#she thinks that her colonizers saved her and her people . (she never wants to return home ever again)

[zutarasbuff]

Found this somewhere on Tumblr, it infuriated me to a great extent and forced me to crush the “coloniser-colonial romance” accusation against the Zutara nation. For this, you need to read everything quite carefully that will be presented to you.

So people who accuse Zutara use this narrative that Zuko had a princely life as a colonizer, unlike Katara. Now look at the ground reality:

Katara’s mother Kya lied to Yon Rha that she was the last waterbender of the Southern Water Tribe to save her daughter. A similar act was done by Ursa (Zuko’s mother) who killed Firelord Azulon with her potion as part of her deal with Ozai to save the life of her son Zuko and got banished eventually. That makes us come to one certain conclusion:

Both Zuko and Katara spent greater part of their life without their mothers and this impacted their childhood badly as we find them dealing with the trauma of loss even after they hit puberty.

As if the absence of a mother was not enough, when Hakoda (Katara’s father) leaves with the fleet for the war, it’s almost the same time when we find Ozai getting immersed in attacking other nations, so much so that he’s never there for both of his children. Technically speaking, even if Ozai was there physically, he was never emotionally available for his children being a narcissistic father.

I would say that Zuko had the worst childhood experience as compared to Katara because Katara had a brother who always supported his sister in dealing with the trauma, but we don’t see that in the case of Zuko whose own sister used to bully him right from the childhood for being too weak and the mom’s pet.

Now let’s analyze the colonizer part. Unfortunately, Zuko was born to a father who was not just the worst ruler but an equally worse son, brother, husband, and father. One can say that Zuko’s only fault was to hail from a wrong family but other than that, he was never a colonizer. You may ask why. I will give you a reason.

It’s not just Katara who has to bear the ill effects of the war that was imposed on her, but in many ways Zuko was a direct victim of what we call “Emotional Imperialism”. In psychology, it’s a condition where the colonizers not just physically take control of their colonies, but they start infusing their ideals deep into the mentality of their subjects as well.

Coming back to the case of Zuko, we find that he never gets to formulate the normal father-son relationship with Ozai, rather Ozai treats both his children as his humble subjects who need to obey him unquestionably and need to be perfect as his subjects. He’s in every sense not just a narcissistic parent but a controlling one as well who emotionally traps both his children and wants to rule over them at every cost. The apparent manifestation of this emotional imperialism is evident through:

Zuko’s quest to be the best firebender

When the colonizers start ruling over a certain colony, it’s the colonials who feel the need to be validated by their masters. It’s their first survival strategy that they embrace the change as they know resistance is going to be of no use. They simply adapt themselves to the new ideals that are set forth by their ruling masters. Similarly, Ozai always wanted his children to be the absolute embodiment of Azulon’s great bloodline and both his children obliged to his desires because they feared the firelord. Therefore, his stiff standards force both his children to compete against each other from a very young age. This is the worst form of emotional imperialism where the subjects simply want some validation in return and therefore they are ready to even forget their kinship. That’s what we find as Zuko repeatedly wants to “get his honor back and win the trust of his father”. What do you think this honor is? It’s not the quest for being the next heir to the throne, rather it’s being the absolute best in the eyes of the master who controls both the siblings. We know Ozai has a manipulative nature and this relates exactly to the manipulative attitude of a colonizer who puts the colonials against each other.

Zuko’s almost absent friend circle

Have you ever seen the modus operandi of the colonizers? They alienate their subjects so that the subjects find no way of self-expression and eventually give up to the demands of their masters. That’s exactly the scenario that propagates in Zuko’s life. Other than Mai and Ty Lee we don’t even find his friends throughout the series. Isn’t it a bit strange that despite being a prince, he has no guy friend of his age? He has no friends at all. It’s because the master (Ozai) wanted so. The siblings never get much exposure to the outside world. When we draw a comparison of Zuko’s situation, then Katara seems to be at an advantage in that she found a peer group that allowed her to grow further and overcome her insecurities. Zuko, however never got a chance to blend into an actual peer group and that kept him secluded throughout and gave him his introverted persona. Don’t you find it strange that as a friend Zuko got no one but his uncle who had a lot of age differences and the opinions differed too? This created a rift further maybe because Zuko felt that somehow his feelings were not interpreted well by Uncle Iroh. Compared to his “angry guy” persona, he grows a lot more friendly when he finds the gang or should we say people of his age. This allows him to understand his persona in a constructive way and he strives to alter the course of his life afterwards.

Identity crisis

Out of all the characters on ATLA, people often say that Zuko is the one with the most complex attributes because he is not even sure of his “destiny”. Sounds familiar? Eh? Well, this is the typical case of an identity crisis existing in the subjects of a colony. Zuko goes through this phase where he is always striving hard to explore his identity, and his destiny thus fueling his internal rage as well. A kaleidoscopic journey is what he follows. Sometimes it’s rage, sometimes regret and sometimes he even questions the actions of his father. By the end, his driving force to change his alliances is nothing but this very identity crisis. This makes me remember a very interesting observation that whenever he’s near the gang, he’s a bit cranky and at the same time uneasy because he looks at the gang as the polar opposite of himself. To a caged bird who has accepted his fate, even the slightest call of resistance feels like Hades’ call and that’s why he repeatedly aims to avoid Aang’s calls for forming a friendship because he is afraid of peeking into his resisting side. That’s the typical thing you find in Haru who despite being a fine earthbender resists waging a war against the firebenders who roam freely in his village at first. So would you blame Zuko for never resisting the colonization when as a subject it was inherent to his mentality for a long time?

A harsh realisation

People who degrade Zutara with this stupid claim that Katara was the only one who “lost everything” need to get their brains checked thoroughly because when we compare her loss to the magnitude of the loss faced by Zuko at the end of the war, the comparing scale diverts wildly in Zuko’s favor. Though many of you know this; I will recall it for you again. Katara lost her mother to the war but in the end, she got lifelong friends to cherish with her brother as well father. On the contrary, even during the war, we find that Zuko loses not only his mother, his father, and his sister in the worst possible way. It means all his family members are lost to him in every sense when the war ends. Now some of you will come to me with the argument that the gang eventually finds Ursa back but how? With her memories all erased. It means that the war has not just left him with permanent emotional wounds but it has further taken the very idea of a family from his life.

We zutarians never ship Zutara together because we “just find them good together” but it’s deeper than that. It’s because Zuko was the one who understood Katara’s quest for Yon Rha in order to find answers behind her mother’s death in addition to revenge. This is because deep down he was always looking for the answers of his mother’s (who was the only real person known to him) banishment. That’s exactly what we find after Zuko becomes the firelord. The first thing he does is asking Ozai questions and being certain that he’s finally gonna tell everything. We ship them together because Katara was the only person who understood the value of Zuko jumping in front of Azula’s lightning to save her. We ship them together because we believe if it had become a potential canon, maybe both of them could have helped each other in healing with their individual traumas and creating a real family together.

[juliettedunn]

Epiphany: King and Luz are how fanon imagines Philip and Caleb

King is clingy, and has major separation anxiety. He insists he’ll never let Luz leave him, gets anxious and upset when she does anything without him. He wants nothing more than to have her stay with him forever at all times, having assurance and full control over it. He even specifically was afraid Luz would leave him for another realm. He wasn’t just orphaned, but he lost his entire species before he was born. Luz and Eda are the only family he has.

He’s a scared little kid who just wants a family who stays with him. That’s almost exactly how I see Belos stans portray young Philip. And maybe that is indeed how Philip acted when he was King’s age.

Though, crucially, King doesn’t target Luz’s other loved ones and then kill her, only to clone her tons of times and abuse those child clones before murdering them. Because King isn’t a pathetic weirdo bitch.

King grows up. Which, he shouldn’t have had to mature so fast, because unlike Belos, he really IS just a little boy during all this. When his entire world gets shattered, TWICE, he has every reason to think only of himself and cling desperately to everything.

When he learns his entire species was killed, that he’s alone in the universe, it’s even clearer that Luz and Eda are all he has. But he chooses to open up his world and see things more widely, to pay attention and have a deeper understanding of his loved ones.

He becomes more aware of other people and their own lives, his worldview expanded outside himself. He uses that knowledge to reach out to others, like having empathy for the Collector, not condemning him. He tries to help Collie with the lessons he only learned recently.

In the end, King himself sends Luz away to another realm to protect her. All that time swearing he would never let her leave him, but he loves her more than that. He expresses his joy over her having her as a big sister, and he saves her. Because he truly loves her.

King is a CHILD. He couldn’t be faulted for acting more selfishly. It would have been reasonable of him to cling and beg Luz to protect him during King’s Tide, but he was a hero.

Belos never understood actual love like this. Caleb gave it to him, but he didn’t return it. It further emphasizes what a fucked up weirdo Philip is. He hasn’t been a child in hundreds of years. He was an adult who couldn’t learn to think beyond himself and the idealized fantasy narrative of his brother existing for him.

He thinks that any attempts for Caleb to have his own life are an insult to him, that the entire world starts and ends with Philip and his own desires. Hundreds of years and he never learned to see beyond that. He doesn’t feel joy that Caleb was his big brother. Only that he has a right to control and possess, and he will do anything to make it happen. Murder, abuse, enacting sick, petty fantasies.

He even disguises himself as a little kid and clings to Luz, hiding behind and clinging to her, tricking her into caring for him, in Hollow Mind.

Two clingy, anxious, possessive little brothers terrified to be abandoned when the world already took what should have been their family from them. One who matured greatly at only eight years old, and sacrificed everything to protect his older sibling.

And one who maintained a petty, selfish obsession for hundreds of years, colonizing a world and trying to commit genocide, while playing out a sick power fantasy of caretaking and control while screaming about what was taken from him, which was his own doing

Istg, if King wasn’t placed into the “animal companion” category as default, the fandom would have been all over the parallels. I would say “Hey Belos stans! Your cute, sweet, angsty,clingy younger sibling with abandonment issues is right here in King! Make stuff with Titanlights!” but they’d probably hear that and miss the whole damn point.

[pluckyredhead]

Character Profile: Koryak

And so we come to the last (but never least, not in my heart) Lost Titans profile: Koryak! My terrible, damp boy.

Look at him pout! How I love him.

Koryak debuted in the 1994 Aquaman series. (Note: I'm not sure what his last name is - his mother's is never mentioned, and even though I sometimes tag him as "Koryak Curry," I don't think he would use Arthur's last name, especially since even Arthur didn't use that name very much at the time.)

As I've mentioned before, Arthur has had a lot of different origins, but in the post-Crisis era, which the only era Koryak appeared in, Arthur's mother was the queen of Atlantis, and his father was Atlan, an ancient Atlantean sorcerer who impregnated her in a dream. Arthur was abandoned at birth because of the infidelity/his blond hair, was raised by dolphins (yes), and briefly lived with a human man named Arthur Curry who taught him English and gave him a human name to borrow.

Then Arthur - still a teenager at this point - went to Alaska, where he immediately rescued a teenage girl named Kako from a polar bear. Kako and her family took Arthur in in gratitude, and he and Kako fell in love. (Kako's family is sometimes said to be Inuit, sometimes Inupiat.)

Anyway, Arthur and Kako lose their virginities to each other. IN THE SNOW, FOR SOME REASON:

This is such an infuriating racist, sexist trope (the WOC with the broken English throws herself at the white hero, logic be damned - why isn't she wearing anything under her coat??? - but of course she will never be his wife, or anything more than a footnote in his story).

Immediately after this, tragedy strikes Kako's family, Arthur is blamed (it's not his fault), and he's thrown out. He returns to the ocean, and eventually goes on to become Aquaman, king of Atlantis, etc.

Years later, he returns to Alaska for plot reasons not worth going into, and that's when he meets Koryak, THE MOST NINETIES BOY OF ALL:

The shirtlessness, the swords, the hair! Truly a man of his era. (Boy? I always assumed he was about 18 here, but a Secret Files issue claims he was 16.)

Koryak is not Arthur's biggest fan, but after Kako turns into a fire elemental because this is the DCU and these things happen, Koryak decides to go to Atlantis with Arthur. Or, well, technically the city was called Poseidonis at the time, which will be important later.

Anyway, the Poseidonians are a little wary of a stranger at first, until Koryak saves a child's life and suddenly they love him. Koryak, who didn't really fit in in Alaska, is basking under the attention, but it doesn't go over well with the current king, Thesily (Arthur had stepped down a while back for Reasons), who is wildly jealous of Arthur, and fears Arthur is looking to take his throne back and now comes complete with heir.

So Thesily leads Koryak into a side room and tries to stab him to death. Luckily, a sudden earthquake causes a pillar to topple over and trap Thesily. Koryak gloats and leaves him to die. What a brat! I adore him!

The earthquakes aren't stopping, and the people of Poseidonis want to flee. Arthur tells them not to because a prophecy said they should stay, but Koryak leads the Poseidonians out of the city and to their sister city, Tritonis, which is where the merpeople live. There, the Poseidonians immediately proceed to be huge assholes to the Tritonians, using up their resources and being racist to them. (Introducing Koryak, an indigenous man and literally the only character of color underwater at this point in time, and having him lead a bunch of racist colonizers was...maybe not Peter David's best choice.)

Anyway, Koryak decides to open up some forbidden tunnels because he feels like it, and they turn out to be forbidden because they were imprisoning Kordax, Arthur and Koryak's evil immortal blond lizard man ancestor. Naturally.

Arthur rolls up with his crew (his girlfriend, his dad, and Garth) and Koryak and Garth throw down. It doesn't go well for Koryak:

I LAUGH EVERY TIME.

Anyway, Arthur's side wins, Kordax is killed, the Tritonians are freed, and Arthur decides that to make it up to them, the Poseidonians are going to serve them as slaves indefinitely. That...seems like compounding human rights violations on top of human rights violations, but okay. Anyway Koryak volunteers to stay and serve the Tritonians as well, because he feels guilty about what he's done.

...for a little while. Then he gets bored and decides they should leave. The king of Tritonis is like "Says who?" and Garth shows up out of nowhere and is like "Says me" and the king's like "Oh shit, okay" and lets them go, leaving Koryak both grateful and resentful towards Garth. I am eating this up with a SPOON btw.

Koryak returns to Tritonis, where he immediately falls back into old habits of resenting his father. Vulko, an advisor of Arthur's who is currently mad at him, sees this and decides to use it as an opportunity to overthrow Arthur:

(The scar across his nose is from Kordax. Later artists forgot it and I wish they hadn't.)

Vulko and Koryak plot for like...a really long time without anything coming of it. Arthur knows perfectly well that it's happening but doesn't do anything about it, even though he could put a stop to it by simply, like...showing Koryak five minutes of positive attention, ever, in his life. Because it's really, really obvious that Koryak just needs positive reinforcement, and would be fully Team Arthur if Arthur would just give him a reason - at one point when Arthur briefly dies (he gets better), Koryak is willing to die to try to avenge him and save Garth and Dolphin from torture. He's not all bad! He's just drawn that way!

Anyway, Arthur comes back to life and Poseidonis decides to make him king again. Just as he's about to be crowned, GARTH tries to overthrow him and steal the throne - but that's just because Garth has been holding Arthur's magic trident and was possessed by him. Arthur overpowers him, and then tells him that he's not mad and in fact, he's proud of Garth for holding out as long as he did.

Then Koryak tries his hand:

And like...yes, Garth only tried to steal the throne because he was possessed and Koryak did it willingly, but Koryak also tried to help Arthur when Garth went rogue. Again, it is so, so clear that Koryak's loyalty was Arthur's for the asking, but Arthur never asked. Instead, he praised Garth for trying to overthrow him and then told Koryak to his face how much he sucked.

Arthur is at least merciful enough to commute the normal sentence for treason from death to banishment, and Koryak is kicked out of Atlantis. Arthur then literally never thinks about him for the next SEVEN YEARS. (Okay, Koryak shows up very briefly for three issues in 1999 and Arthur thinks about him while he's looking directly at him, and then forgets he exists again. But then, Arthur also repeatedly forgets about his own wife. Arthur is terrible.)

Anyway, seven years later, Arthur has also been banished from Atlantis, and is now living in Sub Diego, which is what happens when half of San Diego inexplicably falls into the ocean and a small percentage of the traumatized people discover they can breathe underwater. Koryak, meanwhile, has returned to Atlantis to fight with Garth some more:

Love this for them!

Koryak, btw, is arguing that the survivors of Sub Diego should be allowed to move to Atlantis, and Garth's like "Uhhh they wouldn't fit in" and Koryak's like "Wow, racist." Ahem. In general, Koryak during this period is a lot calmer and more mature than he used to be, and also a lot more willing to forgive Arthur for All the Bullshit:

Also, there's a joke that implies Koryak might be queer?

Literally that's the joke here: Koryak is talking about a guy named Malrey (half-shark, half-cop, and no I am not kidding), and Lorena, who has a crush on Koryak, is clocking that she may not have a chance. I don't know if this was just a throwaway gay joke, which happened all the time in 2005, or if it was going somewhere, but we'll never know. (For the record, even though Garth says Koryak has a crush on Lorena, that doesn't appear to be true, especially since Lorena is underage and Koryak is definitely an adult by now. I don't think we should take Garth's line there as anything but dismissive of Koryak's outreach to the Sub Diegoans. Also, back in the 90s, Koryak definitely had a crush on a minor character called Deep Blue, a.k.a. Debbie Perkins, but that never went anywhere, which is good because SHE WAS ARTHUR'S HALF-SISTER. (She and Arthur made out a bunch before they knew, because Arthur loves kissing girls his sons have crushes on. YIKES ALL AROUND.) (Also just kidding, Arthur doesn't pay enough attention to any of his kids to know who they have crushes on.))

Anyway. Back to the plot. Mera is very sick because of Evil Magic, and Garth decides to perform a massive spell to save her, and Koryak agrees to help. This spell attracts the attention of the Spectre, who was evil at the time, and he, uh...destroys Atlantis, killing Koryak, Garth, and almost everyone else. Arthur finally acknowledges that he was a shitty dad:

Immediately after this issue, the book's title changed from Aquaman to Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. The main character is not the Arthur we know, but a new, younger Arthur, Arthur Joseph Curry, who turns out to be a cousin of our Arthur. His mentor is a guy called the Dweller in the Depths, who has a tentacle face like Davey Jones from the Pirates movies. It is eventually revealed that the Dweller is actually Regular Arthur, with traumatic amnesia. Why? Why does he have a tentacle face now? NEVER EXPLAINED.

Anyway, we also meet this guy:

Narwhal's character design is...suggestive, let's say? Also suggestive: Garth has also turned up alive, and like "Narwhal," he now has albinism and partial amnesia. And Narwhal knows the name "Orin," though he can't place it. (It's Arthur's Atlantean name.)

Anyway, Narwhal is sent to kill this "Orin":

Narwhal kills Arthur/Orin/the Dweller, but it doesn't bring him peace, because he still doesn't know who he is - and Orin did, at the last minute. He goes to Atlantis for answers, and Mera confirms it, at least for the reader:

...and that's the last issue of Sword of Atlantis. WOMP WOMP. All of the Aquaman characters disappeared until Blackest Night (when Arthur returned). Koryak never appeared again, and was retconned out with the New 52. Oh well, at least the narwhal tusk spear is pretty dope.

As of Infinite Frontier, the pre-52 universe has been pretty much restored, which should mean that Koryak is back in continuity...but DC is still keeping Arthur's New 52/Rebirth origin intact, which means he did not spend any of his teenage years in Alaska, which means Koryak was never conceived. So things could go either way - any writer who feels like bringing him back could do so easily, but they don't have to.

I call Koryak "my terrible boy" a lot, and he's undeniably pretty obnoxious: immature, bratty, petty, unforgiving, and, uh...awfully on board with murder, let's say? He is also extremely young when we first meet him, and is instantly slammed with trauma: his mother essentially dies, someone tries to murder him, he's physically and mentally violated by Kordax. I'll say again that the slightest bit of positive attention from Arthur probably could have changed his entire life, but he never got it. SO HE'S GONNA GET IT FROM ME INSTEAD.

Anyway, I love Koryak very, very much, and have already written fic about him. And I have another Koryak fic in the works for after The Lost Titans is published. And I will never stop whining at DC to bring him back. If Koryak has one fan (he does), it's me. But maybe now it's you, too?

[m00nveil]

i sometimes can't help but think about how painful it was for luna to have been left behind by dasein... twice.

once when he sacrificed himself to subdue the world synthesiser. when that happened, luna was in complete disbelief. she carried the world synthesiser back to the arcanum crying, convinced that the dasein she came to love and appreciate beyond anything and anyone, had died a heroic death, saving the one thing he wanted to become a part of. she blamed the spiral, the arcanum, even the now long gone old one, grandmother raven, the heroes of lemuria, whatever she could in her devastation. she wanted him to be with her forever, so badly. she wanted him to experience all the things there are to experience, to truly belong. the days leading up to the formation of novus and the shards appearing in the sky were awful - even when she and maulwurf saw something appear in the cosmos, she was still not sure if she really has hope. she soothed herself with sybil's words: "even nothingness is reborn."

once again when he decided to try to return to being nothingness after the events of novus. this time, not only was she filled with sorrow and hatred, especially towards the colonizer nations of novus, but she was also scared. terrified. not scared for herself, she was scared for dasein. she knew for sure that he was alive this time, but where was he going? why isn't he responding to her? her, of all people? why did he kick her out of the nucleus gallery? she could've helped him, why abandon her? the black holes that replaced the shards in the skies of novus made her feel a type of dread she hadn't felt in quite some time. she couldn't believe that it was happening again, that he's leaving her again, just... on a much worse scale. her heart was already broken into a billion little pieces listening to dasein after she successfully fought off the aeon of atavus, and that just broke it even more.

she fell into a deep(er) depression, and her disillusionment with the spiral sadly returned. i say return, because it left after she met dasein. she, too, was disillusioned, the same way he was. she's contemplated consigning the entire spiral to death multiple times, but she can never do such a thing. she's the saviour of the spiral, THE wizard, and she always has to bring herself to care about it's inhabitants, even if they always make sure to remind her that she's an outsider (cough cough novus and wallaru). she's become a self sacrificing hero against her will, and that was the cause of her disillusionment.

but having this silly sentient antimatter next to her all the time, seeing him learn from her and from everyone else, finding a friend (and more) in him, made her realize that perhaps... perhaps, being a hero is not all too bad. being someone's hero is not all too bad. him leaving made all of that feel like as if it was never true. as if their adventures in lemuria never even happened.

[velven1th]

Isabeau Moreau - A price paid in blood.

Isabeau was mortal. Born into a world already weighed against her — a woman of color in 17th-century France, tangled between faith, colonization, superstition, and rebellion.

She was half healer, half heretic depending on who you asked — trained in midwifery, natural magic, and old, forbidden knowledge passed down outside the Church's reach.

She met Luc while he was hiding — injured, low on strength, furious at himself for once again thinking he could walk among humans unseen. She should have been terrified. She wasn’t.

Isabeau didn’t just see the monster. She saw the sorrow.

She nursed him through it. She demanded nothing in return. She stayed even when Luc warned her — growled at her — begged her to leave before he could hurt her without meaning to.

And slowly, without realizing it, she taught Luc tenderness again.

She sang old songs when he couldn't sleep. She kissed the cracked places where the glamour slipped. She called him mon chasseur — my hunter — not out of fear, but fondness.

The 1600s were a time of paranoia — plague, witch hunts, colonial wars, religious wars. Fear was currency, and women like Isabeau were always the first accused when crops failed or children cried or powerful men needed a scapegoat.

It didn’t take long.

Whispers started about the strange man staying in her home. About how she knew too much. About how she had "charmed a demon into her bed."

Luc caught the first rumors too late. He was preparing to leave — because he knew how this always ended — because he cared for her enough to think disappearing would save her.

He was wrong.

They came for her at night. Not soldiers. Not righteous men.

Neighbors. Friends.

People she had healed and prayed with and smiled at.

They dragged her into the streets.

Luc tore the night apart to reach her. He didn't care about the secrecy anymore. He didn't care about survival.

He killed them. Every last one.

But he wasn't fast enough to save her. They had burned her alive.

He found her — chained, scorched, still somehow recognizable — her body curled toward the sky like she had tried to reach for him at the last moment.

Isabeau taught Luc that even mortals could be braver than immortals. Her death taught him that loving a mortal would always end the same way.

After her, he didn’t just fear love — he repelled it.

Love became an act of cruelty. Because giving himself to someone, whether he gave all or minimal, burned both he and whoever he gave himself to in the end. Affection became a loaded gun pressed to the head of anyone he dared care about.

He never sang again after her. He never stayed long enough for anyone to give him a name like that again.

He became myth, shadow, monster — not because he wanted to be feared, but because fear kept others alive.

Luc doesn't tell anyone about Isabeau.

He doesn't even allow himself to think her name most days.

But sometimes — when the stars hang low and the wind smells like burning — he remembers the way she touched his face like it wasn’t ruined. Like he wasn’t ruined.

And he hates that he still misses her. And he likely will for the entirety of his existence.

[adamwatchesmovies]

65 (2023)

While I consider this film a disappointment, that doesn't mean you will. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Adam Driver plus dinosaurs in a science fiction action film. It sounds like a sure deal. Unfortunately, 65 doesn’t live up to your expectations. The special effects are convincing, the premise is cool and the plot has all the basics required – but there’s a certain spark that’s missing to make this as awesome as it should be.

Sixty-five million years ago, astronaut Mills (Adam Driver) and young Koa (Ariana Greenblatt) are the only survivors after their vessel crashes on prehistoric earth. To return home, they only have a limited time to navigate through the surrounding wilderness and make their way to the only remaining escape pod, located high on a mountain.

I appreciate the film just going with the premise. The characters are human, but the story is set millions of years before cavemen took up spears and clubs. Maybe Earth’s population is the result of galactic colonization or time travel happens at some point in this universe. We don't know. What’s important is that right now, two humans are on prehistoric earth. They’ve got futuristic tech, but this is an alien world to them – the word “dinosaur” is never uttered – and there are loads of carnivores who’d love to make them into meals. Ever wanted to see a Tyrannosaurus take a big bite out of a spaceship? You’re not alone.

If you’re excited to see the thunder lizards, you’ll either get to pat yourself on the back for recognizing some obscure species or be disappointed by how they're used. The fact that Mills and Koa are being threatened by dinosaurs instead of made-up alien creatures doesn’t matter. Every prehistoric beast they meet – except for one that gets eaten moments after being spotted – wants to take a bite out of them. There are no scenes akin to those in the original Jurassic Park where characters stare in wonder or interact peacefully with these animals that have been extinct for millions of years. To them, these are not animals they never thought they'd ever see in the flesh; they’re just monsters. There are no scenes where they use their knowledge of prehistory (the same knowledge the audience has) to their advantage. 65 goes out of its way to include as many atypical prehistoric creatures in its roster as it does fan favorites but until I did research for this review, I assumed all the four-legged carnivores who appear were made-up. If only Koa could tell us “That’s a Fasolasuchus!”, it would make a huge difference. As-is, this feels like the kind of movie that would make up dinosaurs for the sake of a scene.

I think it’s safe to say the dinosaurs are the selling point of 65 and that ultimately, they’re a letdown. That doesn’t mean the movie didn’t have a chance. If the human stuff was great, the movie could overcome its weaknesses. I’d say it’s halfway there. Mills took the pilot job to afford an expensive, life-saving treatment for his daughter. The assignment means he’ll be away for two years. After the crash, he initially thinks he’s the only survivor and contemplates suicide. You wonder why. Doesn’t he have a lot to live for? You want to know what happened. When he meets Koa, you see that, in his eyes, if he fails to save her, he’s failing to save his daughter. As far as Mills goes, there’s some good material there. The same can’t be said for Ariana Greenblatt’s character because she speaks an alien language we don't understand. Our two protagonists can’t easily communicate, which makes it nearly impossible for them to have anything but the most basic relationship. That’s the word that keeps coming to my mind as I think of 65. “Basic”. It’s… fine, but you crave something extraordinary from this setup.

65 never quite becomes the movie you want it to be, as if the film was green-lit before anyone ever sat down to think it through and fully explore the possibilities it could offer. The dinosaurs are cool but there aren’t enough of them. Or maybe there are enough but they all feel the same because they all interact with our characters identically. The choice to have two protagonists who can barely communicate is not bad, but their drama/interactions don't make up for the flaws in the adventure portion of the story. I can picture myself in 10 years seeing 65 on a list of “Underrated Movies About Dinosaurs Audiences Didn’t Give Their Just Deserts To” because it didn’t make a splash in theaters – shocking considering how many tickets the increasingly worse Jurassic World sequels sold. Did audiences miss out? Did they not overlook a great film? No. While 65 is enjoyable as something you put on your screen to pass the time, it's also forgettable. (February 7, 2025)

[avatar-legends-confessionblog]

I feel like the writers wrote themselves in a another corner since the Fire Nation won already after Azula finessed her way past Ba Sing Se. They already won, they just needed more boots on the ground to fully colonize the place. Bare in mind Ozai is basically burning down his own land in the finale.

I do kinda agree with this guy for once. I don't think the writers wrote themselves into a corner, as they've said they had everything planned out for a while, that's just how they wrote it, and I actually like that they lost the war for all intents and purposes. Azula's takeover of Ba Sing Se was a something I loved and I like that book three starts with this "we're not fighting against something anymore, we fucking lost"

BUT I do think it would have been better to have Ozai's reason for leaving be different. Having Ozai come out just to burn land did feel kinda eeehhhhh. Like, we all know Ozai isn't the brightest guy, but come on.

What I think would have been best is if the firenation was targetting the water tribes.

1. The war against the earth kingdom was won, but not the whole war because the NWT still stands undefeated. Just because one invasion failed wouldn't mean the fire nation would never try again (like we see with Be Sing Se, they just kept going at it). The comet would give them a pretty much garenteed win.

2. The watertribes are the biggest threat currently. Water is innately difficult for a firebender to fight (I believe there's reasons it took so many raids just to subdue the one village, much less all the others) Also, part of the reason they genocided the Air Nomads was because the Avatar would be born there. It'd make sense for them to be like "maybe if we get rid of them all BEFORE the next avatar is born, we won't have this 'last bender avatar' issue again"

3. I think the stakes and drive would be much higher. They aren't just fighting to win the war, Katara and Sokka are fighting to save their entire cultures. Zuko is fighting to keep the firenation from adding another entire culture to it's list of crimes. Toph is fighting because she's a badass and wants to. And most importantly, Aang, who has been haunted and running from the fact that the Air Nomads were all killed for the duration of the whole show, would be fighting because he knows more than anyone just how horrible it would be to have the watertribes completely snuffed out. The entire show, Aang has this running theme of "I wasnt there then, but I'm here now". In fact, the first NWT invasion he literally says he's determined to save them where he couldn't save his own people. I think having that return, with the added weight of his failure in Ba Sing Se, would have made the fight feel far more meaningful in regards to that part of Aang's arc.

X

[dahliamorena]

Wanted to share something I never seemed to have actually spoke about regarding my Mexico Oc; her hair!

I don’t believe I really ever explained the nuances of her (Lupita’s) hair, it’s rather ironic that I didn’t as I think her hair is what makes her stand out (hopefully) but hair in Mexican culture especially for women is rather important as it ties to our identity. However, I want to provide a bit of context to why I chose to style her hair the way I did!

- Hair Texture

I think wavy / loose curly hair is a rather commonly picked trait for female Mexico Oc’s as I’ve seen others who chose to use this texture which is rather nice tbh! Though, I’d like to explain why I chose to take this approach.

I’ve spoken before a little regarding my Oc’s heritage being indigenous, Nahua / Mayan in specific meaning that she has no biological / genetic relation to Europe as she’s not mestiza. Why I chose to make her indigenous can be saved for another post. Returning to this point however, this means Lupita was born with straight hair. While a texture =/= ethnicity in most cases, in MesoAmerica and in many indigenous communities in modern Mexico, the main type of texture amongst the people is typically straight and thick.

Indigenous hair styles tend to differ from region to region as many hair styles are commonly shared in different cultures. Braids, being arguably one of the oldest hair styles documented on the continent across practically all cultures, and then globally as well, have had a key significance in MesoAmerican and later Mexican cultures. Though girls and young unwed women were costumed to wear their hair loose in the Mexica culture, doing her hair in different styles is to me a form of storytelling and cultural referencing.

As I mentioned before; hair is often tied to identity. By the time the Spanish had colonized the area known as MesoAmerica and moved up into northern Mexico and the Southwest United States, the implementation of the Caste System had become a staple part of the new society. Lupita being an indigenous girl did not wear European gowns! Instead, she wore huipils (the traditional blouses / dresses of indigenous women) in order to identify her racial category but these huipils later on could also be made with European textiles, and sometimes even imitated European patterns. As a young teen, these fancy huipils were paired with a shawl she wore as a veil. Veiling was a common practice of modesty that was often tied to religious significance. Shawl veiling is still seen in Mexico now, mostly among older women when attending mass. Her veil often covered her hair that by this time had fully taken on its current wavy texture.

So what does all this mean in relation to Lupe’s hair? As I mentioned previously, though hair texture =/= ethnicity, it’s important that I also talk about the intense cultural shift that occurred in the continent as Mexico’s current culture itself is a “blend” of our original indigenous cultures and all the foreign influences. Whether those be European, African and even Asian! I figured that what better way to explore this influence than through hair. Hair is often times linked to culture and beauty in specific to women for the most part, women in Mexico put a lot of emphasis onto our hair because of how literally tied it is to our cultural identity!

- Hair Style

I want to dedicate this section to speaking on her hair style. I think I take a rather nuanced approach to this since I incorporate not just cultural aspects to her hair but also geographical. By now it’s kind of a running theme in the series for characters to sport accessories or have specific characteristics that represent certain cultural or geographical attributes of their lands so I thought I’d do so with mine.

Before I get into the details on why I chose to incorporate certain details into my Oc’s hair, I want to first talk a little about the hair in its natural state;

If anybody remembers when I used to draw her with her hair loose, you deserve a discount for sticking around for so long 🫡. Lupe sports long, thick, loosely waved hair that stretches well down her back. It’s dark in color, looking next to black, but its brown undertones show up best in sunlight. Her hair itself isn’t much on the surface level, it’s rather simple actually but I also think that it still holds some type of meaning. For centuries, long healthy hair was considered one of the most desired traits for women across many cultures and in Mexico it’s been no different. Women keep their gorgeous hair long and strong by braiding.

This brings me to my next point, her hair style! I think I unintentionally took a really creative approach when I was first drafting her design almost 10 years ago omg 😭 because I liked the way things looked. Her two little front braids are unintentionally similar to Nahua women’s “horned” style that signifies maturity and marital status but can also signify social status. Though a “mature” woman, Lupe is unwed. Her braids represent the two biggest mountain ranges of the country, those being the Sierra Madre Oriental and Sierra Madre Occidental, with a small red ribbon tied through them (shout out to my friend who gave me the idea). Ribbon tied braids are commonly seen amongst many indigenous communities but are also worn during holidays such as Independence Day (September 15-16th) and November 20th. Her bun is more of a “practical” choice. Though I enjoy drawing Lupita in different hairstyles, I know personally how hard it is to manage thick, textured hair, sometimes it’s just easier to put it up in a bun or something that keeps it neat and out of the way. The little braid that wraps around the base of her bun is a more recent addition, this represents the Sierra Madre Sur. The little curl and ahoge are self explanatory.

I think by now I get my point across but ofc I would appreciate any feedback on this since I don’t really do lore talks (if this even counts as one). I’ll gladly elaborate on any point !! Hope this was at least the tiniest bit of interesting for some of you 😅!!

[hadoriel]

Hey, as somebody who's been playing WoW for about a decade now and is deep into lore and all that... Some of these points seem a bit outdated. I totally agree with you that the game's narrative needs to be constantly doing better, especially since there's a lot of old stuff over the course of the franchise that has either aged badly or was never looked at critically enough (I mean, it was born from a bunch of white American dudes, so there was a lot of bias they'd just never confronted when they created it)

But I do think that, overall, we're making strides in the right direction. I mean, some of it is awkward, like every side couple being gay in Dragonflight as over-correction, but at least we're no longer at the stage of 'everyone headcanons a main character as queer to the point one of the writers goes on Twitter to yell at them and frantically claim the character isn't gay' from the Pandaria years. Heck, they finally caved and confirmed Chromie as trans, after they made her character joke about in in HOTS a decade ago. And although her story isn't spotlight, she's still there, talking about taking her humanoid form, in several quests. Flynn and Shaw got a whole book together, traveling part of the world

Orcs, Trolls, Tauren etc have been heroes for a while. I think a better solution is rather, when an Orc is a hero (a la Thrall), he shouldn't be made more humanized (like giving him eyebrows??) and/or they should be given better spotlight (instead of, say, us saving Baine in Shadowlands for him to just sit in a corner... literally). We do have a lot of characters from 'monstrous' races that could be in the spotlight, lots of really cool ones, too! In fact, that's one thing that I love about Warcraft's worldbuilding, is that there's so many characters that aren't human. But Golden really loved Anduin, so we keep getting him, there's a lot of elves, and Thrall is pretty much the default Horde character to choose from when they don't want to build up someone else. I'd love to see Ji and Aysa again tbh. Talanji would be nice. Point is - we DO have heroes of those races. It's just that they either don't get enough spotlight or, in Thrall's case, they humanize them too much

This will probably be up in the air for a while. I remember my hackles being raised at Drustvar's storyline, because that was so recent, and yet the overarching plot of the zone was 'the native people here are evil legit witches and our colonizer ancestors killed them - we need to kill them again' with a token couple of 'good' people of the native culture who hole themselves up in a cave and lament how evil their brethren are. So, yeah, we do need to keep talking about this, though I think it's a bigger issue than just WoW, of course

I think they've been successful at this. The Tuskarr in Dragonflight tell actual Inuit tales, have actual Inuit names, and were approved by actual Inuit people, for example. Goblins seem to be working towards a new future with Gazlowe in charge. I was pleased that the centaur were matriarchal without being evil (as is stereotype - even as recently in WoW as the blood trolls in Nazmir) and the archeologists were espousing modern archeology ethics, like returning their finds to the people they belonged to

Have you seen the new character coming in War Within? The black half elf lady with the prosthetic shield arm? I do think they're trying. But unfortunately the toxic gamer bros have been calling her a 'diverse checkbox' character and getting mad, even though we know very little of her so far besides being a major character. Yes, it took WAY too long to add darker skin tone options for player races. But they are moving forward

"... mansplaining to a PoC coded monster that his government system is inherently wrong" - I think you're talking about Anduin here, yeah? Who was he saying this to? For some reason my brain keeps going to his dumb conversations with Sylvanas instead orz. Nonetheless, the Light is... unfortunately Christian-based and it makes me uncomfortable, as a non-Christian, but I do think they've also been trying to diversify the Light so that the Christian elements are uniquely a human culture thing. There was a big ruckus over it regarding the Paladin hero talents a bit ago on Twitter, actually. I don't think we've even touched human Light beliefs since, what, Cata? I just generally think Anduin could've been a good character, had he not been treated like he was always right, and then dragged through the mud as a forced attempt at being a foil for Sylvanas' insanity through SL

Anyways - I don't think, just because Warcraft has some issues, it should be outright banned in random polls, especially when we DO have canon queer characters now valid for the blog in question. I don't think anyone should really bother poll blogs about 'ugh I hate this media it's so bad!!' unless it's like... actually overtly offensive outright. Which WoW isn't

To OP poll blog themselves, sorry for the reply ramble. Please don't ban Warcraft because of a random anon lol ;; It's a big and old franchise, has problems, but it's nothing like... bad bad awful ban worthy

I'm not asking you to pull Mathias Shaw, I just want more people to be aware that white queer characters doesn't equal wokeness and the general exclusion of non whites from LGBTIQA discussions.

I also criticize media like World of Warcraft so the writers will eventually get the message that stuff like this is offensive and they should do some damage control like:

Stop depicting orcs, trolls, tauren and countless other "monsters" as purely evil villains, let them be heroes too.

Admit the countless white colonizing characters did wrong and that people like Zul'jin were wronged.

Tone down the racial coding a little bit and don't do it for new races they create.

Stop having all prominent human characters be white and for god's sakes, tone down the white savior vibes!

No having characters like a blonde blue eyed white guy from ersatz europe that worships ersatz christianity mansplaining to a PoC coded monster that his government system is inherently wrong unlike Ersatz Europe's absolute monarchy does NOT equal talking down toxic masculinity, it (unintentionally?) endorse a white supremacist vibe. PS: Did you get my other Warcraft Ask?

I know! I was just putting that in the tags because I've had problems with people making assumptions about what I stand for as a person before based on "allowing" a certain media to go through. Not targeted at you specifically! Although my knowledge of WOW is severely limited personally, I agree with everything you're saying here! Also yes, I did, I'll post it after this one. I've been holding off on answering certain asks because I just don't have the time to do thorough research right now, so I'm glad you elaborated on what you meant!

[all-the-heart-you-cannot-see]

It has come to my attention, that many people did not understand Encanto and it's Generational trauma theme.

long ass post bellow the cut, you have been warned!

1. Some historical context

Now, before we proceed i think it's important to clarify something, the guys who chased Alma and Pedro out of their home were not colonizers, they were either guerrilla, paramilitary or even Colombia’s own military (although i don't think Disney is that bold) the reason why i think it's so important to clarify that, it's because if these were colonizers that would mean this event took place over 2 hundred years ago, and although many Latin American countries still suffer the effects of colonialism, as far as generational trauma goes, i think the most affected are the indigenous peoples.

instead, when we place the time of the events where it belongs it means it could've even happened in the last 10 years, this war has been going on for the last 70 years and it mostly affects people from rural areas, they are either forced out of their homes by guerrillas and paramilitary, or their children are taken by the army to continue the string of young guys send to die in the front lines, the guerrillas even take the girls, you are killed if you refuse.

The generational trauma is alive in the Colombian people today, it's a thing that keeps happening and it is unresolved, worsened by the fact that politicians bank on it to get votes from the people in the big cities who have never in their lives have to run out of their homes in terror.

2. My own experience as a Colombian

Now with that gruesome fact out of the way, let's talk about Hispanic family dynamics, and disclaimer, Hispanic people are not a monolith and our experiences are not universal so this may not apply to every his panic family out there, but it does to most. Also when i say some things are cultural, i don't mean they are okay because of it, it just means it’s not going to go away because the younger gens are realizing it or gringos on the internet are shaming us about it.

For a culture with so much machismo, most of our families are pretty matriarchal, either because the father figure was killed, like in Encanto, because he just left or maybe he had more than one family so he wasn’t around much, or simply he went out every day to work leaving the woman as the authority figure in the house, this, paired with the fact that many countries suffered from US imperialism in the XX century means many of us know the stories of everything our parents or grandparents (single mothers or not) had to go through to support the family.

This may also apply to you if your family migrated in the last three generations.

My grandmother wanted to be a model, there is a single picture from that time in the house from a photo shoot she did when she was 17, she says she was going to send that shoot to a magazine for a Model of the Year award, however since she was still a minor she needed permission from my great-grandparents to do it.

they had to leave the country that same year, she came back some 20 years later with two daughters and the money she, working as a secretary, and my grandpa, working as a bus driver, had saved to buy a bus back here and put a down payment for a house, she stayed a housewife when she came back and I’ve never known why they had to leave or why i don't know anything about my great-grandfather, but everybody in my family and my extended family talks fondly of my great-grandmother and respect her memory despite all the stories of her "disciplining them" when they were children, i don't remember her much, but they tell me i had it easy with her because i was always a well-behaved child.

i think of my great-grandmother as Alma. She had 4 children when she had to leave for another country on her own, my grandma being the oldest at the time. Over the years as I’ve gotten older and discovered more stories about the time they spent with her and the family’s return to Colombia many things about the way our family dynamics work have become clear to me, some have been really bad and the result of the generational trauma being passed along and some are great, like that fact that she managed to turn every one of her children into successful adults despite the fact that i don't think she even finished elementary school.

There is no place in our family for a nuanced discussion about my grandma's and her siblings upbringing or how my great grandmother later raised the entirety of my mother’s generation (more than 10 boys and girls) while her sons and daughters went out to work, because for them everything that we have today it's thanks to her, and any mention of any wrongdoing would be tainting that memory.

And it is true, my great grandmother was an exceptional woman and what she did for her children and grandchildren is remarkable and required an immense amount of will and strength on her part but that doesn't mean she hurt the family as well. So many people complain about Abuela Alma being forgiven so easily when...it's realistic and i don't think you have put yourselves in the shoes of everybody in the family.

3. Finally, let’s talk about Encanto

Alma says it herself, she isn't the woman she thought she was going to be, I’m sure she wasn't this bitter controlling woman when the triplets were growing up, they probably got to experience a warm, understanding mother, that helped them understand the magical powers they got at an age as young as five. I'm sure they saw her change as timed passed and all those fond memories they had and the knowledge of everything she had done for them kept them from reaching a point where their relationship with her was broken beyond repair.

I’ve seen many head canons of "oh, i bet Abuela Alma didn't like Felix" or "i bet she thought Agustin was below Julieta" but, didn't you guys see her entire sequence with Pedro?, I’m sure it was HER the one to say to her daughters to never accept anything less than royal treatment, they have wonderful husbands because her mother had one and taught them what a good marriage should look like.

So it's really funny to see all of you go in the complete opposite direction and strip all the nuance away from Alma to turn her into this monster villainous woman who has no regard for anybody in her family, when all she wanted from the beginning was to keep a safe place for them.

Something that called my attention during Dos Oruguitas is that as she walks in the hallways passing the doors and they age her, her facial expression never changes, is the same sadness and emptiness she had right after Pedro was killed and it's because she never got to process her trauma. It happened and she was immediately trusted into a leadership role and given immense responsibility, so she HAD to keep it away, there was no time for her to dwindle on it.

Even with the way she retells the story in the beginning is all mystified like a fairytale, she doesn't let them see how it truly affected her because if she did she would have to deal with it, and in her mind even all these years later she still can't afford to.

the entirety of Dos Oruguitas is her finally beginning to process the trauma that she suffered, I’m sure it’s the first time since it happened that she has allowed herself to feel everything she felt back then, it’s the first time she has realized that they are safe, that her family won’t get taken away from her, and her world won’t shatter again the same way it did all those years ago.

it's up to everybody whether they would forgive a family member in these circumstances, forgiveness is something really personal and the people who hurt you are not entitled to your forgiveness but, that’s why they forgave her so easily, it isn't fair, sure, but it’s how many of our families work, and it's how this family works in this context, no matter how dysfunctional.

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

No but if my father infused his soul into gems that got stolen and my grandfather was killed because of it and some ipstart princess stole it from the theirs because it was the price of her getting her Romeo and Juliet fantasy I would too do whatever I could to get prices of my father back. Nothing is more important to me than family, no matter how shitty my father may have been. If his soul was trapped in three gems that my beloved grandfather died for and some uppity princess who’s never experienced lost as I have said “yup this is mine because I stole it!!!” I woul too lose my damn mind.

I think this may be hard for non colonial people to understand but I have had many of my families legacy taken from me by the west and then refused to return it because of “finders keepers” and “it would be better for everyone if we kept it with us instead of with you”. My family heirlooms are in the British Museum as we speak. I have seen my great grandmothers HanFu on display without our consent because it was STOLEN from us. I cannot begin to express my discontent and my hatred for all that have touched one of the pieces she’s worn and made without our consent. To know that one of the biggest joys of your great grandmothers live is now on display for a bunch of westerners who do not know the significance of the embroidery on her dress is so distressing I have trouble going to sleep sometimes especially since I know that the companion piece is with us. But to have her put in part of her soul to that piece and be stolen? I cannot being to think how badly I would feel. I already feel uncontrollable levels of anger to the west whenever I think of what happened to my family but if I had an inkling that her spirit may not move on properly because her spirit lasts in a piece of her art? I would go to the ends of the world to make sure she has rest.

I can sympathize with the Faenorians, especially considering that they did not think that their brothers would be saved without competing this oath. If I had sworn the same I do not believe I would have done anything differently, especially concerning the fact that my ancestors sprit rests within the artifact that my brothers and I damned ourselves to.

Non colonized people, I do not think, would understand just how painful it is to be separated from your birthright and culture. To know that someone else holds in their hands something that belongs to your country and your culture but refuses to give it up because they’ve “earned it” and have “conquers rights” is devastating. To hear that two of the twelve zodiac signs would not be returning to us even if my government has agreed to pay whatever they want is devastating. My government has said, repeatedly, that they would pay whatever the buyers wanted to be able to put the twelve zodiac signs heads in their resting pace so they can be respected and worshiped as they should be, but each time, westerners refused. It’s devastating. I cannot imagine how it would feel to know that your fathers souls rested within one of these artifacts but one of the thieves would not give it up because “muh mom stole it so it’s ours!!!!”

[featherquillpen]

Liveblog of the #23: The Pretender audiobook

I liveblogged about it to @joysweeper on Discord, so here it is in bullet point form. Boy did I get mad about Hork-Bajir rights.

Michael Crouch (the narrator) is soooo goooood

You know I love the trans Tobias reading and I'm hearing his speech in early 23, about how his name doesn't tell you who he really is, through that lens

We all talk a lot about how Rachel's behavior to Tobias in early 33 (when she tries to trap him in human morph) is appalling. But there are shades and precursors to that in early 23, huh? Everyone except Rachel can see Aria is fishy right away, and she's the one pushing and advocating for Aria to be real because she wants a human boyfriend -- even though Aria is in fact a serious danger to him, and everyone except her can see it. Her entire push for Tobias to be human is selfish, cruel, and puts him in danger, and it extends beyond 33. Rachias is such a nightmare train wreck, I love it

Crouch's human Tobias is delightfully stilted. He sounds like he's making an awkward phone call at all times

I'm so goddamn emotional about the free Hork-Bajir. But also 🔪🔪 at the way Tobias condescends to them. And he's better than the rest of the animorphs about them. The bar is on the floor

I love Crouch's Toby voice omg. It reminds me of his Cassie voice! Calm, precise. More hoarse than Cassie's, as a nod to her being a big lizard, but not gravelly like his Jara voice

It's so transparent how Tobias goes to the HB to stroke his ego without doing very much to support and manage their feelings in return

I still do love the way Tobias explicitly connects the HB plight to the way they're living on colonized Native land. That's some of the closest to truly radical thought the animorphs get. It's always him and Cassie with the borderline radical visions.

Jara says the HB will give their lives for Tobias, and then Tobias says, well people like that you have to try and save. An uncharitable reading of this is: What if the HB weren't so fawning and grateful, Tobias? What if they resented and disliked you even though you helped them? Would they not be worth saving then? Do you only fight to save people who are sufficiently grateful? Who are model victims of the Yeerk empire?

He really does worry more about these rabbits than he ever does about the enslaved HB he kills and maims. He has that moment later with Fal Tagut which I love, but Fal forgives Tobias and Tobias does not then have a guilt spiral about what he does to enslaved HB on the regular.

Tobias's comment in 23 that humans have these little intimacies he doesn't is kind of interesting. He wasn't physically affectionate as a human in book 1, and he still isn't when he morphs. I can't help but think about it through the trans femme lens again. Many trans women have noted a jealousy about the physical intimacies available to women.

I'm kind of realizing that Marco may be the most physically affectionate animorph and it is sending me. If you count tussling and shoving with Rachel and Jake then it's Marco

Crouch truly does the best Ax voice besides Vermer himself. He just sounds like a teenage boy who speaks with great precision

The fact that Tobias doesn't know his birthday speaks much more to his human life than his bird life. It indicates that it was never celebrated.

Oh my God I loved the delivery of Tobias's line in 23: "I cannot use my superpowers for evil." I always imagined that faux solemn as a joke, but Crouch delivered it so earnestly and it's very cute

I love the homework scene in 23 where Cassie noticed that Ax misses having people who can nerd out at his level of Andalite science. Though, on the other hand, presumably any of the animorphs could learn to nerd out at his level if they had any patience. They always cut him off when he tries. So that's kind of on them.

Visser Three calls free HB "poor stupid Hork-Bajir"... The animorphs' opinion of them is truly not so different from V3's

It's so funny to imagine Visser Three doing all these Aria things. Getting dressed up. Acting sad about zoo animals. Reading a newspaper

I really feel like Ax gets so shafted in Tobias books after 13 in favor of Rachel. The juicy Ax scenes are just lacking here. Like I would love to see Tobias have a moment of guilt in his fantasies about being human about leaving Ax alone in the woods. It feels in character

TOBIAS TELLS AX ABOUT ELFANGOR OFF SCREEN. I will never not be mad about this. WHY would you end on a birthday cake with Rachel instead of Tobias telling Ax they're family?! It might be Applegrant's biggest fuck up, if we lay aside obvious punching down problematics like Marco cracking jokes about Ax's "rain man impression" and everything with the auxiliary animorphs

My personal pet theory is that even if Tobias hadn't figured out that Aria was Visser Three, or if Aria had been real, he wouldn't have been able to actually follow through on his resolve to trap himself as a human and live with her. There's a lot of textual evidence that Tobias prefers life as a hawk and is in denial about it, and further, with his history of abusive neglect, I think once he was actually faced with a parental figure that he doesn't deeply trust, he would panic and feel the need to escape immediately. He just wouldn't be able to do it.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

First off, I didn't tag this anti Sansa as you claim in your tags, I tagged this anti Sansa stans because it appeared that the person who posted the video was a Sansa stan. You're really not helping the negative image associated with Sansa stans btw.

I think you missed a massive part of my post, which was that Dany's GOT ending was horribly written. There was no foreshadowing, no buildup, and no reason, as I said in my post. You are coming into this discussion deliberately ignoring a massive part of my argument.

You are so obviously anti Dany and are a fan of GOT's ending. This puts us already at opposite ends of this debate, so of course you disagree with me. That's why I fucking tagged this anti Dany antis, anti got, and anti d&d.

You clearly have some massive misconceptions about Dany. Dany isn't a white savior, that's something that's literally been debunked by GRRM himself.

So no, Dany isn't a "white savior", because she's saving people who are just as white as she is as well as others of every race. Dany also doesn't fit the definition of a white savior because she doesn't view herself as superior to those she saves and her motivations aren't based in selfishness or self-glorification.

What do you mean Dany "doesn't save anyone"? Did you watch the show? Did you read the books? Dany saved literally thousands of slaves, millions of you count those saved by her disrupting and damaging the slave trade. In the show, she also saved the fucking world, like without her, her armies, and her dragons, the Northmen would have been wiped out and the Others would have destroyed the world.

Moving on, Dany isn't a colonizer, do you understand the difference between colonizing and conquering? Apparently not, so I'll explain it. Colonizing is done on behalf of another country (think the conquistadors and Spain), is meant to exploit the colonized land and people for the gain of said other country, and often involves the attempted eradication of the native people and their culture.

In the context of Dany: what country was she supposedly colonizing Slavers Bay for? Not Westeros, considering she had no connections to the current rulers, therefore making it so she couldn't be taking it on behalf of the country.

She also never interacts with the Essosi cities she "colonized" once she returned to Westeros. There's no forced shipping of Essosi goods to Westeros, she doesn't forcibly take troops for her conquest of Westeros, and she doesn't interfere with their politics after she leaves. Anyone who came with Dany to Westeros did it of their own free will, that's kind of a big deal in season seven, in case you forgot.

Another massive point in my post you're ignoring is that Dany and Paul aren't actually comparable characters. GRRM and Frank Herbert were writing extremely different stories in drastically different worlds.

For one thing, ASOIAF is a fantasy story; sure it's dark and subverts common tropes, but the genre is still the same. Dune is sci-fi and meant to be fairly philosophical. Do you understand what that means? It means that GRRM and Herbert are attempting to make very different points in their stories.

GRRM has already explained how his story is focused on underdogs who are trying to change/save the world. He admires the dreamers, the people who want to make a difference, whether they succeed or not. Dany is one of his favorite characters

Interviewer: I know that Tyrion is your favorite character. Who's your second favorite? GRRM: Maybe Arya or Dany. (video here)

ASOIAF also has actual prophecies and magic, unlike Dune. Dany has prophetic dreams and fulfills prophecies. She is magical, she hatched dragons from stone when no one else could and is bringing magic back into it's former strength (Qartheen magicians, glass candles igniting). Dany is written as a hero, there's no point denying it, especially since all your evidence to the contrary is based on shitty writing and misunderstanding events.

Dany is very much driven by a desire to overthrow oppression, that's why she started her conquest of Slaver's Bay. She was sold as a bridal slave, she understands the injustice and horrors of slavery, that's why she wants to destroy it. Dany wants justice, she wants to protect her people, she's constantly trying to learn how to better help and protect them. She calls them her children for fuck's sake, and she holds herself to a very high standard.

I'm not going to argue with you about Paul, I think we're both in agreement there. But Dany isn't a fucking tragic character, the writing for her ending was tragic; it's objectively bad. Every single reasoning given for her "madness" makes no sense.

Yes, Dany was driven by a desire to reclaim her throne, but the situation and circumstances aren't the same as Paul's. Her family created Westeros as it is in the current ASOIAF timeline, Paul has no actual claim to the empire.

Dany also constantly sets aside her goal of the IT for the good of others. Whether it's freeing the slaves in Slaver's Bay (which apparently is an evil thing in your opinion, how dare she not let literal slavery continue even after she'd been sold as a bridal slave) or going to the North and sacrificing two of her dragons and a large part of her army to, again, save the goddamn world.

As for Dany's advisors, I think you're generalizing, considering how many of her advisors constantly sue for peace in the show. Dany also chooses to ignore the violent advice so many times, even to her detriment. The only time she embraces violent advice is when she randomly flips a switch and chooses to torch KL for no reason other than Missandei saying dracarys.

I agree, just because someone is tragic doesn't make them a hero. Paul isn't a hero, but again, you're deliberately missing the point of my post, which was how Dany was written as a hero by GRRM and D&D decided to fuck that up for no reason outside shock value and sexism. Dany and Paul are not comparable characters.

Jumping back to ASOIAF's setting, you seem to not understand that the series is set in a medieval based setting. That means the idea of the divine right of kings is extremely prevalent. If you're going to condemn Dany for believing that the IT is her birthright (it was her father who was usurped btw, making her a direct heir, hence why Robert Baratheon wanted her dead), you should condemn the Starks for believing Winterfell and the North are their birthright, including Sansa.

Robert, Stannis, and Renly Baratheon, Robb Stark, Jon Snow, and Sansa all excuse their wars by saying it's their right. The Baratheons had Targaryen blood, which is why Robert claimed the IT after the rebellion. Stannis and Renly were Robert's closest living and legitimate relatives, which is why they believed they should inherit the IT after him. Robb believed that being the ruler of House Stark entitled him to rallying the lords of the North in rebellion. Jon Snow believed that due to his relation to Ned, he should rule Winterfell rather than the Boltons. Sansa believed that as the oldest surviving child of Ned, she deserved to be queen in the North. If you're pissed over characters fighting for birthrights, you're watching the wrong genre.

Dany is actually different from most of these other examples, as she proves herself. She proves her strength in war times, her skill in strategy (granted that one is more in the books), her ability to rule a city in a time of massove political upheaval, and shows her love for the common people by allowing them into her council and listening to every single request her people have in Meereen.

The show did a horrific job of adapting Dany's Meereen storyline. In the book, Dany is constantly battling the Sons of the Harpy and the Harpy herself (heavily implied to be Hizdahr zo Loraq's aunt) on the political front. She has to negotiate with Yunkai and Qarth, who both attack her along with Volantis. She has to manage drought, plague, and dismantling a millenia old system. Dany's arc in ADWD is all about her proving herself as a capable queen. So yes, I do say Dany is a better ruler than Paul, because I've had it shown to me by the story.

Somewhere beneath those roofs, the Sons of the Harpy were gathered, plotting ways to kill her and all those who loved her and put her children back in chains. Somewhere down there a hungry child was crying for milk. Somewhere an old woman lay dying. Somewhere a man and a maid embraced, and fumbled at each other’s clothes with eager hands. But up here there was only the sheen of moonlight on pyramids and pits, with no hint what lay beneath. Up here there was only her, alone. She was the blood of the dragon. She could kill the Sons of the Harpy, and the sons of the sons, and the sons of the sons of the sons. But a dragon could not feed a hungry child nor help a dying woman’s pain. And who would ever dare to love a dragon? (ADWD - Daenerys II)

Tell me, does this passage read like someone who doesn't care about her people? Someone willing to sacrifice them for her own selfish goals? Dany is actively choosing to attempt a peaceful transition from a slave based economy in Meereen for the sake of her people's lives.

Dany is not like Paul in any way. I know I've repeated that a million times, but apparently it hasn't sunk in. They are two very different characters, written with different ideas in mind. Dany's "madness arc" is simply shitty writing, while Paul's is thoroughly foreshadowed and thought out. Dany is written by GRRM to be a hero, Paul was never meant to be one.

I saw a tiktok comparing Paul Atreides to Daenerys and it made me want to gouge out my eyes and break my phone.

I just don't understand how Dany and Paul are comparable in any way. For one thing, Dany's ending in GOT only happened because of bad writing. There's no foreshadowing, no buildup, or reason for her fall.

Disclaimer: I haven't actually read the Dune books yet, just watched the movies and read Wikipedia stuff. So anyone who has read Dune, please please please correct me if I'm misunderstanding things.

From what I saw in the movies and read from secondhand sources, Paul was never meant to be a hero. Sure, he was a good kid, but his arc isn't that of a fallen hero. The moment Paul chose to exploit the fremen and the Bene Gesserit's false prophecy, he solidified himself as anything but a hero. He was set on vengeance and survival.

Paul is a fascinating character, but he's not a hero in any way, and wasn't at any point in his story (to my understanding).

Dany is a hero, whether you like it or not. From book/season one, she's been protecting those weaker than her to the best of her ability. She sacrifices her own desires and ambitions for the sake of others.

...this Mother of Dragons, this Breaker of Chains, is above all a rescuer. (ADWD - Tyrion VI)

Dany chooses to prioritize the innocent and the oppressed in her mission. Paul chooses to lead a holy war that will kill billions of innocents.

They're not comparable characters, because they're very different archetypes and communicate very different things from the authors. Dany is an underdog and someone who fights for justice while maintaining her gentleness. Paul is someone who basically embodies "for the greater good", sacrificing billions for the future.

Dany is written to be a hero, Paul is not. Dany is only turned from being a hero because of bad writing and sexism. Paul's descent is well written and clearly foreshadowed. Paul's story is what D&D wanted to gaslight the viewers into believing Dany's was. Unfortunately, that seems to have worked for certain parts of this fandom. Also, the poster had a Sansa pfp, so I think it's easy to tell why they view Dany this way.

Paul and Dany's characters aren't even in the same ballpark as each other. Comparing them is stupid.

[mentaldiary-ah]

Women fighters, in fiction and in reality, have always fascinated me.

I grew up never getting tired of The Mummy Returns (2001) and its action-packed adventures. It features one of my most favorite cinematic moments: the fight scene between Nefertiri and Anck-su-namun, both tasked to be protectors in the kingdom of Egypt some 3,000 years ago. One may think they must be ahead of their time for training women for battle and assigning such tasks to them.

Fight scene from The Mummy Returns (2001)

There are many other scenes in the said film showing both women as their 1930s reincarnation, Evy (Nefertiri) and Meela (Anck-su-namun), fighting with and among men. Not once did Rick, Evy's husband, handed over guns to her to help them battle the enemies and save their son. Their kind of relationship was yet another reason why I have always loved that film.

Seeing The Mummy Returns again for the nth time, I figured these female characters have played a significant part in my upbringing. They showed me women can fight, too, when it was most needed. They didn't have to be the stereotypical damsels in distress waiting to be rescued because they can save themselves while saving others, as well. In retrospect, at such a young age I knew I wanted to be like them. I wasn't very much into the princess thingy, except for the Xena the Warrior Princess kind. In fact, I once dreamed of becoming like the Power Rangers with all their skills and stunts.

Through the years, I have been learning more about Filipinas who left their mark in our history. In an era of a patriarchal society where women were reinforced to be homemakers & deemed as the lesser sex, there were several of them who strayed against the conventions and took part in the never-ending fight for freedom.

Illustrations of Gabriela Silang (by Carlito Rovira) (top) and the first female general Agueda Kahabagan (from SCOUT Magazine) (bottom) during the Philippine Revolution

One of them was notorious for polishing her nails and putting on red lipstick before going to battle, because she believed she also fought for the freedom to be herself as a woman. Another one used to be a movie superstar until the war. She joined the guerrilla movement to avenge for her husband's murder, and in the process she saved an entire village from being killed by the colonizers.

The women of HUKBALAHAP (Hukbong Bayan Laban sa Hapon), clockwise from left:

Remedios Gomez-Paraiso AKA Kumander Liwayway and her red lipstick (art from Rejected Princesses); Carmen Rosales, movie star-turned guerilla fighter (from Flickr); Felipa Culala AKA Kumander Dayang-Dayang (art by Dos Garcia); and Simeona Punsalan-Tapang AKA Kumander Guerrero (art by @RoriComics on Twitter)

But the courage of Filipina women in history has been witnessed not only at home and in the battlefield. There were women who stood up for their right to receive formal education and their right to vote.

Top photo: a painting of The Women of Malolos (art by Rafael del Casal); bottom photo: U.S. First Lady Florence Harding w/ Filipina suffragette delegation, 1922 (From US-Philippines Society)

There were women who saved people's lives by caring for the injured and the sick and feeding the hungry.

Clockwise from left: Melchora Aquino AKA Tandang Sora (from Wikipedia); Josefa Llanes-Escoda (from Bayaning Filipino on Blogger); Maria Orosa (from Orosa Family); and Dr. Fe del Mundo (from National Academy of Science and Technology)

There were women who continue to fight for justice and for their right to be heard, not just as victims but survivors of a violent, tragic past.

Top photo: the Malaya Lolas of Candaba, Pampanga; bottom photo: the lolas of Lila Pilipina. Both are groups of “comfort women,” survivors of military sexual violence during the Japanese Occupation. (From Facebook)

There were women who prove themselves worthy to be recognized by the world for their talents, abilities, and dedication in their respective fields.

Hidilyn Diaz, the first Filipino Olympic gold medalist; and Maria Ressa, the first Filipino Nobel Laureate (From Esquire Philippines)

There were women leaders who empowered their countrymen towards a better quality of life.

Campaign images of Senator Risa Hontiveros and former Senator Leila de Lima for the 2022 National Elections (From Facebook)

Atty. Leni Robredo, former Vice President of the Philippines (From Esquire Philippines)

And before I forget, I was raised and surrounded by strong women who all the while face their own share of battles in life.

We as women are fighters, and we should never let anyone tell us otherwise.

Meanwhile, I believe I have arrived at a full circle. I may haven't reached my dream of becoming a Power Ranger but who would have thought that as an adult, I would portray a woman fighter myself?

Happy Women's Month!

[dragynkeep]

You know how in Hunger Games it's emphasized over and over that Katniss is not trying to be a martyr, she's not trying to reshape society or make a difference. All she wanted to do was save her little sister because in her own words she's pretty sure prim is the only person she still loves.

Now imagine if we got that dynamic for Weiss and Whitley? Obviously the take that she only loves Whitley would have to be adjusted but before coming to Beacon Weiss loved only two people. Her brother and sister. Winter can handle herself and is free so more of Weiss' devotion goes to Whitley. It could've been so sweet to see. Especially since Weiss and Katniss do share some surface level similarities: absolutely zero social skills, a bit one track minded, determined as all hell, and love with their whole heart.

honestly i really like that. i think that weiss’s motivation being moved away from reclaiming her name from jacques grasp  —  when the name & legacy itself is drenched in the blood of vacuo because of that violent colonization & nicholas isn’t actually a hero there’s my correct hot take  —  but into leaving the entire family behind & rescuing the only one depending on her is a much better motivation.

it allows weiss to not only grow from the internalized bigotry she learned from her father & her grandfather’s legacy, but then allows for some more interpersonal growth between the two & their relationship. it feels more intimate & relatable to the audience than “wah i wanna have my rich name but without daddy’s icky capitalist slavery slant on it” even though the name is already irredeemable. let that shit die weiss. focus on redemptive measures & protecting the only two people who care about you & who you care about in return.

it would also do wonders in contrasting her with yang who obviously has never had to have this struggle with ruby & aligning her with blake who’s motivations for becoming a huntress are eerily similar. her protecting whitley also then feeds in nicely to her going up against salem as now she has a personal motivation beyond “we’re just following ruby” into defending remnant because she has a little brother to defend & a big sister to fight beside.

[slashingdisneypasta]

Slashers / Horror Villains as: Animated (Children’s) Movie Villain Songs

+ A Nightmare Before Christmas 

First of all, its mostly Disney. Second of all, I hope you know that this was a struggle for me. 

Also, note, Bubba will be the only Leatherface in this post and Billy and Stu will be the only Ghostfaces. There is Norma Bates though, so sort of a consolation. 

There are links to videos on YouTube ^^

~~~

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher / Ghostface: Playing With the Big Boy’s Now (Hotep and Huy, Prince of Egypt) 

Well... they’re part of the ‘big boys’, now! They are part of the Slashers group that, uh, ‘inspired them’. Imagine instead of Egyptian Gods, they’re chanting Slasher names. 

[HUY] Pick up your silly twig, boy [HOTEP & HUY] You're playing with the big boys now! Ha ha ha ha!

[EGYPTIAN PRIESTS] By the power of Ra Mut, Nut, Khnum, Ptah Sobek, Sekhmet, Sokar, Selket Anubis, Anukis Hemsut, Tefnut, Meshkent, Mafdet... 

Chop Top and Nubbins + Bubba Sawyer / Leatherface: Kidnap Mr Sandy Claws (Lock, Shock and Barrel, Nightmare Before Christmas) 

I mean... they aren't Drayton’s minions, but they are like this XD 

I say that we take a cannon, aim it at his door And then knock three times And when he answers Sandy Claws will be no more

Yes you're so stupid, think now If we blow him up to smithereens We may lose some pieces And then Jack will beat us black and green

Kidnap the Sandy Claws Tie him in a bag

Chucky / Charles Lee Ray: In The Dark Of The Night (Rasputin, Anastasia)

Mystical man? Check! ‘Betrayal’ (As far as he sees it)? Check. Made them pay? Check; I think Nica, Sarah and all the other families he destroys throughout the franchise can attest to that. And ‘One little girl got away’? Well Andy isn’t a girl, but yeah. Check. 

I was once the most mystical man in all Russia When the royals betrayed me they mad a mistake My curse made each of them pay But one little girl got away Little Anya, beware Rasputin's awake

Drayton Sawyer: Don’t Fall In Love (Forte, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas) 

Its such a crochety, unessessarily rude way of describing relationships to someone! I mean, I understand completely and resonate deeply with the desire to be alone and not be responsible for anyone else, but- come on! Beast doesn't share your view! Let it go! 

Its just like Drayton’s reaction to Bubba having a crush. Super cool video too! 

As soon as your heart rules your head Your life is not your own It's hell when someone's always there It's bliss to be alone

And love of any kind is bad A dog, a child, a cat They take up so much precious time Now, where's the sense in that?

Freddy Krueger: No More Mr Nice Guy (Rothbart, Swan Princess) 

A man with an uncomfortable relationship with the main female character pretending to be normal and not homicidal for a while before unlocking more power and letting there inner bad guy loose and taking great pleasure in it? Sounds familiar. They also have a similar vocabulary- except of course Rothbart is rated G. 

I'll become that nasty, naughty, dirty, spiteful Wicked, wayward, way-delightful Bad guy I was born to be

Lyin' loathesome, never-tender Indiscreet repeat offender No more Mr Nice Guy That's not me 

Inkubus: The World’s Greatest Criminal Mind (Professor Rattigan, The Greatest Mouse Detective)

‘Inkubus’ is literally a movie about him listing all his crimes over the centuries and messing with the police force because he has a bone to pick with a detective. Sounds pretty similar to me! Listen to the song! ^^

Now comes the real tour de force Tricky and wicked, of course! My earlier crimes were fine for their times But now that I'm at it again An even grimmer plot has been simmering In my great criminal brain! 

Jason Voorhees: Despicable Me (About Gru, Despicable Me) 

I... this is all I could think of!! But the more I listen to it and read the lyrics... it f i t s Jason so well! XD Please just let this slide; I know Gru isn't really a villain but he is at the start!! Let me have this. 

Why ask why? Better yet "Why not?" Why are you marking x on that spot? Why use a blow torch isn't that hot? Why use a chainsaw? Is that all you got? Why do you like seeing people in shock? But my question to you is "Why not?" Why go to the bank and stand in line Just use a freeze gun it saves me time. I'm havin' a bad, bad day It's about time that I get my way Steam rollin' whatever I see, Huh, despicable me I'm havin' a bad, bad day If you take it personal that's okay Watch, this is so fun to see Huh, despicable me

Jennifer Check: Trust In Me (Kaa, The Jungle Book) 

She’s a succubus demon. Tempting boys into a safe-feeling, docile state so she she can strike is her thing. 

Will cease to resist Just relax Be at rest Like a bird In a nest

Trust in me Just in me Shut your eyes And trust in me

Mayor Buckman and Granny Boone: Savages (Governor Ratcliffe and the Colonizer’s parts, Pocahontas) 

Obviously, because of the (Inaccurate) historical relevance of both movies (Different time’s, same terrible prejudice,) and also because there is definitely a very cult-ish feel about both Governor Ratcliffe’s song and Buckman’s leadership. How easily they’re able to gather support from their people for the most horrible reasons. How horrifying it is to audiences and historians. 

They're only good when dead They're vermin, as I said And worse

They're savages! Savages!

Barely even human

Savages! Savages!

Drive them from our shore! They're not like you and me Which means they must be evil We must sound the drums of war!

Michael Myers: The Gospel Truth II (Muses about Hades, Hercules)

In a Disney movie, Michael would have others sing his song about him as he goes about his silent, determined walking XD 

If there's one God you don't want to get steamed up It's Hades 'Cause he had an evil plan He ran the underworld But thought the dead were dull and uncouth He was as mean as he was ruthless And that's the gospel truth He had a plan to shake things up And that's the gospel truth

Midnight Man: Oogie Boogie’s Song (Oogie Boogie, Nightmare Before Christmas)

A song about a “Gamblin’ Boogie Man” is perfect for the Midnight Man! He and Oogie could be pals. 

Woah! The sound of rollin' dice To me is music in the air 'Cause I'm a gamblin' Boogie Man Although I don't play fair It's much more fun, I must confess When lives are on the line Not mine, of course, but yours, old boy Now that'd be just fine

Norma Bates: Mother Knows Best Reprise (Mother Gothel, Tangled)

Norma is soooooo so so so unbelievably manipulative towards Norman (And Dylan. It just works better on Norman) and this song absolutely presents that. She can go from sweet, loving mother to spiteful, heinous bitch in two seconds if Norman or Dylan don't do what or react the way she wants them to. 

Likes you? Please, Rapunzel, that's demented

This is why you never should have left! Dear, this whole romance that you've invented, Just proves you're too naive to be here Why would he like you? Come on now, really! Look at you, you think that he's impressed? Don't be a dummy Come with mummy

Pamela Voorhees: My Lullaby (Zira, The Lion King 2)

In a opposite approach to a villainous mother to Norma, we have Pam, who was heartbroken by the camp councillors letting her son die and vowed to get revenge. She didn't know she was teaching Jason to be the Crystal Lake killer like Zira did, but she did, and the whole song does have her kind of feel to it also. 

Sleep, my little Kovu Let your dreams take wing One day when you're big and strong You will be a kingI've been exiled, persecuted Left alone with no defense When I think of what that brute did I get a little tense But I dream a dream so pretty That I don't feel so depressed 'Cause it soothes my inner kitty And it helps me get some rest

Patrick Bateman: Cruella De Vil (Arthur, 101 Dalmations) 

Never before was there a song that described audiences reaction to watching Patrick living in his daily life and hearing his thoughts better then this one. 

Cruella De Vil Cruella De Vil If she doesn't scare you No evil thing will To see her is to Take a sudden chill Cruella, Cruella De Vil

The curl of her lips The ice in her stare All innocent children Had better beware She's like a spider waiting For the kill Look out for Cruella De Vil

Pennywise (Both): You’re Only Second Rate (Jafar, Return of Jafar)

Mostly for the video and Jafar’s energy in this scene actually XD So many transformations, so many tasteless puns! I was going to give this to Freddy but its the closest thing to Penny I could think of. 

Go ahead and zap me with the big surprise Snap me in a trap, cut me down to size I'll make a great escape It's just a piece of cake You're only second rate You know your hocus-pocus isn't tough enough And your mumbo-jumbo doesn't measure up Let me pontificate upon your sorry state You're only second rate

Sheriff Hoyt / Charlie Hewitt: Hellfire (Judge Claude Frollo, Hunchback of Notre Dame) 

A nasty filthy man who think’s he’s in the right despite being the biggest creep and monster ever? Mhm. 

*Note: I honestly didn't notice the deformed baby, Quasimodo/Thomas link until the day after I wrote this. Don't know how I feel about it. I mean, Hoyt is actually nice, in his way, to Thomas so the connection isn't totally there but onwards:

Beata Maria You know I am a righteous man Of my virtue I am justly proud

Beata Maria You know I'm so much purer than The common, vulgar, weak, licentious crowd 

End of Post! 🌼

(Bonus’ under the cut) 

I did think of other connections which I obviously didnt landed on but still have merit! Here! 

Billy Loomis and Stu Macher: ‘Gaston’ was considered, but that would have just been a joke XD I don’t think Stu is quite as obsessed with Billy as LeFou is with Gaston. 

Chucky: Friends on the Other Side. Obviously! That link was actually what inspired me to make this post. In The Dark of Night fits to a T though. 

Freddy Krueger: You’re Only Second Rate! Ah, its perfectttt. But No More Mr Nice Guy fits better. If I ever do a Slashers as Disney Villains post, he’ll be Jafar for sure. Or Hades. Or Scar. Or Oogie. Probably Hades. You know what? Without the gore and blood and explicit sexual references, Freddy could be a Disney Villain himself. Its not like Disney hasn't towed the line before with perverted villains. >_> (Jafar and Frollo) 

Jason and Pamela Voorhees: Mother Knows Best! Of course. 

Jennifer Check: Love is For Peasants (Barbie Island Princess) Because Jennifer thinks like this: 

Men? <<< Literally anything else. 

Patrick Bateman: How Can I Refuse? (From Barbie Princess and the Pauper) XD If Patrick were a kids movie villain, he would totally join the ranks of corrupted usurpers pretending to be trustworthy royal advisory staff. Also ‘Let It Die’, that little interruption part of another song that O’Hare sings in the Lorax and ‘How Bad Can I be?’.