#literally also forcing people to do roles they don't want to do is annoying

[genesisvirus]

hot take but i think playing as characters you're not used to / playing characters in conflicting roles from what they're usually in is actually really fun. people can and should play however they want. i used a flutter with an extraction set and made it the further i've ever gotten on a solo run. was it not utilizing her best stats? sure, but also it was a fun challenge.

now i do think if you're joining public runs you should let people know what you're doing, but also i think it's none of people's concern if you wanna play a toon differently. i'd prefer an extractor pebble over a player that doesn't do anything. atleast they're giving themselves a challenge.

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

I’m always curious about Kankri being redeemed in any way (maybe because he can become the sufferer). Obviously to do so would be simply punting him to reality and force him to live it, no help from his shoddily-made support structure. But I’m curious how you would go about doing it

Given their role thematically in the story, I'm actually usually not on the train of "fully redeem the dancestors", but I do like giving them some catharsis and reckoning, a place in the fight against LE. One last chance to do something good with their lives/afterlives before the end, and a(n implied) new start as wigglers born into the new universe.

So to that end, in my head, the "turnaround point" for Kankri - the inciting incident that makes him have a mental breakdown that results in him finally taking some accountability for his shitty actions - is having a conversation with Eridan.

In my head, the Dancestor reckoning happens gradually, alongside a series of retcons where the dead trolls are brought back one or two at a time, and deal with their emotional issues a little more with every cast member added back into the party.

The TL;DR series of events is: Terezi asks to bring back Vriska, Vriska asks John to punch out Tavros before she can kill him, Tavros's influence makes Gamzee ask for Equius and Nepeta to be brought back, Equius asks for a redux of Aradiabot, Aradiabot grabs John by the arm and gets him to undo her death and Sollux's fall into depression, Sollux asks for Feferi to be brought back, and then Karkat asks for Eridan.

We know from (Vriska) that the Game Over/Alpha Timeline characters still exist post-Retcon, so those characters would also be continuing their character arcs, just in the afterlife prepping for the LE fight. For example, I think Meenah's reckoning should be delivered by (Karkat) - after having had so long to reflect on his own failures as a leader, he would be perfectly poised to scream at her for hers, which would also serve to make this confrontation a final thesis for Karkat as a whole - what leadership means (caring about your team) - and a conclusion to the Meenah/Karkat dynamic.

So when I say that Kankri needs to talk to Eridan, I mean Eridan and not (Eridan). Full character development, all his teammates are alive, taken full accountability and responsibility for his actions, team good guy Eridan. And as I noted in this essay, Eridan with full character development is actually more annoying than regular Eridan, because he's also the "Devastating: Worst Guy You Know Made An Excellent Point" guy. In bulleted form:

He's still an advocate for murder. Murder is literally what kept his friends alive long enough to play the game, and playing the game itself involves genocide, so he would be the Token Evil Teammate who reminds the team that, hey, murder is an option - and enemies will be considering it. Even at his very best, he's going to struggle with empathy and have an extremely blase view of violence and murder - those were literally just facts of his life through his most formative years.

This also makes him a TOTAL downer, as he's the tempering voice that reminds them that decisions have consequences, and utopia requires sacrifices, and nothing is ever worth fighting for that won't eventually need to be fought for. Like I said, worst guy you know, excellent points. In fact, he's out here volunteering to do the murdering when the situation calls, if nobody else wants to get their fins dirty. He's really good at it.

He's still an idiot who doesn't listen to people. He's perfectly fine at taking orders, but having a conversation with him is still really difficult. I feel like if you make Eridan too smart, mentally flexible, and socially aware, you lose a lot of his Eridan-ness, and I think these characters, fully realized, are more of themselves, not less. I also don't know how you could reasonably expect to fix these traits. He's just Like That.

He drops his fake pro-Empire stuff, because that was basically all just empty posturing in the first place, but...

Now he's a pretentious-ass hipster who judges you for liking Trollor Swift and Troll Marvel. Given that Jake's indiscriminate taste is actually linked to his deficit of Hope (he has little conviction, he's wishy-washy), Eridan coming into full Prince of Hope regalia involves getting even more annoying about his taste in media (shittons of conviction, refusal to budge).

He is also a wizard. He will not shut up about this.

And finally, I think he'd still be out here using slurs. First of all, because it'd be really funny, because he's literally not casteist, but second, because there's two types of "it's equality" - the kind where nobody ever says anything offensive, and the kind where "offensive" stops being a relevant concept because true equality has been achieved. Think of the discourse surrounding the reclamation of slurs IRL, or how the "it's equality" meme gets used - this idea that words can be stripped of power by changing the context of who's saying them, or that objectification/discrimination stop being problems if they're applied evenly across the board, instead of limited to specific groups. I think that this is the exact type of nuanced idea that Homestuck would tackle and its fandom would get incensed about, which is why I think it should stay.

Eridan's role, thus, becomes a sort of "unpleasant truths" kind of character. Violence, both physical and verbal, is unpleasant as hell, and the natural instinct is to avoid it. The problem is, in any true discussion of what society should look like, they're topics that can't be avoided, and are even sometimes necessary not just to recognize, but to utilize (no revolution is bloodless, etc.). Eridan - an extreme personality - is going to represent the uncomfortable extreme of the debate. And by that I mean he's going to be saying slurs and talking about murders and is still going to be unquestionably a force for good.

The reason I'm going so in-depth into this is because Kankri very much represents the opposite: using "polite" language and couching it in the language of courtesy, activism, and liberal ideology, Kankri hides - and worse, spreads - his classist, ableist, misogynistic, puritan beliefs. He enforces the class divide and actively works against his teammates' best interests.

He whines that the lower blood castes should stop complaining about oppression, because others have it worse. He tells the team feminist that misogyny isn't real, then slut shames her. He tells the guy with brain damage that he's making other neurodivergent/TBI people look bad, exacerbates Latula's shame around her inability to smell, and actively guilt trips Cronus into ignoring his epiphany and self-reflection. Kankri is only an activist in that he actively makes everybody worse.

But why does he act like this? Well, it's due to the fact that he was probably culled, and on-sight at that, like Karkat would've been if anyone found out about his mutant blood. Kankri doesn't seem to have a symbol or lusus, either, two thinks Karkat only had because the Signless's followers prepped them for him, so the chances are very high that Kankri was culled since he was hatched. Given the way he discusses culling with Latula, and viciously despises being mothered by Porrim, it's clear he has some really complicated feelings regarding having his agency dismissed. Thus, his work to hamper his team - at least some of which is wilful on his part, as he'll outright cast aspersions on Horuss or Cronus's beliefs for being "imaginary" even as he encourages them to commit to them - is motivated by something quite simple: power, attention, entitlement, and control.

When he goes on his grand lectures, he frequently slips and reveals that he sees himself as a great, unquestionable spiritual leader, often trying to place other characters in subordinate positions to himself - Karkat is his "pupil," and his monologues, I mean, sermons, I mean, diatribes, are spoken as if from a position of authority. He outright tells Meenah that this is what he believes himself to be.

It's a very Seer sort of problem - both that of hubris and that of willful blindness. If you chart out the actual "end goal" of his beliefs, it appears to be a world in which Kankri himself is both the biggest victim and most important voice in the room. He regularly disparages those with actual disadvantages (Damara, Porrim, Mituna) while playing up the false problems of those who don't actually have them (Horuss, Cronus). Those with disadvantages should have their voices amplified - except lowbloods should stop whining and misogyny isn't real. And those with real power should check their privilege - but won't somebody think of the poor highbloods who have ~emotional problems~? Kankri will, and all the highbloods need to do is bend the knee and treat Kankri as their specialest boy.

In short, he's using his intellect, rhetoric, and forceful personality for selfish, emotionally-driven pursuits. The actual substance of his arguments is ephemeral and contradictory because that's the trick - the point is NOT to further equality, but to verbally browbeat his conversation partner into submission. In other words, you can't beat Kankri in a regular debate, because the moment you start trying to actually engage in a debate with him, he wins. The moment you start lunging at his arguments, he's got you in his red-texted labyrinth. The moment you start treating his points like they merit genuine discussion, you're in the pews of Kankri's church, and he's up at the pulpit.

And Eridan is the destroyer of faith. He's also an idiot who doesn't listen to people.

I don't really know exactly how it would play out, but I know in my heart. In the pit of my soul. That Eridan would call Kankri several slurs, (correctly) point out that Kankri's celibacy is stupid because it's clear he has feelings for Cronus and Latula, (correctly) point out that his pro-equality stuff is stupid because he calls violets "Royal-V"s, (incorrectly) accuse Kankri of hitting on him, (correctly) point out that the entire point of a slur is that it hurts and insults the person it's used on, (correctly) call Kankri several more slurs, (correctly) point out that Kankri just wants attention, especially from highbloods, (???) go on an unhinged rant (maybe more) about being a wizard, being a murderer, and being a murderer wizard, (???) insult Kankri's taste in music, and finish it up by (correctly) revealing that Eridan and Karkat are moirails who make out sometimes.

I think Kankri would start crying.

[takemebacktowheniwassane]

i've been seeing a lot of falsettos posts recently deconstructing the fandoms beliefs and firstly

holy fuck thank you, i try to steer clear of fandom (and fandom-izing thereof) drama but this is getting a lot more visible recently so here's some little tidbits for you

whizzer brown is not an unflawed character!

okay so i haven't seen enough dissecting this but!!! in the chess game!

the whole point of marvin using that game to determine the ending of their relationship is because he suspects whizzer is constantly deceiving him and wants to prove it.

whizzer LITERALLY proves him right!

he asks marvin to help him along (yes i know he says he doesn't want help, hear me out, it's a little more complex than that) and takes advantage of the fact that marvin is- like- infatuated with him.

he draws him into a sense of false security then starts throwing accusations at him ("since you need a man!" "what?" "who's 'brainy'," "or witty, move.") until hes able to win, which he does with ease because he's been using marvin having this idea that he isn't smart against him.

of course, marvin's side of this isn't the best either but honestly, for once the fandom should focus on a different character when they think 'insane asshole'. typically we should also probably change our perspectives a little to be more unbiased cuz fr guys, this is getting really.. annoying.

i understand he's the most visibly flawed but that doesn't excuse constantly picking the worst parts of this musical (without other context, btw) to use against him.

and this post certainly isn't here to excuse anyone either i've just got a lot of opinions that i wanted to share while falsettos is.. trending? right?

2. marvin's (headcanoned but still somewhat researched) autism

this one isn't brought up as much but when i do see it around, it's kind of a skewed viewpoint.

while rewatching bits of the proshot i realized a lot of different neurodivergent traits that he shows-

he's helpless during I Never Wanted to Love You and is childish and regressive when he's upset (not every autistic person is like this either, i know this is a bit of a touchy subject so i just wanted to add that).

usually when people depict it i see it either toned down or joked about which is fine when all in good fun, and when its done respectfully.

not here to attack anyone, just here to point it out and say that yes :) he most likely is neurodivergent, but despite that his actions aren't condoned. he's still kinda a dick who needs to get his shit together

3. ..the lesbians also have shit going on?

just putting this out there- I DON'T SEE ENOUGH FOR THE LESBIANS! OR TRINA!

the girls in this musical are like thoroughly neglected and i think that's kind of shitty just assuming the fact that william finn put them in to demonstrate how gender roles put people in degrading positions (and he even makes it more prevalent by showing marvin as something like a misogynistic character who forces whizzer into more feminine roles to show the audience what woman have to/had to go through in society).

anyways, the lesbians aren't just there guys. they have a plotline too. in Something Bad is Happening, you derive a lot from charlotte singing about the outbreak of HIV/AIDS and realize how she operates on a daily basis (she's passionate about her work and takes every bad day as a hit to her life and career, explaining in a way that as a black, jewish, lesbian, FEMALE doctor in this time, everything that goes wrong is immediately brought down on her so much more than it would as any straight white male pharmacist-).

cordelia on the other hand has to handle the fact that her girlfriend is so adamant about her work ethic that she can't actually be super present in their relationship at times like that.

but either way she still sticks by her and is constantly trying to be supportive and endearing despite feeling like she's not amounting to her gf who's basically a hero in her eyes.

i kinda just wanted to bring that up because they mean a lot to me and they don't get enough love from the fanbase, thank you for listening to my TED talk <3

[prettyboykatsuki]

pls read me for filth bestie: intj eldest daughter 🤓

ahhh. fellow intj. this one might be mean sorry. once again i am working on assumptions so disclaimer yadda yadda

intjs are usually known for being cold, calculated and intelligent as a result of introverted intution which is shared with your fellow NJ pairs and for the most part this stereotype is true. most intjs are gifted in early childhood and do well academically with good insight for pattern recognition. youve probably one point felt yourself to be better than your peers

the two way consequence of this being true is that you definitely have semi abysmal social skills. intj women(or just generally speaking fem presenting intjs) tend to make-up for this by capitalizing on their physical appearance in their later years if possible. intj men tend to be mildly insufferable because behaving that way is accepted as masculine and tolerable. this lack of understanding in relation to socialization comes two fold from your last function being extroverted sensing and your third function being introverted feeling.

like most introverted feelers you take things incredibly personal which wreaks havoc in your relationships. as you grow older and experience more things (and more trauma) your sense of basic sympathy allows you to overlook the things that you used to bother you day-to-day but you do have to actively realize that not everything that happens to you is a personal matter. in fact most things are not and your paranoia that they are worsens greatly under stress. a lot of shit has genuinely nothing to do with you

intjs are interesting in that they do actually get along with several types of people and tend to fall in the camp of open minded. you have a tendency to make quick judgements about people and you're rarely wrong on your first impressions but you sometimes allow them to cloud your judgement. you don't prefer leadership roles but you will handle them well when they are forced upon you which they often are as a result of you being technically competent and talented at compartmentalizing. how are u dealing with that one haunting impulsive decision you made btw

most often intjs get in relationships they can hide behind in some way. extroverts are ideal for this but it's mostly anyone who can comfortably shield them away from public scrutiny as they pressure of being around others is rather annoying to you though im sure you do fine. you've developed some specific culturally relevant social skills to keep you afloat but you need to recuperate more oftne than you care to admit.

you probably similarly had a phase of total hedonism in your late teens and young adulthood in a way that wasn't obvious to everyone else as you discovered your extroverted sensing and the concept of sensuality.

you have inadvertently developed a desire for validation of something you can't actually recognize. intjs are typically well accomplished in some aspect, but the validation you're seeking is actually entirely emotional and you will benefit a lot from realizing this. your ideal relationship is not someone who will simply shield you, but will allow you to be yourself and push you in areas you need pushing while fully understanding who you are and not who you are very good at pretending to be.

its fine to admit some parts of you are sloppy, irritable and irrational. the extremity you treat his part of yourself with is overblown in the first place and being around emotionally in tune people makes you self aware of this.

you date people you assume you'll have emotional control over and years later understand doing that is also exhausting you. the cycle will repeat until you can find someone who can view you with sincerity and all your flaws and acknowledge them without stepping on your toes about them all the type.

you can pretend that happy-go-lucky people exhaust you all you want but having at least SOME to balance you out is literally important to your nervous system. if dating a dumb himbo and the false sense of emotional security he gives you is what fixes you let it happen its fine no one else will be able to tell but them.

despite all of this, ultimately no one is harder on you than yourself which is why many people in your life forgive you for things most others would not. your expectations for your accomplishments as a result of your talents and somewhat your ambition suffocate you but your health is more important and it's fine to put those thoughts to rest eventually. not everything needs to happen at once for you

try not to let your perfectionism completely disconnect you from the one artistic hobby you have and work hard at that - it contributes more to your sanity than u will ever give it credit for and it is that deep. u can't pretend its not lol

it will be fine btw

[sweetmariihs2]

Tw: negative criticism (I need to get this off my chest)

I'm rewatching the whole Toy Story franchise again and today I watched the fourth movie. I remember I cried in the cinema and that it had a bad ending (woody left his toy family behind) but oh boy I don't remember it being that bad

I remember I cried and spent around 1 or 2 hours until I got home (the cinema is 1 hour away from my house and me and my family even went out for dinner) upset and sad because of the ending, but I don't remember it being that bad

Gosh Bo Peep was so different from the og movies. Ok I get that she didn't had much personality back then, but they didn't had to make her so hard to deal with, oh my god. She is mean to Woody and acts like he's stupid almost all the time, and not her, neither all the other characters, thought about his pov not even for a split second??! And in the end they convinced him to leave behind everything he had ever fought for?! And his family?!?! To stay with her???!? Her???1?!?!?1?! I can't stand her character! And I tried to!

All the Toy Story movies talk about how being with a child is the toys purpose, and the fourth movie decided to go against that. You can argue about how emotional attachment is dangerous and etc but we're talking about toys. Toys in this universe WANT to stay with owners/children, they want to belong to a kid, and that mf Bo Peep convinced Woody to leave that behind wtf. Leaving your whole family behind to stay with someone who is MEAN TO YOU and that you haven't seen for 10+ years is so damn wrong. Even if he left the other toys just for the lifestyle of "being free" this goes against everything this franchise ever spoke about!!! Woody didn't needed a new character arc, his character arc was made in the first movie! Jessie did! She's still afraid of boxes, and her PTSD is so bad that I think that could be better explored as a subplot in a movie.

I hate that the other characters didn't even appeared in the movie to give space to new, annoying characters (I'm talking about Gabby and Bo Peep, even though she's not new, she is extremely different and mean now). I remember Forky being annoying but actually he's kinda nice, I mean, of course Disney tried to make him a new "Olaf" to make the movie more popular and that bothers me, but after the scenes with Woody and Forky I learned to like how he was written.

And Gabby, oh god. I hate her too. It's not other's fault that you didn't lived the life you wanted to. You don't need to take from others what you couldn't have, you need to accept that you have flaws and learn to understand that your value is not based on stuff like this. In her case, not based in her voice box, it's based on how much a child would love her/how much she could help a child to develop and grow up. That's the toys role in that franchise. Damn how I hated everything she did in the movie and hated even more the fact that she also convinced Woody to give away his voice box. Woody's signature quote is "there's a snake in my boot". I made a joke while watching the movie saying that "woody would have a heart attack if he didn't annouced he had a snake in his boot at least once" and despite that being funny I mean it, you can't just write a character, make people get attached to stuff that's part of him and take that stuff from him to say that he "matured". No wtf his voice box is his. Woody was literally afraid of it being taken from him at the start of the movie. Fuck Gabby Gabby, you were made 80 years ago and you didn't accepted the fact that you unfortunately came with your voice box broken. Ok, unfortunate! But you shouldn't try to blackmail/force/kidnap people to make them give THEIRS TO YOU! AND WOODY WAS CONVINCED TO DO IT AT THE END! AAATRRRRGGHHRHAHAHAGSGHZBBBDN

YOU NEED TO LEARN HOW TO LOVE YOURSELF FOR WHO YOU ARE!

Honestly I hope the 5th movie will fix everything, I'm praying for it. Make the toys somehow go back to Bonnie, make Bo Peep act more friendlier towards everyone cuz she's simply unbearable and get Woody a new voice box. And never show Gabby again, thanks. Please.

[nthspecialll]

hello, i hope you're having an amazing day! I've been reading your posts for a while, and i absolutely love them, its so nice to see someone yap about rdr2 and not ignore canon, especially when the fandom is kinda dead lol so i wanna thank you for it!! (also this is gonna be very long so uh. yeah.)

now that being said, i wanted to say, i read your arthur and gender roles post a while ago, and i disagree with what you said tbh. i understand he's a grown man in the 1800s, and obviously he's not gonna have the same mentality with someone who's in 2000s, but i dont think he necessarily believes in gender roles and thinks thats how things should be.

in my opinion the most obvious example is black belle. black belle is one hell of a woman, she's literally a legendary gunslinger and a better shot than quite a lot of men. her personality, the way she talks, the way she moves, she doesn't act "womanly" at all and arthur seems to have no problem with that. he doesn't say anything that could indicate he's weirded out or opposed to her living this kind of life. in fact, he seems to kind of admire her and he says in his journal that he would have loved to ride with her if times were right.

the other example is sadie. you said his relationship with sadie is the biggest hint to his sexism and i disagree. he cares for her (obviously he does) and while at first he seems very surprised at her change of attitude (because she is a grieving woman, she was a mess in chapter 1 and 2) he accepts it very fast. he enjoys her company and loves riding with her. sometimes he's annoyed with her getting into unnecessary trouble, but thats because its unwanted attention and he'd rather avoid that. in chapter 3 after your first mission with sadie, if you go back to the shop, the shopkeeper will ask you about her and say something along the lines of "thats not something a woman should be wearing" and arthur will shut him up. he'll say something like "id be very surprised if you had a woman" if im not mistaken and thats a HUGE proof that he doesn't necessarily believe in gender roles. the shopkeeper isnt even hostile, he's not aggressive in any way, he's just trying to make conversation by saying something that forces gender roles to sadie and arthur is not having any of it.

and sure, his antagonizing lines to sadie (or women in general) can be sexist. he can force gender roles to women if you choose to antagonize them, but thats kind of the point. if you choose to. arthur is capable of being a mean son of a bitch, he's capable of being a sexist and a bastard and he will be exactly that if the player wants him to be, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's like that. he can say sexist stuff to sadie if the player wants him to, but without the player he doesn't say anything or act on these sexist thoughts. its like, for example, you are capable of being a mean person. you are capable of telling a lady she looks like she's a whore but you don't do that. you can have these thoughts, but these thoughts dont defy you, your actions do. and without the player, in the cutscenes, arthur does not seem like a sexist man at all.

everything you can make arthur say or do in the game, its because he's capable of it. he can kidnap women and throw them into incoming trains, but without the player, he won't do that because he's simply not like that.

another example to that is the french man!!! charles chatenay!!! now i believe arthur loves being around this man because he's just so funny lmao (he's literally one of the only people who makes arthur laugh out loud in the entire game and its in chapter 6 when everything is just soo depressing) and in his last side mission he's literally dressed up as a woman. and of course, its because he has to hide himself, but i think someone who believes in gender roles in the 1800s would at least comment on it, right? arthur doesnt care. he's surprised and amused by this guy, but he doesnt say anything that mentions gender roles. charles literally KISSES arthur, and that is something a man should NOT do to another man when it comes to gender roles, but arthur doesnt even pull away 😭 bro is dumbfounded and annoyed but he lets it go. charles jokingly flirts with another man and arthur doesnt even mention it. he is not bothered AT ALL. and if he believed in gender roles i dont think he'd act like that. he even draws him so beautifully in his journal afterwards. charles chatenay literally defies gender roles and arthur doesnt care at all. he cares for him and enjoys his company a lot.

aaand another example is mr. white and mr. black. theyre gay lmfao which is something men should not be and arthur notices that. he even recommends going somewhere far away cause they might not be welcome here. they literally live together in a small treehouse where there's one bed and arthur sees that but he does not care and is actually kind of glad to see them safe.

so like what im trying to say is arthur does not care about gender roles. it might be unusual for him but he does not care. he sees a woman acting like a man, he doesn't say anything. he sees a man acting like a woman, he does not say anything. he's not a sexist just because of his antagonizing lines. antagonizing lines are there because arthur is capable of saying such things, yes, (and it seems like arthur is a mean bastard sometimes according to the people's reactions but i think thats just him teasing and not caring) but in the cutscenes or in missions where the player cant do anything with arthurs behavior, its obvious hes not sexist at all.

also one more thing!!!! in your post you mentioned arthur calling javier a slur in the boat and therefore being racist towards him but i do not see it that way. in fact, thats him defending javier. the man insults javier and mocks him by saying "i cannot believe someone gave a greaser a job, i wouldnt trust one with a gun" and because theyre in disguise arthur has to act like he's agreeing with him but he sounds uncomfortable while doing so. when arthur knocks him out and says "i guess you were right... only an idiot would give a greaser a gun" he is not mocking javier, he is mocking the man for insulting his friend and javier literally laughs at that in the background. my man is not offended because he knows arthur is not being racist towards him. arthur is a 36 years old grown man in the 1800s and he's not scared of saying a slur out loud and its not like he means it anyway.

anyway thats all i wanted to say!!!!! if youve read it this far thank you i just wanted to get this off my chest lmfao. hope you have a great day!!!

Well firstly thank you for liking my stuff, and secondly, you come with some good points and your interpretation of Arthur and those scenerios is completely fine! As the actors themselves says, we as players are allowed to interpreate and analyse however wish, the game is what we make it. You got that out of those scenes and I got something else out of them, neither of us are wrong in that. Depending on how you play or what you do, you get different things out of it :D

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 2

Propaganda why Elena Gilbert is insufferable:

"I wouldn't have such a problem with her if she didn't get others involved. Liking two people at once isn't a problem. Stringing them along is a problem. Constantly hanging around people that she knows is actively trying to kill her/want her dead or their relatives is so stupid like don't do that maybe. Having people stop what they are doing and dropping everything(especially if it's important) because she is in danger/trouble. Making people have to make tough decisions, sometimes affecting other people, and then not even offering up an apology about it(looking at you season 3)"

"The first 3 seasons made her so bad!! I understand the trauma but stringing along 2 brothers was ridiculous. Like, make up your mind and stop toying with their emotions. And then everything was about her! Every time she was in trouble, everything had to be put on hold to find her and help her and sometimes she wasn't even grateful about it and would end up in stupid situations again and again and again. Lowkey, she's the reason why Bonnie has been through the wringer, especially in the 3rd season. But as the seasons progressed, she did start to warm up my cold little heart"

"have you seen the show? she has little to no common sense, no standards, makes the most boring choices for every scenario, and isn't a good person. the show acts like she's a golden child when she's really just a boring child. dating adult men. who stalk her. and her biggest personality trait is saying "Stefan!" and "Damon!" when she experiences any emotion. idk man Nina Dobrev did NOT get the role for her acting skills (or lack thereof) that's for sure"

"Her biggest problem seems to be choosing between Nice Guy™️ and Bad Boy™️?? Meanwhile her best friend Bonnie is cleaning up everyone's shit. Elena is what happens when adults write teenagers without ever having interacted with a teenager."

Propaganda why Feyre Archeron is insufferable:

"She is Miss Perfect Special Never Does Anything Wrong. Rhys with her is like Gordon Ramsay with children, EXCEPT SHE'S A GROWN ADULT. I didn't hate her tooooo much in books 1-3 (she was barely tolerable), but in the novella, she becomes this housewife First Lady type character who is fine doing paperwork after stating previously that she wants to be doing something more "important", and living in a McMansion. THEN THE FIFTH BOOK STARTS WITH HER HAVING AN "INTERVENTION" FOR HER SISTER, WHICH IS BASICALLY FEYRE TELLING NESTA THAT SHE'S GRIEVING INCORRECTLY. Bitch, who are YOU to tell someone that THEIR grief is making YOUR life uncomfortable?? "Wah wah the social implications" you're the literal queen, no one cares that your sister is embarrassing you.

Imo, Feyre is also the result of a lot of internalized misogyny on the part of the author, bc she has two men in love with her and gets along very well with every other male character that's not "evil", but many of the female characters are antagonistic or unhelpful towards Feyre, seemingly apropos of nothing. It's giving "I'm not like OTHER girls". She also very clearly doesn't want children but then miraculously changes her mind bc apparently female characters can't be fulfilled without children. 🙄

Oh and btw Feyre also manages to get the powers of EVERY fairy court ruler at the end of the first book. I DO NOT use the term "mary sue" lightly, as that label has been used against feminist characters a lot, but Feyre exemplifies the Mary Sue trope."

"SHES SO ANNOYING AND SO SO STUPID AND BY THE END SHE JUST BECOMES A COMPLETE DOORMAT AND LETS RHYS WALK ALL OVER HER tbh im more mad at the author for butchering her but she's still annoying as all hell"

"Thinks she’s the victim of everything. Destroys an entire Court. Forces an intervention on her sister who is grieving differently than Feyre is."

"She's the WORST. She's an asshole to her family but thinks she deserves to be worshipped by them because she hunts or whatever, feels entitled all the time, is ableist to her dad, is fantasy racist and turns from being racist to not being racist in a BLINK, is ridiculously overpowered and treated as oh-so-special by every single other character ... I hate her and I wish she would die. "

[irontragedyreview]

There is still no official translation but I’m interested in AFO's words about Izuku. AFO is surprised that all the heroes present continue fighting even when their forces are diminished, literally AFO says he can't believe that these corpses keep moving, he doesn't understand the shine in their eyes and this is where it gets interesting because AFO calls "weakness" to the strength that Midoriya exudes and that All Might lacked.

This goes perfectly with the construction of Izuku as a character because we know from the start that his character is making his own path as a hero, that he isn’t simply  an AM 2.0, but a different hero, obviously throughout the manga especially because of the gratitude he feels for Toshinori, Izuku wants to become the worthy successor but fails, his first failure was at the sports festival where AM told him to take advantage of the moment to tell the world "I am here" because at the end, Izuku decides to focus on Shouto, and it’s interesting that the first time he actually uses AM's phrase is with Tenko (if I'm wrong, correct me because I don't remember him having used this phrase with anyone else at least in the manga), and in a context of consolation, where Izuku was looking to get closer to Tenko. But going back to AFO's phrase, I think it's interesting that he talks about this characteristic about Izuku and suggests that until he falls, the people around him will continue fighting, no matter how tired they are. I like how this difference is raised with AM because it’s true, AM made people feel safe but also inactive, the people he saved and the society that was built with him as a symbol was passive and apathetic. On the other hand Izuku presents that many of the people he saved chose to become active on their own, Kota distracting Muscular when Izuku almost fainted, Eri deciding to get away from Chisaki and throw herself into his arms, Gentle and his decision of the new opportunity that was presented to him, Lady Nagant and her decision to support Izuku with the strength she had left, including Rody taking an active role in the third movie and being the one who helps save the world, none of the people to whom Izuku help remains a passive actor, people around Izuku find in him the strength to continue fighting, this said by Mineta or Nagant when She referred to the fact that there was something in his eyes that made her want to keep going.

I would like to see how Horikoshi can develop this in the next chapters, I really need introspection and to listen to Izuku's thoughts again because so far we don't know what he’s thinking and it is a bit annoying. Also, this still means that there is a lot left to do with Tenko/Tomura because as I said, the people Izuku saves help themselves and aren’t passive actors in their rescues, it’s the decisions they make that allow them to save themselves.

[evilsoup]

so like i know isekai is primarily associated with stories about how some nerd gets hit by a truck and the reincarnated into a d&d-derived fantasy world where people literally have "levels" and skill points but the protagonist has some cheat superpower that lets him beat up the bad guys and accumulate a harem of questionably of-age catgirls, elves, etc, at least one of which refers to him as "big brother" -- and deservedly so -- but there are actually some real gems in the genre, like the short and sweet 1999 series "now and then, here and now".

This is the story of Shu, a headstrong shonen protagonist (big-hearted, quick to charge in to fight for someone who's asked for his help, a bit simple but makes up for it with enthusiasm and fearlessness) who is living an unremarkable and comfortable life as a child in a small town in japan with conflicts like "my friend is annoyed at me because i don't take our kendo club seriously enough". He comes to the rescue of a quiet blue-haired girl who is being attacked by bad guy with futurey robots, and gets transported to a vast desert dominated by a bloated sun in which water is scarce, and gets forcibly recruited into an army of child soldiers (after being tortured for days, maybe weeks, to determine that he doesn't have the information the army needs).

The brutality of the world he finds himself in is a remarkably real-feeling depiction. There's a recurring "protector-protected" character dynamic of in which the protector character takes on the role of sheltering another and so is able to cope with the horrors they have experienced; we also see implied former relations of this kind which the "protected" character clearly chafed at and acted to get out of, as well as an example of the total failure of the protector-character who therefore can only long for revenge (and this is portrayed sympathetically), and of course the making-use of these relations by the army.

Unmarked spoilers from here, and trigger warning for child abuse including rape, as well as pretty unflinching depictions of massacres.

If you speak to any enlisted soldier you'll find that they actually fight for the men in their unit more than the official ideology -- though the latter remains important as it sets the boundaries of what one is allowed to say and do -- and if you read the operation manual of any army you'll find that the officers understand this perfectly and rely on it. This is depicted well here, and disturbingly: one of the sympathetic secondary-protagonist characters, nabuca (about 14), has a sidekick boo (i'd guess 9) who he tries his best to protect (along with the rest of his unit of children, of which he appears to be the NCO). Protecting Boo and the rest means ensuring that everyone follows orders and acts diligently -- including by escorting another character, Sara, to her rape and forced impregnation by another soldier at the order of the high-ups.

This is another strong theme -- the moral degredation of conditions of war, which often present situations in which there are no good responses.

The part that has stuck with me most is actually in the middle of the story, after Shu and some other characters have managed ot escape and found themselves at a hidden valley where there's a peaceful farming community -- made up of survivors of attacks from the army they've escaped from. There's a conflict within this comnunity as to what they should do in relation to the aggressors, Hellywood: Sis, who looks after a number of orphans, wants them to do nothing in the hope that they can remain hidden and provide a space for healing and in which the children can live as children; Elamba, who lost his entire family to Hellywood, wants revenge -- and to prevent any more victims in the future. Sis is the nicer person and Shu sides with her, but he can clearly see Elamba's case too: Shu was present for a Hellywood raid, in which they attacked a village and took the boys to be soldiers and the girls ot be impregnated to produce future soldiers; and for half the episode we follow Sara as she first tries to kill herself and then tries to induce an abortion by smashing her gut with a rock. I think it's impossible to see the depiction of the depths of her despair and not have a desire for revenge. To see that suffering and not seek justice is a moral horror. To endanger a rare space in which children are able to grow in safety into members of a functioning community is a moral horror.

The tension is ultimately unresolved -- it turns out that Hellywood is coming for them shortly in any case, and before that Elamba takes some rather unsympathetic actions that muddy the moral waters. But there's bravery in really sitting with the tension, as this show does.

There are only two real faults: i think it needed about one extra episode to deal with the immediate aftermath of the climax -- there's one character who makes a decision for which the bones are there, but for which there really needed to have been a bit more time to put meat on those bones; and the fact that there's a time machine in Hellywood is not properly addressed -- why do then have to stay in this shitty dying world rather than fleeing elsewhen..? But neither of these fundamentally doom the project, in my opinion.

I might write more about this, honestly -- it's a pretty obscure show, with exactly five entries on AO3 lmao (i mean, fair enough, it's a daunting one to write about) and i'd like to think i could help bring some attention to it. There's more that can be drilled into on this one i think.

Go watch it -- the entire series has been uploaded onto youtube. You need to watch it. You need to.

[sarcophagid]

Do you have any relationship hcs for Ithaqua?

i don't rlly do relationship stuff but i'll try and take a crack at it 🤔

i think ithaqua has a bit of an internal conflict between love (life) and apathy (death). to be human is to love, but after the attack, this was deadened, both for him and his mother. his memory issues are an extension of this theme, he loses the memories from when he was loved. in the manor, ithaqua doesn't play the primarily love-motivated role that he did in the forest, it's an aimless force.

anyways. it's probably easier to be friends than lovers although neither feat is really easy (i think it's mostly bc what kind of expectations are in a romantic relationship that make it different for him). by the time he gets to the manor he's anywhere from jaded to depressed to paranoid. also i like him as a character but as a person? i gotta take the rose tinted glasses off - he's not very likeable, at least not as nightwatch. and the catch 22 is if you don't like each other then you aren't getting anything but nightwatch anyways.

capital letters Night Watch is a persona and a means to an end. he doesn't believe everything he says or does under that label, as long as it keeps people out of his business. but lets assume the stars aligned etc. and he actually is close with people, platonic or otherwise. in that case he's comfortable enough to unmask (haha. not literally though. you need 30 points to unlock that 😔).

^ when he's relaxed he's significantly less serious. i think he tries to have a sarcastic sense of humour (keyword 'tries'). he's also the type of person tell an obvious untruth and wait for someone to go 'wait really?' so he can say that he made it up. it's incredibly annoying but robbie thinks hes hilarious (time honoured older brother tradition of recreational lying).

^ he doesn't really know how to comfort people and it eats him up so bad because guess what this feeling of helplessness in the face of a loved ones pain reminds him of? he tries to make up for that with the magnitude of his aimless effort and often fruitless attempts to enact retribution on the problem itself.

ithaqua's not the type of person to fall in love at first sight. he doesn't hang out with people with the express intent to form a romantic relationship either. if he likes someone, they'll usually have to be close friends first. that being said, i think he has trouble discerning between 'do i like like them or is our friendship just reaching a new level'.

improbability aside, theoretically if ithaqua really did have a crush on someone, i think he would want to be nice and romantic etc because this is some of the first non-hateful human contact he's had in years and he's scared something will happen Again and he'll go back to being Alone.

and while he's not completely clueless on how romance works, i feel like what he knows is pretty limited to social stereotype (chocolate and roses?? where do you even find that in oletus manor.) and fairytale kinda stuff he gleans from books he read as a kid. so he's a little lost. this is where i think he's kind of awkward and weird because he's not sure how he's supposed to act. he knows how to act to be the night watch, and he mostly forgot how he used to act when he was 'human'; but neither of those are how he 'really' is in the present. lets work on ourselves first maybe...

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

https://www.tumblr.com/caramel-ribbons/720001793861533696/i-just-watched-avatar-for-the-first-time-all-the?source=share

what do you think of this post? i found it kind of.. weird, in the way it talked about her relationship with team avatar compared to her relationship with zuko

It started out okay, turned into a train-wreck REAL fast.

I can understand being annoyed at how people will make fun of something like Katara bringing up her mom a lot, especially if these people don't do that for any other character when they ALL bring up their traumas a lot, but the way it quickly escalated into "Actually, Katara was right in telling her brother he didn't love their mom like she did" was honestly one of the most disgusting things I've read by anyone in this fandom - which is saying a lot.

Also, once again the complete bullshit claims of "The Gaang and Aang in particular never try to be there for Katara, emotionally, like she was for them."

Considering this person mentioned disliking videos that frame the entire show as just Katara being a bitch towards poor, friendzoned nice guy Aang, I would not be surprised if they let this dumb edits drastically affect how they see completely innocent Kataang moments as being something they weren't OR that they had already read Zutara "metas" (aka wildly out of character fanfic) and formed their opinion on these dynamics looooong before they actually watched the show.

People really gotta stop focusing on what the FANDOM does when they are talking about how CHARACTERS behave towards each other. Yes, some fans are sexist and hate Katara for the "crime" of being a female character - that does not mean the Gaang forced her into the role of being their mom/caretaker/therapist.

Sokka is CONSTANTLY trying to be useful the group. Toph learned to open up and clearly enjoyed spending time with Katara, even if it was to do things she did not want to do at first (you TRY dragging Toph to a spa and have people touch her feet after she explicitly said that was the one thing they were not allowed to do. See how fast you get crushed by a rock).

And Aang - oh my God, AANG. That boy was all about trying to make Katara happy from day one. They played together, he offered to go with her to the Northern Water Tribe so she could become a pro-waterbender, would always apologize to her whenever he did something wrong, explicitly told her she gave him hope (mirroring how she had hope the Avatar would save the world), was in complete awe after she literally brought him back to life, fucking blew up a factory with her, and tried to stop her from making a big mistake and sacrificing what was left of her innocence by killing a (admitedly AWFUL) man - yes, Zutarians, NOT letting your friend do something they'll regret IS being a good friend and thinking of what's best for them, sorry not sorry.

THE WHOLE REASON Katara is so emotionally attached to Aang and wants to be there for him whenever he needs anything is because HE ALLOWED HER TO BE A KID AND HAVE FUN AGAIN.

You'd think so called "Katara fans" would be able to understand such a simple concept that she verbally explains to us IN THE FIRST DAMN EPISODE!

Anyone that claims Aang didn't love and support Katara just as much as she did him is either misremembering the show, in deep denial, or just flat out lying to you.

[sarrinight]

UH are we allowed to ask you questions? Cause I have questions on. The Sillies. (Kinjo and Yuki) Like what are your thoughts on their ship? I see you draw Kinjo with DRA Yuki and the real Yuki and I want to know what you actually think about them.. feel free to go off about it but if not you can just delete this hdshhsd

oh yes of course!!! and i do wanna talk about it, gosh i really haven't elaborated my piece about them yet since this is an art blog n i felt a little annoying when i blow up a tag, THANK YOU!! !!!

I also don't see many people talk about post-sdra2 either. this take, im gonna be minty fresh

kinjomae analysis

DRA Yuki

Canon-speaking, Kinjomae was deliberately called back to in both games. Tsurugi fills the role of the queer survivor in dra the way that Yoruko blatantly does in sdra2 (and the protagonist dies) except, it's less obvious as a main couple because of the way linuj writes, and it also doesn't fit the way some people see stereotyped mlm characters.

Kinjo's entire life is a trauma that is so oriented on staying alone, being alone in his suffering and his profession. He particularly killed the men closest to him, (Teruya, Kouhei, threatening Utsuro, and even his father) and seeing those people die around him leaves him numb. I feel like the Yuki of the first game is another unhealthy contributor to the sad cycle of his life, but ALSO remains to be his biggest savior. Kinjo and Akane are the only characters of DRA to have both 5 free-times, their bond has always been THAT highlight level of important.

DRA Yuki tears into this unhealthy string of Tsurugi's life by literally preventing the one time he felt alone the most. In Yuki's perspective, Tsurugi is such a strong figure but still trusting himself to lean on him, it solidifies both of them and forces them to develop their situations even when Utsuro rips through the Yuki facade. They were partners in crime unknowing that one of them was a criminal, omg, they were the dear rabbit, the along came a spider, the jane and john doe,,,

Tsurugi mentions he can't trust anybody but Yuki, Tsurugi gives Yuki a pass at trying to murder him despite his rigid moral. (not without a punch or two, but impressive.) and when Yuki is on the outsides he is the connected peacekeeper to Kinjo VS. Everyone Else. They are there to hold eachother's hands so they can still reconnect onto the border of the group. Like, the way Yuki shouts main character philosophy in chapter 4 at him while he's fighting everyone else brutally at the dinner table, and once again in chapter 6.

(Teruya, then fulfils this goal of reparation with Rei after they leave the killing game, but not on the mental stability side.) Tsurugi is seemingly independant and incredibly uncontrollable due to his detachment, and yet Yuki is able to have a significant part of influence over his life; as well as the deceased Kisaragi pre-killing game.

Yuki IS and will always be the exception to him and no matter how hard he tries to escape it, it follows him till the remainder of his character arc. In the same way, Tsurugi was the kickstarter to Utsuro's new mindset too. It's the "You can't pull the trigger cause you love me", cause that's what Utsuro-Yuki is to Tsurugi. Utsuro may be the most vile villain in the world to somebody who even considered assisted self defense to be a crime on first thought, and then he STILL proceeded to not take that final shot. He didn't hesitate blowing Mikado up, who arguably wasn't the first source of despair.

anyways i think dra yuki-utsuro/tsurugi are integral, important, and good to know your hizstory

he wants me i want him, we went out, then we (YukiUtsuro) DIED!! /ref

Yuki

Tsurugi would move on to be the worst man to cope in the existence of the franchise, and probably hardly ever move on after the death of DRA Yuki. If Yuki was truly dead he'd have two funerals for his two guypals, and spit on Utsuro's grave pretending not to like him. Plus that bad ending where Tsurugi just wakes up in the middle of the night in cold sweat shows what would sort of happen, he thinks about them too much. However,

Yuki was still a concept of a person who existed in the world. He's not gone, he's just someone in a different form, and still is inside the memory of Kinjo's mind that remains deteriorating. He's like, the same dude but he's in the clutches of EVIL!! and he hates evil. (Kinjo seems to catch onto Mikado's plans early on and then it only amplifies in his duty to stop Utsuro and find Yuki.)

Tsurugi's defeatist attitude to fail saving Teruya and Yuki was very much a falsetto because of the Omake 2 and I truly believe Rei was right that this was their agreed purpose.

The real Yuki has none of these shared moments that Tsurugi can look back on together, but if it was just the memories he wouldn't have acted so patronizing to Utsuro. He's affectionately looking back on the person that Utsuro was, which was just Yuki Maeda. Did Homura Akemi decide to go back in time for 10 years just so Madoka could share moments with her?? Absolutely not, and the same goes for Tsurugi Kinjo, who ran an entire organization which later adopted the name of the goal. As Mikado joked, it's "the love of your life" but it's in the most unconventional messy, dictatorial, and murderous way.

Kinjomae absolutely drives the narrative forward on Yuki's side of the story even if it's significantly relegated mostly to the end. Imagine your entire existence leaning on a few people you can't even remember, but they remember you? One dude sacrifices a guy, one girl sacrifices her body. With Tsurugi's final decrees of (semi) unconditional care for you, you finish the trial with this one-sided trauma bond and a promise to keep the survivors safe. Sora takes on all the karmic debt of Divine Luck, and peace returns in an ending that isn't really elaborated on.

ur now a fugitive awesome trans guyboss with superpowers, and you're just absolutely bawling out of your mind at this point. some blue haired dude in a wheelchair is going to die if you don't help him out with your sora-luck.

nobody talks about this enough but this is THE PERFECT set-up for a postgame friendship to develop, not only are they both survivors, this is the genuine Yuki who isn't hiding apart of an Utsuro disguise. He's alive but now in the body of someone Kinjo despised,,, he hates Akane, he refuses to acknowledge her. he loves yuki. But Yuki remembers her fondly and has to take care of the body, but he probably hates himself. not to mention the INTENSE guilt you would get from feeling anything in it or the dysphoria of even wearing/not wearing the clothes she is??? sdra2 so evil?? soruko died so kinjomae could slowburn.

There's nothing Yuki can do now but go on his quest to potentially get along with this man who is homo-erotically trauma bonded to him and got a whole-ass person killed in the process of ending Utsuro and finding the true Maeda., He also has to go atone to Yoruko and the rest of the gang. as you can see i like kinjomae i think they are a foundational element in the story of dra.

unrelated thinking

their suits are completely black and white i find that silly they match

my partner and i did a voiceover of their final freetime one time cause we were feeling quirky.

[olderthannetfic]

Translators who localize a story to the point of completely shitting on the actual heart and spirit of a story, to make it more palatable to the new audience instead of making people actually experience the difference in culture a story brings with it, those guys fucking suck. I've translated shit, I wanted people to experience the culture behind the work, not make it another soulless bullshit "make it as digestible as possible" so that no one ever has to ever confront another culture or language existing. This includes localizing names, and messing around with random titles and names of places. Some times you can't translate something, that's ok, just forcing in a random word that doesn't even come close to the original meaning is just annoying. I get that on occasion things WILL be translated. But I'd rather have to deal a few chapters with having to remember a foreign word, than have the name of a place be clunkily be translated into the literal meaning of what it'd be in English. (Or whatever other language you or I speak.) Also? Same shit for translators who take their role as translators, and decide to force their own interpretations, and subjective opinions into a work, to a point where they're editing the work instead of just translating. You're supposed to TRANSLATE that's it, not change character relationships. Not tone down or heighten a characters personality. You're not supposed to write your interpretation of a character into the translation. You're here to translate, and keep as much of the original text alive while doing so. Honestly, if you're a translator who puts your own interpretation above the actual content of the story, I'm pretty sure you're not only a terrible translator, you're also a sub-par writer who's trying to handle your own lack of skill by playing around and trying to write your own literary analysis and preferences into someone else's work like a talentless hack. Sorry not sorry, I'm tired of translators fucking up stories because they're on their little ego-trips and fucking up translations because of it.

--

My pet peeve is non-idiomatic translations that keep a "foreign" feel when the work wasn't supposed to read like that to the original audience.

Name translations are fine if all the names are goofy puns that jump out at the original audience. If they're supposed to read as regular names you don't think too hard about, they're better off in their original form.

[fanarchoslashivist]

I know you dropped it but I love 'Compost' its my favorite fic of yours and also i really like 'A Royal Pain In The Ass' and 'Calefaction" the way you write Jack is so unique and fun he's such a little shit stirrer hes like a prank youtuber and it is so obvious why so many people would find him annoying and hate him. I always had a problem with how the fandom worshiped his little boohoo I'm so lonely because people don't like when I'm a fucked up little shit to them. Typical lonely white boy who acts out to get attention and then cries when nobody likes him after he literally ruined their shit.

Bunny definitely should have popped Jack in the mouth during their first encounter I swear it would have fixed so many bad takes about their post Easter confrontation. Jack is such a smart mouthed mean spirited little shit and I love him but oh my god oh my god I KNOW he has other spirits who will jump him because he fucked up playing around with something and then didn't apologize or acted like it wasn't that big of a deal. Jack had zero problems throwing out punch after punch shit talking everything the Guardians do but Bunny pushes exactly one button that we as the audience have context for and suddenly Bunny is the bad guy and Jack is the sad lonely child. They BOTH were being shitty, Jack literally has history of destroying the thing keeping Bunny ALIVE like oh so sorry he got his white boy feelings hurt. Jack killed a kid's goldfish and caused mass car accidents in the first twenty minutes of this film, he's the class clown at the frat party who thinks its funny to steal your phone and dangle it over the side of the pool to watch you get upset and try to take it from him then laugh when you fall in the pool as he dodges.

its just a joke, lighten up," he says until you call him an asshole college dropout who is intentionally crashing parties to make everybody's life hell because he's terrified of being rejected so he gives everybody an excuse to hate him first.

Then he's sad and hurt and you're mean for handing him back his entire personality on a platter.

The important takeaway from that scene is that Bunny and the other Guardians are supposed to help people in this situation, but Bunny is supposed to be the person who recognizes that Jack is in need of help. Bunny is playing the stern "you are here because of the consequences of your actions," role to a young adult who has not had proper guidance through his teen years. Jack's entire problem is that he learns about the world through trial and error, but faces no lasting consequences, he is literally dismissed. This is very white boy problem child of him, getting into trouble with little consequence because white kids are usually swept aside instead of severely punished like kids of color are, they are told 'oh he just needs care and guidance' while also giving him no care and guidance. literally how the fandom treats him actually, "Jack is just lashing out because he wants to be seen and people are mean for getting mad at him instead of helping" then call every guy who tries to be funny to get their attention in real life a fuck boy. Rise of the Guardians is best read as a trouble making twenty-something kid being forced into community service and finally meeting adults who actively work with troubled kids.

I think Jack is a great representation for young adults aging out of a system that failed them, his mixture of longing and disdain for everything the Guardians do is a perfect reflection of how everything we do to help protect and provide for kids as a community can fall short, but they are still necessary, and always at threat from groups that think the best way to straighten out a kid is breaking them. Think of all the people who are so upset at the idea of replacing detention with actual support projects, and all the comments from people who insist the best way to punish the kids is to hurt them in some way, hit them, force them to do grueling exercises, deprive them of their dignity. Think of every person around you who looks at a crying child in public and say "MY child knows better than to act like THAT" and the implication behind it.

Jack views the things the Guardians do as vain little pet projects that they use to bribe kids in exchange for their belief, the same way a child who doesn't receive care can view it as bribes for good behavior instead of rewards. The Guardians are, quite literally stated in the movie, a replacement for the way previous generations raised kids through punishment. Pitch is the Boogeyman, the manifestation of how parents used fear to control kids and get them to do as they are told. "if you don't listen to me the boogeyman will GET you."

This is replaced by a system of rewards, "Go to sleep on time or you'll miss the Sandman and wont have good dreams." "If you don't be good Santa won't bring you presents, only nice kids get rewarded." "Sit still and behave through Easter service and you'll get to go to the Easter egg hunt." "Losing a tooth isn't a scary thing, its something to look forward to, you get money from the Tooth Fairy."

But when you don't have that, when you don't have rewards to look forward to or the rewards are used to control you instead of as a gift you earned, you can build resentment. Especially if, like Jack, you are a child in need who slipped through the cracks of a system built to help you.

Jack seeks the Man in the Moon's help, he insists that MiM put him there, and we as the audience believe him even though nowhere in the film does anything back this up, in fact we are shown that MiM is easily ignored when he attempts to contact people, if Sandy had not noticed him and gotten everyone's attention. Jack also insults what the Guardians do, with each Guardian having a special scene with him where they showcase and explain the individual importance of their duties and how much effort goes into it. He learns he was wrong as he interacts with them, and he learns that he ALSO has use of their gifts. It was all "cooped up in some hideout finding new ways to bribe kids" until it was HIS memories being protected.

The Guardians had an important lesson to learn, its a very easy lesson for viewers because its in half the family films you watch. Parents need to spend time with their kids! Its not enough to focus on what you can give them, yes work is hard and you are doing so much to make sure they are provided for and you are tired and need time for yourself to rest when you are done, but you also need to connect with and actually talk to your kids. You can't just be the person that gives them things, you need to be THERE for them.

But Jack has an important lesson to, and you are right to see him as immature and uncaring for the harm he does, he needs to understand his actions have consequences. Its all well and good for him to show up and make a mess of things and fly off when nobody cares if he comes or goes, blow a kid's homework out the window, freeze their goldfish, cause car accidents by sending kids sledding into the street. He lives up to every trickster story I know, and how he's dealt with also follows that line. Tricksters show up and play games with you, and you are often the one suffering from those games, except when you convince the trickster to play by YOUR rules.

The Guardians follow this when they convince Jack to help collect teeth, Jack wants his memories and they can help with that (how the fandom thinks that's blackmail is beyond me, how exactly is he getting those back without them? 'If we work together as a team we can do this' is pretty basic problem solving skills to teach kids. You help me I help you isn't manipulative unless they specifically have the teeth and are keeping it from him to force him to help them.) Challenging a trickster to a game is the go to method to surviving a trickster encounter, in a trickster story there is always a lesson to be learned, its meant to set an example and someone is going to bear that weight. If you don't want to be the example you need to make sure its the Trickster. You need to play by the rules of a trickster story while also convincing the trickster to make mistakes that will lead him to face consequences.

Pitch does this beautifully, I fucking LOVE how Jack's encounter with Pitch is beat by beat how you deal with a trickster. He even lures Jack away like a trickster would, very "Coyote promising to help you home if you follow his voice but gets you lost all night" Jack is off balance and without control the entire time, he fell for the trickster's promise. Its a GREAT confrontation for a Trickster character who plays pranks and creates problems for others that those people are left to deal with even though they are not at fault. Do you think the child who lost all their homework didn't have to either go running for it or restart from scratch, or have to show up without their work the next day at school? Do you think anybody cared that it wasn't their fault? "Don't leave the window open" is the lesson and getting a bad grade is their consequence. I would LOVE to see the Burgess Facebook Rants and Raves page after Jamie's little sled ride. "Whose child is this in the street?! Someone needs to call CPS."

Lessons require consequences, and Trickster lessons are often mean spirited and outside of your control. "I did everything right" you say even as the story highlights all the ways you misstep.

Jack isn't the one who ruined Easter, but he IS the one who chased after a voice in the dark when he knew there were people relying on him. It falls in line with the "go straight home after school," lessons in a lot of kids stories. The child wanders off and gets to see a lot of things, maybe gets lost, maybe gets in trouble, and when he gets home he finds out that he missed out on something really good or everyone is mad at him because he wasn't there to help with what they were doing.

The Hey Arnold cartoon had an episode in which the kids ditch school and spend the whole day hiding that they ditched so they don't get to enjoy any of the fun activities they had planned, only to get to school after they give up and realize it was a Field Day and they missed out on all the fun activities the school had set up for the kids. Its a classic consequence for a kids story, and a good one for Jack who has shown that he both WANTS so badly to be accepted by others and has spent several scenes making mean sarcastic remarks about their work. "Its no hard boiled egg, but kids LIKE what I do." "I'm not climbing into some rickety old sleigh" Jack is SUCH an "I know I can't have it so I'm going to mock it to show I don't even want it," kind of person and as someone raising kids every time the Guardians give him that LOOK when they show off and he's wowed by them is so real.

Jack, after realizing that he let himself be distracted by an immediate want over the expectations of the people waiting for him, he does what he always does when he makes a mess and flies away. The Trickster at the end of a story. The question is who are the ones learning a lesson? Is it the Guardians, who put their trust in a trickster and he didn't show, or Jack who got what he wanted at the expense of everyone else?

And that's why Jack choosing to go back, choosing to face his consequences and return to clean up the mess, is so important for his character and his story.

He was, again, the child that slipped through the cracks of the system set up to protect him, and now he has a chance to work for that system, he disparages it, how could he not? It failed him! There is no question the system failed him. But are the people working in that system bad? Is it better to abandon kids with no support system at all? and can you trust the people who claim THEY know how to raise kids right, that kids should be taught to fear what will happen to them if they step out of line. The Guardians are all focusing on one thing, all their energy on one thing to help, each Guardian identified a need and they put their efforts into providing that one thing for the kids, millions of kids, and if everyone just put effort into one thing then we would have a million needs being taken care of, instead of setting up one single thing that does everything.

Pitch was able to attack that by taking them out bit by bit, but the whole system didn't fail, because each Guardian has one thing that they do. Our support systems are always under attack, we need to constantly justify something as small as a free meal program, people want Children to go hungry in school, and the schools are not above withholding the very right to eat as punishment. Children are at risk of losing their most essential human rights on a daily basis, and the people doing the work to just ensure they can Eat are being criticized that they are not also fixing every other problem in the world, and therefor they must not be of any use and we should listen to the people who want to hurt kids to fix the problem, because children who are not afraid of punishment are undisciplined and will just going to run wild. Please ignore all the evidence that punishment as a form of discipline creates more problems than it solves. Anything that is not punishment is obviously not actually discipline and the only real consequence a child understands is one enforced by fear and pain.

Also important to note that Pitch was no match for them, at his strongest it literally only required the Guardians to have a small portion of their power back (Easter is still ruined and Tooth has not been able to collect for 2 days) for them to take him down, because he was only able to avoid their attacks and strike from a distance. Even at the Tooth Palace as soon as they charged him directly he ran, and you get the sense from his urgency that he CAN'T fight them head on. This is how child abuse survives, abusers CAN'T defend themselves, they can only hide and try to talk their way into convincing those around them that what they are doing isn't actually that wrong because the system is also flawed. How can anyone criticize how THEY raise their kids when the people raising kids the supposed "right" way are also failing?

Jack is an outsider because he fell through the cracks and is lashing out at a world that doesn't acknowledge that it failed him, but Pitch is lashing out at a world that isn't letting him hurt people without consequence. And I could go on and on about how Pitch is a great metaphor for generational trauma and wanting to raise kids who wont be killed the way his family was killed even though how he raised his daughter with kindness and courage before the attack is literally what saved her life because she snuck out of the house to play on her boat in the middle of the night. Her disobedience as a child and lack of fear of getting into trouble with her parents literally saved her life. Imagine sneaking out of the house to steal your parents car in the middle of the night and not being afraid they would beat your ass to oblivion and it being framed as the thing that saved you. Also always thinking about how Pitch doesn't want a child that's already evil but instead wants a child that is seen as good and pure and he wants to corrupt that child to be like him because he sees himself as a good and pure person who is corrupted and the fact that every person he attempts to turn into his fearling prince or princess always turns away from him or proves to be beyond corruption only shows that he too could have avoided his own fall and it drives him further into insanity because he can never NOT be in the right because then he would have to face the galactic scale genocide he committed. I love Pitch so much he is so so so close to being redeemed at every turn but he actively chooses to continue to insist that raising children in fear is the only way to protect them and I just get so many emotions about that as someone from two cultures that faced genocide. The people in the fandom insisting that fear IS what keeps kids alive are not going to break the cycle of abuse i am so sorry.

The thing that really always draws me into the Guardians of Childhood universe is that every character has so many flaws and is capable of so much cruelty but actively chooses to be kind, and Pitch is shown time and time again to be capable of kindness but actively chooses cruelty. I love writing characters who hurt people, who think its fun or right to hurt people, and have to face the consequences of hurting people. I love knowing that humans are able to fix their mistakes and learn to have compassion, even if it does not come naturally to them. I love that North was a bandit who was lured by MiM with the promise of a town filled with riches he could pilfer and actively choosing to fight to save the kids. I love that Tooth was literally hunted like an animal by the adults but still snuck into villages to trade gifts with the other children.

I love Katherine's little temper tantrums throughout the books and how often she falls to despair over her worries only to pick herself up again. She is such a little girl, I love her so much. I love when she blew out the magic candle North lit for her because she was mad at him, I love how Pitch broke her compass and she didn't have any immediate confirmation her friends were going to rescue her and she just felt so completely and utterly alone even though they literally just had to be chased out of her room by Nightlight because they kept checking up on her two whole scenes ago. Girl it has been like a day and you have been kidnapped before, they are going to come for you, you are so middle school melodramatic it is painful sometimes.

This is so long and ridiculous I'm sorry for rambling. Anyway if you come off anon and pm me I'll give you my email and send you the next few chapters I've written. I'm currently not posting anything for the fandom because of some people bothering me, I haven't gone so far to take down my fics yet but I do have plans to delete my ao3 eventually and go full private if things get worse.

[poplohours]

feeling annoyed by fandom again so i just want to think about the agony of narcissistic abuse in AA4 and how all the fathers/older figures (yes including nick) ultimately show negative behaviors that have harmed the younger person they have cared for or mentored lol. i think i remember someone getting really mad about me mentioning covert incest in the context of AA4, but Boy what the fuck is the point of media if you don't talk about what's difficult in life, if you don't find vectors to seriously discuss complex relationships between adults and children, fathers and daughters (nick and trucy).

When I say 'covert incest', I don't mean hidden incest in the literal term, but rather emotional incest. Emotional incest is a really meaningful term, even if people despise having to look at the word incest, because the issue of emotional abuse wherein parents overly depend on their own children is not something many people are able to broadly conceptualize! It isn't something that is usually done in a malicious way, either -- many parents who do that are frequently themselves struggling with trauma, lack of direction, insecurities, and other struggles. However, the issue therein is they depend on a child for support rather than an adult of their own age or social position. This often coincides with a condition that we do call Parentification -- something I think is more well-known as a term, as it is when a child is forced to grow up too quickly as extreme responsibilities beyond their years are placed upon them.

I realize it may seen strange or extreme for me to discuss this in the context of such a silly series as Ace Attorney, but it is an issue that frequently appears in the game. Mia is left to be a parent figure to Maya before leaving to become an attorney, leaving Maya primarily in the care of their aunt who loathes them both. Maya ends up being a major caretaker of Pearl, despite herself still being a teenager, after Morgan is imprisoned. Maya ends up managing many office affairs on behalf of Nick because while he is an adult with a law degree, he simply accepts her help and aid rather than actually engaging with her as the child she is (something he will frequently do through the series). Kristoph appears to have somewhat of a parental relationship with Klavier (though I recognize this is up for debate and open to interpretation), actively gaslighting and undermining him in a court of law as well as using Klavier's teenage desire to feel equal to his older brother for his own benefit years prior.

I could very likely go on in this matter, but I do think that these issues are most encapsulated by Nick and Trucy. You could also engage with this at the level of Drew and Vera, Lamiroir and Machi, Klav and Kristoph (as previously noted), and Zak and Trucy.

However, while all of those are relevant, Drew wants to protect his daughter despite his failures in depending on her, even if it means the two of them completely shutting themselves off from the world. While Lamiroir is travelling with a 14 year old that she is utilizing as her primary music partner before essentially ending her parental relationship after Machi is imprisoned. Zak does still act as a father to Trucy in the midst of being actively blackmailed by Magnifi -- while it is unreasonable that Trucy has to perform as an eight year old, she is also the granddaughter of Magnifi and (from Magnifi's perspective) the one left to inherit the Gramarye name. Zak's situation has a deeply complicated nature because Magnifi is playing a part in Trucy being a performer -- this is one of the reasons why I don't read Zak's influence as 'parentification' in the same way, even though I do think he and Magnifi did ultimately groom Trucy to be too accepting of this role from a young age.

That brings me to Nick. I do believe it is easy to play off many of the lines that come up. Trucy "takes charge" of the situation, saying that she can take care of Nick even if he doesn't have a job anymore. She's already done shows and is prepared. However, we already know from the future that Nick did take her up on this. She calls herself his 'sugar daddy'. Again, this can be taken as a joke. But Trucy does regular shows at the Wonder Bar advertising her 'Magic Panties', which comes up frequently as something that makes Apollo actively uncomfortable. It is, of course, another 'joke', but the fact that the game does lean so much into Apollo being uncomfortable about Trucy's 'panties' frankly speaks to me as Shu Takumi failing to recognize the discomforting implications of his supposed gag.

Especially when you do have to find an adult woman's actual underwear.

I'm sure people would call me insane for this, but Trucy's Magic Panties show reads to me as a light form of sex work. That's how her show is "sold" and "advertised". The funny joke is that it isn't at all what people would expect -- the funny joke is that people expect it to be the underwear of a 15 year old girl that they are willingly coming to see. "It's a joke", someone would gladly tell me, "Don't read into it so much." And yet this is the kind of thing that matters to me. The implications of this matter and the fact that Apollo is the one sane person in the room who says, "What the hell, don't talk about this, she's a kid" stick in my brain and vibrate with such aggressive intensity that I do feel insane. It feels like horror. It feels like tragedy.

There are so many lines that come up about Trucy and Nick's relationship which border this sense of Nick's unhealthy dependency on her.

Apollo: So you're his, er... you're Phoenix Wright's daughter? Trucy: That's right! After Daddy quit law seven years ago... ...I promised I would keep him fed! So I'm kind of his sugar daddy! Get it? Apollo: No. Trucy: I'm in charge of this whole office, too. Pretty amazing for a young lass of fifteen, wouldn't you agree!?

This early exchange from 4-2 immediately presents Nick and Trucy's relationship as one that centers Trucy's caretaking for her father and the office. It is a talent agency where she is the only one good at her "actual talent" (though she is careful not to mention her father's Poker job), it is an agency where she is meeting new people by herself, it is an agency where a 15 year old girl is managing the office at 9:00 AM rather than being at school. "Well, that doesn't matter, because Takumi didn't intend for it to be like that." What is the point of engaging with a piece of media if we cannot consider the serious implications of that which an author (especially one as misogynistic as Takumi) failed to consider?

Apollo: Mr. Wright's bed... It's really messy. Trucy: Look how messy this is! You're just hopeless without me, aren't you, Daddy? Apollo: (Yikes! She's attempting to clean up! Look out!) Phoenix: Ah ha ha. You got me. What can I say? I was raised in a barn. Try not to let word get out, Apollo. If you don't mind.

There are several bits at the hospital that broadly feel improper for a child and a parent -- again, I know someone could say to me, "This is part of the act that Trucy and Nick are putting together to hook Apollo into working for them." The problem is, these things are already rooted in the very moment that Nick took in Trucy. "You're just hopeless without me" alongside 8 year old Trucy saying, "I'll take care of you" speaks to that exact idea of emotional incest of which their interactions remind me.

Phoenix: Yeah... That's the problem with such a tight operation. It's a symbiotic relationship. When one of us falls, the other, too, must fall... Apollo: Hey! This isn't exactly a suitable conversation to be having with a 15 year old kid!

"It's a symbiotic relationship." This is one of the lines I always come back to when thinking about the issue of emotional incest. There's one aspect here wherein Trucy has taken on a maternal role for Nick. However, there's another aspect in the inappropriate way that Nick refers to their relationship. There is no such thing as a 'symbiotic' relationship to this context -- he's talking about dependency. At this point in time, Nick is aware that Apollo is Trucy's brother. Due to that, he would also know that Apollo grew up as an orphan. When Apollo pushes back, it feels like Nick wants to play into that potential for insecurity. There's a double-pronged horror to me within this, using the potential well-being of an adopted teenager against a young adult man who himself was never adopted.

Phoenix: Sometimes when magicians vanish, they leave something behind... That's how Trucy became Trucy Wright... my daughter. To be honest, I was pretty lost those first few days. Thinking back on it, it was a pretty dark time in my life. But Trucy... happy, smiling Trucy... she was my light.

"She was my light."

There's a way within emotional incest that a parent or adult figure will frame their child in the lens of a relationship inappropriate for their status. Oftentimes, this is akin to a 'romantic' projection, but it can have similar ranges within the idea of placing a child upon a pedestal as a savior. I recognize that a parent could say this without meaning for it to be an unhealthy projection, but this is inherently dehumanizing. I find it further frustrating because Nick also frames himself as the "one person who understands how she really feels". He knows that she's forcing a smile and hiding her true feelings, but he still engages with her ability to hide her own heart as a thread to hang on. Is that love? Yes, of a sort.

But Nick's love is self-serving. It is one that expresses need rather than external concern. His own feelings and goals come before her safety and well-being. He leaves Trucy on her own, he knows the very core of her magic panties act, he actively allows her to manage the agency, he assigns a greater responsibility than anyone should to a 15 year old, and effectively replaces her with Athena once the option arrives. Nick wanted to "restore" his reputation -- at least, that is one of the major assumptions made by fandom -- and so he did. He no longer needs her in the same way because it can now be a law agency again, he has the respect he wanted, and ultimately her "reward" is being relegated to the side. The people he wanted to have back in his life have returned. That isolation he once felt that led to his complete dependence on her has disappeared, but that means she no longer has the same use she once had. Enmeshment, emotional manipulation, the covert nature of it all -- it is a tragedy and it is one I find compelling as she jumps into the deep-end as she tries to take on the Gramarye name once again. As her father goes his own way and the Wright Anything Agency is subsumed by him.

[pineappleciders]

HEY DUDE ‼️‼️ can i pls request. Uhh sunny, hero and basil witha reader in recovery for atypical anorexia? Ik thats kinda vague but like, just them being supportive and trying to help is fine. ik u got a request like this before but hopefully they arent too similar? ANYWAYS yeah thank you 😁😁

SUNNY, HERO, and BASIL with a reader who is in atypical anorexia recovery

A/N: hii! don't worry about it, i've never gotten to write about recovery so this is cool for me!!! also i'm really sorry if anything in this is triggering or insensitive!!

TRIGGER WARNING: eating disorders, anorexia

☆ ☆ ☆

SUNNY

sunny isn't the definition of a healthy lifestyle,,, to say the least. so he probably isn't amazing at being a good role model and stuff like that

but he's great at being there for you emotionally. he may not understand everything about your ED but he listens very closely and he's very open to talking about private or personal matters!

if he notices you're having a hard time at the dinner table or while eating, he might look at you and just. blink. like he doesn't say anything but he's non-verbally checking on you

and he might come up to you after eating and stare at you to see if there's anything you wanna talk about,,, he gives your hand a squeeze under the table to encourage you

whenever you just need a break or are feeling faint, he's all for just lounging on the couch and playing games or sleeping. he is never one to judge if you're feeling tired or lazy

again, he isn't amazing at helping you physically with your recovery, but he's glad to stick with you!!!! he wishes he could help a little more though, but honestly his company is more than enough : )

HERO

hero is great at reminding you to do things to take care of yourself. like he'll always text you like 'Hey, did you eat yet?' and if you don't respond he comes to your house and immediately starts making pancakes

and he's all like "oh hey Y/N yeah i let myself in i figured you'd like me to make you some breakfast!!! :D"

he also reminds you to drink water and brush your teeth!!!! it can get a little annoying sometimes but he really wants to be sure that you're taking care

100% makes you meals if you can't or aren't feeling like it. he'll make you sandwiches, lasagna, literally anything. you're kinda disappointed that he gave up being a chef because he's REALLY good at it

he understands if you don't finish everything he makes,,, he knows it's hard so he doesn't force it and puts it in the fridge for later, always asking if you want him to heat it up or want the rest

he'll sit down and be very serious and listen intently if you need to talk about something. and he just genuinely tries to give you honest advice and lets you know he cares and wants to see you as the best person you can be

BASIL

he tries to research a lot about recovery and EDs to try to help you, like he always searches up how to help someone in recovery and tries to memorize it

basil is always very nice. like he never points anything out that may be rude, so you never have to worry about like. getting insecure or anxious that he may be judging you. he genuinely doesn't care what other people do and supports you in everything

he feels really bad that you have to go through everything on your own, so he generally tries to help you with things, especially if it puts strain on your body or you're feeling weak. he's very happy to help!!

amazing at listening, and appreciates it deeply when you open up to him about stuff. he knows it can be hard more than anyone

tries to get you into hobbies to take your mind off of bad thoughts, like gardening and drawing. anytime you come over he takes you to the garden to water and weed the plants while chatting about your day

gives you drawings and notes, even in class!! they read little encouraging quotes or just compliments in hopes of making your day a little better :)

he knows he can't help you in every way, but he's very open with you and tries his best to be there and be the best friend he can be!!!