#petty conniving asshole

[drawbauchery]

[ryin-silverfish]

Y'know, as much as I like to sass Li Jing (who deserves every bit of sassing) I'm not exactly a fan of the "power hungry usurper" theory.

Don't get me wrong, Li Jing is an asshole; he's just not that flavor of asshole, both in JTTW and FSYY.

In JTTW, he's the Lawful Stupid general who's way too trigger-happy. Like, he's ready to execute the Mighty Spirit God for losing to SWK, and his reaction to SWK filing a lawsuit against him in the Lady Earth Flow arc is "How dare you sue me! Eat sword!"

That said, he is also terrified of Nezha. In the aforementioned scene, Nezha steps forth to block his blade, and he just panicks bc he forgets to bring his pagoda with him, and thinks Nezha is picking up the whole "patricide" hobby again!

In FSYY, his Asshole Arc starts after Nezha's death, when he shouts at his wife for crying after seeing Nezha in a dream, and later destroys Nezha's temple for fear that it will get him into trouble at court.

Historical context: the last part is reminiscent of the destruction of 淫祠, illicit temples that aren't officially sanctioned by the imperial bureaucracy. Permitting their continued existence may look bad on the local officials, and Li Jing said outright that, since he didn't want to associate with the two corrupt ministers at King Zhou's court, if someone used this to attack him politically, he could very well lose his job.

It's the assholeness of a petty bureaucrat who values his job more than his dead kid, but if he is truly power-hungry, he won't have any problem with bribing the corrupt ministers and getting chummy with them.

...idk man, I feel like Li Jing as your conniving, power-hungry martial usurper archetype is just giving him too much credit. He strikes me as the sort of man who doesn't even have the creativity required to be a proper traitor, and will blindly uphold the old laws and order against all logic and common sense.

That's why I don't have a problem with Li Jing being used as a tool by smarter, more powerful figures and factions. My problem is with the choice of that faction; like, even for a Lawful Stupid celestial with a hard-on for rules and hierarchy, the Dead People Supreme Court doesn't have that kind of authority over him.

[jerktournament]

FINAL ROUND - GLaDOS (Portal) VS Herbert P Bear (Club Penguin)

!!! PROPAGANDA BELOW !!!

GLaDOS: "So mot only is she running your character through a series of puzzles with the intention of killing her at the end, but in the second game she spends the Entire. Time. Verbally and emotionally abusing you, including body shaming and bullying you for being an orphan. If it's any consolation, she does have to exist as a potato for the second and third acts of Portal 2."

"Known for being mean (hot). Mercilessly targets the player character's every possible insecurity. Petty and mean. I understand if you don't want to include her since she tends to dominate polls, lol."

HERBERT: "This mf spends his whole life trying to heat up a frozen island and terrorizing the innocent penguins that live on it all bc he was bad at sailing one time and is too much of a wimp to try again. Classic Misery loves Company type asshole."

"operation blackout would have been NOTHING without him (mostly because he caused it). he has a SOLAR LASER. this polar bear is an ass who literally harnessed the power of the sun and froze the top members of the elite penguin force (a group of penguin special agents) and his best friend is an equally villainous crab"

"Herbert may be a fandom darling in our fandom of like, 20 people. BUT DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU! He is a conniving, EVIL bear, and a professional jerk and some highlights of his jerkishness include...

- Spending ten years of his life (by the time the game closed) trying to destroy the Penguin Secret Agency and Elite Penguin Force (both were agencies that protected the island from disasters and villains like Herbert) with varying success...

- SUCCESSFULLY destroyed the Penguin Secret Agency with a popcorn bomb, which destroyed their HQ. It should also be noted that while doing so, he locked in the player, Rookie, and Gary the Gadget Guy, presumably so the bombs explosion would have killed them all.

-Teamed up with the EPF to stop the Ultimate Protobot 10,000 and the Test Bots, a small group of four dangerous robots after he personally brought them back. When Protobot went "too far" for Herbert's standards by threatening the environment and trying to completely destroy the EPF (despite the aforementioned Popcorn Bomb incident literally destroying the PSA, and also a certain Operation: Blackout), causing him to temporarily switch sides. This might sound like a character growth moment...except for the fact that he immediately betrays them once Protobot is dealt with and attacks and damages the EPF's HQ using a robot hydra made for the Medieval Party that he stole.

- A canonical ex-dictator. Don't believe me? Look up Operation: Blackout on the Club Penguin Wiki! He froze several agents during his reign of terror, was open to freezing innocent civilians, and also wanted to do away with puffles- the pets of penguins. He also banned several hobbies and professions during his reign (being a Ninja, a DJ, a Pirate, etc) for no reason other than disliking them. He also destroyed the EPF'S HQ and exposed two agents' private information to the public. This means Herbert is the first and only character to canonically dox people he doesn't like on Club Penguin.

-Was planning to bomb the EPF literally two months later with a hot sauce bomb (makes sense in context of the game and yes, it is more destructive than it sounds).

-Brainwashed puffles into digging coins for him purely because his henchman, Klutzy the crab brought a coin slot to use for his DIY heater, instead of just removing the coin slot and retooling it to work without one like a normal person."

[lesbiancruzramirez]

Cruz Ramirez's agent !!! my girl 💛 my asshole cat 💛 Maya 💛 shes a bitch, I Adore Her. i said what if i gave my sunshine blorbo the bitchiest, cattiest, conniving agent ever and i have this cat to show for it

i yapped a lot about her so it goes under a cut

cruz's agent got assigned slash hired to her by dinoco, tex knows her!! theyre like family friends.

if i had to describe their relationship its like a guy and his niece kinda figure who he's only met a couple times at family gatherings as a little girl and now she's a grown employed woman.

they're well acquainted but maya keeps him at an arm's length cause she doesn't want any of his billionaire help but the dudes just trying to get to know her!!

shes makes passive aggressive and backhanded comments like she'll die if she doesn't do at least four once a day she so smug n bitchy

she gets very vindictive and petty shes got a rivalry goin on with tim's agent (my wife i also plan to post and draw <3) because i looked at the two friendliest racers ever and went what if their agents wanted to rip each others guts out

shes suuuper backstab-y, she's got a bit of a rep for not being trusted but she slithers into people's circles anyway, shes got a lot of connections

so emotionally unintelligent 💛 years of working with all sorts of clients and her way of managing her clients' feelings is soooo. shes like so awkward and has this very clearly practiced script behind her words and shes just not good at this

and maya's got a lotta clients, mostly small ones to fall back on and a couple big ones that bring he paycheck, one of them being cruz

they only communicated via phone call for a while as maya usually prefers it between her and her clients

my girls calender is a mess and is usually full so she is usually busy

cruz has asked for them to actually meet up some time, maya sorta lazily promised it yeah, sure then tex had to call up and actually make her follow through on it

like tex really urged her to connect with cruz since they will be working together a lot and tex wants maya to understand cruz and her needs all that since she is her agent

maya kinda scoffs like pleaseee. she knows cruzs type, shes watched interviews, she knows what she needs from her as an agent just fine

and then maya and cruz met up and maya got so immediately endeared by cruz because she kinda reminds maya a lot of herself

so now she usually comes to all of cruz's races and has gone as far to re-schedule whole appointments around them

loves gambling. loves cheating at it more. hes practically got a side hustle doing bets and the smug look on her face whenever she bets that cruz wins and she does is insufferable <3

cruz really likes her!! mayas a fast talker type and cruz likes listening and mayas a good listener too (sometimes. when she wants to be..its only really for cruz). cruz doesnt pick up on her backhanded little comments about people and takes them at face value

lightning does not trust her ass he has heard the rumors about her and tex told him shes nice but she just sooo isnt and hes heard alot of rumors about her and maya told him which ones are true herself cause she dgaf

[mareastrorum]

Fucking bless you for having the only good kipperlilly copperkettle opinion on this fucking site

It was long enough ago that I posted anything about Kipperlilly Copperkettle that I'm not sure which post you're referencing, but even so, thanks! She's wonderfully ruthless and easily my favorite villain in Fantasy High.

She's a horrid person. She killed her friends even though she liked them (especially Lucy Frostblade) because she wanted power. She liked following the rules, especially if it went against the spirit of the rules, because she was that good at what she did; it was a flex. She willingly accepted a rage crystal and wanted to make her asshole teacher a god because she wanted to prove her superiority over some disadvantaged goblin whose dad died years ago. She's incredibly petty, selfish, and conniving. No one made her that way. She chose who she was and didn't regret a damn thing. The players were absolutely right not to resurrect her.

Kipperlilly is all of Riz's worst flaws taken to an extreme, but with all the advantages he never had. I love her so much.

I hope we see Kipperlilly in hell in Senior Year. I hope she and Penelope Everpetal are best friends/bitter rivals/sworn enemies all in one. It's exactly her vibe. I don't really care about how well/badly she's doing there, I just want her in her element.

[gtraccoon]

Hi, buddy ol’ pal! I don’t know why I said that but I do have a request, if you’re not too busy at the moment! Could you maybe do a platonically yandere Cartman x male reader headcanons? If you don’t mind the content- you’re awesome! Have a great day! <3

in all honesty

minus the murder part of yandere (the game!)

he would prolly pull that really sweet persona to get you to do something for him, but if you were to deny he’d pull a chili con carnival on your ass and bake your parents into a muffin.

he’s a conniving manipulative asshole, and the switch up from kind to ass would be a lot more severe in his case. also i feel like he wouldn’t do it to your face but would rather do things behind your back like convincing your friends to hate you or whatever. (or training a pony to bite ur wiener off /hj)

that’s dark but to be honest we were all petty assholes in fourth grade (and cartman is the PETTIEST ! and he is kind of crazy but i love him /p)

plus kind of depends on how you treat him. he’s a complicated character, and being the major comedy relief character, he’s also hard to put into words. he’s silly

THIS NEXT PART IS NOT directed at you! but if you’re willing to teach me more about this term and how to use it platonically i really do want to know more :)

the term yandere is most commonly used for romantic relationships, which im not willing to portray in the south park kids.

i know that’s not what you meant as the asker (you’re so sweet and you’re awesome too)

but i don’t know how that term could be used non-romantically.

i’m totally willing to learn because i don’t know much about labels like that because i never really make my characters hurting eachother (i am a SUCKER for the comfort part of hurt-comfort 😻)

[moonwaif]

I'm reading Five Scum Gongs Get Crazy Jealousy For Me and it's so unhinged and entertaining. It's a transmigration story where the transmigrator is a calculating, intelligent asshole who's out here playing 4d chess with five scum gong archetypes, who he is supposed to seduce. He's transmigrated into a low level, petty cannon fodder which makes his job harder--or does it? In the meantime, he's competing against five other transmigrators who have taken on precious, sunshine, pitiful shou archetypes. Oh, and the protagonist's main love interest is his transmigration system, which he has projected into a cloned body to help him navigate the world, machinate, connive, etc.

Like this story is incredibly triggering, and the scum gongs are very scummy (i.e., dead dove do not eat - not the worst out there but still). But so far it's been a really fun parody of the genre. Needless to say this is a story for adults.

[happi-tree]

for the bingo!!! one mr. herman please!!!

Ahhhh Herman T. Unworth, prince of hell and heir of goofs, my freak of the week, my dearly beloved 💚💚💚

"funny little dude, silly fellow, some sort of jester, even" was MADE for this guy and you can't convince me otherwise!!! He's such a little guy who just keeps getting put in increasingly dire Situations but his desire to Commit To The Bit overrides everything else and quite frankly I'm obsessed with that for him! I have also never seen a Hermie design that doesn't slap that boy can fit so many genders in him. All at once. He is That Kind Of Actor he Comes With Looks he contains multitudes!!! He's such a mischievous conniving little asshole and he's petty as hell and yet that makes me love him even more <3 And. Tbqh if I had met ANY of the teens in high school we would not have been friends - mostly due to the nature of the sort of cliques everyone would hang with lmao sorry guys ;-; But regardless Herman is SUCH a blorbo to me I love to see him gravely injured and pretending he's not always 2 seconds away from a complete identity crisis 🥰🥰🥰

[xaracosmia]

ꕥ — WELCOME TO NEFE COSMIA, MACAQUE. 🌓

ꕥ — ooc information;

name / alias: juni age: 21 pronouns: he/she ooc contact: p3remake twt i dont really use my other account lol other characters in xc: n/a

ꕥ — ic information;

name: macaque age: ageless (really old. adult. idk) pronouns: any series: lego monkie kid canon point: post-s4 app triggers: baby monkey

personality: the six-eared macaque, or just macaque, is an ages-old mystic monkey who is great but sucks sometimes. he’s manipulating, selfish and conniving, rarely above playing dirty or using cheap tricks to win, though he dislikes when others hold back against him. as confident and smart-talking as he is, he’s kind of cowardly (or has a strong sense of self-preservation, if you want to be nice) and will retreat when he knows he doesn’t stand a chance. he’s incredibly petty and can hold a grudge for millennia. just a huge hater. as dubious as his moral character is, though, he has some good qualities! umm. he’s smart. he can occasionally be persuaded into doing the heroic or otherwise selfless thing, or just does it of his own volition. definitely not irredeemable… mostly just an asshole though.

although he was once much more timid and loyal, after the perceived betrayal done by the hands of his best friend, he’s become cold and mostly disinterested in anyone’s well-being but his own—believing that if he doesn’t look out for himself, no one will.

something your muse struggles with: self-centeredness

your muse’s greatest strength: NONE. idk… wit

history / background: many, many, many years ago, there were two baby monkeys who lived in flower fruit mountain. macaque and his best friend and fellow monkey, who would be known as sun wukong, the monkey king. after wukong experienced an extreme existential crisis and went on desperate escapades to become immortal, he left the mountain to go on various hijinks and cause monkey mischief and mayhem. macaque wasn’t really as interested, waiting for the day that wukong would become satisfied with his power and return back to the mountain and live out the rest of eternity together with him.

unfortunately, that day never came. wukong’s desire for strength and immortality could never be sated, and it led him to taking greater and greater risks, making worse and worse enemies. when wukong and their mutual friend group (an ox, a lion, a peng and an elephant) decided to challenge the jade emperor and claim the celestial realm for themselves, macaque was more than hesitant but reluctantly went along with it.

of course, it ended terribly, just as macaque had feared, and he was among the first to flee. with the war lost, the monkey king was sentenced to a punishment of being imprisoned under a mountain. not too long after, macaque decided to drop by and cheer wukong up with a consolation peach, his favorite fruit. this was very unhelpful, as wukong pointed out, and after their argument escalated, he accused macaque of always abandoning him in his time of need. to this, macaque angrily replied that it was wukong who was the one always leaving macaque behind in his endless pursuit of power. he crushed the perfectly good peach and left.

later on, wukong was freed by a traveling monk and became his disciple. macaque watched on from the shadows, jealous and fearful that wukong had truly left him behind for good this time. even later on, the two monkeys fought each other in a battle that apparently ended with wukong killing macaque. it’s kind of unclear if he actually did or not, but that’s what macaque believed. regardless, macaque died and was left to rot in the underworld for an eternity.

it was the lady bone demon who resurrected him from his grave, in exchange for him freeing her from her ancient tomb. after he was returned back to life, he decided not to do that. who gaf.

eventually, he crossed paths with the monkey king’s successor, mk, and deceived the boy into giving him his powers with the promise of becoming his mentor. although he was swiftly defeated, he was still around to cause more chaos next season.

powers / abilities:darkness manipulation. able to control and utilize shadows as a form of attack, defense or stealth. he can use it to create portals, illusions, clones of himself (shadow monkeys) and probably other stuff too. shapeshifting. can transform himself into various different animals and even people that he knows. smoke monster. he can make a big scary avatar made out of smoke.

inherent abilities:enhanced hearing. has six ears, hence his full name. demon physiology. mystic monkey stuff. immortal and much stronger, faster and more endurant than like. a normal monkey... baby monkey

items / weapons:shadow staff. a black, glowing weapon with spikes on either end, similarly to a cudgel. he has othber stuff but i don’t really want him to have a mech in xara cosmia :/

starting ability: n/a starting item: shadow staff

would you like this character to be housed upon arrival?: no

extra:baby monkey

discord id: sixeared.

[katiedora]

Having the kind of day/week/month where I feel wildly useless about the entire world and my place in it, so I'm just pouring all my energy and anger into being petty about how the neighbors downstairs park their car wrong.

We know they are a young couple and that this is their first real apartment, but they don't know how to share a driveway and they keep parking on our dead end street that clearly has a NO PARKING ON THIS STREET sign. And they never fucking respond when we need them to move so we can actually get out of the driveway, and also they always seem to have guests over and tell them to park in the wrong places.

So I just reported them to the city for the car parked on the street out front and I've set half a dozen alarms to get myself up early so I can text them about moving the car in the driveway so I can leave the house tomorrow morning. I don't actually need to do anything out of the house, but I need to cause problems for someone else, and it's still not clear if they are still that oblivious or conniving assholes.

[the-firebird69]

These are notes they're not sons handwriting they're trying to get him in trouble for saying stuff about you and for bothering you harassing you and saying all sorts of stuff about him you're a bunch of liars and conniving sense of itches and evil people to him and thieves and you're sitting on his money and he's poor you have one social security and you're holding is a hostage and you have more or less kidnapped him to this crappy area and you're laughing about how you're planning his friend BG it was really just one of you you're doing despicable things here to him ruining his day ruining his night and we hate you and he's running things cuz he's a rebel sort of no he's against Max and they know it and your facilitating him and you're having him do stuff to make him hate you and you're saying that he's to blame for everything and you're going against him constantly you're threatening his life constantly and threatening his wife and us and all of humanity now you're doomsday professionals and you profess to be and now the international community has caught up with you he's been doing things like this and give you a heads up you start to s*** all over him and you said that he's saying this and he's saying that he's not really and he is dictating what he's hearing and he is saying that he thinks this is real and the international community is written this up and she get out of his face and go talk to everybody else on Earth and not bother him and that's why he's doing it or his wife for us and for real they planned this recently based on your behavior and your poor attitude and you're disgusting things are doing to people they went out of this you are a lousy military people lousy spies you're not even scratching the clones when you go down there you're just dying and wasting time which is what time f wants and he's a more like too but the point is he's taking a picture and posting it because he doesn't want to waste time rewriting it and it takes a lot of energy and his phone runs down and you're trying to run his phone down and you're trying to run his bank account down and he doesn't have any money by comparison at all and you're a bunch of losers I'm going to feed you to the sharks and other tonight we're going to get rid of you you're a bunch of assholes a lot of people say if you feed your bodies to the sharks the crabs will be attracted that's one way to get rid of you and we can control it and we hope you do and he's helping you get rid of each other so you can each have more money for a Time and die and hand it over eventually he'll get something to survive with only and that's what he's trying to do and you gutless pigs are on them and you're not going to be his friend at all and it's already written by you millions of times and you don't have that much anymore you hardly have any spaceships you don't have any defenses on your islands and you keep running there and you're a bunch of pukes you deserve what's going to happen and he wrote it down we wanted to and he wanted to let you know what the reward is for behavior and Trump is getting his right away and he's not going to be allowed to run for president and everyone says it and they're knocking him down everyday eventually you will be gone permanently and you'll be a nasty chapter in everyone's memory as to what mental illness and trauma and retarded people are like you're gross your goons your your monsters gangsters Petty thieves and that's it it doesn't work with what they're doing that's what they're saying and they're right they're getting beaten to death because of you idiots and you're getting beaten to death and it's their decision to do this we're going to post it so you can see it right in your face and all of you can seek the document out

Thor Freya

Hera did not sign it and we were not allowed to and did not sign it

Olympus

True too we did not sign it they have an angle and I said the first part Hera

Zues Hera

[tachiguin]

BSD Ch.45 “Fix-it, Master Craft” Analysis of references to The Great Gatsby

As someone who has read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby for a literature class, Chapter 45 of the manga is one of my favorites, as it’s full of references to the themes and symbols of the book. An unrelated fun fact I’d like to share as well is that the real life Fitzgerald dedicated The Great Gatsby to his wife, whose name was indeed Zelda! 

Spoiler Alert! This post talks about events and characters in both Chapter 45 of the BSD Manga, and the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Firstly, let’s do a quick summary of the events of Chapter 45, which picks up right after the conclusion of Chapter 44, where Alcott has reunited with Fitzgerald, and has volunteered to help him rebuild his fortune so that he can ultimately acquire The Book. 

Following the strategy Alcott devises, Fitzgerald approaches Dr. T.J. Eckleburg, an engineer who works for a security company, who has been accused of murdering a coworker while under the influence of alcohol. Ironically, he was caught by the security system that he himself had engineered, dubbed the Eyes of God. Fitzgerald interrupts T.J. Eckleburg’s suicide attempt, and offers to acquit him, regardless of whether or not he is actually guilty.

credit by dazaiscans

Next, Fitzgerald approaches the CEO of the security company, named Tom Buchanan, and makes the same offer. However, Buchanan refuses. Meanwhile, Ranpo exposes Buchanan as the true culprit of the murder. Fast forward to T.J. Eckleburg’s trial, Fitzgerald confronts Buchanan with this information, and asks for money in exchange for his silence on the matter. Unsurprisingly, Buchanan agrees, and the two have a little villain solidarity moment together.

However! Fitzgerald bursts into the courtroom with both the signed check from Buchanan, and a recording of their conversation. He then reveals that his true plan involved complicated machinations with stocks and the jury, which TL;DR ultimately Fitzgerald ended up as the owner of the security company, and with the Eyes of God in his possession. Bonus! T.J. Eckleburg’s innocence is proven as well, and he now works at Fitzgerald’s security company. 

Dr. T.J. Eckleburg and the Eyes of God

In The Great Gatsby, the name Dr. T.J. Eckleburg was indeed mentioned, however, he (or rather, it) was not a human being, but a billboard advertisement. A really creepy billboard, in fact, depicting one pair of eyes smack dab in the center. Throughout the book, various characters talk about how T.J. Eckleburg watches them, particularly when they’re doing something unethical. Dr. T.J. Eckleburg is symbolic of the literal eyes of god in The Great Gatsby. 

In Bungou Stray Dogs, this is cleverly referenced in how T.J. Eckleburg is a real person, who invented a security system called the Eyes of God. Moreover, the concept that the Eyes of God is infallible or omnipotent—this is also something that subtly references the symbolism in The Great Gatsby. 

Tom Buchanan is a Horrible Person

You may be wondering why so many characters in this chapter have western names, despite being located in Japan. This applies to Tom Buchanan too, who also is named after someone from The Great Gatsby. I don’t actually have much to say here, Tom is a horrible guy in both Bungou Stray Dogs and Fitzgerald’s writing, arguably the least sympathetic asshole in the book, which is a pretty high bar to clear, because everyone in The Great Gatsby is a horrible person in some way or form. Which brings us to our next point:

Morality vs. Money

One of the recurring motifs in The Great Gatsby is that pretty much everyone is selfish, conniving, and has probably committed a crime at some point. Especially for the sake of climbing into a higher social class by using a method to unlawfully get rich somehow. This motif is also applied briefly to Chapter 45, where we see Fitzgerald flaunting his incredibly garbage morals at everyone!

It’s good to know he’s self aware! We see a lot of petty crime and corruption going on in this chapter, from pretty much everyone! Fitzgerald running around and tricking people into giving him money and assets. Alcott’s objectively underhanded and dishonest method of procuring Ranpo’s help. Tom Buchanan commiting a murder and framing his subordinate. The Jury almost giving T.J. Eckleburg a guilty sentence despite his innocence. 

Ultimately, T.J. Eckleburg echoes a parallel to a sentiment that was prominent throughout The Great Gatsby. 

In the end, one of the major takeaways from The Great Gatsby was how the rigid classism and unfairness of society works. According to the “American Dream”, hard work and perseverance is rewarded. Fitzgerald challenges this belief, writing a story that ended with three of the lower class characters dead, and the characters who were of elite status got off (more or less) scott free.

However, it should be noted that Chapter 45 ends on a much more positive note. Dr. T.J. Eckleburg is proven innocent, Tom Buchanan ends up on the streets, and Fitzgerald emerges from the entire ordeal richer and more powerful, while retaining his newfound shopping sense. This could be Asagiri’s way of showing how Fitzgerald has changed as a character—a direct contradiction to the final line and takeaway of The Great Gatsby:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

The events of Chapter 45 reflect the themes and symbols in The Great Gatsby, (while also using names and epithets from the book as well) with the sole exception of the concept that people are unchanging, which Asagiri cleverly contradicts through both Fitzgerald’s own character arc moving forward, and concluding the chapter on a positive note for the protagonists.

[alwida10]

Sylvie is the protagonist of the Loki series and here is why:

A protagonist

1) has to be relatable and

2) has to contribute to the plot.

I already talked about point No. 2 so I won’t repeat myself here. The interesting new epiphany I had is about point 1).

Now, in most fictional works the protagonist is the reader insert. While that doesn’t exclude the protagonist being a bad person, it still demands to show his reasoning so he gets relatable. In classic literature this is ultimately important to understand tragedies. In tragedies, the protagonist normally is provided two possible ways to act. One is ‘the easy way’ where they will survive but have to sacrifice their principles, honor or some other character trait of high importance. In Emilia Galotti, she would have survived and lived in prosperity but would have become the harlot of the prince. Coriolanus would have become consul if he swallowed his pride and sucked up to the commen people of Rome. But the protagonist chooses their principle and the tragedy unfolds.

Now, is Coriolanus an asshole? No, because we get to see his reasons. He gets pressured by his family into a life he doesn’t even desire. He’s a soldier and in a way a simple and straightforward man who isn’t made for politics. He’s loyal so when his former enemy who took him in after he was banished from Rome wants to attack Rome, Coriolanus can’t go with him. He can’t attack his friends and family in Rome. Why don’t we see him as an asshole and are even sad when he dies?

Because we know his reasons! Back to the Loki series. In episode 1, Loki’s former actions (and with them his motivations) are shown. But how are they shown?

Mobius tells us loki would at least know how to cooperate if he wants to woo someone powerful he plans to betray.

Loki introduces us to the idea the TVA would be a scheme of the weak to inspire fear. This is later redirected so it is in fact a statement about Loki. To drive this point home he is shown repeatedly as weak: his attempt to talk down to the Mongolians is ridiculously weak, Mobius calls him a pussycat, his petty revenge on B15.

The loki variants in Ep.5 are all portrayed as power-hungry, backstabbing liars. Even Kid loki who never could have met Thanos, already killed his brother, showing even way back Loki was supposed to be a murderer.

He is focused on his ‘glorious purpose’ alone and gets crushed when it’s shown to be empty.

I assume the cooper-scene was probably supposed to make Loki relatable and cool, but failed IMO because it was just a joke. Nothing that would touch his former characterization.

Please not what is NOT shown: we see nothing of the hurt loki felt in Thor 1, no hint of Thanos influencing or torturing Loki, no indication Thor and his friends could ever done anything wrong. All those things would have been the reasons that made Loki do what he did in Thor 1 and Avengers. Things that would have made his former actions relatable. Instead, we get another explanation: according to the series, he’s a ‘conniving, craven, pathetic worm’ who betrays ‘everyone that ever loved him’.

But betrayal isn’t something done out of fun. Loki did bad things. I won’t deny that. But he had his reasons. Reasons that aren’t shown.

Sylvie’s reasons are shown. She contributes to the plot. Sylvie is the True Protagonist.

[canonical-transformation]

Ningguang, 1, 7, 11, 24?

(ask meme)

1. I pulled Ningguang before I got to Liyue, so it was mostly "ooh she seems enigmatic, rich powerful lady?, I wonder if she's cool or an asshole".

And then I tried playing her and she was a catalyst user who staggers enemies on every attack. None of this 'fling some elemental seasoning onto them' that poor Lisa and Sucrose and Barbara were saddled with. And not only that but Ningguang has her Jade Screen and I could stop worrying about enemy archers! It was utterly magic. I was in love.

Then I reached the Liyue AQ and she got cutscenes and yeah basically she became my main and (alongside Miko and Lisa) is one of my favourite Relatable Mood characters.

7. "I could always sacrifice another Jade Chamber." The implied character growth and increased commitment to The People behind that line :D

(to be honest though, the first line I thought of was "We should look for a new investment": it's like the "Osmanthus wine" line but for lesbians.)

11. my gods damned wife calling me 'Ning' in her best impression of a Beidou voice when it's 7am and I'm not awake yet

I think just intense success envy :P (That could've been me if I hadn't burned out!, screw late capitalism and alienation of labour blah blah...) But in particular, the way she's really willing to forego other people's goodwill, to have other people think of her as a conniving bitch, to be the villain in every story, if it advances her own ends (which, often enough, are everyone's ends). That takes a certain kind of tough skin I certainly don't have.

24. ...the number of revenge fantasies she smothers on a daily basis. She wants to be above petty feelings of vengeance but with the amount of shit she's been through it's hard not to lean on the anger a little.

[stargirlfics]

okay hotd question! i keep seeing everyone say that daemon doesn’t love laena…but i don’t see that? i think he loves her, just not the way he does rhaenyra- i think he loves her more on a “mutual respect, mother of my children way” ?

cause when she came up to the roof he smiled and fixed the pillow- and the “my brave girl” (which killed me), like daemon is a difficult person so like his comments on the roof is just him being himself ya know? + i didn’t seem him really picking the baby over her?

sorry this is winded, i just don’t have many hotd friends lmao

Omg I don’t mind at all bby! I have so many thoughts too!

I agree that Daemon loves Laena! I think he does care about her and from what I’ve heard from people who have read the book is that his relationship with Laena was a good one and the same with his kids. And in the previous episode we saw the interest was there between them!

Like from what we’ve seen about him loving his family so much (he obviously has feelings for Rhaenyra and though they have been at odds with each other Viserys is his brother after all) his affection towards Laena was so clear to me, there’s a mutual respect there yes and it’s been 10 years, they’ve grown a bond in that time, had children in that time, they ride dragons together and have built a life with each other which I am so upset we didn’t get to see more of ugh!

The “my brave girl” line actually ripped me to pieces lmaoo like don’t do this to me 🥺 I swear he shook his head “no” slightly at the idea of a c section in the episode like that was a clear parallel to remembering what happened to Viserys and Aemma and I knew he wasn’t going to give the go ahead because he actively saw what that decision did his brother and niece I just wish the show gave us more of their bond and hadn’t cut those scenes of Dameon hugging his daughters cause yes while he’s been petty and an asshole and selfish and conniving with his decisions I think at heart he’s a family man, and he’s got pride and is protective over that family

He really is a difficult person lmao which I kinda love like it may be toxic at times but he’s a fascinating character and his relationship with Laena specifically is something that also fascinates me! Plus I keep hearing about how cool his and Laena’s kids lol!

[blue-matches-my-eyes-you-prick]

Mmm, would you like to get Mr. Samuel Whoredon's ass for that ask game?

As much I would like to play grab ass (or handles in this case) with the blorbo-ifyed version of Samuel Hayden, I wouldn't want to date him for much of the same reasons one wouldn't want to date the unholy combination of Jeff Bezos and the Boston dynamics pig dog.

Sure it might be fun to mess around with them at first, playing around long enough to get married w/o a prenup and then letting him "fall down the stairs" in an unfortunate accident but at the end of the day he is still a conniving capitalist who doesn't concern himself with the working conditions of people in his facilities. This man has so many of the same faults of a lot of real world bastards. His dude will see a relationship as just another facet of work and would only put in the bare minimum if even that. As evidenced by him sending doomguy back to hell or whatever he ended up doing at the end of 16, he's petty. Can't stick two petty bitches in a relationship bc he would do smth to piss me off majorly, I'd replace his joint lubricant with flat pepsi, and then he'd send me out an airlock.

Not OSHA complaint either, his body or his facilities. So many exposed joints and pistons I would have to stay a meter away for him at all times. I go to give him a hug and lose most my fingers, a good chunk out of my forearms and my entire scalp. My face is also at crotch height so that would be fairly uncomfortable in every day life :/ I would not be able take this dude to the cheesecake factory because he would not fit in the gottdamn building. Any date ideas would be ruined bc of either or of several factors, 1) an asshole 2)huge 3) capitalist 4) a huge bitch.

Arguments with him would entitle him talking over me, me raising my voice to try to be heard/get a word in edgewise, and then him calling me too emotional while projecting an air of superiority :(