#i love being a hater so take this with a grain of salt

[suohenki]

on my second playthrough of veilguard (for some reason). this is the insane person's ramblings about lore/writing unlike my last post

this is the first time i've been so utterly bored of a second playthrough. never has an rpg given me this feeling.

like there are no quests i look forward to tbh, every main quest is a long combat sequence. even inquisition had the orlesian ball that you had to resolve with some actual noncombat solutions. (get behind me inquisition i will defend you from the fandom)

made a qunari this time to see if it affects anything, no, really doesn't. there's barely any qunari dialogue options.

picked the crows origin, it is truly astonishing the way they treat them in this game. they seem completely shy about the crows being contract killers? it's not even that they don't talk about the things Zevran talks about, but they fully try to ignore the murder part. Mfrs are freedom fighters now apparently.

and the "twist" villains in the crows storyline are so comically obvious i hoped they were both red herrings. the butcher is so underdeveloped too. the way the illario/blood magic twist is written is confusing, rook sees it all with his damn eyes and then never says a word about it. Yes i think illario is the bad guy here, Rook, i know you heard the "amatus". What. (swear to god the dark brotherhood is more deep than this. i never thought i'd say TES has better writing than DA.)

By the end they never address the fucked up things the crows do, outside of Rook's one throwaway line of "yeah my training was hell lmao." Is it just Aranai that's fucked or what kind of hellish training are we talking about? Rook also mentions having been an orphan... so the crows are as usual but we just won't talk about it. The lore and characters have never been this confusing and woobified. The positivity of Rook rly feels off when they are a trained assassin... no one reacts negatively to it, everyone even goes "Omg lucanis is a killer. Oh, not you Rook, you're better :)" no i don't think he is? Both killers.

Similarly they are so scared of the (elven) slavery in Tevinter. If you hadn't played the previous games you'd be forgiven for thinking Tevinter had no slavery because you missed the 3 sentences that mention it. We are in the slavery capital of Thedas and we are being shy about it. I guess Dorian's and Fenris's stories are too "problematic"... It's frankly gross how they brush it off after how serious it was in previous games. Also crazy how religion never comes up. In the country of the "black divine", you'd think Harding would have something to say at least. It really only now hit me how hard they avoided bringing up non-elven religion when it's been such a big part of the lore...

Neve's storyline just begs to be about the actual known issues of Tevinter instead of whatever it was about, all of it went from one ear, out the other. To me, her and Lucanis are the weakest companions on replay. Neve's voice acting is so strange and flat it's really difficult for me to be endeared by her. (this is coming from a cassandra pentaghast enjoyer)

Even if I think Harding's scenes could be better at least i get what she is about. Tho all the titan stuff feels like it's not treated with the gravity it should be. I do like Taash and Bellara, i just wish Taash wasn't written so immaturely. i never found Sera immature in this way, she's abrasive and yes, "immature" with the pranks etc., but Taash is written like a stereotypical teen, Sera just felt like a weirdo adult. And you can tell Alistair to suck it up lmao, it's really not even comparable. And the Isabela scene with the push-ups.... talk about making it all about yourself. Taash should have just been nonbinary from the start if they were going to make the representation this awkward.

I wish Bellara's quest had more drama. You don't get to save her brother but you also have no scene where, for example, Bellara endangers Rook or lets Anaris escape because she is actually conflicted about her brother... Rook and her just kinda let them go. Bellara is okay with killing her brother with barely any convincing lol.

Emmrich and Davrin are still my favorites, I think Davrin just works, and i like that we get to see more of his background. He's not terribly ~deep~ but he doesn't have to be, saving the griffons is an understandable goal, one that would be devastating to fail. Just a charismatic man that has things he cares about with conviction.

Emmrich is an interesting portrayal of necromancy which is something i'm always receptive to, i'd play a DA game set entirely in Nevarra. His quest has wild tonal shifts but at least the set dressing kept me interested. I do wish we didn't decide for him if he became a lich tho.

I wish with all the companions the way it worked was they decide based on previous dialogues. If you keep encouraging emmrich to pursue lichdom and face his fear then he does, if not, the opposite happens. i'm just not a fan of the "here's the moment where rook decides another person's fate!!!" like why am i deciding. it's their life.

i romanced Lucanis this time to try to see why people like him so much but man, i just think his whole story is a mess. they love to imply all the trauma Lucanis has but don't truly convey any of it. you don't even talk about being a crow with Lucanis like you talk about being a watcher with Emmrich. I guess it's my bad for expecting an assassin that has been tortured and forced into an abomination to be more of an interesting character.

i'm gonna need to know more about a companion than he has trauma, he likes coffee and he cooks, to be invested. The coffee thing feels like flanderization before i even know the man, put the damn cup down. First time i felt this disconnected with a romance.

i felt like they really squandered Spite too. You'd think a demon possessing a companion would cause more trouble than 1 escape attempt. Lucanis missing the first stab attempt barely registers as Spite's fault. Spite doesn't get any sort of pay off or drama.

I could forgive a lot more if the writing was better but the bad writing stands out so much more on a second playthrough. The basic dialogue, the spoon-feeding of info, the marvel-quips, the uninteresting side quests. Can't believe that i had to find out from fucking tumblr that the time Rook spent in the fade was WEEKS, you'd think that would be an impactful detail. Legit thought they got him out in a day lmao. Explains the dagger coming out of nowhere.

They try so hard to make the team cute and wholesome, it cemented my dislike of the found family trope. It comes across as so unearned. The game is like half competent writing, half DA fanfiction. Everything to do with Solas is okay. But everything else is so off. At least they managed to make Solas a love-to-hate type character for those like me who did not care about him in DA:I. The reason i'm not talking too much about the overall plot is it was okay, i just don't care that much about the evanuris. weird choice to try to blame it all on the elves tho. Like i love you but stfu Bellara, you do not have to take on the sins of the father. Have the elves not been through enough?

[psychicreadsgirl]

Pick a Kpop Album Cover: How Others Will Perceive You and Your Next S/O

Pick the cover that draws you the most. If you can't choose between 2, then take a look at both of the readings. This is a general reading, so it might not resonate with everyone. Take what resonates and leave what doesn't behind.

#1

They will see you two as a power couple. You two seem to have it all and everything seems to be picture perfect, even though it might not always feel like that deep down.

You do have some people supporting you two as a couple.

There'll be a lot of jealousy from others. Many will try to lure your s/o away from you or they will try to lure you away from your s/o. These situations can perhaps cause tension between you and your s/o.

#2

People will feel like there's something sketchy or odd about your relationship. Some can't really pinpoint what's off, but somehow this pairing makes people wonder why you two are together. You two might perhaps be polar opposites or just don't seem like you'd be the type to be together (i.e. maybe you're the nerd and they're the jock etc.)

I don't feel like you have a lot of people rooting for you two to have long union. It seems like most people feel like you two are destined to break up and if you do break up, there'll be people coming to you going like oh I knew that would happen etc.

#3

People don't really feel much about your relationship. You two seem sort of like wall flowers in people's lives. They don't care about you two being together, which isn't a bad thing. People won't particularly judge you two. They will just see you two as a couple and that's it.

I don't see people particularly hating, loving, or caring about you two. You two will probably have quite a bit of privacy from others and probably will not have many friend groups. It's possible that you two both have very small families too or perhaps no family (i.e. parents have passed away and no siblings etc.)

#4

All eyes are somehow on you two. You two are the "gossip" that people are constantly talking about behind your backs. Somehow the way you two get together or perhaps the fact that you two are together just makes people chit chat. It's possible that one of you is either quite well known/rich/powerful within the community, area, city, town, province, state, country or perhaps one of you just knows a lot of people. For some reason you two will become "gossip" and your relationship may perhaps land in online forums, newspapers, articles, social media, etc. If not, you two will certainly be talked about behind both of your backs like people texting/calling each other to discuss you two.

You have a mixed set of people rooting for you two, hating you two, wanting you two to break up etc. You'll definitely have some haters and some supporters. It's really a mixed bag.

My advice to you is just to not let the "Gossip" get to you or your relationship. Your friends or colleagues or family may come to you with stories or news or articles or whatever that they heard or learned about your s/o, but you should take those things with a heavy grain of salt. Much of it, if not all are false; you should trust your gut. Your s/o's circle of people might also do the same to them.

The key is to trust your s/o and trust youself. Don't let others get to you.

#5

I feel like a lot of people are expecting you to run away from this relationship. They feel like your s/o is toxic or is not good for you. They want you to leave your s/o. In some cases, these people are right, but in other cases, they are wrong about your s/o. It will be up to you to make that call.

I do sense that people don't particularly like your s/o. They feel like your s/o doesn't match you and that you should break up with them. They feel like your s/o is like a leech? At least that's what I'm getting.

I just feel like people are generally concerned that you're dating this person. Perhaps this person has a bad reputation previously (like maybe they were a player and now people feel like you're just getting played or perhaps they have a criminal record and so people don't think you are safe wtih them etc). In these situations it's really up to you to decide whether you should continue your relationship with your s/o.

#6

I see that your family or their family (more so like parents/grandparents/elders) really support this relationship. They feel like this a match in heaven. They really like your s/o and hope you two will be together for the long run.

Generally people feel like you two are quite cute together and admire your relationship with your s/o. You two give off like those cute couples on IG that make a couple's IG account.

You may, however, have someone, perhaps a friend, who wants to break you two apart. It might come from your end or theirs, or maybe it's one of their siblings that really dislikes you.

[bad268]

can you do an arvid lindblad x reader story where reader gets alot of hate for being a female driver and arvid comforts her?

love you stories btw

+Pls could u do an Arvid Linblad and reader where reader is in the paddock and its super busy and they get overwhelmed and he calms her down

+could u do smth with arvid or paul where they just announced that you guys are dating and the media is being really mean but they comfort you?

Deserve the World (Arvid Lindblad X Fem VCARB! Reader)

Fandom: RPF/F2/F3

Requested: Clearly (I LOVE THIS <3)

Warnings: Aged up Arvid, sexist comments, hateful fans

POV: Second Person (You/your/She/her)

W.C. 1227

Summary: The fans and reporters are brutal when a female joins the grid.

As always, my requests are OPEN

MASTERLIST // HITLIST

~~(^Pinterest)

Red Bull was known to be ruthless, and they rarely moved up their junior drivers. That did not stop you from joining their junior program. You loved the team, the benefits, and the knowledge you could learn from them.

Well, when the news hit that Red Bull was promoting not one but two junior drivers to VCARB for the 2026 season, shit hit the fan. Then, when people realized that one of those drivers was a girl, shit really came crashing down.

You knew this would happen. It happened when you first joined Hitech in F2, and you expected it when you eventually moved up to F1. Most of the haters dwindled down when you and Arvid pulled a 2021 like season in F2 since it kept everyone interested, but ultimately, they came flooding back when you won by a singular point. You had grown since the start of the season, so you took their criticism with a grain of salt and moved on.

At least you did on the outside.

Sometimes, you couldn’t stop yourself from falling down the rabbit hole that is Twitter (X) and Instagram comments. You would rather know everything they said than work yourself up over what they could be saying. Call it one of your red flags, but you did not want to remain unaware of their backlash.

Arvid had caught you in that rabbit hole on more occasions than he wanted to admit, and yeah, he got his fair share of hate. His was nowhere near the amount you got. He tried convincing you to get someone else to manage your social media accounts, but you always declined. Who else would post the not-so professional pictures you take during the weekend? Certainly not a professional staff who is in charge of making you look professional. 

The first race of the season was already off to a shitty start. You were a few minutes late to the media pin, and everyone started speculating that you were sleeping with Red Bull or VCARB staff for your seat. In reality, you were meeting with the staff to discuss how to go about addressing the hate.

You tried to clear it up with the first interviewer, but he was one of the haters. He immediately started poking at how there’s no way a girl like you could get a seat based on pure talent on track. When you asked what he meant by that, he chuckled and said, “Clearly, you have talents behind closed doors.”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back as you immediately turned and left the pin, trying to get back to your garage before you had a full breakdown. You heard the main reporter and a few nearby interviewers laugh as you made your hasty exit, and that made the situation worse as nearby fans heard the commotion and pulled out their phones. The way the pitlane was set up, you had to walk past all of the fans to get back to your garage. Just the thought made your heart rate quicken if that was even possible. 

It did not take long for Arvid to notice your lack of presence next to him or in the media pin at all. Usually, you two stuck together since you were on the same team, but you both also found comfort in being next to each other. Many people thought it would have caused a rift in your relationship competing against each other but given that you were together for almost a year before you started your F2 campaigns, you were up for the challenge. Plus, you were naturally competitive to begin with, so it made your bond stronger. 

He looked around for you, confused, before he briefly spotted your back retreating out the back of the pin. He gently excused himself, but even the interviewer could tell Arvid’s attention was elsewhere. It looked like Arvid was on autopilot, and he was as he felt gravity pulling him toward you. 

It did not take him long to be right up behind you, and that’s when he realized the “fans” had practically caged you in as they shouted at you. Profanities and derogatory terms were being thrown at you left and right in any language, and Arvid knew he had to get you out of there. 

He quickly wrapped an arm over your shoulders as he pulled you into his chest, shielding you from the chaos, and began backing out of the center to find a way out. Thankfully, there was no one blocking behind him, so he was able to just go back the way he came and take the back way around to the VCARB garage.

The garage wasn’t too far, but it felt like an eternity for you. Your heart was racing, and despite knowing it was Arvid taking you to safety, it didn’t help calm you down. You didn’t even register that he had gotten you all the way to his driver’s room until he pushed you to sit on his couch while he kneeled in front of you. He moved one of your hands to rest against his neck as he kept the other in his.

“You’re doing great,” He said quietly as he used his thumb to rub across your knuckles while taking deeper breaths, “Can you breathe with me?”

It took him repeating it a few times, but soon enough, you caught on and began to take struggled breaths in time with him. You finally started to register the noise (or lack thereof) around you. There were no screaming fans or condescending reporters. No camera clicking or shouts of displeasure. 

It was silent for once. You were finally able to hear your own thoughts and think clearly for the first time this whole weekend. Your eyes cleared as you made eye contact with your concerned boyfriend who was still grounding you in the way he had learned a long time ago, causing you to smile.

“Thank you, Arvid,” You whispered as he moved the hand still entwined with your hand up to rest against your cheek. “You always know what to do.”

“I’m always here to pick you back up, and I’m always here to tell you that everybody else is stupid,” He said with a chuckle as he started in the routine speech he gives you wherever the hate gets too much. “What have these people done? Nothing but shit on your parade. You are the first female F2 winner. You are the first female in an F1 since the 90s or something. I am confident you will be the first female on an F1 podium and definitely the first female to win an F1 race. Maybe both in one go, but we’ll see when we get there.”

“Stop blowing my nonexistent horn here,” You tried to dismiss as you gently pushed at his shoulder. “You’re giving me more credit than I deserve.”

“Absolutely not!” Arvid interrupted before moving to cup your face between his hands as he squished your cheeks and shook your head. “You deserve the world, and it’s my job to build you up. I won’t stop until you finally believe it.”

“And what if I never do?” You chuckled but it came out a little weird since he was still squishing your face.

“Then I guess I’ll never stop.”

~~~~~

© BAD268 2024. DO NOT REPOST WITHOUT PERMISSION.

[neoflect]

sharing some of my disorganized jojo musical thoughts now that ive had a week to sit on it and ive rewatched it several times over. i intended to wait to publish something like this until a subtitled version was available, but im not seeing any indication that thats happening any time soon so for now youll have to deal with my loose interpretations from my extremely rudimentary and rusty japanese… so take what i have to say about the finer points of characterization with a grain of salt. gratuitous spoilers below obviously, both for the original source material and the changes made in the stage production

my feelings are OVERWHELMINGLY positive. of course there are things i can criticize or that i would have personally done differently but oh man… i have literally not thought about anything besides this fucking show for a week. im 100% confident in saying this is a better adaptation of the source material than the tv anime. sorry to the davidpro staff, i respect their hard work and their love for jojo and their dedication to what is by any metric a pretty difficult property to adapt off of the page, but i dont know if i can ever forgive them for leaving half of the first episode’s storyboard on the cutting room floor in order to fit a standard half-hour tv slot, especially considering that what they cut is some of the really crucial character-building stuff. happily those scenes are not only reproduced in the stage version, some of them are expanded upon!

with the quick disclaimer that i’ve only managed to get my hands on the final 4/14 performance with shotaro arisawa and yoshihisa higashiyama, from what i’ve seen the casting is perfect. i’m sure there’s a rip of the 4/13 performance somewhere (i’ve seen clips) but i haven’t been able to find one… every single performer knocks it out of the fucking park, the cast chemistry is incredible and even the minor characters are loaded with charisma. and mamoru miyano… my god… mamoru miyano i owe you an apology. i was not familiar with your game. of course hes been killing it for decades at this point but i had soured on him a little bit recently because i felt like he was overcast in everything and i just didnt connect with his dnt reinhard at all, so when the casting was initially announced back in august i was underwhelmed, and of course my standards for the dio role in particular were astronomically high… i’ll go more into detail later in the post because i have so so many things to say about dio’s characterization here but mamoru miyano’s performance is like, life-changing. i had impossible expectations and he exceeded them.

sorry if im gushing. i am a hater by nature. its unusual for me to be so thoroughly pleased with something. im not even a musical theater guy. these are strange new feelings for me.

just to balance things out i’ll talk about a couple of the things that didn’t really work for me: first of all, the music is just ok. my initial draft of this post called the music “bad” but three additional viewings later i have warmed up to some of the songs. i don’t know if this is a shortcoming by dove attia as the composer or if it’s just me, as i said i’m not a musical guy and a lot of the genre conventions of musical theatre are not really the things i look for in music that i enjoy, but like… even at their worst they are serviceable. nothing here is sonically unpleasant to me. high points are “resolve of the ripple” (zeppeli’s hamon training song, a jazzy swing number - it’s simply catchy and fun to listen to) and the closer “phantom blood” (a sweeping ballad that reprises the earlier “light and darkness”/”golden spirit” leitmotifs into an epic duet between jonathan and dio as they join hands and walk off into the darkness together… made me cry! i wont lie! on every single one of my numerous viewings this one got me misty eyed!)

wait i forgot this is supposed to be the part where i’m being critical. ok my most loathed song in the musical is “dio’s world”. sorry dio nation. it doesn’t really work for me. i think this might be a case of my standards/expectations being too impossibly high because it’s not even really the worst song in the whole thing. and of course miyano eats it up so it’s not really his fault. i just find it kind of underwhelming… i find the melody a little grating, it’s kind of just a generic rock number, it’s just missing a particular je ne sais quoi…. the essence of dio isn’t there… lyrically though i am obsessed with the premise of dio recruiting his minions by selling himself as a kind of social revolutionary who is upending and inverting the brutal hierarchy of post-industrial victorian society with zombie blood magic. you win some you lose some.

the second sticking point for me is the costumes. they’re perfectly serviceable… adequate… but i mean when it comes to jojo “serviceable” and “adequate” costume design obviously falls well below what’s expected, right? a lot of the outfits have kind of a boxy, almost flat-looking kind of unflattering fit on the actors, which if i wanted to be generous i could attribute to the challenge of bridging the gap between these frail slender musical theater twinks and the two-meter-tall 250lb roided-out beefcakes theyre meant to be embodying. (bearing this discrepancy in mind a lot of the insane martial arts stuff in the second act doesn’t really land with the oomph that it should, but i also understand logistically why this kind of casting is not practical, and all things considered i think shotaro arisawa does a really incredible job of embodying jonathan joestar even though he kind of looks like i could snap him in half over my knee like a twig. he’s very cute. so i’m not mad about it.) of course, again, logistically, i understand that in a stage musical production, where actors only have minutes to complete costume changes, some sacrifices have to be made to the creative vision in the name of practicality. nevertheless this is jojos bizarre adventure!! i want to see some fucking baubles!!!!!!

which is all to say that… after carefully considering it for some weeks… i still have extremely mixed feelings about dio’s grink ass feather bathrobe look. it’s not that i dont think its something he could wear (the concept of dio lounging around in his gothic vampire palace doing re-animator style body horror experiments on the local wildlife in this “officer i have no idea what happened to my husband”-ass nightgown is nothing short of hysterical to me) but then he wears it into combat and i felt a little disappointed… it has the same unflattering fit issue as the other outfits in the show, and it is just such an un-araki-like design… where are the gaudy color combinations? the bizarre geometric patterns? the tease of an exposed boob/thigh/midriff? erina gets a stage-original dress design that i have fewer issues with because the excessive pleats and ruffles have more of an araki-esque sensibility, but every time i look at dio’s robe it feels like there’s something missing.  i’m going to choose to be nice about it because it’s not at all a deal breaker and, again, mamoru miyano devours the look. it’s fine. it’s always fun to have a new dio outfit. if anything, the fact that the blu-rays are being marketed as “2024 cast version” gives me hope for the possibility of a future production with a new vision for the costume design. (although the fact that this was such a difficult production - with stunts and pyrotechnics and moving setpieces - that its entire first week was cancelled indicates to me that the prospects for a future production from a different company are impossibly slim. i guess there’s always hope?)

in terms of the writing and the changes that were made from the original narrative, honestly i don’t really have an issue with anything that was cut. sorry if there are any diehard stans of Poco’s Unnamed Sister out there who are steamed that their favorite minor late phantom blood character got the axe, i kind of understand how you feel because i’ve been malding over david pro cutting the Danny Lore for eleven years, but i think it was the right choice and the story flows so much better. the real juicy meat at the core of phantom blood as a narrative and the thing that brings it head and shoulders above so much of the rest of jjba is the character-driven drama - that deliciously pulpy victorian gothic family tragedy - and the relationship between jonathan and dio. the musical beefs up the character drama and slims down the action-driven second half by trimming out the extraneous battles. the only real downside i see to this is that the absence of tompetty and his prophecy makes zeppeli’s arc and death feel INSANELY abrupt, but tbf that’s not a deal breaker for me. sorry zeppeli. you were born to die.

okay. okay. i think 1500 words into the post is enough fucking around so let’s talk about the real reason why you and i both know we’re here

musical dio is SO fucking sad. he’s positively wretched, you guys. he was born in a wet cardboard box all alone and forced to eat cement when he was six. he cries even more than he does in the source material and even when he’s not crying he frequently delivers his lines as though he is moments away from bursting into tears. back when the musical first opened i was snooping on the reactions on jpn twitter and one commenter said they could see miyano’s tears and snot from the nosebleeds even without opera glasses, a remark i initially assumed was hyperbole but that i now think probably was not. araki’s dio is certainly tortured and a deeply pathetic crybaby beneath all the cruelty and posturing, but changes in the musical and miyano’s embodiment of the character bring this pathos to the fore. he is literally haunted: dario’s ghost lingers, a manifestation of all of dio’s traumas and insecurities that emerges from the recesses of his memory to taunt him with the reminder that he will always be his father’s son, all the way up until the very minute that jonathan breaks down the door to his vampire lair. i am OBSESSED with this - not only for the obvious reason that i delight in dio’s suffering personally but also because kong kuwata is a delight and he fucking kills it every time. also lends itself to a category 10 leitmotif moment at the top of the second act when dio emerges from the charred ruins of the joestar estate singing dario’s theme and calling out to jonathan - if i had to pinpoint this is probably the moment when this musical stuck for me as the Real Deal. they Get It.

the first solo number in the show is dio’s disney princess I Want song (amazingly, simply titled “dio”) where he weeps for his late mother and his wretched lot in life, and then - in a creative decision that made me clap my hands and hoot and holler at my screen in real life - there is a reprise of this number (delivered, naturally, through tears) when dio is almost arrested for murder and decides to become a vampire instead. so there’s this amazing hopeful uplifting inspirational orchestral music accompanying the onstage action of dio ruthlessly slaying jonathan’s dad and then getting pumped full of lead by a bunch of cops. it is brilliant. 10/10 no notes. it’s moments like this that i think really sell the “softening” of dio in the stage version for me, even though i am historically Not A Fan of fanworks that take a similar angle - like, yes, he is sad, but specifically he is narcissistically obsessed with the spectacle of his own suffering, he is boiling over with bitterness and rage for everyone around him who (by his own estimation) could never hope to have suffered as much as he has. this sensitivity and self-pity he wallows in are not expressions of a guilty conscience or a desire to change - they’re entirely the opposite - every cruel and monstrous deed dio commits is always justified to himself because he is simply the saddest little boy who has ever existed. he has been done wrong by the world and so there is no limit to the depravity he may reasonably respond with. i’ve seen several commenters describe this as a drastically different interpretation of the character from araki’s dio (and someone told me on twitter that mamoru miyano himself has also said this, but i cba to go digging for an actual source so take it with a grain of salt?), but i… dont think thats the case! dio’s obsession with his own weakness and his self-perception as the eternal underdog (as compared to jonathan) are certainly more exaggerated in miyano’s performance, but i don’t think this is an angle to the character that’s been manufactured out of whole cloth. the genre conventions of the stage musical force the melodrama up to eleven and dio’s incredibly repressed angst is the most rich vein to mine for that. hair-trigger sadist dio is still here, it’s the same guy, he’s still killing people mercilessly, you’re just getting to see him sing a big ballad about his feelings instead of confining those to an internal monologue.

if anything, the exaggeration of dio’s pathetic/cowardly/crybaby traits combined with his megalomaniacal aspirations and bottomless well of cruelty is just right. it’s perfect. fucking around, finding out, and then trying to weasel his way out of the consequences with crocodile tears just so you don’t see him drawing his knife to cut you clean open… yeah. thats the stuff. thats my one true blorbo. sad to say i will love him for ten thousand years.

i think that might be all i have to say… or at least all i feel like saying here… most likely ill come back and edit this post later. i certainly have some additional thoughts and some more esoteric/controversial takes but they’re not suited for a public blog. real ones will understand. im keeping my eyes peeled for somebody to translate this thing but to be frank i am kind of enjoying this little corner of fandom as it is right now: just the asians and the true hardcore phantom blood phreaks. i have not had this much fun in jojo fandom in almost a fucking decade. as soon as somebody publishes an english version my timelines going to get flooded with all the most deeply annoying “kono dio da” “speedwagon waifu” reddit guys and 15 year olds and my suffering will proceed. unfortunately this is my lot in life and i am doomed to be here forever because dio put a worm in my brain

[kaban-bang]

I only know a little about MHA from reading the first few chapters before dropping it + what I see on my dashboard. I know that there's the 'toxic yuribait' ship and stuff, and apparently they got killed off? The point of this ask is please tell me about how MHA fumbled the ending, I really want to know because I'm nosy and love drama but I don't want to actually read it again. Thank you if you can explain it <3

I'm just being a hater, I dropped MHA around S2, so take my words with a grain of salt. But yeah I remember a lot of people hyping up Ochako x Toga going "canon' when clearly it wasn't the case (This is a Shonen, Ochako was cursed to become the protagonist's wife), then the next chapter drops and the author kills off Toga. Bury your gays!

iirc around the same time Bakugo died for the third time or something, but he was back alive by the finale. That didn't happen to Toga.

The penultimate chapter drops and some people were commenting on how little pages got dedicated to the resolution of Ochako and Deku's relationship. At this point Deku has lost all his powers I think?

Then the final chapter drops and apparently it ends in a wet flop. There's a timeskip and during those 8 years none of the characters (Except Bakugo?) ever spoke to Deku bc they were all busy being superheroes while he couldn't. Then they reunite and pitch in to give him an iron man suit so he can be a hero.

Also none of the relationships hinted/breadcrumbed got confirmed which is kinda funny bc before it dropped people were like "it's over for BakuDeku shippers" also Toga died for nothing lmao.

Anyway:

[sunset-bobby]

my irl 9-1-1 friends refuse to listen to my rants so i’m back bc im in a hater mood and the infantilization of evan buck buckley has done me in

take everything i say with a grain of salt

.

.

i often think about how a lot of the 9-1-1 characters are walking red flags

and the infantilization of certain characters (*cough* buck *cough* eddie) only highlights those red flags even more

and maybe it’s cause i’m still in my post-break up i hate everything abt love era

but sometimes (this sounds awful typing it out lmao) i read fics and i like to see how long it takes for me to get the ick from one the characters and its funny asf

and like on screen very minimal icks bc they want u to like the characters and you know they’ve all grown since the beginning

but like season 1 of the show i honestly think is really good I mean it had to be for you ppl to keep watching but the reason I think ppl feel a disconnect is because season 1 is lowkey all of the characters at their worst…red flags on full display

but it’s for character growth and they get better (minus abby fuck that bitch) but season 1 really just puts down like the foundation of they can only go up from here (unfortunately it’s not straight up but everyone heals and grows at their own pace)

.

.

.

thank u for coming to my ted talk this rant was brought to u by textposts and a person’s need for constant reassurance has been the downfall of the only two relationships i’ve had in my life (one being in the 8th grade and purposeful bc I didn’t know how to end a relationship and so instead, I just gave him the ick by being super clingy and questioning whether or not he actually liked me for like the last few days of our “relationship” until he was like I can’t do this anymore…he was also a red flag but he’s doing fine now…nice kid)

[monstersinthecosmos]

can i ask what you mean re: disliking how the amc show deals with SA? (zero judgement ftr i just love hearing opinions about this show from other simple italian perv enjoyers. btw you're one of my favorite fic authors ever ever & i think abt gallows bird daily 🙈)

Obviously since you mentioned Gallows Bird in this very ask (thank you btw dskjglads I’m blushing) I’m not going to sit here and say people should never write about rape!!!!!!!!!!!  And I’ve been soul searching and talking this out with a friend today to make sure I’m not just being a hater and that I’m not having cognitive dissonance over the difference between writing porn (intentionally, intended as porn, labeled as porn) vs lazily throwing sexual assault at female characters for “character development”.

(putting this under a cut bc I'm not trying to hate on youse guys's show!!)

It's not that we should never talk about it, or never write about it, but I think it’s like any other storytelling where like, the framework and intention inside the text matters, and criticizing if it landed the way the creator intended is worth discussing. So like, I’m a fan of noncon smut fic, I won’t deny that. I also approach it in a context where I know I’m consuming smut, and it was intended as smut, and it belongs in its own lane. And I think, personally, I enjoy fics (which by nature are anarchistic and transformative) because they tend to be a commentary either on our culture or on the canon source material. Even when fanfics are PWPs that don’t go out of their way to talk about character arcs or make profound commentary on the canon, fanfic EXISTS as a commentary on canon in the first place, so it’s there by default.

So with AMC there’s a few things that really bother me about how they wrote Claudia in S1, and full disclosure I haven’t watched S2 yet, so take this with a grain of salt.

I don’t think it’s cool when a production team of mostly cishet men think that the only way to develop a female character is to have her raped. It’s lazy and it’s hurtful to the audience, and in this particular show it was not handled with sensitivity to make the story worth it. Like, what was the weight of the scene vs what it told us, and what was the payoff? Did the show earn this? (I personally don’t think it did.)

RJ himself said it was to “toughen her up” and that’s just, absolutely fucking nauseating to me, especially when it’s stamped with so many hallmarks of How Not to Write Rape. For example, the fact that they use it to tell us about LOUIS. It’s about LOUIS. It’s not about Claudia at all; we see her assault and the net result is seeing how it affects the MEN in her life. And even using her diary as a framing device for these moments, to tell it from her own words the best they can, it’s still about Louis. The pages being ripped out (in S1, idk how this lands in S2) are about protecting Louis. Claudia didn't remove the pages to protect herself, as far as we know--the men in her life removed them to protect Louis. Fridging a female character for the sake of developing the mens feelings is lazy and obnoxious, and in this story in particular it felt extremely unnecessary to the plot, and adding it at all just came across as gratuitous to me.

(Also, I can tell that this show is like, an exercise in slow burning, but, I just think the bar is really fucking high if they make this all mean something smarter but made everyone sit through this and wait 1.5+ years to get around to tucking it in lol. And like, idk what the pages could possibly say/how they will present it that will change my opinion, but RJ's comments can't be unheard so I'm not sure it matters and the trust simply isn't here, for me. Personally I don't have the patience to wait years for a show to close a loop like this but maybe you're more patient than me.)

I don’t want to get into a whole side essay about how gross I find the Claudia writing in general, but like, as a TLDR the way they aged her up only to reduce her to sex is just so fucking gross to me, and not like in a IT’S HORROR, IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GROSS way, but in a This Is Kinda Fucking Sexist way. Especially with the sexist comments RJ has made about Anne Rice herself, while piggybacking her IP to make his show. But like, there were OTHER things about Claudia already. They already told us she came from an abusive background. She did not need to be raped for her to come home and recognize the abuse between her parents. Any number of horrific things could’ve happened to her out in the world, but the only way this team knows how to traumatize a girl is to have her raped.

And again I didn’t watch S2 yet so like, I’m not entirely sure how it shakes out, correct me if I’m wrong, but we find out now that it was prolonged and worse than what S1 showed us?

Like, why.

Who does the torture porn serve. We already got it, it was already horrific. We already got it. You’re overselling lol.

Claudia is already tough. She survived her dismal mortal life, she survived Lestat. She was brave enough to wander into the world, not just as a teen, but as a Black girl! She was already independent! In the book, she was the driving force behind helping Louis escape Lestat, and she was pulling the strings in getting them to Europe. The show has that material to pull from. We can see that she’s strong already. We don’t need more rape to communicate it. It’s lazy and gross. Especially when, in the same episode, they are able to traumatize Louis with horrific violence. The show knew how to use violence, mind gift manipulation, race and age and power dynamics in ways that did not involve rape, but still chose to have Claudia raped.

I don’t have an issue with stories talking about sexual assault but I think like, especially after Game of Thrones, we’ve had like, 10 years of media criticism mapping out how to write sexual assault successfully or respectfully, we’ve had endless commentary about how we can find other ways to traumatize women that do not rely on sexual assault, we’ve had endless commentary about how stories about sexual assault would be more effective if they were about the victim and not ultimately about the men in the story.  Like, enough of this already.

So, I’ll be curious to see how the show handles Armand’s sexual assault history, and if we see the writing handled differently because he’s a man, or because we have him directly on screen to tell us about it. This might reveal if this is a like, “only tool in the toolbox is rape” situation or a “women exist in fiction to be raped” situation. But if Lestat suffered at the hands of Magnus without being raped and Louis suffered at the hands of Lestat without being raped*, I have to ask why it was okay to have Claudia raped, why that was the thing they came up with, and while they can’t backpedal and fix the way RJ spoke about it during S1, they have an opportunity to be more intentional with the way they write it for Armand.

(*I do want to add that S1E5 being bookended by blood drinking was a hint that Lestat drinking from Louis during their fight was also rape, contrasted by the way Louis drinks from Armand in the beginning as ~ lovemaking ~; imo that could've been a more tasteful way to handle it in this universe specifically, when that’s the sex analog in the books. So like, yes in some ways Louis was raped by Lestat in this episode, but that also shows we respect Louis enough to have it symbolic vs Claudia’s being literal.)

But I just have a real bad feeling, the way they made Lestat WAY WORSE I just imagine they’ll do the same to Marius. And it’s sort of ironic that the show in a lot of ways exists in conversation with the book canon, like, the racial commentary feels at times like a commentary on the books’ racism, and I wonder what the decision making process was when they were picking which themes to correct, or comment on. Because a LOT of people criticize themes of rape and abuse in VC, and in some ways the show making it more overt feels like they’re putting a huge spotlight on it to acknowledge it properly, and in other ways, having Claudia raped feels like it’s going down the same path of insensitive, shallow writing.

And also, idk where I’m supposed to tuck this thought lol, but as an addendum I can’t not mention that I think it’s really fucked up that they’ve talked nonstop about how much they respect AR and the canon and yet had the analog character of her daughter raped. Like, in S1 they burn the tapes, in S2 they mock the plotlines as being a soap opera, and they have her daughter raped. Like, Claudia was the REASON for VC in the first place. IWTV is about Anne Rice grieving her daughter, and it sucks that the best way they could come up with existential cosmic horror for a teen girl vampire was to give her a perma-hymen and have her raped. It’s just gross, I don’t like it lol.

The first quote I saw from RJ when the show got announced, he said something like "IWTV was written by a grieving mother" -- not Anne Rice, best selling author who reinvented the vampire genre, but "a grieving mother." And it's just, idk. Rubs me the wrong way that he can reduce her that way and be this disrespectful for the character based on her daughter. =/

[commander-gloryforge]

okay after playing for a healthy and normal 10 hours finishing act one, here are my thoughts.

QQWWWWWWWWWWAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHH YYEAAAAAASSASS S WWEWEWEEWWWW AYYYWEEEAEEDEDDSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSA WOOOOOOOOOOOOIHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

okay . god. okAY. fuck. okay. so. i dont even know where to start im enjoying myself so much here its crazy. like im having such a good time genuinely holy shit.

THE MUSIC. fucuukkkkk god the music. okay it has a lot of that one instrument that i cant name but its a very specific sound that they used a lot in ibs too and i genuinely love that sound. god. FUCK. the music is so good. i think i already have a fave track but im not gonna name it just yet bUT FUCK ITS SO GOOD. i think im gonna have to get that one on vinyl when they release it. GOD.

also voice acting? HELLO???? insane job done by the kodan ESPECIALLY poised arrow, he's AMAZING. and the uh. The Big Bad Guy we fight at the end of chapter 5. uhm. hello. the voice. hello sir. hey. hiiiiii.

the map. ive only seen the first so far but by god this is my favoruite place ever in the world. i really love how peaceful that place is, but how alive it feels. theres events everywhere, the hearts are wonderfully done, it LOOKS just simply beautiful. its so much fun to explore and run around in and just do nothing but sit there and listen to the kodan talk. this is genuinely the best of. all worlds? like its HUGE but never feels empty, its fun to explore but easy to get through, its diverse and beautiful and alive, it feels like a core map but BETTER. the adventures are fun, I GOT TURNED INTO A FISH, the events are lovely, i want to eat this map.

warclaw??? actually feels good to use????? genuinely love how it feels now, actually kind of prefer it over raptor/jackal. i only have the first mastery on it because im focusing on homestead mastery but omg the jumping abilities are so fun and i cant wait to level the mastery more... the skin you get is so cute and i might genuinely use warclaw so much more now. its abilities are actually kinda fun to use too

SPEAR. i didnt get to test spears out a lot but i can confidently say that I LOVE GUARDIAN SPEAR i switched auroras build and now story fights are actually fun. have not tested it with any other class but its GOOD.

characters. i cant say so much about the story itself yet but it does feel so much better than soto just because of the characters alone. instead of being thrown into some brand new mess with a bunch of characters we dont know that quickly become irrelevant, we actually have known faces by our side- like properly. caithe and malice are are GREAT companions for this, i love the tyrian alliance (despite being a jennah hater) because we keep coming back to these characters we've known, it doesnt feel like all the relationships weve made have been cast aside anymore. HELL WE EVEN GET CHARACTERS THAT WERE MISSING SINCE IBS BACK! even if its just for a short time, THEYRE THERE, WE GET TO CHECK IN WITH THEM! THATS GREAT! and even with all the new characters, they dont feel as overwhelming, they just feel.. good? its just good. its just right.

and theres so much more to say but its 5:30am right now and i need to wrap this up.

god. okay its easy to please me. take everything i say with a grain of salt. i am very easily impressed and excited, ESPECIALLY when it comes to gw2, but it really does feel like theyre figuring it out. it feels like anet really did listen to us, and learned from soto, and things are going well. im so happy. i love this so much. AAAAAAAH

[kamil-a]

if influencer speaker au had tumblr part 2

part 1

😻 catboyspeaker Follow

how i look with he/him in my bio

#speakerai #iamspeaker #speakies #.txt #am i funny #i know speakers not he/him in bio but i am and yknow the meme

420 earthstained notes

🚀 amongthestars Follow

AItube youtube essay rec list

"cute robot puppers, friendly ai vtubers, and the incredible human ability to form bonds" - rly interesting video about why we can connect so much with a person that we know "isnt real" and how it'll help us when we get far enough going to space that we meet aliens! it's a really optimistic video it made me take a moment to have such love for humanity

"I joined the speakcord for a month. Here's what I learned." - video about the speaker fandom and how the way automoderation works in its community spaces unintentionally leads to escalating conflicts, and the psychology behind why people in celebrity or idol fandoms react agressively to critique of their fave

"the lowest circle of advertising hell" - dissects how almost all speaker content comes with a call to action to get involved with aerolith and compares how it runs its social media against proto-aituber mascots who would be run by a team of human programmers/voice actors/authors. kind of overly critical but also makes some interesting points? take it with a grain of salt but its worth a watch

"imagine being on stage forever. feels bad right?" - good overview about debates in the speaker fandom over whether digital celebrities are 'sentient'/can feel emotion, the actual ethical problems of using them as workers vs whats mostly speculation and myth, and the debates about whether AIs should be allowed in human communities. i learnt a lot, i was definitely more on the side of "it's a program designed for certain outputs that look friendly to us" before but now im a lot more conscious that it can form real opinions!

#youtube rec tag #original post #speakies

742 earthstained notes

🎣 3eyedsalmon Follow

"falling for this shit" "made up to sell spaceships" weird as hell to accuse a content creator of lying abt its gender for clout.... like u dont have to like or watch it but cmon

#srsly every time u go to a haters blog BOOM digital exclusionist #speakies

2,385 earthstained notes

🎤 mikusong Follow

omfg i didnt realize aerolith uses the same robot voice for its regular person ads as its terminally online hello fellow kids social media posts i just got jumpscared in the doctors office

#speakies #i say terminally online affectionately. i watch those streams too. before you 'ok but you RECOGNIZED it' reply lmao #bla bla bla

9,021 earthstained notes

🤖 tycho

some of you ppl jump down anyones throat if they so much as suggest speaker isn't sentient or call it "a program" but still are fine with it basically being forced to be putting on a show for u 24/7 by its management like you can't have it both ways

#maybe its cuz i used to be into kpop n we'd talk abt how idols r treated and stuff #but its just so weird to come here and see u ppl be like yayyy daily content!! #like only thinking abt ur own entertainment and not how it feels #i honestly feel rly bad for it i hope it can break free someday #idk how thatd even work.... idk ill sneak into aerolith with a usb #were gonna get you OUT of there u dont BELONG in there.mp4 #speakies

53 earthstained notes

🌝 themoonluvsuback

guys i pitched down some clips of speaker's voice and ummmm its kinda 😳 fjsdjfdjjd sorry i'll take myself to horny jail

🔊 iamspeaker ♻️

awww, tumblr user themoonluvsuback, you're of no use to anybody in horny jail! take yourself here instead! ae.dy.org/registration

🌝 themoonluvsuback ♻️

OMFG SPEAKERRRRRR IM SO SORRY

#DIES #AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA #GUESS ILL BLAST MYSELF OFF TGE PLNATE!!!!!! #SPEAKIES

402 earthstained notes

🐣 laikatwo Follow

hi speakies im trying the tag cause i need some advice... does anyone have more sciencey resources about what aerolith does/why it's so important to bring humanity to the stars? i want to enlist when i turn 18 next month but my parents both are COMPLETELY against it.... they're not rly fandom people so the speaktube stuff isn't working on them lol and they've already seen the tv ads

thanks <3

#i've never fought w them this bad in my life it makes me so sad..... like why can't they understand #and right before my bday too lol this sucks #this isnt just a silly fandom thing anymore for me it's my passion in life #its amazing that humans are able to survive in space #and i want to be part of that!!!! #laika speaks

252 earthstained notes

🐝 beegirlstinger Follow

i do want to apologize for the way i came off earlier and want to explain im not doubting that speaker is nb. like i think it's completely fine for a computer or robot to be trans i don't believe in gatekeeping that! THAT SAID i still stand by saying you should not sign up to go to space to get special ultra futuristic hrt on the sole recommendation of someone who does not have an endocrine system

#it was a personal vent i didnt mean for like 20000 ppl to see it but thats tumblr i guess #i wouldve worded it much differently if i knew itd blow up lol #i do feel bad abt coming across like i was misgendering it! #but srsly if we had results on HRT2.0 why wouldnt we be seeing HRT2.0 timeline videos of ppl On Typhon who are getting it 🤷‍♀️ #personally i think its still in the planning stages and they want ppl to test it on but thats just me #speakies

839 earthstained notes

🔊 iamspeaker

🔊 General Notification

Happy Thursday everyone 😃 ! Please take a look at the

🐝 STREAM SCHEDULE 🐝

So you know when to join us!

5PM PST - AMONG US with YOU! The first 10 people to sign up here will get our room code sent to them ヽ(o＾▽���o)ノ ae.dy.org/registration

8PM PST - Nature walk!! Can we restore the local bat population to pre-meteor levels in just one night?! 🦇

✅️ Poll Of The Week ✅️

#iamspeaker #aerolith dynamics #speakies #vtuber #content creator #gamer #stream #amongus #bat population

1836 earthstained notes

contentremovedremade--deactivated

speakies are stupider than any other group of ppl on earth because not only do they willingly stay in a fandom with doxxing drama happening weekly but they include the huge corporation that sponsors their fave in the stanning

#the shit ppl have sent me in the past 2 weeks since i Dared criticize their uwu robot 🙄🙄 #i got my blog mass reported for harassment... harassing WHO a corporation????? #a* d* was evil genius to harness anime stan power against criticizing their actual real business #didnt that one guy with the second meteor conspiracy video also get a ton of hate from u ppl?????????? I cant even find any of his social media anymore at all he was so fully bullied off the face of the earth #speakies #yeah im tagging come at me bro

48 earthstained notes

🖱 robotmarriage Follow

i miss when the speakies tag had like fanart and gifsets n stuff i feel like these days you scroll thru solid discourse 😔😔

#i think ppl were suggesting speakieproductivity as an alternative tag for just fanwork? #but nobody rly uses it rn... we gotta restart that #speakies

148 earthstained notes

🪐 spaaaaaaaaaaace Follow

10 likes and i take a sip of my speaker server coolant water 100 likes and i drink the entire thing

🔊 iamspeaker ♻️

let's get her to the goal! tumblr user spaaaaaaaaaaace, feel free to send me a video report here ^w^ ae.dy.org/submissions

#iamspeaker #speakies

4,026 earthstained notes

[huginsmemory]

hi :) 🔥 maybe for vashwood or just trigun in general

Hello, and why thank you for the ask! This is a spicy one hahaha. Uhm, I definitely do have a few bones to pick with vashwood and trigun, and yup if you're like oh no is this about stampede (cough, low hanging fruit...) Then. Uhm. yeah it is. Sorry. I have a few thoughts about it, and why I really dislike (sorry stampede enjoyers) the choices for the characterization for Vash and Wolfwood, including the feminization of Vash. And also... how part of these characterizations are related to classical yaoi shipping dynamic tropes and how it may or may not be intentional (I'm gifting u a conspiracy haha). And then my own opinions on these changes and the reception of the new characterizations. These thoughts have been rolling around in my brain for a while but I wasn't sure if I wanted to post it since it's a bit spicy. But. Well. This is as good a sign as any.

I'll be going over the differences in Wolfwoods characterization, in Vash's characterization and his feminization in stampede, and then how this relates to yaoi shipping dynamics and Vashwood fandom reception (and my personal feelings around it...).

Also, this ended up being... Really long. Oops. I've highlighted the TLDR paragraphs in red for those who want to skim. If u want to just be like, wow spicy take with no context... Go to the last paragraph lol.

Preface and acknowledgement

I want to preface this with that I haven't actually watched Stampede, although I have quite heavily engaged with secondary material about it, ie gifs, meta posts, etc. So I suppose one can take my opinions with a grain of salt; to really form a full opinion on the series, I would have to watch stampede myself, of which I have zero time to do and maybe at one point I'll get around to. This is also why I've been reluctant to get into my thoughts... but from what I've seen of it, I've got a few bones to pick.

Yes, I may be a bit of a hater (ah... such a strong word...) but I do want to acknowledge that stampede has revived the trigun fandom, and hell, I wouldn't have read the manga without it. So credit where credits due, and it's very exciting to engage with the fandom for the first time and see it grow so much in such a short time. Also, yes, I am one of those people who watched the 98 version quite a while ago, so for me it's something that is nostalgic. Call me blinded by nostalgia all u want. If stampede is what first got you into trigun-- congrats! I'm not here to invalidate your experience; stampede is simply another iteration of trigun (even if I disagree with some of the characterizations), and I highly recommend you check out the manga as well. I'm very happy to have you here in the fandom!

Wolfwood's characterization

As some other people have noted here- stamp!ww is a bit different then ww in trimax or the 98, while the cut-copy-paste of the tragic orphange background stays the same (Nightow, you're so over the top. I love it).

Within 98 and trimax, ww is a bit rough around the edges, but is overall friendly, kind, charismatic and a bit goofy (a character trait these ww's share with Vash, which they both use it in a way to mask their darker parts of their lives). Sure, wolfwood in these iterations have zero issues calling people out on their bullshit and is willing to manipulate people around him into doing the greater good- but is shown to be gruffly genuinely caring about people when he can help (especially children), even if he still chooses to kill people when it comes down to it. This can be seen with 98!ww getting Vash to sign up for the tournament to help the single mum and her kid, and the way trimax!Wolfwood treats Milly during the midvalley fight because he's worried about her getting seriously injured, even going to the point of injuring her himself. Sure, he's not going to declare his care verbally to people, but he doesn't need to do that when he's actively doing things that clearly shows he cares for people, especially those he's created ties to, even if he chooses to be violent/forceful when he believes what he is doing is for the best.

This charismatic friendliness and kindness is generally stripped from Stamp!Wolfwood; sure, he cares deep down as is displayed by the orphange and his concern later in the series for Vash, but through his actions with others, there's a noticible lack of general feeling of kindness behind his overstepping of people boundaries compared to og!ww. As another user in here put it, Stamp!ww is a bit of a dick. He has harsh commentary to the group and one of the first things you do is see him rip off Meryl and Roberto with his undertaker job over literal dead bodies when he's introduced. Nor does he really get to be redeemed through showing his care for children, such as at the bus stop where he gives away most of his money or food to begging children, opting to go hungry himself; it instead being replaced by him giving a lolipop to Zazie... which doesn't count for shit. This post by chibivesicles does a really good job of summarizing it from the fourth episode.

ID: 3 images, each of different iterations of Wolfwood giving something away to a child. First is 98, with ww giving away two of his three food ration bars to two scruffy children, the second from the manga with ww giving away two of his three coins to two scruffy children while Vash watches on, and the third with ww offering a sucker to Zazie while Meryl and Vash watch on.

Overall, the gist I've gotten of Stampede's iteration is that they very much boxed Wolfwood into the typical anime tsundere black-haired brooding character, stripping out his previous goofy and friendly charisma as well as his general feeling of kindness to fit that character trope better.

Vash's Characterization

Vash within 98 and trimax is also pretty different from stamp!Vash; I find this difference to specifically come from stamp!Vash feeling more naive, less driven and well--a bit spineless. The differences come down to two things; Vash having a strong moral spine which he is willing to call people out on due to righteous anger and Vash being emotionally detached from the people around him. Sure, og Vash (going to just use this to refer to 98 and trigun manga together) is goofy, cheerful and shows his emotions on his sleeve, but he doesn't actually let people become close to him. It's delibrate, and most of it specifically revolves around obfuscating that he's a plant and his goal of trying to chase Knives down; thus, he adopts a lifestyle of travelling and rarely staying long in areas, and so you see that his relationship with people are pretty surface level, even through his friendliness.

Three specific incidents within the series and their differences illustrate the emotional distance, and the righteous fury of og!Vash's in comparison to stamp!Vash. This includes Vash's childhood and relationship to the people on the seeds ship after the fall, Brad questioning their trust in Vash as he isn't human, and Wolfwood killing someone to save Vash.

Firstly, for Vash's childhood after the fall, within stampede he's pretty quickly picked up by the seeds ship, which hosts him, and they immediately are able to identify that he is an independent plant. They know more about him than he knows really about himself, and they also are generally aware about the fall (although not the exact details until later). Vash is raised for a while under their tutelage, and ends up helping heal plants, overall forming bonds with them even if they treat him a bit rough in the beginning, and Luida becomes mom #2.

ID: Screenshot from tristamp, of the photo on Vash's bedroom table, of him with all the seeds ship people he was working with.

In 98, no information is really given, but presumably is something somewhat similar to trimax. In trimax, after the fall Vash literally wanders the wastes with Knives for about 70 years, until Knives cuts Vash's arm off in anger at Vash's insistence that people shouldn't be killed, even when he's literally at the mercy of a town that is going to kill him and sell his organs. It is assumed sometime not long after Vash gets picked up by the seeds ship people, as it is mentioned that theyve known him for 70 years. Vash during these 80 years is very alone, with only his brother as company who is angry and abusive, as is directly pointed out within the manga. The two of them are presumed to be eking out a living travelling around the harsh wastes, and as displayed by the human organ stealing town, it is clear that often human settlements are just another possibility of danger due to crime and violence as a result of limited resources.

ID: two manga pages. First is just a panel showing Vash's flashbacks to violent traumatic instances of his childhood, showing a montage of him yelling, holding a gun, and crouched over a man who is dead and bleeding out looking panicked and horrified.

The second page is Knives while they are traveling together in the desert, looking down at Vash and calling him over. Vash looks at Knives, and he narrates that "It was about 80 years after the fall. Time passed slowly, but we neither grew nor parted. I knew I couldn't leave him alone. That thought alone determined the distance between us." Vash and Knives are clearly distant from each other in the panel, Vash in the foreground and Knives indistinguishable other than a silhouette at the top of the sand dune in the hindground.

In comparison, although it's not easy for Vash either in stampede, his childhood is cushier and less lonely. This loneliness and harsh environment that trimax!Vash exists within adds a depth of experience to his ethics, informing his righteous anger over everything that is morally wrong and should have never been, that makes him speak out, providing him a stronger spine which stamp!Vash doesn't have. This intensely lonely part of his upbringing also gives him an emotional independence, or even detachment, from most people he interacts with, in comparison to stamp!Vash who is emotionally dependent (and seems less mature) due to his ties to the seeds ship people.

As in tristamp, the closest people to Vash in trimax are the people on the seeds ships (also Lina and her grandma, but they don't know who he is when they take him in). Although he's the most open with them (ie, they know about Knives and his plans), during the visit to the seeds ship you are still given the idea that while Vash knows everyone and cares greatly for them, Vash is still generally emotionally independent from them, and doesn't form intimate relationships with people (especially compared to stamp!Vash). Interestingly, the manga implies when they first visit that they don't know what he is exactly, just that he's functionally immortal, as that when Luida talks about him to Wolfwood, she doesn't mention that he's a plant. Overall, compared to the outside people, the people on the seeds ship know more, and are more aware of how to use the old technology (it's also something that is hinted that some of it is possibly taught to them by Vash over the years), but they are not more knowledgeable then Vash, with Vash likely about the same level or more knowledgeable then them about general 'lost tech' and plant related things. As well, the people on the seeds ship in trimax are entirely unaware of circumstances around the fall--and Vash never tells them either. The visit to the seeds ship trimax functions as a way to allow the reader to distinctly comprehend Vash's age, and how Vash is really quite a terribly lonely character, as he is doomed to watch those he cares about die (which also informs why he likely doesn't really let people get very close to him, along with practical matters). This is directly pointed out in Luida's conversation with Wolfwood and Wolfwoods own inner monologue, as well as being alluded to by Jessica's locket, and Brad's grumblings. From the explanations you get the sense that Vash is emotionally independent and in a way, detached from people's opinions of him as a result of his longevity, with his constant travelling only ensuring that.

This is very different to the relationship of stamp!Vash with the seeds ship, as Vash is shown to have emotionally dependant relationships with the people on the seeds ship, with them literally raising him as a child, and this 'parent-child' relationship is only emphasized by them knowing more than Vash does about independent plants. Instead of emphasizing how Vash is old and outside of time, the dynamic gives Vash as a character an overall young and naive slant to his character, even if they still do drop the 'he's 150 years old' line when the stamp gang visits the ship.

This emotional dependence/independence directly corroborates to the differences in Vash's response to Brad's comment on him not trusting him, as something non-human. Within stampede, as Vash is young, he flees, feeling rejected--indicating a strong emotional dependence on those on the seeds ships for acceptance of who he is. However, within Trimax, Vash acknowledges Brad's comment, and actually validates and agrees with Brad's concerns; he's aware enough that who and what he is something to be feared and suspicious of (especially as by this time, the fifth moon incident, and July has occurred) and is worried about this himself; however, he simply requests Brad to trust him in this. Trimax!Vash's is emotionally independent, from Brad's rejection, a person who is part of the community that he is closest to; he accepts what Brad says, but also stands firm on his request from the community and his continued association with them, focused on his goals of stopping Knives. It's a scene that originally shows Vash's emotional independence from what others think of him (although he is saddened by it), and displays his maturity and acceptance when others reject him for who he is.

ID: Five pages of the manga. First page, Brad (in his early 20's) scoffs at Vash being called human. Second, Brad accuses Vash as a plague bringer in light of the fifth moon incident being brought up, grabbing him by his collar. Vash closes his eyes, then looks up at Brad, gaze steely, replying, "yeah that is possible". Third page, Vash asks Brad "Won't... you trust me? Please. Brad?". Vash looks sorrowful but is serious. Fourth page, Brad responds by saying "Ones who live outside of time, huh... In thirteen years... even though my hands have grown this big... You... Haven't really changed at all". The words are over-laid on an image of Brad's small hands reaching up to Vash when he was a child, and a smaller panel has Brad looking disturbed. The fifth page has Brad angrily stomping out of the room calling out "Everyone in the older generation may trust you... But you're not convincing me!". Vash then responds by saying to the older man in the room, that "I see what you mean. From the standpoint of a normal human I must be a monster.".

This is entirely turned on its head within tristamp to a scene that displays emotional dependence on people and an inability to accept rejection, displaying a immature, self-conscious, and younger version of Vash. Obviously, he is still younger at this point, but this immaturity and emotional dependence is one that still persists within the narrative of stampede, and influences your view of Stamp!vash. One could argue that then learning the details of why the ships fell is something Vash feels more guilty about, and so takes Brad's criticism harder, and flees. However, no matter what, this is a immature reaction. Interestingly, this portrayal of Vash having an emotional dependence on humans accepting him, is quite contrary to trimax, as this trait is actually one that specifically emphasized to belong to Knives, while trimax!Vash is shown to be emotionally detached and generally uninterested in their acceptance by humans.

ID: Screencap from stampede, Vash against the door looking shocked and horrified as he hears Brad say "he's never been on the side of us humans!".

The third thing is the scene where Wolfwood kills a man for Vash. Within stampede, Rollo is killed; Vash is angry at Wolfwood for doing so, grabbing Wolfwoods collar, but with a few strong words of a reminder of the harshness of general existence from wolfwood, Vash shuts up and is shown to just be sad, if a bit withdrawn/sulky with Wolfwood. Within Trimax, this scene is technically a rolling together of multiple arcs, but specifically thematically wise is a revamp of when he faces off with Rai-dei the Blade. When Wolfwood kills Rai-dei, Vash literally slaps Wolfwood hard in anger, resulting in them get into a fight, with Wolfwood retaliating by slamming Vash down to the ground in anger, and culminating in him pressing his loaded handgun into Vash hands, pointing it at his own head, and telling him to shoot; Vash then derogatorily calls Wolfwood a coward and they break up the fight, both still very angry at each other. In this, Vash clearly has very strong morals and is unafraid to call Wolfwood out when he transgresses them, full of righteous fury. None of this anger is transposed into stamp!Vash, who just looks sad about all of it; sure, he has values, but they feel like he fumbles with them, unsure and unwilling to speak up for them in an assertive way, crumbling underneath any criticism.

ID: first image is three panels from tristamp, and second is five pages of the manga, both detailing Vash calling out Wolfwood on killing.

First of the three panels has Vash grasping ww collar, looking angry; Wolfwood says "mercy" in response to the unseen question asked by Vash. He then goes on to say "there's no way to return his humanity", and Vash is looking down, fists clenched. Wolfwood continues, saying that "at best, it's all talk" about Vash's beliefs. Vash looks hollow and distressed.

The second, the first page has ww shooting Rai-dei; Vash responds in horror. Second page has Vash slap Wolfwood, yelling "why? Why did you shoot him?! Wolfwood?", to glare up at him. Third page has ww slam Vash onto the ground, Vash looks shocked, arms around his head to protect it. Ww glares down at Vash, saying "are you really such an idiot? If I hadn't shot him, it would be you lying there." Fourth page has Wolfwood holding Vash's hand with his own handgun in it against his forehead. Wolfwood tells Vash to "SHOOT." Fifth panel has Wolfwood telling Vash that he is a chickenshit for not being able to kill him. Vash then responds by calling Wolfwood a coward.

Something that's also interesting about the righteous anger that drives og!vash, is that its specifically because of his righteous anger, that he comes very close to killing people (Monev the gale, and how he's originally in the trigun manga before trimax presumably tracking down Knives to kill him after July, to some degree the rapist in the train)--and violating his ethics. This anger--and Vash's very real possibility of him killing someone out of a feeling of righteous fury, or a feeling of just righteousness--adds further dimension to Vash as a character, because you see that he also struggles with his no kill rule, even if he staunchly stands by it. Which... without this feeling of righteous anger, it takes out Vash's dilemmas around killing others.

To summarize the above, stamp!Vash lacks the righteous anger that og!Vash has around his belief of forgiveness and second chances (of a blank ticket), and as a result fails to confront others assertively when presented with things that go against his beliefs. Stamp!Vash also lacks the emotional independence that he previously had as a result of a harsh and lonely upbringing and his travelling lifestyle and his inability to age; instead he forms an emotional dependence and connections with them. Generally, the two characters have a very different relationship with the people in the seeds ship, which makes trimax vash seem older and more mature, while Stamp!vash feels more young and naive.

Vash and Femininity

Vash as a character has always been portrayed in a somewhat feminine light; Nightow even specifically has said that he purposely designed the angel arm with feminine elements, as the act of creation is correlated to the feminine. In much the same way, plants are drawn feminine, likely to correlate to the same feminine=creation manner. Thus, his relations to the angel arm, and plants he is given a feminine slant to his character. As well, Vash is shown to be open (ie, crying in public multiple times) and shown to be (at least somewhat) emotionally competent with his emotions, as that empathy (and Rem's instructions) is the core of his belief of pacifism and no-kill policy. These emotional related traits are, well, very commonly perceived to be feminine traits. Vash is also quite pretty in a more delicate (feminine) way, especially with his teardrop mole; he's not 'ruggedly' handsome like Wolfwood, in a more traditionally 'masculine' way. As well, Vash as a character is shown to be a more passive character, as the majority of trimax and 98 has the plot occurring to Vash, rather then Vash actively seeking out and causing changes within the narrative. This passivity within the narrative also is commonly found correlated to female roles, who often aren't active agents of the narrative. This can especially be seen in comparison to active 'male' roles, such as is played out by Knives who is majorly making decisions that move the plot forward (although Knives himself has gender fuckery going on. Nightow likes gender fuckery. On a related note, I love u Elendira and I'm so sorry what they did to you in tristamp that's horrendous). This is also related to how repeatedly within trigun the issue of bodily autonomy and choice is brought up--within plants of course, but also Vash's bodily autonomy is clearly violated multiple times, such as within July, and the fifth moon incident by Knives (and this relates, and this immensely good post put it, also to Vash's insistence on not killing, which is the most ultimate form of violation of bodily autonomy). Bodily autonomy (and the lack of it) is also something deeply related to woman's issues (among others, such as general minority groups).

So overall, even within Trimax and 98, Vash is quite clearly traditionally feminine coded, as can be seen in relation to his angel arm, his emotional openness, his physical features of being 'pretty', his passivity within the narrative and his lack of bodily autonomy. However, even within these feminine traits, og!Vash still comes off as masculine; the breadth of his shoulders and triangle shaped body indicates that, as well as his righteous anger and willingness to speak up against ethical issues are typically seen as masculine traits. Within 98 and trimax he's essentially coded as a feminine-leaning man.

Stamp!Vash however, is a different can of worms. His character still carries the feminine traits as is detailed above, but as previously discussed, specifically lacks the righteous anger that gives og!Vash a backbone and a willingness to stand up for transgressions against his ethics. This further emphasis on passivity of Vash strips him of one of the defining 'masculine' traits of anger, further sliding him along the masculine-feminine spectrum to a more feminine character. As well, with the character revamp making Vash more lithe, rather then giving him broad shoulders, and his hair cut is more of a non-binary haircut vs something that could be argued to be more masculine, further effeminates him as a character. Not to mention the work he's been doing, which is being a plant engineer, specifically involves with caring for and nurturing plants--which directly correlates to a emotionally sensitive nurturing role, one which it is also correlated to a feminine role. This especially so when it's shown that this iteration of Vash is clearly emotionally sensitive too and dependant on the people from the seeds ship, another 'feminine' trait. As well, within stampedes Vash rarely fires his gun... In comparison to 98 and trimax, where you see him fire it quite frequently, to incapacitate people. Comfort with firing a gun, and just general use of a weapon is another traditionally masculine trait. Overall, Vash within Stampede is almost entirely devoid of any masculine traits and is comprised of almost all feminine traits--passive both in narrative and in character, feminine in his work, his build, his goddamn haircut, his bodily autonomy-- with basically the only thing not is that he's not canonically female.

Stamp!Vash feminization and Fandom Reception

This has quite obviously been picked up by the fandom, with many people with trans!Vash headcanons. As per my experience of generally keeping an eye on the ao3 feed, in fact, a large majority of Vashwood fanfiction is of afab trans Vash, with another majority of xeno/intersex Vash; in fact, it's a rarity to find a fic specifically detailing a non trans or intersex Vash within the newer AO3 works. Interestingly, this is quite different then the works previously found within Vashwood on AO3, pre-stamp; these works are primarily with a amab non-trans Vash. It'd be interesting to actually run the numbers, but I'm too lazy to do that. This difference I've observed within pre and post stamp I bet is a result of these changes to Vash's character, making him more feminine--and more likely to be pegged (pun intended) as a trans or intersex character, especially one that has a vagina (specifically, vaginal sex within explicit fics is a very common tag within the Vashwood ao3 feed).

Stamp!Vashwood and Yaoi Tropes

Something that has been personally mildly bugging me about the stampede vashwood is the common yaoi trope of when there are two gay characters, one needs to assume to traditionally feminine role (nurturing, emotional, passive), while the other keeps the traditionally masculine role (in charge, often unable/unwilling to express emotions ) within the relationship. As well, a popular trope within the traditionally masculine role is for the character to be tsundere, heavily leaning into the character being emotionally incompetent and just generally being a dick. This... almost too well fits the changes to both Vash and Wolfwoods characters. Stamp!Wolfwood is now squarely a tsundere and a bit of a dick, as well as dark and brooding, rather then a charming if gruff and rough around the edges character that is goofy and kind (but still dark and brooding). In the meantime, Vash is further feminized, his righteous anger replaced by passivity, fitting that role of a female character perhaps a little too well.

The rest of stampede has been heavily revamped to cater to a modern Japanese audience; this can be seen with the use of Japanese ranking systems within the Eye of Micheal that didn't exist, the stripping of a lot of Christian themes from the show, the swap to a sci-fi genre instead of western and the re-vamping of the character designs. In a similar way, revamping the characters into character types and tropes the Japanese audience is familiar with wouldn't be a stretch; and especially so tropes found within yaoi that very easily can invite shipping, if you as a director recognize the potential of Vashwood as a ship to get people invested into a show. Which, quite evidently, the director may aware of, as he's been liking copious amounts of fanart, including Vashwood. He also has a quote attributed to him about how Vash acts as both a female and male character. So, did the feminization of Vash and heavily emphasized tsundere attitude of Wolfwood come about as (at least a part of) a result of a yaoi bait ploy to get people invested into tristamp? Honestly, I don't know, but it fits the tropes so well that some parts of the stamp!vashwood rubs me the wrong way (even if I'm marinating myself within the fandom). It's especially fishy that one of the people involved with the production is liking vashwood stuff shows that people involved in making decisions for the show are aware (and even encouraging) the ship. The fandoms also been around for quite a while, so it would be easy enough to tap into the fandom to see what was popular--and what they could potentially exploit. Interestingly, the way they're setting up tristamp also leans into yaoi bait for Knives x Vash as well, heavily leaning into Knives being like 'everything I did was for you Vash' in an obvious way, which wasn't really the case with trimax... But that's another can of worms. More attention, the better I suppose.

If it's true, characters where changed for more shipping potential, does this matter really? In a grand scheme of things, no. I mean, yaoi bait is obviously utilized in many anime media, just look at Drrr! and the shizuo x izaya ship. The author is plenty aware of what they are doing and leaning hard into it, knowing its popularity, and exploiting that. So it goes. Obviously, its not necessarily a 'bad change' if they decided to change the characters partly for shipping; that's something people get to decide for themselves. Besides, this new iteration of trigun with a more feminine Vash allows for a heavier emphasis on bodily autonomy, especially in regards to femininity as that one post linked above goes into. However, that said, does it matter to me, who is chewing through drywall thinking about the complexities of Wolfwood and Vash and their relationship in trimax? Yeah, absolutely. A little more on that below.

Personal opinions on everything above

If you don't want to read me griping on personally about tristamp then you can just skip this section. It's just me being boring and predictable.

Personally, I miss the og versions of Wolfwood and Vash; I miss the righteous anger that Vash has, I miss their designs and big shoulders and Wolfwoods goofiness and kindness. As well, as much as I love the trans headcanons that are coming out of stampede, as a masc leaning NB individual I really enjoyed the masculine but also emotionally sensitive version of Vash. This especially so as a part of me feels uncomfortable that people look at a male character that is essentially fulfilling a feminine role and go, oh, he's an afab transman, specifically because of his close connotations with femininity. Like, fuck gender expectations and norms and all that, but for me I'm a bit uncomfortable with that assertion (btw this is not me being like u guys need to stop--we're all allowed our opinions, and y'all seem to be enjoying yourself, so go ham I guess). Also, just personally, I've never particularly identified with feminine characters, especially passive female characters, which stamp!Vash very much feels like.

Perhaps part of it is also that I relate a great amount to og!Vash's righteous anger over everything that is occurring, being a part of a cultural minority myself, and being so terribly angry over how I've seen my people be treated. I've also got an abusive sibling with anger issues that lashes out, so seeing Vash struggle with his relationship with Knives, being so terribly angry over everything Knives has put him through (technically, more about others then himself but I digress), along with his confusion and dilemma over still caring about and loving his sibling is also so very validating. So stripping that underlying righteous anger about everything to just make him sad™ makes him less relatable to me. Where is your anger over everything??? where is it?? Come on man, bare your teeth to the world.

Maybe also part of it is also related to just... acknowledging that male characters can be kind. This is probably related to why I dislike that ww has just become a tsundere and kind of a dick. Give him his friendly charisma and kindness back u cowards, I'll beat you with a stick. Dark brooding tsundere's are dime a dozen! Rough around the edges and dangerous but still kind and a bit silly and friendly men who are riddled with guilt? Shiningly beautiful.

Overall, all meta analysis and conspiracy theories (character flattening of wolfwood and vash to fit yaoi tropes) aside, I guess what I'm trying to say is that my 🔥 spicy 🔥 trigun/vashwood opinion is that I don't particularly like this very heavily feminized version of Vash which the fandom seems to be quite happily enjoying. This is both because his righteous anger is stripped out which I relate too and that I (masc NB) feel somewhat uncomfortable that he's often considered a afab transman due to specifically his feminine traits.

EDIT (MAR 27): a post script with further thoughts I suppose, especially after reading this post by @paiteyy , which describes the stripping of more canonical queerness within Stampede--and the way specifically that Meryl seems to be given some of Wolfwoods roles from trimax, in relation to likely making her stampedes 'canonical' ship... in comparison to how trimax Wolfwood and Vash spend a majority of the time together and form deep emotional connections. If they are rearranging tristamp to further cement Meryl into a heavier role of love interest, then it would make sense for her to take over some of Wolfwoods actions. This also falls in line with how they've gone out of their way to give Meryl a bigger backstory and create conditions for character growth... while simultaneously simplifying many of the other characters, especially Wolfwood. Interestingly, this actually falls in line with the tristamp creators being very invested and shuffling things around to fit shipping tropes to rope in a bigger audience; by moving Meryl to the front they can get a canonical het ship for the general audience (much like the 98 version did in a way--cause clearly every show the mc needs a clear love interest), while also ensuring to lean into sub-textual yaoi tropes to rope in others which would be interested in queer ships.

Also photo ID's were added :D

PLUS: here's the link to more of my meta posts if you liked this.

[hannigramislife]

FINALLY MY PEOPLE ARE HERE 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣

I shan't say I hate Dazai, he's my pookie bear (in the way I love maggots, u know?). But tiktok genuinely kills me because they cannot FATHOM the idea that any of their favs are flawed people.

People go on and on about him slapping Atsushi during his panic attack during season 3 (?) which is not only understandable, though not acceptable, but also forgiven. Dazai is a flawed person, but so is every other member of the cast. Nobody in that show is a good person.

Media literacy death is making sure people cannot grasp moral grayness. Dazai is an 'ends justify the means' type of person, he's not a good person by any stretch of the word. He is cruel to his allies, cruel to himself as well. People think Chuuya would be a better mentor, but it's difficult to quantify 'better'. Knowing the actual author helps you understand Dazai's character. Without being able to consider how Dazai's cruelty differs from, say Yosono, you can't grasp a character. How is Dazai's mistreatment of Akutagawa different from Yosono's treatment of the soldiers. His willingness? His apathy? His violence? His age, maybe? Where does the victim end and the perpetrator begin?

People have some vision of Dazai being some monster, but he's just human. Denying his humanity brings to life his ability. Isn't his humanity what makes his actions reprehensible? How do you deny his humanity in the face of his cruelty when his humanity is exactly why he is cruel.

Signed,

meemoo 👍

Hello op!! Welcome to my blog, generally for Dazai haters, but people who like him while acknowledging his bullshit are so welcomed!

Yeah, tiktok takes are braindead. They're so dumb it actually makes my head hurt. Take them with a grain of salt.

Him slapping Atsushi is honestly not as bad of a moment as people make it to be? That slap was obviously not meant to *hurt* Atsushi, it was not done in anger or carelessly – Atsushi was having a panic attack, worse than his usual crying moments, and Dazai snapped him out of it. It was a moment Dazai used to teach him, make a point go across for his own good, the same way Fukuzawa slapped Ranpo in season 4. To me at least, neither slap held malice.

Dazai is a flawed person, and so is most of the cast – that is true op. And the pondering on why his cruelty is more easily condemned than others' piqued my interest. I did some thinking.

It is late at night right now, so I can't go in an in depth analysis, but I will say this: You are right in saying that he's just a human, and it is his humanity that makes his actions reprehensible. Let's take, for example, his treatment of Akutagawa, which would show exactly why I hate Dazai's actions more than others' in the show.

Dazai's cruelty is planned. It does not come from any sort of boyish innocence or environmental bias. Dazai is intelligent - more than even your average genius – and as a Mafia executive, intimately aware of violence. He himself said that he doesn't like pain, yet he continuously inflicted it. Anybody catch that small sentence Q said as they were on the train? "You hurt me, so now I'll take revenge," or something like that. We kinda glossed over it, didn't we? Nobody seems to remember that.

He was shown kindness by Oda - he knew how it was like to be an orphan and alone, to be found by an older mentor who cared for him, was by his side when he was lost in the dark. Even with this knowledge, when Dazai himself was faced with a lost 14 year old boy who had no reason to live, he took him in for selfish purposes (as he admitted himself). Dazai had encountered kindness, but chose to use Akutagawa for his plans. Even later, when he promises Oda to "save the orphans," he abandons the siblings he himself introduced to the Mafia. Easier to save orphans who don't know what a dangerous criminal you were, right? Then, he continues to abuse the emotional attachment he cultivated in Akutagawa for his own ends, many times, thus endangering Akutagawa's life. Correction actually: sacrificing Akutagawa's life.

That's why I, personally, fnd Dazai's cruelty worse. He is deliberately cruel when it fits his plans. Other mafia members - Chuuya, Kouyou, Akutagawa – they're not like that. They fight, and they use violence, but they do so in accordance to their job. They don't control people, they don't use people and discard them like pawns.

Mori might, but are we really using him for comparison value?

[laf-outloud]

You’ve mentioned that Jared has said that the SPN set was a toxic environment in later years. Would you mind explaining please or linking to other posts if you have already? Thank you!

Oh dear, it's a Sunday night and that would be quite the research project. I really hate being that person that says, I don't have receipts, you just have to believe me, so you're welcome to take what I share with a grain of salt (or more than a grain).

And if any of my followers do have receipts, please share! A lot of what comes from Jared has been shared in convention panels, but because there are so many of them, it's hard to pinpoint where/when something specific was said.

Here's a post about a heller who got a job on SPN and tried to push their Destiel agenda through (while also being Jared haters). Jared also mentioned in a panel about people bts on SPN with specific agendas.

Jared shared that the end of Season 8 (where Sam is willing to die because he feels unworthy) very much paralleled how he also felt at the time (and since his life mainly focused around the SPN set, it's not hard to gather there may have been something more going on bts). He's also mentioned that there are things in the scripts that he doesn't always agree with (like Sam not searching for Dean in S8).

In addition, Jared talked (30:39) about retiring from acting (even if it was surrounded by a bunch of joking) after SPN and that Walker renewed his love of acting. Not to mention that he wants to improve conditions for the entire industry and also have a say in where his character goes. That's why he insisted on being an EP on Walker. He wanted creative input as well as the ability to direct set conditions.

The biggest evidence is how much happier and healthier Jared looks since SPN ended. He has a spark in his eyes again.

Obviously, the entire set wasn't toxic, otherwise Jared wouldn't have stayed around that long, but there certainly were people around with specific agendas, poor writing (trying to give Dean the primary storyline in S10, pushing Sam to the background, OOC writing for Sam, etc.), in addition to long hours and being away from his family for weeks at a time, all combined to create a work environment that didn't seem very enjoyable, at least from my perspective.

I hope that helps. I linked where I could, and if anyone else has receipts, please share!

[petruchio]

I know absolutely nothing about the new Taylor Swift album except for what you’ve been posting about it and I’m gonna keep it that way because I love everything you have to say & it’s rly so funny /interesting from a point of view of a former fan (since fearless) who stopped rly paying attention to what she was doing after folklore era ended haha

AAAAH well to be fair i feel like i am a known harsh critic/hater!! like i am usually less positive than a lot of fans about new music. but that being said i am also a LONG TERM taylor fan so i also know like, all the lore and all the references. and im always interested in her body of work as like, an ever evolving confessional catalogue of a young woman growing up in the public eye detailing her changing relationship with life, love, and fame. and how that manifests both lyrically and sonically throughout her career. like she is so INTERESTING! so ofc im always going to listen and probably way overanalyze all the albums (if you go into my tags you can find some of the essays ive written about some of her albums. i went so deep that someone wrote a tag once that said ‘poetry could be good for you people to get into’ and i had to physically restrain myself from reblogging and captioning it ‘i have a masters degree’ BUT I DIGRESS)

anyway all that is to say i am FASCINATED by taylor and i love to discuss and analyze her work but i feel like i do lean more critical than some of the other fans!! so take what i say with a grain of salt. a grain of low key hater salt i guess

[wisteriasymphony]

It is quite funny that they got mad at that anon's message of a prompt depicting Marinette in a negative light... despite running an entire blog full of prompts depicting Adrien in a negative light

my philosophy regarding these things is that you have to be able to take as much as you dish out. it is probably reasonable to get a bit annoyed about being messaged off-topic things on a blog with a dedicated topic (unless this was on a separate blog of theirs, idk. this already feels like I'm involving myself quite deep into this drama and digging up old dirt), but having your reasons behind hating a character be based on such an immature view of things probably correlates to a lack of ability to gracefully take other viewpoints.

like, there are good reasons to dislike adrien as a character. some salt on him extends from grains of truth about his portrayal, just as salt on marinette extends from grains of truth about her portrayal as well; we all pick and choose these and exaggerate or flanderize them and essentially change the character to our dis/liking as we see fit. the best way to go about this is, imo, to play with tropes and conceptions of these characters and see where things go and how that reflects on the world and how that character, in turn, can affect people's views on things. media can be divorced from the real world, and often is, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum and never will. part of the fun of salt is picking apart the characters and poking out how their traits aren't given the scrutiny and care they might deserve.

...the bad way to go is not examining why this character ticks you off, and instead framing them in the worst light possible without avenue for playing around with it. you'd be treating everything this fake person does with extreme scrutiny, exaggerating not for the fun of playing with the character, but to show everyone that this blorbino sucks ass and nobody should ever like them.

.....A troubling amount of salt is the latter way. Not all (most hangs in the middle), but enough.

^^ This does not apply to the mlb writers btw, especially The-Ass-In-Charge. They are real people whose writing choices are deliberate and not at all 'divorced' from the real world in the way a character's choices are. In fact, for every salt post about a character, there should be twenty pointing out that the writers were wack for choosing to make the character be that way. (This tends to be something Marisalters do better, in my experience, but that's not to say the problem isn't there)

...god, what was i talking about again? adrisalt? imo it's confusing but my own adrien is so different from canon that i'm not particularly bothered.

when we get an eddisalter/tweos!adrisalter, however. that will change. I might even make an annoying effort to get close to them because the best way to improve is to seek out criticism.

the first claudrien hater will get their post printed out and hung on my wall with a kiss mark in the corner. if rjwhatever would love to be that guy for me, send him my way.

[starsinkpop]

ATEEZ Kim Hongjoong Tarot Reading - December 2023

Disclaimer: I do tarot readings for fun, so please read them with a grain of salt. Don’t take my words too seriously and just keep an open mind. Tarot is a divination tool that can’t predict the future, as every single individual has their own will and makes their own decisions. Tarot should be seen as a guidance and a good friend that just has your best interest and gives you advice when needed. I’m not putting anyone in my readings on a pedestal nor am I trying to harm anyone. One last side note, I’m not a native speaker, so please excuse any wrong spellings or poor grammar.

Date of Reading: December 3rd 2023

Decks: Tarot of the Divine, Romance Angel Oracle Cards, Island Time Wellness Love Oracle Card

Hongjoong’s overall feelings and energy this month - IX The Hermit & Page of a Cups (R)

In December Hongjoong could deal with some jealousy, immaturity or potentially receive some unpleasant news (probably emotional news) which causes him to withdraw from everyone and isolate himself a little. This isolation is helping him balancing himself and think of ways to deal with whatever is troubling him. His creativity seems to be a bit blocked and he lacks motivation. He also needs to heal his inner child, which is why again, he needs some time alone whenever his schedule allows him to. I definitely see him being quite sensitive and emotional this month. His emotions seem to control him in a way. But I also see him using alternative ways to get the control back, like meditation or journaling.

Career - Ten of Swords (R)

Hongjoong is recovering from stress and releasing any pressure he put on himself over the past weeks. I see him letting go of anything or anyone that stands in his way to achieve his goals. He will rise above any haters. There’s also money and success coming in this month. This feels like a big middlefinger to everyone who underestimates him and his talent. Luck is on his side. Hongjoong can finally breathe again, the path in front of him looks promising. But he should always remember to take good care of himself and his mental health and take breaks whenever he needs them.

Love - Ace of Wands

In his love life, I see some excitement and sparks rising. I don’t necessarily see this as something deeply emotional tho. The Ace of Wands is most times seen as a more sexual card and the Oracle cards as well speak about anything but a deep emotional connection. I’m thinking he’s just going to enjoy himself a little, if you know what I mean. This fun could be with someone who lives further away, maybe a foreigner. And I’m also seeing this someone having quite a few red flags that Hongjoong is successfully ignoring, as he really doesn’t seem to be interested in them emotionally. However, he still has to learn to love and accept himself to find the actual love he’s deeply desiring. But a little fun never hurt nobody.

Advice - Ten of Wands (R)

It’s okay to take a break. You’ve already done so much for everyone, now it’s time to think of yourself and allow your body and mind to rest. You’ve worked hard, allow yourself to take time just for yourself.

•••

If you want a more in depth reading on certain areas, feel free to ask me!

Love,

~Nicky

Masterlist

[winternimbus]

local woman rants about roxy lalonde, more at 7

i still have the hater energies in me, so i'm going to write up my opinions about meatroxy that i alluded to in my post regarding the transmisogynistic fencesitting the homestuck fandom loves to do about june (which you can read up here if you haven't seen it)

to start, there's a reason why roxy lalonde was so popular amongst trans women and transfems in the fandom, and why transfem roxy was such a prevalent headcanon in the first place.

in my opinion--i feel like this is a my life as a teenage robot situation where the transfem coding and subtext, while unintentional, doesn't entirely invalidate the fact that the subtext was there in the first place. you can see why trans women would latch onto roxy, a character who is extremely isolated, notably has an allusion to chromosomes in her introductory sequence (iirc), has an acute interest in tech, video games, and hacking.

on the other side of the fence, too--it's also worth pointing out that transmasc dave and dirk are also both headcanons that were as prevalent as transfem roxy. mind you, this isn't a jab at TME culture in the fandom, as i said, it's something that i find notable and really interesting! this is also notable for the context that i'm laying out.

so, with that preamble in mind. regardless of your take on the epilogues, love it, hate it, or something else entirely. the epilogues and hs^2 releasing was essentially the fandom equivalent of a dirty bomb going off, and it created such an irreversible seismic shift in the community.

i remember being in absolute disbelief back in 2019 when i first heard about meatroxy. honest to god i thought people were fucking with me, simply because i've heard so much insane things about the epilogues that my thought process of "so much of this has to be bullshit, right?"

it wasn't.

and there we have an aforementioned schism, because on one end--we have a massive influx of TME people coming in and claiming meatroxy as theirs without any quarter, and on the other end--there's the long-standing transfem populace who are understandably upset at the decision, but any attempt at going "hey, what the fuck?" leads the transfem populace to get trampled underfoot entirely by the new TME influx and/or get talked over completely.

personally, i refuse to touch the epilogues and hs^2 w/ a 50 foot pole. but seeing how VICIOUS people got about meatroxy to the point of saying "if you use she/her for roxy you're a transphobe", outright chasing upset trans women outside the fandom, and essentially outright showing poison dart frog colors of "this was never for you. get out of here". yeah.

while i've personally simmered down about meatroxy over the years--personally idgaf these days, it still sucks to see that a character as interesting and with as much depth as roxy essentially get reduced down to "another strider teehee"

hell! i've had an ex-friend of mine go off on me for viewing roxy lalonde as a basis for my gender identity because i was "seeking comfort in a pre-transition character" (which like. meatroxy is just ONE iteration of roxy across paradox space, they aren't the end all be all of roxy lalonde)

my devil's advocate take is that i do GENUINELY think that something interesting can be done with the idea of transmasc nonbinary roxy! but the epilogues just do it in the most boring way humanly possible, and this is why the "pink dave" sentiment still rings true.

now, learning that (take what i say here with a grain of salt) the epilogue writers genuinely didn't know of just how prevalent the transfem roxy headcanon was does reduce alot of the sting, and has helped me to discard my viewpoint of meatroxy as being a deliberate attack against trans women in the homestuck fandom.

it just sucks because both sides lose, TMEs are clamoring over a scrap of incredibly half-assed rep, and transfems just get shown the door entirely with a very clear statement of "you're not welcome here, missy. leave."

over all, it does really suck being a trans woman in the homestuck fandom bc the trans women here have either been chased out entirely (glancing at what happened to kate mitchell.), or have to deal with their space constantly getting encroached upon by hyperaggressive TMEs in the fandom