#this post is probably incomprehensible to either fandom who doesn't know who these characters are and i think that's very funny

[steakout-05]

Barry, Craig and Brains as a trio would literally be just like Kirk, Spock and Bones. like. that is them. that is literally them. no i am not elaborating further

[picaroroboto]

For the past couple days, I've been unfortunately cursed with thinking about Zenos yae Galvus. I don't even particularly like him - not that I dislike him either, Zenosfuckers you can put your scythes down - but it seems to me like a lot of the fandom either greatly misunderstands him, or doesn't even care to try to understand him, which from an objective standpoint as someone who cares deeply about writing in video games kind of pisses me off. But I'm more pissed about the fact that I'm apparently going to keep thinking about this issue until I actually write a character analysis of him.

Q: "But, what even is there to analyze with him? Isn't he all about wanting to fight the WoL and nothing else?"

Well, you wouldn't be wrong with saying that. That motivation is at the forefront of his character, and even if you look closer, everything about him comes back to either "violence" or "lack of understanding of others". But there are more meaningful sides to his deceptively simple character. That question of meaning is what I really want to look into - what does his character mean, what symbolic or thematic role does he play in this story?

Q: "Better question: why are you posting this on your art blog/Fate meta sideblog?"

Good question, with a stupid answer: I have all of 6 followers on my FF14 sideblog, and around 150 here. Let's go under the cut so they don't have to read a wall of text, unless they want to.

When you look at and compare FF14's villains, you can see a very clear change, no doubts thanks to the change in main writers. ARR Gaius and Thordan are more or less two-bit villains - Gaius's memeable iconic Praetorium speech gives us insight into how fascists try to justify themselves but little into Gaius's actual personality, while all Thordan gets as far as depth of character is an NPC in a sidequest remarking that he wasn't always a bad person and was probably doing what he thought best for his nation. Nidhogg is a little more understandable, since revenge is a relatable motivation to anyone who's been hurt by others. In Stormblood, Zenos and Yotsuyu are both presented as deserving of pity even as they do terrible things. Come Shadowbringers and Endwalker though, the story takes a greater interest on why villains like Emet-Selch and Elidibus do the things they do, and the player is allowed more options to try to understand them and see how similar they are to the WoL. Hell, Hermes and the Endsinger are barely "villains" at all, with the level of sympathy the story shows them.

What I'm getting to here is that Zenos, with half his arc in Stormblood and the rest in Endwalker, is sort of caught in the middle of this shift. He played the role of the rival character in Stormblood really well, but come Endwalker, he's standing on a stage full of heroes and villains with grand causes and deep motivations, as the guy whose sole motivation is fighting for pleasure.

It seems he's not unaware of this contrast himself - when Jullus confronts him for ruining Garlemald for no good reason, he retorts with "Would you be happier had I a good reason?" Zenos makes no attempt to justify his own actions and doesn't care that his reason seems incomprehensible and unforgivable to others. Yet in that same cutscene Alisaie hits him with the fact that if he keeps living solely for pleasure, he'll die alone. When next we see Zenos, he's alone at the Royal Menagerie waxing philosophical about what he really sought in the battle with the WoL.

See, what really motivates Zenos isn't just the thrill of battle - this guy has gotten Battle High and the joy of human connection confused. Really.

Even before he gets so perturbed by the idea of dying alone, there's other suggestions, like his proposal of friendship to the WoL when they fought in Stormblood, and then later his dying words in which he explains that he never understood others - at his core, he's just lonely. I know there's an official side story that tells it, but you don't need to know the exact details to glean that he had some sort of tragic backstory. Sad, but not a surprise, considering he's the prince of the Garlean Empire, raised to take the throne and continue the Empire's legacy of violence.

At his core, he's a very lonely person, but also a thing of violence, raised using violent methods for the purpose of causing more violence. Violence is how he lives and breathes - the only way he gets any sort of connection with others in a world of hurting and being hurt is the brief connection warriors dueling as equals can sometimes find. Don't deny that this sort of connection exists - FF14 is great at making fights that are both fun and tell a story. Hence, why he goes crazy for the WoL, but also refers to them as "friend". In their fights, he senses (or thinks he senses) similarity between him and them. Beneath all the madness is a pure, genuine joy in seeing the self reflected in the other...but he also instantly gets on the train to projection-town, population Zenos, and assumes the WoL is exactly like him, ignoring or failing to notice that they also fight for deeper meanings. The worst part is, he doesn't even notice that what he's actually seeking in fighting them is connection until Alisaie's aforementioned callout.

So he goes and angsts for a while, then turns into a dragon again and flies across the universe to help us kick the Endsinger's tail feathers, then issues his challenge for that duel he'd been longing for. But what's changed is that he starts with a question - "Such pleasures you sought for their own sake, and for no other reason, is that not so?". Dying after the duel, he's full of questions too: "Was your life a gift or a burden? Did you find fulfillment?" Alisaie's suggestion that he'd die alone actually spurred him to realize what he actually sought in the WoL, and now he's asking all these questions in an attempt to, for the first time in his life, genuinely connect with another human being.

The questions aren't important just because they're a sign of how Zenos has changed in Endwalker - they're actually the thematic heart of Endwalker! ARR may have had "Answers" as it's theme, but EW is the expac of questions. Namely the biggest question of all: What is the meaning of life? Different characters have different answers to that, leading to the grand-scale symbolic conflict being the Endsinger's despair - her belief that there is no meaning in life - versus whatever reasons the WoL chooses to live for, left, as always, up to player interpretation.

When you look deeper, Zenos isn't actually as out-of-place in the symbolic conflict as he first seems. His depressed worldview - that metaphor about drowning in a swamp again - seems to align with the Endsinger's view about life being meaningless. But he aids the WoL in defeating her. In that way he serves as part of the answer to her question about the meaning of life. He may have resented life at times, but he still found meaning in chasing pleasure. Not the strongest or most beautiful reason to deny oblivion, perhaps, but it did enable him to help the WoL triumph. I think of Zenos's philosophy as being connected to the concept of "Amor Fati"...largely because this quote explaining it sounds like something he'd say, or at least agree with on some level:

"and if our soul has trembled with happiness and sounded like a harp string just once, all eternity was needed to produce this one event—and in this single moment of affirmation all eternity was called good, redeemed, justified, and affirmed."

So he does have a meaningful role in Endwalker, as the "Amor Fati" against the Endsinger's "Memento Mori". I think that in this the story shows that his reason for living, while somewhat shallow, is not necessarily a morally wrong thing in and of itself (setting aside for a second all the people he hurt in his pursuit of that). It's just that, since it is a lonely pursuit that denies everything except for his target, it still feels empty. The core of the counterargument against the Endsinger's despair is that both pleasure and fulfillment are necessary to live a meaningful life in a meaningless universe, and that's why Zenos is here in Endwalker. Why he even exists in the story in the first place.

Even if you're one of the people who deeply hates Zenos...well, you probably wouldn't have read this whole thing if you did, but I still think it's important to read into characters you dislike, because every character in a story is written for a reason. Plus, trying to understand even their worst enemies is one of the WoL's key traits as of ShB and EW. With his last breaths, Zenos was trying to understand the WoL too - carrying this understanding of him with you as we move into our next adventures is the least you can do for your "friend".

[spidermanifested]

❤️💙💖🏳️‍🌈 for FMA. Lay those unpopular opinions on me

oh im feasting today thank you so much

❤: Which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

see. just by VOLUME id say probably mustang? because he has so MUCH fan content out there and so much of it makes him either a suave cool seductive sexyman or a tragic wet beast whos never done anything wrong. so percentagewise i think itd be hard to compete

However. if we're going in terms of whose personality ive seen get just absolutely mangled to the worst degree. and i think thats whats being asked here. Pppppprobably hohenheim or scar. scar because of racism. and hohenheim because nobody knows how to be normal about a well intentioned fuckup of a parent so instead he has to be literally the devil i guess

oh ling also gets done super dirty as well. people forget that his Airheaded Entitled Royalty act is in fact an act, BUT at the end of the day hes still fifteen years old so he can still be a little dumb and reckless despite being great at strategizing. these layers are apparently incomprehensible to those who want to flatten him into "goofy fun sunshine boy" or "thats basically a grown man right"

id mention the way the women and girls of the series get treated but honestly they either seem to get ignored, Hashtag Girlboss Queen'd and THEN ignored, or made into romantic set dressing for the guys. which is unfortunately too par for the course as far as fandoms go for me to have any kind of novel commentary on it. Sucks Out Here

wiat theres another one but i dont know if im allowed to say it. im scared

💙: Which character is not as hot as everyone else seems to think?

mustang again

💖: What is your biggest unpopular opinion about the series?

HONESTLY???? just going off how my posts on the subject were received im going to have to say its "maes hughes was really conservative and kind of sucked". people did not like that one

🏳️‍🌈: Which character who is commonly headcanoned as queer doesn't seem queer to you?

hmmmmmmmmmmm. trying to rack my brain thinking of one. honestly there isnt really any character im immediately compelled to point at and go CISHET even if i dont like them because im a big enough person to admit that my fellow lgbts can be pieces of shit too. i am not a fan of olivier armstrong but shes definitely a lesbian and roy mustang is bi and deep in the closet and him and hughes had Something going on in boot camp #diversitywin #loveloses

maybe jean havoc. i know some people ship him with mustang, i have nothing against this demographic, however my personal read on havoc is just a larry butz type individual who at most tried to "go gay" out of desperation one time but found out it doesnt really work like that

[curiouschaosstarlight]

Bounced back and forth, think I'll just make this post-

(Warning: Under the read more, if tumblr keeps the read more intact, is me, an aromantic/aegofictosexual person ramble-ranting about aroaceness in fandom. You're free to scroll past if you wish, or to disagree with me on whatever takes for whatever reason, this is just my one opinion on something I consider to be a big pet peeve of mine.)

(If you read this and go "but I don't do that!", then I trust you, and you're not the kind of person I'm talking about. I'm moreso referring to some things I've personally either witnessed or experienced in previous fandoms, and nobody this applies to will actually see this post unless it, like, gets a bajillion notes...um, hopefully.)

It is so. fricking. frustrating. having my only possible representation in media be like...[that one character] from DR. You know. the otaku or "geek" that's portrayed to be unattractive, "gross", and "weird", and will eventually express sexual attraction to "3D" people, because their attraction to and obsession with 2D was never a sexuality, but intended to be some creepy, incomprehensible thing, and a way to demonstrate their shortcomings and inability to actually court someone.

Characters who actually match my sexuality and experience will never exist unless I make them with my own hands, because both allos and other aces consider me "not ace enough".

This honestly plays a big part in why I'm really touchy about aroace headcanons; because often times they're blatantly used to say people aren't allowed to ship [character a] with [character b] -- and the person making the headcanon is usually 100000% fine with [character a] being put in a gay ship, but will loudly complain if they see them featured in the (usually het, usually canonically teased) first ship. Because it was never about actually writing an aroace character, it was about reframing "ewwww you like THAT ship?? gross uxu what's wrong with you??" into "uhhhmmmm but that character's aroace-coded" "sorry, I can't see them as anything other than aroace" (yeah, I didn't ask? Everyone else gets to talk about THEIR ships with that character and you enthusiastically support them...) And it's like... I feel like these types of headcanons specifically are always presented like, inherently, I'm totally, obviously going to agree with them, and if I don't, then clearly I'm just not aroace. (I wish that was more of a dramatization, but I had someone who I previously told my seuxality to go "oh. well. I'm asexual, so I see this character as aroace-coded, (and I'm right)" <- not outright said but very, very heavily implied, especially because they continuously insisted the character was "canonically aroace-coded", and I just had to sit there like... "...okay, but I'm aroace. (and I think saying that about a clearly het-intended character that's constantly being flirted and canonically shipped in extra side materials with is kinda hurtful)" <- I didn't say that part)

And the fact that no one respects if a character is canonically het or bi kind of plays into why I don't care when a character is canonically gay or ace. If everyone's sexuality is just "gay (MAYBE ace!!!)" or "okay but have you CONSIDERED they might be bi??? (stop putting them in het ships >:((( )" only when it's convenient, then why should I care for my downtime? It doesn't change canon. And I don't feel represented by people's on-the-whim, flimsy-as-fuck headcanons.

But it does still piss me off when people take a reboot or remake or continuation and flagrantly disregard a character's canon sexuality.

And it's upsetting that aroace characters 1. aren't really a thing for the most part, and 2. get written over when they are a thing.

I imagine that when I finally manage to finish one of my stories or games and, y'know, all of my characters are bi/pan/demi because that's what I tend to write...that's probably just gonna get changed to be "whoops everyone's gay lol" by the fandom, and I've already come to terms with that. (Well, by the part of the fandom that isn't populated by "ugh, everything is so WOKE now!" assholes, I'm just gonna pretend they won't even show up because they aren't worth it.) But then, it's also like...if someone officially continued or adapted my properties, and they changed my characters to be all straight or maybe one character gets to be kinda-sorta gay or something, I. I would definitely lose my shit.

-vague gestures-

I don't really know where I'm going with this, I just wanted to say my whole piece without having to worry about being accused of derailing/not listening to a post-

But basically if you're outraged whenever a gay character's sexuality is changed for any reason in any context, I better hear you be that upset about the rest of the possible orientations, and not pulling that shit yourself. I swear to god.

[dichromaticdyke]

re: skwisgaar attraction myth debunk turned feminist critique (AMAZING post btw) - feel free to ignore/not respond if it's too much/incomprehensible (english is fake)/rambly

honestly i feel like said post gets into the lesser discussed aspect of the mtl fandom as i believe a lot of us want to view it as different than other fandoms with a majority male cast; but it's not. this is a fandom full of misogyny-affected folks, especially of tme persuasion, who never outgrew or if new, elect to partake in, ye olde fandom habits of internalized misogyny shining through like it's their goddamn guiding light.

i dont know exactly how to phrase this in a demographically correct way, but it feels like despite the mtl fandom being overwhelmingly queer and a lot of the misogyny-affected tme folks being trans... the "i'm not like other girls" mentality was not broken out of; people decided "i am not a woman" and suddenly unpacking internalized misogyny wasn't a thing they decided they had to do anymore!

like. it feels like mtl fandom is about being "quirky" and shipping dethklok together but god forbid you wanna focus on the women in the show; abigail, amber, trindle, etc. it's... a tale as old as time (as those of us who have been in fandom spaces for a while would know) and it's so fucking saddening.

i've seen media analysis and critique of this show (MOSTLY YOURS!!) but more often than not it feels like the fandom doesn't want to delve into that either; they like mtl on the surface level. because it's edgy. because it's metal. because it's funny. because they find xyz member of the cast sexy. and i feel like this interwined internalized misogyny being projected out via mtl fandom behaviors with this complete lack of regard for the quality aspects of the show and the depths of the characters within it... i dunno. as i said, it's saddening.

...again, i hope this wasn't too word salad-like, or rambly, or long, or anything, but oh my god your post got the gears turning in my brain head so full of all the thoughts ever-

and yet again, AMAZING analysis, incredible dedication, and fantastic feminist critique.

don’t worry darling this wasn’t too long of an ask and i find it VERY intriguing.

because yeah i do absolutely fall into both camps of this to an extent. i love shipping the boys and talking about them, because i do love them as characters, but yeah it’s so easy to fall into the trap of not caring about the female characters in the show. and i would agree, again to an extent, that the female characters were not given much care or time from the show to properly be explored in a meaningful way (though, how much of that was a deliberate choice by the crew and how much of that just happened due to adult swim meddling in the latter years, we’ll probably never know). i always find it interesting, for example, how fandom will latch onto magnus but not care about abigail, despite abigail having more screentime and having a major impact on the plot of the show (had the band never broke up over her, salacia wouldn’t have attacked when he did, forcing them to finally learn about the prophecy and the doomstar arguably before they were ready, AND without salacia’s attack, the revengencers wouldn’t have been able to catch dethklok at the funeral and kidnap toki and abigail). of course with abigail, it’s not just misogyny playing a role there, but racism too, though luckily there have been some people calling out fandom treatment of her.

i’ve talked a bit before about how much it sucks that abigail wasn’t given really anything to work with, but it also makes sense given that the show is from dethklok’s point of view and they don’t really care about her either. that’s why it feels so strange (and SHOULD feel strange) to see nathan proposing to abigail in aotd—we didn’t know anything about her because he didn’t know anything about her, and that was kind of the whole point of that arc in the movie. women are objects to dethklok, and because of that, they become objects in the show, and i do think the statements “this is a deliberate critique of misogyny reinforced both by powerful men and metal culture” AND “this is a result of the crew failing to create and integrate meaningful female characters into the show” can both co-exist. honestly, i think mtl has a lot to say about gender (idk how much of that was intentional, but i’ve been thinking about it for a While and want to make a long analysis post or video about it at some point).

regarding the fandom spaces i mean. fuck, you’re talking to a decently popular lesbian mtl creator. i have one foot in the camp of being a misogyny-affected person (tme also, for reference) who makes up a majority of the fandom, but also the other foot is in the “not attracted to men” camp. as much as i like the shipping and smut writing for funsies, i genuinely feel like there’s more to this show than most people give it credit for. i have written so many analyses about it (with plans for more) for a reason. i’ve been in online fandom spaces for about half my life now, and no other piece of media has made me have this many fits of divine madness.

all this to say, yeah, it’s a silly adult swim show, i’m sure 95% of what we see on screen we’re not meant to think too much about. but the reality is that, the text belongs to the readers once it is out in the world, and the way readers respond to it can reflect internalized biases or thoughts. that’s not always the case! sometimes i just wanna see two silly long-haired men kiss because i think it would fix them. but you don’t leave your biases and oppressive thoughts at the door once you enter fandom. and i certainly don’t leave my literature MA or gender studies degree at the door either!

[piosplayhouse]

#pio share your takes please

- I thought it was ok but not spectacular. My biggest complaint is that the cast was wayyy too big for only a 2-hour movie, I wish they'd just made it a multi episode series with each episode focused on one of the characters because I loved all the characters but was so sad that they got basically no attention

^ This is kind of where my main complaints lie ngl. For all that encanto was a beautiful movie, it weirdly enough suffers from bit too much "tell, not show" imo? Particularly in the sisters songs (surface pressure, I forgot what isas was. Let it go flower edition) where the lyrics are just telling us traits about these characters (Luisa is stressed! Isabela feels obligated to be perfect!) without really like .. exploring them deeper. And I feel like this could be an easy fix! Just add in a few flashbacks like the scenes for Bruno or Abuela-- if Luisa's taking on too much from her sister what about a flashback where they're out playing and Mirabel falls down and hurts herself and Luisa's panicking internally but having to be strong for her? If Isa feels pressured to be a golden child what about a flashback where she's watching other kids play and wants to go with them but Abuela keeps her inside so her dress doesn't get dirty? It's like.. I love the characters for their potential, but none of them were explored nearly enough. Going into it I legitimately thought that EVERY character would have a bigger role than they actually did

- I only know encanto fandom from secondhand knowledge but from what I've heard there's apparently a large percentage of white people who think the movie is about being gay ..? Or something ..? Lol?? Anyway i definitely thought it was . Obvious that it was about generational trauma I don't think I need to elaborate that much because if you don't see that then idk what movie you watched?

- though touching on that second point just going on the Isabela tag all the content i could find was either a bunch of x reader fics or jokes about her being a lesbian? 😭😭 Which like... Ok I guess, but personally I really liked her because I think I can see where they were actually trying to go with her character, which is the struggle of elder generations wanting the best for you but only knowing what THEY think is best. I've seen a few posts about how Abuela looked like Isabela when she was younger and I think that adds a really powerful backdrop to the theme of grandparents and parents wanting their kids to live the life they never had, and I just wish all the intricacies of the family relationships could've been explored in more detail.

- I want to kiss pepa

- Yeah again idk I could explore how I wish each individual character could be fleshed out but that would take too long so I'm just gonna say it I wish all the characters were more fleshed out

- I heard people don't like Abuela? Honestly from the very start Abuela reminded me of my grandma haha. I think it's fine to admit that she treated Mirabel badly, but I feel like if you just hate her because of that it's weird because it disregards like.. how much she must've suffered as a widowed refugee mom of three who's basically supporting an entire village??? I kind of wish it was her who got a solo song about cracking under the pressure instead of Luisa ngl

- Bruno is literally the embodiment of r/malelivingspace

- speaking on that though, the room design was absolutely spectacular. Zero notes on the designs in the movie they were beautiful and I would be enthralled if the whole movie was just each character talking about their own rooms honestly I want to see them so so bad

- also the COSTUME DESIGN some concept artists had a WONDERFUL time on this movie and I'm so happy they did because God did it turn out beautiful

This was probably a little incomprehensible sorry for rambling haha. Disclaimer that this was all just my (not Columbian but also nonwhite with a third-world spanish-colonized country background) opinion so if I got anything wrong I'm very very sorry but tldr ; Encanto is a beautiful movie, I really liked it and also almost cried even though I wish it was so much longer

Just finished encanto and now I want to reblog gifsets and artwork but everyone on tumblrs opinions about the characters are different from mine and therefore incorrect