#like. fuck. the people he loves most are like paragons and he sees them as such. but hes just. a guy.

[avephelis]

albatrio and celestial symbolism are soo. jay is the sun and gill is the moon but chip is just flesh and bones in the earth. even in undeath he's just the rawest components of the body. not chosen or blessed or anything. just human.

[thestargayzingheroine]

Why A Better World is my favourite "Evil Superman" Story

So in the last two decades or so, there's been a notable amount of dark and edgy stories around superheroes turning evil and whatnot and most of them really love to do their own expies of Superman. I've never been the biggest fans of these kinds of stories.

And then there's the actual stories of Superman and other heroes being outright villains or at least just massive assholes. In recent years, this has been largely thanks to the influence of media like the Injustice Games or the Synderverse DC movies. It's... honestly become a trope I am tired of.

Because you know the damnest thing? There is a story that does all these ideas really damn well and arguably better. It is the two-parter from the Justice League cartoon "A Better World".

Now, I am aware how most people favouring the DCAU has become a bit of toxic nostalgia at times and it's something I myself am trying to work through a bit. But in this case, I do think it's the best idea of doing an evil DC story, much better and more interesting than the Crime Syndicate, who if you ask me are not very interesting, though I do remember liking the Crisis On Two Earths movie a lot, which funny enough, was originally going to be this two parter before various things led to it being canned and then later repurposed as a direct to DVD movie.

Anyway, my main crux of why I love this story is simple... The entire Justice League turns evil... and the reasons are very much in-character for all of them. You look at the scene with Justice Lord Batman for example.

As fucking evil as the Justice Lords are... Batman can't quite fully hate his alternate self for his reason for taking part in all this being basically one-step further than his own mission, that no child should ever go through what he did. Hell, I recall reading that the reason the writers had Batman drop his batarang at the end of this scene... was because he genuinely wouldn't be able to come up with an argument to that.

Superman likewise kills Lex Luthor because yeah, Luthor literally exploited the flaws in Democracy and became president of the US, threatening to kinda basically start world war 3. It's obviously horrible... but Superman is a character whose main motivation is making the world a better place. And if people who abuse the systems of power of the world are hurting people, why shouldn't Superman put a stop to that?

And yeah, Superman should obviously never kill, he's the most paragon of paragons of the DC universe, a man committed to always being better than the villains he fights... but this is him pushed to his most logical extreme. Hell, the main Superman knows this and its why Lex used his knowledge of this alternate universe as part of his plan in the season after this, to goad our Superman into crossing the line because yeah, there's a part of him that could go this far.

But right as Superman is about to apparently finish him, the big guy says this.

"I'm not the man who killed President Luthor. I wish to heaven that I were but I'm not."

Because Superman like everyone else, obviously would have those same thoughts and same urges. He's human.

I've kinda gone off Injustice a bit because to be honest... the injustice games were kinda just this but a bit too edgelordy. Hell, in A Better World, Lois Lane still lives and the whole genesis of it doesn't revolve around her getting fridged.

So yeah, A Better World is probably one of my favourite mirror universe stories because of the fact that well... it really is like looking in a mirror and seeing just how easy the greatest heroes can become evil and how they wouldn't be massively out of character doing so. But also it reminds us that as much as this darkness can tempt some of our finest, the ones who don't go down this dark path are stronger in heart than anyone else. Because when the world becomes a dark and horrible place, it becomes very easy to be just as dark. But even though it can be hard to still try and be a good person even in dark times, it's ultimately worth it. Because good always triumphs over evil.

[evilminji]

Know what's been haunting me? And my Yandere loving brain?

What if... an SI-OC? Fffffucked UP™?

Like? STRAIGHT up "....Oh No. I have? GRAVELY miscalculated."? Cause? And I'm probably wrong here, or forgetting nuisances, but? Dooku? Left the order and began his Fall? NOT because he disagreed with the vast majority of Jedi philosophy... but?

Because of what the Jedi had BECOME.

Senate attack dogs. Indentured servants. Following NOT the Force or their Orders Mandate, but a mere GOVERMANT. Politicians. Straight into ruin and slaughter no less! It was vile. Corrupt. A perversion and degradation of HIS beloved Jedi Order.

He was proud and filled with grief, isolated. Palpatine chose well.

But! He was ALSO a Master Jedi with DECADES of Mastery under his belt. You do not become that with out clear vision of what you want. Who you ARE. And Dooku? Very CLEARLY planned on winning. Killing Sidious and taking his place. An unfortunate necessity, really. In his Grand Plan™.

Too?

Start over, obviously.

Instead of just leaving and starting a NORMAL Religious Schism, building a temple on Serrano, and publicly calling his old Council members lil bitchs. Slap fighting in the town square, as is traditional. Maybe sending pass aggressive notes back and forth in the hands of increasingly spoiled Padawan, because OUR temple at least FEEDS these POOR WAIFS. Etc etc?

Dude went the SITH route. Of... you know... "kill everybody".

Bit extreme. Just saying.

However! Dooku? Not well! In fact, DEEPLY unhinged and masterfully hiding it! Because he is, in fact, a MASTER jedi! And know how to fucking DO THAT. So that slow creep of Deepyly Crazy? No one sees it. Gives ya time to miss the countdown to Boom, as it were.

Which leads to our dearly beloved SI. She? Is a well meaning IDIOT. She can't help it. It's the Force, man. All that feel good juice, clogging up her brain! Making her? Optimistic! Vaguely perky! Wanting to see the GOOD in people!!!

Disturbing, she knows. But it is what it is.

And MASTER Dooku? Feels? Stern but warm. Stalwart. Like one of those ancient trees or great temples in a quite moment. Old and powerful, not necessarily KIND, but certainly not UNKIND. Just... fussy, you know? Proper. Collected and self contained. Doesn't like messy and dirty and needless noise.

So... what's an itty bitty Crecheling to do? To stop this Respected Master from falling? Well... Yoda seems to think "babies" works? And SHE is Baby...

Better scrub down so I'm EXTRA not "why are all children so... sticky?" and make my self look as presentable as possible. Then? Plan: Stalk the Respected Master Dooku Like A Duckling is a GO~! Yoda finds this INSTANTLY hilarious. Starts feeding her insider information (One of his many, later Great Regrets).

Dooku likes THIS tea. Meditates in THIS garden. Ask him about THIS subject, no one listens to him rant about it, he'll enjoy lecturing you about it for HOURS. She actually learns quite a lot! Man's a good teacher. And SHE? Is a dutiful, polite, thoughtful, shining young paragon example of what he feels the Jedi SHOULD be.

She LISTENS. Unlike his foolish peers. She tries to better herself, day by day, instead of running around screaming and playing in mud. Asks after etiquette from the courts he's traveled too, so she does not offend in the future. Does not react with blind disgust to questions others would deem heretical!

Instead? SHE comes from a JEDI place of approach with compassion and consultation of the Force. What creates the most GOOD? How can we strive for the kindest, most ethical, most equal social possible? What brings the universe the most Light? Where do OUR duties end and the duties of OTHERS begin, and when is it time to call them on their failings, should there be any?

It is? Delightful~ if he were not already committed to his path, he would seriously consider taking her on as a Padawn. Like the Granddaughter he never had. In FACT? He is conflicted. While he does not wish to lose the bright little light he has become so accustomed too? He should probably do what is best for her.

He IS leaving after all. Eventually. Perhaps after Qui-Gon finally knights his own padawn. He can convince the man to come with him. A talk between them has been so very, very long overdue. And the man is like a son to him. Young Obi-Wan is a fine young Jedi. Upstanding and collected, could use a bit of tempering. Outrageous flirt. It would be hilarious.

It's a good plan.... right up until it isn't.

Until the Council's BLINDNESS lead his SON to dying alone. For Sidious little games. And the place in HIS chosen lineage is USURPED by some WHINY SAND COVERED BRAT who can not CONTROL himself! No. NO.

Absolutely Not.

As far as HE is concerned? HIS lineage? Goes him, Qui-gon, Obi-Wan, and then SI-OC. No Sand Brat. Is he spiraling? Oh yes. Has been for a while. But now? NOW someone just kicked out a major support beam. The building is a'shaking. SI-OC is worried. Knows this could make or break his Fall.

Doesn't realize that ship has sailed LONG before she arrived.

Jedi Master's do not Fall over night. It is the slow erosion that kills them. Death by ten thousand cuts. He was already thousands deep. Bleeding and bleeding, beyond her abilities to heal. Yoda could have changed things. He is a Master. But a mere Crecheling? An untrained child? No. She stood no chance.

Does not realize that, as she stands in the heart of the storm. The center of the bear trap. As composed Master Dooku grieves and rages, hair disheveled and robes a mess. No, he can not come to the comm right now. No, he is not taking visitors, thank you. Please, Master Dooku. Please! Drink some tea? Eat? Something. Anything. I beg you.

It is a focal point. An anchor to cling to, in that great Fall. As SI-OC fusses with blankets and music that might help, pressing her small and fragile light against his shields like a comforting weight. As though trying to protect him from the pain. As though ANYTHING could protect him.

Sits with him, in remembrance.

Comes with him, to the funeral.... where stands the sand brat. At HER Master's side. As though enough has not been stolen. How dare he? How dare THEY? To allow this!? Hatred festers. Rage. The mania that Darkness brings. He sees now. Ooooo ho ho, does he now see.

The Order has become Rotten. It cannot be saved. The Jedi have lost their way.

The old must be purged... and they must begin again.

It's all so CLEAR now. So simple. The path forward. Its so obvious now, HE is not leaving, oh no, THEY are leaving. It would be madness to leave a vulnerable Crecheling in such unfettered corruption. Exposed to the nonexistent mercies of Sidious and his ilk. Not to mention, Force knows what filth they'd attempt to stuff in her head behind his back!

Knight Kenobi is an adult. Can comport himself and defend his person. SI-OC can not. She is just a youngling. Should have BARELY been a padawn. But... things have changed.

SI-OC fall asleep, comfortable and certain she is perfectly safe, in MASTER Dooku's apartments. Just another Tea Time and obscure Force Philosophy lecture. Maybe some hands-on etiquette lessons. There are many, MANY different ways to take tea. And... man... the room is so cozy. Always so comfortable and tastefully inviting. Warm an... an snoozy... feelin... *thunk of a small child falling over, dead to the world*

Drugged? Sleep suggestion? Soothing bedtime tea? Yes. Yes, he did. She stood literally negative chances. He scoops up HIS granddaughter and leaves droids to pack the rest. Tucks her under his cloak. No one thinks to even check. Who would? He is trusted. Respected. It is well known how he dotes upon the child. Old age has softened him, some jest.

The dangers of attachment indeed. But it is not HIM who is in danger. It is HER who his attachment endangers. Because he can not let go. WILL NOT. Because it can crossed from caring to obsessive. Possessive. To mine, mine, mine.

Children are not property. Not toys or trophies. Teddy bears to squeeze until your hurt stops. They are living, breathing, entities in their own right. Which is something a JEDI would be able to accept. The SITH? No. No, see, his Great-grandpadawn is HIS. This is HIS family. HIS Jedi order. HIS plan to "fix" everything.

She done fucked up.

She wakes up on a ship to Serrano with COUNT Dooku.

His... his eyes turn Interesting Colors now. Ha ha... she is... staying Very Calm. It is REALLY important to stay VERY calm. No sudden movements. We Do Not startle the Darksider! Eeeeeeverones FRIENDS here! R-Right?

Oh of course. Nothing to be worried about, dear. You're just going to his Manor until the NEW temple is finished. (Neat. Terrifying. So, SO many horrifying parts of that sentence). And SI-OC? Pulls the good ol "never argue with the crazy person with a gun" technique. Smile and Nod! Mmmmhmmm! G-great! Can't wait!

(Oh god, help me)

War breaks out. She's on THE Separatist planet. But not? Before crazy grandpa? Has hired bounty hunters to find him force sensitive kids. You know, for the NEW Jedi order. Because we're all pretending here. Smile and nod, fellow hostages. For the love of the Force, smile and nod.

She's not entirely even certain half these children were from families that WANTED to give them up. It makes her sick to think about.

She still has to have Tea Time. Because she, a child, is the HEAD of the New Order. And he has decades of Jedi knowledge to impart. Also? Lonely and fixating. We're a happy family. Because I say so and have hostages. That's why you love you, don't you dear? *SI-OC with a wide, terrified hostage smile* mmmmhmm!

The Jedi? Have figured out what happened. Crecheling mysteriously disappeared at the same time a Count Dooku? They originally thought she tried to follow him. Got lost or grabbed by slavers. But now... NOW? Oh Force they know they horrifying truth. The Darksider stole a CHILD.

Everyone remembers SI-OC. She was the sweet little duckling. Well behaved and polite. A kind child. Worried for Count Dooku. And now look at what's happened?! The CIS is trotting out the "head" or their "new order" and it's their lost Crecheling. Now a teenager. Terror in her eyes and a fixed jedi smile.

The Creche Masters have to be physically dragged away from stealth ships. (They're just going to talk! They're jUST GOING TO TAL-!!!) Plo Koon is fucking HELPING and that's NOT helpful! No, your commander do NOT have "a point"! You can not do just a "little bit" of murder as "a treat"!

A certain Quinlan Vos? Never heard of him, of course, rocks up to this New Order with a smoothie. Has betrayed the OLD order and the Republic. Definitely for realisies and not because he's here to spy! Heeeeey, kiddo. How you holding up?

Answer? Oh THANK GOD, AN ADULT JEDI! Halp! Followed by gross sobbing. So... you know... not GREAT. Wouldn't recommend it.

But! The INTEL. Sweet holy shit, kid. Chips. Palpatine. Dooku behind the Clones. Everything ELSE she's quietly been noting down. Uuuuh, yeah. Yeah that WILL be... real useful.... Holy shit. No, seriously, give him a second. Just like that? Huh. Didn't even have to convince you. Wow. Okay.

Well then! Let's fuck over some Sith!

How the Shadows go about it? Probably very action movie and nail biting. High octane. Sweet big budget cgi effects. They get the De-chipped clones involved. Fox gets to finally, FINALLY shoot his boss. Never a happier man. He deserves it.

But that's not important. What IS? Is Quinlan Vos? Showing up to the Temple, with a burger and smelling strongly of smoke, and like.... over 450 force sensitive younglings, teenage and below. And probably a litter of tookas. Because what? Were they supposed to LEAVE them?

She takes One(1) step into the temple and gets hit with like? Three generations of Guilt Complexes. Man Pain. Yoda, Obi-Wan, AND Anikin? Mother FUCKER, you were 9! What were you supposed to DO? Bite him?! You literally JUST GOT HERE. *SI-OC has used Logic against Skywalker Guilt... it is not very effective!*

When? When will she be freeeeeeee? Cannon Yoda had the right idea.

She should go hide in a fucking SWAMP.

@babbling-babull @legitimatesatanspawn @spidori @lolottes @hypewinter @mayfay @hdgnj

[dairy-farmer]

https://www.tumblr.com/dairy-farmer/726959056617635841/and-i-thought-youd-be-the-last-person-to-ever?source=share

ok but dick cheating au kinda makes me want jason to swoop in and be unbelievably smug about it

like jay and tim's relationship is at lot and yes jay has hurt tim badly but jason has also never been anything but unfailingly honest with tim

if jason was having issues or doubts or even thinking about cheating on tim he would at least put their relationship on a break instead of self sabotage like dick

i think tim deserves that type of honesty and dick deserves to see tim happy with someone else

and also i'm a jaytim shipper at heart

!!!!! jason and tim have a very different dynamic from the rest of the family. they're not quite brothers and not fully enemies but they're also not quite friends. they're in this weird gray area and so tim's not sure who's more surprised when he goes to jason's apartment after leaving dick's- him or jason.

the only place tim can think to go is jason's because...unlike most of the bats jason is surprisingly nonjudgemental. his disapproval or pity or whatever knee jerk reaction people will have about tim getting cheated on in a relationship is sort of...not there. jason, when he feels like it, is a very calm presence. despite their tumultuous history and even antagonism towards each other tim feels an odd kind of comfort and ease at being around jason. jason is also someone who never hesitates to speak their mind and enforce firm boundaries. so when the family starts calling tim after dick desperately reached out to them, jason doesn't hesitate to tell them to fuck off and leave him alone.

jason is an unexpected pillar of support and a big relief from the rest of the family's tiptoeing.

tim does not tell them why he and dick have broken up. he doesn't want to endure that awkwardness and humiliation of forcing the family to try and navigate the minefield of THEIR breakup. jason accompanies him to dick's apartment to pick up his things because...well jason is the only one who really knows about the circumstances. tim couldn't very well just show up to his apartment without an explanation and so tim had condensed it down to a 'i walked in on dick fucking barbara in our bed and he has the keys to all my apartments can i stay here?'

jason is not some paragon of virtue. tim knows that lying and cheating is something jason does daily to get shit in his part of gotham done but if there's one thing jason isn't- it's indecisive. sometimes he will do something stupid and live with the consequences rather than hem and haw over it. tim respects that. it makes it so that jason is always blunt and brutally honest about stuff whether or not they hurt people's feelings.

so tim knows jason is being truthful when he tells tim he won't let dick talk to him if tim doesn't want to when they pull up to the apartment.

dick cries when tim shows up with boxes. he begs and he pleads and it amazes tim to realize that just a few days ago those sounds would've ripped his heart to shreds. dick also apologizes. a lot. he says it was a mistake that he never meant to do it, he doesn't know what came over him, he loves tim, he doesn't know why he hurt him.

and maybe its true. maybe dick honestly is a victim of his own impulse. but that's up to him to fix. lest he do this to his next partner.

jason keeps dick in one corner of the apartment while tim sorts through their laundry and wraps up antique dishes that belonged to his parents. the rest of his stuff will have to be for movers to take and tim takes pictures of dressers and couches so they can be forwarded to the company. its better to cut this off clean and quick. no mess. tim won't leave even a hair behind so there will be no confusion about this, no excuses for dick to show up at his door with a shirt tim left behind. tim drake is not a forgetful person and so him "forgetting" a knick-knack or shirt behind must be a sign that he was leaving the door cracked for them to possibly reconcile, wasn't it???

no. tim was not doing that. he wasn't THAT big of a masochist. but he had to make sure he cleaned everything out because dick...lingered. every one of dick's breakups was messy and fell into a cycle of repetition and it was never really 'the end'. dick was on again and off again with so many different people and tim was not about to do that. he didn't play games like that and so dick needed to know that whatever they had was off and would stay off.

the first time tim speaks to dick in the hour that he spends cleaning out the apartment is to turn to him and ask for the keys to his other lodgings across the city. and dick just...crumbles. he lets out loud heaving sounds and starts breathing hard and...tim's not heartless. this is clearly hitting dick very hard and...tim has most of his stuff gathered. so tim just tell him to mail him the keys to jason's address.

he's careful not to comfort dick or treat him delicately. that's the job of dick grayson's lover and friends and right now...tim doesn't want to be either.

jason makes it easier.

he's frank and he's honest and he doesn't try to save tim's feelings from telling him exactly what he thinks. that dick is a piece of shit for this but mostly a coward. that this is the kind of disrespect you don't take sitting down. that tim should firebomb dick's car, don't worry jason will cover for him.

jason is short with dick, if not outright rude. barbara gets the same treatment even though tim tells him to leave her alone because it's not like SHE was the one who owed him a commitment of monogamy and trust.

but jason just stares at him and quietly says that she knew full well they were together and she disregarded his entire existence, his feelings, and his relationship for a fuck with a boy who had dropped her numerous times. and plus, like dick, she was too ashamed of herself to even have the balls to properly apologize.

so being around jason is refreshing.

and soon after a few weeks in his apartment tim finally receives all his keys in the mail and a shameful note from dick accompanying it. he's sorry. tim believes him (some part of tim would like to believe that if he'd never walked in on them, if dick fully believed that he could make sure tim never found out- that he still would have told tim and tim still would have done...all this). but that still doesn't change anything.

tim doesn't stay in jason's apartment much longer, he knows how important having a space to yourself is so he doesn't want to be a bother for much longer.

but still, jason continues to talk to him. call him. text him.

tim asks why and is softly pleased by jason's reply that he enjoys spending time with tim.

things with dick are weird. frosty, even, when he gets too comfortable and casual for work acquaintances. but jason tells him to always maintain his boundaries and that dick will either get it eventually or tim will need to bring up an ultimatum so they can work together.

it isn't easy. some days tim wakes up feeling like absolute crap, sometimes he wakes up with nightmares of being on the other side of that door and hearing barbara and dick and the squeak of bed springs.

it was unbelievably selfish jason tells him. so fucking shortsighted and stupid. dick blew up the best relationship he's ever had for a girl he knew it didn't work out with. and babs? god. jason had actually thought she was kind of alright but for her to hurt tim like this when he'd never done a single thing to her?

its safe to say jason hates them. he probably hates dick and babs enough for both of them because most of the time tim can't muster enough strength to feel anything but indifference to both of them. he wonders if that means he should see someone. it's not normal is it? to amputate an entire limb of his soul. the part that belonged to dick.

but it gets easier. slowly.

jason helps. a lot.

even when tim registers his attraction to jason and his sensitivity and the way he gets so indignant at the pain of others, tim still doesn't try to pursue it.

it feels cheap. disingenuous. it feels too much like he'd be treating jason as a rebound following his relationship with dick and tim doesn't want that for jason. jason deserves better. he deserves to be loved wholly and fully with no agenda attached.

but jason has always been someone to go after what he wants and damn the consequences. he asks tim out ignoring how it would look, what people would say.

jason was already a 'reject', already ostracized, he told tim. people already thought the worst of him so who cared if they thought he was an opportunistic parasite who'd been waiting in the shadows for the moment dick and tim's relationship fell apart?

and...jason is good at that. helping tim get out of his own head. helping tim steady himself and figure out what he wants.

he makes him feel like its okay. to disregard what others might think, what dick might think if tim started a relationship with jason.

dick had already shown he could be selfish so...why shouldn't tim do the same?

[icantspellthings]

The thing that I really like about The Boys as a show is that there is no *truly* evil characters, there is nobody so irredeemable and 100% an evil asshole piece of shit for the sake of being one (well except stormfront but we're ignoring her).

Like with A-train at first when we met him, he was this fame obsessed adrenaline junkie who is only focused on winning/being number one and his popularity. He literally killed Robin and was totally set up to be the "main bad guy". But as the series went on, we actually see his character fleshed out more. There are nuances to his actions that yes were done out of selfishness, but if you looked at it from his perspective he is nothing without the Seven, he is nothing without his fame and money, he wants so desperately to not fall into poverty and irrelevancy anymore that he would fight tooth and nail just to maintain statusquo. And we start to see he realises the consequences of his actions whis brother got hurt and he apologised to hughie. Does it makes A-train a "Good" person? No but it certainly makes him a more sympathetic character.

Other characters, too, like The Deep who is a fucking rapist who you are primed to HATE right from the start for what he did to Annie. But as time goes on, your hate starts to lessen and transform into pity. At his core, Kevin is pathetic, insecure, and quite frankly a very idiotic and gullible man. He sexually assults other to gain power over them, does this make his actions justifiable, No. But it does make his actions understandable. He isn't a good person but he's a good *character* because he isn't just this 100% evil caricature of a person, he has nuances and contradictions and sometimes even sympathetic moments.

I could go on and on and on about the other characters in The Seven or even all the other minor villains. How they're actually fleshed out characters instead of just one dimensional villains. And also the inverness of the good guys not being saintly, can never do wrongers, always doing the right thing. They're the protagonists, but that doesn't make them perfect people. Case in point with butcher!!! And how he drags hughie down to his level of "doing anything for the mission." The way butcher uses MMs obsession against him to literally drag him back into his revenge plot despite the fact that MM just wants to live a normal life with his daughter and literally had ro rebuild his life from nothing 3 times! Now thanks to butcher, the man is a grade A CUNT who manipulates the people around him for his own gains! Yeah it's "for the greater good" but it's still not a nice way to treat your friends

Hell even fucking annie who the show sets up as this pure saintly paragon of goodness and kindness fucks up. Half the time she doesn't know what the fuck she is even doing just stumbling along trying to do what she thinks is best. Hell most of the time her plans doesn't work out or activity makes things worse! AND THATS OKAY!

BECAUSE I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH! because they're so painfully human, they make mistakes, they try to seek forgiveness but somethings can't be forgiven. They try their best but somtimes it makes things worse. They have a characters arc but then will walk back 20 steps until they become even worse because its the essence of what being human means! We all make mistakes, progress isn't linear. Sometimes, you take 1 step forward and then 40 steps back until all improvements are undone and you're back at the same point possibly even worse of. But you keep trudging forward because you're alive and you're human and the least you can do is wake up another day and try your damnest.

Its what I love so much about this show, everyone is SO SO SO painfully human.

[mxtxfanatic]

... Warning, rant in coming. Sorry.

Hot take, the only morally gray character in mess, that fits the exact definition of it, is Nie Huaisang.

I've seen more and more people trying to tone down Jiang Cheng's terribleness by saying that he's morally gray. I'very also seen those same people say that Wei Wuxian is morally gray because he did terrible things for good (and, no, lmao, he didn't. Most of those come from people not understanding how his cultivation works.) and that that was why he is so interesting. (Again, lmao. Lol even. Just say you don't appreciate depths and confuse "kind" with "boring", so you gotta give every character that you don't find boring a label to justify why you like them.)

I think the term "morally gray" has become a buzz word thrown around for any kind of character that isn't one dimensionally good or evil.

Jiang Cheng isn't morally gray. He is a bad person. Again, a PERSON. Not a monster, not some sort of creatures that has no concept of humanity, just. A bad person.

Society's habit of separating people that do bad things from themselves, that "us vs them" mantality, that dehumanization of bad people, it just leave a bad taste in my mouth. Even fucking serial killers have qualities, can be smart or charismatic or empathetic. Even pedophiles have hobbies and people that love them. Even rapists have people that they love and respect.

Being a terrible person doesn't mean that they're not human. There is no one in the world that has absolutely no redeeming qualities to them. But because of that separation that so many people take for the truth, because of that "they did this because they're a monster, but I'm not so I would never do this", people just cannot accept when a bad person isn't bad all the time.

They'll look at Jiang Cheng that, ultimately, loves his family and is arguably hard working, and they'll think that that means he's "morally gray", because he possesses good qualities, completely ignoring the fact that he's just a trash human being in general.

Low key, it pisses me off. Especially the people that relate so hard to him, and ask me if I wouldn't do the same in his shoes. Because no. I fucking wouldn't cause genocide. I wouldn't torture and kill complete strangers because they dared to have a surname I don't like or because they make me think of someone I resent from my past.

Like, I took can see myself in him, totally. He IS well written, and between the cartoonishly bad Xue Yang and the paragons of moral virtue that is Wangxian, he's definitely the one that feels closest to an everyday man, in personality if you ignore all the murders. I am petty, I hold grudges, I can be entitled and selfish, I am overall a massive rude cunt, but I do not want to hurt people and everyday I strive to be better than the last, even in infinitesimal ways. As should anyone. But that is something that Jiang Cheng doesn't even acknowledge, stuck as he is in his victim mentality and inferiority complex.

But Jiang Cheng is morally bankrupt. He is not morally gray. Not even dark gray. As an adult, he is painstakingly human and in general, a bad person.

And that is OK.

To make him a better person, you don't have to change his entire character with half assed head canons, just make him acknowledge his flaws and let him (finally) grow as a person, past that stubborn mentality he has had for decades.

He IS a bad person, but even bad people have a capacity for growth and change, of the moment they allow themselves to. If he ever gets forgiven for his past actions, that's on the people he has hurt, not that it should even be considered in his journey towards growth.

(Frankly, I don't think he would be. I think he shouldn't be, but that's not for me to decide. However, I can definitely JC finally making some tiny progresses but for all the wrong reasons, and get insulted when, if he ever even get to that point, his apologies don't end up fixing everything. He is totally the kind of person that would see you being mad at them and feel like he's the one being victimized because you didn't accept his half assed apologies. The emotional maturity on this man is below -100.)

(Also, Wei Wuxian isn't morally gray in the total opposite, in that he is such a good person, be it morally or emotionally, just. God, I envy his mental fortitude and his capacity for forgiveness and love.)

Sorry again for the ask, just had to rant somewhere about this and I am kind of curious about how you consider the "morally gray" argument. I think it's total bullshit, if the entire post didn't tell you, but yeah, I'm curious.

I hope I was coherent enough, I did not plan this ask at all, it was all streams of consciousness.

So before I get to the actual material of your rant—of which I agree with—I want to go on a tangent. Bad people as a category are not “dehumanized.” Dehumanization is the act of stripping someone or a group of people of their humanity as a tool of oppression, and it must come with material consequences. Saying that a continent of people are only capable of non-human animal intelligence to justify centuries of enslavement is dehumanization. Saying that a country of people are born terrorists to justify flattening their homeland and claiming it by a different name is dehumanization. Claiming that the man who called you out on your desires to be the new oppressors is a literal demon wanting to destroy your heritage in order to justify leading an army to kill him and his charges while attempting to remove their ability to reincarnate is dehumanization. Calling a child abuser a monster is not dehumanization. It is just an insult.

In fact, the “human traits” of terrible human beings do not need to be defended, because more often than not the absolute worst human beings are materially protected from the consequences of their actions by people who want to defend their “humanity.” In mdzs, I don’t give two fucks about Jiang Cheng’s one “human” trait of loving his nephew, because his “inhumane” traits of abusing said nephew and everyone else in his life intentionally overshadow that by his own design. Jiang Yanli loved her son just as much and lost much more than Jiang Cheng ever did, but she didn’t become an unrepentant monster. Humans are not “monsters-in-waiting” whereby we must act as if every individual is always one step away from committing unspeakable acts of depravity. If that was the case, we would not have survived as a community-dependent social species. Therefore, I do not find Jiang Cheng as the most relatable character ever because I do not find the way that he gives into anti-human behaviors to be relatable to me on a personal level or to be representative of most people’s actions throughout the course of their lives. To feel pain is human, and to have outbursts about it is understandable. To abuse about it? To murder about it? To mass murder about it??? Absolutely anti-human, anti-community, and the type of behavior that can only survive and thrive in an environment that privileges people with those specific “inhumane” traits above everyone else. (One might even call it the environment of a corrupt hierarchy of power that mdzs critiques.) The exact opposite of dehumanization. So if I choose to call Jiang Cheng a monster, it is to intentionally point out the ways that his conscious actions as a character in this story are a negation of human life and community.

On that note, I’ve discussed how this fandom uses “morally gray” in this ask (excuse the fact that I switch between “grey” and “gray” lmao). To bring back a point from my rant from above, Jiang Cheng has his one (1) good trait leveraged by fandom to whitewash his crimes under the guise of “morally gray,” while Wei Wuxian is the one actually being dehumanized by that same label as people use it to justify his literal murder (and those of the Wen remnants) in the story, so that’s my feelings on that. Whether Jiang Cheng can be redeemed or not, I frankly do not care to speculate because the story concludes his character arc at him regressing back into Jiang “hunter of Wen” Cheng, still rich, still single, and still only loved by his nephew. At the end of the day, he is not a real person and I’m only here for wangxian.

[akhillaous]

TikTok TSOA fans are so funny because they’ll swear up and down that they despise Achilles and “only read it for Patroclus who was sweet and innocent and did nothing wrong 🥹🥹” like ijbol u people are not serious. Hate Achilles all you want, he did do bad things, me personally I hate him for sacking certain Trojan cities and refusing the embassy, no one’s denying that he was wrong and that he was a bad person at times, but loving a character does not equal justifying their actions for one thing and to act like any character from the illiad was a paragon of perfect morality is fucking insane. ( Yes, even Hector, everyone’s favorite “🥺he was such a perfect husband🥺” man of the month ) It’s literally so crazy to say that Achilles was the only one of the two of them to actively commit bad deeds and war crimes during the WAR they were in. Just close the damn book I’m sorry but obviously a book with morally ambiguous and dark topics are not for you at this point. Like I get your point, what Achilles did was bad, it’s not like majority of people DONT agree with that point.

But characters are not supposed to be FLAT. They are not supposed to be all good or all bad. Your insistence that Patroclus was only a good person does not make him a good character. It actually makes him really fucking boring. I’m getting way too passionate about this but like I’m so over everyone acting like

1) Achilles was the worst person to exist in Greek mythology history when he’s not even the worst fucking person in the illiad itself 😭 ( that honor goes to Paris, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Agamemnon <3 )

2) A character can only be liked or appreciated or even just talked about if they fit modern ethical standards

Like every conversation I see about TSOA, any video on TikTok, there’s always a comment that has to bring it up like “I only liked Patroclus and he was an unreliable narrator so Achilles was actually much worse” Like okay we get it, God, fuck off please!

Also the whole thing between him and Apollo. PLEASE. Those two are two sides of the same exact coin. I think Apollo was justified in killing him but yall act like Apollo has not done the same if not worse than what he killed Achilles for. And that’s. FINE. I still love Apollo! For all the good and the bad that he does I think he’s the most interesting Greek God on the Pantheon and in the Illiad he’s actually one of my favorite characters to hear from. And I don’t expect the Greek god to act with good moral intentions. I expect him to act like a Greek god. I expect Achilles to act like a Greek demigod. Which is, exactly the way he acts. Maybe yall expected something different. If you wanted a short sweet story that happened to be queer with two perfectly acceptable, 100% goody two shoes main protagonists, please drop the classics inspired books and watch heartstopper.

[opreaadriann]

Side Story - Olivia Meets The Fighting Rooster

Ah, Thomas Rourke High. A name synonymous with caviar-fueled lunches and trust funds the size of Rhode Island. And now, miraculously, it was my stomping ground. Maybe it was the familiar faces – a carryover from my elementary school days – or maybe it was the fierce determination to ditch my "loser" label. Whatever it was, a surprising calm washed over me.

Let's be honest, I haven't exactly been prom queen material. But after a full-on makeover that would make even a Kardashian jealous, I was ready to infiltrate the ranks of the popular. Maybe even snag a friend or two who wouldn't mysteriously "disappear" when I came around. But fate, it seems, had other plans. My attempt at a friendly bus ride ended with an empty seat beside me. Guess my makeover needed some work.

Emerging from the bus, I was greeted by a sight that could curdle milk.  My "old" acquaintances were rolling up in style. Not cars, mind you, that'd be pedestrian. No, these paragons of popularity had graduated to a freaking limo. Yes, the big five, Michael, Cecily, Vivian, Isaac, and Haley all get out of a fucking limo. It’s probably the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen. Weird, Connor is not with them. They always used to walk hand in hand back in elementary school.

(...)

Well, that was a good start to my school life. The rest of the day I attend my first classes and get to know the teachers, only to realize I somehow haven’t talked to any of my colleagues yet. Lunchtime is here and I go to the cafeteria to finally make some friends.

I walk into the large room and the first thing I see is a person I really don’t like, getting right up into my face.

“I knew it! You’re Olivia Hartley, right? Remember me? Isaac Freeman! We went to the same elementary school!”

“...What do you want, freckles?”

I quickly scout the room to see where his friends are and notice that they are already sitting next to a group of older-looking students. Damn, they’re already in with the seniors?

The kids around stop to watch the interaction between us as I seem to establish myself as the opposition to the popular kids. Oo, I’d love to represent the rebels of the school! That’s pretty cool, right?

Isaac comes closer and whispers in my ear, “Don’t act like we’re not friends, bitch.” He then takes a step back, smiles, and gets up in my personal space again to hug me, “I’m so happy to see you! Come, sit with us!”

Luckily I really hate this guy, so I say, “Nah, I’d rather sit alone.”

I can hear a couple of oohs and aahs as the cool kids table suddenly looks at the interaction with more interest. Ah, yes, the beef between two freshmen is too interesting to miss out on.

Isaac decides to back down for now and just smiles, “Sure thing, go right ahead!” He then walks back to the cool kids table and starts talking about something with my old colleagues and the seniors. I walk ahead to get some food as some people start talking to me. Before I knew it, the tallest guy at Isaac’s table – a walking wall of muscle – rose on top of his chair.

"Attention, cafeteria!" he boomed, clapping his hands. "From now on, nobody talks to Olivia Hartley, or they'll answer to me!" He glares around the room, then leans down to Vivian. A moment later, he straightens up and points at me. "The goth chick. Nobody talks to her."

All of the guys and girls sitting at the cool kids table start laughing as the people who were talking to me earlier start walking away. Eh, that could have gone worse. At least everyone knows who I am. That's the closest I’ll get to being popular, huh?

🙇 Full story on Patreon. 🙇

[m4gp13]

Okay time to talk about Al's hero complex and Ethan's martyr complex more in-depth because I love it so much <3

Al's hero complex is pretty obvious. He thinks he's Katniss Everdeen fighting a valiant battle against the Capitol because no one told him he's not the main character. He sees himself and those who agree with him as the Heroes (tm) while any who oppose them are the Villains of Unrivalled Evil because obviously his people wouldn't be fighting them if they were anything less. Al definitely has the overwhelming optimistic approach of a heroic paragon who believes it's impossible for him to fail because he's the good guy and good guys always win (Ladies, Gentlemen and Assorted Genders I would now like to direct your attention to "heroes never die, right?"). Which is how he ended up getting the remainder of his army massacred because he wouldn't accept defeat and pushed them on for a last-ditch attempt at victory. He's willing to sacrifice his people for the greater good, and in this way he and Percy are like the inverse of "Villains will sacrifice the world to save their loved ones, heroes will sacrifice their loved ones to save the world."

Al was the most powerful child of Hecate and as such was chosen to lead the rest of her children into battle. For such a young guy, this probably gave him a sense of grandeur, importance and self-respect which translates well into him seeing himself as the hero of his story. He had Luke and his propaganda to look up to, Mt Othrys to run things from and the Princess Andromeda to help things along, as well as a swarm of younger demigods who saw him as a hero. Now I'm not saying it all got to his head but that is pretty much what I'm saying. There's also Hecate, who is a pretty loving mother all things considered and was helping and supporting Alabaster and her children all the way through the war. With her encouragement exacerbating Al's self-righteousness instead of giving him a reality check, his hero complex could only grow until it made the Al we see in Son of Magic. He has lost everything and has never been in a worse place but he is still so sure of himself and his own moral superiority.

Ethan's martyr complex is a little more subtle but it's there if you're looking. My guy sacrificed his eye to his mother and was A-Okay with the arrangement. He was asked, from a very young age, to go through a lot of short-term physical pain with the result of a long-term disability in order to make a change in the world, which he agreed to. So he already doesn't think too highly of himself which is a great start! His mother uses him as a vehicle for her goals and he is aware of this and consenting to it. He has already relegated his own life as a tool for someone else. And then there's the arena battle in the labyrinth where he was very quick to offer Percy his own head on a platter. He was thinking very pragmatically at the time. He didn't seem to care much about "holy shit I'm going to die" and was instead just thinking "If he kills me then I die but if he spares me then we'll both die 2-1=1 so if we go with the first option then that will be one less death" HE DOESN'T GIVE A FUCK. His own life is something he can step back from, view in the context of the bigger picture and figure out how detrimental the loss of it would be to everything else going on around him. And then to further prove my point the last thing he ever does in the series is actually martyr himself to stop Kronos from ruining his mother's plans. Way to make it easier for me buddy.

As for how he ended up like this, his mother is fucking Nemesis. A hero complex and a martyr complex run antiparallel to each other with the key difference being that a hero will do whatever it takes to succeed while a martyr is all too happy to throw their life away for The Cause. In the eyes of a young child desperate to please his mother who is known for harshly punishing the prideful and arrogant of the world, being a hero who desires personal success and glory would be far too egotistical, and in order to be a hero his mother would approve of, he must be entirely selfless about it. She would despise anything else.

[skaruresonic]

It's never enough for the popular crowd. You keep getting harassed, Beevean keeps getting harassed, Crusher left because of the harassment...

They're really just a bunch of bullies at this point, and I no longer feel any compunctions about dragging them. They can call me an asshole all they want, but better to be an honest asshole than a two-faced love and lighter.

They think bitching on your blog is the equivalent to punching people in the face, and there's really no way you can soften your sentiments in a way they'd find acceptable. Especially when they'd rather you not have them at all. Ergo, thought control.

"Do not think unpalatable thoughts in a space where I might encounter them if I strayed across your blog" is so emotionally manipulative and authoritarian that it boggles the mind. The worst part is they hold this viewpoint so casually that the sheer fucked-up-ness of such an attitude doesn't even register for them. Like what the actual fuck must your friend groups be like?

Normally I would be a bit more hesitant to slap the "cult" label on such behavior when other explanations exist, including stupidity, but I swear the need for conformity in this fandom is suffocating, in a way that even the most anti-infested fandom isn't.

Half-Life antis weren't this.... suppressive.... and they doxxed people over ship wars. I am really not kidding when I say this fandom's behavior is beginning to border on social control, if it hasn't already.

Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. I have caught XDAmz, shining paragon of virtue they are, threatening to excommunicate a friend of theirs just because the friend worded criticism of another property in a similar manner to us. Like. Wow.

Fuck, some time ago there was a Tweet complaining about how you can't criticize IDW in an even-handed manner without getting hounded - unlike us who are just "rabid" wayward fans, apparently - and they proceeded to blame us for a hostile environment they helped create. Whose fault is that, genius.

I see an entire thread of people proclaiming they want an apology to Flynn. Apology for what? Staying away from his ass while daring to say not-so-charitable things about him and his work in a space he should stay away from for his own mental health?

And like, yeah, it's probably bait made in jest, but at this point... it really kind of isn't anymore.

Isn't it disturbing how quickly so many are willing to leap up and proclaim they're not anything like the Deadly Gang, that they assert their faith - and I am NOT exaggerating, that is the word they used - in their sainted icon because unlike the heathens, they "always believed"? Holy shit if that isn't some classic in-group signaling.

[frogs-in3-hills]

bored so i filled an aa tierlist have fun looking at that if you want. based on aa1 through 5, dgs1 & 2, aai, and parts of aai2 (still haven't finished it!)

honestly considered making it the women, phoenix, and ryuunosuke tier but ultimately had to bump ryuu down one because i don't think he's quite as entertaining as nick. but lets jsut say. i think so many people call him a "paragon protagonist" because they simply did not realize that he was having a wholeass beautiful arc alongside gina in adventures. which--gina is in the "i love their role" tier because it's not that i don't also like her on a personality/entertainment level, i just care more about what she represents wrt the themes of the first game and her relationships with the rest of the cast. she is shockingly irrelevant in resolve and it's a shame because she kind of needed that relevance for me to continue being invested in her... this stuff is why i say i prefer adventures

i am nothing if not a miney sisters lover

athena tier: i love her whole concept of "courtroom revolutionaire" i love her autistic swag i even love her kind of generic smile-so-you-don't-cry thing, she just got so fucking shafted by the story. couldn't even let her lead two cases when she should have been the main character. winner of the "most fucked over by the writers" contest not even dahlia can beat her. not even trucy. at least trucy had her game to shine before they killed her and replaced her with a robot

i like apollo juuust enough to not put him in fandom fav quarantine. can't get enough of his "disillusioned college student who gets three hours of sleep a night, such a fucking square and knows it, thinks everyone else in the room is a fucking idiot and that he can prove it by yelling louder than them" energy. and honestly his shit in aa5 isn't that bad on a macro level. aa6 is wild but in like a funny way. what i'm saying is who can blame him

speaking of the quarantine row i want to be clear i REALLY like all of these characters it's just that i don't care about them as much as fandom does so there's a part of me that's like "ugh" every time i see them :(

wish i could put iris and kay higher but to be honest neither of them are. that interesting. love them both, especially iris, but. yeah. i stand by my statement that iris is the heart of resolve but it's very much in a structural sense as opposed to one that centers her as a character.

i think shamspeare is way funnier than he really is

some clarifications with the "interesting concept" tier: yanni yogi is here almost solely because of the live action movie. they go really hard with him there. gregson because i don't care for him as a character but i really enjoyed the assassin twist. and with alita, it's not her "discount dahlia" bit that i find interesting, but just the general circumstances around her murder. aa4 just has a certain tone that can uplift even the boring characters. oh and you know now that i think about it i might have moved magnifi a little higher, above acro at least, because he really does loom heavy over the gramarye plotline despite his sparse presence

on "neutral but they have a good bit": doug and clay's bits are their stupid names, daryan and jezaille's bits are their stupid senses of style

actually i should have put van zieks in the good bit category too ah well i don't like how the racism thing played out so he can take being a little lower than he needs to be

i think all else is self explanatory. there are obviously more characters that could be on this list but none that i have interesting thoughts on. ok thanks for reading

[thegoosetyrant]

Heeeeyyyyyy I’ve never partook in the Sk8 fandom before because a very large amount of you are so deep in this new wave of fandom purity culture that it makes the fandom no fun to be in.

I watched Sk8 as it came out, and it was love at first sight. I loved the animation, the races, how colorful and stylish everything was, and I really related to Reki’s struggle with imposter syndrome and overall in just think it’s a great show that I love very much.

But I also found myself relating to Adam quite a bit. His struggle with his strict family, having to be two faced around your family and among your friends/community, wearing a figurative mask and wanting to be anonymous out of fear that your family will discover something about you that you don’t want them to see. It really struck a cord with me, I saw a major part of my life in him, as a queer person.

But no every single person who finds a shred of humanity in his character is called a p*do apologist. Cool guys, very mature. He’s a villain, everyone knows that, he does some p*do shit. News flash, he’s also not real, he can’t hurt anyone. Nobody who likes his character is a p*do you absolute dinguses. Who are you people? Are you the same people that call Rocky Horror problematic? Cuz Adam shares an incredible amount of similarities with Dr. Frankenfurter and everyone loves him (obviously what an icon). Do you guys just not like complex characters? Does every character have to be a paragon of morality? A villain makes the story. Adam is the reason the story happens, he causes the rift. What do people censor his name in this fandom? Like literally some of yall type shit like “ad*m” not even as a joke. Why do people refuse to acknowledge such an important part of why the story of Sk8 is so good?

Remember that one time that multiple Sk8 fanzines banned any content relating to Adam so a group of fans made an Adam focused zine? And someone reported it for sexual misconduct in and attempted to get it canceled only for PayPal to find no violations upon investigation??? Very mature guys.

I’ve been afraid to post anything about how I related to several aspects of Adam’s character and enjoyed how goofy of a villain he was because I was afraid of the purity culture mob making incredibly horrible accusations. I don’t think people realize how nasty and horrible calling someone a p*do apologist is. You don’t know what you are doing throwing those words around all willy nilly. Yall are the ones that are fucking things up. Literally censoring the existence of a character, what a joke. What are you gonna do next, burn any book with a queer character who just sucks? Yall would hate Anne Rice. No Interview with the Vampire? One of the most important works of vampire fiction that exists?Gonna burn some Rocky Horror DVDs and censor one of the most important queer movies of all time just because the villain was a murderer and sexual deviant??? Go to English class and learn some god damn media literacy. Pull that stick out of your ass and laugh a funny camp villain. See humanity in pieces of shit people because none of you are angels. That’s what’s great about fiction. You can do all that in the safety of unreality.

[duxfemina]

Hey i really loved your replies to previous asks. Can you please rank the ancient romans from best to worst for enemies to lover trope:

Catiline, cicero, Julius, Pompeii, crassus , brutus, agrippa, octavian, sulla and Marius.

This is tricky because I'm not as up on some of the beef or maybe you meant these individually rather than paired with their neighbors in the list. So I'll go with individually rating how susceptible they would be to the trope

Catiline - yeah he was DTF anything so yeah I could see him developing homoerotic passions for Cicero had he survived

Cicero - no he just does the reverse. It's only lovers to enemies for MT Chickpea because he's a petty peapod

Julius Caesar - he probably fucked some Gauls let's be real. He absolutely is susceptible to the trope and would find himself involved in it several times throughout his life

Pompeius Magnus - yes, absolutely, the man was so magnanimous with the people he defeated he absolutely probably caught the feelings for one or two of them. Of course paragon of conjugal virtue that he was, he didn't sleep with anyone besides his wife when he was married so it might just be a lot of pining and eye fucking but there's probably a couple princesses of peoples he beat who he had the hots for and of course they'd reciprocate, he's the new Alexander after all

Crassus - on the one hand he has about as much romance and yearning to him as a wax tablet on the other he DID team up with his most loathed rival Pompeius so who knows maybe under that cold exterior he was secretly dreaming of running his hands through the much lauded quaff of Pompeius Magnus

Brutus - all of Pompeius' enemies eventually end up in bed with him... politically that is. If Brutus can get past Pompeius whacking his dad I feel he could get past whatever made him enemies with someone in order to make way for growing feelings for them

Agrippa - his enemies don't live long enough to become lovers usually. But if anyone was gonna be his war torn paramour I'd put bets on Sextus. There's just something a little homoerotic about their naval rivalry.

Octavian - I mean he did marry someone he had previously exiled so yes he's susceptible to the trope. If nothing else he likes using sex to exert dominance on people (hence his sleeping with the wives of his rivals) so yeah whether directly or by proxy Octavian is definitely fucking his enemies. Don't think he loves any of them (maybe not even Livia, he respected her and she filled the image he needed) but they're certainly lovers in the coarsest sense

Sulla - like Cicero this only goes one way and it's lovers to enemies. He fucks and then quite likely ends up hating.

Marius - there is no strategy to his love life so like it might happen but not as likely because he's pretty straightforward and to the point and isn't about any kind of pining or long game. The first impression is what he's going with

[anghraine]

Other tangentially related gaming thing: my bff J agreed to yet another run of Mass Effect to help me decompress/distract myself/maintain the even keel that's kind of required by the whole situation, but also difficult as an intensely anxious (if usually composed!) person.

For context: our first Shepard, who romanced Liara, was about as squeaky-clean Paragon as possible to be while still murdering the fuck out of Kai Leng. I had a blast with that one!

Then, we constructed a whole tragic arc for our second Shep, a somewhat older woman with maximal emotional scars (survivor of Mindoir + butcher of Torfan) and a lot more capacity for ruthlessness (we did every Renegade choice we could square with our consciences—no space racism but lots of space murder).

We decided she'd start to find love again with Kaidan, only for him, like everyone else in her life, to die (at Virmire in this case). Then she would experience a more mature and profound love with Thane that would be very gentle and fully reciprocated, yet bittersweet given that they both know he's dying soon. We had the idea that this initially harsh, ruthless Shepard coming to love Thane and diverge from her previous path of bloody vengeance would be really endearing, especially when the dying Thane wants the prayer read for her rather than himself, and then the rapport between Shep and Kolyat would also have this extra pathos, and killing Kai Leng would be even more satisfying.

(It totally was: our Shep was a Vanguard so there was a lot of punching involved, and then J indignantly went "this is for Thane, you fucker" as we stabbed KL.)

Anyway, the storyline did mostly work out, apart from any degree of nuance being rewarded by the game locking us out of cool dialogue options at particularly critical moments. Still, she was super enjoyable and I liked how we got her arc to weave into Thane's despite a bit of underwriting at times, and the idea of Shepard as this ultimately tragic figure who just keeps on living as her loved ones die over and over and over (we chose Destroy to underscore that fate!).

This time, we thought it'd be fun to go for a Shepard who isn't quiiiiiite as squeaky-clean as the first one, but more of a Paragon type than our tragic Shepard. Basically noble, but with more of an edge. She's a survivor of both Mindoir and Akuze, so she's seen some shit, but she's still quite young (we wanted her to be fresh-faced, pretty, yet also visibly scarred and managed all three :D). We particularly wanted a more youthful, impetuous Shepard who is less straitlaced and less world-weary than the previous ones for the Garrus romance, which after all these years, J has never done! And he's played both male and female Shepards to see how most of the romances play out, but not Garrus's specifically.

We thought it'd be especially fun for this Shepard to be a full Adept and for her to be basically a good influence on Garrus's unfortunate cowboy cop ways (we just shout out "RED TAPE!!!!" as a household joke at this point). But we didn't want her to be an elder mentor figure to him or an incredibly noble icon he'd revere so much as for them to be Reaper-fighting bros who help each other grow as people -> FWBs -> whatever happens in ME3.

So we've started our new run with our very attractive scarred Shepard (J: "I think it works for her, she's probably into scars"; me: "I bet Garrus is"; J: "Oh, for sure!") and it's a really nice distraction. Though now I'm thinking about the ME/P&P AU that's been percolating through my brain for upwards of seven months >_>

[carrotsnake]

dungeon meshi fandom rant

i usually stay away from fictional autism headcanons or indulging in them wholesale because i'm more on the 'characters are constructs' side of things. some may exhibit traits we relate to but placing real-world diagnostic labels on walking metaphors makes things too nebulous. however laios touden is an exception to me since autism allegories (despite no authorial intent) are pretty hard-wired into both his arc and dungeon meshi's core themes about being an outsider. so for once the fandom autism memes feel genuine to me lol. it doesn't feel as fanon-heavy or platitudinous, actually it's pretty uplifting. i appreciate the positivity.

that being said the most dogshit dunmesh take i've seen lately is the assertion that laios and falin show us autistic men are villified for things autistic women are accepted for. the fuck are you people smoking? some rebranded MRA-pilled bullshit? log off tumblr and go outside, then point and show me where this is the truth. i don't know if you guys are all living in a feminist utopia that i'm not privy too, but if so send me the address because things couldn't be less like that everywhere i've ever been.

countless times i've been told 'oh you're exactly like a female copy of [socially anxious male friend/co-worker/family member who shares my personality] and then i gotta watch them get special treatment as i get left behind and scolded for not being normal enough. him being blunt is rebellious & brutally honest, me being blunt is just being a b*tch with no filter. how many times do you see autistic women reaching high positions of power and being revered as a misunderstood genius.

how about everyone reminding us to 'be nice' to the supposedly harmless awkward guy who keeps making sexual comments & invading our boundaries because he can't help it apparently. but strangely enough, i have gone my whole life without creeping on others. only to be called creepy and off-putting by these same social equality preachers for not applying makeup or styling my hair right. autistic women are more likely to be sexually harrassed and/or abused than neurotypical women and no one gaf (let's b real they don't care when it happens to neurotypical women either if the man has a good enough sob story.) shit like walking strangely, having a speech impediment and talking too much about esoteric topics was enough to be outcasted for us. once more, with feeling: what are you people smoking?

and critically, falin is pretty. she's conventionally pure, self-sacrificial, beautiful with hollywood curves, soft-spoken, and never questions anyone nor asserts herself over others when her needs aren't being met. her dislikes in the adventurer's bible are 'nothing in particular', she never spoke out against her village's bullying even when she had it worse than laios, quickly forgives her parents for exiling her, and never shows any opinion on marcille's use of dark magic. she's a paragon of femininity. anything less than that, and she would probably invoke similar if not more disgust from her peers than laios through the audacity of not conforming to gender expectations. but she likes holding bugs or whatever so...whoa! she's so feral and subversive amiright guys. but crucially she looks cute while doing it so we're not too uncomfortable to stan.

i love laios so much, he's in my newest blorbo collection for sure but calling the female characters who don't like him judgemental is not a good look. we as the readers who have been inside the main chara's head know he's a good guy - but in the context of dungeon meshi's world, where sexism is as prevalent as stranger danger, it's fair for them to assume bad intent and keep their distance. they're looking out for their own safety and you're mad about that because, what, it makes your 2D nigel sad? cry about it.

so quit using anime characters as fodder for your thinly-veiled 'everyday men milk themselves' preaches. the touden siblings are not a good example of this. if you unironically agree with that take: it's time to go talk to some real women broski.

[roguetelepaths]

byron + 1, 2, 5, 24,

Oh fuck yeah I was hoping someone would do this. This is going to be a massive wall of text and I'm sorry but also I'm really not. You have unleashed the infodump dragon and it's not leaving until it's run off some of its zoomies.

Why do you like or dislike this character?

You know a fun fact about me is that I was on Team Byron Disliker when I first started Season 5 just due to what I'd heard through pop culture osmosis. I even made a post to that effect after watching a couple of his episodes (deleted now because I was sick of seeing it in my notes) that got some circulation in the fandom. But the further I got into that arc and the more I thought about him, the less I saw what I expected to see when I started. Instead I saw someone who, though flawed, spent most of the time he was on screen trying to be gentle and compassionate and trying to protect his people in a situation that was hell bent on making it as hard as possible for him to do those things.

I do think he has a manipulative streak, and I do think he's the type to occasionally do very hurtful things because he believes he's doing so for the right reasons (see for example that fucking "doesn't it feel nice to be asked" scene between him and Lyta in The Paragon of Animals, even as a Lyta/Byron shipper that makes me SO ANGRY because that point could be made in LITERALLY any other way that didn't involve demeaning her and shouting at her, I get that you're pissed off at the people who did that to her but taking it out on her isn't gonna help anyone so stop) but those flaws when combined with his genuine good intentions and abundance of care are fascinating.

A big part of why I think people dislike him as a character is because those flaws are presented as an immutable Fact Of Who He Is, which, yeah, I can see why someone would find that insufferable, but I like writing character growth and he deserves some.

Tl;dr, I like him because he's complicated. I dislike the way canon never seemed to want to grapple with those complications.

Favorite canon thing about this character?

That scene with the one guy in Downbelow. You know the one. Letting someone punch you repeatedly because you want to teach them a lesson about how finding a target to beat up on isn't actually going to solve their problems is... genuinely fucking baller and I wish we'd gotten to see more of that side of him.

Also that thing with Lyta in Strange Relations that's basically a mutual "I'm not overextending myself YOU'RE overextending yourself! Please slow down and rest 🥺" is probably what made me ship them as hard as I do. Dipping out of canon and into my fic for a second, but that interaction is so different from their first interaction that I kind of have to wonder if someone talked to him about the way he treated her. (I may have written a missing scene about that but it needs some fine tuning before I feel good about posting it.)

What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

oh my god!!! so many. SO MANY. But uhhhh I can narrow it down to like four?

Runaway by The National as a general theme song

I, Carrion (Icarian) by Hozier as a soft and sad song for him and Lyta

The Deserter's Song by Radical Face as a backstory reveal song

New World Coming (any version but I like the one by Nina Simone best because. Come on. It's Nina fucking Simone how can you top that) because I'm almost certain it was one of the songs JMS pulled from when he was writing That Song For That Scene.

What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

I've been saying this from the very beginning— The Signless from Homestuck. (Yes, I'm a Homestuck enjoyer. Sorry.) I just love my pacifist resistance leaders with feral partners and tragic endings okay.