#tbf i don't really care about the later part

[bakerstreetdoctor]

Too lazy to look for the post I once wrote, but lemme tell you I learned about the von Steuben guy today. Prussia.... Why.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

So I was reading your Athena & Apollo headcanons and it made me think of a hc to help fill a (very mild but infinitely frustrating) plot hole in the books! (Well, plot hole is stretching it, it’s not even a plot dent, more like a detail inconsistency that affects Literally Nothing but it has driven me crazy since I read mcga)

The detail in question: Why are all of Athena’s kids blonde and (possibly) curly-haired, when Annabeth is said to get her hair from her dad and Athena has never actually appeared as a blonde? (Aside from that time in Sea of Monsters but tbf that was a hallucination so possibly not accurate). It’s bothered me for a while, because Athena doesn’t Do romance and therefore it wouldn’t really make sense for her to have a Type, right? Why would someone attracted to mortal’s intellect care about their hair color? I guess I just figured she’d been blonde for a while and decided to go brunette later, but the “dumb blonde” stereotype has been around for a long time, having been especially prevalent since the ‘50s, and I can’t imagine Athena to want to be seen as anything less than the smartest person in the room.

But then your hcs got me thinking… we know that Athena is very proud, but she’s also deeply insecure. Like, “she got made fun of for playing the flute One Time by two goddesses known to be bitchy that she already did not get along with and threw it into the woods with a curse and refused to pick it up again (until Apollo coaxed her to)” insecure. And she doesn’t have very many friends, does she? Apollo’s kind of all she has, other than mortals, but her relationship with mortals is that of a devotee and a god. Reverence is not the same thing as connection. But Apollo, who is in a similar boat to her, makes connections so easily! Even at his worst, he makes people like him against both his and their will. Even his relationships with his devotees were… well they were messy lbr but they were also very genuine, most of the time. There was something more, there.

So, all this rambling to say: what if the reason Athena’s kids all look so similar is because Athena chose to look like Apollo? I don’t think she chose to act like him, but. I dunno. Maybe she thought mortals would like her better if she looked more like her pretty, popular brother. She’s always had to listen to people, mortals and immortals alike, praise her brother for just about everything while she had to fight for even a scrap of respect. Maybe she thought she could absorb at least a little of that something that makes people genuinely like him. That something that draws her to him again and again. Maybe it’s like armor, pulling on her brother’s face. If they don’t like her, it’s not because it’s her, right? Apollo’s been driving everybody crazy lately, anyway… (and yet, he’s still more beloved than her…)

And that ALSO feeds into my preexisting headcanons about Apollo looking like a Chase, which is fun!! (I think his modern godly form looks more similar to Magnus but Lester has a face/hair texture that is really, really similar to annabeth’s! So when he bashes the two forms together he makes the two of them look even more like siblings because he’s basically a bridge between the two of them, lol. But his old godly form looked strikingly similar to Annabeth in a lot of ways… hmmmm.)

Anyway it’s kind of a convoluted hc and once again falls into the “Apollo is the specialist little guy in the WORLD” mindset but I!!! Just like it!!!! When siblings are weird and messy!!! And admiration gets mixed up with jealousy and genuine affection is twisted by circumstance and time!!! And identity issues!!! And loneliness!!! It’s latching on to someone and having them be your whole world when you know that you’re just a small part of theirs!!! AUGHHH. Weird fucked up Olympus dynamics my belovedddd

HELLO LONG ASK

I never noticed this before, but this explanation seems Interesting👀

And don't worry, this fandom basically goes "AND THIS IS WHY APOLLO IS [insert description here" ALL the time XD

BUT YES THE COMPLICATED RELATIONSHIP EAT THEM UP WE ARE EATING THEM TOGETHER!!! :D

[marley-manson]

what evidence do you have that bj and hawkeye are only friends because they are "trapped in an army base" and "hawkeye doesn't have any better options"?

tbf I didn't say they're only friends because they're trapped on an army base, I said BJ only gets away with his late season shit because they're trapped on an army base. That said, I do think if they'd met anywhere else, like at a medical conference, they wouldn't have become friends, and yeah the way they clash in the later seasons, I don't think they'd stay friends if Hawkeye wasn't stuck with him.

My evidence is:

Hawkeye describing BJ as a good clean-cut family man and adding "Despite that, I really like the guy," in Our Finest Hour, indicating that on a surface level they're not that compatible. On a deeper level of incompatibility, you have episodes like Preventative Medicine where they clash on a deep ethical level and don't reconcile their points, they simply choose to drop the argument. You also have their respective attitudes to hardship as highlighted in later seasons - BJ "saves [his] pshaws for things he can do something about," and largely remains passive give or take moments of sudden lashing out (eg the end of Back Pay) when he loses his self control, while Hawkeye is always acting on his feelings as much as possible whether he can affect change or not, because it helps him not feel helpless. BJ derides and mocks this attitude (calling him crazy in Back Pay and Tell it To the Marines, calling his tongue depressor tower pointless in Depressing News, etc) and Hawkeye ignores him and does what he needs to do anyway. They do not help each other see eye to eye or meet in the middle, they simply clash and do their own thing.

More headcanony, but I also think they're incompatible emotionally, in that Hawkeye wants people to open up to him and spill their feelings, and BJ is one of the characters most allergic to doing that, and almost never supports Hawkeye when he wants to talk about his feelings (Blood and Guts, Depressing News, GFA, etc). They have a very uneven relationship where Hawkeye is BJ's emotional support whenever BJ snaps, but BJ ditches Hawkeye when Hawkeye just needs his emotional support (this is what "Would you hold me in your arms or would you let me lie there and bleed?" is about), and I think BJ tries to make up for this with big gestures, but Hawkeye is more about the day to day support and solidarity with each other.

There's also the intensity of the rebound vibe in Welcome to Korea part 1 where Hawkeye refocuses on BJ after moping about Trapper and seems to deliberately explore how compatible they can be as friends - the babysitter comment to suss out whether he'd be a partner in womanizing, his willingness to break rules and flout authority, his sense of humour. BJ passes, so Hawkeye accepts him. It feels calculated because Hawkeye needs a replacement Trapper. ("We need to get him started on his ulcer," as potential evidence of Hawkeye wanting him to be Trapper 2.0)

BJ's attitude throughout season 4, in which he stamps out his own reactions and feelings to align himself with Hawkeye. The Bus has a thread of a battle of wills between Hawkeye and BJ over whether or not to include Frank, which Hawkeye wins. In Hey Doc he also wants Hawkeye to be nicer to Frank, but in the rest of the season he's right there with Hawkeye making fun of him. In The Gun BJ stands respectfully when Margaret comes to their table and Hawkeye glares at him disapprovingly, so then BJ turns it into a joke, seemingly correcting his own behaviour.

Wheelers and Dealers characterizes BJ as resentful in a way that makes him passive aggressive, which rings very true to his character to me. In Wheelers and Dealers he bemoans being so nice and passive and lashes out. "Who cares about what they want, I'm doing what I want for a change." This obviously says that he buries parts of himself to make nice with people habitually, as part of how he interacts with people, and I think you can see him doing it with Hawkeye early on.

You also have episodes like Heroes and Stars and Stripes where BJ alternately mocks Hawkeye for getting the spotlight and lords his own spotlight over Hawkeye, because he's insecure and presumably feels overshadowed by Hawkeye.

This is all to support my take that BJ moulds himself to suit Hawkeye because they're not intrinsically all that compatible as people, and he resents being the one to do that. So later BJ lashing out with mean pranks and psychological warfare (Bottoms Up, Dear Uncle Abdul, Joker Is Wild, what feels to me like negging in No Laughing Matter, etc) and ditching/mocking Hawkeye when he's upset about something (Back Pay, Depressing News, Give Em Hell Hawkeye, Blood and Guts, etc) is a response to that resentment when he feels more secure in Hawkeye putting up with it.

I think BJ would probably mould himself to fit anyone he wants to be friends with, but I don't think if given the option, he'd choose to be friends with Hawkeye. He disapproves of several things about Hawkeye even initially - his aforementioned lack of patience with Frank, his rampant sexuality (eg he does disapprove of Hawkeye sleeping with Carlye in The More I See You, and you also have several instances of BJ making fun of Hawkeye when it comes to his attitude towards sex, eg Taking the Fifth, Inga). And I don't think Hawkeye would choose to be friends with a monogamous married suburbanite if they weren't forced together right after Hawkeye lost his last war zone bff.

My evidence for Hawkeye only putting up with BJ's late season attitude because he's trapped is that he tries to put his foot down multiple times and fails because a) the 4077 is a very small world, and b) BJ needs his emotional support in a war zone. And every time he comes back they don't address what they fought over or discuss it or reconcile it, they simply drop it because they're reliant on their friendship.

In Ain't Love Grand he sleeps in the front office but comes back to share good news with BJ and emotionally support him. In The Most Unforgettable Characters they drop the fight because it upsets Radar without addressing why they were fighting. In Picture This Margaret manipulates Hawkeye into going back to BJ by lying about BJ needing his support. In The Joker is Wild and Bottoms Up Hawkeye mildly pranks BJ back in a tag and calls them even even though he's taking a loss.

It's also worth noting that Hawkeye hates BJ's friend Leo's extremely weaponized style of pranking. He's fine with shit like exploding cigars, not fine with him getting BJ court martialed. BJ is fine with it and thinks it's funny, which strikes me as another unaddressed incompatibility that feeds into the vibe of BJ's pretty intense psychological warfare later on, which Hawkeye is generally upset by rather than seeing it as all good fun.

And in GFA they both initially intend to leave without seeing each other again, BJ trying to leave a week early despite knowing his travel orders are sus and without saying goodbye or leaving a note, and Hawkeye expecting and ecstatic to be flown home when released from the hospital only to be ordered back to the 4077 for one more week. Also in GFA Hawkeye says goodbye for good, fully expecting to never see BJ again and sad about it but accepting.

Oh also the fact that Welcome to Korea is structured as a series of horrible things happening in a war zone that bond them together through shared trauma is another piece of strong evidence for the reading that being in a warzone together and needing each others' support is why they become friends, when otherwise they might not look twice at each other.

Ultimately you can take all this stuff and also interpret it as two guys who fall in genuine love/intense friendship and put up with each other because of that, but I think there's more than enough evidence that them being trapped together in hell is a major reason they become and stay friends, and imo it's a solid reading of their relationship, and also infinitely more interesting to me.

[toxicanonymity]

raider analysis

Warnings: angst, references to violence, captivity, references to past assault/abuse, warnings from the related posts this is analyzing.

A/N: this is about the hypothetical from today, plus some about the 🐶 (goes into Hunger). Keep in mind I share these because some people enjoy it, not because i want you to read it like AP Lit, lol. 🫣

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Ok, the kinda tearjerking exchange (not my favorite kind of jerking, but it happened, sorry) starts off

“‘Member what I said after ya ran?” You nod. “that you only want me if I'm good?” A tear runs down your cheek.

I have to admit I'm sad for both of you in this moment. You especially, sweet pea. But also, Joel regrets how he treated you in the aftermath of your escape, and he can't undo it. He's mostly thought about the physical part of it (glimpse of this in the yoga drabble). Now hearing you paraphrase his words, he's faced with the fact that it's even worse than he's been beating himself up over (deservedly, tbf). 

As far as you running away, the main thing that reassured Joel was how you said it wasn't about him, it was the other guys, to which he said you gotta talk to him when something's bothering you. So in his eyes that was his main point. But before he calmed down enough to express that, he was angry and it made a real impression on you. Your main takeaway was that his interest in you (and your safety) was conditional.  You don't think about it a lot these days, and in the big picture it's outweighed by his extreme possessiveness, but it's a thread of insecurity and the first thing that comes to mind when he asks if you remember what he said.

For Joel, there's a whole other conversation happening here (with himself) under the surface.

In this convo when Joel says “that was real bad,” it all was, including what he did in response.  When he asks “we’re past that, right?” he means all of it. He wishes that day would just go away. It's also kind of an empty hope related to what he's done to you. He doesn't think he deserves forgiveness or love, but at this point he also doesn't want you to live in fear of him or only stay for that reason. 

You answer as if he just wants to know you wont run away again, and that's still nice to hear. He latches onto that answer as a momentary "out" from feeling the weight of what he's done, reminding himself what's supposed to really matter to him–that you're "his"--like your answer assumed he was thinking.

—--

Also, a word about the dog. Not everything with the dog is profound. I like doggos and think they should have one. But, the initial interaction/freeing him from the collar is meaningful if you consider who else has been chained in this story (but not lately).  And there's more parallels you can draw if you want to, but I also support just enjoying the little guy.

In the same chapter, it's the first time we see Joel take you out with him as a capable person (armed). Then he even lets you go into the forest alone. The reason he ultimately goes in after you is because he's worried about you. In general, Joel wants to keep you for his own sake but is also scared of what could happen to you on your own (he's almost seen it). You're legitimately worried about the dog’s well-being and think he needs you, but you also just want him around.

Joel despises the addict and the way he treated his own dog. Joel hates himself, too. His thoughts coming out of the forest reveal he’s coming for the junkie as a stand-in and what he really wants is to hurt everyone who ever hurt you. He knows he's one of those people. I'm not saying he wants to hurt himself but some of the aggression he takes out on other men (when a simple bullet would suffice) is from his own self hatred. Normally these men have something in common with him. 

Joel initially rejects the dog, not wanting another someone to take care of distracting him from protecting you. But later the dog demonstrates he's more than meets the eye and has a lot to offer and for good reason Joel seems to come around, even if he won't say it. Despite that progress, in the hypothetical from today we still want more for the dog.  The dog deserves more. We still want more for sweet pea who is emotionally starving and has been subjected to Joel's coldness in her previous attempts to get closer to him. She deserves more. Like maybe a kiss at least (when she's awake). In night air we see why Joel struggles with that, but he keeps making progress. At least he's kissing your other lips.

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Thank you for reading and being invested <3. Joel's a bad guy but tbh I identify with and pour myself into both these characters in different ways.

I'm tired but this isn't exhaustive 😅 your thoughts and interpretation are valid, too.

[woman-of-many-fandoms]

Honestly though, it must be so weird to work with some people for a few years of your life and for years, decades, later people are shipping you with your co worker.

I'm obviously all for shipping fictional characters, but this is the actors job. Where they get a paycheck. They are literally being paid to act like found family.

Like imagine you worked in an office with some people for 3 years in 2004-2007 and in 2030 people are making clips of you and how in love you look while eating lunch with Carol or saying hi as you both arrived in the parking lot.

I've seen this in pretty much every fandom I've been in. Star Trek, good omens, X men, Marvel. I do not think RDJ has any emotional attachment to Chris Evens or that Shanter really cared about and enjoyed spending time with Nimoy. I'm positive for David Tennant, Good Omens is just his next job and Michael Sheen only likes it because it made him much more well known in the acting world and it'll be easier to get his next gig. Yes Pine and Quinto look like they are actual friends outside of the movies but that is an exception.

Anyway, just my thoughts since I just saw a post of some Trek actors in I'm assuming the late 80s or 90s and people were saying 'how could he not be bi saying stuff like this'. Money, the answer is always money.

edit: OK let me address some of what is in the comments. Do actors say they are friends, sure, and if you want to take that at face value then you are right, they are friends. I personally don't think it counts if you are being paid to do so. And before anyone says anything, no not directly. But they have a whole 'image' to uphold that their income is tied to.

I don't know much about the entertainment industry and don't know why people would want that life but it's .... well, different, is the nice way to say it. My sister's career is considered part of the entertainment industry though she is behind the scenes. (And, side note, even being behind the scenes I've still found photoshopped images someone made of her in her in sexy lingerie ... )

TBF we don't talk that often but I've heard some stories (apparently Bill Nye is more then a bit of a jerk behind closed doors) She's lived in Hollywood 12 years now and there is the face people put out in the public and who they truly are. Yes, we all have a self that we hide (I'm autistic so I know all about masking) but it seems that is pushed to extremes.

I've seen her act like many people's best friends (house parties and giving favors and gifts that I question) and promoting their good name in public then she'll tell me in private some horrible things that person has done to others and how it's just how it works. She house/cat sat for a guy (and sent me views from his balcony, my god it was nice) who I think a lot of people would recognize from TV but their relationship was built on respect for each other careers.

Sure, you can tell me not to base the examples off my sisters stories and, ok fair. But I'd also want to point out - the part of RDJ buying evens a car, I did some math. He has 300 million net worth according to google. I have a salary, not net worth (or a negative one cause of student loans I guess), but it is the equivalent of me buying my co worker a $32 gift assuming the car was 150k. I met a guy who performed in Vegas shows and told me how they've had dinner with (I honestly don't remember if it was Penn or Teller) at their house with their spouses. And private chats ... doesn't really tell me much.

I'm currently seeing a bunch of clips of the main actors for the new Wicked movie saying how each other changed each others lives and it just comes off as more acting to promote the movie to me.

And even with Pine and Quinto , I only gave that one a pass because they said knew each other and got along before being in Trek and even then, eh..

Again, just how I interpret things. I know friend can mean different things to different people and a lot of what I see I don't interpret as friend, I see it as networking. I would absolutely be 'friends' with someone if it helped me make and maintain my multi millions .

[majachee]

how different are the Archie turtles from the 87 ones? I haven’t read Archie and really don’t want to

Fairly different, I'd say.

Spoilers for archie for those who care. Wouldn't rec reading it tho

Most obvious case is Raphael, because Mikey and Leo don't really do anything.

He's like an odd mix of the more classic, angrier Raphs and 87's flamboyant, sarcastic Raph.

He likes fighting, but I think it might be a release of some sort because he can't lash out at the things he's actually mad about: his life/situation. He is very pessimistic about his place in the world, and if Archie was written by more competent writers it could've been SOO GOOOOOD

When he first got with Ninjara during the weird Hiroshima arc, he literally almost got sucked into Hell because of whatever negative thoughts were swirling around in his noggin. Like... are we not going to elaborate on that?? He actually gets trapped in Hell later on after Ninjara doxxed him, and I thought they were gonna bring up whatever's wrong with him because you needed a pure mind to get out of Hell... and they didn't. Ninjara apologized for doxxing him and he apologized for being a lil bitch and they escaped wahoo. (5 panels btw)

(Side note: they made Splinter a survivor of Hiroshima in these comics btw. I'm so glad I pirated these things... also the comics take place in the late 90s so Archie Splinter is like 60-80yro btw. I do NOT blame any1 for not wanting to read these 77 issues of nonsense HELP)

Raphael gets the most interesting character interactions/arcs imo, likely because he is clearly someone's fave.

Also he roughouses with his bros a lot more in Archie. And he wears a stipid as hell black latex stealth suit for like 30 issues iirc.

Mikey gets kidnapped by the American army once and that's the most important thing he does. I guess he still has his surfer accent, but he's just there in the BG for the most part. Least problematic character in Archie.

Leonardo doesn't really do anything, as I've said earlier. He likes talking about how much he hates guns. He's also a lot more serious and doesn't really have any discernable quirks (besides the gun thing)

He is very much a standard Leonardo boiled down to the basics. Ie: older brother, leader, protective, composed, serious... Boring. He's boring. He doesn't have the quirks or charm that 87 Leo has imo.

While 87 Leonardo is a pretty flat character, due to how the 87 series is written in general, he has a very caring, sincere personality and expressive interests shown throughout the show that adds to his charm. And he doesn't have that in Archie.

Archie Donatello... is more like 03 Donatello from what I've seen. I haven't seen the entirety of 03, but from what I've seen from clips, 03 Don is a lot more... calm? Compared to other Donnies?

Also haven't read the Mirage comics, and I've heard nothing about Mirage Donatello so I dunno how he is compared to the og

But yeah, he rambles about smart stuff but he isn't all that loud about it. "Tbf you need a very high IQ to understand the difference between physics and AP physics" -- Archie Don doesnt talk like that, god bless.

But also he invented time travel in the future, and that lead to like one single good arc, the mutanimals dying brutally, and the convoluted finale that revealed it was all a timeloop or smth... so yeah I have beef towards him for that one. His future self is p cool though, he also dies.

[beelzebubsis]

hot take and i cant wait to get proven wrong later

but im pretty sure bbh has no plans on kidnapping anyone other than the federation workers lol, other than acting unnerving and purposefully being suspicious towards other people*. he literally hasn't made any move to actually kidnap someone. moreover there's no benefit to doing so? people keep saying bbh is gonna kidnap them but i feel like people have forgotten that he only took ron for information and unless he can confirm who the spy or leak is, there's no point in him doing so.

i already had my doubts yesterday about the cake cause, it wasn't subtle at all and it was really pushing it which he wouldn't do if he was actually trying to be discreet but he was also handing the cake out to everyone including people who aren't going to brazil and baghera who already knows everything so it makes no sense for her to get kidnapped by him. but im even more convinced cause pac is awake and on the server today, so? unless pac plans on going back to bad and getting more cake and passing out again, im don't think they are actually related? EDIT: pac just ended stream and nothing happened regarding the cake or bbh so they def didnt plan anything

* i think a big plot reason why he's been acting suspcious around tubbo and pac, is that he's currently trying to figure out who on the island is leaking information to the federation (something he'd been investigating for a few streamers now and is also something he's discussed with foolish) and now both pac and tubbo are acting weird and around him and tubbo is acting in defence of the federation which honestly would be weird if you considered it from bbh's pov. like tubbo has only told his close friends that he care about fred, from bbh's pov, tubbo was someone who was very against the federation and wanted to grief and break the rules and is now suddenly caring a lot about them and defending them. which is why i think the information he gave foolish yesterday about bagi and pac is really important cause its meant to showcase that what's hes doing makes sense from his pov. like pac was acting scared and worried and then bbh sees bagi hiding in a tree behind him? whats the logic assumption you'd make there?

tbf tho this is ALOT of speculation on my part and i wont deny thats theres def alot of bias regarding this. im fully ready to get dunked on if he really does kidnap someone later and im also fully aware that bbh is purposefully making himself out to be weird and suspicious from other peoples povs so people thinking the worst of him is to be expected.

[fanfic-inator795]

I've talked a lot on here about my favorite characters, but what about some of my LEAST favorite characters?

Honestly, I don't have too many characters that I just hate with a burning passion or anything like that... but there are def characters that truly get under my skin. So let's have some fun and rant for a bit, shall we? Starting with least hated to most:

Sadie Miller (Steven Universe): Gonna be honest, a big reason why I dislike this character is because of her voice. No disrespect to Kate Micucci, but MAN her voice is just so grating to me personally (tbf, I feel the same way about Greg Cipes). As for the character herself, she's just incredibly whiny and annoying imo. I couldn't really relate to her frustrations with her mother, and that whole mess with her and Lars was just... yeah. Still can't really overlook the whole Stranded Island incident. Say what you will about how terrible Lars can be, but at least Lars can be funny and interesting sometimes. I just don't care for Sadie at all.

Mo Morrison (Lightyear): Laying out my biases here, I really don't like Lightyear in general, it's a very frustrating and agitating film to me personally, I could honestly rant about that movie for hours. But beyond the story/plot issues, Mo is just a very annoying character to me. They try SO hard to push him to be the comedy relief, and it just does not work. Then, when they try to push him as the team screw-up, they push too hard and just make him frustrating to watch since he literally can't do anything right and doesn't get a win until the payoff with the stupid spacesuit pen. Literally every scene with him just ends up making me go "goddamn it, Mo, why are you even here??"

Mr. Herriman (Foster's Home): As a kid who was a big fan of Frankie growing up, it shouldn't be surprising just how much I hate this rabbit. I think what really gets me is how callous and unfair he can be, with stuff like "Imposters Home for uh Make-em-up Pals", "Crime After Crime" and "Setting a President" showing him at his absolute worst. An all-around VERY frustrating and unsympathetic character to me, worse so than Bloo or any of the show's actual villains. Honestly, it makes me sad that we don't get to see more of his softer side - i.e. the life-long friendship he has with Madame Foster/the stuff that makes Madame Foster love him - as that easily could have saved his character. But for the most part, he just comes off as a huge jerk.

Stickler (The Cuphead Show): Similarly to Herriman, I think I just get incredibly annoyed with characters who put rules and procedure above everything else. What makes Stickler worse though is the voice they gave him, as while it's kinda funny in his first couple appearances, by season 3 I'm cringing just as much as Devil does whenever he pops up. They also amp up his jerkiness and pushiness in the later episodes - and while I get WHY they need to, given how distracted Devil gets, it's still a tad annoying imo.

Dr. Owen Hunt (Grey's Anatomy): Literally my least favorite character EVER. This guy... he really is just the WORST. And yes, I know there are in-universe reasons for how he acts, but when he continues being a shitty person to his wives and others, I stop caring about those reasons. He's a huge hypocrite on most things, has a 'my way is always right'/'My way or the highway' mentality, and he's just such a baby whenever he doesn't get his way or when he has to face consequences. YES, I KNOW, on Grey's pretty much everyone is a shitty person in some way because it's a dramatic medical soap opera and they need drama, but Owen really does just get under my skin the most with how stubborn and 'holier than thou' he acts a lot of the time.

...That being said, if any of my followers actually like these characters, no disrespect to you. In fact, I'd love to know WHY you like these characters, as perhaps I can get a new perspective on them.

[1shadowhole]

Pictures of Colin Morgan in Dead Shot that remind me of Merlin from Following the Beast

Ever since the trailer came out I felt like Colin in this film looks exactly like I imagined Merlin to be in Footloose's Following the Beast, so here's a list of screenshots to prove my point. Long post ahead get ready everyone.

These just give the general vibe:

But also: Alcohol in a cluttered flat:

The very first scene - nay! SENTENCE! Merlin getting strangled after being knocked off his feet (by a tentacle, not a shoe, still counts):

Then later on, when he's about to pass out in the middle of a cross-walk (Lovely spot, btw):

Going to the pub with Mordred following him:

Merlin getting into the cab to take Arthur home:

And, of course, the ✨✨flick✨✨

"What flick?" you may ask, "What are you talking about!? WHY ARE YOU IN MY HOUS-" Those are all good questions. THIS flick, of course:

"A flick of the collar stopped the drizzling rain from dripping down the back of his neck"

(If i knew how to make gifs I'd show you that this is in fact, a flick, but you'll have to trust me on this one: he just flicked up the collar.)

Merlin in the warehouse at Mary's shop:

Being a nameless pervy blighter at Arthur's School (thank you, Tommy):

(The kids would be older, the bars would be higher, and the older kids would also, coincidentally, be higher, but it still works)

Confronting Kilgarrah:

Confronting George, and being shocked that this guy doesn't giveth a fucketh about Merlin's orders:

Merlin being told by Mordred that he is in love (there was a moment where he looked more shocked here, but I couldn't get the right frame):

The next part of that scene, where Merlin gets up after his magic finished healing him and tells Mordred about the trackers he placed (oh look, Mordred is even the same guy as before):

Getting in the car with Arthur's friends, Nephilim, allies, men to go save his ass:

Mordred getting Merlin home after he drank himself stupid (Imagine him a bit more unstable... also look!! Same guy once again!)

On the ground during his fight with Morgause:

Ok so picture him naked and with water all over the floor and this is him after the bath exploded after seeing the future:

Ritual preparations:

In the courtyard, during Uther's speech, looking for who is going to try to kill Arthur in the crowd: (he should be better dressed at this point I think but i don't care just- stick with me here)

How I imagine him to look like after he found Arthur after having killed Morgause and Arthur confronted Morgana alone:

Merlin walking towards Nimueh's house to rescue Leon (just imagine it's raining):

Merlin watching Arthur coming out of Nimueh's home covered in blood and gore, having the only rational reaction in that situation which is, obviously, falling harder and finding the whole thing quite attractive, actually:

Sadly, there is no kiss between Arthur and Merlin given the fact that Bradley wasn't in the film and this is not, in fact, the Following the Beast movie, even though I might have convinced you with these photos and captions. I am sure that someone who has read it had some influence on the look, I swear to God. Btw this is completely how I picture the fic to look like, so maybe I am 100% off and this was all useless.

Also, this dude right here IS Kilgarrah. I swear, they play the same role! If you'll watch the movie you'll know what I mean. And Colin kills him towards the end, which is sorta kinda what happens in the fic... but not really, but TBF it is sort of hinted that Merlin will make the lizard pay for all the bullshit, so really that's the same.

So, I hope I have proved my point today, and also showed once again how unhinged I am about this fic. (or any of footloose's stories, but that's not what this post is about) It's unhealthy.

This post took a while, and it's for the very small demographic of people who happened to watch the film and also read Following the Beast, so some would say that it's a "waste of time" and "you should be studying" and "don't you have four exams in like 5 weeks?", but I would call them haters. So yeah

also, I found this review of the movie:

Really? IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER? Are you kidding me? I know this guy is mentioning a completely different movie, but I'm losing my mind That's all I had to say, so byyyyeee to all of the maybe 2 people who read through all of this.

[enigmatist17]

Okay, I finally have all the episodes done, and man oh man do I have thoughts.

First off, I can see why people compared this a lot to BTAS, and tbf I did too, but it's just not BTAS. While it has a lot of the same vibes, it makes its own 1940's noir style, which I think really works for the most part. Gorgeous city and background, but I can see the Bruce Timm "similar faces for certain characters" thing going on, which does kind of take me out of things a little. Love the fighting, love the gore and deaths that very much feel in tune for the gritty Gotham/DC world, love some takes on early villains that I kind of hope we see later on in more seasons. Over all I think it's a solid 8/10, and I need more of this show.

So there are some...issues ---

I really didn't like how Bruce is such a dick to Alfred, like come on guys :/

I get this is the early years, and usually he's kind of standoffish, but there were a few times he was just downright nasty and I am not with that >:/

Was also not a fan of Harley's redesign and how short her arc was, she needed more time before the big reveal of how she's already down the rabbit hole, which, while that's a nice change, felt very abrupt and I don't like how that all ended with such a small amount of time to see her on the other side. I really hope she kicks ass in a potential second season, and generally I just want to see where she goes before Joker.

Not cool they made Bullock corrupt yet again, poor dude can't catch a break I stg.

ALSO WHY DID YOU KILL HARVEY/TWO-FACE ARE YOU FOR SERIOUS

WE COULD HAVE HAD THINGS MAN, WE COULD HAVE HAD SUCH A COOL FUCKING STORY WITH HIM AAAAAAAAAA

And fuuuuuuuck that reveal at the end

Onto the more positive things ---

I love love love love love the Two-Face angle they went with, where he is the non-aggressor and Harvey is the one off of his nut. It really works with how they showed him to be through the season, kind enough but 100% in it for himself/his campaign, and to let that desire and paranoia to consume him as opposed to pouring it into making Two-Face was a refreshing take for him. It's a FUCKING SHAME THEY KILLED HIM COME ON.

Really liked Nocturna(?), I know she was supposed to be in BTAS but was considered too dark for the time, so it was nice to see some concepts being shown here.

Alfred is and always will be the GOAT, that's about it for him. Same with Jim Gordon, dude was solid as he was practical, and as always I love him <3

Even though her name was dumb, I really didn't care about Oswalda being genderbent? She was ruthless and just as horrendous as I expected, and I'm here for that.

Overall I liked it, 10 episodes is far too short IMO, but hopefully we get more in the future!

[foreverautumn89]

@miwiromantics I agree. I think Jonathan is so pretty and adorable. I was just watching something with a friend last night again its a video of him doing an interview and hes so cute and shy and adorable in it.

I find Eddie attractive. But the thing about Eddie I don't like that turns me away from him the most is the fans [how everyone who isn't eddie is garbage and eddie is the most important that has ever existed ext ext we all know the deal]. this isn't Eddie's fault once again to be clear its the fans fault. But like Eddie was Jonathan with a new coat of paint. He was the slightly fancier re-do of Jonathan [I only say fancier cause Eddie is more talkative and exciteable while Jonathan is shy and quiet and keeps to himself so ppl are naturally going to like Eddie better while I'm more drawn to Jonathan types]. And the fans love Eddie and see all the good in him but not Jonathan.

There was a character since S1 being an older brother to the boys that taught them to be yourself love yourself for who you are ext-same stuff Eddie would preech later on. But Jonathan is overlooked while Eddie was the best character of all time. That's another thing that Eddie is way too over rated. And I don't mean in a 'Eddie isn't good enough' sort of way, I mean wtf to the fanbase yet again because eddie became the best character on st because they said so, but don't give any credit to the characters that have been there all along, besides maybe steve who also wasn't a part of the og group in s1 not till the end.

I'm not still not sure why Eddie did that and couldnt move the game. But I think he does it on purpose to distract him from the basketball games. But thats just a theory. Like hes set in his ways that 'well if the rest of the town is going to make us feel left out and dote on theri basketball game, then fck it we'll create our own world and have what they have too-we'll enjoy a game and bond too while they got theirs. So it would make sense why he couldnt move the game. Thats a theory, but theres got to be an explaination of why he wouldn't move it and HAD to have it on the same night as the basketball game. I don't think he was deliberately trying to make Lucas feel like he din't belong but yes he should have realized that it would do that. But maybe he didn't realize how much of an impact it would have on Lucas maybe he thought Lucas just thought it was a stupid game and didn't really care about it if he'd rather be at his basketball game then with him.

I know I constnatly say about that one too mainly with Steve but yeah with Eddie too Again no evidence of Eddie being abused just like with Steve. I mean tbf, theres more evidence for it happening to Steve than to Eddie but thats not saying much because there is zero no evidence for it happening to Steve. You're right Eddie had one throw away line about his father that didn't tell us anywhere in there that he was being abused. Unles I'm forgetting something. I'm always hyper focused on Jonathan, so maybe I missed what Eddie said but all I remember is about Eddie saing that his old man taught him to hot wire a vehicle when they stole the rv. Am I missing something? Meanwhile, I know that Steve wasn't getting abused but they keep making it out ike he was and that excuses his bad behavior in the past, but Jonatha deserves to be abused even more by Lonnie and other ppl. They know about Jonathan's abuse they're not ignoring it-ts just funny how they use Steves non existant abuse to justify his bad behavior, but when Jonathan is abused, he deserves worse. I'm not saying you're justified in anything you do if you were abused before-to be clear-im just saying why is their defense for steve who wasnt really abused? but jonathan who they know was abused for a fact they have no sympathy or empathy for? The logic just isn't there yk

[lollytea]

So Trixie and Spud are Luz and Gus. I wonder if Willow tells them about the dragon like in the show. Amity is.... I don't know, does Trixie have a love interest??? And Hunter... Oh boy. Does he get his memory erased, too?!?!?!?!

Haha yeah. Tbf there's A LOT I don't remember about the show. But what I DO know is that it's eventually implied in later episodes that Spud is actually a wizard. I think it would be fun to have Gus as this weird but ordinary human boy who eventually learns at some point in the story that he has magic.

And as for Luz....I picture her just a regular human girl but still eventually discovering Eda and becoming her witch protege. I was picturing Eda as the Parks' neighbor and because magical folk are rare, they all keep in touch, so Gilbert tries to make nice with her and at least become her acquaintance, if not friend. He often asks her to brew him specific potions to help with Willow's dragon puberty/ailments/general wellbeing. And she does it....for a price. Its like one of her many many side hustles. And so yeah, she eventually meets Luz, the latter pestering the former until she agrees to mentor her and yeah the relationship is pretty much set up from there.

And yeah, Luz and Gus learn about Willow's magical world fairly early on. And then as they're dragged into her world, they start becoming more involved with magic themselves.

I dont entirely know what I'm gonna do with Amity yet. Trixie had a boyfriend but he was just some boring guy. The thing about Amity is she's important to Willow's character and there isn't really anybody that Jake has who's like this. So Amity definitely exists in this universe and she was Willow's former best friend turned sour but idk if she's anyone specific from the show. I'm thinking of making her some magical creature too. Maybe a witch like Eda, giving Luz even more reason to want to befriend her, considering they're not surrounded by other witches in this universe.

And oh yeah absolutely. I am for sure taking that man's memory away. I have to. Because I need this scene as huntlow. I need it!!! I keep watching it and thinking of huntlow and it's like sledgehammers getting bashed around in my brain.

Like!!!! It aligns so well with character and character potential that it's making me sick!!! Hunter's self sacrificial ass. Hunter "I just want to make sure everyone's safe" Noceda.

Willow being so upset and frantic and being like "He deserves a normal life! With a family who cares about him!" The fact that she's being told that she shouldn't do the dangerous thing. The way she's a protector and she has to do the right thing all the time!! But she decides "fuck it" and risks it all for him. The fucking RAGE at the end. Oooooooh it's so good!!! You don't understand how obsessed I am with this.

Anyway, for anybody who never watched this show. Because Willow undid the timeline, it led to her and Hunter never meeting. So when she does bump into him, he's living a happy life but he has no memory of her. And she lets him go because this is what she wanted for him. She wanted him to be happy.

Hunter does regain memory of his other life eventually, but not until after several months of the two being separated and quiet heartbreak on Willow's part that she represses and Hunter wondering why it always feels like something is missing.

Anyway the second I thought hubtlow american dragon, this is the part I immediately brainrotted about. I'm insane about this.

[kald-dal-write]

that's a good point actually with katniss not knowing Victor's names.

tho i do need to reread that part. i felt it more like katniss doesn't care about them much. she know their names, at least now i scroll through pages and every time some victor show up she names them. when its someone important like wiress and beetee she names them and sometimes tell how they won, but with d6 she just call them morphling guys. in the movies she makes a note that she doesn't know female morphling name, but I can't find that in the book (it isn't in death or anthem scenes). maybe it somewhere later? anyway katniss and peeta rewatched the games of every potential tribute who was alive at the moment, so katniss probably knew them by the time of second book? i will wait for you reread or find it later by myself (i reread tbosas now actually) (well, relisten, thanks yt for free audiobooks)

tho its actually not really affect my point as you dont really need to remember victors name to notice how mentorship works in general. like we don't always remember every Eurovision winner but we still know the process if we watch it every year.

Katniss is also have a weight of responsibilities and in second book she more concerned about saving her family's life... So i can see how she can miss some details. And also from writers point i think Susan Collins doesn't want to infodump on us so that's why katniss just forget shit or sometimes just doesn't know... and in second book there is already enough repeating of the first with game process so some things and described very briefly. again in the first book she think about viewers and gamemakers everytime, and in second she more like SAVE PEETA SAVE PEETA.

i starting to losing the core of our discussion /not negative im just lost in thoughts like.. where are we going.... who are we....

anyway thanks for this conversation!! It gave me a lot of brain worms /pos

as an apology i try to send you soon another anonymous ask where i try to analyse who would win the 1qq in your fic. i kinda struggle with keeping my thoughts straight so it takes a lot of time.

sincerely, your crazy little brainrotting anon

What I meant that she doesn’t seem to know their names before the Third Quell, not that she doesn’t know anyone’s names at all (which tbf she doesn’t know the names for the D5, D6, D9 or D10 Victors), she only bother to learn the names of the Victors she directly interact with. Which is mostly because she has different prioritisies that mostly includes keeping Peeta safe.

Also with rewatching the games I think Peeta paid more attention to them than she did, she does aknowledge that she recognised Lyme from the tapes when she meets her in MJ though.

It’s only a movie line that Peeta aknowledges that he doesn’t know the morphling’s name “She [F.Morphling] sacrificied her life for me and I don’t even know her name”

Fair with the Eurovision comparison though, you do get a sense of how things work after watching it for years, but still you wouldn’t know everything that goes on behind the scenes of the competition if you are just a casual watcher (especially with this year’s ESC 😭)

but as mentioned the OG post was just that I think people thinking it’s a set in stone rule every male Victor have to mentor a male tribute and every Female Victor have to mentor a female tribute doesn’t seem to be fully a thing with Mags being Finnick’s mentor with her being both a Woman and D4 have had way more Victors after her as they are a Career District known for being good.

As mentioned maybe I get more insight when I finally get to Catching Fire lol

Fun to discuss stuff like this haha

[paperandhis-paper]

Arc-V Month Day 11: Legacy for the Future

(Is that a motherfucking Jojo reference?)

Ok, so, I've spent most days of @arcvmonth so far gushing about the show, so warning: negativity ahead.

I'm overall mixed on the Legacy characters. I don't think they ruin the show as some people claim, but I happen to have problems with... all of them? There are also positives, ofc, so ANALYSIS TIME!

Crow: he's... fine. His screentime is fine. His role in the plot is fine. Everything about him is just fine. My only real complaint is that I wished Shun had won and gotten another duel with Yuya, but it's whatever. He's really only part of the Lancers because he's a legacy character, as I don't think he's the most interesting Synchro character.

Jack: by far the best Legacy character, Jack somewhat takes the role of rival from Reiji, down to having 3 duels with the protagonist and a 3000 ATK ace. Giving him the role of a mentor is an interesting take on the character, although it was weird going back to 5D's I don't know how people feel about him beating Sergey (I know some people hated that when the episode was first announced), but somehow it works fine? It's an interesting subversion, because you'd think Yuya would be the one to do so, but instead Yuya's role is to be the one to unite the people together. My only problem is that it's... kinda weird that Jack just lets the City remain a shithole. Like, do something my man! I also wonder if Yusei wouldn't have been more fitting for his role, but I understand they didn't want to have the protagonists so Yuya wouldn't be overshadowed.

Kaito: I never cared for Kaito in Zexal (granted, it's been a long while since I've seen it), and Arc-V Kaito has similar issues. Namely, being a bit too powerful. He never has a solo loss, and here's where being a legacy character begins to hurt. He had a reputation for being unbeatable (Tron cheating aside), so the writers know they can't have him lose easily. He even almost beats Yuya! The best thing about him is that he provides a mirror for Shun; he's basically edgy-bird Shun from the beginning, but in some ways worse. He steals spotlight a fair bit, but his most egregious case of this is to another Legacy Character, so whatever.

Speaking of...

Asuka: done dirty, and so unnecessarily. Seriously, let her duel Dennis! Him vs Kaito isn't a TERRIBLE set-up, but she needed a big win so her presence doesn't just feel like fanservice. Her getting carded also sucks, but I get the writers kinda had to (can't have a Ritual duelist face Zarc, after all), plus it gave Yuri some much-needed depth.

But at least she got a win, even if it was against mooks. Unlike...

Edo: oh boy. See, I don't actually have much issues with his arc. It works, so long as you ignore that it has basically nothing to do with Edo's character in GX. No, what I wanna talk about this is his duel with Yuya.

I'm gonna be blunt: he should've won that duel. For one, he didn't get a single win in the series (tbf, his opponents were strong, but still), but most importantly, earlier on we saw with Kaito vs Shun that even if you lose you can still reach your opponent. And Edo got development himself by accepting Entertainment Dueling and grabbing an Action Card. The fact that Yuya wins by grabbing an Action Card of his own just rubs salt on the wound. Plus, I just like the idea of Yuya never beating an arc villain (other than Zarc, sorta), his role instead being another (then again, I guess then people would use that to claim Yuya is a weak protagonist and whatnot, so maybe it was for the best).

Also, both him and Kaito interrupting Yugo and Yuri's duel is dumb. Saving that rant for later.

So yeah. Legacy Characters were a mixed bag. I think the writers struggled with giving them the prominence they deserved without outshining Arc-V's massive cast. That's a very fine line. But hey— we got Legacy Support! That's always a good thing, right?

[beevean]

Let's run the gauntlet! Rate each IDW storyline and Netflixvania season against each other! Like who gets first place in shittiness, who gets second third etc

Not really fair since IDW has more arcs, but I'll try :P

The "best" parts of the two works are S1 and... uh... well this is hard, but I'll go with the very beginning of IDW too. There are already some problems (excessive swearing, lack of Grant/Mr. Tinker and everything related to it), but overall, they're solid, short arcs with not many of the problems that would plague later arcs. I like the fight between Trevor and Alucard, and I like Metal Sonic raining fire and brimstone in his quest to revive his master. Nothing much to say.

I would compare the Surge arc with S2, because, well, #girlboss. Those arcs are all about this new shiny villain strutting their stuff around, declaring themselves the hottest shit ever, shittalking the main villain, and being very, very, very annoying (at least Surge isn't a fake radfem, and tbf, the story never wants us to love her because she's a girl). The heroes take a stepback in favor of the OCs, and a few interesting scenes (the fight against Dracula, the potential of Surge's brainwashing and Kit's cutting speech against the "heroes") don't salvage what's ultimately a very boring, drawn out arc. I can also draw a parallel between Sonic being an utter smug asshole, and Alucard being so mean to poor Trevor.

Not sure what I'd compare to S4 because IDW isn't over yet. Mmmh, I hate S4 because of shipteases that lead to infuriating scenes, so... the current arc? The Whispangle apology drama vs. the "cute" Lenector scenes, both examples of jarring morality? Carmilla and Lanoline being both ineffectual unlikeable #girlbosses? An unlikely villain (whatever passes off as Death/a growing city) that diminishes the importance of the original villain? Yeah, let's go with this.

First place in utter shittiness goes, of course, to the MV arc of IDW and S3 of NFCV! Three words to describe them both: pointless misery porn.

Characters suffer in graphic detail for the sake of suffering, the morals (if we want to call them that) are cynical - the world is unfair, you can't trust anyone, if you're kind you will pay for it - some scenes are simply unfit for the series - many The Walking Dead vibes in what's supposed to be a Sonic adaptation, the two random sex scenes in episode 9 - and characters are at their most stupid and most OOC, and dare I say unlikeable - this is where Sonic officially turns into a preaching asshole who thinks begging Eggman to turn good and throwing Espio's trauma in his face are good things (plus, you know, the whole Metal mess), and whatever salvageable things about Hector as an anti-villain get thrown down the drain as he falls for the same "pretty vampire manipulates him" strategy again. The ending has some bullshit choices too: Super Silver manages to somehow rip the metal virus away from the molecules of the infected people, Isaac conveniently is redirected to a giant mirror that would bring him and his army straight to Syria.

And at the end, all that pain? No longer matters! Cream is happy-go-lucky after watching her mother "die" and being infected herself. Alucard gets over his trauma after one episode. Hector is willing to exchange stupid dick jokes with the woman who turned him into a pet.

But fans appreciate their "depth", although in different ways: for the MV arc, it's the whole dark and edgy vibe and the "moral conflict" of "should Sonic have killed Mr. Tinker?" (no the whole problem is that Sonic let Metal go and no one cares); for S3, it's everything about Isaac and his "character development" that is supposedly peak writing (yeah I sure like the poor little thing who stole Hector's arc and also killed a bunch of innocents without that ever being addressed again).

[firendgold]

Since I saw that you're doing the violence ask game can you answer 22, 25 and 7??

I sure can.~

This one got long af though, so another readmore.

(still choosing violence)

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This is another one I've answered already, but tbf... it was yesterday. So I can pull my second favorite part of canon instead so you don't have to re-read an older answer.

There's two moments that tie: one in year 5 and one in year 6. Year 5's moment is a nice warm-and-fuzzy "the trio are such good friends" scene, in the midst of Umbridge torturing Harry with her quill:

It was nearly midnight when Harry left Umbridge’s office that night, his hand now bleeding so severely that it was staining the scarf he had wrapped around it. He expected the common room to be empty when he returned, but Ron and Hermione had sat up waiting for him. He was pleased to see them, especially as Hermione was disposed to be sympathetic rather than critical. “Here,” she said anxiously, pushing a small bowl of yellow liquid toward him, “soak your hand in that, it’s a solution of strained and pickled murtlap tentacles, it should help.” Harry placed his bleeding, aching hand into the bowl and experienced a wonderful feeling of relief. Crookshanks curled around his legs, purring loudly, and then leapt into his lap and settled down. “Thanks,” he said gratefully, scratching behind Crookshanks’s ears with his left hand. “I still reckon you should complain about this,” said Ron in a low voice. “No,” said Harry flatly. “McGonagall would go nuts if she knew—” “Yeah, she probably would,” said Harry. “And how long d’you reckon it’d take Umbridge to pass another Decree saying anyone who complains about the High Inquisitor gets sacked immediately?” Ron opened his mouth to retort but nothing came out and after a moment he closed it again in a defeated sort of way. “She’s an awful woman,” said Hermione in a small voice. “Awful. You know, I was just saying to Ron when you came in . . . we’ve got to do something about her.” “I suggested poison,” said Ron grimly.

Just seeing the trio bounce off each other is soothing (especially after reading days or weeks worth of fanfics where they all suddenly hate each other or were never really that good of friends or whatever). Harry's gratitude and stubbornness, Hermione's caretaking and forethought and plotting, Ron's voice of reason and necessary dash of humor... all perfect. Also, just... Harry is so used to going things alone, toughing things out by himself. It's heartwarming and sad that he still doesn't expect Ron and Hermione to do something as simple as waiting up for him to get back from hellish detention. Also also: Crookshanks curling up with him. ^^

Year 6's moment is just between Harry and Hermione:

Hermione stopped dead; Harry had heard it too. Somebody had moved close behind them among the dark bookshelves. They waited and a moment later the vulture-like countenance of Madam Pince appeared round the corner, her sunken cheeks, her skin like parchment and her long hooked nose illuminated unflatteringly by the lamp she was carrying. ‘The library is now closed,’ she said. ‘Mind you return anything you have borrowed to the correct – what have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy?’ ‘It isn’t the library’s, it’s mine!’ said Harry hastily, snatching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making off the table as she lunged at it with a clawlike hand. ‘Despoiled!’ she hissed. ‘Desecrated! Befouled!’ ‘It’s just a book that’s been written in!’ said Harry, tugging it out of her grip. She looked as though she might have a seizure; Hermione, who had hastily packed her things, grabbed Harry by the arm and frogmarched him away. ‘She’ll ban you from the library if you’re not careful. Why did you have to bring that stupid book?’ ‘It’s not my fault she’s barking mad, Hermione. Or d’you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I’ve always thought there might be something going on between them …’ ‘Oh, ha, ha …’ Enjoying the fact that they could speak normally again, they made their way along the deserted, lamplit corridors back to the common room, arguing about whether or not Filch and Madam Pince were secretly in love with each other.

Very, very cute scene showing Harry and Hermione getting along casually, something we're not often treated to even in canon. A frankly disturbing amount of fans (particularly fans of A Specific Ship I Will Not Mention Here) have bought into the propaganda that Harry and Hermione aren't really that good of friends just because during GOF, when he'd just experienced his first ever schism with a close friend, Harry privately confessed to missing Ron and enjoying the things he did with his male best friend more. The trio is not "Harry and Ron, then Ron and Hermione". It's "Harry, Ron, and Hermione"; all three of them are necessary pieces of the whole. Harry and Hermione's friendship is different than Harry's with Ron, but it's no less valuable, and not any weaker, or else Hermione wouldn't have stayed in that damned tent.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

Every bit of discourse about Sirius not getting a trial. We know. The injustice is the point. The cruelty is the point. The POINT is to show that wizarding Britain is glitz and glamor and not all that fair to its marginalized peoples and underclass, you nimrods. Frankly, the fanfics that purport to 'fix' it by giving Sirius his "restored Lordship" or a bunch of seats on the Wizengamot or immediate "wizarding guardianship" over Harry or some unnamed hot babes for him to fuck on or off-screen are very... shallow and unsatisfying. Either that or they give him a bunch of money, though this would at least be on brand for the Ministry. But like... yeah. I'm tired of this complaint always going in the same direction and not being a gateway to Greater Commentary On The Series and the World. Because it's not like Sirius and/or Harry become the type of people who rebel against this ideology. If anything, they embrace the pureblood nonsense in a lot of these fics and are just mad that Sirius was the target that one time. Gaaaah.

And, and. Every bit of discourse about Dumbledore leaving Harry at the Dursleys and/or the sacrificial lamb throwaway line by Snape, especially because 99.9% of people discussing it either haven't read the books, haven't read them since the first time and desperately need a re-read, have only seen the movies, are parroting opinions from some other wrong person on the internet, are all read-up but blatantly ignoring what Dumbledore and Harry say (and don't say) over what they THINK they mean, or some other lovely form of ignorance that leads to the same long-debunked takes being re-introduced as GASP-DID-YOU-EVER-CONSIDER soundbites over and over and over and OVER again. I'm so sick of it.

I get it, JKR's a TERF, you don't want to re-engage with her work, and you don't have to. You don't have to give her any more money. Hell, you shouldn't, ever again. But please, fucking make sure your knowledge is correct and not fandom telephone when it comes to Harry's childhood and Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. I'm not-even-lowkey sick of some of y'all at this point.

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

I... don't have an immediate answer for this, so I'm going to have to think about it. To you it's only going to take me one line, but for me it'll actually be like... an evening or something.

...

Okay.

This is difficult because (to use the exact terminology) I can't think of a character I've come to hate because of how the fandom acts about them. I definitely have characters whose most popular fanon versions are so irritating or repulsive that it has caused me to look more critically on the real versions of them, though. I guess maybe I'll list those here.

Fleur came to mind first. She seems (and can be) very shallow and haughty in canon at first, but shows compassion and hidden depths in all three of her appearances. She has some veela hair in her wand from her grandmother, and a deep devotion for her younger sister. However... many fanfics (especially harem fanfics or flowerpot fanfics) paint her as either this femme fatale who uses her "veela allure" at will and Cannot Fathom the idea of a man who can resist her (and is thus more vulnerable to falling in love with such a man) or as a super-powerful witch whose family is basically running Magical France (since of course, she is the only French character we know, so why wouldn't she be the most influential person there? /s). Basically, the "foreign" version of what people do to fanon Daphne Greengrass. Ironically, the best fanfic portrayals of Fleur I've seen are the ones that keep her shipped with Bill (with a few flowerpot exceptions, see A Beautiful Lie by MaybeMayba as the prime example), or ship her with Hermione or Ginny... which is sad because I love me some ship variety. (And I still think Bill/Tonks would've been rad as hell.) So I don't dislike canon Fleur, but fanon's "over-attention" to that possible veela heritage and the weird implication that Harry was just "forced" not to notice this perfect woman in his life, rather than just noticing her beauty and not being interested, rubs me the wrong way and disinclines me from including her in many of my own works.

The Bones family is next. Yes, both Amelia and Susan. Susan isn't as bad (I think she has... two lines in Order of the Phoenix? maybe?), but as with most "mostly undefined" HP girls, the personality the fandom has given her (the super sweet politically-savvy Hufflepuff girlfriend of "just do independent!Harry with Lordships and pro-Ministry propaganda and plenty of Wizengamot meetings between Hogwarts classes") is one I've seen so many times it has come to negatively affect my view of the real girl, even though I think the way she calls Amelia "auntie" in canon is adorable. As for Amelia, fanon likes to make her either the Only Sane Man in the Ministry or the leader of the sane faction, who magically is able to fix or ignore all the corruption in said Ministry and can railroad through whatever decisions Harry needs done once he needs to Do Political or Pureblood Stuff Outside of Hogwarts--provided, of course, he's been nice enough to Susan recently.

The closest actual answer to this question I have is Tom Riddle. I didn't like him in canon by any means--I'd probably say I was neutral toward him, just seeing him as "the young Voldemort before he did his magical girl transformation". But fanon kind of acts like he and Voldemort are... two different people? There's these pervasive ideas that either Tom could've been "saved" if Certain People Just Did More (to stop him sneaking around and bullying and murdering???), or that Tom wasn't really so bad when he was gathering up supporters, murdering his family members and the few people who trusted him, and generally going around Becoming the Dark Lord--it was just when he made the switch that he became bad. And like... no. I can't buy that. Even in fanfic, I can't get fully behind the idea of a sane Tom Riddle who was Doing Good until he got sidetracked Oh Nooo. He wasn't. I believe Voldemort was saner before he tried to kill a baby and it backfired, but I don't think there was ever a point where he could have been saved. At every fork he made the wrong decision--to soothe his ego, to feel powerful, to feel special, to feel better than others and make them feel that way too. Tom Riddle's a prick. If anything, we should've seen him squirm a little more before he died.

The last one stings, because it's a character I adore: Hermione. Hermione is a very polarizing figure in canon and always has been, I get it. But what particularly hurts me about her fanon portrayals is that they are VERY SELDOM accurate, or even balanced. Either the author sees her as Their Wife and so she is perfect and never does any wrong and basically becomes the main character of the fic (even if she is not actually the main character), or they overinflate her flaws and use it as a reason to hate on her and bash her to oblivion. There's rarely an in-between. I'm not sure which one is worse. If you held my feet to the fire, I might say the former because a character without any flaws or one who takes over the entire narrative and doesn't let other characters breathe is not fucking interesting to me in the slightest.

This especially hurts because I am a huge Harmony fan and like 60% of bad Harmony fanfics are always the same fucking tropes/plotlines. Hermione is unironically referred to as The Brightest Witch of THE Age (incorrect, not what Remus said. he said "the brightest witch of your age I've ever met", basically meaning she's unusually smart for a fourteen year-old girl). She's treated like the next female Dumbledore who has all the answers (even about stuff she wouldn't know) and often guides Harry's every move.

And speaking of Dumbledore--the same girl who is supportive of him in canon and (after Harry) is MOST likely to recognize Dumbledore as a human who can make mistakes is ALWAYS turned into a Dumbledore Skeptic Who Has Been Suspicious of His Motives All Along, and who will do whatever it takes to get her boyfriend away from his manipulations... by taking manipulative!Dumbledore's place. That's right. This version of fanon Hermione ALWAYS becomes the same thing the author is supposedly railing against, because Harry becomes her mouthpiece, spends all his time with her to the exclusion of anyone else, and can't have a single meeting or meaningful scene with any other character unless she is also present.

Haphne fics do this too, but I swear they got it from bad Harmony fics and it makes me so mad. For once, I would love to read a Harmony fic where Dumbledore is portrayed accurately and both Harry AND Hermione are equal, independent partners who don't have panic attacks if separated for more than five minutes. Especially because as a child Hermione never struck me as the kind of person who even would get married or have a serious relationship distracting her from her Great Work!

But yeah. That last one hurts the most because I love Hermione as an individual, as the very important third of the trio, as a potential partner for Harry (though this isn't the right blog for that!), and just as an iconic character.

I... think that's all? Yep. Thanks~!