#petty nicknames

[our-king-bree]

woke up loving the headcanon where Katelyn finds out that Andrew calls her "the cheerleader" –and mind you, she's very proud of being a cheerleader but she's been told that Andrew does it with a condescending tone and that just won't do– so she starts calling Andrew "the goalie".

When Andrew finds out he doesn't get mad but he's offended like c'mon Katelyn couldn't think of something else? He's getting associated with the position he, reluctantly, plays in Exy? That's just wrong. Of course he doesn't tell anyone that this bothers him, he will rather die than admit that the cheerleader got under his skin –annoying, intolerable, should've got rid of her when he got the chance. Whatever now's too late, Aaron's too attached and they're making progress, he won't harm the cheerleader but only because he's on good terms with his brother and he doesn't want that to change–. So he doesn't tell anyone but he, slowly, progressively, definitely not rushing, he doesn't care that much, stars referring to Katelyn as Katelyn.

The first few times he calls her different varieties of her name along with "the cheerleader". It goes like this:

"It's the cheerleader Kamila coming?"

"Will the cheerleader, uhm, Kara be there?"

"With who? The cheerleader? Kaylee?"

Aaron can see that something is going on but whatever it is will probably be good for them as brothers. After all, he still refers to Neil as Josten –and sometimes asshole, sue him Josten is an asshole–. So he doesn't say anything but just nods along and says "Yeah, Katelyn it's coming" "Yeah, Katelyn will be there".

When Andrew finally calls Katelyn Katelyn, Aaron can't stop smiling and he even texts Kate the news with a lot of emojis and exclamation marks ((((HE CALLED YOU KATELYN LIKE ACTUALLY KATELYN AND NOT KAVINSKY OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!! ☺️☺️💕💕❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹🙏🙏)))

Katelyn beams proudly. She does not stop calling Andrew "the goalie" for at least another eight months, she is petty like that. And if she sometimes calls Andrew "Andres" no one needs to know.

All the Foxes know, she calls him Andres in front of every single one of the Foxes cause she may like them but she knows they can't keep a secret if their life depended on it. Once again she is petty like that.

[problemswithbooks]

On Stella (Helluva Boss)

The fandom fights a lot over Stella and how she's written. Fans who like the way she is presented say it's fine that she's a one-dimensional 'evil queen' trope. It's not bad writing that she's so shallow and one note--some villains are better that way.

That isn't an inherently wrong statement. Some of the most fun villains are shallow, evil, for evil's sake types. Unfortunately, I don't think Stella works as this type of villain for a multitude of reasons.

Reason 1: Stella's 'evil' trait is at odds with the themes of the show.

Stella's primary evil trait is that she's cruel to Stolas simply because she likes being cruel to him. She's abusive and hates him. That, by itself isn't the problem. The problem is that the story isn't about Stolas being in an abusive relationship--it's primarily about two people from two different classes, and how they have to become better people and change in order to have the loving relationship they both want.

Yes, Stolas being in a past abusive relationship could be a hurtle to his growth as a character and him being in a relationship with Blitz, but the show never goes there even when it could. Stolas is not shown as being triggered by Blitz's yelling at him. In Apology Tour he has no issues fighting back and telling Blitz off, ordering him to leave. Blitz's yelling and more aggressive attitude isn't what leads to their misunderstandings, where Blitz accidentally hurts Stolas by reminding him of Stella's abuse.

Instead, Stella's abuse isn't even touched on in any major way, and does nothing to move the plot forward or cause connected drama between the two leads. Yes, she hires Striker to kill Stolas and that does at times cause problems, but she didn't need to be abusive inorder to explain why she'd want Stolas dead. In a world where assassins and murder is around every corner, it'd make just as much sense for Stella to hire Striker because Stolas cheated, and it made her a laughingstock among her high class friends.

I'd even argue her abuse makes the story make less sense. We know, from Stolas's own admission, that once his daughter was born, their marriage wasn't necessary. He claims he stayed to give Octavia a normal life, but if Stella is as volatile as she's shown, why would he think Via being around her was a good idea? If Stella had been less outwardly antagonistic and instead more cold and standoffish, with the both of them having mostly separate lives, intersected by polite, if strained family interactions when around Via, then him staying would make sense.

One of the reasons I think more people wanted Stella to be a caring mother to Octavia was because it explains why her and Stolas were still married despite her constant abuse towards him. If Stella cared about Via, and they were close, Stolas would be not only reluctant to leave but to let their false pretense of 'happy couple' slip in front of Via, since both would hurt her. It also would make Octavia's choice to stay with Stella and her anger at Stolas hold more weight, and give Via more complicated emotions. She'd really love her mom, but be confronted with the fact she hurt her father, who she also loves. As it is, it's pretty clear to see that as soon as Octavia finds out Stella is pure evil, she'll easily go back to Stolas with very little if any internal conflict.

Reason 2: Vivziepop claims she's not a one-dimensional character.

A really huge issue with Stella being presented as a one note bitch, is because the creator herself claims she's not. In an interview, Vivzie says Stella is like Beatrice Horseman from BoJack Horseman, saying that at some point we will see things from her perspective.

The problem with this is that Stella has already been portrayed too negatively and flat for this to work. Beatrice worked because, while yes she was awful to Bojkack, she also had Alzheimer's which gained her some sympathy points, as did the way Hollyhock cared for her. She also wasn't always over the top horrible to Bojack, being more passive-aggressive and neglectful.

On top of that, despite her abuse toward BoJack, particularly when he was growing up, she wasn't framed as the reason for all of BoJack's issues. He was still responsible for his own shitty actions as an adult, and when he retaliated toward her, like tossing the baby doll off the balcony, it was framed as shitty behavior. More than anything, their interactions said more about BoJack than Beatrice. Him trying to hurt her, by throwing away her baby doll or putting her in the shittiest nursing home he could find was to show how BoJack wishes he could retaliate against his mother for all the things she did to him, but it leaves him feeling hollow because he knows that due to her disease she's not aware of who he is. It's meaningless, doesn't help him get any closure.

Stella is not presented as anything other than over the top abusive in every scene she's in. Nothing in the show suggests she's anything besides violent, even going so far as having her choking dogs in a childhood picture. Nor is Stolas's treatment of her supposed to reflect on him or characterize him. The only time it might is when he ignores Via because he's too caught up fighting with on the phone, but again, it's not given much focus and he doesn't reflect on it. The same goes for the cheating--yes, Stella was abusive and he doesn't necessarily owe her anything, but Stolas refuses to acknowledge that what he did clearly upset Stella, both times he talks about it asserting that he knows he didn't hurt her. No, they weren't in love, but cheating is still degrading, and Stella is obviously upset. Frankly, I think it would have made more sense for Stolas to rub that fact in her face--he has no issue insulting her, as we see later in that conversation. Instead, his continued assurance that he didn't hurt her or do anything wrong feels like the writers talking through the character, afraid watchers will judge Stolas to harshly otherwise.

Stella getting the Beatrice treatment will likely fail because there is nothing to soften the audience toward her even a little. She has been presented as Stolas's tormentor and nothing else. There are flashes of possible sympathy for her when she interacts with her brother, but for the most part they're framed as Andre being right and Stella being stupid, rather than Stella possibly being manipulated and used by her brother.

It also will fall flat because unless her background is another showcase of how even the upper class are hurt by the system, and this leads to something either story or character wise for the main cast, then there is no point to bring it up. The point of Beatrice's story was to show how generational trauma seeps down into the next generation. BoJack doesn't even have to know about it for it to reflect on his character and explain why he is the way he is. He and his mother parallel each other, where they start out as innocent children but through their parents mistakes, they grow up into cynical, bitter adults who both feel as if they've wasted their lives.

Reason 3: To many villains.

Stella has taken a backseat in her own villain story to her brother, who, just like Stella, is simply evil (he's even characterized as a catty bitch, just like she is, except less of a yeller). It's true Andre wants power, whereas Stella wants...well nothing really, just Stolas dead I guess, but for the most part they are nearly the same. Andre is just a better written version of Stella since he actually gets to make plans and have an end goal.

Once Andre gets introduced, Stella is redundant because she offers nothing different and in fact offers less to the story overall. If Stella was going to be a flat, evil for evil’s sake villain, she and Andre should have been combined. It would have made far more sense to have Stella be a bit smarter and be the one plotting to get Stolas's power. It also would have made the court scenes more impactful because Stella would be a character that was established far earlier, and who we know is a major threat to Stolas, since she's the one that hired Striker to torture and kill him.

If Andre was going to be the main big bad for Stolas, then Stella needed to offer something different. Generally the underling under the main villain is more sympathetic, and less evil, as a way to showcase how much worse the main bad guy is. Or they're more charismatic and show up far more than the main bad guy, like Azula and Ozai. As it is, Stella is neither. She shows up just as little as her brother, and does far less.

And, while Vivzie is a woman herself, I do find the handling of Stella to have mysoginistic undertones, mainly that since her brother has shown up, she is constantly shown as stupid, and that her only good quality is her looks--things her brother constantly brings up, but are not framed as shitty on his part. Them being essentually the same charater make this look all the worse, since Andre, as I've said, didn't need to be a charater at all, and Stella could have been the main villain instead. To pretty much sideline a female charater in order to introduce a male charater that fills the same roll is not the best. Just like racisuim, sexisuim doesn't have to be done purposfly, and I don't blame anyone who finds this choice to be sexist.

Then there's Striker.

Another reason I think Stella and Andre should have been combined. Striker worked really well as the side antagonist under the main villain. He's the one we see more of, he's more charismatic and has hints of a generally interesting backstory, one that we know would fit into the theme the show has of class issues. He's a mirror of what Blitz could have turned into, while Stella could be presented as Stolas's opposite. Even their work relationship could be a dark mirror of Blitz and Stolas's real love for one another.

As it is, Striker is under two other villains, one of which has become essentially unless to the story (Stella can't do anything Andre can't at this point, especially since her and Via aren't shown to have a close relationship). This reduces his threat level and reduced his screen time since he now has to share it with another character. We can see this in the newest episode, where we get a scene where Andre is talking to Stella and then Striker appears later at the trial with no explanation. If Andre and Stella were combined, that scene could have been Stella going over the plan with Striker instead. This would have helped Striker's character, since as it is, his appearance at the trial is confusing. Maybe he's just out for himself and his selfishness won out over his hate of Royals, maybe he was blackmailed, maybe he was so furious and his pride wounded so much by Blitz he'd do anything to bring him down, maybe it's a combination of all three. We don't know because we aren't given the set up. Is it cool that Striker was a suprise? Sure, but in this case it wasn't worth not showing the charater's reason for doing something that seems to go agasint his own charaterization.

Reson 4: Threat.

One of the main reasons to have a simply evil villain is so the can be incredibly menicing. The Aundence doesn't have to feel anything but fear for the protagonists and hate for the villain. They pose no deep moral question, and it feels great when they're beaten.

Despite being a major villain we never see her threat felt by the protagonists. Take her abuse of Stolas. We see her go to hit him and he catches her hand easily and tells her off without issue. Stolas has no problem standing up to Stella ever. In The entire show Stolas is never portayed as afraid of Stella.

Contrast this with how Moxxie and Crimson interact. Yes, sometimes Moxxie does stand up to his father, but we are shown how terrified he is of Crimson multiple times during the one episonde they interact. In comparison Stella's actions never make Stolas even worried. The most we see is him doging things when she throws things at him, but he doesn't seem genuinly afraid, and it's forgoten as soon as she leaves.

He insults her over the phine, insults her to her face. When he learns she hired Striker we arent shown him suddenly relize he underestimated her and become afraid. He instead he's more conserned with his reletionship with Blitz and getting him a crystal. Stolas never tells Blitz about Stella, so we don't even know how Blitz feels about how she treated him.

It's hard for a pure eveil villain to work when only one charater even seems to know they exist and they aren't even worried about offending them. The only way this could work is if Stella pretended to be nice most of the time, but was secretly ploting, like Scar in the Lion King. Instead she's framed as this force of nature, pure bitch, who torments Stolas, yet Stolas doesn't even show anxiaty when having to meet with her, something we know he's prone too because he shuts himself in the refrigerator when contemplating his confession to Blitz ending badly.

If the writers want Stella to be evil--make her evil. Let her be powerful and scary. Have Stolas fintch at her voice, show flashbacks of her hitting him, let her win arguments and verbally tear Stolas down. Make her smart enough to plan things on her own.

I think when alot of people say Stella is a badly written charater it's not nessesarily because they wanted her to be good, or complex. I don't see alot of people angry at how Mother Gothel was written (besides her deisgn being anti-semetic) or Maleficent. It's possible to write evil, one-dimensional female villains. The issue is that even as an evil bitch, Stella falls short in a mutitupe of ways. Her charater is a complete waste, even more so now that her brother has been introduced. She has no reason to exist and serves no narritive purpose. Even as a raod block to the Stolas/Blitz ship she isn't nessesaey because their main issue is the class systum. Stella could have been dead before the show started, leaving Stolas with Via for drama, and Andre could be the evil uncle trying to get Stolas's power.

Stella is pretty much a sexy lamp, execpt the sexy lamp is also a bitch. She's less affective then the random bitch charaters introduced in romatic webtoon comics that are only there to be mean to the main charater and try to steal her man. Stella's not badly written because she's pure evil and simple, she's badly written because she doesn't serve a purpose in the story and could be replaced with a sexy, evil lamp.

[total-drama-brainrot]

I think it'd be a lot more tragic if José wasn't the antagonistic asshole we all assume him to be. At least, not from his point of view.

Could you imagine a José who is genuinely trying to be friendly with his baby brother in his own weird way; initiating meaningless competitions between them because he can see how excited Alejandro gets when his competitive fire is nurtured, playfully roughhousing with him as a form of bonding, trying to set a good example for his baby brother by meeting their parents impossibly high standards and encouraging him to do the same, so on so forth.

A José who's completely oblivious to Alejandro's hostility towards him, who perhaps makes himself too present in his younger brother's life because of how vacant his older brother Carlos had been to him. Who genuinely thinks that Alejandro shares the same perspective on their relationship - since their parents have all but banned healthy communication in their household, and the Burromuertos at large are in the habit of masking their true feelings/thoughts.

I just think it'd be interesting to explore things from José's point of view without making him some irredeemable villain. Plus, learning how Alejandro really views him from a reality television show of all things would beprime angst material.

[robertdowneyjjr]

see, it’s not that tony has anything against the name bucky.

it’s… fine. maybe not the best name, and definitely one that should be teased about incessantly, but only out of love and respect, of course. it’s a perfectly decent name. a great nickname, in fact. and it does actually suit james very well.

other nicknames suit james just as well though. terminator, winter wonder, buckaboo, freezer burn, barnes and noble, robocop, swashbuckler. and so on, and so forth.

tony just will not call him bucky. he refuses.

for the simple reason that tony was not the one to come up with the nickname. it’s the principle of the matter, that’s all.

[mazzystar24]

Okay but Eddie pissing off the Buckley parents by being petty and calling them Maggie and Phil when?

[local-meme-lord]

Sylvester Shyster appreciation

[chasedeys]

Are you willing to share your 'Most Hated' list? No...of course not. We're not doing that one.

Anyone on the schedule coming up? No comment.

[crappyyuki]

So...10 months? Give or take?

I'm sorry. Here's a 7k word chapter.

I'm really sorry. I hope you enjoy. This was a hard chapter to write :,DDD

[breitzbachbea]

I haven't talked about Francetto a lot lately (BUT only 5 chapters away from a finished IP rewrite, so Watch Out), but I haven't thought in a loooooong time about their weird fighting kink. Like, how they just love to sratch and bite and push and shove and actually wrestle for the upper hand, because it gives Dolco a sense of worth and superiority AND he likes Franci being evil and Franci likes harsh physicality and he likes em feisty. Plus, whatever makes Dolco happy and helps him cope. (No matter how unhealthy.)

Still the best thing to come out of this is like. The rest of Team Italy kind of knowing. Doesn't matter if Franci told any of them, they like. Know. and while Rella and Fabio tactfully, if slightly concerned at times, ignore it, the Vargas are just like. "You've got to stop fucking like that, you're gonna cost me a good man one day, Cicci." - Lovi. "Yeah, there's only so much flesh on those bones, he bruises easily!" - Feli. And Dolco is just there like "STATE ZITTI STATE ZITTI STATE ZITTI, AMMAZZOVI!!!". About to commit incredibly unsexy murder.

[thelonestrider]

I uh.. Might have made another flower child based on one of my old FO4 bbys. Meet Petunia!

[fadetouchedsilk]

don't count on getting any actual da fic from me any time soon but i have been rotating a scene of isenril astral-projecting herself into the fade post-game just to have a little chitchat with solas

these two were Not Friends during dai. like, every so often it would seem like things were maybe crossing the line from 'civil' into 'friendly,' but they'd end up butting heads again within the hour, progress reverted lmao

& she's definitely Mad at him but also. he didn't win this. he tripped over his own feet while refusing to meet anyone halfway& made himself suffer for it. she doesn't feel bad for him, but she's curious. what was the point of it all? were you really so lonely & full of grief that you're tear everything down a second time? were the literal Years he spent with them not enough to convince him that this world was full of 'real' people? she's not actually expecting answers, she just wants this to be the last conversation he thinks about. she's planning on being long dead before he decides to cross back over & make a problem of himself anyway. it doesn't matter. her missing flesh hand has become a series of interchangeable, intricate accessories & it functions more or less the same. she stopped being angry about that some years ago.

in lieu of a goodbye, she asks if he regrets it, keeping her alive instead of letting the mark consume her & she believes it when he finally says that he doesn't. of course she doesn't take this as like. a kindness. or any indication of growth. because in her eyes, he absolutely should. he's lucky it was someone else to confront him & not her. being bound to the veil is a kindness; whatever she would have done wouldn't even have been close.

she wanted to talk for some sort of closure for her own sake. whether he found any peace in that final interaction or not isn't any of her business. 10 years ago, there was a seat left for him at the table beside multiple people who tried their best to understand him. she's not going to carry the burden of guilt just because he thought himself too good to sit down.

[silvyslayer42]

lol how can you ship aiura with the literal sex offender that constantly calls her tits mcgee and then say HE deserves better? and say that he gets "done dirty by canon?" like, what does that even mean? that's just who he is, there's nothing to like there, there's nothing redeemable, and it's kinda gross that you want to pretend like there is and ship him with one of his targets of harassment. it's not cute. when he had a ghost tell him what underwear she was wearing, was that like, a shipping moment for you?

yawn i dont careee

the version of toritsuka in my head and in the heads of a lot of the people in this fandom is way less bad than canon (it’s called a headcanon), and i happen to really like the guy in my head, that’s why i say he was done dirty lol. you might not like him and you might not like this ship but that has nothing to do with me

and just because im petty, here’s some of my favorite mikosuka art and fics:

(^made by the amazing @/lu-kario. go support them)

[letyukisayfuck]

i don't think anyone understands how badly i want seven wonders to be animated solely so i can see kyon and t's incredibly silly nickname conversation with accompanying visuals

[nenoname]

it's kinda petty but i'm glad the new stuff we've got further reinforced ford not using nicknames and mostly calling stan 'stanley' because i never liked the hc of ford calling him 'lee'

like there's the whole added meaning to their regular nicknames where a huge part of stanley's identity is intertwined to being part of a set because he feels like he's nothing by himself so he keeps the part of the name they both share vs stanford feeling suffocated by everyone in his childhood seeing him as a twin and less of an individual so he uses the part that belongs to him alone

and idk i feel like there's more of an oomph to ford being one of the few who calls stan by his full first name that he hasn't used in decades

also i always liked the similarity of stan and bill both being nicknamers but still coming up with different ones (eg poindexter+goody nerd-shoes vs iq+brainiac) which makes bill stealing the 'sixer' nickname stand out even more

[the-great-gullon-incident]

The return of Wonderboy!

[frankensteincest]

you lot don’t know how many specific ass rants about tma s5 that I’m keeping to myself