#i don't claim to be good at character meta. but i will still write it.

[tamelee]

pls bottom naruto is disgusting stop drawing this ooc cringe

Eh? And it hadn't even been a full day.

Anyway, do you know what this means?:

It means… that I don’t give a damn about your whiny gibberish about this top/bottom bullshit, because it sounds incredibly silly. (And wrong because I draw both?)

It’s fine to have a preference, good for you (I have one too!), but if all you care about between a character-dynamic is the single notion which establishes a rule within a fandom that demands only this particular dick in only that particular booty and nothing else, while dividing yourselves between "us and them" while seeing the people who like the same exact characters as your "enemy" and treating them as such— well, 

I have nothing to say to you, I couldn’t care less what you think about me and I don’t know you. 

But for the sake of other creators who are often a target also, some which I know quit because of this… there is a little something I'd like to say about these servers:

You don’t think I (we) know what is said in there and by who? 👀 That your rules of "what is said on here stays here" with a bunch of people online that you don't know, is actually respected? Why do you think I never join any. And bet your ass that I'm not the only one. This constant fighting between NS/SN is such an embarrassment for this fandom, seriously. I hope you realize that.

Because, instead of encouraging a (new) creator to share something about the characters you claim to love (for fucking free) you go off chastise them for not “doing it right”/“your way”, pretending it's some unspoken commission no one knew of or was paid for. Instead of being happy there’s still so much creative contribution for characters from a story that ended years ago, you go complain under fanfics and dishearten writers, often grinning away with your little server-“friends” and make fun of work someone poured their heart in. Or, you huff, puff and breathe fire as you make plans to cancel them out of pure bitterness, to the point (especially new) creators are too scared and dispirited to ever share anything again. It's easy to do anonymously, aye? And if you think that doesn’t affect their lives and sends them right back into a crestfallen pit of dark hell because it prevents them to do/share the single thing in life that gave them a bit of joy, then...

Congratulations; you’re a heartless bastard.

And you, as a fan, did yourself dirty too.

Do you know how many people don’t want to share anything at all for this fandom because you people leave comments, tags, asks, tweets constantly complaining about an incorrect portrayal of the (in your opinion) only acceptable dynamic, like a bunch a brats? Do you? Because I’ve talked to quite a few of these discouraged creators, they have to hope for the best and pray they’re spared from your scrutiny. I receive it from both sides every now and then.

Again, congratulations: you’re the reason there’s less chance of you getting what you want in the first place. 

Do you... really not realize?

The more you squabble with "your enemy" (lol) the more it affects the "us" you care about while the rest of us just bask in the glory that is SNS/NSN and couldn't care less about what you think/have to say. So, keep everyone else out of it and go mope elsewhere.

But, between you and me? There are better ways to share what you think is right. Make something yourself, because what's stopping you?

You’re perfectly capable, it doesn’t have to be art or a fic, maybe there’s just something in the story that you really enjoyed— write about it. Make a meta. Post the panel, show the moment that determined your undying love for this single dynamic and why— whatever.  Because, wouldn't it be nice having someone encourage you to create something you like? 😬 Especially because you and your server feel so strongly about it? And then you don't have to depend on others either?

Wouldn't it be nice?

Well?

Hm!?

Try it, ffs.

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

Thank you for the actual good Rose metas! It’s so hard to find them in this fandom, they just want to go after her and make her look like a one note bad guy, it frustrates me- especially when they claim Steven hates her. Resents? Yeah…but hate?🌹😔 (bonus points if they defend the other diamonds but demonize pink. 🫤)

thank you, anon !! this was such a lovely message. we have similar takes, let’s be su buddies/nf

here, i have a quote to show you:

“i think an important lesson for steven is to find himself and not rely on rose's image as guidance for everything, because everything within the show has a moral grayness. to say rose quartz encapsulates all that is good and powerful about a mother character would take away so much depth of what humanity actually can be—hurtful people, conflicted people, people who can't or don't want to be healed—which i don't think rose ever got to learn. maybe steven can learn that. to me, rose is an example of what happens if you admire an idea of a person.” —jesse zuke, steven universe: art and origins, page 134

i just started my first year of college (journalism!) so i know i still have a lot to learn. but i love writing about pearlrose because rose is a character who i relate to so strongly, while pearl is a character i admire a lot.

i love steven universe because the characters are just so human, really. they’re traumatized & flawed & complicated & they have insecurities and issues. it makes these characters feel very real & relatable. for example, rose is not perfect; she hurt people because she was hurt, she hurt people because she made mistakes. she feels so much love for the people around her, but the way she feels about herself makes some of the characters question how she feels about them.

i could go on because she’s complicated. that’s why my posts are so long, i think (so it really means a lot to me that you enjoy my posts, because i know it takes some time & energy to read everything). but my point is that we’re not supposed to see these characters as “all good” or “all bad.” they’re people. rose is not the epitome of a good and perfect mother who did everything right and had no issues. she’s not an evil heartless villain, either. she’s just a severely traumatized person who has a big heart, made mistakes, struggles with mental illness, and feels guilty about her past because she never intended to hurt anyone. she’s like me; not my ideal self and not myself when i was at my worst. just me now, and that’s why she’s my comfort character.

a bit about pink! people were so caught up in the pink diamond reveal and the plot twist, and i understand! it’s a big deal. but from now we’re only falling apart & jungle moon, it was already clear that pink was badly abused on homeworld. & i think people overlook rose’s abuse trauma and therefore defend her less because they watch change your mind and miss the fact that white believes she is talking to pink. this made me understand rose’s character so much more. believing she’d never change, saying pink’s a bad person who only makes things worse. making her feel powerless. this had a lasting impact on rose’s mental health & relationships! i hate when people say, “pink was a bad person, but rose isn’t.” i can sympathize with & love rose and pink.

as for steven! the quote that i posted above really shows why he was impacted so much. we see episodes like lion 3 and storm in the room, and he often looked at rose as “encapsulating all that is good and powerful about a mother character” for his own comfort as a kid, because rose is dead. which was always difficult for him, remember his heartbreaking “i didn’t even get to know my mom”? he begins to learn that she hid some things, made some mistakes, hurt some people. when he was young, he felt like he knew her, and now he simply wonders who she is. he questions a lot of things, and after everything he’s learned, he still doesn’t have all the information. he doesn’t know—nor could he really understand—the guilt she felt, for example.

he’s a kid. then, we blink and he’s sixteen. old enough to begin realizing that the adults in his life weren’t perfect (i.e., greg was always a good dad, but now he’s questioning him as a father). still, he’s too young to understand a lot of things. he’s processing so much, and he’s struggling with his trauma & mental health issues. like you said, he resents her! i don’t think he hates her, i think he’s sixteen. when he’s in his 30s, and his trauma is no longer fresh, i do think his opinions on rose will look quite different because he’ll learn what jesse zuke talked about in the quote that i referenced. & i think some people looked at this specific timeline in future and said, “oh, so she’s bad.” i know that’s easy to do because the show is from steven’s perspective, but we can have our own outside perspectives, too! we can empathize with steven and his specific pain & questions & issues, but we can also empathize with rose and her specific problems that steven can’t quite grasp because of his personal perspective.

i’m so sorry for rambling. basically, i agree with you & i love the moral grayness of the show. categorizing a lot of these characters and ships as “all good” & “all bad” has led to a lot of takes in the fandom that i personally disagree with.

but i love this part of the fandom (mutuals ily) and if you’d like, feel free to talk to me about su anytime! my dms are open, pink anon :3

[synchodai]

HotD: A Lesson on Why You Shouldn't Write Around "Problematic" Tropes

These are assumptions of course, but I can pinpoint two major plot changes that were changed between adaptations to avoid depicting "problematic" tropes:

Laenor's death is faked to avoid Bury Their Gays.

Alicent is aged down and given a friendship with Rhaenyra to avoid making her an Evil Stepmother.

Let's talk about how anticipating and avoiding the audience's negative reactions to "problematic" elements of your story will, in most cases, actually hinder you from immersing yourself in your world, investing in your characters as people, and imbuing your work with sincerity. Do not meta-narrative when you haven't even have a sound foundational and literal narrative to stand on yet.

On Laenor

Let's start with Laenor. In the show, even his "non-death" happens because he is gay. When he stumbles with Qarl into Rhaenyra's room, Rhaenyra is annoyed that he is not defending their sons from accusations of bastardy, as if it's Laenor's galavanting with men that makes people question their sons' heritage and not the fact that they just don't look like him and there's nothing Laenor can do to change that. He is presented as a problem and an obstacle to Rhaenyra and even admits to his lackings as a father in his final scene — even though, by all accounts, he hasn't gone against the side of the bargain he made with her when they agreed to get married. He hasn't even been depicted to be a neglectful father to his children (while Daemon, the man Rhaenyra marries to replace him, certainly is to his).

And so he willingly agrees to get "fake killed" so Rhaenyra can be with a heterosexual husband. When Rhaenyra talks about replacing Laenor with Daemon, she speaks of it in a way that she believes Daemon could better protect them. You can also read it as Laenor choosing to pursue happiness, but that's contradicted by the fact that he reaffirmed his willingness to be a father to Rhaenyra just before he "fake died." The implications of these are as followed:

Laenor's homosexual tendencies endangers his children

Laenor cannot be a good father because he is gay

Laenor's "true happiness" exists outside of being an adoptive father

And all of these unfortunate implications could have been avoided if: 1) they followed the book implications that someone murdered Laenor (there were many, many suspects other than Rhaenyra or Daemon), or 2) just made their decision to fake his death revolve around something other than Laenor being gay and how that made him inadequate as a husband.

They gave him some lines about being a warrior and a sailor — why not make him miserable in his marriage to Rhaenyra and long to go on Nine Voyages like his father? He knows from his mother Rhaenys's experiences that leaving his wife without a husband will make her vulnerable in court, so he fakes his death so she can still have a husband and he can go on his adventure. But that, of course, would involve thinking of Laenor as more than "the gay one."

Instead, we get a character who is defined by his failure to be the man his wife, sons, and parents needed — and is that really better representation and less problematic than just outright killing him?

On Alicent

Alicent in the books was very politically savvy and very willing to get her hands dirty if she had to. Despite her adherance to the Faith of the Seven which considers incest an abomination, she is the one to offer Aegon II be married to Rhaenyra because she knows this will consolidate their conflicting claims.

In the show, it is Rhaenyra who offers Jace be married to Helaena — but unlike book!Alicent's proposal, marrying Jace to Helaena doesn't actually solve anything. Aegon II still exists as Rhaenyra's challenger, except now his sister is being held hostage. Alicent had every right to reject a proposal because it only really benefited Rhaenyra's side.

Show!Alicent marries Aegon II and Helaena out of spite of this proposal. It is unclear if this was her decision in the books, but I would consider it unlikely to be the case because of her faith. More likely, this was Viserys's idea to tamp down on the greens accruing more influence in court by using Alicent's children's hand in marriage to form alliances with Houses that may defy Rhaenyra's ascension.

I outline all this to say that yes, book!Alicent was antagonistic towards Rhaenyra but she was also willing to marry her to her firstborn son. If she did hate Rhaenyra and consider the girl her rival, she didn't act beyond the bounds of reason and would do whatever it took not to have another woman on the throne. She was perfectly fine with Rhaenyra being queen as long as her son didn't become a target in the process.

Show!Alicent, on the other hand, is a character who seems unwilling to antagonize Rhaenyra no matter the circumstances. So instead, Alicent and Rhaenyra are stripped of their agency and previous motivations so that their "rivalry" is actually just the men around them. They themselves have nothing to do with it. For whatever, the HBO writers have it in their minds that these two women cannot see each other as rivals and enemies at all. These characters can't fight each other and have conflicting desires simply on the basis that they share...womanhood. And women fighting each other is problematic and not a girl's girl and all that.

And how is that any better for representation than just outright making Alicent evil?

It's a shallow understanding of why these plot elements are deemed problematic in the first place.

Firstly, killing queer characters and wicked stepmothers is not bad writing in a vacuum. Gay people do die and some stepmothers are evil in real life. The problem with these tropes lies in their ubiquity. If all gays die and all stepmothers are evil, then that says something about how society views queer people and women in general, doesn't it?

However, if a writer foreswears killing any of their gay characters and making any of their women characters evil just so they don't contribute this trend, then they are purposefully handicapping themselves and their queer/women characters. It's not the individual instances themselves that make these depictions socially harmful or objectionable, but the repeated pattern and lack of alternative representation. If a writer replaces those repeated patterns with just another repeated pattern (say "all stepmothers are evil" with "all mothers are virtuous actually"), they actually haven't avoided spreading a pervasive stereotype — they've just replaced one stereotype with another.

The solution clearly is to break the pattern and provide alternative representation. Don't want to contribute to the harmful messaging that gay people are doomed? Have gay characters who live along with gay characters who die. Don't erase characters like Black Aly and Sabitha Frey, queer characters who play big roles in the Dance and live after it. In fact, they could have emphasized the book's implied queer relationships of characters that were already on screen like Rhaenyra/Laena, Cregan/Jace — never mind the show outright erasing Jeyne Arryn's heavy implications of queerness entirely.

Don't want to contribute to the harmful messaging that women will always be rivals for the affection of a man? Have women friendships along with women rivalries. If Rhaenyra was as fond of Helaena like she said, why do they never talk? Where is Baela and Rhaena's relationship? Where is Jeyne and Rhaenyra's relationship?

Have those deaths, friendships, and rivalries exists outside of their identities as women or queer people. And that's one of the big faults of HotD, in my opinion. Even when it aims to subvert the "problematic" tropes from the book, it still did so in a way that always pigeonholed Laenor as a gay man and Alicent as a woman, with no identity or motivation beyond that. They always anticipated their audience to see those characters as "the gay one" or "the stepmother" and thus, treated them accordingly.

If your characters happen to embody a certain problematic trope but it makes sense to their background, history, and identity, then just let them! Stop seeing your characters as a collection of archetypes and possible tropes and write them as people.

[zykamiliah]

i don't think we talk enough about the two most mysterious characters in the whole novel:

the author and the reader, airplane shooting towards the sky and shen yuan.

yes, we know a lot about Airplane and Shen Yuan's lives post-transmigration, and we got a few details of their first lives, but those details are so scarce that to this day we still theorize about what was going on with them. we don't even know Airplane's birth name.

what we know is how different their economic and family situations were: shen yuan had a loving family and enjoyed the life of a rich second-gen, while airplane's parents divorced, he was unloved and neglected and struggled to make a living.

airplane lived off his novel, and shen yuan lived to consume it.

and i think that this happens because this two characters hide themselves behind The Story. Author and Reader use the Story to forget about themselves; or at least the version of themselves that they suppress, because there's a lot of underprocessed and internalized trauma and pain associated to it.

this is much more obvious in shen yuan, as his emotional repression has been talked about a lot already. even after the extras there are a lot of things that he'll simply shove into a mental box to never touch them again, but the same goes for airplane. I'd argue his case is worse, because his two lives have been so difficult.

airplane submerged himself in the world of his novel while he was writing, and then literally when he was forced to live in it.

escaping into the novel, first figuratively and then literally, was necessary for airplane to keep himself alive. his novel allowed him to live and gave him a goal, something to live for and be proud of. he made a story that was wildly popular and that had lots of people talking about it. pidw was such a big hit it inspired more novels that followed on its steps. he was so drunk on the attention, enjoyed it and craved it so much, he'd go to read what his fans talked about in the forums.

this is the way the author escaped into the story, because the story gave him money and a twisted form of adoration and attention, the only he could aspire for.

there's a very good meta by @/inefectualdemon about how PIDW could be seen as a reflection of Airplane's traumas, personality and worldview, and how you can infer a lot about how he portrays this characters and their relationships with each other.

shen yuan too participated in this form of escapism, just from the other side of the equation; it's not normal to read a novel in 20 days and get so obsessed with you die ragging about it. why is a guy who seems to have everything he needs, a loving family and a stable life, losing himself into the world of a novel he claims to hate?

i'm of the opinion that shen yuan's issues have to do with his lack of purpose in life, but i'd also argue that they may be related to his blatant sexual repression that derives the extreme compulsive heterosexuality and homophobia we see reflected in his narration. he's obsessed with sex, but with "straight" sex, so it's okay to read about it. it's okay to think about dick if it's in the context of heterosexual sex. it's okay to think about the protagonist's attractiveness and beauty if he immediately tags it with a "that's why women fall for him".

so, going back to the main point. i think that, just as the world of pidw reflects airplane's inner world, the way shen yuan relates to it and projects himself into it and its characters, says a lot about his elusive inner world.

(it's getting long, so continue under the cut)

at the end of the novel, shen yuan thinks that pidw, with all its plotholes filled and backstories revealed, is just tragedy after tragedy; for airplane, this is just how the world works from his point of view. there's no end to the tragedy, there's no happiness simply because he himself has never experienced it.

shen yuan's solution to the tragedy and cruelness of the world is kindness and understanding; airplane's is apathy.

another example: shen yuan admires yue qingyuan for his dedication, reliability and kindness; he sees him as good old brother, subconsciously projecting and relating to him in the same way he did with his real older brothers. this is not to say his feelings are not genuine; they are, but they arise from his own need to have that type of siblings relationship again. that's why he's so invested in cang qiong, among other things.

but how does airplane view yue qingyuan? a kind fool, someone who's easy to take advantage of. yue qi is the boy that failed to save his most important person (for a good reason, apparently) and yue qingyuan is the adult that allows disciples to be abused to assuage his own guilt.

the way shen yuan treats kids and teenagers, the way he perceives the women as aesthetically beautiful, and distant from himself, unless they fall in the category of family. the way he makes a point to comment on the appearance of every man he meets, specially the ones that reflect his own repressed tastes.

shen yuan care a lot about everything, from the plants to the monster to the people in pidw; he struggles trying to force himself to believe they are not real, that this are just novel characters, and fails every time (well, except when it came to binghe's agency, ironically). airplane is the complete opposite. almost everything in pidw was his own creation, and he can live through the tragedy and death unperturbed (well, with a couple of exceptions), unless this one character he got attached to gets in danger, in which case he'll do everything to save them. mobei-jun is the character that cracks airplane's shell of apathy. he cares so much about him it almost gave him a heart attack.

pre-transmigration, airplane escaped into his novel out of need; post-transmigration, he's apathetic, sometimes even resentful of his fate, but mostly doesn't care unless it's related to his own survival.

pre-transmigration, shen yuan view everyone as characters that served a purpose in the story; tropes and archetypes. but post-transmigration, as early as the demon invasion, he is incapable of viewing the characters as fictional, and is deeply affected by what happens to them.

we joke about svsss being fanfiction of pidw, but if we look deeper into it, isn't fanfiction a reflection and projection of the fic writer, a way to reinvent the story in a way that resonates with you? don't we sometimes have a love-hate relationship with a popular media that inspires both admiration and criticism in us?

this was a very long-winded way of saying how intrigued i am by airplane and shen yuan's lives pre-transmigration, the things that made them into Airplane and Peerless Cucumber, the way both Author and Reader escape and project themselves into the story, and how this is a reflection of who they are.

if you read until the end, thank you! :D and let me know what you think.

[honeycreammilkshake]

SUKUITA is so good I hate when Gege keeps interrupting yuji development! I also don't want Gege to give Sukuna a pathetic humiliating death just to please the obnoxious gojo fans. I wanted to see sukuna past and Yuji to see it as well

Personally I want both of them to survive and Sukuna to learn about love

Hi, anon! Sorry for the late reply.

I definitely want both Sukuna and Yuuji to survive together, somehow. They're both such opposite extremes, but I think Gege's hinting at the possibility they can coexist and even balance each other out. He's referenced them being being yin and yang by their different color schemes (Sukuna dressed in white and Yuuji often in black) and he's even mentioned the concept of Manichaeism — or the dualism of two very different concepts. Gege's approach to this seems to take a more monistic point of view, which suggests that things are more alike than they seem. There's also that scene in the Culling Game arc where Kenjaku claims that so long as Yuuji and Sukuna keep coexisting, there won't be an end to the "cycle of curses" — which I take to mean that neither can really exist without each other at this point, and if they are separated, it could potentially altar the flow/balance of cursed energy and spirits as we've seen it.

Sadly, Yuuji's story and self-development is usually offset by other characters, who take up more of the focus. One interesting thing I'd like to point out, though, is that of all the people Yuuji's ever met, Sukuna is the only one he's confided in the most. No one has ever gotten to see Yuuji so open — he literally told Sukuna his whole life story and preceded to extend an offer of mercy to the King of Curses himself, all in a very personal setting that is just the two of them.

The fact that Yuuji really is invested in teaching Sukuna how to love and even wants a potential peaceful outcome for Sukuna too — even though he's killed so many of the people Yuuji cared about — just goes to show me that if anyone can "save" Sukuna, it's Yuuji.

After all, the brat has done a lot more damage to Sukuna's ego and self-absorbed philosophy than anyone else ever has. Sukuna has been changed by his experiences with Yuuji, perhaps not so obviously but still it shows. Which makes me think that if Yuuji can manage to get Sukuna to tell his side of the story, the both of them might just have a chance at resolving this without having to destroy each other.

Another sukuita fanatic pointed out to me that the official art where Sukuna has the Mahoraga's wheel behind his head like a halo could be a potential reference to enlightenment. If that's the case, then the symbolism of the wheel (which represents "perfect cycles") along with the association of haloes with enlightenment could very well mean that Yuuji and Sukuna can find a way to coexist together at the very end. As I pointed out earlier, the references to them being like yin and yang means that sometimes these traits blend together. If Yuuji manages to teach Sukuna how to love, then he's successfully merged these two elements together.

Yin and yang both exist in each other even though they're essentially opposites, because they can be complementary or even parts of the same whole. This suggests that Yuuji and Sukuna, while seeming to be polar opposites (good vs evil) on the surface, are actually far more interconnected and dependent on each other than you might think.

I think that if Sukuna does get to show his story to Yuuji and explain all that led to him becoming the King of Curses, Yuuji will see how, despite being very different in their philosophy, they've experienced many of the same hardships and challenges. Their approach to this is radically different, but is much more complicated than simply being extreme opposites. Through this, maybe both of them will come to an "enlightened" understanding of how they can continue to exist together.

I hope that makes sense! I'm really new at writing meta, so I'm just throwing different ideas (usually from those who write better than me) and my own research all together.

Overall, I definitely agree with you. Gege has shown investment in Sukuna as a character, and I'm hoping he doesn't give in to fan influence to abandon the progress he's made so far.

Sukuna and Yuuji have by far the most interesting dynamic of them all (at least in my opinion) so an ending that focuses on them is only natural seeing as how everything began with them too.

[orionsangel86]

Seeing criticism of Good Omens Season 2 on here is a wild ride for me because I generally seem to agree with everything gomens critical people are saying whilst at the same time still absolutely loving gomens S2.

It's like this: Okay so you have written this super popular book revolving around this precocious kid who happens to be the antichrist whose birth kickstarts the apocalypse. The four horseman turn up as well as these other strange human characters one of which is an actual witch whose great great great grandmother wrote an accurate prophecy book which predicts armaggedon. Through a series of somewhat hilarious events, the kid, his friends, and the other weird humans manage to stop the apocalypse.

Also throughout the whole thing there are these angel and demon characters fussing about getting into arguments but not actually doing anything to forward the plot or make any difference to the main storyline. For some reason everyone reading the book finds these characters far more compelling and entertaining and seems to think they are the main characters. But they are not.

Then the book gets adapted into a show and the focus shifts onto the angel and demon characters because obviously they are the popular ones that everyone loves. So what's a writer to do when the fan favourite characters basically don't have any part in the primary plot points? Give them a more coherent side plot steeped in romantic tropes and claim that they are in love. Boom. Instant fandom catnip.

But then you are presented with a problem. The show has become super successful and everyone wants more story. You may have discussed a sequel over the years with your writing partner but it never really came to anything probably because its difficult to plot out a sequel centred around two characters who weren't the protagonist of the first book, and that story is done and dusted. Whats a writer to do?

Lean into the fans thirst for more angel on demon action and write what amounts to high budget fanfiction pulling the love story b plot of season 1 into the main focus for season 2. Of course book purists are gonna hate that!

Any legitimate sequel to Good Omens should have centered around Adam. The former antichrist now coping with everything he went through growing up a normal human whilst still having a creeping sense that its not quite over, that maybe heaven and hell still have a part for you to play in their grand plan. Sure, Crowley and Aziraphale could have been involved, continuing their b plot love story, but at least this way the sequel would have been more consistent with the plot of season 1.

The problem with continuing Adam's story is that, and I mean no disrespect here, no one cares about Adam. Adam and his friends are the weakest elements of season 1. People tune into Good Omens for the Crowley and Aziraphale show, and Neil Gaiman knows this.

The plot of Gomens S2 is weak. The mystery around Gabriel is a bit silly, and is only connected to the season 1 plot in the loosest sense. The fact that he and Beelzebub speedrun an angel/demon romance is bizarre and does come out of left field... like something out of fanfiction. It also does indeed rob some of what made Crowley/Aziraphale so special - the fact that they were unique in their love and respect for each other despite being on opposite sides. Also I wish Maggie and Nina were given more development (and less clunky dialogue).

The only criticism I really don't agree with is the criticism that Aziraphale was written out of character, because quite simply, season 1 never ever resolved the fundamental issue at the center of Crowley and Aziraphales relationship. Throughout season 1 Aziraphale constantly insults and berates Crowley, claiming he's the "bad one" and refusing to accept that they aren't on opposite sides. There have been plenty of metas stating that this was all out of fear and a need to protect Crowley, and sure, you can interpret it that way, but not once in season 1 does Aziraphale actually say "yes we are on our side. Yes we are the same. I was wrong to claim you were bad when you've clearly been showing me how good you are for millennia." Its maybe implied that he has learned, but its never truly confirmed, because season 1 wasn't about Crowley and Aziraphale and their relationship. But season 2 takes its lead from that.

It's just rather amusing to me how the discourse that has built around season 2 seems to be fundamentally forgetting these points. GOS2 isn't really a sequel to Good Omens. It's a spin off. It's a spin off about Crowley and Aziraphale and their silly relationship drama whilst they deal with a silly low stakes mystery regarding Heaven and Hell (also characters that were barely involved in the book if at all!). It doesn't really tie into the first story at all.

In my opinion, all it needed to link it more closely to season 1, was to bring back Frances McDormand as God to do the narration. If that had happened, season 2 would have been just fine. As it stands, it comes across rather like a spin off fanfiction. But I love fanfiction, and I have always only ever watched Good Omens for Aziraphale and Crowley. To me, season 2 is fantastic, its like if Supernatural had a spin off show all about Castiel in which he is the lead character, and part of the main A plot is him getting together with Dean finally - Dean being the love interest in this particular show. Amazing. 10/10 would watch another 15 seasons of just that - but general Supernatural fans who aren't fandom specific would probably HATE IT.

So yeah, I do understand the criticism its receiving, but I find it funny, because ultimately Neil Gaiman gave fans exactly what they wanted, he gave them an Ineffable Husbands fanfiction - M/M Romance, F/F OC Side Pairing, Rated: Teen and Up, #Fluff, #Dancing, #Excessive Jane Austen References, #Crack Treated Seriously, #Surprise Final Pairing (check the end notes for spoilers!), #Miscommunication, #Love Confessions, #First Kiss, #Angst #Hurt/No Comfort, #Cliffhanger Ending.

Can any of us really say we wouldn't immediately click "proceed" on this fic and then stay up til 3am reading it til our eyes bled? Me neither.

[heretherebedork]

Weird 2023 QL Awards (Late to the Party edition)

Couple That Made Me Feel Most Vindicated 2023

I was suddenly thinking of Weird Awards for 2023 and I'm just gonna be clear that the first one I thought of was 'Couple That Made Me Feel Most Vindicated' and that was Tanthai and Tee from Laws of Attraction where I saw multiple people comparing like them at the start of the show to supporting rapist characters and claiming that made everyone who shipped them bad people only for the ending to show us that they were completely innocent and trapped by an abusive and controlling father and it was the sweetest, sweetest moment because that post about 'supporting someone who hit a child with his car' turned out to be not only completely wrong but was never followed up to my knowledge by any kind of acknowledgement that they were wrong.

Most Punishing Show That I Finished 2023

The Promise. Nothing else could possibly win this award. And, no, it doesn't get a picture or a gif. Fuck this show. Second place in this category goes to A Boss and A Babe.

Not A BL But Still Loved It 2023

Midnight Museum took my breath away and made me so happy it should probably be illegal and, no, it wasn't canonically a BL but I want you to look at this gifs and tell me it wasn't one of the queerest thing to air despite itself. Midnight Museum 2 when?

I Loved It Way More Than The More Popular Shows Airing At The Time 2023

My Dear Gangster Oppa was a blessing of a show that should have gotten so much more love and, no, I don't care about the pacing it was so damn cute and so good and I loved it the whole time. What a perfect show and yes I still think it's better than Playboyy will ever be.

I Fucking Lost My Mind 2023

La Pluie's soulmate narrative and more specifically these two boys destroyed me, rebuilt me and drove me to write more meta than any other show that finished airing last year because this show was so good it probably should have been illegal and these two were just so perfect. The narrative of learning to like someone and slowly falling in love only to start questioning everything because of a soulmate connection and then realizing that your confusion hurt someone you love and realizing you genuinely have to make up for it and make choices and not just let fate decide!? My entire heart. I love them so much and I very much doubt many shows will live up to this because they truly did it all.

Japan Gets an Award 2023

Because dear lord did a lot of their shows make me go bonkers. This not a specific award, this is just for the entire country blowing my mind repeatedly.

I Actually Liked Both The Main And The Side Couple 2023

I mean, it had to be. Kiseki got me into both couples and, hell, even into the barely there couple of the boss and his man and I loved every single one of them to an amount unheard of. Every single boy was amazing, they all got good endings, everyone was together and we got love all around. My Dear Gangster Oppa could have been here if the secondary couple had gotten a real ending but the show didn't give me a kiss, damnit!

I will open this up, if you have any specific really weird awards you think I could give, feel free to send me an ask and I'll... award it?

Anyway, 2023 has been a wild, wild year in BL and I'm glad to have spent it here with y'all. Nowhere else I'd rather be.

[iamnmbr3]

you know what's sooo stupid to me that it's almost bound to drive me crazy?!

The fact that whenever i see you sharing tom riddle metas about how traumatized he was and trying to look from his pov, i think that FUCKING MAIN VILLAIN, lunatic voldemort who was a reason for so many deaths and did everything to achieve his end is vastly understood. bellatrix, the cruelest witch(after umbridge lol), who knows nothing but voldemort has a not lil fandom

BUT jkr says Draco doesn't deserve fans' love & THERE IS NO GOOD INSIDE HIM (says about the guy who despite his environment and his own desire couldn't be bad & cruel..even if coward, still he didn't do several things in spite of his fears) so we shouldn't be that attached to him!!!!

And many people agree!!!! Like is Draco the only bad guy here? Is he actually a bad guy?

Like🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

(i don't have any problem with you guys talking about tom riddle or bellatrix having fans, just the injustice of it makes me insane)

First off, thanks for your patience in waiting for an answer to this ask! Second of all, I think two things are going on here. On the one hand, we have the fandom response to the series. On the other hand we've got JKR's response. While it's true that Tom Riddle and Bellatrix both have their fans (most of whom acknowledge the problematic things their faves have done - and indeed find their flawed actions and complexity to be part of their appeal) within fandom spaces the same is very much true of Draco. He is an extremely popular character within fandom. On AO3 he is the third most tagged character (after Harry and Hermione), drarry is the number one most written about ship, and dramione comes in at number 3. So I think in fandom spaces Draco gets a lot of attention and there's generally an interest in and understanding of the fact that he's a complex and grey character and not by any means a one-note bad guy.

However, JK Rowling does not seem to share that view at all. She's been very dismissive of his character and of fans who like him on a number of occasions and indeed seems irritated by his popularity - even though it is driven by writing choices SHE made. She claims Draco never got a redemption arc even though she herself wrote that he ultimately changed his opinions and behaviors...aka had a redemption arc. She seems to be someone who has a great deal of trouble admitting she was wrong and who is also very threatened by anyone having a different interpretation or view of something that what she wants. So I think she's especially bothered by people responding to Draco - particularly because she's on such shaky ground. Most Bellatrix fans admit she was a die-hard Death Eater - and indeed that's something they embrace about her character - so that's probably not as threatening to JKR as people pointing out that Draco changed his mind is. I think she also hates drarry.

And yeah it strikes me as really unfair that she singles out Draco fans and claims anyone who likes him is just a girl who is confused due to being attracted to the actor (wow. way to be heteronormative, misogynist, and a misandrist all in one go). Which is bizarre and problematic on so many levels and also especially weird when she has no problem with Snape fans or Regulus fans and doesn't seem to think that a similar problem could occur with people thinking Tom Riddle had a redemption arc just bc the character is canonically attractive and played by an actor generally considered to be attractive in the second film for example.

[burr-ell]

the latest chapter of emperor and the goddess was fucking W I L D - edel got not just a wife, but a whole ass DAUGHTER and then she still... cheats on byleth with ingrid. also yippee yahoo the narration refers to ingrid as a woman STILL. the entire fic really just reminds me that popularity /=/ good writing

Here's the thing. If the issue with this fic was just that the prose is mediocre or the characterizations are bad—and they are—nobody would talk about it the way that they do. There's a similar fic that's been brought up as a sort of counterpoint to EatG that I have not made too much public comment on, and it's not because I don't have opinions on it; it's because I'm not terribly interested in it and the opinions I do have are mixed-to-negative, but it's almost entirely due to writing style and characterization. (There ARE a couple of iffy cultural elements in there worth critiquing; I chalk them up to inexperience and naivete, but it's not invalid to point them out if you're going to.)

There are a couple of things that set EatG apart. It's not just that it's an incredibly popular fic whose author is perfectly happy to let people claim it's either the true canon or better, and it doesn't help that he's basically been Christopher Columbus-ing fanfiction by acting like he's writing some brilliant meta piece that's totally not the same as those icky girly fanfics. It's that the fic is choked with absolutely rancid implications and themes about biracial people, nonwhite people in general, women, gay men, mentally ill people, trans people, religion, imperialism, and genocide. When people whose heads aren't shoved up Edelgard's ass comment on this, every criticism is dismissed by either pretending the person said something they very clearly didn't say or pulling "I'm not misogynistic, I have a lesbian beta reader!".

Like, there are mediocre-to-bad fanfics in every fandom, right? There's certainly plenty of them in the 3H fandom, for any ship (I've turbosmashed the back button on plenty of Claude/leth fics). Edel/eth is one of the most popular ships in the fandom; you go through those archives, you're gonna find some clunkers. That in itself is not the problem. The problem is the hype around it, fed into by the author, and the truly obscene bullshit that gets repeatedly handwaved (as we know, a story about queer women is at its most above reproach when written by a cis man) and whatabout'ed (a biracial character hating herself for her "nonhuman" side and being told she's right is totally fine because sometimes people who dislike Edelgard aren't very nice).

Any time a fanfic author acts like this, run.

[meldingintheunderdark]

I've been reading your metas. While I do agree with some of your points there is one thing I can't help but strongly disagree on. I think Halsin enjoyers are aware of Halsin's faults, his trauma, his struggles. We don't all think he's "a healthy partner devoid of problems" but I believe in my opinion, that Halsin has the potential to heal, to do better, and maybe this commune can help him and help others, not fully per se but help heal in some way. It's not going to be smooth sailing, there will be bumps along the way, Halsin does need support, there's no denying that. I don't think Halsin enjoyers are naïve to that, we just want to see him happy as well. But reading these metas feels like... there is no hope for Halsin, the children in his care are doomed and I don't think that's the case. It won't be easy but not hopeless, it won't be perfect, there is still room to grow and learn (though I am following a more tav mindset than a dark urge mindset)

Thank you for reading my metas!

It's embarrassing but English isn't my first language, therefore I might not be as clear as I thought.

This said, I've mentioned many times my headcanons are my own. I don't believe Halsin's dream will explode in a great ball of fire but it'll most certainly not be as happy and lighthearted as it is in game. There will be consequences and not all of them will be positive.

Reading your comment, I fail to comprehend the issue.

Isn't it obvious there is no correct way to interpret Halsin's actions? Isn't it evident our perception and understanding are heavily influenced by our own life experiences, our knowledge, our fields of study, work, mental health, etc? Everything I write is inherently subjective.

From my point of view, when you read my metas, it's crystal clear I have a colossal obsession with fatherhood, unhealthy coping mechanisms or even avoidance regarding mental health, and the pain they cause to oneself and loved ones. I relate so intensely to Halsin, thus I'm extremely critical of his choices. You prefer to focus on him partly healing thanks to nine wagons of children. To each their own. I relate to him because his hurt hurts others unintentionally and I want to talk about this.

I also have every right to voice my thoughts, to be upset for dumb reasons and to share my questionable opinions. I haven't done any proper case study of the Halsin-centric fandom. Nevertheless, it's hypocritical to pretend the fandom isn't overwhelmingly focused on a positive analysis of Halsin and his ending, hence your reaction. It's just how fandoms work. Some opinions are overly represented, therefore an echo chamber is created and maintained. It's also very human to yearn for a comforting character who does good, tries his best and succeeds. I find comfort in a character who is hurting, hurts others and, paradoxically, is so very selfless, good-hearted and caring. I'm not saying Halsin is abusive or so foolish he'll doom the world. I've not claimed Halsin won't learn to live with his trauma, won't be happy or won't help people. The commune seems filled with traumatized adults and kids, Halsin is no therapist. Good intentions don't magically lead to solely good outcomes. Some may be fantastic. A few neutral. Others damaging. It's life.

Every content created is not made for you specifically either. If my posts are unpleasant, and I'm aware they can be, please spare yourself and block me.

Last but not least, I am a Halsin enjoyer. He's my favorite character. My tumblr is about Halsin and my Durge. They'll have their well deserved happily ever after. I simply imagine more heartache and pain than you do.

[ludcake]

Another ramble post incoming because I want to write meta but am too exhausted to do it.

I feel as though a lot of readings of the books - in particular, of Jon and Dany's characters, but also tangentially some readings of Sansa, Young Griff and even Theon (in the form of Theon Latecomer theories) sort of miss the point that GRRM is making in regards to claims and birthright. This is an inconsistency that annoys me most deeply in regards to Dany - specifically, the idea that the crux of these characters is their birthright to a throne.

The thing is, Daenerys' reason to go to Westeros isn't to sit on the Iron Throne, and the justification why she should isn't, in the text, derived from her birthright. At the beginning of AGOT, the same claim that Dany has is currently held by Viserys - it's not being a Targaryen, a Princess, a Queen, a King's daughter that gives her standing to rule, from the narrative's eyes. Dany is Queen because she's kind, and compassionate, because she wants to free the slaves, because she wants to break the wheel and make a better world. She's Queen of Meereen because the slaves she frees want her and love her.

Not because she inherited it by birthright.

She is Mother of Dragons because she sacrificed everyone she loved, including herself. Not by birthright.

And she wants to go back to Westeros because she wants a home, and that's what she's been told. Not by birthright.

Jon, similarly, is Lord Commander because his friends are loyal, and he takes the position of King Beyond the Wall, though not literally, because he sees the humanity in the Freefolk, and he gives them safe harbor, a home, and so much more. He wasn't born into it; his people follow him because they believe in him, and respect in him.

In that sense, we can map their journey in Dance as that famous George RR Martin quote that ruling is hard. That it's not enough to be kind and compassionate. And ultimately, they both fail in Dance.

But Winds, as far as we can tell, seems to be building up to the idea that even after Dany leaves, even after Jon dies, the people loyal to them will still fight. Barristan rides the Silver to remind them of Dany. Tormund marches to Hardhome to save the people there for Jon.

And, I think, there's the trouble. Jon is a bastard by all rights; I don't believe he'll stop being a bastard, despite whatever may come - that much is my earnest belief, and I know some people disagree with me. But Jon leads the Wildlings not by a claim decided by feudalism, but by trust, by respect, by recognizing their humanity which was denied for so long. Dany leads Meereen not because she's a Targaryen, but because she sacrificed everything for her dragons, and still chose to grant people freedom.

They're both still teenagers, children. They both make mistakes, they weren't trained or raised to rule.

But what makes them good rulers, by Martin's thesis, I believe, is that their duty is their love. Love to other people, love to those who follow them. That even if they're dead, people will follow them, because their cause is one that goes beyond oath, law and claim.

That's the misunderstanding; it's not about Ned, Lyanna, Rhaegar, Rhaella, Aegon, Aerys; it's about people, detached from all that history, choosing to be good, and people choosing to follow.

[samueldays]

I am once again recommending Master of Orion (1993).

It's thirty years old, it originally came on floppy discs, and it's really good. The interface is crisp. The ship design system is neat. The technology research system is not your standard tech tree. It has helpful hotkeys like "Indicate next world that has enemy fleet inbound". It has antifeatures like "not doing a Cinematic Camera Pan for several seconds". It has detail while avoiding micromanagement by giving you mostly high-level control, and automatic reassignment of overflow when something like factory construction fills up.

I say it again because of discourse from a mutual's post.

hello gamer. you claim to want "shorter games with worse graphics that are made by people who are paid more to do less". in front of you is itch dot io, which has a "pay what you want" feature,

that… feels like an unfair take?

I don't want the claim as stated, I strongly suspect it's something said because it's catchy more than it's accurate, and I want to dissect its relation to things I do want, like MOO1.

shorter games

No, I want games with less padding.

I want fewer cinematic camera pans, and fewer cutscenes, and less of the dev team showing off their fancy tech demo, and fewer animations in the interface because the interface should have sub-second response time, and less loading time because the game should be smaller, and less grinding unless you're an idle game in which case it should be automated, and I want more automation and macros for things that are a waste of my attention as well as my time. Give me autoresolve for battles with weak enemies. Give me minions that can be sent to do things for me. Give me "repeat until" orders. Give me a dialogue meta-option that says "I've played this before, give me the TL;DR". Give me speed-up and skip buttons.

itch.io games have some of these, but also have less gameplay.

worse graphics

I'm close to agreeing with this, but IMO it's less about the graphics themselves and more about the 50GB graphics package and rendering engine that contemporary games like to include for little to no gameplay improvement, and then that enables lazy devs to think "another 3GB isn't a problem when we're already past 50GB" and the game bloats to 150GB as each dev includes a whole-ass library for one function, and then there's 10GB updates to download repeatedly.

I don't know if this is literally what happened behind the scenes, but a recent game like Baldur's Gate 3 did hit 150GB. Which also brings me to,

people who are paid more

I want developer studios to fire the movie team and redistribute their salary to the rest of the devs, with movie team describing the Thing that 'graphics department' has grown into.

A game like Age of Mythology doing in-engine cutscenes was cool when the engine was primarily a game engine and hands had eight polygons; these days it seems like AAA games also want to be movies and that means turning the game engine into a movie-maker, and hiring an entire movie team to render the 3D model of each character's armpit hair and the physics of how it moves in the wind when the character raises his arm.

Since budget is limited, that movie team comes at the expense of every other aspect of the game, like gameplay, writing, bugtesting, et cetera, and it still won't be as good a movie as an actual movie.

do less

See above. Less padding, less cinema.

[itsclydebitches]

Clyde, I’m angry because they’re doing it again. They had the opportunity to make a complex situation and they’re making black and white again, Clyde. I’m not happy. I’m very angry, Clyde. The fact that Jaune isn’t allowed to lash out for a second when a village he was protecting was destroyed while Ruby can bitch and moan about a burden she placed on her shoulders really makes me fucking angry, Clyde. Duck this SHOW. Christ.

I feel you 🤣

I do understand the fans - RWDE included - who are fully anti-Jaune because yeah, in the grand scheme of things it's a problem that he is again allowed to hog the emotional spotlight when we've got a cast of four to develop. But within the non-meta context of the story and what we have to work with... hard agree. My problem with the focus of Ruby's meltdown isn't simply that she's complaining about something she actively took from others with horrific consequences (though that is a huge part of it), but that it's explicitly pitted against the death of Jaune's village. Yes, we can infer that Ruby is upset about a lot of things - like Penny - but that's not what's written in this scene. So what you end up with is:

Jaune: I'm lashing out because the family I've been protecting for years in my unimaginable isolation have all been killed and my supposed friends are calling me crazy and won't even acknowledge that this is a true loss

Ruby: I'm lashing out because my self-imposed leadership has gotten too hard for me to handle and my teammates haven't noticed that I'm crumbling under the authority I demanded others grant me

The middle part of that is the only part of Ruby's meltdown I agree with - yes, her teammates have been awful to her since landing in Ever After and I HATE that Yang's sisterhood/Weiss' partnership/Blake's supposed pride in Ruby have all but disappeared - but that's only a small part of her underlying complaint which is... that she got what she wanted? Ruby wanted to call the shots and now she's pissed that people expect her to call the shots. Like yeah, you can (and often should) write a character who regrets their choices, but if they don't acknowledge their agency in those choices (which Ruby veeeery much hasn't) they just come across as a selfish asshole. Which is also a great archetype! ... just maybe not in the supposedly innocent, pure soul meant to be a pretty simplistically good hero?

Then you toss in the fact that Ruby's meltdown is contrasted with Jaune's and things look so much worse. Ruby is regretting her own choices. Jaune is grieving countless deaths at the hands of an established villain and the narrative's uncomfortable suicide metaphor. These are not the same. These are not even CLOSE to comparable and the only way you can try to weigh them equally is if you a) toss in all Ruby's trauma which explicitly isn't brought up or b) buy into her idea that the Paper Pleasers are "make believe" and therefore their loss is of no emotional consequence. Sorry, but that doesn't work for me in a story that (originally) positioned Penny as a person despite not being human AND in an episode that JUST had the girls prioritizing the Paper Pleasers' perspective over Jaune's. The story can't criticize Jaune for not listening to the highly-articulate, autonomous beings and then also claim they're nothing but insignificant figments of his imagination. It's one or the other. If the Paper Pleasers are "human" enough to treat their desire to die with respect, than they're "human" enough for Jaune to grieve the hell out of when they're gone. Plus, I know a lot of people won't buy into this because we didn't see the relationship develop on screen, but Jaune spent years with these non-human people who act innocent and silly and a little bit "dumb" sometimes. That sounds a lot like Penny! If Ruby is subtexually lashing out because she's still grieving a non-human friend she had for a year and two-ish months... why would we expect Jaune's grief to be any less after loosing a whole village of those friends after years of living together? He's grieving countless Pennys all at the same time, after all that time being alone. This basically takes Ruby's situation and magnifies it by a hundred: what if you had LOTS of friends die and the world ACTUALLY forced you into being the hero (Jaune becoming the Rusted Knight) and instead of just being ignored for two days, you were without your friends and family for two decades?

Seriously, Jaune's situation is a lot like Ruby's situation just with trauma squared - right down to him being a leader - except he didn't bring much of this down on his own head. Having these two meltdowns in the same scene isn't just a problem because Jaune gets more emotional screentime, it's a problem because I can't take Ruby seriously compared to the insane horrors Jaune is enduring beside her.

[adickaboutspoons]

bad writing where? I don't think you know what bad writing is and I have doubts you understand the core of the characters.

Hi Nonnie! Girl, how ARE you? Because you seem to be taking it awfully personally that I am not enjoying this season as much as you are. To be perfectly clear, if you ARE, I'm DELIRIOUSLY happy for you! I wish I was too! I was SO looking forward to it! And even though I didn't care for some stuff here and there for the first half of the season, there was a LOT that I LOVED, and I was still holding out hope for the rest of the season! After the last 3 episodes, I am decidedly less optimistic. I'm glad to tell you exactly why, and At Great Length, because that's kind of just What I Do, but here's the thing... It's ok if you like a thing that other people don't. It doesn't reflect poorly on you as a person. You don't have to defend a thing that you like as though it was an extention of yourself. Also? You and I don't have to agree. There's room for interpretation. I have mine, but that doesn't make it Objective Truth. My positions are only as good as I can offer coherent, well-supported arguements to back them up. I like doing that. I think it's fun. You may still not be convinced. That's ok. I don't need you to agree with me. And, frankly, you don't even need to worry about other people agreeing with me. I am small potatoes. I have maybe two posts ever that have made it into the low thousands in terms of notes - not reblogs, but notes cumulative. Most of my original stuff don't even break triple digits. Believe me NO ONE is rushing to espouse the doctrine of spoondick llc. And that's fine. So I'm gonna go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt that you're asking genuine questions and not just lashing out. But I'm also gonna put my answers below a cut. Because, frankly, you may not entirely agree with me, but you also may not be able to unsee some of the things I point out once I do, and I don't want to take your enjoyment of the show away from you.

So second claim first: that I don't understand the core of the characters. I mean... I have written quite a lot and at length about these characters and their motivations. I mean, each of those is a link to a different meta I've written, and it's not even close to all of them. Which reminds me - I need to update my pinned page. So while you may not agree with my interpretations, at the v. least, you can't argue that I haven't put SOME thought into the matter. With regard to bad writing, the qualifiers may vary from person to person, but to me, it mainly comes down to three interconnected things: Inconsistency, telling rather than showing, and contrivance. I feel that there have been a LOT of inconsistencies with the characters, both between seasons and just within season 2 itself. I'm an unapologetic Stede girlie and he IS the main character, so most of my big qualms are with how his character is being butchered handled.

How the are we supposed to square Stede "had multiple breakdowns over Nigel's accidental death and was so traumatized over everything with Chauncy that he walked back to Bridgetown in his bare feet" Bonnet with the man from last night who murdered Ned in cold blood, and then went on to casually set a man on fire and QUIP about it? It's one thing to butch up with a "how to pirate" montage, it's quite another to become a psychopath, completely unbothered by taking a human life.

And about butching up. While I would, and have, argued that a lot of Stede's insecurities in the first season stemmed from insufficient performance of masculinity, I would NOT say that it was because he wanted to BE more typically masc himself - but rather from the way he has been TREATED for being soft, and internalizing the distain and derision of his bullies. Rather, the whole central thesis to his approach to piracy is it's "traditionally a culture of abuse... And my thought is: why? And also, what if it weren’t like that?" He's flattered when Yi Sao clocks his energy as soft. So his mid-season pivot to needing to embrace these "traditional pirate" behaviors? Yeah - I'd say that's a pretty glaring inconsistency.

Speaking of Yi Sao, lets talk about his fight with her. Because Stede in the first season is consistently shown to be a master of improvisation and using his environment and people's underestimation of him to his advantage to overcome stronger and more skilled opponents. He sends Officer Show Daddy rowing back to the British ship with some impromptu mannequins to give the Revenge time to escape after Nigel's death. He uses distraction and supersition to get the upper hand on Izz during their first encounter. He bests Izzy again in the duel using gunpowder to the eyes when he's pinned, and then using what Ed taught him about taking a stab angling to have it happen against a mast he knew would cause Izzy's sword to break. This initially carries over to the second season with Stede using his lowly position in Towels to acclimate people to deeply inhaling the scent he adds to the towels, and later uses that to his advantage to knock out the guards and escape. So it might have been one thing if Stede was in his cups and mourning Ed's departure that led him to getting overly possessive of his remaining crew and pick a fight with Zheng as a parallel of the Art Exhibition scene from season 1, and getting his ass handed to him as a parallel to Mary's attempted murder/an expression of what a deep impact Ed leaving has made on him that his normal strategizing fails him, but instead, he's getting emotional support (from IZZY of all people) and doesn't even seem tipsy, so he's got no reason to fail so profoundly, and it's played as though Yi Sao is RIGHT about him being "a mediocre man who thinks he's exceptional" when he legit JUST bested her with fucking tea towels 4 episodes ago.

Another big inconsistency for me is Stede's attitude toward Ed, over the first half of the season especially. At the end of season 1, we have Stede irrevocably torching his life as a gentleman of leisure to the ground because Mary has helped him to realize that 1) no body's life in improve by him doggedly trying to insert himself into a life he never wanted or chose for himself, and 2) he and Ed are in love with one another, and he should got find Ed about that. Then we get Stede dragging his heels in the Republic of Pirates while he "earns enough money," but his convo with Blackbeard's wanted poster reveals that he's afraid Ed's life is better off without him. Which? Real Chauncy-coded take there (and also, really? When Stede KNOWS that Ed is weary of the pirate life, but the wanted poster and rumor mill suggest he's thrown himself into it full tilt?). I could understand being worried that Ed doesn't love him anymore because Stede broke his heart, but NOT that "his life is better." But still, Stede IS determined to get back to Ed - he's just nervous about what he'll find when he does. He won't stop talking about it to anyone and everyone. He even yeets himself overboard shouting for Ed when he hears that the Red Flag has come across the Revenge. And then he thinks that he's come too late - that Ed is dead. And he manages to forestall his grief over that long enough to effect an escape, but then goes to do his mourning in private. But wonder of wonders! Ed is still alive! Stede didn't lose him after all! Imagine the rapture within his heart! And then he lets Ed leave without so much as offering to come with, when Ed has barely recovered from 1) a coma, & 2) a suicide attempt. It just doesn't make any sense in any possible world.

I also have a big problem with Mr. "Talk it through as a crew" running away from Lucius when he finally started opening up about the traumtic things he's lived through since he got shoved overboard. I've seen some posts suggesting Stede isn't doesn't prioritize or seem to care much about his crew, but that's just demonstrably not true? His first concern on awakening from being gut-stabbed was about his crew. He apologized when he lost his temper about the fuckery (Never heard an apology, Roach? Really?) and incorperated all of their ideas into the final product. Before he bought the treasure map, he inquired and found out there were no oranges for sale in St. Augustine due to a blight. Stede let Olu crash on his couch instead of having him bunk down with the rest of the crew because they were the charter members of the "my crush just left me for their old life" club and misery loves company. Even in the new season, he set aside his grief over Ed until he made sure his crew - INCLUDING the ones he thought were the ones who MURDERED THE LOVE OF HIS LIFE - were safe. So Stede running away from Lucius in his moment of unburdening himself? And it being played for COMEDY? Is not only antithetical to the established character, but to the central thesis of change being effected by the application of loving support that (I THOUGHT) was central to the whole show.

With Ed, it's mostly better, but even he doesn't escape unscathed. I'm absolutely baffled by the suggestion in episode 5 that Ed doesn't know how to be quiet and sit with his feelings when we see him: 1) stimming quietly with his silk after the "donkey" comment until Stede invited him to open up 2) stimming quietly with his silk after the French Boat Party 3) staring broodingly out to sea after the doggy heaven convo 4) isolating himself in the tub after his kraken meltdown 5) quietly sitting and folding socks 6) pillow fort isolation pod 7) standing quiet and alone after the Izzy confrontation, and apparently not seeing anyone until that night 8) stimming with silk before giving Lucius impromptu late night swimming lessons 9) playing with his dollies 10) cry alone in his room multiple times And maybe it's just that Fang doesn't see those times, because, for the most part, Ed self-isolates when he's feeling particularly emotionally vulnerable. But the show frames it as though Fang is correct? Especially in the after-credits scene where we're listening to Ed's non-stop internal monologue as he fails to sit quietly?

There's more with other characters, but, like I said, the categories are overlapping and inform one another, so I'd like to pivot to Tell-Don't-Show. Because whooo boy is there a lot of it going on. The most glaring one to me is Izzy's whole arc. I've seen a lot of people talking about extending unearned grace and how it's for the healing of the crew, not for Izzy, and that the crew are showing that they've embraced the loving support model they experienced under Stede's tenure as captain. But that doesn't change the fact that Izzy was SUCH a dick that even human-ray-of-sunshine-OLU was rooting for Stede to stab him in the duel, and by the end of last season Izzy sold them out to the English and did such a shit job at captaining that the crew (of which Fang and Frenchie were a part) unanimously voted to throw him overboard bound hand-and-foot. SOMETHING must have happened in the interim to move the needle from "gleefully ready to murder him" to "giving him hugs and unconditional positive regard therapy". But whatever it was happened entirely off-camera. We're just being asked to go along with it. And, to me, that's just bad, lazy writing.

The rest of his arc isn't much better, and highlights more of those inconsistencies. Last season, Izzy was openly dismissive and derisive about sharing feelings - it was one of his driving motivations at taking down Ed and inducing the Krakening. And now he seems to have taken the season-1-Lucius role of being the ship's emotional intelligence? Offering coping advice to Lucius. Suggesting to Ed that he should talk his feelings through. Giving support to Stede after Ed left him (again). Where would he even have accrued that skillset? I'm not saying that it's impossible for him to have changed with the loving support of his crew and in the wake of an identity crisis when he has to figure out who he is if not Blackbeard's right-hand man. What I'm saying is that very little of the actual changes happened on camera. And THAT'S what I have a problem with.

Similarly, I have a problem with the whole Yi Sao-Olu-Jim-Archie relationship tangle. Olu didn't even seem to realize Yi Sao was flirting with him until she said as much. I think he was flattered by the attention, and not averse to the idea, but that's not the same thing as being into her in return. And then, when it's relevant to the plot, we're meant to just trust that he's been secretly pining this whole time? Compare to when Jim left - before they'd even kissed. Olu spent his time mooning over the railing, telling everyone how much he missed JIm, getting drunk, and giving away his room. Since he left Yi Sao, there's been not a single word about missing her, not a moment where he even looks slightly broody. We HAVE seen him bonding with Jim and Archie. Hunkering down against the curse on the same bed as Jim and Archie. Dancing with Jim and Archie. Do you see how this LOOKS like the show is possibly moving in a throuple direction? And then we suddenly get Olu saying out of nowhere that he misses Yi Sao, Jim playing matchmaker for them, and Olu announcing that he's going to leave the revenge to be with Yi Sao. Bye, I guess. And this level of Telling-Not-Showing and inconsistency smacks of Contrivance. And Contrivance really feels like the engine that is driving most of the season to me. It looks an awful lot like the writers had an end-goal in mind, and worked backwards to get there, and along the way did all the hand-waving they had to in order to get where they wanted. Gotta have Stede & Zheng team up against Ricky for an Epic Beach Battle that pits Pirates against The Crown, but why would she want him - especially if she thinks he's "a mediocre man who thinks he's exceptional"?

Oh, what if she loses all her ships because Ricky blew them all up with the world's most contrived bombs?

But why wasn't she on the ship?

Well she was beating Stede's ass at the time.

Why was she beating his ass?

Because he picked a fight with her because he was drunk and she was poaching his crew?

Why are some of Stede's crew willing to leave him even though they were literally ride-or-die even when he was trying to find the guy that marooned them?

Oh, Olu's been in love with Yi Sao this whole time, but, like, never fucking mentioned it, just trust us.

Why was he drunk - Stede thinks drinking 'til you puke isn't fun, remember?

Oh, he is getting plied with drinks because all the pirates love him now.

Why do all the pirates love Stede now?

Because he killed some Big Name Pirate.

Stede? "I'm having a bit of a hard time adjusting to being a mur... mur... murderer?" Stede? Are you sure?

Yeah. He's totally butch now.

....How?

He trained on how to be a pirate with Izzy.

Izzy. The guy that conspired with the British specifically to murder Stede Bonnet? Why?

Ed said he needed to work on his "mean voice" and be more dom assertive.

Why would Ed ever say that? He loves that Stede is out there doing things like no one else.

Because Stede doesn't feel like a captain.

Even though he's calling all-hands meetings and mediating crew grievences and rescuing his crew and no one is challenging his authority or even questioning whether his devotion to his boyfriend is possibly compromising his ability to do his job?

...Yes?

But why Izzy? Stede hates Izzy. Izzy hates Stede. Surely these are universal constants.

Izzy's nice now. He's been rehabilitated by the love of the crew.

...How?

Jingly keys.

[zoobus]

The Bad Ending of an Otome

From time to time I've expressed a desire to explain otome isekai's appeal to me through a pastiche of my favorite writing pieces from tumblr, the Scorpion and the Frog. I still have not followed through, despite the fact that it should be literally the easiest thing in the world - the Villainess and Her World. Frustrating.

Anywho, today's scorpion/frog meta regards the jealous hater replacement heiress of a beautiful but terminally ill child in a dating sim.

The original game followed a girl who happened to look just like the now terminally dead Ophelia, who was previously alive and loved by all. The identical not-twin fills the Ophelia-shaped hole left in everyone's heart. The jealous hater replacement heiress (the villainess/frog, naturally) is quickly replaced and eventually killed for jealous hater maneuvers. Our main character (MC) of course reincarnates as the frog.

The first twist is a genre staple, could almost be considered the blueprint every story builds off of; rather than a specific, vindictive bitch... What if I was kind? What if I chose not to do anything that would make them want to kill me? What if I simply befriended the terminally ill Ophelia?

But like any good OI, the subversion takes it somewhere specific, someplace more personal. What if I befriended the terminally ill Ophelia...and still coveted everything she had? What if you're forced to realize it's actually pretty hard to not be a jealous hater when you're sitting side by side with someone effortlessly wealthier, prettier, more beloved than anything you'll ever experience? Especially when the beautiful dying Ophelia was honestly kind of a hateful bitch? And what if, despite all of this, you truly loved her? And that love didn't extinguish your overwhelming envy for what you could never have? This is an OI framing of what it's like to lose your best friend, the person no one else knew or loved like you did, to a slow, unstoppable terminal illness. It's a look at real friendship while harboring immense amounts of envy and hatred.

There's this tension with whether the MC really liked Ophelia, if she's saying "friend" or "love" out of habit rather than sincerity, whether Ophelia was just a bully using her wealth and power to manipulate someone she essentially owns, if her comment about dying with her are more about avoiding the the future or maybe placating a sick person, and nice little nuanced character things meant to keep you on your toes about the nature of their relationship. Area woman uncertain if she's being bullied or if this is girl bonding kind of stuff.

At times it would be logical to pity Ophelia, to despise her at others, even to take a certain amount of schadenfreude in this popular hot rich girl's pain. I liked the various ways the narrative muddied MC's perspective of Ophelia. She's an unpleasant, mean person that MC has to stick with whether she wants to or not.

I loved Ophelia. A lot.

Now of course they don't let this girl look terminally ill - this is a princess comic after all - but lmaooo do they let her act it. Ophelia is *Bitter* that she has to die. *Terrified* of the inevitable. *Seething* over the expectation that she suffer through future agonizing symptoms just so her family can see her longer. *Furious* at these lovesick horny men courting her like they don't know her days are numbered. "Oh I worship you Ophelia, nobody's made me feel this way before, no woman will ever measure up to you" she knows they only like her cause she's hot. Ophelia is so hostile, so spite-filled, so fucking mad that not only does she have to die young, these people who claim to love her are - in both overt and subtle ways - pressuring her to take her imminent death gracefully, quietly, and above all else, beautifully. Foisting dignity on this teenager who's going into her casket kicking and screaming. If Ophelia had a tumblr she'd spend her time browsing vent tags and sending suicide bait.

Her character is so good, I was unfairly irritated by her in-game replacement who hadn't done anything yet. You really get where Ophelia's at times excessive hatred for the male love interests was coming from because like...wow. You're going full yandere eternal prisoner bad end for her...? This innocent good girl lamb who wants the best for everyone? No matter how similar they look, the fact that she offers a kind word and a helping hand would break any TRUE Ophelia stan's immersion instantly. She would never.

Anyway. Stories centered on the friendship between girls that aren't overly saccharine or stilted displays positivity are sadly uncommon, but they're my favorite. Like not to be aro on main but I think what others get out of tales of romance is how I respond to tales of deep friendship between women. Asobi Asobase, Binbougami Ga, Nichijou, Surviving Romance, they all fulfill some base desire that no one else seems to cherish as strongly😢

When we finally get confirmation, I have to admit. I stared at this page for like three minutes, eyes wet.

Spoilers! She did love her. She loved her more than anyone.

[canonizzyhours]

Hot take: Both the 'canyon' and the wider OFMD 'fandom' can turn people away from the show. This fandom's infighting is a waste of time and everyone would be happier looking for fans they agree with vs. spending hours wasting their life arguing about pointless shit. (Yes, this post is ironic, but I'm tired of moralizing, and wanted to rant.)

You as a fan are responsible for curating the community you care about and finding passion there, not endlessly posting rants about how weirdly passionate other fans are.

Fandom is just a bunch of very opinionated people who get online and try to find community and for the most part, that's okay! You consumed a piece of media and have opinions about it, but know why you're creating a post. You're not actually going to get murdered by Izzy lovers if you properly tag your Tumblr posts as Izzy-critical. For example.

I write OFMD meta, it's very easy to pop on Stede Critical if I'm discussing why I don't like aspects of his arc, or Ed-Critical for how he was written in S2. Proper tagging shows respect to Ed-focused or Stede-focused fans without clogging the tag with hate. I enjoy aspects of Izzy's character, and if I'm negative I STILL tag Izzy-critical.

Trying to claim moral superiority for 'choosing the right side' in fandom looks immature on both ends. In the end, yeah, I'm sure people in both camps were harassing people. I've got 15 Izzy-focused words on AO3 in this fandom on all branches of loving-to-hating aspects of his character. I have gotten death threats, from both camps, I get it. But those are shitty people, regardless of fandom affiliation. I don't hate an entire subgroup due to that.

Izzy having a subsect in fandom is not really that different than Ed, Stede, Olu/Jim, or hell, S2 positive fans having their own spaces and communities.

I was in fandoms for Marvel (Loki), Supernatural (Castiel) and Witcher (Jaskier). I know how prevalent some side characters can be, it's as if it's y'alls first time seeing this shit. Liking or disliking a character isn't a moral failing. THIS is the ACTUAL reason I saw people leave the fandom.

Moralizing if participating in Izzy (and TBH, Stede) fandom made you a good person or if you were 'filling AO3 with another white man'. Don't complain you don't have water if you haven't even tried to dig a well. Vice versa with only 'pure holy radical leftist non racists' holding themselves above everyone else for liking characters like Edward, Oluwande, or Jim. Why are you wasting time complaining that they aren't represented on AO3?

If you want more Archie fic? Write Archie fic. If you want Ned to get the villian arc he deserved? Do it. If you really hated Izzy and wanted him to die sooner, you have your audience, be respectful of people and their time.

But reader of this post, you are not the moderator for all content created. Why do you spend your time caring about what another ingroup is doing instead of having fun with YOUR in-group??

When this fandom dies out, my stand-out experiences will be the fond memories of what fic I created and the many friends I made along the way. Can you say the same? Or will you remember OFMD because you keyboard warrior'ed your way into not even having fun anymore?

#304.