#Draco in Leather Pants | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

travllingbunny · 1 year

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Who was the poster who talked about how "Draco in leather pants" is rooted in misogyny and crossed out the girl in fangirls and basically accused all the tropers who posted if being "nice guys" who thought all women wanted to be with jerks? In my experience it's not misogyny, it usually is female fans who often take conventionally attractive male villains and either woobify them or make them into perfect prince charming's. Even villains who have commited horrible crimes like rape or genocide

(pt 2) I typically see this done with characters like Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape, Anakin Skywalker, Billy Hargrove, Loki Laufeyson, Voldemort, Kylo Ren, Michael Langdon. Almost all of the characters on this list have said and done truly horrific things yet it is mostly women I see treating these characters these way. Most male viewers/readers don't really have an interest either way in these villains male or female and don't really go out of their way to defend them in this manner.

This anon sent an ask in 4 parts, and since there's a lot to unpack here, and this will be a long answer, I'll answer the first two in this post, and then the second two (which address a different issue) in another.

Anon, I'll start with the sentence here, because what you're saying is blatantly inaccurate.

Or rather, it's possible that most men, for all I know, don't have that kind of attitude to these specific characters you listed. But it's definitely not true that male fans typically don't idolize and whitewash villains.

In fact, it's equally well known and has been for years that there are many villains, or anti-heroes of the very morally dark variety, who are idolized mostly by men, particularly straight men, including many who don't just enjoy them as villains or anti-heroes but idolize them as cool "badasses" and heroes who in fact, never did anything wrong ; even their crimes were fully justified, and/or their ideology and worldview is in fact completely correct (even when the narrative is going out of its way to show it really isn't).

This has happened. for instance, with villains like The Joker from The Dark Knight, Tyler Durden (...yes, I know - and this only makes it eveb funnier), Negan on The Walking Dead (way before the show gave him a redemption arc, at the time when he was unquestionably the main villain), and even MCU Thanos (which I find particularly mind-boggling - I could understand it with villains like Vulture or Killmonger, but Thanos' ideological motivations are incredibly stupid and nonsensical). I will never forget how Negan fanboys during season 7 argued that he was really so against rape and therefore a good guy, and not a rapist himself - and that his "wives" were not sex slaves but "golddiggers" in consensual relationships with him, ignoring not just Negan's power over the entire community but the fact that the show explicitly showed that at least some of the women were directly blackmailed by the threat of harm or death of their loved ones, and at least one escaped the community so she wouldn't be forced to become his sex slave.

Tywin Lannister is a great example: this is someone who's, among other crimes, guilty of ordering child murders (including that of an infant), mass murder (including an eradication of an entire extended family), gang rape of a 14 year old girl, of sending the worst monsters he could possibly find to commit countless other murders, rapes and torture, who's also a terrible, abusive father to all his children, a major hypocrite, blatantly classist to the point he barely considers common people human, and his overriding motive isn't anything noble but his own arrogance and easily hurt pride. But even when the author goes out of his way to show that his legacy turns to sh1t the moment he dies, you'll still find a ton of fanboys who buy into Tywin's own rationalizations for his actions and will argue that he was in fact the best, smartest political and military leader in the series, and that every crime he committed was justified. Those fanboys even included the GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B.Weiss, who, oddly enough, included most (if not all) of Tywin's crimes and awful behavior in the show, but still described him as "Lawful Neutral" (?! Funnily enough, he is neither lawful, nor neutral) and parroted the character's own hypocritical justification for the Red Wedding as something they thought the audience should take as gospel truth.

It's also something that commonly happens with villain protagonists, or morally dark antiheroes who are protagonists of their stories. In those cases, one of the main reasons is the fact that a lot of people always expect the protagonist to be the Hero of the story, the Good Guy - especially if the characters starts off sympathetic. Walter White is a very well known example of a villain protagonist that many viewers, and I'be be surprised if most of them were not straight men, identified with and idolized to the point they heaped an incredible amount of hate on the character of his wife Skyler for simply disagreeing with his actions, and even to the point that the actress got harassed and threatened. Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey got similar treatment from many fans, and Don Draper, a pathetic man with a ton of personal issues, somehow became the epitome of Coolness that straight men wanted to emulate.

But in spite of all that, fandoms and TV Tropes have been going on for years only about how bad and stupid and awful it is that certain villains get whitewashed or idolized by female fans, supposedly mostly for being attractive. Cue the "Draco in Leather Pants" trope and similar monikers. I dunno, I'd say that's kind of sexist (and also heteronormative), don't you think so?

Even with the well-known fact that one dude back in the 1980s shot a president not for any political reason but because he watched Taxi Driver and overidentified with Travis Bickle, I haven't seen the fact that many men idolize male villains brought up as an issue - until a few years ago with the panic around Joaquin Phoenix's Joker (which is a bit odd, that this one got so much criticism and not the earlier ones, but maybe that's a sign of the changing tides of the Western society and pop culture). Before this, people would sometimes mention tropes like "Misaimed Fandom", but no one came up with a trope called something like, say, Tywin Sh1tting Gold, to complain specifically about men idolizing villains and dark anti-heroes and justifying all their actions. Instead we got a lot of hang-ringing about oh those airheaded women and the way their minds just don't work when they see a hot dude!

But maybe I'm wrong? Maybe the "Draco in Leather Pants" trope is in fact meant to be an all-accompassing one about people of any gender and sexual orientation whitewashing villains, or just generally whitewashing the flaws and defending the morally wrong actions of their favorite characters? Let's take a look at the Television Trope Draco in Leather Pants page. On top of it, there's a quote that's supposed to summarize what it's about:

"I guarantee you Satan's going to have no problems on this planet because all the women are gonna go 'What a cute butt!' He's Satan! 'You don't know him like I do.' He's the prince of darkness! 'I can change him.'"

— Bill Hicks, Pussywhipped Satan

...Oh.

And now to answer your question: it was @dinamitelove who answered my old post where I criticized this Television Trope, and said, among other things, this about the origins of the trope: "God knows I wasted too much of my time on TV Tropes, and there are a few things I have to say about it. Most members, at least back when I was around during 2009-10 were male, and its sexism was pretty evident on the example pages. Draco in Lether Pants was one of the most egregious examples of this. (...) There was that horrible sexist assumtion that has been around since fiction became massive about the dangers of women consuming it, because their “highly sensitive minds could not distinguish fiction from reality” and that could be dangerous for society (see Madame Bovary). That idea got married with the “Nice guys finish last” idea to create this trope. Althought I have to say that recently, I’ve been seeing it around here amongst female bloggers to attack other fangirls. I guess this idea became an easy way to attack other fangirls for liking stuff I don’t like."

And considering all I pointed out above, I think they were probably right. (Also, in that old conversation, it's been pointed out that fangirls later started throwing the same accusations/mocking each other the same way. But that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't misogynistic assumptions involved.)

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't many fangirls who are really very annoying in how much they're willing to whitewash and justify crimes and awful actions of their favorite male characters who they find appealing in a romantic and/or sexual way. That's certainly true. But it's not unique to female fans, it's not always moticated by romantic or sexual desire, it's not unique to male characters either (as you also pointed out in your asks 3 and 4, which I'll answer in another post).

Plus, sexism isn't the only issue I have with the Draco in Leather Pants trope and its trope page. I got so annoyed with that page that I wrote this post sarcastically tearing it apart. Because that page is a huge mess, from the quote above and the description of the trope, to the various examples people have added to it. As I've already pointed out in that post, the description is incredibly imprecise and full of incorrect assumptions (”A form of Misaimed Fandom, when a fandom takes a controversial or downright villainous character and downplays his/her flaws, often turning him/her into an object of desire and/or a victim in the process. This can cause conflicts if the writers are not willing to retool the character to fit this demand.”) - For starters, it's not like villains, let alone controversial characters who aren't necessarily villains, aren't often 1) deliberately presented as sexy and desirable in canon, and/or 2) given sympathetic qualities and tragic backstories or even are actual victims (of rape, abuse etc.) in canon, and/or 3) shown to have some good qualities and a potential to be better people or get redemption. And with the imprecise wording like "villains or controversial characters", you can apply that to almost every character.

No surprise that the examples people added are an even bigger mess. Examples include canonical villains, heroes turned villains, villains turned redeemed heroes, anti-heroes or even flawed heroes. Many of the characters mentioned were definitely deliberately portrayed as sexy in canon (and a few even literally wore leather in canon) and promoted as such, and/or were love interests of the heroes. Many of them were abuse or rape victims in canon, had PTSD, are shown crying and having emotional breakdowns, etc. So, basically, the people who added them to the page were complaining that the fans were "woobifying" chararacters that were already "woobified" by the creators, or putting characters in "leather pants" who were in leather pants to begin with.

(I haven't read or seen much of Harry Potter, but a few people also pointed out that even Draco Malfoy doesn't fit this - since he was, a child, and more of a school bully antagonist and not some Big Bad monster.)

It would make a lot more sense if the trope was simply about fans defending their faves at any cost and whitewashing them or justifying their actions, which often happens. However, that's tricky too - because while that happens a lot, you know what else often happens in fandom debates? Haters portraying the characters they hate in the worst light possible, even making up things that are not in canon, but more often insisting on the worst possible intepretations, or denying even the obvious good qualities the character has, or even denying or downplaying the character's victimization or disability, because those don't fit with the the idea of them as 100% mousache-twirling evil monsters.

Both of these things come from a similar place: the tendency to see things as black and white, and it gets worse when fandoms try to make liking fictional characters into a morality contest. Fandom debates are often terrible because people on opposing sides start ignoring nuance and get more entrenched in their views because it's all about defending their fave or attacking the characters they hate (or pointing out the hypocrisy of the opposing side of the fandom).

Then you get debates that sound like this:

A: How dare you say that [my favorite character] is a ____!

B: Err, they did this horrible thing, which means they are.

A: But in their society, this thing is not considered bad as it is in ours, because [mental gymnastics and really messed up arguments]

but you may also get this:

A: This character (X) is disgusting and evil and anyone who likes them is immoral, bad and an idiot!

B (fan of said character): How is X worse than your fave, Y? Y is also a murderer and a terrorist and war criminal, same as X...

A: Oh yeah, well X is worse because... [throws some random accusation that makes no sense]

B: WTF? That's not true.

A: X"s fans are so annoying! You can't realize that X is a villain! You think X is perfect and you keep whitewashing X!

Or, how about this:

Fan 1: writes a post about a character focused on their disability, which is 100% just about the real life medical facts of how having this particular condition would affectthem.

The post angers a whole bunch of fans who hate said character, who mock it and rant in quotes, saying things like "Now you are babying war criminals!" "How dare you compare X to real canon disabled characters! Missing a body part doesn't make him disabled!"

Bizarre? I didn't make up this example. It's almost word by word what happened on Twitter a couple of months ago.

What's normal defense of a character and what's whitewashing often depends on whether you're a fan or a hater of said character. The line isn't always clear. And tropes like "Draco in a Leather Pants" are often just used by people who want to complain and rant about the fact that, shock horror, some fans dare like the characters they hate, orr prefer them to their own (obviously superior) fave. Most of the examples on that page read exactly like that.

#draco in leather pants #tropes #fandom #sexism #it's been years since I wrote that post where I asked why there is no Tywin Sh1tting Gold trope

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justapcpblog · 1 year

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A rant on destruction/violence

Awhile back, someone wrote an article on how to work with villains, and I personally disagreed with it. Doesn't mean it shouldn't exist, doesn't mean I or you should cancel them out of existence. We all have our ways of religion, and we all have our UPGs. We all have our ways of interpreting characters, and who we should work with, as well. I don't like someone telling me I can't work with x character because they're too problematic. But just because someone tells me to NOT do something doesn't mean that I should listen to them. I have myself and the spiritual beings that I choose to listen to.

I also noticed that someone else seems to have gotten annoyed over people dissing ritual cleansing and pointed out that the Left's obsession of fighting their opponents could itself be self-harmful. It doesn't seem like this went over very well for them, since they've been somewhat quiet, only peeping out when they can't hold back any longer. aggressive at times. It's not the only person in the Pop Culture Pagan community who went quiet after getting into a fight. Another pointed out that they had someone message them something personal and weird, and in disgust and fright they abandoned their social practice, their blog.

A lot of Pop Culture Pagan articles have actually been deleted, and many thoughts have thus been erased through the sands of time. Whether through creator embarressment, a character or god asking them to pull it down, or through the sheer intensity of cancel culture, many important documents and practices have perished. It's incredibly important to keep writing if you want a community to survive. Deleting posts is not that much different than burning a book. Even if you're feeling author's shame or don't believe in the thing anymore, these thoughts are still building blocks for the community. If you want more Pop Culture Pagans to exist, then you're going to have to have stuff for people to convert with. You don't have to convert them yourself Jehovah's Witness style, knocking on people's doors to inform them about Lord Voldemort. You just need to let them have the chance to stumble upon your writings and let them decide for themselves or let the egragores call them on their own. Without Pop Culture Pagan writings, the idea of worshipping a character is only a scary, delusional person. I can't remember any media that had someone worship a character at an altar, but I'm sure I've seen it. Maybe it was that Tangled bobble-head bad date one, where she had a million of them in her closet, including a headless one. Can't remember if she had an altar though.

Disgust and fear over fans turning their obsessions into religion is not only found in TV. In real life, Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser both worshipped a villain and attempted to sacrifice a real human for it. I don't know if either of them were Pop Culture *Pagans* per se, but they were certainly doing a Pop Culture based religion that had roots in Satanism. Just because many of us utilize Chaos Magick, rooted in Wicca, doesn't mean that other Pop Culture based religions are invalid. However, people have a real reason to be scared of it, if they do find it. To what ends would someone go to honor a character? Murder, apparently. This is the problem with honoring dark spirits. They're *evil*. They are bad.

When Pagans who don't honor Pop Culture characters honor their deities, they usually don't include a traditional sacrifice. Nowadays Pagans sacrifice regular food, including pre-killed meat, and plenty of fruits and vegetables. In fact, we usually don't even call it a sacrifice, it's an offering. And it's not much of a sacrifice unless you have to throw the food away after or the god ruins the taste of it for you. However some modern Pagans do sacrifice. Their are farmers who kill goats and chickens in the name of their gods. Some Mesamerican followers bloodlet. A vast majority of Pagans do not wish to participate in killing an animal and most of the time the gods don't ask, disallow it, or allow the human to not give them the thing.

But historically polytheistic and monotheistic religions alike have demanded their humans to kill for them, including on their behalf. Whether that's the Aztecs requiring one human be killed per day, or whether it's the Jewish God telling Moses to kill all the Midianite males and non-virgin females above the age of 14, spiritual entities have been demanding death for literally thousands of years. European gods sent their people to war and burned white slaves and wives to die when their husbands did. There have been religions thousands of years ago that rejected sacrifice of animals and humans and required compassion, such as Buddhism and Jainism. However historically most human societies have a religion that demands death in some form or another.

Humans are incredibly brutal, and many people have developed misanthropy over the sheer need others have for violence. We can see it every day on TV and video games. How many of these suggest that the enemies deserve to be spared, requiring minimal damage? Not a lot! Even if Batman doesn't kill, he still beats the shit out of them. Some people have suggested that violence on TV and video games makes people more violent, and in my personal experience there's some truth in that. But I also think that violence on TV really helps to keep people in check, forcing them to stay at home and watch the bad guys die and root for the good guys, and noticeably murders and mobs went down, for awhile anyways. More people started advocating for death sentences to no longer be legal. Or maybe that's just a coincidence.

It would do well to remember that most of our thoughts on keeping violence in check are from the past hundred years or so, and in our times compassion fades away. In the 2000s I was afraid of terrorists from an uncivilized, barbaric nation where they deemed women as sub-human livestock and kept variatns of a stupid religion that fed these terrorists. Terroritsts whose god literally demanded them to kill others, rape, and even sacrifice themselves with the promise of 72 “goodies” waiting for them in heaven. Nowadays I'm afraid of them AND more relevantly, domestic terrorism. The two extreme political fashions of the era. One demands death to people who believe in the right of believing that two solid sexes exist and that people of European descent cannot truly repent for their sins but probably should try the best they can, but really they should just all die off and never be seen on the face of the earth again. The other I understand less, but it seems that their misanthropy and hatred for modern culture tips them into shooting up people in schools, Jewish temples, and other public places. Our intense desire to change society in whatever way we imagined has put so much pressuure on each other that it drives us all insane. That's my opinions on the matter, and I'm not asking you to tell me yours. It's just that I'm afraid, and you reading this right now, you probably are too.

I worry that soon, we'll all tip back into time and start believing in death in ways I think not all of us do. I worry that we'll think lynchings are perfectly moral, that killing one another for our own beliefs is valid. And in my opinion, it's not. Violence isn't okay. We have to kill to eat, that's how some omnivores feel, but we don't have to kill each other. We could like, just get over it and not worry about it so much. We could stop joking about it so much, we could choose to stop threatening other people, seriously or non-seriously. We could stop telling people to kill themselves. Many of the things I was taught were horrible as a teenager are so open now. Do you know how many Tiktoks I've watched that advocate and laugh at child abuse? These videos would have been taken down and those users banned back in my day. And now it's just funny, or even cultural celebration. Why is it that parents beating up children is seen as funny?

Destruction is a feature of villainy. It tears apart the world. It breaks culture apart and people have to pick up the pieces and try again, start anew. Fighting is an important part of villainy. Some villains don't like to get their hands dirty and let everybody else do the murdering or arguments for them. Some villains just get angry and kill people who piss them off. Some villains just need to get them out of their way. Some are psychopathic and enjoy feeling the life drain from their victim as their hands wrap around their throat. It's like a cat playing with a mouse, a predator's instinct.

When people cry out, “no! My villain wouldn't do this! He's too good!” that's what we'd call Draco In Leather Pantsing back in the day. If you think a villain is too good for rape, and there's nothing in canon that supports that claim, then you're probably wrong. Villains are evil. Headcanons are valid, and if you stick with your opinion that's fine, but maybe also wonder “is the character I like willing to torture peope?” I'm reminded of how Shadow The Hedgehog said in a video game that he'd steal candy from a baby, and recently a cartoon came out showing him stealing popcorn from a chao and ignoring it as it burst into tears. If that wasn't canon, especially way back in the day when I was playing that actual game, I would have said that was OOC and they were over emo-ing him. But look, now its literally canon. Hilarious.

When working with any spiritual entity, they may demand something of you that isn't necessarily safe, for you or for others. As these beings work on your mind, they may even try to trick or twist you into believing that these things are okay. Sometimes you do need to bend, but sometimes you need to take a stand. Villains can be villainous sometimes, and they may start getting aggressive. An egragore acting in a canonical fashion might be as seriouss as Slender Man demanding literal murder. But you don't have to do everything for them. You can have boundaries. You need to set boundaries when working with characters that disrupt them in volatile ways. You can disagree with their points of views. You can have a choice (usually). Sometimes that may mean that those characters or some of their aspects won't work with you. Well, fuck 'em. You can appreciate them as a character and choose to not work with them. It's okay to keep the relationship as a fan rather than an worshipper. But sometimes you do have to cut ties with them, because deciding that they're a real entity does mean that everything changes. You get to communicate with one another, usually crudely, and sometimes circumstances demand that you make a choice to try to cut them out in the best way possible. Or it may not be the best outcome.

It's your choice over what to do, what to believe, and who to honor. I advocate that you seek out non-violent forms of Paganism. I suggest that you work on yourself to make yourself more calm, peaceful, happy, and self-fulfilled (god fulfilled?). But our religions don't always dictate that we be happy, and our gods don't always dictate that we be compassionate and peaceful, and our own belief-sets (ourselves) don't always tell us to be genuinely good people who respects others' personal beliefs and lives. But I hope that you find yourself in a place where your egragores support you rather than abuse you, and I hope that you support others who have those same beings abuse them, and I hope that you don't allow harm to come onto others. Have a good day, and happy Valentines' day.

Note: I tried to save a lobster at a seafood restaurant today and I was told that I wasn't allowed to because they had a food license and could not sell me the lobster alive. I ate lobster anyways, not that one though, to my knowledge. I was just impressed with his determination to get out of the tank and had flashbacks to kidnapped fiction and thought I'd give it a go. I still feel guilty. Can you imagine an alien refusing to save your life because they'd go to jail for it? And then eating refrigerated human meat instead? What a bad person I am.

#rant #pop culture paganism #villain worship #angsty post #shadow the hedgehog #batman #draco in leather pants #nahua #judaism #christianity #violence #non-violence #regular paganism

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eyecantread · 1 year

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Dabi is the Draco Malfoy of this generation and it's pretty funny to watch it happen again.

#I said what I said #Hot Takes #Draco in Leather Pants #Dabi in leathery skin #BNHA #My Hero academia #MHA #Harry Potter

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angelustheimmortal · 7 months

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Sometimes fan perception can really hurt enjoyment of a character. Like I love The Office and i think Dwight is hilarious but when people start genuinely think the bad deeds pf characters like Jim are as bad as his or wonder why his colleagues don't like a guy who tries to get them fired well it's pretry irritating.

#anti Dwight Schrute #Draco In Leather Pants #random thoughts

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katanashipping · 5 months

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I don't know why so many age/development discrepancies in 2k3 crop up specifically during Casey's episodes, but I just always find it amazing how the show wants me to think that THISis Hun in Casey's flashback, when he burns down the Jones' family shop, c. 15 years ago:

And THIS is Hun in Splinter's flashback, when he comes to kill Yoshi in New York, c. 16 years ago:

I know that this is a goof from a production team of a TV show from 20 years ago that just Wasn't Thinking That Much About It, but I do love playing with the possibilities in my head. Like, some of the options:

Hun has a less buff twin (but we do not talk about Ahnold on this blog so ignore that); or

Hun just likes wearing bandanas and baggy pants when he's out for pleasure, and the leather pants come out strictly for business; or

Between burning the shop and attacking Yoshi, Hun went for a job interview with the Shredder, aced the initial interview, hit the gym six times a week in between chugging protein shakes like mad, got himself a whole new wardrobe, finally succumbed to his Secret Mullet Dreams, and then immediately got clawed in the face by a pet rat for his troubles

I know which version of events is my favourite

#tmnt 2k3 #tmnt 2003 #tmnt hun #meta #ish anyway #we have a running gag in this household that hun has the hots for the shredder right up until the Alien Reveal #draco in leather pants has nothing on this transformation

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morepopcornplease · 8 months

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what can i say but she was givingggg

#the unwanted guest #the butler was a surprise...#draco in leather pants however...not in the least #cw ianthe tridentarius #tlt

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fayraje · 3 months

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I don’t even hate fics where jiang cheng is a good brother who really does love Wei wuxian. Well as long as they’re set before his death. I just hate most yunmeng bros reconciliation fics, cause they mostly focus on how Wei wuxian wronged jiang cheng. Jiang Cheng was the one who led an attack on him, after his sister gave his life to save him. Even before that, since he was there on the pledge in nightless city, he would’ve been involved in attacking the burial mounds anyways.

But no, Wei wuxian should have just left children, elders, woman and two people who risked their lives to save him against their own people, to be slaughtered. JC is the one who gave up on their promise first, not standing by him cause it was inconvenient. Because he was jealous of Wei wuxian’s abilities and how he was supposedly favored by his father. Because he was possesive and entitled, to the point that not being wwx’s no.1 priority was enough to cast him out. He asks for levels of loyalty that he doesn’t return, because I’m certain wwx is not his biggest priority.

so all the fics where wwx apologizes for leaving, chosing other people I, bringing trouble, etc just reads as victim blaming. Worse is when they bring the puppies thing into it. I have nothing against making jiang cheng a better person in fics, but it usually involves writing Wei wuxian in a worse light. Everyone has their own preferences, and this just isn’t mine

#Mdzs #canon jiang cheng #I can tolerate Draco in leather pants trope as long as they don’t ‘Ron the death eater’ characters I like #Usually it’s not that overt #which in someways is worse cause that means it’s not tagged.#Like good parent yu ziyuan involves making her grievances with Wei wuxian and jiang fengmian legit and reasonable.#As if she isn’t abusive and always finding something to be angry about and the bringer of her own misery #It’s tricky making a character better without making another worse.#Most people fail. You’re free to write whatever you want #but victim blaming is usually a turn off for me. Not matter how slight #in a meta context

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themattress · 10 months

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It just hit me - assuming things don’t change in the following season, what was done with Felix Fathom in Miraculous Ladybug’s 5th season is what many Lotor stans wanted to transpire with Lotor in Voltron: Legendary Defender. While not lacking in nuance, Felix and Lotor were both firmly established as arrogant, scheming, manipulative villains with a pronounced cruel streak. Now, Lotor carried on like this until all of a sudden he joined the heroes’ side. And while he consistently did the right thing from this point, we missed the crucial step of him ever truly repenting of his previous wrong-doings. In fact, he justified them, saying it was for the greater good in stopping his abusive father’s empire. The heroes just ended up rolling with it, and Lotor even got a girlfriend in Allura, and his stans were perfectly satisfied with this. “He’s a poor sad victim of abuse, so he was justified in all that villainy we saw him do! Let him have this redemption even if the first step to having a redemption at all is non-existent on his part!” Needless to say, they were shocked and remain furious when it was revealed that Lotor, having excused all his evil-doing and been given a free pass for it, was still in fact doing evil in secret and hadn’t redeemed himself at all. WOW! The guy who never grasped or acknowledged why what he did was wrong is still doing wrong because he still thinks what he’s doing is right!? Who’da thunk!? Besides everyone paying attention, that is!

Felix in Season 5 of Miraculous reached the culmination of his villainy when, as the supervillain Argos, he pulled a Thanos and began snapping humanity out of existence so that sentimonsters like him, Adrien and Kagami could live without risk of being controlled or destroyed. Cool motive, still mass murder. He only reverses it after Adrien and Kagami make it clear that it’s not what they want and that they will never forgive him unless he reverses it. Then, in the following episode, he shows no remorse for what he did or sincere desire to atone, but instead just tells Kagami he’s fallen in love with her and reveals his backstory of his father’s abuse of him and how that shaped his view on humanity. Accepting this as a justification rather than an explanation, Kagami deems Felix to have been “misjudged”, returns his affection, and gets him as Argos to be accepted as part of the Miraculous superhero team, which Marinette bafflingly accepts even though Felix’s treachery is the only reason Gabriel became the Monarch to begin with and caused her no end of mental and emotional anguish....to say nothing of the fact that, again, Felix is fresh off of committing momentary genocide on the human race. All of that just gets swept under the rug completely.

It’s so bizarre that the same show that draws such a firm stance on “being a poor sad victim of abuse doesn’t automatically entitle you to a redemption, it has to be properly earned” in regards to Chloe totally walks it back with Felix. Then again, it is Thomas Astruc we’re talking about, so I guess it’s not so bizarre after all. Makes me appreciate Lotor all the more, though!

#Miraculous Ladybug #Voltron #Voltron: Legendary Defender #Felix Fathom #Prince Lotor #Opinion #Analysis #Comparison #Redemption #Draco in Leather Pants #Bad Writing #Character Derailment #Anti-Miraculous Ladybug #Anti-Thomas Astruc #Anti-Felix #(Sort of)

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