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lordisitmine · 11 months ago

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TTNBD BLOG: PART TWO

Welcome once again, to the extended author’s notes! That’s kind of how I’m thinking of these posts. This post covers the details of chapter two of the story, (chapter 3 on ao3 if you’re just looking at the numbers), entitled What a Tangled Web We Weave. So, spoilers if you haven’t read that yet.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY

In this week’s retrospective, I’d like to talk a little bit about historical accuracy. If you’re anything like me, you like watching and reading a lot of things that take place in past eras. If you’re like me, you hate when something- be it a phrase, an outfit, a hairstyle, or a reference to people/events- is egregiously incorrect to the time period being portrayed. Big anachronisms drive me crazy.

However, there’s a level of inaccuracy that I don’t actually mind- if it helps better the story without taking me too much out of the fantasy, or if it adds something to the setting while not detracting from the believably- I’ll allow it. Basically, what I’m saying is that, like a lot of other aspects of writing/art, historical accuracy is about finding the right balance. Or, getting as close as you can to the target of perfect. With fanfiction, I think the margin is even wider- I try not to take this medium too overly seriously, especially when I’m reading and enjoying something someone else has written. I’m a little tougher on myself, though I hope not too tough.

I like to call what I do “movie-accurate”. A lot of my favourite period films have things in them that just aren’t correct, but because I love those movies so much, and because the overall vibe is close enough to what I know about history, I let it slide.

For example, in the 2005 film Pride and Prejudice, the hairstyles of the young women, as well as some of their dress styles are quite off from what women’s fashions were actually like at the time in which the novel/movie was set. The 1995 BBC miniseries adaptation is far, far more faithful in terms of aesthetics. However, the 2005 film is incredibly beloved by a lot of Jane Austen fans, despite its inaccuracies! Because it’s a fucking good movie, which sells the characterization and romances so well that you can sort of excuse the “dumbing down” of the details. It’s one of my favourite period films, and films, period.

Obviously there are bad movies that don’t even try to be accurate, but when I say “movie-accurate” know that I’m talking about the good ones.

During the course of Though the Night be Dark, I’ll be making a lot of references to/descriptions of outfits and hairstyles, because I’m pretty sure I was a fashion designer or personal stylist in my past life, but not all of them will be totally accurate to the years 1899/1900. That goes for stuff like technology, too- it won’t ever be over-the-top (i.e. they’re not gonna have television in the year 1900) but if you notice stuff that seems just a little out of place, know that I felt it was necessary to fudge the numbers, so to speak, in pursuit of the characters, the romance, and the story itself.

This same sort of “movie-accuracy” applies to the settings. I’ve never been to Paris or London in my life- I’m broke and there’s a whole ocean in between me and Europe. I do my best to research and reference actual places and landmarks, but if you do live in either of those places and what I write seems fantastical or inaccurate, I am sorry, believe me. Please forgive me, and do your best to imagine these as like, imaginary versions of these places.

I don’t know why I’m defending myself- most people probably don’t mind, and some probably don’t notice things like this. But it’s important to me to be as accurate as I can be within the scope of my ability, and it’s important to me for people to learn about my process if they want to. I digress.

CHAPTER TWO: WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE

Sometimes I pick titles because they’re references to things, and the words/themes of the things in question closely fit the character and the story. For example, To the End of Everything is a lyric from the Adam Lambert song Sleepwalker, which was on my SebaCiel playlist back in 2014 when I was first writing it. It fit the story of the end of Ciel’s life, and the end of his contract with Sebastian, and it’s such a nice set of words to say out loud and look at on a screen.

The first chapter of this fic, A Far, Far Better Rest, is a reference to the final line from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Two cities, London and Paris, both of which are the settings for TTNBD. Not a super deep reference, but there’s a reason for it.

What a Tangled Web We Weave is also a reference to something- part of a famous line from am 1808 poem Marmion: A Tale of Flodden Field by Sir Walter Scott. It’s set in the time of Henry VIII and tells the romantic and ultimately tragic story of some rich guy and his affair with a woman. The full line is what a tangled we weave/when first we practise to deceive.

I picked this title for three reasons: one, because it has the word web in it, and Claude is a spider demon. Two, because it’s about lies, and lies are the basis for some of the upcoming conflict in this story. And three, and most chief among the reasons: it sounded cool.

What can I say. Sometimes I write/use things are deep and profound, and sometimes I just use things I think are kinda neat. I try, as always, to strike a decent balance.

Alright, let’s break this chapter down.

We started off with a remix of a scene from the second season of the Black Butler anime. It’s a little infamous, to be sure. I’m speaking of course about the scene where Alois shoves his finger into Hannah’s eye socket! I know that in the original scene he doesn’t actually pull out her eyeball, but I wanted to go whole-hog, I think it’s just extra insane and I wanted you to know what kind of Alois Trancy character I’m playing with here. He’s an adult here, whereas he was a kid in the anime- I don’t know, I just thought the increased level of brutality suited him.

I pulled actual dialogue from the scene and repurposed it, which I love doing and have done many times in my fanfic writing career (side-eye at my Supernatural fics). I wrote it from Claude’s POV because I love that outsider POV in a scene. I also wanted to establish his thoughts and feelings about Alois right off the bat.

Cards on the table: I haven’t watched the second season of the anime in a very long time. I watched the first few episodes some time last year I think??? When I was deciding to write this story, just to get a feel for their characters/relationship again. I’ve seen them portrayed in fanon as everything from a toxic couple to a couple who are more actually in love, like Ciel and Sebastian- I very much don’t see that for these two. Their tension is different, and in the context of this story, it’s been years, and that tension is heading towards a boiling point.

What I’m saying is that I’m sorry to any real die-hard Alois and/or Claude fans in advance if I do stretch them too far out of the OOC allowance margins… but also no I’m not hehehehehe.

Claude mentions Alois reading penny dreadfuls. Penny dreadfuls were these cheap little serialised fiction zines you could buy for a penny, hence the name. Every volume was like, an 8–16 page chunk of a story. The dreadful part comes from the fact that they were highly sensationalised and sometime salacious stories about murder and highway robbery and pirates and stories of real-life criminals doing heinous murder and such- sometimes sold at public executions! Overall, these things weren’t considered Proper English Literature. Which of course meant that they were VERY popular. Mostly in the early to mid 1800s. As far as I know, they started to lose ground in popular culture by the turn of the century, but they existed, I think they were cool, and therefore I can include a reference to them!

Penny dreadfuls weren’t really about romance or sex but they were super popular among young people, and the idea of Alois reading trashy romance novels in general is just hilarious to me. And like I said, I just really wanted to reference something so undeniably Victorian.

And yes, for the purposes of this story, he does in fact know that Hannah is a demon. Did he know that in the anime? I think maybe he did, but like I said, it’s been a while, and I don’t remember. I could go back and watch it again, but I don’t want canon to mess up my fanfiction. Anyway, the fact that Alois knows Hannah is a demon will become relevant and important as the story continues, so I won’t say too much more about it.

Back to Paris- it’s time for more Lizzy content! There’s quite a bit of that in this chapter. Originally, this chapter and the next one were originally just supposed to be one chapter, but the whole thing got too long/had a natural breaking point in my mins, so I split it up.

These parts of the story are more difficult to write- they involve the OCs a lot, and there’s lots of things to establish. It’s hard to do that without getting to in the weeds or being really clunky, but on the other hand, I can’t forget that anything outside of canon references is in my brain and no one else’s, so I have to make sure to cover the important stuff.

This is my first time writing F/F romance! That’s not quite true. I’ve been writing original stories with F/F romances in them for years and years- this is my first time writing an F/F romance that other people are actually going to read. Thankfully, being a lesbian, I have actual experience falling in love with women, so I have lots of real-life stuff to draw from. I didn’t realise how much of my own past and current crushes and preferences wormed their way into the Lizzy/Sybil dynamic. I’ve read posts before about how romance/sex scenes are always revealing of the author’s preferences/feelings/kinks, and I was like “not me haha I am Unknowable” but I guess I can’t say that anymore oops.

When it comes to labels for fictional characters, I don’t like to use them/talk about them unless it’s been explicitly stated in canon. For example, I would never say a canon bisexual character is exclusively gay, that would be bi erasure and we don’t do that shit here. This is especially relevant when it comes to time periods where terminology was different, and labels hadn’t been invented yet/didn’t mean the same things.

I’m trying to write Lizzy in a way that the reader can interpret any way they want! If you want to read her as bi or as a lesbian, that’s fine, I have no hard opinion on the subject! I think it makes a lot of sense that she’s bi, I think that there’s a case for her being a lesbian who’s had to deal with some hardcore compulsory heterosexuality.

However, Sybil is my character and therefore I do get to say what she is, and she is a lesbian. Stone cold homosexual. Again, not that it matters, I just like saying it.

Lizzy and Sybil’s romance isn’t a full-on slow burn per se, but I’m really enjoying building it up here brick-by-brick. At this point, she and Lizzy have been friends for a long time and already know each other really well, so the “to lovers” part can kind of come into play early, but I’m not going to give it all away at once- where would the fun be in that?

Let’s talk about Verity. Madame LaChance if you’re nasty. Verity, of course, means truth, and la chance is French for luck. I kind of wanted her to be straight up called “Lady Luck” but that was a bit TOO hokey, even for me. I wanted there to be an auntie-like side character, and I said to myself, what if there was a character who was like, all the good, lighthearted parts of Grell and Madame Red without any of the “oh btw I’m insane/also a serial killer”. I thought it’d be funny if she was sort of a go-between, having friendships with both Sybil & Lizzy as well as Ciel & Sebastian without any of them being aware of it. She became a bigger part of the story than I’d originally intended- she sort of stole my heart, maybe she’ll steal yours too.

She’s a little mysterious, but I can promise you she is a normal human. She’s just very… unique, I guess you could say. No more spoilers.

I’m being sort of vague about the club and what it’s called and what it looks like, there’s a lot more about it in a future chapter, don’t worry. Also, Madame refers to Ciel as Monsieur Phénix and Sebastian as Monsieur Corbeau. That’s French for phoenix and raven respectively. Stage names. Code names. C'est très dramatique. (No, I don’t actually speak French, beyond some very basic words and phrases.)

I hate to admit it, but I felt woefully out of my element while writing this part and I'm not 100% happy with how it came out I knew I wanted to have some reason to show Sebastian and Ciel going about their day-to-day lives, but I was also struck by the lack of, like, drama or action so far in the story. I fell back on the old adage of “write what you know” and had the boys not solving crime per se (there will be time for that later) but perhaps avenging somebody. I don’t think Ciel will ever give up his vengeful nature, whether its on his own behalf or someone else’s. And for Sebastian, it’s just bad business, and we can’t have that, can we?

There are a whole two paragraphs from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott in this next scene. I don’t know if that book is meant to be sad, but it made me terribly melancholy when I read it as a kid. Also, there I go again referencing literature. I pulled the same trick in next week’s chapter too, which I didn’t even realise I was repeating until I’d already done it. Oops.

“-And nobody saw Beth wipe the tears off the yellow keys, that wouldn't keep in tune, when she was all alone. She sang like a little lark about her work, never was too tired for Marmee and the girls, and day after day said hopefully to herself, "I know I'll get my music some time, if I'm good."

"There are many Beth’s in the world, shy and quiet, sitting in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence vanishes, leaving silence and shadow behind.”

I wanted Lizzy to be reading aloud in this scene and this reference jumped out at me when I was trying to think of books that existed at the time and that characters this age might have access to. Beth of course is short for Elizabeth, and Lizzy’s arc in this story is about her becoming her own person in a lot of ways, or like, realising who she is, and this quote about Beth feeling like she’s in everyone’s shadow and only exists to do things for other people seemed really appropriate.

There’s a little more insight into Simeon- I drew the photograph described in the scene so you could get an idea of what Simeon looks like. I really like writing Simeon. He’s such a Good Dad. I mean, he’s bound by his word to be a good dad, but he really loves Sybil so much and wants her to be happy. But there’s also so much going on beneath the surface. I know most of you have figured out his true nature by now, but I hope that I still have the ability to surprise you in the long run when it comes to him.

Once again, thanks for reading! Comments and questions are always welcome, and I’ll see you all again next week! Special shout-out to vandorttranslations, who is translating this story into Russian as we go! It will never not be amazing to me that someone feels strongly enough about my work to undertake such a task!

-lord_is_it_mine

#lord speaks #kuroshitsuji #fanfiction #black butler #sebaciel #writing #my writing #behind the scenes #ttnbd #tteoe series #ttnbd blog #commentary

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sunriseverse · 5 months ago

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WRITING PROCESS QUESTION because of that ask meme: your characterization is always so on point. i love them. do you have any advice on developing that? what's your process? how d you capture character voice?

and this is a long shot but: do you have any advice for people who don't speak the language specifically? is there a good way to approach character voice when theres a sort of barrier?

first of all: it makes me very very happy (and bashful) that you think my characterisation is so accurate! it's one of the things about my writing that i'm truly proud of :) hmmm, let's see. i think to start with, i have to say that, in my experience, "in character" writing isn't just about dialogue. if you're writing a pov character, staying in character means using descriptive phrases and inner monologue patterns that create the image of the character in the same way that camera shots, wardrobe, lighting, etc, would do this work for you in a show/film. if your pov character has certain defining life experiences, they're more likely to speak or think a certain way—are they more formal, or more casual? are they uni-educated, or do they work a blue-collar job after scraping by with a high school diploma? have they experienced trauma that's caused them to be bitter and cynical, or do they, in spite of trauma, cling to humanity and kindness?

another thing that i find helps a lot when characterising characters is figuring out two things: what they want, and what they fear. these can vary based on the period of canon—for example, dmbj characters are probably going to have more variations of wants/fears over time than characters from a single-series show like tdj. to use dmbj as an example: in sha hai, wu xie wants to bring down the wang, and give xiaoge a safe future. what he fears is this plan failing. he'll go to any lengths to make sure it happens the way it needs to—will use, and destroy, and manipulate, and lie as much as he needs to for this to work. obviously, though, that's just the barebones picture—in canon, we also see him being kind when he could be cruel, and merciful when he could be deadly. what does that say about him as a character? there's many interpretations, and all of them are more or less equally valid—but, in the end, more accurate than a characterisation which doesn't take any of these things into account.

i know meta is a bit of a dying art in recent years (well, it feels like i've been hearing and saying this sentiment for the entire eleven years i've been involved in online fandom, so maybe recent isn't the best term), but i truly believe that, through reading, or writing your own!, analysis of characters' actions and mindsets, based on canon's evidence, is a key factor in understanding and accurately portraying characters. and, don't get me wrong, you don't have to do this in a formal, or even public level! a lot of my breakthroughs with relation to characterisation have come at one in the morning in dms with my friends. and you don't always have to agree with other peoples' meta, either; disagreement is just as valid a way to react; what matters is that you then try and figure out why you disagree—is there canon you think contradicts it, is it based on canon that's been retconned or altered since its initial creation, or is it just a theory/read you personally feel squicked by, even if there's canon proof?

to connect this to your question about foreign language media: i'm probably not the best to ask this, since what i write for is largely (only?) for languages i'm a native speaker of, but i've been getting more into kdramas lately, and my korean is............very basic (i can say anyeonghasaeyo and gamsahamnida and that's about it), but i'm planning on writing fic for at least one kdrama some time in the future, so while you should take this with a grain of salt, my best advice is two-pronged: one, seek out materials written by fans who speak/have knowledge of the language of the media you're wanting to write for (this helps a lot for cultural context, and errors with english subbing; tdj seems to drop a good number of referentials in the english subs where i'm watching it, and english subs for cdramas are kind of hilariously bad about endearments/nicknames/titles, not to mention translating the name into english, rather than leaving it in pinyin), and two, pay attention to the spoken language. you might not be able to understand what's being said, but watching through a second time and only paying attention to the words rather than the subs can help immensely to get a feel for the tone and vibe of a character's speech patterns—are they prone to being loud? cheerful? do they crack jokes a lot? and so forth. if you combine these two with what i've mentioned above, about considering the character's background, and then the way they interact with other characters, and what they want and fear, while you'll probably not be perfect at characterising the characters in the same way a native speaker would be, you'll be flying a great deal above a majority of the fandom, and neatly elide the "they would NOT fucking say that" reaction in most cases.

(thank you for letting me ramble about this, i love talking about writing <3333 i hope some of this was helpful!!!)

#ask #sorry this got so long :')#c.txt

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fizzingwizard · 1 year ago

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So he's a fan fiction writer, but he published the book as an original work? Am I missing something here? It sounds like he tried to force Simon Tolkien to read his Lord of the Rings fanfiction, turned it into "original" fiction when he refused, published it, and then accused Rings of Power of plagiarizing... him?? It was LotR to begin with, then made into original work, but still recognizable enough as LotR for RoP to be able to dip into it... huh??

With EL James, anyone who knows Twilight fanfiction can easily believe 50 Shades began as one. But anyone who only knows Twilight and has never read fanfiction I doubt would ever notice. Because, like with a lot of fanfiction, accurately portraying the characters is sacrificed in the name of "what I find cool and sexy" - which is particularly common in AUs where fanfiction writers don't have the benefit of setting and canonical history to buoy their shallow characterization. I'm sure Edward and Bella were easy to work into Christian and Anastasia because they were hardly Edward and Bella to begin with.

What I mean is, it's much easier for me to believe EL James with her creepy bdsm Twilight AU could get away with repurposing it as original fiction, than this guy who seems to have just written Lord of the Rings lore. Obviously I haven't read it. Maybe the specific things he thinks Amazon copied from him are unique and original enough to raise suspicion. And I know that a lot of fantasy elements in LotR are just genre tropes these days that everyone uses. I just find it doubtful, given that he copyrighted it preemptively, and then went to lengths, through attorneys and by going to see Simon Tolkien himself, to force his manuscript on them. It's weird. The article says he wanted a "collaboration" with the Tolkien estate, so isn't that as good as admitting what he'd written was Lord of the Rings?? Very difficult figuring out what his basis for his argument is...

I'm super pro fan creation. The fact of the matter is art and toy making companies only ever come out with generic products they think has mass appeal, but fan created products immortalize your favorite scenes, your favorite jokes and memes. They're personal and they're fun. And I'd rather read free fanfiction written by a 15-year-old than those ghost written novelizations that plague every popular series. Most of those are, again, generic as hell, but that 15-year-old doesn't give a shit about convention. Their writing might be not great but at least it won't be boring!

But when people go out and complicate things this way it makes us all look bad. Like we're money-grubbers seeking to piggyback off the success of someone else. The article is somewhat compassionate towards this guy, but I'm finding that difficult. Defending Amazon is dead last on my to-do list, but... no one asked him for a collab and he tried to force it anyway. I'm having difficulty seeing him as anything but an opportunist. He probably truly loves Lord of the Rings and maybe got lost in a daze, mistaking his love as some kind of claim on it. Once you involve money, though, it's hard to feel the love anymore.

Althouh it will be really, really funny if it turns out that Amazon did plagiarize his book. Because Lord of the Rings does not lack lore. The whole canon is an endless treasure trove. Imagine ignoring all that "extra" stuff Tolkien himself wrote in favor of some dude's fanfiction.

Hello Mr Gaiman, I just read a reblog you put regarding sending fanfiction/ideas to the universe's authors (like sending you Good Omens fanfiction for example) and I have a question, it's probably a dumb question with an obvious answer but if I don't ask it won't go away.

So if you ever read the good omens fanfiction I'm writing you wouldn't be able to put whatever I put there but what if I explicitly stated (like in the summary) that it could be used? Would it still create legal problems? Like with payment and stuff?

I'm not going to read your fan fiction so I will never know if you gave me permission.

And if you're wondering why I have a blanket rule not to, I'd point you to this article. On something that's happening right now.

#fanfiction #lord of the rings

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messymindofmine · 2 years ago

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So this is just something I need to say to get off my chest. It is not meant to be attacking or insulting anyone.

I know that many of us have all the reason in the world to be extremely angry with the writers after this season. I also totally understand why some people are just too afraid to get their hopes up after this season. That said, I do feel that perhaps some of the criticism that is flung at the writers is not entirely warranted. For example, I’ve seen people say that the way karate is represented in the show is unrealistic. However, I would argue that this is the whole point. The whole point of both Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do is that they are completely unique styles that are not a part of traditional karate. I actually feel that the show has done a pretty good job of expanding on the roots of both styles while remaining respectful to the art itself. Same with the movies for that matter. It is also important to remember that this is a tv show at the end of the day and shows and movies will always provide some level of mysticism or glamor to certain things bc that is what garners interest. After all, there are dojos within the show (like Topanga) that stick to traditional karate but we aren’t interested in those beyond the odd joke. Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do are made to be different from traditional styles, that is why they are at war. And I will say that I have seen a lot of professional martial artists praising the way the show has portrayed it and particularly praising Tanner for his performance so clearly they are doing something right. People also compare the movies to the show and say that the show is worse. However, let’s bear in mind that while movies have one major arc with a limited amount of characters and a set ending, tv shows have multiple seasons which requires multiple arcs and a much larger amount of actors, all of whom have their own individual characteristics and while there can be a set ending, there is no way of knowing when the ending will come and so it makes it harder for viewers to gage the content as a whole. While the writers of this show are not perfect, they have actually done a very good job of remaining consistent with the characterizations and with the overall story even if it’s in ways that we as the audience don’t always like. However, just bc we don’t like something doesn’t make it bad writing and it’s important to remember that writers are not as beholden to fan service as it may seem they are. Writers have a story to tell and they will tell it. Sure there may be moments of fan service along the way especially as a show continues beyond the first or second season but that is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, those of us who want a happy ending for Robby are also requesting fan service. Sure, what we are requesting is actually the right thing but it is technically fan service in its own right.

Now, this particular point is more of a general observation that I have had of fandoms in general. I feel that people often look for things to be angry about. This is not meant to target any person in particular and is not even necessarily a criticism of this fandom in particular. It is just something that I have noticed and as someone who specializes in the field of media literacy and representation, it is not something that I can stay quiet on. One of the first things those of us who study media are taught is that there is a difference between critical thinking and criticism. Criticism is when you see something you perceive as wrong and label it as such without really thinking about if your own thoughts on it may not be entirely accurate. The truth is, if we look at a show and only criticize what we see without even delving into whether or not our perception of it is even completely accurate, we are only ruining our own enjoyment. Critical thinking is when you look at a piece of media and analyze it. Yes, criticism can be a part of it but that’s not all there is to it. It’s about looking at the piece and analyzing just what it is we are seeing. Thinking about why a certain scene played out the way it did and how that adds up to the story as a whole. What the real intentions were behind it bc every single scene and piece of dialogue goes through an insane amount of editing before it is even filmed so if something makes it into the final product, it is there for a reason. It is also about examining our own biases and how they might be affecting our perception on what we are seeing. Just to be clear, we all have biases, it’s just a matter of putting them aside when analyzing things. For example, I have always thought that they way Robby is treated by the fandom is reflective of the way our society treats kids like him. Media has a way of holding up a mirror to our society and whether it was the writers intentions to do so or not, that is exactly what this show has done. People love to feel sorry for abused children when those children exist only as a picture in their minds but when that child is real and shows their hurt and anger at the way they have been treated, the same people will turn on them bc they are “too angry.” That is what we have seen with Robby. People like Robby now bc he appears to have fully submitted to Johnny and everyone else despite the hurt they have inflicted on him and thus he is now considered likeable when before he was just too angry even though all Robby had done was express the hurt he felt. Now he is no longer doing that and people are happy. This is just like what can be seen in real life.

This leads me onto my next point. I totally get why people are so angry at the writers. Believe me I am too. Since the season dropped, all I have wanted to do is storm the writers room and give them a piece of my mind. It almost doesn’t even matter what their true intentions are for Robby when the way they have framed and marketed the narrative makes him out to be the one who is wrong and makes light of his suffering. That said, upon rewatching, there are things that lead me to believe that there is more to Robby’s arc this season than what I had initially believed. And Robby does have an arc this season despite what it feels like. It is an awful and painful arc but it is an arc nonetheless. I could list all the moments that made me believe there was more to the story but that would just take too long so I will just state one. The moment when Johnny and Miguel are talking about Miguel and Sam and Robby makes that crack about fatherly advice. Bearing in mind that Robby had broken up with his girlfriend as well and Johnny didn’t say a single word to him about it beyond that “bitchy mood” comment and even then it was directed at both him and Miguel. Sure, when Johnny starts sputtering his defenses, Robby says that he’s just messing with him but if we are meant to believe that Robby no longer holds any hurt or anger and that everything is hunky-dory between him, Johnny and Miguel now then why include that comment in the first place? It is also important to remember that when we talk about our hopes for Robby, we are talking about an endgame that hasn’t happened yet. While I personally am not a fan of shows going on for too long, I can actually see the potential for a couple of more seasons of this show if it means a happy ending for Robby. For shows that go beyond five seasons, s5 tends to serve as a catalyst for something bigger in the seasons after it. I have seen this before with other shows. I know there were some things that felt really rushed this season but let’s remember that this season was shot the same year as s4 which is not something that was meant to happen. Obviously, the pandemic things up and that meant that the writers had to rush to get s5 out by the usual date in September especially since s4 had already been delayed to December. But this also opens the show up for more seasons where things can change. After all this time that Robby has spent in misery, it would make sense to spread his healing over the span of one or two whole seasons.

There is also the issue of hostile media phenomenon. Essentially, this means that when people feel that a piece of media is against them, they view everything about it as being bad. Now, I personally feel that a lot of us have plenty of reason to believe that the show is against us after this season and it is really hard to see beyond that feeling sometimes. I am certainly not going to tell anyone who feels that way that they should do a rewatch and analyze things deeper bc the fact of the matter is, the anger a lot of us are feeling is totally valid. That said, I would still advise people to be careful about making assumptions. Our anger at seeing certain things can, as I said before, lead us to look for things to be angry about. After having watched the show from s1 multiple times and going as far as too take notes as I watch, I have to admit that I feel that a lot of the criticism that I see is rather unwarranted. Of course, everybody is entitled to their opinion but I can’t help but feel that by getting angry or criticizing everything about the show, we are actually doing ourselves a disservice. Let’s remember that there is a reason why we started watching the show to begin with. Even if we stick around for certain characters, let’s remember that those characters were created by the writers. Robby was created by the writers for a reason and I doubt it was just to inflict misery on him. If that had been the case, it would have been a lot less effort on the writers part to just never have included him in the first place. It’s important to look at things with a combination of the Doylist and Watsonian perspective bc that offers up a much richer understanding. Robby is quite frankly the one of the best characters that I have ever seen anywhere and as far as I’m concerned the best character in this whole damn show. There is a reason he is the way he is, it didn’t just happen by accident. All I am trying to say is that it’s ok to be upset at what we are seeing but we can only blame the writers so much. Ultimately, we as the audience make our own decisions as to how we view things and characters and there are those of us (granted we are few and far inbetween) that do get Robby so clearly it is not impossible. However, as I said early on in this post, media has a way of holding up a mirror to our society so as horrible as seeing the hate Robby gets is, it doesn’t surprise me at all and I can’t even entirely blame the writers for that

#cobra kai #robby keene

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tvckerwash · 1 year ago

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Putting my reply utc because it's long and I apologize in advance for the wall text that is below lmao.

See while this is technically an accurate assessment of wash's character and his role in pfl that I don't inherently disagree with, I 100% believe that the way Miles chose to characterize Wash (and the freelancers as a whole tbh) in s10 is fundamentally flawed, and this is only further proved by the existence of the 'washed hands' interview in the fan guide.

I share my thoughts on Wash's background prior to pfl, and talk about how that background likely influenced his role in pfl some in this post here if you're interested in reading it (and to add some more context to my reply here)

But any way, to explain to you why I believe Miles' characterization of wash is fundamentally flawed I'm going to explain some stuff about the military, and in doing so it should show you immediately why I have such a big problem with how Wash is portrayed by him.

Just to get it out of the way, Wash was most likely a marine prior to pfl (insert a 'every marine is a rifleman' joke), and specifying what branch of the armed forces he was a member of is more important than you'd think. The ranks across the branches are more or less the same, but the duties specific to individuals of a certain pay grade differ slightly from one branch to another. We know that prior to being recruited for freelancer, Wash was a Corporal (E-4). I actually believe he was likely demoted to that from a Sergeant (E-5) following his court-martial, but that isn't really important for this post.

I'm just going to copy-paste this excerpt from the army ranks website that gives an overview of what it means to be a Corporal:

A Corporal in the Marine Corps is a junior noncommissioned officer, and is equivalent in rank to the Army's junior NCO ranks of Corporal and Specialist. Corporals usually command small contingents of Marines in combat and operations, including four-man fireteams (which may also be lead by a Lance Corporal) or eight-man squads comprising of two fireteams. The Marine Corps specializes in small-unit operations, and as a result Corporals hold a significant amount of authority and responsibility in contrast to the lighter duties of Lance Corporals and Privates. Because of the responsibilities delegated to squad and fireteam leaders, promotion to Corporal is seen as a very significant accomplishment for an enlisted Marine.

The above text, along with the fact that Wash was in the military for a minimum of 9 years prior to pfl (check the post I link talking about his background for the math that got me this number) makes it very clear that Wash is an experienced and competent soldier, and he is very much written as such from his introduction in Recovery One up into s9. He has a few silly or goofy moments here and there, but they don't detract from his competency or skills.

In s10 however, Miles for whatever reason, turns the previously pragmatic, no nonsense, occasionally awkward, and deeply caring Agent Washington, who sees his fellow freelancer agent's flashy bs as exactly that—Bullshit, ("That bit with the purple plane? That was just showing off."), into an overly anxious man child who only manages to get by via dumb luck.

Like I completely understand what Miles was trying to do. Seeing a character like Wash—Who is shown to be serious and high-strung—Have a silly/fun side is great! But choosing to do so by turning him into a total joke, and irreversibly damaging how he is perceived for the rest of time was Not Fucking It Chief. And I’m not kidding when I say this, if you go and read old fics, or find old fan art of Wash that was made prior to or very early into s10’s runtime, there is a very noticeable shift in the way the fandom saw Wash as a character. He went from being a disgruntled and mildly unhinged grown ass man to a ‘UwU bubbly blond sk8er boy’.

With my 'grrrrrrr I hate s10 freelancers grrrrrr' thoughts out of the way, I actually really like the idea of Wash's experiment in pfl being completely unrelated to his competency or skills as a soldier, and instead focusing more on his attitude and personality. Wash is Project Freelancer's social butterfly, he is shown to constantly make an effort to reach out and connect with his teammates, and he cares a lot about the well-being and moral of the group as a whole. It is his job to act as the glue that holds their group together, because when you are putting your life in the hands of those around you, it's important to know that they'll watch your back through thick and thin.

Wash doesn't tolerate animosity, exclusion, and/or favoritism among his ranks—If you hurt your teammates, you need to face the consequences for your actions. This is why he wanted The Director to punish Maine and Wyoming, because they’re the ones who decided to use live ammunition in a training exercise that ended up injuring York.

When York shows up for the heist, Wash makes a point to approach Carolina about it. He understands that she doesn’t want to appear weak and unsure of herself in front of The Director, and that she doesn’t want to give her teammates any more reasons to dislike her than they already do. By approaching her first, he’s able to give her an out if she chooses to do so.

Wash was able to recognize that Tex’s introduction was going to lead to her being disconnected from the group. The second he gets a moment alone with her, he starts making small talk and attempting to reach out and make a connection with her so that he can start to integrate her into the team’s inner dynamics.

Essentially, Wash’s role in pfl was to see what kind of impact a hyper-competitive, individualistic focused environment would have on someone who has already been deeply engraved into the forced collectivist assimilation that is seen in the military. How would his presence impact the people around him? Would it make a difference? Etc, etc.

wash is very interesting but also very frustrating to think about in pfl because characters like south and york clearly have no respect for him or his skills, but they still let him take point and sort of lead/direct them in the field (south in R1, york in s10) which HAS to mean SOMETHING.

project freelancer does not have a typical chain of command, and all we know for certain is that the freelancers themselves are 'higher ranked' than any of the other soldiers aboard the MOI, and that the director is in charge of the freelancers. carolina's position as the 'leader' of alpha squad isn’t absolute like it would be in a normal chain of command, as characters like wyoming, tex, and maine—who report to the director first—show us that the only reason she has any authority (beyond her position on the board) is because the other freelancers let her have it.

so going back to wash with that in mind, it can be assumed that at some point or another he did something that proved to the other freelancers that he is worth listening to, which implies some level of respect, but how wash is treated in s10 (and the rest of the series going forward) directly contradicts this assumption.

and we can’t argue against or brush off the other freelancers view on wash as them just giving him shit and/or fucking around with him because wash’s heart-to-heart with tucker in s11 shows us that wash sees himself as a joke, which brings me back to the start: if wash was just a joke to the other freelancers, then why do they listen to him in the field????? why does he seem to have a co-leader/assistant manager type role???? what is wash’s purpose supposed to be in project freelancer? we know why wash himself wanted to join, but that doesn’t tell us why the director choose him specifically. what secret experiment was wash a part of? what variable did the director see him as?

#again im so sorry for how long this is lol #text #replies #not t/oaru #rvb #wash

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queerkuro · 3 years ago

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in the aftermath of aran ojiro's birthday, i have some thoughts. please keep in mind this is coming from a white person. in haikyuu, aran is already not given the amount of page/screen time he should. he is in the top 5 aces in japan. he's the ace of inarizaki. but he's barely shown to be a threat on the court, and he's hardly ever in official art. and that's on the creators, but we have to think about why he is portrayed the way he is.

in the fandom he's hardly ever in fics. there's rarely fanart of him. the miya twins are so popular, and aran is their childhood friend. but still aran is rarely included. in the timeskip aran and atsumu are shown to miss each other. y'all know i love kita and suna so much, but they aren't as relevant as aran is. even in shipping, aran is very rarely shipped with anyone even though friends to lovers is so crucial to this fandom.

and maybe content creators think we don't have enough content for aran to make an accurate characterization. but how many characters DO we get enough content of for that? so much of content creation is what the fans decide to put into these characters. why is it that the black character is the one you've decided to draw the line at? maybe artists will say well i don't know how to draw him. why do you not know how to draw black characters? can you not learn? improve your artistic abilities by learning new skin tones and hair textures?

i urge the haikyuu fandom to take a look at their biases and think about why aran doesn't get the same love as other characters do.

#aran #hq #hq talks #wtf jordan #aran ojiro

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secretmellowblog · 2 years ago

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I admit that I didn’t really understand the passionate hatred many lord of the rings fans have towards adaptations until I watched a bunch of low-quality Les mis adaptations lol (cough the bbc adaptation cough.)

I do still think the primary issue with Lord of the rings is the fact that it isn’t in the public domain, but should be. Les Mis has had so Many adaptations by so many people— literally hundreds of adaptations!— that there are inevitably really good powerful ones (Dallas theater center les mis) and a lot of garbage (bbc les mis.) A Les mis fanfic on ao3 has as much “legal claim” to being “canon” as a massive blockbuster movie. There’s no major corporation/estate profiting off your enjoyment of the original novel, really, because the story is owned by Everyone. And that’s a good thing that’s produced a lot of great art!

But when you have something like LOTR, where the rights are owned by estates and massive corporate entities….yeah an adaptation with a different interpretation can hurt more because you can’t just “make your own,” not really.

BUT

At the same time, I’ve noticed I personally often tend to be pickier about Les Mis adaptations? XD I think it’s because Lord of the Rings really feels like a fairy tale, and fairy tales are naturally supposed to change a lot more between retellings. Like the characters are pretty archetypal at their core but each storyteller comes up with new nuances/interpretations/characterizations of their behavior. To me demanding a “book accurate” adaptation of lord of the rings sorta feels like demanding a “fairy tale accurate” version of Little Red Riding hood, idk. It seems a bit silly.

I also think part of it is because I don’t like Tolkien’s general politics haha. I WANT people to argue with Tolkien. I go into a Tolkien adaptation wanting to hear someone having a conversation with Tolkien, not regurgitating exactly what he wrote. I love it when the people adapting his work disagree with him.

I feel that with Hugo as well— but the problem with Hugo is that I think he’s not radical enough, while the people adapting him think he’s not conservative enough. :P The people adapting him often “argue with Hugo” by portraying cops as noble heroes, rebellion as evil/depraved, and convicts/felons as people whose punishment is deserved and justified. While the way I want people to argue with Hugo is by giving his female characters more of a spotlight, being less patronizing towards working class people, and etc etc.

…..and I also admit, with a few exceptions, I’m not as attached to the book characterizations of most of the lotr characters as I am to the book characterizations of say, Valjean and Javert :P. I admit it haha.

I also think the new line cinema films did such a strong job of creating really engaging dynamic characters with strong personalities who stand on their own without the book, in a way only a couple Les mis adaptations have managed to do. Idk a lot of Les mis adaptations have characterized Javert differently; but almost none of them have really had as memorable and strong a personality as book Javert—While I sincerely think that Ian McKellan Gandalf and Ian Holm Bilbo are strong characters in their own right.

I guess my conclusion is, as always, that I don’t think any source material is sacred— but I do think that good adaptations are one that don’t just make changes, but make changes with care, love, and intent. Only someone who really understands the source text can have a good argument with it.

#this is a bit incoherent but I am #on quite a few pills tbh #I’m recovering from my hospital adventures now tho

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raayllum · 2 years ago

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no actually please explain how not supporting pedophilla and incest ships is the same as american conservative christianity

not wasting my breath but i will provide links if you're willing to prove you can read

the article tdp's head writer retweeted with the connection in bold

Beyond betraying simple art illiteracy, though, these intensely personal, emotional complaints and appeals to public safety have a clear antecedent: religious and conservative opposition to “obscenity.” The centering of individual values and pain, the assumption that a universal moral standard exists which should guide all public or quasi-public art and behavior, and the belief that art can do material harm to both people and culture as a whole unite the two at first apparently disparate groups of angry indie gamers and religious fundamentalists.

The deployment of victimhood as an unimpeachable defense is an old tactic frequently used by hate groups like One Million Moms and its parent organization, the American Family Association, whose rallying cry “think of the children” now echoes through everything from intra-community Gay Pride discourse to the drearily predictable “there’s too much sex on TV” tweets that seem to sweep across the platform on a weekly basis.

consumption / creation of media not being a short cut to morality (the same way that proving you go to church is not lmao)

history, literature, and the impact of morality on media in north america / the united states (probably too long for u so again, here's a snippet)

Examples of this are the panic over comic books in the 50s (an emblematic case, the book Seduction Of The Innocent, arguing that comic books were a direct cause of juvenile delinquency), the satanic panic of the 80s, the panic over violent video games in the 90s, the panic over the “trans agenda” of the past few years, together with “punching-up” conspiracies like Pizzagate and QAnon. They are all deeply concerned for the youth and the vulnerable, all have a very specific target supposedly responsible for the child abuse they are perceiving, and all are characterized by an impressive amount of disinterest toward more empirically accurate assessments of types of child abuse and how to prevent them.

The level of disinterest and plain detachment from the work that should be put in to actually make a change even suggests that the child victim is really just a symbol in a social phenomenon that, at closer inspection, is not about them. It’s not about the child. It’s about the idea of the perfect childhood

and my own words just last month when another teen tried to pull this shit on me. newsflash, i've held the exact same opinion on this when i was a teen in fandom (both a decade ago, and just three years ago!! i was a teenager just three years ago)

Another thing grammarians and writers have been concerned with since before is what is Okay to be portrayed in art. Plato’s The Republic thinks that art is immoral because it may give people unrealistic or unsafe ideas because people are 'unable’ to distinguish fiction from reality. He later retracted this, although Aristotle’s Poetics was a text where Aristotle disagreed with Plato’s prior established opinion.

Fandom is entrenched in cultural Christianity and the conservative mindsets that come with it. Aphobia in fandom was rampant from 2014-2017; truscum and tucute discourse as well; how prevalent TERF rhetoric can be (women are inherently good, attraction to men is shameful, etc). I’ve seen all of these things in fandom. All hinge an idea on being able to decode a person’s intent (somehow), the rising attachment of morality to genres of entertainment (antis), and how many antis I’ve seen that are TERFs or Aphobes or guzzling down that rhetoric without even realizing.

Terfs and the Conservative far-right have a long history of working together. Both frame concerns of gay people as pedophiles, being anti sex work (because sex is nasty and a sin), that we must Protect the Children who cannot monitor or make any decisions for themselves at any age. The anti vs pro ship dynamic online is a microism of larger public discussions regarding purity culture - and that includes how queerness is overly sexualized, how queer sex is seen as especially dirty, the “should kink be at pride?” discourse, and issues with respectability politics.

Antis who say we have to harass people to control what exists in fandom to “protect minors” on a moral basis are ideologically adjacent to parents who decry earlier Sex Education for children

hate to break it to you bub but if you've ever consumed anything based off greek myth (hades/persephone, percy jackson, lore olympus, hadestown, etc.) you've consumed things that have incest in 'em. hades and persphone are niece and uncle on both sides, because her parents are also siblings to hades, and his parents / her grandparents were also siblings. just the way the myth works.

something being ideologically similar, adjacent, or parallel is also not the same as supporting - but clearly you believe in orwellian thought crime, too, don't you? you know, the idea that your just your thoughts can be Morally Wrong and Impure and any expression of them (like fic) can get you in trouble if you don't repress every urge that goes against the societal grain, even in a fictional / fantasy space, and-

like, tell me u can hear this

#thanks for asking #or not #anyway last ask i'm doing regarding this bc i can't help if it u don't understand critical thinking #anonymous #fandom nonsense

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scp-10000 · 3 years ago

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Metaphorical Skin Cells

I am well aware the title is weird, but it relates to what I’m talking about. This is also a very rough idea, but I can refine it if someone brings me something to add.

TLDR up front, Hermitcraft Fanfic writers, you’re not gonna get the Hermits’ characterizations 100% correct, just like with a fictional character. Only real difference is they usually have the potential to see it. Just try your best to characterize in the scenario you wrote, have fun and keep it in the fandom.

Cleo, Joe, and the chat got talking about it on Cleo and Joes’ October 20th, 2021 craft streams. Timestamped Joe’s stream about when I think it started. https://youtu.be/JJq9lB0IUPE?t=8976

In there, Joe used Plato’s Cave to try and explain, stating fanfic writers copy patterns in ways that don’t line up. (Joe explains his ideas a lot better than me trying to summarize and interpret them.)

Thing I’d like to add before getting to the skin cells is you’re never going to know how a person is, was, or will be 100% accurately 100% of the time down to the smallest detail. If you could using your human brain, it probably won’t be able to do much else.

Since you use your brain for other things, like how it just autohandels homeostasis without you consciously having to think about it, you can’t go for 100% perfection even with a good enough picture. From what I’ve heard, in the stream, a lot of the fandom portrays Joe as more timid than he actually is. So we know he’s brave, but if he had to deal with a demon terrorizing a server, how would he go about doing that? Would he tell it to screw off(in those exact words)? Would he try to rap battle it? Would he try and actually punch the demon? He was training to join the military, just like Wels was in there as a paralegal.

Point is, a lot of us write fics involving Hermits in situations they’d most likely never been in Minecraft or otherwise. You’re gonna have to make that call on your own, and that’s okay. Fanfic, unlike broader fan art, is 100% intended for fandom consumption. Hermits are welcome to read it, but they weren’t intended to read it in most cases. Try your best to write them well, but you’re not gonna get it 100% right. You’re just doing this for fun and to feed the fandom. Just remember that.

And as a note at the end, remember self care, and try not to burn yourself out. I speak as someone who failed to do both. It ain’t fun.

#hermitcraft #zombie cleo #joe hills #okay time for the funny jokey tags #i say this like i'm not planning a Hermitcraft My Immortal spoof #i'm trying to think of how Ex would act and try and filter that through the author of My Immortal #i'm just done feeling remorse for any weird idea i have because those ideas are currently the only thing that bring me some sort of joy

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cant-think-of-anything · 3 years ago

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I think part of the reason that there’s such a dissonance between what kind of character Matthew is ~supposed~ to have and what kind of poor traits shine through, especially in his treatment of Alastair, is not just because of CC’s poor handling of alcoholism (and, in my opinion, mental health issues and depression) but also because: Our first introduction to these characters happened a long ways before some major changes to TLH.

Namely… Alastair and Cordelia were basically white in CC’s original planning. There’s just no way around that. Their flower cards, where they’re not just whitewashed but purely white, prove that (and they STILL haven’t been updated, by the way.)

Also, Alastair’s hair: in CoG it was dyed blond, and CC wrote it off implicitly as a racism thing when she decided he was Persian (which I guess happened after the short story where we met Alastair and before TLH) , which would have been fine it if it was an arc written better. Except, I don’t think she realized that it would make Matthew’s comments about Alastair inherently and obviously racist, being a white author. And I doubt that it will be dealt with and named or even acknowledged outright in the final TLH installment.

Kind of the same thing with Cordelia. I’m not saying POC can’t have like red hair because obviously POC don’t come in a prepackaged set of five or six traits that are all configured randomly, but something has always rubbed me the wrong way about the way that CC writes the majority of her POC and especially WOC as exotic. I mean, Kamala as a character is to me a special favorite (even though CC did her dirty and didn’t do a good job portraying her character or intersectional identity) but I rolled my eyes so hard when she had lighter brown or “amber” eyes in canon or officially commissioned art. With Cordelia, I know CC once said she uses henna to redden her hair which is great for her, and I guess I have less of a bone to pick with that because it’s semi(?) realistic, but still. Also the fact that so much of her description as a beautiful person comes from her hair. Again that’s cool, and women of color should be loved wholly including being loved for the parts of them that they freely change (such as Cordelia’s hair) but… the proportion of the fixation on her hair as what makes her lovely rubs me the wrong way sometimes. I feel like it’s sometimes an out from CC making the ~scandalous~ decision that a woman of color can be beautiful because of the traits she is born with. Idk it’s just for me I had this long standing repulsion towards my colorings and my facial structure and white girls would tell me I was whiny about it and then I finally began to piece together things like “Eurocentric beauty standards.”

Going on a tangent slightly, but something else that bothered me was when Anna insulted Cordelia after buying her those dresses and everyone kinda treating it as a compliment? And just cause Cordelia, a fictional teenager, didn’t get mad about it doesn’t mean readers of color can’t see the underlying racism behind “Cordelia looks MUCH better in these dresses which are SUITED for her skin tone.”

I think that narrative could have been handled much better: if it was Cordelia picking out her own clothes as an act of maturity and self-realization and ownership, if Cordelia herself said (in a different way lol) “Damn right I can wear lavender ruffles if I want to and crimp my hair but I’m not going to let white fashion prevent me from outshining everyone because dark skinned women INVENTED jewel tones.” And I think some people will argue that Cordelia’s context makes this too self aware of a development but I would say that it would have been a powerful part of her development outside of her relationships, especially considering that she’s supposed to be a main protagonist. Full arcs for the win baby!

But even aside from all that what bothered me about Anna’s dresses was the fact that it was a white woman showing the “truth” or the “right way” or “saving” a woman of color, a trope which I don’t think CC intended but committed nonetheless. I think from a white author POV the thinking was “Anna is such a free bohemian who lives true to herself and she’s going to help Cordelia become that way too,” which irks me because I feel like that just worked against CC in terms of POC rep and also because that same ideology is used in an attempt to make Anna’s treatment of Kamala justified even though Anna as an out person, with racial and economic privilege and the support of an extensive and powerful family network, pressured and tormented Kamala into coming out.

I have a lot of thoughts on that relationship, mainly: it shouldn’t have been dragged out this long because from the beginning, Every Exquisite Thing, it was clear they were looking for different things. And if CC had left it at that and let them go on their separate ways after a week of knowing each other that would have been fine: Kamala can’t do an out and proud relationship and Anna doesn’t want secrecy, so they’ll develop on their own. And then later Kamala’s pursuit of Anna in the actual TLH books was I think meant to be a thing about “the lengths you’ll go for true love” but it felt forced. Honestly… It just feels icky. like this woman of color is just so hung up on this white woman who abuses her repeatedly and can’t handle her own misogyny and internalizations. And I hate that because both had such awesome potential! To me it’s less that I dislike Anna ( I’d need a whole other post to explain that) and more that I dislike CC for wanting so bad to claim sapphic rep but not wanting to put in the effort to portray it effectively- and pretty much all that entails is writing the relationship without acting like it exists in a pseudo-vacuum where the history and realities of interracial relationships and queerphobia don’t exist in the way we obviously recognize and experience.

And characters like Cordelia and Alastair are amazing and have so much potential; I think the true origin of the problems with their portrayal is that they weren’t really intended as POC or even queer representation in the first place. I don’t know if Cassie would have taken a different approach to her characterization had she known Alastair would be a brown gay man when she first introduced him, but I hope it would have at least made her more conscientious of the inherent application of colonialism and racism in her storytelling from that point onward.

I want to finally add that I’m not saying any portrayal of racism is bad. I’m saying that the racism in the story is not part of a conscious framework that critiques racism appropriately. I think CC wrote the beginnings of the narrative, decided she was going to develop the diversity point content, and then either didn’t look back at the older content to analyze it and the other (white characters) through a new lens of race and outsiderness and queer personhood, or she looked at it and didn’t know what to do with it, or looked at it and didn’t care.

Sorry this got so long! Thanks for listening.

- A.

I feel like CC handled everything poorly in regards to characters who had a lot of potential.

The fact that Cordelia and Alastair are both originally white and it's so obvious in the way every bit of racism is handled by the characters. Matthew's comments in CLS are very important and they should've been handled with the same severity that Alastair's words were. CC changing the characters to POC was a big decision and when she did so she should've went back and actually read her own material. I can assure you that it will not be handled in CHOT, my expectations for CC recognizing the importance and gravity in the words she writes regarding racism or any of her "implied racism" bullshit have gone to the ground.

Because while golden eyes are obviously so easy to write when discussing discrimination obviously racism is out of the question /j

THAT'S EXACTLY IT, women of color in these books are so pathetically rare that on the rare occurrence that she does write them they should all be given these features that aren't as common in POC and written as more beautiful because of those features. I read CHOG after I became more appreciative of my ethnic features but if I had read this a year or so ago? Or even if I had read it after just feeling insecure in general? It would've been awful. The implication is that the lighter features in POC are the most beautiful, with Cordelia's red hair being put on a higher pedestal than her dark eyes and Kamala's eyes being focused on more than her hair (because I literally went back and counted the numbers to prove it and it's exactly what happens.)

I'm sure Cordelia's hair is stunning, but it's the way that when she's described (or more accurately being sexualized) it is just her hair and body that is shown, not the color of her skin or the color of her eyes.

God the pastel thing pisses me off so much. It's not even that Anna tells Cordelia that she would look better in darker colors it's that she says it suits her skin tone. Implying that anyone with brown skin should be barred from wearing pastels. And Kamala? In the few times she is described, she's wearing dark colors or champagne gold, never light blue or purple or pink WHICH HONESTLY SUITS HER PERSONALITY. It's also the way that the dresses Anna sent her are described to be more revealing- it's weird. Anna barely knew her when she started dictating everything that Cordelia could put on her body.

“Damn right I can wear lavender ruffles if I want to and crimp my hair but I’m not going to let white fashion prevent me from outshining everyone because dark skinned women INVENTED jewel tones.”

I literally would have loved that. It recognizes that she doesn't need to follow these "rules" on what to wear but still shows her choosing what she wants to wear without making all the darker skinned readers feel like they can't wear a certain color.

I think what some people fail to realize is that these books are also aimed at upper elementary and middle school and a middle schooler with dark skin reading something like that? In a book with characters they love? It's going to be so harmful

Someone else mentioned that CC said Kamanna's relationship was complicated because Kamala didn't defend Anna: Defend her FROM WHAT? Literally what is there to threaten Anna?

These books are filled with tokenism and then praised for it. The idea of Kamala X Anna has so much potential but they're portrayed in such a toxic way. Throughout the last through books Kamala puts herself through so much guilt and regret and turmoil just for Anna to literally use her, blame her, and cast her aside. And it's so fucking annoying because it pushes this idea that this woman of color who was terrified and in an extremely vulnerable position is in the wrong for choosing her safety and presents them as guilty and shameful for doing such a thing.

I would disagree, the portrayal of racism is bad, because it is used at random points in the story and never brought up again, if you interduce racism take it seriously it's not the kind of thing you're meant to half-ass in a book thousands of people will read

I agree on everything else though, so much of these books are incredibly harmful and they are presented to a young audience so it's overall just a gross situation

Thank you for the ask though! I loved answering this, if you ever have anything else you're more than welcome to come back <3

#kamala joshi #alastair carstairs #cordelia carstairs #tw racism #tw sexualization of minors #tw sexualization #anti anna lightwood #anon #asks #tw swearing #long post #tlh #anti cc #the last hours #let me know if i missed a tag #also let me know if i got anything wrong

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shortnotsweet · 4 years ago

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Bakudeku: A Non-Comprehensive Dissection of the Exploitation of Working Bodies, the Murder of Annoying Children, and a Rivals-to-Lovers Complex

I. Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

II. Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

III. How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

IV. Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

V. Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

VI. Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

VII. Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

Disclaimer

It needs to be said that there is definitely a place for disagreement, discourse, debate, and analysis: that is a sign of an active fandom that’s heavily invested, and not inherently a bad thing at all. Considering the amount of source material we do have (from the manga, to the anime, to the movies, to the light novels, to the official art), there are going to be warring interpretations, and that’s inevitable.

I started watching and reading MHA pretty recently, and just got into the fandom. I was weary for a reason, and honestly, based on what I’ve seen, I’m still weary now. I’ve seen a lot of anti posts, and these are basically my thoughts. This entire thing is in no way comprehensive, and it’s my own opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. If I wanted to be thorough about this, I would’ve included manga panels, excerpts from the light novel, shots from the anime, links to other posts/essays/metas that have inspired this, etc. but I’m tired and not about that life right now, so, this is what it is. This is poorly organized, but maybe I’ll return to fix it.

Let’s begin.

Bakudeku in Canon, And Why Anti’s Need to Calm the Fuck Down

There are a lot of different reasons, that can be trivial as you like, to ship or not to ship two (or more) characters. It could be based purely off of character design, proximity, aversion to another ship, or hypotheticals. And I do think that it’s totally valid if someone dislikes the ship or can’t get on board with his character because to them, it does come across as abuse, and the implications make them uncomfortable or, or it just feels unhealthy. If that is your takeaway, and you are going to stick to your guns, the more power to you.

But Bakudeku’s relationship has canonically progressed to the point where it’s not the emotionally (or physically) abusive clusterfuck some people portray it to be, and it’s cheap to assume that it would be, based off of their characterizations as middle schoolers. Izuku intentionally opens the story as a naive little kid who views the lens of the Hero society through rose colored glasses and arguably wants nothing more than assimilation into that society; Bakugou is a privileged little snot who embodies the worst and most hypocritical beliefs of this system. Both of them are intentionally proven wrong. Both are brainwashed, as many little children are, by the propaganda and societal norms that they are exposed to. Both of their arcs include unlearning crucial aspects of the Hero ideology in order to become true heroes.

I will personally never simp for Bakugou because for the longest time, I couldn't help but think of him as a little kid on the playground screaming at the top of his lungs because someone else is on the swingset. He’s red in the face, there are probably veins popping out of his neck, he’s losing it. It’s easy to see why people would prefer Tododeku to Bakudeku.

Even now, seeing him differently, I still personally wouldn’t date Bakugou, especially if I had other options. Why? I probably wouldn’t want to date any of the guys who bullied me, especially because I think that schoolyard bullying, even in middle school, affected me largely in a negative way and created a lot of complexes I’m still trying to work through. I haven’t built a better relationship with them, and I’m not obligated to. Still, I associate them with the kind of soft trauma that they inflicted upon me, and while to them it was probably impersonal, to me, it was an intimate sort of attack that still affects me. That being said, that is me. Those are my personal experiences, and while they could undoubtedly influence how I interpret relationships, I do not want to project and hinder my own interpretation of Deku.

The reality is that Deku himself has an innate understanding of Bakugou that no one else does; I mention later that he seems to understand his language, implicitly, and I do stand by that. He understands what it is he’s actually trying to say, often why he’s saying it, and while others may see him as wimpy or unable to stand up for himself, that’s simply not true. Part of Deku’s characterization is that he is uncommonly observant and empathetic; I’m not denying that Bakugou caused harm or inflicted damage, but infantilizing Deku and preaching about trauma that’s not backed by canon and then assuming random people online excuse abuse is just...the leap of leaps, and an actual toxic thing to do. I’ve read fan works where Bakugou is a bully, and that’s all, and has caused an intimate degree of emotional, mental, and physical insecurity from their middle school years that prevents their relationship from changing, and that’s for the better. I’m not going to argue and say that it’s not an interesting take, or not valid, or has no basis, because it does. Its basis is the character that Bakugou was in middle school, and the person he was when he entered UA.

Not only is Bakugou — the current Bakugou, the one who has accumulated memories and experiences and development — not the same person he was at the beginning of the story, but Deku is not the same person, either. Maybe who they are fundamentally, at their core, stays the same, but at the beginning and end of any story, or even their arcs within the story, the point is that characters will undergo change, and that the reader will gain perspective.

“You wanna be a hero so bad? I’ve got a time-saving idea for you. If you think you’ll have a quirk in your next life...go take a swan dive off the roof!”

Yes. That is a horrible thing to tell someone, even if you are a child, even if you don’t understand the implications, even if you don’t mean what it is you are saying. Had someone told me that in middle school, especially given our history and the context of our interactions, I don’t know if I would ever have forgiven them.

Here’s the thing: I’m not Deku. Neither is anyone reading this. Deku is a fictional character, and everyone we know about him is extrapolated from source material, and his response to this event follows:

“Idiot! If I really jumped, you’d be charged with bullying me into suicide! Think before you speak!”

I think it’s unfair to apply our own projections as a universal rather than an interpersonal interpretation; that’s not to say that the interpretation of Bakudeku being abusive or having unbalanced power dynamics isn’t valid, or unfounded, but rather it’s not a universal interpretation, and it’s not canon. Deku is much more of a verbal thinker; in comparison, Bakugou is a visual one, at least in the format of the manga, and as such, we get various panels demonstrating his guilt, and how deep it runs. His dialogue and rapport with Deku has undeniably shifted, and it’s very clear that the way they treat each other has changed from when they were younger. Part of Bakugou’s growth is him gaining self awareness, and eventually, the strength to wield that. He knows what a fucked up little kid he was, and he carries the weight of that.

“At that moment, there were no thoughts in my head. My body just moved on its own.”

There’s a part of me that really, really disliked Bakugou going into it, partially because of what I’d seen and what I’d heard from a limited, outside perspective. I felt like Bakugou embodied the toxic masculinity (and to an extent, I still believe that) and if he won in some way, that felt like the patriarchy winning, so I couldn't help but want to muzzle and leash him before releasing him into the wild.

The reality, however, of his character in canon is that it isn’t very accurate to assume that he would be an abusive partner in the future, or that Midoryia has not forgiven him to some extent already, that the two do not care about each other or are singularly important, that they respect each other, or that the narrative has forgotten any of this.

Don’t mistake me for a Bakugou simp or apologist. I’m not, but while I definitely could also see Tododeku (and I have a soft spot for them, too, their dynamic is totally different and unique, and Todoroki is arguably treated as the tritagonist) and I’m ambivalent about Izuocha (which is written as cannoncially romantic) I do believe that canonically, Bakugou and Deku are framed as soulmates/character foils, Sasuke + Naruto, Kageyama + Hinata style. Their relationship is arguably the focus of the series. That’s not to undermine the importance or impact of Deku’s relationships with other characters, and theirs with him, but in terms of which one takes priority, and which one this all hinges on?

The manga is about a lot of things, yes, but if it were to be distilled into one relationship, buckle up, because it’s the Bakudeku show.

Power is Power: the Brain-Melting Process of Normalization and Toxic Masculinity

One of the ways in which the biopolitical prioritization of Quirks is exemplified within Hero society is through Quirk marriages. Endeavor partially rationalizes the abuse of his family through the creation of a child with the perfect quirk, a child who can be molded into the perfect Hero. People with powerful, or useful abilities, are ranked high on the hierarchy of power and privilege, and with a powerful ability, the more opportunities and avenues for success are available to them.

For the most part, Bakugou is a super spoiled, privileged little rich kid who is born talented but is enabled for his aggressive behavior and, as a child, cannot move past his many internalized complexes, treats his peers like shit, and gets away with it because the hero society he lives in either has this “boys will be boys” mentality, or it’s an example of the way that power, or Power, is systematically prioritized in this society. The hero system enables and fosters abusers, people who want power and publicity, and people who are genetically predisposed to have advantages over others. There are plenty of good people who believe in and participate in this system, who want to be good, and who do good, but that doesn’t change the way that the hero society is structured, the ethical ambiguity of the Hero Commission, and the way that Heroes are but pawns, idols with machine guns, used to sell merch to the public, to install faith in the government, or the current status quo, and reinforce capitalist propaganda. Even All Might, the epitome of everything a Hero should be, is drained over the years, and exists as a concept or idea, when in reality he is a hollow shell with an entire person inside, struggling to survive. Hero society is functionally dependent on illusion.

In Marxist terms: There is no truth, there is only power.

Although Bakugou does change, and I think that while he regrets his actions, what is long overdue is him verbally expressing his remorse, both to himself and Deku. One might argue that he’s tried to do it in ways that are compatible with his limited emotional range of expression, and Deku seems to understand this language implicitly.

I am of the opinion that the narrative is building up to a verbal acknowledgement, confrontation, and subsequent apology that only speaks what has gone unspoken.

That being said, Bakugou is a great example of the way that figures of authority (parents, teachers, adults) and institutions both in the real world and this fictional universe reward violent behavior while also leaving mental and emotional health — both his own and of the people Bakugou hurts — unchecked, and part of the way he lashes out at others is because he was never taught otherwise.

And by that, I’m referring to the ways that are to me, genuinely disturbing. For example, yelling at his friends is chill. But telling someone to kill themselves, even casually and without intent and then misinterpreting everything they do as a ploy to make you feel weak because you're projecting? And having no teachers stop and intervene, either because they are afraid of you or because they value the weight that your Quirk can benefit society over the safety of children? That, to me, is both real and disturbing.

Not only that, but his parents (at least, Mitsuki), respond to his outbursts with more outbursts, and while this is likely the culture of their home and I hesitate to call it abusive, I do think that it contributed to the way that he approaches things. Bakugou as a character is very complex, but I think that he is primarily an example of the way that the Hero System fails people.

I don’t think we can write off the things he’s done, especially using the line of reasoning that “He didn’t mean it that way”, because in real life, children who hurt others rarely mean it like that either, but that doesn’t change the effect it has on the people who are victimized, but to be absolutely fair, I don’t think that the majority of Bakudeku shippers, at least now, do use that line of reasoning. Most of them seem to have a handle on exactly how fucked up the Hero society is, and exactly why it fucks up the people embedded within that society.

The characters are positioned in this way for a reason, and the discoveries made and the development that these characters undergo are meant to reveal more about the fictional world — and, perhaps, our world — as the narrative progresses.

The world of the Hero society is dependent, to some degree, on biopolitics. I don’t think we have enough evidence to suggest that people with Quirks or Quirkless people place enough identity or placement within society to become equivalent to marginalized groups, exactly, but we can draw parallels to the way that Deku and by extent Quirkless people are viewed as weak, a deviation, or disabled in some way. Deviants, or non-productive bodies, are shunned for their inability to perform ideal labor. While it is suggested to Deku that he could become a police officer or pursue some other occupation to help people, he believes that he can do the most positive good as a Hero. In order to be a Hero, however, in the sense of a career, one needs to have Power.

Deviation from the norm will be punished or policed unless it is exploitable; in order to become integrated into society, a deviant must undergo a process of normalization and become a working, exploitable body. It is only through gaining power from All Might that Deku is allowed to assimilate from the margins and into the upper ranks of society; the manga and the anime give the reader enough perspective, context, and examples to allow us to critique and deconstruct the society that is solely reliant on power.

Through his societal privileges, interpersonal biases, internalized complexes, and his subsequent unlearning of these ideologies, Bakugou provides examples of the way that the system simultaneously fails and indoctrinates those who are targeted, neglected, enabled by, believe in, and participate within the system.

Bakudeku are two sides of the same coin. We are shown visually that the crucial turning point and fracture in their relationship is when Bakugou refuses to take Deku’s outstretched hand; the idea of Deku offering him help messes with his adolescent perspective in that Power creates a hierarchy that must be obeyed, and to be helped is to be weak is to be made a loser.

Largely, their character flaws in terms of understanding the hero society are defined and entangled within the concept of power. Bakugou has power, or privilege, but does not have the moral character to use it as a hero, and believes that Power, or winning, is the only way in which to view life. Izuku has a much better grasp on the way in which heroes wield power (their ideologies can, at first, be differentiated as winning vs. saving), and is a worthy successor because of this understanding, and of circumstance. However, in order to become a Hero, our hero must first gain the Power that he lacks, and learn to wield it.

As the characters change, they bridge the gaps of their character deficiencies, and are brought closer together through character parallelism.

Two sides of the same coin, an outstretched hand.

They are better together.

How to Kill Middle Schoolers, and Why We Should

I think it’s fitting that in the manga, a critical part of Bakugou’s arc explicitly alludes to killing the middle school version of himself in order to progress into a young adult. In the alternative covers Horikoshi released, one of them was a close up of Bakugou in his middle school uniform, being stabbed/impaled, with blood rolling out of his mouth. Clearly this references the scene in which he sacrifices himself to save Deku, on a near-instinctual level.

To me, this only cements Horikoshi’s intent that middle school Bakugou must be debunked, killed, discarded, or destroyed in order for Bakugou the hero to emerge, which is why people who do actually excuse his actions or believe that those actions define him into young adulthood don’t really understand the necessity for change, because they seem to imply that he doesn’t need/cannot reach further growth, and there doesn’t need to be a separation between the Bakugou who is, at heart, volatile and repressed the angry, and the Bakugou who sacrifices himself, a hero who saves people.

Plot twist: there does need to be a difference. Further plot twist: there is a difference.

In sacrificing himself for Deku, Bakugou himself doesn't die, but the injury is fatal in the sense that it could've killed him physically and yet symbolizes the selfish, childish part of him that refused to accept Deku, himself, and the inevitability of change. In killing those selfish remnants, he could actually become the kind of hero that we the reader understand to be the true kind.

That’s why I think that a lot of the people who stress his actions as a child without acknowledging the ways he has changed, grown, and tried to fix what he has broken don’t really get it, because it was always part of his character arc to change and purposely become something different and better. If the effects of his worst and his most childish self stick with you more, and linger despite that, that’s okay. But distilling his character down to the wrong elements doesn’t get you the bare essentials; what it gets you is a skewed and shallow version of a person. If you’re okay with that version, that is also fine.

But you can’t condemn others who aren’t fine with that incomplete version, and to become enraged that others do not see him as you do is childish.

Bakugou’s change and the emphasis on that change is canon.

Parallels in Abuse, EnemiesRivals-to-Lovers, and the Necessity of Redemption ft. ATLA’s Zuko

In real life, the idea that “oh, he must bully you because he likes you” is often used as a way to brush aside or to excuse the action of bullying itself, as if a ‘secret crush’ somehow negates the effects of bullying on the victim or the inability of the bully to properly process and manifest their emotions in certain ways. It doesn’t. It often enables young boys to hurt others, and provides figures of authority to overlook the real source of schoolyard bullying or peer review. The “secret crush”, in real life, is used to undermine abuse, justify toxic masculinity, and is essentially used as a non-solution solution.

A common accusation is that Bakudeku shippers jump on the pairing because they romanticize pairing a bully and a victim together, or believe that the only way for Bakugou to atone for his past would be to date Midoryia in the future. This may be true for some people, in which case, that’s their own preference, but based on my experience and what I’ve witnessed, that’s not the case for most.

The difference being is that as these are characters, we as readers or viewers are meant to analyze them. Not to justify them, or to excuse their actions, but we are given the advantage of the outsider perspective to piece their characters together in context, understand why they are how they are, and witness them change; maybe I just haven’t been exposed to enough of the fandom, but no one (I’ve witnessed) treats the idea that “maybe Bakugou has feelings he can’t process or understand and so they manifest in aggressive and unchecked ways'' as a solution to his inability to communicate or process in a healthy way, rather it is just part of the explanation of his character, something is needs to — and is — working through. The solution to his middle school self is not the revelation of a “teehee, secret crush”, but self-reflection, remorse, and actively working to better oneself, which I do believe is canonically reflected, especially as of recently.

In canon, they are written to be partners, better together than apart, and I genuinely believe that one can like the Bakudeku dynamic not by route of romanticization but by observation.

I do think we are meant to see parallels between him and Endeavor; Endeavor is a high profile abuser who embodies the flaws and hypocrisy of the hero system. Bakugou is a schoolyard bully who emulates and internalizes the flaws of this system as a child, likely due to the structure of the society and the way that children will absorb the propaganda they are exposed to; the idea that Quirks, or power, define the inherent value of the individual, their ability to contribute to society, and subsequently their fundamental human worth. The difference between them is the fact that Endeavor is the literal adult who is fully and knowingly active within a toxic, corrupt system who forces his family to undergo a terrifying amount of trauma and abuse while facing little to no consequences because he knows that his status and the values of their society will protect him from those consequences. In other words, Endeavor is the threat of what Bakugou could have, and would have, become without intervention or genuine change.

Comparisons between characters, as parallels or foils, are tricky in that they imply but cannot confirm sameness. Having parallels with someone does not make them the same, by the way, but can serve to illustrate contrasts, or warnings. Harry Potter, for example, is meant to have obvious parallels with Tom Riddle, with similar abilities, and tragic upbringings. That doesn’t mean Harry grows up to become Lord Voldemort, but rather he helps lead a cross-generational movement to overthrow the facist regime. Harry is offered love, compassion, and friends, and does not embrace the darkness within or around him. As far as moldy old snake men are concerned, they do not deserve a redemption arc because they do not wish for one, and the truest of change only occurs when you actively try to change.

To be frank, either way, Bakugou was probably going to become a good Hero, in the sense that Endeavor is a ‘good’ Hero. Hero capitalized, as in a pro Hero, in the sense that it is a career, an occupation, and a status. Because of his strong Quirk, determination, skill, and work ethic, Bakugou would have made a good Hero. Due to his lack of character, however, he was not on the path to become a hero; defender of the weak, someone who saves people to save people, who is willing to make sacrifices detrimental to themselves, who saves people out of love.

It is necessary for him to undergo both a redemption arc and a symbolic death and rebirth in order for him to follow the path of a hero, having been inspired and prompted by Deku.

I personally don’t really like Endeavor’s little redemption arc, not because I don’t believe that people can change or that they shouldn't at least try to atone for the atrocities they have committed, but because within any narrative, a good redemption arc is important if it matters; what also matters is the context of that arc, and whether or not it was needed. For example, in ATLA, Zuko’s redemption arc is widely regarded as one of the best arcs in television history, something incredible. And it is. That shit fucks. In a good way.

It was confirmed that Azula was also going to get a redemption arc, had Volume 4 gone on as planned, and it was tentatively approached in the comics, which are considered canon. She is an undeniably bad person (who is willing to kill, threaten, exploit, and colonize), but she is also a child, and as viewers, we witness and recognize the factors that contributed to her (debatable) sociopathy, and the way that the system she was raised in failed her. Her family failed her; even Uncle Iroh, the wise mentor who helps guide Zuko to see the light, is willing to give up on her immediately, saying that she’s “crazy” and needs to be “put down”. Yes, it’s comedic, and yes, it’s pragmatic, but Azula is fourteen years old. Her mother is banished, her father is a psychopath, and her older brother, from her perspective, betrayed and abandoned her. She doesn’t have the emotional support that Zuko does; she exploits and controls her friends because it’s all she’s been taught to do; she says herself, her “own mother thought [she] was a monster; she was right, of course, but it still [hurts]”. A parent who does not believe in you, or a parent that uses you and will hurt you, is a genuine indicator of trauma.

The writers understood that both Zuko and Azula deserved redemption arcs. One was arguably further gone than the other, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are both children, products of their environment, who have the time, motive, and reason to change.

In contrast, you know who wouldn’t have deserved a redemption arc? Ozai. That simply would not have been interesting, wouldn’t have served the narrative well, and honestly, is not needed, thematically or otherwise. Am I comparing Ozai to Endeavor? Basically, yes. Fuck those guys. I don’t see a point in Endeavor’s little “I want to be a good dad now” arc, and I think that we don’t need to sympathize with characters in order to understand them or be interested in them. I want Touya/Dabi to expose his abuse, for his career to crumble, and then for him to die.

If they are not challenging the system that we the viewer are meant to question, and there is no thematic relevance to their redemption, is it even needed?

On that note, am I saying that Bakugou is the equivalent to Zuko? No, lmao. Definitely not. They are different characters with different progressions and different pressures. What I am saying is that good redemption arcs shouldn’t be handed out like candy to babies; it is the quality, rather than the quantity, that makes a redemption arc good. In terms of the commentary of the narrative, who needs a redemption arc, who is deserving, and who does it make sense to give one to?

In this case, Bakugou checks those boxes. It was always in the cards for him to change, and he has. In fact, he’s still changing.

Give it to Me Straight. It’s Homophobic.

There does seem to be an urge to obsessively gender either Bakugou or Deku, in making Deku the ultra-feminine, stereotypically hyper-sexualized “woman” of the relationship, with Bakugou becoming similarly sexualized but depicted as the hyper-masculine bodice ripper. On some level, that feels vaguely homophobic if not straight up misogynistic, in that in a gay relationship there’s an urge to compel them to conform under heteronormative stereotypes in order to be interpreted as real or functional. On one hand, I will say that in a lot of cases it feels like more of an expression of a kink, or fetishization and subsequent expression of internalized misogyny, at least, rather than a genuine exploration of the complexity and power imbalances of gender dynamics, expression, and boundaries.

That being said, I don’t think that that problematic aspect of shipping is unique to Bakudeku, or even to the fandom in general. We’ve all read fan work or see fanart of most gay ships in a similiar manner, and I think it’s a broader issue to be addressed than blaming it on a singular ship and calling it a day.

One interpretation of Bakugou’s character is his repression and the way his character functions under toxic masculinity, in a society’s egregious disregard for mental and emotional health (much like in the real world), the horrifying ways in which rage is rationalized or excused due to the concept of masculinity, and the way that characteristics that are associated with femininity — intellect, empathy, anxiety, kindness, hesitation, softness — are seen as stereotypically “weak”, and in men, traditionally emasculating. In terms of the way that the fictional universe is largely about societal priority and power dynamics between individuals and the way that extends to institutions, it’s not a total stretch to guess that gender as a construct is a relevant topic to expand on or at least keep in mind for comparison.

I think that the way in which characters are gendered and the extent to which that is a result of invasive heteronormativity and fetishization is a really important conversation to have, but using it as a case-by-case evolution of a ship used to condemn people isn’t conductive, and at that point, it’s treated as less of a real concern but an issue narrowly weaponised.

Love in Perspective, from the East v. West

Another thing I think could be elaborated on and written about in great detail is the way that the Eastern part of the fandom and the Western part of the fandom have such different perspectives on Bakudeku in particular. I am not going to go in depth with this, and there are many other people who could go into specifics, but just as an overview:

The manga and the anime are created for and targeted at a certain audience; our take on it will differ based on cultural norms, decisions in translation, understanding of the genre, and our own region-specific socialization. This includes the way in which we interpret certain relationships, the way they resonate with us, and what we do and do not find to be acceptable. Of course, this is not a case-by-case basis, and I’m sure there are plenty of people who hold differing beliefs within one area, but speaking generally, there is a reason that Bakudeku is not regarded as nearly as problematic in the East.

Had this been written by a Western creator, marketed primarily to and within the West (for reference, while I am Chinese, but I have lived in the USA for most of my life, so my own perspective is undoubtedly westernized), I would’ve immediately jumped to make comparisons between the Hero System and the American police system, in that a corrupt, or bastardized system is made no less corrupt for the people who do legitimately want to do good and help people, when that system disproportionately values and targets others while relying on propaganda that society must be reliant on that system in order to create safe communities when in reality it perpetuates just as many issues as it appears to solve, not to mention the way it attracts and rewards violent and power-hungry people who are enabled to abuse their power. I think comparisons can still be made, but in terms of analysis, it should be kept in mind that the police system in other parts of the world do not have the same history, place, and context as it does in America, and the police system in Japan, for example, probably wasn’t the basis for the Hero System.

As much as I do believe in the Death of the Author in most cases, the intent of the author does matter when it comes to content like this, if merely on the basis that it provides context that we may be missing as foreign viewers.

As far as the intent of the author goes, Bakugou is on a route of redemption.

He deserves it. It is unavoidable. That, of course, may depend on where you’re reading this.

Stuck in the Sludge, the Past, and Season One

If there’s one thing, to me, that epitomizes middle school Bakugou, it’s him being trapped in a sludge monster, rescued by his Quirkless childhood friend, and unable to believe his eyes. He clings to the ideology he always has, that Quirkless means weak, that there’s no way that Deku could have grown to be strong, or had the capacity to be strong all along. Bakugou is wrong about this, and continuously proven wrong. It is only when he accepts that he is wrong, and that Deku is someone to follow, that he starts his real path to heroics.

If Bakudeku’s relationship does not appeal to someone for whatever reason, there’s nothing wrong with that. They can write all they want about why they don’t ship it, or why it bothers them, or why they think it’s problematic. If it is legitimately triggering to you, then by all means, avoid it, point it out, etc. but do not undermine the reality of abuse simply to point fingers, just because you don’t like a ship. People who intentionally use the anti tag knowing it’ll show up in the main tag, go after people who are literally minding their own business, and accuse people of supporting abuse are the ones looking for a fight, and they’re annoying as hell because they don’t bring anything to the table. No evidence, no analysis, just repeated projection.

To clarify, I’m referring to a specific kind of shipper, not someone who just doesn’t like a ship, but who is so aggressive about it for absolutely no reason. There are plenty of very lovely people in this fandom, who mind their own business, multipship, or just don’t care.

Calling shippers dumb or braindead or toxic (to clarify, this isn’t targeting any one person I’ve seen, but a collective) based on projections and generalizations that come entirely from your own impression of the ship rather than observation is...really biased to me, and comes across as uneducated and trigger happy, rather than constructive or helpful in any way.

I’m not saying someone has to ship anything, or like it, in order to be a ‘good’ participant. But inserting derogatory material into a main tag, and dropping buzzwords with the same tired backing behind it without seeming to understand the implications of those words or acknowledging the development, pacing, and intentional change to the characters within the plot is just...I don’t know, it comes across as redundant, to me at least, and very childish. Aggressive. Toxic. Problematic. Maybe the real toxic shippers were the ones who bitched and moaned along the way. They’re like little kids, stuck in the past, unable to visualize or recognize change, and I think that’s a real shame because it’s preventing them from appreciating the story or its characters as it is, in canon.

But that’s okay, really. To each their own. Interpretations will vary, preferences differ, perspectives are not uniform. There is no one truth. There are five seasons of the show, a feature film, and like, thirty volumes as of this year.

All I’m saying is that if you want to stay stuck in the first season of each character, then that’s what you’re going to get. That’s up to you.

This may be edited or revised.

#bakudeku #meta #my hero academia #boko no hero academia #bnha #mha #bakugou katsuki #izuku midoriya #ok these are just my general thoughts in response to the people who have hang ups about this ship #like y’all need to pls chill tf out ok #this is also not comprehensive and could definitely be elaborated on #but it’s just general thoughts #it’s just addressing general opposition I’ve seen #I never thought I’d ever write this much about this ship wtf

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