#nuance is not dead

[mzannthropy]

Natalie Lue says: "People can be more than one thing."

Maybe something worth pondering over, what do you say?

[canisalbus]

I kidnapped ur long-nosed cat for a sec

.

[zinnie-zoloft]

While Charles is clearly jealous of Monty, he isn’t jealous of the cat king, he’s angry and terrified on Edwin’s behalf

I think people forget that for Charles, Edwin was gone for hours, possibly the longest they’ve been apart since they met

We only see Edwins perspective, we don’t get to see Charles spiralling because he knows almost nothing and can do even less

Then when Edwin comes back, after hours of being with the cat king, he’s acting strangely and won’t tell Charles what happened, so he can only assume it was something awful because why else would Edwin hide something from him? The only things they don’t tell each other about are their worst traumas

Charles had an entire evening to imagine all the worst possible scenarios of what the cat king could be putting Edwin through, that doesn’t go away just because Edwin told him it was only a few minutes for him

[littlepocketuniverse]

When I first saw the scene of Edwin staring at his reflection in Hell, and for a while after, I thought he reacted so strongly because he hadn't seen himself in over a century.

Then, I remembered that he had, that he saw himself probably thousands of times over or more in the faces of his corpses scattered around the Dollhouse.

With that context redefining the scene, I asked myself - if Edwin has seen himself countless times in Hell since his death, if his own face isn't unfamiliar to him, then why does he react so profoundly to his own reflection?

The answer I came up with? He's alive.

Not fully, of course, but for the first time in over a century he's seeing himself as an animated being of consciousness. No longer is his a face belonging to a corpse - old and disconnected, except for the memory of death - no longer is he an outsider. Instead, he's witnessing himself from the first person - he's covered in blood, just like all his faces scattered across the Dollhouse floor before, but he's seeing it in real time, witnessing that person not as a seperate being, but as him; perhaps connecting his consciousness to an inhabited physical form for the first time since his death.

So yes, I no longer think Edwin seeing his reflection is profound because he hasn't seen his face in so long, but instead that it's because it's the first time in over a century that he's seen his face as himself inhabiting his body as his own.

[graceofgondor]

hot take time!!

i've heard a lot of people say that todd gets mischaracterized in that people start blending ethan's personality with him to make him goofier or whatever, including like the deleted cave scene and whatnot.

but the thing to me is like, that is his character though—if you know what I mean. at that point in the story, it's evident he's come out of his shell a bit, he's gained some confidence, and more importantly, he feels like he fits in with the other boys. this is like SUPER evident the night of the play, he's messing around with them when they're getting ready, he's super duper excited to see neil, i mean��he's comfortable.

i think because it all gets taken away so quickly and BECAUSE we don't see that cave scene and his poem after the play, it just cuts so quickly to neil having died and a somewhat reversion to his previous self (albeit NOT entirely because he wouldn't have stood on the desk at the end if he didn't have an arc) people forget how much he had really opened up.

obviously, yes, neil was a huge part of it, and losing him made todd falter for SURE, especially beyond anyone else. but i think his arc is WHY that was so detrimental. neil (with the aid of mr keating as well) showed him the joys of opening up, of standing up for the inherent fact that you believe you should. so of course, that person that showed him everything being gone so suddenly would cut deep—but it doesn't mean that he hadn't changed, it doesn't mean he lost that will to stand, because he still did.

so to me, that little part of the story where he's almost extroverted in a sense, goofing around with the other boys, happy for neil, reading his own poem aloud, etc. is where he was more of himself than he had ever been, at least in a long time.

obviously i haven't psycho-analyzed todd's character nearly as much as some of the others, but that's how i see it. it's another case of, again, both lack of denouement and over-generalization by the fandom when it comes to the character, which creates that perception.

[theheartmold]

my moots are caterina posting so i wanna post. is this a safe space for me to post about caterina dellamorte without having to give a caveat and acknowledge that child abuse is bad. we know child abuse is bad this is a fictional character. the crows all kill people for money let's be so for real.

anyways i love that there tends to be two schools of thought about her: that she treats the boys the way she does because she did the same thing to her kids and they still failed or she was softer on her kids and she won't make the same mistake this time. it's really juicy either way.

she HELD ON to the position of first talon DESPITE that tragedy happening. she's a massively resilient, political, and intelligent woman and can we really say that what she did DIDN'T properly prepare lucanis and illario for the world of assassins? they're both filling valuable niches (lucanis specifically being trained to kill mages, illario being so good with people and politically savvy) that it gives them more worth being alive than dead if they get caught. WHICH LUCANIS DID. AND THEY DIDN'T KILL HIM.

they don't call her 'nonna' but teia does which is also. doing something insane to my head. whatever. im always thinking about her btw you literally cannot remove her from the dynamic about Why Things Are The Way They Are in the Dellamorte household. which is why i get a little frustrated when i see 300 headcanons on keeping my blorbo beebus away from lucanis... like she probably has a reason for that beyond mean old lady. to me.

she can't take responsibility for illario's fate bc she still loves him and makes lucanis do it by making him first talon. oh my poor boy.

[sandraharissa]

I can't believe they character assassinated silco posthumously

[blackflash9]

People always say they want complex characters. They ask for nuance, for gray areas, for emotional depth and realistic growth. But when a character starts feeling too real, so much so that they stop acting like someone in a story and start feeling like someone you could actually meet – that's when the discomfort kicks in. That's when admiration often turns into criticism. And very few in The Legend of Korra walks that tightrope quite like Suyin Beifong.

Su doesn’t follow the typical “lesson of the week” formula. She doesn’t get handed a tidy moment of reckoning, followed by an instant transformation. Her arc isn’t flashy or obvious. It’s slow, subtle, and sometimes contradictory. Just like real people. Because the truth is, most of us don’t change overnight. We grow a little here, slip back there. We learn something, but that doesn’t mean we always apply it in every situation. That’s Suyin in a nutshell.

Look at how she changes as a mother. At first, she tries to micromanage Opal’s choices out of fear, mostly, and a need to protect her. But eventually, she lets Opal go and lets her live her life without trying to control her path. That’s a win. That’s real growth. But then Baatar Jr. betrays the family, and Su reacts by putting him under house arrest. It’s easy to point at that and call it hypocrisy, but that misses the bigger picture. Her deepest fears for her kids came true with Baatar, and so, of course, she tries to regain some kind of control in the aftermath. And yet, she doesn’t try to rope Opal back in. She lets her stay free. That shows her earlier growth wasn’t erased, just complicated by pain.

This is the part people tend to ignore. They rush to call her a hypocrite without stopping to think about what hypocrisy really is. People are full of contradictions. We want conflicting things. We act on emotion. We stumble. We grow unevenly. No one is morally consistent all the time. Su isn’t some moral failure she’s just human. And that’s what unsettles people. They want characters who get what’s coming to them or learn the “right” lesson. But Su doesn’t fit into that framework. She just keeps going, flaws and all.

That’s also what makes her so compelling. She’s not a straightforward hero or a satisfying villain. She’s a complicated woman trying to balance power, family, control, and identity in ways that are messy and real. When people critique her, it’s often not because she doesn’t make sense, but because she makes too much sense.

She’s too familiar. Too human.

Everyone says they want nuanced characters... until they’re faced with someone like Suyin. Someone who holds up a mirror. And when that reflection hits a little too close to home, people tend to look away. But it’s in that raw honesty where her character really shines.

[fujii-draws]

Okay because I’m actually curious

NO ‘SEE RESULTS’!!!! I WANNA SEE ANSWERS!!!!

[a-heart-of-kyber]

One of the things I've realized is most of the reviewers of The Acolyte are...incredibly childish.

I've seen people complain about not understanding why Qimir's armor was shorting out the lightsabers.

They tell you about it in the next episode.

People complained about Sol not realizing it's Mae...and they explain why...in the next episode.

Take a minute...breathe...and maybe shut the hell up before you start tearing into an unfinished story.

[quietmonologues]

I don't know...I know Elain isn't a fully fleshed out character yet and she's kind of "there" sometimes (compared to her other sisters who have more "strong-willed" personalities). But I guess I don't like the hypocrisy where some people can recognize, understand, and sympathize with Nesta's trauma responses, but can't do the same with Elain's. We can acknowledge that Nesta's abrasive and sharp disposition is due to trauma and her upbringing (which makes her such a compelling character in how she deals with the world around her), but when it comes to Elain, we can't give her that same grace. Instead, she's considered spoiled, or selfish, or hiding behind "big strong Azriel" or "mean vicious Nesta" to "protect her" from "nasty people" and like...ugh that's such a one dimensional, cartoonish view of her after what she's been through? I don't want to deny that Elain has probably been spoiled during her upbringing (mainly by her father) or that she's sheltered (by Nesta but also Feyre) but I don't think it's a stretch to think that her treatment in the past influenced how she deals with her trauma (and you can say the same for all the sisters...).

I see so many popular posts on Tumblr advocating for the "soft girl" archetypes because we don't see enough of that in fantasy and when we do, they're often cast off to the side or are undervalued. We want to see different types of female empowerment and strength instead of "aggressive girl with sword". But when a female character's trauma isn't "loud", when their trauma presents in the form of people pleasing instead of people bashing or becoming catatonic and doted on by everyone instead of becoming self-destructive and isolating themselves from everyone, then we don't recognize that as a trauma response. Instead, it's spoiled, or selfish, or golden child syndrome.

Because Elain's trauma responses aren't destructive, it's like people think she's "living it up" in her "perfect, sheltered" life where everyone loves her because she's kind and agreeable. And maybe the IC might see her that way, but people pleasing and being sheltered are also unhealthy coping mechanisms, as are lashing out and pushing people away. We wanted Nesta to stop drinking and self destructing, we wanted her to improve her mental health. And she did I guess...(though the methods for how the story went about it are so controversial to say the least....). We also want Elain to stop being sheltered and being a people pleaser. We also want her health to improve.

It's more than okay to dislike Elain (sometimes her character archetype isn't everyone's cup of tea, totally valid). But I just wish fandom gave her a little more nuance and grace like they do other characters. I'm personally interested in seeing Elain develop as a character and gain strength in her own unique way.

[sandontshengshou]

Day 3829 of seething and coping over the fact that despite making Jiang Cheng feel like he was worthless to his OWN FATHER by relentlessly and publicly favouring his other son/ward?, he ALSO managed to deeply traumatise said boy by making him promise to place the priorities of the Jiang Sect (a.k.a his own biological kids) over Wei Wuxian’s own life like the kid never even mattered to him!!! Fucking sublime!

[fandomsnrambles]

Why do people keep acting like Wu & Misako are intentionally malicious evil evil people in their actions and not y’know… trying their best in the absolute worst circumstances ever known to man

[antirepurp]

delivering controversial takes to the "the gang plays minecraft" discussion

[dykedvonte]

One of my mutuals opinions is the "bro code" thing, that Curly is one of those guys who wouldn't care about the victim because the perpetrator is his friend and I'm really banging my head on the wall like that other anon. I've only played through the game once but Curly's behaviour/reactions etc read completely different from the "bro code" thing and I have to wonder if my mutual and I even played the same game.. like the constant digs at him from Jimmy, his body language in his face reveal and so on like you mentioned in your post. While this game is a little different obviously, it kind of reminded of a point in Alice Madness Returns that makes it very clear that Alice's pain blinded her to the abuse of the other children and her failure to act earlier because of it. Curly is guilty of a similar inaction but it doesn't change the fact he was a victim of Jimmy too. I don't think I can look at it any other way because both of these games have really stuck with me.

I genuinely think it really is the idea that people want a simple easy to blame problem and the idea that the only relatable victims of abuse are those that "surpass" it or do a lot to help others. When it comes to victims, especially those that don't fit the typical demographics, who either accidently perpetuate it, enable it or aren't ideal in some way shape or form, people jump to ignore what they went through as it's easier than dealing with those conflicting sentiments.

The bro-code conversation in Mouthwashing stems from a concept I generally dislike that there had to be something about Curly that made him meet or keep being friends with someone like Jimmy. I think people genuinely underestimate how many like decent and good people just know an asshole or are friends with someone who is really bad outside of their view/established dynamics. The game makes it clear none of the inaction against Jimmy is because of a lack of care, it is a lack of understanding from the privaleged postions they have as men to not have to worry about what Anya does/went through and the type of extremes men like Jimmy will go through to cover it up. They are all too preoccupied in their own strifes.

Another thing I see being oversaturated the idea that you have to be a freak, misanthrope or have a disorder to do the thing Jimmy does. The game is an escalation, it's a spiral that I don't see people comment on that Jimmy was not likely having the mood swings and episodes of rage/frustration we were seeing in the game. This is after they all start experiencing the worst moments in their lives that he got THAT openly bad. Of course, this is just my interpretation but much like in real life, people that go to extremes like that usually live mundane lives. It's a pressure cooker affect to where the stress made them pop. It's self inflicted but still the case.

I really think people need to be more willing to acknowledge that not everything needs to be an extreme or in black and white or easy to understand. It doesn't need to be happy or have an answer or solution, especially in the cases where the abused sadly helps perpetuate what they experience. It's not he should've known better from experience or shouldn't he have known what could've happened because victims tend to not like to think in matters of the worst. Not to mention, especially in cases of abuse where it feels so personally directed that you don't expect to happen to someone else.

[sunb0ts]

something that always gets me about klavier is that he is so clearly just like. friendly. he cares so much and he cares too much. he's one to tease simultaneously but he so clearly just like. loves and loves and loves, even when it puts him in harm's way, he likes people and he likes being around people enough to be desperate for it and for friendship like. ough