#you claim to fight for the people
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obsessed with the fact that bell's hells won that fight explicitly because of their reliance on the gods. imogen and laudna both vocally saying 'thank you matron' at the beginnings of that combat as they use new skills or spells they've refreshed, orym wielding his sword, braius wielding his divine power, the entire party instilled with a hero's feast prepared by a cleric of the wildmother, imogen using power granted by the arch heart to bring down predathos -- an entity that has been described as welcoming her home, offering a womb she has longed to return to, her as its kin -- in imagery evoking the moment where the gods too decided to turn their backs on their home when faced with the monstrosity they were tied to, that they'd help bring about (something something, the arch heart gave mortals magic and imogen gave predathos its vessel). and the fact that bell's hells has slowly grown more reliant on the idea that predathos does not hunger for mortals -- something they in fact scoffed at when it came from liliana and ludinus' mouths -- predathos took several of them in his maw and tried to consume them.
viewing the story as one of a group of people predominantly blinded to the reality of their situations by the fog of their traumatized feelings -- as i've chosen to do for the sake of my sanity listening to them go on and on about gods that never gave them a lick in the same breath that they complain that the gods have too much power -- it is so extremely poetic that orym cut down ludinus with a sword blessed by the wild mother only for bell's hells to retread the path ludinus set up for himself. it is extremely ironic for a group of people who have implicitly raised complaints about the inherent manipulation that comes with the god's existence to come up with a plan that is explicit manipulation, demanding the gods become mortal or die [which to be clear, extremely interesting plan with interesting consequences that would be compelling to see! absolutely dogshit reasoning skills and moral assessment. but it is continually ASTOUNDING to me that a campaign that gets treated by some as the height of critical role's sociopolitical philosophical exploration features so many PCs who struggle (and not in the fruitful, developmental way but in the head-in-hands, can this student talk to the prof during office hours so I don't have to feel the second hand embarrassment of them making it obvious they haven't ever attended a previous lecture or done the class readings way) with ideas found in any first year philosophy course].
and to be clear this is not me devaluing the role of bell's hells in actually fighting the fight -- but all they've done is the same thing the gods were already doing, keeping predathos sealed, except now its in a volatile-at-best mortal who is on borrowed time re: being lost once again to its power. the only suggestion the hells have that this might be a justified and right course of action is the support of two gods -- one who has proven themself to be okay with the idea of death until it actually arrives before and the other one who is the only being on record who actually chose to be a deity -- out of a much larger pantheon, and their personal inclinations to agree with the ideology of a man who they have claimed to ardently disagree with but it turns out that was just because of his methods, I guess. scattershotting catalysts for change and hoping that change results in a Better World just. on its own (almost like. idk. fate) that you haven't even suggested practical (I'd even take theoretical ones atp) methods to achieve beyond Get Rid of a bunch of beings who are involved in actually extreme amounts of metaphysical and magical infrastructure isn't actually a course of action, its a course of chaos, and that is in fact worse than things staying the way they are if 'the way things are' that you keep referring to has only been shown to, currently, be that you and your friends feel sad and a little miffed that the gods you haven't offered anything to are only willing to do things for you when you serve them. unlike you, a group notorious for the way you do things for people you don't know without asking anything in return (this is sarcasm, if that wasn't clear).
anyway, I will continue to be frustrated by the lack of grounding for either (a) bell's hells having actually incisive and contextualized criticisms of the gods (either their own or from the actual mouths of the 'little guys' they are allegedly fighting for) or (b) more engagement with the fact that bell's hells as a party are not interested in making the morally right choice, they are at Best looking for a morally neutral choice. that said, if I ignore the actual story c3 has portrayed, the last few episodes have been a great wrap-up to a story about how singleminded trauma can make you and how that can lead you to place where there's no longer any Good choices to make, only potentially satisfying ones, where the question of who to satisfy takes the reigns over what is best.
#critical role#cr spoilers#exandrian pantheon#cr3#bell's hells#bell's hells im studying you under a microscope (derogatory but tragically fond)#like understand that I enjoy bells hells if they're the incredibly uninformed idiots that they act like. and i despise them if I'm meant to#take seriously their claims to be fighting for the mortals of exandria while explicitly undermining the plans that a conference of leaders#representing certainly more than eight people and their ideas of the 'average person' came up with to address the problem of the predathos
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can i just say. and this is probably a niche hill to die on. that i am so gobsmacked every time someone vaguely hints at the idea that jotaro doesn't care meaningfully for the other crusaders, usually particularly kakyoin and joseph, when those two actually tend to be the ones he reacts to being hurt the hardest
like he cares for his loved ones!!!! that literally plays into his character motives in every single part he shows up in!!! stop lying to me!!!!!!!
#me.txt#jjba#i'm going to ramble in tags actually. excuse me#ok. rereading sdc and so confused at the general perception of jotaro and his friends/family. he's not NEARLY as flat or as dickish#i understand that the anime (particularly the dub) tends to slander him but even then he still clearly cares for them! i'm confused#i also understand that a lot of people dig against jotaro and kakyoin as a dynamic because 'they're popular' and that generally disliking#popular things across media is a thing that i've seen consistently everywhere but the discredit to them simply as a DUO and not even as a#pairing is so..... odd..... like they're considered to be a duo that clicks for a reason. i enjoyed them even before i got into the fandom#every time i see someone say jotaro is overrated/dull i take a shot and assume they're an anime-only or only read the manga like once btw#joseph and jotaro also have a neat dynamic and they obviously both love and care for each other. like they're not going to go around loudly#or anything but literally the entirety of the lovers and the prelude to the dio fight IS jotaro being worked up over joseph getting hurt#equally i don't know if it translates to the anime as much but joseph is VERY complimentary when it comes to jotaro. like he sings his#praises so often and reminds everyone that he's his grandson so frequently (d'arby the gamer is a good example of this). either way it's so#peculiar....... there's not enough avdol and jotaro content btw (also in canon) because jotaro obviously looks up to him and avdol jokes#around with him on the occasion they interact after their intro which doesn't start very well. it's very cute#i do think an important thing to note about jotaro's character is how he acts AFTER his intro because he's so drastically different. early#jotaro and later jotaro aren't the same character and i do not mean this in a character development way. excluding the jail incident he's#completely different and probably shouldn't really be taken into account (especially considering the amount of slapstick in araki's intros)#and i think that's really???? what people center on for his character? Which sucks balls bad!#anyways. i could ramble more about this if asked i have so much to say but sigh. jotaro cares so much for his friends and family he's not a#flat fully cold asshole character regardless of whether you watch the anime or ova or read the manga. you just have poor media literacy#i wouldn't recommend watching solely the anime for his character though. the dub also changes a lot so it's... questionable#i love the anime and it's still important for him though. also adds neat stuff. i need to stop myself. i have many thoughts on the matter#jotaro kujo#joseph joestar#noriaki kakyoin#adding in case anyone sees: i am not saying that he is perfect about this. in fact he is very ass about it with jolyne and holly and that's#very important. he also is in fact an asshole sometimes. NOT as much as you guys are making him though!#please don't get me started on how much of a dick etc people make kakyoin to veer away from the 'woobified' characterizations of him#in fact i think that's bad if not worse because it CLAIMS to be in character. hes a prim asshole at times but not that angry or dishevelled
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Hamas attacks in retaliation, Israel is made out to be the victim. Israel attacks Sudan, Yemen, and we either don't talk about it or claim it was Hamas. Now Israel fires weapons into Iran and when they fire back, it's considered an aggressive and violent attack against the Israeli people.
Biden is dragging his citizens headlong into a war we should have no part in to support a country who does not care about collateral. He promised debt relief, gender care, pay increases, and we have seen NO positives on any of those fronts all while he desperately pours resources into supplying the murder of innocent Arabs.
You who support this war hate the Arab people, you're all just too much of pussies to admit it. So you hide behind these excuses. "Oh, Israel's just defending itself. Oh, that was someone else". You wish for the death of all the Arabs without any of the social repercussions of actually admitting that, so you claim anyone who wishes for the killing to stop is actually antisemitic and "wants to kill all the Jews".
Palestine will be free and the Israeli government will face punishment for the crimes they have perpetrated.
#if i had a nickel for every time America picked a fight against innocent people for literally no reason I'd have like 12 nickels#like hell even in wwii we fuckin nuked regular-ass civilians#from the river to the sea palestine will be free#palestine#free gaza#free palestine#iran#love how the same crowd who supports the murder of jews now claims “you need to support Israel or else you hate all Jewish people”#republicans in case it wasn't obvious. I'm talking about republicans
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"claiming any writer ever intended to write that jason was sexually assaulted as a child is stealing from mia" is still one of the most ridiculous takes i have ever seen. by the way
#winick: hey i like this character. im going to resurrect him from the dead after 20 yrs. i'm going to have him go out of his way to tell mia#he thinks theyre similar. when she denies that he knows her enough to make such a claim i'm going to make him bring up her past as a victim#of SA specifically to prove he knows her past well and is still saying they are similar. and then i will make him say he also had to do bad#things to survive on the street.#people: clearly this writer who likes jason wrote him mocking mia for being a victim of SA!#if you think this could possibly imply him having faced SA then you hate women. obviously.#be serious. this is me just using GA seeing red. not talking abt bftc or how winick also wrote jay's first kill to be a sex trafficker or#how his dialogue following that was a callback to judy. i'm not even making the argument that jason necessarily has to have this history in#every interpretation of him! bc ofc he doesnt most writers never even hinted at this#but you cannot whine about mia's story being “stolen” by fans when fans are simply looking at published canon#mia ends that fight without any serious injuries after jay spent the entire thing giving her what HE thought was solid advice (was it?#well no. but HE thought it was) and you want to pretend his intention was to psychologically torture her using the SA she faced?#i can appreciate dedication to being a hater but i draw the line at being intentionally stupid. you dont even have to agree on winick#implying anything abt jay's past but you cannot say he was mocking her
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I gotta blabber for a sec about how much I appreciate how unique and SO not-simple of an antagonist Olrox is.
like he's introduced as the Vampire Who Kills Richter's Mom, and it was a straight-up murder. Like he fully sought her out, she was in the process of sending her kid overseas most likely because she knew he was coming - even before we fully get Olrox's side of the context, we can tell that shit was personal. Right down to the vivid green eyes, he's giving weirdly chill disney villain vibes. But the entire rest of the show? He's the dude in the bad guy car of the villain train just sitting and judging (OH is he judging) every other person there.
Olrox tracking down and killing Julia Belmont is the most confrontational we ever see him get. Every other scene he's in? He's watching, assessing, sometimes philosophizing, and eventually pulling his own chess moves, but fighting? Rarely! And the additional context of his character makes him even more fascinating!!
Olrox is really one of the only vampires in both Castlevania and C: Nocturne that seems to hold onto a connection to a human's life - even after he's no longer one. He reminisces to Mizrak about being a human during the fall of the Aztec Empire, he chooses to spend his time more like a human than any vamp since Lisa sent Dracula traveling like a human way back when.
Homeboy crossed the Atlantic by fucking ship, at a time when the trip took literal weeks and weeks and he can't even leave his quarters except at nighttime (granted, idk if he *has* a faster way to cross the ocean but it kinda seems like he'd do the ship trip anyways) he chooses to rent a room at an inn instead of staying at the chateau (and boink a cute human in said room, cough cough), and really seems to avoid other vampires - although I'm not sure if that's cuz he just doesn't vibe with 'em in general, or because he really doesn't vibe with the current hot vampire philosophy of the century, which seems to be very heavy-handled colonialism + elitism
I kinda wouldn't be surprised if it's both honestly - given that the only other vampire we meet besides him who spent time in the americas/new world was a literal plantation owning slaver (and unless I misremember, Annette says there were multiple vampires among the rich in St. Domingue), it seems pretty likely to me that whoever turned him was probably a vamp who had a direct hand in the downfall of his nation - coming to the New World specifically for conquest and to seize resources seems like it would be hella appealing for vampires. It would make a LOT of sense for Olrox's standoffish behavior around the other vamps to go back to him having been turned by someone very similar to them, who was probably not just an enemy to him, but part of this massive wave of destructive change in his human life.
like he really gives an impression of actively disliking and withdrawing from every other villain's motivation in this show - and it makes a lot of sense if my speculating is even a little bit close. The vampire's goals in Nocturne would be very nearly the same thing that drove the fall of the Aztec Empire - desire for power and control, justified by some """""natural order"""" hierarchy which really just boils down to 'we want all of this and we're going to indulge in making up a dramatic jerk-off reason why we're entitled to it, since you can't stop us taking it anyways and we've got time'
Dude seems to make little effort to be vampire-like - we rarely see him revel in his power like many other vampires do, as well as seeing him nonchalantly rubbing elbows with humans. He speaks fondly of a man he loved, who he fell for while said guy was still human, TO the other human he is currently crushing on! And I do mean crush, like he doesn't react to or treat Mizrak like a plaything, almost every time we get an Olrox lore-drop it's because he's talking to Mizrak sincerely about things that matter to him. He LIKE-likes this human, to the point of jumping directly into a fight to whisk Le Crush to safety in front of a vampire so powerful he won't directly oppose her! Absolutely fascinating behavior all around.
MAN but I want to see some flashbacks from this guy - as far as we know, vampirism is completely an Old World thing - Europe, Asia, Africa, every other vampire we've seen in both Castlevania shows has been from these continents. Were there even any vamps there at all before europeans landed on the shores of the americas???? I mean, I've heard of one of the old religions in mesoamerica having a suspiciously vampirelike god, but how would that connect to Olrox getting vampirized as a 30ish Aztec man?
MAN OH MAN but I am looking forward to seeing what Olrox gets up to in s2 -I'm burning to know if he's gonna survive the series or not, because despite him being the first villain we meet in Nocturne and doing a deed that usually gets villains the 'karmic death' ending, overall he's not really being written like a bad guy the audience wants to see go down. especially since he's not actually in opposition to our protagonists and has a vested interest in keeping one of Team Good Guys newer members alive. My guess is he's either going to get a similar ending to Isaac, a villain that we root for who actually catches a break and doesn't die, ooorrrrrrrr he's gonna get a Highly Tragic sort of death
#oh wiki says camazotz is from mayan mythology so i have connected no dots actually#although it also says in mesoamerica general bats are associated with death night and sacrifice which DOES sound very vampire-y#olrox#castlevania olrox#castlevania nocturne#castlevania#mizrak#mizrox#FASCINATED by him having (seemingly) turned his old love into a vamp without consent#but when mizrak (whom he is claiming he's NOT in love with) yells at him to let him get back to the final fight godammit#he just ends up watching him go with literal tears in his eyes#ruh roh someone's in WUV DAAAWWWW#MAN but I would pay good money to see Olrox interact with Dracula - the two confirmed vamps we know of who were Down Bad for a human#Dracula would probably be like “My wife is a cooler human than ur boytoy” (and he'd be right)#Mizrak was on the anti-reason/rationality + Protect Churches Not People bandwagon with Abbott Jerkface#he gets the 'not as much of a jerk as you coulda been' award for getting his priorities straight in the last 2 episodes#meanwhile Lisa Tepes literally banged on The Impaler's door and demanded to be taught medicine to use reason and education to help people#im very curious to know what Olrox might think of Dracula's reaction/actions to Lisa's murder#but im DYING to know how he and Alucard might interact this season
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Just one of the many great tragedies of Mishanks' relationship is that sometimes Shanks wants to feel wanted just as he is, that even beyond the strength he is worth the effort he is worth being loved and unfortunately that just isn't something Mihawk can offer him it's just not something he can do, not as he is now at least. That's a level of emotional maturity that he just does not possess to be able to disentangle the strength from the man that makes no sense to him. Strength is all there is. Shanks is a person, has a life outside of his strength, his power is just another aspect of who he is but for Mihawk strength is his whole person, if he is not strong then he is nothing. If shanks is not strong well then....he's nothing to him.
And God that's a lonely way to live.
#Man age 43 only friends 2 decade long situationship and his kids claims he's never been lonely more at 6#the ways having known Perona allow Mihawk to engage in a healthier relationship with Shansk are just gold to me#Because I mantain the fact that young mishanks was very chaotic and some would characterize unhealthy#she teaches him to care for people outside of how well they could measure up to him in a fight#I dont know their relationship seems to make his life fuller kind of#like its implied that he only started his garden after Zoro left#Like he stops seeing the Humandrills as annoying pests and actually starts letting them help out with his garden#he letler use all his good wine to make sangria and adopt errant freaky bear cubs#he even fucking secretly planted cocoa trees (cause he's a fucking weirdo) just to make her favorite drink like come on#he just lets this shrill girl barge into his life and make a home there with minimal objection.#She makes his life full in ways that his relationship just couldnt Zoro. she is so essential to his growth as a character#(you know if oda focused on him longer than once every 12 years)#I love it#one piece#throwing thoughts to the void#dracule mihawk#op#hawkeye mihawk#akagami no shanks#mishanks#shanks#red haired shanks#akataka#mihawk x shanks#perona#perona one piece#ghost princess perona#goth family#goth fam#one piece goth fam
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I am once again thinking about the reluctant ruler whose arc justly and correctly includes assuming the throne and taking responsibility for the people set before them
#it's about simba coming back to pride rock it's about aragorn using andúril to fight for middle earth and assuming the throne it's about#hiccup marrying astrid and assuming his role as chief and moses returning to egypt#and it's about irina loving her people so fully that when she claims all of her subjects as hers that chernobog must release them to her!!!#and it's about miryem choosing to stay with the staryk and repair the damage and assume responsibility for the land and people!!!!!#and! it's! about! gen!!!!#it's ALWAYS about gen!!!!#gen who didn't want to be king. who hated being king and only wanted to marry a queen but who obeyed his gods and became a king over kings#who lost his home and half his family and his HAND but who ushered in a new golden age.#and it's about sophos who ran away but who shot the ambassador and took back his kingdom#it's about duty and it's about sacrifice and it's always ALWAYS about doing the right thing even at great personal cost because it's about#submitting to a power higher than your own. of recognizing that the calling on life is one for serving others and having so much more to#answer for than just yourself. it's knowing duty is love is duty#i cant stand stories where the answer is 'give up the throne and reject your duty' because no!!! you dont get it!!!#thats how you get the monsters!!! thats how you get the prince turned into a beast and thats how you get every terrible weak king that#aragorn feared becoming#to accept your throne is to die to self!!! you are no longer you but 'king' or 'queen'#it's like queen mary says to qeii in the crown 'elizabeth mountbatten must die#elizabeth regina must take her place.'#that's terrifying! but it's also everything!!!!#die! to! self! die! to! self!!!!!!#lilac rambles#lilac goes to the movies#lion king#prince of egypt#lotr#spinning silver#the crown#tqt#the queen's thief#httyd
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TL;DR: Zuko is not winning any Liar of the Year awards here, but he's by not a ‘bad liar’ either. He's also (apparently surprisingly) not sharing his every deep-seated thought and feeling to anyone and everyone and can in fact, keep a secret.
a canon vs fanon Zuko thing thing I see fairly often that I personally disagree with is that Zuko is constantly over-sharing and telling people too much about himself and his problems.
People love to use the Book 1 finale incident when he talks to Aang's unconscious body in the cave, but that feels like a bizarre example because... he's more talking to himself. He's not really talking to Aang. Aang can't hear him. Aang is literally none the wiser. It's not an inappropriate time or person or unreciprocated, and honestly the whole thing is more for the audience to get a sense of what in gods green earth is going through Zuko's mind considering how reckless this action was. And even if Aang was awake I still don't know if you could call it oversharing considering Aang has genuinely tried to reach out to Zuko before and tried to understand him (e.g., the Blue Spirit). Of all people, Aang would likely be the most receptive. Like... net zero information gained...
I've seen people use some examples with Iroh which I personally think is pretty ridiculous to count because it's not like he's saying anything Iroh doesn't already know??? Iroh is like the only one in Zuko's orbit who actually knew all the details about his banishment and trauma. I don't know how any scene Zuko could have with Iroh that you could call over-sharing. Zuko also never said shit to his crew about any of his past for like. two whole years. The most they thought of him was angry and spoiled. They didn't actually know anything about him. like... at all. Jee thought his scar was from a training accident.
People like to also use the scene on the ship with Mai in Book 3 when Zuko is returning to the Fire Nation, but even that feels like a bit of a stretch. Yeah, Mai dismisses him and tries to play it off, but nothing Zuko says feels 'too personal' especially when Mai is supposed to be his girlfriend and Zuko has literally not been home in three years. Telling your girlfriend/someone you trust how you feel in a obviously emotionally turbulent situation is not sharing too much, no matter their reaction or whether they asked first.
MAI: Aren't you cold? ZUKO: I've got a lot on my mind. It's been so long, over three years since I was home. I wonder what's changed. I wonder how I've changed. MAI: [Yawns.] I just asked if you were cold, I didn't ask for your whole life story. [Zuko frowns at her sarcastic response. Mai giggles and holds his face in her hands.] MAI: Stop worrying.
Another example I see is when Zuko rants to the badgerfrog. Again, not really an example since the badgerfrog is not a person and the story needed Zuko to Say Things Out Loud so we have some clue about what he's thinking. It's the same thing with the unconscious Aang. It's not oversharing. It's venting. And once again - net zero information achieved!!
Like, none of these instances feel like he's revealed too much information. None of it feels inappropriate in the context of the story.
I think people get 'over-sharer' and 'openly wearing your emotions' lines confused sometimes, but even that gets misconstrued in fandom.
I don't think that Zuko being more open with his emotions than other characters is an incorrect conclusion to make, however, I think there's something to be said about Zuko in book 1 and 2 using anger and rage as a coping mechanism rather than being vulnerable with his emotions.
Zuko will talk about his feelings a lot more in Book 3, which is actually super important to his arc, since he doesn't actually talk about his feelings in a real way in Book 1 and 2 (he's angry most of the time, and the only times I can remember when he does really talk about how he actually feels is usually when things have gotten Real Bad like when Zhao takes his ship or it's the anniversary of his banishment). In Book 3, he's really thinking and reflecting on how he feels and how he felt in different situations.
Even the 'Zuko is a bad liar' gets WAY over-played in fanon!
Yeah Zuko is not great at thinking on his feet when confronted, but it seems very context dependent, actually.
When in dangerous situations, while he's definitely not winning any Best Liar Ever Awards, he's not a bumbling fool either -
Zuko lies to Zhao about the Blue Spirit swords:
ZHAO: I didn't know you were skilled with broadswords, Prince Zuko. ZUKO: I'm not. They're antiques. Just decorative.
While not ultimately convincing, his delivery of it is far from terrible. The circumstances are against him here, though, after all, there are few people who hate Zhao enough to commit treason to stop him from capturing the Avatar than Zuko.
Zuko lies to Zhao about having found the Avatar:
ZHAO: [Pulls up alongside Zuko and smirks.] Two years at sea have done little to temper your tongue. So, how is your search for the Avatar going? ZUKO: [Aggressively.] We haven't found him yet. ZHAO: Did you really expect to? The Avatar died a hundred years ago. [Close-up of Zuko, as he slants his eyes.] Along with the rest of the airbenders. [Close-up of Zhao, whose face contorts in an evil expression.] Unless you have found some evidence that the Avatar is alive? ZUKO: [Faces Zhao and responds very clearly.] No. [Stares back in front of him.] Nothing. ZHAO: [With an expression of disbelief on his face, as he rises from his chair.] Prince Zuko, the Avatar is the only one who can stop the Fire Nation from winning this war. [Leans in and faces Zuko.] If you have an ounce of loyalty left, you'll tell me what you found. ZUKO: I haven't found [Looks up at Zhao and his tone becomes slightly more aggressive.] anything. [Close-up, as he continues on a softer tone, slightly mockingly.] It's like you said. The Avatar probably died a long time ago. [Gets up.] Come on, Uncle, we're going.
I'm not trying to say Zuko is secretly this great liar, but his effort here is commendable. It's his directness that gives him away, but he's not afraid, or nervous, or stumbling over his words like he's often portrayed to be.
Zuko confidently lies to Jet about not being a firebender:
[while on the ferry; you can see Zuko thinks for a second Jet knows who he really is. Jet doesn't pick up on this, and Zuko plays off his fear].
JET: You know, as soon as I saw your scar, I knew exactly who you were. You're an outcast, like me. And us outcasts have to stick together. We have to watch each other's backs. Because no one else will. ZUKO: I've realized lately that being on your own isn't always the best path.
[during Zuko and Jet's fight]
JET: Bet you wish he'd help you out with a little fire blast right now. [As Jet swings at Zuko's feet, Zuko stabs one of his broadswords through the hilt, pinning it to the ground. Jet looks at it with annoyance before focusing back on Zuko.] ZUKO: You're the one who needs help.
Zuko, throughout these interactions, plays off Jet's comments. He's learnt to be vague sometimes (like on the ferry to Ba Sing Se) and be confident when refuting someone. Yeah Zuko did go straight for Bodily Harm but that's very on brand to me.
Zuko lies to Chit Sang about the escape plan without hesitation:
SUKI: But how are you going to get the cooler out? CHIT SANG: [From the staircase.] Yeah, how are you going to get the cooler out? [Jumps down.] SOKKA: [Covering up.] What? We didn't ... w-we didn't say that. ZUKO: Yeah, you heard wrong. CHIT SANG: I heard you hatching an escape plan, and I want in. ZUKO: [stern] There's nothing to get in on. SOKKA: Yeah, the only thing we're hatching is ... an egg? [Zuko lowers his head and Suki covers her eyes while they both sigh in annoyance.]
Zuko comes up with a lie to tell the guards at the Boiling Rock about keeping his helmet on:
MALE GUARD: Hey, new guy! I know it's the rule to have your helmet on at all times, but this is the lounge. Relax. ZUKO: [plays it up] But what if there's an incident? If I'm not prepared, someone could strike me on the head. [The guards laugh.] FEMALE GUARD: Give it a week, he'll loosen up.
However, Zuko most often has the most difficulty lying to people who are kind to him (and who are Azula tbh) -
In Crossroads of Destiny, Zuko and Iroh are now refugees and Zuko bungles this conversation with Song:
ZUKO: [Nervously] Yes, we're travellers. SONG: you have names? ZUKO: Names? Of course we have names. I'm, uh ... Lee and this is my Uncle, uh ... Mushi?
In Tales of Ba Sing Se, Zuko struggles to find even ground with Jin and doesn't know how to answer her questions:
ZUKO: You have ... quite an appetite for a girl. [He fiddles his thumbs awkwardly.] JIN: [Uncomfortably.] Umm ... thanks? So, Lee, where were you and your uncle living before you came here? ZUKO: Umm ... well, we've been traveling around for a long time. JIN: Oh. Why were you traveling so much? ZUKO: We were ... uh, part of this traveling circus. JIN: Really? What did you do? Wait, lemme guess. [She thinks for a moment and quickly points at him.] You juggled! ZUKO: [Zuko folds his arms and looks annoyed.] Yes, I juggled.
In Zuko Alone, he's at a loss for words when asked his name:
SELA: Does this guy have a name? ZUKO: [Nervously.] I'm... uh... GANSU: [Off-camera.] He doesn't have to say who he is if he doesn't want to, Sela. [Cuts to shot of him standing with his family.] Anyone who can hold his own against those bully soldiers is welcome here. Those men should be ashamed to wear Earth Kingdom uniforms.
Listen, he's not weaving any incredible tales here, but he's not this bumbling little uwu boy who's completely helpless without Iroh or the Gaang that for some reason is incredibly persistent in fan depictions of him.
#like people love to say he trauma dumps but WHEN? to WHOM?#the gaang literally never even find out how he got his scar thats why there are 9890245049 fics on it#not even zuko's crew knew#anyway my whole point here is that you can portray zuko as being a bad liar and someone who wears their emotions loudly#without reducing him to a just a widdle guy... just a little baby boy who needs care 24/7#og zuko is fighting fire navy commanders and breaking into impenetrable locations for funsies#he's NOT holding back babes that is the problem!!#i guess u could argue he shares more in book 3 like when he talks about his experience at the war meeting when he returns home but tbh i#think it would be way weirder if he just.... mentioned the genocide plan and didn't comment at all how he felt about it#anyway zuko is NOT dark and mysterious. he will beat ur ass in the street and confide in u in strange vague ways and rob rich people with u#while also claiming that he Does Not Want To Be Your Friend#(you can contact him again for Crimes though that's fine)#can u tell the jet and zuko friendship is endlessly funny and compelling to me#ch: zuko#atla#avatar#hattie talks#ch: iroh#ch: zhao#media: original#from: txt#book: one#book: two
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Conservatism is an inherently insecure mindset, and I'm so over it. How pathetic do you have to be to believe that other people being allowed to exist and live in dignity is enough to annihilate your "culture?" How fucking scared do you have to be to think that not being allowed the right to violence against any person or idea that doesn't specifically empower specifically you and people like you is going to destroy you?
Yeah, reality doesn't care about your feelings. That's why you can't be digging your heels into your worldview, measuring the validity of all information ou take in by how much it confirms your preexisting biases and beliefs. The world, the laws of nature, biology, all of it is so much weirder than you think. If you can't allow yourself to change your views when presented with new information, then you're going to be left behind, because the universe could not give less of a fuck if you think that something is "stupid" or "impossible" or "disgusting," or even "dangerous," the world will keep on fuckin' spinning whether or not you agree with its lifestyle.
I'm just so over it, man. Grow the fuck up and face the fact that the world you live in isn't the one you were told exists. It's scary and it'll mean you have to be wrong, or have been the bad guy, or be embarassed sometimes. It'll mean acknowledging that the world is so much bigger and, yes, definitionally more diverse than you realized, or want it to be, or think it should be, and you're just gonna have to fucking deal with it.
The world isn't about you. Other people's lives aren't your business and it's not your place to dictate how other people should live. You're just one person in a world of billions. It gets so much less upsetting and scary to live in it when you stop telling yourself that everyone who lives in a way you don't like is somehow a threat.
This doesn't mean letting people be assholes without consequences, it means realizing that you do not have special permission to be an asshole to other people because you're "right" and they're "a freak." It means realizing that your religious beliefs and your ideas of morality are not, and should not be, universal. It means going "huh.. guess I learned something new" instead of "that's bullshit, real life doesn't work like that" when you're presented with ideas that conflict with your beliefs. It means shutting the fuck up and just being uncomfortable in silence, sometimes, because sometimes in life you're just gonna be made uncomfortable, and that's not actually an act of violence against you, even and especially if the thing you're uncomfortable with is someone else's body.
It's never too late to change, and it's not shameful to have work left to do on changing. It's not shameful to be wrong, and it's not shameful to still be in progress. That's just what life is. Stop being so scared to show evidence of being only human; flawed, fallible, limited. The other 8 billion of us are in the same boat. You could just appreciate the solidarity and connection of it, if you wanted, you just have to stop trying to make it "your" boat.
#problemnyatic rambles#problemnyatic thoughts#this one is less coherent. I'm just sick of people being terminally insecure and making it everyone else's problem#If you'd just stop trying to fucking prove something all the time over everyone forever maybe you'd be half as happy as you claim to be#happy people don't go picking fights and yelling slurs and hunting down individuals who are just trying to live their own lives in dignity
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Imogen Temult, Exaltant Hope of the Red Storm
Heroes and Monsters by Penny & Sparrow // Critical Role Campaign 3
#thinking about the 4sd where laura was talking about how all the hells titles are good but imogens sounds like it has a double meaning#that shes the storm's hope rather than just the intended a hope that comes from the storm.#and all of imogens 'i am the storm' esque responses#something something what does it mean to turn away from the storm when the storm is inextricable from who you are on both a psychological#and metaphysical level. how do you turn away from your fate when its already in your veins#imogen answers: you don't! you take it into you. and i think that's fun!#me holding imogen's arc in my hands so I can look away from the context it exists in: this is wonderful#critical role#imogen temult#cr3#bell's hells#predathos#liliana temult#also god. i really miss fcg and imogen. not only was fcg the only witness to a lot of imogen's most significant moments of internal conflic#he was also often the only one that could successfully get her to elaborate on vague claims she would make about how she feels about#the moon and the storm and their fight and all her fear and her willingness to be scared and still do the Right thing even if it risks her#life. and I remember how much fcg's presence was often imogen's impetutus to take seriously that the gods matter to people. because imogen#was the first and often the loudest one to insist fcg had a soul. but it wasn't until the magic of the everlight through pike and their#realization of a meaning through the changebringer that fcg really began to value themself. and she saw how much the gods really could be#this powerful and good force in a person's life beyond just granting them magic. and it led to her often pushing back against (thought ofte#in over delicate and tentative ways) ashton's claims against the gods. but fcg is gone and he died for the hells. and imogen doesn't have#that ever present reminder amongst the storm that the choices she makes will echo out farther than the people she cares about.#also just. they were besties 2 me. they bullied each other but also put the most effort into both challenging and understanding each other.#actually. now thinking about it. fcg and imogen had maybe the most illustrative dynamic of what bh could've been and failed to be. alas ala#cr spoilers#my post#long post#web weaving#web weave#cr edit
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i feel like almost everything in utena has sort of already been extensively discussed in the last two (almost three) decades of utena's existence (not that there aren't new interpretations to be made, there always are) besides black rose arc (mikage+mamiya+tokiko). which is why they're so much fun to think about. i think the need to read between the lines makes it unfortunately easy to misunderstand or look past obvious stuff if you don't pay attention, but to me it's always been really obvious that mikage's arc is a literal representation of the erasure of queerness in ohtori (society?) by akio/everything he represents. and that's so fucking tragic! nemuro was never able to find a name for his desires. he lived and died as a puppet in the shadows.
#rgu#i think sadly that trigger warning list that people always passed around kind of stunted discussion bc of the assumptions it made#like. i think its okay to say that mikage/nemuro was always in love with mamiya and not tokiko#not that its impossible to interpret him as bisexual (similar to how people see utena as bisexual)#but his love for mamiya is what changed his life (same for utena/her meeting anthy)#one scene i never see people bring up is how#at one point mikage says that attaining eternity wouldn't even make 'her' happy#and then akio questions '''her'' you say?'#the only reason mikage thinks attaining eternity wouldnt even make 'her' i.e 'tokiko' happy is because he just had a conversation#with mamiya where he admitted the whole endeavor was making him unhappy#if anything it would have made tokiko happy to attain eternity and forever preserve her brother like a dead flower#which is what akio does with anthy! so fucked!#ALSO another thing#is that mikage sees utena as tokiko returned#just like how utena meets 'dios' - returned as akio#he claims he will finally beat tokiko - in this place (the dueling arena) - which is kind of foreshadowing utena fighting akio?????#anthy!mamiya says to mikage in the black rose musical:#“You can’t win against her. You will eternally lose to my sister who dwells in your memories.”#or “You will never beat my sister; who dwells in your memories.” in the nozomient translation#which makes so much sense because anthy couldn't believe utena could win against akio either#god i could literally keep going#by read between the lines i mean like how akio actively tries to lie to the audience by saying things like#'mamiya was created for you out of your lingering attachment to tokiko'#of course nemuro/mikage being gay isn't all there is to him bc like always everything in utena has 1000 layers#really love the general theme of becoming static and unchanged forever bc of our attachment to nostalgia/memories/eternity#(re: can't grow up)#tho in mikages case he is literally just a ghost summoned by akio. which the utena sega saturn vn confirms#also definitely people talk about black rose arc (i.e me right now) but i feel like the majority of the fandom kind of side steps it#on tumblr specifically at least?? im not on the fansite forums or discord#rgu meta
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Get deeply upset when we see people in DID support communities complaining about people who are open about their condition in any way which is not mourning.
There is an inherent ableist bias in society that people of any handicap must perform their disability to be considered legitimate. Every person who suffers any form of chronic illness, physical or mental, is subject to this discrimination.
The solution is not, can not and will not ever be to criticize and shame people who are not performing illness to an acceptable level for public. Mentally ill people do not owe the world a performance and blaming other marginalized people for your oppression will not release you from it.
Angry that this is a point we must continue to argue.
#utility tag#did#watch me post my trauma in public#getting into a fight in a support group because a person hates anyone who shares their condition in public#they disguise it as 'you are promoting further dissociation if you treat parts as people'#but then claim that people must pick a lane between legitimacy or 'fun antics'#truly enraging behavior#permit the use of this blog to vent a little
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For those of ya'll who were able to vote and didn't vote Kamala. Specifically, those who were able to vote and chose not to vote at all.
I know some of you have reason to dislike or even hate her. But as much as you may hate to acknowledge it, voting for her would have been 1000x better and more honorable than not voting at all.
I was a first time voter. As a young trans person living in an increasingly anti-trans country, this meant everything to me. I may no longer be a minor, but I am 19, and I am young in many ways. I have friends who are still in high school, still not old enough to vote, who are terrified for their lives and safety right now. Young trans people who are being targeted and depend on us to help them. But not just trans folks. POC, immigrants & children of immigrants, women, AFABs, victims of SA, general queer folk, and so many others.
Not long ago, I was unable to vote. I was powerless. This was the first time in my life I felt like I had real power over my future and safety. I and so many other first time voters had finally gotten to have a voice, something we had been denied for long despite it affecting everything about our lives. We had finally gotten the right to vote.
And some of ya'll-- and I know most of ya'll are adults who aren't first time voters --who had the privilege of being able to influence your country, who are able to do something about it, who have the power in your hands to do something- anything. You chose not to vote. You chose to throw it away.
You can hate her. That's your right. You can disagree with me. That's your right. But if you chose not to vote when you could have, knowing how many people whose lives depended on the outcome of this election? Knowing how many young people out there rely on your vote because they cannot advocate for themselves and their freedoms?
If you chose to throw away your vote knowing how many people depended on you...
get the fuck off my blog
#if you reply trying to argue on this you're getting blocked#i don't give a shit anymore#i don't feel like playing nice anymore#i play nice all the time and i'm tired of having to listen to some of you insufferable self-rightous assholes#you prefer sticking by your ideals and claim to fight for the disadvantaged#and yet you refuse to use one of the greatest privileges you have when millions of people both in and out of the us are relying on you#fuck you#like actually#go fuck yourself#get off my blog#us elections#us politics#fucking vote#voting#election 2024
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Raised in Amphibia AU Marcy has a very complicated relationship with Andrias. They love each other and see each other as father and daughter. He never yells at her, never raised a hand at her, yet she's so utterly terrified of him. She doesn't even know why she feels like this, but all she wants is to not lose his love and to make him proud, and feels like she's always in debt, always failing at earning her place, always desperately two steps behind, never quite pleasing him.
She gives up so much of herself to earn his love and approval... she keeps most of her less useful interests secret, she doesn't have any friends except for maybe Lady Olivia, she drops whatever she's doing, no matter how important, to go to her father when he calls her, she "forgets" about her feelings when they're inconvenient to him...
She used to wear her hair long because he liked it. He never pressured her to wear it like that, possibly didn't even notice the effects his words had on her, but he once said it's what's traditional for the Leviathan royal family, and that it looked good in her, and she was determined to keep hers as long as possible, until one day she can't handle all the stress and anxiety and she desperately cuts it all in her bedchambers. Now it's so short, barely reaching her jaw. She cried herself to sleep that night. Andrias didn't say anything about it, only that it looked nice, and Marcy feels her heart sink - she let it grow for years no matter how uncomfortable it was or how little she liked it for nothing.
#amphibia#raised in amphibia au#marcy wu#andrias leviathan#marcy leviathan#princess marcy#princess marcy leviathan#cutting her hair wasn't premeditated. she did it while having a breakdown#it was her nervous system's impulse to fight in any way possible. to reclaim as much control as she possibly could.#only for andrias to later gaslight her into thinking there was something to fight against#that she was just imagining things to think her hair represented anything#it makes her feel really stupid looking back#and the court whispers about her change in look and how non-traditional she looks. everyone already questioned her status#as a legitimate leviathan princess and rightful heir to the throne#some even denied she was a newt at all! could you believe that? her dad is a newt - what else could she be?#now she breaks tradition by cutting her hair as short as a boy's? oh what would her grandfather say!#the odd rouguish farm girl with curly hair and a bright smile who claims not to be neither frog nor toad not newt despite looking#an awful lot like Marcy...#she visits her in Newtopia every now and then and she had the biggest smile when she saw her again after her little Anxiety Makeover#she ruffled her hair and told her she looked ''amazing'' and ''really really beautiful'' and ''absolutely adorable''#it was rare for people to think Marcy was pretty - most newts thought she was monstruously deformed -#but this girl never held back on compliments. maybe she saw her in a better light because they were equally deformed#but it always makes Marcy's chest bloom with warmth#and that day as they were catching up - chatting in the palace rooftops - sharing sweets stolen from the kitchens - Marcy felt so *free*#my posts#marcanne#technically sashannarcy but like eventually
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Every now and again I wonder if maybe all trans people face roughly the same amount of bigotry and one just gets more attention, but then i have to read terf posts and.
wow.
obviously every group of trans identities faces their own struggles and unique oppression but there's this incredibly vitriolic kind of hatred reserved for transfems and its sickening.
#ramble#trans#i have a lot of thoughts about terfs i wrote them down somewhere at some point but really theyre just misogyny all the way down#transmascs are poor misled little meow meows who dont realize they just have internalized misogyny. transfems are the embodyment of all evi#nonbinaries are... not talked about. because they ruin the bioessentialism if you think about it critically#to be fair any amount of critical thinking ruins bioessentialism#if gender isnt a social construct why do different societies have different versions of gender. do you never sit down and think for a momen#and like so much of the ideology is wasted hating individuals rather than the actual systems that produce them.#the sex worker thing pisses me off so much. how can you claim to protect women while you shit on the most vulnerable.#“sex work bad because no woman actually wants to do it” like even if that were true (it isnt) the problem wouldnt be sex work#the problem would be capitalism and people having to do things they dont want to make a living.#dismantle capitalism not gender neutral bathrooms#being a man isnt genetic and neither is being evil. the former at least has a genetic predisposition.#whether some people are born evil is like a massive philosophical debate on top of the socio-biological#and like. dont you have anything better to do in your feminism?#like actual problems to fight rather than someone down the street? what progress are you hoping for here?#were losing access to reproductive rights but hoo boy good thing we get to share a scapegoat with our oppressors? really?#theyre not gonna give you equal pay just because you refuse to engage with biology past the 6th grade.#actually im pretty sure we already covered some rudimentary sex/gender stuff in 6th grade but my school mightve been an outlier#definitely compared to the us school system but whatever the point stands#crimes against the gender convention#long ramble in the tags apparently#transgender#queer
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"IDW Megatron got a redemption arc and Starscream didn't it's so unfair--"
Do not slander Metalhawk, Bumblebee, and Windblade's hard work trying to fix this man they didn't work for half the continuity (and in 2/3 of their cases) literally die and come back as zombies/ghosts for y'all to be out there saying no one helped Starscream get redeemed and have friends and be a better person
#squiggposting#i'm so fucking confused why people keep saying this honestly#'M got a redemption so why can't SS' HE LITERALLY DID LIKE HE LITERALLY DID#this was the subject of most of his character development in exrid/op and wb/taao did you just not see it?#i don't get it bc like. even if you try to argue that M got to have friends and validation and shit. so did SS#SS lost his power and then died saving the world at the end#M also lost all his power and prestige and then went to his execution at the end#STRICTLY IN TERMS OF IDW1 they literally both got redeemed idk why ppl are piss fighting about this#and i would expect ppl who are SS fans to like. BE AWARE OF all the story content he got in idw1#mscott clearly liked SS based on how she made him so sympathetic (even dealing with his M related trauma!)#barber said via word of god once that SS is his favorite decepticon#you literally can't even claim that the writers were just biased against him#i dont get it. like of all ppl to know all of SS's lore i would expect SS fans to be the one to know it#is it bc their hateboner for mscott and non-reading of barber is just that strong? i dont get it
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