#just to virtually nut in a virtual character

[civilization-illstayrighthere]

i’m gonna be real w you guys seeing femme tavs w ast*rion reminds me of how women used to talk about marrying ricky martin or lance bass

[wishesofeternity]

The thing about HotD is that it while it absolutely minimizes the agency and ambition of both Rhaenyra and Alicent, this is specifically used to glorify Rhaenyra and frame her as righteous while condemning Alicent and framing her lacking. That's the key difference in both their textual portrayals that has directly led to 90% of the fandom hailing Rhaenyra as the second coming of Christ while spewing the most hateful vitriol at Alicent just for existing. But y'all are not prepared for that conversation.

[desertdragon]

This shit is so ass I just want it to be over

[kibbles-bits]

any voxval fics you’d recommend?

Ah, yes, voxval fics... The one ship that finally made me cave and read explicit stuff. I am now numb to everything.

Everything.

I'll only be posting completed fics. Warnings, almost all of these are explicit. A couple also have Angel, you know, suffering.

And please mind the tags.

First off is a couple of favs that I always go back for a reread:

Corrupted Love by DoveFactory (Words: 149,495)

In a moment of blind desperation to one-up Alastor, Vox puts himself in a compromising situation that leaves him worse for wear. His state triggers something in Valentino who decides to change the nature of their relationship.

The title and summary of this is so misleading I thought it was going to be a dark fic but nope. The Vees are a bunch of goobers and Valentino always wins. I would scream about this every time it updated. I love the characterizations and their banter it almost made me forget there's sex in like every chapter. Honestly I wish there was more tags referencing the character/story stuff.

Virtual Reality by passthevoxcord (Words: 7,634)

Vox gets tired of his cybernetic biology being a barrier to his sex life, so he starts a new project to fuck Valentino in VR. Val will try anything once, but he has something else in mind.

This one ends up being so sweet I want to die. passthevoxcord's other fic, Only a Shadow, drives me nuts but its a WIP and hasn't actually gotten to the voxval yet.

choke behind a smile by gloriousmonsters (Words: 19,881)

"I'm not scared by extreme, although I doubt I'll find it interesting. What is it?" Valentino's eyes narrow slyly over his smile. "If you aren't scared, why do you need a warning?" Vox has everything under control in his new business partnership with benefits. His emotions, his unfortunate desires, the little mind games they play. Even Valentino himself. When Val offers an invitation to a special show he's performing, Vox knows it's a dare, and knows he has to take it, show Val that he can't be scared or destabilized. He has no idea of how deep under his skin the show will get.

Everyone's so normal. I love this Valentino. There's another Valvel fic that has the same Valentino I also recommend called bad girls go backstage.

Great Expectations by MarenRose (Words: 11,280)

“It’s his goal. Those three simple words. If he could get to hear them once, could let the reality of their meaning and spoken existence occupy his mind for only a few indiscernible moments, then maybe, Vox could learn to see the appeal of this god forsaken holiday. He might even learn to ‘love’ it too.” Or: Vox hates Valentine’s Days. His prick of a ‘wife’ is just too damn hard to please.

This miiiight have been the fic that made me Lock In on voxval? I'm not sure. It's sweet. Alastor is hilarious.

biting keeps your words at bay by Subedarling (Words: 1,511)

“You can’t hit me,” Valentino says. He’s practically vibrating with rage. “You’re not allowed to—you can’t hit me!” Vox sneers, cruel and mocking and hopefully masking the way his heart is breaking apart inside his chest. “Baby, I can do whatever the hell I want.” A decade into their partnership, Vox and Valentino have their first and last physical fight.

This might be the only non-explicit fic in this list. I am all for Val being the worst just because he's Like That. But I will not say no to an implied tragic backstory. I read this one a lot and want to die. Can I draw this. I want to draw this. Oh my god I have free time I can totally draw this...

And my other recs:

Just For The Record by PeppermintWalrus (Words: 13,795)

Vox is thrilled about his new film enterprise with his business partner, ready to build a lucrative empire for the denizens of hell to experience true cinema, in the only genre their depraved minds desire. There’s just one problem that he finds out too late; Valentino has never filmed porn before. Vox decides that some... hands-on teaching, is necessary to save their production.

Yeah you read that right.

a putrid feeling that i've addressed by spoondrifts (Words: 5,162)

They weren’t a couple because Valentino was pathologically noncommittal and Vox simply knew better. He tried the whole romance thing with a certain radio demon a few decades back, and he’d learned his damn lesson. Hell just wasn’t the place for that sort of cutesy bullshit. Also, he was pretty sure that Valentino was straight up incapable of love, which was both par for the course for Vox’s friendships and amazingly convenient—things couldn’t get complicated if there was nothing to complicate in the first place. Or: Full Moon, Vox/Val edition.

Haha I love pain. I lied, this is the second non-explicit fic.

Little Miss Hellion by DoveFactory (Words: 10,657)

Hell’s worst married couple spends a day of family bonding at a beauty pageant doing whatever it takes to make sure their daughter takes home the crown, because failure is never an option for the Vees. Pilot AU where Vox and Valentino are married and Velvette is their adopted daughter.

It's more Vees than voxval but they're married so.

The Art of Pimping by MarenRose (Words: 9,161)

Desperate to close a deal with one of the most lucrative investors in Pride, Vox does the unthinkable and pimps out Valentino for a one-time date. What could go wrong?

Val's attitude in this one is funny and Vox. Yeah. Vox made a mistake.

You Found Me by passthevoxcord (Words: 4,338)

Long before Velvette came along, it was just them. Vox and Valentino. Valentino and Vox.

Sobbing.

Something Less Than Dishonest by daphnerunning, Galiko (Words: 33,931)

He isn’t expecting the way Valentino walks, for some reason. Maybe it’s the extra limbs. Maybe it’s the wings. Maybe it’s the heels. Vox had skipped briefly through a few of the slut’s movies, for research, and isn’t expecting the way Valentino moves in person to feel so… Different. “…You must be my four o’clock,” he says, standing and offering a hand. Oh, shit, he’s huge. Valentino towers over him, easily would without the stripper heels. Vox is not afraid of heights.

Vox is so offensive in this it loops back around to hilarious.

Red Skies and Valentino by alternatedoom (Words: 86,050)

"Vox and I are special friends, doll. Go give him a kiss," Val says to the boy.

Angel does not have a good time. But the Voxval is nice.

before you go by xoTsundoku (Words: 4,426)

Before Alastor came into their lives, Vox and Valentino were happy. Maybe they still can be.

A Farewell to Ghosts by Accidental_Ducky (Words: 37,149)

"What do you think that is," Vox demands, pointing at the new guy. Valentino turns, eyes raking greedily over the man's body. He's gorgeous, skinny in a heroin chic way with big blue eyes and blond hair that falls just so across his eyes. "Hot." "Don't fucking call the ghost hot!"

The only human AU I've liked so far. Love the character interactions. Vox and Val are hilarious.

God I hope I didn't miss any. There's definitely some good WIP ones out there.

[jbaileyfansite]

Interview with the Los Angeles Times (2024)

“This is where all the cruising happened.”

Jonathan Bailey and I are standing in Pershing Square on a bright, blustery spring afternoon, nearing the end of a homemade queer history tour of downtown L.A.: One Magazine, Cooper Do-Nuts/Nancy Valverde Square, the Dover bathhouse, the Biltmore Hotel and this, the city’s former Central Park, a haven, since before World War I, for “fairies” and “sissy boys,” servicemen on leave and beatniks on the road.

“Is it still happening now?” he asks.

“Probably not as much,” I venture.

“Well, you let me know if it’s happening,” he teases, a mischievous smile lighting up his face.

Bailey understands the uses of the charm offensive. As Sam, the handsome Lothario of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s delightful pre-”Fleabag” curio, “Crashing”; Anthony, the romantic hero of “Bridgerton’s” second season; and John, the jerk of a protagonist in Mike Bartlett’s love triangle play “Cock,” the English actor, 36, has swaggered up to the precipice of superstardom. With roles in such studio tentpoles as “Wicked” and “Jurassic World” on the horizon, he may just break through. Yet he delivers career-best work in Showtime’s queer melodrama “Fellow Travelers,” as anti-Communist crusader-turned-gay rights activist Tim Laughlin, by leaving behind the self-assured rakes and tapping a new wellspring: soft power.

Tim may be, as Bailey puts it, “an open nerve,” but as it turns out, the devout Catholic and political naïf — who falls for suave State Department operative Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller (Matt Bomer) just as Sen. Joseph McCarthy tries to purge the federal government of LGBTQ people — is formidable indeed.

Stretching from the Lavender Scare to the depths of the AIDS crisis, in scenes of tenderness, cruelty and toe-curling sex, Bailey’s performance communicates that little-spoken truth of relationships: It takes more strength to submit than it does to control. The former demands discipline, courage, trust; the latter requires only force.

“In ‘Bridgerton,’ [Bailey] is like a Hawkins Fuller character — he is very sexy and has lots of power, has that kind of confident charisma that absolutely is not Tim at all,” says “Fellow Travelers” creator Ron Nyswaner.

But any doubt about Bailey’s ability to mesh with Bomer, who boarded the project early in development, was put to bed with the actors’ virtual rehearsal of a meeting on a park bench in the pilot. “‘Well, that’s a first,’” Nyswaner recalls an executive texting him. “I cried in a chemistry read.”

‘Am I inviting people in?’

Bailey grew up in a musical family in the Oxfordshire countryside outside London, and this, coupled with an appreciation for the morning prayers, choir practice and Mass he attended as a scholarship student at the local Catholic school, fed his precocious talents. (“I loved the performance of it,” he laughs. “Not to diminish the celebration of religious process, but I did love the idea of wearing a gown.”) By age 10, he’d appeared in the West End, playing Gavroche in a production of “Les Misérables,” an experience he now recognizes as an encounter with a queer found family — albeit one shadowed by the toll of the AIDS crisis, which peaked in the U.K. in the mid-1990s.

“When I’m asked about my childhood, there’s so much I don’t remember, and I think that’s true of anyone who’s been in fight or flight for 20 years,” he says. “I would have been in a cast of people whose friends would have died in the last seven years. I think of where I was seven years ago. I had all my gay friends then. It’s only retrospectively that I can retrofit a real gay community around me [in the theater], that I just wasn’t aware of [then].”

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, American and British culture presented queer adolescents with a bewildering array of mixed signals. As beloved celebrities came out in growing numbers, and the battle for marriage equality became a central locus of LGBTQ political organizing, the media continued to propagate harmful stereotypes of gay men as miserable, lonely, perverted or worse — and, Bailey remembers, callously turned George Michael, arrested on suspicion of cruising in a Beverly Hills restroom in 1998, and Irish pop star Stephen Gately, who revealed his sexuality in 1999, fearful he was about to be outed, into tabloid spectacles.

No wonder Bailey, like many LGBTQ people of his generation, should feel the “chemical” thrill of “validation and acceptance” during London Pride at age 18, then embark on a two-year relationship with a woman in his 20s.

“Dangerously, if you’re not exposed to people who can show you other examples of happiness, you think that’s the easiest way to live,” Bailey says. “It’s funny. You look back and you can tell the story in one way, which is that I always knew who I was and my sexuality and my identity within that. But obviously at times, it was really tough. I compromised my own happiness, for sure. And compromised other people’s happiness.”

Disclosures about his personal life have become particularly thorny for the actor since the premiere of “Bridgerton,” the blockbuster bodice-ripper from executive producer Shonda Rhimes.

“The Netflix effect does knock you off center completely,” he says, recalling the experience of finding a paparazzo waiting outside his new flat before he’d even moved in. “Suddenly, you do start having nightmares about people climbing in your windows... Even now, talking about it makes me feel like, ‘Am I inviting people in?’”

He is also critical of the media for churning out headlines about the smallest details of celebrities’ private lives, often detached from their original context. In an interview with the London Evening Standard published in December, Bailey described a harrowing encounter in a Washington, D.C., coffee shop in which a man threatened his life for being queer — and, in recounting the experience, offhandedly mentioned the “lovely man” he’d called, shaken, after it happened. Although Bailey acknowledges that the original story handled the subject with aplomb, he felt dismayed that more attention wasn’t paid to the intended warning about rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment: “The only thing that got syndicated from that story was that I had a boyfriend, and it wasn’t true,” he sighs. “It was kind of depressing, if I’m honest.”

Still, Bailey, who once turned down a role in a queer-themed TV series because it would have required him to speed along revelations about his personal life he wasn’t ready to make, is prepared to embrace the power of vulnerability when it feeds the work. Although a member of his inner circle expressed doubts about “Fellow Travelers’” steamy sex scenes, for instance, the actor intuited that they were what made the project worth doing: “I was like, ‘I’m telling you, they are the reason why this is going to be brilliant.’”

‘He’s changed my trajectory in my own life’

To those who would complain about the state of sex in film and TV, “Fellow Travelers” is the perfect riposte. All of it matters, from Tim’s first flirtation with Hawk to the finale’s closing minutes, because the series, at its core, is about the importance of soft power: the strength required to bend, but not break; to adapt, but not abandon oneself; to survive without shrinking to nothing in the process.And depicting that through sex, specifically gay sex, makes “Fellow Travelers” radical indeed.

Bailey understands that baring so much comes with certain risks. When I tell him that research for the story has filled my algorithmic “For You” feed on X (formerly Twitter) with speculation that his onscreen relationship with Bomer has a real-life element, he notes that “shipping” fictional couples and costars alike has long been part of Hollywood fantasy. But he bristles at the implication that he and Bomer are anything but skilled actors at work.

“I would love for people to know that the success of our chemistry isn’t based on us f—. It’s actually about us leaning into the craft,” he says. “It’s a vulnerable situation to be in, talking about it on record. I don’t want to rob people of their thoughts. But I do have a set of values, and as an artist, you don’t need to be f— to tell that love story.”

Underlying that craft, Bailey adds, is the confidence to speak up, as with one scene in “Fellow Travelers” that was adjusted because he said, “I don’t want to be naked today.” He learned to use his voice the hard way: In his early 20s, he recalls, he was once “bullied” on set when “someone was threatened” by him and vowed to himself, “I’m never going to do that to someone. I’m never going to allow that to happen.”

This impulse to direct his influence in support of others has blossomed further with “Fellow Travelers.” On the day of our interview, Bailey enthuses about an upcoming meeting with legendary gay rights activist Cleve Jones and shares his idea for a docuseries recording the stories of elders in the LGBTQ+ community while they are still here to tell them. He describes lying in a hospital bed on set on World AIDS Day, in character as Tim, surrounded by gay men who had lost friends and lovers during the crisis, and finding himself thinking, “What do I want to leave behind?”

“I think he’s changed my trajectory in my own life,” Bailey says.

This is, perhaps, the most common reaction I know to diving deep into queer history — the understanding that we, like our forerunners, are responsible for shaping the queer future, whether in politics, society or art. No one is going to do it on our behalf.

As we stand on the nondescript corner now named for her, I relate the story of the late queer activist Nancy Valverde, who was arrested repeatedly while a barber school student in the 1950s on suspicion of “masquerading” because of her preference for short hair and men’s clothing, and later successfully challenged her harassment by the police in court.

“What a hero!” Bailey exclaims, wondering at Valverde’s bravery. “The thing that’s so interesting with power battles is, ultimately, identity is the thing that gives you the most strength and power in your life, isn’t it?

“Because that’s one thing people can’t take away from you: who you are and how you express yourself.”

Source

[spotlightlowlife]

Loona is a whole missed opportunity

Loona is Loona, someone who has had plenty of time to see her dads situation for what it is and she's old enough to understand, but this would deviated from the rude and sarcastic, edgy and always bored 20 something whoes minimal progress always gets squashed by her own attitude. Like Blitzø, Loona falls victim to 'had a hard life and that's the justification, oh and they're only ever punching up which is fine, oh and comic relief', but where Blitzø's words and actions make a some difference to the story, Loona's make none.

We know Loona to be an excellent tracker because she is a canine, she has something that is hers and hers alone, it would then fit that she would be the one to find runaway Octavia. Their heatt to heart consisted of guilt tripping Octavia, a child who had the right to be upset, for being too hard on her disinterested dad, this was hypocritical of Loona who mistreats her loving dad but so easily could have been growth for her.

Since she had just got done viciously physically attacking Blitzø, trashed his workplace and making a scene infront of their colleagues for discreetly attempting to address her intentional poor conduct at work, did her own advice to virtual strangers hit home and make her reflect? No, she kicked the worried Blitzø in the nuts, with no regard for Stolas or Octavia's presence, the fact that she has just pushed compassion on the reasonable teenager she influenced, no regard for how she looked in the least. Sensibility gone.

The episode were we meet Verosika and the gang end up on a beach showed us that Loona knows transformation magic, the first example of her having an important skill her team don't, yet when did she learn this skill no other leading character has? How is it possible that she has resorces Blitzø doesn't have? Why does she have more common sense than anyone else? What else does she get up to in her spare time? Why is this not a bigger deal?

This was her best episode because it raised questions that have yet to be answered about her, one being her lack of reaction to Verosika, which could have helped us build a timeline.

We would also learnt that she is friendless and not comfortable with this, she is no edgelord around a new peer but an awkward young woman who doesn't socialize much, helped and not helped by the person she's nervous around is someone she is clearly crushing on.

Loona also showed that she is capable of feeling guilt for her mean ways, but that was only because she got called out a little by this new peer she just met who she fancies, so it's hard to give her credit and many episodes later, it made no difference to her growth.

Loona finds out that the guy she just met has a girlfriend, which for her is a bummer, but he invites her to one of their parties where she can mingle, which is excellent. In a future episode Loona does attend the party but as expected she is unnecessarily rude to multiple party goers for no good reason, to no detriment.

She goes on to meet Bee, the host, who happens to be her crushed girlfriend, who happens to be high up royalty, a whole district leader and gluttony itself, instantly Loona is threatened because "she's hot" and it's not long before Loona is rude to Bee, as usual, to no detriment.

We actually had the opportunity to address the dog shelter Loona was living in, signed off on by queen Bee. Loona could have had a subplot that was just hers, but yet again, hierarchy means nothing, she doesn't know who Bee is and doesn't appear to have any political views.

Loona chooses to give the party another chance when another 'cute guy' approaches her, who we never see again, with Blitzø turning up for this party and receiving a positive reception, Loona is now happy to show him off as her dad, gets closer with him and goes on to show him kindness, but alas, this doesn't carry on to future episodes.

All these two episodes taught us was that though she's sad, she is a Pickme and like a school child will jump on the bandwagon of what will grant her instant popularity. These actually are not bad things, they're good, they are at the heart of a lot of people's failure to find themselves along with their crowd. If only we were allowed to explore her shallowness and loneliness more, her need to compete with other women and not be like other girls. This would start by her actions actually resulting in something.

There is an abundance of teen mean girls in media to study that could help give Loona more substance, explore the numberours things she may gave missed out on during her childhood.

Let her be a user, let her smugness at knowing she gets away with her horrible ways be challenged by maybe revisiting her work 'assessment' and addressing her fat jokes at Moxxie, maybe we could know what it is she's constantly viewing on her phone too? Just look at how Stolas validated his feelings with the dramatic telenovela in that tiny little scene.

The episode where Blitzø and Moxxie were abducted gave us a level headed Loona who got along fine with Millie dispite being rude to her for mo reason, it made it clear they they don't talk at all, yet immediately and many episodes later nothing has come of their excellent team work and friendliness, nothing has come of level headed Loona, she has actually gotten more unpleasant. Sensibility gone again.

This latest episode, crescent moon, had us hear from Loona again for the first time in a while (personal reasons took the VA away from work) and what we got between Loona and Blitzø was a proof that they are no parent and child, smugly suggesting that Stolas is simply getting bored of Blitzø and that she too employs tactics of ignoring him shows us her level of immaturity, she is old enough to know what's going on and capable of empathy, her apathy and meanness is a choice, we saw her self censoring at Bee's party, we saw her trying to impress Tex, we saw her quickly get thought to Octavia who is nothing like her and it was Loona who was kind to Blitzø at their home when he was drunk, sad and opened up about being alone. Sensible and caring initiated because she was impressed which is a huge take away Loona? What did any of that matter? We can't have these aspects aswell as unbothered wise cracking Loona at the same time, even though character duality is out there, it's one or the other with this character and the other has to be prompted to suit the plot on the occasion something actually happens, one is an intention bully who is ignored, it's hard to say tolerated when her actions don't matter at all.

I guarantee Loona's character improve if this series stuck to the main plot more and we saw them working most of time?

Since she really could do with her own thing, the property damage she caused in crescent moon coming back to bite her would be the making of her best storyline to date. Community give back would let her learn new skills and mingle.

Lastly, she as good as throws on a cape for Stolas yet again. Since the tone is that Blitzø needs to come to his senses and hook up with his abuser, why not have Loona be part of this plot and let her commit to wanting a rich stepdad and the perceived popularity that comes with it?

[lover-of-mine]

I think part of the problem is the actor creating headcanon and if it were just that I would ignore it but no, he already said that we should leave Buddie aside and apparently what he says everyone should follow, he said this after 7x04 and I thought it was very wrong, he's just a guest, he doesn't have to say anything, everyone does that about the headcanons and it's fun, but as soon as someone tries to force that headcanon on you, the fun is lost. We're not making it up, we're not haters, but the show showed that Tommy abandoned Buck, made a joke, manipulated him a little to come out of the closet, it's not an invention, it's canon, it happened, it's more important than an actor's headcanon. I'm honestly muting everything on this subject because it's exhausting, it's horrible to hear that you're homophobic, it's horrible to doubt yourself, I'm a part of the community just because an actor decided to make up a story and say what people should do and create an army of people who bully virtually, No wonder Oliver doesn't participate in anything, it's a lack of respect for the fans who have been here for years and for his co-workers.

Sorry for my little rant but yeah

No, seriously, people are taking what Lou is saying too seriously. And the dude said T is someone for Buck to work out the kinks when it comes to liking men to get ready for Eddie too. Completely unprompted. Like? Of course the guy is gonna go nuts with the way people are reacting to bt, if bt is popular he might get to stay in the role longer, that means exposure, money, and the way he's doing the cameos, the guy is literally getting paid to feed into this madness, he's gonna say anything, but that doesn't mean it's what the show planned for him. The writers could wake up and decide to do anything with any character and to expect me to take what an actor is saying as canon is absolutely insane. T is a plot device. That's a fact. And I gotta be honest, dude is kinda mean to Buck and I don't see the effort people keep saying he's putting? He flew Eddie to Vegas for ringside seats for a sold out fight but he couldn't be bothered to put on a colorful shirt to pretend he was on the 80s theme for Buck. That's an actual thing that happened in canon. Like? Hello? Are we watching the same relationship unfold? Like, seriously, ship what you ship, write what you want, fanfic away, but people seriously need to stop trying to force people to accept this stuff as canon. Because the only thing that actually counts is what's happening on the show. And honestly, I have so many tags filtered but I am still getting the madness, and there's also the shit people send to me directly. It's hard to get away because the fandom went crazy.

[cringefaecompilation]

you dont have to post this but i am literally so glad im not the only one whos very ??? about how out of character the mighty nein have (mostly) been since the campaign ending. like whats happening here

IT'S SO WEIRD. I REWATCHED EPISODES FROM THE OG CAMPAIGN (ep 21, ep 48, ep86, ep114), JUST TO MAKE SURE I WASN'T GOING NUTS

mn reunited was fine! i saw some complaints with echoes of the solstice, and i chalked that up to people being frustrated at c3 getting cut off twice in a row because they all seemed fine to me in that one. veth was a little too "early mn" for me in episode 111 but episode 115 was downright awful for them. you could say it was because they just got off playing vox machina and needed to get back in the groove and were getting mixed up with filming the cartoon but bell's hells were awesome in this episode. in fact, this was probably one of the best episodes of the campaign for them.

only jester and caleb were really in character, everything else felt like they were just telling jokes to pass the time. i've already explained why making beau more rude and aggressive is bad but making her relationship with yasha into jokes about how horny and kinky they are makes it worse. they did do damage control at the end with beau and yasha saying they wanted to adopt kids but it still felt... bad.

and of course, travis making jokes about how fjord feels like he's trapped in a marriage to jester. this is the kinda stuff you read in wido/jest or beau/jes fics to make fjord look like a douche that abuses her for "annoying him" so one of them can swoop in and save her from a crappy boyfriend! why are we making "ha ha marriage is the end of your life, amirite fellas?! better run away from the ol' ball and chain!" wisecracks when FJORD WAS THE ONE WHO PROPOSED TO HER.

finally, their reaction to bell's hells not trusting the gods fully because of their personal relationships to them just felt like they were guilt-tripping the fuck out of bell's hells for not being devout enough. it was just a repeat of your average "pro-god" cr fan account saying "well, some people were blessed by the gods and love worshiping them so you're evil for taking away their right to choose!" which has virtually zero bearing on the themes of the campaign itself. you know it's bad when you can say "at least orym has an excuse" about it.

and i don't want it to feel this way. the vox machina episodes were great! a wonderful palate cleanser for everyone who disliked SUPEW SEWIOUS kiki and percy as played by matt or were disappointed at elements of the lovm cartoon. but this? this is key jingling, and it really puts me off watching episode 116.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Would you do 3, 8, and 12 for the choose violence ask game, please?

3. worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

This gets the worst take award for someone making it up out of their own head and then treating it as canon. I have seen at least two people say they hate Thingol for ‘deliberately orchestrating the death of Denethor (king of the Green-elves) in order to incorporate the Green-elves into Doriath’s rule’. Something that never happened - Thingol and the Green-elves fought and defeated one orc-army but Denethor was cut off by another, and Thingol’s army was too late to rescue him when they came to defeat the second army. (This also gives the lie to the assertion/assumption that Thingol never fought and never left Doriath. He did both in the First Battle.)

The Green-elves, when they came to Beleriand, were welcomed by Thingol “as kin who long return”. Thingol arriving too late to save Denethor, but not too late to avenge him, is something that could foster as many tragic, heartbreaking imaginings as Maedhros being unable to reach or save Fingon at the Nirnaeth.

To give a sense of how bad this take is: imagine someone claimed they hated Maedhros because he deliberately abandoned Fingon in an attempt to gain the kingship of the Noldor. That would be a ludicrous misinterpretation of the Nirnaeth, but it would still have more evidence than the one about Thingol and Denethor. Thingol shows up; he defeats one army and then shows up to defeat the second one, but just too late to save his friend and ally. The Fëanoreans flee the Nirnaeth - all of them surviving - before they get anywhere near Fingon or his armies, and apparently also flee while their dwarven allies are still fighting (��the sons of Fëanor…drew together, and gathering a remnant of the Noldor and the Naugrim about them hewed a way out of the battle and escaped far away toward Mount Dolmed in the east. Last of all the eastern force to stand firm were the dwarves of Belegost…”).

Make up whatever headcanons you like, but “I think this character is awful and unsympathetic for [non-canon and counter-canonical thing I made up them doing]” is just nuts.

8. common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about

The typical (almost universal) characterization of Maedhros as 1) a master diplomat/politician; 2) a dad-figure to his brothers; and 3) extremely stoic and not given to showing his feelings, really has very little canon support, and most of what we do see of him indicates the opposite! A shortlist of things he is described as doing in canon:

Begging Fingon to kill him when he is chained to Thangorodrim

Again begging Fingon to kill him when Fingon can't cut him loose (the stoic, practical, ruthless type we see in most fanon would have come up with the 'cut my hand off' thing himself)

Seeking Fingolfin's pardon for the burning of the ships, and making what certainly comes across as a self-deprecating joke (calling Fingolfin "not the least wise" of the House of Finwë, implicitly in comparison to himself) in the process.

Defusing the tension around Thingol's limits on where the Noldor can settle by laughing at it.

Planning the Fifth Battle out of a sudden feeling of hope inspired by the success of Beren and Luthien's quest.

At the end, throwing himself into a fiery chasm in despair.

That's without even getting into the HoME material, where Maedhros' account of Morgoth's attack on Formenos is so melodramatic it circles around to being ridiculous.

This does not come across as a stoic person who continually conceals and buries his emotions. I don't have issues with that characterization existing, but it's strange for it to be so universal that you virtually never see a Maedhros who isn't defined by it.

With regard to his brothers, we definitely do see him engaging in deliberate brother-wrangling in Beleriand, because he needs to in order to keep the peace, but he's only successful at it as long as they're all in relatively close proximity (see, Celegorm and Curufin going off-leash in Nargothrond), and after the Nargothrond incident, not even then (see: Maedhros being unable to stop them from threatening to kill Thingol, and not substantively punishing them for anything they did). And the "team dad" thing is nowhere in evidence.

Lastly, I would say there's enough in the Silmarillion to say that Maedhros is at least decent at political management - and more importantly, that he has enough humility to do what's necessary to keep the Noldor united (first abdicating the kingship, and then moving his brothers to where they'll be in less contact with other people and make more trouble). But he doesn't consider whether a nominal acknowledgement of Thingol's kingship of Beleriand might smooth relations over at the start, he doesn't make any attempt to apologize or make restitution for the kinslaying even after Thingol learns about it, he at no point in canon attempts to negotiate for the Silmaril or offer anything in return for it (yes, the Oath is presumably involved in that). Treating the Nirnaeth of all things (a battle which is lost largely because a large part of his allies turn out to be traitors, and in which two of the largest kingdoms in Beleriand refuse to participate due to personal grievances against his family, and where his only major elven ally is the guy who's ride-or-die for him regardless of anything) as evidence of diplomatic skill is particularly strange! his sole wholly positive achievement re: the Union of Maedhros is the alliance with the dwarves. Which is not nothing, but also not enough to support the "master diplomat and would have been an awesome king" assumption. In terms of Noldor-Sindar relations, the ones who stand out are Finrod (of course) and, far less acknowledged, Turgon - Gondolin is a mix of Noldor and Sindar, and that the Sindar are willing to choose to follow him to a hidden kingdom even at a time when Beleriand is largely at peace says a lot.

I'm not actively opposed to the usual characterization of Maedhros, but I'm somewhat frustrated (and getting bored) with it being the only one we see when it seems almost entirely fanon-created and there's so much space for other portrayals.

12. unpopular character you like and why more people should like them

Mandos! It’s barely even really a case of fans emphasizing certain passages and detractors emphasizing others, many of the passages that make me like him are the ones other people dislike him for. I like what we see of him in "Laws and Customs of the Eldar". I like what he says regarding the Statute of Finwë and Míriel:

"We may indeed in counsel point to the higher road, but we cannot compel any free creature to walk upon it. That leadeth to tyranny, which disfigureth good and maketh it seem hateful. Healing by final Hope, as Manwë has spoken of it, is a law which one can give to oneself only; of others justice alone can be demanded. A ruler who discerning justice refuseth to it the sanction of law, demanding abnegation of rights and self-sacrifice, will not drive his subjects to these virtues, virtuous only if free, but by unnaturally making justice unlawful, will drive them rather to rebellion against all law. Not by such means will Arda be healed."

And, continuing from this, I like his reaction to Finwë's decision to stay in the Halls and allow Míriel to return to life:

"It is well that thou desirest not to return, for this I should have forbidden, until the present griefs are long passed. But it is better still that thou hast made this offer, to deprive thyself, of thy free will, and out of pity for another. This is a counsel of healing, out of which good may grow."

It's two sides of the same coin: that justice means working with a flawed world and giving people their due even if the choices they are making are not the ideal ones, because self-sacrifice is not something that can be compelled or demanded. But he's happy - we rarely see him happy, but he is happy about Finwë's decision - when people choose something better than mere justice. And that's not something seen in most literature from characters represented as the literal personification of Justice!

And, also in the Statue, I want to note what he says about Eärendil:

"I say to you that the children of Indis shall always be great, and the Tale of Arda more glorious because of their coming. And from them shall spring things so fair that no tears shall dim their beauty; in whose being the Valar, and the Kindreds both of Elves and Men that are to come shall all have part, and in whose deeds they shall rejoice. So that, long hence when all that here is and seemeth yet fair and impregnable, shall nonetheless have faded and passed away, the Light of Aman shall not wholly cease among the free peoples of Arda until the End. When he that shall be called Eärendil setteth foot upon the shores of Aman, ye shall remember my words."

And then people act like he's not pleased when Eärendil shows up! He very much is; it's his role to bring up the Doom so that it can at last be lifted, but he knows that this is the moment when it will be lifted through Eärendil's action.

I also have no issue with his "Not the first" line in response to Fëanor's line "I shall break my heard and I shall be slain; first of all the Eldar in Aman." I take it as a hint: You are not the only thing that matters in the world, think of something other than yourself for a second. There's nothing stopping Fëanor from turning around and saying "What do you mean by that?" and I think Mandos would give him an answer if he did - but Fëanor is too absorbed in the Silmarils to even consider what it might mean.

I moreover like the description of how Elves can return from the Halls: But his dooms in such matters are not uttered in haste; and even the most guilty are long tested, whether they may be healed or corrected, before any final doom is given. If an Elf is staying in the Halls permanently, it's not just a matter of their deeds in life, no matter how bad those are, but a matter of them sticking to those deeds and refusing to change or heal even when they're offered the opportunity.

[marley-manson]

Hawkeye has virtually no shame about public displays of emotional vulnerability and mental instability, imo.

I’ve seen a lot of people who place a lot of importance on Hawkeye’s “If this keeps up, people are gonna realize I'm as crazy as I think I am,” line in Hawk’s Nightmare but honestly I just see it as mainly a wry acknowledgement that he’s acting less than sane in public and weirding out his childhood friends back home by detailing his nightmares to them, with a side of alluding to his actual fear, which is being crazy, as he tells Sidney over and over during that conversation. The key word there is “think” not “realize” imo.

Sidney reassures him by telling him his nightmares mean he’s sane, not by telling him that they’ll go away and he’ll stop publically sleepwalking. In fact he implies it’s something that will continue until the war’s over, and Hawkeye doesn’t seem to have a problem with that as long as it doesn’t mean he’s actually going insane.

And Hawkeye never really demonstrates any concern over people witnessing his breakdowns, and in fact seems to go out of his way to make them public half the time. I mean you got your most blatant example in Bananas Crackers and Nuts where he’s happy to exaggerate his feelings to make people think he’s insane to get a break. But even when it’s genuinely serious (and less cartoony, tonally), he’s also got no issues making public scenes.

He doesn’t quietly seek out Potter or BJ alone when he decides yes he is in fact seriously ill in Bless You Hawkeye, he walks right into everyone having a meeting and announces that he’s gonna die. He’s not only perfectly fine with Sidney visting him for a consultation in Hawk’s Nightmare, he’s the first to acknowledge why he’s there during the poker game while Sidney’s trying to be politely subtle (”Mind if I come along?” “Fine with me Doc, as long as your couch has wheels on it.”) He also ofc calls his childhood friends and tells them he’s having fucked up nightmares about them, tells everyone else about them to ask for their opinions, and tries to have a heart to heart with Frank about being afraid to go to sleep.

He makes a joke about cracking up at the farewell party in GFA, and tells some random patient he just had his “head in a cast,” apropros of nothing. He throws a tantrum in Adam’s Ribs, he publically screams out his feelings at the end of For Want of a Boot, he loudly narrates his impending panic attack in CAVE (and says that the reason he kept quiet about it for a while is specifically because he didn’t want Potter to choose a less safe place to retreat to on his account), he casually describes his emotional state as “mania” to Potter in Depressing News while, yk, building a big tower for 2 days without breaks in the middle of the camp, he breaks down in front of BJ - a guy he’d only recently met - in The Late Captain Pierce, he angrily confronts everyone about feeling betrayed and abandoned by them in the phone scene in GFA. We don’t see what he does after Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde but he casually mentions the insomnia to Winchester in Dr. Winchester and Mr. Hyde so he’s fine talking about it. He has two public breakdowns in the O.R. that I can remember off-hand.

And he never demonstrates any shame or regret about the public nature of any of this.

He never tries to hide his feelings - I think the closest he gets is in Sons and Bowlers, and he proceeds to tell Charles how he’s feeling for the entire rest of the night in that one - and while nearly everyone else gets plotlines where something’s troubling them that they don’t want to talk about, Hawkeye never ever does. He’s usually the one prying these feelings out of other characters and chiding them for not talking about them. Even in GFA what’s stopping him from talking about it is the amnesia - he’s reluctant and upset about having the conversations about the bus because he’s subconsciously afraid of remembering, but he still does, and after he has his breakthrough he willingly talks it through with Sidney multiple times afterwards as well, both offscreen in Sidney’s mention of follow-up sessions (including Hawkeye explicitly wanting more of them), and on screen when Sidney visits the 4077.

And in Bless You Hawkeye, the other trauma amnesia episode, he’s perfectly willing to a) accept it could be psychosomatic, b) talk about it with Sidney to find the root cause, and c) joke about it afterwards during a poker game.

And then you got a bunch of moments and jokes where he shamelessly reveals personal information about himself, sometimes likely exaggerations that he’s still fine with people believing, sometimes clearly accurate. I sucked my thumb until my twenties, I can’t get hard, here’s the kind of niche sex I like, I’m a coward and proud, I’m fucking my married ex, I was jealous of my dad’s girlfriend, monologue about how much I miss my dad to a stranger, monologue about how miserable I am to a stranger, monologue about how terrified I am to a stranger, etc etc.

There’s also overt commentary on this - in Check-Up for example, Hawkeye suggests that Trapper got an ulcer because he’s the strong silent type who keeps his feelings in, in contrast to himself. In Bless You Hawkeye Sidney points out that Hawkeye never holds back when it comes to his feelings about the war, which is why he’s assuming the root cause is something Hawkeye isn’t even consciously aware of and goes back to Hawkeye’s childhood.

When it comes to Hawkeye it’s very difficult for me to imagine a scenario where he would try to hide anything about himself, whether that’s his feelings or something about his life, and I have a feeling it was the same for the writers of the show most of the time too lol, hence relying on amnesia twice for the mystery and reveal structure.

[scotianostra]

On March 24th 2012, just two days after his 62nd birthday Scotland lost a legend when John Thomas "Jocky" Wilson passed away at his home in at Kirkcaldy.

Jocky spent most of his early life in orphanages after it was deemed his mother and father were unfit to bring him up, his jobs included a couple of years in the army, a coal delivery man, fish processor, and also a miner at Kirkcaldy's Seafield Colliery. He also worked for a time at the Lister Bar, the local where a 19-year-old Wilson first learned to play darts, he never thought when throwing those first arrows that he would ever become the champion of the world and a Scottish legend.

From his debut at the World Championship in 1979 until 1991, Wilson managed to reach at least the quarter-finals of the tournament on every occasion. Wilson also lifted the British Professional Championship four-times between 1981 and 1988, as well as the British Open and Matchplay titles.

Wilson was also generous with his time for charity and had a neat line in self-deprecation. He was known as 'Gumsy' because his constant sweet-eating and refusal to brush his teeth - 'my Gran told me the English poison the water' - meant that he had lost his last tooth by the age of 28. Following the 1982 triumph, Wilson paid £1,200 for dentures. But he never took to them. They made him belch when drinking, he complained. And once, celebrating a victory, they flew out of his mouth and on to the oche. In the end, they were employed as a ball marker in pool games with Bristow.

'People might think that having no teeth snookers you when it comes to eating,' Wilson wrote in his 1983 autobiography, Jocky. 'But I can manage just about anything with my gums. I can chew a steak provided it's well done. I can even eat apples. Great Yarmouth rock and nuts are the only two things that defeat me.'

Other tales include the time he kicked Bristow's shin before they were due to play each other - the Crafty Cockney, who became Wilson's firm friend, was forced to shake hands on stage with a bleeding shin. And after one defeat he fell off the stage.

Sadly after being diagnosed with diabetes Jocky gave it all up, he became bankrupt and spent the remainder of his life, with his Argentinian wife, Malvina in a council flat in the town he grew up in, as virtual recluse, shielded by his wife when visitors knocked on his door, be it journalists or just well wisher fans nobody got through the door.

I will always remember the early days of television darts and Wee Jocky, at the oche, a true character. When he won his first world title at Jollees Cabaret Club in Stoke, Sid Waddell announced him as "Jocky Wilson , The lad has the psychology of a claymore!”

RIP Jocky!

[jordan-the-pious]

Welcome

Hello my children. I am Jordan, many of you may know me. Sydney told me to make this account so that I could directly interact with you all and save your souls. Please use my "asking box" as a virtual confessional booth, and lay your sins bare so that they may be forgiven.

:OOC:

hi hello i decided to jump on this train cuz it seems so fun!!! Person behind this account is 21, so go nuts. Minors DNI if I catch you I will block you and I WILL be checking ;)

but yeah! have fun! i think my Jordan will be sorta both genders, so if you want a specific one to respond just make some sort of note in the ask otherwise I'll choose or I'll just leave them neutral! yeah!

DMs are open and encouraged! If you wanna do something fun with your character, reach out! If you wanna check if content is ok, reach out! If you wanna tell me how funny I am, reach out! I love talking about all of those things!

I am a full time student in my senior year of college, so I do get very busy. I am going to do my best to keep the queue stocked so y’all don’t run out of content, but things happen. This also means I might not get things posted as soon as you send the ask, and that it might end up being a bit before I can respond to DMs. I promise you I will get to them ASAP!!!!!!!

LINK TO THE BRIAR X JORDAN MASTER POST!!

https://www.tumblr.com/jordan-the-pious/740441605739315200/ooc

[kuramirocket]

"Primo," which premieres Friday on Amazon’s free streaming service, Freevee, formerly IMDb TV, is based on the life of journalist and author Shea Serrano, 41. He's the author of bestselling pop culture and sports books, including “The Rap Year Book” and “Basketball (and Other Things)” — former President Barack Obama chose the latter as one of his favorite reads in 2017. Both books were turned into docuseries for AMC and Hulu.

"Primo" follows Rafa, a young Mexican American high school student as he balances cultural norms, college aspirations, societal expectations and the hectic home life of being raised by his single mom and his five uncles, all with very different lives and perspectives on manhood.

Serrano, the first Mexican American to be a four-time New York Times bestselling writer, is one of "Primo's" showrunners and creators.

“I hope people, when they watch it, they just feel good and warm and demand 30 more seasons of it," said Serrano, who's also a screenwriter, podcaster and former teacher. “When we were writing the show, like, let’s just make it as specific as possible. And then let’s get a bunch of really talented people, make some room for them and let them go nuts."

In a virtual interview, Serrano said that while the show is based on a Latino character, it's not about having “to say that the family is Latino.”

“We were very aware of what we were wanting to do, and a lot of this stuff is, like, we don’t need to say every single thing; we just will exist, and it’ll be better that way," he said.

Serrano recently signed a television deal with Amazon Studios, the studio behind "Primo," to develop an original and limited podcast series.

He is also behind Netflix’s comedy series "Neon," as well as "Miguel Wants to Fight," his first feature film, which will premiere on Hulu this year. 

Source

[willbyerswithpowersblog]

An old Hollywood expression goes “If the scene is about what the scene is about, you’re in deep shit.” It means writing “on the nose,” writing dialogue and activity in which a character’s deepest thoughts and feelings are expressed by what the character says and does – writing the subtext directly into the text.

Writing this, for example: Two attractive people sit opposite each other at a candlelit table, the lighting glinting off the crystal wineglasses and the dewy eyes of the lovers. Soft breezes billow the curtains. A Chopin nocturne plays in in the background. The lovers reach across the table, touch hands, look longingly in each others’ eyes, say, “I love you, I love you” .. and actually mean it. This is an unactable scene and will die like a rat in the road.

An actor forced to do the candlelit scene might attack it like this: “Why have these people done out of their way to create this movie scene? What’s with the candlelight, soft music, billowing curtains? Why don’t they just take their pasta to the TV set like normal people? What’s wrong with this relationship? Because isn’t that life? When do the candles come out? When everything’s fine? No. When everything’s fine we take our pasta to the TV set like normal people. So from that insight the actor will create a subtext. Now as we watch, we think: “He says he loves her and maybe he does, but look, he’s scared of losing her. He’s desperate.” Or from another subtext: “He says he loves her, but look, he’s setting her up for bad news. He’s getting ready to walk out.”

The scene is not about what it seems to be about. Its about something else. And it’s that something else – trying to regain her affection or softening her up for the barkeep – that will make the scene work. There’s always a subtext, and inner life that contrasts with or contradicts the text. Given this, the actor will create a multi layered work that allows us to see through the text to the truth that vibrates beyond the eyes, voice and gestures of life. ..

How then would we write a love scene? Let Two people change a tire on a car. let this scene be a virtual textbook on how to change a flat. Let all dialogue and action be about jack, wretch, hubcup, and lug nuts: Hand me that would you? Watch out. Don't get dirty. Let me whoops. The actors will interpret the real action of the scene, so leave room for them to bring romance to life wholly from the inside. As their eyes meet and sparks fly we’ll know what's happening because it is in the unspoken thoughts and motions of the actors. As we see through the surface, we will lean back with a knowing smile: look what happened. They're not just changing the tire on a car. He thinks she is hot and she knows it. Boy has met girl.

Robert McKee, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting

The audience knows that people rarely, if ever, understand themselves, and if they do, they’re incapable of complete and honest self-explanation. There’s always a subtext. If, by chance, what a character says about himself is actually true, we don’t know it’s true until we witness his choices made under pressure. Self-explanation must be validated or contradicted in action.

This is one of the reasons why byler is simply better written than m*leven.

Because when they talk about going crazy together, there's subtext.

When Will says it's not possible for him to want to join another party they're not really talking about DnD.

And the most obvious example Will wasn't talking about El in the Van scene.

[pangolinheart]

22. Someone my muse is indebted to and 27. Someone my muse envies

Ooohhh these are good ones! I really had to think hard about these! 22. Someone my muse is indebted to rowena for all the weapon mats This one was difficult because Rhiki very rarely views her relationships and interactions with other people as transactional. She's the opposite of Zero in this regard. That's not to say that she's ungrateful for the help of others, nor that she would take without thinking to give something in return. It's more that she rarely contextualizes this as "repaying a debt". People who help her and offer her kindness are her friends, and she does nice things for her friends. She only thinks of this in terms of commerce when the person in question makes clear that they are expecting some sort of repayment for services rendered. And, of course, not many people demand favors from the Warrior of Light. The whole "saving the world" thing is kind of payment in advance....

At first I was tempted to say the remaining members of her parents' adventuring party for supporting her in multiple ways after their deaths, but they really do have a familial relationship, so while Rhiki is grateful to them and wants to make them proud, I don't know that anyone involved would see it as a debt. It's just what families doe for each other. If I had to choose the canon character Rhiki feels the most indebted to, it would probably be Edmont de Fortemps. Being forced to flee Eorzea virtually alone was really difficult on her, so while she wasn't quite as relieved to be granted passage into Ishgard as she was to find sanctuary at Camp Dragonhead, it meant a lot to her that he was not only willing to extend his hospitality to them, but to stake his reputation on their good character. His support during and after the events of Heavensward was invaluable. Then, of course, there's the other thing.... which Rhiki feels at the very least responsible for, though they've shared their feelings on the subject and he's made it clear that he doesn't blame her for it. "Indebted" may be the wrong word, as it's a debt that she feels she will likely never be able to repay, but she certainly feels a sense of obligation towards him. It may also be inaccurate because Edmont doesn't view her as owing him anything at all. 27. Someone my muse envies This one was difficult as well, but for the opposite reason! Rhiki is a little envious of a lot of people. She can find something she likes in most people, but as a consequence can be a little envious of of them. She envies Y'shtola's beauty, intelligence and resolve. She envies Urianger's composure. She envies Tataru's financial prowess. She doesn't envy any of them enough to allow it to affect her behavior towards then, but these are all things that she has at one point or another found herself wishing she had.

She's kind of envious of moogles. They get to goof off, play pranks, and eat kupo nuts all day. Plus they're fuzzy and cute. Sometimes she thinks it would be great to be a moogle.

The specific NPC that keeps coming to mind, though, is Minfilia. She's not really jealous of the responsibility she carried, or her eventual fate, obviously. But, at least when she was alive, she had lots of traits that Rhiki wished she had. She was beautiful and gracious and kind. All of the other Scions loved her and spoke highly of her. Later, on the First, she would also be reminded that Minfilia was strong. She was gentle and caring and unfailingly good -and she made it all look so easy. Rhiki definitely felt as if she could never live up to the standards Minfilia set as one of Hydaelyn's chosen, and she envied the grace with which Minfilia carried all of her burdens.

If Rhiki was sharing a universe with another Warrior of Light, she'd probably also be a little jealous of them. There's nothing particularly special or stand-out about Rhiki other than the fact that she's been granted the Blessing of Light. She's been kind of bumbling her way through being the WoL, just doing the best she can and hoping with all her might that it's enough. So she might find herself a bit envious of someone who's better suited to the roll than she, whether it's because they're more competent, better-liked, or more badass.

[From the Supporting Character Ask Meme]

[seyaryminamoto]

If Sokka is the most durable man in Gladiator, then who are the others most durable? Your response to the last ask reminded me of one of the funniest moments in canon imo when Ozai take on AS Aang's attack here. Not sure if the following should be taken into account, but I remember ages ago that Avatar wiki considered this something worth mentioning, so it's probably a more deliberate choice than Sokka's comic relief.

Well, regarding Ozai's resistance being featured in Avatar wiki, it is run by fans primarily, so they get to decide what to feature there and what not to. What's most ironic is they probably have a better grasp of what's going on in canon than some of the people involved in producing canon... :'D but it does feel like a wild thing about Ozai that he could take the Avatar State's planet form (?) fully and I sincerely doubt that the comet was enhancing his resistance in any way... XD

As we can all see based on the ridiculous physique of the man in canon, Ozai is probably a fitness nut and never stops working out. So I think it makes sense for him to be very resistant, even to the point of surviving what you just pointed out... at the same time, I can only wonder if he'd be resistant but whiny, haha. I don't think Ozai has dealt with suffering a lot of physical damage in fights because he's generally not involved in fights to begin with, judging by what little we've seen in canon. Maybe he's got what it takes to resist serious damage, but I can soooo see him complaining about getting hurt the whole time... x'D

Anyway, on to the question!

Renzhi is probably the buffest and most resistant character in Gladiator, I kind of built him on the premise of being a firebender who virtually never runs out of steam. He's had so much fighting experience, he's survived countless wounds... the man's definitely what one would consider a tank in a videogame, haha.

Next... I think probably Mei Xun, actually. Another very experienced character, very strong, very buff, definitely could take a lot of damage without faltering. She's pretty epic that way :D

Honestly, Bumi. I know it feels random but it's kinda not considering he's been in horrific conditions for over ten years and, uh... he's still alive. Dude may have weird judgment, but he's a veeeeery tough one to break, for sure.

Among Azula's guards... I'd say Wuhan, Jianghuo and Qiang are the most resistant ones. The others are a lot more likely to lean on damage output than damage resistance.

Rhone sure as hell was a resistant fucker, half the damage he suffered across the story would have killed anyone else. Even if he's dead now I think he deserves to be part of this list

Lastly... Zhao is going to be quite durable eventually in Gladiator. I'm not going to elaborate on why. I'm sure some people can start guessing :')