#or even if a disabled characters story is about them overcoming their disability and getting help or whatever

[froglover7789]

im really fucking sick of mainstream media (esp superhero shit) giving characters physical disabilities but then it doesnt matter bc magic/technology just fixes them no problem! like. AAAUUUGHHH ugh i hate esp when its used to represent inner conflict or some shit bc then once they over come that its not a problem anymore. thats not how physical disabilities work. even if you can get help for it it never truly goes away. and if it somehow magically does then theres still def a mental toll that has to be dealt with too. ugh. i wish more writers understood that.

[neon-sunsets]

it’s actually insane to me in retrospect that viktor got the arc he did. I need to go back and count his screen time minutes, but it’s clear that he’s up there numerically, and his story has so much weight within the narrative outside of just numbers as well.

beyond that, though, is the fact that viktor's narrative is fundamentally one about internalized ableism and the systemic structures that encourage it.

(obligatory disclaimer #1 that I have a significant mobility disability and a progressive chronic illness, but I am only one disabled person.)

imagine this: you are a child. you are disabled. the world you live in is one where you cannot afford healthcare; no one is there to teach you how to even use your cane correctly. your world is inaccessible and, worse, even the people who would normally show class solidarity with you don't, because you are not even able to do what they expect from you. characters like vi, powder, claggor, ekko, and mylo are all shown care and solidarity that viktor isn't — because they are able-bodied and therefore able to "pull their own weight."

this, at least, is an environment that can probably be overcome or mitigated by age and meeting people in your community who do care about you. this is an environment comparable to that of many, many, many disabled people who manage to thrive in a deeply unfair and ableist world.

but then you encounter a man who sees that you have talent and tells you as much. he does not ask much of you and he does not care that you are disabled. all he asks is for some help, which you give, and in return he teaches you the things he knows. what comes of this, after all is said and done and your understanding of the world has been fundamentally changed, is that you do have something you can give to your community, to the world. you have a talent which you can use to make yourself useful. you're not strong or sturdy but you can make machines, and that is always in need.

but you can't skate by on being useful like a normal child. the onus is always on you to prove that you're worth the air you breathe and the space you take up, that it's worthwhile to keep you alive. and the place to go to make yourself the most useful, where the most change can be made, is not a place you have any traditional way of accessing. you, through tenacity and grit, manage to get there anyways. (the show doesn't depict this, but any way viktor would have managed to get to the academy would have involved significant difficulty and possibly deception).

and when you get there, to that towering city of bronze, you find that nothing you do actually matters all that much.

everyone looks at you and sees your disability. everyone looks at you and sees where you're from. no matter how smart or accomplished or helpful you are, your behavior will always be, in their eyes, representative of your people. you could handle the stares, the rejection. but their judgement is dangerous to you and your people.

so, in order to survive, you must be perfect. you must project confidence or at least indifference to their cruelty. you must do as you're told and accept meager promotions and toil away as an assistant. you might be the only disabled zaunite they'll ever meet, so you have to make it count. if you fail, if they decide everyone from the undercity is lazy and useless, it's your fault.

you tell yourself you won't let them get to you. you tell yourself that you believe in your abilities.

it's a convenient narrative, and it's wholly untrue.

you, after all, are only a human being. a lifetime of the chips stacked against you is nearly impossible to overcome.

and so the image you build of yourself is that of a man far more self-confident than you, one who is quiet and reserved but proud of his accomplishments. the man you actually are, though, is one desperate for acceptance. desperate to assimilate. you chase your dreams, yes, but you can't bear to take credit, can't bear to be the face of them. you don't let yourself get close to anyone except the man you've built all of this with, who you love more than anyone else. you don't let anyone touch you (except him) and you don't touch anyone. you convince yourself you don't deserve his love or anyone's, that you're not whole enough for that.

you take it so far that, when you finally have the technology you think can cure your terminal illness, the first thing you try to fix is your leg. not the thing eating at your lungs and cutting short the time you thought you had, but the leg which has marked you as Other your entire life. and even though it doesn't quite work, even though it still causes you pain with every step, you force yourself to run on it — faster and faster until you're outrunning the ships and screaming because you may have visibly "fixed" your leg but it still hurts the same.

and when the system is not only oppressive in the material sense but also set up to make you hate yourself, there is almost no escaping this cycle of self-hatred. throw in the fact that in season 2 viktor keeps getting tossed from resurrection to resurrection against his will and it's no wonder the man did the things he did. it doesn't excuse them by any means, but arcane is not interested in excuses — it's interested in what makes people do the things they do. everything that he did to the people in the commune was a reflection of his own self-hatred, both because he still possessed it after death but also because, since he was programming the hexcore to try and save his life but started with "fixing" his leg, it is designed to make people as physically "normal" as possible. the faceless, identical machine people are a metaphorical representation of the ideology viktor has bought into in his pursuit of self-hatred and internalized ableism. his whole arc across both seasons is a demonstration and condemnation of the ways that systems of oppression reinforce self-hatred in the people they are oppressing.

obligatory disclaimer #2 that I don't think arcane did everything right. I'm frustrated with the direction of season 2 away from the piltover/zaun class conflict and towards the broader league of legends universe. but I do think, as a disabled person with a very similar experience of my disability to viktor, that this arc is well-done and very compelling. in the end, what saves the world is viktor accepting that he is deserving of being loved. I'm going to be thinking about this one for a good long while.

[qiu-yan]

MDZS and asshole victims: thoughts on the second siege of the burial mounds scene

this post is not about morality judgments. this post is about reader sympathies only.

one rather clever rhetorical trick MDZS employs is putting all the more background "surviving victims of wei wuxian's actions" into one big angry mob at the second siege of the burial mounds, instead of letting them crop up anywhere else in the story. it's easy for a first-time reader to write off the guy who lost a leg at nightless city, or the guy whose parents died at nightless city, because both of those guys are being dicks. they're part of an angry mob baying for wei wuxian's blood--unfairly baying for wei wuxian's blood, because this time he didn't even do the thing they're saying he did. by putting these two victims into a mob of not just fellow victims but also unaffected individuals (ie. sect leader yao, who just showed up for kicks), the story can effectively equate these victims' grievances (ie. "you killed my parents") with unreasonable mob rule--even if these two things might not actually be equivalent.

the effect of this rhetorical trick, then, is that the reader can at once perceive the themes about mob mentality MXTX wishes to convey, and also effectively write off the victims' complaints. "yes, i did that to you, but i literally died already, what more do you want me to do? shall i walk on my knees repenting?" becomes easier for the reader to accept. and more importantly--wei wuxian's likability as a moral and just protagonist is not impacted.

ngl tho. it would be a bit more difficult for the reader to write off these victims' complaints if, instead of meeting said victims in an angry mob, the reader instead met these victims almost anywhere else. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you killed my parents" at the second siege of the burial mounds, we instead met him getting smashed at the local bar and crying about how his parents are dead. imagine if, instead of meeting mr. "you chopped off my leg" as a member of an angry mob, we instead met him begging for alms on the side of the road because his disability rendered him unable to work in a wuxia-esque setting. or imagine--if either of these background characters, overcome with survivor's guilt and trauma from nightless city, hung himself in his bedroom, and the next day his body was discovered by his 15-year-old daughter.

all of these scenarios are entirely plausible. you could easily include any of them into the story without changing the main plot at all. but suddenly shit just got a lot more depressing.

however, no such scene would ever be included in MDZS. the reason is that, as a work of fiction, MDZS's single most ardent goal is for us the readers to conclude not just that "we like wei wuxian as a character," but also that "wei wuxian is ultimately a morally righteous person." when the narrative focus shifts onto the people who were actually helped by wei wuxian's actions (mianmian and her family, lan sizhui, the few months of dignity the wen remnants were afforded) this becomes much easier for us to conclude; wei wuxian does indeed look like a hero. but the more narrative focus is given to the negative impacts of wei wuxian's actions--the more the "victims of wei wuxian" (whether actual victims or not) are given a face, instead of abstracted away by broad summaries--the more the reader might side-eye wei wuxian instead. every new victim given a name, given narrative attention that isn't just focused on making them look like an asshole, arouses the reader's sympathies in the opposite direction--and thus increases the risk that the reader might ultimately disagree with the novel's conclusion of "wei wuxian is a righteous person."

tbh, this does not seem like a risk MXTX particularly wants to take. instead, she's mastered the art of writing Asshole Victims.

which is an entirely valid writing decision, because imo basically every work of genre fiction out there does this to some extent.

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

ok no but jokes aside can we talk about rachel for five seconds. can we talk about how wildbow wrote a masculine woman with severe mental disabilties and DIDNT make that her entire character. can we talk about how shes a complete character whos aware of the gaps that her disability creates but has found ways to get around those gaps. can we talk about how her arc DOESNT involve "overcoming" those disabilities, how by the end of the story shes still illiterate and still cant read human social situations or cues and she doesnt Care. how she makes genuine friends with Taylor not because she was willing to "look past" those disabilities and "treat her like anyone else" but rather because Taylor made an active effort to understand how Rachel engaged with the world differently from everyone else. because Taylor was patient enough to keep putting energy into being her friend, even though Rachel made it difficult at times, because she knew her worst moments didnt define their friendship despite still being part of who Rachel was. because being friends with somebody who has a social disability IS work a lot of the time and treating them like you do the rest of your friends isnt doing anyone any favors, and you have to actually Try, and it will be hard on both of you. im rambling at this point but god. Rachel is excellent social and learning disability representation is all im saying

[toweringclam]

From what I've seen, part of the hatred of the plot twist comes from how people have built up that final battle of the Shattering. Everyone assumed it must be something big and important. Like there was some grand ideological struggle at play between Radahn and Malenia. As such, they projected their own feelings and beliefs onto it. And because of the hell world we live in, it became a front for the gender war.

Radahn came to represent everything masculine in the eyes of certain people. Nevermind that he was a fundamentally nurturing character rather than just Chad Beefthrust. And his masculinity was interpreted positively by some and negatively by others. Here, he was an overgrown bully abusing his poor little horse, who needed to be taken down a peg. There, he was a gigachad who was better than everyone else at everything and only "lost" to a cheap shot while he was holding back.

At the same time, Malenia was built up as an icon of girl boss womanhood, overcoming gender and disability to stand toe to toe with The Man. Nevermind that she always was a passive character following the will of others. Her battle with Radahn was either seen as a doomed yet noble fight against the symbol of all oppression or a delusional female who didn't know her place getting rightfully smacked down by the coolest guy ever.

None of these images were true, but people separated themselves into camps anyway. One side was Right and the other was Wrong.

But you forgot about George RR Martin's influence, and no I don't mean the incest (as the saying goes, "but you fuck one goat..."). Martin likes to skewer the heroic myths. The last battle of the Shattering was always going to be a letdown. It was never going to be a heroic struggle between two warriors of conflicting ideologies. There was never going to be a clear-cut villain.

Instead, it's the story of a loyal and honorable warrior following bad orders from a child lord, carrying out those orders even if it means death. You have another warrior stuck in the past and trying to live up to the glory of his forebears (with reasonable success), but failing to realize that he has already written his downfall by an act of misplaced kindness. And between them was said child lord, a truly brilliant prodigy who, for all his wisdom, was still fundamentally a child, no matter how those around him treated him like an adult.

By the way, to everyone complaining about pandering to reddit: they hate it too, because it cucks their favorite gigachad. Y'all have more in common than you think.

Pictures unrelated.

[luna-rainbow]

CATWS and its building of stakes

Part of the reason why CATWS was so memorable in its appeal was the way it built the stakes throughout the story. Each of the major characters had something(s) at stake by the final act, and that was pivotal for the plot to sustain its tension and for the satisfaction in its final payoff.

The overarching conflict was the global, existential threat of Hydra getting their mass murder machine up in the air, and the ideological question of what the middle ground between freedom and security should be. But what made the final act so moving was the intimately personal stakes for many of our characters.

There was, obviously, the very personal stake Steve had to surmount in having to physically get through Bucky in order to protect the freedom he was advocating for. But apart from Steve, every other major character was challenged with a personal sacrifice in the final showdown. Nat was faced with having all her covers blown and her past - that she had tried so hard to hide - revealed to the world. Sam was confronted with going back into the field after losing his partner so traumatically that he changed careers. Fury was grappling with dismantling the organisation that he had devoted his life to build. And on the other side, Pierce and Rumlow had invested decades of their lives in an ideology which if successful would install them at the top of the food chain.

There was a great meta from years back talking about how well the movie established the competencies of the characters before introducing threats -- and how we were then able to quickly understand the threat because of how competent we have seen our protagonists be. Every action sequence served a purpose and built upon the previous one.

The Lumerian Star sequence was fantastic in how effectively it established the competence of not just Steve and Nat, but the entire Strike team. Rumlow and Rollins were good at their job; they're not super soldiers or super spies, sure, but they were skilled enough to keep pace with Steve and Nat.

This was an important foreword for the elevator fight, which itself was a pre-requisite for the Causeway fight. We have seen both Steve and the Strike team capable of taking down multiple pirates swiftly, so when the elevator fight started, there was a genuine sense of threat to Steve, even if he would make a quick job of disabling them. Then, after seeing Steve's skills against a very capable Strike team, it became all the more terrifying when the Winter Soldier almost nailed him to a van about 2 minutes into their fight.

On the other side, the Winter Soldier's introduction was an assemblage of horror story tropes -- of unexpected manifestations and impossible disappearances, and urban myths stretching back through half a century. The two characters used to introduce him were extremely competent from what we had seen of them. There's Fury, normally prescient and wily, scraping by a very determined assassination attempt, only to be stopped by the Winter Soldier materialising in the middle of the road...which he escaped, only to be later shot through the wall. There's Nat, normally cunning and cautious, telling Steve of how the Winter Soldier successfully ambushed her, of how his kills spanned 50 years, a logical improbability.

Not only was Steve about to meet the Winter Soldier with the weight of these legends behind him, from the vantage point of Hydra, they were sending out the Asset to meet Captain America with his historical legends behind him (oh look, another narrative parallel). All of this build-up culminated in the Causeway fight. The technical impressiveness of the stunts aside, part of why that fight worked so well was because we have had all these story beats that showed us how capable Steve and the Winter Soldier were, then we see them both genuinely struggle to overcome the other.

We can't talk about the final fight without talking about the emotional stakes, and we can't talk about the emotional stakes without discussing what Bucky means to Steve. We already had the "not without you" and the "I'm following the little guy from Brooklyn"; we've also had the "I don't want to kill anyone" turn into "I'm not going to stop until all of Hydra is dead" and the "I'm just a kid from Brooklyn" callback. This movie added the "even when I had nothing I had Bucky" and the "I knew him" and the "he will (know me)" and of course the "end of the line" exchanges.

But there were also more subtle cues -- that came from Steve's frequent rebuff of Nat's suggestions for companionship, the string of betrayals Steve had to grapple with, and Steve's lamentations of guilt and regret and uncertainty. Steve could not deny that he was lonely, but he had 101 excuses for why he could not make new connections. Steve did not know what he's looking for or why he's fighting or how long he wanted to continue, until he found out what was behind SHIELD and, specifically, what Hydra had done with Bucky.

Even removing the shipping angle, the final showdown between Steve and Bucky was unique in superhero movies, even for a friend-turned-enemy battle. It was not like the fight between Tony Stark and Obadiah Stane, or Peter Parker and Harry Osborne, or even Thor and Loki or Charles and Erik -- because there was no ideological divide between Steve and Bucky. Bucky did not and could not believe in the cause he's fighting for - he simply did not have that capacity for choice. The ideological battle was carried by the other characters - between Fury and Nat vs Pierce, between Sam vs Rumlow, and between the rest of SHIELD vs Hydra.

For Steve, his fight was much purer, dearer, and more heart-rending. The final battle held such emotional significance, not just because he's fighting his best friend, but also because his best friend was an unwilling participant in the circumstances. Bucky was Steve's physical equal, but he's also Steve's shared life experience, his tragically failed mission, his unfulfilled childhood promise, his betrayed faith in SHIELD, and the price that was paid for Hydra to grow under SHIELD's nose. This fight offered closure for all of these narrative and emotional threads.

He was also, once again, Hydra's asking price in exchange for the freedom Steve wanted for the world...and Steve so desperately wanted, this time, for that world to include Bucky.

[fallingdownhell]

May I request Yae Miko, Dehya, Cyno and Childe getting defensive/angry/protective (whatever you see fit) about someone saying they deserve better then their s/o because they aren't in the best physical shape? (Be that being fat, disabled ect.)

Honestly? It felt so self indulgent writing some of this, especially Dehya's part, so thank you for requesting it<3 Also, since I'm writing about some conditions I'm not affected with, please let me know if I missrepresent any of it, and I'll immediately change it! Characters Included: Cyno; Dehya; Childe Content: gender neutral reader; established relationship; various conditions on reader: being deaf/overweight/in a wheelchair; mean comments being made by others; characters defending reader; does that count as comfort??; not proofread yet Word count: 1,6k words Enjoy<3

Cyno

being deaf was never the handicap to you as others would probably see it

of course, it was difficult, learning to interact with the world and the people around you when you could not hear any of it, but rather than seeing it as a hindrance, you saw it as a challenge, one that you were determined to overcome

now, as an adult, things were going pretty well for you. Most the people you often interact with know about your condition, so they tend to be more patient when conversing with you

growing up, you began learning sign language to communicate with the people around you, as well as reading their lips. Over the years, you got more and more fluent in the language, so this was working out pretty well for you

Cyno, upon first meeting you, was fascinated by the way you percieve and interact with the world

despite the fact that you were not able to hear anything at all, you were the most lively person he's ever met, always smiling and laughing at everything and everyone around you, always seeing the good

after first meeting you, he immediately went and started to learn sign language as well. He had this desire to be close to you and spend more time with you, and he thought, in order to better communicate with you, he should learn how to talk to you

Now, a few years later, you've been in a relationship with Cyno for quite some time, and he could honestly say, that he's never been happier in his life

you brighten each of his days, simply by existing within his proximity, your smile was contagious and he often found himself just staring at you, never getting tired of your beauty

however, sometimes, there tend to be voices that question the relationship you have. Mostly people who didn't know you all that well, asking Cyno how he could even be with someone who could not hear a word he said

While he did pity those people, he always jumped to defend you. You may not be able to hear, but that didn't mean you were any less than anyone else in this world. In his eyes, it's just another thing about you that made you unique

It was always like this. Whenever anyone was talking bad about you, or telling Cyno that he should find a better partner, he always defended you, claiming that there would never be someone better than you

and if those idiotic people still don't get it by the lovestruck way he talks about you and continue to pester him, Cyno can get annoyed very quickly, not hesitating to draw his weapon on them

he wouldn't actually fight them, but the possibility of it being there scared them enough to run with their tails between their legs

but, at the end of the day, he never tells you about those encounters he has, not wanting to bring down your mood with it. He'd much rather enjoy the stories you have to tell him each day when he comes home to you

Dehya

when people were thinking about Dehya, they thought of a strong, independent woman, beautiful, smart and capable of many things. They respected her, and many wished to become the person by her side

when rumors came about of Dehya having a partner, people began to talk among themselves, guessing on who it could possibly be and what they would look like

No doubt would someone like her only settle for a partner just as good looking, smart and strong as herself, right?

well.. let's just say, the day you and Dehya became public with your relationship was a very... tough one

People knew you as being one of the most trusted merchants of Caravan Ribat. And while they all agreed on you being a very likeable and easygoing person, many of them also made fun of you behind your back, for the simple fact of you being overweight

a fact that you had always struggled with since your childhood. You've tried a many great ways to loose weight, yet either nothing worked or only had very short lived success

eventually, you gave up hope and stopped trying, instead learning to love and accept yourself for who you are

And exactly that love you held for yourself is what drew Dehya to you in the first place, eventually falling in love with all of you. Sometimes, you yourself couldn't believe that she actually loved you, questioning how you got so lucky. But not like you were complaining about it

Still, the glances and whispers people threw your way when you were walking through the streets, hand in hand with Dehya, often brought you down, knowing exactly what they were talking about

but anytime that happened, Dehya jumped right in, telling those people off, yelling at them to mind their own damn business. And it always worked as they hurried away, afraid of her wrath coming their way

whenever this happened, she'd always comfort you afterwards, knowing that, despite everything, words like that still hurt and weighed down on you. She'd then always tell you how much she loved you, how beautiful you were to her, pointing out everything she loved about you. It always helped to brighten your mood again

then one day, it just so happened that while you were out on a date with Dehya, someone decided to be bold and walk up to Dehya, finally speaking out loud what everyone was thinking

"Dehya.. why exactly are you with them?", he would ask, voice timid and quiet, yet he just had to ask

"You got a problem with my choice in parner, huh?", Dehya spoke up, ready to defend you against the entire world if she had to. She stood up from her place, standing in front of the guy as it almost seemed like she got ready for a fist fight

"N-no! I just meant... they don't.. exactly... suit you..", the guy tried to argue, but realised that with every word, he was just more and more digging his own grave

at this point, Dehya was fed up. She did not care for any onlookers as she beat up the guy. Once he was on the ground and apologizing profusely to her, she let go of him, instead addressing the crowd that had gathered around them

"Okay, everyone listen up because I'm not gonna repeat myself after this! They are my parnter, and I do not care what any of you think or have to say about it. It's my choice and you all better shut up about it, or I'll beat you up just like I did this punk!", she yelled and pointed at the guy still on the ground, blood running from his nose and mouth. Pretty sure she made him loose a teeth or two

surprisingly, after this encounter, people stopped commenting behind your back, your days becoming much calmer and more enjoyable since than. And even if you might not agree with Dehya's actions, you couldn't deny that it did have a positive outcome

Childe

most people would suspect that a person as active in their day to day life as Childe, would want a parnter that is at least similar to them in that way

yet, when they find out that his significant other is actually disabled and in a wheelchair, they can't hide the surprised sounds and expression on their faces

they can't possibly imagine how a relationship like that would last very long, seeing as the two of you would be polar opposites

oh boy, would they be surprised to find out that you and Childe have been going strong for several years now. Sure, you were not able to walk and sometimes, in specific situations, dependent on him, but those are also the moments Childe loved, when he got to show his strength when lifting you up or doing something else for you

at first, you felt stupid for having to rely on him in those specific situations, since you always strived to be as independent as possible, despite your situation. Yet Childe always comforted you, telling you that it wasn't a weakness at all to ask for help every now and then. On the contrary, knowing when you need help can be a great strength. So, that's how you decided to see things from then on, and it did help you a lot

and even though you were bound to this chair, that did not stop the enjoyment you held towards life. You loved traveling around, exploring the world and expieriencing it first hand

it helped a lot that Childe got to travel around a lot thanks to his work, so you'd always ask to accompany him. Of course, there were times where he couldn't do so, but most of the time, he was happy to take you along and show you all the places he knows about, and even discovering new ones with you

whenever he couldn't take you along on his travels, he'd always come back with a tone of souvenirs for you, along with so many stories to tell you that never failed to grab your attention, wishing that you could have been there with him

overall a very good, very protective boyfriend

the first few times he heard people talking about the two of you behind your backs, he went over to them, drawing his weapons, ready to kill whoever dared talk bad about you in his presence

word spread around quickly and soon, no one dared even mutter a word about your relationship, in fear that the Harbinger might catch wind of it and came hunting after them, ready to take their lives

Childe did not mind that reputation at all. He was already known as a battlehungry maniac, and if it meant people left you alone, not having to worry about ill intended comments, than all the better. He can handle it

the most important thing to him is, and always will be, your well being

[clonerightsagenda]

Final thoughts on The Vorkosigan Saga, since I've reached the end of the road - for now, as the author appears to still be at large.

One of the pleasures of a longrunning series is having so much space for character development and callbacks. The Vorkosigan Saga does this very well. We see the characters and their world change a lot, and plot points have a habit of coming back around. A few of my favorites were Miles' recurring interest in drains and how, several books after he fails to catch a falling woman's hand in "The Borders of Infinity", he does catch Ekaterin, gets pulled after her, and realizes what would've happened to him. It's the kind of emotional payoff you can't get without buildup.

The series was in some ways a study of conflicting impulses. I got the sense that Bujold knew she probably shouldn't be as enamored with her militaristic space empire as she was but couldn't help it. Similarly, there was tension between the feminist themes and her clear conviction that the happy ending for - in fairness, all genders - is to pair up and have an alarming number of children. Honestly surprised she only has two in real life. However I was overall impressed by the handling of disability. I can't think of another genre series that deals with the topic so extensively while not being either a cure narrative or a 'bravely overcoming disabilities' story but instead is cleareyed about the interactions between class, gender, and ability with a character who just has to get on with it but also thinks the whole thing sucks. That was fascinating, even when sometimes Miles was not particularly likeable.

My favorite book was probably Mirror Dance despite how dark it was because I love identity drama and clone angst. The clone rights community (me) has forgiven Mark for being a capitalist.

I don't know if Bujold is planning more books in the series. It ended on a relatively positive note, but there was a moment in Gentleman Jole where both Cordelia and Ekaterin silently acknowledge they are likely to outlive Miles, possibly by decades. The cast seems to have middle managed their way into a quasi-benevolent imperial peacetime, so maybe it's best to leave them there before everyone's clocks tick down.

[meanmisscharles]

Even though this conversation started in fandom, this isn't a fandom post, in truth.

See, there's this disconnect when white fans are asked to empathize with PoC in media and to do so without painting things about themselves on top of the characters.

Now, nobody said that it's inherintly a bad thing to see a character as neurodivergent (because PoC are nd too!) or disabled, or of a certain socio-economic status. BUT - you can't do that and ignore the issues that PoC deal with that are specific to being a PoC, just because you can't relate. You're missing a great deal of the story when you do that.

In my opinion, I think that perhaps a lack of having consumed media by PoC that is not for white audience might be a contributing factor. What I mean by this is, the story is told in a way that centers white audiences being able to understand/relate/see themselves centered and when that doesn't happen (because that is the norm) people just do it on autopilot and get contentious when it's pointed out that they don't have the fullest interpretation, or correct lens.

Part of the way that this can become easier, is to simply watch more PoC film/programs that don't have centering whiteness built into them. Another way would be to find more films about PoC that aren't just pain porn. We are more than overcoming, having hard times.

[writingquestionsanswered]

I plan to write a story about heists, often from the point of view of the investigators' side, but I don't know where to start (or at least, my brain cannot make anything as interesting as I see in the media). Is there any advice on how I can plan it? Thank you very much!

Writing a Heist Story

A Worthwhile Score - The most important thing you need for a good heist story is a worthwhile score. What is the object/thing they're after and why is it important/valuable? How can everyone in the crew get a cut of this object/thing? What makes this thing valuable enough that it's so protected/hard to get in the first place?

Stakes - The second most important thing you have to establish is why the heist is taking place and why it matters. What does the heist crew stand to gain if they're successful, and/or what do they stand to lose if they're not? In Ocean's Eleven, Danny stood to win back his wife's affection while ruining the man who stole her from him. If he failed, not only did he not achieve either of those things, he also risked losing everything by going back to prison.

Sympathetic Motivation - If you want the reader to root for the heist crew, you need to make sure they have a sympathetic motivation--or at least one the reader wouldn't disapprove of. For example, in Ocean's Eleven, the heist motive is revenge against the guy who stole Danny's wife, so not the most sympathetic cause, but not a despicable one. And when we see that Benedict is a jerk who doesn't even treat Tess well, and that there's still something between Danny and Tess, we're able to root for him.

A Solid Crew - Another important element of good heist stories is a solid crew, meaning each member of the crew has to have a solid reason for being there. That means they need to play a vital role in the heist by providing a vital skill no one else can provide. They also need to have a believable motive for wanting to be part of the heist, especially if they're not being hired or rewarded with a large sum of money. And finally, it's nice to give each crew member a compelling personality, interesting characteristics, and unique relationships with other crew members.

A Complex Scheme - If your characters are trying to steal a piece of art from a museum, they can't roll up on the museum, break a window, knock out a guard, disable the alarm, obscure a camera, take the piece of art and off they go. That's too easy. Anyone could do that. There needs to be big, seemingly insurmountable obstacles that only the skills of the unique crew can overcome. Like, instead of breaking a window, one crew member's unique knowledge of the tunnels beneath the museum could get them in--but only if they can avoid detection from the night crews who work in the tunnels. And instead of knocking out a guard, there are several guards, and only the super stealthy wraith-like martial arts expert can do it without being caught.

A Backup Scheme - The one thing that's true about complex schemes is they almost always go awry. That said, you need to figure out what goes wrong, why, how it affects the original scheme, and how they re-route in the moment to get things back on track. Really good heist masterminds will have a Plan B and Plan C, but even these won't be without their kinks. All of these unforeseen pitfalls, unexpected obstacles, and potential failures keep the tension high and make things interesting. Watching the crew deal with things when they go off track is part of the fun of heist stories.

I hope that helps! ♥ •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

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[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck as an allegory for disability

I can’t say for sure if it was intentional on Tozuka’s part, but much like Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot coincidentally being readable as a trans character, the lives of the various Negators have a lot of opportunities for parallels with disability

Of course we have the obvious ones where the characters are literally disabled; Billy is blind, Juiz loses a hand and uses a prosthetic, Rip has prosthetic legs, an arm, and a false eye, and as we recently learned, Phil has an entirely prosthetic body save for his brain. Phil’s case is definitely exaggerated as that’s not medically possible yet, but having an illness at age 3 that causes the body to cease functioning properly is definitely something that can unfortunately feasibly happen

Then there are the characters whose disabilities come from their Negator abilities: again, Phil’s Unfeel makes him unable to feel emotions or physical sensations; Tella’s Untell makes him mute; Tatiana literally lives in a bubble, preventing her from having contact with others as if she were immunocompromised; Ichico’s Unsleep is an exaggerated form of insomnia; Nico’s Unforgettable at first seems to be eidetic memory, but when you consider that it degrades his memories from prior to gaining Unforgettable, it starts to resemble Alzheimer’s; deactivating Unstoppable requires Top break a bone, resulting in him wearing a cast at all times, which indirectly makes him an allegory for osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease)

Fuuko herself refers to her Unluck as a disease in the beginning of the story; sure, she was lying to make the concept easier for normal people to understand, but the fact that she can’t make physical contact with others without killing them, necessitating that she isolate herself for however many years, certainly does bring to mind several diseases

Andy’s sense of pain is described as radio static, which is similar to how it’s described by people with chronic pain. Even Andy’s inability to die can be viewed as a disability in and of itself; his ability to die was literally disabled by God. In fact, Negator abilities, being powers defined by a lack or erasure of a target concept, are all semantically disabilities

Appropriate, then, that the Negator power system is not about overcoming or simply getting rid of the Negator abilities, but working with and navigating through them to improve one’s quality of life. Through their own mental fortitude and personal perspectives, every Negator found the will to live and the ability to turn their disabilities into strengths

It reminds me of the early responses to Yuki Yuna is a Hero, where fans were excited that the girl in the wheelchair wasn’t suddenly able to walk when she was in magical girl form, but instead her magical girl uniform had supports that allowed her to stay upright and moved for her. I’m not going to discuss the greater implications of disability in Yuki Yuna here, only that its power system heavily focuses on providing support for the cast’s disabilities. In a similar vain, Undead Unluck’s story does not in any way imply that the disabilities of the cast make them any lesser or incapable of living well, but instead demonstrates that there’s no shame in relying on others or using assistive devices

Of course the metaphor breaks down a little when you remember that the goal is to defeat the God that disabled the cast so that they will regain their able bodies, which I think reinforces the idea that this was likely unintentional, but I do think that a disabled reader could identify with and take inspiration from Undead Unluck in the same way that they could from something like FMA where a high proportion of the cast have prosthetics

In fact, aside from FMA, I can’t think of another manga that has such a high count of disabled characters. I’m sure there are plenty, but I really can’t think of any off the top of my head. Either way, I’m glad to see a Jump title that can potentially serve as representation for the disabled community, and this is just another reason that UU is absolutely worth checking out

[fantasygerard2000]

"The Seven Teens in Wish don't have much to do in the movie other than being a reference". A criticism that I both agree and disagree with. Like any other Wish criticism, this is one of the few that gets rebuffed if you watch the movie again and payed attention. While i do agree with the issue of a movie having way too many characters, of all the teens, Dahlia, Simon and Gabo are the ones who have the most prominent roles and are tied to movie's themes.

Let's start off with Gabo. While many others dislike him because he's a jerk, there's some merit as to why he's so pessimistic. While I don't like including info from supplementary material like tie-in books, they do have that extra detail that was lacking in the final movie. In A Recipe for Adventure (which will be used a lot in this post), the author speculates that Gabo is a disappointed optimist. Even though we don't have much to work with other from that piece of trivia, when can always think of something to tie him with the film's theme.

Gabo represents the disappointment in a system where few are given benefits over the majority. He always talks about Simon and Sabino's unfulfilling lives because they gave their wishes away and hoping they will be granted, suggesting that he has seen or what it's like to have an unhappy unfulfilling life. He assumes Asha applying for the role of Magnifico's apprentice so that she can have the benefits of having her and her family's wishes; "cheating" her way to get what she wants while the others are left waiting. Him being a "disappointment optimist" suggests that he had high hopes upon moving to Rosas but has seen how long the waited that his hopes are snuffed and has doubts about the system in general.

At the third act of the film, he decides to help Asha and Star free the wishes because Star reignites his hope for a positive future, one where people can live their lives happy and fulfilled.

Dahlia has the most screen time and lines of the teens, so obviously she has more character than the rest of them.

She's noticeably uses a crutch to walk. While Disney could've easily made her story about wanting to walk without her crutch, they chose not to. In Recipe for Adventure, her wish is to become the best baker in the kingdom, to which she has already achieved. She works as a kitchen staff in the castle, home of Rosas' founder and king.

This shows that she doesn't need magic to become the best baker, all she has is the effort to work for her dreams despite having a disability. This ties with the film's moral as well as a positive lesson for people with disabilities to overcome the struggles and achieve their dreams.

Also in the book, she has a grandmother who passed away and was the one who taught her about her passion for baking. Her and Asha meeting as kids and becoming close friends ties back to my previous post about Asha, mainly about her suffering from loss and that she and Dahlia supported each other going through their darkest moment.

Like Dahlia, Simon also has more character than the rest.

Simon was once an active person, loves going outdoors and horseback riding. I suggest the idea that since his wish is to become a knight for the kingdom, he had trained for the position.

After he gave away his wish once he became 18, all that passion was taken away as the once lively and active aspiring knight loses that drive and becomes a husk of what he once was.

There's a saying that Simon's sleepiness resulted from his wish taken away is reminiscent of depression, which I agree. Simon's joy and dream was to become a knight and help defend his people. When that joy was taken away and his dream unfulfilled, he feels he has no purpose.

Him ratting Asha out of his selfish desire to have his wish be finally granted may be stemmed from his desperation to get rid of the emptiness he has felt. Like how people with depression use "means" to feel that joy they craved which resulted in paying the price out of their own health; ie his mind being controlled by Magnifico and their friends and family's concerns; betraying his friends.

After Magnifico's defeat and Simon is out of his spell, he apologizes for betraying Asha, with his reasons that he "wanted to believe in Magnifico." This brings out a dark aspect of Magnifico's wish system, he takes away people's joy, making them feel desperate to beg to him that they'll do anything for him to feel that joy again.

Simon's story may be applicable to people who have achieve their dream job out of their selfish desire to achieve it, like leaving their friends and family behind in order to get it. But once said dreams have strings attached, like working for a corrupted system that only hired you until you're "replaceable", you take it all back and feel disappointed for trusting all your hopes and dreams to an unfair system.

While the rest of the teens don't have the same character put in like Dahlia, Simon and Gabo, I feel like giving them their own arcs would have cluttered an already cluttered movie.

Wish has problems, but those problems aren't fixable by adding in things like an alien love interest and an influencer couple. Wish's issues is that the creators didn't put in the extra push it needed, hence why it feels "not enough".

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

to me, NiGHTS is so easy to interpret as a trans allegory, especially the original. with JoD having a cutscene for almost every level, the plot is less ambiguous, and while i still think it can be read as trans, i don't think it's as clear as NID.

first of all, i'll get the obvious part out of the way: NiGHTS themself is canonically nonbinary (or at the very least in some way gender non-conforming). they canonically go mostly by they/them but really accept any pronouns or honorifics. while in their case, this might not necessarily be a form of being trans, seeing as they aren't human, they're also the only explicitly nonbinary nightmaren, so they may have had some kind of originally assigned gender that they later rejected. that to be said, this isn't why i think the story is trans, rather an added bonus.

more importantly, the main think that links every visitor is anxiety and the plot is always about their journey to recovery. while anxiety isn't an explicitly trans thing, it's anxiety about self expression - singing for claris, playing the violin for helen, football for will and basketball for elliot. dreams are their only escape from these fears, with the dreams themselves being riddled with nightmares. this lack of self expression is so obvious that i dont think i need to explain it, with the dreams being similar to being in a queer community; it's freeing, yes, but often even these communities have issues - maybe you're the "wrong type of queer" or you're in another oppressed group the other members of your community don't care to understand or accomodate for.

now admittedly, all the visitors we see are presumably white and while some headcanons are popular (wheelchair/cane user helen is one i see a lot), none of them are canonically disabled. in that sense, i suppose you could interpret it instead as the fear of being outed, however i think completely ignoring my original interpretation in some ways ignores the struggles you may face even in queer communities where people are supposed to be accepting.

i think part of the reason claris and elliot especially speak to me as being trans is 1) because they're older and are more likely to have realised these things and faced oppression for it, 2) as i said before, because the plot of NID is much more ambiguous and 3) small, insignificant things, like the bias i have because i prefer them as characters as well as the fact that their hair is blue and pink. like the trans flag. while i think helen and will's stories being about their relationships with their parents is honestly a more concrete link in some ways, if elliot and helen go wrong they fear their entire social lives could be ruined rather than just their parental ones. i am aware that their parents are mentioned on the japanese website, however i'm pretty sure everything is lost in translation because it barely makes any sense to me.

ALSO! i think it's important to mention that my source here is the NiGHTS wiki, hosted on fandom.com, and while i can't be sure, the articles on claris and elliot's parents honestly read as being sort of. ai generated? regardless, definitely not telligible. surprisingly, the links aren't dead, however the translations i get from my translator extension are. janky to say the least. if anyone has a good understanding of japanese though, i do think the website is worth a visit!

something important id like to mention is the importance of courage. arguably the most important ideya of them all and something "they" can't take away from you no matter what, as well as being the only thing that allows them to overcome their anxiety in the first place. im not saying that courage is an inherently trans ideal, however you need courage to simply EXIST as a trans person - either the courage to pretend to be someone you're not or the courage to become that person, both of which will bring intense hardship that can shape the rest of your life and how long it even lasts. i'll try not to get too morbid, especially with how at this point simply mentioning suicide or murder feels like some kind of offesive characature, but if you're in a hostile enough environment, making the "wrong" decision can literally mean life or death, whichever that may be. courage is absolutely integral to both trans identity and the plot of NiGHTS, to the point where i feel it's stupid not to mention it

i don't really want to put a conclusion because i want it to be an open discussion. whether you write an entire thesis or a short jokey sentence, i'm interested in what you have to say!

[xserpx]

Arcane's Viktor?

How I feel about this character?

I love him! I think the best things about Viktor are how understated he is (he's a quiet guy who gets a lot done!), and the way his disability is portrayed. It's clear that despite being so close with one another there's still a ton of unspoken guilt and frustration between Viktor and Jayce, and I like how Viktor never lets Jayce off the hook when he makes ignorant comments. The political/class commentary in the show is good in part because of how well written and nuanced Viktor is, because of how he has a foot in both Piltover and Zaun. I also love how we get to know more about life in Zaun through Viktor's childhood, and he provides additional emotional weight to the problem of the environmental impact and carelessness of Piltover's excesses. As much as he thrives in Piltover, he's always in Jayce's shadow, he's never going to be on that same level, and even though he never voices a complaint about not sharing the credit/limelight, nor do I think he would genuinely want it if it was given, I still feel like it's an inequality and that Viktor deserves so much more praise for his achievements.

Also his opalescent Machine Herald eyes are the prettiest eyes I've ever seen in an animated show tbh. I could stare at them all day.

All the people I ship romantically with this character?

Jayce, obviously. Not opposed to the MelJayVik poly romance either. I also like Skye and Viktor, requited or not, Skye was so incredibly sweet.

My non-romantic OTP for this character?

Possibly Mel & Viktor in a platonic sense, bonded by their love for Jayce. Interestingly I don't feel the same about Cait & Viktor, despite Cait's friendship with Jayce, I think the class issues are kind of too big a barrier to overcome there 🤔 Sevika and Viktor could be great together as well. She would adopt him immediately.

My unpopular opinion about this character?

Not sure how unpopular it is but I much prefer Jayce to Viktor 🥲 And I really do love Viktor, but I just think Jayce is the better, more interesting character overall. Oop.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I really wish we'd seen more of Viktor & Skye before the stuff that's going on with them in Season 2. As much as Viktor presumably read her diary and whatnot, the glimpses we get of Skye beforehand aren't quite enough for me to buy into her being his companion in the Arcane realm. I think it would hurt so much more if they'd actually been on the cusp of a relationship, rather than it being wholly unrequited.

I'm intrigued to see how much of Viktor's story will end up as a Faustian cautionary tale. My theory is that Viktor is a Faust-esque doomed scientist in that, like Singed, he's trying to extend life with a finite amount of power gifted to him by an unknowable force that will ultimately destroy him, and Jayce is a Frankensteinian doomed scientist in that he's haunted by his own terrible invention and they are doomed to destroy each other, but we'll have to see if that theory still holds up next week.

[insomniaccat0107]

so i saw some posts about how izuku too easily overcome his quirklessness after receiving ofa, right? mostly people in and under those posts say that it's a shame that we don't see the difficulties of re-thinking his identity and this situation is kinda unrealistic. well i can understand the upsetting feeling of not receiving an interesting point of character's self-discovering and stuff but i have a thing to say about how this thing will make sense (possibly).

so let's make an assumption that quirklessness in the world of bnha is some kind of disability. as far as i know we don't have clear statement in canon but it make sense, right? like if you search the word "disability" you will find something along the lines "the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society". sooo in REAL world quirklessness isn't a disability because... well non of us here superpower, right? BUT on bnha world quirks are seen as an extension of human being like leg or hand. so it will be logical to assume that person without quirk can't be seen as fully capable as quirked one within society.

let's not bring the paranormal liberation front stuff because it's a topic for different post and I'm already getting far from point of this one.

so izuku is disabled in the beginning of the story, yeah? then why the hell he overcome his disability with a simple snap of fingers and why did it make sense?

now i will be coming from my perspective. I'm disabled and was like this for good chank of my life. and what usually come with it? disability becomes a part of person's identity. not only for people around disabled person but for them too.

now my rambling make even less sense but wait I'm getting to the point.

from interaction between izuku and bakugo + tone of voice of izuku's teacher in aldera we know that deku suffered from bulling BECAUSE of quirklessness. moreover when izuku asked all might can he become a hero, all might didn't ask him about his skills or why he feel a need to be a hero, no. all might just write him off solidly because of izuku's quirklessness and let me be honest: i believe that that wasn't the first time deku was given such "reality check".

can you smell that? oh yeah the good old ✨trauma✨

why did i wrote that i'll view this situation from perspective of my personal experience? well, i was bullied because of my disability back in school and guess what? most of the adults in my life didn't give me a chance to prove myself before they decide that I'm useless.

and that's the main reason why my disability become the thing that I'm activity trying to hide and don't let this abomination become a part of what make me who am i now.

can you see where I'm getting? izuku viewed his quirklessness as a thing that made his life harder and what made other people see him less of a human. so when The Miracle happened izuku just signed with relief and went ahead leaving behind the thing that made him miserable.

the last part of this ungodly long post: why do i believe that izuku doesn't let quirklessness become part of his identity and rather ignored it? well this is the part where i stop pretending that i have some Absolutely Logical Conclusions and become delusional. so we all remember that for the good part of plot izuku keep telling that he's gonna be hero like all might. well make sense because of ofa and all this razzle and dazzle with all might's successor, right? BUT this also can be applied to quirkless izuku. he WANTED and WAS GOING to become hero like all might, and i see it as if he didn't come in terms with his inability to become Just Like All Might. according to this statement izuku was ignoring differences between him and other (quirked) people. this make me believe that deep down he refuse to accept disability as part (or ex-part according to canon events) of himself.

is it healthy? no.

does izuku have a healthy image of himself? probably not.

did i just come up with unshaped pile of thoughts at night before bed and decide to vomit it straight into the internet? yes, i did.

[geekwiththeglasses]

Would love to hear you rant about Fourth Wing. That book makes me so mad lmao

I literally dashed to my desktop when I saw this because this deserves a desktop response (out of character for a millenial/genz cusper I actually type much faster with a keyboard).

Now to note, I am only 50% done with the book so far so this is limited to that (though I have watched spoiler reviews so I feel justified in my thoughts because I know it's not getting better).

By the way, I learned that this entire series was a publisher request, not like a passion project of Yarros and while I ain't judging (I would do it in a heartbeat if it meant I could pay rent for the next year), to me, you can kinda feel it, like there's a distinct lack of creative verve. You can especially feel it in how shallow everything (and everyone) feels.

A read more because this became obnoxiously long (it's almost 2000 words) and I respect people's dashboards.

Except for this article about toxic perseverance which I think everyone should have to read if they've read Fourth Wing.

There are, first of all, some major issues with this book. The biggest one is, of course, the toxic perseverance, which is covered quite well in the article, but if you're not going to read it, to pull a quote from it:

Creating a narrative in which a character with a disability overcomes all of their pain and other symptoms through force of will alone sets unrealistic expectations—unrealistic expectations which are, as I mentioned previously, a very real issue for very real disabled people in our very real world.  I believe we should have seen some impact of that lifestyle if the author was trying to engage with this intentionally. Because fiction is not created in a vacuum and this narrative goes unproblematised in-text, it’s unclear whether Yarros actively endorses this mindset, or is accidentally endorsing it, neither of which is good.

Just to elaborate a little on something I didn't see in the article, but this book hates the idea of accommodations. Like it's a horrible, horrible thing and how dare you ever suggest Violet might need something as disgusting as a saddle to stay on the equivalent of an airplane. It's not like accommodations are something that actually can end up helping non-disabled people as well. There wasn't potential for a scene where she actually acknowledged she needed help and suddenly everyone's like "hey, that's actually really smart, we should totally do this too, this makes life much easier/safer and will improve everyone's quality of life". Or even just a scene where it only helps her but damn it helps her a lot because it takes in to account her needs and specific body. Because that would require acknowledging that Violet has limitations and not allow her to power through the pain. And also get thrown from her dragon repeatedly, which definitely doesn't fuck up her joints.

Rhiannon gets so shafted. She gets the double whammy of two stereotypes: the black best friend and the promiscuous bisexual. She's seen with multiple partners, none of which seem like long-term or serious partners. And while some bisexual people have more sex with more people than others, if you're going to do that, include more than one bisexual person in your story. She has very little to do with the story unless she is there for the white, straight main character. We've gotten her helping Violet, but so far there's zero dedicated scenes of that tutoring help that was offered in the beginning and as far as I know we never get it (I may be wrong). I hear we get her family later, but that they're also glossed over for More Important Things. It doesn't feel like Rhiannon (or honestly any other character) exists except for when they're around Violet. They all kinda blend together, which at the 50% mark is fucking unacceptable. What is special about them, distinguishes them from the others other than Liam (is it Liam? whoever her bodyguard is) who whittles? There is so little to distinguish any background characters except for Dain. Even Xaden feels lackluster and a bit hazy around the edges, like he never finished rendering.

Let's not forget that Yarros is 100% a military wife and a US military bootlicker and from what I've heard she's had some unsavory and unsupportable opinions on Palestine. We do not like.

She also took Gaelic names and just decided the pronunciation doesn't matter??? Insulting.

Onto the less serious issues:

Firstly, as to my previous complaint, the entirety of Dain's storyline is the most impressive speedrun in character assassination I have ever seen. I described it to a friend as Yarros lovingly caressing a 2x4 before repeatedly beating you over the head with it. He gets like... a scene to be besties and then immediately he must be the worst thing to ever exist, specifically to prop up Xaden. Dain is the asshole holding her back, unlike Xaden who pushes her to be her best (entirely ignoring that her body literally has physical limitations and accommodations are not a dirty word)! He's such a rule follower, but Xaden understands when to bend or break them (pay no attention to him breaking all the rules to try to get her into the scribe's quadrant)! He doesn't believe her immediately when she accuses someone of murder, but Xaden absolutely believes her with no proof (let's forget that Amber is a good friend of Dain and that it would honestly be natural to want to believe that your friend isn't capable of cold-blooded murder with zero proof especially since that would lead to her execution which Violet somehow forgot would be a consequence of her accusation). Dain is overprotective and condescending to Violet (I mean he wasn't the one to force her to have a bodyguard, but he just doesn't believe in her). I bet he doesn't even wash his ass. Xaden definitely washes his ass.

Murder college makes zero sense, especially since she definitely based the military off the US (which makes sense since it's the one she has the most exposure to). Most militaries that I am aware of have rather high requirements for physical fitness, especially an academy for officers (which, in Yarros' face, I actually have experience with, as my father went to the Naval Academy so I know for a fact they're strict as hell with requirements). The US military won't even let you be slightly overweight, even if you can fulfill the physical requirements. It was hard to find any info on whether EDS would out and out disqualify you, but the fact that it wasn't even brought up as a barrier for entry that she had to overcome does not make sense to me.

Ah, I hear someone hypothetically argue, but the college is supposed to (theoretically) weed out the weak so they'll let anyone in who wants to join! Ok, then why is Violet the only physically disabled person in the entire college? I have been to rodeos with bull riders who were amputees, but there ain't one person missing an arm or a leg in that college. The only other disabled person we get so far is a scribe, but you're telling me not one deaf person wants to be a rider? Why is Violet the only one that gets to be "exceptional"?

Back to the murder part of murder college, the fact that this is a murder college gets technically lampshaded, but never really justified in why people keep coming. Like it's not some greater commentary on the lengths people will go for power or greatness or the insidious nature of military propaganda. It just felt like we needed to up the stakes that our protagonist was in danger at every turn, but honestly I never feel like the stakes are that high, because, well, she keeps emphasizing how much danger her life is in, how screwed and dead she is. And if her life is always in danger, it's never in danger.

Speaking of murder, the story doesn't challenge the idea that "weed out the weak through murder" doesn't actually work but just kills people and probably gives the survivors like the worst anxiety (because if everything can kill you your mental health will probably deteriorate). It's like that meme:

Basgiath War College: I have made the perfect rider Me: you fucked up a perfectly good person is what you did. Look at him. He's got anxiety.

Why is Violet so enlightened and above having any prejudice? If anything she should have way more animosity towards the rebel kids than she does. It's literally stated in text that she was not immune to the propaganda and misinformation she's read, but you want me to believe that between (what she believes is) losing a brother to the rebellion and a mother who was kinda involved, not to mention growing up in a group that would be full of anti-rebel propaganda she somehow didn't end up believing anything beyond "yeah some of them will definitely want you dead" which is true??? Instead she's fine with them and will definitely sit with rebel kids because unlike people who grew up with probably less or about the same propaganda than her, she knows not to judge people for the sins of their parents. Those other kids are just so much more prejudiced than she is, isn't she wonderful and has zero biases to unlearn. Oh, you may say, but she thought Xaden was going to kill her! He literally does confirm that the only reason initially he doesn't kill her is to keep a hold of his humanity which does actually confirm that he wants her dead! So the narrative even confirms that this bias was, in fact, the correct opinion to have.

I do not understand why Violet and Xaden are drawn to each other beyond Xaden hot. I am asexual and somewhere on the aromantic spectrum so perhaps it is just not in my nature to understand the ways of the heterosexuals, but I don't get it. Why does she like him? The only reason given is he's hot. Maybe a reason is given later down the line but this is a romantasy. You live and die by building up that damn romance and I am not convinced! I haven't even been given like a "oh I see him with his dragon and it's heart meltingly cute how he interacts with her". Is this why Dain had to be assassinated (we are holding his burial next week by the way, there will be funeral potatoes)? So that Xaden had something to be compared to because he has all the substance of one of those inflatable dancing men?

(Dance, Xaden, dance.)

Yarros cannot do exposition, it's so jarring. She tells us so much, shows little, and bores me the entire time. You seriously decide to make exposition a character quirk for when she needs to calm down? Seriously???? The parapet scene was hard to listen to because you were jerked around like a rag doll between quick action and exposition. Who thought that was a good idea? Exposition is always a difficult thing to include and make it work and sound natural, but this is not how you do it.

A minor complaint, but once you learn Yarros is Mormon you cannot unsee the fingerprints of Mormonism throughout this book. People do not cuss like people, they cuss like you put fuck into a fresh AI and asked it to try it out. I cuss like a sailor and I was wondering why it felt so jarring until I realized that it's not how people talk. I mean Holy. Fucking. Hot. I'm well the fuck aware. You tried ma'am, you tried. Here's a gold star. Also, I'm 99% sure there is zero alcohol. You seriously want me to believe that none of these kids are sneaking in alcohol? That no one is using booze to cope with being in a murder college? As if, we all know these kids are making midnight dragon runs to the liquor store.

Also, the fact that I had to hear an audiobook narrator try to make this dialogue and prose sound like something that would actually come out of a human mouth was truly something to behold. The fact that "for the win" was not left in the 2010s where it belonged is an outrage. If I had a better memory I would put in more quotes cause there have been other doozies.

But really, the greatest crime this book commits, is that it has the audacity to be boring. You give me dragons and you have the sheer, unmitigated gall to bore me. I will accept a lot from a book. I will accept plot holes. I will ignore shallow world building. I will tolerate character assassinations. Do all that if you must, but at the very least make it interesting. This book is not interesting. I listen to a few chapters at a time and I am not having a good time. I only continue out of sheer stubbornness and feeling an obligation that for once I should actually read a book that I have seen negative reviews about to see if perhaps it is not so bad.

I just happened to pick a book where it is, in fact, that bad.