#it could be a nuanced character - but when all of the main women in the story all hate femininity

[lurkingshan]

I think the het couple in Heesu is fine (though I much preferred how the manhwa dealt with Heesu's feelings of isolation and the issue of being gay in a world where most are not without having a het couple). Honestly my biggest issue with them is how much time their sideplots take up when we could be spending that time developing Seungwon and Heesu's relationship. I just don't feel like for them being the main couple, they've really gotten the development and time spent together that they deserve. Again I could be biased since I'm coming from the perspective of having read the source material, which the show has deviated from at almost every step. But I just find it really hard to care about Jiyu's singing or Chanyoung's tennis issues. Especially when it feels like Heesu and Seungwon don't really have the same level of care put into their stories outside the other characters. Like I much would've preferred the time spent with Chanyoung's tennis issues to be spent seeing more about Seungwon and his Moms. Or just Seungwon and Heesu getting to be together. I feel like since the show invented the Jiyu/Chanyoung relationship and gave them much bigger roles than they had in the source material, they overcompensated in giving them all this sideplot that wasn't really necessary to the show and adds almost nothing of substance to it, while then cutting out or cutting short a lot of important developments between Seungwon and Heesu.

Hey anon. I'll be honest, I disagree with just about everything you've said here. I know it can be hard to be objective when you're coming in with a preconceived idea of what a story will be--whether that's due to an attachment to the source material or to BL genre conventions--and to get something completely different. But as a longtime kdrama viewer and someone who is decidedly not attached to the manhwa, I recognized what this show was doing from the start and I think it's done it all quite brilliantly. FWIW, I think this show is an example of a fantastic adaptation that adds a lot of depth and nuance to fairly simple source material, and I much prefer this version of the story.

Chanyoung and Jiyu get to be real and whole people in this story, not just props to serve the main ship. One of my longstanding issues with BL (and many het romcoms) is the way the other characters are often only there in service of the romance. They don't care about anything but pushing the main ship toward each other, and they are usually used just as comic relief or as the stand in for the viewers. That trope has its place, but I always like it when every character in a story is an actual person with motivations and conflicts of their own. Heesu has achieved that beautifully. Jiyu is one of my favorite characters this year, and that's not something you often get to say about women in BL. The friendship between Chanyoung and Heesu is such an important part of the story, and I also love that the show is unpacking the ways in which Heesu, and many forlorn piners before him, can lose sight of the good relationships they already have in their pursuit of the thing they think they want. Everything that happens with Chanyoung and Jiyu's romance supports the main narrative of Heesu's growth, he and Seungwon's relationship development, and the themes about how queerness makes things different for them. It's exactly what a good side couple is supposed to do in a story.

I also super disagree with the notion that Heesu and Seungwon are underdeveloped or haven't had enough screen time. First of all, when you consider that Heesu is almost triple the length of the average KBL, Heesu and Seungwon are getting more screen time than most KBL couples do, even if they are not the focus of literally every scene. They've been getting closer every episode and we've spent quite a lot of time with them separately and together. They are both working through their hang ups and fears, and the story is taking its time to let that play out organically rather than forcing it to go fast for the sake of delivering more romance tropes (another thing I often dislike in the genre). This is crucial not only so their development feels real and believable, but also because the queer couple having more obstacles to get on the same page is a huge part of the point. We have had the pleasure of watching Heesu slowly fall for Seungwon without even realizing it was happening, and now arrive at awareness but still have mess to wade through because Seungwon has been too afraid to tell the truth. It has been a fantastic love story from where I'm sitting, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion.

It has made me sad and pretty frustrated to see the vitriol many BL watchers have aimed at this show. If we want queer stories to reach more people, we can't reject anything that deviates even slightly from the BL formula. It's remarkable that Heesu in Class 2 exists, that it was given proper funding to develop a whole ass queer kdrama with great writing and acting and strong themes and great production values, and that it has executed its story at such a high quality level. I hope those of us who appreciate it for what it is are enough to counteract the hate being directed its way, because it would be a shame if it becomes the only show of its kind thanks to the backlash.

[marklikely]

on further reflection maybe it isn't out of character that i liked the kens over the barbies when a lot of the joke is how the barbies are all blandly nice and hypercompetent which as you may know is like my single most uninterested gender dynamic for fictional characters

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Top 12 Favorite Anime of 2024 (and more)!

We had a lot of good anime in 2024, so here's the list of my top 12 favorites and some bonus great anime as well. If you get tired of clicking the review links, check out my anime overview collection for all of them here.  

You can also check out my post about my favorite manga from 2024 here and my favorite books of 2024 here.

These are in no particular order!

Delicious in Dungeon (a.k.a Dungeon Meshi)

Dungeon Meshi  is one of my favorite stories period, and easily my top anime of the year. The basic premise is that Laios and his party of adventurers need to travel through a monster-infested dungeon rescue his sister. Rather waste precious time earning money for food, Laios decides they should just eat the monsters they encounter as they travel. But then that simple plot spins off into so much more...

The story combines cooking and adventure animanga expertly. It has some of the most impressive and fascinating worldbuilding I've ever seen, top-tier varied character design and a great plot. It's also funny as hell, and I love its main cast of nuanced eccentric weirdos with all my heart. Even the characters who have five minutes of screen time feel like you could watch a spin-off series about them.

It's not just about food, but the cycle of life and death, about hunger of all kinds, about ecosystems and societies and finding solace in the monstrous...there's a lot simmering under this story!

So, go ahead and eat up! And read my review here for more!

Mayonaka Punch

Canceled YouTuber, Masaki, meets a pathetic lesbian vampire, Live. Live agrees to help Masaki launch a new YouTube channel, but in exchange, Masaki has to let Live suck up all her blood when they reach 100 million subscribers.

 This is the kind of stuff I watch anime for. This is what dreams are made of.

Do you support women's wrongs? Are you craving some women who are loveable shitheads? Do you want a great ensemble comedy about five disaster vampires wreaking havoc and a cynical human along for the ride? This show has all that, plus some down bad lesbian vampire shenanigans! But there's also a lot of growth for the main character, and the show has a lot of pathos in how it explores how the internet and its outrage train can do a number on one's mental health.

It's a ton of fun! See my full review here!

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.

Being a magical girl is no longer the domain of teenagers, and has evolved into an actual career dominated by adult women. Kana becomes a magical girl for a scrappy start up company, and tries her best to navigate working life.

It's the magical girl story about adult women I've been craving for years! Magical girl media often explores the struggles of adolescence and growing up, and this show takes us to the next step by using magical girls to explore what it’s like to be a young woman entering the working world. The focus is one Kana struggling to grow her confidence and accept support from her workplace, but it also has a lot to say about companies exploiting their workers, prizing efficiency and growth over actually taking care of their customers, and it shows how the world could be better than what it is right now. Check out my review here for more detail!

Girls Band Cry

After being bullied, Nina drops out school and ends up starting a band with four other girls, including the woman whose music saved her at her darkest moment. Nina's determined for the band to stick it to the people who once looked down on them. GBC features some wonderfully messy and entertaining teenage girls, actually incredible CGI animation and great music. Nina, the lead, is allowed to be angry and obnoxious and powered by spite, but the narrative sympathizes with her and loves her spirit, even if she sometimes messes things up. All the girls have rough edges and raw emotion and a great dynamic with each other. They also flip people off a lot.

It was kind of screwed over by streaming, but don't sleep on it! See my review here!

Natsume's Book of Friends (Season 7) 

Anime's sweetest boy and his horrible cat (affectionate) are back, and it's time for more yokai adventures! I’ve already talked at length about how this series is special–check out my series review/ Rec post for the series here. I also did an article titled The Courage to Speak: Mental Illness and Recovery in Natsume’s Book of Friends that goes into more in-depth analysis. The story is sweet and charming and sometimes heartwrenching and very important to me.

It's yet another season of lovely, bittersweet yokai tales that tug on your heartstrings, the characters continue to heal and grow in slow but satisfying ways. It just feels so nice watching this series again and letting the love, comfort, and catharsis wash over me. See my review here.

Dead Dead Demon's DeDeDeDe Destruction

A giant mothership is hovering over Tokyo. The aliens have done nothing, not even leaving their ship, but Japan and America are already trying to blow that UFO up, and show off who has the best weapons, causing many civilian casualties along the way. Meanwhile, two girls are just trying to living their lives.

This anime goes hard on criticizing the military industrial complex, Japanese nationalism and imperialism, American imperialism, xenophobia, mistreatment of immigrants, rich people, and conspiracy theorists. That means it's often devastating and visceral, but it also follows some fantastic weird girls and their ride-or-die soul bond, as well as other charming, funny teenagers who are just trying to live in a world falling apart around them. You can also look forward to some plot twists that recontextualize everything you know!

You should also see my review for some content warnings and a really important message about episode order if you want more detail, you can read it here.

Senpai is an Otokonoko

 Makoto is an "otokonoko" ( a term that means crossdressing boy) and he's figuring out his relationship to gender, and hiding his interests from his mother. A girl named Aoi confesses to him, thinking he's a girl. But he reveals the truth, she's ecstatic about it, much to his shock. Meanwhile, Makoto's best friend Ryuji is also crushing on him...

It's tough to be a queer kid in a world full of rigid gender roles and insidious homophobia, and this anime shows the unfairness of that struggle. But it also shows the joy of finding those who accept and understand you, and of slowly becoming comfortable with who you are. The show knows how to make you really roots for these great kids, and it's really good at tugging the ol' heartstrings. See my review here for more!

A Sign of Affection

The anime follows Yuki, a shy girl who's been deaf since birth, and Itsuomi, a world-traveler and polyglot, fall in love. They both live in very different worlds, but as their romance blooms, they're eager to learn more about each other.

A Sign of Affection is shoujo romance at its sweetest, with soft colors, gentle blushes, tender moments, and plenty of warm fuzzies. The animation is beautiful and the show treats Yuki's perspective with care and delicacy as the story goes on. It also have a great focus on communication and consent in a relationship. Read my review here! 

YATAGARASU: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

In this world, people have the ability to shapeshift into yatagarasu, the giant three legged ravens from Japanese mythology. Prince Wakamiya, who's next in line for the emperor, is thought to be an incarnation of the powerful "Golden Raven", so the four women chosen as his bride candidates (each who carry the hopes of their respective provinces) compete fiercely for his hand. Yukiya, a canny young boy, has been pulled into being the prince's attendant, and both Yukiya and the women soon find themselves pulled into a deadly web of mysteries and political machinations.

Yatagarasu is a tightly woven tale of political intrigue, featuring lots of palace folk plotting against each other, multiple assassination attempts, spies, fascinating worldbuilding and use of mythology, well executed plot twists, and complex characters. Yukiya is a very likeable little trickster with a heart of gold, and he works well as an audience surrogate who has to keep up with all this weird court drama. In the first half, the story focuses a lot on on women contending with rigid roles and how that leads to both enmity and empathy between them. But disappointingly, most of those characters are dropped or have their roles reduced in the second half of the anime, which is a shame.

Overall, this anime is a story that hooks you with it's story and it's dark, majestic atmosphere and never lets go. It's just plain good, and pretty underrated, so I'd suggest checking it out!

The Apothecary Diaries (Episodes 13-24)

The second half of The Apothecary Diaries was somehow even better than the first half, crafting a compelling ongoing mystery and delving into MaoMao’s backstory. There were quite a few big thrills that made me gasp aloud. MaoMao, the world's best poison-obsessed detective, pulled off some show-stopping feats and she remains an incredible, endearing character. Especially now that we’ve learned she has a killer evil laugh. Check out my review of the first part of The Apothecary Diaries here and slightly more detail on this run of episodes here.

Dandadan

 Another one you've probably heard of, it's the story of two kids- Momo, who was abducted by aliens and Okarun, who was cursed by a yokai. Now they have to break Okarun's curese while aliens and yokai are hunting them!

Dandadan is an anime bursting with absurd action and humor, and it has a boppin’ soundtrack and amazing animation from Science Saru. It’s wildly weird in the best way, and the characters are hilarious lovable losers. It's also the rare example of a battle shonen that actually treats its female lead as an equal to her male partner, in screen time and in battle. I adore Momo with all my heart- she's fun, she's bombastic, she's badass, she's everything.

However, the main problem I have with the show is its pattern of putting Momo in sexual peril. I go into more detail about this and the show in general in my review here.

Train to the End of the World

 A story about four girls and a dog traveling across a weird, warped version of Japan to find their missing friend, Train to the End of the World is wild. I absolutely adore bizarre anime about equally bizarre girls, and this delivers. We see the girls encounter a cult with mushrooms growing out of their heads, screaming goatmen and even zombies on their journey. The dynamic between the different characters is great, and the dialogue is snappy. If you appreciate wild and weird zaniness that also has a lot of heart and great friendships, give this show a try. My full review is here.

Bonus Anime- some other stuff you might want to check out!

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

Despite an extremely goofy title Cherry Magic quickly became a surprisingly grounded, thoughtful and heartfelt BL romance worth watching. See my full review here.

7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy!

Rishe has lived seven lives, had lots of adventures, and in every single one of them, she has been killed as result of the world war started by the emperor of a neighboring kingdom. Each time Rishe dies, she's sent back to the moment the crown prince of her own country broke off their engagement (she's actually pretty happy about it). But in her seventh life, the future Emperor sees her, is instantly smitten by how cool she is and proposes to her. Rishe decides she might as well enjoy life chilling in the palace before things inevitably go to hell.

7th Time Loop has a fun conceit, and it features a vivacious, badass heroine who's a joy to watch. Having lived as a commoner in most of her past lives, she's ready to use her smarts to help people--whether it's going undercover to help a maid who's being bullied or addressing illiteracy among the servant girls. Whether she's beating up kidnappers or politically maneuvering, she's learning and growing and kicking ass. While her love interest is a bit too broody for me, I do deeply relate to how Rishe's badassery clearly turns him on. The antagonists and plot are sometimes a bit silly, but it's always a good time. A josei anime about an awesome gal is just what the doctor ordered.

Acro Trip

A silly show about a magical girl fangirl who's recruited to an evil organization by an incompetent villain,  Acro Trip is a lot of fun, and I recommend it to any magical girl enjoyer. I also recommend it to anyone who loves pathetic failguys and girls. Our "villain" Chrome is the most hilariously pathetic of them all. You like bad boys? Well this man is literally bad at everything. See my full review here.

Whisper Me a Love Song

 I have to give a shoutout to the only textual yuri anime that came out this year--it's production basically completely collapsed, but it's still watchable and the story is a sweet and solid girl band romance. At least consider giving the manga a shot if nothing else! See my review here!

[unknown-cold]

Omg that's true!!

I'm so tired of these people saying Vi and Caitlyn's relationship is toxic, I mean literally the same thing she said Jinx and her relationship with Ekko wasn't good either and Jayce and Viktor too.

It is natural for problems and disagreements to occur in relationships, but it is not natural to think that a relationship will be peaceful and good all the time. These things only exist in Disney movies.

But apart from all that. Seriously guys hating on Vi or Caitlyn or both is way over the top. Like let's just imagine JUST IMAGINE, if Vi were male, the narrative surrounding her actions and character would change dramatically. She would likely be hailed as a "brother hero," a model of loyalty and kindness despite impossible circumstances. Her trauma, in prison, losing Vander, failing to save Jinx, and so on, would be sympathized with as a testament to her strength and determination.

Her status as the “bad sister” is undoubtedly tied to gender expectations. Women, especially older sisters, are often burdened with the role of caregiver, and are expected to be endlessly compassionate and self-sacrificing. Vi’s moments of anger, guilt, and mistakes, however, conflict with societal stereotypes of women as the natural “fixers” of emotional and familial conflicts. The fact that Vi is pigeonholed as the “bad sister” while Jinx is often seen as the tragic victim reflects deeper gender biases. Vi’s traumas and emotional wounds are ignored or minimized because she is expected to be the “strong one,” while Jinx is given sympathy and a more nuanced lens because her messiness and vulnerability fit into certain stereotypes of women who are broken or in need of saving.

It’s a frustrating double standard, and it underscores just how progressive Arcane is by refusing to fully give into those tropes. Vi’s character still shines as someone strong, flawed, and deeply human, but the criticisms she faces highlight how society treats female characters with such biases.

The misogyny is REAL and don’t think for a second that other women aren’t fully participating in that also. The amount of shit Vi gets for temporarily joining the Enforcers with Caitlyn to stop Jinx is insane. A male Vi would have been seen as a TORTURED HERO for joining up with the EVIL FORCES that took his parents away all so he could do HERO THINGS. But Vi does it? “Wah wah she joined the COPS she’s A TRAITOR THE REAL VI WOULD NEVER”. Like. Watch the show, my friends, and you will see she did what she thought was best and it was a very complex and very emotional decision for her; she hated every second of that uniform. But no, people shit on Vi and then complain like any of them could write a better show. Ugh.

And nobody would have hated a male Vi for having his love scene. Nobody. In fact, it would have been EXPECTED, but because Vi’s a woman, and a lesbian expressing her big gay love for her gorgeous gay lover, some people refuse to see her humanity and her growth as a person in that moment. I'm so tired

And the argument that we hate them because they did bad things is not true, I have seen people hate Caitlyn just because she is lesbian and one of them said if she was a straight woman I would have accepted her character on the show. Seriously this is someone who takes his criticism seriously, he forgot the story and everything in the show and focused on whether the characters are gay or straight or worse when I saw a comment from someone saying why are the main characters on the show female characters? Like is this an idiot or is he drug or what exactly? I think we should also ask, why do men always take the lead roles and when they are evil they are better, and if they are good they are also better, but if a woman comes along who is evil or wants to be evil or does just one mistake everyone hates her and she is the worst person in the world, but men are the only ones who deserve to play the role of evil and do bad things and we will sympathize with them and love them. THIS IS CRAZY!!

To understand what I'm saying more, compare Viktor's character and Caitlyn's character and you will see that Caitlyn was the character who was criticized the most even though she didn't kill anyone innocent and in the end she tried to fix things, while Viktor tried to kill all the people of Piltover and Zaun and didn't care about anyone, even his friend's pleas, he didn't care about them and Viktor thought that this was the solution but to end the conflicts between the two cities. But is there anyone who criticizes this, is there anyone who says that this is a bad act, of course not, yes you will see some people justifying it, as they did with Silco, the person who killed an entire family for control and drowned all of Zaun with shimmer and made the children work in dangerous factories, and there is not a single criticism, and people defend him even after Jinx's condition worsened, no they say that he is better than Caitlyn, my god like what the fuck!?

Then they tell you we don't hate women we don't hate gays or lesbians, just shut the fuck up, everything is clear, Arcane revealed to us that there are still people who are fanatic and traditional to the extreme who still want to see a man as the hero of the story and that all people and women should respect him even if he is evil and cruel he is always better than this bullshit, Arcane proved to us that it is possible for both sexes to appear in an excellent, strong and realistic way without insulting or belittling the other because these things are not useful and will not help in telling the story in any way.

Quick note I don't hate Jinx or Viktor and many of you who follow me know that I love Viktor very much but I will not deny the bad things he did and I am also really tired of the hypocrisy of some people and their constant criticism of other characters and characters. Just bc they say like these characters

Like I don't like Silco but have you ever seen me post every day criticizing Silco and Silco fans all the time or go to Silco fans and tell them if you like Silco then you support child labor and the drug trade and blah blah. Like they do with Caitlyn fans when one of them says he likes Caitlyn they accuse him of supporting collective punishment and corrupt governments and police brutality just because he likes a fictional character. I've never seen such stupidity and backwardness and bullshit in my life, just because I like a fictional character you think I will act like her in real life?? These people need to grow up seriously or find a job

[camfusedly]

Why does this fantastic trans visual novel only have 23 reviews on Steam??

Breathless Winds is an island-fantasy visual novel that mostly focuses on an impending metaphorically-ecological magical disaster, with a strong romance side plot centered on a pre-transition trans girl protagonist. The art is GORGEOUS, the artist has a really distinctive and evocative style.

This is the CG where I fell in love with Lantana

The worldbuilding is also very good and immersive, and the writer does a great job doing something that I don’t think is required in a branching visual novel, but I still appreciated, which is making all of the different routes be operating in the same reality—problems that crop up mainly to serve one route will appear in another as well, but with different focuses that make it fresh. Characters’ personalities are very consistent whether they’re acting as a love interest or as a supporting character or even an antagonist.

Romance plotlines I think take a backseat to the fantasy adventure, but they’re very fun and enjoyable. The romance is very much a bisexual dream, with two men and two women with equally weighty plotlines. Two of the love interests are also trans (one man and one woman), which made my little t4t heart extremely happy.

I have A LOT of thoughts about the trans representation, which, again, is not the main plot. Thoughts below:

I’m a sensitivity reader for trans representation, and as someone with that experience, I was pretty shocked because this visual novel pulls off something that I’ve never seen any other narrative do before. Namely, writing long-term about pre-transition with a high level of empathy and compassion.

My advice to writers whose projects show up in my inbox is usually to not set scenes in pre-transition because writers tend to have a lot of problems there. But reading Breathless Winds has taught me that writing about pre-transition is not the problem—the problem is the level of compassion.

Breathless Winds has this compassion in spades. Where many works would get caught up finding edginess in the contradictory nature of pre-transition, Breathless Winds is concerned with Poppy’s inner world and her mental health. Where many works would have her be “walked in on” wearing dresses and use that for humor or conflict, Breathless Winds allows Poppy to experiment in private and come out when she’s ready. Where many works would treat her upcoming transition as something that disqualifies her from romance, Breathless Winds’ romantic options all validate Poppy’s real gender even when she’s pre-transition.

Maybe this is because that my pre-transition days are 11 years in the rearview mirror, but I’m kind of shocked that it never even occurred to me that a romantic fantasy for a pre-transition person is something that could/should exist. I love that this exists not just for pre-transition people (or people unable to transition, etc.), but also for those of us who have transitioned, to imagine a compassionate fantasy for the ways we used to live our lives.

I do just want to advise the reader that Poppy is misgendered and deadnamed by the narrative by necessity, so if that would be troubling for you to read, I would say consider this one carefully.

I also thought that they did a great job with the portrayal of Prince Valerian, a trans man (who transitioned a long time ago in the plot), to be A+, chef’s kiss. I may be biased, but I thought that his route was the crown jewel (ha ha) of the routes, and I’m really glad I did it last.

Valerian performs an impressive "asserting dominance while short" maneuver

While not a big part of Valerian's route, a struggle that pervades his relationships with other men from his country is that even though they gender him correctly, there's a sense he will never be in the "boy's club." This subtle nuance in many relationships between cis and trans men is such a real phenomenon that a lot of writers writing about trans man characters don't explore, and I was impressed to see it here. (It's more common to see writers only interested in overt, misgendering transphobia.)

The writer also did a great job avoiding another pitfall many writers fall into, which is sort of “damseling” the trans man character and exploiting (what a writer might presume to be) his “natural” physical weakness—Valerian is portrayed to be as physically capable and powerful as the other male characters, and a worthy adversary.

If you want to do all of the routes, my recommendation for route order would be to do Gallardia’s route first, then the girls, and then Valerian last. Just a note that outside of picking the route, all of the choices are “for fun”, so don’t stress about your choices! I did Rue’s route first, which had a bit of a goth, downery vibe, and I was like “Oh god, I’m picking bad choices,” but no, that’s just the route, lol.

If you are interested in visual novels or fantasy or romance at all, I really recommend playing this game and giving it a review on Steam!

[iviarelleblr]

I just feel like this is something that ought to be shared. For WOT in particular but for a lot of other stories as well.

I know my feelings are still very chaotic about the whole thing in 3x08. A lot of people, myself included, have entirely valid trauma (and no I'm not exaggerating by using that word!) related to multiple things that came up in that episode. You can't help what your triggers are, you can only control how you act in response.

I will say, most of the counterpoints I've seen here aren't trying to invalidate the feelings of people who are upset about certain things in the episode, but some of them feel invalidating anyway. It feels like you're saying, "why are you even upset, there's [mitigating factors]".

And it's true that not a single one of the issues happened to a tokenized character, nobody is the only person who looks like them, who loves like them, in the show. There are other women of colour, there are other *queer* women of colour even, right there.

But when you've seen a pattern play out a dozen times, when the very same writer was a writer on the show that may have even given you that initial trauma,* and was hailed by the showrunner of this show as the premiere writer for these two particular characters especially... People who remember all that, consciously or just in their bones, were always going to be upset, even if we weren't just here for the Siuaraine of it all.

I'm not threatening to quit the show or anything over this. I'm not suggesting anyone else should or shouldn't keep watching. It's something every individual will have to decide for themselves: they've got other queer characters and ships to sail, but there have been an awful lot of dead beloved characters of colour this season. Colorism isn't an automatic argument-winning word the way some people on Xitter treated it last week, but it is a problem the show has struggled with.

I'm just asking for a little compassion for those of us who are working through a lot, y'know? Like, this is where a lot of us are coming from. It may very well lead to a better story, I've seen plenty of very convincing arguments, but that doesn't stop my heart from hurting in an echo back along all the queer characters I've lost along the way so that their partners could go on being main characters. It doesn't stop me from feeling how similar this could be to those, even if it doesn't end up being the same at all. I think all sides of these discussions could use a little more nuance and thought and a little less reflexive responding (hence my posting this the day after, to make sure I'm not jumping the gun or making an ass of myself), but that goes for everything, always.

Bonus * note: The 100 wasn't my first buried gay, but not only was JJG writing on it in the very season the Clexa controversy went down (though not the same episode), that show's showrunner had also been overpromoting the queer relationship between Clarke and Lexa, had been hyping them up in interviews and promotional stuff, all season leading up to Lexa's tragic pointless death so the actress could go work on another show. I WAS THERE, GANDALF! I don't think it's overblown or exaggerating to say a lot of people are having extremely large feelings right now over this, especially if they were in that fandom in 2016, especially if they're a little younger than I am and were that little bit more impressionable at the time. We are feeling a lot of parallels and it fucking sucks, to put it lightly.

[hrizantemy]

Do you think Sjm just heard of the name „Illyrian“ and thought it’s good enough to claim it without doing proper research? Cause I do.

Do you think the Illyrians in the acotar world aren’t representing Albanians (even though Illyrians are a part of their history), but Arabs (specifically Palestinians) instead and so she could take the opportunity to slap in every harmful stereotype you could Imagine? Cause I do.

Do you think that Sjm pictures the bat boys as maybe Latinos (or at least any other ethnicity that isn’t Arab), even though their people represent Arabs, cause you know… they‘re the „exception“ and all (especially when they have internal racism and act white) Cause I do.

I think there’s a very strong argument to be made that SJM used the name Illyrian without proper research and just thought it sounded cool, without considering the real-world historical and cultural weight behind it. The fact that the ACOTAR Illyrians bear no resemblance to the actual historical Illyrians, and instead follow many harmful stereotypes commonly associated with Arabs and Middle Eastern cultures, is a glaring issue.

The portrayal of the Illyrians in ACOTAR leans heavily into orientalist tropes—depicting them as a warrior society stuck in tradition, oppressing their women, and needing intervention from outside figures (Rhysand, Cassian, and Azriel, who are very much coded as separate from them). This aligns disturbingly well with the way Western media often portrays Arab and Palestinian communities, reducing them to regressive and violent caricatures while ignoring the historical and political nuances that shape their realities. The fact that Velaris, the “progressive” city of the Night Court, is completely separate from the Illyrian camps and exists as a supposed haven of peace and equality, also mirrors the way Western narratives frame colonialism—presenting “civilized” spaces as needing to uplift and control “barbaric” ones.

As for the bat boys, I 100% think they are meant to be seen as “the exception”—especially Rhysand, who is constantly emphasized as being different from the Illyrians, despite being part Illyrian himself. The fact that they can pass as High Fae or somehow “better”, while the rest of the Illyrians are stuck in the mountains being brutalized and used as disposable soldiers, suggests a level of internalized racism and colorism within the ACOTAR world. This is further complicated by the way the Illyrians seem to exist solely to give Rhys, Cassian, and Azriel a tragic backstory and a sense of purpose, rather than being a fully fleshed-out culture with agency of their own.

So yeah, I absolutely agree—SJM wanted an exotic-sounding warrior race without actually engaging with the histories of the people she was drawing from. And in doing so, she leaned into some deeply problematic stereotypes while making sure her main characters were separate from the negative traits she gave their people.

[geegers22]

I’ve seen lots of conversation on here about Zutara shippers opinions on aang and mai and i thought I’d give my point of view.

I want to start by saying that I think there should be more of a distinction between disliking a character because they are a bad person and disliking a character because they are written badly. With that being said, I can confidently say that, with the material of the main ATLA show, I dislike Aang and Mai because they are badly written characters. Meaning, if their arcs were properly finished, I would have no problems with them. This brings me to another topic of how I don’t really ‘hate’ characters who are bad people if they’re well written but that’s a conversation for another post.

I need to point out that I didn’t start disliking Aang and Mai until they had their arcs undermined when Kataang and Maiko became canon. With the arcs they were going on, they had so much potential to be really interesting and I enjoyed their personalities.

When it comes to Aang, I had no problem with him as a character until season 3 part 2 when I started to realize that his world view (which is flawed based solely on the fact that he is young and there is no way he’s going to have a nuanced pov) was not going to be challenged. Aang should have had to give up katara. Aang should not have just had everything handed to him with the lion turtle and the pointy rock.

Then there’s the southern raiders which I would argue, if Aang’s arc had been completed, would not illicit as many conversations and arguments about it as it currently has. Because his actions in that episode make sense (Sokkas don’t really but again-that’s another story) because he’s a kid. This episode should have been a big decider of his change in worldview. The problem is that the creators decided his flaws didn’t exist and that he was perfect. (At 12 years old?!?!?)

Then there’s Mai. She’s a much smaller character but that doesn’t mean she deserves less of an arc. Mai is a character whose personality I love! (I’m all for gloomy depressed women!) There’s two ways Mai’s character could have developed, and I think both options are great, the problem is that Bryke decided to go in neither direction.

On the one hand, Mai could have been a representation of unlearning the propaganda she was taught in the fire nation throughout her whole life. I think this direction would make Maiko more believable, although I still don’t think they are a good couple because their personalities create a toxic dynamic and Mai’s story with Zuko is meant to represent that toxicity.

The second option would be to have her views not change, like we see in the show, and have her not get back together with Zuko. This is the more interesting path in my opinion because it’s more realistic. I don’t think the problem with Mai’s arc lies with her personal views of the fire nation, more so with her relationship with Zuko. As we have it in the show, Mai’s views don’t change. Therefor, it doesn’t make sense for her character or for Zuko’s for them to get back together like nothing ever happened.

When it comes down to it. Both Aang and Mai had their arcs sabotaged because the creators rejected Zutara. Even without Zuko and Katara getting together these were the wrong decisions. Both characters had potential to be well written, but in the end, the creators chose the path didn’t allow that to happen because they just couldn’t kill their darling. (Kataang)

Sorry for rambling, this is kind of just my take on the whole “Zutara shippers hate Aang and Mai” take.

[lastoneout]

Something I've noticed that is like...concerning but also just really annoying about online discussions about basically any topic these days is something that probably already has a name but that for now I'ma call "death of nuance via strict binary thinking" which leads a lot of people to get very angry over the idea that two things can be true at once, or that bringing up someone else's problems does not overshadow or invalidate your own, or that you can uplift a group of people without tearing down another.

Because like, I've had this happen on several of my posts now, where I say a generally harmless, factual statement, and several people rush in to either outright accuse me of saying a different, more extreme statement or annoyingly "correct" me to fix the supposed ~dangerous implications~ of my words, which I'm not gonna lie is as infuriating as it is confusing.

I can't make a post about how sugar is one of the main things the human body runs on and thus trying to remove it entirely from your diet is dangerous and harmful without people showing up to be like "are you saying it's okay to eat an entire bag of sugar by the spoonful??" and "well if you ate nothing but oreoes and ice cream that would make you sick" even though that doesn't contradict or really have anything?? to do?? with my original statement??

I can't make a post talking about the issues men(trans or cis) face under the patriarchy without people showing up and getting mad at me for "making feminism about men" despite the fact that the majority of my feminist activism DOES center women and taking a moment to explore the ways the patriarchy harms us all in no way harms women. And I can't make a post pointing out that marginalized men, especially black, disabled, and fat men often have malice read into their very existence and maybe that's bad without people showing up to get mad at me for saying marginalized men are incapable of harm which is not what I said at all.

And this one is a bit different but still one I see a lot, which is an over-correction seeped in the idea that we can only uplift one group at a time, or if x group is good y group must be bad. Like I am all for pointing out that there's nothing wrong with not wearing makeup and having body hair and not wearing deodorant, and women who live like that are fine and valid and can still be seen as sexy and desirable, and yes there ARE things to critique about the beauty industry for sure...but then that manifests into thinking women who do shave and wear makeup and deodorant are ugly or weird or brainwashed and should be mocked, which..no? Or when the dialog shifted to talking about fat people being hot suddenly we had a lot of people acting like skinny women were ugly and weird when that actually doesn't help with fat liberation AT ALL.

(Also just to clarify I think the occasional joke about these topics is okay given how much mockery fat, hairy, and non-feminine women get BUT there is a point when you go to far and some groups of people are racing over the line.)

And like yeah you could say the internet has always been this way but there's been a real noticeable uptick in progressive leftists coming at complex issues with this kind of no-nuance thinking, when it used to be something I really only saw from conservatives. I'd see stuff like "well feminism is bad because men also have problems" and "oh black lives matter? are you saying other lives don't??" and "oh you think drug addicts aren't inherently dangerous well what about the ones who DO hurt people" or "we can't talk about trans women's issues that would take away from talking about cis women's problems" and "we can't have a fat character that's glorifying ob*sity" and we used to MOCK them for that shit. This was seen as RIDICULOUS and was generally considered a conversation ender because it's clear the people doing it aren't actually interested in having a conversation they just want to yell at you for something you didn't say or pull a huge "I am uncomfortable when we are not about me" which just...ough please stop.

So seeing like actual progressive people pull this shit is really weird and it happens so often I legit can't ignore it anymore. I don't really have a solution, but I just feel like some of us really need to wrap our heads around the idea that just because someone said one thing doesn't mean they're saying this other thing too. Which, when you put it like that, sounds like the kind of thing you learn in kindergarten but I digress. Someone saying it's okay to eat sugar, your body actually needs it, isn't necessarily saying it's okay to eat so many oreoes you get sick(or excluding diabetics or being a corn lobby apologist or whatever the hell else people on that post are accusing me of). Someone bringing up the ways the patriarchy hurts people who aren't women isn't making feminism about men or saying women don't have problems. Trans men talking about their issues isn't implying anything about trans women just like bisexuals or asexuals talking about their issues isn't taking space away from allo gay people. Someone talking about how assuming marginalized men are threats when they're just existing is bad and gets innocent people killed isn't saying OJ Simpson did nothing wrong.

Two things can be true at the same time. Nuance is important and making space to talk about one thing isn't taking away from someone else. There's no contest, no slippery slope so dangerous we can't even state facts, no pie you have to fight over. Oppression isn't a math problem where whatever you do to one side of the equation must be done to the other or a scale that can't be balanced. This kind of thought process isn't productive and will not lead to a better, more equal world. Just one where someone else is wearing the boot.

Just...idk please just stop coming onto posts assuming the worst, doing bad faith readings and then getting pissed about something the person didn't say, assuming someone else getting a seat at the table means yours is in danger, being so desperate to be a good ally that you start doing lateral violence and calling it punching up, and just full on stealing conservative talking points and argument styles and trying to make them progressive.

We're supposed to be better than this. That's all I've got really, we're just supposed to be better than this. And while I don't always engage with people like this for obvious reasons, I'd like to think they aren't beyond saving and maybe this post can change a few minds. You guys aren't wrong to be angry and want to help and protect people who need it, but this is not the way to go about it and it never will be.

[maxdibert]

recently found ur acc and I agree with a lot of things (lol considering im a marauders fan/usually interact with snaters) i've always considered snape to be a v complex and well fleshed out character (i think alan rickman did wonders to jk's unpolished writing ngl, he was genuinely sm better in the movies because alan brought the depth to him that jk tried) and I only used to hate him when I was like 14-15. but i have to say, what makes you hate on lily sm (i get a hardcore snape fan would hate james, i dont because i recognize his flaws as what they are instead of making excuses for him)

but lily hate I genuinely dont get, like if we can praise snape for being a complex character why shame lily for being one as well? if you're gonna say its because lily is portrayed as a saint, I could argue that's what happens once one dies, people don't like to speak ill of the dead. that's what happened to severus as well, harry hated him all his life then he died and suddenly he was "the bravest man he ever knew."

i get that lily getting together with james is sad for sev but sev also basically bullied her by using a racial-slur equivalent for her? and we're told constantly james changed and grew anyways.

also i dont understand why a mother's sacrifice is downplayed because "shes supposed to do so"? it is equally heroic for a person to sacrifice themselves for someone else as it is for a mother to sacrifice herself for her child.

mothers are always put on this pedestal to be absolutely perfect but they ARE human beings and idk why we need to be told this in 2025 that it is extremely misogynistic to put women's and mother's efforts because "its their role"

anyways, my point is; when we can recognize severus as a grey character, what's wrong with recognizing lily as one (when shes honestly mostly good, was there for sev when no one was, only stopped after he verbally abused her infront of the whole school)

The root of the problem is not that Lily has flaws—every complex character should have them—but rather how the narrative presents her. It’s not about "Snape fans hating Lily because she chose James," but rather that the story forces us to see her as a saint, even when her actions are inconsistent with that image.

From a feminist perspective, the main issue with Lily’s portrayal is not just her lack of development but how her character is used to reinforce the myth of motherhood as the pinnacle of female virtue. Lily is not written as a complex person who makes decisions with nuanced consequences, but as an ideal: the "perfect woman" who is pure, good, just, and whose greatest achievement in life is being a mother and sacrificing herself for her child.

If we were allowed to see Lily with the same depth that male characters like Severus or even James are given, there would be no issue in recognizing that she had both virtues and flaws. But Rowling's narrative does not allow this. We are told that she was perfect—a loyal friend, a just person, incapable of doing anything wrong. However, in practice:

She is the most important person in Snape’s life for years, yet she abandons him without even attempting to understand his perspective after the "Mudblood" incident. It’s not that she wasn’t right to be hurt, but the break is drastic and absolute. She essentially demands that Severus put himself in her shoes, but she doesn’t even try to put herself in his. When he expresses his doubts about the Marauders, she implies that he is obsessive, tells him he should be grateful to his bully, and laughs at the state of his underwear. She knows Severus comes from a poor and abusive background, yet she engages in gaslighting and class shaming. Does this make her a bad person? No, but it does make us question whether she was truly the epitome of morality that the story sells us. And it would be great if the narrative highlighted these inconsistencies, but it doesn’t. Instead, it tells us that Lily is right in her judgments and that she has the right to be highly moralistic, even though she herself exhibits overwhelming double standards.

We are told that James changed, but we are never shown how and why Lily accepted him. We go from seeing her hate him to marrying him with no real transition, and the only explanation is "well, he matured." If a male character had such an abrupt arc, people would call it inconsistent, but in Lily’s case, we are supposed to accept it as normal—because women have traditionally been seen as maternal figures who exist to nurture and fix men. Because a woman’s task is to change and "fix" men. The narrative does not question what this great change in James actually was because simply having Lily choose him is considered enough. And it’s not. If you’ve spent years watching someone be abusive and violent, you don’t just wake up one day and decide that they’ve changed without any real reason. And besides, why should the burden of "fixing" a man or deciding whether he is good or bad fall on a woman? Why objectify women as moral compasses? If a woman chooses you, does that mean you’re good and have changed? Can women not have flaws and be morally questionable themselves—overlooking certain behaviors simply because they don’t care about them as much as they should from an ethical standpoint? Lily is not treated as a person; she is treated as an idol, an idea, a supreme entity. She is dehumanized.

Her sacrifice is presented as the ultimate demonstration of maternal love, but the story reinforces the idea that a mother must sacrifice herself as if that is her only form of heroism. It’s not just that any functional parent would be willing to die for their child because, on a purely biological level, there is an instinct to protect offspring for the survival of the species—it’s also that the narrative reinforces the idea that mothers, specifically, are the most elevated beings because their identity and individuality disappear once they have children. Tonks was Tonks—a character in her own right—but as soon as she gets with Lupin, she becomes an extension of him, and later, she is only defined by being a mother. Narcissa is "evil, evil, evil" until her role as a mother comes to the forefront, and then she is redeemed by the narrative. Molly Weasley is an obnoxious woman, but because she is a devoted mother to her seven children and nothing else, she is seen as the ultimate maternal figure in the saga. Lily is almost treated like a goddess for sacrificing herself for her child. And I ask—what exactly is exceptional about any of this? Isn’t the bare minimum we expect from a reasonably functional adult who chooses to bring life into the world actually taking care of that life? No, it’s not that women are obligated to be good mothers—it’s that J.K. Rowling is obsessed with motherhood and constantly implies that only through it can a woman attain absolute goodness. And I question that. I question whether being a mother is something extraordinary. I say that being a mother is a very normal, common thing, and that any mother or father would do the same as Lily—and if they didn’t, they’d be incredibly selfish people and terrible parents.

The fact that the story glorifies Lily’s death but barely mentions James’s in terms of sacrifice is a clear example of gender bias. James died fighting, but Lily died "as a mother," and that is why she is seen as more noble. Why? Is a father’s love any less valuable? No, but the narrative sells us the idea that a woman must sacrifice herself to be worthy of admiration.

This is a recurring problem in literature and film: mothers are "good" if they are self-sacrificing and devoted. They cannot be selfish, they cannot be ambiguous, they cannot make mistakes without being punished. If Lily had survived and raised Harry, would she have been just as revered? Probably not, because living mothers are judged, while dead mothers are turned into saints.

When the fandom (or even the canon) downplays the sacrifices of others but elevates Lily’s because "she was a mother," what is really being said is that women have no choice: they are no longer women—they are mothers, and the kind of mother they are determines whether they are worthy or not. That is why I like to demystify the idea that what she did was extraordinary—because it wasn’t. It was something any halfway decent mother would do, even if in her daily life she was a terrible person to everyone else. And I don’t like being sold the idea that Lily’s sacrifice excuses everything and makes her a moral and ethical reference point—because being a mother who loved her child does not mean she couldn’t have been an asshole. Women are three-dimensional and complete beings, not one-dimensional.

Recognizing Lily’s flaws is not hating her—it is giving her the same respect we give complex male characters. The problem is that Rowling does not treat her that way: she places Lily on a pedestal of unquestionable perfection and reduces her to just her motherhood. The fact that the story forces her to be a saint makes her actual character fade into the background, and that is both a narrative flaw and a reflection of how society treats women and mothers.

It’s not about "hating Lily" or saying that "her sacrifice was worthless"—it’s about questioning why the story tells us that this sacrifice is the only thing that defines her. If the narrative gave her the same depth as the other characters, this discussion wouldn’t even be necessary.

[miyagi-hokarate]

Random assortment of season 6 part 3 and series finale thoughts:

It's actually quite hard to formulate articulate thoughts when the overwhelming majority while watching the finale was negativity and disgust

BECAUSE OHHHHH MAN, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT....

I don't even know where to begin

Okay I guess I could start from the beginning. WHY is Kwon's death treated so LAX.

I can't be the only person who thought that Kwon's death and the legal/emotional ramifications of that (or lack thereof) felt so lackluster??? A KID DIED. EVEN BESIDES THE FACT THERE'D BE AN INVESTIGATION ABOUT THIS (because we all know Cobra Kai would ignore a sense of realism if it meant getting to the badass part), DOZENS OF PEOPLE SAW A DEAD PERSON WITH THEIR OWN EYES. I could believe the Sekai Taikai breeding such a competition-hungry crowd that they're cannibalizing themself into turning back towards their fatal "darker" years, but it's sickening seeing these characters want to bounce back without so much as a second thought about what killed Kwon, because it wasn't just a blade. IT WASN'T JUST THE BLADE. WHY DO THEY NOT CARE. Also fuck Mitch for eating nachos during Kwon's moment of silence.

I'm sorry everybody who ships them I truly am but I just cannot deny the fact that I am just anti Jarmen. It's such a stupid thing and I hate that it's come to this point, but genuinely every moment Johnny and Carmen are smiling and being a family made me feel the same sick feeling as watching The Stepford Wives. I just caaaaan't watch Johnny and Carmen be so fucking happy like it's a trad life progaganda campaign. The way Johnny and Carmen barely feel like actual, nuanced characters — ESPECIALLY CARMEN, who gets the short end of the fucking stick when it comes to characterization and Actual Depth — to then be representative of this heteronormative, nuclear family ideal picture perfect bullshit just ruins the idea of them two. This especially hurts Carmen, who's basically stuck in storage until she could be turned on to become Miguel's Mom, Johnny's Girlfriend, Johnny's Wife, the fucking Jarmen baby's MOM AGAIN. Carmen's identity as a character is chained to either her son or her main character love interest, and it's sickening watching the Jarmen scenes celebrate this pastiche of domestic bliss.

I hated the proposal. I don't even have anything else to say about this. I just hated the proposal so much.

The American Exceptionalism present in this part actually made this hard to watch Jesus Christ. There's nothing more awful than watching a sequel television show to a movie trilogy that criticized American militarism and imperialism to now having a blond blue-eyed man barking like a drill sargeant to his child soldiers in a karate tournament with a kill count to "show those international assholes".

This show loooooooves using women to fuel the storylines for men and cutting corners by not even showing the female character's perspective or role just to make it all about the man Kumiko Girl I Am So Sorry.

When I said I wanted Chozen to get all the bitches, this is not what I meant. Chozen Toguchi, you remain one of the weirdest character decays in modern television, and I wish everyone who got you there dead.

I like the Samtory scene :) I'm not gonna pretend and act like Sam and Tory being girl best friends wasn't the thing that made me smile the hardest. WITH THAT BEING SAID, I'm conflicted about my thoughts on Sam's storyline and ESPECIALLY TORY'S. With at least Sam, she's getting the opportunity to explore her future that isn't so tied with karate or Daniel, which is good for her! SURE, it would have been nice to see her compete, but honestly the fact that Sam had a the option to leave karate and did so on her volition because of her values feels mote satisfying to me, compared to Tory and Robby. Regarding Tory, I really wish I could be happy for how her story ends — but, like Robby, there's just something aggravating seeing that karate is made out to be her only option pass high school. And in a way, because we never got anything substantial about Tory's interests and passion outside of karate, it is??? Nevermind that karate — no, COBRA KAI — had gotten Tory into so much trouble, made her into a child soldier for a cult, weaponized her grief and anger, etc. I don't know what a "good" end to Tory's story should have looked like, but it's hard to say for me if this was it.

SPEAKING OF, a character I definitely feel like their story was unsatisfying as fuck was ROBBY. At least Sam had the OPTION to leave. Robby was MADE. AND SURE, HE GETS THE SPONSORSHIP BULLSHIT TOO, BUT WHAT A STUPID DEUS EX MACHINA. And that whole thing about Robby being happy he doesn't need to win, because he has his Family? With Johnny? Shut the fuck up.

Robby coming in to save the day by conveniently daying I wuv you~ to Tory. Fuck you all I hate this fucking show.

ON A HAPPIER NOTE, Miguel's feels more fleshed out and satisfying as a whole. Mayyybe the flashbacks did hit 🙄🙄🙄 Miguel's progression, while it's had its stalls, remains one of the stronger parts of Cobra Kai as a whole, and Miguel's journey culminating into proving himself against Axel and going to his dream college, having grown so much as a person with what he's learned in karate and in life, did pull on my heartstrings. And regardless of everything else, Miguel and Johnny's relationship felt strong from the start and until the end.

You knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I was fucking obsessed with the archival footage you knowwwwwwwww

Ralph Macchio and William Zabka were acting their asses off in scenes that otherwise pissed me off

AND YOU KNOW WHAT, KREESE AND SILVER'S DEATH PISSED ME OFF TOO. I can't even formulate the reasons why I find their deaths so unsatisfying, but MAN WHAT THE HELL. The closest I could approximate is just the utter bullshit that is Kreese's redemption arc — NOW is when he realizes the harm he's caused? NOW is when he's going back and apologizing to the people he's hurt? NOW Kreese is the one to do the noble act of killing himself and Silver? Come the fuck ON. I don't even think I'm mad that it's come so late, but that it feels so rushed and contrived to get Kreese and Silver out of the story as quick as possible (WHICH IS A HUGE ISSUE FOR COBRA KAI AS A WHOLE). AND THE FACT THAT NOBODY REALLY REFLECTS UPON THEM MISSING? I SUPPOSE THE OTHER CHARACTERS SORT OF KNEW, BUT NO THOUGHTS? NOTHING? THESE CHARACTERS THAT HAVE MANIPULATED SO MANY, THAT HAVE HURT AND MADE OTHERS HURT, THAT KEEP THESE CHARACTERS IN A CAGE OF TRAUMA — JUST FUCK OFF AND DIE??

AND YOU KNOW WHAT, JOHNNY BREAKING DOWN TO KREESE WHAT HE DID WRONG ALSO MADE ME MAD. Because you know what, Kreese WAS there to be Johnny's role model and he DID teach him strength. And Kreese abused Johnny, poisoned his mind, and want to kill and keep killing him. And it's all connected and the same fist that represented strength is the same fist that beat Johnny down. And I'm so mad that Johnny is angry at Kreese for abandoning him when Kreese had been choking Johnny on a leash, dragging him to throw him into the street. He abandoned you and suffocated you. What the FUCK, Cobra Kai

Idk man I wish I could be happy about Johnny bringing back Cobra Kai. But this EXACT issue has been like this from the beginning, that it's not specifically the NAME or whether it's Johnny or Kreese or Silver or Kim teaching. It's the fact that Cobra Kai, since its inception, is a product of a jingoistic, militaristic fighting technique FROM A US VETERAN that breeds violence and cruelty for the sake of domination and name. I know Cobra Kai (the show) has tried to distance the dojo into being more connected to Korean Tang Soo Do, but it's so fucking frustrating that they'll ignore the dojo's roots in the American Military and specifically American imperialism of Kreese's direct influence because they don't think it's a bad thing!!! I can say so much about how I dislike the the attempt to distance Cobra Kai from Kreese, but ohhh my godddd

Daniel and Johnny 🙃 Mr. Miyagi 🙃🙃

First of all, the AI was ugly as shit

Second of all, the necklace arc coming down to a misunderstanding is aggravating but whatever an immigrant man framed as a criminal sure fucking whatever man. The fact that it's taken this show six seasons to mention the injustice Japanese-Americans suffered through by the American government detaining them under racist suspicion is fucking awful.

Third of all, in spite of Cobra Kai and Daniel carrying the legacy of Mr. Miyagi after his (and Pat Morita's) death, Mr. Miyagi does not feel like an echoed presence in the show. Perhaps this would have been too much to ask for, considering Johnny is the main character, and Cobra Kai needs to have its own identity outside of The Karate Kid in some way. However, the lack of presence (and I don't mean physical) of Mr. Miyagi to me is deafening in its silence. Of all the characters coming back to the Cobra Kai, the one that feels most absent is Mr. Miyagi. How does that absence make its place in the narrative? Do viewers feel his absence? Are they looking back to what Mr. Miyagi taught? Are they missing on his presence? Can they feel what they missed? I don't know if this makes sense, but I'm just thinking about the last of Cobra Kai and their defining legacy on the people who've watched, and those who could have gone through all of Cobra Kai and not cared about Mr. Miyagi. Ughghhggg.

Daniel saying "Cobra Kai never dies" makes me wish I die

Daniel this whole fucking part is just a mess. That dream??? Him manifesting as Kreese??? I can't even express how tired I was of this show. Don't even started on the fucking Cobra Kai gi.

There's so much I hadn't covered: half the cast being missing because Cobra Kai doesn't know how to stop making too many characters to have satisfying presences, the difference in depth between Axel and Zara, the way this show completely bypasses almost all its Asian characters, Chozen getting with Kim are you kidding me, All of Kim really, Laura's grave having the most egregious continuity error I've seen, Binary Boyfriends, etc., but I'm so tired and I hate this show.

It's been a shitshow. I love you all. Goodnight.

[karniss-bg3]

What's in a name?

For the past week I’ve had one mission; Find the meaning behind Kar’niss’ name.

To me, that is one piece of information that could lend the biggest clue to his origins. I’ve had luck in some places and roadblocks in others, it’s turned out to be slightly more complicated than I thought. I haven’t come up entirely empty handed though and what pieces I’ve dug up have put him in an entirely new light.

Let’s start off by discussing drow naming conventions. Drow can change their names later in life and may do so multiple times. This is usually due to some significant life event or promotion and said name may relate to these incidents. This makes me believe that Kar’niss got his name after his transformation. After all, being turned into a drider would be considered a big life event by many. They also avoid using any names that may be similar to Lolth, some going as far as to avoid the letter L altogether. Mind you during my research I found conflicting reports. Some sources say it’s fine to pay homage to Lolth in a drow name so long as it’s only partial, such as “loth” or “lothine”. Others say it’s forbidden the whole way around and bad form. Take this as you will.

Drow names are also gendered, their prefixes and suffixes are labeled specifically toward male and female. Rarely, women could take on a male name with little push back. However, if a male takes on a feminine name they would be labeled a rogue or a troublemaker. This information is important later.

There are many more nuances to how drow are named, such as numbering their children in the drow language, or naming children in honor of their mothers and ignoring fathers completely. Looking over what resources I could find, Kar’niss’ name didn’t seem to be related to either of those things. With the exception of the suffix “Niss” which we’ll get to.

I’ve managed to find a chart that has all of the common drow prefixes and suffixes listed. Let’s take Minthara and Nere as two examples. The prefix “Min” is feminine and it means “lesser, minor, second” and the suffix “thara” is also feminine with the meaning “glyph, marker, rune”. This could translate to lesser rune, second glyph, and so forth. Min could also suggest her birth order as second however the birth orders are usually a suffix and not a prefix, at least from what I could find.

Nere is a bit trickier. The only thing I could find on the list was “Neer” and it appears to be a gender neutral name, as it doesn’t have two options listed. Neer means “core, root, strong” and it seems to align with his personal viewpoints. Nere fans may have discovered his full name or something a bit more meaty but as of now that is the closest I could find.

Now we come to the main event, Kar’niss. The one piece of solid evidence I found was the meaning for the suffix “Niss”. It’s the feminine equivalent to “Nozz” and it means “chance, gambler, game”. I suppose “Kar’nozz” doesn’t roll off the tongue as fluidly as Kar’niss. So we have one piece of the puzzle, what about the prefix “Kar”?

That, dear reader, is where my biggest roadblock came into play. Nothing on any resource I’ve found lists Kar anywhere. Not in prefixes, suffixes, house names or Dark Seladrine Gods. A big, fat goose egg. It’s easy to think of Karsus when hearing that prefix, the most powerful wizard that ever lived. Maybe there is a link but honestly I feel like I’d be reaching really hard to make that connection. Kar’niss doesn’t really show signs of being interested in wizardry and if he was before his transformation, he says shit all about it now.

I was ready to give up. I don’t think Larian is the sort to do something without purpose. Even though Kar’niss is a side character, the work put into him leads me to believe that name has some significance. So in my stubborn way I kept looking, until a thought dawned on me. All this time I’ve been digging through drow specific information while ignoring the drider in the room. What about...elvish? Yes the two languages are very similar but drow have different dialect than surface elves. Kar’niss is very pale in complexion and we’ve theorized he could be a Szarkai. It would make sense for him to take on an elvish prefix especially if he was trying to fit into surface societies. There could be a small chance he’s half-drow but the game lists him as drow in his character window so I think that theory isn’t viable.

Down a new rabbit hole I went and I found some interesting information. The first piece I found came from Tolkien's elvish dictionary. Kar means “do, make, build” in elvish. Couple that with gambler, chance and game you could translate the full name to “Make your own luck” or even “Take a chance” depending on how you approached it. Other options are “Playing a bad/dangerous game”, “Making a bad decision/bet” or something more in the realms of a negative connotation.

The second piece I found came from forgotten realms. There are several words that have the word Kar listed in them. These three are the most notable:

Hakar: Enemy

Sekkar: Flee

Karask: Demon

Only one out of the three starts with Kar and it seems fitting for what Kar’niss became; A demon. Sekkar also aligns with the notion he was a Szarkai, as they preferred to flee from battle rather than engage. Enemy seems self explanatory, he could feel like he is the enemy of Lolth or the Underdark as a whole.

Out of them all the Tolkien option seems to suit the best. The others are part of a bigger word and while threads can be stretched between them, there is no way to say that they’d hold. So where does that leave us? Naturally with more questions than answers, but this does suggest a few intriguing directions Kar’niss could’ve come from.

It is apparent that Kar’niss is very subservient and afraid, but that doesn’t mean he always was. Taking on the feminine suffix “niss” could suggest he was a troublemaker or a bit of a jet setter while in the Underdark. Maybe he broke rules, said things he shouldn’t have, pushed boundaries. If he was a Szarkai he could’ve been sheltered from some of the more harsh treatment other males were known to endure. This could’ve made him arrogant, egotistical and brazen. He may have over stepped, made a bad gamble as it were, and it cost him everything. The feminine suffix of “niss” could also be a way to emasculate him further. Drider are sexless and Kar’niss’ lower regions no longer exist, something that might have bruised his pride terribly.

Alternatively, his suffix could’ve been given to him by others to suggest his luck at being born a Szarkai although that is more of a stretch. Kar could also align with how spiders make and build webs thus the distinction between the two. Or maybe he took on an elvish lover or friend and gave himself an elvish prefix in honor of them, or they gave him the name, even if such a relationship cost him in the end.

There are so many wild variations and theorycrafting you could do with those pieces of information. While most of it is loose the one thing I can say for sure is that the suffix “Niss” has great importance. I think he made a bad bet or played a dangerous game and lost, and becoming a drider is his punishment. Maybe he took on the trials of Lolth, something a few might consider a game, and lost there as well. Perhaps if I keep digging I can find something more solid to link him with the prefix “Kar” but as of right now this is what I could find.

So ends my journey for answers, for now at least. I hope this wall of text provided folks with some interesting information and ideas. Thanks for reading!

Sources: Tolkien's Elvish, Drow, Prefix/Suffix list for drow, Elven Lexicon, Drow naming practices.

[mariuspompom]

Ok I've rambled about this before but I want to do it once more.

You may need to sit down for this one but the Wicked Stepmother Trope is a reflection of very real life situations. There were and still are, "wicked" stepmothers. This is not just a stereotype. Irregardless of the societal reasons behind this (patriarchal structure of society), we cannot deny the fact that women, deprived of any real political power in the outside world, often abuse the little power they had inside their own household, at the detriment of other, weaker family members. Women are people, not holograms. Women historically had power however limited, and they too abused that power when they could, and they could do that against children because children are weaker. This is a centuries old societal problem that still exists today, especially in more traditional cultures. It is not mere construction. If you are not familiar with this issue, you have lived a very privileged life and I am happy for you.

However, let's suppose for a moment that the Wicked Stepmother Trope is indeed problematic and has a misogynistic nuance. I believe this is often the case and I will explain why.

If you want to deconstruct the Wicked Stepmother Trope, you have to be sure that there is a proper Wicked Stepmother Trope to begin with in the source material. You also have to make sure that the Wicked Stepmother Trope isn't already deconstructed in the source material. Which is EXACTLY the case in Fire and Blood.

So let's take a typical example of the Wicked Stepmother Trope : Cinderella. Let's compare Cinderella with Fire and Blood for a second.

There is no Wicked Stepmother resembling Cinderella's stepmother in Fire and Blood, for the simple reason that there is no Cinderella héroïne. What is a Cinderella héroïne : a passive, innocent, purely reactive girl, that patiently suffers and awaits for her Prince (a man) that will save her from her evil Stepmother (a woman). All these elements need to exist in order to talk about a proper Wicked Stepmother Trope. This trope gets this misogynistic nuance only when it is paralleled with the poor innocent fairytale heroine. It's the antithesis of the willful and driven woman that is punished in the end (stepmother) Vs the passive perfect feminine figure that is rewarded in the end (stepdaughter), that gives the Wicked Stepmother Trope the misogynistic nuance it has. And this is very important.

Now back to Fire and Blood.

Well, Rhaenyra isn't a Cinderella character at all. She is willful, she's radical, she claims her birthright, she makes mistakes, she dares, she goes against the status quo. She fits the stepdaughter role, and she too has a dashing Prince that tries to save her. Except that he doesn't. He dies, and so does she, horribly. She is not rewarded by patriarchy for her youth, beauty and submissiveness (very important factor if we wanna talk about misogyny in fairytales). Quite the contrary, SHE is punished by patriarchy.

Alicent fits the stepmother role, except that she doesn't fit the misogynistic Wicked Stepmother Trope because her punishment does not constitute an exemplary punishment for NOT being a Cinderella type of female. It's this juxtaposition to Cinderella that makes the trope misogynistic to begin with.

If anything, the Wicked Stepmother Trope is ALREADY deconstructed in the source material. By not respecting that, the writers achieved of course the contrary result : a deeply misogynistic narrative. Rhaenyra is basically a whore. The entire Dance stems from the fact that Rhaenyra had extramarital sex and that's it. That's literally it. The main antagonist was reduced to a rape victim, and had no ambition whatsoever. Since Rhaenyra wasn't a rape victim and had sexual freedom, morally she comes across as more ambiguous than the pure one dimensional victim that show!Alicent is. Rhaenyra had a choice, Alicent doesn't. So the whole BS that both women are equally victims of patriarchy comes at the expense of the actual female protagonist, the willful, daring, non-conforming female character trying to preserve her agency : Rhaenyra. It also comes at the expense of creating characters that feel real and consistent and are not just the product of a power-point on misogyny in uni.

Book!Alicent does not fit a stereotypical misogynistic Wicked Stepmother Trope, a trope whose main goal is to reward submissiveness and punish willfulness. It's already deconstructed in the source material. The author did all the work, all they had to do is copy it. They didn't, which is why we have takes like "oh if Rhaenyra didn't want to be burned alive she shouldn't have had a paramour in Court".

[cienie-isengardu]

Star Wars Fact Files about Tor Vizsla

Fact Files in general are a pretty interesting source of knowledge about star wars lore however those are far from perfect, objective description. What is best seen with characters designed as villains, such as Tor Vizsla. For example, his entry is set out to present Vizsla as a man who “took excessive pleasure in the suffering of others” and was “prone to extreme cruelty”

And sure, Vizsla was not above solving his problems with brutal force, but adding the bold claim about him taking pleasure from hurting others to this particular picture is either the author's unfortunate choice born from ignorance or done on purpose ignoring the original source and in the result, a premeditated action to give the readers an misleading impression. Because you see, the picture above comes from the first issue of Jango Fett: Open Seasons in which Tor’s violence was very limited and original authors clearly did not go with the typical villain approach.

Lemme explain. 

When Death Watch managed to scatter True Mandalorians during battle, Tor Vizsla promised to running away Jaster Mereel that he will burn all his hiding places to the ground and execute anyone who helps him.

When Death Watch found little Jango working in the field, Vizsla got the needed information that the boy's father was helping someone wearing “soldier boots”, and that is why Death Watch came to Jango’s home. 

The next scene shows us Tor Vizsla interrogating Jango’s father by himself and this is the thing - all the beating was focused on the only one person confirmed to help Jaster Mereel. Little Jango was kept behind by one of Death Watch’s soldiers (as seen in the background),

but in the final scene, Tor did not threaten Fett Senior with killing his son(1) for not betraying Jaster’s location but that the boy will be forced to witness his death.

Tor: Answer me, or your kid will be wearing your brains.

One way or another, this was traumatic for Jango, but the point is, the original authors of the comics made a choice to not go with the typical villain route with Vizsla. If he took pleasure from others' suffering or was so prone to violence, hurting Jango was the best option to break Fett Senior, as a father would be more likely to betray his former associate(?) for his child’s sake than to spare himself the physical pain. What is even more, as the next frames showed, Jango’s mother and sister (later named Arla Fett) for some reason were allowed to stay in the house in relative safety and shoot down one of Death Watch soldiers that started the final shooting in which Jango's parents died.

The comics does not provide any information, did the women hide from Death Watch and thus attacked out of surprise when the situation looked dire or did Tor and his men know about them but ignored their presence(2), as only the Fett Senior was confirmed to help Jaster?

But again, if Death Watch knew and Tor was such a madman and psychopath as Fact Files claims, there was little Jango, an adult woman and teenage girl that could be hurt, both physically and sexually, to break down the man that refused to give away Jaster’s location. Death Watch could force Fett Senior to watch his young son or wife or daughter beaten to death, raped or tortured in any other way and yet Vizsla’s violence was limited to the man. Limited only to person confirmed to help True Mandalorians. A person Vizsla promised to execute at the beginning of the story(3).

Which gives an interesting nuance to the villain of Jango Fett’s story, something that original creators decided to include by adding this detail to the story when they could go with the typical “do as I said or I will kill your loved ones” threat. And this is something that greatly annoys me. Not just because of slander against one of my main favorite Mandalorians, but how the article was published in Fact Files- as the name suggests, a series dedicated to “facts” from lore, and yet presumably on purpose denigrates this certain character. 

This is the lesson that one should always be critical when engaging with widely understood source material and if there is a chance, to actually get familiar with the original source instead of just blindly relying on data books and other people's interpretation of characters and events.

SIDENOTES

(1) I even made a joke about that scene.

(2) If Death Watch knew about the wife and daughter hiding/staying in the house, it does not mean the women would be spared. As Tor said after Jango's parents died, they don't leave witnesses and thus Arla was presumably killed. One may though wonder, what would happen if Jango's father gave Death Watch Jaster's location? Would they left the family in peace or not?

(3) Tor also promised to burn down all Jaster Mereel's hiding places and in fact he keep that part of promise too.

[velvetvexations]

i feel really selfish saying this, but i really wish there were more general trans movies with characters who aren't trans women. like, i'm really glad that they're there and there should be more, but on the other hand, its kinda all thats there? obviously there ARE movies like this, but 9 times out of 10 when there's a recommendation to go see a trans movie, its either a trans women or a character heavily implied to be a trans women there. and i'm really glad those movies are there! but i'd just wish there could be a big discussion about movie and there would be a trans man or a nonbinary person representing the community.

(this also goes for other types of media too)

i sent an ask complaining about how the majority of trans movies that the community talks mainly show trans women and i wanna take that back cause a lot of those media are shitty towards trans women. i dont think its fair to complain about that when those media are awful towards trans women. i apologize

anon of the trans ppl in media asks you can publish them! i retracted it cause im kinda emotional rn and i couldn't really remember if i was being fair or shitty

I think what you're forgetting, anon, is that while trans women are depicted badly in a lot of places - less so over the years, people mainly reference things from the previous century - there's still way more positive transfem rep than there is of anything for transmascs, and that doesn't mean transfems have it better, but as always hyper-visibility and invisibility are two sides of the same coin. It's okay for invisibility to not feel good. There should indeed be more media about transmascs.

Now I'm finally doing that. This year I made my first ever hand sewn cosplay. There are definitely mistakes, but it's pretty sturdy and I can't express the sheer sense of pride I got from wearing something I sewed myself. There are some things I wanna tweak on it, like I must have made a mistake when measuring the waistband because it's WAY too thick. But it's functional, it's accurate, and it even has a zipper! It was expensive because of course for my first ever sewing project I picked a character with a pleated skirt (you need 3x your waist in fabric and im fat which definitely adds up lmao, plus i got the fabric custom printed from a print-on-demand company) and the pleats took forever to do. But I'm so so so proud of it. I'm looking into armor crafting with EVA foam for a future cosplay, and it's intimidating but I'm really excited at the idea of working with it. I've seen so many amazing armor sets and props made with EVA foam and I can't wait to make my own. I'm thinking I'm gonna cosplay Maple from BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, So I'll Max Out My Defense.. Then again, that might be jumping off straight into the deep end again like I did for the last cosplay since she has a GIANT shield. At least I'm sticking to her main outfit, not the one with giant angel wings lmao. I may have watched several videos on wing crafting but even I'm not brazen (or stupid) enough to try making those for only my second real cosplay lmao. Anyway this has been your regularly unscheduled cosplay info dump. Thank you for tuning in, we'll see you next time!

Ambitious! I hope it all turns out great, it sounds like a lot of big projects to have on one's plate.

My opinions are a lot more nuanced than most takes on 'shipcourse' that ive seen, but I've gathered that im generally included when people say 'proshippers dni' based on how people define it in said dnis. I'm not gonna purposefully interact with someone who obviously doesn't want me there. But that makes it frustratingly difficult to find people to follow who also believe in things like transandrophobia. It happens all too often that I find someone with great takes and go to follow them, then see that they have a dni that includes me. It especially sucks when all the other things in the dni are things like "racist" and "transphobic". I'm sorry, but I just can't see having a nuanced opinion on fiction as being on the same level as being a bigot towards others. It sucks to be put on the same level as actively hateful people because I have concerns about the normalization of censorship. I believe that when you open the doors to censoring media because of morals, you set the groundwork for things like the Hays Code. Censorship has always been disproportionately used to silence marginalized groups. I just can't get behind that, no matter how 'noble' the intentions behind it might be.

If it helps any, I'm also what one would call a pro-shipper but find the word itself beneath my dignity because I think it's ridiculous it's an argument in the first place.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

I swore to myself to stay away from that confession blog, but curiosity sometimes gets the best of me, and then I came across this:

This is not a “controversial opinion”, this is a idiotic one, and once again lets make real women feel stupid for their headcanons about fictional female characters.

Whoever wrote this thinks they are very clever, accusing Sauron fans (and Sauron x Galadriel shippers, too, since this is a popular headcanon in the fandom), of being vapid and shallow. So let’s make a wild comparison between one of the main antagonists of the entire legendarium, with complex lore associated with him (Ainur, “The Fall”; power; the nature of evil; etc.) with a human character whose motivations are very easy to understand (he wants power = immortality).

This is confusing to me, because the folks who share this view are also crying about how “bringing up Tolkien legendarium” scares off new fans, or makes them feel inadequate, and we can’t expect everyone to know Tolkien because we were once new to the world, too. But then they support this kind of crap?

And you don’t want me to say you don’t understand Tolkien legendarium? Yeah, if you think comparing Ar-Pharazôn and Sauron is some sort of flex, you don’t. When I talk about not understanding Tolkien, I’m not talking about the newcomers to the legendarium, I’m talking about these book fans who keep saying the most out of pocket and incorrect stuff about the legendarium and passing their own headcanons as “Tolkien canon”. This is very common in the Tolkien fandom, and it made it’s way into the RoP fandom. And it will give fans the wrong information about the legendarium, and as a Tolkien nerd, I have a problem with that.

No one is saying Sauron is “misunderstood” by the characters of the story he’s in. But I would say he’s misinterpreted by a fandom who instead of reading what Tolkien has to say about his own story, decides to uphold their own headcanons as “Tolkien canon”. Saying Sauron is a nuanced character is not saying he’s misunderstood, but I can really expect this level of complex thinking from someone who thinks this sort of affirmation is clever. Everyone understands Galadriel has a character arc, but Sauron isn’t afford the same treatment by the fandom, even though RoP is giving him one and based on what Tolkien wrote in his letters.

As for “fixing whoever” this is clearly about the “Galadriel could fix Sauron” headcanon. Which, personally, and as they stand, I don’t agree, at all. Mairon needs to stay away from power to “fix himself”, and what he needs is to heal his trauma and feud with the Valar and the other Maiar. He needs a “father figure” to lead him to do good. From a shipping perspective, Galadriel could help him in this path, like Uinen helped Ossë. Oh look, Tolkien had a female character “fixing” a male character, the horror, it’s almost as if the “power of love” isn’t a theme here, and fellowship isn’t a major thing in the legendarium. You people realize this story is from the early 20th century and by a devoted Catholic author, right? Why are you projecting 21th centuries values to the legendarium?

I don’t understand this shaming of others people’ headcanons, though. Why are folks arguing over this sort of things? It’s the same about how “powerful” Celebrían is, when she’s barely a character, and is only there because Elrond needs a wife and to be brutalized by Orcs. Galadriel x Sauron shippers at least are making her character more complex and interesting in their fanfictions. The same for the husband, who’s entire character is bulletpoints to the point RoP can afford to replace his character with others, like they did in S2 with the Battle of Eregion, where Arondir took his place in the narrative. And “Arwen” and “power” in the same sentence can only come from PJ fans, because she’s little else than “eye candy” in the books. This is like the duel of headcanons, because it’s not show canon nor “book canon” either. There’s nothing wrong with having headcanons, but weaponizing them against other fans is nonsensical.