#they are allergic of understanding the characters

[wilcze-kudly]

One thing I'm realising about a good chunk of the avatar fandom is that they need to be hand held through every development in the entire franchise. Like I've had my suspicions for a while but the reactions to the new Mai comic really cement it for me.

There's this odd aversion to understanding that characters will grow and change. And even if the building blocks for a character's growth are set up earlier, so many people seme unable to extrapolate that potential + time = change.

I think part of the reason to this is that the most prominent character growth arc in the franchise is Zuko's. And it's a very well crafted storyline, but it is also very much spoonfed to us. Not just by us getting to go into Zuko's pov but even having Iroh helpfully narrate and explain what the fuck is going on in Zuko's world at the moment.

And I think this is why a lot of the fandom expects changes to the characters to be these explicitly shown, overtly prominent, dramatic affairs, perferably narrated by a conveniently placed old man. But Zuko's arc was quintessential to a deeper plot, and it had the drama and structure one would expect of a solid storyline. But this won't ring true for all characaters.

Taking Mai's character growth from the apathetic teenage girl who is resentful to the more established young woman who possesses more agency and seemingly has developed more radical views for example.

I've made a long ass post on this, so I won't bore you with the details, but the crux of Mai's character is that she was restricted and handled for most if not all of her life for multiple different reasons.

But at the end of the show, most of those reasons are removed. And this would, as you can imagine, trigger a change in the charcter.

But Mai's change wouldn't be like Zuko's, wouldn't involve wandering a foreign land, running a teashop and having allergic reactions to good decisions. Mai's arc would be her going about a normal life in that flowershop, learning to see the world from a different perspective and looking back at events and systems from her childhood and going "huh. That was fucked up."

And with the comic book format being much more streamlined, this just wouldn't cut it as a compelling plot, because it would basically be a less dramatic version of Zuko's deprogramming. But it doesn't have to. Because we have all the puzzle pieces. Hell, even the comic preview spells it out for us with this obvious metaphor.

I'm just surprised how many people seem to have such an averison to not having every plot point spelled out witg big bold letters. How many people won't go through the simple process of engaging with a piece of media rather than just consuming it.

And I don't mean to grandstand or act like I'm better than the fandom for doing something as simple as not reacting negatively to a slight shift in the fictional status quo.

[mythalism]

I could have forgiven a lot of the issues in DATV if the just hadn’t retconned Mythal so hard.

We spent three games building up Mythal. We knew she wanted vengeance. It meant more to her than anything else. She would use and abuse whoever she had to in the interest of accomplishing her goals and did so without a shred of remorse. She was the victim who became the abuser, twisted and warped by her own pain and rage. I miss that Mythal. She has the whole world spinning to her tune wether or not they realized it, and I was so ready for her reckoning.

I don’t know who decided they needed to sanitize Mythal, or why, but it diminished her character and sincerely harmed the story. Instead of a mastermind carefully laying pieces in place for centuries, she’s just…idk what they even made her. A fairy god mother who sits around waiting for people to show up and ask for favors?

How is this better? it’s bad enough that they robbed her if her agency, but it’s genuinely fucked that they try and make her blameless when so much of the conflict stems from HER actions. Not only do they try and outright retcon her abuse of Morrigan, they gloss over the fact that she owned slaves and marked them with her Vallaslin. They go out of their way to minimize her abuse of Solas, and frame her as ‘the good one’ and there’s some implicit misogyny in there.

The idea of the woman as the ‘pure’ one who is morally faultless is in fact a trope rooted in sexism and they backed themselves right into it. The worst example is the retconning of the end credit scene from DAI. Not sure why they thought that would be ok when we literally watched that scene as it happened. Mythal didn’t give a flying fuck about the modern Elves as no amount of retconning is going to erase what they already established.

Mythal as this blameless female counterpart to Solas doesn’t just diminish her, it creates s pretty terrible double standard. Imagine if the genders were switch. Picture a male character coercing a female character into doing the things Mythal coerced Solas into doing. I doubt people would be arguing over wether or not the victim in that circumstance deserves sympathy. Because this game genuinely felt like it was allergic to allowing anyone to show a shred of empathy, understanding, it even goddamn pity for Solas despite objectively showing us that he was a victim.

i gotta be honest, this is not my read on mythal at all. though if i did feel that they had sanitized mythal, i would 100% agree with you that it is wrong and messy to do so. but i dont feel like she was sanitized? i think i just interpret everything mythal says as manipulative so if she says something nice ("the elves of today dont deserve to die to salve your conscience") im just like "oh shes plotting something" LOL so maybe im giving the writers way too much credit. i just assumed if she wanted the veil still up she has a reason that we aren't privy to, and she's appealing to solas's conscience and desire to be a hero when she says that.

i do agree that morrigythal is funky. but i also think shes up to something and thats why. i find her epilogue slide very suspicious because why the fuck does she have an epilogue slide (especially one that resembles solas's) when shes barely in the game. i find her involvement with the veil jumpers so early on in the game suspicious. i find the way she orchestrates the inquisitor's involvement suspicious. i find the ease with which she moves through the crossroads suspicious. and i find the way she effectively gets solas off the chessboard of thedas suspicious. i also find it suspicious that morrigan says she absorbed none of mythal's personality and has her will intact, but then refuses to fight solas when she fucking hated his ass 10 years ago and was more than ready to throw hands in mythal's temple. idk maybe this is all actually a retcon but out of all the stupid bullshit in the game morrigythal being dodgy actually felt intentional to me.

i think fragment mythal is clearly a crazy bitch and i love it. i dont think she is blameless or sanitized at all; she clearly speaks about solas with condescension and derision borne of a deep hurt. she gleefuly calls herself a goddess and does not hesitate to judge and kill a rook she finds unworthy. she is haughty, otherworldly, judgemental and proud. she literally turns into a dragon and tries to kill you if you piss her off. she refuses to acknowledge the blight being her fault. she calls the titans monsters. she is generally just an unapologetic bitch. i think it fits perfectly with what we see of her in the murals, where she overestimates her own ability to manipulate the other evanuris into following her lead and abandoning their use of the blight. i think her fucked up and messy feelings about solas as someone she clearly feels some twisted ownership of but also genuinely loves but also violently resents but also feels deeply hurt by is consistent. i also think they sufficiently explain the differences in personality between flemythal and the mythal fragment, flemythal lived in modern thedas for thousands of years. the mythal fragment has been left (BY SOLAS!!!) alone to fester in her anger for thousands of years.

i also think the companions are pretty quick to condemn her for being a manipulative freak. idk which one it is but someone literally says "every horrible thing solas did he did for her" and rook can literally look mythal in the eye and say "you should have respected solas more, he did terrible things he didn't want to do because he cared about you, he was right to betray you and you were wrong for what you asked of him" and she implicitly agrees by giving her approval, even if she doesnt verbally say "damn. u right"

i also feel like her abuse of solas is pretty clear and unambiguous. she literally admits to it at the end on top of the fact that rook calls her out on it when they speak. solas's reaction to her presence is also pretty clear that their relationship was absolutely fucked up. i also think the fact that she doesnt apologize and instead simply acknowledges what she did and releases him implies she is unrepentant. she wants him free and able to move forward because she loves him in her own twisted way, but she doesnt regret it or admit that she was wrong. that doesnt imply that she was right, it implies that she does not feel remorse and this sets her apart from solas who is, at that moment, absolutely drowning in it.

i do agree that veilguard shows a severe lack of sympathy for solas but i think that is a separate, larger writing issue, and a symptom of the game's fucked up development. the datamined content actually shows a storyline that is more sympathetic to him and more clearly sets up his story as similar to rook's. i dont think the root of the issue of veilguard failing to make solas sympathetic is because of mythal's writing, though.

you know im always down to be critical of this game especially misogyny within it, but imo mythal's writing is not an example of that.

[ramblingsfromthytruly]

ty for the tag <3

i was born exactly at 11:11 p.m.

i can fluently speak 3 languages and can slightly understand 2 more (not a big deal at all since this is kinda the norm in india)

i used to be allergic to all meat and eggs and nuts when i was younger but then i grew out of it and am now allergic to none of it

i am more prepared for college than for 12th grade (currently in 11th)

i once got a dream where i got chased and stabbed to death by a masked murderer and got betrayed by some random old lady and when i woke up with my heart beating fast my first coherent thought was 'i have to kill my character like that omg'

np tags :) @pxasee @miserable-individual @busycryingoverthemarauders @justalunaticfangirl

Hehe thanks for the tag @messymoony <3

rules: list five boring facts about yourself

I like to sip my drinks and can make a beverage last all day long.

My favorite emoji is the side eye emoji 👀

I keep approximately 7 million tabs open on my computer and then complain when it runs slow

I like beds that are low to the ground because I'm a restless sleeper and will fall out of bed

I get motion sick if I read or write anything while on a train

Np tags for @uhhlifeig @ravenwordss @panchashire @willyoubemydarling @http-wolfstar +open tag

[starry-eyed-steve]

If this is true, they can keep it.

What is this? Can we stop with the Eddie agenda? He wouldn't help Dustin with experiments. He failed to graduate twice and hates school. He wouldn't help him connect with his friends because he doesn't care for the party like that prior to the events of s4. He likes to collect his little "sheep" who listen to his philosophies about society. He sees himself as a mentor who enlightens people, but he is not friends with them. Dustin and Mike were terrified even talking about postponing a stupid game so they could support Lucas. They don't see him as an equal, they admire and fear him.

Dustin's and Eddie's "friendship" is a mentor/student one. It's not like Dustin and Steve's friendship, which is based on mutual respect (at least prior to s4). Steve never made Dustin feel scared to ask him about favors. He respects him and is not acting like he's above him.

Let me have a book about their friendship and the struggles of season 3. How Dustin is navigating the move of their friend, how he deals with watching Max ascend into depression and how he feels about starting high school. With Steve by his site because they went through fucking hell together in s3 (and s2). How is their relationship gonna change after those events? What led to them being that way in s4. We don't need an Eddie-Dustin centric book, especially not about Eddie helping Dustin with his friends.

I swear all we get in that book will be Dustin being absolutely mean to Steve, insulting his intelligence every other page. Steve won't be smart enough to help him out there. No thanks.

[lilbittymonster]

Tumblr: gladly reblogging my post asking people to tag their spoilers with several people saying they agree, the most pushback I get is people asking what tags to use. Excellent 10/10 community effort

Twitter: "ummmm Akshually, it's a whole month for expansions, it's only two weeks for patches". Completely disregards the fact that sprouts are still working their way through the game, does not acknowledge the fact that not everyone can play through within a month, still not taking responsibility for helping others to avoid spoilers. 0/10. Shitter indeed.

[womp-womp-waa]

Ben missed how he was.

When he had his voice. When people didn't look at him with pity. When he didn't cry himself to sleep every night. When he could smile.

But that was then and this is now. And now he's lying in Bed, not wanting to move not having the energy. He ignored his parents calls from his doorway, he couldn't respond anyway so there was no point in talking to them. There was no point in talking to anyone. Maybe if he stayed in bed for long enough, he'll wake up from this horrible nightmare and he could speak, sing, laugh.

Maybe. Maybe one day he could learn to live without his voice. One day, but not today.

[kisuminight]

c!George and c!Dream have a bond that lets them feel each other's emotions. It is not a fix-it solution.

~

There is a bitter ember is George’s resonance with Dream. There has been for a while. It started as a small thing, back when Tommy first joined the server. But it grew and grew, until it was a bonfire that George could feel in the center of his chest, winding out from his lungs and strangling his throat like the thorns of a creeping rose.

Dream never named it, but George could guess. It was obvious, from the way it might flicker and wane but always, always flared up again whenever George tried to rely on him these days. First when Tommy burned down his house. And again, when the Badlands attempted their assassination. It’s been an acrid coating on his tongue, worse than brewing potions with spider eyes, since Technoblade… well, since Technoblade.

(George isn’t jealous about him. Isn’t jealous of the way Dream had been excited when Technoblade first arrived on the server, and admiration clicked and fizzed like redstone, even as the bitterness swallowed his appetite and choked at his breath).

The ember has grown into a proper inferno now, like the constant hissing of lava roaring in his ears. It’s hard to hear what Quackity is saying, but the resonance is winding tighter about him because Dream is coming. Dream is coming, and today George is going to demand answers.

-

“Just say you hate me.”

-

Sapnap is dragging George away, away to Mexican L’Manberg. There’s enough lava to drown the whole Nether, a conflagration that could swallow the whole server is burning him from the inside out and he is gasping around the feeling of thorns tearing him apart from the inside. Is this what it feels to swallow a wither rose?

“I don’t—how could he do that? George, let’s go. George—shit, George!”

Sapnap is there. His hands are on George’s arms. George can’t feel it through the armor. Just a bit of pressure as his whole world shakes apart around him. It’s painful, and George can’t breathe. The world is in and out and he can barely make out that they are out of the castle. There are grass blocks underfoot and no walls to lean on.

“C’mon, breathe with me. In one, two, three, four—” Sapnap’s voice curled about his ears, rhythmic and worried. It helped, a little. Gave George enough stability to sooth his own reactions until he could manage something more than panting sobs.

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Shut up, George. Keep breathing.”

“I’m fine. What is this?”

Sapnap’s hands squeezed, keeping George from pulling away. He looked worried, the corners of his eyes crinkled and uncharacteristically soft. “It’s a panic attack, George.” The corners of his mouth dragged down. “Of course the first one you’ve had was caused by Dream.”

“No? It’s not my panic attack?” The pain ebbed as the heat did. It didn’t quite die back down to an ember, but the bitterness receded into something more sour, as the roses in George’s throat wilting into something easier to breathe around.

“Really?” Ugh. Sapnap made a face, and George made a face right back. “Okay, sure. Let’s just get to Mexican L’Manberg.” He turned away, but kept one hand tight around George’s wrist to pull him along.

“You are ridiculous,” George told his back, pretending that the sun wasn’t drying his cheeks into a sticky mess. He used his free hand to rub at his goggles. He tugged at the tangle of emotions in the resonance, feeling it spool out as they got farther away from Dream.

Whatever. It didn’t matter that the wilting had turned into the same soupy-bog in his lungs as when Sapnap killed Spirit. George didn’t care about the return of the almost-pneumonia of grief that settled like a fever and made Dream uninterested in the world for days or even taking care of himself. Maybe Dream would feel George’s fury like a fire in turn, and come apologize to bank it.

Tomorrow, probably, because he was so busy with Eret today. Tomorrow, George could get his answers. Demand what Dream was even thinking, and why he was even being this dumb when it made all this wrongness curl about him like a miasma and twist the emotional bleed into something dark.

Dream didn’t come home that night. Or the next. Tomorrow stretched on into the taught, painful pull of a distant resonance, like barbed wire strung between their hearts.

[scottapez]

franmaya honestly interests me more than edgewright at this point.

[stackthedeck]

well I disagree with you about peter and mj cause they are meant to be together and andrew Garfield version needs his version of mj and vise versa.

tell me you've never read a comic without telling me you've never read a comic.

MJ and Peter are not meant to be together in the same way no comic characters are meant to be together, no couple is "endgame" because there is no end to this game. MJ and Peter's relationship should change and shift as long as Marvel Comics continues publishing. MJ is a dynamic character, she affects the narrative and vice versa. A Spider-Man story is only as strong as the supporting cast which is why modern Spider-Man comics have been so ass, all of Peter's friends are gone and MJ is a doll on the shelf.

I'm not trying to be progressive when I say Peter Parker isn't entitled to MJ, I'm saying it because it's good storytelling practice. Seeing Peter and MJ grow closer together despite not being the perfect couple was an engaging story, seeing them fight and break up every other week kept things interesting, even when they were married they had their ups and downs and major disagreements. Conflict means that the relationship stays narratively relevant. There are very few couples in comics that can get away with the happily married thing, and even then, they still change and are always working together as a team. MJ is not Peter's arm candy, she is an active part of his story, she challenges him and forces him to grow

If we want to talk about meant to be together, it was supposed to be Peter and Gwen, they were the classic all-American couple. And like that's coming straight from the writers at the time. They preferred Gwen over MJ as Peter's girlfriend because Gwen was the good girl. It wasn't until after Gwen died that MJ even became a blip on Peter's radar and even then Peter still believes that he would have married Gwen if she hadn't died and this is affirmed every time she comes back in almost any form. And that's not getting into the countless girlfriends Peter had before during and after his relationship with MJ.

MJ was the radical love interest, much of her clothing was inspired by the counter-culture movement of the 60s and 70s, and much of her dialogue and actions were taken directly from 2nd wave feminism. She's the party girl who uses the fun lifestyle to cover up that she's desperately lonely. So to treat her as nothing more than an object, as Peter's reward for being Spider-Man, it's antithetical to her whole character

Listen I ship Peter and MJ in every adaption they're both present in, I ship them in every comic universe, I adore this couple. But it is infuriating to watch current comic writers and comic fans reduce MJ to just Peter's girlfriend because she used to be Peter's friend. When people talk about Paul cucking Peter, it's about what the two men want and not about what MJ is experiencing which is likely stockholm syndrome.

MJ has had so many opportunities to shine as a character both with and without Peter. She doesn't exist to serve him as a character, they are two characters who are paired together because their relationship presents problems that are narratively interesting. When MJ becomes a cardboard cut out of a person, that's when the writers fucked up and they need to break up through something other than demon magic.

Mary Jane Watson is not a prize to be won, she's not Peter's reward for being a hero, she's not just a pin-up cover waiting to happen. She is a complete character that in order to as be interesting as she was in the fucking 70s needs to have narrative agency.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Everytime I face a new character limit on a website that didn't have them before/used to have really long ones... AUGHHhhh the modern social media world was not made for people like me (lovers of details, rambling, elaboration, thorough explanation, and nuance)

[natsudragneelgf]

sorry sorry sorry SORRY I can't stand core 5 Riverdale content that doesn't include Toni like it's core 4 anyway why would you add one singular slot to include Cheryl but not Toni it pisses me off to noooooooo fucking end and I'm not willing to argue about it. Include Toni when you open the core 4 bracket or fucking perish very honestly

[stilldancewithyou]

I keep seeing people saying "I hope they don't make Jeremiah the bad guy" and other things like that. They're not making him "the bad guy", it's a not really a good guy-bad guy situation. I don't think this story has a bad guy. What the 3rd book (and probably the 3rd season) do is show you Jeremiah's flaws and the fact that he isn't a perfect person (because no one is!).

I know we've all agreed Belly has a very biased and idealized view of both boys. Once Belly starts dating Conrad and things start to spiral, the bubble is popped for her and she stops seeing the idealized version of him, but I would also argue she starts to idealize him in the opposite way, forcing herself to try to see him as a "bad" person. I also feel like in the 2nd book/season she starts to compare the brothers in her mind and starts thinking maybe Jere was always the better choice (he would have been a better prom date etc). And the first 2 books/seasons spend a lot of time telling you Jere is a golden retriever, a golden boy, an unrealistically "perfect" guy who is always fun to be around and would never hurt Belly or do any of the things Conrad did. But the thing is, no one is that perfect. And especially not kids who have been through the things the kids in this story have been through (ie Susannah), of course they're all going to make human mistakes. Also we're getting all of this from Belly's point of view, and we need to remember that she has always seen them in the radiant sunshine light of all these magical summers.

The 3rd book is when Belly's Jeremiah bubble is popped and she starts to see all the annoying things he does and his flaws (it's actually kinda funny cause the first chapter is like "oh everything is wonderful with Jere he has been so many of my firsts and I've never had anyone like this" and then in the next chapter she's like "Jere is the most annoying mfer I have ever met and here's all the annoying ass thing he does"). And then the whole cheating thing happens...but they were on break so technically he didn't "cheat" but he should have known better, and then he made it worse by proposing to her.

Anyway all of that is to say they are not making anyone the bad guy, they are not making Jeremiah the bad guy. They are showing he makes human mistakes, is flawed and is also very capable of hurting Belly. Yes, he's a fun golden retriever but golden retrievers also sometimes bite and jump up on you and get into your trash, but it doesn't make him a bad dog. It's not sunshine and flowers 24/7. That's just not how life works.

Also just to be clear- yes, the characters in this story make mistakes and hurt each other and are at times a little bit toxic to each other, but no one does anything irredeemable or unforgivable.

[exopelagic]

WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME BURROWS END WASNT FREE

[bloomfish]

When I was a child I was obsessed with cats after reading warriors and the only thing I wanted in the universe was a cat. My mother wouldn't allow it because she was a. Allergic (valid) b. An animal disliker (not valid) so to prove to her that I would be a responsible cat owner I did so much research and studied cats obsessively, I even drew diagrams of cat anatomy and different systems I would implement around the house to prove I would be a responsible cat owner. I was so dedicated to the feline agenda

I don't know why she never caved and at least got us a hamster or something. I would constantly beg her for a pet, like I would have been happy with any kind of animal even a fish. Unfortunately I was an animal-obsessed child born to an animal averse mother lol. When my brother and I trapped insects she would say in Spanglish "Este es tu pet!" (This is your pet) 😭 and that fills me with rage to this day lmao

To cope I pretended the various animals around the house like a fox or a hedgehog we saw in the garden were my pets. We even had a rat infestation when we lived in London and I considered them my pets, penning my first book entitled "My Rat" which I think my dad still has. I was obsessed with any kind of pet simulator like Nintendogs or neopets or tamagotchis. I think she was worried she'd be saddled with all the responsibility after I got bored which I can understand but also I was so dedicated to my imaginary pets for so many years that I don't think that would have been the case.

[perenlop]

im reading this tallstar’s revenge rewrite and in it, palebird and brackenwing have a really nice friendship where bracken defends pale from sandgorse’s pushiness, and since i hadn’t read the original in so long i decided to check their wiki pages out of curiosity, and in the original brackenwing fucking shames palebird for mourning her dead daughter bc “she only knew her for two seconds” and scoffs at the fact that she named her at all? why do the girls in this series hate each other so goddamn much

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads // twitter thread    

The Hummingbird Killer

YA thriller set in a closed city run by assassin guilds

2 years after Isabel joined a new guild in exchange for her life, she’s their most notorious killer,

but wants a normal life again & gets a flatmate & library job

….and accidentally gets tangled up in an anti-guild abolitionist movement. unfortunately things just keep getting worse