#i empathize with her character a lot of times but I can’t get past so many of the stuff she does

[blairswldorfs]

I know Julie gets better in latter seasons but I can never get past her dating Luke….

[bthump]

I’m not coming from a place of hate at all, I enjoy your takes on Berserk homoeroticism and appreciate your refreshing ability to make well informed, intellectual analysis so accessible for other fans. It is an important resource to have when dudebros try to make their homophobic bias sound like good arguments. However, when it comes to your analysis of Casca, I find myself disagreeing with almost everything you say. I’m usually only reading your blog quietly because I enjoy the discourse, but I feel like I need to add my two cents. I agree that Cascas writing falls flat to a degree, but I can’t help but think that you’re downplaying her character and arc because you don’t enjoy the parts of Berserk that aren’t about homoerotic tension between Guts and Griffith. Their homoerotic tension is also what is most interesting to me, but it’s not what Berserk is inherently about. We could dismiss Casca by saying ˋMiura can’t write women´, but then again characters like Farnese exist who have an entire complex thematic arc tied to religious extremism, authoritarian character and freeing herself from dogmatism and Berserk as a story is not punishing her or asking for redemption and is instead inherently ridding itself from moralizing judgements of characters. She’s allowed to evolve by herself. As a queer person, I see myself in her. Theres so much queerness and comphet in her story, I’m sad that there’s not many meta posts about her on here. Does Berserk have ideological streaks of conservatism and misunderstands women because Miura has a misogynistic bias? Yeah, unfortunately. But the story and many of the main characters are too complex and ambiguous for me to write them all off based on how some of their arcs are not feminist enough and could need improving. Imagine writing such a complicated and long story with so many characters as just one simple Japanese dude who never leaves his house and who was born in the 70s or whatever. Like, I get separating the story from the author and impact versus intent, but dismissing Casca because of her flaws in writing is dismissing all of Berserk because of some thematic flaws. It sounds like you’re expecting the perfect story for her to be a valid female character and that’s just not possible. I for once made peace with her flaws and am not rejecting her. I think Cascas story works for what it is and I empathize with her as someone who has experienced misogyny and SA. Farny and Schierke working through her trauma magically was a nice metaphor for solidarity between women and it’s rare to see that coming from a male author, I don’t think it’s less valid just because Miura has some gender bias. Casca still experiencing PTSD afterwards is also realistic and shows that Miura is willing to give Casca enough agency to work through that by herself without magic some time in the future of the story. Her story is uncomfortable and her character arc is long and flawed, but that’s what makes it impossible for me to dismiss her. I’m a bit disappointed that so many fans on the tumblr side are willing to basically rid Griffith from all his wrongdoings but then empathize the flaws in Casca and don’t understand that maybe they also have some internalized misogyny that doesn’t make them understand that bias. Especially with the argument that I often see with She Should Have Died. Why? Because she’s uncomfortable? Maybe explore that within yourself. Other than that I am happy to have this queer part of the fandom where we don’t judge each other for liking Griffith and enjoying GriffGuts as a ship. And I hope that you don’t think too harshly of my criticism, for it is only to improve our fandom discourse culture and not to throw stones. Thank you for existing!

Okay look, while I do appreciate the appreciation for my non-casca blog content, I can't look past this coming hand in hand with a lot of pretty insulting, and frankly baseless assumptions about my motives. I'm glad you're not coming from a place of hate, but from the sounds of it you're coming from a place of presumptive judgement, and I want to address that.

I've always been very direct and clear about how I don't think someone's tastes or opinions about a story reflect on them personally. I don't judge someone's character by their fictional interests, I judge it by their words and actions.

If you're going to be interacting with my blog, I'd appreciate being extended the same benefit of the doubt.

You seem to see someone who doesn't enjoy Casca's storyline and make assumptions about why, rather than taking the reasons I provide at face value. I have explained why, very thoroughly, quite often, and quite recently, while constantly referring back to the text and to Miura's comments to justify my conclusions. I literally don't know how I can possibly be more direct about how I am discussing the narrative of a story on its own terms without going full dry academic language lol, come on.

I like to think I'm also very clear about when I'm expressing my subjective opinion (eg i dislike het romance; I'm super into romantic betrayal as a trope, etc) vs when I'm analysing the story based on direct textual evidence (eg casca has no active involvement in the narrative post-eclipse; casca's sexual abuse is eroticized; etc). I certainly try to be. And frankly it is genuinely pretty insulting that you think I'm incapable of judging Casca's story on its own merits or lackthereof, and must be over-emphasizing the flaws of her narrative because I only care about griffguts.

The truth is I genuinely believe that Griffith and Guts' relationship is the thematic core of Berserk, based on the text of the story, and I also genuinely believe Casca's storyline sucks ass in most ways. And it's okay to disagree with one or both of those takes, but yeah I'm gonna take a little bit of offense at the insinuation that I'm too biased by shipping or misogyny or both to analyse the story.

If you love Casca's story despite its flaws, good for you. I'm happy for you. I have no desire to argue with you to make you change your mind. And I don't think it makes you misogynist or ableist or racist, even though I think Casca's storyline contains all of the above to some degree - but if I was going to respond to you in the same vein that you've responded to me, that would be fair game as an assumption. It would also be fair game to assume that you only like Casca and are dismissive of or blind to many of the story's faults because you're projecting or you ship gtsca or you think good feminism is all about stanning certain designated fictional characters regardless of their actual depiction. And I think that is something wrong with fandom culture. I think those are all shitty assumptions to make about someone based on which fictional characters they enjoy reading about most. So like, straight up, you're the only one throwing stones here.

So I want to ask you: why is it that someone discussing offensive fictional tropes makes you assume they are the real misogynist? Why are you equating criticism of writing with criticism of real women, as though media trends and narrative framing don't exist? Why do you think it even matters if I "reject" a fictional character because I don't like how she's written lol?

This strikes me as the same line of thinking that leads to shutting down all criticism of misogyny in media - how dare you say this outfit is unrealistic for a martial artist, some women like to wear high heels! How dare you criticize the average husband/model-esque wife trope, some beautiful women love their average husbands! How dare you criticize comics for fridging the girlfriends of superheroes, women sometimes suffer horrible fates in real life! How dare you criticize the born sexy yesterday trope, some women are naive! etc etc etc.

And this is why it's important to have at least some understanding of narrative framing and greater media trends when discussing media on any level beyond headcanon and projection. Casca isn't real, and as a construct she is not a sensitive or realistic depiction of a traumatized woman, regardless of whether someone identifies with her. She's not a sensitive or realistic depiction of a disabled women either. There are literally "funny" cartoonish background gags involving her shoving random things into her mouth. She gets sexy fanservice while regressed to the mentality of a toddler. She is sexually assaulted by and then shipteased with the protagonist. I could go on all day lol, lbr here. I should not be obligated to brush all that aside and pretend it doesn't irritate me and sometimes offend me in order to valorize a woman who doesn't like, yk, exist.

You and anyone else are free to project on her and relate to her and sympathize with her and love her, and I think that's great and what fandom is all about, but that still doesn't make her writing strong. And I think it's worth discussing how and why her writing fails, the same way it's worth discussing any other flaw of Berserk, like Guts' character flattening with the Eclipse, or Farnese's sudden personality 180, or the awkward pacing, or the prominent scary black man trope, etc, all of which I've also discussed plenty. If you feel like I've disproportionately focused on Casca criticism, then there are 2 reasons for that: 1. I respond to asks 99% of the time, so it's what the people are asking about. 2. Casca's storyline is the most prominent bad and offensive writing in the story, like it's the number one thing that's likely to drive new potential fans away, so of course people are going to want to talk about it.

Also I've written like, a lot of meta and speculation and headcanons etc about Casca beyond criticism of her narrative lol, so if you're sad about the lack of discussion and meta about her it's ironic that you're coming to me with that complaint. Be the change you want to see in the world, start your own Casca centric blog if you want more meta about her to exist, or read more of what already exists. I'd say I'm doing my part as far as I'm concerned lol, but I don't like the way that phrasing implies that anyone has an obligation to focus their interest on any particular fictional character.

I'm glad you enjoy other aspects of my blog, and if you stick around after this admittedly irritable response I hope you continue enjoying them. But if you feel the need to engage with me to defend a fictional character from my criticism again in the future, I'd appreciate it if you engaged with that criticism directly and analytically, rather than speculating about my character and motives.

[gavfleetout]

I will never shut up about this, but I cannot for the life of me understand why Ezra did not join Thrawn, or why they didn’t have thrawn not just be on a random planet, but command it. Or even if not that why they didn’t do literally anything other than what they did for the latter half of ahsoka s1.

My main issue is they had almost nothing happen to these characters for 10 years beside growing a beard and getting leveled up. I have specific changes I would make, but that’s the crux of it.

Thrawn is afaptable, and I believe if he was stranded on a forbidden land, he would secure the situation and make sure things were safe, and plot a course back home. Only Thrawn and his men had TEN YEARS on this planet. Thats a lot of time to just be chilling in your start destroyer. It feels like it’s more in character for Thrawn, who plans for every contingency, to amass and expand his forces. Recruit warlords and organize the planet in a way where he has more control over the situation, and more allies and resources to draw upon. He can still be looking for a way home, but after all this time, you can’t tell me he wasn’t trying to make sure that if return was truly impossible, he would still have his backup plan ready.

That brings me to Ezra. Ezra, at his core, is all about protecting people. He is full of compassion. So why do I think he would willing side with Thrawn? Because while Thrawn is not overly considerate of preserving lives, he is not wasteful with them either. And considering the planet they arrived in was so lawless, I can see a version of events where Thrawn convinces Ezra (who quite literally has no other options and probably expected to die after s4 let’s be real) that if they bring order and justice, different from the empire’s version of it, they can truly help the people of the planet. Even the Victorian snail guys.

But why would Ezra believe this? He’s seen Thrawn’s destruction first hand. Except that was when Thrawn worked for the empire. And Thrawn doesn’t care about the empire per se, he cares about ensuring a safe galaxy for his own people, the Chiss, who are not involved in galactic affairs or even known by most of the galaxy. I feel like if Thrawn made a concerted effort to empathize in order to win a desperate, victorious Ezra over, he could. And I think Ezra’s own want for justice and control and his own past temptation to the dark side would make the offer seem more appealing. HOWEVER I believe that Ezra would do his best to ensure a morality so applied to their new planet’s mini empire. He would do his best to limit thrawns abuses and probably look out for farmers and the little guys especially.

Thrawn would look out and see world that needs to be corralled and materials to be used, Ezra would look out and see a world suffering, and I think the two could make their efforts align.

But why do I think this is better? While I don’t know if it is better, it is more complex. 10 years change a person, and I don’t think Ezra would be the same after all those years when the only remnant of his home are the imperial forces. (Not that every character should be gritty and dark after a time skip, that’s stupid) I don’t think this change contradicts his character, and only adds to the dissonance when he and Sabine reconnect. To her, him joining Thrawn is a betrayal of their entire space family. But to Ezra, in that situation, it could have been the most Ezra thing to do. I also wish they’d expanded on Ezra and Thrawn relationships more, because Ezra being one of the few people to ever defeat Thrawn so utterly is an accomplishment, and I think Thrawn would value him as an ally and not just let him wander off with the snail men.

So yeah, I think having neither Ezra nor Thrawn having done or changed in any primary way over the span of 10 years is dumb and they should have had them be doing something. Preferably something angst and character drama building. Like they didn’t have to go tHis route, but they could have done something more interesting. Like cmon, you telling me Ezra just letting people get attacked by bandits and Thrawn hasn’t organized this misshapen planet into an efficient system?

[generic-whumperz]

OC in 3

Choose 3 pics to represent your OC

Oops, I got overly excited and made 10 three-picture collages

Omg thank you @mj-iza-writer for the tag! I am honored that I came to mind! 🥹

No pressure (& open to anyone interested!) tag: @rainydaywhump @eatyourdamnpears @clairelsonao3 @dresden-syndrome @lights-out-knives-out @snakebites-and-ink

| Aid Masterlist | Aid Character Sheet | Character Info

Soooo, I know I’m supposed only to pick three pics, but honestly, I simply cannot (I know, no surprise there). I have been wanting to do a vibe photo dump for The Aid (the Whumpee & title of the story) but have yet to do it (hello, my ever-expanding Pinterest boards), so I’ll take this chance to explore The Aid’s past phases he’s gone through (pre & post-Wyatt {Whumper #2}) and give some explanations because it’s a lot. However, I don’t know if explanations are necessary for this tag game, but I’m famously too much, so of course, I’m going to over-explain myself because of my crippling fear of being misunderstood!

Ironically, I call his time with Madame Eleanor (technical Whumper #1) his “Aid Era” because that’s when he becomes this character we are introduced to and currently know him as. Yet, this is the part of his life he is phasing out of. **Insert something-something about being haunted by your past.**

(In the current storyline, he is going through a succession of more changes, and his world is about to be turned upside down yet again, but I’ll hold off on showing those for now because they’re spoilers, and I have more than enough here!)

Starting from the top, here we goooo—

P.S. The people in these pics are not what the characters look like, this is simply vibes only!

Day 1

1. As soon as The Aid arrives at his new home, Madame Eleanor gets custom-made Gucci uniforms made for him that looks like this. This is his go-to everyday attire. (I spent too long looking at scrubs and hospitality uniforms on and off for over a month—tell me you like it and think it’s cool and sleek.)

2. He has a special built-in in his closet specifically for all his fancy, jewel-encrusted collars Madame Eleanor gifted him throughout the years, but this is what the facility's standard-issue collar looks like for his designation (Grand Servant: Domestic Aid).

3. His favorite Prada frames Madame Eleanor got him. (Wyatt later breaks them because he’s an asshole, leaving him straight up blind for several months).

Fancy Threads

Eleanor Sullivan was a Rich Bitch™️, so best believe she had her servant dressed to the 9s in designer fits when out and about or for Family events and the like. She may also put him in a butler uniform from time to time when they were hosting a party at their residence—which was often, Eleanor was known for her soirées. (To clarify, he’d still wear a collar even when dressed up, and all those attending knew who and what he was.)

The Host

He loved a good party just as much as Eleanor did! He likes serving and seeing people have fun and enjoy themselves (people-pleasing empath). He was known for his food displays and had a knack for creating a proper afternoon tea spread that garnered attention from all those present.

Speaking of Empath…

We can’t talk about him without bringing up his not-so-secret secret! Lil’ homie has a gang of abilities (telepathic empathy, hyper intuition, premonitions, and psychometry) just bubbling up inside him at all times. His relationship with himself and his sixth senses is complicated, to say the least—he finds them burdensome, yet he cannot function without them, despite how much he argues otherwise. It’s a whole thing, but for a certified Telepathic-Empath™️, he sure is dead inside (which only gets worse after Wyatt OFC).

*Sorry for the shitty upload quality of the Emotional Sponge, idk why it looks so bad!

Domestic Duties

Not only can he slap together the best charcuterie board you’ve ever seen and easily untangle Christmas lights, but he’s also a man who can cook, clean, and keep a house. What can’t he do?

Hobbies? Interests?

Don’t be ridiculous, he didn’t have time for leisure activities! But when he had some occasional downtime, he would spend an ungodly amount of it doing facials and grooming himself. He also loved to go to the spa with Madame Eleanor. As far as reading went, he wasn’t into novels, but he would occasionally peruse short-story myths and legends, old fables, or read picture books in funny voices to Eleanor’s grandchildren. Primarily, he’d like to read trashy magazines, comics, and cookbooks. But let’s be real, he considered cleaning, gossiping, and baking his primary hobbies.

RIP Madame Eleanor Sullivan

(She’s been dead for about a year and a half when they story picks up)

First and foremost—above everything else—The Aid was Eleanor Sullivan’s literal live-in medically trained caregiver, which is why she bought him in the first place. They had a very close relationship for five years, and he did everything for her. When she died, his world was shattered, and he took her death really hard. Wyatt was jealous of his Mother’s relationship with her servant from day one, which is where part of his animosity comes from. Quick note—Eleanor was a posh, vintage-Chanel-wearing Grandma and would never be caught dead wearing a bathrobe outside. Eleanor was Queen of being That Bitch.

Enter: Wyatt Sullivan

These pics are pretty tame all things considered, but after Eleanor’s death, The Aid is now in a World O’ Hurt and the subject of Wyatt’s drug-and-alcohol-fueled rage. The Aid went from a high-class servant loved by his Madame and respected by her friends, associates, and family (besides Wyatt) to a human punching bag overnight. The beef between these two runs deep and maybe Eleanor isn’t as innocent as she seems. Stick around and you’ll find out all the Sullivan family tea.

To: Wyatt

Just some memes directed towards Wyatt and The Aid being painfully aware of his shitty situation (I got too many of these and had to sprinkle some in).

Where We’re at Now…

Quite the fall from grace, wouldn’t you say? Our boy is currently bed-ridden and zombified while having the worst time imaginable. He’s drugged up, fucked up, and can’t move half of his body!

*This took me an embarrassing amount of time to assemble, but I went the extra mile because this doubles as a reference guide.

[willothewispwisteriadawn]

Chris takes are always a bit too polar to me to the point where I like slightly disagree with all of them. Like:

“Chris is a pure angel.”

Hm well, he is capable of shooting an innocent squirrel and can sacrifice Ash to save himself in the saw trap (which is a baaad situation I can empathize with but is not right or heroic). He can also lose his temper a few times and poke fun at people just to be annoying.

“Chris was just as much of a meanie as his friends. He’s a total asshole.”

That’s a little bit too intense, imo. The story doesn’t act like that. I think Chris is meant to somewhat offset the general meanness of the cast. The devs have spoken about this when explaining why he was removed from the prank. Chris’s intro card and app bio emphasize his affability, loyalty, and protectiveness towards his friends— which we see in-game a lot. Additionally, there’s the matter than all his truly bad moments are player-choice and can be avoided. So, while I think that Chris is a multi-sided character who may get infantilized as more innocent than he really is… I also think there’s sometimes not enough credit given to why fans do tend to view him as a good dude: that’s what’s emphasized about his character. Certain other characters hold asshole-qualities as emphasized traits. For example:

The game lists “irreverent” as a core personality trait of Jess in her intro card. Emily’s bio calls her a bitch, and Mike’s claims he has a streak of narcissism. And this is all shown in-game. One of Hill’s segments points out that Emily is a bitch and that Mike is an asshole. (Yes I know it’s Josh thinking that, but it’s also directed at the player). This is not a character-defining aspect of Chris, even though he has it in snippets. Like look at the difference in the overall emphasis of kind and mean qualities in these basic bios.

MY THESIS HERE— I tend to sit somewhere in the middle of these takes. It doesn’t make sense to deny that Chris can do some bad or jerky things. But I also don’t think people viewing him as an overall sweeter character within this cast is without a basis. He’s actively characterized as a loving friend, which we see on screen a lot.

PS: Btw, this is an analysis on what the story intended with Chris, and why I don’t think people reading him as nicer than most of the cast is a misreading. But one’s personal opinions on each of his actions gets subjective, certainly. Can’t argue with that. And there’s a point where you could just disagree with the tone the story puts on him. I’ve done that with characters in the past, but I largely agree with how the story handles Chris and think it does align with how he behaves.

[dropintomanga]

A Thought On Talking to Someone Who Wants to End It All

Goodbye, Eri finally came out in print this past June and people who missed out on last year’s digital release got to see how great this one-shot by Tatsuki Fujimoto (of Chainsaw Man fame) is.

I myself wrote about Goodbye, Eri last year and revisited the one-shot again after getting the the print release. There’s a few panels I want to talk about here.

I will be talking about suicide after the jump.

If you’ve read the manga, you know the initial premise about the main character, Yuta, creating a film for school documenting his mother’s last days and how controversial the film ending was. Many of his classmates criticized him for being tasteless. As a result, Yuta decides to kill himself by jumping off the roof of the hospital where his mom died. It is there where he meets Eri, the female lead of our story. She then asks if Yuta’s going to jump and then says the following.

The reason I want to focus on those 4 panels now compared to last year is because of knowledge I’ve gained about talking to someone thinking of suicide over the past year. Eri doesn’t try to comfort Yuta. She probably knows he’s in a lot of pain and wanted him to unleash it on those who are disrespectful to others. Although Eri does save Yuta from jumping off the roof, it’s somewhat indirect as she comforts him in a different way than how I see most people in the West do it.

Last year, I watched a Hong Kong mahjong comedy. There was a scene where the main female lead was about to kill herself after losing everything in mahjong. As she’s about to jump off the roof of an apartment building, she hears the sound of mahjong tiles being shuffled and notices her mentor and peers playing mahjong right next to her. Her mentor asks her if she’s going to jump, the heroine says yes, and then he tells her to come down and play before going to jump off. There’s a subsequent conversation about mahjong and the mentor convinces her to keep playing/living by empathizing about her situation.

In my experiences with consuming Asian media so far, I feel like when things like suicide attempts/prevention are shown, the support system usually says you can try so-and-so before actually considering dying. Eri does this with Yuta by dragging him to watch movies with her non-stop and gain enough knowledge to make a new film for his school.

In the West, there’s no true care for the person experiencing suicidal thoughts or bad advice being given to those who interact with said individual. I can give a real-life situation. I listened to a podcast story about a woman who felt tremendous guilt over witnessing the death of a young girl she met by suicide on a expressway. She was a nurse who seemed to always have the answers for her patients at her job. But once she was in a highly tense situation outside of work, she became uncertain over what to do. She talked about what she told the girl before she died - to think about the people who love her. The girl didn’t respond well to that by saying that nobody loved her. The nurse thought about physically grabbing the girl before anything bad happened, but was worried about the response. She didn’t and the girl would walk away from her to get run over by a car. The nurse had to live with a lot of guilt and social isolation for years. When the nurse started to come to terms with the suicide and got better mentally, she said that she would’ve told the girl that life does become different and gets better over time.

So to me, it sometimes feel like the West’s mindset is “Oh my god, there’s a problem. Someone wants to die. I need to fix it or else I’ll be a failure. I can’t deal with the pain of what this person is experiencing.” while the Eastern mindset is “Ahhh, you’re thinking of dying. I see. I understand. Wait. Maybe I can show/share with you a moment of joy that you might like before you go.”

I could be VERY wrong here. But this is what I have observed over time.

Talking about death and the grief that comes with it will always be hard, but it doesn’t need to be hidden for the preservation of cultures that want to “move on” because it’s not productive for “society.”

I do think that people who experience any kind of suicidal ideation want some kind of acknowledgement of any kind - especially of the physically comforting kind from someone who doesn’t look like a threat in their eyes. Eri does this by grabbing Yuta’s hand when she drags him to the abandoned building where they would make many precious memories watching films.

After reading what Eri did and hearing the nurse’s regrets about not saving someone from suicide, just be the hope and don’t be afraid of doing so. The best way to not say goodbye in a tragic manner is acknowledge their pain with compassion followed by showing them an empowering solution (not vice versa). Suicide forces us to confront our own bias regarding emotional pain and the social aspects that lead to it. Maybe that’s why a lot of Westerners struggle with with talking about suicide.

I would argue, as this manga and maybe non-Western views show, that human love or healthy connection is the best answer.

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 31

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! Welcome to Year of the Bat! To ring in the New Year – and to memorialize the lives of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll - I will be counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout January. Today, the countdown begins in earnest! EPISODE QUOTE: “I am the cat who walks by herself.” Number 31 is…Catwalk.

This episode is interesting for two reasons. One, it is a villain team-up episode (of sorts) between two of my favorite Bat bad guys: Catwoman, and the Ventriloquist & Scarface. Two, it is actually the only major appearance for either villain to appear on the main countdown. In the case of the Ventriloquist and Scarface, this was not because their other appearances were bad, nor even because this is technically their best outing; it’s hard to say why this is my favorite of their pop-ups, it just kind of is. There’s for me to say when it comes to Catwoman, however. First, let’s look at the actual story of this episode: the plot takes place after Selina Kyle – following the events of several other episodes in continuity – has effectively retired from being Catwoman, and is trying to go straight. However, Selina is not wholly happy with her life on the straight and narrow path: she misses the thrill of the chase, and still has her own sort of warped ideals of justice inside her own heart. When the Ventriloquist & Scarface tempt her with a chance to get back at some people, and then later stab her in the back to let her take the fall, the clash between the supervillains leads to Batman’s intervention…and to Selina questioning whether or not she can truly escape the clutches of her alter-ego. Catwoman was a strange character in this show. On the one hand, she was and still is arguably among the most lauded takes on the character, as well as one of my personal favorites. Whenever I think of Selina Kyle, or read her comics, or even when I write for her, Adrienne Barbeau’s voice from this franchise is one of the first I think of. However, conversely, a lot of her actual episodes didn’t really feel like they were among the absolute best in the series: a lot of times it felt like the creators weren’t quite sure what to do with Catwoman, in my opinion. They knew she was an integral part of Batman’s world, and they had a good handle on her character, but the actual stories she showed up in fluctuated in quality. “Catwalk,” in my opinion, is the absolute best look into Catwoman’s mind we’ve gotten. After being (more or less) reformed for quite some time, seeing Selina return to the dark side was somehow both refreshing and tragic at the same time. The episode plays around with the idea of duality, and of how a person can never truly escape their inner demons: that’s actually where the Ventriloquist and Scarface come into play. Arnold Wesker acts as a sort of dark mirror of Selina in the story: like her, he’s a person who doesn’t necessarily WANT to be the villain, but he can’t escape his own inner evil, manifested through Scarface. Selina, too, is struggling with who she really is, and who she wants to be, and whether or not she can really leave her past behind. The difference is that, while Catwoman will step over boundaries and lines Batman cannot and will not cross, she does so for reasons we can empathize with. Wesker’s Scarface persona is just rotten to the wooden core. Seeing these great villains play off each other leads to some humorous and interesting dialogue, and seeing Batman have to balance his love for Selina and his sense of duty is, of course, a classic dilemma. It’s really Catwoman, herself, though, who makes the episode so great. It may get the lowest spot on the list, but do not misconstrue that to mean this is a bad episode: it’s absolutely awesome, and if you’re going to watch only one Catwoman-centric episode from this show, I highly recommend this to be that one.

Tomorrow we move on to Number 30! Hint: “My, my. Can we actually have a brain beneath that pointy cowl of ours?”

[kitterary]

Book review: Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

This book touches some topics that are a lot bigger than most of the books I read. With that, I want to give a few disclaimers before my review:

1) I listened to the audiobook version, so I don’t have a physical copy to reference back to when typing out my review

2) I watched WithCindy’s review of this book prior to reading the book, and may be slightly influenced in my review based on hers

3) I am white, and while I can empathize with Asian issues, I can’t say I understand them fully or can relate to them.

That being said, I think this book does a PHENOMENAL job of making me understand the issues of minorities in the publishing industry further, and the passive nature of white people when it comes to this topic, and I’m incredibly happy I read this book.

This book follows Juniper, a white author who did not have the best luck with her first go at a debut in the book publishing industry, and her rise and downfall after stealing a book idea from her dead friend, Athena, a Chinese author writing mostly on topics of what her ancestors have dealt with in the past (more on that later.)  The book that Juniper steals is about the Chinese laborers involved in World War I, and then goes on to change her name to appear more racially ambiguous to attempt to avoid backlash for being a white author telling the tragic story of these Chinese laborers, but ultimately not only gets called out on it, but eventually gets caught for stealing the book from Athena.

There were SO many things I loved about this book.  First of all, every single microaggression Juniper commits made me physically cringe. Between making remarks about minorities being favored in the publishing industry and therefore she was the victim as a white girl, to taking a story about Chinese laborers and choosing to dehumanize them and empathize with the Christian missionaries attempting to convert them, to making comments to Asian americans about “censorship” when asked if she was really the right person to be telling the story; the book does an amazing job of making you realize all these microaggressions that many people, but especially white people, may choose to ignore because they’re not “violent” enough to truly be racism.  While this book was meant to be “dark humor” it did not make me laugh a single time, but because I was too busy cringing at the very realistic comments and actions of its main character that I have seen so many people do, so I do think the point did still come across.  And I did love that at the end, Juniper did not actually learn a lesson, and instead will continue to get revenge on the person who outed her for stealing the book, because that feels completely realistic to happen.

The book also touches some really interesting debate topics that either I have thought of in passing or never thought of at all.  The first being- if someone does all the research, and is accurate to the history (Juniper is not completely,) should someone of a different race be the one to tell a story of the traumas of a different racial group? For myself, and I feel for the author as well, I think stories based on traumatic events for racial groups should be told by members of that group.  The author even brings up the point that while Athena was Chinese, she certainly did not experience these traumas- but her family went through several of them and she can recount and tell those stories. But does that mean you can’t write characters that aren’t the racial group you belong in? Several parts of the book talk about reviews that Juniper’s stolen book saying that specific parts of the book are racially insensitive, but those were parts that Athena wrote, and leads Juniper and the reader to wonder if this book were written and published BY Athena, if those same critiques would still come up.

The book also does try to explain why Juniper might feel morally okay with stealing from Athena- in college, Athena took Juniper’s sexual assault story and wrote it as a short story without asking Juniper’s permission OR giving any sort of credit for it. She also interviews Korean war vets and published their stories.  Is taking the stories of other people’s traumas and publishing them morally objectionable, or is it fine if you’re publishing it in the name of bringing awareness to the topic?

My ONE critique of this book is something outside of the book itself.  Juniper is lower/middle class and feels a big part of Athena’s success is due to being upper class and getting a lot of opportunities that were only available because her or her family could afford the price tag.  These things are being said by an unreliable narrator, as if to sweep those issues under the rug as Juniper just being jealous of Athena.  However, I learned from WithCindy’s review that I linked earlier that these are very real critiques that the author R.F. Kuang has received and is using Juniper as a mouthpiece to show just how “minor” those critiques are without ever really addressing how money really does provide people with opportunities that others could not have.  This is not to put down the author’s talent: This was my first book by her and I was blown away and look forward to reading some of her other work. But I’m sure there are tons of other authors, especially non-white ones, who are equally or even moreso talented whose books will never be read by the majority of the public because they might not have been able to go to college for writing, or they were not afforded the luxury to focus on writing as opposed to paying the bills. It just feels strange for the author to not really refute these claims but instead use the unreliable mouthpiece to downplay them.

Overall however, I felt like this book was incredible and I look forward to reading more of R.F. Kuang’s work (especially Babel!)

Final rating: 4.5/5

[adelaidedrubman]

[ask-delivery opossum]=> ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 15 (saying Jestiny for four won’t count btw 🤠)

LOOK AT THE LITTLE OPOSSUM. copy pasting stealing that. THANK YOU GIGI sending you and the opossum kisses<33

2. Who’s your least favorite to write?

hm. joseph’s voice is annoying. sorry to this man love him and all but. get different speech patterns. “mine is the face of truth!” who talks like that i’m going to kill you. i can write him in “on” public persona mode well enough but... things like last wildfire chapter when i had to make him a source of factual info dump? pain suffering. jacob is also not that personally easy/fun to write for me compared to others but i don’t have the same sense of “am i doing this wrong???” as i do with joseph so it’s less stressful.

4. Which character(s) do you love to hate?

i would say john but that also kinda feels like cheating tbh? i feel like all john writers hate john at least a little. nature of john. i love to hate him in the sense of he’s annoying and i enjoy making him suffer. joseph is also fun to put through it although it’s usually more in backdrop. still. funny when he suffers.

5. What’s the easiest thing to write for you?

also john. nature of john writing. i’m pissed off and annoyed the entire time but his pov feels second nature to me at this point so. what can you do

in terms of genre, definitely comedy. there at least has to be some undertone of humor in most of what i write. also dialogue. especially johnjess dialogue. shrek voice it’s getting them to shut up that’s the trick

6. What’s the hardest thing to write for you?

probably like. genuine fluff? like i can do sweet moments but it always has to be in spite of something. also scenery descriptions are still a bitch to me after all these years. OH and action. i fucking hate writing action scenes.

7. Do you plan everything out before you write or do you sit down and go with the flow?

i’ve only very recently started forcing myself to properly outline as wildfire has gotten unwieldy and i’ve begun reaching crucial enough no turning back plot points that it genuinely would be like “oh fuck!! house of cards collapses!” if i forget something. even then i have like. the next three chapters outlined and it’s in notes app and it looks like this (example from last chapter, it was this to draft one with no inbetween steps):

in general i do plan a lot out though sort of. combing things over in my head even if i don’t write it down. and i have most major plot points of wildfire decided already. like i have a very clear image and language in my mind for the Final Scene. we’ll see if i get there. for oneshots i tend to just vibe because they’re more about having a little fun and flexing the muscles for me anyways.

12. What is one character you love but rarely/never write? 

i guess not rarely/never but i don’t write faith nearly as much as i want to. i mean, tbh i guess i write faith more than fandom average lmao and she was like. the first character i ever wrote when i joined the fandom. but still not as much as i want bc a lot of it stays in drafts or is eclipsed by. you know.

i wish i’d gotten to write jess black more, i can’t believe ive only done one scene she’s probably my second favorite gfh.

13. Is there one character that always fights you when you try writing them?

JESTINY. the most i ever sympathize with john is when i want to get her to do something very simple and she explains to me the convoluted thirty five step intricate ritual it will take to get her to do it and i want to pull my hair out. like girl. sit on the fucking hay bale already.

15. What two characters did you never expect to work together?

well, in the sense that they don’t... mary may and jestiny. like they were always supposed to have most of the beef they have in wildfire (particularly in that mary may was always supposed to be a representation of jessie’s genuine breakdown in ability to empathize with Nice, Normal Folks) but i guess i didn’t expect their frenemiship to be as popular as it is or have as much chemistry to it? chemistry in the sense of lack of chemistry. but they have a compelling dynamic i didn’t fully expect. the real slowburn is when mary may finally gets to punch jessie in the face so hard.

[otnesse]

Replying in a separate post since, aside from the original post no longer existing, it also was reblogged initially by ****IrisHatersSay, and I've been blocked by her:

"Anonymous asked: I'm not an XY fanboy but you're an Iris fangirl who sees nothing wrong with her being handed a PSEUDO LEGENDARY because she's your Mary-Sue self-insert. She has no development and rarely got called out on her crap. You wanna talk about a Black Hole Sue, why didn't Ash put her in her place? He has more experience, yet he regressed. Ash had NOTHING going for him in BW, he should be badass after beating 2 legendaries. Ash never beat Alain and struggled with Ash-Greninja, not a Gary-Sue."

"azelmaandeponine answered:

image GIF by fireheartaw Wow, I can’t believe you brought this garbage into my inbox. Actually, this fandom is riddled with misogyny and racism, so I can totally believe it.

First of all, Iris was not “just handed” Dragonite. She found a wild Pokémon and bonded with it over the course of the episode. Also, good of you to ignore that Dragonite didn’t even obey Iris right off the bat, meaning she still had quite a bit of work to do as its trainer. They didn’t just hand her a perfect win button.

You know who was “just handed” a Pokémon? Dawn. Funny how no one calls her out on this (Note: I don’t dislike Dawn).

And there is no such thing as a “pseudo-legendary” in the anime. Pokémon ARE NOT bits of data with stats in the anime, so they have no BSTs. Dragonite is just another Pokémon. Or are you just ignoring that time in the anime when Ash’s Pikachu defeated a Dragonite?

And while I won’t deny I love Iris, she isn’t even my favorite female companion. That’s May (though I haven’t caught up with SuMo, and Lillie’s giving her competition). Favorite female character? Jessie.

Iris literally has tons of development. She learns to apologize and not prioritize winning over her partner, she gradually opens up and trusts her friends more. Her teasing of Ash gets more affectionate as the series goes on. It’s more akin to family squabbling. Also, Iris is on the immature side herself, but she IS correct to say Ash is just like a little kid. Anyways, my dad and I call each other kids all the time. My younger brother calls me a kid a lot, too. I’m an adult. It’s not a big deal. Iris’s arc is about learning to empathize with others, which makes her a better trainer.

She’s an empath who has trouble empathizing with other people and Pokémon.

And her catchphrase is a direct result of her past. She was ostracized at the Academy for her wild behavior, so she internalized that was desperate to be not be seen as “such a kid”.

She’s certainly not a Mary Sue, not is she my self-insert.

And seriously, “put her in her place?�� Good to know that you’re a misogynist who thinks that girls who dare to call out their male companions on their mistakes need to be “put in their place”.

“He should be badass after beating two legendaries”

No. He leaves all his Pokémon at Oak’s except for Pikachu, who always gets reset at each saga. Guess what? You are not the target audience of this show. Children are. That’s why each saga is self-contained. and not to be that person, but XY’s rating in Japan took a huge plummet.

“He lost to Alain”

image That is irrelevant. He can still lose and be a Gary Stu.

And Ash-Greninja itself is bullshit. It adds to Ash’s Specialness™ points, because he and Greninja are the only ones in the entire anime able to do this. There aren’t even other examples mentioned in passing. Ash and Greninja are the first. It also comes out of nowhere and is poorly developed. That’s the hallmark of a Gary Stu."

I'm willing to side with the second user on Iris (she might have gotten Dragonite early, but 1. she did still have to struggle to train it as well, and 2., she's already established to be something of a prodigy, so she really doesn't qualify as a Mary Sue especially regarding that bit. If anything, Dawn came closer to that with Togekiss. As far as her catchphrase, I may have my issues with it, but Iris herself isn't the reason I have issues with it [I agree with her on that front if anything], it's more that they royally screwed up with Ash that saga by turning him into a colossal idiot.). But not in regards to Ash.

Look, even when I was an actual kid, I genuinely hated continuity problems or bad writing (enough times that if anything my parents often got annoyed at my nitpicking and told me to just enjoy watching something), and I know if I watched some of the stuff that was mentioned at 8, for example, I'd be pretty ticked off at seeing Ash lose against characters who he shouldn't even be able to lose against by this point. Ash's Pikachu beating Drake's Dragonite and losing to Gary at least worked due to it being more of a team effort that Ash took down Dragonite, with Pikachu merely landing the final blow. Ash and Pikachu single-handedly one-shotting a Regice (which, freshly caught or not was STILL a powerhouse of its own level thanks to it being a full-fledged legendary, which even in the anime is nothing to sneeze at), however, definitely can't work for having Pikachu lose and/or struggle in the manner he was shown doing in DP (it's still bad writing no matter HOW you slice it). If they REALLY wanted to keep Ash struggling in DP, at least have it be so that, I don't know, Charizard managing to inflict burn status on Regice before being taken out and then Pikachu taking out a softened Regice. At least there, Pikachu struggling would make more sense since it indicated Pikachu merely took out a legendary that was already softened up a bit. So saying Pokemon was a kids show marketed towards children unfortunately isn't enough to make that work (Dragon Ball was ALSO a kids show as well, yet they still made an ACTUAL effort to maintain continuity). And quite frankly, if they really wanted each saga to be self-contained, they really should have just replaced Ash with the main character from the actual games at AG rather than waiting until recently with Horizons. At least there, we wouldn't have to worry about it breaking continuity. Besides, people could still access DVDs back then. I'd know because I have the entire Kanto League as a DVD set, maybe also Orange Islands as well, and I'm pretty sure Japan had a similar means of accessing them in video format.

And while I have my issues with XY, I wouldn't call Ash's rendition there a Gary Stu. Even ignoring Alain, he DID end up losing to some of the Gym Leaders, even was genuinely challenged by them (a stark contrast to AG, where he pretty much mowed them down starting with Flannery). In fact, one of the few good points about XY is that it restored the Gym Leaders' reputations of being obstacles rather than essentially JJM clones in a manner that actually WAS believable after AG and BW crapped on them (DP came close, but considering that also was the result of Ash and Pikachu taking a nosedive in competency despite taking out a Regice, and not even with help unlike with Drake's Dragonite, that really wasn't a good example ultimately). If ANY incarnation of Ash came close to being a Gary Stu, it was his AG incarnation, especially after he took down the Gym Leaders WAY too easily starting with Flannery (and to make matters worse, he ended up staying in place at Hoenn that he did in Johto, meaning his winning streak was downright pointless, and thus comes across as EXTREMELY poorly developed as well.). And don't get me started on how Ash in AG ALSO got some of the other bits pertaining to Gary Stu in an arguably more blatant manner (like Ash using Aura in Movie 8, or how he ended up being a Spotlight Stealing Squad in Movie 9 and having to save the day in a movie that otherwise starred May, and May herself literally being reduced in overall character despite that [and if anything, how she was handled in that movie literally ended any chance at my liking May as well].).

[skye-huntress]

True Colors: Overdue Sibling Bonding

Alex’s rather eventful first day continues but it’s almost over. Since Alex lost control, pummelled a guy in front of her brother, and hit him in the process, they can’t not talk about it. So, after some time passes and everyone has a chance to cool their heads, it’s up to the roof for a much needed chat. Gabe has deduced that Alex has been in fights before, and there was likely a lot that happened in those eight or so years they were apart that made life very difficult for her. Not the most shocking revelation in the world, but if you’re looking to start over your life, it’s not healthy to try and bury the past when it still affects you so much. However, while all Gabe is expecting is some tragic backstory, there’s something else about Alex that is perhaps more relevant to her recent outburst and her future in Haven Springs, her empathic powers. So Alex could talk about her past while avoiding mentioning her powers, or take a risk and tell Gabe something that no one else has ever believed before.

I always go with the powers, so I don’t really know how the conversation about her past goes, or what specifically Alex even talks about. I don’t consider there to be a right or wrong choice since it’s all important ground to cover eventually, and if they had more time, maybe Alex would have told Gabe everything. There’s something about this scene that gets me, and I think I know why. Gabe kind of reminds me of one of my older brothers, just a little, specifically when I last spoke with him in person. I’m not close with any of my family, I don’t make any effort to keep in touch, and I don’t even live in the same country as most of them. Even so, when I started coming out as trans, I wanted to do so in person for whoever I could. Both him and Gabe are cool, thoughtful, compassionate, and more than a little dorky. He was the only person in my family who even thought to ask me what name I was going with, but rather than ask, he did this cheesy introduction like we’d just met for the first time. So, not for the first time, I found myself heavily relating to Life is Strange characters, though I wouldn’t have expected them to be siblings. It might be why, despite knowing it’s coming, Gabe’s death still hits me every time.

[greatqueenanna]

@ericmicael It took a while, but I was asking him about another subject and he went ahead and finished this as well. His thoughts are below the read more.

So I went through the passages your friend wanted me to read. I didn’t really want to read through the entire book, but I did scan through some of the other chapters for context.

I think the book spends a lot of time blaming Hans’ father and brothers for his behavior. I suppose that's acceptable. Sociopaths don't just magically appear. While there is an argument to be made that some people have the mental predisposition to become sociopaths, that is still a very nuanced area of study.

In terms of his past, Hans is obsessed with power because he wants to stick it to his family that he is more than what they think. This can be sociopathic, but it can also be not. Because of his obsession with his self-image, his fixation on power is sociopathic, but empaths can have similar feelings. In other words, this can be read as both sociopathic or as him being just a troubled person. However, since they wrote him in the film to be sociopathic, I’m going to say that this is the author’s attempt at writing a sociopathic character. What supports the sociopathic reading further, is how he only thinks about his own needs and suffering. He treats people like objects and is highly self-involved. The author perfectly captured narcissism at the very least.

Let's talk about the Elsa scenes now. He looks up at the chandelier to try to kill her, making it look like an accident. During the dungeon scene, Hans goes from trying to understand Elsa’s feelings about losing control to just flat-out insulting her about it. It seems like even when he tries, he can’t stop thinking about himself for more than a few seconds. He overindulges in self-grandeur here. “I would never lose control.” “For any other man, this might've been too much, but not for me.” Then, he gets angry at Elsa for making his plans more difficult.

Again, the author is excellent at writing narcissism. Even if you could argue that the novel doesn’t support sociopathy, you definitely can’t deny the clear narcissism here; which supports the sociopathic reading.

So, with this tiny drama with Hans and sociopathy, I decided to ask a friend of mine, who has ASPD, what he thought of this whole situation with Hans. A bit of history - as you all know, I like Helsa, so back in 2014 when it was revealed that Hans was a sociopath, I went into research mode to try and discover more about this. That is where discovered Sociopath World, a website made for sociopaths to discuss how they navigate the world and to give advice to 'empaths'.

This is where I met my friend - we'll call him BG. BG is a clinical psychologist, film buff, and, as said, diagnosed with ASPD. Now, I didn't directly ask him about Hans at the time, I just asked him about the Hans - Elsa dynamic a lot without using their names (cuz, you know - I'm a shipper lol) we've been friends ever since, and I ask him all the time about film characters.

When I started talking about Hans and sociopathy more recently, I got an anon where someone questioned if I should be talking about this, so I decided to finally ask BG about Hans. I shared with him Jennifer Lee's comments, some posts within the Hans/Helsa tags, and of course recommended he watch the movie. To my surprise, he did it fairly quickly and sent me a reply today.

Few things to keep in mind - BG is very blunt, so sorry if you find some things he says a bit offensive or accusatory. Also, keep in mind (something he mentions as well) that he doesn't speak for everyone who has ASPD. Also, don't worry, he knows I'm posting his response here. I did edit a few things for privacy purposes. He knows this too.

Now, I originally wanted to include his response in my Hans and Sociopathy post, but to make sure that the post didn't end up being too long, I decided to place it here instead. His response is under the read more.

Thanks for contacting me, I always like evaluating people’s fascinations with ASPD. This is a unique one, a cartoon character. I’m usually asked to evaluate Elsa (spoiler, she’s not a sociopath) from this movie, so it’s a nice change of pace. Prince Hans is a sociopath. Let’s get into it.

So what we first have to establish about anyone trying to defend those with ASPD are their motivations. No one defends those with ASPD just for kindness's sake, not unless they have a positive experience with someone in their life (which is exceedingly rare with ASPD). Here, we’re talking about a cartoon character that was first established as a ‘good’ and then turns ‘evil’ for a shocking twist.

From what I’ve seen from this character’s fans, is that they focus heavily on the ‘tragic’ backstory of said character and the end-game motivations they have for him. Which in this case is the fact that they want to pair him up with other characters with their morality not being questioned. From what I’ve seen, that’s all they care about. They see an attractive character that they think has the potential to be paired with another, and they are upset that this attractive character has traits and behaviors that they are opposed to. Look, I know it sounds mean, but none of these fans would really care if the character was not attractive, charming, and easily paired with the female leads. That is the main motivation here.

I’m not saying they are not interested based on the character’s own merits and intrigue, they like to speculate about his past and childhood. But given the most popular depiction is him is with the female leads in a romantic sense, it is very obvious where the fans stand and why they are defensive of him. He’s attractive, he’s charming, he was really nice and chivalrous at first. But the reality here is that they are in love with who he is pretending to be. It honestly looks like the cases I deal with every day with real ASPD and Empath couples. The empath in the relationship is always making excuses for the sociopath, and I have indeed had cases where the empath denies the diagnosis. It’s really interesting to see this in behavior in fan spaces as well.  

Now, here’s the thing. I don’t really care about film representation. Most people I know who also have ASPD don’t care either. We don’t really care about the things that empaths place on a pedestal. We don’t care about role models or feeling accepted and represented. Empaths always make us out to be villains or funny anti-heroes because they can’t fathom our behaviors being used for good. It's a reality we face, especially in this day and age when feelings and being empathetic dominate the social world. There is no easy way to showcase a sociopath being a hero within empath standards. Our definition of a sociopath being a hero is getting what they want. Hans would be a great representation if he got what he wanted. Do I speak for everyone? No. But honestly, I question anyone who claims to be a sociopath and actually cares about empath’s feelings towards us, or bases their value on fictional characters like what empaths do. Especially since most people who have ASPD are not even diagnosed, they can’t exactly question a representation of something they don’t know that they have.

Let’s change gears towards the comments the director made. The critique you got was that there isn’t enough evidence to support a diagnosis of ASPD with Hans because the narrative doesn’t explicitly state it and we don’t know a lot about his past; so can’t make a genuine diagnosis. In most cases, that would be correct. However, the director makes it very clear that her intentions for the character was for him to be a sociopath. She wrote him with this intention and made sure to depict him in that way. Thus, we don’t need to see his childhood or even make a diagnosis based on his behavior. He is written and labeled as a sociopath, so he is one. End of story. Sure, we can critique how the depiction was handled, and even the motivations behind making him a sociopath, but it doesn’t change the facts of the character.

I went a little off track here, but I feel this needed to be said first and foremost. Let’s get back to the actual comments. She states that she has a sociopathic mind and that she was writing him based on these traits. She also stated later that Hans being sociopathic was more interesting. You can even see the excitement she has when the person she’s talking to says “he’s a talented Scoiopath” and she says “He’s very talented!” She loves this aspect of him. It's her pride and joy. She obviously thinks sociopaths are interesting and cool, to the point where she thinks she may have some traits. Here, we know her intention behind it was romanticization. Is it a bit weird? Yea. It’s weird. She's romanticizing a disorder so it's always weird. However, the depiction was still fairly accurate. Cartoony and villainized, but accurate.

Which I guess leads us to the actual depiction. He’s a very typical Sociopath. Not much else to say. He has the sociopath stare, he mirrors behavior, he hates that his brothers dared to ignore him, he jumps into danger without a second thought, and smiles when he’s about to commit murder on Elsa. It's kind of funny how accurate he is. It’s like watching a comedy show where they say something relatable and you can’t help but laugh. The director says that her stand-out moment for him was when he questions Anna’s comment of being ‘just her’. For me, it’s when he stands up after being knocked out by the blast, without even acknowledging that he’s in deep shit, and just says ‘but, she froze your heart!” I laughed so hard. Only sociopaths would do this shit. “Anna, how dare you. You should be dead.”

And that’s all I have to say. Thanks for reaching out, it was definitely entertaining and a nice break. Have a great day.

[autumnslance]

Do you ever get tired of people comparing trauma between Yotsuyu and Fordola? Or how some say Yotsuyu should have lived and Fordola should have died?

I manage to avoid most of it, honestly. Folks who spend a lot of time and energy on character hate don’t tend to get my follows, and sometimes even get filtered/muted, depending on platform. I don’t go digging through the tags very often, either, just take what comes across my dash, and I keep my following count low for various reasons (mostly having to do with my own time, energy, and sanity). Still, there are things I see, so I sigh and eyeroll, and scroll on.

Fordola and Yotsuyu were meant to be two versions of the same story, in two different places, showing the damage of not only the Empire but from their own people, and how that played its part in driving them to accepting the Empire—their abusive conquerers—as the better of bad options for their own goals of security, safety, strength.

I do think one story is told better than the other; I don’t think they should have avoided the nastier parts of Yotsuyu’s history, but the way it was done was clumsy and just didn’t work within the MMO story limits. Especially adding in the infantilization via amnesia, and how poorly Hien is written in handling the Yotsuyu issue, which keeps affecting Doma’s story even through Endwalker. If Hien were just screwing up, OK, he’s young and new to ruling, but he’s simply not allowed to be the heroic character he’s supposed to be through it.

Anyway; I figured either Yotsuyu or Fordola would die, and the other get to work toward redemption. Toward learning and seeing a different way than the one they had spent most or all of their lives laboring under amid abuse, discrimination, and propaganda. While the other gets a redemptive moment, but dies in the process. It was simply a matter of which one.

“Death Equals Redemption”, while a popular trope, can also too often be a cop-out. The audience is supposed to “forgive” someone for one shining moment after a lot of bad while they escape actual consequences, actual effort, in dealing with what they did. It’s often an appeasement; give a villain their comeuppance for those who want to see it, while also some kind of nice moment for the fans of that character. But real redemption takes time and personal work, and does not at all mean someone has to be forgiven by those they’ve wronged. Yotsuyu’s is handled better than some. She did learn a few things, and genuinely cared for Gosetsu. If she couldn’t have her revenge on Doma, she could at least get Asahi for everything he’d done, and I maintain she went into that situation knowing that was the best she’d get as it was otherwise suicide-by-WoL, which was also acceptable to her as she regained her memories and the ability to feel remorse with them. But she also doesn’t get the chance to move forward from that moment, which is a waste of those lessons and the ability to put them into practice, which is where some of the fan disappointment comes in.

I think it turned out as it did because Lyse takes to heart the lessons she had learned through the story, combined with her life as a Scion, giving her a more global view in general. She’s able to find a different path for all of Ala Mhigo, letting go of their tumultuous history to build a new future together, so offers that opportunity to Fordola. Hien can’t quite yet see the societal issues in Doma that he stands within and gets written into a corner, especially with the portrayal of trying to rebuild Doma similar to how it used to be, holding onto traditions that gave the Domans strength through the occupation (as they hadn’t the same issues that Ala Mhigo did pre-empire).

Yotsuyu and Fordola have different but just as valid abuses and traumas—and commit similar abuses and traumas on others—though some folks feel more sympathy for one than the other. For some fans it’s a reflection of their own painful pasts, letting them empathize with one or the other more. For some folks, it’s simply finding one character’s personality more grating than the other. For some, it’s simply about finding one “hotter” than the other, a matter of basic aesthetic appeal. There’s some folks who don’t think antagonists should get a chance to change and find redemption at all, especially if they conflate “forgiveness” in it, which the game has deliberately shown is not the same a few times now. And for some, it’s the perceived unfairness in how one story is clumsily resolved in tragedy, while the other is getting what I actually think is the best written and paced redemption story in a game that usually handwaves those for our reforming antagonists. In many cases, it’s simply character preference leading to emotional responses, and not about what the characters are bringing to the narrative and why.

Because you can’t really have one character without the other within the “war and what comes after” story of Stormblood. These women are comparisons and commentary on the imperialism/colonialism, but also on their respective nations. Their stories work in tandem, separate but the same in many ways, challenging their narrative foils (Lyse and Hien) to think and consider and learn; one fails, the other succeeds, due to how they are moving toward their nations’ futures. Tearing down one woman to elevate the other is missing a point in what these characters mean for a story of societal redemption, as well as their own individually, and what they teach the heroes along the way.

[officiallallorona]

I am intersted to know why your feelings about Wanda are complicated.

And what do you think about Vision?

I guess because I feel like the MCU can't decide if it wants to make her a heroic villain or a villainous hero so it keeps trying to have it both ways. And that mainly manifests into a lack of consequences for her actions or even feeling like she should have consequences. Like in Civil War, she has that line "I can't control their fear. Only my own" and it's supposed to be empowering and "yeah girl, kick his ass!" But like, no. You're an ex-Hydra volunteer with vast power who has cost people their lives. Even if unintentional, take some responsibility over that, hon. It's like when police officers get offended that BIPOC are afraid of them. It's like, consider WHY fam. Consider the history behind that and realize that you do have a responsibility to do your job right so that people aren't terrified you're a force for evil. Also, I'm not going to get into full Accords discourse but at the end of the day, I think of them as superhero gun control and the fact that so many of the Avengers said 'fuck the wishes of 117 countries that are wary of a largely American militarized force and thus want oversight' still doesn't sit well with me in general. I also don't like that her Hydra past was swept under the rug as "she's just a traumatized kid who lost her parents." You still don't join a Nazi organization! And the fact that she mentally violated all of the Avengers (particularly Tony and Bruce) and then was just accepted into their ranks like it was nbd? It's a bit much for me. Particularly since she never got held accountable for her role in creating Ultron (like the narrative said "oh but she lost her brother!" and decided that was enough).

You get hints of this in WandaVision too. Monica mournfully telling Wanda "[the townspeople] will never know what you gave up for them" and Wanda saying it won't change how they see her. It's this moment of "oh it's a shame that Wanda will never be understood" but again, Wanda is responsible for how she got perceived negatively. The idea that it's sad that this whole town of people she victimized (more mental violation, keeping them away from their loved ones, etc.) don't empathize with her loss is just...squicky to me. This Vox article explains that better than I can though.

But all that said, I couldn't help but root for her a lot of the time while watching the show. I finally found myself invested in her and Vision (whose dynamic was, prior to WandaVision, developed mostly off-screen therefore making it hard for me to care). Even as she was doing something so wrong, I got attached to this messy human making an even bigger mess of her grief (I mean, I'm a Tony Stark stan. I love mess). And her powers are so cool. I love witches forever, okay? I'm also still hoping her and Vis get to say "hello" again! I just really hated the spin the show made that her doing the right thing at the end was some big heroic sacrifice instead of just...her not going full villain to keep what she wants.

Also as for Vis himself...I can take or leave him if he's not with Wanda. I'll always have some fondness for him because he's JARVIS' legacy. But also I really miss JARVIS. And for a character that's so powerful, I think the MCU kind of wastes him a lil bit.

[crymeariveronceagain]

is it just me or are there no empaths that are like… friends.. or friendly with each other in koltc? I know that goes for a lot of abilities, but that’s just simply because we don’t know that many characters (usually only 1-2) with that ability. However, Behind telepaths, we know the most empaths and yet it kinda seems like they can’t stand each other. Like from the few interactions we get they are always really tense and pissed with one another (like think about unlocked and oralie and keefe or stina and Cassius with well.. anyone). I know this probably isn’t that coherent and it’s kind of nonsensical since external circumstances are usually not helping in these scenes, but I just think it would be really funny if all empaths didn’t get along very well.

honestly empathy as an ability is funny in general. basically reduced to human lie detector, but they can’t even lie themselves. All the empaths are dramatic bitches with attitudes frfr so maybe that’s why too 💀

ok and on that note, I hope Sophie uses the empath’s tell again, as it’s pretty fucking useful. Legit just go in there, get all the info you can from the empaths you know. Like they’re all hiding some shit 😭 except stina as she’s pretty boring ngl and 2d a lot of the time- don’t even know why Shannon made her an empath when we already had several. but whatever.

Okay, here's an idea for why empaths aren't friendly to each other.

They know exactly how it feels to be empaths. They know exactly what another empath can know about another person. They know how it works. So instantly, they distrust anyone who can see that much into their soul, into what's inside of them. Their lives revolve around their sixth sense of knowing what feelings are and knowing emotions and intentions and things that not even telepaths can tell you. The heart, out of reach by everyone but an empath.

If you had that much insight into another person, why on earth would you ever want anyone to know that much about you?

to be an empath is to know what it is to be vulnerable, because everyone is extremely vulnerable to you.

Why would you ever want to be that kind of vulnerable to someone else?

And yeah, I agree. I also think that it's because they're reduced to a human lie detector that the ability gets overlooked. Because damn if they couldn't destroy the world from the inside out if they had the heart for it. Each empath is built with the ability to know knowledge that everyone else has to hungrily cling to in the bits and pieces that they can scrabble to get their hands on.

Empaths have the ability within them to be undetected, perfect, seamless manipulators and spies. Maybe that's why the talent gets immediately dismissed by most people. They've been taught to look past it.

Also Stina's an empath because she has -15 empathy on a good day. It's poetic justice. She's doomed to constantly know how bad she's hurt their feelings. Or it's poetic irony, girl with no feelings winds up getting that as her super special super power that defines her place in the world for the rest of her life.

idk just my takes

[i-write-shakespeare-not-disney]

THANKS <3

I sorta gave this ramble to my friend on a voice memo but

I was just really thinking hard about how Toga represents the “weird girl” group and that desire to just be accepted, not changed for whatever makes you “weird.”

I’d gotten this bizarre ask being mean to her, and I’ve known several people who write her off or dislike her for being the “stereotypical sexy schoolgirl trope for men to fetishize” but like.... She’s literally the inverse of that??? Like she’s not the clumsy and adorable damsel in distress making the boys blush with her short skirt, and she’s not the sexy schoolgirl seducing them. I’m not sure if it was intentional, but her character is kind of a stroke of genius because despite the schoolgirl uniform, she’s the inverse of the sexy schoolgirl. She freaks everyone out. She’s obsessed with blood and love, but that is exactly what ostracizes her, and it’s what makes everyone she is interested in get freaked out by her. Toga and the fandom have sort of stripped the effect of the stereotype label on her which I think is pretty cool. Because, yeah, anyone who hasn’t seen it would see her and go oh shit she must be the sexy schoolgirl, and then no, she’s literally off the rails in the most incredible way. And I absolutely love that. You can’t sexualize her because the whole point of her character is to be considered a freak! I mean I never saw her as that trope, but i know a lot of people dislike her because they think that’s what she was supposed to be?

Again, Idk where that idea really comes from past the uniform because even the way character respond to her doesn’t align with that. The heroes are all scared or weirded out by her (rightfully so, she’s trying to shove needles in them and she’s FAST, i love her), and the league?

Whenever she’s shown with the League members, she’s shown very... normal. It’s kind of funny because you put the villains with the heroes and they seem crazy, but you see them together in their hideout and they’re just. Vibing. (All this goes to another point which I think I’ll make later.) But yeah, the only time a character shows attraction is Twice when one half of him flirts and the other half is just existential, but that dynamic quickly simmers to a loyal best-friendship. None of the other characters look at her or treat her like the sexy schoolgirl trope, so again I really don’t know where that write-off comes from.

The other point was that while narratively I understand the Toga/Ochako showdown and the arrival of Ochako showing Toga she’s accepted, I do wonder why it only hit as hard for Toga coming from her when she’d been widely accepted within the League.

I’ve seen people say that the love between the League isn’t the same or strong enough for Toga and a lot of people seem to see them as just this band of apathetic sociopaths, but I highly resent that.

Dabi had grown up in a household of toxic masculinity hence the misogynistic reiterations he spat as a child, that he even wanted to apologize for coming out of his coma. He was shown to care for his family, that love was just warped into hatred when he was kind of written off and forgotten and it felt like no one fought for him or was even affected by his death/disappearance. I don’t think he manipulated Toga by burning her house down and telling her he understood her, because he didn’t need to do that to get Toga to agree to avenge Twice by using his blood against the heroes. Toga would’ve done it even if he just went up to her and gave her the vial, but he chose to empathize with her and try to make her feel better by reminding her that even if her real family cast her aside like his did, they still have each other, they have the League. I think that part of Dabi does see a sister in her because he knows what it is to have siblings.

Shigaraki was literally brainwashed since he was a child to indulge the violent urges he discovered after being physically abused by his father and accidentally killing his whole family because he didn’t understand his own quirk. AFO literally shoved those morals into his head, and even then, Shig didn’t turn out to be as ruthless and cruel as he probably should’ve after being pushed to kill over and over. Which is shown in the habits he has that remind the audience he is barely not a teenager, he’s like 20, 21-- he loves LoL, he’s on a switch on his off time, he uses gamer talk in battles, he idolizes Aizawa because of how protective he is over the kids, he laughs at butt jokes. That is a college boy right there tbh. And he’s shown to care a lot for his main members, demanding respect for Magne’s pronouns, never holding overhaul or hawks against Twice, the first thing he did when they got a good sum of money was get his group fucking sushi because one of them mentioned a craving when they were hungry, and when he became the main leader of a huge movement, he made his main members the leaders of subgroups. He always allowed them their autonomy to do what they wanted regarding their own goals so long as they all came together for his as well.

Twice adored Toga, and I don’t think I even need to explain that. That’s been evident throughout every single one of their interactions.

The League is very much a family, and yeah they’re fucked up, but they have love for each other. I don’t think it’s fair to say that their love isn’t strong enough for Toga. So again, what does it say that the love and acceptance from this group of fellow outcasts wasn’t enough for Toga to feel okay? Why did it take Ochako for Toga to believe it? (Yeah, I know, it shows a change of heart, they’re foils, blah blah, but I’m talking about this, not the obvious narrative answer aksjdfakd). I was thinking about that a lot.

Idk I’ve been thinking about Toga a lot.

Someone remind about my Toga ramble please