#possibly her one character trait that actually makes sense and is consistent

[gh-0-stcup]

Guarantee you Mary tried out all of the recipes on those "weirdest 70s dishes" lists.

[pruneunfair]

"My feelings on" part 5. How to get my husband on my side and how it properly tackles abuse, eating disorders, and relationships.

Another super popular manhwa that I can understand why it's so beloved. The Borgias were actual people in history that inspired characters like the protagonist Ruby, and the title itself already feels different since the world of OI is all about being a perfect badass woman, funnily enough, HTGMHOMS does this better than most.

Rudbeckia/Ruby starts off with the behavior of the og fls that a lot of OI make fun of. She is surrounded by what appears to be loving family members and is already being prepped to be married of to Izek, she looks excited and ready to do whatever her family wants until her inner monolog reveals how she really feels about them especially her older brother Cezar. She hates almost all of them and her real reason for being excited for marriage is so she can get away from her abusive household and avoid death which shouldn't be hard since the transmigrator doesn't plan on poisoning her sister in law like og Ruby did. She's a master of hiding her feelings already which is attributed to her past life in a similarly abusive adoptive household.

Right off bat, Ruby is shown to be strong in the mental sense. Not only is she walking on eggshells she also suffers from an ED (likely bulimia), there a quite a few scenes where she's throwing up, refusing to eat a lot, or in later chapters, eating a lot more out of stress. Her family too is whole new level of psychological horror. They aren't cartoonist evil, for example Pope Borgia is usually kind to his daughter and treats her with respect until he feels like she's defying him, all of a sudden that kind caring nature is gone, then he becomes threatening, or her older brother Cezar who has been abusing her for years both physically and sexually, he keeps her in place through fear, intimidation, and attacking her on occasion which is only enhanced after he kills Rubys bird and feeds it to his turtle which gives Ruby a phobia of turtles. It's actually heartbreaking with how eerily realistic it is when these types of people are easily placed like normal family members in certain scenes, because that's often how abusive family members blend in, almost no one knows what they are really like and if you looked at a first glance without context, you'd think "Ah yes, that's just a brother next to his siblings." They're never truly gone, they just know how to hide their true colors so well.

This is why Ruby is so much stronger than a lot of people give her credit for, she's dealing with all of this at the same time and her only hope of respite is being as far as possible from her home country. It's easy to jump to the conclusion that Ruby is just a weak stereotypical protagonist everytime you see her pretend to fawn over Izeks presence but if you read further, you'd know that Ruby doesn't like it any better but she thinks she's doing what's right to avoid Izeks Wrath since she's the only one who knows what he is the one who kills the og Ruby in the novel.

Speaking of which, while Izek isn't my favorite ML ever, I still was shocked to find that I liked the typical cold nobleman persona on him. Unlike a lot of ML's Izek is allowed to be flawed and his negative traits and moments aren't brushed aside, they cause some issues like Ruby going out of her way to appear dainty and sweet so Izek won't kill her. He acknowledges how he has hurt her and grows from it and doesn't push her boundaries. It's possible for the cold Duke archetype to work but a lot of the time, the whole war hero past gets thrown to the side for baseless fan service or they're just unapologetically abusive. Izek however is in the in between. His cold and dangerous persona stays consistent but that doesn't make him one note and he gets to have geninue moments of care for those in his life rendering Izek to still be likeable.

Ive noticed that the narrative also makes sense instead of twisting itself for a stupid chance at a fan service plot. An example is Ellen and Freya.

An unfortunate sideffects from the fandom was on and off hatred of Ellen for considering what Freya had to say, taking her side or not even choosing a side at all. The readers know that Freya tried to get Ruby killed by tricking her into going into a monster infested forest or when she tried to frame Ruby for poisoning her, but does Ellen know that? Realistically she's not going to immediately turn her back on Freya since they were childhood friends along eith Izek but that doesn't mean she screams at Ruby either. Ellen does care about Ruby but she knew Freya longer than she knew Ruby. From her perspective, it' makes sense that Freya would be innocent.

But perhaps the best part about Ellen that makes her my favorite character is how she notices the little details on others. She's the first to find out that Ruby has an eating disorder and it's not out of nowhere either, Ellen and Izeks late mother also suffered from a eating disorder that Ellen witnessed more than once so it gives an explanation on how she can tell what Ruby is going through.

Side characters are treated just as well as the main cast too. From the other guards to the friendly monsters to minor antagonist and even the children are all given attention to be their own beings, it doesn't have to be a lot since most of what I mentioned are minor characters but then you got characters like Ivan who has a life outside of just being by Izeks side.

Out of all the side characters I gotta say the monsters are my favorites. It makes me wish there was a side story where Ruby successfully runs away forever and lives as a little witch with monster companions.

Of course like all media, HTGMHOMS has its flaws but I think I'll chill on this one since the flaws aren't large enough to ruin it and I want to stay positive on something I like for once.

Conclusion: This is a story that does such an amazing job with its commentary. Instead of just saying "Cezar abused Ruby in the past! Feel bad for her now!" For example, we are given actual flashbacks to respect the show don't tell rule. Other characters besides Ruby suffer from their own traumas and they get their own arcs on their hardships and how they recover from it, it handles eating disorders and trauma responses in a respectful way that has an actual effect on the plot. Most of all, it does all of this with the type of protagonist that has been deemed as "weak" before in the manhwa community. Ruby isn't a boss girl who is always successful and smart. She makes reckless decisions, she cries, she isn't always able to one-up her enemies like Freya. She's a human woman stuck in a world that's not her own but she still rises to the task at hand even with all her blunders. Ironically making her more feminist then many of the female leads before her.

[bluegekk0]

do you think life and death exist as higher beings in your au? also, is there any character you think doesn't truly appreciate the life they have?

I do think they're not completely safe from death, though in their case it's primarily other gods which can be a threat. Similarly, they can also create life, whether by natural means (especially if they have physical forms capable of it, for example Grimm being able to bear offspring), or through magic.

This is actually something I was thinking about recently, so forgive me for going slightly off topic. I like the idea that the capability of creating or manipulating life is something that links the known essences together. The nightmare essence is an obvious case looking at Grimm, he's trapped in his realm so he uses it to create his form using what can best be summed up as "magic genetics". He modifies and writes it as if it was a DNA sequence almost. And I think this sort of ability would also be possible with other essences. In fact, both him and The Radiance were created through similar means by their father, and The Radiance continued it by creating the Moth Tribe from her dream essence.

Then there is soul (which I also call the soul essence in my AU to keep it consistent), and I do like the idea of Vyrm also using this kind of spell when he reduced his form. It makes sense, he changed his anatomy with this kind of "magic genome modification" ability, and then passed the modified traits onto his children, as if they were completely replaced. At the same time, traits which did not change his anatomy, such as his leucism, were left unmodified, and assuming he still carries a gene for the normal wyrm coloration (brown), it means that some of his children may not be leucistic. Asta, for instance, has brown fur patterns which are meant to be the brown wyrm colors. Though in Vyrm's case, since he wasn't born a god, I think it makes sense that the spell would use so much energy that he wouldn't be really able to modify it again while he still used soul magic.

This also ties nicely into White Lady's ability to create plant life, which I imagine works somewhat similarly. Unlike Vyrm, she is also capable of doing so consistently, though I'm sure there's also a big difference between creating plant life and completely rewriting your body plan to be smaller and more manageable, so what Vyrm did was still very impressive.

This leaves void as the last one (I'm still undecided whether I want to consider lifeblood its own essence in the AU), but even then this still applies to some extent. Void is definitely a bit of an outlier compared to the other essences, so the ability does not work the same. Still, though, it is able to animate lifeless objects and even imitate living things and recreate a biological-esque form, such was the case with the vessels.

---

Sorry for the tangent, I hope it at least offers some kind of response. As for the second question, let me think. Perhaps Tiso? Let me explain. I think he's the type to take life for granted, he puts little effort into building relationships, making meaningful connections, or just doing something good with his life. Most of the time he appears in Dirtmouth to cause trouble and he always acts like a jerk. In a lot of ways he's like Zote but Zote was able to find a friend in Holly, and being accepted into the Vyrm family started to change his perception a little. Tiso doesn't have that, at least just yet. He's skilled at fighting, even if he did get cold feet at the colosseum and didn't fight. I haven't explored his character much yet but I do think he has the capability to really do something great and find satisfaction in his life, he just hasn't done anything in that direction yet and instead is just wasting it by being a nuisance.

I'm not sure if this is the right answer, I actually haven't thought about any of the characters from this angle (well, I did with Vyrm, but he very much appreciates the chance he was given so he wouldn't fit here). But hey, random Tiso mention I suppose hahah

[raayllum]

hi. i always see your analysis and theories in my dash and they're always so well thought and interesting and conecting a lot of things i personally would never think to conect but actually make so much sense when put like that

so hm, not to be weird online, but how does one learn to like interpret and understand what's going on on a piece of midia, yk, cause only consuming doesn't do it? Anyway

your edits are really nice

FIRST OFF this is soo nice omg thank you <333 also never worry about being weird online i'm always more unhinged, this is an unhinged space

which ironically is kind of the best way to get good at literary analysis tbh! I wrote a post about it here but that was more on how to organize thoughts / write meta > finding the things to write meta about (aka the "this feels gratuitous" draft is still in my drafts as we speak — might be time to clean it and some others up and post it).

In a lot of ways there tends to be like.... two main avenues for analysis? Which is an oversimplification but is making sense to me in the moment, and I'd specify the divide is

Treating characters like people (characterization, relationships) vs treating characters like tools (motifs, symbols, plot structure, dynamics).

Ideally, a narrative merges these two things so completely it's hard to separate, and I think TDP does an extaordinarily good job at it. I'll call this marriage Theme since its the main idea(s) of the Story/Narrative and everything should at its best be working together in service of the Theme if you want something cohesive.

I'll use Callum and Rayla as an example just cause I think they exemplify a Lot of how/why this all works and works as well as it does.

If I want to write about Callum and Rayla's internal psyches, i.e. where does Callum's temper or Rayla's gruffness come from? I'm going to look at them as people. They're going to have consistent triggers, responses, contradictory emotions or emotional reactions, etc. This is like the how you wrap a present, the colour and feel of the paper. Any character in a story can technically have any kind of personality, i.e. an assassin can be sweet and snarky (like Rayla) or stoic and rigid (Runaan). That's not all they are, of course, but the characters' personalities often times affect how and why we ship what we do, or have certain favourites, etc.

For example, Callum's primary Narrative Purpose is to be a human mage. He's there to explore the range of possibilities a human who wants/chases magic in the story can have, and we pretty closely follow his magical journey of feeling powerless, struggling and achieving primal magic, and guilt and desperation that drives him to dark magic. But absolutely none of this means that Callum needed to have a temper.

To see the way a character trait can be married to a motif (repeating symbol) let's look at Rayla. Rayla can be secretive — not telling people everything and being closed off about her emotions — and often leaves to try do things on her own, occasionally flat out disappearing. These are her personality traits (characterization), most of these psychological aspects come back to not feeling like she deserves help or not wanting to hurt people, thereby hurting her relationships. She's a person.

At the same time, these traits help us as the audience understand and grasp how the series treats the Moon and its arcanum. The Moon is a symbol, and it's all about changing faces, secrets, and illusions. We don't know whether the ideas for the Moon arcanum (which seem to be loosely taken from Tarot) or Rayla's personality came first, but it's clear that at some point they merged to reflect each other.

If I want to talk about Rayla as a person, I'll talk about how her personality/choices affect her relationships. If I want to talk about how she reflects her primal or how she choices affect the plot, I'll be talking more about structure. If I want to talk about how both of those things say, in a speculative meta about Callum connecting to the Moon arcanum as he understands Rayla (and himself) better, then I'd be talking about both simultaneously (theme).

But those are all like, examples of how you can break stuff down that you see. How do you go looking for stuff / know what to break down?

1) Pick a piece of media, ideally one you already feel very comfortable and familiar with. Book, show, whatever. This familiarity means you can focus less on the processing the plot and more about other elements of the story. Then watch or read the thing but try to pay attention to like, a few pre-chosen ideas or themes. It could be the theme of power, or — I'm thinking for something like ATLA - how the characters reflect their elements (Aang is evasive and avoidant, and air is light and breezy, etc).

For a TV show in particular, it can mean breaking things down scene by scene in an episode to see what the anchoring idea of it, i.e. 1x06 in TDP is all about Soren, Claudia, and Rayla keeping secrets. Soren and Claudia keep their secrets and isolate themselves, because isolationism in the series is usually Bad; Rayla shares her secret, because working through problems and letting people help you (being collaborative) is Good, etc. These messages are pretty consistent throughout the rest of the show as well.

If applicable, I'd recommend starting out with stories where you already know the ending and/or even better, the story itself is aware you know the ending from the beginning (i.e. in Titanic, you always know the ship is going to sink). This can help you pick up on dramatic irony (everyone emphasizing the ship won't sink) as well as setup (the movie making sure we know there's not enough boats, people making the boat go faster, the moment the ship hits the iceberg literally separating Jack and Rose from each other to set up what happens later, etc).

2) If you wanna learn how to analyze, to a certain degree you have to learn to shut down your feelings and biases. This doesn't mean that feelings can't affect how you analyze, or dictate what you want to analyze (I feel very positively towards TDP and therefore I want to deeply analyze it! same with Rayllum) but it does mean leaving "I want this thing so it has to happen" at the door — or vice versa.

The best example I can give is a hypothetical one. For example, it kind of doesn't matter if I — personally — think that Callum and Rayla have known each other that long to know each other well. (I don't, for the record, but bear with me.) In the Text of the Story, they know each other incredibly well, and more to the point, thematically, their senses of self are so incredibly intertwined that them affirming each other's senses of self is like... the only place we could be going. Rayla is "Rayla saves people," so by saving a possessed Callum she's saving herself, and if she goes to kill him, she's likewise metaphorically going to be killing herself (her own sense of identity), etc.

Or for a non-ship example, my real life feelings about monarchy don't matter. I don't like monarchy, I think most western monarchies are crap... and I'd be silly if I brought those feelings into TDP's discussion of monarchy, because they're using monarchy as a vessel to discuss things like power, responsibility, and growing up, particularly for Ezran and Janai (and how often do we see non-white monarchies in media anyway?). And if I want to engage with those themes, then I have to engage with TDP's discussion of monarchy.

It's kind of like how even if something in a story grosses you out or makes you uncomfortable, you have to be really damn sure that wasn't an Intentional writing choice on Purpose or a chance for self reflection before it's launched as a complaint.

Doing this kind of awareness and predictive work also means you'll get better at predicting where stories might be going and leaving ahead of time if something is going off the rails / not going your way (in a bad way).

3) Growing a list of common themes and symbols that stories tend to have. Birds = freedom, chains = entrapment and coercion, grief, identity (particularly in coming-of-age stories), etc. If you have a loose idea of what to look for, that means you can also start to look at the specifics of how stories use these themes/symbols. For example, Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet both feature a theme of love amongst forbidden lovers, but the first is a comedy (love conquers all, even if it makes people foolish) and the second is a tragedy (love is not always enough to conquer hate/violence/our worst impulses).

For example in TDP, although it was in the background in s1-s3, light and darkness has now become a very overt motif (repeated symbol) in both dialogue and imagery. Tracking what those things represent or how the show complicates their meaning (light isn't always good, etc) can help indicate where certain characters or plot beats are going.

This can also mean trying to notice consistent metaphors (i.e. dark magic is often consumed by the caster for spells / referenced with cannibalistic language; dark magic corruption is increasingly seen as spreading sickness/illness) and then being on the lookout for the next time(s) they show up. So much of media literacy / critical thinking is just being able to explain/figure out why you think what you think (with evidence) and it's always a skill that can be nurtured and improved

End of Blabbing

Very long winded but hopefully helpful, and always feel free to ask more questions and/or DM if you'd like! I always love talking about stuff like this and it's such a treat tbh <3

[3c1air]

[(Jeff the Killer: Info Sheet)]

Start: 07/09 — Finish: 07/09

Links: Overall Masterlist & Rules

DISCLAIMER!! Information from multiple sources to give an understanding profile on him - so some things may not be 100% accurate, however, I’m really trying to find “fact”.

|| NOTE: I’m making an Info Sheet on each character I write for so the reader knows what they need to know about the character.

——————————————————————————-

Title: Jeff the Killer

Real Name: Jeffery Woods

Aliases: Jeff, Jeffery the Killer, Joker Reject/Rip-off

Relatives:

Margaret (Deceased Mother)

Peter (Deceased Father)

Liu (Presumed Deceased Brother).

Occupation: Serial Killer.

Powers/Skills:

Hand-To-Hand Combat Prowess

Enhanced Senses

Athleticism

Inhuman Durability

Inhuman Stamina

Great Stealth

Status: Alive

Species: Human

Sex & Gender: Male & He/him

Hobbies:

Murdering people to satisfy his bloodlust

Stalking his victims

Goals:

End as many lives as possible (On-going)

Kill his parents (Succeeded) and his brother (on-going)

Kill Randy, Troy, and Keith (Succeeded)

Type of Pasta: Psychotic Serial Killer

Origin:

Jeff was a 13-year-old who moved to a new neighborhood with his brother, Liu, and their parents. On their first day of school, they were accosted by 3 bullies named Randy, Keith, & Troy, whom Jeff brutally beat up after they threatened them with knives. Liu took the blame for it and was arrested, sending Jeff into a deep depression. The bullies later attacked Jeff again at a party, and Jeff killed one of them, but not before getting covered in bleach and lit on fire by Keith. During this fight, Jeff's mind permanently snapped.

When Jeff woke up, he was at the hospital and his head was wrapped in bandages. When the bandages were taken off, it was revealed that his face had become disfigured and ghastly pale from the burns, with bright red lips and a leathery texture. Jeff said that he liked his face this way and laughed hysterically, but the doctor foolishly thought that this insanity was merely a side effect of the painkillers and let Jeff go home.

Later that night, Jeff's mother found him carving his face into a permanent smile so that he would no longer have to exert energy to smile, as he put it, and burning off his eyelids so he could always see his face. Jeff's mother went to her husband to tell him that their son had gone completely mad and needed to be killed, but Jeff caught them and stabbed them to death. This woke up Liu (who was recently released), with Jeff telling him as he was about to plunge the knife into his body, "Go to sleep".

Jeff then went on a serial killing rampage, killing those who refused to sleep at night, and as the story continued, Jeff renamed himself "Jeff the Killer".

Appearance:

Jeff has extremely pale skin and burnt off eyelids, giving him an even more ghostly appearance. Jeff later got his most distinctive trait, the Glasgow smile that he had carved into his face. His build is commonly described as thin, but with some lean muscle tone at the same time, and reaching a height of around 5'10" to 6'0". In various fan depictions, he's typically portrayed in his late teens or early twenties. His clothing normally consists of a pair of black dress pants with a white hoodie, like described in the story, which is sometimes stained with fresh and old blood from his victims.

Personality:

Before being burnt alive, he was a quiet and fairly antisocial teenager, not that people actually knew him very well. But shortly after the incident, he became torturous, aggressive, bloodthirsty, and violent, making him one of the most dangerous serial killers in his hometown. Jeff is widely known for luring his victims to an eternal slumber, using a kitchen knife and eerie but soft tone of voice. Even though he prefers to murder his victims with knives, he is more than willing to use any weapon when placed in a desperate situation. He is an extremely stealthy and mischievous individual, able to break into victims' houses almost always without getting himself caught in the act.

[(§¥§)]

[tamelee]

I think a lot of sakura hate is undeserved. Like ik she's said and done some things that were out of pocket, but then again so did almost everyone else and no one else gets scrutinized as much as her. I don't even like her and her fans are incredibly annoying, but I feel this much is true. I think she'd still be one of the most hated characters in all of anime if her undeserved hate went away, so it doesn't really make much of a difference. I feel like her hate is kinda like sasuke's, sometimes it feels like he gets hated on just for being sasuke bc ik some things he's done would've been swept under the rug if another, more popular character did it (eg when he killed some samurai) for sakura, there are lots of incel fanart memes dudebros made to make fun of her, so it seems like they hate her for just being a woman who rejected a loser man and likes a better man. It's no wonder her fans are so annoying, that's what happens when your fave character gets undeserved constant hate. My fave is sasuke and sometimes even I wanna do some petty annoying shit just to piss his haters off too lol. Also since she's a woman, there's definitely some misogyny at play when her character is being analyzed by men. Or even women with internalized misogyny. It's stupid to deny that, misogyny is the most normalized oppression everywhere. So many ppl don't even realize they're being misogynistic, that's how normal it is. Sure it's not always the case but ignoring it is just being dumb. Her fans using the misogyny card to actual genuine criticism is definitely stupid though. Like it's possible to not like a woman and not be misogynistic ofc. Also when they use that when sns fans ship sasuke with naruto instead of sakura, that's even dumber 😂 how is not shipping a woman with a man and instead shipping him with another man misogynistic in any way lol. But yeah, I'm definitely not on her fans side, or even a fan of her myself, but I can still acknowledge this

+ 2 Asks - long post:

When talking about critiquing characters and analyzing stories, it doesn't really matter who's doing the talking – whether they're fans, critics, or just people who love or don't love a particular show or character. We can't always figure out why (especially anonymous) people feel the way they do and how do we even discern the motivation or background of those who do so? —whether they're misogynistic, incels, dudebros, fans, or critics of whatever other stories, among other factors. In fact, in this case it’s pretty irrelevant? Or only relevant here because you brought it up.

Nevertheless, that doesn’t take away the fact that a significant portion of the 'Naruto' audience finds Sakura's character unlikable. She consistently is found at the center of conversations about the most disliked Anime characters. This is ultimately a reflection of storytelling, rather than solely an audience reaction. And that leads to a broader discussion about Kishimoto’s writing where many blame his lack of skill in writing when it comes to the portrayal of female characters. (Opinions may vary, so does mine.) Dismissing criticism by categorizing critics as incels or misogynists is oversimplifying it tbh because of course they harbor specific biases against a character like Sakura which in itself isn’t fair and would definitely make it ‘undeserved’. (I really wouldn’t use that term for a fictional character unless we talk about the story itself tbh.) You yourself say “not always the case...” So that doesn't mean Kishimoto's portrayal of Sakura or any other character, and the genuine criticism she receives for universally disliked traits, is any less valid. Many perceive her as selfish, and Kishimoto himself has used that specific term (and even worse) to describe her. So, you can’t deny that this foundation of her character exists. Her decisions and behavior make sense even if people preferred to see it differently. 

Though, when analyzing, it is important to keep the Shinobi world in mind, and only our own as reference. And that’s exactly why the hatred Sasuke gets is not the same.... :

The amount of hate/criticism has nothing to do with a comparison though. Sakura's actions are often deliberately misunderstood, twisted to fit certain narratives that are in her favor and even exaggerated to counteract the hate like the first ask said. On the other hand, Sasuke is generally misunderstood and is hated for it. Often not getting even a tiny bit of compassion because some people struggle to see beyond his exterior and just ride the Naruto-verse’s moral/value waves from the narrative. Where the entire point was that those ideals needed change. 

SAVE HIM!? Why is it always so actively ignored that Sakura tried to kill Sasuke twice but him defending himself or fighting back is ‘so incredibly evil’? This ‘resolve’ of hers becomes even more significant to Kishimoto’s message when we consider that she intentionally represents the same ideals that led to the genocide and with that- agreed to eliminate him without attempting to understand him even once. Repeating history in the meantime where, again, that change is necessary. And you start with trying to understand the other, something Naruto had to learn too and actively had to find that answer by himself. Never once did she actually listen to Sasuke when he tried to open up and instead twisted the few words he got out to make it about herself. Not only disregarding his (and Naruto’s) trauma but shitting on it, thinking he, of ALL people, would feel happy with her abandoning her family and friends for him and comparing her feeling lonely without Sasuke to his entire clan being murdered what forced him to grow up alone. I mean, hello? Kishimoto was saying something very loudly there and it’s nothing positive about Sakura and that certainly has nothing to do with a lack of writing skills, the opposite actually. Even if she was briefly a teammate, she rightfully became irrelevant to him, and her decision to get rid of the (in her and the world's eyes) “criminal” was entirely for her own sake because she couldn't bear to see her crush behave like one and deal with her irrelevance.  

She rejected everything Sasuke wanted, needed, and desired, including his central 'why' in the story. She reduced him to a moody handsome boiii with no goals of his own, one she neither could nor wanted to understand. She tried to insert herself into his goals without him giving her any reason to, and when unsuccessful, she wanted to discard them altogether thinking he was ‘too far gone’. Like Sasuke as a person as a whole was her ‘burden’ to bear simply because she wanted to be somewhat relevant. Even Kakashi said it :/ although he thought she did it all out of the kindness of her heart. (Ffs, Kakashi I like you, but no.) Now, please consider EVERYTHING and then think again why Sakura thought of Sasuke as a burden or why she felt burdened by him while lying about her trust in him to Sai? 👀

The importance of Sasuke having a goal is immense because he grapples with survivor's guilt. A goal provides a reason to keep going, a way to carry the pain and blame he places on himself. It allows him to be strategic and have a plan, which is the only source of hope that things may eventually improve. He rejected what Naruto stood for because he found it distracting and hard to trust at that point. OF COURSE he fought so fucking hard against it. No matter his feelings for Naruto, relying solely on effort like Naruto wasn't something he could do. Especially considering how his beloved brother had betrayed him in the worst possible way.

Now, here's a question for you: why would Sakura need to receive compassion or 'deserve' it when, as a character, she rarely demonstrated it herself, especially when it comes to the person she claims to like so much? And if anyone thinks that was out of love in any way, which it wasn't, then what does it all mean for Naruto????

If you genuinely believe there was any point in the story Sakura tried to save Sasuke for Sasuke’s sake then I hope you’re able to read the story again and question this very rigorously for yourself. Not just her actions, but what Kishimoto tried to actually show/tell and use them to measure how it stands against the bigger Themes also.  

Lastly: the whole point of needing to kill Naruto was BECAUSE he cared for him lol, read Sasuke's monologue again if it helps. That his bond with Naruto had too much of an impact on Sasuke. His one and only, his most important person/friend, only bond left that kept him from truly being alone, Naruto’s life in itself too much of a threat to his heart even when separated, blabla- should I go on? 🤔      

[chynandri]

I finished 7’scarlet in 3 days lol big word dump to document all my thoughts and impressions

It was genuinely a unique story to me, despite the many romance cliches. I mean that’s what I expect from otomes so I’m not too critical of that. I thought the mystery was pretty well written and well paced honestly. The concept of revenants and how they are people who can’t pass on and have to kill living humans to keep existing was kinda novel to me. The story was so intriguing it gripped me and I was determined to finish it all asap. This game came out in 2016, so Chinatsu kurahana’s art is honestly kinda rough around the edges compared to 3 houses (released in 2019 iirc)… despite that, I did really like the visuals anyway.

I think Sosuke is autistic too but in a similar way dr ratio is autistic for example LOL. He got the lack of social awareness (misses social cues, one way conversations), infodumping, has to explain his own jokes, deadpan, intense and obsessive focus on things and figuring out how they work, bottom up analytical thinking traits imo. With the reveal that Toa is also a revenant a few points about him that made me think he was autistic were kinda even more ‘explained’. But… I still wanna say they’re both autism cuz why not LOL

Isora’s extreme mood swings seem to be an indicator of BPD but honestly I’m not too knowledgeable about it. Plus he’s the ‘yandere’ route and the mc doesn’t exactly encourage him to maybe try to have a healthier approach to relationships…… 💀 questionable mental disorder representation aside, hes genuinely really likeable yeah even the freaky trapping me in a basement part and murdering a guy part. lmfao I like a little crazy what can I say. I kinda wish at least one or two of the other love interests had more freak to them tbh

So yeah this game really fulfilled every love interest trope… including a incest secret route 😓😓 well I mean it’s one of those ‘he wasn’t actually her brother all along’ things. I really shoulda seen it coming.

I know she’s too used to calling him her brother, but I think perhaps if the mc called him by his name instead of ‘brother’ after they realized their feelings for each other it would’ve taken me out of the moment less lmao 😓😓 and also I get that he’s immortal, so he has no concept of time or age, and that he isn’t really her brother but shaped peoples perceptions so he could protect her for a good reason. but he did essentially take care of her from when she was a child… and he’s permanently stuck in the form of an adult. So… that aspect is also why their love is hard to get into in my mind 😓 well I’ll chalk it up as something that’s just not for me

Despite that, her ‘brother’ was a very interesting character being one of the first revenants ever I think and while he managed to achieve eternal ‘life’ it being more of a curse than blessing was also interesting.

AT LEAST THE BROTHER ROUTE IS NOT THE TRUE ROUTE! LMAO. I was honestly surprised Toa was the true ending and I was thinking ‘isn’t it strange to be so biased toward him’ because mc is literally every guys first love, not just his. but actually it kinda makes sense for the ‘canon’ ending and romance to be one with a good revenant and he ‘dies’ (again) anyway so not only is it the most tragic but it could open up the possibility of her moving on, and getting with one of the other guys…

I think probably the most interesting message and question this games story explored is time and eternity. It talked a lot about how humans invented time as a construct but as a result it ‘denies the existence of eternity’. In actuality time has no ‘present past or future’ - it simply just is, forever. And the concept of fate and eternity was consistently present in each route, as all the love interests were affected by the mc from a young age whether they remember or not and wish to be with her forever. She quite literally represents ‘eternity’ by her existence being extremely valuable to revenants wanting to achieve eternal ‘life’.

[cburambles]

Lazard's motivation or "Unattainable dreams are the best kind"

Brainstorming & theorizing on the Shinra scions is my favorite hobby.

Something I've noticed is that the Lazard's friend NPC doesn't even seem to know whether that "friend who used to say he was the of president Shinra" is still alive or not. Which makes me wonder if he changed identity. Lazard Deusericus may be not be his real name because he couldn't have his father finds out immediately who he was until the right moment.

We know Lazard was mostly out for personnal revenge as it is hinted by NPCs that his mother not only was rumored being Shinra sr's lover, it also seems that it was pretty much something out of a fairy tale story as one female NPCs suggest it seemed something out of a dream, making you wonder if there was more than sex but an actual romance going on between the two when you compare with the way he treated his other lovers like Evan's mother, as he attempted to keep those relationships more discreet & gave hush money to them.

It makes me wonder if Shinra sr may have broken off their relationship to marry Rufus's mother, who may have likely been a strong political match, which could have been devastating for Lazard's mother, enough that he needed to seek revenge for her.

( Another thing that needs to be noted is that Shinra sr has a consistent taste in women as it is explained in TKAA & Lazard is really likely to be his eldest illegitimate child, which makes me wonder if he could have been selecting his secretaries via their physical attributes, looking to have sex with people who may have actually looked like Lazard's mother.

I think it's also narratively interesting how Rufus among his brother, is the one who actually looks more like his mother while Lazard & Evan seems to share more traits with their father. Something about Shinra sr's genes being more apparent with the sons of women he may have actually desired at one point+ his narcisstic side & all of that)

This mail intrigue me.

One thing I've noticed is that Kunsel is often on point when assessing certain situation, characters, motivations and in his speculations in his other mails & it's likely the case here as well.

I have this theory that like this NPC says, that Lazard joined Shinra out of revenge. Shinra sr saw that he was competent & slowed him down by giving him an high position & power, which gave Lazard some hope that he might potentially become his successor as he actually had more executive power & more official achievements than his legitimate son Rufus, whom was also building a rep for being rebellious & callous while Lazard is the amiable one who plan succesful strategies in Wutaï & get to order around the great Sephiroth.

Feeling some parental recognition (not in warm affection but more in " you're doing a good job which show that you are not only a good tool but possibly what I always wanted for a son & oh I kinda miss your mother too" ) could have also felt good to him as well & he was maybe hoping he could support financially the children of slums ( while ironically being complicit in destroying families by helping out with the war in Wutaï)

Then it got confirmed that Rufus was still on the track to become VP & it enrages Lazard, who goes back on his revenge quest as Shinra scions are egocentric like that (hence the "ill blood" mail which was as much abt him as for Rufus, Genesis, Sephiroth & Angeal) & find out about the whole Hollander & project G when Genesis infection happens & start degrading. So he decide to use them as pawns in his own war until he get stabbed in the back by them ( which echoes Rufus getting betrayed by Avalanche in BC while he is on his own quest to get rid of his father)

What gives more credence to this theory is that CCR is filled with characters whose motivation are tied to feel a sense of recognition by getting on the same level, wanting the attention or surpass a figure.

Genesis wanted to surpass Sephiroth which caused his admiration & friendship for him to turn into a rivalry as he always hogged Shinra & Midgar's attention, Zack's admiration for Sephiroth, the hero get soured as he would steal his thunder in the media for the operations that they participated together. And Cloud wanted to be on the same level of Sephiroth because he was hoping it would make him look strong & give him some recognition, in particular Tifa's.

Need for recognition & abandonment issues is also something shared by two of his known brothers: In CoS, Rufus start to understand he wanted his father's recognition & feared the fact that he might attempt to " replace" him as a child if he didn't prove himself worthy of the Shinra throne. Evan has abandonment issues due to his mother's suddendly disappearing & it lead him to be reckless out of fear Kyrie & her friends may reject him for not looking like he would belong in their group, to the point he get insecure upon seeing Rufus.

Those are things that drive them so it wouldn't be surprising if it also ended up being a motivating factor to Lazard as he was working his way up in to Shinra, making his revenge quest a bit more difficult to execute as he is getting the approval of Shinra sr.

Lazard getting the attention of his father he may have craved deep down, after getting some achievement that would prove that he had it in him to be the VP then have his father turn-around & still pick Rufus, which causes him to go back in track in his revenge quest isn't far-fetched.

Untainnable dreams may have become a strong motivator to him at one point & I think his famous quote was also a warning to Zack, that the highest power in society choose its represents, whether you work hard for it or not.

It makes the last Banora scene even more charged, as yes Lazard, may have not gained the recognition of his father or the VP seat or succeed in his revenge but he learned to let go of his hate due to Angeal's influence but got to help & save people who will then contribute into saving the world, becoming one of the brief, silent heroes of this world, which isn't unlike his two half-brothers who also have the similar traits & roles to play.

tl; dr: Lazard may have started working Shinra out of revenge against his father abandonning his mother, got derailed as he discovered he liked getting some paternal recognition & the possibility that he could become VP then went back on track when Rufus got the VP chair, which gives more significance to the "untainable dreams are the best kind" quote.

[linkspooky]

Hi, love your metas, glad you picked up Choujin. What do you think about Azuma's darker side? He seems to really enjoy violence, but he also has some Jesus symbolism, like being on born Christmas and reborn as choujin under Mary statue. What can it mean, considering nietzschean influences you mentioned in your last meta?

The use of Christian symbolism in association with Azama is probably building up to a subversion. Nietzsche attacked the Christian religion, as represented by churches and institutions, for what he called its "transvaluation" of healthy instinctive values. Transvaluation consists of the process by which one can view the meaning of a concept or ideology from a "higher" concept. The idea that god gives life meaning or morality is against the idea that its humans who create those things.

In a narrative that's challenging its characters to grow in a Nietzschean way and reject institutions or ideals given from other people, aligning a character with Christianity has a negative connotation.

Azama's dark and violent side comes from the fact that he is so righteous. The narration when Azama is awakening as a Choujin says as much. His worldview is associated with violence, knives, guns, a knight in armor. He remarks that warplanes flying by are "cool". The next panel is tanks climbing over desert hills. Azama's ideas of nobility and heroism are tied up in violence because that's what appears in is imagination. The narration even says he had a knack for fighting, but lacked something important.

Nietzsche also states that unlike the Ubermensch, who embraces life, Jesus denied reality in favor of his "kingdom of God." Jesus refusal to defend himself and subsequent death ended up with his separation from life. If the Choujin is the ultimate self-realized being, then the christ figure has completely smothered himself and all reasons for living and lost his connection to life.

Azama's violent side also results from the fact he has completely smothered himself and his own desires. He has repressed himself for years to appear more ideal in front of Tokio and play his hero. He believes repressing that violent side of his is a virtue in itself. The result of Azama's repression and sense of self sacrifice is also always death. Azama makes the decision to try to rescue Tokio alone, he dies, comes back from the dead just like christ's martyrdom but he doesn't come back right. The narration says he lacks something monumentally important. His response to the possibility he might lose control of his powers again is to ask Tokio to kill him.

If Nietzsche's philosophy and ideology is becoming self-actualized and connected to lie, then Azama being so close to death and so willing to die for a cause is a negative trait. His martyrdom is not being praised her but condemned. His desire to suppress or even kill himself for some righteous virtue just ends up with Azama as a person being unstable and unhealthy.

To further connect this to Nietzschian sybolism, in the previous post I discussed at great length the way the Lion appears in the metamorphoses and the meaning as a wild animal capable of finding the strength to create its own meaning. Azama at the beginning of the story is associated with the lion several times, the king of predators while Tokio is the vulture who picks up the scraps.

However, a hyena shows up to Azuma several times before he awakens his power. A talking hyena that only he seems to be able to see. This seems to be a weird and off-color piece of symbolism.

However, when he encounters the hyena again after his power awakens the meaning becomes clear. When he finds the hyena again it is lying dead on the beach, being picked apart by scavenger birds.

He beats them away and cries over the dead animal. A bit of an overreaction. Maybe, Azuma is just that much of an animal lover (JK). Azuma overreacts to the hyena being picked apart by scavenging birds because he is the hyena. He has just been defeated by the vulture, Tokio for the first time and it's crushed his self esteem. When Azuma's choujin abilities activate he no longer is able to swim. The hyena dies at the beach.

Azuma begins the story associated with the Lion, the king of the predators while Tokio is the buzzard who steals from his prey. However, the animal that appears in front of Azuma is a hyena, another animal that's famous for being a scavenger.

Azuma appears as a lion, but he's really the hyena, he's just as dependent on Tokio as Tokio is of him. The hyena just goes to show Azuma is a character of dualism. He appears to already be the self-made man at the beginning of the story, but he's in his own way a scavenger depending on someone else in order to live. At this point neither Azuma nor Tokio are able to live up to the Nietzschean ideal.

[tea-earl-grey]

the set up for season 2 is SO STRONG and theres a lot of potential and then the season just kind of. fizzles out.#i think the character problems are most evident with Seven imo but it follows with everyone else#that everyone is given like. one or two character traits in the last few episodes#i feel like if the season went for more of a direct time travel plot without the soong side plot and childhood flashbacks we could yknow#actually write the characters well#there are good moments it just. irks me.

See. This is why having two showrunners with different plans for the season and anthology style series DOESN’T work.

Terry Matalas worked on the first 4 episodes of Picard season 2, before he was told to split off and start working on season 3 and then Akiva Goldsman, who has different sensibilities than Terry took over, and quite frankly, I’m not really a fan of Akiva’s storytelling style.

Time travel is Terry’s thing — its how he built 12 Monkeys, going back to move forward is one of the important themes from his previous show.

Also, 10 episodes is not enough for the kind of plot they wanted to do, with the number of characters.

Plus, I’m disappointed after episode 3, Seven barely interacted with the Borg Queen.

The Borg Queen who is particularly possessive of Seven, in any reality. Just… doesn’t do anything with Seven until the penultimate episode.

Imagine if they at least had 13-14 episodes what they have time to do and explore with the characters!

continuing from this post

oh that's interesting! i didn't know Matalas worked as showrunner on the first few episodes of s2 but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense. i do still enjoy season two but yikes it really feels like it was four stories Frankensteined into one season and it makes sense that there wasn't a single showrunner. and yeah i've said it before too but i also just really hope that future Trek shows fade out the anthology season model because it just does not work to create a consistent audience when the characters and tone keep changing (and judging by snw they're thankfully taking the more episodic path). serialization can work well you just have to be confident about where you're going because usually the endings just get convoluted (Discovery also has a big problem with this imo). i also now have a suspicion that since the two seasons were being written at the same time that the reason why Agnes, Soji, Rios, and Agnes/Borgurati weren't in s3 (which is my main criticism of the season) is that none of the writers knew exactly where those characters would end s2. which. hm. i get that the pandemic work was rough but sometimes forward planning is important.

i would have loved a s2 of Picard that:

cemented where the characters were a little bit more in the beginning and deal with the fallout of s1 and implications for the world at large especially following up with Soji a bit since that was her only (and possibly last) episode.

spent another episode in the Confederation universe! evil universes are so much fun and i think can unravel a lot of characters' fears and insecurities by having them see the worst versions of themselves and we really only saw pieces of that with Seven & Picard, not Raffi, Rios, Agnes, & Elnor

have Elnor stay alive for the 2024 episodes! i get that Raffi's guilt around Elnor dying was her big s2 character arc but exploring the way she manipulated him into Starfleet and kept being overprotective of him could have been equally well explored if he was alive. he also could have added a bit of needed lightness to the season and we would have another classic 'Vulcan/Romulan has to disguise themself in present day by wearing a silly hat' moment

cut the whole Soong plot. sorry. i was just not a fan and it took so much time away from the actual main characters.

also without the Soong plot, the Renee plot would have been simplified a bit and left room for slower character scenes instead of just action-action-action

i did like Rios's story (and the way the season grappled with modern politics) but him staying in the past... eh sorry i just don't really see it and i think 'staying behind and leaving my friends for true love!' is a pretty tired trope even if Teresa is very cool.

the Agnes/Borg Queen story is VERY tasty and the concept of there being an ethical(ish) Borg Collective out there is really good but as you said... it really felt like Seven should have been a more active participant in that. her and Agnes could have made great foils of Agnes slowly being drawn in to the Queen's influence while Seven for the first time in her life is free of her. maybe just spending more time building up the Borg Queen as a threat (and without Soong, the main threat) of the season would have been better.

i mean also the complaint that started this conversation with the idea of Seven's arc being really good but then just not being executed all that well specifically wrt how her implants were written out and then written back in and her just never using her science skills.

i do like the vibes of having Picard confront his childhood trauma and explore the reasons why he has difficulty connecting with people but i'm just not convinced by the execution and i still don't exactly understand why Tallinn had to be there (and why she had to look like Laris? thinking about it i'm imagining that she might have been the Confederation universe's version of Laris who joined the Time Lords Travelers but it still doesn't really make sense and it's not really discussed in the text)

we might very well get something exploring this but i would like to know why the Q are dying. it didn't bother me as much as it bothered others but it would have been nice to get something more.

oh no i didn't realize how long this got. sorry you did not ask for my fix-it of s2 but once i got thinking... alas Picard has a great combination of good ideas, great characters, and less than great execution that makes my brain tick.

[strunmah-mah]

Y'all ever noticed that in every single continuity Nubia get associated with a different Pantheon/God? It's really weird.

Pre-Crisis:

Nubia is Diana's twin who is kidnapped by Ares/Mars and raised to fight the Amazons. Kay first off: Diana's evil Black twin? Really? Glad that pretty much immediately revealed she was only evil cause mind control and once that was broken she was one of the god guys, but why'd you do it the first place DC? Pantheon: Greco-Roman, The tendency to treat the Greek and Roman names of Gods as interchangeable is something that annoys me, since there is over lap between the two but there's more nuance than that. But that's a personal annoyance that probably isn't going to go away anytime soon, so whatever. I am curious though, why is Ares/Mars always villain? Like obviously the answer is War Bad. But mythologically Ares is Hyppolyta's father. Wouldn't that be an interesting thing for DC to canonize.

Post-Crisis:

Many centuries ago Nu'bia won a contest like Diana did and became the guardian of Doom's Doorway. She crossed over to the other side and was never seen again leaving many Amazons with the assumption she was dead. In truth she lived in Hell for centuries and even became the lover of the god, Ahura Mazda Sidenote: Why did they add an apostrophe to the middle of her name like that? Trying to make it sound more foreign or something? Religion: Zoroastrianism, is actually still an active religion. Impressive considering it's almost as old as Buddhism though the number of practitioners is significantly smaller. Honestly, points for not doing a big name mythology. Seeing as I had never even heard of this religion before I don't dare speak to the accuracy of Ahura Mazda in this comic. But still interesting someone chose this out of all the possible options

Rebirth/Infinite Frontier:

Nubia came out of the Well of Souls around the same time Diana was born. And the two were especially close because of that. Nubia was selected to to become the guardian of Doom's Doorway like her pre-crisis counterpart, but she never goes missing. Instead she eventually becomes the queen of all Amazons. After this she starts having memories of her past life before she came through the well of souls. Which is how it's revealed she used to be a Madagascar princess named, Zahavah, training to become the avatar of Skehmet. Honestly, wtf is this? Madagascar is is it's own country with it's own gods. There is absolutely no reason she would be worshiping a goddess from over 3000 miles to the north of her. This is just treating the entire continent of Africa like a monolith. And it's also annoying because there is an entire tribe of Egyptian Amazons who almost never get stories about the pantheon they are supposedly bound to.

Anyway, I know asking for consistency from DC is tall order especially with how minor of a character Nubia was until recently. I just think the constant pantheon shift is an odd detail to keep changing. Overall, it's a shame how underutilized Nubia is as a character. Especially since according to Wikipedia she's DC's first black female superhero. But how come in every major continuity they manage to make a decision that is not great? Evil Black twin is bad, but makes an unfortunate kind of sense, since it was the 70's. At least she showed some heroic traits while still mind controlled? Nu'bia is an odd little detail, but probably not that big of a deal? But damn if the Egypt/Madagascar thing does not annoy the hell out of me.

Seriously DC, why are you like this?

[petorahs]

pq2 thoughts after finishing it!:

i think. it is a g. game. it is a persona game i will admit!

no but srs i think its good if youve never played a persona game which i assume is why its on 3ds only. it really does feel like discount persona with all of the last three cast thrown in? and some of the gameplay improvements (this game's gameplay aged better than fes and p2's LMAOO) i guess its a compromise to reach fans who've never actually played the main games cause they dont own a playstation console or something.

at the same time it makes no sense for "new fans" to play because you need at least some background knowledge of the prev characters and plot to care.

in my case i knew everything abt p3 and p5, only osmosis knowledge of the plot of p4 so i ended up using the p4 cast the least in my playthrough :( so theres that. not worth playing if u dont care abt the other casts imo

...so we agree the characters are the selling point here, its advertised as a mega crossover and whatever but. people complaining that theyre "watered down" to base traits or even traits they didnt have in the first place are Right LOL except for a scant few characters who get a lot of expansion. but for the most part none of them are themselves (like yusuke... 😔.... akihiko.... aki not as bad as yusuke but they have the same writing problem)

no one expects the characters to rly individually shine when theres so many ofc, the game even pokes fun at the "limited screen time" joke but like. what else is there to this? 🤔 well

character interactions! those were good. everyone expected detective princes meetup to be really great but i loved the other pairs like haru and mitsuru (heirs with distant dads...), and the PQ OC girl with futaba :] (introvert friends!!)(theyre like sucrose and collei in this year's windblume if you go there)

speaking of akechi though. yea he's part of the list of characters that surprisingly did not get butchered and in fact expanded upon in this game. aside from akechi it's P3 FeMC.

others i liked were P5 MC (his dialogue choices are SO out there), shinjiro aragaki, ken amada, yukiko amagi maybe yosuke hanamura and P4MC but their personalities just stayed the same instead of getting possible new insight?

i liked velvet room guys too theyre goated frfr! yes including marie. even i was surprised (probably cause akechi gets to poke fun at her and the twins hdjdhdhd)(cute)

i cant put P3 male MC anywhere cause i will always be biased towards him 😔🫰 (he was great btw)

but the crow character expansion in particular intrigued me and leads me to accept this game as canon like some ATLUS USA reps intended. akechi: stripped away of his obligations is a cunning, introspective and overall respectable young man and the game showcased all of his core traits well. he purposefully isolates himself from the main group and gets called out on it, consistently is the one that makes the most sense in discussions, gets various little moe moments... he honestly seems like he doesnt know what to make of all this forced bonding with strangers but he cant help to indulge anyway. 😭 he's vocal in discussions about their plans but a passive :) face in the background during fun moments until he's addressed or curious. the way he furthers the narrative along like they wouldnt get as far as they did without him i feel. but between all of that he was the main character to me.

the end scene where he seems regretful that he has to leave and go back to his revenge plot.... hurts. because for all intents and purposes we just saw akechi if he didnt have all that baggage and was just allowed to exist as himself. a smart guy with a whole life ahead of him. but he didnt choose that.

😔

oh god that emoji is huge but anyway. FeMC!! ^_^ the problems of toxic positivity being addressed in her arc was great. they really tried to give her as much love as possible without being too happy (persona games tend to make their characters suffer anyway to even things out) and it was great! her writing reminds me of kasumire's mental illness but with less romance tease pandering.

ah yes and the obligatory Persona side game OC... hikari and nagi. honestly wished they didnt exist as much as i liked hikari's thing 😔 it got old and outright cringe man im sorry like surely the devs could come up with something better than this?? way to not explain enlil and mess with the in-universe power scaling too LMAO. 2/10 is being generous!

anyway its a fairly short game in persona standards so i cant really say it's time wasted when i got so many character interaction crumbs..... i guess i lucked out by liking the characters that i do instead of ones that kinda got shafted in this. (except for aki but 😔 i just kinda accepted his blown out of proportions awkwardness outside of P3)

it's..... a 6/10 from me overall! music and velvet room attendants + nanako cameo DLC carried

[llycaons]

genuinely how is katara homophobic when thats just fandom interpretation? it’s a little weird that katara is seen as that when she’s the only main brown girl character on the show.. and to see you as someone who criticizes fandom interpretation for the wx fandom fall into that is kinda disappointing. i hope you reassess your bias genuinely esp since youre white

hi anon. first of all, thanks for the ask. I do love to criticize fandom interpretation, and to share my critiques as well

so, that tag was referencing several semi-joke posts talking about it, that I assumed were common knowledge in my circles. I'm actually a little confused that this is even in question, because I thought that katara's canon sexism and contempt for gender-noncomformity (which ties in with homophobia) was fairly well known. I spend very little time in the atla fandom, because I don't like it very much, and while katara clearly IS unfairly hated and treated poorly by both fanon and canon, it's fairly easy to extrapolate from her behavior and attitudes in the show itself that she is (mildly) homophobic. it's not just fan misinterpretation, it's following a set of attitudes to a possible logical conclusion. she's not explicitly homophobic in canon, but it's very easy to read her as such, and not an unfair interpretation. it's not just her, either - she's like this because other characters around her are as well. as is a lot of the humor, because it was written in 2005. I mean, uncle iroh sexually harassed a woman onscreen and it was treated like a joke. toph mocks aang for being feminine, she's definitely got a lot of those same attitudes. a lot of characters had bad traits that were played for comedy or just accepted as normal and fine. iirc suki managed to avoid this and encourage sokka to connect with femininity in ways that didn't make him feel humiliated, so that's why I voted for her. she may be mistreated, but possibly marginally less mischaracterized? maybe a weak reason, but I thought katara was going to win anyway and I didn't give it much thought

to be clear, I do not dislike katara at all. she's one of my favorites from the show and her work in ecoterrorism was inspiring. I think she's a wonderful, complex, well-meaning character whose heart is in the right place and who probably deserves to win that poll because I get the sense she is much more hated than suki, but her behavior towards other women and towards characters deviating from gender norms isn't...great. it's ironic, because she herself advocated against all those sexist old men for her right to be taught in the northern water tribe, but she mocks sokka for carrying a purse, she attacks toph for being unfeminine, and she tells sokka his behavior would improve if he kissed a girl. I mean, when I read the reasons for her being included, I thought she was definitely treated poorly and exaggerated, but it's not like her homophobia is coming out of nowhere. my memory is poor, so I'm linking gifs from the show itself. the post is half a joke, but the throughline is pretty consistent imo. and I don't think this makes her a horrible person, she's a 14 year old girl who grew up in a certain social setting and she reacts to it. as an adult she seems like the kind of person to do her best, but slip up once in a while and say something off-color.

it's also important to remember that katara is a fictional character written by two white men in the year 2005 for a certain audience. jokes mocking 'unmasculine' behavior in ways that lended themselves very easily to homophobia were much more popular then, and it doesn't surprise me that the show includes them. I like to think katara grew out of it too, but that's a headcanon, and something I don't take into account when critiquing the actual show. I'd love to see justice done for them in terms of their indigenous identity, sexuality, and gender expressions, but when it comes to analyzing the actual show, that's just not what i'm working off of

as I said, I'm not involved in the fandom. I don't like any ships from it. It sounds like the sexist fans make katara out to be much worse than she actually is, and I don't support or agree with them at all. but I'm also not interested in ignoring her flaws, because they're part of the story that's being told (and part of the out-of-universe historical context) and they inform her as a well-rounded, complicated person in a certan social setting, who has room to grow. I hope I've made myself understood and answered your question, as I genuinely didn't mean to imply I agreed with the misogynistic and racist fans who villainize her to support their m/m ships.

an important note: I haven't read any of the comics or any supplementary material. so if there's canon content relating to her that I'm missing, please understand I'm speaking only about the tv show

all this being said, I really do not want to speak any more about this series. if you follow me you probably know how I feel about it. love and light.

[house-vestra]

fe17 thoughts (part 1)

first round of engage thoughts... i just beat chapter 17 but this is mostly about the firene gang so probably only spoilers for the early game

probably the worst FE in terms of line writing; ppl rag on fates for bad writing but mainly for plot holes/concept but i didn’t mind fe14 on a line level. there have certainly been more times during engage where the actual lines characters were given felt very amateurish.

in terms of characterization, i feel this game is probably the weakest as well. the character gimmicks are fine to me (none feel very egregious at this point) but i think the characters are hurt by how short the supports are. i think these are the shortest supports in an FE game? generally i feel like in FE, supports generally each contain a full story beat so a support chain will consist of 3 separate encounters, usually with at 1 or 2 reversals in there, but fe17 supports sometimes take all 3 levels to cover just one story beat (i.e. the b support picks up directly where the c support conversation left off, rather than being a new conversation resulting from the characters getting to know each other better). that gives the impression the characterization is much shallower than in other FE games. but i’m not convinced it... needed to be this way? there are moments where i feel like some characters DO have other things going on for them other than the 1 gimmick/character trait from their c-support.. i’ll revisit this when i’ve unlocked more a-supports i guess

like many people, i was taken aback by Alear’s design but I’ve mostly come around to it. I played M!Alear because he has less hair to look at. ppl have criticized the divine dragon thing being an excuse for protagonist worship but I don’t mind it; the game plays with how being worshipped is actually something uncomfortable for Alear and there’s a minor recurring theme about the nature of worship in Elyos which is a little juicy

mixed feelings on framme/clanne (i always want to write framme/cramme lol). probably least fav christmas cavs, which is a feat when alan/lance exist. i actually do think the Divine Dragon Fan Club is very funny... but i don’t like either of their designs and i feel like.... they’re annoying??

alfred is a wannabe himbo and i love that for him. it’s an interesting choice to give him that personality but make him look like That. i liked most of his supports; he is very funny.

reserving judgment of celine until i’ve gotten her later supports. she does talk about tea a lot but i sense she does have more going on; i like that she’s more canny and mature than a lot of kind younger sister types. i feel like a lot of the character supports are padded by polite pleasantries but celine sometimes cuts through the niceties in a way that suggests there’s more going on with her?? i will return to this point after i get more supports. i do like her design; she is cute and her big poofy dress is funny.

chloe is pretty. i think her thing with eating weird foods is funny as well, but the writers (possibly localizers, could be in the original jp context as well) missed the mark with calling the food “folk food.” it would be one thing if what she was eating was actually established in lore to be what commoners or regional peasants eat as a fact of the world. we do have a lot of noble characters who could be aghast by that. but we also have characters from poorer backgrounds and nobody eats what chloe is shown to be eating, so it doesn’t feel like honest world building when chloe lectures other characters about the authenticity of weird regional delicacies

(but it could have been funny if chloe could only cook weird things that no one else likes in the cafe)

louis’s thing with watching ppl is a little uncomfy for me but i could change my mind at some point. i do like his green eyes when he opens them, and i like that they do have him open them at times; that endears the character to me. i like that he’s a pushy big brother to zelkov

limited thoughts on boucheron; i do like his reactions to alfred and etie harassing him and he makes a good straight man to them. “those are my abs” from the etie support was great. his model does make it abundantly clear that the shoulders on the adult male model are too broad, so that’s distracting.

i actually like most of the firene gang on their own... but as a group they are too nice lol and it makes most of the conversations/supports in the early game feel kind of bland and samey.

ESPECIALLY QUEEN EVE; i feel like her design is very regal, proud, and borderline-could-be-a-bitch but then she just is a normal nice lady, so i was disappointed.

as a side note, to all the people (on reddit) who keep saying they wrote etie to be a buff bodybuilder but didn’t draw her as one... they didn’t write her to be a buff bodybuilder. they wrote her to aspire to be a buff bodybuilder, but she struggles to put on muscle like alfred does, read the words on the screen, i beg of you.

thought jean would be a stronger unit but he’s... not that good for me; i feel like... qi adepts aren’t good???? i don’t mind that he and anna are children but i have seen some criticism of their ages.

anna is cute. i have the same criticism of her as i do with all post-fe12 anna’s, which is that fe12 anna is best anna. the money thing is more toned down in engage, which i appreciate. she is so little. i think she has good growths but i haven’t noticed her being that good because mine is flimsy as paper.

gameplay-wise, the emblems are really fun. this is a new level of unit customization for Fire Emblem. class changing/skills were serviceable before but they required grinding and some level of commitment to them, whereas i’ve been swapping emblems on and off characters very liberally so the way i play each unit changes between battles. that is very neat.

edelgard/dimi/claude is my favorite emblem; fallen star is very good, atrocity is strong but less useful, raging storm is mostly not useful due to the cost but i’ve used it once. tiki is good as well as she’s strong; i’ve not noticed her increased growths having that much effect but could be because i swap her on and off people.

for base game emblems, i think probably... micaiah  > lyn > sigurd > byleth > celica > eirika > corrin > ike > lucina > leif > marth > roy

i haven’t used leif and roy that much so they could be better than i recall.

unit-wise, i don’t think i’ve noticed many stand outs for me? everyone is roughly usable, and i’ve trained everyone but clanne and vander (i’m in desperate need of more master seals)

everyone is saying you need to promote at level 10. THERE’S NOT ENOUGH MASTER SEALS TO DO THAT. i promoted everyone at level 20 and i still have people sitting there waiting for master seals.

speaking of not having enough of a resource, i’m also very poor. i upgraded all countries to level 2 to get their regional clothes but the level 3 is TOO EXPENSIVE. i have a lot of gold skirmishes but they’re rough to do bc they’re pretty high level and if i use my high level guys, those guys will level up, and then the skirmish level will INCREASE MORE. this is... like a punishment for sisyphus

they buffed armors so much that mages are really indispensable. hammers and armorslayers... do not work lol

i appreciate that they gave us lots of shiny staves to use, and pretty early too. i have not used them.

i guess alear is my strongest unit??? they’re pretty dodgy but didnt stop marni from ONE SHOTTING ME.

i’ll do brodia gang next; i have lots of thoughts on them. i’m recording these for future me’s reference, but i’m happy to hear other people’s thoughts too!

[tallysgreatestfan]

Can't believe I realize something new about Tally fourteen years after first reading the book, but thinking about how she basically abandons Shay for random guys she knows for much shorter who give her attention - first David and then Zane.

This is not actually shitty vain hetero girl trait thinking a guy she knew for one day is more important than her female best friend, and it is not actually just limited on David and Zane.

Listen. Perhaps Tallys most consistent character trait is that she is incredibly insecure, and that she wants to fit in at all cost.

It makes sense that she gives whoever gives her the most attention in a situation priority, because she feels that this will be limited and she is not worth this and they will move on the second she does anything wrong or does not prioritize them enough.

And it happens with Shay too. At the beginning of Uglies, where she suddenly doesn't care about Peris anymore, but also at the beginning of Specials, where she teams up with Shay to hunt down David - until she meets Zane again, and then Zane is priority again.

I can relate to Shay so much, though. This is just not a good situation to be in, and one of my favorite things about Uglies is how Scott Westerfeld takes this very real feeling weird codependent toxic girl friendship but in a context where it is exploited by a dystopian government.

And it becomes even more messy and painful through the bisexual undertones. Before the movie I wondered if that subtext was actually intentional; Scott has a number of sapphic books, including the one before the Uglies series, The Risen Empire, but having a canon sapphic romance in a teens book would not have been possible or at least very difficult in 2005. Now I think if it was intentional, he would have made it canon in the movie, which would have been such a better choice than playing up the m/f romances. But as a bisexual woman their pining and jealousy and simultaneously not really seeming to comprehend that they are in love with each other still is very relateable.

I also don't think that Tally is selfish. If she has the choice, she is actually very much capable of being very selfless, like sacrificing herself for a chance of saving Shay at the end of Uglies, or staying with Zane knowing she will be forced back into the system again, or flying back to Seatac trying to get Dr. Cable to back off knowing she will very likely either be killed or brainwashed in Specials.

But she is incredibly self-centered. Not sure if neurotypicals even get the difference, but like... Well, neurotypicals instinctively know how their actions will influence those close to them, and instinctively think about these people. A lot of neurodivergent people, especially autistic people like me, are capable of this too - but it has to be a conscious choice. Which means that if we are stressed out or forget to do this for any other reason, we don't see how this will influence other people at first. Which got me labeled as selfish so often.

Tally does a lot of impulsive, bad, self-centered choices, mostly out of panic, but when these choices end up affecting everyone around her, she does understand that this was harmful and hates herself for it.

And yes, she is canonically neurodivergent (as is Shay, and Zane). Not sure if its intentional in Uglies, where it is rather subtle - her having barely any friends, being incredibly fixated on fitting in, the impulsiveness, the random weirdness (cat vomit sky, wolf howling over the wild water for no reason), having really bad social skills and a talent for ruining her relationships. But it is canon in Pretties, even if the eating disorder part is handled rather badly, and it is very explicitly canon in Specials, even aside from the equally bad self harm representation, though it is also shown that the Special surgery kind of played that up and molded it in a way that would make her more useful and compliant as a super soldier.

Together with this attention shifting behavior this is just not particularly likeable, but also she feels so human

[wiremotherenergy]

i think kevin and veronica have a lot in common in terms of being addicted to relationships - in this way they are both pathologically searching for ways to feel opressed: in veronicas case the role of kevins (mostly imagined - except when enacted by other gay people) homophobic societal constraints is filled by Hiram. i could easily imagine a scene of veronica in fox forest yelling at betty that she doesnt understand her strife - Your dad never tried to recruit manipulate or murder any of YOUR boyfriends! The difference is though that while veronica suffers from chronic venus in cancer disease and can only feel self actualised and fulfilled by caring for and devoting herself to a boy (thats why her cognitive dissonance girlbossing is so fascinating. ask me about veggie), kevin is a coward and instead of searching for ways to fiercely defy the patriarchy through embracing the patriarchy he is searching for ways to become a young adult dystopian romance protagonist through manufacturing narrative conflict and tension to make sense of and give purpose to his otherwise boring existence (see also: cult member proclivities). his presumed but untouched on mommy issues may or may not play a role in this - there is no other possible justification for these levels of attention seeking behavior but momma keller is mentioned circa 3 times in the whole series so i kind of doubt this. he seems to have no conflict with his cop #ally dad and i bet that pisses him off SO MUCH. in contrast to poor veronica who is constantly given zero credit for her own craziness # noteverythingishiramsfault! how do i know veronicas existence is NOT defined and made absolute by her father? because thats why we have her amazing sexy sister hermosa - SHES here to show us what that actually looks like. (and still she is not the preferred child - aks me about hermosa). veronicas issue is that she wants to have it both ways (her character a never ending conundrum of feminism as the unstoppable force and being a daddys girl as the immovable object) while kevins issue is the same one i had when choosing a major - nobody actually wants or expects anything from me and i am free to do whatever i want and i hate it so i create my own mental saw traps in my head. i love his arc in s6 and his relationship with percival and the whole lord of the flies thing. not necessarily a 100% true observation but definitely the most narrative structure kevin has ever been allowed to have. him and betty work great as besties bc they are both victims of intense internalised homophobia and hate each other btw. why is kevin always in some random bland unimportant boring relationship with a nothing guy whos only personality trait is being gay (only half pertains to fangs - he does have other stuff going on but only ever one at a time and during his kangs era it is being kevins gay bf*). because kevin is choosing gayness to be his own only personality trait to trap himself and give his life meaning. only it consistently fails to provide the drama he thinks it should have (again - excluding that thing with mooses homophobic gay dad. i love that the only homophobic characters in riverdale are all - at least semi canonically - gay). veronica also consistently has near nothing in common with her boyfriends** but at least she is getting the returns that kevin is denied. maybe because she is a better businesswoman. ultimately she is the loser though because while someone in the writers room for s6 has probably said she should be freed from the boyfriend vs daddy dichotomy on account of that being kinda misoginystic and therefore hasnt had anything to do at all in the plot since - kevin will always have either an unremarkable boyfriend or a stupidity induced allegiance with a villain or both ( THANK YOU for this percival. please come back.)