#or do i just overidentify with him?

[andchimeras]

A game! A poll with my 5 favourite fictional characters. Idk who's going to vote on it, but I do the thing for you @dngrcpckwithmurdericing 💖

Do the thing if you would like to do the thing 😊

[eudociacovert]

Let's talk about Lockwood and grief.

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ALL L&C BOOKS, BE WARNED!!

I overidentify with all the L&C characters for different reasons but the aspect of Lockwood that hits uncomfortably close to home for me is how he demonstrates just how unequipped a child is for the complexity of grief.

Let's talk about Lockwood and his parents.

He loves his parents. He misses his parents. And if those were his only feelings about it then I think he wouldn't have so much trouble wrestling with their loss. But it is never that simple.

When Lockwood talks about his parents in the books he does so with a level of condescension. He doesn't have them on a pedestal, he doesn't think they're heroes who could do no wrong. He calls them silly. He thinks they were naive. Because alongside the love is resentment. Is anger.

Because they left him.

Because it was his parent's research that killed Jessica.

I think that's why Lockwood blames himself for Jessica, and why he turns his rage towards ghosts. Because if he doesn't, if he looks deeper, he'll have to grapple with the fact that his parents brought something deadly back to their home, their children, and because of that Lockwood is the very last Lockwood. He'll have to acknowledge that on some level he blames them, and is mad at them. And that's bad, that's wrong of him, because he loves them. Right?

Part of my own grieving process was learning to let myself feel it, to trust I wouldn't drown forever in that pain. But part of it was also just getting old enough to understand and process how complex those feelings can be. Accepting that I could feel sad and nostalgic and betrayed at the same time, and that didn't make me a monster.

By the end of the books I think Lockwood has started to find his way through that. He's seen something good come from his parents' research, he's discovered a reason for their deaths, and that helps. But he's also lived a little longer, loved a little more, and learned that love can be a messy complicated thing and encapsulate a lot of messy complicated feelings. That being hurt, angry, and resentful doesn't make him a bad person by default, it's something he can work through and release.

They say grief is love with nowhere to go. That's true. But when you lose someone there are so many other emotions with nowhere to go, and some of those emotions can feel ugly. And that's okay. It doesn't make you wrong, ungrateful, or a bad person. It's human. It's just being human. And the only way to feel it less isn't to hide, to tighten your grip. It's to learn to let yourself feel and accept those feelings without moralising them, whatever they are. And with time and practice your grief won't be a wave trying to slam you down under the water and hold you there, it will be the tide rising around your ankles, drifting in and then back out to sea. It won't ever be gone completely, but you'll come to see beauty in it.

Lockwood will get there. He's already on his way.

[the-badger-mole]

Donyou think it was on purpose that Katara got more development than Aang?

I think it had more to do with the fact that Bryke thought that Aang was perfect. It's not just that Aang got pretty much no development, it's that the entire second half of the series was devoted to making Aang right all the time without ever actually making him right. Aang is a cautionary tale for writers about what happens when you overidentify with your main character.

[zahri-melitor]

I've made it through the first 6 issues of Batman: Urban Legends.

I honestly think as a title it's a bit too busy setting up spin off title pitches and not spending enough time just telling Batfam stories that wouldn't otherwise have a home. It's also currently running at about 1 decent story an issue (and of course I then checked the trades and they've spitefully collected Cheer and Sum of Our Parts in separate trades).

I don't think devoting effectively 5 ordinary comics worth of pages to Cole Cash was necessary, even if they were trying to set up a WildC.A.T.S. title. (Also the plot dragged) Grifter is not interesting enough for the amount of push DC was giving him around this time.

The Harley story could literally have been in the new Harley volume they had started, Cecil Castellucci's Oracle story reminded me why I was just fine with her run on Batgirl winding up, the Batgirls story from Marguerite Bennett was cute but insubstantial (shocker), the Outsiders was okay (look I was happy to see Rex back with Jefferson and Tatsu) but didn't really go anywhere, the Black Canary had Joshua Williamson write Dinah like it was a Green Arrow title (though I did snort that it was a lead in for a Deathstroke title as there's a ship that will never fully die).

The Shiva story was definitely in conversation with Batman and the Outsiders 2018 and her characterisation in Tynion's 'Tec run. This is a Shiva that cares a lot more about being a parent than preboot Shiva. It had some cute elements, and was picking and choosing from histories.

Cheer quite interested me (even though it was about Jason), because what I saw in it was Zdarsky doing a whole bunch of reconciliation work to connect various disparate Jason!Robin retcons together into a coherent narrative that functions as a modern version of Jason's time as Robin. He is an angry kid there, with feelings of inadequacy and living in Dick's shadow. He's violent even back to before being Robin in ways that occasionally scare him. It picked up from the characterisation Winick used in More Time. He's not the best detective in the family and he knows it (which also is something that's been clear for years; both Dick and Tim are naturals in this area and also had far longer and uninterrupted training with Bruce). It had the compassion for kids that Jason fans like, and had Jason overidentify with a kid and get too caught up (a plot we've never seen Bruce have, oh never), and had a fair amount of underlying story about Jason fighting his own demons in his head. And it actually confronted the whole 'rubber bullets are a ridiculous compromise' situation, because even as Jason was still repeating 'they won't kill you' they're still very dangerous, and it established a fascination in Jason about guns going all the way back to his training.

As far as I'm concerned, I think it makes a decent blueprint of a backstory for Jason for current storytelling. Others may disagree, but if you're willing to accept that 'Jason was angry and violent' is a retcon that's baked in at this point, I think it works. (That said, he is not one of my areas of expertise but this played well with all his appearances I have read)

I think I want to read it again against Gotham War when I get up to it, because I can see some arcing themes that Zdarsky carried over into it.

The Tim story I'm addressing separately.

[electrificata]

confirmed that we are doing glam rock

this is just a "jean genie" but thats fine a lot of things are

on the one hand, i like that we've chosen a genre where having lyrics that dont make any sense and arent that good is kind of baked into the whole thing. like i love t rex and "hubcap diamond star halo" is beautiful to me but thats an exception rather than a rule

again i am worried that theyre just gonna make him a massive rock star with number 1 pop hits and stuff and i dont love that idea, like we get that shit on occasion these days but maneskin is a fluke and also they are bad

it might be kind of fun if they play with the fact that lestat is resurrecting a genre that isnt really in the zeitgeist right now, and that hes getting farther on charisma and novelty than anything else. like in the queen of the damned movie he crashes a random nu metal band's practice space, maybe in this it can be an aging bowie cover band or something

we can underline all this by adding elements of 80s hair metal which will be very funny

actually the fact that we are now existing in a landscape of weirdos analyzing song lyrics for details of the lives of pop stars theyve overidentified with might work well with this. in the moobie i think the vibe was more "we are trying to see if led zeppelin has satanic messages hidden in their lyrics" but this might be more "which ex did taylor write this about"

i want stan twitter addressed in a way that is more than a joke

[heretherebedork]

So in one ep of City of Stars, we got Fueang talking about how some fans don't know how to separate the character form the actor and then saying he won't apologize for being gay, cause nobody apologizes for being straight. Not that I didn't love him already, but that ep has now made him one of my favorite BL characters.

Oh yeah, that scene was amazing and just so well done and well written and it was such a pointed message towards the fans.

But you'll notice how often the managers also mentioned him being shipped with Kor and that issues inherent in admitting that he has a boyfriend when people want to fantasize about him being with his acting partner.

They showed us and talked about both aspects of the issue and the whole problem with fans overidentifying with actors and their parasocial relationships with them which is so prevalent in these fandoms.

Honestly, it's a side I do my best to avoid but I always know it's there. Lurking in every youtube video comment section and in MDL and on reddit and just everywhere.

I understand that people can ship actors for fun and without being serious but there's a whole underbelly to it that is a real struggle for me.

[sokkastyles]

The comics are shit so don’t ever try to mention them to me again, also if there was somehow a “canon” story about about Aang murdering people with a Glock, you’d probably defend it with your life

I’m pretty sure Iroh just grabbed a doll from a store he burned down and then gave it to Azula because he wanted her to act like a “proper woman”, both of his gifts were wrong to give, thank god Zuko gave it back to a rightful owner, Azula was an 8 year old with fire in her blood, and it’s not like Zuko or Ursa or Iroh (who was busy trying to commit genocide) really cared all that much, people have been calling other people fat for ages, it’s only you woke snowflakes that are afraid of it, and Azula called him fat 6 years after the gift 

This is Iroh’s face when Azula shows up, before she even got to her point 

That is the face of utter contempt and hatred 

What would you do if you were surrounded by 6 dangerous people? You don’t understand what “war” and “battle” mean

The worst things that Iroh says about Ozai to Zuko is that he isn’t very understanding and that he doesn’t tend to regret his actions. He also encouraged Zuko to keep trying to capture the Avatar, so he can go home to his abusive father, while also am saying that getting captured by Azula is a fate worse than death, and that she’s mentally insane 

Iroh and The White Lotus conquering Ba Sing Se does not change anything in the finale, you can cut it out and nothing changes, Ba Sing Se could have been taken back on any other day before the comet, Iroh should have changed his plans to help with the defeating the airships which would kill everyone (or whatever Ozai’s stupid plan was) but instead he sends 3 children (only 1 of whom could bend) to do it and they almost fucking die, he wants to conquer Ba Sing Se because he it was his “Destiny since birth”, and also because he wants to relax in his tea shop instead of helping the world, and he wants to use the comet to cause more destruction, achieving his goal in a way before he “changed” and its not like the city’s suffering more than when Long Feng controlled it.

Leaving your traumatized 16 year old nephew to become the ruler of a county, while also going to another continent to rest in a tea shop in a city you tried to burn down, is the definition of abandonment, Iroh easily could have opened the tea shop in The Fire Nation

Azula is far from selfish, she cares deeply about Ozai, Zuko, Ty Lee, Mai, and Ursa, and she is a dedicated patriot who does things all in name of The Fire Nation 

I think Ursa SHOULD help Azula, AFTER she rejects Fire imperialism and admits she wasn’t the best parent, I think Ursa had good intentions, but was too harsh on Azula. 

That's all this is, just the completely ridiculous ramblings of someone who overidentifies with a violent bully because it feeds your own white woman Karen victim complex.

Again, this is why the Zuko fandom can't have nice things, and that I can’t ignore your incorrect opinions. 

Or you could just get out of my inbox, you troglodyte. I didn't read past the first sentence, but it's funny how the comics don't exist unless you want to (badly) try to use them to make a (nonexistent) point.

Iroh's face in that screenshot is my face right now. Because bullies who show up to harass others deserve contempt. Keep proving that this is what you and your ilk deserve, because I don't have as much patience as Iroh does.

[shortpplfedup]

Back to overidentifying with Souta hours, I really don't think Mahiro understands what he's broken here. When you struggle to feel and understand your romantic feelings, it takes SO MUCH to admit that to a person you care about and ask for a chance. And Mahiro put a button on why: because if you try, and you realise that you're not feeling what you thought you felt, you may have irreparably damaged your relationship with that person. Because what do you say to somebody in that situation? 'I thought I loved you, and I do, but not like that'. I've certainly lost people taking leaps like that, and there are times I just didn't take the leap because of that experience and fear and that ended things anyway. I understand Mahiro, I do, but my heart just breaks for Souta. Because he exposed himself to Mahiro, the twisted bit of himself that nobody can understand, the thing he thinks makes him a freak, and he hoped Mahiro would understand him, and instead Mahiro calls him selfish and cruel. And he already feels selfish and cruel for even asking, but he thought he could, BECAUSE Mahiro admitted to kissing him, BECAUSE it seems like Mahiro cares about him. He can't give Mahiro certainty, he can't say 'I like you this way', because he genuinely won't know that until he tests those feelings he thinks he has. He can't kiss Mahiro as a valedictory act or even a confirmatory act, he needs to kiss Mahiro as a question, a question where the answer might be 'no'. And Mahiro is not willing to chance that 'no'. And so the relationship breaks anyway.

[noficbyhalves]

WIP drinking game

Tagged by @ahungeringknife

Tagging you! person reading this! if you've got a wip and would like to, of course

Rules make a drinking game for your work-in-progress that would give the player alcohol poisoning

Oh boy here we go, I'm doing both. Take a shot every time...

Skies

Stargazing is done/discussed/mentioned

An extra shot if the Altaïr/Vega myth is mentioned

A third if it involves Malik overidentifying with Vega/magpies and trying to be Normal about it

Altaïr falls asleep next to/on Malik

Malik uses a nickname/pet name for someone

Extra shot if it's something that would usually be interpreted as an insult

A challenge or bet is issued and taken

Extra shot if it's via something being claimed to be 'impossible'

Altaïr thinks or says the gayest thing in the universe, followed by how Malik is his bestest friend. Platonically. Because he is straight.

A reference to anything queer made by another character goes directly over Altaïr's head

Malik sets something on fire

Malik uses wandless magic

Malik is grievously injured

Malik is blatantly staving off a mental breakdown with just pure concentrated spite

One or both of them does some kind of magic that's Super Fucking Illegal

Extra shot if it's blood magic

Malik gets frustrated by magical society refusing/ignoring 200+ years of progress

Altaïr is fascinated with anything non-magical/lineside

Altaïr is certain that Malik's mother hates him/Altaïr is terrified of Malik's mother

The prophecy involving Altaïr is mentioned

Altaïr's grandfather is The Worst (either onscreen or implied)

William Miles is a manipulative bastard

Kadar is an obnoxious little brother /affectionate

Kadar is blatantly sick of these two being oblivious about each other

Maria is a top-tier badass

Leonardo is Concerned

(I'd say 'every time altmal are codependent af', but you'd have to chug the bottle for the whole duration and that feels like cheating)

MMW

Altaïr treats gender like a performance

The line between sparring and flirting gets suspiciously blurry

Altaïr tries to fix her problems by climbing a tall thing

Altaïr is neurotic re: the pressure to be The Best Master Assassin

Or, Al Mualim deliberately adds to that pressure

Malik is Bothered by Altaïr refusing to plan

Altaïr is disdainful about the concept of luck

An orange is shared

Altaïr does or says something alarming as a result of Eagle Vision/The Apple/Isu Bullshit

A treason attempt is had

Malik is real horny about the concept of trust/seeing Altaïr without her mask

Malik concocts another elaborate workaround to avoid having to use Altaïr's fake name

One of them does something that's basically a nonverbal love confession (of varying levels of sanity)

One or both of them is deeply rattled by comparing their childhood to their kids'

Malik gets called an old man

Altaïr does something that's... religiously or culturally questionable

Altaïr is compared to a natural disaster

"I will always come back to you"

One or both of them gets sappy about parenthood

Someone assumes that because Altaïr is no longer young, she isn't as dangerous

Extra shot if that assumption is fatal

Darim or Saaf get clotheslined by one of their parents' hoard of secrets

Darim is compared to one or both of his parents

Saaf is a lil ray of sunshine

[vegaseatsass]

I made and deleted a post about this a few weeks ago but I've been thinking a lot about projecting onto toxic ships/dynamics in fiction, and not onto the romantic parts ("I relate to Pete in Vegaspete because I want someone to unlock me to human touch") but onto the very toxic parts ("I relate to Vegas in Vegasporsche because he's lying his ass off and orchestrating Porsche's downfall, and mentally blaming Porsche for everything he's planning to do to him, for believing the wrong things and choosing the wrong side, AND for falling for Vegas's obvious facade! Dummy I've always been your enemy it's SO OBVIOUS!! Yet in the moment, when they're riding bikes or hugging and Vegas is compartmentalizing, he does genuinely care about Porsche and feel honest affection for him, and that's what sells the lie... and makes Vegas hate himself for his traitorous weakness and want to sabotage any sincere moments they have"), and how huge this distinction feels to me. So I wanted to do like a Tell me the most toxic fictional thing you overidentify with meme.

Not sure that's the best way to word it, and you don't have to (and probably shouldn't) explain why, but like. Don't tell me "I relate to Korn as a parent;" tell me "I relate to Korn when he's preventing his children from competing by pitting them against their cousins instead, because he can blame that on their grandfather and his brother and not himself, and pretend his kids are fine and it's just the cousins who are getting destroyed". Does that make sense? This way also I don't have to know your toxic blorbo to understand your toxic emotion. Anyway do it

[motheatenscarf]

I really wanted to make a joke about Emet Selch's real name being "Hades" based on him walking into the flaming ruins of Amaurot with the caption "Feel the Heat!" but then I realized that if I did that, everyone would know I played Kingdom Hearts, and I'm not sure that's shame I can live with.

Which made me think, hey, we were all 14 once, kill the part of you that cringes and all. But god. I didn't just play Kingdom Hearts, I was obsessed with it. I get nothing out of it as an adult looking back now, I've been exposed to more and better media, but I was... a profoundly depressed child full of existential dread and despair because of a the failing climate, economy, and a deeply unhappy home life. Add to that the fact that "Emo" was the hot new counterculture trend, and I, unfortunately, really got something narratively out of Riku and Organization 13, Axel in particular.

Which is why it's so important to talk to your goddamn kids, by the way. Don't let them be so emotionally isolated and repressed that they play Kingdom Hearts and think it's deep. Your child should be in therapy, not overidentifying with sad anime boys in tripp pants.

Don't do that to your kids.

But I've clearly grown up and my taste in media has matured. I've learned how to handle my existential despair and crippling depression without digging my claws into Big Sad villains from Square Enix games that serve as an outlet for the catharsis of grief and hopelessness.

....

So anyway,

FEEL THE HEAT

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

Jack is an asshole and a bully and most important he is MANIPULATIVE. I don't believe what Ed says about Jack because Jack is manipulating Ed the entire time he's on board The Revenge, and Ed doesn't see it. Jack knows how to play Ed and he does it flawlessly. He's an asshole and he's a bully and he's a piece of shit. He's not secretly insecure or actually nice. You feel that way and want him to be that way for the same reason Izzy delusionists think Izzy is the victim: you have overidentified and projected yourself onto him. You also resent Stede (flat out hate him, it seems) so OF COURSE you latch on to a character who bullies him. You have said yourself he should be bullied. You're not right about Calico Jack... and given that his actor hasn't even acknowledged the role in public, I highly doubt we're ever going to get a flashback. If we do it isn't going to prove you right, though. Because you're not. You're just another Stede hater latching on to a white antagonist.

I've been rotating power bottom CJ and sub top Stede fucking for Ed's entertainment. I made a lil sketch, should I write a PWP do you think?

[goddesspharo]

director's cut? any and all insights into 'move it to the exits' and 'living in a rhythm where the minute's working overtime', please!

There are brilliant people who exist who have well thought out plots and intricate outlines laid out before they actually start writing. I am not one of those people. (David Fincher, I am not!) I tried outlining a very convoluted fic once with three different concurrent timelines, color-coordinated the thing, wrote 20k, and then gave it up. My process - if one can even call it that - is that usually I will get one line of dialogue or narration stuck in my mind like an incessant earworm until I have no choice but to do something with it. So a lot of times, the scene is built around that one line or the entire story is in the service of getting to that one particular moment. It'll be like 20k of words just because I couldn't get the image of someone leaning out of my head. There's an entire graveyard of unfinished google docs that occasionally get cannibalized into parts of other things that started off with one stupid thought incepting my brain.

living in a rhythm where the minute’s working overtime (The Batman; Bruce/Selina): I was back on my Bruce/Selina bullshit after The Batman. (To be fair, when am I ever NOT about them? I love them in almost all iterations! And having Bruce Wayne be a sad weirdo who smears on grease paint while overidentifying with Kurt Cobain? While Selina Kyle is objectively rad and played by Zoe Kravitz who can actually pull off calling a dude wearing bat ears "baby" every other line? Excellent choices!) It got me to write fic again after a billion years! The line that started this one off was "Think of how guilty you'll feel if I die without knowing you are," but I think originally I had pictured it as happening on a rooftop in the context of Selina having already figured out Batman's secret identity (I was - maybe still am - obsessed with that scene where she asks if he's hideously scarred under the mask) and trying to get him to admit it, but then it morphed into her milking a fairly benign injury to score a trip to the batcave instead and the rest is history. I think this one had room to be a longer thing, but I wrote it on the heels of having already written a 16k and 14k fic about these two idiots already (when historically I rarely used to cross 10k) and needed a break. move it to the exits (Roswell New Mexico; Kyle/Isobel): I really loved the idea of a drunk Kyle wrapping Isobel in his herringbone coat as the snow started to gently fall around them. In the back of my mind, that imagery was part of a very long-form story with them secretly dating but Isobel trying to hide it from her well-meaning mother because she doesn't want Ann Evans to get invested in case it didn't work out. In true Isobel fashion, she makes sure Kyle is on call when Ann comes to visit that weekend. In true Michael fashion, he accidentally lets it slip to Kyle that his girlfriend's mother is in town and it would be a great idea to surprise them at dinner. The dinner, already stressful because Ann is meeting Liz for the first time, is of course a disaster that starts with Isobel introducing Kyle as Liz's ex-boyfriend (which he thinks is kind of weird) and only gets worse from there. Ann Evans keeps trying to get Kyle to arrange a meet-cute between Isobel and a hot doctor in his hospital (which he thinks is really weird). And Max keeps choking on his wine because he's laughing so hard. And then Ann Evans finally asks Kyle why someone who is such a catch doesn't have a girlfriend and he finally gets that Isobel has been lying to her mother for six months when he convinced his own mother to invite her over for dinner even though she kept referring to Isobel "Max's sister with the sex toys" when he first told her they were dating. Naturally, Kyle's anger manifests as him punching Jordan Bernhardt in the parking lot of The Crashdown after he fakes a stat page from the hospital to get out of the dinner from hell, which leads to where this starts off.

[caracalliope]

I posted 9,699 times in 2022

That's 1,310 more posts than 2021!

(LMAO I think this is the MCR effect)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@tt-squid

@theroseandthebeast

@tw0-ravens

@fravery

@gardengnosticator

I tagged 1,921 of my posts in 2022

#characters named rose - 382 posts

#and some other dorks i love - 79 posts

#what a good name for a borzoi - 64 posts

#now with kneeling - 54 posts

#sometimes you just get emotional over the color blue i guess - 27 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#it’s nothing but the rote execution of a piece of kabuki theater. a sequence of choreography to struggle through on behalf of a greater per

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Single ladies did not live alone. Sisters, past the marriageable age, might do it; years and years ago the Lady Eleanor Butler and her dear friend, Miss Sarah Ponsonby, had done it, but in the teeth of parental opposition. They had fled to a cottage somewhere in Wales, renouncing the world just as if they had been nuns; and since they were still living there and had never, so far as anyone knew, stirred from their retreat, it was to be inferred that they were content.

- Venetia, Georgette Heyer

7 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

#4

Hear me out:

8 notes - Posted November 28, 2022

#3

You know, we as a society haven't appreciated these photos enough.

17 notes - Posted July 15, 2022

#2

"In a certain light, I am you", or, how Anthony and Kate are the same person

So, I loved Bridgerton S2. I love the way Anthony overidentifies with all three Sharma women; and then also the way Kate can't help identifying with him.

He told Edwina that he IS her, and in terms of roles, that's true! But Kate is who he is in a different light - daring, judgmental, protective, self-sacrificing. She's who he wants to be! But also can't afford to be! But also can't afford to stop being!

As for Kate, she hates that she gets him. Everything he does, even the bullshit derby manipulation move, makes sense to her! And isn't that just vexing? She didn't sign up for feelings about Who She Is! Who she is should have been a minor footnote in her perfect plan to take care of her family.

In conclusion, I have made these HIGHLY SCIENTIFIC charts to prove this EXTREMELY INCISIVE HYPOTHESIS.

See the full post

25 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

[the scammer one, nothing interesting here]

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[shine-of-aldhani]

This post is going to be fandom-critical and Loki series-appreciative, so get out and block/unfollow/whatever while you can if that's not your cup of tea.

There is a trend in many fandoms of characters who are in opposition to the hero (villains, antiheroes etc) that is critical of the "redemption through death" scenario. The latest that comes to mind is Star Wars, but there are countless examples. The typical in-story narrative is that the villain had committed too many crimes and there is no place for him in the new world where the heroes won, so he's killed off - usually not by heroes but by tragic circumstances that allow him some positive light before the end (Loki in Thor2, Ben Solo in SW). Fans of the character argue that a fully realised, slow redemption would be an awesome storyline, and that it'd be both interesting and refreshing to look at the life post wrongdoing.

So far, no mainstream media has ever done a fully realised, psychologically grounded redemption storyline. Hollywood go-to idea to rehabilitate the villain is to make the villain useful to the heroes and ultimately just "forget" about the initial transgression. The initial bad deed is never looked back on, addressed or analysed except maybe as a funny oneliner. Because addressing shit is hard... And also because, as Loki series has shown us, the fandom doesn't really want to see the true psychologically grounded redemption storyline.

For the Loki series is exactly this: the first time a character must face uncomfortable truths about themselves, to better themselves. This is a process that isn't nice. It's a beatdown after a beatdown. It's humiliating, soul-destroying, there is much kneeling and grovelling and unflattering names. The character isn't shown as pretty and composed, he isn't allowed to wear nice clothes that give him a feeling of power. He feels useless, powerless and messes up a lot, for his self esteem is gone. He doesn't strut around showing off magic feats and yes, almost everyone around him is shown in better light. Because that's what a true redemption storyline is like. It's a deconstruction of the ego. Eventually, it will lead to a stronger and better sense of self, but first we must crawl on the floor. And the fans, who usually overidentify with the character and his background, just cannot take seeing him, and by extension themselves, in that light.

So what does the fandom do?

1) Insist that Loki does not need a redemption storyline. Because he was tortured by Thanos (this is fanon), because he was influenced by scepter (this is still mostly fanon but has a bit more substance), because he was emotionally abused by Odin (this is almost canon). Now before you crucify me - these are my favourite fanons, my go-to fanfiction, I adore them all. But. There is absolutely nothing incorrect or malicious with the Loki series going "You know what? Loki still carved out that eyeball, and I am not going to sit here and "address" the fact that Odin emotionally neglected him, because that's already been shown and is in the past. I am going to postulate that Loki, deep in his core, is ashamed of himself for his deeds, and that bringing up Odin isn't going to solve that shame, and explore how Loki can move forward from there. The story isn't not going to be about Odin or Thanos, who are both gone and dead, it's going to be about Loki -who is the one who gets to live with the consequences."

2) Insist that the series hates Loki and was written specifically to humiliate him. This ties back to my thesis that the fandom simply does not want to see what a true psychological work of a redemption storyline looks like, for the ego beatdown is the essential part of it. This is how the story of Ben Solo would have had to look like, had he survived Star Wars. This is how Thor 2 would have looked like, had we been following Loki and not Thor: Loki being chained by the same soldiers he commanded, being stripped of his armour, being led down the rainbow bridge and into the palace. In that movie, it would have been worse because he had personal history with all these people. In the series he gets TVA's indifferent approach, which should incidentally be easier to swallow.

3) Insist that Loki is not the protagonist of his own series. Apart from this not making an ounce of sense, this reading comes from the idea that only physical deeds are valid storytelling material. Sylvie is stronger than Loki, hence she's the protagonist. Mobius is in the position of power, hence he is more important than Loki. All the while Loki is out there, doing enormous self-work, changing by the hour and showcasing more stable coping techniques. But he's not glamorous while doing it and he's kneeling a lot, so it cannot be that the writers actually like him and wish him to do well in the long run.

4) Insist that the new Loki is OOC and give him a plain, insulting new nickname to differentiate him from the beloved and cool old Loki. The one who liberated eyeballs while clad in impeccable clothes because he was terrified of Thanos. Or the one whose non-existent coping mechanisms almost made him kill his own beloved brother in despair. The one who had plans upon plans and was always so ready for betrayal that he had no friends on his own. The one who would surely glamour awesome clothes onto himself to avoid signalling any weakness. The one who was incredibly high strung and could never allow any weakness. You guys want that Loki back? Ok, that's fair. That guy was deeply damaged, and very interesting to watch. But then, a story that takes these aspects from him (and make no mistake, all of them are maladaptive and trauma induced - all -of - them) isn't hating on Loki, or making him dumb, or exists to hurt you personally. It allows him to overcome his internal hurdles, lower his defences and eventually arrive to a better place.

So here I rest my thesis: actual well written redemption stories, of which Loki is the frigging first (and how groundbreaking is that) aren't really wanted by the fandom. Most fans would rather whitewash or cocoon themselves in the trauma aspect, leaving the actual responsibility and consequences out of it. Which is fine as a comping mechanism, fiction is escapism after all, you're all perfectly valid... But there should at least be enough self-awareness to differentiate between a good story that's uncomfortable/too heavy for you and a bad story with evil writers who either have no idea about Loki or specifically want to punish his fans.

The Loki series isn't the latter. It might not be the fantasy escapism most would have preferred, but it has a very specific and respectable goal and it's going about it in a grounded way which is - actually - fully respecting of Loki as a person. I swear that the series sees him as more capable of doing the work he needs to do than his own fans.

[coraniaid]

Willow Rosenberg for the character ask game!

Favorite thing about them

When I first watched Buffy as a kid I overidentified with Willow to a worrying and slightly obnoxious degree.  She was smart! And funny! And had hidden depths!  And was occasionally callous and strange.  All very relatable.

(And I for one found it completely believable that Willow could teach a class despite not even being a senior yet.  I mean, I was pretty sure I could do that, if only anybody had thought to ask me....)

She's not my favorite character anymore, but I still like her a lot.  

I think she's probably the second best realized character across the whole show, with a narrative arc that nobody other than Buffy can really compete with.  And I think it's great how so much of what she does, even in the later seasons, can be explained by her character in the first couple of seasons: her attempts to live up to being Ms. Calendar's replacement;  her instincts to take charge in a crisis; her need to always be helpful so that people she cares about will want her around.

Least favorite thing about them

There are a few subplots with Willow that I don't think really work.  The secret affair with Xander, just after the show went out of its way to confirm that she'd moved on from pining over him.  The 'magic is a drug and Willow is an addict' subplot, that briefly threatens to derail all the character progression she's had over the past six years.  But what the show does to her relationship with Buffy in the second half of season 7 is the low point, probably.  I mean, she kicks her best friend out of her own house so that Faith can be in charge?  Willow does this?  I don't think so.

Speaking of Faith, I also have very different emotions watching Willow tell Faith "It's way too late" to redeem herself in Choices these days than I did when I first watched the episode.  ("You had friends in your life like Buffy"?  Did she, Will?  Friends, plural? Are you sure about that?  Could you name two of them?)  If I think about it for too long, it makes me a little sad that the reaction I had to this scene aged thirteen ("go Willow!") was probably closer to what I think the writers intended.

Favorite line

"I knew it!  I knew it!  Well, not ‘knew it’ in the sense of having the slightest idea, but I knew there was something I didn't know!"

brOTP

Xander.

Actually, this was almost also my answer for the nOTP question as well: Willow's early crush on Xander is kind of adorable (if often inexplicable, given what we see of early Xander), but I'm really glad the show doesn't have them end up together.

Willow's friendship with Xander over the course of the show is really great though.  And I think it works particularly well post-Season 4, when ... yeah, they don't really have much in common, but they still have all that shared history that they don't have with anybody else, and they still obviously mean a lot to each other.

OTP

Oh, Tara, for sure.

(I mean, I love Oz, I think he's great, and I'm still mad about how he gets written out of the show in Season 4, but there can only be one answer to this question, right?)

nOTP

Hmm.  I don't particularly dislike Kennedy as a character -- and the truth is she's one of the only Potentials who I can easily remember -- but I do think the writers rush Willow into a relationship with her a lot faster than they should have done after Tara died.  (On the other hand, given how quickly Willow herself tries to set Buffy up with Scott Hope after sending Angel to hell, and how much importance she puts on being in a romantic relationship generally throughout the show, I guess it's not exactly out of character for Willow either.)  Kennedy has the bad luck of only being in my least favorite  season of the show though, so.

Also, and I know this is one of those worldbuilding questions I'm in danger of thinking about more than the writers ever did, but. I can't really wrap my head around how Kennedy can be young enough to still be a potential Slayer -- when we know from the Cruciamentum that all Slayers are called sometime before their eighteenth birthday or not at all -- and yet old enough to be in a relationship with Willow, who's presumably at least 21 years old when they meet.  (I think the show just ignores the Cruciamentum, right?)

Random headcanon

I don’t really see how Jesse and Willow can ever have been friends, given (among other things) their very different attitudes towards Cordelia Chase.  So although we see them hanging out in the first episode, I think this is one of those cases of two people associating because they have a friend in common – and not many other friends – even though they can’t actually stand each other.

(This also helps explain why Willow never talks about Jesse after he dies.)

Unpopular opinion

Honestly, I think it's kind of sad that Willow didn't get to go to any of the fancy colleges she was accepted into.

I mean, sure, she chooses not to go, and I know lots of people find that empowering or encouraging.  And of course, not everybody has to go to the most prestigious academic institutions they can, and it's not the end of the world if you don't go the 'best' college.  And I know that, on a more practical level, Willow had to go to UC Sunnydale if she was going to stay as a regular on the show.

But at the same time, when I see Willow and Buffy argue in the later seasons, when I see Willow feel resentful about being in Buffy's shadow and being seen as her sidekick, when she clearly has so much free time on her hands that she fills up with learning more and more magic,  I can't help but think that -- if Willow were a real person -- she'd have a been a lot happier at Harvard or Oxford or somewhere else where she might have actually been challenged academically for once in her life.  And that her relationship with Buffy might have been healthier if she hadn’t given up that future for her.

Song I associate with them

I'm going to be painfully literal here and stick with Michelle Branch's Goodbye To You.

Favorite picture of them

Not my favorite episode, as I've said before, but I love the awkward little wave Willow offers Oz when she's pretending to be her vampire alter ago in Doppelgangland