#is automatically bad evil and unreasonable

[venice-1987]

I feel like Ezran would get a lot more grace within the show and the fandom both if they actually leaned into the fact that this is a terrified and angry 12 year old stressed out about how he is going to protect his kingdom that he is simultaneously grieving. Emphasis on terrified.

He could advocate for peace easily from a peaceful throne. That is being tested, and we did get quiet moments between king Ezran and Queen Aanya talking about ruling, but I think he could have also benefitted from quiet moments between kid Ezran and his adult support system (Soren and Corvus).

I also think this would have made the Harrow Bird reveal a bit more impactful. There are two facets to Ezran: him as a king, and him as a kid, which conflict so heavily. Him being tested like this and realizing that Soren was right in saying he was too young for this, and that there is a solution.

[crusherthedoctor]

❤️‍🩹 Writing in general :3

If I ever write a story that portrays badniks as a metaphor for minorities and Eggman as a thinly-veiled caricature of orange man, please shoot me. (This won't be necessary, I have no desire to insert US politics where it doesn't belong.) ("But what about SA2's themes?" Yeah I didn't care for it there either ack ack ack ack ack.) (Also I'm not even American lmao.)

Writing is my release, despite the embarrassment of how long it takes me due to perfectionism. It has been my comfort in a fandom that constantly frustrates me with its frequent and unreasonably popular shitty takes, as well as the ongoing age of Flynn shoving himself into virtually everything. Nowadays, it's also my primary deposit for conveying my interpretation of the characters' portrayals: while I'm no stranger to going in-depth and analyzing, like the Sweet or Shite series, these have always been the exception, as the current fandom era of "if you don't express every thought in a sixty paragraph essay with thousands of likes and reblogs, your opinion is automatically wrong and stupid" is just too grinding, draining, and frankly not fun for me to keep up with. I'll always be enthusiastic about the things that I love, that will never change, but it should never be a job to explain how I feel about this character or that story, and no matter what I say or do, there will always be fans who misinterpret me, dismiss me, or purposefully paint my views in the most bad faith manner possible. With all this in mind, I'm better off spending my time more productively by using my perspective to create out of passion, instead of debate out of "for the millionth time, that's not what I fucking said".

Another incentive for writing, at least for the multi-chapter fics with a focus on action and adventure, is to indulge in my most favourite tone of all. This goes beyond merely being balanced: the specific juxtaposition of a legitimately evil Eggman, with all the darkness and tragedy (for victims) that entails, VS a beautiful and whimsical world with likable characters and plenty of appropriate humor, is sadly not a combination that you often see in fanfics, as they usually lean in completely on one scale (high school AUs, friendly enemy Eggman ala Boom), or the other scale (gratuitous grimdark misery porn ala Prison Island Break or the zombot arc). So as they always say, if you want something done... I also get to convey my personal approach to build up, the different nuances in each character's gesturing and emoting, emphasis on subtle or surreal horror (this one might sound like an informed attribute currently, but it becomes more prominent later on), and of course, portraying the environment with as much character as the actual characters. IDW making every location Generic City Zone made me double down on that last one as a form of protest lol.

Eggman and Trudy are undeniably my favourites to write in Stellar, what with them being my favourite character and my own delicately crafted creation respectively. I'm not ashamed in admitting this, because aside from all writers having their favourites anyway, I don't use it to slack off with the rest of the cast like certain beloved writers who I could name. Even when it's a character who I severely struggle to give a fuck about, like Silver (he's not in Stellar specifically, but I digress), I nonetheless find it important to put as much effort into portraying them accurately and fairly. You also don't see me claiming that Trudy would single-handedly change the entire plot of Forces, instead I let her tug on Sonic's collar with consent. :P

As for the Mario fic, the premise of Eggman turning a different universe inside out has been a really fun experiment in terms of exploring how this unrelated world sees the doctor and vice-versa. Obviously, there's a mutual hatred just like his dynamic with Sonic and Co, but given these are fresh faces from each other's perspective, there are inherent differences in the way that this is conveyed. For instance, Eggman takes notes that Mario is a human who wasn't born with any (conventional) superpowers just like himself, and as such, he displays a more superficially cordial attitude towards him compared to his more obvious contempt towards Sonic... all the while continuing to do horrible shit and not actually respecting Mario as a person, and respecting best girl Vivian even less.

[lizziestudieshistory]

I have most of my free lessons on Mondays (I actually hate it, I'm stuck in the staffroom for hours on end...) Anyway, I took the opportunity to finish Witches: James I and the English Witch-Hunts by Tracy Borman. The only good thing I can possibly say about this is that Borman had a core thesis and went for it. However, it resulted in an atrocious book, some key complaints:

It's only interested in presenting a black and white "evil men" and "powerless female victims" narrative. It only serves to strip the women accused of the little agency they had and dampen the echoes of their voices we've managed to pick up. These women are famously poor, social outcasts and it's hard enough to find out ANYTHING about them without reducing them to "innocent and powerless victims of privileged evil men".

When James is discussed at all, Borman is only interested in character assassination. If this is the only time you've met James VI/I then please, I'm begging you, read something else! James is not a "nice" person by modern standards, but he's not the man presented here. There is a reason he's my second favourite monarch (although I do have notoriously bad taste in monarchs *cough* Charles I *cough*)

This is riddled with unfounded, unsubstantiated claims and speculations. Borman does not have enough research or source material to support most of the "information" presented about the Belvoir witch trial, midlands court cases, the Duke of Buckingham, or English witch-hunts. Considering there IS a ridiculous amount of research on English witches I'm baffled by the limited bibliography and references.

She presents continental European sources to support claims about English witch-hunts. You just can't use Jean Bodin as a source for ENGLISH intellectual thoughts and legal proceedings. His work would have been read over here by the elite, but English and French writing about witches is very different and there are much better sources to consult for how ENGLAND thought about and hunted witches.

Hunting witches does not automatically make someone a sexual predator!!! Just because a profession can attract sadistic people with horrible motives does not mean that EVERYONE in that profession is a monster. I get the impulse, I really do. The witch-hunts are a tragic abuse of power that resulted in the wrongful conviction and execution of innocent people, most commonly poor women. But this is a completely different world to our own and it is NOT unreasonable for these people to sincerely believe in witches and the supernatural! Yes, there was serious doubt in the existence of witchcraft in this period. But is is entirely sensible for someone in this cultural and religious context to believe in witches and want to serve God by hunting them. THIS DOES NOT MAKE IT MORAL OR JUSTIFIED! I repeat, I am not defending witch-hunts. However, I am saying it is contextually rational and understandable! And to reduce the witch-hunts to acts motivated by a desire to enact sexual violence on women makes my blood boil.

It's full of unfocused tangents that do nothing except bog down an already convoluted book. For example, why am I reading about Buckingham's sex life? I love the Duke of Buckingham as much as the next person, but it's not exactly relevant to English witch-hunting?

An under appreciation of Daemonologie? That book is WILD! It's also the most relevant text you could reference for James I's views on witches? Why only mention it once or twice?

Just as a petty note, this did have better referencing than some other books I've read this year... However, reference your work! Over referencing is better than under referencing! Okay?

So, what I've learnt is...I can't read popular history! Great.

[thegreatimpersonator]

Thank you so much for being okay with it, I know how draining this topic can be. I recently saw a post that said "you shouldn't stop being friends with someone just because they did something wrong but actually tell them that they were being wrong because that's just how they're gonna realise it" and I really think that fits with me and taylor. I know she's not my friend but she has had this force in my life for so many years that I basically see her as my friend. That might sound parasocial but I really am not parasocial. I'm not one of the people who are obsessed with her you know speculating on every aspect of her life and thinking you know her so well. What I mean when I say I see her as a friend is that I say stuff like "I love her". Now with the whole stuff that happened this year (m*tty) I wasn't proud of her, I was pretty mad and disappointed. But then there was this "I'm sure she doesn't mean it that way! I'm sure she isn't a bad person! She has done bad decisions but she isn't evil just because she was near that guy doesn't mean she is okay with everything he represents" and I know these thoughts don't justify what she did. But now again I always ask myself if she really did such a bad crime? I know she did something problematic but does that automatically mean she hates pocs, muslims, jews, lgbtq etc people? And I always think the answer to that question is no because she for sure is immature and a white feminist but a people hater? I wouldn't say that. And this is where I don't know what to feel about her because I don't want to hate her or unstan her for that one month nonsense and I probably won't but these thoughts always come up in my head. It's mostly because of the fact that she had such a big impact on my life and she's known for being one of the kindest celebrities so it'd beweird to think that that was always a lie. And now back to the quote I mentioned up there. I really think it represents my "relationship" with taylor cause sure she's not a real friend she doesn't know me and I don't know her but in this case if we say she'd be my friend I shouldn't just stop being friends with her which means unstanning her but actually tell her she's being wrong for her to be better next time. And I know holding her accountable doesn't make a difference in her life unless it's just the minority who does it but at least I have a great feeling that I'm able to hold people accountable that I really like. Look I'm 20 years old and without sounding parasocial I really do lover taylor. I wish she'd understand she did something wrong and apologise for it but at the same time if almlsy no one tells her that she's not gonna find that out. I know she's a grown adult who should be able to see what's right and wrong but I have such a weak spot for her that I would just be worried for her no matter what she did. For example this whole overexposure of her life right now. I know she knows what she's doing but I just can't stop myself from being worried for her because I don't want her to get hurt in any sense.

I could talk about this forever but I will stop here otherwise you're going to freak out. But I just want to know if I'm being unreasonable or if my worries are justified

I completely understand what you mean. I think that whole situation with M*tty really was the breaking point for a lot of people, a lot of people finally saw her as the performative person she can be. Her getting on a stage and calling herself an ally all while dating someone who says slurs and spews hate speech was truly insane to me and a lot of others.

I agree with what you said about how her having whatever that moment was with him doesn’t mean she meant any direct harm to those groups, it’s not even comparable to what he does, but it is still inexcusable and hurtful. And that’s where the complex and conflicting feelings come in.

If you love something you want it to grow and better itself, whether it’s people or whatever else, we have no idea who Taylor truly is as a person, but we love what we believe the concept of Taylor is and we care. I dont think it’s a dangerous thing to be that level of parasocial, she’s told us for over a decade that she cares about us and we’ve done things as a collective that show we care about her. It’s not strange at all to want to her to better herself in these aspects of being a better person.

I think it all comes down to being a responsible, mature consumer of media and fandom. No one is going to be perfect and spotless in the eyes of everyone, but particularly celebrities bring it to a very problematic level. Celebrities are public figures and their actions have such stronger affects than the average person, plus whatever they present publicly is what they are okay with being in their life, so Taylor showed she was okay with that man’s terrible behavior. I think to remember that and acknowledge that she is very much a white feminist who does not stand up for others and can be very hypocritical at times is a really healthy mindset to have, acknowledge she definitely has her flaws and not see her as a perfect god, not give her the benefit of the doubt when that just means turning a blind eye to her harmful actions and making up excuses for her. No human being is immune to criticism.

As long as you can acknowledge all of her flaws and not be one of those fans who defends her at every turn and ignored the red flags she has constantly waved in the air then it’s perfectly fine to remain a fan. It’s still completely reasonable to have empathy for her and be worried about her well being or what might happen in the future due to this insane over exposure that’s happening. You don't wanna see someone who might have helped you through so many rough times go through one themselves. It’s complicated and that’s perfectly fine, one day you can love her and others she can do some things to piss you off, there can be mixed emotions.

[crystalmaiden77real]

The Hypocrisy and Selfishness inherent to being a Purist:

From someone who prefers Sonic's source material on paper and grew up with only it, here's what's wrong with being a purist of a franchise while thinking it's objectively the only way you should be about it, especially a purist of just the source material.

Belief 1: That it’s always fair to compare other continuities with their source material, even if they weren’t actually based on the source material and instead a different continuity, that anything that can only be appreciated if you ignore its source is inherently bad, because the source made enough money to produce it and you were expecting it to be like the source material.

The hypocrisy: When that belief is never applied to every franchise ever such as Mario it proves they know it can be no fun to have it, and when that belief leads to getting offended with someone for comparing other continuities with their source material with the conclusion that the source material was outdone by one of them. It’s supposed to be perfectly fair to compare continuities with the original one.

  What’s unreasonable is acting like it’s only okay to compare in a way that’s favorable to the source material, even though agreeing with the above statement automatically opens that thing up to being allowed to be unfavorably compared. People believing that it’s never fair to compare them would prevent that. If they really respected this belief and they weren't just purists because of personal preference for how one series should be, they would apply it to themselves and say they’re fake Mario fans for liking Peach in the new movie.

  The problem with the purist belief that preferring one adaptational change inherently means you probably outright hate the source material is that it’s making an unlikely assumption about/demonizing a stranger’s different opinion just because it’s a different opinion no matter how trivial the change is which is opinionated and it relies on ignoring that there have been countless examples of adaptations having better ideas than the source material and countless beloved inaccurate adaptations.

  So inevitably those same game purists would still be fans of at least one of those better ideas and loose adaptations and make hypocrites out of themselves because they don’t apply this 100% accuracy belief towards for example the new Mario movie for having Peach not be like her game self. They can choose to not watch media in a purist way because they would’ve hated that movie otherwise. So it brings into question why they should keep being like that with anything else. If it was a good belief they’d be applying it everywhere.

  Shrek is an easy example because it’s famous and beloved so they probably like it, although Harry Potter is even better for what point I was making before this because at least from what I've heard both the movies and source material are good, but you'll see why I mention Shrek instead in a moment. Shrek wouldn’t have been popular as a film if it was even 99% like the book where Shrek was cartoonishly evil and invincible and so was Fiona who was a monster from birth.

Even if it could’ve been it certainly wouldn’t have been a multiple film franchise because how do such evil characters demand a sequel? Shrek 2 made sense to be made because it was made based off the change that Fiona’s got parents now and the main cast don’t relish in everyone’s disapproval now so Shrek 2 was about Shrek meeting them and being unhappy they disapprove.

  A sequel to a movie just like the book would be the same plot because all Shrek and Fiona wanted to do was terrorize people in the first place which limits them creatively. That’s not even mentioning other examples like Harry Potter, Jaws, Jurassic Park, the Lord of the Rings. You wouldn’t even be able to like the new Mario movie if you applied game purist standards to it because Peach isn’t like she is in the games there and they don’t always remember to have the power-up get lost instantly after someone gets hit and Mario hid from Bowser in the final fight.

  That’s why game purism is bad, it’d greatly reduce the amount of works of fiction you’d like by like 70% if you were always like that because you’d hate every adaptational change on principle, ignoring that the retaining of a series’ appeal is just one of several writing components. If something is bad just because you should take it on its own merits, that’d mean Shrek movies were bad solely based on that, and the new Mario movie.

The problem is this belief only exists when it comes to series where you overvalue every aspect of the source material, which is based on subjective feelings not fact, but aren't loving enough of the series to be forgiving of its adaptations. Sonic X is hated by game purists and one of the reasons for that is that they overreact to there being 2 worlds instead of one and the main characters having to be sent to a world that two of the games take place in, but the new Mario movie does the same thing, and suddenly it's fine there.

Even though every other Western adaptation of Mario also went with this idea that Mario's really from Brooklyn, because he's human not a Toad so it's realistic. That's the same logic for Eggman being from a separate planet than Sonic! And it'd be the same thing they demonize with Westerners thinking they know better than the Japanese and changing the source material, so they must have watched that movie accepting that they can be right about that sometimes or they would've hated its entire beginning.

Belief 2: Everything should be 99% like the source material just because it’s the source so any time a continuity “ breaks the rules “ it’s immoral, so mandates are good because they’re usually required to try to achieve this.

The hypocrisy: The idea that mandates should always exist to restrict characters from being too different from the source isn't applied to every series because it shouldn't be. It only makes sense (and even then is bad as it prevents potential improvement and positive reaction from the majority) for series whose characters do have enough creative potential to last more than one story and enough appeal as they are, it ignores that it would’ve screwed over Shrek, for example. So this belief can’t be believed in for every franchise so it has to lead to purists being hypocrites. So what’s so great about it? Of course Sonic has better source material than Shrek, that’s missing the point, that’s our opinion.

  I'm certain that Sonic's source material is objectively good as well but at least I'm willing to acknowledge that I could be wrong and it's just an opinion! They believe that because of THEIR subjective feeling of overattachment to the source material leading to their very subjective belief that only its way is the right way on everything! This is why I call these Beliefs and not Facts of Life like they think they are!

If the new Mario movie was mandated like that then Peach would’ve been the one kidnapped instead of Luigi and been how she is in the games and that’d be controversial for the average person who would’ve preferred it to not be like the games by doing something creative.

  Mandates restrict creativity which can lead to good stories in the eyes of MOST people who won’t mind mandates being broken because they’re not picky like purists who are anti-creativity inherently. A franchise is supposed to make money and it’d be far less profitable to only do stuff that pleases a tiny portion of the customers. If breaking a mandate makes millions happy that would go on to be loyal customers if they weren't already, good! There’s many franchises that had adaptational changes be good ideas, and so the world would be worse if their belief was always enforced.

  This gets especially ridiculous when their belief is applied to a franchise that started in a country that it’s always unpopular in meaning that it’d be financial poison for the continuities to only pander to and make it too clear that they’re from the home country of its source material. Purism is selfish, because it’d be absurd of a company to alienate most of its fanbase, but the purists I'm thinking about talk like they're entitled to that happening by having the whole franchise be only like the one thing they like.

Belief 3: Only the source material should get to do new ideas, therefore every new idea that other continuities introduce is inherently bad. You have to be hating their ideas so often even for such petty reasons it looks like you only want to find excuses to trash them because they’re not the games. Even ideas in other continuities that are functionally the same as the ones in the source material are bad when they're done the exact same way in practice.

The hypocrisy: Their belief that you should always like new ideas from the games, which they can only justify with an opinion about the games. They proceed to demonize people not liking a new idea the source material has like the Deadly Six, complaining about closed-mindedness as the most closed-minded people ever to talk about the series. They’re complaining about closed-mindedness but if that didn’t exist anymore then game purism wouldn’t exist anymore. If you’re closed-minded enough you won’t even like the games.

  So why should game purism get to be the exception? Game purism is about encouraging being closed-minded when being that way prevents you from even liking what they like! They are personally offended plenty of times themselves at closed-mindedness! They should know an inherently closed minded opinion is bad then! How is it only okay to never have an open mind and be in good faith about one particular thing then, when doing so is required to be a fan of Sonic games because it’s required to become a fan of anything?

  They feel entitled to people being open-minded of what they like no matter how controversial but they don’t do the same. They justify “ because it’s the source material you should like whatever is from it “ because they’re too fanatical about it but won’t accept “ because it’s from the Archie comic you should like it, “ because of their opinion about the comic, their subjective feeling. They’d know it was silly to like literally any idea in a comic with that excuse, because not everyone likes the comic so fanatically, so how do they not realize how silly THEY’RE being?

When they don't hate ideas in the games that were actually done in other continuities first, it really makes them look like hypocrites. Sonic the Comic did a lot of things the games went on to do; having Amy stop showing her crush on Sonic and act level-headed, having her fight with a weapon, having the Chaos Emeralds come from ancient aliens who were using them for power. There are so many examples of Older than it Looks.

All of these things don't cause game purists to say it ruined whatever game they appeared in, but if they saw the same thing in the comics they'd go apeshit. You don't really hate an idea if you'd like it if the source material did it the same way. It's also hypocritical to think the source material can contradict itself all it wants but the minute it's contradicted by the adaptations it's the end of the world.

 The hypocrisy 2: They still keep wishing for and demanding only an adaptation that’s at least 99% like the games, despite the above belief meaning they would turn on the adaptation the second it did anything new because that's what exactly like the games means. I doubt they’d believe you if you tell them this though because that truth is too depressing for them to handle since they have to be too emotional to think like a game purist, as that requires overreacting to every adaptational change. Even if it did never have any new ideas and somehow they never got bored by that, only they would like it which would be financial poison to the company.

  The point of seeing a new story is to get a new experience. Most people won’t accept just new dialogue for a billion stories in a row. That’s not a matter of thinking the old ideas are boring already, anyone would get bored of even the best idea after enough times and there’s no point in seeing the same story again! That’s common knowledge, but being too emotional makes that too hard to accept. Being so sensitive that you so easily assume that one could think the games’ ideas are boring implies a lack of confidence in them to not be boring, because otherwise why would you ever be able to consider that? I didn’t!

Belief 4: Everyone who writes other continuities have to fully experience the original first to be qualified, not doing research is an unforgivable offense.

The hypocrisy: But not doing research on other continuities before insulting story-specific details or characters is fine with them even though that ignorance can lead to the wrong conclusion. If you don’t even know a character you won’t know if you’re looking at an Out of Character Moment that even the fans hate. They don’t want to dedicate their free time to experiencing all of an adaptation. But how does only their free time matter, why doesn’t it matter what writers want to do with theirs? It’s selfish.

  Some people don’t have the free time to fully research and have completely memorized source material and wouldn’t think that sounds fun. Someone who would might not be a good writer since fans can still misinterpret a series. Not everyone has enough free time to play all of one game, not everyone has to want to spend all of their free time playing a video game, and there’s over 70 Sonic games. So for a long-running comic claiming to have the games in its past, the problem is that the comic claimed that in the first place.

  And that is what would be the case with an adaptation just like the games and yet they still demand this holy grail. Game purists are too pro-Sega of Japan to admit Sega’s the only one you should blame for not providing all of the information as the authority figure who has it. Even then that’d be too much information to memorize all at once so there would still be a few mistakes. Why should the writer bore himself reading all the information every single time he writes a new story? Imagine doing that for Archie.

   Expecting to have any writer who played all of the games no matter how hard they are let alone have them memorized permanently IS unreasonable. It sounds like it’d be nice if all the writers played all of the games, but that’s not a guarantee of quality and there is too much continuity in the games to not get wrong now. It was less unreasonable when there were only a few games.

  But back in the 90s how was a non-gamer supposed to be able to beat Sonic 2 let alone know cheating devices exist to make that easy? Most people can’t beat Sonic 2 because of its final boss arena having no Rings. Not on the first try for sure. Google didn’t exist until 1998, so no the writers couldn’t just have looked up game lore on the internet.

So again this belief is rooted in selfishness and entitlement. And if you have a bad memory you’re still going to forget things about the canon, so being a fan doesn’t matter. Flynn still made continuity errors in Archie and he used to buy it.

  A Sonic fan would have bias and could have misinterpretations, bad opinions, and then he’d want to mold the series accordingly, so either way it’d result in adaptational inaccuracy but this would be even more annoying since he’d have no excuse! The writer not being a Sonic fan is the only way to avoid that. The same people who acknowledge that a writer being a Sonic fan can backfire will not see the irony in then being mad that a writer ISN’T writing like a fan of the Sonic series or didn’t play a game before adapting it. You can’t have it both ways.

  For example the reason Amy was written in Frontiers’ English dub to say she’ll share her love with the world is that Flynn is tired of her crush on Sonic because she’s never going to get to date him. He said this on his podcast. The counterargument is you’re supposed to appreciate the fangirl crush in theory because it reminds us Sonic is cool and at least she’s happier than she would be normally when around Sonic and this is a part of who Amy is so she's even recognizable.

  Someone who didn’t know the series wouldn’t have written that because he wouldn’t have enough exposure to the crush to form an opinion about it. You’re less likely to get tired of a fundamental idea about a series with no personal exposure to it. Even a non-fan can still figure out what’s good about an idea in a series. It’s ideal to hire someone who would.

It'd be ideal to hire someone who knew what was good about everything fundamental about the source material, who also is creative in every story he writes. Adding new ideas on top of the foundation of the source material doesn't make the foundation go away, obviously. This is why Canon Foreigners are not adaptational changes, they're adaptational additions.

What really makes one a purist is thinking that it DOES, to the point of refusing to acknowledge adaptations that are almost just like the source material because of a few changes that don't affect the plot.

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Sonic Now go look at how horribly Sonic sells in Japan, and how " it should only be Japanese " exclusionary bullcrap would kill the series if it was started and indefinitely continued.

[algerian-lady]

Kamal Daoud, a NeoHarka.

(long text)

I was scrolling on the Algeria tag the other day and found ppl mentioning and praising Kamal Daoud for a prestigious literature award he received in France, and let me tell you that us Algerians are always proud of our ppl and celebrate them before anyone else, okay? But I have seen no Algerian praise Kamal Daoud ever, on the contrary ever since his novel went out, I've only heard criticism towards him (which is even why I know of him to start with)

So let me get it clear, I know it may seem from an outside perspective as an Algerian empowered by being recognized in France with a prestigious award. But if you know anything about France and it's attitude towards Algeria and Algerians (immigrants and Diaspora), then this award takes a whole different proportion.

For anyone who doesn't know, Algeria had been colonized by France for 132 years, Algeria fought 8 hard years (and many more before that) to finally get back it's freedom, no less than 1. 5 million were martyred. France never quite digested the loss of Algeria, not only it was the one that got away but Algeria's efforts were able to liberate most of Africa and it had worked ever since then to fight foreign interference and néocolonialisme, this all made it targeted by French hate.

I'm not joking when I say that France took a comically villainous antagonist role in the contemporary history of Algeria and post independent Algeria had wanted nothing but to cut any links they had with France because of the neocolonialist tendencies and toxic behavior, France on the other hand wants nothing but to control us and get whatever they want from us for free. Whenever Algeria tries to cut links however, France exerces pressure on the country to force us to submit. One example is the early years when Boumediene was drawing away, France started literally lynching Algerians to get our attention. Yes, it's that bad.

France is a neocoloniser, I can't stress this enough, all the things they have done since the 60's to harm our country make their intentions pretty clear and straight forward. They oppress Algerians and mistreat our Diaspora, yet their media is obsessed with Algeria and keep blasting shit about it 24/7, if anyone talks shit about Algeria or plans to induce harm to the country or people, they must be sure that France will back them up and support them, on the other hand, the country vehemently fight off any justice that is to be given to Algeria.

With all of this in mind, why would France reward the efforts of an Algerian citizen and even give him its nationality, in a time where there's a prominent anti-Algerian feeling in France and when other Algerians (as talented may they be) struggle sm to get the nationality when they try to obtain it?

I think that everybody has the right to talk shit about their own country and openly criticize it, okay? As long as it's constructive criticism and not destructive payed agent shit, Kamal Daoud had that right and exerced it in Algeria, but suddenly he turned French and Algeria became some kind of an evil country he needed to purge and expose for all of the wrong reasons. This man goes to French tvs saying that "Algeria separate us, and France unite us", he spent all his life in Algeria, a country who suffered from French neocolonialism.

Still, I think he's free to do as he pleases, be as French as he wants but still we all know here why he was chosen to be French, why anyone who is eager to speak garbage about Algeria is automatically protected by French law and given a platform and the nationality. To apply their neoharkism at its fullest. French media say that Algeria is being unreasonable, because the new government (and hey I'm not saying it's perfect) but it tries to "give Algeria back it's dignity" by making other countries respect its sovereignty and treat us as equals, this doesn't please France that used to benefit from the past decade of corruption and they aren't allowed to take advantage of us anymore so this is when media comes in handy and they just love them a polémico.

Kamal Daoud is a controversial character today in Algeria for good reasons, he is someone who was praising the decade of civil war in Algeria (where more than 45k ppl died) because it was enjoyable for him (when other journalists were targeted and killed by pseudo-islamists supported by France, an otherwise Islamophobic country), then the man goes on to write about the black decade. As if that wasn't bad enough, the man who claimed his story was fictional, was actually not at all.

Kamal Daoud's award winning novel Houris is actually the story of a real life terrorist victim Saada, who was seeing Kamal Daoud's wife, a psychiatrist, and told her story as a patient, she did not consent for it to be published in any way or shape or form. She found out second hand that he had written about her, from acquaintances who figured it was her from the strikingly resembling details. This woman is now gonna take legal actions against the author as she should and said she'll write her autobiography because his biography was ill- intentioned and offensive. What does French media has to say? It warns against defamatory compaign against its protégée, I swear they are laughable.

Not only is Kamal Daoud offensive to Algerians with his declarations, we figured out right away that he was chosen for political reasons (being a French agent, jokingly a NeoHarka), but he had also personally hurt individuals like Saada, and is accused for the plagiat of his first novel by another Algerian author.

Tbh we have great authors, these never rarely get rewarded, the only ones who do aren't even well liked. I hope justice is given, but please next time before you go and think that France has done something positive for Algerians, think twice.

[sawyer-is-eepy]

yeah, this. I was abused by a narcissist, I lived through that "narc abuse" shit. and yeah, it fucking sucked!!!! and that person is a POS and everytime they get brought up I get unreasonably upset. I have trauma surrounding it, it's triggering. but you know what? I still support narcissists. it's not their fault their brain works the way it does. and yeah, abusers of the abuse I went through typically are narcissists. and yeah, it's helpful to have a way to describe that abuse. but anyone is capable of that abuse!! there's no such thing as depressed abuse, even though depression can cause people to abuse. narcissists aren't all automatically abusers and treating them like they are is... so ableist. yeah, narcissists who abuse are assholes. but helping narcissists find things like a good support system and therapy and help and love, whatever they need to be a better person, is so so vital. even if narcissists WERE all abusers, abusers can recover, and would-be abusers can learn to not be like that before something happens. they are not all inherently bad.

OP's point still stands, though. just because we should help narcissists who have abused doesn't mean we should enable them, or that narcissists are automatically exempt from like, not being dicks. just like with my ADHD- yes, my brain makes it PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for me to be as functional as someone w out ADHD would. I CAN'T be on top of things that way, I CAN'T focus that way, I CAN'T exist that way, basically. but that doesn't give me a pass to just forget important things or dates, or give up on school. instead, I find ways to do those things that work for me. I set reminders that I know I will see and I double check everything. I doodle in class to help me focus and talk to my teachers or classmates about notes I missed. I still make an effort to learn habits that will help me achieve the same thing in the long run. I find ways to work WITH my brain that benefit me and the rest of society, and I find ways to help them understand that I am learning.

I sympathize w those w NPD because I know what it's like to constantly be told it's an excuse when you tell people "oh, I'm sorry I have [x] disorder." but you can't let that anger consume you otherwise it'll become true. if you know you need to get better but haven't taken the steps, I hope you can soon and I'll be rooting for you!! take little steps. for those currently on the path, I'm proud of you. deep going, you're doing well. for those who've mostly got it but still slip up sometimes, it's alright. mistakes happen. don't linger on it but don't brush it off. mistakes are bound to occur but it doesn't make you horrible. I'm proud that you even made the move!!

every single person who has NPD that struggles with it deserves the same things people without it who struggle with similar issues do. they've got an extra step to the path of learning to be that everyone else. an extra layer to unpeel. this doesn't mean they're entitled to be a douchebag always and forever, nor does it mean you have to facilitate that yourself. but it can and should happen.

point is, those with stigmatized disorders are still here. they're not like some carnivorous plant that will automatically stop begging for blood if you just ignore their pleas. it'll only get worse, and eventually, the plant will eat YOU! and yes I just made a little shop of horrors analogy, shut up it works. if you just keep poking and prodding the beast and expecting it to just take it, the beast is only gonna get more violent. the lucky thing about this scenario though is that those with NPD AREN'T these big evil monsters. sure, they can be. you might even be alright to say that they often are! but I'd argue a large portion of WHY they're such "beasts" is because society has constantly rejected them and provided them no help. given them a puzzle without the pieces and gotten upset when they ask for help.

ppl w/ NPD are neurodivergent, thus they have it harder than the average NT person. we respect them. we give them support and help them manage the world because they have to learn it differently than we do. t

there is a way.

PSA: No one is obligated to treat you kindly if you've already decided you're somehow above the effort of doing the same because of your alleged disorders/past traumas. If someone venting about their experience with a particular style of abuse strikes a nerve and feels personal to you, that actually says a LOT about you. Cuz people who walk around the pool are not the ones who get bent out of shape when the lifeguard yells at someone to stop running.

[lifewithnpd]

Narcissistic Personality Disorder; a summary

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is a cluster b personality disorder characterised by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, an excessive need for admiration and attention, hypersensitivity to criticism and a dimished ability to empathise with others.

The DSM-5 describes people with NPD as having at least five of the following nine criteria:

A grandiose sense of self-importance

Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

Believing that they are "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)

Requiring excessive admiration

A sense of entitlement (unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with their expectations)

Being interpersonally exploitative (taking advantage of others to achieve their own ends)

Lacking empathy (unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others)

Often being envious of others or believing that others are envious of them

Showing arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissistic_personality_disorder)

NPD develops either in youth or early adulthood, and the symptoms are pervasive and rigidly persistent over time. While some people may show signs of narcissistic behaviour, this does not guarantee that they qualify for a diagnosis of NPD. It is only if these qualities cause "significant impairment" and are "inflexible, maladaptive and persisting" that a diagnosis of NPD could be considered.

Associated Features: People with NPD tend to exaggerate their accomplishments and skills for admiration or praise. They have a sense of personal superiority, and this may cause them to look down on others.

Furthermore, people with NPD are more likely than others to respond with anger when presented with rejection or perceived criticism. People with NPD are vulnerable to feelings of shame and worthlessness over minor incidents in daily life, and imagined insults.

Causes of NPD While there is no proven specific causes for NPD, there are a combination of risk factors from biological, socio-environmental and psychological factors, including genetics, neurobiology, trauma, abuse and parenting styles.

Some key terms Narcissistic Supply- a type of admiration, interpersonal support or sustenance drawn by an individual with NPD from people around them. Sometimes referred to as an attention supply.

Idealisation and Devaluation- people with cluster b personality disorders often see the world in terms of everything being either strictly good or strictly bad. Idealisation is seeing someone as perfect and wonderful, whereas devaluation is seeing someone as evil and inferior. This is not controllable by the narcissist or person with the cluster b pd, and often comes from 'splitting', which is when someone does something to trigger the person with the pd's fears of either criticism, abandonment or rejection.

Some words on the term 'narc abuse' and why perpetrating this idea is harmful The term 'narc abuse', or 'narcissistic abuse' is harmful and ableist. You wouldn't call abuse by someone who happened to be autistic, 'autistic abuse'. People with NPD cannot help their diagnosis. While there are people with NPD who can be abusive, this is true of anyone in the population. Lack of empathy does not make someone a bad person. A sense of self-importance and hypersensitivity does not make someone a bad person. Stop demonising people for something they ultimately cannot control.

DO NOT. AND I REPEAT. DO NOT. DIAGNOSE ANYONE BASED ON THIS POST. PEOPLE SHOULD NOT ARMCHAIR DIAGNOSE OTHERS AS HAVING SERIOUS PERSONALITY DISORDERS. IF YOU'RE SERIOUSLY WORRIED ABOUT SOMEONE, CONSULT A PSYCHIATRIST.

Thanks so much for reading! If you liked this post give a person with npd some supply by leaving a comment, liking or reblogging!

Have a great day everyone! xoxo halo

[anarchy-and-piglins]

Btw /genq are you a c!dream apologist?

This was a really weird question to get like dsjdhhghfjq what have I possibly posted to give you that impression?? I don’t feel like I post about Dream all that much (unless I’m writing meta about Techno and Dream’s relationship). ANYWAY:

Short answer: no

Long answer: I hate the term apologist with a burning passion and do not trust people who use it unironically because thinking any character could be held to a standard where all their actions are automatically apologized because you like them is super sus. Everybody does good and bad things.

(Using the term jokingly is another matter. I will jokingly claim I’m an emduo apologist because it’s funny and because I love Phil and Techno an unreasonable amount, they’re allowed some war crimes as a treat uwu When it comes to serious meta though, I know they both have flaws and have done things that are Wrong)

I miiiight consider myself a c!Dream sympathizer only in some regards. I’m pretty open about my views on the prison and my belief how no crime justifies violation of basic human rights. What happened in there was just generally fucked up, period. I’m also not a big fan of portraying c!Dream as doing bad things ‘for the lols’ or because he’s ‘just evil’, though that has less to do with my own feelings about his character and more about how this is something directly contradicted both by the lore and the meta. c!Dream has very strong internal motivations for why he commits the atrocities he does, which have convinced him they’re for the nebulous ‘Greater Good’. And that’s what makes him an interesting villain, so I don’t like to see that reduced to ‘c!Dream evil abuser because evil’.

Though the greatest bottom line is I don’t really care too much for c!Dream either way beyond his interactions with Techno because I’m biased lmao ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[padawanlost]

Its ironic. People say that the views and opinions of people like you (and me), i.e defending Anakin and being critical of the Jedi without actually hating them are the norm. The same people talk about "holding him accountable" for his actions is if it were a new and radical idea: but when you suggest any other character is responsible for THIER actions, they become angry and saying that you "think the Jedi deserved to be killed". Apparently he;s the ONLY character who is to be deemed responsible for his actions. Anway, such people claim they are presenting uncommon opinions and going against the mainstream.

Yet they get thousands of notes within days, and we're lucky if we get 300. That alone says that they're not the minority and thier views are the norm.

That’s because (self)victimization sells. Saying people are “ruining your fandom experience” is much more interesting than saying ‘I don’t agree with these opinions’.

As for what you said about ‘jedi hate’, we don’t even have to get into fandom territory to understand how unreasonable the arguments are. We just have to look at the Dave Filoni and how the fandom perception of him and his work have changed in recent years.

When The Clone Wars premiered he was hailed as the savior of star wars, the guy who could do no wrong. There were petitions for him to take over SW.  But now he’s evil because he confirmed in recent interviews what he already had said years before and what his show was pretty blatantly about: the Jedi Order was flawed. Not evil, not bad, not deserving of cruel and untimely that….just…flawed.

Yet, this was more than some fans could handle so now he’s a Jedi Hater too. Anyway, I’ve been a PT fan for almost 20 years now I’ve never seen anyone say the Jedi were evil and/or deserving of genocide. but, yeah, if you list to a certain group of tumblr fans, anyone who points anything remotely negative, even a small detail, about a the jedi order they automatically becomes jedi haters who want the jedi dead.

When you thrive on that mentally – all or nothing (the jedi were PERFECT or EVIL) – I guess it does seem like everyone else is against you.

[butwhatifidothis]

I also think that part of the reason why the church gets so much hate is because of how much general distrust there is in organized religion in real life. Like I went into Three Houses trying to keep an open mind and during White Clouds I really couldn't see what was so heinously wrong with the church even during the Lonato thing that made the institution so much worse than what Edelgard was inciting. I could be totally wrong but I was under the impression that Rhea didn't squash the insurrection because they were a part of the Western Church but because they were actively rebelling and, on top of that, Lonato was bringing civilians into the conflict. That, along with the fact that Rhea knows for an absolute fact that the goddess existed and that she herself is old as dirt (trauma included) makes her decisions make a lot of sense.

I'm playing through AM with my friend who's never played before and they IMMEDIATELY said they distrusted the church because Jeralt doesn't like Rhea (for understandable reasons but my friend also ignored his very sus behavior of not explaining literally anything to Byleth) and because organized religions must be inherently bad.

It’s something that’s heavily related to a player’s inability to separate the reality of their specific circumstances with those of the fiction they’re consuming. They implant their experiences onto things that are only somewhat related and then extrapolate “facts” about the fiction that are, many times, actively shut down and/or disproven by that fictions lore or story or plot.

And, like, it’s normal to relate fictional things to your personal stories if you see connections to them. I’d wager a good amount of people find some aspect of a character they like/love that sticks out to them specifically because of a similarity they share of some kind, whether big or small. I know of people who’s fave superhero is The Flash because The Flash is fast and they ran track and hey, that’s cool, a superhero who’s ability is running really fuckin’ fast and I wanna be really fuckin’ fast. To use myself as an example, I can relate to the struggles Claude specifically has with race because many of the things he says correlate very well to my personal experiences with race. So, going by that line of logic, the opposite is clearly going to happen as well; there are many villains, or characters of either or neither allegiance towards good and evil, who have traits that personally affect someone in a negative way.

But here’s the thing about that... Claude and I have similar experiences with race. He’s still a prince, and I’m still someone who’s never seen above the poverty line in terms of income. He’s never had to live off a box of Whoppers he happened to find under his bed for three days to hold off until the food stamps come in because there’s just no food and no money to get any food. And on the flip side, I’ve never had people try to kill me just cuz I’m mixed. I’ve never felt the pressure of having to lead thousands of people to safety or have them die, directly due to my inability to lead them well enough. We still have extremely different lives and I can acknowledge those differences when looking into his character, regardless of whatever connection I may have with him otherwise, and that’s where these people fail in terms of critically consuming 3H as a piece of media.

These people - understandably, to an extent - look at Rhea, this devout religious woman who heads a major religious institution, and they automatically connect the language she uses as a devout religious person to the negative experiences they personally had with religion... without acknowledging the differences between the two. They see Rhea and they don’t see a bisexual who surrounds herself with and gives shelter to former criminals, foreigners, and people in need of a home while asking for little in return - they see their local pastor, or some other religious leader/person, who’ve done them wrong, and thus Rhea hates gay people, she hates POC, she’s a zealot and unreasonable and she’s this terrible person with no redeeming qualities. And this isn’t me arm-chair psychology-ing these people - they poke fun at themselves about how much they let their personal experiences cloud their judgement of the game and its characters with bingo cards for liking Edelgard having “raised with religion” be one of the slots and things like that. 

And really, why else would “religious institution led by white-presenting race of people” be automatically turned into “racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and violent to any who aren’t their religion” when 1) one of the main characters - the one calling Rhea racist - himself eventually says that racial diversity fits well and snug in the Seiros faith, 2) not only is the leader and founder of the religion a bisexual woman, but no one says anything about having their love be confined to one specific gender anywhere, with heavily coded LGBT relationships like Shamir+Catherine and Dorothea+Petra being just as LGBT coded in SS - where Rhea can potentially come back as archbishop - as anywhere else - hell, when one of the most devout followers of Rhea clearly is romantically interested in her and faces no repercussions or consequences for openly being so despite being female herself, and 3) the Church only ever uses violence when either called from the outside for help or forced to when outside forces try to attack them? Why are we hearing all of these awful things about the Church when it sometimes is never even implied? 

It’s in large part due to religion being such a sensitive part of people’s lives that they are unable to disconnect their personal experiences with religion with the fictional religion the media they’re interacting with provides them. Rhea, as a devout religious leader, especially with how genuinely morally gray she is, was never going to land well over here in the west, double especially to an audience of people that very clearly are already inclined to ignore pieces of the game’s story, lore, plot, and character interactions to fit their own preferred version of what’s happening. Triple fuckin’ wombo-combo especially since the game itself fails to do Rhea any favors until the literal last second of two out of four routes and only shove in her directly admitting she was wrong in her actions in the hardest support chain to build up in the entire game, and even then only at the last part of it. Poor girly didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell

[nissakii]

Significance of “Madness” in anime

We’ve already established in other posts about significant emotions and concepts in anime or specific media before. The Significance of losing or the one of visuals and metaphors in Haikyuu!! are some of those I would love to mention here, but today we shall delve into a broader topic that goes more along the lines of Makii’s thrilling post about Danganronpa and the Significance of Despair.

Today, our topic of interest is madness.

To ease your mind, in this post we will be talking about the representation of insanity and madness in some anime characters and how that reflects on the story and ourselves as an audience.To make one thing clear, a lot of the times we see overexaggerated versions of unstable characteristics in anime that aren’t realistic.

This is in no way a discussion about actual mental illnesses and not a professional approach to analysing them to our real life standards, but maybe a start to an interesting discussion about how we portray and handle what one may colloquially call “craziness”.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s start!

Artists, and no matter for example if they write or draw, use their platforms to deliver messages in cryptic ways. As humans, we have the innate ability to look at something and consume the facts through entertainment which makes us crave new media to follow and analyse.

We love to question things instead of just taking them as they are, and that is why most writers out there will play around with the perception of their audience.

You may be familiar with the common question that ghosts through your head as you enjoy the latest episode of your favorite anime.

Why did he do that? Is she a traitor? What makes them think that way?

Although one might always do it consciously, we most definitely analyse whatever media we consume and decide for ourselves if it is important enough to keep in mind for future reference.

What the writer or founder of the anime ultimately wants from the reader is a reaction.

No matter what they intend to do with it, if they enjoy the viewer getting excited or traumatised is not of importance, but a reaction is evidently one of the goals. 

And as strong emotions always evoke an even stronger reaction, anime characters are often very idealized and have ideologies that make them want to do one particular thing.

Be it save the world or destroy it, we focus and look at these characters and root for them if they give us a reason to do so. 

Both sides of good and bad can have deeply rooted admiration drawn out of us, and it sometimes doesn’t even matter because the more interesting part is the lovely grey area in between. 

We need a balance of good and bad to enjoy both.

Empathy makes us viewers want to relate to the characters, and if the author gives us the possibility to learn why someone does something, it gets harder and harder to dislike them. That’s why tragic backstories and flashbacks are such an overused tool in anime, because with the extreme behaviour some characters show they also need equal amounts of redemption.

We attach ourselves emotionally to characters depending on our personal tastes as well.

If someone likes and relates to a strong and independent protagonist who would drop anything for the sake of justice, you will find a lot of resembling characters in shounen for example.

On the other hand, if a darker or more obsessive character manages to take over a special place in a viewer’s heart, putting them on a pedestal gets more and more interesting, because you’re not supposed to.

Contrary to that, characters with insane or dark personality traits are often very popular, again tracing this back to human instinct of emphasising with wronged characters and curiously inspecting the fully deranged ones.

As this isn't something that should be put into vague concepts, we’re instead going to look at examples of characters and entities that are seen as ‘mad’ and how they’re interpreted.

It’s not just about villains being unreasonably immoral in this post, as we look into what madness entails and how it's shown, we also have some examples of corruption to look at.

So of course there are the typical evil-thinking evil-doing villains out there. 

Some of them have an actual backstory to make them more realistic and believable, some others are just pure evil. While they are often called mad for their actions to achieve their goal, the reason why they are put into that light is the stark contrast between the protagonist and the villain.

If the protagonist loves to save people and always has a smile on his face, of course he will differ from his counterpart when he finds out that his methods are a bit more vicious.

The protagonist perceives the villain as insane most of the time, but what does the viewer think?

We seek to look not only at characters that are enjoyable to watch, but also try to find similarities between us and them or draw lines in their behavior to understand them better. As mentioned before, empathy plays a huge role here as well, since whatever happens in anime doesn't have actual repercussions, we can forgive characters more easily. 

For example when they are taken by Insanity as a side effect rather than being insane due to trauma, we often get an 'ally turned traitor' trope through hypnosis or brainwashing, which is just as interesting to look at. 

If a person did something horrible under the influence of something they had no control over, are they still to blame? 

Does Insanity only involve a separate entity that comes from evil, or are we also looking at the gradual descent into darkness when life just isn't the same anymore? 

Insane and with no fear: Soul Eater

A great example of how insanity plays with characters be they good or bad is Soul Eater. 

With a premise that one needs a sound mind and body to inhibit a sound soul, we obviously know that people close to becoming Kishin-eggs will have a rotten soul drenched in bad deeds, but what about the good guys? 

In this instance we have a lot of different types of madness and insanity that touches multiple characters at different times, and by far the most drastic would be the black blood. 

The black blood being a synthesized weapon form of blood that can change form and harden into shape, is a weapon made by Medusa and introduced for the first time with Crona. He was melded together with Ragnarök as a weapon and used the black blood in his proficient fighting style. 

Soul Eater as well as Maka and other characters later come into contact with the black blood, and the consequence of the immense strength that comes with it is debilitating madness. 

As explained in the anime, the madness makes one deny the soul of oneself and others and takes away your fear. Now with no fear present, the person exhibits extremely erratic behavior and is not scared to hurt others or themselves.

This is an insanity that shows how essential a person's fear is, shown by Maka in one of the latest episodes when she fights Asura. The fact that she learned how to accept her own fear and realise that humans need it to survive is why insanity in Soul Eater is merely a concept to differentiate between what is human and what is Kishin. 

A Kishin kills and murders with no fear of anything. 

A human protects and masters one's own fear. 

The power hungry insanity: Hunter x Hunter

In Hunter x Hunter we have a lot of characters that don't exactly fit the norm of human action. 

With people like Chrollo, Illumi and even Chimera Ants there is enough crazy to go around. 

Still, the character we shall delve into to look at a different kind of instability is none other than Hisoka Morow.

Yes, in comparison to black blood madness Hisoka is an actual human being with no known influence outside of his own intellect. The contrary to another weapon or entity making someone insane is being shown in this anime.

Hisoka is just insane. 

We have no means to see if there is anything that might have caused Hisoka to be the way that he is, but what we do know is that his character is almost too nonchalant for his own good. 

His goal is to accumulate power and fight others that he seems worthy, as that is what attracts him. No person is spared if he believes he found a worthy opponent he will make that clear to them and pursue them passionately. 

We could rule that the clown is just eccentric, but with the given information from the anime he definitely had some sort of mental difference next to his peers. Harming himself holds no problem to him, and his behavior is deeply rooted only to suit himself. He has no self-preservation except for when he needs to accomplish something, and he even enters the spiders just to get close to Chrollo. 

Now we see a single person carry themselves throughout a story only to achieve one thing: a good fight. 

After having looked at these two examples of insanity in anime, let's look at how that insanity can be portrayed visually. 

A famous way to show someone's psychosis is the “Kubrick stare”. A directorial technique that got named after the director Stanley Kubrick who used a forward tilt of the head with eyes locked onto the camera to show the actors of his movies at their peak of madness. It became a very popular stylistic device and is used still very often in modern movies.

The character is supposed to look menacing, evil-plotting and absolutely unhinged.

Such devices, if used often enough, automatically invoke the message to the viewer.

If you’ve seen the Kubrick stare once in a psychotic character, you will definitely associate it with the same derangement again.

In anime we have a similar thing, and you might be aware of this already.

Familiar with the ‘eye angle just before a character goes insane’ meme?

It’s a running gag that shows multiple characters such as Asura from Soul Eater, Pain from Naruto, Light from Deathnote and Jason from Tokyo Ghoul in a frame where you can only see their eyes and it somehow looks extremely grotesque as if they were looking into different directions with their eyes.

As much as it is a joke, it is a perfect example of something extremely similar to the Kubrick stare used in anime culture. It goes so far that if any anime watcher would see a new character look like in a frame, one would assume they were about to go crazy.

Even Oikawa Tooru from Haikyuu!! was shown with a Kubrick stare in the last moments of the second Seijoh vs. Karasuno game, when his desire to win overtook him with incredible force.

Without loss there naturally can’t be any wins, and without sadness there will be no joy in laughter.

We need the different depictions of what one might call madness, to fill our stories with nuance that relies on our reality.

Be it an unknown entity, hunger for power, lack of fear or the good old fashioned thrive for world domination.

Madness is just another part of what we call life, and to be honest in healthy doses and for effect why not enjoy it in anime?

Now, do you guys know any other characters or concepts in anime that would be worth mentioning? I would love to see them in the comments! 

Until then, stay sane!

-Nissa

[delimeful]

sheer atrocity (4)

warnings: captivity, mild arguing

-

After a brief break to eat and drink, Virgil was on the move. Again.

Considering dusk was quickly approaching and they’d been traveling or intimidating abusive dads for pretty much the entire day, Roman felt the pace they were setting was a little unreasonable.

He wasn’t the one walking it, sure, but he couldn’t help but wonder. Was this guy always so antsy, or was this a special occasion?

And while he was asking himself questions that he wouldn’t get any answers to, how long was the cast duration of this enchantment?

(More specifically, how much longer was he going to be small enough for beetles to look like dogs?

How much longer before Virgil decided what to do with him for real?)

He hadn’t seen the giant stop to recast, which meant that he’d been burning through a continuous enchantment for hours on end. Signs pointed to his magic reserves being massive. Chilling.  

Roman thumped a foot against the side of the jar that rested against Virgil’s side. “Are we wandering around the woods during twilight for any particular reason, or are you just lost and too embarrassed to admit it? Too used to seeing the trees from a loftier position, perhaps?”

Virgil glanced down at him, as though just recalling he was there. Offended, Roman made a mental note to make more of his internal diatribes to external diatribes. The only thing worse than being a prisoner with an uncertain future was being an ignored prisoner with an uncertain future.

“Go back to being quiet, I forgot you were annoying for a second.”

“Absolutely not,” Roman huffed, kicking his feet against the glass repeatedly for emphasis. “The moment we see another human I’m going to scream at the top of my lungs.”

“Oh, because that worked so well for you before,” Virgil said, rolling his eyes.

Roman shifted positions, trying to ease a cramp in his leg. “Haven’t you heard? Third time’s the charm, and personally, I have no shortage of charm.”

There was a short pause, and then Virgil ground to a stop, taking a deep breath.

Instantly, Roman stiffened, eyes locked on the face above him. He’d forgotten himself, making jabs as though they weren’t enemies, as though he hadn’t been trapped, threatened, and used by this monster. It was too easy to pretend, when Virgil did things that were almost decent.

Sure enough, Virgil grabbed the top of the jar and lifted it from his pocket to be eye level. Roman shoved his arms out to keep himself stable, avoiding looking at the long drop below him.

“As useful as your bullheadedness was before, I don’t actually want you to scare the daylights out of the person I’m looking for this time.”

“Yes, well, I don’t want to be the size of a newborn chick, so it looks like we’re both dealing with  struggles in life,” Roman snapped back, because he’d never known when to keep his mouth shut.

Virgil narrowed his eyes. “I could just muffle your jar, you know. I’m magic; I can do that.”

He could? Roman was sort of surprised he hadn’t done so already.

“But,” he continued with a sigh, “I think this one will probably be easier with your help. I’m not great at putting people at ease.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Roman snorted, and then jerked as the rest of the sentence sunk in. “Wait, hang on. ‘Put people at ease’? There is no way I’m helping you with any nefarious plots!”

“It’s not nefarious!” Virgil shifted his weight, glancing around impatiently. “And it’s time sensitive. Either help me or don’t, I don’t care.”

It couldn’t be that simple, but Roman wasn’t about to pass up a chance to see something other than the interior of a pocket. “Fine, but if I see you doing something evil, I’m not going to stand idly by!” And then, petulantly. “Also, I want out of the jar.”

“As long as you actually use your brain instead of your biases to judge me,” Virgil snarked back, but obligingly pried off the lid and tipped the jar on its side. Rather than pull or tip Roman out, he held his hand to the lip of the opening and waited.

It was almost more nerve wracking to climb into a giant hand willingly, but Roman managed it. The jar was whisked away, and Roman lifted to neck level. He stared blankly.

“Going to get off anytime soon?” Virgil asked, a hint of irritation in his voice.  

“What am I getting on? Your collar bones?” Roman replied incredulously. “Wouldn’t a shoulder be better?”

The hand under him shifted slightly, angling him towards the folds of the cloak where it met the hood. “The fabric has better grip here. You’ll fall off my shoulder if we’re attacked.”

Attacked by who? “Paranoid much?” Roman dallied for a moment longer, but the idea of falling really was an unappealing one, so he climbed up and managed to find a seat amongst the bunched up cloth.

As soon as he was settled, Virgil set off again, and Roman clung tightly, staring out at this strange new perspective of the forest. Weird, but definitely better than the jar.

They moved along in relative silence, Virgil surprisingly light on his feet for a giant. The sun had just begun to sink below the horizon when he finally jerked to a halt.

Roman opened his mouth to complain at the sudden stop, but Virgil’s head was tilted, as though carefully listening. After a moment, he turned to a nearby patch of shrubbery.

“Hey,” he called, voice lacking it’s usual edge. “I can hear you over there.”

There was a long pause, and Roman blinked as the shrubbery began to tremble slightly. There was actually someone in there?

“Easy,” Virgil said, lowering himself into a squat. “I’m not going to hurt you. I can help you find the way out of these woods, if you’d like.”  

After a moment, a small hand pushed part of the bush aside, peering out cautiously at them. Roman’s heart twisted at the kid’s face, smudged with dirt and tear streaks. They couldn’t have been more than eight.

Virgil shifted, and Roman felt a chill go through him, remembering who, or rather what he was with. He couldn’t let the giant lure the kid into whatever scheme he was planning.

“There you go,” Virgil coaxed, offering a hand to help the kid stand up. “It must have been scary, stuck out in the woods alone. You did good to stay in one spot.”

Roman bit down on the automatic urge to call out a warning, listening to the way Virgil carefully encouraged the kid to stand up and brush the twigs from their hair. This was important. He had to consider the situation from all angles before making a move.

If Virgil really wanted to abduct a random kid in the woods, he didn’t need to convince them of anything. He’d dealt with a trained slayer as though he was a minor annoyance, a kid wasn’t exactly a challenge. So why was he going to all this trouble?

Roman thought about the soft edges of Virgil’s expression when he gave Patton his coat back. Maybe… it wasn’t a ruse?

“I’m Virgil,” the giant in question said, shaking Roman from his thoughts. “And this is Roman. We’re travelling together.”

Roman startled, not expecting to be introduced. “Uh, salutations!”

The kid stared with wide eyes. “You’re so small!” they blurted, before covering their mouth hurriedly.

Virgil cut in before Roman could correct him. “He’s a pixie. Likes to cause problems on purpose.”

Roman huffed “I do not! Don’t let him fool you, I am a delight.”

The kid giggled, and Virgil’s shoulders relaxed slightly. Roman wished he could see his expression.

From there it was second nature to keep up a stream of chatter with the kid about everything from their favorite food (honey on bread) to their stance on frogs (cute but you shouldn’t kiss them). It grew darker and darker as they walked, and after the kid had almost tripped over stray roots thrice in rapid succession, Virgil had crouched and lifted them onto his back with ease.

Before long, the kid was snoring lightly, face smushed against his hood, and there was a surprisingly comfortable silence in the air between them.

Virgil broke it first. “Thanks for not freaking out. I didn't know you had it in you.”

Roman crossed his arms, ignoring how close he’d come to freaking out. “This doesn’t mean I trust you or anything. We’re still enemies, you’re just. Not as bad as you could’ve been.”

“Yipee,” Virgil deadpanned, shrugging his shoulder under Roman slightly to jostle him. Roman jabbed his elbow in the general direction of Virgil’s neck in retaliation. “Very gracious of you.”

“I certainly won’t be as gracious the next time you pass me off as a pixie,” Roman muttered, prompting a low, half-air laugh from Virgil. He realized belatedly that he’d assumed there would be a next time, and hadn’t been corrected. He wasn’t sure if that was reassuring or not.

What was it about this giant that made Roman feel at ease to speak his mind, even in such a precarious position?

Virgil slowed as they came up on the town again, crouching to gently nudge the kid awake and set  them on their own two feet again. “You’re home, kiddo.”

“Don’t go traipsing around in the forest again, y’hear?” Roman added sternly. “Not everything in those woods are as nice as us.”

The kid nodded solemnly, and then grumbled sleepily as Virgil ruffled their hair and pushed them towards the paved path into town.

Once the kid reached the town's edge, they turned around to peek over their shoulder. The two of them were already well out of sight, waiting until the kid had been safely whisked into the arms of their parents before departing.

Roman waited with bated breath, but despite their deal being over, Virgil seemed to have no intent of removing him from his newfound perch. He sunk deeper into the fabric as they continued to trek on.

For now, he could let himself enjoy this tentative peace.

[doyelikehaggis]

it has been a hot minute but i am BACK and i also just drank like a whole ass can of monster so this is certainly gonna be something

currently watching s6 e8, it is evil chloe hours and i am HERE FOR IT

is it just me who thinks it’s hilarious that ryan and chloe are the only ones not grounded. like somehow bird is grounded but ryan isnt?? who would’ve thought.

the fact that chloe is inherently disadvantaged in her chances of signing up for the trip. how the hell is she gonna wheel herself there faster than everyone can run without getting herself grounded anyway for going too fast in the house. that was such a stupid system, honestly

everyone: wow ryan’s so mean and unsympathetic

also everyone: *doesn’t even try and be kind up chloe when she got them ungrounded for the trip*

ryan is like,, really not a bad brother? i honestly do not understand why chloe seems to think he’s so terrible (“unfortunate to have a brother who’s ryan” in her words) when she loved him so much before that one episode with the festival in the garden, and now she suddenly dislikes him because he burned sasha’s poster? like i’d get it if she blamed him for her accident but she doesn’t. and literally no matter what she does and says, he still loves her snd helps her? she’s literally like the only person he’ll put above himself and help without some ulterior motive or getting something out of it (mission totally possible notwithstanding) and yet she acts like he’s the worst unless he’s helping her and even when he is (“sometimes it’s hard admitting that someone we love is less than perfect. i should know”) like BITCH you’re worse than him! wow i am unreasonably angry about this

sasha listening to metal and knitting is such a mood. would literally kill to be her

why does bird always get framed for these things. you’d think people would learn it’s never him but somehow everyone always believes it? that kid would never do anything outside the rules unless he was helping someone he cares about *cough* jay and candi-rose *cough*

for fucks sake even ryan thinks framing bird for locking finn in the shed is too far, but noooo he’s the worse sibling, not chloe. she really blackmailed him into dressing as a fucking clown when he was meeting the mayor, but him accidentally saying that chloe was the one who locked finn in the shed is apparently so much more of a betrayal 🧐 (i’m so mad about this help)

“you’re just like ryan” WOW JAY WHEN HAS RYAN EVER REACHED THIS LEVEL OF MANIPULATION. like i know he’s bad but he’s never gotten anyone almost kicked out (i don’t think so anyway, might be forgetting things)

why does chloe get away with all of this with just a telling off and an apology (that she clearly didn’t entirely mean if “enjoy the musical. my musical.” is anything to go by) but ryan gets permanently hated. what. the injustice of this-

and then she really just tricks ryan about supposedly having given the sweets back? she is n o t the lovely person the narrative makes her out to be and i am mad

i’m sorry that most of this was just one long rant, oops 😂 also i hope you make your deadline you mentioned, good luck 🤞

Oh god, okay, I definitely know how it feels to be rambling about TDG while drinking a whole can of monster lmao (though sometimes for me it's like three cans of mountain dew.)

Honestly, I really liked evil Chloe. 1) she deserved the chance to do it at least once or twice, you know? and 2) I just love her more than usual when she acts more like Ryan, there's just something about it.

It is actually quite funny now that you're saying. But also I am now confused, is that still about 6x8? Because if so, I don't remember, was Bird grounded for lying for Jay?? Why was EVERYONE grounded other than Ryan and Chloe??

Wait, hold on, did you mean 7x8? "Snake"? Because that one I understand. But, really, Bird would never have been grounded if it wasn't for Chloe, we all know he is too precious. It is a surprise that Ryan wasn't already grounded on his own, though, I agree

That really was such a stupid system and I absolutely understand why Chloe was so mad about it. She was the one who got them the chance to go again, it was obvious she wanted to go, her name should have automatically been on the list to go. But either way it was going to be unfair because the older ones could easily get there faster than the younger ones, too?? What were they thinking?

It is really annoying how Chloe treats Ryan. He genuinely tries to help her all of the time, and as you said, would put her above himself when he literally would not do that for anyone else. And now we're never going to get anything better than what we got because they're both gone!

Oh my god, yes, Sasha with her knitting and heavy metal. She reminded me of my sister in that scene; crocheting and listening to screaming emo. Sasha is a blessing.

Seriously, it should be so obvious to everyone by now that Bird would never do anything wrong unless he had a really good reason. He's not cruel just for the fun of it, doesn't break stuff and not own up to it. If anything, he's likely to take the blame!!

Ryan's face when he realized what Chloe had done. I do think that was more because we know he does care about Finn and thinks that was a step way too far. I quite liked Ryan accidentally giving up what Chloe had done because he genuinely didn't mean to do it and looked like he regretted it right after, which is interesting for him.

I'm not sure what exactly Jay could have been referencing, it's been a little bit since I've watched it as well, but I do actually kind of see where he was coming from. I think he should have said "you're worse than Ryan" because that would have hurt a lot more, but in that kind of situation, I can see how the first thought would just be to say they're the same because it would still hurt Chloe. It makes sense dialogue wise for what realistically would be said, but I do agree that Chloe was worse than Ryan in that episode. And I loved it.

I don't know why Chloe just got away with it, to be honest. If it had been Ryan, there would definitely be some lingering grudges. Maybe they do just expect Chloe to have learned from it and never do anything like it again, so they're willing to move on and forget it, but because Ryan has slipped up again after being "forgiven" they don't believe he'll change anymore.

Haha, it's okay! And I did not make the deadline, it was for a ship week thing, but it's okay, I'll probably still finish the fics anyway and just post them on their own.

[internalsealpanic]

I Will be Your Tim Drake for Tonight (1) (Jason Todd/ Reader)

Summary:  Preferring to do anything but your physics project, you decide to accepts Tim’s proposal. It’s simple. He does your project, you try to figure out whether Jason Sionis is criminal. Easy, right?

masterlist

A/n: This takes place in a world where Jason is adopted by Black Mask. Inspired by Building Interest by Zoeleo.

The events and characterization in this story are very heavily based on Zoeleo's Long Term Investment series. It is fantastic and I really highly recommend all of her fics.

a/n: For clarification, Reader does have psychic powers but it only lets her sense people's emotions physically. No mind-reading. Her power is more like an overactive sense of empathy which may force her to dissociate into someone else.

There will be violence and mentions of alcoholism (used as coping mechanism for physical pain) and chronic pain.  

As for the additional warning, an animal is harmed but it is barely described. I could not bring myself to actual describe it but the aftermath is described.

I also just converted this from an OC so I apologize for any grammatical mistakes.

Without further a do: 

Your skin itches as you make your way through the crowd. It wasn't the suit. After all, Alfred Pennyworth was incapable of doing wrong. It was the sea of hands patting your back, petting your head, and pinching your cheeks made every inch of skin want to slough off. Tim owed you. He owed you big time. Then again he's back at the manor tackling your physics project and making sure Gotham doesn't set itself on fire while Batman is on  ‘vacation’.

You should be fine. It’s not like Brucie asked you to investigate a suspected criminal who also happens to be Roman Sionis’ heir. Nope, no pressure there. Thanks Bruce. You’re clad in blue contacts, a black wig, makeup, and a stolen suit. As safe as you felt in someone else's skin, you still felt like you were gonna fall over. Maybe it's because you were dumb enough not to bring your cane.

The room was dizzyingly full of people. Your mind goes haywire. Jumping from one mind to the next. Dipping into every emotion it could stick itself into. It was almost overwhelming enough for you to forget about the ache in your leg. You knew this night was gonna be far longer than you could stand.  You needed a drink. Or 9.

"Hey, no drinking! You're underaged!" Dick nearly shrieked, plucking your fifth(?) flute of champagne. You wouldn't be in a few months. Really he was being quite unreasonable to the drunk person in front of him. Looking him dead in the eyes,  you wave another server over and take 2 flutes of champagne.  "I'm fine Dick. I've drunken harder stuff than this."

"No," Dick said firmly snatching the 2 flutes from your hand.

"Big bro pleeeaaasee" You drawl sweetly knowing Dick was a sucker for that move.  Dick tries to look unmoved but you could see in the slump of his shoulders that he wanted to give in.  "I'm having an episode," The word episode felt strange and wrong but there really was no other way to describe it. "and I don't have any painkillers on me." You added hastily.  

"Fiiine-" Dick whines, resolve crumbling to dust. Handing back only one flute of champagne, he scolds: "Just don't get shit faced. We're here on a mission."

"Yes, motheeeer,"

Without missing a beat, you down it, feeling the tearing in your head beginning to fade.

"Jesus, calm down," Dick said taking the now empty flute from you.  

You are less than surprised by the fact that he isn't fazed by being called mother at this point. It might just be the alcohol. The Powers might not understand the concept of fun but they sure do have taste in alcohol.

While Dick lectures you on safe alcohol consumption and Babs laughs unhelpfully, You feel the press of another person's mind.  The other 2 seem to notice it too. Being pulled out of their reverie, they turn to greet them.

"Target at 2'oclock" Babs whispers but your mind had for some reason forgotten how English worked. Instead, it drifted to the simple mind coming closer to them. Almost too quickly,  you dropped down to your knees. Your joints complained but you could feel your mind smooth as you placed a gentle hand on the dog's fur.

The dog whuffs with glee as if to say "Yes! There! Pat there!".

Absorbed in the dog's uncomplicated happiness, you began to piece yourself back together and the pain in your head receded.

" Who's a good girl? You are! You are!"

The dog yips happily. Its smooshed face pressing into your hand. You forget the party until-

Dick coughs clearing his throat, laughter bright in his blue eyes.

You, for the first time, notice the person beside the dog. It was their target, Jason Sionis,  stretching out his hand to shake yours.  

"Oh- Uh- it's just your dog- She's- Hi, I'm Tim Drake." you shoot up to shake his hand. You notice the patches of scabs and scars on his knuckles. You’re pretty sure Dick or Tim could give him a run for his money if they didn't have makeup on. Though that just might speak more to their-as Damian puts it- incompetence.

Your eyes flicker to Dick momentarily as he tries so hard not to laugh.

"Well, it was nice to make your acquaintance," Jason says flatly as he turns his attention to Dick and Babs for a more coherent discussion.  You weren’t entirely certain that you offended him but you were probably close.

You want to say that it's his eyes that you notice first. They were a striking shade of ultramarine,  a terrifying facsimile of the ocean. They made you shudder. You would have rather noticed how nicely he filled out his suit. The man was made of muscle under that well-tailored suit.  You file the image for further appreciation later.  But, unfortunately, you are far too accustomed to checking your brothers for wounds for your eyes to not immediately flicker towards the scar on his face. It takes everything in you not to stare at the scar cleaving down the flesh of his cheek rigging the right side of his face into a permanent grin. Thankfully, he leaves them saying something about having business somewhere else.

Sure, the guy falls into Gotham’s pattern of ruining your face and turning to a life of crime but so far he hasn’t really shown anything concrete.   Plus, he’s really nice to his dog. No one that nice to a dog could possibly be the Red Death, Black Mask’s shiniest, and rumored to be his most brutal, new enforcer. Then again, your mother always did treat Anatoli like a king.

"Tim was right. You can act like him. You even got him shoving his own foot in his mouth down pat. Great job. " Dick chuckles patting you on the shoulder jostling you out of your thoughts.

You sigh. "The next time I go undercover I'm going alone. I don't even know why you're here."

"I think you've demonstrated why."  

You- annoyed, embarrassed, and feeling the marching in your skull coming back- jab "Alright Fabio , you befriend Mr.Pretty boy-" .  

"That's pretty mean eve-"

"I didn't mean it to be mean-"you honestly didn't but you were byelingual at this point.  "-I think he's pretty. Scars are sexy and all of that carp. "

"I am very concerned."  

"You should be. I'm out of booze and the dog just walked away. " you hissed rubbing the side of your head before stomping off to look for more drinks.

You feel your head jack rabbiting again. The staff had, as per some evil person's request (Likely Dick or maybe Babs), cut you off from the booze. You find yourself wandering around until your feet take you outside. The cool night air and the nearly freezing bricks sooth you warmed skin as you slide against it.  

"What? Did you come out 'ere to watch my dog piss?" a slightly familiar baritone voice chuckled.  

"As fun as that sounds, I just escaped Dick Grayson. I believe that, in itself, is reason enough to go outside and take in the 'fresh' Gotham night air. " you snark, looking up expecting him to grin at you but was greeted with a look of concern. You’ve seen it before. Your hand almost automatically makes its way to your nose.  You felt a thick liquid brush against the pads of your fingers. If you looked at them, you’d likely see them covered in blood.

You shrug and brush your deep red sleeve against your face. You probably didn't get all of it based on the crooked grin on his face.

"Shit kid, they'll think I punched you." Jason chuckles good-naturedly. You know he's not nervous. He’s charming enough to talk his way out of it.

"Relax, Dick will likely say I deserved it if they do think you punched me but that is highly unlikely seeing these episodes are an open secret after I bled on Mrs. Yavorski's satin dress a few years ago. "  

"Well, in that case, you want a smoke? Should take the edge off." Jason says it as a joke holding out a pack of cigarettes to you. Everyone knows Wayne kids are good kids.

You, feeling particularly cheeky, take the cigarette between his lip and take a long drag, inhaling and letting your eyes slide close.

He makes a quiet choking noise. Away from the sea of minds, you can feel his eyes on you. Wide and disbelieving. A cocktail of interest, embarrassment, excitement, and delight swirls in his mind. It might have been attraction or it might just have been amusement. You shouldn't be too surprised by the reaction. Tim is quite the knock out even when he looks dead on his feet. His confusion only lasts five seconds before you cough out   "Christ, it's just as bad as Bruce said it was."

You hand him back the cigarette laughing and coughing into your sleeve.

"So, did your brother tell you to apologize?" He says, clearing his throat not really looking you in the eyes. You can still see the faint speck of color on his face.

"Well,  he didn't say it. He doesn’t really have to and I do have manners contrary to popular belief. Plus! In my defense, your dog is cute. "

"Lizzie is, isn't she?" Jason smiles patting Lizzie on her head. It was a soft gesture. Something you really didn't expect from a supposedly hardened criminal let alone someone raised by Roman Sionis.

You crouch down to Lizzie's level and put your hands on the dog's face. Lizzie happily nuzzles into your hands.  

"You have a dog?"

" Depends, does Dick count?"

Jason snorts. "Do you ever think before you speak?"

"Not when I'm drunk and bleeding, no."

"How drunk are you?"

You mime counting.  "As far as Dick knows, I'm 1 to 2 flutes drunk. As far as the staff knows, I'm 7 flutes drunk."

"I should probably get you back to your brother then" Jason laughs, pulling you by the arm. You notice for the first time just how big his hands really are.  

"No, I-"

Gunshots. Pain. Panic. They ring in equal measure to you as a black van pulls up in the alley.

"Fuck! Box!"

A man in a dark suit crumples to the ground. You recognize him. He was part of Jason's security team. In a flurry of movement, Jason's by his side. You think he's checking the injuries- which in your opinion is at once the smartest and dumbest move you could do in this situation- but he-is in fact-checking for a gun.  

Gun in hand, Jason begins shooting at the men.

You think to grab a stray brick or something but you knew your best chance was to crouch low and maybe convince Jason to do the same. But based on the murder radiating from him, that was highly unlikely.

Lizzie runs out in front of them to protect Box and Jason. It goes as well as expected.  

Lizzie whines into your touch. The tendrils of your mind desperately trying to keep Lizzie there. You want to scream. Your mind surges trying to dip into someone else but Jason's anger and grief consume you. You want to charge at them, rip their throats out, tear them limb from limb. But it's Jason who does it. His body launches forward faster than you could speak.

The men in masks were just as fast. One of them incapacitates him with a well-placed metal pipe to the head. His whole body hits the pavement with one loud thud. Your breath catches.  

"There's two of them,"

"What do you mean there's two of them?"

"The boss said black hair, blue eyes, and a fucked up face"

"Did he say what kind of fucked up?"

"Not really"

You want to squawk about how nosebleeds don't really count. Given,  it is bleeding like it’s auditioning to be the next Niagara falls.

"Just take them both!" barks a rough voice from the van.  

You think to make a break for it but fast as you are(not really). Your head was still ringing and you couldn't really take them out on your own.

You hold your hands up in surrender. "I'll go quietly. I know the drill. "

The men look at each other clearly confused by your cooperation but not really willing to question it.

They throw cuffs on your wrist and literally throw you into the van like a sack of potatoes. Not that they treat Jason any better. He looks dizzy and pale.

"Are you-"

With a heave, he throws up on "your" shoes. You want to laugh. You really do. You also just want to cry.  

Tim is going to kill you. No, Alfred will. If you’re lucky-which you never are- Dick will suffocate you with a hug before they ever get to you.  

Maybe just maybe, the kidnappers will do it for you.

Yeah, right.

[thesaltofcarthage]

I finally get the anger about Thor: Ragnarok

I’ll admit it: I saw it the first time in the theatre and loved it, because it seemed funny and fresh. And it was absolutely what started me on the Thorki Spiral, which I hadn’t shipped before.

It was also where I really started to get emotionally invested in the MCU, and started plumbing more of the meta depths online, and understanding the character arcs beyond the plot arcs. And of course I’ve spent two years on this blue hellsite, enjoying the GIFs and the fics and the art.

But I didn’t actually rewatch the movie.

And last night I sat down to rewatch it, and... wow.

Wow, it is really not funny.

I recall reading a defense of Taika Waititi’s choices in this film, and how he is deconstructing colonialism and puncturing the White CisHet Male Hero myth, and I totally get all that. All the NZ/Aussie voices and aboriginal cultural influences are genuinely refreshing.

But I also recall reading Waititi’s casual dismissal of the Thor comic canon, and how he viewed Thor and Loki as “rich spoiled boys whining about their problems.” How he sees Loki as an “emo goth kid” who needs to grow up. How he deliberately ignored everything which had come before. And I recall reading about Hemsworth’s boredom with Noble Thor and how he longed to do more comedy.

The problem with Ragnarok is that Waititi views the protagonists as bad guys.

Bad Guys need to be punished. They need to lose.

I was intrigued by how Odin, by way of Hela, was framed as a conqueror, and how that part of history needed to be acknowledged and rejected. But: 1) Odin was already previously presented as a bad guy because of his shit parenting 2) the narrative re-rejects that point of view by redeeming him on the cliff in Norway just before his discorporation. Odin is never punished for his conquering rampages. He never has to acknowledge what he stole, or how he hurt people or entire cultures, or make reparations. He never has to admit what he did to Loki. He just gets to melt away and join Frigga.

In Waititi’s view, the White CisHet Male Heroes who think too much of themselves and need to be taken down a peg are... Thor and Loki. The title character and the canonically queer/pan/genderfluid outsider.

Yes, Thor and Loki are played by White CisHet Male actors. That does not make both characters White CisHet Males. (And let’s be clear: while there’s a lot of White CisHet Male Privilege going around which can certainly stand to be dismantled, “White CisHet Male” isn’t automatically equivalent to “evil jackass.” Thor’s identity as a White CisHet Male doesn’t mean that by definition the narrative has to break him.)

Loki was not a conqueror in the MCU — not the way Odin was. Loki’s “conquest” was canonically forced at the hand of the actual enemy, Thanos, who tortured and brainwashed him, and was controlling him via the Mind Stone.

Loki is not a colonizer. Loki is an outsider, an Other. He may present as White Cis Male, but he doesn’t have to, and he hasn’t always. There’s the wink from Jeff Goldblum and the implication that Loki was sleeping with him to “gain his favor,” but this is presented as more of a joke on Loki than anything else. And that’s what the entire narrative does: repeatedly make Loki the butt of the joke.

Poking fun at the people in power is a well-worn narrative device. Using humor to puncture legend, to remove power from people who claimed it illegitimately and at the expense of the less powerful, is a classic function of storytelling and should absolutely be celebrated.

Mocking Thor’s pompousness? Keeping him off-balance? Cutting his hair, having him whack himself in the head with Hulk’s sparring ball? Sure, why not. Because Thor is the hero. He is the center of the narrative. He is the one who has taken power and needs to learn to live without it to grow.

Except... that was the arc of the first Thor movie. Thor is not the arrogant shitheel he used to be. And Thor doesn’t grow or change in Ragnarok. There’s no character arc. He just... blithely sails on, pursuing what he thinks is right. Granted that what he claims to be pursuing is “saving the people of Asgard,” which is a noble and selfless goal, Thor personally doesn’t change. He’s as goofy and blustery in the post-credits stinger as he is in the pre-credits scene where he’s dangling in chains.

The only moment which can remotely be framed as “change and growth” is “Are you ‘Thor, God of Hammers’?” Which, again, could have been really powerful, as Thor learned that he didn’t need the literal mark of Odin’s approval (a measure of his “worthiness”) to channel his divine powers, but it ended up being an admittedly kick-ass action scene. And he’s never shown as being utterly helpless without Mjolnir; the hammer is an excellent weapon, but not his only one.

And Loki? Loki doesn’t have power, not in the narrative sense. Loki didn’t rampage over entire realms, not of his own volition. He did not steal or kidnap. Loki was never in line for the throne; that is, again, the entire plot of the first Thor movie. Loki has nothing to puncture. Attacking someone in power to even the scales is justice. Attacking the powerless is just bullying.

Which is what it felt like Waititi was doing, over and over: bullying Loki. Dr. Strange, who has been studying sorcery for what, 18 months? can outwit Loki, who has been a seidmadr trained by the seidkona Frigga for over a thousand years? Strange sends Loki into a portal where he is falling for half an hour?

When did Loki fall last? Off the Bifrost. When he was committing suicide. When he was captured by Thanos, who then tortured him for six months.

Oh yes, that’s something to make fun of. But Waititi wouldn’t know that, would he, because he made a point of ignoring the characters’ histories.

Thor being casual, callous, even rude, to the beloved brother he thought had died in his arms years ago? Thor putting an electrical torture device on his beloved brother, the man he defended to the entire Avengers, the man he refused to surrender to Midgardian authorities, and leaving him there to suffer? Thor mocking his beloved brother, telling him he needs to change and grow? Loki is the bloody god of chaos. How is Loki the character who hasn’t grown and changed?

But Waititi wouldn’t know any of their past interactions, because he made a point of ignoring the characters’ histories.

Waititi just saw the most superficial possible reading of these two characters and assumed that they were ripe for punishment — that they needed to be reduced. Which is what he did, proudly. So when the fandom reacts and complains that he’s disrespecting beloved characters, what he hears is that we’re defending White CisHet Male Privilege.

Waititi thinks he dismantled two copies of Obidiah Stane. The fandom saw him bludgeoning Bisexual Steve Rogers, Pre- and Post-Serum. You don’t pick on the little guy. You don’t reduce your hero.

Thor and Loki’s rich and complex history, even just in the MCU, is completely ignored. It’s reduced to the throwaway line of “You faked your death” (which is not what happened) and “I mourned you! I cried for you!” and Thor’s anger that Loki managed to survive. Not relief that Loki is still alive, but offense. And if the script had explored that more — “Why did you pretend to be dead? Why did you hide in Odin’s guise? Why didn’t you find a way to let me know what happened? If you were hiding as Odin, why didn’t you act as Odin?” — I would even have bought that. There is, in fact, a lot to unpack there. But that would have meant exploring everything that happened off-screen between the Thor movies. It would have meant studying that history, acknowledging it, and expanding on it. And Waititi saw Two Spoiled Rich Kids and had no interest.

The problem with Ragnarok is not the humor, or the outsider perspective from a Maori director. The problem is that the creator chose the wrong targets. I have learned in the past two years how many fans have come to identify with Loki the outsider, and Waititi deliberately chose to remain ignorant of that aspect of the character. He created two strawman versions of the characters and proceeded to tear them apart.

I am less hopeful now for Thor: Love and Thunder than I was. I don’t know how important Jane Foster’s storyline is in the comics, but if he ignored Thor and Loki, it’s not unreasonable to imagine he’d ignore Jane’s history too. I may have defended Waititi’s Ragnarok before. I won’t do so again.