#like shes presented as the worst of the two but she isnt

[diqnbaus]

Let You Break My Heart Again (Part 2)

Paring: Miles Morales x fem!reader

Summary: Your attempts to avoid Miles have worked. Until it’s time for his dad’s promotion party. That’s it lowkey. The next part will have more I promise. This is also at the beginning of ATSV so you’ve been warned.

Category: Not sad but not happy??

A/n: im soryr im so tired and I wasn’t even planning on writing another part but I felt badly. Also ik think chapter isnt as good as the first but I’ve rewritten in three thousand times and have two drafts. This is the one I like more.

No matter how upset you were, no matter hard you tried to ignore Miles; there was no getting out of this. You had to go to Miles’ dad’s promotion party. Worst case scenario, you saw Miles and he tried to talk to you again. Best case scenario, you don’t see him and get free pizza from the party.

Either way, you were going. After all, you were mad at Miles. Not his dad.

So that was how you found yourself here, on the roof that was filled with people you didn’t know, trying to fit as much free food onto your plate while simultaneously trying to avoid eye contact with anyone who might start a conversation.

Unfortunately, you were unsuccessful in your attempts. Mrs. Morales soon approached you, just as you were stuffing your face with one of the cookies from your plate.

“I know the cookies are good, but please don’t choke,” Mrs. Morales says, smiling softly.

“Mhsis Mowawwes,” you swallow the cookie before trying again. “Mrs. Morales! This party is wonderful, and so are the cookies, obviously.”

“Thank you, I bought them myself,” she chuckles. “Have you seen Miles anywhere? He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. He has the cake.”

“The cake? That’s the most important part of a party. No I haven’t seen him, sorry.”

She sighs, “that’s okay. That boy is always late to everything. I need to start telling him to get there twenty minutes before they actually start, then maybe he’d be on time.”

“Maybe you’ll only have to tell him to get there,” you check your watch, “thirteen minutes before it starts. He’s walking in right now.”

“Ugh, y/n you’re a lifesaver! I’m going to talk some sense into that boy,” she says while heading in his direction.

“Yep,” you mumble to yourself before eating another cookie and finding a quieter corner that you could sit in.

Your peacefulness didn’t last long, as after the fight Miles had with his parents, they went to find you.

“Y/n! Just the person we needed!” Mr. Davis said as they approached you.

“We were wondering if you would go talk to Miles. I’m sure you heard what happened earlier,” Mrs. Morales said.

“It was kind of hard not to,” Mr. Davis mumbled.

Ignoring her husband, she continued, “We really think something is bothering him, and he won’t talk to us. So maybe he would talk to you?”

“Oh I don’t really know, he didn’t really seem in the mood to talk to anyone,” you reply awkwardly, trying to get out of the conversation. The aforementioned worst case scenario was upon you.

“Please? It would double as my promotion present; as you didn’t get me one,” Mr. David said, confrontationally.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know I had to get you one,” you replied, panicked.

“I’ll only forgive you if you go talk to Miles,” he says sweetly before his wife turns him around and harshly whispers to him. Something about “manipulating” and “poor girl,” while you just sat there confused.

Finally when they turned back toward you, you told them you would do it.

“Thank you so much y/n,” Mrs. Morales says while ushering you towards the exit of the roof.

“Yes, thank you. The door should be unlocked. But if it isn’t, there’s a spare key under the mat,” Mr. Davis says as you reach the exit.

“That’s not very safe,” you reply, a little unnerved. You have to talk to Miles about that later. Maybe. If you felt like it.

“Oh please! I’m not the police chief yet, I can still be a little crazy now and then. Plus I change up the spot every other year, so we should be fine,” he says, ushering you out the door.

“Thanks again!” They say in unison, just before the door closes. You sigh before making your way down the many stairs, to the apartment.

Sure enough, the door is unlocked. But just to make sure he wasn’t joking, you checked under the mat and found the key. Huffing, you stand back up and make your way into the apartment towards Miles’ room.

“Miles! We need to talk about a few things. Starting with your dad’s key placement…” you trail off after opening the door to Miles’ room to see him and Gwen looking at his shelf full of his ‘action figures.’ This was the worser case scenario. Worster? Worsest? It doesn’t matter. This was bad.

[lakesouperior]

🐻🐤🐰🦊 just some thoughts on the fnaf movie

🐻the attention to detail that was put into it, with all it’s little details and easter eggs. the posters in the background, (and i haven’t seen anyone bring this up), the guy who got face-mauled by the cupcake wearing a midnight motorist t-shirt. the spring lock scene. the fact that scariest of all the jumpscares (of which there weren’t a lot but it’s kind of for the younger demographic ig they can’t make it too bad) was freaking balloon boy. the highest kill count going to MVP Carl the Cupcake. this is what i mean when i say movies from established franchises should be made by fans, for fans.

AND THE MATPAT CAMEO. HIS ACTING ISNT EVEN BAD AND EVEN IF IT WAS I EOULD STILL LOEV ITTT DVDNFB

🐤 you can tell they put a lot of thought into the child actors. abby is phenomenal. the five missing children? properly creepy and sad looking.

🐰 characters were all really well written and entertaining. the karen aunt, for all that she is an antagonist and very much hateable, still manages to be funny. even background characters are hilarious, like Doug for example, and don’t even get me started on the friggin matpat cameo i nearly screamed in the movie theater.

🦊 vanessa and mike are naturally each other’s narrative foils (and stand-ins for respectively Michael Afton/Elizabeth Afton (MichaElizabeth if you will) and Charlotte Emily imo), and them saying the same line, the “that’s two jobs”, mike at the beginning, and vanessa at the end, TO THE SAME CHARACTER?? TO THE BIG FUCKIN BAD HIMSELF??? WHO THEY BOTH HAVE DEEP HISTORY WITH???? literally this is good writing. i’m not saying the movie is perfect because it isn’t, but this is good writing.

🐻 and vanessa, as much as she kind of is, doesn’t feel like a coward because her worst fear does come true. her own father, the person who she thought the world of, tries to kill her as soon as she steps out of line. her fear wasn’t unjustified. she spent her entire life under his control — has literally never known anything else, and to still rebel after so long must’ve been the hardest, most terrifying thing in the world but she still did it because she’d grown to care for mike and abby.

and this is what i mean when i quote that one post: “strong female characters ≠ characters who are female and punch good, but strong female characters = well-written female characters” like yeah, vanessa’s an antagonist, or an anti-hero i suppose, but she’s still, once again, likeable and mysterious and funny. and the “bring her here again and i’ll fucking shoot you”?? that was probably her first act of true rebellion, aside from telling mike more than she should’ve about the pizzeria.

🐤 mikes arc is a very obvious “let go of the past and learn to cherish the present” which isn’t exactly revolutionary, but i think it’s done quite well though it could be improved a bit. and as much as you think he is an absolute cabbage head for telling them they could have abby for even a second, but you still, once again, get it.

our man’s running on like two hours of sleep and also meds, finally getting to see his baby brother up-close and even touch his face for the first time in probably more than a decade of blaming himself, and then getting told he could go back and see his parents again, the grief over who he probably hasn’t been able to process since he had to take care of abby when they died (possibly even took his own life in the father’s case if he’s supposed to be a henry stand-in like i think and doesn’t that just make it fifty times worse)

and it’s set up that he wants that perfect family back, the kind that he had during his childhood, that abby never got to experience.

and maybe he feels guilty for that. maybe he thinks, in his sleep-deprived and grief-ridden mind, for only a moment, that she would be better off, since she seems to like the animatronics and their ghost children better than him and he still feels like he doesn’t know how to raise a kid.

🐰 speaking of abby, for once Child Character in the horror movie isn’t just there to do some stupid shit for Plot Reasons (cough, The Curse of La Llorona, cough cough). i mean yes, she does go with them at the climax, but she has been given no reason not to trust them and considering the fact that they are other children, it would honestly be more suspicious if she didn’t trust them (also we’ve been shown she doesn’t really have friends before the end, so they’re also her first and only friends, no wonder she’s clinging to them) plus she’s been left alone with the aunt she does not like, possibly still believing mike is abandoning her. you get it.

she’s also very entertaining in her sassiness. like “are you here to arrest my brother?” or “yeah, love you too bro, kinda don’t wanna die tho, can we leave?” literally i can’t stand kids in general, but especially so in in horror movies, but i would give my life for abby.

🦊and the drawing thing? it’s beautiful and sad and really hammers home the fact that these monsters, however scary they have been made by their brutal and cruel deaths, they were, and are, just children who didn’t deserve to die and communicate the same way children like abby do. it also makes abby herself relevant to the plot and actually useful.

🐻and about abby; i have my own Theory there. we know she wasn’t in the picture during Garrett’s disappearance, which means she’s at least twelve years younger than mike. it’s actually quite common for couples who are going through a rough patch to have kids to try to fix it, which i think is what happened here, made even more possible if they also had her as a sort of replacement for Garrett. this, as i said earlier, makes mike’s indecision all the more understandable — if abby doesn’t just look a lot like Garrett, but was actually supposed to be him and would’ve never existed if not for the tragedy.

but that’s Just A Theory. 🐻🐤🐰🦊

[sunstream7]

Cringe is dead. Xoxo droplets oc.

Real Chiara Hours (loredump under the cut)

Growing up in New York with her younger sister, Delilah, Chiara had a relatively stable life, if without much supervision. Her mother worked a lot, so she had Del attached to her hip. Due to this lack of supervision, she developed bad habits and poor outlets, often getting into fights.

Following the loss of their mother, Chiara (16), and Del (8) ended up in Cali with their estranged father and his wife and kids. Chiara, with no respect for authority, became the problem child, and it was a mutual decision that boarding school would be a better option. They both prefer that. Delilah is absolutely delighted to follow wherever her big sister is going.

This abrasive attitude and propensity for violence didn't fly at SSB, and with a more established presence of adults in her life, and per a teacher's suggestion, she took up boxing. This was a good and bad thing. She chills out a little bit and has a proper anger outlet, but she is frequently in the office because now she knows how to hit someone well. She's not so much a loose cannon as she is constantly trying to reign in her volatility, but lacking the real coping skills to do so, because she knows if she gets expelled, she has to go back to her father's house.

It takes Del getting into a fight with someone for Chiara to really make an effort to better herself. At the start of her junior year she really tries to embrace being kind to everyone even if it's hard.

This goes about as well as one would expect.

The game events are two years worth of Chiara gritting her teeth and making an effort, except she is trying to make an effort with the worst people in the school. She knows of the jerks for the most part, but getting forced into school-mandated group time puts her back at square one- a volatile situation with volatile people, settling her firmly in her niche of a loose cannon who gets aggressive when backed into a corner.

She respects everyone as people and (initially and foolishly) thinks that being somewhat friendly will make the world's worst group a little less terrible but it's hard when she sucks at knowing how to socialize in a way that won't set someone else off.

She only starts hanging out with the guys independently because her sister is bullying her into making more friends outside of her D&D group. She doesn't like it. Nobody involved likes it. she is gritting her teeth going to the zoo with people because she promised she'd try to be a better influence but she's. the way she is. and the way she is isnt really conducive to being a functioning member of society.

JB (and a different OC, Ayla, who doesn't have a sheet yet, smh) is also present and very true to her canon self. Chiara is initially very suspicious of her, but oddly enough, their personalities mesh remarkably well. Chiara is fine with JB calling the shots because JB doesn't try to order her around. They get slushies on Thursdays and gossip. 

ANYWAYS. That is one of the two menaces. I will yap about her if asked (please)

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for telling the teacher I made a group project all by myself which made my classmates get a worse grade?

Background: im 16F and in eleventh grade, im in a new school which is only for eleventh and twelfth grade. So my whole class was all people who didn’t know each other. This happened in the first few weeks of school. Also english isnt my first language and I’m a very shy person.

We got the task from our English teacher in our first English lesson to make a presentation and poster. She choose our groups and we just sat together for like two minutes and then the lesson was over and I completely forgot who I was in a group with because I didn’t yet know anyone’s names. We had to do the presentation three weeks later so I figured in that time someone else would reach out to the group so I don’t really need to know who was in my group.

No one else reached out for a week and the teacher was sick for the next week so I couldn’t ask her who was in my group. So we now only have less than two weeks left to do the project.

I send a message in the class group chat asking who’s in my group. No one answers. A few hours later i send a message again and no one answers again.

So I decide, ok, im just gonna start this by myself and the others can help later I guess. So I get a big piece of paper, do some research, print pictures etc… I also message the group chat with pictures of what I’m doing.

We are now at the weekend before the presentation is supposed to be on Thursday and I still don’t know who’s in my group. A different classmate sends a message in the group chat to ask who’s in her group, and someone replies to her with some names, including MY name.

So I finally know my group and I make a group chat with just us and ask them about ideas and if they could maybe write some texts for the poster and what part of the presentation they want to do. No one answers. I keep doing the poster alone and send pictures. I don’t get more back than „looks good“ and „👍“.

Now we’re at the day before the presentation. I have a finished poster and I’m writing the last part of the text while sitting at the kitchen table. My sister is sitting there too and doing homework. I’m complaining about how I did the whole thing by myself and the others completely ignored my messages. She says I should just say to the teacher that I did it all alone. I don’t really want to do that, but frustrated as I am I write on the back of the poster „100% (my name)‘s work“, kinda as a joke, and actually planning to erase it later, but I forget to erase it.

It’s Thursday, we do our presentation as the last group before the break. The others read the texts I wrote. We don’t get our grades told yet but it’s not a bad presentation.

After the lesson we change rooms and I stay behind for some reason I don’t remember, when the teacher wants to talk to me because she saw that writing on the back of the poster and she asks if I really did the poster by myself. I say yes because it’s true and it literally is written there so how am I supposed to lie. She also notices that the texts everyone read (she collected those too) are all in my hand writing. So it’s clear to her I did the whole thing alone.

A week later we get told what grades we got. I have a 1 (best grade) while the other group members have a 4 (barely passing). They ask why and the teacher says they would have gotten a 6 (worst grade) but they at least did the oral presentation. She explains that I told her I prepared the presentation all alone, and then not just my group but the whole class erupted and called me an asshole and worse things until I actually started to cry and no one talked to me for weeks. The other people in my group said to the teacher and the class that I told them I wanted to do the project alone, which I didn’t, but maybe it seemed like that because I had already started it when I found out who was in my group?

My family said everyone else was an AH for making me do all the work and stuff. But I’m not sure because of that giant negative reaction that not just the people involved, but also the rest of the class had. I‘m quite a solitary person and didn’t have friends in the school I went to before this one, and because of that I’ve always made group projects alone and don’t know the etiquette around them. I also do feel bad that they got a bad grade because of me, especially if they really thought I didn’t want help.

TDLR: I did a group project alone because my group ignored me. We did the presentation together, and I told the teacher that I made the poster and the content of the presentation alone. The teacher then gave the rest of my group a bad grade. My entire class insulted me until I cried when they found out. I don’t have good social skills so im not sure if I was right or wrong.

What are these acronyms?

[e17omm]

Ranting about the ending of chapter 42

How does Honkai both have the best characters and the worst writers for the characters and antagonists?

We killed Sa. Just like that? Or, if we didn't kill her, we incapitated her for tens of thousands of years?

Just like that?

Did I miss anything, or did Kiana snipe Sa in the Sea of Quanta and Vita then took most of her power?

Did I miss anything there, or is that really what happened?

WHAT THE FUCK IS PART 2 GOING TO BE ABOUT?!

NO ANTAGONIST HAS HAD A VICTORY SINCE OTTO IN CHAPTER 28!

WHAT IS PART 2 GOING TO INTRODUCE THAT NO ONE WE ALREADY KNOW CANT TAKE CARE OF??

APHO. How is ANYTHING in APHO a problem? Isn't Sa the origin of the Sky People? How is Sa's underlings somehow a bigger problem that spans over several years?

Why can't Kiana take care of the Sky People? The theory was that she was still busy and out of commission until her work with Finality was done, and thats why she couldn't help in APHO.

BUT SHE JUST SNIPED SA ON THE EDGE OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

WHAT IS THE WRITERS DOING??

YOu cant just write a story like this where the good guys wins again and again and again and nothing ends up being a threat at all. That's not interesting that's not engaging.

The Rebels cant destroy the Death Star before the Death Star has shown what it's capable of - thats not engaging, its not interesting.

Right now, with Sa, we have destroyed the Death Star before it has destroyed Alderaan. WHY THE FUCK would we be worried about Death Star II?

At least the character of Sa was incredible.

Unless part 2 is fucking amazing, I might aswell make part 1.5 of Snippets AU just be part 2. Have Sa as the villain, have her actually be a threat. She is so good that I do not need to replace her with the backup antagonist I introduced in chapter 72: Kcolc that was there incase Sa was disappointing. Sa completely outdoes that imaginary being (maybe they'll show up for part 3?)

Sa is that good. She works so well as an antagonist we did not even know about in part 1.

All that needed to happen was that she wasn't completely defeated in part 1.5

So why the fuck was she completely defeated in part 1.5?

No main character even needs to die. Just have her succeed in retreating and destroying Phospherus. That would set the stage for part 2 to have this looming threat in the background - like what Otto and the Old Project Stigma was in part 1. (Because New Project Stigma wasn't foreshadowed or built up to at all)

But from part 1.5, what do we have to tie the two main parts together story wise? We have no villain, we have no problems, we have no looming threat.

What is part 1.5 for? Why do we have this? It introduces a new villain, Sa, and then we defeat her.

Its barely even cleanup from part 1. It abandoned that thread really early on to focus on Sa. So part 1.5 became the setup for Sa. But then we defeat Sa.

So what is part 1.5 for? Padding? What a way to waste 7 chapters and almost a year of storytelling.

Sa and Vita are great characters. They absolutely deserve to be in the story, they add a lot to it by themselves.

But fuck, the story treats them so wastefully.

The writers was doing everything right. EVERYTHING. Sa is set up. With her in the background of part 2, you constantly have tension because Sa is still out there, and then that threat comes to bloom in APHO when she attacks Earth. They just need to show how powerful she is, that even when everyone present throws all they have at her, The Vitas give their authority to Griseo, Fu Hua Meta-Morphs, Misteln jumps in, and even Vita risks her life to assist, and all they manage to do to Sa is make her feel that this fight isnt worth it and she needs to retreat and gather more power.

But instead we defeat her.

How did they throw this away like that...?

I'm almost crying at this actually.

Part 1.5 was mediocre to decent in terms of setting the story up for part 2. And then in chapter 42 they stomped the gas and had everything ready and good to go for the start of part 2.

And then they threw it away.

Cant sacrifice phospherus for the story. think of the cute vitas. dont we all want cute vitas over an antagonist theyve set up the last 6+ chapters and go into part 2 with no setup from part 1.5? the cute vitas are more important

im pretty sad right now. i think ive had enough gaming for today and its not even lunchtime yet.

at least the music was good

sa's teleporting sounds was sick

[penguinkyun]

chapter 158 review

well so that was all bullshit

this is literally worst chapter in the entirety of the series so far and it spits in the face of rubys entire character along with the series themes

first of all, how has ruby surpassed ai? no seriously. how? what has she even done to earn this supposed transcendent idolhood? she only has this popularity because she nepotism'ed her way through the industry and stole literally all the work in bh mode from the rest of her group members (who couldn't even stream without her presence) and did absolutely nothing to make it up to either kana or mem (whose other jobs like streaming and acting were also impacted btw), loses any character she had in the incest subplot and then says shes going to surpass ai like a broken record when that was never her goal in the first place!

both sarina and aqua say it - ruby wanted to wear cute clothes and sing on a stage like ai, inspiring others. she never had the goal of "surpassing" ai, she just wanted to be an idol because she loves idols. her arc is supposed to be about connecting with her mother from her idolhood, inspiring others and understanding ai. all that warmth, inspiration, honesty and naivety literally disappears from her entirely. and while a corruption arc isnt bad, you have to actually, yknow WRITE THE ARC PROPERLY.

why does ruby want to surpass ai? theres no rhyme or reason to it. and also what surpass? your ceo adoptive mother made your group for you, your brother scouted your group members and landed you a spot in an idol festival for your debut concert and while i'm not saying ruby hasn't worked hard and/or struggled in her job or life, she definitely has worked hard in her job, but its a bit much to say she "surpasses ai" when if you think about all the factors that made ai's life miserable - i.e. excessive favouritism, exploitation, purity culture, toxic industry and fan standards - none of that has any bearing on ruby's experience as an idol because she is explicitly shielded from all of that by literally everyone around her. everything that made ai's idolhood difficult is nowhere presented in rubys arc as something she has to deal with and so when you try to compare their two careers like this it just rings as incredibly hollow - a parallel for the sake of a parallel

even when kana (rightfully!) blows up at ruby, all the shit ruby put her through in black hoshigan mode is never addressed and its just ruby going "ill be your friend if you like it or not!" as a barest bandaid on the true issues kana has with her and kana just accepts it! she doesn't have to deal with falling outs either because it gets fixed at the drop of a hat!

also what the fuck is that monologue lol. my girl would NEVER say that and would especially never use her beloved mothers death as some sort of embellishment on a speech about the transience of Idols or whatever she was saying there, especially when ai's death was deeply rooted in the toxicity and purity standards of the idol culture of her era, a culmination of her exploitation and entitlement the industry and fans had towards her and was not about how idols can only be idols for a short amount of time because of aging out - ai didn't age out she was fucking murdered in her own home.

which. what narrative benefit does ruby's stabbing even have? ai's death served as both a capstone to her narrative arc, an enormous shift in the series tone and themes, and commentary and indictement on the idol industry and fan entitlement as a whole. what does ruby's stabbing serve? what narrative lesson is being taught here? what arc is being fulfilled here? is she just being stabbed for shock value? because the anime episode is releasing today?

its stupid (and not only because of what it does to nino which i will get to) and also makes this look like a walmart version of ai's death with the same pose and none of what made it actually thematically interesting. also if you wanted to fulfill narrative parallels and death flags, kana should've been stabbed there i said it. she is the ai parallel in bkomachi, she's the one whose viewpoint we view the problems of the industry from, she has commentary on those problems of misogyny and the pressures of the industry, she's the one who should be the focus here because it is her graduation concert tour. she's even the same age as ai!

speaking of kana goddamn im so sorry for you. you lose centre focus IN YOUR OWN GRADUATION, and now your one dream from 151 wont even happen because of this narratively bullshit chapter. you deserve better truly (and i am also really mad they used kana sun moment her best moment where she is literally the fucking sun to compare to rubys inherited ascended form of idolhood)

(also akanes monologue was ridiculous and entirely forced)

also fuck what this chapter did to nino. my girl im so sorry this has been done to you, you deserved better. the twist COULD have been interesting if lacking the set up but noooo we had to make nino as somehow the spokesperson for how ruby has achieved the Final Form of an Idol when literally just over 20 chapters ago she coldly stated ruby was nothing like ai and then had to turn her into a murderer when literally why would she.

especially with her conversation with kamiki, where she very interestingly says "oh you think we can be forgiven for all the shit we've done?" and her apparent response to that is to go commit another unforgivable crime? really? way to reduce your character to just "no one should surpass ai" instead of all the complex feelings nino had before! and also along with making her an idiot this chapter somehow leaning even harder accidentally or otherwise into the "crazy lesbian" stereotype which absolutely sucks.

also ruby did you learn nothing from your mothers death. do you not have door chains. also i refuse to believe neither miyako or aqua instilled safety procedures or kept the door locked especially after their fame skyrocketed. unless they're like. still at miyazaki hotel??? even then did you not check who was at the door, especially after how your mother died like why is ruby being hit with the idiot stick again. this is again another contrivance just like 142 was so heavily contrived.

even madder at the sheer disservice rubys character has been done through the entire past three arcs.

also also the art is just. weird. the way the knife has been framed makes it look like it slipped completely past ruby and the entire panel feels washed out unlike ai's stabbing panel where its dynamic with motion, flowers falling past her, the knife in clear view along with ai's stunned expression. its beautiful in the most haunting horrific way possible and sticks in your mind. i'd forget about this panel in a second. i wish i could forget this chapter jfc. it better be a fakeout

anyways. break next week.........

[42-42-564]

i have rewatched the scene. breakdown:

maka looks and sounds bittersweet talking about how she doesnt really know where her mother is at any given moment. she uses the word "missing," and even though she describes her mother's traveling as cool or positive, thats still a kind of telling word choice.

crona sees it as maka's mother "abandoning" her for "some trip," speaking in a very dismissive/unimpressed tone. they see her mother's traveling as trivial and unimportant compared to being present in maka's life.

maka's comparison of her mother to a grizzly bear isnt an uncommon thing. mama bear. but crona has not experienced someone who's multifaceted like that in a good way. "strong and scary but also cuddly and loving" probably just sounds two-faced and ingenuine to them. "that seems like a lot of things for one person to be."

maka's best memory of her mother being "the divorce" is very much a comedy line but its still valid. considering how maka sees her as strong and scary it was probably impressive to see her calm and collected in the face of a really emotionally horrible situation.

and then we have... "she's my mom, silly, i love her." honestly bestie not the best thing to say to this particular person lol. but its how she feels! maka very clearly idolizes her mother and sees her as The Good One out of her parents, most likely in a "no matter what im siding with her" way. <- thats getting into headcanon territory but yknow. its the vibe i get

crona's only known one mother, one caregiver, their entire life. and theyve also been raised with a unique sense of purpose for being alive. crona is alive so that they can do what medusa says, so they can follow her direction until theyre strong. until theyre whatever she wants them to be. they are not just alive for the sake of it, and they have to earn it every single day. crona cares for the woman who raised them and who keeps them alive; they want her approval and the safety she provides from the dwma that would otherwise kill them.

i dont think its coincidence that crona says "she's my mother." when they run away. maka presented them with "she's my mom, silly," which they visibly mulled over in that moment. if i step back into maka headcanon zone, she comes with a lot of black and white morals. her mom is always in the right and her dad is always in the wrong, even if that means ignoring things that contradict that viewpoint. "she's my mom, silly, i love her" might have uhhhh. made crona's dependency on medusa worse. (which of course is not makas fault btw. crona asked how she felt about her mother and she answered honestly)

honestly i think its interesting that crona feels so strongly about maka's mother. they explicitly think she's a bad mom. even though they have like, the worst mom in the series. i dunno how exactly to make that make sense other than them just having a double standard, but it could go in a lot of different directions.

[staarry-skies]

— usagis jealousy during bmc, and if it really is just that? a meta

(read more bc i anticipate this getting very long)

before we talk about bmc lets set the stage a bit: usagi has just defeated the dark kingdom no more than a week ago (its unclear how much time passes btwn the two arcs but i can’t imagine its longer than a week, or even a couple days, as we see usamamo exchange their keepsakes at the end of act 14, something they promised they’d do the next time they saw each other during act 8, which means that this must be the first time theyve seen each other since defeating the dark kingdom, which again, i cant imagine took longer than a couple days) which means she has just experienced: watching her boyfriend die in front of her, being overloaded with a host of tragic memories from her past life (one of them including watching her boyfriend die and killing herself), her boyfriend getting brainwashed, having to kill her boyfriend because there was no getting through to him, killing herself due to the aforementioned trauma, and finally finding out her friends died— sacrificing themselves for her to bring her back. so thats all Crazy we can agree that is crazy for a 14 year old girl to go through? right? okay? good.

now that we’ve agreed on that can you imagine a little girl falling out of a large portal in the sky then threatening you with a GUN (fake sure but she didnt know that originally) and demanding you hand over the overpowered magical artifact you JUST endured all that trauma trying to protect? and then that same girl brainwashes your family? obviously usagi isnt going to trust chibiusa right away. i mean look at what she’s working with, and then when she tries to bring up these concerns no one believes her. i mean sure WE as the audience know chibiusa isnt a threat, and the others think she isnt because they cant see a little girl as particularly threatening but when you look at things from usagis perspective, then OBVIOUSLY she’d be suspicious— i mean she repeatedly refuses to answer any sort of questions (obviously this is not chibiusas fault, shes a scared child and the questioning terrifies her further, but again, think about this from usagis perspective). and again id like to reiterate that all of this is directly after the dark kingdom, usagi hasn’t had any time to heal from those fresh fresh emotional scars Of Course she’s a bit irrational.

now, to the topic at hand, was usagis jealousy really just that? regular jealousy at seeing mamoru spending time with someone who isnt her (even if the person in question was a small child that logically posed no threat to her relationship)?

obviously i dont think so, but let me prove to you its not just simple irrational jealousy but also usagis ptsd and specifically her abandonment issues that are what cause her to react in the way she does.

again, id like to remind the jury of the shit usagi has just gone through and how that all has caused usagi to develop some very serious abandonment issues. we see usagis worst fear(s) represented in nightmare sequences a handful of times throughout the series. exactly twice actually, once in infinity and once in dream and each have the shared theme of her loved ones leaving her in some way. in infinity they turn against her and berate her before ultimately dying, and in dream they’re simply dead. again both times it is very clear that the root of what she fears is abandonment.

these abandonment issues however, first begin to present themselves in arc 2. we even get a nightmare sequence in arc 2 similar to those of arcs 3&4. most interpret this as usagi just being jealous usagi. however really look at it, its not that she’s just afraid of mamoru being taken away by chibiusa, she’s afraid of them both abandoning her. look at what she says “wait! where are you going? dont leave me behind!” (or “wait! where are you going? dont leave me here!” in the eternal edition, i prefer the crystal translation simply because it makes it more explicit her issue is them leaving her alone) if it truly truly was an issue of jealousy why would she be afraid of them both leaving her behind? why say something like that? wouldnt it make more sense to say something like…. i dunno “chibiusa? dont take him from me!” instead?

once again, everything she goes through in arc 1 is a big contributor in this, however recall arc 2 begins with the senshi being picked off one-by-one (all except minako), and usagi can do nothing but watch and it eats her up inside. she quite literally begins to lose everyone dear to her all over again even while the last time is still so fresh in her mind.

and during most of this what does chibiusa do? she stays secretive, doesnt give usagi any information even when usagi tells her she cant trust her if she doesnt. (again i wanna reiterate that this is no fault of chibiusas however its not usagis fault either) so of course usagi begins to register chibiusa as a threat, and again with the information she has + her inarguable connection to the black moon clan this isnt a logical leap in the slightest.

thus when mamoru begins to spend more time with chibiusa instead of her it causes two things to happen. a) usagi is left without the emotional support she desperately needs in all of this (through no fault of mamoru, he completely misreads what usagi needs in this particular situation, he thinks that by helping with chibiusa it’ll ease her stress to have one less thing off her plate, however of course we know this does the opposite) and b) she begins to register chibiusa as a genuine threat to mamorus safety. usagis terrified of losing him all over again when she just got him back. look at this scene, i mean really truly look at it. look at what usagis saying, this doesnt sound like the ramblings of a jealous girlfriend it sounds like someone who’s terrified of losing their most important person all over again. “stay here with me. never go away. ill do everything i can to protect you…” (or “…i wanna be with you. dont go away. ill protect you with everything i have” in crystal, here i prefer the eternal edition again bc i think it more explicitly defines usagis problem) these lines just don’t make sense under the simple jealousy interpretation, what does protecting him have anything to do with envy at the time hes spending with chibiusa and not with her? nothing. shes not upset at that, she puts emphasis on protecting him because thats the true root of the problem, shes afraid of losing him again to yet another supernatural threat after the crystal.

and to close out id like to show everyone the viz dub version of this scene because i think it sums up my points incredibly well, as well as making it abundantly clear what the root of usagis problems Really are, specifically through the inclusion of the line “i wont lose you again”

[itsdappleagain]

hell yeah baby backstory time

it is time for the boston tea party caper!!

notes under the cut assss always

this episode is a bit of a mix-up for me. i like it but not my favorite all things considered. i'm still excited though- some of the moments in this episode are GOLD

HQ!!!

JHSGHSD "hey red hows san diego" "not great" "im not talking about you girl"

"i thought he lived in the cloud"

player looks so unamused pls

PLEASE "though i am hearing voices again" HOW WAS THAT RELEVANT. WERE U HEARING VOICES BEFORE

shadowsan is the best character here he's so funny

THE "THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT"

if they vowed to use their "superpowers" for good and ivy hotwired that car later on i guess maybe they used to steal cars and then decided to go straight maybe

ivy is so cool

OH hey also by the way their younger designs. SO GOOD carmen should have gotten a dorky in between phase we were robbbbed

small

not trey and his butt chin

i like how the screen glitches when its paused on trey. new headcanon this is a powerpoint presentation they threw together right then and there

you dare knock LYDIA

"i got this" zack says with the confidence of a man who just ate taco bell learning they won't see another restroom for eight more hours on the road trip

the talking through the race kills me every time 😭you can't hear each other

man this racetrack has an overhead drone keeping exact pace with the leading car

zack had a chase devineaux phase too once

carmen sandiego: oh no no we're rated for seven year olds!! the boston tea party caper: the mafia boss who lent us money threatened to put a hit out on us if we didn't commit a robbery for him on a suspicious front for a money laundering operation for the mob

the main reason i dislike this episode and need for speed is because zack doesnt ever get to learn. he was impulsive and it was bad in duke of vermeer, he was impulsive and it was bad in boston tea (okay fine, it shows us his younger self! fine with that) BUT THEN HE IS IMPULSIVE AND ITS BAD AGAIN NEXT TIME. FOR THE SAME REASONS whyyy wouldn't they take duke of vermeer as an opportunity to show his growth instead of making him out to be some angry no control childish idiot who sacrifices untold amounts for a little payback. and drags ivy down with him EVERY TIME

there's something so cool and sinister about ivy smiling, reassuring him, and then slowly pulling down the ski mask to hide any emotion. ivy and zack seem like they could have been prime targets for VILE recruitment- they could have gone down a much darker path

shadowsan was so invested

carmen's puberty crammed in those few months between the boat and the boston holy shit

player accidently saved zack and ivy's asses by turning off those cameras jgjsgkd

the second perspective of zack crashing into the wall kills me every time pls

here goes carmen with "its for your own safety" who taught her that phrase

i love how z and i immediately think that this person couldnt possibly be...i dont know. an employee or a manager or someone who works at the donut place. she's gotta be another thief. i mean they are right but like why

the giant ass green vault behind the fridge door 😭

WE'RE FOLLOWIN THAT LADY FOLLOWIN THOSE BREADCRUMBS TO THE DOUGH

wait didn't they arrive in a truck parked on the other side of the building

carmen ALSO had a chase devineaux phase

???? isnt that truck she just stole the one they got there in???

i mean carmen. girl. you kicked them out of their own robbery and then stole their car did you expect them not to follow you

carmen's devineaux side coming out <3 also completely shameless carmen cant drive comic plug

there are so many car accidents literally everyone could have died in for these two (this and need for speed) episodes. credits roll as the paramedics show up to carmen who just CRASHED HER CAR INTO A FUCKING HOLE HEAD FIRST

they had to make sure to show us that carmen was literally the worst driver possible to justify zack being there

i love zack immediately getting super friendly with the random woman who just stole their car, crashed it, and then stole it again with them inside

carmen: haha suave quip zack and ivy, the two most neurodivergent bitches on the planet: IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

also carmen looks hilariously uncomfortable wedged behind this shipping crate. she's experiencing her first infodump

the loaning money joke is actually very funny

i kind of like how awkward carmen still is in some areas. she still talks like a VILE operative- she reports her every move to player, she simply responds with "understood." because thats the only way she knows how to relate

ANGY

ivy: oh no camera: zooms out to show the most outraged face the animators could draw

screenshots of all time

can you imagine your weirdgirl little 16 year old classmate dips and you see her a few months later and she's turned into this trenchcoat wearing 5'7" long haired adult woman whose only goal is to make your life a thousand times harder

not quite sure how this episode said "oh yeah. her classmates who knew her as a kid constantly call her by the wrong name and disrespect her despite constant corrections. and also her mother figure, seeing the new her, disowns her with the proclamation that this new person killed her child when she took this new name and betrayed her" and made it not transgender

le chevre was so cool about everything for like three minutes

HEY okay my favorite detail of the show is that when carmen runs in this episode she gets way out of breath because she isn't in shape yet i LOVE that detail

i have never heard more emotion from gina than when she went "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME"

THROW HER OVERBOARD

el topo is also cool about things for like three minutes

zack and ivy bounce constantly between dumb orange cat energy and golden retriever who would jump into the ocean for a guy who petted them once energy

legend has it carmen still manages to throw el topo and le chevre in the water every time they are within a mile of it

i love le chevre backing up and running away from her because he's like oh shit. wasn't she like the best in our class?? is she going to kill me or something?? why did she leave VILE what the fuck im booking it nah

YEAH I NEED THE ROPE CARMEN IS SO MEAN IN THIS EPISODE ITS SO FUCKING FUNNY

IVY RESPONDING TO THE ASK FOR "MUSCLES" WAS A UNIVERSAL LESBIAN WIN FOR EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE PLANET GOD WHAT AN ICONIC SCENE. MILADY. ALL SHE HAD TO DO WAS KISS HER HAND GOD

its never brought up ever again that ivy's "shirt" is actually a blue undershirt and a black vest and that is criminal we needed a gay vest. something

the slomo kick is so hot

LE CHEVRE STEPPING ON HER HEAD

those plates must have hurt so fucking bad

okay well. you DO commit crimes

"the police have no idea they exist" okay. TELL THEM

SEE? VEST.

"got any room for us on your next job?" "you know what? sure! come along and help me take down this global criminal organization. uhhh what are your names again btw?"

yall i dont think eddie is going to want to see you for the money

A FLYING CAR he said yeah zack that was smart

i love how offended by literally everything the bostonians do shadowsan is

THEY MADE SHADOWSAN GET IN THE BACK BEHIND THE SEAT HAHAHAHHJHD

that hq wont be so wasted when you die of hypothermia! good luck carmen

alrighty, thats the beantown caper all done! only two more to catch up on before I'm on time again for my favorite episode this saturday >:)

[porkcutletbowl44]

Brain surgery time.

this will contain spoilers for Far From Perfect if you are not caught up to the latest chapter, proceed with caution

This is a very indepth explanation of Simon's character in the fic and his entire influence and role.

This is a whole lot of yapping. I mean that, there's yapping about everything that revolves around Simon and a very deep dive about his character. So, if you don't wanna get into Simon's brain, just don't read. If you wanna yap about other characters and their flaws? Pop in my ask box. (Warning, dark topics are mentioned.)

----

I have never tried to write stuff like this before, and the mixed feedback has my brain hurting so much to try and fully capture and describe the train wreck going on in Simon's head.

I wanted to portray things that are never acknowledged, and how this literally does affect relationships. And what's a better way to do that than have Simon being the perfect candidate?

Simon's character is much more complex than his normally written personality, which is still somewhat kept in the fic. I struggle sometimes, because I have to stop and think what would Simon do, rather than a person with a healthy mindset about relationships think.

It was easier to write the pulling away part, commitment issues can exist while staying faithful, and that is very often self destructive behavior with a unfair reason "Oh, they would of left me anyways. This way, I won't get hurt." Or, "They won't get hurt because of me and my flaws."

Because yeah, Simon would distance himself for the safety of people he cares about.

But falling in love? That's tricky. I have lots of Simon memories back when everything was fine while in the present, he was very cold and and closed off, trying his hardest to get mama to hate him and not want to speak to him.

Why? Because (some, i.e. me) with abandonment issues push people away before either party get too close, get too personal (yes, this also brings in trust issues but i wouldn't go as far as SEVERE trust issues, more like having difficulty explaining these issues and/or emotions.) And yes, Simon thrives on a heavy mutual trust foundation.

Simon is a character that leans more towards practical, simple straight to the point actions. What would he know about relationships past the basic respect and care stuff? Respecting wishes and being a decent partner? Little to nothing after that.

He obviously told mama about his past, hense on their honeymoon she was very careful (and a side note I will say she was very careful and patient with him after learning everything) and he was generally honest about everything.

Why the change?

Simple, because how many people feel what Simon feels? Who ever talks about the part after being with someone for so long? Who talks about anything that's never mentioned?

I've been present for a lot of messy relationships, I've seen some crazy shit, I've helped some crazy shit, I've had to be in the middle of two people getting a divorce and let me tell you Simon and Mama's relationship isnt even the tip of the iceberg. The relationship they have as of now is a walk in the park, but that doesn't mean it's okay and healthy.

Simon is a literal nightmare, the worst ex you could ask for because of how terrible he is with everything.

Simon has his original lore; buried alive, torture, hook to the ribs, all his friends are dead, yada yada he's got it all.

Child abuse can cause a lot of different psychological damage: stutter problems, speech impediments in general, dissociative amnesia, anger issues, self harm, trust issues, and a whole list that stretches out twice around my house and shit and he OBVIOUSLY doesn't have these problems.

And obviously, nobody is walking away from that fine and dandy. And even more obviously, Simon had a fuck ton of therapy in order to keep working in the military. A stable mindset is a very high must in his line of work, so he's not suffering from crippling PTSD he just raw dogs it and doesn't let get to him and is generally just pissed about the nightmares coming every once in awhile.

Simon isn't some anxious riddled soldier, he's a professional on the battlefield and a complete new born to the relationship field. LOOK AT HIM, does he really look like he's had a long term stable relationship given everything he's been through? Constantly deployed on dangerous shit, deployed for long times, damn good at what he does, etc. How can someone like him have a long term relationship when all a partner would do is worry and wait around? So 100% his first time of a lot of things with mama in the marriage aspect.

So naturally, I spent hours thinking 'What trauma and emotional flaws could I give him that would stick around no matter what?'

There's some bits of his personality and influences in the games and comics that kinda remind me of teeny tiny bits of BPD at its smallest. So, I figured BPD would be perfect for him in the fic, the mood swings for the jealousy, the guilt, resentment, heart break, and then picking petty fights. Very obviously, Simon is BPD coded for the simple fact of all these changes in his life, and because I believe he would have a form of this disorder since it can be developed and inherited from genetics (his father, the asshole has some screws loose in his head and likely could have gotten it from him.)

But let's dig a little deeper into his head.

Abandonment. He hasn't had many to stay with him, they all die, either because of him or just in the battlefield. His father was abusive, his mom didn't appear to do much about it, then his brothers family was murdered. So yes, Simon is terrified of the thought of losing his love and family.

And feeling the things he felt one day? Yeah, that'd scare the fuck out of anyone feeling that shit for the first time. Imagine thinking that you don't love someone anymore, or vise versa, a normal person would talk about it with their partner, right? Yeah well not Simon.

Simon pushes Mama away, in fear of him getting hurt, or him hurting her.

The first chapter has been deleted and rewritten. So. Many. Times. I couldn't quite figure out how I wanted to play it. I'm a sucker for things that don't make sense. I like to come up with theories, to watch everything play out, to wait and see.

So, that's what I did. The other drafts I had was too straight forward and I felt like wasn't going to capture anyone's attention because I wanted people to think 'Why the fuck is Simon doing this?'

I wanted him complicated. So complicated that it would make so many people mad, why you may ask? Because I wanted people to try and understand what this feels like. Confused, angry that you don't understand. I wanted people to relate to Simon without them knowing. And for a few, I saw that I did. I wanted him extra flawed, make lots of mistakes and act on impulse that result in bad outcomes and then have him figure out how to fix it and come to terms with himself.

I often stress myself in deep thought that maybe I have over complicated this fic. I've over complicated it so much that people who did give it a chance have just kinda dipped because it's too much, there's little information (or a fuck ton) in massive chapters and they only stayed for the romance for Keegan (which I completely understand, I love to write Keegan but I also have ground to cover for Simon too.)

I think maybe some have forgotten this fic is about Simon and Keegan. It's about both of them trying to figure out what's going on. Yes, the fic is kinda about Simon and his feelings, but Keegan also has his own set of struggles, just like mama; fuck it, EVERYONE has struggles at this point.

Simon is a first time father and husband, he makes mistakes, mama makes mistakes, everyone does in the fic. Simon just has a very poor fashion of expressing himself and owning up to it (hence why he's so slow and hesitant to do anything)

Simon is in a way, a villain. He's not a justified one completely, and he's also not a psychopath given he's feeling a lot of guilt and sadness and overall feeling very shitty. Everyone has very different opinions, and I almost think that they are going to change the farther along we go.

I'm sorry if Simon's reasoning is boring. I'm sorry you were hoping for something grand and super seriously shocking and cliche that others would write but I wanted to strive for extremely different. I wanted to do things that people wouldn't even think about.

If I have forgotten anything, let's yap about it. Or, if you wanna yap about other characters, LETS DO IT.

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

Egbert and Lalonde

John and Rose shared a very sweet relationship at the start of Homestuck and honestly, I feel that both John and Rose share a similar trajectory after the game ended.

Both felt shackled in the aftermath. Rose's classpect has done more to stifle the "rebellious" girl who sought to write her own quest, than anything else. But of course, any woman carving her own path in the world is considered "rebellious" when she's just doing her thing. And after the game, Rose feels beholden to the "Narrative"/Fortune as she Sees it, and doesn't seek a path that she cannot See.

And we all know how John fell apart.

In Candy, they actually made similar paths as well. John married Roxy, Rose married Kanaya. They had wedded bliss. But at some point, they just started going through the motions - which is INFINITELY more interesting to me than wedded bliss. John and Roxy eventually divorced but Rose didn't. Again, this is part of her Seeing a path and feeling chained to it. Kanaya even asks in BC: "when did you stop trying?"

Both John and Rose (either in Candy or Meat) suffer from an intense loneliness. To quote the show Kaos, "There's no loneliness quite like that with someone you're falling out of love with. Especially when that person doesn't know it yet." And I suspect that's what happened to Rose. Whereas John in Candy eventually divorces Roxy (though how in love he was is actually unclear). And John in Meat has sex with a Terezi that fell in love with his Candy version, and was also dying, so how much of his love is true and strong is also dubious.

This depression makes sense, and I'm not mad at all about the way Hussie wrote this (TBH). But I am also hyper invested in how this all shakes out. I think Hussie made a bold decision in writing truly pathetic characters who made awful decisions. Because to me now, the End feels like a Beginning all over again.

(I also am okay with Jane becoming the Bad Mom/Worst Villain, bc we need more of those and honestly, her being a Good Mom would also be death of her character however More palatable that would be to the fandom. At least this character "death" is fucking interesting. I support women's wrongs. Go get 'em.)

(And honestly the way I feel like the narrative should wrap up is by making the End as the Middle instead. But thats my writerly preference)

So, I think... Rose and Kanaya should probably break up. Kanaya doesn't deserve the bullshit Rose put her through and if Rose is falling out of love, they both deserve to be honest about it. This is Rose "breaking the game" all over again, and by that I mean Rose "breaking the Happy Ending norms that society likes to enforce on the populace". Sometimes, divorce IS what leads to the Good Ending. Sometimes, love ISNT forever. I am delighted by this sincerely.

But the story shouldnt end with the divorce (thats too normal!!!). Lets be weird. Anyways, Rose owes herself the Truth. I hope the story kickstarts both her and Kanaya's stories again and maybe... Maybe they'll hate each other and they'll end up as kismesis bc Kanaya is wasted in Flush romances gurl I know you can tear a body in two. And uh... well... let's fade to black here. Heehee.

As for John... I actually really love June as his next development. But here's my thing. I dont believe John is one of the people "who always knew they were going to transition". I dont buy that the only "valid transperson" is someone who knew from a young age that they were "trans". I know people who were Cis* for a good chunk of their life and through a confluence of events realize hey... That cis* isnt working for them anymore. (*for a given definition of cis)

I think John follows this trajectory. Dont even get me started on people who think that devaluing ANY transition bc "oh you were traumatized so youre only transitioning out of trauma". First of all, those people would devalue ALL transitions at the drop of a hat. Hey, newsflash, your past experiences in fact inform your present realities. And hey, sometimes, that means a cis*boy decides that instead of doing a piroutte into death, a better and more hopeful change maybe in becoming a woman.

I dont think John becoming June will magically remove her depression. I think June needs some prozac on top of the girlpill. But you know... It feels like a breath of fresh air for June to Become something new. Because John deserves to rest, and June deserves a chance to scratch and bite her way into a new life. I looooove June as a way of Egbert forging an identity thats not part of the game anymore. It honestly feels narratively perfect to me. She's still going to be depressed and traumatized but she's relearning how to be.

Tl;Dr I think Rose Lalonde and J. Egbert should Become Something New. Maybe that means Rose dates different people and maybe that means John grows into June.

[woomycritiques543]

(Based on another post.)

Ok... I was looking at the designs and-

Has anyone realized how weird the racial implications of Hazbin Hotel (and Helluva Boss with the main characters) are?

I know someone else has already talked about this-

But Charlie Morningstar is clearly white coded. The “corrupt souls” she has to “save” are clearly poc coded or are directly poc. The “villains” of the show are MOSTLY poc with Velvet being confirmed as poc indirectly by Vivziepop not long ago and Valentino was confirmed to be hispanic too. It gets off “white savior” vibes along with the fact that 1. Theres a creole character who practices voodoo who’s stereotyped as a cann^bal 2. There being a hispanic poc (Valentino) who’s also shown to be highly aggressive, to a character thats Italian: a ethnicity thats considered as “white” in many places. Hell! Niffy is even Japanese, and she was drawn as yellow 100% of the time until just recently.

They also have this thing where theres something i’d like to call “Greywashing”: Where Vivziepop deliberately avoids using the color brown, and instead makes all of her poc (No, “Coco” doesnt count shes from another artist. This is only about the main designer.) a lighter shade of grey, giving the illusion of brown skin without actually making them brown. While Vivziepop gave Charlie a peach-like skin tone. So its clearly not because they're demons but something else entirely.

(Light Grey.)

(Grey, with a brownish tint mixed in.)

(LIGHT grey.)

(Not counting Valentino since he seems to be more moth based than Vaggie and isnt intended to be as humanoid unlike those that are on this list.)

While Charlie, our “main heroine” is drawn as a blonde looking girl with snow-white skin. I know some people will make the “they're demons!” excuse, but these characters in particular are clearly meant to be the closest to human looking. Especially Charlie, who’s design is just a generic looking white girl with some Halloween makeup slapped on, an eye infection, and neko teeth.

So her being the main protagonist, half of the made to be “worst” characters such as Valentino and Alastor directly being poc. Plus the fact that the show is demonizing a closed religion that was created by African slaves as a way of coping with their situation while Hazbin is showing it as “evil” or “dark magic”. Plus in Helluva Boss, the “succubitches” are all shown to be sluts who are written in a negative light, who also happen to be poc in their human forms.

... who are also shamed by the police as “degenerates.”

They also have a poc background character named “Rat”, a animal that tends to be stereotyped in cartoons as “dirty” or “disease filled.” and yet they decided to name the second darkest character (who is also from a different artist) this.

This combined with the other implications can only make me say:

What is Vivziepop’s deal with us?! Why is she outright refusing to draw us without making our skin somewhat grey- a light grey for that matter! The people at the wiki call Alastor “beige.” But I remember there being a time where they called him khaki, and earlier “grey.” Even beige is described as a “greyish tan” and is considered “the most pale” type of brown. So even the “browns” are very pale and arent the shade most of us are- aka pure, dark, brown! Even most light skin people are not grey- but brown! 

This isnt about the morality of the characters and them being demons, this is about the stereotyping from the creator. I dont give a shit if the show is meant to be “edgy”- you either choose to be borderline racist, ableist, and narcissitic with how you write your characters, or actually “progressive.” Choosing both just makes you look like most of the hypocrites over at Twitter who think that representation is a “two way” street that can be morphed into whatever benefits someone’s bias of a specific discriminated group. But back to Hazbin-

The implications with the poc are off-putting, and it makes me all the more nervous for how theyre going to present poc in the next show. Yikes! 

[officialgleamstar]

MNMOMS??? 👀👀👀👀👀

hmmmm I’d like to know more about the relationship between the moms and their kids maybe? if you havent answered that already?

oh or anything about the relationship between any of the moms

really just anything about mnmoms, im obsessed GSHSHSHGSHEH

HIII LEX!! oogh. relationships between the moms and their kids... i think ive mostly only talked about morgan and nick/nicholas, on tumblr at least, so i can definitely get more into that :D

morgan and nick... well-trod ground. morgan is severely paranoid and over-protective of nick, while nick is severely clingy but also has to pick a fight with everything she say, etc etc. i havent spoken as much about morgan's relationship with nicholas i dont think beyond establishing that she loves him and that hes a total mama's boy gbhjfdhjbj so i can talk about that!! though shes more well-managed by the time he is present, morgan is still very protective of nicholas, helped by the fact that he is the most high-strung kid on the planet. hes very jumpy whenever jodie isnt around, seeing him as his main source of safety, and hes also like... pretty aware of morgan's conflicted feelings on him? nicholas is exactly what morgan always wanted nick to be, well-behaved and careful, and it just makes her so much more aware of everything she lost. nicholas knows he is loved, and morgan does love nicholas, but hes also very aware of... well, his mom is different to him now, too. he can understand that he is just as foreign to her, hes a smart kid. they love each other very much, and honestly, morgan's relationship with nicholas is a lot healthier than it was with nick, but theyre both overly aware of the elephant in the room.

carol and grant probably have the most consistently positive mother/son relationship throughout the entirety of mnmoms, besides mercedes and lark at least! however, this... isnt for good reasons LMAO. pre-forgotten realms, carol generally wasnt home much, preferring to work herself to death at her office job. so grant literally prefers her to darryl just because she was never the one around to get mad at, she was never trying to talk to him, he didnt have to worry about helping her with chores because she didnt do housework, etc. they love each other very much, but once they get to the forgotten realms, carol becomes very aware that she cannot remember the last time she had a proper conversation with her son. just, no comprehension of whats going on in his life at the moment. its BAD, yall, but the two never really question their love for each other, which cant be said for all the kids. ive talked about this before, but they do have a plot of bonding over their sexuality journeys, carol works really harden to soften her sharp edges for her son and to be more present in his life, and they come out of the forgotten realms in a much better place than they went in! (though, take this with a grain of salt, because its definitely the same way that darryl and grant came out better in canon. this does not mean that they werent both traumatized LOL)

samantha and terry junior... start off the worst, for sure :') i have talked about their relationship before but it was part of a longer ramble about sammy, so i will reiterate it here! samantha has a bad habit of going therapy mode on terry junior and he is very aware of it. she is of the opinion that she should not put her emotions on her son at all, because she is his mother and thats not his responsibility (which actually stems a lot from samantha's relationship with her own mom but i think im gonna get into that more for isadora's ask--). however, terry takes her facade of calm as her being utterly in denial about terry senior dying at all, and he cant understand why she wont even show that shes upset. this already puts their relationship in a tenuous space over a few years, and when samantha starts dating and then marries ron, terry's trust in her is. utterly obliterated. at the end of their time in the forgotten realms, like with ron, they arguably have the best relationship though! samantha learns how to show her emotions without having terry junior feel obligated to help her and does her best to be more vulnerable with him in general, and terry junior learns how to accept that his mom is allowed to have a life beyond his biological dad. they make me so fjhbghjbghj <3333

and okay. right. finally. haunted expression. mercedes and the twins.

firstly, mercedes and lark. consistently a good relationship! they have the typical oak-garcia issue of lark running all over her, not really treating her as an authority figure, but its obvious that he absolutely adores her and that she adores him in turn. this is helped by the fact that mercedes is definitely the "fun" parent - glenn parallels, lol - so she has even less control over the twins than henry did, mostly because she never thinks to exert any. still, even though lark and sparrow are absolute agents of chaos, they love their mom and lark never stops loving their mom. by the end of their journey, he's a little more distant from mercedes out of guilt, mostly. lark is still the one to stab henry in this au without any of the deep rooted rogue card anger to validate it for himself, and he has a very hard time looking either of his parents in the eye afterwards. however, he also considers them both his main source of comfort, and tends to trail them quietly around the house when hes upset.

mercedes and sparrow. haunted expression intensifies. "Is there anything as undoing as a daughter?" sorry for quoting arcane but LITERALLY MERCEDES QUOTE OF ALL TIME. it starts... the same as mercedes and lark: no sense of authority, but very positive emotions! sparrow is not out as transfem at the beginning of their journey, its still something she is working out throughout their time in the forgotten realms (she very much has a moment of like... "i'm in a new place where nobody knows me, so i'm going to pretend to be a girl and see how many people are fooled! that's a very normal thing for boys to do!" and lark plays along lol), and a lot of their time pre-rogue card is dedicated to that! mercedes and sparrow bond a lot as sparrow warms up to the idea of coming out as trans, and mercedes. well. mercedes already knew before going into the realms and has been reading a million different pamphlets and consulting advice columns and talking to morgan on how to perfectly handle this situation LOL. so their relationship is kind of perfect, actually, and they are doing really really well until the deck of many things comes into play :')

post deck of many things, sparrow is... very openly Not A Fan Of Mercedes. she is still the upbeat positive lovewolf twin in this (though i think she more wants to generally be a witch than a lovewolf, since her mama's a bard and not a druid!), so it is even more obvious when sparrow suddenly is not giving mercedes the time of day. sparrow is utterly convinced that she is destined for greater things in a very negative way, and blames her discovery of this on mercedes getting them stuck in the forgotten realms. she also, similar to lark in canon, blames the moms as a whole for the fact that walter was hurt and sees them widely as useless. mercedes, for her part, does everything she can to redeem herself to sparrow, and is endlessly frustrated by the fact that nothing she does works. post-forgotten realms, they argue pretty relentlessly, sparrow locks herself in her room and screams herself hoarse, mercedes storms out into the back garden and cries until she gets a migraine, and henry takes lark out for ice cream-- despite this, sparrow does still seek out a lot of comfort from mercedes, and she has a habit of casually finding herself, at night, in wolf form and curled up at the foot of her parents' bed. strange and so weird how she ends up specifically sprawled out across her mom's feet at least once a week, if not fully laying between her parents. crazy. what a coincidence. shes a fully independent child with no need for comfort for sure though

[gamingdotcom]

no i think it makes sense actually. i was trying to make the different outcomes with astarions ascension make sense and now they do. like hes on the edge of a breakthrough. like it makes sense to me-- hes almost ready to believe you, that you care about him, that you see him as a person, that you neither seek to dominate nor be dominated, that there are other ways of being, that the world is not always a cruel place but that he did in fact get the worse possible luck you coule have. but if he doesnt believe you, his shit is shattered. wouldnt that drive you insane? to have been strung along for so long only to realize that you were right all along? hope is a funny thing.

anyway what even got me thinking about that was just. how poorly karlach takes killing her betrayer versus how well astarion takes it. like its not cathartic for her, it doesnt change anything. vs astarion, who could not possibly feel safe in the world with cazador in it, so he is finally free. but that could have well broken him, too, to have his sworn enemy, the thesis of his hatred of this life taken from him by his own hand. he despairs, sure, but when you talk to him after... he just wants to live. he wants to be free and enjoy that freedom. in contrast, karlach realizes that killing him changed nothing, and im realizing that up to that moment that she had not considered what would come after. astarion has thought about it for years-- decades, two centuries! and karlach has seconds, seconds to come to grips with the truth: she's not getting out of this alive. oh, the despair! the isnt any more sorry than when he was alive of it all! and the last, fucking worst part of it... she can live, but she can't be free. over and over again you are presented the dialogue option to remind her that she can live, if only she'd return to avernus. what a horrifying fate! your freedom or your life! i would be raging! kicking and screaming and crying and destroying! i think the grief would have destroyed me. but, she does persist. shes karlach, through and through, and you return to her and she's grateful to have even been here in the first place, grateful for all of it. and astarion... not so much. he sees what she's gone through and sees the truth of it. you dont get more than that one line of dialogue with him, but i think it would be much the same as his dialogue with you if you let haarlep possess you-- you can deal with it, but thats not the point. you shouldn't have to. he wants the world to be just. he wants it to be fair... if not for him, then for someone. but karlach isn't hung up on that at all, or so it would seem. much to think about.

[todayisawthewhxlewxrld]

AXEL‼️ today i almost shit myself at school(not actually)

I hate the first day back. my spanish teacher loves to call on me bc she knows im not confident with my spanish and that i have a fear of public speaking (i dont even know why i’ve been fluent since i was 5💀) SO SHE LIKES TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT AND CALL ON ME TO READ THE LONGEST PARAGRAPH IN WHATEVER TEXTBOOK, ARTICLE OR LITERALLY WHATEVER WE’RE READING 😭 ITS LIKE SHE’LL LET EVERYONE ELSE READ THE SHORT STUFF AND THEN SHE’LL MAKE ME READ WAY MORE THAN EVERYONE ELSE AND IM JUST LIKE?? i get that its to “help build confidence” and shit like that but is it really helping if her “helping me build confidence” made me have a panic attack last year? I DONT THINK SO.

oh yeah so you’re probably wondering abt the panic attack thing🧍‍♀️ so lemme just give you a little back story first about how i feel about her class and stuff‼️ her class terrified me. like every time i would enter i’d be shaking and my heart would be beating so hard that i could feel it in my throat… kinda embarrassing…

but anyway it was just cause we had to present a something we made for a project and i was losing my mind because my friends didnt want to present it and my class was pretty big and filled with a bunch of rude and snotty people so i went to talk to the teacher to ask if i could just present to her privately or something but she said no so like i lowk freaked out and had a break down in the middle of the hallway 💀

honestly though the work isnt that hard considering i passed spanish with an A throughout the years but i just HATE talking in front of the class because for one my accent is different than everyone elses and two im one of the only non native spanish speakers so im kinda just like on edge cause yk how some people are theyre just not nice 🫠

anyway for the rest of the school day things were pretty good except J was being weird again and i think he was trying to flirt with me? he was just being rlly inappropriate and kept stealing my stuff 🫠 he stole my bag and then tried to go through it and then he asked if i had a dildo in my bag and if i like using it 😟 he then proceeded to walk around the class and tell people i have a dildo in my bag. i probably should’ve told C or a teacher idk why i didn’t 😭 oh yeah speaking of C hella people think we’re dating AND NO MATTER HOW MANY TIMES I TELL THEM WE’RE NOT THEY WONT SHUT UP AND JUST KEEP TELLING EVERYONE THAT WE’RE DATING.

oh i alsofell asleep in english😭 i got lucky at the teacher didnt notice though‼️ and then my friend fell down the stairs

ANYWAY THATS ALL‼️ so how are you axel? OOO WHATS YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL??

thats all for today! byebye and ilysm 💗💗

-bambi

dude i swear to god spanish teachers r either the worst person on this planet or the sweetest person ever no in between…. LIKE WHY IS SHE TARGETING U OMG i’d have to start swinging i fear…

i need J to like explode why does he act like that do u think it’s bc he doesn’t get attention at home… that’s mean sorry LMFAO um anyway i hope he leaves u the hell alone already bc u deserve it😍😍

UR FRIEND FELL DOWN THE STAIRS ?1?1??1 HELP R THEY OK???😭😭😭

i’m ok!!! and HMMMM my favorite animals r probably bats !!! what is urs :0

BYEEE ILYT!!!!

[sirwolficus]

I had to quit miraculous awhile ago but at one point I was interested. Pray tell, has there been an identity reveal that didn’t get undone by amnesia/time travel/weird plot contrivance, yet?

listen, i wish i had that self control. i dont like miraculous. though i do appreciate some of the pros of the show (the diversity, for instance, is something i respect, especially being produced in france which [from what ive heard from a good friend from france i went to college with] isnt as progressive with lgbt+ as canada or parts of the USA), the main thing i have always, and will always have issue with, is the writing.

so, putting this under read more in case people dont want spoilers

so, to condense my internal rants -- no, theres no identity reveal. i thought i heard something or other about that, but no, theres no chat noir/ladybug identity reveal. there IS, however, a ladybug/HAWKMOTH identity reveal. without chat noir present.

chat noir is written out of most of the finale.

oh! also, hawkmoth won. he just straight up won. he got what he wanted.

in the episode preceding the two parter, there is a large build up between adrien and his dad, who self akumatizes again (wowzers!), and as they fight they argue about parenting. adrien knows he's yelling at his dad, but gabriel doesnt -- something i assumed was a build up to a final hawkmoth/chat noir showdown, something of that nature. but nope! it seems like that episode was the product of the shows worth of adrien vs gabriel tension. and its severely disappointing.

also, they confirm that felix is a sentimonster-- cool. they imply adrien is also one, which is less cool. just say it. its season 5.

this entire season has been, and continues to be, build up-build up-build up, which coalesces into a two parter that cuts one of the main characters, brings in characters from the movies (which i didnt even see, so i had no idea who the hell these people were, randomly showing up and fighting the villains), and an even more batshit insane scheme that usual. chloe becomes temporary mayor (???? shes like 14? or 15? however old theyre supposed to be anyway) in one episode, then the alliance rings are used to like, hypnotize everyone? its so fucking confusing. kagami and adrien are quite sincerely, by definition kidnapped by their parents too. but their parents did it to keep them safe!! (and then kagami and adrien were still affected by the akuma attacks/hypnotism/etc, so....)

i think the worst part is that hawkmoth actually won. he summoned god (NO EXAGGERATION.) and sacrificed himself to bring emilie back.... which brings up a ton of questions. my main ones being; what the fuck? did he rewrite time? did she just wake up from the coma? what happened to gabriel? did everyone just accept that adriens mom is back? did no one question this sudden switch?

obviously, in this little end-montage, they explain that gabriel 'helped defeat hawkmoth with ladybug', and he gets a statue in his honour, and adrien, quite literally says, i dont think i can ever be like him (or a line to that effect, if my memory's correct). and thats such a slap in the face.

its... stupid. it really is. i feel unsatisfied, and frankly, duped. i had always thought that it would be a final showdown between ladybug, chat noir and hawkmoth. where we could see the parallels between gabriel/emelie and adrien/marinette -- this is stuff i was expecting as soon as it was revealed that gabriel had emelie creepily in his basement. i was expecting a happy ending, obviously (its a kids show), but one that was hard earned. no one got that. no arcs were completed, or at the very least, completed well.

felix and kagami get together. ??? why? felix is also an ally now. why? chloe seems to be out of the picture, and lila now holds the butterfly miraculous.

like, i cant even lie. i made superhero ocs based off of how angry i am at this show. because i genuinely feel i can do better. i think most people could do better, because theyve ignored integral parts of the hero's journey. hell, it's barely a journey to begin with.

i think i mostly watch it now still, because i hopped on the train back when season 2 first aired, when i was in elementary school. im a god damn college drop out now! if this doesnt prove the time invested = loyalty theory, then i dont know what does