#was thinking about how the only characters who really show her much sympathy are women

[another-whump-sideblog]

Thinking about Jane's relationship with gender. How she has Puppy/Dollie/Amanda do all the cooking and cleaning, and she says it's because she was first in their little trio, but is it really? How she treats her like a doll in addition to treating her as a pet, dressing her up, emphasizing how pretty she is, which she doesn't do with the others. How she confides in her, tells her things she doesn't tell the others, things that make her more prone to sympathize with Jane. How she puts her in a caregiving role over both herself and the others

And the thing is, she could give lectures about feminist theory. She knows her stuff! But there's still a bit of internalized misogyny there, after all these years

[biblicalhorror]

Okayyyyy yeah also let's talk about Tammy. I didn't know how I felt about her for awhile because she did very much feel like the Disposable Black Girlfriend, but I'm seeing people saying she's an "abuser" or God forbid "just as bad as Kevin" and that's just. Not at all true.

Yes, Tammy is controlling. She doesn't seem to really like Patty for who she is, and kind of seems to want to change her into someone else instead. HOWEVER, I think we need to look at the whole character to understand WHY she's like that. I don't think she's controlling Patty for personal gain or for the sake of manipulating her. I think she's lonely and desperate for companionship, which leads to her ignoring/pushing past the obvious incompatibility in her relationship with Patty.

Here's what we know about Tammy:

1. She seems to be the only black person in the Worcester social circle. She also mentions frequently how she's surrounded entirely by white men at work.

2. She is also the only openly lgbt person in the area, other than Patty, who is still not exactly out and proud.

3. She describes her entire job as "making excuses for" and "cleaning up after" the men at her job, particularly her partner (whose name I am unfortunately forgetting, does anyone remember?), who even had her plant evidence for him on at least one occasion.

4. Despite being very competent and good at her job, the white men around her keep failing upwards (she mentions a few times that people beneath her keep getting promoted) while she remains stagnant in her career. There doesn't seem to be any explanation for this other than the fact that she is a black lesbian in an extremely white, conservative community.

Basically, Tammy seems like someone who has been taught (like many black women) that she will have to work much harder than everyone else to get ahead in any capacity. She is also likely very, very lonely. She doesn't seem to have any friends outside of work, which isn't surprising given the above. It seems like she doesn't exactly have a ton of prospects, dating-wise, other than Patty. In my opinion, it's really no wonder that she clung to Patty so desperately and immediately and tried to forcibly mold her into someone who could be compatible. She's tough, smart, organized, direct, manipulative, no-nonsense and controlling because, well, she had to be. And she ends up trying to "rein in" Patty because, in her mind, what's the other option? She ends up alone, surrounded by men who force her to cover for their antics and don't care if she lives or dies.

I'm not saying her behavior is healthy. But it comes from an entirely different place than Kevin's abuse, or Chuck's, or even Neil's. And it's also not uncommon. In real life, I know many queer women (specifically small-town lesbians) who end up in relationship dynamics just like that over and over again because they start dating someone who doesn't quite fit, and they compensate for it by trying to force a connection instead of accepting loneliness and isolation. I have a lot of sympathy for Tammy. And I wish the show had taken more care to establish the abuse she faced from her coworkers off-camera.

[saintsenara]

❤️

So many options here! Therapised Sirius, endlessly kind Lupin, suave Draco, incel Snape, emotionally intuitive Hermione, villainous Dumbledore, boorish Ron, the list goes on.

thank you very much for the ask, anon! and you're so right that we have lots of potential options to use as answers to this question...

which character do you think is the most egregiously mischaracterized by the fandom?

but i'm going to go for my best girl, merope gaunt.

merope’s son is, in my opinion, the most interesting character in the series, and his relationship with his dead mother’s memory is one of the most fascinating things about him [and also an aspect of his characterisation which canon dwells on only lightly - dumbledore’s view that voldemort "despises" merope is never interrogated, despite the fact that harry clearly clocks the ways in which his grief about his motherlessness drives his decisions].

but i also think that merope is a fascinating character in her own right, not least for what she reveals to us about the complex threads which bind being a victim and being a perpetrator together, what she shows about how there are no perfect victims, and what she shows about how there are no irredeemable perpetrators. and i really dislike the fact that - even in fics which attempt to deeply get into voldemort's character from perspectives not found in the canon series - authors typically write her as an unambiguous villain, and take dumbledore's view - that merope chose to die [something which directly justifies voldemort's view of death as shameful, which isn't what the series thinks it's saying...] because she wasn't brave enough to live.

i hate this - because i hate anything which suggests that wizards and muggles are, essentially, different species. throughout the course of human history hundreds of thousands of women - who would have loved to have stayed alive for their babies - have bled to death in childbirth, because childbirth is dangerous. a lack of courage doesn't come into it.

but i also think that merope deserves to be treated as something other than a one-note villain outside of this.

she's a rapist. there's no need to handwave that away - even though canon does [love potions are treated as somewhat benign in the text, the canonical tom riddle sr. gets no sympathy whatsoever within the narrative, and he is blamed by both harry and dumbledore, even if this happens in ways which make sense for their characters, for "abandoning" his son].

but she's also someone who must meaningfully lack the capacity to understand what she does as rape. the implication of canon is that she's subjected to incestuous sexual violence at her father and/or brother’s hands [morfin’s jealousy over tom sr., and the fact that he tells tom jr. that merope "dishonoured" him by having a sexual relationship with another man, heavily suggests this], which the narrative once again considers vaguely amusing - and she's certainly subjected to physical violence by them. she's treated as little more than an object to display her father’s locket. this is a girl [she’s nineteen when she dies] who cannot have any idea what things like consent and bodily autonomy are, and who shows through this how this lack of safety and education in one person’s life can go on to beget horror in another’s.

and, alongside this, she also provides a particularly good insight into something which is often absent from the canon narrative - the failure of the wizarding state. it is extraordinary that, when morfin and marvolo are arrested, she's just left on her own. or that the state has made no prior effort to remove her from the home of two men with reputations for violence, or to make sure that she has an education, or to notice that she lives in grinding poverty. or that she's forced to sell her father’s locket for a pittance because the wizarding state makes no effort to help heavily pregnant women who have nowhere else to go.

this - the fact that evil is often banal proceduralism, and that the greatest harm is caused by state apparatus - is something which is largely absent from the canon narrative, which tends to locate good or evil within the individual. so too is the reality of gendered violence, or how poverty affects women specifically, or how the institutions praised in the series - hogwarts chief among them - maintain a social structure which is hugely oppressive. these things go on to affect voldemort too, but they originate with merope.

[petalkitshadow]

Talking About: Appledusk

So, Appledusk is a character who my interpretation of probably gets questioned the most by readers. Which is understandable! He's not really an antagonist in MV; or, at least, the reader is supposed to understand in MV that while Mapleshade views him antagonistically, the narration is biased into her favor due to the story being from her POV. But the role he takes on in PkS is quite actually antagonistic to Petalpaw and her struggles.... so I thought it would be interesting to dive into it and explain my thoughts behind why I wrote him the way I did!

So - I want to start out by saying that Appledusk is a fictional character. It doesn't bother me if you like Appledusk, or view him differently than I do. I just happen to dislike him, which I think is pretty clear from how he fits into Petalkit's Shadow, lol. But even if I dislike him, I still wanted him to play an interesting role and serve his purpose, which involves making him as frustrating as possible!

When coming up with ideas for how characters will be in PkS, I often don't have much to go on. Mapleshade is really the only character from the cast who has a ton of focus in the canon books. Appledusk is one of those characters who falls a bit in a middle ground. He has enough going for him in MV that you can get a basic idea for how he is, but you still gotta do a lot of legwork on figuring out deeper aspects of his character. for PkS, I look at the characters' actions and go, "what kind of person would do this?" and then write the kind of person who I think would do that, basically.

Appledusk, he struck me as being very focused on self preservation. When he's with Mapleshade in private, he has no problem being loving to her and the kits. But the moment he might face repercussions - repercussions Mapleshade is already facing, he becomes detached and cold. What stuck out to me is how Mapleshade kept thinking that Appledusk never asked the kits' names. Now, Mapleshade as a narrator is biased. But she's right - Appledusk never asks what the names of his children are. He gives no outward signs of grief when faced with their death, and he makes no attempt to speak privately with Mapleshade after the kits drown. Of course, anger is a very valid form of grief, as we all know from Petalpaw. but Appledusk then going on to throw Mapleshade under the bus, and not show her a shred of sympathy even though he is currently suffering from the exact same prejudice that cost Mapleshade everything, speaks to me a lot about his values. When faced with his supposed loved one at her lowest, with nothing left to lose, his reaction is to distance himself from her as much as possible in the hopes that he will be punished less. It's cowardly, it's infuriating, and makes him seem so, so cruel to me.

And then, there's Reedshine. Reedshine in canon irks me a lot, in a meta sense. She's been hurt in similar ways as Mapleshade. Appledusk cheated on her too! But she immediately forgives him, and shows no conflict about Appledusk's actions. She's given no room to grieve or to hurt, she has to immediately come to Appledusk's defense. Reedshine and Mapleshade were both made to bear pain that Appledusk had no interesting in helping them shoulder.

To me, it really felt like Appledusk took the women in his life for granted. Why else would he have an affair, and not confess to it until literal, physical, damning evidence was put on display for everyone to see? Did he consider his own feelings, his own wants and desires, to be more important than that of Mapleshade, or Reedshine's? Mapleshade, with her penchant for cold-blooded murder, is definitely a worse person than Appledusk. But Appledusk's cruelty, I think it gets more under my skin because it feels real. How many serial killers do you know? probably none. But how many indifferent men who think women are just too emotional do you know? how many half-rate, self-absorbed fathers do you know? probably a small selection, at least.

So, when coming up with the basics for PkS, I imagined in the wake of this fiasco, Appledusk would be most focused on his own image, like he seems to be in canon. He wants to go back to being an esteemed, respected warrior. What's the best way to do that? Is it to step up, and be there for his traumatized daughter, offer her guidance and try to to fill the void left by losing her other parent?

No, of course not. Because to Appledusk, his daughter is a constant reminder of the mistakes he's made. He doesn't want to reckon with those mistakes, and he doesn't want to consider that he did something wrong.

In a way... he is a lot like his daughter. (Petalpaw would kill me if she could read me typing this, lol). They both are set in their ways, and very, very stubborn.

So, tl;dr... Appledusk in PkS is an extrapolation based on what I interpret from his character. But he's a character with so little to go on I think there are many ways to interpret him. This is just my thought process about him!

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

i think Helaena can be autistic but also a happy and joyful girl , autism ≠ depression. the way the portrayed the only neurodivergent character on screen as unstable, shunned depressed, and with no importance to the plot feel very ableist and weird , but then they're the ones who made the guy with a foot disability a feet fetishist 🫠

Hi OP, finally answering this because the trailer dropped and still the only Helaena shots we have are from her Jaehaerys' funeral. There is also one still photo of her. If you haven't seen it, here she is, apparently sewing the funeral shroud for her little boy:

So it seems like season 2 is going to continue on this trajectory for Helaena as a character who exists in order to suffer beautifully.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad that the show is going to wring the full emotional effect from Blood and Cheese, not just shock value. The audience will feel the real horror of a six year old child brutally murdered in his own home and the psychological torment of Helaena. It should be terrible, it should be devastating, and I hope they do not pull any punches.

What's disappointing about how the show has handled Helaena is that they didn't really put any effort into building up her character before her tragedy. It's all well and good that she likes bugs and she's touch averse, but what are her opinions? Who is she closest to? How did she react to becoming a mother so young? To what extent does she understand her visions? What does she value? She can be happy and cheerful, or she can be frustrated and angry, and hell, she can be depressed too, but I need to know why. It's telling that I can describe the basic internal motivations for each of the male children, including Luke who was a glorified plot device, but I cannot for Helaena. Aegon wants to feel loved, Jace wants to prove he's as worthy as any trueborn heir, Aemond wants what his brother has, Luke wants to be free from his family's expectations. Helaena? Fuck if I know. I guess she wants not to die horribly.

The ableism is an issue. F&B is full of women who were deemed "simple" -- Gael, Daella, Jaehaera-- without being given much else to define them, and HotD adds another (there's something, I think, to the way the "simple" Targaryens are always women and how disability kind of used as a way to remove them from the narrative and shunt them aside, often tragically). And while it's great to see an autistic person represented on screen, the show consistently has an issue with treating representation as characterization. "Autistic girl who likes bugs" is not a personality. Autistic people, (even those with horrifying prophesies I assume), do have hopes and dreams and feelings about things. The one peek we get into Helaena's life is at the in episode 8 when she roasts Aegon and even that scene is open to interpretation (and gets taken wildly out of context). Now, I can read a lot into the actor performances, but ultimately, lines that could have given a glimpse Helaena personality were cut. It's as if they're afraid that if they give her an opinion on anything she would lose that (frankly kind of infantilizing) "pure cinnamon roll too good for this world" "i would die for her" sympathy from people who are not inclined to be sympathetic for her family as a whole.

(And anon, you're right about Larys. And let me say, turning Larys' clubfoot into the punchline of an OnlyFeet joke also does not inspire confidence that they'll handle Aegon II's eventual disability with any sensitivity either, especially when Mushroom's accounts of his last few months are incredibly mean spirited. We need to start that discourse now so they get the memo).

Sadly, I don't think the show really has any intention of course correcting with Helaena in season 2. I imagine at most we'll have her try to warn Aegon and/or Aemond about Blood & Cheese but they won't understand her warning, and then this will be a vehicle to further their guilt and grief. And while we do need to see Aegon's guilt and his grief, I also want to know if Helaena blames herself, if she wishes they'd run away when they had the chance, if she thinks Aegon could have done something, if she is angry at Aemond for killing Luke, if she wants revenge. I do think, with the public funeral for Jaehaerys, they are going to show that the smallfolk are fond of Helaena, and hopefully that will be expanded upon this season and in season 3 because her death is the catalyst for the revolt that sees Rhaenyra driven from the city, and we should understand why her death has such an impact before she actually dies.

[very-straight-blog]

I hate what the showrunners/characters are doing to Aegon. All his life he was neglected and mistreated and then one day all the attention is on him and he is made King and they tell him 'your father wanted you to succeed him' and he doesn't belive it but he goes along because deep down that's all he's ever wanted. To be seen as worthy of something. He is crowned King and he is trying his best to be a good King to his subjects, listening to them and trying to solve their problems and all he gets in return is people treating like an imbecil telling him he is seen as weak. Then his son gets brutally murdered and nobody shows and ounce of sympathy for him, not even a 'I'm sorry for what happened', not even from his own family. His sons funeral is treated as propaganda. He is rightfully angry and wants revege and his grandfather is more worried about what people is going to think of him than the fact that a family member died. Aegon tells Otto that Viserys wanted him as King and Otto laughs at him. All the characters are like "omg you really thought your father loved you you stupid fuking weak bitch 🤣🤣🤣"

God, is there eve ONE person in this fucking show that likes Aegon??? For who he is and not what they can gain from him??? They should have let him go to Pentos or whatever with his family and use Aemond to take throne or something. I'll just be Team Aegon from now on, he has no one but himself and his dragon.

Yes, I even had a post about it here.

This problem is related to the fact that the screenwriters seem to be trying their best to show that the people in the green team hate each other. Plus, they're afraid of ambitious women. There was no need to give us this nonsense with Viserys' dying words. Alicent had to start planning a seizure of power to protect herself and her family - that's it. This was also what Aegon should have been guided by when he took the throne. Simple and understandable, and most importantly logical motivation. But no - now Alicent looks like a fool who believes that Viserys suddenly changed his mind; Otho understands everything, manipulates his grandson and considers him a fool; Aemond calls them usurpers. Great, thanks. The same goes for the death of Jaehaerys - there was no need to show us how the greens villainously plan to make an act of propaganda out of the funeral, but they can't be a family, which means Otto shouldn't care at all about the death of his great-grandson and the grief of his grandson, and Alicent seems to cry, but forgets about what happened a couple of hours later, and then she sees her son crying and just leaves to have sex. And yes, Otto is acting like an idiot because he decides that the king just needs to know that no one really wanted to see him on the throne. You know, during the war, when Aegon should be motivated to fight as much as possible. As a result, because of these ingenious scenario decisions, not only do we get Aegon, whom no one cares about, but also Aegon, who in fact has no motivation to protect the family that hates him.

[tobiasdrake]

Digimon Adventure: Our War Game, epilogue

Well, we finished the movie but I wanted to take a moment to go over these epilogue slides. Especially for those fans who only know the OVA from its appearance in Digimon: The Movie, where the slides are skipped over so it can move on to adapt Hurricane Touchdown.

So, in the wake of near-nuclear annihilation how is everybody doing?

We close out Takeru and Yamato's story at the barbershop. It seems Sho has convinced Yamato to fucking do something about his scraggly-ass hair.

This somewhat bridges the gap between Our War Game and 02, where Yamato's hair is still a bit unkempt but no longer looks like a porcupine died on his head and he kept it as a hat.

Jou finished his entrance exams and looks like he's about to drop dead on the spot. Diablomon really fucked up this kid's day, and he still doesn't even know any of that even happened.

Speaking of people who have no idea what happened, Mimi is home from her Hawaii trip and everybody's got suntans. The Tachikawa family is as close as ever.

Hikari is still at that birthday party despite Taichi screaming at her multiple times to drop everything and come home. She has elected to invoke the rule of Go Fuck Yourself, a popular choice among women who've been treated rudely by domineering men.

She, too, remains blissfully unaware of the horrifying fate that nearly befell Tokyo today.

Yamato's grandma seems to be enjoying the peace and quiet since Yamato and Takeru ran off.

Nobody ate any of Yuuko's destroyed cake. Diablomon truly did get the last laugh in the end.

Koushiro finally gets to go home after what must have felt like ten years in Susumu's office.

The Digimon return to Gennai's secret mansion to continue... Whatever they're doing with their lives.

And this is the big one. Sora types out an email to Taichi that reads: "Dear Taichi. I'm sorry. Thank you for the present. Sora." Then we close on the true final shot of the film: A picture of Sora, smiling and wearing the hairclip that Taichi gave her.

As with Yamato's haircut, this also serves to bridge the gap between series as 02 will see Sora no longer covering her hair with headgear. The emotional landmine Taichi stepped on has finally been cleaned up.

So. How we feeling about this film.

Assessment: My biggest complaint is that not one of the show's three female characters got to actually do anything.

Half of the cast was written out, with only Taichi, Yamato, Koushiro, and Takeru having any significant roles - and Takeru's really stretching the definition of "significant" there. That's fine, but it does bug me that not one of the show's women apparently warranted any serious inclusion.

I think that's why they gave Yuuko so much screentime. To compensate for the fact that all three of the Chosen Children girls were excluded.

Diablomon is... pretty straightforward. It's a buggy Digimon made of bugs who eats data, and its eating of data causes more bugs. There's something simple and childlike about its demeanor right up to the end, but any sympathy I may have had for it vanished instantly with the reveal of the nuke.

That the nuke was not a reaction to Taichi and Koushiro but rather something it did right at the start of the film really gives it a lot of added menace that didn't seem present in its earlier stages. And yet it's not super clear if Diablomon even grasps the severity of what it's doing.

But it's unambiguously both aware of and complicit in the nuclear threat. That didn't just happen by accident as a result of a bug. The whole thing with the clock shows that Diablomon knows it launched a nuke and is making a horrifying game out of it.

Which is... All it really does. It doesn't feel like it's trying to destroy the world on purpose. It would have fired more than one nuke if that was what it wanted. It just feels like it's playing games. With extremely high stakes.

What an odd creature.

The stuff in Shimane with Yamato and Takeru was a lot of fun. XD More than I expected it to be. I kinda love the barbershop randos.

Sora and Taichi's drama seems like it's meant to be the emotional center of the film. This is what we open on, and it's what we close on. It's something we keep coming back to as the OVA progresses.

But it's also kinda flat due to Sora basically being a glorified cameo like Jou and the other girls. Without giving Sora any kind of active presence, there's not really anywhere it can go. All we can do is listen to Taichi wring his hands and complain about the drama they're having until his email arrives and it suddenly stops happening.

It's hard to do interesting interpersonal drama as a solo act.

I think the missile itself is the breakout star of this OVA. If there's one thing Our War Game is remembered for, it's... Well, actually, it's the debut of Omegamon. But if there's two things, then it's being the one where an evil Digimon tried to nuke Japan.

All in all... still a fun OVA. Now, there's nothing left between us and Adventure 02. The old guard are retiring to middle school. It's time for a new generation to take over.

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

“She doesn't want people so see how hypocritical, sexist (to her own gender no less), and just plain awful her character is and take the dislike out on her”

This post pretty much sums up the problem with Olivia’s take on Alicent:

tumblr(.)com/atopcat/737404919685988352/i-really-liked-your-post-about-rhaenicent-what-do

Olivia doesn’t like Alicent, she doesn’t like Team Green, she only wants to desperately cling to fan support so she can stay popular with the general audience. The truth of the matter is Rhaenyra fans make up the largest chunk of the HotD fandom, which means they also make up most of Rhaenicent. If Olivia can ensure Alicent is reduced to nothing more than Rhaenyra’s personal cheerleader instead of a well developed antagonist then Rhaenyra stans will fully embrace her.

Olivia’s ideal ending is where Alicent joins Team Black, she’s convinced herself that if Alicent abandons her family then fans will finally like her and that’s more important to her than having a well written character. As much as I respect the grift it bugs me to no end because she’s intentionally destroying the show in order to protect her palatable version of Rhaenicent.

Olivia Cooke seems to fall into the same trap as Alicent stans: loving the idea and aesthetic of Alicent rather than her actual character. They are enamored with the idea of a pretty victim of the patriarchy who just cries and plays the pawn, rather than Alicent herself. They don't want Alicent to be active in her life or make her own decisions because of who she is in the story.

Alicent is a woman who constantly upholds the patriarchy and tears down other women. She's not a good person and loses sympathy very quickly. Olivia and Alicent stans don't want to accept this, so they make up all these ideas about her to make themselves feel better about playing/liking her.

I really love @atopcat's takes on HOTD, they never miss. Olivia wants to be loved by the fans, and she seems to think the only way to get that is by playing a loved character. There are instances where people hate the actor because of the character, so I can't be too upset about that mindset. But actors who embrace their characters as being villains/antagonists show their skill and grasp on reality.

Olivia and the HOTD show runners are all trying to make a rhaenicent fanfic, but they have opposing ideas of how they want it to play out. Olivia doesn't want Alicent to take any responsibility for her actions because that would mean Alicent was doing shitty things for the whole season. I will say, at least she isn't saying Rhaenyra was actually the monster all along like Alicent stans, so there's that.

[brothermoth]

I'm reading Game of Thrones and watching the show at the same time just to compare...and honestly I think the show really fucked up from the start.

The books are a perfect example of empowering women in a historical setting. There is much less on page sexual assault than in the show. For example: Daenerys is a 14 year old girl married to a 30 year old man for the sake of her brother's political gain. It's horrible, and yet it's the most free she has ever been. She verbally consents to sex on her wedding night (she's a minor and it's always inappropriate but I would like to express that there was no age of consent in the past. This series is based off the medieval period which frequently saw girls married to older men; the fact that he even ASKED for her consent is very indicative of respect for her) and Khal Drogo is gentle with her, not forcing her into it or harming her. He touches her hair, asks her if it is something she wants (despite the language barrier the intent is clear). GRR Martin has genuine empathy and respect for the women he writes. They are people, good and bad and making the best of the world around them.

As a history student and a feminist I think ASOIAF is easily one of the greatest examples of genuine historical empowerment. I can tell Martin is very knowledgeable about powerful women of history and has gone out of his way to examine the social climate of early medieval Europe. For a middle aged man he's done an absolutely admirable job of it.

Cersei is a terrible person, but the narrative has sympathy for her. She is married to a man who gave her power but only a shell of it. He openly laments not having been able to marry Lyanna Stark in front of his wife and berates her and insults her in public. Her actions are awful but Martin's writing asks you to wonder: is she so wrong? Her husband is lucky she didn't kill him YEARS ago. Everyone would have been better off if she had. Yes she fucks her brother which is...which is deeply uncomfortable, but there's psychological implications to the action. Her brother is the only person who genuinely cares about her. He says openly that he loves her when nobody else does. It's very Freudian I hate when that man is right.

I'm only about halfway through the first book but considering I'm late to the party I do know like half the plot points that are yet to come. Despite being put in an awful situation, Dany MAKES something of it. She finds a confidence and position that she never would have had otherwise. That is how many women lived in history. They were married off like chess pieces on a board and yet they etched their names into history books because of it. Her brother sold her for his own benefit, but in the end she is the one who got a throne, not him.

I adore the way Martin works with symbolism and that sense of foreboding that he builds up before any main characters even start to die. He's a really underrated writer, dropping hints for plot points that don't come about until BOOKS later (and years, he's slow as molasses). The show is interesting and all but the books deserve praise far more.

[mamuzzy]

it's been like that for a while now :/ "Gamers" calling female characters ugly because they don't like "extremely feminine" or simply because they don't want a woman as the main character. It's honestly tiring to see and it's all you ever see on the cesspool known as 'x'.

Pfff, those fuckers are no gamers. They want oversexualized women on screen but when these characters actually have personality, they insantly lose interest, it seems.

I only read articles in my own language and people talking about "woke woke woke" and DUDE!!! Oh you didn't hate Ciri when her tits were almost out from that clothes in Witcher 3, right? Ughhhh the hypocrisy!!!

Ok. I consider myself a hardcore gamer and I take the opportunity to make a list of my favorite female protagonist:

CATE ARCHER

In a culture where men's traditional chivalry ends when a woman opens her mouth, Cate Archer was truly a feminist icon for me.

I especially liked that the villains of the games were also women. Felicity Dumas and Cate Archer shared similiar past, losing their family really early and this trauma shaped them. But it's just poetic, that while her past inspired Cate to be better (not a better person, she used to be a catburglar with no morals), Felicity seeked megalomaniac revenge of the whole world that caused pain to her. Cate didn't save the world because she really cared about humanity. She saved the world BECAUSE SHE CAN. And she did.

She actually felt more sympathy toward Felicity, the enemy who tried to destroy her multiple times, all while Cate's actual employers always tried to bring her down with misogynistic remarks like being a secret agent is a "man's job". (The game takes place in the 70's)

And in the second episode, we see Isako too, who is a victim of grooming and exploitation through a debt of honor. I especially loved that after Cate defeats her, Isako wants to pledge her loyalty and Cate being like: lol girl fuck no, how about you don't try to kill me again, please??? (I actually started to write a character study blurb about Isako but it's in the depths of my drafts...)

Cate has no patience for idiots and misogynystic fucks, but I think there is softness in Cate for the ones who strayed into self-destruction. Because she could have been like those people.

ALICE LIDDELL

And Alice's story is a journey to the inner depths of her fractured mind. Saving Wonderland is saving her own sanity. Rehabilitation is hell. Literally.

JADE

And Jade? Straight-up badass bringing down a dictatorial regime that seeked to destroy them.

It's a shame Ubisoft abandoned this game and we'll probably never have that promised sequel.

KINZIE KENSINGTON

Kinzie was only playable character in Gat out of Hell, but she is my neurodivergent blorbo. She really just doesn't give a fuck what people think about her and her gender non-comforming ways.

I especially liked that being forced into feminim clothes and act like a "proper decent person of the society" was her nightmare realm. I could relate to her so much.

AMICIA DE RUNE

Amicia from A Plague Tale, both games. Taking care of her little brother and her found family and doing what it takes to survive. Her story is just heartbreaking. I'm not sure if I will ever get over this game.

CEREZA/BAYONETTA

Bayonetta is really close what I liked in Cate Archer. Being badass but also doesn't try to act like a man to find her place in a world of patriarchy. While the Witches of Bayonetta Lore are encouraged to make peace with their feminity, I really liked that she doesn't need to prove herself to anyone but herself. She is sexy, she is confident and she knows this.

TOA GALI

Toa Gali from Bionicle the Game

When I was a kid, Gali was also a warrior-girl icon for me. And reading the books afterwards just made me love her even more. Being caring and sensitive wasn't a weakness, because oh boy, when her Toa brothers pissed her off with their shenanigans, she really showed she is not one to mess with. I mean she basically destroyed the Bionicle equivalent of Hell on her own.

-----

I think I could go on but the post is already long. xD But my point is, we always had games with female protags, it's just they were always overlooked by these... "gamers".

[thesunfyre4446]

Yo. New to the HoTD discourse. I hope you don't mind me rant dumping on your blog. I'm a bit scatterbrained so I hope I lay out my feelings about these things clearly. I have finally watched HoTD and ....

Listen, I could have liked Rhaenyra well enough, in fact I didn't really mind her in the beginning. But it really all changed once I saw what the audience were saying. How the majority seems to have no sympathy for Allicent at all.

I thought we all understood that no character in Westeros is really all that great?? So I really cant understand the vile hatred spewed towards her? It feels like they even hate her more than anyone ever hated Joffrey or Cersei. People were rightfully angry with the show runners decision to have Jaime r*** her in that one scene. People were capable of feeling empathy for Cersei despite how despicable she is. But there's SOOO much victim blaming for Alicent. It drives me fucking nuts. And to show sympathy for her would have people dogging on you.

I really cannot believe my eyes when I see people thinking she willingly seduced that rotten walking corpse.

I was so naive to think people would understand where her character is coming from. She is utterly powerless. She doesn't have a king for a father to pardon every mistake she makes. She's suffocating and it makes sense for her to hate Rhaenyra who has more privilege than any woman who ever lived in that world, and yet still step over every single rule while expecting everyone else to just live with the consequences of her actions. We're supposed to like her??

I GET that the point of it all is that monarchy is just a shitty way to run a kingdom. I GET that Rhaenyra being a terrible ruler is the point. Man or woman it never mattered.

What I don't get is people thinking she's some feminist figurehead?? She behaves as a man does in that universe, entitled and unfit for what they feel entitled to. I get that that's the point, but that doesn't mean she's for the women at all. Like any man, she's out for herself. Why would I like her if she behaves as any corrupt man in that world would, when the only difference is she doesn't have a dick? And I wouldn't necessarily mind that? I don't watch HoTD or GoT for perfect characters. But if only the audience didn't treat her like some sort of hero and Alicent the pure villain.

I never felt frustrated with GoT discourse. Why the fuck does it seem like HoTD has bred this extremely toxic environment? You can't seem to have a different opinion unless your mouths dick sucking on Team Black.

Dany, just as entitled as she was, she was still able to do as duty demanded. Rhaenyra is a just a spoiled child all the way through. The hatred for Alicent and the inability for people to see Rhaenyra for what she is, has me thinking people have really missed the fucking point about what feminism actually is. And once again, I didnt watch HoTD for feminism. But the audience seems to think Rhaenyra is a beacon for it. Wether intentional or not, ideas take on a life of its own and you cannot divorce these fan-imposed ideas from the show anymore. That's really the part of all this that pisses me off.

I'm TG now not because I condone everything they've ever done. Literally everyone fucking sucks. I'm TG because I understand everyone fucking sucks. And I dislike being tube fed by the biased writers on what to think and feel.

anon, not a single lie was told.

people hate on alicent for displaying human emotions. it's insane. it's always "rhaenyra will turn westeros into barbieland" until someone brings out the fact that she has no intention of helping any other woman other then herself and then it's all "well, we shouldn't judge her from a modern day pov"..

"I'm TG because I understand everyone fucking sucks" this!! also, they have better characters lol

[pinklikeroses]

I really don’t like how one demential Stella is from helluva boss. She has the potential to be a really interesting complex character but is watered down to be a mean wife with zero development

I also don’t like how the show and the fans justify stolas’s cheating.

It’s terrible that he was forced to take part in an arranged marriage and that even though he made an effort to at least have a platonic or cordial relationship with Stella—

That she rebuffed his efforts and was a total asshole to him.

But no one deserves to be cheated on. I really hate how with a lot of media these days….characters both in canon and fandoms are written as black and white and aren’t given proper layers. And I think fandoms have ruined that. Like, you can still like a terrible character while acknowledging that they’re a terrible person without making shitty excuses for them

You can hate/ dislike a bad character without justifying all the terrible things that happened to them. I think the problem is ppl will give their faves or protagonist the benefit of the doubt or give them grace but characters we’re supposed to hate, that are written as bad, don’t deserve grace and patience and understanding

For some characters that’s true….some characters don’t deserve sympathy some characters don’t deserve redemption

But there’s a proper way to write it and I feel like creators and fans are missing that

Some of y’all already know how I feel about lore Olympus

It does a bad job of writing complex characters and holding the “bad” ones to a higher standard. So much so it backfires.

Minthe is one of the characters that was done SO dirty and was only put there to be an obstacle for hxp same as Demeter.

Minthe cheating on hades? Bad! Persephone persuing hades even after discovering he was already in an official relationship? That’s okay!

Because she’s our main protagonist! She’s nice! And not mean like that b*tch minthe!

Zeus cheating on Hera multiple times, with different women for decades? Bad! Zeus is a womanizing jerk who ditched his kids and mistreats his wife!

Hera cheats on Zeus by having an on again off again affair for freaking decades!?! That’s okay! Bc we love Hera! She supports hxp! She’s trying to set them up! She feels bad for poor poor hades! She’s constantly mistreated by her husband so that’s okay

Stolas was mistreated by Stella who was and is a terrible spouse but that doesn’t justify his cheating. I do feel bad for him sometimes. It sucks that the physical relationship he had for blitzo turned emotional and that he started having romantic feelings for him,only to get rejected time and time again. Stolas isn’t an entirely bad character we see multiple sides of him, he loves his daughter, he cares about blitzo he tried to do right by Stella. But even good characters can still do bad things.

And I don’t wanna hear “well they’re In hell lol 🤪” especially since we’ve seen multiple how monogamy and marriage are treated in this show. If the show is addressing how important it is..then it matters. If it didn’t it wouldn’t…..

It would’ve been nice to see that development and care be put into Stella instead of the classic hateful wife/spouse….

[lilisouless]

So…Stella

As you may notice for the lack of reaction I am sort of falling out of interest with Helluva Boss, which is a shame cause I really liked the potential. I want it to be known I had faith and was skeptical that shipping centering will ruin it but…yeah,it eventually happened. Actually,not the ship,I’d be more inclined as Stolas as a character than the ship.

I could extend but before I do the same as Vivziepop and ignore the subject at hand in favor of Stolas, I’d talk about Stella and her biggest controversy:

Was she ruined?

Well…

Let me explain: something needs to be good in order to be ruined, so at the start of show she wasn’t “good” but she wasn’t “bad” either. Here’s the thing: Stella was pretty one note from the beginning. Before the Circus, all she did was yell, trow things at Stolas, being racist and hiring a hit man right in front of him. Therefore , there is not really a lot to ruin there. Not a really good character honestly.

However, i would say that it takes an incridible amount of talent to ruin such a one note character, and it´s surprising they did managed.

Before i explain this conclusion i´ll say something i have said before, allegations Vivziepop will NEVER beat : Vivienne doesn't like writing women. Ok, i don't know it cause i don't know them personally but thats the way their writing feels, women who are not villanous feel like they are written as a charity, as a comfort price as a "i can't be sexist, i have a show with a lesbian protagonist, look i gave Millie another short story" The only one of her characters i feel there´s an enjoyment instead of "give me props" would be Nifty from Hazbin mostly cause she is a comic relief that doesn't need to much of a backstory (even then, she is also used to advance a male character´s develoment though) , but i´ll continue.

What does Andrealphus even exist? Well, the show needs a charismatic evil villain and it CAN'T be Stella, because that means there would be an enjoyment to her and the writers can't even allow that. Thats when Stella fails.

And here is my bigger problem: Stella is not well constructed, Stella is a tantrum.

When writers have noticed an unintended audience reaction and they portray it or try to fix it on their work, it shows, its mostly obvious when it happens. By season 2, they are aware that (surprise) people have some sympathy for the cheated woman. So they make her meaner, which is eyerolling, unoriginal, annoying , a waste BUT it´s not against her previous characterization , nothing about the little we had seen of her gets really contradicted. Therefore, annoying as it is, it´s possible to give it a pass. The next time she appears she is more loud, more annoying and stupid, the oportunity to be a bigger villain , at least on Stolas´s subplot, taken away so the shinning moments go to a male character instead, in PURE Vivziepop fashion.

Next episode we saw her, even more annoying. There´s one moment thats enjoyable on a sinister way: the scene where she pretends to comfort Octavia, then smiles. Probably implying she will play "understanding mother" in Via´s face but it will be actually poisoning her against Stolas, or manipulating or something that implies getting a bit away from her only trait that is "hating Stolas"

But no, next episode has her literally doing nothing but laugthing IN OCTAVIA´S FACE about their loss. They can't allow anything about her being enjoyable or entertaining, Andrealphus has to be the big and cool menace to comfront, Stella doesn't deserve to be cool for a single second.

Yet the biggest tantrum in this episode is not Stella related. This is one of those moments that i can't stand because i feel like the creators are looking at my face and saying "i think you are stupid"

The whole subplot of IMP refusing to kill the two men to them was probably a great "take that" but deep inside it´s actually begging for the audience to not go, please don't see things diferently, specially how ooc it is for them to not wanting to kill them for money. It´s a very cheap way to talk to audiences.

If the thing wasn't already too much "on your nose" the woman cheated is called "Karen" (please , i think we already have outgrown Karen already as a meme) and is obnoxious as saying "yes, this women don't deserve your sympathy" and it´s just bad because it´s awfully hypocritical : 1) She is framed as evil for requesting the kill but literally killing humans is the job of out main characters , why the show is suddenly so moral about it? . 2)The situation is meant to be a parallel and..no, it´s not the same, the human couple didn't have the power imbalance thing and upperclass pressure Stol/iz had ,it´s not the same situation; even the show ignores their previously stablished nuances

So the show ends up in a double edged sword when the writers think they are supeior to the audience, intelectually and moral but at the same time beg for their approval, they are imploring to not bail at the show. And that, in adition to VM´s lack of interest in female characters , gives a terrible combination.

My conclussion is that the fans are right...the wrong reasons because it´s very valid to be mad about Stella just not "she was villanized for the sake of the ship" no, she was already villanous, what she was was made dumber, lame, wasted and pushed into a mysoginistic trope for the sake of TWO male characters.

I was going to talk about the audience reaction and why i think people are not completely right in the backlash , but thats more like another subject cause writing along i realized that even if it´s for the wrong reasons , the dissapointment is very guaranteed and so is the resentment.

I don't think Stella has real fans, like she was never a good demon, a good character nor framed as tragic. I think what people are mad about is an idea and some sort of audience rebelion against bad writing. Which can be good but sometimes the point can be missing. I can explain it better in another posts.

[worflesbian]

I think part of the reason janeway compels me so much is bc i really feel like on any other show she would've been a sympathetic villain at best. like in the last episode I watched she holds a baby while talking about killing it's siblings and it's genuinely only through the thoroughly established context of janeway having to make horrible choices in order to save her crew that we can read that scene as anything but unhinged. and it Does make sense in context bc she's talking about killing adolescent Borg drones to stop them from assimilating hostages, but in most other shows that kind of thing coming from a female character especially would not end up with her being the good guy at the end of the episode.

im thinking about how btvs which aired at a similar time had a whole arc about the pressures of leadership driving buffy to become way too harsh and the consequences of that are she gets kicked out of her own home. avasarala on the expanse does a lot of awful things but being uncompromising and not giving a fuck is like her most notable character trait, she tortures a guy in her first appearance. these narratives have little sympathy for women who do bad things in the name of something greater, either they're punished for it and rejected by those around them or they're characterised as cold and lacking compassion. but janeway for the most part has the full support of her crew and spends the majority of the time being kind and diplomatic, As Well as choosing to sacrifice lives or collaborate with mass murderers when she has to.

and it's conflicting bc although this is almost a one of a kind female character I think part of her existence is due to voyagers unwillingness to challenge the status quo of star trek despite having the perfect premise to do so. everyone wears uniform and adheres to rank despite half the crew being unenlisted terrorists, starfleet is largely unquestioned as an absolute moral good despite the origin of the maquis being designed to undermine and examine that, and the captain is always the hero at the end of the day.

[horizon-verizon]

https://www.tumblr.com/very-straight-blog/750648583572881408/it-really-tires-me-how-some-fans-try-to-make-aegon?source=share

What is your opinion about this? Personally, I don't understand why people are so diligently looking for something in Aegon that isn't there.

I wrote about Aegon HERE.

Of course he cares, that's literally the essence of his personality. He cares. He and Aemond both feel too much emotion, but if Aemond sublimates into self–improvement, trying to be strong, cold and detached, then Aegon is literally an open wound. I want to talk about this, also using Tom's interviews (yes, I think the actor's opinion is valid in this matter) and the few scenes that we have in the first season

Having emotion/passion =/= sympathy, caring about others, or altruism. sympathy, altruism, etc. can cause or fuel passion, passion can be the motivation to maintain sympathy/compassion/altruism. Dany is a perfect example caring in hand with passion. But this person conflated "caring" with "being emotional and insecure".

Aegon, bk or show, is emotional bc he doesn't want to expend much energy into doing the ambitious things his family wants him to do, except if it is him showing militaristic prowess to prove masculinity and dominance.

Yes, show!Viserys largely didn't give him the "attention" (more here later) that he gave Rhaenyra, but this neither shows that Aegon truly "cares" since he constantly rapes, has his own bastard kids fight each other when he could have easily set up much better living conditions or have them grow up well-off--as most European noblemen did in real life, even Henry VIII. Viserys not giving him attention doesn't excuse, erase, or undermine how Aegon freely chose to abuse others. Dyana didn't ask to be raped, no one does. Should we ignore her pain for Aegon's "microexpressions"? Daemon's mother passing doesn't excuse his treatment of Rhea Royce (whether he kills her or not, show or book...in the book he still is nasty towards her), while also not having ever raped or SAed women (or really, that being a apart of his character GRRM chose to highlight). Both are princes. And many other men choose not to sexually abuse women despite actual abuse at home -- Samwell Tarly. Who is also a pretty emotional but also actually caring individual. He is not a prince. Aegon doesn't need to be named heir nor will it have a positive effect on the realm if he was made king, like how Rhaenyra needed to be Queen bc it's setting a better precedent for female rulership not just for the throne, but for women/girls to be more included in noble lines of succession and/or to lessen the probability of attempts to unseat female heirs who ascend to their places (Jeyne Arryn). That how Rhaenyra, who had been slandered to be undeserving bc of her gender--something Aegon will never receive and is actual discrimination--also benefits to affirm her worth. Finally, Aegon had to start a war and kill thousands to get what he wanted; Rhaenyra would have peacefully housed him after her ascension. so there's that.

HotD is really uwuing this man, bc canonically he just sees the throne as his male-given right; it was never about "confidence in capabilities" or "who'd make the best ruler" for Aegon. Or the greens. It just never was. Even in the show, if you think for 2 seconds, the only logical reason why he would care so much abt Viserys's treatment of him vs Rhaenyra is abt the throne. Viserys didn't "like" him? Oh, well, maybe that is bc the writers decided not to include the fact that bkViserys spent a lot of time with Helaena and that his probable distance b/t his sons is precisely bc they feel that Rhaenyra, his chosen heir, should not be queen? And that is coming from Otto/Alicent coaching them that way, thus creating that divide?

Viserys actually doesn't treat Rhaenrya all that well despite her being his heir: forcing to marry Laenor, [show] punishing her or castigating her for feelings she rightly has towards marriage after he treated Aemma the way he did, reneging on his deal about Otto with he, etc.

bk!Aegon is threatening Rhaenyra before she gave her first terms, impatient to imprison Rhaenyra after the coronation before those terms, calls her a whore after hearing the terms, etc. He may feel bitter and sad about Viserys not giving what he thought was his "birthright", but I think the showrunners knew that this would not endear him to audiences or make them care abt his PoV, bc this is such a privileged sense of entitlement that is actually dangerous that goes beyond any slander against Rhaenyra's pride to be a female Targaryen heir. Viserys, as king, chose Rhaenya and that is well within his right as king, by these feudal monarchist customs. Female heirs have been chosen in Westeros. even with those girls and women having been chosen only bc there was no viable male candidate, or the ones there were too young, etc., they were still chosen and active in wars in different ways. Plus, if we actually care about victims, which a lot of those women were, you'd also see that having a female heir even with a male candidate, is a better step in the right direction of possibly minimizing that rather than to keep the male-preference primogeniture where the younger male is heir keeps going. Rhaenyra never victimized anyone at that point; Aegon had already done so to serving girls and that 12 year old. In the show, Aegon abuses Helaena by her own words about his sexing her only when he is drunk, but this is throwaway and we are not given a fuller picture (w/o actually showing us the sex, we can still witness their dynamic but as it is they have never been in the same room and we never saw them interact or try to, which HotD clearly takes advantage of bc a lot of people are not cognizant of this or care).

He "cares" about himself and pathetically whines about how he wasn't given or thought to be given what he thinks he deserves based on gender privilege. Boohoo. No one said he was emotionless in the first place! Should I feel bad for a man who doesn't get the expected privileges for being a man?

[kitkatopinions]

So a couple of things stand out to me with this little gem from the commentary for V9.

They viewed Neo as she is as irredeemable. I one hundred percent disagree with the idea that there's a certain level of villainy that makes it impossible for someone to ever come back from, and if I did believe that, it would be like 'genocidal colonizers who want to take over the world' and not like 'formerly abused disabled woman who spent the better part of her on screen time working for someone doing much worse things than her who then developed a grief-driven misguided grudge and has done technically less worse things than most of the RWBY villains even including V9.' But this does make me feel a bit better in that the RWBY writers are less likely to redeem Salem and Cinder, who are two people that even though I think they can be redeemed, they probably should stay evil.

However, them saying they did want to give Neo a bit of sympathy (which is not the same thing as redemption) because of her past... Cool, actually. Yes, it's frustrating that other characters didn't get that sympathy despite having gone through similar or worse things than Neo went through, like Adam, but I'm not gonna want a formerly abused disabled woman to not get an ounce of sympathy just because a different character didn't get it in the past. But also, this does make me think Cinder, Salem, and potentially Mercury will get similar sympathies (I say 'potentially' Mercury because there's quite a chance that the writers are only willing to extend sympathy towards the women characters based on misogyny as they seem to be sometimes pushing a narrative that the women characters are unable to have made their own choices, but also Hazel is an example of them letting men have unfair sympathies they don't deserve and getting treated with a ton of sympathy like they're not responsible for their own actions too.)

It's worth noting that they were swayed by fandom opinion. "There's this really weird line of everybody likes her as a character," they say, as if they don't like or understand exactly why fans would like a character they invented, which is a weird thing writers do sometimes. And they go on to imply it was one of the reasons they had for not wanting to write Neo to have too bad of an end.

The way they talk about Neo committing suicide like it's a good thing... They are actively talking about how Neo 'has a chance' to ''pick a different person to be.' I mean, it was bad enough with the Paper Pleasers, but at least they actually were from the Ever After where (badly done or not) the implication was that it was slightly different than for humans, but Neo? She was a real person from Remnant! She killed herself, and they're like 'dum dum dum it's a sympathetic end for her because killing herself is a good choice actually that 'gives her a chance to be something better.' Like ??? That is point blank period glorifying suicide.

It's remarkable to me that the writers as well as fans think that the ending they gave Neo is even sort of a good thing for Neo that says that they're favoring her character, whether people think that's unjustified or good. The writers might've written Ruby to act a bit sympathetic (which I see as a step in the right direction for her being a caring protagonist, unlike when she cut off Tyrian's tale,) but Neo still didn't get any sort of good ending and in fact when you compare it to Hazel, it feels even worse. She spent the last several seasons playing lacky to someone who didn't respect her while she was grieving the only person who had ever treated her well, she then lost all will to live and reason for existence after Ruby was supposedly dead, then had her autonomy ripped away from her in one of the most meant-to-be-disturbing moments in the show, and a different being talked with her mouth and used her like a puppet, and then she committed suicide. How is that a good sympathetic ending just because Ruby had a two second moment of being like 'hope she does decide to commit suicide for good and become a different person who isn't so messed up?' Hazel got to die a heroic death after 'teaching Oz a lesson' and he was responsible for tons of deaths in Mistral and he beat Oscar on screen!

Idk, I just feel like the entire narrative surrounding Neo's death feels like a big middle finger, even if MKEK intended to try to appease her fans. I thought volume 9 was going to be Neo's time to finally shine in the spotlight, but they brushed her aside to make the Cat a twist villain (like they needed a twist villain,) and then wrote the worst possible end for Neo they could have, and I feel like a crazy person because I feel like the only person who's bothered by it.