#reclamation arc

[coquelicoq]

it's about...longevity? stability? it's about natsume believing he'll be somewhere long enough to plant flowers and see them bloom. it's about him taking touko seriously when she asks him to tell her what flowers he wants to plant. it's about making something with his own hands, building a future with the fujiwaras. it's about him repairing a rundown home for someone else, restoring it because it's beloved to them, because it's the home of someone they love. it's about him seeing touko's joy and thinking about the youkai saying we'd like to look upon her happy face forever. it's about the box garden making him think of the fujiwaras' garden and his parents' garden, about the flowers being both the memory of flowers that bloomed there before, and the flowers that he and the youkai planted earlier that day. it's about him waking up in both worlds with sensei. it's about touko finding the petal in his hair. it's about him feeling how he falls short and the youkai saying, but you have such gentle hands...

[kindaorangey]

wait you guys... iwbft2 being an adult novel also means that jimmy could actually call lister a faggot on page in canon. life could be a dream

[fromtheseventhhell]

Remember George's outline notes that had "joy of giving" and "mercy at the gate" for Arya? Mercy is crossed out and we obviously have that as her sample chapter, so what if Arya's next alias is "Joy"? Over-thinking the significance of that phrase and how it could apply to the rest of her Braavos arc🤔

[brochacho]

me: let me guess, this media is gonna focus on “the abandonment of femininity" or “the reclamation of femininity” and have a motif of light/dark 🙄

also me: omg this media focuses on “the abandonment of femininity” or “the reclamation of femininity” and has a motif of light/dark?!?! 🥰

[leonardalphachurch]

i don’t think i quite agree with this. i think tex was done better than other characters but to say it was her being able to finally leave on her own terms is. messy.

in the scene where she’s taken by the capture unit

she very much appears to be struggling against it, which would imply that she is not actually making the choice to leave on her own terms. and obviously that contradicts the later scene of caboose

implying that she did intend for this to happen. which i do think is the more coherent reading, and so saying that this was the intended character arc for tex here and they just did a pretty bad job with their visual storytelling is fair. but it is like i said. very messy.

and i do still have a problem with how she was handled otherwise, because

“allison church”. if the intention here was supposed to have them be “meeting” for the first time to actually try and have a real relationship for the first time (implied through the commentary and deleted scenes which i don’t have the ability to pull up) but to establish this with her calling herself “church” the foundation is her already being tied to him. it’s reinforcing the fact that she’s his wife. she isn’t staking her claim on her own identity she’s just. reaffirming that she exists in reference to church.

i do acknowledge that i have biases in the way i enjoy tex to be portrayed, and so while “allison church” does kind of negate a lot of the other good aspects of how she was handled here, i can understand how others might be able to overlook that and enjoy the rest of it for what it offers. but because of how messy it is i do just wanna push back on saying tex is “the only character who got any form justice”, especially because i do actually like the way caboose was handled*. but. hm. actually yknow. i wrote all this but thinking at what you actually said i guess i don’t disagree with this statement as much as i thought. she was given some form of justice, in that i definitely think she was given more justice than she got in season 9. and the other scenes with her were pretty wonderful. so i guess there is the question about how much justice, which i think we may have some disagreements on, but i think “some form” is fair. tho i do still think caboose was given more

*this is a link to a post that refutes the reblog earlier in this thread and does an analysis on caboose’s character and his arc in restoration

the fact that sarges season 8 speech literally breaks down the fact that grif and simmons don’t actually want what they say that they want (to leave/be a leader) and then over ten seasons burnie can say “we gave the characters what they wanted :)” god what a dogshit ending. what a fundamental misunderstanding of character development and storytelling.

[azula-hates-men]

to continue talking about why i believe the political commentary of arcane is flawed, i want to discuss how the piltover-zaun conflict not getting a satisfying resolution hurts caitvi’s writing as a couple. i want to talk about them specifically bc they’re the only endgame couple in arcane and the worst takes i see about the show’s political commentary usually comes from caitvi shippers. i will start by saying that i LOVED caitvi in s1, which is why i’m so disappointed by how they were written in s2. while i understood why people were uncomfortable with caitvi due to caitlyn’s position as an enforcer and vi being a victim of police brutality, it didn’t bother me when i first watched s1 because caitlyn fit into the “good cop” trope and i believed that the series would end with her reforming the police force in piltover. my expectations ended up being subverted when i watched act 1 of s2 after seeing the dark turn her character had. i actually liked seeing caitlyn’s descent into darkness in act 1 because it demonstrated that even “good” people in corrupt systems can still abuse their power. i thought that she would eventually be redeemed since caitvi is the endgame pairing and that is the only way i could see the couple working. after watching act 2, i became less confident that caitlyn would get a proper redemption arc since we only see the aftermath of her actions and she gets offscreen development. again, it makes sense that she would grow less skeptical of the crackdown from noxus after 3-6 months, but it would be more impactful we see what led her there when in ep 3 she used the grey against civilians, threatened heenot, and nearly shot a child. i need to emphasize that the grey WAS used against civilians since the mv montage shows regular civilians running away from it and vi says it was used to “clear the streets”. even if the grey was only used against criminals, it is still a war crime because the use of chemical weapons is prohibited under the geneva conventions. the last time vi and caitlyn were together, caitlyn hit vi with her rifle on a place that vi was already deeply wounded from. the fact that their reunion is caitlyn hitting vi multiple times is a good example of how vi’s trauma is rarely explored by the writers, especially since she is so nonchalant about it. during her time in stillwater, vi was regularly beaten by enforcers, she should’ve been a lot more hostile towards caitlyn when they meet again. vi was one of the main characters who confronted piltover about their oppression of zaunites in s1, but in s2 when caitlyn becomes everything vi hates about piltover, it doesn't harm vi's perception of caitlyn at all. another thing i hated was vi having sex with caitlyn in a jail cell knowing that jinx is going to commit suicide. not only is it ooc for vi since she is shown to be very loyal to her family and is a victim of police brutality, but sexual assault by cops is very prevalent in prisons so it's tone deaf to viewers who experienced police violence. i know that the scene is supposed to be vi “reclaiming her trauma”, but is it really reclamation when her trauma is rarely explored? caitlyn is NEVER confronted by anyone for gassing civilians, falsely imprisoning zaunites, torturing zaunites, and raiding their homes; the fact that she never comes to terms with harming zaunites makes it feel like vi is settling. i understand that lesbian representation is important, but that doesn’t mean that we have to excuse bad writing, especially when said pairing is wrapped up in bad political commentary. pinkwashing and homonationalism are real problems and the way caitvi shippers become apologists of fascism and police brutality is reminiscent of how oppressive power structures justify xenophobia, racism, and aporophobia in the name of “protecting” queer people.

[stackslip]

me: but the true genius of fma 03 is in how alchemy is first presented as an essential view od the world, but turns out to be a tool of imperialism and dehumanisation much like many early 20th sciences—which is why the amestrian military is directly paralleled to the nazi regime! alchemy's equivalent exchange is really an attempt to justify the systems in place and the cruelties inflicted upon others to maintain amestris's status and prolong dante's life, and alchemy quite literally consumes lives to function! amestrian society's little comforts rely on that dehumanisation, whether it be of racial minorities such as ishbalans and liorites or of groups created by alchemy that are immediately deemed subhuman, like homonculi and chimera and armour-bound souls! the homonculi truly believe they are denied humanity and dont have souls when really they are manipulated to be told they're nothing but empty vessels. which is why lust and sloth's parallel arcs are so important, they both find a point to their existence outside of being homonculi but come to opposite conclusions—because fundamentally homonculi are people!!! lust's reclamation of her identity as an ishbalan woman is particularly crucial as lust has been quite literally objectified and turned into nothing but a vessel of desire, stripped of her name much like scar was, and that's the parallel between the two. the genocide has killed them, they are ghosts walking in its aftermath trying to figure what it means to be ishbalan *now*. lust's answer is to reclaim her identity as a human and ishbalan both, and die as such. but she can only so so once scar has showed the same way, once he becomes the man who crippled the amestrian military and finally gave his people a chance to escape and live without the military on their back. his murder of soldiers is righteous for 03! he is not a terrorist or a monster or a stupid man seeking vengeance, he is 100% correct on his analysis of amestrian power and military might and he ends his life on his own terms, making peace with his brother and handing the stone to al, because al and himself recognized one another as the dehumanized younger brothers who lost their lives and identities and have been defined as less than by alchemy! so really fma 03's true genius is in proclaiming strongly that scar is right and always has been—

the casual fma brotherhood fan who just wanted to know if 03 is worth a watch:

[mauromance]

A case for Kastle | A way forward (my fan theory)

In the comics, Karen Page’s brutal death at the hands of Bullseye shattered Matt Murdock. But the MCU has a rare opportunity to subvert that fate: what if Karen doesn’t die… but fakes her death?

Instead of a corpse, she leaves behind a carefully orchestrated lie. A final, irreversible act to protect herself and the people she loves. A way to take control of a life that has been defined, over and over again, by other people’s violence.

Karen has been teetering on the edge of darkness since Daredevil Season 1, when she shot James Wesley. As more of her past is revealed—marked by guilt, grief, and survival—we see a woman constantly forced into life-or-death decisions. That history, and her relentless pursuit of truth and justice also makes her a permanent target for Wilson Fisk. To remain Karen Page is to remain vulnerable. And after Born Again opened with the devastating loss of Foggy Nelson, to kill off Karen too would feel like another lazy gut-punch. Just more pain to fuel Matt’s torment. 

But a faked death? That’s not trauma for shock value. That’s character evolution. A conscious choice that preserves Karen’s autonomy, lets her reclaim the narrative and grants her a rare gift in genre storytelling: the chance to walk away from trauma on her own terms.

Karen’s reinvention

After losing Foggy and distancing herself from Matt, Karen relocates to San Francisco, trying to rebuild a life out of the wreckage. But we know, she can’t stay away.

We’ve watched her grow: from a small-town girl with a tragic past, to a murder suspect, to Nelson & Murdock’s moral anchor, to a fearless investigative journalist at the Bulletin. Karen has reinvented herself before. But this would be her boldest reinvention yet. A total reclamation. Killing “Karen Page” allows the woman underneath to finally live.

MCU continuity

The MCU has already built the scaffolding for a story like this. Faked deaths. S.H.I.E.L.D. coverups. Clean slates. If Frank Castle can be given a second life, why not Karen? This opens the door for powerful storytelling while honouring the existing gritty, grounded, and emotionally complex tone of Daredevil and The Punisher. 

It also offers other character threads to be woven: Dinah Madani, David Leiberman, and more. A storyline where Karen fakes her death could organically pull some of those characters back in for final, meaningful resolutions without stretching plausibility.

Matt’s path forward

Karen’s "death" would devastate Matt, but it would also liberate him. It carries the emotional weight of her comic death, but with a quieter, more tragic finality. She’s not taken from him. She chooses to go. And in many ways, that choice might be even harder to bear.

But narratively, Daredevil is designed to endure. In the comics, he has loved and lost many times, and within the current state of the MCU has several romantic avenues to explore (Elektra, Kirsten McDuffie, She-Hulk, the list goes on). His romantic arc can evolve without being forced to erase or overwrite what he had with Karen.

And let’s be honest—the MCU rarely lets its heroes keep their great loves. From Star-Lord to Doctor Strange to Peter Parker, romance is often sacrificed on the altar of serialized storytelling. If Daredevil is here to stay (which it appears he is), a respectful, mature close to Matt and Karen’s chapter, one where she gets to decide when it ends, feels like the right choice.

How this ties into the Kastle ship

Frank Castle is nearing the end of his war. His body is breaking down—Born Again hints at his dependence on painkillers. His mission is losing meaning—everyone involved in the murder of his family is already dead. His grief has calcified into something quieter, heavier, more remorseful. “Look what it got me,” he tells Matt. One thread remains unresolved: his feelings for Karen.

Bullseye’s return forces a reckoning. And this time, Frank isn’t choosing between revenge and survival. He’s choosing between vengeance… and love.

In Born Again, Frank only springs into action when Karen calls on him—an unmistakable sign of his feelings for her. After their subtextually loaded moment together, their connection is further confirmed in a quiet conversation between Matt and Karen. Later, Frank is shown listening to radio chatter, monitoring the Punisher copycats. But he’s not tracking them for sport or ego. He’s listening for mentions of her. And when he hears them mention “the blonde”, and “hunting”, he moves. Because this isn't about his legacy. He couldn’t care less about that. What he cares about is protecting Karen. 

If Karen were to fake her death, it would become a natural out for Frank as well. He could finally walk away from the Punisher—not in defeat, but in purpose. He becomes her shadow. Her shield. Because let’s be honest: Karen Page, even under a new name in a new place, will still be chasing truth. Still investigating. Still lighting fires. And when things get too close, she’ll need someone who can keep her safe. Frank can give her that. And she’ll give him what he needs, too. Connection. Stability. Family.

It’s the most fitting conclusion to the slowest burn in MCU history. Not explosive. Not dramatic. Just a quiet, earned escape.

Why Kastle works

The Kastle dynamic fits perfectly because it’s not about saving each other. It’s about understanding each other. Reflecting each other. Becoming something whole, together.

Frank facing mortality: Karen represents his last chance at something more than violence.

Karen choosing agency: Faking her death isn’t surrender, it’s a declaration of autonomy.

A poetic reversal: Frank lost his family to violence. Karen refuses to be lost in the same way.

And unlike Matt, whose romantic arc resets and reboots, Frank’s emotional world is singular. Monastic. If Karen is the only person who ever made him believe peace might be possible after the tragedy of his family’s murder, then her survival becomes the final thread anchoring him to life.

A fitting farewell

This twist respects the comics’ emotional beats but refuses to fridge Karen Page. Her “death” marks the end of a chapter, not a life. It allows Matt to grieve, Frank to grow, and Karen to finally, fully reclaim herself.

And most importantly, it understands a hard truth: in the MCU, happy endings are rarely loud. Sometimes, they’re quiet. Fragile. Earned. For Karen and Frank, that ending doesn’t lie in a grave. It’s somewhere else. Somewhere far, far away from Hell’s Kitchen. 

A sunrise. A new name. A chance to be born again. 

--

Want to dive deeper? 

Coffee in the MCU

Why Karen and Frank are end game

Kastle scene breakdowns: The subtext you missed [WIP]

--

Published: April 23, 2025

Last edited: April 23, 2025

[theopolis]

Adaptations/alternate comicverses/certain 616 comics that try to empower Harry Osborn and showcase how he's broken free from Norman's influence by making him appear more in control are, imo, kind of missing the point of his original empowering act of self-reclamation in Spectacular #200. Because the entire arc that had led up to it was about him clawing for total control of who he is, what he can do and how he is perceived. That climactic moment where he rescues Peter from the bomb is not born out of a newfound confidence and bravado - to the contrary. It's prefaced by the same panicky indecision that had continously sabotaged Harry's quest to truly become the Green Goblin; someone worthy, someone deserving of his father's approval, someone who would never be hurt again

Depictions of Harry where he doesn't possess, or rises above, his frailty, while often well intentioned and certainly helpful to some people who get different takeaways from them, do nothing for me. Rather, they feel inspired by that same notion of having to "grow a thick skin" and embody an ideal of someone who's assertive and has it together, even if that ideal is much less extreme and overtly toxic than the Goblin. Is it really about self love, or is it about becoming more "admirable", more "respectable", less of a "burden", less "weak"? Someone who is no longer affected by past abuse in ways they perceive as shameful?

I believe Harry's kindness and intense love for Peter can not be neatly separated from the less noble traits rooted in his sensitive nature. He loves and gives easily, just as he gets scared and nervous and self conscious easily. All of it was punished and scrutinized first by his father and then by himself. Harry's ultimate choice to save Peter's life in #200 is him finally giving up on that struggle for invulnerability and surrendering to the command his soft heart has over him. It's the opposite of control and he says it himself when Peter asks why he came back for him: "What else could I do?"

I think this is an immensely important message. Certainly one I needed to hear when I read that comic. Must we try to attain that mythical self who repels harm? Isn't it much kinder towards ourselves to accept that keeping an open heart means that we have wounds, some of which may never fully heal and will need tending to by more hands than our own?

[the-dye-stained-socialite]

yes yes canon to me as well!!!

they even both have red ribbons as devotion to their partners,,,, they can bond over that too!!!

(oh gosh yeah sustainined in game roleplay is hard, i just like doing little things in there mostly, i tend to work the bigger details out via dms anyway)

You see a cute socialite. they have lots of stains on their clothes

you find out the synthesize these stains themself

you find out they synthesize poison as well

they learned this by performing a water and blood ritual in the super toxic water of the fuckung blood red river

they use these poisons while playing a game where you kill people. slowly.

they're possibly fucking the master that runs these games

(and half of the damn neath too)

this master made them royalty and adored whereever they go

(they're friends with the Poet-Laureate?!?!?!)

(they're paramount presence and every single faction knows them)

royalty made them unhappy, so a fucking Parabolan Power kidnapped them off that poison river

they won a game after being kidnapped and traded their heart to the Dream Controlling Horror

said Horror also gave them New Powers

they can't control these new powers once they start.

they corner you in a room and read off all you hidden wants, desires, and secrets while you feel them tugging on your heart strings

they start crying and get really upset at you?

they've cut you open with the dagger they got from their spouse from that master

they have now literally stolen your heart

[relaxxattack]

I humbly request your dave nonbinary thoughts, we may not be ready but I want to know, I want to be enlightened

okay so here’s the thing.

dave strider is a closeted and repressed queer boy in 2009.

in the culture at the time (especially on the internet where he basically grew up) "gay" is used as a catch-all for basically all things evil, stupid, and wrong. as kids grow up they learn that— because patriarchal privilege is something you can lose the second you’re not performing your masculinity to an insane degree— being gay makes you not a real man. being gay means you’re an effeminate little freak, a subversion, a pervert. something to be scorned and taught a lesson. which is terrifying to these kids.

on top of all this, dave is being abused daily in the name of becoming a real man a hero. his ultimate example of heroism is a hypermasculine freak who physically, mentally, and sexually abuses him. of course dave doesn’t want to do introspection into the idea of liking men. just being a man is a burdenous ideal, and the sexuality of men is something that has been consistently used to harm him.

that’s where we come to the meteor trip. dave seems to be of the opinion that because earth is long gone, a lot of those restrictive social conventions should be gone as well— especially things like toxic masculinity, and gayness as a complete “other” that you have to “turn” to; he claims (correctly) that a lot of these restrictive social boxes are imaginary lines built by prejudice, and less absolute then people assume.

so, dave does not subscribe to the idea of hard labels.

it’s important for him to reclaim the idea of gayness, of course. dave has been agonizing over that for the entirety of the comic. his own sexuality is something that terrifies him, to the point where he cannot even manage to date women he actually likes. even if he really is truthfully interested in women, he cannot really handle that until he’s finally come to terms with himself as “gay”. (which is why i don’t think dave would use the term bisexual. even if he does know what that means, that’s not the word he’s been terrified of embracing for the past 16 years. dave strider is gay. his entire arc revolves around accepting this.)

but i think if dave was contemplating gender as much as he was contemplating sexuality on that trip, he would come to a similar conclusion about labels. and besides, masculinity isn’t exactly something that he’s had a positive relationship with.

this is why i think he’d be some form of nonbinary or agender. dave calls himself gay because of his hard-earned reclamation of that word, not specifically because he is never interested in women. i think if he were to call himself a guy, it would be along those same lines.

(i could also go on a tangent about dave’s existence as a hussie self insert and his arc and dialogue with these concepts as a reflection of someone who eventually came out as agender, but this post is long enough as it is)

basically, gay nonbinary dave strider. he’s real.

[fakesorbet]

ik obviously fabian will kill chungledown But like . He’ll Finally get to kill the last bit of the reminder of his father’s horrifying legacy . fabians whole arc is reclamation and self discovery, once chungledown is dead it rlly will be whatever he chooses to do with his life, his name . like Do u get it

[thetepes]

I feel like people are mixing up the term “fan behavior” for when people were pointing out “hey it’s weird af to draw fanart of Lily’s OCs, even in a reclamation sense” With Sai’s April fools video. Which is almost understandable since that sentiment was popping off in the tags right before April fools.

But if one thinks for a moment, you’d be able to realize that making a parody showcasing how dumb and full of dogwhistles Lily’s videos are isn’t the same as drawing her ocs, even to “fix” them, which was the main critique of the weird Fan Behavior

Exactly, but people don't understand there's a difference. I don't think they ever really sit and think about it. There's an entire world of difference between openly mocking an abuser and what boils down to a coffee shop au of that abuser's coffee shop au of a poorly comprehended portion of some children's media.

You can't FIX IT. It's not broken. It's been run through the filter of someone who's an ABUSER. You're looking at how they see things and going "Well, that's not right!" completely ignoring that this person is bent and twisted. Of course it's not right, but you can't fix it and you can't fix her characters. They're pieces of her. They're pieces of how she sees things. You can't "save" her characters either. They aren't her victims even when they're stand ins for them. They're her. It's her.

Stop playing with it. Leave her abuse porn where it deserves to be left. Ignored, forgotten, and completely loathed. That's what abuser's work deserves. There's no redemption arc to be had for anything involving her.. She's spit and shit on every chance she's been given. It's gone too far. Good faith here is dead.

[merwgue]

The Illusion of Feminism in ACOTAR: How the Series Fails Its Female Characters

Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) has often been hailed as a feminist fantasy, a tale filled with powerful female characters who fight, love, and rule their own destinies. But upon closer inspection, what the series delivers is an illusion of feminism—a narrative that dresses its women in superficial strength while confining them to traditional gender roles and patriarchal tropes. Maas may present her female leads as independent and powerful, but their development is constantly undercut by their relationships with men, their trauma, or their need for validation from others.

The series starts with Feyre, a young woman fighting to survive, taking on the role of provider for her destitute family. On the surface, she seems like a strong, independent character. However, her growth as a person is largely overshadowed by her relationships with male characters. Feyre’s development isn’t just about her becoming a stronger, more capable version of herself—it’s about finding a man to ‘save’ her. First, she is emotionally and physically exhausted under Tamlin's control, and then Rhysand comes along as her liberator, offering her the "true" freedom she never had. Feyre's journey, for all its twists and turns, is less about her own self-realization and more about trading one male protector for another. Her strength, while praised, only seems to materialize through the lens of her romantic relationships.

The problem with Feyre’s arc is that her identity and power are so deeply tied to the men in her life that it leaves little room for her own autonomy. Instead of choosing power or independence for herself, her development is almost always tied to how her male counterparts define her. The narrative tries to position Rhysand’s treatment of Feyre as "feminist" because he gives her choices, yet even within these choices, her journey is still deeply interwoven with romantic and sexual validation from him. The story makes it seem like Feyre’s strength is conditional on her connection to Rhys, reinforcing the very idea that a woman’s power must be connected to a man.

Then there's Nesta. Nesta’s arc could have been an opportunity to showcase a woman who refuses to be tamed or reshaped into society's expectations of her. Instead, the series turns Nesta’s rage, her trauma, and her defiance into something that needs to be 'fixed.' Her difficult personality, her inability to fall into line with her family's wishes, is portrayed as a flaw—something that needs to be softened or redeemed. And how does Maas attempt to ‘redeem’ her? Through Cassian, another male figure who becomes the anchor for her so-called transformation.

Nesta's journey is framed as a reclamation of power, but in reality, it's about her fitting into a more acceptable mold of femininity—softer, more open to love, more willing to be vulnerable. Instead of embracing her as she is—angry, hurt, and fierce—the narrative pushes her toward healing only through her relationship with Cassian, effectively turning her into another woman whose growth hinges on a man’s love and approval. Nesta’s complexity is reduced to a romance arc, undermining what could have been a far more nuanced and empowering portrayal of a woman dealing with trauma on her own terms.

Morrigan is another example of a character who could have stood as a beacon of true independence and complexity but instead falls flat. Morrigan, a warrior and a survivor of intense trauma, has been closeted about her sexuality for centuries. The idea that Mor, supposedly one of the most powerful and trusted members of the Inner Circle, can’t come out to her friends after 500 years speaks volumes about the so-called "family" dynamic Maas tries to sell. Mor’s queerness is sidelined to the point where her internal struggles with her identity are barely touched upon, and when they are, it feels like an afterthought.

In a series that prides itself on presenting complex female characters, Morrigan’s queerness is handled poorly, with little to no exploration of her struggles, relationships, or emotional depth. Instead, it seems Maas is more interested in maintaining the heteronormative love triangles and keeping Mor’s queerness in the background, where it won’t disrupt the more "marketable" relationships in the story. Mor's character could have been a ground-breaking exploration of queer identity, especially in a high-fantasy setting, but instead, she remains underdeveloped, reduced to a footnote in the larger romantic plots between her friends.

What’s truly disappointing about ACOTAR is how Maas consistently sets her female characters up as strong, independent figures only to then undermine them by tying their growth, power, and self-worth to men or romantic relationships. Even when Feyre, Nesta, and Mor display moments of agency, those moments are often framed within the context of male approval or romantic entanglements. The series pays lip service to feminism by giving these women positions of power, but Maas continually reverts to tired, patriarchal tropes by ensuring that their stories are defined by the men around them.

Ultimately, Maas reinforces traditional gender roles under the guise of progressive feminism. Women like Feyre and Nesta are lauded for their strength, but their stories hinge on the approval or influence of male characters. Mor’s queerness is sidelined, never given the space it deserves in a series that is already too focused on heteronormative dynamics. And all the while, the series frames this as empowerment, as though these women are truly independent when, in reality, they are just filling the same roles women have always been forced into: defined by the men around them, by their trauma, and by their relationships.

In conclusion, ACOTAR may present itself as a feminist narrative, but it ultimately falls short by reinforcing patriarchal ideas through its characters’ development. Sarah J. Maas creates the illusion of feminism by giving her female leads positions of power, only to reduce their stories to romantic entanglements and male validation. True independence for these women is never achieved, and until that changes, ACOTAR remains a series that fails its female characters under the guise of feminist storytelling.

[velvetvexations]

id like to ramble abt the inverse of characters like chihiro for a moment if that's okay! naoto being transmasc is deeply problematic in its source material -- persona 4 as a game is just like that, it's basically conversion therapy: the game. disclaimer i do love persona, but it is disappointing as a queer fan and the modern series commercializes activism in a way i find deeply distasteful, and i wish it was better than it is. i love naoto. he's a trans man to me.

but if he is a trans man, the entirety of his character arc is deeply transphobic. he is threatened with SRS; this is on purpose. people like to erase this aspect of the game in The Discourse, the same way people like to erase historical transmasc figures by claiming they're trying to combat misogyny by becoming/pretending to be men. both the canon storyline and how people interpret it are aggressively transandrophobic. however... interpreting her as transfem, suddenly... it is no longer about pressuring a trans person out of their gender, it is about encouraging a trans person into their gender despite the challenges of her environment. her story IS about misogyny, specifically transmisogyny, and overcoming that by allowing her to transition into womanhood

and i think that's really lovely! i think both ways to interpret naoto can be really wonderful, healing, acts of reclamation, etc etc. i dont understand why people get so possessive over their specific trans hcs. it's just fiction. and like we should call out the specific forms of transphobia in games that have characters like this, but at the end of the day. theyre video games. theyre not real people. and in real life, trans peoples experiences are more similar than not.

I don't think you have to have canon on your side for a headcanon, but I think maybe a lot of trans women are turned off by how explicitely clear the game is about Naoto being AFAB - I mean, is there SRS for a trans woman to get a penis back? It's even more of a heavily metaphorical reading than is necessary with Chihiro, which really only has the stumbling block of his genitalia feeling to someone else like those of someone typically AMAB, but that's much easier to ignore or explain away.

And again, not that it's necessary, but other people not digging that extra work could be why she's not interpreted as transfem often.