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hrizantemy · 2 months ago

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I just realised something... When Reese's cup was trying to find ways to save Feyre, he first went to Hellion and asked him to search his libraries. At first thought makes sense, until you remember that Thesan is the best healer in Prythian. Did they ever ask the dawn court to help? If so, why not? Why go to librarians over doctors? Some of the best doctors no less. I want to say that he's being stupid, but I think that calling either him or feyre stupid/naive takes away from their characters.

Excusing Rhysand's horrible behaviour because 'he suffered for his friends and family and city' doesn't make him a good ruler. It makes him a good friend (even though the IC's interpersonal relationships are hella toxic, but you can still love someone or be toxic, despite that) but, he still rules over the Hewn city and Illyria too. Managing a part of your territory but not all isn't how an effective ruler works. In fact, history shows that sometimes the worst people can be the best rulers, and vice versa. The argument also doesn't really hold up when looking at his words and actions. Good people don't decide that an entire community of people are bad, and thus deserve to be treated well. He can't be morally grey because then he isn't a good a person.

Using Feyre's age as an excuse for the things she does doesn't support any argument in her defence. 'Feyre is young and doesn't know the intricacies of governing, so obviously she can't take an active role improving the Hewn City and Illyria'. Well, then she isn't as perfect for the position as her stans make her out to be. Using the same excuse for why her destroying the spring court and facing no punishment is okay meets the same issues. It doesn't make her this strong, capable woman getting her lick back. She isn't cunning or powerful. She's a liability. If she's so young and naive that she'll pull stunts like that with no care for the repercussions, then she isn't someone who can be trusted with information of any kind, because if she takes it badly or doesn't like it, she'll throw a fit, because she doesn't know better.

I'm not sure if you've read marvel comics or seen the animated series, but it feels like Rhys is trying to be somewhat like Dr Doom. He's the genius ruler of a country called Latveria, and his whole shtick is that he somehow saw the future. But in that future, humanity always ended up destroying themselves or being destroyed by someone else if he wasn't ruling it, thus began his constant campaign to rule the world. He's a terrible person, without question, and absolutely a dictator. Free speech, and right to protest aren't a thing there (but they also don't exist in the night court, so meh). However, while it does depend largely on the writer of any given story, his people don't starve. For the most part, they have a decent quality of life. What makes doom interesting where Rhysand is more annoying is that nobody pretends he's a good person, or a benevolent ruler. His people don't starve, which is more than can be said for other countries in the MCU or even other courts in Prythian. But he's still an awful person, and the stories lean into that. They don't argue that 'oh, his people don't starve, and he loves them, so cut him some slack' the way people make similar arguments for Rhys. That's part of what makes Rhys less interesting and more insufferable.

Rhysand: The Propaganda Prince Who Thinks He’s a God

Rhysand is marketed—both in-universe and by the fandom—as the ideal ruler, the dream man, the morally grey prince who sacrificed everything for his people. But the cracks in this narrative are more than superficial—they’re structural. And what becomes increasingly frustrating isn’t just Rhysand’s behavior itself, but the way the story bends to make him always right, always justified, always the victim or savior, never the villain.

Let’s talk more about the Hellion vs. Thesan issue, because this is the perfect microcosm of the problem. Feyre is pregnant and dying. Rhysand’s first reaction is to go to Hellion—yes, a High Lord of great magical knowledge, but not a healer. Not a physician. He chose dusty books over living experts. He chose a man whose court is about power and indulgence over the one dedicated to healing and medicine.

And that’s where it gets real: Rhysand doesn’t want help. He wants control. Thesan might offer real solutions, but they would come with accountability, with oversight, with humility. Rhys wants the solution, but only if it’s his solution. He only asks for help when it reinforces his superiority.

Compare that to characters like Lucien, who gets villainized for surviving abuse, not groveling for forgiveness fast enough, and existing with a moral compass that doesn’t align with the IC. Lucien doesn’t rule anyone, doesn’t hold immense power, and yet gets more criticism from fans and characters alike than Rhys ever does.

Even Tamlin, who is undeniably flawed, was allowed to be challenged by the narrative. His arc showed consequences. He fell. He was wrong. Rhysand? Rhys can lie to Feyre’s face, hide life-threatening information from her, isolate her from her sisters, make military decisions that result in cultural genocide (yes, I’m talking about Illyria), and still be treated like the golden boy.

The bar is so low it’s underground, but only for him.

Let’s also talk about Nesta, who arguably has the most realistic and meaningful arc in the series. She’s messy, she’s angry, she lashes out—but she grows. She’s punished, yes, but she’s allowed to be a person. Rhysand, in contrast, is never punished. He punishes others. He decides Nesta should be “rehabilitated” but nobody ever questions how he governs. How he’s ruled Illyria for five hundred years and allowed the abuse of females to flourish. How he’s let Keir terrorize Hewn City and now wants Feyre to smile through political dinners with him like that’s justice.

If we go outside ACOTAR, your comparison to Dr. Doom is still spot-on. But let’s take it a step further.

• Magneto from X-Men is a character who commits atrocities, but we understand his motivations. The story doesn’t pretend he’s a saint. His pain is valid, but his actions have consequences.

• Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender struggles with loyalty, honor, and the pull of power. He is not protected by the narrative—he has to earn his redemption.

• Daenerys Targaryen (until the final season, which we don’t claim) was portrayed as a liberator with terrifying potential. The tension lay in whether her power would corrupt her. She had followers who loved her, but not unconditionally—and when she crossed lines, people reacted.

Rhysand, in contrast, is surrounded by yes-men (and women), and the narrative refuses to let him fail. There’s no tension. No fear. No possibility that he might not be right. And that makes him boring.

Let’s also talk about how the fandom treats Rhys compared to characters of color or female characters. Emerie gets masculinized. Lucien gets demonized. Nesta gets dragged through the mud. But Rhysand can literally erase memories, manipulate information, and allow oppression to continue for centuries, and it’s okay because he’s hot and “suffered.”

Rhysand is not a morally grey character. He is a tyrant coated in glitter. The problem isn’t that he’s manipulative, or controlling, or negligent. It’s that the story won’t call it what it is.

Final Thought: The most damning thing about Rhysand isn’t his actions—it’s the lack of narrative accountability. If the series owned him as a flawed, self-serving ruler who hides behind the mask of benevolence? He’d be fascinating. If characters questioned him, if Feyre ever called him out, if the IC had fractures that weren’t hand-waved away? That would be compelling. But instead, we get endless adoration. Unquestioning loyalty. And any challenge—like Nesta’s rage—is framed as a threat, not a justified reaction.

So no—he’s not like Doom. Doom at least admits he’s ruling with an iron fist. Rhysand thinks he’s wearing a crown of flowers, but it’s forged from the bones of everyone he left behind.

Feyre Archeron: The Girlboss That Never Grew

Feyre’s entire arc is built on this idea that she’s “just a girl who learned to fight.” That she was poor and powerless and clawed her way to the top, and that makes her worth rooting for. And in A Court of Thorns and Roses, sure—she was scrappy, resourceful, and deeply flawed in a way that felt honest. She made bad choices. She was traumatized. She had no good options.

But as the series progressed, she didn’t grow from those flaws—she was rewarded for them.

Take her decision to destroy the Spring Court in ACOWAR—a political sabotage campaign that ultimately weakened a key ally right before a war. The story frames it as cunning. Payback. Her “strong woman moment.” But there are no repercussions. No fallout. She’s not criticized. She doesn’t even second-guess it.

Feyre acts like a spy in a court she once called home, tears it down, and never once reflects on how that might affect innocent fae, Tamlin’s people, or the broader war effort. Instead, the narrative coddles her. She’s “doing what she has to do.” She’s “young and learning.” But that excuse is paper-thin when she’s simultaneously praised for being “the most powerful High Lady in history.” If she’s powerful enough to go to war and command armies, she’s old enough to face consequences.

You nailed it earlier when you said that using her age as an excuse only highlights that she shouldn’t be in power. If she’s so inexperienced that she can’t govern, can’t lead, can’t understand the stakes of her actions—then she is a liability, not a leader.

And then there’s her treatment of Illyria and Hewn City. Feyre claims to care about justice. Freedom. Autonomy. She came from nothing and supposedly understands pain and oppression. And yet she does nothing when it comes to the Night Court’s darkest corners. Illyrian females are still mutilated. Hewn City still thrives on cruelty. But Feyre just… attends a party, wears a sheer dress, and calls it diplomacy.

The reality? Feyre only wants to be a ruler when it’s convenient, glamorous, or affirming. She wants to paint. She wants to build a family. She wants to be loved. And that’s valid—those are human desires. But the story insists she’s also this revolutionary political force. That she’s brave, clever, unstoppable.

She’s not.

She’s reactive. Impulsive. Emotionally volatile. She lashes out when she feels powerless and sulks when things go wrong. She refuses to listen to people she disagrees with. She has no political foresight and no cultural awareness. And that would all be fine—if the story treated it like a flaw. But it doesn’t. It excuses her, worships her, lets her off the hook again.

Compare her to characters with real narrative tension.

• Zoya Nazyalensky from Grishaverse becomes powerful because she learns. She’s arrogant, yes, but her flaws are explored and challenged. She has to reframe her thinking, unlearn prejudice, adapt.

• Katniss Everdeen is deeply flawed, traumatized, often confused and angry—but she’s aware of it. And we are aware of it. The narrative doesn’t coddle her. She doesn’t want power and is broken by being forced into it.

And let’s talk about class and privilege, because Feyre fans love to bring up her poverty in book one like it gives her moral high ground forever. Feyre hasn’t been poor since chapter ten of book one (not even). She lives in a mansion, gets the finest clothes, can paint all day, and be worshipped as a goddess. She doesn’t interact with the common people. She doesn’t serve her court. She doesn’t lift a finger to fix the systemic issues her rule presides over. She’s effectively a queen in a castle, pretending she’s still the underdog.

It’s not that Feyre is a bad person—it’s that the story won’t allow her to be anything but a good person. There’s no room for self-doubt. No space for humility. No accountability. The things she does that hurt others are either brushed off or reframed as noble sacrifices. And that flattens her. She could’ve been raw and real, someone who learns in public, who wrestles with power and trauma. Instead, she’s locked in a narrative where she always has to be right.

Final Thought:

Feyre is a character who could have been a woman learning to lead. But she’s written as a woman who is already perfect at it—and that’s where her story dies. Growth is impossible when the world already revolves around you. The more the narrative tells us she’s powerful, wise, and beloved, the more we feel the hollow echo of what she could’ve been if she’d been allowed to fail.

She’s not a ruler. She’s a character in a fantasy built to flatter her, not challenge her. And that’s why so many of us feel tired—not because she’s flawed, but because we were never allowed to see her flaws matter.

#anti acosf #anti inner circle #anti acotar #anti rhysand #pro nesta #anti feysand #nesta archeron deserves better #anti cassian #anti azriel #anti amren #anti nessian #anti morrigan #anti night court

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ddejavvu · 1 month ago

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i want to do girly things with astrid :( i have no idea how you'd procure acrylics and a uv lamp on berk but let's suspend our disbelief here for a second and imagine doing her nails.

maybe you're new to the village, maybe they found you on a distant island and you make trips to berk to see everyone once in a while. either way, she's still getting to know you, and she finds herself inexplicably drawn towards you even if you're not doing anything special. She notices that your nails are painted but they're long, too, impressively long for someone who rides dragons. Her own are chipped and broken from Stormfly's overeager love for fetch, and you notice her face slightly darkened in concentration as she stares at your hands.

"Astrid? Are you okay?" You ask, your voice gaining the blonde's attention. Her eyes widen slightly and she nods, a little too fast, a little too sure.

"I was," She admits, almost sheepish, "I was looking at your nails. They're so long."

"Oh, they're fake." You laugh, showing off your set of acrylics, "I actually did them myself."

She knows people can get them done, but that's not exactly high on Berk's list of priorities. She's painted her own a few times but it comes out so badly that she usually removes it before anyone can see. Before her brain can formulate the thought that she wants you to do her nails for her, you're offering, 'if you want, I can do yours too?'

She nods, a strange daze over her that Astrid is not typically prone to. You smile, and the daze thickens, and now she thinks she knows what's going on. She likes you, and that could potentially be a very troubling thing for her.

"It's a long process." You warn her, "At least an hour, more depending on the designs you want. Is that okay?"

"That's fine." She nods, eager to please, but only after she agrees does she realize that you'll be holding her hands for at least an hour. Suddenly she's thinking of intricate designs, ones that will take you ages.

You both prefer the sanctuary of the sunny meadow you're chatting in, and Stormfly races around with your dragon, keeping themselves occupied. You take her hand and she feels her heart pounding in her temples, eyes honed in on your fingers carefully clutching her own.

"I'm going to buff your nails first," You explain, "And the nails are gonna be really long at first, but we'll cut them down to whatever size you want. Okay?"

"Okay." She nods dutifully, her blonde hair fraying from its lazy braid and flopping over her eyes.

"Oh!" You laugh, a melodious sound that Astrid thinks might be the prettiest she's ever heard. You reach out, still keeping Astrid's hand in your own, "Here. I can braid too, y'know. After this I can tie it back for you."

"Okay," She hums along as you tuck it behind her ear, despite knowing she can braid her own hair well enough, "Thanks. I think it's cool, that you can do all this stuff."

"I like doing it for people," You shrug, now concentrated on her nails, which gives Astrid the freedom to stare at you, to comb over every inch of your face, "I like giving people something special to look at."

Astrid thinks you are something special to look at. She keeps conversation with you going as you dutifully buff and prep her nails, finally gluing on large acrylics that you cut down to her specifications. Filing them gets dust everywhere, and Stormfly sends it flying into the breeze with one snort of her massive snout. You laugh at the dragon together, and Astrid reminds herself not to be too brash around you- not yet, not until she can be sure it won't offend you.

If Snotlout could see her now he wouldn't recognize her. She's nothing like the sharpshooting spitfire she's known as, she's weakened, starstruck, bashful as you take her hands in your own. Later you'll laugh at her quips, snickering into her shoulder to muffle the sound as Tuffnut sulks, but now she'll admire you.

Her nails are cured quickly but she lets them rest regardless, and you kneel behind her to braid her hair. You take the pesky strands that obscure her vision and twist them into one braid, peering at her face from the side to ensure there's no stragglers.

"Wait." You hum, neck craned to give you a view of her face, "I missed one."

She feels your breath on her temple as you carefully grab a strand of hair from her forehead, a small one that's tough to braid because of how quickly it ends. But you work it into the braid anyways, and she feels tingles erupt down her spine when you rake your nails through her hair and down her back. If you notice her shivering, you're kind enough not to say anything about it, and you begin braiding the smaller strand into the rest of her hair as part of one of the three sections. When it's done, you secure it with the hairband that had slipped out before, wrapping it one more time than she thought was possible just to ensure it wouldn't go anywhere. It's a style she's never worn before, but she hopes she'll have the pleasure of letting you do it again.

"There. Fresh hair, fresh nails," You grin, scooting around to her side and settling in on your knees, "Let's just hope Stormfly doesn't bite them off."

"She might try," Astrid muses, watching her dragon playfully pounce at yours, "How long do these last?"

"A few weeks. I can either fill in the gaps or take them off for you," You glance shyly at her, "Or I could do a new set? I don't mind, y'know, redoing them whenever they grow out."

A monthly nail date, Astrid realizes, she has the opportunity to sign up for a monthly nail date with you.

"I can teach you axe-throwing." Astrid blurts, and her cheeks redden at the stunned silence that follows, "I mean, if you're going to be sharing your skills with me, I- we can... I'll show you-"

"That sounds perfect," You beam, hesitating nervously for just one second before darting forwards to peck against her flushed cheek, "A set of nails for a round of target practice."

She can do that, Astrid thinks, she can so do that. She can sidle up behind you and correct your form, holding your body to hers and breathing against your ear. She can do that, a set of nails for a round of target practice.

#astrid hofferson x reader #astrid hofferson fanfiction #astrid x reader #astrid hofferson imagine #astrid hofferson fluff #watching the second movie makes me oh so fond of her

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codenamesazanka · 2 months ago

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About your AU on Shigaraki being saved by All Might and then becoming a Hero who openly advocates for reform and social change and opens a center focused on Villain rehabilitation, I was wondering if you had thought of Gran Torino’s role in all of this?

Like, does he approve? Did he try to stop Toshinori from retiring to help the boy? Does he have some kind of bond with Shigaraki or does he hate his guts old man style, like “stupid punk youngsters with their damned liberal ideas”?

And what about Deku? What does he think of his idol retiring? I can see him going stalker mode and finding out about the mysterious protege thanks to his fanboy abilities, honestly. That would be a good opportunity to have him research and consider Shigaraki’s views and the perspective of saving villains. I dunnow.

You made me realize I have forgotten about Gran Torino! Given his sorry nothing of a role in Act 3 and basically non-conclusion re: Shimura family or OFA shenanigans, I just forgot he's semi-important lol

But from my notes:

[2 months after the All Might-All For One fight, and capture of Shigaraki Tomura] Gran Torino and Nighteye and HPSC convince All Might to give up on Shigaraki Tomura (after first few meetings with the boy went badly); All Might reluctantly agrees

[Two months after that] All Might has a breakdown when back on the job—Every time he saved someone, he would see Shigaraki like a ghost in the background, angry and bloody and accusing, sometimes looking like Nana right before her death; sometimes looking like (headless) All For One right after his death. One day, All Might found that he couldn’t even smile; Ultimately decides to give up being Symbol of Peace to help Shigaraki

After lots of emotional conversations, Gran and Nighteye and HPSC sigh and says fine. All Might wants to help the brainwashed grandson of his beloved mentor by getting the kid out of Tartarus solitary, which anyone would grudgingly admit is pretty harsh for a 14 year old? Well, All Might did go through a near-death experience, he’s done so much, let him be a little sentimental.

Then Gran also gets involved a bit when Shigaraki's therapy tries to piece together what exactly happened to the Shimuras - mostly there to provide background on Nana and Kotarou, plus helping with the investigation via dusty medical records, preschool registration documents, hunting down neighbors and acquaintances to pry at their faint memories, etc.

But otherwise, I don't really have much a role for Gran Torino! It's All Might's relationship with Shigaraki that would of course be more of the focus; and then because I'm pretty fond of All Might/Nighteye, Nighteye also gets more cameos.

In canon, Gran Torino - who knows how much the Shimura family separation hurt Nana, who was literally there watching Kotarou cry as Nana gives him that last hug goodbye, who knows what a manipulative scheming bastard All For One is - still would say to (Nana's grandson and last living blood relative) Shigaraki's face that he's trampling over Shimura's memory and that his very existence hurts Toshinori (and everyone). What a guy! No, I don't think he would like Shigaraki Tomura in the AU either. Dislike Shigaraki from the moment he learns of the kid's existence. Even after Shigaraki's rehab, he'll prob see Shigaraki as a threat to all their peace.

I think any lessening of negative feelings about Shigaraki would depend entirely on how All Might is doing. Toshinori feels happier now that Shigaraki calls him (Toshinori) "uncle"? Hmph, well, if Toshinori is fine with it...

But you have allowed me think about what Gran Torino would think about Shigaraki's project. Thank you for that!

Gran is, after all, the first person in the manga to state that the age everyone is living in is one of "suppression"; and all his words and actions points to him being in favor of that, working in service of that, even if he does say of it "for better or worse." He's a Hero who sees killing as a form of salvation; he's an old-timer, having lived before All Might's era of peace and seen the chaos there; hell, he doesn't even care about being a Hero, instead simply taking advantage of using a Hero License as a way to use his quirk freely and legally.

I think he would be a guy that probably doesn't think much about Shigaraki's intents of reform. He can provide a good opposing ideology, or at least a countering voice. Question is whether he would do something about it, or just go bah, humbug and not care as long as he can collect his pension or whatever.

As for Deku. I also haven't thought about him much. In my notes, he still does become the next OFA wielder; but he only gets a mention in a dumb joke scene in the so-called "Iida Arc" of this AU (UA sending Stain Arc Iida to Shigaraki Tomura cuz they actually notice the kid needs help).

All Might, dialing Shigaraki week before internship week: Hello—

Shigaraki: No. *hangs up*

All Might, an old man who doesn't text, calling again: To—

Shigaraki: Give him to Gran or Nighteye. *hangs up*

All Might, calling again, all in one breath: It's-not-about-Young-Midoriya. Please.

But I have thought about how All Might's change would affect Deku, who would be about age 10 when All Might's announces the gradual retirement (without revealing his skeletal form) and start highlighting reform efforts. An impressionable age, whether it's from what All Might is doing or (more importantly), what the adults around him say about what All Might is doing.

Idk about stalker mode; Deku would still be collecting All Might merch tho; but it would be funny if he becomes a young All Might Stan and Defender (or, gravitates towards that crowd on tigtog or something) and that informs his future views on Villains.

(Gotta wonder... what's Stain doing throughout all this. I know I mention Stain Arc earlier, and I do think Stain would still be a serial killer <3, but would he change his targeted victim profiles? hmm)

Will say that Shigaraki is not All Might's protégé, and def not acknowledged or connected as such publicly. He's just a Hero that popped up one day, independently. Someone combing through records might see that All Might is a stakeholder for the rehab center, but so is Nedzu and other Heroes and organizations and names. As for on a personal level, Toshinori keeps his relationship with Tomura as private as he does anything else, so the knowledge of him having a 'nephew' is as well known as him having that giant torso wound—which is to say, not known at all.

Thanks for the ask! It was fun!!!!!! I'm really happy you read my idea and thought about it!!!!!! Hope I actually answered your questions!

#i'll post part two soon enough #I WILL #it's just been busy and rough irl #everyone i see all your asks and replies!#i'll get to them #🙏🏼#thank you and sorry #nalslastworkingbraincell #AU #AU Idea #ask #answered #anon #anonymous

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shanastoryteller · 2 years ago

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Happy birthday Shana!!! I wish for a continuation of the Lady Mo story if you have any inspiration. Otherwise I would love any untamed promt!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

"Are you hurt?" Sizhui asks anxiously, jumping off his sword to tun towards Lady Xuanyu.

"Nah," she says, wincing as she stresses. "Well, nothing important."

"You're bleeding!" Jingyi shouts at a really unnecessary pitch. He unsheathes his sword and points it at Song Lan. "What did you do?"

"Stop that," she scolds, knocking his sword down. "Go get Xiao Xingchen and the girl. He's probably really confused right now."

Song Lan's expression clears and he bows to her before flying off.

His father jerks as if to go after him and Lady Xuanyu calls out, "Leave him be! He's doing what I said."

Lan Wangji hesitates, but nods and finally descends to join them. He towers over Lady Xuanyu, looking down at her with a fierce glare that makes Sizhui cringe even though it's not directed towards him. "What happened?"

"Found Xiao Xingchen, found Xue Yang, Song Lan killed him," she says, not even so much as lowering her eyes. "Xue Yang, not Xiao Xingchen, obviously. Wasn't this guy supposed to be killed during the war or something? It was a little before my time, so to speak."

"Song Lan is unharmed and you are not," his father says, lifting a hand to press it against the sluggishly bleeding wound in her shoulder.

Lady Xuanyu hisses at the contact but doesn't pull away. "He's a more experienced cultivator. Give me a couple hours and they'll be all closed up."

It used to take days for Lady Xuanyu's golden core to heal anything more complicated than a paper cut. She's strengthened it to the point that what would have been weeks of healing is reduced to just a day.

"He should have protected you," Sizhui says stubbornly. He'd rather she didn't have to heal at all. "Why did you run off with him anyway?"

"Had a hunch and figured I'd be back before you noticed," she says. Jingyi sputters. "Also, I don't need him to protect me, geez. He's a more experienced cultivator, but I still am one. I've gotten more hurt in training."

It's true, but Sizhui doesn't like that either. To harm ones body without cause is against the rules. Perhaps it's not entirely without cause, considering her rapid growth, but none of their teachers had ever beat them as badly as she demands the disciples beat her, and their cores had all turned out fine.

"What hunch did you have?" his father asks.

She winces and says, "Oh, you know, womanly intuition."

It's a lie and not even a very good one.

Lan Wangji's eyes narrow but they're interrupted by Song Lan returning with two people balanced precariously on his sword. Sizhui assumes the other man clad all in white must be Xiao Xingchen but doesn't know who the blind girl that looks to be about his age is.

"Xuanyu!" the girl calls out joyously, causing him to reevaluate his assessment of blind. She's being awfully familiar with his step mother. The girl leaps from the sword before it's fully on the ground and goes running towards them, shoulder pass Lan Wangji to body slam into Lady Xuanyu. "You're still alive, right? You said you would be!"

Lady Xuanyu laughs, closing her arms around the girl's shoulders. Her shoulder is bleeding again now that his father isn't keeping pressure on it. Cant the girl see that she's injured? "Yes, yes, I'm still alive. Excellent work keeping Xiao Xingchen out of the fray, A-Qing. I knew I could depend on you."

The girl - A-Qing, apparently - glows under the praise, beaming up at Lady Xuanyu, still with her arms around her waist.

What's her problem anyway?

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #otakuwithlife #untamed

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asukamood · 1 year ago

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In the Snow (Cold Front)

***

This fandom does not have enough fanfiction for what the game is worth so have this to try and make up for it.

This game was developed by @racheldrawsthis and it’s completely free, I highly recommend you try it out!

Link to the game

***

Warnings: Bullying??, minor violence

Ships: Romantic or Platonic Winnie x Augustine (Though considering they are still children; it would probably be better to see it as platonic.)

Synopsis: “Come on Winnie!” A young Augustine exclaimed as he tugged Winnie out of his front door by the sleeve. “It has not snowed in ages here; we have to enjoy it as much as we can!”

“I don’t want to!” The poor boy whined, resisting him as much as he could and holding onto the doorway like his life depended on it. “The others would not want to play with me!”

***

“Come on Winnie!” A young Augustine exclaimed as he tugged Winnie out of his front door by the sleeve. “It has not snowed in ages here; we have to enjoy it as much as we can!”

“I don’t want to!” The poor boy whined, resisting him as much as he could and holding onto the doorway like his life depended on it. “The others would not want to play with me!”

Augustine pouted at that, his eyes narrowing in a cute frown as he suddenly let the other boy go who, not expecting that, yelped as he ended up falling backwards. Thankfully though, any major incident was prevented as the culprit caught Winnie into a hug.

“How can you be so sure when you didn’t even try?” Augustine questioned, turning the other around before grabbing his cheeks and squishing them. “We talked about that yesterday you know!”

Winnie looked down, one of his hands on Augustine’s wrists. If he had any plan to push the other child away, it was soon abandoned as he stared at the ground, eyes filled with potential tears.

“I know...” He sniffled. “But I can’t help it, I don’t want to be alone, but I don’t want to impose either--”

“You won’t be, I’m telling you!” Augustine sighed as he let the other’s face alone. “But if you’re that scared, I guess we can try it another time. We can just spend some time together.”

Winnie looked up, bighting up. “Really? That doesn’t bother you? I mean, I wouldn’t want to prevent you from playing with your friends--”

Before he could go on any further, he jolted as he felt the other flick his forehead.

“I told you, if you want me to be your friend, you’re going to have to make me want to be your friend and so far, you haven’t had the opportunity to do that so today is the day!” He then pointed his finger toward Winnie. “You better put in your best effort because I only make friends with cool people!”

Winnie blinked his tears away, smiling as his traits adjusted to the determination burning in his soul. “I will do my best!” He exclaimed, earning a nod of approval from the other boy.

“Good good, that’s the spirit!” He grabbed one of Winnie’s gloved hands before pointing to the horizon. “Let’s go on an adventure then! We’re going to save and give the snowmen the land they rightfully deserve!”

Winnie titled his head to the side. “What does that mean though?”

“I have no clue!” Augustine proudly said, his free hand on his hip. “It sounded cool though, so I said it!”

“It did.” Winnie enthusiastically agreed, letting himself be dragged by the other to the nearest park.

As they walked, a few of Augustine’s friends waved at them to which he responded by waving back and having Winnie do so as well. A sigh of relief left the other boy as the other children did not seem to react badly to it, simply going back to their own activities with a smile.

The two of them arrived near a frozen lake, a giant tree hiding them from sight. Once they reached that spot, Augustine let go of Winnie’s hand and face planted into the snow, waving his arms and legs around to make a snow angel.

Winnie blinked, chuckling before joining him, the silhouettes of the angel seeming to merge with one another near their arm.

Winnie was the first to stand up again to admire their work, smiling brightly. “I’ve never done a snow angel before.” He admitted, the other boy, who was still on the ground, gasping from shock.

“You haven’t? You missed half of what is good in life then!” Augustine stood up as well, watching Winnie curiously.

“Well, where I’m from it never really snowed so...” He pat him on the back, before running off to another spot.

Winnie followed him, albeit a bit slower than him. “Does that mean you’ve never done a snowman as well?” Augustine asked, already gathering snow chunks for the construction of a new being.

Winnie shook his head, crouching next to him and watching what he was doing. “I’ve never made one.”

Augustine thought hard for a bit before speaking up again. “In that case, I’ll teach you! Better follow what I do well!”

Winnie saluted. “Sir, yes sir!”

The other boy tilted his head to the side, his confusion so clear it would be easy to imagine a question mark drawn next to his head.

“The people in the TV always do that.” Winnie explained sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “Was that weird?”

The two stared into each other’s eyes in silence for a solid three seconds before bursting out laughing together.

“Alright, no more joking around!” Augustine stated, still laughing in between his words. “We still have many people to make with the snow!”

“Sorry!” Winnie apologized, quickly getting into position.

***

“Augustine?” His mother’s voice suddenly reached his ears, interrupting the two children in their endeavour. “Where are you?”

“Oh no!” Said child whispered, face palming. “I totally forgot to tell Mom we were going to the park!” He turned to look at his companion. “Winnie, can you keep guard for me? I won’t take long, I promise!”

Said boy nodded, his hands still in the snow trying to make a good base. “You can count on me!”

“Thank you, I’ll be right back!” With that, Augustine ran off toward his mother to explain their disappearance, leaving Winnie with their snowman friends, not suspecting that anything would happen.

***

‘Wow, it took more time than I thought to calm Mom down!’ The boy thought to himself as he walked back behind the tree. Just as he was about to step in though, he suddenly stopped in his tracks as he heard a sob.

He ran there, worried in his tone as he passed the tree. “Winnie? Are you o--”

His eyebrows furrowed at the sight in front of him. Their snowmen were gone, most of their parts lying miserably on the ground and even their snow angels disappeared, their forms having been deformed because of being trampled. Footsteps covered them and were oriented toward the weeping Winnie in the middle of the snowmen graveyard, missing his winter outfit and left in his indoor clothes.

Having heard him, the other child turned in his direction and just cried harder upon seeing him.

“I’m sorry!” He cried out, burying his face in his hands. “I really tried to protect the snowmen; I really did! But--”

“Hey hey, calm down!” He crouched to his level, his hands in front of him to show he was not angry. “What happened? And where is your coat?”

Winnie sniffled, shaking. “These tall people came in and destroyed everything!” He made big gestures with his hands as if to show the other the difference in height between him and them. “And when I tried to stop them, they slapped me and took my clothes!” He wept as indignation passed through the other boy’s face.

He was about to insult them, most probably, but then he took notice of how red Winnie’s face looked and realized that he must have been freezing there. Just to make sure, he grabbed one of Winnie’s hands in his own and even through the fabric, he could feel how cold the limb was.

“You’re so cold!” He remarked, standing up and pulling the other on his two legs as well. “We have to go back inside before you get a cold!”

“But--” Winnie looked back at the snowmen carcass.

“No but, come on!” He took off one of his gloves and handed it to the other boy. “Here take this one!”

Winnie frowned. “But what about your other hand?”

“It’s fine,” he reassured, taking one of Winnie's freezing hands in his warm ones. “See?”

The boy finally nodded, slipping the glove on. They began walking toward the entrance of the park before they were stopped by the other children who noticed the unusual state of the newcomer.

“Augustine!” One of them called out, his eyes darting back and forth between said child and Winnie. “Why is your friend crying?”

With encouragement from him, Winnie started explaining what happened during Augustine’s absence, a small group of children forming around them.

“That’s horrible!” A girl exclaimed before unwrapping her scarf and handing it to him. “Here, you can have that for now! I have a hood anyway, I’ll be fine!”

“O-oh-” Winnie stuttered, taking it, and thanking her quietly. He looked surprised at how kind the other children were being to him right now. Turning to Augustine, he noticed the way the other looked at him as if saying ‘I told you they would like you.’

“Do you remember what the bad guys looked like?” One of the boys suddenly asked, gaining everyone’s attention.

“They were two.” He began, looking up at the sky. “One of them was really tall with orange hair and freckles on his face and the other had dark hair and brown glasses--”

“With a line across his cheek, right?” Said boy finished, Winnie looking up at him in surprise.

“Yes... how did you know?”

“My father told me about them.” He responded. “Apparently, they are in middle school and are well-known for causing trouble.”

“We can’t let them get away with this!” Augustine suddenly exclaimed, making Winnie jump in surprise. “Do you know where they could have gone?”

As the group all thought deeply, one girl suddenly pointed toward the entrance. “Look, they’re the bad guys, right?”

“Wow, it’s really them!” Another guy said. “We should get the adul--”

But he did not have the time to finish his sentence, Augustine already running toward them. Since they were holding hands, Winnie was brought along as well, their two silhouettes leaving the area as the other children sighed and ran in the opposite direction to get their parents.

***

“Hey you!” Augustine called out, pointing at the ginger person, who was holding Winnie’s bright blue coat in his hands. “Give Winnie his coat back!”

His friend scoffed at him. “You should go home kid; your parents must be so worried about you.” The other snickered, not paying any attention to the two children.

“Not until you give it back and apologize!” He stood firmly in place as Winnie’s face paled seeing the reaction of the two others at the last word. He attempted to drag him to safety but the other would not budge.

“Apologize?” The taller one repeated before laughing as he gripped the child by the collar. “Now listen here--”

“Put him down!” Winnie shouted, grabbing the attention of the other guy.

“Ah for fuck’s sake, do they not know how to shut up?” He groaned, walking menacingly toward Winnie.

The boy froze, looking around in panic. His eyes landed on Augustine who still looked as brave as ever despite being in a very disadvantageous position. He wanted to run away but that expression stopped him.

He was there because of him; it was not right for him to just run now!

He noticed a little rock by his feet and without thinking grabbed it, along with a ball of snow before chucking one at the middle schooler walking toward him and the other at the one holding Augustine captive.

The rock landed on the guy’s cheek, making him take a step back and reached the other in the eye, making him yelp in pain as he released both Augustine and Winnie’s coat.

“You’re gonna pay for that!” The one with the glasses yelled as he sprinted toward Winnie, fist raised. The child braced himself for the impact, raising his arms to protect himself but it was in vain as an adult voice came from behind.

“Stephen!” The teenager froze in shock. “How many times have I told you to stop bothering the other children?!” The woman yelled, freezing the two.

“But Mom-”

“No but!” She replied, grabbing both teenagers by the ear, and dragging them somewhere else to scold them. Their father stayed behind, reaching for Winnie’s coat, and handing it back to him.

“I’m sorry for my sons’ behavior.” He sighed, helping Augustine. “Were you two hurt?” They both shook their heads, making the man heave in a sigh of relief.

“Thank the stars, I’ll make sure this never happens again, you can count on me for that.” The two children nodded as the adult walked away toward his wife.

Winnie played with his fingers, feeling too guilty about putting Augustine in danger to look him in the eyes. “I...”

“That was so cool!” The other exclaimed, snapping the other into focus. Augustine had stars in his eyes as he shook the other child. “The way you just went peeew with the rock and snow was awesome!” He praised, rendering the other speechless.

He was finally released, the other grinning from ear to ear as he extended his fist toward him. “I’ve made my decision; I want to be your friend!”

Winnie’s eyes sparkled at that as he fist bumped him. “Thank you, Auggie!”

The other tilted his head. “Auggie?”

“Ah-” Winnie’s cheecks flushed in embarrassment. “I’m sorry I uh... that came out of nowhere!”

“It’s fine, it sounds cool! You can keep calling me that.” He shook his hand. “Happy to be your friend, Winnie.”

***

“Well, someone seems to be in a good mood!” Winnie’s mother remarked as she put the plate on the table. “What happened?”

“I made a friend.” The boy with a wide grin replied.

#cold front #cold front game #cold front winnie #cold front augustine #winnie bosko #augustine orlov #fanfic #fanfiction #this game is so underrated hello??#ngl I’ve been having ideas of writing the game events but through Winnie’s POV but school is kicking my ass as we speak #i hope no one has done this yet #I would be devastated #fluff #angst #ship?#ship? maybe #platonic or romantic

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splatoonpolls · 1 year ago

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SPLATOON OC TOURNEY ROUND 4 BATTLE 4

Talia Yareli by @gingergari vs Tami by @wyrm-in-a-closet

PROPAGANDA/BACKSTORY

TALIA

Talia (age 24 (~16 in splat1), pronouns he/her) is from Calamari County! Her family consists of her mother, her older sister Moselle (28, a firefighter) that she looks up to a lot, and her younger sister Ren (18). He originally moved to Inkopolis to make a living as a pro battler, which he did for a few years with his roommate turned girlfriend Peri, maining both Dynamos depending on the kits given. Then Grizzco opened for business, and it turned out that they paid pretty well all things considered, and that they were both *really* good at it. (They also thought it was fun for the most part) Since they were consistently hitting the upper ranks of Profreshional, when Grizzco expanded to the Splatlands the pair were invited to relocate as Eggsecutive VPs to help support the branch and to help train up some new recruits. That's how Victoria (Eggs) and Fiorello (Safety) ended up joining them :] Speaking of nicknames, Talia has the worst name memory in the world and has a lot of trouble remembering the names of people and occasionally objects, so he gives them a nickname she remembers a lot better. (Peri is a nickname! But sometimes Talia falls back on pet names until he remembers either her nickname or actual name) He is very worried that he comes across as rude for it (or anything in general) so tries to be as friendly as possible. He was the one that gave Safety the life preserver gear as a gift! Talia is a huge fan of Big Man (finds that he relates to him the most) and did cry when he lost the leader splatfest :( Also cried when he was homesick and tried to get her favorite dish, clam mochi, at a Splatlands restaurant which turned out as you would expect. His favorite splatband is Sashimori. Talia is friends with my Agent 3, but does not know the truth about Grizzco.

TAMI

An inkling born to ordinary parents who worked at Gone Fission power plant. However, a salmonid big run happened in the area, and because Grizzco didn't yet exist, it had to be abandoned, and Tami's parents were killed. Tami herself, who was also there, was badly injured and lost her right arm, was found by some salmonids, but because she was a young inkling the salmonids didn't know what she was and so instead of killing her took her home. She then spent almost her entire life growing up with the salmonids, and became a very skilled fighter, but also starting a band with a couple other salmonids. They make music that's like horrible to listen to and will overestimate you. Once she was 14, she joined the war on salmonids on the side of the salmonids. Over time Grizzco expands and poses a larger and larger threat to the salmonids, so Tami decides that she's going to go try and put a stop to it, because she's the only one who could make it to inkling civilation without being killed, although that doesn't change the fact she didn't know the language, culture, or anything. After spending several nights on the streets of splatsville, Tami is found by Tide, an octoling who's been living there for some time. Tide takes Tami under their wing, despite them knowing nothing about each other. Over the next few months Tide teachers Tami inkling language, has Tami participate in battles (where she fuckin rocks at it bc she's been literally trained for war), all while Tami searches for more info on Grizzco, but unfortunately nobody knows shit about it. Finally she happens across Cuttlefish and eventually falls into Alterna, where she has no idea what's going on until eventually wow Mr. Grizz is there. She fucking kills him and then just kinda leaves without really joining the squidbeak splatoon she just wanted to kill Mr grizz. Anyways then she and Tide probably go back to salmonid or something I haven't really figure this out. Sorry for the text wall

#splatoon oc tourney #splatoon 2 #splatoon #polls #splatoon polls #splatoon oc #fandom tournament #poll time #tumblr poll #tumblr tournament #tournament #character tournament #bracket tournament #tournament polls #character polls #poll tournament #round 4

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johannwolfgangvongoethe · 2 years ago

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Some Personal Thoughts on Disability in Enstars

disclaimer: disability is a very broad term that covers many different experiences. i will be talking about physical disabilities since i feel most comfortable doing so/have experience with them. obviously that ignores a Huge part of what disability and chronical illness is and can be. but i think it is beyond my capabilities to talk about experiences i don't know much about.

alt caption: i think ritsu is a good character and im trying to explain to myself why

this is sort of a long post, sorry.

content warnings: i talk about ableism and touch on related topics such as dehumanization and objectification and such below. individual parts of this post have their own cw's.

Enstars Writing, Beloathed

to get this out of the way; it is bad sometimes. this is discussed very often. it doesnt depend on the authors either, in my opinion, some writers will hit you with something really troublesome only to (seemingly accidentally) invent human emotion and compassion in a different story. i dont want to repeat what others have said eloquently but there is a fair amount of imperialist worldviews, xenophobia, just racism really, transphobia, ableism, and copaganda to be found in enstars. this isnt about x character being x thing, but about how it is very noticable when the author of a story holds these worldviews and they bleed into their stories.

so that is not the greatest foundation if youre looking for well-written disabilities. but i wouldnt be reading enstars if i didnt think it genuinely is really really good sometimes. in my opinion, the way disabilities are portrayed is a mixed bag overall but there are some extremely worthwhile bits that touched me quite a lot.

What I personally understand as Well-Written Disability

the way disabled people suffer often goes unnoticed, and disabled people dont have a platform to talk about oppression. a lot of life-changing issues can go unnoticed to those unnaffected by them, even if they are in broad daylight: underfounded or entirely lacking healthcare, the way many healthcare systems are marketbased and ethics are prone to suffer bc of this (even under 'welfare' capitalism), a lack of equal marriage, the inaccessibility of the most basic and necessary facilities, financing care and the dependency on family/loved ones (both a logistical and psychological problem), the huge stigma against disabled people, etc, etc, you get me....

we need to write about people who need care, to keep them in mind at all times. disabled people are not a minority in a mathematical sense but in a hierarchical sense. it is naive to think of them as "a substancial percentage" of populations. as we age, we inevitably all enter the stage of needing care at some point. SO to an extend, i want to claim its a topic that affects every single person. yet disabled people are rarely a central topic anywhere. it is not enough to acknowledge them, we need to plan and think with them in mind. and Write with them in mind, i guess.

SO when i see fiction grapple the topic, i am usually really happy, even if the portrayal isnt ideal. (critical, maybe, but generally speaking very happy) pointing out "badly" written disabled characters is obviously not as easy as calling someone out for uncritically saying "i think eugenics are a good idea!!!" through fiction. people with that sort of facist mindset exist of course but ableism does not end there.

if i were to single out things i see often: i think the most disappointing thing a story can do is to - mention a disability without it ever having an impact on people in the story (-> the disability is basically nonexistent, has no impact or relevance, outside of a theoretical mention) OR - uncritically use a disabled character as a mere plot devise, without granting them the ability to speak (-> dehumanization, a lack of understanding that disabled people are, well, People. they do shit.)

and then of course there is fetishization, both in a literal sense and in an inspiration porn sense and the problem of turning disability into a caricature for jokes (either to other disabled people for their behaviour/body or to create a sense of satisfying superiority by laughing at them) but i feel like those problems explain themselves.

to apply these to very basic examples: i think often something like a robotic sci-fi prosthetic is not a good way to represent a disability because it fails to represent what people go through irl and provides a "magic fix" without repercussions. here is a really good post about it. about the plot device issue... i think it is similar to what people often criticise as "manpain". a disabled person will never appear or speak, they are demoted to being the reason an able-bodied character acts a certain way, like a lifeless accessory. this doesnt always have to be bad, esp if its just a sideplot! but it can get tiring if the audience never gets to learn about other aspects of the unseen character in question and we are only introduced to their suffering.

all of this to talk about gacha idol boys. it is how it is. anyway, this is roughly my mental state when i tackle enstars.

disclaimer 2: i am really just a kogaP. this influences which characters i encounter when reading. there are tons of stories i just never looked at and there is SO MUCh lore i just dont know about. please lemme know if you have additions to stuff i say/understand a character better/have related story recommendations! tl;dr the sakuma bit will be long.

disclaimer 3: i genuinely adore every single character mentioned below and am always excited to learn smth new about them. if i criticize writing, that has nothing to do with that character or their fans. it is about the writers.

the most obvious example. Eichi (content warning for brief mentions of self harm and suicidal ideation)

everything eichi does, he does with the knowledge he will most likely die young. that is a truly dramatic setup.

but before i get back to that thought. it always felt to me like eichis illness(/es) lack a certain sense of conciseness? i do not think you need to put a name and diagnosis on it for it to be relatable and real to readers, tbh!! though to achieve believability, there needs to be a good amount of consistency. what i can recall off the top of my head is the following:

he breaks down/straight up blacks out frequently due to weakness and dizzyness

measures were taken to secure his safety in those situations (the infamous Eichi-kun Gauge as seen in Element)

his stamina is seriously low

he coughs a lot

we saw him cough up blood (Daydream)

he relies on long hospital stays because his health needs to be monitored and/or supported this closely

he stays inside a lot (hinting towards problems with his immune system?)

being healthy enough to eat unhealthy food is a big deal to him, so there are dietary restrictions/it was necessary to precisely control what he eats

his grandfather, who died recently, is considered an outlier for how long he lived (so it IS hereditary)

which..... could be a lot of things...? or, more likely: a culmination of many things at once. if you have headcanons on eichis health, please lemme know!

but in addition to eichis terminal illness, there is a second quality to him that separates him from most disabled people: he is extremely wealthy. and his wealth is fundamentally important to stories. usually illness and poverty go hand in hand, since income is tied to the ability to work, which worsens an already bad situation. no matter how limited eichis actions are because of his body, the possibilties offered by his wealth make him a central figure in every overarching plot. in addition to this, his family is well aware of his consitution and he is a patriarchal leading figure to them, the head to their coporate hierachy. eichi is free of the things that usually rid the chronically ill of their safety and power: society (he is an idol and popular) and money (he is the richest boy in japan). if youd ask me, i think that while being chronically ill is of course physically taxing, the worse problem is the economic state it puts you in. eichi simply overcomes this? yes, he is terminally ill, his situation is terrifying. but he has an extraordinary amount of control while he lives. more than a poor yet able-bodied person may have.

his unique circumstances enable him to be incredibly active. this is so fun to read about in my opinion. its a fascinating setup to me. without casting any sort of moral judgement on his actions and the antagonistic role he plays; he is, excuse me for my phrasing here, a disabled power fantasy. (at least to me)

this is a double-edged sword to him. because of who he is as a person (ambitious, cunning, ruthless, diligent)

he lives in relative safety but his strong ambition and financial ability to fulfill his dreams tempt him to go past his limits. because his remaining lifetime is uncertain, the need to preserve the body he is given seems uneconomical (a mindset his upbringing and education as an heir to his family would have enforced imo) he is bound to break down sooner or later anyway. i think he begins to see himself and his body as a tool to achieve his goals and neglects spending time on anything BUT working towards them. so the moment he runs out of goals (like at the end of Element), his reason to "remain" becomes futile.

it really struck with me how he appears in Blackbird - emaciated, pathetic, purposefully neglected because he chose to be neglected and weak in an act of self harm bc denying medical attention (something that couldnt have happened otherwise) wataru has to remind him that no one died and the obvious connection to make is that the eccentrics are physically unharmed and starting over, that they should not be a source of guilt to eichi. but i think this is just as much about eichi himself. he might have expected to die since he left the hospital and overexhausted himself at school and as an idol. he didnt die though. it was a real possibility and seemed likely but he didnt. the neglect and indirect self harm here point out, to me, that he saw the "role" he gave himself as fulfilled at that point and waited to die.

eichi stands over economic or social factors that could ostracize and dehumanize him but funnily enough he manages to do so himself by treating his body as a tool and his happiness as an option that got overshadowed by a need to succeed.

this vulnerability makes him, despite how vague the descriptions of his illness are and despite how unrelatable his wealth is, a very satisfying character imo. it is engaging to me. certain limits are removed for him but he created new ones, specifically because he did not see himself as something worth sustaining once he becomes useless. imo, eichi applied the idea that a lifes worth can be measured in its ability to function in an industry to himself. and spiralled over it, entirely inverting his uncanny amount of bodily autonomy. it is clear how the situation he is in worsens his mental health like that. and how his mental health in turn worsens his physical health. it is inseperable.

i cant really get into !! era eichi because i genuinely just dont... know enough. the fine tradition of having a weekly H-Day stands out, though. after all, eichi has new bigger ambitions and is, once again, inviting his own ruin through overexhaustion. so his friends (the new addition of having friends is essential) had to forcefully make him stop for at least one day a week. that is pretty big. i think.

this is true for many marginalized existences so it of course applies to disabled people: if neither your surroundings nor yourself permit you to feel human and therefore assign your person an inherent worth and lovability... sometimes you need a friend to do so!!! social circles are the best support structure for your health.

The Sakuma Family

(i will get into ritsu and rei seperately later on. there are just a few concepts i want to get out of the way that apply to both of them.)

so... to get a little theoretical; the concept of "disability" relies on the concept of a "normative" human existence. "disability" is an otherness and can therefore easily be seen as a "monstrocity" in the eyes of ignorant people, something that instils fear. (there is a reason why a lot of horror exploits disabled bodies as a source of terror and uses mental hospitals as settings) from an able-bodied point of view it seems "desirable" to be a "normative human", yet the disabled person knows that is not a possibility and knows their worth and place as a human in human spaces. at least ideally. able-bodied people sometimes lack this understanding. there is nothing to be desired about an able body or fixed about a disabled body, beyond what medical care can do for ones quality of life.

if you have read operetta, this is all very familiar;

operetta, chapter 17 and, well, here we are. vampires. a very basic truth about the sakuma family that i hate to see denied is that they are human. there is nothing supernatural about them. they are just disabled. or, to turn the idea around, if one was to assign them vampiristic traits and such... is vampirism not a disability and should be taken seriously as such? if you consider the limits a vampire has while coordinating through their life, is that not... strangely just a disabled experience? (MINUS THE KILLING PEOPLE OBVIOUSLY but much modern fiction is sympathetic towards vampires instead and does not display them as violent)

anyway, to hear it from the horses mouth (the horse is rei):

operetta, chapter 19 the sakuma family is a curious case. their condition is hereditary though the severity varies from person to person. it comes up in many stories but for the most part i am thinking about operetta, resurrection sunday, and devils right now. how did this all start? what made an entire family turn to live as vampires, with blood ceremonies and all that? what bizarre kind of generational trauma is this?

(and, while it does not play a role as important as it did for eichi, they are rich. this is important to mention. many normal experiences just dont apply to them because wealth makes them immune. ... how did the sakumas become this influential anyway.)

for an unspecified but long time, an entire family managed to mentally entirely seperate themselves from the rest of humanity because of their chronical illness. personally, i have no doubt this is the result of a world that othered them first. whether the main motivator at play here is a defensiveness towards a society that cannot understand you or an internal need to turn hardships into an identity that can be carried with pride. it takes a considerable amount of emotional strength and planning for the "hey we are human actually" declaration in operetta to occur.

they are, weirdly, what people mean when they talk about a "toxic anti-recovery mindset". (an expression i struggle with because this sort of rhetoric is often used to discriminate against disabled people who speak up for themselves or ask for accomodations. but that aside) it is an amount of pride that leads to internal self destruction.

of course, as is the case with every single character i write about in this post, a lot of it has to do with aesthetics and being chuuni to sell gacha cards. so we know the reason behind the reason. but it makes for some bizarre in-universe implications.

but in any case, the fact that their identity as false vampires is something they have always carried, that modern society sees as "mystical and sexy" has a hilarious side effect: their disability becomes marketable under the guise of vampirism. it is hard to recover from that.

so again, we have a double-edged sword: to present ones medical condition as a "persona" declares it as a performative act, something that is done to bring joy to an audience. personal detriment is not considered here, since it stops being a part of ones being and starts to become "work". the time and place of ones symptoms has to overlap with the time and place of ones performances. or people will hate you for your uncontrollable illness. however, rei and ritsu are both also able to carry their condition with a sort of playfulness. it is almost something like the act of "reclaiming" when they purposefully choose to larp a little for fun. usually, when a scene mentions their disability in the context of comic relief, they have control over the situation that unfolds and even initiate it and invite others to laugh alongside them. this can be a slippery slope to getting harrassed of course.... but i am rather baffled by the amount of dominance they have in social interactions. so it just reads as a healthy amount of dark humour to me.

this, and the consistent writing of their symptoms, and the ability to easily compare it to real existing illnesses, easly make them my favourite instance of written disabled people in the series. their illness has an impact on their behaviour and it is detrimental! and they are both very human in the way they attempt to cope. there is a certain realism to it. idek.

many people seem to headcanon them with myalgic encephalomyelitis, which is a really good explanation, and i personally want to suggest narcolepsy. the point being, there is room to accurately assign them a realistic relatable and understandable condition, even if nothing is ever named in canon. and of course they are mentioned to have an iron deficiency.

bear with this slightly "out there" theory for a moment: have you or a friend ever tried to get a compensation for your disadvantage at school or uni? it can be really hard to do, if it is possible at all, even if it is something very simple (more time, a slightly different enviroment, the ability to drink or sit, etc) yumenosaki is a school for performance arts, mainly idols. bold statement: it might genuinely be easier to get/explain an accommondation for your "idol quirk" (something that would be actively fostered), than for your disability. not that yumenosaki is very strict or asks for a lot anyway, its just something that has been on my mind.

here is another funny thing i have been thinking about: both of them crave juice, soda, and fruit - sugary yet fresh stuff. i feel like this is not uncommon for people who suffer from excessive tiredness and fatigue, the body subconsciously wishes for some sugar intake to "wake up".

Inventing a Guy to Cope. Rei

funny title aside... he... did that... ? rei is a curious example of how different mostly unrelated traumas can overlap. he had no childhood, thanks to his family that considered him "mature" at a very young age and his early status as a child star. and his bad health is a miserable addition to this. it is quite scary to image how pressured to do right he felt growing up and how that resulted in the fragmented distanced way he views himself; reinventable, and ultimately unknowable. (to others AND himself)

despite his bad health he has always been working and performing "well". he was praised for his remarkable talents but rarely had the chance to stop and patch himself up. whether this was a result of a pushy enviroment or his personality as a people pleaser who cannot show weakness and imperfection is hard to tell. maybe both.

the state he is in in Crossroad is fascinating to me. he all but directly lists the criteria of depression to keito when he attempts to explain his sorrows. he is restless, rowdy, mentions later on that he enrolled in yumenosaki against his familys wishes. he is very much searching for joy and his own identity in the middle of a health emergency. this has to do with the way he was raised, only knowing how to exist for and serve others, how he was made to sell a made-up version of himself, but i also believe it has to do with the fact he has started to exclude himself from his familys traditions and values. he started to cast away the uncertain "monstrosity" existence of his family (as well as the false idolhood others assigned him) and instead embraces humanity as a chronically ill person.

crossroad, i forgor which chapters

this of course marks a starting point of change that later results in him making up the wagahai pronouns persona - something he specifically created with the intention of looking vulnerable and weak. because he yearned to do less, to recover from years of exhaustion.

in a way, i want to say both, the ore pronouns persona and the wagahai pronouns persona, are attempts to cope with expectations he cannot handle physically or mentally. one relies on masking, on appearing stronger than he actually is and therefore invulnerable, and the other relies on exaggerating his weakness, in an attempt to finally let others recognize it. i think as a disabled person, both are performances one has to learn in order to "function" in everyday life, while remaining safe from serious harm (doing badly at ones job or classes, angering others that hold power over your life). since ones circumstances are often hard to grasp for someone who does not share the same illness, there is no choice but to simplify and exaggerate until symptoms become tangible concepts or to just brave through it, at the cost of ones health and future time.

rei in particular, for better or for worse, is incredibly capable when he needs to be and unfortunately that means others will often not take his health seriously because they saw him function just fine the other day. this is a general problem but an obvious offender in that regard is koga, who comments on reis fatigue constantly and loves to create a bit of a high expectations toxic work enviroment (and, to be fair, rei terrorizes him too. kogas hostility towards rei is sometimes ableist but not really rooted in ableism. after all koga is highly aware how performative the wagahai persona can be and is a huge motivational and inspirational factor in reis life. its a whole complex)

!! era holds some positive changes. his mental need to please other people remains a persistent source of trouble for him (and others) but he seems to really let his body recover and lives a more nocturnal life. both kuro and kaoru mention that he looks more healthy (in succession match???? i think??) since he finally stopped enforcing a normal day/night cycle on his body just to comply with social norms. you can indeed be very human even if you break human-made rules.

(additional comment: "becoming human" is of course a theme for each of the eccentrics and not uniquely tied to disability, it very much has to do with the objectification one goes through as a public figure. but this is a post about disability and it really fits in well. so here we go)

Literally Just a Realistic Teenager. Ritsu

ritsu, while not really being among my favourite characters, is my favourite instance of a disabled character in enstars. partly because of his writing and partly because my personal experiences overlap with his so much it sometimes is painful - but always extremely satisfying. just had to get that out.

ritsu is perhaps the most visibly ill. he blacks out and sleeps where he stands, everywhere, without control and often requires other peoples (well, mostly maos) assistance in order to remain safe when this happens. he also repeated a year of school, specifically because of his disability.

he is painfully aware of this. that he looks ill, that he behaves ill, that he is an underachiever compared to others of the same age, even to people younger than him.

ritsu developed unique behaviours to deal with this: he is very dependent and clingy and often asks others to do things for him, unapologetically. that does not mean asking for help doesnt hurt his pride, just that it is the most viable strategy for everyday survival that he ended up with. other than that, he clings more to the vampire identity than rei does. either to defy his older brother or, and this is important imo, because it is the one safety net he has to fall back on that makes him feel "normal" and like he is a regular being. albeit not human. no matter how much others might blame him for his shortcomings or how much he is a failure in the eyes of society, he is very regular for a "vampire". under the logic developed by his family, he is just a child, and the world at large is to blame. it is an easier truth to accept than facing systematic injustice and prejudice in a human world.

the stories i mentioned in another part above aside, i really love what ensemble band does for him; ritsu gets extremely irritated with mao in the prologue, seemingly out of nowhere. his character is allowed to express this sort of anger and to take it out on others, even if it is unjust and misguided. it is not pretty and it isnt good behaviour but it is a very heartfelt emotion to me.

its obvious that he cannot compete with others and that this will always been seen as his personal fault instead of a circumstance he cannot influence. and more than that: no one appreciates the real efforts he makes. for instance, getting himself out of bed in time for classes is difficult for regular teenagers and straight up hellish for ritsu. but he manages to do so a lot later on. instead of acknowledging that this is a real accomplishment on his part and possibly really exhausting and bad for his comfort in the long run, this is seen as doing the bare minimum.

while it is not correct, the malice ritsu sometimes treats others with comes from an comprehensible place. able-bodied ignorance can appear as purposeful slights made by those more privileged than him.

yet he learns to conform. his friends are important to him. knights success is important to him. (thought mental health probably played a role here too and made things even harder prior to his third year of high school) and yet;

seven bridge, chapter 24, but its really just an example i had at hand

the remarks stay the same. his peers still cannot help but brand him as "just lazy", even if they are kind and understanding otherwise and habour no ill intent. so i would like to ask: how long can he keep this up? how hard is this on him?

i dont think i need to explain just how common and hurtful it is to be accused of "laziness". probably the single most irritating comment someone with fatigue will hear every single day.

however, on the flipside, ritsu has perhaps the most people who care for him in comparison with other characters, though they sometimes complain (communication is hard, care is hard, everyone in enstars is very young and i cannot bring myself to see those comments as malice. its a mixture of ignorance and ones own burdens) there is mao, obviously. tsumugi is a very funny example. knights, of course, in particular naru. (at least based on my humble knights readings)

quite interesting how he just decided mao is his caretaker, now and in the future. i shared a few of my thoughts on caretaking here. this is.... a huge responsibility to just put on someones shoulders, to say the least. he shouldnt be doing this but i think it speaks for itself that this is a problem that is on his mind. ITS IS A REALLY IMPORTANT TOPIC TO BRING UP, especially since, the younger you are, the harder it is to get insurance to pay for your care. yes, he is often just teasing mao, but ritsu is looking for ways to get through life. by learning to be as independent as possible, whenever possible. though often you really just find yourself at the mercy of friends and family.

Inter-Sibling Violence

apologies, i will be done with the sakumas soon. i didnt know how to fit this in at the start.

the relationship between rei and ritsu, as people with the same disability who experiences different symptoms and challenges, is worth thinking about. infighting within people of the same disability is very common since experiences can be so different, there are no universal truths or opinions. with different lifestyles come different expectations for what is "normal" and sometimes pressure and social norms can cause someone to shift blame onto others who have no achieved the same things in life.

rei and ritsu are said to have been very close as small children and likely depended on each other a lot. i can see how reis fostering nature and ritsus needy nature developed alongside each other and enforced each other.

time and time again, rei says that he is a "less severe" case, that ritsu has it worse. he jets around the world because he feels forced to do so, when ritsu just wanted emotional support from him to begin with. ritsu stayed alone at home, sheltered and likely caged by their families convictions. but! i want to suggest the following: as much as it hurt him, it was important for reis health to be away from his family, too. i dont think staying there would have been good for him. his absence and the experiences he made away from home were an important catalyst for the positive family development we see in operetta.

of course, rei means well. he cares. he is trying to have a positive impact. yet from ritsus point of view, all of this must feel terribly condescending, especially with how much rei babies him. there is just one year between them. this is barely anything when it comes to sibling inferiority complexes the brain can make up. rei, who is successful and famous and beloved and, most importantly, proclaims to have it "easier than him", is trying to find a cure for him. from ritsus point of view this must be unbearable. their lives are so different when they basically started at the very same point of origin.

more than that, rei shoulders the sketchy blood rituals himself, out of love of course, but if one was more jaded, one could assume he doesnt think ritsu would be able to stomach the responsibility.

you will always compare yourself to your siblings in unhealthy ways but ritsu is just doing this on hard mode, i fear.

HHHRAGAHHHH GHHH ghgghrhgh. Niki

nikis writing is... driving me up a wall sometimes, to say the least. dont get me wrong, i love him. to an extend i understand that his single-mindedness and shallowless has purpose to it. in fact, i adore these character traits. he really seems to be behind four mental barriers at all times, unable to let deeper thoughts touch him, lest they make him succumb to despair. (yet nikis specific flavour of menhera cannot quite shine since... well, he has to stand next to himeru all the time)

the descriptions we get of nikis illness are nonsensical, at least to my knowledge. you could imagine he has something like hyperthyroidism. this never really gets explored though. at some point ENGstars mentions he has "gastroptosis or whatever" (the "or whatever" is part of his dialogue - niki really doesnt give a fuck), which makes no sense at all. weirdly enough, it would even be strangely in character if this was just a misconception.

so, can anyone take niki to a doctor? has this happened and i just wasnt there for it? there is no excuse why no one is considering medical care when it comes to him. except that he often is the butt monkey of jokes the writers want to make and has to stay available for it. more than that; his parents just left him alone like this? as a child? did he get an allowance at least? this cannot be legal, right? i wait for the day this comes up as a topic but i fear it is in vain. (please tell me if it actually did. i dont follow niki that closely) this is an unbelievable thing to do to a healthy child, yet alone one with a severe illness. we are basically looking at denial of assistance.

so many things surrounding nikis story are designed to make him as miserable as possible. i cannot help but feel that he exists purely as comic relief, for funny bickering, and superficial drama. i dont really like that at all, his misery just gets exploited.

EVEN SO... his self-image is actually really fascinating. as rinne likes to point out again and again, niki has no self-worth. he works two jobs, one of which he hates, he constantly gets into dangerous situations, and he will do anything just for some crumbs, and quickly forgets when others treat him badly. and of course, the worst bit:

es!! main story, please dont make me go find it

to some degree, he just accepts this as something he deserves. there is no consideration for his own quality of life, somewhere along the lines it seems like he got conviced just surviving is all he gets. he internalized self-degredation to a dangerous degree and i never see anyone mention this mental affliction specifically as a comorbidity of his disability. to me, there is without a doubt a relation here. sure, maybe he would still fight with this otherwise, just because he had to witness his fathers fall from grace as a child and knows there is a stigma attached to his name now. but i think you can tell it is more than that, from the way he is ashamed to beg (even in a life or death scenario, as seen in hot limit), as if his condition was his own fault.

this circles back to the point i made earlier for eichi; how much nikis life is worth, is measured in his economical value.

of the characters i have spoken of so far, nikis is financially the most accurate to real life. there is no safety net for him, no convenient family wealth.

(at this point it feels important to mention that somehow rinne manages to be the only person entirely aware of the danger and desires to change nikis mindset, YET he is a huge strain on nikis health. i dont know how those two function.)

Just a Lamb. Tatsumi

tatsumis specific trauma is a unique one: while most other characters struggle with conditions they were born with or developed as they grew up, tatsumis injury is the result of strain and violence. those are two different pairs of shoes, though the outcome may be similar. whether it is worse to be born into circumstances you cannot escape or to have to live with having something thrust upon you unfairly is up to personal judgement. pain is not really quantifiable. its just important to keep in mind, i think. under the circumstances tatsumi grew up in, he has his own burdens. it is very easy in many ways to compare and contrast him with eichi. of course this applies to how they used their bodies too: as an expandable resource. they had ideals for their school life (and beyond) that just seemed far more important and they both ended up in hospital because of this. (+ we know tatsumis surroundings were purposefully manipulated to destroy him)

and, of course, tatsumi got attacked later on. he never really talks about it directly but his legs seem to talk for him, in ways.

the story does not quite make it clear whether his occasional weakness and pain are the result of old injuries or entirely psychosomantic, and i dont think there is a real need to know, as a reader. in fact, in a certain light, i think it can be considered good that we dont know for certain: it would be relevant for tatsumi himself, sure, since it would influence which kinds of treatments and help he can seek out. however, i think the ambiguity may foster a certain level of sympathy in readers.

often psychosomatic problems are not taken seriously enough in real life: they cannot be proven physically and they dont fit into the neat little boxes that the ICD wants you to believe exist, so they cannot be defined on paper or easily explained to doctors or insurance providers.

to foster empathy with his situation requires his character to be lovable and for the narrative to treat him with care as well. which is thankfully the case. alkaloid are dear with him and, despite the fact he cannot perform in his work enviroment all the time, he is very respected for his other skills. he is a well-rounded person.

all that aside. it is absolutely worth to mention tatsumi pre-injury, too. he came up with a form of small-scale universal income among a semi-union at school. without getting too much into all that. (obbligato really seems like required lecture in the realm of enstars stories) the entire concept strives for social equality and is extremely anti-discrimination. it fundamentally goes against the idea that someone needs to "deserve" care, and is the opposite of the mindset i described with eichi and niki above. he never had to make first-hand experiences with disability to be extremely compassionate. this seems really rare among people in real life, even those who preach altruism.

While we are Here. K.... Kaname

as mentioned, i spoke a little about kaname before. so i wont get into the complex of caregiving.

it is extremely satisfying we got to meet kaname, if only for one event story. he does not have to remain a faceless motivation behind himeru and tatsumis lives, he thankfully became humanized.

the entire conflict around kaname at the moment is a matter of bodily autonomy. how much of your person can be in anothers hand, ethically? there is no excuse for the theft of his (idol) identity through himeru but the damage is done now. ideally, you dont want any part of yourself to depend on others but the disabled reality is that this is very often impossible. especially for kaname. there simply is no one else who could be responsible for him right now and, to be fair, at least when it comes to medical care, himeru seems to behave very responsibly.

repeating what has been said in the other post but i am worried for kanames seemingly inevitable reintroduction to the story. he has been in a comatose state for a year. if he wakes (since this is fiction, it is possible to exchange 'if' for 'when', realistically it really would be an 'if' though) he would most likely be confronted with permanent neurological and physical damage and years of rehabilitation. at least logically. (not to mention the psychological shock) would this be written with compassion and a sense of realism? it makes for a compelling source of conflict and emotional hardships that could be extremely worthwhile to explore. i just cant entirely bring myself to trust the writers with this one but i would love to be convinced otherwise.

that is, of course, if they dont somehow just skip rehabilitation entirely and declare it a miracle healing.....

imo, the in-game discourse between characters is just as important as his future development. i just really hope autonomy and recovery will be large topics.

He doesnt go here, but. Adonis

so bringing him up just really feels necessary within the context of this post because of his interests. one of adonis hobbies is sign language and accessibility.

this is, i think, maybe the best thing they ever did with his "protector" persona. it just fits so well, it is a direct conversion of ideals to actions. knowing undead songs have been translated for a deaf audience in canon is extremely wholesome and uplifting, even if it is entirely inconsequential for the story and just something that gets mentioned.

(now that sandstorm is out on engstars, you can check that out too for further mentions of this! if i could wish for one thing, it would be for the stories to acknowledge that there are tons of independent sign languages and i would love to know which one adonis and rei speak... you ever think about how adonis speaks like four languages fluently. at least.)

nightless city live, chapter 3

everyone in undead loved that and supported the vision. to see koga, who is usually against anything but musical performances and wishes to express art freely, praise the idea really puts deaf identity and accessibility in a great light. it is a very positively radical forwardthinking idea.

so, i just wanted to mention that. adonis is treated horribly by the narrative a lot, it entirely fails to grasp his identity and is insensitive towards foreign cultures, but i would die for him i think.

finishing thoughts

like mentioned, please absolutely let me know if you have different related ideas or recommendations. or corrections, or worries over something i wrote!!! learning and improving is always great. i am sorry i could not get into so many other characters, the ones i wrote about are those that i feel confident enough to comment on. in the future i would love to meet maguro!! i just havent really read any mama stories at all :'''3

i feel like i barely said anything at all and barely engaged with text enough since i didnt get into any character specifically. i would love to write another post about ritsu or rei or both. a draft for it has been sitting around for ages (as did the draft for this post, lol) but i hope someone will find an interesting thought in here somewhere.

all in all, enstars is actually... surprisingly nice to read for the disability in there??? even if it is disappointing in handling many other things. of course, the writings not always ideal (i read hidden beast just the other day and the ableism in there took years off my life) but often its really nice. nothing hits quite like seeing real emotions and experiences through some metaphorical stylized anime lense, you feel.

anyway thank you for listening. i am actually for real done now.

#enstars #ensemble stars #enstarsposting #did i overreact and write too much..... ah... nay......

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practically-an-x-man · 4 days ago

Note

Random Ask (that should be a TST maybe but WHEE)

What would your magical/Meta/etc OCs do (AKA Not Quinn?) if suddenly they were typically normal and powerless? Would they have a hard time adjusting, or worse, would they die?

Ooooh, thank you!

Rae: I kinda wrote about this in my fic Tear Us Apart, in which she and Warren both have their mutations stripped, but it would be a tough adjustment for her. She got her mutation late, so it's not inexorably bound with her self-identity the way it is for other mutants, but she still associates it with a lot of impactful moments in her life - it connects her to her family, and the history of mutants there, and it's what kept Warren from dying back in Cairo. Physically she'd manage to adjust, since she's used to living a non-powered life; emotionally it would be more difficult.

Robin: She'd have a hard time adjusting. It's been a long time since she's lived without her mutation, and she does use it as an aid frequently in her day-to-day life. It would be like suddenly taking away a Cochlear implant - she's Deaf with or without it, but she's had that aid for years and it would be an adjustment to suddenly take that away.

Madison: She'd actually fare reasonably well, at least at first. She's grown comfortable with her mutation, and certainly appreciates having it, but there are a lot of social factors that make it difficult for her all the same. She'd be grateful for the chance to go out in public and not be judged or eyed, though in the long run she'd end up missing her mutation a lot more than she realizes.

Gia: Depends on how we look at this. If we view as her connection with the clover being severed... that's her life force, she's probably dead. But if we view it as her life force being properly returned to her body and no longer being bound to the clover, she's suddenly free of a burden she's carried for a long time. As long as it's the latter of the two options, she probably fares the best out of everyone.

Jasper: They've effectively just lost one of their senses, and that's a HELL of an adjustment. There's even a difference between Jasper and Robin here: Robin uses her mutation as an aid but has never fully been able to hear, while Jasper has always had their empathic sense and now this would be taken away. It would be like suddenly going blind or deaf: a lot of grieving, a lot of adjustment, maybe you're briefly grateful not to wince on a bright summer day or flinch at a foghorn, but the difficulty of adjusting to losing a sense outweighs the brief benefit of no longer having that sensory overload.

Katherine: Assuming it's just Katherine who's lost her magic, she's not doing too badly! The magic is meaningful to her, yes, she's had some incredibly experiences, but it's still a newer-onset thing for her. She'd really be fine, for the most part. But if magic as a whole no longer exists, that's a lot harder on her: no more Ahk, no more friends at the museum, a whole side of her heart has just been shut down and that's devastating.

Kestrel: They wouldn't even know what to do with themself. Their entire life and identity is inexorably bound with them being a magical being, for better or worse. As much as being a changeling means that they fight to maintain their identity, being a changeling is also a key part of that identity. They might be more "secure" without their magical nature in play, but they wouldn't quite be the same Kestrel either.

Eris: It's possible that they'd just turn to dust, since they've been alive for over a thousand years and have survived entirely too many things that should have killed them. Even if this is a blank-slate sort of thing, and they just begin aging from the moment they lose their powers, he'd... probably still end up dead, just because he's spent literal centuries being able to brush off injuries and now can't comprehend how careful she needs to be. She'd go into battle, get stabbed or shot, brush it aside because muscle memory tells her she can heal from it, and end up bleeding out before she can correct her mistake.

Nikoletta: She's fantastic. She's no longer perpetually cold, no longer afraid of spreading shadows, no longer dealing with the existential dread of being permanently changed by STAR Labs (okay, that one might not go away as easily, but it's still lessened a bit). Honestly, she can live without being able to jump into the shadows. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

Vivienne: Hm... similar to Eris in a way, in the sense that she technically drowned before being made a siren and being stripped of that magic might just kill her, but assuming it would survive... that's a tricky adjustment. At first it would seem to bounce back quickly enough, and would switch from following the Demeter to acting as another crewmember alongside her husband, but being a siren also gave her a sense of strength and purpose, and it's hard not to fall back into old habits without that to bolster her. Wojchek is nothing like her first husband, but potential threats all seem a lot more real when you aren't a near-immortal sea beast.

(No Ophelia bc she doesn't have actual powers, just inventions; no Jimmy because if ghosts didn't exist he'd just be dead; no Spider because he lived a normal life until/without the alien apocalypse; no Terra and Pluto because their lives would also be fairly normal without the various trappings of Arcane)

#my friends!!!#answered asks #witchy-self-shipper #my ocs #rae mckinney #robin cassidy #madison douglas #gia pantazis #jasper wilson #oc kestrel #oc katherine johnson #oc eris #nikoletta bordeaux #oc vivienne

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uboat53 · 10 months ago

Text

Well, I've been writing this up piecemeal but this seems like a good time to pause and do a LONG RANT (TM) about what's been dominating political news lately.

INTRODUCTION

For those who aren't aware, the president had a bad debate. At the first debate he sounded confused and disconnected as opposed to his opponent who confidently spouted a torrent of lies without hesitation. Since that event, multiple people have come out with stories about him appearing confused, aloof, or otherwise stiff at other events. All of this has fed into the existing narrative, which has been pushed by conservatives and conservative media for years, that the president has suffered age-related mental decline and is no longer capable.

All of this has led to a predictable media frenzy and several large outlets, Democratic elected officials, and major donors have called on the president to withdraw from the race in favor of some other candidate. Given all of this, I thought I'd look at a few things. First, how I view the allegations of mental decline so far, what this means for the presidential race, and what I think of the general coverage of all of it so far.

AGE-RELATED DECLINE

Ever since Obama, we've had a bunch of old people as our major party nominees for president. Clinton was 69 on election day 2016, Trump was 70 then and is 78 now, and Biden is 81. At that sort of advanced age it's not unusual to have experienced some sort of age-related decline and it's very common for it to occur sometime in the next 4 to 8 years.

Those of us who have had older relatives go through it knows what it looks like. They confuse names, dates, and places, they have trouble putting thoughts in order, and, depending on their personality, they either retreat from conversation to avoid showing that they don't know things or they confidently spout wrong information. It's very interesting because, to a casual observer, they can still seem together, but if you scratch the surface a bit you find holes in everything very quickly.

So what can we say about Biden thus far? Well, he certainly seemed off balance and confused in the debate and there are anecdotal stories coming out about people who claim to have seen similar things at other events over the last several months. Biden's answer for his confusion at the debate is that he was jet lagged from a recent international trip and at least one of those other events that people have been telling stories about seems to have come after a major international trip as well, so it's possible that he just handles jet lag very badly. Of course, he's been doing a lot of international travel, repairing the damage that the Trump years did to our alliances, so that could just be a good way to hide it.

That said, I know people who consistently get really bad jet lag. Heck, I've been the guy with really bad jet lag before. Biden is also known for his speech issues, the "Uncle Joe" reputation where he says crazy things exists for a reason. They even made a short film about it in the Obama years (if you haven't watched "The President's Speech", go find it on YouTube and thank me later). Age-related decline is exactly that, decline over time, and I can't say that the current Joe Biden that I've seen not just in the debate and his recent press conference, but also in recent interviews and the numerous campaign appearances over the last several weeks seems all that different from the guy we saw in 2020, 2008, or any of the other times we've seen him in his long career in politics.

I'm certainly willing to hear more from people who interact with him more than I do, but no one seems to have anything other than pretty vague anecdotes at this point and, other than the debate, I haven't actually seen the issues. As far as I can tell, he's still weird, but in the same way he's always been rather than for some age-related reason.

THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE

To me, the age question is only relevant as it relates to the presidential race. Full disclosure: I'll vote for a corpse over Donald Trump because at least the corpse won't spend 4 years trying to take away the civil liberties of Americans while also making it easier for corporations and rich people to gouge and kill them and running up the national debt to funnel money to his cronies. In other words, I would very much like a Democrat to win and I'd support switching candidates to another one with a better chance even if Biden had no age-related issues at all.

So what DOES the data we have so far tell us? Well, we're far enough out from the debate and the wall-to-wall coverage of Biden's age that it's been factored into the polling and… it's not much. Trump got a bit of a bump and Biden got a bit of a dip after the debate, but they each moved only about 1 percent in the polls and it's already plateauing. For reference, Clinton rose 4 points after the first 2016 debate and Trump fell 3 points after the second. In other words, Biden's bad debate performance didn't move the needle much.

The polling data also doesn't seem to show anyone else doing better than Biden either. Biden is currently losing 47.5/44.5 to Trump, but Harris is down 48/46, Newsom is down 46.5/43, and Whitmer is down 46/42. And that's before any of the alternatives have been on the receiving end of focused Republican attacks. Moreover, if we look at FiveThirtyEight's election model, which has a fairly good track record, Biden's odds of winning have actually improved slightly over the last few weeks. (I should note that the race is still a dead heat, that slight improvement has still kept the race well within the margin of error but moved it from a tiny Trump lead to a tiny Biden lead.)

In other words, it's not clear to me that switching candidates would make it more likely that the Democrat defeats Trump. Don't get me wrong, I'm not at all happy with a dead heat, I'd much prefer Trump be down by a landslide, but that doesn't seem to be about Biden specifically given that every plausible Democrat is behind Trump by a similar margin. Given that Biden has the advantage of incumbency, already has a national campaign built up, and has already suffered the full force of the conservative attack machine, I don't see a good case for switching to someone who wouldn't have that unless they have some other big advantage.

THE COVERAGE

To me there's a few angles I see in the way this story has been covered. First I'll take a look at the actual calls to withdraw, then I'll look at how it's been covered in the broader political media, and finally I'll take a look at the comparison to 2016 which… yeah, that's a thing now.

THE CALLS TO WITHDRAW

I'll admit, the calls for Biden to withdraw have been… vague, at least to my reading of them. They often reference the debate and the coverage since and some include a personal anecdote, but none of them seem to be heavy on specifics. I haven't seen, for example, a strong case made that Biden withdrawing would make it more likely that Trump is defeated, for example (see above).

More to the point, I feel like a lot of the calls to withdraw are about getting attention as much as they are about anything else. Don't get me wrong, George Clooney can probably whip up a media storm anytime he wants, but can any of you who don't live in Austin claim you'd heard of Rep. Lloyd Doggett before? How about Rep. Earl Blumenauer or Sen. Peter Welch? If you don't live in Oregon or Vermont, respectively, they're probably not names you've heard before. But, by calling for Biden to withdraw, they've ensured a good deal of national attention for themselves.

It's also the case that many (though certainly not all) of the representatives calling for Biden to withdraw represent swing districts. Even if Biden wins, any slight weakening of support could imperil their own re-election chances. I further note that several of the calls for withdrawal are clearly timed for political effect; Rep. Jim Hines released his statement immediately after Biden's press conference finished; far too quickly for the press conference itself to have factored seriously into his decision but timed perfectly to get the headline of "another Democrat calls on Biden to withdraw even after the press conference".

Now, I'm not accusing every Democrat who has called for Biden to withdraw of doing so for self-interested reasons, I'm sure a good many of them are sincere, but this is politics and our system is designed around self-interest; I'd be a fool if I didn't at least look for it.

It's also the case that those calling for withdrawal at this point represent a small minority of the party, 19 of the 213 Representatives and 50 Senators. So far it seems as if the majority of Democrats are, if not enthusiastic about Biden, content to have him stay as the nominee.

THE BROADER MEDIA

Now I've written some posts in detail about the failures I've seen in the political media and I'll let you read those if you're interested in that. What I do want to say in this spot here is that it very much seems as if the political media isn't holding to a neutral standard in this race, but is actively campaigning for specific results. Compare the wall-to-wall coverage you've seen over the last weeks to the polling numbers and data and it seems as if this story carries far more relevance to the political class than it does to the broader population of voters.

It also hasn't escaped me that major media outlets, The New York Times, for example, didn't wait for other people's reactions, but came out in favor of Biden's withdrawal from the race long before any fundraisers, elected representatives, or even polls had come out. If the editorial board of an outlet is the first to call for a political outcome, then it raises reasonable questions whether the outlet itself is actually reporting neutrally on that topic.

All of that brings me to…

THE LESSONS OF 2016

Just about everyone agrees that the media coverage of the 2016 election was one of the worst examples of journalistic behavior in recent memory; even most of the journalists themselves admit that. Journalists chased stories about Hillary Clinton that went nowhere for weeks, printing story after story about her e-mail server, her health, and numerous other topics that were gleefully ginned up by right-wing media and completely ignoring similarly damaging stories about Trump.

In addition, the media was caught off guard by how wildly and constantly Trump was willing to tell and repeat complete lies with forceful confidence and did not react with any form of reasonable fact-checking, but allowed the lies to be repeated over and over again to their audience until it was hard to tell truth from fiction.

Over the four years of the Trump presidency, the media got better. It started looking more skeptically at stories that originated in the fever swamps of right-wing media and only reported the ones that actually met journalistic standards of evidence, they started fact-checking more aggressively and regularly, and they started paying attention to all candidates, not just the one that people assumed would win. That got us through the 2020 election.

Since then, though, a lot of the insightful, capable journalists who led the way in setting that new standard have departed major outlets which have added more MAGA friendly voices to the more sensationalist journalists who remain. Many major outlets have also shifted in ownership toward wealthy individuals who prefer the FOX News brand of journalism.

In other words, the lessons of 2016 have largely been forgotten in much of the media today. Live fact checking has pretty much disappeared, journalists seem to dog-pile on popular stories instead of chasing real investigations, and ideas from right-wing media are leaking into the mainstream regardless of the quality of their reporting.

If you don't believe me that things are repeating, here is a sampling of stories from major news outlets that came after Clinton had a bout of pneumonia that led to her falling ill at a 9/11 commemoration ceremony. Tell me they don't feel at least a little bit familiar:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/09/11/hillary-clintons-health-just-became-a-real-issue-in-the-presidential-campaign/

She's fine by the way, her health and mental acuity have easily lasted the 8 years that she could have been in office.

WANT TO CONVINCE ME THAT BIDEN SHOULD WITHDRAW?

Simple, show me that someone else has a better chance of winning. Does someone consistently poll significantly better than him? Can you show some evidence that he has actually declined due to his age in a way that would affect his ability to win the election? Is there some other reason why another candidate could do better than Biden against Trump? I'm all ears!

The problem in my view is that those calling for Biden to withdraw have largely failed to articulate all of these things and, as much as I hate the fact that Trump has a good chance of winning this election, I don't see an option that leads to a better outcome at this point. If I can be convinced that there is a better option, then that's something I can go with.

CONCLUSION

I'm not convinced, based on the evidence so far, that Biden has any significant age-related decline as opposed to having the same issues he's always had, I'm very unconvinced, again, based on the evidence so far, that there is any better option to defeat Trump in the upcoming election, and it certainly feels as if many of the calls for Biden to withdraw have a strong self-serving element to them and result from the political media repeating a lot of the admitted mistakes of 2016.

I could certainly be convinced that Biden should withdraw for the good of the country, but I think I've put forward reasonable evidence for remaining unconvinced. Am I missing something? Let me know what you think.

#politics #us politics #biden #2024 elections #long rant (tm)

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