#not sure if I should tag

[ziggstheenby-2]

Haven’t found the cry havoc fandom yet, guess I’ll just lure them in with this FANART!!!!

[beevean]

So when Shinji mopes around and loses all will to live he's a cringy crybaby

When Guts does pretty much the same thing in the latest chapters he's a tragic figure (which he is of course)

(hah, funnily enough, the quote at the very beginning of the page is about shitting on Shinji)

And not to make it all about NFCV, but I need to put here whay they say about it because it really sums it all:

Hector and Isaac. Isaac is sharp-witted, hypercompetent, and a badass fighter, so despite him being openly evil and seeking to wipe out humanity, he receives a lot of audience praise and sympathy. Hector, on the other hand, is equally sympathetic. As of Season 3, however, Isaac only grows in competence and fandom praise, whereas Hector is manipulated and brutally enslaved by Lenore, with many fans and critics alike dismissing him as incompetent and stupid. Similarly, Lenore and Hector receive this. Lenore is a demure woman who is threatening and competent, effortlessly beating him in a Curb-Stomp Battle fight and stringing him along in her plans. Due to this coolness, many called her a highlight of the season and disliked Hector. This is despite her being a cruel and manipulative woman who openly states she intends to sexually abuse him, though we don't know if she actually went through with it.

(funny to me how this example hasn't been updated since S3. I'm sure they would have sucked Isaac's dick even more. "hypercompetent" call him gary stu because that's what he is)

The openly evil characters get sympathy and praise only because they're "badass fighters" and "competent", while the more morally grey dude, unfairly victimized, is hated for being "incompetent and stupid" - and as I've complained about, it's the reason they briefly "fixed" Hector in S4 by making him all cunning and backstabby even if it was painfully OOC.

And this is what really makes the difference, doesn't it? This sort of shallow coolness that boils down to pure physical strength.

Guts and Shinji both go through hell. They are abused, victimized, ostracized, have serious breakdowns, and yes, they do nearly unforgivable acts because of it - including, in both cases, molesting a girl. But Guts is also a hella cool dude with a sword that can cut down dragons and usually keeps either a cool façade or shows badass destructive rage, which makes the rare moments when he cries hit harder, while Shinji is a much more realistic depiction of a depressed 14 yo teen, and that's not cool to watch I guess. That's not "interesting". He hasn't earned the right to cry and have panic attacks, he hasn't earned the right to be felt sorry for, because well, if you cry too much, no one cares anymore.

I don't want to put either character down. I love Guts because he's fleshed out and relatable beyond his over-the-top badassery, but I also think Shinji is painfully well written, because he is meant to be a very uncomfortable look in the mirror. And I feel the need to defend him, because complaining that Shinji is "a whiny bitch" and he should be "cooler" is... pretty much thinking like Gendo, in a way. You're missing the point of the whole story. It's like saying Bojack Horseman sucks because the protagonist is a jerk who never learns his lesson lol.

[zeedikay]

Been slowly developing whatever I plan to do with these literal clowns, and sometimes that process can frighten you.

[shadesofmauve]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[kazz-brekker]

in dracula there is a cowboy and the female lead lives. in nosferatu there is no cowboy and the female lead dies. ergo, the existence of a cowboy is highly important for the survival of the female lead in a gothic vampire story.

[galaxylover06]

Their name is Barry and they can't escape the digital cir

[sparkdoesart]

Having even slightly popular mutuals is so cool. The king has bestowed upon me a like. Perhaps even a reblog

[shepscapades]

Surely this will have no negative consequences whatsoever!

[noodles-and-tea]

Just some more thoughts on that jayvik dbh au

[gentleralts]

i'm a genius

and if anybody else out there with access to a button press wants to make these pins for themselves i've included a sheet to print out under the readmore

as long as you're printing this in portrait orientation without margins on a 8.5x11 inch sheet of paper, this should print out in the correct sizes for 25mm buttons and 37mm buttons respectively

apologies if tumblr shrinking the image size makes the image quality not so great if you print this out as it is, i'd suggest putting it through a threshold filter so it just uses black ink

[wasyago]

snoozing n cruising

[vivitalks]

riz and adaine's little internal nerd club within the bad kids is soooo important to me. riz compiles dossiers of information for his failing party members that are like an inch thick, stuffed full of papers and forms and pamphlets about all the ways they can improve their academic standing, and then just so adaine feels included he makes a folder for her that's empty and simply says "hey adaine!" inside. literally who is doing it like them

[paintedcrows]

It is imperative to me that Bill and Stan do torrid Duchess Approves roleplay and argue about character motivations

[cruelestpigeon]

Welcome back Archivist and their hate for gym rats named Jared!

[feelo-fick]

...i promise i take him seriously i just keep finding shitposts that fit soooo well... i have folder with just shitposts that fit ominously well with him that i keep wanting to draw and then i never get to them HAHAHA

[u3pxx]

brain empty skills doodling WAHOO