#this way she's a villain AND also sympathetic. she's becoming more human over time (as 6b wants us to believe)

[shrinkthisviolet]

I hate to say it, but I think Iris and Felicity only get more development, because Iris is Barry’s wife and Felicity is Oliver’s wife. Like oh the heroes’ wives should be friends type thing, so it feels like their friendship is more developed only because of their proximity to the male heroes and the male heroes’ friendship. That said, I’ll take any female friendship I can get, so I do like SmoakWest’s friendship. Also I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show overcorrecting!

Oh 100%, and even their development in s1 is because they were teasing Barricity for a bit (which ngl I thought was cute and still do!). And beyond that, it's definitely because of how closely Westallen and Olicity were intertwined, a) because of Barry & Oliver's friendship, and b) because of the Arrowverse crossovers (a and b are interrelated, but you get the idea). But it's definitely so refreshing to see, and makes me wish more attention had been paid to the other relationships (which I think would've been possible if they'd kept Linda on and actually let her get with Wally like the comics, but...idk maybe some bts stuff prevented Malese from coming back).

And thank you! There's...quite a bit of the writers shooting themselves in the foot 😅:

For one thing, the writers clearly wanted to write Killer Frost, not Caitlin, which is pretty clear if you watch exactly where Caitlin started getting less and less to do: s4 onwards...aka when the show made the decision to split her and Frost into separate people sharing a body. And especially when Frost got her own body. The only times Caitlin has stuff to do after the retcon is when it's Frost-related, s3's KF arc is the most focus she gets in the entire show (other than her arc with Zoom, but that trauma is also pretty fast-tracked), and the writers loved teasing Killer Frost throughout s1 and s2. Unfortunately, this diminished role of Caitlin, while Iris was rising to prominence due to her expanding role in the show (which is justified, argue with the wall), resulted in the two ladies being pitted against each other by the fandom frequently

Due to Caitlin's role being reduced, her friendship with Barry was also reduced. This likely also happened because the writers wanted to nip SB in the bud and stop giving the shippers ammo because Barry/Iris canon was definitively a go. Unfortunately, all this did was feed the wild conspiracy theory that SB was meant to be endgame all along, but since the writers were talked out of it, they had to "force" Westallen. This is nonsense - the writers were never going to make SB endgame, they were going to write them as a brief romance (a la Barry/Patty or Barry/Linda), which Grant nixed. But with the fandom's tendency to play telephone + the Barry & Caitlin friendship being severely reduced as seasons went on, this led to this conspiracy theory that is still alive and well in SB shipping circles.

Another example I can think of is the writers making it seem like Iris was sabotaging Barry/Linda. That is...absolutely not what happened: Linda asked for advice about Barry and why he's so bad at dating, and Iris explained that Barry had an unrequited love that wasn't reciprocated, so give him time. If she was trying to sabotage them, she would've suggested Linda move on and find someone else, or said Barry was unrequited in love with her (Iris), or something like that. But she gives Linda genuinely good advice! The writers, however, don't seem to get that, so they go on to pretend like Iris was sabotaging Barry/Linda...which honestly makes Iris look like kind of a jerk? And like she's no better than s1 Barry?

Honestly for as much as I am a firm believer that Iris loved Eddie (you don't say "screw the future" and "I decide who I love, and I love you" for just anyone, you don't beg your fiancé to stay and marry you if you don't love them, etc etc, s9 is a fever dream and never happened), I do also think the writers in 1x15 were uh...off their rocker, to put it lightly. The waterfront kiss haunts my nightmares. It's so OOC for Iris, and I hate it. Plus, it was the writers shooting themselves in the foot, because to this day, it invites so much ridiculous anti-Westhawne sentiment. Would it have been so hard to make that kiss happen when Barry and Iris were both single (like...between s1 and s2, or late in s2, or something)?? Because uh...neither of them were.

Ooh and here's another "writers shooting themselves in the foot" example that especially irks me: Mirror Iris. She's introduced as a villain, and at first I found her really compelling! Barry had an evil version, and now Iris did too...and I found her more compelling than Savitar tbh. She had a bit of a sympathetic/tragic aspect, but like...that's fine, so did Savitar, and he still died a villain.

But THEN. A few things happened.

They had Mirror Iris drop a line gloating about raping Barry (which was just subtle enough that a good chunk of fans don't realize this implication). Then, a few minutes later, they play up the sympathy angle, have Barry hold and reassure Mirror Iris, and she dies in his arms.

Let me repeat that. Mirror Iris gloats about raping Barry, and then moments later, he holds her as she dies.

And just like that, all my goodwill for her (at least the way she's presented in canon) immediately disappeared.

Now, this seems to have had no effect on the fandom. People still love her and make edits of her, they still call her "badass" (some say she's better than Iris but those people are transparent af and I ignore them)...they don't see an issue here. Largely because a lot of them don't realize what Mirror Iris was gloating about...and neither do the writers, it seems, seeing as Barry gets absolutely no room to discuss that he was raped and gloated to about it and held his rapist's dead body as she died. Honestly, a lot of people try to frame that as "aww he felt sad when she died, he loved her and knew she loved him, like Iris and Savitar in 3x23" which is uh...sure something!! Those two are not the same!! Savitar did not ever rape Iris!!

So like...in fairness. the "shooting in the foot" in that regard really affected me, not the fandom. They seem to have gotten exactly what the writers intended.

Like...yes, villains do bad things. But here's the thing: you cannot make your villain a rapist and a) make her sympathetic a few moments later and have her victim HOLD HER AS SHE DIES and b) never follow up!! There's a deleted scene that Westallen shippers love for some reason where Barry makes a joke about getting "reacquainted" with Iris the first night she's out of the mirror. Hello?? And I don't for a second believe that it was cut because the writers realized it was in poor taste. It was likely cut for time.

Way to make a super compelling concept absolutely gross, writers. You could've just furthered Mirror Iris's gaslighting by having her withhold affection from Barry, but whatever

on the note of Barry being gaslit and his 6b trauma, an honorable mention: they put a lot of focus on Barry realizing for sure that Mirror Iris is an imposter after she kicks him out, and they never bring up the fact that he did know in 6x11!! Literally the episode after it happens!! But Joe insists it's just normal growth (with a shocking lack of concern, wtf Joe) and Mirror Iris gaslights him. As she does repeatedly whenever he questions her. The writers do portray this pretty clearly when it happens, but they should've brought it up again later. Though I mostly blame fandom idiocy for this.

(and it's why anyone who says Barry wasn't traumatized by the Mirrorverse arc, or got too much focus about recovery, can eat my socks!! He did not get enough focus, and neither did Iris!! Both things can be true!!)

[dearreaders-things]

okay so the improv comedians have me writing fic and i am having So Many Thoughts And Feelings about the dynamic between clarissa and loco motion

all of the following is building off this post from @instantpansies. cut because it got a bit long lmfao

ok yes she's a child and he's a villain, i don't think it's an ethical relationship but it's a damn compelling one!

and also, girl's been around for hundreds of years, i don't want to treat her character as a full-on child, yeah? at least in my headcanon there is some kind of growing up during her time on the silver rail. so.

i have v little knowledge on the nutcracker but what their dynamic reminded me most of was the invisible life of addie larue (an incredible book i 100% recommend)

the girl essentially makes a deal with the devil. he appears to her in the form of the perfect lover she's always dreamed of, and he answers her desperate prayers: for time. to escape from her life. but ofc it's a gift/curse kinda thing and she's immortal but she has to learn to live within the constraints of what he gives her. but also over time she becomes almost less human, and she gets closer to him.

is it love? 🤷‍♀️

is it interesting? hell yes

okay so comparison aside, back to clarissa. my beloved.

she's so clearly Special to loco, and the fondness likely goes both ways. i love the idea that clarissa was the one to dream the silver rail + loco into existence, and thus that he feels like he owes her.

without her, he wouldn't be there, so he grants her (almost) everything she wishes for.

it was escapism in the first place. clarissa was trying to get away from [insert classic sfth traumatised kid backstory], and so loco gave her an escape.

she wanted to be safe and somewhere no-one would find her. she wanted to be bigger, stronger. to be important to someone. to be loved.

that's how loco comes to exist. clarissa dreams of someone that will give her all of that, and he does.

this is shameless headcanon but, another of her wishes that he grants: anywhere she's ever wanted to visit, loco takes her there. he shows her the world - but in glimpses, through the train window.

because the one thing he can't tolerate? the idea of clarissa leaving.

i don't think he would trap her to be deliberately cruel. his morals may be dubious but he's literally built from her fantasy. she's special to him. i think he would want to give her everything she wants. clearly at some point clarissa realises her predicament and she panics, the one thing she wants is to get off the damn train - but that might be the one thing he can't give her.

because if clarissa finds a way off the silver rail when she herself created it, what becomes of him? maybe he ceases to exist. what is he without her? he doesn't want to find out.

so the train never stops, never lets her off.

(does this sound like i'm trying to make loco less of a villain? obviously it's still a terrible thing to do to a child. even though he might hate that he has to trap her, he still does, because he's not nearly selfless enough to let her go. and also he is still evil on account of all the stealing kids and turning them into train bits. lock me up for liking tragic villains with depth, ig.)

but forever is a long time.

maybe sometimes loco's more human, more loving, more intimate. maybe there's times when clarissa remembers why she wanted this to begin with.

maybe he gives her everything she wants within the walls of the train because he regrets that he can't give her real freedom.

maybe he used to be sympathetic like that before he changed for the worse. became less human, more creepy, power-hungry maybe. the way we see him during most of the longform.

toxic? maybe. compelling? HELL YES.

and the other kids! loco needs them to keep the train going or something idk but clarissa has to watch so many other children get picked up, whether it's escapism like her or curiosity (like benjamin eventually) that pulls them in.

and they all meet their grim fates, and she can't do anything to save them from the monster of her own making, and she's left to wonder why it's never her.

she's grateful, of course, that loco has let her keep her body and her memory for so long. but it's so very lonely to watch and remember as the other kids all forget and fade away.

essentially, they're both tied together, in this contradiction forever.

loco is grateful for what clarissa's given him, and he regrets that he has to keep her against her will. clarissa's grateful for what loco's given her, but she resents that she's trapped on the train forever.

but this is what she wished for, after all.

[icantspellthings]

The thing that I really like about The Boys as a show is that there is no *truly* evil characters, there is nobody so irredeemable and 100% an evil asshole piece of shit for the sake of being one (well except stormfront but we're ignoring her).

Like with A-train at first when we met him, he was this fame obsessed adrenaline junkie who is only focused on winning/being number one and his popularity. He literally killed Robin and was totally set up to be the "main bad guy". But as the series went on, we actually see his character fleshed out more. There are nuances to his actions that yes were done out of selfishness, but if you looked at it from his perspective he is nothing without the Seven, he is nothing without his fame and money, he wants so desperately to not fall into poverty and irrelevancy anymore that he would fight tooth and nail just to maintain statusquo. And we start to see he realises the consequences of his actions whis brother got hurt and he apologised to hughie. Does it makes A-train a "Good" person? No but it certainly makes him a more sympathetic character.

Other characters, too, like The Deep who is a fucking rapist who you are primed to HATE right from the start for what he did to Annie. But as time goes on, your hate starts to lessen and transform into pity. At his core, Kevin is pathetic, insecure, and quite frankly a very idiotic and gullible man. He sexually assults other to gain power over them, does this make his actions justifiable, No. But it does make his actions understandable. He isn't a good person but he's a good *character* because he isn't just this 100% evil caricature of a person, he has nuances and contradictions and sometimes even sympathetic moments.

I could go on and on and on about the other characters in The Seven or even all the other minor villains. How they're actually fleshed out characters instead of just one dimensional villains. And also the inverness of the good guys not being saintly, can never do wrongers, always doing the right thing. They're the protagonists, but that doesn't make them perfect people. Case in point with butcher!!! And how he drags hughie down to his level of "doing anything for the mission." The way butcher uses MMs obsession against him to literally drag him back into his revenge plot despite the fact that MM just wants to live a normal life with his daughter and literally had ro rebuild his life from nothing 3 times! Now thanks to butcher, the man is a grade A CUNT who manipulates the people around him for his own gains! Yeah it's "for the greater good" but it's still not a nice way to treat your friends

Hell even fucking annie who the show sets up as this pure saintly paragon of goodness and kindness fucks up. Half the time she doesn't know what the fuck she is even doing just stumbling along trying to do what she thinks is best. Hell most of the time her plans doesn't work out or activity makes things worse! AND THATS OKAY!

BECAUSE I LOVE THEM ALL SO MUCH! because they're so painfully human, they make mistakes, they try to seek forgiveness but somethings can't be forgiven. They try their best but somtimes it makes things worse. They have a characters arc but then will walk back 20 steps until they become even worse because its the essence of what being human means! We all make mistakes, progress isn't linear. Sometimes, you take 1 step forward and then 40 steps back until all improvements are undone and you're back at the same point possibly even worse of. But you keep trudging forward because you're alive and you're human and the least you can do is wake up another day and try your damnest.

Its what I love so much about this show, everyone is SO SO SO painfully human.

[roseofithaca]

hello hi and omg the Stockholm syndrome with calypso thing. I've never thought of it that way for some reason. woah do you have any other thoughts on that I'd love to hear!!

Hi!

Couple things; so this has been one of my favorite songs long before the saga came out as the demo out on YouTube was pretty much the full version. It's so beautiful and tragic, but I kept assuming that - given the sympathetic vibe of the song - Jorge was going to change this part of the story to make Calypso less of a villain.

Like my assumption was she wouldn't be the one keeping him trapped, it's just the curse of her island and even if she let him go he'd just come back or get hurt. So she's as much of a prisoner as him, basically. But also that it would be clear she didn't SA him as in the Odyssey. It would just be an innocent one sided infatuation that she would keep hoping he'd fall for her over time but wouldn't. So at first I assumed the "I love you" line would be like "I love you as a friend, I would have been alone and gone mad here for years without you, you gave me a bit of peace after all the trauma." Etc.

But then the Wisdom Saga came out...

And Love In Paradise definitely has SA and manipulation vibes. Rather than helping Ody heal in any way, he becomes even worse. Athena says outright "she's kept you trapped out of your control". There's no wriggle room for that. It's not just an innocent love. I would love to have confirmation from Jorge if this Calypso did force herself on him in any way as I think it would clear up things in the fandom.

So with that all in context, I can't hear the line as "I love you as a friend". It doesn't feel earned, we've not glimpsed anything from Calypso that would have Ody respect her that way. So for me it would be more affection born out of captivity and isolation and feeling sorry for your captor, but still wanting to get as far as fuck away from them.

It reminds me a lot of the real life kidnapping of Natasha Kampush whose book describing her ordeal where she was kept trapped underground for eight years is a chilling read. But it is a fascinating insight into what we think of as "Stockholm Syndrome" and how it's not like people imagine where they're brainwashed to be hopelessly devoted to them (and before anyone jumps down my throat, yes I know there's some debate over the name and having it be seen as a mental health condition when it's mostly just human empathy and survival tactic). Natasha's complex feelings towards her abuser and how media tried to romanticise it after her escape reminds me a lot of Odysseus and Calypso. She feared this man, he made her life a misery and treated her worse than a dog - but he was still the only company she had for eight years. There would be times when she felt fleeting moments of normalcy and affection, it's just human nature for that to create a bond. And she would grow sympathy for how messed up he clearly was, probably in much the same way Ody felt sympathy for Calypso being trapped alone.

Yes Calypso is a goddess but she feels the most human out of all the ones who appear in Epic, in the most messy way humans can be.

Hope I've explained that well. 😅

[eiffelradio]

16?

16. what character did you not like at first, but you came around to? (or vice versa)

i didn’t care for irina much until reading fifth, pierrot. she seemed like your standard “villain whose goal is evil itself” without any real depth or motivations (beyond getting revenge on elluka, and at the time i didn’t find this very sympathetic because other people like HERSELF and kiril seemed much more responsible for irina losing her kingdom & position as queen). i was lightly amused by her habit of saying she’d “burn you to ashes!” in the lunacy novel, though…and i think it’s in that novel she says something along the lines of “when i committed my first murder, i wailed with grief,” and any hint of her ever having been different and HERS not just being a clear-cut “evil disorder” was welcome.

the pierrot novel was what totally changed my perspective on irina, particularly through her relationship with lemy. the novel lowkey keeps baiting the reader into thinking that irina has some deeply sinister motivation for keeping lemy around and, despite her appearance as a loving mother, she’ll dispose of him at any moment if he becomes an inconvenience. but time and time again, this notion is shot down! because irina DOES from the bottom of her heart love lemy as her own son, and while she engages lemy in her evil affairs, she does so because (1) she genuinely thinks it is what’s good for him and wants to involve him in her life and (2) she is fully confident in lemy’s ability as an assassin.

getting to be in irina’s mind and understanding her as a person who is very much capable of love made me come around to her. before the pierrot novel i saw her as acting almost without emotion or regard for anyone other than herself. she is still a TERRIBLE person and not a great mother, but she is trying to support her family (and friends) in the ways she believes are most effective. and i realized that at her core, irina is incredibly incredibly lonely…it doesn’t make her actions okay by any metric, but i feel for her wanting to have more people who understand what it’s like to be an outcast.

fifth, pierrot also made me understand her vendetta against elluka a bit more (and this is the perfect novel to do it in now levia’s memories have been awakened). irina directs her anger at elluka for a variety of reasons, and many of them aren’t actually justified, but on the point of her stealing the clockworker name, she’s actually…right? like, she didn’t KNOW she was right for like 500+ years, but elluka DID take a name that chirclatia was unable to claim while alive (and which irina killed to prevent chirclatia from taking) and proceeded to become a famous mage using it. thereby becoming the only living remnant of the clockworker name to the world at large, and “stealing” the opportunity for irina to become known using her own family name over the course of those 500+ years. while writing this i just realized that irina lowkey has an obsession with stealing elluka’s name and body (see praeludium of red and the gift novel). probably because she wants to take back the clockworker name for herself and give the interloper a taste of her own medicine. like i do not support irina’s wrongdoings or hatred of elluka, but i kind of Get It. it’s a very human thing for her

ALSO another character i recently came around to is adam, after reading OSS crime. i still fucking hate this guy. BUT i must admit he is very well written!! i can see WHY he’s turned into the person he is and the novel expands on his motivations in a way that makes a lot of sense. so on a personal level i still want adam dead and in the ground but on a character level i think he’s actually rather compelling…

[hypothermiatapes]

Do you think J.K.R wasted the potential of such a great character like Tom Riddle on such a ridiculous children’s book villain like Voldemort? IMO Tom Riddle is such a complex character with an interesting upbringing and different factors that played into him becoming Voldemort, but Voldemort is a simple villain with the goal of ultimate power and immortality.

Hm, that’s an interesting question anon, and I’ll try my best to answer it since it’s actually a very complex question.

The truth is I think Voldemort was partially a good villain along with having plenty of wasted potential. Now, I do not believe him to be a very complex character from what we’re told and led to believe in the books, but some of the things he did were intelligent and he had some grasp on political concepts.

Character wise he is not a complex person from what we are canonically told, though that might just be because we read the books from Harry’s point of view. This can also translate to a very cartoonish villain because he is depicted as just the evil guy, he isn’t shown to have any good traits or conflicting beliefs that shape a complex character.

His main motivations and goals all revolve around power, while they may vary a bit they all translate to power. This immediately makes a strike towards a simple character with only one goal and aspiration, there is no conflicting feelings, goals or motivations, it just makes him less real.

Personality wise he is also extremely simple, he is always angry, only finds amusement in cruelty, and he’s just a shit human being. Again, there’s nothing there to indicate a human being, he is just a stereotypical villain with no conscience. He isn’t really sympathetic in any way.

Tom Riddle is actually different in these aspects. Now, I can’t really say anything about goals or aspirations except maybe immortality, so I’ll skip over it. However, we are shown his fascination in magic, his fear of doctors, his charisma, and his cruelty and manipulation. The first two make him immediately more human because they show a sympathetic person, a child who is enthralled by the world and traumatized.

Now, I won’t say Voldemort is a horrible villain despite him being extremely simple. He could be a far better villain, but he’s definitely not the worst. I say this because of how he went about taking over magical Britain.

What he staged to take over the Ministry was a coup which was carried out at the perfect time and went so smoothly because of the DE’s infiltration of the Ministry. The reason it was the perfect time was because the most powerful wizard in Britain had already died, the ministry was weakened due to the change in minister of magic, and Harry was in a predictable position.

How he went about the eradication of the muggle borns was set up almost perfectly for genocide. He started out by creating a “us vs them” mentality, made propaganda that would get the general public against them and started drawing up lists, had organization and other things. These are steps found in the ‘ten stages of genocide’.

He also catered to a very powerful group of people, the purebloods. They are powerful due to their money which means Voldemort has constant financial support, they also are very involved in the government typically.

Now, there are ways that he could have gone about it better, but considering his situation it went pretty smoothly. I don’t know why he went after the muggleborns since their death doesn’t really matter in the end if his goal is power, but it either had to do with him being a sucky person or him trying to make the purebloods happy. Or, it was because the muggleborns are less likely to agree with him and it’s practical to get rid of the opposition.

That’s my stance on Voldemort. I think JKR definitely wasted the opportunity to make him an extremely complex character (that’s no surprise though since the books are very black and white), but she did a decent job showing his skill in taking over a government. I mean, he definitely was a force to be reckoned with, not to the extent he could be, but he was something.

Find it pretty funny though how she’s funding bills that Voldemorts Death Eaters would have if they had to do with muggleborns. Maybe she should reread her own books.

[cto10121]

Twilight Hot Take: Breaking Dawn Absolutely Needed To Be About Bella’s Pregnancy and Renesmee

Today’s meta is brought you to by:

So Clown OP and others of their ilk believe that Breaking Dawn could have had a different—and better—plot focusing on Bella’s immortal life and the Volturi threat. I’ll cover the reasons why this would not be satisfactory here, of course. But I also want to cover other potential alternative plots that would not be great either. This is because Breaking Dawn absolutely needed to be about Bella’s pregnancy and Renesmee.

Think about it. Without the Renesmee plot, what would BD be about in the first place? What internal or external conflicts would it center around that would tie into the main love story? The alternatives I can see are not especially satisfying.

Darthmouth After the Honeymoon?

After Bella and Edward had figured out how to be intimate, Bella voiced that, actually, she wouldn’t mind that semester of college Edward was eager for her to have after the honeymoon. Edward is predictably 🫠 about the fact that it was, indeed, sex all along that would make Bella defer her vampire life.

So Bella and Edward attend university. Cool. How long do you do think Bella would have gotten into trouble with her canonical danger magnet? A month? A week? Also, hanging around with a vampire inevitably attracts other vampires. And then there are the human dangers. Edward could handle those easily, but then we’d get a repeat of the themes of the earlier books—Edward saving Bella, argument over leaving Bella as a human, Bella learning more vampire/supernatural lore, etc. We couldn’t even have another love interest—unless this one, too, has supernatural powers to compete with Edward. We’d want to avoid all that needless repetition.

Best case scenario, Bedward’s college years are fine and nothing of interest happens. Worst case scenario, Bella could very well have been reinforced in her need to become a vampire, which, yeah, duh. The Volturi could still be a problem, certainly, but one easily resolved by just making Bella into a vampire, which was their demand anyway. No muss, no fuss, and thus no conflict.

Vampirism After Dartmouth?

Okay, forget Dartmouth. We could just have Bella being turned by Edward fresh off the honeymoon. We could have Bella struggling with her newborn bloodlust and maybe discovering how she could use her shield. This would be interesting enough; that sequence was compressed in BD proper. But even that conflict would not be enough for a whole book.

For one thing, it would not tie in to Bella and Edward’s relationship in a critical way. Edward no longer is stronger than Bella, and their relationship can finally be one of equals, leaving only some loose ends regarding Bella’s self control. The Barrier to their relationship would be completely gone, leaving nothing in its place. The Volturi can’t be the villains this time, since this is what they wanted in the first place.

The only external conflict would be the Quileute wolves, who could attack the Cullens for violating the treaty. At the beginning of BD, though, Sam was prepared to take the spirit of the treaty and not the letter of it (i.e., it was Bella’s informed decision) and leave the Cullens alone. Besides that, forcing a war between the two groups would not have been natural, considering their alliance in Eclipse. And needless to say, it would really have been bad writing on Meyer’s part to force these otherwise sympathetic characters to be full-throated antagonists.

A New Vampire Crime?

An obvious solution would be to replace Renesmee with another vampire crime Bella/Edward/Cullens are accused of, one that the Volturi would eagerly seize upon to justify defeating the Cullens. But which one?

Bella could slip and eat some humans, but the Cullens are very good at such cover-ups. We have seen the Volturi usually doesn’t bother with a couple of humans missing. Perhaps if Bella were really out of control, yes. But let’s face it, Bella is definitely the type to adjust well to vampire life and even have good control over her bloodlust in general (see: her aversion to blood in her human life). Adding some casualties would not change this base fact.

What about someone accusing the Cullens of creating newborns? The Volturi cleaned up the last batch, and Victoria and Riley are dead. They are not going to believe the Cullens would dip into newborn army creation. Maybe Maria comes back, goes to her old ways, and the Cullens get blamed for it?

I don’t know, but it’s all very unsatisfactory. At least Renesmee could plausibly be taken for an immortal child. The Volturi are corrupt, but they are still the police. They don’t intentionally start trouble; they always wait for an excuse.

Tanya Drama?

This actually has the most promise as an alternative plot. Yeah, I’m not joking.

Bella’s insecurities may not magically go away once she becomes a vampire. If, during Bella’s newborn struggle, Tanya tries to tempt Edward away, it would allow Bella to fight for her man, exactly like Edward did when Bella was pursued by Jacob. Bella could finally accept herself as worthy of Edward. Also, it would tie in to the Bella/Edward love story, which is really what this whole saga is about.

That said, Tanya is no Jacob. Edward would never go for her in any way or even be tempted. The prospect is only in Bella’s insecure little head. It would also do Tanya so damn dirty, and that’d be a shame, since she is the BAMF matriarch of her coven. Meyer not making her into a real love interest/obstacle was a great decision on her part, one the fans have sadly not given her credit for.

A New Villain?

I guess Meyer could have conjured up another external conflict the Cullens would have to battle, this time with Bella as a fighter.

The only positive thing about this plot would be that it’d show Vampire Bella in action, perhaps making some newborn mistakes, but saving the day in the end. She could develop her shield and everything. Maybe she could be the one to save Edward again. Fight for her man in a literal way, as it were.

But yeah, this would be dumb to conjure up this antagonist out of thin air. Maybe someone had a long-time grudge against Edward? Carlisle? It’s just way too late in the series to introduce a brand new antagonist. Meh.

Just Keep Renesmee FFS

Twilight is not a full-fledged fantasy. It’s a romance first, a coming-of-age tale second, and a fantasy a distant third. Anything that does not tie into the Bella/Edward star-crossed love story would be boring and irrelevant, and only antis who hate the icky romance would prefer it that way.

A high-risk pregnancy plot does tie into the love story, and yes, it’s more than just external conflict. Bella’s Cinderbella ways rear their ugly head yet again in her wanting to birth Renesmee at the risk of her life, while Edward almost succumbs to his self-loathing (he initially hates Renesmee not only because she is hurting Bella, but because it is his fault Bella is in danger of yet another monster like himself). They are able to resolve this conflict, thanks in large part to Jacob, interestingly enough.

And thanks to the immortal child misunderstanding, as well as her unique hybrid qualities, Renesmee also attracts danger. That’s why I am interested in a Renesmee book, if just because it gives Meyer a chance to explore hybrids and being in between species and even cultures—both its advantages and disadvantages.

For the bulk of the saga, Bella being human and Edward being a vampire were the main Barrier to their being together properly. In changing the plot of Breaking Dawn, you would 1) artificially lengthen Bella’s human years in order to keep the Barrier, thus repeating the first book or 2) changing Bella into a vampire and thus coming of agency and having an eternity of hot vampire sex. Either way, the series would experience a genre break, veering from paranormal Bildungsroman romance to just plain fantasy. And that would have truly been bad writing.

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

thinking abt ur validar post because i actually thought about that a little in my stupid werewolf fic. I had to really sit down and be like "what the fuck would people even FIND attractive about this guy enough to have a baby" and I didnt wanna just use the occult angle and it hit me that Validar isn't self-caring because he hates he's not the vessel he wanted and yeah he definitely IS the equivalent of That Parent. You know the one. What I'm saying is maybe there's a commentary to be made here abt how the Plegian people and him in turn felt so dehumanized in general after a point even the extremist sects of Grimleal were better bc well, if you become food for Grima/BECOME Grima's body then you're useful and good and righteous. What gets me is Plegia isn't poor, either, but its poor in sustainability outside the ocean... idk, a lot of food for thought with Validar here. I didn't expect to think abt him in FEH so deeply but here we are.

Honestly it's kind of embarrassing how much I HAVE deeply thought about Validar. I've been wanting him to get into FEH for a long time now. A lot of his lines in Awakening are so poorly written that it's hard to make sense of him as a person. But even though you can't really argue that he's in any way sympathetic in the text... For me at least, there's no such thing as a completely unsympathetic villain, and I can't help feeling sorry for both him and the other members of the Grimleal...

I mean, yeah, when Aversa explains that Plegia suffering under Gangrel was useful because it drove the people to worship, I think we ARE supposed to feel bad for the common people. But I think it's easy to fall into a trap of trying to distinguish those ordinary citizens from the evil, manipulative leaders like Validar just a little bit too much. Aren't they all trapped in the same vicious cycle, in the end?

Over the course of the game, we occasionally fight some Grimleal enemies who are... really just nasty, and not supposed to be given a second thought at all. But I can't help but be moved that they call out to Grima with their dying words... "Master Grima... my life force... is yours..." (Chalard, Chapter 8). "Lord Grima... Rain down... retribution..." (Jamil, Paralogue 6).

The Grimleal... love Grima. Even Validar loves Grima. Aversa says he's everything she knows of love, but she also doesn't presume he loves HER, so of course it's his devotion to Grima that she sees. Notably, it's this form of love that makes her content to die for him.

So I end up feeling deeply moved, even though (or more accurately, BECAUSE) the entire philosophy behind the Grimleal is so horrific. The deep despair these people must feel in order to see salvation in the form of humanity's destruction... It's NOT just "hee hee powerful dragon will make me powerful" because these people, including Validar, do not presume that they are special and going to survive. Even the leader of the Grimleal is nothing. Grima alone is everything.

And... okay I talk a lot about the symbolism of Grima's name meaning mask, which I love so much, but lately I've also been thinking about the meaning of their Japanese name, Gimurei—from Norse, Gimlé, referring to the place where the righteous will dwell in happiness after Ragnarok, which will stand "even when both heaven and earth have passed away." So... yes, I do think that for the Grimleal, giving their souls to Grima is a way of becoming righteous. The world is cruel and ugly but Grima will make it right :::)

(Of course, because they believe Grima is the only answer, no one does anything to make the world they have any better. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. One that Grima is drawn into as well. When this is what they wake up to, what are they supposed to do? If they don't destroy the world, they will be letting a LOT of people down.)

[some-pers0n]

ooh unpopular opinion time!

Mindreaders shouldn't have been able to mindread just dragons and scavs. It either should've been dragons only or most animals being able to be mindread by more powerful mindreaders. Seems pretty silly to have scavengers be the one exception, when, like, a lot of animals do still have emotions that can be mindread; they just don't have the same complexity as humans for the most part.

Turtle comes off as far more transfem than transmasc imo. Transfem Turtle is an under-appreciated headcanon in the fandom.

Deathbringer literally treats Glory the same way Undauntable treats Wren. It's just seen as cute and romantic with Deathbringer because Glory likes him back.

Darkstalker is a sympathetic villain and that doesn't make him morally grey in the slightest. You can sympathize with a villain while still acknowledging that they're pretty much pure evil.

Oh, on a related note, AUs where Peacemaker discovers he's Darkstalker aren't actually overrated. There's just a small minority of fans who like to say that it goes against the message of the book, when these AUs are often purposefully about pointing out the flawed messaging. And I have trouble believing Foeslayer would be a good mom to any of her dragonets, especially to the dragonet enchanted to be her "do-over" from the guy who killed her husband.

Luna's tapestry thing never really bothered me. What upset me was seeing the giant jump in character from being extremely ready and willing to fight to essentially being made into a pacifist because they needed to keep to the stereotypes.

Freedom was a bad choice of character plot-wise, but a lot of the people critiquing her just seemed to be picking on that she wasn't the perfect ever apologetic abuse survivor. Of course she's going along with what her abuser says, who's literally trapped her in his mind as a hatchling forever. At the same time, her pretty much suicide wasn't very impactful because... well, we never got time to get attached to her. She was just thrown in at the end to be a big emotional moment, and that's not really how character deaths work.

Yeah I agree with the mindreader bit. I'd love to see more unique and interesting bits with that.

I do love any sort of trans Turtle headcanons. Maybe I'm stupid but I just look at him and go: "he has no gender" and becomes just like me fr. Trans fem Turtle is so cool though,, oh you can do so much with that.

Imma be blunt and say I do like Undauntable and Wren's sort of dynamic, but as platonic. Same goes for Glorybringer. Take out the flirting and replace it with playful banter and make it platonic and you're golden. Glorybringer in its current state? Ehhhh....no thank you...

Precisely that. I love me my villains and objectively terrible characters who I WILL make relatable and hold traits the readers can identity with. Does that make them even remotely morally grey? No! It just means they have more complexity and depth than a piece of paper.

I refuse to believe Foeslayer, or Hope now, could go back to a somewhat normal life with Peacemaker. I've been itching to write a oneshot about that for a while. Also, good stuff with the other things. I just woke up and can't formulate thoughts as well lmao.

The tapestry thing bothers me a little cause it seems like Luna constantly harks back to it at the worst and most distracting bits. Not that much though. I just think it's funny to point at how much she mentions it. But, yeah, her character was pretty rushed.

On the topic of rushed characters...oh my god Freedom....you could've been so much better... But, yeah. People critique her and make her out like she's bad because she's not a perfect abuse victim who's always good. She's not that great of a character cause she doesn't have a natural and smooth arc of becoming redeemed and good. It just kinda suddenly happens. Also just because something made you cry doesn't automatically mean it's good.

[juniaships]

Dr. Arabella Webster

A scientist who used to work with Alex Malto and Dr. Meridian long time ago. She was an entomologist who created several prototypes intended to help humanity and the Autobots. Specifically the armor my self insert uses as her superhero form.

One day, Arabella was assigned to a small team of researchers as part of the humans efforts of fighting rogue Cybertronians. Arabella was sympathetic to the Autobots: her family was no stranger to war and she didn't want anyone to feel that pain.

Meridian was skeptical of Cybertronians. He didn't want Arabella to get involved. She responded that as scientists it was their duty to help others, even if the do come from outer space. Reluctant, Meridian agreed but promised to keep herself safe. As war threatened to ravage earth Arabella worked endless days to create gadgets that can aid in civilian and medical care.

Tragically, she would never wear the ring Meridian bought for her.

During the Battle of the Bay, friendly fire struck the building Meridian and Webster were in. Meridians' droids carried him out, but there was no sign of Webster anywhere.

Heartbroken by the loss of his love, Meridian vowed revenge on ALL Cybertronians. He had Webster's body preserved in a tub filled with mysterious, lifegiving liquid. Over time grafting mechanical parts in the hopes of resurrecting her.

Eventually, after the events of the s1 finale, Dr Webster would live again...but under a new persona... Blackarachnia

Since Tarantulas appeared in the show it wouldn't be far off for another beast wars character to show up. And since Mandroid is associated with spiders, and his grudge on cybertron well... I mean his grudge is way too deep, so I want to give him an actual backstory. By losing someone he cared about his crusade becomes a lot more understandable. Like, he he was losing a chance to start a family with the woman he loves, then here comes a family and they adopted the enemy species???

But also I am a HUGE fan of TFA and wanted to carry over some aspects into my lore. It's ironic: Elita and Blackarachnia were one & the same in that series.

With Arabella, in my possible s2 she could become an antagonist parallel to Croft and Mandroid: while they're driven by power and racism, she's having an existential crisis. But she had redeemable qualities she doesn't blame the Terrans, nor tried to put people in danger - not on purpose. She just wants to be left alone and try to make sense of her new reality.

Yes I know Arabella is "the Gwen Stacy" but I still want her to have an interesting story. To show she was a real person who deserves a full life and that not all villains are vicious and evil.

[richardsphere]

Leverage Log: The Low Low Price Job

Ok so based on the name, we're either dealing with As Seen On TV products that are made so cheap as to endanger people, general "store discounts that are only affordable because its made in a sweatshop in china" shenanigans, or a Big box chain using an up front loss to drive the locals out of business and become a de-facto local monopoly before type of story. (did I mention that capitalism sucks yet?) --- Ok government inspector is looking round a store and is pulling lies out of their ass. --- I agree with Elliot, Composting is good but should not be done in a kitchen. That is a health inspectors nightmare. --- Oh its about the a big box store, thats bribing the inspector (and zoning comittee) into shutting down competition. Why is she talking about it as if its a small town? Since when is Portland a small town? Thats a major American city right? --- I stand corrected, just because she's currently in portland to talk to Leverage Inc, does not mean she's from Portland. She's from a (presumeably fictitious) small US town called Apple Springs (home of America's largest garden gnome) --- Ok it seems we're not even going to try and make the villain act like a human person. Just openly gloating to her intern about how she's gonna destroy the town. --- And once again Nate makes the point: The Food Industry is only thing scarier then Sterling. I like the premise of them going for a "smaller" target (a single store rather then the megacorp attached), but its sort of a suck that this episode promises to end with a "the real villain got away with it all in the end" sort of deal. (maybe the sequel series can do a call-back episode where they go after Corporate) --- Sophie starts listing Cadmium Poisoning symptoms. To a woman whose hotel room we have seen Parker and Nate break into already. This can only mean 1 thing: Its chemical warfare time! --- Oh so thats how corporate plays? Forging crimes onto Sophies Forged identity? Guess we might see Nate take the gloves off and take down corporate after all. (cause lets be clear, if this is a thing they know how to do it means they do it on the regular for non con-artists) --- I dont think Elliot is lying about his old man running a hardware store, like this could be an attempt to make the guy more sympathetic to his cause to aid the union, but this feels genuine.

Old man has diabetes... that is ominous, I feel like Elliot might be about to get himself a surrogate dad only to lose him. --- And she's met Nate. (only Hardison and Parker remain un-compromised)

Eliiot's dad is real. --- Oh she tracked them back to Portland. Now that either means our heroes somehow tipped her off deliberately or that she's got GPS tracking on her employees.

Oh she said the F word, (which means she can F off) also shouldnt the poisoning be kicking in right now? sure she prevented Sophie from telling the town about the "cadmium" but thats no reason to make her think she's not dying of cadmium poisoning. Making her think the thing she covered up is a genuine threat awaiting re-discovery is a great way for our heroes to get her on the mental back-foot --- "its not like we can make bad luck". Nate, im sorry to say that you're an idiot. Making it look like an accident is literally crimes 101. --- Sophie's bringing in the army. (oh the Kaki's and overall flashmob. Classic)

Oh Elliot's surrogate Dad just died and/or got hospitalised. --- Record sales? Oh we're so framing her for theft arent we. (rigged the cash registers to claim they're taking 99.99 for the TV's while still taking the full 999.99) And she even bragged "the TV's were my idea" so when the citisens sue Value!More over their fraudulent cash-receipts her bosses will pull out a recording from their phone conversation proving her guilt by her own admission! --- Wait it wasn't part of Nate's plan? Our team just accidentally pulled a loss leader? Goddamn it. Well the HQ guy is coming for the BBQ now. Which is probably on the parking lot that she thinks is cadmium poison... So poison HQ guy with cadmium and get her superiors to shut her store down? --- Wait we're only renovating her hotel room now? In literally any other episode we would've seen Nate and Parker break into the store, and then had a greyed out flashback of the things they did while there to poison the ever loving heck out of this woman. --- I dont like that, now that we're finally getting to the "drugging her by putting chemicals in her make-up and sleepmask" sequence we took out her shower. (I get it, its to make her more anxious over meeting HQ guy for her promotion by not letting her take care of herself. But we literally had an entire Poison story right there with the Cadmium and this is breaking from that narrative, it feels like the broken shower is an unnecessary risk. Im not saying she deserves a shower it just distracts from the Cadmium Poisoning story) --- And we got ourselves the classic "broadcast their conversation over the intercom". Last shot of her seeing Leverage Inc lined up so she can connect the dots of her being played somehow. Strong end to a rather weak episode. --- Our heroes are turning the not-really poisoned big box store into a theatre. (nice place for Sophie to Own instead of Rent, plus a good back-up now that the Frame Up Job compromised their new Portland residency) --- there's something really weird about the way in which Elliot keeps getting in short-term relationships with female clients.

Elliot is off to reunite with dad, but it seems that time will do what time will do. (whomever owns the home now has excellent taste in windchimes though. Love the little dolphins) --- This episode was generally sub-par as far as A-plot goes, every twist and one-up by Caroline felt like it came from right up a writers behind, and the final conclusion of "our battle shut off the one store but Evil Incorporated continues to win the war" leaves this episode overall unsatisfying in its climax. The Elliot sub-plot was good though. Just not enough to fix a broken episode.

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 12

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January. TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “Life used to be so placid! Won’t you PLEASE put down that acid?! And Say That We’re Sweethearts Again!” Number 12 is…Harlequinade.

Ladies and gents…let’s discuss Harley Quinn for a bit, shall we? I’ve been saving up the chance to really dive into Harley till now, because I felt it was important to wait till this episode for reasons I’ll go into. Almost without any argument or doubt, Harley Quinn is the single greatest and most lasting legacy that “Batman: The Animated Series” left behind. Of all the characters and concepts that the show fostered or expanded on, Harley is the one who truly broke the mold: an original character made for the series, she started off as sort of that one semi-obscure Batman Villain that only “real fans” who loved the TV show knew about…then started to make her way into more mainstream recognition, slowly at first, and then suddenly with explosive intensity. She’s now got her own TV show, a couple of movies with her as the main character, and more comics than you can shake a stick at, not to mention numerous other adaptations in other media. For me, however, the version from the DCAU will always be the truest and greatest version of her character: the first and still the best. Harley was originally voiced by Arleen Sorkin, and the character was partially inspired by her, as well. I say “partially” because Harley’s truest inspiration – and this is most obvious in her earliest appearances – were the henchgirls that frequently popped up in the 1960s Batman TV Series. (In fact, there are at least two specific henchgirls who I am convinced directly influenced Harley’s character, since both seem almost identical to her.) Over time, the character became more fleshed out and really blossomed into a major player in her own right. In my opinion, the episode that OFFICIALLY settled Harley as a mainstay was this one: “Harlequinade.”

The plot begins with the Joker stealing a nuclear bomb, of all things, and then going into hiding. Knowing time is of the essence, Batman and Robin decide to team up with the person they know is closest to the Joker’s cold, black heart: Harley Quinn. Harley agrees to help the Dynamic Duo out in finding the Joker and dealing with the bomb, in exchange for an early release from Arkham Asylum. What follows is a wild, chaotic ride of hijinks and shenanigans, as the trio bounce around Gotham trying to track down the Joker, complete with a random musical number…yes really.

This, I feel, is the episode that really put Harley on the map. Before this, yes, we knew she was a fun character, and she had a lot of great lines and moments, but she was always in another person’s shadow, whether it be the Joker, Poison Ivy, or even both. This, the Honorable Mention “Harley’s Holiday,” and one other episode I’ll get to later in the countdown really solidified her as a proper character in her own right. We learn more about Harley in this story, with little hints to her backstory and a better idea of her philosophy and motivations. We also get a greater idea of her beyond just being a villain, as she proves to be a surprisingly capable helper and even shows signs of right thinking. She’s not as far gone as the Joker is, she has things she values and cares about that make her more human and sympathetic. You can really see this episode as the start of where Harley would go in later/more recent years, with her becoming less of a villainess and more of an anti-hero: a wild card who can’t always be trusted, but makes for a surprisingly great ally in a tight pinch. It’s not by any means the darkest or most complex story, nor even the greatest look into Harley’s mind and personality we ever got…but it’s a LOT of fun, and one of the main stories that helped to make Harley who she is now, for better or for worse.

Tomorrow we move on to Number 11! Hint: “Why don’t you show them what an overdose can do, Daggett? Why don’t you tell them about ME?!”

[lunar1an]

thinking a lot about wildbow's early works (worm, pact) and his more recent moralistic works (ward, pale) and the sheer difference in narrative empathy

in worm and pact you have characters who do fucked up things but it feels like a lot of effort is put into understanding the people behind them and where they're coming from. rachel's dogs maul people but there's a whole Arc of taylor learning to vibe with her and befriend her and of rachel getting what she needs (a place alone with her dogs where she can let other people in at her own pace) and growing as a person. all from the angle of 'this is genuinely good for rachel and helpful'. we want her to succeed because we care about her.

in pact we see how sandra duchamp grew up, how she's just as much a victim of her family as she is someone who perpetuates that harm, and while she's an antagonist the story doesn't spoonfeed it to us--we're allowed to see her human and sympathetic moments and we're allowed to feel bad for her while also wanting her stopped.

it felt. i don't know. like the story in general respected these characters, respected the reader's ability to empathize with those characters while also knowing Murder Bad or whatever.

but then the major worm fandom interpretations shifted. you had reddit and other popular sources going on about how taylor was actually horrible and an unreliable narrator, and how the undersiders were actually ~super fucked up and evil criminals~. pact and twig were spared this for the most part by virtue of being less popular with those crowds.

and i'm not sure if the morality discourse got baked into wildbow's brain by osmosis or if he felt like he wouldn't be appeasing his fandom if he didn't address it or what.

but by ward suddenly that narrative empathy, for the most part, is missing. it becomes conditional -- the protagonist and others do not extend empathy towards others until they Properly Recognize What They've Done Wrong. any improvement, any attempt to do better isn't legitimate unless the Bad Deeds are addressed and atoned for by whatever inconsistent standards the narrative adheres to. what matters isn't riley being in a healthier place and making connections--ward thinks that we should be rooting for riley because she recognizes she messed up and is constantly making up for the atrocities she committed.

i think it's kind of reached its peak in post arc 13 pale though. every time empathy is extended it's near-always accompanied by a patronizing little reminder of "mmmm, well you did Bad Things too".

you aren't allowed to just say "well damn i sympathize with charles", for example, because the narrative constantly reminds you that actually he is Still Doing Bad and therefore you aren't allowed to feel for him. it doesn't help that the story continually one-ups itself on thinking of ways to make charles over the top evil either.

but either way it's just. bleak. in a story purportedly about community building it's shockingly uncaring. you can't just sympathize with a morally grey character or take them As They Are without the story casting judgment and constantly reminding you of their verdict. it's just exhausting and makes any positive message the story tries to send feel hollow

OBLIGATORY NOTE: this essay does not mean "actually all fallen and e88 and etc should be empathized with". what it does mean is that in a moralistic work it becomes telling when ex-nazi rune gets her own interlude and a bunch of pagetime to show how she's 'doing better' while that same courtesy isn't extended to many villains who are traumatized and might have, say, legitimate reasons to not want to be arrested or feel like they have no other option, or legitimate reason to not support the heroes, but oh. they do Crimes so actually none of that matters as long as they're still Doing Crimes.

[allmightluver]

**bnha spoilers** I'm just sat here with renewed realisation of what All Might is going through. 40 years. /40 years/ he held and refined that power and dedicated his every waking (and sleeping if Vigilantes is anything to go by) moment towards the goal of defeating AfO and creating a society in which people could feel happy and safe. And now as it turns out AfO is still alive, society is broken and he has given a literal piece of his soul to this young boy leaving himself with only phantoms

Yes. I don’t think people quite grasp what all he’s going through.

It’s been shown recently to us that some, if not most, heroes have underlying ambitions in becoming a hero. Whether for money, glory, fame, popularity, doesn’t matter. They’re ultimately in it for themselves. Toshinori’s intentions from the beginning have been the most pure- he wanted to be a symbol that people can look to and know things will be ok. A symbol of hope. This boy was only around 14 years old when he decided this. What kind of 14 year old sees the world that clearly? Sees that people have no hope, that a veil of darkness covers them. The only thing I can think of is- Toshinori did not have a good childhood. Something had to have happened to a boy that young to stop seeing the joy in life so early, and see the world’s flaws. Truthfully, I believe he was an outcast- due to his quirklessness. Most likely an orphan, perhaps abandoned by his parents, as we’ve never seen him have any family. I do truly believe Toshinori has been alone all his life. I don’t doubt more could have happened to him as a child before he met Nana. 

Some may argue that Izuku is the same age, and therefore it shouldn’t be that hard to see why Toshinori wanted to be a hero at such a young age. BUT, Izuku had someone to look up to, ever since he was a child of four years old, to inspire him to be a hero his whole life *cough cough* All Might. Izuku also was quirkless, much like Toshinori, and an outcast because of it (hence where I assume Toshinori was much the same). But ultimately, Izuku wanted to save people because he saw his hero do it. It really wasn’t until Izuku was a bit older, has been in UA, has been on rescue missions, has seen what the heroes see, that I think he’s truly realized how dark the world really is. Toshinori didn’t have that. He didn’t have someone to inspire him as a child, someone to look up to, a hero to inspire him to help others. At that time, heroes hadn’t become as popular as they are in present times. Toshinori saw the world for what it was, on his own, at a tender age. I think that day Nana ran into this blonde hair kid, she eyed him up, noticed his scraggly form, looked into those captivating blue eyes, and saw a man who’s lived through the world’s horrors- experienced the worst it has to offer-, and wants to save everyone he can from the same fate, all in a 14 year old boy. 

Then after only a few short years with the woman he saw as his mother, she’s killed in front of him because of his own weakness- he wasn’t strong enough yet to protect her. The only other person his life, Gran Torino, literally abused him. He beat him to a pulp, taking his own emotions out on a teenager, and I doubt Toshinori said anything of it. He probably thought he deserved it. He’s still afraid of Gran Torino to this day, remembering the beatings and expecting more for his failures- even if he doesn’t know what they are surely he’s at fault for something, but he’s the only person who’s stood by his side for this long. Even while at a distance, and spouting nothing but criticisms along the way. But Toshinori had to put aside his own emotions to be that hope for everyone. He left everything he knew to go to a new country on his own, to learn how to be a hero, to be that hope for someone.

Vigilantes showed us just how hard he worked. Toshinori literally stayed awake with no sleep for days on end- 3 in the chapter I’m referencing- because people needed help, people needed saving, and no one else stepped up. He fought villains, rescued civilians, repaired damage, cleared rubble, (even accept and eat food that was against his dietary restrictions after his injury) whatever the public needed, all while draining himself further. He worked himself to the point of exhaustion because he had no help, once literally falling asleep while mid-leap across the city because he simply could go no further. 

^^These happen in succession of each other^^

No one stepped up to say “Hey, Mr. Number 1, you’ve been working hard lately. Let me help you!” No one tried to take over his position. Even the Number 2 hero, Endeavor, never tried to take some of his burden. His only goal was to try to be better than All Might in terms of power- he was never trying to be the hero that the people relied on All Might for. Everyone relied on him when things looked grim. He was the back up plan. And all of this happened before Toshinori’s injury. 

The only thing he ever wanted to do- help people- he can’t do (at least the way he’s always known how to). The ability to save people has been taken from him in the most gruesome way. He was finally able to fight the man that killed Nana, and in a rage that I’m sure echoed with all of the emotions of the previous users, he smashed that man’s head like a grape. But not without consequence. Several organs are gone. The pain is excruciating. He wears that man’s mark on his body for the rest of his life, never truly able to rid himself of the filth.

Then we have Nighteye’s betrayal. The man that helped him as a sidekick, the man that grew to be his only friend. Now some people may ask why Toshinori flipped like he did to Nighteye looking into his future when he was concerned about him making it through his injury. What I believe is Toshinori didn’t want to know when he would die (and really, who does). Now he knows he’s on a time limit, knows the clock is ticking. Time is running out to keep the world at peace, and with him as he is now, how long can this go on? 

I think the betrayal, doing something that Toshinori specifically asked him not to do, is what hurt the most. How can he trust Nighteye anymore? He already can only count on one hand the people he can trust, let alone befriend.

He’s wasted away into a skeleton, a shell of the man he used to be. He can’t over exert himself without his only lung bleeding in protest. It’s canon in the side books that he really doesn’t eat much, which isn’t good for his diet without a stomach now (he’s supposed to have several small meals a day). He is quite literally punishing himself by starving. (Granted, he doesn’t feel hunger anymore.) He’s a sick man, beyond medical help at this point. They can only stabilize him and hope for the best. For five years now he’s in constant pain, every day. He loses blood like sweat. Surely his veins are bruised and collapsed with how many times he would have needed to be hospitalized. Whether from losing too much blood, being too dehydrated or starved from “forgetting” to eat, or an organ failing as body continues to fall apart. “...even as my body rots and grows frail...” - Toshinori People are bound to stare at him as he walks down the street. A tall, willowy, skeleton with a grimace on his face and blood stains on his clothes as he coughs up more into his own hands. There would be the ones who outright ignore him when they walk by, the people who offer pitying smiles and sympathetic glances or just outright stare, and then ones who are afraid of his appearance- children screaming at the mere sight of him and running to their parents to hide from the monster. Each one is another knife in Toshinori’s side, an ache in his chest. If only they knew who I really am.

Losing Nighteye took a toll on his hero work as well. Mirai was a huge help in the past, and took care of all Toshinori’s paperwork, while also reminding him to take care of himself. Without him, Toshinori was even more buried beneath his responsibilities. Plus, now he was on a time limit. He even snapped briefly in his first meeting with Tsukauchi, accidentally revealing himself as All Might because he was under too much pressure, and telling the detective he literally couldn’t handle doing everything by himself (who graciously took over the paperwork side of things for him). 

He was living a double life now, having to lie to people left and right about who he was while in his small form, about how he became so sickly, why he was here in the first place who the heck is this skinny old guy. Surely he had multiple visits to the doctor while continuing to repair the damage done by AFO (there’s a limit to how much the body can handle at once. And things I’m sure continued to fail as time went on). Then he would be bedridden for as long as the doctors could keep him strapped to a bed, until he couldn’t take the people’s cries for help any longer, and would jump into action. (It’s also revealed he has something of a super hearing- able to hear danger- which may have been a form of danger sense of OFA that was never fully unlocked?. Either way, he surly could sense disasters happening while he could only lay and heal from his latest surgery. Those poor doctors must have had to re-stitch him several times). People blame him for not preparing society for his retirement, that he failed in passing on the torch so to speak, but in reality he did everything possible to keep society from falling for 40 years, doing all within his power just to keep things afloat. He is only one person. One human being, he can’t do everything despite trying to. Society failed All Might.

People blame him for not being a good teacher. He didn’t exactly have the greatest teacher himself to learn from. He’s never had to teach anyone anything, he just punches! He’s learning. And for his own credit, he’s an incredibly wise man, he has years of experience under his belt, and an intelligence score of 6/6, scoring up there with Nezu! He may not always have the right way to bring something up, but he’s doing his best. Yet even he blames himself for Izuku not being able to control his quirk better. Every time the boy hurts himself, it’s just another tally on the chalkboard of Toshinori’s failures. He himself knows the boy deserves better, better than him. Useless. Pathetic.

Then his friend from America, Dave, essentially became a villain trying to preserve Toshinori’s legacy after Toshinori told him about his injury. Dave went behind his back, threatened people, injured people (pretty sure people died), all for Toshinori’s sake. Something he didn’t want to begin with. Having to put your only other friend in jail for trying to help you surely couldn’t have been easy.

Oh, by the way? All For One isn’t dead. All Might will fight him again, publicly, have his weakened form exposed to the world, and have his own emotions toyed with as he finds out about his master’s grandson in the villain’s hands. Would Nana hate him for leaving her son alone like she’d asked, and dooming her grandchild to be raised by the greatest villain? Could he have done anything to save him? But Toshinori isn’t allowed to feel, he has to smile and push his own feelings aside once again, because there’s a villain to be fought, and only he can fight him. Despite coming out on top, he’ll have suffered severe head trauma, broken left arm, destroyed right arm, and several cuts and bruises that are sure to scar. And then, his quirk, the only thing that’s been allowing him to help people, the gift given to him that he carefully held for 40 years and molded into his own until his very consciousness was permanently carved into it, blows out like a match in the wind. And he’s done. Used up. Empty. Broken. Hollow. Alone, again.

He overhears his student, Bakugo, admit that he blames himself for All Might’s retirement. If he hadn’t been captured, All Might wouldn’t have had to save him, and he wouldn’t have had to fight AFO. Of course Toshinori knows that’s not true, his time was about to run out anyway. It would have happened one way or another. But how can he explain to this child that he wasn’t the cause of his hero, the world’s greatest hero, fighting for his sake, bleeding for his sake, being forced into retirement to keep him safe. Every time Bakugo sees the bandages covering Toshinori’s body is another reminder of the pain and sacrifice Toshinori willingly gave to keep him safe. Toshinori wasn’t held when his mentor died. He wasn’t told it was ok to be sad, that grief and mourning was a natural process, that it takes time to heal. He wasn’t told it was ok to cry. Instead his feelings were beaten out of him as he wondered if Gran Torino blamed him for Nana’s death. He already blamed himself How then, does he comfort a child mourning for him? For what he lost.

And then he gets the call to come to the hospital. Mirai, Nighteye, his old sidekick friend, has been gravely injured, much like he himself was only a few years ago, and most likely won’t survive the night. And to his horror, Nighteye is happy to see him, smiles at him, says he doesn’t hate him for what happened, only wants Toshinori to be happy. He can’t accept that, at least let him apologize, reconcile his sins before it’s too late! But it is. Another fractured piece of his heart gone.

Of course, seeing your students beat up and their arms completely destroyed must have hurt. Instead of being able to save these kids, they’re the ones that hurt themselves to save everyone else. And if Bakugo had kept OFA, things could have been very different (especially with what we know now of OFA and people with quirks). Toshinori wasn’t mad at Izuku for transferring it away, he’d never regret choosing Izuku, and I believe he still would have stayed by Izuku and Bakugo’s side should it have stayed in Bakugo, doing whatever he could to help.

As he tells Aizawa, “I’ve decided to live,” -that statement seems so melancholy, besides obvious reasons. It sounds more like another task he has to accomplish. He didn’t die he was supposed to die with the AFO fight, and now the whole life he lived is over. The world has no use for him anymore. If not for Izuku, he’d have nothing left keeping him here. But because his boy made him promise to live, he’ll do so. Though it almost seems like he says those words with regret. “I’ve decided to live.” Not, “I’m going to live!” “Nothing can kill me!” “I won’t go down without a fight!” No. “I’ll live if I have to, only because you asked me to.” The man is obviously and outwardly depressed. He has so many things against him. No doubt has severe PTSD, anxiety, among others. Not to mention his own physical health. Every day hurts. It’s painful to be alive. Why would he torture himself if he doesn’t have to? For you, my boy. You’re the only thing keeping me here. The only light in my dark world.

He tries to help Izuku find out the previous holder’s quirks, to help his boy in any way he can now that he’s worthless, and goes days on end without sleep, running his body into the ground. He even forgets Christmas. Only to find that by giving the boy the same gift he had received, he may have just doomed him to an early death, among psychological torture (danger detection). (Granted, he really doesn’t know how everything works, and he’s afraid to talk to anyone about it). His boy could live only half a life.

It’s only been a few months since he retired, and society has fallen into shambles. People are blaming him. People are dying. He watches helplessly as his colleague fight his fight for him, and end up battered, bruised, crippled, dead. He students, his boy, battle the monster he should have killed. Children are bleeding. This shouldn’t happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Is everything he worked for, everything he fought to protect, to build up, to inspire, is all for naught?! Did he live a foolish dream and doom the world? Was all the the friends he lost, tears he shed, the organs he destroyed, the pain he endures on a daily basis from the hole in his side, and the blood he continues to bleed every day, for nothing? The public, the ones he protected for so long, mourn his absence, but surely there are those among them who also blame him. The statue from his last fight in Kamino one that he never asked for was decimated in a mock of his catch phrase- the one that was supposed to give hope.

Now he can feel his own vestige speaking with Izuku in the OFA realm, even with out OFA in his own body anymore. His clock as nearly reached it’s limit, Nighteye’s prediction is due any day now. The only thing he wants is to see his boy smile at him, to give him some shred of hope. Yet the child remains unconscious, and Toshinori can’t even hold his hand from the bandages covering his arms. Will he still be able to fight? Is there any coming back from this now? Did I break him?

With all Toshinori has been through, I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen him just outright break down. Anyone, anyone, else should have crumbled under the pressure of holding up the world for 40 years alone. And instead of being able to pass it on to someone when he can no longer bear its weight, it simply falls to into the abyss. People don’t credit All Might enough for everything he’s done. Most don’t realize the sacrifices he’s made. His character is so unbelievably profound and deep, it’s more than just the “I am here!” people focus on. He’s a deeply troubled, layered, complex character. And I can’t find fault within him.

[esther-dot]

I agree with the anon who was agreeing with the anon (ha!) that we shouldn't use a character's trauma to diminish or excuse their actions and crimes, but I want to point out that our corner of the fandom can be guilty of this, too. Cersei and Lysa's trauma is often held up as more important than the trauma of other villains, as if they somehow deserve more compassion and leniency for their crimes than the others, which is something I disagree with (certainly they don't deserve more hatred or criticism than the other villains either). For that matter, and I know this will be an extremely controversial thing to say, but I also think we sometimes cross the line into using Catelyn's trauma over Bran's accident to diminish the cruelty of what she said to Jon ("Well it was just that one time, and she was so tired and upset..."). I'm not saying any of this to make anyone feel bad. Our corner of the fandom is loving and kind and usually makes a sincere effort to be fair. But we're human, and we have our own biases, and sometimes we can unwittingly slide into the same behaviours that are so frustrating to see in the rest of the fandom. It takes vigilance and the occasional honest self-examination to make sure we don't become like them.

In summary, we should have compassion for all abuse victims, including the ones we dislike, and we should at the same time be careful not to use that compassion to excuse the actions of the villains we do like. And last but not least, Sansa fans are wonderful, my beloveds.

Sansa fans are wonderful! 💗

I received several responses to that post and another one also pointed out what they felt was hypocrisy in how we respond to Cersei’s abuse in comparison to other villains, so, you’re not alone in your feelings! (@ my other anon, I will respond to you as well, so look away or don’t spontaneously combust when you read this 😬)

I’ll just say again, it’s very difficult to respond to asks like this because I have such a different impression of what Sansa fans do, I am either reading the same thing and taking it in a totally different way, or I am just not seeing the content that is troubling you. In general, I think that we have to think about the author’s purpose in writing what he does and also the purpose of the fan when reading what they write. As in, is the author saying, “here is why this person is behaving this way” or is the author condoning that behavior? Fans disagree on that a lot. Is the fan writing the meta saying, “yes, Cersei and Lysa are villains, but let’s all acknowledge how they were mistreated” or are they saying “...and because I sympathize they are no longer villains.”

When I think about what I’ve seen written about Cersei and Lysa, it’s trying to push against the fandom, and even against the author at times, and say, “these women deserve sympathy too. It doesn’t change who they are, but their past should allow us to see their humanity.” Sympathy is the end goal. My issue with the fandom at large is that they go further and want to use sympathy to argue something else, want to move, say, the Hound from one role and shift him into another. Suddenly, sympathy means pretending he didn’t assault Sansa, he wasn’t a threat, she didn’t think he might kill her. I don’t feel like it’s more important to sympathize with Cersei than the Hound, I just don’t have an issue with sympathizing with her when that’s all anyone asks, but I do have a problem that half the fandom rewrote who the Hound is because they sympathized. To me, that is a radically different thing to do.

Now that you mention it, I can see how my resentment of how fans woobified the Hound (and therefore rewrote Sansa’s story and denied her trauma), means I do dislike discussing his trauma because I know how it is used by the fandom. I suppose my reaction means that I have a much higher tolerance for reading takes that are incredibly sympathetic to Cersei, because I know where that begins and ends, her story isn’t being distorted beyond recognition, we all get it. But, I do see how that can begin to feel like we’re giving more weight to her trauma than another character, so I’ll keep that in mind.

But something for people who share your concerns to remember is that, the discussion of how women are treated in Westeros interests a lot of us so we hone in on that more than specific acts of violence. It isn’t that we think their trauma is more important exactly, it’s part of a discussion overall that we’re interested in. The series is quite violent, most characters have suffered violence, but I think our corner likes to talk about the suffering of women, specifically, likely as an extension of our real life concerns. I don’t talk about the physical abuse Sansa suffered as much as I do her forced marriage. That’s objectively weird if I were interested in weighing suffering against suffering, and deciding who has the greatest trauma, but it’s a specific kind of terror for women to lose bodily autonomy, to be married off or forced to have children or forced to undergo an abortion on the whim of the man who happens to be in charge of you at the time. I’m guessing that’s why certain forms of abuse/trauma preoccupy us. We’re interested in a larger conversation that drives some of what we’re examining in ASOIAF.

Something that draws me in to certain villains rather than others is that I always liked feminist criticism of literature, so taking a story and looking at it in the most compassionate way you can to the female villain, is a path I’m very used to. This applies to Cersei and Lysa, not really Dany as much because the author and the fandom already is very sympathetic to her. Of course, I have always been very responsive to female suffering in entertainment, so I truly feel for Dany, in spite of what she does. Reading about this little girl being abused and raped, the loss of her child, her desire  for home…I feel for her in a way that I don't for Tyrion or the Hound. That doesn’t change the fact that I think she’s done bad things and will do more bad things, it just means there are facets to her and my experience reading her. When I read about Cersei being forced to marry, her grief for her children...I feel for her. I like those facets to who she is, and I appreciate people talking about them.

I did a whole long post about the Catelyn and Jon scene which of course, I can't find now, and I think it's one of those instances when we're meant to feel for both characters. People like to pick sides, it's so instinctive it's a marketing ploy to pit two things against each other to drive sales, so we really have to put effort into looking at all the realities that exist in any given scenario, not just the one of the POV character. To me, the point of that scene was the grief and pain of each, they pain they feel over Bran, the pain they cause each other, their shared love for Bran that could and should connect them, but it doesn’t, because of the situation, their society. Because the reality of Cat’s world and the very real threat Jon is to her children (not because he would ever hurt him, we know he wouldn’t), isn’t widely recognized as a valid thing, people miss the entirety of Cat’s perspective, and the fact that the story isn’t a straight up condemnation of her concerns/feelings. In that specific scene, Cat’s words were cruel, but Martin didn’t intend for the fandom to react the way they did and declare Cat abusive and hate her. (I think he’s far more forgiving of certain things than we are, so I try to remind myself of that.) And, it’s important to the story that Jon is unwanted in Winterfell although he is a beloved brother to most of the Starks. It’s important to the story that his longing for his mother is near the surface, a never satisfied need, even though he’s part of a family with a devoted, caring mother. There are reasons Martin wrote the Cat and Jon interaction the way he did to communicate things to the reader and lay groundwork for other things, and I really don’t think the takeaway was ever meant to be what the fandom has settled on which seems to be: that bitch.

So, I guess the issue here is, sometimes the fandom wants to argue right/wrong when we’re meant to be asking how the author is using this? Why was this included? Do we approve of the author’s choice? Even, we don’t like this so this is what should have happened! And depending on what you’re focusing on or think the next person is arguing, we come to very different conclusions about the characters or about each other based on how we speak about the characters.

Again, I’m flying blind here because I really don’t know the examples you’re thinking of, possibly it was my post about Cat! But, even though I don’t feel that what you described accurately reflects my experience in our fandom, I am going to keep your perspective in mind, as I know I have my own tendencies that predispose me in one direction. I prefer villains where the threat is something other than molestation/sexual assault. That means, even though I know Cersei is a villain, I know she does bad things, in the Sansa context (which is mostly how I view other characters), I find it much easier to deal with Cersei, because I'm not sitting here panicked the entire time. Since the threat she is to Sansa isn't as upsetting to me, I can be more sympathetic. However, now that you’ve mentioned the issue regarding how we treat her, I will try to be self-aware.

I absolutely agree that the author wants us to be sympathetic to all these characters and that, “Our corner of the fandom is loving and kind and usually makes a sincere effort to be fair.” --they really are and do! I have had so much fun in this corner of the fandom.

Thank you for the message, anon. <3

anon this anon is agreeing with

first anon on the abuse victim issue

[serpenteve]

why we ship darklina

an essay literally no one asked for

Nobody needs a "reason" to ship Darklina. But considering this is a villain x hero pairing, it got me thinking about why we shipped it in the first place when the narrative and author so badly wanted us to root for the more sensible alternative pairing and why it became the most popular ship of the entire trilogy.

Personally, I find it really interesting (and low-key hilarious) that a lot of the reasons shippers gravitated towards Darklina can be directly traced back to how badly Bardugo bungled Alina's character arc, Mal's entire characterization and narrative role, Nikolai's wasted potential as an alternative love interest, and the noble intentions she gives the the Darkling.

Alina's Character Arc

Alina's character arc doesn't match who she is as a character. I've written more about that in this post, but a lot of readers were introduced to a passive and insecure protagonist who we were expecting to undergo a typical YA coming-of-age character arc where Alina acquires self-acceptance, confidence, and embraces the full breadth of her powers over the course of the trilogy. Instead, Bardugo gave Alina the kind of character arc that's usually deserved for power-hungry anti-heroines or tragic heroes with a fatal flaw to punish.

The plot offers a strange binary: either Alina suppresses and hides her powers and therefore stays away from descending into villainy OR Alina attempts to find Morozova's amplifiers in order to defeat the Darkling but then becomes corrupted by power in the process. Alina's journey to self-acceptance and exploring her own powers are unfortunately entangled with her relationship with the Darkling. The only way she is allowed to move forward through the plot is to succumb to the corrupting influence of the amplifiers.

For better or for worse, the first character to really embrace her powers instead of thinking she's a fraud or that she's weak or that she's an unholy abomination is the Darkling. He's the first person to recognize her power for what it is and accurately judge its potential and implications for the rest of the world. He advocates for her in front of the royal court, in front other Grisha who think she's weak, and even against Baghra who is initially a very ill-tempered mentor with little to no faith in Alina's abilities. He even rather ironically advocates for her even when the heroic person who's supposed to be supporting her (Mal) does not.

At the start of her journey, Alina is insecure and in constant need of assurance and validation. The Darkling's role as her mentor and guide into this unfamiliar world of Grisha makes him the perfect advocate not only for her powers but also to help Alina see her place in the world. However, once he is revealed to be the villain, Alina also fails to realize that it's time for her to advocate for herself and throws the baby out with the bathwater.

Mal's Characterization & Narrative Role

When Alina loses the Darkling as an advocate in S&B, Mal steps up to take this role. Alina is still rather passive for the majority of the first book and it's Mal who originally wants her to have Morozova's stag as an amplifier if it will mean being able to stand against the Darkling. Bardugo intended for him to be a heroic love interest as a foil to the villainous love interest and I believe she mostly succeeds for the first book.

However, because this is a story about punishing Alina's "evil ambition" (despite there being very little evidence of that) Mal is supposed to serve as a voice of reason in the narrative. Once Alina considers the necessity of acquiring more amplifiers to defeat the Darkling, it is Mal's role to warn her of the potential consequences, to remind her of her inner humanity, and to ward against the corrupting influence of Morozova's amplifiers. Mal's declarations that he wants back the old girl he knew without any power is meant to drive an ideological wedge between them, yes, but he's also meant to be Correct™ because, again, Bardugo is writing a story about a corrupted power-hungry heroine who goes too far and needs to be punished rather than the arc we were all expecting and the one that Alina's character needs: a coming-of-age story of self-acceptance and personal growth.

Some point after the backlash of Siege & Storm, Bardugo seems to have become aware of her mistake and attempts to scrub Mal's character to be more sympathetic. There is a bizarre exchange half-way through the third book when Mal finally declares:

"I wasn't afraid of you, Alina. I was afraid of losing you. The girl you were becoming didn't need me anymore, but she's who you were always meant to be."

This is an interesting line because it's a complete reversal of Mal's narrative role so far. He's supposed to be her voice of reason that opposes her at every turn but readers interpreted him as being resentful of Alina's powers and angry that she was no longer dependent on him. Bardugo is forced to retcon Mal's entire role in the narrative from being a voice of reason that opposes Alina's quest for power to a supportive friend who will fight by her side. But this was never her initial intention and I believe this change was brought on 100% by audience reaction because she failed to understand the arc her heroine needed and the kind of story her audience was anticipating for such a character.

Needless to say, having your heroine's main love interest actively resent her quest for power until half-way through the third damn book did not endear many readers to Mal. Because Bardugo failed to understand the kind of character development her heroine needed and failed to understand audience expectations, we hated Mal. He became the embodiment of every toxic chauvinist we'd ever met who can't stand the idea of his partner's success and feels entitled to be the center of her universe. He was not the voice of reason. He was an annoying gnat hellbent on dragging the heroine down and away from her destiny. We did not want to root for him. Even the villain was more sympathetic than him because he could bring her closer to achieving the self-acceptance the narrative was obsessed with denying her.

Nikolai's Wasted Potential as a Solid Love Interest

Nikolai plays several roles in Alina's journey but most importantly in our discussions for why we ended up shipping Darklina, his entire potential as a serious love interest is wasted.

When we meet Nikolai, we have hitched our wagons to the Darklina train because despite being the villain, the Darkling is the only one who will allow the heroine to accept her powers and come into her own. Her heroic love interest, Mal, is actively sabotaging her efforts and holding her back from her true potential. But then, in swoops Nikolai and we pause, wondering if there may be a better heroic alternative after all?

In a lot of ways, Nikolai and the Darkling alike: they are eager for Alina's power and see her as a solution to all their problems. They may want to use Alina to prop up their own agendas, but unlike Mal, Alina's summoning powers are a massive plus, not a burden. Nikolai is the heroic alternative to our villainous Aleksander. So we wait, wondering if Nikolai will be the one to fix this mess of a romantic subplot. His royal connections offer an easy path to upwards mobility for our heroine and we sense that an alliance between them (even if it's initially political in nature) may bring our heroine closer to obtaining more power, influence, and self-acceptance not only for herself, but also for the oppressed minority she is a part of.

But, again, Bardugo is still obsessed with that "punish the heroine for wanting power" agenda so while Nikolai exists as another mentor figure who offers Alina advice on how to rule, how to appeal to other people, how to charm, how to win people over, and Alina learns and applies much of what she learns from him, he is not treated as a real love interest.

Despite Nikolai being written as a fairy tale prince (handsome, charming, smart as a whip, brave in battle, etc) Alina never actually considers him romantically. They are friends and allies at best and the only time she considers kissing him is only when she's pissed about Mal.

Nikolai's proposal at the end of Ruin & Rising feels like one last saving grace, one last opportunity for our heroine to take control of her life and make a dramatic change to break from the past. But this too is rejected because Alina's arc will never let her access any power. She does not reject Nikolai because she wants to marry for love. She rejects him because she has been "punished" for wanting power and has internalized that she must not seek any more power for fear of angering the plot gods (and Bardugo). She must return to being nobody in order to remain a good and moral person.

(And, of course, we resent Mal even more because who in their right mind would choose him over Nikolai? Once again, he becomes a roadblock on our heroine's journey to power. We grow irritated that the heroine is failing to grasp an opportunity to elevate herself. We throw the book against the wall. Why are we even following this heroine?)

The Darkling's Motivations

Still, all of the above might still not have been enough to pull the reader to the villain's side. But the Darkling is the living embodiment of Villain Has A Point™. He is not pure unadulterated evil. He is not Lord Sauron or Voldemort or the Terminator.

He's more Magneto, Roy Batty, or Ozymandias---a man who is part of an oppressed minority who longs for justice and power but is absolutely unhinged in his methods.

Alina runs away because she does not want to be a non-consenting weapon in hands. But we always end up wondering what would have happened had Baghra not warned her. What would have happened if Alina gladly joined the Darkling's side? There's hundreds of fanfics written precisely about this situation because despite the villainy of his methods, we wonder if Ravka might not have been safer after all?

If the Darkling had used the Fold as a weapon against Fjerda and Shu Han, would any of the problems Ravka faces in the later books even exist? Would any Grisha fall victim to the khergud programs or be killed as witches? The Darkling wipes out Novokribirsk and kills hundreds of lives, but how many would he have saved with the Fold as Ravka's greatest shield and sword? 🤷🏽‍♀️

And therein lies the problem with the trilogy inconsistent moral landscape. The Darkling is an anti-villain that exists in a narrative that is very black and white, unlike the rest of the books in the Grishaverse where our protagonists are anti-heroes who kill, steal, and torture their way through the plot with nary a judgmental glance from the narrative. We long to see our heroine give in to her dark side and get her hands dirty because watching a naive, passive, scared little girl grow into a ruthless powerful Grisha would have made for a hell of a compelling story.

But that's not the story Bardugo wanted to tell.

The Greg Trilogy

Despite taking place in a fantasy Tsartist setting, the Grisha trilogy is oddly anti-Grisha. The narrative doesn't spend much time trying to examine the context or implications of an oppressed minority group fighting for power other than to say "magic powers = evil". Nikolai skates by on a throne of inherited wealth, privilege, and imperialism but it's okay because he's charming and witty and the only monstrous part of him is the Darkling's curse. Literally everything is worse for Ravka and their Grisha after the destruction of the Fold but Ravka must move forward into a new age without relying on Grisha power but putting their efforts into new muggle technologies. Alina must be stripped of her powers and returned to her "old self" in order to be purged of evil.

Basically, it's all one gigantic ✨ dumpster fire ✨ of mismatched character arcs, incompatible moral aesops, inconsistent characterizations, wasted potential, unexamined plot points but it's a a dumpster fire we lovingly and spitefully embrace in fanfic.

We don't ship Alina with the Darkling because we're stupid abuse apologists who somehow missed the giant flashing moral aesop of the books---and honestly, who could have possibly missed them when it's shoved in the reader's face every other chapter? We ship Alina with the Darkling because the entire ship is the embodiment of wasted potential (and wasted ✨aesthetics✨ tbqh 👀). We ship Alina with the Darkling because we're sick and tired of stories where female power is demonized. We ship Alina with the Darkling because the plot gave us literally no other alternative to see our heroine succeed except to give in to her alleged villainy.

But most of all, people ship Darklina because Leigh Bardugo utterly failed in writing the story she intended to write because had she succeeded, Darklina would not be the most popular ship of the trilogy.