#take some clown antags

[shy-the-trash-lion]

💕🤡GIVING YOU SOME CLOWNS FOR CLOWN WEEK🤡💕

[fatratbabyy]

hi! i really love your designs, the colours are always really well done anf the characters are full of life.. and i love how your rewrites give the characters complexity and make them really interesting to me, much more so than canon(though i am a fan of some ideas introduced there, they don’t quite turn out in ways that make sense to me)! i’ve been wondering a few things about helluva troupe for a while however and hopefully the answers aren’t spoilers, lol.. in HT, what is Fizz’s involvement with the ‘troupe’ and what is stolas’s involvement too.? i wish you much luck on your work as it is lovely to see! (also apologies for my silly username)

Thank You!

Thank you so much that means a lot!! waaAahee! It makes me happy to see people interested 🥺👉👈

With Fizz it's,,, a bit Fuzzy, because hilariously he's the whole reason I made this AU among other things But I ended up makinh him a sorta side character antag again because while originally he was going to be part of the main crew from the start of HT's storyline, as I went along in trying to write I saw some cool hcs about his star clown days and so I thought to use the more canonized view- mostly in that he's a star clown during the events of HT instead of dropping the show life to join Blitz in I.M.P. That previous version is why you see him in the I.M.P references- and hinty hoo that ol version isnt completely null and voice to the current HT

ANYWAY so yeah- While Fizz isn't as much a main character as he was he still has a great deal of importance to the story and themes I want to express in HT. When it comes to him and the Troupe itself, I could best describe him as one of the biggest foils or parallels to the main cast. Just,, he's this golden image that represents their every want fulfilled. For Blitz especially given their thick history heehooo. (That's not to say this 'golden image' is entirely as it seems btw...)

Now it sounds much like canon I know but I like to think I'm taking a different direction with it- It's not really just the "haha you suck with relationships, fuck, shit, pénis im doing better look at my good relationship" nonsense cuz for 1. Fizzarozzie does nOT exist anymore- its Mamzie now 😊 (Mammon + Ozzie) and 2. The themes with Fizz and really most of HT has less to do with the melodramatic romance "will they wont they" of Stolitz (which isnt really a thing either) and more the struggle impoverished and oppressed peoples experience with success, failure, identity, community, family, status, history, trauma, etccc. Specifically, because I am an indigenous person from Canada, a lot of the themes are drawn from my own experiences, knowledge and history as an indigenous person. Though with execution, creative liberties were taken to make the fact they're in Hell clear btww-

That very likely did nOT answer jour question but i amn,,,stoopi 😭😭😭 simpler answer i suppose maybe by chance would be Fizz is an eventual antagonist to I.M.P. Specifics and how it happens and wheNNN?? Im still not sure yet if im honest- been really busy the last year or so and so Ive hadnt had any time or energy to work as much on writing all the things! ;u; thats probs disappointing to hear cuz plaNNing and all is important if you're gonna post story stuff at all,,, but !! I do hope to work more on the story this year so i can wrap up all these floating ideas into a Concrete line of stuff cuz truly all im missing is the middle pieces. Maybe an HT comic will be real this/or next year! 👀🏃

ANYHOOT ONTO STOLAS! i rambled a bit too much about Fizz cuz im still figuring him out- Stolas might be a bit shorter cuz his role is sweet and simplisticerr.

So, Stolas is an antagonist. He and Blitz still have an exchange sort of deal, but the deal is Blitz gets to keep the grimoire for I.M.P if he handles Stolas' "errands" and gives it back on the full moon with ofc none of the uh,,hawny stuff, obv. Blitz kinda keeps this deal under wraps from the rest of I.M.P because for him, it hurts his pride to admit he's in need of some big guy's help. And Stolas is somewhat aware of this. And so, Stolas is this looming, cruel threat that Blitz carries the burden of cuz he's stubborn as fuck whilst the rest of I.M.P remain ignorant.

Some bonus notes that dont really have to do with Stolas involvement with imp but jus how stuff ive changed with his canon influence the story diff than canon; so, Stella isnt a thing anymore. In general the Goetia work much differently- majority of the Goetia being the children of Ozzie instead of Paimon (who is Stolas' sibling now btw too) and the Goetia being thousands of years old instead of fucking 30- Also! While Via is existant she is but a baby instead of a moody teen,, ties heavily with Stolas' motives and how he operates as a character, royal, and Goetian and felt it would work better with how HT Stolas is as a character than it would otherwise.

Also no worries about the username! I dont like canon stolas much either lol,,;

I apologize if this didnt answer much 😭 feel free to let me know if you wanna hear about somn else gwahgh 🏃

[videogamesareweird]

Had another amazing round of Space Station 13 last night. It was my very first time playing as a chef so of course I start out with no bartender or botanist and of course there's an antag who needs to kill me. And not just any antag, a fucking wizard.

So I start off trying to make some basic stuff, made some meatloaf, deep fried a brick, you know normal chef stuff. A boxer came by and asked for some protein so I gave him the meatloaf, which he appreciated. Then the wizard came by and issued me a challenge: I had to make him the best pizza ever or he would send me to super hell. I said sure, since I was already working on a pizza. Around that time a lovely botanist named Rosie showed up and befriended me. So after fooling around with different stuff, I got a banana and lightly fried it and used it as the pizza topping (I told people it was fried plantains, which actually seems like could be a good pizza topping). The wizard said it was okay but not good enough so summoned a golem, which I pretty easily killed. I told him I could make something better so he said I had 3 minutes. I asked Rosie if she could grow some chili's, which she said she would. Unfortunately, we both came down with a nanite infection and had to go to the medbay to cure it. I had barely returned when the wizard said my time was up and summoned a golem of unstable mutagen. I killed it but all the unstable mutagen basically killed me. Fortunately, the boxer came by and brought my to the medbay to be revived. After being revived, I told the clown who had become the bartender that wizards were no longer allowed and went to finish my ultimate creation: El Diablo, a bowl of chili so spicy it is literally on fire. Upon finishing, I broadcast a challenge to the wizard over the radio to come and stand up to me. When he came by I presented the dish to him in front of everyone. He immediately chickened out saying he wasn't good with spicy food and fled after summoning another golem, which didn't attack us (fortunately, as this one was made of napalm). Soon after, the escape shuttle was called and I sat in the corner quietly until mid-flight I noticed the wizard talking with the captain. I quietly walked over and put the dish on the table next to him. He said "Fine, I'll have one bite." Upon taking a single bite, he immediately burst into flame! I started laughing, he shot a bunch of spells at me, and the round ended. Definitely one of the most memorable rounds I've had so far.

[athemii]

since you're asking i think u should rate all of the english voices. this is important and will determine our friendship /j

OK OK wait. OK.

Aa1-aa4 phoenix- 8/10 love it so so much but they NEEDED to make him sound older in aa4 waugh

Aa5-aa6 phoenix- 10/10 ERIC VALE VOICE OHH YESS I LOBE IT they made his voice so deep and it suits him so much better but than Eric was his va in the anime so of course it suits him

Winston payne- he gets a 4/10 beacuse it sounds exactly how he looks if u get me.

Aa1-aa3 + aai 1+2 Edgeworth- 9/10 GOD I LOVE HOW POSH HE SOUNDS ITS SO FUJNY AND SUITS HIM SOO WELL HIS LITTLE POSH ACCENT HEHE he gets marked down bc he sounds 2 years old in the eureka one

Aa5-6 Edgeworth- 6/10 ITS SO DEEP ANS I DONT LIKE IT WHERE IS HIS SILLY ACCENT EUGHH but than again he is older and it does suit him and deep voice r hot so.

Manfred von karma- 8/10 god I hate this man so much but his voice just suits him so well I look at him and think yes that is exactly how he sounds its so deep and demonic it reflects him perfectly.

Franziska von karma- 9/10 god her voice is so pretty and nice to listen too I just wish they'd add a small hint of a German accent as she probably would've adopted one from spending most her life there

Mia- 10/10 marks bc shes my girlfriend and I adore her but she just sounds like some normal woman. And I love it. It suits her soo well

Godot- 10/10 hes sexy.

Aa4 apollo- 5/10 love u so much apollo but I hate how deep it is my guy is a rookie he has no confidence make him sound like a high pitched 12 year old going through puberty for the first time he would not have a voice that deep even if he is 22 years old but than again he DOES do voice exercises but I feel like that would just strain it more and make him have 50 different voice breaks

Aa5-aa6 apollo- 6/10 still deep but I like it more I like the gotcha line and the take that one bc his voice isn't as deep and the take that one sounds like he has a voice break half way thru

Kristoph- 10/10 God the accent and voice and everything suits him so well I love it thats all.

Aa4 Klavier- 8/10 could be less deep and also give him the German accent too. U robbed us eugh. Only 8 beacuse hes klavier gavin

Aa5 klavier- 8/10 still. Much better pitch not as deep. Still no accent.

Portsman- 4/10 doesn't suit give him a silly posh accent.

Lang- 7/10 I like it but he should have a deeper more masculine voice or somthing resembling a wolf. WE WERE ROBBED OF A HOWLING VOICELINE

callisto yew- 1/10 sounds like a grown man talking through a voice box why is it so robotic and ugly. Gets a 1 bc I like the accent they gave her.

Alba- 4/10 hate him but the voice suits him. I didn't pay much attention to the end of that case im gonna be honest

OK now its aai2 so these r all fan made but I love them so its ok

Horace- 8/10 such a good voice but should've been used for someone else. Doesn't fit horace (he is such a good antag BTW loved him)

Sebastian- 10/10 HE SOUNDS LIKE A LOSER WHO THINKS HES SMART AND THATS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS JT SUITS HIM SOO WELL I LOVE IT MY SILLY LITTLE NERDY BOY LOVE U im his new dad

Justine-9/10 God I adore the british accent its so good especially on the over ruled line suits her so well

Gregory- 5/10 i love Gregory but the voice is so deep and ugly and doesn't suit him. He's a kind nice man he needs a more gentle voice it can be deep. Just not that deep and aggressive.

Blaise- 0/10 for being blaise debeste. 3/10 beacuse the voice sounds evil and suits him

Simon Keyes- 4/10 too deep make it sillier hes litteraly a clown (ignore that hes a villain)

OK aai2 over

Athena- 10/10 lovee her voice its deep but in a good way we need more deep female voices and shows off her confidence alot u go queen

Blackquill- 7/10 love the British accent and the deepness and anger on the silence one. Objection could be better.

Nahyuta- 9/10 love his accent and poshness suits him soo well im so glad they didn't try a deep voice or anything.

Rayfa- 3/10 I love her and deep female voice but that is TOO deep for a 13 year old

Dhurke- 8/10 too deep but in an attractive way and by that I mean im in love with dhurke and I miss him

Garan- 2/10 doesn't suit her make it deeper shes evil u need to ACT IT.

OK here u go. No dgs ones bc I haven't heard the English ones yet

[ayzrules]

✶ 𝐇𝐗𝐇 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒: 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 & 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒, 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇 & 𝐃𝐀𝐌𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍   Long story short, I have been thinking about this for wayyyyy too long now and wanted to get some ~thoughts~ & analysis written down! This post is going to be...fairly long, lol. Apologies in advance :D

  Also, if you can’t see the last gif (the one for ‘holy’), click here. Tumblr keeps fucking up the image when i try to upload it :////

  This post is probably going to be about 2/3 yorknew & phantom troupe/kurapika focused, 1/3 chimera ants, maybe with some references to other arcs (including manga-only arcs) mixed in. so, ofc, tons of spoilers ahead! also, i realize that my blog theme is hard to read (and i’m p sure clicking ‘keep reading’ sends you to the og post itself), so i’m linking the post w/ full text copy/pasted in on my art backup side blog (which has a more legible font) here. 

✶ 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐇   I’m sure absolutely nobody is surprised with me starting here - there is just. SO. MUCH. DEATH. in hxh. & right from the start, one thing I noticed that togashi really emphasized was the #4 and its connection to death. in japanese, chinese, and im p sure some other asian cultures the number 4 is pronounced like the word for death so it’s associated with death in general, and boy oh boy does the ‘deadly number 4′ thing show up E V E R Y W H E R E. we get to the hunter exam, and hisoka is applicant #44. kurapika is #404. i didn’t notice it at first, but this was so intentional holy shit. togashi is NOT SUBTLE.

  So pika & hisoka are, right off the bat, associated with death. okay. and then there are even more clues to drive the point home: hisoka is member #4 in the phantom troupe, kurapika’s birthday is april 4th (aka 4/4). 100% not a coincidence (!!). with hisoka, it’s pretty obvious why togashi’s throwing all this death 444444 stuff around - dude is a psycho murder pedo clown, literally gets off on killing people (and there’s also the fact that judas sits 4th from the left in the last supper painting, and he’s sort of the judas equivalent for the phantom troupe). with kurapika, though, it’s a bit more subtle and woven deeper into his characterization, which i LOVE. togashi puts the mans in blue & gold & white (traditionally ‘pure’ or ‘heavenly’ colors), makes him so fucking kind & so good-hearted.....when he’s not relentlessly pursuing his revenge, ofc. more on this in the next section, but pika = death. togashi has made that v v v clear.

  Backtracking a bit to hisoka, though, I also just wanted to point out the 4 is death symbolism in the fortunes too (GOD i love the fortunes): in one translation, he’s the false fourth moon, and in the og japanese (i think), he’s the false hare (4th in the lunar zodiac or w/e it’s called. i don’t know the japanese cultural influences here, but in the chinese legend that established the zodiac animals, they race across the heavenly river & the top 12 animals got zodiac slots. the hare finished 4th, so it’s #4 in the cycle). 

  And just as a final note, Tserriednich is the fourth prince of the kakin empire, and also another dude who has a hard-on for murder & other gory shit. again: togashi is not subtle with this, lmfao

✶ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘, 𝐔𝐍𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘   As probably everyone who’s gotten to yorknew knows, togashi is so 0 fucks given when he wants to be. I mean there’s the whole thing where he just. took New York and decided, Yorknew. LMFAO, but also, he made the main antag of that arc be named chrollo lucilfer, sit around in a ruined church, have a reversed cross coat, pale & dark-haired/dark-eyed, generally dressed in dark colors, very terrible murder guy. liiiike......chrollo x devil symbolism game is 1000/10 at this point lmaooo

  And i know absolutely nothing about christianity in general, but pt/kurapika & yorknew arc is just so full of christian imagery/symbolism! one thing that i L O O O O O O V E though is how togashi really blurs the traditional christian-coded good/evil, holy/damned boundaries.

  Back to kurapika: he wears gold and blue, his coloring is very stereotypically ‘angelic’, he’s precious and good and kind. his chains are all about ~judgment~ and ~healing~ - some of the chains are also in literal cross shapes, aren’t they? And the chain dagger in his own heart...the imagery is very startlingly similar to the immaculate heart of mary, where the swords stabbing thru the heart apparently represent seven sorrows. IDK much about this stuff other than the visual similarities; literally had to google ‘daggers through heart christianity?’ to even get the name of that thing LOL. anyway, at first, it seems like togashi establishes him as the ‘angel’, the ‘good’, the ‘holy’ in the angel/devil, good/evil, holy/damned dichotomy between him and chrollo.

  But that’s not the end of the story. his entire storyline is driven by a huuuuuuuge giant desire for vengeance, first of all, and then there’s the scarlet eyes, which canonically are seen as demonic/cursed/what have you (according to one of the movies or smth? where they show pika as a 10 y/o?), and then we also have red eyes in modern culture being associated w pretty much the same thing (vampires, anyone?). the fight scene with uvo has everything in b&w besides the blood on his face & his red eyes & the moon (<<< more fortune foreshadowing & symbolism, i love to see it), and there are tonssss of scenes where he has to suppress his rage. so all of that is obviously not very angelic of him i would say LOL. in fact, what i find super interesting is that the scarlet/red eyes (which are ‘demonic’) is actually the driving factor behind his super powerful nen abilities; this ties in so well with the fortunes & death associations imo! the fortunes call him the ‘death-bringer’ in one translation, or ‘half-angel, half-death’, so that’s one side of pika = red eyes = death, but there’s also the fact that emperor time is literally draining his life force. so pika = death for both himself and others namely the pt, question mark?

  Now for chrollo: togashi’s devil symbolism is EXTREMELY overt with him, but i love the subtler jesus references too. the church thing, obviously, and the st. peters cross which is cuz st peter respected jesus too much & didn’t think he was worthy to die in the same way as him (or something like that, i am the most atheist person in the world & hxh is literally my entire christian education pls) but is also used as an anti-christianity symbol these days. bandit’s secret looks like a bible, lbr, and mans has a cross tattoo.

  Other things beyond visuals - 12 spiders, 12 apostles; hisoka’s betrayal, where member #4 can be thought to correspond to judas sitting 4th from left at last supper. and this miiiiight be a bit of a stretch, but i think the meteor city being the place of origin may also play into the blurred line between angel/devil and holy/damned here; meteors are defined as space rocks that are in earth’s atmosphere, becoming incandescent in the process. meteorites are for the kinds that actually reach the ground. and idk, lucifer was cast out of heaven / sky too right? so i think there might be some subtle fallen angel imagery/symbolism playing into the pt as well

✶ 𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 (𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒)   Last section yay! i don’t have as much to say about this, besides when i was making chimera ant arc edits & realized that there might have been some subtle gon/meruem parallels???

  So obviously, everyone knows that line killua says to gon - “you are light” - and then i was just remembering that meruem’s name means.... “light that illuminates all” (!!!!). maybe it’s a coincidence, but knowing togashi, i’m leaning towards nahhhh. there HAS TO be some kinda meaning there (!!).

  Going back to the events of the chimera ant arc....ooh boy. let’s see: gon is optimistic & hopeful even in the face of kite potentially being dead, killua says he’s light, they find kite & dude is fucked up, gon is pissed. gets all angry & ~dark~, especially during the palace invasion when he’s staring pitou down as she fixes up komugi. then the actual fight against pitou: more darkness, more anger, but through it all there’s still light, namely his jajanken being very orange & fiery lookin.....and that final sequence, where he puts all his possible nen he’d ever have into his ~final form~ or wahtever & turns into a male version of true form!bisky but dressed in a crop top & short-shorts (i am SCARRED, btw. s c a r r e d !). there’s just huuuge flashes of light as that’s going on, and it reminded me of supernovas or dying stars when i was thinking about it, where the star is like, collapsing under its own weight? & burning thru its own fuel, until there’s nothing left except a dwarf or black hole or what have you. one final, extremely deadly burst of light & energy before death.

  On the meruem side of things: born into a dark cave, exhibits a traditionally evil/cruel/wicked/whatever personality/traits so that has ppl associating him with darkness. then he gets to know komugi, starts to appreciate other aspects of humanity, seems like he could have actually turned into a decent person who doesn’t want to eat everyone - so that’s a ‘path to light’, maybe? - and then the extermination team yeets themselves into the palace, netero takes him out to bumfuck nowhere, they fight. netero’s fighting is just ALL light, from his giant ass golden 100-type guanyin bodhisattva to the poor man’s rose. again, there’s the sense of finality to it all, in a similar vein to dying stars: netero comes in determined to kill meruem no matter what, and we all know netero doesn’t flake. then we see netero get destroyed after the zero hand, and he triggers the rose, and everything is burning & on fire before the flames are put out and all turns dark again.

  But wait!!! pouf & youpi revive meruem and all he does is play gungi with komugi, even with the poison of the rose. he eventually dies, and the gungi pieces in that final shot of them together (i am BAWLING just thinking about it holy shit) has one that’s all white, one that’s a black ring and white inside. i assume all white is for komugi, who has never done ANYTHING wrong in her LIFE, so i like to think that the 2nd one is for meruem - born “into darkness”, literally & figuratively, but he turns something like ‘good’ by the end. it’s interesting how togashi has sort of gone for a bit of a subversion here: the hero going from light to darkness, and the main antag from darkness to light.

✶ 𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐎𝐍   AahhhhHHHHHhhh so if you read all the way down here through my LONG rambles, tysm! i would LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear what other people think about all this, and i’ve FOR SURE missed tons and tons of stuff - chimera ants is just. SO MUCH. and i don’t know it as well as yorknew eeek.

  I’m not sure if i’m really ~knowledgeable~ in any other areas relating to hxh, so this might be the only one of these that i do, but i definitely think about some of this - esp all the religious symbolism & #4 stuff - a ton! so in the meantime, if it’s of any interest, i’m just going to shamelessly plug my hxh x religious beliefs/superstitions edit series :D lots of love to all!!!

[faemen]

WAIT YOU DONT LIKE MIKAN OR KAITO HOW

thank you for asking! not sorry for the rambles!

tw mikan, kaito, chiaki, kaede, kokichi slander and spoilers for sdr2 and v3 under cut!

first of all, look. im not a terrible person and i know mikans backstory and literally everything but i STILL cannot fucking stand her. but unlike SOME PEOPLE im not gonna MAKE FUN OF HER TRAUMA and things.

i know she has her reasons but honestly her constant apologizing bothered me to no end and i know for a lot of people, once they saw her smile they fell in love or something, but instead i felt gross and wished she would stop. her voice is irritating too. ugh everyone makes me feel bad for hating her since i KNOW she has her reasons but i cannot. stand people like that shes so annoying and clingy and ughhh. also i get way too many requests for her constantly and i never liked her in the first place. too much fan service as well

kaito? fuck that dude legitimately! i dont even like maki all that much but it really irked me when he kept on downplaying her like that. and punching shuichi after he just WATCHED SOMEONE DIE? yes, i do think saimatsu went wayyyy too quickly to actually be meaningful, but she fucking died bc he pointed it out! anyone would cry why would you say he needs to man up tf?????? and also with joe being the exception, best friend bro type characters who cant take a hint fucking. i cannot deal with them at all bc i have too many irl who'll latch onto me and think im lonely when im alone on purpose.

i hate doing pushups and i hate this guys attitude and although i never played his chapter it honestly wouldnt have affected me at all. hes annoying and clingy and you can tell me how hes smart bc of his ultimate and that hes sexist and homophobic bc of who he was raised by but i literally dont care. its the way he acts for me. why is he even so liked i LITERALLY dont get it. he wasted his aesthetic too tf

anyways have some more bonus rants since youve activated me

chiaki. yes, yes i know that anime her and game her are different bc of her being an ai and stuff. guess what? i dont care. you can try and defend your favourites all you want, but seriously. chances are i know more than you. anyways i hated how we were supposed to care about her dying in game when all she did was kinda stand around and be helpful ig. she was way too bland and nice for me. i wont go as far as to call her a mary sue, but shes just. bleh. blehhh i dont care about chiaki at all i cannot connect to this sleepy gamer girl in any form. her execution and aesthetic are cool from a design pov but yeah. in anime form she was actually worse imo! bc in game she didnt really randomly be loved and adored by everyone, while she was way too nice. also once again WAY TOO MANY CHIAKI REQUESTS I SWEAR

kaede! you mightve been able to tell this by now but i do not like people who push friendship onto me and thats literally ALL kaede did. while valid and i dont really care about either of the characters involved, i have a personal vendetta against saimatsu bc it felt like a romance movie with how fucking QUICKLY it developed in a GODDAMN death game. if some blonde girl started talking about how shes gonna end a killing game id boot it out of there SO QUICk not stare lovingly into her eyes as we hold hands. her though, other than that bit, i do think she was killed off way too quick and she had a lot of potential. her story is cool from a writers perspective, as with the thing where she was trying to help by being positive but ended up making things worse. but she really severely overestimated herself. and from a fans pov? i fucking hate positive characters who try to make me positive. let me be a grumpy bastard in peace

KOKICHI mkay i like the other antags bc they have actual reasons but kokichi just exists to be a fucking clown. i do not like him i hate sharing a birthday and a height with him and i DO NOT GET. THE FANS. AT ALL? what is there to like? hes an annoying little bitch who wont stop laughing. OKAY BUT ONCE AGAIN. from a writers pov hes really underdeveloped bc while i appreciate his role in the story, and his morally grey character that is willing to do a lot for the greater good, his motivations do... not make sense? whatsoever? we dont know anything about his backstory PLEASE for the LVOE OF GOD stop calling him your uwu gay pg panta yandere boy. there is nothing to defend at all. yes he has a major impact on the plot but guess what. as a fans pov i literally couldnt care less. and for the final time PLEASE GET YOUR SOFTCORE PINK KOKICHI STUFF ELSEWHERE i am going to EXPLODE

thank you again!!!!!!!! and yeah blablabla youre valid for liking them just dont attack me or try to change my opinion. thanks.

[eldriitchmurmurs]

i talk a lot about badly-written villains (magneto), pretty obviously #Coded villains (mother gothel), villains/antags who just make more sense than the hero due to bad writing (max ii), and villains who are none of these but have a bunch of people sucking their dick for some mysterious reason (kylo ren)

but i think something that we should also be talking about is a trend of hyping up a bad guy as The Worst, Ever and making them do all sorts of odious shit, only for them to have a redemption arc (or just undergo a threat reduction that puts them on the side of the protags, for comedy or not) that ignores the really awful shit that they did

like joss whedon nazi-coding loki. it was unnecessary for him to still be a serious threat, and in my opinion it was a bad idea given the way that later movies give loki a slow sort of redemption/threat reduction, and his ultimate role in infinity war is still unknown. i don’t have a problem with folks liking avengers!loki as a villain because of the sympathetic characterization he got in thor 1, and i don’t have a problem with people liking ragnarok!loki as a chronically backstabbing sugar baby. (not that anybody’s asking for my opinion in the first place!) but when we have people scrambling to push the pretty clear overtones of loki’s avengers characterization under the rug, and when the character is still a credible threat without that aspect, i think it’s worth asking if it was necessary in the first place, especially because the character is meant to be somewhat sympathetic.

i’m not saying that we should all go out and stan nazis, but like... did whedon really need to do that. does anybody really need to do that?

there are some villains who are villains because of their direct ties to naziism or general fascism (the red skull is an actual nazi, kylo ren and hux are space alt-righters, vader is a totalitarian dictator’s hunting dog). there are villains for whom otherwise heinous behavior is essential—an essential part of pennywise the dancing clown’s character is that he preys on children. but these characters aren’t redeemed, because their writers understood, to some extent, that this behavior is irredeemable. so if a character is to be redeemed, then this kind of paralleling is ugly, unnecessary, and insulting.

and it’s not just nazis and child predators! there are characters who get this same behavior when it comes to sexual assault—they either assault or threaten to assault people (usually women!), but when their redemption rolls around, that ugly behavior never comes up. because either the writers didn’t think it was a problem, or because they never intended to take the character in that direction.

i don’t know if there’s a word for this behavior, or if tvtropes in its infinite horribleness has a collection of examples. but at the moment, the word i find coming to mind is irresponsible.