#people saying like ‘i hate this character because he lies and schemes��� and it’s like. Okay???? that’s what he’s supposed to do tho??????

[starbuck]

had a dream last night that someone said they didn’t like one of the characters in [redacted] because he was “too arrogant” and i was SO mad i was like “IMAGINE missing the point this hard. EVERYONE in this film is wrong in some way that’s the entire POINT! why would you expect or even WANT any of these characters to be perfect victims? you’re not even really SUPPOSED to like them - it’s a TRAGEDY!” and now i’m awake and realize that nobody actually said that or probably even would say that but Anyway… Cunt Supremacy.

[your-dear-memmy]

I rewatched drv3 and I want to say that I don't dislike Saiouma nor Shuichi at all, -quite the opposite, really!!- but I hate that the basis for it seems to be the mistranslation of Kokichi deeming Shuichi "trustworthy" when in the og game he labels him with "stay catious", which is the OPPOSITE of trustworthy.

Of course he'd be suspicious of a detective being put into a murder mystery killing game, he thought Shuichi was the mastermind! It's such a turn off whenever the "trustworthy" thing is mentioned in fics because it doesn't make any sense: It's not like they had many positive interactions together that would justify Shuichi somehow being trustworthy- at best there's the time Shuichi bandaged Kokichi's finger (basing it all on that would be too emotion driven for someone as logical as Kokichi), at worst there's when Shuichi left Kokichi's concussed ahh to wobble off screen.

(Unrelated, but why do people write Kokichi SOLELY thinking of Shuichi on his deathbed, rather than DICE? He suspects DICE isn't real but in his mind that's his family and always has been. People idly mention Gonta too occasionally, but aside from the guilt of getting him killed, Kokichi would think of Gonta more, bc they were actually friends and were often seen hanging out.)

Also the way Kokichi's arc ends with Shuichi deciding there was nothing to Kokichi but lies hurt sm like WDYM? Kaito may have omitted some things, but he still spelled the answer out for you, detective. (He figures it out later when going into Kokichi's room though so it's not a big deal but STILL💔💔)

I just wish saiouma fics weren't so centered on, well... A lie. There's still plenty of ways to develop them together, even without the trustworthy label! I like their ship, to an extent, and I believe it can be done well while staying true to the og game, but so many things about them seem to be taken at face value rather than truly analyzed. Their dynamic would be more interesting if it stayed true to them, and if both of their flaws were acknowledged, as well as the mind games there could be with Kokichi suspecting Shuichi.

Crazy how the localization also fucked up Kokichi's relationship with Kaito (for example, in ch 2 in the og Kaito tells Maki to let Kokichi go or he'll die, while in the english ver he tells her to let him go or she'll die; end of ch 5, og Kaito says "He was a liar to the core", rather than "he was a lying sack of shit" ) and Gonta (in the og it was more clear Gonta and Kokichi were scheming together in ch2, and that Gonta knew about the true purpose of the insect meet and greet; in general, Gonta is portayed in the english ver as a dumb caveman and I wish people wrote him by just making him talk formally but in the third person like he does in japanese, because it takes away from his character- and, by extension, Kokichi's)

I've read SO much fanfiction in this fandom, and the probability of me finding something that addresses the canon dynamics rather than the localization ones is lower than the chance of a meteorite coming to kill me on my birthday. What a shame.

I still love most things this fandom makes, so I guess this -the trustworthy thing- is just a pet peeve of mine.

[shiongenkai]

City of Ill Omens Spoilers!

Lowkey turned into Hyde analysis

Truly tickles me how many people are fully in the 'Hyde is evil' camp bc of this chapter now. Bc like. TO ME? THIS ALL FEELS VERY NEUTRAL STILL.

Like I genuinely can read it as Benevolent or Malevolent and I really adore that aspect of TKDB's writing. BECAUSE LIKE?

Hodge and Podge were pissy with him. Could be evil! Could also be that they're pissy with him bc he's annoying (lovingly). They cut him off when he's asking to see the mark, which could honestly be a 'He's up to no good' moment or a 'He's a perv and they're about to throttle him' moment (like Rui @ Ed)

Hyde gives Romeo a 'fake' warding card. Malevolent reading says hey yeah, bitch lied about that. Benevolent reading says hey no, he did say anomalous damage could go either way, and Taiga's gun is An Anomaly. They were In The Anomalous Building. You know?

Even the warding card itself goes either way, which is the best thing of all. Snowdrops mean hope and comfort / consolation, etc. It is ALSO associated with death and can accidentally mean 'I hope you die'. Benevolent and Malevolent reading Still Works.

Honestly? I'm on the fence! Taiga hates him a ton which is interesting, but not damning to me. Hyde is rooting for Taiga and Romeo to reconcile in at least one way or another, and he does seem like the kinda guy who'd make himself the villain to give two students a common enemy, doesn't he?

For every Seemingly Bad thing he does, he does a Seemingly Good one. Lies to MC about some things, but lies to Darkwick about others (for his students' sakes). Seems carefree for some things, but intensely serious for others.

You can even read his actions in respect to reinstating the crown in this way. Malevolent reading says he forces us into that bunk deal so we fail at it and the gala isn't reinstated. Benevolent reading says he forces us into that bunk deal because it is genuinely important for the ghouls to Work Together. Malevolent reading says he's tearing Romeo and Taiga apart on purpose, Benevolent says the opposite. It's AWESOMEE.

I just love how often this dichotomy of 'Good or Bad' comes up with him. Black or White. Benevolent or Malevolent.

And I mean this very literally. His colour scheme is Black and White. His ID is black and white (Benkei's, notably, is in colour). His name is Hyde, derived from Jekyll and Hyde. Hodge and Podge are his companions and they are two vastly different personalities and looks. On one hand, on the other hand. This, or that.

He's also like.... His eyes are covered. Is he blinded himself? Or is he blinding Us? Is he covering his eyes so We don't know, or is he shielding them from Us? Kyklos reproduces by having you look at her eyes, the security cameras are Cyclops Eyes, Mesmer Matches require you to look into the flames for them to work... Seeing and sight and Looking are all deeply important to the world of Tokyo Debunker on both a physical and meta level (people are blind to the issues, things are hidden out of sight, etc) and so it's interesting to have a character like Hyde, especially contrasted against other characters like that!! Those who seem the most 'blind' to their circumstances are actually the ones who know the most. I'd argue in some ways MC fits this too. It's just so, so interesting.

It's fun! It's so fun. I genuinely can't make a judgement on him for certain yet. Is he good? Is he evil? Can't he be both? Is he pro-Darkwick or anti-Darkwick? Is he Helping us or Hurting us?

And like, we don't have answers yet to Big Important Questions. Shit like, hey, what's Sho's special mission? What's his involvement in the trial? What is his End Goal? And it's fun to poke at and look at and just explore. God Hyde is so fun. There's so many questions to ask about him and it's fun to try to piece together the answers.

I just love the staff in general too. I love how all of them have very unique motivations and viewpoints, and how many layers there are to it all. I think either version (Hyde is foe vs Hyde is friend) is really, really interesting, and I think TKDB can easily go either way. I love the idea that he's a red herring to somebody else but I also think evil Hyde goes hard. Ough. Hyde............ let me into your brain!!!!!

[gleefullypolin]

Stacy's Tipsy Musing's - Colin Bridgerton Hot Takes - Part 4

Ok boys and girls, we need to have a little chat about Colin Bridgerton.

Part 2 has been out now for a couple of days and there have been a lot of hot takes to come out of the season. A LOT of hot takes. I’m going to break this down into 4 parts. 4 questions that I'm seeing really bad hot takes about Colin.

Now none of this is new, I gotta say before Season 3 aired Colin was a hot button topic anyway. He seemed to be the Bridgerton brother that lots of people love to spew hate takes on anyway. But damn I gotta say its painful seeing the Polin fandom have so many bad takes falling from their lips.

So, I figured...having a little drink tonight, sitting down for Father’s Day (Happy Father’s Day, Colin) I’d give you the opinion on some of these takes that you didn’t ask for...Mine!

Last time we talked about Colin’s entrapment statement to Pen and if he truly meant it.  Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, now lets get to Question 4:

How could Colin refuse to listen to Pen and just jump in to fix the situation with Cressida?

Colin “Hero Complex” Bridgerton to the rescue! This one is the easiest to answer because it has been coded throughout all 3 seasons to his character.

Season 1: Needed to save Marina from ruin. Even after finding out that she lied to him, tricked him, was pregnant with another man’s child, he STILL would have married her if she had told him she loved him. Like the boy had hero written on his chest and wanted to rip his shirt and fly into the sky to save her. He was the star of his own action story until it all came crashing to the ground the moment the damsel told him she didn’t love him. She thought him a foolish child.

Season 2: We have a couple of hero moments in season 2. He’s still stuck on there being a chance at redeeming himself at saving Marina, visiting her to see if she is happy, if there is anything he could have done differently for her. And once again he is told to stop living in a fairytale. The damsel is not in distress.

Our second hero moment comes in Jack Featherington. This time he gets to be the hero; he saves the ladies Featherington from his schemes. He proves him to be a fraud and runs him out of town. He has no idea that Portia is actually in on the scheme or that it has put the Featherington house into its own ruin at this point, but he rushes in to save the day without thinking ahead of anything else. Damsels in distress, Colin to the rescue.

Season 3: Ok, Pen needs to find a husband, Colin to the rescue. Balloon in Pen's path, Colin to the rescue. Pen is in danger, the Queen has advanced on her, and now Cressida is threatening. Colin does not even hear Pen the moment she speaks, all he hears is danger and he begins to act. His wife is in danger, and he will protect her. Hero mode activated. Again, Colin does not think ahead, he only thinks that his purpose is to protect. So he does not stop to listen to reason, he doesn’t hear Pen’s words or even sense, he just takes action.

The action at hand was apparently to go have a therapy session with Cressida Cowper, because that is what he did. A passionate plea with a woman who had no empathy. It was one of the best scenes however, because it was interesting to me that Colin was unable to tell Pen how he was feeling, but he opened up to Cressida and spilled his thoughts. Why? Because he did not care about her judgement, he did not care about her feelings toward him.

He admitted to feeling loss when Pen did not respond to his letters, he admitted to becoming a fraud, a shell, a person who closed himself off to feelings because he lost the person who opened him up to that piece of himself. He spoke of Pen’s treatment, he also tried to separate her once again from Lady Whistledown as if Pen was simply working for the woman and not actually the person holding the quill.

But Cressida was quick to pass her judgment, she clocked his jealousy immediately. He tried to appeal to her about love, family, fairness, and loneliness. Things he incorrectly assumed she would understand, but Colin, just like Eloise, is a sheltered Bridgerton’s who do not always understand how lucky they are, and he misjudged her reaction.

And our hero returned defeated by our villain. He faced the consequences of rushing in without listening to his wife. She thanked him for his counsel and his heart sank. Once again, the damsel did not need him. Once again, his purpose was gone.

It is only when she tells him she does not need him to be her hero, she simply needs him by her side that he understands his purpose. He doesn’t need to rush in to be her hero. He simply needs to love her. Sometimes the damsel saves herself. Colin truly is that wonderful romance hero I dream of.

Stick around for a bonus question....

I can’t believe Colin was going to just take 20,000 pounds from the Bridgerton funds, he doesn’t even have a job to take money from the family?

[gingacat]

my oc twisted from Zira

name: Zakari D'Ekon

birthday: December 8th

age: 17

height: 181 cm

homeland: Sunset Savanna

grade: Sophomore

class: 2-D

club: Board Game Club

best subject: Practical magic

hobbies: Tabletop RPG

pet peeves: Blandness

favorite food: Bunny chow

least favorite food: Chicken

talent: Being delusional

Personality

Don't let his pretty face deceive you, Zakari is weird. He has a wild imagination and tends to believe he is much more than he actually is. He spends most of the time spacing out, which makes people wonder what is this ikemen prince thinking about, but behind that pretty face of his lies a scheming gay. He is always planning "evil" edgy things that he would not really do at all, but he still thinks about it bc idk?? He thinks it's cool and he is a cool edgelord in his mind.

He's delusional and a personal dream of his is to win against Leona. Zakari makes his entire life goal to compete against him, but since Zakari is too prideful to go following Leona around like a fan, he competes against him in "imaginary battles". He also tried the Savanaclaw housewarden position in his mind. 💀

Students can oftentimes find Zakari mumbling to himself or talking to the voices in his head — it's better to leave him alone, he might bite.

Behind this weird ahh persona of his, he's actually a nice guy, but again, he's too prideful to admit.

Background

Surprisingly enough, he had a normal life. His mom was one of the royal guards of the Kingscholar family, and child Zakari would oftentimes encounter child Leona around. They were kind of friends, but Zakari's admiration twisted into a kinda toxic competition with Zakari wanting to be better than Leona.

Zakari might have evolved into a chuunibyou because his life was really just boring, and he was very boring himself (that's what he thinks, but is that the truth???), so he wanted to be a "cool" guy, and maybe have a personality that is interesting.

Trivia

Zakari is quick to lose his temper and does throw a lot of threats around, but he's... a kind soul deep inside. He says he would exterminate all flies from the world, but he wouldn't really hurt a single one.

"Ekon" means strong.

He hates chicken because in his opinion chicken tastes bland — it was his favorite food when he was a kid.

He likes tabletop RPG because he can be the coolest character however he wants.

Zakari believes wearing makeup makes him look less boring, but it's honestly not even for the aesthetic it's just for the competition 😭.

a/n: i changed almost everything about him, but in my opinion this version is better. this personality does not fit his design at all, but ig that's the intention???? 😭

[martialartslover7]

Rant: Naruto was lied to, ALL HIS LIFE, yet no one seems to care.

Honestly, I need to know... ...did Kakashi, or anyone else that was even remotely familiar with Minato and his family, ever tell Naruto, who his parents really were? Or even so much as HINTING at who his parents were, without even directly stating their names, or their origins? And I don't mean the audience getting the hints, I mean, Naruto himself, in person.

Because, so far, going off of pure memory here, having seen a bit of the manga as well, I just couldn't recall ever seeing one singular moment where either Iruka, Kakashi, Tsunade, or even Jiraiya ever let word slip of who Naruto's parents were, and I don't mean just saying "4th Hokage", because that piece of information feels like gaslighting in the grand scheme of things, and for another, Naruto is an idiot. He is one of those people who can't tell the difference between poop and apple sauce. You HAVE to spell it out to him. Not like it matters now, because he already got the chance to meet both Minato and Kushina, while being in his subconscious with Kurama. But what irks me about all this, hear me out:

First of all, let me get you up to speed. As Kushina and Minato meet their maker, in their early 20s, knocking at god's gates and going "yo, wuzzup", remember this entire shot here. Where Hiruzen promises, to Kushina's face, as she is slowly passing on, that he will be taking "full responsibility of their baby...

...and did he ever keep that promise?

At this point, if you even paid attention to the story, no, you are not expecting me to say Yes, are you? Because he freaking didn't. Let's stop lying to ourselves, and if you are defending him, then you are actively making excuses for the abuser, just like how Naruto would do it, because he is "too pure of heart" to hate anyone.

Because, frankly, this is possibly, the absolute worst thing you can do to an orphan, who had parents, who were both war heroes, and who we, as the audience, witnessed them throwing their lives away to save his life. Lying to them is one thing, but the problem is:

Naruto never got any straight answers. NO ONE even gave him any concise hints as to who Minato or Kushina were.

So when I see panels like this, I instantly get pissed off, because, what Naruto is doing here, is no different from how Stockholm Syndrome works, I am not a psychologist, but given how the series never touched upon how, at the end of the day, Naruto is still just a normal guy, not a legend, not a Hokage, not "Ninja Jesus who gave the murderer of his parents a thumbs up, calling him cool", leaving all the memes aside, this is just freaking messed up. It's not "mature" to repress all your resentment towards an individual, who fucking LIED to you, all your life. Much less when all your life, all these lies have caused you to suffer, day in, day out. No sane individual would NOT break after all this, Naruto is still human at the end of the day, and NO ONE should lose respect for him, should he snap, after all. Because this right here, this is not being mature, that's being a potential danger to yourself. Why else do you think, Sakura was confirmed to have opened up mental clinics for both children, and orphans?

GEE, I WONDER WHY.

And before anyone gets smart on me, "this is the point of Naruto's character, he is too pure of heart to hate, we are supposed to follow along on his journey, as he wrestles these demons", come on, stop bullshitting yourself. This is not why people love Naruto at heart. We all loved him, because, even with all these hidden strengths given to him by his parents, these strengths had always been a sore spot, as it had given him nothing but problems. But the satisfaction came from him confronting those problems, and capitalizing on them. The point of him "being too pure" is nonsense, birthed from Kishimoto's nonsensical writing decisions, let us all leave the bullshit on the floor. Because, if you reduce Naruto to all this, that he would "never be villain material", that he is "loyal to the village", yeah, just shut up, man. It's one thing idolizing him, but being straight up delulu like this, there is a reason, why so many fans find the idea of Naruto himself going rogue so appealing and interesting, because, now that we know, through Itachi Shinden, that it had been Danzo to leak the information about Naruto's status as a jinchuriki, which, according to the novel, went along the lines of (not directly, but summarized in a nutshell):

"Hoping to unite the village in times of crisis, needing a scapegoat for all their issues."

I mean, sure, you can mature and seasoned about this, and not allow this hatred to affect you, however, people really seem to underestimate how soul-crushing that can be to learn that, all your life, you have been fed nothing but lies, and if not, then at the very least, being left to rot in a deafening silence, that never went away, even with age.

Ha.

Hahaha.

You know who this reminds me of? Ah yes.

Plus, in the grand scheme of things, the way it's constructed and written, comes off like, the Senju / Uzumaki will always be the good guys, no matter what, and the Uchiha are doomed to be evil and self-destructive, especially when you consider, near the end of Shippuden, once the Sage of the Six Paths dropped by, and claimed that Naruto and Sasuke are reincarnations of his off-spring...

...which not only ruins the story for me, as it robs each and every single character of their individual agency, with this fate angle pretty much ruining any ounce of credibility the story ever had, it also cheapens all of Naruto's and Sasuke's experiences, which now, bearing all this in mind, can be visually boiled down to: Senju/Uzumaki? Good. Uchiha? Bad. It's just so LAME. Because by that point, we are no longer talking about individuals who came this far of their own volition, no, it was always DESTINED to happen. So, no, anyone excusing this, you should be ashamed of yourself, you do not DESERVE to call yourself a fan to me. You came for the humans behind the "legends", but you only stayed for the legends, not the people behind them.

And back to the topic at hand:

With Jiraiya, it makes even less sense to me, because... Again. Everyone in the story keeps saying "The 4th Hokage". For us. The audience. This is clear. The hint is visible that, this guy might possibly be Naruto's father / relative / uncle, whatever. That much is clear.

But Naruto is the one who is repeatedly being kept in the dark on this. Jiraiya and Kakashi know. They KNOW. Who Minato and Kushina are. But Naruto doesn't. And yet, you mean to tell me that, in all these years that Naruto had spent time training with Jiraiya, never once, not even ONE time, did he think to ask him, "Oh, by the way, you keep comparing me to the 4th Hokage, why is this guy so special to you?"? Never once did he grow suspicious of him?

I mean, don't get me wrong, Minato, in spite of his debonair gentleman appearance, and the soft demeanor he bears around Kushina, has...

And I am putting this charitably...

...A FEW skeletons in the closet, considering how CONCERNINGLY HIGH his kill count is. The story kept presenting him like some form of "saint", like, he can never do wrong, and his face is "all you need to see" to verify, "This guy can't be THAT cold-blooded a monster in secret, right?", even though we all know how dirty war is, as a business, no less. So maybe Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade or even Iruka would have hesitated to tell Naruto, because he might then start holding Minato to an unreasonably clean and prestine standard, that he doesn't deserve, all because he used to be the Hokage, and Minato knows it himself. If this was explicitly implied and said anywhere, I wouldn't flung two shits at it, but because of how blurry and murky this entire plot point is presented, I am honestly concerned a little about the overarching, narrative cohesion of it.

And all memes aside, I legit have to ask the question, this is something that really needs answering...

...WHERE DID ALL THE INHERITENCE MONEY GO TO?

Seriously, you honestly mean to tell me, Minato and Kushina were pinching pennies in their lifetime? Even when Minato was assigned to be Hokage? And hell, Kushina was a Jonin before her death, meaning her salary also couldn't have been THAT low. Like, what the hell happened? Where is all the money that Naruto needed, when he was a kid? Like, if you are going to keep secrets from a little kid, because you fear for the future, that's one thing, but if he was already going to be a risk factor either way, you could have tampered with the misery, by at least giving him some stronger financial support, instead of always giving him the bare minimum.

It's honestly a miracle to me that Naruto, the moment he became an orphan, has even made it past the age of 3, when we know practically NOTHING over who took on the job of raising him, or even giving him the breast, because Hiruzen wasn't doing shit to help here. And again, if Pt. 1's story still counts, it means, EVERYONE evaded him. He bore the Nine Tailed Fox, yet the villagers were doing the equivalent to repeatedly trampling with their feet over a nuclear warhead, knowingly waiting for it to go off at any minute.

WHO WAS TAKING CARE OF THIS KID?!?!?!

Naruto couldn't change diapers on his own, or sustain himself, or even so much as clean himself, he was a freaking BABY. How did he even survive all this neglect? Children. Need. Doting attention. They NEED it. It's medically IMPERATIVE. To have a motherly presence. Taking care of them, and holding them. Yet, we never got a clear answer on who was raising him, when he was still a diaper-crapper.

Headcanon time: I personally think, the people who have raised Naruto, when he was still a baby, were three people. For a while, it was Kakashi and Anko (both were still teenagers around that time, making this incredibly sad, too), mostly due to how Kakashi, out of sheer guilt and grief for his sensei, decides to raise his son, as a way to make up for his "failure", and Anko gladly helps him out, because she wants to prove to Hiruzen that she is nothing like Orochimaru, because like Naruto, she also blindly trusted and loved the old man, just for giving her a proper place to stay. Again, Kakashi and Anko shippers, go to town on this one. And the third person: Sasuke's mom, Mikoto.

We saw how close Kushina and Mikoto were, when both were still alive, so imagine how much it must have broken Mikoto's heart to see her best friend's baby boy, all alone, with no motherly presence to keep him warm and secure. So, against Hiruzen's or Danzo's orders, not even caring what the village thinks of her anymore, because the Uchiha clan's reputation was already lying in the garbage dumpster by then, she treated Naruto, as though she had adopted him into the family. Your hearts melting yet?

In conclusion, to give you the TL;DR version:

But honestly, even with all this, in the end, Hiruzen remains just that: Human. And I cannot demonize him too hard, because at the end of the day, Danzo was being a way bigger piece of garbage than he could ever hope to me, and when you are old as him, at a certain point, the world just keeps moving on without you, you are no longer part of the times you live in. Hiruzen should be harshly judged for never taking enough action, but picking him as the villain also doesn't feel right, since, most of the shit that happened, mostly took place, because of his elderly naivité. He is a product of the era he was born into...

...but believe me, I still crave for Naruto, Anko or Kushina to approach Hiruzen, may it be in the world of the living, or the afterlife, exactly like this, to pour their hearts out to him to remind him:

"You threw me away like trash. Right when I needed you most! You have no idea, what those years were like! I TRUSTED NO ONE! LEAST OF ALL MYSELF! ...All because of YOU!"

Based on this scene from the final season of Cobra Kai. The words all match the characters to a tee, man. Every. Single. Word. Naruto really needs this level of emotional closure, let us stop bullshitting ourselves, he is repressing so much internalized frustration with this old man, and he needs this, more than either of us realizes.

Enough ranting, because this topic genuinely makes me sad. The poor lad is a master at wearing masks to keep everyone from worrying about him, the same way he did to Sakura about his goal to bring Sasuke back, man... Some things will never change. Especially when you spend all your life serving a village, that forces you to live in a cage, and not even having the courtesy to tell you the truth when it counts.

PEACE.

[extremely-judgemental]

Long Post (From the Drafts)

I love patterns and recurring themes. When I was reading Crescent City, at first glance, there were a lot of parallels between Danika and Rhysand. They both lie to their loved ones, exploit them, manipulate them, take away their bodily autonomy. Danika is basically Rhysand 2.0, only she is a woman and everyone genuinely seems to love her. I didn’t finish the third book and so I’m not very sure about Bryce’s growth in the end except that she becomes the Fae Queen and she demolishes monarchy among the fae. Now that got my attention.

To preface, this isn’t a character critique on Bryce although it seems like it. It’s just SJM is too predictable in her writing and keeps recycling the same thing.

Half-bloods. Some Voldemort shit this is.

Rhysand is part High Fae and part Illyrian. Bryce is part fae, part human. This half-breed nature, however, gives them an advantage over the others belonging to the same race/species. In Bryce’s case, added to some physical perks, her morality is also rooted in her humaneness which makes her supposedly better than the fae.

Both of them hate one or both sides of their ancestry. Rhysand even refuses to rule 2/3 of his court because of this hatred. Bryce is self-righteous and this extends to some of the Vanir too.

Can’t be anything less than ‘The Most Powerful’

Rhysand self-proclaims as the most powerful High Lord to exist and considered the most reliable to unite Prythian by his friends when he can’t even rule his entire court on his own.

Bryce marginally surpasses her father in magical powers making her eligible to rule her people. She is rallied as the one to unite the fae factions in Midgard as evidenced by Cormac’s words. The prince who was raised to rule his people admitting a woman who is prejudiced against his race and took no interest in learning the ins and outs of FiRo saying she’s fit to be a queen. Sounds familiar? (Bryce may have a good heart but that’s not enough to lead. Politics is treated like a child’s play in these series that I want to murder someone.)

Ruler who won’t rule

Keir runs Hewn City. Generals like Devlon run Illyria. Morrigan runs Velaris. Rhysand creates a court that dreams for centuries.

Now, Bryce. She implements the first ever fae democracy in Midgard. It sounds very much like she handed her responsibilities over to a council while she keeps her title. (Like I said, dnf the book, so correct me if she gave up that power too.) It seems a good choice since she doesn’t have any experience in governing people but we’ll circle back to it.

Lying is the new smarts.

There is difference between being a cunning mastermind who wields their words and being an outright liar. Rhysand, Feyre, Bryce are smart because all they ever do is lie.

When Rhysand is scheming, no one is spared. Everyone is a pawn in his games. This trait is overlooked in Bryce because of her empathetic tendencies and how she throws herself into dangers for her loved ones. But she is guilty too. When everyone is looking for the human boy, Bryce makes her friends chase ghosts in order to cover her tracks. Even Fury, a reputed assassin, wants to be left out of Bryce’s plans. June never wants to be part of it either and only offers to help for the sake of the boy. Bryce manipulates them and drags them to the Meat Market all so she can meet the Viper Queen without raising suspicion. And Hunt is like a dumb puppy who just follows her around when she screws up. He could have very well been lobotomised after book 1.

And the same happens when Bryce takes her parents to Velaris. What happened to the human boy she put everyone at risk to save? I only read the bonus chapter, so let me know what this boy who’s more vulnerable than Ember and Randall and just clawed his way out of a concentration camp was doing in Midgard.

And, neither Rhysand nor Bryce take being lied to or denied lightly.

The burdens of their mighty power.

Rhysand respects no one and loves lording his powers over others. Nothing new here, so let’s talk about Bryce. Midgard is a very biased world where humans and any creature with little power is treated as less than, no different from Prythian on that front. Bryce hates authority as she’s subjected to this treatment as well. But she also enjoys certain perks all through her life. She is rescued from the interrogation right after Danika’s death, secures a decent life being Danika’s friend and through her allies. She has the advantage to act out because of her connections to these powerful players in the Midgard but she has a ‘might as well enjoy while it lasts’ attitude hating anyone who also does the same. Eventually many are swayed by her personality (which wasn’t personally compelling to me but whatever) although she had a strong footing in that world because of the very privileges she despises.

Book 1 Bryce was way better and a bit grounded to her reality but she changes so much after inheriting the powers from the Drop. Everyone constantly has to get a stamp of approval from her time and time again. No one is given the benefit of the doubt until they prove themselves meanwhile she lies and tricks. She has no respect for anyone’s rules. Yes, her world is fucked up and she is the rebel who breaks every notion there is that oppress innocent people but she takes it too far sometimes. She hates hierarchy. But she uses her name to ‘help’ June and later is unyielding when asked to take the responsibility that comes with it. She insults Cormac in front of everyone but gets away with it. And my favourite, when Nesta and Azriel warn her about the dangers, Bryce—knowing nothing about that world—goes on and on about her birthright and upheavals the Prison because she heard a calling. The last one was out of desperation but she can be pretty stupid and entitled. Most of the times, she is just lucky that things don’t backfire badly.

Combining all this, one thing is clear. The ones who are the least eligible to run a democracy always get to stay at the top, and not to mention they come with immense power which is one of the many reasons they are chosen in the first place. What they truly portray is an unopposed authority with unlimited resources whenever they desire.

Rhysand, Feyre, Bryce—none of them play by anyone’s rules. They have a holier-than-thou attitude and only a select few are offered their trust, that too after they have proven themselves useful in some way. They abhor anyone in power, anyone who wants power, but never hesitate to flaunt their own or pull ranks. For someone who fights for the commoners, they tend to endanger civilians at whim. Rhysand and Feyre look down on other High Lords and question their strength when they don’t play along. Bryce does the same to anyone who doesn’t want to help her and thereby don’t adhere to her moral standards.

Right now, Bryce imitates Rhysand’s rule in Night Court. She has distanced herself from the ruling by creating a council to care for FiRo. And considering the above, how will Bryce exactly handle when her council doesn’t agree with her? She is deeply prejudiced against fae and she views them as shallow and unreliable across worlds, given she has a good reason at the start to believe so. Someone who’s always broken rules to get her way, what will she do with the power she holds? Will she wait around for people to decide, or use her title, or scheme behind their backs and turn the council into a metaphorical government? Especially if it involves the humans somehow.

Basically the Court of Dreams and the Council in FiRo is just a motif to suggest that these characters are epitome of goodness and fit to be a ruler when none of them prove to be worthy. Democracy is not a principle that’s truly valued in these series but a backdrop as it is acceptable in the society.

PS Since these are self-inserts, do I dare say the ‘better than everyone hybrids’ are SJM projecting her complex about her own heritage? If any of you confirm that Aelin or one of her popular friends fit this criteria, I’m calling it because three is a pattern.

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 4 (2/4)

Propaganda under the cut!

BENNY

The first thing that happens in new vegas is that benny fucking shoots your character in the face, steals your shit and leaves you in an open grave. Benny is by all accounts a bastard. He kills you, steals from you, he killed his last boss, he is the single most duplicitous man around. His gang are all about honesty- except him. He's a lying, cheating bastard. The guys who helped him catch you? He skipped on paying them and left them to get shot to death. His new boss, mr.house? He stole his robot, broke it open, got someone to reprogram it and decided to use it to TAKE OVER THE WHOLE OF VEGAS. Benny literally kills people, lies to people, steals their shit and takes charge. That's all benny does. He gets fucking CRUCIFIED if you don't help him out just because so many people fucking hate him. And yet. And yet. Benny is the single most compelling character in the whole game to me. He's just a little guy! He's just there! You can get shot in the head and come back and he goes "what in the goddamn" and then if you try and flirt with him he's like "uhhh sure? Okay?" And leaves you a polite note in the morning. He's fancy. He wears a stupid suit. He has a tiny gun with shitty bullets. He's catholic. He talks like an old timey news presenter. Literally nobody else in the entire game does that. He's got an intelligence of 3. He's my funtime boy. My silly little man. He's so funny. The antagonist in this game is a guy dressed like a tablecloth who looks at all times like a confused dog who doesn't understand what a tv is. And like. He's compelling. He robs from you, shoots you, but…. he never seems to actually wish you harm. He kills and robs and lies but like. He apologises for doing it to you. When he sees you again he doesn't attack you, he's just… confused. He tries to defuse the situation. You can convince him to talk to you, alone, with no guards and it's not that hard. If you spare his life, he doesn't go after you, like. Even if you sleep with him he doesn't take advantage of that and kill you, even if you try to. He… he just leaves. He gives you an apology. If he gets kidnapped by Caesar He just… apologizes again. He tells you his whole plan to take over the city, too. He thinks he'll die, and he wants something of him to survive. He's happy that you made it. And if you let him free, he just… leaves. He knows he's beat, he doesn't want to cause any more trouble. He walks out and leaves. The NCR will kill you if you cross them. The legion will crucify you. House? He'll blow you the fuck up. But benny, the guy who lies and cheats and schemes, he's honest. He's polite. He's… harmless. You can kill him with a single shot if you want. And he can't kill you. He doesn't kill you the first time, and he'll never really hurt you again. Benny just wanted to win. When he knows he's beat he just leaves. No lingering, no harm, he's off, off into the desert heat, and never seen again. Isn't that just insane? like have you ever known an antagonist so polite? He just leaves!! He offers you a drink!! His plan is genuinely probably the best one for the people of new vegas!!! He's. Benny is Benny. Anyway if you want to see some REAL propaganda go to the blog letmebegaytodd and look in the #benny tag. You'll Understand < https://www.tumblr.com/letmebegaytodd/717051175751614464/in-another-life-i-wouldve-really-liked-just> <- look at this shit man

AZULA

Azula explicitly considers herself a monster. She says needlessly cruel things to her brother and friends. She kills the show's twelve-year-old protagonist and masterminds the idea of burning down the entire Earth Kingdom to force them to submit to Fire Nation rule. I have absolutely seen people get called abuse apologists for thinking she's a cool character. But she's also a (canonically) mentally ill fourteen-year-old who was raised by her father to see her ability to be weaponized as her only value. Her mother, arguably the only adult in her life who could have had a positive impact, had a strained relationship with her because she was more difficult than her brother, and then disappeared when she was nine. Her uncle, who was her brother's main healthy role model, took absolutely no interest in her. She watched her father belittle her brother for years and eventually throw him away when he failed to meet his expectations, so that was a threat she was always facing. She really had no chance. And she also has moments that suggest she wants some sort of meaningful connection with another person. She lets her brother take credit for killing the Avatar so he can come back from exile, even though it means she'll be bumped back in the order of succession and offers him advice that seems genuine. Her spiral into a mental breakdown starts when her friends betray her. She's just a much more interesting and multifaceted than a lot of the fandom gives her credit for.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Do you think Lila had real feelings for Adrien (even if based on shallow reasons) or she only wanted to date him to bolster her fame and reputation ? Some people pointed out that in Oni-Chan Lila told the akumatized Kagami that she can't give up on pursuing Adrien cause she's in love with him and her lying detector horn didn't grow after saying that, implying that she was saying the truth about her feelings for him. In Protection she implied again to Kagami that Adrien choosing Marinette over her also hurt her deeply cause she was in love with him, but that could've been just a trick to keep manipulating Kagami by relating to her situation.

In any way this doesn't seem to go in hand with Lila's S5 portrayal where she's presented as a literal psychopath who switches identities and whole families whenever it's convenient to her, which obviously implies that Lila can't feel real emotions to other people if she can so easily jump from a "mom" to another one. So I'm feeling a bit confused if Adrien was also meant to be another pawn in Lila's schemes (whatever they are) or was a genuine connection on her end (even if a twisted one).

I looked at the Oni-Chan transcript because I didn't remember Lila ever saying that and:

Oni-Chan: I forbid you to go anywhere near Adrien. (slices car with bokken) Give up on him and I will spare you. Lila: Adrien? I don't know anyone named Adrien. Oni-Chan: Don't lie to me! Lila: I'm really sorry, but I always get what I want. It's not my fault.

Unless this exchange is wildly different in French or one of the other translations, I think it's a stretch to call this a love confession. Wanting Adrien and being in love with Adrien are not necessarily the same thing. In the context of this episode, I'd actually go so far as to call them wildly different things.

Nothing about this episode makes it feel like Lila is in love with Adrien. She doesn't care about him at all. She cares about what she can get from him. She manipulates her way into his house, kisses him without his consent, and never once tries to score a date. It's all about hurting others (thus her forcing a kiss and sending it out to all of her contacts*), gaining access to Adrien's father, and gaining information on Adrien, thus her invading his privacy by snooping around his room via moments like this:

Lila: Ah, is this your mom? You look so much like her. I look a lot like my mom too you know. Isn't it just crazy how much you and I have in common? (opens one of Adrien's drawers and is disgusted to find Plagg's stash of Camembert)

Seriously, what was she looking for here? Why did she sneak into Adrien's house? This episode is so weird.

So, no, I would not say that Lila was in love with Adrien. There's really not a scrap of evidence that points to that read. She's just the kind of person who will do or say whatever she needs to in order to gain power and/or social clout. The exchange with Kagami in Protection was absolutely supposed to read like manipulation and not a true confession:

Lila: It's not your fault that Marinette hates me for no reason. Just go. (Kagami nods and stands up from the bench) I admire you so much, you know? I don't know how you do it. (giggles) I, too, was in love with the boy once. When he didn't want to see me anymore, I was in pain for so long I couldn't get him out of my head. But you managed to turn your love for Adrien into a friendship. You even helped Marinette get closer to him. If it hadn't been for your big heart, none of what's happening today would be happening today.

One of the many problems with Lila's character is that she never gives us a single true emotion other than rage when her plans fail. She lies left and right, making it impossible to believe a single thing that she says whenever anyone else is on screen.

Because of that, you really can't look at any bit of dialogue and say, "She was being honest here!" because there's nothing in the text to actually back that read. It could turn out that some of her "lies" weren't actually lies - for example, maybe she does look like her mom? - but that wouldn't be a clever twist. It would just be a moment of, "Wait, what, that one was real?"

The reason all of this is a problem is that Lila is now our big bad, but we know absolutely nothing about her even though she's been here since season one. What is her motivation? Outside of her anger that Ladybug outed one of her lies, who knows! Why did she come to Paris? Who knows! How did she trick all these women into thinking that they're her mother? Not a clue and that's a problem.

Generally speaking, the point of introducing a character multiple seasons before they assume their big role is so that you can set them up for that role. Instead, Lila was set up to be nothing more than a petty school bully. You can see this by reading fanfics that feature her. No one looked at canon and said, "Yeah, this is a master manipulator who has multiple moms." There are multiple fics where Lila loses just because someone goes and talks to her mom! And if no one is looking at canon and seeing the potential for Lila to be the master manipulator that the show is now painting her as? Then the potential probably wasn't there. The writers are just shoehorning it in at the last second, completely changing who Lila was written to be.

*The kiss from Oni-Chan is a perfect example of this. Lila steals a kiss and then sends it to all of her contacts in the same episode where she tells Nino:

Lila: He might think I've got a crush on him, just like all those other girls who are constantly hanging all over him.

She's so lucky that the show just forgot about this episode once it was over. In a show where the events of one episode are allowed to effect another, this would absolutely lead to Nino finding out about the photo and asking questions. I think everyone who got that photo would be asking questions, actually. Like wtf was that about Lila? Are you and Adrien dating? And if she claims it's a secret relationship, then anyone with a brain would ask why she sent the photo to so many people. This is just not the way that you write a manipulative character. A true manipulator would take the photo and hide it away for a later date.

EDIT: I apparently didn't read far enough into this script and the ask was about a different moment! Doesn't change my general opinion of Lila's feelings, but my logic is different, so here you go! Sorry about that!

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

The Kokichi treatment talk

Kai: god the everything ever always makes Kokichi seem much more vile than he even depicts himself sometimes it actually lowkey pisses me off how aggressive this shit is towards him- we get it he's trying to trick people into thinking he's evil- you can stop making it worse he does plenty on his own

Sayakxami: Frankly, they treat him like garbage even before he does anything actually wrong Like, sure, he's an asshole, but that doesn't warrant the reactions they have whenever he does anything, really. Or not helping him out when he's literally bleeding from his head & has clear signs of concussion

Kai: is cause he lied about things that have literally no affect on any of them? Tenko is much more actively assholy that Kokichi is and people don't villainize her

Sayakxami: I've read some theories that maybe in that first flashback light there was something that made everybody dislike him from the get go She's genuinely awful to all male characters, and she's extremely weird about Himiko. I could never forget that spit comment Most of his goddamn lies is literally called "joking"

Kai: that's bullshit, i think the writers just wanted us to hate Kokichi and jumped the gun on when to actually start it i wouldn't hold my breath about it being intentionally sneeky writing, sometimes this crew just sucks at writing something something occam's razor

Clown: They definitely treat him irrationally badly sometimes, yeah. The best explanation I can give is that ouma is a remarkably easy scapegoat. Ya know, killing game, stress, fear for their lives, one single guy who is considerably annoying. It's easier for them to direct their distaste to the closest option. I do really like that one scene with rantaro after the death road of despair. At that point ouma had done literally nothing wrong, but Rantaro as a person is paranoid as all hell, so when he accuses him of going straight for murder it makes sense. The fact that ouma doesn't do anything to deny it already plants that seed of distrust in everyone

me: The set up is there though, Tsumugi makes comments about him already in chapter 2. But he also deliberately pulled their frustration with Kaede onto himself the morning after the death road, that was a very effective provocation, making them feel for Kaede and unite against him. Earlier it can be said that Rantaro was just snappy because of the stress, but the result impacted the group's impression of Kokichi, and so did this. His behavior alarmed them so much more because it Had To Do with the killing game, addressing the situation, and I know it's not nice to hear, but also because he's a guy. Just straight up, the standards are very different. Unusual behavior is much more likely to be seen as threatening and disruptive because he's a boy. Girls are just weird sometimes, they're annoying, but they can be ignored, Tenko throwing people can be a bit, it's just her emotional impulsive girly thing, it's not actual danger, but when that boy walks in everybody holds their breath, what shit will he start this time? His words matter unlike Miu's who they realized is a crazy girl on first impression and she just says things, he must be full of intent and schemes. And we could go on and on if we combed through canon material, because there is a lot of things that are taken lightly in-universe (and sometimes as a result by fandom too) because it's just girls, in skirts, silly

Kai: okay, they may have tried to set it up but it's not well done, it's really badly done and the point i was making is there is no actual in game excuse for them hating him right off the bat because of how poorly they handled the setup. set up does not match the reactions. and "they're girls, there's different standards" isn't an excuse for bad writing, actually that emphasizes a whole different issue with ronpa as a whole, but it isn't the focus of what we were talking about. also the girls aren't the only ones who get away with being really nasty in a killing game with no concerns while Kokichi breathing wrong gets him shunned

Sayaxami: I've always got the impression that it was sort of the point if poorly handled That their treatment of Ouma was awful, because they weren't really as good as they believed themselves to be And tbh I do think that everybody's treatment of Ouma greatly contributed to him following with his fake mastermind plan It cut off his other options, because he could not count on anybody. Obviously, his paranoia was there and was definitely a big contributor, but he was isolated and treated in a way that signalized that nobody would have cared if he died. He's supposed to be a leader, but he can't make these people work with him without using some underhanded methods or going about it an extremely roundabout way. He couldn't act without anybody assuming the worst of him, and that also limited his movements. He was forced into a corner, so he weaponized that, because it was the only thing he could still do

me: don't get me wrong, I did mean it as, the bad writing in dr is mostly rooted in bigoted ideas such as sexism, and I'd be more leaning towards belief that they intended shit that falls flat in our eyes than do something like that thoughtlessly, they don't treat any topic delicately so they're not afraid of reaching for low hanging fruits sometimes to reach the goals, but I wouldn't say it goes as far as to bare author's will in character's actions, we can find it when analysing it, but generally you can see in-universe explanations first or at least just as fast if you try, like, if you won't generalize and look at characters individually reacting, taking in each other's reactions and forming opinions and their personalities, it'll be clear that not all of them were this negative towards Kokichi and it made sense for the ones who were to be because they're righteous/reactionary/paranoid themselves etc

Sayakxami: All of that, tbh It's just that most people who were neutral/okayish with him died off early on Rantaro was distrustful of everybody, so nothing special Kaede wanted everybody to get along Ryouma was pretty neutral for obvious reasons tbh Kirumi was also pretty neutral, though she didn't like him calling her mom & was angry when he explained how she was trying to get somebody to take her place for execution, but aside from that there wasn't much Angie, I don't recall them having much of a relationship, so mostly neutral + she would've wanted everybody to join the students council & get along so Chabashira is awful to all men so nothing special here Korekiyo… I don't remember tbh, I seem to recall him being not much of a fan ngl, but Korekiyo's a bag of issues I don't feel like unpacking rn Miu and Kokichi were friends/partners up until she betrayed him by planning hisi death, which came from her paranoia & hopelessness rather than her hating him or something Gonta was everybody's friend, though he was a little more distrustful of Kokichi after the Insect Meet&Greet, but he still cared about him Most people were definitely annoyed with him, I have no doubts, but it wasn't that everybody despised him for existing, it's just that the people who were the most against him were the Training Trio and Tsumugi. Kiibou was still trying to reason with him in chapter 5 post mastermind reveal, and Himiko also seemed kinda whatever, but at the very least she didn't want kaito to kill him, so always something

[white-lotus-pavilion]

WAAAIIITTTT

OMG WAAIIITTTT what the actual FUCK! Is happening right now????

Li Jianheng Noooo!!!!

This is so fucked wtf!!! Noooo!!! Li Jianheng noo!!! This is actually such a devastating read like oh my God? And the fact that Mu Ru stabbed him? That is actually so depressing. The fact that he was finally coming into his role as being the emperor after everything he has had to go through only for that to be shifted away from him at the very last minute by somebody who he thinks cares about him!?

That is just devastating.

Oh my God poor Li Jianheng. And now Xiao Chiye is it even allowed to mourn the loss of his brother and the decline of their relationship because of the political nonsense that they have had to go through, because these Nobles are now trying to come for him? Bro cannot catch a break! I was rooting for these two and their friendship so damn hard as I was reading this novel do you have no idea! I personally care more about platonic relationships than romantic ones and whenever I see a platonic relationship getting a lick of nuance and attention I run to it and the fact that they killed off my boy??? He was flawed but that's what made him such an interesting character he was deemed stupid but he was trying to become a better ruler for his people even though he had no idea what he was doing! AUUGHH!!! LI JIANHENG NOOOOO!!!! The devastation I feel right now is immeasurable.

And all this because of the fact that the army of LIBI is seen as treasonous because they don't function the same way is a Noble's function and the eight great clans function is actually so devastating. No wonder why Shen Zechuan hates this very system because it is so messed up. If you don't conform you're screwed. Which honestly is a great parallel to how human beings in general rally against anything that is abnormal in every sense of the word regardless of culture. Absolutely devastating.

And the fact that the death of Li Jianheng perfectly parallels the death of Shen Zechuan's brother is so not funny. Like oh my God. Chapter 96 omg chapter 96.

The fact that this chapter is also the end of volume 1??? I know that for the readers who were reading this novel as it was coming out this chapter must have been insane and also chapter 95 the revelations in that chapter and the truth of what actually happened at the chicia sinkhole… my god!

I'm going to be completely honest I barely understand what happened and all the scheming that was involved but what I did get was that it was all for the sake of money. All of those deaths that 100K death toll was all for the sake of money…

Diabolical.

And now the fact that they are going to frame him for the murder of Li Jianheng?! And the way that Xiao Chiye knew this the entire time but went along with it because he wanted to say goodbye to his brother to his best friend even after all of the trials and tribulations they have gone through in their relationship because of the politics! AUGH!! THE DEVISTATION, THE ATROCITY!!!

Shen Zechuan's betrayal??? HOLY HELL!

Qi Huilian too??? Dear god.

Teachers death??? Shen Zechuan crying??? omg… just omg so much happened in the last three chapters wtf! imma need a explanation and someone to talk about all this with because omg things went o shit so fast. they were too late and now everything's gone to shit… omg…

Qiang Jin Jiu: Ballad of Song and Sword

[iamtheratlord]

man im like genuinely so curious like whats up with toichirei? im not a hater im just confused, like whats up with you being so obsessed with it and this is totally an invitation for you to rant about it and give me a whole essay on it if you wanna

I’ll do my best to describe, I’m not too great at describing stuff. I suppose my first thought is that I like their dynamic, Reigen is this guy who’s lied and schemed his way into and out of things who believes that there’s nothing really great about him, that underneath his lies there’s nothing there for anyone to like, but he’s kind, he genuinely cares for Mob and gave Serizawa a second chance, he’s helped a ton of people, even in just small ways. But despite how many people he’s helped he’s lonely.

Toichiro is just awful, he ran claw for years, was a horrible father, a horrible husband, he never did anything good. But he realized he was wrong, about everything, after his fight with Mob. in the end he’s nothing special, and because he spent so long believing he was above others, he isolated himself. And now he’s alone, the only person who might be on his side is Shou, who believes he could do better, but even then after everything he probably doesn’t believe he deserves that second chance. 

Reigen probably, definitely, hates him at first. I mean he basically tried to kill his student, he manipulated Serizawa for years, he was terrible to Shou. of course he doesn’t like him. Now idk exactly how they’d meet again, but I do think Toichiro had an interest in Reigen from the moment he saw him, it’s not everyday a powerless man walks up to you with all the confidence he can muster, and with a gun he knows probably won’t work, and dares to shoot you with it then seconds later try to punch you. All to save one student. (well technically to stop him from taking over but still Reigen was mostly worried about Mob in that situation) He definitely earned his respect.

No matter how they meet again, I think things develop slowly, reigen grows to like him more when he sees Toichiro put genuine effort into changing. And I think toichiro appreciates reigen giving him a second chance despite his distaste for him. They’re both lonely people and that allows them to connect further. 

One thing that drives me crazy is that in a character interview for Toichiro they ask why he married his wife and he says because of her big heart, and then when I look at Reigens character profile it says that he has a kind heart, so i 100% interpret that to mean Reigen is definitely his type and he loves Reigens kind heart. But I also think that means he might feel he doesn’t deserve to be with Reigen. Someone so kind shouldn’t be with a villain like him, but everyone changes, it’s only constant in life. So maybe he has a chance. 

I also like to think of them in terms of the sun and moon dynamic, but they’re both suns. Reigen, I think of him like a nurturing sun, warm and comforting. While Toichiro is a burning inferno, a sun that burns everything it touches. But that’s a much simpler description than what i said before.

I also just think they’re cute. I love the angst of it all, the loneliness, the self loathing, n stuff, like maybe Toichiro still yearns for his wife and is just using Reigen as a distraction from her (and yet maybe he falls for him anyway). Like I love that idea, but I think the idea of a more stern and serious Toichirou with the more easygoing and silly Reigen (i know reigen has his serious moments too but compared to Toi he’s sillier)without any of that angst, is just a fun thing to think about and one of my favorite ship dynamics. Anyway Idk if any of this really makes any sense or if I described it well, I feel like I could keep writing but I don’t wanna ramble too much. Also thanks for asking nicely, I understand this ship isn't a lot of peoples cup of tea

[pain-in-the-butler]

How do you think Black Butler will end? 😭 Most people think that Sebastian will eat Ciel's soul and that will be it. Which does sound the most likely I guess but I also see people saying that R!Ciel and Undertaker are planning something to save O!Ciel. I hope for this more than Sebastian eating Ciel's soul. And I think it's possible too. I just find it really odd that R!Ciel seems to hate O!Ciel now after everything. Like surely he understands why O!Ciel did what he did? Plus, they did have a special bond too. I just don't think R!Ciel truly hates him

It's hard to say what R!Ciel is capable of understanding at this point, considering he's no longer a living human. It's possible he doesn't have all his memories, or that those memories have been altered. It's also possible he does have his memories but he isn't the person he used to be. People have referred to R!Ciel as yandere, and that seems to be the vibe that Yana is going for. I think R!Ciel does love his brother, but something about that love seems twisted and jagged. Still, I think in the right circumstances, he may be capable of gentleness and honesty again.

Undertaker has explicitly stated he doesn't want to lose any more Phantomhives, so he probably is trying to "save" Ciel, whatever that means for him. We've seen that his actions are slightly counter-intuitive, like he's trying to challenge Ciel by putting him in dangerous situations with the knowledge that Sebastian will come save him. He seems to both admire and dislike Sebastian. He's weird and I won't pretend to understand him.

Ciel is my favorite character in the series, and it will be hard to see him die. It will be harder not to see him die. The story has showed us every step of the way that Ciel is doomed by the narrative, a boy who lives under a false identity and is not capable of preventing his own death but simply of prolonging it. He brushes away all attempts for others to get closer to him. He kills people and lies to his family. He tells himself he's unbothered, but his crimes haunt his dreams and he wakes up screaming. How long can he go on like this, especially when his motivation for living in the first place is revenge?

If we had perhaps seen a steady inclination in Ciel towards love and kindness over the course of the series, I would wonder if he might fight for his life in the end. But instead I feel like Ciel has been a pretty stagnant and unchanging character. I think he did remember how to smile, and he seemed perhaps a tiny bit more comfortable around his friends right before the Blue Cult arc began… but he's also happy to use them in his schemes and refuses to acknowledge that they mean something to him. He doesn't want people to die, but he's still willing to kill. He doesn't live for the sake of life anymore - he lives with the knowledge that his soul will be taken, and sooner rather than later.

Ciel being as unchanging as he’s been is a little boring to me, but it can at least be thematically relevant if his inability to waver off the path of revenge is what ultimately kills him. If Ciel doesn't reach out to anybody, doesn't try to change his fate, and doesn't become more interested in living, than what is the narrative purpose of saving Ciel? What would his being alive mean? If Ciel were a real child, none of this would matter, but he's a character in a story, and if the writing is good, his life or death should serve a greater purpose.

You could say that his survival would mean "everyone deserves to live," but that would be weird because Yana has already showed us via her own storytelling that not everyone in her universe deserves to live. You could say that his survival would play into the story's themes of rebirth, but Ciel already had his "rebirth" moment when he chose to return as his brother. Not to mention, "being alive" is not the same thing as "living." Is it rewarding, again strictly narratively, if Ciel is alive when he no longer knows what it means to live? Isn't that a tragedy all the same, only now it's one that doesn't match the themes Yana's already presented?

This got a little winding, and I'm starting to lose my train of thought here, but ultimately my point is, I think Ciel has to die or else the story unravels and loses its larger meaning. But I know others will feel like Ciel living would give the story meaning instead and I'll happily be disagreed with! I love discussing writing, so please feel free to add a rebuttal. Thank you for the ask!

[cosmics-beings]

semi unpopular opinion? i know i mentioned it before, but i never really liked the vosonian prince/wing lord starscream aus. and i get why now. while i understand why they're so common, to me it just doesn't match starscream as a character, because starscream is a person who isn't born with shit he wants, he has to scheme, steal, and bribe to get what he wants, whether he deserves it or not. that is what makes starscream ambitious, that's what makes his character. the character who is always plotting and always trying to get what he wants, that's why i love him at least.

what he wants and what he thinks he deserves isn't something he's created or born with. he is envious of people who do have that, and when he sees they have it and he wants it, he takes it because he hates being powerless. After all, a character like him has been powerless many times, and knows how easily it can be stripped from it.

in idw, he was cold constructed, scammed, swindled, lied, and cheated to make it to the top. none of that was because he was royalty or born with it.

to me, he is a great pretender. he pretends that he's always been apart of that life, that he was created for it, but he has to fight, and that's what makes him interesting.

he doesn't take things by 'good' means, and it is arguable whether or not he deserves half of what he has, but the point of this post is to say that the wing lord/royality aus IMO just never fit the character presented to us in canon. not that they're bad, i just see how most of the fandom clings on to those aus and tropes for him, and i just always thought that while it matched him from an outside perspective, deep down inside, it wasn't ever a hc that seemed like starscream.

i think, at least in my personal hc for him, the only way he could be winglord or royal is if he killed the royals and took their crowns and their titles. even he murdered the winglords and proclaimed himself one. but it couldn't be something he was given or born with,

[fantasma-de-la-cueva]

Guys, I know I had been posting a lot of IE stuff (bc I’m out of noragami stuff and I’m obsesed with magic soccer), but you know what? I’m still going to say this headcanon bc I started to write a fic:

I love to compare Gouenji (specially the Fifth Sector fase) with snakes. Why? Here are some reasons:

1) When he wants to be sneaky and hide or dissapear he just does and is hard to see him unless he wants to be seen (or caught off guard at certain points).

2) Despite what honosuto introducted (no hate, I will always love honosuto fiery boi) he is calm and collected, making me remind that in the chinese zodiac snakes are associated with calm, cold and calculating people. Also, snakes tend to be associated with cunning personalities and Gouenji, specially during the Go 1, had showed this with his hole plan of destroying Fifth from the inside (not only by starting the revolution, but with the ways he used to fuel it more and more, aka: investigating everything he could in the front row while keeping Daigo away from controlling soccer, confirming that Endo was, “indeed”, the person sent by Fifth to be Raimon’s coach, letting Tsurugi to play free soccer after sending him knowing that he would turn at some point, funding educational programs and managing to move a massive amount money behind Daigo’s back, offering stealthy mentorship to Raimon by allowing them to get stronger, putting the team against Teikoku to allow Endo and Kidou reunite and clean Teikoku from Fifth’s influence, therefore allowing the Revolution to have a safe space and all the mental gymnastics, lies, speeches and deceptions he was pulling over everyone inside the organization and Daigo himself to prevent them from investigating what was really happening).

3) Snakes are often represented as malicious in some cultures and stories, in others they are wise creatures that can act as mentors or helpers. Gouenji enters in the “helper” snake category. As a kid he helped the other players to resolve their problems; as adult he pressed on Raimon to make them stronger and resilent, taught Tsurugi the fire tornado and in anime taught Kurosaki the fire storm, raised multiple programs to teach kids to play soccer and prevent the collapse of Japan’s educational system, assisted Raimon during CS and thanks to him Earth could participate in the Grand Celesta Galaxy tournament.

4) Is said that snakes hold the poison and its antidote, that’s why they are related to medicine. Gouenji, during Fifth’s arc hold the poison that was corrupted soccer and had the antidote that was starting the revolution and prevent the collapse of educational system.

5) Snakes are often depicted as symbols of protection, we know how fierce protective Gouenji is, specially when is about people suffering in front of him, the people that matters to him the most and the sport he deeply loves.

6) Snakes are hated by a lot of people and tend to be reducted as nothing but a “dangerous” creatures and sometimes are seen as “evil” in a lot of stories and tales. During Go 1 Gouenji/Ishido is depicted as an intimidating, cruel man that feels pleasure in inflicting pain and terror on everyone and enjoys playing with the victims of his schemes, but the truth is that he is pretty tame compared to his coworkers, subordinates and boss (but we don’t forget how awful it was Tsurugi arrival to Raimon or ordering getting Tenma injuried). He uses the cold and ruthless mask because he has to in order to survive and make his plans work (and is shown that is painful for him to do so), but overall he isn’t as cruel as other characters tend to see him as he doesn’t want to destroy schools that dare to stand against Fifth Sector, he doesn’t like when people gets hurt because of soccer, he doesn’t show any resentment towards the idea of getting dethrowned, he enjoys to watch Raimon struggling in matches because he knows that those moments are what make the team stronge and he made his best to allow his team enjoy real soccer. The thing that makes him look “evil” is that due to his seriousness and determination to save soccer and keep control over Fifth he had resigned to play the bad guy and allowed the organization and its members to commit any crime they could. We know as viewers that is painful for him to be in that position and the characters close to him had shown concern and worriness about his well being because they know and understand his reasons to be like that, but the characters that don’t know are the ones that often trash-talk about how he is evil and doing everything he does for the sake of ambition and talk so much about how they want to make him pay, with very valid reasons. But while for the kids is normal and resonable that they wouldn’t question the adult characters didn’t cared to question or go deeper, thinking that he truly went evil until Endo appeared and investigated why his friend had, aparently, went nuts.

7) Discretion and the way snakes slither to move are often relationated concepts, so, why not?

[patrocles]

i started hotd but had to stop when criston Beat A Gay Man to Death and then just stuck around making snide comments about rhae i got so confused with the fandom shipping him with alicent did i miss something?? im sorry im not in the fandom i just Dont Understand why people like criston in any way that scene was so upsetting and homophobic

(I'm going to use this opportunity to yap a lot about Criston and Alicent, a lot of this is just things i've been mulling over, I'm not shouting down at you specifically, anon. i absolutely understand wanting to stop the show, or any show that makes you uncomfortable)

So I think a lot of nuance is being purposefully removed when people talk about Criston. And I do think the writing of s1 is to blame cus it is super spotty in a lot of places especially in regards to characterization cus it was just rapid-fire pacing. And a similar argument could also be made for how people talk about Alicent.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely not saying anyone has to like Criston (or any character) and I’m definitely not saying that Criston isn’t flawed. (In fact, the opposite— that his flaws are exactly what make him a compelling character)

I mean hell, Daemon killed his wife, treats Rhaena like shit, and groomed Rhaenyra, but no one really questions how or why people enjoy him as a character.

But Alicent and Criston DO have a complex and interesting relationship. And I think there's definitely something to be said about how people talk about them specifically compared to the other Targaryen characters. People who hate Alicent like to reduce her whole character down to her being petty and jealous of Rhaenyra for having "good sex", hypocritical, "white feminist", slept with Nyra's dad so she's a scheming bitch the whole time. Very much removing context and simplifying her down to nothing.

A similar thing can be said for how people talk about Criston. It's very easy to reduce him to just this petty incel lunatic, which feels unfair. Especially when Targaryen characters specifically are given miles of deference and nuance, despite their flaws like Aegon for example.

Going back to the writing, I think what got lost in show translation surrounding him killing Joffrey was circumstances surrounding Criston at the time— again, please don’t think I’m excusing it, I just think context matters— is how serious these characters (particularly Alicent and Criston) believe in the world that they're in. And it's not something that's truly emphasized in the writing.

It's not that Alicent is just jealous of Rhaenyra for "having a good sex life", but she truly believes that Rhaenyra is breaking laws that have existed for everyone else forever. (Having bastards is against the law, bastards inheriting IS against the law, putting a bastard on the throne would be super duper against the law). But what broke their friendship was that Rhaenyra lied about something serious, something Alicent would have protected and defended her over, and that cost her her father, the 1 person who was on her side in some small way. Subsequently, she became untrustworthy to Alicent.

And finally she snaps at Driftmark after years of being gaslit and essentially told that the rules that she's always had to abide by (bc it's the rules everyone else has to abide by) (and the rules that got her pimped out to a leper king and forced to have kids he wouldn't even care about), doesn't apply to Rhaenyra and the final straw is being told that the physical well being of her son doesn't matter as much as the hurt feelings of Rhaenyra's.

Circling back, Criston was fully expecting to die after he told Alicent what happened with Rhaenyra because because he broke his oaths and it's punishable by death— and he knows this has been enforced before. He was crumbling, mentally, believing that everything he worked for is gone only to then have his shame indirectly blackmailed/threatened by some guy he doesn't even know. And he snaps with the intent to commit suicide after. But it wasn't an attack out of homophobia, though. It would have happened regardless of who it was, it just happened to be Joffrey.

Why people like Alicent and Criston because they very much are a unit of non-Targaryens existing within the Targaryen family and will always be considered outsiders. (Criston especially is a racial minority within the world, being part Dornish, and who are not looked at favorably by the rest of the country). They've both tried to be a part of this family as best they can, been used by them. (There's definitely a case to be made, whether people like it or not, about the dubious consent surrounding Rhaenyra using her power to get Criston to sleep with her and whether or not he even had the power to refuse her. And part of what breaks him is knowing the 1 thing he had, his honor, was thrown away for something that didn't matter to Rhaenyra at all, even if she knew the consequences for him too.)

Criston is Alicent's person that's kind of just all hers, which matters a great deal to her after nearly a lifetime of never really having anyone that's on her side, exclusively, and hasn't tried to exploit her for their own personal gain. He's sworn to her and likewise, Alicent gives Criston renewed purpose in life. Even if we don't see it, we can absolutely infer that he stepped in with her children when they were being neglected by Viserys. He's probably the 1 person that Alicent has come to trust completely when it became very evident that she had no one else. In Alicent, Criston has found a sort of salvation, and there's this religious idealization of her. They're basically coworkers and kinda best friends and also kinda co-parents.

But that doesn't necessarily mean that he's her attack dog at the ready, as some people have claimed; the 1 time we to see her actually instruct him to do violence (take Luke's eye), he refuses and he goes to stop her from hurting Rhaenyra before being stopped by Daemon.

So what I mean by all this, is that I genuinely think there are a lot of complex things at work with Criston and his relationship with Alicent. That's not at all to say that you have to ship them and I understand why some people don't. I think it's a bit reductive to say that he's just this violent animal with nothing else interesting to think about.

In summary: