#it's one thing when haters misinterpret him but his own fans? guys. guys guys guys

[ellalalala]

Listen, I'm not here to dictate how you should interpret Dottore's character, I'm really not; but the one misconception about him that really kills me is the idea that he's a "sadist who experiments on people for fun". Where in the world did people even get that from?

Here's the truth: Dottore experiments on people because he thinks he should. Because, if experimenting on someone will get him the results he desires in his endless pursuit of knowledge, then he will not think twice before going through with the experiment regardless of how cruel it is. Tighnari, while recounting his conversation with Dottore, says, "he never came off as malicious, but an utter lack of compassion permeated throughout our conversation". That's who Dottore is - someone lacking compassion for people, someone who sees himself as greater than the others (whilst also seeking recognition in his homeland, but that's a separate can of worms that I'm not opening today). Dottore won't think twice about how his subjects feel because he does not care; there is no pity nor excitement, only a need for results, answers. So... the next time someone says he's a sadist, just keep this in mind: he's literally not.

[myboyknows]

"the confidence when he's playing a role vs the insecurity when he's being himself" is such a good way to put it, and there's times I've fantasized about having a line that deft to throw at the haters. I'll keep it in my back pocket if such a situation ever arises again.

Please do!

I've been an AtS fan for a long time, and something I've always found so compelling about Angel is how easy it is for him to slip into a disguise and walk into a situation armed only with his own confidence in the role he's playing. He does it several times - especially over the course of the first two seasons of AtS - and I am absolutely enthralled by it. He's suddenly an art museum guide, a police detective in charge of a crime scene, a priest, 'cool' vampire J-Don, a lawyer, a French guy who loves fashion. Angel would never go out in a Hawaiian shirt and beach hat on his own, but he has zero problem with becoming Herb Saunders: Clueless Tourist from Baltimore in front of a mob boss. There are a lot of things this says to me about his character:

He's clever.

He's spontaneous.

He's calm under pressure.

He's good at improv/bluffing and should probably call Rebecca Lowell's agent and just become an actor already.

He doesn't care how strangers perceive him. This is the one that I think a lot of fans don't really understand about Angel. This man does not give a fuck. The reason he wouldn't wear a Hawaiian shirt on a normal day but is happy to do it in front of Little Tony isn't because he's embarrassed for other people to see him in a loud shirt - clearly - but because Angel has his own particular style that he feels comfortable in as himself and doesn't want to wear something that doesn't appeal to him, unless he himself chooses to wear it for a reason. It's like with the pink motorcycle helmet. Angel has no problem with other people mistaking him for a gay man, so when he doesn't want to wear the ladies' helmet, it's not because it might affect anyone else's perception of him but because he doesn't want to wear that helmet and he didn't get a choice. He likes his dark clothes and he likes his car, and the fake swami accuses him of developing this type of style to cultivate a persona for other people to appreciate without taking into consideration that these things appeal to Angel himself regardless of what strangers think. The only folks that he does actually care about in terms of their impressions of him are his friends, and so he'll correct them (sometimes) when they misinterpret him, but often he lets them think what they want about him, too. Which is maybe why it feels like Angel is so often misunderstood in fandom - because so many fans simply accept other characters' opinions of Angel as if they are fact rather than actually looking at Angel himself. Like with the smiling thing. There's an overwhelming fannish opinion that Angel doesn't smile very much because there are characters in the show who say he should smile more. But outside of serious or dangerous situations, Angel actually smiles all the time, and if it's any less than Wes or Gunn then it's only because he's more often in situations where it would be really weird to be smiling. He's a pleasant guy unless he's been given a reason not to be!

I also headcanon that one of the reasons Angel is so good at pretending to be someone else is because human camouflage is something that is literally built into his physiology as a vampire. Pretending to be something they aren't is a super important skill for all vampires, not just defensively in order to move through the human-dominated world but also as a means of getting close to their primary source of food. Angel spent 150ish years using his human face to deceive his prey while hunting, then a further 100ish years using it to blend in and disappear. Wolf in sheep's clothing, except the sheep's clothing is a really fucking good impression of a normal human being and he can wear it all the time. It comes naturally to vampires to pass as something they're not (we're ignoring the friend of Xanderrrrr's here) and Angel has 250 years of experience of people-watching. If he couldn't do pretty good imitations of different kinds of people by this point, I'd be surprised and disappointed in him.

But also! When we first meet Angel in the show, he's had very little experience interacting with humans while he's trying to be himself and not play some role to accomplish some kind of purpose. He's never had friends before, at least not with a soul, and he has no example of another vampire with a soul to imitate or learn from. He's flying totally blind, navigating unfamiliar territory, AND has conflicting impulses. So when he's insecure about his feelings and actions and expectations in his own life, that is also as natural for him as the confidence when it comes to pretending to be someone else.

Er, thanks for coming to my TED Talk?

[dollsandmasks]

2 & 7 for the f/o asks!

Oh, thank you, kind anon! I cannot believe I was gifted an excuse to talk about my garbage lizard man. Today is a blessed day.

Anyway, Micchy from Yo-kai Watch Shadowside it is!

Because I have 657567 blorbo scrunklies running around in my head at any given moment, but he is special, okay?

2. on what do you disagree with other fans of your f/o?

Hoo boy, where do I begin? First of all, whenever Micchy appears in any given fanwork, you never know if the author is his fan, his hater or just neutral. All three are not immune to mischaracterization and bad takes. Some thing I have seen in his fan portrayals that I disagree with:

Making him an unapologetic jerk or a bad friend. I get it, jocks have been characterized as assholes since times immemorial, and he does have a delinquent background which shows up in his behaviour... Like, once in canon? Also, he has made a snide comment to Haruya at one point, and you cannot forget him making an absolute fool of himself that one time him and Natsume went shopping. These are the only three instances of him being anything but a friendly, kind and supportive person who is always there for everyone and will risk his own life and safety to make sure his friends are okay. He is one of the least mean yo-kai in the agency, and he is usually on the receiving end of every joke, jab and insult, which he just accepts as normal (low self esteem gang rise up). He is this big scary-looking dog that is cuddly and soft and full of love, but people see "big scary dog" and cannot fathom not writing about it biting anyone. This is what you get for being a scary monster man, I guess?

In addition to the previous point, making his friendship with Natsume into something creepy. I'm sick and tired of his haters misinterpreting the relationship and portraying him as an evil abusive stalker, so it is doubly saddening when people who appear to be his fans are doing the same thing. Like, yeah, ha ha funny simp man, but can we talk about how he never touched her without her permission (aside from when it was necessary to protect her from immediate danger), how he never tried to police her relationships with her other friends in any sort of way, how he never made her uncomfortable or scared (their first meeting notwithstanding), just annoyed by his general clinginess? I fully support Natsume in standing her ground and drawing necessary boundaries with him, but we as a fandom really don't have to make Micchy's awkwardness any worse than it already is. The guy is clearly trying his best and just wants to be a good friend and a good knight, he is immature and still learning. Why demonize his issues when we can explore and analyze them instead?

His age. This is where I actually agree with some fans and disagree with others, since he doesn't have a canon age, and people are bound to see him differently. To me, all yo-kai are ageless by default, since they are, well, yo-kai, and age works differently for them. Micchy looks adult(ish), but we do know that his Lightside's appearance is his own design, he chose to look like that, and it has no bearing on his actual age or maturity level. As for his maturity, I would say it fluctuates depending on the writer, but he generally appears to be between 14-18 years old, which is a huge range, but that's genuinely how he feels to me depending on the episode. Of course, his actual age could be well into centuries, or he could be, like, ten, because we do not know the rate at which his species matures. Honestly, him being a yo-kai makes this a moot point anyway. He is a ghost lizard, and appears to be in his middle or late teens by ghost lizard standards, and it might take him a few decades to transition into a young adult ghost lizard, because yo-kai live long lives and age slower than humans. You could say I do not disagree with people seeing him as being a certain age, I disagree with people who want to make his age a problem. Just headcanon him as whatever you are comfortable with, it's up for interpretation, and you are the ones chosing to interpret him in a way that squicks you. Want to see his feelings towards Natsume as a romantic crush, but don't like the implied age gap? Make him a teenager in your story, problem solved. Want to pair him up with Whisper instead? Poof, he is a young adult now, go wild. Sometimes characters don't have certain info disclosed about them, because it is irrelevant or up to interpretation, and there is no shame with filling it up according to your story needs.

One last thing (but I might think of more later and reblog this post with additions), I have seen different interpretation of how Micchy looks like underneath his suit and mask, and the only one I kind of disagree with is him having two functional eyes underneath the mask. Sure, cyclopic characters are harder to draw and tend to look weird with certain proportions, but come on, what's the point of having a monster guy in your story if you take away his monster traits? No eye means bye, it's one or I'm done. If you want to draw him as fully human, then sure, but even then I highly prefer for him to wear an eyepatch or have one eye covered by his bangs to keep the aesthetic. Speaking of hair, I support pretty much all headcanon hair people come up with, but my personal thing as of late is to imagine him with dark purple scales in places humans usually have hair. Not only does it make his Lightside form aesthetically more serpentine, it's also a very dashing monster guy look in general. I do disagree with people who think he would look wrong with hair and are opposed to people drawing him like that, though. Let my man be a bishie for once in his life, lol.

7. did your f/o deserve better?

YES. YES HE MCFREAKING DID. Micchy deserves the world. He deserves to be loved, appreciated and supported by his friends. He deserves no physical or verbal assaults thrown at him, especially when he is not doing anything wrong. He deserves to be educated on why his behaviour might upset others, to be given a chance to learn and do better. He deserves to repair his relationship with Mizuchi. He deserves to find love - I don't care who it will be, as long as they have a healthy and supportive relationship, I'm all for it. He deserves to do something grand and be seen as a hero he strives to be. He deserves to know that his friends will love him anyway, even if he never ends up doing anything grand at all. He deserves a quiet evening spent reading comic books, with a warm blanked wrapped around him. He deserves food that's good for him and a place to live. He deserves to be healthy. He deserves to love himself for who he is. He deserves recognition. He deserves at least one more focus episode, or two, or ten. He deserves a more detailed backstory.

And he sure as fuck deserved a much bigger role in the final arc of the anime. They barely let my man do anything. Sure, it makes narrative sense, since it wasn't his battle, and him staying on the sidelines and protecting the more vulnerable teammates was important and a good strategy, but I wanted him to do something memorable, to tie together his arc of wanting to become a hero, to take his Mitsumata Ghidorah form for the first time in the anime and go ballistic on Soranaki. I am happy with the final arc we got, my only complaint is that Micchy was done dirty by the writers. He could have done so much more.

[mostlikelytofangirl]

Why do jc antis hate him for all the things he never did and hate his fans so much , they have blogs dedicated towards hating on his fans and questioning their reading comprehension , as if they are the only right ones and everyone else is wrong saying that they read the story from mxtx's intended lenses and jc stans are a red flag , how can someone hate a fictional character so much , and for everything that they say about jc fans lacking reading comprehension skills , for all we know everyone except mxtx is misinterpreting the story , everyone has their own opinions and own reading interpretations , why do you want to spread so much hatred ?

One of mdzs's strengths as a piece of literature is how much diversive opinions and interpretations can be made about it depending on person to person and culture to culture , isn't a fandom a safe place for bringing forth all diversive discussions and discourses , these diversive opinions is what makes a fandom interesting ! Of course fanon is gonna remain fanon and canon is gonna remain gonna canon , but why so much hatred ?

One of the anti jc blogs was even insulting a Chinese Diaspora person saying that they don't know about their own culture engaging in racism .

Sorry it got a bit long .

Hi there, anon. I... wish I had an answer tbh ^^;

I'm not a hater and as a rule of thumb I try to stay away from them as much as possible. In fact, most of the blogs I have blocked are the ones dedicated to trash JC (bc those really are a lot and goddamn Intense).

Bc you are right, it really is concerning just how much hatred and resentment there is for one fictional guy, and haters would jump on to any opportunity to blame him for pretty much every misfortune that happens in the story. I once saw a twitter post calling him out bc he did nothing about XY.

It's a witch hunt taken to the extreme, they'll use that purple dude for everything they have a problem with in the story, and act like literally no one else was right there doing shitty stuff too. Somehow, everything is his responsibility, he should have been there to fix every single problem he encountered, and not doing so bc of greater and more important reasons is a moral failing on his part and he deserves no forgiveness.

Like, I'm glad to see they hold him in such high regard that they really and wholeheartedly believe that he alone participated on the siege and had so much power that he could orchestrate everything better than NHS XD.

But no really, as I mentioned in a previous reply, the most aggravating part is that they think themselves superior or Keepers of the True Gospel of MDZS, when it's very obvious they are the first ones deluding themselves if they failed to see the glaring commentary on a broken society and all the others involved in the shittiness.

If you are gonna make a call out post for his participation in the siege, you also better make one for NMJ, LXC, LQR, JGS and literally every other major sect member and minor sect.

If you are gonna denounce him for hunting down demonic cultivators, you better listen first to those of Chinese heritage and origin to explain to you the cultural principles in which cultivation is based and why demonic cultivation is a Bad Thing Actually (also better point out too that the Nie sect uses something very similar —if with a key difference).

If you are gonna lapidate his character for asking WWX to leave the Wens and come back with him to a place where he can actually protect him... hate to break it to you, but JC isn't the only one asking that, he was just an asshole about it. In fact, he at least exposed his case clearly enough for WWX to understand what he was asking of him. But JC's duties to his sect came first and -brace for it- Even WWX Himself Understood That And Helped Staged A Fight so he wouldn't compromise the Jiang sect any more.

EVEN WWX UNDERSTOOD JC'S REASONS.

And as shown in the ‘taking JYL to show her dress to WWX’, they were still in good terms afterwards!

I really don't know what to tell you, anon. It's all clearly written in the novel itself and (methinks) portrayed well enough in all adaptations. I can only guess that haters want someone's head for all the pain WWX went through and that ultimately no one paid for. Someone who isn't already dead and that doesn't have the best relationship with WWX in canon. They pretty much just want a scapegoat for their quite frankly ridiculous accountability crusade for a fictional character, and will use whatever mental gymnastics they can pull off to add to the dogpile, even if that means ignoring clearly stated facts and even the protagonist's own stance.

It's a blind, raging mob against a target that suits them.

And isn't that just ironic.

[broadwaycutie16]

Earlier today, I watched a video by TheTake on YouTube, exploring and deconstructing the “Nice Guy” trope in popular media.

Basically, the trope explained the Nice Guy trope and how toxic it really is, devaluing the girl’s feelings in a relationship and promoting male entitlement. Now, I’ve heard many people in this fandom complain that Adrien Agreste is the embodiment of this trope. The underdog sweet boy, pining after a girl who has rejected his feelings multiple times, persisting in his romantic advances towards her despite her making her disinterest clear.

While I must admit that Adrien does check many of the boxes for the standard Nice Guy, I quickly remembered who else in the show, besides him, checks out many of the same boxes, and perhaps a few more than him. Someone who exhibits many of the same behaviors of the Nice Guy, but whose less-than-healthy attitude of love is often overlooked and/or pardoned by most of the fandom, while they bash Adrien for similar behaviors.

Can you guess who it is?

It’s Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

I know what you’re thinking. How dare I accuse Marinette of such a toxic mindset! She’s the hero of our story! She fights off the bitches that are bad for Adrien and yet he doesn’t even give her the love she deserves! Adrien is the one who should consider himself lucky that she adores him! Hashtag Marinette Deserves Better!

But you see that right there? That, my friends, is what makes Marinette Dupain-Cheng, in my opinion, more of a Nice Guy than Adrien Agreste.

The whole purpose of the Nice Guy trope is to make us root for the underdog. Because who doesn’t love a good story where the loser that everyone expected to fail spectacularly ends up winning it all in magnificent fashion? Almost every movie has it’s underdog. With sports movies, it’s the unathletic wimp with a skinny, small, and/or weak body. In high school movies, it’s the outcast weird kid who’s been ostracized by the popular crowd for their unusual interests and/or attitude. In romantic comedies, the underdog is the hopelessly romantic Nice Guy who adores the girl and worships her like a goddess, as opposed to the cooler, more aloof, more sociotially successful man who takes her for granted. And since the cardinal rule of feel-good films is that underdog must end up getting what he’s been wanting throughout the whole movie, the movie then directs the story narrative to favor the Nice Guy’s desires, manipulating the audience to cheer him on and, in the process, blatantly dismiss all his unhealthy behaviors and obsessive traits, like stalking the object of his affections or trying to edge out any competition he has.

Sound familiar? That’s because that’s exactly what many Marinette stans who are also Adrien haters do.

I’m not saying Marinette is a bad person, but as far as Nice Guys go, she has shown us many red flags. She often stalks Adrien, trying to sneak into parties she has not been invited to just to see him, or following him to his house when he goes to study with one of her enemies. She often tries to keep away any girls she sees as competition for Adrien. With Chloé and Lila, it’s semi-justifies, because they can be total bitches. But not Kagami.

Is Kagami kind of cold? Yes. Can she be competitive? Absolutely. But she is not evil. Many Adrienette shippers often hate on Kagami, saying she is a stone cold bitch who will stop at nothing to “steal” Adrien away from Marinette. They misinterpret what she whispered in Marinette’s ear during Frozer. Kagami said, “The reason you cannot stand on your feet is your hesitation. I never hesistate.” Adrienette shippers translate this to, “He’s mine, bitch. Back off, or I’ll kill you.” But what she’s ACTUALLY saying is, “I know you like Adrien, but I like him, too, and I’m not gonna just back off out of curtesy while you fumble the ball. So if you want Adrien, you’re going to have to win him from me fair and square. That means you have to suck up whatever insecurities you have and really work to win him over.” She knows Marinette loves Adrien, but Kagami loves him, too. And she’s not just gonna wait around for Marinette to get over her nervousness and ask Adrien out of curtesy. She’s telling Marinette that if she wants Adrien, she needs to get herself together and go after him while he’s still available.

Kagami is not a bad person. She is simply lacking in social experience to properly express her emotions and desires without coming off as an ice queen. And yet, many Adrienette shippers view her through the same toxic lens as many fans of romantic comedies view love rivals of the Nice Guy. If the rival is even the tiniest bit self-serving or emotionally detached, they are automatically dismissed as bad people and therefore, less worthy of the main love interest than the Nice Guy. Thus, viewers are quick to pardon any attempts made by the Nice Guy to sabotage or undermine his rival as a necessary evil, something that must be done so that “true love” can prevail. Like say, I dunno, setting the rival up to be humiliated at a fancy party, despite all that they did to supposedly deserve such treatment was show up to said event, which they were invited to, and act friendly towards the main love interest, because they ARE friends?

If the scenario seems familiar, that’s because that’s exactly what Marinette tried to do to Kagami in Animeastro.

One thing I’ve noticed about this fandom, is that people seem to have a double standard when it comes to Marinette’s negative behaviors vs. Adrien’s. In Glaciator, Adrien seems to accept Ladybug’s rejection, claiming that her friendship was what mattered most, then takes back everything he said in Frozer, acting salty towards Ladybug for her earlier second rejection. After that, the whole fandom was on his case, calling him a jerk and a liar.

Am I happy Adrien went back on his word like that? Of course not. But in that same episode of Frozer, Marinette accepts that she may not be more than Adrien’s friend, and even helps him on his date with Kagami, despite her heartache and despite how everyone thought she was crazy for doing so. Super sweet, right? Except when Animeastro happens, she goes back on her mature acceptance and teams up with her worst enemy, all for the purpose of embarrassing the same girl who she supposedly accepted Adrien might like instead of her. Funnily enough, no one in the fandom seemed to give her any flack for that, despite the fact that it was an exhibitation of the same possessive, hypocrital and selfish behavior that Adrien displayed earlier on, which everyone hated on him for.

Many Marinette fans are projecting the same toxic, biased mindset onto her that fans of romantic comedies project onto the Nice Guy. They excuse any negative behaviors done by the protagonist, insisting that it’s for the greater good, all while hating on the love interest for not immediately falling into their arms. They prioritize the needs and feelings of the Nice Guy/Marinette while completely disregarding those of their love interests.

Marinette stans insist that she deserves Adrien’s love more than anyone else, bashing Adrien for overlooking her in favor of other girls. After all, Marinette has done so much for Adrien, while all Ladybug does is reject him in favor of some other guy, despite how he’s put his heart and life on the line for her. That means he should just cast aside his feelings for Ladybug and settle for Marinette, right? Well, by those standards, shouldn’t Ladybug do the same? After all, Chat Noir has risked his life for her several times and made it clear he adores her, while all Adrien has done is ignore her feelings in favor of other girls, even though she’s been right there the whole time. If Adrien should ignore some of Marinette’s stalker tendacies and easily-jealous nature, shouldn’t Ladybug be able to overlook some of Chat Noir’s less-than-acceptable behaviors?

Marinette fans often share the mindset of Nice Guy stans of romance as a moral issue, harboring the idea that goodness and unwavering affection should automatically earn romantic feelings. They believe that being nice to someone automatically means they owe it to you to love you back. Sadly, life isn’t that clear cut. Love is often given to someone, whether they deserve it or not. It’s both the best and worst part of it. This close-minded, morally black-and-white mindset is given to fans by the Nice Guy, as it’s his expectation that his being kind to the girl and showering her with romance should mean that she should know he is the one for her.

Sadly, this thinking by the Nice Guy is often hypocrital in the movies, because the same Nice Guy is attracted in his crush at least in part to some sort of superficiality (ex. she’s beautiful, popular, dresses well, is the Cool Girl who drinks beer and watches sports while looking hot in a tank top and short shorts). He says she’s superficial for not wanting a dork like him, but it’s not like he’s looking around for some socially-awkward, plain-faced girl on his own level or lower and falling for HER because of HER kind treatment of him and the intensity of HER feelings. Fans get upset when Adrien the teen heartthrob doesn’t give Marinette her due attention, but it’s not like they’re clamoring for her to settle for Nathanael in “Evillistrator” or Nino in “Animan”, even though they had intense feelings for her and were kind to her.

Because of the partial superficiality of the Nice Guy’s attraction to his crush, he has this fantasy built up in his head. He puts her up on this pedestal, much like the pedestal Marinette puts Adrien on. It gets to the point that he’s in love with the IDEA of her, this image of a perfect angel that he’s made her out to be, and not the real her. He refuses to admit that she is flawed, much like how Marinette overlooks Adrien’s doormat attitude and overwillingness to forgive, seeing him instead as the perfect boy who can do no wrong. This is a set up for disappointment later on, as when the love interest does not do what the Nice Guy expects from her, like instantly return his love, the illusion that he has so carefully crafted for his pleasure is shattered, and everything goes downhill.

Many people blame the love interests for not instantly favoring the Nice Guy once he’s shown his romantic dorky side, thinking they should pick up on the feelings right away, like it’s their job to know who they should be with immediately upon meeting them, that it’s their fault they miss the signs. But this misconception shifts blame away from the Nice Guy for not properly acting on his feelings. This is where the Nice Guy becomes his own worst enemy. He automatically convinces himself that he’s below the girl’s standards and gives up before he even tries. He hesitates to act on his feelings, much like Marinette is so certain that Adrien is out of her league that she lets her insecurities get the better of her and avoids confessing to Adrien or even talking to him because she’s sure she’ll mess up before she even tries. Then when the girl doesn’t immediately realize that she is loved, despite getting no clear signs or even the words “I love you”, she is blamed for leading the Guy on, much like how Adrien is blamed for not recognizing the mixed signals from Marinette as affection.

Even after Adrien has told her that he loves another girl, Marinette still decides to keep pursuing him, much like Chat Noir kept pursuing Ladybug even after she told him she loved someone. Yet, while Adrien is bashed for not immediately accepting her choice and working to move on, Marinette is pardoned from not accepting Adrien’s feelings in the matter. Viewers excusing all her Nice Guy traits while prosecuting Adrien for displaying all the same traits is what makes Marinette, in my opinion, more of a Nice Guy than him. Because the Nice Guy is usually the one that shippers root for, despite the warning signs of their behavior and the fact that the love interest has said flat out that they are not into them that way.

Do I think that Marinette is a bad person? No. Do I condone Adrien’s behavior over hers? Absolutely not. But these are fictional characters. We can’t control their flaws or talk some sense into them anymore than we can change the past or rewrite the movies that have sold us this one-sided mindset. I don’t hold their flaws against them and act like their imperfections define their whole character. I focus on the good they do, and if the characters forgive them, I forgive them, because they’re the ones who choose who to forgive, who to love, who to be friends with. So kiss off, Adrien salters. Y’all are a bunch of hypocrites. Peace out.

[fantastic-rambles]

Ahhh yaknow what you’re right. I just went back and looked over some of the rod, and I didn’t see Langa explicitly agree to not to skate with Adam. He promised that he wouldn’t quit skating with Reki, but he only acknowledged Reki’s warning to not be reckless. It actually makes a bunch of sense why Langa would be confused by the distancing and argument. I see now why you were upset with Reki’s behavior. It feels kind of like a ‘secret contract’ sorta thing where Reki got upset over a broken rule Langa never realized he was supposed to abide by. And not only is that unfair like you said, but it flipped the situation as if Langa was being untrustworthy to his word when really Reki didn’t trust Langa not to quit skating with him just because of danger/injury. And especially since I’ve seen people make solid arguments for Langa being neurodivergent or neurodivergent-coded, it’s really not a stretch at all for him to see the situation like you did. Langa most likely saw the issue as solely reckless behavior leading to quitting. But clearly Reki’s own jealousy/insecurities added Langa preferring better skaters as potentially leading to them not skating together without ever discussing it until Langa was blindsided during the argument. I would’ve looked a better apology from Reki where he fully explained why he was upset when they were making up. It’s human for his feelings on the issue to change, but that should’ve been better expressed to Langa. Although Langa did a great job of accurately smoothing over what was bothering Reki without that. Maybe that’ll be rectified if he apologizes to Miya. I think Miya deserves one especially since Reki physically shoved him after he opened up about why his actions were such a sore spot for him. I actually thought Miya’s words would help Reki see the other side of things so seeing Miya get pushed was like a “Bro wtf??” moment for me. Again it’s understandable that people act out when they’re angry and Reki was obviously already struggling with his emotions, but it should be acknowledged again how wrong that was. Boy are you opening my eyes to a lot of problematic stuff lol.

Also, I’m very curious as to why you hate Shadow. For me, it’s because I can’t move past that comment in ep 1. I know ppl brush it off as just an (unnecessarily misogynistic) act for his persona, but that woman literally didn’t say anything to him and he insulted her for no reason by using her body as trophy to be defaced if he won. Ew. And just because he’s super nice to the flower shop lady, he does not get a pass. If he’s only respectful to women he’s attracted to and jumps at any other the opportunity to degrade women, he’s still a misogynist. And I’m pretty sure that he already new flower shop lady when the series started, so I don’t think you can argue that his character developed to be better towards women as a whole because of her or that he wouldn’t do something like that again at this point in the story. Especially since the goal of proving yourself as a “strong man” has not historically worked out to men being compassionate with women. (Tho within a vacuum devoid of his other actions, I can appreciate his commitment to a makeup routine)

Oh! And I would totally wanna read that fanfic if you write it!! I’m not even as gung-ho about Adam going to jail as most fans and Adam-haters tbh. Mainly because it’d probably be for political corruption via money bribes which is already kinda common and I don’t think the show has stated him to be doing anything particularly bad with it I don’t think so?? Like it seems to be mainly for the purpose of keeping S secret which is indeed a waste of money and effort when he could just buy it, but on the other hand, there doesn’t seem to be any ill consequences on the citizens the politician represents. So yea, it’s illegal so the jail time is technically deserved. But also like... no harm no foul🤷‍♀️ If he would be getting charged for assaulting other skaters than I definitely think that’s fair, but I doubt that’ll happen in the show just because I feel like no one will actually say anything when the time comes partially due to the shock of his arrest if they’re even involved. And I mean, Cherry was pissed at Adam for getting skaters hurt but still rolled out the hospital and joked like he was fine, so I just don’t particularly see anyone calling him out on it to the point of it being apart of his sentencing. The end of ep 11 with Cherry and Joe arguing about one of them going against Adam just doesn’t sound like condemning him to battery charges to me XD

But yaknow I’ve been loving hurt/comfort type fics lately, so I’d be really interested in seeing Adam truly work and change himself for some type of redemption in that setting. I can see hitting rock bottom as being really good for him given it may provide a reprieve from having to manage his image. Adam is underrated in complexity so it’s always cool when people try to flesh him out more and dive into his inner world. And of course Tadashi is kind of my fave (if you couldn’t tell) so I love anything healing for him as well :)

Yep, I was majorly pissed at Reki for how he treated Langa and Miya. His behavior is absolutely problematic. Not as bad as Adam, obviously, but with everything I’ve said and you’ve realized... yeah. I’m glad he made up with Langa and will probably make up with Miya, but it doesn’t invalidate everything he’s done before. Yes, he’s still an immature teenager, but I don’t think he realizes how messed up his behavior was, even after making up with Langa (the resolution seems to be based on him accepting that he’s not an ace skater, rather than recognizing how toxic his behavior was), so I’m still not satisfied. But hey, it’s probably just me being hyperfixated on trivial details that nobody else even cares about. /shrug

(I’m glad to know that I wasn’t misinterpreting the “promise,” or lack thereof, though!)

And I have two major problems with Shadow. My first--and biggest--problem is, as you’ve pointed out, that he’s an enormous misogynist. At “S,” people have the freedom to be exactly who they are beneath the facades that they show to the world. For example, Adam is someone desperately searching for someone who can understand him, not the perfectly put-together politician Shindo Ainosuke. Cherry and Joe are more true to their “real life” selves, but there are differences in their behavior on the track and off. And then there’s Shadow, the overcompensating “strong man” who threatens to make a guy tattoo “Dumpster Slut” over his girl’s name. So I 100% agree with everything you said about Shadow. He’s a chauvinistic pig.

The second problem is that I honestly think his actions when he’s racing are worse than Adam’s, and the only reason it’s not made out as such is because he’s the buttmonkey rather than the villain. I believe that, as problematic as Adam’s antics are, he does not intend to cause severe physical harm to his opponents. I’ve discussed this idea in more detail in other posts, but in short, even in the most extreme case--Cherry’s--his injuries were far lighter than they would have been if Adam had seriously wanted to hurt him. Death, coma, etc. were all highly probable outcomes of that situation, so the only reason they didn’t happen was because Adam was holding back. Or anime logic. But even anime logic can only stretch so far. And against lesser opponents like Reki, he generally holds onto them to ensure that they don’t accidentally hurt themselves when they’re panicking.

Of course, Shadow doesn’t intend to cause severe physical harm to his opponents either, but he does not exert any control over the situation after he throws fireworks at his opponent or shines a laser in their eyes. We’ve twice seen his opponents fall off the course as a direct result of his actions: Reki in the first race, Harry in the quarterfinals. They could have just as easily fallen off the cliff or slammed into a wall (at full speed) and been badly injured. If Shadow were an actual villain, I fully believe that he would have an actual body count of people who died racing against him (as opposed to Adam’s trail of injured opponents). So it bothers me that people shrug off what Shadow does while screaming for Adam’s death.

As for the scandal subplot... I’m *pretty* sure it’s a lot more serious than Adam bribing the police to leave “S” alone. I think he’s actually involved in some majorly shady/illegal activities politically. Like, in Episode 7, when the other Diet member gets pulled over, arrested, and has his house searched... there’s no way that has anything to do with “S.” At the very least, the two of them were collaborating on something really bad, something serious that Adam lied about under oath, and that’s enough for Adam’s staff to worry about what’s going to happen, especially Tadashi. We don’t know what it is specifically, but it’s definitely a lot more than just passing out bribes to hide “S.”

Lol, I’ll have to see how it goes. Probably won’t start it until after the anime finishes at the very least so I can see how it turns out for Adam and Tadashi, plus I have another half dozen WIPs at the moment and nowhere near enough time to work on them all. xD

[fullofbeautifulmistakes03]

Okay let me put some points out there. As you guys know English is not my first language so sorry any mistake.

I'm going to start by talking about how Jodie Comer was TT last night because she's supposed to be dating a Trump supporter.

I'm not afraid of losing "followers" so I'm going to say what I really think: Jodie Comer is first of all, a human being, an excellent and talented actress, with many capacities and nuances that I had not seen in this generation for a long time, not only for her amazing performance of Villanelle but for everything she has done throughout her career, so unless you have seen each and every one of her projects and have not a shred of taste for good talent, interpretation and delivery, don't come here to judge this woman's talent based on her personal decisions.

JodieComerOverParty honestly, what the fuck is that? That weak, senseless and hateful "cancel culture" under which nothing but haters and repressed people who do nothing but put their hatred and issues in the lives of others, has to get out of your heads. Can you think that you have to be really screwed up inside to sit down and do that creepy quest for someone's intimate life just to satisfy your own hatred, resentment and problems? And worst of all, this generation is being so powerful but so weak at the same time, so easy to influence; they literally see any TT and they just decide to join, for what? to look cool? Bc is it what you supposed to do if you have more than 3K followers? Or is it because you really want to speak and give an opinion that is not influenced by what people say but by what you really think? Because honestly I see nothing like that. Some Twitter, Ig and Tumblr stans are not only sheep that follow a shepherd without any purpose, but they defend something without any other purpose than to hate and keep their followers.

Do I have to give my opinion about Jodie dating a Trump supporter? No. Am I giving it? Yes. Because it's my fucking problem but I also understand that it's not my fucking problem what kind of dick is she sucking. Who she's dating doesn't give me any right to get into her private life, her family, and look for shit just because you reflect your fucking hatred on her.

Like, do you feel hurt because you think she has been a hypocrite for saying that she is an ally of the LGBTQ + community, supported BLM and read the letter to Virginia? But also dating a trump supporter?

Well, you have every right, you feel cheated and betrayed, I understand it, being a trump supporter represents everything that goes against our community and minorities and you are also assuming that by dating him and knowing his ideals and beliefs she accepts and adopts them which is not necessarily true but i understand. So, yes, I understand that you do not see congruence between her actions and the people with whom she has around her, especially her supposed boyfriend, I understand that she has a social responsibility when interpreting a character so dear to different communities, I understand that the fact that Jodie having a boyfriend who is Trump supporter can mean different and valid things for many of us, I understand that you feel somehow hurt, I can understand all that and I'm nobody to tell you that you should not feel it or that you're wrong or you're okay.

But what is definitely not right and I cannot understand is believing that you have the right to decide what is right and what is wrong in someone else's life. What is not right is that you feel you have the right to believe yourself with so much moral superiority as to point out to a person that point 1. You don't know and that point 2. You don't know. What is not right is that you support hate and suicide messages towards a person who point 3. You don't know. And that even if you knew and everything will prove true, you also have no right.

You have the right to give your opinion and your opinion has the right to be respected but your opinion does not have to be the opinion of your followers or your friends or your family, so the next time you decide to do a thread and a crap search think about what would happen if someone decides to do the same to you. I mean, they didn't find anything about Jodie so they went to get shit from the people around her. SICK.

Do I support the fact that she is dating a Trump supporter? No. It does that matter? Let's be honest, no, it doesn't matter, because at the end of the day I don't have to reflect or set my own expectations in someone else's life, especially in the life of someone I don't know. Do I support trump? No man, I hate the guy. But that doesn't give me the right to send hate and suicide messages to Jodie just because her boyfriend is trash. I love Jodie, but I do not idealize her, I know that she is a human being, I know and I hope that she knows of her privileges, I am aware of that, I know that she is an extraordinary actress, I know that I want to see her in many many more projects, I know that she deserves all the awards in the world, but I know that at the end of the day, Jodie is not only a talented actress but there are many things that neither you nor I know and that is why you cannot idealize your fav, that's all I know about Jodie.

You can't impose your expectations and create a weight of that size in them because simply at the end of the day when they make the first mistake, you, the one who loved her from the beginning for idealizing her and believing that she was perfect, are the first person to cancel her. So, if you are going to support someone because of their talent, do it, if you are going to follow their career, do it, if you are going to create an account in honor of that person, do it, but do it knowing that you are not following some perfect God or person, do it with the knowledge that your dreams are not their dreams, that your ideals are not that person's, that your expectations are not and do not have to be that person's but above all do it because despite the fact that at some point your fav disappoint you or make a mistake, you will be there to continue supporting them regardless of the man or woman they decided to be with. That is what a true fan does. Supporting the person's talent and work, a fan has the right to judge a misinterpretation, to say you don't like it, to say anything about any movie or tv show, but being that fan doesn't give you the right to invade someone's life in such a way that, that person feels shit to the point of committing suicide as it happened earlier this year or as it happened with Taylor Swift some years ago that she had to hide for more than a year for all the shit that those who called themselves fans threw her.

I would also like to say that Sandra Oh, she is an excellent actress, her talent is simply incredible and she deserves all the awards in the world, all the recognition in the world, and throughout Killing Eve, I have only been able to see how some insist on putting Sandra and Jodie against each other, despite seeing that they have a genuine and beautiful working relationship, I have been able to see how the "fans" of Jodie judge Sandra and those of Sandra Judge and blame Jodie for many things, my big question is, Why? The injustice that the television industry commits against minorities today is not Jodie's fault, in this case. It is not Jodie's fault that the writers of Killing Eve are white, it is not Jodie's fault that according to you Jodie has more screen time than Sandra, it is not Jodie's fault that some of you have so much hatred in your soul that they reflect it not only damaging a beautiful production but also to your fav.

Sandra is a powerful woman, not afraid to speak, she literally co-produced the series to precisely have a voice, Sandra is a woman in every sense of the word, which means she is strong, free, powerful and she can speak for herself, one thing I'm sure of is that Sandra Oh, she deserves everything good in this world except those toxic "fans" who believe that a woman like Sandra needs to be defended or to speak for her.

Sandra Oh, she knows what she deserves and how well she has said it, she is at the stage of her career where she can decide which project to take or not, basically she can do whatever the hell she wants. Sandra Oh, she does not need a handful of children to believe that they have the right to decide or say "this is what Sandra wants, this is what Sandra needs" Sandra Oh, she does not need you to defend her from anything because she has a voice that knows how to use and does not necessarily have to be as you all expect. So the next time you feel like you have the right to say "this is what Sandra wants or needs" take a second to review your frustrations, to review your expectations and stop putting them on the shoulders of your idols.

Finally, know that Villanelle is not real, she is a character played by this extraordinary actress named Jodie Comer. Know that Jodie Comer is not Villanelle and know that Jodie Comer has every right to be straight and play queer characters, she has the right not to be what you in her fantasy world expect her to be. I say this because I have seen how the anger of some is not even that she is dating a Trump Supporter but that she is dating a man and not a woman. Like, put your shit together.

I love Jodie, I support her career, her talent I hope to see her in many other productions.

I support Jodie, I support her because I judge her by her talent and not by her clothes, makeup, hair or boyfriend.

I support Jodie because I doubt that her commitment to her work, so far, is fake. I support her not because is my idol, because I do not idealize her, I support her because I admire her talent and I enjoy her work. I have nothing to say about her private life, each one makes her own karma, it is Jodie's problem if she goes out with a Trump or Bolsonaro supporter, Jodie's problem is the footprint she leaves on the road, it's Jodie's problem if she date a man or a woman, it's Jodie's problem if she lives in Boston or London, it's Jodie's problem her fucking ass. It is her problem, not my problem. Jodie owes me nothing, absolutely nothing. And I'm not so influential as to let this change my opinion about an actress who so far has given me nothing but her talent, I am not so influential as to take advantage of this situation and throw the repressed hatred at someone for some personal issues.

To those who take advantage of the situation to say what they really think of Jodie, go ahead, do it, have the ovaries to hold what you say but then go. To the weak stan who immediately changed their photo or their bio, look in the mirror, you are a fake, have the ovaries to hold what you said and go as well please.

The day I see that Jodie Comer is really a fake, that day I take her out of my life myself, but not based on the twisted mind of some sick person who decided that it is time to hate or cancel the amazing Jodie Comer.

[ichichikacchan-blog]

Midoriya vs Bakugou - why Bakugou's actions make sense psychologically and why Midoriya constantly added conflicts - unintentionally

Soooo, I watched the latest episode and like I predicted, it fuckin killed me.

Before I dive in and get to the main topic, I really want to shout out to Bakugou's VA Okamoto Nobuhiko. This guy is a beast and he captures Bakugou SO well, it's insane. I knew what was coming but his voice acting left me broken, I ached so bad for Bakugou I was so down after his break down.

So, the biggest part of my wall of text will cover my thoughts on why Bakugou's actions made sense from the beginning, psychologically.

So leaving all my emotions behind and turn to a more objective view, I'll talk about a topic that bugged me a lot for several months now and it's the amount of hate Bakugou receives. I'm kind of glad to see that there are a lot of his fans out there, too but the haters are quite aggressive and while I do understand where this is coming from, a lot of people miss the big picture and they just don't try to understand. Which is sad. I know there are a lot of people just consuming things and don't really want to get into deep thoughts about animated shows, but maybe they should. It’s okay to hate a character but please recognize character development.

First, that he bullied Deku and even told to his face that he should kill himself IS NOT COOL and should NOT be defended. These were absolute dick moves, period.

Digging deeper, WHY did he do this? It's a very interesting and complicated topic and the whole conflict caught my attention early on as I'm a sucker for anti-heroes and complicated characters. And boy, complicated is the word I'll always choose if I need to describe Bakugou with a few words.

The latest episode finally shed some light on Bakugou's feelings and though the fight took not that long in the manga I'm so glad they decided to use a whole episode with added flashbacks and adjusted the dialoge a bit.

It's important to understand 2-3 stages of the conflict, so it's necessary to start with the childhood of Midoriya and Bakugou.

Stage 1 : Arrogance

The manga and anime made it very clear in the beginning that Bakugou has been very ambitious and with his quirk manifesting early and all people around him handling him like a prodigy, he grew up believing that his dream will become a reality no matter what. For him, as he was powerful, strong willed and intelligent, these were the main things needed to become the best of the best - because these attributes made him the best in everything. So he automatically claimed a leader position with many admirers, including little Midoriya. You can see in this early stages that due to societys perception of him, he became a little arrogant fucker but he wasn't toxic at that time. What was toxic were his expectations for himself that manifested, because in his mind, powerful and strong are things to be admired, hence, everything else was weak and to stay on top, weakness is no option and to be avoided at all costs. And well, Midoriya did add to that A LOT because he treated him like something special all the time!

So all quirks manifested in the little so called gang they had and poor Midoriya didn't have one. That alone let to teasing, but he didn't receive cruel child teasing by Bakugou alone. It was a mixture of pity and cold rejection he reveived from nearly everyone around him. And still there was this amazing guy next to him, the one he called a friend. So little Bakugou took Midoriya kind of under his wing because Midoriya was weak and a crybaby (he always was). Bakugou did not do that out of kindness, he did it because he was the leader and weaklings need leaders to know what to do. And Midoriya wanted that back then because despite having his dream, he was nothing but a dreamer, absolutely no threat to Bakugous' goals and in all things, he was weak. Except for being intelligent.

1.2 All about the respect

So they still hanged out after that, people tend to forget that. The only thing that changed that Bakugou started teasing him. With Midoriya out of the game, he he had no competition. Again, it was not toxic back then but it grew to be and we will encounter that change soon, but I'd like to talk a bit more about their relationship in the early stages because understanding what Midoriya did wrong by being himself is essential to understand what pushed Bakugou from being a teasing and arrogant shit to a full grown bully.

So, young Bakugou and Midoriya still were something considered friends back then and it all changed with Midoriya diagnosed as quirkless.

So, we remember the scene, Bakugou in full leader mode falling from that tree trunk and Midoriya coming for help. So what happened here is essential because, Midoriya rushed to make sure he is okay out of concern but WHAT did Bakugou see? He fell, yeah. But it was not dangerous. He just slipped and got wet by falling into the little river beneath. And here was Midoriya, trying to help him for... what exactly? Because the situation was so trivial Bakugou did not understand why the hell he looked like he needed help. He wasn't even hurt. Remember, he was the leader. Again, he totally misinterpret good intentions and concern and the mood shifted between them. Because in this moment, Bakugou felt disrespected.

Midoriya literally made himself the perfect victim (not his fault intentionally, but the circumstances made it so).  Midoriya had one feature that made him such a lovable precious guy and that was his willingness to help others no matter what. Something Bakugou did himself to an extent too, but for him that was natural because he was the strongest. Midoriya tried to help even when he couldn't and he never understood that. What is important to note is that they are such different characters, it was not possible for Bakugou to grasp Midoriyas intentions, so he interpreted them.

The beginning, stage 2: Pride

So they went to school together and the mood changed drastically. Midoriya kept chasing his dreams but to be fair, he didn't do anything for it except analyzing a lot of things and sharpen his intelligence (which is admirable too but remember, we're analyzing Bakugous' perspective).

Bakugou, as the prodigy he was, noticed that Midoriya was intelligent. What he didn't understand was his clinging to his dream, because he made no effort in appearing heroic or something and was simply not strong enough to accomplish anything. Midoriya turned out to be everything he despised, a definition of weakness. Still, he chased his dream but without doing anything and THAT pissed Bakugou off. You could clearly see that Bakugou, despite having it easy the whole time because of his talents, was still working his ass off. He trained a lot, mastered his quirk and, the big difference to an ordinary bully, he learned a lot, studied eagerly and didn't want to get involved with illegal shit (he told his followers off for smoking around him and so on).

So Midoriya somehow planned to become a hero without having at least some physical abilities and a respectable personality, he was just a dreamer. 

Back to topic, seeing the crybaby dreamer wanting to accomplish the same thing as he wanted to, pissed Bakugou off. For him, it was futile (and let's be honest, without getting One For All, it would've been futile because Midoriya didn't fulfill the requirements for getting accepted from a hero school so he'd never gotten his license otherwise!) and with Midoriya still believing that he somehow could do it (he was not that determined as Bakugou, so his thing was more dreaming of becoming a hero than making an effort to become one) he totally got on Bakugous nerves and Bakugou decided to "put him into place". That, OF COURSE, was so wrong. But Midoriyas whole actions attacked his pride and Bakugou needed to make pretty clear that no one, especially a nerd (he called him that because he recognized his intelligence and did fear it, because it was Midoriyas only attribute being a match to his own) will somehow manage to be in his way. Plus he developed a poor impulse controll. 

He just couldn't handle the thought that Midoriya could somehow do something to threaten him due to his intelligence or pure luck. So he needed to break him. Would their relationship have been different if Midoriya stood up for himself? ABSOLUTELY. Still, it doesn’t excuse Bakugou’s bullying, bullying is just WRONG.  

Remember when I said that Midoriya made himself the perfect victim? His nature collided with Bakugou's and totally prevented him to stand up for himself, which automatically proved Bakugou right (in his perception), that Midoriya is a weakling. What makes that clear is, Bakugou's somehow best friend at U.A., Kirishima, is EXACTLY like Midoriya characterwise (except for the crying part) BUT he doesn't take shit from Bakugou, that's why he earned his respect. Midoriya didn't and he never tried to step up because he let Bakugou make him weak. In a way that Midoriya believed himself that he was weak! So basically the conflict came about because Bakugou lacked empathy and suffered (still does) from poor control of his emotions and Midoriya lacked self esteem and will. A toxic combination that led Bakugou to hate Midoriyas guts and react the only way he could due to his anger issues and Midoriya living in fear. But he still was somehow not able to hate Bakugou and why is that? Because deep down, with his empathy for others, Midoriya knew that the tough guy thing was an act and that Bakugou really had anger management problems. The scene after Bakugou told him to go kill himself proved that, because Midoriya thought he was stupid for saying that because he would've gotten in trouble if Midoriya did something to himself. Yup, Midoriya was so precious during that aweful time and Bakugou surely didn't deserve it. Especially after the incident where he appeared to Bakugou's rescue with risking a lot. And deep down, Bakugou knew he couldn't do anything against that enemy and that Midoriya risked and actually DID something. And it pissed him off.

Stage 3: The inferiority complex

Now, we all know what came next, Midoriya got acknowledged by All Might and received a quirk. He trained a lot and took the entrance exam for U.A., just like Bakugou. And with a lot of luck he passed, while Bakugou scored first. So he came to class and shocked the hell out of Bakugou and with the first fitness test, the whole thing escalated. Midoriya had a quirk. What the actual fuck? For Bakugou, Midoriya TRICKED him his whole life and knowingly looked down on him the whole time. Just waiting for an opportunity to surpass him. Making a fool out of him for a long time. And with all the other good quirks in his class, the chances of Midoriya somehow beating him were threatining him. In no fuckin way he could let that happen so even with the high intelligent people in his class (Momo, Todoroki, Midoriya, Iida,..) and the powerful (Todoroki, Tokoyami, Kaminari, Kirishima, Midoriya..) he still managed to be the best, losing slightly in intelligence to Momo and power to Todoroki, but being the best as a package of both attributes. And he continued to work hard because now, he had actual threats for the first time. 

In a school with prodigies you need to be better than everyone else. And so Bakugou tried to stay away from everybody, being a Maverick. But he saw Midoriya getting stronger and stronger and he was afraid. Losing to him literally shook his worldview and with wanting to be the best at all costs he pressured himself so much that a breakdown was inevitable. Especially after All Might's fight with All For One, because he blamed himself so bad for that. The breakdown happened today in this episode. He stuffed everything down, suffered from major setbacks, and was confronted with something he didn't want to hear: That everybody saw him as a villain, not a hero. Now imagine having a goal since early childhood, admiring a hero and wanting to become one just to realize that everyone, including villains, saw a villian in him rather than a hero. Well, ouch. His own fault of course but please don't forget that he is still a teenager (Thank you All Might for understanding this). So he failed the provisional license exam and Midoriya passed it and that, plus his realization about the connection of Midoriya and All Might and All Might's end send him over the edge. 

He worked so hard and Midoriya got acknowledged, why? Well, rethorical of course, I'm pretty sure that he already guessed why but he didn't want to admit it. That's why he wanted to fight, because HE wanted to acknowledge Midoriya too to be even able to handle the fact that All Might didn't acknowledge HIM. So Midoriya finally needed to prove to him that he has what it takes to be a hero, to earn his respect - and he did! FINALLY. All Might telling the truth, Bakugou earned the right to know the details. All Might acknowledged him too and Midoriya finally understood what was wrong all those years.

Their conflict is so powerful and real, it's one of the best rivalry stories I've ever come across and I didn't expect that much depth in a Shounen jump story. Now, the Bakugou haters have a point, the bullying was beyond shitty and it takes more effort to somehow make it right again (that's up to Midoriya to decide). But to state that Bakugou is plain evil and an asshole and just did what he did because he is an asshole pains me. The world is not black and white. As I said, even though a lot of people don't want to hear that but Midoriya didn't do anything to get out of the role of the victim. Was it okay for Bakugou to use this, of course NOT. But he's so much more than a bully and guys, for real, haven't you done anything wrong in your life? Have you never hurt anybody with things you did? Don't be ridiculous. Bullying, of course, is not just some mistake, it's really shitty and nobody needs to forgive him (I certainly didn't and he's one of my all time favorite characters). I won't defend him. But my point is, everybody makes mistakes, especially in teenage years.

Also, please consider that Horikoshi intended Bakugou to be a hated character so he did a good job with pissing people off xD the popularity polls in Japan showed that he has a lot of fans and I did my best to explain why. If you still hate him, do as you like but please, acknowledge his character development and that there is more to him than just the asshole feature, even though you hate his guts.

So I needed to get this off my chest. Because Midoriya being not so innocent in this whole conflict is a really unpopular opinion but yeah. I love the two so much and really hope they can maintain the gained respect for each other and help each other grow.

PLUS ULTRA!

[smoaking-greenarrow]

All right. I had to weigh in on this because I’ve been thinking about it a lot. Here are my thoughts on the ‘Stephen Amell vs Beyhive’ debacle. Putting it all below the cut because I understand that some people are just here for fandom fun, not politics and discussions about racism, and that’s okay too.

Stephen’s initial tweet 100% sounds like he’s saying “I’m leaving before Beyoncé’s performance to go home and watch this other thing.” Some people added their own “because I don’t like Beyoncé” at the end of that. Others took the tweet as “I hate black people” so you know, it was obviously a very misinterpreted tweet. Stephen tweeted back to a few people that he was simply referring to traffic, which clearly hasn’t been sticking for anyone. How is about traffic? No clue. I don’t get it either. 

Part of the problem is that he wasn’t clear. It was Coachella, I doubt he was sober enough to realize how the tweet would come across. Most of the problem is that people overreacted. Unfortunately, Stephen has a mean streak too, that directly relates to when he feels belittled or attacked. It was a recipe for disaster, is basically what I’m saying.

We’ve probably all met people like this: once offended; walls go up, blinders go on, and they stop looking like the person we know. They get defensive and stop listening.

He’s done this before. Whenever this man is questioned, criticized, or he comes to the conclusion that not everyone loves him... he lashes out, specifically on social media. It’s a flaw of his. We all have them. 

I’m a fan of Stephen. I’m a huge fan of the guy who is passionate about charities, who loves his mama, his daughter and his coworkers, who is humble and grateful to be playing a superhero, and who speaks from his heart. That guy is awesome. He seems super chill and I love following him on social media and watching his videos. He’s that guy 99% of the time, but every once in a while... we get this. You could say there are certain people in his life who he appears to maybe spend a little too much time with and when he does, it brings out the entitled, offensive side of him, but hey. That’s none of my business.

The person I don’t enjoy is the one who claps back at people unnecessarily. All he had to do was say “my tweet was about traffic. What happened was...” and then maybe even add in an “I’m sorry that so many of you misunderstood it, but the response I got was crossing a line. What you all said... IT HURT MY FEELINGS.” Why do some men have such a problem with saying that their feelings were hurt? Ego. The answer is ego. And let’s be real, this dude’s is pretty big.

I honestly feel like what offended him the most were the people who dragged his career. There were multiple people replying with screenshots of his lower-rated movies and using it as a point to say “you want to come after Beyoncé? Really? You?” 

The irony is that most of the people doing this clearly do not know him. Some of them said they stopped watching Arrow years ago. But most of them obviously just did a little googling. Has Stephen been in any blockbusters...? Has he won an emmy? Is his status in the realm of Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, or Tom Hanks? No. That’s just the truth. I do think he’s a wonderful actor and could reach that status someday, but it’s not like the massive network of shows built because of Arrow is anything to turn your nose up at. The guy is successful. He is talented. The people attacking him were just being rude. Absolutely. 

But Stephen felt the need to defend himself when he really shouldn’t have. He didn’t need to. He is wonderful with fans, works really hard, and goes above and beyond as far as expectations of actors is concerned. His actions speak much louder than his tweets do. And he should have left it at that. He seems to struggle with letting go of slights. He seems to have a hard time with criticism. And he doesn’t handle haters very well at all. He stoops to the level of the people criticizing him, and he tends to get very defensive. I hate to make this comparison, but there’s a certain manchild in the oval office of my country who also has a bad habit of lashing out on twitter, has an ego that gets in his way, and even has a fondness for calling everyone who insults him “losers!” Sorry, can’t say that comparison hasn’t popped into my head.

I’m not a stan. Of anything. People are flawed creatures and incredibly complex. All of us. In my opinion, I can still be a fan of someone even if I don’t like or disagree with certain things they do. Celebrities make mistakes, and It’s okay for celebrities to disappoint you. 

Tyler Posey said it better than I can:

“If me, or one of my fellow celebrity friends or whoever is out there in the limelight, if we do something wrong, morally and humanly, don’t respect us for it. It’s nice to stand by somebody’s side that you admire and look up to, but you can’t stand by our side through everything. If we fuck up then we should be treated that way. That’s all I have to say. We’re no better than you. We’re humans, normal humans. And if we mess up, don’t praise us for it.”

You don’t need to attack celebrities, or say anything actually, when they do things you don’t like, but you also don’t need to boost their egos by tweeting them things like “you didn’t do anything wrong!” or “don’t worry about those idiots!” or “It’s okay, you’re perfect and I still love you!” 

Do we understand how problematic this is? Stop putting celebrities on pedestals. Stop making excuses for them. Let them be human, let them learn, and let them grow. Unfortunately, I’m left to wonder if Stephen reads tweets such as these and buys into them (as I’m sure many celebs do). But the plethora of white folks sounding off on Stephen’s tweets with these comments is gross, okay? Gross. 

No, I don’t think he deserved the dragging he received. I was not personally offended by anything he said. But you can’t just ignore that many of the people upset with him were black men and women who felt disappointed that an actor was seemingly discrediting a black artist. A black artist who has made insane strides against racism with her music. Who has been a voice in the sea of whitewashed award shows. Who is now the first black woman to headline Coachella. It’s a big deal. Imagine how things like that can make people feel: hopeful, represented, proud. 

Now imagine some white guy shitting on it. Yeah, those fans got pissed. And yeah, it was a misunderstanding. But it is what it is. Considering everything I just listed above, Stephen probably shouldn’t have tried to get away with an “IF I was dissing Beyoncé...” tweet.

So let’s talk about misunderstandings.

Most recently, Stephen is being criticized for not putting an accent on Beyoncé’s name. I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes to see people getting mad about it. And I also laughed at his response to one of the critics. Because like him, I have never even had to consider moments like this. Wanna know how I found that video? I said to myself, “wow, I’ve never even thought of how that might make someone else feel.” And then I spent some time on google to try to understand. Wild, I know.

Stephen obviously didn’t mean any harm by it, and he didn’t intend to offend anyone. 

Here’s the crazy thing about offending people though; you don’t always get to decide when you’ve done it. If you ever find yourself saying to someone “you have no reason to be offended by what I said,” you might as well just stop there. Because that conversation will not get you anywhere. Some people are easily offended. Sometimes they will have real reasons that seem silly to you, because you haven’t had the same experiences as anyone else. It’s life. Calling him trash for the missing accent? A little much, in my opinion. I definitely thought that was reaching. But it did remind me that unintentionally making racist comments and microaggressions is still wrong and deserves to be discussed. 

 I was with my boyfriend in an art gallery once when an old woman came up to him and touched his hair. She did not ask, she just reached out and felt his hair. Then she said “wow, your hair is so neat! It feels awesome!” My boyfriend sighed, because he got that all the time. He was used to it. I, on the other hand, got more upset than he did, and asked the woman why she thought it was okay to touch a stranger without asking. She looked embarrassed, and kind of just walked away. Was it “latent racism”? Was it her “subtle inclination to dehumanize” him? No. I don’t think so. I don’t think she meant any harm. Was it still a problem? Yes. Did I overreact? Probably. Looking back at it, I wish I hadn’t confronted her in such an accusatory manner, because she probably could have benefited from an open discussion about appropriate behavior and how comments like the one she’d made can, however innocently intended, isolate people and point out their differences in a world where they unfortunately don’t need those reminders.

My point is, I also think that Stephen Amell is a person who can benefit from these conversations. WE ALL CAN.

So, I encourage anyone reading this to check out THIS thread on twitter, which is a response to Stephen’s recent tweets and his own admitted “laziness” over adding that little accent. I learned something from it. So, you know, I hope Stephen finds a moment to read it so he can too. He’s not evil for leaving off an accent, and even though Clarkisha Kent starts out harsh, I hope y’all take the time to look at what she has to say. Things like this are important to consider:

“In addition to this and the assumption that these names are predicated on the most "unsavory" parts of Blackness, your piss poor Shaniqua and Bon Qui Qui jokes don't really land unless the target of these jokes--BW--are actually ashamed of their names.”

Clarkisha breaks down the idea of black names being ridiculed and laughed at, and yes, Stephen’s tweet kicked it off. I don’t care if he’s a saint who can do no wrong in your eyes, I don’t care if you’re a stan. The root of what this woman talks about in her thread is important and enlightening. These are the kinds of things that I wish Stephen would see, take a moment to really think about, and then respond. Yet I can’t help but assume that all he can think is “you were mean, you don’t like me, so you’re a loser!”

To make matters worse, Stephen didn’t reply to this thread. Oh no. Instead, he chose to hash it out with someone from CNN. Because, of course, it makes more sense to address a news source for “personally offending” him than it does to acknowledge the black woman who very clearly and eloquently laid out the problem with his joke.

I’m sorry, but this tweet is infuriating. He’s ignoring a black woman’s thread that prompted the fight he’s trying to start with Jeff Yang. He’s making it about himself, because Jeff called him trash and he feels insulted. BUT THEN he also wants to play the tough guy? The end of this tweet in more direct words sounds a lot like this to me: “you’re not replying to my tweets right now because I’ve intimidated you. You didn’t think the awesome celebrity that I am would actually respond, and now you’re embarrassed.” 

Oh, but let’s talk about the “shift of discourse” that he mentioned. After Jeff called him trash and Stephen offered to come on his podcast...which...ugh... Jeff responded with this:

First of all, let’s stop calling ignorant people trash. Let’s address ignorance through a scope of educating. Let’s leave the hateful comments to the hateful racists that still exist. I’m not saying Stephen or others (including myself since I can be ignorant to things I have not experienced and do not know, too) should be let off the hook. But when you attack someone for being ignorant, they will not see their own ignorance. They won’t see the problem with what they’ve said, they will only see the attack. They will never learn. Because in their eyes, their intentions were good, and you’re the bad guy for getting mad.

I actually loved Jeff’s response to Stephen. It is valid. “Why are you replying to me...and not the black women who you’ve offended and who you should be having this conversation with?” Yet, Stephen still doesn’t get it. That’s the problem. He is still viewing this whole ordeal as a personal attack on his career. 

Tell Anderson.... Tell Anderson Cooper you say... *Imagine Detective Holt screaming “bone” at Diaz voice* Hello? Hello? HELLO!? HeLLLllloOOO!?!? Y’all, this was narcissistic pettiness at it’s finest. Ignores the issue at hand, makes a nod to his celebrity status. The more Stephen tweets about this, the worse it gets. Just stop, buddy. Please. Take a couple days. Take a social media break, like you did after this happened. 

Sometimes we gotta take some time to reflect and calm down before we try to discuss things, especially when we feel defensive. 

I dated a guy once who would get this look in his eye at a certain point, whenever we argued. I just knew he’d checked out. Dude would not even be listening anymore, he’d just repeat the same two things over and over. It was a waste of time trying to argue with a brick wall. If he felt backed into a corner, he didn’t know how else to get out of it besides being cruel enough to make me stop talking. So I had to learn to listen, say my piece, then let it go for a while. He’d need to take a breather, let everything sink in, and then come back to me once he had some time to think. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if that is in fact Stephen’s personality, then this is probably a good time for him to recognize that and adjust his tweeting accordingly.

I think once Jeff Yang realized that Stephen responded to him, he decided to try being respectful. Because at least then, maybe Stephen would hear it and see the truth in what was being said. But Stephen took the shift as “oh, I’m an awesome celebrity and he didn’t think I’d see this, now this guy’s rattled.” 

I do not think Jeff was rattled. I think Jeff wanted Stephen to pay attention to Clarkisha’s tweets, not his. And Stephen’s ego is unfortunately convincing him that this is all about him. He responded to Jeff because he noticed that Jeff works in the media. It was a shallow choice, and a shallow response. Sorry, not sorry.

Steve- he was politely telling you to shut up and listen, and I must kindly echo that statement.

[bthump]

I like how Muria did everything in his power to prove that Griffith is not some kind of "evil heartless monster" antagonist type, but people end up misinterpreted him anyway. What a shame! Do you know why?

Yeah it’s really unfortunate bc he’s such an interesting complex character and I wish more people appreciated that. Tho I have a few ideas on why so many Berserk fans ignore most of the text and write Griffith off as evil from the start.

I mean obviously the biggest one is that Femto’s defining act of evil is rape. And tbh I put the blame pretty squrely on Miura for that one lol, like, I can’t actually blame anyone for being unable to feel sympathy for or enjoy the complexities of a character who later turns into a monster and rapes another major character.

Like the problem with using sexual assault as your major illustrative example of the ~darkness in the hearts of men~ or whatever is that it’s pretty damn common for people to have experienced it themselves, or know someone who has, and therefore reactions to a depiction of rape are inevitably a lot more visceral than reactions to say, murder or torture. Even if Griffith is depicted as a sympathetic, three dimensional, very interesting character throughout the Golden Age, I can’t blame anyone for not giving a fuck and just hating him anyway because his evil alter ego’s first act was rape. People ignoring your good writing is a price you pay as a creator for using rape as shock value and cheap drama.

(Plus when you add his badly written night with Charlotte to the mix, like, again, I can’t blame anyone for going “fuck this guy” and not caring about his depth of character. Like I don’t think the night with Charlotte is meant to be read as rape because there are zero indications that we’re supposed to think it’s skeevy or even potentially morally dubious once Charlotte gets into it - to me it reads like a badly written bodice-ripper type scene where the woman just has to get turned on and then she forgets propriety and enjoys herself - but again, that’s on Miura and his sometimes shitty writing.)

However, that said, from what I’ve seen the vast majority of Griffith haters still love Guts, who also sexually assaults the very same character (except Guts hadn’t even just been magically transformed first, and the first time he sexually assaulted her was long before the hound ever made an appearance), so like, when so many people condemn one character and excuse another for the same thing, there’s obviously something else at work.

So putting aside the rape, I think there are a lot of other factors as to why Griffith is so hated while very few of his haters extend that ire to Guts as well.

Like, for starters, Griffith is gay, or at the very least, gay coded and feminine in appearance and clearly in love with the protagonist, which definitely makes a lot of straight cis dude fans uncomfortable and a lot less likely to be able to empathize with him, judging by the offensive nicknames they tend to use for him.

But then there’s also just the way Griffith lies to himself, which, if you tend to take things at face value in a story, is going to give you a serious misunderstanding of his character. Eg, a lot of fans think that when he tells Casca he doesn’t feel guilty for the deaths of the people who follow him he’s being genuinely truthful and sociopathic lol, ignoring the fact that he’s self-harming grotesquely during that conversation, among other hints that he’s deluding himself. Lots of people take character dialogue as ultimate truth, missing other context clues that are often more revealing.

And then there’s the fact that he ends up betraying the protagonist and becoming an antagonist, and a lot of people just aren’t interested in moral grey stories so they project black and white values onto it. So since Griffith/Femto/NeoGriff is the antagonist, everything he’s done must have been evil and he must’ve been solely motivated by selfish desire for power, and they’ll twist the story to find support for that. Like I’ve seen people who take Griffith’s “I will choose the place that you die” as evidence that he’s been planning to sacrifice everyone for power from the very start lol, even though that makes zero sense, just because they need Griffith to have been villainous all along or the story doesn’t fit their moral framework.

Like, while Berserk takes a general moral stance that a person’s actions shape them, a lot of people believe that a person’s actions reveal their true, innate nature deep down. So, to them, Griffith sacrificing the Band isn’t an act that turns him into a monster, it’s an act that reveals he’s always been a monster and now the veneer of humanity has been removed. Yk, the kind of fans who say that if Griffith was a good person he wouldn’t’ve sacrificed his friends, because no good person would ever do that, as though Good and Evil are qualities a person is born with. Which I consider to be an extremely boring way of looking at fiction, and a troubling way of viewing morality, and totally at odds with what Miura’s attempting to say, but people will always bring their own philosophy to the table.

Similarly I think that, at least for some people, this is why Guts’ frankly evil actions get totally downplayed or written off - because he’s the protagonist so he has to be A Good Person. Therefore he had to have been possessed by an evil spirit when he assaulted Casca (despite the fact that the first time was in Godo’s spirit-repelling cave and most people forget that even happened, and the second time was in broad daylight without a ghost in sight or any visual indication that Guts was anything other than himself.) Or they say it’s okay because Guts stopped before actually penetrating her, and he’s had a hard life, and cut him a little slack and let him get back together with Casca bc he’s a good person and he deserves to be happy blah blah horrifying blah.

idk I’m definitely not accusing everyone who hates Griffith and flattens his character of being a hypocrite lol, like I said, there are plenty of possible reasons to view him as evil, and some are totally reasonable. But yk there is kind of a double standard at work when people love Guts and hate Griffith and I think it’s worth looking at why that might be.

[local-lover-boy]

Finally, some good fucking opinions

Listen, I'm not here to dictate how you should interpret Dottore's character, I'm really not; but the one misconception about him that really kills me is the idea that he's a "sadist who experiments on people for fun". Where in the world did people even get that from?

Here's the truth: Dottore experiments on people because he thinks he should. Because, if experimenting on someone will get him the results he desires in his endless pursuit of knowledge, then he will not think twice before going through with the experiment regardless of how cruel it is. Tighnari, while recounting his conversation with Dottore, says, "he never came off as malicious, but an utter lack of compassion permeated throughout our conversation". That's who Dottore is - someone lacking compassion for people, someone who sees himself as greater than the others (whilst also seeking recognition in his homeland, but that's a separate can of worms that I'm not opening today). Dottore won't think twice about how his subjects feel because he does not care; there is no pity nor excitement, only a need for results, answers. So... the next time someone says he's a sadist, just keep this in mind: he's literally not.