#you don't have to justify every bad thing they've done to like them

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

Jedi: *start training when they're fourteen at the earliest, don't have solo missions until they have several years of training in their shoulders and are Knighted/become socially adults in their early twenties*

SW Fandom: They indoctrinate babies and use them as child soldiers 🤬!

Mandalorians: *they actually indoctrinate babies into their culture after killing their parents, and finish training them at thirteen*

SW Fandom: They adopt and protect children 😍

JA series has the aging out at thirteen thing, but considering Ahsoka was asigned to Anakin at fourteen and he thought she was too young, that shows have canonity priority over everything but the movies, aging out at thirteen is not canon. Ahsoka in TCW is the same age Padmé is in TPM. The Jedi are unironically the ones who take child protection the most seriously in the GFFA.

Mandalorians take their children into warzones to train them at eight years old, and are considered adults at thirteen. This is in the Karen Traviss worldbuilding, which I'm sure most of us despise, but it has yet to be contradicted by new movies, shows or even books, so unfortunately it's still canon.

[leupagus]

So I've noticed a trend in the Pitt fandom

And it is not a trend unique to the Pitt by any means, let me be clear! But it is a tiring trend, and one I'd like to see a bit less of, because as someone who's been in fandom spaces for over thirty years, I can attest that such trends can make your fandom experience really, really unpleasant.

It is the trend of the Condemnatory Vaguepost:

Like this one.

The Condemnatory Vaguepost is a post which points out perceived shortcomings in some amorphous "you" or "they" within the fandom while the OP mocks/belittles/otherwise insults (note the "y'all truly amuse me" and "trying to be Woke" and "control yourself a bit please" comments) from a place of presumed moral superiority. A moral superiority which, it has to be pointed out, is never proven or even alluded to. We are supposed to take OP's moral superiority as read because they have identified a "bad thing" that people are doing.

And guys, I've got a recommendation: instead of engaging with people or work that inspires posts like this? Just block them.

Block the people who have takes that annoy you. Block the people who make snide comments about the headcanons you treasure. Block the people who make headcanons you find annoying or problematic or just plain gross. Block me, if this post pisses you off! Block anyone who makes you clench your teeth as you scroll past their posts. You do not need them in your life; you should not want them in your fandom.

"But Gus, decrepit fandom elder," I hear you cry, "what if these people who annoy me have subsequent Content that I cannot then access? "

I have good news for you on that front! They won't. They may well offer valuable contributions to the fandom as a whole, but here's the thing: if you're willing to write a whole post about how these kingdon shippers/robby apologists/etc are stupid/bigoted/etc, then you personally will be annoyed by them even if they make a really great fancam or art or fic or meta, and that will drain all the enjoyment out of whatever it is they contribute. And if you think, "No, I could get over that," then perhaps rethink the value in making these kinds of condemnatory vagueposts at all.

"But Gus, nefarious fandom crone," I hear you cry, "how then can I hope to change the hearts of minds of those I think are doing Bad Things and thinking Bad Thoughts about the characters on The Pitt?"

I have bad news for you on that front! You can't. You will never — and I mean never — win anyone over, or inspire them to change their minds with this kind of behavior. A mel/frank shipper who reads the quoted post is not going to feel shame and remorse for that fic they kudosed last night that made Abby out to be some sort of suffering saint who was relieved to be rid of Frank, only for Mel to fix him with her magic vagina. That mel/frank shipper is instead going to be mad, and hurt, and not for one second think that OP meant to do anything but anger and hurt them. (Which, as far as I can see, is a perfectly justifiable reading.)

And let us be honest with ourselves: the purpose of these posts isn't to change minds. It's to get a little zing of pleasure from telling other people they've done something bad. It's the tattletale impulse we all have, to either appeal to a higher authority and get someone in "trouble" or to simply gloat over our own purity of mind/spirit/body. I've been watching a lot of "Cadfael" lately, and let me tell you, Brother Jerome is within us all.

I don't know that this trend is getting worse — it's been rife in every fandom I've been in, and as I said above, I've been guilty of it myself. (In fact you could argue that I'm still guilty of it, by making this post. Certainly I've lived long enough to look back with shame and regret for a LOT of my behavior, spanning multiple fandoms. My moral superiority here is located somewhere in the Mariana Trench.) But it is startlingly strident considering that this is a new fandom, without any previous franchise (unless you count ER) and which has brought together a huge variety of old fans, new fans, young fans and returning fans. We haven't had the years or decades needed to establish the sort of unspoken rules of what is Just Not Done within the fandom yet. So it's honestly bewildering to see so many different ideas and opinions and preferences being expressed, side-by-side with posts about how those ideas and opinions and preferences are obviously in violation of some standard.

And all of it, all of it, is happening because we watched a TV show about hot doctors and we wanted to talk to someone else about it. That's all a fandom really is — a group of people coming together to discuss a shared interest. And a pretty nerdy one at that.

Tl;dr — we're all at the devil's sacrament, maybe we don't have to point fingers quite so gleefully.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Sorry, I know this isn't the point of your post but the idea that Jason Todd of all people is the most popular character for Batfamily fanfiction blows my mind. He's my absolute top pick for "this character should have stayed dead and nothing they've done with them since bringing them back justified it."

I really disagree with you there! First of all, I don't like that Jason died in the first place--the reasoning for him being unpopular was very. of it's time. I personally do not mind that Jason may have killed a rapist, and I enjoyed him as Robin. Holding a poll to kill a child character and then killing him in SUCH a violent, painful and drawn out way is...in poor taste at best...I'd call it gross and ghoulish, myself.

Yes, he's a fictional character. But this is from the same company that was like 'we hate this kid maybe we should give him AIDS' because that's apparently a punishment or whatever and also said "cripple the bitch" about Babs. They way they treat these characters, and encourage fans to treat them, speaks of deeply held attitudes. Like we can't pretend classism wasn't involved here any more than we can pretend it wasn't misogyny with Babs, the aids thing was 100% "well he's a dirty street kid why wouldn't he get aids!!!"

It fostered a really fucked mentality in fans, and it's just incredibly close to torture porn too. Aaaand it and the Killing Joke pretty much ruined the Joker as a villain he cannot be fun or tbh, interesting anymore, the fact that a kid died being Robin ruins the wish fufillment of Robin and makes Batman look horrible for letting kids fight crime , when it's NOT supposed to be realistic! It's supposed to be fun and cool and a genre convention!

Jason was also relentlessly victim blamed after he died. Like I've been going through some comics where Jason was just mentioned and 75% of the time they find some way to blame it on him, he 'disobeyed orders' he 'wasn't skilled and all he had was anger' (that one's super bizarre because he was never presented as incompetent)... One thing that's happened as a result of his resurrection is the characters don't consistently do that anymore since it's awkward to do it when he's right there and he does not agree it was his fault (rightly!)

Second, they'd done absolutely pretty much every story they could do about his death anyway in the fifteen years. Bruce grieving, every member of the Batfamily hallucinating him, comparing everything reckless thing any Robin or Batgirl or Spoiler does to Jason, cute little ghost appearances, it's all been done. So like...why not bring him back if that leads to a new story? That's the thing with comics ongoing forever and a big reason I think characters tend to come back from the dead a lot. If your story is neverending, you'll naturally come to 'hey what if so and so was alive again".

So I don't really think there needs to be a justification for coming back, it was a poorly written story that shouldn't have happened in the first place, and also why not, there's a lot of interesting directions it could have gone in.

The way it was executed was bad. Lost Days is a surprisingly solid comic rereading it again, but other than that. man, The writing for Jason was a mess. But that doesn't mean he should have stayed dead, just that DC sucks at writing.

But he seems solid in a couple more recent comics I read in the Jason doc, and I think he's a fun character in Wayne Family Adventures (it's for kids and sometimes a little saccharine, yeah, but it means he's at least consistently characterized.) You definitely can write him well or at least as interesting.

Jason being popular with fans (particularly fanficcers, a good portion of whom are women) isn't really a big suprise--he is edgy and angsty and sarcastic boy and has the most tragic and broken relationship with Bruce probably which means daddy issues and family drama galore, which fanfic loves. and also is mad at Bruce the most and anyone who has to read Batman will want to rage at this man too so. I get it.

(There's also the fact that all the times he did "excessive force" as Robin involved violence against women (or children, once). This was definitely not on purpose, it was just because DC considered it to be EDGIEST THING, but it does make it easy to sympathize with his POV over Bruce when you read that).

And also seemingly BECAUSE DC doesn't handle him great-- a lot of the top fanfics (and ones I've read) are alternate takes on what could have happened-- what if catatonic Jason was found before Talia got him, what if she decided to bring him home after the Lazarus pit, what if the first meeting with Tim had gone differently, etc etc. And a lot of them are pretty good! I am all for kid Jason coming back and having good things happen to him and him actually awkwardly reinitegrating with everyone...it's really interesting.

So yeah, I get it re: Jason. I just think the girls are just as interesting, and it's very notable you have to go through pages and pages on Ao3 to get anything focused on one of them when you sort by kudos (I actually didn't find any...it was making me too annoyed so I didn't keep searching. There was one goofy one that Stephanie played a big role in at least)

[flythesail]

Alright so, overall I actually really liked that last arc. It felt "andor" and it was fun in a way that made sense. Easily the most I enjoyed the show throughout the season, especially getting to see the dynamic between Cassian, Kay, and Melshi. Like it was just fun and if I exclude the context surrounding it, Cassian felt decently in character too.

But with that being said, the focus still felt so off. I did like getting to see Kleya's backstory with Luthen. Dedicating a whole episode to it right in the final stretch is something I questioned. But I could justify it with Luthen's importance to the show and hey, I do want to know more about Kleya. Yet they didn't really... drop the Luthen focus.

Isn't this supposed to be Cassian's show? Instead we have Cassian monologuing and explaining how Luthen was good and bad but oh yeah look at his impact. I know his impact. I've watched the show lol. Yet it still feels like such an odd note to end on, because what is my takeaway from this show supposed to be?

Rogue one stands out to me because it's about the "little guy." You know, you don't notice them but they still make a difference. Maybe that difference goes unnoticed too - but it still matters. S1 of andor felt on par with that, whether that be the Aldhani heist, the Narkina prison escape, or the community rising up on Ferrix.

S2 on the other hand... felt all over the place. We meet a handful of Ghormans, but to be honest, I don't know a single one of their names. It was about the technicalities of a revolution, not the people behind it. When someone from our main cast shows up, they're popping in and out for a conversation. Or in Cinta's case, killed on the spot to give Vel this monologue that really goes nowhere. Vel disappears for pretty much the rest of the show.

There's so many threads that were started and never finished. Like Wilmon with the Partisans. There's so much cool stuff they could have done in the lead up to rogue one with them. Even Cassian's main thread felt unfinished. Because at the end of s1, he looks at Luthen with tears in his eyes and says "Kill me or take me in." That is a man committed to the rebellion. But is he? Nope.

Just as a character he was so wishy washy. Even something like his disinterest in being involved in Ghorman is questionable to me. Because he's making the argument to Luthen that by being involved, it's going to end in disaster for them. But here's the thing: regardless of whether they're involved, the Ghormans are still going to fight. He doesn't get to take the moral high ground by... trying to exit the main narrative? No. You're the main character. Get back in there.

Yet this season didn't even seem to treat Cassian as the main character. He steals a tie fighter for... literally no reason. Then he... has some conversations. And he still wants out! He's given so much! Bix leaves him so he stays. Because he's ooooh so special. Forget that what makes him special is that he's NOT special. He's special for real now. The Force says so too.

Nearly every decision made this season felt like a missed opportunity. We didn't get to watch Cassian become rogue one Cassian. We got to watch him be reprimanded because he's so cool and never follows orders, but somehow is still trustworthy enough to be promoted to captain. Nevermind the fact that his whole journey in rogue one is this being the ONE time he defies orders! This is andor, so honestly, we don't need to bother with rogue one here. Oh, it's the prequel? Oops.

Moreover, the same could be said of Bix. She's a mechanic. Give her something to fix! It is not!!!! That hard!!!! I understand she's traumatized but omg she's allowed to do something other than sit around and make Cassian tea. When Vel comes to see her, it's to talk about Cassian. Bix as a character revolves around Cassian more than the actual show did. I'm not even going to get into the baby of it all. They've already reduced Bix to every poorly written trope possible so what's one more at this point.

I'm really not sure what happened this season. Even when the show made choices I didn't necessarily agree with in regard to rogue one, it worked in s1 because the writing felt intentional and strong enough I could deal. I won't blame the time jumps either because s1 is proof they know how to write contained stories within the larger story. All they had to do was replicate s1 and add a year between every three episodes.

If I have to blame someone, it has to be Tony Gilroy. The way he talks about rogue one is so weird. Like how "we have no idea what Saw's oxygen mask is for." Um, I don't think anyone has ever wondered that. He's seen some battles so he's probably injured. He doesn't need to huff some gas for that to make sense. Despite all that, it was still one of the more memorable moments of the season. As close as we got to an "One Way Out" monologue moment the whole season. This season felt like it was lacking the screen presence that made s1 special and it all comes back to the character writing.

Tony Gilroy also outright admits he killed Cinta to give Vel this great speech. She's brought back for all of five minutes beforehand. It's bad writing no matter what, but then you add on the fact she's a queer woman of color and like okay there is clearly no awareness of what's being written here. But the fact Tony Gilroy outwardly admits the intent with Cinta tells me he sees no issue with it. No, he's patting himself on the back. (And side note: it's already an issue that a lot of the minor characters that are more or less there to be killed are played by actors of color. That's not a way to fit in more diversity, it's a concerning pattern.)

I am guessing here, but I don't think Tony Gilroy likes to collaborate. Look at how he takes all the credit for rogue one. I think he hates rogue one tbh. He's also said a couple times now once the scripts are written, they are locked in. And he doesn't spend much time on set. S2 did overlap with the strikes quite a bit, but other than maybe actor schedules, it sounds like the scripts were done before that anyhow.

A thing I remember hearing SO much during the writer strikes is how vital it is that writers get to be on set. That's how they learn to write better scripts, and they're available to make adjustments when things are not working. Maybe someone comes up with something better on the spot! Maybe it's as simple as it's raining, so they need to pivot and move a scene inside. Idk.

Point-being collaboration is so critical to tv creation and Tony Gilroy does not seem to view writing as this fluid thing that sometimes needs to change. It makes me wonder if as they were filming anyone felt like mmm maybe this isn't so good. But it's what made the final cut so. We'll never know.

At its best, andor should have been a love letter to rogue one. I imagine disney saw it as a safe bet. Rogue one did well, so they can build upon that. New but not new-new. And they could still get their points with Diego as their lead, but it's not... really controversial if you know what I'm saying.

So I do think it's a result of their "being somewhat brave" era. Which died a horrible painful death with what they did to the acolyte. I don't think we'll ever see a star wars project like this again. Not because it was too expensive or performed poorly or whatever - but because Bob Iger is back and he hates shows with messages and LOVES making money. 🤩 Which, I personally read as anything that is allowed an ounce of creativity and isn't rehashing the same old same old until the end of time to keep a very specific corner of the audience happy will not be happening. I'm trying not to turn this into a discussion on the acolyte so bear with me lol.

Back to the point... My point is that it was andor's responsibility to stay true to rogue one. Cassian did not "need" andor to be a good character but I love rogue one and I love Cassian so why WOULDN'T I want more of him. In theory it sounds awesome. And really, there was so little they actually had to stay true to. He's been in this fight since he was six years old and he's lost everything.

Neither of which happened. Yes, I could sit here and be like, well maybe he was six when his parents died. Or it could be a metaphorical "lost everything." Well, here's the thing! AFTER TWENTY FOUR EPISODES I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SIT HERE AND SEARCH FOR A WAY TO MAKE THIS MAKE SENSE! Andor's one job was to make sure rogue one still makes sense. To support it by adding, not changing. There's times in writing when it's fine to leave things ambiguous, but this is not one of them because it becomes a continuity error.

This season spent so much more time on telling as opposed showing. Cassian has given so much. What? What has he given? Vel is his friend now. Since when? These things didn't need to be skipped. If they wrote the first arc differently, they could have even shown the moment Bix and Cassian get together. The things they left out didn't NEED to be. Instead, they say "stone and sky" or throw in Nemik's voiceover. It felt like someone was ringing a bell like AWWW, you loved Nemik! Remember him? You remember Ferrix, right? As opposed to actually creating a level of depth for the characters in s2 I could connect with.

I do think even in the very minutes leading up to rogue one, the heart of rogue one was missing. Why does Cassian even need to go to Tivik if Kleya has already told him about the death star? To double confirm it? Why do we even need Bodhi now? To triple confirm it? Do they REALLY need Jyn to get a meeting with the Partisans? Mon was literally just on space facetime with Saw. Idk, maybe it was never entirely clear. But I always took it to be the energy project was this mystery, so they're gathering info on Galen and Jyn and whatever else and THE moment Cassian talks to Tivik, it's go-time. Bodhi is the catalyst. Not... Luthen.

Then they can't even be bothered to imply Jyn exists. Which yeah, it didn't really feel like there was room for it in a major way. They chose to not focus on rogue one until the very end. Though it'd have been so easy for them to throw in a shot of her in prison. There wasn't really room for a lot of stuff this season that should have been there. But that's their own fault for writing it that way.

[thewistlingbadger]

idk if this is a 'hot take' but i see way too much of people lusting after Sevika only after erasing her less palatable elements. in headcanons she's admittedly tough and violent but wouldn't hurt anyone unless she had to (i've even seen one where she "only raises her hands in self-defence"). bitch one of the first things we see her do is attempt to square up to a bunch of teenagers for the crime of trying to free their dad! she's willing to kill children with her bare hands. she personally enacts the edicts of a drug kingpin. she taunts vi and jinx during their altercations with the most provocative, soul-destroying shit she can think of. she's the type of fighter who grins manically as she scalds her opponent's cheek. she is not simply someone who nobly sacrifices her own moral purity for 'the greater good' but is otherwise a soft loving Mama Bear™, she gets *nasty* with it! and don't get me wrong, i give enormous moral lenience to most Zaunite characters because the violence of the oppressed is by definition incomparable to the violence of their oppressors. there are myriad explanations and justifications for every single thing they've done. but beyond that, i NEED it to be ok to say that she's a fucking dick sometimes - both interpersonalliy, and on a greater ideological scale - because regardless of how justifiable we find her actions, we should collectively be in a place where we can thirst for Sevika without defanging her as a character. she's compelling and fascinating and attractive BECAUSE she's imbued with agency, which necessitates the capacity for genuinely immoral actions and unlikable behavior! i mean come on! if the white twitter lesbians can so eagerly embrace the moral greyness of their rich fascha femme, we can do it for our butch freedom fighter!! i believe in us!!!

anyway tldr i love Sevika warts and all and everyone do your thing but if you don't love her warts i think you're missing out

Valid valid and valid. Not a single thing you said was incorrect. Sevika is DEVIOUS point blank period. In season 1 she is a minor character so I can understand why she's overlooked a lot but when you actually do look at her she can be VILLAINOUS at times. "It's just a matter of time before you implode and Silco finally gets the hint that you're just about as good for our cause as you were for your family. Jinx." Like DAMN Sevika!! Okay it's like that!! This rudeness that she showed Jinx is a bit fascinating to me because the only other character in this show that is just about as rude as Sevika is in this scene is Mylo. I made a post talking about how she has some similarities to Mylo and someone responded to that by also highlighting that at least Mylo was a teenager beefing with a child, meanwhile Sevika is a whole ass adult beefing with Jinx. I just think that's interesting and funny.

You brought up something that truly is just a plague to all fandoms. Whenever someone says they like a character that has a negative reputation in the source material, everyone starts coming out the woodwork to say it's bad to like that character. People don't seem to understand that just because you like a villain and find their character to be enjoyable doesn't mean you actually condone their actions and would be ok with someone acting like them irl. There are many reasons to like a villainous character and sometimes one of those reasons is BECAUSE they're a villain. Sometimes you like that a character does bad things because it's interesting and entertaining, and liking that doesn't make you a bad person. You should be able to like antagonistic characters for their villainy. Do I understand what they did was bad? Yes. Do I still like them? Yes, and not in spite of it but BECAUSE of it. And you don't have to erase those parts of a character just go openly admit that. You should be able to openly like a character in their full extent. You shouldn't have to ignore certain aspects just for your adoration of a character to be accepted.

Sevika really always has been That Bitch she has no problem telling people how it is directly to their faces. She calls Vander weak in front of everyone. She tells Vi Vander "had his chance" knowing damn well what Vander meant to her. She calls Silco out on his bullshit SEVERAL TIMES in front of him. Sevika isn't restrained as a character at all she's always being her full self. I feel that season two has made Sevika more popular and because her screentime was limited and the writing was different in season two people have allowed her character to become warped. I definitely think that if someone is ok with justifying and excusing the actions of Caitlyn and/or Vi then they should keep that same energy when it comes to Sevika. Sevika is a tough, loyal lady that has a very fun personality and she's also a criminal who has done terrible things for the sake of the cause and most times? Most times she enjoyed doing those things. Most times she went out of her way to revel in instigating. Silco didn't even know Vi was back yet and did that stop Sevika from almost killing Vi? Did that stop her from whispering "who Jinx? She's like his daughter" and looking dead in Vi's eyes just to see her reaction? No. Sevika is a bit messy like that she likes to play with her food lol and honestly I don't blame her lol

[ilikekidsshows]

I'm just gonna say it but Lila's lies were never big deal. In Volpina they were harmless lies that in the long run no one cares about because a ton of people will tell stories that they know this celebrity or whatever. They're just that stories that everyone knows that are fake and don't care because they're fun and celebrities don't do anything about them either because there is no point and they're not the type of lies that harms a person in any meaningful way.

Hell I can even extend that to Chameleon with her lie about tinnitus which I get sometimes. All it is ringing in the ears that can mess with hearing and it's not constant. And all she asked for was a front seat which when it comes to accommodations is so minor that anyone will do. It's not like she that she needed someone to help her with anything which needs proof. So Marinette had no right to complain about it or do all the other stuff she did which made her own villain. Yet her defenders will scream that Marinette has to because lying is the worst thing on earth and Lila needs to be exposed and treated like a pariah. Apparently they've never heard of white lies and lies that are storytelling where calling them out makes you look a jerk when everyone might know this and don't care. I sure as hell wouldn't have cared and would've told Marinette that in her face.

Meanwhile Marinette can tell even worst lies that should damage the trust in everyone around her. You can't tell me that Marinette hates liars when she's the biggest liar of them all without any self awareness with how hypocritical it is.

---

“Lila was faking a disability!” Maripologists scream with no evidence, discussing a condition so common no one would ask a “doctor’s note” for it. It's like someone “faking a disability to get accommodations they don't deserve” should be a punishable offence with how big of a deal Maripologists make of it. Way to tell us they're the kind of people to pay attention to who parks in disabled spots and make a big deal every time the person isn’t visibly disabled. Maripoligists are ableist for thinking that Marinette merely suspecting Lila is faking a disability justifies the harassment in any way.

And yeah, people love to bring up Lila framing Marinette in ‘Ladybug’ or luring Cat Noir away in ‘Oni-chan’ to justify Marinette's behavior in 'Volpina' and ‘Chameleon', and that's strictly because Lila wasn't even doing anything that bad or a big deal at all before then and retroactive justification for bullying (aka, reacting badly to being bullied) is a concept cyberbullies like Maripologists adore. Maripologists love the idea of using your own bullying of someone to justify you bullying them in the first place. It's so morally backwards because they're literally working backwards to find s justification for something where Marinette did wrong first.

I will die on the hill that Lila was so not a problem in 'Volpina' or 'Chameleon'. Like, I’m sorry, but saying “she's not all that” about the overhyped local superhero celebrity is not a punishable offence, because, like, I agree. Ladybug was never on any of my top favorite heroes lists even when I bought into her hype and thought she was doing a good job. People are allowed to have opinions other than “Marinette is the best there is at everything”.

I could even say that the stuff Lila does in 'Oni-Chan' isn't "the just consequences for this are bullying and social ostracization" material either. Tricking people into thinking you're dating someone to get an advantage is not the same as trying to get someone purposefully Akumatized, but you can guess how Maripologists frame it. As for luring Cat Noir away so that Ladybug had to fight an Akuma alone for a bit, that was the first actively malicious thing she ever did, and it was so toothless that having someone fight an Akuma alone for extended periods of time for little to no benefit is actually Ladybug's most common type of "plan", the difference just is that it's usually done to Cat Noir, and neither the writers nor Maripologists care about what gets done to him. While annoying and inconvenient, Lila really wasn't a threat to anyone before 'Ladybug'.

Yeah, like, the somewhat believable version of the “Marinette just hates liars” is that her hatred of Lila's lies is misdirected self-hatred because she has to lie so much because she's a hero while Lila lies for selfish reasons. The problem with this is that Marinette doesn't just lie to protect her identity, she lies about every petty, inconsequential thing to make herself look better (just like Lila) and to avoid difficult conversations. Marinette doesn't “have to” lie, she just thinks lies are the easiest solution to most of her problems (whether real or imagined) and whenever she's caught in a lie she can't stop talking about how justified she was, actually. There's no regret, only justification. In fact, because there's so much evidence against it being true, I say the entire “I just hate liars” line was itself a lie to make herself look better in front of Adrien. I have more evidence to claim that than Marinette had about Lila's tinnitus being fake. Lying to make herself look better is what Marinette does constantly after all.

[superectojazzmage]

I really dig Qimir's characterization. He's a Sith and a lot of the brutality of Sith culture is on full display, but he doesn't really come off as necessarily evil or even especially malicious, at the very least no the in the typical way Sith villains are portrayed.

Mae's hunting of the Brendok Jedi seems to have been more of a personal thing for her that he reluctantly went along with as part of her training, and Qimir himself is evidently more concerned with keeping his culture alive than perpetuating old grudges. He hates Jedi because of all the bad blood between them and Sith and the ideological differences and has no issue with killing them, but also mostly just wants to be left alone to practice his faith, use his powers, and rear his own students/children as he sees fit rather than being forced to follow the laws of the nation that destroyed his own.

He bears no delusions about the Sith's current predicament as a tiny husk of it's former self hiding in the cracks of a society dominated by ancestral enemies, like many of the Baneite Sith do. He isn't interested in fantasies of revenge and conquest. As he says to Sol, the only reason he kills the hunting party is because Mae has caused them all to discover the Sith, and if the Jedi Council and Republic learn about Sith still existing they'll default to slaughtering or depowering them all for being "tainted by darkness", the exact same way they've done after every prior conflict with the Sith.

And while he disagrees with the Jedi Code, he also despises when Jedi fail to follow their own stated principles and gladly points out when they're being hypocrites (like how he mocks Sol for being upset over Jecki's death because she's "a child", as if he didn't personally lead said child into lethal combat after rearing her as a warrior and as if the Jedi in general don't use their padawans as child soldiers as a rule). His obvious disdain Sol and the Brendok Jedi specifically over even the other Jedi seems less motivated by the Jedi-Sith feud and more by him knowing about the very bad thing they almost assuredly did on Brendok and being livid about them continuing to act like they have the moral high ground despite it.

In a lot of ways, he's in the same position as the Brendok Coven, someone who wants to be free to live their own way and not be bashed into line by the Jedi and Republic, which would certainly explain why he and Mae gravitated to working together. They see each other as kindred spirits, both people left alone and in hiding by the imperialism of the Republic and the Jedi's refusal to let anyone who challenges their view of the Force exist in the long term, if at all. And that also adds to his anger with Mae when she turns on him; she was trying to throw him under the bus so she can ingratiate herself with the people who killed both her and his people. Even in a culture that values cunning and deceit, that sort of betrayal would probably be seen as unimaginable, the kind of dishonor that can never be atoned for.

All in all, the show is such a nice throwback to the more morally nuanced and even-handed works you used to see more of during the Legends EU days, showing the flaws and issues with all the involved groups while not coming down too hard and deeming any one pure evil, as well as treating the individual characters within those groups as varied in nature but usually sympathetic or at least understandable. The Jedi as an institution and a part of the governmental system are deeply flawed at even the best of times, but most of the Jedi come off as decent folk who are genuinely just trying to do the right thing. The Brendok Witches had their issues, but also justified reasons for everything they did and at the end of the day they just wanted to be allowed to live their lives without fear of outsiders storming in to take their children away and forbid them from passing their ways on. And now, with Qimir, yeah, the Sith culture is shown to be very harsh, ruthless, or even downright savage by the standards of the Jedi (and our own real world values), but they're still people at the end of the day.

[brucewaynehater101]

I'm seeing a lot of asks about this and I want to give my two cents: I'm cool with Bruce being a bad father, but only if DC admits that he is a bad father.

You can't have him doing downright abusive shit only to never address it. The only character that consistently criticizes Bruce parenting is painted as entitled and vindictive. I genuinely think the reason why we can't have a decent Red Hood arc is because if you want Jason to make sense you're gonna have to admit Bruce is a fucked up father or rewrite canon.

Same reason for Tim "never aging", not so much physically but emotionally. Because to have the character establish itself like Nightwing did you would need to address at some point all the bullshit he went through. Even with Dick. Like sometimes it looks like they want to recognize how being raised by Batman fucked him up by they end up settling for "oh it's the pressure". Like that's the most DC will say "Batman puts his kids under a lot of pressure buuuuuut it's justified because they're fighting evil :)".

Not just the kids, I think Batman himself would be so much more interesting if DC was willing to let him confront these things. As a redemption arc or as a fatal flaw that keeps his family at arms length. But they want to have their cake (have Batman be edgy and give the Robins Character Development™ through good old child abuse) and eat it (have Batman be Dad of the year). And that's what doesn't work.

Batfam fandom is great because you have people making content for Good Father Bruce, Bad Dad Bruce (he's trying and it's a bit funny/tragic), Awful Father Bruce (with no intention of changing. Every option is way more interesting than DC's directionless mess. Like, we don't even need them to make Bruce Good™ we just want them to pick a side and stick to it.

Thank you. My gods that sums it up perfectly.

Like, I've got no problem consuming Good Dad Bruce content... if it's not the comics. The animated stuff is usually fine, and fanwork is also great. There's a ton to like about it.

Hell, I'm even chill if Bruce makes mistakes and errors and fucks up with his kids. That's realistic, as long as they address that he did, in fact, do that shit. They need to talk about how his actions have hurt his kids and his relationships with them. He can try to do better, or he can stay distant with his kids because of it (low to no contact). It's truly not that difficult to chat about.

Now, media that addresses all of the horrid stuff he's done and considers realistic reactions/solutions to it? Fantastic. I love that so much. It's so cathartic watching him get his ass handed to him.

It's not necessary, though. I'm chill with good dad Bruce.

Despite that, outright ignoring what he does or brushing it under the rug? That's horrific. That reads like a sickening cycle of abuse, and I can't stand it. It's the exact same shit an abuser pulls by harming their victim (psychologically, mentally, physically, etc.), apologizing (ish), finding a way to pin the blame back on the victim, and then love bombing. Like, my gods. Bruce will beat the shit out of Jason and say it's Jason's fault for killing someone... "I wouldn't harm you/take a machine to permanetly fuck up your brain if you didn't do that. It's not my fault that I decided to hurt you. It's your fault that I did."

I just fucking can't.

I think Tim, with his little statement of "I don't expect you to apologize" after Bruce caused him to have a nervous breakdown post 16th birthday, that's a close approximation to admitting that Bruce is a piece of shit that does tendencies like an abuser. No matter what someone's intentions are, they should still apologize if they've cause unjustified/unintentional harm. Only assholes who don't regret their actions or people who feel their actions are justified won't apologize. There's times when apologizing isn't necessary or desired. That's fine. I won't apologize if Comic!Bruce and I are in a room, and I "accidentally" set him on fire.

Yet, Bruce is out here fucking up his kids. At the very LEAST, they deserve a fucking apology. Maybe a restraining order.

I ranted a bit. My bad. Anyways, have DC acknowledge the shitty actions Bruce does or don't have him do them. It's simple.

[duckiemimi]

jjk 261 leaks

i'm gonna ramble a bit here idk if it'll make sense.

i've always been the biggest advocate of not viewing things black and white in jjk, meaning everything is understandable from the readers' point of view, BUT that doesn't mean that the story itself doesn't have distinct boundaries between what's "good" and "bad" in the narrative. take geto, for example. great character, you can't help but like him, but even then you know he's an antagonist for a reason. the narrative says so, even the characters say so. there's a running theme in jjk where every antagonist (and antagonist-adjacent) character is motivated to control other people's bodies—geto and non-sorcerers (to a lesser extent), kenjaku and his CT, mahito and his CT, sukuna needing to have a host, etc. kenjaku, for the most part, has always been our point of reference when we talk about evil in the story. which is why it's so jarring to see yuuta, of all people, resort to the same thing. for the greater good? okay, let's talk about the do or die of the greater good in jjk.

the greater good in this arc is to stop sukuna to save humanity. but even then, this cause has always been eclipsed by less righteous, personal reasons, like wanting to save megumi, or wanting to fight sukuna. those are the reasons pushed for readers to see, to care about. while understandable (they are human, after all), compared to its contemporaries, jjk isn't really a manga where characters sacrifice their morals for the greater good. in fact (i've mentioned this once), for a structured organization with the goal to protect humanity, humanity itself isn't of much importance in the narrative. the story has always centered around the sorcerers. but that aside, in times of despair (like yuuji in shibuya), they've always shown remorse and regret for the things that they cannot control, hesitation. while there is no altruistic character in the series, no one has ever wanted or willingly suggested anything aligned with puppeteering. (why would they? isn't the cog mentality something we're trying to move past, especially with the machine now destroyed?)

to have yuuta be the first to suggest a plan like this is...jarring. from what's written, sure we can accredit it to his love and understanding for his teacher, but yuuta knows what happened to geto. the cast has seen what kenjaku can do and has done. you could say that yuuta has a history with control (rika, in a way), but i like to think that he's grown since volume 0. could this be a desperate last resort by a panicked child? yeah, maybe. but it barely reads that way. there are too many interpretations to call it that, it isn't convincing enough. this is also the first time we've ever seen gojo referred to as a "monster," despite being untouchable and revered as god-like throughout the manga. there are some panels earlier in the series of the cast being asked what gojo is to them, and most people answered that he's the strongest alone. i don't recall yuuta being asked, so maybe he's thought of this concept of "monstrosity" for a while, but it would've built up better if we were shown some sympathetic sentiments from him prior to this chapter. it would've tied everything together well. alas. thanks for the off-screen growths, timeskip.

while for different reasons (does the end justify the means in this story? what about geto?), the fact of the matter is yuuta has adopted kenjaku's methodology for the greater good. what does that mean for jjk's alignment and ideology? could this be commentary on the dreariness of teeth-gritting reality? maybe. i think this chapter alone has ultimately changed what morality means in the bigger story. after all, it's practically a lawless land right now with everything destroyed. but what kind of message will we end with? is there something that needs to be said, or is there nothing at all?

[halyasgirl]

The case for a Rayllum apology (not Rayla bashing), and my glimmer of hope

Personally, I liked Rayla's choice to leave Callum after season 3, from a storytelling perspective. I don't think it's unnecessary drama in their relationship, I think it's a perfect demonstration of the Moonshadow values Rayla's been raised with, where striking out alone to deal with challenges is held up as an expression of selfless sacrifice. Look at what her parents did to her. Look at what Runaan did to Ethari, and god knows they loved each other. Nor was I upset when she didn't apologize in seasons 4-6. She'd only been back a few weeks in-universe and there was a lot going on for them to process.

However, I do think Rayla needs to apologize for lying and leaving Callum. Not because we should all demonize a traumatized child for having less-than-perfect communication skills in her first brief relationship, but because I think it's an essential part of her character arc.

This isn't about making her feel bad for hurting Callum—she already does—or having Callum forgive her—he already has. This is about her learning to trust others to make their own choices, to help her bear her burdens and keep her accountable, to be stronger together. It's also about her unlearning the belief that lurks beneath nearly every conflict in the story, from Moonshadow ideology to Viren to Aaravos: that any bad thing is justified if you have good enough reasons.

It made total sense to me why Rayla hadn't apologized before season 7: she still hasn't quite internalized these messages. She was misguided but good-intentioned, and Callum's long since forgiven her. She shouldn't have to grovel. But it is important to their relationship arc, and Rayla's character arc, to address it. Rayllum is in a love triangle with Rayla's Moonshadow values, and without resolving this, the Moonshadow values win.

But then the resolution never came. I love TDP but why did the writers spend so much time last season on cutesy filler while a central conflict between the protagonists went unaddressed? Especially as Callum and Rayla's return to the Silvergrove and her un-Ghosting set the perfect stage for Rayla to question the Moonshadow values she was raised with and what they led her to do, and Runaan, her most direct source of these values, does the same.

Forgiveness is a major theme in TDP, and it's handled well when the guilty parties realize what they’d done wrong and show remorse, and the wronged parties are allowed to be angry and hurt but make the choice to forgive (which is why, imo, Ezran’s forgiveness of Runaan worked). The beauty of Rayllum at their best was seeing them challenge each other to unlearn the prejudices they've been raised with. Part of what made them compelling is that they do have different, sometimes clashing, values, but love each other enough to work through it.

But I saw precious little of that in season 7. Rayla never has to unlearn anything; Callum falls over himself to validate her every decision. No challenge of her views like in season 3's "Ghost," "The Midnight Desert," or "Dragonguard." No reflection on his father's killer or abandoning his 12-year-old brother during a crisis.

I’m disappointed, but I’m also just so confused. I think the writers are talented. It's not even that they did us dirty, it's that they did themselves dirty by creating this rich, thematically-meaningful storyline, but then failed to deliver. Even if this is addressed in a hypothetical Arc 3, are we supposed to believe communication in this supposedly healthy relationship has stagnated for seven years? The showrunners would essentially ask us to press pause on everyone's character development, but then accept that they've matured into adults in a committed relationship, possibly with kids, for Arc 3. Loose plot threads are one thing, but the lack of resolution for so many character and relationship arcs is a harder sell.

Which leads me to my last glimmer of hope. TDP has a panel at SDCC this summer, and it's my hope that they will at least announce a new graphic novel or some Reflections short stories. While I wish it'd been shown in the show itself, addressing these important pieces of Rayla and Callum's relationship and character arcs in a graphic novel or short story is still better than languishing for a seven-year timeskip, or never addressing them at all. That's my hope at least.

[nickel156]

Lmao. YOU said you'd rather deal with an abusive situation (within a supposed loving and equal relationship, which you are actively choosing to downplay for your uwu tam tam agenda) over a different situation with an enemy. Not me. That's your brainrot. I can put all the characters on blast for questionable decisions they've made because I'm not a blind stan like you. You attempt to acknowledge that what tamlin did was wrong but in the same breath you say well at least he apologized and is actively trying to be better 🥺🌸🥰 lmaoooo smells like hypocrisy. And bet, you wouldn't give the same credence to other characters that have apologized for their actions because they have solidified themselves as bad people in your mind. But blondie gets put on a redemption pedestal because...you know....reasons??

You must have sawdust for brains.

I am not blind to what Tamlin has done, however you're very hypocritical considering your stance on Rhysand.

It's not hypocrisy it's literally facts. Tamlin had trauma from UTM and he handled the situation poorly. Which he admits and we see in ACOWAR he's actively trying to be better.

The difference sweetheart, is that Rhysand doesn't try to be better. Because everything he did was justified. He didn't apologize. He didn't change.

I'd love to see the quotes where Rhysand apologizes for UTM. Please enlighten me.

Or any of them for that matter? Where are the apologies Anon!!?? Because Feyre didn't apologize for destroying an entire court. Actually two because Hybern attacked Summer immediately after.

No one ever apologized to Nesta for anything.

For every one apology you may find. I could find at least 5 where they don't. If you wanna play, play. Because I can match anything you throw at me.

Also feel free to put every single fucking character on blast. I'd love it. Please look up every terrible thing each and every one of them has done. And maybe your tiny little brain will finally comprehend that Tamlin is the least problematic compared to the entire Inner Circle.

For one, he didn't kill an entire town but hey the bar is pretty low.

Xoxo

[tzilatza]

NATLA Review - spoilers

Woke up today still feeling annoyed after finished the Netflix ATLA remake last night, and I think I've figured out the core reason.

It's the fact that: If they had held truer to the original source material, we could have had a truly great show. I disagree with those calling it a complete disaster. The acting was good, great in some cases. The effects were very well done, the bending looked about as good as it can in a live action media. The scenery was lovely.

But what happened in the writer's room?! The way they just reveal all the back stories up front EVERY TIME is honestly insulting to the audience. It's like they're so terrified that smartphone culture has made the public so accustomed to instant gratification that they have no faith we will stick around and keep watching if they make us wait for anything.

They're also clearly terrified of complexity. One of my biggest gripes with this remake is Jet's story. They completely took out his plans to murder a whole town of innocents in order to get a few enemy soldiers. Now, Jet isn't my favorite character, but his story is so important. Because it is real. The world is full of people who have been so brought down by injustice that they lose their sense of right and wrong, and we need to see that on screen. If Jet is too complex for them, how will they handle Ba Sing Se in the second season.

This goes along the same lines as removing Sokka's sexist moments. They felt they had to do it to make him more 'likable.' Yet the writers themselves went full sexist on Katara's character. They've taken out so much of her spark, her righteous and justified anger, and they've done it because even in 2024, people expect women to be more passive to be palatable. Enough people have already commented on them removing Aang's choice to run away. Heaven forbid the main character not be an absolute paragon. Did y'all notice that they even made Hahn likable? Hahn?! What reason do you have for making Hahn likable Netflix?! His role in the narrative is to be an example of toxic masculinity that is clearly the bad choice compared to Sokka who has learned and grown out of his own.

Don't even get me started with what they're doing with the fire nation family, I'm not ready to tackle that. In general, I have no problem with Azula getting a little more backstory and humanizing, but why season 1? Throwing in all these extra scenes just sacrifices screen-time where they could've actually fleshed out the real season one plots instead of rushing through things at breakneck pace. (ex: Aang escaping Zuko's ship in about 2 minutes flat)

At the end of the day, the scenes I most enjoyed were those that held true to the original like the Blue Spirit sequences. They could've easily done more of this, held onto the important plot points and even more important character complexity, while maturing it for an adult audience. I'm not disagreeing with every change they made. Go ahead and take out the silly Nickelodeon gags, add cussing and more realistic violence to get your mainstream viewers. Go ahead. They could've easily made a darker more mature version of the show and still held onto all the old fans in my opinion. But claiming that you're making a 'more mature' version and then removing the complexity and subtlety because they didn't think viewers could handle it...

What makes me most sad is that there are a lot of people who will experience ATLA for the first time through this show. There are a lot of adults who are not willing to watch original ATLA because they refuse to acknowledge an animated series can be anything other than a kid's show. Those people will watch this and think it's the real deal, and that just makes me sad.

If you've read this far, a very sincere thank you for listening to my rant. If you're an OG fan who enjoyed it, I have no problem with you. It was a fun watch, I was just hoping for more. If you are a new viewer who has never seen ATLA before, I sincerely want to hear your opinions. Is it a great show to someone who isn't holding it against the context of the original? And do you plan to watch the original now?

[be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie]

Avatar: The Last Airbender Live Action Thoughts!

-First of all, ya'll need to leave those child actors alone, they are babies and they didn't write the show, nor was it their idea to do it. I have seen way too many people body shaming children; leave them alone they all did well!

-I think Gordon makes Aang just as cute and small and powerful as I always saw him as!! He manages to joke around and be fun even when the storyline is a lot darker and more serious.

-I really wish Sokka was able to be more of his goofy and silly self. I understand why he isn't, and his humor is more sarcasm and dark jokes, but I saw glimpses of him in there! His excitement when he was with the Mechanist, engineering and getting to do something other than be in charge. Also when he has any older brother convo with Katara or Aang. I'm hopeful with time he'll be able to loosen up!

-(Speaking of the Mechanist, my boy Danny Pudi was SO GOOD, I love him, him and his little son).

-I wish Aang would practice waterbending with Katara :( those scenes of them practicing together were always some of my favorites in the series. Just beautiful kataang moments. I'm glad they addressed it but I missed those moments.

-I don't understand how you guys can't be having fun watching this, I get so excited waiting for little moments of lore, or when Jet and Katara were fighting in the forest I was sitting in front of the TV like "WHERE'S SMELLERBEE AND LONGSHOT. OH MY GOD NO IT'S PIPSQUEAK!" It's just so much fun! The colors are beautiful, the effects are gorgeous, and the plot and characters are entertaining. Think about the piece as it's own thing and enjoy it!

-Adaptations are just that; adaptations, and things will be changed! I think so far I haven't minded their changes, I understand why they've been made. There are things to criticize, but I think this is pretty well done.

-Zuko is fantastic; I think all the child actors are fairly good but Dallas' pissy attitude and the faces he makes are so so fun! I feel for Zuko and I'm scared of him when he shows up, and he's just as annoying and bratty as ponytail Zuko should be. His physical motions are fantastic!

-TEO WAS SO LITTLE?? Oh my god, like as a kid I thought the cartoon version of him was kinda hot so when they wheeled that tiny baby in I was HORRIFIED.

-Idk why YOU ALL weren't scared of Lizzy Yu's Azula, but her little smile in her intro scene gave me a lil chill. Maybe it's because I was away when the show first came out so I saw post after post about how bad she was, but I just.... Thought she'd be worse?? She did really well! Ya'll better be careful though or Gaten Matarazzo will come for you, that's his girl.

-So far the mushing of plots has made sense to me. Yes, I miss the silly filler episodes and the traveling the Gaang did, but it allows us to sit in a scene longer, and to colorize the world better, when we're in one place and one plot for longer. I think that's important for this type of medium and this amount of episodes. They might be able to justify more next season if this show does well enough.

-I am OBSESSED with Zuko and the 41st division oh my god, what a fantastic and well thought out addition. The reveal, and they're bowing for him when he comes back was DEVASTATING.

-They we're GIVING us Sokka and Katara best sibling moments, I loved all of them. They are so cute, they just mean so much to me.

-I don't feel Appa or Momo as characters like I did in the cartoon. I'm hoping this can change, because rn they surprise me every time they get on screen. I'm like "WHAT- oh it's Momo, he's here." How are we going to feel Appa's loss as much as we did in the cartoon if they continue to like barely be in it.

-Ken Leung SLAYED as Admiral Zhao, I watched him go literally insane as the episodes went on.

-Aang's imposter syndrome and feeling of failure being focused on I will always enjoy, even if I hope he can be silly next season too. His entire character arc this season just made me want to cry.

-Bro the coloring during the the Siege of the North was A M A Z I N G. The way the color faded in and out with fireballs and the monster koi passing nearby, just so pretty. It looked awesome.

-Making Yue a waterbender? The best. Her freezing Sokka in place so he can't stop her? Heartbreaking.

-Iroh and Zuko paddling off looking for bestie Lt. Jee?? Okay.

-They really grew this show up for us adults that watched it in 2005 and focused in on the really painful moments, themes, and details.

[thirteen-jades]

Finally got around to playing Armored Core 6 (thanks @self-loving-vampire!) and I’m loving it so far. The movement is a hell of a lot of fun, which is a good sign as movement is usually the first thing I start complaining about in a game (this is mostly a me thing, I just like being fast and zippy and it’s very easy for games to start feeling sluggish if they have fairly normal movement). The weapons feel nice, I’m getting a feel for how it plays, and I quite like the aesthetics. Mechs are cool!

I had some vague knowledge of the game before playing but even so I wasn’t really prepared for just how blunt and on the nose it is about the fact that you’re the bad guy here. In one of the early missions, you come upon a pack of trash mobs and a radio line plays of some guy talking to his comrades. He says something to the effect of "there's just one of them, we can do this!" in the wavering voice of a man who has never fired a gun before trying to find any amount of confidence before he puts his life on the line for his home. And then you unceremoniously blow him and all his friends straight to hell and move on. It doesn’t even tell you which enemy was talking, he’s just another faceless mook for you to brush aside on your way to destroying the objective.

Every now and then one of them will ask why you're doing this, and there's literally no answer to give them even if you could. The game doesn't even pretend that you're fighting a ~just war~ or something, they're just like "yeah, these guys are the Rubicon Liberation Front. They're getting in the way of our corporation exploiting their world, go destroy them" and then you do. And it's not even very difficult. They've got terrible equipment and no training whatsoever and just don't stand a chance. But you keep getting to hear their comms, and those comms keep painting an ever clearer picture that you’re not a soldier fighting a war so much as a grown adult beating a bunch of children to death. Nobody tries to justify what you're doing in any way whatsoever, your handler in the intro makes a comment like "y’know, if we make this job work then we'll strike it rich and you can buy your life back" and that's it. Regardless of what “buy your life back” is referring to here, it’s plain that you’re in this purely for selfish motives.

And that’s to the extent that 621 is even deciding to do this at all. So far it’s also done a great job of dehumanizing the main character completely, and you never really make any decisions beyond which of two missions to do first and how to build your AC. People keep referring to them as their handler’s dog, nobody expects them to have anything to say or any opinion whatsoever, and that’s great because as a matter of fact they don’t have any opinion about any of this. They’re just here to blow up whatever they’re told to.

The most memorable instance of this so far, and what really made it clear that this isn’t just the game not wanting to voice the MC or something, was one of the early mission briefings. You’re tagging along with some ACs from one of the corps, and the guy in charge of their in-house fighters at the end of the briefing says something to the effect of “now sound off!”, followed by a beat of dead silence. Then he says “eh, good enough” and ends the call. This makes it clear this isn’t just a pre-recorded message; it’s someone talking to 621, expecting a response, and not getting anything. It’s a little detail that I laughed about in the moment, but I really like how telling it is about your character as a person.

[wwwinky]

A Very Belated Review of If We Were Villains

I read this book months ago so if the details are off forgive me.

The problem with this whole book I think comes from The Secret History. I'll admit I am a bit of a fan of TSH, but I will say that it is definitely not as amazing as people in the Dark Academia fandom make it to be. The thing about this book, that I'm glad most people over the age of 15 see, is that Tartt doesn't really like these chcarcters and we're not supposed to either. But, if you've fully bought into the aesthetic and image Tartt is satirising it becomes really hard to dislike these students. On a surface level Rio understands this principle but I think she’s tied her characters and identified them so heavily on the aesthetics of TSH.

People get very defensive when you say that IWWV was inspired by TSH but let's be honest here... I won't sit here a list every similarity but anyone whose read both has to admit the inspiration. Inspiration is not plagiarism and no one is accusing Rio of being a thief.

Rio buys so hard in to these characters that she literally cannot paint them (except Richard) as being anything but interesting, beautiful and charismatic. That's where the whole book falls apart, Rio cannot bring herself to make these characters unlikable, so the entire novel feels like she's revealing the bad things they've done followed immediately with an excuse about why it's not their fault. The only characters that doesn't get this treatment is the one that Rio wants us to see as the villain. How do you write a murder mystery and forget to add the bit about murder?

Fillipa was the most annoyingly useless character I've read in a long while. I think if you could remove a character completely and have no issues with the plot there's a problem, and this is an issue she shares with the other female characters. The egregious thing about this character is that she is the only female of colour (I think she was some type of South East Asian). I think a lot of people on the internet falsely attribute authors portraying racism in their work as them endorsing it. It's not racist to have a character who is asian be the one person in the group who doesn't get a sexy Shakespearean archetype, because that is unfortunately the reality for a lot of woc. The problem is when you don't correct or address that reality in any meaningful way. In the real world, Fillipa would have been assigned a spare role because she's asian, and in the real world that would have been painfully obvious for the other characters. In the real world, Alexander would have been assigned the villain because he was latino.

The novel started on a scene where the main character, Oliver was sitting around with the other students and mentally assigning them with their on stage archetypes. When he outlined how these roles are so heavily cemented in their group and how they tend to influence their relationships with one another, I was sure the central conflict would have come about after they were cast in unusual archetypes. That did happen to an extent in the halloween scene, but this shuffling didn't involve Fillipa or Alexander at all.

So you're telling me that this asian girl who never gets the desirable female role, and is often cast to play men, never gets her chance to be the main girl? None of the other characters see the discrimination and but justify it with her personality and appearance?

Again with the archetypes because it seems all the issues with this books comes from this, Rio refuses to betray them. She doesn't feel the need to twist them in interesting ways or use them to tell us a convincing story. It’s not bad that I guessed that Jason was the murderer since he’s the archetypal hero, but it’s bad that the real twist was that no murder even took place.

[lemonpixycat]

There was a really great post that came on my dash on White Guilt and how white people are so terrified of doing a racism tm that they will, like, avoid people of color altogether out of fear and I wanted to expound on it more because as a white person, i have good further insight into this. I don't want to do it on the post itself because I think it's a bit of a derail of the point, though. White guilt has a LOT to do with white people's immense fear of being racist or fucking up in a racist way yes, but there's also another layer to it. White people, especially white Christians or white people that have grown up in a culture drenched in white Christianity and concepts of sin, have 100% created this culture where if you are a 'bad person', you deserve punishment first and foremost and you don't deserve rights and they no longer care what bad things happen to you, and there's this inability to ever do enough to atone for it. You are forever marked as a bad person. This makes white people that ascribe to this belief system TERRIFIED of being a 'bad person'. And if you rightly believe racism is wrong, then you believe doing a racist thing makes you a racist and that means you are a bad person and as a bad person, you no longer deserve rights, empathy, and all you deserve is punishment and vitrol. And nothing you can do can EVER make up for your transgressions. So white people will 100% rather A) Avoid people of color altogether B) Grovel and plead for forgiveness for any transgression B) Deny they did anything racist rather than accept they did a bad thing because only bad people do bad things and they aren't a bad person In order for us white people to truly address racism and be proper allies, we need to also address this culture we've created where we're focused on punishing bad people and think that you can never atone for being a bad person or doing bad things. And more importantly, this culture we've created doesn't just backfire on our own ability to experience growth and be proper allies. Black people have been talking forever about how this culture we've created affects them. The prison industrial complex is BUILT on this culture of justifying atrocities against inmates, a high number of which are black, because they are "bad people so who cares what happens to them". Anytime a black man is shot by the police, somehow every bad thing they've ever done is used to justify why it's actually okay that they were shot. It's unsustainable. And it's untrue. Doing a bad thing does not make your irredeemable and the vast majority of people of color I've met do not believe that everyone whose ever done a racist thing deserves to be ostracized from society and punished forever. in fact, most people of color I know are people who ALSO believe in reformation over punishment and they believe in the ability to be a better person rather than the belief that people are forever tainted if they do a bad thing and can never be redeemed. But it's on us as white people to solve this belief system AND our white guilt, as the original post was talking about, in order to be better allies. And everyone, (including us) will be better off.