#is uhm. especially after how the fandom has treated her every time she does LITERALLY anything for YEARS is. uhm. well. i hate it

[hermitcraftx]

unpopular opinion i do not consider real life part of the actual series and i never will and when the new series comes and people draw cleo as part of the winners i will be gritting my teeth the entire time. cleo deserves to win in a better series than a one off virtual reality one RAHHHH

[kittyprincessofcats]

RWBY Volume 8, Episode 14 - The Final Word

Thoughts on the final episode of RWBY Vol 8 under the cut.

Also, I will from now on reblog spoilers for Volume 8, which will be tagged with “RWBY v8 spoilers” if you want to blacklist them.

tw: Since the episode itself had the same content warning, I should mention that I will be discussing themes of suicide in this post.

Also, everything I’m about to say is *my* personal opinion. I’m not trying to tell anyone else that they’re supposed to feel the same way about anything in this episode. In turn, please don’t tell me how to feel about it either.

- I should start by bringing up what I said in my post about episode 13, because all of that is going to become relevant now:

So... that all aged... interestingly.

- Next, I should say that I actually did end up getting spoiled about Penny’s death. I was trying really hard and didn’t go into any tags, but literally one day before this episode was released to the public, Tumblr recommended me two blogs with the titles “Penny deserved better” and “Justice for Penny Polendina”… so I drew my conclusions from that. And while I think those blog titles are valid sentiments, I do wish people would wait a week before putting spoilers in a blog title. But then again, I was weirdly glad to get spoiled this time, because it meant I was more emotionally prepared.

- And now, on to my very controversial opinion about this finale: I… uhm… I actually liked it. There, I said it. I liked it. I’m seeing a lot of takes from people who hated it, and that’s totally fair, but personally, to my own surprise, I liked it. (It’s kind of interesting that last time I said it would be “awful writing” to kill Penny now, then it happened, now the whole fandom is complaining about it being awful writing… and I’m here going “actually… that wasn’t so bad”.) That’s not to say that I’m a fan of everything in this finale, especially re: Penny – but overall, the good outweighed the bad *for me*. (Stressing again that this is just how *I* feel.)

- I think the main reason I feel that way is because I honestly expected way worse. If you read that thing I wrote last week^, you see I expected multiple character deaths. I was incredibly nervous. And after I’d already spent a few minutes genuinely thinking Yang died (because of a badly worded episode 13 spoiler I accidently saw), I had to think about the kind of deaths that would be a dealbreaker for me and make me drop the show. (Let’s say it like this: If either of Bumbleby ever died for real, I would be done with this show immediately.) So, in short, I was terrified of the finale and expected it to be the kind of finale that ruins the show for me (which has happened in far too many fandoms so far) – and it wasn’t. I have mixed feelings about how they handled Penny’s story, too, but this finale didn’t ruin the show for me and I honestly felt way worse after the Volume 3 finale. Maybe that’s because I wasn’t prepared for it at the time, but this time I spent a whole week being super anxious, so when I’d actually finished the finale, I just felt overwhelming relief.

- Okay, so let’s talk Penny: Back in Episode 12, I already wasn’t a huge fan of the idea to make her human (if that even is what she was?), but I think I said I’d reserve judgment on it until we see where they go with it. Obviously, it feels unsatisfying to have the show just kill her off after everyone’s been trying to save her all volume. And of course, it’s never fun to see a favorite character of yours (and Penny is definitely a favorite of mine) get killed off. The way it happened (a character who’s been trying to sacrifice herself the whole volume finally doing so through assisted suicide, even though there could have been several potential ways to still save her) feels incredibly unsatisfying and depressing as well. The “heroic sacrifice” cliché isn’t new, but there’s still a difference between a sacrifice that feels necessary and like it really was the only way (Hazel, Vine) and one that feels more like a character being over-eager to sacrifice themselves even though there might have been alternatives (Penny). So really, I understand why people don’t like this, especially because the narrative, so far, seems to validate Penny’s choice by having her plan work. And that does send the opposite of the “fight for every life”, “no one is replaceable” message this volume had been going for until then.

- And this is why, I think Penny’s death is meant to be awful. Volume 9 might prove me wrong on this, but I think we haven’t seen the end of this storyline yet. For me personally, it’s too early to judge this plot-point by itself because it depends a lot on how they deal with it in the aftermath and how things go from here. (For instance: I hated Pyrrha’s death at first because going into a fight she knew she couldn’t win also felt like a needless heroic sacrifice to me. It was only how the aftermath of it was handled from there that made me be okay with it.) So basically, what I’m asking is: How will the other characters handle Penny’s death now? Will Ruby (or anyone else) get angry at Jaune for agreeing to kill her? How will Ruby grieve in general? And, most importantly: Will the narrative really treat Penny’s choice as the “right” one or will it challenge that view? (And was there maybe more going on that we know because I’ve been reading those “Penny is alive” theories and… oh boy.) So yeah – for me it depends on how it gets handled from here.

- Also, I just want to say that I really appreciate RT putting a suicide trigger warning in the beginning of the episode and I wish people wouldn’t twist that into a bad thing. (I’ve seen some takes along the lines of “If they had to put a warning, that means they were aware it’s a harmful message, so that makes it worse” and… please don’t do that. Content creators putting trigger warnings on things is a good thing. Also, this might be a controversial take, but I don’t think fiction always has to “send a good message and teach you a lesson.” The important thing is that RT were aware that this episode could be upsetting/distressing to people and that’s why they put a warning and the suicide hotline’s number in the description.)

- Anyway, I’ve been rambling for too long. My point is: I understand the criticisms and agree with some of them, but I hope the writers know what they’re doing here and I want to believe that they do. I also love all the theories about Penny coming back (in Winter’s mind, for example) and I think they’re not actually that unlikely. And if Penny doesn’t come back, then honestly, I’m okay with that, too. At the end of the day, she’s a fictional character. I can always go and read fanfictions where she’s alive and lives happily ever after with Ruby and nothing that happens in canon can ever take that away. Canon only has as much power as you want it to have. I can enjoy the canon show and the story they’re telling (even if Penny is dead for good this time), while still also enjoying my AUs where she’s fine. One doesn’t harm the other.

- (Also, let me take this moment to shamelessly promote my favorite cartoon show because I think this is relevant to the interests of anyone who hates the “person who’s been trying to sacrifice themselves the whole time ends up doing just that” story: The main character in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is self-sacrificial to the point of it being unhealthy, but the show explicitly doesn’t treat this as a good thing. When she tries to sacrifice herself for the greater good in the final arc and says it’s better that way, this is treated as a problem, and the lesson she ends up learning in the end is her life has value, too, and that she deserves to be happy. (The show’s also very gay.)

- I don’t know if brought any of this across properly. Basically… I’m not happy about where they went with Penny either, but I am okay with it. I still enjoyed the finale and will continue to enjoy the show. And I want to focus on the things that make me happy about RWBY and made me happy about the finale, so I’ll talk about the rest of the episode now (while rewatching it because I’ll forget stuff otherwise):

- Have I mentioned I really love the Volume 8 opening? Because I really do.

- That shot of the destroyed whale is still awesome.

- I love how the episode opens with all the fights we left off with (Winter vs. Ironwood, Penny vs. Cinder, Harriet vs. Qrow, Ruby vs. Neo) and cuts between them. Also, the music is amazing!

- Elm admitting that Harriet is their friend and that being what finally gets through to her was a nice conclusion to their little arc, I guess. Vine’s sacrifice and his admittance that they’re his friends and he’s doing this for them were touching. Honestly, Harriet is right to blame herself for his death. That said, while this volume made me strongly dislike her, I do hope she now gets an arc about actually dealing with her grief and changing. I think that would be way more interesting to see than still having her be bitter, especially after what happened in this episode.

- Qrow causing good luck to stop the bomb was a nice little moment and honestly makes sense. Good luck and bad luck are just a matter of perspective, after all. What’s bad luck for yourself will be good luck for your enemies and vice versa. So, maybe Qrow technically caused “bad luck” for the bomb? Either way, I like the idea of him realizing that his semblance is more than what he thought.

- Cinder breathing fire during the fight was awesome. I need GIFs of that.

- Blake was amazing in this episode! I love that she didn’t let her grief over Yang consume her, but got up and kept fighting, kicked Cinder in the face and told Weiss to get up. Good stuff!

- I wonder if Cinder’s “You should have never been born” line to Ruby was just a generic “I hate you” line or meant something more.

- Do people honestly think that Cinder betraying Neo was unexpected or like… super unreasonable for a villain? Neo did threaten her – most typical villains don’t react well to their underlings threatening them, so I really don’t see why some people are so shocked or downright offended about this (is it just because they like Neo?).

- Weiss being the last one standing and using Blake’s weapon in the fight was absolutely amazing.

- The tragedy of Jaune sending Nora to bring the Huntsmen and Huntresses back through the portal while not knowing the portal is a one-way deal…

- Cinder knowing that Salem is back because her Grimm arm started hurting was a super interesting moment. And Weiss’ shocked face in that moment was quite interesting, too.

- I wonder if Penny really meant dying when she said “Let me choose this one thing”. To me, it sounded more like she meant choosing the next Winter Maiden. Also, her “trust me” to Jaune is an interesting line. Between that and us not seeing how that conversation goes on, I wonder if there’s something we don’t know here. (*puts on my “Penny is alive” tinfoil hat*)

- I’m glad they at least didn’t graphically show Penny’s death – which is an interesting choice again, because this show doesn’t usually shy away from making deaths graphic and portraying them in all their brutality. So, the fact that we don’t see the act itself and then just cut to Penny’s conversation with Winter was interesting. (But I am glad about it because I didn’t want to see that.) It might honestly just be because of the nature of Penny’s death that they didn’t want to show it too much (and that’s fair).

- “You were my friend.” Gosh, this rewatch is making me cry now 😭. (I also think it’s interesting that Winter calls herself a machine and Penny is now the one who corrects her. It’s a nice callback to Ruby telling Penny she’s their friend and “not just a machine”.)

- I was also just reminded that Penny died thinking Ruby was dead… ouch. This possibly hurts me more than Penny’s death itself.

- People have also pointed out that when Penny transfers the powers to Winter, her aura looks yellow (like Jaune’s) with only some green sparks (like Penny’s). Hmm… I really wonder if there’s more going on here.

- “I won’t be gone. I’ll be part of you.” Who’s cutting onions in here?

- Honestly, the main reason I kind of forgave them for killing Penny was because THAT MOMENT of Winter opening her eyes with the powers while that epic music plays was just amazing to witness. And her fight with Cinder? EPIC. BREATHTAKING. BEAUTIFUL. I’m not even that into the idea of Winter as the Winter Maiden (I honestly thought Penny, the robot girl, becoming the Winter Maiden was a much more interesting plot), but the way it was done in this episode was great. I’m glad we’re finally getting that rivalry between Winter and Cinder, because their arcs parallel each other in so many ways. And I love the symbolism of Winter only getting the powers that Ironwood chose for her after she betrayed Ironwood. I like the idea that she only became worthy of them after turning on Ironwood (which does work well with her Volume 7 arc).

- Oh, by the way, I really hate the “Team RWBY will become the four maidens eventually” theory. Even if it didn’t require characters to die, I just think it would be cheap and way too obvious, and I think it’s boring to throw all the magic powers at the main characters. So, if they only made Winter the Winter Maiden so she can eventually die and pass it on to Weiss, I’ll be very annoyed. (But I hope that’s not where this is going.)

- I’m also just realizing that Cinder asking “How am I supposed to take her power if she’s dead?” about Penny a few episodes ago was foreshadowing… damn.

- Jaune’s sword breaking was a really cool and symbolic moment, too.

- Winter trying to save Weiss from falling and not reaching her in time really got to me. I’m mostly not that affected by any of Team RWBY falling into the void because… come on, we know they’ll be fine. But Winter thinking her little sister just died is… oof. Maybe it’s because I have two younger sisters, but stuff like that really gets to me.

- Also, Winter going through that portal and seeing her family after she just (as far as she knows) lost Weiss… ouch. They never got to all reunite with each other (yet).

- I absolutely LOVED that final scene between Salem and Cinder. They’re both such fascinating characters and I just live for their interactions. Cinder talking herself down (even though she got the relics, so she knows she succeeded at the most important part) was amazing on her part. She did learn from Salem! It’s also interesting that even though she got what Salem wanted, Cinder didn’t get what she herself wanted (the Maiden Powers). I feel like that’s eventually going to become important.

- I wonder if Salem believed Cinder’s lies or not. I’ve seen some interesting opinions in both directions here. (Also, again, I don’t get why some people are so shocked and offended about Cinder lying? I’ve seen so many “I hope she pays for her lies” takes and… really? That’s her biggest crime in your eyes? Lying to another villain?? I don’t think any of you villain-haters feel bad for Salem here, so why… oh. Oh, nevermind, I just understood. They’re not mad that Cinder lied, they’re mad because they wanted Salem to kill her. Gosh, that’s so dumb. Face it, people: That’s not going to happen because Salem still needs the Fall Maiden’s powers. She’s not going to kill Cinder anytime before Cinder opens the last vault.)

- Cinder killing Watts with the staff was kinda funny, tbh. Also Salem’s proud little smirk in that scene kills me.

- “And that’s checkmate.” THAT. Okay, THAT was the best line in the entire episode, I don’t make the rules. What an epic moment!! Gosh, have I mentioned I love Cinder to death? What a queen! This volume really completely changed my opinion on her. I’ve already said that she’s my standout character of the volume, and I stand by that. It was her volume in so many ways and it’s so fitting that she gets to say the last line. It’s also such an interesting line in so many ways: 1) Because this episode is called “The Final Word”, is the only episode in this volume that doesn’t have a one-word title, and the actual final word of the episode is “checkmate”, it implies that “Checkmate” is the real, hidden title of the episode. And that fits so well! They could have easily just named the episode “Checkmate”, but revealing it like this works even better. 2) I also love the chess symbolism in this volume in general. There was a really great analysis about it on here somewhere, but basically: Salem is the king, Cinder is the queen (the king can’t die and barely moves, the queen is out there getting rid of opposing player pieces). And the interesting thing about that here is that the king can’t actually checkmate anyone else, only other chess pieces can. So, it’s very fitting that Cinder is the one who says “checkmate”. Also, in a game of chess, you often have to sacrifice your own pieces to win, which is what Cinder did. 3) I also LOVE the realization on Ironwood’s face when he realizes that he’s been so paranoid about Salem, but he’s actually been playing Cinder all along. (Someone else on here pointed out that there’s something super poetic about Cinder, someone who was very much a victim of Atlas’ systemic problems, being the one to defeat Ironwood and destroy his kingdom. Ironwood was ready to sacrifice all the poor people from Mantle for his own goal, and a poor person who was hurt by people in Atlas is the one who destroyed him. Yeah, yeah, Cinder’s evil and all, but I love it! 4) It’s also really interesting to me that Salem said “This game is not yours to win, it’s mine” to Cinder in the first episode of this Volume, but in the end, Salem ended up being gone for the entire last part of the volume and Cinder is the one who got to say “checkmate.” IT’S JUST SO GOOD.

- And ngl, I’m super happy for Cinder. She really got it all. Yeah okay, she didn’t get the Maiden Powers (and I hope she never does, because one person being two maidens at once is lame), but she got the relics, got rid of her enemies and co-workers (or so she thinks), destroyed the kingdom that she was a slave to, got back into Salem’s good graces… good for her! And apparently one of the buildings that you see being flooded was the Glass Unicorn? Amazing. Love that.

- (Yes, I’m team “redemption for Cinder please”, but come on… it was never going to happen this volume. And if it never happens, that’s okay, too – I’m loving her as a villain as well!)

- Also, I hope that all the people who were specifically criticizing Cinder for not being a competent enough villain are very happy now. Because there you have the competent villain you said you wanted! I mean, I’m saying this as someone who used to criticize Cinder’s character for not being interesting/deep enough. I used to say that I’d like a backstory or something that makes her more interesting/compelling to me. But as soon as we got that backstory, I happily switched sides to team “I like Cinder now”. So, I better not hear any complaining from the “I just want her to be a more competent villain” faction now!

- Yeah, I admit I’m getting annoyed with the Cinder hate. Everyone has a right to their opinions, but it gets frustrating when you’re going through the tag of a character you like and half of the tag are people talking about how badly they want that character to die. (Maybe use a seperate tag for it?)

- (I’m just realizing that I said “Well, at least it was only one character death” earlier, but people like Ironwood and Watts actually did die… I just didn’t count those because I don’t care. Sorry not sorry.)

- We decimated Salem’s faction quite a bit this volume, didn’t we? There’s only Cinder, Tyrian, and Mercury left. I wonder if Salem will get some new people on her side.

- Overall, while I did like this episode, I feel like Volume 8 got weaker towards the end. Most Volumes were at their best towards the end, but I feel like episodes 8-11 were the strongest parts of Volume 8, while episodes 12-14 were still good, but not as good.

- My prediction is that Volume 9 will (of course) be Tearm RWBY’s way out of the void (or whatever that place where they ended up is called) – And I quite like the theory that we won’t see the other characters at all and it’ll be focused only on what’s happening in the void.

[thepunisher]

Why I think Supergirl season 2 is better than season 1

There’s a discourse™ going on since this season started and while some are raising excellent points, other things being said make me think that a season 1 rewatch wouldn’t be a bad idea, since a lot of people seem to have forgotten what actually happened last year on the show.

Supergirl is by no means perfect. It has a lot of faults and it could definitely improve in many ways. That said, I do believe season 2 is actually doing better than season 1 in several regards:

In season 1 everyone seemed to suffer from the draco malfoy syndrome. What is that, you ask? Simple. Kara was at the center of the universe, and everyone’s lives revolved sorely around her. No one had any other purpose than being tied one way or another to her. They only existed to move around Kara and forward the plot. There’s only a couple of episodes who are an exception to that.

This season on the other hand, we’re experiencing the exact opposite. Now that the characters are established, each and everyone of them have their own personal arc that is completely separate from Kara’s. And I personally think that’s great and it’s an improvement. Yes, this is Supergirl and Kara is the protagonist. But nothing screams bi-dimensional characters more than having them all only revolve around one focal point. This year they still intersect in the middle, but everyone is moving forward on their own.

This season Alex is more than a sister who’s trying to prove her worth beyond that fact, Winn is more than the typical loser in love with his bff, Jimmy is more than someone who can’t decide which girl he loves. 

You may not like where some of these arcs are headed, which is totally fine, obviously, but how can you deny that having separate arcs at all is a good thing?

In season 1 we were reminded every two minutes of how Supergirl was not Superman.

I for one am really really happy that they stopped doing that. I liked that they wanted to emphasize that she was not his cousin and that being a woman made a lot of things different/harder, including hero-ing, but the constant reminder that this was a supergirl show was getting on my nerves. The first 4 episodes (if I remember correctly) were especially full of that. While not being there at all, superman was a huge shadow over Kara in season 1. I really love that despite Clark having appeared on the show, this time around he’s not so predominant in the narrative, and we get to enjoy Kara as she is, without being constantly reminded that a. she’s a woman, b. she’s not superman.

I’m also really happy that we’re getting to see more of Kara as a woman and what it means to be both hero and woman, than simply what it means to be supergirl.

People are complaining that this season is too focused on Kara’s love life/Kara’s potential love interest.

Uhm, excuse you? Are y’all suddenly collectively forgetting that the entire season 1 plot half revolved on a love triangle shoved down our throat? (Which is dc tv’s favourite troupe btw) Literally each episode was focused on whether Kara was going to do something about either Winn or Jimmy, or whether Jimmy was going to pick Kara or Lucy. Every.Single.One.Of.Them. (with the only exception being the episode in which Kara dated ms Grant’s son.)

So, last year it was fine but this year it’s.. not?

Winn’s purpose other than being the comic relief and the convenient IT genius that every DC show needs was to have unrequited feelings for Kara.

Jimmy’s purpose was to share some Superman related wisdom and pine over Kara or Lucy.

This season BOTH of them have a purpose that goes beyond Kara. Both of them have actual lives. Winn realized that he can be more than an IT guy and that he can be a hero in his own way, make a difference even when he’s afraid and doesn’t have the courage that all his friends seem to be showing. (Let’s talk about what big improvement it is for a character who said “You must be a lesbian, that’s why you don’t like me romantically!” back on his first appearance in ep1 s1.)

Jimmy’s arc is what I’m liking even more, cause sure, arguably it’s a little rushed (a lot of things are this season, including sanvers, but the number of episodes is limited and tbh I’ve seen worse on tv to complain) but it’s beautiful and it’s finally doing the character justice. He’s beyond just a love interest now, he has his own arc, he has found purpose in life beyond making up his mind about who he wants to date and he’s trying to leave a mark even without having super powers. He’s also no longer just a photographer, he’s a black man in a position of power and he’s learning what it’s like to stand his ground and be a leader. The only thing that would make this better would be more screentime.  (I would die if we had something similar over at the flash, where three seasons later Iris West is still only treated as Barry’s love interest and has no life nor purpose other than being Barry’s lover.)

When it comes to Alex, I do agree that her relationship with Maggie was a little rushed as well and we’re seeing a lot of their romance rather than Alex’s usual badass self we got used to last season. But the two things are not mutually exclusive and we still have a few episodes left to go in which Alex can be both (as she’s already shown). Also, as a queer person myself, I can’t help but being really happy with how Alex’s coming out story was handled and everyone’s reactions to it (including words like “you haven’t dated much lately.” “this is real, it’s not a phase.” “this is not cause I haven’t found the right man.”) 

Again, all these arcs may not be perfect, but I’m liking a lot how they’re taking these characters to the next level and towards different directions, rather than still have all of them only attached to Kara.

On karamel and Mon el in particular, I have a lot to say, especially cause a lot of people in the fandom have gone crazy over it, have started harassing fans and have forgotten the basic decency of tagging their hate. (Also, a lot of these people insulted Chris Wood appearance as a reason to hate on the character.... like, wow, a++ argument there buddy, now I’m definitely going to take your very serious argument seriously.)

I do agree that having Kara do a 180 when it comes to her relationship with Jimmy was really weird and poorly executed (especially since season 2 takes place the day after season 1.) That was bad writing on the authors part, especially since they really went overboard with the pining last year, so have her suddenly not being interested felt really odd. I did not ship Jimmy/Kara (I have a hard time liking ships that are presented as triangles and I really hate when a man makes two women suffer cause he can’t decide what the fuck he wants) but I can understand the shippers frustrations at that predicament and I understand that part of that anger is based on the fact that it seems like a black man has been replaced by a white one. What I don’t understand is the collective hate towards Mon el as a character rather than take offence with the authors, and the use of the word “abusive” when it comes to describing Mon el/Kara’s relationship. (People like to throw that word around, apparently.)

In what universe is that ship abusive or Mon el a manipulator?

I think the introduction of his character was actually very well constructed. It’s really telling that they decided to bring him in as he is in a season where they finally introduced Clark Kent. We have on one side the epitome of the perfect man and perfect hero by anyone’s standard. And on the other hand we have a seemingly dudebro who comes from a planet of fratboys and is adjusting to a life in which he's learning that he can be more than what he’s used to be cause he meets a woman.

I’ve seen a lot of discourse™ going around and people mad that Mon el seems to be interested in the hero-ing business only cause of Kara (as if there’s something wrong with that). If you look closely and if you look at the bigger picture, you’re going to notice how the whole season is build around “being a hero” and “doing the right thing” and why. Kara’s reasons are not M’gann’s, are not Winn’s, are not Jimmy’s, are not Mon el’s. They’re all trying in their own way and they all have different reasons on why they do what they do, did what they did. No two reasons are the same. And yet we do not question them when it comes to other characters. 

I especially like the comparison between M’gann and Mon el, cause they both come from people who are often described as “bad” (obviously for very different reasons) and the show is clearly trying to say that where you come from and who you’re supposed to be cause of that should not define you and what you can become. M’gann did that already back on Mars and J’onn accepted it after some reluctance and has seen past his prejudice. Mon el is getting there (and I think we’ll have more of that to see, since they’re clearly building up towards the big reveal of him being the prince of Daxam.)

I don’t really see what’s wrong with Mon el deciding he wants to be a hero cause he met a woman that showed him he can be more. I’ve seen a lot of complaining on how Kara is being “used to forwards a man’s growth” and I’m ???Jimmy and Winn are doing the exact same thing and I’m sorry people, but where do you actually live that you don’t get inspired to do/be better by the people that are in your lives? I mean, if that doesn’t happen to you, if you don’t have those kind of friends or significant others that just by their presence inspire you to be better, you should get out more and meet more people. Kara has inspired a LOT of people since season 1, same as Cat Grant and her cousin inspired her. 

The most beautiful relationships (and I don’t only mean this only romantically) are built on becoming better cause someone showed us that we can be more.

Also, again, this season shows the different reasons behind why being a hero and not everyone does it for the same reasons as Kara or Captain America. Are any other reasons any less valid?

That said, I really like criticizing the media that I consume, so I can really understand people doing the same. What I don’t get is why some people who ended up clearly hating the show are still watching it. Been there, done that, it’s pointless and only lead to bitterness. And just cause you don’t like a character or a ship, accusing a show of promoting abusive relationships (seriously?!) is beyond ridiculous when you present absurd facts at a base of your hate.  You’re perfectly entitled to hate whatever you want, but when you start spitting lies to justify your dislike and accusing fans of liking twisted things, that pisses me off.

If you’re no longer into where this show is going, you should maybe consider moving on. Or, you know, stop attacking people for still liking it. Or better yet, start tagging your wank, so we can all block it. 

Like what you like and hate what you hate, but leave people be, leave them free to enjoy what they want. You’re not better cause you criticize something that other people like.