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Another thing about the insincere 'but why no one talks about the flaws!!!!' posts is that fans who make those posts often conflate several things:

First, when popular white guy characters have their flaws sanded down by the fandom it usually takes the form of whump-ification, woobie-fication or in some fandoms of making him super powerful and the perfect ideal hero. The focus is firmly on the character and his suffering or reliability, his flaws are removed because he is the fandom's special guy and everything is centered on him. And it's his fans who are doing it. And often these works and headcanons and characterization dominate fanworks and fanon.

But with over-hated characters of color like Darius TOH or Mel Arcane, or sometimes with white women who stand in the path of a ship or who are turned into everyone's mom, when their flaws are supposedly removed it isn't done because these fans love their characters so much. Instead it is usually done because they are needed in the role of protecting and serving other characters or because the fandom doesn't know how to process their flaws in a normal way. You can even tell because there rarely will be any of the same plots where the character receives care or is rescued and everyone worries about them (like, others had noticed it too - there is literally almost no comfort fics centered on Darius in toh fandom, and among those that are there maybe one or two has the same whump-y characterization that the white characters of the same narrative importance, like Alador, get). And this 'removal' of flaws is usually done not by fans who care that much about the character, but by primarly fans of other characters. Sometimes they manage to demonize the character and still turn them into a one dimensional comfort provider.

And then, there are actual fans of the unpopular and/or demonized characters who are usually perfectly aware of the real flaws, but just want to focus on something positive about the characters, yet receive disproportionate push back, and suddenly a big portion of fandom acts like not constantly focusing on the flaws is equal to not admiting that the flaws exist (although often the fanon flaws are not canon). And with unpopular characters even if some fans of the character might remove the flaws and choose an interpretation that is too soft, it still doesnt reach the same overwhelming ammount as with woobie white favourites, yet is treated with more agression.

And fandoms tend to conflate all these phenomena and churn out constant barrage of 'why no one talks about the flaws of this unpopular/overly hated character!' when 1. fandom already can't shut up about the flaws 2. those who sand down the flaws to make the character into a prop to a resident woobie more often are fans of the said woobie, but the fans of the unpopular character get blamed instead, when usually they are the ones to first call that out 3. with other characters, even outright villains, it is considered normal to not focus on the flaws and create all kinds of cutesy fanworks and favourable interpretations, yet when it's an unpopular character of color suddenly that becomes a problem. And you can tell with which characters it will become a problem before even going into fandom tags (hint: it has nothing to do with the canon severity of their actions/flaws)

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Shoutout to this Reddit user! I love that more and more ppl are pointing this out

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Apparently they’re having another interview and said they’ll be sure to ask Mel related questions. It’s still crazy how they didn’t do that the first time, but ig…

Mel rant

For context someone on twitter made a post saying they were going to be interviewers for the arcane event this week and what questions to ask.

A MAJORITY of the questions were Mel related! (They were so well thought out too) And guess what… ZERO Mel questions were asked because they “ran out of time”

You asked the people for suggestions then conveniently ignored the most popular character they asked for, who’s part of the main cast, and has the highest spinoff potential???

Just don’t ask for suggestions if you’re not gonna take them and don’t come up with a bs excuse for ignoring them 😭😭😭

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#if we get to noxus and mels barely in the show im killing everyone

New fear unlocked

PLEASE ARCANE STAFF I AM BEGGING YOU I NEED MORE INFO ON MEL! WHATS GOING TO HAPPEN IN NOXUS PLEASEEE TALK ABOUT IT!!!

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The lack of Mel content in interviews and other official content has been so disappointing. I know there’s a Noxus spin-off focusing on her coming out, but that’s not coming out for a while. And it would make more sense to have more focus on Mel to help build hype for the show instead of having her get shafted time and time again.

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These tags are spot on.

and what if i said i think mel is trans, what then?

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and what if i said i think mel is trans, what then?

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Reblogging your response since I’m saying more or less the same thing.

Kevin technically is the weakest so him doing worse than Gwen in fights is less of the writers having an agenda or anything, but more of something that’s bound to happen. Magic that serves as a deus ex machina at times plus green lantern powers>>>>absorption man, but with a drawback. That being said, he is by no means weak.

Everyone in the show takes Ls sometimes but it’s extra egregious with Kevin to the point it seems that whoever is writing the fights has something against him. Kevin losing a fight to 10 year old Ben wasn’t just odd, but served no purpose. You have scenes where he is running around concrete floors to try to find something to absorb instead of just absorbing the floor or just covers himself in the worst material possible. Most of the moments when he coats only his arms don’t make sense since his vitals are left unprotected. Sometimes, they have Kevin going into fights without even absorbing anything at all.

Adding on to your point about how Kevin doesn’t grow from his sexism. A lot of the other characters have their own flaws that aren’t really addressed, much less grown out of. But a lot of these characters also have episodes where their specific actions/line of thinking is wrong that ends with them realizing and even admitting they’re wrong. Granted, these lessons absolutely don’t stick all the time, but they’re still some of my favorite moments from the series.

Oddly enough, Kevin doesn’t really get an episode like this. Charms Way feels like it’s the closest but it still ends with Kevin only caring about Ben calling him a jerk only because he realizes Gwen has been doing exactly what he wanted her to do. It should’ve ended with at least a conversation between him and Gwen, but instead there’s no actual resolution to the episode and it’s never brought up again. Even in the episode where Eunice gets introduced, while Gwen realizes she should be more welcoming to Eunice, Kevin’s behavior towards her is only treated as a joke. There’s quite a few episodes that feel like Kevin should learn something, but it goes nowhere. Things that feel like stuff Kevin should grow out of are more like quirks that the other characters should just more or less put up with. I don’t want him to apologize or have a learning moment from every single hiccup, questionable or bad moment. That would be unrealistic, unreasonable, and unfair because nobody else in the cast is learning/growing from every single thing. I’m just saying at least once would be nice.

The way Kevin’s powers, intelligence, sexism, and growth is handled is partially a consequence of the writers leaning too much into him being the comedic relief. Don’t get me wrong he’s hilarious and I love him for it, but I wish it didn’t come at the expense of other parts of his character.

And since Kariachi brought it up: Kevin running away and not returning because he views himself as a burden to his family, especially since they don’t have the ability/resources to properly support him and his powers, after destroying his home seems to add up pretty fine imo. The show spells out why Kevin dislikes Harvey when he states “if ma really loved dad, she would’ve never remarried”. He feels that Harvey is replacing the father he’s still grieving. Nobody is the bad guy here (outside of Max/the plumbers, but that’s a conversation for another day), it’s just two people who aren’t in the right headspace coexisting under one household. My problem is that Kevin’s home and family life is very under-explored and his stepfather’s appearance feels very random and out of nowhere. We should’ve gotten an episode that focused on them instead of just having one scene. Also, kevin looks four years old at minimum in the picture with Devin but it’s not like the show ever cared about making his backstory make sense.

I have more problems with the way Kevin is handled but I’ve done enough yapping.

overthinking kevin hours

so it's no secret there's mixed feelings about kevin's development and characterization in uaf. (I still have my own pov on it bc i really like how the show did some things and not others.) I've heard some people say he's like "beast boy part 2" which lowkey has some truth in it.

I guess i wanted to ask other fans -- what do you think the show gets wrong about kevin? what characteristics do you think were truly out of character? what would you have done differently? i'm gonna make my own post with my views but i wanted to hear everyone else's thoughts first.

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It’s a result of fandoms being pretty male centered unfortunately

I noticed in fandoms people talk more about male characters traumas than female characters traumas

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besties

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it's been a while since i've posted arcane, but here's my tribute piece for the Art of Arcane exhibit by Gallery Nucleus! this piece was a little wish fulfillment because i wanted to see these guys together ☀️ If you're able to attend, the show runs from May 10-25! if not, you can also see the work here: https://gallerynucleus.com/events/1085

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When you're running a military exercise, but gremlins keep swiping the army tokens!

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It would make a lot of sense for him to resent Max and it would be realistic to have some left over resentment towards Ben or Gwen. Butttt, I think the situation is a lot more complex, especially since Ben was a child even younger than Kevin.

In his debut episode, Kevin and ben are getting along just fine. Then, I kid you not, Kevin announces his plans to commit mass murder and attacks Ben for being against that. When Kevin pretends to want help near the end, Ben is genuine and offers him to join the roadtrip. But Kevin only used the opportunity to try to take the omnitrix off, which probably destroyed Ben’s trust in him. And every episode kevin appears in has him trying to hurt or kill Ben and his family. Cut to back with a vengeance, it was Max who shot the null void projector at Kevin and Vilgax while the kids weren’t even aware he still had one. While in the null void, Gwen and Ben are attacked by Kevin and them leaving him there wasn’t a deliberate plan, but two kids trying to make it out safely.

Don’t get me wrong, Kevin has absolutely been through a lot before and after OS, and should’ve been able to receive the help he needed. But it was the adults that failed him, not really the children that were technically victims as well. Between Ben’s own trauma, only having the omnitrix for about a year after OS, not having any actual authority, the corruption of the incarcereon, the rooters getting a hold of Kevin, etc. there’s a lot going against him. But, I still think it is a missed opportunity that the show didn’t really explore Kevin’s trauma that much.

Doing some research and the more I look into it Kevin had every right to be a villain. Or at least hold a grudge against Ben. Mean imagine as a child you had anger issues steaming from the fact that you got thrown out for destroying your families home (which mind you we don't know the full context of). Then met Ben and mutated beyond your control then literally get sent to alcatraz as a 11 year old child!

Mind you he was mixed with adult alien criminals and was only let out due to a cult "helping" him. Nah I say his anger towards Ben would be justified cause Ben never made a effort to reach out to him even when he was a adult hell not even gwen. If he hadn't appeared back in there lives they probably would have left him to rot in the null void.

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Personally, I’m choosing anodyne or at least trying to work out a visiting deal. But It’s Not Easy Being Gwen does show that she sees going off to anodyne as the easy way out. She’s pushes through with going through the craziest stuff ever if it means helping the people that need her to help them.

Gwen is either a stronger soldier than me or passively suicidal because if I turned out to be an energy being that A) can literally be harvested/ abused for power and B) led to others using me as a puppet by depriving me of agency, but both would necessitate me to live and be somewhat conscious through it all due to the very nature of mana, all while actually having the option to fucking leave the planet and chill with the other energy beings like me-

I would have not wasted a second to go "grandma come pick me up I'm scared"

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Wait, cook. The characters go through messed up things often, but they barely react. Those two instances are one of the few times they do. Ben almost never cries at all in the show, but the omnitrix getting ripped off of him is the first time we see him do so. He’s going through a lot of physical pain of course, but there’s also the emotional pain of losing the omnitrix. With the darkstar situation, it’s subtle, but Gwen was visibly shaken up at the end of episode. And it’s crazy when you remember darkstar’s whole thing is a pretty obvious allegory for SA. Visible scars could’ve been a reminder that these characters are still vulnerable in a way and it could’ve led to some character exploration too. Like the symbolism would be crazy.

Very random thing, but ben having the omnitrix ripped from his wrist in OS and michael's bite on gwen's arm should've left visible scars imo

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she gives me cuteness agression

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What invincible are yall watching