#would be especially clear to people when it comes to characters we as the audience never actually get to spend time with

[lgbtlunaverse]

Mdzs fandom: I've got an ironclad objective and unambiguous account of this event as it happened in canon.

Me: Is it actually unambiguous?

Fandom: I don't understand

Me: I want to know if you have an ironclad unambiguous objective account of an event, or an in-universe subjective interpretation where the truth is intentionally left up to speculation?

Fandom: I have the objective account

Me: you're sure? It's fine if you have a subjective interpretation.

Fandom: I have an objective unambiguous account. I do not have a subjective interpretation

Me: Alright! Please give me the objective account.

Fandom: Here you go. *hands me an in-universe subjective interpretation of something where the truth is intentionally left up to speculation*

[elucubrare]

to some extent, right, we're demanding more rigor of medievalesque fantasy when we ask "where does the cloth come from" or "how does sewage work" than actual medieval fiction supplies - the closest you'll get to cloth provenance is "it was from 'The Indies'" if you're trying to show how expensive, rare, and/or magical it was, and Lancelot may get locked in a tower for a week or so but he never has to use a chamber pot.

the difference, of course, is that when Chrétien says "a bed had been set up, the sheets of which were by no means soiled, but were white and wide" that is remarkable because his audience knows that laundry, especially laundering to perfect whiteness, is hard and requires resources and time - even if you're trying to write medieval fantasy that's trying to get into the mindset of a medieval person, a modern writer has to do a lot more to signal to the audience that this bed is nice.

but while these material realities certainly shape the mindset of the people living in them, for me the thing that conveys pastness more than describing them in detail is having people act in accordance with them - you can say "Marie had spun and woven this robe" but if Marie then discards it because it was torn or stained, it doesn't matter.

but honestly, more than that, there are a lot of dilemmas that are very compelling to medieval audiences that modern audiences find less so - in le chevalier de la charette, lancelot's greatest fault is that he did accept dishonor for the sake of his lady, but he didn't accept it fast enough. roland waits until the last minute to blow his horn to call charlemange's army back to his aid, and when he at last goes to do so, olivier tells him that it's dishonorable now, when it's clear he's doing it out of fear.

if there's a conclusion here, it's that when a text is described as "feeling medieval" it can mean many different things, and some of them are more immediately accessible to modern audiences than others.

i need a lot of audience buy-in to write a new Arthurian romance with Chrétien de Troyes as a model - the magical elements are rarely explained and are treated in a way that's actually fairly close to a Marquez-like magical realism (Chevalier de la charette: At midnight there descended from the rafters suddenly a lance, as with the intention of pinning the knight through the flanks to the coverlet and the white sheets where he lay), and they often turn on problems that would seem ridiculous to modern audiences.

i need less buy-in to write a story set in a quasi-medieval period where people believe things that people in our middle ages believed, but i do definitely need some - a main character who is genuinely distraught because they saw a raven flying over the road on their way to market might be a hard sell.

and of course it's easiest of all to pay lip service to the idea of realistic medievalism by only putting in the material conditions without the belief system they create.

but we do these things (try to write good medieval fantasy) not because they are easy, but because they are hard - i think it's worth it to try!

[lizbetlovesbyler]

my biggest personal byler proof is just how much they remind me of my first queer relationship before we started dating

queer characters are incredibly easy to fuck over, even without intention. often spelled out or intensely sexualised to prevent misunderstandings for a mostly heterosexual audience, queer storylines are exaggerated and thus become unrealistic.

stranger things doesn’t do that with its queer characters. take robin:

this scene is done beautifully. genuinely beautifully.

robin admits her feelings for tammy and how she locked them away, not just because tammy didn’t like her back, but because she is a queer girl in the 80s. her feelings are unnatural and unwelcome in hawkins.

steve’s acceptance of robin in this scene makes people forget how horrifically this could have ended:

As for Mike and Will

you don’t write a perfect representation of mutual teenage queer pining between childhood friends by accident.

queer pining is quiet and suppressed (especially for young people and ESPECIALLY in the 80s). It is unhealthy to suppress these feelings the way queer people tend to, it’s beyond the typical “secret crushes” straight people experience. queer pining can destroy people when they��re not supported.

through robins character, and wills arc in season four, we can see clearly the duffer brothers understand the nature of queer love, and wish to do it justice.

will ending up with some random last minute jock is unrealistic and does not do his character justice.

mike staying in an insecure relationship, constantly worried his girlfriend will grow out of him and leave him, rather than accepting will’s unconditional love for him, accepting his own love for will and letting himself be who he is, does not do his character justice.

even so, if they tried to set up byler in a way that would come across clear to the GA, it would, by default, become unrealistic and unrepresentative.

neither are yet able to admit to close friends and family they are queer, but they are supposed to convey that part of themselves to an (understandably) dense/heteronormative mainstream audience?

queer teenage love is not the same as straight teenage love, it doesn’t shock me that the majority of the audience isn’t able to pick up on byler beyond wills feelings, and they’re not supposed to.

we all say what we see, they don’t see the queer love brewing because they’ve never experienced it, they’ve never been mike and they’ve never been will. they’ve been max and lucas and nancy, steve, jonathan, etc etc

doesn’t make their heteronormative perspective accurate, they are just straight. they understand will and mike the same they do lucas and dustin. mike says they are friends, they have no reason to think otherwise. they do not know what queer love actually looks like, the duffer brothers do. the actors do. we do.

you are not delusional. you are queer.

if byler was widely agreed upon at this point in the story, it would not be an accurate representation of queer romance. that is the point.

my moneys on the latter and they better get every award for it.

[byerseason]

why byler is the only logical way to end stranger things: a personal opinion

long post incoming. i've been thinking about what else can they do other than canon byler or is there any logical way which would please everyone. but i genuinely can't find any logical ending.

first of all, let's see the options i heard from people who doesn't think byler is gonna happen.

not adressing will's love for mike, mike never finding out about it and will's arc simply focusing on supernatural part : well, we all know that's impossible. not after spending a whole season to show us his deep love for mike. also it's confirmed that an emotional arc for him is what is gonna tie up the story.

"his love for mike was for him to explore his sexuality, he's gonna have another boyfriend." : they could easily show it to us without bringing mike into it. the byers moving to california was a perfect chance for it since it's a place better than hawkins when it comes to LGBT, they could easily give him a love interest, include him to their journey to find el just like they included argyle and give him a good character arc in s5, just like robin in s4. well, they didn't.

"mike is gonna reject will" : okay, then what was the reason of making him fall in love with mike? did the writers want to write a horrible story for the only gay child in the group? especially after showing us how miserable he feels about mike and how much he loves him? no.

now let's look deeper at the character arcs. my biggest reason to think byler is the only logical way is: will byers

i don't think i have to mention how much will suffered throughout the show and how he needs the happiest ending. they left season 4 at a point where everything about that love triangle is unresolved and they're obviously going to do something with it.

we all know mike is the one who understands will the most. he always been, since the very beginning. we've been shown that their bond is different and special. in a scenario where mike rejects will, we all know this is gonna be ruined. will is not gonna magically bury his love and go back to being besties with mike. and for mike, it's not possible for him to ignore will's love for him and stay friends as nothing happened. it would ruin their friendship for absolutely nothing.they can't simply take the only one who understands away from him.

will said he wants to spend the rest of his life with mike for two times. even if he doesn't have any hope, he desires it. so why giving him a love that he will never have? in this scenario will's character arc is literally "the gay kid always thought he will never have love just because he is gay, he thinks it's wrong and he is a mistake, well yes, he was right! he will never find the love and just watch the other straight people have it. thanks for watching stranger things." will's arc should be an arc where he is proven wrong, where he understands it's okay to love, where he is loved the way he loves, purely. otherwise his character arc is gonna be useless. where did we leave will in s4? he was thinking there's no chance for mike to love him and he has zero hope-- he ripped off the band aid. if mike rejects him the character arc and all the build up in season 4 becomes useless. he was at zero, and he is still at zero.

like i said giving him an arc where he is loved the way he loves was easy to be done without mike but now it's too late. they made it super clear that will doesn't want to be loved, he wants to be loved by mike. mike hurts him yet he still thinks mike makes him feel like he's not a mistake at all. that's not a simple crush. that's pure love. as a writer of a show you don't spend too much time to sympathize the characters love to the audience -something you never did with your other characters, at least not as much as will- you don't show them pouring their heart to a gift, just to waste it, just to make the character feel the worst they can feel just to make the person they love happy. will loves mike such a way that he prioritizes his happiness over his. this is what is gonna pay off.

the second character whose character arc needs byler: mike wheeler

mike has always been the most complicated character of the show, but most of his actions have no explanation other than him dealing with his own feelings. the show introduced mike as the leader of the party and i think it's okay to say he was one of the main characters in season 1 & 2. what happened after s2? a crazy character downfall. the audience started to dislike him and think he is useless. he didn't have any character development in the past 2 seasons. why? why? why?

because we all just watched him struggling. dealing with something inside of his mind that we don't know.

let's talk about a scenario where byler doesn't happen. this makes all mike's arc about being a love interest since s3. no development, no explanation for his behavior in the past 2 seasons. of course mike is traumatized and never talks to anyone which effects his behavior a lot. but there's still an unanswered question. why is he distancing himself from will specificially? the writers showed us that they understand each other the best, they know each other the best and notice if somethings wrong, so why is he distancing himself from the person who he needs the most as a best friend?

this is where we start to think if the problem is will himself, for mike.

why did we make will fall in love with mike just for mike to distance himself from will for no reason and make will upset? did we want will to suffer for no reason or create an empty storyline?

if mike is not how we think he is, he is going to end the show with an empty character arc who is nothing but a love interest, a side character. if mike ends up how we think he is, he is going to be the best onscreen representation of internalized homophobia. people think he is useless or just an asshole but he will turn out to be a perfectly written character who has his own arc.

people love to say "gay people didn't exist in 80s, byler would be unrealistic." which is completely wrong. gay people DID exist in 80s and they DID find love. did they have peace? they didn't. this is why mike and will are gonna be a real representation. we watched all the real struggles they went through. even if we don't get to see them as a couple, they will know they love each other by the end and that's what matters. and there's nothing unrealistic about it.

[starcurtain]

I wish everyone collectively understood aventurine’s character like you…things would be so much easier! I genuinely don’t understand how people keep getting his motivations wrong??? Could it be because some of the most popular Aven fanfics were written prior to his release? That could have contributed to some of the takes we tend to see about him…thoughts?

I struggled all day to come up with a concise way to answer this and couldn't think of one, so here, have a long-winded ramble:

I don't think early fic writers have much impact in the situation with Aventurine's character now, since most people can look at when a story was posted and go "Oh, this was before we had ____ information."

I think that Aventurine's problem is being a male character in a gacha game. Gacha game characters are designed to sell. Hoyo can sell female characters very, very easily. Give her huge tits and a visible underwear strap and you're good to go. I love all my guy friends, but I'm not gonna sugarcoat it: straight men are not the hardest audience to please. Hit a particular fetish (feet, spandex, dommy mommy), and you're gucci.

Nah, we all know why Jade's trailer is Like That.™

Male characters in gacha are harder to sell because women as consumers are a little harder to predict. Does every woman want a tall, ripped hunk? Shit, no, small cute boyish models like Aventurine are selling better now? Why?! Would a bad boy be more popular than a nice guy??? It's harder to account for women's tastes, especially because they are often (a little) less visually-oriented.

Hoyo is good at what they do though, and they've figured out that male characters sell very well when they possess at least one of two specific traits:

Endearing vulnerability/helplessness

Gay ship tease

Give a character both, like Aventurine? They might as well be printing money.

That sound you hear is Hoyo's stock prices rising.

So, from the very beginning, Hoyo is incentivized to create a character that appeals to people, a character people will want to crack their wallets open for. And they achieved this, first and foremost, by giving Aventurine traits that female players (in particular, but men too), find especially appealing: emotional and physical vulnerability.

We see Aventurine's pain. We sympathize with his grief. We identify with his struggle to make meaning of his difficult life. He's our woobie, blorbo, babygirl, whatever the hell they're calling it now.

He can't hide his suffering anymore. He's on the very edge. He's a dude in distress. He's surrounded by enemies! He misses his mama! He's been betrayed! No one understands him like you do, dear player!

The ultimate feeling evoked is: He needs to be saved.

When people talk about male power fantasies, I think they forget that women can experience them too, and "Emotionally vulnerable man that only I (or my favorite character) can fix" is actually a female power fantasy.

And from there it's really easy, right: the people who shell out cash to buy warps for their harmed-husbando feel like they've saved him; the people who are into mlm ships look for the nearest hot dude to be the savior Ratio was waiting for his time lol.

Morally and intellectually, this type of deep-down-golden-hearted, emotionally-wounded male character is very easy to digest. There is nothing to dislike about this type of character or role in the story: this character is a good guy who has just gone through so many terrible situations, whose victim status makes him endearing, and whose lack of agency means that any of the questionable or downright bad things he does are always the result of someone else forcing his hand, and never something he would have chosen himself.

His motivations are always clear and consistent: get free, heal, and live happily ever after.

Insert the Wreck-It Ralph meme: "Do people assume all your problems got solved when a big strong man showed up?" But to be fair, a big strong man did kind of solve Aventurine's problem, so--

Anyway, it's simple. It's straightforward. Morally, it's pretty cut and dry, black and white: Aventurine is our hero, which means everyone dictating the course of his miserable life is evil.

Hoyo is not remotely discouraging people from literally buying into this emotional appeal.

And trust me, I get it. I'll be the first to admit that hurt-comfort is its own entire genre in fandom because it is so appealing. People eat up Aventurine's tragic backstory like candy! The idea of watching a character go through hell at the hands of bad guys just to finally find a happy end is like the definition of everyone's favorite story.

In fact... people love Aventurine's suffering so much, they have invented whole new ways for him to suffer that aren't even in the game.

This is where we get all the headcanons that Aventurine was a sex slave, every single person he meets hates him because of his race, the Stonehearts are executioners holding knives to his throat, Jade enslaved him to the IPC with a lifelong contract, his material possessions belong to the company, the IPC is forcing him to take only the most dangerous missions where he is being required by his evil jailers to continually put his life on the line... You name it and I promise you, I can find a fanfic where Aventurine suffers from it. 😂

Bro can't even sleep in on his day off; life is so hard for this man.

Being serious: if the game is telling us that Aventurine is a victim... Why not make him the perfect victim?

Why not envision an Aventurine with no freedom, who bears no responsibility for any of the horrible situations he is in or any of the dubious things he does?

It's so natural to like that version of Aventurine, so appealing to see a totally powerless underdog use his own wits and charms to claw his way up to freedom. Or, if you're the kind who really relishes angst: It's even appealing to see Aventurine lose more. To delight in fics where he loses his wealth, where the IPC punishes him for past crimes while he's powerless to stop them... (I assure you, this is many people's cup of tea and the fanfics prove it!)

Ultimately, there's nothing wrong with liking characters who are exactly this straightforward! It's completely fine to embrace characters that are intentionally written to be morally above-board, whose primary role in the story is to generate angst by being a good person who suffers, or those characters who never show unlikable traits, bad decisions, or contradictory actions.

The problem is that that's just not who the game is telling us Aventurine is.

Hoyo may be capitalizing off people who love to envision poor Aventurine still living his life as a slave... But the game also needs to tell a complicated enough story overall to appeal to people who don't care about this specific husbando--Aventurine's role in the actual game's plot has to be interesting enough for almost everyone to appreciate it, not just Aventurine's simp squad. (Don't get mad, I'm in the simp squad with you.)

So his character doesn't stop at just being a pure-hearted victim who is still waiting to be saved.

Aventurine is not that easy to label, and I think the biggest struggle in this character's fandom right now is between people who prefer the even-more-angsty, still-a-slave Aventurine versus people who want a morally grey, self-destructive character instead.

To me personally, while I greatly understand the appeal of fanon!Aventurine and the joy of a really juicy angst fic where characters lose it all, I think that missing out on the depth that canon is suggesting would be a real loss on the fandom's part.

The character motivations that Aventurine shows in the game are complicated. They cancel each other out. They're basically self-harm! He makes almost every situation he's in worse for himself--on purpose.

He is a good person, but also a person who has done unspeakable things. He does have morals, but he's not above allowing those who don't have them to use him to their advantage.

He's both the victim and the victor. He's his own worst enemy. He's a lost little boy who's been making terrible decisions for himself since he was like eight years old, and a grown ass man who is barely managing to fake his way through an existence that destiny is not letting him quit.

This kind of character is a lot harder to embrace. He's done things that most people would find appalling--like willingly joining up with the organization that let his entire race be massacred. He's invented a whole new peacock persona to frivolously flaunt riches he doesn't even care about (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 101). He actively plays into racist stereotypes about his people to manipulate others through their preconceived expectations. He's made a mockery of his mother's and sister's hopes and dreams by endlessly trying to throw his own life away.

He has flaws! He bet everything he had on a ploy without doing his homework to find out if the people he was risking his life for were even still around. (Maybe he already knew, and couldn't bear to admit it, even to himself.) He's intentionally off-putting and obnoxious to everyone he meets (Poison Dart Frog Self-Defense 102). He terrifies everyone who gets close to him by (seemingly) carelessly throwing himself into the jaws of death without the slightest provocation.

He knowingly allows the IPC to exploit his power and talents for profit. Did everyone forget that his role in the Strategic Investment Department is asset liquidation?! Like, his actual day-to-day job is ruining people's lives. Canonically, Aventurine kills people when his deals go bad.

His motivations change off-screen in two lines of story text. We're told in one line that his biggest reason for joining the IPC was to make money to save the Avgin, then in the next line we find out that's impossible. And... then what? What motivations does he even have now? The whole point of his character arc from 2.0-2.1 is that he was on the edge of giving in to utter despair and nihilism because he couldn't even perceive a single reason to stay alive. He has no purpose in life before Penacony, and that didn't start with the Stonehearts at all??

People keep saying Aventurine was held in the IPC by golden handcuffs, but how do you tie down someone for whom profit is meaningless? What can you offer to a man whose only desire is to bring back something already lost forever? How do you imprison someone whose only definition of freedom is, canonically, death?

Working for the Stonehearts is obviously not healthy. But that's why Aventurine was doing it--because taking dangerous missions allowed him to put himself at risk. The job that he originally pursued hoping to save his people became a direct means to self-harm, and the IPC's only real role in that was just happily profiting off the results.

The journal entries for Aventurine's quests are there deliberately to tell the player what is on his mind, and none of it has to do with escaping from his job:

Like... Work is the least of this man's problems.

At really the risk of rambling on too long now, he's also just a massive walking contradiction:

Aventurine is among the most explicitly religious characters in the game, yet he's one of the only people in the entire game that we have ever seen actively question his people's aeon.

You might be tempted to think Aventurine's risky gambles with his life as an adult are a result of giving up after finding out about the Avgin massacre... Butttt no, Hoyo makes sure to tell us that even at knee-high in the Sigonian desert, Kakavasha was already willing to risk himself in a fight to the death against monsters because even back then he found his own life to have less value than a single memento.

He's the "chosen one" who will lead his people to prosperity... except they're all dead.

He's explicitly suicidal... andddd also a pathstrider of Preservation.

He wants to die... He doesn't want to die. He wants to make it end, yet goes to staggering lengths to continually survive. (Every plan risks his life on purpose--but every plan's win condition is also to live.) He life is the chip tossed down, but his hand is trembling beneath the table. When faced with an otherwise unsurvivable situation, Aventurine literally became a winner of the Hunger Games. He beat other innocent people to death with his own chain-bound hands just to come out alive.

He knows the IPC failed the Avgin and left them to die... and he still willingly sought out a position of power in their organization. Maybe he really is after revenge... but maybe not.

He starts his journey in the IPC with a truly noble goal in mind: to help his people using his newfound wealth and power. He's a good guy who did genuinely want to save the Avgin and repay all those who helped him. But once it became clear he was too late, once it was obvious he would have no use at all for that monetary wealth and power he risked his life to get... What did he do with it? Unlike Jade, we don't see him over here donating to orphanages. (I'm not that heartless; I'm sure he does actually do a lot of good things with his money on the side, but the point is that the game does not show us that--it shows us, over and over again, Aventurine putting on a wasteful, over-indulgent persona toward wealth. We've supposed to feel how meaningless money is to him, how meaningless everything is becoming to him.)

He outright refuses to use underhanded tactics or to cheat at gambles, which is meant to show us that's he's more morally upright than his coworkers. There's an entire exchange where he says that he'll never stoop to using manipulation the way Opal does. But... he doesn't have any issue fulfilling Opal's exact agenda. He was never remotely morally conflicted about denying the Penaconians their freedom by dragging Penacony back under IPC control.

He's willing to risk his own life, which is one thing--but he's also willing to risk other people's well-being. Topaz accuses him of constantly egging their clients on into dangerous situations; we've actively seen him shove a gun into Ratio's hands and pull the trigger with no care for how Ratio would feel about that on their very first meeting... Dragging the Astral Express crew into the entire Penacony plan in the first place was exceedingly dangerous...

To me, I just think it's vital to understand his character through the lens of these contradictions because they demonstrate the extreme polarity of Aventurine's life: from rags to riches, from powerless to empowered by multiple aeons, from willing to kill to survive to killing himself... He has quite literally lived a life of "all or nothing," and while he is the victim of many terrible situations out of his control, his arc as a character involves facing the truth of himself and the future his own actions are hurtling him toward.

Frankly, the Aventurine that canon is suggesting is a little annoying. You want to grab him by the shoulders, shake him, and say "Why are you like this?!" And he won't even have an answer for you, because he doesn't even know why he's still alive.

In the end, to me, this is so, so much more interesting. I can read an endless supply of hurt-comfort fics where Aventurine escapes the evil IPC and Ratio is there to fill the void in his life with the power of love and catcakes and be a perfectly happy clam online, but I want canon to continue to serve us this incredible mess of a man who constantly takes one step forward and two steps back.

Who is fully aware of his role as a cog in the grotesque profit-wheel of cosmic capitalism and still manages to say he never changed from the rags-wearing desert rat of the Sigonian wastes.

Who over and over again flirts with nihility but, ultimately, even if he has to wrest it from the grip of the gods themselves with bloody, chain-bound hands, chooses life.

[whowrotethenote]

𝐒𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚…

Anything that's already up is staying up. I'm not deleting anything. You can kiss my ass. Eat dirt. Talk to God about it cause LaLa don't care. Block me if you have to.

Biggest Fan // I am going to see it through to the end. It was the first fic I posted and it seems to be the one everyone loves the most. It was coming to a close anyway. Not posting anymore visuals of him though. I’ll use his first name and imagine it’s someone else. It’s a story. Same way I don’t even condone what the two main characters are doing and am still writing it, is the same way I can finish the story and imagine Joe as someone else because I don’t support the original face claim. Reading is subjective. So you’ll interpret how you want anyway. Once it’s completed writing for Joe/Roman is clipped. Over with.

The Tribal Killer // Changing the last name of Roman as to not associate it with Joe. In my head it is someone else and I’m open to suggestions of other face claims (preferably similar to appearance in Joe because it fits the story’s description of him).

Any other fics I've been working on and haven’t posted yet, i'll just have to find other men as face claims and change the names.

Let’s pray to the most high that the twins are smarter than their cousin and keep quiet so I can post this Jey oneshot soon.

I wanna be clear that this blog does not support Joe or Roman any more. As a black woman I have to take a stance and draw a line. Being neutral and indifferent is not something I can afford as a minority. Silence also speaks volumes. If you're not apart of the solution you are apart of the problem.

People are dying, families being stripped apart all under Trump's administration. This mf has taken away the department of education. Closest endorser did a fucking Nazi salute on national television. Talks of martial law being declared. It couldn't be more blatant and in our faces than it is today. That project 2025 will be a bitch for anyone who still thinks politics is as simple as a difference in opinion. Me not caring whether someone lives or dies is not an opinion. It's a declaration with possibility of action. Trump is not just coming out of his mouth and saying he does not care for the well being of minorities, he's doing something about it. Period. And say it with me 🗣️ politics are not rooted in opinions they are rooted in beliefs. My father and uncles are politicians so I’m not chatting shit. These people push laws based on beliefs. They believe that a fetus is a person so they’re altering abortion laws to fit under murder. An opinion would be “I personally wouldn’t get an abortion.” Not pushing laws and declaring it murder. Be fr.

Everybody keeps trying to deep the context and talking about how he didn’t exclusively say “I voted for Trump.” I thought we were all readers lol. Please use your context clues. What do you think was meant by “clear choice.” Even “I support our president,” knowing who sits in that seat is insane. He said a whole bunch of nothing when he should’ve just said…nothing. It was irresponsible given his audience/fanbase. A simple “no comment,” would’ve sufficed. Then maybe y’all could get away with what he didn’t say exclusively and I’d understand. I get he said he doesn’t agree with everything that Trump does—but what he’s done and is still doing are too extreme to still support no matter what. And then that orange bitch getting an Ula Fala… yeah I see what’s going on here lol.

Also wanna be clear that I don’t hate Joe. I hate Trump so anyone who is indifferent or not clear and on the fence about him I have to take a step back from. I am disappointed and disgusted and I have every right to be. But hate is a strong word, especially for someone who is just ignorant or trying to save face for the sake of financial reasons. Not making excuses for Joe just calling it as I see it.

If you choose to still watch Mania/write about him that's your business. Not my job to micromanage grown ppl on the internet. I won't go around bashing ppl and I don't support that either.

All my mutuals, and other writers I’ve connected with—y’all know I fuck with y’all the long way. If you choose to still write for or about him that’s your business and I’ll respect it. Probably won’t repost it especially if you have his face on the post, but i’ll be supporting your art in other ways like commenting if I can.

I hope you all still support me as a writer regardless of who I am writing about. I've really enjoyed this fandom, everyone has been so kind, funny and enlightening thus far. I hope it stays that way. Thank you💗

And this is my last time speaking on it unless someone directly asks me a question or I see something funny and have to repost. (Y’all know I play too much.) Let’s stop giving our energy to things that don’t mean us any good. Cause honestly this is the reaction people like them want. They’re in entertainment. Their livelihoods depend on traction and buzz.

Back to this writing shit😂

[cheruv-ii]

Jurassic World Chaos Theory and how it handles its Queer Characters/Audience

(This may get long+it will have S3 spoilers so everything under cut!)

Disclaimer before I get into this because I know some of y'all like to tussle:JWCC/CT does have great queer rep, I am in no way saying it doesn't, especially with the inclusion of sapphic woc as well as its couple confirmed queer bg characters; HOWEVER, whether the rep itself is good or not, does not leave it untouchable by criticisms.

Into my points,

As I've mentioned before, it is abundantly clear that JWCT has different writers than JWCC, and I think their treatment of queerness does play a lot into that.

First of all, the elephant in the room, Yasammy, and their comparisons. I'm going to be blunt with this one, showcasing the rough patch in Yasammy's relationship by highlighting how healthy and in love the white het couple was was a completely irresponsible and tasteless decision on the writer's part. Why? I've seen a couple takes saying that there was no other way to do it, if they made Gia poc then it would've made it look like being with the white man was a better opt, if Ben was in an mlm relationship it would've shown that mlm have it better, etc. Here's the thing, they didn't have to do it, period.

There are ways to showcase Yasammy's struggles without fuelling the insanely homophobic/misogynistic side of the fandom, which we all unfortunately know exist. Look at swrve, dude immediately took Bengia as a way to shit on Yasammy, look at people like V*dim, I've seen so many takes on tiktok/twt etc. Repeating the same shit, talking about how Bengia is based and Yasammy were right to break up. We knew that side of the fandom existed, the showrunners knew that side of the fandom existed, and yet they still went with the thing that would "cause more drama" and therefore turned multiple safe spaces for young queer people into unsafe zones. Sure, you could argue that they don't have to write for the fandom, however, with the way queer people are treated in media constantly, you must take responsibilty when it comes to writing them in a way that could make things unsafe for queer people within your fandom. Though, aside from that, it was simply overall tasteless and lazy, I'm sorry, but it was. If they REALLY needed to show a healthy relationship vs unhealthy, they could've used Kenji and Darius.

As for Ben, this is a lot more of a— nuanced? Take. Now, I came into the fandom somewhat late, however, from my understanding, the crew had always been active within the fandom, and I'm sure they've seen just how many queer kids saw themselves in Ben, in his self discovery, quite frankly if they ran with it, Ben's story would've been a fantastic queer allegory. No, they didn't need to go and make Benji/Benrius canon, however, I've seen some people say that the whole gf thing felt like a way to be like "okay now stop saying hes gay" which honestly? I agree with. As I stated in my post about Bengia, their relationship fell flat to me, overperformed, disingenuine, and just generally fake. The writing team seems to have had trouble writing Ben in general in CT, but it REALLY showcases that when they introduced Bengia. Meanwhile, his relationships with the guys did have a basis, it did have chemistry that I'm sorry but Bengia simply does not have. If I'm being totally honest, a lot of Benji's writing in CT feels like the writers knew how much the fandom loves Benji, decided to hold ot right in front of our noses and then take it away. I don't like to use the word queerbaiting a lot, but it does genuinely feel like queerbaiting to me.

With the way they played up Gia being "fake", the way they acted about her in s1+the lack of any mentione of her in s2 felt like leadup to her not being real, and quite frankly I can't think of any reasons other than a lazy attempt at shock value that thwy would've had the others so deadset on Ben faking it, it felt cruel and out of character for all of them.

Sure, s4 has the chance to fix a few of these issues, but unfortunately overall my view of the show and its treatment of queer characters/it's queer audience has been tainted, which sucks because CC did it so well.

Btw, just to make it abundantly clear, if I see any comments or replies claiming that queer people being upset is any way "white knighting" or being too "woke" you will be automatically blocked. Keep your homophobia out of my notifs.

[allgoldenelite]

Late as hell because I wasn't online when it happened, but here's why Taichi vs ZSJ from the NJC on 3/15 is so devastating. I'm very normal about this match. I'm normal about these two men and I can be trusted around matches where they're in the same ring /s.

Long so it goes after the cut.

(Btw I will say this here once but it goes for the entire post so please keep it in mind: it's irrelevant to me what's work or what's shoot. At the end of the day this is an art form, so if it was said in a tweet or on stream or backstage I'm taking it as absolute truth for the characters. If it made you feel something it's real enough, the rest is just a footnote.)

So, the mise-en-scène is that everything fucking sucks. Suzuki-gun is no more, Dangerous Tekkers are no more, Taichi was just hanging out with a literal pack of Just Some Guys in a casual work only relationship so that he can avoid getting hurt again, and yet he still gets hurt (btw you will burn in hell for this, Sanada). Sana-yan and Taichi go way, way back, so this latest betrayal brought to you by Action Comics The Amazing Always Lose Everything-man hurts especially deep and sharp. On stream he's been wondering, does this promotion even still need me? Does the wrestling business even still need me? Things are fucked, there's a reason he abandoned love, you know the spiel by now.

This is how we go into the NJC. I don't know about you, but when the participants and rounds got announced, personally I wasn't feeling particularly enthusiastic. Last year Tekkers didn't meet for their fated matchup, and this year it seemed even more unlikely as I assumed the Kidd push would continue (thanks, Kenny /s). But that's not how it went. Of course Zack wins his match, but in a surprising turn of events, so does Taichi. It's via count-out, but he wins nonetheless. Thus he will meet Zack on 3/15, with a preview tag set for 3/14.

He's absolutely miserable about it. He's so frustrated at the repeated interferences, the repeated setbacks, his own shortcomings, his lack of tangible achievements, but he's especially sad and embittered about the way this all came together. On stream he says that him and Zack have been wishing and waiting for a singles match ever since Suzuki-gun disbanded. Understandably, Taichi wanted it to be a big deal. So much does even the chance for matchup mean to him that anything but the main event of a big show is unacceptable. The way he got here makes him feel wretched. Wretched in front of himself, and wretched in front of Zack. Backstage he asks the cameras, and thus us, the audience, as well as the company, how the hell he's supposed to stand across from Zack and look him in the eyes. He, who has nothing to show for it. He's here by sheer luck. Even before the Kidd match he already sits awake all night, feeling awful. Even when Zack had the World belt, Taichi wanted to win the Global first so he could face Zack on somewhat equal footing. He even contemplates just withdrawing from the tournament altogether. It means that much to him.

What about Zack? Of course he's also distraught and irate deep down, but where Zack and Taichi differ in this, is that Zack has a clear goal: his goal is to motivate Taichi to come out of his moping shell. So yeah, it wasn't what they had wished for, but they can, as he says, control what they can control. We don't know what exactly they talked about as they find each other beneath the apron after the preview tag, heatedly making eye contact like two lovers outside a club in the morning hours, as far as they are concerned the only people in a ten mile radius. But we know that it resonated with Taichi, and he recounts some of it on stream. That this is still, in spite of everything, their match. It's only about how wins or loses (and not-so-secretly Zack is hoping Taichi wins, because he wants to see him at the top of that mountain where he knows he belongs). They'll wrestle this for themselves. It's fate. They're the best, they'll steal the show. "He said to me, 'How long have we waited for this match? How many years? Not the fans, not the company, how much have we waited? That's what matters most'." Zack knows it, and so does Taichi, even if he still claims his lack of talent and accolades is the reason it never happened sooner.

And backstage on 3/14 Zack practically yells at Taichi to wake up, shake off the misery and face him in the ring with all he's got. Because it also means that much to him. It's tough love, but it's love. "I will force the Taichi that I know, the man who should've already been a main eventer a decade ago. The only person that doubts you, Taichi, is yourself."

That tough love goes a long way, because once Taichi sees said comments, he's struck to his core. Who has ever treated him that way? "For as long as I live I will be proud of having tagged with you and having won the Best Tag Team Award." If you got some déjà-vu, it's because Taichi, much like myself and I wager to guess many of you, keeps coming back to this. No matter what happens, his life keeps coming back to Zack. But the thing about Taichi is that he has, in fact, that dog in him. No matter how many times he's pushed down, no matter how bad his luck is, no matter how many times he contemplates quitting, somehow, he always gets back up. And so, while still frustrated and sad, he goes into the 3/15 match a little bit more motivated, thanks to finding that inner fire and thanks to his former tag partner (or tag partner for life, according to Zack). They set out to steal the show and blow the main event out of the water, and boy, did they.

How do I even describe this match? If you haven't seen it yet, I aggressively implore you to (and the preview match, bc it's a very good and very emotional primer). You'll probably need a metaphorical cigarette after. They went out there that day to lay themselves bare-naked in front of the fans and the cameras and everyone else. The second half of the match made me yell like I haven't yelled at pro wrestling in a long time (the good kind of yell). If you're still somehow on the fence, take a look at these wonderful gifs to get a taste of a fraction of what you're gonna see in the match.

There's one spot in it that I can't stop thinking about, and I think it's because it embodies this whole encounter and story to me. After wisely escaping Zack's Cobra Twist and applying his Holy Cross Mausoleum (the name, ofc, comes from Fist of the North Star, but the moves is modeled after Kawada's dragon sleeper, the Stretch Plum), he has Zack trapped in the middle of the ring. But Zack just eggs him on. "More, harder," he seems to say with his hands and the patting of Taichi's head, even while he himself is already turning purple (I know you can "fake" it, that's not the point). He didn't care if he was gonna pass out in the middle of the ring at that moment. He didn't care if he was gonna lose (you can make a strong argument that he didn't even want to win), as long as it meant that Taichi got to a place where he could show the rest of the world what Zack has known for so many years.

So Taichi digs a little bit deeper still (altho arguably Kawada represents his very roots). He whips out a beautiful Emerald Flowsion and an even more beautiful belly-to-back ("LIFE IS A CHALLENG, SEIZE YOUR CHANCES" indeed), Zack whips out a beautiful Gotch-style piledriver in his own way to refer to back to their shared past, comms and the crowd and I scream and have been screaming for the past several minutes. What is the finish, you ask? A Zack-style Taichi-style Gedo Clutch. If that ain't love, I don't know what is. A move that can only exist because they met. "Thank you for coming into my life," Taichi says in a tweet after the match, something he has said before but will probably say until his last breath. As Zack himself puts it, he wouldn't be here without Taichi, and maybe this was his way of paying him back.

There's so much from Taichi's stream after the match as well, but if I had to pick one thing, it would be this: "I have all of these friends, I'm blessed with all of these friendships, people who support me and push me, but that was the first time someone has ever said something like that to me. I've always told myself that I'm not made to be champion, that this is all I can do. No wonder I couldn't get ahead."

He doesn't feel like he lost that day, and he's right. He didn't. Zack gave him what he needed to get back the most important love of all: the love for yourself. "Maybe," he muses, "I still have what it takes to love myself again." It's a new dawn.

Brother I need to lie down. Dangerous Tekkers forever.

(Also immediately after the match Taichi said Zack told him that this isn't over. The finish might have been smart (and a bit emotional), but it wasn't the end of this. I hope that, whenever they do get their next match, it comes in the shape that they've been hoping for, and it blows whatever else is on the card out of the water once more.)

(Also also this has nothing to do with anything, but later on stream someone comes along with the usual "are u really hitting each other" and it made me laugh as Taichi rolled up his sleeve and showed them Zack's FOOTPRINT on his shoulder lol. Wrestling fans are gonna wrestling fans.)

In summary, it's kinda funny that the guy is so obsessed with gacha because his luck is notoriously bad, but he's a trooper. Every time NJPW actually lets their story breathe again, I can't help but throw my fists on the ground in frustration. Not even at the company (though I will have Gedo's heart on a stick and then eat it). It's frustration at the "maybe in the next life" of it all. THERE'S STILL TIME YOU MORON. You already pulled the SSSS Ultra Rare ★★★★★★★ waifu!!!! THERE'S STILL TIME!!! I HEAR KYOTO IS BEAUTIFUL THIS TIME OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

[itslikesearcingforsomething]

elephant in the room

now if we’re being serious, what is about to happen with stranger things is incredibly important for queer people all around the world in our reality today. i’m not comparing it to legal actions but representation is extremely significant and sometimes even more than reforms, because being queer legally doesn’t equal being socially acceptable. with that, i’d like to make my point clear, stranger things has the opportunity to make a real impact on current state of society.

i don’t say anything about actors here, because it’s not what my blog is about, but i would betray my own beliefs and appear hypocritical if i won’t mention one issue, actor that plays the most important character in this context being a zionist, that makes a lot of people hard to relate and feel for will byers, wich is valid. we’re people and we feel conflicted about most things in life, especially when it comes to politics, everything is political. i know that majority of our byler fandom supports this actor, i don’t. i won’t discuss this, but read the rest, it’s not my main point.

with that being said, stranger things just ended filming. no matter what we think, writers already did the thing. honest to heart, i’m really anxious. i’m stressed out thinking how did they handle everything? how did they make a choice, what kind of? ten years of hard work and millions of viewers, the stakes are high. i feel like stranger things in s5 will do a lot of tip toeing around, slowly getting GA warmer and warmer for the big “plot” wich is byler endgame. they have a lot of work and pressure, it leaves me wondering how good they did. they have to make will byers very likeable, so everyone can empathise with him, root for him. they have to make mike’s subtle internal conflict (for byler audience it’s clear) really well written and direct at the same time. they have to make mileven break up right, without damaging characters of eleven, will and mike. it’s hard, it’s scary. i don’t think any show this big did something like that. the power that we have now in our lack of knowledge of what will be in season five is huge. let’s cherish this calm before the storm.

[ilikekidsshows]

Have you seen the Sublimation leaks? Pretty much the entire episode has been leaked by now and people have made a 19 minutes super cut xD I'm asking cause I don't want to send an ask about Sublimation if you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled

---

The entire episode came out while I was busy answering the ask game and I checked it out to respond to this ask properly . But, for future reference: unless it’s a show I’m liveblogging it’s open to spoil.

Okay, so the episode went just like I predicted with Marinette easily forgiven. Even before I saw the whole thing, I saw the collected clips and I could smell the upcoming Marinette validation in the final scenes. And yet, just like this show does time and time again, it's still worse than even what I prepared for. Of course the episode couldn't just be "Marinette gets forgiven without her having to do anything", of course her saying sorry and making reparations aren't just things she does after being forgiven, like she's the one rewarding her victims for their good behavior of forgiving her. No, they had to go even further and end the episode with Marinette's victim coddling her over her "friendship fears".

This episode is so manipulative in how hard it leans on the audience to pity Marinette throughout. Like, seriously, her Lucky Charm calls her the villain? The amount of self-pity there goes way beyond all the other cases of Marinette acting like this that have come before. Little miss “if I make myself miserable asking me to make up for what I did wrong would be cruel” now has her own superpowers take part in her self-flagellation just to make sure no one with the actual right to be mad at her gets there first.

Marinette always does this. She makes a mistake and rather than think of a way to make up for it, she calls herself the worst and whines. “The Lucky Charm pointed her out as the villain” is not Marinette facing consequences or the episode treating her as in the wrong. It’s once again Marinette being her own worst critic whenever she does something wrong, to make sure the audience feels bad for her first and foremost so that they can instantly forgive her even when she never actually learns. “Marinette loves to learn,” my ass. “The villain was me” is just “I’m the worst Guardian” with a new coat of paint.

The important part is that the person with the right to be mad at Marinette, Sublime, had already forgiven her before Marinette even had her little villain realization. Just because a character says something that’s right on paper doesn’t mean it’s being presented as the correct perspective in the episode. It depends on that framing I’ve been harping on about. So, while Sublimation rightfully chewed Marinette out, all the scenes before her Akumatization have her acting entitled, cold and harsh, calling Sublime’s dad a failure and getting on his case for coddling her when he merely offers her a balancing hand and not taking Sublime’s opinions on things into account. In all these scenes, her husband talks calmly while she’s snapping; the writers intend her to come across as misguided or downright unreasonable. This makes it so that her yelling at Marinette comes across as her just being unreasonable again and like we’re meant to see her as being mean, especially because Marinette also looks the saddest in the episode specifically when Sublimation is yelling at her. To further make Sublimation's points worthless, her power to make people the best version of themselves doesn't work on Marinette because she already "perfect". If she's already so perfect, then why does she keep doing this shit?

The only characters calling Marinette out are herself, in her typical “I’m the worst” fashion, and a “jerk-coded” character whose opinion we aren't supposed to respect. This was already visible in the leaked scenes and made it very clear to me that Marinette wouldn’t be suffering any real consequences for what she did, her feeling guilty is meant to be the consequence and punishment. And I was proven correct. When Sublimation is dealt with, no one is mad at Marinette anymore, because being mad at her is what villains do. It doesn’t matter that Marinette claims she was in the wrong because she does it in an overly exaggerated manner that the viewer won’t take seriously. It doesn’t matter that the other characters have a “this is going to end poorly” attitude about Marinette’s nonsense, when they’re clearly pitying Marinette and not her target. It doesn’t matter that Marinette gets called out when the character doing it is the supervillain in an altered state of mind we’re supposed to see as unreasonable.

This episode is so disrespectful towards Sublime. No one voices concern over whether or not she would need to be protected from the downfall of Marinette’s shenanigans, all Tikki, Alya and Trixx are concerned with are that Marinette will come out of this smelling like roses with that “mistakes are an opportunity to earn and Marinette loves to learn” nonsense. Yeah, Marinette loves mistakes because no one is ever concerned with the people those mistakes hurt! Sublime should not be getting treated as a teaching aid in universe, when she’s supposed to be a person Marinette wants to befriend. Like, it’s clear she only wants to befriend Sublime for control freak reasons to make sure she isn’t talking to Adrien behind her back, considering how obsessed she is with that thought, but that is still the stated end goal.

Speaking of, Sublime should not have wanted to be friends with Marinette no matter if Adrien told her she has difficulties making friends, her reaction to Ladybug shattering her legs should not have been “I’m okay!” She should want to stay away from Marinette’s clearly unbalanced ass. She should have been pissed at Ladybug, it was her right. But, no, she couldn’t possibly be upset about any of that because being upset at Marinette is what bad people do and Sublime is a good person and good people always put Marinette’s feelings before their own. It’s a good thing Marinette’s Miraculous Ladybug can fix any damage caused by anyone on the same day a villain fight happens or otherwise she couldn’t have rewarded Sublime and her family for being such good people who forgave her before she could even apologize or make reparations.

Also, if I got cornered by my new friend’s stalker girlfriend alone in a dressing room, I’d book it, not offer to talk about whatever she wanted to talk about to make her comfortable with me. Everyone in Miraculous is either a master of emotional control, or they get Akumatized, except, of course, for Marinette, who can do whatever messed up thing she comes up when she's having an emotion and she will be instantly forgiven because she was just being emotional. Well, in the real world, sometimes, when you do messed up things because of your emotions, another person's emotions make them yell at you for it, and they'll be right to do so.

The fact that Marinette did all that and is getting rewarded with the friendship she wanted at the start of the episode and more coddling from her victim just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Marinette’s magical powers of super convenience fixed her mistakes as a superhero and her super perfect therapist boyfriend's damage control saved her civilian reputation, not her own actions. And she still dared to be upset when she heard that Sublime had been talking with Adrien behind her back, because god forbid Adrien spend time with people who are not Marinette or a part of Marinette’s posse. What is Marinette teaching kids in this episode? That it’s okay if you fuck up and act like a menace as long as you say “I’m sowwy, I don’t deserve to be our friend”. Still keeping up the trend of teaching kids exactly how to manipulate people into forgiving you, I see.

[bunybunn]

Okay enough time passed for me to try to put it all my thoughts about the Dream situation in one place at least until the Shut up i'm talking (patreon only 7$!!!) episode comes out.

First of all let's not forget that all of this started because Dream got involved in Twitter beef that had nothing to do with him. Sure xQc mentioned Dream's name but it was in reference to Tommy "dickriding" Dream when he was starting making content. It was dig at Tommy that didn't needed Dream's response in the slightest however the green guy didn't care and posted meme using r-word. Which obviously gain shit ton of backlash from every normal enough person because that is a slur. This also means that a lot of people reacted and talked about it including Tubbo.

The fact that this followed with 3 hours stream where Dream specifically reacted to Tubbo is ridiculous by itself. All he had to do is apologise and take responsibility for using a slur but instead Dream felt the need to pull out old controversy and pull more content creators into it. Additionally despite himself claiming that you should not cut things out of context he was skipping parts of Tubbo's stream and did not watched in in full. Also it's important to mention that the "apology" he did said in the said stream was especially "I saw people on Internet calling me that and I thought that means I can use it as a slur as well" which is an insane take that also sounded like something little kid would use as ane excuse.

Next important stop is Tommy's response. It was basically just Tommy telling Dream that he doesn't want to associate with him anymore. It's worth pointing out Tom's video was done in one take style, the was no big editing but rather just Tommy shearing his opinion and his feelings. Because of that we got few hyperboles like Dream "harassing" Tommy's mom and him being described as a movie villain-like.

Then you have the Dreams response to Tommy that was definitely not done with good intentions. Unlike Tom's one Dream's video was edited, he added music, pictures that were not proofs but were there to invoked specific emotions and also a short in Minecraft scene when he referenced his dream smp character. In my opinion that video was perfect example of how to manipulate audiences with content. He ensured that Tom's arguments seemed ridiculous, usually by taking it out of context like he did with the sexism part as well as with Tommy saying he was behind dream smp success, or pulled heavier accusations that make Tommy looked bad. Keep in mind how insane it actually was to after Dream had his content and merch be called lazy going straight to using case of scummy company that produced Tommy's merch at some point and has legal case against it that Dream had no deeper knowledge about and using rumors that Tommy is/was mistreating his editors using screanshots that were cropped and taken without consent of people in those. All of it while Dream was trying to act like he is still the good guy who so respects everyone and just wants everyone to get along.

The thing is Tubbo's discussion with Dream proved that was absolute bullshit. During the conversation it was clear genuinely expected it to go as he usually described private calls aka after he gets to explain himself the other person will see it his way. Unfortunately for him he heavily underestimated Tubbo, who did phenomenal job try to point out Dream missteps and make good arguments. Still Dream's behaviour was very much manipulative during it. I think the moment that shows it the most was the part where they talked about the merch company where Tubbo got to the point where he slipped and mentioned that there was one case of child labor in said company, something that clear came from his insider knowledge, and Dream started to use Tubbo's words against him to justify himself even though he had not know about it when making his video therefore it was irrelevant. His attitude also was very much "rules for thee not for me" any time Tubbo tried to hold Dream to the same standards Dream is holding other people who talk about him. Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way was how hard Dream was trying to make himself look good at the very end of the discussion by throwing complements and trying to act as if everything got resolved. I'm pretty sure he hoped this would encourage people to talking it out with him in private but I feel this might have the opposite effect since everyone got to see how such call would potencialy look like.

[geekgirles]

Yugo's Audience with Armand: Moving Past Previous Mistakes

If you think about it, after his sacrifice and his reconciliation with Amalia, his audience with Yugo is the scene that best highlights Armand's character development throughout the season, dare I say, the show. With it, we finally come full circle.

We were first introduced to Armand as he refused to let Joris anywhere near his father, even at the behest of the King of Bonta.

Up until that point, all we knew about him was from Amalia and Eva's retellings, where he was painted as often arguing with his sister, being an extremely difficult person to deal with, and having bad breath. And then we finally meet him and...

Everything they said about him turned out to be nothing but the truth.

But we don't really see the full extent of it until Amalia and Evangelyne pleaded their case regarding Nox to him, when he stubbornly refused to believe his sister, instead assuming her imagination had just gone wild. He didn't even rethink his assessment even when Eva backed Amalia up, which would have still been harsh of him to do—to believe his sister's bodyguard over her just because he has a crush on her—, but it still would have made sense, as Eva is very level-headed and she never would have even entertained the thought of allowing Amalia to joke over something so serious.

That already established Armand as an arrogant and self-righteous prince who believes he is in the right just because of his position as heir apparent and older brother.

We must also keep in mind he actually had ample reason to believe Amalia about Nox's plans. While it's hard to tell the extent of his actions and the repercussions they had on the World of Twelve and his victims before the beginning of the show, the fact remains that Nox had been at large for 200 years. In that time, he probably ravaged countless villages and killed powerful creatures in order to drain their Wakfu. Surely, word must have at least got out about some mad Xelor going around and killing people!

In other words, it wasn't necessarily like Armand didn't have proof that Amalia was telling the truth. At the very least, he must have heard some rumours. And yet, that wasn't enough for him to believe his sister and act accordingly.

Not to mention, Amalia had run away yet came back to warn her people of the upcoming threat. Yet Armand still thought she was making stuff up. Who in their right mind would leave their home only to come back to put everyone on edge over a lie?

One thing is acting spoiled from time to time, and another very different thing is acting sociopathic!

Now, let's compare this to his audience with Yugo when he sought his permission to investigate Sadida ground.

During the time between season 2 and the OVAs, Armand seemed to have developed a deep-seated mistrust of the Eliatropes, most likely caused by Qilby's deceit, and it was only exacerbated when the Eliatrope Goddess introduced herself and made her intentions of controlling the World of Twelve in order to make it safe for her children clear.

It's also worth pointing out that not even Yugo was safe from his scorn, despite being a staunch ally to the Sheran Sharms, and saving his kingdom and the world in several occasions. This I attribute both to the fact that Amalia's feelings for him got in the way of marrying her off (thankfully, he seemed to move on from that mindset in season 4, though he still didn't necessarily approve of Yugo), and the fact that King Oakheart was always so welcoming and trusting of him. Knowing Armand, it really wouldn't be far-fetched to believe he was jealous of Yugo's own relationship with his father.

And yet, when the time came for Yugo to request his help and ask him to place his trust on him, Armand agreed.

This is especially telling of his character development because, unlike in Amalia's case, Armand did have ample reason to distrust the Eliatropes.

It's true, except for Qilby and arguably their goddess, the Eliatropes are a peaceful race, but the Twelvians' experiences with the former two at least justify their unease around them.

Both of them display an alarming lack of empathy towards anyone but themselves or their people. After all, Qilby is responsible for the genocide of the Eliatropes, and all because he was bored and searched stimulation elsewhere because of his divine gift. But at the same time, while he couldn't care less for the World of Twelve and planned to have Rushu and his subjects destroy it right before draining it dry of all Wakfu just to fuel the Zenit, he was equally adamant to have his family and the Eliatrope children with him as he travelled the Krosmoz.

The Eliatrope Goddess, on the other hand, might not have been as outwardly callous as her son, nor capable of even going through with her threats and putting the world leaders in their place, but she is equally uncaring towards anyone who isn't one of her children.

In fact, that was the very reason why she made an enemy out of the Twelvian leaders and they came to resent her presence. Because she chose to override their authority and keep them all under her watch (which, until she revealed herself, had the Twelvians terrorised). But the last nail on the coffin was when she revealed that all that, the Eliaculus, sending the Eliatrope guard to help whenever there was trouble, everything, was solely to ensure her children's safety.

Like mother, like son. Am I right?

Even without saying anything, she made it clear that she cared not for the Twelvians and that the Eliatropes were her priority. And that's without getting into her manic insistence they left the World of Twelve to rot the moment the Nécromes arrived.

Now, there's no denying that most leaders with any significant focus have been revealed to be jerks one way or another (looking at you, Queen Astra, Prince of Brakmar, and the entire Osamodas royal family), but they do have a right to be worried when Eliatrope didn't even bother to hide how, in her eyes, they're second class citizens compared to her own followers.

These first impressions really didn't give much reason for Armand to believe Yugo and to listen to his pleas. However, the most damning evidence of all had to be the fact that the Nécromes appeared with the arrival of the Eliatropes. Between the suspicious timing and the fact that the portal-making race had dealt with traitors before, it sounded very unlikely that both things wouldn't be connected.

And Armand knew this. He was perfectly aware of how suspicious everything was, and he didn't hesitate to let Yugo know. However, he also admitted, several times, in fact, that Yugo had been an ally to the Sadida Kingdom since the beginning. That if both his father and his sister never hesitated to put as much faith and trust in him as they did, then it would only be wise he chose to trust Yugo as well.

A clear contrast to how he refused to listen to Amalia, his own sister, back in season 1, and all because he believed to be always in the right.

Season 4 was Armand's chance to redeem himself in the eyes of the audience, to go from an arrogant, jealous prince to a mature and wise king and brother. And while there are things I don't think I'll ever be able to forgive him for, I do appreciate the character development he went through. As I said at the beginning of the analysis, this scene proves he's come full circle.

[briarlovesclara]

Choices and Consequences: A Wicked Analysis

"If Movie 1 [of Wicked] is about choices, then Movie 2 is about the consequences." -- Jon M. Chu, interviewed by @/mayaegbo on tiktok

Here's the thing: there's a pivotal choice that is presented to each of the main three (Elphaba, Fiyero, and Glinda) at least once in every configuration within the two acts (of the musical, presuming this transfers to the movie):

Character A asks Character B to run away with them.

Often this is talked about in the context of Defying Gravity, but it actually happens TWO TIMES before that! And it all starts with...

Now, this is the movie's rough draft, so the scene does change slightly on screen, but it's for dramatic emphasis and the important part's fairly consistent through both the musical and movie. Same for the rest of these :)

Fiyero asks Elphaba to run away with him, albeit temporarily, to do a criminal or socially unacceptable act. Elphaba accepts this, which jumpstarts their relationship in earnest (in contrast with him asking her to ride with him and Feldspur in the forest, where she denies what would be an understandable request).

The next example of this situation, interestingly enough, shows to be the exception to the rule.

Elphaba asks Glinda to come with her, and Glinda accepts. What makes this different from the other times? There is a) no loss if she accepts, and b) active gain. Even though she can't expect to get her heart's desire, meeting The Wizard and even going to the Emerald City is huge for anyone, especially someone like Glinda!

The heartbreaking effect of this being the first time someone asks Glinda to come with her is that the audience may be prepped to think she will say yes in the future. Maybe she's just adventurous; maybe she'll follow Elphie anywhere, or can't bear to miss out on excitement. The rug pull is that she won't always say yes, and you deliberately are able to mischaracterize this choice until she makes a different one in Defying Gravity. Speaking of which...

Elphaba asks Glinda to come with her again, this time to truly become a criminal, wanted and unwanted, to cast herself out from society irrevocably... and she can't. Glinda refuses.

Some people like to talk about the tragedy that by the time Glinda would have come with her-- at the end of the story, maybe-- it's too late. And I agree that if she ever reaches that point, that's true. But I want to make it clear that this isn't just an Act 1, pre-time jump way of thinking.

I don't have script for this one, because the second movie isn't out yet, and it's not included in the musical script provided in The Grimmerie, but Fiyero asks Glinda to run away with him to find Elphaba in the middle of Thank Goodness after Glinda says that she hates staying and listening to the slander about her. Not only does Glinda refuse, she admits that it's because of the glamor and love she's grown used to. Crucially, she asks who could give it all up, and Fiyero answers, "you know who could, and did." (Pretty certain that's the wording.)

Fast forwarding, we get to the Wizard's Throne Room. There's no way that Elphaba would ask Fiyero to come with her-- but he decides he's coming anyway, and she accepts.

Now we get to Fiyero's only denial of Elphaba-- in Munchkinland, when it's obvious that he is going to die either way. If he tries to run, they will both be caught and killed. If he stays and dies, she has a chance, so of course he's yelling at her to go without him.

(And maybe, just maybe, he's paralyzed with fear and guilt, staring down the barrel at Glinda as he yells to Elphaba, unseen behind him. Despite it all, he can't seem to turn his back on his fiancée. He won't leave her again.)

Finally, Fiyero and Elphaba run away together in the finale. That's not an ask, is it? But Elphaba wants Glinda to know. She's hesitating. Fiyero starts walking, but she holds back, and he reaches out a hand to her and says "come". After a pause, she follows him, and he puts her hat on as they leave together. So as it started, Fiyero asks Elphaba to come with him, and she accepts.

But wait, you might be saying, what about Glinda? When does she ask either of them to come with her? And the answer is that she doesn't, not explicitly, because that's not who she is.

Glinda wouldn't ask someone to come with her, because she'd never be caught doing something that needed persuasion. The other two are the revolutionaries, who inspire the best in her, but just like she doesn't go through with following any serious rebellion, she doesn't incite it, even as a joke.

That being said, she does tell Elphaba to do something big one time: when Glinda asks Elphaba to listen to the Wizard and Madame Morrible at the end of Act 1. Then, during Defying Gravity, she says, "Listen to me. Just say you're sorry." Even when she is finally trying to convince someone to do something rebellious, it's rebelling against what Elphaba knows is right, her sense of justice. The audience should have known by the time Elphaba asks Glinda to come with her that it wouldn't work; the Glinda that begged Elphaba to let go of Animal rights for her own comfort would never fly away from a life in the Wizard's Palace.

Some loose ends with Glinda:

Glinda similarly asks Elphaba to come with everybody else to the Ozdust, but she leaves without her and we know where that motivation came from.

I can't think of Glinda directly asking Fiyero to come with her anywhere, besides discouraging him from leaving with Elphaba in Act 2, which I don't feel like counts.

So yes, Jon M. Chu, choices and consequences. The two best words to describe this incredible story :)

[nalyra-dreaming]

I understand what Rolin was doing from a logical, storytelling standpoint because Louis was under the impression that Lestat was the Big Bad who traveled across an ocean to kill their daughter the whole time so obviously the story he told would reflect that, and ya know ARMAND. Maybe they should have spend time after the “Lestat saved you, Armand directed the play” revelation to unpack what that really means because a good chunk of the fanbase does not get that everything we’ve been shown so far is skewed because of this. Instead, the revelation was the SHOCKING TWIST near the end of the finale and the ramifications were left to viewers to figure out for themselves. As we’ve seen, people need things spelled out for them.

Oh I UNDERSTAND the reasoning and intended arcs behind it as well.

But the reveals were far too... mild to land properly, not after two years of "big bad white abuser Lestat".

And, I mean, I get that AMC made them split the season (and in ONE season it would not have been the same issue!), and that they had to quickly rewrite, but Rolin is also on record saying how AMC made him soften Lestat already, because he wrote him as even more of an asshole, and like, did no-one stop to think as to how that would go over with the racial recasts they were so proud of???

Like, what did they think would happen to and with the audience, if you recast especially Louis and Armand color-consciously... and still have to keep the trackback and lies, and mind-control?! Did no-one stop to think how that would look?!??! Did no-one stop to think that in today's day and time, with people a lot more aware and able to recognize abuse, and call it out, too, that making Lestat this kind of abuser would stick?! And especially with a season break on that note and by using that as justification for the murder?!

THAT is what it ultimately boils down to, this not-thinking about the arcs they are destroying by plucking events and reassigning character traits to other characters, as well as just... doing shit for shock value and then being surprised(!) when people do not take a white guy beating his black partner to a pulp and then dragging him like on a meat-hook and then dropping him from the sky lightly.

Who'd have thought!!11!11!!

//sarcasm off

No, but seriously, it all boils down to this, and that this was left festering. And was weakly revealed.

I had quite the different expectations of season 2 back then, I thought we would get the IWTV version of "Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf", and that Daniel would tear the narrative to shreds - but that did not happen.

Oh, he made Louis realize the truth, yes, but not by making it clear for the (more casual) audience.

The salesman reveal proving Armand's memory-editing, Sam Barclay in two places proving further memory-editing, and the trial script proving the big lie and even more editing.

Oh and the fight revisit - haha, it was LOUIS who beat LESTAT up!!!!! And he let it happen!!! Isn't that funny?!!

Sorry, that was sarcasm again.

We have Sam on record saying he sneaked lines in where he knew they could not cut them(!), saying he argued against the fight, and for trigger warnings(!), saying he made sure to bring in elements in the trial to make clear Lestat was forced to be there. And not well.

He had to do that.

Because the show is apparently happy to let people think Lestat hated Claudia, or wanted "revenge" at the trial. Like, you gotta be kidding me.

And there is a part of me that cannot blame everyone being offended by the shift now, because the show made its bed there, and deliberately, too.

Nonetheless, this shift was always set to come, and that, too - was something that should have been clear from the beginning.

But the way they set up the seasons had people believe something else. And now we have the mess.

Again, I WILL enjoy this show, it is what it is now. This is it. This is what we're getting. I waited 30 years for this. I will enjoy it. But the mess this fandom is in is not something that came out of nowhere.

[lune-moon-nuit]

I feel deeply uncomfortable seeing how misunderstood Mike is—not just by the general audience but especially by some fans within the "Byler" fandom, who are supposed to be the ones who understand him best. They are incredibly harsh toward him, wishing for his death, for him to be beaten and humiliated, all because of his behavior in the last two seasons, particularly towards El and Will. This is largely due to his repressed homosexuality and internalized homophobia, but also because of his mental health, which is, in reality, utterly miserable yet so widely ignored.

These Byler fans, many of whom are teenagers or in their early twenties and some even part of the LGBTQ+ community, show little to no empathy towards him. They fail to realize the level of violence that existed against homosexuals in the United States during the 1980s, amidst the AIDS crisis and under Reagan's presidency. I strongly encourage you to conduct in-depth research because it is evident that you vastly underestimate the extent of the widespread, normalized, and, most importantly, violent homophobia of that era. Even people who could have been open-minded were wary of gay individuals out of fear of contracting AIDS, fueled by widespread paranoia and mass hysteria.

I believe Season 1 already paints a clear picture of this atmosphere—through Joyce’s words about how Lonnie referred to Will and through the slurs Troy and his friend used at school. These lines and characters were not included merely for storytelling purposes; they subtly highlight the pervasive homophobia present in the town (and the country) at the time.

Countless gay individuals of all ages in that period preferred to reject the mere idea of being homosexual—along with their own feelings—and would even become homophobic aggressors themselves as a form of self-preservation. At that point, it was pure survival instinct. To avoid being bitten, you bite first.

Now, let’s remove the supernatural trauma from Mike’s context and consider his reality:

We have a child who has been bullied throughout his school years in a small American town during the 1980s, a time when the AIDS crisis was at its peak. His best friend is bullied for appearing/being gay. When Will goes missing, the town—including his own father—suggests that it was expected because he was gay. The only plausible explanations, according to them, were either:

He was kidnapped and murdered by a “queer” (and let’s not forget “sexually assaulted” because one of the most dangerous stereotypes about gay men at the time was that they were pedophiles).

He committed suicide by jumping off the quarry because he was gay.

Everything related to being gay at the time was synonymous with death—whether from AIDS, suicide, or murder for simply being gay. And this violence, hatred, and fear were widely accepted and validated by society.

Now, imagine placing all of these subtle yet deeply ingrained messages inside the mind of a 12-year-old child.

On top of that, Mike’s emotions have always been ignored or minimized by everyone in the series, especially by his parents (even if they mean well). So what do we have? A traumatized child who has been humiliated and relentlessly bullied all his life, who has been made to understand that expressing his emotions and feelings is pointless, that no one listens to him, and that he should stay silent.

Even from the beginning of the series, Mike has always had a bit of an "attitude"—which, when he was younger, was endearing to the audience. But that’s mainly because he is extremely sensitive and deeply caring, yet he struggles to express himself and be heard, as most people don’t listen to him—especially when it comes to his own emotions and feelings. So what does he do? He bottles everything up. He internalizes every emotion until the pressure builds to the point where he explodes—just like in Season 2 when he lashed out at Hopper after being emotionally exhausted and pushed to his limit upon learning that El had been alive the whole time without his knowledge.

Mike’s situation is incredibly complex, with countless factors influencing it: his repressed homosexuality, his internalized homophobia, survivor’s guilt after El saved him, guilt over hurting both El and Will, his complete lack of self-esteem, his unresolved trauma from being bullied, supernatural traumas, the quarry scene (he was suicidal at 12—I repeat this because it still doesn’t seem clear to many people), his fear of losing Will or El again, the massacre at the lab where Bob never returned… I could list dozens of examples.

But do you realize the sheer emotional and traumatic weight he has never "unpacked"?

The only reason people are so harsh on him is that, for the past two seasons, we have had zero insight into Mike’s perspective. We have no access to his thoughts, emotions, or inner world. All we can do is observe him closely, piece together what we know about him since Season 1, and logically connect his behaviors, facial expressions, and words.

But here’s what’s truly baffling: these Byler fans who are so cruel to Mike are supposed to already know everything I’ve just explained. They should understand it. Yet, despite this, they show a complete lack of empathy for him. It’s as if, to them, Mike isn’t allowed to make any mistakes.

Yes, his behavior is frustrating. Yes, he has made mistakes. Yes, he has said hurtful things. But isn’t that what being human is? It doesn’t change the fact that he has always been a kind-hearted person with a huge capacity for love.

I mean, if we’re really going to judge a character’s worth based on their mistakes, should we condemn El for making Max fall over out of childish jealousy in Season 2? Should we blame her for violating Mike and the boys’ privacy by spying on them? Should we hold it against her for outright denying and dismissing Mike’s pain when he said, “I’ve been bullied my whole life,” and she simply replied, “No, you don’t”?

Of course not. We acknowledge that those actions were wrong, but we understand the context and underlying reasons behind them. So why is there such a glaring lack of understanding when it comes to Mike?

Yes, his behavior is frustrating, but ask yourself—would you do any better in his situation?

I’m sorry, but I find it incredibly hypocritical that people normalize insulting and hating this character while completely ignoring the context.

Mike always apologizes to Will when he messes up, which shows that he does reflect on his actions (even if he only does this for Will). He is willing to put himself in danger—even risk his life—to save and protect those he loves. He has a massive heart. He does not deserve the sheer cruelty I see directed at him on Twitter. His actions can be criticized, but he does not deserve to be hated or insulted.

Because the reasons behind his actions in the past two seasons are, in reality, deeply tragic.

Mike is profoundly miserable, and I am convinced he is suffering from depression—especially with the clues subtly left in Season 4, which many fans have picked up on.

I sincerely hope that in Season 5, they finally reveal what Mike has been feeling all along—shedding light on the internal struggles he has been battling silently for years. Whether through Vecna or some other means, Mike needs catharsis to finally heal. He needs to suffer—not for the sake of suffering, but because it is the only way for him to face his traumas and emotions instead of repressing them.

He has been running from his own feelings, burying them so deep inside that they are eating him alive. He is reaching his breaking point.

And that is heartbreaking—not only because it speaks volumes about how poorly mental health was treated in the ‘80s (and still is today) but also because even now, the audience continues to ignore it.

Instead of blaming Mike for his behavior, ask yourself: Why is he acting this way? Why has he changed? Why does he say the things he does?

The answers confirm that, more than anything else—besides therapy and being happy with the man who loves him—Mike needs to heal. He needs to understand that he matters, that he has worth, and that his emotions are valid.

And believe me—if he felt safe enough to express them, he would.

PS : While responding to an anonymous message reacting to this post, I ended up developing even more analysis and depth on this topic as I kept writing. So, consider this post as part 1, and feel free to check out part 2 here, which is even more detailed (and which I’m proud of and spent hours writing, haha).

[girl4music]

Happy Valentine’s Day to Xena and Gabrielle. My all-time favourite WLW ship in all of TV art/entertainment.

One of the most beautiful things about watching the TV show is watching this reformed Warrior Princess fall in love. Xena would be the last person to admit that she’s a romantic but I think it’s pretty clear to see that she is from the way she looks at Gabrielle. She always looks so genuinely happy and grateful to have her in her life. Especially after Gabrielle reveals that she loves her too. That seems to make a big difference to her demeanour.

Like most fans, I believe they evolved from friends into lovers after ‘The Quest’. It feels like the right time for it. However, I don’t think they were able to fully express their feelings for each other until ‘A Day In The Life’… when all the high-intensity drama had died down and they had nothing to do but admit that there was more between them and basically just bask in the revelation.

Like Lucy said at the 30th anniversary Xena convention panel: It was a beautiful thing the way the relationship evolved. The way that they went from being strangers to eternal life partners. From subtext to explicitly gay.

The fact that YOU get to decide when that moment was because they kept it ambiguous enough to interpret for the audience watching might be frustrating for some… but for me, I think it’s one of the greatest things about them being a WLW ship because their love story is one of the most natural, authentic and deep I’ve ever seen.

I never get tired of watching it and I know I never will.

I’m happy to see that more people are discovering this WLW ship and appreciating the sincerity and value of the representation they provided then because they truly are the blueprint and greenlight to everything we have now - and despite that - still hold up remarkably well to today’s offerings with WLW representation. I’ve watched a lot of TV shows with WLW ships in - both canon and non-canon - and not one matches up to them due to the fact both are the only lead characters. The closest I’ve come is Waverly and Nicole from ‘Wynonna Earp’ but even they don’t hold a candle when it comes to how in-depth their relationship is and how intertwined they are as a lead character WLW dynamic.

To truly understand the significance of this WLW ship, you have to see it with your own eyes. So if you have heard of this WLW ship before but have never seen a single episode of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’, then do yourselves a favour and go watch at least this episode because this is the episode that best showcases how well these two lead female characters work together as a dynamic. It’s not plot-heavy. It doesn’t really spoil anything if you’re worried about that. Just watch it.

You can tell me whether they’re worth the six seasons. You already know my answer. Long-form TV show WLW ships don’t really exist anymore if they ever really did. You don’t get a journey with them. You rarely even get more than a season. One or the other in the WLW ship either dies, breaks up and leaves, or the show just gets cancelled without a conclusion for them and their arcs.

Xena and Gabrielle are a WLW journey. They’re worth it.

There is of course far more to ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ than just WLW representation but it is very significant. Many a suitor may fall for the Warrior Princess but she really only ever opens her heart to her best friend all throughout her arc - and as I said - that’s one of the most beautiful things about watching this TV show.