#i ended up unintentionally taking the role of being the one who defended the fandom

[arsen1cs4ng0]

(prev tags)

adding on. and knowing absolutely everything else that happened to everyone else (excluding The stuff. marked in green because... *gestures*) makes me so upset because. a small fandom shouldn't have been able to cause so much fucking damage. a community about funni blue robots shouldn't have turned into a fucking toxic wasteland!!!! i see why so many people left. you needed a hazmat suit to even look at the shit

it's fucking awful how everyone just had some sort of bad experience in this godforsaken fandom. the cons of being in a small community is that the loud minority will do absolutely anything to ruin shit!!!!!

[vidalinav]

As someone that loves almost every character in ACOTAR but still wants to discuss their flaws and slip ups I really liked your post about Nesta and how she treated Feyre as a sister. None of the characters in ACOTAR are perfect. They have flaws and people in the fandom need to keep the same tone about all of them when it comes to that. Don't excuse one character and bash on the next. Like of course you can have your favorites, but Idk I just love seeing the characters as flawed rather than put them on a pedestal. Cheers 🖤

I mean I absolutely love flaws. I love Nesta for that reason. She’s such an imperfect, easily debatable character. Her interactions with others are amazing because of this, because she’s not so easy to be around, so she pushes a lot of boundaries or expands the way these characters have learned to adapt in their world. They’ve never met anyone who is not so easily swayed, which is obvious in all her interactions with them. Though I won’t get into it, since this post will be a thousand times longer. 

But I think if any character is most human-like, as in she is based on how someone in the real world would act, she’s probably the most authentic in my opinion. But authenticity requires a level of flaws that can’t be denied or overwritten. So, I really did want to stress that, that she can keep her mistakes, her cold demeanor, her sometimes harsh words, her standoffishness, her distrust many times, but at some point she’s going to have more character development and will she really exonerate herself and claim she played no part in her own life or the lives of her family members? She hasn’t before. She’s acknowledged that Feyre went out and kept them alive, but to what extent does she feel guilty or regretful or even blameless? Not specifically about that situation, but... the lack of friends, her relationship with her father, her sisters, or any close relationship before and after the trauma, her own wants, wishes, goals, the lack of purpose. In the case of the cabin, and now in the case of her father’s death, she’s really coping the same way. Someone else is supporting her, and she’s really mentally unhealthy and very closed off. You know maybe I’m taking a page out of my own psychotherapy textbook, but I think healing for her would require her to see more options, to be open to more opportunities, and for her to see the world and how she interacts with it a little bit differently where she has accountability for her own wellbeing and happiness, but also accepts the role she played in the past that she could’ve changed.

*But* if she copes that way throughout the series and she doesn’t allow anyone in and she unintentionally hurts someone’s feelings, for lack of a better term, then their feelings are still valid whether we understand them or not. That’s how POV’s work. A change in the narrative. And if in Feyre’s POV Nesta’s done wrong in some way even though some may not agree, even if Feyre herself has done wrong, it doesn’t mean we erase the mistakes as if they didn’t happen. I think to really analyze a character you need to see the whole character and not just the things that make them palatable or the things we’d rather ignore/excuse, even in the pursuit of defending them. As readers, we’re the third party observers, so we can see more things than the characters, but to Feyre for example, Nesta has an odd way of showing her love to the point where we have instances where she questions it throughout the series. It doesn’t mean necessarily that Nesta has to change or that she doesn’t love Feyre, but it also doesn’t make Feyre wrong to feel that way. or Elain or Cassian or Amren whatever happened to them. It also doesn’t make the Inner Circle wrong for not liking her, though the situation is more complicated than that. If Feyre’s hurt that Nesta won’t come to her after all they’ve through, after she’s reached out, and tried to help in the way that she knew how, then she is allowed to be hurt. And if Nesta’s perspective says that Feyre wronged her after what happens in ACOSF, even if Feyre had good intentions and explains her intentions, Nesta has been wronged. I think there’s a certain level of validity that we need to keep when discussing their interaction or any interaction, otherwise we start playing a blame game, when no one is at fault. It’s too complex to be simply one person’s fault and we know practically nothing of Nesta’s POV. It’s not Feyre or the Inner Circle���s fault that Nesta is in a bad way. But it’s not Nesta’s fault that Feyre sometimes feels hurt or betrayed or unloved. Which unfortunately makes the situation very complicated and quite oxymoronic. 

Also I think that sometimes people feel (which people have also said to me) that discussing Nesta’s flaws is a direct attack on her character, because other character’s flaws are not as highlighted in the fandom nor Feyre’s POV. But I think that in itself is a whole other post. Because Feyre has grown up with Nesta, and she has seen her in so many lights, and she’s really only beginning to know how the Inner Circle are truly when the wars are over and the dust has settled. You know, they took her in when she was really low and in an emotionally abusive relationship and having had a traumatic experience with the Amarantha situation, and they supported her and her decisions. So, I find that it would be hard to really expect that from Feyre where we ended in ACOSAF. But this of course doesn’t mean that we can’t dislike a character or question why they do things. It just means that we can dislike a character for a lot less than having to make one character seem inherently greater than another and making people feel bad about it. They all offer value to the series that we all are so obsessed about. But also we as posters can’t reasonably post essays. Like I can’t post something discussing Nesta’s flaws and a specific circumstance and then equally talk about several other character’s flaws in the same post to make everyone feel better and sure that I’m not taking a side. 

Which is what I try to get at sometimes when people comment and they seem a little bit too aggressive. Which is why I really don’t like the whole anti/pro debacle, even though I understand the practicality of being able to filter certain posts you see on tumblr because of those hashtags. Thankfully there hasn’t many people who are uber aggressive and honestly I block a lot of people who continually post things in which they don’t allow their opinion to be challenged in any way. Because at the end of the day, none of us are wrong, but... some I’d say are more right than others--simply because they have and use textual evidence to back up their claims or they make reasonable connections that don’t stomp on anyone’s opinions and open up a discussion in which everyone exchanges their ideas. There are so many posts I absolutely adore in either direction, because of how well-rounded they approach the topic. 

That being said, quite honestly that post that thankfully you appreciate, absolutely drives me insane. Every time someone likes it or comments I get so afraid that it’s going to be someone telling me off. But I’m a very anxious person so that’s probably why, but also I’ve seen many people being told off lol. I really was hoping it wasn’t too bad or being too biased. I absolutely hate that. And I certainly don’t want to be just agreed with, I love active discussions and will have them with many people on here, but I don’t like feeling like at any moment I could be invalidated and my opinion worthless when all I did was post something I felt was accurate to my own analysis. So I’ve almost deleted that post so many times. But thankfully, y’all are not horrible... so far. 

Anyways, I for some reason go on tangents that only half make sense. Stream of consciousness and ADHD I guess. But hopefully this reply wasn’t so drastic. I absolutely love that you support the active discussion of flaws and the character’s who have them and you are more than welcome to discuss with me anytime :D As long as your okay with the fact that I write essays as opposed to simple thanks haha!

[themattress]

Wow. Tomoko Kanemaki SUCKS!

I decided to be masochistic and read back through the KH2 novels by Tomoko Kanemaki. And I just have to say: that there are actually people out there who like her writing and consider it to be in as good or superior to the games astounds me. These books are awful.

When they just straight-up adapt the game to text like the KH novels and the COM novels (except for the R/R one, but R/R sucks anyway), it’s fine. They even do the visits to Land of Dragons, Beast’s Castle and Olympus Coliseum better than the KH2 manga does, plus swaps in Agrabah for the far more important Port Royal. But that’s the only good thing I can say about them. In literally every other regard, the game and manga are infinitely superior.

The main problem is simple to sum up: Kanemaki is a fanfic writer. A pretty stereotypical KH fangirl. This in of itself wouldn’t be a problem if she weren’t adapting the games, but she is, and when she combines the game adaptations with her own fanfic based on what she wants to see, there is inevitably going to be a clash between them. The story written by Kazushige Nojima that she is adapting to novel form does not gel at all with what she writes, and as a result she has to either change that story (to the detriment of both it and its characters) or she neglects to change it even when it directly contradicts her own writing. This happens so much that it really makes for an excruciating reading experience. So let me list all of my problems with these novels point by point, to clarify just why Kanemaki’s writing fails so hard.

- I’ll get the biggest one out of the way right off the bat: Kanemaki is obsessed - and I mean obsessed - with the existential plight of the Nobodies, which includes the Draco in Leather Pants treatment to Organization XIII (”Is it really wrong to seek what you’ve lost?” is asked at one point, as though it’s a profound question. Um, when you’re doing so by inflicting that exact same loss upon millions of innocent people, yes it is!) The worst part is that characters (usually Namine, but Axel, Riku, Saix, Xemnas and even Ansem the Wise get on it at some points) are constantly repeating the exact same angsty inner monologues and internal (and sometime external) quasi-philosophical debates about Nobodies. I’m not kidding, it’s usually word-for-word. “Is it right for Nobodies to exist?” “Nobodies have nowhere to go or call home”. “Do Nobodies really lack hearts?” “What defines a heart?” “If Nobodies don’t have hearts, then why do they feel such-and-such?” “Why were Nobodies even born?” “Nobodies aren’t meant to exist, but does that still mean...?” And so on and so on, blah, blah, BLAH. Hearing this over and over and over and OVER again throughout my reading of the novels doesn’t make me more sympathetic of the Nobodies, it actually makes me less sympathetic and want them to go away so I don’t have to keep reading the same damn woe-is-me grade school-level existentialism! I want to keep reading about Sora, Donald and Goofy, damn it!

- Three characters who were mostly on the sidelines in KH2 somehow get a majority of time and focus here: Riku, Axel and Namine. They are even forced into an apocryphal trio together. They are basically treated as the de-facto secondary main characters next to Sora, Donald and Goofy, with their actions and development being given equal importance. Actually, that’s a lie - Riku, Axel and Namine are honestly given more importance. There is so much wrong about this - not only does the trio not feel organic and reek of bad fanfic, but each character in it isn’t well portrayed at all compared to the game or even the manga.

- Riku had the most potential, since he’s always a major character and a more talented writer could’ve come up with more feasible things for him to have been doing off-screen during KH2. But what Kanemaki has him do is ridiculous. If it’s not just stalking Sora, Donald and Goofy as a silent protector (which is the least interesting thing you could do with him), it’s bullshit with Axel and Namine, or fighting Saix midway through even though Kanemaki still keeps Saix’s later line of “Didn’t Roxas take care of you?”, or having him fight Xemnas in the Old Mansion only for Ansem the Wise to show up and Xemnas then just...retreat for no reason, letting Ansem live and thus ensuring the later destruction of his Kingdom Hearts like a dumbass!  And through all of this, she frequently makes Riku default back into snarky, arrogant asshole mode, which doesn’t fit his character at this point at all. Also, while I saw no deliberate yaoi bait in the writing of the KH2 game, it’s definitely present in these novels.

- Axel. Oh my God. Anyone who hates what was done with him as Lea in the games, you should blame Kanemaki, since she actually ran with that kind of writing and characterization for him in these novels long before that happened in the games. He is treated as a totally trustworthy good guy who is a great friend to Roxas, Riku and Namine. The one dick move Kanemaki has him make is quickly backtracked on and then swept under the rug. His whole villainous role is whitewashed at every turn, from both what he intended with Roxas (legit deciding to kill him is changed to attempting a murder/suicide so that he can die with his best friend) to everything concerning Kairi (no, he didn’t kidnap her at all, that point is hammered in frequently, he was going to take her to Namine and they’d then see Sora together! And he didn’t want to turn Sora into a Heartless, that was a wrongful assumption on Saix’s part! And Saix summoned those Dusks on Destiny Islands, not Axel! Axel is chivalrous and heroic and does everything possible to protect and save Kairi! Gag me.) It’s so obnoxious, and beyond removing all of the character’s edge, it’s a blatant case of giving a character a major role in a story that they aren’t supposed to have one in just because he’s a favorite of the writer.

- Namine is an equally blatant case of this, but her case might be even worse. Not only is she THE source of the repetitive woe-is-me existential Nobody monologues and debates, with her whole character arc being changed to revolve around this which honestly makes her unintentionally unsympathetic and annoying, but this portrayal of her has a negative effect on her in both fandom and canon. In terms of fandom, a cult of bad apples (usually yaoi fangirls who already hated Kairi) arose around Namine following KH2, declaring her as superior to Kairi in every way and worthy of being the real main heroine of the KH series. Not only is this false, but it arguably got started because of these novels (translations of which had made their way online long before they were localized), where a character who literally only got 10 minutes of screentime in the game literally gets transformed into the main heroine and one of the most frequently appearing characters in general, even if her “character development” is horribly written and amounts to her being a mouthpiece for Kanemaki’s views. Then again, maybe they just projected onto Namine due to her introverted, fond-of-drawing nature, and Kanemaki was just one of them and thus produced something that kept them going. It’s a Chicken/Egg type of thing, I guess. But whatever the case, what it did in canon was worse. Kanemaki was the first to write for Namine after KH2, in 358/2 Days, and her characterization of her translated in game form to the stagnant caricatured plot device that Nomura then realized was easy to write for and convenient for making other convoluted plot turns happen. 

- Come to think of it, Kanemaki’s partnering up with Nomura for Days probably did a lot more harm than just with Namine. Because her obsession with the “What Measure is a Non-Human?” trope never truly leaves the series after Days. It doesn’t pop up in BBS, since that was being worked on before Days, but everything afterwards is sure to feature it in some abysmal way or another, whether it be Nobodies, replicas, data copies or beings of pure darkness. The “Nobodies have hearts after all” comes straight from her writing (even if she had it as a needless overcomplication of the original idea that strong hearts can share feelings with those without it and thus serve as a heart for them too, while Nomura’s retcon is just “Nah, the body can regrow a heart, Xemnas lied”.) A lot of KH3′s worst writing might have not existed had Nomura not picked up on Kanemaki’s fixation with woobified “non-beings”.

- Sora honestly feels like an afterthought for Kanemaki. She’s so eager to write new fanficcy material for other characters, but not for the actual main protagonist, who only gets straight-up game adaptation. Oh, except that some of his lines that were “mean” to the Nobodies (and thus “OOC”, as both KH2-hating anon and Kanemaki seem to think) are changed or cut out.

- Y’know how the KH2 manga made Kairi even better than her game portrayal? Yeah, well this novel makes her far worse. First off, her defiant “you’re not acting very friendly!” to Axel is cut because Axel is whitewashed in that moment (he even readies himself to defend Kairi from the Dusks which Saix summons). Later, she does not get away from Axel because he was never kidnapping her to begin with here. She then realizes that he’s really a good person before Saix kidnaps her, with Axel desperately trying to protect her. She then only shows up toward the end when Axel once again comes to be her hero (again thwarted by that dastardly Saix), with her moping about how she can do nothing to help the brave, noble Axel. (I feel sick just typing this...) In the finale, not only does Kanemaki not take advantage of the potential Kairi development that the game relegated to optional text boxes, but she actually destroys Kairi’s entire arc long before BBS did by making one of her few additions to Kairi be an inner monologue she has on the shore of Destiny Islands alongside Mickey, Donald and Goofy just before Sora and Riku make it back, where she’s just wishing with all her heart that they’ll come back because “We’re here waiting for you. We’ll always wait for you.” BULL-FUCKING-SHIT. Kanemaki, just like Nomura and Oka, clearly has no interest in Kairi as a character on her own. She is used here as a plot device for the character development of Axel and Namine, characters she is interested in, even though Kairi had more significance and screentime than them by far in the actual KH2 game. Geez, even Nojima tried with her!

- Roxas is written just fine during the prologue, since his scenes are just lifted from the game. But when he resurfaces in the final novel, added material make Axel be the most important thing on his mind. Even his final thoughts as he makes the full merging with Sora is that he hopes to meet Axel again. More deliberate yaoi-baiting, and more shoving Axel down our throats. Hell, that last novel is even named “Anthem - Meet Again / Axel Last Stand”. God damn it, Kanemaki, Axel was not important to KH2. It’s not his story. Get over it already!

- Hey, remember how in the game DiZ/ Ansem the Wise did a total character 180 due to offscreen reasons when he came back after the prologue? That was dumb. The novels add new scenes for him, so Kanemaki could actually rectify this issue....OR she just repeats it, since the first new scene she gives him also has him in 180 mode due to offscreen reasons! 

- Xemnas and Saix both have their levels of menace neutered thanks to the existential angst of the Nobodies affecting them too, with none of their inner monologues bemoaning their fates really adding up with their actions. The game let you make up your own mind as to whether you found them sympathetic despite their monstrous behavior, but Kanemaki is clearly trying to force the sympathy angle, and it really lessens them, especially Xemnas. 

- Really, only Xigbar, Xaldin, Demyx, Luxord, and the trio of Hayner, Pence and Olette were written completely accurately out of the KH-original cast. Nothing felt out of place with them.

- Other nonsensical fanficcy events besides what I’ve already mentioned include bringing stuff from COM (like Repliku) back up frequently instead of keeping focus on the story at hand, a totally different version of how Namine and Axel split from Riku following the prologue (one that continues making Namine unintentionally unsympathetic), Riku having Mickey make the promise after the prologue before Kanemaki’s own 358/2 Days retcons this to happening before it, Riku meeting with Maleficent in Hollow Bastion, Mickey meeting with Axel in Hollow Bastion, Axel being the one to wake Goofy up after his “death”, Axel having a sort of odd friendship with Pluto, Ansem the Wise being the one to provide the box of clues for Riku to give, Axel pretending to betray Riku and Namine so that he gets let back into the Organization and thus be able to rescue Kairi, meetings between the Organization where they talk about totally different and less interesting matters than they did in the game, and having Namine stalk the group throughout the finale as she thinks her last pretentious inner monologues. Also, given its subject matter and how it plays during Days’ opening, I swear to God that Kanemaki created the Axel/Roxas ghost scene that Nomura added to KH2:FM. That it shows up in the last novel, word-for-word, a month before KH2:FM’s release, proves this.

- The misplacement of Disney Castle. This one REALLY bothers me. She places Disney Castle between Beast’s Castle and Port Royal in the third novel. This makes no sense whatsoever, since not only was this meant to be Maleficent’s re-introduction to Sora, Donald and Goofy, but now it comes after Maleficent already made an alliance with Sora and his friends at Hollow Bastion! And then all of a sudden, she’s no longer keeping the Nobodies at bay and is back to self-interested villainy! And there isn’t any dialogue explaining this away or anything!  We still have Maleficent saying “If it isn't the wretched Keyblade holder and his pitiful lackeys!” as if she hadn’t agreed to temporarily join forces with said wretched Keyblade holder and his pitiful lackeys! Way to ruin one of the best Disney world visits, Kanemaki!

- The whole finale and especially the ending itself, which were so powerful in both the game and even the manga, has no power in the light novel style of writing Kanemaki uses. Part of that isn’t Kanemaki’s fault, since so much of the finale’s greatness is visual and that obviously can’t be recaptured in text form. And yet she still makes some baffling pacing decisions, with stuff like the aforementioned Namine stalking passages throwing the whole thing off, LOL moments such as Riku himself outright admitting that he has no idea where he got Kairi’s Keyblade also breaking the immersion, character alterations like to Xemnas and Kairi ruining the effectiveness of things they do, and a truly WTF-inducing final chapter where the entire Secret Ansem Report is put before a novelization of both the credits scene where Sora sees Kairi’s drawing in the Secret Place and the epilogue scene where they get the King’s letter.

Overall, these novels just don’t feel like Kingdom Hearts II to me. Even the KH2 manga, the middle of its first half notwithstanding, felt like it. This does not. And that’s because whatever the faults in its narrative, KH2′s story was first and foremost a fun Disney/Square crossover adventure starring Sora, Donald and Goofy, with angsty existentialism merely being one of its themes and meant more for players to think about and discuss rather than the characters. The novels tell a story about angsty existentialism starring characters who think about and discuss it, with Sora, Donald and Goofy’s adventures being a passionless afterthought. That there are people who honestly think that Kanemaki doing this “fleshes out the characters” is shameful. Constant angst and grade school-level philosophical circle-jerking is not character depth. It is pretension of depth, hence the word “pretentious” which fits perfectly here. It takes a lot more than talking and expressing feelings at length to constitute character development. It requires meaningful actions, and it requires some form of growth and change. Kanemaki’s characters are largely static, simplistically characterized beings who spin their wheels in terms of both actions and growth. Riku does not change: you can barely tell he has any kind of depression or has experienced any kind of humbling. Axel does not change: he’s a great guy from the start and has no internal problems to overcome, only the external one of being separated from Roxas. Namine does not change, she goes through the same questioning and angsting over her existence and the existence of other Nobodies until the last minute where the answer just suddenly comes to her (in fact, it was apparently in her all along and she just forgot it. Shades of Sora’s dumbass “Power of Waking” arc in KH3 here...)  Any actual development that happens with some characters (like Ansem the Wise) comes straight from the game...and Nojima didn’t write that all too well either!  There is just very little that’s enjoyable about the KH2 novels to me, and Tomoko Kanemaki’s writing is to blame for that.

In the words of Lemony Snicket: I highly advise you to not read these books.

[tigerlover16-uk]

You know one of the things I really like about Goku as a main character? It’s that despite how crazy his life and the circumstances of it are, and that he has it built into his nature to love fighting people and getting stronger, he’d probably live a pretty normal, quiet life if fate allowed him to.

Think about it, if Bulma hadn’t ran into him looking for his Dragon Ball, and nobody else came to take it and Raditz never came back looking for him, Goku probably would have spent most of his life living isolated from society in the middle of the woods.

He didn’t set out to stop the Red Ribbon Army because they were villains wanting to take over the world. He kept running into them because they were both looking for Dragon Balls, and while he was happy to put an end to their operations in the process because he’s a good person and doesn’t like seeing innocent’s harmed, he only went to the source to take them down because Mercenary Tao murdered Bora, and he needed their Dragon Balls to try and revive him.

He started neglecting his training at some point during the five years after defeating Piccolo at the World Martial Arts Tournament despite knowing that Piccolo was still out there and would inevitably want to come after him again as a stepping stone to world domination. Instead he chose to focus on being with his family and raising Gohan, living a happy life in the woods again. Which bit him in the butt when Raditz showed up.

And then he went to train with King Kai because he knew two more saiyans were going to show up. If all of his friends and Piccolo had survived the fight with Vegeta and Nappa (And assuming Vegeta was either killed or never came back for some reason), Goku probably would have gone back to living the way he had been before Raditz.

And the only business he wanted on Namek was to use it’s Dragon Balls to revive his friends. As interested in fighting Frieza as he was, he backed down from that quickly when King Kai ordered him not to because it was suicidal, though he gladly pummeled the Ginyu Force for trying to kill Gohan and Krillin, and fought Frieza anyway because that’s how things went.

And while he took some time away from home to get a grip on his super saiyan transformation and learn instant transmittion from the Yardrats (Because it was a useful technique that would be insanely helpful), it seems likely that he didn’t have plans for any other big adventures anytime soon when he got home, before learning about the upcoming threat of the Androids from Future Trunks.

He elected to stay dead after Cell because he felt that he was a magnet for trouble, only conceding to come back to life for good when Old Kai gave it back to him in exchange with his own, because he needed to go stop Buu, and he lived through that whole ordeal.

And in Super he finally got a job like Chichi always wanted him to and spent a good deal of time living at home enjoying the peace times. But, he‘d learned from past experiences not to get too comfortable, so when Mr Satan offered him a fortune to provide for the family, he went to King Kai’s planet to go back to serious training, but still kept in touch and visited his family regularly if him being around for Gohan and Videl’s wedding is any indication.

And while we do see Goku away from home training with Whis a lot between arcs, following the Champa Saga he’s shown to still be spending much of his time still living at home, farming and being with his family, and only going to train with Whis after he’d finished his daily routines.

Heck, by the start of the Universe Survival Saga it’s suggested he stopped training for a considerable amount of time to just have some down time and focus on work. He only went back to training after a random encounter with some bandits left a scratch on his wrist, and Goku realized he was getting rusty. He only went to Zen‘o to ask about the multiversal tournament because Beerus tried to insist he just forget about it, but Goku remembered how excited he was over the idea of the tournament and thought that since Zen’o was his friend, he didn’t have anything to worry about inquiring about it.

Basically, the only reason Goku ends up being the hero of the story, is because he either keeps randomly running into trouble, or trouble finds him. He’d probably just do his own thing and live a peaceful life with his family and friends if he could, and while he eventually catches on that trouble is always going to find him and he needs to prepare for it, he still never actively goes looking for villains to beat and people to save.

Even the Tournament of Power was just something he thought would be fun for every fighter involved and a chance for people to test their skills, like at the world Tournaments he used to take part in. He never predicted whole universes would be on the line.

Now he IS a hero and an unquestionably good person, regardless of what this fandom likes to believe. It’s just that he’s one out of circumstances, he has a strong sense of justice and is happy to help others and stop bad guys, but it’s not his job nor does he feel it should be, part of why he wanted to pass the torch to Gohan, then Goten and Trunks, and finally Uub. he just feels obligated to help out and keep his home safe, because he’s a good person.

Goku’s not a “normal” person, whatever that means, but he is fairly grounded and someone you could relate to, on some level. He’s nuanced and layered, but his desires and motivations are incredibly simple and remain so throughout his life.

And I like how the manga ends with Goku deciding to help train somebody else to look after the earth, because he’s not going to be around forever and somebody has to fill the hero role he’s unintentionally found himself in. I’d love to see a follow up series with Uub and Pan as the new main characters, alongside the next generation of Z fighters, where Goku just lays back in more of a mentor role, helping out where he can but otherwise content with his life alongside his loved ones.

OR, you know, we could basically have him seemingly die, then come back to life briefly to stop a villain, then die again and be resurrected seemingly by Shenron, who he then disappears into the sky with for stupid reasons, with the narration implying he’s going to come back and always defend the earth whenever it’s in danger, because he’s evidently the only one capable of saving the day at all, basically turning him into Space Monkey Jesus. THAT works too, I guess?! 

[cosmicmordecai]

Yo like, I must be one of the few people here on this site that can’t stand how people infantilize the Bat-family in the fandom and how they treat certain issues in general.

Like really; y'all celebrate Jason Todd being a “feminist” when he’s written to be attacking his own family and their allies (including Catwoman the Birds of Prey iirc) and shot at Damian, a 12 year old. Like no qualms about killing a child? I guess respect for women is better? Even if he’s trying to kill people who genuinely care? Mistakes were made but I’m not sure killing them is appropriate.

Speaking of Damian, y'all absolve him of ALL things cause he’s a cute jackass and can do some pretty stretching things and fans will defend him. It’s stretching, really. Like him recently weakening OG Wally West’s heart! Oh but he’s cute and Super Sons! Yeah. Doesn’t stop him doing it in canon and how there’s a percentage in which thinks it’s “okay”.

With Dick Grayson, y'all want this super nice guy and sexy guy but get mad at canon for “sexualizing” him. Like anyone can see your sexy fan art of said character. You can preach that but think “I’m a fan” excuses your end? And some go on rants about bisexual Dick Grayson but then act like Dick has never exclusively dated women for all his character life and that the actual robin that was seemingly bi was actually Jason Todd (I mean, Judd Winick was asked this and he couldn’t give a straight answer). And no, HES NOT NICE.

And apparently, Tim Drake is just smart dude. Like as if that’s all to him. I don’t have much to say because Tim seems constantly patronize to awkward, nerd kid that love hates Damian and….that’s about it. I don’t have much on him though.

And don’t get me started on the female Batfamily characters. It’s arguably worse just because try addressing it and it’ll be a social issue. Since the people above are guys, criticizing them won’t land you in as deep doo doo.

I don’t really get Steph so I won’t go in-depth but there has to be more to this character than snarky one liners, waffles, and “kick-butt”. With the exception of waffles, you’re describing how fictional media tends to depict females who’re strong and independent and needs no man in general if they’re not being damsel in distress or playing a role where they’re not really characters per-say.

And Cassandra Cain…it’s almost like you want a Mary-Sue ish character. Like no; she really can’t be beating everyone like it’s nothing. Male or female. Like no, her being “90 pounds” is not the problem. In a universe where there’s powerful metahumans of varying degrees and other character with fair skill too, going all Bruce lee can’t seriously be the only thing. Also, it’s like everyone fighting her H2H with gear forgets to use it. Some fans just wanna prop her up. Be fucking honest: you want Cassandra Cain beating ALL THE ASS because favorite character! It’s can’t be “because diversity” because she’s beating characters who’re considered diverse too and being shrilled over diverse characters too.

And with these two characters, why must people constantly argue who’s worthy of being the more “interesting” Batgirl? People act as If Barbara being paralyze was a legit attempt at diversity in disabled character, ignoring how it saddled a character unnecessarily of her own popularity with a problem because a writer wrote a AU that became canon. Like I get the passion behind Oracle but you cannot convince me that people should prefer a character sticking to being a major supporting character at best for your favorite. It’s fair to say she equally deserves to cash in her popularity or acknowledge that there’s a huge amount of fans perfectly okay with her mobility given she is the most recognized Batgirl.

Speaking of Barbara, when is anyone ever going to speak up about how she’s written to invalidate Dick’s feelings or written as If she must have a say so in his love life? And also, how is it that Dick is the sole bad guy in their relationship but writing doesn’t acknowledge her ridiculous expectations? And even worse, most people are unaware/side-swipe stark problems in her characterization. Take your Pre-52 I purposely don’t let my apparent “equal” in on a plan and rather make him feel he’ll have to do it all because I’m Barbara fucking Gordon. Or your New 52 I think Dick Grayson should drop finding LADY SHIVA to fight Joker because he’s supposed to be my friend? Or how about the time she’s written to use Canary’s garage without her consent and BURNED her dojo after a gadget malfunction? She isn’t perfect either even if writing pretends otherwise.

Like this apparent treatment in which the females must be “queens” or worshipped even with the Robins falls flat on its face anyway! Nobody talks about Betty Kane! Not many defended New 52 Helena Bertinelli and wants to talk how her Pre-52, bless her coolness, was strictly drawn like every other “attractive, black haired woman with blue eyes” and how that’s “iconic” and making her BI-RACIAL doesn’t erase her Italian heritage nor does it really take away from the character given she should of been distinct from Helena Wayne in the beginning! Nobody talks about how in-canon, Barbara is Dick’s one true love and Helena is told this after she kissed Dick and his body was hijacked by a super villain and being a black character, it may come off terrible that the white character is expressed as a preference over the black character however unintentionally (given the character is literally a nazi) and then said relationship is called a ship passing in the night by Tim Seeley.

Now I can’t possibly address all the Batfam characters but here’s my point; YES, your favorite character has flaws, other fans of characters like myself WILL call them out, and be fucking honest whatever spectrum you fall in; You want your favs respected because they’re your favs!

Like the level of denial and the pretending of inflating the character’s positive traits to ignore the bad and using social topics to defend from it has to stop! And no, depending on the instance and said flaw, it’s not just “bad writing”/“OOC” although it’s always subjective anyway given people will ride with one’s negative character trait if it enhances their perception of their fav!