#very clearly showing that they understand the reasons why and even show why it *isnt* the case

[irohsteaa]

is it me or I think there is some misogyny within the monster fandom..i mean people treat Eva and Vera as the worst people in the wolrd when I can think of much worser characters,and they boil down Nina to "a nice girl" and ignore all her complexities,symbolism and narrative importance and say "she isnt that well developed and not important to plot"

Misogyny certainly plays a role here, it's esp. evident with how the fandom treats Eva (esp. before she grew as a character; and even after she grows, it's mostly about "she stopped harassing Tenma" and her relationship with Martin, while the more important thing here (imo)—how she started to take care of herself and stopped defining herself through the men in her life—is underdiscussed).

But I think it'd be reductive to say that the way the audience sees the women in Monster is only a result of misogyny; I think a crucial aspect here is the way the female characters are written and how they're treated by the male cast.

I think it's one of the many traps laid by Urasawa, traps that are very easy to fall into (which is perfectly understandable with a complex work filled with so many characters). I also fell into them: my first reaction to Eva was "oh, here we go again, female characters written by dudes" (yeah, Monster taught me to stop yapping about shit without 1) finishing it 2) looking at it carefully, because the devil is the details).

So what exactly are the traps built of?

Cliches

Subtle characterization and/or an apparent lack of information that shows in, for example, the namelessness or very little time on screen.

The fact that a large part of the story is the lack of a story.

Ad 1. I think a big part of Monster is the way it plays with cliches (and it does so boldly; it isn't afraid to introduce us to the most overused cliches and turn them into little storytelling gems), so of course there're also many female character cliches: the love interests, the damsels in distress, the naive & clueless woman, etc.

And when you don't pay attention, it's easy to think that these cliches are everything that can be told about these characters. When we stop here, we miss so many details that reveal the more complex character behind these cliches.

Ad 2. I think Nina is a perfect example of how the subtle characterization can leave many people thinking that she's underdeveloped, irrelevant to the plot, and just an addition to Tenma and Johan.

We also don't have access to her direct point of view, but I don't think it's necessary here and I think we don't have access to it for a very good reason; women are still seen mainly as caregivers, as people who serve others, and are socialized to be nice from a very young age. This can lead to ignoring one's own needs and, in consequence, losing yourself.

And Nina is a character who fits into this role perfectly; she's often shown serving others, bringing kindness where it's needed, being a beam of hope, etc. She's also very often overshadowed by her brother; she's referred to by other characters as "Johan's sister", as if this was the most important information about her.

Heck, Johan even takes away from her the monster title; the reasons behind it are, of course, ambiguous, but it doesn't change the fact that it was her who was kidnapped to the Red Rose Mansion and it was her whose memories were taken away.

And she's clearly upset when Johan tells her that it is his story to tell.

One of my favorite examples of her subtle characterization is the fact that in the beginning of the story, she wants to be a public prosecutor, and by the end, she wants to be a lawyer. It seems like a small change, but it tells a lot about how much her worldview changed.

When it comes to the namelessness and the little time on screen, a good example of it would be Věra. Please keep in mind that we only learn about her possible name in Another Monster; why do I say it's only possible? Because the only source of this name is one person interviewed by Weber, and the person identified Věra via a sketch. I wouldn't call this the most reliable source.

But let's get back to the main topic; what's the reason behind both the lack of a name and the little time on screen? It's Bonaparta.

Bonaparta doesn't let us see much of her, he doesn't let us learn her real name. But even when we see so little of her, we can still see someone compelling and complex, we see a wide range of emotions, we see her determination, we see who she could be if it wasn't for her circumstances, we see her deep guilt and fragility by the end of the story, we see someone who Bonaparta initially dismissed ("you are a funny woman" etc.) only to end up obsessed with her.

But since it's only a matter of a few panels and she's mainly discussed by other characters as the mother of the twins, it's easy for the audience to a) see her as a bad mother, b) think she's unfairly treated by the manga.

I don't think she's treated unfairly by the manga, I think she's one of the most important characters in Monster and it isn't merely because she's the mother of the twins, it's because we can see so much of her in other Monster characters: in the nameless, the dismissed, the robbed of a better future, the reduced to a certain role, all the characters we simply do not know a thing about their minds and that quite possibly, behind the awful clichés, there were in them gardens and twilights, and palace gates.

(I tried to stop myself from babbling about Lolita, but it's not my fault the quote fits so well here.)

Ad 3. I mentioned the lack of the story partially in Ad 2., but there are so many other examples: the little girl who lives with Hugo Bernhardt, Richard Braun's daughter and wife, Lunge's daughter and wife (the difference between how Richard sees his family vs. how Lunge sees his family is shown in the narration as well), Martin's mother and girlfriend etc.

Thanks for the ask! ‎(^人^)

[rosethreeart]

im gonna be honest but your response to being told that your china's features dont look very asian is kind of wild, especially considering op was an asian person. Like, the fact a non-asian creator received criticism by an affected minority and basically told them that they were wrong about how their own ethnic background looks is kind of insane?? Especially when like, they offered advice on how to make it look more accurate. I know that your intentions likely weren't to do that and you were just being defensive because,,,, who isn't when accused of racism, (like i feel you) but I think you need to realise that there's nothing that screams "I don't care what minorities think" more than... effectively telling a POC you know what their people look like more than they do. Really, all it took was being open to criticism, and being willing to play around with his features to see if they could be adjusted (hm,,, maybe make the eyes less centred so they dont look so heavy set, go a little easier on those very obvious eyelids, etc) to look more asian instead of the artistic version of skull measuring (/J) lolol. Anyways thats just my two cents

I might sound a bit incoherent or blunt but I just have a migraine and this day has NOT been good /gen

As I stated before I 100% understand where people were coming from in regards to it and that I don't take the issue of whitewashing/making things eurocentric lightly and that I do take care to make characters look like the ethnicities they belong to.

Sometimes things look wonky! Shit happens!!

Quite frankly I was being defensive but to go ahead and once again assume ill intent and that that defense was some "I know better than you" rhetoric is exactly why I was defensive in the first place.

someone pointed an issue out, I said that I have that noted for future reference and that this was very clearly a one off issue, and that Im also showing that the sketch was poorly positioned but the lower nose bridge is still present and that bad faith and bad intentions should not always be assumed. Honestly this should have really just been a one and done move on situation especially for a sketch I did in less than five minutes.

I'm also just extremely 3-Dimensional in the way in which I think when it comes to the art process which is why I included the drawings not because of some weird "skull measuring" thing (which wouldn't even have made sense in the context anyways and honestly wild to even accuse someone of doing). I just could not word it without writing out an essay or some incomprehensible word vomit. I was just using a tactic commonly found in animation where you use "onion skins" to find the next breakdown/inbetween in the sequence to help show how he would have looked like from a front facing perspective with a neutral facial expression.

I'm not saying that I don't care or that I know more than them, and that is actually pretty close to the opposite of what I said verbatim!

I just felt the need to note that the features I showed are valid features and that simply reducing all people of east asain decent into having the same exact face (or just nose) shape is weird especially considering how much diversity there is. There are a wide variety of features in China and to go ahead and say that only ONE of them is valid and should be depicted is something that SHOULD receive push back not matter any previous context, which is what I was pointing out in the first place.

[sleepatterns]

today has been. hnngngnfhskakdhhhhhh so many weird feelings and not fun thoughts. things our mom said to us + going back to grandparents house was a weird combination. also the conversation we had with our mom had the exact Opposite effect of what she was intending i think because wow holy shit we feel so so fucking awful

[almalvo]

About An Official Spiderverse Artist...

Please do not just scroll past this post; read it.

If you guys follow me on twitter, you probably already know.

But if you dont or still want to read this anyway - here you go:

I aint big, but I got a growing platform that I see as important for me to use as a force for things that matter.

So here I am.

And I got something to say about a certain "artist".

There are so many fucked up people who call themselves artists who are so heavily worshipped by us who both get and or dont get outed in the world for things they do and for their general piss-poor behaviours and persons.

Im here to talk about one in particular (and certainly wont be the last).

There is an artist that basically EVERYONE here has seen art from before, printed in the official Sony artbooks too.

If you have seen this:

Then you have seen this artist before.

His name is Alberto Mielgo. He goes by @/pinkman_himself on twitter.

He is a HUGE part of the art direction and stylisation of the spiderverse movies, if that isnt already obvious. Because he was the former original art director of Into The Spiderverse.

Yes. Former.

Cuz he got "mYsTeRiOuSlY fiReD" from Sony 2 years into pre-production and completely removed from the project.

You may have also seen this character before:

Yes. THAT asian character from Netflix's Love Death + Robots, from the episode "The Witness".

Familiar? Yeah. Because this episode was also made by the same guy, Mielgo.

I aint going to talk about what happens in that episode and hesitate to encourage anyone to watch it - cuz all it basically is is a megalo-misogynistic, assault "glorified for the sake of aRtT", racially fetishised showcase of this crazy makeup/haired bdsm stereotyped asian girl sex worker who essentially gets murdered over and over and over after running for her life completely naked through the city for all of us to see for some fucking reason.

BUt yeah anyways, you can see it in the first pic, but Ill put it here to show more clearly - this here is NOT the character from LDR. But I can understand why you might think so:

Yeah. You read that name in the bottom right corner correctly. This is Peni Parker. His concept art of Peni Parker. A 13 YEAR OLD CHILD. Lookin suspiciously like and dressed as the adult person from LDR with ALSO the crazy hair, make up - WITH AN O-RING CHOKER AND BALL-GAG LIPSTICK (BDSM).

13. year. old. child.

This man only sees east asian women this way.

He likes them crazy, sexy, broken--

and young.

Cuz this man also wrote this on a now-deleted post on his website:

Yeah. He, this whole ass middle-aged white cishet male spaniard thirstin for kids since he was 18 for 12 year old girls.

Cuz 12 year old girls are a fuckin "KNOCK OUT" when they grow up, when they ripen up into adulthood, to this man Alberto Mielgo, aka @/pinkman_himself, this creature.

And if auctioning NFTs isnt bad enough (cuz yes, ofc he does that too - its literally the first option on his website) -

His entire fucking portfolio is of drawing women he had sex with.

His fucking PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO is all of painting and drawing women in very compromising, questionable ways of the VERY SAME WOMEN HE HAD SLEPT WITH THROUGH HIS LIFE.

They look as creepy as they are.

But the scariest part?

While I myself had only just found out about this some days ago as of writing this, some of us have known about this man and his antics for years.

And he keeps getting greenlit by the industry, over and over and over; winning awards, getting respected, praised, admired, even by fellow at-home artists like many of you out there if you dont already do so.

And nothing will happen to him cuz he is a white cishet male artist who has money and a following and connections and influence and power.

So yeah.

I just wanted to talk about a certain official Spiderverse artist to just let yall know there are freaks everywhere, and that no matter how small it is, it's people like me and you who need to do what we can to keep up awareness and warn our communities and protect our most vulnerable.

My suggestion is to take heed of what I said, ask questions about everything you will ever see again from anyone around you, no less the industry, THINK for once, and actually give a fuck.

Keep away.

Do not support this man.

But the decision is ultimately yours.

Stay awake, yall.

-------

(His face, publicly available as his imdb profile):

scary.

[olderthannetfic]

I always see people who have never been antis, talking about/questioning how some antis even ARE antis when you look at their taste in media - ie the ever famous joke of "Hannigram is #problematique" "but it's a show where he eats people" or whatever.

I thought I'd weigh in as someone who could, hypothetically, be called an ex-anti (which, thankfully, nothing ever really came out of it - it was just very 2014 keyboardwarrior-esque behavior of me being a chronically online young adult who would share posts in a group chat making fun of certain shippers, or reblog posts about how 50shades is The Most Problematic Media Ever to exist -- basically I was an anti with anti-lines of thoughts, but i never, like, a ran a Shipping Discourse Blog or whatever)

For me, personally, it was a few different things. I can now see how it's incredibly hypocritical that teenaged me shipped Light/L, while still thinking that Dramione was Bad And Abusive. It ultimately boiled down to a) being pretentious, and b) just not understanding media or what proshippers REALLY believed, with a side of c) not realizing that nuance exists. like i was pretty late to join tumblr, I think I immigrated here during PEAK "yourfaveisproblematic" era which definitely did have an impact on my opinions and my tastes.

to elaborate, a.) being pretentious. i mean this one just kinda goes without saying. "I engage in media in a way more intellectual way than you do, don't you know that? You're a filthy and disgusting person who writes Snape/Hermione because you're an actually disgusting pedophile IRL who would probably date your own student that you're abusing if you could. Meanwhile, I'm a very smart, good, and pure person. When I read Uncle Vernon/Harry, I'm doing it in a G-d honoring whump way that clearly condemns abuse, incest, and rape. Unlike YOU who only writes harmful stuff as a way to get people off :/"

(as an aside, i think this line of thinking will ALWAYS be present in fandom and popculture in some way, sadly. ie the recent trend of people hating on booktok bc the books are 'trashy' and how these porn addicts should read real classic literature instead.)

as for b.), not understanding media - i cannot emphasize enough that i was GENUINELY stupid and disconnected enough to think that proshippers REALLY WERE pro-All Of The Degenerate Dead Doves That They Wrote.

why did i feel this way? why did i understand that Lolita clearly isnt pro-pedophilia, but for some reason i thought that someone shipping weecest was? well, first of all, i think that fanfiction is (generally) seen as Less Serious than classic literature, and fandom is a fun place, so i guess i somehow thought that every fanfic/fanartist who wrote Problematic Things, especially Problematic Things that they portrayed as Sexy, really DID enjoy the thought of that Actually Happening To Real People.

and i think THIS is the bulk of why antis ARE antis. i'm not calling them all stupid - i do think BEING an anti is stupid, but at the same time, there are people who are truly smart and good-intended people who just have some really off color opinions about, like, homestuck ships or whatever. Lawlight is okay because notebooks that kill people don't exist so it's IMPOSSIBLE for the Harmful Aspects of Light/L to be romanticized! but schoolyard prejudiced bullies DO exist and are a REAL problem so Drarry is BAD (*truly completely unaware of the fact that there's 'realistic' aspects of the Light/L dynamic and 'unrealistic' aspects of Drarry - such as, for example, Hogwarts arguably being even MORE of a fantasy setting than DN is.*) I know that media literacy is the hot buzzword of the year to throw around in 2024, but, like, i really did not have media literacy.

as for c.), not realizing nuance exists - ok "nuance" might not be the best word here, but i dont know how else to describe it. like, each time ive typed the word "problematic" out in this ask, i've done so in a very tongue in cheek/ironic/retroactive way, but, like, those posts about how Everything Is Problematic, Including Your Fave ARE true. and i didn't like the fact that my favorite media or favorite person might've Made A Mistake! i need to Talk About Its Issues Because I'm So Betrayed That My Dear Sweet Comfort Media Would Do This To Me. I Need To Prove I Clearly Condemn It.

like, i legit morally could not justify reblogging a twilight post without adding in the tags '#this is my guilty pleasure it sucks that the books were so racist though' or whatever. Most people were lucky enough to avoid that line of thinking, but there was an actual group of people who felt a genuine need to virtue signal all the time, partly bc, hey, they WERE passionate about talking abt #issues in media, but also bc of a subconscious fear of If You Reblog A Singular Piece Of Hetalia Fanart, You're Literally A Nazi And Will Get A Callout Post Written About You.

and during all of this i was at the tail end of my high school experience (yes i know im younger than most of your audience, ha). i was going through A Lot emotionally, going through a lot of life changes, and lived in a very . . . interesting household/place where i couldn't do ACTUAL good in the world that i was passionate about. so to make up for the fact that i was genuinely in no place to do legit activism, clearly i had to save the gay community by arguing about johnlock queerbaiting or whatever.

^ and honestly i do think that is the position of most antis. theyre isolated and cant seem to do Enough in the Real Scary World so they have to resort to talking about how bad of a person someone is for "shipping abuse", bc theyre not in a situation where they could, for example, ACTUALLY fight the good fight to end abuse or raise awareness for it.

There was way more to it and way more that I could say, if I wanted to, but this post is long enough as it is and probably doesn't make much sense.

I feel bad for antis, honestly, or at least the ones who are antis in the way I used to be.

--

Oh yes, passionate young fools who think they can at least fix the internet if not their lives make up most of the cannon fodder. Some of the ringleaders are just mini dictators and wannabe cult leaders, but most anti-leaning types are just traumatized or clueless, even a lot of the ones who do serious damage and don't just mock shit in private with their friends.

[stormblessed95]

I love how people are so threatened and deep down believe that km are not dating too esp jikookers, that there is just no discussion about it or why they dont belive the antis, bc you all dont have any reasoning or explanation of blind faith belief that there is something between them even if they are not dating or are real good friends(i just think they are good friends not really that deep/special thing) he dint even know his music shows perf during face ended, bingewatched content bc wasn't updated on the content and jm's schedule unlike hobi and suga who knew which is why he also on fallon stated that he is closer to hobi and suga. the only reason why I think this is bc your avoidance of not even answering one thing and just pointing out that you don't agree, is because none of the km blogs is saying anything more like brushing it under the carpet to continue your fantasies.

OR motherfuxker, I am BUSY and don't enjoy making posts when I'm DEMANDED to. Believe whatever you want, I don't care. Wish I could say the same for you, but clearly you care VERY DEEPLY about me and my opinions, otherwise you wouldn't be in my inbox like this.

To everyone who wants my opinions and ISNT being an ass about it, thank you. I have a draft started and am working on it whenever I have some free time. I am just busy being a mother, a wife, prepping to start work again soon and have been invited to some author events I'm also trying to get ready for. And some posts require more from me than a few sentences. I know most of you understand. Thanks again.

[mud-o]

[ Detailed Thread ] I've seen lots of debate but here's lists of reasons why I personally think Wriothesley is visually impaired/blind to a certain degree and hope that he is :)

This is listed down based on my understanding/research so if there's anything wrong pls do correct me

Firstly we need to know the term 'Blindness', i know you may be wondering like , uh what? But a lot of people are quite misinformed of what being 'blind' is. Blindness is the inability to see or a lack of vision. Meaning that Blindness is a SPECTRUM. Each person's experience of blindness is unique. 93% of blind and vision-impaired people can see something. It is very rare for someone who is blind that cannot perceive anything at all. Some people may be blind in their peripherals - some in the center, some can see colours and blurs while others can perceive light and shadows better. It varies. A LOT. Quote from an article on Blindness and its spectrum. "These visual impairments don’t all work the same. Macular degeneration, erode the central vision without affecting peripheral vision. Narrowed field of vision- central vision is fine but the peripheral vision is limited. Others include photophobia (inability to tolerate light), diplopia (double vision), visual distortion, and difficulty with visual perception."

Ok so now we've made that clear- here's why Wriothesley being blind isnt as farfetched as you may think , with the way he is acting in the Fontaine trailer. 1) So i've heard everyone say that he is teasing Sigwienne, but let's just go back, why does Sigwienne - put the cute beverage in front of wrio in that manner? Why is she putting the taller cup in front of him where it's simply closer for him to reach for in the first place? You can argue that she did that so wriothesley takes it, but why not just hand it to him then? If you observe the scene - the tea was already there beforehand, which means wrio has either prepared it himself or has even already drunk from it and placed it there. He knows there is a 'cup' on the table. It could be very much logical to assume Sigwienne wanted wriothesley to mistakenly reach for the taller cup she placed there. There would be no point in deliberately placing the cup as if with the intention to 'trick' him into taking it if he could very well see her place it there.

2) The visible jolt of his hands when he hovers over the tall drink that sigwenne places there. And the CLOSING of his eyes, as if to concentrate. On what? Here we can tell the drink clearly looks like a cold beverage, so when his hands hover on top of the cup , it'll make sense to have a reaction based on the wrong temperature registered to his hands - as tea is hot. He glances to sigwenne after , as if amused, only to look back to rotate the smaller cup of his tea. And even when 'rotating' , his actions seem purposeful - carefully interacting w the cup with his hands draping around the handle before holding onto it. As if again, he's mostly feeling around it. If he were to see perfectly well, why would he close his eyes - hover around the tall drink, and seem to jolt by reaction of registering what the object is? His eyebrow even raises up. It makes less sense as - if he were intending to tease her, he'd simply hover alternatively between the two without interacting w them purposefully but instead focus more on the reaction of Sigwenne from the start - and not After he seemingly 'felt' what the glass he is reaching for firstly is not his own cup of tea, but the beverage Sigwienne wanted him to take. Also added point, if you really take notice, while touching and rotating the tea for its handle, his eyes are set straight, not towards the cup.

3) paper argument - again brings back to my point about blindness being a spectrum. Some blind people can read if they really focus and if the object was near enough, and even more that they just show him holding the paper, his eyes were never shown 'scanning' it. And furthermore, we are not SHOWN the paper, it could be braille for all we know. 4) but he looks at sigwienne first before she places the cup - again , blindness is a spectrum. Many blind people can register vague figures of people based on combinations of colour, light, and shadows or other ways depending on the individual. 5) Lyney's dialouge - as we know, genshin loves littering clues and symbolisms around in the trailers. Here's the quote we got while transitioning to Wrio's cutscene. "But what you see, is not real. It's all a show. And every part of the show is carefully controlled" Here we've already got a literal connotation for 'sight' from "what you see" , and connotations of 'acting' what if he was just acting out that he is not 'blind' to the outsider's point of view, so it is shown that he has less of a 'weakness' to others? Covering his disability under a guise so no one knows how to use it against him? It may be a reach - but it is an interesting idea to think about. Esp with the entire theatre play theme surrounding Fontaine and us/people being the audience of the big show.

6) wolf motifs and inspiration - It is quite easy to see Wriothesley is very heavily wolf motifed. Wolves are known for their sharp senses and acute hearing. They rely much more heavily on scent and hearing compared to their sight. Sounds familiar? It would be very neat if wriothesley has heightened senses as he can't rely on his eyesight as much, thus being easily able to tell when Sigwienne moves around and puts the cup in front of him. 7) gameplay - having a disabled character can make interesting and unique ideas on their kit and mechanic. I'll leave most of it for imagination, but something such as a passive that could auto-link enemies aggro-ed for aoe skills? Many many more possibilities. 8) It will simply be good disability representation in media , we've already had collei with the chronic illness of Eleazar, Xiao with chronic pain from karmic debt, Yoimiya's father short of hearing due to working with fireworks etc. It'll be an amazing addition for irl people with disabilities to feel more seen. 9) there's literally a scar under one of his eyes what more can i say if not it being more of a hint. His beta concept designs even had a scar on his eyebrow along with heterochromia? Which can also be seen as being blind in one eye with the 'white' colouring. Also the eyepatch beta design? Yeah.

Also this slipped my mind, but do also note Braille was originated and introduced in france - invented by Louis Braille in 1824. And well, what do we know of where Fontaine is based of? wink wonks

My conclusion, live laugh love hc wriothesley w vision impairment <3 even if it turns out not being canon and just some weird coincidence of everything.

(also please do not steal this as i plan to post this myself on twt too, and again this is just a THEORY on why I PERSONALLY think he's such. You are free to disagree )

[omegawolverine]

i love how the first three episodes of soul eater very clearly tell us what the characters are like even in a 24 minute episode limit...soul and maka are very capable as partners, they had 99 kishin souls but the thing that sent them all the way back to square one was overestimating themselves. they thought blair was a witch, they didn't bother checking and just. killed her. sure, she has 9 lives, she's fine, but they not only overestimated their ability to tell she was a witch, but they also jumped right into the fight and kept persuing her without confirming at all if she was a witch all because maka was so determined to make a weapon stronger than her mother had, a weapon stronger than her dad who she hates. and soul is so caught up in the excitement of getting the status of death scythe that he just follows along with it.

the episode show us how well they work together as a pair, maka being quick on her feet and soul coming up with a plan out of nowhere, something not even maka imagined him doing which ultimately helped them sell it in the end, but we also saw their weaknesses.

we get a glimpse into maka's insecurities early on with her truly believing soul was leaving her for blair, equating it to cheating and us getting a montage of spirit cheating on her mother with various women all in front of maka (although he was unaware of that last bit). and although soul had spent the better half of the episode picking at her insecurities in a way that could come across as mean spirited, we see his immediate reponse be "how am i supposed to know? cool men don't cheat on their partners." which makes maka realize he was just setting up blair to fall directly into his trap and get her soul. while maka is usually regarded as the smarter partner, soul shows he is a great asset in a fight, weapon form or not, because he's a quick thinker and can transform from weapon to human fast enough for them to get the drop on blair who has cat like reflexes for...obvious reasons.

in the defense of maka and soul, even lord death and spirit think she's a witch at first, but lord death also stresses to them both that if they fuck this up they have to start all over and they don't even...double check that she's a witch? idk how easy that is in this universe especially given this is before maka can see soul wavelengths (which is probably a huge part of why they just went with whatever intel they had) but i'm sure there has to be some way to tell if it's this huge of a deal to aquire one.

and then we have black star who...immediately shows us he could be a very good assassin if he didn't give himself away every fucking time 😭😭 his ego is his biggest downfall but it's also what gained him his incredibly loyal, kind, forgiving partner tsubaki, who saw him be so bold as to stand on top of the building and ask who would work with someone as loud, obnoxious and brash as him and that's honestly probably the best way he could've went about it. how else would he find somebody willing to put up with all of his flaws if they couldn't even handle him as his regular, outgoing, over the top self?

it's also really interesting how tsubaki and black star go over the assassins' rules of silence, stealth, not being seen, etc. followed by black star immediately throwing that out of the window. and tsubaki chastises him. instead of her being the type of girl who just goes along with whatever black star does, she tells him he doesn't understand assassination at all and complains about how they never collect any souls. black star doesn't take any of her words to heart though and tsubaki doesn't take his actions to heart either.

after this we see lord death even say their issue isnt skill, its purely performance, its how they (black star) don't take the mission seriously and tsubaki accepts blame for both of them instead of just pinning it on him. even if she knows he's the problem, she also sees them as a package deal, a team all the way through and she's okay with this. tsubaki also shows that she fully trusts black star as a partner and thinks he will make her a death scythe, it'll just take a little longer than others.

tsubaki and black star both show a lot of strength in battle, with tsubaki being able to transform into multiple weapon forms, black star being very agile, with the ability to do all sorts of moves that most of the other characters are never seen doing. we can see black star go from a poor excuse for an assassins to an impressive one within seconds to mifune and all it took was him actually wanting to do it. we see he can make himself silent and he can use stealth quite well, making it so mifune doesn't even notice him and tsubaki have switched places for a few minutes and he only notices because tsubaki's breathing is different than black star's. we also get to see that even if his ego is a flaw of his, it's also why he can use his wavelength so well when nobody else in his class really can. he has the confidence in his abilities that most of his other peers do not and that is part of what makes him dangerous when he is actually determined to kill somebody.

and he was determined to kill mifune until he found out that he was just protecting a kid. witch or not, angela was a fucking kid and black star couldn't do it. tsubaki could've. she even tells black star they should take they opportunity that was practically handed to them, with plenty of kishin soul's and angela's right there for the taking and he refuses. despite how they have no souls collected, he still choses to walk away and takes the souls back to lord death in a sack rather than having tsubaki consume them because that isn't a real win to him, he didn't kill those kishins.

and then we get to kid's episode and right off the bat we see this dude is talented and a bit cocky but despite his abilities, his ocd gets in the way of retrieving kishin souls. patty's stance is off, he yells at her about it and she responds apologetically, but clearly isnt upset by him yelling, implying it either happens a lot so she can brush it off or she is truly just that bubbly that it doesn't phase her (probably both). liz, on the other hand, tries to reason with him, telling him now is truly not the time as they're in the middle of pursuing a man and when he keeps lecturing them, she just complains, but let's him do it anyways. it's only when he gets a little too out of hand with it does she put him in his place, punching him and telling him he probably shouldnt be talking about how unsymmetrical her and patty are when he has three stripes on one side of his hair and not the other. he calls himself an abomination and cries. they comfort him despite their (liz's) clear annoyance before.

this shows us that despite them all working well as a team in battle, they get caught up in the actual performance of it all, much like black star and tsubaki do, but for completely different reasons. they're plenty skilled, but instead of ego getting in their way like it does with black star, it's arguing (similar to soul and maka) over what seems like little details to liz and patty, but are all consuming to kid.

we also get a line from liz about how "these little rich kids are always so gullible" which implies her and patty are, at the very least, not well off (though we don't know the extent yet). this is when we learn he is lord death's son and that he doesn't actually need to be doing...any of this. he doesn't need to collect souls, doesn't need to train to be a meister or have weapons or work with his team to make them death scythes for his father, he's doing this out of pure want. lord death says because he had two weapons, he needs to collect double the souls. kid, cocky once again, says he wants to collect all 198 + 2 witch souls at once. he's cocky, but they have the skill to back it up.

and obviously they do, kid's a reaper after all and he specifically picked out patty and liz because he knew of their reputation on the streets (plus the symmetry, but lets stick to skill rn)

but again this isn't what slows them down. they go on a mission and as soon as they get there, kid starts worrying about whether or not a painting he has at home is off center and he cant stop obsessing over this thought until the point where he straight up abandons patty and liz when theyre in a pyramid about to fight mummys.

so instead of seeing kid's strengths, we see liz and patty's. the sisters are great at fighting even when the plan goes to shit, likely due to their time before the DWMA. liz shoots with good aim but switches with patty effortlessly when the mummys get too close, not even having to say anything for patty to know to switch with her. and patty shows that she's definitely less scared than her older sister and works better under pressure, hugging the mummys, giggling at them and sticking liz right in one of the mummy's mouths to blow its (metaphorical) brains out while liz complains about it being gross and creepy.

they collect all the souls alone, without their meister and split them evenly just to respect kid's unsaid wishes.

and then finally kid comes back! he's on his gay little skateboard of course, forgot to mention that earlier but it definitely says something about him that it's his primary mode of transportation and its named beelzebub. he gets back just in time as patty and liz have been captured and since they cant use their weapon forms, kid uses his skateboard to free his partners, but that's about as much as he can do before realizing the pharaoh is perfectly symmetrical and he would rather die than destroy it. like he is literally getting torn to shreds by this fucker but he cant do anything about it.

but then the pharaoh steps out of it's tomb and kid sees how asymmetrical it is and that's also what saves them. it almost gets him killed, it ruins missions regularly, his ocd absolutely disrupts his day to day life, but in this instance it also saves them as he gets so mad about the asymmetry that he blows a fucking HOLE through the back of the pyramid and DESTROYS THE ENTIRE THING by unbalancing it.

so yeah, basically i say all this to say the first three episodes do such a good job of introducing us to the main characters and showing us what their strengths and weaknesses are, even if they're played for laughs like kid's ocd, maka's insecurities or black star's ego.

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

i want to say something thats been bugging me for a while but there was this whole argument about katara and zuko being FUNDAMENTAL in each other's character arc and that baffled me because its simply not true? you can say they play an important role but to say they are fundamental is over exaggerating it. as fundamental at least to me inherently implies they are the foundation for each others arcs. like it got me sooo confused because i in no way see how zuko plays such a role for katara and same with zuko. because did we just forget that uncle iroh is the one thats actually fundamental to zuko? i feel like i never see him get talked about by these "zuko fans" unless its from a book with like one or two short sentences thats very clearly uncle iroh being a stereotypical dad and being like "oh a nice girl maybe good for zuko?" as if he wasn't pushing zuko to bring home a girl and getting him to go on a date with that girl in ba sing se idk to me it reads off as a parent thats just yappin lol

regardless of that though, im still baffled by that. katara isnt fundamental to zuko's character arc, uncle iroh is. zuko isnt fundamental to katara's character arc, her mother is (and i'd argue aang but i feel like that would just cause a shipping mess by even breathing his name lmao) anyways sorry but that still gets me to this day because how utterly confusing i found it. no one was even saying that they didn't play an important (role along with the other characters in the gaang) in each others arcs, it was saying they simply are not fundamental and that, for some reason, made them so mad lol

I'm sorry, anon, but I am saying they were not important to each other's character arcs, and this is taking into account my bias as someone who really likes their friendship. If a character is not around for someone's arc, or on their mind during it, they're not relevant to said arc.

Katara canonically saw him as nothing but the generic face for evil Fire Nation people until their talk in Ba Sing Se - only to then immediately regret her moment of empathy towards him and never mention him again. And as I've already said, that moment meant so little to Zuko that he couldn't even understand why Katara was mad.

They don't start interacting for real until Zuko the second of half of the final season, and they're not friends until the show is TWO EPISODES AWAY from the finale.

In The Southern Raiders, Zuko is basically the guy driving the taxi so Katara goes on her revenge quest. This doesn't hold a candle to the three seasons she spent being supported by the Gaang (or two in Toph's case), always thinking about her family, mainly her mom.

In the Last Agni Kai, Katara is just there to take action when it's time to shout MEDIC! This doesn't hold a candle to Ozai and Azula's shadow constantly hanging over him, Iroh's advice, the memory of his mother, his relationship with Mai, and the simple "Maybe we could have been friends" from Aang that was canonically haunting Zuko for months because it got to him that much.

Now, do I think it's possible, and very likely, that they will be very important in each other's lives from that point onwards? Of course! They ARE friends now, and if someone is in your life they're gonna play some kind of role when you're going through stuff. It's only natural.

But in the actual canon events? No, they were not important to each other's arc. They didn't have the opportunity to be - and that is part of why I wish the show had 4 seasons instead of 3, or that the comics had not sucked. It would've been so nice to see Aang not be the only member of the Gaang that plays a major role in Zuko's arc, and vice versa (especially with Toph, not only because I love their friendship but because she was denied a life-changing field trip).

[yanderespamton78]

WHY ADI IS A GOOD CHARACTER AND NOT JUST AN EVIL SCIENTIST CHILD MURDERER

AAAAAAAAAA OH MY GOD YOU DONT UNDERTAND HOW WORKED UP I GET OVER THIS DEBATE YOU DONT UNDERSTAND ARARRARARRARRA also btw i watched sweet tooth ages ago so i might get some details wrong

(please dont take anything said here personally i am tired and angry and i get so sososo worked up over this debate since Adi is very similar to a character ive been obsessed with for a year)

so after being in a sweet tooth fandom for a bit i found that much to my surprise (and distain) adi is actually a thoroughly hated character, which was surprising after coming from a fandom where the "evil child murderer" character is one of if not the most popular. And i feel that a lot of the people who hate adi do just see him as "evil child murderer" BUT HES MORE THAN THAT!!!! I PROMISE!!!!! get out of that echo chamber and open your mind to a new opinion (please i spent like 40 mins typing this out)

so firstly, adi was actually just a really nice normal guy before the crumble. he was a sweet man, he was a doctor, he was dad material. not a psychopath. he clearly isnt insane or murderous by nature. We can see his love for Rani in the first episode when he starts freaking out and barging past people just to try to keep her alive even when he knew the odds werent in his favour. he clearly loves his wife more than the world itself and would burn cities in her name. This is a man who Loves His Wife. After the crumble we can see that Adi and Rani are living a semi normal life. we see that all Adi wants is some normalcy despite the horrible situation he's been put into. And all he really needs for that is his wife. Evidently the rest of his family is already dead even if its not mentioned so this man is already under a lot of stress, also knowing that if anyone finds out that Rani has the sick he's screwed. but you know what? hes coping. hes living. maybe he's sometimes forced to be just a lil bit sadistic but its fine its fine its okay because Rani is okay. When he first sees Gladys's research he is horrified and refuses to do the things asked. he loves his wife but even he stops at the idea of killing children (like a normal person). When whatserface (forgot her name) is killed by the horse he is horrified but you can even see a bit of Rani's sadistic nature with how quickly she is to be like "right welp hide the body it was not our fault :)" while Adi is moritified but still helps her because shes his wife and she loves him.

In fact, even when abbot kidnaps him he doesnt want to kill the children. Why would he??? He kills them because if he doesnt Rani will die and all he wants is Rani to be okay. Put yourself in his shoes. your whole life was flipped upside down in the crumble and then your second chance at a mostly normal life was also torn away from you. Now the person dearest to you in the whole world (and also the only person you still have) is about to die at the hand of Doctor Robotnik, who is also trying to force you to kill children otherwise he'll kill you too. Adi is visibly shook after having to kill roy. He didn't want to. He even says in his little voice vlog thing that he has done something terrible (iirc). When Gus comes along he is desperate to have a reason to spare him and when Gus talks he is overjoyed that he doesnt have to kill another child. Sure he's kind of forceful and aggressive but my man is under so much stress and has been for the past 10 years let him be pissy. AND his wife is okay (for now)!! woohoo!!! When he finds the cure he is overjoyed. Sure he ignores his wifes wishes but at this point he is numb to the killing. IT IS EXPLICITLY STATED MULTIPLE TIMES DURING THE SHOW THAT HE DOESNT WANT TO BE A DOCTOR BECAUSE HE STARTS TO BECOME NUMB TO THE DEATH. he KNOWS that this whole doctor thing will start driving him a bit cooky and tries to avoid it but he's forced into it. and that is why he doesnt understand the true reason behind Rani's crying and begging. He doesnt fully realise how she feels at this point due to what he's been forced to do and thinks its too late to go back

He goes back into his laboratory and everything's gone. burned away. AND his wife left him. here is when i feel you can really see where he snapped. Everything he has is gone now. the only thing he could ever need, and the person who he did all those terrible terrible things for, is gone. It cant get worse now. He starts spiralling and going down a desperate path to redeem himself. At this point he is completely insane and broken. He really thinks with all his heart that the only way he can fix what he's done ad get forgiveness from his wife is by killing gus. he thinks its the right thing to do. He's delusional. he seems like a hollow shell of himself by the last season but you can still see little sparks of his old self occasionally. he betrays Gus and team because he thinks its the only way he can redeem himself. the only way he can get Rani to forgive him. But at the last second RIGHT before stabbing Gus he realises its not right and he realises that he's become a terrible person that his wife would be ashamed of. HE REDEEMS HIMSELF. HE SAVES GUS. AND YOU LOT STILL SEE HIM AS THE EVIL CHILD MURDERER. DIEEEEEE

anyways TLDR i love Adi a lot and he did the bad things that he did because he was sad and desperate and loves his wife a lot and anyone who thinks otherwise can go suck toes

[emmkitt]

istg if walkie talkie ends up NOT being taco ill be so damn surprised. like if its not taco it’ll end up being some random new antagonist we’ve never even met before (or cobs, which i doubt; i don’t think it’s cobs himself, but i do believe whoever it is could very well be working for him)

itd be weird to introduce a whole new character in the final episode, itd make more sense to play off a character who’s been in the show the entire time and has reason to play the role of antagonist.

season 2 proved taco knows how meeple products work/how to override their functions for her advantage. also she’s proven to be a great manipulator, so it’d make sense how she’d be able to collect a whole gang of people who don’t even necessarily hate mephone all that much, and turn them against him (sprinkles and dr fizz probably being the best examples of this; you even see dr fizz question WT’s actions during the whole confrontation near the end of iii18). It’d also explain why Ballpoint Pen isnt part of the Unvitationals; tbh he seems way too smart to be manipulated, no offense everyone else, even though he does seem to have a similar level of reason to hate mephone as the other Unvitationals.

also shoutout to @somebean81 for pointing this out.

so basically, vote to join III. Understandable as to why Lightbulb, Knife, and Suitcase can’t join the cast, they’re still part of s2, but why Taco? Her arc with Mic has basically ended, I highly doubt they’re going to interact anymore because Taco has shown no real interest in Mic on an emotional level, she just wanted to use her for her own gain; and now that Mic is no longer in the game, she probably sees her as ‘useless’ to her. no chance in manipulating any of the remaining cast, so why not teleport away… and try to manipulate someone else….?

where’d she go when she teleported?

hmm..

(alsoc if they knew Taco wouldn’t be allowed to join, why add her to the poll at all? If Taco is WT it’d give it away to outright say she was joining the iii cast when she clearly isn’t a contestant………. maybe they’re keeping her presence a secret…….hmmmmmmmm)

I honestly think that either A. Taco’s motivation for manipulating Mic could’ve gone way beyond simply wanting to win. Or B., maybe that could be her only motivation. Which is why if WT is Taco it would explain why she’s so keen on mentioning to the remaining competitors that there is no prize. WT has proven to have loads of knowledge about ii, knowledge that probably only a former contestant could have, and there’s really only one former contestant I can think of who’d have such a grudge against mephone/the show in general.

cough.

also season 1 kinda proves taco is a good actor as well, so putting on a new facade as WT probably wouldnt be hard for her. WT could very well be her using a voice changer, but do we really doubt that she could pull off an american accent lmao.

anywyas if this is true i hate taco even more. leave floory and mephone alone.

but thats jsut a theiry. a gay theory

[kurtmustdie]

hate the ultimate guide. heres a few reasons why.

reused art: I understand how hard it is to make art, especially at that calliber of detail. I'm an artist, I get it. but the charm of the original ultimate guide was that we had these hand painted, unique pieces of art of these characters, it showed a little personality too.

How stale and lifeless the art is: This is a complaint that I've had with the current western artist for years, the art is just... boring. the colors are pretty, yeah, like wow hyperrealistic cats. cool. but what else? can we see their personalities? what's the book gonna be like? the old covers had that charm, but not these ones. at all. (also is that even... i could not tell that was runningnose and littlecloud. i mean. runningnose has water in his snout, thats not what cat snot looks like but go off. he just looks a little soggy ig, not in a perpetual state of sick.)

Lack of Personality: this is a different complaint I promise. I dont like how the art seems to take away the personality of every character so theyre staring stoicly at the camera. some of these characters arent all that stoic. I never liked the firestar art in the last hope because I deadass thought it was mapleshade until someone told me it was firestar. firestar isnt this scary, stalky cat in the shadows. not to normal people at least. if i can mistake your main character as one of the villains in your cover art that isnt fucking good. I don't want to see these cats staring bug eyed at the camera, I want to be able to tell what they're like JUST from a glance at the art. Who is that- harestar?? why doesnt he look nervous?? he looks almost noble here, which is the opposite of who he's supposed to be, he's a wuss and a loser and i love him for it. like girl that is NOT mudclaw thats some random cat i saw at the shelter once, WHERES HIS ANGER? WHERES HIS FUCKING RAGE??? RISE RISE RISE RISE RISE RI

the Characters are hard to recognize, even with the title cards: Who are these cats. who. who the fuck are they. I can recognize a few cats, sure, but thats if I can pick out a defining trait. Squirrelflights tail, Scourges Collar, Ravenpaw's white chest, those are things that are explicitly told to us that these characters have, but everyone else??? WHO??? Like that was supposed to be leafstar?? HUH?? Wait that's supposed to be Oakheart? I cant even tell if hes red, its so YELLOW OUT I CANT FUCKING TEL WHO HE IS. Sagewhisker is described with yellow eyes, yet she has blue ones in the ultimate guide (i dont usually get pissy about eye color but not only are these cats supposed to be distinct from each other but i really like sagewhisker and i would die for her, yes i will gatekeep her from the artist fucking fight me), Bluestar is barely recognizable, i didnt know who half of these cats were before i read their nameplate. thats not a good thing.

Red mapleshade. Why she red. WHY SHE RED.

Leafpool. I didn't even know that was you at first but man they did you dirty.

sol. dude that is not sol no matter how much you stretch it- why is he a tabby?? hes supposed to be a tortie, why does he look like lionblaze?? and even then he doesnt look that lionlike, even though hollyleaf literally thought he was when she first saw him like what?? HUH???

mothwing. why she anger. also why she not fluffy

squirrelflight. i always hated her SE art but seeing the whole thing makes me angrier. like she isnt not accurate to canon or anything i just... hate it. i hate it withe very fibre of my being. ALSO WHERE IS HER PERSONALITY I WANT TO SEE HER BEING ENERGETIC NOT STARING 😐 AT THE CAMERA FUCKING HELL-

yeah, so im not gonna buy this book. i dont even want to know how they wrorte any of the female characters to make them somehow evil or how they somehow make a completely irridemable male character a sweet uwu baby. and everyone has talked about the ableism to death so im not going to beat this clearly still living horse, im just gonna let you find it yourself.

[notjennyfromtheblocked]

Im deliberately sending this off anon so you can see that you arent being 'attacked' by 'Anne', and the fact youre even discussing it that way is ableist as fuck. Im going to start this by making it clear, I have BPD, Im also trans and you will not be knowing my AGAB. You are the asshole in this situation.

We're going to start off simple, you are not an expert on BPD, google and tiktok is full of misinformation and harmful stereotypes about Borderline pplo. BPD is not an 'abusive person' disorder, there is no such thing as a condition that makes you an abusive person. BPD does cause intense, deep emotions that can shift quickly and be hard to control; often this includes having intense feelings for people around them and being scared of losing them/them not being who you thought they were. Because this condition comes from trauma (usually from family/relationships) there are often amplified feelings around abanonment and betrayals of trust especially from ppl you thought were your friends. It is in fact common for some of our nost intense lifelong interests start bc of stupid reasons, but starting bc of a stupid reason doesnt mean the interest isn't genuine. Have you never done something bc your friend wanted you too and you ended it up loving it? Why is it any different bc it was a crush not a friend? BPD doesnt make you a manipulative person, nor does it make you gaslight ppl and seeing as 'anne' has a psychiatric degree Im sure he understands his condition better than you do.

Secondly, 'Anne' is allowed to be trans in whatever way he wants too, she doesnt have to bind, or pack, or change his appearance for anyone. I have a beard, long hair, wear any kind of clothes I want, have tits, have bulge, am hairy and wear a full face of makeup. Some of those things are part of my agab, some of them a part of my transition. And its not a single iota of your goddamn business whether youre friends or not. Gender is a performance and you get to choose the outfit and 'Anne' is deciding what she want his to look like.

Thirdly, you do not seem to understand that part of the reason you very clearly show yourself to be the asshole is the way you speak about others. Describing being an introvert as being more sophisticated or above extroverts is just ridiculous, you are not superior bc you dont go out to parties. I don't either, I find them uncomfortable and loud, but that doesnt make me sophisticated. You talk about 'Mike' as if he cannot be the arbiter of his own interests or relationship, that hes just stupid and couldnt piece it together if 'Anne' was 'faking'. You talk about 'Anne' like she's some master manipulator but you did everything that happened to yourself, you went to the GC and convinced them that something was wrong, you took a group of ppl who didnt know 'Mike' to 'Anne's' house to confront him, you made a callout post about 'Anne' on facebook, you tried to immediately go running to 'Mike' for damage control when your 'intervention' didnt work and you are the person that blasted it all over facebook and now tumblr. And now you are the one losing friends and family, and you deserve it, because the ppl you convinced to attack 'Anne' realised wtf they'd just done and how fucking horrendous that is. You have no evidence of any manipulation, or that 'Anne' is faking, or that 'Mike' isnt happy, you just presented your prejudice. 'Mike' and 'Anne' realise what youve done and they have enough proof to convince a judge or they wouldnt have gotten that restraining order. You are the person behaving manipulative here and everyone can see it except you.

I've tried writing a response to this so many times but I end up deleting it because when I try to explain myself it just sounds like I'm going in circles. There are tons of other asks I've tried answering and rewritten like seven times each before giving up. I've been writing over and over trying to explain like how while yeah technically Mike never told me word for word that he was T4T, when he told me I wasn't his type and then like two days later came out as trans it felt very, very much like he was coming out specifically to let me know that's why I wasn't his type. Or how I was trying to explain how look I know it might be controversial but the constant "main character syndrome" of extroverts just gets on my nerves and is supremely selfish in general and also the truth is you're just GOING to be more intellectual if you spend your free time actually expanding your mind instead of smoking pot and grinding against strangers and how someone like Mike who prefers the same free time activities as I do is just not going to work with someone who would rather party and get wasted than pick up a book, or how Anne is pretending to be trans and I know this because she isn't changing ANYTHING, and I was going to explain that the group chat was full of people she didn't know because it initially was a fandom ship discord from a show she doesn't watch but eventually when I started getting concerned yes it kinda became my "complain about Anne" vent place because nobody there really knew her well enough to go tell her what I was saying and it was a safe place for me to vent and explain why I thought she was abusive and cheating and they would actually listen instead of tell me to knock it off like others, and obviously OBVIOUSLY I thought her and I were close enough as friends she wouldn't mind me using her spare key which she kept under the doormat so it's not like I searched hard. I've written all of that so many times to so many different asks I can't even count and then i just end up deleting it because it feels pointless to even try because I know people will just keep sending asks so why bother so I never wrote it til just now unless I deleted it.

Im gonna be totally fully honest here I woke up and I saw the 99+ notifications in my inbox and I haven't been able to stop shaking because I'm so fucking angry because nobody is on my side, I literally scrolled hoping to find at least one person who was agreeing with me and nobody was and honestly I was so mad I couldn't even see and then I finally found a couple of nice asks and they were signed and I was so excited someone finally agreed with me and when I checked on their blogs they were all fucking terfs. All of the people who were taking my side were fucking terfs. And like I'll be honest with you I have two very close family members who are trans and honestly they've both blocked me recently and even though I tried to contact them they didn't respond and I seriously hate hate HATE terfs because they've been so cruel to my two family members. And I'm so angry. But then I found your ask and at first I was so angry and I tried to reply but I just deleted it because I was getting angry. But then I found more terfs in my ask and then even more hateful anons from non terfs.

But then I kept thinking about how conservatives will literally LITERALLY have Nazis agreeing with them and dig their hills in and in like wtaf how are you not seeing that NAZIS are agreeing with you? But literally the only people agreeing with me are terfs. And honestly that's the last shit I want, I luterally hate terfs. I'm not even exaggerating when I say this is the nicest ask that WASN'T from a terf so I've just. I dunno. I am freaking out because this did not go the way I planned. I knew some people wouldn't agree with me but I thought it would be more split, like some YTA but mostly JAH and NTA. And then when I saw the poll for a hot minute I thought maybe it might veer ESH but obviously that isn't the case. It's just like have you ever really cares about someone, really really cared about someone, and he says oh please don't hug me and pulls away, and then other people hug him so you think I better tell these other people "don't hug him, he doesn't like hugs" and then he says its fine and then starts hugging other people but not you? And you realize at no point did he ever say he didn't like hugging, he just asked you, specifically you, not to hug him? Well imagine that but with Mike, and he stopped wanting to hang out with me and told me not to touch him but whenever I'd remind Anne not to touch him he'd say it was fine and I guess when he came out as trans it was just easier to believe he didn't date cis people than he didn't want to date me. And there were times I thought man I wish I were a trans person so Mike would notice me, and then it seemed like Anne was doing just that because of COURSE it crossed my mind to pretend just for a little while, because if he just gave me a chance he'd realize that we are compatible. Honestly I'm just freaking out because I made this blog a month ago after sent the ask to the aita blog but then it didn't get answered so I started the blog to get all this off my chest. And bam suddenly I was bombarded a month later and it took me a minute to realize the aita hadn't deleted it. Honestly none of this went according to plan and nobody except people I fucking hate want to hear my side. And I dunno. I just don't know. Bur if the only people agreeing me with me all day are terfs then obviously I need to think things through.

[univemma]

I have my problems with the hidden world, like many others. And i just want to gather all my thoughts in one place here because i feel like many agree that the ending itself isnt the problem, but how they did it. For me, personally, they ruined it with the reactions to the dragons leaving. Specifically, the reactions of the dragons.

First, we have Meatlug, who in the past has been shown thay merely HEARING FISHLEGS' VOICE causes her to become overwhelmed with excitement. (RTTE S2E9)

And yet here, she looks like this:

Like?? Not even a frown when she's leaving Fishlegs, who is clearly her favourite person in the world (literally watch ANY HTTYD media and this is made abundantly clear).

Moving on, we have Barf and Belch. Now it can be said that the twins and their dragon don't really have as many emotional dragon-rider moments as the others, but it is still clear that Barf and Belch love their riders. Except here:

The twins look DEVASTATED, meanwhile they (sorry belch is cropped here I couldnt get a ss with both in it) hardly look sad. Barf at least looks a little upset but still, its borderline.

And moving on, to perhaps what angers me the most, Snotlout & Hookfang. These two are easily my fav dragon-rider duo/team, and for many reasons.

Very quickly, allow me to take you back to RTTE S1E13, in which Hookfang goes out of his way to protect "Girl-Hookfang" and her eggs from a Titanwing Monsterous Nightmare when she sends out what Hiccup describes as a "distress signal".

When Snotlout tells Hookfang to choose between him and the dragon, he ultimately chooses defending her. But at the prospect of leaving Snotlout, he looks LIKE THIS:

He looked MISERABLE and even made sad little dragon noises (idk how to describe them im sorry). So,

TELL ME WHY

IN THE HIDDEN WORLD

HE LOOKS LIKE THIS

SNOTLOUT LOOKS LIKE HES LISTENED TO AN ENTIRE MITSKI ALBUM, BROS FUCKING SOBBING SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP.

And Hookfang hardly even looks at him, just kinda gives him a sideways glance. Like

HELLO???! And ONE OF THESE had a lower budget as a TV show AND a lower quality model (which, unrelated, ive seen some people really dislike but I think the show models are great!)

The only one to act somewhat appropriately is Toothless, who warbles and makes his little dragon noises at Hiccup, almost talking with him, they have their big heartfelt moment and their cute hug before he leaves. Because of course they get it, its Hiccup and Toothless.

And yeah i get it that clearly the dragons are sick and tired of hunters and therefore understand the need to leave. But they dont even look sad! Breaks my heart because after three movies, two tv shows and all the specials of the dragons and riders bonding and caring for each other and they don't even get a heartfelt goodbye.

And let us not forget that Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins, who have been riders since the FIRST MOVIE, and main characters in their own right for years, don't even get a GOODBYE LINE?? LIKE LITERALLY, Astrid and Valka? Absolutely, they deserve it. Gobber? Sure, he hasn't known grump nearly as long but he's been a relevant and important main character as long as the kids. And Eret-

Now, I love Eret. He's cool. He's great. Love a hunter turned rider.

But WHY DID THEY GIVE A LINE TO HIM AND SKULLCRUSHER (approx. 1 year relationship) OVER THE SIX YEARS OF FISHLEGS, RUFF, TUFF AND SNOTLOUT? THEY DONT EVEN GET A "Goodbye." WHAT.

And again thats not me shitting on Eret getting one, its on the others NOT

And this isnt even beginning to mention Valka and Cloudjumper do not START ME on their TWENTY YEAR FRIENDSHIP AND BOND BEING TORN APART IN A ONE MINUTE GOODBYE.

Anyways on a lighter note, the parallel with Hiccup removing his hand from Toothless in a reverse of the first time they touched all those years ago always gets me emotional. My fav part about the ending.

And that's pretty much all I like about it LMAOO

[lyss-sketchbox]

OKAY BUT unless I'm understanding it wrong- The FIRST Pyro Archon was human. They said that. That the Pyro Archon has always been a human and there's been like a ton of them. Natlan never had any gods to claim the divine throne in the first place. Which is SO incredibly suspicious sounding and if that's never elaborated upon/refuted boy I'm going to RIOT-

But yea on Ei I kinda fantasized about an alternate Act I for Ei's SQ where she asks to spar again because mmm battle as her way of communicating sounds very on brand for her. Because I feel like that's what should shake her faith. LITERALLY I love characters that are defined by their life as a glorified weapon (stares at my love for childe) it's just squandered on Ei for some reason.

If they're going to use Ei for goofy things they could at least take my idea and have her lose to Itto in beetle fight in public in front of all of Ei's followers/worshippers (/j) (/srs) (it would be hilarious)

But yeah no you're right about all of that stuff being kinda whack. The execution of Natlan feels all wrong. Like!! The pieces are there!! It could work!! They're just treating everything so flippantly that it's just. Eh. Okay. What's the point of anything then- Like I never felt like Natlan had to be a wartorn battlefield of a nation, I just want them to actually act like any of this actually matters! Bc atm it doesn't feel that way at all

Yeah ngl the issue is just you literally dont feel amy stakes with natlan at all. I literally feel like a tourist that got roped into a find a mcguffin or the world ends adventure.

About Mavuika

Fr i dont even know what is up with Natlans archon. Its all so convoluted but mavuika is featured in that one archons official art so she is... the 'correct' archon in some way?????

She IS human, we see she has a picture of her family, but it is from the past. She was elected the archon in the past. Died. And now she has been resurrected to take the role again. Why her? Shes just human. Why did she get resurrected again if the nations archon switches constantly? Like what is the point of constantly changing archons if one can just be... resurrected to take the title again.

I have a feeling, based on leaks and the natlan trailer, that the 'archon' of natlan isnt a real archon. Not a real godly being with a hold of the divine throne. I have a feeling that there is a seperate being that is the true pyro archon, can be an actual archon or maybe the wayob, who set up this human archon system. Like mavuika, the human archon, is not the highest power here and something else is in charge. Can be the pyro sovereign who knows that would be cool, it was mentioned that the pyro sovereign ruled ancient natlan before the archons.

About Ei

I remember the one part in Ei's SQ where we went to confront a corrupted group of shogunate officials and these two people were fighting. And Ei simply suggests that the head of the clan in the past has proven their worthiness by combat and therefore if one wishes to be head of the clan, they can challenge her and proof to her they are worthy. And the guy we were rooting for, while he had no advanced skills, stood up, tried to fight her, and lost.

I LIKE THAT ALOT!!! That is Ei's way of settling conflict! It is backed up by how it was done in the past! And she clearly knew noone was winning and only fought with the blunt end of her spear. She knew! And she only suggested this to show who really had the will and the resolve to hold that title. I LIKE THAT!!! ME LIKEY THAT WAS REALLY GOOD!!!!

[snakesinsocks2005]

Very normal and calm about how others perceive my favourite character

Hmmkay so:

Devineaux is Not dumb. Well, he's not *dumb* dumb.

Hes loud, dense, arrogant, stubborn, impulsive, egotistical and obnoxious, yes. But he's not dumb.

He believes things based in hard fact, physical and literal evidence and stone cold logic (atleast in his perspective). A huge factor why it took him so long to understand how carmen wasn't the evil doer she was assumed to be, is because of his very thick brick wall sort of thought process:

'This elusive smug woman is stealing. Stealing is bad. I must stop her from stealing. At the end of the day, any sort of motive or excuse you could make up for her Does Not matter because. She's Stealing. And as previously stated- Stealing=Bad.'

Whereas Julia is alot more curious and spares more thought in the 'why' aspect of things, and following reasonable yet sorta hard to straight up prove theories- Why is Carmen Sandiego stealing precious artifacts, only to then soon after, slip them back to the authorities? Might she be stealing from other thieves? The only logical motive for that would be to protect the said precious artifacts from the other thieves. And on and on.

Devineaux, truth be told, doesn't care. He's very much stuck on the "stealing things only to return them makes Absolutely no sense" (given the default assumption she's taking them for monetary value, why would she willingly give them back?? Boom, theory busted, cry about it.)

Other than the observation that two people can veiw one thing very differently (with both looking and focusing on different parts, individual interactions with carmen, with devineaux it's her strictly making smug small talk, and evading him- but with Julia she's *Alot* more friendly, passive and semi-includes her in the caper)

There are more factors to keep in mind.

General knowledge:

A note that we tend to forget quite frequently is that- Carmen sandiego I an internationally known figure. Dare i say a myth- cryptid even! All the common knowledge about her is her signature colour, hat and coat. So like, imagine your tasked yourself as the one to catch the woman the myth the legend, while your partner keeps trying to suggest there's more to the very simple picture. "Maybe she's doing it for a good cause"! Uh. Not sure about that bucko.

Incredibly unlikely, from all her rare moments of talkativeness, she seems to fit rather nicely in the 'stereotypical criminal who thinks their better than the law' type behaviour.

It's alot like trying to psychoanalyise DB Cooper. Who cares??? I'm just trying to find and capture her first! We can deal with the explanation and 'why' part after.

And another point:

Its a clearly made point, that Devineaux is a flawed individual. Very heavily implied and shown, with the little of the pov we see of him.

But! Thats just it! The entire show, as is its namesake, is 90% Carmen Sandiegos own personal view. We, the audience, see things from her perspective, as we have been spoon fed the basic information about the basic premise of the plot that surrounds and personally entails her. And with this pov, we see others the way she does. Julia is the unlikely ally, vile the biggest threat, acme the main antagonists and- well, devineaux isnt really all that relevent, compared to everything and everyone else carmen and team red have to face off against.

Because of this, he's painted as an inconvenient, and brutish obstacle. Purely in the way for reasons we and carmen know to be false- so it's very easy to just think thats How he is in his entirety! But he's not. Let's not forget:

Not Only is this guy a full blown Inspector, But, it's explicitly shown that he has the deductive reasoning, and skill with the process of elimination to (ONLY USING INTERPOL RESOURCES. NO ACME NEEDED!) Find viles home based!! Sure, by then it's Formerly home base as they blew up a whole 60% of it quite recently, but!!! Dude!!! Chief, the literal head and founder of acme, who's been looking for any trace of vile for twenty years couldn't even dream of managing such a feat!

Tldr: devineaux isn't stupid, he's just plauged by ego brain fog, extremely unlucky timing and lack of impulse control.