#you know what i think is problematic actually

[mortionsickness]

morston, a post (and a hidden narrative)

im not here to start any fights or provoke or be inflammatory, so please, if you’re here to beef with me, just move on. if you’re willing to hear me out for one humble post, though, I love you <3 let’s start;

ok, so first of all can we all be real for a second?

facts: arthur morgan and john marston are not blood related.

arthur and john met at 22 and 12 years old respectively.

arthur and john as of the end of rdr2 are 26 and 36 years old.

ok? ok! let’s continue, please;

in fanon, arthur and john are always depicted as being raised as close brothers, annoyed by eachother but overall best buds. this is cute! but not necessarily canon.

what we can learn from arthur and john’s interactions, is that they had some real animosity— mainly arthur towards john. as said in arthur’s own journal he only started to like john by close to the end of the game. I could dismiss this as friendly ribbing, if it were not actually written in arthur’s Journal, where his most personal thoughts are stored. this being said, i could still dismiss it, but humor me for my humble post (I’ll elaborate more on this later).

by the start of the game, arthur resents john, for three main reasons;

number one, john left the gang for a year, disregarding the loyalty to dutch that arthur treasured so deeply

number two, john abandoned his family, the family that arthur never got to have in eliza and issac

number three, and the most important reason to this post, arthur was jealous of john. feeding into the last point, jealous of the family that john has, and jealous of dutch’s favoritism towards john.

from what we know, there is no evidence that the two were close growing up at all. in fact, i’d even say there’s evidence to the contrary;

“I did it for Abigail, of course, in her own way, the finest woman I know, but also for Jack and I guess Marston himself. I kind of like him.

We’ve argued over the years, but I’ve grown to care a little for him. He’s less of a fool than he was,”

what we can learn from this passage is that arthur didn’t think much of john over the years, and that he’s grown to care “a little” for him. key word is grown. if the two were close growing up, like brothers, he would probably have more to say about him than that he’s grown to kind of like him a little bit.

once again, I could dismiss this as ribbing, but what reason does he have to do so in his own personal journal besides some kind of bizarre denial? he says he loves other characters straight up.

now that we’ve established that the brotherly childhood bond is, for the most part, cute fanon, I’d like to talk about the hidden narrative between these two characters, particularly through their relation to dutch.

what we learn over the course of the game, and through john and arthur’s conversations is that the two have, to some degree, competed for dutch’s attention.

john says this during chapter 6, for example.

from my perspective, it looks like dutch, their abuser (because yes, he is their abuser and not their father, i could make a whole other post about this), has pitted arthur and john against each other, or at least perpetuated the rivalry between the two of them.

by the end of the game, john and arthur have broken out of this rivalry, and learned to care for one another. this is the narrative that I enjoy morston by.

not of two close brothers who were in love at age 12 and 22.

I view it as a story of two victims of the same abuser who happened to grow up alongside eachother, resenting eachother all the while. of the two of them learning what was done to them was wrong, and breaking the cycle together, trying to move forward together, and finally growing to care for eachother through the process. this is why morston is not “problematic” or “taboo” to me.

as for the two of them meeting at the ages they did, what I have to say is this; let’s examine why we fear these situations so much.

in real life, we are uncomfortable (rightly so!) with situations like these due to the extreme power imbalance at said ages, and maturity differences. we’re scared because the adult may take advantage of these said things, in order to groom them into being a romantic partner later in life, even if they don’t outright date them as a kid.

as someone who has been groomed, let me explain; the reason why we are dubious of these situations is because we don’t know the older party’s intentions, and we assume they will take advantage of the power dynamic. in fiction, however, I believe this is different.

arthur morgan would never groom a child. we know this to be true. we know his intentions, his motivations, his soul. why do we assume in the case of morston that he had to have groomed him?

textually, john and arthur are 26 and 36 by the time they even begin to get along, with 0 evidence that they were remotely close at a young age. the two could’ve barely talked. were scared of something in this scenario that we’re rightly scared of irl, but we know the situation, we know the stakes, and we know that this is not a situation where john would be taken advantage of, because he is a grown 26 year old man with a wife and child by the time him and arthur even interact kindly with eachother. he had been an adult for 8 entire years.

fiction can effect reality, yes, but if people just widely understood that this is not a situation where the two of them would have any chance of getting together before they’re both well into adulthood, then it wouldn’t be a problem. because this is not a dangerous situation, for john or for anyone.

john was not groomed by anyone other than dutch van der linde, and that’s a fact. both arthur and john were groomed and this is a story about getting out, together. moving on, together. loving each other in the face of opposing forces, and purposeful wedges between them. and I think that’s a story that is a net good.

[maxdibert]

I'm pretty sure that JKR has commented that if he hadn't turned to the DEs, Lily might have fallen in love with Sev - I ship them romantically, but I still think it would've been very hard for them to last, even in a world with no Voldy. they both come across as a having Tempers lol

Yes, they said it, and I think it’s absurd. It implies that if Severus had put aside part of his interests—and therefore part of his personality—then Lily would have accepted him. It reinforces the outdated idea that if someone truly loves you, they’ll change for you. And I’m completely against that idea because I find it dangerous, toxic, and superficial.

No one should have to change who they are or set aside their interests and passions to attract someone or make a relationship work. If the baggage you carry doesn’t sit well with the other person, then that person doesn’t truly like you, period—because your baggage is part of who you are, and you can’t just give up or hide a part of yourself. There will be someone out there who doesn’t mind your baggage or knows how to deal with it—someone you actually fit with. If you have to change to fit together, then you don’t truly fit.

So yeah, I only see Platonic!Snily. And as I said in my last response, I have no issue with the romantic ship because everyone ships what they want and has their own interpretation of things, and as long as it’s not a problematic pairing, I have zero problems. But I just don’t see it, and I never have, because to me, it would be a highly dysfunctional relationship.

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7342:

Call me a ‘anti’ or a ‘puritan’ but I think pedophilia should be taboo. Extremely taboo I want it to cause discomfort throughout the entire room, I want it to make people gag, I want people to be so morally repulsed by the idea of it. BECAUSE ITS PEDOPHILIA.

Jesus….I know fiction is different from reality. Guess what? I also don’t care when it comes to pedophilia.

‘jUsT bEcAuSe i eNjOy a pRoBLeMaTiC tHeMe dOeSn’T mEaN i cOnDoNe iT!’ Yes, that’s true. But have you ever considered that actually, I don’t think you should be enjoying pedophilia. I don’t think you should be comfortable saying this to people.

Look…there are many things that I just don’t get. There are things that gross me out, and things that would 100% be morally reprehensible irl. But I think you should be able to explore those themes freely, even if I don’t enjoy it. I know someone with a cannibalism kink isn’t actually advocating for cannibalism lol.

But pedophilia. Yes I think you are bad if you’re a pedophile. Yes I know fiction is different from reality, but frankly it’s pedophilia, I actually don’t care.

Am I considered an anti for this? I don’t know. And I don’t care BECAUSE HEY!!! ITS PEDOPHILIA!!!!!!!!!!!!

[featheryminx]

Do you not have anything better to do than shit on someone's fucking FANFICTION??? Those who can't write fucking talk shit, that's what's going on here. You couldn't write a fraction of what that idea you screenshotted was. But sure, your fandom is fine with complete bullshit ass fabrications but ideas based on canon is immediately worthy of you shitting on it and disrespecting it. Well, go fuck yourself. Bad writing is fine when it's a Buddie shipper, but good writing you think is bad because you don't have an iota of an idea what good storytelling is immediately warrants your disrespect. Get the fuck over yourself. The Buddie fandom is not a real fandom, it's just an angry, biogoted, homophobic, talentless mob.

no ❤️

[wishchip106]

i’m looking at those certain tiktok xmen fans

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

thinking about how mulder loves to get scully a gift, usually terribly heartfelt, even if disguised as something flippant:

the superbowl vhs tape he brings her when she wakes up from her coma in one breath (and her deadpan "i knew there was a reason to live")

tickets for a football game to watch together in irresistible

bringing her flowers to the hospital in memento mori (he lies, saying he stole them from a guy with broken legs to make her laugh)

the birthday keychain in tempus fugit (and when she finds a meaning to it, he claims "i just thought it was a pretty cool keychain")

that is a man who is always thinking about her.

[kanansdume]

You started these tags with "oof" and I went back to re-read the second part of this post and... yeah, oof is about how I feel, too. Oh how hopeful I was for something good to come out of that show, BOTH shows actually since I was looking at Mandalorian season 3 as well it seems.

This post is already a little long, so I'll put the rest under a cut, but tl;dr is that I think you're giving the people writing in the Mandoverse SO MUCH more credit than they deserve and they'll likely never do anything good or creative with these characters again.

I don't think that making Sabine a Jedi had anything to do with Sabine at all. A lot of people have pointed out that Sabine is acting like a bratty teenager despite being literally 30 years old and that she feels a lot like an ANAKIN stand-in so that Ahsoka can figure out her feelings about Anakin through her relationship to Sabine. We know that the Rebels Search for Ezra storyline got combined with Ahsoka's show and that they weren't originally intended to be the same story. So it makes sense that Ahsoka likely HAD a padawan-figure originally who was probably a new character and that they just replaced that character with Sabine when things got combined, regardless of what that would mean for Sabine's character.

Sabine doesn't even grow or learn anything by the end of the show. I've see people try to argue that when she left Ezra behind in order to save Ahsoka that it showed she'd grown from when she abandoned everything to save Ezra, except... she's literally just making the same choice for a different person. Thrawn is LEAVING and the whole point of jumping onto his ship is to try to STOP HIM or something, and instead of doing that and helping Ezra, she runs back because one person's life is at stake and now Ezra is alone on that ship and Sabine never has to face the consequences of her own actions. Personally, that doesn't feel like any actual growth to me or like she's learned from the mistake she made by going to get Ezra. The narrative itself doesn't even seem to think that it WAS a mistake she needs to learn from, which leaves her character with literally nowhere to go.

If they were going to bring her back to Mandalore as a leader, they probaby would've been EMPHASIZING her connection to Mandalore rather than basically erasing it. It would've made more sense to leave her family ALIVE, even just ONE of them, to give her more of a connection to that cause. But no, aside from her wearing the armor, there's absolutely no indication she gives a flying shit about Mandalore or its people anymore.

So even if they DID start pushing Sabine in the direction of being a leader again, I wouldn't like it. THIS Sabine should never lead anybody ever. THIS Sabine is a selfish piece of shit who is willing to unleash Thrawn upon the galaxy just to get what she wants. REBELS era Sabine was awesome, and had the makings of a great ruler. REBELS era Sabine had learned mercy and patience and selflessness by the end of the show, while THIS fucking Sabine is impatient, impetuous, irresponsible, and selfish. Nobody should EVER allow the Ahsoka show version of Sabine anywhere NEAR a leadership position, and if they try to do it, it'll just be unbelievably bad writing. Perhaps hilariously bad writing, it could be amusing to see them attempt to make that claim, but it'd still be bad.

And, as you mentioned, they've already put Bo-Katan in as the leader of Mandalore for the THIRD TIME and, ostensibly, destroyed the Dark Saber. There doesn't seem to be any real planning around who gets put in as the leader of Mandalore, to be honest, it just kind-of flip flops and goes to whoever they deem most convenient in the moment. Sabine was being set up for it for a minute until they decided it would be problematic with what they wanted to do with her later in Rebels, so they threw it at Bo-Katan with no good reason. Then they took it away from Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian so that they could set Din up to take on leadership of Mandalore except that then they decided they didn't really like that so they abandoned all of that set-up and tossed it back at Bo-Katan because, hell, she's already there isn't she, might as well just give it back to her because THAT'S satisfying to see! So, sure, MAYBE they'll give it back to Sabine and take it away from Bo-Katan AGAIN later on, maybe Bo-Katan will die fighting Thrawn and so Sabine gets put back in as an option, but I don't have a single ounce of belief that it'll make any sense or feel in any way satisfying.

For all that the Mandoverse is focused on Mandalorians in the extreme, I don't feel like they're writing them all that well or care all that much about giving these characters good strong narratives. Sabine is just the latest in a string of terrible writing choices for their Mando characters.

Sabine Wren is not just the true wielder of the Darksaber, but the only one who should’ve been chosen to rule Mandalore and I will die on that hill.

The entire point of Sabine’s whole arc through the show is that she is learning JEDI VALUES, that she’s learning that the Mandalorian way has its place, but it also has so many flaws and that it’s what has led Mandalore to fight itself into dust. She’s impatient and distrustful and learns to listen with Hera about Fulcrum. She’s more inclined to kill someone out of anger until she learns the value of mercy and second chances from Kanan with Fenn Rau. She tries to pretend her problems don’t exist and won’t truly face them until she learns to wield the Darksaber with Kanan and then goes to make amends with her family. The entire episode with her familiy shows how Sabine brings together everything she’s learned: she waits and listens to her family’s grievances, understanding exactly how her actions impacted them, and then she shows mercy to Gar Saxon rather than killing him after her win like a true Mandalorian would.

Having Bo-Katan claim that the Mandalorian way is a way of MERCY, when we’re intentionally told and shown that Sabine’s willingness to show mercy explicitly goes against her Mandalorian upbringing and teachings and was something she learned from Hera, and from Kanan and his Jedi teachings, is really insulting. The Mandalorian way, as shown through Rebels, is NOT one of mercy, that’s the entire point. Sabine recognizes that, recognizes that that’s what’s caused them so much misery, caused them to turn on each other so much that their planet hasn’t ever had the chance to heal and regrow.

Bo-Katan even says IN THIS EPISODE that Sabine represents the best of what they have been in the past as well as the best of what they could someday become. That Sabine is a true leader.

To have Sabine turn around and say that the Darksaber came to her, after she EARNED IT, for the FIRST time since Tarre Viszla she truly EARNED the Darksaber, just so she could pass it on to Bo-Katan, someone who once gleefully helped set a village on fire after the people she was helping subjugate tried to resist?

I’m sorry, but no.

Sabine Wren is Tarre Viszla’s true successor. Not just as the wielder of the Darksaber, but as Mandalore’s uniter, as its truest ruler. Sabine Wren has the patience and mercy and wisdom of a Jedi with the passion and mettle of a Mandalorian warrior. She has learned to listen as well as she fights, and she has learned how to appreciate different points of view and how to bring them together to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The Darksaber came to her because Sabine Wren always had the capacity to use it to fulfill Tarre Viszla’s vision, to unite Mandalore, to save it from itself, to make it more than it is. The Darksaber came to her specifically because Sabine has the greatest ability to lead Mandalore into a peaceful future.

[wifegideonnav]

Dude, Ethel Cain is so currently awful. Wtf

dude, why are you trying to start drama in my inbox. i can listen to an album without condoning everything the artist ever did. also i dont even know what you’re referring to but im guessing i don’t agree that it’s as egregious as you think, just based on your tone here.

[aromacaque]

you want to analyze a cartoon that is something children can watch? ok here's the first and most important lesson ever.

have you ever heard of "suspension of disbelief?"

ok. next step. do you know what an unreliable narrator is and can you separate the character's perspective and opinions from the writers? because i promise you that the beliefs of the main character do not always reflect the writers and the point of analyzing media is to dissect that.

[wasabikitcat]

community college is so funny because half of the teachers are like "For this class you need to use lockdown browser for all quizzes and tests. You need to buy this 70 dollar textbook, and all papers turned in must be in APA format with a title page even if they're only 500 words long. I will not accept late assignments. Also you have a minimum of 4 assignments a week." and the other half are like "you don't need proctoring for the final exam I trust you. here's a download link to a pirated copy of the textbook. as long as your writing is coherent and demonstrates an understanding of the material I literally could not care less what format you use. I can't figure out how canvas works so I'm not giving you due dates, just make sure it's turned in before the grading period ends. your only weekly assignment is a forum post with a minimum of 100 words."

[liskantope]

Been meaning to respond with some points here and also with an (pretty immediate after my earlier post) update to how I feel about this, which is still unsure of what Musk's intentions in the moment but generally feeling less generous towards the man.

Since writing the last post on this, I've seen this fairly classic video of Hitler saluting to a crowd in a call-and-response routine, and Hitler's salute is in fact somewhat in a side direction rather than in front of him. What I took even more notice of is that it involves a gesture towards his chest before the arm goes out, much like what Musk did -- previously I had felt like the gesture of hitting his heart before the "salute" was evidence against the act being a deliberate imitation of a Nazi salute, but now I realize the resemblance is fuller than I'd thought, even though Musk's towards-the-chest gesture is somewhat different from Hitler's and clearly indicates his heart.

Second one was more salute-y but he was turning around.

I think actually he was just turning to a different part of the crowd? Not sure on this.

The amount of variance in Nazi salutes from back in Nazi Germany times is interesting, and your bringing up mic drops and so on leads to the point that if we worked as strenuously to find ways to attack people based on sensitivity to anything within as wide a radius as possible of Nazi gestures as we do on finding fault with people based on sensitivity to some other offensive things, then a lot of currently perfectly acceptable everyday behavior would become problematic. But I'm not convinced that your point about the variation is really relevant to our speculation about Musk's intentions or our reaction to his behavior. What matters is not what the actual variation among Nazi salutes was back in the days of Naziism, which is only knowable to people who remember eighty-something years ago or people who have researched by watching lots of Nazi reels; what matters is our common collective conception of what a standard Nazi salute is. By that standard, Musk's gesture -- particularly the brusque motion itself apart from the final position of his arm -- looked a lot more Nazi-ish than mic drops or (say, because I've seen people posting this) Taylor Swift or Kamala Harris greeting to a crowd with an outstretched arm.

Not directly in response to your reblog, I've seen some more interesting discourse about how autism plays into this since my last post, including some people (like Robert Wright) going "Well, the autistic people I know are somewhat awkward, but none of them go around doing things that look like Nazi salutes" and others (I think Bill Maher) saying something like, "Autistic people are always doing something strange looking with their arms when they're celebrating." And the latter annoyed me, while at the same time I notice earlier in the Musk video that while he's walking out on stage in jubilation, he is kind of moving in a neurodivergent way. At the same time, I don't think this lends as much credence to the theory that his offensive gesture was a matter of being autisticly unaware of how his movement looked: we could flip that the other way and suppose that he was trying to make a Nazi salute and make the same argument to dismiss any point about the minor differences between what his motion and what Nazis do: "He may have been trying to signal to Nazis but somewhat awkwardly and inaccurately because of his autism."

You and someone else (in comments) pointed out some of Musk's views that I hadn't entirely been aware of which suggests it's not actually all that implausible that he could have Nazi sympathies (beyond him being cozy with Trump and Trump being fascisty etc.). In light of that, I think I went too far before with my italicized run-on rant about the "Resistance's" determination to make everything Trump-related out to be Nazi-ish (although I do expect to be exasperated at some points by how far that will go in Trump Part 2). And I think you're right that we should be focusing on that and treating, well, his stated views as the main evidence for his probable views over potential dog-whistling. But as to the question of what he intended with the gesture, to the extent that it matters... well, his stated views don't work too well in his favor.

Musk hasn't denied trying to signal Naziism as far as I know and has been using it as an excuse to troll instead. I still find it quite plausible that he didn't really mean to do it in the moment (with the "subconsciously mimicked the types of gestures he'd been exposed to that he thought looked cool and masculine and those unfortunately included Nazi gestures" version of this hypothesis seeming quite likely), but it's been suggested -- I think also quite plausibly -- that he made the gesture(s) deliberately, not out of sincere Nazi convictions, but to troll, to upset the Left so that he could point at them in the aftermath and mock them.

All-around not a good human being, at least that much is for sure.

I wish people more easily were able to separate "this is horrifyingly insensitive/offensive/inappropriate and nobody should do it and I have a right to be angry that someone did/said the thing" from "this is a confirmation of the offender actually having the worst-case belief whose existence is the reason for the thing being considered so offensive, and so I should feel unsafe because they did/said the thing".

[sunsetzer]

On one hand, I want a final fantasy 6 remake, because the game is criminally underrated and the amount of fan content (which is all absolutely fantastic btw) is Not Enough for my neurodivergent, hyperfixating brain.

On the other hand, that would inevitably encourage more people to join the fandom, which would be great, except it seems these days the bigger a fandom gets the more toxic it becomes, and I really like what we have going on over here in our little corner. We all just love the game and its characters and nobody fights about who should and shouldn't date who or who you shouldn't like because they're ~problematique~. Nobody's trying to make one ship morally better than another, nobody's calling anyone names or threatening to doxx people who don't agree with their opinions. It's so peaceful and I love that for us. We're just vibing. Moisturized. Unbothered. In our lane. Flourishing.

[maxdibert]

You have very informative deep-dives in different themes into the HP universe which I really regard highly and always read with great interest! I returned to the hp fandom after almost 10 years of absence, and your analysis on how people in their teens like Sirius and during adulthood feel more drawn to Severus is just so spot on. The way you've brought up the problematic themes especially regarding the marauders' behaviour and the fandoms double standards has really altered my brain cells. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, they are really appreciated and I really admire your patience with the anon hate.

For yall haters, let a woman have their hobbies. There is a lot worse things in which to spend one's time and obsessing about Severus Snape is frankly a very good hobby in my opinion.

Ohhh, thank you so much! ♥️

Honestly, I can understand why Severus is a character designed for kids to fear or dislike—he really embodies a lot of things that, as children or teenagers, we don’t understand or find repellent about adults. Ironically, when you’re an adult, you find those things pretty relatable and even logical. I mean, for a kid who doesn’t know what it’s like to be depressed while also having to pretend to be functional because, as an adult, you’re expected to keep it together even when you’re utterly exhausted—Severus’s attitude seems inexcusable.

But for an adult who’s tired all the damn time, has a job they hate, and has experienced the struggle of wanting to break down and cry but having to keep up the facade of being in control—it’s not just normal; it actually seems like a feat. In the end, kids only hate what they don’t understand because they haven’t experienced it yet—and, unfortunately, it’s what they’ll inevitably become someday.

And yeah, haters gonna hate, as Taylor Swift says, but there’s another quote I really like: “Let them talk bad about me, as long as they’re talking,” or “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” I always think about that when someone spends a good chunk of their free time trying to get under my skin.

[iwanttobepersephone]

Rant about Harry Potter and JK Rowling, stick with me here

Ok, so, I hate JK Rowling. I feel like that's a given, right? Like, she's a transphobic homophobic bigot who hides behind feminism and routinely denies massive parts of the holocaust, and I despise her in ways that I don't think words can even express. I can't stand her, but y'know what I also can't stand?

When someone implies that my mother, who is one of the most supportive people I know, and a massive part of the founding, organization, and actions of a local group made specifically to fight Moms for Liberty and school boards in our area trying to harm trans and queer people, is transphobic because she likes Harry Potter

Wanna know why my mom likes Harry Potter? Because when she discovered the series at 12 years old, she quite literally lived in a cupboard under the stairs and was in an abusive household. The magic of the wizarding world or whatever was her escape, it's the reason she's still alive, and by extension, the reason I was ever alive.

But, sometimes, not even often, when I try to express even the most minimal amount of appreciation of that, someone says to me "but isn't JK Rowling transphobic? Why would you support someone like that? Are you transphobic?"

Which pisses me off beyond belief, as one might imagine

In this situation, "separate the art from the artist" isn't exactly a good phrase to use, given the fact that the goblins or whatever run the bank are Jewish stereotypes and the house elves generally being happy to work under their masters being a straight rip from the whole happy slave myth, and those are very very important things to recognize and understand, among others

I feel like it's a lot closer to "separate the hundreds if not thousands of lives she's helped from the hundreds if not thousands of lives she's ruined", or even better, understand that the good she's indirectly done for people makes all the bad that much more horrid

My mother is the closest thing to a hero in this entire world and I will not stand to hear one more person accuse her of being transphobic purely because she thinks fondly of a book series that saved her life. I will not stand for people saying she's just as bad as a holocaust denier because she owns every book in the series. I will not stand for anyone going entirely against their point of not judging a group as if it's monolithic by saying all Harry Potter fans are bad people, including my mother. And, once again, it's not often at all that this happens, but it happens and I'm pissed about it and needed to rant

Anyways rant over JK Rowling sucks don't believe a single thing she says and don't support her unless you wanna support someone actively trying to make the existence of queer people illegal

[royalcommunistthor]

#i think it works better this way but my point is that it's left the fandom fighting over this topic for the rest of our lives.#i've seen 'they thought he must be the traitor!' as evidence of the bullying but he was. he literally was. that was the plot of the movie.#i mean yes it shows distrust but i for one distrust that fire isn't going to burn me if i stick my hand in it again. u know??#and as a fan of problematic little shits who cause problems (affectionate (mostly)) i prefer it this way anyway.#also yes (re: tags) it's like everyone just forgot loki's second in line for the throne and a flu epidemic away from being king.#you'd have to be fucking stupid to pick on him in such a way that he's aware of it. he *is* going to be able to kill people at some point.#he's at the very least going to be the king's most trusted advisor & friend everyone knows this and wiill be buttering him up already.#in what mad world will sif ever be powerful enough to bring down loki before he just has her executed for some made up reason?#oh thorrrrrrr i hate to tell you this but your friends are doing a treason. yes i have evidence. shall i torture them till they confess? @nostalgia-tblr

to be fair i think the split between w4 & heimdall being suspicious of loki and implying that he's done shit like this before vs thor & the parents being oblivious kinda works because idk i think it's fair to assume that loki hasn't been outrightly cruel to his actual family - thor also doesn't really think he's been manipulated even after the fact (he's blond, pls forgive him). i think the initial w4 conversation after thor gets banished in thor1 is quite interesting because it's clear that sif and hogun are far more suspicious of loki than volstagg & fandral - who kinda think he's a trickster and a prankster but that he'd never go as far as ALL THAT. and again, people suspecting you of things YOU VERY MUCH DID DO is not you being a scapegoat.

literally loki:

now i'm not saying mcu movies aren't poorly construed in general because they are and the characters are criminally underwritten. it's all incredibly tropey and they very much rely on character archetypes. character a (sif and the gang) knowing loki is a sketchy asshole while character b (thor) doesn't/thinks it's not that serious. this fandom jerks off to kenneth branagh a lot (which is a sack of shit i'm not even gonna touch in itself) but somehow doesn't seem to realise this is the set up for othello - some characters think iago's a lying snake while othello trusts him deeply and othello's own insecurity (& 'otherness'which obviously isn't the case with thor) opens him up to iago's manipulation. branagh himself said that loki is based on iago. this is like as character archetype™ as it gets.

the thing is that 'the second son' is also an archetype - with several ways of utilising it; we got second sons that are favoured over the actual heirs, we have sorta overlooked spares (2nd post important person in the country....tragic) that want papa's approval (ding ding ding that's mcu loki) and we have wronged, ostracised second sons - these are often othered in some way either by birth (illegitimate, son of a 2nd less important wife etc etc ) or body (disabled, injured or just fuckugly i've seen it all etc) -> this is comic loki in a lot of the comicbook series (in some he's more like a ward/hostage prince than an official adopted son even). mcu fandom just projects the latter onto the former, which is hilarious because so much of it is like....directly disproven in those movies, like don't get me wrong, they're overall not great movies a lot of the time but...i mean, COME ON.

I have noticed one thing. Loki has beef with everyone who is remotely close to Thor. To name a few - with Sif, with Warriors three, with Heimdall, with Jane Foster, with Earth, with Alligator Loki. I can't wait to see the dynamics between Loki and Love.

LOKI DOESN'T SHARE!!!

when thor and loki first got introduced to other children as little kids it activated a rabies virus in loki and he's just not been OK since.

SAME kids are so fucking funny AND THEY ALWAYS GO FOR THE JUGULAR so I personally would love for us to be treated to gems like "if you're Thor's younger brother how come you're almost bald?" and "green is NOT your colour"

[marsupials-of-mars]

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