#she’s not a good person! none of them are!! but she’s also not a narcissist/sociopath??

[unkindsunshine]

the amount of people who have a flat understanding of tashi duncan will be my undoing.

[ordinaryschmuck]

Alright, last time ever that I’ll talk about Velma. I promise.

Because I’ve been extra salty towards this show all week, and I don’t want to take it further than that. Talking nothing but bad stuff about this show for the entirety of its run is exactly what the writers want. They want us to hate watch it so we can talk about each new atrocity the show brings up week after week, and call us haters or anti-woke propagandists. When, in reality, they don’t give a FUCK about any of that. They don’t care about other races, genders, or sexualities. They just WANT you to think they do. Know how I can tell? Because I’ve SEEN genuine attempts of representation.

THIS is a genuine attempt of representation. Matt Braly, the series creator of Amphibia and a Thai-American, felt like Thai culture was underrepresented in media. So, he not only made his main character and her Thai, but he also dedicated subplots and entire episodes showcasing the culture he wanted to represent.

THIS is a genuine attempt at representation. Dana Terrace, series creator of The Owl House and open Bisexual, wanted a main character that was explicitly bi to finally help kids feel like they’re seen. To help give the representation SHE always wanted.

But when I look at Velma? None of it hits the same.

This isn’t a genuine attempt for representation. This is Mindy Kuling turning a character into a self-insert to make herself look smarter than everyone else and the most important person in a narrative. Truth is, this Velma is nothing more than a sociopath, narcissistic dipshit who thinks she’s better than everyone else but is actually more aggravating than endearing.

So...Good job representing YOURSELF there, Mindy.

And this?

This isn’t representation. This is a shield.

A way to protect the show from any criticism because it couldn’t possibly be bad. They have gay characters! Gay characters are good in everything!

Except that is the LAST reason you should include gay characters! Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE more LGBTQA+ representation in media. What I don’t love is obvious attempts to pander to audiences just to avoid criticisms. And keep in mind, this is NOT the first attempt a creator wanted to make Velma gay.

James Gunn wanted to make her gay in the live action movie, but WB said no.

Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated (the GOAT of the Scooby-Doo franchise) wanted to make Velma gay, but could only imply it because Cartoon Network didn’t greenlit Steven Universe yet.

THOSE are genuine attempts to make Velma gay, to represent people because the creators of both products agreed that it was the least they could do.

But making Velma and Daphne a thing just to protect a show is nothing more than shallow and inconsiderate of the hard fight dozens of people put up with for the sake of representation.

And, honestly, I’d be a little more forgiving if the writing in Velma was good. But it’s not.

Within the first minute, this show features...

Cockroaches having sex...

And fifteen year olds taking a shower to make a joke about how over-sexualized a series’ pilot can be.

First of all: FUCK YOU FOR MAKING ME FIND THIS SCREEN SHOT FOR A POINT!

Second: You lose every ounce of credibility that you actually care about people when one of the first moves you make in your series is to sexualize minors for the sake of a joke.

A joke that doesn’t make sense at that. Point me to a series pilot that’s over-sexualized. If you get more than ten, I’ll say you have a point. I won’t say that sexualizing minors to make it was a good thing, but I’ll at least say that, “Yeah. You’re right. So many pilots do this. SO STOP DOING IT!”

That’s the level of writing Velma has. And it’s why they have their “representation” to protect themselves. Meanwhile, you want to know the level of writing you’ll find in The Owl House and Amphibia?

Villains who prove that the most dangerous people are the ones who make the rules.

Jokes that are actually funny.

Likable main protagonists who are kind and caring to the people around them.

Protagonists who have heartfelt relationships with other great characters, to the point that it breaks your heart to see them leave each other.

And on top of that, actually good representation. But here’s the thing: The representation isn’t only genuine. It’s a bonus. Something great to add onto everything else the writers and the creators do right.

What it isn’t is an attempt to protect a show from what it does wrong.

And that’s it. That’s the LAST time I’ll ever talk about Velma. I really mean it this time.

Talking about this show past it’s premier is already more attention it deserves. And if you were smart, you would not only stop watching, but stop talking. The best attention to give something you hate is NO attention.

If you really want to waste time, waste it by watching something good, like The Owl House and Amphibia. They may be kids shows, but they have more maturity than a single second of Velma.

[eponastory]

Alright, I suppose I'll get this over with since I spent some time thinking about it.

Zuko and Mai

Just look at them.

Honestly, their relationship isn't bad, it's just lacking something.

Oh right...

Communication!

They don't talk to each other. I don't mean striking up a conversation... I mean talking about their feelings to each other. Well, at least on Mai's end. We know Zuko shows his emotions very well because of his frustration. Mai is quiet, aloof, and isn't very good at showing how she feels.

She doesn't even vocalize her feelings. Now, that's fine since 74% of our communication is body language, while the rest is verbal and sensory (I bet you didn't even know that), however I think she struggles with that as well.

Zuko is very good at showing he cares by being attentive (guys, learn from Zuko) he is boyfriend/husband material (I don't want to hear about the colonizer bullshit, it's irrelevant, get an education). He may have made some horrible choices in the past, but he is a good person. So, why do he and Mai keep breaking up and getting back together?

Choices!

I've said it before and I'll say it again...

A bad relationship is set by the choices made individually.

So, you know the whole "I don't keep secrets from my partner" thing? This is it. This is why relationships fail. It's hand in hand with communication, and it's the path to breakups/divorce.

In the graphic novel (I have to go back and look, but I think it's right at the end of The Promise? Correct me if I'm wrong) the reason they broke up is because Zuko made some choices that kinda... well it wasn't great and almost led to a war with the Earth Kingdom. But it really put him in a negative light even though he turned out to be in the end. Mai saw this as Zuko becoming his father, and well, she waited to confront him about it.

Zuko made some decisions on his own and didn't really tell her about it, leading to some misunderstandings. Actually, he did this before in Book Three when he left to join the Gaang. He doesn't sit and talk to Mai about it. He just does it. This is where things go wrong. He may have thought he was doing right by her, but in the end, it was the execution that was bad.

Do I think they will get back together?

Eh... it's debatable. The creators have full control of what the characters do at this point. If they were to get back together, they would definitely have to fix the problems I mentioned above. Maybe that will happen from experience.

What do I like about this relationship?

They obviously care about each other, and I do think they look good together. I'm not a huge fan of it because I see the problems in the relationship. It's not a bad relationship, it's problematic at the worst. At best, they make a cute couple. I'm not sure if Mai is Izumi's mother, but again, we are at the mercy of the creators.

Oh that's it. That's the problems.

So how do you fix these problems?

Well, there is therapy, but there is also just talking to your partner. Talking about the things that make you uncomfortable and what makes you upset about your relationship is going to clear the air. Now, if your partner is not a great communicator, that is where a therapist can help, and I highly recommend that.

What makes a relationship toxic comes down to narcissism and other violent traits. There is bad relationships, and then there is downright toxic and hellish.

NONE of the relationships in the show are toxic except for Ozai's relationship with his wife, children, and everyone else he has a relationship with. He is an egotistical sociopathic narcissist... that is a walking nuclear waste pit right there. Run away. Run away immediately.

Anyway, this is what I think...

Oh, and Zuko is the very opposite of his father, so don't even go there.

Hope you enjoy my little relationship analysis.

[artsyaech]

going into next year, remember to keep fighting for disability and mental health rights!

[PT: going into next year, remember to keep fighting for disability and mental health rights!]

remember to:

put image IDs and plain-text on posts

tag eyestrain and flash warnings (DO NOT use #epilepsy, that puts epileptic people in more danger)

remember to tag potential triggers! (very important, i hate it when posts include my triggers and don't tag it)

remember that hyperfixating on / having a special interest in a problematic thing does NOT mean you're a bad person, as long as you acknowledge the problems with it. also, i can't believe this isn't talked about more, but a hatred for a thing can also turn into a hyperfixation / special interest! example: i had a hyperfixation on harry potter in a way that i absorbed criticisms of it and knew everything about it, but only because i wanted to be able to articulate how much i hate it and why. hyperfixation / special interest in something does not mean you like it / endorse it! (rant over)

PLEASE stop clogging up disability tags with fanfiction. yes, it's good that you're representing disabilities, but instead try tagging it with #disabled character or #disabled reader or something of the sort.

something i wanna leave in 2023, but unfortunately don't think will be going away soon is ableist / saneist slang or slang that makes light of disabilities / mental health. examples of this include: "delulu", "letting the intrusive thoughts win", "psycho", "schizo" (when referring to something that has nothing to do with schizophrenia), "bipolar" (when referring to something that has nothing to do with bipolar disorder), "sociopath", "psychopath", "narcissist" + MANY more

please stop infantilizing autistic people. i'm so tired of being treated like a baby.

c-punk is NOT an aesthetic and it is exclusively for physically disabled people. and if you're not physically disabled, call it c-punk.

uplift disabled and mentally ill voices.

below is a list of disabled creators you can support!

@my-autism-adhd-blog. summer (she/they) talks about their life as an autistic individual who has ADHD. super cool blog!

@cripplecharacters. a group of mods help answer questions about writing disabled characters. learned a lot from them.

@mogai-transcriber. (nameless) (she/he/it) describes mogai posts.

@accessmogai. reign (she/her) is a great mogai transcriber too. high quality IDs for all

@cpunkwitch. super cool witchy blog. cassandra (it/he/her/neos/none) is super cool and it's nice to hear a disabled voice in the pagan community.

@crippledpunks. cool positivity blog that talks about disability and educates on cpunk

@accessfashion. multiple mods add image descriptions to outfits. super epic stuff.

@cane-you-dig-it. disability and cpunk stuff. also just a super cool and talented individual.

@autistic-af. i wish she was my aunt, she's super sweet and her cat posts always make my day!

@crippled-peeper. relatable posts tbh.

@crippled-dinosaur. dino (it/he) talks about physical disabilities and cpunk

+ many more! feel free to add to this list

[hoghtastic]

I ship these two soo hard 🥰 💕

If johanne was the sweet girl she presented herself at first I would like them together but she is a narcissist sociopath liar and none of it is real. Fanny always knew her true colors but I think she followed her back because she misses him and cares more about maintaining her relationship with Alex, not because Johanne has suddenly grown on her. What I like about Fanny is she is sincerely kind, and genuinely cares about Alex. Johanne just cares about herself and is very good at manipulating. I am so down for this ship if it were to ever happen. Seriously Alex looks so good out and about living his life. Johanne drains him.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this, and for the lovely pictures! 🥰 Personally, I also like Fanny very much! She's very genuine, and seems to be super fun to hang out with! I always thought her energy matched Alex's a lot, and that's why I thought they'd be a good match for each other. However, even as just friends, she does seem to have a positive influence on him, so it's really nice that they haven't grown apart too much.

[will80sbyers]

Those anons you're getting must think Will Byers is an ableist towards sociopaths since he's also on the side of killing Vecna :/

I'm just in shock at the insanity LMAO... first of all, you're entitled to hate a character for literally no reason at all! But these people are mad because..... you think a serial killing monster (YES, monster. He is literally a tentacle-wielding, soul-sucking monster. IN CANON 😭) deserves to get what's coming to him?

And using their headcanons (HEADCANONS!) and convoluted theories as fodder to make you out to be some unempathetic person is just wild. Imagine people having this reaction towards Dr. Brenner (nobody would ever pull this kind of fit because Brenner is an old slightly less fuckable man who hurt their little meow meow, and is therefore irredeemable).

I've secretly been sideeyeing that side of the byler/sttheorist community for a bit now, but seeing them blow up at you on anon (when we all can tell exactly who is sending the anons 👁️👁️) is just so......

Thank you!!!

I am not surprised in the slightest, to be honest I've seen how people started talking about him and it's been annoying me since the start, and they think they are so morally superior to everyone because they want to be Gandhi and think he should be forgiven only because he has trauma...

half of the characters in the show have HEAVY trauma and none of them choose that path of hate and delusional narcissistic tendencies

Eleven is the most important example of this, she went through everything Henry experiences and she still chooses to be good every day even with all that trauma she has, she chooses mercy and kindness and love

Henry made a different choice because he can't experience love unfortunately so he relied on the closest thing he could find similar to joy → having control and power on other people and becoming a god amongst them

[young-dumb-and-vaccinated]

Cult Girl: Doctorate (Hannibal x Female!Reader) pt. 3

Bundy

Cult girl gets some unbelievable news.

Trigger warnings: death, emotional manipulation, discussion of cult leaders Koresh, Jones as well as Ted Bundy

"Who the fuck are you, and what the shit are you doing with my dead cousin's phone?" You said, the slam of the car door audible from the speaker.

"Cheerio to you too, [F/N]." Anna answered.

You brought the phone to your chest to muffle the speaker and heaved a sigh.

"It's fucking Anna." You told Hannibal as he climbed into the car.

He buckled his seatbelt. "Put it on speaker."

You pressed the speaker button. "Froot Loops. Why do you have Theresa's phone?"

"Don't you remember?" She asked. "I took it when she died. Hers had a much better camera than my old one. I thought I told you to update that in your contacts?"

"Oh yeah, I do remember that." You nodded. "The body wasn't even cold and you'd already gotten to grave-robbing."

"Hey, that's my sister you're talking about." Anna snapped. "Show a little respect."

You rolled your eyes so far back into your skull you could practically see your brain cells dying. "Why are you calling, Anna? I'm fairly fucking certain I told both you and grandma to never speak to me again."

"Well, grandma won't be doing much speaking anymore." Anna snapped. "Because she's dead."

You sighed. It wasn’t the first time you heard those words, and it was never true. Faking her death was the hammer in her gaslighter toolkit. Meaning that the desired outcome could be produced just as effectively using a combination of other tools, but none were as efficient as a good old-fashioned bashing. The first time, you went through the whole five stages in ten minutes to really sell that you felt something other than relief at her passing. This time, you didn’t have the energy. 

“Did somebody finally strangle her to death?” You asked. “Shame, I would have liked to do it myself.” 

“Are you so completely void of human emotion that you can’t even pretend to be sad?” Anna shouted. 

“No, because I think this is another one of her manipulations.” You explained. “She probably roped you in thinking I’d believe it if it came out of your mouth. But the joke’s on her, because you’ve been her puppet since preschool.”

“You really are something else, [F/N].” Her voice wobbled, as if on the verge of tears. “The woman who raised us had a stroke and died. That’s not a manipulation, it’s the truth!” 

You began to consider the possibility that Anna wasn’t lying. Your voice took on a more solemn tone as you resigned to give her the benefit of the doubt. "A stroke, huh?"

"She died in the hospital." She said, softly.

There was real emotion in her voice. You thought back to that high school production of Legally Blonde, which proved that she was not skilled enough at acting to fake it.

You sighed. The crushing realization that you may very well have been the jerk in this conversation hit you. "So, what now?"

"I know better than to ask you to help out with the funeral." She said. "You didn't come to Theresa's, after all."

The reason you gave for not going to Theresa's funeral was schoolwork. It was a flimsy excuse, but hid your real reasons well enough. Those were much touchier. You couldn't bear the thought of listening to people lie and embellish stories of your cousin's positive influences on people's lives. But you also couldn't bear the fact that at least some of it wouldn't be lies.

You were the one that killed her. Your fiancé chopped up her body and served it to your friends for dinner. Theresa was a sociopath, a narcissist, and plenty other highlights in the DSM-5, but the pain she left after her death was real. It was the most real thing about her. You weren't desensitized enough to face that.

"Good call." You answered, flatly.

"Liam and I will be flying out tomorrow night." She said. "I know I'm in no position to be asking for favors, but if you could come pick us up from the airport-"

"Sure." You answered with a nod. You didn't know what exactly you were agreeing to as you did. Anna's words were just dissipating into the air, hardly reaching your ears.

"Thanks." She said, as emotionlessly as you. That was perhaps the most mutual understanding you'd ever achieved with Anna. And it only lasted a couple of seconds.

That was about as natural a conclusion to the conversation as you could have hoped for, so you hung up.

Hannibal pulled into the driveway and turned off the car. "What are you thinking, love?"

You leaned your head against the window and looked up at the few visible stars. "I've spent so many years wishing her dead and now that it's finally happening, I don't know what to feel."

He wrapped his arm around your shoulders, knowing exactly how to keep you grounded when your mind started to wander off. You rested your head on his shoulder and closed your eyes. He kissed you on the head.

"I thought her dying meant I never had to think about her again." You shrugged. "But now I'm thinking about her and hating every minute of it. And that probably means I loved her. Which is terrifying to think about."

"You think about Jim Jones and David Koresh quite a bit, don't you?" Hannibal asked, squeezing you tight. "Do you love them?"

You shook your head. "That's different. That's academic curiosity."

"But why do we remember them?" Hannibal posited, stroking your arm. "Is it reverence?"

"It's to learn." You answered. "To make sure history doesn't repeat itself."

"Death isn't a sacred thing, my love." He whispered. "Don't feel bad for remembering her as cruel. That's what she was. Don't let anyone forget it."

You chuckled. "Did you know that when Ted Bundy died, a bunch of people near the prison shut their breakers off so the electrocution would be more painful?"

"Interesting." He said, referring less to the fact itself and more to the reason why it came to mind when it did.

"That is to say, I don't actually feel bad that she's dead." You clarified. "I feel bad because I know I should and I don't."

Hannibal pulled you into his arms and placed a kiss on your forehead. "I thought after four blissful years together, you would know you don't have to pretend around me."

You lowered your head. "I guess I'm just scared that if I take off my person suit around you, I'll never be able to put it back on."

"You never need to worry about that, my love." He assured you. “I know it’s scary, but all it takes is a little practice.” 

“In that case,” You felt a smile creeping onto your face, so you let it. “I think we should celebrate.” 

"Well that can be arranged." Hannibal rolled your hair. "With a bottle of Cava in my office."

You felt a laugh coming on, but it just came out as an ugly wheeze. "That is so unethical. I would love to."

"No," He corrected, opening the driver's side door. "It would be unethical to empty a bottle of wine down that pretty throat of yours without a little food."

"It's the middle of the night, Hanni." You objected, though the rumbling of your stomach told a different story. You slammed the car door shut.

Hannibal smiled to himself, disregarding your protests entirely. "Foie gras au torchon, with a bit of brioche, perhaps?"

"Well that sounds like a proper celebration." You grinned, tightening your grip on your clutch excitedly. “Do you mind if I get cleaned up?” 

“Of course not, love, take your time.” Hannibal said, releasing you from his embrace. 

You headed towards the house, a little extra spring in your step. 

“Oh, [F/N]?” He called out after you. 

You looked over your shoulder. “Yeah?” 

“That thing you said about Ted Bundy.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m sorry to tell you, but that’s a myth.” 

You frowned, feeling kind of stupid. “Shit. I really wanted it to be true.” 

Hannibal smiled, reassuringly. “But hundreds of people still celebrated his death.” 

[sam-t-a]

Okay. 

*Deep breath* 

I think I’m finally calm enough to put into words exactly why I hated the finale and why I wasn’t completely surprised that I hated it. 

(Heads-up: this is really long and pretty negative. If you disagree, I would of course appreciate your point of view and love to hear it, but just thought I’d let you know in case this is the kind of post you would like to avoid.)

To me, it felt like every character on the show got betrayed in some way or another, but the main ones are Han Seo (devastatingly), Chayoung (obviously) and Han Seok (bear with me). 

Cha Young: 

She started out as a solid FL who annoyed some people for sure, but who had so much promise as someone unconventional and bold. The way her mother’s death affected her and caused a clear shift in her personality was a super interesting plot point that really never got explored. We have no idea how she came to sacrifice her morality in joining Wusang, just that she wanted to spite her father, which is a very superficial exploration. She gets cute idiosyncrasies in lieu of an actual character and an actual character arc. 

We also, halfway through the show, seem to forget that her father's death was the initial trigger. Cha young does not suggest bold ideas or intricate plans, she doesn’t fill the gaps Vincenzo is incapable of filling (because that would require that Vincenzo have flaws, and that’s not something the writers can abide), and she’s literally victimized in episode 19 and bedridden in episode 20, and that is IT. 

Someone who started out supposedly as Vincenzo’s equal just became another piece in his chess set, no matter how important a piece she may be. 

So her role as a badass avenger is trashed. That leaves her role as a love interest. Now, as Vincenzo’s love interest, she was supposed to get kidnapped in like episode 5 or 6 at the most if the villain has any brains whatsoever (Han Seok may or may not, more on that later). We need a reason for that not to happen too early. Cue villain is somehow in love with her for all of 15 minutes or so throughout a 20-episode series because a love triangle is inconceivable with the show’s current structure and for its purposes. 

So, she spends 15 or so episodes making the first move on Vincenzo, every time, putting herself out there, creating cute moments, getting nothing in return, and then he leaves. No confession, nothing much, he wasn’t even going to say goodbye or give her the choice of coming with him. 

I’m sure more chayenzo-oriented fans have already expressed all the necessary outrage over this, so I’ll move on to the part that I’ve personally been way more emotionally invested in from the get go: the Jang brothers. 

Han Seo: 

I was among the minority that  hated the “Vinny hyung” angle from the get-go and I’ve ranted about it in another post, so I won’t get into it here in-depth, but basically it was because I felt like Vincenzo hadn’t earned it, so to have the last words Han Seo hears be “You deserve to be my brother” or whatever the fuck he was on about PISSED ME OFF. It’s VINCENZO who doesn’t deserve to be Han Seo’s brother and hasn’t done a single thing to earn it. He was a good ally. The situation he allowed Han Seo to be a part of was beneficial to him, but Han Seo’s attachment to him was neither healthy nor heartwarming, and it certainly wasn’t returned on the level he offered it.

Vincenzo’s disregard of his death didn’t strike me as odd because I never saw enough indications that this was a two-way street and Han Seo’s safety and well-being came second so often that I didn’t get the impression Vincenzo was doing much to keep him alive. This is what I meant when I said the show was glorifying a torture survivor’s trauma responses. Han Seo himself, as a torture survivor, meant nothing to them. He was just there to create one more contrived comparison between Vincenzo and Han Seok. Instead of recovering from the trauma, it’s simply employed to someone else’s favor. He doesn’t go to prison for Han Seok, he takes a bullet for Vincenzo, and we’re supposed to see that as so much better.

All of that might (JUST MIGHT) not have ruined the show for me if he’d died better. 1) It was narratively pointless and totally avoidable, 2) they could’ve framed it as heroic, but instead Han Seok’s hand patting his head is pushing it down, so he can’t even get shot with his chin up and his back straight, Taec’s already taller, so the angle’s fucked and the whole cinematography screamed “kicking an injured puppy” and most certainly NOT “survivor finally stands up to his abuser”. The final nail in the proverbial and literal coffin is that he is mourned by no one. They’re FLIRTING not 3 MINUTES LATER, it felt so tone deaf and left such a bad taste. As I said, I didn’t expect significant mourning from Vincenzo (gotta say, I didn’t expect no mourning, that was a shocker), and Cha young and the tenants had no real interactions with him and no reason to mourn him, which left only one person who could. 

Which brings me to Han Seok. 

Han Seok started out as a solid villain, clear goals, clear skills that help him achieve his goals and basically make him a villain worth defeating, and a very complex relationship with both his own psychopathy and his brother. 

Let me get it out of the way: I do not believe Han Seok is capable of killing Han Seo because he had every reason and every opportunity to do so in previous episodes and couldn’t do it (I say couldn’t because a certain degree of reluctance is in itself inability). Han Seo’s danger far outweighed his material value the minute he shot Han Seok and then completely lost any value once he came out to the world as the chairman and it became clear that the prosecution would be going after him if anything happened, and not his brother. But time and again, he’s proven he’s all bark and no bite when it comes to Han Seo (killing-wise, specifically). 

The scene where he asks him to beat Vincenzo to death could be interpreted as him wanting to give Vincenzo the “painful death” he would have given him, but honestly, I think he was way past that point. He just wanted him dead in the “You crazy? we have to kill him before he kills us” sense. To that end, killing off a key ally of Vincenzo’s, who betrayed you and almost got you killed a bunch of times, should take priority, but Han Seok’s priority is reclaiming Han Seo by forcing him back onto his side. Now, much like his “love for Cha young”, Han Seok’s keenness on not killing his brother was essential to the writers so that Han Seo can justifiably make it this far and still be useful to Vincenzo (he can’t help if Han Seok completely excludes him from all events, plans and management processes, so Han Seok needs to want to keep him on his side enough not to do that even when it’s more prudent). 

All of this isn’t to say it’s unbelievable that he would kill Han Seo, but it’s DEFINITELY unbelievable that he would stay the same man after killing him. Someone here (I’m sorry, I don’t rememebr who) once said that Han Seo had become, over time, far more of a foil to his brother than Vincenzo was. To me, this means that Post-Han Seo Han Seok would be out of balance (tilted screen), unhinged in a way he never was before. The Han Seok we see shrugs and “oh, well”-s and moves on in a flash, not really any different from the villain he was four minutes and a whole brother earlier. 

This is very consistent with the way the show has been de-humanizing him from the start. I’m not saying this to defend Han Seok in any way, he’s a serial killer, an abuser and a total maniac. But you can be all those things and still a human being. In fact, you can ONLY be those things if you’re a human being. The show used its villain vs villain idea to justify a lot, but in the end, Vincenzo had to be a protagonist. He had to follow up every “I’m a villain” with a contrived “but at least I’m not (insert something worse)”. 

On the level of humans:

1) Vincenzo is supposedly different because he doesn’t hurt children or women (unless the women deserve it, and shooting a parent in front of their kid doesn’t count as hurting.) 

But we never see Han Seok hurting women or children either. In fact, if we proceed with the “chayoung is the myung hee of the good guys” comparison, he hasn’t hurt any women nearly as badly as Vincenzo did. 

2) Babel vs Mafia 

Babel’s corruption is compared a lot to the mafia, with Vincenzo commenting repeatedly that the people are WORSE than the mafia...which is bullshit. Babel is a set of companies that provide goods and services, but use illegal means to maximize their profit, so they hurt/kill people in the process because they want more money and care about money more than ethics. The Mafia is an inherently criminal organization that functions PURELY on the basis of its criminality. Every single dime Vincenzo spends is blood money. None of it is clean. And while we’re on the topic, I find the whole “taking Miri under his wing” thing pretty unreasonable too because he tried to have her killed you guys, I cannot believe we’re just glossing over that. He had everyone who worked on that vault killed, just random fucking construction workers. And he’s not sorry. And the show tells you he shouldn’t be. 

3) Repentance

Han Seok says outright he won’t atone, and while Vincenzo says no such thing out loud he just...doesn’t repent, I guess. He keeps the blood money, he goes back to being a full-time mafia dude doing mafia things. He leaves the same man he arrived. 

So, if on the level of harm inflicted upon humanity, Vincenzo and Han Seok are pretty much equal (and Vincenzo might actually be worse), then why should we root for Vincenzo? 

Well, my friend, that’s where the dehumanization comes in! 

I was initially very excited to see their portrayal of a psychopath because of the very interesting ways in which the informal moral code and official justice system surrounding a psychopath/sociopath/narcissist affect their behavior and their chances of not turning out rotten, and the show looked like it was looking at corruption in general. 

But as the show went on, the villain vs villain thing proved not to be enough, Vincenzo has to be better in some way (or if you’re as obsessed with him as the writers are, then ALL ways), so it became a villain vs monster narrative. Vincenzo isn’t ethical or fair or in any way interested in having a remotely positive impact on society, but at least he’s A HUMAN BEING unlike SOMEBODY. So, the characterization goes to shit, Han Seok becomes a cartoon card-board cut out of a villain and emphasis is put on how pointless his violence is, as opposed to how purposeful Vincenzo’s is. 

This is dangerous on multiple levels (and I promise this is the last point I’m making). 

1) For people in general, dehumanizing abusers/murderers/etc. makes us very liable to forget that you don’t have to be “a monster” to cause harm, and it makes people complacent in their belief that they are “not bad people” since they aren’t total monsters. The Banality of Evil is a thing, and in this series, it goes completely ignored. No one is inherently incapable of good or inherently undeserving of humanity. 

2) For victims of abuse in specific, it’s dangerous to portray abusers (including serial killer and non-serial killer ones) as entirely bad and unlovable, because it poses the dual risk of making victims less likely to acknowledge their abuse if it comes from someone who cares about or loves them on some level because the idea that someone cannot both love and hurt you is so stereotypical. Your abuser can genuinely want you in their lives and need you and, on some level, love you, and IT DOESN’T MATTER if that love doesn’t stop them from hurting you. 

On the other hand, portraying the victims of abuse as capable of flipping an off switch and hating the abuser with no hesitation or second thoughts to the point of unapologetically and cheerfully helping someone kill them and having no mixed feelings about it sends the message that if you CAN’T do that, then are you really abused? Are sure you’re not complicit in your own abuse? Do you even want to get rid of them? 

So this is basically why the way the show ended was so painfully disappointing for me. And the main reason it hit so hard was that it was initially so good and had so much promise. I really expected more.

[elisastales]

To me, Theo had traits of Antisocial Personality Disorder, aka, he had sociopathy traits (minors can’t be diagnosed cause kids are already kinda narcissistic, they haven’t completely develop empathy, so this traits can dissapear with age, I think Theo’s traits dissapeared too, cause he felt regret while selling Malia, at that point i’m thinking it was more a nurture thing and not nature), that’s why the Doctors chose him, he was easily corrupted (being a sociopath doesn’t instantly makes you a killer, not even a bad person, you just lack empathy, but take everything I say about this with a grain of salt because my research on APD goes back to almost 10 years and it was scattered to begin with ), very easily manipulated, there was some innocence in him even with the lack of empathy, because a kid is a kid after all. 

What called my attention in this part is, if he was the most succesful till then, why not keep going with someone even more evil? maybe a teenager who had already killed, why that fact made them see they needed someone good? logic would point you to the other direccion. 

In my opinion, he was a half success because a) He wasn’t good or evil, just vulnerable and innocent as most kids. And b) because he was the only one apart from Mason whos second set of DNA came from a sibling, but that’s another topic. 

I would like to point out that the causes for sociopathy are rooted on trauma, abuse, parents with substance abuse problems or parents with personality disorders. 

After alllll this rant, I don’t think he was a actually sociopath, he just had traits, because it doesn’t have a cure, just a treatment to minimize or dissapear the dangers to others, and Theo does change a lot, his main desire changes completely, is thrown away even when he fights it, that doesn’t happens with APD as far as im aware, if someone knows better please correct me (i will research more in the future, but not today). 

I do believe Theo is ND somehow. And that with the fact that he was a kid just doesn’t ties up the “he was corrupted before” thing, a child can’t consent, he couldn’t be a willing participant, they lied to him, I highly doubt he underrstood completely what he was doing entailed. Mainly cause when he says to Stiles “they told me she wanted me to have it” he seems pretty sincere, he didn’t had to lie, it wouldn’t help him at all, Stiles had no simpathy towards him at that point, there was no purpose on it, and everything we saw Theo do in s5 has a purpose, there’s no cruelty just because, he might enjoy it while he’s at it, but he doesn’t do it just to enjoy. Except for one scene; when he goes to is “parents” and braeks that dude’s hand with a hammer, that was punishment, I wonder why, why the only act of cruelty just because was directed towards someone who was playing the father role.

Someone traumatized can do very awful shit and none of those things cancels out the other. So while I believe he was traumitized he still killed and deceived, the consequences of it, the harm done, doesn’t dissapear. 

But because is fiction I allow myself to love him cause he changed, in TW universe that happens a lot, within the context makes sense, it’s not really that bad, but in real life people don’t do that, at least I don’t believe someone capable of doing what he did irl can be saved, or deserves to be saved.

Also, im very biased, so yeah.

Theo was already corrupted before the Dread Doctors got to him.

In 5x19 they literally say it point out that he was basically already evil to some extent. At 31:05 "Not a complete failure. We learned from you"

And what they learned is that you need someone "innocent/good" and corrupting them to create the perfect evil. Hence why they took Mason.

Theo was a failure because he was already corrupted, because he was already to some extent "evil"

(5x19)

The dread doctors didn't "torture" Theo to the extent some people make it out to be either. He WAS a willing participant. Yes, he was a child so there for, yes it's iffy, and I am not saying Theo didn't get affected by the Dread Doctors at all and what happened.

The thing is he isn't some innocent little kid they just choose to corrupt. He wanted to be a Chimera, that's why he killed his sister. So that the Doctors could transplant it into him making him a natural Chimera.

In 5x11 Dr Valack explains that Theo was the first step in the right direction for the Dread Doctors for making the "perfect evil" and is the reason they changed their methods in creating one.

They changed their methods to "corrupting something truly good" to create the "perfect evil" because they originally thought to create the "perfect evil" they had to start with the "perfect killer" that is said as stated before.

[longitudinalwaveme]

DC Comics’ Portrayal of Mental Illness

 As you can probably ascertain from the general contents of this blog, I am a huge fan of DC comics (and, more specifically, of the Flash). I am also a psychology major who is on the autism spectrum and has struggled with Social Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. As such, I have a...complicated relationship with comic books that discuss mental illness. 

Of course, of all the comics that deal with mental illness, Batman is undoubtedly the most prominent, and, as such, is the easiest target for criticism. The more a comic book talks about mental illness, the more opportunities it has to get stuff wrong. Since there are literally thousands of Batman comics out there and I don’t have the time to research them all, I will be using a 2001 Batman guidebook to give you a few examples of the things that it gets wrong about mental health (and psychology in general). 

To start, let’s talk about Arkham Asylum. Not only is its name anachronistic (virtually no mental heath facilities are called asylums anymore), but its depiction usually is as well: even a psychiatric hospital that doubled as a penal facility probably would not be located in an old Gothic-looking building that looks like it came straight out of a horror movie. It’s also worth noting that Arkham Asylum didn’t exist in the Batman mythos prior to 1974, and that originally, Two-Face and the Joker were the only two villains who went there. Prior to that point, everyone, even the Joker, just went to prison when they were caught (which, as we shall see, is actually probably more accurate for everyone except maaaybe modern Two-Face and the Mad Hatter). My suspicion is that it was introduced to capitalize on the popularity of the 1962 novel (and, once it was released, the 1975 movie) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which was about a psychiatric institution, but there were probably other factors involved, such as the popularity of works by H.P. Lovecraft (which is where the name Arkham came from). Whatever the reason, though, Arkham Asylum is really only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the misrepresentation of mental illness and mental health in Batman fiction. 

The introduction of Arkham Asylum led, increasingly, to the idea that all Batman villains were mentally ill, which, in turn, led to some...um....very inaccurate portrayals and depictions of what mental illness is and how it works. 

For example, the 2001 guidebook I am using incorrectly describes the Joker as “certifiably psychotic”. He’s not. While there are individual exceptions (we are talking about comic books, after all), in most appearances, the Joker is not psychotic. He has no apparent hallucinations and does not seem to display signs of delusions, either. He is not out of touch with reality in any meaningful way, he’s just horrifically violent. Describing him as “certifiably psychopathic” would have been much more appropriate (although you can’t technically diagnose someone with psychopathy; the condition he would be diagnosed with would be Antisocial Personality Disorder). 

In the same book, Two-Face is described as “schizoid” and “schizophrenic”, both of which are not even remotely correct. What the modern Two-Face is supposed to suffer from is Dissociative Identity Disorder (what used to be called Multiple Personality Disorder), although it’s not always portrayed terribly accurately. Schizoid Personality Disorder is not DID, and it’s not Schizophrenia, either; it’s a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships-basically people who are extreme loners. Similarly, Schizophrenia is not DID. While it is hypothetically possible for the two conditions to be comorbid, they are not at all the same thing. Schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions and hallucinations, which Two-Face almost never displays in fiction. DID is a dissociative disorder. Most people with DID do not experience delusions or hallucinations; their condition is typified by the presence of more than one personality and is thought to usually only occur as a reaction to severe childhood trauma. (Credit where credit is due: modern Two-Face is correctly shown as having experienced trauma as a child.) The fact that the term schizophrenia literally translates into “split mind” is probably the source of some of this confusion, but with schizophrenia, the split is between the mind and reality, not between the mind and itself. 

Also from this guidebook, the Riddler is, confusingly, described as having “an obsessive-compulsive desire for attention”, which, from a psychological perspective, is pretty much nonsense. Desire for attention is one thing; obsessive-compulsive disorder is another. The “obsessions” in OCD refer to intrusive, recurring thoughts, not to something that a person strongly desires and spends a lot of time pursuing. Additionally, the Riddler is described as “pondering the unsolvable riddle of his own psychosis”, which is not accurate. The Riddler consistently displays signs of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, and less consistently displays signs of OCD, but neither one of these conditions is a psychotic disorder, as neither involves hallucinations or delusions. When the Riddler says he’s not psychotic, and that he’s perfectly sane, he’s completely right on both counts. He’s never displayed any evidence of a break from reality, so he’s not psychotic, and he’s almost always aware that what he’s doing is a crime, so he’s not insane, either. In fact, with the possible exceptions of the Mad Hatter, Man-Bat, and Two-Face, none of the Batman villains are insane, since they are all aware that what they’re doing is illegal when they do it. 

What makes the earlier mistakes in this particular guidebook even more mystifying to me is the fact that their description of Scarecrow, and, more impressively yet, Scarecrow’s fear toxin, is pretty much accurate. They don’t call him psychotic or label him with conditions he doesn’t have and they accurately identify his on-again off-again phobia of bats (Chiropteraphobia). It also describes his fear gas thusly: “a toxic mix of adreno-cortical secretions and strong hallucinogens...it prompts neuromuscular spasms, cardiac arrhythmia, and panic attacks”. This is an astonishingly accurate description of what his fear toxin would need to be made of and what it does to his victims’ bodies. I don’t know who wrote this section, but they deserve some serious credit for doing their homework! (It makes no sense to put the Scarecrow in Arkham. Not only is he neither psychotic nor insane, but putting an evil ex-psychologist in a psychiatric institution is a REALLY bad idea, as he has the know-how to easily manipulate both the doctors and the patients.) 

Also from the 2001 Guidebook: The Ventriloquist is described as having multiple personalities, and is NOT described as schizophrenic or schizoid. While the term Multiple Personality Disorder is no longer used by psychologists for diagnosis, it is at least describing the same condition as DID. Modern Firefly is described as a pyromaniac; this is accurate from what I know of the character. Mr. Zsasz is described as a “sociopath”; again, this is mostly accurate. 

I also decided to use a few other DC guidebooks and see if there were any other egregious mistakes: 

2015 Guidebook:

 Haha, “Lenny Snart”. (That has nothing to do with mental illness, I just thought it was funny.) 

 Dr. Polaris is described as suffering from “a split personality disorder”; they mean DID. It’s also worth noting that most people with DID do not have a “good” alter and an “evil” alter; having DID does not make you Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

The Joker is described as “crazy” and “insane”; while the former is up for debate, I can say with confidence that the Joker meets no real-world definition of insanity that I know about. 

Riddler is not described as insane, yay!  

Two-Face is described as having Multiple Personality Disorder; this should be DID but is otherwise broadly correct. That being said, the idea that getting acid thrown in your face would cause you to develop a split personality, as this book seems to imply, is unlikely. DID doesn’t develop that suddenly. 

2016 Guidebook: 

While Doctor Polaris may very well have a personality disorder, the emergence of a second personality would indicate the development of DID, not  a personality disorder. An adult man couldn’t “develop’ a personality disorder anyway; they’re developed in childhood and are usually lifelong afflictions. 

Harley Quinn is a weird case; to call her psychotic isn’t completely inaccurate, as she has displayed signs of hallucinations and delusions in the past. That being said, the way her condition is depicted is inconsistent and confusing, and doesn’t seem to line up perfectly with any actual real-world condition. 

Modern Heat Wave is absolutely a pyromaniac; Johns in particular was surprisingly good at writing a realistic case of the condition. 

The Joker is not insane. Neither is the modern Joker’s daughter. Both understand what they’re doing is wrong. 

Lex Luthor is indeed a sociopath, as is the New 52 version of Mr. Freeze (BTAS Freeze is not). 

Two-Face’s condition should be described as DID, not MPD; otherwise things are about as accurate as one can expect from Two-Face. 

2008 Guidebook:

Calling Abra Kadabra narcissistic is accurate. 

The Black Manta autism thing is icky on multiple levels. Ewww.

The first Cheetah probably would not have suddenly developed a second personality as an adult. 

Dr. Polaris. You know the drill. Split personality should be DID. A “good” and “evil” alter are pretty unlikely. Usually DID would show up before adulthood. 

Firefly and Heat Wave do both seem to have pyromania. It’s also accurate to describe Heat Wave as cryophobic. 

The Joker cannot be “certifiably crazed”; crazed is not an official psychiatric term. And again, he isn’t insane, so he shouldn’t be in Arkham. 

Killer Croc has never displayed any noticeable signs of psychosis. 

Magenta having DID is actually more realistic than most of the other characters I’ve talked about; she’s got the necessary childhood trauma and her alters developed when she was still quite young. Furthermore, her more violent alter isn’t manically evil. 

Whoever wrote the Scarecrow piece in the 2001 Batman Guidebook must’ve also helped to write this one, since the shockingly-accurate fear gas description is the same. 

Professor Strange is not insane in the legal sense of the word. 

Arnold Wesker has DID; MPD is the condition’s original name but is no longer used by professional psychologists. 

Zoom (Hunter Zolomon, not Eobard)... I think there’s an argument to be made that Zolomon actually is psychotic. While he’s never displayed hallucinations, he is clearly delusional in the most literal sense and does seem to have lost touch with reality. As such, this book is not wholly inaccurate in calling him psychotic.

You get the idea....

Looking specifically at the Flash, things improve slightly simply because writers who don’t understand psychology aren’t constantly talking about it. That being said, that doesn’t mean it never gets brought up. 

Golden Glider was intended to receive a psychiatric evaluation in the late 1970s. It’s interesting that she actually protested this, pointing out that the male criminals never received psychological evaluations (and indeed, they always went to prison rather than to an institution). She was indeed motivated by something other than profit, and I can understand why they wanted to have her evaluated given her lack of earlier criminal activity, but I don’t know if she was actually mentally ill per se...and she definitely wasn’t insane. 

In the early 1980s during the twilight hours of Barry Allen’s first run on the Flash, it seemed that the writers were trying to take a page out of Batman’s book by arguing that Barry’s costumed criminals were insane (even though they usually didn’t display any behavior that would indicate this). As such, Barry stated to imply that his Rogues were mentally ill in some fashion despite the fact that their behavior really hadn’t changed appreciably since their earliest appearances. That being said, the Pied Piper did appear to suffer some sort of nervous breakdown during the “Trial of the Flash” arc; what exactly this was is difficult to explain, since we didn’t get to see a whole lot of him after this point, but he did go to an actual psychiatric hospital (that was referred to as such rather than being called an asylum) and he did recover, relapsed, then recovered again, making this one of the more accurate portrayals of how mental illness works despite the limited information we have about his actual condition. They even showed him slowly deteriorating over a period of time before the actual collapse!

Big Sir, who made his debut in the same storyline, was rather more poorly handled....but at least he was explicitly manipulated into villainy rather than becoming evil simply because of his condition. 

Wally West went to therapy early in his run; given the context I’d say it was reasonable that he was suffering from both anxiety and depression (his uncle had just died and he was really struggling to fill his shoes as the new Flash). Going to therapy did actually help him, which was nice to see, and his therapist did not become evil, which was also nice to see. (I’m not going to talk about Heroes in Crisis, as I prefer to pretend that that never happened.) Yay for protagonists discussing their mental health problems in productive ways! 

In the early-to-mid 1990s, Mark Waid wrote a story in which Lisa stated that she’d faked insanity in order to be sent to a psychiatric hospital rather than to prison, but the story seemed to be implying that she was actually insane. Not only is successfully being declared not guilty by reason of insanity incredibly difficult, but Lisa displayed no signs of not recognizing that her behavior was wrong, so she wasn’t insane. She was, however, displaying strong signs of paranoia, which could perhaps be attributed to a paranoid delusion of some sort. It’s especailly weird since this was never really a characteristic of hers before or since, and it just kind of came out of nowhere. 

The Trickster (specifically the first one, James Jesse) is often mistakenly believed to be mentally ill by casual fans. While he is indeed mentally ill, possibly even psychotic, in the DCAU,  and he’s a remorseless psychopath in both live-action Flash shows, in the comics themselves he displays no real signs of mental illness. That being said, I LOVE the interactions between DCAU Wally and DCAU Trickster. They’re made of adorable.

The Pied Piper went through a second bout of mental problems in the mid-to-late 2000s, being tricked into believing that he’d murdered his parents, going to prison, being beaten regularly by the warden, escaping from prison, going through the stress of fighting in the Rogue War, having his mind messed with by the Top, accidentally becoming involved in the murder of Bart Allen (another thing I like to pretend never happened), having to go on the run, watching the Trickster get shot in front of him, having to drag his corpse around a desert, almost dying, getting transported to Apocalypse, blowing it up with Queen music, and then being left basically all alone. He really went through a trauma conga line, so it’s not surprising that he was starting to display some odd behavior. Poor guy probably had PTSD. 

And then there’s the Top. Beyond the speculation of @gorogues that he’s on the autism spectrum (a  theory I find to be quite persuasive), I also think it’s likely that he suffers from another mental illness (most likely bipolar I disorder, also as suggested by @gorogues). He was clearly mentally ill for most of Geoff Johns’ run, and his behavior in his very first appearance was decidedly odd as well. Intense mania and depression can sometimes induce psychosis (as we seemed to see during Geoff Johns’ run), and his “threatening to blow up half the world to become its ruler while I’m somehow safe on the other side of the planet” plan from his first appearance, which he clearly expected to work perfectly, is so overconfident and over-the-top that it fits well as a particularly exaggerated manic episode. While it’s not conclusive by any means, I think it’s a distinct possibility.

[buzzdixonwriter]

COMPARE & CONTRAST: Birth Of A Nation vs Gone With The Wind vs The General

TRIGGER WARNING:   Talking about race in American culture and movies, so some readers may want to brace themselves (looking at you, wypipo).

. . .

Confining “classic films” to movies that: Demonstrate technical expertise, and Influenced other films and creators

-- we have three (and only three) movies about the American Civil War we can safely put in the classic bin.

Before we go further, let’s restate the obvious: A film’s impact in the medium of motion pictures is separate from its impact on the culture as a whole.

Case in point: Leni Riefenstahl’s The Triumph Of The Will is a perfect textbook example of how to stage massive crowd scenes for maximum visual impact, and how to promote individuals and ideas in purely cinematic terms.

It also contributed mightily to the Nazis’ rise to power, their subsequent wars of conquest, and the deaths directly and indirectly of tens of millions of human beings.

It’s important to know The Triumph Of The Will exists and why it’s important in film and cultural and political history, but you need never subject yourself to its vile hate mongering.

With that in mind, let us proceed.

. . . 

Here are the three bona fide classic movies about the American Civil War:

The Birth Of A Nation (1915)

Gone With The Wind (1939) 

The General (1926)

They are all problematic for the same reason: They embrace the “lost cause” myth of Southern white supremacists.

The Birth Of A Nation is by far the worst offender of the trio, helping to restart the Ku Klux Klan and promulgate jim crow for decades to come.

Director D.W. Griffith was a Southern boy, Kentucky born with a father who served as a colonel in the Confederate army (Kentucky, a border slave state, tried to stay neutral at the beginning of the Civil War, then leaned heavily towards secession, but by 1862 threw its lot in with the Union).

Griffith bought into the lost cause myth heavily, and The Birth Of A Nation explicitly states African-Americans are fit only for slavery, becoming a murderous / rapacious mob once freed, and the Ku Klux Klan were gallant heroes attempting to turn this tide.

Griffith tries to have it both ways, depicting Abraham Lincoln as a thoughtful and compassionate leader who would have treated the South better had he survived (ignoring the fact Andrew Johnson did everything in his power to prevent the Union from holding the South accountable, and that Lincoln’s assassin was a Southerner who killed him in revenge after the war ended).

There can be no denying Griffith’s enormous talents as a film maker (again, separating thematic content from the technical expertise).  While the Hollywood publicity machine was quick to claim The Birth Of A Nation was the first feature length film (i.e., 65 minutes or more), the truth is the Australians, the Chinese, the English, the French, the Italians, the Japanese, and the Russians all made feature films long before Griffith, and Griffith wasn’t even the first American to make a feature but was preceded by at least a half a dozen other film makers.

What Griffith was, however, was a master synthesis of all the techniques that preceded him.  Griffith made movies better than anyone else of his era, and his best films are still eminently watchable to this day.

That’s what makes The Birth Of A Nation so harmful and destructive:  Like the Riefenstahl film, it seduced common audiences into complacency while stirring the worst people to action.

It’s a film whose final cost is not measured in dollars but in innocent blood and tears.

Griffith wasn’t stupid, and while he might have felt personally immune to the criticism of his racist attitudes, he was savvy enough to recognize publicly embracing them would not serve his career well.  He followed The Birth Of A Nation with Intolerance, an epic that jumps around in its story lines like a Tarantino film, and in later movies displayed a far gentler albeit still patronizing attitude towards African-Americans.

But the damage was done, the lost cause myth cemented into not just the Southern psyche but white America in general.

Like The Triumph Of The Will, I would never recommend The Birth Of A Nation as a “must see” film to anyone.  If you’re a film historian and you want to subject yourself to this cancer, that’s your choice, but if you’re a student of film there’s nothing Griffith did technically or artistically in this movie that he didn’t do better in his later efforts, and other film makers have since emulated his innovations and built upon them.

. . . 

For many decades Gone With The Wind was celebrated as the pinnacle of American film making, but once the romantic blinders were removed we see it for what it is:  An over long, over blown epic that promulgates what we now recognize as white supremacy, classism, and rape culture.

And while it uses every technical trick in the book, it doesn’t use them as well as Orson Welles did a year later with Citizen Kane.

Gone With The Wind is really two movies:  A well made Civil War epic and its lackluster Reconstruction sequel.

They should have ended the movie with “As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”  (Seriously.  The only two memorable scenes in the second half other than “I don’t give a damn” both center around Scarlett O’Hara’s dresses.)

Again, let’s emphasize that a technically well made movie does not excuse bad intentions in thematic content.

Gone With The Wind is a rip-roaring bodice-ripping historical novel, admittedly well research and well written by Margaret Mitchell.

She isn’t necessarily writing from a conscious desire to spread the message of white supremacy, but as a Southern gal who grew up in the midst of the lost cause myth, she ends up breathing that message into every line of the book.

The movie version can’t escape that, nor does it try to.  There’s a brief scene early on where both Mitchell and the later film makers prefigure the lost cause myth where Rhett Butler explains to the good ol’ boys at the Tara cotillion that they’re about to be brutally decimated by the Union in a war of attrition, but both author and film makers side with the good ol’ boys and support their God given right to throw away their lives and destroy their homes in an attempt to keep enslaving millions of innocent people.

That last part in bold never gets mentioned, does it?  As others have observed, Gone With The Wind isn’t antagonistic towards African-Americans, rather it treats them as if they don’t exist other that walking / talking props among the scenery.

In that regard, Gone With The Wind is on par with The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged (only with a far superior writing style).  The protagonists of all three books are narcissistic sociopaths who will lie / cheat / steal / blow up buildings because the common folk -- the people who actually put in the grunt labor to make things work -- are nothing but slaves there for the elites’ entitlements, and God (or market forces, take your pick) help them if they ever raise their heads or voices -- much less their hands -- in protest.

Oh, but doesn’t it look gorgeous?  As those beautiful rich Technicolor gowns and sets and matte paintings.  All those balls and dances.  All those smoldering looks.  All those flames as Atlanta burns…

There’s the true hero of the story:  William Tecumseh Sherman.  The mofo cut the Confederacy in half, destroying lines of supply and communication, obliterating any rebels who dared to stand up to him, shortening the war by several months, and freeing tens of thousands of enslaved people in the process.

None of which would have been necessary if a few greedy bastards such as the O’Haras had lived Christian enough lives to say, “Y’know, maybe the way we’re treating these people is wrong…”

Gone With The Wind proved insanely popular, on a scale with The Birth Of A Nation a generation earlier, and once again it made it easier for mainstream middle American whites to turn a blind eye to injustices still being perpetuated on African-Americans of that day.  

And it kept playing again and again, one of the very few non-Disney movies to enjoy a substantial re-release schedule, popping up about once every seven years in theaters until the arrival of first cable then VHS.

And it’s still popular, still a steady seller in DVD and BluRay.

That’s in no small part to the skill of both Mitchell and the film makers in hiding the most egregiously problematic elements of the story under a think patina of romanticism.  It became a cultural touchstone that everyone knew and everyone could reference, from political cartoons to Carol Burnett skits.

But it’s still racist and white supremacist, saying African-Americans exist only to serve whites.

It’s still classist, saying not all whites are worthy of what the upper class hogs for itself.

It’s still about rape culture, saying all Scarlett needed was one good rape by Rhett Butler to set her straight.

Is it a product of its era?

Absolutely. The same way over the counter heroin at your friendly neighborhood drug store was a product of its era.  The same way cocaine laced Coca-Cola was a product of its era.

Just because it wasn’t recognized as a bad idea then means we should still circulate it now.

Compared to The Birth Of A Nation, Gone With The Wind is a far less hate filled work, and one that inspires less immediate harm.

It has inspired harm over several generations by making it easy to overlook the real harm it represents in favor of a romantic antebellum fantasy.

If someone wants to see a film that represents the Hollywood studio system at the height of its creative power, I’d recommend Casablanca or The Wizard Of Oz.

I’d put Gone With The Wind way down on that list, and I’d caution it with caveats, but I would say it represents a good example of the old Hollywood system firing on all eight cylinders.

At least for the first half of the film.

. . . 

In most ways, Buster Keaton’s The General is the least problematic of these three films.

In another, it’s as bad as Gone With The Wind.

The good thing about The General is that modern audiences can easily enjoy it.

Buster Keaton chasing after a stolen steam locomotive?  What’s not to love?

It’s one of his best comedies and if it’s not the very best, I’d hate to live on the difference.

It certainly lacks the overt racism of The Birth Of A Nation. 

In fact, it almost lacks any race at all.

And ironically, that’s what makes it a problem.

In researching this post, I re-watched The General, something I wasn’t willing to do for The Birth Of A Nation or Gone With The Wind.

I re-watched it looking for African-American faces anywhere in the film.

I think I found four.

Two porters lugging a trunk in an early scene at a train station, possibly two small children with their backs turned to the camera at the edge of a crowd about ten minutes later.

That’s it.

In a movie about one of the most crucial events in American history, an event entirely predicated on the issue of the enslavement of millions of African-Americans…that’s it.

Four faces.

Total screen time: Less than a minute.

If critics can justifiably lambast Gone With The Wind for sailing over the bloodied backs of millions of enslaved African-Americans to focus on the luxury liner S.S. Scarlett O’Hara, what can they say about a Civil War movie that almost succeeds in eradicating those enslaved humans from the story?

Paradoxically, this makes The General the safest of these movies to show an unsuspecting audience.

The Civil War is boiled down to the dark uniform army fighting the light uniform army; why they were fighting is never explored in detail.

But the lost cause myth was so prevalent at that point that Keaton and company didn’t need to discuss the causes of the war.

Audiences – even those completely ignorant of U.S. history -- automatically assume the light uniform army are the good guys simply because Buster is on their side.

Buster would never do anything bad, would he?

Of course not!

And so -- =poof!= -- millions of people erased from history.

Top that, Thanos.

To be honest, I don’t know how a modern audience should react to that, in particular an African-American audience.

Disappointment at being culturally short changed again?

Relief at being spared the most egregious stereotyping and white supremacy apologies?

Or just plain enjoy Buster chasing after a stolen locomotive?

The General’s cultural weightlessness helps it become a great film.

It’s a purely cinematic endeavor, with the intertitles used primarily to explain the spies’ and military leaders’ plans and motives, not tell us what Buster is thinking and doing.

For a guy called “the great stone face” Buster could be awfully expressive with his body language, and he needs title cards the least of all the performers in this movie

. . .

So where does that leave us, as a 21st century audience in a 21st century culture?

We can neither deny nor ignore the impact of these three films.  Even The Birth Of A Nation, as vile and as hateful as it is, influenced the country and the countries attitudes for a century.

Gone With The Wind feels like something we’ve outgrown, something some audience members can look back on with fondness, but not anything we can fully embrace again.

The General can still make us laugh, and in this case the sin of omission seems far less than the others’ sins of commission.

Learn from the past.

Do better in the future.

    © Buzz Dixon

[imperial-martian]

Can Berlín feel romantic and / or platonic love [lcdp/money heist]?

For the last four or so days I have been doing a lot of research on Berlín and psychopaths. Berlín is my favorite character in the series and as a fanfiction writer I want to do my best to understand and have a good balance to my writing for any specific character. I’ve had a friend send me links to their research on psychopaths (which Berlín is characterized as on his wiki and in the series). She concluded the following points:

• A “distempered psychopath” tends to fly into rages that can resemble epileptic fits. These people may also often have an extremely strong sex drive. They crave excitement and have a low tolerance for boredom, and are drawn to dangerous sports and activities.This subtype of psychopaths are "hotheads", predominantly males, and are most likely to be aggressive and violent, frequently flying into rages.

• A “charismatic psychopath” is often a charming liar and fast talker who can manipulate others to part with anything — including their lives.

• A “primary psychopath” usually gets his or her defining characteristics as a result of a combination of genes, brain connections, and environment. This type of person doesn't typically respond to punishment, fear, stress, or disapproval, and often lacks empathy. Most primary psychopaths mimic emotions and understand them cognitively, but do not feel them. Primary psychopaths are unemotional, callous, manipulative, do not take risks, and experience little to no fear and anxiety. They have no guilt or remorse. They have a very strong association with antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.

• A “secondary psychopath” (sociopath) gets to be this way mostly as a result of his or her environment. Severe abuse at a young age can play a particularly strong role in the development of a sociopath. Unlike a primary psychopath, a secondary psychopath or sociopath can feel stress or guilt and is generally capable of empathy. He or she may also be prone to anxiety. Secondary psychopaths are emotionally unstable, although their traits are more associated with criminal behaviour. They’re rash, impulsive, emotional, anxious, hostile, aggressive and self-destructive. However, unlike the primary psychopath, they’re disorganised and associated with risky decision-making. They have the capacity to experience some degree of fear and remorse and to empathise effectively, but due to their emotional disturbance, these emotions are often covered up by their hostility and aggression.

From what I’ve shown her she says that he’s a charismatic or primary psychopath (and at first thought he was a sociopath). From the research I’ve done to learn whether psychopaths feel love (romantically and platonically, while different than what neurotypical people feel) I’ve gotten very varying answers from psychopaths and neurotypical people have answered, some psychopaths say they do, some say they don’t, and the same with neurotypical people as well.

I’d like to know what people’s thoughts on Berlín is, focusing on love, because it seems that he expresses love towards his half-brother (The Professor), Palermo, and even Tatiana (in some form). Personally, I’d like to know what people’s views on romantic love for Berlín is, since I’m a romance writer, but I’d also love to know what people think for platonic love regarding him.

In the many fandoms I am in, and of all the characters I’ve loved and favorited(some damaged, some hiding emotions, and none normal) I’ve never done so much study and research to understand a character like I have Berlín. Typically, it takes me a single night to get their character (sometimes even over time I discover more) but I don’t even have a base to start writing for Berlín since I can’t yet understand the love he feels (if he does) to write about him in a romantic setting with a character romantically.

[thatyanderecritic]

Hey Julie/Kai, I wanted to recommend Alois Racine from Amnesia: Justine. The guy was in so madly in love with Justine (who is a total sociopath/narcissist) that he was willing to murder one of her other suitors (and actually may have helped contribute to getting the guy tortured) and is still in love with her even though he's been tortured to insanity by her! There are some voice clips of him + playthroughs of Justine (it's not too long a game) that you can check out on youtube :)

YOOOOO. I’M FUCKING HYSTERICAL. DID WE JUST GET, IN THE YEAR OF 2020, A YANDERE RECOMMENDATION FOR A MODDED STORY FROM AMNESIA: THE DARK DESCENT? WHAT YEAR IS IT??? I CAN HEAR PEWDIEPIE YELLING “BARREL!” AND “STEPHANO!” FROM THE BACK OF MY MIND.  AIFJDSNIJOWNJRADSV

BRUH. Like, highkey, sorry to yell all that but christ almighty. How many years passed since that game was ever uttered from anyone’s mouth? Out of all the places to hear a yandere recommendation... my mind is blown. Moving on from my disbelief, let’s talking about Justine. (This is a quickie review since there really isn’t much to discuss) Spoilers undercut:

As people know (well, now know after my gush), Justine is a modded story for the hit horror game- Amnesia: The Dark Descent. But the thing about this is the game is a large focus on puzzle-solving and sneaking with the story taking more of the backseat through notes and dialogues. So expect to interpret things, but thankfully, Justine isn’t one of those overly cryptic stories though it does like to use notes generously (so expect to pause your video a lot to read the notes).

That being said, to summarize the plot: You play as Justine in this game (surprise surprise) and you’re doing a walkthrough of your torture chamber to see if it’s in perfect conditions for her future “guests”. This modded story tried to trick you to believe you’re the detective based on the audio taps Justine left around but the heavy women breathing your character does during running was a dead give away to any twist that game devs were aiming for (if they were even aiming for it). That being said, Mr. Yandere here take the backseat and is not at all a focus of this story experience. He’s a large gloss over or an easter egg... up to how you view it. You only learn/hear of Alois twice in the game and that’s in notes (and who read notes in Amnesia lol?). They’re the first two notes the player will encounter. The first note is just Alois’s mom complaining about Justine stealing her son and calling the police on Justine. And the second note is Alois saying that he loves Justine and would kill this random smuck because he likes to hit Justine; all she has to do is give the order... Idk where ‘suitor’ comes in, I just assume all these random smucks are Justine boy toys she picked up for her science experiment. IDK the video I watch doesn’t show any other letter. Also: I think Alois is the monster chasing you? I could be wrong but that the only possible person who could be Alois since anon mentioned voice clips and the monster is literally the person you avoid like the plague since he is a three-hit kill. The three smucks you save is a doctor, a priest, and a detective... none of them being Alois’s occupation (I think). 

That being said, we hardly know anything about Alois but we know a lot about Justine. Anon is right to say that Justine is a sociopath and a narcissist. IDK where Justine tortured Alois but I can imagine it happened considering her character. What I do know is that Alois cut himself for Justine’s amusement... I guess self-inflicted torture counts? Either way, I guess I can kinda see it but we just don’t know anything about Alois besides those two letters and the implication that he’s Justine’s assistant/pet monster. He’s like a very generous 1/5 since I can kinda see it. 

Do I discourage people from watching a let’s play? Nah, this was a really good Modded Story. One of the best considering the cesspool of Modded Stories for Amnesia. Really unique MC (in the way of female MCs) and a nice little yandere easter egg. As anon said, it’s a quick watch. Actually... here’s the video. Enjoy. 

[yeniayofnymeria]

Euron Greyjoy "Ice or Fire"

Selam, hello! :)

Today I want to discuss Euron Greyjoy's side with you. Usually peope thinks Euron works with ice side. Because ice side is bad guys and Euron is bad guy too... But first... I need explain something.

I wanted open another topic about it but for now a brief summary is more appropriate.

Who bad who good?

As readers, we tend to see the ice side as bad and the fire side as good. We think this story is a classic good and bad story. That's how it was done on TV Show. But the show is the world of D&D. ASOIAF is the world of GRRM. And GRRM's perspective is very different from D&D.

GRRM believes everyone can do bad and good thing at the same time. We can be heroes and also bad guys. We can be racist but also we can be anti-war. In stories, we do not need dark lords anymore.

Men are still capable of great heroism. But I don’t necessarily think there are heroes. That’s something that’s very much in my books: I believe in great characters. We’re all capable of doing great things, and of doing bad things. We have the angels and the demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices…[Woodrow Wilson] was a racist who tried to end war. Now, does one cancel out the other? Well, they don’t cancel out the other. You can’t make him a hero or a villain. He was both. And we’re all both.

Much as I admire Tolkien, and I do admire Tolkien — he’s been a huge influence on me, and his Lord of the Rings is the mountain that leans over every other fantasy written since and shaped all of modern fantasy — there are things about it, the whole concept of the Dark Lord, and good guys battling bad guys, Good versus Evil, while brilliantly handled in Tolkien, in the hands of many Tolkien successors, it has become kind of a cartoon. We don’t need any more Dark Lords, we don’t need any more, “Here are the good guys, they’re in white, there are the bad guys, they’re in black. And also, they’re really ugly, the bad guys.”

Ruling is hard. This was maybe my answer to Tolkien, whom, as much as I admire him, I do quibble with. Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? The war that Tolkien wrote about was a war for the fate of civilization and the future of humanity, and that’s become the template. I’m not sure that it’s a good template, though. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that.

You can also see traces of these words in books. For example Aemon said these words.

"Many good men have been bad kings, Maester Aemon used to say, and some bad men have been good kings." "Better men than Stannis have done worse things than this."

So we can say ice or fire side are not pure evil or good. They are both; like a Stark and like a Lannister. I'm a Stark but i can say Stark side ise not pure good and sinless. We saw all. We read it.

This reason do not think fire is good and ice is bad. Probably both sides have their own justification for fighting. There will be people and houses fighting and dying for both sides.

The question is which side will Euron be on?

For the above reasons the majority said ice. I think the opposite. Actually, my main idea is that Euron is on its side. In alliance with the side that he thinks is strong for personal ambition and interests. And I think this side is "fire"

Euron is a sociopath narcissist. Someone who sees himself as a god, worships himself. He wants power, he wants to rule. If you are such a narcissist, you will go wherever you find power. I don't think such a person would want to die.

Euron says he went to Asshai and Valyria. The Valyria part may be a lie, but not the Asshai part. Even if we take it all right, these two cities are on the fire side. The magic of these two cities is based on fire and blood. Most of the wizards of Euron use these spells. So Euron is close by weight with these spells.

I believe the R'hllor faith comes from Asshai. AA legend and prophecy comes from that city anyway. I have no doubt that Euron has learned all this and more. If this ( https://clankingdragon.wordpress.com/2017/09/26/might-makes-wight-qarth-and-asshai/) theory is true which i belive it is, then Euron saw fire wights in Asshai. Then he knows now that there is a way not to die and he wants it.

Do not forget the word in their (iron born) faith. It also points to a wight incident. "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger."

HINTS

1- When Euron came back, he went after Dany and his dragons. If he was working with the ice, he would have wanted to kill Dany and Dany's dragons. He didn't have to go back to Westeros for that. Somehow he could have gone to Meereen to kill Dany. And if Daario = Euron theory is true, he has had the opportunity many times. As a result, if he wants to have it instead of killing her ... It makes more sense to return home if he wants to be there for her. He even captured wizards who wanted to kill Dany.

Moqorro*: Others seek* Daenerys too. Tyrion*: Have you seen these others in your fires?* Moqorro*: Only their shadows. One most of all. A tall and twisted thing with one black eye and ten long arms, sailing on a sea of blood.* “So are the contents of my chamber pot. None is fit to sit the Seastone Chair, much less the Iron Throne. No, to make an heir that’s worthy of him , I need a different woman. When the kraken weds the dragon, brother, let all the world beware.”

2- Euron is now attacking Reach. Why is that? He is not interested in the North or Dorne or Lannister lands, or Storm land, or even the river lands. Reach is very rich right but Euron is not one who loves money. He doesn't care. Places like the old town are under serious threat. Reach's army was very vigorous, they did not see war properly. Rich and powerful. Now, because of the Lannister-Tyrell alliance, Reach will fight against Dany. Euron can weaken them. Also, according to Sam, if the old city falls, the realm is torn to pieces. This is definitely beneficial for Dany. At first, even Varys was trying to do something similar. We all know that Euron can't sit in the Iron Throne because he killed the Lannisters. He needs Dany.

3- Aeron's dreams...

There are very important signs.

He showed the world his blood eye now, dark and terrible. Clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he sat upon a mound of blackened skulls as dwarfs capered round his feet and a forest burned behind him.

A dark onyx reminded me of black stones

. (Also could be Euron's Valyria armor) "blood eye" interesting, like fire and blood? Or Bloodstone Emperor? Euron's personel sigil is a red/blood eye... And the Emperor was worshiped those black stones. He killed her sister and took her throne, like Euron did.

Impaled upon the longer spikes were the bodies of the gods. The Maiden was there and the Father and the Mother, the Warrior and Crone and Smith … even the Stranger. They hung side by side with all manner of queer foreign gods: the Great Shepherd and the Black Goat, three-headed Trios and the Pale Child Bakkalon, the Lord of Light and the butterfly god of Naath.

The Emperor took down all his gods. Euron did same thing (Black Goat, The Stranger are God of death of FM, the great other). Remeber Euron clad head to heel in scale as dark as onyx, he looks like black stone. Euron worships himself.

Beside him stood a shadow in woman’s form, long and tall and terrible, her hands alive with pale white fire.

Whoever this woman is must belong to the fire side. Northern gods and others hate fire. They prefer cold and snow. If the Euron was on the ice side, this woman would have ice instead of fire.

And most important to me. This...

“The bleeding star bespoke the end,” he said to Aeron. “These are the last days, when the world shall be broken and remade. A new god shall be born from the graves and charnel pits.” Then Euron lifted a great horn to his lips and blew, and dragons and krakens and sphinxes came at his command and bowed before him. “Kneel, brother,” the Crow’s Eye commanded. “I am your king, I am your god. Worship me, and I will raise you up to be my priest.”

Dragons, krakens and shpinxes(we saw Valyrian ones, half human half dragon but this could be half dragon half kraken like he wanted) bowed him with horn. He uses those powers.

The bleeding stars(dragons, fire...)... last days (the war is coming)... the world shall be broken and remade (after war someone will do this)... a ned god (he thinks himself) will born from the draves and charnel pits(from dead, he means).

"Her. Daenerys?" Haldon nodded. "Benerro has sent forth the word from Volantis. Her coming is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. From smoke and salt was she born to make the world anew. She is Azor Ahai returned … and her triumph over darkness will bring a summer that will never end … death itself will bend its knee, and all those who die fighting in her cause shall be reborn …" "Do I have to be reborn in this same body?" asked Tyrion

R'hllor side (except Melisandre) thinks Dany is AA. She will make the world anew (world shall be broken and remade.) and death itself will bend its knee(ice side will lost) and her men will rise again from dead ( born from the graves and charnel pits)

So Euron believes fire side will win, Dany is AA and if he would be with her, he will be reborn and became immortal. Even he became a god and king... So yes, Euron chose fire side because he thinks fire side will win.

So, what do you think?

[willdoitforher]

EXPECTATIONS + everyone

PENELOPE    my  expectations  for  penelope  were  actually  pretty  spot  on.  i  thought  that  the  confidence  wasn’t  an  act,  which  it  isn’t.  that’s  genuinely  her  personality  y’all.  and  then  that  she  had  more  than  the  capability  to  be  a  soft  bitch.  i  was  also  correct.  what  surprised  were  the  next  two  things  in  particular.  one,  i  didn’t  realise  her  insistence  on  putting  a  stop  to  josie’s  co-dependence  was  a  cue  to  her  own  co-dependent  traits  and  the  longer  she  went  along  that  path,  the  more  they  would  be  nurtured.  it  manifests  differently  than  it  does  in  josie,  but  it’s  equally  unhealthy.  this  girl  literally  died  for  her  girlfriend.  yikes.  and  two,  i  was  surprised  by  how  truly  selfish  she  is.  we  all  know  she’s  the  selfish  and  josie  is  the  selfless  and  so  on  but  she  is  a  genuinely  selfish  person.  to  her  core.  i  was  surprised  by  the  truly  relentless nature  of  her  self  interest  and  equally,  the  fact  that  her  self  awareness  of  it  doesn’t  make  her  want  to  change  it.  HOPE    my  expectations  for  hope  were  pretty  consistent  with  her  surface  level  reality.  i  always  knew  she  had  about  45  ongoing  identity  crises  and  that  most  of  them  tied  in  her  family.  adult  vs  teenager,  desires  vs  duties.  the  typical  heroine  stuff.  and  while  that’s  still  true,  and  is  an  absolutely  enormous  complex  in  her,  i  have  come  to  realise  i  underestimated  the  true  extent  of  her  damage  and  how  it  affects  her.  the  level  of  pathological  doubt,  abandonment  and  in  turn  saviour  complex  and  desperation  this  girl  has  going  on  cannot  be  understated.  i  am  truly  surprised  she  functions  as  well  as  she  does.  i  always  knew  she  loved  people  hard  and  uniquely,  as  both  part  of  being  a  mikaelson  and  simply  part  of  being  who  she  is,  but  i  came  to  realise  how  deeply  that  runs.  hope  mikaelson’s  love  is  like  no  other  and  it  is  consuming  and  can  be  overwhelming  but  it’s  also  incredibly  beautiful.  if  she  loves  you,  she’s  going  to  love  you  for  the  rest  of  her  life,  whether  she  wants  to  or  not.    i  now  think  that’s  another  reason  why  her  i’m  dangerous  to  people  complex  exists.  she  knows  that  the  way  she  loves  people  has  pushed  them  away  before  (  ie,  in  her  mind,  her  father  as  a  child  )  and  equally,  she  knows  if  she  lets  people  in  and  loves  them  like  she  can  and  they  leave,  she’ll  be  fucked.  people  are  dangerous  to  her  too,  but  she  can’t  truly  admit  that  without  admitting  why.  like  i  said,  i  was  surprised  by  how  deep  that  runs.KAI     at  this  point,  i’ve  been  playing  kai  for  a  long  time.  he’s  a  violent,  manipulative,  incredibly  intelligent  sociopath.  none  of  that  has  ever  been  a  surprise.  the  one  surprise  that  i  found,  that  entirely  subverted  my  expectations,  was  that  he  is  capable  of  something  akin  to  love  that  isn’t  narcissism.  this  first  became  clear  to  me  through  his  relationship  with  lizzie  because,  yes,  it  may  have  started  out  as  manipulation  with definitively  malicious  intent  but  it  did  bleed  into  genuine  want  to  see  her  succeed.  he  might  have  given  her  stockholm  syndrome  but  he’s  given  himself  just  as  much  of  a  problem.  he  cares  about  her  now,  wants  to  turn  her  into  what,  in  his  mind,  jo  could’ve  been.  it  didn’t  surprise  me  he’s  given  up  hope  on  jo  but  it  did  surprise  me  that  it’s  projecting,  subconsciously,  onto  lizzie.  basically,  he’s  a  made  monster  and  everything  that  made  him  is  still  very  much  there.  whether  he  acknowledges  it  or  not. ETHAN    me,  a  clown,  hasn’t  actually  written  ethan  that  much  but  i  will  give  a  few  of  my  thoughts  that  are  somewhat  relevant.  i  expected  the  fact  he’s  a  good  guy  to  be  consistent  but  he’s  also  very  selfish  with  the  way  he  feels.  he  might  not  use  it  in  a manipulative,  almost  malicious  in  some  cases  way  like  penelope  does,  but  that  doesn’t  mean  it  isn’t  real.  he  won’t  let  anyone  else  be  stepped  over,  yes,  but  he  also  won’t  let  himself  be  pushed  around.  he  knows  he’s  a  good  guy  and  there’s  a  level  of  shit  he  simply  won’t  take.  will  100%  call  people  out  on  their  bullshit  eventually.  unless  you’re  maya.  then,  well,  you  could  get  away  with  murder.  his  aggression  is  very  intense  and  genuine  (  probably  even  more  intensified  now  that  he’s  triggered  his  curse  )  but  the  lengths  he’ll  go  to  surprised  me.  he  may  have  killed  someone  without  recognising  the  situation,  but  the  will  to  do  so  was  still  there.  was  it  on  an  entirely  moral  ground?  honestly,  i  don’t  know.  unchecked  aggression  and  a  morality  complex  can  be  a  literally  deadly  combination.  CHRISTIAN    christian  has  taken  all  of  three  breaths  so  far  but,  thus  far,  everything  has  been  consistent.  major  self  preservation  down  to  brushing  truly  corrupt  things  under  the  rug.  accepts  corruption  as  a  part  of  life  and  more  so  a  part  of  his  life.  his  survival  is  paramount.  everything  else  can  burn  in  his  wake.  MAXWELL HARVEY/JACKSON ACKERY    y’all  know  the  maxwell  story.  as  a  tl;dr,  obviously  i  didn’t  expect  him  to  turn  out  to  be  a  cannibalistic,  sado-masochistic  psychopath  with  narcissistic  personality  disorder  but  here  we  are.  i  knew  something  was  wrong  from  the  echoes  of  neuroticism  and  fixation  that  were  there  from  the  start  but  when  he  started  to  turn  the  corner,  it  truly  blindsided  me.  and  even  now,  as  i  know  what  he  is  as  a  full  picture,  he  still  finds  ways  to  surprise  me  each  and  everyday.  he’s  in  a  continual  process  of  evolution  and  i  truly  have  no  idea  where  the  train  stops.  as  for  jackson,  he  was  actually  a  revamp  of  a  previous  muse,  also  called  jacks.  i  gave  him  a  revamp  when  i  brought  him  back,  basically  totally  changed  his  backstory,  and  i  knew  something  was  again  a  little  off  from  the  word  go.  he  still  cared  about  people,  however,  so  i  wasn’t  that  concerned.  once  max  came  into  the  picture  however,  who  jackson  was  in  full  became  clear  very  quickly.  jackson  is  a  very  high  functioning  sociopath  who’s  sadism  and  violent  tendencies  have  been  nurtured  well  by  max’s  intentions  and  their  symbiotic  venom-esque  relationship.  the  fact  that  jackson  is  still  a  consistent  presence  in  max’s  narrative  and  his  own  body  surprised  me,  but  it  also  has  come  to  make  perfect  sense.  they’re  two  halves  of  the  same  whole.  they  basically  wrote  themselves  into  existence  and  i  just  watched  with  rapt  entertainment. CALLUM    honestly,  my  expectations  for  callum  have  been  pretty  spot  on.  i  knew  he’d  feel  differently  once  he  killed  someone  again  and  it  became  very  clear  to  him  everything  he  remembers  is  in  fact  real.  it’s  given  him  a  sense  of  innocence  lost  that  was  to  be  expected,  but  not  nearly  as  much  as  i  thought.  he  hasn’t  reverted  back  to  the  person  he  was  when  he  was  first  alive  but  he  also  isn’t  entirely  callum,  so  to  speak,  anymore  either.  he’s  in  a  path  between  and  honestly,  that  makes  sense  to  me.  what  will  really  come  to  interest  me  is  what  happens  next.  AIDY    honestly,  point  blank,  i  expected  aidy  to  basically  be  gay  and  bored  and  not  much  else.  i  was  not  right.  i  knew  she  had  something  going  on,  which  as  you  can  tell  is  a  theme,  but  she  really  was  just  quiet  and  bored  for  a  long  time.  it  was  only  when  she  swapped  bodies  with  harlow  did  i  realise  that  her  boredom  isn’t  boredom,  so  to  speak.  max,  for  example,  is  bored  because  he’s  a  narcissist  who  he  thinks  no  one  (  sans  parker  )  can  measure  up  to  him.  that  makes  every  interaction  worthless  in  his  eyes  and  therefore,  makes  him  feel  bored.  aidy  is  simply  apathetic.  the  reason  she  was  quiet  and  bored  was,  actually,  because  she  doesn’t  feel  anything.  she  feels  one  baseline  emotion  and  sparks  of  things  that  could  be  compared  to  things  like  love,  or  excitement,  or  involvement  that  people  even  like  max  can  feel.  aidy  can’t  and  doesn’t  feel  them.  the  only  things  that  truly  enthuse  her  so  she  looks  like  she  can  are  murder,  luxury,  and  bonding  with  people  who  feel  the  same  way.  they   fill  the  void  where  her  emotions  would  be.  other  than  that,  she  exists  at  a  cool  medium.  apart  from  max,  i  have  to  say  she’s  the  muse  i  was  most  surprised  by.  pleasantly  but  still.  BRADLEY    like  with  ethan,  i’m  a  clown  and  i  haven’t  written  bradley  all  that  much.  i  know  that  he’s  a  dumb  bitch,  primarily  interested  in  the  capitalist  side  of  the  world,  and  knows  that  he  has  to  take  responsibility  for  his  stupidity.  i  don’t  think  he  always  does  stupid  things  on  purpose,  but  because  he’s  such  a  genuinely  self-serving  opportunist,  it  backfires  on  him  9  times  out  of  10.  i  think  he’s  learning  from  his  mistakes,  especially  with  the  whole  arlo  situation  that  he  feels  genuinely  bad  about,  but  i  don’t  think  it’s  enough  for  him  to  entirely  quit  cold  turkey.

[magicalthoughtsendinterriblefics]

Beer me,I mean: Forgive me - Request

Requested by anon:  Sherlock and reader get drunk please x & anon: I was wondering if you could do a super angsty Sherlock x Reader where they get into a fight and the reader storms off and goes to a bar to drink herself into oblivion?

Word Count: 2.608

Pairing: Sherlock x reader

Warnings: OOC Sherlock, bit angsty, use of alcoholic beverages, unedited. Also, by no means, Sherlock’s actions in this fic are justificated and you should definitely not allow anyone talk to you or about you in the way Sherlock does here. Remember it’s fanfiction.

A/N: Don’t allow me to name my own fics, please.

Enjoy!

“A proper apology, that is all I’m asking for, Sherlock,” (Y/N) cried out.

“Why should I give one if you don’t deserve it?” Sherlock argued, without getting up from the leather couch.

��Don’t deserve it?!” She exclaimed, “I stood by you and all you did in return was humiliate me in front of everyone!”

“HUMILIATE YOU!” Sherlock mocked, “I defended you, but you women take everything personally.”

“Us women?” She glared at him. “At every chance you get, you humiliate me, you insult me, you diminish me…”

“No, I don’t,” Sherlock finally turned to look at her. She was standing right beside the couch he was laying in, walking from one side to the other angrily. “You do it all on your own, all I do is point it out!”

“POINT IT OUT TO ME, YOU MORON!” She yelled, “Point it out to me only, not to everyone in Scotland Yard behind my back.”

“Technically, you were the one behind my back.”

“I’m sick of you, I’m truly sick of you.”

“Yeah, right,” Sherlock chuckled, “this little rant of yours will be forgotten tomorrow.”

“No, it won’t.” She huffed and turned around, taking her coat from the hanger and slamming the door behind her.

Sherlock, inflated with ego, didn’t mind at all. To him, she was being overly dramatic, and that was it.

Two seconds later, Mrs Hudson walked in. She looked rather suspicious, but Sherlock figured it was because she didn’t know how angry he was after that fight.

“You had a little domestic?” She giggled shyly from the door.

“Same old thing,” Sherlock shrugged his shoulders, “I will think twice before taking her with me to any other crime scenes.”

“What did she do?” Mrs Hudson asked, taking a seat near Sherlock.

“Well, she was trying to act all clever and smart,” he said and Mrs Hudson encouraged him to keep talking. “Of course, she was all wrong.”

“So you pointed it out to her,” the lady finished.

“Yes, as usual.”

“She got mad because of that?”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Sherlock dismissed, “she got mad because of what she heard me say, which is complete nonsense as I was defending her.”

“Defending her from what?”

“Rough night?” The man behind the bar asked.

“Very much… Would you please?” She gestured to her jar of beer, which was already empty.

“That’s the third, and you’re not very big we say…” The bartender observed, “How are you going to get home?”

“That’s none of your business” she snapped.

“You’re not driving, are you?”

“Nope,” She said. The bartender poured her another pint.

“So, what happened?”

“My boyfriend is an arse, and I hate him.”

“You’ve said that ten times tonight, might as well tell me the story.”

“We were at a crime scene,” she started, “he is some sort of detective, and I was with him. I was just trying to help but his fragile ego can’t stand someone else being right so he corrected everything I said and it’s okay, he’s all smart and whatever… But then we were leaving the building and I had to get back to retrieve a piece of evidence he solicited. I come out and he’s there, talking to the police about me.”

“What did he say?”

“He said I’ve got no brains at all, but can compensate with other qualities and attitudes.”

“Ouch,” the bartender frowned.

“That’s the soft part, I can’t even say the rest.”

“WILLIAM SHERLOCK SCOTT HOLMES YOU GO FIND THAT GIRL RIGHT NOW AND APOLOGISE!” Mrs Hudson commanded angrily.

“Apologise from what? I AM RIGHT!” Sherlock argued.

“You said the only reason you were with her was because she was, above all, smart.”

“Smart is not the same as intelligent,” Sherlock explained, rolling his eyes.

“You embarrassed your partner in front of people you hate, even though she always stands by your side… Even when nobody else does.”

“So?”

“So be a real man and apologise, or else.”

“Or else what?”

An hour later, Sherlock walked through the bar’s door. He instantly found his girlfriend, sitting by the bar, with an empty beer jar in hand.

“(Y/N),” he said, “I was an absolute bastard and I hope you forgive me.”

“Mrs Hudson sent you, didn’t she?” She spoke, without turning back to face him.

“Yes, indeed, but I do mean…”

“See?” She interrupted, “I don’t need to be a clever detective to know that.”

“I’m aware…”

“You know why?” Sherlock didn’t answer, “Because the Great Sherlock Holmes never apologises by his own will.”

“Not that I need to,” he muttered.

“That’s what you think.” She turned to see him. Her makeup was almost gone, her eyes were puffy and red, and she could barely keep her posture for she was too drunk.

“You’re drunk,” Sherlock commented.

“Took you long enough to notice!” She mocked, “I’m surprised you didn’t notice from the minute you got into the bar!”

“Please, just let it go and let me take you back home,” Sherlock begged in a whisper.

“No,” she whispered back.

“Please, this is no place to talk…”

“We’re talking here, though.” Sherlock rolled his eyes and sat on the stool by her side.

“Bring me as many as she had,” he asked, instantly regretting his own decision.

By the third pint, Sherlock was seeing double. He was swaying from side to side as he tried to formulate a coherent sentence.

“The truth is… I do love you,” he started.

“Buuuuuut?”

“Buuuuut,” he turned to look at her, “it scares me.”

“Boo…” She replied and took another sip of her own beer.

Sherlock drank the rest of his beer in one last sip and shivered after putting the glass down.

“Want me to get you two a cab?” The bartender asked.

“I think I can get my own cab,” Sherlock fumed and got up. Two seconds after, he fell.

(Y/N) looked down at him as if nothing severe had happened and then back at the bartender. “You know what they say: fall like a drunk and nothing will hurt.”

“Who says that?” The bartender asked with true concern.

“I do,” she snapped and winked at him.

(Y/N) got up as well and managed to stay on balance. She, surprisingly, succeeded at helping Sherlock up and the two of them left the bar tumbling and babbling nonsense.

They were standing by the sidewalk, somehow not falling to the ground, as they waved to cab drivers for them to stop and give them a ride.

“They’re not coming,” Sherlock said turning to look at her.

“One will come,” she said, looking back at him.

Sherlock, in his drunken state, couldn’t control himself. Hence, he leaned towards her, trying to give her a kiss. She, although drunk as well, pushed his face away.

“Please,” he begged.

“No,” she replied.

“Pretty please…”

“I said no.”

“Pretty, please…”

“Not after what you did,” she insisted and Sherlock sighed tiredly.

“I already apologised for that,” he whined and pouted his lips, asking again for a kiss.

“Not enough.”

A cab stopped by them, and asked them if they needed to be taken. (Y/N) instantly said yes, and hopped on as best as she could. Sherlock took a bit longer, but finally managed to get in.

“Fun night?” the cab driver asked.

“No,” Sherlock shook his head, “she’s mad at me.”

“Why?”

“He’s a narcissistic sociopath who doesn’t value me,” she slurred.

The cab driver made a strange sound, presumably a giggle, and shook his head. “What did you do, lad?”

“I was only talking to my employees…”

“Co-workers,” (Y/N) interrupted.

“No, I don’t co-work,” Sherlock muttered then continued. “I only said she’s not as clever but can compensate with other qualities.”

“Why would you say that?” The cab driver inquired, seemingly hurt.

“I was only getting along with those chaps!”

“That was so posh…” (Y/N) whispered and fell to the opposite side of Sherlock, starting to fall asleep.

“I suppose they were all men…” The cab driver mumbled.

“Oh no, there was a lady… not much of a lady, but she is a woman… I think.”

“Are they your friends?”

“Oh no, not at all,” Sherlock wiggled his finger from side to side, enthusiastically. “I hate them all.”

“Then why did you say those awful things to them?”

“You know men,” Sherlock shrugged his shoulders, “it’s a matter of masculinity.”

“Your concept of masculinity and mine are rather different, I’ll tell you that.”

“Yeah?” Sherlock asked and the cab driver nodded. “Well, I didn’t mean it, but she doesn’t believe me.”

“You ought to say exactly what she deserves to hear, apologise and be a good boyfriend for once.”

The cab parked right in front of the flat. Sherlock paid him a bit more than needed “for his advice” and tried to wake (Y/N) up.

“We’re here, Sleeping Beast,” Sherlock whispered.

“Beauty!”

“Right,” Sherlock nodded, “wake up Beauty Beast.”

The driver rolled his eyes and breathed out a chuckle. “You sir, are one of a kind.”

“Thank you!” Sherlock exclaimed, waking (Y/N) up. “You heard that?”

“Hard not to,” she complained and pushed Sherlock out so they could get out of the cab.

Sherlock got out first and extended his hand for (Y/N) to support her weight on her way down, but once she did they both tumbled and almost fell once more. The cab driver asked them if they were all right and, when they said yes, he wished them a good night and left.

“What a nice man,” Sherlock smiled.

“Oh yeah, you do say good things about him, huh?” She hissed and walked to the door, struggling with each step she took. Sherlock rolled his eyes and tried following her.

They got to the door, and Sherlock stopped her from opening it. Instead, he trapped her between his body and the door, which was wet from the recent rain, and focused on saying what the cab driver had told him to say.

“You ought to hear exactly what you want me to say,” he slurred and (Y/N) tilted her head in confusion. “No, that’s not how it went… You ought to say what I meant to mean to hear.”

“No…”

“Why not?”

“I mean, that’s not how it goes,” she chuckled sassily and pushed him so she could open the door.

They stumbled inside and slammed the door behind them.

“It’s hard for me to talk right now,” he explained, trying to enunciate each syllable properly.

“Write it down, then,” (Y/N) suggested and Sherlock agreed.

They dragged each other upstairs, constantly giving a step back instead of a step forward, but generally managing just fine.

Once they were inside their flat, Sherlock rushed to his desk, took a pen and a blank paper and started to write something. Once he finished, he gave it over to (Y/N), who had waited patiently on the floor next to him, for her to read it.

She held the paper in her hands for a long while, reading over and over again the words Sherlock had carefully spelled, until she gave up.

“I don’t understand a single word,” she said, handling the paper back to Sherlock.

“I can’t write when I’m drunk,” Sherlock excused himself, falling to the floor next to her.

“Yeah, I can’t read either.”

Sherlock looked at her and bursted in laughter. She followed along for a couple seconds and then leaned towards him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“I shouldn’t forgive you, you know?” She whispered, “What you did was wrong… Very wrong.”

“I know, I regret it deeply.”

“Why did you do it?”

“I just…” He sighed, “Just…”

“Just what?”

“I wanted to be part of the group for once,” Sherlock said, “they always talk shit about their partners because they think it makes them more manly, and I figured I could feel that too.”

“And did you?”

“No,” Sherlock confessed, “not after the way you yelled at me in front of everyone.”

“You deserved it,” She chuckled.

“I know,” he said, giving a kiss to her head.

“It’s funny you want to be like the rest when all that convinced me to date you was the fact that you’re not like them,” she commented.

Sherlock looked at her with utter concern before yelling a blasphemy. He dropped the rest of his body to the floor, laying like the drama queen he was as he mumbled incomprehensible words.

When the sun rose and people outside started moving, (Y/N) and Sherlock woke up. The noise from the street was too loud for them and had to run away to the bedroom, which was farther away from the main street.

The got on and covered their head with the pillows, complaining about life in general.

Since it was of no help, they both decided to just live with the terrible hangover they were having. They got out of the bedroom, without saying a word, and poured themselves a cup of cold tea and took two aspirins each. They ate some leftovers that were on the fridge and crawled back to the bedroom.

“I’m very sorry about yesterday,” Sherlock mumbled suddenly.

“I know,” (Y/N) replied.

“I will understand it if you no longer want me in your life, I deserve that kind of rejection,” he continued.

“I’m not leaving you…”

“What I said was not true and you don’t know how sorry I am for saying that,” he insisted, “just know that I don’t actually believe any of those awful things that I said.”

“Would you do something for me, please?” (Y/N) interrupted.

“I’d do anything for you.”

“Would you please, please, please, please, please shut up?”

Sherlock did as asked for a minute and then spoke again.

“Do you forgive me?”

“Yes, I already told you that.”

“Why?”

(Y/N) rolled her eyes and left the room to go look for her phone. The battery was almost dying but was enough to show Sherlock the evidence.

It was a video of them, laying on the floor, while being drunk.

“Sherlock says drunk people and kids always tell the truth,” (Y/N) spoke to the camera, “since he is a drunk kid right now, he will say a few words.”

She passed the phone to him. He held it too close to his face, but his identity was still clear.

“I am very sorry, I am an idiot and I don’t deserve you, (Y/N). The only reason why I said it was because my fragile ego needed a bost, and I am lame.”

“That’s not exactly what I asked you to say,” her voice was heard on the video.

“Shhh, I’m talking to you,” Sherlock hushed, “I am victim of my own ego and you are one hell of a guy.”

“Gal…”

“Gal.” Sherlock smiled drunkenly, “I love you, you are very smart and all. Even more so than Donovan, who claims to be the smartest from Scotland Yard, although of course it is filled with imbeciles and…”

“Sherlock.”

“And I love you very much, bye.” He kissed the camera and then struggled to turn it off, finally handing it to (Y/N) for her to stop the vídeo.

“That was… a bit embarrassing,” Sherlock confessed, surprised by his own behaviour.

“Yes, that’s what Mrs Hudson said.”

“You showed it to her?” Sherlock exclaimed, “When?”

“Right after you recorded it, I asked Mycroft to send it to everyone,” She shrugged her shoulders, “It’s in your blog, actually… and in John’s…”

Sherlock groaned and covered his face with his hands.

“I’m never insulting you ever again.”

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