#they also have in common that they're not canon aND DAMN WELL SHOULD BE!!!! I WILL DIE ON THIS DRIFTROD HILL!!!!!!!!!!!!

[draconicred]

Experiences in the Alterhuman Community (and Beyond) as a Fictive

It's a weird experience being a fictional character, especially dealing with fandom, the fact that your source is fictional, and interactions with people based on that--including some of the dehumanisation that's so common toward fictionfolk. I'm gonna go into that here because I need somwhere to collect my thoughts, so this might get long. I'll be talking about my experiences as a fictive, but this could very well apply to anyone who identifies as a fictional being--fictionkin, fictionlinkers, etc.

So, I see the version of me on the screen as an AU version of me, in short. I mean, I'm me, and I don't think I even looked exactly 1:1 with my canon self--so naturally, even though events line up pretty closely, I see my source as... Almost like a fanfic of my life? Like sure, that's decidedly me, and decidedly a lot of the things that happened to me and my friends, but also not me. I'm not that guy on the screen, he's what represents me.

Even though I fully believe I got here by dying in a literal past life, my source media here is absolutely fictional to me and I just... Don't look at it in really any other way. Which I guess makes sense if you put it into my perspective--what else would it be? It really is like reading a fanfic based on your life though, or reading an article about yourself in the news. A bit of a shock, a bit of "why did they include THAT?" sprinkled in here and there, a bit awkward sometimes, and it does tend to resurface bad feelings. But overall, it's not that personal to me. I'm largely fine with it existing.

On the other hand, what is shocking is that people see me as fictional. I'm a fictional introject, from a fictional source, from the perspectives of a lot of people here. But I look at my source and I go well... Yeah, that's fiction of course, but my life is an actual thing that happened to me. Realistically I know that not everyone has spiritual beliefs and not everyone even accepts fictional identities as something "real", but man is it weird to just... Have it be spun in such a way?

I'm used to being in the media, I'm used to having cameras on me and being in the public eye. I'm used to articles and stories and posts on the internet. I'm used to fans even! But this isn't your regular, run-of-the-mill experience of people wanting to know you because you're a hero. This is people who see your life and experiences as a fun story they saw in a book or on TV, coming up to you with the idea that you're their favourite character, and not... A whole entire person. It's so damn weird.

There's still that level of disrespect that comes from people who are a little parasocial with you, but it almost hits deeper here because a lot of the time, you know they're not seeing a hero or the things you've literally done in your memories. They're seeing that guy on the screen they think is cool, and while he represents you, he's not you. And they're treating you like a celebrity because of that weird fanfic version of you on the TV or in that book.

There's usually little acknowledgement of your life or experiences as "real". When you're presenting as your fictional identity around others, you tend to get put into one of a few camps:

Cool Character from Media who I love and adore and want to talk to (and will probably get fanperson excited about it). I will probably get dispraportionally upset if Character tells me to back off a bit because I don't want my blorbo to be mad at me.

Character from Media I'm in love with and will immediately start asking invasive questions to or outright flirting with. Could get real gross real quick.

Problematic Character or Guy From Problematic Media that I instantly dislike because that's so Problematic how dare you show your face. I'm reporting you for being Character, you should change your identity if you want to exist so bad.

Character from Media who is disabled/queer/mentally ill/has any soft personality trait ever and I will now be treating you like a sweet little babyboy cinnamon roll who could not hurt a fly.

Person who identifies as Character? How interesting! I'm going to really pry and question everything from your actions in-source (to get unique perspectives from Character) and question literally everything else. Because this is Science and I'll get mad if you don't tell me everything, you need to tell me everything or you're rude.

Of course there's nuance and there's absolutely times where you'll be treated as a normal person, but the above are... So damn common. I've been here for a few months and I've already had some weird stuff happen to me simply because I'm Kirishima and people feel entitled to give me cutesy nicknames or whatever. Even without knowing me or my system at all beforehand. It's just.. So different from anything I've experienced before? Being treated like a celebrity is dehumanising enough, but being treated like a character.ai bot or just generally a form of free entertainment and not a person is so perplexing to me.

There's also that if you're from a popular source, you see stuff about yourself everywhere. Posters, plushies, advertisements, posts on social media--all of it. Some of that I'm used to already, but it's kind of weird when you're mentally aware that this is all for that twisted-mirror version of yourself and not you. And if you get a little uncomfortable at some fanart showing up out of the blue, or someone making a source related joke... You're kind of just expected to brush it off. Which yeah, I get it! It's about the source, not me, but it's still just... A weird feeling. A feeling of not being allowed to be upset because it's about the source and not literal you.

I think there needs to be a line, maybe. Not saying that fictives should be putting a stop to any media or fandom ever, just.. That maybe respect toward us for being uncomfortable with fan content due to being a fictive or fictionkin should be more normalised. It should be more okay to say "hey, I'm Character, please don't joke like that" to a friend, or "don't send me fanart of this thing, I'm Character and that's weird"--which it normally is! But there does tend to be a sort of layer of "Oh, it's because you're Character. You know that's not you, right? You shouldn't be upset, you need to source separate more."--when if most other people were to set a boundary like that, it would usually be respected. Source separation can be great, but if someone hasn't separated or doesn't want to, why is it okay to still send them material they're uncomfortable with--or at least, why do people tend to argue that the fictive should "just separate from source" instead? It... Just boils down to alterhumisia toward fictionfolk, honestly. It sucks.

There's a lot of problems with basic respect toward fictionfolk of all kinds--hell, even in the alterhuman community where it's meant to be safe. I don't know if this rant is entirely coherent or not, I don't know if there's anything noteworthy to take from it--but if you do take something from it, let it be that fictionfolk want to be treated like people. Source separated, not source separated, canon divergent or compliant, hearted, linker, 'kin or 'tive--we're people. Don't let our identities change the way you instinctually treat us. Let us be openly us, and treat us as you would anyone else.

[nyaskitten]

EDIT: THIS POST IS INACCURATE !!!

I made the assumption Olive was editing the wiki articles, and while that's a very logical conclusion to reach, it was actually someone who shares the same viewpoints as them!!! Anything including the wiki articles and Olive's involvement is wrong and that's my bad!!!

Alright fellas, I guess we did it. We have reached the tipping point. I'm going to dedicate this post to calling out one specific person, @olivescales3, and their very toxic behavior. This post will be a bit messy, and I do apologize in advance, I'm writing this from the perspective of a Ninjago fan who also thinks beyond just the petty fandom stuff, what they're doing is just not cool.

I will clarify, I do not make this post for petty fandom drama, I make this to better spread awareness on some of the bullshit they're doing, so you can look out for and understand that they're bullshitting. Without further ado, I think we should just get into it.

So, what have they done?

Now, I should say while there is no 100000% concrete link between hyenabro and olivescales, I think based on their talking points (as well and the information I've recieved from friends in the Chima fandom, who have a bunch of prior experience with them,) it's safe to make this assumption!

So, what has olivescales DONE in this case? Simple, they've vandalized the Chima wiki on NUMEROUS occasions, even after several different people have revised their revisions, so as to discredit any conenctions between Dragons Rising and Chima.

(Green is their edits, red is the ones prior to theirs, I found this while going through their contributions section on their Fandom account, HyenaBro119)

As seen here, they have (under the username HyenaBro119) edited the pages for Chima AND the Forever Rock (I have two similar screenshots of essentially the same thing, one was from the Forever Rock article, the other was from Chima) and claimed Ninjago's lore to be some alternate universe. To further validate it, they write "Ras' visit to," but Ras NEVER claimed to have VISITED these locations, just that he knows them. They also claim the Forever Rock was destroyed, a blatant lie. Only a small section of rock on the Forever Rock was actually destroyed, not the whole thing.

Now, you're gonna ask "but Raine, how can you 100000% say it's them?" and I will cite common sense. While I cannot directly tie Olive to hyena, I CAN say their wording is SO very similar.

Both Hyena and Olive call DR "a parallel/alternate universe," and again, claim Forever Rock was destroyed, WHICH IS A FULL ON LIE. They're so adamant to protect "the sanctity of Chima's pre-established, set-in-stone lore" that they can't stop to think maybe, JUST MAYBE, sometimes a story can get new lore which can ALSO be canon!

I'd also love to share this HILARIOUS screenshot of one of their many posts, which not only backs up what I'm saying, but it's like damn they really set themself up huh!

Gee I wonder why you feel alone! Maybe it's because you are! Maybe it's because you're lying and making shit up to prove yourself right! No one is as big of a hater as you!

The also LOVE saying Ninjago cannot do anything with Chima unless they get express permission from the creator of Chima, some guy named John Derevlany, but oh man what's this I see before me?

CO-CREATOR? Oh but Olive, I thought he was the CREATOR of Chima, not CO-creator... ALSO Lego owns the rights to Chima, and Ninjago, and every other theme, as said by Doc himself! If anything he wasn't really dodging the question, just giving a vague answer, because he doesn't know much about the old contracts!

From what he said, it's clear that if they wanted to use anything from the other themes, they'd have to consult folks over at LEGO, not John Derevlany or Tommy A.!

Now here's the THING, I GET where they're coming from, it CAN be annoying to have people only care about a thing you like in relation to something else, but when you're going out of your way to argue that none of it can be canon and it's all an alternate universe it's like... god it's so sad and pathetic really.

Their lies and BS don't even end there with the wiki shit, because I have THIS glorious gem.

A) They bring up that the Ninjago folk do not know who the Phoenixes are which is like, okay??? Why the fuck are they gonna know about how another universe was created??? That's like if someone told me I don't exist in the same universe as my glasses because I have no clue who made them, that is to say, that's stupid as FUCK to say!

B) OH they say something REAAALLL funny ohohohho I am actually dying. Olive says the Phoenix icon "appeared in a Ninjago episode" and "Ninjago tends to reuse assets." Yep, NINJAGO is the one who reused the phoenix symbol, mhm. The symbol that was made in 2011 for NINJAGO, which cameoed in CHIMA in 2014, was actually just an asset reuse by Ninjago. I feel like this actually goes to show how desparate they are to feel right and validated, because this? This a lie! Ninjago made the symbol, and because Tommy A. is co-creator to both, he wanted to slip in a neat Ninjago reference, so he slipped in the Phoenix symbol Nya uses for the Phoenix tribe, not the other way around!

Another REALLY funny thing they did, aside from the wiki and Phoenix symbol shit, was this hilarious attempt at being right!

Yes, the compared the WOLF Masks to BATman's cowl, and did a horribly rough comparison illustration that very much does not make sense. If you actually compared them side by side, the only similarities would be they're both angry animal themed mask with pointy ears, which does NOT go very far in the long run. The foreheads they drew aren't even the same fucking shape lol.

OH ANS WE CANNOT FORGET THIS ONE! Their using a post about the Palestinian genocide and boycotting Lego in order to complain about Ninjago.

They claim Ninjago is produced by Lego, unlike other Lego shows, which is an EXTREMELY bullshit fucking claim. Just like Chima and Nexo Knights, Ninjago is produced by Lego, it's not JUST Ninjago produced by Lego, they are all Canadian-Danish CGI action shows, and they're all known to have Tommy Andreasen involved in the creation of them.

They're using a post about boycotting for the sake of innocent people DYING to complain about a lego ninja show for... killing evil people? It doesn't glorify war, the worst it does in regards to war is like not address how fucked up it can be in regards to the Serpentine War, but that's like it. I think it's so funny they want to single out Ninjago as if it's the only TV series where villains die for trying to conquer/destroy the world.

So, what do I want the takeaway from this post to be? What do I want you to get from it? I don't really know anymore, I just don't want Olive's horrendously toxic behaviors, and straight up lies to stop. If anything I think it's beautiful that Ninjago is making others interested in revisiting Chima again, stop being such a fucking hater dude. They act like Chima is some holy grail of Lego, the greatest thing since bread, but it, just like Ninjago, Dreamzzz, Hidden Side, and Nexo Knights, have Tommy in creative roles.

To act like Chima is somehow greater than is to place it on an unrealistic pedestal as if it's a godsend, when in reality it was co-created by Tommy Fucking Andreasen.

If you read through all of this, I do THOROUGHLY appreciate it, I didn't mean for this post to descend into an angry ramble but ehhh yk how it is. And Olive, if you see this, please, just stop with the bullshit.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

"Another theoretical path for Zoe would be to let Chloe redeem Zoe. We know that Zoe was a massive liar in the past."

If I understood your pov about a Chloe redemption and how Lilia neither has reason to be on the show: if you had to use a character for Chloe to redeem, and kinda serve both as a foil for her and a lesson for Adrien's character growth, it wouldn't be Zoe, but Lila?

*sighs* You bring so many good points on the characters' writing that I can't beleive how many "repeated" characters the show has! Would you consider Socqueline another innecessary character?

(Post this was in reference to for Zoe and for Lila)

It's not shocking that the show has "repeated" characters. It's a school drama with 21 teen heroes in the canon cast (24 if we count the special characters). It's damn near impossible to give that many characters a unique role in the story unless you're dealing with extremely complex plots a la Game of Thrones where it's less one large cast in a single story and more smaller casts in mini stories that all intermingle. If you look at something like GoT, you'll notice that, while the overall cast is massive, each mini story has a more normal sized cast and those smaller groups only come together after they're extremely well established. Miraculous could have done something like that with each member of the class getting a mini arc that focused on them, but it didn't, so the cast is basically a uniform blob.

Zoe, Chloe, & Lila

Before we talk about Socqueline, I wanted to quickly make some comments on Zoe and Lila. If I had to have Chloe redeem someone to show off her new skills post redemption, then I'd have it be Sabrina. If Sabrina is off the table, then I'd pick Zoe. If Zoe is off the table, only then would I look to Lila because why use Lila when you have Chloe's best friend and sister as options? That's far more compelling than some random girl no one knew before this year and who no one is connected to. Even the Zoe route is questionable since she's so underdeveloped right now. Both her and Lila would need major work to be fully functional characters and I personally have no interest in doing that work since I don't feel like it adds enough value to canon.

I will note that Lila and Zoe actually had potential to be an interesting contrast to each other since they're both liars. Redeeming one and damning the other works far better than doing the same narrative with Lila and Chloe since Lila and Zoe have the same core problem while Lila and Chloe have nothing in common to the point where canon has to retcon in Chloe having a Marinette obsession so that the Chloe and Lila team up made sense.

Similarly, if you damn Chloe, redeeming Zoe could have been interesting. You could even redeem her and then, though her, save Chloe since Zoe hasn't suffered from Chloe anywhere near as much as the rest of the cast. That and their sibling status makes Zoe a decent choice for the person who changes Chloe's heart just like the Zoe's backstory feels like a good contrast to Chloe's canon story.

Zoe is introduced right after Chloe supposedly proved she didn't want to change (for this post, we're pretending people actually tried to help Chloe and failed). That should mean that everyone is really freaking wary of the new girl who shows manipulative tendencies while also claiming that she wants to change. That could have led to an arc showing how you know when someone does want to change and how to navigate that.

I don't think Zoe is a great candidate for that since she's a total stranger who no one but Chloe has any reason to care about, but it would have done something to make the people in canon actually learn the supposed redemption lesson we're currently missing. As-is, Marinette just randomly believes in Zoe right from the start and Zoe is good basically right from the start, showing that Chloe's betrayal meant nothing to the cast and driving home that Marinette's first impressions of people are basically always right. Adrien seems to be the only exception.

Socqueline

Socqueline is a totally pointless character who I would never have included. It's not that she's bad in and of herself, it's that she once again adds nothing to the cast that wasn't already there. She is Origins Alya on steroids. She's here to protect Marinette from Chloe and inspire Marinette to be brave and that's about it. Why she needed to do that when Alya is supposed to have that role is anyone's guess.

If anything, Socqueline undermines Alya since we now know that Marinette had an amazing best friend before Alya came around! Socqueline was willing to fight Chloe even before Chloe randomly mellowed out into a nicer person because seasons one-to-three Chloe has nothing on Derision Chloe. Even seasons four and five Chloe aren't as bad as Derision Chloe. This show has no idea what it's doing.

[aprillikesthings]

hello, and welcome to a catradora rec list

These fics all have three things in common (besides being catradora):

They're all canon-divergent/canon-verse

Catra and Adora have their first kiss at some point before the Heart

There's angst

Past that they all vary a great deal in length, rating, etc.

You will notice some other themes in common. I know what I like. (If you know of fics that are similar to these, drop a link in a reblog or reply!)

These two specifically include "They kissed in the Horde, and Shadow Weaver erased Adora's memory of it"

carry our bodies safe to shore by themoonsneverseenmebefore rated T, 9507 words

This one killed me.

They only get caught kissing the once, but Shadow Weaver makes damn sure Catra will never tell Adora what happened. Years later, Adora is going through old Horde files and finds a confusing incident report, and Catra reacts to it really oddly--

I really like the way the story is structured. It jumps around in time a bit, including quite a bit post-canon, but it's just really well-done. Also starring Glimmer as a supportive friend to Catra, which I really liked.

Give Up the Throne by n7punk Three of the fics in the series are T but there's an unrated fic at the end that would be mature or explicit, 67,162 words total across four fics

Yeah I know this series is technically unfinished/on hiatus but tbh I really enjoyed it anyway. It's a "Princess of the Horde" AU, aka Adora brings the sword back to the Horde instead of going to Bright Moon.

The kissing isn't the emphasis of the plot until that last fic in the series, but even in the first fic, you find out they've kissed multiple times, and Shadow Weaver erased Adora's memory of it every time she found out. The problem is, Shadow Weaver didn't erase Catra herself from Adora's mind, and so Adora kept doing it, and Catra is incapable of turning her down, even knowing the inevitable result.

AND NOW for one of my fave categories of fics ever: "they were totally having angsty, guilt-ridden hookups during the war," aka "enemies with benefits," because let's be honest, my number one thing in fics is "we absolutely should not be doing this....but we're gonna."

My Name on Her Lips by n7punk (lol yes another one) rated M, 17,924 words

This fic is mostly about "What if She-Ra's identity was a secret" (inspired by the 1980's cartoon), but the problem is that Catra knows that She-Ra is Adora--and worse, that Adora is a former Horde officer.

Also, Catra and Adora have been getting it on since before Adora found the sword....and they don't stop just because they're on opposite sides.

And you know how sometimes a line from a fic will gut-punch you and it'll just go around and around in your head for several days? Yeah. "An entire war and its casualties are between them but Adora still falls into Catra’s arms like it is nothing." ;_;

Anyway the plot otherwise is pretty much canon-compliant and covers events up to the end of the show and a little after.

Don't ask me how many times I've reread parts of this one oh my god.

falling feels like flying (till the bone crush) by ehj rated E, 72,316 words

Mmmmostly follows the plot of the show, except, y'know, they're banging the whole time--well, not the whole time. They hook up for the first time partway through the events of Promise, right there in the Crystal Castle.

The fic was abandoned right after it wildly diverged from canon around the end of s3/beginning of s4. Alas!!! (Still worth reading, imho.)

Author does have the fic marked as a series--there's a couple of explicit scenes in the series that didn't work with the main plot/threw off the pacing. They're both short.

Somewhat chronological Catradora one-shots (Post S1) by teaandsmut rated E, 14,439 words across four fics

Let me admit my bias here: the author is a friend and I read at least one of these before I even watched the damn show lol. The fics themselves can each be read as a one-shot if you want.

The first one takes place during Promise (they relive a memory of almost doing something from only weeks before--and once they're out of the memory, they keep going.) The second one has Catra sneaking into Adora's room in Bright Moon. The third one has them chasing each other into the woods when they're supposed to be fighting--this one has voyeurism and Catra's mean. If those are things you're into. (I am.) The fourth one, Adora sneaks into the Fright Zone. This one's probably my fave in the series--they do a little light bondage (and Catra's a brat, at least at first) but it ends on a sweeter note.

(Author has also written some glitra if that's a ship you like!)

[cartoon-buffoon]

My head hurts, I can't take a nap, I think I fainted (I like.... Randomly blacked out? Super fucking trippy, idk how to explain it) but I suppose I should do something other than waste away and because my Epic Mickey Blood & Ink AU has taken people's interest, I wanna elaborate a bit more on the characters who AREN'T the Terrors (well, the ones who aren't the main antagonists). Basically a character showcase featuring random images, starting off with my favorite feline girl: Ortensia!

Ortensia in Blood & Ink is taking inspiration from the concept art of Epic Mickey 3, a game that sadly never came out and one that would have probably fed us more lore and character development on her considering she was supposed to be playable.

In the AU itself Ortensia would suffer from a mysteriously affliction that is affecting multiple people in wasteland, not just her. Considering the rest of Wasteland is facing ruin and now Oswald's wife is the one to slowly start turning to stone, this is kinda the tipping point for Ozzie and what makes him seek out the Terrors for help. Ortensia didn't like this idea at ALL and warned him against it, but Oswald acts first and thinks second resulting in his untimely death and eventual return as half-toon half-terror. Ortensia herself continues to suffer from this disease until the mad doctor creates a way to channel the inertness, creating a crown that drastically slows her petrification whilst also allowing her to physically change her body parts to stone at will. These new powers go hand in hand with Oswald's and they work together to learn the extent of their abilities, pushing each other to their limits while also constantly supporting one and another. Because both physically and metaphorically: Ortensia is Oswald's rock.

Next up is my favorite feline in general: Felix!

Felix is a odd case because he's an ex-wastelander. In blood & Ink because it's my AU and what I say goes: it IS possible for toons to regain their hearts, Felix is one such case. In the actual world of toons nobody really understands what happens when they lose their fame and likewise their hearts, they kinda just assume they die because only very few who lose their hearts come back, one such case being Felix. Felix has no memory of his friends in Wasteland or Wasteland in general after he got his heart back and when he finally does fall back into the world of Wasteland after unknowingly answering the mad doctor's call for help, he feels pretty damn guilty about it. Him, Ortensia, and Oswald, are all pretty good friends and it's possible the three were in a poly relationship at one point but I have yet to decide if that's canon and even though it's not his fault, he still feels guilty about forgetting them all. After finding out about the Terrors things get even weirder as he's old enough to recognize them and they recognize him, he doesn't know a lot about them he just recognizes them, but the Terrors sure do know a lot about Felix resulting in him moving way up on their hit list. Felix in the AU serves as a sort of side-hero/helper to Ortensia and Oswald as while they're preoccupied with the main threat, he's dealing with The Scrapped, Bendy's Projectionists, and one family member of his who he can barely remember the name of.

That family member specifically is a side antagonist and an actual pretty key character in my story, it's: Alex

Alex the cat in Blood & Ink is a character who in short: is an unloved bastard and will forever be that, nothing more, nothing less. Alex is a victim of the dilemma of: he's useless, there's no point to him at all. Felix has much more common and well known foes and with the existence of Xilef he is outclassed in every regard resulting in his heart of fame starting to fade, he basically has one foot in the grave with his only connection to the world being Felix who doesn't even remember him. This is kinda inspired by the actual like, meta stuff of the fact that Alex really has nothing of substantial purpose in the current canon of Felix the cat because once again—outclassed by Xilef—which results in there's physically nothing to be a fan of other than a character design that was ripped from him and given to a better replacement of him. Back to the AU tho: Felix falls into Wasteland Alex follows right behind and he strikes a deal with the Terrors, letting his very weak heart be ripped out for the Terrors own use as he gets his own black heart full of hate and disdain. He effectively becomes a psuedo-Terror because reminder, the Terrors are a species and ain't exactly a group (although I do kinda treat them like a group with how I just call CC, CD, Skitzo, and Bendy all just "The Terrors"). Anyways, with becoming a psuedo-Terror he serves as not only an antagonist to Felix but also to Oswald as he is the ultimate question of "can even the worst person change?" Because unlike the Terrors: what Alex does has no reason. The Terrors have a motive and goal, they kill yeah, but it's always to fuel some sorta plan and the only one who truly kills without reason is Skitzo and that's because he's psychotic, Alex isn't. Alex knows full well what he's doing but continues to go around Wasteland killing any toons he finds hiding because he's just awful and the only time he ever asks for forgiveness is when he's in trouble because he's a coward who can't even face the consequences of his actions.

Basically Alex's existence serves to give Felix and Oswald the interaction:

"hay Oz, I think we're just gonna have to kill this guy"

"aww man..."

And he also is gonna be a villain I'm gonna have fun writing because he's just cartoonishly evil to the max.

Anyways: THAT'S IT FOR NOW! Kinda weird how I went through the 3 cat characters in this ramble but.... Eh? I like to give character spotlights. If you have any questions regarding my Epic Mickey AU or the personality of motives of these characters—or any of my other characters from this AU—feel free to ask!

[yolowritter]

In Defense of Chloe Bourgeois Part 1: Who is Chloe?

Well...shit, here we go again! Hello there everyone, welcome back to the source of my endless exasperation! Before any of you pick a side to the argument, I want to make it perfectly clear that this isn't a post about whether or not Chloe should have had a redemption arc. This is not my point, and any argument for either side have been repeated so many times by now that I can recite most by memory. So, let's begin by establishing why exactly I'm even writing this post!

Chloe Bourgeois is one of my favorite characters in Miraculous Ladybug. The...the fanon version, obviously. Canon can go keel over in an alleyway, it already has more holes in it than the average swiss cheese. I've been a part of this fandom for a good few years now, and at the time of watching Miracle Queen was understandably upset at the...direction, that her character was taken. It left a sour taste in my mouth because I honestly didn't see it coming, but I'll get more into that later. Point is, I was once a defender of Chloe's redemption arc. I am not stating if I am or not still one of those at present, because that's not what the point is. Regardless of what side of the fence you're on, we can all agree that her character was horribly mismanaged in the latter half of this show. Erratic, extreme and oftentimes illogical choices that sound stupider than Lila's average gaslighting scheme, and a character who previously had an arc going for her now being defined only by the sheer inconsistency that writhes every moment she's on-screen. I'll be honest, I no longer particularly care if Chloe "should" have been redeemed or not, because either avenue could have allowed for some brilliant (or at the very least pretty decent) storytelling.

This defense strives not to strip anyone of their arguments, nor to challenge anyone's headcanons, or make a point about what the "correct" way to handle Chloe's character should have been. Again, I lost interest in the debate a long time ago. I'm simply here to examine who Chloe is as a person, what drives her, what her life experiences have been like, and where all this could logically lead from both a writing and human perspective. I care about Chloe as a person, and about a character who if nothing else, at least acts consistently, in a way where the audience can watch them and understand why they're acting like this. I'll be trying to give context to some of her actions and fill in as many plot holes as I can, as well as giving a glimpse as to how a possible Redemption or Corruption Arc could have gone. So without any further ado, let's dive right in!

Firstly, let's start by laying out some common ground. After the Gabriel Agreste post, I think it's necessary to establish some clear lines as to what exactly we're talking about here. So before anything else, let's look at what we learn about Chloe in Season 1, yeah? Without going episode-by-episode, we generally don't get a good impression of her. Chloe is clearly spoiled by her father, used to always getting her way, and has no problem pressuring others into making that happen. She treats her classmates more like annoyances if not outright minions (Sabrina and on occasion Kim), has little consideration for other people's feelings, and likes appearing superior to everyone else. A pretty bad start, all things considered. She bosses Sabrina around, and we're explicitly told that Chloe often bribes her with her second-hand stuff, or whatever she wants to get rid of. Sabrina clearly doesn't know how to stand up for herself, and Chloe seems perfectly willing to take advantage of her doormat status. She also has the roots for a sweet sweet superiority complex firmly planted, considering how she rejects and humiliates Kim when he tries to confess his love to her. I'll be damned if I ever understand such bad taste, considering how Chloe is generally disliked by the rest of the class, but the point stands. She could have just told him no, even rudely if need be, and left it at that. Instead, she actively chose to humiliate the poor guy. Something similar happened with Nathaniel, whose feelings about Marinette she made public to everyone else for what seems to be entertainment value.

All in all, Season 1 Chloe has all the stereotypical makings of a popular girl from a 2010s American high school movie, including the narcissism, bullying, strong-arming school staff into not punishing these behaviors, inflated ego, and the complimentary minion! Except...Chloe isn't popular. With anyone, actually. Most of the class dislikes and barely puts up with her on a good day. They don't laugh along or jeer at whomever she's giving trouble to. Instead we have several instances where people actively try to either push the teachers into doing something or remove her from a situation where Chloe is causing problems. Think about the filming scenes in Horrificator for example. Chloe is acting like her usual self again, and refuses to allow Marinette to be the lead actress because she'll get to kiss Adrien. A tragedy, I know! Therefore, there's a whole plot to get her out of the room long enough for the scene to happen. People actively consider her at the very least a pain in the rear, and probably someone they just don't even want to talk to.

Obviously this isn't an excuse for anything she does. My point here is that from the perspective of the narrative, even while acting the part of a "Queen B", Chloe reaps none of the benefits, and in fact only serves to make people dislike her more with every episode that passes by. Even Adrien, who I'll circle back to in a second, her childhood friend who has a good opinion of her when he first comes to school, eventually stops trying to defend Chloe's behavior. There are, I think, a lot of reasons as to why she acts this way. Precisely none of them are an excuse or a "get out of jail" free card. Chloe still chooses to behave the way she does, regardless of the motivations.

About Adrien, we know that he and Chloe have known each other for a long while now. She was quite possibly his singular friend during his otherwise relatively isolating childhood, and she's very clearly attached to him. Chloe constantly clings to Adrien and drapes herself over him, and while he seems to find it annoying, there's still never a sense of disgust like with Lila in later Seasons. She's being suffocating, but there is never a connotation of romance here. Still, Chloe does everything she can to keep Adrien close to her, and (in Origins) "teach him how things are" in school. She's the one who got him signed up as a student in the first place, mind you, so she very clearly wants him to be around her. And while Chloe does brag about him being a famous model, she could just...do that without ever actually bringing Adrien out of the house? Clearly that's not the reason why she went through all the trouble to actually get him in the class, because bragging about it would probably go worse if she did it in front of him, or in an environment where Adrien could easily hear about and react to it. Chloe is very possessive of her "best friend" (and only friend, discounting Sabrina), and constantly belittles Marinette for trying to get close to him. Mind you, she doesn't find out about her feelings for Adrien until Season 3 I think. We never see Nino get bullied for befriending him, so what gives?

I'll talk about reasoning later down the line. For now, let's move onto Season 2. Amidst the beginnings of Ladybug handing out Miraculous jewels like candy to her best pals, seriously Season 4 overdid it, Chloe also exists. And during Despair Bear, Adrien finally puts his foot down about her behavior. He tells her that he can't be friends with someone who acts like a bully, and Chloe is genuinely hurt by this, to the point where she does her best to put on a good show and convince Adrien that is capable of not being an ass. Which is actually the case, believe it or not. She holds back the snides, does her best to make casual conversation with the people she considers to be inferior to her (I'll get to that, don't worry), and makes a real effort to keep at it for the sake of their friendship. The reason why she blows up here is made very obvious by the episode itself. Chloe is in unfamiliar territory and clearly reining herself in a lot, which Despair Bear pokes fun of in several back-to-back scenes. She doesn't want to do this, clearly has mutual dislike for the people she's forced to put up with every day and has made up her mind about a long time ago, for the sake of the one person she considers a genuine friend. And mind you, Chloe never uses Adrien for something. She brags about his job in Origins, and preens about their friendship often, but she never takes advantage of him like she does Sabrina. I will get to their toxic friendship in a minute, don't worry, but Chloe chooses not to try doing this with him. Adrien is...oblivious, to put it nicely, and she could easily try and play around that to serve her own goals, but she doesn't. Keep this in mind.

Anyway, she blows up because Armand (also c'mon, if you wanted to make the joke that Chloe doesn't know her butler's name, Jean "insert today's last name" was more than enough, Thomas) keeps lugging her teddy bear and playing pretend with her in a room full of people. I'm sorry, but that may be the most relatable Chloe moment in the whole show. Are you kidding me??? Of course she'd be embarrassed by this! I mean sure, her reaction to the situation is wrong, she shouldn't have screamed at him or threatened the man's job, but Chloe has serious anger management issues. That is obvious, because she acts like this every single day! Why would Armand do this??? She's already way out of her comfort zone by even hosting the party in the first place, surely there's easier ways of reminding Chloe not to be a bitch? Just tap her on the shoulder and say "miss, remember Adrien?" because that's the whole reason this is happening! The teddy bear is completely unecessary! Especially the voice acting! It made me laugh so hard when I first watched that episode but can you blame Chloe for being pissed? Again, she reacted poorly because her self control is comparable to Plagg's when there's camambert in his field of vision! So yeah, it's wrong to scream people's ears off like that, but she was also upset. And she's fourteen mind you!

Anyway, my actual point about Season 2 is that we get to see Chloe's character development. Thank Nooroo, finally a proper arc in this damn show! And we also get to see her family life. Side note, Andre Bourgeois is a spineless coward who I'll be bashing momentarily. But Chloe's mother is horrible! Audrey Bourgeois is blatantly neglectful, if not abusive to her daughter! She treats Chloe the same way Chloe treats everyone else! As disposable, expendable things that don't "deserve" her attention because they're not good enough. Like, if this doesn't give a six year old some hefty trauma along with an inferiority complex, what will??? And the situation becomes even worse as Chloe becomes incresingly desperate during Style Queen, trying again and again to please Audrey by copying her behavior (which she's been doing this whole time) even more intensly, and acting like the entitled, self-absorbed narcissist that her mother is! And this is where we see exactly why Chloe does what she does! Again, none of this excuses her actions, but it does help us understand the behavior. Audrey constantly puts Chloe down and belittles her the same way she does to Marinette...only to later pick the kid that Chloe is jealous of (I will explain this in a second!) to come with her to New York, where Audrey had presumably yeeted herself off to years ago and never bothered to come visit! We already know that she pressured her husband into giving up his love for film to stay with her, maybe even during her pregnancy or after Chloe's birth. Only to promptly vanish and leave him (a person who never grew a spine or managed to stand up to what is undoubtebly a toxic relationship) with her miniature copy. It's obvious that Chloe's barely ever seen Audrey, but she idolizes the woman because that's her mother! Heck, Adrien idolizes Emilie even if she was arguably not a great person (see here) and Chloe is always kicked to the curb for just doing the same!

Audrey is a horrible person and an even worse role model, but when you're five years old and she disappears from your life, is it any wonder that there's a steaming hot pile of mommy issues here? If Chloe has been told by Audrey from the moment she was old enough to understand words that she isn't "exceptional" enough to "deserve" her time, then isn't it obvious why Andre tries and fails to make up for this by always coddling his daughter and giving in to her every whim? He's trying to please her and give Chloe a sense of self-importance that Audrey made near-impossible to develop, and also makes up for his own absence by basically bribing his own child! Not that Andre is innocent in this! If anything, he's even more at fault than Audrey! Because while she flew off into the sunset to fire her twenty-seventh unpaid intern of the week, he was still in Paris with Chloe! Who grew up with him, mind you! And sure, he got elected into office and had a busy job as a single parent! You know what else he did? Crime! Almost everything he does in this damn show is completely illegal! Bribery, blackmail, undue termination of Roger's position as a police officer, who Andre doesn't even have juristiction over mind you (because Paris had the National Police until like 2021-ish if I recall correctly), he's just a corrupt, scummy politian whose ideas (see Megaleech) are harmful to the people he's supposed to be serving and outright motivated by greed! And also, we are explicitly told that he taught Chloe to do these same things! Andre Bourgeois is a total idiot who's probably been committing tax evasion for all we know, and Audrey is a self-absorbed diva who bullies her own child constantly, when she even bothers to go see her! Which is never, unless she needs to be in Paris for some other event related to her job!

Thomas, what the heck do you mean Chloe is evil? Lila is an accomplice to a domestic terrorist, and a psychopath against whom the only protection is the show's PG rating! If Lila could, she'd burn Marinette's house down for shits and giggles my good man! Audrey is everything I just mentioned, Andrey is a corrupt, spineless politician, Tomoe physically abuses her daughter with fucking katanas on the daily, Gabriel Agreste is that domestic terrorist who almost fired every nuclear warhear in the USA by the way! Because that was stupid of the NYC special to do! But he still did it! Plus the genocide in Shanghai! Accident or not, Hawkmoth is still responsible! And later on he also put his son in a room! A rubber room! Thankfully there weren't any rats, as if he needs another OSHA violation! Are you people insane when you say "I don't know why Chloe acts like this"? Have you lost your marbles??? Do you want me to have an aneurysm? Of course a child is going to act the way Chloe does if this is the shit she's been dealing with since Day 0 of her life! Does that make it okay? Absolutely not! But does it mean that she deserved what happened to her canonically? Also no! I'll talk about how the corruption arc could have worked at the end, because they tried and failed to do that, so let's circle back to the "jealous of Marinette" thing from a minute ago, kay?

Note: We're doing this in part 2 because this is closing in on 3k words already. The whole rant is done, no you don't want to know how long it is, I'm just splitting it because nobody will ever read 7.5k words worth of anything on Tumblr dot com.

< next post >

[randomnameless]

Sorry I need to send this about the "children of the goddess should not be allowed to rule" thing. Cause like, why shouldn't they. We, as humans generally appreciate the guidance of someone older and wiser. Wouldn't a nabatean's lifespan and experience make them the most "fit" to rule? Like, yeah, I trust someone with a millenia life experience to lead more than I trust someone with under 3 decades. And maybe it can be argued that Rhea didn't do a good enough job, but that doesn't actually disqualify the rest of them? Like, either they're truly godlike and should lead due to their inherent experience and wisdom, or they're just like any other person, in which case why shouldn't they get the CHANCE to lead. Like, is the situation that they live in fodlan, but have no rights to play a role in the future that they'll have to live in? They're not allowed to be in a position of leadership due to their race? Cause that's like. Pretty bad. But this is a question the game cannot answer because it might make homegirl look slightly morally questionable.

Go ahead anon, rant!

I think this issue could have also been raised in FE10 - but that game and "racism" is like... you believe you're eating a chocolate flavored peanut, and only realise you're actually eating a peanut flavored chocolate.

For all of the focus, in both games of the duology, Daien got as the laguz hating country, there's no line/zilch about them being happy - or not - with having a heron branded queen? Miccy will age slower than regular beorcs, will Daein peeps be okay with that? We don't know, but we sure know that legends will remember Ikey-poo fondly, just, don't give a fuck about the world or the other characters from the verse please.

As for Nabateans not being allow to do either X or Y based on their race... well, it was basically raised early in the fandom days by some people, myself included, but I guess being able to drink tea with Freezer overwrote that issue.

We could argue using headcanons all day long, for 5 years lol about what Rhea did or didn't - since the game loves to tell and show different things, but the fact that Nopes had to add Yuri and Dimitri discussing about common sense, like feeding people first before giving them education, I'm pretty sure the devs never believed people would seriously wonder what would Clout/Supreme Leader/Dimi's policies about "making a better world" would entail : both Yuri and Ferdie's supports are just here to, in a typical Fodlan fashion, sprinkle peanuts on your ice cream to make you believe you're really eating a snickers.

"We're a very serious game about having three political powers discussing about the future of the world and what should be done to reach this ideal !"

"And no one thought about food? People needing food to survive? Before doing anything else like getting a proper education or wishing to have a say in the politics of their respective states?"

"... Well, we also tackle very serious themes like isolationism and its effect of society and prejudices!"

"By depicting the foreign neighbours as MENA inspired people being bloodthirsty and deadset on pillaging or rampaging in cities? They attack for fun and let their orphans die as canon fodder? And the main lead who wants to talk about opening the borders and isolationsim never mentions this? At all? Especially since he's a prince of this MENA inspired country?"

"... but we hammer in 3 routes how this lady is evil incarnate, and in the 4 others, we say she sus!"

"Your point being? One person hearsaid to be wrong doesn't suddenly make the rest of your cast likeable, especially if their writing has glaring holes like the ones I pointed!"

"... we can sell super rad umbrellas?"

And you know what, it's a damn shame the devs didn't believe in their "homegirl" as you said it, because Freezer is somehow super popular, and that was even before the DBS retcons!

[celaenaeiln]

I always love how heros only kill if there really is no other options. Even then, their deeply disturbed or torn up about it. Killing is easy. But seeing a criminal as a person at the end of the day is much harder. It takes an unfathomable amount of strength to keep this going. It won't always work and it's not easy. But there's a difference between right and easy.

Oh me too!!

Anon you have no idea how much I’ve thought about this over the past five years and come to the same conclusion every time.

There are two reasons why I like that heroes only kill as an extreme necessity.

The first is what you said. It's extremely difficult to be able to control yourself in the face of repulsiveness. Some I do believe are irredeemable but many characters are not worth killing. Because there's a lot that goes into killing. It's not just about moral ethics for me, it's also about how that impacts society. I don't know if you've seen the show "The Boys", but it's about heroes who kill. Originally they kill criminals but at some point their anger and frustration bleeds over and they start killing innocents. The repercussions on society were massive. There was a significant loss of trust and hatred and fear going on. Ordinary people like the main character and the rebel side were dragged into a world and fighting that perpetuated fear and bloodshed until everything became irreversible. It's a terrifying world I would absolutely not want to live in. In the previously posted comic Batman says:

He's not saying this lightly. In a world where killing criminals is done and seen as common place by the people, what's stopping the people from following their hero's actions? Nothing is ever contained on the internet and nothing is ever done in moderation. It's like watching your favorite superhero blast a bad guy's head off on TV and turning around to seeing your mom blast your dad's head off with a gun over an argument about going to the movies. The violence is commonplace, after all. It takes an incredible amount of willpower, far more than anyone gives credit for, to look at someone who hurt you and walk away.

The canon version of this argument and why Bruce should never kill the Joker is proved in the comic, "The Batman Who Laughs." I was terrified for Damian when he encountered that universe.

The second reason I love the no-killing rule- and it's a little more twisted- is because I love self-control.

Not just as a person who tries to practice it in their life but there’s just something so exciting about a character who fights with control.

Having someone run free is super fun to read but having someone who never breaks the line, edge so dangerously close to it, but never kill? Oh the feeling is delicious. You're left pondering-what is it? What will it take? What will cause you to break?

Ironic. I know. But you can't tell me you were never curious about their limits.

Aside from that excitement, I love how the villains are reusable. They may be your worst enemy on a tuesday but on a thursday they're dragging your broken body out of a ditch to go fight the bad guy who got on their nerves.

It's like the idiom- better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Sometimes, no matter how horrible their actions were in the past, they're keeping a larger threat at bay. For example Blockbuster and Heartless. Bane, William Cobb, Lex Luthor, Freeze, Black Manta, and Sinestro in Forever Evil. The Riddler. And when Bruce was dead/lost in time the Joker was straight up like "damn bro I'm so sad I think I'm gonna turn good" which actually sort of saved all of Gotham from that bat cult that nearly killed them. Sort of. He bailed halfway but props to him for the first half.

Also the villains in the comics are terrible people but they're good characters. Like these characters are so well-developed. You'll hate them but you'll never fully hate them because they're funny and mean and deep down, you'll never admit it but they have a small teeny, tiny point.

A couple of my favorite villain scenes:

The Riddler (Batman #699)

Joker (Batman and Robin #22)

Joker

Victor Zsaz in his undies swearing revenge on another villain. Damian and Dick in the photo

Dick bashing up Slade in Damian's body

Damian, Harvey, and Dick

[niamhlavellan]

I went off on an insane tangent on bsky about it, but the irony of constantly seeing the constant takes of "wolf/halla solavellan is Such A Straight And Cis Trope." and then seeing mlm solavellan wolf/halla art cross my fyp is beautiful. 💚

I just rly wish ppl would stop assuming and making snap judgements about other people's oc's & ships and generalizing lmao. I'm not saying the stereotypes don't exist, they do.

But

1. This is fandom, wish fulfillment. Who cares.

2. Lots of heavy handed assumptions towards the fans of a character who is like a magnet for queer folk.

And also, I mean - if a trope isn't your thing, thats fine - but you don't need to predicate your posts dragging it. You should feel confident in your writing to let it stand on its own. "I HATE strawberry jam. It ALWAYS has seeds in it and frankly, I hate seeds, the people who make strawberry jelly and eat it? Ugh. Now, here is my grape jam that I've prepared!"

Like damn, you coulda just posted the grape jam, why waste the time yapping about something you DON'T like. It shouldn't have any bearing on your writing. Dragging what others like to lift your own work up? When it's frankly, a common and extremely vanilla trope?

"It doesn't make SENS-" my brother in the chantry, I've seen discussions on how actual canon lore doesn't make sense, why does it matter if someone wants some bodice ripping romance tropes?

And ultimately its just extremely frustrating becos nobody should need to list out what they identify as and what their oc's are to avoid someone making an assumption based off a trope. Like that's wild to me lmao. Don't assume what someones oc's are/aren't, just like you wouldn't assume what their creator is/isn't.

I'm nonbinary queer. So is Niamh. Post VG - she does not adhere to a gender binary because of Character Reasons (she too was once a spirit worm. Her arlathan self struggles heavily with the idea of a body at first, despite being Curiosity, she's like this is Weird! Not sure i like all of this!!) Niamh isn't wolf/halla coded (she is literally wolf/Weird Wolf Girl trope.) tbf, but the idea that people are gonna assume shit about myyyyyy oc because of how she may present herself is crazy lmfao. Especially when I use her to fulfill my nonbinary/genderfluid wish fulfillment post-vg.

Idk man, it's just wild to me because i know Straight Solavellans exist, I've seen some. "He would not say that shit.jpg" solas stuff. There's also the fuckass Terf- I'm not gonna call them Solavellans becos frankly I don't consider them people, let alone fans. Idek what they're doing with a character like Solas especially post-vg lmao.

But again, this is a character who absolutely attracts a very queer audience, and assuming and also acting as though everyone MUST explore their identity in a specific way, and if they use this trope or that trope, it means it's Painfully Straight is ridiculous lmao.

There's also a weirdly gross underlying misogynistic vibe to it that isn't great, and I wish ppl would just, idk. Realize that its bad enough the fandom at large wants to fist fight Solas outside the waffle house - why are you downing solavellans just vibing? Not saying you need to read/enjoy what they put out, but they're not your enemy.

Like idk, I'd rather take 478484743638858563 Straight Solavellan posts than having to go into the tag and seeing someone post in graphic detail about how they want to murder him for real and making fan art of it, you know?

Edit to add as well: this does not include solavellans who see solas with a man or a trans oc and break out into hives, they are weak and will not survive the winter either.

[thrawns-backrest]

Well, you said you didn't mind if you were asked for headcanons, so… you opened Pandora's box, damn it :)) There are a couple of funny things that I would like to share.

1) I have a headcanon that Ronan has a bunch of like. ABSOLUTELY. SUDDEN. SKILLS. Usually these are some simple casual things, but they belong to such different areas and professions that Eli simply does not understand what a person’s life should have been like so that he could do all this at the same time, and not just one or two things.

2) People mostly talk about how Ronan and Krennic could communicate with each other, but I really like to think about one guy, Pterro, too. This is Krennic's aide-de-camp and personal pilot, he was in the Rogue One novelization. Almost nothing is known about him in canon, except that he is madly in love with his shuttle and named it "Pteradon", God, how cute it is)) But in fanon, his image was fixed as a reliable and calm guy, and I like to assume that he really was. I've had a hc for a long time that for Ronan and Krennic, he was someone you could always turn to for support, talk about how everyone is nasty, and laugh at stupid Tarkin, knowing that he would always lend a shoulder and never to anyone will not tell a word from what he heard.

I thought it was funny enough cute nonsense to share :))

YESSS RONAN HEADCANONS!!! *takes them in my arms and cradles them gently* Ronan headcanons are always welcome in this house. There's no such thing as too much Ronan headcanons.

Oh my god I love the first one so much!! I can just imagine Eli being completely baffled learning that Ronan can sew and then play Sabacc like a pro the same night 😂 My personal hedcanon is that Eli is a self-taught master sommelier because his parents used to get bottles of wine as gifts from their clients all the time so now I can see unusual skills as something they have in common. But seriously though, I'm curious, what kind of skills do you see Ronan having?

Okay, I saw this ask before I left for my trip and it single-handedly convinced me to get the Rogue One novel 😂 Now I'm itching to start reading it (I only have two other books to finish first) and it's funny because I haven't even seen the film yet. You got me hooked on the idea, my friend.

Pterro sounds like such a chill guy, I want to take him out for a drink! He sounds like he has a top notch sense of humor too. I don't know enough about Krennic yet, planning to fix that very soon though, I love collecting imperial boys, but calm and reliable is just the kind of friend Ronan would appreciate. With how high energy he is, someone chill is the perfect type of buddy for him.

Also Pteradon... I want to hug this man, that is so cute. Thank you for these, they're fantastic!

[vaudeville-moggie]

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. (For the tmnt ask thing)

KELP THATS TOO MANY NUMBERS LEE

16.) Rise version of Casey, and her son are the coolest I think but I love them all they're my babies... The one from the 90s films is the hottest tho WHO SAID THAT

17.) I love 1987 shredder he's so sillies dad of two <3

18.) my favourite villain... Hmmmm 2003 had some really well-written villains I think? Baxter Stockman is one of my favs all-round maybe because he's abused a lot and he isn't really able to dig himself out of that... He gets really fucked up in 2003 but he kind of has a redemption in the future? Unfortunately 2003 didn't really explore that and I think it was more put in for laughs...

19.) my fav ally is probably Casey Jones or timothy (not including April because she's more like a main character, idk) or!! Carter, who appears in 1987 and then never again. I miss him 🥺

20.) theme song... I love them all... Rise's is objectionably the best but damn 2003 had some damn good bangers. I could listen to "back to the sewer" on repeat forever.

21.) favourite story arc? Like... Idk, one that appears a lot is the farmhouse arc (or country arc or rural arc whatever) that first appeared in the 90s movie (although it was probably in the comic first) and Leo or Raph is injured, and one sits by the other while they heal... It's a very soft moment for the brothers because they're usually fighting... If Rise gets renewed I'd love to see this arc again.

22.) I wasnt really a pizza eater before TMNT, it's not a big thing in Australia compared to NYC. I LOVE margherita!! Basil and tomato and boom, ya got yourself a pizza. I'll eat any pizza except any pizza with that horrid ham. Or anchovies. (Who does, wtf)

23.) fav TMNT fic dude idk I should read more... Uh tangledinink's teenage mutant what now?

Lots of TMNT fic recs on my side blog pinned post :3

27.) something I love to see in TMNT art/fics? Tails!! Hehe they deserve tails :3 also any references to sci-fi because that's very TMNT coded, it has a long history of star trek references

28.) what is one thing I'd like to see explored more in art/fics? uhmmm idk 🧍‍♂️as long as people are having fun idc... Maybe villain redemption? Like they did that in rise with draxum canonly so...

29.) what is one headcanon that I have? Uhmmm trans Leo I mean, always... Always.

30.) idk of any common headcanons that I reject... Every headcanon I've seen I've gone like, yeah, I can see that. Might not fully incorporate it into my headcanons but I've never blocked a headcanon or cringed at anything...

31.) one piece of TMNT canon that I dislike/ignore? Say it with me folks: Donnie's crush on April

32.) uhmm idk lol I think I got into it with rise so my first thing would be the thing I just redrew here the original being here

33.) my favourite thing I've made??? idk. I really like the pokemon au I haven't posted about at all and this!!:

only piece of my art on mah wall

34.) what character do i draw/write most often? it might... be mikey? idk... i think I draw them all evenly but i'd predict if you went through an actually counted out of the things I've posted, it would maybe be mikey.

35.) which character relationships are my fav to write/draw? idk I really like how mikey interracts with his brothers and sister(s) which is something I've found I enjoy playing with in my magic au... but I'm literally always drawing rise leo and yuichi usagi together in my tmnt sketchbook so

36.) which character I have the hardest time writing/drawing? Rise Raph for BOTH... sigh, I think I'm definitely better at drawing him than I was, but I've got a lot of practise to do. and in terms of writing, hes a very multi-faceted character and while he's the big brother and he has to responsible, he's also a kid and he can be silly and fun too...

37.) I write/draw multiple iterations of tmnt, but so far I've kind of only posted rise and 2012 drawings so...?

38.) Do you generally stick close to canon, or diverge from it?

my first instinct when writing fics is to make it canon-compliant... but I've made Aus too, so, both?

39.) Do you have any TMNT OCs?

ya, Jim (general tmnt sona or oc, and was my fursona for a bit) and this bat yokai oc I've only drawn like once, her name was ghost I think. I've also made an Usagi character for magic au 2012 leo... spoilers teehee

40.) Do you give the turtles tails? YES OFC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! unless I forget teehee

YAY!! happy 40 years TMNT!!!!

[dzvelinaskebiyars]

Thank you! I mean, I think in general fandoms nowadays have alot of xreader content (which is slay, we love it) and I think thats made people more comfortable making OCs aswell, so I don't think people really hate on OCs now as much as back then. It was crazy then LMAO people were harsh to others. It was kinda like a blessing in disguise since that made me put my absolute all into not making my OCs mary sues or pick-me's, it put me on my A game.

But like I love making OCs so much that I can't get into a fandom if I can't make one, like, they're so fun to do ! The pinterest boards, the playlists and everything, even the research is fun, and OCxCanon is my guilty pleasure its sooooo good, like people would have hated me back in the day LMAOO.

Also, yeeeess, Sabbath crew characters are SOOO uniquely written like, even if I didn't do romance and stuff, I still would have wanted her in the crew. Like the aesthetics and all the boys come from different places, have different motivations and are so well written it drives me insane to the point I can't articulate myself well. (and I am hoping we get some more of Joker's backstory soon, since it's his time to shine uwu)

And yeah, thank you for the rants! I go feral whenever someone mentions OCs. ur the best girlie.

Right, it was so crazy back then! Ocs were constantly getting judged and criticisms were so often and almost unavoidable. Well, at least it's not like that anymore and I'm glad because creating ocs are genuinely fun. I can't stay in fandom without creating an oc too lmfao, I'm glad we have things in common. Omp Pinterest boards are my favorite, I immediately decide aesthetic and often personality traits based on that, also au's!! And I LOVE doing researches so much already but it's even more fun when you have to write about it. Nah girl, people back in the day were such strong haters😭 "oc x canon? So embarrassing, grow up" "imagine creating ocs" LEAVE US ALONE PLS! They're good for writing tho, I don't think they should be judged whether it's Marysue or pick me, like alright that's your oc. We don't have to make your oc likable😭 Personally, I loveee writing characters who lack emotional intelligence (I love torturing my ocs so much, it's my free therapy) or morally gray characters. I mean, I'm not fan of pick me characters or marysues but idk I don't judge when they're ocs.

I can write huge analysis about Sabbath alone, their symbols, their ways of thinking, morals and etc and I won't get bored. Don't get it wrong, I love hummingbird but I'm more interested in characters who play antagonistic roles, they're usually more complex and that's like a challenge put in front of you to analyse and that's so damn exciting. I hope we'll get to know more about Sabbath, like genuinely. Wooin's, Hyuk's and Joker's backstories are needed, also how did Joker meet Wooin & Hyuk? I can also write analysis about why Vinny suits Sabbath.

Yeah so, anything related to Sabbath interests me, hence ocs as well. I'm so excited to hear about your oc tbh!! Please, I beg you, when you'll feel comfortable enough, share it with me. I'll gladly sit and listen to your rants for 5 hours straight and won't get bored. You're the best too!!

[scorchrend]

if u would like to share ur marx thoughts…… and make us all feel physically ill alongside u…….. this random anon is very much interested in hearing 👀👀👀

thats the problem istart feeling physically ill because i cant verbalize what i'm thinking it;s that bad. but since you asked this might be the push i need. UHHHHH marx thoughts. what are my marx thoughts it's like rummaging through my junk clearbook where everything is just placed anywhere and everything gets lost i do answer better and more coherently with specific questions.. btw.... hehe. Love Questions okay. random thoughts go

marx is a really attention seeking guy. thrives out of getting a rise from other people. pre super star though, i don't think he has any real friends despite being a common sight due to his tricksterisms and funny things. i don't think he's done this in canon really, but personally i like to make it so that marx used to work under dedede. you know. big castle, you think it has cool stuff, should give pretty good benefits to staff right? but then kirby's dream land happens and hes like Bro this Sucks and skedaddles. so yeah no meaningful relationships

i like the idea that marx is friendly with kirby pre kirby super star, but i don't think it's a relationship that can really be described as "friends" more than "staying on good terms and excitedly saying hi whenever you see each other, have a little small talk, and go separate ways." i mean, to kirby, they're friends. i don't think marx knows this when he asks kirby for help in milky way wishes, he's relying on kirby's helpful nature the trust is just kind of a bonus. as for why marx soul is like that i dont fucking know man these are random ass thoughts

thing is i think marx genuinely thinks kirby's a cool stand up dude especially after kirby's dream land but i think he just got Sooo Fucking Pissed thats why mww happens or whatever but i'm not sure either since i'm just spitting words. whatever his reasons are they always change in my head, marx is an enigma to me Even as a local marx enjoyer

as for his relationship with magolor it's the average They meet after Marx Blows Up and magolor is in the area and like Damn well i'm not gonna leave that guy out there am i. then bla bla friends (menaces) and puts the idea of nabbing that crown from landia. less of an intentional thing you know, but even if marx blew up he still kinda had something to show for it you knoe. the wings and the nova power. i can't say why they'd part ways (i don't know either) but basically before that they enjoyed some weird shit like pranking randos maybe Way Too Hard

anyways, after they part ways, marx probably goes planet hopping for a bit but eventually settles back on popstar. guys got the wanderer bones in him but i really think he thinks life on popstar is swell. he wanted to rule it for a reason i guess?? also the nearby planets he can fly to are Pretty Empty. I think.i actually genuinely don;t inow what im saying though im making a lot of this on the spot

reason for thinking marx has been hiding out on planet popstar: he's readily available in kirby star allies from the first dream palace. i know the dream rod summons them but like for my purposes i think it's just kinda like YOU. COME HERE.

okay but you know who else is in wave 1 that's right rick kine coo and gooey. i think they become friends. i think they're marx's first real friends (if you count them becoming friends while marx is disguised? they keep it up even after they find out. trying to be the kirby they want to see in the world or something.) like i got a little idea where its kinda like Damn i kinda wanna Fuck Up Everything but then he experiences laughing With people and not just Laughing at or Being laughed at and is like Fuuuckkk this is kindasick actually. UGH plans POSTPONED!! he is still 100% a shithead though these improvements dont really happen until marx drops his disguise after he meets magolor again (between rtdl and dream collection)

as for marx and magolor's reconciliation i feel like it's really smooth at first while magolor recovers from an arduous warp or whatever but when magolor starts showing discomfort at the ... hobbies marx has there starts to be tension because marx starts feeling like magolor is ignoring him and doesn't want to associate (even if magolor does want to keep being friends). however they deal with that is still up in the air but it required a lot of arguing, magolor apology to the dream team, marx blowing his "presumed dead" cover just to cover for magolor on something, etc. stuff that shows both parties really value their friendship even after they've changed and paths diverged quite a bit. fyi their arguments are so fucking bombastic because they WERE so SIMILAR that any insults they toss at the other is a double edged sword, and evidences some kind of self loathing

for marx's relationship with kirby i honestly think they're chill. but ofc marx exasperates kirby at times.

also marx has to get hisinfo from somewhere so i think he does in fact read stuff. only stuff interesting to him but he does read and when he does he Reads reads. thats how the Loser hatched his plan regarding nova anyways. somehow taranza finds outabout this and hes like Oh my god someone who understands media. Marx vehemently denies this (but cannot resist screaming at other people who have shit takeaways from x book he likes) (Marx has opinions on notoriously polarizing character Eon based on historical figure Aeon Hero) (not anything i consider important just something funny)

i could go on forever but for now i think my brain is all worded out. not even sure if any of this makes sense. here you go anon. enjoy.

[revclver-jesus]

hi you reblogged like a tarot themed ask game some time ago and i wanted to send you one of the prompts about self sacrificing (hanged man?) but forgor so uh can i like just send you a regular question to ask what you think about that. because i feel like this is something in no way covered by canon material and one can interpret (guess? headcanon?) it as literally anything from "yes, quite, which is exactly why he is held so dear by the companion of his" to "he is the most selfish person ever aight". so. um. hi do you think self sacrifice is a foreign concept to takaya persona 3 or nah?

{{ hehehehe ok the way this is worded made me laugh but Thank You for being interested enough to come and ask me tbh !

Ok so.... im sorry if this is long... again FDHKGSDK-

Takaya is both a nihilist and... a deeply ideologically driven person. This is, of course, both a contradiction and also a very common contradiction that people often find themselves in. " Nothing matters, i believe you should live life for short-sighted happiness with little concern for the future, and therefore I will now..... dedicate myself to making the people around me understand that. "

And so there's an inherent sense of self sacrifice from his perspective, in that way. From his perspective he can only see himself as a prophet, a lender of great knowledge for not his sake but your own-- he is helping you. Helping Jin to accept his past and live for the moment, helping all those people at the church welcome death. Of course, there's the pride it gives and the benefit of a crowd of supporters, but there also appears to be a sign he earnestly likes to convince people to see his perspective. And that takes time and that takes work, it takes a level of investment that is greater than would usually fit a True Nihilist.

Its almost definitely rooted in some amount of egocentric pride, but it can be that and more as well, and its only fitting that Takaya perceives himself as a martyr. Almost as though he endured all the suffering of his past, outlived all these other failed experiments, carried the torch of what this "blessing" has given him, this cross he bears, in order to be here today telling you to... die, but still lol. That's why he mentions this sense of burden in his last speech. ( " I was given a power I never asked for. " ) But he did not throw himself in front of the player on the last floor of tartarus because he didn't believe in the ideology he spouts before he starts the fight ofc! Its Jin who fought because he cares about his friends and no one else really-- but its Takaya who declares the good of all of humanity is who he is here fighting for. ( " to shine a light upon this darkened world. " )

Of course, there's many instances where he doesn't care about another person at all-- could give less of a damn-- he has a selective in-group of people he's deemed worthy of his concern in daily life. He's especially prone to lighting up with endearment if they're other lab kids if you consider the novel canon, but I do think he isn't..... heartless. Oddly enough lol-- he's clearly capable of caring about people, Jin being the easy example, even if he's hesitant to admit it except with his dying words ( according to the movie) so I do think-- having been with them since they were very young and he was the eldest-- that he probably also did some level of "big brother" care taking for them as well. That's purely a headcanon, but I feel its very unlikely Jin has such affection toward him, in a familiar way not an idolization way, that Takaya likely has sacrificed on a personal level for Jin in the past, not just a take-take-take sort of relationship.

anyways-- I hope this !!! long rambling post is a good answer of any kind lol ! }}

[ackerlikesmen]

Damn right to everyone. You hit it right on the head.

To me, the problem with Annabeth is that she doesn't grow, but no one calls her out, so she feels she doesn't need to. Percy's not speaking up when she wrongs him, gives her the green light to continue, so it does.

And the reason I feel Annabeth is mean to Percy is out of jealousy and feeling inferior to him. She labels him as the dumbest, yet he proves her wrong every time and outsmarts her. To someone with hubris (and narcissism), this would fuck them up.

Another thing I hate is when fans say, 'Well, Percabeth isn't toxic because Percy isn't truly hurt. Annabeth isn't like Gabe,"

Well, no. Annabeth isn't Gabe, but that doesn't mean she doesn't hurt Percy. You guys listed how she does, so I won't repeat it. But the fact he expects her to attack him is telling. Again, she's not Gabe but similar. Didn't he flinch at her? Idk. Correct me if he did.

The judo-flip scene, she meant it with intention. She intended it to hurt. She probably didn't want to kill him, but she wanted to hurt him, and that's enough for me. Maybe Annabeth loves Percy, but to me, she also wants to hurt him physically and mentally but doesn't honestly know it or want to admit it. Resolved issues.

Anyway, I'm supposed to believe and accept these two as a golden standard because they're canon and do sweet things sometimes, but do those sweet moments cancel out the bad? That's all that's talked about.

What Percy did for her. His love for her.

Is Percy taking Annabeth on a date to Paris supposed to have me forget Annabeth hitting him or calling him stupid? Is Percy falling in hell supposed to erase all the horrible things she did to him?

And that's the thing. It doesn't change. Not only that---

THEY NEVER TALK ABOUT THESE MOMENTS.

"Why should they?"

BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT RESOLVED.

These problems are not resolved. There's no closure.

Percy doesn't like it when she 'manhandles' me or calls him stupid. He doesn't like it when she's mean, making him a mind reader or expecting to be attacked.

Annabeth is still terrified of Percy. She goes to Piper to talk about it, but not her boyfriend? She's still fearful of him.

But do either of them talk about it? No. Instead, they move on and pretend none of it happened, like a 'blank slate.'

A relationship like that is doomed to fail, yet it's the 'golden' BECAUSE OF PERCY'S LOTALTY. That's it!

Last, what do they have in common? What makes their relationship interesting? Yeah, Athena and Poseidon aren't on good terms, but this isn't a Romeo and Juliet story. Do they have common interests besides going to war and battle experience? Isn't Percy a rebound for Annabeth or the other way around? I genuinely ask. Not mocking. They're suppose to be 'opposites attract,' yet neither opposite is willing to compromise or understand... well, maybe Percy, mostly.

Overall, this gets my blood pumping because I'm in another fandom that does this exact thing. Attack On Titan does this same thing, even with the 'canon' ship, Eremika. Same thing, except it went nowhere cause Eren died, and Mikasa moved on.

I already made a post on what I think about these relationships and why they're shit. *Cough cough* Bad writing *cough cough*

Anyways, good job, guys.

Okay, this is just a quick (lies, this ended up so long) and dirty articulation of why I don't like Annabeth Chase from PJO, her relationship with Percy, and what I think could fix it. (It got too long so I cut that bit. I'll write it if someone asks, but right now this is just a deconstruction of how, in my opinion, Annabeth Chase is not a well-written and compelling character.) This will be rambling and scattershot but hopefully it all makes sense, even if you don't agree.

First of all, Annabeth Chase has a lot of potential. I'm about to talk some shit, but I want to be clear, I see a lot in her character that could be interesting. I attribute most of my problems with her to Rick's writing, which, for all its good qualities, is not the strongest or most consistent imo. This isn't intended as a hate piece, just a way to organize my thoughts. I'm doing this all from memory, and am open to feedback, disagreement, or correction if I make a mistake so long as it's done in a civil way. Thank you.

I think my biggest frustration with Annabeth is that I simply don't believe her intelligence. I would LIKE to. But I think we are told that she is smart far more than we're shown, which makes the praise heaped upon her somewhat galling.

When I think about great strategies in these books, Percy comes to mind first. In The Last Olympian, he's the one who plans out the destruction of the bridges to frustrate Kronos' approach, including making diplomatic deals with the river gods and strategically deploying demigods to get it done. He's the one to realize that Poseidon is critical to success, find a way to get his attention in the middle of a war, and convince him to take heavy losses in Atlantis — and lose that battle which was very personal and precious to him — in order to win the ultimate war against Kronos. It is also Percy's strategy which is successful in defeating Typhon. Percy is constantly thinking up strategies in high pressure environments, such as fights. For example, in the Labrynth, when he realizes that his half-brother is healed by earth so he concocts a method with what he has around him to keep his brother suspended so he can be killed.

Now, other demigods also make important contributions in The Last Olympian. Wasn't it Nico who convinced Hades, Persephone, and Demeter to join the fight? And Annabeth activated Daedalus(??? spelling) statues in defense as well. But Percy is one that we are most often shown being strategic. I think it just goes under the radar because Percy does not have a high self esteem and does not praise himself internally for a lot of the clever stuff he does.

Annabeth most often contributes by knowing something. She often serves as exposition; she'll recognize a myth first, and explain it to Percy. But not only is prior knowledge and memorization not a replacement for actual strategy, BUT PERCY GETS BETTER GRADES THAN HER. I think it's in that Demigod Files book?? All Riordan's stuff has at least a month's waitlist at my library or I would double check my source, but I distinctly remember an entry where Annabeth is like, "Seriously, how is Percy getting better grades than me?? I'm the one who taught him how to put an essay together and now he's breezing through them??? Wtf." I find this intensely frustrating. Because what do you MEAN she's not even more successful than Percy academically? It's just, it's frustrating, because she's supposed to be so super smart, and I'm struggling to see where that actually gets expressed. If her only advantage is an earlier exposure to the Greek myths than Percy and a good memory, then her value as a character is highest near the start of the series and can only decline from there.

Even her encounter with the Sphinx highlights this. She had the trivia knowledge to answer the questions but not the wisdom to just, do that and not start an unnecessary fight in the middle of their quest.

I can think of several times in the books where Annabeth stutters, trying to think of something, while Percy improvises something that might be a little goofy but it WORKS.

Actually, Percy is by far the better manipulator out of the two of them. He is insanely good at reading his enemies, figuring out how to convince them to ally with him if possible, or defeat them if not. His big vulnerability is he can't do that for shit with people he cares about. Percy is actually very conflict avoidant in his personal life, I've noticed? And he's very quick to empathize with a friend and try to see things from their persepective (like when Grover kinda SABOTAGED his college applications and Percy heard him out and supported him in his emotional struggle with Percy leaving).

By contrast, Annabeth doesn't seem interested in the emotional wellbeing of her friends?

Annabeth often insults Percy's intelligence and his strategies. She says his head is full of kelp, seaweed brain, outright calls him stupid at least once (during that quest for Hermes, if I recall; was that in the Demigod Files as well? It wasn't in a main book I don't think). Everyone says that Annabeth is so smart, she's the daughter of Athena she's the architect of Olympus!! Meanwhile, the person I see actually implementing successful strategy is the person Annabeth constantly insults. She says that he's lucky, that he needs help to do anything, couldn't think his way out of a paper bag without her????????

That's what drives me crazy about Annabeth. Nobody ever calls her on her bragging or her putting down of other people. She doesn't learn. Not even when her carelessness and overconfidence gets her DRAGGED INTO TARTARUS. I'm so sorry, but is it not embarrassing for a daughter of Athena to be defeated like that??? All you had to do was keep an awareness of your environment, put two and two together that you're covered in webs just like the spider who just fell through the floor, and realize you'd better do something about that ASAP. And, like. Look. My issue isn't that she was pulled into Tartarus. My issue isn't even the way it happened. It matches with her fatal flaw.

My issue is that, like with everything else she gets wrong, she never seems to learn or grow from it. Like when Luke tricked her into holding up the sky. That to me is a perfect opportunity for a genuine character moment. It's so humbling, and would leave you so shaken. A moment for an unwanted but desperately needed reckoning between who she wants Luke to be and who he is. I'm not even saying she should have given up on him. I don't mind that she couldn't or that the whole thing was so messy and painful for her, but the way that it was expressed in the book made me feel like Annabeth was either willfully blind or untrustworthy. Her denial of Luke's worst aspects, her defending of him, her refusal to hold space for other characters feeling differently to her, all of it fostered suspicion in me when I first read the PJO books.

I remember when I first read the scene where Percy reveals his Achille's heel to her. My hair stood on end. Something about the way her eyes are described as "distant" when she asks where it is, and how Percy hesitates. In that moment I was screaming for him not to trust her. I did not want her to know. I thought his fatal flaw was going to kill him. Percy is a character who cannot anticipate betrayal.

Of course I was wrong about Annabeth there. Or was I? Other people before me have noted that when Annabeth judo flips Percy onto his back in New Rome, she does not know that the Mark of Achilles has been lifted. I don't think that the throw would have necessarily killed him if it hadn't; he lands on a flat surface. But it was certainly DEEPLY careless and foolhardy of Annabeth, EVEN BEFORE you take into account that it was, strategically, a STUPID thing to do. It makes me want to scream how dumb this moment makes Annabeth look. It's the tense, fraught first meeting in years between ancient enemies. You're the leader of your group, the diplomatic ambassador from Camp Half Blood. It's imperative that this goes well, for the fate of the world. And your emotions run so high upon reuniting with your kidnapped boyfriend — who was stolen by a god and has been through you-don't-know-what kind of godly fuckery — that you take it out on him, the VICTIM, and physically attack him. Didn't she put a knife to his throat?? If PERCY hadn't defused the moment, handled it, Annabeth would easily have destroyed the Greek-Roman alliance right there, no ghostly possession of Leo needed. With friends like her, who needs enemies?

Her relationship with Percy…I've never understood why they're the golden couple of the fandom. Annabeth seemed more interested in Luke than Percy, and when she was interested in Percy it was always…like, okay, Annabeth was vulnerable with Luke. I don't think he ever had a thing for her, but there was a tenderness to how she'd interact with him. When she interacted with Percy — think of the school dance, or how she handled having Rachel on a quest — she refuses to be vulnerable with him. If she has a crush on Percy, she hides it under glares, insults, and demands. Annabeth won't ask Percy to dance with her, she'll hit him and call him stupid for not asking her. She will not let her guard down with him.

This is a throughline in their relationship; even in Tartarus, she's thinking about how she likes to keep Percy on her toes. Yeah, Annabeth, we know. It was obvious when you manufactured a whole drama around your "one month anniversary." Which, no, that's not a thing, and it's completely normal of Percy not to anticipate that you would want him to do something special for it. I hated that whole story (it's in demigod files, I think). It's just Annabeth dangling Percy over undefined consequences if he doesn't read her mind and figure out what she wants and needs. He does all the work and she judges it. It's not cute or fun.

I do place most of the blame on Riordan's writing. What's that scene where Annabeth pushes Percy unexpectably off a cliff, triggering a very sensitive and dangerous encounter that he had to negotiate under time pressure while Annabeth watches? How does that scene start? "Get you a girlfriend who…" It's framed as a positive that Annabeth will just shove Percy into dangerous situations without warning when she absolutely does not have to do that. Isn't she supposed to be strategic? Why can't she think up a strategy and tell him, instead of shoving him at the problem and just, putting it on him to find a solution? "Give the problem to Percy" isn't a strategy worthy of Athena, I'm sorry. But my point is, Rick genuinely seems to think their romance is good and these red flag moments are cute and flirty. He is not writing Annabeth as an asshole on purpose.

I tend towards death of the author analyses myself, but Rick's writing is not consistent enough for that. You kinda just have to identify what he was trying to do, see where it failed, and decide how you wanna interpret that. And when it comes to Annabeth…I just want to either burn her relationship with Percy down or rewrite her character.

What else is there? Oh yeah, does anyone else feel like the way her family is written makes her seem…overdramatic? Like, meeting her dad and stepmom…it's an anticlimax. This girl was so unhappy she ran away from home as a child. She chose to become homeless in a world where monsters hunt her down, AS A CHILD, rather than stay with her dad. There's a deep unhappiness and loss to that. When she talks about it, she talks about being unwanted, a burden that her dad was unable and unwilling to handle, not being heard, not being believed. She is describing victim blaming. In that house, she, a six year old child, was seen as the problem.

And after that build up, we meet her family, and they are…well, they're fine, aren't they. Her step mom is concerned for her. She and Annabeth's dad (no i don't remember his name rn) seem to want the best for her, to help however they can. Mr Chase—is his name Frederick maybe???—Mr Chase takes the initiative, after Percy and his friends let him in on a sliver of what's going on with Annabeth, to melt down old weapons to make bullets and FLY A HELICOPTER to come save his daughter.

I'm honestly at a loss about what we're supposed to think here. At the end of Titan's Curse Percy gently suggests to Annabeth that she give her family another chance. If I recall, she says some things can't be repaired, but it's implied that she does actually try again with her family later. This always seemed to me to undermine Annabeth's entire narrative…the way she describes being treated simply does not match what we observe for ourselves in Titan's Curse.

I could go on but I'll cut it here. Maybe I'll make a post about I'd rewrite her if I could, because I do WANT to like Annabeth. There's a lot interesting that could be done with her. Probably not though bc all the Annabeth stans are gonna block me for this one I fear. Maybe I'll post my criticisms of other PJO couples instead lol (I won't. if you've read this far you'll find this claim dubious, but I actually don't enjoy being a hater. anyway i don't have nearly so much to say about any other pjo couple). Thanks for reading.

[juvederm]

this story been a wip since like 2019 maybe even 2018 and i have one version of it completed that i now just call a draft bc it's so incomplete to me even though it's posted on ao3

let me ramble

like if anyone's wondering why josh is such a focal point in my art it's literally bc of this damn story like 😭 i try to draw things that could potentially be a visual or something to be added in the story (ie drawing scenes that may happen or outfits he might wear) in order to keep myself motivated

since he's like the main character of the story, he's all i draw and talk about for the reason i just stated, like i can't allow myself to get unmotivated about this story bc it's been up my ass forever and has about 8 drafts at this point

it's such a hassle mainly bc of the complexities of how josh got the prank to work, the money spent, the routes he took, etc. i'm trying to find all of it to make the story as accurate as possible bc i can't have it not aligned with canon, while also having showing a diff angle of josh that i feel isn't in most ? fics about him ? and if it is, the fic is usually unfinished and untouched or a standalone

i stray away from that common way people used to write josh (or characterize him) as some suave, inappropriate and sometimes flirty dude (which is sooo inaccurate to his character i can't even emphasize that enough). i think he did make sexual jokes simply for the laughs or shock value. i think he does have charisma but not in the Womanizer kind of way that mike has. like josh has charm, but it's not because he's flirty. it's because he has this weird aura to him that makes him interesting, and makes him charming because of how he handles it

and i've said it before, i think it's all a front for him. he's not really like that. he probably dislikes being so fake, but is afraid of judgment and being isolated from others. so he tries to fit in as much as possible. even if it means drinking and partying enough to be called a "party animal" and being described as someone who "outdoes" everyone during drinking contests

i tried painting it as a slow descent for him in the story i'm writing. after he loses his sisters, everything's starting to fall.

best way i can describe josh: a steel tank rolling down a muddy hill that can be derailed by a twig.

i also tried showing his psyche through the clothes he wears. and his two different rooms (his room at his mom's, and his room at his dad's; i think they're divorced so).

his room at his mom's house has a lot more of his interests everywhere. you can definitely tell he's an art kid, movie obsessed introvert if you would walk into his room. he's eccentric when by himself to a degree where it's genuine and not a front. he kinda has an eccentric style as well, but after losing the twins, he loses that spark

when he moves in with his dad however, his room there is incredibly bleak. there's no posters, the spaces are wide, and there's no range in colors. just black, white and sometimes grey, maybe silver. and his clothes devolve to bland white shirts, black pants, black coats, etc. no poppy colors whatsoever. this kinda goes more into the head canon i have about his step mom, who is kind of on the traditional side.

and also when josh moves in with dad, he becomes invested in solitary activities such as painting, gardening or piano. all of which he does when he's completely alone. and painting and piano playing could be a way to vent out his emotions, even then josh tries to suppress it. he's way too used to doing that. but sometimes his artworks show that.

that's another thing. he's always been artistic and obsessed with painting. he had a lot more abstract pieces but as his mental health declined, the paintings became colorless and desaturated, depressing and claustrophobic (and also involved more of his fears like spiders and isolation)

anyways. maybe i should actually write for the story instead of talking about it