#which is very funny. was the reason of their genocide that there is a class society in Palestine? are they killing the rich?

[zatdummesmadchen]

((THE TAGS!!!!)

watching western ultras start reblogging posts about how iran is evil actually while zionists are reblogging the same exact posts is truly depressing you are fucking idiots

[tobiasdrake]

What do you think makes Junko Enoshima a compelling character and antagonist? She's very popular, but I've found that the reasons why can vary a lot between people.

She's a bored hyper-genius gyaru supermodel in high school who burned civilization to the ground through unshakable charisma, aggressive recruiting of society's victims, and endless copies of her robot fursona.

There's. Not. Really. Anything like her in media.

There's a bit of a Joker angle to her. She's a scenery-chewing madwoman who mesmerizes the audience every second she's onscreen. Reprehensible and unforgivable in her crimes but so bombastic and bizarre that it's fun to watch her commit them.

But she's not just doing crime. Junko provides a platform to talk about the sickness in society itself. She's not a cartoon bank robber running away with all of the jewels. Her adversary is a society we all live in and her weapon of choice is the belief that things won't get better.

Junko is a temptation. She's the shoulder devil looking at the interweaving of fossil fuels, the stock market, and the government, and saying with a coy smile, "Maybe we should just crash the economy. If you can't untangle the knot, then you break out the scissors."

She is a product of a broken world and the architect of its doom. One day, a bunch of rich old guys who run the world decided that Junko is the superior class of human being and uplifted her into privilege and guaranteed prosperity to reward her for being better than everyone else. She is very good at fashion, so they named her ubermensch and welcomed her into their eugenics program.

And then she killed them all and burned everything down around herself. There's something very applicable about the sickness in Hope's Peak to our own world and our own lives. And something recognizably wicked yet unmistakably appealing about Junko's response to it.

But she is still unmistakably a villain. Still got that bad guy swagger about her. The confident, shameless amorality. Junko isn't a liberator. She's not here to make a better world. She's just a cult leader ideologically obsessed with despair.

But that's also what gives her so much staying power. She represents an idea, a feeling even, instead of a particular goal or motive. This makes her applicable far beyond the specific plot of her story.

She's the mascot of the feelings we get when we have to think about wealth inequality, which can only be solved if the rich choose to persecute the rich for being rich. Or broken politics whose obvious flaws are carved into the source code of the country such that they can never and will never change. Climate change. Genocide. Nuclear weapons. She's inescapable.

Once you've met her, it's easy to associate Junko with the feeling of despair itself. We all have despair in our lives. We all have a place for Junko Enoshima.

She's a fire that rages when it's pitch black. She's the alternative when hope fades away. She is the guillotine solution to billionaires. The molotov solution to political inequity. She is where you can turn when you have nowhere else left to go.

You don't always have to listen to Junko; In fact, more often than not, you shouldn't listen to Junko. But she is always at the table. A voice in the conversation that probably shouldn't be heeded but needs to be heard, lest those negotiating forget that she's there.

...

And all of that is wrapped up in a funny and charismatic fictional serial murderer who is unapologetically hyper-feminine yet presents herself through a wacky he/him fursona, whose worldview is as captivatingly bizarre as it is confidently presented yet complex and interesting all the same.

Junko Enoshima is a fucking experience.

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group G Round 1: #G4 vs #G5

#G4: Three girls decide to open an animation club

Midori Asakusa draws detailed landscapes and backgrounds of both the world around her and the one within her boundless imagination. Even the simple act of doodling on a wall evolves into an emergency repair on the outer hull of her spaceship. She is only brought back to reality by her best friend Sayaka Kanamori. The two are stark opposites, with Asakusa’s childlike wonder contrasted by Kanamori’s calculated approach to life.

After a chance encounter where the two “save” the young model Tsubame Misuzaki from her overprotective bodyguard, a connection instantly sparks between Asakusa and Misuzaki, as both share an intense passion for art and animation. Whereas Asakusa is interested in backgrounds and settings, Misuzaki loves drawing the human form. Sensing a money-making opportunity, Kanamori suggests that they start an animation club. Thus begins the trio’s journey of producing animation that will awe the world.

#G5: Two boys uncover reason behind mysterious deaths

Many years ago, after the end of a bloody world war, mankind took shelter in six city-states that were peaceful and perfect... at least on the surface. However, Shion—an elite resident of the city-state No. 6—gained a new perspective on the world he lives in, thanks to a chance encounter with a mysterious boy, Nezumi. Now, a long time after their life-altering first meeting, Shion and Nezumi are finally brought together once again—the former elite and the boy on the run are about to embark on an adventure that will, in time, reveal the shattering secrets of No. 6.

Titles, propagandas, trailers, and poll under the cut!

#G4: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! (Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!)

Propaganda:

It’s playing with animation in a really cool way, AND it is just gorgeous. The backgrounds are done in a beautiful painterly style, and each environment is detailed and evokes wonder.

Each of the three girls is a unique and fleshed-out character, and their interactions and blossoming friendship are super fun and wholesome to watch. The dialogue is also very realistic—it really feels like what three high school nerdy girl friends would talk about. Each has her own strengths, in animation, organization and craft, such that they really come together as a team and manage to make something beautiful.

The show is fun, heartwarming and doesn’t take itself too seriously, but at the same time it is so so sincere. Quiet and serious moments can be quiet and serious without needless bathos, and fun sequences (like a chase through the school) are given extra effort to be zany and funny, and fully animated in both senses of the word. Above all, you feel a strong love for animation and deep wonder of the world permeating the series.

Trigger Warnings: Flashing lights in the opening theme

#G5: No. 6

Propaganda:

It's a suspenseful science fiction that has a unique take on class issues using the setting of a world post apocalypse. It crafts a unique world with incredible characters you want to succeed. The relationship that develops between the two mains is a heartwarming respite in the cold world they inhabit. The mystery of the show keeps the audience entertained and on the edge of their seat.

Trigger Warnings: Body Horror, Genocide, Graphic Depictions of Cruelty/Violence/Gore, Rape/Non-Con

If you’re reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

[canmom]

the especially crazy-making thing about this 'witnessing a genocide' situation is like...

ok, so there's lots of catastrophes that are genuinely kinda intractable. economics shit, climate change. the problems may be evident but there's lots of room for reasonable disagreement about how to solve them and it's easy to get stuck in a bad equilibrium where the only way out is coordinating an enormous collective action problem and nobody is making any headway. that's one kind of bleak, but at least it's a comprehensibly difficult form of bleak.

i know full well that 'genocide' is a geopolitical football where everyone wants to position what the other guy is doing is a genocide but what you're doing is merely anti-terrorism, assimilation, whatever. this is because the post-wwii consensus is pretty clear cut that genocide is one of the worst things imaginable and one of the only things that really merit going to war.

thus WWII, the official Good War, is retroactively cast as a war to end the Holocaust, even if in practice the Allies were pretty indifferent to what was happening and would turn away refugees, and their solution to the problem of millions of displaced people was to jump on board an ethnonationalist colonialist project that would send them all off to a newly defined 'Jewish state' in a spare country the British happened to have lying around in the Middle East... and well, we're seeing how well that's working out for everyone. subsequent stories of genocide, such as Rwanda, Cambodia, or Bosnia, tend to end with 'and then xyz country invaded and put an end to things and the genocidaires went to court and we put up museums at the mass graves and shot documentary films'. even though the nigh-universal hypocrisy about the subject is rancid, you can at least kind of imagine that there is some pretense that the objective of this whole affair is to stop these kind of mass deaths from happening.

at this point there is no ambiguity that what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza is genocide. they've cut off two million people without food, water, and electricity, shut off their communications, and rained the most sophisticated modern weapons on them indiscriminately for going on three weeks. they've blown up most of their completely overwhelmed medical infrastructure and done everything possible to disrupt it. this war is so one-sided it's not funny, it's just a massacre. Hamas can annoy Israel with rockets but can't do a damn thing to protect the population they're ruling. and there is nowhere for people in Gaza to run to. the border with Egypt is closed. an insultingly tiny trickle of aid has made it in, which will instantly disappear to the orders of magnitude more hungry people.

in short there is no option left besides wait to die.

but, ok. in contrast to all those intractable problems... this one is very simple to solve. Israel could stop dropping bombs whenever they feel like it, and negotiate for whatever they fucking want, e.g. prisoner exchanges. they could let the Palestinians out of the ghetto and dissolve the situation that creates Hamas. they could easily continue to maintain Palestinians as second-class citizens. (look at how lopsided South Africa remains.)

and if they won't, because the country is ruled by fascist maniacs with broad support across the settler population, the US - which has all the leverage in the world - could threaten to hang them out to dry until they call a ceasefire. Israel has so thoroughly made enemies of all its neighbours that they would not last long without that US backing. it needn't even get to that point, if the US said 'stop' and made it clear there was any sort of line... Israel might feel it has to do a little damage control and try to look good on camera. maybe hold off on the white phosphorous. leave a few houses standing.

but none of that is happening. none of it.

it seems like the ground invasion will be starting. it might be well underway when i wake up.

despite the 'simplicity', it's still not at all clear what one little human can do about it. if i go to a protest tomorrow, for the symbolic gesture of "having done something" if nothing else, maybe it will make me feel better, but the most likely immediate outcome is that the government (currently going through a rape scandal, i love the uk) is going to step up its internal repression of Muslims. somehow, the idea that the people are displeased with their democratically elected agents won't factor into it. the protestors become 'other' by virtue of protesting, another problem to control.

it's common to ask 'what would you have done if you lived in Germany (or Poland) during the Holocaust?' a lot of people imagine they'd be heroes, hiding Jewish people in their attic or becoming partisans in the woods or whatever. in practice, history suggests that most people would have gone along with it without much complaint, or even taken the opportunity to steal from the victims, moving into vacant houses, taking over companies, even helping the Nazis round people up.

i must not become an inner emigré. doing nothing when i could have done something is unacceptable. but what i feel, faced with this situation, is pathetically impotent.

i feel so sick.

[gods-no-longer-tread-here]

I can't even remember who it was because I have terminal Names Are Meaningless disease but someone reblogged a post about humans being inherently kind from me and tagged it with something like "all these examples of people being good are individual and anecdotal whereas things like invading soldiers raping civilians is universal" (they were more verbose than that, this is just what stuck with me).

and I really don't want to be mean to that person, because yeah, there are a LOT of shitty people out there making shitty choices. but I disagree and I spent most of my childhood suffering with undiagnosed moral OCD and so I need to be clear why I think it's wrong to say "humans are not Good, they're neutral/bad"

What is the most neutral setting for humanity? A newborn baby, right? What do newborns do? They ask for help, by crying and reaching and holding on to their caregivers. What are the majority of humans hardwired to do when given a baby? Help it. Care for it. Keep it happy and healthy and safe. It is the norm among mammals to care for babies of your species. And granted, "survival" isn't good or bad, it is a neutral, desirable outcome. There is no morality to surviving.

But what about people who aren't caregivers to babies? Who still say hello and smile? Who pull funny faces or do silly things to make a stranger's tiny child laugh? Isn't it Good that a happy child satisfies our instincts more than a sad or frightened child?

And even when a child is a little older, sure, it may seem like kids are inherently selfish, but we have to remember that very small children don't know that other people have feelings yet. That the reason they're being told to share their toys or food isn't because they, personally, are being punished, but because someone else is deprived of something, and everyone benefits when everyone shares. We're not just teaching kids to share--we're teaching them that other people are real and alive and have equal worth to them.

(I'm not talking about abusive situations, I'm talking about normal, not-fucked-up-by-outsiders situations where a child is learning how to People. abuse is not neutral, it is not instinctive, it is learned behavior.)

If we really wanna talk warcrimes and murder, we need to talk about dehumanization, oppressive systems, and capitalism--none of which are inherent to the human condition. Oppression and capitalism were built up over time by people who were taught to dehumanize others. They are upheld and protected by people who are actively being taught to dehumanize others. We as living beings do not choose, in a vacuum, to be racist, sexist, colonialist, xenophobic, or any other form of bigotry.

Humans do not choose to be cruel in a vacuum. We just don't.

Is it fucked up that there are so many systems in place to deny people humanity? Yes. Do these systems need to be dismantled? Yes. Do the people who protect these systems benefit from them to an extent, which makes it that much harder to convince them that they won't suffer without them? Yes.

Are these systems naturally occurring? Fucking of course not.

Human beings are born without the capacity to hate OR love. We are taught which path to take. And anyone can change their path--or make individual decisions that harm or help others--any time they please. It's called free will and it's actually super wonderful. Which means you can deprogram soldiers who commit warcrimes and Nazis who call for genocide. You can rehabilitate rich people. You can teach middle class white boys with access to guns to care about the humanity of others. You can help victims heal and grow and regain what they've lost--their homes, their dignity, their humanity. You can do that. You can prove that humans are good.

Instead of feeling despair that some people choose to be cruel, why not be happy that others can counteract it by being kind? Why not allow yourself to spend a moment thinking about the good that people do for each other?

Instead of defaulting to "these systems of oppression get people hurt, and thus human beings are not good", try "these systems of oppression get people hurt, and we as human beings have the power to undo them." I promise, a little bit of hope, even if you have to fake it, will make you happier and healthier.

[pbandjesse]

Celia just left! It was so nice to have her over. Today was a bit exhausting though. Mostly because it was warm. But wearing a linen dress was absolutely the move. Like yes I could have been in less clothes but the dress was pretty cool and I was able to be fairly comfortable all day.

I slept alright. Not the best. I don't remember James leaving for work. But they would let me know when they were safely there. For some reason the alert I had set to tell me that isn't doing it right now which is annoying but it's fine.

I would get up at 745 and was dressed and out the door by 8. I had permed my lashes last night and the glue was not completely off of my eyes which felt very strange. I would have to peel it off because I wasn't supposed to get water in them for 24 hours. The new brand I got for sure was an easier time. The glue worked better. But it left more leftover glue on my lids which was weird. I don't think they are as intense but that might have just been the type of lid guard thing I used. Next time I'll try one of the other sizes.

I would get to hunt valley to pick up the crew. And we ended up having a really really excellent conversation. About history and war and media. Like it was such a good conversation. I told them I was listening to a podcast about Thomas Jefferson and why he sucks. And that lead to talking about history repeating itself. Which lead to talk about the current genocide in Gaza. And that eventually lead to American Gods, the show, and how black characters were represented. It was just really awesome. Ray said he would take a class to listen to me and I was very very flattered.

It would be a very productive day. I let Heather know I did not need a crew and would be working at my laptop. Callie was currently at my desk so I was a little flustered not knowing where to start quite yet. Kieran accidentally elbowed me in the head. Oops. But then I got my table back and got to work.

I mainly was working on the name tags and the layout for printing those. I would have 70 done by lunch. I had some people helping with adding the lanyards on but mainly this was my project. Some people's were funny like "your majesty" "queen" and while I still printed those Elizabeth says they have to have their actual name on the other side. We have to be the fun police a bit I guess.

It was nice to get away from my computer and I went up to arts to sit with friends and talk. I told some of the girls the story about me and James getting engaged and all the tragedy and drama around that. My dad being in the hospital. My sister passing away. The first day of camp. My first time sleeping at camp. Just so much happened. It was nice to tell the story though.

Merrin also told me about Jorge!! Jorge from last summer. They are dating now and apparently he still talks about me all the time. I can't wait til he's back. He's great. I cannot wait to have his group in art again.

I would have lunch in the office and sit with Callie. I read my book while she worked on forms. And eventually she would head back to painting at the latrine. And I would go up to arts to unpack boxes with Jeci. The boys were nice enough to deliver all my supplies for me. It was super helpful. And it was just nice working with Jeci. He is very sweet.

And it was nice to get all the materials sorted for my projects. I think I have everything now and it makes me feel really ready for the year.

I had really hoped that my lesson writing and supply buying would alleviate the pressure on the other specialties too but so far that's only half true.

Aaron still wants to do some of his own writing but he did say today he's expanding on my lessons. Good. It's not even that I care about my lessons so much vanity wise, but I just don't understand stressing yourself out writing new stuff. I'm just worried that he's going to burn himself out.

I had been sorting beads for an hour but then our new staff member, Corrina, came and I was thrilled to meet her. She is going to be the early American culture teacher (EAC for short) and she is a teacher already so she's going to do great. I showed her around camp. We sat down and looked at the binder I made. She said she was very impressed. And that was very flattering. We would walk all around and chat about the program and camp itself. When we got back to the office we ran into Kieran and he would drive us around the rest of camp on the gator. Eventually dropping me off at the art building. Corrina would walk back to the chickee to investigate her materials and he would stay with me for a bit to talk about the program and the changes. Both positive and negative. Things he is worried about and things we might change. And like I keep saying. I will change whatever. But there is only so much I can do if they want all these new programs. Like I can't make more time in a day. Im doing my best with the hours of the day I have.

But it was nice talking and venting about the weird stuff. But then it was 430 and it was time to go.

I stopped at the office (in my car) and said bye to Alexi, Elizabeth, and Heather. Checked about my plans for tomorrow and then was off. Into absolutely horrible traffic. Almost an hour!!

I listened to my podcast and tried to just enjoy the beautiful clouds. But I didn't want to be in the car anymore and was so happy to be home.

When I got inside James was listening to their podcast. I gave them a big kiss and went to say hi to sweetp. We put Crabcake outside. I cleaned the frog tank of some dirt and snails. Noticed that one of the frogs is shedding and it looked like he was wearing a little hoodie. So cute. Then I went to wash my face and put new lotion on before I went to sit outside with a pretzel stick and a soda.

Crabcake was making a whole lot of noise in the tank outside. Silly boy.

While I was out there I had decided to text Charlie and he actually texted me right back. It's been forever and I miss him dearly. We exchanged some pictures about our lives right now. He's in New Mexico and while he went through some tough times he's finding his way and things are beautiful right now. I'm so happy to hear that. I really hope I see him soon. Summer camp memories are always going to be intertwined with him for sure.

I was just enjoying laying on the swing. But then Celia was here! I was excited to have her meet Crabcake. She has some feedback about the enclosures. Thankfully already stuff I knew needed improvement. I told her about my grater plans for both inside and outside enclosures. And we all just sat on the ground chilling and talking. It was fun.

Eventually we flipped a coin if James would come join us for dinner (tails: James tags along, head:James heads home) and it was decided me and Celia would go alone. And James would stay home and do James things.

We went to mystic burrito. A place in highland town I wanted to try. I got their cheesey loaded nacho style French fries. She got the same but actually nachos. It was nice to sit and talk but I was also tired and struggling to hold the conversation at times. So it was really nice to just sit and listen to her talk about her job and working at a state park. Running into a childhood friend. The sexual dimorpha of sparrows. Creating a program about the Susquehannok people. It was really nice to listen.

When we got back to the house we had popsicles on the couch while James played a video game. We talked about books we like. And I bought a little series on eBay on her recommendation. It was a calm evening but also just really fun.

She left before 930. She should be getting home now. I went and took a shower while James got Sweetp inside and got our bed all ready for sleep. Where I am going to go to now.

Tomorrow is the last day of the week of work projects! It still feels like there is so much to be done. But also we did so much. I hope it is a good and productive day. Wish us luck. I love you all. Good night!!

[trubbishrubbish]

I just came to an epiphany about something minor in THH I didn’t understand at first.

During the chapter 3 investigation when everyone is in the pool discovering Yasuhiro in the Robo Justice suit, if you check the map at this time, you can see Genocide Jack and Sakura are in the repository with the two bodies alone.

This really surprised me as Genocide Jack doesn’t hang out in that room during a majority of the investigation. She’s in the equipment room. There’s also no mention of her going to the repository while everyone is in the pool, you can’t leave the pool to go to the repository because its mandatory to talk about Yasuhiro in the costume and even after you are done with the scene at the pool and you are free to leave, Genocide Jack has already left the repository and is replaced with Aoi, who was originally the second person in that room for a majority of the investigation.

For the longest time I had no idea the game made Genocide Jack be in the repository while everyone is in the gym. That is until I remembered that at the start of the first investigation, it was agreed that two people had to watch over the crime scene in order to protect against tampering.

6 out of the 8 surviving students were all in the pool so the only two people that could guard the crime scene was Sakura and Genocide Jack.

This is such an amazingly subtle detail for the game to make. Maintaining the established agreement the class had for each investigation, even when the player isn’t physically in the room this happens, is only shown on a map screen that the player has to choose to look at, and is something the player is likely to not even notice or think about when in the pool. They will focus more on the Robo Justice discovery scene unfolding right now than just noticing that a lot of people are here and wondering if 2 people guarding the crime scene.

The only lines in this scene that are in any way related to the crime scene are these.

Which is funny because Aoi is assuming that having Genocide Jack guard the crime scene with Sakura instead of her would cause conflict. But Genocide Jack is currently in the same room with Sakura and no fight as occurred.

It makes me want to speculate for what reason why Genocide Jack chooses to be in the repository while everyone else is in the pool, she doesn’t really care about investigations and helping out benefits her personally. Did she decide that the two person guard rule was important enough for her to upheld? Was it cause she would be bored being all alone so she just hung out with Sakura? Did Sakura ask her to come watch the crime scene with her a she knew Genocide Jack was the only one available?

What Aoi says, to me, implies that she temporary left her guard duty and didn’t ask Genocide Jack to switch with her or Sakura to find a replacement. So Genocide Jack filled her role without her knowing, I guess Aoi assumed that it would be ok if the crime scene was left with one person for a little bit until she got back and no one else questioned Aoi about her leaving her guard duty so I guess they thought it was ok too. A little irresponsible in my opinion to have one person guard the scene because... you never know, but Sakura was very trustworthy and she wasn’t the prime suspect in this case so I can understand cutting corners like that.

Thankfully, Genocide Jack is not one to cut corners like that, which is ironic considering she has scissors made for cutting.

One last thing. When Aoi goes back to her guard duty, does she get surprised that Genocide Jack is in the room and kicks her out, or does she leave before Aoi knew that she was in there. So much food-for-thought extrapolated from simply having a character be on a map screen.

[tamarakkoarchive]

FE:3H livetweet thread (1/3)

i'm familiar w advance wars so it's not new grounds gameplay-wise to me but i still turned off the permanent death thing because well. this sure seems an annoying as hell feature

~

after spending almost a year playing nothing but smtiva this will be my palate cleanser for a wh- oh god damnnit

~

fond of this closer-to-how-an-irl-foreigner-speaks syntax approach rather than making the character speak like a caveman or just say random words in their own language

~

the eng VAs are honestly good and often give a special touch to some characters but i ended up muting the voices fast bc games using them in every existing text box makes me dizzy

~

actually nvm comparing it to AW, calendar system w rpg jobs is the actual cursed deal here lol wondering the margin of error before i get permanently fucked

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set everyone to wear the uniform properly to please my ocd

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i can't help but get irked by characters going overboard on being stylish in settings that wouldn't make sense, act like the church pawns you are!!!

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slurp

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me: hm so tea time is probably the equivalent to that swsh curry thing 3H: would you like to zoom and observe me: huh caspar: *gives me the horniest look* me: ?????????????????????????????

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can you refuse romancing a character like in p5 or are you locked into the first mf that you are nice to... oh my god... sorry caspar you were the primary reason i bought this game but i refuse to betray my class and go yumejo even if it's you

~

the other day i saw someone commenting that mixing dating sim with other game genres leds to the downfall of not exceeding in any (obviously implying FE and persona) and like, i think you can perfectly dislike this mix for what it represents and what appeals to regarding these franchises but strictly gameplay-wise i think it's very old man yelling at cloud opinion to get mad inherently at the mix of genres lol.

for smt i personally don't feel the need of big breaks between character interactions and the rpg aspect bc the battles are short (and actually, the demon negotiations are by themselves them lol) so i'm meh for persona but for this flavor of strategy game where you can take a whole hour on a mission i think it's pretty natural to wanting to have smth else mixed to make it less heavy on the player. i'm finding myself surprised at how long i can stay playing this per session compared to AW

~

the story progression is kinda… idk the word we barely know anything abt the cast or what the story is going to be abt and edelgard trauma dumps her whole life in the first alone night w byleth and says edgy stuff out of nowhere like girl? i just learned to fish the other day?

~

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pretty fond of krabappel

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ive been trying not to pay 2 much attention to it but i don't rly see the point of showing byleth's reactions and making her speak so much considering she has the personality of a dry wall lol it adds nothing to the scenes and just breaks the silent mc immersion

~

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3H: commoners are plagued by structural racism which also happens to have a lot of dark skinned ppl in It me: well yeah 3H: it's bc nobles are inherently born w dangerous magical abilities so leadership naturally falls to them me:

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pretty funny to see a character in the wild and remember "oh yeah. this guy. one of the 3 gay choices for the male mc where it's onesided"

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annette watch out!!!! a male version of me somewhere might be fucking your father!!!!!

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girl it's one thing to teach but now asking me to pick up trash like excuse me?????

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boy, forget flayn. dive into my chest right now

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oneeshota church achieved

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now THAT'S what i'm talking about

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just like irl high school

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byleth sadly staring at her feet from the thought that she has only attracted genocidal women and boys with no pubic hair

~

[some-murmurings]

Essay!!

edit after 1000+ words: I'm so sorry oh my fucking god. I didn't realize how many thoughts I had. I had so many. So fucking many. This got so long. You don't need to read it all. Jesus Christ. Thank you for asking. I had fun.

I'm glad you asked, I nearly wrote my 20+ page senior seminar paper on this topic so, while I have none of the sources together or any super strong body paragraphs, an overview should be ezpz laimon shqueez-ee.

Brief personal context: I finished 2/3 of my undergrad in the Philosophy program at a small liberal arts college, then switched to Creative writing for reasons that will become apparent. I was raised by intellectual dickheads who rely heavily on clever rhetoric to "win" conversations (yes, even with literal toddlers), so I have an unyielding spite for Academia in general. It will come through so judge my bias accordingly.

This video by a really solid video essaying, "Knowing Better" explores a common cultural narrative he calls "The Standard American History Myth"

Think "Abraham Lincoln ended Slavery" and "Martin Luther King Jr. ended Racism" and "Obama ended Racism AGAIN" all of which are extremely common implications (and frequently explicit claims) made in most US public schools. No I do not have a study to back that up. Yes it's probably hyperbolic.

Basically, because the bureaucracies in charge of lesson plans in our public schools (assuming you're from the US, sorry if wrong) all share super similar incentive structures (good test scores, don't encourage gang violence, actively destroy children's creative spirit), huge swaths of misinformation get proliferated into the public consciousness. The already-euphemistic "Trail of Tears" being understood as "merely aggressive relocation of indigenous folk" becomes commonplace, it becomes impolite to suggest that the genocide was, in fact, a genocide. A phenomena we're seeing right now with Gaza and have been seeing with our colonial regime over the Imperial Periphery for actual centuries.

I argue that Academic Philosophy suffers a similar sickness.

In my courses, I took class after class after class talking about the same 20 or so European guys who were overwhelmingly framed as "Important figures with Important thoughts about Important things" with little to no acknowledgement of their particular cultural context.

Very pointedly, with little to no acknowledgement of their particular cultural context... when it made them look bad.

I did not learn Aristotle was staunchly pro-slavery (notably using nearly identical arguments to the US Confederacy) until nearly 2 years into my degree, and by then I was surrounded by white cishet guys insisting that "He's the Father of Philosophy, [deadname]" (I wasn't out to these jamokes, naturally).

Sidebar: is Aristotle or Socrates the father of philosophy? Plato isn't, too broad, but I've seen both A & S called the patriarch and I've long since gotten lost. Petition to change it to Hegel, cement our collective deathwish.

I googled Heidegger and actually did a spit take. My main man was wavery on a whole bunch of stuff he really did not need to be. Nazi stuff. Heidegger was a Nazi.

Now, a frequent rebuttal I got from my professors was that, in effect, I'm grandstanding! My critiques are sweeping, performative. What, do I want us to *gasp*... burn their books?!

Plainly, no. Kant being so pro-colonialism he made nose-charts (note: can't source this :( I distinctly remember a professor showing us them) on some nasal phrenology shit isn't just an opportunity for easy dunking (altho it is that too), it's a huge, foundational problem with his perspective on ethics. Like really, really, really big issue.

In fact, once you start digging through the lives and cultural contexts of ANY big name thinker, you realize several extremely funny things:

Irregularly bigoted in at least one (1) direction. Usually more.

A guy

A guy we'd probably call "white" nowadays*

A guy we'd probably call "white" nowadays who had the money and free time to write a lot

A guy we'd probably call "white" nowadays who happens to position himself ways provocative to recent political movements

Fun game: see how many of the "big names" (and even more niche favs) of yours last to the end of this list. Most of em? Yeah.

This is because "Academic Philosophy" is lowkey an oxymoron. Not that study of philosophical texts itself is useless; Ursula K LeGuin's "Those who walk away from Omelas" taught me more in sidebar summary than any full text Plato ever wrote.

The issue is that our cultural definition of "philosophy" has been MASSIVELY narrowed to a very specific range of weird abstractions or artistic movements. No, not even Existentialism is safe. I love you Wittgenstein, you were right. The Tractatus does suck balls and ass (not to yuck a yum) but you didn't escape the event horizon of Philosophy.

Taking a given class, I frequently bounced thousands of years in between these poorly introduced dickheads. You do a week on Kant then a week on Aristotle then a week on your professor's work then a week on a cyberpunk author. You'll jump from Augustine to Hume like these two were riding the train to work next to Foucault. Insanity.

It's fine to juxtapose ideas you like in a class, obviously, but that's just it: these teachers aren't. Not really, they're slapdashedly throwing lesson plans together and using syllabi they got off the internet because they haven't slept in a month. No explanation of the differences, no time to explore the faults in their perspectives, just dead-eyed stares at flickering overhead fluorescence.

There's a huge pressure to teach names that admin can recognize, to focus on "Real, Published Thinkers" as if academic publication does not VERY aggressively select against uncomfortable truths. Y'know. Basically the primary goal of philosophy. Loving wisdom despite its burden.

This got disorganized. I'm too tired to reorganize or even edit it. Apogolies for typos, I hope they're not too major. And, if you did read this, I hope it made some sort of sense. I love Philosophy (outside of college) a LOT, it's just so painful to see it get bastardized so badly.

Anything is philosophy, to me, any single damn thing. Some more than others, I bet, but really anything. If you tried to make it true and tried to teach me something about anything, that's philosophy.

Not like truth lives in a book anyways, right?

*strictly speaking, e.g. ancient Athenians did not have "whiteness" in the modern sense. They did, however, have a rigid class system with an ethnically diverse slave-class, so one can reasonably extrapolate many "Citizens" enjoyed privileges based on their ethnicity & class. White Supremacy may be a modern stupidity but its constituent parts are not.

THE GOOD PLACE (2016 - 2020) I 2.12 - Somewhere Else

[xylophonetangerine]

Epistemic status: Half-assed “research” and I straightened some bends (☡ → ～) for brevity and comedic effect. Look it up yourself! What am I, a historian?

Do you know about the neo-nazi Kalergi plan conspiracy theory? It’s one of those hilariously complicated brain-worm induced conspiracy theories that Central European neo-nazis start believing in after they read one too many posts full of blatantly false esoteric knowledge. Imagine a theory-obsessed Twitter communist but instead of inventing new reasons to call people racist they’re inventing new ways of being racist.

So basically in the early 20th century there was this Austro–Japanese guy called Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi who advocated for Paneuropeanism and racial integration to reconcile his wish to be fascist with being biracial. (This is my interpretation! He never supported fascism but it was the new hotness at the time, especially amongst the noble and leisured classes of Europe. More on this below.)

Fast forward about a century and now a bunch of fucking racist nazis think that the EU is a secret conspiracy to commit “white genocide” by forcing racemixing … somehow? Whatever it is that they’re doing doesn’t seem to be working. Get on it, Angela Merkel von der Leyen!

The neo-nazi beliefs in this supposed “Kalergi plan” stem from Kalergi’s utopian vision of European peoples living in harmony with one another with a customs union and a common currency (see, EU). Wikipedia says that in his 1925 book Practical Idealism he said that “Eurasian–Negroid[s]”, would replace “the diversity of peoples” and “[t]oday's races and classes” with a “diversity of individuals” which is basically the modern ideal of universal human rights and personal freedom expressed in a very pre-WWII race-sciency way. Neo-nazis saw this and went insano-mode thinking that universal homogeneity of racial admixture and phenotype was definitely the endgame when the European Coal and Steel Community was set up in 1950 to ease international trading of the coal needed to power the racism factories during European reconstruction. Kalergi’s ideas obviously remained quite marginal and obscure during his lifetime because that was not actually the endgame of the ECSC or any other EU precursor or the EU because we’re all fucking racist!

European scholars, officials, and politicians have retrospectively recognised him as being ahead of his time and laying foundations for the EU. And now that there’s a lecture theatre named after him in some German university or something that’s definitive proof to the nazis that this thing that is obviously not happening is happening and they’re doing it in Brussels or Strasbourg or somewhere!!

Now, about the fascism. When I read about Kalergi I get a strong feeling that he was influenced by fascism. It sounds counterintuitive because he was against racial agitation and antisemitism but it seems pretty obvious that he wanted sweeping geopolitical changes in a very similar way to his fascist contemporaries (i.e., not communism!). Maybe you could call it reverse-Strasserist third-positionism. So yeah, it’s pretty funny actually how it’s essentially ethnonationalism but we’re all one big people :)

Hmm, that sounds just like the EU actually… Wait, are we exploiting and being racist to people outside of our little special boys’ club? Oh no. Shut it down. Cut the cameras! How do I turn this off?!

[adiffident]

I am once again reading fics from recommendation lists and honestly no shade to the writers but if your writing about other cultures don't you do your research?? because it's very painful reading ships were one person is supposed to be german-ish or multilingual and you just have to put it down because it's painfully inaccurate

public transportation in Germany is generally pretty shitty, nothing's on time and trains also just sometimes don't arrive

Honestly if your character is a professor from a german university town he will not praise the efficiency of the U-Bahn in comparison to the New York subway because his city doesn't have a U-Bahn??

Some people think germany is digital heaven but that is not the case. It's very far behind in internet speed and digital equipment in schools and unis

Your professor cannot complain about blackboards 😭, especially if he teaches poetry. No, white boards are not more common. Like I'm a comp sci major and we have white boards in our building but all other lecture halls have blackboards and if I have my classes in the humanities or math department there's just blackboards??

Of course the equipment of the schools and unis is also dependent on state funding, donations and location but come on

People speak English, good English. Pretty much every non-British/American/Canadian/Australian etc. person speaks English, so keep up

Sometimes I try to force myself to keep reading because of the time period but no, making someone practically infantile while speaking English is fucking weird

Also just writing accents into the words is fucking weird and the way in which they're written doesn't make sense

(I also read a fic where the "Russian" accent just was german?? Google translate is free?? And also as a slavic person: what the fuck? There is a difference between da/ja and @ the people thinking slavic languages and german are equally harsh gibberish my relatives think my accent is "harsh" because I have a german one)

Also @ people incorporating german snippets into fics don't use the formal "you". I guess Americans don't learn different languages but formal pronouns are actually pretty common in most languages

Dirty talk in german is not sexy. It just isn't

Writing a modern AU with a German jew is very funny(but also very much not) because there are so few few jews in Germany today.. ever heard of the holocaust? Yeah european jews faced genocide and not just the German ones. I guess as an American it's pretty common to meet jews but that literally has a reason(!!!)

German people are also as a majority atheists or just christian-ish. Making someone fanatically catholic is weird (but more accurate if they're from Bavaria). Generally evangelism is more common

If you make someone speak another language *like so* using English idioms doesn't make sense (I always translate in my head and it doesn't work)

And accidentally "switching languages" like in fics doesn't happen or just if you are in an environment where you have to constantly switch between and translate multiple languages and are very tired but you realize mostly immediately

Knowing all vocabulary isn't realistic. Your vocabulary is dependent on the context for which you use those languages, so you can translate some stuff immediately but I mostly know the meaning of vocabulary separately but can't translate on the spot

...

Yeah I just can't read most fics ... :/

[troquantary]

Edward Cullen: That Boy Ain’t Right

So I was doing a reread of @therealvinelle 's collection of Twilight metas, as one does, and in "Edward, Denial, and a Human Girlfriend" she mentions that she doesn't believe Edward is sane. I thought, "ha, yeah, he's definitely not," and also, "but wait, what does that mean exactly, please say more about that." But since she's already inundated with asks, I've decided to use my own head-muscle and explore this idea. (TL;DR: I start out more or less organized, synthesize some points Vinelle has made across several posts (and have hopefully linked to them all where relevant but please tell me if not), touch a little on narcissism, then take a hard left into the negative effects of being a telepath.)

Just a couple things to note at the outset, though. Theses have been written already (probably) about Edward as an abuser. Edward being insane doesn't negate that at all; he's definitely an asshole and just...a disaster of a human being. (I find it more funny than anything, but YMMV.) I'm also going to try to avoid talking specifically about mental illness and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to abusive behavior -- that's territory I'm not really equipped to discuss, like at all. My starting point is "Edward has a deeply warped perception of reality," not "Edward has X disorder."

So: deeply warped perception of reality. The evidence? Goes behind a cut, because my one character trait is Verbose.

Vinelle provides a great example of it in the post linked above, which I'll just quote because she does words good: "[Edward] keeps acting like his romance with Bella is a romantic tragedy, and all the cast of Twilight are actors on a stage making it as sublime as possible." Edward's the one to pursue Bella, but he does so with the full belief, from the very beginning, that it will never last; Bella will "outgrow" him, go on her human way, and he can spend the rest of eternity brooding magnificently over his too-short romantic bliss. [Insert premature ejaculation joke.] Turning her is never an option, even though Alice, Noted Psychic, says that romancing Bella will either end with her dead (exsanguinated) or dead (vampire).

This framing, where he's a dark anti-hero in love with -- but never tainting! -- the pure maiden and eventually leaving her in a grand, tragic sacrifice to preserve her soul? It's fucking bonkers. Bella isn't a person to him in this scenario. As Vinelle points out, Bella's never really a person to him at all; he falls in love with his own mental construct, cherry-picking from what he observes of her behavior and her responses to his 20 (thousand) Questions to convince himself that she is the ideal woman.

Bella's not the only one who gets the projection/cardboard-cutout treatment. Edward sees everything and everyone through a highly particular, personalized lens. He filters his entire reality, which we all do to an extent, but the thing with Edward is that he starts with his conclusions and then only pays attention to the evidence that supports those conclusions. Often that evidence consists of what he admits in New Moon are only "surface" thoughts -- but recognizing that limitation doesn't keep him from taking those thoughts as representative of what people are. Edward then becomes absolutely convinced by his own "reasoning" and won't be swayed from what he has decided is Objectively True. It's obvious with Bella; it's also painfully obvious with Rosalie. (Vinelle explains this and brings up Edward's raging Madonna/Whore complex in the same post, so refer to that again -- she's right.)

He also catastrophizes. Everything. Bella's just vibing in her room, rereading Wuthering Heights for the 87th time? She's gonna be hit by a meteor, better sneak into her room while she sleeps. Bella's going to the beach with the filthy mundanes their human classmates? She's gonna fall in the ocean. Jasper's cannibal pals are stopping by for a visit, but know not to hunt in the area? DISASTER, DEFCON 1, ALSO FUCK YOU JASPER FOR EVEN EXISTING IN MY AND BELLA'S SPHERE YOU UNSPEAKABLE BURDEN. Edward must believe that Bella is vulnerable and in near-constant peril, to support the reality he has created in which he is the villain turned protector and maybe?? hero??? (!!!) for his beloved. So when the actual, James-shaped danger arrives, he goes berserk, snarling and flipping his shit and generally not helping the situation. His fantasy demands that Bella remain human, so instead of doing the very thing Alice, Noted Psychic, assures him will neutralize the threat (and not just a threat to Bella, either, but to Bella's family and any other human James might decide to include in the "game"), he vetoes it immediately, no discussion. Bella Must Not Turn, and he sticks to those guns despite James nearly reducing her to ground beef, despite leaving Bella catatonic with depression (but human! success!) in New Moon, despite Aro's order and his family's vote and, let's not forget, Bella's clearly and repeatedly stated desire to be a vampire. It's going to happen. But he doesn't accept it until Renesmee busts out of Bella like the Kool-Aid man and the poor girl's heart finally, unequivocally stops.

Sane people don't behave this way. I don't want to slap labels on Edward, but I can't help but note that he comes across as highly narcissistic. He's the only real person in his universe, the lone player among us NPCs. That probably has a lot to do with him being frozen in the mindset and maturity of a seventeen-year-old boy, but I think it's also just...him, on some fundamental level. His failure to connect with others and recognize them as full, independent beings with their own wants and priorities isn't like Bella's failure -- she's badly depressed. Edward is...something else, and I get the sense that his sanity has been steadily deteriorating over time. And a cursory google of narcissistic traits turns up some familiar-looking stuff. He's self-loathing, yes, but also grandiose; he hates himself for the monster he is (and hates most vampires besides Esme and Carlisle for their monstrosity, too) but still feels superior to humans, to the extent that he felt entitled to human blood and resented Carlisle for depriving him of his "proper" diet. He eventually returns to Carlisle, but he's far from content -- the beginning of Midnight Sun finds him in a state of ennui, bored and dismissive of (if not outright disgusted by) everyone around him, that has apparently persisted for years and years. He doesn't play the piano, he doesn't compose, he doesn't enjoy anything...at least until Bella comes along and then he becomes obsessed to a disturbing degree with her and his new, romantic tragedy spin on reality.

[Next-day edit: I’m not sure where else to fit this in, but the way Edward casually contemplates violence against people who have, at best, mildly annoyed him is...chilling. I have a hard time writing off his strategizing how to murder the entire Biology class as a result of bloodlust -- it’s so calculated, nothing like the blackout state of thirst Emmett describes when he encountered his own “singer,” and that is probably the default for when a vampire is extremely thirsty. But even ignoring the Biology class incident, Edward still does things like consider, with disturbing frequency, how he might grievously injure or kill Mike Newton, all because...Edward considers him his romantic rival (despite Bella barely giving the kid the time of day). He thinks about slapping Mike through a wall, which might be an amusing slapstick image, except as a vampire Edward’s actually capable of turning this boy’s skeleton to a fine powder. So it’s, y’know, kind of sick when you think about it.

But even worse than that, when Bella tells Edward about how she flirted with Jacob to get at that sweet, sweet vampire lore, Edward chuckles and then, after dropping Bella home, flippantly observes that now that the treaty’s broken, why not genocide? I’m not even kidding, it’s right there in Midnight Sun; he seriously thinks about the fact that he’d be technically justified now in wiping out the entire tribe because a teenager tried to impress a girl with a spooky story. That is fucked. Remember, Edward was there with Carlisle when the treaty was first established. He knows how remarkable it is that they even came to a truce in the first place, that it was only ever possible because Carlisle is...well, Carlisle, and that it marks a pretty significant moment in supernatural history. He doesn’t care; he doesn’t respect it, or he’d never think something like “Ha ha, if I went and killed them all, I wouldn’t even be wrong. I mean, I won’t do it, but I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be wrong.”

Again: not the thought process or behavior of a sane person. (Or a person that respects life in general -- sorry Carlisle, big L.)]

Finally, whether he's a narcissist or not, I think the fact that Edward has constant, unavoidable access to everyone's thoughts is a powerful contributing factor to his instability. He can tune out the mental noise to an extent, but he can't stop it -- so he comes to rely on it like another sense. This causes issues with disconnect and lack of empathy, of course, but there's another facet to this shit diamond: he's basically experiencing a ceaseless flow of intrusive thoughts. His narration in Midnight Sun suggests that he "hears" the words people think, can "see" what they visualize in their mind's eye, and can sense the emotional "tone" and intensity of their thoughts. Therefore, perceiving Jasper's thirst through his thoughts makes Edward more aware of his own, "doubling" the discomfort. This would be a lot to deal with even from just his immediate coven members, but Edward gets all of this pouring into his head like a firehose on a day-to-day basis because the Cullens live right alongside humans. I know Meyerpires have galaxy brains or whatever, but that's a ton to process.

Besides the compounding effect on his own thirst when he "feels" the thirst of others, Meyer never suggests that Edward has difficulty separating his own thoughts from other people's; even when he was newly turned, he recognized Carlisle's "voice" in his head as Carlisle's. That would create a whole different host of issues around identity, but it looks like Edward's escaped that particular torment. However, I can easily imagine that what he does experience is just shy of unbearable nonetheless, with an eroding effect on his sanity over decades. He can't sleep to escape it; he's on a dishwater diet and probably (like the rest of his family) experiencing a perpetual, low-grade physical discomfort due to his thirst never being fully satisfied; and he's around far more people than is the norm for vampires -- even discounting all the humans, his own coven is unusually large -- meaning more noise.

Honestly, it would be weirder if he were all there, considering.

And even though I feel like I lost a sense of structure around where I started ranting about telepathy, I've written like 1.5k words about Edward fucking Cullen and I think that's enough for one post.

[djuvlipen]

i just attended a gender studies class 💀💀 to be honest it could have gone way worse. most people here were women (most of them libfems apparently) with only 2 tims and 1 regular guy. the teacher was open to conversation which was a good thing BUT she also kept mentioning trans people at any given occasion and presented John Money in a positive light which was.. yikes.. also there will be an entire session dedicated to political lesbianism (which is very popular among TRAs in my country for some reason)..

At one point a couple of students talked about how sex was an outdated social construct to which the teacher agreed, obviously, because on the paper she gave us there are several books and articles listed written by libfems, about how sex is a meaningless concept that needs to be updated, quoting the teacher, "it's not a reality"

And you know its sooo funny because on my way there, in the transports, i spent 1h and a half reading about what had happened to Bangladeshi women during the Bangladeshi genocide, all the sexual assaults and rapes and social shunning they went through, the justice they still havent received, etc. Then I sat for two hours while upper (middle) class white people were explaining to me how sex was actually "not a reality". I was shaking the entire session and had trouble focusing because my bones were aching and I was exhausted because of restrictive eating disorder and the reason I was there was because I'm studying the lived experiences of Romani women during the Holocaust but sure, biological reality doesnt matter

If anything it made me realize how disconnected these people are from reality. We introduced ourselves and every project was about queer theory, identity, media representation

The whole program is a mess. A third of the time and of the bibliography is dedicated to trans feminism (3 sessions). In comparison, there is only one session dedicated to woc, and even then it's limited to latina and black american women, nothing about the MENA region, Africa, Asia in general, Native women, etc. May I mention that I'm not living in America and that the largest minority group in my country are north africans but MENA women arent mentioned at all

[m-y-fandoms]

1 Thing I Love & 1 Thing I Hate About EVERY Danganronpa Character Part 1

Part 2

SPOILERS FOR ALL THREE MAIN GAMES

I’d love to hear our opinions as well in the comments or my inbox or DM’s! If you try this trend with DR characters, tag me!

Sayaka Maizono

♡ Her passion for her career and friends.

✘ The way she tries to screw over Makoto when the game had just begun. Like wait and see what happens before screwing over such a great guy? Leon didn’t deserve it either.

Leon Kuwata

♡ His voice actor (English), and how real and human his execution was in that we all would be so scared and irrational. It was just so iconic and sad as it’s our first introduction to the death in this series and we all think: “shit, this is real... they are really killing these kids.” I didn’t think it would be that brutal, just seeing his body limp at the end with the haunting music.

✘ His design is disgusting. I hate how he looks.

Chihiro Fujisaki

♡ So innocent, so kind, so intelligent

✘ Shouldn’t have been killed for such a stupid reason, also they did Mondo dirty with that motive for killing as well. Just a mess. As for the actual character, Chihiro cries right off the bat when you do your introductions and that was kind of annoying to me personally.

Mondo Oowada

♡ He has a lot of respect, understanding and emotions for someone I thought would be a hard-ass douche biker.

✘ The worst motive to kill ever in a game where you know you’re getting executed if you’re found out. Like you’d be extra careful and that’s his reason to kill? Lazy writing.

Celestia Ludenberg

♡ Bad bitch energy and her goth lolita design.

✘ Manipulation and double murder. Bad bitch energy only goes so far. Confidence is different then selfishness. Also, of all the chapter 3 triple murders... the worst motive to kill.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

♡ Emotions: secure in his masculinity, able to cry, show emotions, and apologize when he’s wrong. He’s funny and likable.

✘ The Ishimondo white hair thing was stupid. Taka was fine on his own.

Hifumi Yamada

♡ Writing takes talent, fan fiction as much as any other style or genre. Also the talent of his voice actor (who also voices Kiibo/K1-B0).

✘ Literally everything else about him.

Sakura Oogami

♡ I love everything about her. I love her wisdom, loyalty, design, voice etc. Just step on me, mother.

✘ Why the hell would she ever agree to be a spy even if it meant the end of her dojo? I just don’t think she would do that rationally because she isn’t selfish. The others would suffer for her spying. She remedies this with redemption in her letter in chapter 4 but still she should’ve said no off the bat. Everyone had something to lose. The dojo wasn’t worth spying for monokuma. Also I just don’t think she would commit suicide. She can’t help the remaining students survive and redeem herself truly if she’s dead.

Kyoko Kirigiri

♡ Bad bitch energy, calm and collected when I could never be.

✘ Especially in future arc of the anime, damn can you show some emotion please? Through your words and expressions not just your actions. Sure she was willing to “die” for Makoto but like I just want more emotion from her sometimes, even in THH.

Makoto Naegi

♡ So pure. I Love Bryce Papenbrook. Makoto reminds me of Sora and I love his design.

✘ In THH I didn’t mind his innocence but in the Danganronpa 3 future arc anime, when people started straight up abusing him and accusing him, he needed to grow a little backbone.

Byakuya Togami

♡ Love my dad, king shit, also love how over the progression of the games and animes he becomes a little more kind to his friends.

✘ Why the fuck did he mess with Chihiro’s body? Just so cruel and disrespectful.

Yasuhiro Hagakure

♡ Funny magic man. Sexy voice.

✘ Please. Please Hiro use your brain just once. Why do we have to prove Kyoko isn’t a ghost?!

Toko Fukawa

♡ Character development in UDG and I love Genocider.

✘ Putting down herself and others constantly gets old in THH.

Aoi Asahina

♡ Love her voice actress and her personality

✘ We really just gonna get everyone killed in chapter 4 huh? Surely you know they don’t all deserve that.

Junko Enoshima

♡ A very memorable villain with great hair and design.

✘ I just can’t stand her. I hate her so much.

Mukuro Ikusaba

♡ Her mercenary background is super cool as a concept.

✘ Too bad it wasn’t explored nearly enough.

Hajime Hinata

♡ Seeing the protagonist be a little less naive, innocent and positive than Makoto was a refreshing change, although I loved Makoto. I liked Hajime’s cynicism and expressions that sometimes just screamed “this shit again, huh?”

✘ I enjoy the way Izuru looks but I hate him as a character. He is sexy to look at but Hajime is just a better character overall

Teruteru Hanamura

♡ His love for his family and mother especially is so cute and heart breaking if you know the full story.

✘ He needs to know when to dial it back and quit with the perversions. And no it’s not just how he looks, Miu needs to chill at times, too.

Twogami

♡ I feel like he genuinely cares about his friends, just hides it well

✘ His death felt like a cop out and poorly written. It just didn’t sit right with me. Also his design is disgusting to me, his outfit and such.

Mahiru Koizumi

♡ Loyal to her close friends.

✘ I just have no interest in her as a character and I find her boring.

Peko Pekoyama

♡ Loyalty. Loyalty is something I value very highly in every form of relationship. Peko is also very hot.

✘ Come on girl... I know how you were raised but you should’ve known Fuyuhiko didn’t think of you as just a tool and you two should’ve expressed your true feelings long ago. Like even in secret. How do you live like this? Also I feel like killing Mahiru could’ve been avoided with a calm talk.

Ibuki Mioda

♡ Cute design, positive vibes.

✘ Cringe sometimes in the way she talks.

Hiyoko Saionji

♡ Beautiful character design and some very good insults and snarky remarks at times.

✘ Just irredeemably mean and annoying. Even when you do her free time events she is just so annoying.

Mikan Tsumiki

♡ I like her design as well as her hair, expressions, sprites and clothing.

✘ I hate her. I just hate her whether she’s in her true psycho form or timid stuttering form. She’s just annoying in my opinion.

Nekomaru Nidai

♡ So supportive, can hold my drink at a party. Respects everyone and wants the best for them.

✘ Bro Mechamaru was a stupid plot point. I just couldn’t stand looking at him and couldn’t take it seriously. Still sad when he died though.

Chiaki Nanami

♡ From chapter 5 of sdr2 on she is impossible not to love if you didn’t already. Just the selflessness, the sadness of the reveal and execution, how she returns to help Hajime at the end???? I love her. I love her hair design, color palette, her personality, everything.

✘ I’m bitter and miserable about her being the only class member to actually die (the despair arc anime) also her falling asleep at random times is kind of odd and she doesn’t seem to be like that later on in the game??? Like it seemed like a cheap joke but not actually who she is? Hard for me to explain.

Gundham Tanaka

♡ King shit, couldn’t praise him enough. He’s sexy, loves animals, and is funny as hell sometimes. His voice actor is a saint and a cool dude and I named my guinea pigs after the Dark Devas (yes I know they are hamsters in the games.)

✘ Come on dude. I get that being from Hell and magic and having evil powers is your shtick, but we all know that you and Nekomaru sacrificed yourselves so the others wouldn’t starve. We know you care about your classmates. There comes a time when it’s time to let personas and facades fade and be true to your heart. I just feel like him denying he cared at the end hurt. We all know he cared. I didn’t like how he was haughty until the end. He deserved better. I love him.

Nagito Komaeda

♡ I love him so much. So cunning and intelligent, always a step ahead. And he’s big sexy.

✘ Him killing himself in chapter 5 hurt me so bad I was like in denial for days. Also hate how Bryce Papenbrook gives him a raspy stoner psycho voice in the game then a light airy higher-pitched voice in the despair arc anime. It just bothers me. I love his voice still but the inconsistency just hurts my OCD

Sonia Nevermind

♡ I love that she’s so interested in her passions and love her feelings for Gundham

✘ Her outfit and bow are atrocious. Also why didn’t she start liking and talking to Gundham sooner on? Their romance bloomed late and it would’ve made for a better chapter 4 ending if they were a bit closer.

Kazuichi Souda

♡ Cool design and outfit, love his voice (also voices Kaito in V3) and his backstory is relatable at times. He’s also very human in that he’s scared a lot of the time or insecure or blames others in panicked situations. It’s not always a good thing but it’s human and realistic.

✘ Gosh he can be so annoying. Sometimes flirting or whining too much is well... too much.

Akane Owari

♡ Strong-willed and definitely someone I would be friends with

✘ What the hell is her outfit? Gymnasts and athletes don’t wear that shit. Stop objectifying her when it doesn’t even make the product or plot better. Like there’s absolutely no point to making her dress that way. I was a gymnast for 15 years. Even those who do parkour (which Akane seems to do more often than actual gymnastics in the anime and game) don’t wear what she wears. Also she’s underrated.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu

♡ I love him. He’s the DR character I’m most like out of all the games and anime. Tenko is a close second. I think he’s adorable, love his character arc, development, redemption, and love his voice.

✘ In the anime/despair arc, Fuyuhiko is not done justice. He doesn’t get enough lines, has a different voice actor, just doesn’t give off the same vibes.

Izuru Kamakura

♡ Sexy man long hair good.

✘ Boring character. I wish he were just Hajime.

Kaede Akamatsu

♡ Loyalty and leadership are such attractive qualities in her. Also she faced her death with such class and dignity and I respect her because I could never.

✘ Some of the voice lines Erika does for her are just weird and cringe. Just random moans or grunts... I don’t know it’s like when Ann Takamaki from Persona 5 (also voiced by Erika) makes suggestive noises as well. Just grinds my gears. Also hate her outfit down to the hair pins.

Shuichi Saihara

♡ I love his nasally voice. I love his design and he’s so adorable. I love how emotional and compassionate he can be. He ties with Makoto for favorite protag of mine.

✘ That sprite where he sniffs his hand. And his ugly ass hat.

Rantarou Amami

♡ Sexy man, sexy voice, sexy piercings

✘ Ugly outfit, and wasted potential

Ryoma Hoshi

♡ I respect him and feel bad for his outlook on life and for how poorly he views himself. I love his little hat as well and he’s the first “different styled” character (Hifumi, Bandai, Teruteru) that I liked the design of.

✘ I hate when he says “got a long ways to go,” it’s overused and annoying, and wish he gave himself more credit. Also hate that when you first meet him he warns you that he’s killed people and is dangerous to be around. Come on buddy, you know you wouldn’t hurt your friends. Stop pushing them away.

Kirumi Tojo

♡ Competence, well rounded, skillful

✘ Boring as hell. I wouldn’t waste one free time event on her.

Angie Yonaga

♡ Dark skin, super cute, love her talent as an artist myself.

✘ Gives religious people a bad name and is super manipulative which I hate.

Tenko Chabashira

♡ I relate to her and feel bad when she’s misunderstood. She’s a good person deep down. Also love her sprites.

✘ There’s more cunning, funny and clever ways to write her digs at men.

Korekiyo Shunguuji

♡ I’m in love with this man. Long hair, voice, mystery, mask, intelligence, passion, talent.

✘ He definitely was a victim of abuse and a lot of people refuse to see that and just hate him. Team Danganronpa should’ve given him a redemption arc where he realized his sister abused him and changed.

Gonta Gokuhara

♡ I love his design except for his suit. Also he’s so cute and naive. I cried for his trail.

✘ No need talk like caveman. Better way to do this.

Kokichi Ouma

♡ Like Nagito, I value his intelligence and crazy cunning.

✘ Shouldn't have died. Also shouldn’t have manipulated Gonta. That was just cruel.

Miu Iruma

♡ She has her hilarious moments and her death surprised me and was sad.

✘ Sometimes she lacks basic empathy, i.e. calling Tenko “Tencrotch” when she just fucking died.

Maki Harukawa

♡ Amazing character development. Didn’t see her surviving until the end at the start. Also her love and passion for Kaito.

✘ “Do you wanna die?” gets old.

Kaito Momota

♡ Just the overall best bro you could ever have.

✘ Has some toxic masculinity issues and anger issues.

K1-B0

♡ Pretty much everything about him. His design, his attitude and personality, especially how amazing and cool he is chapter 5 onward, his execution made me so sad. He’s so innocent and funny without trying.

✘ When you do his free time events he’s very arrogant and just talks about himself a lot... it seems odd and not similar to the Kiibo we see throughout the game.

Himiko Yumeno

♡ Super cute design, love her voice and “Nyeh...” and her sprites. Her character development is great as well.

✘ Why did they take so long to make her important and likable?

Tsumugi Shirogane

♡ An excellent and well hidden reveal

✘ I hate her. So annoying, from the voice to the references and her personality.

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

what do you think of aang's comments in "the southern raiders" and what they meant to katara? I watched that episode recently with my sister who dislikes atla, and assessed similar things to what certain people of the fandom are saying: "aang didn't understand her", "aang was pushing his beliefs onto her", "it didn't seem like he knew her", etc. she was more fair than those people of course because she did say it was realistic that he'd be so worried since she recognizes that he does love her.

Honestly those arguments are all,, tired. They’re outdated. They’re boring. They’re wrong. They’re a result of a fundamental misunderstanding of A:TLA canon. This isn’t to say that those who genuinely, truly believe these arguments are terrible people (obviously not lmao), but somewhere along the line they had a seed planted in their mind that posits them to have inherent dislike for Aang. And honestly? I just feel sorry for them, because not understanding and appreciating Aang means their A:TLA experience really can’t be that great. But I digress!

“aang didn’t understand her”

Oh, what’s the post? Right - “Fandom once again forgets that Aang is the sole survivor of genocide.” Aang understands better than anyone else what Katara is going through*. There is a direct parallel between Aang finding Gyatso’s skeleton and Katara finding Kya’s body. I’m not going to sit here and argue which was more traumatizing (literally can’t stand when people do that) because you can’t quantify grief like that, but it cannot be denied that Aang has experienced something incredibly similar to what Katara has gone through: the loss of a close parental figure followed by finding said parent’s corpse. Not only that, but Aang and Katara both share a unique sense of helplessness intertwined with their grief regarding their parental figures’ deaths. For Katara, there are the questions of:

- what if I wasn’t a waterbender

- what if I had run a little faster

- what if I had fought against Yon Rha back then

All leading to “Could I have saved her?” For Aang, there are the questions of:

- what if I wasn’t the Avatar

- what if I hadn’t run away

- what if I had stayed to fight the Fire Nation back then

All leading to “Could I have saved him?” Both of them feel incredibly guilty on a personal level about the death of their parental figures, thus blaming themselves. Katara tries to push it off onto Zuko/the Fire Nation and Aang tries to suppress it entirely, but ultimately it is revealed how closely they hold responsibility to their chests. For Aang, it comes out in “The Storm.” For Katara, it comes out in “The Southern Raiders.” So, bullshit that Aang doesn’t understand Katara! He understands her grief better than anyone.

Also, many, many people have gone into this before, but Aang’s example of Appa being stolen was not callous/rude/etc. Appa was the last living piece of his culture. Appa is not “just a pet.” People who insist so are the actual ones being callous, not Aang. And, as Aang himself says, “How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?” Aang has experienced more hurt at the hands of the Fire Nation than anyone. There’s a great meta here that delves into Aang’s experiences as the sole survivor of genocide. I don’t understand how someone could acknowledge all that Aang has lost (read: he has lost everything) and then argue that he doesn’t understand Katara’s pain. Like, what? Do you have no sense of empathy?

But most importantly, from Katara herself: “Thanks for understanding, Aang.” She says this after her initial dismissal of him. So take it from the source, my friend - Katara believed Aang understood her. Who are we to argue?

*The only exception perhaps being Sokka, since Kya was indeed his mother, too, but it is worth noting that Sokka did not have the same experience of seeing Kya’s dead body or feeling the intense self-blame that Katara did.

“aang was pushing his beliefs onto her”

It is SO funny how those SAME people have NO problem with everyone in the Gaang telling Aang to kill Ozai the finale! Y’know, when they were disregarding the pacifistic beliefs of his people in exchange for emphasizing their, ahem, more aggressive ones? SO funny! I’m laughing SO hard right now!

Heavy sarcasm, in case it wasn’t obvious. They’re hypocrites and they know it.

But, more importantly, Aang was not pushing his beliefs onto her? At all?? Tell me where in the episode Aang:

- refused to let Katara go after Yon Rha

- told Katara what she was doing was wrong

- told Katara that HE was right and that SHE needed to listen to HIM

Here’s the thing: none of that ever happened! Not only does Aang accept that Katara needs to go (see: “I wasn’t planning to [stop you]. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man.”), but he allows her to take Appa on her journey. Appa, the last living piece of his culture. Aang has incredible trust in Katara, and his choice to send Appa with her (essentially sending a piece of himself with her) demonstrates this fact clearly. That should end the discussion point blank, but I guess I’ll break down the lines people seem to have issues with:

1) “It’s okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?”

Honestly, the criticism this line gets is laughable to me. People use it to argue that Aang was being disrespectful to Katara’s feelings and?? I hate to break it to them, but you HAVE to look at the context a line is in if you’re going to judge it. That is Analysis 101: Context is Everything. This moment is used to break tension. That type of scenario is an entire literary trope, okay? A:TLA did not invent it! Shakespeare literally did it in Romeo and Juliet when he had Peter argue with musicians about something stupid after Juliet’s “death.” The whole point is to break tension before more serious scenes. In R&J, it is before the lovers kill themselves, and in A:TLA, it is before Katara leaves with Zuko to confront Yon Rha. That’s why there’s another moment just like it at the end of that scene! Y’know, Sokka asking to borrow Momo for no reason? It breaks tension! It’s a moment of respite before weighty scenes! It’s incredibly common in every form of media! This is what no Humanities classes did to some of y’all, I swear to God. So yeah, Aang was not disrespecting Katara’s feelings with this. It’s just a tension-breaker. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for those who devoutly believed it was a sign of Aang being a Horrible Person. You were wrong, ain’t no big thing, go drink some water and stay hydrated okay darlings?

2) “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”

Um, a major point of “The Southern Raiders” is that Aang was right about Katara’s initial drive to face Yon Rha? It was a quest for revenge? Katara literally bloodbends, an ability she was forced to learn and essentially feels cursed to bear? Also, nowhere here does Aang tell Katara she was a horrible person for feeling angry and wanting revenge. He simply brings her attention to the reality that what she’s currently seeking is revenge. He’s worried about her. She’s his best friend! He loves her! He doesn’t want her to kill Yon Rha because he knows that for Katara to have blood on her hands from a revenge quest would hurt her tremendously. (As a matter of fact, the audience knows - or should know - this, too.) So, sorry that Aang expresses concern for her? Apparently not wanting your best friend to murder someone is forcing your beliefs onto them? Damn. Y’all are harsh these days.

3) “The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you’re being poisoned yourself.” // “Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.” // “No, it’s not. It's easy to do nothing, but it’s hard to forgive.” // “But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

I put all the forgiveness quotes together since people tend to complain about them as a whole. But like,, I really don’t see how this is Aang forcing his beliefs onto her? He asks her to choose forgiveness. And just speaking plainly: on an emotional level, it is better for someone to forgive than to murder. Killing someone is not easy, even if you hate that person with every bone in your body, and it will mentally scar whomever does it. Y’all know this! It’s obvious! I shouldn’t have to say it! But Aang knows this, too, and thus he doesn’t want to see Katara kill Yon Rha and perhaps kill a part of herself in the process. Katara is not a killer. I’m not arguing about whether she could have or even if she wanted to, because you know what, she admits she was tempted, but Katara is not a killer. An FMA quote is very fitting here:

“Your hands weren’t meant to kill. They were meant to give life.”

Why should Katara have to live with a man’s murder on her conscience, especially when his death would be a result of fruitless revenge? The answer is simple: she shouldn’t, and Aang doesn’t want her to. Katara is a warrior. A healer. A leader. A friend. But not a killer.

Anyways. Back to my point: Aang is not forcing his beliefs onto her here. He’s offering her another option, the option she ends up choosing, albeit she extends forgiveness to Zuko instead. And Prince Holier-Than-Thou (jk love you Zuzu) acknowledges it himself: “You [Aang] were right about what Katara needed.” Aang didn’t force anything on Katara here. He reminded her of her choices, he reminded her about the consequences of revenge, and he reminded her about the value of forgiveness. Never once did he tell her she had to forgive Yon Rha or else. And when it came down to it, he stepped aside, and he let her go, because he knew this was a journey she needed to take. So… He actually did the exact opposite of forcing his beliefs onto her! He respected her feelings and let her make her own decision! Seriously, how many pairs of anti-Aang goggles do people have to wear to genuinely believe otherwise??

“it didn't seem like he knew her”

Ohhhhhh my God this is SO close to one of the actual points of the episode! So close!! It’s not that Aang didn’t know her; it’s that Katara wasn’t acting like herself. I’ve talked about it before here and here, but Katara was incredibly consumed by her emotions in “The Southern Raiders.” It’s why she ignores Zuko the entire time before they leave on Appa! It’s why she makes that callous comment to Sokka about their mother that we know she never would have made normally! She is drowning in grief about her mother’s absence, guilt regarding her mother’s death, and anger about Zuko (she still does not trust him, and yet he can lead her to her mother’s killer; I don’t know about y’all, but that is really freaking difficult to reconcile). So when Aang compares her to Jet, it’s not a far-off description. She is acting like Jet, because she’s consumed by grief and hurt and anger and she’s not acting like herself. It is instrumental, too, that Katara isn’t acting like herself, because it makes her decision not to pursue revenge and instead offer a second third chance to Zuko even more profound. “I’m proud of you,” Aang tells her, and damn! The audience is, too! I was incredibly proud of her for finding her way out of what can be a bottomless spiral for some people. So again, it wasn’t that Aang didn’t know her. It was that Katara wasn’t acting like herself (I guess meaning… no one knew her?).

In conclusion, literally all of these anti-Aang arguments regarding TSR are exhausting and so easily disprovable. The fact that they somehow manage to live on is evidence that people just want excuses to hate Aang, plain and simple. Like, it’s so easy to just say you don’t vibe with his character? You don’t have to pull BS excuses to “justify” it? I don’t vibe with Ty Lee as much as I do other characters (although I have recently grown much more fond of her; bless the Renaissance for more Mailee content, even if some of it is just a Zukka byproduct), but y’all don’t see me twisting her sacrifice in “Boiling Rock” to make it seem like it was selfish or something (mostly because, spoiler alert, it wasn’t). Like, you can say Aang isn’t your favorite and move on instead of using the same boring rhetoric over and over and over that just makes it look like you lack critical thinking. :/

TL;DR - Aang’s comments to Katara in “The Southern Raiders” came from a place of concern. A place of wisdom. A place of love. And honestly? I think Katara realizes this, and she’s grateful to him all the more for it.

[alirhi]

Loki ranting

Okay. I had this thought in my head of like just compiling links of all the Loki shit I've posted/reblogged so far so that when I get into a conversation about the show and how it fucking disgusted me, I can just be like "here. here's this masterlist post, go read all this shit. This is my entire argument, and not only mine, but a lot of stuff posted by people far more intelligent and level-headed and eloquent than I am, whom I happen to agree with." Because the alternative is constantly getting fired up all over again, and that is exhausting.

BUT! I'm stupid and don't know how tumblr works. Apparently I can't just be like "give me all the Loki-tagged shit I've got" I can only search all the Loki-tagged shit on all of tumblr. And I'm not scrolling back through all of my posts. I talk too fucking much for that shit 😂

So, I'll try to remember all of my grievances with how the MCU has treated Loki, and all of the excellent posts made by other, equally upset fans, and put it all together here under this nice, neat little cut for everyone else's sanity and scrolling convenience...

For people who actually read my shit fairly regularly - bless you, you crazy, patient people. I love you! - this is going to be a lot of repetition of shit you've already read. Probably at least twice. I'm passionate and I have a terrible memory lol. Sorry.

Anyway, first, for those who don't know me and haven't been following my explosions of rage for the past couple of months, some quick background: I do not read comic books, so Loki's Marvel comic canon means nothing to me. I know almost nothing about it. The reason I'm so in love with the character in the MCU is because I am an eclectic witch and the deity I've actively loved and worshiped the longest in my life (literally for as long as I can remember) is Loki. So when he was mentioned in The Mask, I squeed. When they named Matt Damon's character after him in Dogma, I cheered.

When Thor came out in 2011, I just about died from happiness. I was hungry for any representation of this underappreciated god, no matter what it was. I didn't even bitch about how underpowered he was, because at least he was there. But I'm getting slightly ahead of myself.

I can hear anyone reading this going "Why Loki? Isn't he, like, evil? Like basically the Norse version of The Devil?" Because I heard all this shit irl all the fucking time. And no. So let me give you a quick rundown of who Loki actually is.

Loki is a Trickster God. He's often referred to as the God of Mischief. He is not and never was evil, simply chaotic and hedonistic. Loki Laufeyjarson was the son of Laufey (that's mama; they changed her to a man for some reason in the movie) and Fárbauti. Right from the start, from his name, we get a sign of how Loki goes against traditional norms of the time, because in Norse culture, families were patrilineal, and surnames were "son/daughter of father" (which would have made him Loki Fárbautitason), not the mother. But Loki's surname is matrilineal. Feminist icon woo! lol

Though he's a Jotunn, Loki is counted among the Gods (Aesir) in Norse tradition. Depending on his mood, he is alternately helpful or disruptive to the other Gods. I'm not gonna sit and teach a whole text class on him lol but I'll use my favorite example of Misunderstood Loki - the conception of Sleipnir!

So, get this shit. This is also part of why I DO NOT follow Odin and never fucking will (a very small part, but still part of the reason). So, the other Norse Gods are petty motherfuckers, and they wanted some shit built but didn't want to pay the dude doing the building. So they were like "okay, if you can get it done in X amount of time, we'll pay you, but if you can't manage it NO MATTER WHAT, this whole thing is free." And they made sure he had NO help, nothing but him, his materials, and his Very Good Horsey. And this guy and his horse were fucking BAMFs. So it was looking like he was definitely gonna get it done in time, and Odin was like "nah, fuck that shit. I'm cheap." and so he sent Loki to distract the work horse. Loki transformed into a mare and lured the horse away, got fucked, got pregnant, gave birth to the 8-legged (for some reason) horse Sleipnir. Odin rides Loki's son into battle. Um. Kay.

So Loki helped Odin be a petty mf, and Odin got himself a new pet out of the deal.

Oh, also, because he's smart af and a shapeshifter and a master magician and genderfluid, Loki "fails" to fit the super fucking toxic and narrow Norse/Aesir view of "a real man". He prefers intelligence and manipulation to solve problems rather than violence, he's not afraid to behave like a clown if it gets shit done, and that grosses the Aesir out, so they constantly ridicule him for being "less than a man".

Loki is the God of the outcast and the misunderstood. The marginalized people from all walks of life. He is the God of the LGBT community. In modern terms, he's pansexual, polyamorous (married to Sigyn and they are deeply in love, but boy gets around and I've never seen any indication that Sigyn gives a shit) and genderfluid.

Okay. Focus, Ali. This is part of why I usually post multiple rants instead of one big long one XD The longer I ramble, the more I get sidetracked and forget the original point.

So. Loki's awesome, and being a Trickster, is powerful as all fucking hell. There's not much he can't do.

And now we come to Thor (the movie, not the deity). Loki's there! 24-year-old Ali is spazzing! All is right with the world!

Oh lord, they've actually done him justice?! Amazing! He's complex and nuanced and emotional, just like the real Loki! I loved this movie. Loved. It. The climactic thing with trying to blow up Jotunheim never really made much sense to me until someone made an excellent point the other day about Loki being raised in a racist society that was racist against his own race, he just didn't know it yet, poor child. Baby Thor was never corrected when he pledged to commit mass genocide, so Baby Loki probably absorbed the lesson then that Jotunns=evil and killing them all will win his father's love. Anyway, 2011 Loki was a beautiful, heartbreaking portrayal of the God I've loved all my life and spent 24 years longing to see depicted on the big screen.

Then The Avengers happened. And I saw another Loki very close to Norse mythology - mainly, how he's treated. In the beginning of the movie, he's sick, exhausted, and in pain. He can hardly stand, he stumbles and needs help when he walks. He was very obviously tortured, and the sickly blue light of the scepter's control is in his eyes. That gets less and less pronounced as the movie goes on, showing Loki working his way free of it, but in the beginning, he's a mess. Because he was tortured and used by Thanos. Marvel directly confirmed this, and that he was under the scepter's/Mind Stone's control. Loki's actions are not his own in The Avengers. He's under both threat and Thanos' direct control. The movie actually shows The Other directly threatening him to keep him on task, because this is not Loki's plan. It is not what he wants. He's being used and villainized... Just like in real life. It hurt to see this done to him, but the accuracy was too beautiful to ignore.

Thor: The Dark World comes out. I've heard people complain that this movie is the weak link in the Thor trilogy. I disagree. I think that's Ragnarok, for a bunch of reasons, but we'll get there. (And for the record, I loved Ragnarok, too. It was a funny movie. Infinity War and the Disney+ series are the only portrayals of Loki in the MCU that I truly fucking hated.) Anyway, good, fun movie. Had its faults, as all movies do, but it still followed Loki's real-life arc in a way. How? By having Loki dragged back to Asgard in chains and imprisoned underground. Again, not super happy that this happened to my love, and having to see it on screen was painful, but at least in the MCU he's not chained to a rock with venom dripping on his face for eternity, so there's that. (poor Sigyn. how tired do her arms get, holding up that bowl? best wife ever, amirite?)

In TDW, we're shown Loki's love for Frigga, who favored him and taught him magic as a child. We see his bravado; his attempts to mask his true feelings, especially grief. We see him slowly coming back to himself after the events of The Avengers, and slowly mending his relationship with his brother. He accepts that Odin will likely never love him, but Thor just might, because they were close when they were young. "I didn't do it for him." No, no my sweet, you did it for your brother, and a little out of guilt for what happened to your mother.

At the end, Loki fakes his death and escapes, taking the throne, and I have mixed feelings about this. Not the writer's choices here; I love that completely! A natural progression in Loki's story. But my joy is tainted by how closely they're following the Eddas now. Because Loki's escape from his prison heralds the beginning of Ragnarok. And Loki will die in Ragnarok. I don't want to see that play out in front of my face. I won't be able to handle the grief (spoiler alert! IW broke me. I almost walked out of the theater. Loki's death was legitimately fucking traumatic for me. I don't even care how pathetic that is. That grief was real, it was intense, and I still shake and cry when I think about it.)

Marvel announces that Thor 3 will be called Ragnarok. The internet treats this as a shocking revelation. I roll my eyes and mumble "duh" to myself and move on XD

Then they say Ragnarok will be a buddy comedy. I throw up a little in my mouth and no longer want to live on this planet. If they're going to make something called Ragnarok, could they at least treat it with even a fraction of the respect they've shown these characters thusfar? Jfc. I mean, I'll see it anyway, because I'm a whore for Tom Hiddleston lol. But come on, people!

I hated that they made Hel the long-lost older sister and Fenrir her fucking pet/attack dog. Those are my favorites of Loki's children! Hel is such an incredible badass that the early Christians named their dimension of eternal torture after her! They were terrified of her, to the point of naming the place that terrified them most after her. That's awesome! And Fenrir's just the best. I love wolves. Those two details, and Odin's retcon of "we're not Gods! ...lol, except your sister. she's totally a Goddess. and def gonna kill literally everything, so... good luck! byyyeeeee" pissed me off royally.

The rest was great. I genuinely liked this movie. Still do. And they finally used The Immigrant Song! That was pretty cool. If they'd thrown in Bring the Hammer Down and Thunderstruck, I might've called this movie perfect. XD

I wasn't totally in love with their portrayal of Loki in Ragnarok. Yes, the falling for 30 minutes line was funny, as was "I have to get off this planet" and "YES! That's how it feels!" And "Get Help" was funny as hell. But also, like... There is no way Loki would have been the dumb one in that first encounter with Hela. Also, he can teleport and project copies of himself and shit, so... He would not have been that desperate to go straight back to Asgard and bring her right along with them. Loki's not stupid. But whatever. Movie's gotta movie.

What I did love was seeing the slow mending of his relationship with Thor continuing, and the badass fighting on the bridge. I also loved that, like Real Loki, Movie Loki helped when help was needed, was quick and clever, and while he was carrying out the main plan, he was also planning ahead and grabbing the Tesseract. Yes, that drew Thanos right to them, but that's a whole other thing. Loki never would have left that thing on Asgard to be destroyed or lost.

And now Infinity War. Hooooly fucking shit. You know what? No. I'm not going into this. He was killed, years of character growth were erased forever, my heart fucking shattered. The end.

Endgame. IW hurt me so bad I didn't see Endgame until this year. I actually watched Civil War first (for context: I had actively avoided all Cap movies until this year because I fucking hate Steve Rogers. I find him insufferable. Did not realize what I was denying myself until I watched CW and finally saw the charms of Bucky. When he appeared in IW, I was so lost. XD I was like "...who dis? Murder Jesus?" also I just... didn't care. I was numb by then from crying through most of the movie over Loki)

So, anyway. Endgame. Loki picks up the Tesseract in alternate 2012, escapes, fans go "yay! he didn't actually die!" I go "yes he fucking did. Five years of his life, gone. Five years of growth and change, erased. Loki is dead. This will not be the same."

I was more right than I could have predicted. Now we come to the point of this rant. Sorry it took so long, but you were warned lol.

The Loki series makes me so angry I actually get sick to my stomach. It was fucking TRASH. When I praised Marvel for following Norse mythology so faithfully earlier? Yeah. I DID NOT MEAN TREAT HIM THE WAY THE OTHER GODS DID. I did not mean paint him as a pitiful clown, a joke, a caricature of who he truly was, with his pain and suffering played for LAUGHS.

This is supposed to be 2012 Loki, newly freed from Thanos' control. The Loki we saw in the beginning of TDW - snarky, exhausted, nihilistic. The Loki who rolled his eyes and said "get on with it" expecting to be killed.

The bumbling clown flipping on a dime from posturing to calling himself weak is not 2012 Loki. That is not ANY Loki. That is Tom Hiddleston in a black wig doing what he's told by a shitty writer who had no fucking idea what he was doing and was salty about his (bad) original script (for something totally fucking unrelated) getting killed.

In Episode 1, Loki is mocked, imprisoned, stripped against his will, tormented, belittled, and given a flippant summary of all the trauma Actual MCU Loki suffered that this one skipped out on, with no context, no acknowledgement of the trauma he's already lived quite fucking recently, and with the narrative twisted to not only erase all the abuse he's suffered, but to make it all his fault. And this is supposed to make him want to help these people?

And worse, IT FUCKING WORKS. WHAT?! I CAN'T- FUCKING WHAT?! Remember when I said LOKI IS NOT FUCKING STUPID?! So why is he STUPID?

Episode 2, he's a child. Mentally, this Loki is a fucking child. Now we've erased all the growth and development of his entire adult life. He's dopey, impatient, impulsive, desperate for a pat on the back and actually shows it. Yes, abused and neglected children crave the positive attention we never received, and we often grow up to be a bit emotionally stunted. But not all of us, and not Loki. Not as we've seen him EVER in the rest of the MCU. Playful and a bit callous at times? Absolutely! But not a big dumb fucking puppy.

Episode 3, a ray of hope, despite Sylvie! (I hate Sylvie) Loki casually admits he's pan/bi; labels never come up, but he admits to being with both men and women! He sings! Not really relevant to whether I approve of his portrayal or not lol but Tom has a beautiful voice, Norwegian ("Asgardian" lol) is a gorgeous, entrancing language, and I could watch that one bit on loop for eternity and never get bored. And then, finally, we see a glimpse - a glimpse - of Loki's power! He stops a falling building and pushes it right back up! Are we finally getting to see what he can really do? Will the next episode bring us Loki in all his glory?

Nope. 4 and 5 we see him mocked and pushed around and utterly irrelevant. Again. We see tiny reflections of what he could maybe theoretically do in other random Loki variants, but the "main" (lawl. main. it was the Sylvie and Mobius show. Loki was never the main anything.) Loki? Nothing. He wears his heart on his sleeve for no reason, bonds with the man who imprisoned, taunted, and gaslit him, is killed, and continues to be a moron and a joke. Always the clown. Always the dumb one. The one with the bad ideas. The inferior Loki.

Don't even get me started on that finale. I can't. This already took so much out of me. Fuck Marvel. Fuck this fucking show. I just... I'm done.