#something something I support women’s wrongs
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I talked about this already to some extent. But let’s round it up. Because there’s new DA people and I’m v tired but also invested at this point.
Also there’s a broader point here. Several tbh.
When people are kind of flailing around looking for the source of problems with a piece of media, particularly an unchallenging piece of media, and resorting to a shallow set of ‘criticisms’ that gesture at real issues, often there are fundamental flaws in said piece of media. They’re just being misidentified to the point of nonsense.
When something is by all metrics genuinely well done AND spectacular in execution, you do not get this. You get straightforwardly stupid people crying about Atreus acting like a child. You get transparently bigoted or immature people whining about Ellie or Joel having coherent arcs.
When something is by most metrics competently written but lacking in execution in multiple ways AND it makes ‘representation’ a selling point. It’s gonna get both column 1 and column 2 in force. This makes everything very loud and very stupid forever. I refuse to be held captive by that so I will keep talking about real things. Because in column 1 there’s an attempt to get at the actual problems, just without the needed vocabulary and experience.
And yes there’s overlap in column 1 & 2. I call it the clown show. That’s just not everything that’s happening.
The actual problems in Veilguard are the problems with BioWare as a whole. And mostly they have to do with motivation and ethics. Anyone who wants to seriously understand what’s gone so terribly wrong with every game release since Origins needs to reckon with this.
This company refuses to consistently define its storytelling values within the game world/s beyond ‘yay friendship’ and ‘trauma sad’. This is why the use of sexual violence in origins is there to shock 12 year olds. If that game were well written and actually meant for mature adults, sexual violence would just be one bad thing that can happen* to people (and if it were weighted towards women, we’d have clearly defined patriarchal systems and sexism that, again, is not there for laughs or shock value) and there would be some actual grasp of psychology and power in the text in general. This is also why people are reducing an attempt at actual mythic storytelling with Mythal to ‘abusive mother’ ‘trauma sad’. These games as texts invite reduction.
That psychology? Utterly lacking for the most part. And not lacking in the way of a story that’s doing something else. Lacking because the text willfully uses shorthand and assumed empathy** from the audience instead of laying bare the actual human motivations*** behind everything. Individual characters rise above this, and all the characters give hints of it, but that’s not the same as actually writing a story that accounts for real human motivations as part of its larger narrative. Characters in truly robust fiction are supportive functions of the larger narrative, and that narrative has clear priorities founded on strong values.****
The damn audience. These games are written for a specific audience. And that audience is really racist and pretty self indulgent. It doesn’t care about motivation. It thinks Varric is an interesting character who isn’t written like a checklist. It’s happy as long as it gets to smash its dolls together. It also likes to send death threats. This audience is an abstracted boogeyman in the writers room as far as I can tell, and it’s stealing all the motivation.
Cannot believe this site has pushed me to actually say this. It’s liberal! These are distinctly liberal games. They cannot and will not say anything truly meaningful because their whole ethos is built on pretending they’re not conservative (an ethos defined by retreat). This is why the subversion of power fantasy in DA is interesting but can ring hollow. It’s incoherent for a reason! It’s not looking its values in the eye. This is also why ME2 remains distinct. Turns out it’s easier for liberals to write villains pretending to be heroes. Take that as you will.
I’m not really interested in talking about how corny Bioware dialogue has always been. It’s always been corny. There’s actual voice direction problems in Veilguard that add a layer of technical problems to this, and that’s a bit more interesting, if frustrating to experience. This is why people are reaching for when they say ‘clunky’. I’m also not really interested in the structural issues. Which are there. Because there’s fewer structural issues in Veilguard than in any previous BioWare game. Most of these complaints are coming from people who have apparently let time soften them on how poorly built the other games are. Again. These are real problems people are flailing at with reductive takes. They’re also on brand for BioWare.
So that whole mess up there? That’s what’s going on. It’s what’s going on with the games and the actual real life audience constantly being at each others throats. It’s what’s going on with expectations and weird takes and the usual clown show.
* You can also go the Alien route of course. But this would require the violence to happen indiscriminately re: gender, and it would need to use the disgust response intelligently to interrogate something like…oh I don’t know the disgusting male power fantasy intrinsic to forced pregnancy-as horror.
** This is part of why people keep saying ‘marvel’. Marvel movies run on assumed empathy and it’s the most immediate touchstone and cheapest shot. BioWare was doing it first though. Guardians is literally riffing on DA and ME. And yes it’s cheap writing. I just don’t know why anyone expects anything else.
*** I’d be fine with mythic or purely dramatic motivations myself, but these games definitely do not know how to do more than gesture at that.
**** Something that’s gotten seriously muddled in our current publishing environment. Character-driven doesn’t mean you can reduce everything to the characters and their arcs. This is how we get shallow self-actualization narratives in place of deep explorations of what it means to be human. This is the problem at the heart of the ‘representation’ debates.
#a round up of actual criticism#and the discussion we could be having#I print my own receipts#BioWare critical#fandom critical#way past analysis 101 I’m afraid#grandwitchbird does game analysis kind of#will I finally shut up now? unlikely
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I've been rereading your "Gabriel redemption/corruption/canon mess of ideas post", and I remembered an old idea of mine: Gabriel driven insane by the Butterfly miraculous.
This is an artifact that allows you to sense the negative emotions of All of Paris. And then mentally connect to the person in whom the negative emotions are currently strongest.
It's less about "can this power drive anyone insane" it's more about "is there a chance this power wouldn't drive anyone insane?"
Worse, Gabriel uses this power constantly. Gabriel uses this power for shady purposes. Gabriel uses this power when already in an unstable state after losing his wife.
From a storytelling point, this neatly explains:
1) why Gabriel could go worse and worse as time progresses
2) why Gabriel's behaviour may be inconsistent (consistent behaviour doesn't combine well with sensory-overload magical madness and he is saner when untransformed)
3) why Butterfly Miraculous is so powerful (because this power is balanced with the great risk of using it)
At the same time, it is a trope known well enough to work well even in children's shows. In fact, I thought this idea may be canon, but then season 5 happened.
What do you think of this idea?
P. S. As always, thank you for your analysis, you are a treasure for the fandom!
Thank you for the lovely words! I'm flattered that you enjoy the blog so much!
I'm on the record as saying that evil Kwamis are about the only way to fix canon, so of course I love you idea! That post was about fixing canon post season five, though, so let's focus more on the butterfly itself.
Canon doesn't really explain how the heck the butterfly works. We get moments like this one from Sandboy:
Hawk Moth: I feel an emotion of great intensity. So pure… (turns a butterfly into an akuma) Fly away my little akuma and evilize him!
But why this happens is confusing. The butterfly isn't the miraculous of Emotion. That's the peacock. The butterfly is Transformation. Which is silly, so we're ignoring that. The butterfly is absolutely written to be Emotion in terms of almost everything about how it functions, so as far as I'm concerned, it's Emotion. Gabriel senses emotions with it and is even implied to have to pick what powers he gives based on the person's emotions as we see in Risk:
Shadow Moth: I need a villain who will force Ladybug to take risks, and without even realizing it, (corrupts a butterfly into a Megakuma) she'll make a mistake! (Shadow Moth closes his eyes to search for any strong negative emotions.) Extra 1: Great, of course my keys disappear from my bag just when I have to go out. Xavier: Now even benches have empty pigeon spikes on them? Oh, my poor friends... Froggy's Dad: Froggy, come back! It's too dangerous! Froggy: Why are you always scared of everything? I want to ride my bike without a helmet, without training wheels! Shadow Moth: (Open his eyes.) Perfect! Fly away, my Megakuma, and plague that deceived heart!
You could absolutely take this setup and use it to craft a narrative where Gabriel's actions are at least partially driven by the effects of feeling everyone else's emotions weighing down on him. This is extra true when you remember that Gabriel is supposed to be grief stricken. We are rarely at our best when we are mourning profound loss and the show really failed to lean into that fact even though the writers clearly wanted Gabriel to be sympathetic.
In my own rewrite, I heavily rely on these elements to shape Gabriel and Nathalie's characters. She may not use the butterfly, but she's also supposed to be mourning Emilie (or, at least, she is as of season five. I'm pretty sure that's a retcon, but it's something I changed to make her character work, so I'm cool with it.) That is a much stronger basis for Nathalie supporting Gabriel than the tired old trope of women doing stupid things because of men. (Don't get me wrong, we do, I just find it boring in most situations. It would only work in canon if the love square was supposed to be positive romantic love and Nathalie was supposed to be toxic romantic love, but the love square is toxic as hell and even "ends the world" so bleh )
I will peel back the curtain a little bit and give you one of my favorite ideas for making something like this work: if you have Emilie in a coma and not dead, then her brain would still be active. She'd still be experiencing emotions. Doesn't it make perfect sense for Gabriel to stay transformed 24/7 so that he can sense what is left of his wife, assuring himself that she's still there? And if the magic needs to stay secret, then of course that would mean that he never comes out of his home office because that's the only safe place to transform. And if you add in Gabriel being weak to the emotions of others, well, I think that has potential for something interesting, don't you?
#alexunbroken#lore discussion#Gabriel deserves better#Sympathetic Gabe my darling tragic villain how I love you#Not enough to redeem you but the love is still there#I prefer him as a tragedy and contrast to Adrien#Healthy grief and love vs unhealthy grief and love#Not that canon gave us that but a girl can dream
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Strawhat women :)
#one piece#nico robin#nami#something something I support women’s wrongs#giving them my own designs made me want to draw them a Lot more#I hope other people also enjoy these designs
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I love them! So much!
#detroit become human#kara ax400#luther tr400#i love them so much and have something planned for luther in the hes a 10 but series#i may have spent a lot more time on this than i planned (aka two! doodles!)#but you know what 100% worth it i love them and i love him supporting womens wrongs and and#i got so emotional the first time i saw his status updated to family im like crying over this family#also kara having the ability to not only die in almost all her chapters but also kill in almost all her chapters#like girl please i love you and i love that you are willing to be rational and not let luther kill a guy returning a glove#but also you are unhinged and i love you there is no downside to kara i love her#also she gets to not only be a blonde menace but she rocks brown and black and white hair??#truly a lady who can do anything is2g#this suggestion added a year to my life cause it was technically the first one received#even though its the second i drew - i got it first
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There are many benefits to being a corn biologist
#nine sols#nine sols goumang#doodles#aseukiart#Continuing my nine sols playthrough (<-slowest gamer alive) guess who I met hello hi#The Singular Character I knew before playing#Already loved her design Now love that there is something severely wrong with her (<-hasn't fought her yet)#we support women's wrongs#As usual pls no spoilers in the tags I am So Slow asdlfksdjgn#If I'm Lucky I'll finally beat her up and find the next sol before next year hahaha
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In season 2 Hotch is suspicious and worried that ‘Is that Legal’ Emily Prentiss is a pawn Strauss placed in the BAU.
Prentiss is the last person troubled by Elle Greenaway's 'questionable' shooting. Spies are built with moral ambiguities. But Hotch didn't know that.
(Pre-London Emily tried to reset her life. And succeeded before Ian Doyle re-entered her life. Post-London!Emily realized and learned she could 'live' with her moral ambiguities.)
#emily prentiss#aaron hotchner#david rossi#penelope garcia#tv: criminal minds#jill gideon#criminal minds evolution#cmedit#my edit#criminal minds s17#criminal minds s2#its just very amusing to me on a rewatch#hotch was suspicious of emily that she's some sort of#pawn strauss placed in the BAU because he thought#emily 'is that legal?' prentiss#would be shocked and appalled at a questionable shooting#she used to be a spy so shadiness is part of the job#and early seasons emily was actually trying to#remake her image working for something 'clean'#but also hotch gets to know prentiss pretty well#and knows about prentiss' growing comfort with#her own moral flexibility#and still leaves the BAU Team in her hands#its just both amusing and FASCINATING#also you can clearly see emily think in the second gif#this man does not know me#emily used to be a spy#emily the spy#if it's not obvious#i support women's rights and emily's wrongs
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there are certainly serious things to say and analysis to be made about the tired queen in snow white-ass female fear of aging and losing your beauty as catalysts for evil tropes zara renata is evoking, as well as the treatment of her still-naked body as an object in the post mortem interrogation scene by both the camera and the characters. HOWEVER. personally and with my heart not my brain I forgive it wholeheartedly because there's just something special, something so incredibly fun and campy, both about her horrific literal blood bath and about a character who'll coyly tell you to wait here she'll just slip into something a little more... comfortable😏. and then while keeping hard eye contact with you she slips out of her skin entirely like it's a strapless dress and stands there in her full glistening subcutaneous glory smirking at you. her body isn't a temple it's a slaughterhouse. well. for you. but that's a price she's willing to pay :) ianthe tridentarius behaviour (laudatory)
(to be real for a moment it probably helps a lot that there are plenty of other female villains in the game who aren't presented with a sexual or appearance-focused angle at all. well. not an intentional one at least. ghilan'nain will always do to certain people what she does but that's not the design intention or priority lol. having a zara does not feel as weird when you also have a johanna hezenkoss running around just living her best unlife and doing her thing)
#the lesson here is that I have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair#and I will go along with even quite troubling things in fiction if I find it inscrutably funny enough. apologies but here we are#I can enjoy a nuance with the best of them#dragon age#dragon age: the veilguard#dragon age: the veilguard spoilers#dragon age spoilers#zara renata#it's so true that the worst sin something in fiction can commit is to be boring lol#also I do think deliberately invoking and framing it in fairytale logic helps. she's an Evil Queen. you know them. they do this stuff#like listen. we know and you know what we're doing here nothing new under the sun. but doesn't it make for banger visual design#and like yeah you got me there bioware it does I will remember the blood room forever#she has a horror prison under the sea and has gone the full bathory that's the space we're playing in right now haha#I hate to be a little bit of a hater but also the contrast between zara and aelia for me. zara is flawed but fun and aelia. is there.#I guess. for me at least. who is she. frankly I didn't care that much.#okay haterism over but I also haven't seen a lot of aelia thirst or I support women's wrongs posts which feels like a sign of some kind
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they could never make me hate you rohan projecthadea of @nyehilismwriting’s Project Hadea fame
#project hadea#rohan#the WAY that some people dislike xem destroys me sometimes ngl#xe’s FACINATING to me#I just support women’s wrongs ig!!!#and even though I feel no urges or desires xe is kind of like a hunted animal to me ♥️#idk!! something about passive visual novel protags who are so rarely truly morally wrong#vs like. mercenary who sold their whole life to a security/weapons company#idk!!!#anyway. this didn’t turn out a lot like I wanted but#fanart#🫁#interactive fiction
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“Earn is in the wrong”, “Fahlada is in the wrong”, personally I think they were both put into a very difficult situation and both are suffering equally by the breakup. In the present, they toy with each other’s emotions and they do stupid things to get each other’s attention. It’s really just a huge misunderstanding that’s keeping them apart and Fahlada’s mother for making up those lies she told Earn. I’m team both, and anyways in the end it’s not going to matter who did what because they’re madly in love. In conclusion, please don’t judge these girls for their actions, blame homophobia or something 😔
#“she did something wrong” let women be flawed characters personally i support her more#i don’t play about ladaearn and i’ll be defending them both#the secret of us
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the way i adore wilhelmina slater, she's a trans ally! she performs in drag shows occasionally!! sure she's a bully and a little evil, but i can look away
#i support womens wrongs#wilhelmina slater#ugly betty#ugly betty (2006)#also i'm noticing that there's so many jokes abt betty being a lesbian hmm#and all of the men she 'falls in love with' being absolutely awful evil and despicable#i'm seeing something#i'm manifesting something#shoutout to#america ferrera
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#the mother the daughter and the holy spirit#my favourite genre#something something the relationship between girlhood and queerness and horror#feel free to add on#please#jennifer’s body#killing eve#yellowjackets#yj#i support womens wrongs
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I feel like there's something to be said about the way fandom will treat characters who's trauma they can personally relate to Vs characters who they cant
#like obviously fandom has a thing against unpalatable victims regardless of where their trauma is from#but like#people tend to be way more understanding and compassionate to trauma that they can personally relate to or comprehend#in narutos case:#naruto struggled academically and was bullied as a child. he was alone and neglected on an emotional/domestic level#people can relate to aspects of his character despite the fantasy stuff of being a human sacrifice and part of the military and tend to car#alot more about his struggles#on the other hand the uchiha are discriminated against. sasuke is the sole survivor of ethnic cleansing/genocide. that is not something mos#people could even fathom the pain and trauma of. i mean its fucking /genocide/. and ontop of that he was essentially mind raped by his#brother. the person who he loved the most who betrayed him#and is still expected to function in a society that provides no support and continues to objectify him for his clans desirable traits#i feel like atla is also a good example#people can relate to and sympathize with the parental abuse and inadequacy/anger issues zuko deals with. and are forgiving when it comes to#his redeption arc#but when you take a character like jet. who has trauma in loosing his entire village/community and taking on a caretaker role to other#war orphans. thats not exactly a regual occurrence the average person can personally understand. his trauma is directly related to the war#and so despite him doing WAYY less shitty things than zuko. his is still demonized by the narrative. killed off and then mocked#and the fandom largely saw nothing wrong with this outcome#hama is in a similar bag but she also has the whole 'exploding apartments of pregnant women' distraction tactics added onto her#cause just showing colonialism and forced assimilation and fucking SLAVERY is bad on its own isnt enough ig#psii.txt#slavery mention#genocide mention#rape mention
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Thinking about 2003 Izumi. In the main series she's pretty shitty (on top of leaving the Elrics on the island and instructing Mason to attack them, she frequently beats them herself. And then the whole thing with Wrath). But at the end of the series when Al just tells her straight up that he's going to bring Ed back, she doesn't approve but seeing Al so determined she's just like, "Fine."
I wonder how things went between the end of 03 and her death just a couple months before Conqueror of Shamballa. Did Al get an explanation for Izumi's condition (and if so from whom? Izumi? Wrath? Sig?) since his memories were wiped? Did Izumi chill out at all after losing another kid (and Wrath is probably nowhere to be found) and/or as her condition got worse? Or was she the same hard-ass she always was?
#did al ever have to work at the meat counter#izumi is a character that's like. they were trying to go for something but idk if they achieved it#i support women's wrongs#i hope al (and ed) get to have therapy after that#fullmetal alchemist#fma 03#conqueror of shamballa#izumi curtis
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odalia gaslit gatekept girlbossed her way into getting a new child to replace the ones she lost in the custody battle. slay queen
#toh#the owl house#odalia blight#for the future#hate her characterization in clouds on the horizon but this steers it right back to something she would do#we support womens rights but more importantly we support womens wrongs#that being said where tf is alador is he a puppet now#imagine odalia getting a new pile of puppets and her husband is in the pile#finally does she know where the twins were#and does she think amity is dead#does alador know where the twins are#or did they both just like. forget they existed#tbh cant blame odie too much for working with the collector when the only other option is to be one of the puppets she has to untangle#i thought belos was going to posess odalia for a sec lmao we could have gotten that one moringmark comic#where she gets beat up by the hexsquad and does the family guy death pose
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Instagram keeps showing me reels of someone with a handle named something like jamesmaythristtraps and like, they are truly doing gods work but I can't like or comment on these masterpieces because I know what kind of snitch of an app it is 😔
#well atleast now I have figured out how to keep myself warm in upcoming winter months#no but#how do people handle their relatives following them online#????????#pretty recently friend of a friend was like “oh what's your insta =)??”#and its like#I have four posts and one of those is mf rick astley should I be explaining myself ??#banging my head against the table like why couldn't I just get my fangirling on for bts or something#or maybe more like out of all the 80s acts why did I fall hard for the one who is memed to death#I mean okay rickrolling can be funny#and he looked goofy there#top tier Tintin cosplay#even with my attraction to James its like#I feel like I should be explaining myself because he's old#and most likely not what when people think about male celebrities people drool over ...#maybe shamed myself into thinking “I shouldn't be attracted to this” “this is abnormal so it must be wrong”#I mean tons of girlies like men like him#but then I see guys my age say things like “I should go to the gym so women would pay attention to me”#or putting weird flexing photos on their dating profiles (not even just flexing with their muscles but like cars or watches... or fish...)#like I don't care about your boring ass new volkswagen ????#and in that case it wasn't even just one photo... I don't care for new cars they all look the same :-/#it just makes me go ? am I supposed to be attracted to this ?#is this the norm??#why can't I be normal aaaa#so in conclusion#I'm deeply ashamed of my interests and attractions lol#hopefully I will someday grow out of this#all the peer support is welcomed on this post lmao
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I think I’m gonna start only putting my juicy thoughts in the tags now.
#I bet the riddler is bald#that’s why he wears those dumb hats#king of alopecia#the riddler#I bet the joker is surprisingly ripped#not in an attractive way like in a grotesque way#like you can see his bones but he some how has abs#obviously I don’t need to say it but Mr. Freeze is a wife guy#he’s a simp#the penguin probably said something offensive when Martha Stewart went to jail#inside trading finance bro that he is#I bet Twoface puts Rogain on his scarred half#his sun was never being a psychotic killer#it was being a red pill sigma freak#cock is one of Bruce Wayne’s favorite tastes#bruce wayne#batman#the penguin#two face#mr. freeze#I didn’t mention Harley or Poison Ivy because they don’t deserve it his slander#I support women’s rights and wrongs#the joker doesn’t get his own tag he knows what he did
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