't even granted the mercy of a quick and clean death, and instead is exiled from the country he poured everything he had into.

And doesn't this resonate? Does this not perfectly reflect the difficult reality of being human? How people can be fiercely protective, deeply flawed, and driven by complicated motivations, and that these qualities make them more worthy of understanding, not less? Loghain’s arc speaks to me on such a deep and personal level, especially as someone who has been battling the demons of trauma. His story is a vivid reminder that trauma doesn’t always make us better people, but exacerbates our struggles and can lead us down dark paths. i see parts of my own struggles in Loghain, i understand his pain, his fear, the choices his past self would loathe him for, and the gnawing self-hate, regret and grief.

Trauma twists our intentions like that. Instead of guiding us toward empathy and understanding, it clouds our judgment, and pushes us to make decisions we later regret, and become versions of ourselves we hate. My reality of trauma has not been this character building experience, the way it is often depicted in media, but something harrowing and life-altering, that still poisons me, even years later. But seeing a character lose all tether to himself and get lost in his demons is a tale worth telling, and an experience that still grips me, even 15 years after playing DA:O for the first time. Seeing Loghain live through rock bottom in DA:O, and then, ten years later in DA:I find purpose and whatever semblance of peace is possible in his circumstance, is something that gives me comfort. It is deeply personal, and i keep this unforgiveable and irredeemable, this grief-stricken and regret-filled man, this complicated and multifaceted character deep in my heart.

There are spoilers for datv under the cut. Major spoilers about the end of the game. If you have not played through yet, please don't be tempted to look. i thought i would be fine with spoilers, but i am not. You have been warned.

All of this is rendered moot by the ending of datv. By a throwaway line. i have been spoilered by this online, and have not reached this point in the game myself, yet, but it leaves me feeling a lot of ways, and it hits me hard. It feels like everything i found relatable in his struggle, everything that made him so human, is suddenly taken away. If his actions weren’t truly his own, and he was being puppeteered by old gods magic, then what does that mean for the weight of his choices? It feels like a betrayal of everything that made up his character, a character who has grappled with his trauma and made terrible choices, yes, but ones that were driven by his own will and conviction, always.

The complexity of his journey, the depth of his remorse, and the struggle for a new purpose, all become overshadowed by this new twist. It threatens to erase the beautiful, painful, and human truth of what it means to confront one’s demons and seek understanding in the aftermath of suffering, what it means to reassess and take accountability for your actions and do the hard, dirty, and thankless work of bettering the irredeemable, bit by bit, piece by piece, so that one day you may draw a breath and feel just a bit of that weight eased.

But no, he was just a victim all along. He has no agency, his self-actualisation is lost on him, he was never responsible for himself. It feels like one of Dragon Age's most complex characters has been flattened down into cardboard.

[idsfantasy]

Okay so, head up, I think your videos are cool and I respect the effort and work you put into theories. I also understand not every theory is going to be actually reflective of views, instead following different roads of logic to see what seems the most likely.

But the big reason why I think robot people being in the games is such a reviled concept by so many people, is that it feels like a lame twist that doesn't really accomplish anything and doesn't really go anywhere. And part of that is the source material it comes from. (Warning: long and emotive analysis incoming)

In the actual Fourth Closet book Charlie being a robot isn't handled well. She's written as a mostly normal human person with internal emotions, struggles, and thoughts only to be completely discarded because she's "not real". As soon as it's revealed, she immediately kills herself and Elizabeth with no narrative buildup, and the only possible resolution is a cliffhanger ending that is never fully explained and left up to speculation. We don't really feel the weight of this on anyone, except possibly John, who never discusses it with anyone and never actually ponders what that might mean beyond feeling bummed the girl he wanted to date is dead and also not human. It also gives Circus Baby a very needlessly convulted backstory for the sole purpose of having her run around in a humanoid form and double down on the henchwoman characterization introduced in FFPS.

It doesn't even really explain much beyond a few strange lines and wonky plot threads, it's a thing that happens and despite Charlie being a protagonist she doesn't really get to react to this.

Sammy is completely dismissed as a concept despite it being such a big deal in TSE and TTO and the whole point of Charlie's arc of acceptance and grief. And we get one line saying he's actually alive... and living with the mother Charlie herself mentions talking to in the past. It's a mess.

The only character who is made more intresting and given more weight by this reveal is Henry. Because it changes perception from "flawed man struggling with mental health but ultimately a very loving to father" to "all the above but also with those flaws much more prevalent and damaging". It's fascinating because what he does is incredibly messed up on so many levels, yet entirely understandable. Henry in the novels is a straight up antagonist, not a villian, and not actively malicious, but someone very poorly coping and causing harm by proxy. And that's reflective of a lot of people who are understandably struggling and need support, but at the same time refuse help and find themselves sinking deeper while their loved ones feel helpless. It's deeply tragic, and leaves Henry being a much more nuanced character, mainly because of the fact Charlie doesn't know quite how to feel about him. When she's still allowed to have thoughts, at least.

The whole point of the Charliebots is that grief and loss can make vulnerable people susceptible to delusion, and how that effects the children around them. Both the Charlie-bot and Circus Baby are shaped around trying to conform to a grieving parent who wants them to fill a role that at a certain point, they simply can't. The moment Charliebot stopped living past the age of three, she simply wasn't reflective of that real little girl anymore. She was someone new, based on the hopes and dreams her family had for her. The Charliebots are so so intricately linked to this theme, that I really feel removing the idea of androids from it is kinda insulting to the whole premise.

William blatantly says he couldn't build robots like that, Circus Baby is build upon a failed experiment her modified for his own use, even the Twisteds were implied to be a joint effort. He also simply didn't see his kids in the same way, I truly don't believe he would drive himself to that same point of delusion for kids he just doesn't love.

I've seen some fanauthors right really compelling narratives around these ideas, but they simply aren't in the actual texts. To approach something purely logistically is to deny to narrative and emotional potential of it.

Yes, it's 100% possible. I don't doubt Scott might try to do it. But that doesn't make it impactful. So if he doesn't want to engage with the premise outright, and doesn't say it outloud, then why should I care either? If he's not going to committ to the idea and explore it, then neither am I.

Glad you generally like my videos! And I understand that perspective, but I disagree. Honestly, I think robot people works great thematically for the modern era.

Ithink part of the interest with Charlie being a robot is that she's a robot, but she IS alive. She's not the original Charlie, but because of Henry's emotions she has her own soul.

With William, his goal iirc wasn't to create a human *looking* robot. His goal was to find a way to create that same spark of life that Henry did, but he wasn't able to. Elizabeth was the closest but she's still an actual human soul inside a robot.

When I suggest that robot people are present in the modern games, I don't think they were made out of love, and I don't think they have that artificial soul that Charlie in the books had, hence the connections to CC and Elizabeth. Heck, we know for a fact that there are robot people present in Tales, so why would that be impossible in the games? The issue wasn't making a human looking robot, it was giving said robots life.

Just because we can't see the end goal at the moment doesn't mean there isn't one. Additionally, assuming Scott isn't going to engage with the premise or saying it out loud is probably something to steer clear of. After all, the main evidence I use for Gregbot isn't the weird vision or him looking like the Crying Child, but the wall code in the Sister Location room that describes Gregory in SB to a T while also saying "I built the breath they hunt drawn to life not real still keen" etc. That seems pretty "out loud" to me given the obscurity of most things in these games tbh.

So I do think Scott has committed to the idea. That's why there are 3 robot people in Tales. That's why there are 2 Vanessas. That's why there's the wall code in SB. To me, it seems as though the themes of Help Wanted and onward are highlighting where the line is drawn between the real and the artificial, the virtual and genuine. And imo, having characters who blur the line between the mechanical world and the real and the spiritual adds pretty well to that whole theme. We just haven't seen everything play out yet since we're only partway through the arc.

I understand if you disagree, but I think writing it off as something to consider would be the wrong move personally. Hope you have a nice day :D

[pep-the-artemis]

Villain Comparisons

A wild pairing (I know) but there is merit to comparing them both.

Hazbin Hotel and Murder Drones spoilers below (two shows I deeply recommend anyone for watching for really different reasons). I'll try to minimise spoilers.

TL;DR and image transcripts at the bottom.

Firstly, introductions.

Sir Pentious is a former human who ended up in hell and now in pursuit of peer acceptance has become easily manipulated and turned to a life of evil; his desires also lead him to become easily manipulated by people like Vox. He takes on the form of a snake, a creature surrounded with assumptions of evil.

Doll Yurikova is Russian robot from a 'race' formerly enslaved by humanity and corporate greed; due to the experiments conducted on her mother Yeva, Doll became cursed—giving her eldritch powers and driving her to insanity. At a young age she was forced to watch both her parents die at the hands of the genocidal Disassembly Drones and now seeks revenge and to learn the truth about her curse, hoping to find a cure.

(no prizes on guessing which show is darker)

The reason I think this comparison is worth making is because they're both redeemable characters and die a sad, tragic death against the main antagonist who they had zero chance at even scratching... but I think Murder Drones pulls it off better.

Firstly, from the pilot and episode 1, Sir Pentious seems evil for the thrill—he enjoys the destruction, turf wars, and rivalries—but once he enters the happy hotel (calling it that to avoid confusion with the title), these traits seem to disappear. His rivalry turns to crushing and motives seem to shift more towards peer acceptance as mentioned above (he is still has a fascination with war machines but to me that never comes across as evil).

Doll, on the other hand, is straight up a psychopath. She kills without remorse or reason, she's a cannibal, and keeps the corpses of her dead parents in her home. Most of this is because of her curse but not entirely—unlike Uzi with the same curse, Doll shows no remorse or regret for her actions.

Secondly, Sir Pentious is weak AF. He loses every fight he is in. This is meant to be used as comedic value and also to show how he doesn't really belong but its so lame how even in the final battle he is worthless.

Doll, on the other hand, is an utter menace. The only reason the main cast one there first fight with her was because Uzi was immune to her magic and got distracted when her mothers bracelet broke. Doll outclasses the main cast making her a real tangible threat.

Thirdly, Sir Pentious main character flaw is that his is too weak against peer pressure and so his arc is to grow a backbone and act as his own person and not care what others think of him which is what the happy hotel is supporting him with. This is not a critique.

Doll's, on the other hand, main weakness is separate to her motives. She is unwilling to work with others, she fights alone and isolates herself from the world. This is in direct contrast with Uzi who is willing to work with others and understand there past mistakes. So for Doll to start her journey of redemption, she has to accept others into her life which I cannot stress enough is always an option for her, Uzi is constantly wanting to cooperate.

Lets begin wrapping this up—with there final scenes.

The battle of Heaven and Hell, Hell is losing. Realising this Sir Pentious decides he needs to lead the charge head on—he kisses his crush and charges forward in his own death machine attacking Adam head on... then his killed immediately before he can fire a single shot.

The most obvious thing is that this death is not narratively satisfying, he could have landed one hit weakening Adam but no Adam was just too strong of a threat that he didn't even need to even bother.

Then, even though he was killed by an angelic weapon (its kinda murky what Adams blast is exactly...), he gets redeemed... I know they can kill off characters, they did it to Dazzle, but I understand that it would be very dark. The problem is that it defeats the concept of 'a selfless act'. doing a selfless act isn't "do something because later you'll be rewarded", it's "do something because its the right thing to do".

Now onto Doll, who's death takes place in three different scenes. The first scene comes in two parts; the first Doll gets the jump on Tessa (who is just a woman with a longsword) and they fight and even with Dolls teleportation and telekinesis, she is unable to land a hit on Tessa. The fight ends with Tessa landing two strikes, one cutting off Dolls eye patch and the other disarming her. This works well to show that Tessa is a real threat while not undermining Dolls skill.

The next half of the scene, leaving Doll alone in the dark, Tessa disappears. An impossible feat in a narrow tunnel. Doll begins to panic and when she finally see's Tessa its too late, she can do nothing and dies. This is so important because it shows just how outmatched; Doll was utterly helpless. This works because of the previous scene which cemented the fact Doll is competent.

So Doll dies without redeeming herself. A real bitter song, she forced herself to live in isolation refusing every chance she was given only to never be given the chance, dying confused and lone just like like how she lived. But her deaths not over.

The second scene shows Doll stumbling out of a hellish pit, her torso ripped apart and entrails pooling out. Her last act before collapsing was leaving the message "дать отпор" (fight back). Her final act was to try and help Uzi, a real glimmer that for her redemption was truly possible but (that she's dead) out of reach.

The final scene is just a simple kick in the teeth, we watch as 'Tessa' devours her entrails, a real mockery... basically Liam Vickers saying "oh she is dead! I cannot stress that fact enough!". Utterly brutal.

Sir Pentious was evil, went searching for redemption, and got everything.

Doll is evil, refused all calls for redemption, and got nothing.

tl;dr

So overall, Murder Drones pulls of tragic character death better because

Doll isn't just a walking punching bag.

It was made explicitly clear that she lost because Tessa was stronger and not because she was weaker.

the show doesn't pull any punches unlike Hazbin hotel which immediately revives Sir Pentious.

Is Sir Pentious a bad character? No, I think he had a mediocre death.

Again, watch both shows. Hazbin Hotel is a great and fun comfort show while Murder Drones is a lot heavier but full of so much small detail it has great rewatchability. Being so different its less about which is better and entirely about which you prefer.

[Image ID: A digital drawing of Sir Pentious from Hazbin Hotel. It is a background-less shot with Sir Pentious smiling facing the camera with bold posed arms. /.End ID]

[Image ID: A digital drawing of Doll Yurikova from Murder Drones. It is a background-less shot with Doll grimacing facing the camera with limp arms by her side. /.End ID]

[furbtasticworksofart]

Incoherent Blorbo Rant Incoming

Okay okay so any human whose interacted with me for a second already knows who my favorite human FNaF character is, but I want to elaborate on why even though no one asked.

The reason I find Henry to be such a compelling character is that he is deeply flawed, and remains deeply flawed.

Most interpretations of Michael, have him as the Foxy Bro, and thus, tormented by the knowledge he inadvertently killed his brother. Because of this he tends to be written with a lot of melancholy and self-loathing for what he considers his worst act. But after that, he spends the rest of his life proving he can be a better person, and he wants to do things right. A simple, but effective character arc. Tragic hero making amends for past sins, very classic and easy to follow.

Henry’s character arc is basically about a man falling down a flight of stairs for fourty-odd years.

It has been widely commented on and discussed that Henry, in all canons, is far from the best father. The book trilogy illustrates the best picture of him, but this is also present in the games. LEFT-E, while sometimes interpreted in a more wholesomeway, is canonically a trap implemented with controlled shocks and an inescapable prison to be burned alive in. Book Charlie is abandoned despite being at the exact same emotional intelligence and general being as an actual human child, and also bears witness to his worst apathetic and self-serving tendencies. Oh, and he realllly doesn't care sbout Sammy, at least, not in the same way. His grief has manifested entirely around Charlie, losing her is what led to him becoming more unstable.

And that's the key thing here. Henry, fundamentally, is not a healthy person. He never was. Every read of him and William's relationship just screams toxic codependency, and mental health issues as serious as delusions, seething self-hatred, and apathy towards others, do not exist in a vacuum. We can headcanon a lot about where these traits came from, but overall it paints the picture of a person with underlying mental issues managing to reach a sort of "normalcy" and happiness, only for it to be shattered in heartbreaking detail. And he doesn't know how to deal with that. Though to be fair, I don't know how anyone would.

Now, mental illness does not make you a worse person. Struggling with these issues isn't what makes him so flawed, it's the fact he will callously disregard others, only to feel immense regret upon seeing the consequences of his actions. Then he does it again.

Freddy's has been closed at least four times. You would think, that after Fredbears, he would take a step back, and maybe consider moving on. Letting things go. But he doesn't. He makes more. Then, a tragedy of even greater magnitude, and still, he doesn't stop. The way he talks about the Funtimes, he refers to them as though he played a part in it. Even though, by then, anyone as close to William as him should have seen the glaring red flags. But he can't stop. He cannot stop creating. He has too.

And when things finally fully collapse, he takes a step back, and feels nothing but shame and resentment. Mostly towards himself. And lets that broil over, completely unmoving.

Intense self-hatred is still a form of narcissism. This relapsing into unhealthy patterns, clinging to toxic relationships like a lifeline, gets across one main idea: Henry wants to be a good person. He wants to have a happy family, to enjoy creative freedom and to cherish the few, but strong, relationships he has. But his inability to let go, to focus on the present and how people are doing now, is what fractures those relationships.

When he does try to fix things, he succeeds, in a way. But it took him years. Years of waiting. Of doing nothing. And can letting himself burn with them, truly be considered self-sacrifice? Fazbear Entertainment didn't die with him. And being so intrnt on bringing everyone down with him, left a massive vulnerability for others to exploit.

He's not the villian of this story. But he's certainly, not the hero anyone was hoping for.

[dinarosie]

My point wasn’t about why people have always disliked Snape, but rather why hate toward him has spiked so drastically in recent years. His flaws and mistakes are still the same, but fans’ perspectives have changed. So what’s going on?

In school, we took a class called History of Literature to help us understand how culture and the time period affect how we view a story or character. It taught us that understanding a story means looking at it in the context of when it was written. I think this is exactly what we need to do to understand Snape without bias because, to me, his character has been deeply impacted by the shifting cultural lens over time.

Lechicaneuronline: Do you think snape is a hero? J.K. Rowling: Yes, I do; though a very flawed hero. An anti-hero, perhaps. He is not a particularly likeable man in many ways. He remains rather cruel, a bully, riddled with bitterness and insecurity - and yet he loved, and showed loyalty to that love.

Barbara: I was very disappointed to see harry use crucio and seem to enjoy it his failure to perform that kind of curse in the past has been a credit to his character why the change, and did harry later regret having enjoyed deliberately causing pain J.K. Rowling: Harry is not, and never has been, a saint. Like Snape, he is flawed and mortal.

One key point to understand is that Snape was intentionally written by J.K. Rowling as a “grey character.” He was never supposed to be a flawless hero or an unforgivable villain. Rowling’s goal was to make him someone both damaged and sometimes bullying, but also capable of a growth arc to become a brave, if flawed, antihero. By the end, Snape shows he values human life and that he’s willing to sacrifice himself to protect people and make up for his mistakes. Yes, to the creator of this character, Snape is a hero—albeit a flawed one, like Harry Potter. Rowling didn’t write Snape as a purely evil or unforgivable character—she even compared him to Harry, calling them “alike” because both are complex, flawed characters. These interviews reveal what Rowling intended Snape’s character to be.

Snape wasn’t meant to be seen as a “stalker,” an “obsessive,” or an “incel.” So why does he get interpreted that way now? This is exactly where generational changes come in. Social values shift over time, and what might have been seen as a complex, redemptive love story a few decades ago now gets labeled as obsessive. The way Snape’s love for Lily was meant to redeem him is now sometimes used to criticize or dismiss him.

Rowling intended Snape’s love for Lily to be a positive, redemptive part of his story. In the ‘90s, she wrote it as a tragic, unfulfilled love meant to highlight the brighter, hidden side of Snape—a side that eventually leads to his forgiveness arc. This approach makes sense in the context of Rowling’s generation, where tragic, unfulfilled love was seen as moving and powerful. You see this throughout older literature, where love is often defined by sacrifice and loss, not necessarily by being “healthy” or “mutual.” The more tragedy, unrequited feelings, or mourning there was, the “truer” or more “real” the love was seen to be.

Now, though, it’s been nearly thirty years since the first Harry Potter books came out, and that love story no longer carries the same meaning. Instead of being seen as redemptive, it’s sometimes recast as toxic or obsessive, putting Snape in a category that we’d label unhealthy. Rowling’s original intent for Snape’s love as a symbol of his loyalty and redemption has shifted, and instead, it’s used to tear down his character. To me, this isn’t Snape or Rowling’s “fault”; it’s just the natural effect of time and changing culture. But it’s something we should consider when analyzing his character.

This post I’ve linked explores these ideas further: Link to Original Post. It’s a great look at why Snape’s story has become more divisive, how generational changes impact our views, and why his love gets reinterpreted as “obsession” or “incel-like” today.

I could describe Snape in much the same way you talk about James Potter, but with one key difference: Snape is bitter, small, resentful, and yes, sometimes a bully—but he cares about people. He doesn’t just care about those he loves; he also cares, in his own way, about those he hates or who hate and humiliate him. He tries to protect them, even if it means sacrificing everything and give anything. He’s willing to sacrifice himself to protect the wizarding world, without expecting any reward or benefit. That’s an antihero, a flawed but ultimately selfless character who gives everything for others.

I used the term “Gen Z” here not to criticize but to highlight how new generations bring new perspectives, which shapes how characters are interpreted. Since English isn’t my first language, I sometimes miss certain nuances, but my point is that shifting social values affect our views on stories and characters.

Lastly, about the scene where Snape holds Lily’s body: that didn’t happen in the books. It was added in the movies for extra drama to hit the audience emotionally. When you’re condensing a long series into a two-hour movie, you sometimes need these impactful moments to make up for what can’t be included.

The Rise of Snape Hate: Marauders' Rebranding and Snape's Villainization (Part 1)

I often hear people wonder why Severus Snape has become more hated in recent years, to the extent that even Voldemort faces less criticism and vitriol from fans. In the early days of the book’s release and even long after the final Harry Potter film was screened, the "Marauders" fandom hardly existed. James Potter was seen as a background character, best known as Harry's father, and did not play an important role among fans. Sirius and Lupin were mostly regarded as Harry's mentors, and their time as Marauders during their teenage years wasn't a focal point of fan attention. In the Canon, the Marauders didn’t hold much significance either, there were few details about them. They were mentioned in just a handful of small flashbacks, mainly depicting bullying, and their friendships were portrayed as rather toxic and disappointing. Naturally, these flashbacks were not only unappealing but could also be disheartening for readers. However, a new generation of fans wanted to bring something new to the Harry Potter universe that better matched their fantasies and imaginations (especially after the failure of "The Cursed Child" and the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling). As a result, a new story emerged: "Harry Potter and the World of the Marauders," inspired by Generation Z's fantasies.

They were given the attractive looks of actors like Ben Barnes, Timothée Chalamet, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and were morally very different from their canon versions. They became a group of charming, wealthy, and popular school heroes with dynamic, platonic, and romantic relationships that captivated fans. Since there weren't many details about them in the original books, fans freely created tragic backstories and fascinating dramas (for example, the Black family using a "Cruciatus curse" on their children!!!). These factors quickly increased their popularity and caught the attention of content creators on the internet.

But what happened to Severus Snape?

These newly reimagined, charming, and beloved Marauders needed an antagonist to heighten the school drama and make their adventures more exciting. Who better to fill this role than Severus Snape—broken, lonely, and completely different from them, with none of the looks, wealth, or popularity?

"The more they improved the Marauders to make them more likable, the more they vilified and distorted Snape to make him easier to hate."

It's clear that when Snape is portrayed as a powerful, dark, and evil wizard (even at the age of 11), James Potter and Sirius Black are turned into justice-seeking heroes, making all their bullying and cruelty towards Snape seem justified and even heroic.

Now, ask yourself: Is it easier to like the James Potter from the books—Arrogant and a bully—or the James Potter who is handsome and kind, punishing an evil villain worse than Voldemort named Severus Snape to save other students and his girlfriend? This is how the Marauders became charming and popular heroes, and Snape became a evil.

Many fans don’t even know Snape. From the moment they enter the Marauders fandom, they learn that they must hate Snape, and this trend continues. They only read the books with the intent of magnifying Snape's flaws, which is why his faults are highlighted even more than Voldemort's, and wherever Snape’s name is mentioned, they feel obligated to display their blind hatred to prove their loyalty to the ideals of their beloved Marauders.

[gch1995]

I don't get how people have jokingly compared Obi Wan to Jesus when Anakin is literally Space Jesus complete with a force-induced virgin birth

Anakin’s a dark and tragic subversion of the “chosen one” trope because as inexcusably awful as he did become at his worst, at his best, he displayed all of the same amazingly brave, idealistic, empathetic, kindhearted, loyal, and selfless heroic traits that Luke did in the OT. The amazingly good side shouldn’t have ever gotten so deeply pushed down underneath this ugly darkness he developed because Anakin had so much potential to only ever make the galaxy a better place instead. If only he’d had more self-confidence in his own conscience and personal agency like his mother taught him after leaving Tatooine, had healthier support from those with positions of authority over him in his life to work through his anger, fear of abandonment, and trauma, and had more viable options outside of the Jedi Order and Sith, and he hadn’t spent his entire life being conditioned to be a useful tool or weapon for corrupt and misguided authority figures.

I don’t think Anakin is completely blameless via reason of insanity. He had a conscience, regardless of the mitigating circumstances, and he made the decision to deny it after a while in his fear of abandonment, anger, fear, and self-loathing.

However, his actionable agency definitely was always compromised by abusive, corrupt, manipulative, and emotionally negligent authority figures his entire life and a lack of resources outside of the Empire and broken Jedi Order and Republic. His sanity is definitely not all there either by AOTC, ROTS, TCW, and the OT era. Anakin seems to have poorly treated/severely neglected symptoms of BPD and especially CPTSD from a lifetime under systematic abuse, crime, emotional neglect, exploitation, and oppression under corrupt authority figures from whom escape either technically was and/or he was made to feel were inescapable.

Not a whole excuse for his crimes, of course, nor did anyone deserve them, but when someone turns out to be a horrific human disaster as an adult after spending their entire lives with compromised agency and emotional as a slave, child soldier, and member of abusive, corrupt, and oppressive cults that are systematically enabled and perpetuated by the governments in power they are under “for the greater good,” then it’s not fair to blame it all on just that person for becoming and remaining a dangerously emotionally/mentally unstable monster under that abusive, corrupt, manipulative, and oppressive authority when all the odds were steeply stacked against them for making morally correct decisions that ensured safety, anyway.

As for Obi-Wan, forget fact that he can’t technically be a “chosen one” because he wasn’t born to his mother via a miraculous virginal conception, and because he wasn’t foretold to fulfill a destiny. Forget the fact that being a “chosen one” in fiction doesn’t automatically equal a character being or becoming a good person themselves.

Let’s just focus on the fact that complex, relatable, and well-developed characters will have actual individual aspirations, goals, interests, and personalities apart from just asskissing those with power of authority over them to fit in and get ahead with the elites in their cliques and cults. Let’s focus on the fact that if a well-written character is meant to be heroic and/or have an atonement or redemption arc, then we will actually see them have growth and self-realization of their flaws and self-improve on screen. Let’s focus on the fact that flawed but static and flat well-written characters who don’t change in the narrative or learn from their mistakes won’t get the hero treatment at the end just because they did something good for someone else to get validation and reward from an authority figure who tells them it’s “for the greater good.”

Obi-Wan never was never portrayed as a horrifically evil monster at his worst because he was such a Yoda ass-kisser, but he was never portrayed as being a particularly good person who accomplished amazing acts of heroism at his best either because he largely defined the entirety of his life to blindly serving Yoda and the Jedi Order at the cost of giving up any opportunities to explore, get invested in, and self-improve through any other hobbies, interests, friendships, relationships, and possibilities outside of them, particularly after Qui Gonn died.

He’s a good example of how fitting in with the “right” side does not automatically equal being a hero when your heart’s only in the game to fit in and get ahead in class by being a conformist and kissing the teacher’s and cool kids asses. I’m not sure if he ever gets away with it because, I mean, look at what happened to his relationships with Anakin and Ahsoka in the prequels. Look at how Anakin survived the fire and became Vader because he couldn’t commit to either killing or not killing him in his anger, cowardice, and indecision. Look at how he was framed as wrong to deceive and manipulate Luke in the OT movies.

Obi-Wan is still essentially supposed to be the “good guy,” but he never really seems to have an arc of growth, self-realization, or regression either. I get why it was partially necessary for Luke’s and Anakin’s arcs as the main characters of the OT and PT movies, but it always bugged me that Obi-Wan and Yoda never actually had that moment of self-realization and growth on screen.

[frodo-with-glasses]

Final verdict on Boromir

I got to the part where he dies, so I feel I have collected sufficient data to write this post now.

When I was a kid, I hated Boromir. It wasn’t until I found fan communities online that I realized people actually forgave Boromir and saw him as a tragic figure, and even after knowing that for a while, it still puzzled me. I chalk that up to a) immaturity, because I was young, b) a lack of understanding about the corruption of the Ring, and c) how little time we actually spent getting to know him; compared to the hobbits, we see so little of Boromir’s character before the Ring ensnares him that it’s difficult to distinguish his own personality from the warped one created by the Ring. I’d argue that in the very scene where he’s introduced—the Council of Elrond—the Ring has already captured and begun to corrupt him. It’s up for debate whether we ever get to see Boromir in an un-corrupted state.

But from what I can glean from the few glimpses we see of his personality, I think “larger than life” describes Boromir best. He’s a protector. A warrior. A valiant man. He’s boisterous, opinionated, extroverted, and seldom afraid to speak his mind. He cares deeply, loves deeply, either really likes something or REALLY doesn’t. He’s a proud man, carrying ever on his shoulders the burden of representing his noble lineage, and his whole life is consumed by an honor code of duty and responsibility and love of his country. This makes him excellent as the charismatic leader—“leader” in their hearts, at least, even though Denethor is technically in charge—of a weary, war-torn country.

It does not make him someone I’d want to invite to lunch, but that’s just me.

Boromir’s flaw is that he isn’t aware of what he doesn’t know. That seems really “no duh”, but consider this: I can open the hood of a car and see that there’s accumulated decades of human knowledge and technology put together there that I don’t understand, and I can be humble and trust that a mechanic or an automobile engineer will have a better understanding of those things than I do. I have a basic idea of how a combustion engine works, and I know how to unscrew the thing and pour the windshield cleaner in when it’s out, and I know what noises a car is NOT supposed to make when it runs, but I am also very aware of the limitations of my knowledge.

Boromir…is not that, but in a social sense. He nearly laughs at the cute little Hobbit’s offer to destroy the Ring until he realizes that everyone else in the Council of Elrond takes Bilbo very seriously. He calls Men the strongest and stoutest of all the peoples of Middle Earth when there’s a Dwarf standing right there. He sees the clearly cursed and evil pool and throws rocks in it, while the Hobbit sitting nearby is the one sensible enough to say “don’t do that, you don’t know what you might be waking up!” He says, very loudly and repeatedly, in the middle of Lothlorien, “DO NOT LIKE THIS GALADRIEL LADY; I DO NOT TRUST HER” and like, same, bro, but read the room. Boromir strikes me as the star quarterback of a small-town high school—where he’s all that and a bag of lembas—going to college in the big city and being suddenly stunned that he’s not the smartest, handsomest, best-liked person in the room like he used to be.

That doesn’t make him a bad character, by the way. Actually, he’s set up with great opportunity for a character arc over the course of the story: getting to learn about all the peoples of Middle Earth that he’s never met before, taking a level in humility, and returning to Minas Tirith a kinder and more diplomatically skilled man than he was before.

But he doesn’t. Boromir dies right in the middle of his character arc. That’s the tragedy.

Not only is Boromir a noble warrior and a symbol to his people that they’ve now lost, he’s also a man who never saw his full potential because he couldn’t escape the clutches of the Ring. Right when it was most necessary to show his strength of character—to protect the Ring-Bearer, even from himself—he can’t overcome the Ring’s compulsion, and it cripples all the potential he ever had for growth.

As is the case with Galadriel, I don’t hate Boromir nearly as much as I used to. Like I said, I wouldn’t invite him to lunch, but that’s much more a difference in our personalities. (I’d feel much more comfortable spending an afternoon at Bag End, poring over books and maps and listening to stories from Frodo and Bilbo. But again, that’s just me.)

Boromir is a deeply flawed man—proud, in all the best ways and all the worst ways—but he’s also an honorable man, one who gave his life to protect others, and at the very end repented of what he’d done when he was no longer in control. His death really is just tragic. Not in the usual melodramatic way that we’re used to from sappy Hallmark movies, but in the much quieter, more grounded way of “you were a person—you had both good and bad in you—and you could have been so much, but now you never will be”.

Now he never will be.

[galadhremmin]

We have derived Caranthir liking the Dwarves (and vice versa) because apparently, Finrod succeeds in every field Caranthir fails, and at this point it's clear this derives from the in-universe writer of the Silm and his own biases. Think about it: "Dark Finwë" , a grumpy, prejudiced lordling, and "Hair Champion", most handsome, noble king, have met with the same people!! Yet the king of the first secret kingdom is everyone's friend, but the prince that trades with them regularly is not... seems sus.

Hence, Caranthir is friends with the Dwarves. (But that is just an interpretation, so you're free to think what you wish, I just have several opinions on in-universe prejudice and the almighty narrative.)

I think that 'we' might actually have been Dawn Felagund years ago. Maybe this reading existed even before that, but I doubt that-- she's been very influential in silm fandom and was long before tumblr was much of a thing. https://dawnfelagund.com/caranthir-the-slandered

I wouldn't say it's 'clear' that what amounts to Caranthir's entire documented personality derives from the bias of the in-universe narrator, though as you can see from Dawn's writing it's a reading you can argue for. There are a number of different approaches you can take to the Silm and its biases anyway. One of the few times when it's absolutely clear the text isn't telling the entire story is when it talks about the Easterlings. I've posted about this before but the recorded names are, uhh.... the ones to betray the elves are unlikely to actually have been named things like 'ugly lord' and 'ugly beard.' 'Dark Finwe' on the other hand is a documented reference to his haircolour being dark like Finwe's own; hardly a negative judgement!

I personally think Caranthir can be exactly as ill-tempered and prejudiced as the Silm paints him without becoming an unsympathetic character. If a writer cannot make a moody, deeply prejudiced man an interesting character that is a failure as a writer; there are after all enough books who manage exactly that. That is not to say choosing not to write him that way is a failure (obviously not), but it's not necessary in order to make a reader feel for him at all.

Just going by the text, I think it actually might make for a more interesting narrative to explore in fic to me. Because he does change his mind about something, and at a very specific moment; when he meets the Haladin. That is much less dramatic if he secretly been as nice and popular as Finrod, and got along with everyone all the time already. He's been raised by Fëanor, who said things like 'No other race shall oust us!' and rallied the Noldor not motivated enough by vengeance for Finwë alone by playing on their deep-seated fear of being replaced by the Secondborn. Very unlikely that had no impact. At best it has made him uninterested in humans in his area (while they're not much of a threat to ruling instead of the elves anyway). The text says they paid them no heed.

And yet! Caranthir sees how brave Haleth and her people are. He 'does her great honour.' He changes his mind and offers them lands. His tragedy to me is not that of a slandered figure, but of this deeply, deeply prejudiced person raised to distrust the motivations of human beings -- who overcomes those beliefs, offers friendship, is rejected! then extends that same trust to the Easterlings anyway... and it's those specific Easterlings, not the ones who ally with his brothers-- who betray them all. And cause the disastrous ending of the Nirnaeth. It's the 'to evil end shall all things turn that they begin well' part of the curse hitting him in the least fair way possible. Someone finally changes for the better, and the outcome is treason and destruction.

That is a very good character arc to me, actually. His aesthetics-based scorn for the Dwarves is reprehensible but strikes me as deeply Elvish, and part of his prejudices. Naugrim is too unflattering a name for them for it not to be common. His temper-- well why can't he have one? Sure there's only one recorded instance -- but that's imo because there are hardly any conversations in the Silm! Anyway I like some people with tempers well enough. Personally I think people are missing out on opiniated grouches.

Obviously the biased anti-Feanorian Pengolodh reading is a nice one, and I have enjoyed a lot of stories written based it. But it's not at all a reading that is necessary for me to read Caranthir as a flawed but sympathetic character. He can have serious faults and still, ultimately, be someone I feel for.

What I was asking though was if I overlooked any canon evidence of Caranthir being particularly, personally fond of the Dwarves; and it seems I did not. Also; there is room for Caranthir growing to like the Dwarves over centuries without an anti-Feanorian bias reading this strong, there is simply no evidence for friendship in the rather barebones narrative (I'm not interested atm because it's wildly overdone to me & I like variety).

That said, in my opinion making Caranthir the hidden, slandered Feanorian Finrod equivalent with a dash of Curufin's Dwarf affection is not as enjoyable as simply working with what little canon character is actually there. Because there is one (and it's not the greedy tax collector of some fanon depictions either imo)

1. To start with, wrt Caranthir as the anti-Finrod, I don't think it works that well. Sure sure dark/light, open/prejudiced, repressed/shouty, but different motivations, different locations, plus they meet very different peoples even if both are Edain-- besides, Caranthir's own older brothers do successfully ally with the Easterlings without betrayal, while Curufin (much more so than Finrod! no Khuzdul for Finrod!) is the Dwarves' Friend(tm). Also, a flawed Finrod already exists. That's just the regular edition. He has his own faults and (very different) tragic arc.

If Finrod never seems to have strong prejudices to overcome, and if he's not confrontational (which... look he's a diplomat. Make of that what you will. Pretty awkward there in Doriath, buddy!) he does have trouble facing his own complicity (he wanted to sail those ships despite the murders) until Sauron beats him to death with it. He leaves Valinor with the idea of ruling but he has to give up the crown. He's ambitious, he seems emotionally repressed, he's.. possibly paying the greater Dwarves to drive the Petty Dwarves out of their ancestral home to build a city? Oops. Depending on the version you go with in that case, of course; there's also ones where he's free of the blame of that one. Not of wanting to sail those ships and being uneasy with the guilt wrt wanting to do so despite their being stolen and murdered for though. No he doesn't kill; but he wants to use the result of it anyway, and to make it worse he is actually half Telerin.

There's also (to be fair, only for sure after the disaster of the Sudden Flame because that's the recorded instance) his guards killing random innocent trespassers to keep his kingdom hidden -- yes, that's right there in Silm, yes he's still King at the time. Beren has to wave that ring. People just seem to miss that he'd be killed without it somehow.

I think it's just too easy to reduce him to the golden perfect opposite of Caranthir. Yes he's described more positively; he's also just mentioned more because unlike Caranthir he rules an actual kingdom, the greatest and richest in Beleriand in fact; and does things that have a lot of very longterm effects, like helping B&L steal a Silmaril. They don't 'meet the same people' anyway -- the Haladin have a different culture from the Beorians which contributes to their reaction to Caranthir (and iirc their later fate).

Sidenote: Dawn's essay attributes the Green Elves helping the Feanorians at Amon Ereb to Caranthir's diplomatic skills; but why not to those of Amras or Amrod? This is the quote; 'Caranthir fled and joined the remnant of his people to the scattered folk of the hunters, Amrod and Amras, and they retreated and passed Ramdal in the south. Upon Amon Ereb they maintained a watch and some strength of war, and they had aid of the Green-elves' -- nothing here indicates it was Caranthir who got them that aid. In fact A&A are the hunters, i.e. more likely to have roamed in various forests where they would have encountered Green Elves, imo.

There's also the very desperate times to consider in which this aid takes place. This is just post Sudden Flame, and even if the Green Elves didn't like Caranthir they probably liked him better than Morgoth. Also, speaking of cosmopolitans, Maedhros allies with, yes, Dwarves (Azaghal), Grey elves, Easterlings (and you might say: Fingolfinians); even part of the remaining people of Dorthonion rally to Himring post sudden flame (that means Edain and Arafinwean followers in Himring, at least for a time), and he manages to be friendly with Felagund despite calling him a badger. ;)

Finrod is not the only other leader to forge diverse alliances, and though B&L ends happily his people mostly do not. Caranthir's not much like Finrod in any way. Not in motivations, temperament, tragic arc. That's fine. No hidden kingdom for a dragon to eat either. Finrod could probably do with being a little less like Finrod sometimes, though he's well-intentioned and likable. Caranthir loves to shout and isn't sneaky. Good for him.

2. Curufin also already exists. His love for Dwarves is one of his defining and redeeming characteristics and boy does he need them. He's daddy's favourite, a sneaky overambitious bitchy bastard who is also a talented smith and linguist, and truly considered a Dwarf friend, which is apparently exceptional. He's quite flawed; tries to help Celegorm force a political marriage, laughs with a bruised mouth, seeming to lose his mind while attempting and failing murder after first losing his own stronghold and then the city he tried to take from his cousin. He's just... a personality. Mostly a bad one! You can feel for him though, because he seems like an utter mess. Many 'i would love to study you' feelings on my part. Would hate for him to be real but also I'd pay to be his therapist.

3. And then finally there's Canon Caranthir. A difficult, prejudiced person who despite that (which doesn't at all have to mean there is no despite, the despite is what makes it juicy)

- seems to be responsible for re-establishing (large scale?) trade with the Dwarves, whatever he might think of them (and they of him) to their mutual benefit. I don't think he's greedy either. It seems like a mutually profitable situation. Access to Dwarvish goods seems pretty vital to Beleriand, and facilitating trade is a real service.

As someone pointed out in the replies, the Silm does mention Dwarvish companies travelling east to Nan Elmoth and menegroth various times, but quote wrt Caranthir says 'Caranthir’s people came upon the Dwarves, who after the onslaught of Morgoth and the coming of the Noldor had ceased their traffic into Beleriand' and 'when the Dwarves began again to journey into Beleriand.'

They stopped at some point and Caranthir's people made it happen again.

- which means he's practical. He seems like he's good at organising, and setting his own feelings aside if necessary despite his prejudice and temper (which is an achievement it wouldn't be without his, hm, everything). Also he and his people as well as the Dwarves work together well because ''either people loved skill and were eager to learn,' despite their (initial?) mutual dislike. Those aren't bad characteristics; seems like it was an exchange of skill as well as goods and possibly providing safe travel opportunities.

I don't like the 'greedy Caranthir' fanon and don't think it is even that easy support entirely with canon. 'They had of it great profit,' the text says-- both Caranthir and the Dwarves. They exchanged skills and knowledge and Caranthir seems to have helped them start trading in Beleriand again. That's hardly Scrooge Mcduck.

- Another thing we can say about canonthir (lol) is that he apparently attaches a lot of value to aesthetics (was he a visual artist? is a he a sculptor like Nerdanel? WORSE: AN ART CRITIC?! Feanorian art critic is truly nightmare fuel) and that's why he dislikes Dwarves (of all things...). Either way points to 'aesthetics' as something apparently important to Caranthir. Which makes sense given who his parents are. What is interesting to me is that this apparently DOESN'T matter to Curufin, who is a lot like Feanor in most things. That's interesting!

I've never, never seen this but I think it would be very funny to attribute his aesthetic prejudices to Nerdanel. I love her; but why should her opinions be perfect? I know she wasn't considered beautiful herself, but she's an artist. She's got to have had some strong opinions on aesthetics anyway. I doubt it's the beards; Mahtan had one as well. And 'stunted'...at least some of this comes down to the Elvish obsession with height yet again. Hm.

- eventually Caranthir overcomes what have to be some very deeply held beliefs about human beings and their place in the world, and offers what for all intents and purposes looks like real friendship, not the ruling over Men Feanor seems to have had in mind at best. He's capable of real change!

Anyway his character works just fine to me from canon, and what he achieves and the ways in which he fails are more interesting that way rather-- neither slandered Feanorian Finrod 2.0 nor Curufin 'Dwarf Fan' Feanorion without the sneakiness and murder attempts pack the same punch as a stupidly prejudiced grouchy man doing his best anyway for centuries in this stupid ugly cursed land, eventually changing for the better, opening up-- and being brutally punished for it by the Doom.

Dammit. I hope there's therapy in the Everlasting Darkness.

hm a bit long but that's what I get for trying to gather my thoughts wrt why after considering it a bit transferring Curufin's love for Dwarves to Caranthir is a bit boring to me personally. Though there are still stories that still do it very well.

[raeynbowboi]

How Kipo Makes Great Villains

I stayed up all night binging the second season of Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, and I’ll admit. Going into it, my expectations were a bit low. Season One had such a self-contained objective, I didn’t know what the show was going to do with itself with a second season. But the second season of Kipo blew me out of the water. So, now I’m going to rant about why Scarlemagne and Jamack are fantastic villains for Kipo to confront, and what Kipo teaches us about writing antagonists. Obviously, spoilers ahead, but if you’re caught up, prepare to gush over great villains. If you’re not, do yourself a favor and go away, experience the second season for yourself, and then come back and fangasm over how great it was.

JAMACK

Kipo’s first antagonist is a perfect character foil. That is to say, Jamack is the exact opposite of Kipo. When Jamack meets Kipo, they are in exact opposite situations. He’s in a group while she’s alone. Later, when Kipo finds friends and is no longer alone, Jamack is kicked out of his group, forcing him to survive on his own. Jamack is very focused on self-interest and self-preservation, belittling his underlings for minor mistakes. His outlook is cold, cynical, and jaded. On top of that, Jamack grew up in this crazy world where only the strong survive. He’s also a part of the Mob Frogs, which seem to be the only mute culture with internal hierarchy. Other groups have a leader, but only the Mob Frogs seem to have levels of rank within the organization, causing the Mob Frogs to be competitive, even among themselves. So it makes perfect sense why Jamack will stoop to pretty much anything to get what he wants. Because that’s the mentality that allows for upward mobility in Las Vista. Thus, when Kipo arrives and upends the status quo and proves Jamack’s way of living wrong, he lashes out. Initially seeing it as her stealing his life from him, Jamack begins to gradually change. Jamack is on a similar and reflected hero’s journey to Kipo, and as she grows, so too will he. It’s no surprise that Jamack will eventually become a genuine ally of Kipo, even if he’s still hiding behind a Tsundere mask.

SCARLEMAGNE

My god is this a fantastic villain. In the first season, he was genuinely creepy and intimidating, but in season 2, Hugo became incredibly sympathetic. As season 2 went on, I kept debating to myself who is more of the Zuko of this show: Jamack or Hugo. Scarlemagne serves the same narrative purpose as the Diamonds in Steven Universe, about how words and kindness can work through problems. But I think it’s done a little better here, since Hugo isn’t a world-destroying dictator. He’s done some damage, but nothing that was really lasting. His pheremones can wear off. The humans he’s enslaved can regain their freedom. So, Hugo’s actual damage as a villain is much smaller and thus much more forgivable than immortal galactic conquerors. Hugo shows this deeply in that he genuinely seems like he wants to make Kipo happy, but he’s been hurt for so long that he doesn’t understand how to. And this genuine care seems to come a lot more from his core personality, and not just Kipo making friendship speeches. Even Steven didn’t really change the minds of the Diamonds. He just kind of proved he was their sister/nephew, and they suddenly cared about what he had to say. With Hugo, it’s much easier to see that he’s not a monster, just a scared and confused man lashing out to maintain control in a barbaric world. It makes him a character who you don’t want to see succeed in his evil plans, but you don’t want to watch him fail and lose everything he's worked for. You simultaneously want to hug him, and also punch him. It’s that perfect balance that makes Scarlemagne so well-written. He’s officially on my list of top 10 tv cartoon villains. Also, it’s hysterical that Hugo is voiced by the live action Beast, and the second half of this season was honestly a better Beauty and the Beast story than the live action movie. Am I the only one who hears Dr. Animo from Ben 10 when Scarlemagne speaks though?

DR. EMILIA

Talk about bait and switch. I don’t know if it was their intention, but I assumed the woman in the bird mask was Song, Kipo’s mother. It was clear that she and her goons were wearing burrow jumpsuits, and as it seemed more and more like her mother wasn’t dead, so I assumed this had to be her. This was such a great misdirection. Assuming she’s the hero because of our opinions of Scarlemagne, it’s what gives this show such amazing rewatch potential as now you can go back and pay attention to her words and actions and realize what she’s genuinely like. But even on a character level, she’s a fantastic villain. Kipo is a master of Talk no Jutsu, a fan term from the Naruto fandom, as he had a knack for talking literally anyone into becoming his friend, even the ones actively trying to kill him. Steven Universe and Kipo seem to be the other two masters of this technique. But Dr. Emilia will likely be immune to this. She doesn’t strike me as the sit and talk things out type. Because there are times when words won’t stop people, but action will. Dr. Emilia is a villain Kipo can’t reason with, someone she can’t befriend with a good speech. But even on a philosophical level, Dr. Emilia is fantastic because while she’s clearly a villain, her goal isn’t inherently evil. She sees mutation as a bad thing and wants to restore mute DNA to their normal animal forms. Which is a large part of why humans need to live in burrows. She wants humans to not live in fear, and to restore animals to their genetic origins. At least in theory, it’s a benign enough goal. The problem comes when you consider that animal mutes have sentience. they can speak and express desires. Robbing them of that is akin to purposefully mentally disabling a group in order to be dominant over them, which adds to the great themes here because there’s a loose veil of animals as an enslaved species. Kept in cages or as pets, ruled over or hunted by man who views itself as the superior race, the same sort of thinking that white slave-owners used to rationalize their prejudice. Thus it’s also a loose allegory for Dr. Emilia wanting to return emancipated slaves back to their chains. This is why she’s such a good villain. At face value, her goal sounds sort of reasonable, but when you examine what she’s really doing, it’s incredibly dark and cruel. That level of detail and writing is amazing. Talk about a well-written villain. I’m sorry, I can’t stop gushing.

Kipo demonstrates three equally compelling types of villains, and handles all of them amazingly. Jamack is the hero’s villainous foil, on his own mirrored hero’s journey as hers. His situation is always an exact opposite of hers, as was his life experiences, which led to such a stark difference of ideas. Thus, why it takes her utterly alien character traits to kick start his character arc. Hugo is a beautifully flawed and tragic villain whose goal of bringing the mutes together under a single ruler is genuinely compelling, but you still don’t want him to succeed the wrong way. Yet, if he could achieve his goal in a less hostile and evil way, I doubt fans would be upset with him achieving this goal otherwise. It’s just his approach that’s problematic. Dr. Emilia seems reasonable enough on paper, but once you unpack what she’s really doing, you can read a really deep allegory for slavery and racial superiority into her character that really complicates the otherwise black-and-white opinion of her character. Each of these villains shows ways you can make a compelling antagonist, and if you read this without watching Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeats despite my spoiler warnings, do yourself a favor and watch it. You will not be disappointed.

[kinsey3furry300]

5 ships I hate, why I hate them, how to (kinda) fix them, the better ships you should be doing in that universe, and why you should ignore me and keep writing them if it makes you happy.

Note: this is done for amusement, please don’t be offended; I’m not attacking your ship, I’m just listing some ships I do not always care for, and how I think they could be improved, and maybe made brilliant, by clever writing.

In no particular order, and focusing on ships that often annoy me, with no attempt by me to say anything meaningful or popular about the current state of any particular fandom. I’m also a firm believer in the idea that there’s no such thing as a bad ship, only a badly executed ship, so my objections to these is less a dislike of shipping, or the paring, and more that they raise writing issues that I think are difficult to fix in a satisfying way. That’s why in a lot of the examples below I prefer AU ships to ones that try to messily work it into the cannon. Anyway, enjoy... I guess?

 Marco x / anyone (Animorphs)

Why I hate it: Animrophs is an intensely character-driven story, where the tension of each book comes from the conflicts, external and internal, that the five Animrophs (and Ax) face during a long, hard, traumatic war.  And while several of the character are paired off romantically, it’s always to emphasise character conflict over their different points of view. Jake and Cassie are a pair because Jake’s struggle with having to make hard, grey, morally ambiguous choices as leader is highlighted by Cassie’s burning need to make the right choice, the lesser evil, the choice that leaves some small shred of humanity and dignity and kindness left in this bleak world. Tobias and Rachel are a pair as their arcs deal with literal and figurative loss of humanity, as the slow accumulation of trauma over time turns these happy(ish), normal kids into psychologically ruined husks of their former selves and destroys them slowly, one fight at a time.

Marco’s arc, isn’t about either of these things: Marco’s arc, is about the bright, clear line between A and B, between problem and solution. Marco is a utilitarian, a pragmatist: his concern isn’t the burden of leadership, or the cost of the decision, but about how to put that all aside and make hard decisions that actually work regardless of cost. It’s not about what to do, the path is obvious: the bright, clear line of ruthless logic, but how to do it. His match, his counterpoint, the other character who’s all about the logic of taking awful decision in a way that actually works for the team, and his foil, his female counterpart in this, is not a romantic partner, but his mother: Visser one, making the exact same hard, difficulty ruthless decisions using logic and maths, but for the other side of this war. A romantic paring gets in the way of this arc because a partner doesn’t help him with that bright, clear line, and worse, any attempt to pair him of with either Rachel or Cassie breaks up not only a cannon paring, but their respective character arc.

How to (kinda) fix this: Marco’s arc is, at the end of the day, a trolly problem. So make sure whoever you ship him with is one of the people tied to the tracks. Introduce a character he crushes on, and then in the second act reveal that they are either a Controller, or in the family of a Controller or the proximity of the target of their next mission in a way that will make them collateral damage ,and let Marco struggle with what happens when that bright, clear logical line from A to B cuts through someone he actually loves; you know, like it did with his mother. See, even trying to fix this ship is weirdly Freudian.

The far better ship you should be doing: Ax x / EVERYONE. Ax in human form is described as a worryingly pretty, worryingly androgynous male of indeterminate race. He is a literally Bishonen alien hedonist with no familiarity with human senses, poor impulse control in human form, and no knowledge or understanding of human courtship rituals, and he can shape-shift, including into other members of the core team if needed to compel a mission, he calls Jake his prince,  and he is incredibly close to Tobias, the lonely outcast woobie that the LGBT fans adopted as their poster boy. Come on, the potential for shipping, both with wacky hijinks and sad, tragic star-crossed lovers’ trope is endless. Every line dedicated to Marco shipping is a line of text that could be dedicated to Ax trying to eat a Cinnabon erotically on his first date as a human and hulking out mid way because he forgot just how good they are. What could be better than him leaning into to erotically kiss a team-mate, and then fucking up due to his failure to understand human mouths, making weird mouth sounds, and then licking crumbs of the table in the middle of the mall, in front of the entire school, while his crush awkwardly tried to pretend this is normal? What’s wrong with you Marco-shipper people, do you hate fun?

 Riz/Tem (beastars) Why I hate this ship: Okay, just to quickly ask a question, to people who un-ironically like this as a serious ship and not a dark joke, just one little question: What’s wrong with you? I mean,are you okay? Keep taking the meds: the show is VERY clear on that point.

It’s like those people who say Joker X Harley Quinn is their ideal dark, edgy relationship: no it’s not, it’s abusive! Morticia x Gomez is dark and cool but CONSENTUAL and HEALTHY. This… this is a deeply imbalanced person murdering someone and telling themselves after that fact it was special and rare and magical. ITS HOMICIDE! And even if you write that out (and you shouldn’t, because that changes the character arc of every other major character) it’s still got more red flags that a soviet military parade. This is the botulinum of a toxic, one-sided teenage infatuation. Riz’s entire arc is about how he projects his thoughts and feelings about himself onto this idealised, made-up version of his and Tem’s relationship which, from Tem’s point of view, never existed. Riz never loved Tem: he loved the idea of Tem, the idea that someone would see the real him, see his inner pain and accept him anyway, but he never once told Tem this. He didn’t warn him “Hey, because of you I don’t feel I need my meds any more, do you mind if I try not taking them and we can meet and talk about this in a safe, well-lit pace?” He’s not honest with Tem, and on top of that It doesn’t make sense from the point of view of either of the characters for them to be actually, romantically in love (although  they were clearly close friends), because it undermines and cheepens Riz desire to just be seen and accepted for his real self, and the cannon Tem X Els ship. It also doesn’t make sense from a story point of view: Riz is a shadow archetype for Legosi. He’s what Legosi would have become if someone hadn’t interrupted his attack on Haru. That’s why Legosi needs to beat Riz with his own hands: because then he’s beating the darker version of himself he’s been carrying with him, and he can finally move on with Haru guilt-free. Having Riz and Tem’s relationship actually be what Riz imagined it to be undoes that. It undoes Riz’s interesting, dark inner struggle between truth and fantasy, it turns Tem’s tragic, unsolved murder that sets the entire story in motion into a just sort of weird Romeo-and Juliet suicide. It’s ruins the character arc not only for Riz, but for Legosi, and also, by extension, Louis and Haru, because Legosi’s internal angst over whether or not herbivores and carnivores can have a relationship as true friends needs this example of a tragic, flawed, toxic, failed friendship to bounce off of.

How it could (sort of) work: an AU where Riz’s attack on Tem is interrupted and Tem lives with a slight arm injury, and doesn’t tell anyone out of his complex feelings for Riz. Meanwhile, that bunny girl from the gardening club had been brutally devoured and Rz and/or Tem are so horrified with how close this was to their own near-miss, they start to investigate the murder, and in doing so get caught up in Louis’ inner struggle. Because that’s how the story needs to work, it’s about duality and struggle: and if Riz takes Legosi’s role, and by dating a herbivore he de facto takes the role, so Legosi must take Riz’s. This could be a great AU!

The better ship you should be doing: Pina/Riz (with a dash of Pina x Els), no, seriously, I’m not shitposting. You want to give Riz a redemption arc with a cute woolly boy? How about a story where Pina, out of a need for closure about at happened to him, starts to visit Riz in jail and they talk, mockingly at first, confrontational at first, but later Pina slowly becoming more fascinated in Riz and Tem’s life and asking Riz for more and more detail until they both bond over their shared traumatic experiences and their sense of loss for Tem’s senseless death, Tem’s unfished life casting a shadow over both off them. Eventually, the two of them find, from Legosi who still has the diary, that Tem had planned out an elaborate and beautiful first date with Els that he never got to take her on, and Riz, guilt ridden and sad than Tem never got this beautiful moment, decides to ask Pina take her on that date for Tem, with Riz coaching him by phone cyano-de-Bergerac style, Riz finally getting some closure that he helped one of Tem’s wishes come true and finally acknowledging to himself that Tem had a life and loves outside of him that were cut of short by his actions, and just crying over his lost friend, as Pina and Els slow-dance in Tem memory. Or if you just want to see Tem awkwardly date a carnivore boy from school, why not something less creepy and more wholesome and ship him with Jack? That would be cute AF, and more importantly, not romanticize brutal murder. Or an AU where everything is happy and nice, I’d argue at that it’s no longer Beastars at that point, but if it makes you happy, go for it. Let’s not shame anyone here.

 Snape X Lilly (Harry Potter)

Why I hate this ship: honestly, it’s not for the reason you think; I just like Snape too much as a tragic character, and making him in any way happy destroys his arc in my opinion.  The objection’s others have raised: that Snape acts in a worryingly possessive stalker-ish way towards Lilly, and that if Voldemort had gone for Nevil rather than Harry as a child Snape would have remained a loyal death eater, are true and I acknowledge them as having some validity, but that’s not why I can’t stand this ship. Snape is supposed to be a morally and emotionally complex, tragic figure. That “After all this time?” line was the best line in the Deathly Hallows.  Snape is supposed to show the equality destructive and redemptive power of  love. It’s sort of trinity: Lilly shows the pure power of true, unconditional love in her sacrifice to save Harry, Voldy shows what self-destruction and cruelty a life without understanding love leads to, and Snape sits somewhere in the middle: his one-sided  un-requited love being both the cause of his darkest, and his greatest actions. His curse, and his redemption, fall and rise. Making him happy messes that up.

How to (kinda) fix this ship: make them miserable. Make them fall for each-other only to be pulled apart by circumstance (you know, like they were in the darn original source material). You’re serious about making this a tragic, dark romance? Don’t ship them when they’re at school: Ship them during Voldemort’s rise to power, in the 80’s, after Lilly is married. Have the original Order of the Phoenix send her to meet with Snape and use their previous relation to try to milk some information out of him. Have her feel conflicted about it, have James furious about it, but have her do it anyway for the greater good. Have her meet up secretly with Snape who is angry and distrustful, knowing his must be a trap, and talk. Have the relationship slowly build over time against the backdrop of a cold-war spy thriller, as Lilly slowly realizes that she has some lingering feelings for Snape, but can’t reconcile them her loyalty to the order and her family. Make this a love story of conflicted feelings, divided loyalties, and spy-work against the background of drawing war-clouds. Have Snape offer to leave Voldemort, if she’ll leave the Order, and run away with him, but by that point she knows she’s pregnant and chooses to stay, out of loyalty even though she’s crushing on Snape. Have him show up at the rendezvous expecting for her to be there only for James to lead an Order Ambush, and a fight to ensure, on top of Tower Bridge in the howling wind and rain, Snape surviving but having his spirit crushed and fleeing before Lilly can tell him her true feelings. Make it big, and melodramatic, but above all, make it tragic.  Because that’s the only way Snape works as a character. Always.

The better ship you should be doing: Ginny X Nevil or Luna x Nevil: You want tragic lovers, at school, with divided loyalties, who never get together in the main cannon because a Potter ruins it and gets the girl? Ginny X Nevil. Write what was happening that final year Harry wasn’t at school when they took Dumbledore’s Army and make it work in earnest. Heck, you could even have Snape, as headmaster, hated by them but secretly trying to protect them as a secondary character to their secret, forbidden love. You don’t want to break up Harry X Ginny? Luna X Nevil is sweet and wholesome, but also tragic as they never get a chance, having their school life taken over by the horror of that final year and the need to fight for their very souls in a school run by Death Eaters and the trauma of the Battle of Hogwarts meaning that in order to put away the past and move on, they need to leave each other behind. Hell, do an AU where they canonically end up together, why not? They deserve happiness.

 Dean / Sam AKA Wincest (Supernatural)

Why I hate this ship: They’re brothers. The show even makes a joke about how squick this is. Several times.

How you could (sort of) fix this ship: You can’t: They’re brothers. The show even makes a joke about how squick this is. I guess a body-swap arc could fix this, as it’s less squicky if its just their bodies with someone else’s minds,  but seriously, the reasons why this shouldn’t exist are extensively covered in the show, and it was hilarious.  To be honest, I don’t hate this ship done as a joke, but I have seen some dark spots on the internet, and I can say with all honesty it’s not always treated as a joke. Some folks are really invested in this, and all I can ask is, is your home life okay?

Now, done as a joke, I’m 110% behind this. This is exactly the sort of insane wacky bullshit that makes for a good crack-fic. For example imagine that the supernatural threat of the week was book that made anything written in it come true, and the brothers are trying to find and destroy it, but they keep getting distracted by their burgeoning romantic feelings for each-other, and suddenly realise that the owner of the book is a fan on the in-universe novels, and writing slash-fic in the book. They need to find the writer before they make them do something they’ll both regret, but it’s just so distracting when Sam’s beautiful eyes are right there and- dammit, Sam, it’s happening again! Make Sam less concerned and even a little amused, with it, but make Dean hate what’s going on. Especially when the writer’s description suddenly makes Sam noticeably better hung that him. Make the villain turn out to be Becky from “Sympathy for the devil” and end with them trying to take the book away as she writes frantically to force them to do her bidding, and you’ve got yourself a good fic.

The better ship you should be doing: Cas/Sam or Cas/Dean or Cas/Sam AND Dean fic. Duh. Once again the show-runners beat the fans to the mark and pointed out that this is the best ship, and then they took it away just to fuck with us.

 Any Katniss ship that ignores her obsession with Emotional Security Logic. (The Hunger Games)

Why I hate these ships: Katniss is, briefly put, a mess before the books ever start, her father’s death and harsh upbringing have arguably given her PTSD before she ever volunteers for the reaping, and it doesn’t get better from there.  In psychology, Emotional Security Theory (EST) is a hypothesis that the heightened emotions surrounding repeated violent exposures leaves children vulnerable to dysregulated distress responses and eventual psychopathology, aka, why Kat be so messed up.  Her internal monologue makes the books completely clear that her choice in partners is not motivated by normal affections, but by deep, deep fear. A fear of loss, abandonment and death that leads her to make every decision about what minimises her, and her sister’s, exposure to potential physical and emotional harm. It’s frantic, fraught, cold survivalist thinking. And the other characters in the book notice and acknowledge it! “Which of us will she pick?” “She’ll pick whoever she can’t survive without.” Kat doesn’t like herself for it, but she does eventually admit to herself that she makes her decisions like this.

How do we fix this ship: Ship Kat with whoever you like, but give her a good reason to pick them: and in Kat’s mind “A good reason” is based on Emotional Security Logic, she needs to have a pressing reason why this ship makes her and her sister safer. Do that, and you’ve got yourself a good Katniss story. Don’t do that, and while you may or may not have a good story, the person staring in it isn’t Katniss Everdeen anymore.

The better ship you should be writing: Finick X Annie. Or, Haymitch prequel ships

FinAnn. This, this ship has some real potential to it, and is criminally underutilized. Finick and Annie’s relationship is one of the most tragic and romantic in the story, and has so much to offer. Or, if you want to have a hard-bitten character from district 12 struggling with trying to find love in the hellish combat of the games, do a prequel in which Haymitch finds love in the capitol during training, but loses then in the area and turns to drink as a result. Heck, you could even have some fun with this and turn it into a dark comedy, or a great tragic love story, whatever you like. It’s got potential, and his backstory is vague enough you could do a lot with it.

So, tell me below why I’m wrong, and have fun with your writing: just because I hate that ship doesn’t mean you should. Enjoy yourselves.

I’m off to write awful Ax/Pina/Luna Polyjuice’d into Nevil/Cas/Finick fiction set at an anime high-school that fights a magical war against other fictional schools, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[the-blue-fairie]

On what #bringelsahome COULD BE vs. what it has become...

Sometimes, I become sad because one of the first things I wrote after viewing Frozen 2 was a short ficlet repudiating Elsa’s line in Show Yourself as she was approaching Ahtohallan that “I’m arriving / and it feels like I am home.” You can read that ficlet here if you want to.

In that ficlet, I was expressing frustration with the fact that Show Yourself was connecting the concept of “home” with Ahtohallan and connections found through memory and the past instead of the living, breathing connections that can be found in life. In that ficlet, I was also disputing the film’s concept of change because, as I wrote, “Home is not a lineage, a source, a gift. Gifts are given. Home, you make for yourself. Each step, a step forward. Not into the cold ancestral wonder of Ahtohallan, but into the warmth of the future. Holding tight to those she loved was not the absence of change. It was change itself, each day carving out a new shape, a new bejeweled crystal more fabulous than any on the glacier.” And I ended that ficlet repudiating Ahtohallan and having Elsa turn back to the home she has made in Arendelle with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven. It was a ficlet born deeply out of my love of this image:

Now, the scary thing for me now is that there are parallels between my sentiments then and the... what do I call it? aggressive stance?... to #bringelsahome, which is rather unpleasant for me because that aggressive stance has become an excuse for racism and toxicity which I absolutely do not want to be associated with.

 But I’ve been thinking about something that @themountainsays mused about, and that @hb-pickle​ added to, asking what the ultimate goal of #bringelsahome actually is - because if the most hostile people actually wanted to change people’s minds or reach the creators, all they’ve managed to do is burn bridges and undermine their own cause.

I mean, look at me, when it comes to them burning bridges. I have conflicting feelings about F2′s ending and I’ve offered critiques of it - but the loudest members of #bringelsahome won’t look at those critiques because I openly reject the racism and toxicity that they push forward. 

But at the same time, there’s also a part of me that... understands where the basic sentiment to “bringelsahome” comes from and that’s gotten me to thinking about what #bringelsahome could be vs. what it has become.

I have friends who remain devastated by the ending of Frozen 2, and most of these friends have largely left the Frozen fandom either because they simply want to move on to other pastures or, even though they dislike Frozen 2, they’d rather not have any association with BEH - which... can you blame them?

But the pain of these friends, a pain they do not express in a toxic way, speaks to what #bringelsahome could be if it wasn’t rotted to the core by this point by racist rhetoric and aggression.

That pain actually emerges from a deep connection to Elsa and a valuing of Elsa’s connections to other people. These friends I’ve spoken with often reference a deep anguish that Elsa’s journey in Frozen 2 is structured so that she sheds traveling companions across the whole adventure - leaving Kristoff behind, leaving Anna and Olaf behind, going it alone when there is strength in working together and shorts like Frozen Fever and OFA highlight how when this found family works together, it has a positive impact on Elsa.

They wanted to see Elsa trusting Anna’s judgment, not pushing Anna and Olaf away in the ice boat, not falling into the same mistakes she did in the past... and their pain was heightened by the fact that, when Elsa seemed to fall back into those same mistakes, the film never really circled back to that or addressed it again... even when the film went out of its way to point out that Anna and even Olaf was angry. 

And... yes, it’s valid to say that Olaf - the most innocent and childlike character - becoming angry feels like a turning point of some kind... which then goes nowhere and that the film does nothing with. That’s a valid criticism of something that feels disjointed and off about F2.

And... I’d even argue that it’s valid to say that Elsa feels off at times over the course of Frozen 2 - and I’d put that down to, well, Elsa being “too much” for Disney. She means too many things for too many people. Her basic metaphor resonated with countless people - more than Disney ever imagined - and now they have to preserve that popularity, but the writers are trapped within the incredibly restrictive Disney system. They can’t make Elsa openly gay because the Mouse loves making money and making money means appealing to the broadest crowd, including the homophobes. And they want to keep Elsa broadly relatable so they try to lean into he concept of “magic” as an aspect of Elsa’s difference and also “explaining” that magic because certain people wanted an “explanation” for Elsa. 

But the problem with that vague (and therefore, in the film’s hope, broadly relatable) magic metaphor is that it’s vague and, unlike the previous movie, not really tethered to Elsa’s connections with people. The first movie, while it still used the metaphor of “magic as difference” grounded that metaphor in Elsa’s interactions with her sister, with the people of Arendelle, with how other human beings interact with her and the deeply human aspect of Elsa’s love for those other human beings. Frozen 2, in contrast, could have that... but it doesn’t.

I’ve argued several times over that Elsa’s arc in F2 would be stronger if the filmmakers had deeply enriched Elsa’s connection with the Northuldra, gave us more scenes of her bonding with her mother’s people, more scenes that expanded the Northuldra characters’ development. Maybe even start the film out with the deleted prologue focused on Iduna so we get the Northuldra’s perspective right fom the start and we can connect Iduna’s pain with Elsa’s own feeling of otherness.

Frozen 2... only gives a few brief scenes of Elsa with the Northuldra and has her shed members of her found family across the film... so F2 loses a human element that he first film never lost sight of. The “magic-as-difference” metaphor has to work more as metaphor, without the same human emotional grounding as the first film.

And because we don’t get those scenes with Elsa and the Northuldra and the film chooses to have Elsa leave behind members of her found family, I can understand why people would feel Elsa feels off in F2.

Because the film seems to care more about Elsa’s connection to magic than her humanity. That’s why there are several incidences of Elsa bonding with the spirits - and far less of her bonding with Northuldra characters.

This actually speaks to a legitimate, valid critique of the film - and people could use it to point out flaws in the film. Moreover, a critique like this could even be antiracist because it would be advocating for the expansion of the role of the Northuldra and more scenes of Elsa bonding with and learning about her mother’s people.

Critique actually has an important place within fandom - and critique can actually benefit the filmmakers if it is valid and valuable critique. Asking, “Why does F2 seem to care more about Elsa’s magic than her humanity and how does that undermine her arc?” is actually a valuable question. If the filmmakers reflected on it, then in a potential Frozen 3, they could make sure to reject the negative implications of distancing Elsa’s humanity. They could pause to think, “Oh, we didn’t INTEND to suggest this, maybe, but our second film did kind of give those implications, so let’s avoid those implications next time.” By EXPANDING the Northuldra characters. By reinforcing Elsa legitimately working together with her found family instead of feeling she has to go on alone.

That’s what bringelsahome could be - a movement to point out flaws in the film and a better way forward for the betterment of future projects.

Unfortunately, that’s not what it is - since the racism of certain people at its forefront has corroded it from the inside.

But I still find that tragic, because... it could have actually been something valuable. And there are aspects to it that still could be something valuable. And I still know many people out there with legitimate critiques who can’t voice their feelings about F2 because they disagree with Isa’s racism, so it doesn’t matter to Isa if they dislike F2; in her eyes, you’re either with her or against her...

[hamliet]

hello, in svsss what do you think of zhuzi-lang? his story is so sad but he gets so little attention :(((

Zhuzhi-Lang is actually one of my favorite characters in Scum Villain! Perhaps my second favorite after Luo Binghe, actually. His death devastated me. 

So, before I discuss him, I will recommend this excellent meta by @thisworldgodonlyknows. Basically, Zhuzhi-Lang has remarkable similarities with other characters in MXTX’s works (notably, as the meta discusses, Wen Ning, but also with Wei Wuxian, Luo Binghe, Su She, and even Hua Cheng). The trope is called “because you were nice to me” on TVTropes, and essentially it’s if someone is kind to a character who is usually treated unkindly by society, they become obscenely loyal and spend their life trying to earn that one act of kindness. If someone tells these characters they have worth, they become wildly loyal, trying to earn that person’s affirmation again and again. It comes from a highly insecure sense of self and from the fundamental question each of MXTX’s three novels ask: how can humans earn the right to be alive? 

The answer is that we are alive and deserve to be, and the right to live can’t be earned because it’s inherent. If you look at it, almost all of these characters end up dying at some point in a misguided attempt earn their right to live. Even if they have a happy ending, they die in the meantime; these deaths are not always directly attributed to these tendencies in the character, but are certainly somewhat connected.  

Zhuzhi-Lang dies trying to save both Tianlang-Jun and Shen Qingqiu. 

Luo Binghe is the only one who does not die but Luo Binghe is still considered dead for several years after being pushed into the abyss (which is at least a metaphorical death) by the same person who he was dedicated to serving. 

Wen Ning winds up a weapon; it’s noted his repressed resentment has been used post-death. His arc is about overcoming the idea that he has to earn the right to live even a second life, as Wei Wuxian wants him to live on his own and Wen Ning eventually decides to do so. 

Wei Wuxian kept trying to make it up to the Yunmeng Jiang Sect for taking him in (he says as much), which leads to misunderstandings that eventually result in his own death. 

Su She dies trying to save Jin Guangyao, and it’s all for naught in the end. 

Hua Cheng dies three times, each time for Xie Lian (mimicking Xie Lian’s three ascensions), and each time his death hurts Xie Lian. 

However, for each of these characters, it is absolutely not their fault that they feel they have to earn their lives. The biggest bad in all of MXTX’s works is society and its lack of empathy for those who are somehow deficient by its standards--and if you look closely, most if not all characters might be considered deficient, even the ones who pretend not to be. 

For Zhuzhi-Lang specifically, he was born to a snake demon clan. He isn’t regarded as a fully human/demon; instead, he’s literally trodden upon and looked at as a lesser being. This cruelty has embedded itself deeply in Zhuzhi-Lang: he is violent when someone is violent to him as a result thereof, but he is also kind to an extreme when people are kind to him. As the above meta I liked to says, he doesn’t understand the nuances of humanity (and when I saw humanity it isn’t limited to just humans--demons/ghosts/gods all fit this within the story), the nuances that enable characters to overcome their flaws and choose their own way to live. 

Zhuzhi-Lang is also a foil to Shen Qingqiu and to his cousin, Luo Binghe. Shen Qingqiu, after being transmitigated into the story as the villain, lives as if he has to earn his survival (oh and he also dies temporarily as a result), and lives without nuance. He believes he knows how the story will go, how it is written, even as he knows he’s rewriting parts of it. However, by the end of Shen Qingqiu’s arc, he’s realized he can make his own choices, he can even choose the genre of the story he’s living, he can change the fate of the world and his own fate. It was this fear and this primal belief that he knew how things would go, these constraints he put on his own actions as a result (like pushing Luo Binghe into the abyss), that led to much of the pain and tragedy. 

For Luo Binghe, he keeps trying to earn the kindness of Shen Qingqiu, falling deeply in love with him. Yet Shen Qingqiu, much like society itself, is afraid of Luo Binghe, so Luo Binghe tries all manner of rules to earn his appreciation and love but doesn’t succeed. When that fails, Luo Binghe decides to rewrite the entire world, combining the demon and human realm, not caring at all. He goes into a qi deviation, having completely let go of nuance, wanting to destroy the entire world to control the narrative he has never been allowed to control (and much like Zhuzhi-Lang, to return the world the cruelty it always treated him with). Shen Qingqiu saves him, of course, and it isn’t a coincidence that their ending is Shen Qingqiu telling Luo Binghe that if he will not be welcomed in their society, they will find a place where Luo Binghe will be welcomed. In other words, Shen Qingqiu learns nuance himself, learned that the nuance and loyalty of Zhuzhi-Lang is not inherently bad or harmful; in fact, loyalty is a good trait when it is nuanced. 

Although Zhuzhi-Lang’s life ended tragically and I’m still not over it, his life wasn’t pointless, and his legacy is not of a monster trodden into the dirt. Yes, some may remember him that way. But the calamity is not solved when Zhuzhi-Lang is nailed to a wall; it’s solved through an act of love and loyalty, through Shen Qingqiu committing to Luo Binghe in his extremely awkward and hilarious way. Even if many characters thing that Zhuzhi-Lang was a villain put down, the narrative counters this. Additionally, not all characters think as much: Tianlang-Jun is still alive and has another chance, and Shen Qingqiu learns the value of loyalty and assurance thereof, which enables him to prevent Luo Binghe following a similarly tragic path to Zhuzhi-Lang. 

[recentanimenews]

RECS: Want to Watch Old Anime? Discotek Has You Covered

Every anime season brings a new roster of hits, but the shows of the past recede into the distance. Certainly, there are some exceptions and niche fans keep the spirit of ongoing series like Gundam alive. But with the continued emphasis on new and exciting anime, it’s tempting to forget the multitude of great shows and movies that already exist.   The Discotek label has fought consistently over the past several years to ensure that anime’s past is preserved. Run by industry stalwarts, they’ve done the impossible time and time again: they tracked down the masters of cult OVA Project A-Ko, painstakingly restored the 2001 remake of Cyborg 009: The Cyborg Soldier from thousands of damaged tapes, and much of their best stuff is now available for streaming.

  If you’re looking for something a little different or simply looking for a new show to watch, why not travel back into anime’s past? Here are some great TV series and movies as enjoyable today as they were when they were produced.

  These are just my own recommendations, picked from the great sea of Discotek titles. But if you want to explore further, and check out titles including real-life inspiration on Yoko Taro, Sister Princess, you can find their shared Crunchyroll catalog list here.

  Note: The titles listed are largely only available in the United States and Canada.

  Movie Night

  Urusei Yatsura Movie 2: Beautiful Dreamer

    One of the best-known anime directors ever, Mamoru Oshii first made his mark with an outrageously popular animated sitcom: Urusei Yatsura, the series that put the queen of romantic comedy manga Rumiko Takahashi on the map. Oshii struck a balance throughout the TV series between hilarious comedy and experimentation, but it was in the second Urusei Yatsura film, Beautiful Dreamer, that he really went all out. This surreal time loop story keeps finding new ways to defy audience expectations throughout its runtime both as an atypical Urusei Yatsura tale as well as a sterling example of just how imaginative and ground-breaking the Urusei Yatsura anime could be at its best.

  GoShogun: The Time Etranger

    GoShogun: The Time Etranger is that classic anime standby: a film completely different in tone and content than the franchise that spawned it. Released four years after the original 1981 super robot series, The Time Etranger spends much of its runtime focused on the dreams and anxieties of sole female cast member Remy as she lies in a coma at the hospital. Examining “what happens after” a final super robot fight, it remains an enjoyable film with smarter writing than you’d expect.  The Time Etranger is also a notable favorite of the great 80sanime Tumblr.

  Night on the Galactic Railroad

    Kenji Miyazawa’s novel Night on the Galactic Railroad might be best known to English-speaking audiences as a reference point for anime like Mawaru Penguindrum and Galaxy Express 999, but in truth, it’s one of the most beloved Japanese children’s stories ever written. An anime film adaptation was released in 1985, directed by the famed Gisaburo Sugii and scored by Yellow Magic Orchestra member Haruomi Hosono. Also, the characters are all drawn as cats! While slow-paced, it’s a strong adaptation that captures the charming and whimsical spirit of the original novel.

  Other Discotek movie recommendations:

All the other 6 Urusei Yatsura movies

Jin Roh

Like the Clouds, Like the Wind

Ringing Bell

  Mecha

  Giant Gorg

    Folks talk up director Yoshiyuki Tomino as the key creative force behind the original Gundam. But don’t forget Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the talented character designer behind both Mobile Suit Gundam and Zeta Gundam. His most personal anime project is Giant Gorg, the story of a young boy who stumbles across a giant robot on a mysterious island. Rather than a Gundam-style war narrative, Giant Gorg is a proper adventure story in which the young cast spring from cliffhanger to cliffhanger. A white whale in American anime fandom for years, it was finally licensed for distribution in the United States in 2015. Don’t forget this fantastic mash-up between the Giant Gorg OP and the Perfect Strangers theme!

    Mazinger Edition Z

    In Mazinger Edition Z, cult-favorite director Yasuhiro Imagawa reimagines Go Nagai’s classic robot series to create a unified setting packed with pulpy thrills and conspiracies: The giant robot Mazinger has a past history involving the Greek god Zeus! The villain Baron Ashura is recontextualized as a deeply tragic villain with the best story arc in the series! We’re even given Tsubasa Nishikori, a Go Nagai staple who here becomes Imagawa’s best-written female character! 

  Mazinger Z is absolutely suffused with the spirit that made Imagawa’s earlier masterpiece Giant Robo so beloved and is an essential watch for any fan of that series. Not to mention that it ends with a cliffhanger brutal enough to make Go Nagai jealous.

  Other Discotek mech recommendations:

Dai-Guard

Gunbuster 2

Tetsujin 28

  Comedy

  Cromartie High School

    Anime comedies speak to the time that they were made, but there’s something uniquely timeless about Cromartie High School. You could say the show is funny because it’s set in a high school whose roster of delinquents includes a robot, Freddie Mercury, and a gorilla. But I think it goes even further than that: Cromartie High School is funny because its rowdy delinquents live lives just as boring as our own. When I watch Cromartie High School, I think not “what weirdos!” but “same, bro.” True in 2003, true in 2021.

  Other Discotek comedy recommendations:

Bludgeoning Angel Dokuro-chan

Cat Girl Nuku Nuku

Golden Boy

Samurai Pizza Cats

  Drama

  Key the Metal Idol

    Key the Metal Idol is a truly weird series. Directed and written by Hiroaki Sato, one of three animation directors who brought anime film masterpiece Akira to life, it’s the story of an android tasked by her creator to become human by making 30,000 friends. It’s a series that skewers the entertainment industry but is also loaded down with science fiction exposition. It’s a series that’s deeply in love with the work of David Lynch. Key the Metal Idol is flawed and idiosyncratic, but it’s also a genre-busting original far ahead of its time. And the opening credit sequence rules.

  The Twelve Kingdoms

    Fantasy anime are a dime a dozen these days, but for my money, no recent title comes close to The Twelve Kingdoms. The series has its share of magical creatures, epic duels, and even more elaborate fantasy worldbuilding than you can shake a sword at. But most of all, it’s a story about people and growth. Twelve Kingdoms puts its cast of scared teenagers in a crucible and subjects them to intense pressure until those teenagers realize, to their shock and genuine awe, that they can handle anything the world throws at them. Twelve Kingdoms deserves consideration along with Berserk as one of the greatest works of epic fantasy that animation has to offer.

  Other Discotek drama recommendations:

Hajime no Ippo: The Fighting!

Honey and Clover

Kaiba

True Tears

  What are your favorite older anime? Is there an anime BluRay or DVD you treasure most? Let us know in the comments!

    Adam W is a Features Writer at Crunchyroll. When he is not evangelizing Kaiba to his friends and neighbors, he sporadically contributes with a loose group of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? You can find him on Twitter at:@wendeego

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a feature, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Adam Wescott

[linkspooky]

Black White Getou Gojou

The past twelve chapters, a flashback arc to when Gojou and Getou were both in Jujutsu High together has gone into length about why the strongest duo broke up, and why Getou in particular defected from Jujutsu sorcerers to the side of curses. 

This is one of the most interesting arcs so far, as it provides a lot of foiling for two of the strongest jujutsu sorcerers in the series on opposite sides of the conflict, and it also elaborates what likely the central thematic conflict of the series is. And it all ties to Getou’s motivations which are a lot less black and white then they appear to be at first. Let’s elaborate on that under the cut. 

1. Gojou and Getou

Getou and Gojou are introduced to us in the flackback as polar opposites. Gojou is impolite, sardonic, and basically uses his overpowering strength to push around and bully others. He is just as pushy and rude as his older self is.

Whereas, Getou is much more calm and collected. Unlike Gojou who uses his overwhelming strength to pick on a girl, Getou goes out of his way to save her and then lectures Gojou to keep him in line. Gojou jokes around, Getou is serious. 

The two of them are quite different, but they also are indtroduced to the scene in the same way, by showing off a massive feat of Jujutsu. The one thing they have in common is their strength. 

Gojou starts out questioning the system, while Getou himself is a defender of it. However, their reasons for questioning and defending are both central to their character. Getou thinks the current system is the righteous one, it’s the one that helps the most amount of people. Whereas Gojou himself is not questioning the system because it’s unjust, but because he personally does not want to be responsible for other people.

Getou himself feels an incredible amount of responsibility. That is how he believes his strength should be used, for others. Gojou does not feel any responsibility at all, and mainly uses his strength for himself. While Getou and Gojou switch sides, Gojou staying with Jujutsu society and Getou siding with curses, their viewpoints and natures however do not change in this arc at all. Gojou is still irresponsbile and thinks the current system is wrong only because it limits him and believes strong people should not have to bow down to a system and should be able to change it, and Getou still feels a tremendous responsibility for everything around him. 

If you were to reduce them to the extreme points of their views. Gojou sees Getou as a child just repeating what has been told to him by others because he is too weak to come up with his own ideals. Whereas Getous sees Gojou as a child who wants to detach himself from any kind of responsibility and solve everything with strength. Once again that’s only putting them in the extremes of what their ideals represent, but they are so opposite that they constantly provoke each other. 

The manga references again and again how they funadmentally see the world in an opposite way. Gojou treats it all like it’s one big game (that’s a digimon reference) whereas Getou’s perception of it is very textbook. He believes the world is structured in ideas like right and wrong, whereas for Gojou the structure of the world is the same of that as a game. There are rules to get stronger, and rules to win. Gojou’s is a lot more impersonal, treating the world like a game tends to be that way. Whereas Getou’s is a lot more righteous. 

Getou is obsessed with what’s proper and right, and what he thinks the way things should be. He’s trying to find the right path for the world and he’s very aware of the people around him. Whereas, Gojou is very obsessed with his own personal strength and solves almost everything by strength.

He also tends to be way more mindful of others, as opposed to Gojou who thinks of himself and is in his own little world. Getou is shown sympathizing with the girl they have to escort, whereas Gojouo himself finds being soft on her to be an inconvenience. This isn’t to amke Gojou sound like a bad person (though he is kind of a jerk) just to point out that Gojou thinks of himself first fundamentally, and Getou fundamentally thinks of others before his own well being. These traits do not make Gojou good and Getou bad, because Getou thinking of others first is what drives him to tragedy. 

It’s also important to notice that Gojou is not someone lacking in compassion either. It’s just he can only ever show it in his own way. Put in another way, Gojou is very internal, and Getou is very external. Gojou is focused on his own little internal world, whereas Getou always considers the environment around him and that leads him to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. 

As different as they are Getou and Gojou are able to work together so closely, because they both perceive that ther’es something off about the Jujutsu system around them. When they both realize that the girl they were going to sacrifice as a vessel has her own wishes and needs, they no longer want to sacrifice her for the greater good and instead want her to live her own life. 

They also believed, naively so,  before this mission that their strength alone would be great enough to change things. What makes Getou start to crack is when he’s rendered utterly powerless to help an innocent girl right in front of his eyes. 

Getou fights with everything he has, and is completely helpless before someone who cannot even use Jujutsu. In the same situation where Getou cannot do a thing for the person in front of him, the person he wanted to protect, Gojou steps up and becomes the strongest. 

Which once again, while Gojou is someone who is capable of sympathizing with others, and reaches out to them in his own way, he’s also someone so perfectly suited to be a jujutsu sorcerer that he doesn’t really connect with the humans around him. He’s so strong he doesn’t really need to. He’s always been able to exist with strength alone. If Getou is far too connected to the physical world, to the worries of people, to the innocents who dies, than Gojou takes the exact opposite path he’s far too connected to the spiritual world. When together the two of them balanced each other out, but when their partnership breaks apart they both spiral in opposite directions. 

It’s even Gojou himself who suggests that they just murder all the cultists in revenge for the girl. That they just settle this now with strength in order to resolve their feelings of loss. Once again, Gojou isn’t unfeeling he mourns the girl just as much but in an entirely different way. He suggests the highly individualistic method of taking revenge. 

When Getou says that they should spare these people, he says so because he believes the system will take care of them. The system will take care of them and dismantle them so there’s no need to act on their own feelings. 

Gojou’s world is defined by his own personal meaning. Getou believes the system has meaning for shamans like them, and therefore they should strive to do the right thing. But this is only because of his belief that the system helps people because his desire really in the most basic sense of the word is to help others. Which is something that he comes into question when he is traumatized by watching a girl die right in front of him, a girl that was going to be a sacrifice to the system in the first place and a girl he could not save. 

However, both of the boys start to take unhealthy paths after this mission. Gojou decides to do everything alone, and because he was Getou’s anchor, Getou starts becoming lost as well. 

2. Getou’s Motivation

Getou’s fatal flaw that causes him to become disillusioned is not that he cares too little, but rather he cares far too much. A year later he cannot get over the death of an innocent before his eyes. 

The entire point of this sequence is to establish how someone good natured  like Getou who believed in the system, could slowly slip and start to radicalize once he not only sees the flaws in the system, but also how powerless he himself is to do anything about it. It’s not that one tragic thing happened, but rather he watches tragic things happen again, again, again, all for the same reasons. 

Getou is deeply invested in people, but he’s also invested in indivudals not the masses as a whole. The site of the cult is a traumatizing thing to him, because it’s a metaphor for the Jujutsu system at large. One little girl dies in front of their eyes, and they could care less, it’s like their suffering is entirely invisible. 

The majority is kept safe, due to sacrificing the minority over and over again. It’s that which Getou becomes fed up with, because he believed in this system, believed that it was his responsbility to help others following this path and yet he constantly sees others die around him and does not feel like he’s helping a single person. 

Jujutsu Kaisen is an interesting deconstruction from the ‘secret hidden world of magic’ concept because, keeping the world hidden is shown to actively make people suffer and even cause high school age students to constantly die in battle. Which is why I doubt Getou’s motivation is something as simple as “Kill all non-shamans” 

But rather become an enemy that forces the system to evolve, rather than being a piece upholding a system that’s fundamentally not working and relying on the sacrifices of a minority to protect a majority that has no idea at all about the existence of curses. 

What breaks him is the idea that all of his work, all of the sacrifices he’s watching is not protecting people at all He wants their sacrifices to have meaning at least. Look at the face he made when he realized that after everything they went through with that girl and the innocent he let die, just another innocent girl is going to be raised to be a vessel and sacrificed. 

He loses his trust in the system, because he believes that the system is just getting Shamans killed over and over again rather than trying to affect a true change. 

Getou did not want to change the system so he could end his own burden. While yes, his main flaw is he feels too much responsibility for others, what breaks him is watching the suffering of other people around him. The incident which causes him to defect is when he sees ignorant people hurting two innocent children once again. 

He does not hate them because their weak. He hates that their ignorance forces suffering on others. Getou is, in all essence, a deconstruction of a messianic figure. The way his fingers are posed in this cover art is a reference to christ.  THe fingers spell out “IC XC” a widely used for letter abbreaviation of the of the Greek for Jesus (IHCOYC) Christ (XPICTOC). The hand gesture is specifically a blessing, by the name of Jesus people of faith are saved and received blessings. 

His wish to save everybody, to martyr himself for the sake of a better world is what leads him to the side of curses and to defect from Shamanism. His flaw is that he feels the pain of others far too much, and because of that cannot make sense of his own feelings. He’s driven by the system around him to reform it. 

And finally we hit the central theme of the series. The Jujutsu System creates it’s own curses. That is to say, the current system is flawed and only treats symptoms rather than the cause. Not only does the system create Getou, but an antagonist of this arc, Megumi’s father only was radicalized in the first place because he was worthless to the Zen’in family due to being born without any cursed energy at all. 

He is just another one of the sacrifices, not only that but his son was stolen away from him at a young age, to the point where he almost forgot his name until the last moments. 

In action the system is creating it’s own greatest enemies, and simply fighting against curses only keeps a broken system in power. While Getou is lost currently and has fallen to extremism, that does not mean he is wrong and the central conflict of the manga will most likely be about reforming this system that is manufacturing it’s own greatest enemies. 

The enemy in this series is not just the curses, but the humans who make them. 

[serotocin38]

MXTX Superlatives #4: Best Arcs

Winner: Yi City Arc (MDZS)

Runner-Up: Black Water Arc, AKA BeefLeaf (TGCF)

NOTE: THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL OPINIONS.

[SPOILERS]

These two also happen to be two of the most popular arcs of the three MXTX novels, but here’s why I think these two are the best (and hence, most popular). 

Simply put, the Yi City arc was a tragic love story. It was an entire story that could have gotten its own 500k word novel. But why a love story when all there seemed to be was deception, blood, and death? Because no matter how you look at it, the characters in that arc did love each other, some on a more fucked-up level than others. 

Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen are literally sworn brothers and best friends (maybe more, however you wanna see it). The cultivation world couldn’t mention one without bringing up the other. Xue Yang knew just how close they were and sought to get revenge on XXC through SL, and he was completely successful. XXC loved SL, so he broke his vow to his teacher, and willingly gave up his eyes for him.

XY had a very strong love-hate relationship with XXC, with the love likely stemming from the hate. XY hated XXC and everything he represented, but after living with him for three years, there was no way he still just hated him. XY did not make any moves to harm XXC during that time, and it was only until he had no choice because SL showed up that XY revealed it all. 

But he thought that just maybe XXC would value the years they spent together just a little bit, that maybe he had broken XXC’s unconditional devotion to SL, so he did not take into account XXC’s suicide. XY’s desperate gathering of the remnants of XXC’s soul, carrying it around for years, no doubt searching and attempting to piece it back together again before practically begging WWX to fix it.

And all the way up until the end, XY had not given up on XXC. The tiny candy that XXC had given up was kept on his persons for heaven knows how long. Even XY’s last words are one last desperate scream for something of XXC’s. He already lost, he was a dead man, and XY knew it, so why did he still scream at LWJ to give him the sword, when he logically knew that LWJ would never hand it over? Xue Yang did love Xiao Xingchen. It wasn’t healthy for either of them, but there was no doubt some sort of that sentiment there.

And finally, to tie up the tragedy of it all, SL comes to years later only to find that XXC is dead, and all he wants to do is apologize to XXC.

And that’s not even mentioning A-Qing and her depth of her love and sacrifice, and I would love to get into her, but this analysis is already too long, and I need to move onto TGCF. 

Ahhhh, the Black Water Arc. Another story of love, betrayal, and hurt, but with a (slightly) happier ending, because it also comes with a hint of forgiveness. To start off, He Xuan was cheated out of the glorious destiny he was supposed to have, and ended up with an extremely shitty future, and he wanted revenge. Shi Wudu just wanted to save his little brother. Shi Qingxuan was just blissfully ignorant, and that was his only flaw.

HX’s revenge was targeted at SWD and mainly at SWD. He did not blame SQX for his ignorance, he blamed SWD for never telling SQX. HX infiltrated the heavens, probably without the intention of making friends or building relationships beyond those necessary to carry out his spying and whatnot, but somehow ended up as SQX’s best friend?? For years, HX followed by SQX’s side, humoring his every whim and request. 

HX is a powerful demon king. One of the four Calamities. He doesn’t need to be following SQX around, listening to him chatter and go around in female form. But he did, and that’s why I think HX is another instance of love stemming from hatred.

Yes, the hatred was directed at SWD, and maybe SQX’s good fortune despite never really working for what he got. But the thing is, HX didn’t want SQX to get hurt. Injuring SQX never crossed his mind. In fact, HX even gave SQX chances for redemption. He just wanted SQX to choose him. Just one time, to choose his supposed best friend over his somewhat of an asshole brother. 

To put this into a bit of perspective by bringing in SVSSS [spoilers]: Luo Binghe’s character is deeply rooted in the same idea. He just wanted his shizun to choose him once. He just wanted Shen QingQiu to put aside his morals and other people, and choose him. When SQQ didn’t, he went berserk and tried dramatically destroying the world or something.

So back to HX, he just wanted to be chosen over SWD once. When SQX didn’t, HX went on a rampage and killed SWD. And that was the end of his revenge - his life was ruined by SWD, so he killed him. Simple as that. He was satisfied after that.

But that’s the thing, was he?

I shed some tears over their story while reading it, I’ll admit, but it did not take very long for it to fade into the background as just another shit storm in the course of the novel. What really made it come back and haunt me was that HX came back for SQX. He fixed SQX’s fan and gave it back to him. 

So did HX care about SQX? Without a doubt. Was it love? Personally, I think so. Because HX made it clear that after he got his revenge, he had no more reason to meddle with the affairs of the heavens. He was content to just do his own thing. And some may argue that HX only came back because he owed HC, but I think on some level, HX still cared.

So I still have some hope for BeefLeaf. I’m just glad they got hopeful endings in the novel, and I believe they both went on to find their happy endings, perhaps crossing paths a few more times.

That being said, it’s not that the other arcs are shallow or unimportant, I just think these two really capture both human essence and were just spectacularly developed, both towards the side characters but also the main plot and the main characters.

[sagesilentfire]

I'm looking for a trans sensitivity reader (for Marcie) and possibly a poc sensitivity reader (for the monsters vs mewmans plot), so if you're available, please tell me, and we'll figure something out.

Forgive my inability to draw humans, please.

I know this is a big departure from my usual content, so I'd like to make sure you know that watching SVTFOE is not necessary to enjoy this AU, as everything needed to understand the plot is explained in-story. In fact, I'd love to have someone who's never even heard of a svftoe to read it so I can make sure it makes its own logical sense.

Anyways... 

(putting this under a read more for your scrolling purposes)

Hi. I'm Sage, and I would like to talk about a show I really liked. The past tense being the operative, as it used to be good, but...

I started watching SVTFOE after watching the great Steven Universe, which meant I had high expectations for it. And it met those expectations! From the beginning I was hooked. It was a good show. But as the seasons went on, it started to... rot.

Now, something to know about me is that I do not invest myself wisely. I love the things I love deeply and with passion. I get attached easily, and I love to theorize about the things I love. So I was heartbroken when SVTFOE ended the way it did, with none of my questions answered.

And when my theories were better than canon, well, that meant I had a new project: a complete rewrite of Star vs. the Forces of Evil. This AU will start similar to canon, but gradually diverge from it until it's something completely new. It will also have five separate "seasons".

So here's my AU: Star and Marcie and The Forces Of Evil (aka samatfoe). This AU will tear apart the scraps of lore that we got from SVTFOE and expand on it and make new lore, all narrated by my lovely OC, Sílthéy. And I promise I will get to as much as possible. If you're worried, check the titles of all of the chapters, which will hopefully reassure you that, yes, I will get to everything (or at least everything I've thought of ;)).

Dramatis Personae:

Star: Star will mostly stay the same in the first few seasons, but I'll try to have her actually grow and mature while staying a good person in the later seasons. She'll also be a bit more fire-aligned, because I wanted to be able to tell my Star and the canon Star apart easily. (She also doesn't get those wings until Mewberty.)

Marcie: is a trans girl. The entire second "episode" will be about her being trans. And I will, again, try to not have her act like a jerk in later seasons. She also won't be an adult trapped in a teenager's body, as that was waaay too weird for me. Instead she won't age in the Neverzone, period, and there will be an episode dedicated to her re-adjusting to Earth and discussing what the whole "spent a decade and a half in eight minutes" thing means for her. And, of course, she'll be more involved with the Mewni plot, as she will be interested in learning the lore behind Mewni from the beginning and push Star to find out more about Mewni.

Ludo: Ludo's story will not effectively end with the Battle for Mewni. He will get a redemption arc, with all the pitfalls and trip-ups that come with that. And all of his flaws and issues will be brought up, now just forgiving him for everything he did because he had bad parents. And Dennis will continue to be a cinnamon roll. Some things never change.

Buff Frog/Yvgeny: will not change. He is good lad.

Toffee: This is the big one. Where to start, and how to start it without spoiling everything I have planned? Well, let me tell you this: Toffee is getting a complete overhaul. For one thing, I now made them agender for various complicated reasons that will be revealed in-story, eventually. And for another thing, they will get an actual backstory and personality! Isn't that a novel idea! And they will not die abruptly and nonsensically in Battle for Mewni, so don't worry about that.

Jackie: Oh, Jackie. You poor dear. Jackie will not be delegated to the role of "one-time love interest who just skateboards out of the plot". First of all, Marcie will only have a squish (a platonic crush) on her, because I don't trust my aro/ace self with the weird things people in romantic love do to get together, but I do know what it's like to desperately want to be friends with someone. Secondly, while she will be out of the spotlight in later seasons, it'll be because she's on an exchange trip to France, not because we're abandoning her character and her world for no good reason.

Janna: never changes. Pretty sure she's the one constant of the multiverse.

Tom: will have his redemption arc earlier in the story so I can use him for things, but other than that will not change much.

Moon: First of all, she will not betray everything her daughter stands for by siding with Mina this time. There are plenty of other ways Mina could rise to power, so there's no need to ruin her character by making her do a stupid, illogical thing that even a five-year-old would see was stupid. I mean, she's still going to be kind of racist, but she's well-established to be level-headed and even a little clever, so she will not do something that would so obviously blow up in her face. Secondly, she will be a bad ruler, hence why Mewni is a total mess, but she will learn and become better and help Star's efforts to improve Mewni.

Glossaryck: is... changing. He won't "lose" his sanity for season three, but he will also not be in a totally heroic role. It's a complicated thing and a bit of a spoiler, so I'll leave it at that. Also, he's a dragon now Because Reasons (no, seriously, I have a reason for it. It's also a spoiler).

River: River will be goofy, like usual, but he won't be plot-destroyingly stupid. I'll try my best to not make you question why he's even king while still making him a foil to Moon. It's the tightrope I must walk.

Angie and Raphael: Will not completely disappear from the plot in later seasons, but will instead be like a second family to Star and will be a refuge when her overbearing Butterfly side gets too much.

Kelly: Will not be involved in a stupid romantic subplot with Marcie. Sorry. Other than that, Kelly will remain pretty much the same, aside from now being tiny, because that's just how she came out in my art. She's pretty cool.

Miss Heinous: Will not be Meteora this time around. I disliked how Heinous hurt so many people and was a horrible person, but as soon as her Tragic Backstory™ was revealed, all that pain and suffering she caused was ignored in favor of making her Super Duper Tragic™. So I'm separating the characters. Don't worry, though, she'll get the backstory and character arc she deserves.

Saint Olga: Saint Olga will be the main motivator for Miss Heinous's actions, as she is desperate to please the robot. Other than that, Saint Olga won't actually get much character. She's a bad guy, pure and simple.

Meteora: will not turn into a baby. She will deal with the consequences of her actions like a mature, responsible sixteen-year-old. But because she's sixteen, things won't be too harsh when she does snap. She'll still have her mother and father to help her and guide her.

Eclipsa: Regarding Eclipsa's design, I tried to make her fat, but... I don't know if it translates well in my art. I'm just not that good at art yet. But aside from that, making her cheekmarks dark gray (spades are a black card, not a red card! That bugged me so unreasonably much), and giving her as much of a connection to Toffee as the show implied, I'm not changing much about her. She was one of the good characters.

Globgor: Will have fought against mewmans in the past, but not have eaten them (what were the writers thinking?! Making your metaphorical poc eat people is... not good). And it will be more of a case of Star and Eclipsa knowing he is good and should be released from the crystal, but the general mewman populace not accepting it, until Cornonation, where he proves he's a good guy.

Shinjai: Is a new character I am thrilled to introduce to you all! She came from me thinking that for someone who supposedly wants to end mewman-monster racism, Star sure doesn't have any monster friends (Buff Frog doesn't count. He's an adult, and they don't really hang out so much). So here's Shinjai! She's a septarian, and is introduced instead of Princess Smooshy in Sleep Spells. She's a very minor minor monster noble, and her family has about as much political power as your average worm on a sidewalk after it rains, but all noble monsters must go to Saint Olga's Reform School for Wayward Royalty, so she runs away and gets help from Star and Marcie. She's mostly made to replace Pony Head: she's spunky and... uh, actually she's nothing like Pony Head. She's also unafraid of asking difficult questions and knows more about the plot than she lets on.

Rasticore: is very different from his canon counterpart: he only allies with Heinous and Saint Olga to keep an eye on them for ~someone~, and thoroughly dislikes them, despite agreeing to their mission. He also can regenerate as quickly as Toffee, he just chooses not to for ~reasons~. He also has a mysterious partner, but we all know it's – *gets clubbed over the head by Síthéy*

Mina: Making fun of mental illnesses isn't funny kids. Therefore, Mina is the only neurotypical member of the cast. She does boring neurotypical things like... I dunno, cleaning? And she's still a threat: bigotry and hatred are not exclusive to people with mental illnesses, after all.

Lilacia: Now, Lilacia Pegasus, the horse formerly known as Pony Head, will... exist. She won't be as overwhelmingly annoying, hopefully, as she is in canon. And to make sure she feels consequences for her actions, there will be a subplot in season two about her and Star growing apart as Star grows and leaves Lilacia's annoying party girl antics behind. Lilacia will have to realize that her immature actions are making Star leave her behind, and she'll have to grow as a person because of it.

Then there's a mysterious character who is very mysterious and does mysterious things and has a mysterious personality and is generally mysterious... mysterious. She'll be introduced in the second season and will be as mysterious as promised, I swear.

And finally, of course, it will be narrated by Sílthéy. She will tell this story, and her part in it, for all to hear. Or read? It's a bit of a strange medium, storytelling on paper. Or on a screen, whatever.

Now, of course, by now you must be wondering: What about the shipping? The shipping's the most important part, right? Well, here is my answer: There will be no ship wars. There will be no love dodecahedrons. There will be no cheating, no lies, no throwing other characters under the bus for stupid romantic drama. Why? BECAUSE STAR AND MARCIE ARE BOTH ARO/ACE. Suck on that, Starco! I am the last person to trust romantic drama with, so all of the romantic relationships in this bandwagon will be established, healthy relationships that have decades of chosen love and appreciation for one another behind them. And past!Tomstar and brief, schoolchild-crush-esque Star/Oskar but that doesn't count.

So, I believe that about wraps things up for this post. I'll start posting chapters soon, and will post two chapters every other week, and I'll release the descriptions of them two weeks before I post them. If you have any questions, please ask them! I want to work on my drawing skills, so I might even draw something for them!

Description for next episodes:

Star's Birthday: Star is a young, wild princess who is about to receive her family's most precious heirlooms.

Trouble in Diazland: Star is put under the care of the Diaz family, but can't quite seem to connect with their son, Marco.

And, finally, I have thank yous! These are mostly people I watched but haven't really interacted with yet, so if you get tagged know that you don't know me, I just followed you for svtfoe content. And for, you know, your personality.

Thanks to ankle-beez for being hilarious and reminding me why I made this AU when you relentlessly drag svtfoe. Thank you to @full-moon-phoenix, @dappercritter, and the lizard squad for my regular dose of Toffee. Thank you morningmark and @jess-the-vampire for keeping me invested in svtfoe as a whole. Thanks to svtfoe-critical and @twinklecupcake for good ideas. Thank you to TBlofeld on AO3 for your amazing AU, Monsters, Mewmans, Magic, that, while we took things and ran in completely opposite directions, still inspired me to complete mine. And thank you to Blue Order, whose deeply hilarious and deeply accurate video "How Star Vs the Forces of Evil Fell From Grace" inspired me to create this story in the first place. And, of course, thank you to whoever on the svtfoe wiki writes down the transcripts to every episode. You've helped me so much. I admit that I didn't follow all of your guys' advice, but you did help me get here, every one of you. So thank you.