#luke beast complex

[w2beastars]

Bonus stuff from the third Beast Complex book

Please buy the manga.

So Luke did get sent to jail for predator crimes and Rosé actually visits him in the slammer.

And nice to see Abu and Kiyosumi still hang out.

[junorsky]

[tantaniumflare]

Drawing of Luke and Rośe from Beast-Complex Chapter 12.

[gojuo]

this show went from aemond killing luke (who took out his eye) to purposely killing his brother, because of some drunken joke.

Aemond embarrassed him at the council by also speaking Valyrian fluently and Egg could barely complete a sentence, they were even!

kill a sibling and and not feeling the slightest bit of guilt He takes aegon's dagger and walks away casually as if it wasn't his full brother dying there) about it is something only the worst of the worst would do such as gregor clegane, euron greyjoy and ramsay bolton. it's sick..nothing like stannis and maekar who killed their brothers but had no happiness about it

even daemon targ didn't dare try to kill viserys wtf

we are doomed. we expected complexity between aegond and we received and we received an attempt at fratricide and regicide 😭

It's just not even remotely an interesting or compelling or sympathetic character arc or motivation to me, sorry. I didn't care for Aemond in the book, I loved him in the show out of spite, now I'm back to not caring about him bc this is just not the type of character whose development, whether it be a progression or a regression, I enjoy following. My bridges are burned 😬

Side note maybe but I've noticed how it's Daemon that's getting the sympathetic portrayal concerning his family over his narrative foil Aemond, which, in my opinion, is another aspect of the Greens Condal is taking away and giving to the Blacks that I've been harping on about in posts and tags everywhere lately.

The greatest of his rivals was Daemon Targaryen, the king’s ambitious, impetuous, moody younger brother.

Fire and Blood, p. 354.

As King Viserys had no living son, Daemon regarded himself as the rightful heir to the Iron Throne, and coveted the title Prince of Dragonstone, which His Grace refused to grant him…but by the end of year 105 AC, he was known to his friends as the Prince of the City and to the smallfolk as Lord Flea Bottom. Though the king did not wish Daemon to succeed him, he remained fond of his younger brother, and was quick to forgive his many offenses.

Fire and Blood, p. 355

Thus did matters stand in King’s Landing late in the year 105 AC, when Queen Aemma was brought to bed in Maegor’s Holdfast and died whilst giving birth to the son that Viserys Targaryen had desired for so long. The boy (named Baelon, after the king’s father) survived her only by a day, leaving king and court bereft... save perhaps for Prince Daemon, who was observed in a brothel on the Street of Silk, making drunken japes with his highborn cronies about the “heir for a day.” When word of this got back to the king (legend says that it was the whore sitting in Daemon’s lap who informed on him, but evidence suggests it was actually one of his drinking companions, a captain in the gold cloaks eager for advancement), Viserys became livid. His Grace had finally had a surfeit of his ungrateful brother and his ambitions.

Fire and Blood, p. 359.

Prince Daemon was not amongst them, however. Furious at the king's decree [naming Rhaenyra heir], the prince quit King's Landing, resigning from the City Watch. He went first to Dragonstone, taking his paramour Mysaria with him upon the back of his dragon Caraxes, the lean red beast the smallfolk called the Blood Wyrm. There he remained for half a year, during which time he got Mysaria with child. When he learned that his concubine was pregnant, Prince Daemon presented her with a dragon's egg, but in this he again went too far and woke his brother's wroth. King Viserys commanded him to return the egg, send his whore away, and return to his lawful wife, or else be attained as a traitor. The prince obeyed, though with ill grace, dispatching Mysaria (eggless) back to Lys, whilst he himself flew to Runestone in the Vale and the unwelcome company of his "bronze bitch." But Mysaria lost her child during a storm on the narrow sea. When word reached Prince Daemon he spoke no syllable of grief, but his heart hardened against the king, his brother. Thereafter he spoke of King Viserys only with disdain, and began to brood day and night on the succession.

Fire and Blood, p. 360.

After Mysaria lost her unborn child, Daemon hated Viserys. He had no love for his brother anymore and began his grooming of an 8-year-old Rhaenyra to get closer to what his biggest wish in life was: the Iron Throne.

Notice how this is not him in the show but Aemond now? The bullying + brothel plotline to make him hate Aegon is not there in the book. In contrast, Aegon, Aemond and Daeron together actually hated the Strong bastards and none of them, especially not Aegon, were friends.

The sins of the fathers are oft visited on the sons, wise men have said; and so it is for the sins of mothers as well. The enmity between Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra was passed on to their sons, and the queen’s three boys, the Princes Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron, grew to be bitter rivals of their Velaryon nephews, resentful of them for having stolen what they regarded as their birthright: the Iron Throne itself. Though all six boys attended the same feasts, balls, and revels, and sometimes trained together in the yard under the same master-at-arms and studied under the same maesters, this enforced closeness only served to feed their mutual mislike, rather than binding them together as brothers.

Fire and Blood, p. 377-378.

It was Viserys actually who hurt Aemond over being dragonless, NOT Aegon.

Only the middle son, Prince Aemond, remained dragonless, but His Grace had hopes of rectifying that, and had put forward the notion that perhaps the court might sojourn at Dragonstone after the funeral. A wealth of dragon’s eggs could be found beneath the Dragonmont, and several young hatchlings as well. Prince Aemond could have his choice, “if the lad is bold enough.” Even at ten, Aemond Targaryen did not lack for boldness. The king’s gibe stung, and he resolved not to wait for Dragonstone.

Fire and Blood, p. 380.

Aemond in the book was also never characterized as lusting after the throne like Daemon was. He's always been presented as a staunch supporter of Aegon's birthright.

One-eyed Prince Aemond, nineteen, was found in the armory, donning plate and mail for his morning practice in the castle yard. “Is Aegon king?” he asked Ser Willis Fell, “or must we kneel and kiss the old whore’s cunny?”

Fire and Blood, p. 397.

The greatest danger was deemed to be Storm’s End, for House Baratheon had always been staunch in support of the claims of Princess Rhaenys and her children. Though old Lord Boremund had died, his son Borros was even more belligerent than his father, and the lesser storm lords would surely follow wherever he led. “Then we must see that he leads them to our king,” Queen Alicent declared. Whereupon she sent for her second son. Thus it was not a raven who took flight for Storm’s End that day, but Vhagar, oldest and largest of the dragons of Westeros. On her back rode Prince Aemond Targaryen, with a sapphire in the place of his missing eye. “Your purpose is to win the hand of one of Lord Baratheon’s daughters,” his grandsire Ser Otto told him, before he flew. “Any of the four will do. Woo her and wed her, and Lord Borros will deliver the stormlands for your brother. Fail—” “I will not fail,” Prince Aemond blustered. “Aegon will have Storm’s End, and I will have this girl.”

Fire and Blood, p. 400.

“You must rule the realm now, until your brother is strong enough to take the crown again,” the King’s Hand told Prince Aemond. Nor did Ser Criston need to say it twice, writes Eustace. And so one-eyed Aemond the Kinslayer took up the iron-and-ruby crown of Aegon the Conqueror. “It looks better on me than it ever did on him,” the prince proclaimed. Yet Aemond did not assume the style of king, but named himself only Protector of the Realm and Prince Regent.

Fire and Blood, p. 437.

I know people like using this passage as evidence that Aemond wanted the crown, but this is the only sentence that insinuates such a thought in the entirety of F&B, and it then also gets shots down immediately in the next sentence after. People can yap about how Aemond knows he can’t do or say anything as long as Maelor is alive, but when this one sentence—which gets rebuked pronto anyway—is the only evidence you have for that headcanon vs. Daemon who in the text explicitly and repeatedly is said to want to throne and hate his brother, then it’s just not a supported notion in the text or subtext at all.

That “‘Tis I the younger brother who studies philosophy, history and swords etc. etc.” is also nowhere in the book. This second son complex is just a show invention that used to be Daemon’s in the book now given to Aemond in the show, because of course Condal wants Daemon to be far more sympathetic in the eyes of the audience through exploring his love and guilt towards his brother and Rhaenyra with the Harrenhal hallucinations, rather than Aemond, whose actions snowballed into Blood and Cheese and who has a far better character arc lying in wait if that love and guilt he feels towards his brother post-B&C had actually been his.

Show!Aemond is such a wasted character, really. They had so much potential in him becoming an unhinged, murderous psycho falling into impatiency (reason for leaving KL and Cole unprotected) and mania (reason for carpetbombing the Riverlands) because of the immeasurable guilt he feels for what his actions have caused his family (Kinslaying!! The greatest sin in Westeros!!! Blood and Cheese!! ASOIAF’s most atrocious event that kinda happened because of him a little bit!!!)... And yes, it’s not a justification but it’s a reason for why he would do such monstrous things in the book because that’s just how a young, 19-year-old, emotionally volatile, new-to-the-horrors-of-war Targaryen prince with access to nukes would act like once he’s wholly consumed by the guilt of Blood and Cheese and war and the failure at Rook’s Rest and his brother’s disability therefore he’d become unable to face his family anymore culminating in what’s basically his suicide above the God’s Eye... His obsession with facing Daemon could have been because he feels like he has to redeem himself towards his brother for kinda being the cause of Jaehaerys’ death... but Ryan Condal does not want the viewer’s focus to stay on Blood and Cheese or else that would mean negative feelings towards Daemon and Rhaenyra are validated, and also the Greens can’t love each other and care about each other or how else can Condal portray them as fuckups unworthy of positivity so that the viewer does not get attached to them or root for them? Blood and Cheese and Jaehaerys have practically been forgotten by the Greens and the show by now. Nobody cares anymore! How many times has anyone even said his name? Uggghhhhh.

That love and loyalty the Greens feel for each other was, of course, all propaganda 🙄 Daemon in the book got his somewhat redemption through saving Nettles at the cost of betraying Rhaenyra, so fuck Condal for switching him and Aemond around and fuck Condal for cutting Nettles in order to whitewash Rhaenyra some more. And then stealing the love and loyalty the Greens had to the family and giving it to the Blacks. Ugh.

[mbtiblogfun]

"The INFP Archetypes"

What makes INFPs different from each other? Well there are many factors. Obviously not all INFPs are the same, and other parts of typology like enneagram, ivs, and socionics do affect this. Some INFPs are also more in tune with their weaker functions (Si and Te) than others. Like the other types, INFPs also have different "archetypes" that are often seen as "general representations" of them. Obviously because mbti is so nuanced and complex, don't fret if you don't identify with any of these! They're very simplified, so not relating doesn’t mean you're not an INFP!

So now let's get into some of the most notable archetypes

1. The Dreamer

The most notable INFP archetype, one could call it "the INFP poster child." The dreamer is a pure, innocent, curious, sensitive, and idealistic INFP. The dreamer looks at the world with wide, starry-eyes, and wears their heart on their sleeve. Usually the dreamer is also very romantic poetic, and/or artistic, and they have a wild imagination. The dreamer sees the good in everyone and might often merge with/be present in tropes like the manic pixie dream girl, or the soft boy. They have a tendency to be portrayed as mysterious or misunderstood.

Examples of the dreamer: Belle (Beauty & the Beast), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Amelie, Juliet (Romeo & Juliet), Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables), and Celine (Before Trilogy)

2. The Mediator

The mediator shares the same traits as the dreamer (pure, sensitive, kind-hearted, etc.) but plays a different role in the story. Typically the dreamers are protagonists, while mediators usually have secondary roles. The mediator often acts as a voice of reason, to keep the protagonist in touch with their humanity or to just listen whenever someone needs to let it all out. The mediator is typically very quirky and non-conformist. The mediator is empathetic and usually soften-spoken, but they're not afraid to stand up for others or what they believe in.

Examples of the mediator: Silvermist (Tinkerbell), Mantis (MCU), Luna Lovegood (Harry Potter), Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury (Sailor Moon), and Lucy Pevensie (Narnia)

3. The Seeker

The seeker, once again, shares the same traits as the other two but has an emphasis on curiosity and imagination. The seeker is not afraid to ponder life's deeper, more complex questions.

As said by @dragonflymage, the seeker often asks themselves questions like

Why do I exist?

Who am I really inside?

How do I fit?

Where do I belong?

They also go on to add this explanation: "A seeker, continuously looking for answers that we never may find, but that we must keep searching for anyway. "

(If you wanna read more from her post I've reblogged it on my page) While they search for these answers, the seeker oftentimes will go on a "hero's journey" in hopes of finding the answer along their quest

Examples of the seeker: Merlin (BBC), Newt Scamander (Fantastic Beasts/HP), Luke Skywalker (Star Wars), Edward Scissorhands, and Frodo (LOTR)

4. The Emotional Villain

As you can see this one is a complete 180 compared to the other three lol. This pattern doesn't exactly have a name, so I just made one up.

Pretty much all INFP villains I've seen are driven by their emotions. Afterall, Fi is our dominant function. The emotional villain is driven by personal reasons and experiences, they're not just evil for the sake of being evil. Typically the emotional villain is very moody, disturbed, and/or unstable. They are usually the direct opposite of their other INFP counterparts: they are selfish, ruthless, and blood-hungry.

Examples of the emotional villain: Wanda Maximoff (MCU), Joker (2019 ver), and Kylo Ren (Star Wars).

5. The Angsty Teen

Another really common portrayal of INFPs in media is the angsty teen. This archetype is pretty self explanatory, an angsty hormonal teenager. The angsty teen often struggles with social anxiety, and/other another mental illness. They also might have trust issues, be really moody, or hurting from unrequited love or some other trauma. The angsty teen often copes through artistic means, like poetry or painting.

I feel the feelings on this archetype are very divided. While a lot of people don't like having that image as a representation of their type, some argue that it's a realistic portrayal of the darker side of being an INFP. I personally feel like the angsty teen represents my inner conflicts, while the dreamer, mediator, and seeker represent my outward behavior most of the time. What are your thoughts?

Examples of the angsty teen: Shinji Ikari (Evangelion), Will Byers (Stranger Things), Cassie Ainsworth (Skins), Kou Mabuchi (Blue Spring Ride), Violet Parr (The Incredibles), Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson), Charlie Kelmeckis (The Perks of Being a Wallflower), Elio Perlman (Call Me By Your Name), Todd Anderson (Dead Poets Society), Fischl (Genshin Impact), Lydia Deetz (Beetlejuice) and Cry Baby (K-12)

There's plenty more archetypes but I thought I'd just focus on these 5. Also remember that these archetypes don't represent all INFPs as a whole, they’re just like "INFPs in a nutshell."

What are your thoughts? Which archetypes do you relate to? Which one's your favorite? Which one's your least favorite?

[dark-frosted-heart]

3rd King of the Beast Collection (short?) summaries - all

These stories are based on their promises for the election.

🦌 Keith - It's annoying how good the bully is at getting what he wants

Emma finds Keith hunched over his desk writing something and it doesn't seem like he's noticed that she's in his room. She goes to take a look and in that moment, alter!Keith calls her out for peeping. Emma tries to explain that she was curious and alter!Keith asks if she wants to take a look. Except when she reaches for the journal, he hold it out of his reach and taps his lips. He wants her to beg. The light kiss that Emma gives him is not enough and alter!Keith demonstrates the kind of kiss he wants from her, one with a lot of tongue. Emma tries her best and alter!Keith asks if she wants to see the jorunal that badly. Emma replies that she wants to know more about him, and she can't help it if he's purposely keeping it from her.

Alter!Keith then says that Emma's fallen for his trap, causing the latter to wonder if he made a show of writing on purpose. Then she recalls how she hadn't spent with this Keith the day before. Suddenly, she's become adorable in his eyes.

The journal's a diary that both Keiths use to write about Emma, with Keith being the one to write more often. Hearing that the contents are embarrassing to read makes Emma even more curious than ever. Alter!Keith makes Emma beg again and the desire to satisfy him lights a fire in the woman. She gently bites his thumb that's on her lower lip.

🐻 Luke - Teddy bears are the best

Luke and Emma are making stuffed animals to donate to the orphanage. Emma marvels at how cute the ones Luke made are and how they're so much fluffier. After getting some tips, the two go back to making the stuffed animals and Emma sees Luke hold up a kind-looking teddy bear. It's the cutest out of them all and the sleepy look reminds her of Luke. Seeing the sparkle in her eyes, Luke asks if she wants the bear. While Emma does, the children come first. The joy on their faces is more important. Luke then asks if she's fine with that. Is she really, really, fine with it.

Emma picks up a rabbit and uses it to talk to him, asking if the kids will like them. Luke responds back with the bear, responding that they definitely will since Emma put her heart and soul into them. They're as cute as the person who made them. He then brings the bear close and makes it look like it's kissing the rabbit. The two continue playing and talking with the stuffed animals when Luke suddenly kisses Emma. His excuse is that he's imitating the stuffed animals. With her permission, Luke kisses her repeatedly. He thinks they should take a break. The kisses become more intense and Luke starts to get handsy.

A few days later, the day to deliver the stuffed animals arrives. Luke wakes up first, looks at a sleeping Emma, and puts a package topped with a ribbon by her. The most important thing to him is seeing Emma happy. He waits for her to wake up, imagining the smile on her face.

🐍 Sariel - Sariel's secret treasure

Emma goes to Sariel's office to deliver some documents when she sees his desk drawer half open. She's about to close it when she notices a canvas in side. As she's about to take a look, Sariel catches her. Emma asks about the canvas and why it's in the drawer. Sariel explains that it's his own little secret. He can tell she's curious gets this dangerous smile on his face. He'll let Emma see it if she keeps it a secret from others.

Before showing her, Sariel tells her that it's a portrait of the princes in their childhood. Emma realizes that she's never seen any childhood portraits of the princes and Sariel explains that because of the princes' complex childhoods, there was never a good time to have portraits be done. This portrait he has was done in secret.

Emma then asks if there's a portrait of Sariel from when he was young. He says that's not something interesting to see, which means that it exists! Emma stars at him with hope in her eyes and he sighs in surrender. The twins had actually found out about the portrait he commissioned so they wanted one of Sariel done too. Sariel's embarrassed to show her but he will if she gives him something of equal value in exchange. There's an evil glint in his eyes as he tilts Emma's chin and tells her the he'll show her when she feels as embarrassed as him. Emma touches his cheek. They have an agreement. Sariel kisses her to signal the start of an evening of debauchery.

🦅 Jin - Wanted! Jin's handmade sweets

Emma and Jin are enjoying tea with some pastries they had bought in town. Emma's enjoying the food a lot and Jin chuckles at how well she eats. He loves watching her eat and so feeds her his share. He wants to feed her more. Jin says he should've bought all the pastries and Emma worries about table space. She only wants to eat her favorites and the ones that catch her interest.

Emma asks Jin if there were ever times when he wanted to eat sweets but couldn't. What does he do then? Jins replies that when he's going to be out of the castle for an extended period of time, he'll bring some that he knows won't go bad for a while. If he runs out, he'll make his won. Emma perks up at that. Jin says that he doesn't make anything spectacular. He makes do with what ingredients he has.

The image of Jin baking makes Emma smile and she asks if he could bake her something some time. Jin replies that she'd be better off eating sugar straight, but Emma insists. He can't refuse her. Emma tells him that she'll make some sweets in exhange, but Jin doesn't think his are worthy of exchanging with hers. It's worth it to Emma though, plus it's full of his love. Jin asks her to let him practice first and then he'll feed her until she's satisfied.

🐶 Rio - I'll do anything for you, you know?

Rio wheels in a wagon of tea and cakes into Emmas room and sees her poring over a thick book. Emma explains that she's reading a book on foreign princes as a refresher. She wants to work hard as his fiancee. Rio notices that there's so many books stacked up that it'd be a disaster if they toppled over. There's a lot of people for Emma to learn about, but because the information's so spread out, she has a lot to go through. Rio tells her that he knows of a book that has only info about the princes. He'll bring it to her next time. You can almost hear a sound effect with Rio's wink.

Int he meantime, Emma should take a break and have some tea. And since she's supposed to be resting, he'll feed her. As she's enjoying the cake, Rio licks the corner of her lip and agrees that it's good. Emma's heart can't handle it so she'll feed herself. Aww, but Rio wanted to make her heart race more. Emma’s heart has had enough, thanks. Oh no, he’s giving her puppy eyes. She'll let him pamper her for just a little bit longer.

Some days later, Rio comes by with a book, but Emma feels uneasy as she opens it. Why is it handwritten? Moreover, why does the handwriting look like Rio's? Rio looks at her with eyes filled with joy; yep, it's a book he made specially for Emma to use. This way, she can spend less time on other princes. It wasn't too much work for him since it meant helping her out. Emma gives him a hug and kiss as thanks. She'll give him kisses until he's satisfied. Rio tells her that he doesn't mind her learning about other princes, but how about some more Rio first?

🐈 Yves - This magic's only for you

While Emma's getting her hair brushed by Yves, she asks him if he makes his own clothes since he makes hers. The question came to her after she saw some designs on the table. Of course he does, he replies. The designed the outfit he's currently wearing. He knows best how to dress to make himself stand out, though the tailoring's done by a court craftsman. Emma asks if there's any outfits he's made completely by hand. That's how he made her clothes.

Yves' thought about designs for his brothers too, but tailoring-wise, he only makes clothes for Emma. When he's done with his current designs for his brothers, he'll show her. Emma tries to hold in her curiosity but the sad look on her face makes Yves huff. He'll show her if she does something for him in return. He's got some new clothes for her to try.

Yves lays outs some outfits on his bed and tells Emma that he'll dress her himself, which surprises her. As Yves goes to remove her nightgown, Emma holds it to her chest in embarrassment. Yves tells her that he can't undress her if she does that. She's acting like this is the first time he's done this. Emma focuses on calming her heart as she watches Yves undress her and put on the new outfit. As Emma looks at herself in the mirror, Yves hugs her from behind. Just by holding her, he's thinking of more designs. There's still more outfits for Emma to try and she won't get to see his designs until she's tried them all.

🦁 Leon - Your personal dress-up doll for the day

Leon and Emma are at a clothing store they reserved. Leon's holding clothes and accessories that he thinks would look good on Emma, but the latter reminds him that they're at the store to pick out clothes for him. She wants to see him in a different outfit. Emma looks at the men's section and holds some shirts up. Leon looks good in anything so she's in a bit of a pickle. She never thought it'd take so long to choose a top and Leon reminds her that there's also pants and shoes to match. Accessories too, Emma adds. It's going to take forever to coordinate his outfit.

Leon can't help but kiss Emma over and over. Emma stops him, embarrassed since they're in a store. And if he continues, Emma won't be able to pick out an outfit. Leon apologizes but he doesn't look sorry at all. Emma holds the shirts against Leon and thinks about what would go well with each shirt. Leon suggests trying each outfit. As Emma reaches for a hat that'd go well with one of the shirts, Leon hugs her from behind. That's why he didn't get the hat for her earlier.

Leon's feeling really happy at the fact that Emma's thinking a lot about him and then tells her that he won't bother her anymore. As an apology, he'll try on all the outfits she's picked out. Well then Emma's going to dress him up like a doll. Leon pats her head to assure her that he's okay with it. He's planned on being with her until she's satisfied. Leon spins Emma around and kisses her again. He then asks if she'll let him kiss her after every outfit. Emma replies that she'll allow it if he doesn't do anything too embarrassing. Leon makes no promises.

🖤🐯 Gilbert - If you want to be trampled, come here

Just a moment ago, Emma was reading a romance novel given by Gilbert when said man plucks it out of her hands and asks if she only wants him in her sights and to be trampled by him. He closes the distance with her and she doesn't know what to make of the situation. Gilbert explains that he's the only one in her line of sight. Guess Emma will just keep staring. They stare at each other for a while and Emma starts to feel a bit embarrassed from the staring. One, because she's beautiful. Two, because he's someone she loves and staring at him for even just a little bit makes her heart race. Unable to stand it any longer, Emma looks away but her gaze is turned back to him by a cold finger. Gilbert tells her to keep her eyes on him. He caresses her cheek and nibbles her lips as punishment.

The two stare at each other again, but Emma's again unable to stand it. Gilbert kisses her cheek and trails down her neck, teeth grazing her skin. Emma tries to back away, but Gilbert hugs her close. Her hand brushes against the book she was reading and remembers that she was at a good part before it was taken away. Gilbert calls her out for spending a lot of time thinking while with hm. Emma tells him that she's thinking about him and wondering why he asked that question earlier about being trampled while having only him in her sights. Gilbert tells her to change "him" to "her". Emma's about to say that she wants to be trampled with only him in her sights, but stops. She doesn't want to get trampled!

Gilbert asks if she has an answer to why he's doing this. Emma has a guess: she was too engrossed in the book that she ignored him. Emma then yelps when he bites her shoulder. She finally realized it. Jealous as always, Emma thinks. But she finds herself smiling and apologizes. She'll read later. Emma wants to make it up to him, perhaps make him some sweets. There's time to bake him a cake. However, Gilbert's not letting her go anywhere and he cups her cheeks. She won't be able to look at him if she bakes. Did she lie about wanting to be trampled just then? He squeezes her tight to the point of it being painful. It's going to be a fun day for him and Emma's not exactly opposed.

💎🐶 Silvio - A gaudy box packed with love and a red face

Emma's out in town on a date with Silvio when she sees some commotion going on at a corner. Silvio tells her it's a raffle using tickets based on the amount of money spent while shopping. That explains the one Emma got. The top prize is a beautiful tea set. Emma asks Silvio if she can try it out and he tells her to go ahead. It looks like she's enjoying the whole concept.

Emma ends up drawing the 8th prize with is just a participation award, a discount coupon to use in town. She goes back to Silvio and tells her what she got. He says that getting the top prize isn't easy, but Emma thought she'd be able to draw it because Silvio was with her as her lucky charm. Silvio tells her that she's got a lot of nerve and ruffles her hair before asking if she wants to pull again. Emma responds that once is enough. Even though she did want the tea set, she 's more into the thrill of pulling.

A few days later, Silvio visits Emma's room with a fancy box. It's a raffle box he made that he thought would be useful for business. Emma wonders if he made it because of how much fun Emma had with the raffle in town. She tells him that she'd be happy to test it out. Silvio's prepared some prizes too. Nothing too expensive since he knows she wouldn't accept them. The prizes are something he knows she'd enjoy. He stumbles over his words when asked about what he thinks would make her happy. Emma goes to pull but Silvio stops her because he's changed his mind. Emma asks if one of the prizes involves Silvio. Perhaps a coupon to have a drink with him, or words of love from him. Embarrassed, Silvio tells her to knock it off. Emma gives him a few kisses on the cheek for knowing what she wants and steals the box from him. She goes to pull as he tries Silvio tries to get it back from her.

🦊 Nokto - The most extreme night together

After a party, Emma and Nokto retire to Nokto's room. Looks like he's not going to let Emma sleep at all. Except he's just joking. Emma's had a little too much to drink. He leaves the bed to get some water and Emma lets out a small whine. She hopes he didn't hear her. It looks like he didn't, given how he continues on pouring a glass of water. Going from being touched so much by Nokto just then to him suddenly leaving her side fills Emma with a sense of loneliness.

As Emma drinks the glass of water, she's confused by this feeling in her chest. She can't believe she's upset that Nokto's not touching her because he's taking care of her. Turns out Nokto did hear her whine and knows she yearns for his touch. Emma turns redder than before. Nokto notices a hungry look on her. Did she not have enough? Emma tries to deny it but Nokto knows it's a lie. Emma calls him a bully and he replies that he would've granted her wish if she answered honestly.

Nokto runs a finger along her body while coaxing the answer out of her. He dodges her hand that reaches out for him and taps her lips. He wants to hear it from her. Emma gets up from the bed and ends up stumbling. Nokto catches her and points out how drunk she is. Emma takes this chance to kiss him. Nokto asks if she stumbled on purpose. Yep, it was revenge. She didn't want him to leave the bed and wants them to go at it one more time. Nokto asks if this boldness is coming from her being drunk. Regardless, he'll do what she wants and pushes her down on the bed.

🐺 Licht - Pictures of memories and a very difficult quiz

Licht's quizzing Emma on the thing she drew in a sketchbook. Emma looks at a picture of what looks like four legs sticking out of a yellow body and asks if it's a fox. Nope, it's chair. She can see it now after hearing the answer. Licht tightens his hold on Emma's waist. So far, she's gotten every drawing wrong. Next, Licht points at a brown oval. Emma asks if it's a table since the last drawing was a chair. Nope, a cat. Licht gives her a couple of kisses and smiles. Even though Emma got everything wrong, he's in a good moon. She wonders if this quiz is an excuse to be touchy with her.

Licht's about to go to the next picture but stops. It's a picture he drew with Yves and Nokto. Emma says the three must have been close as kids. Licht replies that Yves' always worried over them. He recalls Yves saying how he wanted to bake cookies based on the picture and the three did end up making cookies together. Not every drawing though; Licht points out which ones became cookies. Well, Yves did the baking. The twins helped, with Licht doing the cleanup. It must be a good memory because of how Licht's smiling.

Licht goes to the next page and Emma sees a bunch of overlapping purple circles. Emma asks if they're grapes. Finally, she got one right. Licht goes "this sucks" and pulls her in for a deep kiss. Emma asks what he meant and he tells her that the drawing was done by Nokto. He kisses her again and asks her to guess his drawing next time. If she gets it wrong, he'll do something more extreme. With the grapes being the last drawing in the sketchbook, Licht gets a quill and starts drawing in the book. He'll do his best to draw something Emma can guess. Emma in turn will do her guess to guess.

🐆 Clavis - Love storage expansion plan!

Clavis has given Emma presents in various situations and each time, Emma gets excited. However, recently, she's been feeling troubled. One day, Clavis enters her room and announces that he has an extraordinary gift for her. It's a lot heavier than she thought. Tearing the wrapping apart reveals an oddly patterned clay figure. The first time she got a clay figure from Clavis, she was confused. But now, she finds them adorable.

Clavis can tell something's bothering her. Emma apologizes and explains that she was trying to figure out where to display it. She's running out of space. She wants to display them properly since they're all precious gifts to him. Clavis has one more present for her then. A closet that can hold 100 clay figures. Emma asks if he's going to use an empty room. Currently, there aren't any rooms large enough to fit the figures. Clavis says he'll have a new room with sturdy shelves built. He's going to make an elaborate closet. He continues to spout off ideas and Emma stops him. She'd love to have more space to display her gifts but an extension's just too much. Clavis suggests Emma pay a fair price for the extension so that she doesn't feel bad about it. He pushes her down on the bed and ties her hands with the ribbon from the present. Clavis asks if he can receive Emma like this and she tells him not to bother asking since he already has her. Clavis reminds her that he's a gentleman so Emma tells him that he can do as he pleases. He assures her that she'll enjoy herself too.

A few days later, some noises in the castle makes Emma leave her room. Wow, Clavis really did go and start building an extension. She sees the man directing the construction. As usual, Clavis does things on a grand scale. Emma's never seen another person go to such lengths for their fiancee. Emma's so filled with love that she squeezes Clavis in a tight hug. She loves him so much and can't wait to fill the closet with clay figures.

🐯 Chevalier - I'll go along with it until you're satisfied

One afternoon, Emma visits Chevalier's room and asks him if she can read a book to her. It's the first time she's ever asked him to do something like this and she waits nervously for his answer. Chevalier notices that it's a book written in an archaic language. Emma explains what the book's about and how she's tried to read it before, but there are a lot of parts she doesn't understand. Chev gestures for her to sit and asks why she's so surprised. She did ask him to read the book to her. Emma just didn't expect him to grant her request so easily.

Emma can't control her happiness but tries to calm herself. It'd be embarrassing if he found out about her true intentions. Chev has a condition. He pulls her onto his lap and wraps his arms around her. Her seat while he reads. Seeing the look on her face, he asks if she's disappointed. Emma stutters out that she's happy but internally wonders if he knows what she had planned. While it's true that Emma has trouble reading the book, what she really wanted was listening to Chev's voice. Emma turns nervously and meets his gaze. he asks if he should start from the beginning. Emma can't believe he's actually going to read the book and is feeling nervous. And over the moon.

Wait, she doesn't hear his voice. She looks up at him and is met with a surprise kiss. He smirks, returns his gaze to the book, and starts reading. In contrast to him reading calmly, Emma's sitting there with her heart racing. His low voice is relaxing. Emma holds her blushing cheeks as he puts his lips by her ear. Chev says it's just like her to get so happy and restless from something like this. Emma replies that it's only natural since he's reading a book to her. Chevalier knows that's not the case. She can feel him smiling. He'll have her get used to it and tells her to think about the next book for him to read before he finishes the current one. It's embarrassing to know that Chev can easily see through her desires, but she's glad she asked. As Emma fidgets at Chev's voice in her ear, she wonders how much more her heart can take.

[avelera]

The Power Fantasy vs. The Mary Sue

I think one phrase we need to work back into discussions around stories and story crafting in general is, "power fantasy."

And I think in the course of discussing power fantasies, we can reexamine the term, "Mary Sue" which traditionally only referred to original characters put into an established universe who was unrealistically capable at saving the day and winning love. Because clearly the definition has expanded beyond that in how it's used, and I would argue, the new definition of a "Mary Sue" is: "A power fantasy that the viewer does not find exciting or personally relatable."

I think fear of creating a "Mary Sue" has stifled some creators (particularly female-identifying ones) when it comes to including power fantasies in their stories. Because it's ok and even the point for fiction to contain a power fantasy! A power fantasy is something cool or desirable that does not happen in the real world, or doesn't happen regularly, happening to the protagonist in a way that allows the audience to enjoy that experience vicariously.

Let's get into some examples of what I mean:

A good example of a power fantasy might be the elemental bending of the series "Avatar: The Last Airbender". It is objectively cool to be able to cast magical elemental spells by doing martial arts, which are also cool.

A romantic power fantasy that we see very often is, "This love interest is very powerful and dangerous towards everyone else in the world, but they are sweet and loving with the protagonist and would never ever hurt them." Someone like a mob boss or an assassin or even a literal demon who finds love with the protagonist and turns those qualities to their defense. "Beauty and the Beast" is an example of this trope but it can take many forms.

Another power fantasy might be to take a complex political or military situation and saying it can be solved by an individual with a single heroic act.

For example, destroying the Death Star in Star Wars, something that's accomplished by young protagonist Luke Skywalker who is fresh off the farm, being enough to defeat the Empire (in the first film, before the trilogy was fully planned), or killing Emperor Palpatine at the end of the trilogy. (Yes the expanded universe adds nuance to this, but within the films themselves, these single events are defined as decisive victories.)

Another example might be how throwing the One Ring into Mount Doom is enough to end the threat of Sauron's evil in Middle Earth forever.

A power fantasy might be the ability to magically gain a lifetime of skills, such as downloading Kung Fu in "The Matrix" or a magical serum making Steve Rogers into a super soldier in "Captain America", or any number of "chosen one" stories where an otherwise unremarkable but relatable individual is suddenly thrust into a world of adventure and magically granted the abilities needed to navigate it.

And in more personal stories, the idea that that a single gesture or speech or demonstration could be enough to change the attitude of an authority figure, or a loved one, or a group, is a power fantasy. Not that this can't ever happen in the real world, but it is a power fantasy to say that a single impassioned speech can bring an end to widespread bigotry, or that winning the big game will earn the protagonist the love and respect of a distant parent or a potential romantic partner.

There's nothing wrong with power fantasies. Power fantasies are enjoyable, they are often the meat of the "so what?" of a story. Adding a cool power fantasy to your world like can be the hook of the story, or the spice, or the whole story could be nothing but layered power fantasies, in fact a great many really good stories are!

Where power fantasies fail or are leveled with the accusation of being "Mary Sues" is when the audience does not find the power fantasy relatable or exciting.

In fanfiction, Mary Sues/self insert characters are often created deliberately in stories that extremely personal to the writer, who is often a beginner. These characters and their stories are not intended for a wide audience, they're merely a written expression of a daydream the writer has. That means that they're not meant to be widely relatable. The author just wants to imagine being the 10th member of the Fellowship of the Ring and having Legolas fall in love with them. Others might find it "cringe" but the fiction is serving its purpose in bringing joy to the author. It might just not be widely popular.

However, this reputation of Mary Sues being these intensely personal stories that aren't trying to balance relatability in pursuit of a wider audience have somewhat muddled the discussion around what the accusations of something being a Mary Sue are actually saying. Because what they're saying is: I don't find this story relatable.

Rey in "The Force Awakens" trilogy was roundly criticized as being a Mary Sue. I like to use her as an example because it's one of the most public discussions of late that used the word, and because I understood both sides of the accusation.

To be sure, an element of the accusation was sexism. Because Rey's story wasn't all that different from many male protagonists and yet many male viewers found her power fantasy unrelatable because she's a woman.

That said, her story was also somewhat sloppily constructed when compared to, say, Luke Skywalker. Luke Skywalker was a well-constructed power fantasy because he did things that the viewers wished they could do: like be plucked up from their boring job on the farm to because a cool fighter pilot trained by a space wizard with a laser sword that once you mastered it you'd magically know how to use perfectly because of the Force, and in the process, Luke got to hang out with cool people like Han Solo and Princess Leia and literally save the universe. These are cool, fun things that you average kid would love to do!

Rey's story was muddled. She was given all the same magical powers and many of the same story beats as Luke Skywalker, but it wasn't in pursuit of a coherent power fantasy, not for women who might relate to her, nor that men in the audience might not personally relate to but could at least understand wasn't for them. No one bothered to ask a female fan of Star Wars what they wished they could do if they were in the Star Wars universe. Because I imagine being the secret descendent of Palpatine (???) wasn't one of them.

But this shouldn't mean we can't have women in Star Wars who get a bunch of magical powers and save the day! And that was where the discussion broke down. Power fantasies are good. Sometimes, power fantasies aren't relatable to the person calling a character a Mary Sue. Sometimes, it's because it's not meant for them.

For example, I think that Maverick in Top Gun is an unbearable Mary Sue, because I don't find the desire to become a fighter pilot who saves the day all that compelling. But I at least understand the power fantasy isn't for me.

The key is to make the power fantasy fun and relatable to the intended audience. The key is to understand the power fantasy being created. When trying to expand to a broader audience and tell a good story, the power fantasy usually also needs to be roadblocked by some obstacles or rules, or there need to be tradeoffs, but they are usually things that the audience also finds exciting.

Like: you get to be a super cool fighter pilot, but first you have to go to fighter pilot school, where you'll meet tons of other beautiful and cool people, which is also a power fantasy, and then you get to be a magically gifted and skilled fighter pilot who saves the day!

Or: You get to be a crime-fighting badass who saves the day while dressed up like a bat (for some reason) but first you have to travel the world and learn martial arts and go on a bunch of adventures before you're skilled enough to do it.

That said, sometimes an element of the power fantasy is that the character just naturally achieves it! There just usually has to be other tradeoffs. Like Neo can learn Kung Fu with the touch of a button in The Matrix, but now he has to use these skills to fight some serious bad guys before he gets the praise of everyone around him, just like Captain America and the serum, he now has to go save the day before he can get his parade. You don't get easy powers and widespread adulation at once, that feels cheap. That's why the Mary Sue showing up and impressing the Fellowship with her magical skills before she's done anything to actually help them feels cheap.

Mostly, the point of this essay is to help those, like me, who grew up around accusations of all original female characters being Mary Sues to help overcome this knee-jerk fear and understand when the criticism was valid and when it was just sexism. There should be more female power fantasies in mainstream fiction! There should be just as many as there are male power fantasies! But, sometimes male and female characters can be Mary Sues, which is expressions of power fantasies that feel unearned, or unrealistic, or just not fun for the audience.

Sometimes it's not fun for the audience because they don't relate to the fantasy being explored, and that's ok! The power fantasy is still allowed to exist! Because my god, if I have to sit through yet another magical white guy chosen one who is super cool and saves the world and gets the girl, viewed totally uncritically as the Mary Sue it is, we can at least create the versions that speak to a wider range of personal experiences than that.

[freakshowtwopointoh]

Apex Predator - Cross The Line Part 1

They're the queen of beasts, at this beastly school

Gotta keep things cool with the apex predator

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When you've been in the dance world for long enough, you know that warm-ups aren’t really to warm up. They’re to demonstrate to the other dancers what you can do. Especially so close to the first auditions. She may be a freshman, but Ella’s been dancing since she could walk. Ballet lessons since 4, and she was in a very competitive studio in high school. That’s how she got in here - her performances as Clara and Odette had impressed the admissions board enough to give her a full ride. Unfortunately, rumors spread quickly around here, so most of the other students had formed their opinions on her before even meeting her. Snobby, spoiled, arrogant. That’s what they all thought. But it doesn’t matter what they think. As long as she can make a name for herself, as long as she can keep dancing, they could all think whatever they want. 

It’s weird, going from the studio you’ve been at your entire career, to a more competitive and intense environment. College is great and all, but it seems like everyone is so much more cutthroat. Like yeah, high school ballerinas are intense, but they weren’t needlessly cruel. Some of the people here seem to delight in watching the other dancers struggle. She's barely been here a week, and she's heard multiple fights be organized - although she has no idea if they actually threw any punches. If she was honest, seeing the way they all treated each other so early in the semester did not encourage Ella to make friends, as her coworkers had suggested.

She sighs, and continues her stretches. No matter what she does, people will have their opinions. She hears the whispers, she knows that people think she’s cocky and spoiled - that she’s gotten everything handed to her on a silver platter. Not that they know anything about her. Not that it matters. She just has to keep her head down, and focus on proving to everyone that she has the talent and that she deserves to be here. And most importantly, she can't let anyone get to her. Not the judgmental girls, not the harsh professors, and certainly not the upperclassmen who think they're hot shit.

The worst was Jordan Li. They were an upperclassman, and they were on their way to becoming an instructor. They worked hard, spending most of their time out of class in rehearsal rooms, practicing. And yet, the school’s golden boy, Luke Riordan, had always just barely beat them out for the lead. At least, that’s the rumor. The worst part of it was that they were hot. Like... hot hot. And all they seemed to do was glare, party, and dance. Whatever. Ella didn’t have time for romance anyways. That didn’t keep her from watching them during class, and after. Watching the way their muscles flex as they demonstrate whatever complex step the instructor is looking to teach us. God, that cocky smirk on their face. And the absolute worst part was that even though they were cocky as hell, they're incredibly talented. They make everything look so easy, even when they're lifting another dancer above their head and holding a perfect pose.

The instructor, Lynne, calls everyone to the barre, and the real class begins. She focuses on her form, really not looking to embarrass herself by forgetting something stupid. 

Eyes Up. Follow your hand. Maintain the position. Hold. Keep your face neutral. Gentle arms, delicate fingers.

She can feel Jordan’s eyes on her when she takes her turn to try out a complex step, and ignores them when they laugh quietly at her mistakes. Of course, they had no issues. It was like they just knew how to orient their body exactly as it needed to. Ella often felt like she was stumbling her way through dance, fooling people into thinking she was better than she was. Not like Jordan, who clearly had natural talent. She wasn’t jealous, per se.... 

That’s a lie. Of course she’s jealous. They’re so graceful, easily performing every necessary step. And yet - they’re always in the practice rooms, snapping on gum, gracefully showing off, demonstrating perfect arabesques and pirouettes every time. Making every one of the girls swoon. She’s lost in her brooding over Jordan and almost misses her queue. Falling into line, she does the step again, earning the approving nod from Lynne. 

By the time class was over, Ella was exhausted. Lynne claps once. “Well done. Now, auditions are in two weeks for our first performance of the year - Romeo and Juliet. Be prepared, and work hard. Now, go!”

She packs up quickly, which always earns glares from the girls in the dressing room. They like to socialize, chatting and gossiping while they change. But, unlike them, Ella has a job she has to do. They think she’s stuck-up, and she’s uninterested in correcting the record. If any of them asked her, or even bothered to talk to her, maybe she’d feel differently. She ducks out, heading to the Crocus coffee shop. Does she love being a barista? No. But it pays her bills, and they let her change her schedule when she needs to audition or perform or whatever. She pulls on my apron, and greets my coworkers. 

“Hey, Anna! Hey, Jane!”

They wave back, and she gets to work. It wasn’t too bad, if she’s honest. She finished up ehr shift, closed the shop, and made her way back to the studio. She hadn’t needed to use a practice room before today, but since auditions are coming up, she really needs to work on her... well, her everything. She gets dressed and step into the room, and the only one in there is Jordan fucking Li. Of course. She ignored them, and pulled up her computer for a practice set. 

“I was wondering why I haven’t seen you in here before. You scared to practice around the big kids, freshie?”

She ignores them. She doesn’t have to explain shit to a snotty rich guy with nothing to lose.

Jordan’s POV:

That freshman is going to be the death of them. First, she waltzes around like she owns the place, just because she performed as Clara at an Opera House or whatever. And she’s always so perfect, and she doesn’t talk to anyone. And she barely practices. She thinks she’s so much better than everyone else here. Such a snob.

Not that anyone seems to talk to her either. Not just Jordan, but even the other underclassmen. The airheads are intimidated by her and instead of doing anything about it (like actually trying), they bitch and moan. It’s like they want her to win. They roll their eyes, stretching after practicing all evening. You can’t just let people be better than you. You have to work your ass off until they aren’t better than you any more. It’s not that hard. 

Except when you’re dealing with a nepotism baby like Luke Riordan, the company’s golden boy. He’d been here just a year longer than Jordan had, but he’d always gotten the lead. Rich parents, pretty blond boy, it doesn’t take a genius. But Jordan was a better dancer than Luke. They deserved the lead. 

They have to beat Luke this year. They need that fucking part. They may hate Romeo and Juliet, but they need that lead. After all the hiding and the grinding and fighting and working, they need this part. 

Their parents don’t give a shit about their dance. Or them, if they’re honest. Not like all the girls, whose mommies and daddies have doted over their precious ballerinas since day one. Even Luke’s parents are oh-so-proud. But Jordan’s parents wanted a mini-Superman, not a bigender ballerina. They allowed them to dance, because it made them look good to the other board members, but everything else about them must be hidden. No powers, and definitely no shifting. Their parents' words echo in their head. 

You can’t have everything, Jordan. You have to choose.

You’re lucky. You can be a boy all the time.

You’re too much for people. If you just -

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. They just have to focus on getting Romeo, showing everyone that they are the one to watch. That they aren’t some misguided kid pursuing their dreams, but that this is what they are meant to do. Once they do that, nothing else will matter. 

They shake their head, and watch Ella practice. She isn’t half bad, they admit to themself, for a freshman. Her core is weak, and she’s obviously self-conscious, but she might turn out ok. Certainly better than some of the dancers ahead of her. But she really isn’t that good. Or that pretty. They try to convince themself as they taunt her.

“I was wondering why I haven’t seen you in here before. You scared to practice around the big kids, freshie?”

She rolls her eyes at them and continues practicing. They snap their gum in annoyance. They don’t understand why she bothers them so much. But her quiet judgment gets under their skin, and the way she looks when - Focus Li. Focus.

“Well, you’re in luck, because I was about to leave.” They announce, as if they’re expecting her to care. 

“Good for you!” She calls out sarcastically, and that makes their heart stutter. Did the freshman just... talk back to them? On like, day three? Most of the other dancers could barely make eye contact with them. 

Yeah, she’s going to be the death of them.

Ella’s POV:

Good for you? Good for you? Why, oh why did she think that was a good idea? Being stone-faced was a great play when you’re the new kid, but it doesn’t work if you get snippy at the tiniest quips.

What is it about Jordan fucking Li that gets under her skin so easily? None of the other dancers made her want to prove them wrong as much as Jordan did. The way they were always around, watching her. The way they acted like she was a child who couldn’t do anything herself. The way they looked when - Fuck El. Focus. Focus. You need to do well. She shakes her head, and forces herself to finish the practice set. She has to prove to every last dancer in this fucking company that she deserves to be here.

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au by @poppy-metal

edits by @barbieprincesshilton

[viriborne]

Hey I saw you do a character ask thing, and I was wondering if you would do lucifer

I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO ANSWER THIS EVEN THO I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!!!!!

Okay, just to start off with, quick warning to Lucifer fans...I am VERY UNFORGIVING when it comes to my opinion and interpretation of him. He's too real of a character to me for me to like him. I appreciate his complexity... but I hate him lol.

If you've ever been in a family with generational trauma, you likely know someone like Lucifer. Someone who, while recognizing the abuse they've endured, still perpetuates it over and over again. Someone who controls his brothers just like how his Father did. And this is why he's mom-codedBEFORE PEOPLE GET ON ME FOR THIS, just listen. While we can't determine what Father's motivation is for keeping angels on short leashes, I feel as if we can infer that it's meant to "keep them in line," by force, if needed. We can see this mirrored in Lucifer's treatment of his brothers. Yes, the brothers are Very unruly but, as we can see with Mc's influence, they react MUCH better to when treated with kindness than humiliation and corporal punishment, something that mirrors real life. While Lucifer isn't as Bad as Father is when doling out punishments, it still yields the same effects of the brothers being terrified of the one in charge, something they reiterate over and over again. And Lucifer acknowledges this! He KNOWS his brothers are terrified of him but feels that it's "for the greater good" as he's scared of being thrown out of their home once again.

Okay, now let's get into Lucifer's treatment of Mc (is about to be nailed to a cross by Luci fans)

Sorry, I gotta mention Lucifer beating Mc until they passed out as "punishment" during the early lessons for the heinous crime of...protecting Beel and Luke. Like uhh wtf was that lol?? How am I supposed to like him after this? Even Belphegor had a better motive literally Killing us than he did for beating Mc unconcious lol. Not to mention the god forsaken pact scene where, despite attempting to be forced into a pact by Solomon multiple times, forces Mc into a pact (and a fade-to-black sex scene) and undermines their consent. Yippee!!! Overall, he's really just written to be the stereotypical Christian Grey archetype when it comes to Mc. I'd say he's like Beast from Beauty and the Beast but at least the beast grew as a person instead of being a man baby who can't express his emotions for the rest of his life. Instead, I feel as if he's the husband from The Taming of the Shrew. Okay that might be a bit harsh, even for him, but it still feels like an accurate comparison in some aspects lol.

Onto fandom interpretations: I've already gone at length as to why "daddy dom" Lucifer is inaccurate and makes me wanna deglove my entire body so I won't go into it. There is an issue where I feel like he's reduced only to a sexual object by many fans and that's Weird and Not Good and often aids in how he's so bastardized in writing and interpretation of his actions. It really feels like his bad parts Really get glossed over or completely excused even by fans who Recognize his flaws and I really feel like that's a damn shame. He's a shitty bastard with tons of baggage and u gotta accept that or else you're liking a completely different character.

Anyways take this meme I quickly made while writing this.

[maxylovesfic]

It's Fic Rec Friday!

(Which today we're celebrating on Saturday. But I digress.)

Title: Crash and Burn

Fandom: Star Wars, Din/Luke

Author: Aureutr_Accoredge ( @aureutr ) They have all their fics on Ao3 locked to members-only, so here's a link to their Works page.

Really, just one of the best Din/Luke fics out there. It's a beast at 300k words, but the story is absolutely compelling. They do such a nice job with Luke--funny AND serious, goofy but Jedi--all the complexities. And their Din is really fantastic. It does the best job with the "Din retakes Mandalore" storyline that I've read--lots of action, battle sequences, and realistic military planning. And there's porn! The pining (delightful) moves to porn (oooooh yeah) pretty quickly, and this author doesn't make the "have sex once and never again" mistake. I re-read this story much more often than I many should, given it's enormous length. But it's that good!

[doopcity]

This one's a really obscure pick but would you be able to do Luke from Beast Complex chapter 12 with 1E or 8E?

so obscure this dude doesn't even have colors

[w2beastars]

Fan trans VS Official trans: The Spotted Deer And The Snow Leopard

First difference is that in the official English manga, the chapter is called The JAPANESE Deer and the Snow Leopard.

So... is Rosé a chital or a sika deer?

When Luke confess to Rosé that he ate the duck Bob, she misunderstands and thinks he meant he pretended to eat her during the filming. In the official trans, she says: "You mean you chewed up the scenery?

Interesting difference here is that in the fan trans, Rosé says: "I don't care what you want" when Luke tells her he doesn't deserve the reward he got for best actor. In the official she says: "I don't care what happens to you."

So in one she says she has no interest in him wanting to take responsibility because he feels like it is the right thing to do. In the other she says she doesn't care about what happens to him once he confess.

Hmm... I think the fan trans works better, but they are rather different. Either way, it shows that even though Rosé has been told that an innocent duck has been killed, she is more concerned about her acting career.

Here, the text baloon says "hmph!" as if Luke if the one grunting when pulling Rosé off of him. In the official it says "swff" which I'm guessing is a sound effect of Rosé being pulled away.

Huh, beside the excamples I just told you about and some wording aside, these two translations are pretty similar!

[eddieredmayneargentinablog]

"Day of The Jackal FIRST LOOK: Eddie Redmayne is every inch the suave assassin while filming Sky's 'modern reimagining' of the thriller in Croatia", Daily Mail, November 6, 2023.

Eddie Redmayne was seen for the first time on the set of Sky's  new TV adaption of The Day of The Jackal in Croatia on Monday.

The British actor, 41, cut a suave figure as he shot scenes as assassin known as the Jackal, originally played by Edward Fox in the classic 1973 film. 

Eddie was dressed all in black and teamed a sweater with smart trousers for the shoot which took place in a busy market.

The Oscar winner could be seen chatting to the crew before jumping behind the wheel of a swanky sports car for a complex action scene. 

Originally a novel by Frederick Forsyth the story follows the story of the trained killer who is hired to is hired to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle.

According to the Hollywood Reporter the producers, of which Eddie is one, have described the adaption as a 'bold, modern reimagining of the beloved and respected novel and film.' 

And while the series, written by Top Boy creator Ronan Bennett, will pay homage to the original it will be set in the world modern world of geo-politics.

Producer Gareth Neame said: “We are excited to bring to life Ronan Bennett’s re-imagining of Forsyth’s revered thriller in the complex world in which we live today and are incredibly fortunate to have an actor of Eddie’s calibre as our Jackal'.

It comes after Eddie  credited his parents for his successful career in a rare candid interview.

The actor said it was his father, Richard, a banker, and mother Patricia, who ran a relocation company, and their willingness to allow him to pursue  his interest in acting at an early age that allowed him to flourish in his career.

'I loved music and singing and acting at school,' the Fantastic Beast franchise star told Today's Willie Geist in an interview. 'To my parents' credit, which now as a parent myself I really do hold high, anything I had an interest in or my brothers had an interest in, they supported.' 

The future star attended the Jackie Palmer Studios Stage School in London where his classmates including James Corden, Jamie Dornan and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. 

The father of two shares Iris, seven and Luke, five, with his wife of nine years, Hannah Bagshawe.

Eddie, who won the Academy Award for his portrayal of the late physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.

In addition to the Oscar, Eddie won a Tony in 2010 for his work in Red and will soon return in a production of Cabaret after starring as Emcee in the musical in London's West End. 

Still most fans know him for his role as Newt Scamander in the Fantastic Beasts films. He's starred in three of the magical adventures, but said he isn't sure when or if a fourth is in the works.

Speaking to Indiewire the actor explained, 'It’s more a question for J. K. Rowling and David Yates and Warners, but I don’t know, I’m afraid. I can’t add to that, adding, 'I love playing Newt, he’s a sweet man".

....

[bee-of-saint-ambrose]

The Tetramorph (Bestiary Lore)

The tradition of the Medieval bestiary is vast and complex - a world of layered, interlacing symbolism in many cases altogether lost to us today. Animal symbolism undergirded both the visual representation of the Christian faith and its poetical, hymnographic expression, and perhaps no symbol except the lamb and the dove were more significant than the Tetramorph

The image of the Tetramorph derives from two Biblical passages, both prophetic visions, one from the Old Testament and one from the New. The first is Ezekiel, who on the banks of the river Chebar had a striking vision of the Heavens:

"... And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures." Ezekiel 1:1, 4-5

He goes on to describe the likeness of these four "living creatures"

"... And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings ... Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward ... As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle." Ezekiel 1:1, 5-10

The second vision of the Tetramorph is from the Book of Revelation, in which St. John famously writes:

"Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!'" - Revelation 4:2, 6-8

The four animals listed here epitomize the heights of Creation - as symbolist and archaeologist Louis Charbonneau-Lassay writes, the Lion is king of the beasts; the Ox king of sacrificial victims; the Eagle king of the air and Man king of the world. Surrounding the throne of Heaven, and so the Heavenly King, the four beasts of the Tetramorph were from early days taken as symbols of the four evangelists: Mark, the lion, Luke, the ox, Matthew, the man, and John, the eagle.

[izunias-meme-hole]

My Top 20 Favorite Characters (Remastered)

(FYI: just because a character is low on the list doesn’t mean I don’t like them)

Number 1. Ganondorf/Ganon (The Legend of Zelda) - Honestly after so many years, Ganondorf still holds up as a villain. Ganon was the biproduct of a curse created by Demise to ensure that his hate is reincarnated just so he can destroy Link and Zelda’s descendants, and Ganondorf himself was born as the only male in a desert that belonged tribe to warrior women known as The Gerudo, eventually ending up as their king thanks to Gerudo traditions. Ganondorf had a huge presence in Ocarina of Time, manipulating you into locating the Triforce and immediately took over Hyrule during your time skip. In Hyrule Warriors, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess, and A Link To The Past, he adapts in some form either that be because of genuine character development, an ego increase, or a desire for revenge. However in Breath of the Wild, the end of all three timelines, he fully succumbs to Demise’s curse and uses his hate to create an entity known as Calamity Ganon. In short, Ganon started out as an intelligent and ambitious king, a man to be exact, but eventually he turned into a beast fueled by hate. Then in Tears of The Kingdom he returns, and not only so we learn that he DIDN’T succumb to Demise’s curse after all, we learn that 1,000 years ago, he reincarnated and began to EMBRACE it becoming the new Demon King in the process, and  he came back to life to continue his reign. HE ALSO WAS BEHIND CALAMITY GANON! Overall Ganondorf is a surprisingly versatile and interesting take on a evil king, combining power with intellect, tragedy, anger, class, inevitability, and pure EVIL which is why he’s the greatest villain in gaming history and fiction in general.

Number 2. Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Star Wars) - In retrospective, Palpatine is easily the best villain in cinematic history. In the first two movies of the original trilogy, he never appears once, he’s only mentioned as “The Emperor,” and based off what we heard from Vader after he chopped Luke’s hand off, The Emperor sounds like a bigger and scarier dude than Vader. Then Return of The Jedi happens, and we see that he’s just a frail old man, yet he somehow manages to not only have Vader under his thumb, and based off what we see in the climax of the movie, it was primarily based off manipulation and not the force lightning he shoots out of his fingers. Then the Prequels happened, and The Clone Wars happened, which is honestly the exact moment that young me liked him more than Vader, and the moment current me rediscovered just how well written Palpatine is as a pure evil, card carrying dark lord, and as a politician. Sure he’s one of the strongest sith lords in the series, but that alone isn’t what makes him scary. It’s his careful planning, and the best part of it is that he rarely appears onscreen, yet his presence can be felt 24/7. I am not as much of a Star Wars fan as I used to be, but I will admit that I LOVE Sheev Palpatine and I’m not afraid to say it.

Number 3. Sauron (Lord Of The Rings) - A classic example of a villain who is rarely on the field, but has such an impact on the world he inhabits. Sauron has a heavy amount of lore, the right amount of impact, the perfect fear factor, and literal omnipresence to back it all up. The creator of The One Ring is not a being to be trifled with.

Number 4. Sephiroth (Final Fantasy) - Sephiroth is one of the hardest bosses in gaming and a genuine horror villain. He is a tragic monster born from science, and a loyal “son” fo his alien mother, Jenova, but he’s still scary as hell thanks to his god complex, unlimited strength, ethereal vibes, years of experience, his ability to live off of pure spite just so he can make the lives of his enemies (and Cloud) complete hell. His appearance in of itself is creepy due to how beautiful, yet unsettling it is, thanks to his silver hair, green snake-like eyes, and perfect physique which is complimented by a black coat. However the most dangerous things about him are that he’s completely delusional, and just how far he’s willing to go to distort peoples sense reality, specifically Cloud’s sense of reality. Sephiroth a good character and phenomenal villain.

Number 5. Edelgard Von Hresvelg (Fire Emblem) - I would repeat several points about why her fans like her, and also explain just how in the wrong she is, but there’s a simpler way to explain why I love Edelgard. She’s the best take on the Rudolf Archetype in the entire series. She’s calculated, arrogant, and self-righteous, yet she’s also very charming, likable, self-aware, and had a good end goal that can resonate with some people, despite the way she intended to go about it. Her character basically mixes parts of what made SoV’s Rudolf, Arvis, and Walhart good, and places them into a single character, without making her seem unoriginal. Overall, Edelgard is the most well done villain the series has ever had. Long Live The Flame Emperor!

Number 6. Bowser (Super Mario Bros) - Bowser is a genuinely great villain and fun as hell. Sure, there are a crapton of underrated villains in the Mario series, but no matter what you cannot really hate this guy. He’s a giant fire breathing turtle-dragon who’s a evil king, but he’s also a meathead, arrogant as hell, has very cool boss fights, is a surprisingly good father to his kids, an amazing protagonist and ally, as shown in games like the Paper Mario Series, and Mario & Luigi Series, not to mention he’s one of the more likable villains in gaming. So yeah, Bowser’s a cool character and fun villain.

Number 7. Venom (The Spiderverse) - This thing. THIS FRICKIN’ THING!! To sum up this abomination and his variants throughout the Spiderverse, Venom is a gooey, parasitic being known as a symbiote that basically increases aggression in a person, eats brains and stuff found in chocolate, and gives them access to some broken ass shit, and they just so happened to bond with Spider-Man, slowly turning him into a closed off jackass and influencing his every action. That was until Spidey dumped them into the trash. Then Venom meets a suitable host that is all for ending the Web Slinger, and then boom, what we get is an angry alien out to settle a score with Spider-Man. Who their host is changes depending on the universe or point in the timeline, but the most prominent host for Venom and has been Eddie Brock, a literal loser. So that’s the lore for Venom, but if you want a summary of their character; Venom is Spider-Man’s toxic, non-binary, alien ex who is fun as hell to watch. He’s also funny as shit in some of his appearances.

Number 8. Ghetsis (Pokemon Adventures) - Ah yes, the worst father in Pokemon and the greatest villain the series has ever known. Ghetsis is Team Plasma’s founder, the father of N, and the greatest embodiment of evil this series has seen, so that kinda makes him the perfect foil to N. Ghetsis is cunning, manipulative, abusive, banal, psychotic, self-righteous, and narcissistic, not to mention that his plan was actually put together pretty well. However the best part about this guy are his BREAKDOWNS, like good lord it’s satisfying to kick this rancid old man into the dirt and watch him mentally not take a loss. As for why he’s this high, I just love knocking an evil old man down a peg with maxed out pokemon, and I love watching him be shitty just to see karma hit him like a truck. And the Adventures manga adapts all of these things PERFECTLY, with the only actual change being that he constantly puts up a gentlemanly mask, even when he should be loosing it, which makes his eventual breakdown in the final chapters of the Unova Arc so SATISFYING! So yeah, Ghetsis is entertaining as all hell, and easily the best villain in the entire series.

Number 9. Miles Edgeworth (Ace Attorney) - I’ve grown to love Phoenix Wright, Mia Fey, Damon Gant, Fransika Von Karma, Godot, and like a majority of the most well done characters of the series, but Miles Edgeworth is truly the best out of all of these guys. His relationship with Pheonix is amazing, he’s very charming, and overall Miles has one of the best examples of character development a rival to a protagonist has ever had.

Number 10. Amity Blight (The Owl House) - If you had to ask me who my favorite Owl House characters were in no particular order, my top 5 are Eda, Hunter, Luz, Belos, and this girl. Amity in season 1 seemed like she was going to be a rival character, she definitely had the makings of one, primarily due to her demeanor, but after her first encounter with Luz, being humbled by her ex-BFF at the time, and a witches duel with Luz where her “mentor,” Lilith augmented her strength without her knowledge, we began to see Amity be more and more vulnerable, and Luz managed to help her through it a lot of the time. Heck it got to the point where she got a crush on Luz! Then as soon as you reach Understanding Willow and Season 2, we learn that Amity’s whole familial situation was a Harry Osborn situation, complete with a controlling parental figure that is genuinely evil to the brim and Alador, so as you see Amity’s positive growth as a character and see her relationship with Luz grow, you celebrate her happiness. In short, Amity rocks, and by extension Lumity!

Number 11. King Dedede (Kirby) - From a greedy penguin to a worthy rival and ally on some occasions. I swear, despite the amount of times Dedede gets possessed or brainwashed by some eldrich horror, I think we all forget that he is dank when he needs to be. Also he’s extremely funny as well.

Number 12. DIO/Dio Brando (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure) - After rewatching the older parts, my love for DIO resurfaced, but if I’m being honest here, it’s because of how Part 1 portrays him as a character, and how Part 3 portrays him as a villain. In Part 1, he’s still one of the greatest evils the series has ever seen, but we also saw a human element to him in a very negative way. He was bitter, envious, and straight up angry at the world for making him the bottom of the barrel, but after becoming a vampire he’s becomes sick, scary, and pitiable. In SDC, the re-emerged DIO is out to get the Joestars, not just for revenge for Jonathan constantly humiliating him, but because he KNOWS they’ll be a threat in the long run. He’s fully embraced the Novel Dracula vibes, and he’s matured by a lot, making him a lot less egocentric, angry, and erratic, and more power-hungry, paranoid, and controlled. Like DIO was not really sane, but he did a damn good job of holding himself together, until he experienced near-death yet again. As far as I can tell, DIO’s two major outtings in the series show viewers a man who can’t live with being at the bottom rung because he was born there, and as a result he’s willing to do whatever he can to ensure that he becomes untouchable.

Number 13. Xemnas (Kingdom Hearts) - This doesn’t require much explanation, but allow me to explain. After replaying KH2, I’ve come to realize after all this time Xemnas is an amazing villain. Xemnas is the nobody of Apprentice Xehanort, his husk, an entity that can feels nothing and wasn’t meant to exist, yet he’s quite the specimen. He’s a very sinister figure due to his nature, the fact that he’s a special nobody like Roxas, his inability to feel emotion, and his belief that negative emotions are what give the heart power, but at the same time you somehow manage to feel pity for him because of these things. While what he does is his own choice, you can clearly see that while he’s a different entity from his human self, he still chooses to go in that hollow shadow because it’s in his own nature, and it ended up being his downfall. That and his boss was truly a test of your skills. TL;DR: Xemnas is amazing.

Number 14. Death/The Wolf (Puss In Boots) - The best take on The Grim Reaper. Inevitable, terrifying, enigmatic, cruel to those who try and delay the inevitable, etc.

Number 15. Jin (Xenoblade Chronicles) - Shoot me dead for this take, but Jin was a great part of a decent game. If you want an easy summary of him, he’s a living weapon that was once connected to a driver, a blade, then said driver died on battlefield, he became immortal in a sense, and lost all value in life, thus why he spends a lot of the story helping out the main villain, and his former enemy, Malos. Still, Jin is genuinely interesting, mostly because of his history with the ally blades in the game, his sense of comradary with his crew, Torna, and overall how he’s written is pretty good. There’s nothing stellar about him, but he’s still effective as a tragic villain who has a firm presence in the story.

Number 16.  Dark Pit (Kid Icarus Uprising) - This angel has grown on me as a character. Dark Pit is a copy of Pit from The Mirror of Truth, and a rival for a majority of the game, however there’s a small twist. Instead of being just a “evil doppelgänger,” Dark Pit is just the equivalent of a maverick who doesn’t like being held back by anyone, which is the opposite of Pit’s whole loyal good boy soldier shtick. Still, he does help out once in a while, but Pit went missing inside a ring for a couple of years, Dark Pit vanished too, which basically drilled into his head that “Oh shit if this guy gets screwed over I get screwed over.” Heck, HE ends up being the one that saves Pit after his wings got scorched! To basically sum up Dark Pit, he’s a right way on how to do an edgy rival or a dark counterpart.

Number 17. Samus Aran (Metroid) - To summarize this lovely lady, she’s basically Nintendo’s Boba Fett with a few differences. The similarities, they both have dead parents, are skilled bounty hunters, have a similar color palette, and just look plain cool. The difference, Samus is a great protagonist, while Boba is a good one ensemble darkhore antagonist that easily could work as a one scene wonder.

Number 18. Dracula/Mathias Cronqvist (Castlevania Games) - Not the most terrifying incarnation of Dracula to exist, but he’s very close because of just how insane, persistent, and downright hateful he is. However this hatred did spawn from two tragedies, one that was his motivation for becoming a vampire, and one that finally drove him mad, but both involved a woman that he loved dying. So yeah, this Dracula is a very good tragic, yet irredeemable villain.

Number 19. Dr Eggman/Dr Robotnik (Sonic The Hedgehog) - Been lookin’ at sonic stuff again and looking at the games in retrospective… Eggman is honestly the most entertaining part of each part of the series. He’s a saturday morning cartoon villain, and he knows it, but he’s also unironically one of the most charming, versatile, and egotistical fiends in gaming. Sure he gives a little bit of a crap about Metal Sonic, Sage, and his other successful machines, but they’re his crowning achievements, so of course he’s going to treat them with “care,” while his lesser mechs get sent to the scrapyard. I also really like how out of all the Sonic characters, he’s kinda the hardest to mess up personality-wise, so you can always expect him to be stealing the show. Aside from all of that, Eggman’s just a simply a twisted take on the magnificent bastard trope, with some traditional cackling supervillain elements thrown in for good measure. I may not be a huge Sonic fan, but Dr Julian Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik is AMAZING!

Number 20. Meruem (Hunter x Hunter) - The best way to summarize Meruem without spoiling his arc is this. A monster becomes a king, and the king dies like any other person.

[themattress]

Character Perception Evolution

Sometimes, believe it or not, I change my views on fictional characters.

This post will be updated with any example of such characters I can think of.

Ahsoka Tano (Star Wars) - While most people cite her being considered an annoying, pointless, and all-around hated kid sidekick character and evolving into one of the most beloved characters in the franchise, I actually have a different take. I never minded Ahsoka when she debuted in 2008. I thought she was largely inoffensive and was happy to see another lead female character in the series given how little of them we had. And yes, she only got better and better as she grew, and totally deserved her popularity. But something’s been wrong with her ever since her time travel-based survival of her big duel with Darth Vader, accelerating with her depiction by Rosario Dawson (complete with some awkward as Hell interactions with Luke Skywalker) and Dave Filoni’s dumbfounding remark that Ahsoka’s voice being with the voices of other dead Jedi in The Rise of Skywalker doesn’t necessarily mean she’s dead. It feels like she’s become a Creator’s Pet, a character that Filoni refuses to let go of past her natural expiration date. That’s why the primary excitement I have for the upcoming Ahsoka series is for Thrawn, not for her. She just isn’t that interesting anymore.

Amarant Coral (Final Fantasy IX) - I disliked Amarant back when I first played Final Fantasy IX, seeing him as this generic badass loner edgelord character who didn’t have very well-written character development. However, a few years back I replayed the game. And while his character development remains as shoddy as I remember (I feel like the developers just ran out of time and both he and Freya suffered as a result), I found myself greatly enjoying Amarant because I now could see that he’s pretty clearly a knowing parody of a generic badass loner edgelord character! The game knows he’s a jerkish stick-in-the-mud for no good reason and has fun with it, with Amarant’s snarky comments and frustration at having to be dragged all over creation by Zidane and his merry band of idealists making him hilarious.

Cain Madhouse (To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts) - Refer to this post. I first encountered Cain through the anime, where I thought he was a cool villain but not much else than that. He seemed to be there purely for the sake of providing the series with a central antagonist. Then I read the manga, and was honestly taken aback at just how interesting, complex and even sympathetic Cain was as a character. He isn’t even the true villain of the story, a role actually shared by his abusive father and the evil religious nutcase he’s in cahoots with. While he’s certainly far from a blameless martyr, Cain truly is doing what he believes to be for the best, and in his own twisted way still loves the people in his life that he cares for and genuinely wishes to do right by them. And all this nuance despite being named “Cain Madhouse!”

Charmcaster (Ben 10) - Here I’m talking about one version of the character in particular: the one from Ben 10: Omniverse. Back in 2014 when she was fresh, I greatly enjoyed this take on Charmcaster. She was really funny and cute, her magic was badass, her design was wonderful, her voice-acting was entertaining, and in general she was a major step-up from the version we’d gotten in Alien Force and Ultimate Alien. Unfortunately, time has not been kind to her. I don’t hate her, but I can’t fully enjoy her when so many of those AF/UA aspects are still in play with her, which makes her and her trajectory somewhat nonsensical, not to mention tasteless and ultimately kind of pointless. That was OV’s whole problem, I suppose: trying desperately to reconcile the original Ben 10 with the retcon-ridden AF/UA and largely failing. It doesn’t help that the next incarnation of Charmcaster in the rebooted continuity is so much better, as are similar characters in other shows such as Lena from the new DuckTales.

Dawn (Pokémon) - In the Diamond & Pearl anime, I didn’t care for Dawn for a good while, partly because doing a rehash of May immediately after May had left was insulting especially when I loved May so much and partly because there were other issues with her character’s utilization that irked me. However, after her subsequent, much-improved appearances in Best Wishes and Journeys, I looked back at her in her anime series of origin and realized that it really wasn’t Dawn that was ever the problem - it was Ash and Brock! It’s a franchise-wide trend: whenever Dawn is paired up with literally anyone else, she shines. Even the rehashing of May and personal gripes I have don’t matter much because she’s so likable. But when with Ash and Brock as their traveling companion, she by and large becomes the most generic goodie-goodie shojou girl possible. Just detach her from them and she’s a solid character.

Eraqus (Kingdom Hearts) - That great character design and Mark Hamill’s impeccable voice-acting made me think he was sympathetic when I originally played Birth by Sleep. Overtime, that impression faded. Yes, I agree with him that darkness is a problem and vigilance against it is needed; even if he was supposed to be wrong about that, he isn’t. The problem is that he goes about that in the dumbest, most counter-productive way possible. Terra would literally not have a darkness problem if not for Eraqus’ dumbass teaching methods. Worse still, everything that goes wrong in the story could have been avoided if he was just honest with his pupils about everything, including the fact that Xehanort might not be on the up and up given his obsession with potentially causing an apocalypse, an obsession he literally scarred Eraqus over. And maybe he shouldn’t have jumped immediately to murder as the solution to Ventus’ awareness of his own special existence posing a danger to the universe. If that wasn’t enough, we later learn he openly cheats at chess and just expects everyone to take it. 

Katsuki Bakugo (My Hero Academia) - I used to hate this character; he was obnoxious and unlikable, yet the narrative and other characters never reacted to him the way they should and bended over backward to accommodate him. However, nowadays I don’t hate him so much as I feel sorry for him, on a meta level. Bakugo could have been a superb character with a great redemption arc, the pieces are all there.  But for some reason or other, Horikoshi instead decided to keep him the angry, violent, petty, egotistical asshole he’s always been, and justifies doing so while also playing at redeeming him by treating his super-dickery as comedic. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t work when it didn’t start out as comedic and had terrible effects on people like Izuku. Bakugo’s only been funny when he’s the butt of the joke, not when others still have to suffer from his rage-outs. It’s sad that Bakugo can’t live up to his potential, especially when others in the series like Endeavor (who’s a far worse person) do.

Kevin 11 (Ben 10) - I loved Kevin as a villain in the original Ben 10, hated his sudden change in character complete with a quickie redemption and out of nowhere romance with Gwen in Alien Force but was willing to tolerate him and wait to see where they’d go with him because he was admittedly pretty funny, loathed what ended up happening with him in Ultimate Alien which turned me off him altogether, and in Omniverse...ditto what I said about Charmcaster. But then there’s the continuity reboot version, and because of it I now have to admit that while I’ll always hold a soft spot for him, the original Kevin doesn’t hold up too well either. He’s a pre-pubescent kid named Kevin 11, yet he’s a purely evil psychopath and his villainous appearance is that of a grotesque mutant chimera? Yeeeah, I think the school bully with a troubled home life who has his own evil version of Ben’s Omnitrix and its aliens makes a lot more sense. Him not changing his ways so easily, staying Ben’s rival no matter how much they might team up, and having feelings for Gwen that are comedically one-sided also helps.

Kyo Sohma (Fruits Basket) - Back in the day, Fruits Basket to me was just the 2001 anime series, and I honestly found Kyo pretty annoying. His hair-trigger temper and violent inclinations were a turn-off, as was his dub voice and that whole concluding arc with his true form. Then I read the manga and saw the faithful 2019 adaptation, complete with an incredibly improved performance by Jerry Jewell, and now I absolutely love the guy! No joke, he’s easily one of the best, most interesting and likable male leads in a shojou, as is Yuki.

Lysandre and Diantha (Pokémon) - Just see this post for details.

Mary Jane Watson (Spider-Man) - I’m talking specifically about the version portrayed by Kirsten Dunst in the Sam Raimi trilogy. She came off as a generic superhero girlfriend in the first movie to me, a hodgepodge of several characters from the comics instead of a proper adaptation of Mary Jane. It got worse in the second movie, where she played the annoying obstructive love interest trope. But despite the stupidity of having her be kidnapped in the climax again, I found myself really enjoying her in the third movie. This made me pay closer attention to her in the first movie, and to check out all her deleted material (much of which was included in the novelization) in the second movie. Not only did I find her to be a strong, truly human-feeling character, but she was more faithful to the comics’ Mary Jane in several key areas than many give her credit for, and Kirsten Dunst always gave a great performance.

Prince Demande and the Black Moon Clan (Sailor Moon) - I recall liking these villains fine as a kid, but feeling like they weren’t as good as the Dark Kingdom. While the Dark Kingdom is still my personal favorite group of villains, I now have to concede that the Black Moon Clan in both the manga and anime are superior. They’ve got the more complex set-up, feel darker and more dangerous, and have by far the best of Chaos’ incarnations in the Death Phantom. Meanwhile, I recall feeling some sympathy for Demande when I was young; his situation wasn’t an easy one after all, and he did love his brother very much, not to mention in the anime he gave his life for Usagi. Then I grew up and learned what rape was. Fuck this guy. While I adore him as a villain, he’s a horrible person and no sacrificial death can change that.

Regina Mills (Once Upon a Time) - My stance for a long time has been that Regina was an overall good character in the first three seasons but then totally fell apart from some truly appalling creator favoritism. Having revisited the show recently, I don’t entirely revoke this stance, but it’s more complicated than I thought. When you get down to it, Regina only ever worked properly in Season 1, where she was a humanized yet still proudly evil antagonist. Season 2 not only dropped the ball in terms of consequences for her, but it fast-tracked her down the redemption path in a way that was ham-fisted and not believable. Season 3 handled her on the heroes’ side much better, but it’s nigh impossible to reconcile with the backslide she went through in the second half of Season 2, where she is depicted as this absolute psychopath delusional beyond the point of recovery, but Adam and Eddy genuinely don’t view her that way and weren’t meaning to make her come off that way - in their eyes, her grievances are all legitimate. And that’s really what I have a hard time ever getting around: the notion that the villainous Regina I loved in Season 1 was never the real Regina, just a stand-in until A&E had free reign to finally give us their Regina and re-orient the story to being “how the poor sad Evil Queen got her happy ending” like they originally envisioned. 

Roxas (Kingdom Hearts) - So TV Tropes had Roxas for this trope, saying he was divisive due to the KH2 prologue he starred in, but stuff like his FM boss battle, his presence in Coded, and especially 358/2 Days increased his popularity, to the point where KH3 resurrected him to give him a happy ending. I’m....kind of the exact opposite.  Honestly, I’ve always liked KH2′s prologue, warts and all, and while at first it was disappointing Roxas wasn’t a huge presence in KH2 given all the hype he was given, as time went on the more I appreciated his story and what was being said with it. It was genuinely complex and thought-provoking. I do not like the black-coated Organization XIII member Roxas that got shoved down our throats afterward, I tend to care about him the least out of 358/2 Days’ cast when playing that game, and I hate how such a nuanced story as what we had in KH2 gets undone, in a nonsensical way, solely for the sake of cheap fanservice (ditto for Xion’s case). Yeah, the FM boss battle is awesome, but for me mainly so because I get to kick that stupid black-coated Roxas’ ass!

Rumpelstiltskin (Once Upon a Time) - Another  character that was listed on TV Tropes, saying that his popularity waned because of him constantly going through the Heel Face Revolving Door, which especially damaged his relationship with Belle. For me, that in of itself wasn’t the problem. He’s the freaking Dark One, practically the show’s main villain! Of course it’s going to be hard for him to ever reform. What soured me on him for a long time was the narrative’s framing of him and other characters’ reactions to him, which were increasingly insufficient for what an utter bastard he truly was. Going back over the show, I’ve somewhat softened on him again since he himself was a mostly well-written, well-acted and consistent character across 5 whole seasons, and I don’t feel like taking mistakes from the narrative and other characters out on him; it’s not like he asked for any of that. It’s just in Seasons 6 and 7 where I feel he was out-of-character on the whole, to two opposite, incompatible extremes.

Seto Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!) - When I first began watching the anime, I thought Kaiba was a cool and sympathetic rival character. As it went on, though, I got sick of him being such a one-man Spotlight Stealing Squad and how hard the makers of the anime were actively trying to make him look cool. It didn’t help when I read the manga and saw this wasn’t the case for him here; he wasn’t even the deuteragonist the way the anime positions him, Joey was. But enjoying him in The Abridged Series made me revisit the actual show, and I actually realized that while those issues I had are technically still there, the 4Kids English dub has always done its best to mitigate them with Eric Stuart’s voicework and lines, which actually keeps him far more in line with his original manga self, who isn’t an overtly sympathetic, honorable and “cool” rival but a crazy, extravagant jerkass. And I love him that way. Screw the rules, he has money!

Shadow the Hedgehog (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Shadow was awesome in Sonic Adventure 2, I was definitely a fan of him there. But then his popularity caused him to be immediately resurrected, to diminishing returns, which made me sour on the character and consider him emblematic of the Sonic franchise’s problems. I wished he had just stayed a one-shot. However, recent things such as the Sonic Boom TV series, the Sonic Prime TV series, the Sonic Forces DLC, The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and the upcoming Sonic the Hedgehog 3 movie have all made me re-evaluate Shadow. Now I think he’s not bad as a series mainstay, just subject to being mis-used...but hey, so is every other character, so it’s not an issue unique to him. Used well, he’s honesty one of the franchise’s best characters.

Slade Wilson (Teen Titans) - I used to truly buy into the notion of him as a badass Anti-Hero / Anti-Villain like many people did, but after reading his original stories up through “The Judas Contract” and especially Christopher Priest’s run on the Deathstroke comic series, I no longer hold that view of him. Slade’s a badass combatant, sure, and as a threatening villain you definitely have to appreciate him. But as a person, he is not a badass. At all. He’s a pitiful, prideful, predatory scumbag. He’s “badass” and “honorable” in the exact same way that Walter White is: it’s all a big smokescreen to compensate for what a small, lowly, wretched excuse for a human being he is. Great character, great villain, absolutely intolerable person.

Supreme Leader Snoke (Star Wars) - When The Force Awakens came out, I didn’t like Snoke at all. He was the cheapest of retreads (an old, decrepit Dark Side user who rules the Empire and corrupts a Skywalker into becoming his evil apprentice), the cheapest of plot contrivances (the remnants of the Empire can only become a powerful threat and the victory from Return of the Jedi undone due to this fucker from out of nowhere), and the cheapest of Mystery Boxes (who is he and where did he come from and why does he do what he does, isn’t it so mysterious, don’t you just wanna speculate and theorize all over the internet?) As annoyed as I was that he died without any answers in The Last Jedi, I also liked him better as just Kylo Ren’s stepping stone. Better effects for him and a hammier performance by Andy Serkis helped. And when The Rise of Skywalker revealed he was literally a puppet of the resurrected Palpatine, everything about him just clicked. Stupid people online rant about insufficient foreshadowing for Palpatine’s return, but rewatch the trilogy with Palpatine in mind and Snoke himself - everything about him - is the biggest piece of foreshadowing there is. 

Ulrich Stern (Code Lyoko) - Through Code Lyoko’s first two seasons, Ulrich was hands-down the weakest part of the show for me. I didn’t think he was interesting or likable, and his Will-They-Won’t-They romance with Yumi, who could honestly do much better, was so exhausting. But then we hit Season 3, and the two-part prequel. Everything about Ulrich’s depiction in that just screamed “This guy is an asshole, you’re not supposed to like him”. It reframed everything we’ve seen of him as deliberate; even his lust for Yumi now comes off as just a way for him to feel better about himself since deep down he’s aware of what a shithead he is. Then when we returned to the present day action, Yumi firmly breaks off any potential for dating him. From this point on, Ulrich has to develop on his own terms, and he becomes so much better as a character; I actually found myself liking him, sympathizing with him, and appreciating his willingness to change for the better; a great foil to William whose stubborn unwillingness to do the same costs him and everyone else around him. The season 3 finale reminding me of the reason Ulrich became the way he used to be in his absolute scumbag of a father also helped a lot. He’s not my favorite and still kind of a dick, but I like him now.

Venom (Spider-Man) - Like most kids, I thought Venom was awesome growing up. Once I got older and looked up his history, I found that the majority of it was not very flattering, making me feel more conflicted about the character. Where do I stand on him now, you may ask? It’s simple, really: I love Venom - the symbiote. It’s Eddie Brock who I feel is the problem. Beyond the name and bonding with the Venom symbiote, I don’t think there’s been a consistent thing about this guy across all of his incarnations. The issues with Venom can almost always be traced back to the human part of the equation, because he was thought up on the fly by David Micheline with very little about him solidified beyond being an angry psychopath. I much prefer Venom as the symbiote, the host body be damned, and I’m glad that depiction has been gaining traction in recent years in various comics, TV shows and video games.

Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts) - So I totally subscribe to what’s on TV Tropes about Xehanort the Keyblade Master (was hailed as a great villain in Birth by Sleep, now seen as a horrible villain for everything that followed). But I want to talk about Terra-Xehanort. Because while I love him and both split halves of him, back in the olden days I preferred Ansem over Xemnas. He had the cooler design, a more vivid personality, was tied far closer to the Disney Villains, and of course was the villain in the original Kingdom Hearts (forever my favorite even if KH2 is technically a better game - and even then KH still has the better story). Now it’s reversed. Even disregarding how (with the exception of Dream Drop Distance) Xemnas retained his dignity as a character going forward while Ansem didn’t, there is just a weight and presence to Xemnas that I’ve fallen in love with more and more as time passes. He has the same depth and darkness of character as Ansem but takes it even further. His plans are even smarter and with more direct involvement from him. And of course, there’s him being KH2′s Final Boss, which means he’s irrevocably associated with the peak of the series to me. He’s the only incarnation of Xehanort whom I can safely call both a great character and villain to this day.