#people treat him like he is perfect because he is the one grown male character in the main cast

[lapis-not-lazuli]

I think Greg deserves to talked about as critically as people talk about Pearl and Rose. In no sense was he better than either of them (and he certainly wasnt better for Rose) and his flaws are often overlooked or swept under the rug

[blissfulrain12]

Curly the scapegoat and the Fandom

So I was thinking of Curly's position in the fandom and noticed a few things. Just like Jimmy and Pony Express the fandom uses Curly as a scapegoat and emotional punching bag of sorts. With Curly baring the majority of judgement and fault the fandom doesn't have to actually engage with the complexities of the other characters. The characters, the narrative, and the themes get to be flattened out if Curly is the ultimate object of guilt.

When people discuss Curly being "an accomplice" to Jimmy and similar I've noticed that Jimmy gets talked about as if he's a force of nature and not a grown man. Curly is treated as if he is responsible for Jimmy's actions as if Jimmy were his child or if Jimmy was a hurricane and Curly failed to board up the windows. I think this happens because if Curly is to blame then the fandom can avoid engaging with Jimmy directly. If Jimny is just "the evil Curly enabled" then there's no need to analysis him, to talk about how human he is, how poverty and masculinity shaped him, and how Pony Express took advantage of him.

Speaking of Pony Express, Curly is their scapegoat in and out of universe. Not only are they barely spoken of even though they are at the root of every problem the crew faces but Curly is often directly blamed for their actions. So many people in the fandom blame Curly for the lack of locks on the ship or Daisuke being there and resulting in a cryopod shortage. Curly is used by the fandom as a stand in for PE to the point where very few people question the systems of capitalism and hierarchy PE represents instead reducing it down to Curly not doing his job.

For the other 3 crew members with Curly taking the burden of fault they get to be elevated to faultless victims. It's to the point where Swansea and Daisuke get to be painted as potential heroes to Anya and in Daisuke's case a perfect angel. Their flaws and mistakes are completely glossed over so they can contrast to "Curly the accomplice". Swansea belittling Anya is flipped on its head to make him protective of her instead even though he never directly is. Daisuke being a college aged man who willingly helped roofie someone is ignored in favor of infantalizing him.

Anya gets it the worse in my opinion. She and Curly are paralleled almost completely but her own complexity is thrown out the window in order to make her the perfect victim. All of her actions are only spoken of in a positive light despite the fact that her actions are parallel to Curly whose actions get him labeled an enabler and at fault. Curly is made into Anya's shadow being the "bad victim" so Anya can be the "good" one.

As for the narrative and themes if Curly is reduced to the scapegoat role the fandom gets to reduce everything down to just rape culture and female victimhood. These themes are important but they're not the only ones. Capitalism is in fact a huge portion of the narrative, as well as disability, male victimhood, psychological abuse, masculinity, and hierarchy. I understand the want to focus on the rape culture aspects but the fandom sometimes shuts down other analysis as "missing the point". I think Mouthwashing has a lot to say that the fandom just doesn't want to acknowledge.

[floueris]

Types of disney princes / male leads *ੈ✩‧₊˚

heeseung

nick wilde (from zootopia) okay not unexpected like have you seen heeseung, sooo foxy meow, jokes aside. I think they are alike because as we all know heeseung is a very flirty person, which resonates with nick in the earlier part of zootopia when he constantly teases Judy and “uses her words against her” and I think the method of teasing is also really similar, but ofc!! the growth, when both nick and judy planned the scheme to get bellweather caught was really smart. And you know that part that nick was there with judy while she cried ? exactly like heeseung, he would always be there for you when you need someone there and always there to make you feel better and gives you a very huge sense of comfort

jay

prince eric (from the little mermaid) c’mon guys… jay is our classic gentleman, like how eric was with ariel, he would always treat people, especially ladies with utmost respect ( guys I CANT SHUT UP BUT LIKE HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN THE VIDEO OF JAY SAYING “ ladies, one at a time, don’t push please” BYE I DIED I CANT SHNDNSNDNSNNANDNSNSB) anyways I digressed but like Jay is the most perfect gentleman bf everrrrr like yk that one scene that is where Eric js kissed Ariel sooo deeply, SOOO JAY CODED BYEEE AN ULTIMATE SWEETHEART

jake

flynn ryder … (from tangled) CMON YALL SAW THAT COMING OKAY…..Flynn Ryder is soooo flirty like jake like BYEEEE, also THAT NOSEEE !!! Both of them have fantastic noses, also another reason why they are similar is also because Flynn was protecting rapunzel even when he was severely injured which was very very jake core to me because jake always puts you first before anything even if he is “in pain “ also jake is a very charismatic person and like Flynn he is able to get out of trouble or get something through him sweet talking

Sunghoon

milo thatch (from the Atlantis the lost empire) milo is a very gentle and intelligent person, very sunghoon-esqe NO??? personally I think sunghoon is a very goofy person okay, similar to milo, he fights for what he thinks is right. Also my boy is a simp!! and both sunghoon and Milo are like sooo loser stuck in a hot body core, and ngl both of them look really good in glasses saur 😣

Sunoo

Hercules (from Hercules lol) anyways a lil “unexpected “ because sunoo looks more feminine but Hercules was a very gentle character which suits sunoo very well because I think that although sunoo is very gentle which makes the girlies more comfy w him, he also has a very manly streak in him, and personally I think he’s super brave and kind, just like Hercules. Maybe a lil himbo core? But also not really, sunoos just a really sweet guy

Jungwon

tadashi hamada (from big hero 6) GUYS YOU CANT TELL ME JUNGWON DOESNT LOOK LIKE HIM LIKE HELLOOOOO, anyways both of them are smart, innovative and have very kind souls (which imo is soooo attractive gbye) and also because tadashi made baymax just to take care of hiro if he’s not there anymore (GBYE MY HEART CANT TAKE THIS) also I think jungwon is a very self sacrificing person, always trying to sacrifice himself to help others yk, which can be good and bad. Lastly, jungwon is sooo reliable just like tadashi

riki

NAVEEEENNNNNNN (from princess and the frog) like the banter ?! the growth, everything!!! the reason why I think riki is like naveen is because personality wise they seem really similar like the banter and teasing first and foremost and just how carefree both of them are. secondly, it’s also about how naveen grew throughout the movie, from someone who didn’t care about anyone but himself to learning how to adapt and think of other people. obviously im not saying that riki doesn’t care about anyone but himself but in the way that we say riki grew up since i land days until now, and we can see like naveen, how much he has grown as a person!!!! also I will die on this hill that riki treats his gf like a kweeeennnnn like I’m not even joking, he wants nothing but the best for you hehehe and would treat you like a queen

—-

a/n: BYE GUYS I LOVE THIS SMMM IM LIKE SUCH A BIG DISNEY FAN BYE SNMSNDNSNS I LOVEEEE DISNEY SMSMSMSMS THIS WAS SOO CUTE HOPE YALL LIKE IT TEWWW SARANGHAEEEEE !!! LMK HOW I DIDDDD MEOWWWW

[sokkastyles]

"they also don't like any narrative that involves characters having to change in any way, because that acknowledges that they weren't perfect and unproblematic to begin with."

Man, that's so true.

Also, it annoys me when people say Enemies to Lovers is about a woman fixing a man. I mean, nobody said Darth Vader's redemption was about how children need to fix their parents, you know what I mean?

(also the trope is not always about a male villain and a heroine but you know)

I do like narratives that subvert the idea that a woman needs to fix a man (which is one of the appeals of zutara, btw) because that is very much an expectation that exists. But at the same time, there's also a certain kind of misogyny in assuming that a woman is always a victim in that kind of relationship or she's always this innocent little flower who believes so earnestly that she can fix a terrible man, and we need to save her from this wrong thinking, the poor dear.

People don't say that about Darth Vader despite Luke so earnestly believing that his father had a shred of goodness left that he nearly died for the sake of that goodness, and would have died if Anakin's goodness hadn't prevailed, because we see Luke, and male characters in general, as heroes, as actors in the narrative rather than victims.

If Luke were a girl, then him giving himself up to the Emperor on the off chance that he could save his father might have been criticized as sexist, and that wouldn't necessarily be wrong. People are wary of those kinds of narratives with good reason, because women so often are the victims of this kind of abuse. So I get where the wariness about this kind of narrative is coming from, I really do.

But at the same time, I also wish we would stop treating female characters with kid gloves all the time.

One of the things I love about Katara is that she doesn't always make the right decision. I do think it's true that Zuko fixed himself, and that would not be diminished even if he and Katara got together. But at the same time, Katara did take a chance on him, and she did get hurt because of it. But the decision was always her own, and I think that's an important aspect of her narrative. She tries to tell herself afterward that Zuko tricked her into trusting him, because it's a means of protecting herself from those hurt feelings, but that isn't what happened, and by the end of The Southern Raiders, she learns both to accept that Zuko is a person who made mistakes and to live with her own mistakes. The fact that her confrontation with Yon Rah ends with her stating that she's not sure whether choosing not to kill him makes her strong or weak signifies that she's become much more comfortable with that ambiguity. She doesn't need anybody to protect her from her own choices, whether those choices are right or wrong. She forgives Zuko not just because he's proved himself worthy of her forgiveness, but because she's learned to forgive herself for trusting him in the first place. But she never would have been able to do that if she hadn't gone at all, if she hadn't put herself out there to try and help Zuko. And she wouldn't have grown into the confident, strong hero she is at the end of the show.

[kopiicryptid]

Sometimes I think people don't discuss enough about how human Curly's character is.

And I don't mean in the 'he's a guy with good intentions but fails' way, I mean in the sense that literally, he acts the most human in the game. He has the most human reactions, dialogue, and flaws. I know the devs made Jimmy's design with the idea of him being an "everyman" in mind, but to me, Curly feels more like an everyman.

Curly's good enough that he doesn't raise red flags or alarms, but he's also not perfection incarnate. He's just some dude who happened to be good at piloting but not with managing a crew, which emphasizes the idea of Take Responsibility. He can be a good pilot, a good friend, a good person, but all that is meaningless because of one big flaw and that's his inability to Take Responsibility as a captain and consider all the measures or actions he could've taken to protect his crew.

That isn't to say he was lazy or completely ignorant, another thing that makes him human is the stress from the job, how overwhelmed he must've been from the layoffs, finding that of the crew members he got along with best was pregnant without consent, and that it was caused by someone he considered a friend for potentially *years*. And it's clear from the very first scene with him that his mind is not in the right place, he simply assumes it to be.

His reaction to Anya's news is painfully human and that of a cis man as well, someone who has grown with the privileges of being a male but also of a best friend. I don't consider his confrontation of Jimmy to be out of disbelief of Anya (I argue he believes her because he doesn't seem to deny the statement and seems to quickly understand who was at fault), but out of shock and confusion, the need for clarity and to hear it from his friend himself, despite already knowing the truth.

And God, does Curly put the 'man' in 'human' in this moment, thinking that he and Jimmy can fix this, instead of the consequences for Jimmy, instead of punishing his friend or berating him. Maybe it's out of fear of possible years of abuse from Jimmy, maybe it's because Curly is just a man, or maybe it's because it's all Curly can think to say in the moment. Either way, it doesn't excuse the trouble his inaction causes for the rest of the crew. All because he had the privilege of thinking like a man.

So I think it's real ironic and tragic that post-crash, everything that made Curly human was taken from him. His looks, his voice, his bodily autonomy. He can't make choices, can't move, can't speak, can't do a damn thing because he didn't do anything when he had the chance to. And what's really damn ironic to me is how the audience dehumanized him, too. From people's first impressions that post-crash Curly was the 'antagonist' or 'monster' of the game, to fans reducing him to a pet or infant of sorts, to people glorifying his intentions over his actions, and even to those who demonize him as someone who directly supported Jimmy's actions or treat it as if Curly did the crime himself.

To say that Curly was just a good-intentioned guy would be undermining his flaws, but to say that he's just as bad and if not worse than Jimmy would also be a great mischaracterization to Curly and completely miss the point of his character. Curly is just a human, just a man. A man with more power than the rest of his crew, but simply an average cis man you'd find on the street. He has traits that many people share and that we can find in ourselves, because he's a normal man. Painfully so.

Though perhaps the greatest disservice to his character and what people overlook in relation to his humanity is the abuse of it. And no, not from Jimmy, but from Pony Express itself. Although I suppose that's a conversation for another day.

[sylver-drawer]

Now that the novel is officially being translated, it’s genuinely one of the worst novels I’ve read as a writer (like seriously, the format is that of a middle school grade novel), with a main character who can’t help but irritate. Lee Jihye’s actions are often hypocritical, lacking awareness and acknowledgement of those around her, especially concerning those who appear within the original “Lovely Princess” novel.

She started off with a loose goal of surviving for the first half of the novel, and when that situation is resolved the whole second half of the novel she acts carelessly without a goal or drive. Rather than a main character slowly going through development, for the whole second half of the novel she acts more as a narrator than an actual character with dreams or desires and interacts with others without any sort of meaning or consideration. It’s suddenly at the climax at the very end of the story when she has a very abrupt epitome of “Oh, all of these people who I’ve been treating as fictional characters are actually flawed people with struggles”, before returning to her carefree way of life right as the story closes. However, there is no build up to this realization—rather, it presents as a thought that comes only because the situation called for it. She only seems to easily see people outside of the novel as ‘human’—people like her maids Hannah, Seth, or the wizards of the tower, or even Lucas himself. However, when it comes to the people who appear in the novel of “Lovely Princess” she almost dehumanizes them, reducing them to ‘characters’ who have to play a ‘role’.

This can be seen how despite the amount of times she’s identified signs of Ijekiel’s feelings for her or Jennette’s depression, she brushes them off until it’s too late and Ijekiel is openly expressing his jealousy and Jennette has attempted suicide. It’s easily seen as well when you compare her treatment of Hari to her treatment of Cabel—Hari, who never appears in “Lovely Princess”, she easily forms a bond with and thinks about and mentions quite often fondly like a friend. But when Cabel appears in story, she often calls him ‘puppy-like’ (as direct call backs from her reader standpoint towards the novel) and almost always mention his status as the second male lead, constantly bringing up his role in “Lovely Princess” and acknowledging his presence as if he were still that exact character from a book. Like when she interacts with Ijekiel, she doesn’t seem to acknowledge him as a fellow peer or even the brother of a friend—but rather the ‘second male lead’ in a ‘novel’. The dehumanization is blatant, along with her romanticization of the novel itself and projecting those thoughts onto the real people she’s become acquainted with.

This becomes clear when she deals with Jennette and Ijekiel. Almost every encounter with them, or rather whenever they are together, she seems to view them with rose tinted glasses of that of a reader living through a ‘romantic moment’ between the leads of novel—rather than as a fellow human being. Just as she mentions how it took her so long to see even Claude as a human, to the very end she allows her perception of “the female lead Jennette” and “the male lead Ijekiel” to dictate how she treats the two of them. With Ijekiel, she dismisses his blatant advances because to her, the idea of “perfect male lead Ijekiel” taking a fancy to someone other than “the lovely female lead Jennette” is impossible. It’s to the point that she acknowledges that she had to snuff her own developing feelings for him out because of that perception—that a such a young love would never bloom because Ijekiel is “the male lead”.

This projection of her perception of Ijekiel leads to her inability to acknowledge Ijekiel himself, which worsens the more she interacts with Jennette. Jennette—the lovely female lead of the novel—whom Athy had grown close to as best friends (Lee Jihye’s own quote herself!), but strings along halfheartedly. Her rose tinted perception of Jennette has led to the girls own downfall, acknowledging at the end herself that she had seen the signs of Jennette’s struggling but intentionally kept turning away from it. Simply, it was because she deemed Jennette as the “female lead” of a novel. “If Jennette is in trouble, Jennette can deal with it herself”—because that’s what happens when you’re the female lead. If Jennette is getting picked on by background characters, it’s something the female lead has to deal with on her own—even if Lee Jihye, as Jennette’s best friend, had all the power to intervene. Her fairytale-like perception of Ijekiel and Jennette has led to her physically unable to see Jennette and Ijekiel having complex feelings, be it as humans, or to eachother.

This is why I think the ending for Ijekiel and Jennette in the novel is just so tragic—Lee Jihye encourages Ijekiel to go with Jennette in her exile because she still sees Ijekiel and Jennette’s relationship with rose-tinted novel-reader glasses—that it is Ijekiel’s duty to ‘protect’ Jennette, despite the fact that Jennette’s own state was a result of Ijekiel’s cruel rejection of pent up negative emotions in the first place. She fails to even consider there actually being bad blood between them, or that this perception of hers is in actuality hurting both Jennette and Ijekiel—Jennette, who to us readers has revealed how Ijekiel’s falsity hurts her more than his cruel honesty—and Ijekiel, who never had never honestly spoken to Jennette nor gotten to know her. The sidestories even reveal a bit of this future—that despite the time passed, Ijekiel and Jennette hardly look at each other. Yet, Lee Jihye insists on their repaired relationship because she herself still fully hasn’t comprehended the two of them as flawed humans who had a genuine fall out—she sees it just as it was at the end of the middle school grade novel by the name of Lovely Princess. That to Lee Jihye, despite the turmoil and grief “female lead Jennette” faced, within the arms of “her beloved male lead Ijekiel”, she was comforted and healed. Except this isn’t a novel, and Lee Jihye spoke of a relationship between two people she knew nothing about—the ‘lovely female lead Jennette’ who had been falling apart for years to depression and the lack of genuine affection, and the ‘perfect male lead Ijekiel’ who had fallen almost obsessively in love with her to the point he’d reject his ‘female lead’ in a way he knew would torture his ‘female lead’ best all while silently jealous of everyone Athy loved.

To the end, the female lead by the name of “Athanasia” or “Lee Jihye” hadn’t grown or learned anything more than she had from the start of the novel. I couldn’t in confidence tell you what her goals or intentions were by the end of the story. Rather than Who Made Me A Princess being about her, or having her as the story’s female lead, I don’t think I know any of her desires or what governed her actions in the latter half of the story. I feel as if I could tell you about young Athy/Jihye’s desire and passions, but I have no idea what pubescent Athy/Jihye’s were. She had tea parties. She attended events. She handled flowers, and was wow’d over magic, but she never genuinely took an interest in them, and their presence in a story that’s supposed to be about her is minimal. The story concludes by telling us she continued her studies in preparation as future empress, that she enjoyed certain subjects, but you never feel it nor do they show it enough to make an impact. Who Made Me A Princess’ novel is predominately written through very simple and quirky narration, character interaction and dialogue. Because it’s predominately written in Lee Jihye’s perspective of every paragraph requiring some sort of quip, the novel comes off as almost amateurish and underdeveloped, leaving a bittersweet taste in your mouth. Reading upon each sentence, I can’t help but feel grief over what was clearly an idea and concept, but poorly reflected in the writing quality. Every chapter was draining, and I often found myself asking—“where exactly is this going?”. Reflecting upon it, side by side with my own cliche fifth grade writing, I can’t help but notice the similarities in quality and tone. The novel has much potential, but comes off as a slice-of-life sort of story without a direct goal, instead focusing on aimlessness of the characters dialogue and lighthearted daily life. Perhaps that was the intent, but ultimately, the balance of story elements and the poor quality of writing ruin the story for me, ending the note of Who Made Me A Princess’ novel failing my very raised expectations. A story that had been hyped so much by the fandom, I couldn’t help but see as lackluster in almost every aspect.

[mikuni14]

I know I keep talking about Tharn and how wonderful he is, but I also have to say something about Phaya. Who is, on reflection, a perfect example of a "manly man"✨, the main character of an action movies, who works for me for once. He's also one of the few action/adventure/crime MLs that I find really hot and attractive, something other productions almost never achieve. Why? Because - I say this only from my perspective - what the producers THINK will be attractive to me is completely different from what I actually FIND attractive.

Phaya is a classic male hero, but he takes classic patterns of masculinity and reworks them in his own way.

Phaya looks very masculine, but in a way that I like. He's muscular, but not too much. His muscles were developed through martial arts training, sparring, something that is related to his hobby and work, not worked out just for being muscular. We see him determined and focused when he goes through training, but he also has fun sparring with his friends, instructors, WITH THARN (that's a completely different story 🔥). We see that he likes healthy competition, that he has ambitions, but he is focused on improving himself, not on proving to others that he is better than them. Phaya has a healthy approach to his body, to competition and to sports.

I like that Phaya takes care of himself, that he tries to look good (especially for his crush), BUT AT THE SAME TIME he has no qualms about finding the most embarrassing matching shirts and persuading said crush to put them on and casually stroll around the tourist area town, looking like a funny, old married couple. Phaya has a healthy attitude towards his appearance and how people perceive him (he doesn't give a fuck). The most important thing is that Tharn is by his side. In a matching shirt.

I like how active and task-oriented Phaya is, that he recognizes his own or any other problems and just does something about them. Suspicious murder? Phaya starts ivestigating. Strange dreams? Phaya has been researching it all his life, now he's going to the place where he can find answers. Tharn is not answering his calls? Phaya doesn't get offended, he doesn't create scenarios in his head, he just goes to Tharn, confronts him and comes up with a creative way to relax the stressed Tharn. Phaya acts, does research, has no qualms about asking for help and accepting help. Phaya is a pack animal, not this lone wolf bullshit.

I absolutely love how open Phaya is with his feelings, with himself. Friends? Grandmother? The Abbot? THARN? Phaya doesn't hide anything. When Tharn asks if he's feeling ok at the festival, Phaya tells him about his troubling feelings, he doesn't hide behind a straight face and "I'm fine." Phaya is not afraid or ashamed of his feelings or talking about them. Or admitting weakness, feeling bad or even fear.

what deserves a special mention is how open Phaya is about his interest in Tharn - towards Tharn and the rest of the world. Phaya is like "Tharn, I'm so interested in you and I want you to know it". And if anyone else sees this, it's not his and Tharn's problem, it's the world's problem, because Phaya is too busy with Tharn, who is all delicious right there, to worry about the rest of the world. Phaya is a grown man who knows what he wants and currently wants Tharn and to be a good cop and solve the mystery of his dreams and he will not waste his energy and time on proving his worth or anything else to the world.

Phaya has his own life BEYOND the romanse. He has a job, ambitions, a family, a home, his art, interests, and his own personal problems to face. Tharn is a part of his life, a new part, because Phaya existed as a person before Tharn.

I also like how Phaya treats his sexuality, namely he is completely ordinary and normal about it 😀 No issues, no trauma, no internal conflicts, no "finding himself", no crisis. I like the fact that he is pushy with Tharn, and although I'm normally not a big fan of kisses "without warning", it doesn't bother me in this case because Phaya is completely aware that Tharn likes him "that way". Tharn is flirting heavily with Phaya and they already had their almost kiss, so Phaya didn't cross the line with him. Besides, Tharn is also a grown man who can read Phaya's intentions, and he kissed him first - twice 😂 Phaya's sexuality is not a problem in this story, he is very simple about it.

Phaya is the kind of action hero that simply suits me. He seems to fit the type: he's aggressive, cocky, talented, smart, inventive, handsome and athletic. But he is also - in a quite ordinary way- nice, caring, friendly, supportive and helpful. He doesn't put himself in the center, he doesn't make everything about himself. He's also very funny, doesn't take himself seriously, can be a classic dudebro, goes to parties where he plays stupid games 🍾 and he is open with his feelings. He is naturally, effortlessly cool, but sometimes he is a bit pathetic and doesn't get everything right.

For me, Phaya is Phaya from the scene in the tub of icy water, hugging and supporting Tharn (because he wants BOTH of them to pass this test), it is Phaya from the scene in the bathroom, super sensitive to Tharn's mood, it is Phaya visiting tourist attractions with his crush and tucking him in to sleep. This is Phaya knowing when he can allow himself more with Tharn and knowing when to stop. This is Phaya who doesn't lie to Tharn, who seduces him, gives him time, gives him space, but at the same time leaves no doubt about how he feels about him and makes sure that Tharn is aware of it. It's Phaya intoxicated by Tharn's closeness and also coming up with cute nicknames for him.

Phaya is a classic model of masculinity without all the toxic, violent, stupid alpha bullshit, but with self-awareness, true personal freedom, the ability to function in a relationship, a family, a team, society, readiness for self-development and emotional maturity. He is a natural leader who can apologize to his teammates. Phaya redefined the male action hero type and I love him for it 💖

[romanticatheartt]

"Elain is hurting two men at the same time😒☹️"

😐😐😐

Good God… Once again another man's action is being ignored and we blame the woman. No, Elain isn't hurting anyone, she's actually the hurtee here… Idk if it's a word or not lol. Azriel is the one who's hurting 2 people here, Lucien and Elain. He's being selfish and arrogant, having a one-sided beef with a person who doesn't even acknowledge his existence. He's hurting Lucien, all the while he knows and has grown up with the concept of mating bond. He's claiming a woman who doesn't like to be claimed and be treated as an object.

And Elain? Elain is hurting. She's still having a hard time accepting that she's now a fae and not a human, she's trying to ignore it as best as she can. So accepting or even acknowledging Lucien would mean she has moved on and is becoming agreeable to her situation. And Azriel, who Feyre has described him looking like a human around Elain, with his round ears and his shadow's recoiling from Elain, makes her feel more at ease. She's taking refuge in Azriel's presence to feel as close as she's able, to the normality she knows. And what a refuge he was, calling her "a mistake" several times and one time to her face and leaving her alone without an explanation.

And yes Lucien might be (definitely is) hurting from Elain's actions but it's all a reaction to his biological, his shared bond with her. He's not emotionally attachd to her. Lucien also lost a loved one who he thought might be his mate. He's been living for centuries with the idea of his mate being dead, so he didn't expect to have one at all. He's probably cautious around this bond as much as Elain because accepting her means letting the idea of his former lover go. But Lucien is one step ahead of Elain. While she's determined to ignore this bond and never try anything with him (for now), Lucien is ready to take action and try (as long as she agrees). So he would come to see her when he's invited, bring her gifts and wait… he waits, keeps his distance, and doesn't demand anything. He never put a claim on her and never disrespected her boundaries. Now do you think this male, would ever be mad at Elain for perusing another male?

We see Rhysand, knowing Feyre is his mate and he still was ready to let her go. He would let her be as long as he knew she was happy and she was loved. He would see her being married to the love of her life, even if he's not that person. The same goes with Lucien. He won't be mad at Elain for trying with another person, on the contrary, he would let her. But he will be mad at Azriel for his behaviour toward Elain, for staking a claim on her, for knowing she's a mated woman and he still perused her and disrespected the bond Azriel himself put in such high regard. He will be mad at him for speaking for Elain and thinking he knows what's good for her and what is not without asking or consulting her.

So you see Elain is not the problem here, never was. But most of the fandoms would rather take the male's side and pamper him because of their low standards for the male characters. All the while, the female character should never feel emotional, be angry, confused or selfish. She should be a perfect doll for the male character, being considered, selfless and always being on her best behaviour.

Just like how society behave toward women...

[elainsgirl]

"b-but azriel is a f-boy. he's jealous. he's possessive. he's entitled. he's icky.. he's... he's..."

Azriel is so misunderstood because of bonus chapter. "Gwyn can help him with his darkness" are you okay?? Azriel is not some broken person you guys make him out to be! We don't have enough of his pov to see how he is... that's just a glimpse of it.

It baffles me that Gwyn was dragged into these ship wars so she can "save azriel and help with his darkness and trauma" (im obviously talking about the weird ones who ship them together. I've met good gwyn and azriel shippers) ..... Gwyn is an amazing character, stop saying that weird stuff. Not to mention people romanticizing her getting saved by azriel- its annoying and disgusting!

Also Azriel getting shipped with everyone! Like bro, he's fine!

I ship Azriel with no one as of now. Sure him and Elain have moments but... its not enough for me to fully ship them yet. We need everyone's pov before we start making up these theories and gaslighting people so much! Everyone claims to say "Im thinking most of the people in this fandom is 12 year olds" nah, its all of you. Yall can't accept the fact that people have different preferences and opinions. Yall bully people off the internet because of fantasy book??? hello??? are we like, okay??? not to mention people act like this book is so unpredictable! baby, this is a normal fantasy book! nothing about this series is unpredictable at all!

Not to mention Acotar tiktok people have got to be one of the most sensitive people ever! Can't even make a funny video without someone having to debate in the comments. like please shut the hell up. so glad tiktok is getting banned, those insufferable people can get away.

The way Azriels character has been completely twisted by the fandom to suit their anti elri agenda is truly something. The way they potray Azriel as such a disgusting character with Elain but are ok shipping him and Gwyn - cause suddenly he then becomes the perfect male for her. This is why I just cannot understand anti logic - they’re constantly warping whatever they can to fit their ships or disprove elriel and if you have work that hard - taking scenes out of context, adding in your biased interpretations, lying about quotes - just to disprove elriel….says enough about the confidence they have in their ships.

I hate hate hate the fact they use Gwyn as the only one who can “heal” him or challenge him etc, its not Gwyns job to change a grown, 500 year old man. She deserves so much better then the way she’s being treated, dragged into a shipwar for having one innocent conversation- that too more focused on his powers then the man himself - with the opposite gender. I think if Gwyn had shown she felt some way towards Azriel such as having a crush on him or Nesta teasing her about all the supposed “alone” time Gwyn and Az were having in SF and she blushes or gets shy whatever - I would totally understand gwynriel more, and if that was what Mass wanted she never would have given us a descriptive scene on how bad down Az was for Elain - such a scene should have only been for Az and his final Li aka in this case Gwyn. We never got detail descriptions on how badly Cass wanted another woman when Nesta was introduced as early as acomaf. Most stans have really put Gwyns story and journey as a character to the sideline and instead focused on forcing her into a relationship with a man and romanticising that - it just feels icky to me personally.

Its some kind of joke that Az is being shipped with every other person aside from who he wants the most LMFAO.

Thats fine if you don’t want to ship Az with anyone and instead wait for the book, I think thats best to make sure you’re not disappointed by any outcome. Idk, some people do act so immature & childish within the fandom and I think its fair to call such behaviour out. I can accept people have different opinions and as much as they’re entitled to those I am equally entitled to judge or challenge their takes in my own space. As long as no one is saying or doing anything to affect someone beyond the screen - challenges and debates are normal within fandoms. Yh such as how many times certain people have scared off artists and have made others become inactive due to the harassment they’ve received- its all sides of the fandom. Heavy on nothing about acotar being unpredictable but I kind of like how each parallel, pattern and foreshadowing all comes together so nicely in a cute set of 3. Its clear where Mass is going with the storyline and I cannot wait to see it playout.

Welp TT was banned but now its back, so those people are here to stay.

[chvoswxtch]

i'm on my second rewatch of daredevil & I just finished season 2 and i have a LOT of thots about elektra so i'm going to rant under the cut so here's your warning or psa if you haven't seen the show or are in the process of watching it i am mentioning spoilers so beware !!!

first things first i feel like i need to preface with the fact that i was OBSESSED with the 2003 daredevil movie like i rented it so many times at the video store the guy working there fucking gave it to me LMAO and i remember thinking jennifer garner in that movie was THE baddest bitch and I wanted to be her so bad

that being said i fucking LOVE elektra natchios and i was so fucking beyond excited the first time i watched the show and she showed up and i especially love elodie yung's version i thought she was absolutely perfect

here's what annoyed the shit out of me though: they set her up for failure; let's get into it

i feel like a lot of people don't like her for whatever reason and i feel like a lot of that has to do with her history with matt so let me just say i think her and matt were super toxic and did not belong together because they were constantly trying to change one another and yes she did a lot of shitty things to him but she was literally "hired" by stick to ruin matt's life so that matt would come back to stick and in the end she left because she realized matt was way too good and didn't belong around her OR more importantly around stick because he would never be like either of them

from the second they introduced her in the show, they are trying to make you not like her by making her seem like this selfish entitled person who goes around ruining lives for fun. i've also seen a lot of people blame her as the reason that matt & karen never worked out but like that is straight up matt's fault in my opinion ok homeboy did that to himself

as far as morality goes, i think a lot of people gloss over the fact that elektra was literally trained to be a killer since she was a child. she was a young girl that was taken from her family, essentially thrown into a cult that brainwashed her and filled her head with horror stories about a war that was coming she needed to be ready to fight at all costs

we all know stick was an emotionally & physically abusive piece of shit (we saw the way he treated them both) but i think everyone forgets he was way worse with elektra and way harder on her and i don't know if what happened with her is what made him approach training matt differently but he was undeniably easier on matt (matt was getting pushed down in a basement, elektra was getting the shit beat out of her by grown ass men)

elektra was trained and taught to be what she was and constantly had people like stick and the hand telling her who and what she was and making her feel like she was some kind of evil monster over something that was totally out of her control

i think the only good thing that came from her and matt's relationship is that he made her believe in herself and that she could be good because he saw it in her and helped her decide who she wanted to be instead of what she was told to be

i truly think more people would like her more if she were a male character because she has a lot of the same characteristics as matt (tragic backstory, sarcastic witty drama queen, charming & overconfident, anger & daddy issues, total badass, hot) and even frank (has no problem killing when they think it's justifiable, will do whatever necessary despite the moral consequences, looks good covered in blood) which is bullshit in my humble opinion

let women go feral!!! let them be messy!! let them deal with things humanly & realistically!!!

i personally love characters like elektra natchios and jessica jones because i can relate to them like i can feel their anger and their internal conflict of being who you want vs who everyone expects you to be and drinking in excess to cope instead of dealing with your problems and having a short fuse (especially with annoying ass men who think they know better than you) and just being tragic fucking human beings trying their goddamn best

this is also why i love karen page so much because she is deeply flawed and has a dark past and acts impulsively (literally taunted fisk about killing wesley because she knew he would emotionally react like what a bad bitch) and refuses to take anyone's shit and calls everyone out when it's needed and tries so hard to do the right thing hoping it'll heal her from her mistakes

like every single one of these characters has been through so much shit and SO MUCH trauma and i just don't think it's fair to praise and accept one group for how they handle it and demonize another for doing the literal exact same thing

there was a very interesting foil in season 2 with frank & elektra that doesn't get talked about enough like frank castle owned what he was and admitted to being a loose cannon that would never stop until he got his revenge and everyone ate that shit up but elektra struggles with what she's being told she is and fights against all odds to control something inside of her that can't really be controlled and people trash her and it annoys the fucking hell out of me because it all goes back to her relationship with matt

women can be their own characters, they don't need to be plot devices used for a man's character development

in conclusion, elektra natchios is that bitch and i adore her and would absolutely love to see her (& elodie <3) come back in a future marvel project but not if they're just going to waste her incredible storyline and potential as being matt's throwaway love interest again because she is so fucking much more than that and deserves so much more than that

if you've made it this far, thanks for coming to my ted talk <3

we stan elektra natchios in this household, and I will hear no slander

these are all my opinions & if you don't like/agree with them, that's totally fine but no need to be a dick about it :)

[rjalker]

Reposting for 2024. Originally made in 2023. But bigots keep being bigots.

Allos in this year, 2024, still don’t see aspec orientations as genuine orientations. They see it as an empty space where the orientation is inexplicably missing, so they see a character who is cannonically aroace and viscerally repulsed by all forms of relationships and touch, and think that, because this is a “lack of orientation” rather than an orientation directed at, explicitly, no one, they think it’s perfectly fine and not bigoted at all for them to shove their orientations onto the explicitly Queer character, erasing the aroace representation in favor of turning it into another Cis Gay Man who uses he/him…even though the character is literally nonbinary, and uses it/its pronouns.

Because they also see being nonbinary as a “fill in the missing parts” puzzle. They think the character describing its gender as “not applicable” and “indeterminate” means that, really, it’s a guy! it’s a man! Because it’s funny and relatable and only Men™ are relatable! Only Male Characters™ can be  funny and well-written!

In 2024!

Fully grown adults are fucking pulling this shit in 2024 and think they’re the perfect Queer Allies™, and like this isn't the world's most basic misogyny to top off the exorsexism and transmisia. You people are so proud to admit that you think women can't be funny. And think nothing of it. Do you have any idea how bad you look doing this shit, even if you ignore the fact that you're shitting on nonbinary people?

You people don’t see aroace or nonbinary people as actually existing, and actually having meaningful identities. You think we’re walking fucking ad-libs and you can fill in the “blanks” with whatever’s most palatable to your tastes. 

And that means misgendering the canonnically nonbinary character who uses it/its pronouns, erasing literally every single aspect of its identity that gets in the way of shipping it (removing its aceness, its aroness, or just straight up pretending it’s not aroace to begin with, and erasing its solitaremit touch averseion and disgust towards sex and intimacy of any kind), and then pretending their actions are completely harmless when they’re called out for it.

Because according to them, it’s not bigotry if the canon Queer identities they’re erasing are the ones they think don’t exist in the first place. Being aroace isn’t an orientation for them, it just means you’re broken and need to be fixed. Being nonbinary and using it/its with them isn’t a real gender identity and presentation, it means they’re something wrong with you and you need to be fixed. Being touch averse isn’t a real disability, it just means there’s something wrong with you, and you need to be fixed.

They don’t fucking see Murderbot as representation for real Queer disabled trans people. They see it as something broken that needs to be fixed, by taking away everything that makes it who it is, so that they can fill in all the now gaping wounds with their own much less stigmatized identities instead.

Even though the literal entire theme of The Murderbot Diaries is that you should treat people with respect even if you don’t understand their experiences.

[higuchisora]

Okay but like. Can we stop making our orphaned main characters grow up to be shitty parents now? Like I get that it's supposed to "add dimension" to them or whatever but at this point it's kinda tired imo. Plus it's giving really nasty vibes and connotations when you look at how common this trope is. Like am I the only one who noticed that 3 of some of the biggest shows/stories ever with, coincidentally, orphaned male main characters decided to make sequels where they end up being shitty/lackluster dads to their sons?

I get that no one's perfect, but why do they all have the same struggle that comes with the same awful connotations, especially when it doesn't even really make sense for their character/other flaws and struggles would've easily made more sense and might've even been more interesting? Like, I don't need another "Daddy Issues: The Movie", I already have my own, goddamn 🙄

It doesn't surprise me that Jhorts Khaki Rollup/the guys she worked with wrote that, whether or not they even noticed what they were implying with it. But when not only them, but Naruto and The Last Airbender both pull that shit too, in increasingly contrived ways, it's just not cool, imo.

There's some irony there, especially when considering the characters in question. All of them, at the core of their characters, come with massive insecurities and issues surrounding abandoment/craving love and family.

Let's start with Naruto. I know he and his son make up or something, but the fact that it was even an arc- plus the way they handled it- was so weird to me. Like, the original series literally had kids making fun of him for not having parents and saying shit like "well, no wonder he's dumb/rude/dirty, he doesn't have parents lol loser" and mocking him for it. It feels like they're almost proving those kids right, by making him have such a strained relationship with his son. Like they're saying "oh, of course he can't be a good dad- he's never had one." Which is beyond disgusting.

One of my friends argued that it made sense because he's now the village leader, so he's busy etc etc, but honestly? I call bullshit. Sure, being hokage was his dream. But it was his dream because he wanted to be accepted by his village, because they were treating him like shit his whole life. He just wanted to be loved. Regardless of how any decent parent should be prioritizing their child, Naruto himself, at his core, is driven by this. So to think he'd finally have a family of his own, people who love him, and he'd just ignore them in favor of work doesn't make any sense. It doesn't matter if they have a mom to watch them, Naruto would absolutely want to be part of every step of their lives.

On the other hand, with Harry, I'm more inclined to believe it, in a way. I've never read Harry Potter myself (just the movies as a kid), but people who have, told me he was actually pretty judgemental in the books. So I guess it would make sense he'd be taken aback by his son's sorting. However, he literally named him after a Slytherin. One he used to hate, by the way. It wouldn't make sense for him to be down to name his son after the guy that tormented him in school, then get mad when his son turns out to be a Slytherin. Like naming your kid after an artist, then being mad when he grows up to like art. It's just weird. He's literally deeply insecure about not having parents/a family, so I can't really imagine him not throwing as much love as he can towards his kids regardless of how they turn out.

The same goes for Aang, even more so. This guy was a fucking monk, one whose people got fucking genocide'd. Sure, you might argue that that's what would make him so preoccupied with revitalizing Airbenders and why he'd be so bummed his kids weren't airbenders, but even then I just can't see it. He's lost everyone, but he's also the same guy who lowkey gave up the avatar state for Katara, still does that dorky fucking spinning marble trick at his grown age. He'd fucking love his family with all he has, considering he's lost his other family. And, I'm going to be honest here. I just don't fucking believe Katara would just sit there and let him neglect his kids. I don't care what anyone has to say about his motives or how they feel about Katara; love or hate her, that girl would not fucking stand for that shit. She'd kick his ass six ways to Sunday and then drag him in for counseling, even if that counseling was just Sokka with a beard and mustache glued on. People seem to forget, she's not the Avatar's Wife, she's Katara, who happens to be married to Aang, who happens to be the Avatar. You saw how she was with her dad (and Sokka). That shit would not fly in her house.

It's like when they write the Asian character as a nerd with 1st gen immigrant parents who run a laundromat, or the only black character having an absent/incarcerated father. It's one thing if it happens IRL, it's another when you go out of your way to enforce stereotypes/harmful beliefs in your writing. Even if it wasn't intended, it's not excusable.

There's others, and more I'd like to say, but those are the ones I remember distinctly, and it just disappoints and pisses me off to see so many creators collectively go with the narrative that the orphan has to be a bad parent. I don't care if that's not what they meant, or that it was for "drama" or "complexity". This is an ongoing trend, especially for such a specific demographic/type of main character, and it's not only gross, but incredibly damaging, too. It doesn't need to be intentional to be harmful. I know people whose exact fear is becoming a shitty parent because they've had asbent/abusive/neglectful parents and/or a bad childhood. Hell, I'm one of them, though I don't plan on having kids. It feels like they're just feeding into that fear and perpetuating this harmful sentiment.

[xiaowhore]

you know how you're trying to finish a fic but then you get another idea in the middle of writing it. god. i cant write this lmao

yet another genshin impact otome game/dating simulator au, but probably not in the way you're thinking. just fun trope-y things and you don't have to think too hard about it haha

ok so like. you're this normal person in school leading a perfectly normal life, working a normal part-time job and having other normal friends. but if there's one thing odd about you, it's that the good-looking guys around you dislike you for some reason?? it's not like you go around pissing people off as a hobby, so this is quite uncalled for.

in any case, you wonder if you'll ever have a chance at dating. while riding a bus, you sit next to a strange girl immersed in playing games at her phone. when you sneak a peek, she's busy with............. wooing a guy from an otome game? she catches you staring and instead of getting upset with you for peeking, she excitedly asks if you're interested in dating simulators. truthfully, you aren't, but then she rambles about this otome game she's personally coding and she'd like someone as a beta tester to check for flaws. "you're perfect protagonist material! hell, i'm sure you'll clear it in no time!"

so she takes your phone, downloads her game on it, and leaves no room for argument. before she hops off the bus, she sends you a cryptic smile.

when you load the app, the game interface is pink and sparkly, cheesy glitter hearts pasted everywhere. strangely enough, you already have progress in the story ("72% to your happy ending," it says) and the "new game" button won't work? the characters page is locked too, and you don't know who the male leads are. there's already plenty of problems to report about... you shrug it off and close the app. you weren’t that interested anyway.

the next morning on your way to school, someone tugs off your scrunchie and lets your hair loose/ruffles your hair to make it messy. it's childe, the guy that has tormented you since childhood. you went to the same primary school and when he sat behind you in class, he was the type to tug on your hair or fly paper airplanes on your desk. he still hasn't grown out of that habit. “are you trying a new hairstyle, [name]?” he asks, as if he hasn't just ruined it. you chase him off, him laughing all the way until he enters his classroom.

you go to your own, looking too haggard for this early in the morning. your brooding seatmate, xiao, gives you one indifferent look before turning back to his book. he hardly talks to you outside of paired schoolwork, and the kindest thing he's done for you is probably that one time he lent you pencil leads for your mechanical pen when you ran out of them before an exam.

you fiddle with your hair, deciding to fix it in the bathroom. in your way there, you grab your phone from your pocket, having felt it buzz twice.

the notification is from the dating sim.

beyond puzzled, you tap on it. the characters page has two slots unlocked.

AJAX ; CHILDE

　　title: childhood bully

　　favorability: 86%

　　story: has been secretly harboring a crush for the protagonist since he was a kid. has trouble treating them better or doing romantic gestures for them because he thinks it's going to make things awkward.

XIAO ; ALATUS

　　title: seatmate

　　favorability: 63%

　　story: doesn't know how to talk to the protagonist without coming off as intimidating. needs a little push before realizing he has feelings for them.

you blink at the screen, the twinkling sparkles mocking you as your expression morphs into one of horror.

the day progresses in a similar pattern, your phone buzzing each time you interact with the guys you are — well, were — sure hated your guts. albedo, who was once your lab partner in chemistry and the guy you pissed off when you messed up your practical for a pair project and he ended up getting a bad grade as a result, was described as "a fool in love who doesn't know how to appeal to the object of his affections".

itto, the guy who detroit-smashed your face at a round of dodgeball for gym class and gave you a really bad nosebleed, had "done it because a guy was leering at you but his aim is atrociously bad".

kazuha, that one boy in class who kept glaring at you in every opportunity, is "an artist who is fond of drawing the love of his life, and he hasn't realized they know he's staring at them and getting the wrong idea".

scaramouche, your pissy coworker at your part-time job who you were certain not only hated you but hated everyone in general, is "just as bad with people he likes as much as he is with people he dislikes".

ayato, the so-called cold prince of campus you've never talked to, turns out to be "the secret admirer who sometimes slips flowers or snacks in the protagonist's locker".

perhaps the least surprising character is thoma, who is pretty much kind to everyone he meets, but you were sure he was after your friend ayaka, not you.

the game offers you "events to increase your love interests' affection", such as "heart-throbbing locked in a room scenario ♡" or, "bittersweet injured at sports day and princess carry scenario!!" or, "exciting skipping class event with my senpai who loves napping in the infirmary?!?!!!" or, "jealous doki-doki kabedon after school scenario ☆"

in any case, the game is garbage and you are half-convinced you died in the bus after a car crash accident that very first day and this is some weird dream before you go to hell.

...what counts as a happy ending, anyway? what's the point of receiving their affection, and what happens to the others when you choose only one? do you respawn after the bad end? you have to, right? the save/load feature can travel you back in time, so bringing you back from the dead in the "yandere scaramouche" route is possible..... right?

how do you unlock the "true ending" of the main story so this game will finally end, and just who is this last slot in the character page that remains locked even after several months?

[miraculermarinette]

After watching some episodes from season 4, this show has started to make me dislike Adrien. I'm annoyed by the fact that whenever he's in the wrong, the narrative frames the situation in a way that's supposed to make us feel bad for him.

It also follows this old tired trope of villainizing the other party whenever they defend themselves. When the woman stands up for herself and calls out the guy for his inappropriate advances, she's depicted as a b*tch, and the poor guy who's been rejected multiple times "Just can't catch a break" or "He just can't help himself".

I hate how whenever Marinette messes up (Not counting her obsessive behavior), the audience isn't expected to pity her because she's wrong, as it should be. However, that same standard isn't held for Adrien. He can almost kill one of Ladybug's teammates and the narrative will try to make everyone else apologize or feel guilty except him.

If that's not bad enough, you have his god-awful fanbase which only makes me dislike Adrien even more. You have grown adults defending this boy's immature and inappropriate behavior while simultaneously simping for him. In their eyes, he can do absolutely no wrong, and the show apparently did him dirty because he's not the primary protagonist, yet the entire narrative treats him like he's perfect and everyone else in his life is flawed. I'm also convinced that if people I didn't find Adrien attractive, he would be getting way more hate.

Adrien himself isn't even that interesting, it's his family history that's interesting. He's never carried the show, he barely contributes to being a hero, and worst of all, he's painted as this golden boy both in and out of the show, but in reality, he's a spoiled, entitled, unfunny, bland, idiotic, brat. Any sort of redeeming qualities he had was shafted in this season.

🔥🔥

Go off!

I hate how sexist and racist the writers are and the fans don't even care about that because their fav is not framed in the wrong.

Adrien did kill Aeon by mistake in the ny special but we were made to feel bad for HIM and not the mom that lost her daughter. What's worse is that he just quit after that and left the entire responsibility on Ladybug. Adrien needs to stop quitting all because he is sad. Marinette never quit no matter how sad she is and she never throws herself pity parties.

The trope of villainizing women who stand up for themselves is also very common in Indian movies which just makes me hate it more. Everytime when the male lead or chat noir disrespect their personal space and the girls stand up for themselves, the males pull out their "uwu I am sad " back stories and guilt trip the females to make them feel bad for breaking their hearts. Miraculous perfectly sums up every Indian Movie ever. Also, Lila and Chloe sometimes disrespect Adrien’s space like Chat noir does with Ladybug but the girls are framed as wrong for that while Chat is right and deserves her love.

And you are so right about his stans!. Adrien stans never accept chat's harrassment towards lb and say how creepy we are for calling him a harasser. It is still possible to like a character and acknowledge his flaws but Adrien stans don't do that. Their hypocrisy and double standards are so infuriating and they would blame Marinette for doing something while actively excusing Adrien if he does the same thing.

The funny thing is, when kids see miraculous, they can immediately figure out Marinette’s obsession is wrong but can't do the same with Adrien and any other character. I have proof as I also was in the same place once and I have a sister and three cousins who still think Adrien is perfect. And all of this is because Adrien cannot learn from his mistakes because he can't do wrong.

Honestly, if the writers can't treat boys and girls the same way, they need to be fired or at least given a smaller position in the writing team and replaced by good ones. And please PLEASE hire some female writers who actually know how girls act.

The fact that this is a girl power show is really insulting.

[sneverussape]

What kind of person do you think lily was? There's a lot said about her in the series, but i have trouble reconciling pure, shining paragon lily with someone who would marry someone that spent years tormenting her friend, 4 on 1.

ooh boy this will be a LOT. i can't even promise it will be coherent but i'll make an attempt to be. (going under a cut to save us all the grief).

first off, i think it's fair to state that one of the biggest drawbacks of lily's character is how she was written. she is a plot device. she exists to boost other characters’ narratives: she's simultaneously the Rich Boy's trophy wife, the self-sacrificing mother of the Boy Who Lived, the best friend slash lost love of the Fallen Hero, and, at the same time, also no one at all. lily is a character with little to no background and character development that she can barely stand on her own two feet without any of the associated (usually male) characters to prop her up. it absolutely sucks but that's how it is. that's how jk wrote her.

given that and working with the scraps that we do have, my opinion of lily is...complex. i try to give her justice by trying to understand her context, the workings of her mind, and the possible pressures she was subjected to, but it can be challenging especially since lack of canon pushes you into a space where you have to put them in Either/Or situations. my opinion of her has also changed as i got older. when i was younger (i read the books waaaay back, as they were getting released in fact) i only saw her as an extra character (i was most interested in snape, if that's not obvious enough, but neither did i think snape was 'obsessed' with her as a lot of hp fans now think). i saw her and snape as good friends who had had a falling out, and that he'd probably had a crush on her at some point, and it got naturally overtaken by guilt etc when she died. then when i reread some chapters containing her, i was quick to put her in the Bad Friend camp. i don't think that now. i think that she, like snape, was a complex human being who made a lot of questionable decisions but shouldn't be entirely vilified for them.

my main thoughts of her that are kind of built on material from canon as well as what jkr has said herself:

- she was not posh. she grew up in cokeworth, in the same town as severus. i don't think she was middle class as a lot of fics portray her. i think the evanses were slightly better off than the snapes but they were all working-class, and living was a day-to-day struggle. the kids spoke in the local accent, their clothes were all worn and patched over, there were no green spaces or public infrastructure for kids to safely play in, and they were all mostly running wild about the town since all their parents had to work. food was something to be thankful for because there was never enough, and sometimes they had to share with their neighbors. that's the kind of setting i think lily and severus grew up in, although severus suffered abuse on top of it all. it's possible that lily did too because of the setting (post-world war 2, poverty, adults dealing with repressed trauma from the war, etc) and it wouldn't even be that surprising if she had been;

- she and petunia got along fairly well up until the point lily found out she was a witch and, as a result, became friends with severus. it's stated in canon that petunia had also wanted to attend hogwarts with them, going as far as writing to dumbledore to allow her admittance. her jealousy upon his rejection had festered and grown into outright hate that she projected onto harry as an adult, but i don't doubt that she continued to love lily even after her death and despite how she treated harry. i think as kids they had stuck together and were very close, but magic had torn them apart. suddenly lily had a world of her own that petunia wasn't welcome in, and that would have hurt. pottermore stated lily attended vernon and petunia's wedding or engagement party but james made a right mess of it. i think lily TRIED to maintain their relationship but external factors always got in the way. i don't doubt she had also loved her sister very much;

- i don't think she had any other friends. she may have had a lot of acquaintances but i think her only real friend, the one who saw her for who she really was, was severus, and i think, at a certain point in their lives, she saw that as a weakness and resented it;

- i think, from the interactions we saw in canon of lily with other people, that lily had a penchant to please people, especially the ones who ranked higher than her in terms of power dynamics - petunia (who was the older sister), professors (sluggy comes to mind, the head of slytherin with a lot of connections), even the marauders whose actions she defended. it's not necessarily a bad thing, but i've always seen it as her being borderline manipulative. i noted that she wasn't the same with severus (based on their conversations, especially the ones in 5th year, before SWM) because he's lower than her in a lot of aspects, being a slytherin and quite likely of a lower social standing. she could boss him around and tell him to piss off and he probably wouldn't have minded. she actually strikes me as someone who could have been in slytherin; a perfect arrangement, save for the fact that she was a muggleborn. i think lily knew her place and the cards she was dealt with more than anyone, but she was also determined not to stay there;

- this brings me to the point as to why she ever went out with james potter in the first place. i think her friendship breakup with severus was inevitable because they were in the middle of a burgeoning war and both of them were being pulled to opposite and opposing ends. as an added complexity, i think she also wanted to be better than being muggleborn lily evans of cokeworth, best friend of the evil greasy slytherin git, and her way out was to associate with housemates who were in the upper echelons of power. like, we don't even know what her life was like in gryffindor tower. ron was poor, but he was also a pureblood, so that may have saved him from ridicule. but what if you were a poor muggleborn, with a northern accent to boot? in the same way severus trained himself to be more posh, lily could have done the same and could have furiously tried to blend in. maintaining a friendship with severus would have ended in heartbreak as there were too many risks and it likely outweighed the gains. this was the wizarding world too which is much much smaller than the muggle world and relied on connections more than anything. openly siding with the marauders would have saved her skin and secured her a future (which, as we all know, was forfeit anyway but whatever);

- jumping to the jily relationship, i honestly think it was also not one that was meant to last. iirc jkr projected a lot onto lily, so i'm surmising jily reflected a lot of her own failed relationships. i think james and lily had a less-than-ideal relationship, one that involved abuse (verbal, emotional, mental, physical, take your pick, but at least one form of it), and i think she may have been unhappy in the last year of her life, living in hiding with none of her own friends (if they even existed) and seeing no one else but james' pals. her only light in that darkness was likely harry as she couldn't even see her own family. i think, during those times, she thought a lot about the home she left behind and, as a consequence, her lost friendship with severus. she probably missed him, and i'm sure she must have been very lonely.

in sum, i don't think she was the Virgin Mary figure a lot of hp fans paint her to be. imho she had her own questionable but utterly human moments, and i just tried to fill in the blanks as to why she would have acted the way she did. i don't think it was easy to be lily evans at all, and majority of the 21 years of her life was likely a struggle.

[tg-headcanons]

Touka Was Done So Dirty So I Must Analyze It

I have a lot to say about how poorly Tokyo Ghoul turned out. There was so much wasted potential, so much meaningless angst, so many straight relationships crammed where they didn’t need to be, and so many sudden, anticlimactic plot points. But of all of the mishandling and poor choices, I think that Touka’s treatment is the worst.

Touka was a complex and interesting character. She was raised by loving parents, one of whom died early, the other lived a little longer while doing everything he could to impart lessons to keep her and her brother alive. When he died she was suddenly forced to become her brother’s guardian and rush out into a world that is so much less forgiving than her father was. They got taken in by her uncle and his friends, housed and fed, and she even got the opportunity to pursue an education which is a monumental luxury to ghouls. Despite resenting humans for the way her family was massacred and she is forced to live, she became close to a human, looking past her trauma for a friendship she cherishes. Her brother reacted badly to the idea of her being around such a dangerous person who could have them killed like their parents were, and ran off to join Aogiri, leaving her and her uncle as the last remnants of their family.

Touka is angry, and id say rightfully so. Her parents murder, being forced to grow up far too fast, being forced to live in this war she was drafted into at birth, any one thing would be enough to fuck someone up. She has all that going on, so understandable, she’s going to be pissed at the world. If it ended there it would be perfect, a great starting point for a character to delve deep into the concepts of society shaping identity, but then the worst happened

Touka is an archetype I like to call ”Angry Teen Girl”

Before we talk about the archetype, let’s talk about teen girls in real life, specifically how they’re treated by society. The teen girl in the public eye is simultaneously the epitome of beauty who is seductive and manipulative and lustful, as well as airheaded and shallow and naive and pure. The way that changes has to do with the convenience of the adult male onlooker. She’s A tactical mastermind when she doesn’t want to fuck you and she’s an airhead when she has opinions. She’s a prude when she doesn’t respond to advances and a whore when she wears a t-shirt. Most importantly, she’s a silly stupid baby when she demands independence and respect, and a grown woman who should know better when she acts her age

Teen girls don’t have the same understanding that boys their age do. When a teen boy messes up its “oh he’s 15 he’s still learning.” When a teen girl messes up its “shes 15 shes practically an adult she should know better by now.” Because adult men have decided the teen girl is desirable, she’s forced to grow up faster to save them the shame of acknowledging that she is a literal child. And after being treated like stupid children and sexy mature adults, teen girls are rightfully angry. This is so universal, so all encompassing, that almost every teen girl has this undercurrent of anger and grief at how they’d been socialized. Because of that, it too is brushed off as “stupid teen girls and their silly little feelings.”

This is where the Angry Teen Girl trope comes in. There is so much history behind women’s treatment, so many valid reasons for a teenage girl to be pissed, but this character is almost always played off as a joke. Either a joke or something to fix.

Back to Touka, let’s run through this again, this time through her eyes. Her family was perfect until it was taken violently away, she had to become violent against her dead fathers wishes to protect her little brother, that little brother who she was forced to sacrifice her bloodless life for left her for having a single friend, she lived her whole life knowing that no matter who she is or what she does the world hates her and she’s going to be murdered by the state. She has to deal with all of this, and then she meets Kaneki, who tells her to her face that he’s better than her because he was human, not realizing that not eating people is a privilege from birth that she never had. Touka is angry, and Touka is a child. A traumatized child who isn’t in the right for her violent reaction, but isn’t an adult with a peaceful world who knows better

Now if people just hated her for that then fine, but there is a huge overlap of the people who hate Touka for her aggressive personality, and people who love ayato. For every “she’s a bitch who’s so mean and super violent and shouldn’t be killing investigators when she doesn’t need to and deserves getting hurt” there’s a “he’s a sweet boy who’s trying his best and he killed all those people because he’s traumatized.” More and more, it’s clear that the same sympathy given to ayato, the much more violent and aggressive sibling, is not given to his sister. Right off the bat, she’s easy for many to dismiss because the misogynistic tropes that made her are fully reinforced

She is established as a complex person who simultaneously resents humanity for how ghouls are treated and doesn’t want them dead. She’s aggressive to her loved ones as a way to protect them and kills investigators so they don’t have the chance to threaten them. She’s angry because of how she spent her whole life just barely avoiding death at the hands of a genocidal government, she’s angry that she has to live this way, she’s even angry that she had to become violent at all and couldn’t live the peaceful life she could have had

But because she is an Angry Teen Girl, nothing matters except “But She’s such a bitch”

Now Touka at this point is still a great character, but things go south fast. The focus shifts from the world and complex relationships to Kaneki. Out of nowhere, Touka is pining after him. Out of nowhere, she has feelings for him. It was more convenient to just Insert Romance instead of developing them. Even if it stopped here Touka would still be a great character, but it didn’t.

After she fled anteiku, her character died. Not only was she completely cast aside during Ken’s Plot Convenience And Honestly Lazy Amnesia arc, but everything behind her character was stripped to its bare bones

You see, the Angry Teen Girl is only a teen for so long, and she can become one of two things: Hysterical sad evil woman or Calm Momwife. It’s a problem a lot of male authors have of only seeing a woman’s anger as a character flaw. In order to keep her as a hero, her anger needs to be “fixed,” and even that isn’t done well.

Suddenly, her drive is gone. Her love of Yoriko is completely abandoned, as is her reason to care for average humans. Her ambitions of collage and success are cast aside. Her complicated feeling towards her brother become “oh I get it it’s all cool I love him and just want him safe no hard feelings haha.” By the time we see her in Re:, she is no longer Touka. She is just the Momwife personality she got crammed into because Ishida just couldn’t think of a use for this previously complex character than “Wife And Mom.”

I’m not saying that she should have stayed angry and aggressive, but she should have stayed consistent, she should have changed over time and for coherent reasons. Such pivotal parts of her character are unceremoniously thrown out, we don’t even get a good explanation for why she turned out that way. Yes, she could rebuild her family with her brother, but it should have been built up to. Yes, she could leave Yoriko behind, but it should have any reason for it at all. Hell, I’m a die hard Hidekane fan, but I’d say she could have had a great romance with Kaneki if it didn’t come out of nowhere

She was “calmed” by having her dreams stripped from her after losing anteiku. She was given her “happy ending” by getting knocked up from desperate and uncomfortable pity sex. She was a girl who wanted to go to collage and protect her loved ones, she had queer undertones of being in love with her human fried, she had reasonable aggression as a self defense mechanism. Any one of these things could spring into an arc of their own.

But all that was thrown out in favor of being the most convenient straight love interest for Kaneki, though her personality was so incompatible with him that it had to be stripped bare to even pretend it works

If she had been given the same treatment as her brother and had her anger treated as a byproduct of the way she’s forced to survive rather than a self caused character flaw, she could have been perfect. If she’d been kept in the focus and not shoved aside for so much of Re:, she would have been good. If any part of her character at all stayed in tact, she would have been fine. But instead she’s reduced to either a Bitchy Child or Momwife. She was so interesting, and I wish her character didn’t get gutted for the sake of her male family and rushed love interest