#taking this character with such depth and being like 'yeah he hates women and thinks animal abuse is funny' was a weird turn!

[sleepy-crypt1d]

i'm gonna be autistic about borderlands for a sec, everyone stay with me okay

i do not understand why the borderlands games try to make moxxi so important to jack, i dont get it, genuinely it doesn't make sense

so, spoilers for BL2, the pre-sequel, tales from the borderlands, and BL3 moxxi's heist- the general info you need is that jack and moxxi canonically dated for a period of time between the first game and TPS, how long this was we arent sure but we can make a guess that at the VERY most it was less then six months of them being together

we can piece this together by the vague timeline of TPS happening about a year or less after the first game

(this is estimated by the fact that Athena said she worked with jack five years ago, meaning TPS happened five years ago by the time the second game takes place and five years is also the amount of time that's passed between the first and the second game so- TPS took place in a very short few month period after the first game)

now we know that they couldn't have been together for long because moxxi was together with BOTH mordecai AND jack during this only a few month period of time between games- this is confirmed in a line of dialogue from BL2 where mordecai says moxxi left him for jack at the end of BL1 but then in TPS moxxi and jack are already broken up, which means they could have only been together for a few months for the timeline of five years to make sense! at the VERY most they were together for like, three months or even just a few weeks. all that matters is that it was not very long

in BL2 there's also a line about jack destroying moxxi's fighting dome because he thought she cheated on him, which is a thing he does AS handsome jack not as the normal dude jack he was when they broke up, the reason for which is still unknown but we know it was Vaguely Messy which is like whatever, sure, that sorta makes sense for him to do but what DOESN'T is the games trying to convince you that jack is in love with her.

okay you still following? cool

in TPS jack is visibly uncomfortable around moxxi and doesn't like working with her, even going as far as asking her to stop calling him 'sugar' a request she just, ignores and continues doing anyway, also during TPS is when jack gets together with nisha, his canon girlfriend he's had through the five years between BL1 and BL2. jack is INSANELY in love with nisha, we see this in the after credits art of both TPS and BL2 same with the way he talks to her/about her in TPS and in outside game material where he literally stutters when talking about her AND in the way he proudly displays her hat in his office in TFTBL alongside his most prized possessions.

he LOVES his woman with his entire heart, he gave her a whole town to prove it!! nisha is his everything outside of hyperion so, tell me, PLEASE why BL3 tried to tell us that jack was still in love with moxxi? because i do not get it at all

what im talking about here is 1. in moxxi's heist timothy is in love with moxxi, this is made canon in TPS where he fumbles through trying to flirt with her and in the heist dlc this is brought up again and timothy has a line about how jack asked moxxi on a date during his reign as handsome jack and sent timothy to go as him because he was busy but like, why would he do that? we know that jack is insane about nisha why would he then?? ask his ex that he visibly hates on a date??? and then 2. they added a fucking painting of her in his office in the casino.

i do not even know where to begin on how much i hate that detail

when you get to jack's office in the casino there are two paintings you find, one is of angel- makes sense, is his daughter who he loves even if he is really bad at it, it's the same as him having the picture of her in his office on helios, he loves his daughter, a painting of her being here is in line with everything else!! plus it's really pretty and i like it

then across from that is a painting of moxxi, which makes no fucking sense!!! why isn't it nisha!! it SHOULD be nisha!! the woman he is CURRENTLY TOGETHER WITH AND MADLY IN LOVE WITH????

i have DETESTED this detail since i first played the dlc, as much i love moxxi's heist and credit it as my favorite borderlands dlc the whole 'moxxi is jack's true love' thing makes me so confused?? they dated for MAYBE three months between BL1 and TPS and then he got into a five year long committed relationship that is never properly explored in the games and then the devs have the gall to say they wish they had done more with nisha like!!! good news you still could have!! but you didn't

anyways, i apologize for this, it has just been bothering me for months and i had to get it out and see if anyone else had noticed this and was bothered by it?? because it makes me go a little insane every time i think about it

then again maybe the character writing in BL3 is just bad

[angellwingss]

Wasn’t going to go on a big rant but you know what since that other post is gaining traction yeah I think I will. So big long rant under the cut. Lolll

I feel like. A lot of people might tell me ‘it’s not that deep’ but to me it is that deep.

I don’t have a problem with JayVik or it’s shippers like. At all. I just think some of them are à really good demonstration of like. Every bad thing when it comes to fandom ever LMAO.

Once again I am (supposed to be) writing a whole big long essay about this already so I will try and keep this kind of short and sweet and it might be a bit lacking but wtvr.

I think a lot of JayVik fans tend to be white queer people. Someone left a tag on my OG post that said basically ‘my take is I’m a faggot and I don’t have to care about a character if I don’t want to’ and no hate to that person cuz you’re right, but this is exactly the kind of stuff that made me make that first post.

I feel like a lot of white queer people have an issue with seeing outside their own identity? If that makes sense? This is seen time and time again with the way some of them behave when big movements happen online, some have a tendency to centre themselves and whatnot so i think it’s kind of the same thing.

It makes total sense that a queer person would prefer queer ships and would prefer JayVik over MelJay, that is not a crime. But I do think part of that is because they can’t relate/identify with Mel or see themselves in her like they can with Jayce or Viktor.

I hate to also make it about feminism but i think a lot of you guys are super like. Male centred, like just in your attraction which once again, not the issue not a crime. But i think it’s also why CaitVi, which is a canon queer ship, although popular is still not quite as popular as JayVik despite being canon. Women fetishizing gay men in fandom is not something new, which I think might play a small part in it- I’ve seen a lot of people especially back in s1 infantilizing Viktor and acting like he had no agency or independence and that he NEEDS Jayce to take care of him (that’s another thing. Ableism(looks at you with my eyes)) and they also do the same thing with Jayce where they act like he had 0 agency with any decisions he makes and that he’s like a big dumb baby who doesn’t know anything politics. Hey, guys. That’s a grown man.

My main issue isn’t that people prefer JayVik over MelJay it’s just that some shippers demonize Mel to an insane degree, blame her for getting in the way of their ship (this is also happening right now with Maddie- there’s a leak going around saying that she gets with Caitlyn and people are so upset that this character is getting some INSANE hate and I feel like that’s the same thing going on.)

they blame her for ‘stealing’ Jayce etc etc like. Idk. You don’t have to ship MelJay but I wish more people would appreciate Mel just as a character- imo she is super interesting and has a great story but she’s only ever seen and ‘the other woman’. I’ve seen people say she isn’t like, well characterized and that her story entirely revolves around Jayce which. Yeah she’s definitely heavily involved with him in s1 but she’s clearly got a lot more going on than just that and you would know that if you GAF 🗣️🗣️

for just being. Who she is. I think Mel deserves more attention just in the fandom and it’s just frustrating. People making memes about Jayce going insane over Viktor leaving but like. Mel also just got fucking kidnapped guys. His lover has just vanished without a trace why is nobody also talking about that !!!! Why can’t he care about both these people at the same time !!!!!!!

Anyway I’m not nearly well equipped enough to talk more in-depth about like. Any of this but I do think the demonization of Mel and refusal to see her relationship with Jayce as it is can often times be boiled down to racism like straight up. And also things like the fetishization of gay men in fandom and just things like that are sometimes what can lead to female characters- even the well written ones to be shelved and pushed aside in favour of their male counterparts.

Obligatory ‘not all JayVik fans’ obviously a lot of you are awesome, shouldn’t have to say this. If I’m not aiming for you, you shouldn’t be getting shot.

[raven]

As someone who plays persona I feel you’re a good person to ask: should I play a persona game

you know a game is a real one when the answer is "if you do, please dont think im stupid for liking it". the first persona game anyone should ever play is persona 5 royal and that game is. well. the best part isnt until 70-90 hours in on average. tries really hard to be a social commentary but fumbles basically every aspect. can barely keep a cohesive character arc for most main characters. "the gameplay is really good though" -karl marx. so like short answer, do you have a hundred hours or so and want an excuse to hate on something's story and politics while also having a good time in the actual gameplay, sure... i feel like i can recommend this to any general person but i feel less confident recommending it to you specifically as i feel you are a woman of taste. but you're also someone who loves the slop at times. and what is this game if not slop. i put the rest under a read more because i said too much. My bad for being loquacious

like storywise i do like it... Mostly. and i do like the characters. and i think akechi is genuinely a great character, well written, well acted, yaoibait, knocked everything out of the park with him. he is what kept me going, but if you dont like characters whose main flaw is that theyre a teenager and therefore stupid, he might not click with you. like yeah, everything he does is poorly thought out... it's consistent. it's in character. and he does it with such swag, too. everything in the game's story seems designed around him, including the phantom thieves themselves. but i dont know whats in it for people who dont like him. not that you'll really get to know him for a good chunk of the game. which is the biggest thing... i could say "keep going, it gets better" but... does it? for everyone? it did for me, but it was made in a lab for me.

the game can understand that violence against women is wrong, but it doesnt understand what violence against women is. it can understand that the current system isnt working, but is too weak to actually take a stance on how to fix it. it's too obsessed with giving the player a power fantasy than to give them any challenges at all, or to make them think for a second. which i like in a game. i like it when games fuck up hard because theres more to discuss. and one of my biggest issues was discussed in the very last part. not necessarily to the depth i would have preferred, but it lets you draw your own conclusions. it also really shocked me at one point near the end there, which really colored my view in a positive way. i had grown complacent. i stopped thinking. i didnt think the game could do anything interesting... and then it did. but that level of shock was only because of my specific proclivities... i dunno. like it's hard to defend.. oh also theres a massive climax that builds up to a twist and reveal which is genuinely one of the worst ive seen a story ever do it, especially with such a strong set up. like genuinely laughable. but once you reach that part you're about 3/4 of the way through so you cant really stop there just have a laugh and know it's almost done.

the gameplay IS good though. like it's not only flashy, it's fun. i think the only issue is that it can be too easy, and the merciless mode is famously easier than hard. but as persona games go, it really is the best. it's just fun! the social sim elements are... well lets just say the majority of character writing in this game is stupid. otherwise, it can be fun to try to balance everything. it's possible to do it all on your first playthrough even if you don't know the perfect strategy, but if you fuck up too much you really wont be able to finish them all.

but heres the thing: metaphor refantazio just came out, which, aside from the time aspect (you have so much time lol) almost improves on persona 5 in every way. it's slightly less misogynistic. the social commentary... well, its fantasy racism, but it's a little more well thought out than p5's. but the main thing is the gameplay. and like, the gameplay in p5 was already good! metaphor is much more balanced for difficulty than p5's, but if you really get a hang of character building you can really take control. the slight differences in battle systems really take it for me. press turn system every day. i adore it. basically you get turns if you hit a weakness but if you miss you lose two turns. same goes for the enemies, so you can really get destroyed, but you can dodge every attack and they wont be able to do shit. but the story is, well, it's okay. there were some really good moments, and i liked it mostly because its kind of.. the least bad anyone could ever do it? it's pretty idealistic but just seemed like, nice in a way that i really cant describe. like, i have my issues with it that i could go into detail, but i still generally liked it. beautiful presentation as well-- and is that not all that matters? give me literally anything with a beautiful cutscene and I'll be tearing up. and the words "election magic" are so potent to me. its also shorter than p5r. but will it stick with me as much? no. would it have caused me to play the rest of the persona games? unsure. have i listened to the soundtrack so often while falling asleep that atlus is my number 5 artist on my spotify wrapped, not because the soundtrack is so calming or because i especially like it, but because i was trying to conjure a character in my dreams? NO. and persona 5 was a resounding yes on all fronts.

in terms of the other persona games, i dont recommend 4 unless you want to feel like, actually bad? i dunno it just put me in a foul mood. it was like radiation emanating from my switch for several weeks. incredibly homophobic with a side of (possibly slightly unintentional) transphobia. as well as some very fatphobic jokes (what game from this time period doesnt, but.. well it's bad every time!) and of course our classic misogyny. all this and the gameplay is worse than every other (new) persona game, and the story is fine. it thinks its twin peaks at the beginning. it is not twin peaks. LMFAO. 3 is better than 4 but theres not really a definitive edition even though it just got remade. each version has its ups and downs. if you look it up and any of it compels you i can give you more info on that one. the aesthetics alone are enough to be compelling , I'll admit. if you like boring and repetitive gameplay this ones for you! Im being serious. the story's pretty good though, and the characters are probably the best in the persona series. 2 (which is a duology, but the gameplay is the same and the second is well, a sequel) is pretty bad gameplay wise that i would only recommend if you're really into the series. i really liked the story but yeah i dunno. eh, it's fun. hard to recommend. 1 is okay. underwhelming. nothing much.

[absolutelybifurious]

no one follows me from the 911 fandom so i feel mostly safe in whining to the abyss about this, so like i feel bad for not caring as much about buck's bi rep at face value... i can appreciate that buck - as a stereotypically masculine guy, who is for all intents and purposes the main character of a procedural prime time show - coming out as bi is a big deal, and i appreciated the set up with tommy. it was fun/fine. as a bi person, as someone who wants the world to get better - it makes me happy in an intellectual sense.

but for me, as a viewer of 911 the show - i don't really care. emotionally, in the context of the story it didn't do anything for me. tommy is (mostly) a random guy who showed up and buck realizes he's bi and now they're dating, but there's nothing to draw on earlier - and if it's a stepping stone, then i'll love it wholeheartedly in hindsight but if buddie doesn't happen - i just don't quite know how to feel other than like, detachedly glad we got a queer relationship for someone like buck.

and full disclosure, i wholeheartedly admit to being an eddie girlie, but even if eddie had gotten the storyline with tommy - i don't think i would've had a super strong reaction?

like yeah, i appreciate rep and of course it matters, but what would feel revolutionary for me is to take this relationship thats been implicitly on screen - to basically look at all these queer fans and be like, okay, yeah, you were right. all this subtext you've seen in a dozen other mlm ships over the years is valid. you aren't crazy and it's not gross or weird to make it REAL. you aren't rabid. (not counting the people who send weird hate to women actors just trying to do their jobs) and god - more than that, i'm just here for the fuckin STORY of it. tommy is fine. lou is lovely and i'm plenty interested to see where the buck and tommy train goes, but i don't have investment in it, not significant investment anyway, and i don't think i will? i mean, we're 7 seasons in. i can't get all in with tommy and buck at this point, i've been frothing at the mouth for another ship. and you brought me THIS close just to swerve at the last second.

so while i get that canonizing buck as bi is a big deal - it is always going to feel hollow for me personally because the story is what i'm here for. the relationship. the depth of it. and tbh i just want to see something beautiful and unintentional building in the background and have it fuckin happen for onceeee.

just sometimes i feel like i'm missing something, because i see the like... level of reaction some people have just to the bi-ness of it, and for me - if there's not a satisfying story, then, i don't have many emotions about it. i've gotten plenty of bi characters over the years, and very few of them felt fully actualized in the story being told around them.

[spotaus]

Thinking about Orchid and her connection to my take on Gender (because this was meant to be about her and the Crew but it just devolved into a character analysis kinda??? More trauma-dumping maybe???) This is very much an oc/personal rant so feel free to ignore it 🫡

So, Orchid started off as a character I didn't really think much of (hear me out this is going to be relevant) because I wanted to add a 'girl' character but didn't know what to *do* with her, y'know? She was always going to be the strongest one there, she had the odds stacked in her favor with her parents. She was always going to be the gloomy side-character to match Reset's energy. But I think she's gone through every stage of Generic Woman I could possibly find.

At first she was angry and abrasive (think Fell!Sans) where every other word was a curse and she was likely to throw the first punch then laugh as she kicks her enemy while they're down. This was when Reset was a cartoonishly self-centered villain whose goal was simply to prove others wrong. Then Orchid became a sort of sisterly figure. This was short-lived, but she was the one comforting people who Reset would torment, but would ultimately follow his orders, because at this point he was actually a danger and sadistic. And then there was the phase where the story mellowed out and she became the token Goth Girl who, yes she was strong, but was heavy on the 'whatever' energy. Then there was her Era of deep self-loathing and anxiety about her worth that held her back and made her a much more timid and meek character who would only lash out on occasion.

Now, Orchid is the best of those iterations I've written yet. She's calm, level-headed, and a natural leader. Her father raised those traits into her. But she's very reactive, and can be silly, and when she's comfortable it's likely that air of importance transforms into something more comfortable and familiar. She laughs loudly and grins wide, she likes loud video-games but loves to read in the quiet. She's extremely disciplined, and normally no one can get through her tough exterior besides her best friend, Reset. She does what she does for her own enjoyment, sure, but she's thought of every angle and makes her choice to help Reset and control the others with her whole chest. She still worries she won't live up to her invisible expectations, and that and her loyalty are her two driving forces.

I know that Orchid is important to me because she's the longest-running female oc I've had. I have a rough relationship with womanhood/girlhood and I know looking back that Orchid recieved every ounce of my distaste for being a woman that I could shovel into her. That never made her less of a character, she was actually always one of my favorites, and rarely was she a 'punching bag oc'. I just... projected onto her a lot. And she's a good sign of how I've learned who I am. I've decided that my own femininity is something I could live without. I'd rather not associate myself with it, and I'd like to leave it in my past, focusing on a future where I'm not tied down with any gender roles or expectations. That won't happen, but I've come to terms with it myself. Orchid though? I figured out through her that I don't have to hate women characters. My own distaste for my circumstances doesn't mean I have to push it onto my characters (on God I've never expressed anything rude to actual people, that'd be rude as hell and uncalled for, but I have a bad habit of disliking fictional women in media). So, Orchid is a well-roubded character finally. She has motivations abd goals and a *lot* more depth than I ever expected her to. She's happy with being a woman, she's content. She's not treated differently for it in unfair ways by those she cares about, so she doesn't mind it. She likes to wear pretty outfits and lets Reset add bows to her ribbons. She doesn't let being a woman hold her back in the slightest.

So, yeah. Orchid is one of my babies. If I ever leave this Fandom behind for good, she's one that's coming with (Ichor, Orchid, and Pretender all have human designs I can use elsewhere lol-) but in the meantime I'll just rotate her around in my brain for a while longer.

If I'm right, she's been with me for nearly 5-6 years and I went through a *lot* with her as an outlet. So, she's kinda just like an old stuffed animal. A lil ripped, matted fur, maybe a stain or two, but there's a story there and that makes it important beyond belief.

[eyeballsoup7310]

Finally got to the end of sh2 and man. I really like that ending cuz not only does it expand Mary, who desperately needed more depth beyond “loving wife who’s dead now” (her flatness early on, I think, was also very intentional as I imagine that’s how James was trying to remember her), but it also retroactively makes James way more interesting to me, too.

By giving Mary these complicated feelings about her illness, she’s no longer Just A Nice Dead Wife, which is annoying trope in of itself, she’s a woman who feels like she’s been torn apart between dealing with an illness she knows won’t go away and being with the man who used to love her. In her final letter she says that she’s scared to go home to James because she knows he’s fallen out of love with her over this, he rarely visits her anymore and when he does he clearly hates it. Hates her. She doesn’t seem to have any other support system, the only people she knows are a small girl in the same hospital and the nurses and doctors. She probably felt broken and alone. And while there’s no way for a human to be broken, she was definitely alone.

And by having James internalize these frustrations, he then has all the thoughts simultaneously running through his head that “I’m not taking care of her as good as a husband as I should be” and “I hate her for this she says she hates being like this” and “I’ll be she’ll be better off for it”. There’s layers to it other than just “aaaaauuhhh I wanna fuck other women :((((“ like yeah, that theme is definitely there, there’s a reason why every enemy Looks Like That, but I personally prefer characters who have multiple reasons—bad as they may be—for doing things. Even the version of Mary that only exists in his memory tries to give him an out, she hated being sick, it’s okay, James, he still has to make the active decision to put that false memory to rest and tell her he did it for wholly selfish reasons.

Mary’s characterization is constantly at war with the real version of her, sick and resentful and scared and full of self hatred, and James’ memories of her, watered down to sick and sweet and forgiving— you only want to remember the ‘good’ parts of people you’ve lost, and if only remembering their best means forgetting why you grew to hate them, then that’s a bonus, right, James?

Mary was expanded from just a motivation for James to being her own person, fucked up and struggling, while simultaneously still being viewed as just a motivation for me in James’ own head, until he actually tries to make efforts to shut down the part of himself that thinks of her this way. I’m speaking in circles now but you get the point I think these are both really interesting characters

[emerson-grimes-apologist]

Heyyyy 😼😼😼😼 after seeing that one detailed anon's post about the women in candle cove I'd like to see your take on the toxic masculinity in the male characters 😋 no need to rush

Yes yes, I never pass up an opportunity to overanalyze media 😈 I’m gonna use a narrow of definition of toxic masculinity just because if I didn’t, I’d be here all day since so many of the characters have toxic traits and are male. So toxic masculinity is basically the collection of traits associated with traditional male gender roles that are harmful both to the men that have it and to everyone else in society. These traits are

Emotion suppression

Violence and aggression

Self-reliance (e.g., not accepting help)

Competitiveness and feeling like you need to dominate others

Also, I’m only gonna go in-depth with the main characters. Plus Calvery. (He's like an unofficial main character to me)

PERCY

Why does Percy constantly threaten to pull out his weapons and threaten people whenever they do something he doesn’t want them to do? That’s right: because of toxic masculinity making him violent. Maybe he thinks that he could only get his way through violence and not through reasoning. He’s pretty alright otherwise. He doesn’t push down his emotions, clearly, with him always being obviously scared of everything, plus he’s not that competitive, because if he was, he would actually care about his rivalry with Milo.

POPPY

I said it before and I’ll say it again: he had absolutely no reason to skin Thade. Like, he did it to “avenge” Thade’s victims, but to actually be willing to tie a man down and take the time to cut off all his skin AND muscles AND organs, while he screams bloody murder the whole time and splatters him with blood, is insane behavior to me. Like, if Thade murdered all of Poppy’s family and friends or something, it would seem more understandable, but Thade has no connection to Poppy. It’s extreme violence for no reason.

Also, the whole idea of vengeance is built on dominance. Like, having something of yours taken away (or seemingly taken away) and then feeling like you need to one-up the person so you can restore your dignity and show you have more power. Although in this case, Poppy didn’t have anything taken away, which makes his desire to get revenge on Thade make him seem even more obsessed with being the most dominant man.

Also, he looks down on Percy for being cowardly, i.e. for showing his feelings, and for not caring about being macho. He straight up says Percy is an insult to pirates iirc.

And yeah, he has a powerful grudge against Skin-Taker, but that’s not for any machismo reason. I think it’s because Skin-Taker keeps coming after Janice and his crew, so I see this as unselfish and not having anything to do with being competitive or wanting to one-up him.

MILO

Ohhhhohoho. Do you want to talk about being overly competitive? Do I even need to explain how Milo is overly competitive? The little competition he has with Percy is so over-the-top it’s embarrassing, tbh. He tried to kill Percy because he was pissy he lost a boat race. And does Percy even care or is it totally one-sided? Embarrassing.

Also, he gives me the vibes of a misogynist, but there’s nothing on the wiki that could directly prove he’s a misogynist. Like, yes, he kills Sariah, but he also does the same to his all-male crew, so I’m not sure it was motivated by gender. HOWEVER, Milo hated his crewmates, but actually liked Sariah. And if he liked Sariah, it wouldn’t make sense for him to kill her, UNLESS he was a misogynist and thought her life had no value. In that case, to him, killing her might have made him sad, but he wouldn’t have seen it as that big of a deal because he would think women’s lives don’t have value and are disposable—it would be akin to euthanizing an animal. And he would be willing to do it and deal with the sadness if it benefited him in some way. (Also, thanks Nina for pointing this out to me because now I can be at peace knowing that I'm not reaching and that Milo can legitimately be interpreted as a misogynist in canon. In a way.)

CALVERY

Listen… canon Calvery is a misogynist. Hear me out. On his wiki page, it is implied that he doesn’t think Janice can handle being a pirate. He says that “‘a pirate ship is no place for children’”. This sounds like it makes sense. Janice is a young child, after all. HOWEVER, when it comes to Nathan (who is ALSO a young child. He’s only a few years older than Janice), he “admires his skill” and is seemingly alright with him rolling around cannons twice his size and shooting them (as he does in episode “Milo”). Like, SURE, Cal, keep pretending that Janice being a child is the reason you don’t think she can handle herself. We believe you /s

He also has a grudge against Horace, which could fall under the “obsessed with competition and dominance” aspect of toxic masculinity, but I think that’s understandable and not really that toxic seeing that Horace betrayed him and let him get imprisoned, and also, it’s not like this grudge takes over his life. Unlike the next character I will talk about.

HORACE

The lengths he goes to get back at Poppy are so disproportionate. The wiki mentions that he has some grudge against Poppy because Poppy sunk his ship years and years ago, and he is STILL hung up over it, which is why he’s always beefing with the Laughingstocks. Seriously beefing. It’s implied that he summoned Skin-Taker specifically to help him get back at Poppy. He basically wrought the greatest evil Candle Cove has ever seen into the world just because he’s pissy Poppy sunk his ship. And, like, that’s the epitome of fragile masculinity to me. Failing once in a small way, and feeling like “less of a man” for it, and then not being happy until you one-up whoever caused you to fail in the most over-the-top way possible.

SKIN-TAKER

Shockingly, he’s probably the most non-toxic of this list. Hear me out:

He listens to and comforts Sariah after he took her skin, plus he cries openly several times (in “Skin-Taker’s Day Off,” plus in a flash-forward in Come and Rip, although I think that part was removed from the wiki), showing that he isn’t emotionally unavailable.

He’s NICE to his enemies sometimes (like that time he showed up to Janice’s birthday party to give her a gift), which shows that he doesn’t feel like he always needs to be aggressive towards them.

He allows Horace and the Rubber Fishes to serve him, so he isn’t overly self-reliant.

He has traditionally feminine hobbies (sewing and hosting tea parties) and isn’t embarrassed by it, which shows he doesn't care about being macho, or with competing with other men about who’s the most manly.

So that’s my closing thought: Skin-Taker may be toxic in every other way, but he does NOT have toxic masculinity. Good night, everyone!

[kohakhearts]

Zelos 22, Kohaku 18&19!

thanks yume!!^^

22: if you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? something you don't like?

you know, i feel like zelos is one of those characters i’ve never actually seen an interpretation of in a fic that didn’t feel in-character. like he so would fucking say that! i think this is because of how deeply his Problems are tied into his annoying behaviours - you really can’t take away one without disrupting the other. so people who hate him because he’s an obnoxious womanizer still have to acknowledge his trauma and people who love him because he’s so Deep and Complex still have to acknowledge that he’s a problematic jerk.

that being said, i really like seeing people explore his womanizing behaviours in fics in more depth. i read this fic probably not long after its post date, so like…9 years ago? and it’s stuck with me all this time as like, peak zelos. i think the idea of him using women for non-sexual intimacy was something i hadn’t really thought of before but made so much sense when i read this fic and i love seeing that explored in other ways by other people too!

as for dislike, again i can’t think of much…i guess it’d be erasing his womanizing completely, but i really haven’t seen that very much (if at all?) lol.

18: how about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

i’m a sucker for sibling duos and kohaku and hisui have such a fun dynamic! the overprotective older brother archetype is often annoying for its inherent sexism lol and i can’t say that’s not happening here too (especially in hearts r, if memory serves), but i mean…of course hisui is overprotective, just look at everything they’ve been through! something i really like about hearts is how in the early parts of the game kohaku is a passive actor but still dominates the narrative - hisui’s concern for her creates such interesting dynamics between him and the other characters (namely shing lol) because it’s clear how unbalanced he feels by the position she’s in, and i think it also sets a strong tone for how those dynamics play out later on when she does regain her spirunes and she actively encourages him to be less grumpy lol. i just think it’s neat how much it shows how much he actually relies on her, even though his whole schtick is being the dependable older brother that SHE can rely on. idk if this makes sense but yeah. them <3

my runner-up here is her relationship with richea. it’s SO interesting, and also a little ??? because wow, what a weird situation. there’s so much potential there to explore imo and i think the game kind of drops the ball with it in favour of developing the dynamic between richea and hisui, which…fair enough, but also kohaku is so intertwined in richea’s whole. everything. i just would’ve loved to see that expanded on more than it was.

19: how about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

this is kind of a random pick but chalcedony tbh. i feel like in vanilla hearts the other characters often became kinda secondary to shing when chalcedony was around and i’m not sure hearts r really fixed that by adding him to the party? idk maybe this is selective memory on my part but i just would’ve liked to see a more fleshed out dynamic between him and any of the other characters but especially kohaku, who is obviously pretty implicated in the initial antagonism between him and the party/shing. like it was definitely touched on but clearly not in a way that stuck out for me because i can’t remember any interactions they actually had lol. to be fair i didn’t get to the point of him joining the party in hearts r so it’s possible there are interactions i never saw that would sway my opinion here but yeah. it’s been many years since i played hearts so my memory is pretty fuzzy…maybe i should continue the replay i started a couple years ago haha

character ask game

[blodgmonster]

Thoughts on live action Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Not that anyone actually wants my take.

It's solidly in the middle. Not as horrible as that wrteched movie. Obviously, it's not as amazing as the original series. It was never going to be. It was NEVER going to be as good as the original. You can't top perfection. I don't hate it. I don't love it. Below the cut (for spoiler free...ness) are my likes and dislikes. Probably not all of them. I'm sure I forgot some.

LIKES

Iroh. His characterization was good and I like that it kind of addressed the fact that he's a war criminal. Our beloved war criminal.

Azula. I've always adored her and was worried they'd wreck her. Obviously, I want to see her blue fire, but she was clever and badass, and we saw her insecurities. And went she lightning bent? * chef's kiss * That's my girl. Also, glad they didn't have her grinning like a sociopath when Zuko got burned.

Kyoshi. They leaned HEAVILY into the fanon interpretation of her and she wouldn't have yelled at Aang but she was badass.

Aesthetics. The show looked good.

Jun and Nyla. Perfect

The line "You are the fire in which her iron was forged." Fantastic.

Yue. Less wishy washy, more proactive. Also, a waterbender who sometimes chills in the spirit world. Good for her. And no love triangle.

Big fish fuckin things up!

Sokka. The actor did a good job.

"Kick his ass." Sokka being fully supportive of Katara

Katara bringing all the women to the battle.

Having Zuko's crew be the division he got his scar for was a cool touch.

DISLIKES

Zuko fought back against Ozai in the Agni Kai? I think NOT. That's the whole point. Ozai attacked a CHILD who refused to fight back. That shows the depth of his evil. Why erase that?

Did Aang just...leave my boi Hei Bai raging and in pain?

Aang never learned waterbending!? Didn't even try? Why???

Where was Katara's rage? Yes she's hopeful and motherly and in touch with her feelings but she's also fucking angry and she's right and it's great. But cutting that, they made her one dimensional.

Cutting Sokka's character growth, wherein he learns to respect women. "It was problematic." Yeah, dude, that's the point. He was in the wrong and had to learn that.

Suki. They made her...less than somehow. Less capable. Less strong. Ogling Sokka? Unnecessary. Saying he brought the world to her? Lame.

BUMI. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT? Bumi was so BITTER and CRUEL to Aang! It made me so mad. Yes, he's unhinged but he's also a playful genius

Aang was kind of wooden. They cut his joyful, playful nature. But that's at Aang'd core. Why cut that? And he sides with PAKKU when he says Katara can't fight? EXCUSE YOU? No. He calls him Master Poophead and teaches her himself.

Cramming all the spirit world stuff into one episode was weird. Koh, Wong Shi Tong, and Hai Bei all in one go? And having Gyatso there only to have him leave? What was that? And they stripped Koh of his purpose, telling Aang who Tui and La were.

What was Mai's wig? Good Lord. The wigs in general were meh, but hers was particularly heinous.

Kyoshi and Kuruk yelling at Aang. Too much yelling.

[magnorious]

Eowyn and the "Strong Female Character" debate

In the ongoing argument about Strong Female Characters (SFCs), the usual poster-women of “characters no one ever complains about” are the strong badass women from classic movies, like Elen Ripley, Sarah Connor, Princess Leia, and Trinity. Modern SFCs no one hates include Wonder Woman, every female character in Last Airbender, a handful of Marvel women like Gamora, Nebula, Agent Hill, Black Widow, and *some* of the heroines from teen dystopian fiction like Katniss Everdeen.

The attention paid to the women of Lord of the Rings goes, “Galadriel is a badass in her own right and the movies could have had more women, but the women we do have are great.”

And, yes, I agree, but I want to look at Eowyn in particular and answer this question: Would Eowyn, written exactly the same, in the exact same story, be criticized by today’s audiences? We’re looking at movie-Eowyn, not book Eowyn, for familiarity’s sake.

Eowyn looks a lot like the terrible so-called “strong female characters” modern audiences hate from modern movies. She’s strong, she’s skilled, she’s smart, she’s capable, and her whole story is about overcoming the stigma against women warriors and joining the battle in the end, and killing the great evil Witch King that “no man can kill” by virtue of having a uterus. She’s also one of… I think five named women in the cast, Arwen, Galadriel, Eowyn, Freida (little villager girl), and Rosie (the hobbit bartender).

She checks so many boxes, she’d have to fail in a movie written today, wouldn’t she?

I love Galadriel and Arwen and I love the argument around them—that SFCs don’t need to act like men to be considered strong. They don’t need to be physical warriors, they can champion their femininity and that in itself makes them strong. Their wisdom and compassion and wits, not just their muscles.

Eowyn, though, is a warrior through and through. She literally goes “I am no man,” as she stabs the Witch King, a line specifically and implicitly subverted by Wonder Woman in her debut solo film during the No-Man’s Land scene when it’s softballed to her with the line “It’s No-Man’s Land, that means no man can cross it.”

Surely, a 2024 Eowyn would be ripped apart…. Right?

—

Getting this out of the way first: Every character is written with depth and nuance, including the women, and, thus, no character feels like an agenda with a face taped to it. So already Eowyn has a leg up on so many other terrible releases lately. But let’s take it piece by piece here.

Eowyn is one of three prominent women in the cast

Yes, no arguing that. Why? “Because it’s fantasy and the author is sexist-” no. This is an author who lived through the World Wars, from a time period without women soldiers. Young men and boys being ripped away from home to never see their sisters, daughters, wives, aunts, mothers, best friends ever again is what he lived through and what this story is saturated with.

Could there have been scenes of prominent women nurses, or lady elves at the Council of Elrond or any member of the Fellowship? Yeah, sure, but it’s not at all a lack of women because Tolkien discounted women warriors. This cast is hefty enough, these movies are long enough, and they’re based on a book that’s almost 100 years old.

Eowyn is objectified by male characters and trapped in a love triangle

Yeah… the love triangle bit was weak. However! Eowyn was never bitter over Arwen and didn’t know she existed until Aragorn tells her basically, “yeah, I love her, but I’m guaranteed to never see her again,” so… can you blame Eowyn for holding out hope? It doesn’t at all define her character either, and she likes Aragorn not because he’s Protagonist Boy but because he’s a high-ranking, noble man who doesn’t bat an eye at her desire to join the war effort. She then gets Faramir, so, win-win.

Grima objectifies her, but Eomer, her brother, Aragorn, and Theoden, her uncle, all defend her. Eomer gets banished under punishment of death for standing up for his sister (among other things). She’s not the butt of jokes or slights or innuendos. No soldiers look at her with lust and desire. No one degrades her or belittles her or mocks her for being a woman. Nowhere do the writers get to satisfy their own sexism by writing in gratuitous insults and slurs against her.

Eowyn is repeatedly told to run from the fight and hide with the other women

Theoden has no living siblings and his only son dies off-screen. Eomer is (I think) older, but he’s busy being a general. Eowyn is Theoden’s best chance at an heir to the throne and he can’t let her get killed on the battlefield. Eowyn being told to hide is strategic, not sexist. Not only that, she may be competent enough with a sword, but she can’t have trained as well as the battle-tested soldiers to not be at risk in a nasty battle.

Also, at the rate men are getting killed on the battlefield, sending too many of your women off to war risks so much collateral damage.

Even putting strategy aside, Theoden loves his niece, loves her strong and pure and good soul, and doesn’t want to see it destroyed in the fog of war. All he wants is to see her smile again, so he can give her a world and a future worth smiling for. War is the “realm of men” not because they’re male, but because it’s a horrible, terrible, violent, depressing, scary place to find oneself in, and he’s trying desperately to protect her from it. Eomer tells her this explicitly in a deleted scene, that they’re only trying to spare her some horrific trauma.

When Eowyn does finally see real battle up close, she’s rightfully horrified and terrified and out of her depth during the battle for Minas Tirith. She’s not riding into war all smug and overconfident, and she’s not magically a better fighter or rider than the rest of the cavalry.

Eowyn constantly complains about being looked down on for not being a man

She’s not allowed to be a soldier, yes, but women of Rohan aren’t treated as lesser by the men. She’s not being teased or mocked, her station as the crown princess is uncontested, being relegated to the caves with the women isn’t seen as a time-out, but a necessity to make sure all the vulnerable non-combatants don’t get murdered and the entire kingdom of Rohan doesn’t get exterminated in one night.

She herself isn’t putting other women down for not wanting to fight, or putting men down to make herself look better. No one is telling her she can’t be a soldier because she’s weak and womanly. If she was Denethor’s kid, he’d be singing her praises right next to Boromir (within the context of movie Denethor, at least). She wants to fight, not because she hates her own femininity, but because “women of this country learned long ago that those without swords can still die upon them”.

Eowyn single-handedly kills the Witch King because Woman

Actually, Merry stabs him in the leg to distract him first, giving Eowyn a few seconds to breathe and surprise him. The legend goes that “no man can kill the Witch King,” but it’s not meant to be the fault of men and instead the arrogance of the Ring Wraiths. These nigh-immortal spirits are so cocky and overconfident they don’t even register women on the list of potential threats, to their own doom. The legend also didn’t specify no Elves, Dwarves, or Hobbits, since “Man” is a race, not just a gender.

The Witch King is the Witch King because he was seduced by a shiny ring and a lust for power by Sauron. The “power of womanhood” isn’t the point, it’s the overinflated ego of the Witch King that is his downfall.

So Eowyn’s “I am No Man” is as much a “yay feminism” as it is a dig at his arrogance. It’s the fulfillment of this line by Galadriel: “Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.” Frodo is small in stature and worldly presence, and Eowyn is small in prowess and authority.

*headcanon that Sauron also hates the Nazgul and wrote in that little clause for the Witch King so he could get the last laugh on these snot-nosed, so-called “kings of men”.

—

So would Eowyn be panned by today’s audiences? No, I don’t think so. Another well-written woman who wants to learn swordplay and join the men’s war, and kills an unkillable witch king is Arya Stark. That “victory” went over like a box of rocks and no one hates Arya for it.

You can write women warriors in a no-women-allowed fantasy land. You can write them championing feminism without cramming an agenda down your audience’s throat, or insulting the audience for presumed bigotry. You can write women who kill the Witch King through a prophetic loophole. You can write them in a love-triangle and give them all the “women empowerment” speeches you want.

She is still feminine. She’s still nurturing, still has her wardrobe of pretty dresses, still sings at her cousin’s funeral and pines after men she absolutely deserves. She’s also a terrible cook and independent and not afraid to put creepy men in their places. She has flaws, she’s humble, she’s shown having fear. She’s not built up by stepping on her male counterparts, and her big moment isn’t detracted by Merry going “Wow! A woman! Who’da thunk it?”

[rage-against-the-dying-of-light]

1, 3, 7, 8, 16 >:3c

>:3c hehehehehe thank you for the ask!

the character everyone gets wrong

Franziska! god I could write a whole thesis about how ppl treat Franziska especially in comparison to Miles. Miles gets the uwu treatment for being just as shitty a person as you can argue Fran was at 18. but bc he's a man and part of everyone's fave ship he gets such a pass.

Fran was literally forced to grow up too fast, dealt with the trauma of growing up in the von Karma household, and had to deal with Miles 'dying' when she was 18. this is a traumatized, grieving 18 year old and people demonize her like crazy. I've seen ppl write fics where she gets hurt or killed, bc they don't like her, or write her like she's a sociopath and not a deeply complex individual.

Franziska has so much depth and layers, and it sucks to see everyone either turn her into a shipper of Wrightworth, or villify her or have other characters enact violence on her bc thinking about the nuance of her character is too much work.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

Oh man this is like a collection of takes, but like. nobody knows what a dad bod is. like everytime i see a piece of art tagged "Phoenix's dad bod", and bro, he doesn't even have any fat on him in the art, i feel like I'm gonna lose it. like a guy that's just not shredded is not a dad bod. give Phoenix a fat stomach, thick thighs, stretch marks, a bit of grey, maybe some wrinkles and laugh lines and y'know make him actually fat and then and only then can you say that he has a hot dad bod. bc fat ppl are hot.

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

sorry Clay, I wouldn't say I hate you, but it does annoy me that you get so much more attention than tons of well developed and well written women when you are basically a cardboard box of a character.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

This one is not that serious, but almost everyone is wrong about Klav. he is an actual for real German. yes he's named piano. yes he lived in germany as a boy, yes his family went to awful house parties put on by the von Karmas when he was a toddler since they were all rich and all rich ppl know each other. yes he toddled along behind Franziska and Miles hated it.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

oh this one is DGS related, I just do not get Barok x any Japanese character. is it just bc he fits with the Edgeworth vibes? Barok is racist as hell. obviously I understand liking villains, I'm not trying to flatten the nuance here, but he seems so beloved and ppl are ready to make him into such a ~tragic~ character uwu, but like plenty of other ppl have lost someone to another person of another race and not become a racist. I just don't think his racism can be easily overlooked for cutesy shipping stuff. it's especially bad when ppl ship him with Ryu or Kaz. And yes I know he 'apologized', I just don't think it was a well done enough or well explored enough. It didn't feel like he actually grew as a person and reflected on his racism, more like 'oh, this one Japanese person isn't bad.'

but yeah, I just don't get it

[transexuality]

rhe thing about kairi is that she is so underdeveloped to an utmost degree beyond any other kingdom hearts character even though she is the POINT of kh1. yes, sora and riku's relationship is in the forefront of kh1, but sora is searching for KAIRI hes mad at riku for what hes done to KAIRI. but she has 0 agency. she is asleep 90% of the game and for the last 10% she does nothing. naminé and larxene are the next original female characters introduced in chain of memories and immediately we see them have more interesting development and storylines and personalities than kairi. naminé suffers a bit from being a female character written by men who dont know how to write women, but she has struggles and she has her own motivations, she is complex. she feels jealous and wants sora to forget everything and stay with her, but she sacrifices those wants because she knows its for the greater good. larxene is an active antagonist and she is a ruthless villain, with agency and power in the narrative. jump to kh2, naminé has become basically a ghost, larxene is dead, and kairi has been captured again. we get moments in kh2 of some personality from kairi, certainly more from what weve seen, but ultimately she still lacks agency and doesnt do much. riku just sort of gives her a keyblade at the end and then shes there to reunite sora and riku, since finding riku is the point of kh2. they had the chance to make her do more in kh3 and while i appreciate that she at least is given a fighting chance it ultimately falls flat because her character revolves around sora. her existence is to support sora and riku's friendship. shes the case that is replace her with a rock and nothing changes. and im saying this as someone who loves kairi! shes fun! shes cute! shes sweet! shes snarky sometimes! but ultimately her personality is Nice Girl Who's Nice :) and there is an untapped well of potential for her to get some depth and it ultimately isnt there as the writers have made her character shallow that pales in comparison to her counterparts. but somehow people hate her EXISTENCE for this and thats what drives me crazy. even with all of these criticisms i have with the writing i still really like her and think that she needs to exist. and yeah sure sora and riku have much more chemistry and are written with such a beautiful bond that its hard to see it as anything other than accidental gay romance but sora and kairi is still there and its still sweet. soriku shippers hate kairi for whatever reason cause it gets in the way of their gay ship and thats whats frustrating. sora and kairi are clearly intended to have romantic undertones and while yes its a shame that kairis character is reduced to this, people shit on it for the wrong reasons. theres nothing wrong wirh sora and kairi's relationship, and its been there from the very start and its not going away. they both care a lot about each other and its sweet! kairi is hated on for merely existing but people dont take the time to step back and critique the way that she is developed and written, they just go for the jugular and perpetuate the misogyny that is already written into the franchise. you can have a problem with the way things are handled, but just shitting on a female character for existing in a male dominated cast written by men is just not cute. Can anybody hear me

[some-pers0n]

I think it’s a shame that Stella ended up the way she did. I’m not saying that she needed to be a complex 3D character or get redeemed or have a tragic backstory but it’s a shame that she was reduced to “I’m a spoiled brat who hates my husband!!!” Originally it was a morally grey thing, with Stolas cheating on his wife (resulting in a scandal about him cheating with an imp in a PUBLIC PARTY). Olivia also says that they didn’t used to hate each other, but unless she was the most oblivious 17 year old alive she would have known how much Stella loathed him (in s2e1 she says to his face that she likes tormenting him and mocks him in front of all his friends).

The reason their relationship was so interesting was that neither Blitz or Stolas were right! Blitz used him for the book and Stolas cheated. Making Stella a brat takes a lot of blame away from Stolas. You know what it reminds me of?

When female characters in fanfiction are demonized for the sake of making a gay ship look better. Stella is this trope to a T, removing any interesting things about her. I might send another ask on my opinion on s2e1.

It really is kinda terrible to see her fall so much as a character, despite her barely having anything to begin with.

Like...I don't know why Vizzie and the writers are obsessed with making Stolas out to be a perfect guy when he was the one who threw the entire family into jeopardy by sleeping with Blitz. Obviously we sympathize with him because Blitz likes him and he's an alright enough guy, but he still cheated on his wife. Even if she is a royal ass, we feel more bad for Octavia because she's clearly not handling the whole situation all too great.

It's not the most nuanced thing in the world, but it's something. It's interesting. It provides depth to Stolas and his relationships. He's willing to disrupt his seemingly okayish family life because he got horny and wanted a plaything.

Then season 2 rolled around. It retcons everything to make Stolas out to be an itty bitty lil' cinnamon roll who was pushed into marrying Stella and was actually sad the whole time because Stella is an abusive asshole who never loved him. The way she talks about him in season 1 versus season 2 is so much more different. It strips her of any sort of character and just makes her as blatantly evil and horrible as possible. Openly insults him for being bad in bed, complains about him, etc and etc.

I also hate how they retconned it so that Blitz and Stolas first met when they were kids and Blitz was Stolas's first friend. It feels something straight out of a bad fanfic. It makes the relationship less interesting to me since apparently these two knew each other already before they started this whole thing. It's just...yeah. Bad writing.

Then s2e4. I don't know what the writers did or if it was the direction the voice actor was given, but her voice is EAR-SPLITTING. Every word is so shrill and irritating to listen to. Not to also mention that she's just a stuck-up oblivious brat who behaves like a toddler. It's asinine.

It literally is just: "I don't like the Women because it gets in the way of my Hot Demon Yaoi so I'm going to make her the worst character in all of fiction" and it's really tiring.

What even happened with season 2? Where did Brandon go? What happened to the sharper and wittier dialogue and writing? Yeah, Helluva usually was about dick and sex jokes, but most jokes now are just the same old thing over and over again. I remember when it was like s1e5 and around that time when I was really on board with the show. Now it's just...yeah. This.

[jackienautism]

i rant about resident evil and their writing / inclusion of the girls.

i jsut want 2 girls to go on their fucked up little adventures together is that too much to ask

i finally got to the halfway point of code veronica X and GODDDD i fucking knew they were gonna do this goddamn shit w/ steve and claire. i knew from the goddamn beginning even if i didnt want to admoit it...... residetn evil just cant be normal w/ a girl being paired w/ a guy. they just fucking cant

i understand that this is seen more among the older games (ashley + leon from re4 as well) and i cant speak for the og re3 nemesis but the way they wrote carlos and jill? its just.... why make these male characters say such bizarre and degrading and just ? nasty comments towards the female protag? do you really expecvt us to root for them? i just dont fcuking undeerstand, and this occurs in a remake too! they didnt bother to maybe just maaaybe take that bulllshit out. because jill's uncomfortable. IM uncomfortable. its just. godddd who the fuck caaaares STOP THIS TROPE

you see this same thing w/ steve and claire.... not oonly is steve incredibly fucking annoying the first second we meet him, he also continually acts as a nuisance towards her for a good quarter of the game. yeah sure theyre just building up to the Ground Breaking Emo backstory drop later, but. you already made me fucking hate this loser so goddamn much meaning im not gonna give a single shit about his development later. I JUST DONT CARE FOR HIM !!!!!! THEM MAKING HIM SO ANNOYINH RUINED ANY CHANCE OF ME CHANGING MY MIDN LATER.......

and GOD havent even mentioned this yet but. when i saw the little preview thing w/ the 3 characters w/ claire + chris i saw [steve] and went.... [eyeballs] hello whos this? long story short i thoiught he was a butch lesbian and i got SO excite d b c residtn ebil has yet to pair a girl up w/ anothner girl around the same age but noooooo instead i got this pathetic loser of a man (derogatory). the closest we have to 2 girls being fucked up together is mia and zoe in re7. but thats like. mainly a side thing. and mia isnt even the protag so

which leads me to the next thng i wanted to talk about. i think mnmen are super cool ofc and i hate to be that Bitch and pull that Card but good freaking god why must there be a man FOR EVERY SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER IN THIS GOD FORSAKEN SERIES...... andit woudlnt be huge deal if they were noraml w/ these pairings but theyre NOT..... THEY MAKE IT WEIRD EVERY SINGLE TIME..... STEVE LITERALLY ALMOST KISSES CLAIRE WHILE SHE'S ASLEEP........ CARLOS CONSISTENTLY MAKES UNNECESSARILY WEIRD COMMENTS TOWARD JILL......... ASHLEY RANDOMLY AWSKS FOR SEX AT THE END OF RE4............ WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT AOBUT? good for ashley for shooting her shot i guess though but considering yhe game's previous comments towards ashleu and her figure.... it was blatantly put in to sexualize her furtyher

maybe its thr lesbian in me popping out maybe its the aromantic in me popping out WHO KNOWS all i know is that. resident evil makes me very upset sometimes dflkgnjg i love the games i love the characters (esp the girls big surprise i know) but jesus christ. somethings i just can't ignore. and this is cerrtainly one of them. a girl just can't exist out of a guy according to capcom. and that sort of idea is suuuper evident in how they portray and include their women. you could have a girl protag (re3, recv etc) but theres always a 99% chance theres gonna be a man tagging along + continually saving their asses and theres almost alwaysa an even HIGHER chance that theyre meant to be seen as a romantic interest! and its exhausting@!!!!!

long story short . i get im not resident evil's target audience . but im still gonna be pissed and annoyed . the girls deserve better .

im def gonna have to go more in depth abt resident evil and their writing of relationships (or lack thereof) some other time but just for now. the best written ones are claire + sherry and mia + ethan goodbye

[australian-desi]

I don’t like how this show treats its poc actors/characters. For a show that’s so much about “diversity” and for women, how come there’s only one female poc lead so far and she was sidelined in her own season, and even now can’t get a proper storyline. Also do not get me started on how it diminishes female trauma/stories to service the male leads or tick boxes. Just showing women having sexual agency isn’t enough. Write female characters with their full depth. I’m just tired with the way Kate/Simone Ashley is being treated and I can’t be bothered putting my energy into this show.

Also I love Jonathan Bailey with my whole heart and will watch anything that he’s in. However, I hate this fandom’s treatment of Rege Jean Page. The man had full right to leave the show, he would do himself a disservice by being on it. Stop the whole “Jonny is still on the show and is booked and busy, while Rege still isn’t when he left the show for that reason”, yes and? He left because he felt that was right for his career, and at the end of the day Jonny is a white man and Rege is not, if the world treats them differently, you really think production companies won’t. Look at how Bridgerton treats its fucking poc characters and how the fandom treats them too. They was so much hate being spewed at Charithra and Simone by the “fans” during season 2 it was disgusting. And now at Masali for the genderbend.

Yes I’m not very happy with the fact we won’t get Francesca’s story in its full authenticity. Especially when the book deals with her having infertility issues and how she copes with it. But the fandom is acting as if Masali is responsible for this. LGBT romance stories are needed and are important and gender bending Michael is not the be all end all. But I have no expectations from this show to deliver. I mean they did away with the whole pining of Michael/a because in the show it looks like Francesca falls first. Which takes away from the premise of WHWW because Francesca was in love with John and a huge part of the story is her being able to allow herself to love Michael/a. The way this show could not handle a simple love story with Colin and Penelope, I genuinely have no trust in them being able to deal with a lesbian love story and where one lead is dealing with the grief of widowhood and infertility.

I think this show is ticking boxes at this point, delivering the bare minimum and then expecting everyone to be happy with it. And it’s becoming more and more clear to me that the only people who have bothered to read the books are the actors themselves, because the show runners look like they just read the titles of the books and ran with it.

Polin’s story was told even worse than how Kanthony’s story was told and that’s saying something. The aesthetics were so off this season and rather than Benedict having something useful to do the man was just there being the town bike (something he’s done for the past 2 seasons), why was my man not painting is beyond me.

When the show runner had said that kanthony are now a boring married couple that told me everything I needed to know. As if married couples don’t have challenges. Also sending them away for the worst reasons was so out of character, like just read fucking fanfiction and adapt that at this point. There was so much to explore with them and they didn’t so yeah I’m quite done.

I’m going to treat the show as some fucked up parallel universe to the books, because yes the book characters are problematic but at least their stories are told properly and every couple gets their due.

A good-bye or perhaps a brief pause to the bee show?

Being a Kanthony fan is hard right now. Not only the way they were sidelined, but also because they are the only couple without an onscreen wedding or baby. It feels almost deliberate, petty even while the show continues to milk their popularity for views...

I was, anyways, not very invested in this season, and now all my desire to watch future seasons has just fizzled out. I love the people in this fandom, they have fed all of us with great content. Unfortunately, I only have negative things to say right now. I don't have anything positive to contribute, so maybe it's time to bow out, well for some time at least. I will lurk in the fandom and maybe catch up on some of the amazing stories by writers a million times more talented than the show's. 

[musclesandhammering]

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.