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seancamerons · 11 months

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How does a high charter song become cringe 20 years or sometimes less? Whether its a gimmick, bad all along, overplayed and overhyped, the artists personal life took a nose dive, they had legal troubles or turned to drugs, someone passed away, bad memories, or their songs remind you of places people youe rather forget. Whatever the reason

Music is so powerful.

Sometimes lyrics speak the words on the tip of your tongue. For a moment you can revisit a period in your life for better or for worse. When your own words fail you some lyrics are etched in your brain and are significant to you and make you feel things. It's the reason some artists are heralded to be the best or your favorite and you can attach or find symbolism or feel seen and and feel the very emotions in the music and lyrics. Reading in between the lines and sometimes it can save your life or

Sometimes finding songs, at least in my personal experience, that you loved years ago is like getting in touch with an old friend. An old friend who saw and knew you then and rheres nothing but love now. You get back on contact with them and it's as if no time had passed. It's like being the age you were when you were inseparable. Organically, and simultaneously you reignite the bonds that brought you together instantly with the meanings or lack thereof of songs that defined in that time.

Yeah I'm guilty of this, my Spotify playlist I'll skip. I have premium and I have endless skips and sometimes none of the songs or lyrics or tone or even artist don't fit my mood. I shuffle from playlist to playlist and it's a truly beautiful moment when you find the lyrics you that describe what you feel. I always keep my playlists or the pregenerated ones.

I pay close attention. Music is endlessly

I have my tastes. I like mildly obscure or forgotten bops and my most listened artist is Britney Spears and before you question me about this affinity I have for her and her artistry despite the world kicking her while she's down she still even now when she feigns this tough girl persona she's been burned badly by the very people who were supposed to protect her from these situations and

Then there's the whole lack of decision making creative control and ugh like she lost her twenties, most of her thirties and now she can't even heal or cope without conspiracies, controversies she's not stranger to, but everyone pointing fingers her career being misunderstood and her legacy being questioned? When can she seriously be taken seriously for one, or why no matter what she can't please anyone even fans or the conspiracy theorist variety of tiktok investigations about everything from 2006 to about the present day and between since about last year. People make fun of her Instagram onlijenprescuse and pass judgement on how she processes her grief and trauma.

All the while gaslighting her, ratting to tmz who are totally on the other side and it's all about the dirtiest thing in the world that everyone wants more of, if your rich you want more of and when you poor you always want more of and if you don't you're lying and that thing is money. It also could be jealousy envy pride greed

Some of the ever iconic 7 deadly sins is where I'm going with that. It's not all of the sins but they are complicit in everything and don't deserve to have literally nothing recouppance. They stole over a decade and millions from their own family. Blood doesn't have your best interest at heart. I know people who are fine though having no relationship with family. Abuse doesn't always equate physical. It's mental, it's emotional, and just as traumatic. They were oh so concerned about leeches such as a scapegoat.

Britney deserves freedom, respect, love, no judgment. If you walked a mile in her shoes of she wasn't censored she's using her voice and words now.

For haters who believe brifney is washed up talentless and crazy wouldn't you be given what she went through in her life?

It's likely why they hire additonal or other witers. They'd rather there be a collaboration than her to have a sole writing credit. Even the producers or record execs seem to not back or believe in her roughly 90 percent of the time.

So she went from having an era of massive and mass success and full creative control or pretty close to that within reason I'm the in the zone era and though blackout era and she always pushed boundaries and such at that time.

Conpared to flash forward to 2008 and 2009 to being treated like being reduced to 10 a child being controlled by others and simultaneously stunting her growth as an artist a human an adult. That's before stripping her of fundamental civil rights and body automty she didn't have choices a woman her age should've had. I'm not even sure how that was legal. It was pretty sneaky and under handed.

There's so many artists with fifteen minutes of famr and one hit wonders and forgotten bops and bangersand everything in between andbveyond .eberydya a new skng is creative. Ballads tell stories no matter what genre

. There has got to be a reason, though some artists stand the test time aside from being lucrative and money.

We know Britney dominated for a long time. The fact after her successful single and album, she trailblazed the tranisition from boy girl bands to solo arists and every relevent competetor labels like rca or colombia had thier own version of Britney or in the same vein of artist on their roster such Jessica and

Real ones remember Britney Mania that time in 1999 and the new millennium, y2kera, and 2000ish such as the early 2000s trl era when everyone wanted to be a fan, or be her friend, or something more. Possibly now it seems like everyone is against Britney Spears and everything she stood for and her lyrics iconic choreography delivery, creative decisions she spearheaded and think she isn't talented or deserving of good things and choices and thinking. Her upcoming memior is slated to be a great read no matter what it was. It was high time she was able to finally address, comment, and potentially shed light on some places in her life she was silenced.

I can't relate to the whole camp of people who say or choose to dwell on the negative. I have the utmost respect got Britney Spears and what she has contributed to music in her combined 30ish years inbthe music industry singing dancing and entertaining, and I as typically do completely deviated so far from my initial reason topic for this post.

What I'm saying is granted. I guess maybe I don't have the best taste in music, but it's so important to me to express how I feel emotionally or otherwise. Here goes.

i am musically open-minded. i love getting song recs or discovering redescovering new and old music, and it's not for anyone to judge or make assumptions. I may say or find me saying newer mysic isn't good, but with any era of time trends come in and out of favor. Music helps me. It's calming for me to listen to music no matter my mood or how hectic life gets. Music bridges the gap between hopelessness and a lot of it can generate hope, and most listeners feel at ease. It boosts my mood productivity , feels, and fills the silence with beauty. Britney has achieved so much in 25+ years.

These leeches, not people, didn't see their daughter or in Jamie Lynn's case own sister. They saw dollar signs. I don't have very nice things to say about her sister. I don't feel so sorry or bad for her and her sob story. Without your sister, you wouldn't have a home, a career to speak of relevancy, and that is how her so-called family sees it and some general public fans.

Certain songs I admit made me realize these feelings or concerns Britney had as early as Britney in 2001 in regards to public opinion and fighting for control. Songs such as let me be, overprotected, not a girl not yet a woman, and lonely and in later years and eras, why should I be sad, piece of me in blackout from 2007 , alien, passenger from Britney Jean in 2013 and even earlier songs such as lucky and everytime are haunting to hear today for similar reasons. For that very control, it all to be taken from her in her most vulnerable of times. I am interested in what the memoir would say about such things or these times in her career and lifetime. Bottom line, she has something that sets her apart like longevity. There is demand, she still has fans, she will always have haters or people who want to see her fail and I guess I love a good underdog story I never would count her out or doubt her talent, or attack her.

She's in a class all her own in terms of accomplishments and artistry. Sometimes you hear a song by Britney Spears, for example, the voice is unmistakably hers, and there's loads of artists that have that the same or ecognition or nortiety and accolades. There's just something about Britney, specifically something I can't really put my finger on.

Can you be for a little over a decade being in her shoes? I have so much empathy for her and what she ernt through. I doubt even the strongest or even myself. I could never handle something such as that happening to me. I don't have all the answers, but I knew something was wrong or off, and something sinister or wicked was going in behind the scenes in 2008. We all know some light was shed in court, and we have audio and some other evidence, and I'm sure there will be things to come out in the memoir when it's released.

Trends are cyclical in music and more. Things come in and out of favor. Like fashion and beauty trends come back around every ten or fifteen years, give or take.

#music #mollyhale #brirney spears #2000s #1999 #early 2000s #late 90s #analysis #observation #thoughts

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kramaku · 3 years

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I hate when people say that Bakugou deserves only redemption and not forgiveness for Izuku's bullying. Of course it's Izuku's choice to make, but I'm saying that it wouldn't be undeserved if he's forgiven.

And that for 2 reasons.

(alert manga spoilers)

1. He was very young.

There's one thing that's evident but some people almost deliberately forget it seems: kids under the age of (around) 12/13 can't (or can barely) make their own opinion. If a dad keeps telling his son that women are annoying and useless, the kid will make fun of girls and tell them they're annoying and useless. That without really trying to understand why. A kid is too young to think that far and it's literally a survival instinct. Kids being small and weak, nature made them pretty apathetic. A kid can be kind but in any situation where they feel in danger or unsafe (about their life, happiness or sense of self worth, really anything), they'll run to protect themselves and only themselves without caring about others, maybe step on others on the way too. Of course the human brain being the smartest and most complicated of this universe, some exceptions exist were kids are selfless (Izuku I'm watching you) but it's rare and they need a very special education to end up that way.

So in conclusion, if a kid is mean, says/does horrible things, they're just doing what an adult did, or listening to what an adult told. Everyone kept treating Bakugou like he was superior thanks to his quirk so it's only logical for him to think that way as child, just like everyone treated Izuku like he was inferior so because of Bakugou's self conclusion (because of their bad society) that your quirk is what makes your worth, he was led to look down on Izuku.

Now, that doesn't mean he wasn't an asshole as a kid (he was I hated him the two first seasons lmao) but you can't hold him accountable for his bad actions as a child when even teachers don't say anything when he bullies Izuku in front of everyone, like it wasnt a bad thing to do. You could have held him accountable for his actions if he turned out like Endeavor though. Endeavor was an adult when he abused his family, he had the mental intelligence to know what he was doing was bad and question himself but he was too blind by his will to be the number one hero. Bakugou, though, started to question himself at 15 years old, which is young af. Most insufferable kids I've met back in my younger years are still assholes today in their 20/30s.

He changed his entire way of thinking, that really forged his personality deep btw, and even apologized in just a few months. The most incredible of it all is that he doesn't ask for forgiveness. Even most adults irl ask for forgiveness when they realize their mistake without even thinking about rather or not they deserve it or trying to atone, and even get mad or sulk when they're not forgiven.

Bakugou doesn't think about his own benefits here, he just wants to atone for all the bad things he said and done back as a kid without wanting anything in return, and that, may I repeat myself ladies and gentlemen, as a teenager. He's not even an adult yet.

Just. Bakugou's a good guy that received a terrible education but put himself back on the right track very fast (compared to endeavor who took idk how many decades for example)

2. Izuku isn't traumatized.

Y'all like to use "trauma" at any occasion way too much. A trauma is, by definition, a damage or injury (physical or mental) that results in challenges in functioning or coping normally after the event. I'm not saying Bakugou beating him down, insulting him and humiliating him didn't hurt him- it really did- but none of Bakugou's actions impacted his mental health. He was always a nerd and pretty shy because he didn't have friends and couldn't develop social skills like other kids which made him stutter and be intimidated easily in the first seasons. Izuku would have been the same if Bakugou weren't in his life at all. Unconfident, reserved, feeling worthless.

What traumatized Izuku into thinking he's worthless is the whole society judging people based on their quirks, the fact that his mom apologized to him after he got diagnosed quirkless, implying it was bad, the fact that his classmates looked down on him, but most importantly his own idol telling him that you cant be a hero as a quirkless person. All Might's words hurt him way more than all of Bakugou's bullying, please. Bakugou told him to jump off the roof, he didn't even consider it. Bakugou told him to stop dreaming about being a hero, he never gave up. Bakugou told him not to go to UA, the boy stood on his grounds.

Bakugou never had any long term impact on him, Izuku never cared, meanwhile he was already thinking about a most "realistic" future not even an hour after All might told him to give up.

The only impact Bakugou's bullying had on Izuku was the little fear that Izuku had each time he saw Bakugou at the beginning of the manga, jumping and slightly panicking when Bakugou approached him that's all. Besides, he didn't fear him that much as he didn't hesitate to defend himself multiple times.

(I didn't mention it before bc I forgot but it's so important. Bakugou was ready to give up on his own dream and life to save Izuku. That's all. Admire that precious child.)

so yes, Bakugou hurt him a lot, but did not traumatize Izuku. Can they be friends already please they're each other's everything T_T

#bakudeku #bkdk

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swampythesweetsketch · 2 years

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According to the logic of "Lloyd and his ninja have a family bond so it's wrong to ship them together", NONE of the ninja should be shipped with each other. Real hypocritical that the show's theme of found family only applies if it involves the oldest ninja whom everyone infantilizes

under read more cause I got wayyyy angry at this one.

Real hypocritical that the show's theme of found family only applies if it involves the oldest ninja whom everyone infantilizes.

First off- Are you saying Lloyd is the oldest??? Lloyd, the kid fucked over by fate?

It doesn't even matter if Lloyd got aged up at all, everyone who's watched the starting seasons know damn well that Lloyd is the youngest and most traumatized of the group.

He knows that his age doesn't make sense. By all accounts he knows he's not supposed to be an adult, that's because of the timeline and tea shit. Through the timeline rewrite, any means of relationship is a issue the moment the ship possibility manifests cause every person Lloyd is known to be shipped with older than him (the Ninja and Akita), his enemies/abusers (Morro and Harumi), or related to him in some way (MORRO AND HARUMI).

Okay now for the other half.

According to the logic of "Lloyd and his ninja have a family bond so it's wrong to ship them together", NONE of the ninja should be shipped with each other.

See Jaya for the most on the nose example. From the very beginning Jay and Nya were pushed as a couple. The only straight marketable couple of the whole series until S3. And then Cole got thrown in as a red herring love interest for Nya, and that didn't end with anything serious.

Nya wasn't even a Ninja at first, sure, but she is now. She has an entire arc of her being forced to become the Water Ninja all because of Wu.

Put a pin in this.

Found family is a tricky line. And by assessing your knowledge of Ninjago, you are already well aware that a majority of the fandom now are open about shipping the Ninja with each other.

And in Found Family, there is always the possibility of Romance, Rivalry, Loss, and Role Shifts.

In the entire series, Found Family is treated two ways.

The first is the group finding a safe place for all of them to live with each other without exclusion or ridicule.

The only exceptions are to the S3 finale and into S4 as the Ninja disown each other due to the heavy loss of Zane, with Lloyd trying hard to reunite the only real family he's had in the past 3 years; Only to reunite when given the clue that Zane is alive on Chen's Island.

S6, when Jay is ostracized from the group for inadvertently causing more problems for them when stopping Nadakhan.

The most recent season, Crystalized, where the group again disbands due to Nya's death and again reunite to disconnect Nya from her element. And Nya is Jay's girlfriend/fiancé/wife for fucks sake! The most obvious example of the Romance in Found Family!

So I'm gonna say it now. The pin is being pulled out and I am dropping it into the ocean of complaints.

Wu.

The second meaning of Found Family is the insinuation from Wu that the OG4 were pushed to call each other Brothers since the very beginning.

And every time the Ninja enforce the Brothers title, it's due to Wu enforcing it first.

It is one literal word Wu imposed on the Ninja from day one and it has been an issue for not only them, but to Nya as well. She felt excluded and created the Samurai X persona, only for Wu to say "Nope you got elemental powers, you're everyone's sister now" while ignoring (for good reason) that Jay and her did and now have a romantic interest in each other.

And then Lloyd had this issue too because the Big Brothers were dicks to him at first and started the domino effect that resulted in the Great Devourer being released. When Lloyd was taken in, he wasn't even treated as family until Kai got his head out of his ass and Lloyd was revealed to be the Green Ninja of prophecy.

Seeing how fucked up the OG4 and Nya were by the time Lloyd was added to the Ninja team, do you see how Lloyd would immediately latch onto the older teens as his family? To finally have a group of people who only tolerated him before to become caring and kind all because he was the one person standing between saving Ninjago and utter destruction? Do you see how fucked up Lloyd's love and dependency on the team is now? And you think all because "he's an adult now" makes any relationship with the Ninja okay???

No!!! He should absolutely not be with any of them!!!

And have you looked at the fandom?

You must have; I have, I have seen every possible angle of the relationships between the Ninja and the push for romance has never been so painfully obvious.

And it's all because they throw the fucking Brother title out the window. Even those who acknowledge the Brother title all come to an agreement that it's only in place because of Wu- and the writing staff trying to avoid any gay censoring in the start but can you blame them? It was 2011. Cole came out to his dad as a ninja. A fucking ninja.

Everywhere else in the series, most Ninja see each other as Family without specific roles. And that is the point.

Kai sees Jay as his Brother because of Nya and Jay being together.

Jay and Cole are Rivals and Best Friends.

Lloyd and Kai see each other as Brothers.

Roles are not set in stone in this group dynamic. But Brotherhood is enforced by Wu.

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caelestis-composition · 3 years

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killshot anon! YEAH i totally agree w/ your view on kaeya. it's so weird to me that people will blame him for his role in a situation he was forced into as a child through no choice of his own. that itself had to be traumatic, not to mention everything that happened later. i hate when people say he's untrustworthy - like yeah, he's lied, so has everyone? it's clear he does it mostly to protect himself. not to mention that (& sadism) can be symptoms of trauma. kaeya deserves nothing but happiness

take a seat folks it’s time for a “brynn should’ve been an english major” lesson! today we’re gonna learn some literary theory; specifically, we’re gonna apply psychoanalytical trauma theory to kaeya’s backstory and current character. killshot anon i bet you never thought this would result in a whole ass essay.

disclaimer one! you are allowed to dislike kaeya! i am not saying you need to like him or his character, you’re entitled to your opinion and i’m not here to change your mind.

disclaimer two! i am in no way an expert and this is all for fun! this is just my silly little analysis of one of my favorite characters as someone who’s studied literary theory and rhetoric and can also apply personal experience. seriously analysis is like a hobby to me and this is just an excuse for me to ramble about kaeya.

disclaimer three! this contains lots of spoilers! basically for everything we know in-game, general knowledge as well as stuff from his voicelines and character story. don’t read this if you don’t want spoilers.

since this is going to be filled with spoilers and is about to get really long, everything will be under a cut. for those who wanna read my dumb super informal essay: enjoy!

final note: yeah this is over 2000 words long can you tell i like analysis

⭒

let’s start by getting a quick rundown of trauma theory out of the way. to begin, what is “trauma?” in this case, trauma is going to refer to an experience that greatly affects and changes one’s life; attitudes, memories, behaviors, mental state, etc. while not all changes may be bad, per se, the overall effect of trauma is generally a negative one, which is why it’s so significant. literary trauma theory, then, explores these changes and the impact of trauma in literature. it analyzes the psychological and social effects of trauma, explaining what those effects are and why they happen. in the context of a specific character, trauma theory breaks down said character’s behaviors, feelings, and general mentality in relation to their past experiences; trauma theory hopes to explain to others the reasons for why a character may act or feel the way they do, all based upon the character’s experiences, particularly traumatic ones. our character today is the lovely kaeya alberich, with the “literature” being genshin impact. i’ll be referencing kaeya’s wiki page to ensure i get all details correct for his character story and voicelines.

it would be good to review kaeya’s backstory before delving into the actual analysis. though we don’t know much about his life before living in mondstadt, we’re told he was sent as an agent of khaenri’ah. and by “sent,” i mean his biological father abandoned him in a completely unfamiliar land to serve khaenri’ah’s interests and fullfil his mission—what this entirely entails hasn’t been revealed. mondstadt, however, welcomed kaeya “with open arms when they found him.” crepus ragnvindr took him in as his adopted son, with diluc as his adopted brother. kaeya and diluc were “almost like twins,” so close they “[knew] each other’s thoughts and intentions without a word.” he’d began a new life in mondstadt, one surrounded by friends and family that loved him; one that was completely shattered by crepus’s death. kaeya arrived at the scene of the disaster, and was led to believe diluc was the one who killed their father to “set his father free” from the effects of his delusion. there’d always been one big question in kaeya’s life: if it came down to it, who would he support? the nation that abandoned him, but he still felt loyal to, or the nation and family that took him in and really loved him? overrun with guilt, kaeya confessed his purpose to diluc, sparking a fight between the two brothers. in this fight, kaeya receives his cryo vision. though both brothers stepped away alive, they’ve never been able to make peace with one another. now, kaeya is the eccentric and charming cavalry captain of the knights of favonius; a man who gets his way by using any means necessary, regardless of whether or not it seems right.

kaeya’s not evil; he’s morally ambiguous, and that stems from what appears to be a general distrust of others. his life is one shrouded in secrecy. from the moment he stepped foot into mondstadt, he was surrounded by secrets. even now, he doesn’t talk about a lot of things, namely his past, vision, and feelings. though he’s always willing to get information out of others, kaeya never reveals anything about himself. he repeatedly tells the player they can confide in him, but whenever you try and pry into his life, he deflects your questions with some sort of witty comment or flirty remark. anything he does reveal is vague, or spoken in some sort of “code.” for example, his “interesting things” voiceline. he tells us about the owl of dragonspine, how it “seems to look right through you, while letting go of none of its own secrets,” and then tacks on a “quite fascinating, don’t you think?” it seems like an awfully accurate parallel to himself; kaeya does all he can to get information from others, but never gives anything about himself. now, this whole thing—his relationship with diluc falling apart and his need for secrecy—could have probably been avoided if he had just come clean about his mission years ago. so why didn’t he? to start, kaeya was a literal child. not only are children unable to properly tell the difference between right and wrong, but they’ll also typically follow their parents’ orders blindly. kaeya had just been abandoned, and he wouldn’t want to risk being cast out by mondstadt as well if he came clean right away. you see, there’s this thing about trauma, something that trauma theory states. traumatized people feel a sort of shame or guilt regarding their traumatic experience; they’ll keep quiet because they don’t want to cause problems or bother others with their issues. of course kaeya wouldn’t tell the truth about his past, he doesn’t want to destroy the genuinely loving relationships he’d built in mondstadt. his fight with diluc only proves what he was afraid of: if he’s honest, he’ll be abandoned again. and if kaeya’s used to all the lies, why should he bother changing?

another thing, if he’s not going to tell the truth, then why would he have initially gone along with his father’s plans? again, he was a child. he really had no choice, and was forced into a very wrong and cruel situation. there’s a good explanation for this, too, which is also stated in trauma theory; traumatized people will still do their best to please their abusers. especially if said abuser is a parent, that will drive traumatized people to work even harder to please them. although his father hurt him by ruthlessly abandoning him, kaeya still sought to make him and his homeland proud. he was willing to be used as a tool for their gain; that is, until he found people who actually cared about him. he was an impressionable child, of course he’s going to obey orders. but as he gets older, he feels torn. does he serve those who abandoned him, or those that took him in? his father—and arguably, khaenri’ah as a whole—hurt him, sure, but he still feels some loyalty and connection to his former home. instead of revealing anything, he lets the situation play out. that way, he can’t be blamed when things fall apart.

the thing about claiming he’s untrustworthy is that hardly anyone in-game believes that. he’s adored by the older folks in mondstadt, and foes and allies alike find him easy to talk to. despite seeming lazy and uninterested in work, kaeya takes his job very seriously. in fact, his story states that crepus’s death was the “first and only time kaeya failed in his duty.” the “only time” is especially important, because it signifies kaeya still fulfills his duties successfully. he’s had a total of one slip-up, and hasn’t failed since. no, kaeya is not untrustworthy. rather, kaeya finds everyone else untrustworthy. it’s not unlikely that this is a direct consequence of being abandoned as a child. although it’s been established that kaeya and diluc were very close as children, when crepus dies, kaeya assumes diluc is the one that killed him. in order to jump to such an extreme conclusion against someone he was so close to, there had to be some underlying sense of distrust. furthermore, kaeya expresses feeling as though he doesn’t belong anywhere. he was abandoned by khaenri’ah, and then worried he wouldn’t be accepted by mondstadt. he is, but there’s still that worry. if you place him in your teapot as a companion, he tells you that your home feels like someplace he belongs, following it up with a “heh, who’d have thought…” kaeya still feels as though he doesn’t belong in mondstadt; despite the fact that he’s a high-ranking knight of favonius and rather popular, he still feels like an outsider. he doesn’t trust that anyone actually wants him around, and he finds joy in testing peoples’ trustworthiness. it’s noted in his story and through his voicelines that the beloved cavalry captain has a rather sadistic nature. he likes putting people into difficult situations, to see what decisions they will make. he does this to both opponents and allies, testing to see who’s going to back out and who’ll keep fighting; in the sake of allies, who can he trust? or who will turn tail and abandon their teammates at the slightest hint of danger? i mentioned it previously, but kaeya doesn’t care what measures he has to take so long as his job gets done and he gets the answers he wants. it’s a sort of self-preserving mindset, putting himself above the safety of others. kaeya’s trying to protect himself, which makes sense with all he’s been through. he doesn’t want to be hurt, and instead finds pleasure in threatening harm upon others. it’s twisted, sure, but it’s because he can only trust himself in a world that he believes is out to get him. he’s got as many enemies—if not more—as he does allies; of course kaeya focuses on protecting himself first, whether physically or through keeping his secrets, well, secret.

his most obvious traumatic effect is definitely his alcoholism. but he uses it as a distraction, not just to wallow in self-pity. this is seen again in his story, particularly in story 3. it’s found that when his favorite drink, death after noon, is out of season, mondstadt’s crime rate is decreased drastically. at face value, this just means kaeya spends more time working when death after noon is low in supply. but kaeya doesn’t skip work to go to taverns; it’s already been established he takes his job very seriously, so this means he actually patrols and tracks down threats while off work when he can’t indulge in his favorite alcoholic drink. he doesn’t get drunk simply because he’s depressed. if he did, there wouldn’t be a drop in incidents when death after noon is out of season. no, kaeya uses both the alcohol and fighting to distract himself. after all, it’s a little hard to think about feeling sad when you’re either drunk out of your mind or fighting for your life.

despite being so secretive, kaeya gives us glimpses of his true emotions from time to time. as previously mentioned, his flirty attitude is nothing more than a mask to hide how he really feels; and kaeya is terribly, terribly lonely. that may be why he seems so extroverted. constantly being around people should, logically, drive away that feeling, but it doesn’t work like that. when he talks with the player, he frequently expresses disappointment when you have to leave. each time, though, he dampens the weight of his words with playful or flirty language. he’s lonely, but doesn’t want you to know that, like he’s afraid of asking you to stay. he takes the seriousness of his feelings, and basically bends it into some sort of lighthearted joke. kaeya hides his true feelings—negative feelings, to be exact—so that he doesn’t bother anyone. which is, again, something that happens with traumatized people. he displays that hesitance to reveal his true feelings, because there’s a shame or guilt that comes with his past. he doesn’t want to bother others or hold them back, so he puts on a smile and amps up the charisma. one other very important thing—but very small detail—i would like to note is his feelings toward family. his fell apart not even once, but twice, and kaeya still holds familial relationships in high regard. we know he doesn’t exactly care how he goes about getting his work done. he doesn’t pay attention to what’s “right” or “wrong,” so long as he gets what he needs. but one of his informants, vile, notes that the cavalry captain has one exception: he won’t work with those who threaten others’ families. in fact, kaeya claims those who do should be hunted down and destroyed. even though his own families have caused him so much pain—and he ended up estranged from both—he still understands the importance of having people who love you in your life. because he didn’t get that.

kaeya’s not evil. ultimately, as a knight of favonius, his goal is to protect others, because no one was there to protect him. and because no one was there to protect him, because he’s been hurt time and time again by people who were supposed to love him, kaeya has taken to protecting himself. he hides any and all negative feelings with a charismatic, friendly façade, because he thinks it’ll drive away his persistent loneliness. any “bad” actions of his were hardly his fault; he was forced into a life of secrecy and lies, and then abandoned by the first people who truly loved him. kaeya’s a multi-faceted, tragic character, one that toes the line between good and evil, and that’s what makes him so interesting.

#brynn yells #brynn answers #killshot anon #brynn's writing #genshin #genshin impact #kaeya #kaeya alberich #genshin kaeya

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jayoctodot · 3 years

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The Silent Patient vs The Maidens

I will start by saying that I understand the appeal of these novels as page-turners. They are easy to read and if you want a twisty reveal at the end, you will probably be entertained and satisfied. That being said, I am SO CONFUSED by the near-universal adoration of The Silent Patient and the reasonably positive reception of The Maidens. The weaknesses of the two are strikingly similar, as well, which doesn’t give me much hope of seeing improvement from this guy, though I am intrigued to see whether he keeps repeating the same (apparently successful!!) patterns. These books were at least super fun to hate.

(For context, I read The Maidens for a bookclub I'm in, because several of the members had read and loved The Silent Patient, and one of them gave me a copy of the latter to read on my own time. I loathed The Maidens and then read The SP for comparative purposes. And because I'm a masochist, apparently.)

SPOILER WARNING! Do not read on unless you've finished both books (or unless you care not for spoilers). Sorry if it gets a bit shouty.

Here are the similar weaknesses I noticed in both:

PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY

-> Weirdly similar “group therapy” scenes early on where a cartoonishly unstable patient arrives late, disrupts the meeting by throwing something into the middle of the circle, and is asked to join the group after the therapist(s) speechify on the importance of boundaries (HA! None of these therapists would know an appropriate boundary if it kicked them in the ass) and debate whether to “allow” the patient to join. Both scenes are so transparent in their design to establish the credibility/legitimacy of the narrators as therapists, but instead both Theo and Mariana come off as super patronizing. The protagonists are less and less believable as therapists at the stories progress (though at least Theo’s incompetence is explained away by the “twist” at the end; Mariana, on the other hand, is confronted in the opening pages of the novel by a patient who has self-harmed PRETTY extensively, and rather than ensure he get proper medical attention, she essentially throws him a first aid kit and tosses him out the door so she can pour herself a glass of wine and call her niece... and it devolves from there).

-> Ongoing insistence throughout the narrative that one’s childhood trauma entirely explains the warped/dysfunctional way a character behaves or views the world, which is why the books go out of their way to give EVERY potentially violent character a traumatic childhood; when Theo insists that no one ever became an abuser who hadn’t been abused themselves, I wanted to throw the book across the room. (That is a MYTH, SIR. GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR ARMCHAIR PSYCHOLOGY.)

-> Female murderers whose pathology boils down to “history of depression” and “traumatized by a male loved one/family member.” Because, as we all know, depression + abuse = murderer!

-> The “therapy” depicted in both books is laughable and so so unrealistic, mostly because neither narrators function as therapists so much as incompetent detectives, obsessively pursuing a case they have no place pursuing (or skill to pursue - both just happen across every clue mostly by way of clunky conversation with all the people who can provide precisely the snippet of info to send them along to the next person, and the next… until all is revealed in a tired, cliched “twist”). Their constant Psych 101 asides were so tiresome and weirdly dated (also, the constant harping on countertransference got so ridiculous that at one point during "therapy" Theo literally attributes his headache and a particular emotion he feels to Alicia, as though the contents of her head are being broadcast directly into his mind... and I'm PRETTY SURE that's not how it works???)

CHARACTERS

-> Psychotherapist narrators with abusive fathers and pretensions of being Sherlock Holmes, which results in both characters crossing ALL KINDS of ethical lines as they invade the personal lives of everyone even tangentially connected to their cases (and, in Theo's case, violate all kinds of patient confidentiality. Yeah, yeah, by the end, that's the least of his offenses, but before you get there, it's baffling that NO ONE is calling him out on this).

-> All female characters are either elderly with hilariously bad advice, monstrous hulking brutes, or beautiful bitches (except for ~MARIANA~, who is Bella Swan-esque in her unawareness of her own attractiveness, despite multiple men trying to get with her almost immediately after meeting her. I'm so tired of beautiful female characters being oblivious to their own hotness. Are we meant to believe all mirrors and male attention have escaped their notice? If it’s to make them “relatable,” this tactic really fails with me).

-> All characters of color are shallow, cartoonish side characters, and most of them are depicted as unsympathetic minor antagonists (the Sikh Chief Inspector in The Maidens continuously drinks tea from an ever-present thermos, and his only other notable characteristic is his instant dislike of Mariana, whom he VERY RIGHTLY warns to stay out of the investigation that she is VERY MUCH compromising… the Caribbean manager of the Grove is universally disliked by her staff for enforcing stricter safety regulations at the bafflingly poorly run mental institution, because HOW DARE SHE. There's a very clear vibe that we're supposed to dislike these characters and share the protagonists' indignation, but honestly Sangha/Stephanie were completely in the right for trying to shut down their wildly inappropriate investigations).

-> "Working class" characters (or basically anyone excluded from the comfortably upper-crust, educated main cadre of characters) are few and far between in both stories, but when they show up, he depicts them as such caricatures. We got Elsie the pathologically lying housekeeper in the Maidens, who is enticed to share her bullshit with cake, and then a TOOTHLESS LEPRECHAUN DEALING DRUGS UNDER A BRIDGE in the SP. I kid you not, a man described as having the body of a child, the face of Father Time, and no front teeth, emerges from beneath a bridge and offers to sell Theo some "grass." I was dyinggg.

-> There are no characters to root for. Anywhere. Partly because they’re all so thinly drawn — and because we’re clearly supposed to view almost ALL of them as potential suspects, so they’re ALL weird, creepy, or incompetent in some way.

-> The flimsiest of flimsy motives, both for the narrators and the murderers. Theo fully would have gotten away with his involvement in the murder if he hadn't gone out of his way to work at the Grove and "treat" Alicia and his justification for doing so is pretty weak; his rapid descent into stalking and murder fantasy and his random ass decision to "expose" Alicia's husband as a cheater with a spur-of-the-moment home invasion and staged attempted homicide is ONLY justified if the reader hand waves it away as WELP, HE'S CRAZY, I GUESS (after all, he DID have an abusive father and a history of mental illness, and in Michaelides novels, that's ALL YOU NEED to become a violent psycho). I guess we're lucky Mariana didn't also start dropping bodies (because the logic of his fictional universe says she should definitely be a murderer by now... maybe that'll be his Maidens sequel?). But she especially had NO reason to randomly turn detective - and she kept trying to justify it by saying she needed to re-enter the world or that Sebastian would want her to (??), even though she had no background in criminal psychology... or even a particular fondness for mysteries (really, I would've accepted ANYTHING to explain her dogged obsession with the case. WHY were Sebastian and Zoe so certain she would insert herself into the investigation just because one of Zoe's friends was the first victim? WHY?). As for Zoe and Alicia, their motives are mere suggestions: they were both abused and manipulated, and voila! Slippery slope to murder.

WRITING STYLE

-> Incessant allusions to Greek tragedy and myth, apparently to provide a sophisticated gloss over the bare-bones writing style, which opts more for telling than showing and frequently indulges in hilariously bizarre analogies. Credit where credit is due — the references to Greek myth are less clunky in the SP, and I liked learning about the Alcestis play/myth, which I hadn’t heard of before - but OMG the entire characterization of Fosca, who we are meant to believe is a professor of Greek tragedy at one of the most respected universities on the planet, is just absurd. His "lecture" on the liminal in Greek tragedy is essentially the Wikipedia page on the Eleusinian Mysteries capped off with some Hallmark-card carpe diem crap. The lecture hall responds with raucous applause, clearly never having heard such vague genius bullshit before.

-> Super clunky and amateurish narrative device of interludes written by another character; Sebastian’s letter reads like a mashup of Dexter monologues and Clarice’s memory of the screaming sheep, but by FAR the worse offender is Alicia’s diary, where we’re supposed to believe she painstakingly recorded ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS, BEAT-BY-BEAT DIALOGUE, even when she’s just been DRUGGED TO THE GILLS with morphine and has mere moments of consciousness left… and even before that, she literally takes the time to write “He's trying the windows and doors! ...Someone’s inside! Someone’s inside the house! ETC ETC” when she thinks her stalker has broken in downstairs. WHO DOES THAT?)

-> Speaking of dialogue, the dialogue is so bad. Based on his bio, Michaelides got a degree in screenwriting, which makes his terrible dialogue even more baffling.

-> HILARIOUSLY rendered voyeur scenes where the narrators spy on couples having sex. Such unintentionally awkward descriptions. First we had Kathy’s climax sounds through the trees and then the bowler hat carefully placed on a tombstone before the gatekeeper plows a student. Again, I died.

PLOT/"TWIST"

-> The CONSTANT red herrings make for such an exhausting read. Michaelides drops anvils with almost every character that are so obviously meant to designate them as suspects in our minds. There is absolutely no subtlety in his misdirections.

-> The “crossover” scene between the SP and The Maidens makes no sense - when in the timeline does Mariana’s story overlap with Theo’s? They confer just before Theo starts working at the Grove, obviously (though Mariana appears to be the one who alerts Theo to the job opening there? Whereas in the SP, Theo has been obsessively tracking Alicia since the murder and had already planned to apply to work there?), but then are we supposed to believe that while Theo has been psychotically pursuing his warped quest to “help” Alicia, he’s also been diligently treating Zoe, so invested in her case that he repeatedly reaches out to Mariana to get her to visit Zoe and even writes Mariana a lengthy letter to convince her to do so??? And then a couple days after The Maidens ends, Theo is arrested???

-> But the thing I really did hate the most is how Michaelides treats his female murderers (who are both also victims themselves) as mere means to deploy a “twist”; there’s no moment spared to encourage our sympathy for Zoe, who was groomed and manipulated by the only trusted father figure in her life, and even after spending a decent amount of time getting to know Alicia via her ridiculous diary, where it’s so apparent that she’s been demeaned, objectified, manipulated, gaslit, and/or used by EVERY man in her life, she’s sent packing to spend the rest of her days in a coma… HOW much more satisfying would it have been for her to succeed in exposing Theo and reclaiming her voice? But no, she basically rolls over when he comes to finish her off (SPEAKING OF — ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THIS INSTITUTE FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE????), writes one last diary entry, and drifts off forever. And then a couple pages of nothing later, the story is over. GOODNIGHT, ALICIA!

Both books kept me rolling throughout (by which I mean eye-rolling but also rotfl). Maybe I will check out his next effort — I’m morbidly curious what he’ll turn out. It does leave me wondering whether I should give up on thriller novels entirely, though. Are many of the weaknesses of these novels just characteristic of the genre? Maybe I'm just holding these books to unfair standards? I'm mostly only familiar with thriller films — many of which I think are amazing — but maybe you can get away with more in a film than you can in a novel.

...I really only intended to write a handful of bullet points, but more and more kept coming to mind as I wrote, to the point where subheadings became necessary. Whoopsie.

#the maidens #the silent patient #book review #alex michaelides #thrillers #books

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asktheheirofslytherin · 2 years

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tw minor childhood abuse

hi!! ik i shouldn't be talking to the literal dark lord to help with all my problems, but i am at my wit's end. this is a tad dark, and i respect your decision if you decide not to answer this.

so, let me start this off by saying that i am a minor, living part-time with my parents (i am not even in high school). ill be moving in with them soon, but the problem is..

they are...abusive.

my mom likes hitting me, to say the least. and my dad berates me for every little thing. they neglected me during my childhood, which made me resent them as a child. when i got older, they sent me to live with my aunt n uncle at the age of 10. it traumatized me.

i know they love me, and sometimes they're really kind and caring, but then i wonder..

do loving parents threaten to send you away every day? do they threaten to break your leg? do they beat you daily?

and the answer is no. i know i'm making them out as monsters, they really aren't (i think they're not?), but i need advice on what i should do. to survive school while dealing with crippling mental health issues caused by my family. to deal with everything.

school, for me, is not a problem. i get fantastic grades, but my mental health is usually awful. i'm so sorry that this is so long. thank you!

Ah. Let me first acknowledge that this is an unfortunate situation, and that I commend you for maintaining excellent marks throughout this ordeal. You have a strength inside you.

Parents...are human. They are messy, flawed beings who like any other can become overwhelmed, lose control, and make poor decisions. Usually,this is alright, and even a good model of reasonable expectations. However it becomes an issue when the wellbeing of their children becomes effected.

No one is perfect, and no one is a pure monster, either, but...what you describe is not normal, and not a healthy way to behave. Your parents are not modeling a proper healthy loving relationship to you - love is not supposed to look like what you describe. Perhaps this is how they were treated as children. Perhaps it is all they know. Such treatment was all I knew, as well, in the orphanage. When Delphini was born, I did not know how to act. I was avoidant in part because I had no idea what to do. But I knew how I did not want to act, and eventually went from there. I also had the privilege of wealth, connections, and Bella to help me.

It sounds as though living with your aunt and uncle may have been th best thing under the circumstances. The trauma of the perceived rejection is still there, of course, but perhaps it was ultimately the best choice for your physical safety at the time.

I am uncertain why now you are returning to your parents, if some social services authority deems it appropriate to attempt reunion, for example, but it is happening. I do hope everyone involved is in some degree of therapy.

I advise you to continue to advocate for yourself to the adults who are supposed to be monitoring this situation, be it therapists, your aunt and uncle, other relatives, teachers, a social worker. I know you may want to protect your parents and may not want to be removed from them again, but if your physical safety and mental well-being is in jeopardy, it may end up being for the best.

If you are able, find something you enjoy, merely for yourself. Time in a club or a sport or choir, time at the library, time making art. Remember to rest. Go easy on yourself. And document everything - all of the abuse. This is for two reasons: advocacy and proof, and also... years from now, you may question your reality and wonder was it really all that bad? Was I just too sensitive? You can have the validation if you so wish.

Remember, child. None of this is your fault. You have intrinsic value, you are worthy, and protecting yourself, that classic Slytherin self preservation that all of us should embody, is paramount. Protect your greatest asset. Your life.

Best of luck,

Lord Voldemort

#Voldemort #tw abuse #child abuse tw #advice #mental health #abusive parents #foster system #and other things #emotional abuse #physical abuse #i genuinely hope eveything works out ok #and that you are safe #and happy #check in if you are able #im worried about u #good luck #you sound like a great kid and im sorry this is happening to you

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janiedean · 3 years

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@seethemflying I think Sansa is in the next bracket down of important characters (with Jaime). In the outline, they weren't named as one of the big five, but in the process of writing have grown more important. No way is Sansa's ending going to be anything like Show Sansa's, though (and same with Jaime tbh).

agreed but lemme take a second from cramming to rant about this because I honestly have An Issue

in the sense: I 100% agree that both jaime and sansa are next bracket/secondary main (speaking as someone whose top five is made by ppl who are either secondary main or tertiary main if they have a pov like.... I'm not gonna argue that theon is a main fiver bc he's in my top three) but like what I can't deal with is the following as in that the main five are the main five bc they have in between them all the main themes george wants to tackle + the main plot stuff except for the 'romance is my #1 sense of existing in the plot', as in:

jon is azor ahai + has the chosen one deconstruction trope going on + most likely has the 'I never wanted to be Important™/have a throne but I'll have to for duty' ending + identity arc ie if he's not jon snow first of his name i'm eating my hat

dany has the dragons + the targ ancestry deal + 'I thought I wanted to rule but actually I don't I just want to help ppl' storyline (which is the hill i'm dying on)

bran has the oH WAIT fisher king deconstruction going on + the magic™ storyline + he's most likely kitn + he's tied to uh the literal rebirth of the continent so + how to deal with disability storyline

arya has the I NEED TO REALIZE WHO I AM storyline + the learning to be yourself as a gnc woman storyline + revenge is shit storyline + I'll become a skilled assassin and choose not to act on it unless absolutely necessary storyline + trauma/ptsd storyline tied to losing your own identity

tyrion has the shakesperean hero thing going on as in I have to make peace with the fact that I killed my father/did mistakes + overcoming the societal issues/problems/the prejudice most ppl have for him that’s caused by his disability storyline + he's the only one of these five who doesn't have any magical stuff in his background/only has his brain to rely on + overcoming his family's legacy and making it better storyline

now: a bunch of other minor/secondary characters have all of this (I mean idk theon and jaime have identity + learning to deal with/overcoming societal scorn given by them being disabled/having become disabled in various ways + ptsd, brienne has the gnc woman thing etc) but like each single one of these characters only lacks the OH I HAVE A BIGASS GREAT ROMANCE WITH MY BACKGROUND (I mean gendry exists to be arya's LI but idt it's gonna be important in her future storyline the way it'll be in brienne's to say one).. which oh wait SANSA JAIME AND BRIENNE HAVE, because guess what that's the next secondary bracket where those three characters have it as a main part of the story which is exempt from the politics angle (bc none of them is tied to the iron trap by the plot no none of them jaime doesn't want it, brienne isn't a contender and sansa was supposed to be queen in the beginning so she's obviously not going to be that later no not even qitn that's gonna be bran) and here falls the entire shebang because what half of this fandom doesn't seem to get is that *drumroll* george's favorite angle to tackle when it comes to romance is... THAT EXTERNAL BEAUTY IS NOT WHAT YOU SHOULD BE LOOKING AT IN PEOPLE AT THE END OF IT AND GUESS WHAT THAT'S THE MAIN POINT OF ALL OF THEM PLUS THE KNIGHTHOOD DECONSTRUCTION THING and with that I mean:

not counting that sansa's reaction to trauma is written to be specular and opposite to arya's as in arya tends to lose sight of herself/becomes someone else/resorts to violence to survive sansa never loses track of herself/her innate kindness which... is smth I wish dnd remembered, the thing is: sansa is presented in the beginning as 'i'm a twelve year old with all the issues with shallowness a 12yo brought up like me can have and everything I want from life is a good love story', which... guess what she's 100% going to get except

characters need to have an evolution, if sansa wants a handsome pretty guy who'll make her queen in the beginning and she has to realize joffrey was The Worst, do we really think her endgame is being queen of a handsome nice king when her entire schtick is liking songs about knights and wanting true love and someone gentle and brave blah blah? no, and that's exceedingly obvious when the text throws at you in the face that her only two actually viable choices for LI - sandor and tyrion - are.. guys who are either disfigured or disabled or traumatized or all three of them but are actually good people and she has to learn to see beyond looks, and no one else fits that bill period - sansa isn't getting with a pretty guy who'll make her queen, sansa will find love with a guy who's nowhere near pretty or handsome but will love her for who she is and that she will see the good behind the not-handsomeness dot and she'll prob go back north with him and be happy advising bran bc she learned stuff in court at most and I'm dying on that hill, bc again the entire point of her sl is having the nice good love story where she sees beyond external beauty which has been clear from page five of her first pov imvho

never mind that again she wants to be a queen in the beginning and then she realizes it's shit so why would she be one in the end? like not to be that asshole but george isn't exactly pro monarchy and it's obvious he's not going to paint it as an inherently positive thing

this attaches back to the fact that there's a whole knighthood deconstruction happening for which sansa has to realize that the gallant/true knights are not the ones who seem that/look like it/flaunt it around

which brings us to the fact that oh wait sandor and jaime in themselves are true knights in spite of the fact that sandor refuses to even consider himself one and jaime thinks he fucked it up and no one sees them as such

and that the truest knight in westeros who will get recognized as such is brienne

who doesn't look standard hot either

and has the love story with jaime right on page

and jaime also has the love story right on page where he has to realize he's into people that aren't c. especially brienne and so on which is what's happening right now like jb recognizing themselves as true knights™ is part of their whole thing like... it's... important

(this counting that san/san is beauty and the beast played straight with sansa as the beauty while jb is the same trope except reversed on itself five times because both j and b are both of them)

and this would also like make utter sense if oh, wait, jb weren't in the riverlands where sandor also is and if oh wait who has sworn a vow to find sansa like again I'm dying on the hill that brienne kills stoneheart, they go on the quiet isle to recover, sandor is like AH YOU'RE LOOKING FOR SANSA and sansa gets rescued in the vale by the only three true knights in these series including the one that's her actual love interest at least the way I see it and where do you think that's going to end yeah exactly

as in: she'll have the umpteenth proof that all the true knights in these books don't look like the songs and she'll get the one she wanted

(also brienne is way more like sansa than arya in personality so like... parallelism of two girls into romantic stuff getting with the guys they like? except that for b. it's relevant bc she's ugly and she gets with hot guy who's into her and for s. it's relevant bc she's hot and she goes with guy-everyone-considers-a-lost-cause showing that they're not exactly a lost cause)

like sansa is there to a) have half of the main love story plot b) as the resident song expert witness what knighthood actually means, jaime is the resident person doing things for love and finding ways to do it that aren't toxic/finds someone who'll actually love him and not what he represents, brienne is the resident 'I never thought anyone would be into me and I'm pursuing my dreams without a shred of hope they'll go well' and she gets all of that and sandor is there to be sansa's LI and to tell ppl that you can go to rehab and have a decent life even if you were used and abused to hell and back (jaime too tbh) and like none of that has to do with the iron trap, the magic, the zombies and whatnot but it's okay because it's their point in the plot and is2g I just wish people would take characters for what they represent instead of shoehorning them into others's themes/stories just because it's what they want for them, the end

(I could rant about the third bracket of characters ie theon & co & getting over trauma/ptsd without the Love Story™ but I have to get back to study if I wanna fill some prompts later so it's not gonna happen for now but... sorry for the rant I'm just really tired of the whole sansastark will get the iron trap and the north and be the ymbq and get with a guy that looks good for her depending on what we ship not considering the overall reaching plot or her book plot and everyone else will have zero relevance in the story because we said so especially when it means giving all of that to a character who is uh not belonging to any of the categories represented by the main five which are actually kiiindaaaa relevant rep but I'mma just gonna shut up here)

#janie rants #janie writes meta #i guess #anti show sansa #seethemflying #janie replies #jaime x brienne for ts #sansan for ts #long post for ts #janie speculates #right i'm back on studying penal law rip #my stuff

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belphegorbillickin · 3 years

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Honestly, I love Mammon but I'm sick of his sweetness. I see him EVERYWHERE, and it's like the others don't exist. I like it when characters lose their calm you know? Esp that time when we reject Satan's pact, I really liked how he got worked up over such a thing lmao. And of course, most of the ones who tried killing mc had stupid reasons, except for Lucifer imo, but since when did demons make sense?

Alright, sure, they can still be sweet, but imagine if they ACTUALLY were dark characters. Corrupting human souls, selfish desires, blah blah. I'm not saying they can't love mc, ofc they can be sweet and lovable, but that doesn't mean they'd lose their normal habits and quirks. You cannot differentiate between them and normal humans now. The traits that would portray them as demons isn't there.

And perhaps yes, routes would've been fun. Right/wrong answers? Seems legit lmao. But like you said, the characters could've been done so much better.

I liked them at the start, now that I think of it asmo was never really what he seemed to be at the start, but in the recent events to me, at least, he's all but that. Diavolo, Barbatos, they have potential to be dark characters lmao. Asmo too, esp abt Helene, he sure was manipulative. Seeing Satan just be about cats/books upsets me bcuz he's one of my favs, and like you said, I feel he could've been a MUCH better character, plus idk he seems like he could be dark too. Other than beel & mammon, and I really don't know about belphie since he's become pretty sweet now, I feel everyone else could be written as characters with darker, more fitting demon personalities.

Though I love how we can go on about one topic for ages lmao. Lmk if my rambles become too annoying lol – 🍹

Don't worry about it, I really enjoy talking about it and I'm the queen of rambling lol. It's actually kinda hard for me to be concise when it comes to things like this.

And yes! Satan's reaction to rejection was exactly what I was thinking about when I mentioned that. I don't doubt most of the others would've reacted the same either tbh, but the difference between his reason for wanting to kill MC and his brothers' felt very different imo.

I'm kinda repeating myself, but I think people really overlook how cold Asmo was regarding getting MC killed. In that sense I can see how they get along with each other so well. I think I huge part of that is people coming in knowing that they're all gonna love MC and MC can't die so they don't even think about threats or subtle manipulation, but he's one of the most malicious imo since it was so cool-headed and planned.

Kind of like the theories about Barbatos and/or Diavolo purposefully sending you to a traumatic death because executing Belphie would cause the brothers to revolt. (Which I believe to extent btw.) Those four stand out as a lot more demonic imo because they can't be called crimes of passion. I miss the days where they both just casually admitted to taking part in a torture dungeon.

Personally I love the idea of unavoidable demonic corruption. Like the "tragic lovers suffering from fate" trope but where the demon isn't just an innocent victim that can't control it at all and MC doesn't just take it happily without consequences.

I'm not against MC suffering the consequences of a demon boyfriend, far from it, but even if you don't go the direct route there's so many ways to do it.

Even just slowly losing your morals because all the demons (and old-ass human with some most likely odd moral quirks, if only from being alive so long in horrible times) around you treat horrible things as something as mundane as breathing. Even if they snap back at least acknowledging it is a huge step up.

I'd be terrified and paranoid 24/7 knowing everyone around me wants to literally eat me and has eaten humans before. Even if they hated the taste or something knowing they're capable of it is scary af.

Like a Beelzebub who truly doesn't mean to hurt MC but doesn't think twice about breaking their beloved pet's bones right in front of them. A Beelzebub that finds it just as hard to avoid eating humans as he did in the intro even when he knows he shouldn't harm MC's family.

Or even just a Beelzebub so wracked by guilt and light on morals that can't bring himself to not always enthusiastically take Belphie's side even when he knows it's hurting MC. A kind of parasitic relationship where Beel guilts MC into staying and helps Belphie trap & manipulate them in ways Belphie could never do by himself.

A Leviathan that finds it increasingly hard to keep his jealously inwards now that he has someone to fight for and can't feel secure unless he can feel their envy. A Belphegor that slowly manipulates MC into abandoning all of their responsibilities and friends until their life is ruined and they have to depend on him.

I get that some of them are a bit harder to do without reminding people of irl abuse they may have faced, namely Satan, Levi, Lucifer, and ofc Asmo, but there are ways to make it more supernatural and less mundane. Besides there are way, way worse otomes out there that don't even market themselves as dark like Obey Me did.

I find it interesting that so much of the fanbase absolutely hates those kind of themes when they're so hard to avoid in otome and it was kind marketed towards people who like it. Like I genuinely wonder how they heard about it and got through demons insulting & trying to kill them in the early days of Obey Me before you knew they got better.

In the end though none of that can really happen without routes imo. Those kind of storylines can't be done well in the 10 seconds of individual interaction we get, even a whole lesson is too little time. And again even people who like darker things might freak out when Asmo's the one doing it or get turned off by Levi so they won't risk their money. It's so frustrating seeing the lost potential and knowing it's probably never gonna happen.

Speaking of I always thought Mammon was pretty robbed too. Not only did he never have the same freedom to harm MC as the others, but he was also directly responsible for their safety. Like sure they'd all be punished, but you have a different mindset when an authority figure constantly makes you aware and you have more chances to bond.

I think even cannon Mammon would've been more dangerous and a lot more rude if he wasn't their babysitter. The others, except Satan & Belphie ofc, probably would've been "nicer" and more controlled knowing Lucifer was breathing down their neck too imo.

Like he does seem less violent and hot-headed than the others, but they're not the same circumstances. Even a while after the pact he'd probably sell MC in an instant if he knew he wasn't going to be severely punished.

A lot of his possessiveness feels like a dog guarding a bone rather than true jealously imo, even when they're doing it as endearing thing. People automatically assuming he was lying when he said he'd rather MC die than be saved by someone else, but was he really at that point? Just because someone is tsundere at times doesn't mean they're incapable of being honest or not that into someone.

That's also kinda what I meant by infatuation too. Like sure they could like a human, but that doesn't mean they'll be that upset when they die or will never get bored. It's kind of like those people that immediately get a new pet after theirs dies, or even before so they don't have to be without a dog for a single second. Or the kind of demon that wants to "ruin" you with their sin until you can't go on as the ultimate act of love, even though they know it'll kill you.

#asks #personal

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glasscannonviktor · 3 years

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What are your thoughts on the umbrella tattoos the six were given as kids?

tbh really excellent writing on the writers' part, but oh my god FUCK REG. like, damn....the way it connects them to reginald forever, like they can change their names or even their identities but it's gonna be a lot harder to get rid of those tattoos (and none of them do, which is interesting - none of them get a coverup or alter it, and like i get that it's most likely just bc that's convenient for the writers but also, what are we here for if not to read too deeply into innocuous writing decisions?). oh shit this got long so i'm gonna put it under a readmore :D

and then the way it means different things to the academy and vanya, the way it so perfectly drives the wedge even further between them...those who have it hate it, it's painful and permanent and an ostentatious reminder of how their father doesn't view them as people, but for vanya it's a permanent symbol of togetherness, one that she is left out of. like, she may wear the same uniform as them, but anybody looking at all seven of them can see that she Doesn't Belong, and once she leaves the academy she doesn't have that tangible connection that all the rest of them share. vanya is intensely envious, she wants one so badly, she's going to resent herself even more for not "earning" one - and i can only assume that the rest would resent her for the tattoo she draws in marker, that she was spared this trauma and isn't appreciating it at all. and thus, the alienation continues. i also wouldn't be surprised if, in their resentment of vanya's longing to be part of the pain that they wish they could escape, they actually doubled down on the "importance" of the tattoos - like, saying that yeah, they ARE cool, they ARE special, and she's just not good enough to deserve one. and also let me be clear this isn't me bashing any of the siblings hndfghdfg, i'm not holding any of this against them, it's just speculation based off what we see of their childhoods and how we know reginald manipulated and traumatized them.

that's why, like...i get what people are going for when they say that vanya should get the umbrella tattoo, but it's just kind of...okay i don't want to be rude, but it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the tattoos represent. she and her siblings view them in diametrically opposed ways - what she thinks the tattoos mean for them and what they actually mean for them are completely different. and i think by the time she's an adult at the beginning of s1, she already wants nothing to do with the tattoos - at that point she's at least realized that her siblings weren't the happy team she'd thought they were as kids. and like, the siblings wouldn't be like "vanya's part of the academy, so she should get the tattoo!", they'd be like "this tattoo is a physical symbol of our father's abuse and it would be p fucked up for literally everyone involved if vanya got one too." she doesn't need a marker designated by reginald to be a member of the family - they're a family despite reginald.

and THEN the fact that the tattoos are how five identifies his siblings' bodies in the apocalypse.....that fucks me UP!!!! the fact that this tattoo that i'm sure he hates, that he is visibly scared of getting in the tattooing scene, that he wishes none of them had ever gotten, ends up being what chases out all doubt about whether or not these bodies are really those of his family...it's sad your honor

i ALSO think the tattoos factor into the "superhero media image vs private reality" theme. tbh i really wish tua explored this aspect more, because whenever it does it's FASCINATING, but it's usually either mentioned shortly or in passing. but like, you know that for fans of the umbrella academy, the tattoos are fucking COOL. especially for the younger fans - not only are these KIDS these SUPERHEROES who get to FIGHT CRIME and have POWERS, but they also get to have COOL TATTOOS. im positive that at least a couple diehard academy fans got their own tattoos. and the sight of that would really fuck the siblings up. it's just!!! another very interesting lens through which to see them, and another example of how the tattoos mean something different to literally every party.

#rambles #asks

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takerfoxx · 4 years

Text

In response to JK Rowling and Joss Whedon, my (former) idols

I really didn’t want to have to do this.

So in addition to…=gestures vaguely=…all of that, the last few months have been kind of sucky when it comes to learning some really unpleasant things about artists that I looked up to, admired, and was in fact inspired by. I’ve already spoken about the Speaking Out movement revealing a lot of ugly behavior from various wrestlers, some of which I was big fans of, and then later we got Chris Jericho being a full-on MAGA. Yeah, that all sucked. But those were just performers whose work I enjoyed watching. The one that really hurt were writers who I deeply admired, whose stories I love, and who I was heavily influenced by.

The first, of course, was finding out that JK Rowling, the author of perhaps the single biggest YA fantasy series of all time Harry Potter, is a TERF. This really sucked for a number of reasons. Firstly, I really like Harry Potter! I mean, I’m not a super fan or anything. I came into it when things were kind of dying down, like the whole book series had already been released and there were only a few movies left, but I still really enjoyed it, have all the books and movies and a fair amount of merchandise swag, including a nifty wand I got at Universal Studios. Shit, I got two replicas of the Sword of Griffyindor, thanks to them screwing up my order in my favor and sending me a duplicate! They’re on my wall right across from me as I type this!

But in addition to writing a book series I really liked, JK Rowling was supposed to be one the good guys. She’s been vocally progressive, often openly comes down on British right-wing nonsense, has supported various persecuted minorities, and is on record as being one of the few self-made billionaires to actually stop being a billionaire for a time because she donated so much money to charity. And while we mock it now, her revealing Dumbledore as gay was a huge deal at the time. Plus, she cultivated this reputation as Auntie Jo, that cool, supportive aunt we all wanted.

But for a while her stock has been dropping. Her preference for confirming “representation” via tweets instead of explicitly putting it in the text of her stories has raised the question of queer-baiting, especially with a whole-ass movie with a young Dumbledore and Grindelwald to make their relationship explicit but failing to do so. The whole Nagini thing from the latest Fantastic Beasts movie was pretty gross. And re-examination of various problematic elements from the original novels has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Now, none of these really looked to be intentionally malicious, of course. Just about everyone’s early work will have problematic elements; that’s just how people work. And the later stuff smacked more of ignorance than anything. But after all this time, it’s like, c’mon. You should know better by now.

But the biggie came when her transphobic views finally came to light. Now, this one had been brewing for a while, due to some questionable likes and statements on her twitter. But then she decided to just go public and published what essentially amounts to a TERF manifesto, one with a very “love the sinner, hate the sin” condescending attitude and had a real persecution complex air to it.

Now, I’m not going to go into detail about what the manifesto was about, what the circumstances surrounding it were, or how wrong it was. It’s already been raked over the coals, dissected, answered, and debunked in detail by people far more qualified than me, so odds are, you’re already well aware of its contents and the subsequent rebuttals. But the gist of it comes down to her basically believing that transwomen are actually cis men claiming to be trans so as to infiltrate and invade female-only spaces.

Yeah.

Okay, that’s gross, but…why? Why is someone so noted for being progressive and wanting to foster an inclusive environment making this the hill of exclusion that she wants to die on?

Well, that’s where things get tricky. She mentions that prior to Harry Potter, her first marriage was highly physically and sexually abusive, and when she escaped from that, she had no place to go, leading her to be homeless for a time.

Oh.

Well, that makes sense. Someone goes through a highly traumatic experience with a member of the opposite sex, has no support structure when she escapes it, is left to fend for herself, only to suddenly get rocketed into fame, fortune, and influence, which in turn leads to a Never Again mentality. She was hurt, no one was there to help her, and now she’s afraid of men invading women-only spaces to victimize others like she was victimized. So…literally transphobic. Literally a Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.

Guys, this is so fucked up. Like, how do you even approach something like this? She’s a victim in every sense of the word, so of course she’s going to have physiological damage and a warped view of things. I mean, if I found out that a close friend of mine went through the same thing and had the same prejudices, I would be nothing but sympathetic! I mean, I’d still do what I can to convince her to overcome those prejudices, but I’d still show sympathy and support for what she went through.

Abuse warps people. There’s a reason why so many abusers are abuse survivors themselves. It makes you terrified of being hurt again and often causes people to adopt toxic behaviors, beliefs, and reactions to protect themselves. I’ve already talked about it at length while discussing She-Ra and its own handling of the cycle of abuse, which included franks discussions of Catra’s horrible behavior, why she was the way she was, while never losing sympathy for her and rooting for her to overcome it. So if JK Rowling is an abuse survivor, is it really right to come down on her for having warped views because of that abuse?

But that’s the problem. See, she isn’t your troubled friend that you’re trying to help. She isn’t your cousin Leslie who’s a really sweet person but unfortunately adopted some bad ideals due to trauma suffered. She JK freakin’ ROWLING, one of the most famous, wealthy, and influential women in the world. She has a platform of millions, if not billions, which means her voice lends credibility to her bigoted beliefs. Alt-righters and other TERFs have already swooped upon this for giving validation to their awful beliefs, which puts trans people even more at risk. And as horrible as Rowling’s experiences might have been, the trans community is often the victim of far worse, and they don’t have a mountain of money and an army of defenders to protect them like she does. I’ve said it time and time again: just because you’re a victim, that doesn’t give you the right to victimize others! And bringing things back to Catra, as much as I loved her redemption in the final season, she was still a TERRIBLE PERSON for a huge chunk of the show, one that needed to be stood up to and stopped.

So yeah. That’s the messiness that is JK Rowling.

Now, let’s talk about the one that really hurts. Let’s talk about Joss Whedon.

I’ve made no secret of what a huge Whedon fan I am. Unlike Rowling, I was a HUUUUUGE superfan. Seeing Serenity for the first time in theaters was akin to a religious awakening to me as a storyteller, making it one of my top three movies of all time. Firefly is my favorite show ever. And I adored Buffy, Angel, and Dollhouse as well. I love Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers. The very first fanfic I ever wrote was a Firefly fanfic that disappeared along with my old laptop. I know his style isn’t for everyone, but I cannot understate how much of a personal inspiration he is to me as a writer.

And like Rowling, Joss was supposed to be one of the good guys! Buffy was monumental in pushing the needle when it came to female empowerment. Will and Tara were groundbreaking as a gay couple. He’s been outspoken for years about his feminist views and beliefs and was seen as one of the most prominent and influential feminist voices in Hollywood!

And then things started to go bad.

One day he was on top of the world, the mastermind behind the first two Avenger movies. And the next, it seemed like he was in freefall. It’s hard to really pinpoint exactly when the change took place. Some would say him being brought in as a last-minute substitute for Zack Snyder to take over on Justice League after Snyder had to leave due to family tragedy, and the subsequent awful critical reception to that film tarnishing his image, even if those were very unique circumstances that couldn’t really be blamed on him. Others might point to Age of Ultron’s less than stellar reception, as well as criticism of some questionable jokes and certain creative decisions regarding the character of Black Widow, which then led to a more critical examination of how Whedon continues to write female characters, as while his work might have been revolutionary in the 90’s, his failure to evolve with the times had meant that many of his portrayals are now woefully outdated and problematic, with his vision for a Batgirl movie getting hit with a lot of backlash as a result.

Again, I’m not going to go into too much detail, as this is all public knowledge and can be easily looked up, but overall it seemed that Whedon entered into a period where he was getting criticized more than he was celebrated, and his image of a guaranteed hit maker was now in doubt.

But all of this wasn’t the big problem. All creators go through rises and slumps, and everyone hits points where they get hit with a barrage of criticism; that’s just part of being a public creative figure, especially a progressive one. And had nothing happened after, it would have probably faded, got forgotten, and Whedon would have moved onto the next project with no fuss.

But as it turned out, it wasn’t just a minor slump in his career. Instead, it was the priming of the pump.

In 2016, Whedon divorced his wife of sixteen years, Kai Cole, and in an open letter, Kai Cole accused him of being a serial cheater, who would have affairs with a great many women, from co-workers, to actresses, to friends, to even his fans. And in addition to raising questions of him possibly abusing his position as showrunner to elicit sex from those working on his projects, there also is the ugly question of how could someone who speaks so highly of women then go and backstab the person who was supposed to be the most important woman in his life, as well as lying to her and denying her the autonomy of deciding whether or not she even wanted to continue to have a relationship with him?

Furthermore, Whedon himself has not explicitly denied these accusations, and comments made by him seem only to confirm them.

Now if you’ll recall, I reacted publicly to this news, and despite my admiration of Whedon’s work, I came down on Kai Cole’s side, and stated that while things like marriage issues and infidelity were no one’s business but that of the couple’s, it did raise a lot of uncomfortable questions about how Whedon treated the women in his life and he really needed to get his shit in order.

But hey, a messy private life and a guy falling into temptation isn’t that big of a deal, right? Plenty of creators also go through multiple marriages and have problems staying faithful and still continue making great art. We’re all human, it’s a stressful job, and this shit just happens, right? Sure, it’s gross and a shitty thing to do, but ain’t no business of ours, right?

In late 2020, actor Ray Fisher, who played the role of Cyborg in Justice League, openly accused Joss Whedon of fostering a hostile work environment, claiming that the director’s behavior was abusive and unprofessional, and that Whedon in turn was protected by DC executives.

DC and Warner Bros. came down against Fisher, claiming they had done an internal investigation that turned up no evidence of wrongdoing (yeah, sure they did), and soon Fisher was out as Cyborg, apparently for rocking the boat.

But then Charisma Carpenter, noted for her important role as Cordelia Chase in both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, then spoke up, claiming to be inspired by Fisher in doing so. She described Whedon did indeed foster a hostile work environment on his projects, that his often acted in a toxic manner, from asking incredibly invasive and inappropriate questions regarding her pregnancy to insulting her on set. She said that she made excuses for him for years, but after undergoing a lot of therapy and reading what Ray Fisher had to say, she felt compelled to speak out.

And this just open the floodgates. Other actors and actresses also came forward, some with stories of their own, others to offer support. Even Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, confirmed Carpenter’s stories and said that she no longer wanted to be associated with Whedon. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played the character of Dawn, stated that she also experienced toxic treatment from Whedon despite her being a minor at the time, and says that the set had a rule that Whedon wasn’t allowed to be alone with her again, which really raises some sickening questions of what happened the first time. Even male stars have spoken out, from words of support and apologies for not speaking up earlier from Anthony Stewart Head and David Boreanaz, to an earlier interview with James Marsters, in which he described being terrified of Whedon, mainly due to an instance when Whedon was frustrated with the popularity of Marsters’s character of Spike messing with his plans and physically and verbally taking it out on the actor. There have been many corroborating stories of Whedon being casually cruel on set, on seemingly taking delight in making his fellow show writers cry, and even the man himself admitting to enjoying fostering a hostile work environment during his director commentary of the Avengers. We’ve joked about Whedon’s supposed sadism for years, but that was in regards to how he treated the characters in his stories, not the people helping him make them!

So yeah. That’s the problem with Joss Whedon.

So, do I think that Joss Whedon is somehow some kind of sociopath who lied about his feminist principles and deliberately put on a progressive façade specifically to get into a position of power so he could torment people? No, of course not. I think he was sincere about his beliefs, and I do think he didn’t realize the wrongness of his behavior. But that’s kind of the problem. See, it’s one thing to have kind of a trollishness to your nature, a sort of sadistic side. No one can help that. But when someone with that quality gets put into a position of power in which they are protected by both the higher-ups and their legions of fans, they are allowed to mistreat and continue to mistreat people. And by never suffering any consequences, that sort of toxic behavior becomes internalized, becomes a habit, becomes their moda operandi. And when you’re constantly getting praised as a creative genius and a wonderful feminist voice, any self-criticism just gets wiped away, and you think yourself above reproach, leading to what Joss Whedon became and went on being.

And you know what scares me the most about this particular issue? It’s not that I am a fan of his stories. It’s that I can so easily see myself turning out the same way.

Look, I’ll be upfront about it: I’m kind of a sadist myself. You’ve seen it in my stories, you’ve seen me gloating after a particularly dark plot twist makes my readers freak out. That sort of stuff is fun to me. There’s a reason why I have a much easier time in the dark and violent scenes, because I’m channeling something ugly within me. We all have a dark side, and this is mine.

But UNLIKE Whedon, that doesn’t carry over to how I treat people in real life (unless Monopoly or Mario Party are involved, then it’s fair game). Maybe it’s because I wasn’t given the sort of power and praise he did so early, and I was always taught to be considerate of other people’s feelings, but if I ever find out that I hurt another person or went too fair, I feel TERRIBLE, and it just throws me off all day until I apologize. Even if I don’t notice right away that what I said or did wasn’t cool (autistic, remember?), when it’s pointed out to me and I have some time to think on it, yeah, the guilt is on and I make a point to apologize to whoever I’ve hurt. I’ve even made a point to apologize to members of my family for inconsiderate stuff I said years ago as a little punk kid because it wouldn’t stop bugging me.

So maybe Whedon got too big, too fast. Maybe putting people on these sorts of pedestals, especially progressive ones, is ultimately a bad thing.

So where does this leave us? How are we to treat JK Rowling and Joss Whedon, one who developed a lot of transphobia due to abuse suffered while the other became a toxic individual due to unchecked control and a lack of consequences? Can we still enjoy their stories despite them now being colored by their creators’ falls from grace? Can we separate the art from the artist, or do we have to do a clean split?

Honestly, I feel that has to come down to the individual. I can’t remove the influence Rowling and Whedon have had on me as a storyteller, and I still highly respect both of their talents despite taking major issue with their problems as people. And I’m not going go throw away all of my Harry Potter or Firefly stuff. Because that’s my stuff. It has value to me, it doesn’t represent the issues with their creators, and a lot of it was gifts from people who are dear to me. Though I do think it’ll be a long time before I return to either of their work, as I just don’t have the stomach for it now.

But I will be avoiding any projects they have in the future. I don’t want to put money in their pockets that might go on to support their toxic beliefs or behavior. And as for royalties for their past work that would also support the cast and crew of the Harry Potter films or those who worked on Whedon’s shows who do not deserve to lose money because we don’t want any of that money going to the creators? Er, that question is a little above my paygrade. I don’t know. You’ll have to all decide for yourselves. As for me, I still have a lot of thinking to do.

Regardless though, if I or anyone else is still able to enjoy their work, then it’s important to not divorce what these people said or did from the art they created, even if it makes enjoying that art less fun. It’s important to be critical about what we enjoy, to acknowledge the bad aspects along with the good, and open up discussion of those elements, because that’s what mature adults are supposed to do.

And as for JK Rowling and Joss Whedon, whose stories I love, whose talent I admire, and whose past good work I’ll happily acknowledge, I do hope they both experience some sort of realization and enter into a period of self-examination that leads to them getting help for their issues, for Rowling to get help in coming to terms with her trauma and realizing that she’s wrong about the trans community and a full apology, and for Whedon to also come to terms with his toxic behavior and how he treats people, for him to make no excuse for what he did and sincerely apologize to those he hurt and work on bettering himself, as well as them both examining some of the more problematic tropes still present in their works. Because despite everything, I do feel that they can still be a creative force of good, and it would be a shame if they let themselves self-destruct.

But if not, then if it comes down to choosing between Rowling and the protecting the trans community, if it comes down between choosing between letting Whedon continue to make shows and protecting actors and writers from his abusive behavior, then I know who I’m siding with, and it ain’t the two individuals this whole essay is about. No story, no matter how good, no matter how creative, is worth letting sacrificing vulnerable people in order for it to be made.

#jk rowling #joss whedon #harry potter #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #angel #firefly #justice league #ray fisher #charisma carpenter #kai cole #transphobia tw #abuse tw #toxicity tw #TERF tw #rant #TERFs don't interact I do not want to talk to you #same for abuse apologists

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cryptvokeeper · 3 years

Text

What if for April fools I just became an every character apologist and just gave the coldest, most lukewarm fucking takes.

Techno was totally allowed to blow up a country twice because his feelings got hurt. If they didn’t want their country destroyed then ummmm maybe they shouldn’t have made a government, sweaty. He’s so strong and smart and badass, but also he’s a delicate flower with no backbone or braincells because he couldn't possibly be expected to NOT kill his ally when someone tells him to. You cant be mad at him because he TOLD everyone he’s an anarchist, and if there’s one thing anarchists are known for its destroying people’s support systems and leaving nothing to replace them while not taking the people theyre helping’s feelings into account. It’s not HIS fault everyone else is so weak and pathetic, if they just spent 14 hours straight on the server grinding for resources they could be just as good as techno, because clearly there’s no outside factors that contribute to the resource inequality on the server.

tommyinnit is a precious baby uwu softboi who needs to be coddled and excused at all times. He’s a minor which means none of the shitty behaviors He’s exhibited actually ever hurt anyone’s feelings, because everyone knows you don’t feel things towards people until they turn 18. He died and was traumatized a whole lot which makes whatever he does automatically ok And if you disagree then you’re a literal child abuser who condones child abuse, and every person on the server who has ever been even slightly mean to tommy is also toxic, because it’s not like some relationships are mutually harmful/destructive. All relationships that don’t work have one completely evil person and one innocent victim.

It’s totally fine that Philza killed his clearly-suffering son, because being a dad is really hard and not stabbing someone is so difficult, you guys. And it was obviously lmanberg’s fault anyway for being a tyranny. Everyone knows only tyrants do things like arrest terrorists and not let you help said terrorists even though they’re your friends. so really they MADE him do all that destruction. But anyway Tommy’s not his kid so stop criticizing him, even for reasons completely unrelated to tommy. You’re clearly ignoring canon by citing actual canonical events that make Philza look bad. Also He doesn’t owe anyone anything, and that includes just having basic morals and politeness and if anyone expects better from him, they just have daddy issues that Phil isn’t obligated to solve because the only people a character should ever make an effort to be nice to are his family and one or two friends. Unless that family does something he doesn’t approve of, like fundy.

Wilbur was really really not ok during Pogtopia which makes it fine that he hurt all those people and blew up a country. Yes I was calling him crazy and evil just a few months ago but the demonizing mentally ill people brand of ableism isn’t popular anymore so I’m pivoting to the condescending and infantilizing type of ableism instead. He clearly had no idea what he was doing and can’t be held responsible for being a terrible father or friend. He felt really sad when he was encouraging his friends to beat the shit out of each other and demeaning the people around him by saying that they were worthless or weak, and thats away more important than how his words made those people feel. how can you be mad at him.

Dream is allowed to do all those war crimes and torture because Tommy’s really annoying and annoying people don’t deserve to be treated nicely. In fact it was actually tommy who was manipulating and abusing Dream the whole time. Sapnap and George are so mean to have backstabbed their friend like that because he didn’t EVER do ANYTHING to drive them away. And anyway Dream owns the server so he’s allowed to do whatever he wants and if people don’t like it they should just leave and let Dream keep being terrible- I mean making his perfect family. And even if Dream did do something bad it wasn’t actually him, it was the dreamon, or he didn’t know any better, or someone (probably tommy) MADE him be a horrible person, because he has no character motivations of his own. Also the prison is really bad and that makes all the war crimes and abuse he did ok because Sam and quackity are mean and that makes them just as bad as Dream. who isnt actually bad.

#dream smp #asdfghjkl this got long oops #started out as a joke but then got really cathartic to just compile all the ugliest fucking takes ive seen into one post

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