#the great fandom debate

[thresholdbb]

How it started:

How it's going:

[greys-ghosts-talk]

Genuinely why do peopel feel the need to comment 'friends' and 'they're not a couple' on ship posts, like maybe not to you but this person clearly likes to see them that way, and (as long as they're ethical/legal ) then you can just ignore it. and, y'know, not feed the algorithm data saying 'i like this'. even better you can block the poster. remove it from your situation.

Like when people get into relationships knowing they're going to have problems with their partner's relationship with friends, or lifestyle, or political views, or different views on the roles of a relationship. just don't get into that relationship if its going to go south. just ignore/block the creator. not that hard. you just look like a crying child in the comments. (again if its like p*dophilic, inc**t, ab*sive etc. then its a different story but commenting 'friends' is stupid, especially given the situation you're commenting it in.) Have your own opinions and interact with shipping that you agree with, please and thank you.

Also to add, even if you, yourself are part of the shippers that recive these comments, don't then go and belittle other's ships in order to claim why your's is 'right' or 'correct'. You are also making a toxic fandom, and while im sure alot of people these days don't let fandoms ruin shows for them, you are ruining that community and possible expierance for them. Alot of people need the safe place of a fandom and community of people that enjoy the same great piece of media they also enjoy and you're taking that from them.

You're also creating dead fandoms. no one wants to interact with a toxic fandom, so the fandoms that are, are gonna die. you are part of the fandom and therefore part of keeping it alive. this is mainly aimed and toxic bkdk and jegulus shipping but there are alot of others I've seen.

Personally im a multishipper, so I rarely come across shipping i cant see logic behind (at least) but i know lots of people can't see ships like that so if you can't, please at the least be decent in your own community that you're supposed to be nurturing and supporting.

also feeling the need to bring up jegulus as an example again, but another version of putting down other ships is also villainizing/degrading characters. You can ship someone in a cannon relationship with someone else, and you can give reasons in fics and such as to why they arent in that relationship in that context, but being purposely horrible (making peope hate the character for no reason counts as being horrible to the character) and mischaracterizing someone to be a bad guy/villainizing them, is toxic, alot of the time misogynistic, and another way of shitting on someone else's ship in order to make yours seem better.

please remember that whilst you are at liberty to ship who you want (ETHICALLY) they are at liberty to disagree with that ship. see? now move on and go your separate ways.

thx :)

[antiquepearlss]

I’m too tired to post an essay but my girl was just a victim of bad writing and a lack of critical thinking from the audience okay I love her.

[winnienora14]

Okay so there’s been a whole debate going on about how Remus is characterized so here is my take on the matter

I personally hate the whole Casanova of Gryffindor tower thing. Remus is constantly terrified of being found out. He doesn’t want any one paying attention to him so he’s quiet and reserved. He spent his entire childhood locked away (I believe he was homeschooled)because his dad was ashamed of him and his mom was scared for him. Not being accustomed to social interactions at a young age definitely made him extremely socially awkward. So in my opinion, there is just no way he is the smooth flirt some have described him to be.

I also don’t like the super soft Remus. He is angry, ashamed and frustrated. He feels like the whole world is against him. But we still have to balance both out. He does not make scenes to express his anger, he just lets it boil inside.

Honestly if I had to describe him, I’d say he’s kind to those who deserve it (he’s not the kind of person who believes everyone deserves kindness ). His humor is self deprecation, sarcasm and being mean (he’s actually really funny). Humor is kind of an armor for him. It helps him threw hard times.

He is extremely anxious/paranoid. He doesn’t talk much but he’s not extremely quiet. He’s an incredible listener. Since he’s so paranoid, he’s always surveying how people look at him, their behavior... So he’s extremely observant. He knows most things before others do. He’s hard working because his father finds that important and he’s desperate to make him proud. He’s extremely empathetic because that’s a value his mother holds dear.

He doesn’t like school. He’s a queer man in the closet in the 70´s, a halfblood and a werewolf. School is basically hell for him. He gets more than okay grades but he’s not a prodigy and he doesn’t try to be. He only does the work because he doesn’t want to be called out by the teacher for getting a bad grade. Otherwise, he wouldn’t do the work at all. He loves reading because he can relate to certain characters and escape reality.

He has this ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude when he’s talking to strangers his age. If they are older though, he is remarkably polite. He is respectful towards his teachers and or any figure of authority. He doesn’t break rules because he’s scared of being called out by teachers,so he helped the marauders plan the pranks but he wasn’t the one to make them come to life.

He tends to take the easiest course of action even when it’s not necessarily the good one. He’s curious and he loves to learn. He absolutely despises change. He is a control freak but most of all he’s a perfectionist. He always feels like he has to compensate for his lycanthropy by being perfect at everything. He’s an amazing friend: caring and always ready to listen and help.

The best way to make him really really mad is to show him pity. He’s a raging pessimist. He gets angry rather easily and he as trouble controlling that anger. He makes fun of things like influencers and fashion. He refuses to go to the gym, plan his outfits or have a skincare. He never gets into fights because he thinks they’re stupid. He’s uncomfortable in group settings.He is easily annoyed.

This is way too long for no reason but I put too much effort into this to just delete it. So yeah… enjoy I guess.

[laughhardrunfastbekindsblog]

I've been thinking a lot about the scene involving "Clone Force 99 died with Tech" and trying to figure out why it STILL doesn't sit right with me even now, 5 months after the Bad Batch finale aired.

Because really, looking at the line and how Hunter and Wrecker respond to it from an in-universe standpoint, it does fit the specific scenario well. Crosshair is getting ever closer to Tantiss with a severely wounded Wrecker refusing to give up, and he's worried. So Crosshair drops that bombshell of a line, reminding his brothers that the squad has permanently changed, in an attempt to try to save Hunter and Wrecker by convincing them to leave him and find a way to contact Rex as he storms Tantiss on his own, because it's "what he deserves." Hunter responds by saying Omega and the clone prisoners need all of them - which (being generous with my interpretation) is likely meant to address the "I deserve to die alone" sentiment Crosshair expressed by instead providing him another purpose. Then Wrecker responds by saying they know the risks and aren't charging in recklessly - addressing Crosshair's original concern.

So I think I would ultimately be fine with this scene as-is if 1) it didn't end up being the last time the brothers ever reference Tech, and 2) it didn't come at the end of an entire season's worth of complete mismanagement regarding the Tech storyline.

Now, I admit my perception will likely permanently be colored by the fact that when first watching the finale and hearing Crosshair say that line, part of me still clung to hope that Tech would show up before the end credits, but in between heaving sobs the analytical part of my brain was going "...Really? A full season of baiting us and THAT'S how you're going to tell your audience Tech isn't coming back? If that's really the case so help me..." And we all know that really was the case 😫😤😭

(Screaming into the void. Starting to realize I do a lot of void-screaming when it comes to season 3, especially with everything after "The Return.")

But even setting aside how soul-crushingly painful that line is, what continues to drive me absolutely bonkers about it is:

1) Tech sacrificed himself so that his squad COULD carry on without him, whether that meant fighting or not, and yet again the narrative itself refuses to openly acknowledge this. Even if Crosshair isn't at a point where he can really accept this (and that's a valid stance for him to take), it would have gone a long way for the show (via Hunter or Wrecker in this case specifically) to still definitively highlight why Tech had done what he did, especially after an entire season that ended up only implying that Tech's sacrifice held the squad back from achieving their goals.

(Another fan told me that they believe the line was a good way to acknowledge how important Tech is because the squad will never be the same without him. While I see their point, I think if the show really wanted to push that sentiment it would have landed a lot better if worded a bit differently and stated during, I don't know, a memorial for Tech. With all Tech's family there. Not desperately thrown out there by Crosshair in the middle of a mission as an attempt to shock/guilt Hunter and Wrecker into saving themselves - after all, as noted above, the purpose of the line in context isn't specifically to honor Tech anyway.)

2) There's no follow up to address the fact that Tech sacrificed himself, in part, so Crosshair could still be saved - nothing to provide that vital reassurance to Crosshair that he was/is WORTH saving.

3) After an entire season of being excruciatingly vague about whether each Bad Batcher has fully grieved or not, they're STILL keeping it vague and robbing the characters of any cathartic moment to acknowledge Tech in a way that actually respects his sacrifice and shows his family - his squad - is acting to honor his memory.

4) Above all, IT'S THE ONLY TIME TECH IS REFERENCED IN THE FINALE OF THE SERIES IN WHICH HE IS A MAIN CHARACTER and it's not in a way that highlights his positive influence on his brothers, nothing to indicate that this mission to Tantiss would have been just as important to him as it is to the rest of them so they're going to pull together as much to honor him as to accomplish their objectives, nothing to make that reference anything more than a knife to the heart. (Oh, sorry, there is that goggles reference in the epilogue. With Omega, alone. Yet again, the brothers have no meaningful interaction about Tech.)

And the thing is, even if when Tech does come back (and I firmly believe he can), the show that is specifically centered around the Bad Batch should not have ended without providing meaningful closure for all of them. (Yes, I'm still banking on another clone-centric show being in the works; but Rebels clearly left the door open for further stories while still leaving things wrapped up for all the main characters at the end of that show, and that could - and should - have happened here.)

...Anyway, now that I've gotten all that off my chest, maybe I'll be a bit calmer during future rewatches of the finale 😅

... Scratch that, I'll probably need to spell out all my grievances about the CX plotline before I reach the point of watching the finale with relative calm 😬

[sweetmariihs2]

Cedric The Sorcerer's age debate; 22 or 37?

This is an old debate in the fandom in regards of Cedric's age. I'm not really sure why is this such a big thing, but it is... I have some theories I'll be leaving for later in the post.

We have two different points of view: Cedric being around 21-25 or being 30-40.

Cedric is 21-25 years old theory:

The arguments used to defend this opinion are in this specific YouTube video:

My theories about why his age might got confusing for a part of the fandom:

Imagine you're watching a show for a long time and since the beginning you always saw a certain character in a certain way (in this case, having a certain age), and the creators of the show confirm without warning that your view was wrong the whole time, specially if the show left that info so ambiguous and open for interpretation for such a long time. It's frustrating and you might find it confusing and think it makes no sense, but in Cedric's case, the show never really implied the fact of him being in his 20s.

There is also that other group of people who saw Cedric as young as a way to justify his innapropriate shipp with Sofia. When the fans of this shipp discovered that he was 40 they denied it to themselves. I found some posts here on Tumblr about this some time ago that I'll add later in the post. That's one of them: (credits of two of Craig Gerber's tweets screenshots that I added to the post)

Edit: and you know what's funny? The YouTube channel that made this video is called "Cedfia Enthusiast". How ironic.

Cedric is 37-41 years old semi-canon:

We have three different semi-canon sources of this information: Craig Gerber's twitter, the STF pitch bible and Disney Junior instagram account.

Why are they semi-canon? Because all of them are directly related to Disney Junior but doesn't count as canon, and I'll explain why.

Craig Gerber's Tweets:

This last screenshot was found by @shychick-52

I like how he choose the words "probably closer" because he's not saying that this information is exact.

Why it's semi-canon: Craig Gerber usually told a lot of stuff to STF fans on twitter, and some of the info he shared was later denied in the show (probably due to the fact that the writers were still deciding if it would be in the show or not but in the end they decided that it wouldn't... still, it's coming from the main writer of STF).

Sofia The First Pitch Bible:

You can find the whole STF Pitch Bible in these two posts: part 1 and part 2

The Sofia The First pitch bible is a document with the "sketch" of the show, inclusing characters, appearances, plot, places, that stuff, including the ages, and a lot of info got changed from this document since the show was still being created and it was in constant change; for example, Cedric's parents had other names and they were supposed to be dead, but in the show they're called Winifred and Goodwyn and they're very alive. So the ages mentioned in that document are also not exactly canon, but directly made by people involved in the show to organize stuff, so it is related to canon in a way. It's extra content? For sure.

Disney Junior Instagram post:

This is the link to the post in case you want to see it.

The Disney Junior instagram page made a meme base for the followers to add their ages, names, favorite Disney character, and share with them via Instagram. The Disney Junior account itself tried with their characters as an example, including Cedric, and they said that his age is 41. But even though it was made by the Disney Junior Instagram account, the account is only responsible for making posts to promote the shows, the info they share is not considered canon, and Cedric's profile wasn't even correct because it said he would like to be a "magician" (he is a sorcerer) and his favorite Disney character was "Dr Facilier", when clearly it was always Merlin (he is a huge fan of Merlin in the show itself).

Arguments used to defend this info:

Sofia is said to get older as the show goes on, which means that four years have passed. I'm not sure if this information is canon or not (since her being 16 during STF: RM is not confirmed) but it's mentioned in different sources, and reinforced by Disney Junior's Instagram account (semi-canon)

The first season starts with Sofia being 8 and Cedric being 37. In the last season, she would be 11 and he would be 41, which makes the argument that he is 41 years old viable because Disney JR is referring to his age at the end of the show.

Cedric and Roland's age is close to one another: Cedric and Roland were children at the same time in the show, and Roland is the father of two 12 year old children. For Roland to have two 12 year old children and be Cedric's age at the same time (I'm talking about the supposed 22 year old age), he would need to have children before he even got to his 20s (or even 15), which does not make sense at all, specially in a toddler's show. In fact, Roland was a full adult when Queen Lorelei got pregnant and died after giving birth.

It's more likely that Cedric is around 37-41 since this information is coming from three different semi-canon sources, like the meme says: "If I had a nickel for every time [Cedric is said to be 37-41 yo], I'd have [three] nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened [three times]" (Dr. Doofenshmirtz)

The show doesn't give concrete arguments for Cedric being in his 20s, in fact the information the show gives about his age is open to interpretation, it also welcomes the idea of ​​him being 37-41 as it doesn't go against that thought either. Even though it's not canon, if there was a scoreboard, it would be written "20s- 0 | 37/41- 3"

Thank you for reading the post, I'll add more stuff if I need to.

[janefrigginausten]

Dickens vs Tolstoy debate - Featuring Tom Hiddleston and Zawe Ashton

[a-vicious-faithless-angel]

Originally i wasn't gonna post this, n was just gonna keep it to myself but it's insane to me how much fandoms or just people in general cannot seem to fathom anything outside of what they know. They've placed themselves into a box of what they know, what makes them comfortable and what's understandable to them. Anything past that is met with hatred and dislike for xyz. You can't have a morally grey character [ESP FEMALE.] Without accusations of abuse of any of fucking being terrorist [Looks at what people say about Mia Winters.] Fiction is not supposed to always be made for YOU. It's made for anyone, they're not nor SHOULDN'T be limited to yourself. This idea that things cannot be bad or gruesome without backlash destroys so much of what sm media is built on... If a ship between 2 characters can be seen as horrible and disgusting when theres no actual evidence of it being that way yet theres still a push when in all actuality you are allowed to write shitty relationships, its okay to write about the relationships that arent squeaky clean!!!! This idea that if you ship it, it immediately means you support it, has gone so far, when i talk about 4525 [David x Simon] or hell Woods x Hackett. Its not to bring this idea that i want real relationships to fucking be like this, its just an interesting viewing of 2 people trying to make something work. They're fictional characters. They are not real. They're little dolls you play around with, to push n do whatever with. A limit of which is okay and isn't should be there, but we've crossed it so much that, the line isn't even there anymore. Like any difficult subject you handle it with care but it doesn't automatically mean you cant ever talk about it or want to talk about it! Just like how real life is not pure, not all media will be pure and that's FINE. You should talk about villainous characters and their complexity and not be harassed for just liking them. <3333

[sauljudgeman]

What's the best opening theme of all time? I'll go first.

[tantamounttoflirtation]

If they announce a s4 I genuinely might have to log tf off. I don't even want to see what sort of dumpster fire it would be. Maybe I'm just being pessimistic, but I don't see much hope for it being good or worthwhile. I'm going to rant in the tags so if you disagree with my opinion thats cool you can just ignore me and continue scrolling :)

[smollandkindaannoyed]

Making an "Important Kpop Lore" powerpoint for a friend of mine and like I haven't really been in the kpop fandom the last 4 years, so it is absolutly amazing to see some of my favourite moments back. This presentation will be my greatest work ever, I am going to make my friend suffer because she will have to watch the full Exo Wolf Demo, talk about how the Sherlock fandom was very confused when suddenly Shinee was all over their tag and more. I already have like 25 topics I want to tell her about.

But I am here because pretty please tell me what you think is an important moment in Kpop history my non-kpop friend should know about.

[drifloonz]

The multiple miki thing might be because Miki could've been based on Charizard M and that thing is known for cloning itself.

Tbh i cant fault shadowmalerenamon for completely changing doors open when rewriting it. Having missingno be the main antagonist was miles better than how Steve was in the original.

( mention of suicide ig )

i respectfully disagree . i see where you're coming from but i think all of the rewritten strangled... duology i guess bc strangled red itself never got one

( thank fucking god to be honest. it needs No change. although at the same time its kind of funny it never got one bc its the most popular one and going more into him as a Person if smr didnt fuck it up would be nice ... but im too attached to my own interp based off of his canon implications to care about what smr kind of has to give. and he already did that in og strangled red, to a degree, although it focuses on the tragedy there is character stuff to be extrapolated from the implications of the story if youre very deeply ill. like me. )

- is a lot less character-focused, at least on steven specifically, and is focused on explaining or rewriting shit that never needed to be explained or rewritten. it is a revisit and reinterpretation of the story, that to me, is just purely kind of . Not good or fun to read. and the new shit it introduces is fucking stupid imo. steven being banished by the town instead of... fucking. killing himself ( especially specifically by cop. that's lame and way more boring + FUCK THE POLICE !!! + It feels out of character for steven he would just do it himself like actually. Also yk. hanging yourself is narratively thematic and ironic. ) or whatever goes so much harder .

guy who loves his town and home region and wanting to be a role model and wanting to be cool so badly being driven mad and then the entirety of kanto, his homeland, forsaking him and walling him off goes crazy . Also because it implies they're scared of him to some degree which also makes me go crazy as an implication.

[ more put below bc i love to fucking yap about strangled red and how much i dont like the rewrites ]

i Will not step down from 'the rewrites arent good' . Doors open is mostly bad because stevens characterization is garbage. even though its random and from left field ( why the fuck is he in sprout tower ) it couldve been handled well if it was written better characterization-wise.

also i supposed the 'M charizard makes sense. not. not really i don't actually think smr thought that through. if he did, which he couldve because she is named #'M# in Strangled Red, cool, but i still think it's just to make the "miki" name thing with 4 party members he has. which is cool admittedly. it's just that i hope it is never explained why he has 4. and it never has since, doors open rewrite didnt do anything with that thank god.

and bc he wouldnt have any other mon other than miki post-incident and afaik that thing only replaces existing partymembers, and steven canonically releases all his team in SR + pokemon avoid him. but yea. Doors open i treat as a 'spinoff' in a sense bc nothing from it really makes sense when properly thought through, and its basically there to make the lost silver crossover i feel. also, yk, he literally says "Never." in strangled red when you press switch on 'M / missingno/revived/whatever you want to call miki post revival. its kind of out of character for canon-compliant steven to have anything other than miki post-incident for these 3 reasons - i only made a team for him post incident bc im autistic about pokemon and pokemon teams so that was for fun.

basically it makes more plotholes and questions than not the more strangled reds plot stuff tries to be explained or added upon esp in the remakes which i think are not fun reads if you like steven as a character anyways. and also bc strangled and doors open in the ogs are easter eggs. trying to explain what is supposed to be an in universe easter egg in pokemon would obviously be kind of a lesson in futility. not. not exactly but at least in the way smr does it.

strangled makes sense, you just go to his fucking house and hes there. yea. doors open is like. Yea hes in johto now. dont ask. but its also easily explainable as... He just fucked off to johto. For what reason? idk. hates kanto bc theyve forsaken him and banished him to the Woods, just wanted fresh air i guess, or just for fun. these are all more plausible reasons.

iirc the rewrite doesnt even say why hes there and if it does the reason is convoluted and not needed. i think its just 'hes a ghost hallucination... thing??? following the mc which is the most boring route to go for with steven and the most uninspired thing ever, and missingno was not the antagonist just a plot device in the og story Why are we focusing on it so much.' and its still a plot device in the rewrites! it isnt explained ( good the explanation would be kind of awful ) and i cant see any good way to explain missingno other than the way i do as a fun idea. which is biased but the 'failed clone of mew number 3' is a fun idea.

this is an insane ramble from a deranged person. if you can't tell i fucking love steven as a character and smr does him dirty except in strangled red, really. strangled... is fine but bc he barely talks in that one and when he does its like. yea. that checks out.

no hate to you btw none of it was directed at you specifically just smr and strangled reds various canons. you just gave me an excuse to ramble about how much i dislike the remakes tbh. I fucking LOVE analyzing why i hate things esp involving steven bc hes not greatly written by his og creator and not often greatly written by the fandom either .

[bronzepatriarchy]

Nothing like rereading an old fic you used to work on and thinking 'I can fix every plothole in this thing if I just spent an extra 5 minutes thinking about it"

[adhd-merlin]

I don't wanna open a can of worms here but I miss colin's OG ears a bit

[sweetmariihs2]

Did Sascha put a love spell on Cedric or not? (the ultimate debate post) ⊹.✩₊♡ ₊˚ ⊹

There is a constant question in the fandom as to whether or not Miss Nettle, disguised as 'Sascha the sorceress', placed a love spell on Cedric in the episode "The Enchanted Feast". I've been wanting to make a post about this for a long time.

I'm going to describe the scenes where they interact in this episode and show you the reasons to believe yes or no, or at least point out moments that are relevant for this conclusion.

The episode: ⊹.✩₊

'The Enchanted Feast' is the second episode in the second season of Sofia The First. The main plot of this episode happens when Miss Nettle, an evil fairy, changes her appearance with a spell and transforms herself into Sascha the sorceress, aiming to trick Princess Sofia and get her magic amulet. She goes to the castle as Sascha and manipulates everyone in the royal family with magical gifts and false kindness to like her and thus make it easier to steal the amulet, but Princess Sofia does not feel comfortable with her. Even Cedric, the royal sorcerer, falls in love with Sascha at this moment, and Sofia questions herself if she is right in not trusting Sascha or if it is just in her head.

That same night, the enchanted feast would take place, a banquet prepared by Cedric through magic along with a magic show to entertain the guests while they dine, something that Cedric has apparently been rehearsing a lot to be able to perform flawlessly. Miss Nettle (Sascha) is afraid that the royal sorcerer might use magic to prevent her from obtaining Sofia's amulet, so to prevent him from using magic and letting this happen, Miss Nettle sprinkles a bad kind of magic dust on Cedric's wand to disrupt his spells.

At the enchanted feast, Sascha and the others sit at the table while Cedric arrives to perform the spells, but he fails and is once again misjudged (after several seasons of being seen as a bungler for making mistakes, even though most of those mistakes are not his fault), in addition to the spell humiliating him, throwing him from one side of the ballroom to the other. Sascha undoes all the magic, saves Cedric from the spell, summons the feast with her magic and offers to perform in Cedric's place, which deeply offends him. Cedric leaves and Sofia follows him to comfort him. At this point, Miss Nettle uses Rosey (her side-kick in this episode, a magical talking rose) to grow vines all over the castle, making the royal family believe it was a performance while the disguised fairy locks them in the room and goes in search of Sofia and her amulet.

Sofia's amulet summons Snow White (her amulet summons princesses when Sofia needs advice), who tells her that she can't always trust people just by their appearance. When Sofia finds Miss Nettle, the fairy reveals that she is actually in disguise and that she wants to take Sofia's amulet, but Sofia manages to escape and runs to Cedric, who is depressed in his tower due to the recent events, and she tells him about Miss Nettle and her goals. Cedric quickly goes to confront her, but his wand doesn't work. Miss Nettle laughs at him, ties him up and tells him that his wand is ruined because of the magic dust she put on it. She leaves, Sofia unties Cedric with the help of her rabbit Clover, and Clover, along with Cedric's raven named Wormwood, fly to Cedric's tower, which is locked due to Rosey's vines, and get a new magic wand. Cedric then casts a mirror spell that appears to duplicate Sofia's appearance, which confuses Miss Nettle and they successfully capture her. When they free the royal family and the castle from Rosey's vines, Miss Nettle and Rosey escape, ending the episode with the main characters finishing the enchanted feast and Cedric successfully performing his magical show.

(*sigh* never noticed how many things happen in this episode. Also it's one of my favorite ones.)

Cedric and Sascha's interactions (episode analysis): ⊹.✩₊

Now it's where the fun begins. *rubbing hands in an evil way*

When Sascha appears at the castle, she uses magic gifts to gain the trust of the royal family, except for Sofia, who still feels uncomfortable around her. We can see this happening in the episode's song, "All You Desire".

We can see that she gave the characters gifts (they were illusions by the way), and when Cedric appears, she throws the magic water at him, that makes Cedric "fall in love" for her instantly. This can be just an artistic choice, but maybe it means she put a love spell on him.

There are rumors among fans that the water in the birdbath from which she takes the magical objects was actually enchanted by her, and that everyone who touches that water or the objects that come from it is bewitched to like Sascha, but this is just a hypothesis. Sofia is an exception because she did not touch the water or the objects. This is just a theory.

In the following scene we can se Cedric introducting himself to Sascha and clearly being very gentlemanly and smitten with her, in a way that it's impossible not to notice (there is always the possibility that she didn't, but I highly doubt that). Sascha responds with a frendly expression and friendly answer. (I needed to record this whole scene. It's very important for the post. Also forget about what I said, there is NO WAY she didn't noticed. "you are the ✨️most beautiful✨️ sorceress I have ever seen uwu")

Sascha is possibly (and seemingly) aware of Cedric's feelings.

That would be even more clear if the love spell theory was correct. Which means she caused him to feel this on pupose.

Some scenes later, Sofia even asks Cedric if he doesn't feel uncomfortable around Sascha too, because Sofia does. Cedric basically says that there is nothing to be worried about.

Sofia: "Excuse me, Mr Cedric, I need to ask you about Sascha."

Cedric: "Enchanting, isn't she?" (in an extremely lovesick tone)

In this scene there is a very important hint that I never saw people point out. When Sofia is telling Cedric about her concern, Cedric is defending Sascha. In this exact moment, Miss Nettle appears in the window and throws the magic dust on his wand. She puts her head inside of the sorcerer tower, looks around to see if it's safe, looks at Cedric and Sofia having their dialogue, and SHE WATCHES HIM DEFENDING HER, but choose to damage his wand anyway. That's the thing I wanted to point out.

Miss Nettle also knew that the enchanted feast would happen that night and that Cedric would show his magic there, so logically she knew that ruining his wand would ruin his show too. Keep that in mind.

We do not see exactly when Miss Nettle leaves the tower, as the scene shows Cedric and Sofia's dialogue up close and leaves Miss Nettle behind. We can only watch their conversation, Cedric assures Sofia that there is nothing wrong with Sascha and Sofia answers with "okay, I'll see you at the feast". Cedric closes the door, presses his back against it, holds both of his hands together in a lovesick way and sings "and so will Sascha!"

There is a chance that Miss Nettle was still there during this moment since we didn't saw her leaving. But yeah, this is more an assumption than an actual fact.

Miss Nettle watched Cedric defending her (even complimenting her in his lovesick state) and damaged his wand anyway. While he was distracted defending her.

There is a small chance that she watched the whole moment, again showing us the huge chance of her already knowing about his feelings.

In the next important scene we're already at the enchanted feast. The characters are waiting for Cedric's magic show to begin and he enters the ballroom all confident and happy (and wanting to impress Sascha too, I presume, along with the royal family, who don't see him as a very good sorcerer, except for Sofia). He's not often confident and happy in public displays of his magic due to the humiliations he go through when he gets nervous and fails, so this moment was a special occasion, showing us how confident he was in knowing that there was no way he would mess up the spells he had been practicing, also being very eager in showing the royal members and also his crush Sascha how amazing at magic he is. Sascha watches him with a smile.

His first spell was conjuring up the feast. Everything seemed fine, the feast had appeared, but then the foods started to fly around the room, making Cedric very embarassed and worried immediately. Also, keep up in mind the fact that he's usually insecure about showing his magic in front of everyone, afraid of making mistakes (at this point that's basically a trauma). Of course Sascha didn't know about this, even though Cedric is shown to be known in other kingdoms for being a bad sorcerer (as we can see in the episode Substitute Cedric, from the Hexley Hall students), so perhaps Sascha had this in mind too. I'll ellaborate this later. ‼️ (don't forget)

Sascha in this scene knew damn well that this had just happened because of her, I told you to keep that in mind. She mumbles "oh my...", in a "that's so embarassing" tone to the people around her. She didn't needed to say this. I don't know exactly if she was trying to mock him, or whatever, I just know that this comment wasn't nice. Being even worse if you consider that she knows that Cedric likes her.

Cedric then got nervous and embarassed about everything (we don't know if he heard Sascha's comment or not). He tried to fix it and proceed, saying that this was all a little joke and he really intended to do this mess, going ahead with the next spell. While he does this, Sascha watches him with a cruel smirk, knowing that this will only get worse.

At this point I'm fully convinced she intended to make him embarassed because it would be funny for her, based on her expressions. Keep this in mind too, she enjoys making Cedric feel bad and embarassed.

Cedric goes ahead with the second spell. He is very confident, probably having in mind that he knew he wouldn't make any mistake this time, but as we know that didn't worked. At first the mirrors he wanted were indeed conjured, but instead of showing different reflections ad he wanted them to, they had a magnectic effect on Cedric, pulling him towards one of them. When he tried to revert it, other mirror just pulled him to the other side of the room, just making him look even more like an idiot in front of everyone. The mirrors threw him around for some time until Sascha got up from her chair and offered herself to fix everything.

She made the mirrors disappear, making Cedric fall on the floor (she could have made him float or whatever), and got applauses from all the people in the enchanted feast. She even thanked them for all the attention. And Cedric, extremely embarassed, gets up from the floor and tries to explain to them that he didn't understood why this happened and even asked another chance to show them his spells one more time. Roland denies it 'politely', finishing with "I think we had enough magic for tonight, Cedric." (He didn't had to be so rude to him, but he always is anyway)

I think we don't give enough attention to the fact that Cedric panicked with that answer, asking about the enchanted feast. Sascha immediately conjures up the whole feast in a second (Baileywick even cuts the turkey and says "it's a real turkey everyone!", like, of course it is, did Cedric really made your expectations that low?!? Lmaooo and everyone applauds, probably showing that they thought the same, I CAN'T).

Cedric is extremely embrassed and his nervous expression just turned into a saddened and insecure one. Poor thing was probably replaying the whole sorceress ball of his sister in his head.

Now we have the scene that makes it clearer how all this humiliation was intentional on Sascha's part and how she WANTED Cedric to feel bad. Sascha offered to do the same as Cedric, make a magic show while they dine. She didn't had to do this if she was only focused on her plan, she did this because it was fun for her. Cedric gasps, probably feeling heartbroken, neither Roland nor the people invited for the feast wanted Cedric to have a second chance, except for Sofia... again. Cedric looks at them, and at last he looks at Sascha (maybe seeing if she, as his last option, would defend him (that's my assumption)), that gives him a look too.

That look was more than enough proof that she enjoyed making him feel bad and WANTED him to feel inferior to her, that unlike him, was a great "sorceress".

Cedric acts grumpy and everything, and leaves the room, then Sofia goes after him. Sascha tried to stop her because Sofia leaving the room would affect her plan to get her amulet, but she let her go anyway. When Sofia arrives at Cedric's workshop, he's simply heartbroken.

He's probably depressed since the moment he arrived there, thinking about the fact that he acted like a fool in front of everyone once again. Wormwood probably had to hear him talk about it before Sofia arrived too. When Sofia asks for Cedric's help, "Mr Cedric, you have to come quick! We have a magic emergency!", he answers with "Well then, I suppose you should ask a real sorcerer, like Sascha". It seems like Miss Nettle really did achieved her goal.

When Sofia tells Cedric that Sascha is just a disguised, Cedric gets enraged. Mostly because she also tells him that Nettle wants her amulet too. But I also personally believe that he's furious at her for the fact that he was in love with a lie, and she humiliated him publicly using that lie. He had been feeling embarassed because he looked like a fool in front of his crush (and in front ot everyone else), when in reality she was never real in the first place. And don't even let me start on the mean look she gave him before he went to his workshop. It's confusing, yet understandable, how he was angry at her at first but when he went to his workshop he just compared himself to her, and probably was doing it way before Sofia arrived.

Cedric was angry at her because:

- She's in desguise, in fact, Sascha is not even a real person, which means he fell in love by a mirage.

- She offered herself to take his place in the enchanted feast and gave him a mean look when her offer was well received by the people in the table.

- She wants to steal the Amulet of Avalor. That is, she wants to do something Cedric had been trying to do for a long time. Besides that, the Amulet of Avalor is Cedric's ticket to get out of the life he's in now, which means, make everyone pay for what they did to him (now including Sascha). So besides doing all the things I mentioned, she also wanted to take his chance of revenge (she didn't know he was after the amulet, but for Cedric, that was a menace)

Cedric then goes after Miss Nettle, and when he finds her, he immediately confronts her... but not for invading the castle or trying to get the Amulet of Avalor, which are considered "more important" reasons. No, he confronts her about Sascha! Making it clear for us that his anger towards her now isn't mainly because of the amulet or anything like that, it's because of Sascha. He says "So, you aren't a sorcerer after all" like in a "you lied to me" way.

And Miss Nettle's answer show us how she handle Cedric's feelings "so carefully" (ironic tone). She answers "I guess that makes two of us" with a huge smile in her face, I suppose it's for seeing Cedric feeling bad again and now angry at her for knowing the truth. Cedric tries to defend himself or stop her, but his magic wand fails again, and Miss Nettle throws "Bouncing Bluebells" at him, which are flowers who jump and make him stumble, falling to the ground.

Miss Nettle makes fun of his failed spells and says "boo hoo, having trouble with your spells, are you?"

As if that wasn't enough, Miss Nettle wants him to know that it was her who ruined his magic show during the enchanted feast, sprinkling some "crazy crystals" in his wand when he wasn't looking. And when Cedric hears this he immediately show us vulnerability again and it's clear that he's upset, showing that even though he was acting angry at her before, he was still hurt inside. Miss Nettle ties his hands with a spell and goes away still making fun of him, playing with the fact that she will get the amulet. The moment she leaves, Cedric looks at his tied hands/wand with a angry yet thoughtfull look in his eyes, showing that he was thinking about what happened.

Miss Nettle made sure to let him know that SHE was the one that ruined his spells and made him look like a fool in front of everyone (+ triggering him in the process and playing with his feelings). She didn't needed to do that for her plan of taking the amulet to succeed. She did it because it was fun for her.

When Sofia appears, Cedric tells her about Miss Nettle's reveal, and even though he sounds angry, he looks down in a way we can still feel how his feelings are not all of hatred... he's feeling hurt about it too, despite not letting it show for Sofia. When he complains about not being able to free himself from the vines, he also starts with an angry expression and voice tone, but finishes with an upset one. He's sad.

After he's free again, him and Sofia try to go to Cedric's tower to get a new wand, and in the meantime he only seems angry and determined to get her. But when they discover that all the entrances to his towers were blocked by Miss Nettle's vines, Cedric let us see how he's feeling again through his expressions. A scene change happens and Cedric is sitting on the stairs, with his head in his hands, probably thinking about everything that happened today and feeling defeated now. Heartbreaking. And he's NOT with Sofia, who usually would offer help, but I thought that perhaps he wanted some space now.

When Wormwood and Clover come back with Cedric's wand, he get's excited again and has a bit of hope of stopping Nettle (and defending Sofia now that he knows that she's after her). He immediately goes after her, all confident, but Sofia stops him, which made him complain. We can see how eager he is to take revenge on Nettle. Sofia says "Wait! You need my help", and Cedric confidently answers "Not that I have a new wand I'll be fine." When Sofia tells him she has a plan and knows how to defeat Miss Nettle, Cedric shows interest again.

They did the Morfo-mirror trick and defeated Miss Nettle. Cedric gives Sofia a half hug and looks at her with a proud expression, but when he looks at Miss Nettle, he furrows his eyebrows, a look similar to the one she gave him earlier that night. Ehehe revenge is a dish best served cold. I also find cute how he answers Sofia's words with "huhum" instead of interrupting her to say something by himself, even though he has A LOT of things to say, sometimes an acts tells more than a thousand words.

After that he's all confident again and frees the castle from the magic vines, opening the doors of the ballroom, being greeted by a round of applause from the royal family and their guests, with everyone now recognizing his efforts. Something I never saw anyone mention was how Roland said "now, where is Sascha?!" And Cedric IMMEDIATELY makes a frown and lifts his hand close to his mouth to probably roast her to Roland, which is so funny, but Sofia interrupts him and brings Roland to where she was instead. I get you, king!!

Miss Nettle flees before they get there. The way all the main characters (the royal family) and even Baileywick are there but not Cedric makes me a bit annoyed, because it's one of those moments he's not visually considered to us, the viewers, as part of the royal family, even though this scene ASKS for his presence after what happened during the whole episode.

Something that would also be interesting to point out his how the jewels she conjured for Amber were all fake, and Amber says "it was... just illusion!" and Roland answers with "Just like everything else about her", which also includes the love spell if there is one? It does not count as proof for anything though.

The episode ends with a successful enchanted feast and Cedric's mirror successfully working, showing that he got his second chance and probably did an amazing magic show, even though we can't watch it.

Important points: ⊹.✩₊

Even though we can't confirm the love spell in this episode, we can clearly see that Miss Nettle shows some sadistic traits and I pointed them out every time I saw one. That was the full list:

Sascha is possibly (and seemingly) aware of Cedric's feelings.

That would be even more clear if the love spell theory was correct. Which means she caused him to feel this on pupose.

Miss Nettle also knew that the enchanted feast would happen that night and that Cedric would show his magic there, so logically she knew that ruining his wand would ruin his show too. Keep that in mind.

Miss Nettle watched Cedric defending her (even complimenting her in his lovesick state) and damaged his wand anyway. While he was distracted defending her.

There is a small chance that she watched the whole moment, again showing us the huge chance of her already knowing about his feelings.

At this point I'm fully convinced she intended to make him embarassed because it would be funny for her, based on her expressions. Keep this in mind too, she enjoys making Cedric feel bad and embarassed.

That look was more than enough proof that she enjoyed making him feel bad and WANTED him to feel inferior to her, that unlike him, was a great "sorceress".

Miss Nettle made sure to let him know that SHE was the one that ruined his spells and made him look like a fool in front of everyone (+ triggering him in the process and playing with his feelings). She didn't needed to do that for her plan of taking the amulet to succeed. She did it because it was fun for her.

A lot of reasons to believe in her cruel behavior. I rewatched this episode a lot of times so I remember each scene where this happens, but I haven't rewatched her other episodes as many times, so I'm not sure if she acts like that with everyone. If she doesn't, that would mean she has issues with Cedric specifically. Why would she?

I believe it's because of Cedric's reputation and looks, through other words, because of bullying behavior. In the episode "Substitute Cedric" a group of Hexley Hall students mess up with him and say "you're even worse than that Cedric guy in Enchancia", showing us that Cedric's bad reputation is not only in Enchancia, but in other kingdoms too (or at least showing us that he's still known as a bungler in Hexley Hall even after all those years, but that's a topic for other post). Maybe Miss Nettle heard about him and already has an opinion about him before meeting him in person, thinking he's stupid. Another reason would be because of the way he presents himself, as you know, bullies search for the ones who stand out (the cooler ones *cofcof*) and make fun of them because of this. So supposedly, in Miss Nettle's head, her opinion of him was that he was an idiotic, weird-looking bungler sorcerer, and she thought it would be funny to mess with him. I wouldn't be surprised, judging by her sadistic tendencies.

I would also like to point out how Cedric felt hurt during the whole episode but kept it inside to seem more strong. Probably not only his feelings were hurt, but his ego and pride too, and I don't say it in a cruel way, all of us have ego and pride. It's not really important for the post, but I didn't noticed that in the first watch.

Reasons to believe in Sascha's love spell: ⊹.✩₊

Now we're going to discuss the big elefant in the room.

One of the reasons is that she's cruel to him. She likes to make him feel bad and suffer. A love spell would only help her to do this easily and worse. Even thought it would be uninportant for her plans, she did a lot of things that were uninportant for her plans, like making fun of the magic show she ruined, giving Cedric a mean look, offering to do the magic show in his place, making fun of him and saying that he's not a sorcerer, telling him the truth about her sabotaging his wand. Saying that the love spell is unnecessary for the plan is not a valid argument. It doesn't matter if it's not related to the plan, it would help her in her side quest of bullying Cedric.

While she slowly brought all the items to each one of the royal family members' hands, she brought the water directly to him using her magic, swirling around him in a way he appeared to be or hypnotized or melting out of passion. And while Cedric was looking at her already impressed before she brought the magic water to him, when she swirled the water around him he really did seem bewitched. The directors could have done this just for the visuals and the song, or just a lack of time to develop Cedric's feelings so they did that in a "love at first sight" way, but if you think about the love spell logic, it really makes sense.

There is also the theory about the family touching the magic items that were conjured through the water, when they touch the objects it's like they are bewitched by her immediately, and Sofia isn't because she refused to touch the magic necklace. Cedric then didn't received any objects, but he touched the water itself, and this may have two interpretations: one is that she didn't needed to use any object to impress him because the love spell would already do all the work. Or, if everything that touches that water (the objects) makes people like her, maybe touching the water itself would have a stronger result.

Making the royal sorcerer, the one who's supposedly responsible for the royal family's security in magic troubles, fall in love with her would only take a rock less out of her way. Because if he were sane and discovered the truth about Sascha he would stop her using magic, so making him fall for her would be certainly a good decision to work in her plans without suspicions. We even see Cedric defending her when Sofia asked for Cedric's opinion about Sascha, so if he was indeed in a love spell, it certainly gave Miss Nettle some advantage. Even though it's weird the fact that Cedric didn't noticed any suspicious magic, being an expert at it, but he seemed impressed by Sascha since the moment he saw her there, and that would make it harder for him to see evil in her. Same thing happened to Sofia and Cedric during the Once Upon A Princess movie, she didn't noticed Cedric's intentions because she thought he was cool. (Cedric is not so innocent though, if Sascha kept acting suspicious like he did in the first movie he would eventually notice that something was wroung, but I guess they didn't had enough interactions lol. He did noticed during the enchanted feast).

Cedric's self esteem is terrible so approaching a love interest probably wouldn't be so easy for him. A love spell would explain his confidence in doing it so recklessly. But in the series we see various moments where he is proud of his magic and really shows to have an ego, specially when he's talking about his evil plans or just interacting with Wormood (and with other characters too, like how he was in the "Substitute Cedric" episode or the "Sidekick Clio" episode). So he's not insecure all the times. Perhaps he wouldn't be insecure in flirting like we thought he would, but even in that scene we can see he's a bit embarassed and smiling. If he was under a love spell, would his confidence be because of the spell and his shyness is his true behavior being repressed? We will never know.

And now there is something that NEEDS to be mentioned here. In the storyboards for this song, that was called "Everything You Want" instead of "All You Desire), all the spells that Sascha do aren't colored, except for Cedric's, that is hot pink and has the shape of a heart.

Something I also noticed is how in the storyboards Cedric is looking at Sascha with an unpleasant expression before she bewitches him. Differently from episode Cedric, where he was already impressed before she brought the water closer to him.

(the link to these storyboards are in my Cedric content masterlist post, in case you want to check it out)

Even though the heart shape and the color weren't used in the episode, the scene and the concept of Cedric falling in love with her were still there. It is clear in the storyboards that the creators really intended to add a love spell there, and that is a huge evidence, even though it was "removed" (maybe they choose to make it just implied).

My theory for this moment being scraped is that Sofia The First is a show for toddlers and perhaps Disney considered a love spell a bit too strong for the episode. They kept the fact that Cedric was in love with her, but her bewitching him maybe was a bit too much?

Reasons not to believe in that: ⊹.✩₊

The characteristics of the scene that show us that Sascha used a love spell being scraped can proof it to be true, the same way it also proofs it to be wrong. If it was scraped it's not in the show, it was clearly removed, so it's not there, which is a valid argument for the ones who don't believe the love spell theory to be true (It's valid, yet it's also valid as a pro-love spell theory argument too because those moments were officially included in the storyboards, so the artists and Disney aknowledged it).

Cedric never confronted Sascha about a love spell, the same way she never told him about doing one. Cedric's reasons are understandable, he had a lot of things to say but it seems to me that he couldn't because of the episode time limit. But Miss Nettle loved to rub everything in his face and even told him she had sabotaged his wand unnecessarily, so I wouldn't be surprised if she also told him that he was put under a love spell, but she didn't. She never mentioned it. That's weird.

Cedric is a royal sorcerer. He probably knows magic and would have noticed if something was wrong (That's a very ironic quote since he says the same thing while defending Sascha lmao). The same way it's possible that the opposite happened because of the spell itself, making him blind just how we theorized in The Floating Palace episodes, where the sea monster spell, according to fans, made him more cruel and less aware of his actions, and he only noticed it after he was human again. The same way Vor put Cedric and other characters in a mind-controlling spell, showing that spells can be used to manipulate people. I'm going against my own point lmao forget it. Cedric didn't noticed when something was wrong, so I guess that's an extra point for the love spell theory.

Counter Argument: ( last minute edit): I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING!!! HE DID NOTICED! I was getting screenshots to add to the last topic and I found out that Cedric did a frown when he saw the water approaching him! Maybe he could feel that this was a spell before she bewitched him, but it was extremely fast. Maybe it was so fast that he got confused and got bewitched before he could fully notice, and he got indeed confused, as we can see in his next expression. I NEVER NOTICED THIS

*ending the post here because if he just got "naturally" impressed by her habilities he wouldn't had frowned and made a confused expression before this confusion got turned into a numb state of happiness. He definitely got bewitched. Cedric noticed the magic, found it weird, but before he could react she had already caught him.*

Conclusion: ⊹.✩₊

I think the directors wanted to leave it open. They wanted the public to question about this topic and find a conclusion. Or perhaps they kept the love spell just implied not to shock the children.

I personally wasn't sure if I completely agreed with the theory and I just liked the idea of watching the episode through two different lenses, but after I found out about the storyboards, (and noticed his expression when she brought the magic water to him) that was it, I'm fully convinced that the love spell happened now. Even though the other way of watching the episode is also a nice way to view the story.

We shouldn't discuss it like a fight, but instead talk about it and make debates, and watch the story in two different ways is also nice.

Thank you for reading, I took certainly more than 5 hours working on this through my whole week, I got a bit carried away.

Tell me about what you think.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

If Edelgard starts a war on cats it would be a CATastrophe. Bad pun aside, it really speaks volumes when people are so enamored and defensive about their fave that they're willing to say "racism, genocide and terrorism is good actually". Fiction may not affect reality most of the time, but it exposes views that some people share that makes you go "yikes.".

I can't believe I didn't even think of that when I wrote it LOL.

For people missing the context, this ask is in response to a reply I wrote on another post.

When it comes to media, it's one thing if there's nuance to the situation and it's not as direct (is she being brainwashed? Controlled? Forced? Somehow unaware? Shown to be conflicted about her actions/what she says? etc). In her case though that's not present and she means what she says. Even still, liking her as a character is fine.

It's different when people start using real life situations or making outright harmful rhetoric, which is something they do both to lift their favorite up and to vilify her enemies (which is why they have to reach so hard, and farther than their arms actually can reach to make up reasons to hate Dimitri. It's not him, it's the fact that they hate anyone who opposes Edelgard, and if Edegard wants them dead they also want them dead. Unfortunately that also turned into demonizing those with mental illness).

Fiction in and of itself doesn't affect reality or indicate what a person is like irl, but their behavior toward others is no longer fiction. Story wise you could argue it makes an interesting character to have these flaws and villainous traits, but it's another story entirely when people double down to insist their characters' actions are just and they go into detail to force it down people's throats - 99.99% of the time unprompted, when that character actively associates with people who have willingly and intentionally committed genocide and aims to do the same herself by finishing the job.

Which you'd think she wouldn't because... those same people wiped out all her siblings, but okay. Somehow the CoS is worse than them. I guess bc Agarthans are human at the end of the day, so no matter how inhumane and atrocious their actions are, they get a pass as long as there's a non-human in the vicinity. Racism typically goes hand in hand with genocide, so. Yeah.

It's not even just that though - it's how the arguments go that indicates if a person is just trying to defend their favorite. If they start brainlessly spewing harmful rhetoric at real people, and if what they say would actively defend real life issues, it's concerning. It's the manner in which they defend their favorite. If the way they argue is exactly how American-hard-rights defend themselves, it starts becoming uncomfortable for people and no longer applies to just fiction.

If what you argue sounds exactly what irl politics sounds like, that's a pretty powerful indicator of who you're dealing with. It doesn't matter if they are or claim to be American-left (specifying because Random said it's different in Europe!). If their arguing points shit on all the values American-lefts stand for, they are not, whether they like it or not, arguing for the left (which all stans claim to do, and then they start regurgitating American-right political stances, extremely often at the expense and discomfort of actual American-lefts. Might I remind you that one of them, a straight man, used abortion and gay marriage both being legally in jeoprady as a gotcha to argue for Edelgard).

It doesn't matter what you claim you're doing. If your arguments actually start reflecting things that can be real, you need to be careful about how you word it. Houses deals with a political atmosphere very heavily, which shouldn't have really been a problem... but it got too close to real life politics within the fandom and people's true colors started to show.

It should have been "I love Edelgard but damn some of what she does is fucked up" and not trying to vehemently defend every singular word she's ever said. As I've mentioned in my very lengthy "why the writing failed Edelgard", the writing is partly to blame for people being divided on her, but it's the fans' own faults if they can't draw a line between liking her character and supporting things in a way that makes it sound like you'd support them irl.

It's even worse that all that nonsense picked up really badly right around the time Ukraine got invaded and Putin was out there spewing nonsense. It became a sensitive issue to have people defending Edelgard invading other countries proudly with false claims/propaganda, because the arguments fell perfectly to a T in line with what Putin was doing.

Evidently that didn't matter to the people who never touch grass and waste their time and energy only thinking of defending Edelgard instead of just enjoying her character, but then, they don't really even enjoy her character; they just enjoy their made up version of her who fights for what they want her to fight for instead of realizing what she's actually doing. These people would be damn easy bait for irl politics and it shows. Dangerously.

So for anyone arguing about your fictional favorites, remember that context is important and how you treat the topic(s) at hand are just as important. I absolutely adore a villain just like Edelgard because of good writing, and there are points I can actually defend him (if you've been on this blog for more than like a week you prooOOOObably know who I'm referring to AT THIS POINT lmao). That doesn't mean I'm going to call invasion, racism, etc good and just for his better talking points to be achieved.

In my opinion Edelgard ended up poorly written because the writers wanted to be bias in the context of the story but couldn't properly justify the atrocities. I'll be honest, if this is how they handle (main) female villains, I'd rather just not have them. I'd rather go back to the days of Petrine and Hilda who were side villains and allowed to be as disgusting and horrendous as they wanted.

If writing a lead villain who is female won't work because they can't stop pushing their bias into the writing (don't even look at poor Petra, she got SKEWERED in CF and especially in SB) and it reflects poorly, I just don't want it. I know men at the writing table for some wild reason throughout the years have been unable to properly write females (which like, why. Just write human beings. But no, they seem to act like females are a different entity entirely), but if that's going to remain the case, I don't want them to write them in situations like these because they clearly can't handle it. They treat Edelgard as a trophy wife who has to be perfect for them and not as a complex, legitimate person.

Mind you, I also made a post before about how Edelgard is separated from other female villains by being drawn as "attractive". Ishtar gets treated much better than other female villains as well, with Heroes going as far as to outright shit on canon and give her an alt where she "joins the Liberation Army", which... the whole point of her character and her fighting in that war was that she was on the opposite side but wasn't a bad person. I could argue similar things for Burian, but that's more headcanon/literally based on just his death quote lmfao.

Point being, Ishtar is drawn to be attractive. Petrine and Hilda are not, and are outright villainous, terrible, not complex people at all (Hilda is a hypocrite, but she's not complex). Edelgard was drawn to be attractive, and was thus not treated like a villain proper. Unfortunately this got warped into the fandom we know now, but... like we both said, the way they argue for her is pretty telling and honestly pretty scary. Let's not forget that they've spewed death threats at people simply for not liking Edelgard.

No, that last sentence was not a joke nor an exaggeration. In a way it makes sense though, considering they defend genocide, racism, etc.