#Moral grayness >>>>>

[tamaruaart]

"Eurylochus is so dumb" Eurylochus' biggest flaw was that he trusted Odysseus thought his and their men's happiness just as important as his own

[isagrimorie]

Parallels - Emily and Rossi conspiring

Criminal Minds 12x21 - Green Light | Criminal Minds Evolution 17x05 - Conspiracy vs Theory

[in-finitives]

i think why i am drawn more to antagonists (especially TRAITOR antagonists cus goddd) is because they've walked away from all the people they cared about, all the people they loved, because this is a cause they care about. it is selfless. it is cruel. it is diabolical, actually. it is something the hero won't do. something even the hero is unwilling to sacrifice, but the traitor, well, they have given everything and they will give more. because when you commit an act of betrayal, you are betraying more, you are betraying yourself, you are betraying your morality so that everyone else can save their's. you are paving the road to heaven by going to hell. and if that isn't tragically evil idk what is

[fernhelm]

petuniajames🎀🦷

@foursaints answering the call with this

[capnhanbers]

i haven't gotten a joat comment in a long time and someone just left an essay and i literally got butterflies

[tender-hearteddd]

bertholdt exudes the same vibe as the guy who killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare ifykyk

[cohendyke]

“why dale cooper is the perfect man” no i don’t think that’s true i think you just want to fuck 90s kyle maclachlan

[luminawkes]

unfortunately for everyone following me here, yes. i like arlecchino genshin impact😞

[galactic-rhea]

You know, I keep thinking about the acolyte finale and I the force amnesia thing is...just too over-powered, in the sense that is so extremely useful that the amount of times in which any sith could and should have used it, is endless

And my response to this is that, narratively the thing that would have made the most sense was for Mae to die. I'm all for showing the jedi as flawed or the institution being corrupted, but the dark side is supposed to be...well, dark. From a narrative sense, if they wanted Osha to go on and be evil enough to be the apprentice of a sith as handsome as he might be, the darkest, evilest thing to do in that situation, was to murder her sister. Yes, she did kill Sol and that's evil, but huh, we had a whole deal with Osha feeling anger at her sister and we even had Sol be the one to tell her "There's good in her, the part that loves you" but we have not much indication that Osha really believed that. She shot her before (hesitated but the conflict is there), killing her sister despite knowing Sol lied to her would have : a) Truly shown how the dark side is taking over her. b) Leave no witness and no need to invent a super canon-breaking and extremely OP ability. and c) Big Emotional Impact.

Let's see, somehow the show wanted to be the inverse to usual Star Wars. And usual Star Wars is about love and, redemption, and defeating evil and family. So you had the chance to do just that, just the contrary to that as they alleguelly wanted the show to do, all I'm saying is...you want to do Sith Show? Then go on and be unapologetic about it. Because, from what I have seen in interviews is that, like I said, they didn't want the usual SW, with redemptions and fake-deaths or the usual hero journey.

Mae already did a lot of damage, so from Osha's POV, she could even justify herself with that. Besides, Osha seemed to be completely fine with sith arms guy just after a day, despite all the murders he did in front of her eyes, so I really don't think Osha killing Mae would have felt OOC or against her "going to be evil" arc, at all.

I will keep saying this over and over but it feels so much like there were whole episodes of development missing.

Or then you could just do the political intrigue corruption plot from the inside of the order, because the problem with having "the sith show", is that it would be a bit hard for the writers (but not impossible) to make the jedi have a corruption arc without making it look like justification (especially for this fandom because god lord), but is not impossible at all and it shouldn't be that hard either. My fav scene keeps being the one with Venestra and that Senator, and it only lasted like 2 minutes, whyyyyyyy

[emblemoftheattorney]

Edelstans: “Edelgard detractors completely miss the nuances and morally grayness of her character! Fandoms can’t handle complex characters!”

Me: Oh I agree…

Same Edelstans: *Remove all the nuances and moral grayness from Rhea and make posts about how she shouldn’t have been an ally on any routes or even that there should’ve been a golden ending where all houses team up to defeat her* Me: You know what, forget it, I can’t sympathize with you anymore

[tamaruaart]

May I ask, why do you even hate feminist Greek mythology retellings so much? I think it's great female characters are getting the attention they deserve

when I say I hate feminist Greek Mythology retellings, I mean:

"I hate retellings where all the men are shallow assholes and all the women, who most of the time are assholes, are spared of any fault because 'the men made her do it, they drove her off the edge it's not her fault'. To me it's a very lame, narrow-minded and a bit bias view of Greek Mythology, especially considering the historical context and the point of moral ambiguity. Which was a pretty big thing in the stories. But people treat it like it's okay because 'The Greeks did it first by being misogynists'. You can have your own interpretations of course but in my point of view erasing the fault of these female characters and claiming to have "told THEIR stories" is wrong. Not to mention the 'feminism' is just the very modern iteration of it that's a little bit rooted in misandry.

And again, this is deemed as acceptable and progressive because 'The Greeks did it first's or something'. It's just extremely icky to me, and I'd rather not have gender politics or have the book always telling me how baaddddd these women have it I'm sure they'd be treated better if they were men. It's just extremely exhausting and annoying to read. Like- I'm sorry but at this point I don't even care give me cool goddesses and mythological creatures and sick ass warrior dudes."

I do not mean:

"I hate it when people give attention to the female characters they were terrible people. Women shouldn't be interesting characters because they weren't in the original stories all the did was annoy the men YADAYADAYADA.".

Get it right.

[zzxid]

My little controversial take is that whether a character is perceived as a good or bad person has not much do with "media literacy" but by the reader/viewer/player own views on morality.

This does not mean "if you like bad character you're a bad person", nor that if you can rationalize a characters actions means you excuse them. Nor that seeing a character as anything other than morally gray takes away their nuance (Since when "well written" and "unambiguously bad person" can't overlap?).

But it does mean whether you see certain characters as monsters or not is influence by what things you see as redeemable, or how you think forgiveness and redemption shall be handled. Does redemption equals absolution? Does forgiveness truly heal what was done wrong? Maybe we both see this character as complex and well written, and disagree on where they stand morally because what's a redeemable flaw to you, isn't that much to me.

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence

[stellarfire]

it’s that time where i word vomit again !! this time about kelly and voight (mostly) !! thoughts under the cut !! i yapped so much i’m so sorry in advance, this isn’t very comprehensive but it’s late and my brain is every which way </3

let it be noted that i am not a frequent pd watcher so i am not crazy familiar with voight’s character !! a lot of this ramble is kelly-centric and is just my perspective on things !! cool? cool. okay let’s go :)

at their cores, i think the two of them are very different. that’s to say, mainly, voight is a lot more morally gray than kelly is. but that said, they’re not entirely different (DONT BOO ME I’LL EXPLAIN)

first and foremost, i have no idea how exactly these two are gonna butt heads. obviously, there’s some level tension between voight and 51 bc of past experiences. voight has and will go against what’s ‘objectively’ right and will consequently resort to questionable and/or concerning means to reach a solution he wants. compare that to kelly, who often tries to mitigate the damage to that/those around him in order to reach a solution

✨however✨ i think a lot of people seem to forget what lengths kelly is willing to go to when it comes down to it? this is mostly side thoughts but i’m saying them anyway💀 by all means, more often than not, kelly takes the objectively right path. he’s always putting other people before himself. but then you factor in things like him brushing off pascal indirectly admitting he set bishop’s car on fire, him quite literally not only stabbing cotner with a pike pole when he had his gun pointed at stella, but driving it deeper, and what i would honestly consider the holy grail of what could be considered objectively incorrect actions: him threatening to kill a guy and beating him senseless after cornering him to get information on katie’s whereabouts when she was kidnapped, rather than letting the police handle it. granted, i sure as hell don’t knock him for it!! the man has a protective streak for his loved ones that runs 100 miles wide. but that doesn’t change the fact that his actions technically aren’t objectively correct (by ✨societal standards✨)

ANYWAYS tho, back to the actual crossover thoughts. as i said here, i think the bulk of their tension is gonna result from how to get everyone out from the subway collapse. from my personal perspective, they have conflicting interests: voight strikes me as the type to be more concerned/focused on the suspect than anything else (outside of ruzek and potentially stella, but i’m not very familiar with his relationship with adam so please excuse me), while kelly, outside of stella, is more worried about the victims than anything else

maybe voight tries to suggest actions against the suspect (or getting into the subway collapse overall) that puts everyone else in further harm’s way?? and kelly has an issue with it?? i have no idea !! that is just me spitballing

but it makes me wonder where they’ll find common ground, bc lord knows they’re gonna have to, or else. will voight dial it back? or will kelly dial it forward? voight doesn’t have the same emotional attachments in this situation that kelly does; as much as he likely does care about adam (and stella, to an extent), there’s a clear fundamental difference between that and stellaride’s marriage.

that said, this is arguably the worst situation stella and kelly have ever been in. mayday (10x1) is definitely up there in that it forced stella to start considering a life without him, and it’s probably the worst situation at this current point in time before the crossover has aired, but now, there’s so much more at stake. and i think you can tell that by kelly’s visceral emotions alone

it makes me wonder (again). he clearly will not be 100% emotionally sound during this like he normally is on calls. it’s gonna be rough. and that’s not even including the fact we know they’re potentially gonna be saying goodbye to each other (and other emotional things) because they don’t know what’ll happen. so i wonder… how far would he be willing to go?

do i think he’ll actually do anything stupidly drastic? no. but god knows he’d do anything by all means necessary to get stella out of there alive. and so a part of me can’t help but wonder what lines he could potentially cross, who he’d be willing to defy (i.e., pascal, mainly) in order to ensure that he can get to her. i can definitely see him defying pascal as well as other security measures, and i think, just maybe, voight could be a further nudge in that gray direction

as a final note tho, as much as we’re about to see tensions between him and voight, i also know that they’re two of the most competent leaders there in their own merits, and i think it’s predominantly gonna be them who put this thing to a resolve (of sorts) by working together

[dw-flagler]

reading a new worm fanfic. jury's still out on whether it's accurate or not, but i must say, making amy and alec have to sit together in the same room for an extended period of time is a great idea. i can only imagine the levels of Horrors

[griffongrey]

Writer tag game!

Five things you might find in a story of mine:

CHARACTER ANALYSIS! If I'm not studying the characters like bugs under a microscope, then what's the point, amirite? lmao

Fandom OCs. On the latest page of the "My Works" section of Ao3, over half of my fics are about fandom ocs. "Original Characters" is my third highest tagged character. My longest-running (and my favoritest) series is about a regular little girl in the MCU who decides to be a superhero. I mcfreaking love fandom ocs, y'all.

Bittersweet endings that the protagonists have to live with. Gimme those tragedies, those pyrrhic victories! You've accomplished your goal, but god at what cost? (Why yes, my Warden, Hawke, and Inquisitor all end their own games in heartbreak, lol why do you ask?) (This also shows up in a major way in my outlined-but-forever-unwritten original fiction.)

Morally gray and/or good-is-not-always-nice characters, where the line between hero and villain are often blurred. It's no wonder I keep getting sucked in by dragon age, is it? Also, between this and #3, it's like Loghain (and Solas too) was tailor made for me to latch onto like a chew toy lmao

Shipping, but in a vague, nebulous way that plays fast and loose with labels. Not all ships in my writing look like this, but enough of them do that it's a pattern. What can I say, I'm aro-ace. Secret Third Thing relationships are fun to play with.

Bonus:

A subcategory of Fandom OCs is precocious Weird Little Kids with Strong Opinions, often written from the kid's own pov. That MCU oc I mentioned is the main — but by no means the only — example, and she's surrounded by her own cast of fellow opinionated kids. Another major one starts off as this before evolving into #4 (tho tbh her Strong Opinions include "murder is okay actually and I want to commit one," so she's always been #4).

Tagged by: the incredibly creative @broodwoof! :D Tagging: aajskdhjfla I never know who to tag in these things, so if you see this then that means I'm tagging you!