#how ignorant do you have to possible be to base her entire character arc on that
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every time someone reduces sayaka’s character to only turning into a witch “over a boy”, an angel literally dies.
#how ignorant do you have to possible be to base her entire character arc on that#nvm media illiterate… u just aren’t very bright#deadass did you even watch the show?? 💀#mahou shoujo madoka magica#madoka magica#puella magi madoka magica#pmmm#madoka magica sayaka miki#mahou shoujo madoka magica sayaka miki#puella magi madoka magica sayaka miki#sayaka miki#miki sayaka#pmmm sayaka miki#pmmm miki sayaka#media literacy#common sense#media literacy is dying#media literacy is dead#madoka magica kyosuke kamijou#puella magi madoka magica kyosuke kamijou#mahou shoujo madoka magica kyosuke kamijou#kyosuke kamijou#kamijou kyosuke
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Stranger Things: The Value of Perspective
I think my LEAST FAVORITE and, quite frankly, the stupidest “argument” milkvans/anti-bylers use is this:
“Mike wouldn’t break up with El; he wouldn’t want to hurt her like that.”
I have to say that there are SO. MANY. things wrong with this statement that absolutely irk me and let me know that whoever states this genuinely doesn’t understand Stranger Things at all and is easily susceptible to a character’s biases in a given situation.
Let’s break it down…
This statement is spoken from an overbearingly limited perspective of the show.
Those who make this statement/very similar statements ONLY EVER say that Mike will break up with El. It doesn’t matter the context in which said people decide to make this statement; whether Byler related or not, there is ALWAYS someone who, out of the blue, says this. Their habitual instinct to always assume Mike is the one who will initiate their hypothetical breakup is straight madness. I have NEVER ONCE seen any milkvan argue against Byler by stating, “El wouldn’t breakup with Mike because that’ll hurt his feelings!”
What this repetitive tendency reveals about such fans is that they don’t actually have a grasp as to how Season 4 ended. They lack so much understanding of El’s personal arc in Season 3 and 4 to the point that they believe she’s 1) so perfectly content in her relationship that no audience member would ever CONSIDER the possibility of her taking charge in breaking up with Mike a second time and 2) doesn’t have the proper independence/self-confidence to even do so.
I think we can all agree here on the Byler tag that the Season 4 ending was, to put it flat out, quite ambiguous. Mike and El’s relationship was up in the air while Mike and Will seemed to be growing closer again. To focus on the former relationship, the reason it seemed “up in the air” is NOT because of how Mike was acting in the few last scenes, but rather because of El. SHE was the one who was putting verbal and physical (shutting the door in Hopper’s cabin) distance between them. SHE was the one who passed Mike on the hill and proceeded to stand ahead of him and everyone else, entirely alone.
I feel it’s quite appropriate to claim that, given these actions she made entirely on her own accord after 2 seasons of her gradually developing an uncertainty of her own identity within her relationship with Mike and then proceeding to somewhat heal that insecurity by stepping away from that relationship, by the end of season 4, El has a far greater sense of independence than she did at the start of season 3. Milkvan’s may acknowledge this, in theory, but they obviously don’t stand by it if they’re making the statement this whole post is based off of. If they did truly accept this part of her identity, they wouldn’t always limit the possibility of a Milkvan breakup to Mike’s choice. El should and does have equal autonomy to Mike in their relationship, but Milkvans ignore it in this situation.
Rather, Milkvans tend to view the ending of season 4 from purely their surface-level understanding of Mike’s perspective i.e. he believed he “fixed” everything in his relationship with El through his “confession” which is all heavily laced with contradictions and lies (the painting). Personally, I, too, believe that Mike thought he healed their relationship because he believed he said what El wanted to hear, but basing your theories for the future of a relationship from purely one person’s perspective is astonishingly immature and lacks critical support.
Let’s put it this way:
If Mike thinks their relationship is fixed, that would mean El must be content too. This is essentially what Milkvans would use to support the argument I mentioned at the beginning. “If their relationship is okay, that would mean Mike breaking up with El would hurt her!”
You notice what’s wrong with this argument now? It’s only taking into account Mike’s perspective. We’re assuming what El feels based on Mike’s heavily biased opinion on the whole fiasco. Because we decide to ignore El’s own identity arc independent from Mike in season 3 and 4 and trust that what Mike believes is correct, we never give thought to El ever considering taking a step forward and initiating the breakup on her own. Through this, the GA/milkvans are deducting SO MUCH characterization from El and reducing her character to being someone whose opinions fully depend on Mike’s, which is EXACTLY WHAT SHE’S TRYING TO ESCAPE FROM.
Additionally, the plain argument that Mike would ever even initiate a breakup is shoved aside by Milkvans entirely because they believe that since Mike is seemingly content with their relationship, he simply wouldn’t ever consider breaking up with her in the first place (which I agree with). The issue is that they end the argument here. They never consider the possibility of El initiating the breakup because of everything I’ve previously mentioned, further revealing that blatant misunderstanding of much of El’s independent character arc season 3 and 4, diminishing her identity to being one that’s a product of Mike’s.
I hope this made sense! I also hope this really helps bring to attention the hidden biases Stranger Things characters have when you’re watching/analyzing a scene/theme. Feel free to ask any follow up questions! 😊😊
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i usually don’t get into these discussions lol they’re too much trouble, but on your nightwing run rankings i honestly think it’s crazy to call devin’s run objectively bad when it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did. taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.
Also because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it, but it is quite good
I think her Nightwing run is bad because I've read it. Her sexualization and fetishization of Dick is gross, her characterization of Dick was mid, her characterization of Babs is horrible, her approach to writing both Dick and Catalina Flores was incredibly racist, most of her plot was just trauma porn, and she spent nearly all of her 45 issues on the book destroying everything narratively that had been built up by the previous several years of writing. And this is not even touching the way she handled the rape and rape aftermath issues.
As I stated in the original ranking, there are redeeming features: her early issues with Rick Leonardi, before Catalina shows up, are much better than anything she wrote after he left the book. The transition from Dixon to Devin's run was handled well and she competently finished all of Dixon's plot threads before doing her own thing. The Renegade arc is not an objectively good piece of writing, but it's enjoyable to read and has some top-tier comedy in it re: Dick and Slade's interactions. The Wally-Babs scene after she and Dick broke up was lovely. She writes Dick and Tim's relationship well. None of those things outweigh how bad and genuinely unpleasant Devin's Nightwing run is to read overall.
As for the rest of your comments:
it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did.
"THE Nightwing mythos" as we concieve of it today was actually created by Chuck Dixon. Despite his other crimes (and there are many), Dixon remains the man who created Bludhaven, moved Dick there, and did the worldbuilding necessary to make a Nightwing solo work in the first place. Everything every modern Nightwing writer does ultimately goes back to something Dixon did in the 1990s when he had near complete control over Dick Grayson's character.
In fact, every writer since Dixon has struggled with the book in part because Devin Grayson spent her 45 issues on the book systematically tearing down the foundation Dixon built (Dick's supporting cast, his rogues gallery, his relationship with Barbara, his life in general, etc) instead of building on top of it, and no one's been able to properly been able to create a new foundation since.
Like, "so many writers after her were trying to do what she did" is a HILARIOUS statement to make considering that most of Dick's writers since then (excluding Tom Taylor) generally do everything they can to ignore as much of what she wrote as feasibly possible. Are we ever bringing up Tarantula again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up the mob infiltration arc again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up that Haly's Circus burned to the ground and his apartment building got blown up and he got shot twice and that he stood aside and let Catalina kill Blockbuster? NOPE! The list goes on.
taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.
Bringing up Tom Taylor's run is also funny because I've actually discussed at length before how if you read Devin’s run and Taylor’s run back to back, you realize Taylor is basically just rewriting her run "BUT I CAN DO IT BETTER!!!" Blockbuster's back in town and a big deal again, DickBabs are suddenly together again despite them having been broken up since Devin's run in the mid-2000s, Dick's trying to clean up Bludhaven from the inside again (though as a philanthropist instead of a cop), Tim and Wally are randomly popping up in guest issues…he basically soft-rebooted Dick back to the Dixon era so he could write his fun little self-indulgent fanfic of what could have happened if Devin hadn’t taken over the book and destroyed Dick's life.
Which is one of the many reasons I ranked Taylor's run significantly higher than Devin's run. I prefer bland mediocrity and Taylor's ignorant #resistlib attempts to address the roots of crime to dealing with the "absolutely worst year of Dick Grayson's life" arc, and if I'm going to get Babs character assassination either way, I'd rather her be a bland supportive girlfriend than clingy and codependent at best and actively hostile at worst.
As for Watters, per his own statements what he's taking from Devin's run is the fallout from Chemo nuking Bludhaven (which happened because of Infinite Crisis and was not actually Devin's decision) and the Dick-Babs dynamic from her issues with Leonardi (which. again. are her best issues because she was basically just wrapping up Dixon's run and hadn't had time to blow anything up yet). More relevantly, he said that Snyder's The Black Mirror, Morrison's Batman and Robin (2009), and Dick's tenure as Batman in general are much more influential in terms of how he characterizes Dick and that he loves what Sam Humphries did in his short run to add depth to Bludhaven as a city. That's not exactly taking notes from Devin lmao.
because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it
Devin is not a uniformly bad writer. I genuinely enjoy her Titans (1999) run and the first few arcs of Gotham Knights (2000). She wrote a solid Stephanie Brown in the opening issue of War Games, and was apparently against killing her off. I think generally when she has to balance team dynamics and is not writing Her Personal Blorbo™ that she trauma dumps onto and self-therapizes through, many of the problems I have with her Nightwing run are largely mitigated or minimized. But she fundamentally cannot be trusted with writing Dick Grayson unless he's in a group title and not in a romantic relationship, and her Nightwing run is case in point as to why.
Anyway. I will never forgive and I will never forget her explicitly stated reasoning for why she wrote the Romani retcon ("Dick's from the circus, of course he's Romani" and "it gives him a reason to be all hot-blooded and alluring to people")! Die mad about it!
#and I didn't even touch her thoughts on Dick and Bruce asdfghjkl. unfortunately they are not particularly relevant to her Nightwing run#but OH BOY I could talk about them for a long time#dc comics#devin grayson#dick grayson#asks#long post#dc fanwank#dick grayson meta
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⚠️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. ❤️
#Neve knew you were trouble when you walked in#neve gallus#neve dragon age#dragon age the veilguard spoilers#dragon age veilguard#rook dragon age#dragon age#dragon age rook#dragon age neve#please don’t let me turn this into another absurdly long fanfic#why do I have so many feelings about these collections of pixels#antivan crows#shadow dragons#crow rook#rook neve#Neve rook#detective Rook#Neve Trouble#I clearly don’t know the ship name#Shadow Crow#i was half asleep#hopefully this makes sense
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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
#sandman comic spoilers#ask#dream of the endless#death of the endless#delirium of the endless#desire of the endless#destruction of the endless#mine#meta#the sandman
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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!
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"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.
#rwby#headmaster ozpin#grimm queen salem#hazel rainart#some people REALLY need to let go of their evil ozpin theories#the show's debunked it several times over
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me after wiege
obligatory first reaction post SPOILERS AHEAD
WHAT
THE
FUCK
VIVINOS
HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US HOW DARE YOU HOW WHY ITS SO MAGNIFICENT, I LOVE IT, I HATE EVERYTHING I HAVEN'T STOPPED SOBBING VIOLENTLY, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GO ON. this is an attempt to compose myself. it is failing
ANYWAY here are my surface level takes because as of right now, i have only watched wiege once (will watch more when i am stable enough to make a second post)
i've also been awake for like, 20 minutes at time of posting this, so half of my takes will be elaborated on/edited later when i'm conscious enough to know what i'm saying.
ACTUAL SPOILERS AHEAD
ok so i forgot mizi was wearing that outfit so there wasn't a timeskip, we're ignoring that part of my predictions post btw, it's very embarrassing, i'm a fake fan.
wiege gives the idea that luka is a clone way more credibility if we use the scene where he's covered in blood and standing around all those incubation chambers (possible?) and there are bodies strewn on the floor after he, stabbed them? but i can't tell yet whether the segyeins that took him were because this was all intentional and he was the 'victor' so he was put into anakt garden because statistically he seemed the most likely to come out on top then because of either what they think is his "sadism" or just his "skill" to be able to win against so many people.
i kind of thought luka was more likely to die but, with how mizi is the central focus and all the trauma goes to her, it makes a lot of sense that hyuna dies (also the stomach wound, my wife was not surviving that). in hindsight, luka's character arc is way more unfinished than hyuna's.
i'm not entirely sure based off my first watch but it looked like the segyeins were experimenting on luka and/or cloning him possibly.
mizi having flashbacks to sua and IVANTILL BEING MENTIONED IS CRAZY.
AND NOT THE FACT THAT THEY'VE NOW CANONISED THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSES WHERE THEY'RE HAPPY BECAUSE WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THAT THERE'S ANOTHER TIMELINE WHERE THEY DIDN'T GET HURT IN THIS WAY, unless it's meant to be in the way that this is what luka actually wanted. THE WEDDING RINGS ARE INSANE I CANNOT WITH THEM.
also the fact that ivan, till, mizi, and sua are HAPPY in another universe was just not necessary in a place where they cannot ever get to.
i KNEW that hyuna's feelings towards luka weren't pure hatred because of the official art where hyuna has heart eyes towards luka and he doesn't towards her.
HYUNA IMPARTING JACOB'S FINAL WORDS TO HER AND THEN TO LUKA??????????? but adapted because what they're being told is what they actually need to hear, hyuna who never forgave herself after hyunwoo and luka who doesn't think he has ever felt love in his entire life.
i genuinely don't know how to feel about how hyuna still had people after leaving alien stage (dewey, jacob, isaac, later mizi) but luka was just alone as soon as hyuna left.
i don't think luka killed hyunwoo because of that scene where hyuna is crying and luka leans on her as if trying to comfort her but being unable to because he doesn't fully understand the spectrum of human emotion and also due to the fact, he has probably never been comforted either.
either luka being attached to lots of wires is because he was being cloned OR he was being monitored after hyuna escaped alien stage.
i don't have any points on the song itself yet/lyrics because i don't know korean and i was more focused on the visual aspects during my first watch, but i'll have more thoughts today definitely.
#alienstage#alien stage#alien stage hyuna#alien stage luka#alien stage mizi#hyuna#luka#mizi#hyuluka#wiege#alien stage wiege#alien stage analysis#WIEGE SPOILERS#reo moments#im mentally unstable now for the next 89 years#WHAT DO YOU MEAN VIVINOS WHAT DO YOU MEAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNN
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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. 💗
#i'm sorry anon this got so deranged#and extremely personal LMAO but yea valhalla is certainly a very polarizing game#perhaps the most polarizing in the franchise!! i think the story was very strong#anonymous#asks
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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.
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(IK this post is old, but I was just looking through your account).
I'd say she is, but I like her a lot more than Zuko for multiple reasons. She-ra is a very complicated show to me where everyone seems to interpret it differently depending on who they are as a person (that is why a lot of discourse surrounding it involves people comparing characters to people they know in real life and disliking them as characters based off that unfortunately) and it's one of those stories where it would have benefitted more as a story for adults without censorship towards the gay relationships.
Part of why I like Catra more than Zuko, aside from how the fandom's BPD headcanon for her basically led to me suspecting PDs for myself and finding resources, is that the show isn't truly about the war happening. It is about the characters and the war acts as an exaggeration of Catra & Adora's childhood conflicts (Although, season 5 focuses a little too much on the war in my opinion and that's part of a lot of critiques I have of season 5). Sometimes, I see people criticize the show for not focusing as much on the fighting or war itself, but most of the themes do not even revolve around war. They are themes you might expect in a children's show, like love being important, alongside themes like victims becoming like their abusers to survive in an environment and how it stays with them beyond that (obvious example is Catra, but less talked about is Adora, who I feel people often brush off her controlling behavior for. Even Catra refusing to leave the Horde with Adora has a lot to do with Adora's pressuring of others, especially Catra who she said deserved Shadow Weaver's abuse and said could never be as good as her (another thing the writers brush aside in order to paint Adora as only harming herself or "not meaning" to say those things about Catra. Again, it's a flawed show)). I've seen one post on here describe this as people wanting Romeo & Juliet to be about the family feud and it is essentially that. I find Catra more enjoyable this way, because 1.) I personally just like character focused stories more and find them more personal & impactful. Then, 2.) you can still criticize how the war is handled, especially in season 5, but it's much easier to ignore than something like ATLA where the bad political implications are a big part of Zuko's character and basically the entire show.
My biggest criticism of Catra's arc is that like many other redeemed characters, I feel like once she is redeemed, she stops having a unique perspective on things that also isn't completely antagonistic. The reason I find many redemption arcs boring is that they end with characters having the exact same morality as the others, losing their role in the story. I think she is still better than Zuko here though, because she still challenges the main character, Adora, in the final season. I won't spoil exactly what happened, but Adora struggles with self sacrificing and despite most of her friends loving her, they often tend to profit off of that, since she acts as their savior, and they also have not known Adora for as long as Catra. Encouraged by her abuser, Adora does something that will possibly end her own life as her friends just accept it, but Catra pushes back and actually makes Adora reconsider how she views the abuse that they both suffered from Shadow Weaver. Even in the last episode, Adora tries to keep Catra away from what may end her life, but Catra stays to be with her. This is something I'd never expect from Zuko, who would probably be more focused on "doing the right thing" over personal relationships and attachment. It's common for the fandom to see their arcs as "Adora encourages Catra to be more selfless; Catra encourages Adora to be more selfish" for this reason.
I don't know if you've watched the show by now and keep in mind, it's been awhile since I've last rewatched it and I always interpret it differently depending on things I've heard others say about it since last time. However, that's why I personally enjoy her, even if I think her arc is flawed. She-ra, to me, is one of those shows where I like reading fanfiction more than actually watching the show, especially when people explore their personal takes on the characters and expand on them. I appreciate Catra as a realistic portrayal of what someone in her position would do and honestly, I just love seeing complicated and villainous female characters more often. I feel like her redemption arc is one that the show would not be the same story without it, because of how it plays into the theme of love throughout, but I'd probably still like her even if she had no redemption arc and her story ended shortly after the confrontation with her and Double Troube in S4. The show would just be completely different if that's the case, because her character doesn't exist by itself.
LMK if you have thoughts, because I do like a lot of your analysis on things ⭐️
i didn't watch she-ra pop, but i got the impression that catra was a very zuko-esque character, so im asking if that's true
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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.
#emotional about gojo. he can fit so much genuine kindness and love in him#jujutsu kaisen#gojo satoru#satoru gojo#my posts#meta#sfw#it's not that I don't think the fandom doesn't understand nuance btw#god knows gojo has been analyzied thru hell and back#but I do see a lot of people infantilizing him and acting like he doesn't know how to be responsible just because he's funny#...and I just realized how much this pisses me off as an adhd person that sees gojo as nd-coded
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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!
#ask answered#Homestuck meta in the year 2023#Jason Todd#Vriska Serket#John Egbert#Karkat Vantas#the analysis one (1) person asked for!#enjoy!!!
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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
#trauma center under the knife 2#trauma center second opinion#trauma team#adel tulba#naomi kimishima#derek stiles#talking#text post#long post#trauma center
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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.
#bnha 296#bnha#boku no hero academia#bnha spoilers#mha spoilers#bnha manga spoilers#makeste reads bnha#asks#anon asks
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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.
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