#in a way that his arc really deserved to

[asamis-jodhpurs]

noctis lucis caelum wants what garnet til alexandros has

[canisalbus]

I've been following you for years, and I love your art. Seeing you repost your older art pieces reminded me how much I loved the angry, bitter, miserable Machete art and how it resonated with me... but a part of me is also so happy to see the current art of him being happy. Cute art of him as a unicorn, or chilling in a bathtub with Vasco. Like, we're all growing and healing :')

[parcai]

the little mermaid also KILLED by making it caribbean themed like so true actually eric IS the only white guy who washed up on their shores + survived only bc a mother loved him, and then bc a mermaid did. the dancing + music + colors r all sm better + also makes way more sense rip to everyone who hated black ariel ur ken doll prince is the outsider (+ knows it), not miss bailey

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

End of Empathy (time for violence)

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[kiisaes]

So I remember talking to this person and she was basically saying “If it takes Bakugou dying to redeem himself then he’s done too much.” But it doesn’t take Bakugou dying this is just who he is… am I wrong?

i wouldn't take any bakugou anti's argument to heart. the fact of the matter is that bakugou was a childhood bully who grew up and bettered himself. it's like, one of the tamest, most normal redemption arcs ever. he didn't even have to die to complete it, he's just that devoted to deku. which in itself should say enough about his development

[poisonousquinzel]

thinking about just how likely it is that Batman was the only person Harley told about having suicidal thoughts whilst in Arkham in Detective Comics #831

"I was seriously considering hanging sheets from the light in my cell and doing the maximum checkout when I heard this voice..."

Detective Comics #831

and how he knew when she strapped that bomb to herself in Batman (2016) #100 that he had to go after her because she was going let herself die in an attempt to end Joker's rampage for good but that she refused to physically do it because he didn't want to her Kill him and he told her that so she's found a middle ground

"We don't need to end it this way. He needs to be locked back up."

that she'd rather die than keep living with his presence in the world haunting her, haunting Them.

That if he did choose Joker, she wasn't going to disarm the bomb herself.

"Honey. You're talking to the wrong girl if you think he's not dangerous locked up in Arkham. It's like I said. That's not good enough for me. Not anymore."

the way he yells for her as she leaves.

"You're only going to get to one of us in time, Bats. Who's it going to be?"

"Harley!"

the way the two men stare at each other in the way they have so many times before, in those moments when Joker stayed or prioritized their fight over her. the way he knew Joker loved the thrill of it all and thought it was funny, thought there was No way Batman would leave him and that this game had to end as according to the rules. And that Batman would do so, he would follow the rules and save him. The way he immediately assumed Batman would choose him, choose his life and choose to stay and disarm the bomb.

And how Batman didn't do that. How Batman walked away from him, leaving him to die or escape or whatever, because He was choosing Harley and her safety and prioritizing her life over him.

The way he stared him in the eyes before choosing the woman Joker had always left to die over him. The way that it was always Him, it was never a question if he would choose Batman over her, but when faced with that type of scenario, Joker is the one that gets left behind to die.

The way she literally woke up in the hospital instead of them having a scene just outside after he removed it. because she didn't intend to live in one of the two options. the way the bomb probably did go off to some capacity because you don't just end up in the hospital knocked out for a week.

Him saying that he's glad she's okay, after everything they've been through, this war and Everything else. and the way he didn't brush off her concern

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Are you?"

"I had to bury my father again today. I did it with my family."

i just, i can't,,,,, i cant

[luck-of-the-drawings]

oh the dread, oh the worry! you love your sister so much and you need to know shes okay. you trust her but you cant trust the world, and more than anything else you cant trust yourself

[shannonsketches]

something something foils moving in opposite directions Goku's always happy to seek and fight stronger opponents because he spent most of his life being the strongest guy in the room and Vegeta wants to be the strongest/is always exhausted to find stronger opponents because he spent most of his life having to navigate his survival around the whims of the strongest guy in the universe room and so Goku has a foundation of safety and stability and so spends his time craving challenge and adventure and Vegeta has a foundation of challenge and adventure and spends his time craving safety and stability and the overlaid section of their venn diagram is that the only way they know how acquire and maintain those things is through battle

[muppetbyers]

idk man but i think theres such a connection between will being possessed in s2 and like 'what happens when my boy is gone' and will giving the painting to mike under el's name. just like... will being replaced and then replacing himself. and like his entire person was being replaced by the mf, but also everything that he said was from el with the painting and speech was intrinsically his and his alone. and how his arc since s1 has been about hiding but also being right there. and how its all tied to his queerness. and how ideally in s5 this should lead to will not hiding/moving on from his identity and his feelings, but instead embracing them.

[nobodieshero-main]

NOBODY MOVE I'M HAVING POSITIVE THOUGHTS ABOUT MORDRED AND ATLAS.

[notmoreflippingelves]

Hi! I just read your post about Mateo recently. If I may, can you give me any specific instances in the narrative of the show where Mateo isn’t called out as heavily as they should have? I’m just curious?

During the Shuriki returns arc in particular, Mateo makes some pretty glaring mistakes that I feel like he should've gotten much more flack for (and based on what we see elsewhere in canon, I feel pretty confident that if Gabe, Naomi, Isa, or Esteban at least --and possibly even Elena-- had made these mistakes, they wouldn't have been swept under the rug nearly as quickly as they were for Mateo).

While it's unfair to completely blame Mateo for Carla's manipulating him during the "Rita" arc, I feel like it's reasonable to hold him a *bit* accountable. He did after all blab highly confidential information (on more than one occasion) to try and impress a pretty girl with how clever and important he was. (Something tells me that if any of the others had done likewise, they would've been called out for it. But because it's "beloved" Mateo, we don't even get "wait, you told Rita how to get into your workshop? And you've known her for only a few weeks? What were you thinking, Mateo?") Moreover, he never even apologizes for this or promises to do better/be more careful with such important, sensitive information in the future.

Even more aggravating is his behavior in "The Scepter of Night." Mateo is so eager to play the hero and claim all the glory for himself that he twice (!) disobeys a direct order/abandons the plan and goes looking for the scepter piece on his own. This directly leads to Fiero and Victor finding the scepter piece and (temporarily) stealing it. And it's really only due to luck and very conveniently-timed infighting amongst Shuriki's allies that Elena and co. are able to get the scepter piece back. While Mateo does receive some (brief) criticism, it's nowhere near the level that it should be.

Also noteworthy Elena doesn't really get particularly "mad" at him (especially considering how angry we see her get at other characters even for more minor things) . She's not truly, actually angry at Mateo (and Gabe and Naomi are only a bit angrier); she's just a little frustrated and disappointed at him in the moment. And apart from a (very short) little "do better next time" speech, Mateo doesn't face any real consequences or lingering resentment unlike other characters who do.

When Isa obeys direct orders in "Sister of Invention," she has to face consequences (Elena grounding her). Similarly, Elena holds a grudge against Esteban for days (if not weeks) after he interfered with the Feast of Friendship (a much lower stakes mistake than Mateo's imo). Moreover, it's possible to interpret Esteban's staying behind in Avalor when the others go to see the Norberg Lights as a punishment (either self-inflicted or imposed by Elena) for his actions in the previous episode.

In contrast, Mateo just gets a brief "I expected better from you" speech from Elena and Gabe jokingly assigning him push-ups as punishment (which he immediately takes back when Mateo tries to do them). I'll give Mateo a little bit of credit for actually apologizing this time (which he doesn't always do). But it's still frustrating that everyone is so ready to forgive and forget Mateo's missteps immediately while this same courtesy is seldom shown to others.

I think it's worth directly comparing a few Mateo-centric episodes with a few more similar ones that focus on other characters so that we can see how there does seem to be a noted narrative bias in his favor compared to the others.

Let's start with two "feeling kind of insecure" episodes: "Spellbound" for Mateo vs. "Naomi Knows Best" for Naomi. In the former, Mateo expresses doubt that he's capable of rising to the occasion as royal wizard. No one (except Gabe and he gets over it by the end of the episode) blames him for not having reached his full level of confidence and potential right away and not being able to immediately solve the problem. And Elena in particular (and by extension the narrative) gives him so much validation and support. Whereas in "Naomi Knows Best" (and to a lesser extent "Finders Leapers" and the "Carla-as-Rita" arc as well) the narrative "punishes" Naomi for her feelings of self-doubt. We're told that *if only* Naomi had trusted her gut instincts and stood her ground right away, Elena and co would not fallen right into the trap and that Naomi needs to screw her head back on straight and embrace confidence ASAP to fix her mistake.

When Mateo feels insecure, the narrative gives him every reassurance about how capable and special he is, that he can learn at his own pace, and his insecurity isn't really such a problem after all. When Naomi feels insecure, the narrative encourages her to get over her doubts as quickly as possible because unlike with Mateo, there's "no time" for her to wallow in self-doubt and actually the fact that she even had said doubt in the first place is what "caused" the disaster.

On a slightly different note, Naomi is also called out for taking a little free, fun time for herself in "The Last Laugh" when the group needs her, and yet somehow I have a feeling that Mateo would've been allowed to take a day off if he wanted without any protest. He complains about long hours in "Movin' on Up" and Elena gives him the big royal wizard's chambers for him to relax and unwind in. Naomi asks for one (1) day off to spend with her childhood friend for her birthday , and suddenly it's big drama. (And at the time, Naomi asked for said day off, all Elena needed from her was help doing paperwork. The Team Ash stuff came up unexpectedly.)

Similarly whenever Gabe and Mateo get their little rivalry on ("Spellbound," "Party of a Lifetime," "Captain Mateo" and a few other examples) , the narrative either presents them as equally at fault or Mateo as the only one in the right.

When Gabe brings in Bronzino to train the Royal Guards in magic, it's specifically because Mateo failed to explain how and why he was training the guards in the way he was. If he'd just explained how they were going apply the seemingly basic exercise they were doing to real magic, Gabe likely would've allowed Mateo to continue the training at his own pace.

(Also like. it's super hypocritical imo for Mateo to get annoyed at Gabe feeling impatient/impulsive about their apparent-lack-of progress when Mateo himself is easily the second most impulsive character in the show after Elena.) Mateo feels entitled to keep important information to himself (or blab it to a cute girl he barely knows) even when its no one else's best interest. He's only okay with being "cautious and patient" when he specifically is the one setting the pace. And yet, Gabe is the only one who is called out for his behavior in this episode--even though he might not have acted as he did if only Mateo had trusted him and the guards with an explanation in the first place.

And then there's just a few other "dude not cool" little moments that never really get acknowledged/Mateo never apologizes for. For instance, there a two low-key terrifying Mateo moments in "Captain Mateo" that are not only not acknowledged but are also framed in context as Mateo being just "so funny and quirky". Near the end of "Should be in Charge," Mateo magically gags Gabe so he can't protest anymore about Mateo taking over as leader of the mission. And this is after having already enchanted one of the stationary suits of armor to come to life and fight Gabe. (Gabe admittedly does lightly shove Mateo out of the way during his parts of the song, but that's still a far cry from literally drawing a sword on Mateo as Mateo does via magic to Gabe.)

It's played for laughs (The Grand Council is just smiling happily in the background throughout the scene which is so yikes), so it's easy to overlook what's actually happening. Frankly, it's pretty horrifying that Mateo's natural instinct upon his experience/authority being questioned is to literally attack and then silence. (And attack and silence someone who is supposed to be one of his best friends and closest allies at that!)

Rather than the narrative acknowledging that maybe it's a bad idea to immediately grant power to someone to someone who is so retaliatory against fairly minor criticism, the Grand Council just gives Mateo exactly what he wants and doesn't even offer a "maybe next time, let's not gag or attack our friends, okay?" alongside it. I mean sure Mateo does step down as captain at the end of the episode, but it's very specifically presented as his and Gabe's voluntary choice and not an order from Elena/the Council.

[amoxclav]

rereading cheese in the trap (as one does) and genuinely taken aback at how scary jung is in the beginning (and how little i think the story actually manages to 'rehabilitate' him in my eyes by the end)

[thawthebeez]

ah yes, home at last... ON TONIGHT'S SPECIAL: What The Hell Is Tumblr User Thawthebeez Going Crazy Insane About Today?

The winning point Karasuno scored against Inarizaki.

Let's discuss this real fast, because this is once again another VERY IMPORTANT MOMENT that is overshadowed because "omg kagehina touched hands for like 2 frames."

For those who have NO IDEA what the hell I'm talking about and care for a summary: Karasuno is at match point against Inarizaki, a powerhouse school that's favoured to win the Spring Tournament. Stakes are high and the tension in palpable. The ball is on Inarizaki's side, and they're about to send it over. Now, what attack do they choose? Well, it's none other than the Miya twins with their minus-tempo attack. You know, the same one that Kageyama and Hinata do.

This attack is fast. Like, very fast. It literally occurs within the blink of an eye. This isn't an attack that can break through blocks. Speed is its main weapon. It's also an attack that relies on trust. You know, a certain bond between the two players. Because of its speed, the setter and the spiker need to have absolute faith in one another.

All throughout the series we see Kageyama and Hinata figure this out. Hinata isn't a heavy hitter, but he is fast, making this kind of attack perfect for him. And it works for a good long while. It's faster than all the other fast attacks and can evade blocks pretty well. Until it doesn't. And that's when they regroup, developing this attack so Hinata can have some more freedom.

Essentially, Hinata and Kageyama learn that while this freak quick they do is strong, it's not invincible. It's fast, but not unstoppable.

Now what gets me is the fact that the only characters in the ENTIRE SERIES to pull off the minus-tempo attack are Hinata & Kageyama, and the Miya twins.

Just two guys, and twins.

Atsumu and Osamu have known each other their entire lives. That's sixteen years of bonding for you. Not to mention the fact that they're bounded by blood, too. Of course the chemistry they're going to have on the court is going to be insane. They literally have, like, twin-telepathy. Of course they can pull off an attack that happens within the blink of an eye. Of fucking course. The faith that's needed between the setter and spiker has been established since the dawn of time for them.

Kageyama and Hinata met for the first time in Junior High. Their third year of Junior High, by the way. They were also on separate teams, and they played a whopping 31 minute game against each other. They were reunited again at Karasuno, but were immediately at each other's throats. They saw the other as a rival (and they still do now, but it's more of a friendly rivalry as opposed to "I need to utterly destroy this guy"). They weren't even officially on the same team until after they pulled off their freak attack. At the point in which Karasuno plays against Inarizaki, Kageyama and Hinata have only been playing on the same team for less than a year.

The freak quick was developed in a single day. By this point, they don't even have faith in one another, just the point, the "I trust that the ball will come my way" and "I trust that he'll score," and even then, the trust Kageyama put into Hinata was iffy.

Allow me to state this again: the only people to have pulled off the minus-tempo quick attack in the entirety of the Haikyuu series are the Miya twins, and Kageyama and Hinata.

To put this into absolutely utterly batshit insane speak: HINATA AND KAGEYAMA HAVE A BOND AS STRONG AS BLOOD, DARE I SAY STRONGER, BECAUSE IN A SINGLE DAY THEY WERE ABLE TO PULL OFF THE SAME ATTACK THAT LITERAL BIOLOGICAL TWINS CAN. THE ATTACK IS BUILT ON TRUST, AND WHILE THEY MAY NOT HAVE PUT IT INTO EACH OTHER AT THE TIME, THEY WERE STILL WILLING TO GIVE FAITH TO ONE ANOTHER. WHY? SOULMATE SHIT, MAN, IDK.

Like, if we're going back to the first ever quick attack, we're dealing with a Hinata that has been told all his life that a guy like him playing volleyball is a waste, and we've got a Kageyama that's still coping with the events of Junior High. They have absolutely ZERO REASON to trust one another, even if it's just for the single point, but they do anyway because there's at least a subconscious voice- an instinct, maybe, knowing how much these two rely on instinct- that this one, for whatever fucking reason, is okay to trust.

And I think that Tsukishima sums it up perfectly when he mentions that only Hinata and Kageyama could have blocked that attack- that out of anyone, they were the only ones who truly understand that while the attack is strong- while the speed of it is an absolute weapon- it's not invincible.

(the fact that it was both of them, too- the fact that both of their hands were on the ball in that moment- the fact that after everything was said and done they still bickered about who scored that point because that's just who they are, and the fact that in the reality it was both of them who scored. ugh. they just. you get it. you understand)

[gayofthefae]

Remindee that Mike's arc has to do with both Will AND El.

It is not going to be "revealed who it's been about this whole time". No. It is about both of them. Both together and individually.

Romantic love and the inherent payoff that comes with it does not function as a reveal for the overall meaning of the show for him. His love for El is still VERY pertinent.

To separate them in case you don't understand:

A) It's about his struggle with his queerness and feelings for his best friend while in a relationship and a homophobic town, torn and repressing until he learns that that IS something he can have.

B) His first love who grants him deep understanding and teaches him how to love and communicate and that love can survive anything, including a change in nature, and that a true lover always was also a friend and can also be your friend after they are your lover and continue to grant you that understanding because romance does not dictate closeness and you can keep that understanding and love. Things can change and YOU can change and still be worthy and emotionally safe and supported.

He is safe in his identity and he is safe in his personality. And these arcs with these people are not only coexistent but complementary and MUST both exist.

ALSO, it is a wonderful testament to lack of codependency in a relationship and showing via these arcs fulfilled in different places that YOU can be fulfilled in different places and be validated in different ways by different people rather than pressuring one person to be everything for you. His relationship with Will does not erase everyone else in his life from pertinence and so it certainly does not erase El.

Put this in the tags but loved it too much so:

Will validating that Mike is incredibly loved and doesn't HAVE to change and El validating that Mike is incredibly loved and thus is ALLOWED to change >>>>>>

Both are equal and good and not easily done by the same person at the same time! So this is PERFECT. I'm obsessed.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Bestie Deficiency

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[shopcat]

i'd like the rest of your opinion on jet if that's ok i like hearing peoples thoughts on him :)

SORRY i didn't see this okayyy hrm i can do that but i'll stick it under a cut. My rambles.

w the disclaimer that this really is just my opinion which means what my mind has scrambled up with without any prodding at it or outside interference (and i don't really read about or interact w content w jet and never really DID just as a btw) but basically: the way this show frames characters is very deliberate and going beyond the initial projection of who you're "meant" to see them as can be difficult sometimes (not just for this show, i mean in general wrt media analysis), esp when there's nothing else to like... cushion that.

for example iroh is obviously a fan favourite and i love him as a person who loves zuko (in both interps of that sentence), and their dynamic is really important (particularly + the standpoint of iroh being his brother's brother and what that means) but he was also you know, a revered general who lead a years long siege in support of the colonial regime...? this is kind of a mirror of what i'm getting at in that the show doesn't WANT you to or even feels the need to particularly dwell on that, even if his active hand in the war and then the subsequent movement to dismantle it firsthand is significant, because if people dwelt on it they... REALLY wouldn't like him as much on a much larger scale and he wouldn't be the same character anyways. i actually think it's a disservice to say the show doesn't at alllll address this bc i think it's obviously a huge part of who his character is next to zuko even though obviously the children's show is not going to be able to handle colonialism or genocide in a way that doesn't in some way feel flattened obv. anyway.

this is essentially why it took me such a while to warm up to jet even though he is a pretty cookie cutter "look beyond what you see" guy bc i couldn't really DO IT other than holding obviously a lot of sympathy for him and knowing he is deliberately presented as a certain kind of quote unquote extreme product of the fire nation's tyranny, much like hama is as another popular example, even if in real life it would actually be a pretty normal reaction and that hating your oppressors obviously doesn't make you evil. my autistic ass (SORRY) simply has to imagine a world where he can eventually go "i shouldn't have tried to kill an entire village of innocent people My bad" and it's easier to think about it wrt he is also you know, like 16? and obviously a victim. i've mentioned before i struggle with moral scrupulosity and what i consider to be "right" which does affect the things i like in context as well, and jet falls pretty squarely on morally pretty dark, esp in comparison to the other antagonists on the show, but that doesn't make him a villain obv. other than that the show itself presents him as an antagonist meant to cause conflict, and you're meant to sit with what it means to see people driven to such extremes bc they feel they have no choice, but you're not necessarily meant to like him i don't think, especially when you initially meet him. he really comes off as like a Cool Guy who's all charm who uses it to get his way which can feel kind of slimey i s'pose.

thinking about jet in regards to ZUKO is what helped me wrap my brain around him as a whole and soften to his like, harshness i guess bc i think they're good foils for each other. i think without making him necessarily fangless to do it that they're a really interesting duo and i honestly love that he came back to deliberately become an antagonistic figure to zuko as well (even that both "sides" just happened to meet him 😭 like what are actually the chances lol) and that prior to it they were working side by side even for a short time. i honestly wish the show was longer than it was bc i wish he hadn't figured out iroh was a firebender as quickly as he did, or at least hadn't assumed zuko was also one, bc i think it would've been really really interesting to see the behind the scenes conflict of them being friends and working together and jet forming some sort of relationship with zuko and iroh, and THEN finding out they're who he considers inherently immoral and an enemy even though he knows he and zuko are very similar/agree/he trusts them, and what that would mean for him. the initial "he'd just freak out and accuse them of betraying their trust and the same fight happens anyway" would be a natural conclusion but i can also see it NOT happening, bc while jet is an incredibly complex interesting character i think him coming to terms with certain things and shifting his mindset would have been fulfilling for ME at least.

i know that a character doesn't have to "redeem" themselves to be worthy and that moral pureness is not exclusive to being a Good Character and i like plenty of morally grey characters trust me etc etc but i just tend to want to... enjoy engaging characters who reflect my own values enough that it's justifiable WITHIN THE CONTEXT of the rest of whatever's going on in/the relationships of the other characters which is essentially why... he's fine and i like him but he's not my favourite. and what i mean by that is like as in, i love team avatar and i don't think they themselves would be friends with jet entirely as is, but if he was in another setting or situation or show or what the hell ever i honestly wouldn't care as much. i also think it's sort of strange to be like "ha ha you don't like the character who killed/wanted to kill kids" as if that's not like totally normal to be uncomfortable with 😭 anyway. other than all that i really like how he's a retro cool anime character transplanted into the show and i like his dumb mouth grass thing and i think he could've been a cool ally and wish they'd have leant more into his connection and closeness to the freedom fighters esp in ba sing se. i also think the angle that he's somehow kissed everyone in team avatar barring the littles is really fucking funny and they would gossip about him if it wasn't so like, tragic... also i don't think he died i think he can run real fast.

OH edit: one last thing i'll tack on to like the beginning of my own thought process re: the cushioning characters are afforded we see i think actually nothing of jets backstory other than what he says and nothing ELSE of his goal in life other than like, staying alive + keeping his fighters safe + what they stood for and fighting the fire nation. and while that's all like definitely plenty to establish his character it's why i couldn't come around to him as quickly bc i didn't really see the point when regardless of everything i've said i pretty much don't think he WOULD want to "redeem" himself or change as a character in any way and he's kind of just some guy to me so i didn't really want to put the effort in myself. i don't fault anyone who does ofc.