#protagonist: witch

[cosybookclub]

Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries

When the going gets tough, Ella Mae LaFaye bakes pies. So when she catches her husband cheating in New York, she heads back home to Havenwood, Georgia, where she can drown her sorrows in fresh fruit filling and flakey crust. But her pies aren't just delicious. They're having magical effects on the people who eat them - and the public is hungry for more.

Discovering her hidden talent for enchantment, Ella Mae makes her own wish come true by opening the Charmed Pie Shoppe. But with her old nemesis Loralyn Gaynor making trouble, and her old crush Hugh Dylan making nice, she has more than pie on her plate. and when Loralyn's fiancé is found dead - killed with Ella Mae's rolling pin - it'll take all her sweet magic to clear her name.

[flowerbloom-arts]

Change is a two-way street.

(Is my favoritism towards the Damsel obvious enough, or?)

note: TLQ [aka my sona Bloombird] is a butch sapphic and this is yuri

[toon-topaz]

women <3

[petr1kov]

i love how hades 2 is just 'what if we make hades but with a witchy aesthetic and an actual villain'. it's like it was made for me

[cuius]

Amuro Eating Cubes (Mobile Suit Gundam, 1979) - Suletta Eating Ham (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury, 2023)

[littleeyesofpallas]

I have always loved Molly Knox Ostertag's work, in particular the really cute, heartwarming tact of the Witch Boy trilogy's trans allegory and the way it feels so well built to walk that fine line of appropriately nuanced but still perfectly digestible for its intended teen audience.

Well The Deep Dark is more of precisely that style of writing and it blows me away just as much now as Witch Boy did the first time I read it. It's exactly the kind of book I wish I'd had as a kid, and the sort of thing that lights a little hopeful flame in the jaded dark corners of my heart. It's the sort of thing that helps me feel optimistic about a generation of kids who will grow up with this kind of story as their formative personal mythos.

I know I don't usually do reviews or recommendation on this blog so I dunno who this is for really, and it certainly won't have any particular reach, but if you find yourself with the chance to, I really can't recommend The Deep Dark enough. And of course everything else Molly Knox Ostertag has had a hand in, even the one's she's not been the sole author on.

[musubiki]

Taffy: Alright. I did it. I finally got rid of my feelings for ponytail girl….

The Coco Feelings™:

YOU DONT KNOW HOW SPOT ON THAT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! especially early Coco Feelings development, there are periods of time where he doesnt bump into her for a while and hes like 'okay...im okay now. I think it went away'

and then as soon as he sees her again his heart starts doing backflips and in his head hes like 'NO!!! FUCK!!!! I THOUGHT I WAS FREE!!!!'

[anthurak]

The Deadly Cinnamon Roll...

So I’d like to highlight how this episode utterly YANKS the rug out from under the audience when it comes to Suletta Mercury and turns her into probably the most interesting and unsettling Gundam protagonists of all time.

See, when we were first introduced to her back in episode 1 and all throughout this first season, Suletta Mercury pretty clearly felt like a somewhat exaggerated take on the Amuro/Kira/Loran style of ‘dorky, socially awkward but well-meaning and earnest’ Gundam protagonist, rather than the Heero/Setsuna/Mikazuki style of ‘emotionally stunted child soldier who kills without feeling anything’ protagonist, with really only a few offhand nods to that type.

But now...

...it turns out Suletta absolutely IS a take on the ‘unfeeling child soldier’ trope. And thanks to the buildup of making this a mid-series reveal rather than something that was clear from the start, I’d argue Suletta is EVEN MORE unsettling and disturbing than Heero, Setuna or Mikazuki EVER were.

Like it’s one thing to have a child blow away dudes with a stoic, emotionless glare. It’s a whole other thing to have this earnest, dorky little cinnamon roll who’s endeared herself to us and the rest of the cast over the last 12 episodes turn some poor bastard into a literal SMEAR on the WALL, then slip and fall in said smear and just laugh it off as being clumsy before offering a friendly hand that is covered in that dudes BLOOD. This might be a hot take, but I’d argue Suletta Mercury is the first time Gundam has done an ‘unfeeling child soldier’ protagonist that has been legit disturbing to watch. Or least more unsettling than any who have come before.

It turns out that Suletta Mercury is effectively both competing styles of Gundam protagonist existing together. And she’s so much more unsettling, disturbing and INTERESTING because of it.

Like I wouldn’t be surprised if episode one, two or three of season 2 opens with Suletta piloting Aerial while vibing along to some upbeat, cheesy popsong... all while utterly slaughtering a few dozen enemy mobile suits as their pilots freak out in terror before being vaporized.

And honestly, I cannot WAIT to see where this series takes her XD

[witchthewriter]

ENFJ | The Protagonist & Mentor

Empathetic, insightful, and organised, ENFJs love inspiring others to grow. They want to unite people for a common cause, to show that they have potential and together things can change for the better. ENFJs make people feel safe; but they also have a knack for being able to read people. This means they have a powerful gift of knowing other's underlying needs and motivation.

[variouspolltournaments]

Submissions Closed

Next up is the Villain Protagonists Tournament. So long as the protagonist is, was or becomes a villain, they count here.

Submit a Villain Protagonist, along with where they come from and (if you want) propaganda through ask or submit a post.

Submissions will be closing on the 12th of June. Will be doing prelims on the same day, scratch that I'll be doing as many prelims as I can before submissions close, any left over will be done the day of the submissions closing. This is because there a few submissions I'm not sure about.

Top 4 submissions are the ones I submitted myself.

@tournament-announcer

Submissions in bold have propaganda, submissions not in bold do not have propaganda. Whether they do or do not have some already, you are still free to submit some. Those with a line through their name were eliminated in the prelims.

SUBMISSIONS:

Ellen: The Witch's House/The Diary of Ellen

Light Yagami: Death Note

Roxie Hart: Chicago

Alex Wake: Beyond Eden

Yato: Noragami

Koro-sensei: Assassination Classroom

Bucky Barnes: Avengers

Xeno Wingfield: Doctor Stone

Victor Vale: Vicious

Barry Lyndon: Barry Lyndon

Footsoldier D: Go Go Loser Ranger

Medea: Euripedes Medea

Taylor Hebert: Worm

Scourge: Warrior Cats

Tigerstar: Warrior Cats

Megamind: Megamind

Setsuna Higashi: Fresh Precure

Invader Zim: Invader Zim

Valkyrie Cain: Skulduggery Pleasant

William James Moriarty: Moriarty the Patriot

GoodTimesWithScar: Secret Life.

Shen Qingqiu: Scum Villain's Self Saving System

Nimona: Nimona

Ballister Blackheart: Nimona

Artemis Fowl: The Fowl Adventures

Vegeta: Dragon Ball Z

Hiei: Yu Yu Hakusho

Gru: Despicable Me

Dr. Horrible: Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog

Wu Zetian: Iron Widow

Magneto: X-Men

Catherine Foundling: A Practical Guide to Evil.

Nick: Anna and the Apocalypse

Elphaba Thropp: Wicked

The Batter: OFF!

HAL 9000: Space Odyssey

Anakin Skywalker: Star Wars

Darkstalker: Wings of Fire

Alastor: Hazbin Hotel

Zhou Zishu: Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers

Mr. Wolf: The Bad Guys

Jafar: Twisted

Sauron: Lord of the Rings

Morgoth: The Silmirilion

The Witch of the Waste: Howl's Moving Castle

Dracula: Dracula

Hades: Disney's Hercules

Hannibal Lecter: Hannibal

Heinz Doofenshmirtz: Phineas and Ferb

Raistlin Majere: Dragonlance

Petey: Dog Man

Eric Draven: The Crow

Ainz Ooal Gown: Overlord

Harley Quinn: Harley Quinn 2019

Dexter Morgan: Dexter

Hector con Carne: Evil Con Carne

Mandy: The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy

Rick Sanchez: Rick & Morty

Rusty Venture: The Venture Bros

Eric Cartman: South Park

Utena Hiiragi: Gushing Over Magical Girls

Yuno Gasai: Future Diary

Lucy: Elfen Lied

Belkar Bitterleaf: Order of the Stick

Tomie: Tomie

Punie Tanaka: Magical Witch Punie-chan

Azazel: Yondemasu Yo! Azazel-san

Lucifer: Sin: Seven Mortal Sins

Venom: Venom comics

Ren Hoek: Ren & Stimpy

Demitri Maximoff: Darkstalkers

Sweet Tooth: Twisted Metal

Slappy: Goosebumps Slappyworld

The Warden: Superjail!

Herbert West: Re-Animator

Joker: Joker 2019

Patrick Bateman: American Psycho

Monami: Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl

Sagiri Tengai: Korokoro Soushi

Shion Sonozaki: Higurashi When They Cry

Ai Enma: Hell Girl

Johnny C.: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac

Lenore: Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl

Takuyoshi Masuoka: Marebito

Deadshot: Secret Six

Catman: Secret Six

Scandal Savage: Secret Six

Ragdoll: Secret Six

Bane: Secret Six

Jeanette: Secret Six

Dennis Reynolds: Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Dee Reynolds: Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Frank Reynolds: Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Charlie Kelly: Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Mac McDonald: Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Zhu Yuanzhang: She Who Became the Sun/The Radiant Emperor

Baru Cormorant: The Traitor Baru Cormorant/The Masquerade

Penelope Akk: Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain

Li Hongzhang: Towards the Republic

Empress Dowager Cixi: Towards the Republic

Cao Cao: Three Kingdoms

Mapleshade: Warrior Cats

Quenthel Baenre: War of the Spider Queen

Jeggred Baenre: War of the Spider Queen

Pharaun Mizzry: War of the Spider Queen

Ryld Argith: War of the Spider Queen

Halisstra Melarn: War of the Spider Queen

Danifae Yauntyrr: War of the Spider Queen

Valas Hune: War of the Spider Queen

Victor Frankenstein: Frankenstein

Adam,Frankenstein’s Monster: Frankenstein

Zuko: Avatar: the Last Airbender

Horus Lupercal: Horus Heresy

Lorgar Aurelian Horus Heresy

Angron: Horus Heresy

Mortarion: Horus Heresy

Magnus the Red: Horus Heresy

Fulgrim: Horus Heresy

Perturabo: Horus Heresy

Konrad Kurze: Horus Heresy

Alpharius Omegan: Horus Heresy

Vorx: The Lords of Silence

Lucius the Eternal: Lucius: The Faultless Blade

Fabius Bile: The Fabius Bile Trilogy

Honsou: Iron Warriors series

Talos Valcoran: Night Lords series

Asdrubael Vect: Path of the Dark Eldar trilogy

Ufthak Blackhawk: Brutal Kunnin/Da Big Dakka

Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka: Ghazghkull Thraka: Prophet of the Waaagh!

Trazyn the Infinite: The Infinite and the Divine

Orikan the Diviner: The Infinite and the Divine

Cryptosporidium-137: Destroy All Humans

Han Jaeho: The Merciless

[cosybookclub]

Magic Candle Shop Mysteries

Twin sisters Tabby and Sage co-own a candle shop, but will it all go up in flames?

30-year-old fraternal twins Tabby and Sage Winslow own The Book and Candle Shop in Savannah. Sage is hot-headed and impulsive while Tabby is calm and collected, making them the perfect partnership. When one of their customers is found murdered, from a blow to the head, that partnership is put to the test.

Blithe McAdam had been seen in a heated argument with shop clerk Gerard, which immediately makes him suspect number one. The twins are convinced of Gerard’s innocence and start digging into Blithe’s past. But no one is cooperating. The neighbor who found the body isn’t talking, medical examiner Quig won’t give any details about the autopsy, and nasty rumors begin surfacing about the drowning of Blithe’s father years earlier - evidence that could seal Gerard’s fate.

Tabby and Sage dig desperately for the truth. But it’s not only their friend who’s in peril. With the clock ticking, the twins find themselves in the grip of an unseen and deadly energy that has seeped into their midst - and in the sights of a ruthless killer.

[vickysaurus-art]

I'm back home, with access to my scanner! So here's better scans of the sketches I did while on vacation. No Shifty with the princesses as minis, since that one's too big for my scanner, but we have:

Thorn with Witch's fangs

Beast chasing her own tail

Nightmare doing the Barbossa meme

Sleepy Thorn (also with fangs)

Witch stretching like a cat

And finally, Razor's reaction after the Long Quiet doesn't come back to life any more after a few skewerings.

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID: two pieces of digital fanart depicting Luz and Belos from the owl house dressed as Sarah and Jareth from Labyrinth (1986), respectively. They're wearing the costumes from the hallucination/ballroom scene. In the first piece Luz stands in the foreground with her skirt bunched in her fists, facing towards us but looking at something out of frame. She has a necklace of her egg palismen and a rod of Asclepius hairpin, and is wearing her white vans under her ballgown. Belos stands behind her in shadow, looking down at her and holding up a light glyph. The background is black. The second image is the same piece except with no shading, more vibrant colours and a purple background. End ID] @toh-described

🦉💫Don't tell me truth hurts little girl/Cause it hurts like hell🔮🌟

Labyrinth au!! Honestly surprised I've never seen one of these before?? feels very fitting. But I guess I'm the only one w/ this specific brainrot cocktail lol

(DO NOT TAG AS SHIP OR I WILL EXPLODE YOUR EYEBALLS💥)

[iamafanofcartoons]

We need to address how media, and media critics, portray female characters poorly. What can be done about it? What are examples of media works that portray complex female characters well? What are writing tips for people trying to write complex female characters? Why do media critics hate on women?

Its just something I noticed.

Male writers drop the ball with female characters all the time. They'll give the men all the good lines but women get weak roles and no sense of humor. When we complain they then make a female character who has too many boyfriends and too much ego and too much power but no resourcefulness, or she's super powerful but still needs a man to save her, and of course they make her complain about everything and fight with everyone who helps her. I could go on and on.

A lot of people are incapable of viewing female characters as anything other than an innocent saint or a portrait of pure evil. Arguably the best characters are morally ambiguous ones who live in the gray area between good and evil, but women are much less often afforded that distinction than their male counterparts.

I'm been having a huge problem connecting to media. The only women around are very young or very old and their main defining feature is usually motherhood. If a woman my age exists who isn't a mom she's usually either obsessed with men or desperate to have a baby (or will be once the right dude comes along).

Fanfiction has great female characters , but you keep running into people who will only write a complex woman who's tied to a male main character.

Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery . POC Female Protagonist. You probably have heard or seen a lot of hatred against.

Korra from The Legend Of Korra. Sequel Series to ATLA. POC Female Protagonist. Despite losing fights and suffering extreme trauma and making mistakes, critics passionately bash the show, calling her a Mary-Sue, and accusing the show of being Protagonist-Centered Morality.

A lot of the time if there is a military high ranking female character or just female leader that is masculine or butch she will be the villain to be defeated by the traditionally feminine or at least more feminine heroine/love interest of the hero. I hate this because it basically implies that a woman can only be good if she’s conventionally attractive or a love interest. It’s saying being butch is bad/evil.

Even movies trying to be feminist, like “Contact” which I had to watch for homework? With Jodie Foster from the 1990s told the brilliant, focused woman scientist to not be so “confrontational” (as two male characters stole credit for her work right after they stole her funding) and to be happy with “small moves.” They continued to pat her on the head and tell her to be quiet through the whole movie. The one time she even spoke to another woman was to ask where she could find a really pretty dress. This was supposed to show growth in her character arc.

If I recall correctly, one of the playable characters in the next release of the grand theft auto series is gonna be a women. People online were flipping out over this saying they are being too "woke", among other things. Its funny to me because there has been 5 gta games with only male protagonists, and now there's 1 female in it and suddenly its a problem. Its like these people think there are only 2 genders in games, male and woke.

Heck, people love basic trope laden protagonists..... until they are women.

People love unreasonably over powered characters that are loved or feared in equal measure by the entire cast..... until its a woman.

Then all of a sudden, she's a Mary-Sue and the show/game/book is "Protagonist-Centered Morality"

Some characters who are torn apart for their initial naïveté like Sansa Stark or Usagi Tsukino (Sailor Moon) are immediately written off as stupid girl characters. Never mind that one becomes a political powerhouse and the other routinely saves the world. People just write their characters off as too “girly” or “annoying” before they even have the chance to redeem themselves in their stories.

Feels like at it's core, people don't like women trying to build self confidence and play out power fantasies. The only difference with the original Mary Sue was that she was imagining being liked by everyone, which was every woman's dream back then and to a certain extent, now. The power was being well liked, and that made her annoyingly boring because there was no struggle for her. Men think struggle is needed, even in fantasies and dreams, but it isn't.

The term Mary-Sue gained a new popularity by shaming female characters (such as Rey, Galadriel, Captain Marvel,…). I am not saying the term is not used towards male characters as well, but it is more rare, and it is rarely as violent as when it is used to characterize a female character.

More importantly it is used against female characters unevenly compared to male characters, its accepted as a genre trope for a male character to be extremely capable or to acrue experience and ability rapidly throughout the narrative. But when it's a woman suddenly "realism" must apply, a real person doesn't simply gain strength and talent through endless perfectly leveled hardship. In simpler terms, Batman can launch a thug across the room with a single punch and it's awesome, Black Widow, however, is breaking the laws of physics when she does her famous around the neck takedown.

Neither are realistic, arguably any grown man launching another grown man bodily through the air with a casual punch is less realistic than a woman pulling off a skilled takedown, but the unequal application of standards says all that needs to be said about the critic.

Writing a "mary sue" to be male often results in a praised character that people don't really worry about. Like Goku or Kirito. People are fine with it. Enjoy it. And there's massive amounts of rather popular fanfiction taking random male characters in series and sue-ifying them, making them the protagonist over the actual main characters, and slapping in poorly developed romance arcs. It's "mary sue" 101, but hardly anyone talks about them in that light.

Meanwhile a woman shows a level of competence similar to another character in the same series (e.g. Rey to Luke or Anakin) and the accusations are everywhere.

Calling these characters one-dimensional is one of the dog-whistles of the modern [whatever]-gate colony creature.

They know that they'll get savaged if they come out and say they're mad because this character is a woman, so they couch everything in these subjective terms. She's one-dimensional. She's flat. She's badly written. She's a mary sue. I just couldn't relate to her.

You can argue with them, you can point out that, say, in Star Wars, that Rey's ability to handle weapons intentionally established in the early scenes of TFA, that we see the setup for the skills she's going to display later in the movie/series, and that her first win is against a badly wounded Sith apprentice. By contrast, Luke successfully fights his way through a huge space station against professional soldiers, then hops into a starfighter he's never flown before, outflies a bunch of experienced pilots, and pulls off a physically impossible shot to save the day.

But sure. Rey is the one who strains credulity.

You can point all that out, but none of it matters. They're not arguing in good faith. They're just mad that there's a girl, and know better than to say that out loud.

He pulls off the shot because he has a throwaway line about murdering animals the size of a camel for fun in his civilian craft that just so happens to have controls similar to the military superiority fighter because they were manufactured by the same company. Because that doesn't strain credibility. Also guess which parts were filled in later by novel writers who were like, "holy **** that makes no sense at all"

Sailor Moon and Sansa Stark are two female characters that start out as whiney cry-baby girlie girls who evolve into political powerhouses and heroes in their own right. But most people write their characters off immediately, because they’re disgusted by their girlish-ness.

While our media gives male characters a chance to grow, female characters are generally written off unless they either show masculine traits, or are used for fan service. It’s why women in movies and TV are usually a kickass tomboy or a girlfriend character.

So anyway, I guess my point is that there are amazing kickass women characters who are well-written and evolve and grow, but their growth tends to be written off as frivolous and not as cool as their dude counterparts.

Imagine an anime where the woman is the main character and she's strong, smart, and not sexualized ?

How about Guardian of the Spirit (seirei no moribito in Japanese)? The MC is a mercenary woman who fights with a spear. She's a complex character, maybe somewhat emotionally stunted because of growing up on the road. She meets a wonderful, compassionate male healer and I love how they break stereotypical gender roles. There's also a complete badass old lady with magical powers and a temper. One of my favourite characters in any genre.

But I'd like to add SuleMio to the list.

Some people did not like that Gundam had its first female protagonist last year, or that she's engaged to another girl, or that they have a romantic moment where Miorine makes Suletta "promise to be with me forever".

It's my first Gundam show and I was nowhere near the fandom, but even I heard the howls of rage from the otakus over that show while it was airing.

“ I highly recommend reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Strong female main character with a supportive cast of male characters. His Skyward series is also good for this.  Sanderson is great but there are some female fantasy writers that do this even better IMO. NK Jemisin has tons of great female characters. Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb series has a majority female cast and I’d say 4 or 5 of them are in the top ten most interesting and complex female characters I’ve read. “

You heard of The Bechdel test: Two women have to talk about something other than a man. There is no time window. It came up in a 1985 comic Dykes To Watch Out For and although it is not a great indicator of more feminist content, it's a wonder much media fails to pass that test.

Have you seen

Arcane? That is a wild crazy masterpiece with awesomely complex awesome characters. It's animated, yeah, so what? But I mean, to say "it's animated" is a heavy  understatement. Have you seen Jinx? Have you seen her portrayal of psychosis and godknows what else was happening in her head? No one in history came even close to that.

Queen's Gambit? Anya Taylor-Joy brought Beth Harmon flawlessly through immense complexity of the character

Mare of Easttown - Kate Winslet there is, I kid you not, the best acting I have ever seen. Her character is going through complex situations and emotions and learning to deal with her human side. Bryan Cranston raised the bar ridiculously high with Walter White, but Kate Winslet pushed it further up, set explosives on it, and walked away like a badass without looking at the explosion. No one is topping that anytime soon.

I'm sure there are more examples. But what I love about these, and a big part of what makes them perfect is that they are their own characters and aren't defined by men around them. Their greatn

I wish female characters were given better in terms of development and characterization. Honestly, I feel like a lot of people hate female characters simply because most male dominated media does such a poor job of writing women, and those characters aren't given the same excuses as poorly written male characters.

Anyway, yeah, sorry for my rant. Having grown up on Anime, Harry Potter, Star Wars, you name it?

I later in life realized what was missing, what is needed, and really needed to hear other people's input on this stuff.

I never understood the need for every main character to be only a cishet white guy. I had already come up with several characters of my own, all of them LGBTQIA+, and half of them women, and several also POC. But my writing and art skills are poor so I can't visualize them properly...

We need more female authors, and we need to promote the ones that are out there more!

(there are plenty of really, really good female authors, in all genres, but often they get less attention, because, well, misogyny)

Edit: If you want an example of how the double-standard towards women and LGBT is applied? Go watch RWBY or Legend of Korra. Both involve a deconstruction of tropes. Both involve women standing up against an authority that demands respect based on being authority, not based on respect. Both shut down the white male savior trope so hard, that men and women who love the patriarchy despise both shows.

But of course, anything that Team RWBY or Korra does is immediately held to a double standard and ripped into for anything that they do NOT because they’re flawed or because of writing decisions. Its because they’re LGBT women that they’re held under a microscope. Or have you noticed that every fixit fanfic for both series involves defending the Patriarchy while supporting toxic masculinity and trying to revive the White Male Savior trope that both shows have tried so hard to bury six feet under?

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

when the. when the story has a main four

[mayhem-ensues]

Also, I really hope in the next episode they actually go back and have Suletta react to Miorine's greenhouse getting destroyed. Like it makes perfect sense for it to be destroyed now, both thematically and just realistically, but given the importance of the greenhouse to the show I would like more focus on it getting destroyed than the 5 seconds it got in this episode.

Like fr, my heart will explode if we get Suletta re-affirming her desire to be with Miorine in the ruins of her greenhouse.