#when they join isnt that relevant

[princekirijo]

I'm curious and I personally don't know the investigation team that well so:

Feel free to reblog and put your reasons in the tags :3

[oscardrillandthebits]

“You’re insane! You are bad! You wreck everything you touch, and you’re a sociopath! But there’s one thing that everyone’s wondering! When will you die?”

When Will You Die - They Might Be Giants - Join Us (2011)

[dollar-store-sparklez]

i miss dominion smp :(

[sha-brytols]

maybe an unpopular opinion but that huge backlash HLTA got for characterizing hawke as a character that hates the grey wardens was always kinda weird to me. the blood magic ordeal is more understandable (though ive always contended that this is a weird inherent character trait bioware gave them even in da2. like theres Multiple instances of hawke denouncing blood magic without player input and no real option to play a blood mage hawke outside of a purely mechanical level), but hawke hating the wardens just seems like. the most logical consequence of their experiences with the wardens. like. ok. think about literally every single time hawke has interacted with a grey warden in da2. was it literally ever a good experience. because i can't think of a single positive one. even with a warden sibling like thats just another example of the wardens tearing literal families apart just for the crime of Wanting To Live. canonically it took like a year(?) for hawke and leandra to even find out if their sibling survived the joining because it was just completely cold silence on the warden's part until their first letter. and this isnt even mentioning that they only took them because anders Begged them to. then there's literally the entirety of the legacy dlc.

i mean theres totally grounds to criticize how bioware approached hawke as an npc and the fact that this is even a trait that can just be applied to a player character outside of player agency is BANANAS do not get me wrong. like "my hawke has close friends in the wardens/my hawke respects the wardens/my hawke wants to be a warden" are all valid writing directions for the player to take in their story and it was always a borderline insulting choice to not allow that in an rpg of all places. but i think that kind of should be taken as a general criticism of how they handled the player import in inquisition and less a criticism of the direction itself. like the amount of "it makes no sense for hawke to yell at STROUD(?!?!!!!) over how morally reprehensible the wardens are when their sibling can be a warden" was such a bizarrely common rhetoric that was bounced around in the fandom back when it was still relevant and i mean on one hand i agree with the general principle but on the other the specific application where people tried to spin it as an utterly random and illogical character beat just never made sense to me. a warden literally threatened to kill your mother while you were still in the womb .

[skulkiee]

So i have been writing a story about Epic where Polites lives. Kinda. And its about the sirens because i like getting ramdom characters and making them relevant. How i wrote the characters probably aren't accurate in any way, probably most of it isnt accurate actually, but im enjoying writing this so that doesnt matter to me. Um, its got four chapters so far, and i have done no planning really but here you go i guess. Anyways yeah.

Thankyou @ant-nikki your little comment about wanting to see this was one of the things that actually gave me confidence to put this here :D

Echoing where my ghosts all used to be (oh my, oh my)

Polites wakes slowly.

And then his brain catches up with the fact he is waking up at all, and that he can feel a heartbeat in his chest, and he panics.

Because he died.

-(Arms wrapped around his body, scooping him up. He lent his head against their chest, and he could hear a heartbeat much stronger than his failing one.)-

Polites snaps his eyes open, and comes face to face with another person. Their eyes light up when they see him, and a bright grin crosses their face, "They're awake!"

-(He had grinned up at Eury, and his friend's eyes had widened then, too, "He's alive!" He had shouted at someone Polites couldn't see. Polites had reached up for his face then, despite the pain radiating through his whole body.)-

Polites lashes out at the person, and they jerk backwards before his hand can come into contact with their face.

"Woah! Buddy, calm down-" they yell, "Help!"

Polites feels another person grab him from behind, "Got him!" They shout back, pinning his arms against his sides, and he thrashes in their grasp until he can't anymore.

"Are they okay?" A third voice joins in.

Polites tries to breathe to calm his nerves and just gets a mouthful of water, and that doesn't help at all, because suddenly he's drowning again- hes drowning again-

-(Polites had gasped and coughed while he tried to speak to Eury, but he could barely breathe past the blood in his lungs, let alone speak.)-

"Of course they're not okay, Alope, they must have just died to be here! And from the looks of it it wasn't a very nice death." A fourth voice mutters.

"Hey, 'Troclus, you got here the most recent, you see if you know them." The second voice snaps, their voice much too close to Polites' ear for his liking.

"They also wouldn't be okay because they just got turned into a siren, Alope." The fourth voice continues.

Polites snaps his eyes back open at that, and yes, he does not have legs. He has a dark, rusty-red -(like the blood that covered the flowers in the clearing when the boar got Odysseus, like the colour that has haunted him for the past ten years, like the colour that covered his whole body just moments ago)- tail with jagged fins and nasty almost-gold scars. Everything only makes him panic more.

"Shut up, Cleito." A new voice that Polites feels he should recognise, but in his panicked state, he can't, "Hey, hey, can you look at me?"

Polites does, and he gasps (inhaling water again), "Patroclus? How-"

"Shh." His old friend from the war cuts him off, pulling him into a tight hug, "This might look terrible, but i promise you're safe now."

"So you know them?" The second voice asks again, and their voice sounds commanding.

"Yes. We're friends." Patroclus- is he a siren too? -confirms, and the owner of the second voice lets go of him finally. Polites clings to his friend that he saw die.

But then didn't he die too?

Did the other, what, four people here die too?

"So what's your name then? I'm Alope!" The chirpy little voice that had asked him if he was okay speaks again.

Polites lifts his head slightly and looks at the small figure next to him. She has pale skin and freckles and long blond hair and bright blue and turquoise scales and fins and eyes and a bright grin.

"Alope, give them a moment to recover," it's the fourth voice, the one that had been saying all the reasons why he wouldn't be okay. She's large, with darker skin and purplish- pinkish scales and intelligent eyes. She ruffles Alope's hair, "I am Cleito."

Polites smiles and gives the pair a little wave.

"And i'm Hyacinthus!" It's the first person who spoke, his voice incredibly enthusiastic, his bright lilac scales matching his bubbly personality perfectly.

Polites recognises his name, even if he wasn't raised in a family that constantly told tales of what happened to the mortals who got too entwined with the Gods, he would think that most people would know the name of the person who got caught between an Olympian and a Titan's son.

"And obviously you know me." Patroclus offers him a smile, before pointing behind him to a siren with red hair and even redder scales, "That's Epolenep, she's the eldest of us and our leader."

Epolenep folds her arms across her chest, "Welcome to the pod, newbie." She grins, though it's more of a bearing of her fangs. Polites shivers.

"Polites." He says, answering her unspoken question, "My name's Polites."

"How'd you die?" Alope asks merrily, "I drowned, ironic, isn't it?"

"And i was killed by a God! I know, cool aren't I?" Hyacinthus joins in.

Epolenep sighs, "You two maniacs." She mutters fondly, "Of course, Polites, you do not have to say, but it would be useful to know."

Patroclus nods, "How we died affects how we live now, Alope, for example, drowned, and sometimes now, she has trouble breathing, or wakes up in a panic over the water in her lungs." He pauses, "Those scars along your tail don't look too nice, and personally, i would like to know what happened after you left Troy. I would have thought you Ithacans would be the first home, with how much Odysseus talked about his Penelope."

Penelope. Polites wonders what his sister will think when his friends get home without him. He hopes she won't miss him too much. He hopes none of his family will miss him too much. He knows they will. Especially Eury and Elpenor and Penny.

"Cyclops." He says quietly. Theres a round of murmurs from the people around him, "We left Troy, and the Gods sent up a storm and we got lost and ran out of food." He says, for Patroclus, "I found an island. Me and Ody went ashore, and then we got told about a cave. I persuaded him to go there-"

Polites pauses when a realisation hits him. -(He lay in Eury's arms, and tried to block out the screams of his comrades. Tried not to look over Eury's shoulder at Odysseus' shocked, frozen form as his men cried for his orders, for his help. As the men, the friends, that Polites had dragged here, died around them.)-

"Gods, how many of them did i get killed?"

I guess i'll put the next bit here tomorow?

(please someone tell me your thoughts on this)

Also i will welcome any tips or ideas please :D

[spiderpussinc]

Just a reminder since im seeing a lot of people who don't regularly read comics get tripped up on things: the Spider-man 2099 (1992) comics are NOT canon!

And this isnt due to a recent change or anything. As soon as it ended (with multiple characters dying, things being destroyed) the character of miguel went on to be retconned and reworked multiple times by his own original writer (who was dissatisfied with the state of things) and OTHER writers (who thought They could fix it).

Case in point; one of the first series after the shelving of the 2099 universe featured Miguel's 1992 timeline being quite literally *stopped* on its tracks during the first week -- before any of the other events could happen -- and had him walk out of it to join a multiverse group called the Exiles. His 2014 series reboot by the original writer also ignores 90% of the events of that series, like keeping his mom and tyler stone alive etc. Separate oneshots focused on Miguel during a few marvel events also pretty much focused on the concept of trying to reboot and fix the 2099 universe so these events "were not set in stone" or "could be changed at any time" -- and this isn't by mistake.

Miguel's latest appearance (in yet another reboot oneshot series) seems to be based on his movie visual but with 0 ties to the previous series or references to atsv itself, since at the time the movie wasnt out yet. They just wanted people to know they'd be trying again (yet again!), and it remains to be seen what will be done next.

The 2099 comics are not canon to ATSV. They are barely relevant to marvel comics. The 2099 comics, starting all the way up with the original 1992 one, are littered with all manner of racist stereotypes and cultural mishandling on part of the white author, that aged pretty badly pretty quickly. Marvel is trying to pretend they didn't happen. Miguel's 2014 comics briefly, and insistently, also tried to pass him off as a white man (he was called "Mike" for a period) which was backpedalled when it didn't work.

*You are not obligated to read these comics to understand ATSV Miguel.* ATSV Miguel was created in collaboration with actual latinos to have his own, separate, improved story. (A few interviews have stated his characterization stems from Oscar Isaac's experience as a Cuban Exile) He is visually distinct and the artbook implies his 2099 universe is built from the ground up, set apart from the comics as well.

This isn't new. Miles from the ITSV movie is also completely removed from his original universe (where among other things, his mother gets killed by venom and the avengers are assholes) which is a long way of saying TL;DR --

Don't worry about wading through Miguel's garbage if you don't want to. Half of the people and events in these books have had no effect or staying impact on canon, they are snapped out of existence at will. And absolutely don't let anyone guilt you into reading these comics to prove "you're a real fan" when the MOVIE ITSELF does not give a shit lol

[loycos]

How do you think Ekko feels about Caitlyn and Vi, separately and as a couple? Reed Shannon (Ekko's VA) stated in a post on how Caitlyn found her humanity and grace through her struggles; plus he resposted(?) a meme of Caitlyn alongside Ekko, Jinx, Vi and Isha from that gangster family meme; I don't know if you know the meme, it was the best way I could describe it.

again diving into personal headcanon territory, with a little bit of support from League lore (idk if its still relevant). i feel like i need to explain what my post canon vision for caitvi is to articulate what i think ekko would think of them. ramble incoming:

i think caitlyn and vi are gonna be enforcers again, caitlyn as the sheriff and vi her second-in-command (deputy). caitlyn will try to reform the enforcers with a stricter hand, and a watchful eye. theres a reason she didnt take her seat in the council- caitlyn is all about doing the hard job on location, seeing reality through her own eyes- she doesnt want to help by sitting in a tower and discussing things in theory, shes practical and realistic and she wants to experience the real thing. her job as sheriff will allow her to make that change while still giving her the access to do things on the field.

vi joining tbe enforcers will mainly be done to stay close to caitlyn and protect her if needed. vi never had a big direction in life other than the people she loves- she would jump on the opportunity to spend more time with cait and have the chance to punch people with her big gauntlets. her position as deputy is absolutely unearned in terms of experience or even commitment to the cause- but caitlyn is the sheriff and she put her there, so vi and her can stay close. which other enforcers, and pilties, and zaunites, are extremely aware of. it is corruption, even if relatively unharmful one. having a zaunite as the deputy made a lot of pilties upset, especially when shes so underqualified, and made them question caitlyn's ethics, for good reason. mega especially when vi is known to overall act out of line, cause unnecessary property damage, show overall disrespect to the reformed enforcer protocol and not bind herself to schedules, and yet get absolutely no punishment, let alone acknowledgement of her misdeeds by her boss, who turns a blind eye (wink wink) to her shenanigans.

so yeah, other enforcers are fuming, the pilties arent happy, and zaunites? well, despite caitlyn trying her best to solve the issues that ran years before she was born, there's only so much changing the protocol can do for her. she is harsher on enforcer violence and the prison under her watch has changed to be more humane, but its not like she can control every single enforcer personally. so its not perfect but its slightly better than what it used to be. caitlyn herself has the exact same attitude towards both pilties and zaunites- kind of cold, calculated, no bullshit taken, unapologetic, yet with a layer of empathy underneath the surface. kind of similar to what grayson was. this attitude doesnt win her people's favor on either side, but it does earn her respect- and especially in zaun, where her family status means nothing, that means a lot. she's definitely not a "champion of the people"- i think most people in the city actively dislike her, and the (true) rumors of corruption arent helping.

as for vi, zaunites see her as a traitor. she is known to be kind of a bulldozer that can be quite trigger happy, especially when it involves caitlyn (who we already discussed people dont really like) being in danger or disrespected. she has a dismissive "and what about that" attitude that is very zaun in nature, but since shes now wearing a badge, zaunites get annoyed with. pilties, of course, absolutely hate that attitude. so she isnt seen very favorably either, on either side of the river, just like her girlfriend.

the relationship between them is kind of an open secret. every enforcer in the force knows vi is only in her position cause she "gives caitlyn favors under the table", and those rumors reached topside and bottom as well. and again, they arent untrue, theyre just a relatively mean and shallow reading of the actual relationship between the women. neither caitlyn nor vi ever acknowledges these rumors. they stay at a 6 feet distance from each other while working, but the fact they are so interlinked really leaves no other answer. they know everybody knows, everybody knows that they know, and it's never addressed directly by either of them. their relationship is kind of an anigma to people on both sides- pilties think caitlyn settled for a street rat, zaunites think vi sold her soul to be with a rich pig. no one really knows the history or intimate details about their relationship, for obvious reasons, and thats what it looks like to them on the surface.

righttttt, this ask was about ekko. i got carried away. so ekko. how does he play into all of this? while he's not entirely on the average zaunite camp, he is reluctant to work with caitlyn, but does so anyway because ultimately they share similar goals. while he understands vi better than most people, and knows she always puts her loved ones before any political cause, he can't help but feel a little betrayed by her choice. i think he doesnt really see what vi sees in caitlyn, and since he doesnt "get" that, vi's choice to stay with her at all costs looks odd. especially since caitlyn on the surface just looks like a cold, authoritarian bitch. with good intentions! but still a bitch.

in the end, it all comes down to masks. i imagine post canon caitvi are both sporting masks for protection, and have their walls really high up in public. and can you blame them? they actively wear their weakest spot, their achilles heel- each other- on their sleeve. theyre in public positions, have a lot of eyes on them, and their "professional" relationship is extremely looked down upon. so caitlyn acts colder and harsher, and vi puts on a bravado of "i dont give a shit" and uses violence as a threat to deter people from seeing her as weak. the walls are there to ensure their safety. but like we saw in the series, when its just the two of them, all those walls crumble, and they allow themselves to just be vulnerable.

[braimrotting]

screaming crying phils stream today was so good.

i love death family with all my heart and the dynamics at play. the absolute soulread when i said that "hes like paranoid in the opposite way that bad is. bad prepares for every possibly situation and makes sure he has every item for it while phil just ensures he never faces bad situations." phil literally talked about this!!!!! he may not be the richest or strongest but he is the most cautious undeniably. AND its completely reasonable! my heart broke when he asked if he was a bad dad cause no!!!! u arent!!!!

phil takes care of 2 eggs practically single handedly and has full responsibility over them. it isnt like babysitting where at the end of the day theres another parent there. despiter this theres also the feeling of guilt that if either of them die he will be letting down missa/wil. so much pressure its no surprise hes so reclusive + hardcore experience makes him more careful than most too. above all he is a SURVIVALIST!

the little insight into chayannes character was so <3333 light of my life, baby boy, cutie patootie. hes soooo phils boy like, theres a thirst for adventure but danger is only so fun. theres a sense of security and stability which is so unique to this family which becomes more obvious when taken away from that environment. THIS IS NOT SAYING THAT THE OTHER FAMILYS ARE BAD! theres just different stability either from riches, preparation or simply more parents. thats THEIR safety net for danger.

the babies understand phils mindset bc they communicate!!!! god i love communication. they understand that they dont have the same freedom as say richas but they completely get it. longterm safety > momentary fun. it sounds bad saying it like that but the eggs dont really care bc they love! this paranoia kept them alive so far and they still have their slice of life moments. i think these 2 have their armour on the most out of any egg and while phil does sometimes remind them to put it on its so rare that they voluntarily take it off outside the bunker.

also! why tf did the code take pictures of phils base? my memory is kinda shit but i swear the code only took pictures of ninho and not peoples actual bases. should we be lookin into that or was it just supposed to lure phil out of his bunker (cause tbh you have to pry that guy away from the safety of his home). anyways if phils base was the only one that the code took pic of excluding ninho.... thats incredibly concerning. if i remember correctly phils base was the first one to be fully reinforced (i think it was actually illegal but the admins were like meh whatever) idk if it has something to do w that or maybe its because chay +lullah homes are more the bunker than ninho? idk youd think it would take pics of like bads base then too. just seemed strange to me

this was such a ramble i just adore family dynamics and phil is shoving them down my throat. i would love if he joined with the lore but his choice i just feel like hes seen a lot that could be relevant + has pretty good theories.

[dawnwinds]

THE OFFICIAL FRÖHLICH FAMILY TREE !!!

some notes below :3

• ignore my tilted writing, i write at an angle

• keep in mind there is a SIGNIFICANT gap between yvaine and edeline, elke, and carolin bc the 3 of them r her descendants, not her children

• i forgot edith .. whoops

• eydís is a single mother of two daughters. elke has no children, but she is happily married. ulric and edeline died when lilith, oskar, and artemis were young. only lilith remembers her time with her parents. artemis and oskar don’t rmbr much, except for small things

• cornelia changed her last name from fröhlich to fawnforth when she joined the fatui. fawnforth isnt a last name, but a title. it used to be yvaine’s (“the fawnforth knight”)

• the fröhlich family used to be the blair family, but during the downfall of mondstadt’s aristocracy, they changed their name to fröhlich. this is because they wanted to disconnect from their noble past/lineage and start anew

including this picture bc it’s extremely funny and relevant:

[sophieinwonderland]

im the anon who asked about other plural activism you were doing, sorry again for the bluntness still spoonless

i specified “off-tumblr” and not “offline” for a reason (i didnt want to assume you had irl resources for something like that). publicly doesnt have to be irl, but when you spend most of your energy in spaces that either already know of or already have plurals then its not doing much for awareness?

genuinely working on your social anxiety might be really good for you if you want to continue to work on these goals. tumblr posting isnt the end all of activism. theres a lot more you can do if you talk to people and join communities

Oh. In the case of other websites... a bit. Not much though. And still not in places where we would need to show our identity.

I started out on Reddit.

The reason I moved to tumblr, a site my host kinda hated, was precisely because Reddit communities were too isolated. You either post in explicitly plural communities such as r/plural or r/tulpas where you are only ever preaching to the choir... or you try to branch out to other subreddits that have NOTHING to do with plurality.

My thought at the time on Reddit is that anything I post about plurality on non-plural subreddits is likely to be heavily downvoted and hidden from view. Assuming mods don't straight-up ban me from posting. I think I may have been too quick to rush to that judgement in hindsight since some communities are very accepting, but reception is going to be very subreddit-dependent.

I've also tried Twitter, but I generally think it's a terrible website designed for the lowest-attention span members of society with no potential for nuance. It's just a very bad place to build a platform that discusses academic research.

What other sites are there? I have personal issues with our body's voice and don't want to touch TikTok or Youtube for those reasons.

Then there's Discord, the miniature fiefdoms ruled by tyrannical moderators. I know not all servers are going to be like that. But the number with ridiculous rules from power-tripping mods that you have to work around or risk being banned on a whim makes it very unpleasant for anyone who wants to be outspoken and say what's on their minds.

Overall, what I like about Tumblr is that it gives me the ability to forcefully shove my way into other communities.

For example, I can make a post about plural characters in a fandom, tag into that fandom's spaces and the plural tags at the same time, and get reblogs and likes from the plural community that will help make it more visible in the fandom tags. Unlike with Reddit, the fandom doesn't get a choice. They can't downvote it. They don't have mods to delete the posts. And it doesn't violate cross tagging rules because the tags are ARE relevant to the posts.

[darrellenjoyer]

When I was a kid (raised in a completely nonchristian household) i learned so much of mormonism (accidentally watched mormon cartoons because I had unrestricted youtube access) and now I just have that rattling around my life forever (creationists are drawn to befriend me for inexplicable reasons despite my visible transgender swag)

THAT'S CRAZY. i dont think ive ever watched a mormon cartoon before in my entire life, but i did watch a bunch of really boring live action mormon movies. im picturing like ripoff veggietales

this is kind of unrelated but when it comes to discussions about mormonism i feel as if a lot of people focus on the polygamy thing when it isnt at all relevant to the modern church, and there are so many other things about the belief that are ten times more insane & still going on right now. i tend to avoid researching it because i have very little interest in it - but every once and a while my ex mormon sister will drop a bombshell on me LOL. i doubt anyone following me has the tiniest smidgen of desire to join the church but just listen to one of the thousands of cautionary tales from ex mormons and whatever desire was there will be immediately snuffed out

[allium-silk]

Afonso/Caim reference :] might change some colors later, though. Last name isnt set in stone either

He's a childhood friend of Elias, he is the son of a general that worked for Elias' father, who he had a terrible relationship with, so he joined the marine out of spite and to prove him wrong. But things happen and he ends up joining a pirate ship, and meets Elias again, though not through the best of situations.

Fun fact, Elias' jacket when he runs away is Afonso's jacket, which does end up having some plot relevance later 

[goon-account]

haaiii hello ramble about your beloved woke dog

okay. so. executive archer looks younger than the other executives in official art. (either that or im insane.)

and. in my big beautiful mind when he was a wee lad he didn't exactly have much Family or Belongings. gladion style not silver style. (by that i mean he up and left.) n like. he was a decent pickpocket but also a scrawny teen riddled with mental illness. he wasn't exactly doing well.

haven't thunk much about the circumstances of him joining team rocket. but like. thats not too relevant. n like. giovanni noticed the kid who rarely speaks without being spoken to and snaps at people who touch him, but also seems to be pretty skilled and full of unrealized potential, and decided to bring out that potential while also getting archer hopelessly dependant on him.

pmex could be considered dubiously canon ig but according to pmex archer got his houndoom from giovanni when it was still a ouppy. n like. that workles really well with my patently insane semi-projecting head cannons. most team rocket members get provided with like, a zubat or a rattata, but archer as the specialist boy in the whole mafia gets a doug. making a not properly socialized mentally ill teen feel appreciated and special is a pretty good way to make the teen more willing to do ant hing and less willing to cause you any issues !!

n like. after giovanni up and left and the execs had to take care of team rocket and team rocket accessories archer didnt really have an opportunity to get less mentally ill and actually got More mentally ill cuz like, the guy hes hopelessly dependant on for grooming reasons isnt around but he has a job to take care of and it's not like the other execs would want him to be any less hopelessly dependant on giovanni, so he like, really misses the guy and feels like garbage most of the time and doesnt think anything bad was done to him cuz its not like anyones gonna tell him much less anyone hed be willing to believe

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

Hello :) I'm not into Jojo's but my partner really is, and I was curious if you could elaborate on what your concerns are with the ableism in Steel Ball Run/what the ableist aspects are? My partner says he feels he can't adequately explain without explaining a ton of lore, which is fair, but I'm very curious mostly because I'm disabled myself and want to talk about it with him.

Hope you're having as symptom-free of a day as possible.

I am more than happy to explain! Jojos lore is convoluted and complicated at the best of times, so ill try and focus on just Johnny and his disability and ignore most of the plot [Though feel free to ask follow up questions]

Its been a while since i read the manga so i wont be focusing on individual or spesific parts of how the story treats Johnnys disability outside of the first and last few chapters.

A basic overview of the premise of Steel Ball Run is that in 1890s America, there is a horse race across the country with a $50,000 prize called The Steel Ball Run, and thousands of racers join. Among the crowd is Johnny Joestar, an american former pro jockey who was paralyzed from the waist down by a gunshot. He meets a neapolitan racer named Gyro Zepelli, and when he touches one of Gyros mysterious green steel balls [i cannot find a better way to word that], he finds he can stand for a moment, and he joins the race so he can learn to walk again, and the two pair up as Johnny figures out how to ride a horse without his legs and Gyro tries to win the race for his own reasons.

Already you can probably see some issues, while many disabled people do have a lot of internalized ableism and may desire a cure, its a dubious motivation to give a paraplegic character in 2004-2011, let alone in 2025/26/whenever the hell the anime will come out. However my main issue is with how the part ends, so spoilers for parts of steel ball runs ending ahead, though i am trying to limit to to whats relevant to Johnny and the portrayal of his disability.

Disclaimer: There still isnt an official english translation [yet] and i cannot read Japanese so spesific wording may not be how Araki himself, the author and artist, intended it

Johnny first appears in a wheelchair, something he wont be seen in often, however the race and how he ends up using his horse as a mobility aid, it does make some sense that it doesn't appear frequently as most time is spent on horseback and they want to limit the load their horses are carrying.

Before we see Johnny though we see what Gyros green steel balls can do, manipulate the body with a power we later learn is called 'the spin' Johnny sees this and wheels over, leading to him touching the still spinning ball out of curiosity and standing up.

Johnny standing up from his wheelchair after touching the spinning steel ball and Johnny starting narrating

While i do not like this out of context [Araki seems to be using a wheelchair user standing up for shock value] i do think handled well, a story about a paraplegic who pursues the goal of walking again and along the way reconnects with his lifelong passion [horse racing] could be very interesting, as long as the focus is on learning to accept who he is and his disability while finding out what he is still able to do- such as ride a horse very very well.

[While i am hesitant to analyze wording, both translations i looked at used something along the lines of "the story of how i learned to walk again" which foreshadows the main issue i have]

Johnny is described as paralyzed from the waist down many times and is surprised by any movent from his legs, meaning we can assume he is totally unable to move his lower body and has been for the two years since he became disabled.

During the race, Johnny is consistently one of the best racers, and ends up teaming up with Gyro and slowly learning the mysteries of the spin. Eventually they coming across a series of powerful holy objects that grant powers- and make his legs twitch- which many other people are also after. Nearing the end of the story Johnny briefly stands up. The entire plot of steel ball run happens and the objects are collected and combined into a form that can grant wishes, and Johnny unlocks the full power of the spin in the final hour, and ends up able to stand again.

Lucy and Steel noticing that Johnny can walk and him saying "Just... little by little... I always imagined it would be more dramatic but its like the moon becoming full..."

This is where personally Steel Ball Run goes from a genuine if somewhat flawed attempt by an able bodied author to write a disabled main character who is motivated by internal ableism to a story that uses the tired and outdated plot of a disabled person going through extreme trials and being healed, and yet another example of a fully paralyzed from the waist down wheelchair using character becoming able bodied again.

What especially stands out to me is how Johnny is essentially rewarded by the narrative for saving the day by becoming able bodied again. His internalized ableism and desperation for a cure is rewarded by the story instead of him learning to live with it and come to accept himself and his disability. Johnny does have important character arc where he becomes less depressed and cynical but its side by side to him pursuing a cure and learning to walk again.

Its clear that Araki has not thought about real disabled people and the impact of this narrative on them, instead using disability as a struggle for the character to overcome.

In this english June 2017 interview Araki answers a question about how he wrote disability and in my eyes his answer is pretty damning

Steel Ball Run took an interesting approach to battle manga by focusing on a positive portrayal of a hero with a disability. What inspired you to create Johnny Joestar? My work centers around protagonists who grow as they overcome hardship. In creating Johnny, I didn't necessarily set out to depict a hero with a disability. He was the end result of my pursuit to create a character who could grow, both physically and mentally, during a race where he would be forced not only to rely on other people, but horses as well.

In conclusion, while Johnny is a complex main character, his disability was something added later and by the word of the author is a hardship for him to overcome. Steel Ball Run is ableist in my opinion because instead of him learning to live as a paraplegic, he gets seemingly fully cured and goes in to live and normal life with no mention of his disability. My issues lie mainly in the ending and him being cured.

Hereon are my personal opinions & concerns as a disabled person:

My concerns are that the anime will perpetuated the idea that all disabled people want to be cured, and that becoming able bodied is their strongest possible motivation. Regardless of how well or not the Manga and Anime handle his disability, i am also worried about the ableism of jojos fans and how casually ableist jokes about him having a "sit" instead of a stand or using ableist language to refer to him will make the jojos fanbase a hostile environment to disabled fans and push them out.

I do think there are ways which the damage this story could be mitigated by the anime adaption. The main one which comes to mind would be to have him injured but not totally paralyzed, with him slowly recovering an amount of strength even if he will never be able bodied again. Gyro is a doctor and the power of the spin could be used for advanced physical therapy, but that would require more changes. Another minimal change would be to have him in his wheelchair or using crutches after he can walk again, to show that hes not fully healed.

The main issue for me with the handling of Johnnys disability in the upcoming anime is that David Productions, the studio behind the anime adaptations, is very faithful to its source material so any changes are unlikely to happen. Disability awareness and advocacy has come far in the two decades since Steel Ball Run started publishing, but i am unsure if the studio will seek out disabled advocates and especially paraplegic wheelchair users to advise them on how to adapt the story respectfully.

This is tied to how, at least in the western jojos fanbase, Steel Ball Run is widely considered the best part and is very highly praised, for example the manga is 2nd only to berserk by rating on the website myanimelist and is 23rd by popularity. I can easily imagine strong backlash while would likely include ableist language against anyone speaking out against their precious part and against not just the anime adaptation and its choices but Arakis writing- and I want to take this time to say that i respect Araki as an artist and writer and dont think the ableism in steel ball run is caused by malice or ill intent, rather a lack of education on what disabled people want to see in disabled characters. I broadly enjoy part 7 and am looking forward to the anime adaptation.

Personally i really like Johnny as a character, and i know many disabled people who do. Given the main issue is his ending, most disabled fans and fans who know enough about disability representation ignore him getting cured, and instead have him work though his internalize ableism. I myself forgot until the anime announcement that he does get cured and the end, as i think many have. Johnny is the main character and his anger and pain and depression are given plenty of space, hes very well written, its just this one aspect which is unfortunately so key to his character and potentially damaging as representation, while also overlooked or dismissed by many fans who dont know better.

[red-elric]

theyre foils theyre foils theyre playing the same type of role theyre holding similar positions among their friends and the narrative their backgrounds and outlooks have fundamental parallels but their dispositions are fully antithetical to one another. this is about vriska and karkat btw.

its about doing their best to play a role in alternian society. its vriska desperately looking up to and imitating mindfang and killing other kids to avoid being eaten by her own lusus, its karkat training to become a threshecutioner and glueing his lips to )(IC's boots despite knowing he'll be killed without a thought when his mutation is discovered. its how both of them felt that pressure to kill and grandstand and become a LEADER but while vriska had the strength to actually follow through with it karkat had the strength to choose not to. its how if either one of them hadnt been there no one on their team would have made it through sgrub. its how every single person hurt by vriska turns to karkat instead afterwards (karkat telling aradiabot hed dedicate a whole team to bringing her back to life if he could in openbound. tavros texting karkat for help when he was paralyzed. sollux being one of karkats best friends at the beginning of hivebent, and seeming to have cut a lot of ties with the rest of the flarp crew. kanaya putting her energy into taking care of karkat after vriska broke her heart. terezi falling into some sort of romance with karkat after cutting ties with vriska. eridan asking karkat for advice over and over again after being dumped by vriska, and actually getting it too.)

its the way they so badly want to BE each other. karkat wants to be feared and respected, vriska wants to be loved unconditionally. vriska, who can see everyone shes ever cared about giving up on her and gravitating towards karkat, but still treats him with as much respect (or more!) as anyone else. she never tries to kill him, she never truly undermines his position among the team, she just faces him head on and treats him like an actual person, even when she takes over leadership post retcon. karkat, who has heard time and time again how much vriska sucks, who fully understands how much she has hurt so many of his friends, who isnt afraid to say to her face his opinion of her, but still gives her the benefit of the doubt to anyone asking. when she's kicked off the blue team and asks him if she can join the red team, he still lets her, and he's always willing to give her a second chance, especially if terezi's backing that choice. its how they want to be seen the way the other is seen, and they offer that respect/clemency to the other, and neither of them really knows how to hold it

its about terezi. isnt everything? its about loving her to the point of obsession, and how terezi feels like she has to choose between them, she cant or wont choose them both. its the flip of a coin, vriska, then karkat, then vriska again, and theyre the same coin really but they cant both be face up at the same time. its about how they both desperately need her attention, her salvation, her protection, her judgement, and they cant both get it, and they know it. its a little about john, too, about being his two guides through sburb, and honestly about how they both had a crush on him.

its about how when vriska died the team fell apart, crushed by inaction. its about how when karkat started to feel irrelevant (because he lost that moment of soothing gamzee and ending the cycle of violence on the meteor. vriska neutralized him instead, and karkat lost his importance) the team stopped feeling like a collection of real people, with strong connections to one another. its the delicate balance between the thief of light, the one who takes all of the narrative relevance she can get and will tear everything apart to make sure its all about her; and the knight of blood, the one who unites the shared feelings and connections of everyone together and heals and protects what has been hurt by her. they complement each other, and they need to stay balanced so that she doesnt burn out too quickly and leave him with nothing to protect, so that he isnt overwhelmed by her light leaving her unfettered.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

FLORA REINHOLD (PROFESSOR LAYTON)

1.) I MEAN WHERE DOES ONE START!

Okay so in the first game (curious village) she’s locked in a tower, cut off from civalisation because her dad died and he wants her to find a worthy suitor. Not a suitor her age, a suitor who’s nice just a suitor who can solve lots of puzzles. Flora is so ill equipped for the real world because of her father. AND her dad definately set up this marrage trap when she was under 10. I mean it’s a woman who’s left in a tower for a worthy suitor. She’s not even trusted to go into town alone! The town is full of clockwork people! No one is even real!

Then in the next game she’s left behind because mystery solving is just to much for her dainty self! So she sneaks on after them, claiming she doesnt, “want to be left all alone again”. In the same game she’s kidnapped, has her identity stolen and no one notices because her only characterisation is she likes pretty things and then when they finally do notice and find out she was abandoned in a barn no one cares! SHE’S IMMEDIATELY LEFT ALL ALONE AGAIN. :(

In the third game Professor Layton lies to her to give her the slip. He has never lied in the entire series but he lies to her because she couldnt take going on this latest adventure. She’s the only character to faint during time travel (which doesnt even make sense) and KEEPS GETTING LEFT ALONE. She’s even left in a cage with her kidnapper who’s apparently only helping them for Flora. I mean she’s deeply uncomfortable when she’s caged with him, no one gave her a heads up that she would be caged with him.

She’s the only female character with the professor in the main trillogy who isnt a housekeep or secutary and her only characterisation ever is she likes pretty things and cant cook.

Thw writers then go on to make Katrielle’s game. A game about the Professor’s daughter. Not Flora the person he took into his care this entirely new character. My argument on why she’s a victim of mysogony there is they wrote her in outdated form and upon reciving critisism decided to sweep her under the rug and replace her with other characters. >:(

2.) Shafted SO hard because the writer’s immediately didn’t have any more ideas about what to do with her. She was set up as a mysterious character in her first appearance, and actually had plot relevance and a lot of potential moving forward. (Light PL spoilers)

However! In the next game, the main character just immediately leaves her at home to ‘keep her safe’, despite bringing a boy younger than her with him. She follows them, gets to join their investigation for all of about maybe an hour of gameplay, and then is promptly kidnapped unceremoniously, and literally locked in a barn for the rest og the game. When the other characters realise she is missing, they do literally nothing and don’t go to collect her until the next day DURING THE GAME’S CREDITS.

In the next game, and the final one of the trilogy she appears in, the main character and his apprentice (once again, a boy younger than her) literally run away from her whilst she’s making them sandwiches. Just so they don’t have to bring her along. She’s also kidnapped AGAIN, and does absolutely nothing about it (doesn’t even attempt to struggle) so that the main character can come in and save her. :|

Additionally, she’s never put in any side material set in the right time frame for her to be there, including not even being MENTIONED in the spin-off sequel (although that game is weird about what references it makes anyway), except for the movie, where she’s in it to once again be told to stay behind, and she gets a single word long line.

A lot of people come out of these games complaining that Flora has no personality, because the writer’s were apparently so determined to keep her off-screen that it was easy for people to question what kind of a character she even is. (She has one, they just don’t show it often enough.)

3.) She is constantly left behind and treated like a little girl even though she’s older than Luke, while he is respected as Layton’s apprentice. They don’t even eat her sandwiches :( They also have a running joke of her being really bad at cooking, but that’s literally the only thing they let her do! She also gets kidnapped TWICE (that is, every game she’s in but the first one) and the first time she gets impersonated by the bad guy and NO ONE NOTICES for most of the game.

Also in the Japanese version she’s “of marriageable age” and apparently really wants to marry Layton when she’s older… and that’s one of her key character traits in that version. She has a really cool backstory but after the first game she’s reduced to “girl whining about how they leave her behind all the time”. It’s like they wanted to fridge her but realized they couldn’t do that to a little girl.

DEANNA TROI (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION)

1.) Apparently, Deanna was originally intended to be TNG’s Spock replacement, a highly intelligent and rational character. Unfortunately, because she was a pretty woman, the decision was made to put her in a skin tight jumpsuit, at which point all that went out the window. Her actress has complained about this and is the source for her being originally intended to be similar to Spock but being written differently after the costume decision. She’s constantly being put through godawful plots where she’s victimized in ways that male characters - and even the other women who aren’t treated as sexy props - are not, she’s constantly being badgered to get married, she’s constantly being given love interests who there’s no reason whatsoever for her to be interested in.There was one scene where she had to eat ice cream and she kept having to spit it out off screen because the outfit they put her in was so tight she couldn’t eat. She’s an interesting character who is frequently relegated to sexy lamp status even though when she IS written well she is very competent and has skills no one else on the crew has. She literally gets teleported out of her clothes in one episode. Justice for Deanna

2.) She is an underused and underdeveloped character compared to her male counterparts. She is the only character who wears a deep-cleavage suit instead of a standard Starfleet uniform (thankfuly she does wear an uniform in latest seasons). Whenever she gets more screentime it’s only to have her body or mind violated. She is a psychologist with empathy powers, but it feels like writers didn’t really know what a counselor is for in a futuristic spaceship full of men who don’t go to therapy, so she barely has anything to do except having her powers conveniently blocked, weakened or taken away by alien of the week.

I love her because she was such a sweet, caring and intelligent character, but the writers clearly wanted her to be a hot babe of the show.

Saving grace: she really does improve in the laters seasons.

3.) She is mostly relegated to being a potted plant or a sexy lamp. She is supposed to be an empath, but mostly she gets to go “captain, i think he might be lying” about characters who everyone can see are definitely lying. AND everyone else in the show gets to wear a uniform and she doesnt for NO REASON untill the second to last season of the show (and even then it isnt Her Choice, but a man makes her do it) (and the female uniform is a catsuit for no reason, the male uniform is. a shirt and pants at this point). OH and maybe 75% or her plotlines are either men assaulting her in some way or another