#how ignorant do you have to possible be to base her entire character arc on that

[biggesthomuradefender]

every time someone reduces sayaka’s character to only turning into a witch “over a boy”, an angel literally dies.

[onehundredandeleventropicalfish]

In your opinion which of the Endless do you think has the hardest job and why?

short answer? death

slightly less short answer - either death, dream, or none of them, depending on the angle you're looking at it from

long answer... they're all perfectly suited to the task they were made for, so in the sense of physical ability, none of their jobs are difficult. which means difficulty can only be measured by emotional toll. and that's not really based on the job so much as it is on how much they care

the big thesis in sandman is that life = change. that's an equation that cuts both ways, and a theme that runs through almost every character. the endless, as the fundamental aspects of life, all have power over something that can change people, right to their core

and that's a huge responsibility, which they all have their own ways of coping with

we never learn that much about how it affects destiny or despair, but death had a huge character arc to go through (everything she says in the show is originally in a winters tale, as well as the fact that she stopped collecting souls, because it was getting to her too much - until she realised that was doing more damage), so now she copes by finding meaning and purpose in it, by befriending everyone she comes to take, by living in some ways a human life of her own

desire ignores it, and tells themselves that mortals don't matter to them, so why should they care who gets hurt? they turn it all into a big game and they don't let themselves think about it for even a second, because if they did it would destroy them (the narration tells us this at the end of dolls house)

destruction didn't cope with it, he left, and refuses to let there ever be another destruction of the endless

and del... just observes it. she accepts the difficulty and the responsibility, and sees it with a lot clearer eyes than her siblings. and sometimes that means she's the most fit to cope with it. other times it breaks her too, and that's when she gets her bad days

the reason i list dream as a possible option here, is because dream is not coping. he's trying to do everything his siblings do at once and none of it is working for him. he can't be desire, because he cares too much about mortals to ignore and laugh at them. he can't be death because he doesn't see himself as someone with a life, just someone with a job - that has to come before everything else. he can't be destruction because again, he values his purpose more than his happiness, leaving is inconceivable. and he can't be delirium because that would require him to see the world as it really is - and his nature runs fundamentally contrary to that

so that could be why dream. but this could also be why none of them - because that's not really the job that's hard, so much as it's not working for dream specifically. if he was somebody just slightly different, he'd be able to handle it a lot better

(the other reason i might consider dream is the vortexes - we don't see enough of the other endless to know if this is something they have to deal with (or something similar), it might be, so this might not be a dealbreaker? but it's definitely not easy for dream, overture goes into that plenty, he viscerally hates the idea of killing people, it goes against everything he is, and yet he has to, or the entire universe will die. and that's a tough responsibility to have)

so why death? because she's the only one who will never die. she doesn't, herself, change, not even if you force a reincarnation like with dream. her sigil will stay the same forever, the necropolis only holds six funeral cerements - death is unlike the others, its written in the rules. it's not the only way she's an exception either; it's mentioned at one point in brief lives that the endless all feel uncomfortable in each others' realms, they can sense that this place is made of an entirely different energy to the one they're used to. except death, who can traverse all the other realms as easily as her own, because even her siblings have to die eventually

more people under your charge, more people to care about. the more it hurts if you let it. her job covers every being in existence, and for the most part it involves being something they don't want you to be. she has had every negative emotion people are capable of directed at her, in a much more first-hand way than her siblings may get. and you have to be okay with it, you have to

because the only way to be free of it is to be the only person left in all existence

[usuallydyinginside]

⚠️This entire post is one big spoiler for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. You’ve been warned. ⚠️

I accidentally created the most angst-filled story possible my first time playing, and I desperately need to tell someone so here it goes.

Okay, so we begin with Rook as all DAV games do. Mine is a mage from Treviso. A Crow who is in trouble for ignoring orders to save a group of prisoners (Varric among them). When she does this, it endangered a larger operation, and she basically got sent away as punishment. That’s okay, though, because she gets to go help Varric on his fun little mission to stop Solas.

Enter: Neve Gallus. She’s beautiful, funny, and my god is the absolute icon of a detective I never knew I needed in my life. It’s love at first sight for me (though less so for Rook). Their banter is 10/10 from the get go.

At the ritual, we’re tasked with choosing someone to go with us into further danger. I was terrified the person would die, and I came into the game SO excited to have Harding on the team, so I couldn’t risk her. I brought Neve with me instead.

Which, of course leads to Neve being visibly hurt for a solid first bit of the game. Literally just me standing over there flirting while she’s got a massive bruise across her face that came from my decision. Yay.

When The Choice comes up it takes me by surprise. What the hell does the game mean I have to choose a city?!? How can I choose between my own hometown and the deeply beloved home of my one true love? (Because yes, by now Rook is smitten but I have given this woman my whole heart). Because of the way the choice is presented (that it’s civilians most in danger in Treviso) and based on it being my backstory-related place, I figure the best narrative is saving them.

Besides, Neve will understand…… right?!?

As anyone who’s gone this route knows, Neve is PISSED. She leaves the party for a while and sends notes you can just feel the hurt wafting off of. It’s obvious why when you visit Dock Town. The choice warns you about the cult taking over… but not that basically every single Shadow Dragon will be murdered, blighted, or absent for the large majority of the rest of the game. Not that Neve’s own home is destroyed along with every possession she has that isn’t currently in the Lighthouse. Not that the literal base of the SDs is destroyed and the org is basically no more.

Like, of COURSE she’s mad.

By this point, I miss Neve, and I feel guilty as hell, so I go down all of the quests that I can in her city. It changes nothing because approval doesn’t happen when she’s not in the party and Neve’s return is based on the main plot moving forward. Which means that I basically shot myself in the foot and made it ten times harder to win her approval, because most of the easiest quests are done and gone.

So when Neve gets back, she stays pissed and sad a LONG time. I have her in my party for every quest and it takes nearly all of them to get her even with the rest of the party in Act 2, because now she has the “hardened” status.

But finally, eventually, I do get her there and I’m able to romance her!! She understands my impossible choice now that she’s had some time, and we get adorable cut scenes.

All through these, the theme is clear: Neve’s driving character arc, particularly in romance, is that good things don’t last. Every spot of luck comes with a catch.

So you? You must be a temporary thing to her. She can’t count on you to be there, because somehow, she will lose you.

Which, of course, takes us to the point of no return.

Neve’s final romance scene before you go off to face the gods (again) is essentially an argument. She refuses to talk about you both having a future together because it scares her to even try to believe it’s possible. She calls you her favorite nickname a lot—Trouble and even notes she chose it well. That you’re loads of trouble for her once carefully protected heart.

On the choice between Bellara vs Neve, I chose Bellara because I do not trust this game, and I am finishing this goddamn romance at this point or so help me. This is actually the more tragic outlook for Neve though! 🙃 First, she disapproves and believes that it shows you don’t have faith in her as she suspected, confirming her belief you can’t be counted on. Then, she’s not lost in a fog of blight for days.

Oh no. She gets to be there to feel ALL of it.

When Solas tricks Rook and locks her in the prison of the fade, Neve’s worst nightmares come true. The catch has made itself known. The tables have turned. Fate has proven her cynicism right once again.

Good things don’t last.

Neve spends TWO WEEKS kicking herself for believing it could be her have been different. The whole world is doomed as far as she knows, and that’s not what she’s thinking about. Even with Dock Town at the center of the fight—the city she adores and never stops talking about—that’s not where her head is at.

It’s locked in the fade with you. Her heart.

When Rook reappears, Neve can scarcely believe it. She talks about the fact that somehow after all that, she did have hope you’d come back. That part of her was holding onto Rook’s personal brand of optimism even through her panic.

Her first words to you in that cutscene are “You came back.”

You can hear her surprise. Like even then, she can’t quite believe it.

Finally you hit the turning point where Neve stops living so cautiously she can’t enjoy the present and what you have together. She’s able to admit she loves you.

And when the game ends, Dock Town is even more destroyed from the events of Act 3, but this time, Neve doesn’t use it as a way to push you away. This time, she knows you’re in it together. They you’ll help rebuild together.

After every impossible choice… every tragedy… every hardship, you’re together.

Now, you can only prove it was worth all the trouble. ❤️

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi! I like your RWBY metas. I had some questions related to a few headcanons and observations I have. Ruby being the one to save Cinder from her Grimm corruption with the silver eyes is fitting. It’s been set up consistently through the story with the way the eyes are linked directly to Cinder as her bane. The eyes are linked to the GoL’s creation, and the preservation of light. However, Jaune’s semblance is also linked to the same things, and linked to Cinder as well. Do you think Cinder’s salvation could come as a result of Ruby’s silver eyes and Jaune’s semblance working in tandem? The silver eyes do destroy the Grimm, but they also damage her body. Jaune’s semblance is based around protection and healing. Is there a synthesis to be reached there?

Hi!

Thank you for your nice words!

So, about Jaune's semblance, it is definately possible it will play a role together with Ruby's eyes.

After all, Jaune's semblance has been a recurring element in the different climaxes of the series:

In Vale, he does not have it and he fails to do anything (ignorance)

In Mistral, he unlocks it and saves Weiss (creation)

In Atlas, he realizes he has not enough time to use it to save Penny (destruction

In Vacuo (or Vale if we have a final mini-arc there), he might have to choose if to use it to save Cinder or not :)

That said, my personal favorite headcanon when it comes to Jaune and Cinder is that Jaune will symbolically become Cinder's maiden at heart.

What is a maiden at heart?

So far, every arc has had three maidens:

The first is a very minor character, who ties into the plot (Amber, Vernal, Fria). They are relevant plot-wise and when it comes to foiling to more important characters. That said, they are not super important characters

The second is the maiden, who ends up having the powers. They are Cinder, Raven and Winter. They are important characters, but they do not really embody the theme of their gift.

The third is a character who embodies the Gods' gift. They are Pyrrha for choice, Yang for knowledge and Penny for creation.

Winter: No, Penny. You were always the real Maiden at heart.

They are the ones, who deserve the powers, but do not get it. And yet, they are the real maidens of the arc and they teach the viewers and the titular maidens what choice, knowledge and creation are all about.

Yang shows Raven that acquiring knowledge does not mean to become a coward. She also wins against her mother in their wisdom battle. Yang gets self-knowledge, whereas Raven avoids who she has become.

Penny shows Winter what creation is by symbolically "creating" her with her final acts. She shows her creation is rooted in love and freedom, rather than in repression and duty. She is Pinocchio, who creates the Blue Fairy.

So, what about Cinder and Pyrrha? They do not get to have this exchange because they fail to communicate:

Pyrrha: Do you believe in destiny? Cinder: Yes.

Like the other couples of Maidens, Cinder and Pyrrha meet during the climax of an arc and the Maiden at heart tries to teach the titular Maiden an important truth.

The problem is that Cinder kills Pyrrha before she can fully express what Choice and Destiny are really about. However, Pyrrha has taught someone about the gift she embodies:

Pyrrha: Do you believe in destiny? Jaune: Um... I-I don't know. I guess that depends on how you view it. Pyrrha: When I think of destiny, I don't think of a predetermined fate you can't escape. But rather... some sort of final goal, something you work towards your entire life.

Jaune is the only one, who has been explained by the Maiden of Choice what Choice is. So, he should be the one, who passes this Knowledge to the Maiden with power. This would be the perfect climax for his arc because:

He would symbolically integrate with Pyrrha by inheriting her mission and her most noble traits

He would solve his ongoing conflict with Cinder by finally coming to terms with Pyrrha's death

Moreover, in this way he would symbolically become Cinder's Maiden at Heart, which would fit perfectly with Jaune's arc and allusion. Jaune's arc is one of integration with the anima, where he integrates his feminine traits. After all, he is Jeanne d'Arc, who is famous as both a warrior and maid. So, it is just right that in the end Jaune grows into a true maiden.

When it comes to Cinder's allusion:

Ruby is set up to be Cinder's Prince aka the one, who saves her

Jaune might be set up to be Cinder's fairy aka the one, who guides her towards her destiny

It would also fit with Ruby and Jaune's inverted gender archetypes. We'll see!

[swapauanon]

"Ozpin lied to Hazel about Salem's plans to trick him into sacrificing himself."

I find it amazing how people can say this and then get shocked when I ask them to tag their Ozpin bashing.

Besides, Hazel was murdering innocent people just to get back at Ozpin, over something his twin sister he constantly infantalizes chose to do.

Like, yes, Ozpin is a self-loathing wreck who blames himself for everything that's gone wrong, but in the end he didn't say ANYTHING about Salem he didn't believe was true.

Remember, what Salem said was: "Why redeem these humans when we can simply replace them with what they can never be?" meaning she was either plotting eugenics and genocide or had horrible grammar. Given that Salem's shown to be EXTREMELY careful and deliberate with her word choice, I'm going to assume it was the former, because it would be REALLY frustrating for the entire conflict of the show to be based on bad grammar.

But NO!!! We need Ozma to be an evil baby-stealing monster who tried to kidnap Salem's children because she wasn't religious enough! Even though, y'know, one of the first things Oz did after coming back to life was disobey Light by seeking out Salem.

But sure! It TOTALLY isn't bashing Ozpin to suggest he just tried to kidnap his daughter's from Salem, let's just ignore the ACTUAL grammatical structure behind Salem's words to make Oz look as evil as possible!

And besides, even if Ozpin DID lie to Hazel, SALEM WAS COMMITTING GENOCIDE IN ATLAS!!! She was siccing her Grimm on civilians at that point! And Hazel was complicit in it, and blaming Ozpin for his choices, claiming it was all in the honor of someone Salem had killed for trying to oppose the "Grimm eating children" party. But sure! Let's erase Hazel's misogyny in order to paint HIM as a poor, helpless victim of Ozpin's manipulations when he desecrated his sister's memory by helping the monster she died fighting destroy even more families!

"No more Gretchens, boy!" said the man who robbed a child of her mother JUST to "stick it to Ozpin", and has left countless Gretchens in his own wake.

Hazel even ADMITS that the only reason he's going after Ozpin is that he can't hurt Salem! So I don't think the show is going to be resolved by Team RWBY deciding "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" when it comes to the whole "How do we deal with Salem?" thing, because every character who's done that has been treated as being IN THE WRONG with no exceptions!

And let's not ignore the fact that, y'know, Oz had just gone through an entire character arc about being more open and honest. Him lying to Hazel to get him to dance to his whims would, from a narrative standpoint, be like if Ilia had joined forces with Salem to get back at Atlas. It would have rendered all of his prior development a waste of time!

So, rather than Salem plotting against the gods, i just think she's learned she CAN'T hurt them and so is doing what so many people (such as Hazel) have chosen to do when coming face-to-face with her, lash out at the people she CAN hurt because she thinks fighting the Brothers is a fruitless endeavor. The show isn't going to close out on vindicating Salem's methods, and she's not a fucking "anti-hero" as I've seen some people unironically call her: She's an unrepentant villain who lashes out at people she believes have no chance of fighting back, because she can't hurt the people who actually wronged her. That is what makes her Ruby's evil counterpart: She gave up while Ruby is still looking for a new solution!

But sure, let's just ignore the structure of the narrative and paint Ozma as a baby-stealing monster who abused his wife for religious reasons and drove her to villainy. Even though, y'know, his rhetoric is completely antithetical to Light's idea of a perfect world and he went out of his way to disobey him at the first opportunity he had.

The narrative has laid out who Oz and Salem are countless times now: Oz is a flawed-yet-well-intentioned man who blames himself for all of the world's ills (regardless of how responsible for them he actually is), and Salem an unrepentant monster who lashes out at the world around her due to being unable to harm those who actually wronged her.

Trying to paint Ozpin as being just as bad as, if not WORSE than Salem ever was is disingenuous at best.

[caernua]

completely genuine question—what makes you like Valhalla so much? I played that game for over 100 hours and I think the world was absolutely gorgeous, and some aspects of it were incredibly fun, but I thought so much of the writing, pacing, and characters were just… off? I think the gameplay mechanics (dialogue, romances, other “choices” you get to make, and the way they handled exploration objectives) are really hollow and narratively it’s maybe my least favorite or second least favorite ac game, but I’d genuinely really love to hear why it hits for someone whose a big fan

anon this is about to get very long i am so sorry also thank you for asking me this i love rambling about my favorite viddy games

in a lot of ways i agree with you! i think the pacing is off, the game is way too long and it overall feels like a game that aims to waste your time as much as possible which is simply infuriating. this is part of the reason why i started valhalla many many times but only finished it a handful of times. (which for 500 hours is insane) that is also bc the earlier arcs imo are superior to the ones in the middle and many of them feel downright unnecessary. i’m also not a fan in general of the rpg mechanics either, i’ve largely ignored them in valhalla frankly and neither am i of the romances (with the exception of ciara but that one too feels a little half assed and inconsequential - it's like you're always aware that whatever you do it won't last bc the character's story can't deviate too much) or the whole choice aspect that matters little. i will always hold the opinion that having choices (including the gender of the main character) introduced in a franchise where the premise is that you are reliving someone else’s memories is stupid, frankly. no amount of in-game explanations or isu bullshit will change that in my eyes.

however, what really clicked with me was the story. i know that’s not the case with a lot of people and i actually see why, it's a huge reason why it's such a polarizing game. weirdly enough, i first watched the gameplay before buying the game and i really disliked it. i wasn't pulled in, i didn't care much and i thought it was a subpar story. buut when i actually got my hands on the game i deeply connected with eivor and even tho i’ve just criticized the length of the game i think the hours and hours you get to spend as her contribute to that a lot. her entire journey was incredibly compelling in my eyes and especially the latter arcs hit me like a truck (i cried playing this game a lot <3). i think what i love most about this story is how it goes against the game’s promotion and the direction it went completely shocked me. doing an assassin’s creed based on vikings and very much using the romanticization of the term like any other form of media focused on vikings to depict these badass rutheless glory seeking fighters and absolutely relishing in that imagery in all the promotion and the beginning of the game and really in eivor’s character only to lead to a climax in which the main character turns away from odin and glory and says “no, the love of my people is more important to me than victories” was just… an amazing moment across the whole franchise in my mind. it was satisfying, it was heartbreaking, it was relatable and it was unique in my mind. i think assassin’s creed for so long has relished in these aspirational images of badass warriors and to choose THE most universally seen as badass historical warriors to send that kind of message was a ballsy move and really surprising. and it also works because eivor feels threatening across the game, she's scary! and ac doesn't always manage to make their protagonists feel that way (sorry arno love you 😘)

i also think that for how boring the asgard arc was (really don’t know how they achieved that) the storyline was REALLY well thought out since lore-wise they were essentially left with scraps from the other games so to make a coherent continuation from that mess that someone else thought out was impressive in my mind. i really liked how it tied in to basim’s story, i loved the moment when the reveal finally happened and i loved basim and eivor as narrative foils who are in a similar situation but experience it completely differently.

but aside from the ending i think there’s plenty of high points in the main campaign that just feel fun? i lovelovelove the east anglia arc (oswald’s story), i loved the lunden arc with its many many throwbacks to ac1, i loved soma and her arc, i loved vili's arc, cent was also really fun and a personal favorite. i also just enjoy doing the world events (fuuuck the anomalies tho!!!) and as sad as i am to say this, a part of my enjoyment was also the questions posed that were dissapointingly answered with the half assed 'last chapter'. i can't deny that valhalla suffers from missed potential a lot which is crazy bc you'd think that a game that forces you to play for hundreds of hours would have the time to deliver satisfying conclusions.

but i do also love doing... not much in it. as you said the environment is beautiful, the soundtrack is top notch and the atmosphere is really just amazing as well. i don't know how but valhalla kinda awakens a very deep sadness in me but it's not unpleasant, it's bittersweet. whenever i open the game and hear that beautiful main theme i want to cry a bit, same goes for when i climb the snowy mountains of norway and i look at the northern lights. the atmosphere in valhalla is just... outstanding. it reawakens so many things in me and that's partly due to eivor's story as well but it's amazing that it's somehow infused in the environment itself. am i thinking of regrets i carry and heartache, of how i have to cherish the people i have before i lose them, of how i lost my childhood because the pixels are pretty and the soundtrack is heartbreaking, or because eivor's story is in large part about all that? i have no idea but it's a precious sentiment. 💗

[nayvwriter]

Thoughts an the Renegades from extinction? Do you have a favorite?

Hi hello yes I have many thoughts

(n2 spoilers)

I have many many thoughts on the Renegades. We're going to need to talk about what the word means, to start with. It's one of those times when I know what the in-game explanation is and usually ignore it?

Lydia says that being a Renegade isn't about owning a Tyrant, it's about not following the Guild's rules. This has the fun implications that Lydia is using a different definition for the word than everyone else but is still applying it to herself on the basis that she knows she's working against the Guild.

If that's the original reasoning behind the word, then how did it get changed? Just a coincidence, that the Renegades found Tyrants? It also gets implied that the Renegades were the ones who were working on the dragon project.

So that's the official explanation for what the word means. It's fun for Lydia's character arc, but - as you can see from the entire fic I wrote based off the concept of Renegades - I usually ignore it and go with the other meaning.

A Renegade as someone with a Tyrant. But more specifically...

A Renegade as someone with a Tyrant, who can command their powers. If anyone argues with me here, I will gesture to New Ignitia. Lydia is shown creating a whirlwind that blows away Jin and Mulcimer, without the use of any Nexomon. So she clearly has wind powers, and her Tyrant is wind type.

(This is especially impressive given wind is weak to fire. Unless Jin and Mulcimer allowed this to happen so they wouldn't end up in prison, which is certainly one theory to explain Lydia's hunting of the Renegades.)

I will also gesture to the protagonist, their 'egg' that 'gives them powers', and specifically the Renegades' reactions to it.

We know the Renegades aren't aware of the Solus plan from some of the things that happen in the revivals. Atlanta, for example, has no idea what you are talking about. I don't remember it that well, but I don't think Celine does either.

In New Ignitia again, Jin hears Coco mention using an egg and sees the protagonist use fire, and comes to the conclusion that the protagonist is hatching a Tyrant. This really makes it seem like the whole 'egg with powers' thing is not something Deena made up, it's an actual thing that could happen? Or at least, Jin thinks it might be.

Celine doesn't hear anything about an egg, and when the protagonist shows use of powers, she immediately comes to the conclusion that the protagonist has a Tyrant. So presumably that's more likely than Egg.

How do the Renegades harness the power of their Tyrants? It's really not stated, but I have to assume there's some sort of connection there, otherwise anyone nearby could use it. I've seen other people use a 'Tyrant-Renegade telepathy' sort of idea, so I'm clearly not alone in thinking of a connection here.

I am, however, the only one who's gone this far with the whole idea (gestures at my entire fic). Read Hope's Renegades if you want to see me going insane over the potential of Renegades as an idea. And also other things, this fic is not just about the idea of Renegades (but it's mostly about the idea of Renegades). I had so much fun.

I thought about how a connection like this would happen, and what the implications would be. I don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil my fic (and also because it's better explained in said fic, I find it easier to write stuff than talk about it). But the way I interpreted it in that fic is definitely not the only possible way. Just the one I really really liked.

And yes I have a favourite Renegade. It's Lydia. She is so cool I love her. Behind that is Atlanta, then Celine I think? But they're all cool and I like them all.

...I have no idea if this is what you wanted as a response, but I haven't actually made a post that's just talking about the concept of Renegades yet, so I figured this was a good time.

[benbamboozled]

Okay so I saw your John-Vriska-Karkat Homestuck post and as a Terezi-Vriska-Karkat I want to know how you might triangulate HS character preference against interest in Jason Todd as a character (or the Batfamily more generally).

*cracks knuckles*

OKAY this one is going to be pretty me-specific, and my interpretations of the characters, and what draws me to them and the crossovers I see between my interest in them and my interest in Jason Todd.

(Okay before we get into this let’s acknowledge John Egbert and his Black Hair and Blue Eyes and Jason Todd and his Black Hair and Blue Eyes and Karkat is the Red Themed Angry One and Jason Todd is the Red Themed Angry One and Vriska is frequently a mean bully who kills people and Jason Todd has mean bully tendencies and also kills people.)

So, first of all…

HEART. (As in “the capacity to care about people,” not in the Aspect sense.)

JOHN, KARKAT, and VRISKA have A LOT of it. John is pretty obvious—he comes across as kind of blithe and careless, but we see through his conversations and interactions (such as his bday presents for his friends) that he actually has very good perceptions when it comes to his friends and their personalities. He CARES about them. A lot!

KARKAT had so much heart that, as Vriska acknowledged, it possibly under-powered their session, since they probably could have gotten more god tier players if they fought each other more often…but Karkat was such a good FRIENDLEADER that he was able to keep them together without that.

And VRISKA…oh Vriska. SO MUCH of Vriska’s character is boiled down to “she’s got hurt feelings (and does a violence about it).” In fact, (VRISKA)’s arc is based almost entirely around her reconciling with the fact that she DOES care. She can’t be the Cool Unfeeling type of person she’s always thought that she should be.

And I think for me, I see HEART as one of those things that Jason Todd is kind of afflicted with. Everything would be SO MUCH EASIER for him if he could just NOT CARE.

But he does. And he just has to live with that.

OKAY MOVING ON TO—

A WELL-DEVELOPED SENSE OF INSIGHT WRT OTHERS. (That tends to be ignored by fandom, not that I’m salty or anything.)

This one mainly pertains to JOHN and KARKAT.

JOHN is very adept at seeing beyond the façades that his friends and comrades construct for themselves, and is very good at pinpointing what they’re talking around to get to the heart of the matter.

Meanwhile, KARKAT is actually very insightful when it comes to (others’) interpersonal relationships. His whole thing about romance tends to have him be used as The Expositor for relationships, but he actually DOES offer valuable observations not just on what a healthy relationship would require but ALSO what the person he’s talking to would need to provide for said relationship.

As for how this applies to Jason Todd, EVERYBODY FORGETS HOW FUCKING INSIGHTFUL HE IS! (Not that I’m salty or anything.)

The dude consistently makes comments and entire schemes based on what he knows and observes about others.

Pre-Flashpoint especially, Jason would deconstruct a character’s entire being…and then of course use it for eeeeeeeevil.

Speaking of eeeeeeeevil…

A DRIVING NEED TO PROVE THEMSELVES EVEN TO THEIR OWN DETRIMENT.

Oh hello VRISKA. I mean…just look at her. Look at her choices.

Always trying to show that she is BETTER. No, not just better…BEST. A kind of desperate mobius double reacharound of being forced to do terrible things to survive and needing to prove herself so that the terrible things she’s done had a purpose it wasn’t all for nothing.

I mean…it should be pretty obvious how this ties into Jason Todd. The dude is CONSTANTLY desperately searching for a purpose in life. He is pretty much always looking to prove that he meant something to someone.

Which brings us to…

A PERVADING SENSE OF FAILURE.

I mean, a pretty significant chunk of Homestuck in general is about failing. Being Doomed By The Narrative.

I mean, you got your literal Doomed Timelines, you got your Dream Bubbles and ghosts, literally the entire story is based on the first failed troll session…

Now, this section mostly pertains to KARKAT and (VRISKA).

KARKAT was, after all, the one that ran the cursed ~ATH program, he called himself a cancer (I mean obviously it’s a pun but also indicative of the fact that he takes his failure as a leader and the failure of his session VERY personally), and his entire Dancestor’s story is focused on, you know…FAILING. HARD.

And as for (VRISKA)…damn. Pretty much everything she does ends up blowing up in her face. Sometimes LITERALLY. And so much of it (IMO, obvs) circles back to her trying to be something she’s NOT and CANNOT be.

She wants to be the cool, collected, calculating Marquise Mindfang, she wants to be the troll she thinks she should be, but she just…can’t.

And like, with Jason Todd…he is obviously Doomed By The Narrative. Both in the sense that, you know…he DIED and was The Dead Robin for 17 freakin years…

As well as the fact that he can NEVER get satisfaction for his death. The Joker’s always going to be around and kicking, and I’m sure Jason will be written as giving up on that (AGAIN) because it’s a hopeless storyline since OBVIOUSLY DC can’t actually really-for-reals kill the Joker…he’s too popular!

Not to mention the fact that he’s kind of become the one in opposition to Batman, and as I’ve complained about before, Batman is ALWAYS right. Which means, by necessity, Jason loses. He HAS to lose. The only way he can not lose is if he’s written as abandoning the concept of opposition entirely which is really a sort of grand narrative failure in and of itself.

SO, there you have it! My grand unifying theory of What Ties My Love Of My Three Fave Homestuck Characters In With My Love Of Jason Todd.

Nice and succinct!

[cagesings]

 @honorhearted​​​  sent:🔥  about  johanna,  ofc!  or  turpin.  whichever  you're  in  the  mood  for.

 johanna:  

 i  don’t  like  it  when  actresses  portray  johanna  as  mad  and  insane  from  the  beginning  of  the  musical.  it’s  just  not  interesting  to  me.  where  is  her  arc  supposed  to  go  if  she’s  already  that  beaten  down  from  the  beginning?  johanna  is  not  a  happy  character  and  does  not  start  out  as  happy  or  even  very  hopeful  at  the  start.  how  could  she  be?  she’s  been  abused  by  a  pedophile  for  almost  her  entire  life.  but  she  isn’t  mad  at  the  beginning.  yes,  she’s  not  doing  well  and  being  raised  by  a  man  like  turpin  isn’t  good  for  anyone,  but  starting  her  out  like  that?  where  is  she  supposed  to  go  from  there?  the  events  of  the  musical  obviously  wear  her  down  more  and  i  want  to  see  that.  not  start  her  out  with  not  really  a  strong  arc.  her  arc  is  depression,  show  that.  

 kiss  me  is  near  the  beginning,  a  song  about  a  girl  experiencing  love  for  the  first  time  while  also  dealing  with  a  lot  of  emotions.  she’s  not  insane.  she’s  a  little  silly.  of  course  she  is.  this  is  why  i  don’t  like  s.arah  r.ice’s  johanna  or  b.etsy  j.oslyn’s  portrayals  very  much.  they  do  a  good  job,  it’s  just  not  what  i  like.  

 also  portraying  as  all  of  the  female  characters  as  just  insane?  lovett,  is  unhinged  because  she  kind  of  has  to  be.  lucy  is  diagnosed  with  vague  victorian  madness.  there’s  only  three  female  characters  (  that  aren’t  ensemble  )  in  this  show.  portraying  all  of  them  as  mad  doesn’t  really  sit  right  with  me.  

 the  “mad”  johanna  that  a  lot  of  actresses  go  with  isn’t  “sondheim’s  johanna”  as  she’s  been  called.  this  girl  is  more  than  who  her  parents  are.  let  her  be  that!  she  is  so  much  more  than  a  girl  who  was  raised  by  the  villain  and  the  daughter  of  the  main  character.  she’s  traumatized  and  experiencing  love  for  the  first  time  and  anxious  and  she  survived  a  serial  killer.  she’s  a  final  girl.  i  want  to  see  that!  let’s  not  forget  about  the  character  she  was  based  on.  johanna  oakley  from  a  s.tring  of  p.earls.  her  boyfriend  goes  missing  and  she  investigates  and  gets  close  to  a  serial  killer  and  takes  him  down.  i  want  more  of  that  in  a  johanna.  less  of  diminishing  her  to  just  a  mad  girl.  

 turpin:  

 the  turpin  fanbase  is,  um,  interesting.  because  bond,  wheeler,  and  sondheim  made  a  villain  who  you  hate.  he’s  everything  people  should  hate:  a  rapist,  a  stalker,  classist,  abuses  his  power,  a  pedophile,  etc.  yet  there  is  a  group  of  people  who  do  like  him?  most  of  it  comes  from  the  a.lan  r.ickman  fanbase  seeing  him  in  period  clothing  and  wanting  to  write  self-insert  fanfiction.  which  is  fine.  they’re  not  hurting  anyone.  let  people  enjoy  what  the  want  to.  though,  on  both  sides  of  this  spectrum,  i  don’t  think  people  try  to  dive  into  his  background  enough?  

 turpin  seems  like  a  pretty  flat  character.  he’s  the  evil  guy  that  we  hate  and  love  to  hate  (  or  if  you’re  into  a.lan  r.ickman  you’re  writing  those  fics  you  do  you  i  don’t  care  ).  but  there  are  a  few  lines  that  stick  out  to  me  saying  that  he’s  not  as  flat  as  he  seems  to  be.  mea  cupla  tends  to  be  cut  from  productions,  which  i  support  because  it’s  absolutely  sickening  and  it  makes  you  feel  like  you  need  seven  cold  showers  and  not  in  a  good  way.  do  not  look  it  up  if  you  do  not  know  what  i’m  talking  about.  i  promise  ignorance  is  bliss.  it  was  cut  from  the  original  broadway  production  for  timing  reasons.  but  it  gives  a  very  interesting  insight  into  turpin  as  a  character.  he  does  feel  guilty  for  pining  after  johanna  and  possibly  for  what  he  did  to  lucy.  the  2007  movie  gives  us  the  line  (  talking  to  johanna  after  discovering  she’s  running  away  ):  “i  have  spared  you  the  rod.”  which  is  interesting  to  me  because  it  kind  of  reads  as  he  was  physically  abused  as  a  child  and  he  believes  he’s  a  good  parent  for  not  physically  abusing  johanna.  

 i  just  wish  people  looked  a  little  deeper  into  turpin  because  he  is  absolutely  awful  and  nothing  dismisses  how  sickening  he  is,  but  he’s  more  interesting  than  he  seems.  

[hard-times-paramore]

Gojo and responsibility.

I think that, because of his goofy personality and massive ego, people only see Gojo as a toddler-brain who doesn't take anything seriously. I feel like this is an instance of reducing a character to two or three personality traits and ignoring all the rest. Because to me, Gojo is one of the most responsible and sweet characters in the entire manga, and despite what he might say, it comes naturally to him.

I always believed Gojo's words completely contradict his actions. He says he's not built for being a teacher, but he's incredible with his kids. He finds creative ways to teach them (like Yuji's movies, or teaching Yuta about curse-imbuing), he takes them on field trips and gives them pratical lessons (the whole Jogo fight scene) tries to get them all to be friends and spoils them all the time, specially with food.

Not to mention how he keeps adopting children despite claiming he doesn't like them. He was 18 when he adopted Megumi and Tsumiki - two children he didn't know, one of which looked exactly like the guy who almost killed him. And considering how Megumi turned out, I think he did a great job of raising them. And then there's all his students, specially the ones he saved from death, like Yuta and Yuji. He acts like a total dad to them, even if most of them are teenagers who cringe at his silly goofiness.

Honestly, we see it in his life all the way in the flashback arc. He allegedly looked down on "weak normal humans", and said he didn't "be a babysitter" to the star plasma vessel girl, but spent the entire mission making sure she'd have the best last week she possibly could, even taking her on fun trips to the beach. Him and Geto were ready to risk their lives and turn against their mission for her, if she were to refuse the joining.

Oh yeah, this also foreshadows Geto adopting Mimiko and Nanako at the same age. Birds of a feather really do flock together.

And then there's the fact he, as the strongest sorcerer of all time, who literally altered the balance of the world when he was born, could probabbly bend everyone to his will. And he chose kindness. He chose to wield his power exclusively to make the world a better place, a safer place, specially for children. And he chose to do it the right way, by getting to know the new generation of sorcerers and raising them to uproot the system at it's base, instead of killing everyone in power but ignoring how their society works. Tell me how this doesn't scream maturity to you?

I think at the end of the day, his ego and self-importance are the real front. He acts like he's too good for the little people but they're the ones he chooses, again and again, to spend all his time with. Ever since he was a child, he was already being praised for his supreme powers, through high expectations that only grew as he got older. He probabbly adapted his attitude to fit into it, and be the person everyone expected him to be. But at his core, his attitude paints a different picture.

[dilfdoctordoom]

On Tom Taylor, the Current Nightwing Run & Ableism

I did mention I was gonna do a post about it, so here we are. There are some things I want to make clear before we begin: the issue exploded on Twitter on the very first day of disabled Pride month; disabled people have been discussing the ableism in Taylor’s Nightwing run since it began; nobody has blamed Taylor for what happened to Barbara in 2011. We are, however, blaming him for the way she is written in his series during 2021. 

I am also going to be discussing the ableism in the fandom in this post. The reactions I have seen, from here to Twitter to TikTok, are showing not only a great misunderstanding of the situation, but a purposeful misunderstanding. The very real reasons disabled people are angry right now have been twisted to make us seem ridiculous and overly sensitive and I cannot help but feel that is very intentional.

Another quick addition: disabled people are not a monolith. Barbara Gordon spent over 20 years as a paralyzed wheelchair user. Stating (and I would like to note, never truly showing) that she is a part time cane user now is still erasing her disability. These things are not interchangeable.

So, with that out of the way, let’s begin.

Tom Taylor’s run is ableist. That is a fact of this situation. He made the active choice to include a version of Barbara Gordon that is ableist caricature. Story wise, the role that Barbara plays could have easily been filled by anyone else. There is no real season, within the narrative and outside of it, for Taylor to include this version of Barbara Gordon, who has received a decade of criticism from disabled people. It’s very well known that this iteration is problematic, to put it kindly, and Taylor is aware of that. 

He made the active decision to include her, anyway, showing, at the very least, that he is passively, if not actively, ableist. Passive ableism is still ableism and disabled people are allowed to take issue with that.

That alone is reason enough for disabled people to be angry. But that’s not why things exploded on Twitter.

On July 1st, the very first day of disabled pride month, the new design for Barbara was dropped. After months of teasing Barbara’s return to a wheelchair using Oracle (see: Last Days of The DC Universe, Batgirl (2016), etc), they debuted... a new Batgirl costume that the artist has openly said draws inspiration from the Burnside suit.

There’s a lot of issues to unpack here, so let’s start small: the issue with consciously calling back to Burnside. The Burnside era of Batgirl stories was... beyond awful. The villain of the series’ first arc, was an AI based on Barbara’s brain patterns when she was disabled. It was evil because of all the rage and pain Barbara felt. The actual Barbara, on the other hand, was good -- because she was able bodied. Because her PTSD had been tossed aside. It was a horrifically ableist era that drove the idea that Barbara’s life was terrible when she was disabled; that it was some horrible, twisted secret.

Comics have kept that narrative going. Barbara is seen hiding books on chronic pain; she reacts aggressively to the mere idea that she could be in a wheelchair again, acting like it would be weakness. Whereas Barbara had once been Oracle not because of, but in spite of, her disability, who was fantastic representation for the disabled community, she now acts like it is the most shameful thing in her life.

To call back to Burnside is to call back to that ableism and make no critique of it. If anything, it’s to embrace the ideas of that era.

There is also the design itself to consider. Many people have pointed out the inclusion of a back brace, as if that saves it from ableism -- it does not. Any person who has ever worn a back brace can take one look at this design and know that they did not consult a disabled person. Hell, by how impractical that thing is, I doubt they even Googled a picture of a back brace.

It’s a superficial acknowledgement that Barbara is supposed to be disabled. Something that was apparently thrown in to appease the numerous complaints of Barbara being able bodied; something that no one working on it put any effort into.

When it comes to aids, this is not a new thing for Barbara in Infinite Frontier. She’s said to be using a cane occasionally, that we got a better look at in Batman: Urban Legends, and as any cane user can tell you... that is not a cane that could feasibly be used. It’s another pathetic attempt to acknowledge that Barbara is supposed to be disabled, without actually doing anything of importance.

[IMAGE ID:  A segmented cane with a tri-pointed handle with a wrist strap. There is a stripe across the sections to connection them, labelled “solar battery charger buttons”. The text reads: “telescoping antenna doubles as cane or weapon if needed”. END ID]

Dropping this design (which we have now established to be problematic) on the very first day of disabled pride month is a sickening move. The very first day, and DC has doubled down on their disability erasure, thrown in superficial things like a back brace to act like it’s fine.

Tom Taylor is definitely involved in this, whether you like it not. No, he is not in anyway responsible for the events of the New 52 and what they did to Barbara Gordon, but that does not absolve him of blame for what is currently being done to her in his run.

When the design dropped, it started trending due to disabled fans reactions. To be clear: we were directly calling out the ableism in this design. This was Tom Taylor’s response:

[IMAGE ID: A tweet from TomTaylorMade that says: “Hey, @Bruna_Redono_F I think our new Batgirl suit is getting some attention.” He then adds a winky face emoji and tags @jesswchen and @drinkpinkkink. Attached are a screenshot showing that Batgirl is trending in the United States and a picture of the design itself. END ID]

This is him, bragging about how the disabled community reacted. Perhaps before this tweet, you could’ve made an argument that he was not ableist, but after he flaunted the fact that disabled people were rightly furious over this, like it was something to be proud of? No. If you are defending him, you are a part of the problem.

Taylor has included ableist writing in his Nightwing run, beyond the inherent ableism that comes with the current iteration of Barbara Gordon (whose inclusion, yet again, is his decision).

[IMAGE ID: A panel from Nightwing #79. Barbara and Dick are standing in his apartment. Barbara is saying: “I have some pretty new technology holding my spine together. I’m happy to do most things -- eat pizza in the park, take down low-level thugs -- but leaping from rooftops seems... unwise.” END ID]

What Barbara says in the panel above has bothered a lot of disabled people. The implication that she couldn’t “eat pizza in the park’ and “take down low-level thugs” without a spinal implant that conveniently erases her disability is... fucked up, to put it mildly. Those are both things that Barbara has done in a wheelchair. The first one is something wheelchair users can do and the implication that it’s not is beyond offensive.

But, let’s leave Barbara behind for a moment. I have previously mentioned that disabled people have been discussing the ableism present in this run long before July -- and that ableism is not only centred on Barbara. Dick is also a player in all this.

Dick Grayson was shot in the head. I don’t believe I need to retread the story, but just in case: Dick was shot in the head by KGBeast, developed amnesia from the event, and went by Ric Grayson for a long enough period in comics. If you have been active within the DC fandom for the past year or so, you know all about this controversial storyline and its fallout.

The Ric Grayson arc concluded itself the issue before Taylor became the writer for the series and ever since his tenure has begun, Taylor has completely ignored the reality of Dick being a disabled man. We understand this is comics, that things do not function the way they do in our world, but still -- it is clear that this gunshot wound to the head has affected Dick massively. We had an entire arc dedicated to how he struggled to find himself in the aftermath.

Taylor is choosing to write Dick as an able-bodied man, despite his canonical injuries and how they would impact his life.

This man is choosing to give empty gestures towards Barbara being a disabled woman (as discussed above, the completely dysfunctional back brace, etc) whilst writing her as able-bodied as possible. He writes both Dick and Barbara as able bodied as humanly possible. That is ableist. He is ableist. This is the same man that said he made a dog disabled ‘in honour of Barbara’. I do not think I need to elaborate on why that is bad.

The least he could’ve done, was get a sensitivity reader. We know that Taylor is not beyond getting people from marginalized communities to consult on his work (see: Suicide Squad), so why, when writing two characters that should be disabled, one that the disabled community have been criticising for a decade, does he not reach out to a single disabled person? A mere Google search could’ve improved the situation massively. In both the new design and the current writing, it is beyond clear that this is not just an able-bodied person writing it -- it’s an ableist person.

He could have listened to the numerous disabled fans that spoke out. Instead, he chose not only to refuse to do that, but to describe justifiable anger as ‘raging’. He treated us like we were crazy for daring to speak out about blatant ableism being parading around of us in our pride month.

Tom Taylor has failed to do the bare minimum and in doing so, he is, at very, very least, guilty of complicity. Again: passive ableism is still ableism.

The argument at hand is not just about Barbara Gordon and the continuing ableism that shines out from her current writing. The argument is about the treatment of disabled characters in his run. It has also become about the way he treats physically disabled people.

We also can’t have this conversation without acknowledging the fandom’s role in it all. I waited a day to write this up, to allow all the reactions to flood in... and I am sickened.

We have everything across the board. Able-bodied people that have actually listened to disabled people, who have supported us (which is deeply appreciated). Able-bodied people who may have had good intentions, but a skewed sense of the situation and perpetuating some of the more insidious lies being spread around (IE. that this is only about the new costume).

There are, obviously, the ableist reactions, though, that we will be discussing here. People deeming the current issues as ‘crazy’, calling disabled people ‘overly sensitive’ and ‘delusional’. Many people have completely glossed over the examples given for why Taylor, specifically, is ableist, and instead have resorted to telling disabled people that we are wrong and should be mad at DC instead.

It’s important to note that Tom Taylor is an adult man. He doesn’t need a fandom to attack disabled people for daring to call him out. He is not the victim in this situation; he has, for quite a few disabled people, been the aggressor.

I have seen claims that Infinite Frontier is a ‘slow burn’, implying that disabled people need to patient... as if we have not waited a decade for less ableist writing. There is a complete refusal from able-bodied fans to actually listen to what disabled people are saying. They would much rather rush to the defence of the (honestly rather mediocre) current Nightwing run. 

Disabled fans know that comic book spaces are ableist. We know that both DC and Marvel and many of their writers are ableist. We are still allowed to be pissed as hell about it and acting like the current reaction being had right now is disabled people being ‘overdramatic’ is yet another example of how the able-bodied side of the fandom both refuses to listen to and undermine disabled people when we call out ableism.

We know it when we see it. We always do and we always will and we will always be able to recognize it far faster than an able-bodied person. If this many disabled fans are coming out and talking about an issue, calling it ableism, then it’s time for you shut up and listen.

Stop being a part of the problem and start supporting disabled fans for once.

[coolfire333]

OK ALSO I think that Adel deserved so so so SO much better in terms of his storyline in under the knife 2, ESPECIALLY when you look at Naomi’s progression from second opinion to trauma team. Well, maybe “deserved better” doesn’t quite describe my feelings because I don’t think they actively did him wrong, I actually like his character in under the knife 2, my main issue is that I think they didn’t explore it deeply enough...like the starting ideas and execution of his character arc is good, I just think it needs more

There is just so much potential there...I wish they’d done a similar storyline where you could play as Adel with the hands of asclepius in between playing as Derek with caduceus, I think that was a really successful part of Naomi’s storyline in second opinion because it gave a lot of insight into someone on the “opposite team” and it also created some really interesting tension because in liking Naomi and rooting for her, you entered into this weird grey area where you personally liked her but also disagreed with her villainous actions

And I feel like Adel’s story could have been so much more impactful if you got to play as him when he was working for the hands of asclepius. Looking again at Naomi, her reason for joining delphi is understandable but it’s still a pretty cruel decision on her part with how she’s willing to toss aside her morals so that she can keep working as a surgeon. But with Adel, he joins the hands of asclepius with good intentions, albeit ones also somewhat based on envy: he wants to be the best surgeon possible so that he can help his country, but he thinks that the healing touch is the only way to do this, and the hands of asclepius promises him that only they can help him achieve this

Naomi’s complexity comes from the fact that she doesn’t really have any strong morals at the start of second opinion. She very much knows that what she’s doing is wrong, and to a certain extent Navel will let her push back on certain boundaries when she feels that delphi is REALLY crossing a line (like when she convinces him to let her try to save the photographer who crashed his car trying to stalk them instead of just driving away to leave him to die), but at the end of the day she KNOWS she is not working on the side of good when she’s with delphi.

And it’s a decision that she comes to eventually regret, and she struggles with this aspect of her past a lot in trauma team (Little Guy also seemingly shares this conflict, although we don’t get to see much of his transition to “good” or his low points in struggling with his past actions like we do for Naomi...but talking about him is its own post entirely)

But Adel has always been interesting to me because I think his complexity comes from the fact that he DOES have very strong ideals, but his obsession for perfection and his jealousy warp his sense of morality to the point where he ends up no longer doing the right thing. He doesn’t seem to know how dubious the hands of asclepius is until he’s already in too deep, so deep that he either doesn’t realize what they’re doing isn’t right because he’s fully consumed by his emotions, or he ignores the bad things they’re doing to focus on honing his abilities as a kind of “net good” scenario, again very similarly to how Naomi acts

Derek immediately forgives Adel’s behavior after his surgery, saying it was just the neo-guilt affecting his mental state, but Adel corrects him in saying that although the neo-guilt did cause him to behave irrationally, he really was mad at Derek for his percieved slighting of him earlier, and he was geniunely envious of Derek’s abilities, and he now sees that his behaviors were unhealthy. 

Like, it would have been so easy to dismiss all of Adel’s standoffishness and later hostility as just being a result of his illness, but he flat-out admits that no, he was sick and that explains how extreme his behavior became, but he really did have these same feelings deep down.

There’s also the parallel between him slowly falling into evil and Naomi slowly exiting out of it that really could have benefitted from him having his own playable missions. We start off seeing Naomi in delphi, and although she is also working for the side of good during this time, it’s hard to get a sense of how she works as a hero here since she’s still heavily allied with evil. 

But we see so much of her regret and commitment to atonement in trauma team, and that’s really the best character arc in all of the games imo, and one of the reasons she’s my favorite character in the whole series (and one of my favorite fictional characters period), because she’s done an equal number of good and bad deeds and seeing her able to get her life back after she fully turns herself around is incredibly moving. 

So, we get to see basically her full transformation from evil to good, but other than a brief mention of her backstory in Japan, where she was presumably an honest doctor, we don’t get to hear much of her initial good deeds and we certainly don’t get to actually see how she initially gets involved with delphi and turns to evil in the first place. 

BUT we do see that more with Adel’s joining of the hands of asclepius, which is the perfect opportunity for having the reverse of Naomi’s story, where we get to see Adel having a shaky and troubled start as a doctor, much like Naomi, before slowly getting involved with evil, before he eventually is made aware of the harmfulness of his actions, at which point he realizes that he needs to redeem himself. 

We do get to see Adel’s change of heart at the end of the game, but it’s much less than we see Naomi’s change of heart, considering that we not only had the last half of second opinion to see her finally doing good, but the entirety of trauma team to fully show how far she’s come. And I don’t necessarily mind that Adel’s redemption isn’t shown in as much detail, because I think that seeing his decent into evil as a foil to Naomi’s storyline could be much more interesting and novel. But that’s my main issue, is that I REALLY think there’s so much unexplored potential in his storyline

Basically I just really love Adel and I think he’s severly underrated...he has a pretty good character arc in-game and it’s something that I think can really be expanded upon if you acknowledge the potential he has as a complex, troubled character

[makeste]

So, which of these desperately sobbing children gets to compete for Worst Day? I... think Shouto's our, uh, lucky winner, but I think Deku, Momo, and Tokoyami all put up strong fights

so seeing as we are finally approaching New Chapter Times again after a very long three weeks, this feels like a good time to do a recap of just how much everything currently sucks for our intrepid heroes. it may seem a bit insensitive of me to go through the cast list one by one and arbitrarily assign each character a number score based on how shitty their day was, but... well actually I don’t really have a good defense for that, lol. whatever, let’s just get to ranking these children’s misery (and while we’re at it, some of the adults’ as well).

Midoriya Izuku

current status: unconscious. currently has a pair of those floppy inflatable flailing tube men dealios for arms. had to watch his teacher and his best friends get hurt and nearly die while being helpless to do anything to stop it. has a new quirk which “warns” him of approaching danger by giving him ice pick headaches, as if he didn’t have enough pain in his life as it is. is being targeted by the most dangerous person in the world. and last but not least, is probably on the verge of his super-secret quirk becoming not-so-secret, and having to deal with the fallout of that.

rank: 9/10. hard to imagine how things could get much worse for this little guy atm. NO HORIKOSHI THAT IS NOT A CHALLENGE. YOU LEAVE HIS MENTOR ALONE.

Bakugou Katsuki

current status: unconscious. got impaled by the Big Bad which initially did not look good, but apparently it wasn’t enough to stop him from flying around in drunken loop-de-loops whilst ignoring Iida’s protests, so who knows. proudly announced his new hero name to the world only to be met with scorn and ridicule and hysterical laughter from that fucking Caillou-looking motherfucker whose opinion he never mcfucking asked for, thank you very much. and also his best friend’s self-sacrificing tendencies are giving him anxiety, and his other best friend’s brother just pulled a reverse Darth Vader on Endeavor and upended hero society as we know it. so there’s a good chance he might be called upon to provide emotional support to one or even BOTH of them in the near future. has... has he actually become the stable friend in the trio. fuck.

rank: 7/10 just because he briefly appeared to be in a situationally-inappropriate good mood for those few brief minutes right after Jeanist appeared. you were having too much fun to get a top score, Katsuki.

Todoroki Shouto

current status: not unconscious but probably wishing he was. older brother came back from the dead and revealed that he was a mass murderer and broadcast all of Shouto’s personal traumas to the entire world before earnestly trying to set him and his friends on fire. so is currently dealing with all of the fun fallout from that, on top of watching his teacher and friends all come within inches of death. will probably be dragged into a national controversy against his will now that Endeavor’s past has been revealed. all of it is honestly so shitty that it’s all but impossible for me to put an irreverent spin on this. I honestly can’t think of a single joke to make. goddammit Shouto.

rank: 10/10. a perfect storm of shittiness.

Yaoyorozu Momo

current status: somehow Momo went from having no mentors that we knew of, to having two mentors, and then back to having no mentors, all in the span of a single day. has to be some sort of record.

rank: 8/10. and the worst part of all is that she was a fucking BAMF during this arc, but she can’t even enjoy that now because of all the trauma. I’m still proud of you, Momo.

Uraraka Ochako

current status: mentally and physically exhausted after spending a day out on the front lines dealing with the aftermath of an unnatural disaster. saw things that were canonically enough to make a grown man have a nervous breakdown right then and there. had a really weird and unsettling encounter with Toga who keeps trying to relate to her by telling her things like “hey Ochako, this one time I turned into you and used your quirk to murder someone horribly isn’t that wild.” it’s just been a very long day for her.

rank: 6/10. stressful af but she’s still in one piece and no one was actively murdered in front of her. sometimes you gotta take whatever wins you can get.

Tokoyami Fumikage

current status: his mentor was nearly burned to death in front of him and he was almost burned to death too, and the guy who kept attempting to burn him was all “YOUR MENTOR’S A MURDERER BTW AND SO YOU SHOULD JUST LET ME KILL HIM”, and so he was kind of put on the spot there and he didn’t really know what to do, and somehow he managed to escape with Hawks anyway but Hawks’s wings were all burnt off, and then a fucking video of Hawks stabbing Twice in the back got broadcast to the entire nation and so it’s like, ???? he didn’t sign up for this??? he is just a little birb??? can he live????

rank: 7/10 because he missed out on all of the other traumatizing stuff, but it’s honestly impressive how bad his day managed to be even in spite of that.

All for One

current status: All for One’s day is actually going pretty good.

rank: 0/10. hey but fuck you, AFO.

Shigaraki Tomura

current status: woke up early from his nap which always sucks. only got to enjoy his cool new Transcendent Being powers for a few minutes before the heroes all ganged up on him and incinerated him a bunch of times and fucked up his shiny new cape. has his old mentor currently taking up residence in his head uninvited and trying to boss him around. found out his grandma was part of One for All?? then slept through all of the fun stuff with the Dabi reveal. also a bunch of his friends are either dead or captured. all in all was not really the best day for him.

rank: 8/10 because he was having himself a grand old time for a while there, but once some of this stuff finally sinks in the Suck Factor is going to go way, way up. also, seriously, AFO is currently possessing his body, jesus christ. just leave him alone already.

Hawks

current status: had to make an impossible choice between sitting back and letting an untold number of people die, and turning on a good but misguided man who was only trying to help his friends. has to live with the trauma of literally stabbing his friend in the back for the rest of his life. may have been rendered effectively quirkless. was publicly dragged through the mud alongside Endeavor, and unlike Endeavor he didn’t actually do anything to earn it (though that probably won’t stop him from feeling like he has). oh and speaking of Endeavor, just found out that the hero he looked up to since childhood abused his family and shit, and so now he has to grapple with that on top of everything else. how fucked is it that the minute he finally got to drop his whole double agent balancing act, his life somehow got even more fucked up and complicated.

rank: 9/10. let Hawks rest.

Aizawa Shouta

current status: unconscious. seems to have lost an eye which may possibly affect his quirk. had to saw off his own fucking leg. met the man who experimented on his childhood friend. doesn’t know yet that said man was originally targeting him and not Shirakumo. oh and also his other other childhood friend just died and he doesn’t know it yet. and someone else sacrificed himself in order to save him. and most of his other hero pals are either dead or wounded too, and all of his kids are deeply traumatized. and the guy they went through all of this shit to try and capture in the first place got away, and hero society is now in shambles.

rank: 11/10. Horikoshi. wtf did Aizawa ever do to you.

anyways it’s getting late and I was gonna throw in a few honorable mentions, but I think I’ll just call it a day instead. feel free to weigh in on any of the ones I missed. Dabi for one is having himself a FINE, fine day. but Endeavor not so much. sob.

[myhumanweakness]

I don’t want to be a huge asshole, but...

There are a lot of people trying to find a modicum of positivity in the finale. It’s not about this Destiel-Bibro war that’s happened over the years, it’s not about Cas, it’s not about any of the superficial drama. This finale was the weirdest mixture of OOC and in character writing I have ever seen. 

Things that are in character: 

The brothers put each other first. They are each other’s safe place and stability. Up until the very end. Sam respected Dean’s wishes, stayed with him in his last moments, and let him go gracefully. Sam even went on and had a full life so Dean’s sacrifices weren’t in vain. 

For Dean, Heaven wasn’t perfect without Sam there. And he had this huge sense of relief and happiness when Sam arrived. 

Jack deconstructed the walls of Heaven so that it was a vast place where everyone could be together. They weren’t living out their “best memories” anymore. They were creating new memories eternally with each other. And Bobby recognizing that Jack is like Dean’s son by saying, “That boy of yours...” 

Cas helped build the Heaven that he always dreamed of. Cas always had such a high standard for Heaven, and it always fell short. He helped Jack build a home that was warm and comforting and beautiful and open and loving and true. Everything Cas stood for. 

Bobby, the man Dean adopted as his father, was there to share a beer with him (just like Dean shared with his dad in his childhood). And Bobby was happy and confirmed that Dean is in a Heaven he deserves. 

Sam mourning Dean’s death for the rest of his life, but also living his life to honor Dean. Classic Sam. 

Dean using his last moments to tell Sam how much he loves him and how proud he is. Sam deserved to hear that because we all know Sam looked at Dean as a parental figure. 

Things that are OOC:

Sam not marrying Eileen. The show created this HUGE story arc around Sam and Eileen and their real love and connection. And then they shoot this finale and couldn’t even get an actress that looked like Eileen to stand it the blurry background. Like, I don’t care what you say, it’s NOT open to interpretation. Sam did not end up with Eileen. All of you people who are Sam stans, who say you want your character to be happy and live a full life should be livid. Sam ending up with Eileen wouldn’t have canceled out the fact that Dean was/is his number one person. Dean gave his blessing for Eileen, and he loved her and welcomed her into their lives because he knew Sam loved her and had a genuine connection with her. Having them together would not have ruined the ending in any way. Sam still could have ended up with Dean on that bridge. 

That woman with the blonde/light brown hair is NOT Eileen. They couldn’t even get an actress with dark brown hair to keep hope alive that they ended up together. Absolutely awful. 

Dean just accepting Cas’ death and not even talking about it, other than to say, “Yeah I think about em’ too.” I don’t care if you don’t believe in Destiel or that the love was reciprocated. Dean EXCLUSIVELY said multiple times that Cas is a member of their family and a brother to the boys. He said the words, “YOU”RE MY BEST FRIEND.” I’m not saying Dean should have scarified himself to go pull Cas out of the Empty (because we had 40 minutes to wrap up 15 years). But the fact that Dean was like: I’m gonna eat some pie and just not acknowledge any feelings or thoughts and act like nothing ever happened is SO OOC. If your best friend died tragically, you’d have something to say about it or act like you had something to say about it. And that’s not to say I wanted Dean to be miserable and hurting. I’m happy he got a dog and found some normalcy. But they lost SO many people, and he’s just walking around cool as a cucumber? When every other season/episode where they lost someone important to Dean he was a mess. And I’m not just talking about Cas- we all obviously know how Dean behaved when Cas died/was missing/Lucifer was controlling him. But even when Jo and Ellen died. Even when Mary died. Even when Bobby died. Even when John died. Even when Crowley died. Even when Jack died, Dean was shown hurting. Suddenly everything is cool and normal there’s no pain or anything? The fuck? A brief moment of acknowledgement. That’s all it needed.

I will never forgive the writers for ending Dean’s story that way. A rusty nail impaling him (probably in his pulmonary arteries/aorta based on the angle) on some random hunt after he finally exhaled the episode before and said, “We’re finally free.” He sacrificed his ENTIRE childhood and life for his brother and the world and so many other people, and he didn't even get to enjoy being a human on the Earth and living a life for more than a week. What! Dean was always a character filled with tragedy, and yeah, maybe he did have to die. You can make that argument. But like that?! AND. AND! Sam held a funeral for Dean and DIDN’T INVITE ANYONE! What!!! No one was there to toast to Dean and share their memories and give him the send-off he deserved. Sam just burned his body alone. Never. That would have NEVER happened. Sam loved Dean SO much and looked up to him and thought the world of him. Dean was his big brother who was fearless and strong and the best hunter on this Earth (and probably every other planet), and he didn’t celebrate his life in the end? 

Cas not showing up in Heaven is absolutely insane. INSANE. It doesn’t matter what you think of their relationship, the show has proven that Cas is important to Dean (even if you think Cas is way at the bottom of the list, he’s on it!). Dean’s ideal retirement/endgame was him, Sam, and Cas on a beach, drinking cocktails, with hula girls. That was the future Dean wanted for him and his family. And you’re telling me that Cas helped Jack build the best version of Heaven possible, and the minute Dean Winchester arrived Cas wasn’t there to greet him. Even just to say “Hello, Dean.” Even call Dean’s phone and say, “Welcome home.” Cas would have been the one greeting Dean in Heaven, with Bobby. Requited or not, it’s canon that Cas is in love with Dean. You don’t just ignore the opportunity to see the person you’re in love with. And... and! Even if Cas didn’t greet Dean in Heaven immediately, he would have appeared in the Impala during the drive. He would have met the brothers on the bridge to welcome them both home. Cas loved Sam too. He would have been there. The three boys together again. Team Free Will!  

I love Cas, and I know a lot of Cas stans feel buried and betrayed and hurt over the show doing a “is he there or isn’t he?” thing. And that is completely valid. I can’t even express to you how sorry I am that so many of us in the fandom are hurting. But I know this show. And this show has always made it clear that it was/is always about two brothers. Fine. But Dean Winchester, the most caring and loving human in the entire universe, deserved better. I am so sick to my stomach that Dean’s whole life was him convinced that there was only one way for his story to end and it was him dying tragically. For years he never let himself even entertain the thought of living a life because he 1) didn’t think he deserved that or was worth it 2) it just wasn’t in the cards. We watched Dean grow so much, SO MUCH, that we finally saw him talking about the future and having hope for the future. And yeah, maybe he wouldn’t get the future he talked about with the retirement on the beach, but he would have lived long enough to experience life outside of just “playing whack-a-mole” and being God’s favorite story and puppet. Dean didn’t even get to enjoy his freedom and humanity. They took a character that they purposefully pushed through so many stages of character development to attain hope and faith and self-worth and promise, and killed him. 

What the fuck!

[itsclydebitches]

I kinda wonder, what could bakugou do (hori write bakugou to do) to make him less popular with the "anti" crowd. Like He was a horrid child no doubt and people who try to put blame on Deku or lessen the terrible shit bakugou did aren't great. But as we don't rly see it, we have to assume bakugous behaviour wasn't stopped, we only ever saw his mum "punishing" him when he was being rude after getting kiddnapped. Nothing will excuse what bakugou did, but he has stopped? He's overall a harsh person but he's not harrassing and bullying people anymore, specifically not deku, he's trying to attone for what he did to deku and has now apologised for it. His behaviour was never viewed as justified or good in the series, he's a scary figure in middle school, we're not meant to like his behaviour, so the series itself hasn't justified his actions.

As someone who relate to both bakugou and deku more than I'd like to admit (never told someone to jump tho, that's fucked lol) so I can 100% understand not liking or even hating bakugou but as someone who's not 15 anymore, looking back I also made a lot of really shitty decisions and like bakugou have tried to make up for it, and like deku I was 'friends' with people who hurt me.

Is there anything he can do for the "antis" to just dislike him rather that be "anti"?

(I'm very sorry if you've talked about this somewhere, you can just tell me to look for it if you have, I'll continue to look for your posts on the subject)

Hey there, anon! I think I’ve spoken about this only tangentially and/or in my main Bakugo meta, which is too big for anyone sane to read. So yeah, let’s chat here!

For me personally—and that’s all I can ever do: speak personally. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution to please the “anti” crowd. Each fan will be looking for something slightly different in Bakugo’s character, much of which might contradict what a “stan” is currently enjoying. Given how charged a character he is, I'm not sure it's possible to get the entire fandom to like him—what I’m looking for hinges on having a different reading of the story than you seem to. Meaning, I think the series does justify his behavior. Not in any overt, super obvious way like having all the characters go, “Wow, Bakugo! I sure do love how you threaten people all the time. That’s super cool and heroic!” Things are rarely that straightforward. Rather, it’s in a more subtle, but consistent manner that paints a rather conclusive picture across hundreds of chapters.

Simply put, Bakugo is continually rewarded for his actions. Or, if not outright rewarded, his actions are ignored in a way that implies silent acceptance. Characters may not always like what he does... but they're willing to let it slide because Bakugo's heroism was always treated as a given, not something he had to earn and prove.

With the ever necessary disclaimer that I’m not fully caught up yet, here’s a list of some of the things that stood out to me in the first half of the series:

Bakugo’s bullying made him the most popular kid in school.

Bakugo’s bullying was ignored by/outright supported by the teachers.

Bakugo’s bullying did not hinder him from getting into U.A., one of the most prestigious hero schools around.

Despite acting horribly throughout his time at U.A. too, this behavior was continually ignored by the teachers and other authority figures around him.

Bakugo’s struggle to realize that other people aren’t “trash” doesn’t hurt his achievements in any way. He still gets top scores, still wins the tournament, etc.

Bakugo’s behavior gets him special attention from All Might, the greatest hero and Bakugo’s personal idol.

His behavior doesn’t make others dislike him in any manner that’s taken seriously. Everybody is still willing to not just put up with Bakugo, but—in time—start treating his behavior as a quirk (no pun intended lol) that they’re secretly fond of, rather than something he should legitimately be striving to change. Kirishima is the most overt example of this.

This is compounded by his behavior constantly being framed as humorous. Much like with Mineta’s perverted actions, characters might superficially go, “No, that’s bad!” but the story never demands any significant development because then we’d lose the “joke” of Bakugo screaming in rage at the slightest inconvenience, threatening to murder someone over nothing, constantly belittling everyone around him in a “funny” manner, etc. When fans talk about development of a manga character as archetypal and extreme as Bakugo, most don’t really want to see significant change to his base personality. Because then that would result in someone who doesn’t look like the “real” Bakugo: someone nicer, more even-tempered, more mature, etc. But for those of us who were never drawn to that personality in the first place, the continued acceptance of his rude, egotistical, and violent behavior is discomforting. The easiest comparison I can draw is between this and Bakugo’s mother slapping him. That slap is meant to be another “joke”—we see it constantly in shonen anime, something "humorous" you shouldn’t take too seriously because haha, it's just an overprotective mother—but many fans do take it seriously, using it as the basis for a whole “Bakugo was abused and this explains his behavior” reading. Well, I take the “joke” of Bakugo’s threats and insults seriously, especially in a story that starts with something like telling Izuku to jump off the roof. In the same way that many fans want others to treat Bakugo’s mother as a serious topic that has had a negative influence on his development, I want the series to take Bakugo’s everyday actions seriously as a negative influence on… well, everyone around him. But it doesn’t. His base personality is grudgingly adored.

The above two points are seen most overtly in Izuku, who never wavers in his respect for Bakugo despite how Bakugo treats him. Not just prior to U.A., but during their training too. Izuku, as the protagonist, is the emotional heart of this tale, so when he talks about how inspiring Bakugo is, it encourages the reader to see his behavior as inspiring too. Rather than, as said, something that needs to change. Izuku's continued friendship with Bakugo, his adoration of him, and his acceptance of the way he's treated has severely warped how the entire story sees Bakugo's actions. After all, if #pure Izuku can see the good in Bakugo, why can't everyone else? He must not be that bad after all.

I could get into detailed analyses of all the above—like how Bakugo was the one comforted after attacking Izuku outside the dorms at night and how the messed up relationship he has with Izuku is upheld as something to nurture; how the remedial courses he had to take were made to be rather silly, thereby undermining their supposed importance to his development; how Bakugo’s kidnapping had nothing to do with his flaws, but much of the fandom uses it as a way to dismiss any appropriate consequences because, “Hasn’t he suffered enough?” etc.—but in the interest of keeping this within a readable length, I’ll leave it at that. The point is that Bakugo has always been privileged when it comes to his behavior, resulting in others either outright praising it, ignoring it, or demanding that he change a miniscule bit, which always keeps him far below the standards of both his peers and the expectations of a hero. Everyone in 1-A must learn to be even better than the good people they already are... Bakugo needs to learn that other people aren't dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It's never been a particularly impressive development when pit against the rest of the class. All of which can make something like an apology feel pretty hollow. Yes, he’s apologized and I say with all seriousness that that’s great! But how does that apology stack up against 300+ chapters of content? As Bakugo’s words highlight, he's been a really awful person up "until now": he was consumed by Izuku being “miles ahead of [him],” he “looked down on [him]” because he didn’t have a quirk, he “didn’t want to recognize that,” he “hated that,” “grew distant,” “tried to beat you down,” “opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you,” and ends it all with, “it probably doesn’t mean anything telling you all this” before finally getting to the “I’m sorry.” This is basically a laundry list of how horrible a person Bakugo has been for the entire series, with an acknowledgement that this apology is coming really, really late. This is the moment where I could START to like Bakugo, depending on how he acts form here on out, but that pivotal moment arrived after six years of content and in the final arc of the story. It’s too late. Bakugo needed this kind of self-reflection and positive action 250+ chapters ago so he could (hopefully) grow into a better person across the story, not at the story's end. What we got instead is 322 chapters of him being a really horrible person, but the story going out of its way to excuse or even praise that behavior the majority of the time.

As a quick comparison to end on, I think what Bakugo needed was what Soo Jin got in True Beauty. You don’t need to have seen the drama to follow along. The tl;dr is that she has a lot of the core qualities of Bakugo: an all-consuming drive to win that was created due to abusive parents with high expectations, resulting in her bullying a peer to a pretty horrific extent. The difference between them is how the story frames their actions. When Soo Jin becomes the bully she loses everything. Rather than succeeding academically, her grades plummet, making it clear that this anxiety and self-doubt (things the fandom keeps insisting Bakugo is struggling with, but that rarely ever show up in the text) is actually impacting her day-to-day life. Her best friend drops her because she’s not going to support her choices. The boy she likes rejects her. She’s eventually forced to start over somewhere new - which importantly separates her from the girl she was bullying - and get some distance from her parents, resulting in the growth needed to become a healthier, happier, good person again. So when Soo Jin apologizes to the girl she hurt, it feels earned. The story continually recognized how horrific her actions were and put her into a place where she either had to change, or continue losing at everything else that was important to her. Bakugo? Bakugo doesn’t lose. Oh, he claims he does because he’s comparing himself to Izuku constantly, but that’s just him thinking in extremes. He still wins academically. Still wins many battles. Still wins at having friends. Still wins by maintaining the prestige of being a U.A. student. Still wins by getting All Might’s attention. Still wins by receiving Izuku’s respect and an agreement to maintain this rivalry that Bakugo is so obsessed with. Bakugo comes out well 99% of the time, he just thinks he's "lost" because he can't stand not being the absolute best.

For me, the story needed to have Bakugo face consequences for his behavior, not receive rewards and/or have others ignore it, and that revelation/apology needed to come way, way sooner. For me the issue is not a specific action that Horikoshi can have Bakugo do in the next chapter and them bam, I like him now. The problem is Bakugo’s entire concept, how he’s received by the entire cast, and his run across this entire series. "Entire" is the key word there. Which is why the “But he’s apologized. What more do you antis want?” reactions don’t sit well. What we wanted is a better written redemption arc across those 300+ chapters, not a single scene that’s meant to have us forget all the other problems inherent in the story. At this point it’s a far more complicated situation than, “Bakugo just needs to do X, Y, and Z and then we’re golden.” At the end of the day, Horikoshi failed to make me like him as a person and I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to change Bakugo enough to make him likable to me. Bakugo was never the sort of character I’d be inclined towards without a serious, nuanced redemption arc, but sadly, a core, crucial part of that redemption arc took six years to arrive. At this point there’s no way to change the problems in Bakugo’s writing for that huge chunk of the series and not enough time left in the series, it seems, to do the work we should have seen across the entire run. Honestly, idk if the Bakugo we'll get going forward is someone I can just dislike as opposed to being really uncomfortable with, but my money is on there being too little story left and too much investment in upholding Bakugo's base personality for that to happen. I could absolutely be proven wrong! But I think the problems are structural and needed to be better dealt with from page one, not hastily patched over in the final hour.

[bridgyrose]

Alright, time for the post that no one asked for! Which ship had more development between Bmblby and Blacksun!

Gonna preface a few things first: I dont particularly ship either ship, so I'm going to do this with as little bias as possible.

This is only over the first 3 volumes, so anything after the fall of Beacon isnt taken into consideration right now.

And the rules are as follows:

First, winking will not be considered. Since people keep saying a wink isnt inherently confirming of a relationship, I'll ignore any winks and judge the scenes based on the content.

Second, scenes will be judged by whether or not you could replace any character and still get the same effect. (the more you can replace, the better in my opinion)

And lastly, since I keep seeing this coming up as well, the only evidence I will consider for absolute confirmation is of any sort of kiss in the first 3 volumes. Although, its going to feel a bit rushed and out of nowhere since the first 3 volumes takes place over 4-6 months at best.

Without further ado... everything will be under the cut.

Starting with Vol 1, after re-watching, there really wasn't any build up to either ship. Which, doesnt surprise me considering that Sun doesnt show up until the end of Vol 1 and the entirety of that volume is centered around introducing the characters, the world in which they live, and just general ideas on what it's like being a huntsman academy. But there are still a few scenes to note in vol 1:

Initiation: Its a quick blur, but you can see Blake rush across the screen once we see Yang walking through the forest. At that point, its safe to assume that Blake had already made her choice on who she wanted, which is further implemented with Blake helping Yang out with an Ursa.

Its safe to assume that between talking with Ruby the night before and seeing hearing how what she thought of Yang didn't quite match her thoughts.

Our next scene comes to Sun and his infamous "slow-mo wink introduction." As per the rules, I'm ignoring the wink and going straight off the content of the scene itself. Which, doesnt leave much. We know he pinpoints Blake as a faunus very quickly and he has some sort of infatuation with her, but the scene alone doesnt give us much.

However, that one does lead into the end of the Vol: Blake runs off from her friends and takes her bow off to finally show us her ears. At which point, Sun comments that he knew she'd look better without it. So that already shows that 1) Sun definitely pinpointed Blake being a faunus early on, and 2) he wanted to talk to her and this provided the right opportunity. Or... so he thought. Especially since the next scene opens up with him half complaining that they've spent 2 days together and all she's done is make small talk.

Which is all pretty on par for Blake. She then spends the next bit talking about her past, how she was pretty much born into the White Fang, stayed with it after it went from peaceful protests to more anger filled, until leaving Adam just a few months ago. After all of this, Sun asks if she's told her friends, to which we can assume she answers no to, you know, since she ran. Overall, it ends up leading Sun into going a bit gung-ho about helping Blake with the White fang.

Overall, Vol 1 did well to start putting together dynamics between Blake and her friends. Sun and Yang both make different impressions on Blake, both of which she ends up seeing as friends... for now.

Vol 2, is a bit of a strange one. Our first introduction to Beacon is Sun basically telling Neptune how cool team RWBY is, emphasizing a bit on Blake. Which does end up bringing us to the meat of the first half of vol 2: Blake worrying over the White Fang. Now, because of this, we dont see any build up between Blake and Sun or Blake and Yang while they go around town to figure out what the White Fang and Torchwick are up to. Sun makes a good point that Blake shouldnt go to the rally alone, and the two pair off while Yang goes to the club with Neptune.

Once the dance arc comes along, that's where things take an interesting turn. Sun immediately asks a sleep deprived Blake to the dance, in probably the most awkward way since he's trying to say the dance is lame, but would be less lame if the two of them went together.

Sun definitely cares about Blake and actively tried to help her calm down a bit. Which, ultimately, she never says no, just that she doesnt have time for a dance. So, I give this one a +1 in points for build up.

Then, we get to the burning the candle speech. Which, a lot of people seem to write off as either pointless or not build up. Personally, it gets a +1 in points on build up for me on this. First, Yang is absolutely worried about her partner, seeing her go down the same path she did when she was much younger. She immediately starts by telling Blake that she doesnt want her to stop, just to slow down and take a breather. And she ultimately makes a strong point: slowing down isnt a luxury, its a necessity.

This also end s up being the first time we see Yang open up and drop the party girl demeanor that she's had. She talks about her mother, someone that she doesnt talk to many people about, and just how much it hurt her to find out that Raven left shortly after she was born.

After an emotionally charged discussion, we finally see the point that Yang had been trying to get Blake to see:

And it finally does work. Blake slows down, takes a rest, and ultimately enjoys herself at the dance. Which, in her own words, she technically goes with Sun.

Overall, the dance arc in general gives great build up to both ships. Which ultimately is the end for the Black Sun build up.

Bmblby doesnt get much more build up in vol 2, the only other notable scene being the campfire where Yang, Blake, and Weiss start opening up a bit more to each other to figure out why each of them are becoming huntresses. Which absolutely gives a bit more foundation to the friendships they have.

Vol 3 ends up having most of the build up between Blake and Yang. The first major scene being after Yang was disqualified for breaking Mercury's leg. When Yang finally asked her team if they trust her, Blake is the only one who doesnt immediately say yes, instead, saying she wants to. Leading us to this face from Yang:

(yes, I know, captions are a bit off, deal with it.)

But Yang ends up being distressed by her own partner saying that she wants to trust, but doesnt yet. Blake ultimately ends up opening up about Adam, telling us how she used to trust him... until accidents started piling up. Eventually, she looks at Yang and asks her to look her in the eye and tell her she didnt do anything wrong. When Yang does, Blake allows herself to trust Yang.

Which then brings us to the biggest piece of buildup between the two: Adam. When Adam shows up, he starts using words like "my darling", hammering in that at one point, the two had something going on. He decides immediately he wants to hurt Blake just like she hurt him by leaving. But what really hammers in Blake's feelings for Yang, is the fear she had on her face when she heard Yang's voice not so far away... and right where Adam can hear her. It doesnt take long for Adam to look down at Blake, notice the fear, and then look in the direction of Yang, ultimately stating that he'll destroy everything Blake loves, starting with her.

Now, I know a lot of people will dismiss that as "it could've been anyone. If Sun had shown up, it would've been the same." And honestly, yes, it would've. This moment here is what solidifies who Blake ultimately cares about. Had it been Sun to come around, no doubt she'd show the same fear. But it wasnt him. Instead, it was Yang, who immediately found Weiss and asked where Blake had gone. And we further see her feelings for Yang cemented by the way she blames herself that Yang got hurt. The way she stays close, gently reaches for Yang's hand, the emotion of the entire scene after they get to safety.

Sun does ultimately care about Blake, and helps out where he can, but at least in vol 3, he had his own priorities of making sure everyone could make it to safety.

TL;DR: Both ships had a bit of build up in vol 2 and 3, although, the build up that Bmblby had outweighs the buildup that Blacksun has. Blake definitely had feelings for both, but ultimately, it took until Adam was a threat for her to realize the feelings that she had for Yang, and even then, she still wasnt entirely sure what they were until later in the series. At this point, the only reason anyone can say that Bmblby has little build up is due to either a higher bar for f/f ships (because, lets face it, everyone takes the wink from vol 1 as absolute confirmation for blacksun because its m/f) or they continue to deny that sometimes, there are multiple ways to show buildup between two people for a relationship and the slowburn route usually takes an emotional route over a physical route. And look, Blake has two hands. Take that as you will.