#it's interesting how differently the shows handle this character trope

[violetrains]

I find it interesting how so many of the mean girl/queen be characters who want to destroy the main protagonist's life are revealed to have mommy issues.

[thetableshavetabled]

I saw a comment u made on another post about andrew drugging neil and I thought one thing u said was rlly interesting -

it was about Roland's and andrews relationship, I'm paraphrasing but I think u said something like Roland wouldn't get the 'yes or no' that Neil does because andrew 1) doesn't rlly care about Roland personally & 2) Andrew has no promise to protect Roland

I agree completely, but I've never seen anybody else say it! Andrew often gets portrayed by fans like he would always ask for consent this way, and I never rlly agreed. I don't think he would ignore Roland telling him to stop or anything, but I don't think he'd be considerate or careful like he is with neil.

If u have anymore thoughts on their relationship or andrew or roland in general, I'd love to hear it :)

Thanks for giving me an excuse to dig into this! To talk about Roland I first want to talk about the fandom's misconceptions of Andrew.

The way some fans try to retroactively frame Andrew's handling of Neil as a universal consent practice completely misses why it exists specifically with Neil. This comes up especially now that AFTG has reached platforms like TikTok, where I often see claims like "Andrew wouldn't have drugged people, he cares about consent" or the Allison incident or even, most insane to me, how Andrew shouldn't have kissed Neil that first time on the rooftop without asking first. These interpretations fundamentally misunderstand Andrew's character.

Frankly, I don't understand why you would bother to advcate that a character is acting out of character in the canon material. That just means you don't like the character, which is fine. "The monsters were never redeemed" (which was the original post where I left my comment) is much more textually accurate and a much better take than trying to sanitize Andrew's actions.

Understanding why Andrew and the other Monsters act as they do isn't the same as justifying their actions and people should be a lot more comfortabe enjoying morally gray characters, or, even better, just admit you don't like them. Fans do that with Kevin, Aaron and Nicky all the time, but with Andrew they struggle because they love this cute little gay ship with their soft kisses and touch him and die trope. The desire to ship Andreil seems to create this pressure to soften and force Andrew into a romance booktok mold when the real beauty of their relationship lies in how they accept each other's sharp edges and scars.

Take Andrew drugging Neil, for instance. We can understand the strategic reasoning (keeping Neil from running, maintaining control, protecting Kevin) while still recognizing it as a violation. The same goes for his violence toward Allison or his blowout at Katelyn or how he treats Aaron. Understanding that these actions stem from Andrew's trauma, his protection mechanisms, and his "nothing" philosophy doesn't require us to retroactively frame them as morally acceptable.

We are repeatedly shown that Andrew is not a character who cares about others' boundaries. From the moment we meet him and right until the end he shows this. Andrew is not a good person, and he is not mentally well. He's complex, traumatized, and his actions make sense within his characterization, even when, or maybe especially when they're morally questionable.

This brings us to Roland. With Roland, Andrew has a pragmatic arrangement that lets him focus on his own needs without managing someone else's trauma or emotions. Their dynamic works because:

Roland is experienced and emotionally self-sufficient.

Andrew doesn't have to manage his emotional state or trauma responses.

There's an established history that makes Roland a "safe" option.

Neil was always going to be different. The combination of Andrew's promise to protect him, Neil's extensive trauma history, and his complete inexperience with intimacy shattered every one of Andrew's patterns. Where others fit into clear categories - threat, asset, occasional outlet - Neil defied classification from the beginning. With Roland, it's pragmatic: they both know what they want and can handle themselves accordingly. With Neil's inexperience and extensive trauma and the deepness of the relationship it shakes up everything. If Roland had shown the kind of ambiguous consent that Neil does on the rooftop Andrew would never have pushed through or done anything but stop immediately, but he wouldn't have worked through it either. He would just simply not have approached Roland again.

It is less about "yes or no" even though i initally used that phrase and most about "I won't be like them. I won't let you let me be." It exists specifically because of Neil's circumstances and Andrew's promise to protect him. It's not a universal approach to consent, it's about their unique dynamic and mutual understanding of trauma.

This ties into a larger discussion of how Andrew sometimes gets "fanon-ized" in ways that smooth over his complexities and contradictions. He is not someone who is conventionally "good" or mentally well, but whose actions make sense within his own internal logic and experiences. The Andrew who shows careful consideration for Neil's boundaries, who gets in the shower fully clothed, who asks 'yes or no', is the same Andrew who drugged Neil, nearly stabbed Nicky, and almost killed Allison. Not to mention driving under the influence and, of course, literal manslaughter.

This is not to say Andrew doesn't evolve as a character, of course, but not in a conventional redemptive way. Without turning this into a full character analysis I will sum it up like this: Andrew's character arc is about him going from nothing to something.

[shadamyheadcanons]

i love that you don’t put sonic as a jerk in your headcannons but rather supportive! this is so cool, because sonic really wants all of his friends to be happy and with amy wouldn’t be different, specially since they’ve known each other since they were children and sonic himself said that she is a special/dear person to him so i agree he would be happy if amy and shadow got together. as much as i love sonamy, i also love shadamy (sorry for the long ask it’s just that is not that common seeing sonic being portrayed like this in some ffs)

Thanks for the compliment! This one means a lot because I think I’m actually harsher toward Sonic sometimes than a lot of modern shadamy writers are. I say “modern” because new “Amy goes for Shadow because Sonic is a jerk” stories are actually few and far between. It’s easy to think they’re all over the place because there absolutely are a lot of them, but the ones I run into are usually from, like...2012. If you sort by Date Updated on AO3, it tells a different story, pun intended. I believe there are three main reasons for this:

1. Since half of shadamy fans started shipping them in SA2 two and a half decades ago, a ton of us are in our 30s now, writing more mature stories with more fine-tuned characterization. This is one of the advantages of having an ancient ship.

2. It’s a tired trope. We’ve all read a million of them. Most people don’t like how Sonic acts in them for his sake, but my biggest gripe is that they undersell what Shadow has to offer. He’s not just good for Amy because he’s Not Sonic, he’s good for her because of who he is.

3. Sonic treats Amy much better than he used to. The reason “Sonic is a jerk” fics were so common 10-20 years ago is because he was a jerk, almost exclusively to Amy.

These fics exist because no other character works better than Shadow as an arbiter of justice for something that bothered a lot of Amy fans at the time.

More on this under the cut. Lots more. I got kind of carried away.

It’s easy to forget how bad Sonic was when we have games like Frontiers and comics like IDW and Mega Drive now:

Between new fans who aren’t as familiar with older games, longtime fans who haven’t looked at their history in a while, and fans who love Sonic and just don’t want to see him in a bad light, tons of people sweep his old behavior under the rug without even realizing it.

I don’t think any of that is fair to Amy.

A brief reminder of their dynamic in the past:

1. Constant abandonment. He ran from her in Sonic Adventure...

...Sonic Heroes...

And four times in SA2 alone! More on that later.

2. Standing her up on dates. This mostly happened in Sonix X...

[Episode 42, episode 45]

...but there was also Sonic and the Black Knight, where he didn’t show up, didn’t apologize, never made it up to her, and made no attempt to reschedule.

3. Uh...literally hurting her, for some reason...?

At the end of Sonic Riders, when he didn’t feel like properly handling a hostage situation:

Oh, welcome back, episode 42! Didn’t expect to see you again:

The new version of Sonic Generations altered this cutscene, thank god, but back in 2011, players saw this:

4. And the worst part of this, to me, is that he lets her get her hopes up. It’s not just the almost-dates he skips. Knuckles teases Sonic in Heroes, saying, “Are you playing with that girl’s heart again, Sonic?” It’s intended as a joke, but then he does things like this:

Sonic X, episode 52. You know what roses are, Sonic, you know how she’ll interpret this, and you know you won’t follow through.

I know I’m picking on Sonic X a lot, but it was pretty popular at the time, even among fans who didn’t touch the games or comics. This was how they saw these characters growing up, and it made its way into countless fics.

But even after all these years, no matter which continuity you work with...he still won’t give her a solid “no.”

Not liking someone back is fine. Not being interested in a relationship is fine. But letting her believe she’ll win you over if she chases you long enough isn’t, and that’s what he’s doing to this day.

Fans throw around the same tired old “justifications” over and over for why he is/was like this to Amy, but they don’t hold water. People say he’s mean because he doesn’t know what to do with his feelings for her, but he liked Elise, too, and he was nothing but kind to her.

(Putting this here because although fans don’t like to admit it, Elise was indeed intended to be a love interest. She and Amy are presented on par here, so if you think he likes Amy, then he liked Elise, too. You get exactly the same result regardless of who you choose for this trial.)

The other frequent “justification” is that he ran and lashed out because he was afraid of her, often accompanied by awful Amy hate (“stalker,” “psycho,” etc.). This also doesn’t work because Sonic was always harsh to Amy no matter how gentle she was. Classic Amy is the sweetest, most adorable little munchkin in the world...

...and he still ran away.

^ These are from the same exact comic, by the way: IDW Sonic’s 30th anniversary. Five pages apart. How in the world could anyone not want her around?

Amy had more spunk in Adventure and Adventure 2, but she was just as sweet, and he still treated her like a pest to be swatted. The ending of her story in SA1 is this:

But...why should she have to? He treats everyone else with the same baseline of respect, at least until they give him a reason not to. Why is it just Amy? He wasn’t just mean to her, he was uniquely mean to her. She didn’t act out until Heroes in 2003, when she’d already been ignored for years. Standing on the sidelines wasn’t working, so she tried being more “proactive.” Was it the right way to do things? No...but I honestly can’t hold it against her. It makes sense in context. She was a kid, and kids act out when they’re neglected.

And this is where Sonic Adventure 2 comes in.

SA2 was pivotal for Amy. Nearly everyone tossed her aside; Sonic left her behind four separate times in this game alone. First was right after she broke him out of jail on Prison Island. He ran off the second her back was turned:

Second, he and Tails both walked away from her after Eggman blew up the moon. She easily could’ve gotten arrested here.

Third, Sonic and Tails made a plan to stop Eggman right in front of her, blatantly leaving her out of it as if she wasn’t even there:

...which, if you’ll recall, led to Eggman holding her at gunpoint:

...and when Sonic set out to rescue her, this was his recap:

This does not work as a joke given how they treat her. He pretends she doesn’t exist to her face, then says this behind her back.

And immediately after that, when it was time for them to save the world, they left her alone again.

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was furious by that point.

But then...something interesting happened.

A photoset or gifset can’t do this scene justice, but I think most shadamy fans have already seen it plenty of times. For the few who haven’t, you can watch it here.

The contrast between Shadow and Sonic is impossible to ignore. By building up this moment the way they did, the writers primed us to notice it.

Sonic runs from Amy’s hugs, while Shadow would like more of them, please and thank you.

Sonic pretends she doesn’t exist, while Shadow’s moved to tears and changes the course of his life because he values what she has to say.

Anytime they’ve interacted since then, he’s been uniquely respectful and gentle with her. It’s what she deserves, and for a long time, this was all we had. He was all we had.

The other half of the equation is that it is very, very easy to picture Shadow taking Sonic and the others to task for their mistreatment of her. As a blunt person who’s not afraid to confront Sonic, Shadow is the most believable candidate to this day. The only person to fully respect her from the start also happens to clash with the person who hurts her most often? Of course those fics exist. It’s a perfect storm.

And it’s no wonder that this attitude persists somewhat even now, because Sonic is still doing this, even if he’s “nicer” about it. That prison escape from SA2? The one he never thanked her for? He still gives all the credit to Tails for that, even up through Frontiers:

Amy. Amy broke you out of prison. Tails broke in, and then she snuck through a maximum-security prison, somehow stole a card key, and saved your life. We’re in the 2020s, but he’s still disrespecting her. And don’t get me started on the TailsTube Secret Santa episode.

It feels like Sega wants us to forget all of this ever happened, and it has some very confusing results. From that same Sonic 30th anniversary comic from above, the one where he and the others abandoned her:

Like...this? This is lying. He’s just lying to her. I can’t tell if they think we all collectively have amnesia or if it’s some weird, mean-spirited joke at her expense. I genuinely don’t know what they’re trying to say.

It’s not enough to pretend it never happened and move on, not to me. Sonic should be held responsible for what he canonically did. Him supposedly being bad with feelings didn’t make it hurt her any less, and he’s older than Amy, so he should’ve been the mature one.

The longer the writers keep this up, the worse Sonic looks, and I don’t think that’s what they’re aiming for. Ignoring the problem is not a solution. Amy might forgive, but I’ll never forget.

I just want to see a canon apology so I can reason out why she put up with it for so long. I want to at least be able to buy her having a crush on him. I can do that when he’s being selfless and heroic. I can’t do that when he treats her like the plague, and pretending he never did doesn’t match the Sonic I legitimately like. I bet a lot of s0namy fans would like to see a resolution like that, too.

Sorry to turn your thoughtful compliment into a rant. I really do appreciate it, and I’m glad you enjoy the stories!

[ataleofcrowns]

hi!, i have a question, hope you can answer, what does low romance entails?, the thing is i adore watching drama and angst from afar, but i rather shoot myself before experiencing it lol, so if you could tell me what changes when you choose low romance instead of high i'd be grateful, i would ask about how it affects the endings but i guess that would be too spoilery

It differs per love interest what changes, since it depends also on the love interest's personal character arc and how it interacts with their dynamic with the Crown. Several scenes change especially in CH9 and beyond, and so far the biggest divergences in low/high romance routes is in CH11. Basically...

R Low romance: Your Crown has a low amount of trust in R's capabilities and tends to be overprotective, feeding R's insecurity and self-esteem issues as well High romance: Your Crown trusts R to handle themselves, and there is an equal partnership where they both confide and rely on each other, allowing R to flourish

A Low romance: Your Crown prioritizes their romance with A above all else, including being a good ruler, and as a consequence A cannot fully trust the Crown - they are also reminded of their backstory, which is especially painful High romance: Your Crown knows what to prioritize when it is appropriate, and as a result A can trust that the Crown will be a responsible ruler. This is barring political disagreements they may or may not have down the line, but that's for in the future.

D Low romance: Your Crown pretty much agrees with D that duty should come above all else, allowing distance to grow between them and for the romance to fizzle out, and for D to continue to see themselves as nothing but a tool for Arsur High romance: Your Crown continues to pursue D romantically, and reminds them that there should be more to them and their life than just their duty to Arsur. Basically, leaning into the Forbidden Romance trope!!

X Low romance: Your Crown does not respect X's boundaries, buying into the flirtatious and roguish facade that X plays up, and acts entitled to their time or affection. X gets the ick. High romance: Your Crown respects X's boundaries, trusts that the mutual attraction will be enough to have X coming back to them, and shows understanding for their complicated relationship with the position of the Crown considering X's backstory

[signanothername]

What do u think of the trope where Blue/Swap joins the bad guy???

I have complicated feelings about it?

I love the trope in of itself, I think it would be a really interesting trope to explore

The problem tho? I never once saw it executed in a way that grabbed my attention or made me actually love the story it was used in

It immediately goes to the “asshole” Dream and Ink and “kind found family” Nightmare gang trope

Which again, if you don’t know, I hate the trope of Dream being somehow an asshole or somehow treating Swap as tho he’s less than him

Ink is a whole different story where the fandom simply villainize him just cause he’s soulless

And the kind found family Nightmare gang is a trope I love, but just like the trope of Blue joining the Nightmare gang, it’s poorly executed most of the time (and I mean, how can you call it a “Blue joins the bad guys” when the “bad guys” are shown to be good guys????)

Like, I opened so many different fics only to be hit with the same execution of this trope over and over, eventually just losing interest bxhxhdhdh

The idea of Swap not being able to “keep up” with Ink and Dream or is somehow neglecting himself to take care of Dream just doesn’t really intrigue me (or even make sense to me)

Like don’t get me me wrong, I’m an absolute sucker for the “Swap is literally the only anchor Dream has left in his life otherwise he’d fucking break down” but I dare say Swap is more than capable of handling it without it weighing him down to a significant degree

This is Swap for god’s sake, he’s literally Papyrus’ personality but in a Sans body, if anything, he’s the one who has his shit together the most and is able to go on with a genuine happy and determined smile on his face, no matter the shit that happens to him, it would make a lot more sense for Dream to be the one to try and catch up with Swap than the other way around

I get that the trope tries to show the limitations of Swap as a mortal compared to Dream and Ink who are both pretty much immortal, but what people tend to do is that they completely twist Swap to be absolutely pathetic just for this trope to work

Which *shakes the fandom* I promise you don’t have to completely change a character up to make a trope work

Like I saw stories that made Blue to be somehow a weak depressed anxious guy trying so hard and is failing and whatnot and I question myself whether that’s even Swap anymore hchcchcjvj

I think the problem I usually see when people try and write different tropes for different characters, is that they try to make the trope make sense, and so they twist the character around to fit around the trope

Which, imho, is ineffective, you should understand the character, and then think of how the character would deal with a certain situation and how that leads to the trope you’re trying to write, one step at a time without having to ignore/erase important personality traits of the character

Of course, that doesn’t mean the trope you’re trying to write can’t fundamentally change the perception, personality, or behavior of a character, but you have to show how it affects the character to such a fundamental degree, show how can the character be heavily influenced and affected in a way that makes sense for said character

For example, I’ve seen people write Swap neglecting to eat cause he’s trying to “keep up” or sometimes Dream and Ink don’t give him the chance to cause they pressure him to go on another mission or push him too hard

Here are some problems I see with this:

- why is the Nightmare gang even somehow attacking every single day? Have they got nothing better to do? Especially with the fact they’re a found family now?

- why is Dream and Ink going out for “missions” every day if the Nightmares aren’t attacking, like damn what are they even doing?? What are these “important missions”?? Since when was Ink so obsessed with “missions”?

- Swap would absolutely not let that shit stand, if anything, he’d be very vocal about it and tell Dream and Ink to sit down and eat his great delicious tacos (Swap’s voice always has power behind it, and his actions are a direct reflection of his beliefs not what others push him to do)

- Ink has a home in the doodlesphere, he wouldn’t even be around enough to push Blue, while Swap has an AU and a brother, there is pretty much no way he’d be with Dream and Ink 24/7, and if he was somehow, you think Swap Paps would let it slide? And even if we go with the idea of Swap not being part of an AU anymore, you think Swap himself would neglect himself just to please others even when it doesn’t align with his own beliefs?

And those are only few of the top of my head, I’m pretty sure if I sat down and thought about this for a few hours, I’d be able to write you a whole other set of problems

Not saying you can never write Swap neglecting to eat, you absolutely can, it’s just needs to make sense for Swap as a character, what would it take for Swap to start neglecting his health? It’s not others pressuring him or pushing him I can tell you that much

So yeah, good trope, not so good execution (for me at least)

I guess I’m way too focused on the logic of it to truly enjoy it for what it is, but then again I always love to complicate things way more than I need to

Not every trope or story has to make sense completely, but I guess seeing Swap be completely made into a pathetic mess with no actual grounds to support it beyond “he’s mortal and his friends aren’t“ just ruins it for me dhdhhdhd

[twig-tea]

GL odds and ends 10 November 2024

Still feeling out how regularly it makes sense to do this; first one was 2 weeks ago on 6 October, second was--oops--3 weeks ago on 20 October. If you're interested in GL older than that, check out my GL rec list through Feb 2024 and my update in July 2024. New series marked with an asterisk*.

Currently airing (with thoughts up to 10 Nov):

*The Fragrance You inherit 1/8 (Japanese, Friday/Saturday-ish, no official distribution but fansub on @isaksbestpillow's blog [thank you Siiri!] I wrote about episode 1 already, but just to keep it all in one place: this one looks great. Not really a GL, more a family drama with a lesbian at the center of the story. I'm doubtful we're going to actually get anything other than closure for the romance in this one.

Pluto ep 4/12 (Thai, Saturdays 9:30 AM EDT, YouTube) This plot continues to be absolutely wild (at this point both of them have suspected the other of being involved in attempted murder?!) but Namtan and Film stay gorgeous and serving so I am still tuned in.

Apple My Love ep 5/7 (Thai, Saturdays 11:45 AM EDT, GagaOOLala and YouTube) This show is very sweet and continues to hold up the recent Kongthup pattern of being great about things like sidestepping the most annoying drama tropes, showing great friendship dynamics including asking your friends about sex, and in this one, excellent sibling dynamics too.

The Loyal Pin ep 15/16 (Thai, Sundays 12:15 PM EDT, YouTube) Anin remains so brave. This latest episode felt a little like we rushed to the finish line, but I've really enjoyed the way this show has handled things overall to date. The show continues to enjoy faking us out in previews so I'm not going to speculate on the ending until we get it.

Red Whisper ep 7/8 (Korea, [schedule is kinda unpredictable; vaguely every 5 days??], YouTube) Oof we've graduated to actively upsetting me with the way this show has depicted nonmonogamy and bisexuality. For the record: Not all bisexuals are nonmonogamous, and entering a monogamous relationship under false pretenses and then acting like your partner is being unreasonable by not wanting an open relationship is shitty behaviour.

*The Nipple Talk 5/10 (Taiwanese, weird schedule: the first 5 dropped on Nov 8 and the last 5 will air Nov 22, GagaOOLala) I honestly owe this show a separate post, it is great! This is an ensemble show with the main character being a heterosexual woman but her two besties are a gay man and a lesbian woman, and the show follows all of them through relationship issues. There is a lot of sex, great conversations about sex, and different relationship styles from one night stand casual flings, to nonmonogamous casual regular sex partners, to long term monogamous relationships. It is very funny, fun, and charming as all hell. It's made a couple small stumbles in the first 5 episodes but I'm still enjoying it a lot. If you liked Diary of Tootsies, this is highly recommended!

Recently Completed:

Reverse 4 U 8eps (Thai, 3 Sept-22 Oct 2024, Netflix / YouTube) I did not like this finale--in the end I was sad where we ended up with this show and I hope we get to see these actors in something else. Also looking forward to more genre GL, which is in the works!

Unlock Your Love 8eps (Thai, 11 Sept-30 Oct 2024, GagaOOLala / YouTube) This show was a little slow, but it stayed cute and relatively low stakes, and the actors had excellent chemistry when they were allowed to do their thing, which was relatively often--I appreciated the amount of good kissing in this show lol. The plot meandered, and we forgot we were in a worklpace GL by the end, but I enjoyed this in spite of that.

Chaser Game W s2 8eps (Japanese, 19 Sept-7 Nov 2024, GagaOOLala) @lurkingshan is already doing a great summary of this week to week in her JQL weekly round-up, but I'll add my thoughts to the finale here. Honestly this show did not do it for me for several reasons, but the main thing this final arc did that bothered me was introduce lesbian motherhood as a serious conflict, and then seemed to suggest that homophobia only exists because queer people are not brave enough. It rubbed me the wrong way. Plus the boss who sexually harassed characters in the first season was back to sexually harass characters in the second season with no consequence. I think this show was trying to do to much and as a result it didn't feel coherent.

Recent One-offs, Side Couples, etc.:

A very short and cute Chinese GL Oh General! My General! aired on bilibili and was subtitled by @douqi7s on YouTube This short manages to speedrun training, shared bath, cheek kiss, forced separation, timeskip, and happy ending in 2 minutes

The sapphic backstory in The Hidden Moon concluded with a happy-in-the-afterlife ending

We also got more of the Aim as a Lesbian plotline in the new Love Sick 2024 remake again (this was not a plotline in the 2014 version and it's one of the changes I really like and that I think works really well; her conversation with her mother was a good scene)

The Thai lakorn The Empress of Ayodhaya had a kiss that earned very high ratings on Thai television (This show does not have international distribution so I can't cover it in any detail unfortunately)

Sastra film app YouTube channel has several short Cambodian GL series that come out weekly Honestly they are not to my taste but I don't like gatekeeping GL especially from smaller markets. I check in on these time to time and if there are any that I think are great I'll give them a shout-out

Ditto above with JPC media YouTube channel for Thai GL shorts if there are any that stand out to me I'll say so; that being said I haven't had time recently so if I've missed anything good let me know!

Starting soon:

My Ex's Wedding [in theatres in Thailand 14 November]

Mom Ped Sawan, Thai, 17 November [international distribution uncertain; it should be on VIPA app with subs, but that is region-locked]

Petrichor, Thai, 23 November, iQIYI

Mate, Thai, 26 November, WeTV

[what-gs-watching]

“I generally keep track of the number of people watching me have sex. Isn’t that true for you?”

Surprise! I’m still alive. Mostly. My job has been insane for the past like two months, trying to get into this huge initiative that’s supposed to make a ton of money and it’s been a lot of pressure and so I’ve been just comfort watching because my brain literally can’t handle anything else after a long workday 

BUT! I finally just took a short vacation up to see my nephews as an early birthday present and that means binging something new with my sister and we picked

THE RESIDENCE. 

And it was mothereffing amazing. So, so, so, so so so so so good. Like wow. 

Wherein, the head usher of the White House dies during a State Dinner and the ‘best detective in the world’  is brought in to try and solve the mystery of whodunnit. 

I have to start by saying that I REALLY appreciate the fact that we as a society seem to love the ‘quirky detective that is the GOAT of detecting in their universe solves a truly ridiculous case’ trope. IT NEVER GETS OLD! Benoit Blanc. Poirot. Sherlock Holmes, obviously. Jessice Fletcher (yeah, she totally counts). And now, Cordelia Cupp. 

It’s one of my favorite themes ever. I will never tire of it. I will watch every ridiculous show / movie that utilizes it. They aren’t all going to be amazing of course, but this one really, really is.

I  will also admit that in recent years I haven’t cared about anything coming out of Shondaland - I mean, I was obviously obsessed with Grey’s Anatomy in 2007 like the rest of the world, and I have watched the entirety of Scandal (mostly because I’d sunk too much time into it to stop when I realized that Olivia was batshit crazy and I hated her relationship with Fitz) so I was thinking this wasn’t gonna be good and I’m glad to be proved wrong. They need to make more things like that, please let Grey’s die already and go all in on weird, funny things. It’d be worth it, I promise.

Anyway. There’s eight episodes and they’ll make you laugh out loud and also feel really terrible at points. The story is mostly contained to a single night at the White House and there are a ton of infuriating and or wonderful characters and I’m truly obsessed with Cordelia Cupp in a weird way. She’s a birder. And that’s so ridiculous. It’s a giant plot point within the show and it’s not something I thought I would ever find interesting but it kind of was. What a weird hobby! But people love it. And I kind of get it, now? Like, why. 

The entire cast is fantastic, but I really love the FBI foil Cordelia has in Edwin. He’s the perfect punching bag slash sounding board and one of the least terrible men in a room full of terrible men. At one point she laments when yet ANOTHER dude shows up to tell her how to do her job or fight over jurisdiction and I was just like ‘giiiiirl, I am with you.’ HOW MANY DUDES DO YOU NEED? 

Basically, Cordelia is a bamf. And all of the random stories and background information she gathers is fascinating. I LOVE drama, like ridiculous workplace drama gets me going and that is basically, the entirety of the show. It’s all about interpersonal dynamics and how small shit can turn into big shit can turn into a motive for murder. 

A.B., the murder victim, was just trying to run basically the most important household in the country well but people are people and they can be terrible and petty and he handled all of it with grace and he never had a family but the House was his family. And I enjoyed that they let the audience get to know him through his interactions with all of the different ‘suspects’ - sometimes there isn’t enough focus on the victim but Cordelia made sure he was at the forefront. 

Also, there were enough twists and turns to keep this show interesting as hell. I really do try not to guess who did it because I just want to go along for the ride but my sister and I couldn’t help but theorize on how it was ultimately going to play out. I really don’t play that game but I just kept saying ‘YO who did it I need to know’ and the reveal was really, truly fantastic. 

It ended up being the character I wanted it to be, but I couldn't explain WHY or HOW so it was super satisfying to be justified in my random hatred of them. Looking back on it, maybe it would be kind of obvious to someone else but man, they lead you down so many paths you get twisted around and it’s enough to just follow Cordelia’s crazy brain around until it all makes sense. 

Finally, you should know this before you start: Andre Braugher was meant to play A.B. but he passed away with only half of his scenes finished. If you watch this with that in your mind, it’s gonna devastate you even further. He would have been the PERFECT A.B. Wynter.

The point is, here’s how I should probably be ranking shows from now on: while I was watching this, I actually put down my laptop, and like really, really watched. Can’t remember the last time I’ve done that. Lose yourself in it, you guys. It’s all about the birds.

[myalchod]

On the WoT Series Finale ...

Okay, now that I've had some time to mull over things, some (potentially incoherent) Thoughts on 3x08 ... well, specifically That Thing and some broader tropey stuff.

I get why people are upset -- I absolutely do, especially given that this show has made some rather unfortunate choices vis a vis optics. Colour-blind casting is wonderful, but it also means that you run the risk of accidentally (or subconsciously) falling into tropes you didn't necessarily think through. Valda and Fain are both examples -- the actors for both are utterly wonderful, but the two Most Problematic Whitecloaks being particularly dark-skinned definitely has Unfortunate Implications, especially contrasting Valda against avuncular, generally well-intentioned Geofram Bornhold. And there's a trend in this season in particular with PoC characters being the ones who die, especially in more unpleasant ways. Ihvon dying over Maksim. The White sister in Liandrin's cabal being the first to go (and to get absolutely smashed in the process). Ispan's death versus Nyomi's. Loial, generally.

At the same time, I get why there are deaths. The source material has eleventy billion characters; it was inevitable we'd see them, especially as the show goes forward and focusses more and more on the 'kids' without the need for established names to carry the show. It's even more inevitable as plotlines proliferate, and threads have to be tied back in and the show made to work within its constraints. I hate them -- I have a habit of picking out, as my favourites, characters who very often end up dead (or, if not, sidelined, but that's not important here). When I read the books, many years ago, Siuan was my unequivocal favourite from the moment she first showed up, and when I read the spoilers last night, insomniac and trying to convince myself to sleep and not watch, I was simultaneously shocked and not surprised.

So I went in knowing that Siuan was going to die, but I didn't know how they'd handle it. And it was heartbreaking. But thinking about it, in the aftermath, there's one thing in particular that I actually do like about the change, and that is how it makes her an active participant in the Tower's breaking. Not that she causes it -- that happens in both books and show -- but that she isn't silenced, stilled, bundled off into a cell, and then basically vanishes from the Tower. We see more of her mistakes play out on the screen, but in addition we see her try to make amends for them. "I am Aes Sedai" felt like a challenge as much as a proclamation -- a reminder of what the words mean, of what the Tower should be, at this time above and beyond any other. It felt like more agency than I remember her having in the books. (Could it have been done without her dying? Arguably yes. But if she was going to go out, and if they wanted to give Sophie a suitably dramatic moment to play, this was the best opportunity within her book arc. Could it have been done without such a violent -- if mercifully off-panel -- death? Again, arguably yes, but as someone pointed out on Bsky, it's a definitive shorthand for Actually Deceased in a show where anything short of death can be Healed, and even more than that if you're the Dark One, but that's another story.)

Would I have liked to see the show go a different way? Maybe. There was a lot of speculation floating around about ways show Siuan's storyline could go, especially in connection with Moiraine's book arc, and especially after Siuan and Mat's conversation I really warmed to the idea -- it would have been lovely to see more of their dynamic, and there were some very interesting ways that could have wound. My ultimate response depends a lot on how the rest of the show (which we hopefully get!) plays out. But there will always be things you wish a show did that it doesn't, and that's what things like fanfic are for. I've been disappointed many times, and this one hits me less hard than some, because even if I dislike it at first blush I can see how it makes narrative sense.

But again: I get it. I get that there are actor conflicts, and cost ramifications, and any one of a thousand things that might have precluded Sophie's continued involvement as a regular -- and if they followed book!Siuan's storyline, that would have probably warranted regular involvement. I get that there are issues with killing a woman, a character of colour, a lesbian in an onscreen relationship -- so many issues, taken in the context of an industry that is pretty awful to minorities of all sorts, and especially when it comes to SF/F. I'm not saying all of this to try to convince anyone one way or another, but mostly to kind of get my thoughts on the events of the finale worked out, when it's not what I expected.

Your feelings on this, whatever they are, are absolutely valid. If you walk away from the show, that's your prerogative -- goodness knows I've done that with shows in the past. If you choose to defend it or to adopt a wait-and-see attitude, those are equally justifiable. Everyone has to decide what their personal break point is with the media they engage with. I hope, if you do walk away, that you're able to keep whatever joy the show gave you; feeling like a piece of media you love has betrayed you is always painful. Personally, I hope we do get more of this show, and I'm willing to give them a chance. I haven't agreed with all of their choices, but overall I'm still enjoying it, and I'm definitely eager to see what comes next ... though not to wait two years for it, assuming it's a similar cadence.

(Anyway. I hope that was some measure of coherent in the end. But now I'm going to try to do something entirely different with regards to another character on this show, so I'll shut up instead of going on any further.)

[iguessitsjustme]

My Favorite BL of 2024:

Is it 4 days after the new year? Yes. Am I making this a tad bit late. Probably. Do I care? Nope. Doing this for me.

These are my top 10 shows that aired and finished in 2024. I did have to whittle it down from around 20 and that was hard. But this is the list. But first.

Honorable mentions:

Love in the Big City - watched on Viki.

The reason this is not in the list of top 10 BL is because I categorize this as a queer story instead of a BL. It's missing the typical BL tropes and style, but it was damn good. After I watched it, it sat with me for awhile. It's still sitting with me. It was tough to watch at times, but it was worth it for me and I enjoyed it a lot.

I Hear the Sunspot - watched on Gagaoolala.

The same reason this did not make it into the favorites. This show is not a BL to me. Yes, it features a queer love, but that is not the focus nor is it the point of the show. This is a show about communication and acceptance and growth. The romance is secondary to all of that. The romance is used as a way to show the communication and acceptance and growth for multiple different characters.

The On1y One - watched on Viki.

This show. This SHOW. So good. I am scared we will never get a second season. The reason that this show is not on the list is because we didn't quite get to the romance yet. I truly hope we get more but I don't know if my heart can take it. Oh it was such a good show though. This show was one of my liveblogs (I promise I'll finish posting them at some point).

Now, on to the list in descending order of my favorites:

10. Century of Love - watched on Gagaoolala.

Listen. This show had some issues BUT listen. I am a sucker for a reincarnated lovers story. And I have been waiting my entire life for a show to do reincarnated lovers but they came back as a different gender. I loved the twist this show pulled by making it not certain if Vee was actually the reincarnation of Wat. I love when things get left up to the interpretation of the audience. I love that it also didn't matter because what mattered is that San chose Vee. He didn't need soulmates, he needed choice and that is what the show gave him.

9. Wandee Goodday - watched on YouTube.

I can't really explain why I loved this show so much except that I really loved both Yak and Wandee. Yak was such a green flag throughout the show and Wandee was actually very good at communicating his boundaries. It was refreshing to see. I wish it had handled certain things better, but overall this show was something I looked forward to a whole lot every week.

8. At 25:00 in Akasaka - watched on Gagaoolala.

This show felt weirdly calming to me. The way that all of the characters moved throughout the world was so calming. Shirasaki and Hayama are perfectly balanced. I love how they love each other. It took them awhile to get there, but once they did, it was so wholesome and delightful.

7. Deep Night - watched on IQIYI.

POLY. This show gave us canon poly. Did we get enough of them? No. Alas they were the sides. But it made me so incredibly happy. The leads were great too. Wela and Khem had wonderful communication the entire way through the show which was super unexpected in a show like this. This show also did not hold back on the heat. But the main reason I love this show so much (other than the poly) is just how supportive everyone ends up being of everyone. It was wonderful to see. This show was one of my liveblogs.

6. Jack & Joker: U Steal My Heart - watched on IQIYI

Yes, yes I know. I was pretty vocal in my critiques of this show (well vocal for me). But despite my issues with it, I really loved this show a whole lot. I love anything involving a heist and they really went and made it gay. God bless. Joke has become one of my all time favorite characters. I liked that this show tried something new. It gave us something new and something interesting. It was intriguing and it was fun. It was an absolute joy to watch and post about and it was the show that I probably felt the most in community with other people watching. I love YinWar for giving us this show and putting so much of their hearts into it. It was obvious how much everyone involved cared.

5. We Are - watched on IQIYI

It should surprise no one that this show is on my list. First of all, TanFang. My absolute favorites. But this show was so slow and so calm. There was such little conflict it basically was nonexistent. It was exactly what I needed. The summer months are always hard for me mentally and this show was a nice break for my brain. I loved all of the couples. Some of the couples definitely had pacing issues but I still love them. It was a delightful show and sometimes I just want a show that I can trust will greet me like a friend each week.

4. My Stand-In - watched on IQIYI

I love my toxic boys. Ming you absolute disaster. This show was a RIDE. I couldn't get enough. Joe was such a good person and the whole story is bonkers and Ming was a walking talking red flag and still I was rooting for him. I also loved how much effort the creators put into this show. I don't think I've ever seen so much analysis done of character's backs in my life. It was GREAT. I want a million more shows just like this. We all deserve it.

3. Monster Next Door - watched on Gagaoolala

Just like We Are, this show greeted me like a friend each week. I could count on this show to feel like a warm hug. God and Diew are quite literally the cutest of all time. God was the biggest green flag we have had in awhile, if ever. I mean, no one truly did it like him. That man literally went out of his way to make sure Diew wouldn't even see his face until Diew was ready for it. The only sin this show ever committed was not getting Khun Shy a proper tank. I know that it wouldn't have fit with the aesthetic or whatever, but I was stressed. This is a show that I imagine I will be rewatching at least once a year if not more.

2. Unknown - watched grey first then on Viki

It was soooo hard not to put this as number 1. This show was everything to me when it was airing. I actually found a translation of the book to read online after the show finished airing because I did not want to be done. The way Yuan loved Qian was absolutely wild but my god I loved it. Watching Qian learn to reciprocate Yuan's feelings but also to let himself finally be taken care of was fantastic. I loved their whole family dynamic. I loved the friends. I loved how hard each character worked, not just at life but they all worked hard at love. All types of love. Unknown really told us that love is not always easy and sometimes it is the hardest thing to do, but it is worth the effort. And it also gave me the scene of Qian chasing down San Pang while Yuan sat back and laughed. Iconic.

Love for Love's Sake - watched on IQIYI

This is the only show that could take the #1 spot for me. It was the show this year. It aired last January and I am still thinking about it and how much I love it. Myungha is undoubtedly one of my favorite characters. Something about him just spoke to me, the way I'm sure his character spoke to a lot of people. Everything about this show from beginning to end was executed flawlessly (in my opinion) and I cannot stop thinking about how it said that even the worst most unlovable parts of yourself are worth loving and actually they aren't the worst and the aren't unlovable. It might be hard to love those parts of yourself, but it's so easy to love them in someone else. And they will love them in you too. This is a show that I would absolutely love a physical copy of so I can force everyone I know to watch it.

Sorry for how long the post is. I chose not to include screenshots mostly because I'm lazy and now I'm glad because this is already very long.

[pinazee]

Gus walks into a bank

This ep is good. I just cant help but compare it to the bank episode leverage did, and frankly, did better. Man, i should do a leverage rewatch. That show was banging.

Anyways. No real deep analysis for this ep, just some observations.

To begin with, i have to take shawns side on this one. He didn’t need to walk the check in with gus haha

I love that the security guard just immediately dropped the gun and gave up. He was too close to retirement for that shit haha

Very weird shawn didnt hear the shots outside.

Im sorry but this entire emotional outburst is completely undercut by james sunglasses

This moment though- i love how nervous he is when gus is in danger. I love that he doesn’t calm down until he knows gus is okay and he can gain control of the situation. The very few times shawn is rattled is when people he cares about are in danger.

Also, this felt like the first time gus ever said he loved him 😭 their friendship means so much to me

I love that lassie doesn’t like lutz either, and i love his smile when Shawns snark is directed at a shared enemy haha i like lassies demeanor this whole ep too. He has his own issues with lutz but it comes across as being protective of juliet because he thinks she can do better. Idk, i also just like when shawn and lassie are on the same side.

Also juliet describes him as virile… i do not like that term lol you know how some people have a thing about the word moist? Well, i have the same thing but with virile. Ick. Also, that word to me has always been associated with old men who still “got it” haha

i just have to say also, i hate that juliet thanks shawn for telling her to go out with him. She doesn’t owe him anything, and she certainly didn’t need his permission. I understand the point of the scene was shawn coming to terms with letting her go, i think thats a good thing to have. But i wish instead he’d done that on his own or even with lassie. OR, i think it would’ve been neat if lassie had given shawn advice to drop it, because even though he also doesn’t like lutz, it’s not his opinion that matters, only hers.

I don’t really care about the age difference. Shes a grown woman who can make her own choices. And it kind of aligns with juliets character at this point, to want someone she can trust to handle things. Obviously there are more interesting partners for her down the line, but its a fun bit to analyze for her character (and not to play into the trope…but she does have daddy issues…)

I just really liked this bit haha

P.S this mural is really making the rounds

[absolutebl]

Good afternoon ABL,

I noticed that on your GMMTV 2025 Lineup review, you had already coloured OF2 in deep pink. And I combed through all your tags to see if I could find an answer as for why. (So I wouldn’t have to hassle you.) But alas, I struggled to find an answer (aside from the fact that s1 was dreadfully chaotic). So my question is: what made you decide to skip this particular show? Or more generally phrased: what criteria do you apply to shows to determine their “pink status”? (Asking so that I won’t bother you about something you’re absolutely disinterested in.)

Kind regards,

— Thel. 💚

P.S. As for your “Favourite Branded Pairs,” are we going with current branded pairs? And if so, how niche do they need to be? 🤔

Oooo, the How Dare category?

Well in the case of Only Friends 2 no secret I absolutely loathed Only Friends original so the best I could manage is a hate watch and I'm trying not to do that to myself these days.

I don't like the Messy Gays trope (recently dropped Gelboys for this reason), with a few noted exceptions and (so far) never from Thailand. It either gets too realistic or too depressing or both.

I prefer my characters being, generally, nice to each other, especially friendship groups.

I watch BL for the intimacy and the connection and the warm fuzzies.

How do I (a completest) decide not to even bother to pick up a BL?

That is a good question, because usually I would at least watch the first 2 episodes, just to make sure. (And so I can mark it dnf on the spreadsheet.)

To be fair I reserve the right to do that with OF2 and Love You Teacher.

Here's my criteria:

Can I get hold of it?

I'm lazy so if it is difficult to find, on a platform I don't have a subscription to (e.g. Netflix), only grey, or only served with tons of ads, and I'm not really intersted and/or I doubt the quality? I won't bother. (Boys Love Omegaverse from Japan is a good example of this.)

These get a cnf on the spreadsheet (could not find).

What country is it from?

If it's Thailand and a pulp I'm way less likely to hunt for it (we get so many, and so often they are of such poor quality, especially the travel-log ones like Chiang Mai Adventures). There are a few other countries out there whose quality (Vietnam) or ability to stick the landing (China, Philippines) I doubt with good reason, so I won't bother for them either.

Is it something I didn't like the first time?

I watched the pair before and wasn't into them. It's the second in a series (or a spin off) and I didn't like the first installment. You know what they say about the definitional of insanity?

Is it based on one of my least favorite tropes or triggers?

Again some countries handle some of these tropes better than others and I almost always give Japan a pass because they are so interesting and experimental. Messy Gay (for example) I don't love from Thailand but I'm okay with from Korea. I don't like extreme infantilization so I will avoid that (probably my biggest issue with Flirt Milk, which I kind of wish I'd dropped) and the reason I won't pick up Love You Teacher. I'm unlikely to watch anything based on the amnesia trope (side eyes Jack o'Frost). I dislike horror.

Nothing is a true deal breaker for me unless I witness it in action and can't imagine how the story or character would be redeemed.

Did the trailer wigged me out?

For some reason, something about the trailer upset me. Could be any of the above triggers or turn-offs or some other feeling I got from it, like it is going to end sad, or the chemsitry is bad, or one of the mains reminds me of an ex, or I just don't like the directing or acting style.

Favourite Branded Pairs?

Hum...

For me to build an alliance with a pair, I generally want them to have been in at least 2 shows together, playing different characters. I don't mind indie or niche or mostly playing sides. But I do want reliable, steady, and decent chemistry. I also think we should stand a good chance of them acting together again for me to bother to get invested (so no sunk ships).

Does that help?

[dioslesbianwife]

YAY YOURE BACK!! i’ve never clicked on something faster than when i saw that you posted,,

Imagine if the jofoes were playing a dating sim which dateable character would they gravitate towards and what trope would they themselves fall into?

You could use the different ’dere’ archetypes if that would help (tsundere, kuudere etc.)!!

--🐠

hi 🐠!! ooh omg this is a genius idea, I'd kill to watch the jofoes play dating sims lol. thank you for requesting and i hope you enjoy <3333

Dio

Who He Falls For:

The worshipper type, a character who idolizes the protagonist, willing to devote themselves completely to them.

He’d be drawn to an obedient, elegant, and intelligent partner- someone who praises him and calls him “My Lord” unironically.

Examples: The graceful noblewoman, the fair maiden who believes in soulmates, or the devoted knight willing to fight for him.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Charismatic Domineering Type (Kamidere)

He’s the overpowered, arrogant, and seductive villainous love interest who treats the protagonist like a pawn- until he starts catching feelings and doesn’t know how to handle it.

Ends up calling the protagonist ‘useless’ while secretly watching over them and going into a jealous rage when they pick another route.

Wamuu

Who He Falls For:

The “strong-willed warrior” type, someone who isn’t afraid to challenge him and stands by their convictions.

Would respect a warrior princess or a protective bodyguard character who fights for their ideals.

Would not be into a weak-willed, passive love interest.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Noble Warrior

He’d be the honorable rival love interest, bound by duty but secretly yearning for a deeper connection.

He doesn’t understand love at first, but if the protagonist proves their worth, he would swear an eternal vow of loyalty.

Esidisi

Who He Falls For:

The “gentle nurturer” type, a character who soothes his temper and endures his dramatic tantrums with patience.

He’d fall hard for a motherly healer-type who reassures him when he has his signature emotional breakdowns.

Also enjoys someone a little mischievous who flirts and teases him.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Dramatic

He’s the ridiculous, overly passionate love interest who oscillates between rage-fueled jealousy and intense, teary devotion.

If the protagonist picks another route, he’d be the type to scream to the heavens in despair.

Kars

Who He Falls For:

The “perfect beauty” type, someone elegant, cultured, and nearly untouchable in their grace.

Would be drawn to a mysterious, high-class lady who plays hard to get.

He wants someone worthy of standing at his side, a brilliant tactician or musician would catch his attention.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The God Complex Love Interest (Kamidere)

He’s the unreachable, cold genius who initially sees the protagonist as beneath him, until they do something unexpected that makes him obsessed.

If the protagonist chooses another love interest, he’d either get rid of them or act like he never cared.

Kira Yoshikage

Who He Falls For:

The “ordinary but kind” type, someone gentle, quiet, and non-threatening.

A love interest who enjoys simple, domestic life and doesn’t push him into chaotic situations.

He’d go for the sweet class president, the shy florist, or the childhood friend character.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Seemingly Normal Yandere

He starts as the calm and polite office worker, but as the romance progresses, he begins showing signs of possessiveness and a dark obsession.

Would stalk the protagonist in-game and possibly eliminate rival love interests in a bad ending.

Diavolo

Who He Falls For:

The “mystery woman” type, someone elusive, unpredictable, and hard to pin down.

He’d be attracted to an enigma, like the cool, stoic hacker girl or the enigmatic fortune teller.

He likes a love interest who keeps him on edge, someone who understands fate but refuses to spell things out for him.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Secretive & Unstable Love Interest (Yangire)

He’d be the mysterious, intimidating older man who disappears for days and hides things from the protagonist for "their own good."

If the protagonist chooses another love interest, he might vanish or reset the game so it never happened.

Doppio

Who He Falls For:

The “kind but oblivious” type, someone who doesn’t treat him like he’s weird but also doesn’t question his behavior.

He’d love a cheerful, airheaded heroine who trusts him without fear and thinks his quirks are cute.

Would also enjoy someone motherly who dotes on him.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Seemingly Innocent Yandere

He’s the cute, awkward, flustered love interest, but his dialogue subtly hints that something is very wrong.

If the protagonist picks another love interest, he might accidentally switch to Diavolo, who “handles” them.

Enrico Pucci

Who He Falls For:

The “philosophical intellectual” type- someone who challenges him mentally and has a deep, introspective way of thinking.

Would appreciate a well-read, religious, or scholarly love interest who shares long discussions with him.

Would also fall for the tragic heroine, someone destined to suffer, making him feel protective.

What Trope He Falls Into:

An Obsessive Messiah Figure

He’s the calm, kind, and insightful priest at first, but as the romance progresses, he reveals his radical, world-altering ambitions.

If the protagonist rejects him, he’d let them go with a heavy heart... or rewrite reality so they love him.

Funny Valentine

Who He Falls For:

The loyal and patriotic type, someone who shares his devotion to a cause.

He’d admire a strong, determined, and justice-driven partner who wants to improve the world.

Would fall for a love interest who sacrifices for their ideals.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Powerful & Protective Authority Figure

He’s the charming but intimidating political figure (maybe CEO or smth in an au), offering lavish gifts and undying protection.

If the protagonist chooses someone else, he’d become a tragic figure, saying it was “for the greater good.”

Diego Brando

Who He Falls For:

The “fierce rival” type, someone as competitive and ambitious as he is.

Would fall for a rival in whatever field the MC is in, a sharp-witted noble, or a rebellious outlaw who won’t let him win easily.

Prefers someone hard to impress- he enjoys the chase.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Arrogant Tsundere

He insults the protagonist while secretly trying to impress them.

If the protagonist picks another route, he’d deny ever caring but clearly sulk.

Tooru

Who He Falls For:

The “hopeless romantic” type, someone naïve and completely smitten with him.

Would manipulate a sweet, trusting heroine who believes in true love.

What Trope He Falls Into:

The Manipulative Boyfriend

He gaslights the protagonist and acts like the perfect partner while subtly ruining their life.

If they reject him, he’d guilt-trip them into staying. Ther would only be one dialogue option at this point- that being to stay with him and forget/get over whatever things he did.

[fandomsfordays21]

This is no hate to any Hazbin Hotel fans but I just need to say this.

I think the thing that's the most disappointing about the bad writing in Hazbin Hotel is how they executed the whole "Heaven is corrupt" thing and also how they executed the "Rebellious angel who saw the corruption and was shunned for it."

I fucking LOVE both of these tropes. I would even go as far as to say they are my favorites. But HH was just... So underwhelming with it.

Vaggie just feels so one dimensional and her being cast out of Heaven just didn't have any impact on me in the way it should have. Not to mention how Adam and the other angels are written. There were so many opportunities for Adam's character and his motivations for being a part of exterminations. For example, it could be because he holds a grudge against Lucifer because of Lilith and the apple, or because he has been conditioned to see himself as a higher being because of his status as the first man so he sees others as being lesser. But no. They didn't do that. Adam is like the adult show version of the bully/mean girl trope in kids shows.

Gabriel ULTRAKILL is a good example of what Vaggie or Adam could have been. (I know I'm talking about ULTRAKILL again cut me some slack).

He was conditioned to believe everything the council told him and that the things he was doing were "God's will" even though God had long since left. He literally killed Minos again despite Minos just wanting his citizens to live in peace because the Council wanted the denizens of Hell to live through their punishments. He was a loyal soldier through and through, doing everything he was told to do without question. Then, once he loses to V1 for the first time, he is immediately shunned by heaven just because he failed once. And they only leave him with the options of dying or proving himself useful again. Once he loses to V1 the second time, though, he takes the time to think and realizes the manipulation of the council and kills them in order to make a point to the rest of heaven. He's definitely going to die now, but he's fine with that because he is dying by his own rules.

See how that's so much better than Vaggie's lazy backstory of, "I didn't want to kill a child and heaven was mad." Or Adam's, "I'm just a dick and I kill people because it's fun."

I know that people have their own tastes in terms of storytelling and themes, but I think this is just really upsetting for me because HH has such an interesting concept and I feel like Vivzy really missed the mark on it with the bad plot and character writing. HH is just one of those pieces of media where you can read fanfiction of much better quality than the source.

(And we're not even taking into account the parallels between Minos and Charlie and how the idea of what sins deserve punishment are handled because that's a whole different can of worms and I'm already really upset that Vivzy can't seem to execute certain themes as well as a fucking Doom inspired FPS can.)

[funishment-time]

GREETINGS! First of all, you are like a celebrity to me. I don’t know how well-known you are, but whenever I see your posts I’m like…”Yeah. That’s The Danganronpa Person™”

I’m @monokuma-apologist I’m aboutta drop all of my hot takes on why I love different characters. I have seen other people do similar so I’m hoping this is allowed, if not I’m sorry…👉👈

#1 NEKOMARU / AKANE. I’m grouping them together because they’re my ship and also deeply intertwined with one another. I cannot STAND that Nekomaru is just remembered as “shit guy” and Akane is just remembers as “big boobs / eats meat). They’re such interesting characters, especially together? I dunno, the way Nekomaru keeps Akane in check and sacrifices himself for her with no hesitation. The fact that in chapter four, Akane literally CRIES over him. The fact that Nekomaru was told by doctors that he wouldn’t live past twenty…ever wonder if that’s why he’s so willing to die multiple times throughout the game? My friend already wrote an essay on this so I can’t just rehash all of that…but whether you see them as lovers or friends there’s so much going on with both of them and no one bothers to see it :((

#2 TERUTERU. My handle used to be @the-only-teruteru-fan for gosh’s sake (changed it when someone told me to kill myself for it womp womp). NOW, I AM NOT DEFENDING ANYTHING THE GUY DID, though I’m one of the rare, rare few that finds his character trope amusing. To be fair, I don’t accept a lot of the things he says as canon. Not in a “I’m right and it’s wrong” kind of way. Just in an…”I enjoy him more this way”. But if we ignore all of that, glaring as it is, he’s kind of a delightful character? Always trying to be suave, and he doesn’t take rejection as hard as Kazuichi. Just wants to go home to his sick mother, and goes into deep denial whenever faced with the fact that he’s missing years of his memories. Always putting on a show. He’s so passionate about cooking and wanting to be more than he is. I wish, to be honest, that they’d kept some of the weird jokes and taken out the ones that implicated him as a threat…yunno, like sneaking on trains in drag or having a bunch of sex drugs on him.

Thank you this is very random but I felt inspired

awww! that's sweet that you think of me that way. but i am just a Kuma. always remember!

i find Akane and Nekomaru both Super Charming. while in memes i definitely kind of reduce them to Shit Guy and Food Lass for the laffs, as serious characters i see them as far more fascinating than that. Akane has so much to work with in her backstory, and Nekomaru is a cool old man in a young guy's body. plus, they were meant to mimic the fighter/mentor pairs in a lot of anime. (Akane's supposed to be a female Son Goku iirc according to Kodaka.)

i agree with you on Teruteru, as Controversial as that is. if you remove the Nasty Sex Pest stuff, he has some sincerely cute traits underneath: his love for his mom, his hopes to take care of people with his food, the fact that he's trying to cover up he comes from the countryside...i wish they'd found a way to Go With That, or at least toned him down. he can be a Pervert but i'd prefer he wasn't, you know. attempting to assault people. just not interesting or funny

thanks for sharing!

[starry-eyer]

When I see stuff like this I kinda want to bash my head into a wall:

To start off, I’m not sure whether this person was commenting on book or show Cersei, but honestly, it doesn’t even matter because she’s so much more than the ‘ambitious villain’ or the ‘murderous girlboss’ tropes in both the book and show.

(Of course, I do have my issues with the way Cersei was written in the show like most people but this is simply a rant post so I’m not going to go through the differences of Show vs Book Cersei)

Cersei is a female character who was shaped by her environment, who’s insecurities were created by her environment, and she’s a woman who’s idiotic mistakes can be traced back to how her environment shaped her. She’s much more than a murderous girlboss, she’s both a victim of the system and also a beneficiary of it, while also acting as an agent of it to keep the status quo while also desiring what the system denied her.

Cersei is NUANCED and complicated and even now people hate that about her and want her to have been a purely evil woman handcrafted in a vacuum, ignoring the context of her life because readers would rather not engage with Cersei’s victimhood and nuances because that ruins their idea of: She Was The Problem and Always The Problem. (People would rather say that she deserved her walk of shame instead of interacting meaningfully with the theme of systematic gender-based violence that is so prevalent in Cersei’s story. The exploration of patriarchal violence in Show Alicent’s story is done so horribly in comparison.)

And what really pissed me off about these tags is that this person has clearly decided that they don’t care to interact with the nuance of Cersei and are fine with flattening her, and yet they shit on others for not liking Alicent.

Because of the way Alicent is written in this show, she almost always has a ‘woe is me I can do no wrong’ attitude, which of course drives people away from the character (woe is me I deserve to take a child’s eye 🥺). However, what actually annoys me is how she’s made out to be stupid, foolish, ignorant, and inconsistent due to the horrible writing of this show, all of which are deviations from her book characterization. Also, I despise it when people want me to support writing decisions and changes made in adaptations that are downright misogynistic and are meant to attract the male gaze.

But what pisses many people, including myself, off is how the changes made negatively impacted many other characters. Alicent’s terrible characterization is like a black hole that distorts and warps the whole story! It’s annoying af!

So when people like this say: ‘She’s nuanced and people just can’t handle it 🙄;’ I say: No. She’s horribly written and a different character from the book and people have a right to be critical about these changes that stripped a female character of 1) her agency and 2) her intelligence!

And the thing is, there was little reason for the writers to have made all these changes to Alicent’s characterization! In the book she is an interesting character with clear motives and understandable reactions. She’s cunning and ambitious and acts the way a noble lady who became queen would. And despite her clear ambitions and dislike of Rhaenyra, she still makes a comment wondering about who would protect the Princess from Ser Criston, and yet she then takes Cole into her service after his falling out with Rhaenyra. That’s a perfect example of nuance! Show Alicent could never compare to book Alicent’s clear moral values and consistent disregard of said moral values in pursuit of power.

And because of this, Book Alicent isn’t easy to stomach. It’s hard for most people to come to terms with a character like her and it’s even harder for people to feel sympathetic for her at the end when she went mad with grief.

On the other hand, Show Alicent was designed in a way to garner pity, and when the writers felt like her current arc wouldn’t be enough to garner the specific reaction they wanted they would then throw in a time skip and suddenly she’s completely different and yet still Thee victim. She’s designed to be as sympathetic as fucking possible! The camera angles, the background music, and the lighting is set up in a way to make sure you the viewer feels pity or sympathy for her! Cause that’s her role in this series! She’s thee Ultimate Victim!

But too bad for the writers as many people are fed up with this kind of inconsistent writing. Even when the writers created a whole new challenge for Alicent where she’s shitted on by the green council and forced to face the beast she helped to raise, I and many others could never feel any satisfaction as it was clear that once again Alicent was being made to be Thee Ultimate Victim who was just led astray by the patriarchy and was a victim of it and was only just realizing it so don’t you pity her don’t you feel sad for her and now she’s trying to do the right thing so pls pls pls pity her 🥺~ So it shouldn’t be surprising that many people are annoyed by these eNLiGhtEnEd changes that have led to a complete deviation from the source material.

To summarize: Cersei is an excellent fucking character who’s by no means easy to stomach, and because she’s not easy to stomach she’s often reduced to annoying ass tropes by dumbasses who are reading above their comprehension level. But when you actually try to understand her, you can easily see why she turned out the way she did and you can feel sympathy for her while understanding that she’s both victim and perpetrator! On the other hand, Show Alicent is a mess and HOTD is trying to make her serve a different narrative role than she did in the books so ofc people are going to be unhappy with the changes as book readers are once again faced with the annoying reality that the writers don’t give a fuck about the source material.

[doodlegirl1998]

Hi, reading a fic (shig x hawks hear me out I was bored and want to see different charactizations of Mr. Sexy man) and in one scene as shig talks about his past...

It hits me once again how Izu doesn't have a mc trait.

Not saying he should be an orphan or anything like that.

But think this way: shig is the grandson of Nana. He is a Shimura.

Izu has nothing. I do like how he is from no important family...but he has no mc trope. He is an extra in his own show.

His traumatic past is BK abusing him but that doesn't count, ofc, and what else Izu has in his storyline? He wants to be a hero (everyone does) he is good with quirks sure and good with lil kids but....what else?

To be clear, don't think shig is better written or developed at all...and his reveal as SHIMURA was weak sauce and no one gave a shit.

But like there SMTH.

When you think about it....Shig had a better childhood than Izu...and yes, Kotaro was abusive. Yes, not denying that but like...he has monchan, friends and a mom who cared for him.

Izu has nothing but bk...forever.

Hi @mikeellee 👋

I'm not going to judge, read whatever interests you, but Hawks / Shig isn't a ship I like.

You are right when you say that Izuku doesn't have any traditional MC traits.

Now, it could be argued that OFA / "the chosen one" trope is used with Izuku being the final user. However, that, quite frankly, is bullshit because this ended up meaning nothing narratively, and Izuku lost OFA anyway. And an OFA user didn't end AFO - Bakugou (a no-name bastard) outside this passed down legacy of OFA did.

Izuku came from a no-name civilian family in MHA, no DFO, no other secret important linnege (unlike Shig and Dabi) - Inko is barely explored and Hisashi is mentioned in name only.

Unlike other MCs with tragic backstories (i.e Naruto and Tanjiro) Izuku's traumatic past abuse at the hands of Bakugou is undermined at every turn to make Bakugou look better instead of being treated with the respect it deserves.

To make matters worse, Bakugou is the reason Izuku suffered so much. No such abuse of the quirkless is seen LITERALLY ANYWHERE ELSE in canon. In canon, there is no Quirkless Discrimination seen in society (perhaps because there are so few of them). All of Izuku’s suffering is down to Bakugou being a bastard because he liked to be and couldn't handle being helped out of a river once.

Izuku is stuck with this literal narrative parasite until the very end and accepting pity payments from him so he can get his very own 'big boy' Hero Iron Suit after 6-8 years. I am disgusted by this ending.