#is that not a fascinating and tragic backstory for a character????

[mamawasatesttube]

yknow for as much as people talk shit about sb94, im gonna be honest. it is NOT the worst comic ive ever read. that dubious honor goes to either batgirl '08 (she would not fucking say any of that) or jeph loeb's run on supergirl '05 (which was SO bad i nearly gave up on the entire run as a whole).

[koipepo]

That omake of little Kabru not being able to show off his howetown sweets because of Misril gets to me a lot so...

Here's a happier Kabru (and Lairu)

[destructo-range]

'helen is so underdevelopped as a character!' 'helen's boring!' stfu u just don't like her bc she's a woc and because she doesn't behave exactly like michael. yall put so much effort into developping michael's character inside your minds and completely look over her because she's 'poorly written.' stop.

[fiddlesix]

Thank u for being a billford hater ur blog is a Safe Space for those of us who hate that stupid triangle I was lowkey tearing my hair out during the stream from how much billford nonsense was in the chat thank u for being a kindred spirit, peace and love

fanks anon 🤸🏼‍♀️ peace n love

[anonymous-chicken-was-taken]

I Am Rattling The Stans Around In My Brain Aggressively Like A Maraca

[agnesandhilda]

some final thoughts on iron widow: I wish the main throuple had either had longer to cook or that zetian and li shimin's relationship wasn't made romantic (as is it seems like zetian goes from hating and resenting him to completely forgiving him for the women he did kill, albeit incidentally, and accepting him as another boyfriend way too fast). I also wish that li shimin had actually done some of the bad things zetian believed he did at the start of the novel maybe

[misconceivedcapricorn]

Ride the Cyclone's development as a musical will always fascinate me because the probability of a recording of the original performances is most likely nonexistent but what we do have of it is also quite interesting

[dent-de-leon]

help i am once again thinking of ways the animated nein could avoid killing molly off so early--

[devotedlystrangewizard]

letting this particular character consume all the tadpoles they can AND letting volo do the surgery thing and slowly a tragic backstory reveals itself

[thebiballerina]

I cannot emphasize enough that not only do I not care what a fictional character would think of me, I know for certain that I would find at least half of my favorite characters absolutely insufferable as real people. Maybe they should be worrying about what I would think of them.

After all, the fictional villain can't kill me if I manage to kill them first.

Absolutely wild that people assume I particularly care what a fictional character would think of me if we were on the same side of the fourth wall. "[insert villain here] would kill you" yeah so would a polar bear that doesn't mean that seeing one isn't a delightful part of a day at the zoo

[cross-d-a]

Jod Na Nawood’s backstory is FASCINATING!! And makes SO much sense!!! Order 66 fucked up SO much in the galaxy, it’s so interesting (and tragic) to see what it’s done to the force sensitive children who were unable to be taken into the Temple. It truly supports how GOOD the Jedi Order is. How good the JEDI are. I can’t even fully comprehend everything the galaxy lost and suffered without them. And- Jod’s master. She didn’t have to take him in. He knew that. He knows she was desperate. But she took him in anyway and taught him what she could. We only get a very tiny glimpse of that backstory but it’s utterly gut-wrenching.

Imagine the survivor of a genocide. A Jedi on the run, desperate and hungry and grieving, running into a little kid just as lost as her and seeing that LIFE in him. Feeling the FORCE in him. What would that have done to her after feeling everyone she knew and loved ripped away from her. But here is this kid and he needs help and maybe she does, too. Maybe they can help each other. And so she folds him under her wing just as any Jedi would have done. She teaches him the ways of her people, knowing that their way of life lives on in her and that she is passing it on to a new generation. And that probably hurt. It probably hurt SO much. Because she can’t give him what she could have if the Order was still alive. And he’ll never understand what it means to be part of something so beautiful and long-lasting. But she does what she can, and they maybe never would have met if Order 66 didn’t happen. And it’s an awful thought, the worst kind of thought, but she can’t help but be relieved they found each other. Because she loves this lost little kid and maybe they’re broken together, but they’re more whole together, too. And maybe without Jod she could have run and hid forever. Maybe she couldn’t have, plenty Jedi were caught and murdered. But she knew the risk and she took it- and the way Jod talks about it (“they made me watch”) makes me think that he feels he’s responsible for her getting caught. And it makes me wonder how she felt when she was caught. Knowing she was one of the last of her kind, and that this kid was going to be alone again. Orphaned in a completely new, terrible way.

And I wonder, too, if looking after the kids reminded Jod of his old Jedi Master. And maybe he thought “I can’t get attached because then they’ll catch me too and I’ll die just like her.” And you know what, Jod? It did happen that way. You got caught because of those kids. But only because you forgot what it means to be a Jedi, which is to say that after your Master died you tore out that softness within you. Abandoned love for fear. Exchanged generosity for greed. And it’s true grief and trauma changes people. That a little kid alone in the galaxy does what they can to survive. But Jod isn’t a little kid anymore and it doesn’t excuse the choices you make. It’s a wretched world, one without a Jedi, and Jod suffered all the more for it.

And I wonder, too, what Jod thought when Wim paused in the elevator. When that little kid called out to him, despite everything Jod had done to him. Did Jod look at Wim and think: “Yeah, that’s what a Jedi would be” and then hate himself all the more for it? Well, who can tell. Jod is a fascinating character and I’m excited to see where the show next takes us.

[yusiyomogi]

i think that kui portrayed kabru's mental health issues in a very interesting way, but it's what makes it subtle to some readers. the fact that he seems so functional to the readers, especially in the first few appearances, not to mention that a lot of his problems and symptoms are not obvious and can only be seen in additional materials, seems like an intended choice from the character writing perspective.

the way kui constructs his character centers around the idea of duality. he switches between two "faces" in the story constantly, he uses two speaking styles (and two pronouns indicating them), he's a tallman who lived with elves for a long time and carries both cultures, he's caught in the conflict between long-lived and short-lived races, he's constantly stuck between two choices in his inner conflicts (what to think of laios? should he prioritize preventing another tragedy or taking away power from long-lived races?), he's bisexual. kui also made him a gemini, yknow, a zodiac sign associated with twins and duality.

there's a certain theme in this and it does affect the way we interpret his personality and choices and it goes beyond text, it's metatextual too. it's a sway between what's hidden and what's shown to the readers about him.

the thing is, i think his mental health issues are meant to be downplayed and hidden, because it's true to his character. what do we notice about him in the main story and what's hidden? well, one of the first things we see is that he's not great at fighting monsters, he suffers from ptsd that makes him basically freeze up just from thinking about them. images of dead people turning into monsters, tearing each other apart and eating each other haunt him, making him feel ill from monster food. he downplays this a lot, hides it from other characters, straight-up lies about it, but at least readers got to see it.

with a keen eye you might notice that he doesn't eat enough food, almost never eats anything on-screen. he mentions that he's never cooked food in his life: wait, kabru, don't you live alone? in that sense "don't you wanna eat?" moment reveals two details of kabru's character at once: we got to see his aversion from monster food related to ptsd, but also his inability to notice his own hunger in general. he's strong and he almost always wears armor, but we know that he often dies in the dungeon. the armor hides that he's pretty scrawny for someone who fights physically, again, something that we can only notice after he takes off his armor (symbolism!).

funnily enough, here we have our first glance at this through additional materials: in the info page about the importance of calories and fat, kui mentions that kabru has lost a lot of weight since he started exploring the dungeon, because he died a lot. what it means is that he doesn't eat enough to cover the loss of weight. subtle, but clever detail.

speaking of him not knowing how to cook, this is another clever detail that hides bigger truth: kabru doesn't know how to do chores, he doesn't take proper care of himself. extra materials reveal to us that kabru lives in the basement, lacking light and clean air and he doesn't know how to clean his room or how to iron clothes and simply... never cared to learn? this is mostly omitted from the main story, even if it does have a place for it: for example, his journey with mithrun becomes infinitely more fascinating, when you know how little kabru cares about himself. but since those chapters are told through kabru's pov, he basically "hides" this from the reader, takes control of the narrative in the same way he tells a polished version of his tragic backstory.

he talks about mithrun's story like there's no connection, like he's not literally looking at the dark mirror of himself. and, ironically, he chooses to not be vulnerable in front of the readers just like young mithrun wouldn't. extra materials give us a glimpse again: when in the main story mithrun said "i can't fall asleep without spell or potion", in the extra comic (literally behind the scenes) kabru says "i use alcohol to help me fall asleep". there's a connection and kabru sees it, but he's not telling it to us. (and yes. there's evidence that kabru is an early-stage alcoholic. we can see bottles under his bed and what he says basically imply that he depends on alcohol: he's not using it for recreational purposes, he's using it as a substance to make himself sleepy and, probably, less anxious. when that dependence turns uncontrolled, it often leads to full-blown alcoholism).

bigger connection to mithrun is of course kabru's refusal to accept his own humanity, to see that he's alive, that he has his own needs and desires. he's suicidal in the same way: he can only see his goal, he doesn't care about his life, he only sees the value of his life in relation to that goal and he never think what's gonna happen to him after he reaches this goal (because he unconsciously believes that "the after" wouldn't happen to him). and he doesn't reflect on it, again, until he's met with a question "what do you want to do?". the way he doesn't see himself as alive is omitted again in the big portion of the story and only really comes up in the end, when he asks "what was the point of my survival?", in a basically joking moment.

but we can see it through the symbolism, through his connection to death in the story, through his eagerness to sacrifice his life for the idealistic goal in his mind. and of course, we can see it clearly through his mirror: there's a strong parallel between kabru almost committing double suicide while chasing his goals and mithrun literally getting himself killed while chasing his own.

what i'm trying to say, it's interesting that kabru uses his control of the narrative to hide his own vulnerability from the readers. maybe mithrun sees himself as leftovers and it's something cathartic for him to admit in the end, but kabru really doesn't want you to see that he feels the same way. that he's also "leftovers". but you see, they are standing together in that panel. as kabru continues to try shielding himself from your view, kui puts the mirror next to him, revealing what's hidden.

[intermundia]

so apparently in the earliest drafts of phantom menace, lucas had anakin at 12 years old, but eventually knocked it down to 9, because anakin leaving his mom at 12 "is not nearly as traumatic" as it would be at 9. this separation really is a foundational trauma for the tragic character, and he needed to make it hit as hard as possible, so he found the sweet spot of bad timing for qui-gon to find anakin. it makes me think of AUs where he is both older and younger and able to handle separation and transition better, both help avoid the problem of his psychological misfit with the jedi. his age of discovery is a vital part of all the things that had to right (for sidious) and wrong (for the jedi) for darth vader to happen, like the deck was intentionally stacked against anakin's happiness from the beginning on purpose for dramatic reasons. lucas's design of the backstory for such an established villain was really an archaeology of trauma that led to such a disaster, scraping away layers of the adult psyche to see the damaged child inside. many didn't like that the movie was about a whiny kid, but it's fascinating to me that lucas wanted vader to be understood as having that child weeping inside.

[zombie-eats-world]

Literally never seen anyone turn Crocodile is a poor little meow meow. He’s evil, no one’s arguing that but no one has to continuously bring it up when focusing on other facets of his personality.

I’ve seen the fandom take a bastard character and make them a poor little meow meow, twice now

Which isn’t a lot but it’s fucking disappointing.

[oblique-lane]

idk if youve done it yet but i would actually lose my mind if you did an analysis for demo

Aye aye captain 🫡 Time to overdramatize again!

Let's address Demo's wounds

(Demo's backstory was changed through the years but I'm sticking to the older version because I find it more grounded)

Demoman's story is easily one of the most tragic of all the mercs. Imagine you have been abandoned from birth, your parents simply rejected you for what you are. But luckily you have been adopted by some good people who replaced your parents and made you a relatively happy child.

And then you accidentally kill them. You're 6 years old. How does that feel?

I can't even imagine how a child's brain can't comprehend the idea of being a murderer. It was an accident, of course, they were blown up by a big explosion he created (genius kid found out how to do that, huh?) but still. His parents were dead and he knew it was his own fault. He learned he was dangerous as he is.

How was it like pondering about it in the orphanage?.. "I didn't want this! I want to go back and fix it, I'm so sorry", something like that. But he couldn't go back in time, so being covered in such an avalanche of guilt, he learned he needs to repress himself.

Demo have always had an explosive temper (no pun intended), it was his true nature, pure emotion: if he's happy, it's 100%; if he's angry, it's a full blown storm. If he loves, he loves with all of his heart, and he has a big one.

Living on the impulse, all or nothing, that crucial accident revealed that letting his true nature go will only end up as destruction in the end. Irreparable damage.

We don't know what exactly was happening to him during his orphanage years, but if I'm to guess, repressing everything about him: his interests, his character, his whole nature, was a thing to choose. He thought that he had to become still and quiet as to not to repeat that kind of tragedy ever again. He probably didn't have people to be friends with either, either because people rejected him for his past, or he avoided them himself due to his internalized shame, at least that's a guess.

But everything repressed returns to the surface sooner or later. As a child, living for so long under overwhelming guilt, grief, hate, pain and sadness, under the skies that are almost never sunny in a all-year-long damp and coldness of the Ullapool. Incomprehensibly grey. It was depriving.

He was always fascinated with explosions. He didn't touch it for a long time, but maybe something like seeing fireworks again one day made something inside him tremble... And to remember.

Explosions. Launch... Acceleration... Release. And every time the release happens, his soul fills with excitement, the body feels lighter and shivers go up the spine. Release happens inside his head too, for the explosions make his worries and pain go away for a moment.

He couldn't find another way to release his bottled up emotions, so gradually he returned to make explosives again.

It was something like an addiction. Similar to pyromania, except no one bothered to research this one. At the moment of explosion he could let his anger out, he could scream, he could run around freely, he could sense heat in his chest; he could be himself. As he once was.

Everything was cold. But the explosions were hot.

He thought it was under control, just a little bit of KABOOM after school, but he craved more and more every time, more vivid, more violent...

That's how he lost his eye. (...Was it a subconscious act of selfharm?)

The missing eye was a forever reminder of how deviated he actually was. He learned that he couldn't repress or change what he truly is - a monster. A Black Scottish Cyclops, wether it were his peers who called him like that or he himself, out of misery. There was indeed something seriously wrong with him.

It seemed like the only thing he was capable of is destruction. Destruction is the only environment he's comfortable with. Peace was always so anxious and depriving, and breaking things felt calming, so he figured it must be right.

And then his birth mother came and took him back, "now that's he's a worthy DeGroot". It was unexpected but... Pleasant. So he wasn't THAT worthless after all, huh? Turns out, it was really familial, the destruction thing. At least he found out that there was a reason behind all of this.

His new mom was, saying honestly, pretty cruel with words. She was not at all gentle, she was very strict, demanding and straight up abusive. It was never enough for her no matter what Demo did. She didn't want results from his work, she's just always wanted to mess with his brain.

And for whatever reason... This setup felt right for him. To be thrown around like that, to be humiliated harshly, it felt fitting, it wasn't causing anxiety or anything. He has to be a scapegoat, he had to forget about being a child and to start working as an adult, at the same time somehow replacing a father he still didn't have, but it felt good enough. Confusing relationships felt good enough.

Destruction was his habitat, and his heart could no longer accept anything else.

Cruelty wasn't warm though, just familiar, just an environment to not to go insane. But he craved warmness so badly... Yet every time he would get close to someone and receive a little gentleness and care, it would feel sickening. It felt unnatural, it reminded him of his lost parents and of everything that's wrong about him.

The only warmness his body could accept was alcohol, making him bubbly and comfortable and relaxed. He almost felt normal, happy even. Alcohol heat made him melt, and he felt so fulfilled as if he was in paradise, back to the womb.

Yet after the effect wears off, he feels lonely as ever. Quickly, existing without alcohol becomes pain. Existing at all. He became an addict.

Not that everyone he met rejected him, rather, he subconsciously reached out to those who would be cruel to him. Again, gentleness hurts wether he knows it or not. He's only good in destruction.

Lonely and clingy, ready to overshare, overall mess yet carrying a big baggage of love that has no one to give it to. Maybe because he can't give it to himself in the first place. There's so many issues unresolved because he can't handle them alone, yet there's no one to help since he was already trapped in a closed circuit of self sabotage.

He will keep acting like a party beast, always crazily emotional and overdone upbeat, a simple drunken man who will not be taken seriously that way. Maybe that's what he wanted, to not be seen as deep by anyone for not be reminded of his misery once again.

Seems like we bought that too.

...

The enemy Soldier might be an exception though. The man he really treasures his friendship with turned out to be an enemy; repeating the rule again: it's only acceptable when dangerous. Soldier deeply cares for Demo, however he's not gentle or pitying, he's as destructive and explosive as Demo is, and these two are a very rare perfect combination of destructing each other in the act of love. Both broken beyond repair, soul on soul, forever to be misunderstood by the outsiders. This is something about this relationship that looks like a golden lining.

They will not fix each other, but they sure are going to have a good time!

[dinarosie]

The Rise of Snape Hate: Marauders' Rebranding and Snape's Villainization (Part 1)

I often hear people wonder why Severus Snape has become more hated in recent years, to the extent that even Voldemort faces less criticism and vitriol from fans. In the early days of the book’s release and even long after the final Harry Potter film was screened, the "Marauders" fandom hardly existed. James Potter was seen as a background character, best known as Harry's father, and did not play an important role among fans. Sirius and Lupin were mostly regarded as Harry's mentors, and their time as Marauders during their teenage years wasn't a focal point of fan attention. In the Canon, the Marauders didn’t hold much significance either, there were few details about them. They were mentioned in just a handful of small flashbacks, mainly depicting bullying, and their friendships were portrayed as rather toxic and disappointing. Naturally, these flashbacks were not only unappealing but could also be disheartening for readers. However, a new generation of fans wanted to bring something new to the Harry Potter universe that better matched their fantasies and imaginations (especially after the failure of "The Cursed Child" and the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling). As a result, a new story emerged: "Harry Potter and the World of the Marauders," inspired by Generation Z's fantasies.

They were given the attractive looks of actors like Ben Barnes, Timothée Chalamet, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and were morally very different from their canon versions. They became a group of charming, wealthy, and popular school heroes with dynamic, platonic, and romantic relationships that captivated fans. Since there weren't many details about them in the original books, fans freely created tragic backstories and fascinating dramas (for example, the Black family using a "Cruciatus curse" on their children!!!). These factors quickly increased their popularity and caught the attention of content creators on the internet.

But what happened to Severus Snape?

These newly reimagined, charming, and beloved Marauders needed an antagonist to heighten the school drama and make their adventures more exciting. Who better to fill this role than Severus Snape—broken, lonely, and completely different from them, with none of the looks, wealth, or popularity?

"The more they improved the Marauders to make them more likable, the more they vilified and distorted Snape to make him easier to hate."

It's clear that when Snape is portrayed as a powerful, dark, and evil wizard (even at the age of 11), James Potter and Sirius Black are turned into justice-seeking heroes, making all their bullying and cruelty towards Snape seem justified and even heroic.

Now, ask yourself: Is it easier to like the James Potter from the books—Arrogant and a bully—or the James Potter who is handsome and kind, punishing an evil villain worse than Voldemort named Severus Snape to save other students and his girlfriend? This is how the Marauders became charming and popular heroes, and Snape became a evil.

Many fans don’t even know Snape. From the moment they enter the Marauders fandom, they learn that they must hate Snape, and this trend continues. They only read the books with the intent of magnifying Snape's flaws, which is why his faults are highlighted even more than Voldemort's, and wherever Snape’s name is mentioned, they feel obligated to display their blind hatred to prove their loyalty to the ideals of their beloved Marauders.