amethystoceandespiser

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Cope

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“Lilo and Stitch” 2002

Deleted Scene

Lilo plays a trick on the tourists.

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tbh I think it's fairly obvious why Viv's attempts to 'fix' Stolas have never worked

first, she just resorts to the hack method of trying to make everyone else look worse. this is so obvious multiple people have called it out, and it's the first tool in the hacky fanfic writers toolbox. Viv is essentially just Draco in Leather Pants-ing Stolas and Ron the Death Eater-ing everyone else. and even then viewers who actually think about it instead of just swallowing what the show says have noticed that Blitz, Via and Stella have plenty of reason to be mad with Stolas

second, Stolas is apparently incapable of actually being nice and empathetic onscreen. we're only ever told he's nice or kind and never get to see it and when we don't get to see it, we don't believe it. it doesn't help the writing keeps insisting we root for him when he's being petty and awful and they try and frame it like some 'yaaaas' moment

third and most importantly, Stolas never actually changes. a character who has screwed up big but is capable of self reflection and knows deep down that he's in the wrong and will admit it given some time - like Blitz - is always more sympathetic than a character whose brain keeps resetting every time he even considers the possibility he messed up and never apologizes for a single damn thing and never takes responsibility. Blitz is a screw up, but Stolas has the mindset of an abuser, which turns people off because he's a far more successful depiction of one than Stella ever was. tbh at this point it feels like it'll be a miracle if Stolas 'it's all my fault Via's gone' revelation from the end of s2 actually sticks. not to mention Blitz is far better at apologizing in the moment than Stolas, who only ever doubles down

no amount of the show's characters shilling him and insisting we love him will work unless the writing actually matches it. and it's safe to say Viv will never fix him while she's refusing to consider he's in the wrong and framing his negative attributes like positive ones, while making anyone who has a problem with his BS and calls it out the 'real' problem that needs fixing. and yet some fans buy it and keep pushing this 'Via is just naive' even though her reaction is completely reasonable. She'd still have a point even if she knew everything about Stella because Stolas is objectively a bad father who has let her down multiple times at this point

You put it into the perfect words. Thank you for doing so!

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Why I Still Dislike Stolitz

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Facts

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Found You Crying in the Middle of the Night... Dialogue Prompts

✧ "I—are you... crying? No, hey, it's okay. I'm not leaving."

✧ "Why didn’t you wake me up? I would've listened. I always listen."

✧ "You don’t have to do this alone, you know that, right?"

✧ "Did something happen, or is it just... everything?"

✧ "Is this the part where you tell me you’re 'fine'? 'Cause you're literally shaking."

✧ "You scared me. Just—sitting here. In the dark. Alone."

✧ "Talk to me. Yell at me. Cry into a pillow. I don’t care what it is—just do something."

✧ "You didn’t even turn the lights on. How long have you been like this?"

✧ "Hey. No. Don’t apologize. You’re allowed to break down. You’re supposed to break down sometimes."

✧ "Was it a nightmare? Or one of those waking ones your brain likes to loop at 2AM?"

✧ "You're not weak for crying. You're human. And frankly, overdue for a cry, if you ask me."

✧ "I’ll sit here. As long as you need. You don’t have to say anything."

✧ "...You want a hug or should I pretend I didn’t ask and awkwardly hover until you give in?"

✧ "You always take care of everyone else. Let someone take care of you for once."

✧ "Don’t do that. Don’t wipe your face and pretend I didn’t just see all of that. That wasn’t nothing."

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Watching the USJ arc again is vicious. The kids are terrified out of their minds and have to watch their teacher be disfigured in front of them. Some of them have their first near death experiences. They're 15.

It's the horror story at the surface of the event.

What I noticed on this watch was how sheltered, dependent and oblivious Tomura was at the time.

He's technically an adult but everything about him screams "grooming victim deliberately kept isolated from the rest of the world".

Don't get me wrong, Tomura is highly intelligent, competent and has clear combat experience. He also gawks at how cool Eraserhead and how powerful the kids are. He's surprised at All Might saving Katsuki like he's never seen Japan's number one celebrity in action before.

And when All Might defeats Nomu, he's genuinely distraught like it's the first time since he was five that he loses a pet. Although he's 20 years old now, he needs Kurogiri's help to emotionally regulate after their original plan fails.

And sure, he wants to kill All Might but later, in his mall conversation with Izuku, he seems like he's still working out the why. At the USJ, he spouts things about government oppression and heroes and villains being the same. Both are valid criticisms of hero society but he never brings them up again. When USJ!Shiggy is called out on it by All Might, he even admits that he doesn't actually care about what he's saying and only looks forward to the violence of it.

He hates All Might but clearly doesn't know that he was the one who crippled and almost killed his beloved master.

The whole situation is odd because usually a new villain's appearance should make them look scary and give us a good first idea of their motivations. But Tomura's reasons for killing All Might seem jumbled together and incongruent because they are.

AFO wanted Tomura to become a good vessel instead of an independent successor: The USJ was likely supposed to get rid of All Might for him (wouldn't want to take the risk of involving himself) and introduce his new body to the world.

In this context, what Tomura says and wants in this arc conventiely overlaps with the things AFO needs him to say and want.

Tomura's named reasons for killing All Might are still a bit vague because AFO intentionally left him in the dark about his century long feud with the users of OFA. All Might, for example, is weakening but Tomura has no clue that it's because of the injury his master gave him 6 years ago.

The scene after Tomu and Kurogiri flee the USJ is most emblematic of this: AFO understands that OFA has changed it's holder as soon as Tomura tells him about the annoying kid with a power similar to All Might's. Tomura just keeps bleeding out on the floor.

I'm certain that afterwards, AFO subtly encouraged his grudge on the brat that kept him from killing All Might.

And sure enough, by the time season 2 and 3 roll around, Tomura's developed a full-blown obsession with Izuku and has him on his personal kill list. Killing All Might, on the other hand, has been deprioritized in favor of causing general societal destabilization.

Until now, I never realized just how deep AFOs manipulation runs. I think more people need to add him on Bnha's list of 'Abusers whose abuse was never properly recognized by anyone least of all their victims'.

All of this also explains, why Tomura was so terrified of AFO leaving him in Kamino but experienced some of the most impressive character growth in all of Bnha afterwards.

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KPOP Demon Hunter Spoilers!!

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Would Jessie & James' fursonas be the regional Meowth variants? If not, would they claim this just to fuck with Meowth?

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i’m gonna need this to be an episode asap

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A problem I have with the swearing of Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss is not only that the insults are too excessive, but the fact that there's no variety, all the insults are the fucking same. It doesnt matter if the character is 30 or 200+ years old, It doesnt matter if the character is rich of poor, It doesnt matter if the character is European, Asían or from the North Pole, all the insults that will come out of its mouth are "shit" and "fuck", and maybe a gross unfunny slur from time to time.

One time I watched a writting video in which It was explained that dialogue is harder to writte than It seems. This is because your way of talking is influenced by your personality, socio-economic status, etc, so you must make the characters"s personalities distinct enough for the reader to recognize who is talking in each moment whitout specifying all the time.

Now lets imagine that Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss are in book format with no illustrations. Anyone trying to read the dialogues would go crazy trying to guess who is who because all the characters's personalities blend together.

Her character writing is like the literature equivalent to same face syndrome which she's also guilty of.

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Helluva Boss fails the class struggle

If you examine Helluva Boss closely, you will find, that the show does not actually care about any social hierarchy conflict and uses the discrimination of Imps or hellhounds as an edgy aesthetic, rather than the cruel reality that is systematic discrimination. There is no real statement the show takes on how the lower class citizens of hell are treated. There is no build up to a resolution, because the show doesn't think this needs resolving. The one thing they want to resolve are the relationship issues between Blitzø and Stolas.

If you were to ask people to describe a happy HB ending with one statement, the answers will vary depending on the person of course. But I'm sure that a lot of the people in the HB fandom would answer that a happy ending is, when Blitzø and Stolas worked through their issues and can finally be a couple. That is what the show is implying is the happiest conclusion for both of them, with how they've pushed this ship. I think that the lesser answer would be, that a happy ending is, when the discriminatory systems in hell are abolished. Even though, for any of the Imps to be truly happy, they would of course have to escape the classist system. Unless the show wants to have a message of "just be content where you are, you can still be happy, even when the cards are stacked against you". Which is a statement that seems positive, but in the end just shows an opposition to change and doesn't acknowledge the idea, that no one should have to be content under bad circumstances in a truly happy world.

But the show doesn't care. It isn't building up to the Imps taking down the hierarchy. It isn't even building up to a critique of power imbalances and how those at the top will do anything to keep those in the lower classes there. It's building up to Stolitz. And I'm not saying a show can't do both, a class conflict and a love plot. But maybe then, the love plot shouldn't be between a lower class citizen who ends up with a prince who abused his power all throughout the start of their relationship (and throughout the relationship too, to be honest). At least not as unreflected as HB does.

Stolas is not a bad person says Helluva Boss. Neither is Beelzebub or Asmodeus or Lucifer (in HH). And that might be true. They might be nice, funny, quirky and sweet. But they're still all people in power whose position is never critiqued even slightly. And that shows how little Helluva Boss cares about classism. The demons are not judged more or less based on their place in the system. They are not judged on their general exploitation or their partaking in this system. This might be a little hard to explain, so I'll just start with Striker as an example. Striker and Blitzø are pretty similar in narrative situation, character and background. They are both Imps, they both have experienced oppression from the higher classes, they are both assassins. Before Striker got ruined as a character, he and Blitzø had a lot of chemistry, which shows again how similar and compatible they are. But Striker is bad. He is really bad. But why? It can't be because he wanted to assassinate Stolas, right? That's the same thing the main characters do, kill people for a living, which they have to do to survive in hell's system. Striker is shown in the same antagonistic way that someone like Stella, Andrealphus and Mammon is. The fact that he is very disadvantaged, being an Imp and all is ignored. He doesn't get sympathy for that, because he is mean to the main characters. That's what really determines how HB portrays someone. The same thing goes for Glitz and Glam. They are in the same position that Fizzarolli was. They would be very likely to experience the same exploitation and struggle to keep their job. But that doesn't matter, because they are rude to poor Fizz.

In another way, Asmodeus and Beelzebub get a free pass from any criticism. Even if Bee is the one authorising the pounds where Hellhounds are left and Ozzie definitely had to have known about the Fizz sex robots and other ventures. Also, since all the sins have been around for ages, they surely saw this system being created or developing into what it is in the shows current. And yet, they personally still do seemingly very little to help Imps or Hellhounds as a whole and they don't seem to care. That's not something to acknowledge. Why does it really matter? Why would it matter that they do nothing to really help in the court room, even if Loona (Bee's "bestie") is muzzled without reason and Ozzie knows that the trial is unfair to Blitzø's and Stolas' relationship. They don't have to do anything to be good people and be loved, they can just do their funny quips and jokes. Because they are nice to the main cast. In this show, a lower class citizen can be the exact same kind of villian as a higher class person, if the main character doesn't like them.

The aesthetic of discrimination without actual consequences also shows in the relationship conflicts. Blitzø and Stolas need to hide their relationship, because Imp and Goetia wouldn't fly with the general public. Ozzie and Fizz (even bigger power differences than Stolitz) make their relationship public and everyone loves it. Bee is literally openly dating a Hellhound (a sin with a citizen of the lowest class) and nobody seems to care. It doesn't matter, because at least the ships are cute I guess. HB just loves their relationships that exceed classes. Higher class citizens being with lower class citizens is not a problem because of the general issues with exploitation, manipulation or pressuring. It's just a problem because there are so many people that just don't get it. The show diminishes any actual criticism of these relationships with "you just don't get it, love knows no class, you are classist yourself!". The fact that Fizz would have no real income without Ozzie (after leaving his job) is not a problem apparently. The fact that the entirety of Stolitz is built around a deal that Blitzø had to agree to to keep earning a living is not a problem. The fact that Tex might have been in a pound himself before getting with the organiser of them is also not a problem. It's just shoved to the side because "ohhh, forbidden romance, rich people getting with poor people, nothing that could possibly go wrong there".

I know some people are gonna think that the goal of totally dismantling an oppressive regime is a bit much for this show (which it kinda is since the writers deffo couldn't handle it). But the show made itself partly a serious drama with realistic struggles and mental health discussions. And from a serious drama, I expect atleast some comment on the world these people live in.

My issue is not necessarily, that they should never use the concept of oppression or, that they should only do so, if they end up with the system destroyed. My issue is that when you bring these very real struggles into a show and make them part of the central conflict, you have to say something about them. And the main things the show actually says about classism are terrible if you look closely at them:

The issue isn't the fact that hierarchy exists as a whole, it's that sometimes mean people are in power

If everyone in power was as nice as Bee or Ozzie, the classes wouldn't be a problem

When a wealthy person uses their power over you to make you do something, they might also feel lonely and loveless

Being dependent on a partner that gets more money, solely based on the fact that you're an Imp (discriminated race in hell) is fine and cute even

You need to be content with your status. If you aren't, you just won't be happy and that's something you need to work on within yourself

Don't be rude to one of the "nice" rich people, then you are just as bad as the mean rich people

Someone who has taken part in or directly profited from an oppressive system in the present and past can still be very cool and one of the good guys we are supposed to root for

There are no general underlying issues with relationships between different classes, they are perfectly happy and the ones criticizing are the classist ones

That's all I could think of right now, this discussion could be sooo much longer once Stolitz is brought up and all the issues that ship brings. But I talked about Stolitz before and it's a main critique point literally everywhere. I don't wanna bring the same stuff up in every post (even if it would fit perfectly). Still hope this makes some sense, I haven't seen that many people talk about this aspect of the narrative, it just stuck with me.

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Found out my boyfriend's side chick dumped him because he didn't ship Stolitz and found it abusive. That revelation was ALMOST worth getting cheated on for.

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Thoughts on people who say that Stolas’ wrongs are excusable because of his autism, emotional masking, being in the closet, or as a result of his past abuse?

Stolas isn’t autistic.. wait they are still using this head canon to excuse his actions 😭.

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SHIP IT WITH YOUR HEART STRANGER I DON'T KNOW. SHIP IT WITH YOUR HEART. P.S. i ship Millie x Vaggie and Niffty x Emberlynn

You are not gonna believe who I ship out of spite in the hellaverse universe. I ship nifty and mille together, because they're both straight but my sapphic heart can't resist an insane gremlin woman and a Texan coded lady being gay for eachother and I'm forever mad Viv insisted that they weren't gay.

Excellent choice of spite ship, Anon. Count me in on this one.

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Quick tips for writing Villains

✧ Your villain doesn’t have to be the foil of the hero. Sometimes the villain is the exaggeration of the hero. Same dream, just more murdery. More dramatic monologues. Less therapy.

✧ “Oh no, he’s hot” is valid. But why is he hot? Is it the danger? The voice? The haunted eyes? The “I will burn down heaven to see you smile” energy? Dig deeper than vibes. (But don’t forget the vibes.)

✧ If their evil plan could be solved by Google Maps and common sense, I’m deleting your book. No “I will destroy the world to get revenge on my high school crush.” Think bigger. Or weirder. Or petty but well-planned.

✧ If your villain is in the book for 12 seconds and dies offscreen, I will mail you a passive-aggressive letter. Let them be a presence. A shadow. A curse in the dialogue. A name no one wants to say out loud.

✧ They don’t have to be evil. They just have to be opposed. That mentor who believes the hero should sacrifice everything for the greater good? That’s a villain. That parent who loves their child but keeps hurting them “for their own safety”? That’s a villain. Welcome to nuance.

✧ If your villain is funny, I’m already 20% in love. Quips? Sass? Petty villain monologues? Excellent. Bonus points if they’re self-aware about how dramatic they’re being. “You didn’t think I’d actually fall into that lava pit, did you?” Icon.

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Flaws and Quirks in Male Characters That I’m BEGGING Writers to Explore

✧ Dudes who are bad at sports. Yes, Chad, not every male character needs to throw a perfect spiral in high school. Let him get hit in the face with a dodgeball. Let him (please) suck.

✧ The “pretty boy” who's not vain, just vibing. Like he knows he looks like he walked out of a Renaissance painting but has the self-esteem of a lost ferret.

✧ Shy, awkward boys who don’t magically become suave by Chapter 6. No, he’s still weird at parties and says “you too” when the waiter says “enjoy your meal.”

✧ Flirtatious guys who are actually super respectful. He's flirty but not a walking lawsuit. Shocker. He’s playful, not predatory.

✧ Male friendships that aren't emotionally constipated. Yes, two guys can say “I love you, bro” and not immediately punch each other to cancel it out.

✧ The soft-spoken leader. He doesn’t need to scream orders or have a “gruff, commanding voice.” He just talks, and people shut up and listen because he’s competent.

✧ Dudes with weird hobbies. like, your guy MC collect antique spoons or have a YouTube channel rating old vacuums. Why not. It’s his passion.

✧ Guys who are clingy and insecure in relationships. Not abusive, just genuinely terrified of being left on read for too long. He's trying his best, ok?