#i despise this narrative

[hannigramislife]

When you say, "warning: canon jc"

I hear, "warning: i have no media literacy whatsoever and will blame the consequences of the actions the main character voluntarily took on a scapegoat character who i despise because his trauma left him, shocker, traumatized"

[yuridovewing]

i really hate how the fandom’s excuse for jayfeather’s shitty behavior (and outright medical malpractice in certain cases. looking at the time he refused to help squilf in labour bc he couldnt be bothered and later blamed her for how bad it was) is “well the clan was ableist to him growing up, so fuck them!” ok how does that excuse him screaming at and berating the cats that didnt do any of that. or the babies.

[bixels]

What did/do you like about Pharah?

Uh, gameplay-wise, I really love characters in shooters who rely on three-dimensional movement techs. Chaining together hover and jump to stay in the air for as long as possible and keep momentum is so satisfying, and picking enemies off from the sky made me feel like a bird of prey. I was a good Pharah main.

Story-wise, there unfortunately isn't much to canonically go off because Pharah is so underutilized and neglected. Her personality's pretty boilerplate "heroic hero" (she's literally inspired by Captain America).

But it's the crumbs/bits and pieces that I really latched onto. Pharah's a confirmed lesbian; her short story with Baptiste implies she harbors a crush on Mercy (fucking thank you.). She's biracial Egyptian/First Nations. She has major mommy issues, having grown up both admiring and resenting Ana. She's the bridge between Old Overwatch, inspired by the idealized heroes who surrounded her childhood, and New Overwatch. She's one of the only inter-generational characters in the cast; someone whose experiences span the gap, which is why I seriously believe Pharah would make a great main character.

There isn't much to go off of, though; she's a very uncomplicated character (she's a soldier for a private military corporation, lol.). But that just means she's a blank slate character, so I've seen fanfic writers run wild and create some really interesting takes on her. My favorite interpretation of her's a dense, herbo gym-bro type (a lot of her liens are about work outs, exercising, and playing sports) who's easily excitable under her seemingly self-serious, armored visage. We see how she tends to gloat and hype herself up when she's on a streak too, so Pharah definitely has a competitive and boastful side under her more professional and militant performance.

Now Mercy? Mercy is a real complex character.

[rivkae-winters]

Zack Fair, Violence, and Tragedy

Over the last month or two I’ve seen several posts about the nature of Zack Fair’s tragedy and his seeming heel-toe-turn and thought I’d chime in. 

Also like last time: this is only my interpretation of canon, there is no one true analysis to take as gospel. If you disagree/differ in opinion/even just want to talk please reblog or dm! I enjoy talking to other people about this sort of thing, fandom is all about discussion after all!

While I agree with the sentiment I’ve seen going around that Zack’s relationship to violence plays a role there are other nuances and factors at play here. I’d argue that it’s more accurate to say that Zack is becoming more aware of personal and professional culture outside of SOLDIER and outside of both ShinRa’s constraining grip and Angeal’s attempts at protection. Even then it takes great personal tragedy caused by the inherent contradictions of ShinRa’s reality for him to realize that he has functionally been on the wrong side.  

Sure he’s not callous like Cloud is in the beginning of original and Remake, but he certainly isn’t horrified at his actions just because there is violence. I’d argue the violence of his actions isn’t the main horror to him in isolation. I’d argue that even the death that results from violence isn’t what the core of the issue is either. 

Zack’s hinging point is more his loyalty and his pride. What he does for other people and what he believes in and of himself. Specifically these things in conjunction with his desire to be a good person. 

The language of Pride, the non-localized direct translation of the word hokori or 誇り(JP CC Script), is what’s going to be used here rather than Honor. 

誇り | Hokori - To take pride in; To boast of

Definition Sources: 1, 2, 3

Just keep in mind that I’ve written this from as neutral a point of view as possible on the matter of pride since the Western perception definitively does not apply. To be proud is not a crime and it is not foolish it simply is. 

Zack initially places his pride in SOLDIER- in what being a SOLDIER means to him. In how being a SOLDIER is his and that they are his people and thus he lets ShinRa policies define how he frames his morality. Thus ShinRa defines good in Zack Fair’s life. 

Zack wants to be a hero. He wants to help people. He is trusting and kind and respectful to people consistently outside of the conflict of the mass desertion. Zack genuinely wants to be a good person and help other people, good or otherwise. He is led to believe by ShinRa propaganda that the best way to help people or to be anything meaningful in this world is through them. This is a baited trap that he falls into, Zack is prime prey this trap was intended to catch. 

He is angry at Genesis and horrified by Angeal, especially at the beginning, not for cruelty or violence or even really death… He is angry at them for their betrayal. Sure he is violent and angry in the instance he thinks Angeal has murdered his own mother, as with Genesis and his parents, but that does not define his antagonism, his hatred, his regret, his sense of justice with them at all. 

 Zack does not raise his sword at Genesis for the people of Banora, he raises his sword for SOLDIER. 

Zack understandably feels, and has been, betrayed. 

He is hurt and angry and alone in a way he’s never been since he got into the SOLDIER program. He falls deeper into the illusions of ShinRa for that reason, angry and hurting and grieving the life he had with people in it who will never return. There is a deep sense of nostalgia throughout Crisis Core in the sense of the word’s initial meaning: the pain of missing home. Specifically the homes we find in people.

Even as he believes in ShinRa's twisted reality Zack wants to help. He wants to protect those he cares for. Zack wants to be good. Unfortunately in Zack Fair’s life the undisputed definition of good is now written by the ShinRa Electric Power Corporation alone.

Then he meets Aerith. 

Suddenly ShinRa’s version of right and wrong have opposition but the control that ShinRa has over his life, total and complete as it is, prevents that from sinking in. Zack is perceptive though, around Aerith he is her version of good and then he has to go back to what equates to his phase of reality. A sanctuary is not safe, not truly, when watchers are peering in through the back door ready to drag you out by your feet if you misstep. 

Zack wants to be a man Aerith or anyone won’t be scared of. He wants to do that not because he is suddenly horrified at his own violence but rather in consideration of others. Zack is highly empathetic after all once he can see someone else’s perspective. He wants to be what Aerith wants, even if he doesn’t really and truly understand it yet, because he cares about her and cares about her opinion. He cares about her comfort. Zack still puts most of his pride within SOLDIER though. That means that Aerith’s morals cannot sink through his skin to his center, not like Angeal’s had. She makes him think but she is not shaping his mind, he is left to do that himself.

 Zack spends a lot of time questioning Angeal and being upset at and about him off screen even more than on screen. We don’t get a front row seat for all of it. The big takeaway is that Zack doesn’t shed Angeal’s morals that he’s taken on himself. He can’t after all, not with ShinRa only just seeming tarnished. ShinRa would need to rust and crumble fully before he actually can let them go. Before he can be free in his own mind.

ShinRa chips and rusts in an instant under Sephiroth’s hand. The last holdout crumbled in the fight of two victims of ShinRa and someone who will become one soon. ShinRa is no longer the defined of good, not after what Zack sees is the response to the Nibelheim Incident.

ShinRa not being good, worse even ShinRa being bad breaks the entire morality system. The illusions crack and Zack is forced to examine himself, his actions, and his biases in ways Aerith made him want to but that he couldn’t afford to truly indulge in. Even more that he was scared of self introspection in a sense, of the paradigm of his reality shifting even further. 

He eventually truly reframes his actions and has to reckon with them (and himself) at the end of the game, chapter 9 and onwards. It is only then that he actually LOOKS and is fully horrified by what he sees of himself. That horror only progresses as he fights for both his and Cloud’s lives. That horror only builds as he realizes he’s exactly the person who his girlfriend SHOULD be terrified of despite his best attempts- that he’s everything she was talking about. He’s everything she was talking about even after trying to change the way he acts around her. 

To abuse the innate metaphors: Zack Fair goes to Nibelheim, a well trained attack dog, still seeing relatively little wrong with fulfilling ShinRa’s orders. Zack is only then on the cusp of figuring out that he does not want to be there, that he is the antagonist of the planet’s (and Aerith’s) story unwittingly. 

Zack Fair leaves Nibelheim beaten. He tries to go back to the safety of what was once his home prior to ShinRa only to be waylaid. 

Zack Fair leaves Banora free and irrevocably changed. 

He is free in the sense that the illusions he held himself too are crumbling even more with knowledge that his demons are men too. He is free through the knowledge that he is one of those demons. , that he has been shaped to be one, and that good intentions pave a terribly walkable path to hell. 

Zack leaves with the knowledge that he was the monster in the closet. The knowledge that his sword was not just the executioner’s blade but the enforcer’s. The sword kept clean in favor of bloody hands and higher risks is now drowning in pools of it. Zack leaves with the knowledge that he never would have been truly free. 

Yet he is in the sense that he can choose- actually choose- what he wants, what he values. He chooses Aerith and he chooses Cloud as he has each time before. He chooses violence. It is something he knows and among what he is good at. It is not all he is but it is a tool he can use. 

He chooses to pay the price of freedom. 

Crisis Core is a tragedy and Zack and Genesis both are tragic figures at its center. Zack’s arc is angled to the viewer for maximum effect but Genesis’s does mirror it in a way just on an offset path already initiated. Sephiroth is also a tragic character, undeniably so. However structure wise his role is more murky given the way he has the ability to be the god waiting in the machine, a guaranteed victory or unavoidable altered trajectory should he choose to act, for most of the story. 

And that’s a large part of why I love Zack as a character, aside from things I’ve said before about what makes him such a good narrator. Zack is the unlucky prodigy at the center of a story about wars, abusers, connections, and perspectives. He wants to be good, he wants to be a person that helps. 

He can’t, not really, not in the way he wants. 

Crisis Core is a cautionary tale about exactly that going wrong and how anyone can be taken advantage of. 

[themyscirah]

Complaining abt Suicide Squad yet again but the fact that they have Waller exposing the alien community to space racist attacks and talking abt how she got to her position through deceit and being a terrible person and stuff is just. Ahsfiwueh JUST SAY YOU DONT KNOW WALLER.

Anyways literally the 3rd mission of the Squad ever (and the first framed as smth Waller picked and not orders from above) was the Squad discrediting and stopping a rogue vigilante who was only arresting POC and funneling white people into white supremacy groups (of which he was the most prominent member) in SUICIDE SQUAD #4. and it's explicitly framed as this mission being personal for Waller that she's hiding from the government bc its illegal like. Guys. Please why are we having her incite (space bc comics) racist attacks now

Also the whole "Amanda got her position through deceit and being a terrible person" NO. she KEPT her position through being shitty and playing complicated political games!!! She wasn't always that way like there is a difference and it is IMPORTANT ppl PLEASEEEE. In Secret Origins #14 we learn Amanda's backstory and she used to be a normal, caring person! Like even after she entered into working in government and politics she wasn't automatically morally bankrupt like please people. She was originally given control of the Squad by Reagan (*sigh* 80s comics...) to distract and get rid of her because she was so successful at pushing progressive social policy in Congress. Acting like she's this static pillar of evil is such a waste of her character and so fucking uninteresting and disrespectful to her arc it drives me MAD.

Like I am NOT saying Waller is all sunshine and rainbows, she fucking SUCKS (said w love <3) but like there's a human being there. It's a progression, she has a character arc like please, DC, please!!! They've fucked up Waller so bad and made her so opaque and uninteresting she can't even be the protagonist of her own story for fucks sake!

Like I don't know how many times I have to scream it until DC hears me or remembers but WALLER IS THE MAIN CHARACTER OF SUICIDE SQUAD. ITS HER BOOK. yet right now she's a cutout to be used as the villain wherever the writers please. Even in her book we get none of her perspective really displayed, no exploration of her thoughts with any kind of understanding of the role she traditionally has played and was made to play in the story.

[baeshijima]

bitches will still be crying over the high-cloud quintet at 2 am months later and never get over them

its me. im bitches.

[wizardnaturalist]

finally started king of attolia and I absolutely love seeing eugenides from a much firmer deep outside pov. hes such a freak

[shiorimia]

My thoughts on the Good Omens S2 ending:

I see a lot of fans pointing fingers at either Crowley or Aziraphale, claiming one side is in the wrong while ignoring the impact this situation has on BOTH of them.

For me, it felt like Crowley was desperate to keep things the way they were, because they were happy. Even with all the shenanigans they dealt with, Crowley still cherished his time with Aziraphale and feared it all ending. Aziraphale suddenly going back to heaven as a supreme archangel...to Crowley, it probably felt like they took 5 steps forward over the process of 6000 years, and then 500 steps back. All in one day.

The fact that he tried so hard to get Aziraphale to understand that things aren’t just black-and-white like heaven claims they are, only for Aziraphale to rush back to them after all those years...it must hurt a lot, like going right back to square one.

Given, well...EVERYTHING about Crowley, Aziraphale suddenly asking him to go back to heaven with him so they can be angels together just feels like a slap in the face. Aziraphale is still desperately hoping that things will magically come together without strife...he doesn’t truly understand the depth of what he is asking of Crowley, because he is DESPERATE to stay with the demon...but he can't give up heaven just yet.

He doesn’t fully understand yet that heaven is just as bad as hell. Crowley has absolutely no interest in becoming an angel again after falling, and on top of that...Crowley knows that the minute he steps a foot in heaven, he’ll be killed or enslaved. Aziraphale hasn’t thought about any of this, because he just wants to be able to have both of the things he loves at once: Heaven, and being with Crowley.

A sadly impossible wish.

Aziraphale saying “I forgive you” after Crowley kissed him...I have SO MANY THOUGHTS on this. Crowley desperately revealed his love for Aziraphale by kissing him fiercely, not holding back. He did this because he truly did not want Aziraphale to leave him, and revealing his hidden feelings was his last resort.

Aziraphale’s infamous “I forgive you” response insinuates that Crowley is IN THE WRONG for having romantic feelings for Aziraphale. It reads as “I forgive you for loving me”, which is absolutely heart shattering for Crowley. Not only is he about to lose the angel that he’s loved for 6000 years, but said angel just treated his love like an unsightly mistake to be fixed.

A lot of ppl have pointed out that it seems like Aziraphale was actually going to say "I love you"...before he choked up and reverted back to what he felt he was SUPPOSED to say, as an angel to a demon.

I’m not mad at either of them. They are put in a truly dire situation where they are forced to take sides...heaven and hell just DONT want them to be happy. Their emotional, desperate reactions MAKE SENSE. They crave what they can’t have, and its killing them.

All I can think of is how truly miserable Aziraphale is going to be once he gets back in heaven and slowly starts realizing that the things Crowley pointed out to him were all true. And on Crowley's end, the demon is probably going to ANGST over their last meeting, ANGST over his rejected feelings, and ANGST over the nonstop "I forgive you"s echoing in his head.

They really need to make up, especially on Aziraphale's end. Lord knows how badly his response will tank Crowley’s already nonexistent self-esteem.

[stuckinapril]

I thought you liked physics ?

yes I do. I love physics. I love it bc I was raised by a brainiac engineer mother who taught me to see math as fun from a very young age. and sometimes it pisses me off bc I don’t understand concepts immediately and my ego is HURT but then I humble myself and learn it and I’m back to adoring it again

[moistvonlipwig]

truthfully i do think the narrative (embraced both by fandom & by spike) that the scoobies 'kicked buffy out of her own house' is flawed to say the least. what actually happens is that buffy refuses to stay and watch the potentials be led by faith. so the potentials & the scoobies, all of whom have every right to not want to be led by someone who just led them into a trap and who seems utterly unwilling to listen to their opinions and quite frankly who has not been very nice to them at all for the past few months, say: okay, then leave. so she leaves. i would hardly call that 'kicking her out'. she couldn't handle their decision, so she threatened to leave, and dawn called her bluff. and honestly she comes back a much better, more well-adjusted, and emotionally balanced person so. you know. it kinda seems like it was for the best! i know btvs fandom is very protective of buffy but the truth is that everyone needs to get bonked on the head with a rolled-up newspaper sometimes. even buffy. especially season 7 buffy

[lustrethings]

I wonder what crossed Highbottom's mind in the end, when he saw what Coriolanus actually looked like when he embodied all the cruelty and hate of his father; like did he even realize there was a difference? That the line between the ambition, hunger (literal and not) and the purely cruel thing Coriolanus becomes, had been crossed? Did he taste some sort of bitter satisfaction, because in the end, he was right (and was it worth it, really)?

Because it mirrors what Coriolanus Snow and Katniss Everdeen had decades later, specially that last dialogue, and so I have to wonder if Coriolanus also remembered that. Being in the other side of that conversation - finally getting to kill the old man who hated him for merely existing in a way that reminds him of his failures.

[ecstaticasusual]

It used to be us against the world. 

[sskk-manifesto]

(´･ᴗ･ ` )

[seokjinite]

its just . harder and harder for my man to hide it

[soona-kit]

i imagine they have an absolutely unbridled hatred for one another

[loveisalwaystheanswer]

I always have mixed feelings about Lizzie in S3 to S6. Imagine to live in the house of your husband who still would not remove the pictures of Grace in the house. On one hand, I do feel it is cruel for Tommy to do to Lizzie but on the other hand, why should he remove the pictures when he makes it clear that he did not love her?

Oh man, it will be hard to separate the plot from my opinion about SK's writing. In s3 he had tied every character of the story and the plot itself to the rails. And after that moment everything went down. But we aren't here to talk about SK's ability to write. Let's go back to the main track.

I absolutely agree with you, anon. It must be very creepy for Lizzie to walk past the portrait of Grace every night and let's keep in mind that she's depicted as a haughty ex-wife with accusing eyes rather than a kind woman. Brrr! This gives me the vibes of Rebecca (2020) movie. Pretty scary.

Tommy is an asshole very selfish and emotionally disabled person who doesn't think about people's feelings. He doesn't even think about his own feelings, so why would he care about someone else's? Yes, he doesn't owe Lizzie anything and never hid the truth from her, and he didn't bother himself to put that portrait away but it would be the least he could do to make Grace's presence in the house less palpable (re-read it and realised why he hadn't removed it 😅). And it would be a compromise because he has the photographs of Grace. But they're living lived in a mausoleum. It's soooo far from being normal but Tommy isn't 'normal', yeah?

What about Lizzie... Talking about her in times like these is like walking a tightrope but I will try. And before I start we need to clear some things out:

I do like Lizzie. I don't like her WITH Tommy and I don't approve some of her actions.

I like she's not saint therefore she's not one-dimensional and she's an interesting character.

I DO NOT justify Tommy who's cheating on her. It's not her fault and she's not responsible for this shit.

But she's responsible for sleeping with him, marrying him, staying with him and letting herself being treated like that.

I was enjoying to see how she was trying to get out of her past lifestyle, doing a correspondence course, working hard to make her way in life because she knew she's on her own and no one will save her. She was INDEPENDENT (as far as it was possible in those days).

My feelings about Lizzie has been shuffling since s3. I liked her completely before it and this season became a turning point in my opinion about her. 'Actually I'm sleeping with Tommy, now and then. Because he wants to [...] Except we don't sleep. It's hard to sleep bent over a desk. Isn't it?' I mean, wtf was that? She has a good job now. WHY does she need to agree to sleep with him again? Not to mention her lover died because of the Shelbys. She is too loyal sometimes. We didn't see her being sad about his death. Whether she didn't love that Angel and was only boasting of her love or she simply couldn't say 'no' to Tommy, like... ever. Both options aren't good. And she kept doing the same thing in s4. And she agreed to marry Tommy being fully aware of his inability to love her the way she wants him to. Is this fair to her? No. I do feel sorry for Lizzie, a little. Because like she said 'I chose this life, it didn't choose me.' People keep saying that she's the one who really knew him. She chose to marry Tommy, so she knew what to expect, didn't she? Also, she was the one who tried to change him, she wanted to see him being in love with her for so many years. Completely refusing to believe that he doesn't care about her and he isn't happy to know about the baby. Lizzie didn't leave him, she tolerated all his affairs with another women, she hoped for a better life, she lived in delusion. In my personal opinion Lizzie married Tommy not only because of her feelings for him but also because of the benefits it could bring. She was enjoying being at the top, walking in expensive dresses and attending the parties, she loves diamonds as well. I mean, who wouldn't? She's a very pragmatic woman but the sentiments had gotten the better of her and in the end it made her suffer. The marriage became her golden cage. I'd risk to say I always thought she had a very tough childhood so that her co-dependent behavior is rooted in her past. It would explain a lot. I deeply sympathize with her loss of Ruby ("No parent should have to bury their child"). And it's so sad that Lizzie needed such a horrible situation to realize how lonely and unhappy she is in this marriage and the whole relationship with Tommy is a lost cause. She, seeking solace in the company of horses and not her husband, it's a heart-wrenching moment. It'd be interesting to notice that she's never Tommy's first choice but she accepts it.

Btw, since you're asking me about Liz I want to take this opportunity to say out loud how MAD I was at her in 6.01 episode! Mocking a person who just had a failed suicide attempt?? Leaving him alone? Humiliating him? Blaming him? Glorifying your domination? At this moment? Really? It was sooooo low! Actually, I even googled how to treat someone who tried to commit a suicide. And what Lizzie did is the opposite of what you really should be doing when you face a situation like this. Don't get me wrong, I'm far from being the first in a long queue of people who want to defend Thomas Shelby but even I think that this move was awful. And it wasn't discussed in the show. Also, she told Charlie about why she's leaving his father. It was not right too. Children should be out of any conflict between parents. And I hope she will be THE parent to Charlie and won't project her feelings for Ruby onto him. It's a side note, but my heart hurts for little Charlie, because he cannot hold on to any of his parents.

To sum it all up, I breathed a sigh of relief when she finally decided to leave Tommy. It was the only right thing to do. I said it before, I can't watch interactions between married Tommy and Lizzie (due to my personal reasons) without feeling myself very uncomfortable. You know, we really accept the love we think we deserve, and it hurt me to see Lizzie being so spineless every time it came to Tommy. I have seen all these kind of situations happening in real life with people I care about. My heart ached with pity for all of them. But at the same time I was angry at them for being so pathetic and weak. As a feminist I hate SK for doing this to Liz, from an independent woman to Tommy's doormat. But I must admit this whole Lizzie-situation is very realistic and that's why so many women feel themselves related to her more than to any other female character in the show. I understand why women defend Lizzie so hard. That's why I wrote this. So many women in general silently accept any kind of abuse, romanticized it, hope that one day their partner will change. They're begging for love, they take the blame, play a supporting role in their own story, close their eyes to any disrespectful shitty behavior towards them. Well, maybe I'm melodramatic and take it so much to heart, then I'm glad if I'm mistaken about this matter. I stand up for women, fictional or not, I condemn misogyny and I deeply believe that we should apply the same standards of behavior to everyone, regardless of gender. In conclusion I really want someone to tell Steven Knight that men can have business with women without sleeping with them. Surprise!

Did it bring more clarity to how I feel about Lizzie? Nope. I got even more confused myself.

My dearest anon, I apologize for my long (that's one of the reasons why I don't get a lot of questions lmao) answer with feminism filling. I hope you got what you want or at least it was interesting to read.

And if it hurt somebody's feelings I'm very sorry for that and mentally I'm sending you my homemade muffin with any flavor you like. Boys of my acquaintance think I make the best muffins in the world and boys never lie about such things 🤗🤍

thank you

xx